Slashback: Enigma, Google, Java Games

Slashback tonight brings some corrections, clarifications, and updates to previous Slashdot stories, including Enigma security concerns, German ISP targets net companies "free lunch", Total Information Awareness program lives on, Higgins takes on Microsoft, Google answers analyst concerns, Patriot Act provision not just for terrorists, and Java 4K game contest submissions available -- Read on for details.

Enigma security concerns. Chris writes "The Enigma cracking client mentioned [this past week] is a huge security risk -- it creates an 'enigma-client' user on Windows systems with the password 'nominal'. I daresay that most /. users who installed the client would want to know about this so they can take corrective action." Thanks to Chris and other who pointed out the security flaw the enigma client has updated their changelog to warn users about this potential flaw and point out a quick work-around. "Users should change 'nominal' to a random password in eclient-XP-Home-install.bat or eclient-XP-Pro-install.bat."

German ISP targets net companies "free lunch". TheAxeMaster writes "Deutsche Telekom AG is the latest ISP to decide to suck money from both customers and content providers according to Computer World. From the article, 'The CEO of Deutsche Telekom AG became the latest head of a major telco to call for Web companies, such as Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., to help pay for the billions of dollars required to build and maintain high-speed Internet infrastructure.' CEO Kai-Uwe Ricke said 'Web companies that use this infrastructure for their business should also make a contribution.' The article suggests that, if implemented, both you AND web sites would have to pay for the privilege of delivering you content through a tiered, 'quality of service' internet."

Total Information Awareness Program lives on. notmtwain writes "Democracy Now follows up on reports that the NSA has continued the TIA (Total Information Awareness) program, which was building an enormous database merging information on internet usage, phone calls, purchase, banking records and reading material. Democracy Now's Amy Goodman interviews Shane Harris, the National Journal Reporter who broke the story. The Total Information Awareness program was supposedly killed by Congress in 2003."

Higgins takes on Microsoft. An anonymous reader writes "InternetNews reports that IBM, Novell, and Parity Communications announced today increased support for the Higgins project at Eclipse. The project, based on early work done at Harvard's Berkman Institute and by SocialPhysics.org is focused on providing open source 'user-centric' identity management. The initiative has been widely reported as a challenge to Microsoft's new Infocard online identity-management system."

Google answers analyst concerns. imlepid writes "Earlier this week Analysts were asking Google to provide more insight into future earnings reports. Well, it appears that the analysts calls have been answered as the Google CFO has warned that growth has slowed. However, today's decline is still being blamed on the tight lips at Google."

Patriot Act provision not just for terrorists. An anonymous reader writes "Pass a law to go after certain criminals, and it will be used for everything possible. A basic lesson, but one that we learn again from an article in the New York Sun, describing a couple of U.S. District Court decisions unsealed earlier in February. The two judges both agree that Congress intended the 'nationwide search' provision for going after email or other Internet data to apply to the investigation of all federal crimes and not just to cases involving terrorism."

Java 4K game contest submissions available. CuriousKangaroo writes "Java Unlimited, as previously reported on Slashdot, is running a contest to develop a game in Java using only four kilobytes of bytecode and resources. Entries are now closed, and judging is about to begin, but you can check out and play all 55 of this year's entries for yourself!"

Comments

"Free Lunch"

[ZachPruckowski]

The annoying part of this free lunch thing is consumers are already paying, and so are content providers. They pay for bandwidth. I cost Apple 4 MBs of bandwidth everytime I get a song on iTMS, and Google must buy bandwidth by the truckload. So it's not like anyone is getting a free ride in the current system. And I'd love to see how well an ISP that cuts out the top 50 sites will do. I'm sure Joe Average will need Internet at home when he can't use Google, MSN, theWashingtonPost.com, Yahoo, Apple, Ebay, Amazon, Wikipedia, and CNN.com

I wonder when the ISPs will get the memo: WITHOUT CONTENT, THEY ARE USELESS!!

Re:"Free Lunch"

[morcheeba]

Good point: WITHOUT CONTENT, THEY ARE USELESS!!

