It’s been an extraordinarily busy couple of days in the malware detection business. Sony has been all over the news – and the news isn’t so good for them. [Sony BMG Kills Daft DRM CD Rootkit Scheme, Sony Learns a Hard Lesson, Microsoft will identify the XCP software as malware, Sony halts production of CD’s] In an effort to protect the intellectual property of Sony BMG musicians, Sony has embedded some pretty nasty software on the computer systems of their consumers – including me.
If you want to know the grim details, you should read the recent posts over at Sysinternals (Mark Russinovich’s blog). But here are the highlights. Sony has contracted with a DRM technology vendor to “protect” its music from computer piracy. The DRM scheme they have chosen does not allow the customer to use customary PC tools to listen to the music. Instead, the software requires the consumer to install a special player. And along with that player comes a whole bunch of other stuff – including rootkit technology that can be exploited by others for even more nefarious purposes.
My viewpoint is simple. I bought an album from a band I truly love. And in the process, I have been exposed to some very nasty exploits. But it is not the fault of the artists. In fact, the bassist for Switchfoot even went so far as to describe how to defeat this DRM scheme. He didn’t do this to anger his label. Rather, he did this so that his fans could put their music on their iPods. The band and I have both been used. If a vendor places hidden technology in a product, and that technology monitors customer behavior w/o first informing the customer of the monitoring, then that technology should be classified as spyware.
Fortunately, I have removed the spyware from my system – at least, I think I have. I went through Sony BMG’s multi-step process to remove the software. I gave them my name, my email address and I gave them system identifying data – just so I could get their spyware off my system. It took almost three days to get everything off, but I think it’s gone. But I now have so little trust for Sony BMG that I will use any scanning tools at my disposal to ensure that this thing is gone. I’ve used RootKitRevealer. And I will use the Microsoft Windows Anti-Spyware tools when they become available. And I’ll use whatever else I can find to ensure that this stuff is gone.
Why? It’s simple. Sony lied to me. They invaded my system because they felt they couldn’t trust me. Worse still, they eventually relented and “offerred” a means to fix the problem. But they only offered half-steps. They wanted me to install a “service pack” for their spyware – so that it couldn’t be exploited. But I chose to decline that offer and requested complete removal instead. In the final analysis, they forced me to jump through a Cheerio to solve the problems they caused when they invaded my system.
There is nothing that I have done to warrant this treatment. Indeed, I’m one of the good guys. I bought the CD. The funny thing is that I thought about getting it from iTunes first. But I wanted to send a message that people still buy CD’s from stores. Well, I got punished for sending that message. And now, I no longer trust the record labels. I still love Switchfoot. But Sony BMG just lost future business from a good customer.
P.S. If you want to learn more about rootkits, I recommend Greg Hoglund’s book at Amazon.com.
-CyclingRoo-
Category: Social Networking
Video Is Becoming a Commodity
Last night, my youngest daughter (who is nearly sixteen) had a bunch of friends over to the house. They were “actors” in her English project. She decided to direct a video about Greek mythology. Actaully, I think she just wanted a way to get some of her guy friends to take their shirts off – but that’s a different story. So Bailey has written, directed and recorded a video. Editing will soon follow.
But the whole exercise started me thinking about how far video technology has come in such a short time. When I was a teenager, Super 8 film was what some folks used. And the folks who had these gems could be characterized as relatively wealthy. Today, everyone has a video camcorder. And everyone has a computer. So the bar for video filming and production has dropped immensely.
And as I mused about what I was doing when I was a teenager, I remembered that I watched a lot of Star Trek. And then I remembered that someone had told me about a fan film series called Star Trek: The New Voyages. ST:TNV is currently two episodes written, filmed, edited, produced by (and starring) Star Trek fans. And early next year, the third full episode will be released. And Walter Koenig (Ensign Pavel Chekov) will be a guest star in this episode.
So I took the time to download the two episodes already available on the Net. And there is a lot to say about the acting, the writing, the special effects and the entire sense of these works. I won’t write a review, but I will say a couple of things.
- The acting is way over the top – but so was the acting in the original.
- The writers have put together a couple of interesting story lines – that are way too busy. Threads from so many other episodes are woven together very indiscriminantly. But as a fan, it worked for me. The two episodes I saw (In Harm’s Way and Come What May) weave together pieces of The Menagerie, The City on the Edge of Forever, The Doomsday Machine and even a few episodes from ST:TNG. So the episodes are great for folks that are already immersed in the universe of Star Trek.
