UN and OAS blast U.S. gov't over WikiLeaks reaction

  The Long View (Computerworld)

Diplomats talk in diplomatic language. It's a kind of code, where they rarely say what they mean. Some translation is required. So here's my take on the recent 'Joint Statement' from the United Nations and Organization of American States about the WikiLeaks situation, in The Long View...

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How to solve the Web reputation problem

  The Long View (Computerworld)

Protecting users from sites containing malicious content is a thankless task. The size of today's web makes it incredibly difficult. Find out why, and what we can do about it, in The Long View...

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No, Yahoo! isn't killing Del.icio.us

  The Long View (Computerworld)

Opinion: over-eager bloggers added 2+2 and made 5; but Yahoo management performing piss-poorly. Delicious's stay of execution good to hear: without neglectful, adoptive parenting, it could shine once more.
24 hours ago, users of the Del.icio.us social bookmarking-cum-tagging service were stunned to hear that it would close. Owner Yahoo had included it in a list of services it planned to "sunset." But apparently, that was wrong. Read on to discover more, in The Long View...

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In snub to WikiLeaks, Zuckerberg wins TIME Person of Year 2010

  The Long View (Computerworld)

Richi's Rant: TIME Person of the Year 2010 should be WikiLeaks' Julian Assange. Don't hold an election if you're going to fake the result, foolish magazine.
It's mid-December, which means it's TIME Magazine's Person of the Year time again. A few days ago, we learned that the public had overwhelmingly voted for Wikileaks honcho Julian Assange for the win. Depressingly, TIME's taken the safe option, opting for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, instead. Let's avoid the conspiracy theories, but dissect the choice, in The Long View...

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Why not use same password everywhere? Gawker shows us.

  The Long View (Computerworld)

Gawker Media hack causes my friends to receive scammy begging email "from" me. Moral: don't forget about old email accounts when managing password risk.
The recent hack of Gawker Media's user database had a few people tsk-tsk'ing at that publication's security skills. Or lack of them. But that's just a pile of low-value blog comment accounts -- is there a greater worry we're missing? Are high-value enterprise accounts also at risk as a result? Here's a personal story of being hacked as a direct result of the Gawker compromise, in The Long View...

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Google Message Continuity: Awesome idea, boring name

  The Long View (Computerworld)

Google Message Continuity is the latest Google service to tempt Microsoft Exchange shops into looking at Google Apps. Basically, it helps protect Exchange shops from downtime. Why would Google do that? Surely it wants people to experience Exchange pain? Let's look into it, in The Long View...

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What's the point of Google Chrome OS?

  The Long View (Computerworld)

Google Chrome OS. So you understand what Chrome is: it's Google's Web browser, but why have an eponymous operating system? Isn't that a bit obfuscatory? Let's clear up the confusion and illuminate Google's strategy.
After all the noise over Google's Chrome OS announcement yesterday, I find people scratching their heads. They can't see the point of what Google's doing. They especially can't see the point for enterprise IT. Let's try and remedy that, in The Long View...

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Google buys speech synthesis firm, Phonetic Arts

  The Long View (Computerworld)

Google's acquiring a speech synthesis firm, Phonetic Arts. Its technology is best known as a speech engine for gaming. Why on earth would Google need one of those? Let's talk about it, in The Long View...

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Enterprise email: News of its death greatly exaggerated

  The Long View (Computerworld)

Email is dying, say the pundits. It's being replaced by social media and texting, they claim. Balderdash, say I. Email is alive and thriving in the enterprise. Even if Robert X. Cringely disagrees with me. See what I mean, in The Long View...

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Wait, is Comcast really putting the squeeze on competitors?

  The Long View (Computerworld)

I'm not sure Robert L. Mitchell is being entirely fair and balanced. His article posted earlier, Comcast puts squeeze on competitors, seems a bit one-sided to me. In the interests of balance, here's the other side of the story, in The Long View...
(CMCSA) (LVLT) (NFLX)

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Awesome! 1,000 cores on a chip ... one tiny catch

  The Long View (Computerworld)

How do you fancy a 1,000-core processor in your next PC? Intel's proud to announce that it's working on one. However, you might not actually want it, as we'll see in The Long View ...

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Facebook social inbox: Disaster for enterprise email

  The Long View (Computerworld)

What can enterprise messaging developers learn from Facebook's email 'Project Titan'?
Monday's Facebook Messaging announcement wasn't quite what many had expected. It's not the latest step in some naively-imagined death-march of email. But it does have some interesting things to say to today's email developers, in enterprises and smaller businesses everywhere. What can enterprise email developers and administrators learn from Facebook's new ideas? Let's take a look, in The Long View...

