technology

Piracy is inevitable

The Wall Street Journal have an interesting article on the upcoming file sharing case involving the Pirate Bay. In the article Showdown Looms Over Pirated Media-Directory the WSJ presents a balanced view of the situation but writes:

While Sweden might seem to be an unlikely harbor for pirates of any kind, weak copyright laws, lax enforcement, high broadband penetration and general antipathy toward the entertainment industry have made it a file-sharing free-for-all.

This opinion that Sweden is somehow exceptional when it comes to file sharing has been cropping up a lot recently – both in print media and in conversations and I must say that I am surprised. Yes, the Pirate Bay is a Swedish outfit but anyone who thinks it is a problem in Sweden has fundamentally misunderstood the situation.

Ask around most teenagers in most countries are involved in copyright violations. Most of this is copying music and films. A bit more difficult (but not much) is to get an honest response from adults. Many adults are doing the same thing.

Remove all of Sweden and the Swedes and you would not significantly impact world copyright violations. Remove the Pirate Bay and you would have created nothing more than a hiccup or temporary annoyance.

The pirates are all around you. This is not about weak laws and lax enforcement it is about a fundamental change in the way in which we view right and wrong in relation to copyright and having the technological base with which to act.

It’s all about the digitalization of copyrightable material coupled with the development of technological gadgets such as  iPods, iPhones, cheap storage and good broadband. Piracy is inevitable.

Posted on by mklang

Open Your Wifi

Bruce Schneier is a security expert and author, in a recent Wired article he argues for maintaining aopen wifi networks. It’s very nice to see that someone who is focused on Internet security can also argue for keeping open networks.

In particular when out traveling finding an open network is a great. Since I often rely on this I leave my own network open to others. In the early days most networks were open, but after some years of scare propaganda and the companies delivering wifi are making them closed by default. When I moved into my new apartment I found seven wireless networks from my kitchen – but none were open. Mine is still the only one available.

For me, keeping my network open is a way of helping others. But, it’s annoying to have to defend this position, so now it’s nice to be able to refer to Schneier and his arguments. Why not read his blog?

Posted on by mklang

Dangerous Technology

An Australian advertising campaign is aimed at raising awareness to the dangers of listening to music via headphones while in traffic.

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DDB Sydney has released a print campaign to raise awareness of the fact that the number of teenagers dying as a result of listening to ipods whilst they cross the road is beginning to reach “epidemic proportions”. I like the art direction of this campaign, even though i would have liked to see some different executions. Maybe use other models of the iPod. (adgoodness)

OK so there are a lot of teenagers with headphones but it’s not only teenagers. I am not only talking about my own experience – look around! Things that may have been known as being in the realm of the teenagers are now firmly part of adult and middle age life. And they are here to stay. If I end up in an old folks home I totally expect there to be wifi, network games and all the other toys that I depend upon.

Posted on by mklang

Is the people's car a good idea?

The Indian Tata corporation have presented their new car the Tata Nano at a car show in New Delhi. The car is being described as as a people’s car due to it’s low price (100,000 rupees or $2,500). It will go on sale later this year. The main market for the car is to provide cheap motor transportation to developing countries. The Nano is a four-door five-seater car with no extras (no air conditioning, electric windows or power steering) and has a 33bhp, 624cc, engine at the rear.

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Simply looking at the specs above make me concerned. I would not like to be among the five people in this car when it gets hit by a truck.

Is producing a cheap people’s car really a good idea? While I am pretty sure that Tata Motors will sell lots of cars I did not mean this question as a risk analysis in a business venture.

Considering the experiences of all highly motorized countries the car has caused plenty of trouble. The implementation of a personalised transport technology means that it will become a natural part of the infrastructure. It will be used and the costs to the environment in the forms of pollution and overcrowding will be felt.

In addition to this the personal car has also changed the way in which we organize ourselves socially. Were we choose to work, live and socialize depends very much upon the transportation possibilities around us.
But is it fair for someone living in a motorized community to preach the environment and social change? Sure these are the downsides to adding to the amount of cars on the roads. But what about the needs of the people to travel in countries where cars are today an un-affordable luxury? Should the motorized societies be allowed to preach to the non-motorized from the driver seats of our SUV’s?

(via BBC online)

Posted on by mklang

Dead Langauge Wikipedia

Wow! I mean WOW! What a cool idea. Most of you know that wikipedia exists in several language versions. But did you know that there is a Latin version? So cool. check it out! My Latin is almost non-existent so I don’t think that I will be getting involved personally 🙂

Posted on by mklang

Trashing the OLPC

The Economist trashes the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) in a recent column. The tone is negative from the start with the title One Clunky Laptop Per Child the reader quickly gets the idea. The main argument is however strange. The criticism is not about the idea but is focused squarely on the technology that has been produced. The Economist goes so far as to call the idea brilliant.

The problem with this approach is that with its focus on the technology the field is left open to the idea that the project would have worked if the computer had been better. This approach ignores the problem that simply chucking technology at people will automatically solve problems.

Laptops are not really what is needed to help children in developing nations. What they need is schools, tables, chairs, paper, books, teachers, pencils and the infrastructure to attend a school. Laptops, even cheap ones, are a luxury.