- I can’t wait to see the next installment.
But what struck me the most was the fact that everyone can make good (or bad) videos these days. And Apple’s recent video iPod places the exclamation point at the end of that sentence. Video is now as much of a commodity as the computer is.
First came commodity writing (the web and the blogosphere). Then came commodity radio/audio (via the iPod and podcasting). Now video is going the same way. What’s next on the commodity cycle? Whatever comes, I can’t wait!
-CyclingRoo-
Morning Grind #11
Short takes for Friday, August 26, 2005
- Lance Armstrong had a very good interviewon Larry King Live. Unfortunately, we will never know the truth about Lance Armstrong. Only Lance Armstrong knows the truth. And he is saying that he is innocent of any blood doping allegations. Everyone else (including the French journalists) is seeing through a lens of speculation. The journalists believe Lance is guilty. So everything they see “proves” their assertions of guilt. Every LA supporter (myself included) assumes that Lance is being framed by an over-zealous and highly jealous brood of “journalists.” So everything we see “proves” that folks are out to smear a good man.But all of us must come to the point where we have to accept the unkwown. No matter what happens from this point forward, Lance will always have a question mark on his career. He can never “prove” his innocence – no matter how hard he tries. As Americans, we must learn to live with the fact that all people are innocent until proven guilty. So let’s start acting that way. Lance is innocent. No one has proven that he has done anything wrong. Until proof is available, Lance is innocent.
- I added an external USB hard disk to the main computer in our house. It’s nice to have an additional 160GB to exploit! But, it’s not enough. Actually, it is enough – but it won’t solve my nagging problems. Every year, we get copies of Dana’s basketball games. And we convert these video tapes into DVD disks (for ourselves and Dana’s coaches). But it is really hard to work with these files. An average game results in ~10GB of video footage. And our internal hard disk can’t handle more than a handful of such files at any given point in time. That’s generally not a porblem. I can keep a few active and “archive” the rest to the external disk, right?Uh, no. Not really. Apparently, it’s not so easy to move +10GB files from one disk to another. I’m not certain whether the problem is the number of extents or what. But I can’t move them to the external USB drive. So it’s time to select what’s behind Door #2. And the tool of choice is DivX. I’ve used DivX for quite some time. But I have always used a DivX player – not the encoder itself. But I downloaded the trial version of the encoder from DivX.com. Wow. My +13GB file is now a +475MB DivX file. The quality is pretty darned good. I am sure that I will lose something when projecting it on a typical TV. But it is more than enough for long-term storage. I can store every game this season with room to spare. And I can then import any part of the saved files into the end-of-year video I build. Man, technology sure is grand.
- I finally finished caulking the shower stall in my daughter’s room. So once everything cures, we’ll be a three and 1/2 bath house!
- Google Talk on GAIM is working well. It’s good to have a client that supports file transfer. Now I just have to fix the trouble with Gaim through our corporate firewall. Oh well. That’s for another time
-CyclingRoo-
Tags: Lance Armstrong , DivX
Google Talk Fuels the Rumor Mill
Well, the wait is over. Google Talk is live. You can get the Google Talk client at http://www.google.com/talk. Actually, it went live last night. It was fun watching Technorati go nuts with all the posts! As we speak, I am sure that it is a top ten item.
So how does it work? Well, it installs easily. It configured simply. It automatically worked through the firewall at work. That’s a nice trick. It means the client is using the proxy settings from the system settings. You can change these settings. But it is a nice trick for it to work “out of the box.”
The IM experience is nothing to write home about. It is clean and simple. But so is Gaim (or any other IM client these days). The default client doesn’t appear to support IM to other networks (AOL/ICQ, Yahoo!, or MSN). But you can connect to Google using other clients – like Gaim. That means that I can use the client of my own choice. That is intensely sweet! W00t!
I haven’t tried the VOIP interface yet. I don’t have a good mic/headset. But I guess I now need to get one. We use VOIP for our home phone service (through Time Warner). But if rumors are right, this may be an interesting new venture for Google. Rumor has it that Google may be eyeing our friends at Skpe. Now that would be something indeed.
-CyclingRoo-
Google Rumors In the Air
Yesterday, Google brought us the new Google sidebar. Tomorrow, Google may unleash it’s IM solution – at least, according to the LA Times.
