phoenixTech

Why Apple doesn't allow multi-tasking on the iPhone

2008-03-15T16:56:00.000-07:00

Of all the SDK limitations that Apple imposed on its new iPhone SDK, the one that seems to irk developers the most is the limitation on running background processes. While the ability to run in the background is a fundamental part of programming for Windows or Mac, Apple is trying to make the point that developing for the phone is quite different from developing for a PC. So here are 3 reasons why Apple made the right decision:

1) Its clear that mobile apps should conserve battery and bandwidth. There's an limited upside to multitasking on the phone.

2) Extending the API to include lifecycle management will make the iPhone API more complicated.

3) The network is the computer. Phone developers should make use of the communication protocols built into mobile networks such as SMS, inorder to send and receive notifications.

People are dwelling on #1 but #2 and #3 are more important. The only way to have a large number of high quality, bug-free apps is to have a simple API. Making developers responsible for suspending program execution and persisting program state is really going to increase the probability of bugs. As for communication protocols, it doesn't make sense for independent developers to re-implement them. Your typical GPRS/EDGE/UMTS mobile networks are not really packet-based transports, and designing communication protocols for these kinds of networks are difficult. Apple and the operator will have to standardize on a few communication protocols such as SMS or XMPP, like Google has done with Android.

Developer satisfaction with Android continues to fall

2008-02-28T13:51:00.000-08:00

Round 1 of the Android Contest isn't even over yet, and it seems developers already have plenty to gripe about. At first, it was the Android SDK and simulator, which was buggy and didn't include several important features. This forced Google to respond by releasing an updated SDK one month before the contest was to expire and extending the deadline of contest until April 14th. Now more cracks have begun to appear. Developers on the mailing list have been complaining about the lack of web-based submission system to track their entries. Comments ranged from disappointment to disbelief:

"Maybe google have no time for better support. Maybe they have no resources or idea for this at this time. But I work hard and hope, that we and our work will be treated seriously. "

"So... it seems Google is kind of "unprepared" for this contest... I would assume if Android is such a big deal in Google's mobile strategy, they'd be putting mountains of resources in it to
make sure it reaches the maximum potential"

It is pretty incredible for a company, whose business is to create webapps, not to have a web-based submission of their own for contests. Especially one as important as Android. This is raising questions about Google's priorities considering it recently announced a competition for sending robots to the moon, with the total prize money being three times that of the Android prize.

Should Apple sell 3rd party iPhone apps via ITunes

2008-02-16T14:04:00.000-08:00

Wired is suggesting that apps for iPhones developed using Apple's official SDK will be sold on iTunes. Just like how iPod touch users can buy the 1.1.3 maps, emails apps from iTunes store. While there is no confirmation yet, if Apple goes ahead, it will position the iPhone app platform as a serious alternative to the Android platform. There are numerous benefits to developers:

1. Apps can make real money and not just pie-in-the sky advertising dollars (which is as low as $0.15 CPM for facebook apps).

2. Apple will create a directory for apps and possibly vet them for quality and trustworthiness. Conversely, this will mean that to succeed any app must be approved by Apple.

3. No stupid apps or app spam because people won't pay real money for them. Instead of contrived metrics like "number of daily active users", iTunes can use the number of paying customers and their average feedback. Smart developers will let users try their apps for free, and the willingness to pay is the best measure of quality.

4. Successful apps will be able to demonstrate their commercial potential and get funding to release on other platforms such as Android or Windows Mobile or J2Me. Android is offering prizes of $20,000 - $100,000 to developers, but winning a prize from a committee of technologists doesn't demonstrate market acceptance.

This could really be a huge development for the mobile industry. Up until now, a few games companies like Jamdat mobile has monopolized the development of games for cellphones, which imo range from the trivial to the infantile. Operators have been unwilling to sign deals with developers without the "right" pedigree and the "right" set of ideas. This is about openness and open markets succeeding where walled gardens and planned economies have failed.

Roll your own MMO (ROMMO)

2008-01-21T14:52:00.000-08:00

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/01/would-you-play.html

NASA is doing its own MMO. This must mean an opensource MMO engine either already exists or will soon exist. Its time for Roll your own MMO or ROMMO. A way for programmers with god-complexes to create their own worlds and impose their own rules on unsuspecting users who have been lured with friendly viral invitations. This will be much better than Facebook at wasting developers and users' time. On top of that each world creator will be able to design his or her own virtual currency, which will soon make everyone richer and richer, in a virtual sense.

Google Gangs up on Facebook but Microsoft and Yahoo waiting

2007-11-03T11:53:00.001-07:00

Now that MySpace and Bebo has joined Google's party, it seems that OpenSocial is most interesting for who it excludes: Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo. Why should Microsoft and Yahoo be included, after all they don't have any social networks. Neither does Oracle, but they are still part of Google's tribal council.

OpenSocial is cool and all, but its just an umbrella for every type of social networking site out there: from the silly to the business-minded. Facebook by making their development platform proprietary, also created an ecosystem for younger developers with new ideas to flourish. If any web site can be ported to the OpenSocial platform to run on all social networks, old web giants like Amazon and Ebay can retake their deserved place on the top of the web hierarchy. I am sure Amazon will be happy to combine their recommendations database with your social networking data.

But don't expect the outcasts of OpenSocial to stay on the sidelines for long. In the midst of all this excitement over Social Networking platforms and Google's attempt to standardize on html and javascipt, people have forgotten about Instant Messaging, a communications service that has more users than Myspace or Facebook.

For years Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL have talked about using standards to integrate their IM networks. But they have been extremely slowly to carry through, probably realizing their networks are worth more when they are kept separate. Now that Social Networking has eclipsed IM as the cool technology, expect a deal from Microsoft and Yahoo, one that excludes Google of course since no-one uses Google Talk. A linkup between MSN Messenger - Yahoo Messenger - Facebook, that would really shake up the game.

Google OpenSocial not everything its made out to be

2007-10-31T11:42:00.000-07:00

TechCrunch was first to break the story, Google plans open an API alliance for Social Networks: Orkut, Salesforce, LinkedIn, Ning, Hi5, Plaxo, Friendster, Viadeo and Oracle. While the media is chalking this up as a Facebook killer, its really Google trying to play catch-up. There's at least 2 huge problems with a federated approach to social network platforms.

1) Every network has it own culture: from a developer perspective that's ten times worse than each network having its own API! Worse because technical problems can be overcome with more technology and more investment, but if your desired audience is fragmented across multiple social networks, you are not going to get traction.

2) Multiple identities: millions of people belong to one or more of these networks but using different identities. I am not talking about the software problem of mapping your identity from one network to another. I am saying I keep my Friendster and my LinkedIn identities separate for good reasons. And the last thing I want is some app from some unknown 3rd party provider being able to connect the dots.

