US Crackberry addicts breathe again

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From today’s New York Times…

Research in Motion won a second ruling yesterday from the United States Patent and Trademark Office over one of the patents at the center of a dispute over its BlackBerry wireless e-mail device. NTP, a patent holding company based in Arlington, Va., contends that Research in Motion, based in Waterloo, Ontario, infringed on its patents for technology used in the BlackBerry. The patent office issued what it called a nonfinal action yesterday, saying that one of the five patents owned by NTP is invalid. Still pending is a reconsideration of another patent that was found to be infringed by Research in Motion.

Skin your car

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Er, from Gizmag:

Auto Skins is a product that has been on the Australian market for several years. Developed by the aptly named promotional company Decently Exposed, the AutoSkin is a digitally coloured skin for automobiles. You can have high resolution artwork emblazoned on the skin which is then bonded to the car and indestinguishable from normal paint other than its at photographic reproduction quality. The AutoSkin has the double advantage of forming a protective coating which can be stripped off to reveal the original, as-new unblemished duco the car came with. Over 2500 cars have been reskinned to date with corporate branders the logical first-movers, but an increasing number of innovative marketers and consumers keen to individualise their most public personal expression.

Hmmm… Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to go round putting new skins (bearing environmental messages) on SUVs…

That ‘victory’ in Iraq…

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Interesting interpretation by Paul Rogers in Open Democracy:

The discussion about the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, however, is a masquerade. The real project for the United States administration over the next few months is to present to a domestic public the idea that the US is starting a pullout. The deeper reality is what even a relatively small evacuation of troops may signify: a change in the US’s strategy in Iraq and a turn to the “plan B” described in earlier columns in this series (see “Iraq: thinking the unthinkable” [30 June 2005] and “Planning for failure in Iraq” [15 September 2005]).

What “plan B” amounts to is large-scale disengagement from Iraq’s main urban settlements, leaving these either to Iraqi security forces under government control or (in many areas) an increasingly powerful group of Kurdish or Shi’a militias that have the capacity to enforce control by often brutal methods – including detentions, torture and death squads. Meanwhile, US forces would concentrate on building and defending a series of major, well-protected bases outside urban areas, using helicopters and strike aircraft in support of the Iraqi government of the day. Now that militias work closely with Iraqi security forces – to the extent of infiltration and even takeover – this scenario means that US air power may well end up indirectly supporting such militias.

The quiet pursuit of this alternative strategy has seen the US armed forces constructing the appropriate facilities on a massive scale – not least at Balad, where the helicopter base now being prepared by the KBR company will approach the size of some of the largest bases in Vietnam during the American war there.

The result of this approach, if and when it is followed through, will be twofold: US leaders will be able plausibly to present to their citizens the impression that the Iraq war is beginning to wind down, and they will make any Iraqi government fundamentally dependent on US military power for its survival.

Which, I guess, would mean they would be co-operative over the matter of oil supplies…

Quote of the day

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“My only advantage as a reporter is that I am so physically small, so temperamentally unobtrusive, and so neurotically inarticulate that people tend to forget that my presence runs counter to their best interests. And it always does.”

Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem.

So how long has Sony known about the rootkit problem?

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Curiouser and curiouser. According to Business Week, Sony were warned about the problem with their DRM system a full month before Mark Russinovich posted the news on his Blog — and did nothing. Excerpt:

Sony BMG is in a catfight with a well-known computer-security outfit that became aware of the software problem on Sept. 30 and notified the music company on Oct. 4 — nearly a month before the issue blew up. F-Secure, a Finland-based antivirus company that prides itself on being the first to spot new malware outbreaks, says Sony BMG didn’t understand the software it was introducing to people’s computers and was slow to react.

“If [Sony] had woken up and smelled the coffee when we told them there was a problem, they could have avoided this trouble,” says Mikko H. Hypponen, F-Secure’s director of antivirus research.

That ‘special relationship’

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Nice quote from Martin Kettle’s review of Christopher Meyer’s memoir, DC Confidential…

Meyer is wisely unsentimental, too, about the so-called “special relationship”. The phrase was banned from use while he was ambassador, quite rightly, and he smartly observes that the only countries that can truly lay claim to such a status in Washington – in the sense of being able to have significant influence on US politics and policy – are Ireland, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan, and certainly not Britain, even under Blair or Thatcher.