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Restoring old backups: Lessons learned the hard way

  The Long View (Computerworld)

Ancient HP OpenMail backup restore request presented a pretty poser.
I've recently been helping a consulting client restore some ancient data. It struck me that there are lessons here for today's IT operations: lessons to be learned from the mistakes of the past. Mistakes we'll try not to repeat, in The Long View...

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Qantas A380 fly-by-wire control system didn't cause engine failure

  The Long View (Computerworld)

When discussing QF31, we need more science and less hyperbolic linkbait. Cooler heads should prevail.
This week brought us the so-called "engine explosion" and "crash landing" of a Rolls-Royce-powered, Qantas Airbus A380 double-deck superjumbo, at Singapore's Changi airport. Predictably, the media is full of uninformed speculation about what happened. Some are even blaming the aircraft's computerized, fly-by-wire control systems. Let's take a step back from all the hyperbole, and see what we actually know so far about the Qantas QF31 A380 engine failure emergency, in The Long View...

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Hurrah! Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman lose!

  The Long View (Computerworld)

So Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman both lost in yesterday's mid-terms (albeit unofficially, so far). I say: good. This is not a political opinion, though. Just plain old common sense, as is normal for The Long View...

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Enterprise Developers: Don't stop believing in Microsoft Silverlight

  The Long View (Computerworld)

Is Microsoft really ditching Silverlight for HTML5? Really? It was Microsoft's Professional Developer's Conference last week. What conclusions should enterprise developers draw? Let's dig deeper, in The Long View...

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iPhone daylight-saving bug: fall back to late alarms

  The Long View (Computerworld)

These are the dog days of DST, people: get ready to fall back. And prepare for an insidious bug in iOS, where alarms go off late. If you rely on your iPhone to get you up after the time change, you may be in trouble. The daylight saving bug may make Fall 2010 alarming, once you go back to Standard time. Let's see what's up, in The Long View...

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Are Apple's iPhone and iPad relevant to enterprises?

  The Long View (Computerworld)

The conventional wisdom is that enterprises aren't impressed by Apple's shiny iDevices, perceiving them as a consumer play. Is that a fair assessment? And if so, could it change in the foreseeable future? Let's take a look, in The Long View...

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Microsoft Office 365: Cynical rebrand or future of collaboration?

  The Long View (Computerworld)

This week saw Microsoft announce its Office 365 initiative. What does it mean for businesses, large and small? Let's survey the landscape, in The Long View...

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Should ISPs cut off bot-infected users?

  The Long View (Computerworld)

There's no doubt that botnets are a major threat to the safety and stability of the internet -- not to mention the cleanliness of your inbox. After years of failure to act, could we finally be seeing ISPs waking up to their responsibilities? Let's take The Long View...

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Spam wars: the inbox is ground zero

  The Long View (Computerworld)

In continuing this series about the war against spam, I want to address a concern raised by my Computerworld blogging colleague, David A. Milman. Experience tells him that -- despite advances in spam filtering -- SMB and consumer users are experiencing worsening spam problems. Let's dive into the first The Long View of the month...

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Nokia's death-march continues: N8 release date delay

  The Long View (Computerworld)

Like some sort of proud, gushing parent, Nokia today announced its latest bouncing baby is now shipping. Wait, what? Did I say the N8 is "shipping"? Sorry, I meant to say it's on its way to a few, lucky, pre-order customers. Do I smell spin, in The Long View?
(NOK)

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No, we're not losing the spam war

  The Long View (Computerworld)

Forgive me, but I simply can't let David A. Milman's post from yesterday go unchallenged. We're not losing the spam war; the sky isn't falling. I say this not to criticize my fellow CW blogger, but to illustrate several common misconceptions about spam and how the anti-spam community fights it. Let's take The Long View...

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Iran nuke SCADAs saturated with Stuxnet infection

  The Long View (Computerworld)


Would you like to play a game, Dr. Falken? The Stuxnet worm, "the most sophisticated malware ever," has been discovered infesting Iran's nuclear installations. There's growing speculation that these were indeed the intended targets of what the mainstream continues to call a "virus" -- it only infects certain Siemens SCADA systems in specific configurations. There's also speculation that it's state-sponsored malware, with fingers pointing at either Israel or the U.S. Let's take a look, in The Long View...

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Five reasons to use Google Chrome (and not IE9 beta)

  The Long View (Computerworld)

Yesterday, Preston Gralla proffered his Five reasons to use Internet Explorer 9. Today, here's Richi's riposte juste: fanboi-free, absent apologia. I give you: five reasons for Windows users to switch to Google Chrome, rather than the IE9 beta. Yes, it's The Long View again...
(GOOG)

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Another DRM plan bites the dust: HDCP key leaked

  The Long View (Computerworld)

How many metaphorical bloody noses will it take before the movie and music industries realize that DRM is a waste of their time -- and ours? As if we needed more evidence, now the HDCP Master Key has been cracked (or so we're told). Does that mean you can bypass HDCP now? Does it even matter? If not, why not? Answers aplenty in today's The Long View...