On the other hand, this is very good for Facebook developers. Now, your facebook app can offer you the option of pulling in data from any other social network. You no longer even have to leave Facebook.

Its should also be great for consumers and thats where Google deserves the credit. If it is done right, hopefully consumers won't have to enter the same data twice, using different interfaces. If Google cares about privacy consumers will have full control over how data is used. Hopefully, what it doesn't become is an ad network that can spy on you regardless of which social network
you are using.

Facebook Haters

2007-10-15T22:09:00.000-07:00

Facebook fan-boys face-off against Jason Calcanis
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/11/facebook-debate-valuation-value-to-developers-and-random-ad-hominem-attacks/

Another post by over-the-hill Facebook Haters.
http://venturebeat.com/2007/10/04/life-after-facebook-the-future-of-social-networking/

Even though I think Facebook is more quantity than quality, these people's comments clearly label them as Facebook haters. Here are the common "gripes" directed at Facebook

1) Facebook is a fad

Yeah, so was Youtube and Blogger. Facebook may be on every news cover, but it doesn't change the fact that 50 million young (and some not so so young) people have signed up for the site and emptied out their relationship data.

2) Facebook is not innovative technology

I am not even going to compare FB to other web2 sites, because frankly Facebook has lot more technology than most other web2 sites that were hailed as innovative when they first launched (Ie. you vote on user-submitted links but we don't call it voting!).

Facebook is not Google and likely will never have as many brains as Google does. But Facebook is the new platform for developers, just ask the people who created 5500 new applications in the space of a few months.

3) Facebook is not the next Google / MySpace / AOL

See above

3) Facebook is over-valued

No comment there.

4) Facebook won't find a job for me / find a date for me / butter my toast / ....

Facebook still reminds me of a dorm network for college kids, and if you are too old to care then go some f*** place else!

Vista Sucks!

2007-08-31T13:59:00.000-07:00

If you have been using Vista and it has been sucking, go to Live.com (run by Microsoft) and register your dis-satisfaction by searching for 'Vista Sucks'.

Phoenix Tech from Palm

2007-08-07T16:55:00.000-07:00

Palm is preparing to release Foleo, a "email companion" that is essentially a subnotebook running Linux. It will cost around 500 dollars and weigh 2 and half pounds. The picture shows Foleo compared to a Treo and a Nokia Tablet. This product category has been pretty boring since the 90's and PC Magazine was big. Nowadays there are much smaller and more expensive mini PCs like the OQO.

But the Foleo does have some interesting software built in: including free software for remotely accessing your PC. Here's a snapshot of Foleo talking to Windows XP:

But overall its too expensive. Since it doesn't replace your notebook, its just a toy. And if you are just playing around, you might as well get Opera for Nintendo DS for 50 bucks.

Google's GPhone

2007-08-04T23:01:00.000-07:00

A report filed by the analyst from Singapore claims to spill the dirt on Google's rumored GPhone. It will run Linux and be available in Spring 2008. The hardware will be outsourced to HTC and it will have a QWERTY keypad. The phone will have new a killer app: mobile advertising that pays for your phone calls.

Don't know if these details are accurate or final: but the phone specs don't live up to Google's reputation for creating revolutionary applications and services. HTC makes many phones for the asian market with QWERTY keypads and many have a surprisingly poor tactile response. The original GPhone will not be 3G, which will be a disappointment given that people will be buying the phone for Google's browser and web services.

However if Google figures out a new way of writing apps for the phone they could disrupt the exisitng market. Java or J2ME is standard for most phones but its not useful for writing anything other than poky games. Sun is now touting their new JavaFX mobile at JavaOne, but Google could steal the market from Sun by doing it right the first time.

'Phoenix' Mars Lander takes off

2007-08-04T22:48:00.000-07:00

Phoenix tech from NASA: the 3rd attempt at a Mars lander will takeoff for Mars. In May 2008, the lander will arrive on the polar ice caps of the red planet. It will dig up samples of the ice and soil and search for complex organic molecules that could be signs of life on Mars.

TechCrunch 9

2007-07-28T20:42:00.000-07:00

This years TechCrunch party was blast. Its my first year attending, and thanks for Enoch for inviting me. Demos, geeks, mini hambugers ... everything you'd expect at a Silicon Valley party for the web2.0 crowd. Just want to go over a couple of demos that I liked: CoComment V2 and and profil.es.

CoComment is the well-known site for tracking comments on blogs and webpages. With V2, there is slicker easier to use interface and the ability to invite your friends to join any conversation. Profil.es lets you create a graphical profile that you can link to by including their javascript. The profile can be customized for each site to give the proper impression.

Stanford E-Day

2007-07-22T12:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I went back to my alma mater for 'E-Day', its an open house with Stanford Engineering professors doing cutting edge research. This year's focus was on advances in Bio and Medical engineering. There were many excellent sessions ranging from medical procedures in zero gravity to one on how to boost the creatvitiy of entrepreneurs. The head of Stanford Technology Ventures Program, challenged attendees to think creatively about how one can start a business with only 5 dollars and make money! Undergrads at the university were able to do it and turn a nice profit of a few hundred dollars.

One of the most interesting talks was on brain engineering done with pinpoint precision by using lasers to target individual neurons. The key lies in apply genetic engineering to control a neuron's recepitivity to different wavelengths of light, and then using laser to deliver the stimulus. This breakthrough could lead to new ways of understanding depression or Parkinson's diseases. Hereis a link to New Scientist article that talks about the same discovery which was jointly done at Stanford and the University of Frankfurt.

6 things wrong with iPhone

2007-06-27T12:46:00.000-07:00

Now that journalists are falling over themselves to praise the new iPhone from Apple. Its time to debunk the hype. Here's 6 things wrong with the iPhone.

6) Touch-screen keyboard sucks. A good slide-out keyboard is much better idea like the new models from Helio or Samsung.

5) No apps download, so no crappy J2ME games. But realy what was Apple thinking? On a crappy 2.5G network connecting to Internet is crapshoot at best. Now they want you to use applications online?

4) The camera is circa 2006: 2 megapixels and no iFlash.

3) Only works with iTunes and no memory card slot. Here Apple is still ahead of Nokia because they insist on using RealPlayer. But how does experience compare to dedicated music phones like Sony Ericsson's walkman phone?

2) Surfing with anything less than 3.5G nowadays is literally a waste of time. I havent seen't the browser but I tried the latest browsers from Opera and Nokia with the same capabilities.

1) Actually makes it harder to pick up the phone and call someone.

disclaimer: I never tried the iPhone, so this is all hearsay.

