WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net and technology news
by Alan Lenton
RIP Morgan Sparks, inventor of the first practical transistor in 1951. He wasn't involved in the discovery of the transistor as such, but he was the person who turned it from a laboratory curiosity into something that could be produced industrially.
You know, the more I write for Winding Down, the more I become convinced that there is little that is new in the world! I was reading about the history of the 100 year old Society of London Theatres, and I found a note that in 1923 the Society opposed supporting the then new British Broadcasting Company (BBC) because the broadcasting of plays, music, songs, or other entertainment is prejudicial to the interests of everyone connected to the theatre. What goes around, comes around.
And talking of entertainment and broadcasting, I note the regulator has fined the UK's ITV company 5.67 million UK pounds ($US11 million) plus 7.8 million UK pounds ($US15 million) viewer compensation for fixing premium rate phone-in competitions. Nice to see that at least one regulator has some teeth and is prepared to use them.
Anyway...
Shorts:
I think HSBC are trying to win the 'world's most careless bank of the year' award. Last month they managed to lose details of 370,000 customers when an unencrypted disk, sent through the post, went missing. Last week was slightly better when they managed to foil an attempt by one of their back office workers to defraud them of 70 million UK pounds (about $US140 million).
This week was back to business as usual - they managed to lose not just the transaction data of 159,000 Hong Kong based account holders but also the server on which the details were held! Much more to the point, they rang me up to say that my other half's credit card was one of a batch that had been 'compromised' (you've just gotta love the euphemisms).
While I was talking to them, they also let it drop that the artificial stupidity program that checks the transactions had decided that my annual Qt license payment to Trolltech in Oslo was fraudulent, and had refused payment. After a few well chosen words about this matter it was agreed that they would sort it out and send me a letter (which hasn't yet turned up) confirming it was their fault so I could send the letter on to Trolltech...
PS: Don't you think that Trolltech is a wonderful name for a Norwegian programming company?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/02/hsbc_fraud_foiled/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/08/hsbc_hk_data_loss_snafu/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/07/hsbc_disc_loss/
This was also the week Microsoft's bid for Yahoo died a death causing Yahoo's inflated stock price to crash. Pity. In my estimation they almost deserved one another. There's some interesting 'insider' information on the last days of the non-deal at the Physorg.com URL.
While this was going on, reports were coming in about problems with Microsoft's Service Pack 3 (SP3) upgrade for Windows XP. Actually, to be fair, I haven't seen as many problems as there usually are. However, I don't think I'll bother with it myself, since there isn't anything new in it that I am particularly interested in, and the information that there are features borrowed from Vista is enough to make anyone leery of allowing the 'upgrade' anywhere near their machine!
At the same time Microsoft lawyers were engaged in suing eight firms for selling illegal versions of its software. The firms were based in the US, Canada, Egypt, and the Netherlands. I'm assured that there is no truth in the rumour that firms were caught because the supposed Microsoft programs they sold didn't use up enough memory and processing power - and they worked first time...
http://www.physorg.com/news129375504.html
http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/operatingsystems/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=
207600950
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/05/06/microsoft_sues_resellers_piracy/
Those readers who work in the IT industry might find a case that came to light earlier this week to be of interest. The US government fined Pittsburgh based 'consulting' firm iGate Mastech Inc US$45,000 for adverts for programmers which specified that only H-1B visa holders need apply. The case is only the tip of an iceberg of abuse of these visas, holders of which are usually paid at least 20% less than citizens with the same skills.
The whole H-1B program is mired in controversy with the large hi-tech firms trying to expand it because they claim there aren't enough trained US citizens for their needs, while those affected claim that there are plenty of trained programmers and that H-1Bs are being used to fuel a cheap labour process. Certainly this case lends weight to the latter group, although to be honest I don't think the issue is anything like as clear cut as either side would have us believe.
http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/eBIsr0FypUC0FrK0F2Hy0Ek
Are you a backscatter victim? 'Backscatter' is a term used by sysadmins to describe receiving bounced e-mail because your address has been used by a spammer as the return address. All of our accounts at ibgames have been hit recently, in my case I was getting something like an extra 500 emails a day :(
When it happens the first reaction is to assume that your computer has been compromised, but that's not usually the case, it's just spammers faking your address.
