http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.culture.people.interesting-people hourly 1 1901-01-01T00:00+00:00 http://gmane.org/img/gmane-25t.png http://gmane.org http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.culture.people.interesting-people/14197 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/business/yourmoney/14digi.html? _r=1&oref=slogin&ref=technology&pagewanted=print DIGITAL DOMAIN Want an iPhone? Beware the iHandcuffs By RANDALL STROSS STEVE JOBS, Apple’s showman nonpareil, provided the first public glimpse of the iPhone last week — gorgeous, feature-laden and pricey. While following the master magician’s gestures, it was easy to overlook a most disappointing aspect: like its slimmer iPod siblings, the iPhone’s music-playing function will be limited by factory- installed “crippleware.” If “crippleware” seems an unduly harsh description, it balances the euphemistic names that the industry uses for copy protection. Apple officially calls its own standard “FairPlay,” but fair it is not. The term “crippleware” comes from the plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit, Melanie Tucker v. Apple Computer Inc., that is making its way through Federal District Court in Northern California. The suit contends that Apple unfairl David Farber 2007-01-14T01:03:57 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.culture.people.interesting-people/14196 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/washington/14spy.html? ei=5094&en=203bd3d1f0cd9644&hp=&ex=1168750800&partner=homepage&pagewante d=print January 14, 2007 Military Expands Intelligence Role in U.S. By ERIC LICHTBLAU and MARK MAZZETTI WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 — The Pentagon has been using a little-known power to obtain banking and credit records of hundreds of Americans and others suspected of terrorism or espionage inside the United States, part of an aggressive expansion by the military into domestic intelligence gathering. The C.I.A. has also been issuing what are known as national security letters to gain access to financial records from American companies, though it has done so only rarely, intelligence officials say. Banks, credit card companies and other financial institutions receiving the letters usually have turned over documents voluntarily, allowing investigators to examine the financial assets and transactions of American military personnel and civilians, officials say. David Farber 2007-01-14T01:01:04 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.culture.people.interesting-people/14195 Begin forwarded message: From: Mike Paulsen <mpaulsen< at >charterinternet.com> Date: January 13, 2007 6:39:06 PM EST To: dave< at >farber.net Subject: Re: [IP] someone needs their heads fixed .. Rural Montana librarian a threat to national security Reply-To: mpaulsen< at >charterinternet.com Dave, I haven't seen any updates to the original story here on IP. The Reference Librarian at the Billings library has given permission for this to be posted to IP. I have removed her name, phone number, and email address. The original is available upon your request. David Farber wrote: ------------------------------------------- David Farber 2007-01-14T00:57:01 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.culture.people.interesting-people/14194 BTW, I realized a major problem with the Iphone may be the non- replacable battery. Often I find my self using my spare battery Begin forwarded message: From: Ole Jacobsen <ole< at >cisco.com> Date: January 13, 2007 6:51:37 PM EST To: David Farber <dave< at >farber.net> Cc: ip< at >v2.listbox.com Subject: Re: [IP] more on All hail the new iPhone - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Reply-To: Ole Jacobsen <ole< at >cisco.com> My personal take: Sadly, most cellphone handsets are "given away" (for some value of give) in exchange for carrier "loyalty" (read contract) and lockage. So, that's how you sell phones, in the US and perhaps most of the world. But there IS another model. Go to Singapore, Bangkok, London, Amsterdam, and many other cities in the GSM world and you will find plenty of outlets selling unlocked phones (including of course online). And this is where I think Apple could have made a difference: "Upgrade your phone today!" (assuming you already have service), and bingo, if your phone is cool enough it will sell and c David Farber 2007-01-14T00:56:32 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.culture.people.interesting-people/14193 Begin forwarded message: From: Donnlorna< at >aol.com Date: January 13, 2007 7:21:54 PM EST To: dave< at >farber.net Cc: newseditors< at >wsj.com, observer< at >westnet.com, tmisa< at >umn.edu, yostx003< at >tc.umn.edu Subject: More on Cap'n Crunch Dave, I wrote the only authorized biography of John Draper (AKA Cap'n Crunch) published in my second book on computer crime, "Fighting Computer Crime," Scribners, 1983. It covered his three criminal convictions.The producers of the movies Wargames and Sneakers were inspired by my books. I was partly responsible for getting John out of prison in Pennsylvania by appealing to the judge that John was being forced with physical threats and torture by organized criminals to teach them how to phreak telephone systems. They injured his back when they caught him purposely teaching them incorrect technology by smuggling his teachings out of the prison and having them tested. I told the judge that John was more dangerous in prison than out. John did indeed write the first wo David Farber 2007-01-14T00:54:13 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.culture.people.interesting-people/14192 Begin forwarded message: From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne< at >warpspeed.com> Date: January 13, 2007 4:22:43 AM EST To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net< at >warpspeed.com> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] NPR's 'On The Media': Who Controls the Internet? Reply-To: dewayne< at >warpspeed.com Who Controls the Internet? The Internet began as a digital Wild West, lawless and immune from market or government control. Columbia law professor Tim Wu explains not only how important national borders have proven to be, but also why policing them might not be so bad. mp3: <http://www.onthemedia.org/stream/ram?file=/otm/otm010507d.mp3> Transcript: <http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2007/01/05/04> ------------------------------------------- David Farber 2007-01-13T22:56:49 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.culture.people.interesting-people/14191 Begin forwarded message: From: "John F. McMullen" <observer< at >westnet.com> Date: January 13, 2007 3:18:30 PM EST To: Dave Farber <farber< at >cis.upenn.edu>, Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne< at >warpspeed.com> Cc: Commonweal Mailing List <commonweal< at >yahoogroups.com> Subject: The Twilight Years of Cap'n Crunch (johnmac -- I first talked to John Draper in the late 1970s / early 1980s when the Big Apple User Group ("BAUG") was running an "Apple Fair" in New York City and I was lining up speakers. Draper had written the first well known word processor for the Apple II, "Easy Writer", had changed his handle from "Cap'n Crunch" to "Cap'n Software", and was supposedly hard at work on a Fortran compiler for the Apple II. He agreed to speak and, for months, would call me at 3AM in the morning to tell me how hard he was working but that he would be there -- and then rant on about other interesting things. John had no conception of time differences between the West Coast where he was and the East Coast where I David Farber 2007-01-13T20:35:49 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.culture.people.interesting-people/14190 Begin forwarded message: From: Konstantinos Stylianou <stiliamail< at >yahoo.gr> Date: January 13, 2007 11:12:43 AM EST To: dave< at >farber.net Subject: Re: [IP] Data for those who have the power to request it Hey all, Just a short comment about the boston article as a greek lawyer. It is not perfectly correct that the information systems in this particular case are stretched beyond their intended uses. The relevant decision of the Hellenic Data Protection Agency (58/2005) according to which only the Traffic Agency can collect, retain and process videocamera data and exclusively for use of traffic regulation, clearly states that "in case of a special emergency the collected data can be used for other purposes as well, but only after an expressly permission by the Data Protection Agency [...] and only under the condition that there is no violation of the fundamental rights of the subjects depicted" (dec. 58/2005, para 3B). And, although the Police (nor any other public entity) has access to David Farber 2007-01-13T18:38:37 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.culture.people.interesting-people/14189 Begin forwarded message: From: Rod Van Meter <rdv< at >tera.ics.keio.ac.jp> Date: January 13, 2007 12:13:46 AM EST To: dave< at >farber.net Cc: Thomas Leavitt <thomas< at >thomasleavitt.org>, Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne< at >warpspeed.com> Subject: re: [IP] more on All hail the new iPhone - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Reply-To: rdv< at >tera.ics.keio.ac.jp Why? Like it or not, AT&T (or whatever the name is this week) is effectively