More on using Selenium and Rails

2007-06-10T20:48:00.000-07:00

After attending the Silicon Valley Ruby Conference and seeing the Selenium, the open-source web-testing framework in action, I decided to give it a try. Selenium makes it easy to write test scripts using a macro language done in pure javascript. Here's a sample script in "Selenese" that performs a login action.

|open|/news||
|type|user_screen_name|johnny|
|type|user_password|password|
|click|commit||

If you ignore the '|' which is a separator, its just plain english. If you don't want to manually type in Selenese, you can download Selenium IDE, a macro recorder that converts your actions into test scripts. You can also take a look at this excellent screencast.

So far so good, you can automate tests in just 2 steps: 1) Use macro recorder to record a script 2) run the script as a test. But you still need to verify the results of your tests. Selenium can parse the contents of a webpage using regular expressions or XPATH. Eg. to verify that the login test passed, you can search for the phrase "Welcome, XXXXXX".

The real question is whether Selenium can test all aspects of your website. The answer is yes, but you probably don't want to do it that way. Selenium is a pure javascript framework so there are somethings it cannot do. It cannot fill in the upload box of a javascript form because of security restrictions. It cannot access state variables such as the session or the database because it runs only in your browser. See my last post on Pivotal Labs: they have created a Rails plugin which runs Selenium in a separate process and allows full access to Rails framework. But it is necessary? I don't think so -- at least not for me.

Lets not forget, Selenium is designed to run inside the browser so it can test the user experience. You want to verify that the user's actions produce the correct results in the browser and not just in the database. All this requires a little bit of creativity and some javascript. Take the case where the user registers and receives an email with confirmation code. Selenium can fill out the user registration form but can't see the email. So I add a test-only method that will render the email message as a HTML page.

Test Script
1) User registers as "bob@yahoo.copm"
2) Call test method to render email message for "bob@yahoo.com"
3) Use javascript to extract registration code of "XXXXX"
4) Goto page /user/confirm?code=XXXXX
5) Verify user is shown his new profile page

The entire test takes place inside the browser. The best part is there is no need to run Selenium in a separate process. Executing the test is very simple (checkout Selenium on Rails), open testrunner in your browser and run your test suite. I have been able to do all of testing using a simple setup. There are scenarios that are difficult to test, eg. uploading files as I mentioned earlier. But some of that you can do inside functional or unit tests. Overall, I have found Selenium to be an indepensible piece of the testing suite, precisely because it tests what matters to your end-users, what they see in their browser.

Google patents 'evil'

2007-05-12T11:40:00.000-07:00

Google has a filed a patent on a in-gaming advertising system that would collect information on a player's behavior and use it to serve up in-game advertising. Take for example, an online game like World of Warcraft. Google would monitor a player's interaction with other players and monsters

"to characterise the user (eg literate, profane, blunt or polite, quiet etc). Also, user play may be used to characterise the user (eg cautious, risk-taker, aggressive, non-confrontational, stealthy, honest, cooperative, uncooperative, etc)."

This might be helpful when AdSense tries to choose between serving you ads for Viagra or Prozac. It could also be combined with what Google knows about you from searches and the stuff in your email to create a profile that would be invaluable to advertisers. Of course, Google has stressed that it is only filing a patent at this time and that no such system is planned.

A patent by definition is a defensive right: it only allows you to prevent others from using your technology and it doesn't give you a right to profit from your invention. So this patent could also be a way for Google to sue 'evil-doers' who build such a system to spy on you. However, businesses usually file patents so they can their stake claim to a piece of lucrative future technologies.

All in all, its good to know that Google still has 'evil' on its mind.

2nd Annual Silicon Valley Ruby Conference

2007-04-23T14:02:00.000-07:00

After a nearly a year without writing any more posts, I am ready to start again. From now, my blog will more tech-focused because I am currently building a new website and also because I plan to spend a lot more time with Ruby on Rails. There is just so much new stuff going on in the Rails + Ruby community, that it makes web development fun again. Fortunately, I was able to spend the weekend at the Silicon Valley Ruby conference with around 100 other ruby geeks who were discussing the latest ideas in the community. What's even more amazing is that more than 50 of them got up before 8:00a on Sunday morning to attend the conference.

Many of speakers were experienced Rubyists from Pivotal Labs, Twittr, and Sun Microsystems but there were also local Ruby programmers who had contributed their own gems to the community. There was chronic, a library which parses dates entered in english eg. "next monday at 5:00pm" and mofo which makes it easier to output your website data in a microformat.

My 2 favorite talks of the conference were about Selenium and JRuby. Selenium is an open-source framework that 'automates' the testing of webapps. Like a macro language for websites, Selenium can be programmed to click at your site, type on the forms and test the html for the expected result. By combining Selenium with Rails, Pivotal Labs has made it possible to concurrently test your website and check values in the database or in the session. Think of a testcase that creates a new user: your test script you tells Selenium to automatically enter the username and email through your web ui . From the same test script, you then verify that the new user was created in the database. The ability to do everything with a single test script looks very cool but it seemed a bit complicated to setup.

I was also impressed by the talk given by the JRuby team at Sun. JRuby is a Ruby interpreter written in Java instead of C++. So you can use JRuby as a scripting language for Java or call JRuby from Ruby (using distributed Ruby, drb) and even run rails inside an Apache Tomcat container. If you are like me, then you are wondering whether all the extra layers is just waste of memory or CPU cycles. Performance is still a problem when if you are run Rails on JRuby on Tomcat, but it does seem that the overall performance of JRuby is getting better. The Sun team reported that JRuby is running roughly 1.5 slower than CRuby, and that the performance will improve for the 1.0 release which is coming in June. This is pretty exciting news for Ruby programmers who have come over from the Java side.

The logic of YouTube's numbers

2006-06-30T03:28:00.000-07:00

By now, most people have heard of YouTube and its extraordinary growth in popularity. According to the latest stats, 50 million clips are downloaded every day on their site. Sounds like a lot but what does it really mean.

Thinking about it, I decided to compare YouTube to the top television shows on American broadcast TV. The Nielsen ratings measure how many households watch a particular TV show during every week.

So suppose, Youtube was a TV show which showed nothing but cool clips. Lets say it was a weekly hour-long show, which only has 42 minutes of programming (wikipedia). By my own estimate, the average "popular" clip on Youtube is 150secs so an hour-long program would be able to show 17 clips.

At 50 million clips a day or 350 million clips per week, that is equal to 20.5 million viewer-hours a week. Now for a little bit of guestimating ... In the Nielsen rating system, the US has 110 million households. Even though there's 300 million people in the US, lets say only 250 million could watch TV (except the very old, very young, etc).

