News

Smoke and Fire

Is it true that there is no smoke without fire?

Browzar claims to be privacy enhancing software. Despite the fact that it is little more than an “Internet Explorer shell”, a program that sits on top of Microsoft’s popular browser to change its look and some of its functions. It is a free download and is offered as a “beta”, or test version.
Now Browzar is being accused of being adware (BBC article) – in other words the privacy tool is being accused of collecting and using user data to ensure that advertising can be sent to it’s users.
Browzar denies that it is adware or spyware or anything och that sort. The interesting  thing is not whether the claims are correct or not but what will the effects of such claims be on a company… Obviously accusing a privacy enhancing company of violating users privacy is not a small thing.

Posted on by mklang

Not a terrorist

On 12th August Raed Jarrar was forced to take of his t-shirt at John F Kennedy airport. The reason? It has a text in Arabic (and English) which read: “We will not be silent” (BBC article) He attempted to argue freedom of speech but to no avail.

He was given the ultimatum to change t-shirts or not get on the plane.

Not my idea of choice.

As a protest you can now buy t-shirts with the text – “I am not a terrorist” written in Arabic. The shirts are set to $1.00 more than the Spreadshirt (the manufacturer) base price â?? all profits will be sent to the ACLU. Get them here.

This is a good way of attempting to fight against the meaningless and degrading hysteria that has grown from the paranoia of fear of terrorism. Yes we should beware. The world is an unsafe place but the measures that have been taken over the past weeks are more racist than anti-terrorist.

Posted on by mklang

Strategic Media Relations

â??beware of Greeks bearing giftsâ??: The phrase comes from Virgil’s poem of the Trojan war (The Aeneid) and represents an interpretation to the phrase spoken by Laocoon attempting to warn the Trojans not to bring the wooden horse into the city, â??Whatever it is, I fear Greeks even when they bring gifts.â?? (Quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes). Naturally the Trojans did not listen and they were massacred. More on the story at wikipedia.

So when I received an email recommending a privacy story my paranoia reminded me of Loacoon. The mail began: â??Thought you might be interested in reading and possibly linking to the following story published in the Star-Telegramâ?? â?? the story was on the use of biometrics at Disney Theme parks, written by two students. Interesting but definitely old news. Even I wrote about it ages ago (July 2005)

I have never heard of the Star-Telegram nor of the sender of the email. So I began to dig. The first clue came from the email address @trylonsmr.com this mail comes from an account director at a â??Strategic Media Relationsâ?? company.

Why would someone I do not know, working at a PR firm want to draw my attention to a mildly interesting news story? It was not even a news story really more an information piece. So I checked my logs.

It seems like the PR firm searches for blogs on technorati and then emails them with â??newsâ?? stories. The idea would most probably be to create increased interest in their clients. This is confirmed by the email which includes a paragraph about a cooperation between four schools of journalism.

My problem is that I would probably have linked to the story and I have no real problem linking to the journalism project. But the use of the PR firm sending friendly emails as if they were concerned about privacy issues (which I am) just makes the whole thing â?? sad.

I will not post their story since it is not the story they are interested in â?? they are marketers and spammers. Please correct me if I am wrong.

I realise that this post has been thin on the details but that is because I do not inadvertently want to do what the email attempted to manipulate me into doing.

Posted on by mklang

The ungood system of academic publishing

Another text on Free Software that I have written has been accepted for publication. This is good news. But then I read the rather draconian copyright and licensing rules which the publisher wants to apply to my text.

Basically the ideas remain mine but if I want to present them I have to re-write the ideas from scratch.

The author retains the rights to any intellectual property developed â?¦While the author may use any and all thoughts and research results developed or accumulated while working on a manuscript, and may rewrite, update, and re-title them for use in other publications, â?¦ the author CANNOT use the verbatim text of the manuscript or any part thereofâ?¦without first obtaining the written permissionâ?¦

From my limited experience this wording is pretty standard. From the academics point of view I â??needâ?? publications. But the situation becomes strange when the topic I am writing about is Free Software which has a large focus on openness and the freedom of ideas.

Let me just point out from the start â?? there is no limitation on the reader to read and develop the ideas. They just cannot slavishly copy the text.