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Nokia's death march

  The Long View (Computerworld)

If you thought Nokia was in deep trouble, I reckon you'd be right. To summarize the trouble: lacking leadership, poor platforms, patchy phones. I look at the challenges ahead, in The Long View...
(NOK)

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Microsoft "complicit" in Russian dissident crackdown

  The Long View (Computerworld)

The NYT's Clifford J. Levy published some worrying allegations about Microsoft yesterday. If I'm reading between his lines correctly, Levy is all-but blaming Microsoft of helping the Russian government shut down political dissidents. The article alleges that the Russians found a quasi-legal way of disrupting opposition groups, by way of bogus software piracy investigations -- and that Microsoft aids and abets this chilling of free speech. Let's take a look, in The Long View...
(MSFT)

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Fanboi falsehood #1: "Mac security better than Windows"

  The Long View (Computerworld)

My irritation with fabois and fanboishness knows no bounds. These people have an intense desire to evangelize their chosen technology and convert users of competing products to their One True Way. Whether it's Mac fanbois mocking Windows users, or iPhone fanbois taunting Android wielders, their behavior is childish, cultish, and frankly a little disturbing. In this occasional series of posts, let's examine some fanboi falsehoods and technological tropes -- in The Long View.

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Aha! Adobe alternatives ahoy. Absolutely amazing...

  The Long View (Computerworld)

Happy Friday, everyone. This morning's wailing and gnashing of teeth over Adobe patches reminded me that there's more to PDF reading and writing than the 'official' Adobe software. Let's take a peek, in The Long View.

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How does Intel/McAfee make sense? I think I know...

  The Long View (Computerworld)

What's Intel up to? Don't expect it to tell us the real reason it's buying McAfee. But I'll tell you what I think its plans are, in The Long View...

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Twitter spam test: we caught some spammers!

  The Long View (Computerworld)

You may remember a couple of weeks ago, I baited a trap for Twitter spammers. Let's see how that experiment turned out, in The Long View.

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Why Andrew Orlowski is wrong about net neutrality

  The Long View (Computerworld)

Earlier today, my attention was drawn to an "analysis" piece at The Register. Let's take a read, in The Long View.

In the article, Andrew Orlowski argues that fans of network neutrality are living in some kind of 1990s dream world; that the architecture of 2010's Internet is very different from their outdated fantasies. This is due to widespread use of private peering arrangements by The Big Boys; that the so-called "backbones" -- as well as being a misnomer -- are increasingly irrelevant:

A real net neutrality law would have to give every company equal access at equal rates to Akamai or Google's caching servers - and I can't see that happening.

This is either stupendous ignorance of progressive, free-market economics, or deliberate misdirection. Not sure which; I dare say the Orlowski-watchers in the audience will have an opinion...

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One ex-HP guy (@richi) on another ex-HP guy (Mark Hurd)

  The Long View (Computerworld)

You may know that I worked for HP, in various capacities from 1987 to 2001. That was before Mark Hurd's time, but it won't stop me having an opinion, in The Long View.

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Arabs ban BlackBerry? No, not exactly.

  The Long View (Computerworld)

You may have read that Research In Motion is in trouble with authorities in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. It's said that certain BlackBerry services, including email, will be banned unless the governments are allowed to spy on messages going back and forth. Banned? Seriously? Well, let's take a closer look, in The Long View.

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A Twitter spam test, not an Apple iPhone 4 post ... #FF @richi

  The Long View (Computerworld)

If you're anything like me, you're heartily sick of Twitter spammers. It's Friday, so might I crave your indulgence for a little experiment here in The Long View? (I promise: there's nothing here about the Apple iPhone 4.) The microblogging service seems to be plagued with thousands of bots, mindlessly tweeting gibberish. Any search for a popular term -- such as, ohhh I don't know, Apple iPhone 4 -- seems to throw up a huge, steaming pile of automated tweets from an army of fake Twitter users. But what's really going on here?

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Review: encrypted hard drive, unlocked by fingerprint

  The Long View (Computerworld)

I don't know about you, but I'm fed up of reading news about how yet another company has carelessly lost yet another batch of private customer data. Sadly, the story is all too familiar: Typically, an employee takes a copy of the data away on some sort of portable storage, which inexplicably goes missing.

I mean, how hard can it be to make sure that the data are encrypted? Actually, pretty hard, as it turns out -- at least for 'regular' users.

