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FBI Computer System So Screwed Up, You Need To Hack It To Get Stuff Done

From: Rupert Neethling
Sent: 20 August 2006 11:52 AM
To: Gavin Dudley; Peter Robson
Subject: FBI Computer System So Screwed Up, You Need To Hack It To Get Stuff
Done

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20060706/114254.shtml

FBI Computer System So Screwed Up, You Need To Hack It To Get Stuff Done

from the not-very-comforting dept

The incredible saga of the FBI's overbudget $500 million computer system
<http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20060315/0232250.shtml> that needed to be
scrapped after it turned out it was useless in fighting terrorism
<http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20040512/098203_F.shtml> apparently had
some other problems as well. The news has come out today that a contractor
hired to work on the computer system was so frustrated by the bureaucracy he
needed to go through to do something as simple as adding a printer to the
network, that he used some free internet tools to breach the network
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/05/AR200607050
1489_pf.html> and get access to the usernames and passwords of 38,000 FBI
employees, including director Robert Mueller. The contractor pleaded guilty
to various charges, though even the FBI admits that he only appears to have
done what he did to actually get work done. It's not clear which part is
more disturbing: that the FBI's computer system was so easily hacked, or
that the best way to get work done at the FBI is to breach its computer
security.

Techweb: What's The Greatest Software Ever Written? - Technology News by TechWeb

Witness the definitive, irrefutable, immutable ranking of the most brilliant software programs ever hacked.

By Charles Babcock, InformationWeek
Aug 14, 2006 12:01 AM"

...and he doesn't make it easy to find, but the result is a great, engaging story full of geeky intrigue and pop culture anecdotes. Lovely journalism leading to an impressive list of software. Windows doesn't make the list, but he spends a long time explaining his rationale.

Best of the best downloadable apps

PC Magazine Feature: Incredibly Useful Utilities: "Incredibly Useful Utilities
03.15.06 By Neil J. Rubenking

Sure, we test hundreds of new software programs each year to help you choose the best ones. But when we see ones that will make our lives better, they get permanent homes on our own PCs."

Where I live

Notice that I live exactly between two oceans, the South Atlantic (on the LHS) and the Indian (on the RHS). I also have a friend who believes that a meltdown of the Polar Cap is imminent... if a Tsunami doesn't come first... from either direction. I live in a Valley between the two oceans, and I can see both of them simultaneously as I drive up to my house. I like to think of it as Hippy Living On The Edge.

SMS is a false economy

Will someone please correct my logic here, if required.

SMS is the biggest scam in Africa. They are taking advantage of ill-informed
consumers, especially the poorest of the poor.

Networks are very busy convincing cell pone users to send SMS because:

1. It costs the network less than 5c to carry the message over the network,
but that same SMS cost the consumer between 40c and 75c, so SMS is far more
profitable for the network than carrying voice calls (which requires high
quality data signal traveling constantly in both directions to facilitate a
conversation).

2. Almost every SMS sent elicits a response, which results in a further
hundreds of percent profit for the networks each time.

3. If you need clarity on the cryptic SMS response you received to your
original message, it may cause you send yet another message, earning the
network another several hundred percent profit for your trouble.

4. Whereas if you make a phone call for between R1 and R3, in a minute you
can communicate more information back and forth more effectively and
accurately, in a single time-saving event.

5. If your network offers you free SMSes, don't bother to feel grateful. It
costs them just a few cents, but goes a long way to retaining you as a
customer, which is by far the most important business imperative.

6. As number portability comes ever closer, allowing people to keep their
cell number while switching freely between networks without incurring
significant penalties for doing so, expect to see the networks scrambling to
retain their customers. AND DON'T BE GRATEFUL IF YOUR NETWORK IS OFFERING
YOU SMS AT 23c. After all, they are only ripping you off to the tune of 400%
profit on that.

Well, that's my two cents worth, anyway. This email message cost less than
1c to send. ;->

Gavin

More people citing the idiot iPod

BBC NEWS | Searching for a mobile interface: "
By Spencer Kelly, Friday, 4 August 2006

Nearly a quarter of phones returned for being faulty are working properly, a recent survey suggested. The problem is people just cannot figure out how to use them.

'There's a common idea in psychology that users can only cope with a certain number of choices at once,' explains Geoff Kendall of Next Device, 'And that number is roughly seven, plus or minus two.

'So anything more than between nine or five choices then users will get confused and actually only look at the top few items anyway.'"

* geeks * Why you are poor... well, sort of

Some excellent excerpts from Michael McDonough’s Top Ten Things They Never Taught Me in Design School...

8. The road to hell is paved with good intentions; or, no good deed goes unpunished.
The world is not set up to facilitate the best any more than it is set up to facilitate the worst. It doesn’t depend on brilliance or innovation because if it did, the system would be unpredictable. It requires averages and predictables. So, good deeds and brilliant ideas go against the grain of the social contract almost by definition. They will be challenged and will require enormous effort to succeed. Most fail. Expect to work hard, expect to fail a few times, and expect to be rejected. Our work is like martial arts or military strategy: Never underestimate your opponent. If you believe in excellence, your opponent will pretty much be everything.

