Month: November 2005

Signs Microsoft is slowly catching up with google?

Windows live call

Andy Santo asks So are we cool again now?

It will be interesting to see how the “Web 2.0” crowds reacts to the new “Windows Live” and “Office Live” offerings… Sometimes I think that many of them are too young to remember how Microsoft turned on a dime and conquered the previous internet platform space back in the late '90s. The new services are a clear statement that we don't plan to go silently into the night this time either.

Yes your cool now, but cool and interesting is not long lasting. By the way, the pictures come from this Digg story, dont forget to digg it.

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My phone is also made of human ass

When I heard Merlin from 43 folders talk about his phone, I instantly knew it was a Panasonic phone before he even said it. Then I looked up the picture of his phone and laughed. Me and Sarah have been generally pissed off about our home phone for the same reasons for about the last 6 months. The rubber keys are a nightmare once they start to wear, I cant tell you how many times I've pressed 5 and its dialed 3 5's. The battery life on the phone is also a nightmare and its about the same weight as my ipaq which is simply wrong.

So anyhow we did change it recently to a philips 5115 phone which was a pile of crap, riddled with bugs and a difficult navigation to boot. Just 2 days ago we bought a couple of NTL DECT phones (would link to picture but Argos.co.uk dont seem to have it, although I bought it there) and according to my wife its really good. The question is now, what do we do with the old panasonic phone? And the only thing which I can think about is to give it to a charity shop as it still works, its just a pain to use.

Hey I didnt know NTL and Telewest merged?

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All your bases belong to google

This entry by Greg at Blogdigger titled Someone set up us The Bomb is excellent. I'd honestly hadn't really looked into Google base because the idea of marking up my data just for Google gives me the creeps, but the angle gives me a even creeper feeling.

In an effort to push things in the proper direction, a small group of individuals and companies began working on ways to structure information, in an attempt to prevent SDL (Semantic Data Loss) and create better search in the process. The history here goes back quite a bit, so I'll skip to the end, which is often called datablogging, microformats and/or structured blogging, all of which attempt to make the process of capturing the meaning of content easier both for the producer and the consumer. Things were moving along nicely in that direction; Google Base, however sends a proverbial “Make your time” to all those services, since Google Base essentially allows content producers to explicitly tell Google what all those little bits of data mean and how to interpret them.

Greg is right, but this is the dilemma. Google is offering a solution to put large amounts of structured data online while Databloggling hasnt gone that far and Microformats for as much I love them are still a second thought when blogging. I mean I'm a xml guy and I usually write the text, add the basic links, etc then some tags and maybe trackbacks. The adding of microformats usually comes afterwards, imagine what most people do.

We really need to start adding microformats to the Blogging applications, and soon.

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Make no mistake the battle lines have been drawn, Sony Rootkits and its DRM

Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far. Plain and simple, if you buy a Sony DRM CD like Get Right with the Man by the Van Zant brothers, agree to the EULA and install the DRM on your machine. Sony will also install a rootkit to make sure there XCP DRM is never removed. Is Sony taking this too far? In the words of Miles Money talks, Ian.

What makes this different from the other DRM currently deployed on CD by Macrovision, SunnComm, etc? Well a kernel rootkit will give access to your whole system and is undetectable by Virus killers and Spyware scanners. It will also rewrite the routines of your system, so you, your administrator and even the system can not see the files and/or process. Once installed, its pretty impossible to get rid of without erasing your whole system drive. As Microsoft themselves say, Be afraid, be very afraid.

Slashdotted and Digged. But Miles diggged a little deeper. Its really interesting following Ceri Coburn (a developer from first 4 internet, makers of the XCP DRM) around the internet. I wasnt sure of exact what he was doing but Miles explain some of his postings and where First 4 internet have been hacking stuff up.

Some examples, Trying to write a Snort logfile parser, maybe XCP is Ceri's first windows driver? We wonder if the XCP dll's are dialing home? Dont get us wrong, I'm sure Ceri is a nice guy but the posts and dont suggest a very well thoughout, stable and secure rootkit (if there is such a thing). And even when you read through Mark Russinovich entry, he points out mistakes and things which could have been better thoughtout to avoid detection and deletion. So Instead we're wondering how soon will it be till others exploit XCP, specially if Sony/BMG avoid being sued and other Record labels deploy XCP like have deployed DRM from Macrovision and SunnComm.

This is indeed a worrying trend for digital music lovers and does not look like ending at root access to your machine. As someone said in the comments. Forget ghosts and goblins. This scary Haloween story sent shivers up my spine.

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