At the recent Chaos Communications Congress, Steven J. Murdoch, a researcher in the security group at the University of Cambridge, discussed how clock skew can be used to facilitate a digital attack against anonymity networks. Clock skew, the tendency for a computer’s clock to become less precise when heated, can reduce the efficacy of anonymizers, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Tor network.

Murdoch explains, “When a crystal is manufactured, it has a clock skew, and it’s different for each crystal (throughout its) lifetime.” Tadayoshi Kohno, now an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington, has shown that computers on the internet can be identified by their clock skews, by tracking the timestamps of each machine’s transmitted packets. Clock skew, however, yields up to only 64 separate identifiers, making it an incomplete confirmation tool.

Clock skew has long been a concern of engineers of synchronous network, as it causes the clock signal for system components to arrive at different times; however, Murdoch is the first to take advantage of this hardware fallibility. Murdoch attacked The Onion Router, Tor, an anonymizing network that allows unregistered users to access web sites without identifying themselves. Tor network encrypts web traffic, through multiple servers, creating layers of anonymizing packets, none of which may be decrypted by another node on the Tor network.

Murdoch tested his digital attack by setting up a Tor network server and causing the server to warm up by executing intensive processes. The increase in system temperature caused minor changes in clock skew.

Dave’s Opinion

To understand how clock skew can be used to affect the security of anonymity networks, such as Tor, I think that we must first understand how Tor works. I suggest reviewing the audio recording or transcript of Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte’s Security Now! podcast. Episode 70 of this podcast explains in clear, lucid detail how the Tor network creates anonymity for web users.

Kohno’s theoretical work and Murdoch’s proof of concept attack does not bode well for network security systems, including the GPS and other national digital assets that require precise timings to function properly.

Call for Comments

What do you think? Leave your comments below.

References

Steven J. Murdoch’s notes, Detecting temperature through clock skew – Hot or Not: Defeating anonymity by moniToring clock skew to remotely detect the temperature of a PC

Steven J. Murdoch’s University of Cambridge website

Electronic Frontier Foundation Tor Network

Tadayoshi Kohno’s paper, Remote Physical Device Fingerprinting

Tadayoshi Kohno’s University of Washington website

Steve Gibson & Leo Laporte’s Security Now! Podcast, Achieving Internet Anonymity (episode 70)

Have you recently been receiving messages from a number of new friends? If so, you are either a good person or a one of the millions of spam victims. Experts estimate that 90% of e-mail traffic is spam, and those spammers claiming to be your friend may not really have your best interests at heart.

Why Are We Receiving More Spam?

Spammers are not giving up; in fact, they are getting smarter.

One of the reasons that we are lately receiving more spam is that spammers are diligently working to get past our antispam filters by embedding their messages in graphic images. Antispam filters are effective at reading the content of incoming messages and detecting common telltale word patterns, image spam gets past the keyphrase filters because it does not include ASCII text, only a graphic image. Since last year, the amount of image spam has increased 400%, it now represents almost up to half of all unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE) messages.

BotNets

Spammers also hide their identities and locations by using botnets, remotely-controlled personal computers that have been infected with a malware application and used to transmit the spam messages to their final, intended recipients. An article in Wikipedia states that spammers send 80% of UCE via botnet, sending transmitted 55 billion spam messages each day. While these numbers are unconfirmed, e-mail users generally agree that they get too many spam messages a day.

There Is No Legal Protection

U.S. e-mail users took heart in the federal Can-Spam Act of 2003, which requires UCE senders to properly identify their content and allow users to opt-out of future transmissions; however, much spam is coming from outside of the United States, and the spammers are not beholden to the U.S. law.

What Can We Do?

IronPort offers ten tips to help prevent and reduce the amount of spam that we receive.

1. Don’t open messages from someone that we do not recognize.
2. Don’t respond to spam messages.
3. Don’t click on hyperlinks included in the spam message.
4. Don’t buy from spammers—ever!
5. Don’t use a primary e-mail address; create a secondary e-mail address when submitting an online registration.
6. Don’t believe everything we read.
7. Do use a temporary or one-time-use credit card.
8. Do read security policies.
9. Use an antispam filter, either through our ISP or a standalone application.
10. Do use common sense.

Dave’s Opinion

I receive over 1,000 spam messages to one of my e-mail addresses, alone. If it were not for effective antispam filters, I would be afraid to open my inbox.

Call for Comments

What do you think? Leave your comments below.

References

IronPort Systems Offers the “Do’s and Don’ts” to Avoid Spam Deluge During Holiday Season
Wikipedia, Botnet
Wikipedia, E-mail Spam

The United States Department of Defense and the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence today issued a joint news release announcing a electronic urban battlefield personnel and weapons transportation system, codenamed EUBPAWT (pronounced EUW-paw). The EUBPAWT system utilizes a high-energy quantum mechanical electrical field to quantify the quantum molecular structure of living tissue, which is then spatially transported and interstitially reconstituted.

Initial tests of the EUBPAWT system confirm that reptiles and mammals can be converted to photons of light, transported through a hydrogen gas tube, and delivered, intact, over a distance of up to one statute mile (1.609 km).

