The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: December 7, 2008

Official News page 13


WINDING DOWN

An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net and technology news
by Alan Lenton

It may be that I'm looking at the world with a jaundiced eye, but there didn't seem to be a lot of interesting news this week. Perhaps it's something to do with the proximity of Xmas, but even the stories there are seem pretty muted. If this keeps up I'm going to have to start inventing things in order to keep my readers happy. By the way, did you hear the story about the dotcom CEO, the bishop, and the quad core CPU...

After writing the story about the 'Vista Capable' sticker that's precipitated a class action against Microsoft (see below) I am considering making 'Winding Down Capable' stickers for the major manufacturers of PCs. I'm sure Intel would pay for them, it would help them get rid of all their clapped out old processors.

I think next week's issue will be the last one this year, but I'll give the full production schedule next week.

And now for some news...


Shorts:

The really bad news this week was that CheckFree.com, one of the largest online bill payment companies in the world, had its site hijacked, resulting in customers being redirected to a malware site that tried to install malicious software. The hackers managed to obtain the credentials that would enable them to log on to CheckFree's account with Network Solutions, their domain registrar, and change the internet address for CheckFree (Note for pedants: I know it's more complex than that, but the effect is the same).

The breach of security only lasted a few hours and was at a 'slack' time, but CheckFree has a claimed 24.7 million customers. One has to wonder how many of them were taken in by scam, and whether this is the ghost of scams to come...
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2008/12/hackers_hijacked_large_e-bill.html
?hpid=sec-tech

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2008/12/digging_deeper_into_the_checkf.html

Now you see it - now you don't. Last month Apple, who have always claimed their machines are immune, out of the box, to hackers, finally recommended, in a support note, that its users acquired anti-virus software. The note said, 'Apple encourages the widespread use of multiple antivirus utilities so that virus programmers have more than one application to circumvent, thus making the whole virus writing process more difficult.'

This was picked up by the technical media this week, engendering some discussion of Apple's less than stellar record on patching security holes. Apple's response? Quietly, and with no explanation, the item was deleted. Who knows, maybe Apple fixed all the outstanding problems with all the software that runs on their machines. And then again, maybe not...
http://ifwnewsletters.newsletters.infoworld.com/t/3972977/250590949/154617/0/

I covered the class action punch up between Microsoft and the people who bought inadequately specified machines granted the Microsoft 'Vista Capable' logo in previous issues.

This case has now taken a very interesting turn with the unsealing by the judge of a batch of Microsoft internal e-mails. It seems that a large number of Microsoft employees - some of them very high level executives - warned their company that the rules for classifying machines as Vista capable shouldn't be loosened.

The trouble stems from the decision in late January 2006 to drop the requirement for a graphics chip that would support the new 3D Aero Interface. In particular it meant that Intel's large outstanding inventory of 915 graphics chips could be used in 'Vista Capable' machines. Microsoft are arguing that the machines can run Vista, just not the 3D interface. The customers that bought the machines argue that Microsoft's advertising emphasised the interface, and that Microsoft's actions amount to an 'unfair and deceptive act or practice'.

Judging from the e-mails - which include a furious letter from Jim Allchin, who was in charge of the project, to CEO Steve Ballmer - I suspect that the phrase 'I told you so' is resounding around the Redmond campus. Allchin's letter also zaps Steve Ballmer's claim that he didn't know anything about the affair, and goes some way to explain why the judge in the case is insisting that Ballmer testify.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/11/18/Microsoft_emails_detail_internal_fight_on_
Vista_Capable_1.html

While we are talking about Microsoft, I mentioned a month ago that very early versions of the next Windows upgrade had become available. Comments from those privileged to try it out ranged from nothing but Vista with facilities to let me social network with my dog, to a vast improvement. So what's the real state of play? I don't know, since I don't fall into the category of those allowed to play.

However, InfoWorld has an interesting discussion on the pros and cons. It's taken one protagonist from each side, and published an e-mail exchange of views between them. The result is interesting, if a little technical in places. I suspect, though that we are going to have to wait for versions of the snappily named 'Windows 7' coming out closer to the launch date to see what it's really going to look like. For those of you who can't wait that long, point your browser at the URL and see what a knowledgeable detractor and a supporter have to say.
http://ifwnewsletters.newsletters.infoworld.com/t/3972977/250590949/154614/0/

At last, something really good from the credit card security front. A new card, called CryptoCard, that combines the credit card and a one time password generator. It's designed for on-line use. You press a button and it generates the password which is used in conjunction with your PIN code. Neat, very neat. One time password generators are already available as keyfob devices, but this is much, much more convenient. And there's an additional bonus - you can use the card's one time password to authenticate yourself to your bank's call centre. I think this, or something like it, is going to start to appear in the not too distant future. Watch out for it!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/02/cryptocard2fa/