That means 1 household = 2.27 viewers and YouTube's 20.5 million viewer hours comes out to 9 million households. That would put it right between 'American Inventor' and '24'

17	DEAL OR NO DEAL 3/22(S)	NBC	8:00PM Wed	8.9	14.0	9,806,000
18	CBS NCAA POST GUN SU 2(S)	CBS	7:31PM Sun	8.5	15.0	9,353,000
19	24	FOX	9:00PM Mon	8.3	12.0	9,160,000
20	AMERICAN INVENTOR	ABC	9:00PM Thu	8.0	12.0	8,783,000

*from Yahoo Nielsen ratings

The conclusion is that if the entire YouTube Network was a single TV show it would barely be in the top 20. It is growing fast, but it has a long ways to go before it will overtake any TV network.

BBC and the Chinese Cybercops

2006-05-14T09:35:00.000-07:00

The BBC has been lauded for their experiments with participatory "we" media but here's a side of the story you won't hear. Try to post a comment on their forum with the words "crap" as in Tony Blair has done a lot of crap or "suck" as in Animal Rightists suck, and you will automatically be censored by their software. I just noticed the BBC and the Chinese Cybercops are united in their goal to keep the Internet a 'civilized' place by censoring content.

Jock is arrested after beating up nerd

2006-04-25T08:46:00.000-07:00

Chicago Bears defensive back Ricky Manning is arrested after an altercation at a Denny's in LA. According to police reports, Manning and his companions verbally abused a "nerd" who was using a laptop and then beat him unconscious after he complained... It shocks me that anyone is still being beaten up for using a notebook computer. As punishment, Manning should be ordered to wear "nerd glasses" for the rest of the season.

Robosapien this!

2006-03-31T06:53:00.000-08:00

VStone Tetsu-Jin

Coolest robot toy I've seen yet. Don't know which cartoon it appeared in, but it looks awfully familiar. It is expected to cost $3000 US, but hey I'd rather get this than a PC running Windows Vista.

Microsoft Turds explode

2006-03-27T06:39:00.000-08:00

Microsoft admitting delays for Windows Vista and Office, and employees go ballistic
http://minimsft.blogspot.com/2006/03/vista-2007-fire-leadership-now.html

Its the French Revolution with rabble rousers calling for the heads of James Allchin and Steve Balmer. I am quite amazed at their reaction. It must be quite difficult to overhaul an OS like Windows XP, so the delay is not extra-ordinary. Besides, people have known for a long time Vista was going to be a piece of crap, with nothing more than fancy 3d interfaces to show for billions of dollars invested. So Microsofties can whine and bitch all they want, while the rest of the world innovates around them.

Email2.0 : Yahoo Mail Beta

2006-01-22T19:10:00.000-08:00

I have been trying out Yahoo Mail Beta for the past couple of days, and I thought I would blog my first impressions. First of all, I was pleased that the beta version didn't have any serious bugs --- I was a little afraid it would crash my browser or slow down my network connection.

Since the new Yahoo Mail is Ajaxified, it works more like a desktop email client than the typical webmail client. In other words, clicking on UI controls dynamically updates parts of the page rather than reloading the entire thing. The most noticeable difference for the user is the ability to scan through messages by displaying the contents in a preview panel (just like Outlook or Eudora). This makes it quite a bit easier to sort through the daily email and spam deluge. Of course, Ajax would not be very useful if loading the preview took as long as loading the whole page. So my second concern was performance.

So far so good, most message previews loaded within a second. Scrolling through the folder contents is not as smooth as on a desktop because you will frequently see "loading..." messages as the web browser makes a round-trip back to the server. However, I didn't find the delay to be annoying. One thing to keep in mind is that Yahoo Mail is still in limited beta so the servers haven't be stressed to their capacity yet. One thing that I am curious about is whether Yahoo caches information in the browser's memory or in the cookies to reduce the number of round trips to the server.

Most features work as expected, the search functionality was readily available. Uses can use the left panel to access their folders, although there are no Gmail like tagging features. Yahoo's RSS reader is also accessible although Calendar and Notepad default back to their webmail counterparts. Unfortunately, their RSS reader is just a fill-in as it seemed to be more of a skeleton than a full-featured reader like Bloglines. However the potential is definitely there. The same applies for the entire Yahoo Mail beta -- the potential is definitely there. Right now, it tries too hard to emulate a desktop client. There are definitely times when I felt it should be more flexible, like a website. For example, to show a mail message in a full window, the user has to double-click on a message. However, I half expected there to be a convenient link or button that would expand the preview panel to a full-size window.

Yahoo Mail Beta
Useability: 4/5
Performance: 4/5
Innovativeness: 2/5

Nowadays every website is constantly in beta and there seems to be no new versions or software releases anymore. However, I think Yahoo will have to continue to work on the concept of a AJAX mail client so that it combines the best of both worlds: desktop and the web. There is plenty of competition to spur them on: for example Zimbra, another web2.0 email client, allows mashups within messages, so the message could invoke web services to show a map or the latest price of a product. There's lot of ways to update email, what we are really talking about here is Email 2.0.

Switch to Linux by 2007 or else!

2006-01-07T03:19:00.000-08:00

Unknown to many users, Microsoft has a put in place a program of phasing out support for popular versions of their software, just in time to get you to pay for the next version. So get ready for this -- Microsoft will no longer offer security updates for Windows XP Home ater 2006:

From a Micosoft spokesperson:
"For consumer products, security updates will be available through the end of the mainstream phase. For Windows XP Home Edition, there will be no security updates after 12/31/06." Regarding paid support for problems unrelated to security patches, I was told that "Users who want to continue to receive support after the Microsoft assisted and paid support offerings have ended may visit the Retired Product Support Options Web site."

This is particularly strange given that Windows Vista may not be ready until the end of 2006. Anyway, I have no plans to upgrade to Vista so it looks like I should get ready to dump Windows altogether by 2007.

Machinama Documentary Takes on Paris Riots

2005-12-12T00:34:00.000-08:00

An independent filmmaker in France has used "The Movie" video game to make a documentary about the recent Paris riots. It presents a side of the riots that hasn't been heard in the mainstream media, and is suprisingly evocative despite the limited emotions of the game characters.

"The French Democracy"

Hong Kong cracks down on BitTorrent.

2005-11-07T23:17:00.000-08:00

Hong Kong made headlines a few months ago by arresting a local man for sharing 3 movies via BitTorrent. Now the courts have imposed a 3 month prison sentence on this hapless movie uploader even though he was not trying to profit from his activity. While, Hong Kong is eager to prove that it values Intellectual Property, there is no doubt this penalty is too harsh. A fine would have been more than enough to get the government's point across. I wonder where the Government's priorities are when everyday I get email spam, cell phone spam and fax spam and they prefer to make headlines rather than to regulate IT for the good of the Hong Kong.

Legend of Prester John

2005-11-02T08:29:00.000-08:00

Map linked from http://www.friesian.com

This is totally unrelated to tech, but still a fascinating story. The story of Prester John began in 12th century Europe as a letter sent to the pope about a great Christian emperor in the East, who was beseiged by infidels. Although, the story is a myth, it may have been loosely based on historical figures. One such person is Yelu Ta-Shih, an emperor of the Western Liao Dynasty. The Liao Dynasty was founded by Khitans, who were of Central Asian descent, and who ruled over northeastern China in the 10th and 11th centuries. Iin the 12th century they were forced back into Central Asia. (the green state in the upper left corner of the map).