My niggling concern is the fact that I am paid by an organisation to do research (and teach). So I spend my time gathering information and thinking about the implications of what is occurring in my particular field. I may even have applied for public grants to do this work.

Once I write down my thoughts the only way for the others to gain access to them is for my library to buy the book so that others can read it. Which basically means my university is paying twice for this information. First for me to think/write and then to obtain physical access to the information.

Even though I dislike the contents of the copyright agreement I have just signed it did not prevent me from signing it. The problem is one of incentive structures. Had I written the work and then just posted it to my website â?? it would not have been worth anything to my academic peers and therefore to my academic career.

The academic text only becomes valuable after it passes through the quality control system which is in the hands of the publisher. Without a publishing house behind the text the information contained therein is not seen as knowledgeâ?¦

Posted on by mklang

So long, Pluto

Not every lifetime has the privilege of experiencing the discovery of new planets â?? in particular in our own solar system. But we are now living in an exiting time. Today a major decision will be made that will effect our solar system. We are going to remove some planets from the solar system.

So how many planets will there be in the solar system tomorrow? If you are a betting person then the safe money is on the number eight. This means that Pluto is out. Even though it has been accepted as a planet since its discovery in 1840 1930.

The reason (New Scientist) for the loss of Pluto is the acceptance of a new planetary definition that a planet must be the dominant body in its orbital zone, clearing out any little neighbours. Pluto does not qualify because its orbit crosses that of the vastly larger Neptune.

The other Pluto

Pluto may become either a “dwarf-planet” or planetoid. But even though the safe money is on the adoption of the new definition there is always the chance that the long shot will win and the pro-Pluto-as-planet lobby will succeed! Ok so I have no idea whether there is a pro-Pluto-as-planet lobby but can you picture the whole decision making body: the politics, the lobbying, the intrigueâ?¦ Being an astronomer must be exiting stuff right now.

Or maybe the whole thing is a ruse to be able to reprint all the astronomy booksâ?¦
Take a look at the cool BBC astronomy website.

Posted on by mklang

Hope or Hoax

Based upon the principle â?? if something seems to be too good to be true it often is. What can one say about a free energy technology which could power everything from mobile phones to cars.

From their website:

Steornâ??s technology produces free, clean and constant energy. This provides a significant range of benefits, from the convenience of never having to refuel your car or recharge your mobile phone, to a genuine solution to the need for zero emission energy production. It also provides a secure supply of energy, since the components of the technology are readily available.

The technology is in a constant state of development. The company has focused for the past three years on increasing power output and the development of test systems that allow detailed analysis to be performed.

Steornâ??s technology appears to violate the â??Principle of the Conservation of Energyâ??, considered by many to be the most fundamental principle in our current understanding of the universe. This principle is stated simply as â??energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only change formâ??.

Steorn is making three claims for its technology:

  1. The technology has a coefficient of performance greater than 100%.
  2. The operation of the technology (i.e. the creation of energy) is not derived from the degradation of its component parts.
  3. There is no identifiable environmental source of the energy (as might be witnessed by a cooling of ambient air temperature).

The sum of these claims is that our technology creates free energy.

The question of whether this is a hoax or a new hope.

This comment on the news comes from Collision Detect: But as Kieran Healy at Crooked Timber notes, Steorn hews perfectly to the “seven warning signs of bogus science” laid out in the Chronicle of Higher Education a few years ago. To wit:

1. The discoverer pitches the claim directly to the media.
2. The discoverer says that a powerful establishment is trying to suppress his or her work.
3. The scientific effect involved is always at the very limit of detection.
4. Evidence for a discovery is anecdotal.
5. The discoverer says a belief is credible because it has endured for centuries.
6. The discoverer has worked in isolation.
7. The discoverer must propose new laws of nature to explain an observation.

Posted on by mklang

Creative Commons Launch Colombia

If you happen to be in Colombia on the 22 August then you are invited to go to the Creative Commons launch party in Bogota.

