The Blog
31 Jul 2005 One of my favourite Sci-Fi authors. Charles Stross had this to say in an interview in Interzone.
If the period from 1910 to 1970 was all about speed and power, and 1960 through 2010 was the golden age of data, then it's reasonable to suppose we're moving into the age of biomimetics - mechanisms like life forms. That's assuming the peak oil crisis doesn't irreversibly damage our civilization, which has alarmingly unprecedented feature of being the only one currently in play on the planet. Note. The Peak Oil Crisis is the moment when oil production peaks. Will it be this year or next? 30 Jul 2005 How would you change Skype? - Engadget - www.engadget.com :
- SIP gateway - Command line version for Server side API applications - Better contact management - Video (coming) - User set Supernode limits; Can I be a supernode; max connections; max bandwidth. - Keep Linux, Mac, PocketPC versions better in step with MS Win version - Improve echo cancellation for people without headsets - 3rd party peer review of security and encryption - Make the line protocols public - Provide a web presence service (coming) - Make it easier to record conversations without playing your own voice back through the headphones - Provide nativie language bindings for all the major languages rather than forcing people to use a 3rd party COM control. - Provide API examples in all the major languages - Build community around Skype user's interests, not just around support - Build more standards into the profile. FOAF, hCard, - Provide a web profile service to go with the web presence service. - Open up the ID checking and produce a Passport clone that works and is open. - Make it easy to archive chats and especially group chats to a web page. - Make group chats more IRC like. Allow you to join a known group chat rather than be invited - Remove the 50 person limit on group chats - Raise the 5 person limit on group conference calls - Add callto://yourname/chat to open a chat from a web link instead of a voice call. - Provide a mechanism for 3rd parties to charge for voice calls. The equivalent of POTS premium rate numbers - Provide a mechanism for calling premium rate POTS numbers via Skype-out - Provide App to Skype to Skype to App API functions so Apps can use Skype as a communication mechanism - Provide finer grained permissions on presence, profile access, calling and chat 2005 Results - Best Bad Writing
[from: del.icio.us] I especially like this one for the image it conjures up. It was high noon in the jungles of South India when I began to recognize that if we didn't find water for our emus soon, it wouldn't be long before we would be traveling by foot; and with the guerilla warriors fast on our heals, I was starting to regret my decision to use poultry for transportation. Maybe there should be a writer's competition to take these paragraphs as the first line of a story. 29 Jul 2005 I've just read that one of the alleged bombers was given a Passport and UK
citizenship despite having a UK criminal record. This wasn't a case of identity theft or identity fraud. It was case of the official process breaking down. So apologies if this is already in Kim's laws, but I'll add another. All identity systems contain some identities that cannot be trusted. In fact it shouldn't be too hard to come up with a Godel style mathematical proof that this must be true in every case. There may not be anything terribly deep in this statement, we're really just saying that to be human is to err. But it should be remembered that there is *never* 100% trust when we're talking about Digital ID. So we must *always* analyse and allow for the level of percentage risk and it's implications. From the IDWorkshop mailing list.
