I’m a huge Apple fan. I have a few Macs, iPods, and iPhones. But I don’t want my entire computing experience dominated by any one vendor, including one that I like and trust as much as I do Apple. For this reason I consciously choose to use a variety of different software applications on my
Mac, much of them open source.

Apple already has a place on the desktops of many Windows users through iTunes. Like Microsoft before it, Apple figured this was a great Trojan Horse to start pushing its other software. Like Microsoft before it, Apple stepped over the line, as John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla, suggested:

It only works when Apple starts to betray Microsoft-esque tendencies, tendencies which we should help to squash. Immediately. Before Apple begins to rely on its market position more than the quality of its products, in ways similar to how Microsoft has grown.

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What Apple is doing now with their Apple Software Update on Windows is wrong. It undermines the trust relationship great companies have with their customers, and that’s bad — not just for Apple, but for the security of the whole Web.

John then goes on to say he’s not against Apple’s use of iTunes to push the
Safari browser. He’s wrong. Larry Dignan suggests John’s complaint stems from Mozilla trying to protect its lucrative search relationship with Google. He’s wrong, too.

If a browser had anything to do with iTunes, this wouldn’t be so egregiously bad. But it doesn’t. No, Apple’s move bears the imprint of a would-be monopolist that cares more about its market position than its customers. I’m guessing it has little to do with Safari and much to do with…the
iPhone.

All of which makes me highly disappointed in Apple’s decision to force Safari on users through its iTunes update service. “Safari-gate” couldn’t have happened with open source, as iTWire notes. It doesn’t work in a transparent, trust-based relationship.

Except for its tie to the iPhone, of course. Safari is the application platform Apple uses for its iPhone. Why should Apple care about which browser you use? Because it cares about which phone you use. Apple won’t sell a single license to Safari, but it’s definitely hoping to sell you a boatload of iPhones.

So, I don’t use Safari and can’t fathom any reason for a Windows user to adopt it. It’s a great browser but…who cares? It doesn’t provide any differentiation that Internet Explorer or Firefox don’t already provide.

Apple makes incredible products. I bought the Macs because they’re better. I love my iPhone for the same reason. I, and millions of others, don’t need to be tricked into adopting Apple’s software and hardware. We just need to be given a compelling reason to switch. Millions are doing just that, and not because of some sly software “update.”

(Credit:
Brett Zehr)

The software wasn’t supposed to be available until mid-March, however a glitch on Thursday meant that Zehr and some other general users were able to download the Vista update.

“I’m also a computer hobbyist, so Microsoft couldn’t have picked a better guinea pig, glitch or no glitch,” he said. Although he was not a beta tester for Vista, he did help test Windows XP just prior to its debut in 2001.

Zehr has two other Vista machines, including one other 64-bit system, but was unable to see the available upgrade for those PCs. He said that if the glitch had to happen to someone, he was glad it was him.

Update: Microsoft revised earlier comments, confirming that those with automatic update settings configured in certain ways may have had the update pushed to them automatically.

Brett Zehr was surprised on Thursday when he saw that his
Windows Vista PC had a new update ready: Service Pack 1.

The update was not pushed out via Windows’ Automatic Update feature, but was listed for owners running the 64-bit version of Vista who chose to “check for new updates” via Windows Update.

A screenshot of one of the computers that was upgraded to Vista Service Pack 1, thanks to a glitch that made the update available a month ahead of schedule.

Updated: 2:40 p.m. with some clarifications from Microsoft.

“Unfortunately, I haven’t had enough time on the machine to tell if anything is really better or broken, but I’ve always had an image backup just in case,” Zehr said in an e-mail interview. “So far so good.”

The glitch is the second SP1-related issue for Microsoft in recent days. The company had to pull another update, this one a set of files necessary to move to SP1, because some users were sent into a repeated reboot cycle by the files.

“A build of SP1 was posted to Windows Update and it was inadvertently made available to a broad group,” Microsoft said in a statement. “The build was intended only for our more technically advanced testers, and was meant to only be offered to those with a specific registry key set on their PC. For general availability, we are still planning to make SP1 broadly available in the mid-March timeframe.”

A company representative also stated that the version pushed out is the final RTM version even though it may carry a beta designation.