But for today, Google brings us the rumors of things yet to be. Mike Stanclift (of Newwin) is speculating that the Google IM tool will utilize the open-source Jabber protocol. Of course, all of this is speculation. In reality, we don’t know if an IM solution is waiting in the wings. But let’s assume that one is. Wouldn’t it be great if Google did deploy a Jabber-based IM service?
First, users could select from any number of client systems (e.g., Trillian, Gabber, Exodus or even the Jabber Messenger clients for J2ME, Symbian, Pocket PC and RIM). And this flexibility could ensure an extremely rapid deployment in the marketplace – especially for mobile platforms. But I doubt that Google would dillute their brand message by inviting wholesale abandonment of a branded client tool. Nevertheless, if they did allow other clients, they would gain immediate access to the OS X and Linux clients that the other IM providers are intentionally ignoring.
Second, Jabber platforms have been built with gateways to support direct connections to other IM networks/providers (incl. AIM, MSN and Yahoo!). If Google released a tool that would bridge all of these networks together, they could snap up a lot of customers (and their correlated click counts). Of course, folks like AOL might fight this by denying access to their network. But it would take time before walls could be errected. And such an action might send a bad message. Think of this. Google would be seen as the “enabler” of communication while AOL would be seen as blocking the free exchange of ideas on the net. It would be quite a PR coup, indeed.
This should be fun! Stay tuned for more.
-CyclingRoo-
Morning Grind #3
Here are today’s quick takes…
- John Udell has a great piece about tagging and its impact upon the web – and the enterprise. He notes, “Is this a fad or a real breakthrough in information management? I say both. Tagging has attained the elusive cachet of coolness. New taggers feel an initial thrill of empowerment. Venture capitalists, sensing the buzz, are looking to amplify it.” One of the more intriguing targets of corporate tagging will be corporate email. Udell notes, “My guess is that e-mail will play an important role. Mining corporate e-mail to identify groups who are — or should be — collaborating is getting to be a big deal. Tagging can improve that process.”
- The EDS Fellows have a good piece about the impact of service-oriented architecture (SOA) on IT governance. In the first of a multi-part series, Charlie Bess notes that “Organizations will need to define techniques to ‘fast-track’ business critical changes into production as well. Solutions that need functionality early may need to create a veneer of service functionality until the formal service is defined.” One of the larger implications of a completely SOA-based IT infrastructure is the reality that deployment decisions may become more de-centralized – into the hands of the business units that are paying for the components to be built/deployed.
- Prasenjeet Dutta has decided to take a jab at Robert Scoble (and Microsoft). He says, “stop conversing with the market and start shipping something that people can actually use.” Fair criticism. And Robert has accepted that criticism. So let’s hope that Microsoft will start delivering products that match Robert’s high rhetoric. The first product up will be the IE7 beta, soon followed by the VS.Net suite to be unveiled at the PDC.
- It looks like Discovery held the lead in the team classification for only a day. T-Mobile had a rider in today’s break. That will probably neutralize the minor lead they had over T-Mobile.
- Cindy and Dana have made it to Louisiana for the “Battle on the Bayou” tournament. Play starts tomorrow.
-CyclingRoo-
Tags: Morning Grind
Triangulating on the Truth in the Blogosphere
Robert, you need to write a book or something. 😉
Robert Scoble has written a pretty good – albeit short – article on the relevancy of blogs and journalism. His keen insights include:
“…you know I’m biased, right?”
“…you can’t trust what I write.”
“I can’t control what they all say.”
Robert’s basic recommendation is simple: “you’ll be able to triangulate in on the truth.” And he is absolutely correct. A lot of people took the easy road and just trusted whatever they heard on the “Big Three” networks. But those days are long gone. And we certainly can’t trust any single source alone.
Instead, we must develop our own lists of sources on both sides of an given issue. And we must read (and carefully consider) each of these multiple sources in order to get a comprehensive view. Indeed, in this day and age, we are obligated to read multiple sources and then process all the information at hand. That’s why I follow liberal and conservative blogs rather than limit myself to blogs I concur with. That’s why I read the tea leaves from the .Net camp as well as the Java camp. After all, informed choices are predicated upon complete information.
[Thank goodness for RSS. Otherwise, I couldn’t keep up with all the sources I track.]