10. The rest of the world counts.
If you hope to accomplish anything, you will inevitably need all of the people you hated in high school. I once attended a very prestigious design school where the idea was “If you are here, you are so important, the rest of the world doesn’t count.” Not a single person from that school that I know of has ever been really successful outside of school. In fact, most are the kind of mid-level management drones and hacks they so despised as students. A suit does not make you a genius. No matter how good your design is, somebody has to construct or manufacture it. Somebody has to insure it. Somebody has to buy it. Respect those people. You need them. Big time.

Name calling

The Story Behind These Company Names: Posted by Matt
May 31st, 2006

[EXCERPTS]
Apache - It got its name because its founders got started by applying patches to code written for NCSA’s httpd daemon. The result was ‘A PAtCHy’ server -– thus, the name Apache.
<clip>
Google - The name started as a jokey boast about the amount of information the search-engine would be able to search. It was originally named ‘Googol’, a word for the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros. After founders – Stanford grad students Sergey Brin and Larry Page resented their project to an angel investor, they received a cheque made out to ‘Google’
<clip>
Lotus (Notes) - Mitch Kapor got the name for his company from ‘The Lotus Position’ or ‘Padmasana’. Kapor used to be a teacher of Transcendental Meditation of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
<clip>
Red Hat - Company founder Marc Ewing was given the Cornell lacrosse team cap (with red and white stripes) while at college by his grandfather. He lost it and had to search for it desperately. The manual of the beta version of Red Hat Linux had an appeal to readers to return his Red Hat if found by anyone!

* geeks * Yet another woman with balls

Woman forces US record industry to drop file-sharing case
Dangerous precedent set
By OUT-LAW.COM  Thursday 3rd August 2006

 [HEAVILY PARAPHRASED BY ME]

Tammie Marson of Palm Desert, California refused to pay the initial $3,500 demanded by a group of record labels and opted to fight the case in court. The record companies – Virgin, Sony BMG, Arista, Universal and Warner Brothers – agreed to dismiss the case and pay their own legal costs.

"The best they could ever prove was somebody had used Tammie Marson's internet account to download the music or make it available. That's the best they could ever do."

Marson argued that as a cheerleader teacher she had had hundreds of girls through her house, any one of whom could have used her computer. She also used a wireless internet network, meaning that people outside of her house could have used her internet connection. "She doesn't even know what a shared folder is," said Kouretchian.

If this becomes a popular defence it could seriously hamper a huge number of file-sharing lawsuits taken in the US against individuals.

Space is not a vacuum or zero gravity, duh

LiveScience.com: Reader Favorites

Apart from a slightly crowded feel this is a great example of a web site that delivers. Be sure to check out the Science Top Tens and Ten Species Success Stories and The Biggest Popular Myths.

I think great sites deliver of a combination light, qick wins upfront and simple ways to get into a few categories of information, pulling up quality content in 2 clicks.

WikiWeird

Wikipedia Showdown!-- A Grupthink Topic: This is an invitation for people to submit and vote for the weirdest Wikipedia entries out there. Existing entries look fascinating, but leae one feeling underwhelmed...

Me Transformer! Hah!

I4U News - A 10 Foot Tall Wearable Robot Suit: "A 10 Foot Tall Wearable Robot Suit

A 10 Foot Tall Wearable Robot Suit. This is literally something right out of the pages of a video game (like Xenosaga). It's a robotic suit that stands over 10 feet tall, with a cockpit for a human to sit inside and control. We reported about the Land Walker about one year ago the first time. Now it is actually on sale and there is a video of the huge robot in action.

Called The Land Walker, it weighs close to 1 ton (2,000 pounds!) and is controlled by four pedals from inside the cockpit. Additionally, it has built-in air guns that can shoot bullets (not real bullets, though...'sponge bullets'). Talk about a totally pimped out Halloween costume!

And yes, the robot is actually available for sale, though right now only in Japan, for about $315,000."

Optimus Prime is for real

Optimus Prime (person)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Optimus Prime (born 1971) is a U.S. Army Ohio National Guard firefighter who
had his name legally changed to Optimus Prime in May of 2001, on his 30th
birthday. He claims to have done this because the fictional character of the
same name, from the Transformers, was like a father figure when he was
growing up. The name appears on his driver's license, military ID, and
uniform. Mr. Prime's military unit, the 5694th Tactical Crash Rescue Unit,
is currently deployed on Operation Enduring Freedom. Prime was recalled from
Baghdad in Iraq in June 2003 following a pair of family emergencies. His
former name has not been publicly disclosed.

Prime has a girlfriend, Vanessa, and four children: Nick, Jessie, Mike, and
Shyann.

* geeks * No wait.. here's an even better one - Headline of the week

* geeks * No wait.. here's an even better one - Headline of the week,
originally uploaded by bl0d0t.

* geeks * Headline of the week

This from the Onion was much funnier with the accompanying pic:

Scientific ranking of harmful drugs

The Guardian: Check alchohol and tobacco vs more interesting alternatives...

