Global POV: At the Intersection of Technology and Culture

Personal

Microsoft's new OS Vista is coming out this summer and some of the release details have already been leaked to the press. They will have six core offerings of their product for various flavors of home, small business and enterprise users.

Know what? I could care less.

I remember the days when they would have a worldwide celebration of new OS releases, booking huge venues for the "party", doing 24x7 publicity tours. A new Microsoft release was like a U2 tour. Bigger.

So why is news of a new release so boring?

Several reasons:

1) We don't need it unless they force us to upgrade. The only thing that we want from Microsoft at this point is a more secure platform that doesn't patching every week. They say that this one is more secure. Sight unseeen, I think that they lie.

2) We don't expect the company to be innovative. When a Microsoft product does something interesting, it's not cool because you've never seen it before, it's because it's Microsoft. It's like watching a cat use a toilet.

3) Somehow, we just know that Vista will ooze problems like a software leper. It's happened before and it will happen again.

Lastly, I don't care because I already switched to Macintosh.

Posted on February 27, 2006

Technology

Buy the way

Why is a Dubai company the major (and apparently the only) bidder for U.S. container ports?

Has anyone traveled overseas lately and bought a latte? The U.S. dollar has dropped in comparison to traditionally weak currencies like the Canadian dollar and the Euro and really sucks next to stronger ones like the yen. This is because of our weakened economy and growing trade deficit.

The biggest threat to American security isn't the transfer of a company that handles port cargo, it's our economy.

Our money has often bought our way out of international problems. Not this time.

I have gotten in touch with my conservative side over the last 6 years of King George's rule--Fix the economy, stupid! We won't have foreign companies buying anything if the deficit is reduced and the dollar gets some much-needed fiscal Viagra.

Posted on February 24, 2006

The pink flamingo effect

There's a phenomena that I often see with style, that I cal the Pink Flamingo effect. It goes like this:

1 plastic pink flamingo in your house is kitschy
A bunch of pink flamingos is stupid
A million pink flamingos is art.

Posted on February 23, 2006

1 Comment

Pop Culture

Rewriting history, one document at a time.

The NY TImes yesterday reported that intelligence agencies have been quietly reclassifying thousands of historical documents, some going back decades. Many of them have already been copied by historians and are widely available elsewhere.

Does anyone else think that it's strange that on the one hand Americans are quickly losing control over their personal information while at the same time government is regaining control over its own data? Extrapolate this and it's not pleasant.

Posted on February 22, 2006

Security

The Hypocrisy of security

Every decade, Americans get beaten over the head with a word. Not just any word, but the mantra of a politician in full coercion mode. Sometimes it's incorporated into a highly forgettable slogan (anyone remember Ford's WIN--Whip Inflation Now?) Sometimes it's just the word that's weaved into every speech and whispered in every dark alley and trust me--in Washington, there's a lot of both of them.

For many years, it was Communist. You could raise the hackles of most middlish (age, class, western) Americans by suggesting that the Reds were flouridating the water, pushing dope, taking over SouthEast Asia.

Now of course it's terrorists. But the word behind the word is security. Every action taken by this administration has been justified because of security. Invade Iraq? Security. Sorry, can't talk about domestic surveillance. Security.

The problem with this approach is that it's inconsistent.

The pending sale of a port contractor to a Dubai-based firm should be viewed as a security issue, but it's not.

The American train system should have a workable security system, but it doesn't

The state of infosecurity of the country's computer systems should be fixed, especially government servers, but it hasn't been.

Security should be consistent and managed to achieve pre-agreed upon objectives. We should protect our countries critical infrastructure from sabotage. This includes our ports, our trains and our computer networks. This is a lot more significant than fingernail clippers on airplanes.

Posted on February 21, 2006

Security

A thought on censorship

Censorship has been in the news a lot lately from an unlikely source--Internet companies. Both as participants and targets. Some companies, like Google, have cooperated with the Chinese government in blocking certain searches. Some, like Wikipedia, are being completely bocked.

I'd like to point that censorship on the Internet started long before this. Network Solutions, my alma mater, refused to sell 7 domain names based on George Carlin's 7 dirty words that you can't say on television bit (actually there were 2 other racial words that we quietly held onto, also). Auction and merchandising sites like Ebay and Yahoo have long cooperated with the governments of France and Germany in blocking sales of Nazi war memorabailia (illegal in those countries).

