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Simon Phipps's personal commentary

Remembering the Blight

The monoculture discussion has raised some interesting points. I really like the reference Sean Gallagher makes back to the problems of the Irish potato famine and it's causes, as well as to the Maginot line. It's high time technologists heeded Santayana. He says:

Monocultures have spelled trouble throughout history. My ancestors who brought the Gallagher name to the US came here in the wake of the failure of a monoculture--potatoes, which that supplied an inordinate percentage of the food supply, were susceptible to a fungus "blight". The failure of potato crops had a disasterous effect that Ireland, it could be argued, only really recovered from at the end of the 20th century. ... Windows is the potato of the Internet age.

Reading Sean's piece led me to Jon Udell's observation of how few of the 'conventional' media outlets carried a link to the actual CCIA paper or web page - the hatred of letting people link away from their web pages serves no-one. Jon says:

Folks who consume news by way of blogs are likelier to be exposed to primary sources than folks who rely on conventional news sources. Of course everyone's time is finite, so I'm sure those primary sources often go unread, but at least they're available. When conventional news websites don't bother, they make themselves much less valuable.

And finally, the trawl led me to a fascinating paper by Phoebe Sengers at Cornell in which she talks about the way that kitchen appliances continue to apply the modernism of the past in a way that is maybe no longer appropriate:

But things do not necessarily need to be this way. By becoming aware of our culture’s tendencies in appliance design, we can make a conscious decision of which tendencies we wish to encourage, and which we would like to actively discourage ... By designing with reference to history, we create the opportunity to make conscious decisions about which parts of history we would like to repeat – and which we would choose to leave behind.

Maybe another solution to the monoculture problem we currently face is the application of the 'critical technical practices' of which Phoebe is a proponent?

posted at 1:52 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

IM Not Playing

I'd just like to advise the friends, colleagues and others who communicate with me via MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger that, following steps by both companies to block access by universal IM client software like Fire, GAIM and Trillian, I'll be mainly using AOL Instant Messenger & you'll need to send e-mail if you want me to fire up the clients for the others.

Sorry, but I just won't run all those client programs - I don't want the features, I want simplicity. And a message to the service providers: why don't you figure out a way to let the multi-service clients help you (like creating referral programs or something) rather than fighting like the RIAA against the inevitable? I can't help thinking that having an IM client monoculture will lead to more harm than it solves.

posted at 8:18 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

Self-Evident Monoculture

I commented recently that, while we can each take steps to prevent virus and worm attacks on our computer systems, the biggest threat we actually face is the fact that we have a computer monoculture.

Most of the world’s computers run Microsoft’s operating systems, thus most of the world’s computers are vulnerable to the same viruses and worms at the same time. The only way to stop this is to avoid monoculture in computer operating systems, and for reasons just as reasonable and obvious as avoiding monoculture in farming. Microsoft exacerbates this problem via a wide range of practices that lock users to its platform. The impact on security of this lock-in is real and endangers society.

Actually, I didn't write that - it's from the executive summary in the CCIA's new report, 'Cyber InSecurity' [PDF, 880k]. The (brave) authors include Bruce Schneier, who I respect greatly, and Daniel Geer, who @Stake (a Microsoft contractor) have shockingly summarily dismissed despite the fact that the report simply states the self-evident and makes recommendations that are just common-sense:

While appropriate remedies require significant debate, these three alone would engender substantial, lasting improvement if Microsoft were vigorously forced to:
• Publish interface specifications to major functional components of its code, both Windows and Office.
• Foster development of alternative sources of functionality through an approach comparable to the highly successful "plug and play" technology for hardware components.
• Work with consortia of hardware and software vendors to define specifications and interfaces for future developments, in a way similar to the Internet Society's RFC process to define new protocols for the Internet

These need some safeguards; the usual lack of good faith in which Microsoft approaches these things means they would probably try to turn each into a revenue and lock-in opportunity or to grow their monopoly.

Before the usual and inevitable cries of 'Microsoft-hater' are raised, can I make a plea to people to look at the issue here (and read John Lettice's take too). It's actually not based on an instinctive hatred of Microsoft - as Geer himself says:

"If the monoculture was all Linux, it would be just as bad"

It's a fact [huge page] that they have a monopoly, that it's resulted in a monoculture and that this provides a big, squishy target for the black hats no matter how hard they try to fix the bugs, and no amount of safe behaviour by customers is going to fix it. It's the facts that need addressing. Either every country has to become a police state or we need diversity.

