...It's technology that Google has had a hand in funding. The Project Glass connection is because the researchers used Project Glass as an example in their paper. Google may be able to use the technology, but it has not been included in the Glass software.
It's likely however that the government will change its mind at the last minute. There's precedent for brinkmanship in negotiations over cyber security rules in China.
I was one of the two reporters in that interview and we both were surprised by Croll's comment. We were just contacted by Apple to say that what we heard (or what we both thought we heard) was not the fully story. The real story is:
An Apple spokesperson seeking to clarify Croll's statement indicated that ZFS would be available as a limited option, but not as the default file system."
Further detail: It's only available as a read only option from the command line.
We're still trying to find out what this means, but a correction is coming.
The most interesting aspect of the story is that Google's auto-suggestion code will suggest a social security number search keyed to a specific person and that the Google engineers were unaware of this possibility. In other words, if you search for your name and social security number enough times, someone else searching on your name might get a search suggestion that included the social security number you entered (if you did it a lot).
In fact, Google is downright helpful when it comes to finding Social Security numbers: In one case -- and it may be the only one -- Google will identify an individual whose Social Security number has been posted online, thanks to a feature in the Google Toolbar that generates search suggestions based on popular searches. (Evidently, a lot of people have searched for this person's Social Security number.)
Entering two keywords related to Social Security numbers -- call them "x" and "y" so as not to compound the problem -- into the Google Toolbar will produce a keyword search suggestion in the form "x y John Doe." Selecting the suggested search terms and name, as might be expected, generates a search results page with the named person's Social Security number.
>If this is just an organization and editing program, then how is this any different than iPhoto?
For one thing, I'd expect that Apple's online print service will actually process orders of studio-quality photos if the order is sent through Aperture. Apple makes it very difficult to order prints from iPhoto if they look like they came from a professional photographer -- Apple's print service assumes you're violating the photographer's copyright. (Granted that most pros would not work through Apple's online service.)
For photos that don't look amateur, Apple's print service wants you to sign a copyright form to indeminfying them and affirm that you in fact have the right to reproduce the photo being ordered. The process is not very efficient -- they lost the form I faxed them twice after I ordered some headshots of my wife taken by a friend (who's a pro and gave me the files). It took me more than a month to get them to send me the pictures I ordered.
A Slashdot post will get you traffic, if you have a site linked to your user id. That's not the case with Digg. Ergo, Slashdot wins. It gives you more for participating. For Web site owners, traffic has real value.
I interviewed Dr. Vint Cerf and Karl Auerbach about Internet goverance and alternate roots recently. Not surprisingly, Cerf wasn't a fan of alternate roots. Auerbach, however, has some provocative things to say on the subject.
The purpose of calling for federal regulation is to keep costs down, not to protect privacy. Some companies are actually interested in protecting privacy because failure to do imposes costs. HP is particularly good in this regard in that it lets customers access their data. The companies you have to watch out for are the ones with business models that depend on selling personal information.
Pump up the volume and open the windows. It won't reach 30 miles but it's free of licensing restrictions (zoning restrictions are another matter), at least until the RIAA figures out how to collect for public performances on roads.
The details are in the paper, but basically the theory goes that an economic solution generates accepted communication that might otherwise not happen, some of which might generate commerce.
This is in contract to a perfect filter which gets it right but doesn't support communication that might not have happened.
Why would a spammer put up a bond? Because without it, the mail would be blocked. No bond, no mail.
And Graham's point is...?
on
Paul Graham on PR
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
As a reporter for a technology publication, I find Graham's points to be rather overwrought. He makes it sounds as if every story in the mainstream press was ghostwritten by a PR agency.
No doubt the PR agencies have a hand in launching many stories, but far more of their pitches fail than get picked up. I get anywhere from 50 to 100 pitches a day via E-mail (not to mention phone calls). I write maybe one or two stories a day. Sometimes the story begins with a pitch, sometimes not.
And when a story does arise from a PR pitch, there's no guarantee the agency will be pleased with the results. Reporters generally do talk to a range of sources and not all say things PR reps like.
No doubt there are a lot of rewritten press releases that get published as news. That's true of mainstream press sites and of blogs. Sometimes the press release says it all. And sometimes time or resource or editorial ambition constraints prevent a more substantive analysis.
Graham cites fashion stories as an example of the mainstream press's lack of initiative. Please. Is he expecting a Pulitzer from the fashion and lifestyle pages? Is that much worse than the gear-porn stories so common in the tech industry? (He should have condemned those who covered Enron...that's a case where the spin really did some damage.)
Sure, there's lots of feel-good or sensationalist fluff out there. But that's what people prefer to read. How else to explain the popularity of titles like People?