Microsoft finalized the code for SP1 earlier this month. Initially, the company planned to make all users wait until March for the update because of some driver-related issues that had yet to be resolved. However, the company eased its policy some, making it available earlier this month to businesses that have volume licensing pacts as well as to MSDN and TechNet developers.

A “serious security flaw” in Gmail turns Google’s e-mail service into a spamming machine, according to a recent security report.

Google has offered no official comment on the report.

INSERT, the Information Security Research Team, has created a proof of concept that exploits the “trust hierarchy” that exists between mail service providers. By exploiting a flaw in the way Google forwards messages, a spammer can send thousands of bulk e-mails through Google’s SMTP service, bypassing Google’s 500-address bulk e-mail limit and identity fraud protections.

The report notes that with the rising volume of spam, e-mail providers have turned to whitelists and blacklists to help root out IP addresses of known spammers. Because Gmail falls into the trusted-whitelist category, messages are allowed “carte blanche” to bypass spam filtering.

This isn’t the first Google tool to appeal to spammers. In April, my colleague Elinor Mills reported that spammers were now using Google Calendar.

INSERT’s report notes that no extraordinary Internet expertise is necessary to exploit the flaw:

“God’s servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two–one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him Who heareth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this–keep it in mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor’s crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it.

Pursue the abolition of software patents with the same zeal they showed in their efforts to get OOXML approved as a standard.
Unilaterally promise to not use the DMCA to maintain control of their Trusted Computing Platform.
Transition to 100 percent open standards (as defined by the OSI, IETF, W3C, or the Digistan).
Stop trying to maintain their monopolies by illegal, anticompetitive means.

If you’ve never read “The War Prayer,” I’d encourage you to do so now. It’s only a page or two long, and it changed the way I think (and pray). It involves a stranger interrupting the earnest prayer of the people in a small town, praying for their country’s victory in battle. Here’s an excerpt:

“I come from the Throne–bearing a message from Almighty God!” The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. “He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import–that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of–except he pause and think.

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But Microsoft is a symptom. Michael groks this, and his recommendations appropriately take this into account. Microsoft did not invent proprietary software. It may well benefit from proprietary lock-in, but is not the cause of it, and it’s unreasonable to expect Microsoft to unilaterally disarm to the detriment of its shareholders.

Sunday morning, and I couldn’t help but ponder Michael Tiemann’s excellent note on Microsoft’s revised (and improved) Open Specification Promise and “what Microsoft can do for open source.”

Let’s think big. The open-source community already has more than a billion lines of source code at its disposal, and it’s doubling every 12.5 months, so I think it’s fair to say “we don’t really need your code.” And we also know that money alone is no substitute for the freedom to innovate that we so crave. So what big thing could we do with Microsoft’s cooperation?

I also think this approach avoids the kind of self-righteous thinking that Mark Twain pillories in his exceptional “The War Prayer.”

Acknowledge where it’s at, and look for constructive bridges between the open-source community and Microsoft. Nowhere is this more evident than in the suggestion that Microsoft and the open-source community work together in disarming our harmful software patent regime, rather than pointing fingers at Microsoft over its refusal to unilaterally disarm.

In fostering a thaw, I hope that Michael and the OSI will take on an increased role. It’s difficult to entrust this sort of lobbying to any one company, including a benevolent one like Red Hat. Some things are best done by nonprofits such as Mozilla, Eclipse, OSI, Open Invention Network, and the Linux Foundation. They don’t have the same financial pressures that a public, profit-driven corporation must have.

These sound more like an ultimatum than a request for mutual action, but you get that in Michael’s detailed discussion of these four items. In so doing, I think that Michael does an excellent job of demonstrating how to work with Microsoft:

There are really four things on my list, but if they did only the first, it would be a meaningful start. The list is:

Michael rightly notes that Microsoft’s Promise, while certainly improved, still leaves much to be desired. No surprise there, which leads Michael to a thoughtful, probing analysis of what Microsoft could do to fully engage with open-source communities:

Often, we don’t truly want the consequences of what we want–we simply don’t think through the consequences, and so we blindly demand things that end up being “prayers” of dual meaning. We demand that Microsoft be taken down, that open source crush it beneath the glory of our GPL and freedom.

