WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net and technology news
by Alan Lenton
Well, first let me warn you that Winding Down will be off the air for a couple of weeks. Partly this is because the person who handles its distribution is off for two weeks. However, it comes at an opportune moment, since I've just started a new job and it will take me a while to sort out how I schedule the work needed to produce Winding Down.
One thing I won't be doing is taking a holiday with the geographically challenged American Airlines. We get a personalized newsletter that's supposed to tell us about their super-saver deals from London. This week's offering tells us that there are no super-savers from London, but perhaps we might like to consider a flight from Dallas/Fort Worth to Calgary. Or how about Boston to Toronto? No? Miami to Panama City? Thanks a lot guys.
Of course it may be that I don't have time to fly American, because I get stuck in too many meetings. in which case IBM have just the thing for me. They've just filed a patent aiming to tackle the 'arbitrary hour-based scheduling paradigm'. I have an even better solution - stop going to meetings.
Instead, I can spend some time in the UK's Asda supermarket chain where they are so concerned about the dangers inherent in teaspoons, that they require the production of photo ID before they will allow you to purchase one! We have at least six teaspoons in our kitchen drawer - including two long handled ones used for supping with the devil to obtain exclusive Winding Down stories. I wonder if having all these spoon makes me a potential teaspoon terrorist or even a possible serial spoon murderer?
Anyway, the first thing to be stirred this week is a brew containing Intel and the EU...
Shorts:
The top story of the week has to be the EU zapping Intel with a 1.06 billion Euros (US$1.45 billion) fine for anti-competitive activities. The fine rests on two activities by Intel (as in the USA, it is not a crime to have a monopoly in the EU, only to misuse that monopoly).
The first activity deemed to be illegal was to give wholly or partially hidden rebates to computer manufacturers who bought their x86 CPUs from Intel. This included making direct payments to a major retailer to stock only Intel x86 computers.
The second problem activity was making direct payments to computer manufacturers to delay or halt the launch of products containing competitors' x86 CPUs. This also included limiting the sales channels available to those products once they were launched.
The size of this fine tops that given to Microsoft a few years ago, and is another sign that the EU is taking these issues seriously. Intel, in the mean time, is contending that the EU case rests on dodgy evidence, and ignores documents that contradict Intel's case. But then, they would, wouldn't they?
Intel has several months to file an appeal, but while all this is going on, it has to put the money - over 4% of its turnover - into an escrow account. Microsoft started to go down the appeals route, but after a few adverse rulings it settled for just paying the file. It will be interesting to see just what Intel intend to do. I would have thought, based on the published reports, that the case against them was much clearer than in the case of Microsoft.
http://www.physorg.com/news161435562.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10239487-92.html?tag=nl.e703
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/05/13/intel_disputes_eu/
And talking of Microsoft and the EU. Next month has been set for a hearing for Microsoft to make an oral response to EU charges that it has been indulging in anti-competitive practices by tying its Internet Explorer web browser to the Windows operating system.
Like me, you may have thought that this issue was what was decided last time round when it got fined a large pile of spondoolies. Apparently not, or maybe this is a different version of the browser. Or maybe the EU regulations people feel in need of a long holiday in the sun. Who knows.
Anyway, one of the more interesting aspects of this latest contretemps is that Microsoft are trying to point the finger at Google. As in why are you picking on us, Google are the real villains and every time you slap us down they are the ones that benefit.
Personally, I don't recall a defence of 'he did it too miss' ever cutting much ice with teachers, parents, law courts, or government regulators. It does raise the interesting question though, of how long it will be before the EU takes a closer look at whether Google is using its near monopoly on Internet searching to expand into other fields, something which isn't allowed under the anti-trust regulations.
In Washington the word on the street is that the US Department of Justice's anti-trust division is planning to take a somewhat closer look at Google's activities, especially interlocking board memberships of Google and Apple. Maybe it's only a matter of time before the EU's regulators also start to take a closer look.
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE54347X20090504
http://www.physorg.com/news161442321.html
And talking of Google, the company has been in the news even more than usual this week, following a bad set of outages at the end of the week. The problems caused by a botched network update affected some 14% of its users according the Google. Services unavailable included Gmail, searching, and Google Docs. So much for the advantages of cloud computing.
Meanwhile, on Monday, the Greek data protection authorities banned Google from taking any more 'Street View' images in Greece. It's asking Google for the answers to some hard questions before it reconsiders the ban. Questions like how long it intends to keep the images, what steps it is taking to warn residents of their rights, and so on. I'm sure we would all like some answers to these questions. To be blunt, I have yet to hear of a legitimate use for the data generated by this project.
