Sunday, July 02, 2006

The Times' Disclosures: Lileks' Beatdown


Executing a snark tour de force  is no easy task. But James Lileks makes it look routine, with a brutal smackdown of the New York Times. The Times' proclivity for leaking national security secrets like candy from a Pez dispenser is an egregious, well-nigh-treasonous practice. One would, then, not be surprised to read the following stories someday soon:

September 10, 2006: The New York Times runs a story about a CIA agent named Mohammed Al-Ghouri, 1034 Summit Park, Evanston Illinois, who is attempting to penetrate a radical sleeper cell suspected of having 19 liters of homemade mustard gas. The series concludes with the agent’s obituary, and a moving quote from a CIA historian who notes that the “al-Ghouri was one of rare, brave breed whose names and deeds are rarely known. Except in this case, of course.” ...

Feb. 14, 2007: Times Editor Keller approves the publication of the Pentagon’s plans for a Feb 15th strike on Iran, asserting that “there has been far too little debate about whether the sustained assault by cruise missiles and stealth bombers will provide a cover for the infiltration of several SpecOps teams from the Iraqi and Afghan bases, or whether these groups, code named ‘Red Six’ and ‘Blue Fourteen’ respectively, might suffer friendly fire. One error in timing, such as the barrage scheduled for the 3 AM on night of the 24th, could expose our troops to great harm. If this leads to a debate about whether the Tomahawk missile can be sent slightly off course by a concentrated microwave burst, as classified documents seem to suggest, it’s a debate we need to have.”

Picking up the beat(down) is David Reinhard of the Portland Oregonian ("Who died and left you president of the United States?" - hat tip: Powerline):

The founders didn't give the media or unnamed sources a license to expose secret national security operations in wartime. They set up a Congress to pass laws against disclosing state secrets and an executive branch to conduct secret operations so the new nation could actually defend itself from enemies, foreign and domestic...

Not to worry, you tell us, terrorists already know we track their funding, and disclosure won't undercut the program. (Contradictory claims, but what the heck.) You at the Times know better. You know better than government officials who said disclosing the program's methods and means would jeopardize a successful enterprise. You know better than the 9/11 Commission chairmen who urged you not to run the story. Better than Republican and Democratic lawmakers who were briefed on the program. Better than the Supreme Court, which has held since 1976 that bank records are not constitutionally protected. Better than Congress, which established the administrative subpoenas used in this program.

Maybe you do. But whether you do or not, there's no accountability. If you're wrong and we fail to stop a terror plot and people die because of your story, who's going to know, much less hold you accountable? No, the government will be blamed -- oh, happy day, maybe Bush's White House! -- for not connecting dots or crippling terror networks.

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Stand with John Kerry on Net Neutrality


As a strong GOP backer who raised funds, wrote op-eds and appeared on talk radio in support of George W. Bush in 2004, I stand with John Kerry on the issue of net neutrality:

On Wednesday in the Senate Commerce Committee I warned that those of us who believe in net neutrality will block legislation that doesn’t get the job done.

It looks like that’s the fight we’re going to have.

The Commerce Committee voted on net neutrality and it failed on an 11-11 tie. This vote was a gift to cable and telephone companies, and a slap in the face of every Internet user and consumer.

It will not stand.

If you've never made a call to your Senator before, this is your day. If you've never emailed him or her, the time is now. Muster the energy and do it.

The future of the incredible value-creation machine we know as the Internet is at stake. Put simply, the carriers wish to pick and choose the winners and losers among content providers: they, not you, will decide the next Google. They, not you, will decide which telephony service, which file-sharing software, which instant-messenger you will use.

How do we know this? Because the carriers have repeatedly told us of their intentions:

...William L. Smith, chief technology officer for Atlanta-based BellSouth Corp., told reporters and analysts that an Internet service provider such as his firm should be able, for example, to charge Yahoo Inc. for the opportunity to have its search site load faster than that of Google Inc.

Or, Smith said, his company should be allowed to charge a rival voice-over-Internet firm so that its service can operate with the same quality as BellSouth's offering...