Source: Probson

More Vista woes

At this stage I no longer care for more Vista negativity. I think it's going to be pretty good when it comes... but this strikes me as an ill-advised idea...

When good demos go (very, very) bad - Reuters Newsblogs:
July 28th, 2006, filed by Eric Auchard

At Microsoft’s annual Financial Analyst Meeting on Thursday, Vista product manager Shanen Boettcher set out to show just how easy to use the speech recognition technology built into upcoming Windows Vista software will be. Like, for example, dictating aloud a simple, heartfelt letter to mom, and having one’s voice automatically transcribed into a computer.

The result was a disaster.

Several tries at making the computer understand the simple salutation “Dear Mom” was read by Microsoft software as “Dear Aunt, let’s set so double the killer delete select all.” Attempts to correct or undo or delete the error only deepened the mess.

(Later, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer blamed the failed speech recognition product demonstration on “a little bit of echo” in the room...)

Kazaa, Skype, and now "The Venice Project"

Business Week: Kazaa, Skype, and now "The Venice Project":

Serial entrepreneurs Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis are at it again, this time with a venture for distributing TV and other video over the Net

Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the entrepreneurs who created the pioneering Web applications Kazaa and Skype, are working on a new communications venture, BusinessWeek.com has learned. The pair plans to develop software for distributing TV shows and other forms of video over the Web, according to people familiar with the matter."

Way misguided

Walmart gets it way wrong when it attempts to launch it's own version of MySpace, called The Hub, which targets teens. Walmart then foolishly pays some copywriters to trawl The Hub and hype it up a bit. I believe "lametard" is the correct to describe this effort.

Advertising Age: "Here's a sample. Hub post from 'Holly' -- who happens not to be a random Hubster, but a child actress with grown-up ghostwriters. Bad grown-up ghostwriters. (Warning: If you are squeamish seeing others embarrass themselves, this would be a good time to turn the page.)

Shopping will be my number ONE hobby this fall. I am going to be the most fashionable teen at school! I'll be on the lookout for the latest fashions. From leggings to layers, to boots and flats, big belts and headbands! I'll be looking for it all! Layering is SO IN right now. Hobo bags are also in style. OH! And big sunglasses! WHOO!! I don't know where to stop! With all of the new clothes I'll be getting, the kids at school will be begging me for fashion tips!

Yeah. Sure they will. "

Boys 2 Men: Playing with dolls

Whew, I was totally obsessed with collecting Action Man toys as a child. I have remembered some of my "adventures" with massive, delightful nostalgia. Despite watching Action Man's sad decline into soft soap political correctness and neon jump suits, I was still shocked when our local toy emporium declared that they no longer stock this range due to lack of consumer interest. Jeepers.

It prompted me to trawl the web and this is what I found... from the Unofficial Action Man site, which specialises in the classic action figures:

"Today's Collectible Figures

I have included this picture to show the difference in 1/6 scale action figures of today. On the floor is a 1994 Action Man complete with almost bald flock hair head despite being looked after (1970s Action Men never had this problem). Standing above him is Captain Miller of the US Army 2nd Ranger Battalion from Normandy 1944. Captain Miller is wondering what army this Action Man is from and whether he is going to a fancy dress party. The look on Action Man's face suggests he doesn't know either... "

What you won't find on this site: Flower-arranger Action Man, created by the Hasbro toy company. Check the overcompensation with the gun size.

What you will will find here: Archives of every every costume, figure, accessory, catalogue and more, from several decades spanning the "authentic, classic period", as created by the Palitoy company.

Oldsexy

As I suspected, Sex Appeal went out with Tom Jones. Check the first video, then check out the second one. Who the hell are these people? Have they escaped from the set of a bad porn movie?

Sex Bomb 1

Sex Bomb 2

I believe that there is a Mac hater inside every intelligent person. Anyone who insists on making choices based on appearances is, frankly, dubious (read, semi-homophone for stoopid).

Oldnet

Internet '96: "In 1996, the Internet Archive began archiving the web for a service called the Wayback Machine. They've now archived 55 billion web pages. That's enough web pages that if you were to print them all out using your roommate's printer while he was at class and tape them end-to-end, you could reach the moon and back 28 trillion times.

I decided to peruse the Wayback Machine's earliest archives to see what the internet looked like in 1996...

My Sunday in pictures

Never thought I would be one of those people who posts arb photos online, but hey. Actually, this is something of a geeky experimet at the mo, seeing as how I have only recentlygot my Nokia SU1B Bluetooth digital pen working with my handset, to upload my handwritten notes and camera snaps directly to this page. For example, the middle picture is a crash message from an engineering sample of Nokia's forthcoming Blackberry killer, the E61. Reads "Please report the Mulder files and delete them". Very cool for X-Files types. Geeky, neh? Ultimately all these will come down... I don't believe in posting overly personal stuff in public spaces.

My Saturday in pictures

Building Bionicles with my boys, my fave weather as seen from my in-laws house, collecting crystals in the back garden of Patrick's house (damn him!), a lesson in skater pop culture about comfortable shoes.

