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clarifications anyone?
by proclus on Wednesday December 18, @07:05PM EST

Sorry, I just couldn't let the story to out this way, because truth is important to me.

All machines that are currently supported will continue to be supported in their current configurations, so we are not pulling out the rug as it were. The situation could be better than this, but the ball is now in Apple's court. I will say that Apple has been moving in the right direction with respect to these issues over the past few years. If projects like ours can stay engaged with them, there may be a chance. It is not easy, and may be overly optimistic, but there it is. I'd like to give some time for Apple to respond.

The main source for the Apple/DMCA story is at the following link, although it has been covered extensively on the web as an 'Apple DMCA' googlesearch will reveal.

http://news.com.com/2100-1023-955805.html

Based on my experience with the Adobe boycott and other anti-DMCA activism, I consider Declan as a trusted source. Here are some good stories about the impact of the DMCA in general and on Apple users.

http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-656.html# lnk3
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06901

As for the APSL, this has been a long standing issue with the Distribution, which dates back to the founding.

http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=00/12/01/20282 54&mode=thread

Darwin is not free software, because the APSL is not consistent with the free software definition. For more information, check GNU Project.

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/apsl.html

You may know Yves@gnu-darwin.org, who is a OSXFaq.com editorial contributor. His most recent installment is highly germain.

http://www.osxfaq.com/Editorial/open/index4.ws

Until Darwin is freed, activists such as myself will be leading users away from it instead of toward it. This antagonism towards Apple in the free software community has been aggravated by the DMCA fiasco. For example, Slashdot coverage of Apple has soured considerably since that time. We added the caveat to our Darwin distribution CD's soon after that (see grey box).

http://www.gnu-darwin.org/order.shtml

Clearly it is in Apple's best interest to repudiate the DMCA, to remove the onerous anti-privacy clause from the APSL, and to meet the standards of GNU Project, so that users can have a truly free OS, and so that activists can support Darwin instead of undermining it.

The message for users is to educate yourself about software freedom. In this world of economic contraction, the DMCA, RIAA, and the patriot act, that might take some effort, but it will be worthwhile in the event that free software becomes more difficult to maintain. Here is the starting point.

http://www.gnu.org

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

Why pay someone like Microsoft millions when you can...

Pay the millions to MPEG LA?

is HERE

Linux tapped to be audiovisual aid

Already been done:

IBM clocks in with new Linux watch Developers Warm Up to Linux Watch IBM's Linux Wristwatch IBM Research - Linux Watch

I read this news earlier on C|Net. They had it embedded (sorry for the bad pun) in an article entitled "Mixed fortunes for embedded Linux".

Please note that this was deemed bad by some for embedded Linux because of the fact that Lineo had to be acquired and no longer was self-sufficient due to lack of profits from software sales.

Lineo's "Embeddix" software for portable devices powers those Zaurus handhelds that some of you are familiar with.

The good news mentioned in that article was that Toshiba just invested a hefty chunk of change into MontaVista software, another player in the embedded market.

I read this news earlier on C|Net. They had it embedded (sorry for the bad pun) in an article entitled "Mixed fortunes for embedded Linux".

Please note that this was deemed bad by some for embedded Linux because of the fact that Lineo had to be acquired and no longer was self-sufficient due to lack of profits from software sales.

Lineo's "Embeddix" software for portable devices powers those Zaurus handhelds that some of you are familiar with.

The good news mentioned in that article was that Toshiba just invested a hefty chunk of change into MontaVista software, another player in the embedded market.

Rather they seem to be using this as an opportunity to intimidate alternative outlets and spread their unique interpretation fo the truth. I always find it amusing that they continue to blame various forms of piracy for the decline of sales, even in light of continuing revelations to the contrary. Of course, the sad thing is that the report just regurgitate the alleged facts.

The RIAA is probably most concerned about lack of control. They went through a lot of trouble insuring that they had control over the record stores. They have lost some of that control though discounters, but managed to minimize the loss through marketing deals. This is just another symptom of their compulsive control behavior. It is impossible to control all these little outlets, and therefor their price fixing policies will not be as effective.

Clearly, the media is not going to fix this. The congress is not going to fix this. I encourage everyone to go out into their communities and find independent music. Buy tickets to local concerts at local venues. Buy the CDs. Do not copy the music. We will only create a new market if we are willing to support the new market.

They're buying some Microsoft systems for point of sale.

Home Depot used to be one of those Java poster children that they trotted out at JavaOne, but I never saw any of it show up in the stores. To this day their systems, except for the actual registers, are straight out of the 70's. I think they're terminals connected to an HP/UX box.

If you are called to serve, remember to refuse to take any oath to uphold the law.

I will take that oath to administer justice as appropriate.

Democratically enacted laws? What a load of horse shit! You mean laws passed by senators and congressman only looking out for the welfare of their donors/constituents (Eli Lilly and oil companies come to mind). And what about all the extraneous crap thrown into the latest piece of law coming out of D.C.? Do we really need a federally funded 'Hacker Research Center' at Texas A&M?

Why is it that duly elected officials that goto to D.C. always feel that they are above the law and have to play favorites? Why is it that a majority of them seem to have law degrees or political science majors? I very seriously doubt that our Founding Fathers envisioned having congressmen serve year after self-serving year. They meant it to be more like giving a few years of service to your neighbors and then returning to your regular day job.

When was the last time that Congress gave themselves a raise? Oh, that's right, they really don't have to because they voted themselves a law to give themselves annual payraises! When was the last time that a high-priced lawyer said "You know, I really don't need a salary of $150,000, I can get by on $50,000"? And don't even try to feed me a line of "I have to charge high rates to pay my employees." We're not talking about rates, we're talking about salary. But don't feel that because I'm picking on lawyers that I'm ragging on you personally. I'm ragging on the whole corrupt system.

You're probably one of those prosecuting lawyers in court who say "Ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law". Well, guess what? These people said exactly the opposite, and you probably support them in their position. Or do you? You for or against the DMCA? I bet you'd like to convict Jon Johansen, wouldn't you? After all, he broke the DMCA law, NO MATTER HOW FLAWED.

You're supposed to be an educated lawyer, capable of seeng and debating all sides of the issue and you still don't get it. When democratically elected congresspeople screw with their constituents by passing bad laws, and it is impossible to get that law repealed because of backroom deals, jury nullification is the only way to make other people take notice. If jury nullification is performed and the prosecutor and judge were looking for a conviction, this negates their bias by letting your peers judge you, not the prosecutor or judge. Jury nullification allows for changing the rules as society sees fit, not as the prosecutor or judge or the backroom deals dictate!

And where did I call you a butthead? gee, sounds like you really aren't a lawyer to me (or maybe just a very poor one) if you made that simple mistake of mis-quoting me.

Remember that when you are called for jury duty to tell them that you will apply the evidence and the law strictly as it is laid out because you "cannot think for yourself and the people who passed the [stupid] law must be right 'cause that's why they done been 'lected, so they must be smarter than me."

Your thesis that H1-B visa holders aren't paid less in general is simply not correct. Cost savings are the primary reason employers are interested in these workers. Switching jobs is also very difficult in the current economy.

I did want to say that I'm happy for you that you're in America now and have better opportunities than in your homeland. Congratulations! :-)

Finally, on the "contradiction" issue - there is no contradiction. My main point was that there is little incentive for college students to choose IT or engineering fields when they see the government bringing in hundreds of thousands of foreigners to compete for their future jobs. It is also unfair to older technology workers who do great work but expect to be compensated for their experience, rather than undercut by cheaper foreign labor.

I'd like to see the faces of CEOs across America if a similar bill were enacted, targetted at their jobs.

Here's a timely article from Cnet today:

Sun faces renewed visa complaint

This is a duplicate of another story which is still on the front page! Admittedly, that story linked to the article over at CNet, but even if it pointed towards the Register's story, it's still no excuse...

• Wired Story
• Industrial Light & Magic
• Lord of the Rings
• Salon Article

The new homeland security department will require a massive global network. But transoceanic fiber is easily cut and the $800 million TDRS replenishment program with three satellites doesn't have the bandwidth. Intercepted SIGINT data is reportedly transmitted to Earth on a 24 GHz downlink using narrow-beam antennas. But the frequency swaths allocated for links are less than consumers can get on cable television. More bandwidth is needed.

One might speculate that a secret optical/IR satellite network downlinked in Hawaii might be developed. The European Space Agency, not to be outdone, says they're thinking of building miniaturised optical systems that fit onto a microchip. These optical networks might use optical CDMA which encodes each pulse,across a segment of wavelengths.

Links to Google Cache(N.B. Not always cached.)

C|Net has an interesting editorial cache [Link not cached at time of posting]
Declan McCullagh cache [Cache link active]
Digital Cash. cache [Link not cached at time of posting]

Mirrored Text (for posterity, not karma): Digital Cash.

