war

Really really annoying

The keyboard and mouse to my nice shiney new MacBook Pro. Everything else works but it is pretty useless without the input devices. When I use an external mouse & keyboard everything is OK. So now I have to hand in my little machine to be repaired and I know that this will take a long time. Anything longer than half a day is a annoyingly long time.

I am in Norwary now. Tomorrow I am back in Gothenburg and backup the machine. Then hand it in to the repairman. Then its off to Væsterås and Lund. I will be back in Gothenburg by the end of the week, but I wonder were my laptop will be?

All I can say is damn, damn, damn, damn and damn!

Posted on by mklang

Tracking Schoolchildren with RFID

It’s strange that everyone sings the praise of RFID and the main struggle seems to be how to implement the technology in as many places as possible. The Register reports that a UK school is piloting a monitoring system designed to keep tabs on pupils by tracking RFID chips in their uniforms.

According to the Doncaster Free Press, Hungerhill School is testing RFID tracking and data collection on 10 pupils within the school. It’s been developed by local company Darnbro Ltd, which says it is ready to launch the product into the £300m school uniform market.

As Bruce Schneier points out the scheme is not difficult to thwart – simply ask a friend to carry the chipped uniform into class. Despite this, the dream of using technological surveillance seems to blind people of their lack of efficiency and reliability.

The real cost is the actual lack of integrity, the high potential for abusing the system and the fundamental shift in attitude which we are pushing on the children in the project. They are being taught (indoctrinated) that technology should be used as a surveillance tool. Asking the teachers to remember their names would apparently be too much to ask for.

Posted on by mklang

Talismans, Amulets, Mojos & Cell phones

Many of the The Beatles song lyrics are surreal or at least they seem so to the uninitiated. Attempting to decipher them seems to require a mix of pop culture, exotica and a broadminded approach to drug culture. One example is the great song Come Together from the album Abbey Road (1969). The tag-line Come together right now over me is really well known and appreciated but the rest is almost impenetrable.

He roller-coaster he got early warning
He got muddy water he one mojo filter
He say “One and one and one is three”
Got to be good-looking ’cause he’s so hard to see
Come together right now over me

Besides all possible, and impossible, interpretations one of the main themes in the song is the West African magic in particular the references to things like juju & mojo.

The mojo is a recurrent theme in music, in particular, blues music (Wikipedia has a list of references) its a magic charm carried under the clothes. Looking on the mojo as an outsider there is often a lack of understanding for the role it plays. Indeed often those relying on the mojo are seen as being superstitious.

Even in cultures where this occurs the talisman or amulet is commonplace. It is very difficult to precisely define what the talismans may, or may not, be as they can be different things to different peoples at different times. The main idea is that the talisman is there to protect the bearer. Again, to the non-believer this is simply superstition. However, many of those who argue this are prepared to wear a cross or other religious artifact every day.

In the secular society there is a tendency to look upon even religious symbols as being part of a superstitious infrastructure – they are more than unnecessary they actually limit the believing bearer from developing into an independent figure.

Whether you believe this or not is unimportant but I do find it interesting to see the way in which people behave when they are deprived of the technology. I don’t mean only the fact that they cannot use the technology I mean the way in which they behave when they have (inadvertently) misplaced or forgotten their technological artifacts.

If we ignore the functionality. How different is the insecurity and nervousness of a person deprived of his mojo to the feelings of a man deprived of his mobile phone? Does this mean that mass market technology has taken the place served by the good luck charms of our ancestors? Does a Nokia ward of evil spirits? Is male sexuality somehow connected to the contents of ones laptop?

Posted on by mklang

Pomp and circumstance

On Saturday I attended the Göteborg University doctoral conferment ceremony. This is the event where those who have written doctoral thesis’ or those who are granted honorary doctorates are awarded the symbols of their dignity. The whole affair was very grand with speeches in Swedish, English and Latin.

The whole affair begins and ends with a long parade of academics led by flags and insignias. It also includes two people carrying thick marshall batons – these used to be those who kept the peace in academic life. I never knew that academics ever needed to be physically subdued.