What makes the Western Liao dynasty a possible source of the Prester John legend, is the fact that many Khitan elites were Christians of the Nestorian sect, as Prester John supposedly was; although, not all of their subjects were Christians. Many were Muslim or Buddhists, and through contact with the Sung Dynasty China, the Khitans had been sinicized and even adopted many Confucian practices. Thus, like the legend of Prester John, the state of Western Liao was an unusual combination of Central Asian, Chinese and Christian culture.

Ultimately, the Western Liao dynasty was conquered by Mongols in the year 1218. So, although Western Europe sent missions searching for this legendary empire, it never found it.

Fish Brains

2005-10-08T09:02:00.000-07:00

Scientists in the UK create robotic fish which look and behave like real fish, using artificial intelligence to sense the environment around them and to navigate a fish tank in an aquarium. I remember something from Science Class about fish having small brains. Maybe a fish is the animal closest to a robot.

Internet Mapping in China

2005-09-24T00:03:00.000-07:00

Baidu releases internet map of China with AJAX controls. Unfortunately, The level of map detail in most places is still pretty low. Currently Google has satelite images but not street level maps. If you are in Hong Kong I suggest trying out Centamap or YP Hong Kong. My favorite for HK is Centamap, because it can show public transportation or restaurants directly on the map.

Microsoft changes leadership but is it enough?

2005-09-23T23:52:00.000-07:00

This week, Microsoft announced a re-organization into 3 new divisions, with the big change being James Allchin will retire after Windows Vista is scheduled to be released in 2006. With a flurry of Microsoft executives and distinguished engineers leaving for Google, it seems there is something rotten in Redmond. Here are 2 news stories that caught my attention:

Microsoft quashes study that showed MSN search quality has become less competitive
Serious problems with Longhorn codebase led Microsoft to drop WinFS.

Here no evil, See no evil

2005-09-11T08:06:00.000-07:00

The latest Yahoo episode where company founder Jerry Yang confirmed it was just complying with local laws by providing information which led to the arrest of a Chinese journalist got me thinking. If Google has a cool slogan like "Don't be Evil" than Yahoo needs one too. I suggest "Hear no Evil, See no Evil". Instead of 3 monkeys with the hands over the eyes, ears and mouths; it can feature Terry, Jerry and David.

Firefox less stable than IE?

2005-08-16T07:01:00.000-07:00

Has firefox become less stable than IE? I have been using firefox for more than 6 months and it has totally improved my web browsing experience, but lately it has been crashing 2 to 3 times a week. I am running v1.06 with the following extensions (adblock, ieView, pdfDownload, sessionSaver, and flashBlock).

Checking the mozilla developers page, I found a bug for "adblock + flashblock". This would probably explain most of the strange behavior. This also highlights one of the difficulties with firefox, the ability to add extensions also adds bugs and security problems (Greasemonkey). However, I couldn't do without adblock and flashblock which block most of the annoying ads. So for now, my best solution is to use SessionSaver which saves all of the open tabs and I don't lose the pages when the browser crashes.

Filed under: firefox, mozilla bugs

PS: Firefox locked up when I was writing this post, while visting the link about Greasemonkey (although I haven't able to reproduce this crash). Unfortunately 1.06 is looking less stable than 1.05.

High School Hackers Charged With Felonies

2005-08-12T07:55:00.000-07:00

School District IT administrators in Kutztown, PA have gone to the police to deal with 13 high-school kids who repeatedly hacked into the school IT system. The problem is these kids weren't trying to unleash a virus or change their grades; they were just trying to circumvent the school's lame security system. Their malicious acts? downloading iChat and making IT administrators look stupid.

When did "kids not following the computer-lab rules" become a crime. 10 years ago the computer teacher would yell you at or maybe in the worst case you could get detention or suspension. High school kids have always been using computers to do what they were told not to, ever since the first Apple computer was installed in a classroom.

Filed Under: edtech

Running linux on your ipod

2005-08-08T07:55:00.000-07:00

There is linux for the iPod, Nintendo DS and PSP. Also check out the picture of Doom running on an iPod.

Filed under: Linux, iPod

Indiana schools go Linux

2005-08-08T07:50:00.000-07:00

Schools in Indiana are trying out Linspire, a commercial version of Linux that includes a Windows-like GUI. Eventually, every kid in the state could end up using Linux in the school. Schools in Korea and Norway also doing linux trials.

Filed under: Linux, OSS

Fun facts about the 10th planet

2005-08-01T06:35:00.000-07:00

Scientist at Caltech claim to discover the 10th planet. Apparently there is still some debate over whether it should count as a planet or as a really cold rock orbiting around the sun. The rest of the planets in the solar system are named after Greek/Roman gods ie. Jupiter and Mercury. However, the scientists have proposed to name the planet 'Xena' after the Xena Warrior Princess. Here are some other tidbits about the 10th planet

The planet is 3 times as far away from the Sun as Pluto and a year on planet 'Xena' lasts 204,000 days.
The Scientists were planning to keep 'Xena' secret for a little longer until Hackers found out and threatened to leak it to the press.

Filed under: Xena, Astronomy

Help make OS/2 Open Source

2005-07-21T06:35:00.000-07:00

OS/2 fans are circulating a web petition asking IBM to make OS/2 open source. I remember using OS/2 from 1992 - 1996, back when it was only "true multitasking os running dos". Back in the old days, Windows would run dos programs in protected mode, rather than a separate 32-bit memory space. OS/2 was more reliable and more stable than Windows. Unfortunately, there were never a significant number of apps writtern for OS/2 and the operating system slowly faded away. Of course, as we now know, Microsoft used its *Monopoly* power to make sure new PC always shipped with windows.

iTunes may add music videos

2005-07-19T07:47:00.000-07:00

Apple, reportedly, in talks with labels to license music videos for its iTunes music store. This has led to speculation that Apple will develop a iPod for playing videos, since other manufacturers now lead the way with portable video players. Back in May, Steve Jobs strongly denied he has any plans to add such a product. He cited the small screen size and battery life as the main reasons.

Filed under: iPod, iTunes

Fujistu develops bendable color display (ePaper)

2005-07-13T10:08:00.000-07:00

This has been predicted for quite some time, but its still pretty amazing. EPaper is a display technology that retains an image without power making it more like paper than a CRT or an LCD. The Sony Librie is a device that uses ePaper to create an EBook that runs for months on a few AAs. The Sony Librie was BW but Fujistu has released a color ePaper that is also bendable. Pictures from Akhibara News shows it being used as a poster or as a sign. Imagine when they are so cheap that people can print labels with ePaper and have it change along with contents. Or how about boxes made out of ePaper, now thats interesting packaging.