John McCain’s announcement last week that he has chosen Sarah Palin as his running mate left the public thirsting for information about the Alaska governor– and inspired hundreds of commentators, entrepreneurs, and Palin imitators to try to fill in the gaps.

And, of course, the most authoritative site on the Internet–Wikipedia–has changed the story of Palin numerous times.

It’s also interesting to note what you can’t find on Palin on the Internet. As pointed out on Versionista, the Palin for Governor site disappeared the morning she was announced as McCain’s running mate.

There could be a lot to glean about Palin’s views and policy positions from her churchgoing history, the Huffington Post pointed out Tuesday. However, the archived sermons cited in the article are now inaccessible.

There are plenty of crude references to Palin online–on the less offensive side, one can buy merchandise calling Palin a “Babe-raham Lincoln.”

A would-be Palin shares her inner-most thoughts on “The PalinDrome: Sarah Palin’s Blog”. A faux Levi Johnston (that’d be Palin’s soon-to-be son-in-law, for those of you out of the loop) can also be found online.

You can join one of the hundreds of new Facebook groups passing judgment about Palin– ranging from “Sarah Palin has more Executive experience than Obama and Biden combined” to “I have more Foreign Policy Experience than Sarah Palin.” There is even a Governor Palin Facebook application… that doesn’t seem to have any sort of application.

If Palin doesn’t suffice as your VP pick, one site recommends you try her out as your new Segway.

STEC offers drives already with MLC technology.

Whether this will actually translate into improved power efficiency when Intel brings out its drives remains to be seen.

Has the image of solid state drives as power misers been shattered? A recent review would seem to dispel the notion that these devices are more power efficient than the hard disk drives used in laptops.

Dean Klein, vice president of memory system development for Micron, echoed Wilkison’s comments about using legacy drives in the review. He made the following statement:

And the next crop of SSDs based on multilevel cell (MLC) technology will need to aggressively manage power. “In order to make MLC viable, the drive needs a much more powerful processor/controller, which implies more power draw because frequencies will be higher, number of channels will be higher, ECC (error correcting code) engine will be working harder,” he said.

In an article at Tom’s Hardware titled “The SSD Power Consumption Hoax”,
the authors state: “We have discovered that the power savings aren’t there: in fact, battery runtimes actually decrease if you use a flash (solid state drive).”

The Tom’s Hardware review, however, says: “While conventional hard drives may operate at relatively low power when little movement is required…flash based drives do not. They will draw their maximum power level constantly when in use, and as a consequence, simply spend more total time drawing maximum power than conventional drives.”

Though Intel’s drives were not tested in the review, the chipmaker stated Wednesday that SSDs “can be architected to improve battery life.” Intel is expected to bring out drives ranging in capacity from 80GB to 160GB later this year.

Micron Technology, which is a manufacturer of one of the drives used by Tom’s Hardware in its review, made a statement on Thursday.

Update at 1:30 p.m. PDT July 3, with additional comments from Micron Technology (at bottom).

“There is another factor to be aware of. If the CPU spends 25 million clock cycles waiting for random HDD data, but only part of that waiting for SSD data, the actual increase in notebook power consumption may be in the CPU. A useful metric is how much processing gets done per watt. If you are willing to scale back performance to that of an HDD-based system, an SSD-based system should deliver significantly longer battery life.

“Finally, consider that many of today’s applications and operating systems are not optimized for SSDs, but for rotating media.”

Update: Micron Technology chimes in:

The review goes on to test four solid state drives (SSDs) from Crucial (Micron Technology), Memoright, Sandisk, and Mtron. For example, in evaluating the Crucial CT32GBFAB0 32GB drive, the review states, “Users who purchase this drive because of Crucial’s statements such as ‘low power consumption’ and the product being ideal for ‘users who want longer battery life’ will most likely be disappointed.”

Intel Fellow and Director of Storage Architecture Knut Grimsrud earlier this year presented a paper titled “Not all SSDs are Created Equal” (PDF) that stated “power efficiency must account for the amount of work being performed during the power measurement.”

Micron will launch its next-generation RealSSD products later this year. Intel and Micron are co-partners in the joint venture IM Flash Technologies. Both companies are expected to bring out similar SSDs though they will be marketed and branded separately by the two companies.