Every journalist dreams of getting a hold of a great story, but they're rare. Not everyone is approached by an inside source with nation-shaking revelations. And it's hard to find such people by cold-calling. Nor do most publications have the reources to fund a thorough investigation of a particular practice or industry. Be grateful we still see some from time to time.
Graham writes, "Whatever its flaws, the writing you find online is authentic. It's not mystery meat cooked up out of scraps of pitch letters and press releases, and pressed into molds of zippy journalese. It's people writing what they think."
Well, I think it's a stretch to condemn the entire mainstream press as inauthentic based on a few stories born of PR. I'd also venture to say that much of the writing I find online is suspect. Is someone's review of some book or CD on Amazon somehow more worthy of trust than one penned by a reviewer for the NY Times (who got the book for free from a PR agency)?
Graham talks about people writing what they think. Usually, their thoughts begin with a link to a story in the mainstream press.
The best bloggers are good reporters. If reporters happen to use facts that originated with a PR agency, that shouldn't be a problem as long as efforts are made to consider the reliability of the data.
Despite the fact that Wired Magazine's online content is located at www.wired.com/wired/, these are different publications. Wired News is owned by Lycos, Inc. Wired Magazine is owned by The Condé Nast Publications Inc.
I spoke with IDC for a short article I'm writing on this release for InformationWeek. The difference between IDC's figures (32%) and those of anti-spam vendors like Brightmail (63%) comes from the sample. IDC's sample included internal corporate mail sent by respondents to each other. As might be expected, mail sent from employee to employee tends to include fewer mentions of Viagra. Brightmail's statistics are based on mail traversing the Net.
If you're a Gates or a Getty and you walk into the Prada store, you'll expect damn good service with or without an RFID tag. Stores with massive margins don't need technology; they need fawning, supplicant employees who can flatter customers into coughing up $6000 for a handbag.
I've been working on an article about RFID privacy (and happened to interview Simson Garfinkel as well). One of the people I talked to who knew the subject well was Mark Roberti, editor of RFID Journal. I've posted a transcript of our conversation.
Also of note, one of the leading critics of RFID, Katherine Albrecht, issued this press release today:
February 5, 2004
German RFID Scandal: Hidden devices, unkillable tags found in Metro
Future Store
Germans say, "Nein! We wont be your versuchskaninchen"
"We won't be your versuchskaninchen." That's the message German privacy
advocates are sending to executives at the Metro Future Store in
Rheinberg, Germany after discovering RFID devices hidden in the store's
loyalty cards. They also found that RFID tags on products sold at the
store cannot be completely deactivated after purchase, despite Metro's
claims.
"Versuchskaninchen" is the German word for guinea pig, which is how
German consumers feel Metro and its partners have treated them since
opening the Future Store last year to test experimental RFID
applications on live shoppers.
The revelations came just one day after Katherine Albrecht, founder and
director of CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and
Numbering) toured the Future Store with a delegation of privacy experts
from German advocacy group FoeBud, who sponsored her visit.
"We were shocked to find RFID tags in Metro's 'Payback' loyalty card,"
said Albrecht, after FoeBuD tested the cards with an RFID reader and
discovered the tag. "The card application form, brochures, and signage
at the store made no mention of the embedded technology and Metro
executives spent several hours showing us the store without telling us
about it."
"In retrospect, it's no wonder store employees appeared nervous when we
asked to take a few of the cards with us," she added.
Vendors of RFID-enabled loyalty cards promote them as a way for
supermarkets to identify shoppers remotely as they enter the store,
using details of their identity and purchase history to pitch products
to them and to track their movements and activities within the store.
Prior to the Metro discovery, no major retailer had publicly admitted to
using such cards.
In addition to the cards, Albrecht discovered that Metro cannot
deactivate the unique identification number contained in RFID tags in
products it sells. The use of unique, item-level ID numbers is one of
the key privacy concerns surrounding the use of RFID tags on consumer
goods.
"Customers are misled into believing that the tags can be killed at a
special deactivation kiosk, but the kiosk only rewrites a portion of the
tag, while leaving the unique ID number intact," she said.
Outraged German citizens are calling on Metro to put an immediate end to
the trials.
"We are deeply disappointed at the Metro executives. They talked of an
open dialog while hiding important facts from us," said Rena Tangens of
FoeBuD. "We are calling for an immediate moratorium on further RFID
testing as it is clear that Metro is not handling the technology
responsibly."
Evidence of the RFID tag in Metro's "Payback" loyalty card, along with
evidence of the incomplete deactivation of product tags, can be found on
FoeBuD's website at http://www.foebud.org/rfid/.