The OLPC has been criticized before read more on Wikipedia.

Posted on by mklang

Artefacts & Embedded Values

One of the themes that I have been trying to get across to audience in some of my recent lectures has been the philosophical and political implications of technology. The point I am trying to illustrate is that technology is embedded not only with the designer’s ideas about the user’s needs, the way in which the technology will be used and the marketability of the product – but each product also contains a depth of philosophical and political beliefs.

Therefore while in Borås I spoke about a chair that happened to be in the lecture hall. It was a typical Scandinavian conference room chair. The fact that we can recognize a chair as typical Scandinavian is, in itself, telling.

The chair’s “Scandinavianess” was revealed in the result of multiple design choices.

The choices of shape, the weight, the cloth, the pattern on the cloth and the wooden frame make the chair and also reveal its economic, social, moral, political and philosophical background. The most obvious give away was the choice of pinewood. This honey color has come to symbolize Scandinavian design from high culture Aalto to mass production Ikea.

The shape reveals that it is intended for audiences, the shape and the cloth show that it is not for schools. The pattern of the cloth ages the chair and shows it belongs to a bygone era of design (it’s the early 90’s).

While it is relatively easy to illustrate these points it is more complex to show the connection to the way in which the technology controls and regulates our behavior. This control is particularly relevant in technologies that manipulate and alter the way in which we communicate.

A recent development on Facebook illustrates the way in which technology controls and enables what users can do. The Facebook profile has long had an obligatory “is” in the way in which the user can describe what is going on. The result can be something like “Mathias is at work”, “Mathias is sleeping” and “Mathias is feeling good”.

The little “is” limits the way in which the user can communicate. Maybe the user is no longer, maybe the user wants to be “was” or why even a verb of being? By removing the compulsory state of being the user now is free to express much more than a state of being. “Mathias wants…”, “Mathias runs…” or “Mathias eats”.

This change enables the user and dares him/her to make an existential shift from the Heideggerian state (as Christopher puts it). The question, of course, is whether or not the user will dare to going beyond the “is” now that the freedom to do so has been enabled.

Posted on by mklang

Handbook of Applied Cryptography

The Handbook of Applied Cryptography by Alfred J. Menezes, Paul C. van Oorschot and Scott A. Vanstone is available free online for download. This is an important book – in my discussions with online activists I try to explain the importance of them doing all they can to protect themselves. This is certainly a step in the right direction.

  • Chapter 1 – Overview of Cryptography ps pdf
  • Chapter 2 – Mathematics Background ps pdf
  • Chapter 3 – Number-Theoretic Reference Problems ps pdf
  • Chapter 4 – Public-Key Parameters ps pdf
  • Chapter 5 – Pseudorandom Bits and Sequences ps pdf
  • Chapter 6 – Stream Ciphers ps pdf
  • Chapter 7 – Block Ciphers ps pdf
  • Chapter 8 – Public-Key Encryption ps pdf
  • Chapter 9 – Hash Functions and Data Integrity ps pdf
  • Chapter 10 – Identification and Entity Authentication ps pdf
  • Chapter 11 – Digital Signatures ps pdf
  • Chapter 12 – Key Establishment Protocols ps pdf
  • Chapter 13 – Key Management Techniques ps pdf
  • Chapter 14 – Efficient Implementation ps pdf
  • Chapter 15 – Patents and Standards ps pdf
  • Appendix – Bibliography of Papers from Selected Cryptographic Forums ps pdf
  • References ps pdf
  • Index ps pdf

The book is not under a particularly generous license but it is available. Make sure you read the copyright notice.

Posted on by mklang

A personal computer

Ever since this summer when I got my shiny new laptop I have been longing to personalise it. I knew that I wanted to engrave it with something eye-catching and symbolic. Since I really liked my last engraving I decided to go with the same again.

My image of choice is based on a wonderful drawing of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza Reflections by Gene Colan from 1998.

(Larger version)

Since I want to accentuate the Don Quixote and Sancho Panza I removed the background and their reflections in the water. What is left is the two riders. I contacted Mr Colan to tell him of my plans to modify and engrave the image onto my computer. This is not a question of copyright law but I wanted to have permission from the artist as a mark of respect.

So I took my powerbook to the engraver (a firm called Brion) and this is what happened – for a full set of large images check out my flickr account. Many people who choose to modify there powerbooks in this way tend to go with the lazer engraving but I prefer the effect of the diamond drill engraving since it makes for a very nice finish based on shiny lines – very classical.

First strap it in

The outline

Drilling Quixote

Drilling details

The finished product

Posted on by mklang

Modding the laptop

It’s done! I have finally got around to engraving my new laptop. I will be writing up a proper description of the event but I felt a need to show you the result. For those of you who have been around here for a while you may recognise the choice of picture. I was considering changing this for something new but I really liked the imagery of Don Quixote.

I tried to tell a friend that sometimes I feel like Don Q himself and other times I feel like Sancho Panza’s donkey. Naturally my friend replied that I was a part of the establishment and therefore, despite all illusions to the contrary, I was simply a windmill…

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Posted on by mklang