Working with research scientists from the Stanford School for Graduate Physics and Engineering, as well as the University of Aberdeen Institute of Advanced Molecular Research, military scientists have successfully tested the EUBPAWT system on soldiers, weighing up to 180 lbs (81.646 kg), successfully quantum transporting them using the flexible gas-tight polycarbonate tube, across a psuedo-urban test environment. without the need to pass through the intervening space. According to Major General W. Herbert Walters, author of the joint military release, “…in plain English, the courageous volunteers stepped into the transporter and were immediately delivered to the reception station. While the laws of quantum mechanics are too complex to include in the announcement, suffice it to say that the soldiers were delivered to the intended destination without passing through the intervening space. One moment they were here, the next they were there.”

Dr. Richard Heisenberg, professor of quantum physics at the Aberdeen laboratory, directed the initial experiments and was present for the successful human test, conducted in the presence of media and peer review committees. Many of the Aberdeen and Stanford research team members were uncertain if the four volunteers would actually survive the proton-hydrogen transport.

Much of the scientists’ incertitude began with Werner Heisenberg, Richard’s namesake, who was the first scientist to realize that certain pairs of measurements have an intrinsic uncertainty associated with them and published his theory, in 1927, in his seminal uncertainty paper. For instance, if you have a very good idea of where something is located, then, to a certain degree, you must have a poor idea of how fast it is moving or in what direction. Now referred to as the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, in effect, the principle states that within the principles of quantum mechanics one can’t measure both the direction and speed of a moving object.

Dave’s Opinion
If you are a long-time reader of my work, you know that I have been following the development of quantum devices for many years. This project appears to be the first equipment created following the rules of quantum mechanics to demonstrate an immediate and useful application of quantum teleportation.

I will keep you informed as I earn more about this device and the application of quantum teleportation, which may provide a safe and effective means of allowing the military forces to traverse the intricate urban landscape surrounding the nuclear weapons facilities built by the Iranian government, just west of Tehran.

Call for Comments
What do you think? Please leave your comments below.

References
US Department of Defense
UK Ministry of Defence

Wikipedia, the popular online reference source for undergraduates and consumers, worldwide, has more than 15 times the number of articles than the well-known Encyclopedia Britannica, the self-proclaimed “world’s most indispensable and reliable reference resource.”

While the Encyclopedia Britannica’s flagship print edition has 65,000 articles and is published by a company that has been in business since 1768, Wikipedia, online since 2001, has amassed a corpus of 1,019, 202 articles.

Britannica uses a hired team of 4,000 authors and offers distributorships for its products—clearly a commercial enterprise; the number of contributors in this well-organized company is dwarfed by the communal and egalitarian league of Wikipedians (Wikipedia contributors and editors), over 1,000,000 of whom are registered, and an undisclosed number of whom are unregistered.

With so many Wikipedians’ being unregistered, and the veracity of registered contributors’ open to question, because of the open nature of the online encyclopedia—anyone my contribute a new article or edit an existing article—the question is begged: Can we trust the veracity of content if the author and his or her experience is unknown?

Recent news reports have called it a toss-up between Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia, in regard to the accuracy of content in articles; however, although Wikipedians are “encouraged to uphold a policy of ‘neutral point of view’ under which notable perspectives are summarized without an attempt to determine an objective truth,” I judge, because of the system’s open nature and simplicity of operation, that most articles are posted without the review of experienced editors. Is this a point of concern? Should readers question the accuracy and completeness—even the neutrality—of each Wikipedian’s comments? I think readers should question the accuracy of articles found in Wikipedia.

Readers should also question the accuracy of articles found in Encyclopedia Britannica. In fact, we should be more concerned of the potential lack of neutrality in articles that are presented by a homogenous, closed, team of authors and editors who have a commercial axe to grind, than a group of egalitarian writers who seek share their knowledge openly, whether in original work or by editing another’s article..

One reference source is insufficient. Data presented in Wikipedia should be fact-checked, just as those in Britannica. Do not take one author’s word for any but well-known facts. It is exceedingly difficult to be fully objective; opinion and prejudice creeps into all writing, often without the author’s notice.

Dave’s Opinion
I am a Wikipedian, both as an original author and editor. I seek to share my knowledge, in scholarly, trade, and consumer publications, and I judge that Wikipedia is a harbinger of a digital service, the wiki, that will have a profound affect on all of our lives.

Call for Comments
What do you think? Leave your comments below.

References
Wikipedia
Encyclopedia Britannica

There are no traffic cops on the internet. Until now, that is. If U.S. telecommunication companies have their way, we may have internet traffic cops, patrol cars, and a full police union. The traffic cops will direct the traffic, giving preferential treatment to a select few that are able to pay for the unimpeded toll lane. Those who are able to pay the toll will get faster service.

Internet traffic is broken into packets, small data chunks, that are routed through the most efficient available channels. A single e-mail message or webpage download my comprise dozens of packets, each of which takes a different route to reach its intended destination. The receiving computer reassembles the packets into their original form, allowing the data to be read without error. Since the packets travel independently between the sender and receiver, they do not necessarily end their travels at the same time, and internet technologies account for this; in fact, this is one of the fundamental strengths of the net’s design: flexibility in packetization and transmission.

E-mail and online documents aren’t adversely affected by the routing delays that occur when their data packets are disassembled, transmitted, potentially delayed, and reassembled at the destination, because the delay is small enough to not be noticed for these media. However, when listening to digital audio or watching online video, a delayed packet or two is not only noticable, it is annoying.

A half-second delay in transmitting an e-mail message is not noticable, but a half-second latency makes voice over IP (VOIP) practically unusable. With the cost of VOIP and the bundling of free long distance services, many consumers and businesses are dropping their traditional POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) in favor of lower-cost VOIP alternatives. With rates as low as one-third of traditional POTS service, VOIP alternatives are attractive to cost-conscious buyers.

Telecommunication companies are under pressure to provided tiered service, effectively guaranteeing high-speed and unimpeded service to those who are able to pay a premium for connectivity. This may lead to latency and transmission delays for consumers and small businesses that do not subscribe to the internet toll service. Streaming audio, video, and the all-important VOIP transmissions may be disrupted and, effectively, made unusable.

But to net purists, network neutrality is a founding hallmark of the internet. Worse than transmission delays is the potential for transmission road blocks. Telecommunication providers may choose to no longer offer open routing to competitor’s networks, requiring service subscribers to pay a premium (a toll) to have data packets routed to or through a competing telecommunication company’s network, the potential host of the intended destination.

Dave’s Opinion
While I am willing to take the toll road, when I drive my car, I am uncomfortable being required to take it, while on the internet. I’ll be looking for the bypass that I hope will remain a freeway.

Call for Comments
What do you think? Leave your comments below.

The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service
(IERRSS) will move time backward one second on December 31, 2005. An
extra second will be added at the end of the year to to account for
the slowing of the Earth’s rotation. The IERRSS recognizes that our
planet’s pace of rotation is unpredictable, and will institute the
first leap second in seven years. Normally the leap second is a
nearly annual event.

Saturday evening, the world’s most accurate clocks will read,
23:59:59, 23:59:60, 00:00:00; normally there is no sixtieth second in
a minute, but for one second this weekend, time will be created,
effectively slowing down the world’s clocks.

Dave’s Opinion
I hope that my radio-controlled clocks will be quick to pickup the
adjustment; I would hate to to have my clocks be inaccurate.

References
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_second

Call for Comments
What do you think? Leave your comments below.

University of Michigan researchers have developed the first scalable quantum computer chip using principally the same semiconductor manufacturing process as integrated semiconductor chips. The researchers have been able to trap and control a single atom within a processor chip.

Quantum computers can use individual atoms to store binary quantum bits (qubits) of data (0 or 1), much like traditional computer microprocessors; however, the rules of quantum physics apply at the atomic level, one of the rules being that a qubit may hold multiple states simultaneously and multiple qubits may be linked through quantum entanglement, leading to increases in some types of processing speed.

A quantum computer requires the qubit to be trapped, prevented from normal interaction with the outside world. The University of Michigan project allows for multiple trapped qubits to be integrated, scaled to a useful level. Initial reviews indicate that the university’s project may be scaled to hundreds of thousands of integrated qubits.

Dave’s Opinion
Should the University of Michigan’s project develop into a scalable quantum computer chip, it would be a watershed in the development of quantum computer, opening the door to commercial applications for computing at the atomic level.

Call for Comments
What do you think? Please leave your comments below.

References
University of Michigan

Do you carry a cellphone? Do you know that your cellular service provider knows where your phone is? By extension, if you carry your phone with you, your cellular service provider knows where you are. Cellular phones can be located, accurate to within about 300 yards, whenever they are turned on. Since most cellular phone users keep their phones on and with them most of the time, it is quite probable that their ongoing whereabouts are being automatically tracked.

Law enforcement agencies frequently use cellular technology to secretly monitor the movements of criminal suspects; however, courts are now putting requests for this type of surveillance under tougher scrutiny. Judgments by federal magistrates in New York, Texas, and Maryland reflect the growing debate of privacy rights and the government’s ability to surveil using digital technology. The legal decisions require law enforcement to first show probable cause to belive that a crime has been or is being committed: the same standard that applies to search warrant requests.

As cellphones become principal phones, both for consumers and businesses, it is possible that cellular tracking technology will have a profound impact on individual privacy, primarily because individual’s do not recognize the facility with which their privacy can be degraded.

Cellular service providers are culpable in this reduction of personal privacy. Service plans tout tracking abilities, for example GPS (Global Positioning System) services for drivers and parental monitoring of their child’s whereabouts.

The magistrate judge’s opinions are good news for those who argue that the USA Patriot Act has lowered the standards for probable cause. In one opinion, the judge decided that the debate over digital surveillance goes beyond the question of legal standard. Because digital communications it difficult to distingue between private and public information. Because the private data are not enclosed within a wrapper, compared to a letter within an envelope, it is difficult to separate the legally protected, private, information, from the legally unprotected, public, transmission management data, such as the identification of the sender and intended recipient.

Dave’s Opinion
I’m heartened to hear that federal magistrates are evaluating the complexities of digital technologies, especially those related to communication, and their affect on individual privacy rights. I’m particularly pleased to hear that one of the judges serves in Maryland, my home state.

Call for Comments
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Mozilla Corporation, not the Mozilla Foundation, has released the Firefox 1.5, the latest incarnation of the wildly-popular open-source webbrowser. Using the new Gecko 1.8 rendering engine, the new version of Firefox is faster at interpreting HTML webpages and more stable when displaying pages that are created with nonstandard code.

The new version allows drag-and-drop reordering of tabs, faster redisplay of pages, improved pop-up blocking, and additional privacy and accessibility features. Firefox 1.5 supports SVG, CSS2, CSS3, and JavaScript 1.6, demonstrating Mozilla’s commitment to web standards, a hallmark of open-source programming.

Dave’s Opinion
I’ve been using Firefox since the day that it was first publicly released, and I’ve made it my primary browser, setting aside Opera, and eschuing Microsoft Internet Explorer, entirely.