The myth of the digital home

Take it from a media maven: if you're going to read just one magazine, make it the Economist...

The digital home | Science fiction? | Economist.com:
The digital home: Science fiction?
Sep 1st 2005 | SAN FRANCISCO


Their first challenge in stimulating any sort of consumer interest is the difficulty of merely explaining what the digital home is supposed to be.

That is not at all what they want to do today, however. Another study by Parks Associates found that 89% of people with a home-computer network felt that the relatively modest goal of sharing internet access is its most important function, with printer-sharing the second priority.

All this points to a huge problem with the digital-home vision: the lack, among most consumers, of any sense of crisis about the status quo in entertainment. “We don't think many folks are looking for an electronic nerve centre in their homes,” says Pip Coburn

After all, popping in a DVD, say, is so easy and works so well. By contrast, getting a digital home up and running promises several lost weekends of fiddling with manuals and settings, and hefty expenses in new gear. According to Mr Coburn's formula for evaluating new technologies, whereby adoption is a function of the users' sense of crisis (ie, motivation to change) outweighing their perceived pain of switching, the digital home ranks as a clear “loser”.

“If consumers even know there's a DRM, what it is, and how it works, we've already failed,” says Peter Lee, an executive at Disney. The same goes for codecs. “The user shouldn't know or care what format they're using,” says James Poder, an engineer at Comcast, America's largest cable company and broadband internet service provider, because “consumers don't want to be IT administrators for their own home.”

Was is dat? Nu MOTOS KRAZR und RIZR

Smile, you're on Happy Planet Index

Most everyone has heard of the Happy Planet Index, in which an attempt is
made to quantify what goes into a "happy life for all", including economic,
ecological and life expectancy factors, and a whole lot of other stuff.
Makes for jolly interesting stats, and here are some of them...

5 highest scoring (happiest):
Vanuatu
Colombia
Costa Rica
Dominica
Panama
Cuba

5 lowest scoring (most unhappy):
Ukraine
Dem. Rep. of the Congo
Burundi
Swaziland
Zimbabwe

5 things we can do about it:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
Increasing material wealth in (so-called) developed countries does not lead
to greater happiness, and that extreme poverty systematically undermines
people's opportunities to build good lives for themselves and their
families. We urgently need to redesign our global systems to more equitably
distribute the things people rely on for their day-to-day livelihoods, for
example: income, and access to land, food and other resources.

2. Improve healthcare.
High life expectancy in a country reflects good healthcare and living
conditions, and has a positive relationship to people's sense of well-being.
Globally we need to increase access to clean water, halt the rise in
diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria, and reduce child and maternal
mortality. The World Health Organization estimates that everyone in the
world could be provided with a good level of basic healthcare for just $43
per person, per year.

3. Relieve debt.
Many developing countries are forced to prioritise the service of crippling
financial debt over providing a basic standard of living. Debt
sustainability calculations should be based on the amount of revenue that a
government can be expected to raise without increasing poverty or
compromising future development.

4. Shift values.
Value systems that emphasise individualism and material consumption are
detrimental to well-being, whereas those that promote social interaction and
a sense of relatedness are profoundly positive. Government should provide
more support for local community initiatives, sports teams, arts projects
and so on, whilst acting to discourage the development of materialist values
where possible (for example, by banning advertising directed at children).

5. Support meaningful lives.
Governments should recognise the contribution of individuals to economic,
social, cultural, and civic life and value unpaid activity. Employers should
be encouraged to enable their employees to work flexibly, allowing them to
develop full lives outside of the workplace and make time to undertake
voluntary work. They should also strive to provide challenges and
opportunities for personal development at work.

An electric car as fast as a Ferrari

Lunch over IP: The (very) fast Tesla electric car

So the red roadster in the picture is the much-awaited Tesla electric car, which was unveiled today: it that can go from zero to 100 km/hour in four or so seconds - as fast as the Ferrari Testarossa - and has an autonomy of 400 km - comparable to that of an average car running on gasoline.

Cordless got you feeling Blue?

For anybody who has had hassles getting Bluetooth stuff to connect, one of the official Bluetooth sites now offers a tool called the Assembler, which steps you through getting diferent manufacturers stuff to work together.

Topical because Toby and I (and I suspect others) routinely have 3 generations of Bluetooth accessories in play at any time, and getting cross compatibility between things is hell!

It's not foolproof, but might be helpful. Try it.

Compare cellphone cameras

Extraordinary resource where you can compare the photo quality of different cellphones. Personally I don't trust it 'cause it doesn't look scientific enough... different subjects shot at different positions etc. Mostly focused on US phones, although the most popular global models are there too.

Whatever you say, I think that cellphone photography is finally set to take off for real. I think the better quality 2MP cameras make for quite reasonable printouts, given the trade off against convenience of only carrying one device.

And to prove my point I am going to blog one picture per day, directly from my phone (or various phones, depending what I am using). Check it out next week, ya luddites.

Still, try this comparison engine out for yourself.