Google Maps Recommendations

2005-07-12T07:30:00.000-07:00

(updated 22/01/2006)

Some new map hacks:

Hot-or-not maps: geo-dating!
Area 51: satelite images + overlays
SR-71 spotting: quite amusing --- the SR71 blackbird captured in satelite images

Check out beenmapped.com, it lets users bookmark cool places. There have been other sites that have found great Google Satelite images but this site includes a good interface and a top 10 list. I particularly like the map of the Forbidden City in Beijing. Apparently from 50 miles up, it looks kinda like the design of a computer chip. Someone should also bookmark satelite images of the Great Wall and other wonders.

Other Google map hacks that I like

Calculate walking distance
Wifi Map
Rental listings on Craigslist

You can also find other map hacks, here, here, and here.

Filed under: Google, Maps

Patent Initiative Rejected

2005-07-06T07:59:00.000-07:00

In a suprise move, European parliament strikes down directive on Software Patents. The directive would have introducted US style software patents to Europe. To learn more about the issue, check out No Software Patents.org.

The End of Innovation

2005-07-02T21:44:00.000-07:00

I thought the world was past apocalytic predictions like the End of History is coming, but a new study by a physicist at the Pentagon predicts the end of innovation. The study is based on counting the number of great innovations per billion people. So, the GIPB has gone from a peak of 20, reached in 1800, to a measly 7. If the trend continues, we will back to a medieval pace by 2024. The article from New Scientists also includes a number of objections form prominent scientists, centered around the criteria of a great innovation. Hueber uses a book called the history of science and technology as his reference. I guess we will find if he is right or not, because 2024 is less than 20 years away. For my part, I always wondered why subjects like Physics and Chemistry have seemed to stagnate in modern times.

Filed under: innovation, technology, prediction

Man vs. Machine Round 2

2005-07-01T19:11:00.000-07:00

British Grandmaster is soundly defeated by Hydra, a next generation chess machine, which was using only 32 out of its 64 clusters. Hydra won 5 games and the 6th was a draw.

Open Source Webpage Editor released

2005-07-01T04:05:00.000-07:00

Version 1 of Nvu released. It is oss and based on Mozilla Composer.

Ronald Reagan Greatest American of All Time

2005-06-29T21:00:00.000-07:00

Result of Time survey on the 100 greatest Americans.

Indian Government to distribute open source

2005-06-23T20:13:00.000-07:00

The Indian government plans to release at least 7 million CDs with firefox and open office.

Programming Jobs

2005-06-20T19:43:00.000-07:00

Another doom and gloom forecast from the Gartner Group. Most of it is pretty old. When I was graduating (1998), nearly half of engineering grads considered jobs in consulting and other non-tech areas.

What's more relevant is the fact that CS enrollment rates have dropped to 60% of 2000 level. McKinsey predicts a worldwide shortage in highly qualified engineers a few years down the road, as opposed to a surplus of accountants.

IMHO, the Gartner group is really doing the US a disservice. A few years down the road, Microsoft and Oracle will have trouble hiring all of the programmers that it needs and will have no choice but to look abroad.

Firefox profitable?

2005-06-08T06:36:00.000-07:00

It turns out Firefox is making $30 million per year off google search box. Wonder how much they are getting from yahoo?

Palm moving to linux?

2005-05-28T20:44:00.000-07:00

A lot turmoil at PalmOne, as they are thinking about changing their name back to Palm. However, they are considering a shift to a Open-Source OS, possible Linux.

tags: linuxpda, palm

Nokia Internet Tablet

2005-05-25T06:48:00.000-07:00

Update: Pictures of Pepper Pad at C3 Expo

Nokia just announced they will be releasing a tablet computer running Linux that can connect through Wifi/Bluetooth. If ideas are already running through your mind, you can check out their website for developers. Their announcement also reminded me of the Pepper Pad, another soon-to-be released tablet PC running Montavista linux. According to the WSJ, Nokia's tablet will sell for around $350 while the Pepper Pad will cost $800. However, the Pepper Pad has a larger screen and packs more computing power. A quick comparison of the two tablets.

Device	Nokia Tablet	Pepper Pad
Availability	Q3 2005	June 28, 2005
Price	~$350	$799 (through Amazon)
CPU	???	Intel XScale (624 Mhz)
Screen	4" (800*480)	8.4" (800*600)
Memory	64mb, 128mb(flash)	256mb, 16mb(flash)
HD	???	20GB
Software	Linux	Monta Vista Linux Mozilla Browser
Connectivity	802.11b/g bluetooth	802.11b bluetooth
Input	Touch-Screen	Touch-Screen Pepper-Pad (seeimage)
Weight	0.5lbs	2.3lbs
Size	141 x 79 x 19 mm	302 * 165 * 20 mm

filed under: maemo, mobile, nokia770, pepperPad

The Real Star Wars

2005-05-25T00:37:00.000-07:00

Microsoft to release it's own mapping software called MSN Virtual Earth to counter Google Earth. Website contains preview of slanty satelite pictures.

Why Mailing Lists / BBs needs Tags

2005-05-23T20:19:00.000-07:00

I am currently subscribed to the OpenOffice developer's mailing list, and it sucks because the mail stream consists of:

Re: Issue X -> Re: Re: Issue X (x50) -> Re: Issue Y ...

Even if my mail program compressed it to Re: Issue X, Re: Re: Issue X, Re: Issue Y, ... it would still be confusing because the majority of posts would be just titled 'a reply to post X'. My proposed solution is that every post should have a permalink to a BB webpage, and users should be able to tag posts.

That way, if I want to know everything about problems with Java in the next release of Open Office, I can just subscribe to the tag 'java' either through email or through RSS. Thats another thing, giving the people the option to subscribe through email or RSS. I suspect some people will prefer email while others will be used to getting their daily update through a reader.

PhoenixTechBlog Yahoo Group

2005-05-21T23:34:00.000-07:00

I created a new Yahoo group for this blog, so people can read blog postings through email. You can take a look at my group homepage or subscribe to the mailing list.

Cool Tool from Ikea

2005-05-21T22:50:00.000-07:00

Ikea lets you download a program to plan your office furniture.

Google pulls web accelerator / McGoogle?

2005-05-12T00:03:00.000-07:00

After a flurry of complaints about Google's web accelerator, it was officially moved back to pre-beta status. A good post from a VC about how Google is too big, like a McDonalds or a Starbucks. While IMO Google's web accelerator was pulled because it broke many websites (see controvery about GET vs POST). It does illustrate that Google doesn't have much of a release process for its "beta" products. It seems to me, anything that a Google engineer has thrown together can be put onto web, without a long chain of approvals. Having worked at a big bay area software company, I can understand why Google doesn't want to involve multiple levels of management with every new feature. Unfortunately, Google will have to grow up and act more responsibily post-IPO. So, let Joe around the corner experiment with the next great web-service and Larry and Sergey can just whip out their checkbooks if they have a problem with it.