Slashdot Mirror
...It's technology that Google has had a hand in funding. The Project Glass connection is because the researchers used Project Glass as an example in their paper. Google may be able to use the technology, but it has not been included in the Glass software.
Google Funds Fashion Recognition Research
http://www.informationweek.com/security/privacy/google-funds-fashion-recognition-researc/240150399
Apparently the Chinese government has backpedaled on its backpedaling: The Green Dam mandate stands.
It's likely however that the government will change its mind at the last minute. There's precedent for brinkmanship in negotiations over cyber security rules in China.
I was one of the two reporters in that interview and we both were surprised by Croll's comment. We were just contacted by Apple to say that what we heard (or what we both thought we heard) was not the fully story. The real story is:
An Apple spokesperson seeking to clarify Croll's statement indicated that ZFS would be available as a limited option, but not as the default file system."
Further detail:
It's only available as a read only option from the command line.
We're still trying to find out what this means, but a correction is coming.
>If this is just an organization and editing program, then how is this any different than iPhoto?
For one thing, I'd expect that Apple's online print service will actually process orders of studio-quality photos if the order is sent through Aperture. Apple makes it very difficult to order prints from iPhoto if they look like they came from a professional photographer -- Apple's print service assumes you're violating the photographer's copyright. (Granted that most pros would not work through Apple's online service.)
For photos that don't look amateur, Apple's print service wants you to sign a copyright form to indeminfying them and affirm that you in fact have the right to reproduce the photo being ordered. The process is not very efficient -- they lost the form I faxed them twice after I ordered some headshots of my wife taken by a friend (who's a pro and gave me the files). It took me more than a month to get them to send me the pictures I ordered.
...for advertising security software.
A Slashdot post will get you traffic, if you have a site linked to your user id. That's not the case with Digg. Ergo, Slashdot wins. It gives you more for participating. For Web site owners, traffic has real value.
I interviewed Dr. Vint Cerf and Karl Auerbach about Internet goverance and alternate roots recently. Not surprisingly, Cerf wasn't a fan of alternate roots. Auerbach, however, has some provocative things to say on the subject.
I interviewed Vint Cerf, who yesterday coincidentally was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, about U.S. control of the Net earlier in the week.
Act now and we'll throw in food, shelter, a stable power supply, and tech support for one year or the rest of your life, whichever comes first.
The purpose of calling for federal regulation is to keep costs down, not to protect privacy. Some companies are actually interested in protecting privacy because failure to do imposes costs. HP is particularly good in this regard in that it lets customers access their data. The companies you have to watch out for are the ones with business models that depend on selling personal information.
There are successful devices that play video. They include the PSP and the Gameboy. That's where Apple should be headed with the iPod.
Pump up the volume and open the windows. It won't reach 30 miles but it's free of licensing restrictions (zoning restrictions are another matter), at least until the RIAA figures out how to collect for public performances on roads.
The details are in the paper, but basically the theory goes that an economic solution generates accepted communication that might otherwise not happen, some of which might generate commerce.
This is in contract to a perfect filter which gets it right but doesn't support communication that might not have happened.
Why would a spammer put up a bond? Because without it, the mail would be blocked. No bond, no mail.
As a reporter for a technology publication, I find Graham's points to be rather overwrought. He makes it sounds as if every story in the mainstream press was ghostwritten by a PR agency.
No doubt the PR agencies have a hand in launching many stories, but far more of their pitches fail than get picked up. I get anywhere from 50 to 100 pitches a day via E-mail (not to mention phone calls). I write maybe one or two stories a day. Sometimes the story begins with a pitch, sometimes not.
And when a story does arise from a PR pitch, there's no guarantee the agency will be pleased with the results. Reporters generally do talk to a range of sources and not all say things PR reps like.
No doubt there are a lot of rewritten press releases that get published as news. That's true of mainstream press sites and of blogs. Sometimes the press release says it all. And sometimes time or resource or editorial ambition constraints prevent a more substantive analysis.
Graham cites fashion stories as an example of the mainstream press's lack of initiative. Please. Is he expecting a Pulitzer from the fashion and lifestyle pages? Is that much worse than the gear-porn stories so common in the tech industry? (He should have condemned those who covered Enron...that's a case where the spin really did some damage.)
Sure, there's lots of feel-good or sensationalist fluff out there. But that's what people prefer to read. How else to explain the popularity of titles like People?
Every journalist dreams of getting a hold of a great story, but they're rare. Not everyone is approached by an inside source with nation-shaking revelations. And it's hard to find such people by cold-calling. Nor do most publications have the reources to fund a thorough investigation of a particular practice or industry. Be grateful we still see some from time to time.
