Marginal Utility

by Tom Bozzo

After reading this, and weeping a bit, some Deep Thoughts:

1. If the nice people at Fort Meade already have a bunch of quantum computers in the basement, then presumably public key cryptography isn't an obstacle to U.S. government access to the content of private communications. [*]

2. If the nice people at Fort Meade already are directly tapped into (e.g.) the Googleborg and not just communication switches, then we already live in a surveillance state more intrusive in many ways than (e.g.) the UK's CCTV panopticon. [**]

If neither 1 nor 2 is true, at least yet, then the general — versus privacy geek — appeal of encrypting one's personal communications has increased a lot.

Update: How could I have forgotten about first-class mail?! The venerable postal product is sealed against inspection and impervious to electronic surveillance.


[*] Which is not to say that it's lawful for them to be scooping up even ciphertext of U.S. domestic communications in contravention of FISA.

[**] Clearly some of Google's "free" services come at the price of letting its computers process one's communications and other online activities for the purpose of directing advertising, which is not without privacy considerations. Of course if Google decided to enter businesses such as blackmail, there would be legal remedies. Indeed, after posting this originally, Google served up a bunch of ads pertaining to commercial surveillance products and/or services.

Labels: computers, the rule of law

by Ken Houghton

The short list of "challenges" I won't send in response to this query, even with its opening:

Today, I'm not here to create another discussion topic dealing with how Vista sucks or how peripherals aren't working because they don't have drivers for Vista, or how I want to revert to XP again, and so forth. [T]his week's topic stems from a forum discussion created by CNET member chustar, who wants to know if there are any folks out there who are part of a silent, Vista-loving majority and would like to express their enthusiasm for it. He has used Vista for close to a year without any problems and simply loves it. I'm sure he's heard enough of the bashes on Vista and would like to take this opportunity to hear from the people who actually are using Vista and, quite frankly, like it or love it

Realizing that not having anything to publish next week would be embarassing, Koo adds:

Now remember, folks this discussion is, for the most part, based on the positive experiences around using Vista, but not just limited to that. So I ask that you please be civil in your replies and be considerate of others when posting.

So here would have been my list of positive things about Vista:

1. It has given me a new appreciation of Linux systems
   
2. It has confirmed that Bill Gates and/or Steve Ballmer really were good at finding products for MSFT, since the results since they moved to being upper management have been a monopolistic version of the Peter Principle
   
3. It has given me a new appreciation of those cute little Apple computers.
   
4. It has proved that the OEMs are still dumb enough to believe anything they are told by MSFT. (Releasing Vista OSes on a machine that can handle a maximum of two MB of RAM should, in itself, put several firms out of business.)
   
5. It has given me a greater appreciation of Unix systems
   
6. It has reminded users who had forgotten with the NT4.0-XP that MSFT systems require Constant Vigilance.
   
7. It has given me a greater appreciation of XP
   
8. It has demonstrated that Judge T. P. Jackson was correct, and that the Fourth Circuit and the Bush Justice Department are not working in the best interest of the long-run survival and growth of United States corporations.
   
9. I has given me a greater appreciation of Sun systems
   
10. It has returned us to the Good Old Days where you could make a cup of coffee, have a conversation with your family, and catch up on your reading—and that's just waiting for it to boot up.
    
11. It has given me a greater appreciation of OpenOffice 2.0 and GoogleDocs, since the money spent on that 2 Meg of RAM (see point 4 above) would otherwise have gone to buying MS-Office.

Feel free to add to or correct this list in comments.

Labels: Apple, competitive advantage, computers, Linux, Monopoly, MSFT, technology

by Tom Bozzo

Want.

...interesting to note that there's no hard disk option to the standard 80 GB (1.8") unit. Either supplies of the drive used in the 160 GB iPod are higly constrained, or they can't afford the extra 3mm of thickness, or maybe both. I suppose the smart money waits until Moore's Law sweetens the deal on the solid-state drive option, $999 for -16 GB.