I begrudgingly accept that there may be limited justifications for blocking things on the Internet, although as a purist, I would prefer complete free speech, as tough as that might be to personally stomach.

But it's the massive censorship efforts put on by China that really noogies my goat.

So, it occurred to me that they're not blocking it by domain name (Right? I hope that's true), but by IP address.

So what would happen if a group of well-intentioned Internet people provided caching and multiple IP address setups that changed on a random basis? Sort of like the old WWII movies where the Resistance would get new frequencies to listen to Allied Radio, avoiding the old jammed ones.

Posted on February 20, 2006

General

Screaming enough

It seems to me that the future of advertising is going to be a paid consumptive model where people somehow get reimbursed for viewing an ad. I think this because there has to be a limit on where people can advertise. It's everywhere, almost every flat surface. Because of cheap LCD displays and wi-fi, it's cost-effective to deploy these movable, dynamically updating billboards anywhere. They will continue to proliferate, along with their cousins, popup ads on web sites and Tivo, product placement in video games and movies, until we all scream enough.

I'm screaming now.

So why not pay people? Come up with some unique technology that will reward people for actually looking at these things. We're already seeing a bifurcated Internet, pay and free, where "free" means having to see ads. Some software is distributed that way already, like Eudora. There's a company that helps people make their car payments in return for putting a magnetic advertisement on the door.

Would you be willing to get free surgery if you let them tattoo an Allstate ad across your stomach? Half-price wedding cakes with a Betty Crocker ad iced on the top? You could apply this anywhere...how about a cut-rate circumsion in return for a lasered Trojans Ad? A free baby delivery if you agreed to name the child "Disposable Pampers."

I have a great big hairy patch of skin reserved for the people who put compulsory commercials on DVDs.

Posted on February 17, 2006

Advertising

Too smart for me

Is America in the grips of an anti-intellectualism trend?

It's hard to categorize the Bush administration. They're not conservative. They're not traditional Republican. They don't have a big agenda, just some personal grudges that they're trying to settle ("They tried to kill my father!") They're not anti-women nor anti-Black, nor even anti-illegal immigrant.

I have figured it out--they hate smart people.

I've seen that leering smirk on Bush's face before, but it took me a while to place it. It was in high school. It was the look on the face of a kid in class when someone raised their hand and knew the answer. The smart kid ended up with a wedgie later on in the locker room.

Listen to Bushies argue about Iraq. It sounds like the old Monty Python routine about the professional arguer.

Cleese: An argument isn't just contradiction.
Chapman: Well! it CAN be!
Cleese: No it can't! An argument is a connected series of statement intended to establish a proposition.
Chapman: No it isn't!
Cleese: Yes it is! 'tisn't just contradiction.
Chapman: Look, if I *argue* with you, I must take up a contrary position!
Cleese: Yes but it isn't just saying "no it isn't".
Chapman: Yes it is!
Cleese: No it isn't!
Chapman: Yes it is!
Cleese: No it isn't!
Chapman: Yes it is!
Cleese: No it ISN'T! Argument is an intellectual process. Contradiction is just the automatic gainsaying of anything the other person says.
Chapman: It is NOT!
Cleese: It is!
Chapman: Not at all!

Posted on February 15, 2006

Must trust Bill or bust

Cnet reports that at the annual RSA conference, Bill Gates announced Microsoft's successor to Passport. Called "InfoCards", it's built into the new OS, Vista, due out later this year. It's meant to address criticisms of its predecessor by allowing users to generate their own InfoCards, which they can use somewhere else. He gives the example of how a user can generate their own ID to use at an online car rental agency.

This is an improvement, because Passport set Microsoft up as the central authority for financial information.

So, i've thought about this problem a lot and I've come to the conclusion that there shouldn't be central authoritative information banks unless they're non-profits and their doings and dealings are completely transparent.

Any company who asserts any proprietary ownership to code used for a trust-based system or refuses to provide 3rd party review of every line of their system should not be allowed to be a trust agent in a multi-vendor environment.

It's just not safe.

First, it allows a monopoly situation to develop (again). Monopolies are not inherently bad, but monopolistic behavior sucks. The former usually progresses to the latter.

Second, it provides a single source of failure. Homogeneous information environments are like coughing at a family reunion; everyone gets sick.

