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Where leaping to conclusions is my primary form of forward motion.
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Economic Sledgehammer
Reverse Engineering is Illegal via DMCA
DOA -- Freedom to Tinker
Protecting Your Identity
Replacing the Wired Infrastructure
Retro -- The Good Ole Days
NYC -- Privacy and Common Sense
Friday, April 11, 2003
10,000 Drones
An amazing tidbit about Google from Bob Cringely. I had no idea it worked liked this.
04/10/03: Out of the Mouths of Dogs. This week, Bob shares random thoughts—beginning with those of his dog, Gilmore.[...] First there is Google, which runs four enormous data centers around the world containing in excess of 10,000 servers. It is the largest Linux cluster of all, and is constructed entirely of generic beige box PCs interconnected by 10/100 Ethernet. These are not racks and racks of state-of-the-art blade servers, just el cheapo PCs. So the magic must be in the software.
Now here is the part that sticks in my mind: the fault tolerant nature of the cluster is such that if a machine fails, the other machines simply take over its functions. As a result, whenever a server fails at Google, THEY DO NOTHING. They don't replace the broken machine. They don't remove the broken machine. They don't even turn it off. In an army of drones, it isn't worth the cost of labor to locate and replace the bad machines. Hundreds, maybe thousands of machines lie dead, uncounted among the 10,000 plus. [...] [I, Cringely @ PBS Online]
Thursday, April 10, 2003
Economic Sledgehammer
As an addendum to the previous post, direct reverse engineering has always been illegal, and the DMCA hasn't changed that. The engineers who developed the x86 clones went to great lengths to do so in clean environments and to avoid any contamination that could be construed as misappropriation of trade secrets or theft. They did this as a direct result of laws that were already on the books exacting severe penalties for such behavior. We did not need the DMCA to protect companies from theft by direct reverse engineering.DMCA extends these severe criminal penalties to the acts of merely discussing such things, investigating them via legitimate research, and engaging in almost any activity that the copyright holder deems to expose his "intellectual property" regardless of whether it causes actual harm or not. Thankfully, the courts have yet to uphold a conviction where no harm has been found and there are those in the legal community who claim this as evidence the DMCA is acceptable and functional law.
These "unbiased" advocates of the DMCA blithely overlook the effects of economic penalty imposed on defendants when a law is structured, as the DMCA, to make them guilty until proven innocent. It is the economic sledgehammer aspect of the DMCA that is most damaging to users and individuals, for it prevents innovation by stifling the willingness to speak, act, or promote any function that may draw a copyright holder's ire.
Reverse Engineering is Illegal via DMCA
According to this InfoWorld article U.S. District Court Judge Richard Stearns has thrown out a preemptive lawsuit that would have protected the reverse engineering research of Benjamin Edelman, a student fellow at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. Nothing new here, nothing unexpected. But I have to ask -- just where would we be if all those engineers who founded AMD, Cyrix, Cypress, and others had been imprisoned or driven to bankruptcy for reverse engineering the x86 architecture?Would the PC revolution have spread so far, so fast? The last time I looked Intel had a $100+ billion market capitalization, $26 billion in net revenues, and $3+ billion in net income. They certainly don't seem to have suffered from competitive reverse engineering. Certainly, they had to work harder to stay ahead, but that's what capitalism and competition is about. It is not about buying off lawmakers to put your competition in jail.
Had the DMCA been in effect 20 years ago there would be no PC revolution, and the losers would have been the users, buyers, and individuals -- the same groups being damaged today by the DMCA.
Judge dismisses DMCA challenge. Reverse-engineering not protected [InfoWorld: Top News]
DOA -- Freedom to Tinker
Not to be confused with Freedom to Tinker the weblog, our real freedom to tinker is being destroyed by the Copyright Cabal and their monetary hold on the political and judicial systems. I wrote about this XBox controversy, and the potential damage it could do, a couple of months ago. I have no doubt that this prediction in the Register article will come true:
[...] However, one thing is certain; the sentence will send an extremely powerful message to anyone else involved in the production or sale of Xbox mod chips in the USA (so far, the attempts of the US Department of Justice to extend the reach of the DMCA beyond its borders have - thankfully - been a failure). Expect a lot of mod chip projects and websites to quietly disappear in the next few days. [The Register]
Wherever one may stand on the issue of applying property rights to technology, it is difficult to argue in favor of laws that strip all property rights away from the legal purchasers of equipment. That's what the DMCA does. I have also noticed since my earlier post that aftermarket manufacturers in several large industries -- including printers and automotive -- are rightfully scared of a full-scale onslaught that will come from manufacturers now that there is a precedent for establishing a legal monopoly in virtually any industry by simply invoking the DMCA.
The DMCA is very bad law -- not a good law that can be misused, but a law that has almost no legitimate use that wasn't already provided by existing laws. Its sole purpose was to establish a draconian environment managed by copyright holders to the direct detriment of users, buyers, and individuals.
Electrical engineering is a crime. Not that we need more proof of the overreaching nature of the DMCA, but there it is. So David Rocci produces and sells "mod" chips for the XBox and gets five months in prison, five months of home detention and a $28,500 fine. Sure, that makes sense, particularly when compared to violent criminals who receive lesser sentences. [algorhythm]
Protecting Your Identity
Here are some good tips for protecting your privacy in both the virtual and physical worlds. I'm pretty cautious about these things but there are a couple of ideas here I hadn't considered, so I figured this list was worth mentioning. I've reposted it in its entirety from Phil's weblog.