I can find no simpler way to put it: the carriers seek to turn the Internet into cable television. In doing so, they put America's technological leadership position at risk, they endanger the immense and fragile Internet ecosphere, and -- by extension -- they threaten the Internet itself.

Take action today. And tomorrow. And the next day... until the Senate gets the message -- loud and clear -- over the ringing of the lobbyists' cash registers.

Related: John Kerry on the Factor

Friday, June 30, 2006

Net neutrality fight goes to the Senate floor


Let the folks over at USA Today summarize Ted Stevens' proposed telecom legislation. The Senate bill does not provide strong protections for net neutrality. In addition, the bill would:

• Pre-empt state consumer protection laws on wireless services. [Ed: presumably written in by telco lobbyists, who probably want to centralize the lobbying spend at the Federal level]

• Make permanent a ban on taxes on Internet access.

• Allow TV and radio broadcasters to place copyright protection technology in their programs.

• Reform the system of universal service fees, which subsidize phone service in rural areas. Broadband and Internet-based phone services would have to pay into the fund. [Ed: presumably written in by telco lobbyists, who seek to suppress any innovative, IP-based voice services such as Skype, Vonage, etc.]

• Let cities provide their own high-speed Internet service.

Ben Scott, Policy Director of the Free Press writes:

The issue of Net Neutrality will continue to gain speed as the full Senate takes up a bill that will determine the fate of Internet freedom.

The voices of millions of average citizens are just starting to break through the misinformation and lies being peddled by the big phone and cable companies who want to erect tollbooths on the Internet. Across the country, people are catching on to these companies’ plans, and they won’t forget which leaders stood up for the public interest...

How could such a thing happen? Well, consider Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) -- recipient of major telco funding ($71,250 in this year's cycle, according to MoveOn.org) and -- coincidentally (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) -- major backer of this legislation. Let's listen in on Stevens as he elaborates on his rationale for backing the telcos in this fight:

...We're using the Internet for personal communication. We're not using it for commercial purposes...

...We don't know enough to turn the Net into a two-tier system, which is exactly what Net neutrality would do...

...An internet was sent by my staff...

This clown idiot dunce esteemed politician knows as much about the Internet as one of the crustaceans swimming around at Red Lobster. Only he has a little less charismatic of a personality.

Letting rockets scientists like Stevens guide the future of the Internet is like having Britney Spears and K-Fed babysit your newborn child. There'll be lots of smoke and crying following all of the bad decisions.

I sent an Internet to him to complain. You can go to Save The Internet and make a series of calls to the Senators in question. Make your voice heard over the ringing of the lobbyists' cash registers in the Senate.

Thursday, June 29, 2006

The Bush-Rumsfeld Plan for WWIII


Thus sayeth Kevin Murphy:

The Bush-Rumsfeld Plan for WWIII

Step 1: The US does everything possible to create a multilateral alliance to stop Iran from getting nukes.

Step 2: At the last minute, France vetoes the whole thing in exchange for oil drilling rights.

Step 3: All the other countries back out of the alliance, since it is no longer multilateral without France.

Step 4: Bowing to unrelenting international pressure, the US declines to go it alone.

Step 5: Israel warns that an attack on them would be met with an unimaginable response.

Step 6: Iran nukes Tel Aviv...

Step 6.001: Israel nukes Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan, Libya, the UAE and Iran some more, using about 100 hydrogen bombs. A hundred million die.

Step 7: Everyone blames Bush and Rumsfeld.

Shhhhh... no one tell the New York Times.

Behold The New York Times: Then and Now


Three days after 9/11, a New York Times op-ed piece demanded that the Bush administration use every available means to track the terrorists' financial networks. The words 'duplicitous' and 'hypocritical' come to mind; and they aren't nearly strong enough. I think the word 'prosecution' should also be involved (hat tip: Sweetness & Light via LGF):

Organizing the hijacking of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon took significant sums of money. The cost of these plots suggests that putting Osama bin Laden and other international terrorists out of business will require more than diplomatic coalitions and military action. Washington and its allies must also disable the financial networks used by terrorists.

