WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net and technology news
by Alan Lenton
Maybe last week I was wrong about the start of the slow season. This week I was overloaded with news, so it's a longer than usual issue.
This meant I had to relegate discussion of the Microsoft/Google search spat to the Scanner section instead of having a Google round up. I note with interest, though, that although Google claim they plan to be 'carbon neutral' by the end of the year, they make no statement about what's going to happen to the Boeing 767 in which their high-ups are accustomed swanning around. Perhaps they are going to fit it with solar panels and windmills...
Opposition to my cheese on toast patent is growing - I think this is because of a new initiative by the patent office to allow members of the public to search for prior art in pending patents. Earlier in the week, I received death threats from a group calling itself the Camembert Liberation Army (CLA). Yesterday, the police told me not to worry, because the CLA had already surrendered.
So, on with the newsletter, and first a look at the antics of politicians faced with hi-tech issues...
Round Up: Politicians
Here in the UK, parliament's Public Accounts Committee, whose membership includes MPs from all parties, has laid into the government for spending three billion UK pounds (about US$6 billion) on 'consultants'. Apparently the government has no idea what the benefits of using these consultants (mostly computer consultants) is, other than that they are covering the jobs of staff sacked in an effort to keep costs down. Would you be surprised if I told you that consultants cost at least three times as much as employees?
In the US, Secretary of Defence Robert Gates briefed reporters about a hacker breaking into a Pentagon e-mail system. Gates proudly announced that he wasn't affected by the break in because, "I don't do email. I'm a very low-tech person." My only question is, why hasn't he been fired for incompetence? Anyone else who admitted that they couldn't use the basic tools of their trade would be on the receiving end of a pink slip (or a P45 in the UK) so fast they wouldn't know what hit them. Have you noticed the way politicians boast of their fundamental incompetence and seem to believe that this counts as a qualification for the job?
And as for the French. Ah! The French! It seem the security services over there have got their knickers all in a twist over politicians using BlackBerries to communicate state secrets. The Secretariat de la Defense Nationale (SGDN) believe that the BlackBerries allow the US to snoop on French surrender proposals...
I don't think they need to worry. Anglo-Saxons are notorious for not learning other people's languages, so even if the BlackBerries are snooped on, the chances of anyone outside France understanding French is minimal!
Back to the UK. Here there is a proposal to allow MPs to bring laptops into the debating chamber. This has interesting implications. The reason is supposedly to allow MPs to answer constituents e-mail while listening to the debates, but I can foresee a mass outbreak of free cell playing. Even worse is the possibility of creeping extended usage in the chamber. I can just imagine what might happen at a future Prime Minister's Question Time:
Question: Will the Prime Minister explain his strategy in Iraq?
Answer: Ah! I'm glad you asked about that. It just so happens that I have a PowerPoint presentation here that was put together earlier. Allow me to show you...
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
Meanwhile, even on their own territory - that of international treaties - things are not exactly going swimmingly for politicos when hi-tech issues are at stake.
For some time now the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) has been negotiating a new broadcast treaty aimed at giving broadcasters more rights over the material they broadcast.
Unfortunately for the broadcasters, it's taken so long that all the different countries have changed their position on the treaty, and now the situation is so bad that the participants can't even agree on basic definitions and goals of the treaty. At this rate they'll soon be back to discussing whether the table should be square, oblong, oval or round!
There's a very strong possibility that the entire thing will be called off in the near future, much to the relief of many who are worried about the extension of copyright to new fields.
WIPO isn't the only treaty body mired in hi-tech problems. The much reviled World Trade Organisation (WTO) is having serious, potentially even terminal, problems over Internet gambling. It has several times, with increasing asperity, ruled against the US and in favour of Antigua over the provision of remote gambling services.
The US has effectively refused to comply with the ruling and now a bunch of more heavy weight nations like Japan and India are adding their names to the complaint. It's taken the US years to build up the WTO under the rubric of free trade, and it's now threatening the foundations of all it's built.
If the refusal continues then the WTO is likely to allow the affected countries to suspend their obligations to the US. This would allow those countries, for instance, to sell unlicensed copies of US movies, software, copy proprietary drugs, and such like. To be honest, if I was a US manufacturer I would be up in arms about this sort of crass behaviour on the part of my representatives.
The truth is that politicians world wide are stuck in a mind-set that was out of date fifty years ago - and they are reveling in it. They have a culture where is it considered 'cool' (not that they would use such a modern word!) to be technically incompetent. What a shambles...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/19/pac_consultant_costs/
http://update.techweb.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/e87z0HiOOq0G4V0FK8u0Ed
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/21/blackberry_tool_of_nsa_say_sarko_spooks/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/20/handhelds_n_laptops_in_parliament_sez_straw/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/22/department_of_defense_email_hacked/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/21/wto_antigua_us_gambling_eu_india_japan/
Shorts:
Lawyer Mitchell Silverman from Florida has written to the Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA). In the letter he notes that George W Bush's twin daughters presented him with a 'mix' CD of music to listen to while exercising. Creating such mix CDs is illegal, because it involves copyright infringement, and the rights holders are entitled to statutory damages of US$150,000 for each musical work copied.
Since the RIAA has been assiduously pursuing such criminals under the rubric that, neither death nor being a granny will release you, Mr Silverman wants assurances that '...the RIAA will display the same vigor in prosecuting this matter and protecting the rights of your rights-holders that it has displayed in enforcing those rights against other alleged violators.' I await the outcome with interest!