Thirdly, it makes it too easy for the government to get whatever they need. If they had to subpoena every part of a decentralized, distributed network, they'd never be able to do it. It's too damn easy to waive a subpoena in front of Microsoft's nose and have them roll over again, waggling their tail and showing their naughty bits.

Posted on February 15, 2006

Security

Bye, bye Birdie

It's unbelievable that the Secret Service stood around and watched Vice President Cheney shoot that poor guy. Don't federal agents have a legal obligation to protect citizens? Notice how the White House is using words like "peppered" and terms like "shooting incident" to describe the fiasco. Look. He shot a guy. In the face.

Turn the hunting ranch into a 7-11 and turn Cheney black and he'd be looking at life. Sorry, I forgot that it's Texas. He'd get lethal injection.

I don't understant how a man like Dick Cheney, who's heart is a couple bits of stringy gristle and couldn't possibly have more than a year or two left, would still kill things for recreation. I have no problem with hunting, but I know several hunters that turn into birdwatchers as they get older, because they have a different outlook on life.

Not the Veep.

We should be able to take advantage of this somehow. If only we could get Osama Bin Laden out hunting...

Posted on February 14, 2006

Warcraft--not that there's anything wrong with that

Warcraft is one of the most popular online games. But, gaming worlds, like the real ones, need to be sensitive to their citizens. BBC reports that a Warcraft player named Sara Andrews was threatened with expulsion from the fantasy game because she'd tried to set up a gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender friendly team. A sys op told her that she was in violation of Warcraft's term of service, apparently because she used the word "lesbian". After the inevitable furor, the company apologized and said that it was going to run its staff through sensitivity training.

I see a story like this every few months. The online gaming worlds are a fascinating precursor of things to come. They're about a lot more than gaming. They're truly alternate realities and people that live there may fantasize a little about adventure and romance, but their values are the same. It would be a big mistake to assume otherwise.

Keep an eye on the online gaming world. It foreshadows something very new. Even nongamers will live in these worlds, sometimes, some day.

Posted on February 13, 2006

Pop Culture

Where are the Kibos of yesteryear?

The Internet used to be populated by interesting people doing clever things. Before the commercialization of the 'Net in the mid '90s, Usenet's denizens would express themselves loudly (in text, of course), sometimes getting involved in flame wars.

One of these characters was a guy named James Parry, also known as Kibo. He was known for several things, most notably the legend that he would respond anywhere that his name was used. He also created a fake religion called kibology. You can read more about him here. Kibo still maintains a web site.

Ecccentrics are fun and reading them was one of the real joys of the Net. Sure, most of them are floating around somewhere on web sites, but it's just not the same thing. For one, they're completely overwhelmed by the snake oil hucksters, pedophiles and FBI terrorist hunters. And that's just Ebay:)

I miss the craziness. It would be nice to see someone play a good joke.

Posted on February 09, 2006

Pop Culture

Cryptonight

Why don't we use encryption?

PGP has been around for a decade and is easily integrated into every mail reader, yet no one uses it. Much of today's portable tech is about networked information gadgets, Tivos, Blackberrys, etc. Some of them have a little encryption, but not much to speak of. Consumers never ask for it. "Excuse me, is this cell phone encrypted?" Exactly. Sounds stupid, doesn't it?

So why not? Widespread use of even light encryption would make widescale digital espionage nearly impossible. Once you got used to it, the cumbersome factor would go away.

I have to conclude that there's two reasons. The first is because people would think that a crypto user was being conspiratorial. It's like wearing a tinfoil hat and muttering about black helicopters. Public perception is against people using encryption.

The second reason is a little more speculative and ironically enough, conspiratorial. It is so clearly in the intelligence agencies best interests if encryption was not generally being used, that I wonder if there hasn't been a secret PR campaign to set up reason #1. If they haven't been acting behind the scenes to discourage universal adoption, then they're fools--and the NSA are not fools. Some of the smartest people that I've ever met work there.

If anyone has anything on this or some more speculation, I would be very interested to hear it.

Posted on February 09, 2006

Privacy

Disky business

Put this in the category of "I-didn't-know-this". An IBM researcher says that normal home-burned CDs will only last for 2 years, 5 at the most for higher quality disks. Kurt Gerecke, from IBM Germany, recommends that important information be moved to mag tapes.

Yikes. Maybe the music industry can just wait it out. If this is true, I'm surprised that it's not more commonly discussed, considering all the small businesses who store all their financials on CD.