Another problem, from Google's point of view, is a report from a Harvard professor suggesting that Google is using its Chrome browser in a way that defrauds advertisers. It seems that the Chrome browser appears to be designed to encourage users to search - for which Google may be paid - rather than navigate directly. It does this by using the so-called 'Omnibox' URL completion feature to route users via Google's search engine, rather than direct to the web site they wanted. I'm not sure I would go as far as to call this fraud. Dubious behaviour, maybe. Fraud? No, I don't think so.
Much more serious, though is Google's cavalier attitude to other people's trademarks. This has cropped up before, but Google has always been able to settle claims quietly. The issue is very simple, and very nasty. Google will sell your competitors the ability to use your company name - even if it's trademarked - as a trigger for competitors' advertisements on Google search services. This means that every time someone searches for your company on Google, they will see a paid advert for your competitor.
No doubt, early on in Google's life, someone thought this up as a terrific wheeze that would tweak the noses of big business. It would probably have been consigned to the dustbin of history by now, given that Google has joined the ranks of the creaking behemoths, had it not proved to be a lucrative little ploy. Now, however, a class action suit has been filed against Google in Texas on behalf of all trademark owners in the state. Perhaps, it's not going to turn out to be such a nice little earner after all...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/technology/internet/15google.html?_r=2
http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/google/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=
217400812&cid=nl_tw_weekly
http://www.physorg.com/news161276391.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10241126-93.html?tag=nl.e498
http://www.physorg.com/news161526619.html
So you thought you were safe from viruses, worms, trojans, and the like because you were using a Mac? Think again, sunshine. The latest update from the Cupertino kids - Mac OS 10.5.7 - contains no less than 68 security fixes. I strongly suspect that that's a record that even Microsoft is going to have difficulty beating! Not that they won't try, of course...
http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/mac/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=
217400595&cid=nl_tw_security
A report from Australia indicates that burger chain McDonalds may have to rethink their latest sally into the world of hi-tech. A while ago they followed the likes of Starbucks and added free WiFi into their restaurants, in an effort to attract more customers. it didn't quite pan out as they expected.
McDonalds is a fast food outlet. The average customer normally spends around 10 minutes in the restaurant before continuing on their way. The serving and seating capability of a restaurant closely matches that timing. Ten minutes... Most Windows machines take longer than that to boot up! And now I come to think of it, how many burger chomping customers do you see toting laptops?
It seems that the average session time for the WiFi is 35 minutes. Do I detect a whiff of freeloading here? Yep! It seems that freeloading business types are using the system as an office, and taking up the seats, so that the real customers, who came to eat, can't get a seat to chomp their Big Macs.
I guess a re-think is going to be needed here!
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/103029,cebit09-mcdonalds-free-wifi-users-soak-
up-seating.aspx
I suppose you've at least got to give them credit for trying. Dell have a new site called 'Della' which seemed to be set up to sell pink laptops to women. Originally the site featured tantalising pieces on calorie counting, finding recipes, watching cooking videos, and vintage shopping.
Not unnaturally, this provoked quite a backlash, and the site has now been heavily amended. It still features colored netbooks, but most of the more crass material has been removed. Nice try, Dell, but no cigar.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/what-do-women-want-in-a-laptop/
http://content.dell.com/us/en/home/della-products.aspx
"I'm a guy who doesn't see anything good having come from the Internet." This quote comes from no less a head honcho than Michael Lynton, CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment. With division heads like these, it's no wonder that Sony has lost US$1 billion over the last year.
http://current.com/items/90049647_sony-pictures-ceo-im-a-guy-who-doesnt-see-anything-good-having-come-from-the-internet-period.htm
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10240672-93.html?tag=nl.e703
Homework:
There is an interesting discussion on dvice.com about the really grotty quality of cellphone calls. The complaints run from dropped calls (when was the last time a landline dropped a call on you?), delays, half-duplex operation (you can't talk and listen at the same time), and appalling audio quality.
As the author points out, all these problems were sorted out in land lines over 50 years ago! The truth is that manufacturers are stuffing more and more features into their handsets, while the basic functionality - talking to other people - is abysmal. The question is, why do we put up with it? Answers on a txt msg...
http://dvice.com/archives/2009/05/shift-cell-phon.php
Scanner: Other Stories
Asda clamps down on killer teaspoons
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/11/asda_teaspoons/
Amazon lets bloggers sell blog subscriptions on Kindle - for 70% of the proceeds
http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/handheld/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=
217500004&cid=nl_tw_weekly
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/11/kindle_newspaper_gouge/
Electronics giants raise ruckus over Project Canvas
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/08/project_canvas/
IBM files patent for shorter meetings
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/11/scheduling_paradigm/
Acknowledgements
Thanks to readers Barb, Fi and Lois, and to 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
17 May 2009
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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