the only choice if you want to use GSM in the U.S., and if you want to sell the product anywhere else in the world, you MUST do GSM. CDMA-1x is available, to a first approximation, only in the U.S., Japan, South Korea, and parts of China. Anywhere else, it's GSM, with or without EDGE, leading into WCDMA (3G). There you have it. You have to be careful with sales stats. Most of the world's cell phone makers, when they cite, e.g., "40% of the world market", there is often an asterisk and the fine print says, "except Japan". Japan, until relatively recently, was an entirely different world for David Farber 2007-01-13T14:41:02 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.culture.people.interesting-people/14188 Begin forwarded message: From: Andy Oram <andyo< at >oreilly.com> Date: January 13, 2007 8:06:01 AM EST To: David Farber <dave< at >farber.net> Subject: Data for those who have the power to request it Because the subtleties of privacy legislation are a popular topic on your IP list, readers might be interested in a paragraph buried in today's AP report on the bombing of the US embassy in Athens (I found it in my local paper): http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2007/01/13/ greek_militants_blamed_in_rocket_attack/ The paragraph with the privacy implications reads: The government said it was seeking permission from the courts to view video from traffic cameras, which under Greek privacy laws is officially excluded from the police investigation. Although I'd like to see the bombers caught, I'm leary of the tendency to stretch information systems beyond their intended uses. There's also an important imbalance of power involved. If the police and US embassy get their way, it will show David Farber 2007-01-13T14:26:45 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.culture.people.interesting-people/14187 As I said djf Begin forwarded message: From: "David P. Reed" <dpreed< at >reed.com> Date: January 12, 2007 6:44:45 PM EST To: dave< at >farber.net Cc: ip< at >v2.listbox.com Subject: Re: [IP] NSA helps with Vista security Reporters should check their facts. The chief scientist of NSA shared an office with me at Project MAC at MIT when we were working on Multics security in 1974 (and helped us formulate some of the key principles of multi-level security). NSA helped IBM apply those to releases of OS/360, and SELinux (which is supported by RedHat in Fedora) was developed by NSA staff in conjunction with the open source Linux community. So the claim of "first" OS to have NSA involved prior to release is wrong (and of course Vista is not a new operating system - it is full mostly of lines of code from XP). So where did reporter get facts? From a self-serving Microsoft press release trying to claim how secure Vista will be. Yeah right. David Farber wrote: ---------------------------------------- David Farber 2007-01-13T02:11:32 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.culture.people.interesting-people/14186 Begin forwarded message: From: Matt Grommes <matt< at >mattorama.net> Date: January 12, 2007 8:09:38 PM EST To: dave< at >farber.net Cc: ip< at >v2.listbox.com Subject: Re: [IP] WORTH READING more on All hail the new iPhone - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review For IP if you'd like: One of the big things Apple gets from the Cingular deal is that Cingular agreed to make changes to their internal systems to make certain features of the iPhone work. The visual voicemail thing required changes to the voicemail system to allow non-sequential access to your messages. I'm sure other features (maybe sending emails while talking) required the carrier to make changes to do things "the Apple way" as well. Success with these new features might make it easier to get the other carriers to make changes once the Cingular exclusive is up. If they had just said 'Damn the torpedos' and made a carrier-neutral phone they would have had to do voicemail, email, and everything else in the lowest common denominator way to make i David Farber 2007-01-13T01:24:13 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.culture.people.interesting-people/14185 Begin forwarded message: From: DV Henkel-Wallace <gumby< at >henkel-wallace.org> Date: January 12, 2007 6:21:45 PM EST To: "Brock N. Meeks" <bmeeks< at >cox.net> Cc: David Farber <dave< at >farber.net> Subject: Re: [IP] query for reporters All hail the new iPhone - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review I think the question is more simple. If you decide you can't start an MVNO for whatever reason you need a carrier on your side (even if you do you won't have 100% freedom on what phone you develop). You can't start out in