Implementations of various electronic cash protocols. Digital Cash Implementations of various electronic cash protocols.

magicmoney 1.0 Magic Money is a digital cash system designed for use over electronic mail. Magic Money is a digital cash system designed for use over electronic mail.The system is online and untraceable. Online means that each transactioninvolves an exchange with a server, to prevent double-spending. Untraceablemeans that it is impossible for anyone to trace transactions, or to match awithdrawal with a deposit, or to match two coins in any way. The systemconsists of two modules, the server and the client. Magic Money uses the PGPascii-armored message format for all communication between the server andclient. All traffic is encrypted, and messages from the server to the clientare signed. Untraceability is provided by a Chaum-style blind signature.Note that the blind signature is patented, as is RSA. Using it forexperimental purposes only shouldn't get you in trouble. Digicash isrepresented by discrete coins, the denominations of which are chosen by theserver operator. Coins are RSA-signed, with a different e/d pair for eachdenomination. The server does not store any money. All coins are stored bythe client module. The server accepts old coins and blind- signs new coins,and checks off the old ones on a spent list. sources MagicMoney.tar.gz author Pr0duct Cypher edit application object

-lucre 0.9.0 Unofficial Cypherpunks Release of Chaum's ecash. -lucre is a C library that implements the protocols of DigiCash's ecash.-lucre provides all of the basic things you would like (payment requests,payments, deposits, withdrawals, opening accounts), as well as a fewadvanced features (like the ability to use the same account on multiplemachines, and the ability to use ecash without having a bank account atall). The format of the wallet is somewhat different from that of DigiCash'sstandard client, so you have to be careful if you want to use use both thatand -lucre with the same bank account. It does seem to work, though. sources lucre-0.9.0.tar.gz author Anonymous edit application object

ncash 19971216 An efficient off-line electronic cash system based on the representation problem. Experimental implementation of an off-line electronic cash system based onthe representation problem. From the documentation, "Our system is the firstto be based entirely on descrete logarithms. Using the representationproblem as a basic concept, some techniques are introduced that enable us toconstruct protocols for withdrawl and payment that do not use the cut andchoose methodology of earlier systems. As a concequence, our cash system ismuch more efficient in both computation and communication complexity thanpreviously proposed systems.". The technical paper is mirroredhere. sources snapshot.tar.gz author Niels Möller homepage http://www.lysator.liu.se/~nisse/NCash/NCash.html edit application object

$Id: application-index.html,v 0.24 1999/09/16 14:13:43 root Exp $ munitions.vipul.net Amsterdam, Netherlands mirror &copy 1999-2001, Vipul Ved Prakash. Thanks to xs4all for providing the resoruces to host this site.

Mirrored Text (for posterity, not karma): C|Net has an interesting editorial

Perspective: Tech's answer to Big Brother - Tech News - CNET.com CNET tech sites: Price comparisons | Product reviews | Tech news | Downloads | Site map News.context: Special Reports | Newsmakers | Perspectives Perspective: Tech's answer to Big Brother By Declan McCullagh December 16, 2002, 4:00 AM PT WASHINGTON-Why is everyone so surprised that the U.S. government wants to create a Total Information Awareness database with details about everything you do?

This is an unsurprising result of having so much information about our lives archived on the computers of our credit card companies, our banks, our health insurance companies and government agencies.

Now a Defense Department agency is devising a way to link these different systems together to create a kind of digital alter ego of each of us. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, this proposed centralization was inevitable-and it's only going to get worse.

Blame retired Admiral John Poindexter, national security adviser for former President Ronald Reagan, who returned to the Pentagon in February to run a creepy new agency that's trying to create this mammoth surveillance and information-analysis system. It's called Total Information Awareness, and it's funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it's a good idea, or that it's consistent with the traditional American values of limited government and a sharp demarcation between the private and the public sector. I'm not even sure if Poindexter's brainchild could ever work.

What I am saying is that if our personal information-some of it extraordinarily sensitive-is archived in corporate or government databases and protected only by the weak shield of the law, it's vulnerable to federal snoops.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, this proposed centralization was inevitable-and it's only going to get worse. When a nation is responding to perilous threats, politicians tend to repeal privacy laws in a femtosecond. The current process started with overwhelming votes for the USA Patriot Act last year. (It cleared the Senate with only one "nay" vote, from the courageous Russ Feingold, D-Wisc.) And if another terrorist attack happens, all bets are off.

That's why simply enacting laws and trusting to the government to protect our privacy can be a very dangerous thing. Just ask the Japanese-Americans forced into internment camps during World War II. New research says they were selected using Census Bureau data-data that was handed over to the government in strict confidence. Or ask the people who were robbed by the former chief of detectives for the Chicago Police Department, who pleaded guilty last year to using law enforcement databases to plot crimes.

Technology offers a better way to preserve our rights against government overreaching. New crises may prompt Congress to vote unanimously to skewer the Bill of Rights. But technological protections don't vary with the whims of politicians or shifts in Supreme Court majorities.

The sad thing is that for years we've known about technology that can slow down this mass "databasification" of American society. We just haven't used it.

One approach is outlined in Peter Wayner's useful book, "Translucent Databases." It describes methods-complete with Java code that produces standard SQL (Structured Query Language)-to construct databases that use one-way functions to scramble data and shield it from prying eyes.

New crises may prompt Congress to vote unanimously to skewer the Bill of Rights. But technological protections don't vary with the whims of politicians or shifts in Supreme Court majorities. "The main goal I had with writing the book is to show it is possible to build a database that does useful work and solves problems without keeping personal information," Wayner said. "At first it seems counterintuitive. You figure that if you're going to arrange appointments and keep track of what customers bought in the past, you need the information there. But it turns out it's possible (to scramble it), and it can make the database smaller and faster, too."

A basic example is the venerable Unix password file, which doesn't store any actual passwords. Instead, the operating system scrambles a user's password using a one-way hash function and saves the scrambled version to the file. Because the function cannot be reversed, the database is secure if viewed by a malicious hacker, but users can still log in.

More importantly, even if Poindexter obtained that file through a court order or some more surreptitious method, assuming the encryption algorithm worked properly, he wouldn't be able to extract anyone's actual passwords from it.

Wayner's book provides tips that more programmers should follow. He shows how to build an encrypted department store database using a one-way function that can't divulge personal information unless a customer's full name is supplied. Other examples include encrypted car rental databases and lotteries.

A second approach was invented by Stefan Brands, previously a scientist at Zero Knowledge Systems, who outlined it in a book titled "Rethinking Public Key Infrastructures and Digital Certificates: Building in Privacy."

Brands describes a remarkable technology called limited disclosure certificates. It's a pre-emptive response to current trends in authentication, where you might end up using one digital ID certificate for everything from driving to shopping to health care-and all your information and transactions would instantly appear in Poindexter's database.

Limited disclosure certificates solve that centralization problem. They use a clever bit of mathematics to protect the identity of honest people, but reveal the identity of people who attempt to commit fraud. As soon as you try to cheat someone, the privacy protection evaporates.

Brands predicts in his book how a limited disclosure certificate would work on a smart card: "Any data leakage from and to the smart card can be blocked. The cardholder can even prevent his or her smart card from developing information that would help the card issuer to trade the cardholders' transactions, should the card contents become available to the card issuer. Transactions can be completed within as little as 1/20th of a second, so that road-toll and public transport applications are entirely feasible."

In an interview, Brands added that "instead of all this information about you being managed in central databases, you could manage it yourself. In theory, all the data that organizations hold about you and need to make decisions about you could be distributed to you.

"If you use good cryptography, the organizations' information is protected: You can't modify the information. At the same time, you would then be able to disclose whatever you need for a particular purpose."

MIT professor Ron Rivest described Brands' work as imparting a way for people to remain anonymous and yet convince an Internet service provider that they are a paid subscriber. The beauty is that the user's sessions are unlinkable-the ISP can't even tell if an user currently logged in is the same as the user who used the service at a previous time.

It's true that Congress could outlaw Wayner's and Brands' techniques and force all information to be stored in a surveillance-enabled way. But until that happens, we don't have to make it any easier for Poindexter and his snoops.

More Perspectives

biography Declan McCullagh is the Washington correspondent for CNET News.com, chronicling the ever-busier intersection between technology and politics. Before that, he worked for several years as Washington bureau chief for Wired News. He has also worked as a reporter for The Netly News, Time magazine and HotWired. Search News.com All CNET The Web

Links to Google Cache(N.B. Not always cached.)

C|Net has an interesting editorial cache [Link not cached at time of posting]
Declan McCullagh cache [Cache link active]
Digital Cash. cache [Link not cached at time of posting]

Mirrored Text (for posterity, not karma): Digital Cash.