One of the key selling points of solid state drives has been that they use less power than hard disk drives. The claim has seemed plausible because solid state drives have no moving parts, while hard disk drives have a number of moving components.

(Note:
Tom’s Hardware has posted a correction to its original report here.)

Intel claims its upcoming SSDs will be power efficient

“The controllers analyzed in the Tom’s Hardware review are early-generation, multi-chip and in some cases even use FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays), which can be quite power hungry. As with many other first and second generation drives, these drives are not delivering on the full potential of the NAND and are not delivering properly on the performance promise.

(Credit:
Intel)

However, high-performance solid state drive maker STEC provided some insight into what to expect. Data used in the Tom’s Hardware piece applies to the current first-generation mass-market SSDs but not necessarily to upcoming drives, said Patrick Wilkison, vice president of marketing and business development at STEC. “They are using legacy drives, none of which will be used by any major PC OEM,” Wilkison said in an e-mail.

“Feelers” on the crabs legs are actually robotic sensors that help it avoid obstacles. It responds to loud clapping or banging sounds by running away. The Hexbug Crab, however, is slightly more advanced than Hexbug’s robotic bugs. This one will also have light sensors and be programmed to scurry to the darkest spot it can find, just like a real crab does.

(Credit:
HexBug/Innovation First)

The 75-employee Greenville, Texas-based company also seeks to promote robots in general. It maintains RobotEvents.com, a site that tracks news of educational robotic and technology projects for children and teens.

Innovation First is releasing the Hexbug Crab, the latest in its line of Hexbug microrobotic toys that sell for about $9.99.

Like other Hexbugs, the Hexbug Crab can be left to roam around and respond to its environment. Think of it as a little pet that doesn’t need to be fed.

This August, you may be dodging something other than Frisbees at the beach or your boss at the office.

While the minirobot is geared toward kids, it’s easy to see the Hexbug Crab gaining a place alongside office stress balls in cubicles across the country.

(Credit: Boy Genius Report)

Boy Genius Report also notes:

Old back versus new back.

As always, feel free to post your comments. What do you think of the design of the alleged Kindle 2? And how much do you think it will cost?

After rumors surfaced on the Web a few months back that a new Kindle might be on the way, Amazon.com did its best to shoot them down, saying a new Kindle was not coming this year. Well, Boy Genius Report has gotten a hold of some photos that appear to be the Kindle 2, so we’re curious what Amazon has to say now.

(Credit: Boy Genius Report)

Old Kindle meet the new Kindle?

No word on when the next-generation Kindle will arrive, whether there will be a European model, or how much it will cost. However, I have a feeling we’ll soon get an announcement from Amazon–if indeed this turns out to be a real product that will go up against the upcoming Sony Reader, the PRS-700, which features a touch-screen display and will hit stores next month in time for the holiday buying season.

From the looks of the new device, Amazon has tried to address some of the criticisms of the Kindle, most of which revolve around its somewhat homely design and a few poorly placed buttons. The shape has been modified to make the new Kindle more attractive, but it appears Amazon is sticking with the same off-white color scheme–for better or worse.

As far as buttons go, on the right side, the bottoms from top to bottom are: Home, Next Page, Menu, a joystick, and Undo. On the left side, there’s Previous, Page, and Next Page. We’re told the buttons are significantly smaller, to avoid accidental page turning. The joystick takes the place of the scroll wheel and it “takes a little getting used to.” As far as the redesigned keyboard…it “has a good layout, but lettering on the keys could be darker.” Continuing our tour around the unit, next to the sliding sleep button, there’s the headphone jack, and on the right-side edge you’ve got the volume up/down buttons. What’s interesting (and you can see this in the photos) is that the backside of the unit is mostly metal, with the speakers at the bottom of the back. One more plus? They’ve finally ditched their own charger. The Kindle 2 can be charged with a miniUSB cable.

The first show, called Gemini Division, is a sci-fi thriller starring Dawson. She’s a New York City cop who stumbles on a conspiracy to replace humans with clones. The show, which is expected to appear at video portal Hulu, will unfold over 50 four-minute episodes starting this summer.

The network on Friday said it has directed writers, producers, and actors including Rosario Dawson to create stories that incorporate brands, such as Microsoft, Intel, and Cisco Systems into the story lines.

