WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net and technology news
by Alan Lenton
No Winding Down next week - I'm at the ACCU Conference in Oxford all next week, organising a Functional Programming track and giving a talk on Saturday. Needless to say, I'll be back. In this case the following week, on Sunday 13th (unlucky for some) April.
In the meantime, the show must go on...
Shorts:
Airports... Baggage handling... Computer failure... Denver? No. Heathrow? Yep! You've got it. This week Heathrow's super-duper shiny new computerised Terminal 5 (T5) was launched with much fanfare.
And what a launch it was - 208 flights cancelled in the first three days! Let it not be said that we Brits are second rate when it comes to orchestrating the grand screw-up. I was going to say that the airport authority obviously learned nothing from the example of the Denver baggage disaster. On reflection, though, that's probably not true. I think they must have drawn all the wrong lessons to have made such a massive mess of things.
It took less than an hour for the T5 computerised baggage handling system to fail. With true British understatement British Airways, the terminal's user, announced that they were having 'teething problems'.
Why they didn't start up T5 with a small number of flights and ramp up slowly so they could deal with problems while they were relatively small, I really don't know. Instead they moved all the short-haul flights over in one block, with the totally predictable result of a melt-down.
I wonder what they are going to do with the 20,000+ pieces of luggage they've now accumulated!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/27/t5_opening_day/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7319994.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7320497.stm
Looking on the bright side, I suppose that we can be thankful that T5 only lost people's luggage, not their credit card info. Such was not the case with Hannaford Bros Co's supermarkets in the north-east of the USA which managed to let hackers upload programs onto nearly all of its 271 stores' servers. The result was the compromise of something in the region of 4.2 million credit and debit cards.
So far at least 1,800 cases of fraud have shown up, some as far away as Mexico, Italy, and Bulgaria.
On the other hand, I have to say I'm impressed by Hannaford's action in publicising the breach on the home page of their web site. The prominent notice has links to a statement from the CEO, a Q&A page, a consumer advisory warning about scammers trying to leverage the break in, and decent telephone and e-mail contact info.
One of the most interesting items in the Q&A was the following:
"Hannaford doesn't collect, know or keep any personally identifiable customer information from transactions."
This reticence undoubted protected the firm from a much worse breach of data, and the decision deserves to be noted by other retailers. The openness doesn't excuse the data breach, but it does set a fine example for other firms to follow when customer data is compromised. TJX take note.
http://www.physorg.com/news125925172.html
http://www.hannaford.com/
I've been wondering why I still haven't been able to get my hands on a US$400 ASUS Eee PC yet - it was supposed to be a Christmas present. I know now. It seems that ASUS are only able to satisfy 30% of the demand for their Linux based, lightweight PC. And, to make things even worse, one of the Korean laptop battery manufacturers suffered a factory fire earlier this month, which has caused serious shortages.
This doesn't just affect ASUS - Dell and HP are also scrambling round for alternative sources of batteries. The factory isn't likely to be back in operation for three months, so be prepared either to wait, or to pay more, for your laptop in the near future.
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/03/26/asus_admits_eee_supply_issues/
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/03/26/laptop_battery_shortage/
I see Apple are redefining the meaning of the English language word 'update'. It seems that it no longer means that it wants to overlay a new version of a program over an old version. It now also means 'I want to load something onto your computer that has nothing to do with what I'm supposed to be bringing up to date.' In this case Apple downloaded and installed its Safari web browser - a completely different application - on the Windows machines of people trying to update their iTunes application.
And that's not all. Safari comes with a license agreement that specifies you can only use it on Apple computers. So... If you allow it to be installed on your Windows computer you are doing something illegal!
It's tricks like this that are keeping Apple running neck and neck with Google in the race to take Microsoft's crown as the hate figure of the next decade.
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/03/26/apple_safari_eula_paradox/
Hmm... That gives me an option of talking about Microsoft or Google next. OK, first let's see what Microsoft are up to :)
Attackers have figured out a way to hack Microsoft's 'Jet' database engine. That in itself wouldn't be mega-news, were it not for the fact that they are using a flaw that Mcrosoft were warned about in 2005, and again in 2007 - and which they haven't yet patched!
In the light of that I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that a recent study has show that Microsoft as a brand name is sinking steadily. According to a recent survey the Microsoft brand has dropped from number one in the ranking of the most powerful US company brands in 1996, to number 12 in 2004, and now to number 59 last year. Anyone for Vista?
XP is on the way out - at least according to Microsoft. You won't be able to buy a new computer with XP on it after 30th June this year. You won't be able to buy XP at all after 31st January 2009, and Microsoft won't support it, even with security patches, after 14th April 2009. At least that's what they say. However, they've already extended the dates once. Who knows, they may be forced to do so again.
Meanwhile the 'Vista capable' lawsuit that I reported on a few issues back has revealed some interesting information in the 158 page bundle of e-mails recently made available to the public. It seems that, per Microsoft, nearly 30% of the crashes of Vista in the period after it was released were caused by NVIDIA drivers! In addition, 17.9% were caused by buggy Microsoft drivers, 9.3% by ATI, and 8.8% by Intel. Not a happy tale.
http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2421/microsoft-brand-in-decline-080328/index.html
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080325-vista-capable-lawsuit-paints-picture-of-
buggy-nvidia-drivers.html
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/03/26/jet_database_engine_security_flaws/
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&
articleId=9070119
And so to Google. (Who still won't let me do searches using their site - maybe it's because we block DoubleClick ads and cookies?)