Implementations of various electronic cash protocols. Digital Cash Implementations of various electronic cash protocols.

magicmoney 1.0 Magic Money is a digital cash system designed for use over electronic mail. Magic Money is a digital cash system designed for use over electronic mail.The system is online and untraceable. Online means that each transactioninvolves an exchange with a server, to prevent double-spending. Untraceablemeans that it is impossible for anyone to trace transactions, or to match awithdrawal with a deposit, or to match two coins in any way. The systemconsists of two modules, the server and the client. Magic Money uses the PGPascii-armored message format for all communication between the server andclient. All traffic is encrypted, and messages from the server to the clientare signed. Untraceability is provided by a Chaum-style blind signature.Note that the blind signature is patented, as is RSA. Using it forexperimental purposes only shouldn't get you in trouble. Digicash isrepresented by discrete coins, the denominations of which are chosen by theserver operator. Coins are RSA-signed, with a different e/d pair for eachdenomination. The server does not store any money. All coins are stored bythe client module. The server accepts old coins and blind- signs new coins,and checks off the old ones on a spent list. sources MagicMoney.tar.gz author Pr0duct Cypher edit application object

-lucre 0.9.0 Unofficial Cypherpunks Release of Chaum's ecash. -lucre is a C library that implements the protocols of DigiCash's ecash.-lucre provides all of the basic things you would like (payment requests,payments, deposits, withdrawals, opening accounts), as well as a fewadvanced features (like the ability to use the same account on multiplemachines, and the ability to use ecash without having a bank account atall). The format of the wallet is somewhat different from that of DigiCash'sstandard client, so you have to be careful if you want to use use both thatand -lucre with the same bank account. It does seem to work, though. sources lucre-0.9.0.tar.gz author Anonymous edit application object

ncash 19971216 An efficient off-line electronic cash system based on the representation problem. Experimental implementation of an off-line electronic cash system based onthe representation problem. From the documentation, "Our system is the firstto be based entirely on descrete logarithms. Using the representationproblem as a basic concept, some techniques are introduced that enable us toconstruct protocols for withdrawl and payment that do not use the cut andchoose methodology of earlier systems. As a concequence, our cash system ismuch more efficient in both computation and communication complexity thanpreviously proposed systems.". The technical paper is mirroredhere. sources snapshot.tar.gz author Niels Möller homepage http://www.lysator.liu.se/~nisse/NCash/NCash.html edit application object

$Id: application-index.html,v 0.24 1999/09/16 14:13:43 root Exp $ munitions.vipul.net Amsterdam, Netherlands mirror &copy 1999-2001, Vipul Ved Prakash. Thanks to xs4all for providing the resoruces to host this site.

Mirrored Text (for posterity, not karma): C|Net has an interesting editorial

Perspective: Tech's answer to Big Brother - Tech News - CNET.com CNET tech sites: Price comparisons | Product reviews | Tech news | Downloads | Site map News.context: Special Reports | Newsmakers | Perspectives Perspective: Tech's answer to Big Brother By Declan McCullagh December 16, 2002, 4:00 AM PT WASHINGTON-Why is everyone so surprised that the U.S. government wants to create a Total Information Awareness database with details about everything you do?

This is an unsurprising result of having so much information about our lives archived on the computers of our credit card companies, our banks, our health insurance companies and government agencies.

Now a Defense Department agency is devising a way to link these different systems together to create a kind of digital alter ego of each of us. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, this proposed centralization was inevitable-and it's only going to get worse.

Blame retired Admiral John Poindexter, national security adviser for former President Ronald Reagan, who returned to the Pentagon in February to run a creepy new agency that's trying to create this mammoth surveillance and information-analysis system. It's called Total Information Awareness, and it's funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it's a good idea, or that it's consistent with the traditional American values of limited government and a sharp demarcation between the private and the public sector. I'm not even sure if Poindexter's brainchild could ever work.

What I am saying is that if our personal information-some of it extraordinarily sensitive-is archived in corporate or government databases and protected only by the weak shield of the law, it's vulnerable to federal snoops.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, this proposed centralization was inevitable-and it's only going to get worse. When a nation is responding to perilous threats, politicians tend to repeal privacy laws in a femtosecond. The current process started with overwhelming votes for the USA Patriot Act last year. (It cleared the Senate with only one "nay" vote, from the courageous Russ Feingold, D-Wisc.) And if another terrorist attack happens, all bets are off.

That's why simply enacting laws and trusting to the government to protect our privacy can be a very dangerous thing. Just ask the Japanese-Americans forced into internment camps during World War II. New research says they were selected using Census Bureau data-data that was handed over to the government in strict confidence. Or ask the people who were robbed by the former chief of detectives for the Chicago Police Department, who pleaded guilty last year to using law enforcement databases to plot crimes.

Technology offers a better way to preserve our rights against government overreaching. New crises may prompt Congress to vote unanimously to skewer the Bill of Rights. But technological protections don't vary with the whims of politicians or shifts in Supreme Court majorities.

The sad thing is that for years we've known about technology that can slow down this mass "databasification" of American society. We just haven't used it.

One approach is outlined in Peter Wayner's useful book, "Translucent Databases." It describes methods-complete with Java code that produces standard SQL (Structured Query Language)-to construct databases that use one-way functions to scramble data and shield it from prying eyes.

New crises may prompt Congress to vote unanimously to skewer the Bill of Rights. But technological protections don't vary with the whims of politicians or shifts in Supreme Court majorities. "The main goal I had with writing the book is to show it is possible to build a database that does useful work and solves problems without keeping personal information," Wayner said. "At first it seems counterintuitive. You figure that if you're going to arrange appointments and keep track of what customers bought in the past, you need the information there. But it turns out it's possible (to scramble it), and it can make the database smaller and faster, too."

A basic example is the venerable Unix password file, which doesn't store any actual passwords. Instead, the operating system scrambles a user's password using a one-way hash function and saves the scrambled version to the file. Because the function cannot be reversed, the database is secure if viewed by a malicious hacker, but users can still log in.

More importantly, even if Poindexter obtained that file through a court order or some more surreptitious method, assuming the encryption algorithm worked properly, he wouldn't be able to extract anyone's actual passwords from it.

Wayner's book provides tips that more programmers should follow. He shows how to build an encrypted department store database using a one-way function that can't divulge personal information unless a customer's full name is supplied. Other examples include encrypted car rental databases and lotteries.

A second approach was invented by Stefan Brands, previously a scientist at Zero Knowledge Systems, who outlined it in a book titled "Rethinking Public Key Infrastructures and Digital Certificates: Building in Privacy."

Brands describes a remarkable technology called limited disclosure certificates. It's a pre-emptive response to current trends in authentication, where you might end up using one digital ID certificate for everything from driving to shopping to health care-and all your information and transactions would instantly appear in Poindexter's database.

Limited disclosure certificates solve that centralization problem. They use a clever bit of mathematics to protect the identity of honest people, but reveal the identity of people who attempt to commit fraud. As soon as you try to cheat someone, the privacy protection evaporates.

Brands predicts in his book how a limited disclosure certificate would work on a smart card: "Any data leakage from and to the smart card can be blocked. The cardholder can even prevent his or her smart card from developing information that would help the card issuer to trade the cardholders' transactions, should the card contents become available to the card issuer. Transactions can be completed within as little as 1/20th of a second, so that road-toll and public transport applications are entirely feasible."

In an interview, Brands added that "instead of all this information about you being managed in central databases, you could manage it yourself. In theory, all the data that organizations hold about you and need to make decisions about you could be distributed to you.

"If you use good cryptography, the organizations' information is protected: You can't modify the information. At the same time, you would then be able to disclose whatever you need for a particular purpose."

MIT professor Ron Rivest described Brands' work as imparting a way for people to remain anonymous and yet convince an Internet service provider that they are a paid subscriber. The beauty is that the user's sessions are unlinkable-the ISP can't even tell if an user currently logged in is the same as the user who used the service at a previous time.

It's true that Congress could outlaw Wayner's and Brands' techniques and force all information to be stored in a surveillance-enabled way. But until that happens, we don't have to make it any easier for Poindexter and his snoops.

More Perspectives

biography Declan McCullagh is the Washington correspondent for CNET News.com, chronicling the ever-busier intersection between technology and politics. Before that, he worked for several years as Washington bureau chief for Wired News. He has also worked as a reporter for The Netly News, Time magazine and HotWired. Search News.com All CNET The Web

No, they aren't. Palladium will NEVER stop you from running unsigned code. Never. Ever.

So what if Palladium lets your GPL program run, it wouldn't matter at all. This is because your GPL program will not be able, or rather allowed to, access the Palladium infrastructure in order to get the needed cryptographic credentials to perform certain tasks. So yes, your program will run, but no, it won't be able to do anything useful for you, not for anything that requires access to Palladium. And that would be mission completed for Microsoft: GPL software rendered useless.

The easily fooled will probably be glad to hear that the full source code to Palladium will likely be made available. Again, the source code is as powerless as your GPL program, and is of no use to you - even with the source, you can not make modifications to it and run the modified version in place of the version endorsed by Microsoft.

Furthermore, Microsoft already has a license in place that exludes open source development and specifically GPL and LGPL open source, see this article by Bruce Perens

Yes, there are people who are LYING about Palladium. Yes, LYING.

If you are aware of any lie in Ross Anderson's TCPA/Palladium FAQ, please state what it is.

I've been a fan of Conker's BFD since I bought it for less than ten bucks at a K-Mart that was going out of business. But I think the pile of BFD's on the ruins of the department store's electronics counter shows the problem: people (that is, the mindless herd, not we the enlightened) can't handle cognitive dissonance.

Conker, the main character, is terribly cute. He curses and fights with a singing monster named the Great Mighty Poo.
Begin mental meltdown...

The game is cute and gameplay is intuitive and fun. One scene involves enticing a big breasted sunflower into intimate relations with a drunken king bee.
TILT!

Faced with this situation, Nintendo took what I suppose was the only logical path: they sold one of their hottest developer groups to rival Microsoft.

It was interesting to me that BFD was one of the last N-64 games... one review I read described it as "the last must-have N-64 game." I saw a kid-friendly Game Boy game featuring Conker the Squirrel at Blockbuster, but didn't rent it... what would be the point? That character is indelibly linked, in my mind, to the Song of the Great Mighty Poo.