[also posted to java.net]

posted at 5:30 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

Afterglow

I stumbled across a new Sarah McLachlan single on the iTunes store, 'Fallen', (Mac users can look [thanks, DJWudi]) and from that discovered that she has a new studio album due in November called 'Afterglow' (can be pre-ordered on Amazon.com). If the single is anything to go by (anyone bought both - what's the difference?) the album will be well worth the investment, as long as it's not copy-protected (read: iPod-user-hostile) like the new Dido album looks like it will be (at least the UK version - the US and Canadian ones don't mention it). While I haven't quite been able to make myself boycott RIAA products yet, I'm certainly not buying music that treats me as a thief, even with Dido as the bait.

posted at 3:20 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

Nokia Does Jewellery

Maybe inspired by the Sun announce-a-thon last week, Nokia has announced a wave of new, potentially game-changing products including a new phone design with the buttons round the outside. Much more interesting though is their move into "Imageware" - home furnishings (a picture frame) and some incredible new active jewellery, in the form of a medallion you can send photographs to via infra-red. Pity it's not bluetooth, as Russell says. Suddenly MMS has something else to do, which will hugely please the network operators.

Updated Dec 6 2004:"Someone" is hitting my site 1000s of times day looking for use of the image of the Nokia medallion so I decided to drop the IMG link.

posted at 6:28 AM (UK) | links to this post | |

Bugs Does IM

I spend a huge amount of time on instant messaging when I'm home (quite a bit when I'm mobile too) so maybe these new toys from Marx [via Gizmodo] in the US are what I need to cheer me up, blow the 'down' away and get me writing here more often. They're Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck figures that can join in with your IM conversations. Kids who have been robbed of their chat rooms will have a consolation after all. The application of technology triumphs.

posted at 9:18 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

Moore books

Also due out in October is Michael Moore's new book, "Dude, Where's My Country" [US | UK | CA] which is already 19th in the Amazon.com bestseller list and which along with Gaiman is up at the top of my October 'want' list, especially with 'Bowling for Columbine' [UK | US | CA] fresh in my memory with its message about how the culture of fear in society is the cause of gun deaths in America. If you've not read his previous book, 'Stupid White Men', [US | UK | CA] then go grab a copy - it's unique.

Update: Michael Moore responds to critics of Bowling for Columbine - he must be close to the mark, considering the level of criticism.

posted at 5:31 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

Gaiman Rides Again

If you've ever read Neil Gaiman's 'Sandman' series of graphic novels, you'll be thrilled to hear there's a new one on the way. He's returned to the Sandman characters and themes in graphic format after many years exploring other ways of telling stories. I've no idea what it will be like but I know I want to find out! It's "Sandman: Endless Nights" and Amazon are advertising October availability [USA | UK | CA]

For those of you who've not looked, Neil Gaiman's graphic novels are not the comic books you may have seen in your youth. They are complex, adult, intellectual and often challenging, exploring themes like love and death through a family of 'immortals' borrowed from ancient myth but with decidedly modern outlooks. I'd strongly recommend them - start with "Preludes and Nocturnes" [USA | UK | CA] and see how it goes - it's really a 'prequel' but it sets the scene nicely. Gaiman keeps a weblog too, by the way.

posted at 6:51 AM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

Three Improbables Before Supper

Three improbable finds to round out Sunday evening here in California.

Ghost Town in Silicon Valley: Sadly it's sold out, otherwise I would have been very tempted to take the train ride to Drawbridge on October 4th. You may just recall that Drawbridge is the San Francisco Bay's very own ghost town - I commented back in December and displayed this photo. Driving around Sunnyvale on Friday, the number of empty industrial spaces suggest Drawbridge may not be the only ghost town in the area for much longer, though.

East Bay Wildlife Refuge: I found out about the train tour while visiting the SF Bay National Wildlife Refuge for the first time. It's a surprisingly rural parkland and visitor centre set among the stark industrial sprawl of Newark (the one in California, naturally) ("A Wildlife Island in an Urban Sea"). It commands a gorgeous view of the Bay at sunset and is well worth visiting early evening (it closes at 8pm).

Cool hotel in industrial desert: Another way to enjoy the salt marshes (packed with birds) is on a bicycle, and fortunately my current favourite hotel offers free loaner cycles to guests. The hotel in question is the W Suites Silicon Valley. Just like the rest of the W chain it has cool, minimalist interiors; unlike the other hotels in the chain it's in the most unhip location imaginable (east end of the Dumbarton bridge in an industrial park). The rooms are big and well equipped (microwave, wet bar, broadband, squishy comfy bed, robes and so on) and the prices are usually low enough to fit the expense guidelines. The barman makes a mean mojito even if the bar does close at 10pm, and as I hinted they offer free bicycle loans to go touring around the wildlife refuge next door.

The unexpected still exists even on familar ground - there is beauty everywhere.

posted at 5:09 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |