Eclectic Views

    
 Newer news for the new year.
  

    

   Credphones

The use of cell phones as credit cards on payment terminals has gone
"mainstream" in South Korea, and in Japan where wireless operator NTT says
over a million specially equipped phones can pay for purchases at more than
13,000 stores.  Both the phones and the payment terminals need circuitry to
connect via a contactless swiping operation, which adds the purchase total
to one's credit card bill.  Trials in America have been proposed, but
several hurdles remain.  For one thing, there is a larger number of US
carriers, making agreement on a single standard more difficult.  The issue
of security for phones stolen or donated to charity also poses problems;
requiring a PIN or authorization code may address that, but with a loss of
convenience that could inhibit use of the technology for small purchases.
Still, if it succeeds here it may fulfill some of the promises of last
decade's "e-cash" initiative.


   The Future Of The Future

Will Bill Gates' 2004 prediction that "Two years from now spam will be
solved" join legendary misfires like Ken Olson's 1977 opinion that there was
"no reason anyone would want a computer in their home"?  (Though based on
<http://www.well.com/~ronks/pix/miscpix/1954PC.jpg>, he had a point.)  Elon
University in North Carolina has compiled a collection of over 4,000
predictions made in 1990-1995 by pundits on the future of the Internet at
<http://www.elon.edu/predictions>; visitors to the site are invited to risk
their reputations by adding their own.
  

    
Love the picture! I wonder what the steering wheel is for?
  

    
That's a well known hoax picture, BTW
  

    

   IBM Unclenches

IBM has pretty much been a leader of the "get as many patents as you can and
hold them close" movement; it received 3,248 new patents in 2004, way ahead
of #2 Matsushita who got less than 2,000, and it took in over a billion
dollars from license fees.  It has donated code to the open-source movement
in the past such as Cloudscape, a database application said to have cost $85
million to create, and $40 million worth of other programs to Eclipse, an
open-source group; those moves had a fairly clear self-interest motive for a
company selling middleware software and services.  But IBM executives say
they are taking a larger look at the role of open-source development "as a
way to stimulate economic growth and job creation". (And if in that laudable
process they give Bill Gates a poke in the eye, well OK.)  To that end IBM
says it will release 500 of its software patents for royalty-free use by
open-source developers with "free distribution, publication of the
underlying source code, and no restrictions on who uses the software or how
it is used".  The affected patents are in the areas of "electronic commerce,
storage, image processing, data handling, and Internet communications".


   Buzzards Gather

 - over the lifeless body of PeopleSoft, as Microsoft offers PS customers a
25% discount on license fees and support to switch to MS accounting and
payroll apps rather than face doubt over the commitment of conqueror Oracle.


   Apple Sues

A recent article tries to sort out the multiple cases Apple has initiated
over product-development leaks before Mr. Black Turtleneck gets to reveal
them amid flashing lights and space music.  On December 13, the company
claimed three sites (AppleInsider.com, PowerPage.org, and ThinkSecret.com)
had published trade secrets on an upcoming audio device codenamed "Asteroid"
and obtained a court order allowing it to issue subpoenas to compel them to
disclose the sources of their information. Two of the sites have responded
that "bloggers ought to be extended the same protection as mainstream
journalists" to protect their confidential sources.  The scope of that
protection is presently a disputed issue in a more famous case involving
disclosure of the name of a CIA agent in Washington, and is likely to be the
subject of appeals all the way up.  Apple also filed a separate action this
month against ThinkSecret.com over publishing the specs for a low-cost
Macintosh computer, claiming the defendant "illegally solicits trade secrets
from Apple employees", who are presumably in for a hot time themselves if
Mr. Turtleneck gets their names.
  

    

The IBM patent release is interesting. It's stirred  up lots of debate
about how selfless (!!!) the act was and any hidden agenda such as the
software patent debate in Europe. See, for example:

http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/IBMs-Patent-Pledge-Leaves-Unresolved-Issues-Say-Analysts-39577.html
http://tinyurl.com/3mvnq

http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=57700510
  

    
> That's a well known hoax

So that's why the steering wheel on mine doesn't work.
And it takes just *forever* to get me to Venus.
  

    
What seemed odd to me in the photo is the "teletype" in the
foreground.  It doesn't look like the old teletypes I've seen.  I looks
a lot more like a mid-1970's model "DECwriter" (a hard-copy terminal
made by Digital Equipment Corp.).
  

    
According to snopes.com, that's exactly what it is:
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/computer.asp
  

    
It was a photoshop contest on fark.com a while ago, and quite a few people
(including some big names in the industry who should know better) have
fallen for it.
  

    
Thank heavens for snopes.com, a voice of sanity and reason.
  

    
Here is something from the Wikipedia on a very early PC concept, not so much
for home use as for offices:

Therefore all major histories of hypertext start with 1945, when Vannevar
Bush wrote an article in The Atlantic Monthly called "As We May Think,"
about a futuristic device he called a Memex. He described the device as a
mechanical desk linked to an extensive archive of microfilms and able to
display books, texts or any document from the library, and further able to
automatically follow references from any given page to the specific page
referenced.
  

    
If Babbage's ideas had caught on during his lifetime, such a thing might
already have existed in 1945, only it would likely already have been
electronic rather than mechanical.
  

    

   Hey Dude, Where's My Domain?

Panic erupted at Panix.com, "New York City's oldest commercial Internet
service provider", last weekend as its net name was taken away and handed to
an Australian company.  For a couple of days, e-mail sent to its users went
to a server in Canada, while the real registrar of the name was unaware it
had been snatched, allegedly at the request of a British affiliate of
MelbourneIT.  The registrar Dotster and Panix.com say that VeriSign who
maintains the master registry of dot-com names and addresses "provided no
notification and was not helpful" in resolving the problem.  A recent Icann
rule change to make it easier to change registrars, intended to deal with
ones who didn't let go when asked, was seen as part of the problem; but it
may be just a old-fashioned spoof like the hijacking of EBay's German
address last fall by a 19-year-old who says he did it "just for fun".
  

    

   Digital Medical Data Standards Proposed

Addressing "America's incredibly fragmented health system", a group of
thirteen health and IT organizations has developed principles and a "road
map" for the interoperability of patient data among hospitals and doctors.
It specifically ruled out the ideas of a central database of medical
information and of global patient-ID cards, looking more toward the model of
Internet e-mail in which standard formats enable users with widely different
computers and software to communicate text, images, and other types of data.
Besides the potential improvement to patient care, an article in Health
Affairs journal estimates a nationwide annual savings of $78 billion by
moving to sharable electronic records once the system is in place; though
the cost of getting there is estimated at a substantial $276 billion over a
ten-year design and implementation period.
  

    
In response to some questions I got, here are a couple of extracts from
articles in Health Affairs which were probably the source of the news story.
 The full text of the articles is available in PDF form at the site:

http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/hlthaff.w5.10

The Value Of Health Care Information Exchange And Interoperability

Abstract:  In this paper we assess the value of electronic health care
information exchange and interoperability (HIEI) between providers
(hospitals and medical group practices) and independent laboratories,
radiology centers, pharmacies, payers, public health departments, and other
providers. We have created an HIEI taxonomy and combined published evidence
with expert opinion in a cost-benefit model. Fully standardized HIEI could
yield a net value of $77.8 billion per year once fully implemented. Non-
standardized HIEI offers smaller positive financial returns. The clinical
impact of HIEI for which quantitative estimates cannot yet be made would
likely add further value. A compelling business case exists for national
implementation of fully standardized HIEI.

 =====

http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/hlthaff.w5.26v1

E-Health: Steps On The Road To Interoperability

Abstract:  Interoperable electronic medical records (EMRs) have the
potential to produce better health outcomes while improving the efficiency
of care delivery and reducing its costs. Implementation will require massive
changes at all levels. In many instances, the costs of implementation could
fall on one group, while savings will accrue to some other group. A
successful transition strategy identifies a series of steps, where each step
pays its own way, at the level of the local groups directly affected, and
lays the foundation for the next step. Such a strategy implies an era in
which large groups will likely play a critical role.
  

    

   The Area Formerly Known As Wilderness

Or sun, sand, and spreadsheets; the California Parks Department has
contracted with SBC to provide wireless Internet access in 85 state parks.
It is expected to be operational by this May.  According to the state's CIO,
"if you wanted to, you could file your taxes from the beach, but I don't
recommend it."  For one thing, waiting till May will cost you late-filing
penalties.  Under the plan, access to state government pages will be free,
but wider (Web) surfing, e-mail, etc. will cost $8 a day.


   The Wrong Side Of The Bell Curve

Two years ago the roof fell in on Eziba.com, a vendor of ethnic handicrafts.
Literally; a heavy snowstorm in North Adams, Massachusetts caused their
warehouse to cave in.  This year the damage was self-inflicted.  In a
"colossal marketing error" they sent out tens of thousands of catalogs to a
selected portion of their mailing list; unfortunately someone selected the
portion deemed least likely to respond rather than most likely.  According
to the company's chairman, "Sadly, our probability estimates were correct."
Well at least we know the algorithm works...  They have suspended operations
for now to rummage around for cash to pay creditors, and the CEO has quit.
  

    
> colossal marketing error

Ouch! Colossal indeed!
  