Ten tech-related YouTube clips you shouldn't miss | CNET News.com

Ten tech-related YouTube clips you shouldn't miss | CNET News.com:

Download all ten of them at YouTube, linked from CNet. Some are mediocre, but make sure you get 1. Jon Stewart on Net neutrality and 4. the Apple Flea MP3 player

Guardian Unlimited Technology | Technology | What is the 1% rule?

Guardian Unlimited Technology | Technology | What is the 1% rule?:

What is the 1% rule?

Charles Arthur
Thursday July 20, 2006
The Guardian

It's an emerging rule of thumb that suggests that if you get a group of 100 people online then one will create content, 10 will 'interact' with it (commenting or offering improvements) and the other 89 will just view it.

Frequent flyers fold-out desks

Apparently these tables fold out from the side of your carry-on wheelie case. Perfect for some frequent flyers who need to work in transit, including your's truly.

More from flightables.com

More cell phones than people

Lunch over IP: More cell phones than people:

In 30 countries around the world, from Aruba to Italy to Hong Kong, mobile phone penetration has past 100 percent. Translation: the number of cell phone subscriptions has exceeded the size of the population. That's according to end-of-Q1-2006 data just released by London-based researcher Informa Telecom&Media. Here is the list:

Turks & Caicos Islands: 161.8%
Aruba: 150.8
Luxembourg: 140.7
Lithuania: 139.9
Cayman Islands: 136.4
Netherlands Antilles: 134.0
Grenada: 133.3
Israel: 125.9
Italy: 122.4
Cyprus: 121.5
Macau: 121.3
Bahrain: 117.8
Greece: 114.7
Czech Republic: 114.0
UAE: 113.9
Jersey: 113.6
Sweden: 112.5
Hong Kong: 110.8
UK: 110.1
Estonia: 108.6
Spain: 108.0
Austria: 107.3
Ireland: 107.0
Norway: 106.1
Antigua & Barbuda: 104.6
Iceland: 103.3
Finland: 103.1
Portugal: 101.3
Kuwait: 101.1
Singapore: 101.0

Informa's analysts project that another 10 countries may join this list by the end of the year, including Russia, which added 50 million subscribers last year. Market penetration in the US is currently at 72 %.

* geeks * Linux timeline updated

Linux Journal is updating its neat Linux Timeline, which previously stopped at 2002. They are soliciting input from  anyone who has anything to to add. There are several dozen posts already, and the whole thing makes for geek-fascinating reading.

Linux Timeline
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9065?
By LJ Staff on Wed, 2006-05-31 01:00.
100 of the most significant events in Linux history.

It starts with...

August 1991: "Hello everybody out there using minix - I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones...."

Most Airplay: Top All Time 500 Songs

This guy has a collection of ridiculous trivia inluding this... most airplay of all time...

Sanjeev.NET : Top All Time 500 Songs :

No's 1 to 11
001. Stairway To Heaven by Led Zeppelin
002. One by U2
003. Sweet Child O Mine by Guns N Roses
004. Everybody Hurts by Rem
005. Angels by Robbie Williams
006. Imagine by John Lennon
007. Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen
008. Bitter Sweet Symphony by The Verve
009. Hotel California by Eagles
010. Trouble by Coldplay
011. Let It Be by Beatles
012. Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison
013. Under The Bridge by Red Hot Chilli Peppers
014. Space Oddity by David Bowie
015. Pride by U2
016. Every Breath You Take by Police
017. Heart Of Glass by Blondie
018. Don't You Want Me by Human League
019. Wonderwall by Oasis
020. Another Brick In The Wall by Pink Floyd

Check the rest of the list here.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished-Computerworld

Mildly amusing account of real life IT support incidents, called Shark Tank

Sharktank -Computerworld:

That Doesn't Help

Frantic vice president calls IT manager pilot fish - he's trying to save a presentation from the network to a USB thumb drive for a ready-to-start board meeting, and nothing's working. It doesn't take fish long to find out why. "The thumb drive is jammed into the network port," reports fish. "I unplug it, put it into the USB slot, then plug the network cable back in, and the presentation is downloaded in seconds and stored. When I ask why the VP put the USB drive into the Ethernet port, he responds that he wanted to download the file from the network, so he put the key into the network port to speed up the process."

The Reason Why

This very pleasant department clerk is known for having very strange PC problems. 'The fix always seemed to be rebuilding her PC from scratch,' says a help desk pilot fish. But one day the clerk casually mentions that she tries to speed up her PC by deleting all files that are more than two years old. 'Her reasoning was that something that old couldn't possibly be of any use,' sighs fish. 'What followed was my futile attempt to explain how operating systems work and why deleting old files was not a good idea. But at least we found out what was happening to her computer."

Check the Sharktank Archives, full of silliness.

