News: Protecting the Unprotectable

By | November 24, 2011
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 However much they spend, Microsoft don’t seem to be able to fend off the hackers. A new version of its Reader — designed to allow users of the handheld device to read copyright protected versions of ebooks, while ensuring they don’t copy the ebooks or do thing with them they’re not supposed to — has been hacked within days of its release, according to my friend Jerry Justianto, who runs a blog on the subject.
 
 
He says the digital rights management scheme (DRM for short) was a major upgrade, but has gone the way of its predecessors, courtesy of an updated version of Convert Lit, a very small program (32K), which was sent to him anonymously. The program, he says, will either remove the DRM encryption or it will explode the ebook into an unprotected version or an HTML file that can be read in a normal browser, complete with pictures.
 
Jerry is scathing about the update. He points out that Microsoft are effectively forcing users to get the upgrade even though it includes no major new features — except the security ones — and will require many users to re-register their hardware in order to keep using it. Check out what Microsoft itself says of the upgrade. Neither Jerry or I condone breaking the law, but this tug of war between producer and hacker has got to stop. It’s a waste of time for everybody, and the money could be better spent not trying to limit what we users do with our possessions. Your views, as ever, are welcome.
 

Software: Calypso becomes Courier

By | November 24, 2011
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 I’ve been a huge fan of Calypso, an email program that’s simple, highly fiddle-able, and small. Unfortunately its producers, MCS of Dallas, dropped it a few years back leaving a lot of users in the lurch. I’m still using it, however, despite its quirks under Windows XP, and am very glad to see that another company, Rose City Software, has reintroduced it as Courier 3.5. They promise new features — like “Color Markers” to help organize messages — and a cheap upgrade for Calypso users ($20 against $30 for the full thing.)
 
I’ve yet to try it out yet, but I’m glad to see that software as good as Calypso doesn’t always just die off. I’ll review Courier in a future posting.
 

News: The Next Big Thing: Mobs

By | November 24, 2011
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 Wired reports on the arrival of flash mobs — “performance art projects involving large groups of people. Mobilized by e-mail, a mob suddenly materializes in a public place, acts out according to some loose instructions, and then melts away as quickly as it formed”.
 
 
Last Wednesday a mob turned up at the Grand Hyatt in New York, “walked quietly upstairs to the hotel’s mezzanine and gathered shoulder-to-shoulder around the balcony,” according to Wired. It then burst into thunderous, screaming applause for 15 seconds and dispersed, just as the police turned up in force.
 
Hmm. Sounds a great idea, depending on what the mobs actually do once they gather, although I would have thought SMS might be a better way to spread the word. Where I come from a mob gathers at the drop of a hat — or cry of ‘thief’ — and usually doesn’t disperse until summary justice has been dispensed. E-mail doesn’t have anything to do with it. Nor does art, come to think of it.
 

News: mobile phones and the decline of society

By | November 24, 2011
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Mobile phones make you rude
 
 
 From the excellent Techdirt website, a collection of stories about how rude we are getting with our mobile phones: “Yet another study about mobile phone rudeness (going along with the one we posted earlier this week has determined that a stunning 71% of people are now consistently late for social events because they can reschedule at the last minute with their mobile phones. 70% say they’ve completely canceled meetings at the very last minute using their mobile phone, and 78% say they’ve gotten out of “awkward situations” by sending a text message rather than calling. From the sound of this, it appears to be focused on the UK, where text messaging is a lot more popular than the US. Also, the study found that 89% of people think others need to have better etiquette when using a mobile phone. Yet another example of the way mobile phones are changing the way people go about their day (not always for the better).”
 
Couldn’t agree more.

Note: ToolButton responds on privacy

By | November 24, 2011
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 Further to my note on the interesting news toolbar ToolButton.  I’ve heard back from ToolButton Inc’s Deb Alloway on the issue of privacy, and here’s her answer:
 
“While a user has the ToolButton toolbar installed we collect stats on the activity of their ToolButton toolbar.  For example, we will know which buttons they have installed, the menu items they use, the number of times they do a search, etc. We do not track any activity done outside of the functions of the ToolButton toolbar. Another example would be if you did a search for “cats”.  We would know you searched for “cats” but that is all.  We can’t tell which web site you visited from there or any other activity.”
 
The only problem I can see with this is that over time, that information would reveal quite a lot about the individual user. Say you’d searched for medical terms, or cars, or brands of diapers, quite a thorough picture of your family would be available to ToolButton for marketing purposes. Given that each ToolButton would have to have a unique user ID that information would end up being quite specific.
 
Lastly, a general thought: it’s quite sad that most folk nowadays, burned by spam and other sleazy marketing devices, don’t trust products like this anymore. I suppose in some ways the companies concerned have only themselves to blame, but abusing Internet users’ trust in the heady early days. My survey of about 100 friends and contacts for Plaxo revealed that nearly all of them considered it a marketing scam. Thoughts, anyone?