05:07 AM by Laurens in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Amusing morning read: The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time (PC World)

At PC World, we spend most of our time talking about products that make your life easier or your work more productive. But it's the lousy ones that linger in our memory long after their shrinkwrap has shriveled, and that make tech editors cry out, "What have I done to deserve this?"

Still, even the worst products deserve recognition (or deprecation). So as we put together our list of World Class winners for 2006, we decided also to spotlight the 25 worst tech products that have been released since PC World began publishing nearly a quarter-century ago.

10:19 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

One of the loudest complaints about the Treo is that it still doesn't support WiFi. Well that's eventually going to change. According to the Washington Post Technology Briefing, "Palm will add wireless Internet capabaility to future models of the Treo phone. The company had declined to add Wi-Fi because it drains battery life. Chief executive Edward T. Colligan would not say when the capability would be added. 'We do believe Wi-Fi is an important technology,' Colligan said. 'There's no question that we'll ultimately put in our products, but at the right time.'"

It is, however, not clear from the article whether Ed Colligan was speaking specifically about Treos, or whether the reporter simply jumped to conclusions.

From the Washington Post.

04:31 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

With all the science fiction readers that visit MobileRead, it's hard to consider this subject off-topic, and it's just too amazing to pass up completely. If you've been watching the science news at all recently, you've heard the remarkable work that is going on.

There are claims that new technology can bring an actual cloaking device into the real world. "Two separate teams of researchers have come up with theories on ways to use experimental 'metamaterials' to cloak an object and hide it from visible light, infrared light, microwaves and perhaps even sonar probes. Their work suggests that science-fiction portrayals of invisibility, such as the cloaking devices used to hide space ships in Star Trek, might be truly possible."

Wow!

From ZDNet.

04:25 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

We are all tired of the frustrations associated with device-dependent DRM methods. Often, you can't even use content on multiple devices. The President of Shore Communications, John Blossom, says that with the rise of inexpensive portable storage, we will see the DRM controls move from devices to storage media.

Specifically, he sees a trend in technology so that "personal storage devices are becoming personal content and software application servers." He believes that This of course would imply that content companies were ready to license content effectively independent of specific devices."

"[T]he content industry is now faced with the opportunity to build relationships with their clientele through personal storage devices in a way that is likely to have an explosive force similar to the migration of recorded content from proprietary phonograph cylinders to more universally adaptable discs. This of course would imply that content companies were ready to license content effectively independent of specific devices."

Three factors that he sees driving the shift are:
* Smarter portable storage technologies
* Better DRM technology (such as Navio's cross-platform "solution")
* Personalized search

For a more complete discussion, be sure to check out the original article.

03:33 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Bill Gates has made it abundantly clear that he believes that support for DRM is very important. It's actually a part of their Trustworthy Computing initiative. Microsoft management has spoken about how DRM should be a good experience for the consumer, and that it is necessary in order to entice content owners to make their content available. Microsoft wants to produce the primary platform for content distribution, and would love to provide the platform that everyone turns to for content delivery in the home.

So what is Microsoft doing about DRM and content protection in the next version of the Windows OS - Vista? According to DRM Blog, there is quite a bit of DRM support built into Vista through what Microsoft calls "Output Protection Management (OPM)". This is actually a category of technologies which includes:

* PVP – Protected Video Path
* PAP – Protected Audio Path
* PVP-UAB – PVP User-Accessible Bus
* SAP – Secure Audio Path
* PUMA – Protected User Mode Audio

According to DRM Blog, "If you want your new Vista PC to partake in 'premium content' then you must have a video card and driver combination that is PVP-OPM and PVP-UAB certified. At the 2005 WinHCE Microsoft handed out an interesting document that describes OPM in all its incarnations and what a video card vendor must do to be certified.

To get a certificate, a graphics card or GPU manufacturer will first have to sign a legal document (read contract) that specifies that the hardware or driver in question meets all of the specifications laid out in the 'Compliance Rules' document... and that certification can only be given to manufacturers who meet ['Content Industry Agreement'] rules."

Microsoft goes so far as to hold graphics chip manufacturers responsible for not selling chips to hackers, and encourages them to do encryption inside the chip.

The conclusion? In response to Microsoft's Trusted Computing intiative and all the DRM implmentations that it includes, DRM Blog says that "The only trust taking place here is between very large companies that want to sell you content, hardware, and software that violates your privacy, artificially inflates prices, and makes it illegal for you to tinker with." Some pretty strong words!