My favorite feature of Firefox, other than its blazing speed, is the extensions service. I’ve added extentions that display the weather, waiting Google gmail messages, and Google AdSense earnings in my status bar. Best of all, the Adblock extension blocks display ads on the my favorite websites, so I can quickly read the text without being interrupted by advertisements.

Call for Comments
What do you think? Please leave your comments below.

References
Mozilla Corporation

Sony BMG Music Entertainment attempted to protect some of its music CDs from digital piracy by automatically installing copy protection software on the computers of users who attempted to play the music CDs on their computers. The security tool is a system root kit, and it restricts copying of the music on the CD. In response to a widespread outcry from consumers and security experts, Sony BMG Music Entertainment created a downloadable patch that will disable the root kit security program; however, the patch leaves the affected computer open to anyone’s downloading software to the computer.

Sony’s XCP copy protection program was included on at least different 20 CDs, and automatically installed itself when the CD was inserted into the computer’s drive, without the user’s knowledge or consent. The root kit software has a cloaking feature that hides files on the affected system. Users who attempt to manually remove the software find their CD drives inoperable.

Both the original root kit and Sony’s patch leave users’ computers open to attack from malicious software, including Trojan horse programs that allow the computer to be remotely controlled through the internet.

Dave’s Opinion
Sony BMG Music Entertainment really dropped a hammer on their toes, twice. I’m all for protecting intellectual property and digital media; however, do not expect that a system-wide security tool will do that without causing other problems for users.

This XCP root kit and its patch sound like a product created by committee without any technical expertise.

Call for Comments
What do you think? Leave your comments below.

References
Sony BMG Music Entertainment

While it is illegal to use a hand held cellular phone while driving in some states, and experts agree that holding a cellular conversation while driving is a contributing cause to driver distraction, it seems that some states may have found a way to take advantage of the popularity of road-bound cellular phones.

Maryland and Virginia, along with other states are testing a new technology that allows traffic patterns to be mapped on roadways by monitoring several hundred thousand cellular phone signals at the same time. So long as the cellular phones are turned on–they need not be in use–the system can track the cars’ locations.

State transportation and law enforcement agencies say that the cellular tracking systems monitor clusters of phones, rather than individual users; however, privacy advocates aren’t so sure that the system won’t be used for purposes other than those currently promised by the state agencies. The systems are so sensitive that they can determine whether cellular phones are moving along at the pace of a pedestrian’s walk or at highway speed.

Maryland will begin testing the cellular tracking system near Baltimore, and Virginia will test on the Norfolk beltway.

Not all cellular telecommunication providers are willing to connect their networks to cellular tracking system. Cingular, for one, currently plans to decline Maryland’s future program; however, Verizon Wireless will continue to serve the government’s requests.

Dave’s Opinion
For once, I’m glad to have Cingular cellular service. I’m not comfortable being tracked by the phone that I hang on my belt. I don’t usually exceed the speed limit, but sometimes I do get caught in the flow of traffic around the Baltimore Beltway. I’d hate to get a ticket just because my cell phone was doing 60 in a 55 MPH zone.
Call for Comments
What do you think? Leave your comments below.

References
Tracking Phones for Traffic Reports

Westchester County, New York, a suburb of New York City, may become the first area in the country to require wireless networks to be secured. Wi-Fi hot spots, such as those found in coffee shops, book stores, and recreational areas are popular not only with average citizens, but also with crackers seeking to collect credit card data and other personal information.

Westchester County Executive, Andy Spano, proposed a new law this past week to protect the public from crimes, such as identity theft and other consumer fraud. The law, if enacted by the county’s Board of Legislators, would require commercial businesses, including internet cafes, to take fundamental security precautions to protect customer information from being acquired by computer crackers and personal identity thieves.

According to the county’s press release, “Spano and Norman Jacknis, the county’s chief information officer, took a laptop computer equipped with easily available software and drove around downtown White Plains [last week] in search of vulnerable networks.” The press release also reported that the Department of Information Technology performed the same survey and came across 248 wireless hot spots in less than a half an hour of driving down Westchester Avenue and Main Street in White Plains. Out of those, 120, or almost half, lacked any visible security at all.”

The law would require all commercial businesses that use wireless networks and maintain personal information to have secure networks that protect the public from potential identity theft and other potential threats such as computer viruses and data corruption.

Dave’s Comments
This is a good first step toward encouraging data security practices.

Initially, it appears that the law will also affect home offices, and it may even affect wireless telephone networks, as these, while not specifically Wi-Fi, are wireless networks. If a legal challenge results in telephone services being wrapped up into this law, wouldn’t that be a major hassle?

Call for Comments
What do you think? Leave your comments below.

References
Westchester County Government Press Release

According to the most recent U.S. Census data, 62 million households in the United States have an Internet-connected computer. That means just over half, 55 percent of homes have relatively easy access to the net, including e-mail and web resources. This data, current as of 2003, shows a five percent increase in connected computers, compared to the 2001 data, and more than triple the 18 percent connectivity rate reported in 1997.

Consumer web use favors affluent, young, and educated users. Almost all, 95 percent, of households with a combined income over $100,000 annually have at least one computer, and 92 percent of this demographic are online. By comparison, households earning under $40,000 have a 41 percent online access rate, still a significant number.

Popular consumer online activities include gathering news, weather, and sports data; seeking government and health information, and job searching.

The most wired areas of the country were in the west, and the least wired were in the south.