The Bush administration is preparing new laws to help track terrorists through their money-laundering activity and is readying an executive order freezing the assets of known terrorists. Much more is needed, including stricter regulations, the recruitment of specialized investigators and greater cooperation with foreign banking authorities. There must also must be closer coordination among America’s law enforcement, national security and financial regulatory agencies.

And yesterday, the Times ran another op-ed the stammeringly attempts to explain its exposure of the perfectly legal, yet classified, SWIFT terrorist-tracking program. No, the paper explains, it's not at war with the Bush administration:

It is certainly unlikely that anyone who wanted to hurt the Bush administration politically would try to do so by writing about the government’s extensive efforts to make it difficult for terrorists to wire large sums of money.

From our side of the news-opinion wall, the Swift story looks like part of an alarming pattern. Ever since Sept. 11, the Bush administration has taken the necessity of heightened vigilance against terrorism and turned it into a rationale for an extraordinarily powerful executive branch, exempt from the normal checks and balances of our system of government. It has created powerful new tools of surveillance and refused, almost as a matter of principle, to use normal procedures that would acknowledge that either Congress or the courts have an oversight role.

Patterico uses everything but tasers and cattle-prods in disciplining the partisan hacks of the Times. He translates this silly suite of sentences:

Nobody could possibly think we’re trying to get the Bush Administration by revealing the Swift program. After all, the Swift program shows Bush is fighting terrorists, so it’s not as though the Swift program reflects badly on the Bush Administration.

But Good Lord, the Swift program sure does reflect badly on the Bush Administration!

Just when you think the Times has hit rock bottom, they break out the pick-axes and start digging a new sub-basement.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Issue #1 of PC Week (1984)


I've got a lot of old computer magazines that I've been given or saved over the years. Some original Dr. Dobbs Journal from the Seventies (cover story: "6502 or 8080: which should you choose?"). Some old IEEE Spectrums, PC Tech Journals, computer catalogs, and Byte Magazines.

And this gem: issue #1 of PC Week (currently called eWeek). I don't have a scanner big enough to handle these oversized pages, so I took a few snapshots. I know: the quality is poor. But I thought these were fun nonetheless.

Cover of PC Week #1: don't be fooled by the Volume 1, Issue 9 caption; note the story at left. This has been confirmed by Ziff-Davis as the first issue.

Software Pirates Take Notice; More Companies Officially Prohibit Copying; Spencer Katt #1. One of the biggest problems facing the software industry in '84 was illicit copying of floppy disks (sound familiar?). The solution -- at least for a time -- was anti-copying technology that hackers quickly found ways to circumvent.

Portable Trends - check out the laptop. Yes, this was state-of-the-art mobile computing technology.

Sweet mouse: Microsoft Mouse double-page ad (left-side)... yes, Microsoft was in the hardware business before the Xbox.

Microsoft Mouse double-page ad (right-side).

There are some additional -- and very interesting -- op-ed pieces including one columnist who argues that "Windowing systems" (remember Windows was probably in pre-1.0 infancy state then) were fads. And Jim Seymour visited the IBM labs and proclaimed them the upcoming kings of PC software. Hmmmm.

Interestingly, one of the few companies (besides Microsoft) that is still around today is good old Alpha Software. They had a full-page ad and some additional news coverage in the first issue.

I'll try and post more of this if I can improve the quality and make it a bit more readable.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Doctorow on Net Neutrality: Don't let the telcos commit neutricide


The articulate Cory Doctorow speaks truth to power on the topic of net neutrality. Read it all.

It’s a dumb idea to put the plumbers who laid a pipe in charge of who gets to use it. It’s a way to ensure that incumbents with the deepest pockets will always be able to deliver a better service to the public, simply by degrading the quality of everyone else’s offerings. If you want to ensure that no one ever gets to creatively destroy an industry the way that Amazon, eBay, Google, Yahoo, and others have done, just make paying rent to a phone company a prerequisite for doing business.

Practically everyone agrees on this. Only the carriers oppose it, and their opposition is so lame it’d be funny if it wasn’t so scary. The core argument from the carriers is that Google and other Internet companies get a ‘free ride’ on their pipes. AT&T and others take the position that if you look up a search result or stream a video from Google using your DSL connection, Google profits, but the carriers don’t get a share of the proceeds...