So it wasn't too huge a surprise to me when I read the news that Microsoft had bought Rare from Nintendo. I don't know how Rare managed to get Conker out Nintendo's door, but I'm guessing that someone wasn't too happy about it.

I sure wouldn't want to buy anything from the Redmond Empire... but if BFD-2 comes out for X-Box, I may have to put my moral compass back in the box. That said, I like the idea that I can turn to Nintendo for kid-friendly games that -- hopefully -- won't put the adults to sleep.

When I was a co-op at Cisco Systems, CEO John Chambers lowered his salary essentially 100%. I thought that was pretty cool.

The point is that personal privacy depends upon personal data being restricted and given out as sparingly as possible. What information you give out today will be used in unanticipated ways in the future. Witholding information is therefore your best defense.

Their best intrest (sic) IS mine. If they can sell me something then we BOTH win

*You* only win if the item being sold was (a) something you wanted/needed and (b) at the best price. As anyone living in a modern society should have figured out by now, the most heavily-advertised products are invariably the most expensive (the prices include the cost of advertising) and price is never a guarantee of quality. Saying that a corporation's interest aligns with yours is high-order naivety - did those buyers of Ford Pintos who ended up horribly disfigured in accidents due to the car's design flaws have their interests served by Ford?

Laws cannot protect privacy. Intrusions of privacy can be too undetectable these days, the only way to protect someone's privacy would be to destroy everyone else's.

Rubbish, rubbish and more rubbish. European countries like Norway have strong and effective legislation. Breaches on an individual scale can be stopped by using encryption and auditing all database accesses. Breaches on a company scale will tend to show up more easily due to the scale involved but can be countered by offering rewards to employees who reveal company lawbreaking, along with having a properly empowered regulator. The last point you made about having to destroy everyone else's privacy is ridiculous - can you provide an example?

1984 is probably the most miscited book ever. Analysis after analysis has shown...

Examples of this analysis please? Links? The point about the 1984 reference was the issue of an all-powerful state determining every aspect of its citizen's lives. With the increasing amount of personal information floating around and the US Government's desire to access and integrate it, this scenario is becoming more likely. And yes, control *can* be maintained with a good enough security apparatus and contempt for human rights (look at Iraq, China, Burma for good examples).

Here are your options for the future. These are the only two.

No they are not. A third option is to have regulation of computer data (as in most European countries), but with extra restrictions on data transfer between companies. Strong one-way encryption of databases can be used to prevent illegal or illicit transfers (as covered here). And those politicians coming up with uber-databases and big-brother style legislation should be voted out of office.

This of course, requires active monitoring of the legal system and lobbying by the people of companies and legislatures. And it will be the sheep like you that rely on the activists to protect your rights.

The technology is out and there's no way to stop it. But... why would you want to stop it anyway? Just because you have a little irrational hangup on privacy....

If you want to live in a house with webcams everywhere making sure that you are not brewing bombs for Al'Qaeda in your bathroom, that's your choice. If you want every little action to be subject to public scrutiny and challenge then that is also your choice. It is however not mine, nor is it likely to be that of most of the people browsing this site. If you want to dismiss privacy as an "irrational hangup" then you deserve all the junk mail, intrusive advertising, conmen selling you penis expanders and "get rich quick" scams and other personal invasions that you are going to get.

Well, since the editors never post anything positive about MS, I'm just throwing this in. I've got karma to burn. This is really big news. MS is the FIRST Office suite vendor to store documents as XML in Office 11. People are bitching about the schema, but really, that won't be an issue. It can be very, very easily reverse-engineered by anyone with any kind of text viewer. 100% Open Standards from MS. Wow.

A little digging reveals that the frequencies that cell phones operate on aren't the same frequencies aircraft use for navigation/communication, and those $5/minute airphones are actually cellular telephones!

In fact, it turns out that the cell phone ban wasn't an FAA regulation until very recently - it was an FCC ban! The cell network isn't designed for rapidly-moving phones, nor is it designed for phones 30,000 feet up in the air. Instead, it's designed for stationary/slow-moving phones at or near ground level. An airborne cell phone can wreak havoc with the network; that's why the FCC banned them on airplanes. The ban has nothing to do with safety.

ZDNet article on the topic.

If the guy is talking of increasing reliability for enterprise servers, companies are already along that path- e.g. IBM. If he is referring to day to day tasks of administration, automation in that aspect would be slow to come by. Is it just me or does anyone else think that the comparing IT administration to telephone lines is to over simplify the former ? The interface for one is more complex. The goals of IT admins going around trouble shooting application related problems cannot be narrowed down to distinct goals that telephone systems might have i.e:
1) Provide a Dial tone
2) Allow user to make a connection
3) Allow user to disconnect

Where do these people get the idea that owning a Mac makes them a superior human being?

The author never said 'superior human beings' but according to this study and CNET article, we're smarter and make more money. I don't suggest you read this, however, since it may just make you angrier and hate us more.

Easy, there was an article not too long ago talking about using nuclear energy as a possible powersource for laptop batteries. Granted, you're not going to see a 10cm butterfly dragging a Dell laptop battery, but technology is allowing things to get smaller and smaller. I can't imagine that they wouldn't be able to power this puppy via a small nuclear cell or some other efficient method.

Eldred v. Ashcroft
... 10 had a favourable piece on Lessig and the lawsuit. ... October 13, 2002 - Amy
Harmon of New York Times: uphill battle over copyright. more news ...
eldred.cc/ - 7k - Cached -

The Limits of Copyright
... it an offense to write code to interfere with this use-controlling code, regardless
of whether the use would be considered fair under the copyright law. ...
www.thestandard.com/article/display/ 0,1151,16071,00.html - 34k - Dec. 12, 2002 - Cached -

Copyright law and roasted pig.
Communications Copyright law and roasted pig Lawrence Lessig on Eldred v. Ascroft
By Lawrence Lessig October 22, 2002. In 1930, 10,027 books were published. ...
www.redherring.com/insider/2002/10/ roast-pig-copyright-102202.html - 29k - Cached -

O'Reilly Network: Free Culture: Lawrence Lessig Keynote from ...
... A flash version of Lessig's presentation, including audio and other source files. ... their
works) instead of exercising all of the restrictions of copyright law. ...
www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/policy/2002/08/15/lessi g.html - 27k - Dec. 12, 2002 - Cached -

High court weighs copyright law - Tech News - CNET.com
... Lessig and his allies are hoping not merely to overturn this law, however, but
to build momentum for an all-out legal assault on many recent copyright ...
news.com.com/2100-1023-961467.html - 28k - Cached -

Lawrence Lessig
... Declan McCullagh of CNET News.com mentions Professor Lessig in Left gets nod from
right on copyright law, on a speech given by Appeals Court Judge Richard ...
cyberlaw.stanford.edu/lessig/ - 23k - Dec. 12, 2002 - Cached -

Home--Berkman Center for Internet and Society
... Also see: Digitial Copyright Law on Trial [CNet]; Google Excluding Controversial
Sites [CNet]; ... the Hard Questions: On October 9 Lawrence Lessig appeared before ...
Description: The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School is a research program founded...
Category: Computers>Internet>Policy
cyber.law.harvard.edu/ - 13k - Cached -

Techdirt:Copyright Law And Roasted Pig - Lessig Pushes His ...
Copyright Law And Roasted Pig - Lessig Pushes His Campaign Forward.
Ramblings Contributed by Mike on Tuesday, October 22nd, 2002 ...
www.techdirt.com/articles/20021022/1311202.shtml - 5k - Cached -

I oppose Amazon.com's 1-Click Patent
As one of the founding programmers at Amazon.com, I was very dismayed to learn
of the company's legal attempts to enforce its 1-Click (TM) patent. ...
www.op.net/~pbd/amazon-1click.html - 4k - Cached - Similar pages

Amazon, Barnes&Noble settle patent suit - Tech News - CNET.com
... The story behind Amazon's 1-Click patent Mark Grant, author, Law
and the Internet Play clip. Amazon.com said Wednesday that it ...
news.com.com/2100-1017-854105.html - 27k - Cached - Similar pages

Apple - Media & Analyst Information - Press Releases
Apple Licenses Amazon.com 1-Click Patent and Trademark. New Apple Online
Store with 1-Click Shopping Premieres Today CUPERTINO, California ...
www.apple.com/pr/library/2000/sep/18amazon.html - 11k - Dec. 12, 2002 - Cached - Similar pages

Salon Technology | Amazon to world: We control how many times you ...
... The 1-Click patent suits suggest that the company is forsaking this understanding
for a more conventional, bare-knuckles corporate strategy. ...
www.salon.com/tech/log/1999/12/21/bezos/ - 23k - Dec. 12, 2002 - Cached - Similar pages

www.oreilly.com -- Ask Tim! -- Software Patents Issue
... At the same time, I completely agree with RMS that the Amazon 1-Click Patent
is one more example of an intellectual property milieu gone mad. ...
Description: The founder of O'Reilly & Associates (the top computer manual publisher) criticizes Amazon's attempt...
Category: Society>Issues>IntellectualProperty>Paten ts
www.oreilly.com/ask_tim/amazon_patent.html - 20k - Cached - Similar pages

Amazon's 1-Click Patent Survives Bounty Hunt
Amazon's 1-Click Patent Survives Bounty Hunt By Elizabeth Wasserman Issue Date: Mar
15 2001 No one wins the prize for invalidating the e-retailer's patent for ...
www.thestandard.com/article/display/ 0,1151,22862,00.html - 32k - Dec. 12, 2002 - Cached - Similar pages

1 Click Results!
1-Click Patent: No Exact Match But Runners Up Will Split $10,000 Cash Prize. ... Read
Runners Up Profiles>>. History of the 1-Click Patent Conflict. ...
www.bountyquest.com/infocenter/1click.htm - 15k - Dec. 12, 2002 - Cached - Similar pages

allNetDevices: - OpenTV Claims 1-Click Patent
... OpenTV Claims 1-Click Patent. Latest News. ...
www.allnetdevices.com/industry/news/ 2000/10/06/opentv_claims.html - 35k - Dec. 12, 2002 - Cached - Similar pages

Amazon Loses Round in 1-Click Patent Case
Amazon Loses Round in 1-Click Patent Case ...
www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/7528.html - 10k - Dec. 12, 2002 - Cached - Similar pages

Why? Because I thought it was important for potential buyers to know that this book was written by an admitted, convicted pedophile. I thought that some buyers would want to know this.