Posted on February 08, 2006

Technology

Starting over

Starting a company is very different now. I've talked to several startups run by serial entrepreneurs and all of them are eschewing VC money. They use angels, but more importantly, they bootstrap. Companies really only need to raise cash in the early stages for three things: 1) hire more people 2) buy hardware 3) spend it on something stupid.

By using outsourced development, they should be able to control costs fairly well. No startup needs a CFO, great chairs or more than one item of clothing with the corporate name on it.

Most companies that I've seen should be able to get to revenue for less than a million, million-five, tops.

This trend has interesting implications for the venture capital industry. There's certainly lots of places for them to spend money, but they may stop seeing the sweet early stage deals. Food for thought.

Posted on February 07, 2006

Business

Cartoon violence

The recent furor over European cartoons satirizing Mohammed is a good example of how the media has become political, regardless of protestations to the contrary. Not there's anything wrong with political representations by newspapers, as long is it's identified as such, say by labeling it an editorial cartoon or something similar.

There's a line, though. A divider where it's no longer about politics but becomes a hate crime. From what I know of these cartoons, that doesn't seem to be the case. The point is satire. One cartoon supposedly portrayed Mohammed wearing a bomb-shaped turban. If the point is that a lot of violence is being perpetrated by Muslims for supposedly religous reasons, who really wants to disagree with that? It's rare that you hear about Jehovah's Witnesses even carrying a gun, let alone using one for ideological purposes.

No, it doesn't disturb me that these cartoons were published. I haven't seen them, though, so I reserve judgement.

What does annoy me is not that they were published, it's that I can't see them. American newspapers appear to be deliberately not showing them. That bothers me, because they're worried about retribution, which means that violent protests to control the media does, in fact, work.

I'd like to believe that our media is made of sterner stuff than that. Yes sir, I'd like to believe that.

Posted on February 06, 2006

General

No more comp sci please, I'm full

When I talk to college kids today, I try to persuade them not to go into computer science. Geeks--sure, but the industry can only absorb so many competent geeks. Owning a light saber and speaking Klingon does not a good computer geek make.

The cowboy days are over now. Application software built on top of open source makes one person a software wrecking crew. You only need in depth knowledge of programming when you're opening the hood and fiddling with the internals of the car and honestly, you just don't need to do that anymore.

You don't build your own basic class library, string functions, I/O library and error handling routines the way that we all did over the last 20 years.

Anyone can put up a pretty good web site.

The real computer geeks know who they are. We still need them for the research shops. We need some programmers, but more importantly we need a computer literate generation.

So maybe the visa/immigration issue is less important, because what matters, what really matters in the digital age is not wonkiness, but creativity. We need innovaters, designers and marketers, not more computer engineers.

Posted on February 03, 2006

2 Comments

Technology

Doing the newspaper wrap

Last Sunday, the Boston Globe wrapped their newspaper bundles in some unusual scrap paper--the credit card and bank numbers of 1/4 million of their subscribers.

The paper is owned by the New York Times.

How could they do this you ask? Simple. They blame the computer.

It's always the computer, isn't it? It's the Mikey of the silicon generation. The perpetual fall guy.

We need an FTC-levied set of fines on wide-scale privacy violations. Imagine what would have happened with a say, $10 per name fine? $2.5 million.

What should they do with the money?

Give it to me. Failing that, use it to fund privacy task forces.

Posted on February 02, 2006

Privacy

State of the Union-Who's your buddy?

Technology is every politican's friend. Even though most of them can't tell the difference between a laptop and a lapdance, they hold the word up like a $5 bill at a strip club.

President Bush referred to technology 7 times in his State of the Union speech last night:

We will make wider use of electronic records and other health information technology to help control costs and reduce dangerous medical errors.

America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world. The best way to break this addiction is through technology.

I propose to make permanent the research and development tax credit, to encourage bolder private-sector initiatives in technology

This funding will support the work of America's most creative minds as they explore promising areas such as nanotechnology...

By applying the talent and technology of America, this country can dramatically improve our environment

Breakthroughs on this and other new technologies will help us reach another great goal: to replace more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025.

we will invest more in zero-emission coal-fired plants; revolutionary solar and wind technologies;

Technology is not a panacea, nor a wonder drug. I'm a technologist and I know better. I wonder if the President does?

Posted on February 01, 2006