There are few industries that owe their existence to regulation as much as the carriers. These companies are gigantic corporate welfare bums, having received the invaluable boon of a set of rights-of-way leading into every basement in America. Phone companies have a legal right to force you to provide access to your home for their pipes. Try calculating what it would cost to get into every U.S. home without a regulator clearing your path, and you quickly realize that the carriers should be the last people complaining about the distorting effect of regulation on their business.

The Bells and cable companies owe their existence to governmental largesse, and, while they’re profit-making private firms, they are, in effect, quasigovernmental organizations. A Bell that wants to get rid of regulation is about as practical as a cotton-candy cone that wants to get rid of sugar. Bells are nothing but a thin veneer of arrogance wrapped around a regulatory monopoly.

Uhm, one word. Wow. Go to Save the Internet and take action.

STI: Protecting the Web from Corporate Welfare Bums

Oh, that mainstream media!


From the Media Research Center:

The federal deficit is shrinking, unemployment has fallen, and America has seen more than two straight years of job growth. But broadcasters have been describing the economy as “dicey,” “volatile” and “slow.” A Free Market Project analysis of economic stories on network evening news shows since President George W. Bush’s second inauguration showed negative news prevailing 62 percent of the time (71 out of 115 stories). That number was deceiving, however, because even good news often was portrayed as bad. In 40 stories classified as good economic news, journalists undermined the good news with bad 45 percent of the time.

Good news was relegated to short reports, or briefs, 68 percent of the time, while bad news was treated with full stories. When briefs on both sides were excluded, the comparison of full-length news stories showed an overwhelming ratio: negative stories outnumbered positive ones almost 4-to-1.

And from a research paper, entitled, "Is Newspaper Coverage of Economic Events Politically Biased?":

When GDP growth is reported, Republicans received between 16 and 24 percentage point fewer positive stories for the same economic numbers than Democrats. For durable goods for all newspapers, Republicans received between 15 and 25 percentage points fewer positive news stories than Democrats. For unemployment, the difference was between zero and 21 percentage points. Retail sales showed no difference. Among the Associated Press and the top 10 papers, the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Associated Press, and New York Times tend to be the least likely to report positive news during Republican administrations, while the Houston Chronicle slightly favors Republicans. Only one newspaper treated one Republican administration significantly more positively than the Clinton administration: the Los Angeles Times' headlines were most favorable to the Reagan administration, but it still favored Clinton over either Bush administration.

Hmmmm.

Monday, June 26, 2006

Bonfire of the ATMs


I experienced my first major Bank ATM failure last Saturday. I was preparing to leave on vacation and drove through a branch office near my house. Flicked my card in and requested $300 out of a savings account.

The ATM started counting money -- I could hear it -- and then froze. The screen instructed me to remove the money. One problem: the black metal door that controlled access to the funds had never opened. And the ATM user interface itself was completely frozen. I sat there, stunned, for a minute or so.

I pressed "Cancel" and every other button on the screen. Nothing. I even tried some creative [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Del] key combinations in the hope of striking a magic reset sequence. Nada. The screen sat there mocking me, telling me to remove the bills from the machine. Real amusing.

I got out the trusty BlackBerry 8700G and Googled the bank's customer support number. While sitting at the ATM, I called customer service on my cell phone. After navigating the ever-irritating IVR system, I got a live person on a line. The rep went to investigate and put me on hold while she called ATM support.

The timer on the BlackBerry indicated I was on hold nearly ten minutes. Coincidentally, about the time she returned to the line, the ATM coughed up my card along with the inscrutable message, "Transaction timed out." No money, no receipt, just the card.

The rep was back on the phone. She indicated that the $300 had been withdrawn from the account - in other words, I'd been docked the money but received absolutely nothing in return. Not a good thing. She asked whether I wanted to contest the withdrawal. Uhm, that would be "Yes!". She indicated that a "provisional credit"would be provided to the account, pending some sort of adjudication process.