Apparently, Jeff Bezos loves pedophiles (he's a pedophile-phile) because he rejected the review three times. I gave up after that.

There was an article on CNet last Friday about automatic recommendation systems. What happens when systems automatically recommend things?

In a incident that highlights the pitfalls of online recommendation systems, Amazon.com on Friday removed a link to a sex manual that appeared next to a listing for a spiritual guide by well-known Christian televangelist Pat Robertson.

The two titles were temporarily linked as a result of technology that tracks and displays lists of merchandise perused and purchased by Amazon visitors. Such promotions appear below the main description for products under the title, "Customers who shopped for this item also shopped for these items."

Basically, the gist of it is that people shopping for the televangellist's spiritual guide, and Amazon's recommendation system suggested that people who bought this also bought another book called The Men's Guide to Anal Sex.

I'm speculating, but I would guess that such a system could be hacked by ordering both books, and then shortly later cancelling your order. The order cancellation probably does not remove the association of these two items in the recommendation database tables.

I would never buy anything Java-related that came from microsoft. Here's why!

All your files belong to us. It's in the EULA.

Long, long ago, there used to be umbrella repair shops. Eventually umbrellas became so cheap that you just throw them away when they break (which happens pretty fast) and just buy new ones.

It's much the same with consumer electronics. For example, VCR/TV repair places in my town are either struggling or have already gone out of business. Things are so cheap these days that you might as well buy a new one when the old one breaks.

So, basically quality has indeed gone down, but prices have dropped accordingly.

We live in a disposable society. Disposable cell phones seem like a huge waste to me, but they're cheap.

Why is a Madonna/No Doubt/Cowboy Neal - branded iPod Slashdot-worthy, but this article isn't? Apple is filing a lawsuit against a former contactor for theft of trade secrets. It seems that this contractor posted schematics of new apple hardware onto the internet...

Moderators, punish me if you must, but I think this bears mentioning on /. *way* more than a Madonna iPod does... Especially since I'm more of a KISS fan myself... ;)

Who cares about ISS ....
Now this is news...(but Rob won't post it cause he is busy honeymooning) ...
U.S. firms move IT overseas
U.S. firms move IT overseas
By Ed Frauenheim Special to ZDNet News December 11, 2002, 5:07 AM PT
Under pressure from overseas rivals, U.S. companies selling information technology services have a new mantra: If you can't beat them, join them.
IT services companies are jostling to promise customers cheaper, flexible services using technology professionals in low-wage countries such as India, China and Mexico. Hewlett-Packard is the latest U.S.-based company to announce its overseas intentions. At a meeting with financial analysts last week, Ann Livermore, HP's services chief, said the company plans to relocate a major portion of its IT services work to India.
"We think customers are going to put a lot of pricing pressure on the consulting and integration market," Livermore said. "We are going to aggressively move everything we can offshore."
HP already has several thousand services employees in India. The company said it will give a more detailed version of its offshore consulting plan in January.
Last month, computer services giant Electronic Data Services announced its "Best Shore" program, promising a 40 percent increase in personnel and resources devoted to low-cost applications services centers around the world. EDS currently has 4,500 employees working out of 13 Best Shore facilities, which are located in cities such as Chennai, India; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Wellington, New Zealand.
In addition, IBM's services wing says that for more than a year it's had what it too calls a "Best Shore" strategy. Big Blue has services centers in the low-cost countries of India, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Canada and China.
Frances Karamouzis, an analyst with market research firm Gartner, said U.S.-based IT service providers are going abroad as a response to competition from Indian technology services companies such as Infosys and Wipro. "These are ways to position their competitive offering to the Indian firms," Karamouzis said.
Those Indian businesses are faring much better than their U.S. counterparts amid the tech downturn. In the most recent two quarters, Infosys saw sales rise 26 percent, and Wipro's revenue jumped 26 percent. In contrast, EDS's revenue for the past three quarters edged up only 4 percent, and IT services provider Computer Science's sales for the past two quarters increased less than 1 percent.
Even so, Indian-based companies are siphoning off just a few drops from the U.S. IT bucket. Karamouzis estimates they take in about $6 billion per year, or less than 5 percent of U.S. IT spending. But the offshore model has gained a foothold and will grow, she predicted.
Indian companies began to take on low-profile tasks like legacy software maintenance in the early 1990s, Karamouzis said. By focusing on quality, they gained the confidence of U.S. corporations, and now they are working on more important applications, she said.
IT's passage to India Already, more than 300 of the Fortune 500 firms do business with Indian IT services companies, according to Gartner. The research firm predicts that by 2004, more than 80 percent of U.S companies will have considered using offshore IT services. In addition, more than 40 percent of U.S. corporations will have completed some type of offshore IT pilot program or will be using IT services with an overseas component by that time.
"That IT work is headed offshore is confirmed by a November report from Forrester Reseach. It estimated that the number of computer jobs moving overseas will grow from 27,171 in 2000 to 472,632 five years after that. Forrester researchers predict that other services--including call center services and back-office accounting--will follow IT operations in moving abroad."
By 2015, a total of 3.3 million U.S. jobs and $136 billion in wages will transfer offshore to countries such as India, Russia, China and the Philippines, according to Forrester.
Reasons for the shift start with lower wages. HP pegs the cost of a talented programmer in India at about $20,000 a year, a fraction of the cost of a top U.S. tech worker.
Other factors fueling the shift offshore, according to Forrester, include the emergence of low-cost high-bandwidth telecommunications links, standardized business applications and Internet-based collaborative tools.
Greater flexibility also may entice customers to prefer an offshore model or a combination of offshore and onshore services. With operations in both the United States and Asia, an IT services company can offer clients around-the-clock support--or what EDS calls a "follow the sun" capability.
Not everyone believes the U.S. IT industry is on the verge of withering away. Norm Matloff, a computer science professor at the University of California at Davis, argues that the need for face-to-face interaction remains vital for programming projects. "Most U.S. firms will find that it is just not worth it to outsource software development overseas on a large scale," he said.
Gartner's Karamouzis agreed Matloff has a point, especially when it comes to software companies' core products and to applications that require a great deal of expertise in a particular industry, such as banking.
However, Indian firms typically can accomplish IT projects for U.S. clients with 90 percent to 95 percent of the work done in India, she said. She estimated that as much as 40 percent to 50 percent of U.S. IT services work could be done overseas in the next five to 10 years--raising serious concerns about the prospects for U.S. IT workers.