According to a report released in October 2005 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 22 percent of American adults has never used the internet or email and does not live in a wired household; yet, 53 percent of home internet users has broadband access. The distinction usage through broadband and lower-technology dial-up service is significant.

Dave’s Comments
Interestingly, 62 percent, about two-thirds, of households with college graduates have broadband access to the net, while only 44 percent of households of high school graduates have broadband service. The Pew Internet & American Life project also reported that access speed is a greater predictor of online behavior than is the user’s experience. Broadband users are more likely to engage in a broad range of online activities than dial-up users. I have found this true, for myself, even within the broadband usage range. When I have a 6 Mbps or faster connection I am more likely to frequently maintain backups of my websites, download software updates, and participate in other bandwidth-intensive activities. When I connect to slower, yet still broadband, networks, such as residential DSL networks, I’m more likely to restrict my online activities to e-mail and web reading.

Call for Comments
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References
Digital Divisions (Pew Internet & American Life Project)
Message Center

The Pew Internet & American Life Project reported in a paper dated September 24th, but released earlier in the week, that residential broadband adoption grew quickly in recent years; however, the speed of adoption is now slowing.

The study reports that the number of residential broadband users increased only three percent during the first six months of 2005. In short, “There is not much pent-up demand for high-speed Internet use at home,” according the Pew report, and the average dial-up user is now older, less educated, or in a lower income bracket than dial-up users of just three years ago.

The survey included data current through May 2005 and reported that 53 percent of residential internet users have a high-speed connection at home. In December 2004, half of residential users had home broadband. This six percent increase, over six months, is “small and not statistically significant,” according to the report.

During roughly the same calendar period, a year earlier, the penetration of residential broadband increased from 35 to 42 percent, a full 20 percent increase.

The report argues that “the potential pool of potential adopters of broadband is comprised of several different groups that are either not large or declining.”

Dave’s Opinion
I enjoy reading the reports that come from the researchers at the Pew Internet & American Life Project, and this report is no exception. While I’m disheartened to find that broadband adoption is decreasing, I’m heartened to find that over half of American households have useful bandwidth.

I suggest that you read this report, and the other Pew papers. I think you’ll find them illuminating.

Call for Comments
What do you think? Leave your comments below.

References
Pew Internet & American Life Project
Broadband Adoption in the United States: Growing but Slowing

The Authors Guild, Inc. has sued Google, Inc. on behalf of over 8,000 authors. The Authors Guild claims to be the nation’s largest and oldest society of published authors and the leading writers advocate for fair compensation, effective copyright protection, and free expression. Google Print’s stated mission is to organize the world’s information, but much of that information isn’t yet online. Google Print aims to get it there by putting book content where you can find it most easily right in your Google search results.

Google Print, which was launched last October, facilitates the online searching of book contents, according to Google, makes it easier to find relevant books. Charges brought by The Authors Guild in a New York court claim damages and demand the search engine company stop uploading the contents of library books. Lawyers for the New York-based nonprofit asked the court to block Google from copying the books so the authors would not “suffer irreparable harm, ” caused by losing control over the reproduction and distribution of their work.

A recently published list of talking points, taken from The Authors Guild website, aims a broadside at Google, the company well known for its search engine and recently recognized for its broad applications of digital technology:

1. Google is a commercial, not a charitable, enterprise. Google is worth roughly $90 billion, making staggering profits through its online advertising programs. Its investment in Google Library is intended to bring even more visitors and profits to its website and ancillary services. The Guild is all for profit, but when the profit comes from the works of authors, the authors should be properly compensated.

2. Google is scanning entire books, not just “fair use snippets.” Google is digitizing countless texts, your books, in their entirety — every sentence, every carefully chosen word — without your permission. That Google presents browsers with small selections of your work doesn’t change that.

3. It’s not just public domain books. The Guild has no objection, of course, to the digitization of public domain works. The Google Library project goes far beyond that, encompassing works that are still protected by copyright, including in print and out of print works.

4. Out of print doesn’t mean public domain. Out of print works are valuable. Out of print works are republished every day, bringing welcome new advances to authors and the prospect of new royalty income. That Google is willing to sink so much money into digitizing these works is further proof of their ongoing value.

5. Authors (and the Guild) aren’t opposed to making their works searchable online with a proper license. With a proper license, in fact, far more than “snippets” could be made available to users. The opportunities are boundless, but it all starts with a valid license. This is no big deal, really; businesses large and small sign license agreements every day.

Google Print’s website includes the following statement that addresses how Google Print works:
Just do a search on the Google Print homepage. When we find a book whose content contains a match for your search terms, we’ll link to it in your search results. Click a book title and you’ll see the page of the book that has your search terms, along with other information about the book and “Buy this Book” links to online bookstores (you can view the entirety of public domain books or, for books under copyright, just a few pages or in some cases, only the title

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies now has a hard drive upgrade alternative for notebook computers that is so simple, most users will be able to increase their notebook hard disk capacity and restore their operating system, applications, and data. The upgrade includes a replacement internal hard drive, a case to convert allow the existing hard drive to be used as an external USB drive, cables, tools, and step-by-step instructions.

Hitachi’s upgrade kit is made up of a 5,400 RPM 2.5″ drive in capacities of 40, 60, 80 or 100GB. The included Apricorn EZ Gig II Hard Drive Cloning and Upgrade software is designed to communicate through a USB 2.0 port; however, if the notebook computer has only a USB 1.1 port, the communication and upgrade will work, but at a slower speed.