    

   Search For: Wardrobe Malfunction

Google is introducing a search function for television programs; users can
enter text which is matched against information from closed-caption data.
The response includes still images matching the request along with channel
and time shown, though the actual video will not appear automatically. Other
data may include the next time and channel when the program will be seen
locally based on the user's zip code.  According to the story the database
is fairly small so far, consisting of US "programs from PBS, the NBA, Fox
News, and C-SPAN since December"; though Google's product management VP is
quoted as saying "Ultimately, we would like to have all TV programming
indexed."  Yahoo has a similar product scheduled to include Bloomberg and
BBC content, and little blinkx.tv based in Tuvalu (not) is working on the
service as well.
  

    

   Free Sun

In a move designed "to counter the impression that its technology is too
proprietary and more costly than the competition's", the EVP for software at
Sun Microsystems says it will make the code for its Solaris 10 operating
system available on an open-source basis without license fees.  The OS runs
on X86-type CPUs from Dell, H-P and the like, so it's not just a way to sell
more Sun hardware; they wouldn't mind if that happened, of course. Sun will
also permit free use of 1600 Solaris-related patents. Whether this will dent
the momentum of Linux or comes too late remains to be seen.  CEO Scott
McNealy says the company is not as proprietary as it is perceived, but with
more corporate and government buyers requiring open-source software, the
present step became necessary.
  

    

   Consider The Lotus

A professor of mechanical engineering at Ohio State has been contemplating
the lotus lately, in a professional way.  The plant's leaves have a
remarkable ability to shed water due to the nature of their surface, which
is covered with microscopic bumps.  While the size of the bumps is critical
(too big and they break the surface tension of the drops, too small and they
have no effect or if packed just offer a retaining surface), when they are
just right the bumps affect the "contact angle" with droplets and act to
repel them.  Two applications are suggested: windows whose surfaces shed
water better than the present ones would need less cleaning, as dissolved
dirt which remains after evaporation would be reduced; and digital light
processing (DLP) chips which consist of microscopic mirrors.  Presently they
must be sealed into airtight packages to prevent the entry of water vapor;
similar considerations apply to other devices like acceleration-sensing
chips for car airbags and antilock braking systems.
  

    

   A Good Quarter For Microsoft

Both sales and profits were up for the latest three-month period compared
with a year earlier.  The company's gross revenue rose 7% to $10.8 billion;
profits after one-time charges rose a spectacular 123%, but only about half
a percent if you ignore whopping special adjustments this year and last for
employee stock options.  Their entertainment division turned a $397 million
loss into a $84 M profit thanks largely to the Xbox and the Halo 2 game. The
Windows OS division grew 5% to $3.2 billion in sales, while MSN showed $130
million net profit compared to a $95 M loss a year earlier. But the big news
seems to be that with server software sales up 18% to $2.5 billion, and SQL
Server alone up 25%, financially MS is not seriously threatened by Linux so
far, or as the company's CFO John Connors said in the

   Quote Of The Day

"The world is buying a heck of a lot of servers."
  

    

   Steal This Car

 - and get free gas for it and let someone else pay your bridge and highway
tolls. Demonstrating the value of a college education, a group of Johns
Hopkins students has broken the encryption used in hundred of millions of
RFID transponder chips for authorizing car-door entry, purchase of gas at
ExxonMobil stations, and Fastrak-type passage through tollbooths. Not to
mention UCLA's plan to use the chips in cadavers "to curtail unauthorized
sale of body parts", though this offers less obvious commercial potential.
The basic problem in the compromised systems is that they rely on 40-bit
long encryption keys; once the gold standard in the field, that length has
sunk past the silver and lead levels to be the current balsa-wood standard.
While decryption of such keys is now feasible, obtaining the necessary info
off the transponder is still a challenge, since they are meant to be read at
a distance of inches. The attacker therefore needs to sidle up to the victim
in an elevator, subway, or some such place where he will be unnoticed or
merely seen as a dirty old man. With a reader concealed in an attache case
(one student said "We think the entire attack could be done with a device
the size of an iPod"), the potential thief sends a series of numbers to the
victim's car key, SpeedPass tag or what have you and records the answers,
which are then used to impersonate the victim's device.  A professor
involved in the project (to which that new car in his driveway is *entirely*
unrelated) says the attack can be foiled by carrying your key "in a tinfoil
sheath when not in use", reminiscent of the tinfoil hats of Area 51
devotees.  Moving to a 128-bit key is a more practical long-range solution.
A summary of the research, shorn of "information that might allow its work
to be duplicated", is available at  <http://www.rfidanalysis.org>.
  

    
> once the gold standard in the field

40-bit keys were implemented only because the US government insisted
on being able to break them without too much trouble.  They were never
thought to be particularly secure.
  

    
Thanks, students!
  

    
> 40-bit keys were implemented only because the US government insisted

> They were never thought to be particularly secure

I have to disagree with that.  They were in use at the Federal Reserve for
some time, and the Fed is not easily pushed around in such matters.  There
may well have been a later period after they became less secure when 40-bit
keys were promoted by the government for private industry, however.