opposition to carriers and still get one to sign up. So you have to pick an exclusive provider to start. If you're going to design a phone then you might as well pick GSM (UMTS is hard, but there you are) for the greatest potential worldwide market. Changing wireless architecture isn't a drop-in process, at least today. For GSM in the USA there isn't much choice. So Apple gets some traction without being frozen out by the carriers. Cingular gets the hope that people are driven to its net David Farber 2007-01-13T00:08:19 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.culture.people.interesting-people/14184 Begin forwarded message: From: Carl Malamud <carl< at >media.org> Date: January 12, 2007 6:50:54 PM EST To: dave< at >farber.net Subject: National Archives Announces New "Service" Dear Dave - It is perhaps of no great shock to anybody that a deal has been reached between the National Archives and a private contractor, for digitization of our national heritage. As these things always go, the private sector will add lots of value to this otherwise unusable bunch of useless data in return for certain assurances from the government. Here's the press release: http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2007/nr07-41.html As is of course required for any government procurement, a copy of the contract is available for everybody to look at: http://www.archives.gov/iarchives/iarchives-digitization-agreement.html The digitization effort is being provided an honest-to-goodness web 2.0 .com startup: http://www.footnote.com/ "Millions of original documents - most never seen on the web before." And, if you read the footn David Farber 2007-01-13T00:05:52 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.culture.people.interesting-people/14183 Begin forwarded message: From: Bill Scannell <bill< at >scannell.org> Date: January 12, 2007 6:22:02 PM EST To: dave< at >farber.net Subject: The DHS "Identity-Mart" Scheme for REAL ID Dave, A source of mine within DHS spilled the beans to me as to how they plan on implementing the REAL ID Act. Chertoff's no-longer-secret plan calls for the outsourcing of REAL ID compliance to data aggregators. I've posted the details at http://www.unrealid.com , and the National Journal followed-up with a story at http://www.govexec.com/ story_page.cfm?articleid=35855 . Congress needs to put a stop to this ASAP. All the best, Bill ------------------------------------------- David Farber 2007-01-13T00:06:41 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.culture.people.interesting-people/14182 Begin forwarded message: From: "William S. Duncanson" <caesar< at >starkreality.com> Date: January 12, 2007 7:06:30 PM EST To: dave< at >farber.net Subject: RE: [IP] more on All hail the new iPhone - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review My guess is that the subsidy to get the price down to $599 is pretty large. Remember that all the prices we've seen are the 2-year-contract subsidized prices. Cingular probably demanded an exclusive deal in return for a big enough subsidy to make the iPhone (I really hope Cisco wins) appear even remotely attractive price-wise. I would guess, judging by the subsidies other phones get, that the unsubsidized price of the iPhone is probably well north of the $1000 range. For a phone that is, for all practical purposes, only innovative in it's interface. A brief list of the problems I have with it: Price - $600 WITH contract?!? Oh, and don't forget that you can't just buy phone service, you have to get a data plan too. Figure a $50 voice plan, plus the $20 data plan, over 24 mon David Farber 2007-01-13T00:10:28 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.culture.people.interesting-people/14181 Begin forwarded message: From: "Brock N. Meeks" <bmeeks< at >cox.net> Date: January 12, 2007 5:36:57 PM EST To: dave< at >farber.net Subject: Re: [IP] more on All hail the new iPhone - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review It is curious why Jobs would hang the initial success of the iPhone on a single carrier. We can only speculate, for now, why that might. It could very well be that Cingular has some kind of financial arrangement with Apple wherein the company will kickback to Apple a certain percentage of all fees generated by new iPhone subscribers. During the Microsoft antitrust trial we certainly saw how all kinds of deals were made by Microsoft with the computer vendors wherein certain financial arrangements were given in return for prominent placement of the Windows Explorer icon. There's nothing illegal in this type of transaction and I suppose if such a deal has actually been made it would show up, somewhere, in Cingular's