Contrary to popular belief, I would say that this is guaranteed to be an enabling technology. Yes, really. It's just that I'm not yet sure if Vista is enabling a pleasant multimedia experience for consumers, or a much more rapid and successful growthline for Linux as an alternative consumer OS. Time will tell.

Read the full article at Output Content Protection (DRM) and Windows Vista.

11:08 AM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

According to a flurry of news reports, the Symantec Antivirus software which is supposed to protect your computer from hackers may actually one now be one of the weaknesses. We're seeing quite a buzz with headlines like:

* Flaw found in Symantec antivirus software (VNUNet)
* It's time to toss out your antivirus software (ZDNet)
* Company: Hackers can crack top antivirus program (CNN)

If confirmed, this could be a very serious issue because of how widespread the software is, but I'm sure that there will be a patch for those who are affected and who keep their virus software up-to-date.

Via CNN.

09:22 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

I'm looking forward to the arrival of the Treo 700p PalmOS smartphone just like many other smartphone fans. So I'm wondering what soon-to-be owners are thinking about the various purchase choices they will be facing. What do you have in mind?

* Sprint or Verizon?
I'm switching to Sprint because of the cheap unlimited data Power Vision plans, and Verizon's lack of friendliness toward streaming media.

* Where to buy?
I'm going to an official Sprint Store because I want to know they'll back it, to understand the data plan options, to be able to handle keeping my existing number, and to apply my corporate discount. (Yes, I'm lucky that way!)

I called around the Pittsburgh area to see when Sprint Stores would get a 700p in stock. Rumors are that Sprint 700p phones start shipping for web purchases in 2-3 days. Local stores don't seem to have any idea and are saying things like mid-June. Ugh. I'd buy online, but I want the personal touch to make sure I get everything all worked out in one shot.

* Phone Insurance?
Yep. At work this very day, two different co-workers had pda failures. One was under warranty, and the other turned out to be a battery that needed to be charged. I needed my Treo 650 insurance. So yes, I'll get insurance if the terms are reasonable. It's just too expensive a phone to take a chance.

* EVDO - Are you in an EVDO service area?
Yes, I think and hope so... and I seem to have antennas near my 3 most frequently visited locations according to the maps. But until you try it, I guess you just don't know.

* Data plan? (Get great coverage of Sprint's pricing at Palm Addicts.)
Unless information is different than I expect, I will probably either get Power Vision $15/mo or $25/mo with more tv or instead of Power Vision I might get the Phone-As-Modem plan, which is supposed to be on sale for $40/mo for the unltd data plan. But that's a lot of money when I may not use Phone-As-Modem very often. On the other hand, it would be soooo cool to have!

* Case and accessories?
I plan to get a flex skin case and a skinnable holster. Probably an extended life battery, a bluetooth headset, screen protectors and a hotsync cradle.

* Are you going to fill up all the extra memory with new programs?
Eventually, I probably will fill up a lot of the memory. But I only plan to add a few programs that were painful to remove because of space limitations on my 650. Basically, the 650 is very stable and I want to keep it that way. But there are a few data-related programs I'll add like a chat client. Who knows what else, but I'm hoping most of my other needs will be met directly from the browser. Even gmail should be okay without a separate program.

So does anyone else become so eager with the thought of getting a 700p that they think through all these things in advance? No? Oh well. Personally, I enjoy this purchase preparation time sort of like the anticipation of getting a nice Christmas present. But the real fun is when I have one in my eager little hands!

My apologies to those that are not in areas where this Treo and EVDO are available. It might be a nice upgrade even if EVDO isn't where you are, but if you are not where Verizon and Sprint are, then it could be a bit frustrating. Hopefully, there will be a GSM 700p before long also.

07:42 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Remember Z4CK, the story about a hacker named Duncan Steele who created the ultimate hacker weapon to bypass any network security in the world? The author of the book, Kevin Milne, kindly contacted us and provided some info about the sequel, Digital Force:

Digital Force picks up where Z4CK left off. Follow Duncan Steele during his time at Cyber-Secure, from hunting the Fourth Reich hacker group, to meeting his most skilled adversary, to the creation of the Sec-Net network following the destruction of the Internet. Like Z4CK before it, Digital Force uses real-life hacker tools and techniques, including Nmap, Nessus, and Hydra to demonstrate port scanning, vulnerability assessment and brute force attacks amongst others, but is written in a way that can be enjoyed by both technical and non-techical alike.

Best of all, you can download the PDF of Digital Force for free, or you can buy the paperback and support the author. And in case you haven't read the first novel yet, the download of the complete e-book is now free and you can get it from here.

Related: Z4CK - first novel written on a Sharp Zaurus PDA