I was among the 188 new doctors created on that day in a three hour ceremony. I was going to give the whole thing a miss but at the same time it is kind of nice to have attended. The actual conferment occurs when the faculty representative (called the promotor) steps on to the stage and begins by awarding himself/herself her degrees. Basically she crowns herself with the laurel wreath while uttering the correct Latin phrases. Then the doctors are called forward to receive their diploma and are physically lead across a small bridge by the promotor. This symbolizes the Parnassus mountain (the home of the muses) and the travels and struggles needed to obtain the doctoral dignity.

Three hours passed surprisingly quickly and despite my anti-ceremony approach to life, I enjoyed myself.

Posted on by mklang

Fatal error – bad programming kills

The South African National Defence Force is probing whether a software glitch led to an antiaircraft cannon malfunction that killed nine soldiers and seriously injured 14 others during a shooting exercise. (TWeb)

Tragic errors such as these are only to be expected – the more dependent we become on software, the more natural that software errors will occur. So if we include software in lethal weaponry the side effects of a programming flaw will not surprisingly lead to fatalities.

A software flaw almost started world war three in 1983. On that year the Soviet missile warning system indicated that five intercontinental ballistic missiles had been launched from a base in Montana. Correct procedure was to launch the USSR response. The man responsible was Russian Strategic Rocket Forces lieutenant colonel Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov. He deviated from standard Soviet doctrine by positively identifying a missile attack warning as a false alarm. (Wikipedia).

This human analysis of a computer error probably prevented the beginning of a nuclear war.

The bravery involved in questioning technology needs to be encouraged and cultivated to make sure that when computer errors occur they can be overridden by the human element. Indeed systems should be built to allow human intervention.

Posted on by mklang

Students and Technology

Remember Michael Wesch? He created the excellent video The Machine is Us/ing Us about web2.0. Its message: The Machine is us was very nicely argued. Prof Wesch is back again with another video, A Vision of Students Today, about the student life today. Mainly (but not only) about the relationship between teaching and technology.

The students surveyed themselves and this resulted in the following statements – but don’t stop here – the film is very much worth watching both for its message and presentation. Here are some of the statements which arise from the survey:

  • I complete 49% of readings assigned to me
  • I will read 8 books this year, 2300 web pages & 1281 facebook profiles
  • I facebook through most of my classes

The film contains two important quotes – the first my McLuhan (1967)

Today’s child is bewildered when he enters the 19th century environment that still characterizes the educational establishment where information is scarce but ordered and structured by fragmented, classified patterns subjects and schedules.

and the second from 1841 when Josiah F. Bumstead said about the inventor of the blackboard:

The inventor of the system deserves to be ranked among the best contributors to learning science, if not the greatest benefactors of mankind.

Don’t make the mistake of interpreting Wesch as a luddite. It is very important to be able to criticize technology. The amazing thing is that we are allowed to criticize cars without being accused of luddism but if you are critical towards IT you stand accused of wanting to return to the stone age.

Wesch is making an important point that teaching should be more relevant and less dependent upon technology. Simply adding technology, or supplying it to students, does not improve teaching, learning or education.

Prof Wesch Digital Ethnography Blog

Oh, and while you are there check out their Information R/evolution video.

Posted on by mklang

You've got to be kidding?

Consumer Law and Policy Blog has a great article on the moronic “browse-wrap” agreements, a derivation of the “shrinkwrap” licensing terms that appear inside packaged software. The Browse-wrap agreements is the terms and conditions which the company believes that they are able to enforce on anyone who happens to browse over to their website.

In fact the company Inventor-link has the following terms in there browse-wrap (“Privacy and User Agreement):

Furthermore, we strictly prohibit any links and or other unauthorized references to our web site without our permission.

So even without visiting their website they claim that people cannot link to their site without their prior consent.

Consumer Law and Policy Blog writes:

Depending on the circumstances of the case, browse-wrap agreements may or may not be enforceable. Where a company has included a provision prohibiting fair use for purposes of criticism, however, it is hard to see how any court would enforce the agreement. Readers of a site have little opportunity to review and agree to such terms, and a reasonable consumer who had reviewed the terms would be unlikely to agree to them.

Attempting to control linking is not a new phenomena. Back in 2001 KPMG attempted to intimidate the owner of a website and prevent him from linking to the KPMG theme song (oh, yes!) by claiming that he had not been approved through a “Web Link Agreement”, read the story (and the cheesy song lyrics) on Wired.