Google is having problems with its newer services.
Take for instance its 'search-within-search' feature. The idea is that when Google does a search on web addresses and company names, Google bring up the URL for the site and then adds a new search box to let you search the site from inside Google rather than going to the site. What's the problem, you may ask, sounds really useful. You're correct, it is a neat trick for the searcher. The problem is that the ads you see from the secondary search are Google's ads not those of, say, the Washington Post or the New York Times. The sites affected by the scheme, currently in test, are not amused.
Then there are Google's free web tools. Only one problem there (especially if you are not a US company) - if you use the tools you are storing your data on Google's computers. Unfortunately the 2001 US Patriot Act gives the authorities the right to secretly look at any personal data held by US organisations. So use Google's facilities and you automatically allow the US government to trawl though it looking at anything it wants, including sensitive commercial information. No thanks.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080324.wrgoogle24
/BNStory/Technology/home
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/24/business/media/24ecom.html
And now, a little story from the failure to learn from history department. Blizzard, World of Warcraft (WoW) creators are suing Michael Donnelly the creator of the MMO Glider program which automates key tasks in the game.
I guess Blizzard must have learned their customer relations 'skills' at the feet of the RIAA, not surprising really when you realise that Blizzard's publisher is music and entertainment company Vivendi. Here's a little bit advice for you, Blizzard, from someone who has been in the business for more than 20 years. Redesign your game so that there is less boring and repetitive stuff, come up with something different and imaginative, and people won't want to pit their computers against yours to get through the tedious bits...
Alienating your customers by suing people your customers respect is no way to develop a business plan.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7314353.stm
We started this section with a story about the T5 mega-gaffe, and so we'll end it with a story that proves T5 wasn't just a one off.
We on this side of the pond are world class when it comes to screwing up.
As some of you may be aware, here in London we have a toll payable on autos when they travel into the central part of London. This (at least in theory) keeps the traffic moving in central London. It's called the Congestion Charge, and if your car, van, etc. enters the zone you can pay the charge in various ways, including on-line.
So, Graeme Ellis, of Swanley in Kent, duly paid his charge on-line and asked for evidence of payment to be sent for the 8 UK pound (US$15) payment. He certainly got more than he was expecting. In fact, he got 3,500 receipts delivered in the mail!
I can only quote Transport for London, who issued the receipts," This is clearly an unacceptable error." Difficult to disagree, dude.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/27/cc_charge_tsunami/
Geek Toys:
Fancy building your own supercomputer? Then take a look at this layperson explanation about the Indian EKA supercomputer. It's the fourth fastest in the world, was built without government money so it's available for commercial work, no strings attached. They built the actual computer itself in six months, but raising the cash - US$30 million - took a year, as did the building of the support facilities.
The computer uses 1,800 blades, each with 4 x 3Ghz cores. it has 28 TB of memory and 80 TB of storage, burns up 2.5 MW of electricity and has 400 tons of cooling equipment. Oh - and it uses Linux as the operating system :)
Take a look - the article makes fascinating reading, and it's for the ordinary reader. (Not that I wish to imply that any of my readers are merely ordinary, of course!)
http://punetech.com/building-eka-the-worlds-fastest-privately-funded-supercomputer/
Recent Reading:
Redcoats and Rebels: The War for America, 1770-1781 by Christopher Hibbert. Penguin
This is an interesting book. I know quite a lot about the American Civil War, but relatively little about the American revolution. This book rectified that deficit. It also made it clear that my preconceptions - outmoded Brit generals confounded by American sharpshooters - were somewhat inaccurate.
Yes, the British generals were not exactly top quality, but the real problem was the fact that Britain could not find enough troops to fight a war on a continental scale. Add to that the lack of coordination between the armies and you have a recipe for failure.
In real terms the British only lost two major battles - Saratoga and Yorktown - in eight years but that was enough to precipitate a crisis at home and bring conciliators to the fore in Britain. Perhaps the war is best summed up by the US commander Nathanael Greene, "We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again."
This is a useful book if you want to find out about the revolution and its social, economic and political setting, as well as the basic military information.
Scanner: Other Stories
Little old lady suing Sony, Samsung, Nokia and everyone else for infringing on her laser patents
http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/21/little-old-lady-to-take-down-sony-samsung-nokia-
and-everyone-e/
Protecting the Internet without wrecking it
http://bostonreview.net/BR33.2/zittrain.php
Computers may thwart 2010 Census
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/03/26/census.problems.ap/index.html
File sharers get help spotting ISP moves
http://www.physorg.com/news125771443.html
Comcast and BitTorrent join on network management plan
http://update.techweb.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/eBH2p0HiOOq0G4V0FvyC0Ei
What spooks Microsoft's Chief Security Advisor
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/032608-microsoft-security-concerns.html
Must a CD cost $15.99?
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6558540/walmart_wants_10_cds
Acknowledgements
Thanks to readers Barb, Fi, and Slashdot's daily newsletter for drawing my attention to material used in this issue There was also some material from a reader, which I saved somewhere safe, so I wouldn't lose it, and now I can't find it...
Please send suggestions for stories to alan@ibgames.com and include the words Winding Down in the subject line, unless you want your deathless prose gobbled up by my voracious Spamato spam filter...
Alan Lenton
alan@ibgames.com
30 March 2008
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
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