Evil Google

2005-05-06T07:59:00.000-07:00

An article about how Google's web accelerator can bring up other folk's password protected pages. There's something seriously wrong with the idea of Google's web accelerator. Even if Google's servers are twice as fast as your average website, just think: the more you access Google's cache instead of the original site, the more investment will be directed building servers for Google instead of the Internet. Do you really want to be using the Google network instead of the Internet? A world where Google knows everything you do online and then uses it to determine what content is most relevant for you? Every morning, you sign onto the Google Network and then get your search, your mail and your webpages from Google. Then you go home and see what Google Video has downloaded onto your Tivo. While you are watching a video hosted by Google, you use your cell phone Google function to find the nearest Pizza delivery. Ah, just enough time to use Google Chat to find your friends...

This is something worth thinking about while you are brushing your teeth, and also while you pause for your webpages to download.

Blocking Google Ads (part 2)

2005-05-03T08:21:00.000-07:00

Just a week ago, I wrote that I will soon find Google ads annoying enough to block them. Then today I started getting Google Ads in my Engadget feed: 1 ad for each summary. I don't mind ads when they show maybe once every 10 times, but a 1:1 ratio greatly distracts me from reading the feed. So I quickly used adblock to filter our image ads from Google. Probably some GreaseMonkey script will do the same.

Firefox tops 10%

2005-04-28T21:44:00.000-07:00

I've seen reports saying Firefox makes up 8.5% of the browser market. But then today I saw a report from Janco that Firefox in April topped 10%. I don't know whether they are counting page views or unique visitors but I wouldn't be surprised if Firefox accounts for more than 10% of the page views on the Internet.

Perpendicular Recording

2005-04-27T19:20:00.000-07:00

Informative article on perpendicular recording.

Microsoft and SAP ties

2005-04-26T08:35:00.000-07:00

During the Oracle anti-trust, there was a big bruhaha when Microsoft testified it had discussed buying SAP. Although, that hasn't happened yet the two companies are now working together to integrate Office and SAP's ERP system. Microsoft and SAP are no 1. and no. 3 in the software world so an alliance between them could mean a whole new Win-SAP monopoly.

Blocking Google Ads

2005-04-24T22:37:00.000-07:00

I decided not to use Greasemonkey or Adblock to block Google ads for 2 reasons: 1) They are displayed using only non-flashing text 2) They support independent web publishers and bloggers. However, Google has decided to sell animated ads and to let advertisers control the position of ads. Looks like it won't be long before I start blocking ads from Google.

Greasemonkey and blocking ads

2005-04-23T07:25:00.000-07:00

Next, I installed a Greasemonkey script for blocking the ads in the right hand column of CNN articles. Quite good because it displays more of the article per page. Instead of finding scripts for each website, I installed the adblock extension for mozilla. It allows you to filter out ad images by their URL address. After installing, I noticed an noticeable improvement in my surfing. Today I improved my surfing speed by 2x: by blocking ads and using the windows host file for DNS caching (using a freeware program called CIP). I must say: I haven't enjoyed surfing this much since I got DSL.

Greasmonkey script for Amazon downloads

2005-04-22T19:23:00.000-07:00

Finally installed Greasemonkey. Couldn't resist this script for simplifying free downloads form Amazon's music store.

Consolidation in the software industry

2005-04-20T08:45:00.000-07:00

According to WSJ (Sorry no link) the top 5 independent software companies are

1. Microsoft
2. Oracle
3. SAP
4. CA
5. Adobe

The list doesn't include InfoSys and Electronic Arts, which I guess the WSJ doesn't count as independent software companies. What is interesting is that after the Adobe+Macromedia merger and the Symantec+Veritas merger, the list should look like this:

1. Microsoft
2. Oracle
3. SAP
4. Symantec+Veritas
5. Adobe+Macromedia
6. CA

The next company in terms of market cap would be Intuit ($7.7b) and after that its all niche software companies ie. Autodesk, Verisign and Checkpoint. Is this going to be the list of top-tier software companies or are there other big mergers in the works?

Sony's virtual marketplace

2005-04-20T05:29:00.000-07:00

Sony will start a website to allow people to sell and exchange virtual items. According to the article, Sony orginally fiercely opposed to the market in virtual goods but have now decided to get behind it. It was already starting to get weird when companies began hiring people from the 3rd world to play video games for money; however, Sony's latest move is just plain stupid. If Sony is going to run and profit from the primary marketplace for virtual goods, what's going to stop them from skewing the generation of virtual items inorder to manipulate the market. Lets see, not enough people trading --- just make level 30 armor twice as rare... Also, how does it mean anything to have a really uber character because you bought all of your items. I don't know why anybody would want to play in a world like that.

Mini Revolt @Microsoft

2005-04-20T01:45:00.000-07:00

Mr. Lenn Pryor (Robert Scoble's former manager) has left Microsoft for Skype, apparently to write software that is actually used and makes people happy. Another blogger at Microsoft complains about the malaise at the company.

$100 17" Displays

2005-04-17T04:03:00.000-07:00

Prices are coming down on 19" displays, so buyers are advised to wait. The forecast is for $100 17" displays by 2008.

Google Maps adds Satelite Images

2005-04-05T08:36:00.000-07:00

More hours of Google fun, now you can search for satelite images of the earth.

A Major blow to Computer Science in the US

2005-04-02T01:17:00.000-08:00

If you ever worked as a research assistant in Computer Science departments at American universities, you'd know a lot of research funding comes from DARPA or Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. A lot of CS research projects get funding from DARPA even though their work isn't remotely related to Defense. Still, it pays for a lot of interesting and valuable research.

Now, the defense department is cutting back on the funding[reg req'd] of basic research in CS. Funding will now focus on military projects that have well-defined 'deliverables'. Also, some projects will require all graduate researchers to have US citizenships. This is not surprising given the nature of the research, but you will have to keep in mind some 60% of CS grad students are foreign. Unless some other US agency makes for the shortfall in funding, CS research in the US is likely to suffer.

How can Google beat Microsoft?

2005-03-27T09:03:00.000-08:00

Interesting article on competition in the Search Industry. It focuses on Microsoft vs Google and in particular on the need to develop a API for search. It recommends Google go all out to develop and control the platform for search. I think the author presents a very drastic view of competition against Microsoft: Slash and burn your own farms and retreat to the hills kind of mentality.