Software-based whole drive encryption can be a pain to use, if Joe the marketing guy just want to take his stuff home to work on. Odds are that the version of Windows he has at home doesn't include BitLocker, Microsoft's native Windows disk encryption scheme -- if he uses Mac OS at home, fuggetaboudit. And add-on software such as TrueCrypt are just that -- add-ons, which can be too much of a roadblock for 'average' users.

Enter: automatic, hardware encryption, where the cryptography magic and its user authentication are contained within the storage device itself. Apricorn, Inc., based near San Diego, sent me one of its latest biometric devices for review -- the Aegis Bio (in this case, the new 640 GB version).

Let's see how it performed...

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Horrible Safari privacy bug: take action now

  The Long View (Computerworld)

If you use the Safari web browser, listen up. Your browser may be leaking your private information to any website you visit. Let's take a look, in The Long View...

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Apple fanbois: good sports re. Steve Jobs press conference

  The Long View (Computerworld)

Dear Apple fanbois (and fangrrls). You're (mostly) all good sports. You (mostly) didn't object to yesterday's parodic "leak" of Steve Jobs' press conference script. In fact, some of you were even (mostly) complimentary. I'm truly humbled; thanks! Aside from the obvious light relief, there was actually a serious point behind yesterday's post. Yes, really! Read on, as I breathe a sigh of relief and talk more seriously about iOS 4.0.1, in The Long View...

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Steve Jobs' script for Friday's iPhone 4 press conference!

  The Long View (Computerworld)

This is interesting. My super-secret-squirrel mole inside Apple PR has handed me a red-hot leak. The mole, known to me only as Rodapy, managed to get a draft of that script -- the one Steve Jobs will be using tomorrow at the iPhone 4 press conference. Let's take a read, in The Long View...

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Google App Inventor for Android: brilliant for IT

  The Long View (Computerworld)

In this morning's IT Blogwatch, I rounded up bloggers' thoughts on Google's new App Inventor for Android. This is a drag'n'drop application development environment, which promises easy creation of smartphone apps, without mucking around with Java or other conventional languages. Interesting, but is there more to it than students and newbies writing trivial toy apps for phones? I think so, in The Long View. This is just one step on the road to IT freeing itself from Windows.

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Is it fair to blame Andy Lees for Microsoft KIN debacle?

  The Long View (Computerworld)

This morning's IT Blogwatch rounded up the latest blog chatter about Microsoft's decision to can KIN, its latest not-quite-a-smart-phone project. Yep, it's a major embarrassment for all at Microsoft, including a certain Andy Lees, senior vice president of Microsoft's Mobile Communication Business. However, managers at that level aren't usually making the day-to-day decisions that cause projects to fail. Where else should the finger of blame point? How about Roz Ho?

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Apple's ludicrous iPhone 4 apology

  The Long View (Computerworld)

So Apple has issued a statement about the iPhone 4 reception issues and the problems caused by touching the antenna. Apparently, it's all the fault of a bug in the code that displays the signal bars. What a load of old garbage...

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10 ways spam is like vuvuzelas (the World Cup horns)

  Security Levity (Computerworld)

If you've been glued to the World Cup, you'll know that there's more to the matches than soccer (football for our international audience). I'm talking about those incessant horns -- the vuvuzelas. They're really catching people's attention, for all the wrong reasons. It got me thinking... In this week's Security Levity, how is a vuvuzela just like spam?

Vuvuzelas and spam? Have I gone mad? Never fear, dear reader, let me count the ways...

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Friday Finally: don't cross the memes!

  The Long View (Computerworld)

Happy Friday, everyone. In each day's IT Blogwatch post, I add an And Finally link: something from the internets that's funny or weird enough to warrant your valuable attention. It's Friday, so here's five extra helpings of And Finally goodness...

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iPhone 4 early adopters: just beta testers for Apple?

  The Long View (Computerworld)

It's the official Apple iPhone 4 release date and already the problem reports are rife. Some users are wondering if they're little more than beta testers for Steve Jobs. Antenna problems, yellow spots, and scratched/broken screens make for unhappy fanbois, it would appear...

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iOS 4 "kills" Ford SYNC (iPhone OS 4.0 problem solved)

  The Long View (Computerworld)

Monday's launch of iOS 4 seems to have caused some hair-pulling for Ford SYNC users. Yesterday's IT Blogwatch was something of a lightning rod for discussion about the issue. Read on for the solution (hopefully) to this iPhone OS 4.0 issue...

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More on Microsoft IT using L2 SAS DAS for Exchange

  The Long View (Computerworld)

This is a followup post to last week's series about how Microsoft IT built an unusual Exchange message store architecture. Some folks are assuming that the SAS -- serial attached SCSI -- drives referred to in the first post are the relatively expensive, 2.5" 15K RPM type. They're not...

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