Apparently, a secret ATM panel regularly meets to discuss and review disputed ATM transactions every so often. She felt confident that, by Tuesday, some sort of provisional credit would be issued.

On Thursday, from the beach, I checked online. Of course, no credit of any kind had been issued. Just two withdrawals of $300 (I'd driven to another bank branch and withdrawn the money I'd needed). So I was still out the first $300 withdrawal with nothing to show for it.

Online, I wrote an email to customer service... once again explaining the situation. The following email arrived in response:

Thank you for the opportunity to be of service through [Bank name]'s online service.

Upon review of your account, I show that a dispute was filed on 6/17/06 to research the $300.00 withdrawal at the [Branch Office location] ATM.

Per Federal guidelines, the bank does have 45 calendar days to fully resolve the claim.

However, if we have not completed it in 10 business days, you will receive a provisional
credit from the bank. You will receive written notification of the results of the investigation.

Please complete any paperwork you receive from us and return promptly as instructed so we can complete the investigation for you. If we do not receive the paperwork back from you, the investigation will be closed and the provisional credit will be removed from your account.

I apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused you.

Thank you for choosing [Bank name] and we look forward to assisting you with your banking needs.

Sincerely,

[Name removed]

Well, since I'm on vacation, receiving and filling out paperwork will be a problem.

Furthermore, I find it difficult to believe that an ATM audit trail doesn't exist. Such an audit trail would track any of the following: (a) a sensor that notes whether the currency door actually opened or not; (b) a picture from the ATM's camera showing the cash getting dispensed or not; (c) an extra $300 showing up in the cash wipe drawer inside the ATM.

This isn't exactly rocket science. You, my dear and valued reader, will be the first to know whether the the bank does the right thing here.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Look Out, Pyongyang? Rail Gun in the Works


The folks over at DefenseTech cover the Navy's new destroyer and its electromagnetic railgun platform. The claim? Two DDG1000 destroyers should have the firepower of an entire, 640-person artillery battalion:

...[it relies] on electromagnetic fields to shoot projectiles [at] almost six kilometers/second... With an electromagnetic rail gun pushing the rounds out so quickly, the number of rounds fired per ship would jump from 232 to 5000, Navy planners believe...

Because they travel so fast -- nearly Mach 7 -- the destructive force those rounds deliver would more than double, from 6.6 megajoules to 17. And they would fly almost five times farther -- up to 300 nautical miles. That's enough to put 100% of targets in North Korea "at Risk" from a single battleship, a Navy briefing notes...

Will 'Dear Leader' receive a long-distance love letter sometime soon?

DefenseTech: Look Out, Pyongyang? Rail Gun in the Works

Saturday, June 24, 2006

WinFS is dead?


The word has come down from on high: WinFS -- the long-anticipated "relational filesystem" from Microsoft -- won't be delivered as a stand-alone product. A Digg submitter writes:

The official word from the dev team is that WinFS will no longer be developed as a relational filesystem, and all future betas are cancelled.

I've always wondered about the rationale for this type of next-generation "file system". As I saw it, a file system is nothing but a high-speed way -- but conceptually kid-simple -- to create, read, update and delete blocks of bytes within the constraints of foldering, files and basic permissions.

As originally described, WinFS would revolutionize the file system, providing SQL-like query capabilities and other search-focused characteristics that would make retrieval of data a snap.

Guess what? There are plenty of applications that already do this. Apps like Google, that layer incredibly sophisticated applications on top of a brute-simple file system. And apps like, yes, SQL Server... that does much the same.

So I've always wondered why the file system had to be so sophisticated that it could perform some of the application's work for it.