There seems to be a lot of activity at the moment around government driven identity schemes. In the last few days, I've seen a report on Californian limitations on rfid based cards. But being a Brit what really interests me is the UK proposals. This has been given a kick by the recent atrocities. And not all in favour of the ID cards. Even the Home Secretary has admitted on TV that ID cards and ID systems would not have made any difference. These are particularly interesting. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/26/overseas_passports_biometric/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/25/id_card_goes_icao/ One aspect I find fascinating is the problems they are having deciding where the source of all subsequent trust comes from. What they are falling back on is that the whole house of cards rests on the integrity and accuracy of the National Identity Register which is the underlying database. But they are using security by obscurity (or simple political spin) to avoid explaining how this integrity is maintained. As El Reg so eloquently puts it. "Effectively, it's a system which by design puts all of its eggs in one basket, and is dependent on that basket being made impregnable via measures which the Government will never reveal or discuss. Trust us..." This reminds me of the problems and process obtaining SSL Certs from the major Cert suppliers. All they were ever really proving was that whoever ordered the Cert could work a fax machine. But having done that the Cert could then be used to verify the identity of the holder. So IMHO, the whole trust tree surrounding web certs rests on a dubious premise and really just looks like a mechanism for charging fees. This doesn't stop SSL working, but it does limit it's usefulness. I can understand how PGP's web of trust works. What I can't understand is how any tree structured ID trust system can work. It feels like "turtles all the way down". Eventually you get to some body that claims ultimate accuracy. But in the real world, they can't. Back to politics, while this is happening, two pledges have started http://www.pledgebank.com/refuse I will refuse to register for an ID card and will donate £10 to a legal defence fund but only if 10000 other people will also make this same pledge. 10724 people have signed http://www.pledgebank.com/resist "I will actively support those people who, on behalf of all of us*, refuse to register for an ID card, and I pledge to pay at least £20 into a fighting fund for them but only if 50000 other people will too." A mere 190 signatures. A rant from me on this blog entry. Pledge 5 pounds per month to support an organisation that will campaign for digital rights in the UK
For instance, one of the key questions in my list is whether you should be able to time shift TV programs and skip through the ads. We think it's fair use because we've been doing it for years with VCRs. The media industry do *not* see this as an automatic right. And they are actively fighting to prevent us from being able to do this as we shift to all digital HDTV. And as what constitutes a Digital HDTV is not at all clear (PC, DVD player, PVR, iPod Movie, cellphone, linux box, Mac, Xbox, PSP, etc etc) actually preventing us from doing this has some very unwelcome side effects. I absolutely do not want to be told that I can only use this monitor with that DVD with that hard disk under this operating system and only if I pay that subscription tax to this body that might hand out a proportion to that musician. Today, because tomorrow they changed the rules without asking me for something I've already bought. And then be sent a threatening letter extorting money with menaces if I try to get round it. 26 Jul 2005 Side-Business Software: The neglected software market - Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals)
building software for 1-10 people small businesses [from: del.icio.us] 'I will actively support those people who, on behalf of all of us*, refuse to register for an ID card, and I pledge to pay at least £20 into a fighting fund for them' - PledgeBank
[from: del.icio.us] Don Young talked at Opentech about Amazon Web Sevices. I wanted to contact him afterwards and found this.
Don Young * Role: Talking on Amazon Web Services. * Photos: Can’t find any. * On the web: None. * Employment: Presumably Amazon. * Other notes: None. Doh! How can you be a Web Services evangelist and have no presence on the web. At all, at all?  25 Jul 2005 'I will actively support those people who, on behalf of all of us*, refuse to register for an ID card, and I pledge to pay at least £20 into a fighting fund for them' - PledgeBank
Let's say that you are against the proposed UK ID card, but don't feel that you can take the radical step of refusing to sign up for one. You may have dependents, a standing in the community or simply not feel strongly enough about the issue to take a stand. Well here's a way for you to support the 10,000 who are prepared to be that radical on your behalf. [from: JB Ecademy] [ 25-Jul-05 5:25pm ] Pledge 5 pounds per month to support an organisation that will campaign for digital rights in the UK
'I will create a standing order of 5 pounds per month to support an organisation that will campaign for digital rights in the UK' - PledgeBank