-CyclingRoo-
BBC Does RSS for TdF
I love convergence. When things I love cross paths, I know that I’m in the right place. Well, I’ve been reading all the Tour de France news (for the past year). And I decided to hunt down new sources for stories. For whatever reason, I started to check the Eurpean sources. In general, European newspapers have a much more balanced coverage of the event. Here in the States, all we hear (from mainstream sources) is that Lance is winniong or Lance is not winning yet. So I wanted to read what is being said by papers that have a longer history with the sport.
So I ran across an article from Robbie McEwen on the BBC’s sports page. And while the various stories were pretty mundane, I noticed that our friend – the RSS badge – was visible on a whole bunch of pages. And better still, the RSS feed was for the entire sport of cycling. W00t! If you want to consume the RSS feed, it can be found here.
I love it when my technolgy interests cross into my other personal interests. It means that the technologies I love are becoming mainstream.
-CyclingRoo-
Tags: Tour de France RSS
Adam's Million Listener March
Over the past few weeks, Adam Curry has talked about the “million listener” march for podcasting. Everyone has seen that as a laudible goal. And all of us hoped that Apple’s iTunes 4.9 would be the first major thrust toward that goal. Well, Apple has posted some amazing results from the first couple of days. How many of us thought that we would see over a million subscriptions in just two days? Truthfully, I didn’t think so – although I hoped so.
So let’s think about these numbers. Let’s assume 1*10**6 in 2 days. And I am subscribed to fifteen (15) podcasts on my laptop. On my home system, I am subscribed to five (5) different podcasts. So I am one person subscribed to twenty (20) unique podcasts. And I have to think that I am not the only person with so many subscriptions. Indeed, I suspect that the newbies will subscribe to a whole lot of stuff. They may sample it for a couple of days/weeks and then delete it. So let’s assume that I am somewhat above average and the average podcast listener on iTunes subscribes to ten (10) podcasts. That would mean that there are over one hundred thousand (100,000) listeners – through iTunes alone.
Who knows how many real listeners there are right now. But let’s accept the 10% mark. If true, that’s pretty darned good in the first couple of days. Of course, time will tell. I am sure that the numbers will stabilize after newbies settle on the content they want to hear. But it is important to note that Apple has opened a door to a much wider audience.
My hope is that as we grow our subscribership, we don’t lose the differentiating content that is flourishing today. I would hate to see popularity drive out diversity. I want to make sure that there is a place for Rick Wezowicz’s I.C.M. Raw as well as a place for Area 51. I want to see more instances of novellas (like EarthCore). And I want to see interesting new content sources emerge. For example, I have been thinking that one of my kid’s soccer coaches ought to do a training podcast. It might be fun – and it might drive some new folks towards our club. Indeed, podcasting will open up whole new opportunities for many organizations.
In the meantime, I love the analogy that Apple includes in their press release:
“Podcasting is like cappuccino,” said August Trometer, developer of iPodderX. “Gourmet coffee was around for a long time, but it took Starbucks to put it on the map. Apple is like the Starbucks of Podcasting and advertisers will take us more seriously now.”
Talk about brand identity. Apple is now thought of as “the Starbucks” of podcasting! Well, at the risk of abusing the analogy, Starbucks has every flavoring agent known to mankind. And they can build you a drink with any number of shots. They have caffeinated and decaf drinks. They have whole milk, skim milk or even soy milk. Indeed, they have it all. And it is the same drink whereever you are in the country – or the world. This is all goodness. And Apple is poised to become the place for podcasting – just like Starbucks is the place for coffee.
But let’s not forget that there is still room for the Mom & Pop coffee shop as well. I would hate to see podcasting become wholly commercialized. Like Starbucks, the ingredients can be bought by anyone. And anyone can make a cup of coffee. Starbucks has done what Dell has done; they have taken ownership of the distribution channel. Well, Apple is on the verge of doing the same thing. I would hate it if Apple got to choose which “coffee growers” they would buy their beans from. More precisely, I would hate it if they discrimanted against certain growers. My fear is that monopoly channel providers might give in to the temptation to limit/sanitize/censor content. For example, I would hate to see Al Franken end up at the top of the podcast list simply because he has friends in the distribution channel.