There will be two separate events, in the morning at the Polictecnico Grancolombiano University we will present several speakers that will include: Proffesor Laurence Lessig, the ccColombia team, SIB (Colombian Biodiversity Information System), Eltiempo.com (an important nationwide newspaper that will begin to offer their citizen journalists the opportunity to use Creative Commons licenses in its online portal) and The Free Software Community.

This venue will be webcast here and here at 14:30 GMT.

In the afternoon we will be having an open content session in one of Bogota’s most vibrant public space: The Biblioteca Publica Virgilio Barco with a live performance by Silvia O and several DJs, VJs and Bloggers that will be displaying their CC work. This venue will be webcast here at 23:00 GMT.

Be sure the check the visual memories of the launch by searching the tag: cccolanzamiento on flickr.

If you do go please say Hi from CC-Sweden to your host – Jaime Rojas

Posted on by mklang

Four Million Laptops

According to the BBC the computer company Dell will recall over 4 million laptops. Four million. 4 000 000. Thats a lot of laptops…

Do you think that someone at Dell pushed the button?

The reason for the recall is that the laptops run the risk of bursting into flames when they are overheated. This was photographed when it happened at a conference.

Posted on by mklang

Culture and Copyright, Fans and Bootlegs

An issue in the piracy debate, which is not often brought up, is that of rare or unusual material. While most would agree that taking a newly produced commercial music cd and sharing it online is at least questionable behaviour. To those who understand both the letter and the spirit of the law would say that it was illegal. Albeit that there remain some who argue that the law should permit this behaviour under certain circumstances.

But what about material which is not commercially viable? What about material which larger corporations ignore simply because they deem it to be uninteresting? Sometimes the pro-piracy debaters (for example Rasmus Fleischer) argue that file sharers fill an important cultural gap by ensuring that rare materials are provided rather than disappearing altogether.

The Australian fan site ABBAMAIL is for the true fans of the Swedish group. Most real fans are (slightly) obsessive (I think this is a requirement for fandom?) and collect all the products which their idols have produced. In addition to this most fans are also interested in collecting the rarities that are not officially released â?? the bootlegs.

The Sidney Morning Herald writes that ABBAMAIL:

Until recently, the site also sold bootleg CDs and DVDs containing old recordings of ABBA performances, radio and TV appearances that were otherwise unavailable.

Titles included “Memories that remain”, “1979 Australian Radio interview”, “An Australian love affair” and “Dick Cavett meets ABBA”.

The owner of the rights to ABBAâ??s music (Universal) has threatened ABBAMAIL with legal action unless it not only stops selling the bootlegs but also hands over the details of fans who allegedly bought or supplied unauthorised or “bootlegged” live recordings via the site. Read more about this on the protest site started by the founders of ABBAMAIL www.universalgreed.com.

The question at stake here is not who is legally right. This is not argued. The question is whether there should be a right to provide material which is not being disseminated (for a whole range of reasons). The Swedish television and radio archives are a treasure of material but the organisations do not dare release the material for fear that the â??ownerâ?? may claim economic compensation â?? the result is that the cultural treasure is slowly being forgotten. This is not the point of copyright law.

Posted on by mklang

Powering the Flat Screen

The flat screen TV trend shows no sign of diminishing in either Sweden or the UK. According to this article in the Guardian Online a flat screen TV is sold every 15 seconds in the UK. The problem is that the flat screen plasma can use up to four times as much electricity as the old-style cathode-ray tube models.

If we connect this with our other home entertainment trends (set-top boxes, digital video recorders, DVD players etc) home consumption of electricity is on the rise.

Dr Joseph Reger, chief technology officer at Fujitsu Siemens Computers in Munich, Germany, said: ‘If all the [plasma] TVs were on at the same time, you would need something that produces 2.5 gigawatts. That can be done today with around two nuclear power stations.’

The discussion in Sweden is changing slowly but the main thrust of the energy policy has been to close nuclear reactors for safety reasons and fossil fuel based producers for environmental reasons. As a reaction Sweden is buying more energy from other countries. In particular from low-cost Eastern European countries. Which means that either we move the polution out of sight or we attempt to place the nuclear risks in countries which may not be able to afford to be too particular.

As usual someone else is paying the initial price of our consumption. Eventually the bad news will reach our shores.

Posted on by mklang