Dave’s Opinion
This is an excellent option, both for information technology consultants and end users. The upgrade it will retail between $139 and $219.

The included 5,400 RPM drive is faster than the typical 4,200 RPM drive supplied by most notebook manufacturers. So, not only can users increase their drives’ capacity, but also the access speed. A 30% increase in drive speed is a noticeable improvement.

Call for Comments
What do you think? Leave your comments below.

References
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies
Apricorn EZ Gig II

A new worm, named P2Load.A, is in the wild. Once infected, users of Google’s search engine are redirected to a spoofed site in Germany that looks just like the powerhouse search engine’s main page. Spoofed search results include new, top-of-list links to advertisers who are not a member of Google’s desired advertiser list.

The worm affects computers by downloading a new HOSTS file. Because the worm downloads a new HOSTS file, rather than inserting directly as part of the infection process, the HOSTS file can be updated, again and again. The HOSTS file overrides the Internet’s DNS (Domain Name Service) and redirects domains to artificial IP addresses.

Dave’s Opinion
P2Load.A also modifies the start page and the search options of Internet Explorer The worm is spread through the P2P programs Shareaza and Imesh.

As always, I strongly recommend users to keep antivirus signatures updated every day. I use Computer Associates eTrust EZ Armor, that updates its antivirus data every hour, and it includes an excellent firewall application.

Call for Comments
What do you think? Leave your comments below.

References
Panda Software P2Load.A Data
eTrust EZ Armor

Google, Inc., the search engine (and everything else) company has released a beta version of a blog search site that offers similar features to its most-popular web search engine. The new search engine scans blogs, the popular online journals that offer both professional journalists and citizen pundits simple access to online publication. Google Blog Search should give a bit of much-wanted visibility and authority to the burgeoning blogosphere.

Blogs generally offer fresher material than traditional websites. Even mainline news services such as The New York Times and CNN publish blogs to facilitate the timely distribution of breaking news.

Many blogs are also republished in RSS (Real Simple Syndication) format, which allows the content articles to be quickly scanned using RSS reader applications or a free extension to the open-source –and widely used– web browser, Mozilla Firefox.

Blogs and their writers, known as bloggers, have gained international prominence following the recent U.S. presidential election and the Christmas-time tsunami that devastated Southeast Asia. Had it not been for the loss of electrical power and internet access throughout much of the Gulf Coast of the U.S., there would have been many more blogs reporting the effects of Hurricane Katrina.

Businesses have taken a cautious approach to blogging, failing to grasp the potential for customer service applications; however, this may change, partly as a function of Google’s increasing the accessibility to blogged data.

Dave’s Opinion
My primary new sources are the RSS feeds for formal articles and blog entries from The New York Times, CNN, Reuters, and the BBC. I’m excited that Google has set aside a portion of its cataloging services specifically for blogged articles. Many of these offer opinions and color that don’t make it through the traditional editorial process. I appreciate the value of blogs, not only for their frequency and currency, but for the additional detail and perspective that they offer.

Call for Comments
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References
Google Blog Search
Mozilla Firefox

Massachusetts Disses Microsoft and Proprietary Data Formats
Microsoft’s anger knows no bounds in the wake of an announcement from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that state offices will phase out Microsoft Office in favor of a software application suite(s) that store files in an open-document format, rather than the proprietary format currently implemented by Microsoft.

The Commonwealth’s Open Document Format for Office Applications — a.k.a. OpenDocument — will facilitate the long-term distribution and access flexibility for documents, state-wide. Rather than storing documents in proprietary formats, such as WordPerfect and Word, memos and reports will be stored in an XML-compliant format that will be accessible decades from now, using software tools that have yet to be developed.

Application suites such as Lotus Notes, Microsoft Office, and Corel WordPerfect will be shunned in favor of suites such as OpenOffice, StarOffice, and KOffice. The preferred application suites offer similar functionality to those application that store data in proprietary format.

Dave’s Opinion
Microsoft’s war dance in the face of losing a significant customer will be a sight to behold. There should be plenty of New England ballyhooing and fireworks over Boston this autumn.

Call for Comments
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References
Massachusetts Open Standards

The total cost of ownership (TCO) of Microsoft Windows for network administrators is widely acknowledged to exceed that of Unix-based systems, such as Linux and Solaris. System administrators with experience in multiple operating systems often recognize that Linux is less expensive to maintain, over the lifetime of the information system.

IBM has published two reports this week that support this opinion. One IBM report, TCO For Application Servers: Comparing Linux With Windows And Solaris, reports the TCO of a Linux application server over three years as $40,149. This is compared to a TCO for the same implementation of Windows at $67,559 and Solaris at $86,478. The costs included not only the immediate installation costs, but also the average transferability of administrator skill and the hardware architecture portability. Other benefits that IBM reported are the flexible licensing model of Linux, its support for a broad range of hardware platforms.

The second IBM report, Beyond TCO: The Unanticipated Second Stage Benefits Of Linux, addresses the skill-based benefits of deploying Unix, including Linux, These include the availability of knowledgeable IT workers. IBM reports that “Linux is enormously popular among IT staff members, many of whom are at the beginning of their careers, as well as with IT educators in universities and technical institutions worldwide. This has resulted in Linux playing a significant role in the recruitment and retention of IT staff and managers.”