NBC is also testing the advertising in-show strategy on TV, but Zigler said the Web is the perfect place for experimentation.

The big question is, how will the network avoid alienating audiences if writers have to cuddle up to brands? I can’t imagine how hard it would be to write an entertaining script while trying to tuck a commercial into the plot–and, indeed, executives at NBC Universal said they can do it.

Death and Zigler declined to discuss specifics about how the brands will be displayed, but Zigler said it won’t be traditional product placement. “This is not about a soda on a table and having someone take a sip,” Zigler said. “This is about organic storytelling.”

“If it’s cheesy,” said Vivi Zigler, NBC’s executive vice president of digital entertainment and new media, “if it doesn’t fit, if it’s inappropriate, it won’t work for us. It won’t work for the brand. We’re dead.”

Executives at NBC Universal know they must walk a fine line in creating a Web series designed to showcase an advertiser’s product or service. To some, it sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Like many other Web sites that offer video, NBC Universal is searching for new ways to pitch ads to Internet users, a group that has been reluctant to accept Web commercials.

Cameron Death (pronounced deeth), NBC Universal’s vice president of digital content, said the network will start by learning what message the advertisers want to convey and which consumer groups they want to reach. “We work with the brands to get right insights and then use our history of storytelling at NBC,” Death said, “to make it come alive in the viewers’ imagination.”

“We can get high production values on digital and still be cheaper than TV,” Zigler said. “It gives us an opportunity to try some new things, and we won’t break the bank.”

“He saw an opportunity,” and was selling plans for West Point and other military secrets to the British, but was caught in the end, Beckstrom said.

(Credit:
Elinor Mills)

“If he were alive today we would probably call him an e-mail junkie or a cyber junkie,” he said. “He was the first wired president; (telegraph) was a fixed wire” that could be severed or tapped.

Even that American revolutionary war was almost lost because of “one of greatest threats we face today in cyberspace”–insider threats and hackers, Beckstrom said, displaying a portrait of Benedict Arnold, a disgruntled commanding officer who was passed over for promotion and charged with corruption after facing financial difficulties.

“What are the new cyber rules?” he asked. “How do we develop an international framework and move toward cooperation?”

(Credit:
Rod Beckstrom)

“We have the same threats today, just on different technology and mediums,” Beckstrom said.

LAS VEGAS–The security issues we face today in cyberspace are the same ones the country faced during the American Civil War when Abe Lincoln was relying on telegraph transmissions to help keep the country united, a top U.S. cybersecurity official said in a keynote speech at the Black Hat security conference here Thursday.

He touched on issues of punishment, “cyber justice,” and cyber diplomacy, and ended the talk asking more questions than he answered.

Abe Lincoln, "the first wired president," Beckstrom says.

And don’t forget the plain old telephone system, which will still be operational if the IP system goes down, he said.

Rod Beckstrom, director of the National Cyber Security Center, gives a keynote at Black Hat on Thursday.

Click here for full coverage of Black Hat 2008.

Today, however, nations, businesses, and individuals also confront a single point of failure in cyberspace, with the Internet protocols and technologies, like the Domain Name System, he said. (A serious DNS vulnerability was the subject of a session at Black Hat on Wednesday.)

Security lessons from battle were available even earlier in American history, according to Beckstrom. In the French and Indian wars, British forces relied on traditional warfare formations and often got slaughtered by French frontiersmen and their Native American supporters, who used guerrilla tactics like roadside ambushes.

Without elaboration, Beckstrom said: “Why can’t we quarantine computers that are disrupting the Internet?”

One officer fighting on the side of the British who survived such attacks–George Washington–took the lessons of flexible fighting and guerrilla warfare with him in fighting for American independence, he said.

Lincoln was obsessed with reading telegrams that delivered updates from the battlefield, using them to learn about the military strategies and to offer feedback, said Rod Beckstrom, director of the National Cyber Security Center in the Department of Homeland Security.

“Invest in protocols because it may be the cheapest security dollars we can invest,” Beckstrom said. The Department of Homeland Security is funding research related to DNS security, among other initiatives, he added. “We’ve got to move forward because we’ve got to change the odds of this game.”