Martin was the Guardian’s Washington bureau chief from 1997 to 2001.

H2O

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My spam filter, bless it, catches 99.9% of the usual crap, but this one got through. Who says water and snake oil don’t mix?

Did you know that there is a little-known secret about water that has
existed for thousands of years?

And it has been carefully hidden from you!
-The Japanese know about it.
-Scientists and non-traditional doctors know about it.
-A NASA lab has examined it up one side and down the other.

The powers that control the Pharmaceutical Markets know about it.
Yet, 99% of the world has never even heard of it !

What if I could show you: “The World’s Most Perfect Water”.
-A Perfect Water that energizes and Ph balances your body naturally.
-A Perfect Water that allows you to create massive wealth?
(I am dead serious; I can verify everything I am telling you.)

The code has been cracked, the Secret is out. This product has (2) US
Patents and is closely guarded with exclusive-global rights.
* You can finally learn what only the most-informed health & wealth
insiders know.
* There is nothing like this product anywhere.
* You can make money over and over every day with a hands-off system
with just a push of a button!

Learn how you can receive phone-in leads from across the USA.
The Secret Code of “The World’s Most Perfect Water” will be aired on
ABC, CBS, & FOX TV Networks on October 18, 2005.

The opportunity to become wealthy as a distributor of this new
product is enormous!
-Are you serious and not just curious?
-Are you truly seeking health & wealth?

If you answered: YES, Then You Deserve The Truth NOW.
The code for Xtreme Water (X20) has been cracked:

There then follows the usual address-confirming link. Wonder who falls for this stuff.

Eliot Spitzer wades in on Sony spyware case

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From Business Week…

BUYER, BEWARE.  [New York Attorney General] Spitzer’s office dispatched investigators who, disguised as customers, were able to purchase affected CDs in New York music retail outlets — and to do so more than a week after Sony BMG recalled the disks. The investigators bought CDs at stores including Wal-Mart, BestBuy, Sam Goody, Circuit City, FYE, and Virgin Megastore, according to a Nov. 23 statement from Spitzer’s office.

Sony BMG says it shipped nearly 5 million CDs containing the software, of which 2.1 million had been sold. The company says 52 individual titles are affected.

Spitzer’s office urged consumers not to buy the disks, and if they do buy them, not to play them in computers. The disks should be returned to the place of purchase for a refund, Spitzer advises.

MORE PRESSURE. 

“It is unacceptable that more than three weeks after this serious vulnerability was revealed, these same CDs are still on shelves, during the busiest shopping days of the year,” Spitzer said in a written statement. “I strongly urge all retailers to heed the warnings issued about these products, pull them from distribution immediately, and ship them back to Sony.”

Attaboy!

Inside the Googlemind

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A little while back, I signed up for Google’s AdSense program, which puts ads down the right-hand side of this page. The idea was not to make money (just as well — to date I’ve earned a grand total of about $10) but to see what inferences Google servers would draw from the Blog content. The results are sometimes puzzling and sometimes hilarious. For example, I’ve just posted something about Rupert Murdoch’s acquisition of community sites for twentysomethings and the first ad is now for “Free Sex Dating Contacts”! The second ad is for an Internet Security Guide. The third and fourth are for search-engine services (presumeably triggered by several posts about Google). Whenever I write about Iraq, there tends to be an ad for something about the CIA. Weird.

Google tests out Click-to-Call AdWords

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Someone should call Google and tell them to stop introducing a new service every day. It’s giving rise to cognitive overload in the advertising industry! Greg Yardley picked up on the sudden appearance of a phone icon beside some sponsored links appearing on the right hand side of a Google search-results page. He then investigated further and quotes this from the FAQ page of the experimental service.

We’re testing a new product that gives you a free and fast way to speak directly to the advertiser you found on a Google search results page – over the phone.

Here’s how it works: When you click the phone icon, you can enter your phone number. Once you click ‘Connect For Free,’ Google calls the number you provided. When you pick up, you hear ringing on the other end as Google connects you to the other party. Then, chat away on our dime.

We won’t share your telephone number with anyone, including the advertiser. When you’re connected with the advertiser, your number is blocked so the advertiser can’t see it. In addition, we’ll delete the number from our servers after a short period of time.