Dave’s Opinion
The IBM reports, especially in regard to new administrator’s knowledge, are consistent with my experience as a university faculty member. The information technology and graduate business majors that I teach know about Linux and see the value in implementing it as a cost-effective alternative to Microsoft Windows, both for network and user applications.

To IT professionals: I strongly suggest that if you currently have only Windows experience that you expand your knowledge and experience. A broad technical knowledge puts you in good stead for increased professional responsibility. Start by downloading Knoppix Linux, a free download that runs from a bootable CD. As you become adept at the Linux operating system, install it in a dual-boot configuration with Microsoft Windows. I would not be surprised that, within a short period, you find yourself preferring the Linux environment and eschewing Windows.

Call for Comments
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References
TCO For Application Servers: Comparing Linux With Windows And Solaris
TCO: The Unanticipated Second Stage Benefits Of Linux
Knoppix Linux

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) physicists have demonstrated a version of quantum computer memory that lasts longer than 10 seconds, more than 100,000 times longer than previous experiments with charged atoms (ions). These experiments pave the way for reliable quantum computers that will not be harnessed to the limitations of transistors and silicon-based hardware.

The principles of quantum mechanics allow for superpositions, in which a bit of memory may represent both 0 and 1 at the same time. The recent experiments, using beryllium ions, have created a less volatile data storage medium with a useful storage period over a million times longer than is necessary to enable quantum data processing.

Dave’s Opinion
The scientists at NIST have made a great leap forward in the development of quantum memory. Rather than relying on data backup and duplication to create a fault tolerant environment, the longer lasting memory may serve to protect data bits while they are being used for calculations and processing.

Call for Comments
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References
NIST

Related Articles
Quantum Computer to be Ready in Three Years

Light always travels at 186,000 miles per second (300 Million meters per second) in a vacuum. Well, almost always. A team of scientists at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) has been able to control the speed of light, both decreasing and increasing it using off-the-shelf instruments under normal working conditions.

Other researchers have been able to slow, and in some cases, completely stop the speed of light; however, each previous experiment required controlled laboratory condition. The EPFL scientists, based in Switzerland, have demonstrated a methodology for speed control without the need for specialized equipment. Rather, standard optical fibers are used as the medium in which the experiment took place. The speed of the light signal can easily be adjusted, allowing the operator to control the transmission speed over a wide variance.

This is not just a scientific novelty. The ability to accelerate and decelerate the speed at light travels in a fully-optical environment will have profound impact on the telecommunication’s industry, which relies heavily on fiber-optic cable for both long-haul and short-hop data connectivity. Currently fiber-optic transmissions must be converted to slower electrical transmissions before the data can be processed. Data traveling at the speed of light that is controllable may allow all-optical data transmission media, eliminating the current need for electrical conversion.

The EPFL scientists demonstrated the creation of optical memory using their Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) method, which decelerated the light transmission by 72 percent.

Dave’s Opinion
One of the personal benefits that I see to an all optical network is faster data transmission speeds, both for corporate and consumer networks. Currently, broadband bandwidth is throttled to prevent electrical switches from being overtaxed during peak loads. The available bandwidth is limited to prevent excessive peaks in requested bandwidth. An all-optical network, with increased available bandwidth may increase the users’ available bandwidth, even allowing for management by pro-rata share and throttling.

Call for Comments
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References
Ecole Polytechnique F

Commercial internet wi-fi hotspots are popping up in coffee shops and bookstores around the country. Most universities and many public libraries offer free wi-fi service. A quick drive though any but the most downtrodden neighborhoods yields signals from at least a small percentage of the residences. With wi-fi being as popular as it is, why is it that wi-fi infrastructure isn’t as well developed as cellular telephone service? Why hasn’t someone made wi-fi even more accessible?

The answer to these questions is undoubtably money, costs, in particular; however, the infrastructure and service costs may be covered through advertising, and the company to do it may be our favorite search engine provider: Google.

According to a report in Business 2.0, Google has been building a national network by buying up miles of dark, unused fiber-optic cable and test marketing a wi-fi hotspot in San Francisco’s Union Square shopping district. Feeva (formerly UnwireNow), the contractor providing the San Francisco hotspot is preparing additional free hotspots in California, Florida, New York, and Washington.

According to Feeva, Inc.’s website, the company “provides a software platform that allows businesses and metro areas to provide WiFi access for free or with low user fees. Our solution radically changes the way that WiFi

The U.S. Copyright Office is soliciting opinions, through August 22d, about it’s planned website upgrade that will require the use of Microsoft Internet Explorer, effectively banning most technically-advanced users and all Linux and open-source advocates from its service.

According to the Copyright Office’s website, “[I]t is not entirely clear whether the [preregistration] system will be compatible with web browsers other than Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 5.1 and higher. Filers of preregistration applications will be able to employ these Internet Explorer browsers successfully. Support for Netscape 7.2, Firefox 1.0.3, and Mozilla 1.7.7 is planned but will not be available when preregistration goes into effect. Present users of these browsers may experience problems when filing claims.”

It sounds as if support for other browsers is planned, but won’t immediately be available, but what does this mean?

Dave’s Opinion
I can’t understand why the U.S. Government, as well as commercial e-business developers, doesn’t use open-source development tools that are designed to be browser independent, such as PHP and MySQL? Come on folk, let’s build websites that work well, under as many conditions as possible.

The U.S. Copyright Office is a division of the Library of Congress, a part of the United States Government. Wasn’t it the U.S. Government that sued Microsoft over antitrust issues? It seems as if the government and Microsoft have patched their relationship.