Labels: computers, conspicuous consumption

by Tom Bozzo

• Shorter Charlie Stross: The fat client of today is the thin client of tomorrow? A central point of Stross's is that the transition to server-based apps is well upon us — indeed, at home, I barely fire up the likes of M$ Office except to view the odd document I pull down from the Web. He's onto something in the recent Halting State that successful server-based apps of the future will need to be distributed to avoid the scale-related usability problems endemic to those without the computational resources of the Googleborg. (I.e., servers bog down faster than the revenue stream can pay for upgrades.) That, in turn, will require vast improvements in telecom infrastructure even in parts of the world that are part of modernity let alone the non-FiOS U.S. hinterlands. Also, giving a few percent of one's mobie's processor cycles to the array of social networking apps, MMORPGs, etc., that one might end up signing up for could add up to some serious CPU loading. One thing is for sure: there is a substantial bloatware tax built into the price of most PCs.
  
• Chris Uggen gets greeted "Hello youngster" at a Lincoln dealership. Ford marketers jump out of windows. This is by way of a post speculating as to why the automotive assets of households at the 95th wealth percentile are relatively modest, according to the Fed's Survey of Consumer Finances. Chris notes an age-wealth relationship as a possible contributing factor (in the U.S., the age distribution of wealth peaks in the pre-retirement decade). It's true that the sort of cars you see middle-Americans of the white hair set driving are domestic models with steep depreciation curves, but there are status displays therein — it's just that the younger generations no longer recognize the subtleties of them. It follows that more of the Domestic Three's marketing divisions will follow Oldsmobile into the toaster. Squawking will be heard from Some — mostly franchisees clamoring to be bought out.
  
• Interesting to see the distribution of prices from a warbird dealer — from just under $2M for a Best in Show (2005 EAA) P-51D to thirty grand for a Hawker Hunter that last flew in '92. I might go for the MiG-17 at $135K with spares, even though the paint job is of questionable taste. I can only assume that the MiG-17's bargain status relative to the eye-watering Cirrus SR-22 sticker reflects the Cirrus having such features as safety, economy, and utility. H/T Cold Spring Shops.
  

Labels: computers, Random Bullets, Trains Planes and Automobiles

by Tom Bozzo

Dear Real Steve Jobs:

This past week, a 32GB iPhone felt like a really good idea, even at current prices for that quantity of flash memory. Just saying.

Love, Tom

[reference]

Labels: computers, just life

by Tom Bozzo

Actual headline: NASA grounds iPhone: not "enterprise ready"

Like anyone should listen to those guys...

NASA has ignored flight surgeons and astronauts who questioned others' fitness to fly due to drinking...

A panel that studied astronaut medical issues also found that staff were "demoralized" when their identification of "major crew medical or behavioral problems" were ignored by NASA leadership. [!!!!!1!One!]

The findings suggest that problematic cultural issues remain entrenched at NASA, which has been faulted repeatedly in the past for failing to heed safety warnings through the ranks.

Though NASA's iPhone determination didn't come from NASA brass, quite:

[T]he decision was made by officials within NASA's ODIN program office. ODIN, or Outsourcing Desktop Initiative For NASA, is a program under which NASA is outsourcing computer supply and support to private-sector companies.

The meeting minutes indicate that Jeff Stephens, an ODIN acting project manager who also works for defense contractor Lockheed Martin, broke the news that the iPhone won't fly at NASA. Reached Monday at his office in Washington, D.C., Stephens said only that, "I can't comment on that one way or the other." [emphasis added]

That looks like 10/10 on the Fox Guarding the Henhouse scale — a contractor can serve as "acting project manager" for an outsourcing initiative. (*) It would be hypocritical of me to suggest that there aren't any roles for contractors in the operation of the Federal government, but having Lockheed Martin supplying and supporting desktop PCs doesn't sound like it could possibly be efficient. And you have to love that can't-do spirit of outsourced IT support.


(*) Less sensationally, the guy could be a manager for LockMart's activities under the contract, a role I've filled on what I presume to be a much smaller scale for certain of my firm's contracts.

Labels: computers, Nasa, Outsourcing

by Tom Bozzo

Charlie Stross:

There are thirty years' worth of future shock condensed into this one news item.

Now, go to Charlie's Diary and read the whole thing...

...

...

Now that you're back, here are Charlie's bonus questions:

[A]t which step in this narrative would my 1977-era audience first say "you've got to be shitting me!" ... and when would they start moaning and holding their head in their hands?