quarterly earnings statements. I wonder if any business reporters have asked David Farber 2007-01-12T23:00:07 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.culture.people.interesting-people/14180 Begin forwarded message: From: Monty Solomon <monty< at >roscom.com> Date: January 12, 2007 2:36:33 AM EST To: undisclosed-recipient:; Subject: Taming Mac OS X File Systems Taming Mac OS X File Systems 1/11/2007 11:57:00 AM Posted by Amit Singh, Mac Engineering Manager Google is a fantastic company to work for. I could cite numerous reasons why. Take the concept of "20 percent time." Google engineers are encouraged to spend 20 percent of their time pursuing projects they're passionate about. I started one such exciting project some time back, and I'm pleased to announce that Google is releasing the fruits of this project as an open source contribution to the Macintosh community. That project is MacFUSE, a Mac OS X version of the popular FUSE (File System in User Space) mechanism, which was created for Linux and subsequently ported to FreeBSD. FUSE makes it possible to implement a very functional file system in a normal program rather than requiring a complex addition to the operating system. More importan David Farber 2007-01-12T21:38:02 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.culture.people.interesting-people/14179 an ipod is real easy compsared to a cell phone Begin forwarded message: From: Michael Berman <Michael.Berman< at >artcenter.edu> Date: January 12, 2007 3:58:18 PM EST To: David Farber <dave< at >farber.net> Subject: Re: one percent market share, Re: [IP] All hail the new iPhone Apple sold 22.5 million iPods in fiscal 2005, according to their 10k for that year. So 10 million phones in 2008 doesn't sound like a big stretch. On 1/12/07 12:31 PM, "David Farber" <dave< at >farber.net> wrote: A. Michael Berman, Senior Vice President/Chief Technology Officer Art Center College of Design 1700 Lida Street, Pasadena, CA 91103 USA o: +1 626 396 2307 m: +1 626 251 0376 AIM, SKYPE: amichaelberman http://ambermancto.blogspot.com ------------------------------------------- David Farber 2007-01-12T21:32:20 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.culture.people.interesting-people/14178 Begin forwarded message: From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne< at >warpspeed.com> Date: January 12, 2007 4:00:52 PM EST To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net< at >warpspeed.com> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] re: [IP] more on All hail the new iPhone - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Reply-To: dewayne< at >warpspeed.com [Note: This comment comes from reader Thomas Leavitt. DLH] From: Thomas Leavitt <thomas< at >thomasleavitt.org> Date: January 11, 2007 9:40:44 PM PST To: dewayne< at >warpspeed.com Subject: Re: [Dewayne-Net] [IP] more on All hail the new iPhone - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Dewayne, I currently have a Sidekick II, via T-Mobile. Love it, despite various and sundry issues I have with elements of the design / functionality... being able to pull it out and surf to just about any website, almost no matter where I am, for $20/mo flat rate, just kicks ass so majorly - along with being able to "ssh" into my servers and troubleshoot, etc. The iPhone, as described/represented, is seriously tempting. Looks like a David Farber 2007-01-12T21:33:28 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.culture.people.interesting-people/14177 Begin forwarded message: From: Jim Warren <jwarren< at >well.com> Date: January 12, 2007 4:19:38 PM EST To: calfoi< at >journalism.berkeley.edu, State and Local Freedom of Information Issues <FOI-L< at >LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>, Dave Farber <dave< at >farber.net> Subject: apparently many police depts feel they can ignore [f.o.i] laws [A former editor of mine just sent this URL to me. The web-link has adverts that load first, from an outrageously turgid ad-"server", but if you wait long enough, the full article is worth the wait ... in an appalling sorta way. The California Public Records Act is quite clear about much of what these law-"enforcement" agencies chose to refuse to do. I suspect one would find similar disregard in most states, for their open-government "laws". --jim] Audit: Cops deny records access Survey gives median average score of 30 out of 100 to Bay Area departments By Thomas Peele and Matt Krupnick, MEDIANEWS STAFF Article Last Updated: 01/12/2007 07:04:09 AM PST California law gives any David Farber 2007-01-12T21:31:12 Search the mailing list at Gmane query http://search.gmane.org/?group=$group=gmane.culture.people.interesting-people