Logitech have announced that they produced their one billionth mouse last month. That's an awful lot of mice, especially when you consider that the mouse is only 40 years old this month, and didn't really go into massive levels of production until about 20 years ago. Hmm, a billion mice. Quite an achievement by Logitech, but I think that it just goes to show how fragile the things are. I use a tablet now, but I seem to remember that when I used mice on a day to day level, they rarely lasted more than six months...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7751627.stm


Homework:

Material from Ephraim Schwartz of InfoWorld is always interesting, and this week he takes up the issue of how we can use the internet to move from the current representative democracy towards a participatory democracy. As he points out, although most elected officials in the US have web sites, these do little to improve the information flow both to and from the representatives.

Ephraim suggests that officials should be informing voters of up and coming events before the event, and take questions and comments before and during the event. This, he argues, would allow voters to send in questions to their representatives during hearings, which they are following live via broadcast. He also suggests that representatives should publish their votes on all issues for their electors to see - that would indeed be useful. The information is available through lists compiled by various projects, but you have to dig to find them.

The ideas put forward are interesting, but I suspect the devil will be in the details of how it all works.
http://ifwnewsletters.newsletters.infoworld.com/t/3972977/250590949/154618/0/

Does the term 'femtocell' mean anything to you? Probably not. Femtocells are indoor 3G base stations that you install for yourself, which routes your traffic over your broadband connection, freeing up the main cellular network. It's a neat alternative to the iPhone solution, which opts for building full blown WiFi access into the phone. Building in WiFi increases the phone's size, power consumption and cost.

There has been some resistance to femtocells because they, of necessity, operate at the same frequencies as the main cellular system, so operators are worried about the femtocells causing interference. Now, though, a recent study has found that the power management technologies built into the femtocells is sufficient to limit any possible interference. Not only that , but the study shows that the femtocell assisted system can deliver an order of magnitude more capacity than the main network can do alone. They can also help reduce cell phone power consumption, because they can, at least theoretically, operate at a much lower signal strength.

Femtocells aren't in the shops yet, and the suppliers still have to figure out a viable business model, but I expect that they are going to have a big impact over the next few years.
http://ifwnewsletters.newsletters.infoworld.com/t/3972980/121542017/154646/0/


Geek Toys:

Be the first one on your block to have a road-legal 125mph electric superbike. Woohoo! the TTX01 was shown at the NEC Bike Show in Birmingham, UK last week.

It's not in production yet, and the range is currently 50 miles for a cautious ride, or a mere 30 miles for 100mph cruising. The production version will have a better range and a top speed of 150mph, but unfortunately will take a sizeable bite out of your wallet - something in the region of US$30,000. It does look classy though. I want one!
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/12/02/125mph_electric_superbike/

Having difficulty knowing what to buy your geek other half for Xmas? Perhaps you should have a look at InfoWorld's geek gadget gift guide. The device that allows your plants to send you messages via twitter is an amusing idea, but how many geeks have plants? What I really liked, though, was Sky Factory's SkyV (number 9 in the slide show). It's a natural for the geek basement; see if you can hack into it and reprogram it to look like the sun is going nova! (You'll have to look at it to see what I'm talking about...)
http://www.infoworld.com/slideshow/2008/11/185-2008_geek_gadge-1.html


Scanner: Other Stories

Why techies love games - and why it's good they do
http://ifwnewsletters.newsletters.infoworld.com/t/3976391/250590949/154930/0/

Gamestop fights back on used game sales
http://www.physorg.com/news147448275.html

IEEE says multi-core is bad news for supercomputers
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/nov08/6912

Scientist urges new look at government 'web-tapping'
http://www.physorg.com/news147452798.html

IT exec accused of $10m backup tape theft
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/02/missing_backup_tape/

The other side of the Sprint vs. Cogent depeering
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/12/01/cogent-sprint-regulation-tech-enter-cz_
sw_1202cogent.html

FOSS business model broken - Former OSDL CEO
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2008/tc20081130_276152.htm


Acknowledgements

Thanks to readers Barb, Fi, and to Slashdot's daily newsletter for drawing my attention to material used in this issue.

Please send suggestions for stories to alan@ibgames.com and include the words Winding Down in the subject line, unless you want your deathless prose gobbled up by my voracious Spamato spam filter...

Alan Lenton
alan@ibgames.com
7 December 30008

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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