Who cares about RPG Codex....
Now this is news...
(but Rob won't post it cause he is busy honeymooning) ...
U.S. firms move IT overseas
U.S. firms move IT overseas
By Ed Frauenheim Special to ZDNet News December 11, 2002, 5:07 AM PT
Under pressure from overseas rivals, U.S. companies selling information technology services have a new mantra: If you can't beat them, join them.
IT services companies are jostling to promise customers cheaper, flexible services using technology professionals in low-wage countries such as India, China and Mexico. Hewlett-Packard is the latest U.S.-based company to announce its overseas intentions. At a meeting with financial analysts last week, Ann Livermore, HP's services chief, said the company plans to relocate a major portion of its IT services work to India.
"We think customers are going to put a lot of pricing pressure on the consulting and integration market," Livermore said. "We are going to aggressively move everything we can offshore."
HP already has several thousand services employees in India. The company said it will give a more detailed version of its offshore consulting plan in January.
Last month, computer services giant Electronic Data Services announced its "Best Shore" program, promising a 40 percent increase in personnel and resources devoted to low-cost applications services centers around the world. EDS currently has 4,500 employees working out of 13 Best Shore facilities, which are located in cities such as Chennai, India; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Wellington, New Zealand.
In addition, IBM's services wing says that for more than a year it's had what it too calls a "Best Shore" strategy. Big Blue has services centers in the low-cost countries of India, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Canada and China.
Frances Karamouzis, an analyst with market research firm Gartner, said U.S.-based IT service providers are going abroad as a response to competition from Indian technology services companies such as Infosys and Wipro. "These are ways to position their competitive offering to the Indian firms," Karamouzis said.
Those Indian businesses are faring much better than their U.S. counterparts amid the tech downturn. In the most recent two quarters, Infosys saw sales rise 26 percent, and Wipro's revenue jumped 26 percent. In contrast, EDS's revenue for the past three quarters edged up only 4 percent, and IT services provider Computer Science's sales for the past two quarters increased less than 1 percent.
Even so, Indian-based companies are siphoning off just a few drops from the U.S. IT bucket. Karamouzis estimates they take in about $6 billion per year, or less than 5 percent of U.S. IT spending. But the offshore model has gained a foothold and will grow, she predicted.
Indian companies began to take on low-profile tasks like legacy software maintenance in the early 1990s, Karamouzis said. By focusing on quality, they gained the confidence of U.S. corporations, and now they are working on more important applications, she said.
IT's passage to India Already, more than 300 of the Fortune 500 firms do business with Indian IT services companies, according to Gartner. The research firm predicts that by 2004, more than 80 percent of U.S companies will have considered using offshore IT services. In addition, more than 40 percent of U.S. corporations will have completed some type of offshore IT pilot program or will be using IT services with an overseas component by that time.
"That IT work is headed offshore is confirmed by a November report from Forrester Reseach. It estimated that the number of computer jobs moving overseas will grow from 27,171 in 2000 to 472,632 five years after that. Forrester researchers predict that other services--including call center services and back-office accounting--will follow IT operations in moving abroad."
By 2015, a total of 3.3 million U.S. jobs and $136 billion in wages will transfer offshore to countries such as India, Russia, China and the Philippines, according to Forrester.
Reasons for the shift start with lower wages. HP pegs the cost of a talented programmer in India at about $20,000 a year, a fraction of the cost of a top U.S. tech worker.
Other factors fueling the shift offshore, according to Forrester, include the emergence of low-cost high-bandwidth telecommunications links, standardized business applications and Internet-based collaborative tools.
Greater flexibility also may entice customers to prefer an offshore model or a combination of offshore and onshore services. With operations in both the United States and Asia, an IT services company can offer clients around-the-clock support--or what EDS calls a "follow the sun" capability.
Not everyone believes the U.S. IT industry is on the verge of withering away. Norm Matloff, a computer science professor at the University of California at Davis, argues that the need for face-to-face interaction remains vital for programming projects. "Most U.S. firms will find that it is just not worth it to outsource software development overseas on a large scale," he said.
Gartner's Karamouzis agreed Matloff has a point, especially when it comes to software companies' core products and to applications that require a great deal of expertise in a particular industry, such as banking.
However, Indian firms typically can accomplish IT projects for U.S. clients with 90 percent to 95 percent of the work done in India, she said. She estimated that as much as 40 percent to 50 percent of U.S. IT services work could be done overseas in the next five to 10 years--raising serious concerns about the prospects for U.S. IT workers.

Who cares about RPG Codex...
Now this is news...(but Rob won't post it cause he is busy honeymooning)...
U.S. firms move IT overseas
U.S. firms move IT overseas
By Ed Frauenheim Special to ZDNet News December 11, 2002, 5:07 AM PT
Under pressure from overseas rivals, U.S. companies selling information technology services have a new mantra: If you can't beat them, join them.
IT services companies are jostling to promise customers cheaper, flexible services using technology professionals in low-wage countries such as India, China and Mexico. Hewlett-Packard is the latest U.S.-based company to announce its overseas intentions. At a meeting with financial analysts last week, Ann Livermore, HP's services chief, said the company plans to relocate a major portion of its IT services work to India.
"We think customers are going to put a lot of pricing pressure on the consulting and integration market," Livermore said. "We are going to aggressively move everything we can offshore."
HP already has several thousand services employees in India. The company said it will give a more detailed version of its offshore consulting plan in January.
Last month, computer services giant Electronic Data Services announced its "Best Shore" program, promising a 40 percent increase in personnel and resources devoted to low-cost applications services centers around the world. EDS currently has 4,500 employees working out of 13 Best Shore facilities, which are located in cities such as Chennai, India; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Wellington, New Zealand.
In addition, IBM's services wing says that for more than a year it's had what it too calls a "Best Shore" strategy. Big Blue has services centers in the low-cost countries of India, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Canada and China.
Frances Karamouzis, an analyst with market research firm Gartner, said U.S.-based IT service providers are going abroad as a response to competition from Indian technology services companies such as Infosys and Wipro. "These are ways to position their competitive offering to the Indian firms," Karamouzis said.
Those Indian businesses are faring much better than their U.S. counterparts amid the tech downturn. In the most recent two quarters, Infosys saw sales rise 26 percent, and Wipro's revenue jumped 26 percent. In contrast, EDS's revenue for the past three quarters edged up only 4 percent, and IT services provider Computer Science's sales for the past two quarters increased less than 1 percent.
Even so, Indian-based companies are siphoning off just a few drops from the U.S. IT bucket. Karamouzis estimates they take in about $6 billion per year, or less than 5 percent of U.S. IT spending. But the offshore model has gained a foothold and will grow, she predicted.
Indian companies began to take on low-profile tasks like legacy software maintenance in the early 1990s, Karamouzis said. By focusing on quality, they gained the confidence of U.S. corporations, and now they are working on more important applications, she said.
IT's passage to India Already, more than 300 of the Fortune 500 firms do business with Indian IT services companies, according to Gartner. The research firm predicts that by 2004, more than 80 percent of U.S companies will have considered using offshore IT services. In addition, more than 40 percent of U.S. corporations will have completed some type of offshore IT pilot program or will be using IT services with an overseas component by that time.
"That IT work is headed offshore is confirmed by a November report from Forrester Reseach. It estimated that the number of computer jobs moving overseas will grow from 27,171 in 2000 to 472,632 five years after that. Forrester researchers predict that other services--including call center services and back-office accounting--will follow IT operations in moving abroad."
By 2015, a total of 3.3 million U.S. jobs and $136 billion in wages will transfer offshore to countries such as India, Russia, China and the Philippines, according to Forrester.
Reasons for the shift start with lower wages. HP pegs the cost of a talented programmer in India at about $20,000 a year, a fraction of the cost of a top U.S. tech worker.
Other factors fueling the shift offshore, according to Forrester, include the emergence of low-cost high-bandwidth telecommunications links, standardized business applications and Internet-based collaborative tools.
Greater flexibility also may entice customers to prefer an offshore model or a combination of offshore and onshore services. With operations in both the United States and Asia, an IT services company can offer clients around-the-clock support--or what EDS calls a "follow the sun" capability.
Not everyone believes the U.S. IT industry is on the verge of withering away. Norm Matloff, a computer science professor at the University of California at Davis, argues that the need for face-to-face interaction remains vital for programming projects. "Most U.S. firms will find that it is just not worth it to outsource software development overseas on a large scale," he said.
Gartner's Karamouzis agreed Matloff has a point, especially when it comes to software companies' core products and to applications that require a great deal of expertise in a particular industry, such as banking.
However, Indian firms typically can accomplish IT projects for U.S. clients with 90 percent to 95 percent of the work done in India, she said. She estimated that as much as 40 percent to 50 percent of U.S. IT services work could be done overseas in the next five to 10 years--raising serious concerns about the prospects for U.S. IT workers.

