Global POV: At the Intersection of Technology and Culture

Scrumping

Several news articles this week that point out that roughly 1/4 of the 1 million Apple iPhones that have been sold are now unlocked. This is in spite of the fact that Apple has aggressively tried to stop this by mucking with the bootloader software to stop unofficial apps from executing.

Apple is doing this, of course, because they have a very lucrative deal going with AT&T which gives them $300-400 per account. Unlocked phones can be connected to almost any GSM cellular service, circumventing the Apple/AT&T monopoly. These worldly iPhones are available everywhere online for a 50% premium or so over the retail price.

I have a basic belief that business models that work by trapping people through legal or technological enforcement measures rarely work. It's too easy to get around and sooner or later causes a brand backlash.

Posted on January 30, 2008

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Intellectual Property

Myspace becomes relevant again (for the wrong reasons)

A security hole in Myspace permitted some hackers to create a 17 gig file comprised of over half a million photographs of Myspace users, many of them marked "private." The file was one of the most popular downloads on BitTorrent last week.

Most social networking sites have weak security, at best, lulling their mostly Gen Y users into a false sense of security as to their control of their information. The distinction between locally stored and network-centric data is a fine, but an important one. After all, a hole in Myspace exposes everyone.

I wonder if it isn't too late for social networking sites to add some kind of real protection for their users. You either design it in up front or you don't. Myspace may turn out to be a great object lesson for privacy advocates, providing the same kind of target for finger-waggers as the Pets.com sock puppet did for tulip-bulb, market crash doomsayers.

Posted on January 28, 2008

Browsing by numbers

The EU's Commissioner committee on data privacy head, Peter Sharr announced yesterday that he believes that TCP/IP addresses are private data. This viewpoint is in stark contrast to what most American companies believe, which is that since they identify the machine, not a person, they are public.

These addresses are numeric identifiers that are used to route network traffic, both locally and across the Internet at large. Since in many cases (especially for those with Broadband) users consistently use the same IP address, it can be used to maintain continuity of that person's browsing and in many cases, equate to the person's name, address and telephone #.

In other words, by retaining and using the IP address, a company can often know exactly who is "anonymously" browsing on their website.

Many companies have built a great deal of their business model on exploiting this personal information. Google, for one.

I agree in principle with the EU's philosophy, but as a practical matter, do not believe that US companies would ever accept being told that they could no longer retain the information.

Posted on January 22, 2008

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I/O, I/O--it's off to work we go

Slashdot has a report on a University of Washington researcher who has developed a model for a digital contact lens, including a built-in LED matrix for display purposes. Although this particular prototype is still in the pre-working phase, it shows one possible direction that highly mobile display devices may go. Presumably you would interact with data via some other gadget like some kind of haptic gizmo and the resulting output would flow across the contact lens.

One consequence of this is that this will be that hyperactive, multitasking, ADD people will be rewarded. Imagine a street full of pedestrians and drivers, communing with the info zeitgeist as they move. This idea is completely contrary to where lawyers and legislators are headed with rules prohibiting GPS and cell phone use while driving. Although it is clearly in the sweet spot of where devices like the iTouch and iPhone are going.

I suspect that this kind of gadget, like the subcutaneous digital implants will be adopted by some generations and not by others.

Posted on January 21, 2008

Technology

Celebrity kids

Britney Spears is supposed to be back in court today for a major hearing in regards her visitation rights. For anyone who successfully ducked the story, Ms. Spears was forced by police and EMTs to surrender her kids to Kevin Federline on January 3rd at the end of her visitation. Although that might sound touching, it should be noted that at least one of the babies was locked alone in a room during the altercation.

The Britney-child saga has been going on for at least a year. Spears has repeatedly done drugs, handled the children in a dangerous manner (driving them without a car seat), acted like a complete ho and has not exhibited the slightest trace of good parenting.

As a reaction, the authorities have slowly removed her control over her children...first legal, then joint custody, then limitations on visitation.

Yet she still ends up with her kids frequently and the court takes a lot of time to repeatedly hear her motions (for many of which she doesn't show up).

Why are celebrities given this kind of treatment in regards children?

Sure, give them a free super-size holster of fries at Burger King, but never comp them with children. Remember Michael Jackson waving his child out a hotel window at photographers?

I went through some pretty messy child custody issues myself years ago, for much of which I defended myself. Things worked out in my case, but the experience was not a high point in my life. It sensitizes me to this issue. I boil when I see the celebrity treatment being applied in a custody case. And make no mistake about this, If Britney was a moneyless, minority woman, she would have gotten at best, one chance in court and would probably be under investigation for child abuse by the Child Protective Service.

Take her kids away and throw her ass in a real jail if she gets withing 100 yards of them for the next few years. Give them a chance to grow up.

****
Update: She didn't show for the hearing

Posted on January 14, 2008

Pop Culture

Internet failed to vote in New Hampshire

Cnet makes the interesting observation about the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries that they were won by handshakes, not by the Internet.

The absence of something is rarely news the way that anticipated events hit the front page, but it made me stop and think when I read this. I would argue that the Internet has played less of a role so far, then, say 2004.

Many people (including myself) thought that this would be the first election that was completely dominated by the Internet. I was wrong. So far, it's been old-fashioned politicking. Sure, the web was used, but was it significant? Has anyone cared what the bloggers have said this time? Even the high priest of internet politicking, Joe Trippi, seems to have failed in accomplishing what he was supposed to do for the Edwards campaign.

It will interesting to see if tech plays a bigger role in the general election.

Posted on January 10, 2008

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Politics

jewish white house.jpg

"White" house no, "Christian" house maybe?

In the day before the New Hampshire primary, Obama and McCain (or Romney) are positioned to win. Only days after the Iowa caucuses, it's still too early to digest the meaning of the Clinton/Huckabee upset. Like everyone else, I've been getting into lots of political discussions about what this all means. Sooner or later the conversation gets around to an independent run by Bloomberg.

Surprisingly enough, the conversation quickly focuses on religion. I've had several people tell me that they think that Americans will vote for a woman, a black man or a Mormon, but not a Jew. I hope that this isn't true, but there has been a lot of cross-climbing by the candidates. Romney hastily reassures evangelicals that Mormons are Christians and Obama seems to make the point that he's a Christian about once per speech.

Several months after the House passed Resolution 847 which recognized the importance of Christianity and Christmas, the 'C' word still seems to come up a lot. Is the country ready for a Jew?

Posted on January 08, 2008

Politics

Snooping comes home

I see many things happening that make me think that common use of encryption may soon be a reality. One trend that I've been following closely is the government's ever-increasing willingness to electronically snoop at border crossings.

The NY Times has an article today that ties together several cases involving searches of the contents of hard drives at border crossings. US Customs now feels that a digital search is the same as luggage search and therefore they are entitled. In one particularly interesting case, a gentleman who used PGP, shared his password with them on request, giving them the ability to see that he had some child pornography on his hard drive. He was arrested. The password that he gave them no longer worked and this time when he was asked to unlock the files, he refused. The issue of whether he can be legally compelled to do so is working its way through the court system now.

Depending on how the courts rule, it would seem that routinely encrypting personal data would be a smart move for travelers, even for people not hiding things. After all, even if you trust the US government not to copy or otherwise misuse your information, presumably other governments will soon enact a similar policy and start looking at American travelers' computers.

Posted on January 07, 2008