Generalists rule, finally

Don't you hate being a pioneer? Sometimes it feel like Van Gogh or one of those who had sold exactly one painting at the time fo their death. What a jip.

blo hard


What's Hot, What's Not: IT Skills You'll Need in 2010:

The IT worker of 2010 won't be a technology guru but rather a 'versatilist.'
Stacy Collett

July 17, 2006 (Computerworld) -- The most sought-after corporate IT workers in 2010 may be those with no deep-seated technical skills at all. The nuts-and-bolts programming and easy-to-document support jobs will have all gone to third-party providers in the U.S. or abroad. Instead, IT departments will be populated with 'versatilists' -- those with a technology background who also know the business sector inside and out, can architect and carry out IT plans that will add business value, and can cultivate relationships both inside and outside the company.

Skype protocol cracked? | CNET News.com

Skype protocol cracked? | CNET News.com:

Chinese engineers claim that they've reverse engineered it. Could this spell licensing trouble for eBay?
By Marguerite Reardon
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: July 14, 2006, 12:39 PM PDT

Chinese engineers have allegedly cracked Skype's Internet telephony protocol, according to a Thursday blog posting.

If the blog posting is correct, software developers who currently don't have access to Skype's protocol could develop and sell Skype-compatible products and services without Skype's explicit OK. This could prove problematic for eBay, which has kept the protocol private since acquiring Skype last year.

TV standby buttons will be outlawed - Britain - Times Online

TV standby buttons will be outlawed - Britain - Times Online:

The Times July 12, 2006

TV standby buttons will be outlawed
By Lewis Smith and Mark Henderson

THE Government is to outlaw standby switches on televisions and video and DVD players to cut the amount of electricity wasted in the home.

IP is crap

As a purveyor of itellectual property I must now confess a newfound TOTAL
LACK OF RESPECT for intellectual property.

My arguments are still somewhat immature, and can't easily be explained
right here right now, but the lightbulb is starting to glow brighter.

For example, if I buy a CD why should I not be able to share its contents
with anyone I want. Who created the value being ascribed to this
intellectual property? If the music industry is boosting the sticker prices
of CDs claiming overheads for promotion and distribution etc., how has that
added to the value of the artistic product, or the intellectual property,
contained on the CD. After all, I am only buying the music, not the
marketing efforts of record company.

If I am not buying the intellectual property outright, but the right to
listen to it, then why can I not transfer that right to others using file
sharing technology, so that they too can listen to it, but not own it? No
value is being diminished by this, surely? The only loser is the record
company. Right?

I am sure there is an Intellectual Porperty 101 manual that I haven't read.
But I am choosing to work this out using logic instead. I trust that
everything contained in Intellectual Porperty 101 is logical too, right?

In the end, I remain deeply suspicious of things that keeps Africa outside
the space of flows. But, just sometimes, I find myself grateful that Africa
will be spared the IP apocalypse that will occur when we find out just
what all that intangible stuff is really, truly worth, in a truly free market
economy.

Like some weird Indian chief is alleged to have said: "You can't eat
money."

Likewise, the RIAA and others shouldn't be trying to unshare personal music
collections.

Business Buzzwords That Make You Gag

Business Buzzwords That Make You Gag

Readers wrote in with their nominees for this column's first-ever Most Annoying Lingo awards (the Mallies). Find out which phrases they would like purged from our professional conversations.

By Anne Fisher, FORTUNE senior writer

August 3, 2005: 5:05 PM EST

Dear friends, while musing (well, okay, griping) two weeks ago about little irritants like the expression "think outside the box" or "keep me in the loop," I asked you to tell me which expressions in common business use today make you grit your teeth -- and, man, did you tell me. I confess I was surprised at the sheer volume of your answers, many of which were hilarious. Thanks -- I had a great time reading them! And I'm sure you will too. You even might be surprised to find out how many of these frustrating phrases wind up in your own conversations. (I'm guilty of using one on occasion.) Now, without further ado, let's start going through the nominees. I've listed them in order of the number of votes that they received. So you'll have to read all the way to the end to find out this year's Mallie winners for Most Annoying Lingo. Hint: The first President Bush popularized one of them.

• Bottom line, when it refers "not to an entry on a financial statement but to a conclusion the speaker wants to force you to accept," writes KB.


• Shooting someone an e-mail or firing off an e-mail. "This makes me cringe," writes Mary.


• A challenge or an issue, when what the speaker really means is a problem.


• No-brainer. Suggests Mitch, "Maybe we could redefine this to mean a person who says it."


• "At the end of the day..." Several readers complained that attorneys nowadays seem to start every other sentence this way. Adds Brian T., "At the end of the day, what really bugs me is people saying 'at the end of the day.'" Is he a lawyer?


• "Isn't this cool?" Heard at "any Microsoft presentation of any new software," one reader notes. "Is it a rhetorical question, or do these people have a very limited vocabulary?"
  
• Hit the ground running. Oops. I used this one in a recent magazine column. Sorry!
  
• Touch base, as in "Let's touch base on this tomorrow." Says Bill G.: "I don't want to touch anyone's base. It sounds as if it would lead to a sexual harassment lawsuit."


• Going forward, as in, "Going forward, let's try not to use so many dumb clichés." Wonders Dave M: "What else would we do? Go back in time?" As if!