Oh, by the way, if you’d like to submit your comment about the Copyright Office’s plans, you’ll have to do so via snail mail, in sextuplicate.

Call for Comments
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References
Library of Congress Announcement

Infosys Technologies, Ltd., the Bangalore-based outsource services company featured in Thomas Freidman’s book, The World is Flat, has admitted 40 interns to it’s global internship program, InStep. Rather than seeking coveted corporate internships in the United States, graduate business students are finding fertile fields abroad. Learning firsthand how outsourcing works, by viewing the process from the money-making end, future business leaders also gain an opportunity to network with peers from 70 international universities; some from the U.S., Japan, Canada, Germany and France.

InStep is an intensive internship program of up to 24 weeks, giving select students hands-on experience developing state-of-the-art software services and solutions in Infosys

Google, the premier internet search engine is fast becoming one of the favored sources of news on the net. Now, rather than requiring users to visit the Google News website, Google is delivering information via RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and Atom formats. Using XML (Extensible Markup Language), RSS and Atom formats enable users of aggregation software, commonly called RSS readers, to select topics and receive all available articles currently in publication that are related to that topic.

Dave’s Opinion
RSS is a media delivery format that has excited me for many years. Not only is the format convenient for readers, it’s a simple process for publishers to create an RSS feed, especially from a blog. In fact, most blogging software will automatically create an RSS feed, which can be directly accessed by readers.

The current grail sought by digital marketers is a technology that will easily enable the insertion of interstitial and integral advertisements into RSS feeds and their constituent articles.

I’ve found the most convenient RSS/Atom reader is the Feedview extension for Firefox, a free download from Mozilla’s website. Using Feedview and Firefox’s toolbar-level bookmarks, I can keep access any of my two dozen or so favorite RSS feeds with only a couple of mouse clicks. This is a much faster way of accessing the current news reports than visiting an equal number of separate websites.

Call for Comments
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References
Google News (RSS/Atom feed hyperlinks in left margin)
Feedview Extension

In the global search engine war, Google and Microsoft each thought that they were in a head-to-head race for the laurel wreath. But, after getting a late start, IBM may very well pass both competitors by moving the finish line.

Keyword searches are de rigueur on the net; however, IBM is developing its Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA) to analyze document text with the goal of understanding content and meaning, seeking relationships, and recognizing facts. Rather than requiring the search engine user to learn the intricacies of search criteria grammar, akin to being a bibliothec, UIMA enables the user to find information, not just data, out of potentially petabytes of online and corporate digital files.

UIMA will be able to search many formats of digital files, including databases, e-mail, audio, and video.

Best of all, IBM will make UIMA available through the open-source software distribution site, SourceForge, by year’s end. The alpha version of the UIMA SDK (Software Development Kit), an all-Java implementation, can now be downloaded for free from IBM AlphaWorks.

Dave’s Opinion
Maybe IBM should name their new search algorithm Apollo, or more fittingly, Eros.

Call for Comments
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References
IBM AlphaWorks
SourceForge

With the upcoming change to how the United States will calculate Daylight Saving Time (DST), users of digital calendars may find themselves arriving late for appointments. The Energy Policy Act of 2005, expected to be signed into law today, will cause unexpected havoc for electronic calendars, including those in PCs, handheld computers, and even personal digital recorders. Who would have thought?

Many digital devices, including everyone’s personal computer, have built-in clocks that keep track of the current date and time. These devices usually have internal calendars that automatically adjust for daylight saving time each spring and return to standard time in the autumn. The new law will move the start of daylight saving time forward by three weeks and extend it by a total of four weeks. So, for four weeks each year, digital devices that do not account for the changes in DST dates will be off by an hour.

Many people wait to make cellular calls until their free nighttime minutes begin. If the cellular nighttime schedule is off by an hour, nocturnal conversations could easily run up almost $1,000 a month in per-minute charges.

Dave’s Opinion
I expect that Microsoft will quickly release a patch to Microsoft Windows XP and 2003 so users of these operating systems will see the correct time in the system task bar; however, users of older versions of Windows, such as Windows 95/98/Me/2000 may be out of luck. Microsoft no longer offer full updates service for these operating systems.

I hope that Palm offers a patch for my handheld computer. I rely totally on my Tungsten E2 to keep me on time for my appointments.

Thankfully, I wake up to a digital alarm clock that synchronizes with an atomic clock via a radio signal, so I should get up at the right time, each day. But, will I know when to go to bed?

Call for Comments
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Microsoft Corporation requires users of it’s flagship operating system, Windows XP, to verify the authenticity of their software installation before downloading patches and updates from Microsoft’s website. The validation tool, called Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), can easily be cracked without much trouble. This allows users of pirated copies of Microsoft Windows to verify their installation and receive the extra bennies offered from the manufacturer.

Although Microsoft has not confirmed that the crack works, details are well publicized, and it appears that the crack is popular, at least amongst nefarious users.

Previously, JavaScript tricks were required to bypass the WGA requirement; however, now it appears that it’s as simple as running the WGA application in Windows 2000 compatibility mode.

Dave’s Opinion
Microsoft has yet to learn that the best way to deliver software is to make it easy for users to have access to the software. Rather than trying to keep folk out, Microsoft should encourage users to be honestly use their products. Take a note from the shareware book, Microsoft. Create great software that we want to use, and then make it easy for us.

Given the option, most people want to be honest.

Call for Comments
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References
Microsoft Corporation