If you ask yourself questions like:- - Why is it fair use to quote text from a copyrighted book in an article but not ok to quote audio or video in a performance piece? - Why don't the media companies want you to time shift programs and skip the ads in the future the way you've been doing for 20 years in the past? - Is it extortion by a cartel or good business for the media companies to sue their customers for doing something the customers don't see as wrong and where the customers have vastly less legal resources to fight it? - Is the life of the artist plus 20 years really a fair term for copyright? - Should orphan works where the copyright owner is untraceable be automatically public domain? - Should the media industry be able to mandate that the technology industry build in support for their copy protection schemes and make it illegal to tamper with them? - Should the BBC be allowed to give away the content they've generated in competition with commercial interests in the same area and under what license? - And should all this be decided by some faceless bureaucrats in Brussels in a non-democratic fashion where dissenting voices are excluded? - And should US approaches to all this be accepted by default in Europe and the UK? Then consider signing this pledge. [from: JB Ecademy] [ 25-Jul-05 2:10pm ] 22 Jul 2005 The Clicker: Microsoft's OPM for the masses - Engadget - www.engadget.com
More here. The Clicker: HDCP's Shiny Red Button Oh. My. God. DRM control built into monitors and dumb TV screens to stop you watching content controlled HDTV goodness. And now we've got people talking about adding DRM to hard disks to stop you storing it as well. I can see (for miles and miles and) a (Microsoft) Vista up ahead and it ain't pretty. This modern life, eh? Just Say No To DRM. You know it makes sense. Techdirt Corporate Intelligence: Techdirt Wireless How Dare You Want To Use That Internet Connection! UK Police charge and get a conviction for using somebody's wifi without permission "dishonestly obtaining an electronic communications service and possessing equipment for fraudulent use of a communications service." 500 quids and 12 months' conditional discharge.
Oh good grief... I guess we're all criminals now. I mean I've ripped CDs that say no copying. I've downloaded music I couldn't find anywhere else. I've bought (shock horror) music from Russian music sites. I've used BitTorrent to get the full series 4 of Alias because I kept missing it on TV. And yes, I've sat in the Marriott Park Lane and used a Wifi connection from across the street rather than pay the ridiculous prices for the Hotel's hotspot. I've even been reduced to wandering around Smithfields with the laptop open trying to find an open AP so I could find out the mobile phone number of the person I was supposed to be meeting. My own AP at home is deliberately wide open with an SSID of "1trinityrd.public" which contravenes NTL's internet access T&Cs. And now the UK Police have nothing better to do but to hassle somebody with an open laptop on the streets. I guess I'll just have to hide in a cafe from now on. This modern life, eh? 20 Jul 2005 TRIZ 40 Principles
oblique strategies for mechanical engineering creativity and innovation [from: del.icio.us] 19 Jul 2005 There's a discussion going on here about issues with using Skype when yours is the sole computer behind a cheap firewall/router on broadband. It seems relatively common that you copy of Skype ends up being a supernode helping to switch traffic for people who are behind NAT. In some circumstances the sheer volume of TCP connections can then overwhelm the router. So even though the bandwidth needed is quite small, the effect is that internet access grinds to a halt with DNS and web timeouts. There's a further problem here that people with bandwidth capped broadband are likely to have exactly this sort of connection and may not have any router at all. In which case, first they are very likely to become a supernode, and secondly, even the small bandwidth taken is eating into their cap.
Skype really need to do something to rate limit this or even allow people to reject being a supernode. The problem is that if they do that their whole switching mechanism and NAT busting approach fails if not enough people are supernodes. But in the past couple of days I've had two people say they've had to reject Skype for exactly this reason, so if they don't do something they will be shooting themselves in the foot. In my case, I've now had three instance of this happening in the last 2 days. Fixing it involves killing Skype for 3-4 minutes and then restarting it. One suggestion has been to go into tools | options | connections and uncheck "Use port 80 and 443 for incoming connections" as this is supposed to bar being a supernode. But it's had no effect for me. On another note, my son is going to Brunel Uni in Sept. I was scanning the computer network terms of use. In the middle is a statement that goes "P2P file sharing pograms (such as kazaa, grokster, bittorrent, Skype) are expressly forbidden". I'm not exactly surprised, and the issue is likely to be bandwidth as much as copyright issues. Still irritating though to see Skype lumped in with these. 
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