The article over at Consumer Law and Policy Blog contains an interesting analysis of the situation and I recommend that everyone should read the article and take a stand to make sure that idiotic licenses (?) such as these become as worthless as the code they are written in.

Posted on by mklang

…and one EULA to rule them all…

Sorry for the geeky title but when I came across this over on Boing Boing it struck me that licensing is going way, way beyond contract theory in an attempt to control the rights over the users. From Boing Boing:

The Software may contain third party software which requires notices and/or additional terms and conditions. Such required third party software notices and/or additional terms and conditions are made a part of and incorporated by reference into this EULA. By accepting this EULA, you are also accepting the additional terms and conditions, if any, set forth therein.

Most EULAs (end user license agreements) tend to make sure that the user has little or no rights at all. EULA’s can also conveniently be changed without notifying the user of the changes. This means that the software user should consider herself lucky if her equipment works at all.

The example above goes beyond that. By agreeing to the EULA you also agree to any terms or conditions of third party software the original company may choose to install. This makes it impossible for the user to even attempt to control her rights against the software manufacturers.

For more on EULA’s see, for example, this article I wrote on Spyware.

Posted on by mklang

Free Software Conference

On the 7-8 December Göteborg will be hosting the first Free Software Conference Scandinavia (FSCONS). The event, which is already promising to become an important event on the Free Software calendar, is a good mix of techies and freedom folks.

While the techies will be able to enjoy talks on squid, gtk, GnuTLS and OpenMoko (among others) the non-techies (like myself) will be talking about digital rights, consumer rights, free software licensing & women in IT.

I am looking forward to speaking on the topic of Digital Rights

In an Internet-based participatory democracy we are particularly dependent upon our technological infrastructure. The qualities of digital communication and interaction create a situation where the user is often incapable ensuring the integrity and security of the communications infrastructure. Therefore we are becoming increasingly dependent upon experts to ensure the openness, accessibility and freedom of the infrastructure of our democracy. This session will address the threats and opportunities faced by users in a digital participatory democracy and the steps we need to ensure the openness of digital democracy.

But I am particularly looking forward to listening to (and discussing with) people like Shane Coughlan, Anne Østergaard and Fernanda Weiden. It’s nice to see that events such as this (and the Stallman lecture) are being arranged in my hometown.

Great Work by the tireless Henrik!

Posted on by mklang

On Happy Danes, Morose Finns and Liberal Swedes

Since attempting to explain the differences in personality between Swedes, Danes, Norwegians and Finns to my Greek flat mate in Lund last night I have not been able to drop the concept of geography and personality.

Naturally this is an old and distinguished discussion including such greats as Montesquieu and Hegel – so I will not go into an argument with these guys!

Montesquieu posited (in Esprit des Lois) that since the laws are a based upon the ways in which people live their lives and the way in which people live their lives “has as much to do with geography as with climate”. Therefore both law and personality are part of a complex function of nature, geography & climate. Of course Montesquieu believed that geography and climate are constant (no global warming back then!) and therefore do not play a part in social change. Hegel also followed the same ideas

The unchangeableness of climate, of the whole character of the country in which a nation has its permanent abode, contributes to the unchangeablness of the national character. A desert, proximity to the sea or remoteness from it, all these circumstances can have an influence on the national character (Hegel – Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences, Part III; Hegel’s Philosophy of Mind).

But what I wanted to add was this.

Not only are people different in different locations but also I behave differently in different locations. But is this just a coincidence? Is my behavior in Lund and Göteborg conditioned somehow by climate? Or is my personality changed by distance from my well-known surroundings? And how important is the fact that I am (literally) surrounded by good espresso houses in Lund affect my behavior? If I could transfer Lund physically to Göteborg (or vice versa) would behaviors (my own and others) change?

If the answer is yes then would that mean if we could physically transfer the northern Finnish town (of slightly depressive people) Sodankylä (67°22′ N, 26°38′ E) to coastal region Denmark (57°22′ N, 9°42′ E – the present location of the happy people of Løkken) that the people would all become extroverted and jovial?

Am I on to something or have I just had too much strong coffee on a Wednesday morning?

Posted on by mklang