My candidate answers (YMMV), from Charlie's comments:

[T]he "shitting me" would be no later than the portable communicator and information can opener stage -- not necessarily the concept... so much as the "they will be cheap enough that university students and not-necessarily-rich people from LDCs will own them in large numbers" part (yet there will not be a single supersonic airplane in civilian service).

The moaning stage would likely vary a lot with the audience. There are economists who would take the "eastern gold-farming sweatshops" news and say, "Cool! Markets in everything!!" In fact, it would say something about the level of development in countries where labor is cheap enough to make gold farming profitable.

You'd probably need to explain that the "electronic mail" will have killed off the postal letter, that indeed the mail will consist largely of solicitations for credit cards and credit-card bills (and that many people will have several, not carry cash or use checks, and often owe the equivalent of hundreds or thousands of dollars at usurious interest rates), which will probably be disappointing.

Quantifying the volume of spam e-mail would probably do it for the moaning, if nothing else, though there would be reassurance that there were also computer programs that will automatically get rid of most of it while rarely also throwing away letters from your mom.

Labels: computers, Geek-out, Realities Virtual and Otherwise, sf

by Tom Bozzo

• The good news: tea-leaf readers report that the Apple Store is coming to Madison (via Badger Blues). The bad news: it's coming to the thoroughly miserable West Towne Mall. Apple would have been an excellent anchor for the new retail space at Hilldale — and having it across the street from work wouldn't suck. Nor, from Apple's perspective, would be having the Sundance Cinema and Whole Foods for neighbors.
• Dep't of self-answering questions: in the Wisconsin State Journal blurb (link n/a), Tom Alesia wonders how Sundance will differentiate itself from the Westgate Art Cinema, just a couple miles southwest. He then describes how Sundance a bar (including a rooftop patio in season) and a cafe, plus the Cap Times account notes the stadium seating — none of which Westgate has. Plus, Sundance will be one minute's walk from the Hilldale Great Dane and Son of Restaurant Muramoto. Go figure.
• All good news: the Sundance Cinema won't show commercials before films. Previews are presumably accepted as part of the experience. To Robert Redford: [smooch].
  
• But I'm really thankful that Marcus Theatres has run Westgate as an art cinema, especially when visiting Delaware (where there's a larger and generally as-well-to-do population) and seeing that the only alternative to multiplex fare is a drive to Philadelphia. There can be benefits to relative remoteness, even though it would be nice to be able to hop on a train and be disgorged in midtown Manhattan a couple hours later.
• Back to Apple: one of the recent Microsoft court cases revealed a memo suggesting that Microsoft had used continued development of Office as a (cough) lever with Apple in the pre-iPod, pre-iMac, pre-OS X 90s, when its future was unclear. Among other gems, Mac Office users were seen as guinea pigs for new Windows Office features. Not obviously featured: gratitude to Mac users for nurturing the Office cash cow when Lotus and WordPerfect ruled the DOS world.
• It's worth remembering that Mac Word 5.0a did almost everything its bloated descendents do (real-time spell check being the major innovation worth the CPU cycles) while running well on computers with one thousandth the processing and storage capacities of contemporary systems.
• One reason I haven't been blogging: learning the ropes of the new rules in Civilization IV. (To Mrs. Coulter: it's truly wise to ban Civ while major real-life projects are a-pending.) Civ IV has been just about as addicting as the original Civilization — which also ran well, back in the early '90s, on computers that couldn't display Civ IV's irritating start-up animations. There's no good reason why the Civ IV game engine couldn't run well (with functional graphics) on the iPhone-minus-the-phone that will presumably be the next-generation iPod. But Civ IV's performance on dual-core Intel Macs is middling, and it's performance on late-generation G5s is appalling.
• Maybe computer science departments should have bloatware remediation courses in their curricula.

Labels: Apple, Cinema, computers, Madison, MSFT, Random Bullets

by Ken Houghton

Those of us who need/want a new computer have probably seen the opportunity to buy a MSFT product that works well pass.

This frequently-revised A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection, courtesy of Slashdot and the Toronto Star makes it clear that Mac is going to be the place to be—or at least that MSFT's claim that the Internet will "revolutionise" television doesn't include letting it be all that it can be when hooked up to a Vista-run computer.

Labels: computers, MSFT