Nevertheless, I love the fact that podcasting is still something that can be done w/o immense capital. And I love the fact that Apple appears to be soliciting “indie” podcasts. Let’s hope that this is not just a nod to the podcasting archons. Instead, let’s cling to the hope that Apple is making a broader statement about the freedom to create any kind of content. And let’s all pick up the challenge. Since we all still “have a microphone” to use, then let’s use it. Go make a podcast. Make it for yourself. Make it for your friends. And maybe millions of people will listen. After all, we live in a society where we proclaim a marketplace of ideas. Don’t miss your chance to join into the converstation!
-CyclingRoo-
Adam’s Million Listener March
Over the past few weeks, Adam Curry has talked about the “million listener” march for podcasting. Everyone has seen that as a laudible goal. And all of us hoped that Apple’s iTunes 4.9 would be the first major thrust toward that goal. Well, Apple has posted some amazing results from the first couple of days. How many of us thought that we would see over a million subscriptions in just two days? Truthfully, I didn’t think so – although I hoped so.
So let’s think about these numbers. Let’s assume 1*10**6 in 2 days. And I am subscribed to fifteen (15) podcasts on my laptop. On my home system, I am subscribed to five (5) different podcasts. So I am one person subscribed to twenty (20) unique podcasts. And I have to think that I am not the only person with so many subscriptions. Indeed, I suspect that the newbies will subscribe to a whole lot of stuff. They may sample it for a couple of days/weeks and then delete it. So let’s assume that I am somewhat above average and the average podcast listener on iTunes subscribes to ten (10) podcasts. That would mean that there are over one hundred thousand (100,000) listeners – through iTunes alone.
Who knows how many real listeners there are right now. But let’s accept the 10% mark. If true, that’s pretty darned good in the first couple of days. Of course, time will tell. I am sure that the numbers will stabilize after newbies settle on the content they want to hear. But it is important to note that Apple has opened a door to a much wider audience.
My hope is that as we grow our subscribership, we don’t lose the differentiating content that is flourishing today. I would hate to see popularity drive out diversity. I want to make sure that there is a place for Rick Wezowicz’s I.C.M. Raw as well as a place for Area 51. I want to see more instances of novellas (like EarthCore). And I want to see interesting new content sources emerge. For example, I have been thinking that one of my kid’s soccer coaches ought to do a training podcast. It might be fun – and it might drive some new folks towards our club. Indeed, podcasting will open up whole new opportunities for many organizations.
In the meantime, I love the analogy that Apple includes in their press release:
“Podcasting is like cappuccino,” said August Trometer, developer of iPodderX. “Gourmet coffee was around for a long time, but it took Starbucks to put it on the map. Apple is like the Starbucks of Podcasting and advertisers will take us more seriously now.”
Talk about brand identity. Apple is now thought of as “the Starbucks” of podcasting! Well, at the risk of abusing the analogy, Starbucks has every flavoring agent known to mankind. And they can build you a drink with any number of shots. They have caffeinated and decaf drinks. They have whole milk, skim milk or even soy milk. Indeed, they have it all. And it is the same drink whereever you are in the country – or the world. This is all goodness. And Apple is poised to become the place for podcasting – just like Starbucks is the place for coffee.
But let’s not forget that there is still room for the Mom & Pop coffee shop as well. I would hate to see podcasting become wholly commercialized. Like Starbucks, the ingredients can be bought by anyone. And anyone can make a cup of coffee. Starbucks has done what Dell has done; they have taken ownership of the distribution channel. Well, Apple is on the verge of doing the same thing. I would hate it if Apple got to choose which “coffee growers” they would buy their beans from. More precisely, I would hate it if they discrimanted against certain growers. My fear is that monopoly channel providers might give in to the temptation to limit/sanitize/censor content. For example, I would hate to see Al Franken end up at the top of the podcast list simply because he has friends in the distribution channel.
Nevertheless, I love the fact that podcasting is still something that can be done w/o immense capital. And I love the fact that Apple appears to be soliciting “indie” podcasts. Let’s hope that this is not just a nod to the podcasting archons. Instead, let’s cling to the hope that Apple is making a broader statement about the freedom to create any kind of content. And let’s all pick up the challenge. Since we all still “have a microphone” to use, then let’s use it. Go make a podcast. Make it for yourself. Make it for your friends. And maybe millions of people will listen. After all, we live in a society where we proclaim a marketplace of ideas. Don’t miss your chance to join into the converstation!
-CyclingRoo-