WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net and technology news
by Alan Lenton
What a week!
Some weeks there is more than I have space to cover, other weeks there's virtually nothing (pun intended). This week falls into the former category, so it's a bumper issue.
But before we get down to the nitty gritty, I need to declare seventy five year old Mona Shaw of Manassas the first winner of Winding Down's 'Striking Back for Consumers' award. Mona and her husband Don went to visit Comcast's local office after Comcast had screwed up the installation of their much hyped 'Triple Play' service. Mona and Don were given the run around by the office - you can read the details by pointing your browser at the first URL in the Scanner section - and left without any sort of resolution.
Undaunted, the next day Mona, armed with a hefty claw hammer, stormed into the office of Comcast and proceed to smash up the computer and telephone equipment of the Customer 'Service' rep who'd been instrumental in giving her the run around. Mona then uttered the immortal words, "Now, do I have your attention?"
By the time she had finished there were two police cruisers, an ambulance (Mona has a blood pressure problem) and a sergeant's car in the Comcast parking lot. This week she was fined a paltry US$345 in restitution, given a three months suspended sentence, and a year long order barring her from the Comcast office. Oh, and she was given her hammer back!
I'm sure my readers will concur with my decision to rename this award the 'Mona Shaw Golden Claw Hammer Award'. Runner up was New Zealander Peter Calveley whose somewhat less physical method of dealing with unsatisfactory service by Amazon is in the Shorts section this week.
And now, back to our scheduled service...
Shorts:
"I'll have a fair trade latte with a fad diet prune, banana, aubergine and broccoli sandwich, on ryvita, please."
"Certainly sir, that will be $21.43, and the keys to your laptop's WiFi." Yes there's a new(-ish) attack on the public WiFi points used by burgeoning coffee bars. But only if you use Windows - you boys at the back using Macs and Linux stop smirking.
The attack uses a known problem with the WiFi WEP encryption protocol together with problems about how the Windows wireless stack works to obtain the encryption keys for the session. Once it has the keys the attacker can do many things with your session, including using it to plant malware on your computer.
The attack is called 'Cafe Latte', and it's coming soon to a coffee bar near you!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/18/cafe_latte_wi-fi_attack/
I see that 'the UK's number 1 Web host', as Fasthosts likes to describe itself, is in a rather sorry state after a screwed up patch that eliminated customer e-mails. To make things worse, the backup system failed, meaning that half of the e-mails were lost for ever.
Having gone through a similar set of backup problems myself I confess to having more sympathy for them than I might otherwise have had. Also, from reports I've seen, they have been immediately refunding the subscriptions of users who report they were affected. It doesn't really make up for losing people's e-mails, but it shows a lot more sensitivity towards your customers than I would normally expect from these sort of companies.
And a little coda to this story...
A couple of weeks ago I received a note from the UK Post Office, deliverers of fine, mangled snail mail to wrong addresses. It was an apology for losing mail due to be delivered to my area. Apparently someone had stolen it from the postman delivering it. And, no, they didn't offer a refund of any sort in compensation, but their workers did go on strike last week.
I suspect that even in the days of runners with messages in cleft sticks, mail went astray. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
http://ct.techrepublic.com.com/clicks?t=
40575509-
18a32f6148453f76b7d88f6b914d69a0-bf&s=5&fs=0
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/17/fasthost_email_deletion/
Remember Amazon's notorious 1-click patent file ten years ago? Well following a campaign conducted by a New Zealander, funded by readers of his blog, the US Patent Office has invalidated four fifths of the patent. The crusader, Peter Calveley submitted a slew of information about prior art - some of it was even in earlier Amazon patents - which in many case the Patent Office agreed invalidated the 1-click patent.
And why did Mr Calveley embark on this crusade? It seems that Amazon were slow in delivering a book he ordered! I think there might be a lesson and a warning here for companies that allow their customers to become legitimately dissatisfied and don't deal with their concerns. Comcast are you listening?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/17/amazon_1-click_patent_ruling/
The UK's PC World computer retail chain is feeling the pinch. The problem is, it appears, caused by the slower than expected take up of Microsoft Vista. PC World seems to fallen for the Microsoft hype over Vista (currently heading to topple Windows ME as the biggest Microsoft turkey yet) and stocked up with rather a lot of Vista stuffed boxes. With users choosing to stick with XP in droves, sales have been less than impressive, driving the stores' profit margins down to a measly 2%.
It's another piece of bad news for Microsoft's Vista, but personally I'm not going to grieve if PC World goes to the wall. There's one near me. Their selection of machines is crummy (Packard Bell feature prominently) and their peripherals are all pretty dire. As for the technical knowledge of their staff, well let's just say that they make Comcast's customer support look like a shining paragon of sophistication...
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/10/18/dsg_vista_profits_down/
Hitachi have announced a major breakthrough in hard disk technology, which is expected to result in four Terabyte drives in desktop machines in three to four years time. They estimate the technology (called CPP-GMR) will start to go into products in about a year and a half, and will reach its full potential in 2011. I guess that's just about the time that the cabal of big media companies, Microsoft and the big ISPs are aiming to have cut off everyone's ability to download anything!
http://cwflyris.computerworld.com/t/2194259/406352/83073/2/
http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=033003DQGISL
Hmmm... You know, I can't remember the last time I was in a position to make snide remarks about our old friends EDS. I think they've been trying to maintain a low profile.
Well they've failed.
This week UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB announced that is it filing a £709 million UKP (US$1.4 billion) suite against EDS for deceit, negligent misrepresentation, and breach of contract. Strong stuff, especially when you consider that the original botched contract was only for £48 million UKP (US$100million).