Who cares about RPG Codex... Now this is news...(but Rob won't post it cause he is busy honeymooning)...
U.S. firms move IT overseas
U.S. firms move IT overseas
By Ed Frauenheim Special to ZDNet News December 11, 2002, 5:07 AM PT
Under pressure from overseas rivals, U.S. companies selling information technology services have a new mantra: If you can't beat them, join them.
IT services companies are jostling to promise customers cheaper, flexible services using technology professionals in low-wage countries such as India, China and Mexico. Hewlett-Packard is the latest U.S.-based company to announce its overseas intentions. At a meeting with financial analysts last week, Ann Livermore, HP's services chief, said the company plans to relocate a major portion of its IT services work to India.
"We think customers are going to put a lot of pricing pressure on the consulting and integration market," Livermore said. "We are going to aggressively move everything we can offshore."
HP already has several thousand services employees in India. The company said it will give a more detailed version of its offshore consulting plan in January.
Last month, computer services giant Electronic Data Services announced its "Best Shore" program, promising a 40 percent increase in personnel and resources devoted to low-cost applications services centers around the world. EDS currently has 4,500 employees working out of 13 Best Shore facilities, which are located in cities such as Chennai, India; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Wellington, New Zealand.
In addition, IBM's services wing says that for more than a year it's had what it too calls a "Best Shore" strategy. Big Blue has services centers in the low-cost countries of India, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Canada and China.
Frances Karamouzis, an analyst with market research firm Gartner, said U.S.-based IT service providers are going abroad as a response to competition from Indian technology services companies such as Infosys and Wipro. "These are ways to position their competitive offering to the Indian firms," Karamouzis said.
Those Indian businesses are faring much better than their U.S. counterparts amid the tech downturn. In the most recent two quarters, Infosys saw sales rise 26 percent, and Wipro's revenue jumped 26 percent. In contrast, EDS's revenue for the past three quarters edged up only 4 percent, and IT services provider Computer Science's sales for the past two quarters increased less than 1 percent.
Even so, Indian-based companies are siphoning off just a few drops from the U.S. IT bucket. Karamouzis estimates they take in about $6 billion per year, or less than 5 percent of U.S. IT spending. But the offshore model has gained a foothold and will grow, she predicted.
Indian companies began to take on low-profile tasks like legacy software maintenance in the early 1990s, Karamouzis said. By focusing on quality, they gained the confidence of U.S. corporations, and now they are working on more important applications, she said.
IT's passage to India Already, more than 300 of the Fortune 500 firms do business with Indian IT services companies, according to Gartner. The research firm predicts that by 2004, more than 80 percent of U.S companies will have considered using offshore IT services. In addition, more than 40 percent of U.S. corporations will have completed some type of offshore IT pilot program or will be using IT services with an overseas component by that time.
"That IT work is headed offshore is confirmed by a November report from Forrester Reseach. It estimated that the number of computer jobs moving overseas will grow from 27,171 in 2000 to 472,632 five years after that. Forrester researchers predict that other services--including call center services and back-office accounting--will follow IT operations in moving abroad."
By 2015, a total of 3.3 million U.S. jobs and $136 billion in wages will transfer offshore to countries such as India, Russia, China and the Philippines, according to Forrester.
Reasons for the shift start with lower wages. HP pegs the cost of a talented programmer in India at about $20,000 a year, a fraction of the cost of a top U.S. tech worker.
Other factors fueling the shift offshore, according to Forrester, include the emergence of low-cost high-bandwidth telecommunications links, standardized business applications and Internet-based collaborative tools.
Greater flexibility also may entice customers to prefer an offshore model or a combination of offshore and onshore services. With operations in both the United States and Asia, an IT services company can offer clients around-the-clock support--or what EDS calls a "follow the sun" capability.
Not everyone believes the U.S. IT industry is on the verge of withering away. Norm Matloff, a computer science professor at the University of California at Davis, argues that the need for face-to-face interaction remains vital for programming projects. "Most U.S. firms will find that it is just not worth it to outsource software development overseas on a large scale," he said.
Gartner's Karamouzis agreed Matloff has a point, especially when it comes to software companies' core products and to applications that require a great deal of expertise in a particular industry, such as banking.
However, Indian firms typically can accomplish IT projects for U.S. clients with 90 percent to 95 percent of the work done in India, she said. She estimated that as much as 40 percent to 50 percent of U.S. IT services work could be done overseas in the next five to 10 years--raising serious concerns about the prospects for U.S. IT workers.

Who cares about RPG Codex . Now this is news...(but Rob won't post it cause he is busy honeymooning)...
U.S. firms move IT overseas
U.S. firms move IT overseas
By Ed Frauenheim Special to ZDNet News December 11, 2002, 5:07 AM PT
Under pressure from overseas rivals, U.S. companies selling information technology services have a new mantra: If you can't beat them, join them.
IT services companies are jostling to promise customers cheaper, flexible services using technology professionals in low-wage countries such as India, China and Mexico. Hewlett-Packard is the latest U.S.-based company to announce its overseas intentions. At a meeting with financial analysts last week, Ann Livermore, HP's services chief, said the company plans to relocate a major portion of its IT services work to India.
"We think customers are going to put a lot of pricing pressure on the consulting and integration market," Livermore said. "We are going to aggressively move everything we can offshore."
HP already has several thousand services employees in India. The company said it will give a more detailed version of its offshore consulting plan in January.
Last month, computer services giant Electronic Data Services announced its "Best Shore" program, promising a 40 percent increase in personnel and resources devoted to low-cost applications services centers around the world. EDS currently has 4,500 employees working out of 13 Best Shore facilities, which are located in cities such as Chennai, India; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Wellington, New Zealand.
In addition, IBM's services wing says that for more than a year it's had what it too calls a "Best Shore" strategy. Big Blue has services centers in the low-cost countries of India, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Canada and China.
Frances Karamouzis, an analyst with market research firm Gartner, said U.S.-based IT service providers are going abroad as a response to competition from Indian technology services companies such as Infosys and Wipro. "These are ways to position their competitive offering to the Indian firms," Karamouzis said.
Those Indian businesses are faring much better than their U.S. counterparts amid the tech downturn. In the most recent two quarters, Infosys saw sales rise 26 percent, and Wipro's revenue jumped 26 percent. In contrast, EDS's revenue for the past three quarters edged up only 4 percent, and IT services provider Computer Science's sales for the past two quarters increased less than 1 percent.
Even so, Indian-based companies are siphoning off just a few drops from the U.S. IT bucket. Karamouzis estimates they take in about $6 billion per year, or less than 5 percent of U.S. IT spending. But the offshore model has gained a foothold and will grow, she predicted.
Indian companies began to take on low-profile tasks like legacy software maintenance in the early 1990s, Karamouzis said. By focusing on quality, they gained the confidence of U.S. corporations, and now they are working on more important applications, she said.
IT's passage to India
Already, more than 300 of the Fortune 500 firms do business with Indian IT services companies, according to Gartner. The research firm predicts that by 2004, more than 80 percent of U.S companies will have considered using offshore IT services. In addition, more than 40 percent of U.S. corporations will have completed some type of offshore IT pilot program or will be using IT services with an overseas component by that time.
"That IT work is headed offshore is confirmed by a November report from Forrester Reseach. It estimated that the number of computer jobs moving overseas will grow from 27,171 in 2000 to 472,632 five years after that. Forrester researchers predict that other services--including call center services and back-office accounting--will follow IT operations in moving abroad."
By 2015, a total of 3.3 million U.S. jobs and $136 billion in wages will transfer offshore to countries such as India, Russia, China and the Philippines, according to Forrester.
Reasons for the shift start with lower wages. HP pegs the cost of a talented programmer in India at about $20,000 a year, a fraction of the cost of a top U.S. tech worker.
Other factors fueling the shift offshore, according to Forrester, include the emergence of low-cost high-bandwidth telecommunications links, standardized business applications and Internet-based collaborative tools.
Greater flexibility also may entice customers to prefer an offshore model or a combination of offshore and onshore services. With operations in both the United States and Asia, an IT services company can offer clients around-the-clock support--or what EDS calls a "follow the sun" capability.
Not everyone believes the U.S. IT industry is on the verge of withering away. Norm Matloff, a computer science professor at the University of California at Davis, argues that the need for face-to-face interaction remains vital for programming projects. "Most U.S. firms will find that it is just not worth it to outsource software development overseas on a large scale," he said.
Gartner's Karamouzis agreed Matloff has a point, especially when it comes to software companies' core products and to applications that require a great deal of expertise in a particular industry, such as banking.
However, Indian firms typically can accomplish IT projects for U.S. clients with 90 percent to 95 percent of the work done in India, she said. She estimated that as much as 40 percent to 50 percent of U.S. IT services work could be done overseas in the next five to 10 years--raising serious concerns about the prospects for U.S. IT workers.

Who cares about RPG Codex....
Now this is news...(but Rob won't post it cause he is busy honeymooning)...
U.S. firms move IT overseas
U.S. firms move IT overseas
By Ed Frauenheim Special to ZDNet News December 11, 2002, 5:07 AM PT
Under pressure from overseas rivals, U.S. companies selling information technology services have a new mantra: If you can't beat them, join them.
IT services companies are jostling to promise customers cheaper, flexible services using technology professionals in low-wage countries such as India, China and Mexico. Hewlett-Packard is the latest U.S.-based company to announce its overseas intentions. At a meeting with financial analysts last week, Ann Livermore, HP's services chief, said the company plans to relocate a major portion of its IT services work to India.
"We think customers are going to put a lot of pricing pressure on the consulting and integration market," Livermore said. "We are going to aggressively move everything we can offshore."
HP already has several thousand services employees in India. The company said it will give a more detailed version of its offshore consulting plan in January.
Last month, computer services giant Electronic Data Services announced its "Best Shore" program, promising a 40 percent increase in personnel and resources devoted to low-cost applications services centers around the world. EDS currently has 4,500 employees working out of 13 Best Shore facilities, which are located in cities such as Chennai, India; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Wellington, New Zealand.
In addition, IBM's services wing says that for more than a year it's had what it too calls a "Best Shore" strategy. Big Blue has services centers in the low-cost countries of India, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Canada and China.
Frances Karamouzis, an analyst with market research firm Gartner, said U.S.-based IT service providers are going abroad as a response to competition from Indian technology services companies such as Infosys and Wipro. "These are ways to position their competitive offering to the Indian firms," Karamouzis said.
Those Indian businesses are faring much better than their U.S. counterparts amid the tech downturn. In the most recent two quarters, Infosys saw sales rise 26 percent, and Wipro's revenue jumped 26 percent. In contrast, EDS's revenue for the past three quarters edged up only 4 percent, and IT services provider Computer Science's sales for the past two quarters increased less than 1 percent.
Even so, Indian-based companies are siphoning off just a few drops from the U.S. IT bucket. Karamouzis estimates they take in about $6 billion per year, or less than 5 percent of U.S. IT spending. But the offshore model has gained a foothold and will grow, she predicted.
Indian companies began to take on low-profile tasks like legacy software maintenance in the early 1990s, Karamouzis said. By focusing on quality, they gained the confidence of U.S. corporations, and now they are working on more important applications, she said.
IT's passage to India Already, more than 300 of the Fortune 500 firms do business with Indian IT services companies, according to Gartner. The research firm predicts that by 2004, more than 80 percent of U.S companies will have considered using offshore IT services. In addition, more than 40 percent of U.S. corporations will have completed some type of offshore IT pilot program or will be using IT services with an overseas component by that time.
"That IT work is headed offshore is confirmed by a November report from Forrester Reseach. It estimated that the number of computer jobs moving overseas will grow from 27,171 in 2000 to 472,632 five years after that. Forrester researchers predict that other services--including call center services and back-office accounting--will follow IT operations in moving abroad."
By 2015, a total of 3.3 million U.S. jobs and $136 billion in wages will transfer offshore to countries such as India, Russia, China and the Philippines, according to Forrester.
Reasons for the shift start with lower wages. HP pegs the cost of a talented programmer in India at about $20,000 a year, a fraction of the cost of a top U.S. tech worker.
Other factors fueling the shift offshore, according to Forrester, include the emergence of low-cost high-bandwidth telecommunications links, standardized business applications and Internet-based collaborative tools.
Greater flexibility also may entice customers to prefer an offshore model or a combination of offshore and onshore services. With operations in both the United States and Asia, an IT services company can offer clients around-the-clock support--or what EDS calls a "follow the sun" capability.
Not everyone believes the U.S. IT industry is on the verge of withering away. Norm Matloff, a computer science professor at the University of California at Davis, argues that the need for face-to-face interaction remains vital for programming projects. "Most U.S. firms will find that it is just not worth it to outsource software development overseas on a large scale," he said.
Gartner's Karamouzis agreed Matloff has a point, especially when it comes to software companies' core products and to applications that require a great deal of expertise in a particular industry, such as banking.
However, Indian firms typically can accomplish IT projects for U.S. clients with 90 percent to 95 percent of the work done in India, she said. She estimated that as much as 40 percent to 50 percent of U.S. IT services work could be done overseas in the next five to 10 years--raising serious concerns about the prospects for U.S. IT workers.