• Win-win. The cynics among us loathe this one with a passion. Writes Stacy, "It could as easily be 'lose-lose,' since neither party really wins." Okay, then!


• Core competencies. "If I hear the head of my division use this phrase one more time, I'm going to throw something at him," writes Jim. "Something heavy." Yikes. Division heads everywhere, you've been warned.


• Mission-critical. Some of you hate this expression because it is frequently used to imply that one person's contribution to a project is less important than someone else's. Others, meanwhile, just think it sounds pretentious when businesspeople talk as if they were flying the Space Shuttle.


• Thought leader. "Can you please kill this expression?" asks P.J. "It was bad enough to see PR people describe someone as a thought leader, but when I saw someone call himself a thought leader in his own bio, I wanted to throw up."


• Reference used as a verb, as in, "Please reference page 12 in your training guide." What's wrong with the (grammatically correct) phrase "refer to" -- or just "look at?"


• Ping, as in "I'll ping you on this when I hear back from legal." This bit of tech jargon "has jumped the fence into the non-tech world," writes Scott. Let's send it back.


• There is no "I" in "team." Some of you are so weary of hearing this, you've taken to snapping, "But there is an 'M', and look! An 'E'!" Tsk, tsk.


• Radar screen, as in, "I'd like to get on your radar screen for a meeting next week." Asks Oliver, "What are we, air traffic controllers?"


• Bleeding edge, as in, "This is bleeding-edge technology." Yuck. Can we put this one out of its misery?


• Keep me posted or I'll keep you posted. Notes one astute reader, "These are usually conversation-enders indicating that no further information will be exchanged."


• Circle back , as in, "I'm just circling back to you on this", which is often "a cutesy way of pestering you for a progress report that you're probably not ready to give," says Kate
  
• On the same page. Third runner-up: 78 readers wrote to say they would be happy never to hear anyone say this again. Ever.


• Cheerleader, as in calling oneself a cheerleader for a project or goal at work. Second runner-up, with 87 votes. "Can't we leave high school behind us?" asks D.B.


• Value proposition. Oy. "What is this exactly, and why does everything have to have one?" wonders Valerie. Tied for first runner-up with....


• One off. This is a comparatively new figure of speech frequently used to mean "privately," as in, "You and I will talk about this one off, after the meeting." It is also apparently why, according to many of you, nothing gets decided in meetings anymore.

Now for the winners, each nominated by more than 100 readers. May I have the envelopes, and a drum roll, please? The first 2005 Mallie award for Most Annoying Lingo goes to "new paradigm" (and its evil twin, "paradigm shift", also widely despised). Next, a big Mallie to the word "bandwidth," when it is used to refer to people. "Do we have to call hiring people adding bandwidth?" asks Lauren. Another reader, echoing the general consensus, called referring to human beings as bandwidth "appalling."

And last but not least -- are you ready? -- a tepid round of applause, please, for our final Mallie winner, and I'm sure you'll all agree this one is richly deserved: Any phrase -- uttered by any businessperson at all, at any time, for any reason -- that contains the word "vision."

Top 10 most expensive cars in the world - AutoMotoPortal.com

Top 10 most expensive cars in the world - AutoMotoPortal.com:



Bugatti Veyron $1,700,000

Ferrari Enzo $1,000,000

Pagani Zonda C12 F $741,000

Koenigsegg CCX $600,910

Porsche Carrera GT $484,000

Mercedes SLR McLaren $455,500

Maybach 62 $385,250

Rolls-Royce Phantom $320,000

Lamborghini Murcielago $279,900

Aston Martin Vanquish $255,000


Now check the cool slideshow...

Some thoughts on Apple's Bootcamp

1. How will I get a copy of Windows for my Mac? Full retail versions cost
nearly R3000.00, and the application of a dual boot PC would have to be very
specific to justify this expense. Not sure sure how a Windows XP purchase
could otherwise be bundled with the hardware purchase. How is Office
purchased? Are "system builder" verions bundled with the original Apple
hardware purchase as they are for non-Apple PCs?

2. My first impression booting Windows was: "Okay, now what?". Since almost
every other OS has been able to dual boot with Windows for many years, it
was a bit underwhelming that Apple could now do the same. The fact that this
is possible on a "closed" hardware platform is technically impressive... for
about 5 minutes.

3. While this is technically and politically interesting, I think practical
applications will be very limited. I think Apple people want Macs, and the
rest want Windows. The idea that you could buy your Mac and then use either
OS is something of a red herring. The idea that organisations might buy a
whole lot of Macs and run some Windows on them is completely impractical.
Being able to run either OS on a single home PC is, likewise, only a cool
theoretical possibility. Pracically most orgs and homes have gotten used to
choosing, and have oriented themselves around either/or. Nad then there is
the additional expense of licensing Windows, which culd cost half as much as
buying a second PC.

4. Only caveat: home gamers can accept the family preference for Mac,
knowing that they can still run all the same games as their mates. In
practice I found Windows-based gaming performance to be slightly below par
on the Mini, although the machine I was using was probably not very high
spec i.e. well above average by PC standards, but not by gamers standards.