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/06/21/lawyer_to_riaa_sue_t.html
And, while we are on the subject of lawsuits, TJX, whose naff security allowed the compromise of a staggering 45 million credit cards, has reported that it is now facing another nine law suits, including five federal ones in Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Texas.
I don't know how many lawsuits that makes in total, but given that many of the lawsuits are seeking class action status, there are megabucks at stake in this case. However, the most important thing will be if TJX finally end up having to cough up for the damage they've caused, because this will completely alter the economics of forcing private companies to look after the information they collect. Once they are forced to pay seriously large amounts of damages, it will become cheaper to secure the data than to take the hit of having it compromised. Only at this stage will companies start to take the security of customer data seriously. As far as I'm concerned it can't come fast enough.
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/business/x1289425994
The Swedes are revolting! Well, maybe not, but they are certainly agitated. You see, in Sweden the details of your finances, as reported to the tax authorities, are publicly available. All you have to do is to go down to the local tax office and ask to see the records of whoever you were interested in. You can probably see what's coming :)
Yes, the Internet.
An Internet company, called Ratsit, recently started making these records available on the web free to anyone who wanted to search. The results were predictable - an explosion of nosiness! Inevitably this provoked a backlash, and after some to-ing and fro-ing, Ratsit agreed to charge for searches to discourage casual surfing for details. Ratsit didn't give in easily, but in true Swedish style were brought low by a threat from the tax authorities to only provide the information in paper format! A neat solution, if I might say so.
http://www.physorg.com/news101356622.html
There was a worrying report this week about a new piece of malware that targets websites. So far 10,000 sites have been infected by the fast acting trojan downloader which attempts to install itself on visiting PCs. At the moment security firms have no idea how the websites were originally infected.
The increasing number of Web 2.0 style sites (Web 2.0 is the latest fad in web creation circles) make it increasingly likely that you will encounter one of these sites sooner or later because they are much easier to hack. The only advice I can offer readers at the moment is to make sure that security patches on their browsers are up to date, and, maybe, to consider using one of the non-Internet Explorer browsers like Firefox.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/18/hijacked_sites_install_malware/
Microsoft is trying to pull a fast one again. It's using the 'vanishing XP' tactic to try and force people to buy the much disliked Office 2007 by stopping Office 2003 from being pre-loaded onto new PCs. This seems to me to be a losing ploy. If Microsoft won't supply people with the software they want, then other people will step in to fill the gap.
I'm not just talking about the likes of Open Office. I predict a massive rise in the number of illegal copies of Office 2003 in use. The irony, of course, will be that most of the illegal copies will be in the hands of people who would have bought a legal copy had Microsoft made them available. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/06/19/microsoft_office_2003_oem/
As defence contractors have discovered, one of the problems with wars these days is that the opposition just isn't up to it. Take the US F-22 "Raptor" fighter. The Iraq war didn't involve any hi-tech dog fights in which it could show its mettle. In fact, if I remember correctly, Iraq didn't have an air force at all the second time around. All of which left the poor raptors circling round with little to do but search for terrorist airforces carrying weapons of mass destruction.
Now those clever defence contractors have come up with a suitable job - working as a mobile WiFi hot spot! Yes - the radar has been reconfigured to work as a relay for a high capacity data-link while the plane flies above the battlefield. Just the job for a fighter aircraft which cost US$18.6bn to develop!
I can just see the advert on eBay now: For sale - Mach 2+ Internet router, fully configured with built in self-defence systems, 548 Mbit/sec throughput. US$2.1bn o.n.o.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/19/super_stealth_jet_acts_as_flying_wifi_hotspots/
Google Round Up:
Rivals torture consumers via Microsoft
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/06/20/microsoft_desktop_search_unfair/
Google calls for greater Windows Vista openness
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/06/20/google_windows_vista_search/
Google takes aim at Microsoft, carbon, China
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/20/google_zenter_carbon_icp/
Google says Vista search violates consent decree
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070621-google-says-vista-search-changes-not-enough.html
Is that YouTube clip you just watched booby trapped?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/20/youtube_security/
YouTube 'riddled with 40-plus security vulnerabilities'
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/20/youtube_security_ultimatum/
Microsoft 'tweaks Vista' for Google desktop search goodness
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/06/19/microsoft_vista_google_desktop_search_settlement/
Scanner: Other stories
PayPal and eBay offer security key to US customers
http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=17DCB0B:215D3E184FC552DCA0129268E1EDB5CFEFF29049075316B4
One in four web merchants do not know web shopping laws
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/06/21/web_shopping_report/
DVD group proposes copy ban
http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/e82Z0FypUC0FrK0FKk50Ek
Gateway recalls 14,000 batteries
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/06/20/gateway_recalls_14000_batteries/
Acknowledgements
Thanks to readers Barb, Fi, DJ and Lois for drawing my attention to material used in this issue. Please send suggestions for material to alan@ibgames.com.
Alan Lenton
alan@ibgames.com
24 June 2007
Alan Lenton is an on-line games designer, programmer and sociologist. His web site is at http://www.ibgames.net/alan.
Past issues of Winding Down can be found at http://www.ibgames.net/alan/winding/index.html
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