Is Howard Dean a dot-com?

Governor Dean came third in the Iowa caucus/primary. Given that I had hitherto been convinced that he was now a certainty to win the Democratic nomination, this is an uncomfortable result. There was an interesting article in Salon asking whether people like me had been fooled by Dean’s campaign the way the media were fooled by the irrational exhuberance of the dot-com boom. Maybe we were. I don’t know. I just found Dean’s campaign to be attractive and superbly intelligent, and assumed that would communciate itself to voters. Was I wrong?

In that context, MIT Technology Review’s Blogger, Henry Jenkins, has an insightful take on it. He argues that “candidates have to campaign in a hybrid media environment and right now, what plays well on the internet is almost exactly opposite from what plays well on television. Part of what happened to Dean was that complex ideas which could be developed through a post in his blog were reduced by his opponents into ‘sound bytes’ which could be used against him on television, forcing him perpetually on the defensive. We can add to that the fact that he looks awkward in some televised contexts — most people seem to think he looked really awkward the other night in Iowa — and this adds to the perception that he has a ‘temperament’ problem. Yet, that passion, the ‘heat’ he generates, is what pulls his cyber-supporters to him and to some degree, his supporters read that awkwardness as a sign of authenticity.”

These you gotta see

The winning ads in the competition to produce hard-hitting anti-Bush 30-second TV spots.

New Credit Card Scam

From Bruce Schneier.

“This one is clever. You receive a telephone call from someone purporting to be from your credit card company. They claim to be from something like the security and fraud department, and question you about a fake purchase for some amount close to $500.

When you say that the purchase wasn’t yours, they tell you that they’re tracking the fraudsters and that you will receive a credit. They tell you that the fraudsters are making fake purchases on cards for amounts just under $500, and that they’re on the case.

They know your account number. They know your name and address. They continue to spin the story, and eventually get you to reveal the three extra numbers on the back of your card.

That’s all they need. They then start charging your card for amounts just under $500. When you get your bill, you’re unlikely to call the credit card company because you already know that they’re on the case and that you’ll receive a credit.

It’s a really clever social engineering attack. They have to hit a lot of cards fast and then disappear, because otherwise they can be tracked, but I bet they’ve made a lot of money so far.”

FBI Exclusive: Old Moore may be a Terrorist!

Excerpt from FBI Information Bulletin No.102 dated December 24, 2003:

“ITEM II: POTENTIAL TERRORIST USE OF ALMANACS

Investigation has revealed that terrorist operatives may rely on almanacs to assist with target selection and pre-operational planning. Almanacs, available both in print and online, provide comprehensive information on a variety of topics, including government, geography, vital statistics, the economy, health matters, science and technology, weather trends, and tourism. Information commonly found in almanacs that may be exploited for terrorist use includes profiles of U.S. cities and states and information on geographic and structural features such as waterways, bridges, dams, reservoirs, tunnels, buildings, and landmarks. This information is often accompanied by photographs and maps.

The use of almanacs or maps may be the product of legitimate recreational or commercial activities; however, when combined with suspicious behavior or other information such as evidence of surveillance activities, these indicators may point to possible terrorist planning. The practice of researching potential targets is consistent with known methods of Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations that seek to maximize the likelihood of operational success through careful planning.

During the course of authorized searches, traffic stops, and other contacts, law enforcement officers should be alert to the potential terrorist use of almanacs for pre-operational activities. Indicators of the use of almanacs for this purpose may include suspicious notations concerning high-profile locations such as tall buildings or landmarks and references to specific dates. Agencies should report any suspected use of almanacs in this manner to their nearest FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force…”

If I put this in a novel people would think it far-fetched. Thanks to Cryptome for the link.

That Eolas suit — and its implications…

Eolas, a company with an intriguing name (‘eolas’ is Irish for ‘knowledge’) has successfully sued Microsoft for $521 million for infringing a patent Eolas holds on how plug-ins link into Internet Explorer (and browsers generally). Given that the patent applies to most browsers, people have been wondering what it might mean for them. Here’s a report which suggests that Eolas boss Michael Doyle (now there’s a good Irish name!) is a supporter of Open Source and is likely to be constructive. Phew!

Larry’s home movie

Larry Lessig’s got the iMovie bug. Here’s the result. Lovely.

Microsoft gets even more serious about Linux threat

Latest ploy is launch of an ‘information’ site publishing case studies purporting to show lower TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) for Windows installations. Well I never!

UCLA’s ‘World Internet Project’ releases its third report

Very useful sourcebook for data on usage etc.

Steve Jobs at Macworld — an exegesis

Nice piece by Daniel Steinberg. Jobs claimed that there are currently over 9.3 million active Mac OS X users and announced that the iTunes music store has sold more than thirty million songs since it was launched last April 28. The current weekly rate is just shy of one hundred million songs per year. Apple currently has a 70% market share of all legal downloads.

Window on the universe

“In the evenings, when my particular piece of Earth has turned away from the Sun, and is exposed instead to the rest of the cosmos, I sit in front of a keyboard, log on, and seek out the windows that look down at the planets and out at the stars. It’s a markedly different experience from looking at reproductions on paper. What I see is closer to the source. In fact, it’s indistinguishable from the source. These are images that have never registered on a negative. Like the Internet itself, they are products of a digitized era. Over the past couple of years I’ve been monitoring the long rectangular strips of Martian surface being beamed across the void, in a steady stream of zeroes and ones, from the umbrella-shaped high-gain antenna of the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. These pictures are so fresh that their immediacy practically crackles. Call it “chrono-clarity.” That bluish wispy cloud, for example, hovering over the Hecates Tholus volcano, which rears above the pockmarked surface of the Elysium Volcanic Region in the Martian eastern hemisphere — it has barely had time to disperse before I, or anyone with Internet access, can see it in all its spooky beauty. The volcano emerges from the pink Martian desert, which looks organic and impressionable — like human skin, or the surface of a clay pot before firing…”.

Beautiful essay by Michael Benson in The Atlantic which brilliantly captures the sense of awe and wonder about the Net that first prompted me to write my book.