I have not written about this yet, because it has not fitted in well with my
writing themes for the last few weeks. It will probably fit in somewhere in
due course. In the end, I am pleased that I had the opportunity to handle
bootcamp for myself in order to develop an informed opinion on the matter.

Finally, Apple + Mac OS is a killer combination. Why would you put a BMW
engine into an Mercedes body? The value ends up being less than the sum of
its parts.

Photos: A trip down HP's memory lane | CNET News.com

Photos: A trip down HP's memory lane | CNET News.com: "A trip down HP's memory lane
July 12, 2006 4:00 AM PDT


Both Hewlett and Packard maintained an open-door policy. This picture of Packard's door shows that the sun has bleached the linoleum except where it was hidden by the open door.

Credit: Michael Kanellos/CNET News.com

MS tunes Apple the odds

Microsoft's Argo sails into iPod waters | CNET News.com:

Is the Argo Microsoft's new iPod killer?

The Seattle Times reported this week that Argo, the name of the ship sailed by mythological hero Jason, is the code name for a new digital music player being developed by the company's Xbox division. Now blog Engadget has what it claims are pictures of the device.
argo

According to the reports, the Argo will be Wi-Fi-enabled. The newspaper reported that there are several other devices under development, including a media player, and an online media service."

keep feeling fascination

I am so amused by my own blogging that I now have to test out all the
additional features... Like this email to blog facility.

oooo what a giveaway.

feel the lurv.

Fourth estate

Hands up who thinks the media is a part of civil society. Yeah, right. My lecturer at business school brushed aside my protestations by asserting that, in his golden triangle of government, society and business, modern media could safely be considered to fall under business.

I think I need to canvas some web opinion on this. Links to follow.

Current peave

So what do you do if you want to read magazine material published in the mid eighties, or before the Internet achieved critical mass, in other words. Amazingly frustrating to find that most of the non-mainstream stuff, which as published without any electronic systems, may never be ported to the web, even as bitmaps or micro-fiche.

I have an old set of fairly esoteric loud speakers [Ditton 110's, a sideline of Celestion], but the only info I can get about them is in hard copy magazines, where some mercenary soul, who teasingly publishes the contents of the magazines online, will scan pages for me at $5/page.

Aish.

Intellectual property crimes

I know nuuuthing about Google Video, but apparently its a repository for video clips (Flkr-ish, I suppose). Some tech blogger pointed me to this insane video about software piracy made in the nineties, but managing to look remarkably eigthies.

I don't think I believe in intellectual property. Maybe cause I've got nothing worth stealing. I genuinely can't think of any intellectual property I wouldn't gladly give away for the betterment of humankind.

Arguably very little tech journalism can claim to have benefited humankind, even indirectly.

Another thing you might notice on this blog is the wild and irresponsible speculation... maybe a backlash from being a journalist.

Sooo, I'm not sure what I make of the debate for digital rights, Internet privacy and human rights. Personally, I don't regard anything digital as secure or private or a "right". Maybe because I know too much about it. So credit card numbers, banking transactions, anonymity, secrecy, secure tunnels and encryption are all regarded as transparent to the net and it's users.

Instead, I place a certain amount of faith in being "Internet obscure", or not interesting enough to attract any attention. Like this blog, I am hoping that no five minutes of fame comes looking for me.

First (past the) post

Still feeels very self conscious. This first post is partly motivated by an interesting brokkie I found on PressThink, about how bloggers are sometimes journalists. Especially poignant perhaps, as I plot my long overdue departure from that (ig)noble profession. Apathetic journalists should be shot and shouldn't be allowed to get sloppy (like me, for the last few years).

Although I take some consolation that my worst compares favourably with some journos best. All the more reason to quit while you're ahead.

Watch closely now as I quote without crediting... ah, freedom from the press.


Bloggers vs. Journalists is Over

Some excerpts:

They all sense it, what Tom Curley, the man who runs the Associated Press, called "a huge shift in the 'balance of power' in our world, from the content providers to the content consumers." If there is such a shift (and Curley didn't seem to be kidding) it means that professional journalism is no longer sovereign over territory it once easily controlled. Not sovereign doesn't mean you go away. It means your influence isn't singular anymore.

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Orville Schell, dean of the University of California at Berkeley's journalism school and a conference participant, told Business Week recently: "The Roman Empire that was mass media is breaking up, and we are entering an almost-feudal period where there will be many more centers of power and influence."

clip

If my terms make sense, and professional journalism has entered a period of declining sovereignty in news, politics and the provision of facts to public debate, this does not have to mean declining influence or reputation. It does not mean that prospects for the public service press are suddenly dim. It does, however, mean that the old political contract between news providers and news consumers will give way to something different, founded on what Curley correctly called a new "balance of power."

clip

This was the year when it finally became unmistakably clear that objectivity has outlived its usefulness as an ethical touchstone for journalism. The way it is currently construed, "objectivity" makes the media easily manipulable by an executive branch intent on and adept at controlling the message. It produces a rigid orthodoxy, excluding voices beyond the narrowly conventional.