I guess I have my answer now.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Light Posting Alert


This week will be light from a posting standpoint. A much-needed hiatus, in the form of an all-expenses-paid respite, is the culprit. The venue? Choose from:
  • Grand Caymans

  • Toledo

  • Xenia
The person submitting the winning answer will receive a year's supply of weasel grease, courtesy Dan's Discount Weasel Grease®.`

Saturday, June 17, 2006

MicrosoftWatch: Gates' Top 10 Flops


The esteemed Mary Jo Foley, writing at Microsoft Watch, discusses Bill Gates' legacy. It's not all sweetness and light, as she provides a list of Microsoft's Top 10 Flops. Yes, you could probably guess most of these:

1. Microsoft Bob (and Clippy)
2. Windows ME
3. Table PC/Pen Computing/eBooks
4. SPOT watches
5. Microsoft Money
6. DOS 4.0
7. Microsoft TV
8. MSNBC
9. LiveMeeting web conferencing
10. No Microsoft Linux!

The most intriguing from my perspective is #10. Gates, of course, had watched and learned from IBM's inability to adapt to the dynamic world of PC software. He had, in numerous articles and interviews, vowed that Microsoft would never ignore a similar threat. MSFT has therefore aggressively pursued smaller form-factors, telephony, cable television, IPTV delivery platforms, and gaming consoles.

But Gates has ignored the biggest threat to the cash cows of Microsoft Office, SQL Server, and Windows Server: open-source software. This year, MSFT has begun grudgingly acknowledging the impact of open-source:

  • Just days ago, it lobbied the open-source community against the use of the GPL and for more "compatible" licenses like BSD

  • in April, it announced that its high-powered virtualization engine -- Virtual Server 2005 -- would support Linux

  • in February, it announced its collaboration with the LAMP-based sales-force tool SugarCRM
But that pales in comparison with, say, offering Visual Studio for Linux, SQL Server for Linux, or a host of other products that could certainly help dampen the cannabilization of its profit-centers.

I also have my own top three list of MSFT gaffes:

#3) Browser Helper Objects - the invisible IE extensions that have likely been the launching-point for more adware, spyware, and zombie PCs than any other single cause. If your Mom has ever expressed concern about popup windows that AdAware can't cleanse or a dreadfully slow machine, odds are a BHO is behind it.

#2) The registry: an easily co-opted hive of nefarious startup settings, COM objects, GUID's, forgotten clutter, and other tripe. The lowly configuration file -- a Linux stalwart -- has proven infinitely superior from the standpoints of maintainability, transparency, and security.

#1) The winner: the Microsoft Press book entitled "Writing Solid Code", possibly the single most egregious culprit for the litany of horrific security vulnerabilities, blue-screens, and other reliability-destroying characteristics of MSFT code. Ostensibly a best-practices guide, it instead laid the blueprint for vast KLOC's of unreliable and insecure code. Click here for an obscenity-laced rant regarding this outrageous effort. Actually, there are no obscenities -- I was kidding about that -- but watch for plenty of harsh invective.

Stuff MSFT has done right? Plenty. They know how to keep after something until they get it right. Xbox 360. SQL Server. Visual Studio (er, not VS 2005, though). Exchange.

But I think Foley has nailed it: the era of Linux and open-source is beginning to leave MSFT behind. Think: IE7 playing catch-up with Firefox... IIS falling behind Apache... ASP/.NET getting body-slammed by LAMP's popularity... the rise of MySQL and Postgres... SugarCRM and Drupal... the list keeps getting larger and larger.

Will MSFT survive? Sure. Will it thrive? Absolutely. But, in my opinion, it will have to stop ignoring OSS and start selling into its market. Plenty of closed-source packages -- Visual SlickEdit and many Novell offerings come to mind -- get sold on Linux today. Adding MSFT products to the mix would only help. I won't hold my breath, though. Maybe after Gates leaves in '08.

Friday, June 16, 2006

Book Review: A Touch of Death

Classic pulp fiction at its pulse-pounding best

A Touch of Death (Hard Case Crime) (Mass Market Paperback) by Charles WilliamsFrom the instant Lee Scarborough spotted Diana James sunning herself sans bikini top, he should have known she meant trouble. The ex-football star was trying to sell his car to pay rent money. Diana James just happened to live in the same building as a prospective buyer. And she recognizes a useful pawn when she sees one: the healthy, athletic Scarborough has all the tools she needs to pull off a caper.