One could easily make the argument that it is the ISPs that are getting the free lunch. If there was no content, they would be out of business. In the 1980's, before the internet and when dial-up BBS ruled, the ISPs were the one who had to produce the content. AOL hired news people, GEnie had to manage their own forums, The Source actually had to be The Source for information. Now all the content is produced by other people, and most of it is now provided free (like this post).

I say the ISPs should pay me money because I'm providing a valuable service to their customers, which makes them want to pay for broadband. Of course, that's only valid if they cared about customers. In reality, they treat my interesting content as a cost because they have to transport it. Ideally, they'd like to have to transfer no data and still get a monthly payment from their subscribers.

Just like RICO

[nsayer]

Pass a law to go after certain criminals, and it will be used for everything possible

RICO is the quintesential example of this. While intended to go after organized crime, it has been used to go after everyone from the RIAA to anti abortion protesters to Major League Baseball and even video store owners who rent adult movies.

Absolute power, and all that.

Obligatory Walt Whitman...

[interactive_civilian]

Long, but a decent message.

Europe [The 72d and 73d Years of These States] by Walt Whitman

Suddenly out of its stale and drowsy lair, the lair of slaves,
Like lightning it le'pt forth half startled at itself,
Its feet upon the ashes and the rags, its hands tight to the throats
of kings.

O hope and faith!
O aching close of exiled patriots' lives!
O many a sicken'd heart!
Turn back unto this day and make yourselves afresh.

And you, paid to defile the People--you liars, mark!
Not for numberless agonies, murders, lusts,
For court thieving in its manifold mean forms, worming from his
simplicity the poor man's wages,
For many a promise sworn by royal lips and broken and laugh'd at in
the breaking,

Then in their power not for all these did the blows strike revenge,
or the heads of the nobles fall;
The People scorn'd the ferocity of kings.

But the sweetness of mercy brew'd bitter destruction, and the
frighten'd monarchs come back,
Each comes in state with his train, hangman, priest, tax-gatherer,
Soldier, lawyer, lord, jailer, and sycophant.

Yet behind all lowering stealing, lo, a shape,
Vague as the night, draped interminably, head, front and form, in
scarlet folds,
Whose face and eyes none may see,
Out of its robes only this, the red robes lifted by the arm,
One finger crook'd pointed high over the top, like the head of a
snake appears.

Meanwhile corpses lie in new-made graves, bloody corpses of young men,
The rope of the gibbet hangs heavily, the bullets of princes are
flying, the creatures of power laugh aloud,
And all these things bear fruits, and they are good.

Those corpses of young men,
Those martyrs that hang from the gibbets, those hearts pierc'd by
the gray lead,
Cold and motionless as they seem live elsewhere with unslaughter'd vitality.

They live in other young men O kings!
They live in brothers again ready to defy you,
They were purified by death, they were taught and exalted.

Not a grave of the murder'd for freedom but grows seed for freedom,
in its turn to bear seed,
Which the winds carry afar and re-sow, and the rains and the snows nourish.

Not a disembodied spirit can the weapons of tyrants let loose,
But it stalks invisibly over the earth, whispering, counseling, cautioning.
Liberty, let others despair of you--I never despair of you.

Is the house shut? is the master away?
Nevertheless, be ready, be not weary of watching,
He will soon return, his messengers come anon.

So, in response to "3) The government sucks. I hate it. We're all fucked.", I say, you are only fucked if you allow yourselves to be.

Come on, America. Please wake up!

Tiered Internet

[Lord_Dweomer]

The only people who want a tiered internet are the telecom companies. Users don't want it, web companies don't want it...how in the hell do they expect to get this to get through? If they all colluded to make sure everybody in their industry did this, wouldn't that be illegal and violate some price fixing laws (not necessarily in Germany, but in the States)?

My other question is...if this does get pushed through, is there anything preventing another company from starting up and basically offering things the way are currently? I mean, if the whole telecom industry decides to force us into tiered internet, couldn't some company just NOT do it, and rake in the cash hand over fist from all the users and companies that flock to them?