Contested Space — update

Content owners are becoming increasingly aggressive in targeting file-sharers. This report is about an attack on Danish file-sharers, in which they are being sent bills for up to $16,000 by lawyers acting for content owners. And the RIAA has even gone for US Navy cadets, some of whom are now being disciplined for using Navy machines for infringing copyright. But at the same time, students in US universities are finding ways of concealing what they’re up to. The battle continues.

Where Webcams dare to tread

There’s a nesting box on the verandah outside my study, and every year a couple of Blue Tits use it to raise a brood (much to the interest and disgust of our cat, who watches their comings and goings with sinister intent). Last year I thought of installing a webcam in the box, so that we could unobtrusively observe the growth and development of the chicks — but other things intervened and by the time I was in a position to do the installation the nest was already in use. But it made me think about the ways that webcam technology has opened up observational possibilities. Even so, I was taken aback by this report in the “NYT” about Necrocam, a striking new Dutch film in which “a teenager with cancer, tells her friends that upon her death she wants a digital camera with an Internet connection installed in her coffin. Images of her decaying remains will then be transmitted to a Web page for all to see, making her virtually immortal. The friends pledge to install a Webcam in the coffin of the first one to die, and they seal their pact with an oath to the computing world’s highest power: ‘This we swear on Bill Gates’s grave.’

‘Necrocam’ was shown in September by VARA, a public-broadcasting network in the Netherlands. Now, the entertaining and — given its grotesque premise — unexpectedly moving film will have an opportunity to find its natural audience of online viewers. Last week the network put a version of the film with English subtitles on its Web site, at vara.nl/necrocam.”

Throttling Viruses: Restricting propagation to defeat malicious mobile code

Fascinating paper by Matthew Williamson of H-P Labs. Abstract reads:

“Modern computer viruses spread incredibly quickly, far faster than human-mediated responses. This greatly increases the damage that they cause. This paper presents an approach to restricting this high speed propagation automatically. The approach is based on the observation that during virus propagation, an infected machine will connect to as many different machines as fast as possible. An uninfected machine has a different behaviour: connections are made at a lower rate, and are locally correlated (repeat connections to recently accessed machines are likely). This paper describes a simple technique to limit the rate of connections to “new” machines that is remarkably effective at both slowing and halting virus propagation without affecting normal traffic. Results of applying the filter to web browsing data are included. The paper concludes by suggesting an implementation and discussing the potential and limitations of this approach.”

Microsoft losing money! Oh yeah? Pigs also fly in close formation

But wait — News.Com: “Four of Microsoft’s seven business divisions lost money in the most recent quarter, according to financial statements the company filed last week.” This is fascinating stuff — it shows that Microsoft is totally dependent on Windows and Office. All the other stuff they do loses money like it was going out of fashion. No wonder they’re bothered by Linux.

NY Times: entrenched interests fear Wi-Fi may cause retrenching: In a nicely clever piece of reasoning, John Markoff spells out Wi-Fi’s potential to disrupt entrenched telecommunications interests especially as the FCC examines opening up more spectrum to unlicensed or related use. As I have often said, incumbent market interests always get angry when consumers produce a more efficient marketplace. Rather than fight in the market, they encourage regulation or legislation to tip the playing field that’s already heavily tilted their direction.

[80211b News]

WSJ article on weblogs. [Scripting News]

Change Urged in Broadband Policy. A group of technology and media companies argue that the open nature of the Internet will be lost unless the F.C.C. amends its broadband policy.  [New York Times: Technology]

Read it and weep: This morning I went to hear Jin-wook Son, the managing director of the UK office of Korea Telecom, speak about S. Korea’s phenomenal broadband market — it has 10 million b/b subscribers (mostly DSL), around 70 per cent of households, the highest b/b penetration in the world. 55 million Koreans are online. Most Koreans subscribe to the ‘premium’ DSL offering from Korea Telecom, which gives 8 Mbps for… ready?… about 33 $/? a month. Modem rental is an additional 2.50 and the one-off installation cost is ?/$25. Setting aside factors such as very high density housing, which makes getting people wired up easier, he ascribes the fast take-up to huge govt support, a competitive telecoms market (and remember, he is from the incumbent operator!), and lots of content and services. Online gaming is very, very, VERY big in Korea. More on all this during the week. [[ t e c h n o c u l t u r e ]]

Lindows 3.0 released
InfoWorld report

Parents are more wired than non-parents

According to the latest Pew Internet survey, parents are more enthusiastic about technology than non-parents and more likely to use the Web for health information, for their work or training, and for getting religious information. Seventy percent of parents with a child at home use the Internet, compared to 53% of non-parents. These parents are more enthusiastic than non-parents about technology and its benefits and are strong believers that their children need to master computers and the Internet in order to get ahead in life.