Some great quotes though ... In all of Microsofts successful battles, it has used the same strategies. It undercuts its competitors in pricing, unifies previously separate markets, provides open but proprietary APIs, and bundles new functions into platforms it already dominates. Once it has acquired control over an industry standard, it invades neighboring markets.

The author contends that because Microsoft controls the browser and the productivity apps, it can easily leverage it to gain dominance of the developers platform for search. While this is possible, he ignores the inroads that open source has made against Microsoft on the desktop. Microsoft certainly has a lot of potential weapons but it could also face attacks on many fronts. So my question comes down to: is Microsoft like the Roman empire or is it more like the Mongol Horde combined with the discpline of the Borg?

Pictures of Asimo

2005-03-27T07:39:00.000-08:00

DSC00066
Originally uploaded by phoenixTech.

Took pictures of Asimo when I visited Tokyo recently. He is on display at the 66 building in Roppongi. Also check out a clip of Asimo running.

Remix Culture

2005-03-24T06:27:00.000-08:00

Interview with Lawrence Lessig, professor @Stanford, on the concept of remix culture. A culture of modifying and mixing rich media: audio, video or source code; just as we have the freedom to quote and comment on written text.

He compares media companies to the citizens of the country of the blind (from Time Machine) who decide the solution to their blindness is to blind anyone who can see. He also comments on the upcoming Supreme court hearing on Grokster which could end up outlawing P2P.

Barry DIller buys Ask Jeeves?

2005-03-20T19:33:00.000-08:00

InterActive in talks to acquire Ask Jeeves for $1.9 billion. Didn't know the butler was so much. InterActive owns Expedia, Ticketmaster and Match.com so I guess it makes sense: A butler isn't much use unless he can get the hottest tickets and help you find a date :)

Also, Yahoo to acquire Flickr.

The future of P2P hangs in the balance...

2005-03-16T08:19:00.000-08:00

The case between MGM and Grokster is going all the way to the Supreme Court on march 29th. I hope Grokster wins because I am more interested in the legitimate uses of P2P than searching for music, videos. I just used BitTorrent to download Fedora Core because the FTP servers for Suse Linux was way too slow. Distributing Linux Distros, Open Source Software, legal music and videos (like the videos from CeBIT) are a just few examples of legitimate and beneficial uses of P2P.

Video Coverage of CeBIT

2005-03-15T07:04:00.000-08:00

Good idea, Charbax has provided video coverage of CeBIT by strapping a camera to his head(?). You can download the videos through torrent. The ones I've downloaded have looked pretty good although, you have to twist your neck to watch it. I don't know if he needed the permission of CeBIT to do this, but I love to see video coverage of other events such as Comdex. Personally, I think the event organizers should be paying him to do it.

European Adopts Software Patents

2005-03-07T21:49:00.000-08:00

After quite a fight from anti-patent activists in Europe, the EU has adopted software patents. It came as a surprise because a few countries in Europe still remained opposed to the idea. Earlier, I was thinking that Europe without software patents could become the next hotbed of innovation...

Low Cost 3-D Displays

2005-03-07T21:38:00.000-08:00

Nice pictures of the "GeoWall" system, a low cost approach to build large 3-D displays.

Pretty Good Perimeter Security [Originally published Feb 16]

2005-03-06T09:02:00.000-08:00

I've been checking out a new security appliance from Novell, that combines a firewall with a virus scanner [btw I don't work for Novell or related companies!]. It comes as a software package, running on Linux, or as a stand-alone appliance. Even before I saw this product (and I think there must be others just like it), I thought that combining a firewall with a virus scanner would be pretty good perimeter security for most office networks. The firewall catches unauthorized traffic and the virus scanner catches email and browser viruses/spyware. As far I can tell, it works by scanning all files that have been downloaded from the Internet through email or through HTTP.

I think any network which doesn't have protection equivalent to a firewall/virus scanner at the perimeter is basically a sitting duck. You can't trust users to scan all of their files, and once they downloaded a piece of malware into your network, your firewall becomes almost useless. Unfortunately securing the network doesn't end there because most software programs contain bugs which make them succeptible through other means.

Spy vs Spy [originally published Feb 19]

2005-03-06T08:58:00.000-08:00

Congress is ready to pass a bill banning spyware, phishing and other unwelcome malware, by requiring these programs to display a screen which asks for you consent.before collecting information. There are several problems with the text of this proposed law. The first question is will the law make a difference? I am going to simplify the issue by dividing spyware into 2 categories 1) crap people download voluntarily 2) crap that just shows up on your computer. I would say Kazaa and other p2p programs belong to category 1. People already know that these programs collect information about you but has that stopped millions of people from using them.

The law would make phishing and keystroke-logging malware illegal, but the threat of legal prosecution clearly hasn't stopped spammers and other cyber-pirates. So it makes me wonder if this law will change anything in reality. My second problem is with the clear exception for anti-piracy spyware. Software companies are allowed to discreetly collect information from your computer if it is solely with the intent of fighting piracy. If the purpose of the law is to let users know how companies are collecting information about them, why can't anti-piracy initiatives properly inform the user before doing so? For those who think this lack of discretion would undermine the fight against piracy, I would like to point out most programs today don't have any snooping-based schemes built-in; therefore, we should be carefull before we authorize software companies taking a leap in that direction.

There is a dicussion of the proposed law at TechReview and the full text of the law can be found here.

Reminder to update your passports [originally posted Feb 25]

2005-03-06T08:56:00.000-08:00

If you are a citizens of the 27 countries who are allowed to travel to the US visa- free, here's a suggestion renew your passport as soon as possible. After Oct 2005 (?), all new passports from those countries will have to contain a RFID chip. The problem is, there is no plan to implement an encryption scheme so anyone with a RFID reader will be able to read your passport without your knowledge. You could be standing at the check-in counter, showing your passport to the airline staff and someone next to you, sniffs your identity right off the radio waves. While there is some dispute as to how easy this is, it's certainly doesn't sound very safe. So why not renew your passport before your country slaps a RFID on your and send a friendly email to PassportRules@state.gov and let them know what you think.

Making a living off AdSense

2005-03-06T08:43:00.000-08:00

The author of this blog has revealed that he is making $500 a year off AdSense. According to stats on his website, he gets around 200,000 page views a year so that makes it .25 cents per eyeball. By that estimate, if you were trying to run a self-sufficient website that cost you $20/month in hosting fees, you would need nearly 100,000 page views in a year or 270 page views a day. Some other datapoints: Russell Beattie's weblog and his earnings are around $900 per month off AdSense. Also, aparently communications between Google and Adsense users are supposed to be confidential; I guess even Google can't control everything.

Started Blogging Again

2005-03-06T08:29:00.000-08:00

I moved my blog over from Bloglines, it didn't allow comments and other features. It seems there is no easy way to move my blog other than to manually copy the entries. I've added 10 posts from my old blog, they were originally posted back in February.