Tips for Protecting Your Identity.Much is made of the potential for identity theft in online transactions, but the truth is that the vast majority occurs due to meat-space activities that are much simpler to pull off. I ran across a set of ideas on how to protect your identity and thought they'd be good to record. Some of them are obvious, at least to me, but they probably aren't to everyone. I don't know who the author was. Here they are, edited and augmented by me:
[Windley's Enterprise Computing Weblog]
- When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, do not put the complete account number on the "For" line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check processing channels won't have access to it. This is more difficult to do if you use Quicken or some other electronic bill paying mechanism. I've often wished the credit card companies would give me a separate account number from my credit card number.
- Put your work or cell phone number on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a PO Box use that instead of your home address. Never have your Social Security Number printed on your checks.
- Shred bills, credit offers, bank statements and other correspondence that may contain personally identifying information. This keeps people from rummaging through your trash to gather information that may come in handy for stealing your identity.
- Mail bills and anything else that contains a check or account numbers in a drop box rather than leaving it in your mailbox for the mailman to pick up. Even better, start paying your bills electronically. This prevents thieves from stealing your outgoing mail and using the checks or account numbers.
- Photocopy the important items from your wallet, remembering to get both sides of each license, credit card, etc. Keep the photocopies in a safe place. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. make sure you have those phone numbers with this information.
- I also carry a photocopy of my passport when I travel either here or abroad. Its probably not a bad idea to keep a photocopy of your driver's license with you when you travel as well in case it gets lost. You might be able to get on a plane and get home with it.
- If your wallet is stolen, its important to cancel your credit cards immediately and notify your DMV and the Social Security administration (if you carry your Social Security card in your wallet---I do not for obvious reasons).
- If your wallet or purse is stolen, file a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where it was stolen, this proves to credit providers you were diligent, and is a first step toward an investigation. There likely won't be one, but you established a record nonetheless.
- Call the three national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and Social Security number. The alert will notify any company that checks your credit that your information was stolen and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit. This will keep thieves from opening new numbers in your name, signing up for cell service, etc. It can stop them in their tracks. The numbers are:
- Equifax: 1-800-525-6285
- Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742
- Trans Union: 1-800-680-7289
- Social Security Administration (fraud line): 1-800-269-0271
- Keep copies of all your correspondence with credit card companies. credit reporting agencies, and the government after your information is stolen.
Replacing the Wired Infrastructure
Very encouraging announcement from the WiMAX group. With recent FCC decisions supporting monopoly broadcaster and telco privileges at the expense of consumer rights and technology advancements it's difficult to stay upbeat about the future of the Internet and connectivity in general. But this ComputerWorld article provides some hope in the form of technology developments and technical direction from major producers of wide-area wireless equipment for the 802.16 standard.It looks like WiMAX could provide viable, affordable wide-area wireless backbone connectivity within a couple of years. Though the telco and cable monopolies will put everything they have into preventing, co-opting, or slowing the spread of this technology, it is our only real hope for getting to the affordable 2-way Internet connectivity we need.
The day I can dump my relationship with brain-damaged companies like BellSouth and Sprint and get all my connectivity through EarthLink will be a great day indeed. With luck the WiMAX stuff will get deployed before the FCC mandates let BellSouth toss EarthLink out of their copper network and I have to start paying triple prices for 1/3 the service.
Dropping MAN Pricing. Customer equipment for wireless broadband could drop to $30 in a few years with 802.16: Good insight on the WiMAX announcement by Intel, Nokia, Proxim, Alvarion, and others to form an interoperable standard around 802.16a. The interoperability reduces the cost of developing and proving proprietary extensions. Uses of 802.16a will include T-1 replacement and backhaul service to hot spots. [Wi-Fi Networking News]
Saturday, April 5, 2003
Retro -- The Good Ole Days
I remember once finding a cache of cir.1960 Playboy magazines at a place I worked. I was much younger but even then I thought they were wonderful. No, not for the articles. For the art. It was classic stuff, combining sensuality and femininity with a touch of naughty humor that's a far cry from the harsh biology which innudates us today. I wish I'd kept them.But thanks to Patrick I found the retro art of Gil Elvgren. Gil did a wonderful job of capturing the innocence of a time that seems so long ago. When did we lose our taste for nuance, euphemism, and imagination?
This is probably old news,.
but for your Cartoonist it's brand new. Old Pulp cover magazines, pin ups, vintage racing photos and much more, all nicely assembled in various galleries at WorldWideRetro. [The Cartoonist] [Ye Olde Phart]
NYC -- Privacy and Common Sense
Dan Gillmor reports on an unnerving episode at a Manhattan hotel, and since I'm headed there tomorrow it caught my attention. It's hard to balance legitimate security needs and personal freedom and I'm not sure there is a perfect answer. But I am quite sure we've swung way over the line, with a power-mongering police state chomping at the bit to demonstrate just how grand their "protection" efforts are.
Driver's license? Oops. Sorry. I forgot it.
Social Security card? Sorry, never carry it.
How about my AAA card? Will that do?
privacy in hotel.Dan Gilmor: "Have you stayed in New York lately and been forced to hand over your ID for "safe-keeping" or photocopying? Or anywhere else?" [Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog]
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