Unfortunately for EDS, BSkyB are not the British government, and Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp owns a third share in BSkyB, so the chances of a cosy settlement are slim. As Elliot Carver might have said, "Delicious!"*
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/10/16/bskyb_sues_eds/
This is a URL only for grown ups who want to know what sort of 'people' use Facebook. I'm not telling you any more because otherwise various filters will block this edition from delivery!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/09/facebookers_throw_virtual_feces/
I see that database mega-company Oracle are issuing a major update, patching no less than 51 security holes in its products. This, if my memory servers me correctly, is the organisation whose CEO, the arrogant Larry Ellison, once claimed that Oracle products had no security holes! The word hubris comes to mind at this point. As the ancient Greeks believed, those who the Gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/13/oracle_readies_security_updates/
Having been forced to extend the life of Windows XP because no one who has a choice wants Windows Vista, Microsoft have come up with a new wheeze to force a move. Issue a new Windows XP Service Pack integrating some of the Vista crud into XP. Yes that's what they are doing. Service Pack 3 went to Beta testers this week. I have little doubt that the reason for the 'upgrade' is to destroy the current advantages of the DRM-free XP by reducing, over time, its performance to the abysmal level of Vista.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=
9041618&source=NLT_PM&nlid=8
http://ct.techrepublic.com.com/clicks?t=40149511-
18a32f6148453f76b7d88f6b914d69a0-bf&s=5&fs=0
Homework:
Want to know what caused the failure of the entire triple redundant computer control system on International Space Station last June? No it wasn't cosmic rays, aliens or current generated by the station moving through the Earth's magnetic field (elementary physics, my dear Watson). It was a badly positioned dehumidifier that caused condensation on the cables, resulting in corrosion. This, combined with a faulty design for the power surge protection, caused all three computer to be shut down.
There is a an short and succinct explanation and assessment in the online IEEE Spectrum magazine which is an interesting read.
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/print/5598
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/16/iss_computer_crash/
Ubiquity has an interview with author Steven Levy, author of two of my favourite books - 'Hackers' and 'Crypto'. It's not a very long interview, but it explains how someone with an English major background got into writing books about techies.
http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/interviews/v8i39_levy.html
Finally, in this section, I've just had my attention drawn to a major piece about evading censorship on the Internet, published by The Citizen Lab of the University of Toronto. I've not had time to fully read it yet, but it looks extremely interesting, so if you are concerned about Internet censorship, then it's well worth perusing this 30 pager.
http://deibert.citizenlab.org/Circ_guide.pdf
Geek Toys:
It's not exactly a geek toy, but I thought the real geeks among you might like to have your attention drawn to the fact that all the April 1st RFCs have been collected into a printed book. (Note: if you don't know what an RFC is, this item is not for you!) The RFCs are available online, of course, but this looks like a nice geek Xmas present :) Personally, my favourite is still IP over Avian carrier from a few years back. It's going onto my wish list. Here is the Amazon UK URL for the book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-April-Fools-Day-RFCs/dp/1573980420/
ref=sr_1_1/202-9428898-3438223?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192954392&sr=1-1
Now, here's an item for the discerning geek - a genuine second hand Florida voting machine - as used to obtain a number of highly disputed results. It seems that Florida is trying to flog off 25,000 touch screen voting machines, and it's not finding any takers. That's probably because they are trying to sell them to other electoral organisations who know a poisoned chalice when they see one. Florida election officials just have no imagination. Put them on eBay as individual sales and they will be snapped up by geeks wanting a disreputable piece of history.
[Source: Risks Digest 24.86]
If you want something a little less bulky than a voting machine, how about a Think Geek T-shirt that has a decal displaying the current strength of the nearest WiFi signal? The bars on the decal change dynamically with the strength of the signal. Oh - and don't forget to take the batteries out before you stuff it in the washing machine!
http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/generic/991e/
Recent Reading:
Night Haunts by Sukhdev Sandhu. Artangel/Verso
A curious set of vignettes featuring people who work at night in contemporary London. Very poetic, and some of the best malapropisms I've seen for a long time. At times it almost feels like it's almost trying too hard to live up to its illustrious forbearers such as Mayhew, but it's still worth giving this slim volume a read.
Recommended.
The Lost Gold of Rome by Daniel Costa. Sutton Publishing
A strange book. Ostensibly about the hunt for the treasure, plundered from Rome by the Visigoths, and buried with their king, Alaric. Actually, it's a book about the decline of Rome and the rise of the Catholic church. Interesting overall, but tedious in parts.
Scanner: Other stories
Comcast whack!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2007/10/17/AR2007101702359.html?hpid%3Dartslot&sub=AR
TV giants lock horns with Microsoft and Google over white space
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/13/big_four_tv_networks_attack_
google_microsoft_wireless_proposal/
Third-party iPhone apps coming in February
http://ct.news.com.com/clicks?t=40558975-18a32f6148453f76b7d88f6b914d69a0-bf&s=5&fs=0
MRSA - Now wash your keyboard
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=printArticleBasic&articleId=9043298
YouTube unveils video fingerprinting
http://ct.techrepublic.com.com/clicks?t=40536985-18a32f6148453f76b7d88f6b914d69a0-bf&s=5&fs=0
*The Media Mogul villain who attempted to start an Anglo-Chinese war in order to get an exclusive story in the James Bond movie, 'Tomorrow Never Dies'.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to readers
Barb, Fi, and Lois (who loses her bet that I wouldn't put the Facebook story in!)
for drawing my attention to material used in this issue. Please send suggestions for material to alan@ibgames.com.
Alan Lenton
alan@ibgames.com
21 October 2007
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
|