Diana invites him up to her apartment, tests her mark, and then lays out what seems like a simple plan. A banker had embezzled $120K of currency and then hidden it in his estate home... just before turning up up dead. Diana knows the embezzler's wife and intends to take her on a drinking binge on the gulf coast while Scarborough enters the home and locates the dough. Scarborough and James agree to split the $120 grand after they pull off the caper.

Soon Scarborough finds himself in the dark and cavernous home, scrounging around for the bankroll. One little problem: the widow, Madelon Butler, is in the home, drunk as a skunk. And, to complicate matters, someone else is also in the house...

As the tale unfolds, you'll find yourself startled and impressed with the crafty Ms. Butler -- who plays all of the characters around her like fiddles. Charles Williams has created an elegant, captivating story of exceptional quality: built like a Swiss watch, the plot just keeps unwinding... along with Scarborough's life. This is a tremendous story and one that should be optioned into film, just like Williams' Hot Spot.

Scoopt connects bloggers with publishers


Intriguing new offering for bloggers (hat tip: Springwise):

Scoopt, the world's first commercial citizen journalism photography agency, just launched ScooptWords to help bloggers find a commercial market for their writing.

Scoopt strongly believes that many bloggers produce content as good as or better than what appears in newspapers and magazines, and Scoopt aims to bring that content to larger audiences.

The process is simple: ScooptWords members place a "buy this content" button on their blog...


Scoopt - connecting bloggers with publishers

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Killing Net Neutrality = Killing Internet Investment


Inspired by a comment at TechDirt, the following reflects -- with almost uncanny prescience -- what will happen to Internet investments should the telcos succeed in their efforts to neuter the FCC and kill net neutrality:

As providers of first-round funding to Internet startups, without the guarantee of net neutrality (NN), we believe our USD5MM to USD15MM investments could suffer. Now that the House has passed the HR5252 bill without language guaranteeing net neutrality, the risk on our present investments has increased. Given the timeframe on the Senate decision, we will make no further Internet startup investments until the decision-point. If the decision is against NN, then no longer will we fund Internet start ups. The lack of net neutrality shifts the build-out cost of (previously incentivized) high-speed networks to investors such as we. However, unlike the reasonably calculable costs of network build-out, the costs our startup investments may face can't be calculated for the foreseeable future. We do not require "free" broadband access, rather we require "neutral" access. Otherwise we just can't calculate the risks of investing in the Internet startup class.

For another glimpse into a future without net neutrality, there's always this.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Haiku #129



days become decades
flashing smiles, leaves, tears, sand, earth
fleeting are the years

"Open source is more secure. Period."


Trend Micro, the antivirus vendor, claims that open-source software (OSS) is more secure than its proprietary cousin.

Antivirus vendor Trend Micro is claiming that open-source software is inherently more secure than proprietary software such as Microsoft Windows.

Trend said that one reason open-source software has fewer security issues is the variety of Linux distributions. Although they use the same kernel, if one distribution is compromised the same piece of malicious software may not work on a different distribution, the company said Monday.

"Open source is more secure. Period," Raimund Genes, chief technical officer for anti-malware at Trend, told ZDNet UK. "More people control the code base; they can react immediately to vulnerabilities; and open source doesn't have so much of a problem with legacy code because of the number of distributions."

Genes said open-source developers "openly talk about security," so patches are "immediate--as soon as something happens," whereas proprietary vendors with closed code have to rely purely on their own resources to push patches out.

Genes goes on to say that Linux boxes should be further hardened; at a minimum, the default security settings must be altered to ensure a truly deployable configuration.

A few months ago, I wrote about SE Linux and AppArmor, two Linux configurations designed to enforce mandatory access controls. More and more companies -- in industries ranging from financial services to telecommunications -- are using this type of hardened platform to minimize risk of compromise.

Postscript: InformationWeek columnist John Soat mulls over some IT career choices for his son in the latest IT Confidential column: "Database support? Network security? I've got it--Windows patch management. There's a secure career path."