Graham writes, "Whatever its flaws, the writing you find online is authentic. It's not mystery meat cooked up out of scraps of pitch letters and press releases, and pressed into molds of zippy journalese. It's people writing what they think."
Well, I think it's a stretch to condemn the entire mainstream press as inauthentic based on a few stories born of PR. I'd also venture to say that much of the writing I find online is suspect. Is someone's review of some book or CD on Amazon somehow more worthy of trust than one penned by a reviewer for the NY Times (who got the book for free from a PR agency)?
Graham talks about people writing what they think. Usually, their thoughts begin with a link to a story in the mainstream press.
The best bloggers are good reporters. If reporters happen to use facts that originated with a PR agency, that shouldn't be a problem as long as efforts are made to consider the reliability of the data.
Despite the fact that Wired Magazine's online content is located at www.wired.com/wired/, these are different publications. Wired News is owned by Lycos, Inc. Wired Magazine is owned by The Condé Nast Publications Inc.
It's a bit like confusing Time and High Times.
HBO and PBS offer all the TV worth watching. If the rest of the industry shrivels and dies, maybe Donald Trump will go back to private life.
I spoke with IDC for a short article I'm writing on this release for InformationWeek. The difference between IDC's figures (32%) and those of anti-spam vendors like Brightmail (63%) comes from the sample. IDC's sample included internal corporate mail sent by respondents to each other. As might be expected, mail sent from employee to employee tends to include fewer mentions of Viagra. Brightmail's statistics are based on mail traversing the Net.
Maybe suing your customers isn't the best way to keep their business?
These were field tested extensively on The Prisoner, as can be seen from the picture.
If you're a Gates or a Getty and you walk into the Prada store, you'll expect damn good service with or without an RFID tag. Stores with massive margins don't need technology; they need fawning, supplicant employees who can flatter customers into coughing up $6000 for a handbag.
Also of note, one of the leading critics of RFID, Katherine Albrecht, issued this press release today:
February 5, 2004
German RFID Scandal: Hidden devices, unkillable tags found in Metro Future Store Germans say, "Nein! We wont be your versuchskaninchen"
"We won't be your versuchskaninchen." That's the message German privacy advocates are sending to executives at the Metro Future Store in Rheinberg, Germany after discovering RFID devices hidden in the store's loyalty cards. They also found that RFID tags on products sold at the store cannot be completely deactivated after purchase, despite Metro's claims.
"Versuchskaninchen" is the German word for guinea pig, which is how German consumers feel Metro and its partners have treated them since opening the Future Store last year to test experimental RFID applications on live shoppers.
The revelations came just one day after Katherine Albrecht, founder and director of CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) toured the Future Store with a delegation of privacy experts from German advocacy group FoeBud, who sponsored her visit.
"We were shocked to find RFID tags in Metro's 'Payback' loyalty card," said Albrecht, after FoeBuD tested the cards with an RFID reader and discovered the tag. "The card application form, brochures, and signage at the store made no mention of the embedded technology and Metro executives spent several hours showing us the store without telling us about it."
"In retrospect, it's no wonder store employees appeared nervous when we asked to take a few of the cards with us," she added.
Vendors of RFID-enabled loyalty cards promote them as a way for supermarkets to identify shoppers remotely as they enter the store, using details of their identity and purchase history to pitch products to them and to track their movements and activities within the store. Prior to the Metro discovery, no major retailer had publicly admitted to using such cards.
In addition to the cards, Albrecht discovered that Metro cannot deactivate the unique identification number contained in RFID tags in products it sells. The use of unique, item-level ID numbers is one of the key privacy concerns surrounding the use of RFID tags on consumer goods.
"Customers are misled into believing that the tags can be killed at a special deactivation kiosk, but the kiosk only rewrites a portion of the tag, while leaving the unique ID number intact," she said.
Outraged German citizens are calling on Metro to put an immediate end to the trials.
"We are deeply disappointed at the Metro executives. They talked of an open dialog while hiding important facts from us," said Rena Tangens of FoeBuD. "We are calling for an immediate moratorium on further RFID testing as it is clear that Metro is not handling the technology responsibly."
Evidence of the RFID tag in Metro's "Payback" loyalty card, along with evidence of the incomplete deactivation of product tags, can be found on FoeBuD's website at http://www.foebud.org/rfid/.
CEO Outsourcing
So why haven't CDs killed concerts?
And CDs have better sound than most concerts (though increasingly concerts are pre-recorded and musicians just pretend to play and sing).
Oh, and concerts for big acts cost five times as much or more these days.