Who cares about RPG Codex . Now this is news...(but Rob won't post it cause he is busy honeymooning)...
U.S. firms move IT overseas
U.S. firms move IT overseas
By Ed Frauenheim Special to ZDNet News December 11, 2002, 5:07 AM PT
Under pressure from overseas rivals, U.S. companies selling information technology services have a new mantra: If you can't beat them, join them.
IT services companies are jostling to promise customers cheaper, flexible services using technology professionals in low-wage countries such as India, China and Mexico. Hewlett-Packard is the latest U.S.-based company to announce its overseas intentions. At a meeting with financial analysts last week, Ann Livermore, HP's services chief, said the company plans to relocate a major portion of its IT services work to India.
"We think customers are going to put a lot of pricing pressure on the consulting and integration market," Livermore said. "We are going to aggressively move everything we can offshore."
HP already has several thousand services employees in India. The company said it will give a more detailed version of its offshore consulting plan in January.
Last month, computer services giant Electronic Data Services announced its "Best Shore" program, promising a 40 percent increase in personnel and resources devoted to low-cost applications services centers around the world. EDS currently has 4,500 employees working out of 13 Best Shore facilities, which are located in cities such as Chennai, India; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Wellington, New Zealand.
In addition, IBM's services wing says that for more than a year it's had what it too calls a "Best Shore" strategy. Big Blue has services centers in the low-cost countries of India, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Canada and China.
Frances Karamouzis, an analyst with market research firm Gartner, said U.S.-based IT service providers are going abroad as a response to competition from Indian technology services companies such as Infosys and Wipro. "These are ways to position their competitive offering to the Indian firms," Karamouzis said.
Those Indian businesses are faring much better than their U.S. counterparts amid the tech downturn. In the most recent two quarters, Infosys saw sales rise 26 percent, and Wipro's revenue jumped 26 percent. In contrast, EDS's revenue for the past three quarters edged up only 4 percent, and IT services provider Computer Science's sales for the past two quarters increased less than 1 percent.
Even so, Indian-based companies are siphoning off just a few drops from the U.S. IT bucket. Karamouzis estimates they take in about $6 billion per year, or less than 5 percent of U.S. IT spending. But the offshore model has gained a foothold and will grow, she predicted.
Indian companies began to take on low-profile tasks like legacy software maintenance in the early 1990s, Karamouzis said. By focusing on quality, they gained the confidence of U.S. corporations, and now they are working on more important applications, she said.
IT's passage to India Already, more than 300 of the Fortune 500 firms do business with Indian IT services companies, according to Gartner. The research firm predicts that by 2004, more than 80 percent of U.S companies will have considered using offshore IT services. In addition, more than 40 percent of U.S. corporations will have completed some type of offshore IT pilot program or will be using IT services with an overseas component by that time.
"That IT work is headed offshore is confirmed by a November report from Forrester Reseach. It estimated that the number of computer jobs moving overseas will grow from 27,171 in 2000 to 472,632 five years after that. Forrester researchers predict that other services--including call center services and back-office accounting--will follow IT operations in moving abroad."
By 2015, a total of 3.3 million U.S. jobs and $136 billion in wages will transfer offshore to countries such as India, Russia, China and the Philippines, according to Forrester.
Reasons for the shift start with lower wages. HP pegs the cost of a talented programmer in India at about $20,000 a year, a fraction of the cost of a top U.S. tech worker.
Other factors fueling the shift offshore, according to Forrester, include the emergence of low-cost high-bandwidth telecommunications links, standardized business applications and Internet-based collaborative tools.
Greater flexibility also may entice customers to prefer an offshore model or a combination of offshore and onshore services. With operations in both the United States and Asia, an IT services company can offer clients around-the-clock support--or what EDS calls a "follow the sun" capability.
Not everyone believes the U.S. IT industry is on the verge of withering away. Norm Matloff, a computer science professor at the University of California at Davis, argues that the need for face-to-face interaction remains vital for programming projects. "Most U.S. firms will find that it is just not worth it to outsource software development overseas on a large scale," he said.
Gartner's Karamouzis agreed Matloff has a point, especially when it comes to software companies' core products and to applications that require a great deal of expertise in a particular industry, such as banking.
However, Indian firms typically can accomplish IT projects for U.S. clients with 90 percent to 95 percent of the work done in India, she said. She estimated that as much as 40 percent to 50 percent of U.S. IT services work could be done overseas in the next five to 10 years--raising serious concerns about the prospects for U.S. IT workers.

Well, according to this, their parent company Singapore Technologies filed bankruptcy in late '97, and rather then try reorganizing under Chap. 11, they just liquidated the company..

• http://www.itworld.com/Comp/3734/020927harddriveve ndors/
• http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-959831.html

Liquid Audio's days are numbered [...] The board voted unanimously in favor of a $57 million stockholder cash payout. They would rather sell the company, but if there is no buyer then they would probably have to liquidate the company.

I seem to remember their database software doing so. Does that count?

Direct from McKinsey Quarterly, there is a piece on how marketers and those who generate profits from advertising should NOT worry about such things as TiVo. Providing examples on how to embrace technology rather than neglect it, this article is one that should be read by those who just don't get that consumers voice their collective opinions using technology that is available.

Here is the article.

IP over rodentia carrier?

Nope, but there's IP over carrier pigeon.

CBCran a little feature on OpenOffice.org on Thursday in which columnist Jim Brey discissed, briefly, Open Source generally and Open Office specifically. You can listen to it here.
Given that this is MainStream media, this is a solid endorsement for Open Office.

In a ZDNet interview Microsoft's Jeff Raikes stated"We can say there's only about 10 percent or 20 percent of the features that we'll use, but your 10 percent is going to be different from my 10 percent."

With the majority of the "Real Work" being done with 10 percent (+/-) of the features, I'd say OOo has a good chance to make serious inroads into the market. I still use Star Office on one of my laptops but will be looking at Open Office very soon.

HP has had to sell nothing about the Alpha processor to Intel; Intel's had that information for years.

You might recall that back in '98, Intel and Digital were involved in some heavy litigation; the short of was that they had agreed to share certain technologies with each other. Intel took the Alpha designs from Digital, but did not keep up their part of the contract. Digital sued for theft. Eventually, the case was settled out of court. (The link points to a c|net article detailing the settlement.)

So, don't for a second think that Intel hasn't had full access to Alpha chip designs.

There is an antitrust case ongoing against MS in Europe in case you didn't know. This means that MS needs to be careful what they do. Sony can do what they want as MS can't retaliate. This is the time for Sony et al to provoke them.

"You can't trust governments to do what they promise. You can't trust them to police themselves. You can't assume that, because something is not supposed to happen, it won't happen. So what you do is refuse to allow government to amass power. You don't let them develop the tools that can be used by future tyrants. To those who say that safeguards will be built into the system, I say that the government has a pretty poor track record of following such safeguards."

This is a perfect example of a device that will be banned, and the actions by the builder outlawed if Jack Valenti/Sony/MPAA/Hollywood Reps succeed in their push for broadcast flags.

What happened to Dmitri/Adobe will also happen to anyone trying to build this device, or contribute code or other help.

The deadline for comments is Friday.

See:

Declan McCullough asks "Why have you not written to the FCC?" and Slashdot responds