There has been a rise in this sort of activity recently, and the backscatter now accounts for as much as three percent of the spam on the net. The problem is that much of the backscatter is 'legit' in the sense that the servers sending it are only doing their job. However, they are doing a job that was defined before spam came into existence, and they need to be updated so that they don't bounce messages back if they are to unknown accounts. Until this happens we can all expect to suffer problems with this sort of e-mail at regular intervals...
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1698505531;fp;16;fpid;1
I don't normally recommend videos (my motto: A word is worth a thousand pictures), but for a change I thought I'd tell you about a couple I came across the other day. Both of them come from ZDNet UK's 'Dialog Box' series.
The first is about a series of tests on Sonim's new rugged JCB branded phone, which culminated in the testers running the phone over with a heavy truck! Did it succeed? Watch the video to find out :)
The second video is how to make a fake finger out of moulding plastic, jelly, milk and tea. The fake was then used to fool a biometric security device! Neat - very neat.
http://newsletters.zdnetuk.cneteu.net/t/335584/921984/433465/0/
http://newsletters.zdnetuk.cneteu.net/t/335584/921984/431396/0/
The ancient Greeks considered that those who the gods wished to destroy, they (the gods) first made mad. Struggling PC box vendor Dell is starting to show some worrying symptoms. Recently, it shipped a bunch of its Vostro series laptops to Europe with the zxcvbnm,. and ? keys in the wrong place. How can anyone possibly get something like that wrong? I could understand (say) shipping US layout keyboards by mistake, but in this case it's a European layout, except that the bottom row of keys are all shifted one to the right. Bizarre is the only word I can think of to describe it.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/02/dell_keyboard_blunder_vostro/
From this side of the pond comes a tale of another police swoop at a computer fair. This time the loot was counterfeit software and tools to 'chip' games consoles. 'Chipping' is a way to physically alter the insides of games consoles so they do what you want.
I don't know about other people, but I've always thought it extremely weird that the owners of games consoles aren't allowed to do whatever they like with their own property. After all, they paid for it! Actually, if it comes to that, how can software be 'counterfeit' if it has exactly the same pattern of noughts and ones as the original software? Copied? Yes. Counterfeit? No. The devil, as they say, is in the details.
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/05/07/computer_fair_piracy_arrests/
And now for the good news! A judge in Florida has denied five out of six motions from the Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA) to dismiss counterclaims from a defendant. The counterclaims allowed to stand were:
Trespass to the defendant's personal property (her computer)
Violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
Violation of Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act
A declaratory judgement of non-infringement
Conspiracy to commit extortion
I really can't wait for these trials to be heard in this case!
http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2007/09/5-out-of-6-counterclaims-
against-riaa.html
Geek Toys:
This has got to be the ultimate Star Wars geek accessory - an R2-D2 DVD and Xbox 360 projector, together with its Millennium Falcon remote control. You have to see this to believe it, so here is a URL to the sales video!
http://www.nikkor2d2.com/
Scanner: Other Stories
Botnet attacks military systems
http://cwflyris.computerworld.com/t/3214936/121542020/112119/0/
IETF kicks off routing effort for sensor nets
http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/eBIxI0FypUC0FrK0F2kE0Er
Amazon sues New York over Amazon Tax
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/02/amazon_sues_new_york/
Seven dirty secrets of the security industry
http://cwflyris.computerworld.com/t/3214936/121542020/112117/0/
Inventor of first practical transistor dead at 91
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/08/morgan_sparks_obituary/
OLEDs, e-paper encroach on LCDs
http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/eBI1x0FypUC0FrK0F3AM0Eu
Sony OLED TV not what it's cracked up to be
http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/eBI1x0FypUC0FrK0F3AW0E5
Gone in 60 seconds - Spambot cracks Hotmail CAPTCHA
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080415-gone-in-60-seconds-spambot-cracks-
livehotmail-captcha.html
Acknowledgements
Thanks to readers Barb, Fi and Slashdot's daily newsletter for drawing my attention to material used in this issue.
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
11 May 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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