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

When it's time to say goodbye... Say It With Bullets

Book Review - Hard Case Crime Series

Say It With BulletsThe jamoke in the UPS truck screeched to a halt in front of my house. He walked up the sidewalk carrying a box. There was a hint of menace in his saunter. By habit, I checked my shoulder holster to ensure it was in place. Anything could have been in the box. A severed head. Tickets to the Ice Capades. Wind chimes from Sharper Image. The driver tossed the box at my feet and vamoosed before I had a chance to question him.

I ripped it open only to discover an Amazon shipment of paperback Hard Case Crime books. They looked like they'd been lashed together by Shakey the clown during the last tornado. I grabbed this book first. I'd ordered it based on its title alone. In retrospect, it was a bigger mistake than hiring Tony Soprano as a financial advisor. The characters were paper thin, with a plot that was even thinner - aluminum foil-style. While the dialogue was snappy with the kind of metaphors that Raymond Chandler would have enjoyed, everything else suffered.

In all seriousness, I'm a huge fan of pulp fiction. But this particular effort was disappointing. Unlike some other veteran authors in the Hard Case series (e.g., Charles Williams), Powell had a better shot of replacing Ethel Merman in Gypsy  than getting this book classified as timeless. Apart from some clever phrasing and a decent hook, there isn't much to commend.

Net Neutrality Index


Herein one may find a compendium of hyperlinks to net neutrality articles, whether through purposeful intent or curious happenstance, elucidate upon the democratic principles of the Internet and regale the reader with the devastating consequences of the carriers' control of the content transiting their infrstructure.

2006-06-08ADSL2: "A good interim solution"
2006-05-10AT&T: Suddenly Flummoxed!
2006-03-30Barton shills for the telcos on net neutrality
2006-05-24Bask in the genius of the vitriolic anti-net neutrality god!
2006-05-05Bonfire of the Monopolists
2006-03-14Are cable companies targeting VoIP?
2006-06-27Consumer broadband last-mile "competition" in Phoenix
2006-05-12COPE: Paean to the Telcos
2006-02-25Email: another Network Neutrality Battle
2006-02-19End of the Internet: another fantastic deal from BellWest *
2006-05-20Enforcing net neutrality with a two-by-four
2006-03-23FCC Chief: AT&T can limit bandwidth
2006-05-03Financial sector awakens to net neutrality issues
2006-04-15Google/Earthlink team up to fight the Carriers
2006-02-15The hardware that Cisco is pitching the carriers
2006-05-18Hardwire firms oppose net neutrality laws
2006-06-09The House rejects net neutrality: sort of
2006-05-17IEEE: Not just net neutrality; net symmetry also needed
2006-02-16Internet2: is 'best effort' good enough?
2006-05-24Internet2: "Why Premium IP Service Has Not Deployed (and Probably Never Will)"
2006-04-28It's an election year... and the entire US wants net neutrality
2006-05-08Killing Skype and Vonage
2006-08-08Mike McCurry hits bottom, digs new sub-basement
2006-06-04Net Neutrality and Christopher Yoo's Paean to the Carriers
2006-04-06Network Neutrality: Condition Uh Oh
2006-02-22Network Neutrality: So Simple Even the Times Gets It
2006-06-03Net Neutrality and the Telcos' broken promises
2006-05-02Net Neutrality missing from Senate's Telecom Bill
2006-04-24Net neutrality not an optional feature of the Internet
2006-05-30Net Neutrality and the value-chain
2006-05-16Net Neutrality Word Search
2005-11-24Network Neutrality: Why it's a big deal
2006-04-20A new take on Internet telephony
2006-05-25News story from the future: a world without net neutrality
2006-03-30An Open Letter to Reps. Barton and Upton
2006-02-21Rewriting the Telecommunications Act of 1996
2006-02-16Technological solutions to the carriers' violations of net neutrality
2006-02-18Three simple questions for the carriers before they violate net neutrality
2006-05-22Tiering: is it reasonable?
2006-04-27The Tony Soprano model of networking
2006-05-09TorPark threatens to enforce net neutrality
2006-06-06Of Vonage, IPOs and net neutrality
2006-04-30We wouldn't want to stifle innovation, would we?
2006-02-14What network neutrality might mean to you *

*Includes cool, fake BellWest ads featuring the end of net neutrality!