Microsoft Sez, "Don't click on links"

Wow. Apparently, rather than fix the security holes in IE, Microsoft would just rather you not actually click on links:

The most effective step that you can take to help protect yourself from malicious hyperlinks is not to click them. Rather, type the URL of your intended destination in the address bar yourself. By manually typing the URL in the address bar, you can verify the information that Internet Explorer uses to access the destination Web site. To do so, type the URL in the Address bar, and then press ENTER.

Why not just recommend avoiding browser security problems at all by watching TV instead??!

Scoble is Wrong

Protect your investment: buy open. Scoble has written a weblog entry about, among other things, iTunes DRM and Microsoft DRM, and whether you should get an iPod. Scoble works for Microsoft, as do a number of good, sharp, ethical people that I know, and I know him in passing, and he seems to be a good guy. With that disclaimer out of the way, let me say that I think that this blog entry of his epitomizes the sloppiest, worst thinking about digital-media in the field today. From [Boing Boing]

The above is snippet from a post Cory Doctorow has written in response to this post by Robert Scoble. Unlike Cory, I don't know Scoble, even in passing. However, having worked for a company that was acquired by Microsoft, I can say that Cory is right about one thing: the vast majority of Microsoft employees are both highly intelligent and ethical folks. Cory is right about another thing: their intelligence and commitment doesn't mean they are right, in fact, they are often incorrect as Scoble is in this case.

In his article, Scoble falls victim to Microsoft's own internal marketing. The gist of which is this: Microsoft's digital rights management protocol (WMA) will be adopted by more OEMs/vendors. Therefore, there will be more devices on the market (portable audio players, car stereos, rocket jet packs, etc.) that can play music which uses WMA vs. other technologies such as ACC (Apple's DRM Solution).

The problem is that Scoble is missing the big picture here, which is what Cory pointed out. The true "choice" consumers should be able to take advantage of shouldn't be linked to a company at all. Neither Apple nor Microsoft should win in this battle of DRM. What should be created is either a consortium of vendors (ala DVD standards) or better yet, and open standard that anyone could implement. In spite of what Scoble seems to believe, consumers do not win when any one company controls the methods by which they can use their media. Cory raises the example of Betamax vs. VHS. Just for a moment let's forget all of Microsoft's past business transgressions, and assume that they are the most consumer loving, benevolent company on earth. Even if that were true today, that does not mean that it will always be true. In fact, history has shown it's not likely to be true as DRM becomes a more important part of our daily lives. If you need some examples of that, think back to Unisys and .gifs or take a look at SCO and Unix. Even though more companies might someday adopt the WMA DRM solution, that does not mean that it will always offer more choice for consumers.

There really is only one way to ensure true freedom of choice for consumers. Freedom to choose where and when they play the music they have rightfully purchased. That is to remove DRM from the hands of any one single company which could (reasonably be foreseen) to use a monopoly in DRM to their competitive advantage. Make it an open standard. Allow anyone to implement it. Period. Create an industry consortium of vendors committed to furthering and developing the standard and simply give away (or charge a nominal fee) for vendor licensing. That would allow a true, open playing field for device manufacturers and software developers, without being locked into any proprietary systems, and would, in the end, be the only way I can see to offer consumers real choice. But I don't really think choice is what Microsoft wants to offer consumers anyway.

101 Dumbest Moments in Business

It's the new year, and time for Business 2.0's 101 Dumbest Moments in Business for 2003. There are some pretty good ones in there...

"After SunnComm Technologies rolls out new CD copy-protection software in September, a Princeton student figures out how to disable it. The devious hack: holding down the Shift key."

And here's one for Mikey: "Over the course of six months, the sheriff's department in Lubbock County, Texas, catches five suspects attempting to fool urinalysis using the Whizzinator, an artificial penis that dispenses fake pee. Says a straight-faced Dennis Catalano, the owner of the company that makes the device and also sells dried urine, "How people choose to use it is beyond our control."

The Latest Worm/Virus: MyDoom

It's worm time... and because in my family I'm "the computer guy" I am being asked by many people how to deal with it. First, if you are getting lots of "Message Undeliverable" or "TEST" e-mails from people you don't know, they are probably the worm. Here's some good rules of thumb:

• NEVER OPEN ATTACHMENTS FROM PEOPLE YOU DON'T KNOW
  
• BE WARY OF OPENING ATTACHMENTS FROM PEOPLE YOU DO KNOW
  

Attachments are how these worms/viruses spread. But let's say you are infected, how do you recover? Three steps:

1. Get some virus software. There are a number of virus protection applications available. Norton AntiVirus from Symantec is one. McAfee's VirusScan is another. Both are fine, personally I use McAfee. VirusScan On-line is reasonably priced at $29.95 and since it's "on-line" it's very easy to keep up-to-date. Get it, install it, run it... and keep it running.

2. Get rid of the Trojans/Spyware. Yes, surfing the web can infect your machine. Ever visit a site and get a pop-up offering to install cool cursors for you? Spyware. Visit a site offering to change your homepage to a great new search engine? Spyware. Okay, so you've got it, now get rid of it. Visit LavaSoft and get Ad-Aware. It will scan your system for Trojans/Spyware and it will also keep itself up-to-date. Get it, install it, run it... and run it again periodically.

3. Keep your operating system up-to-date. These viruses and worms propigate by exploiting security holes. So if you use a Mac, be sure to periodically run the Software Update. For Windows users you should take advantage of the Microsoft Windows Update. Visit the site regularly and keep your machine up-to-date.

There is never any perfect way to ensure you will never get a virus, but if you follow the steps I've outlined above, you'll be a lot safer than most people. And if everyone kept their machines up-to-date, worms and viruses like this new stupid MyDoom would have a lot harder time wreaking havoc on us all.

Howard Dean

First, I'm not a Dean supporter. I honestly haven't made up my mind about the Democratic primary candidates yet. In my mind, I still want to know more about Kerry, Dean, Edwards and Clark before I make any decisions. And I honestly don't give one rats ass what voters in Iowa and New Hampshire think. Apparently, the press believes that all voters are lemmings, and we're not going to research the candidates and make up our own minds, instead blindly following two states which have little in common with our own, simply because their primaries come first.

However, I do think this whole Howard Dean anger thing has been blown way out of proportion. I saw the "angry" speech in question, and I have to say, what exactly about it wasn't presidential?? That he raised his voice? That he "whooped"? The man was speaking to a rally. A rally of his own supporters. He hadn't done as well as they'd hoped in Iowa, but they certainly did better than anyone would have expected three months ago. So in speaking to a crowd of 3500 supporters, Dean got excited?! And that is supposed to demonstrate that he's not presidential? Please people... there are plenty of reasons not to support Howard Dean (like his stance on guns, for example). But blowing something as innocuous as a raucous campaign trail motivational speech this much out of proportion is just plain stupid. Of course, no one ever accused the American media of pandering to intelligence.

Blog Spam

Recently, Ernie the Attorney disabled comments from his blog. Fortunately, I don't have a visible enough profile to make comment spam a problem. But I did do some digging for possible solutions.

The easiest option (and one that many people take) is to simply disable comments entirely. Personally, I think that is a bit drastic. It kills one of the very features that attracts me to blogs in the first place: exchanging ideas. And even that is not foolproof... if you're using MT, you'll still need to disable the scripts that allow comment posting, or you could still be victimized.

A nicer, more community friendly solution (I think) is to require registration before posting comments. I don't think this discourages legitimate posters, but it certainly stops spam bots.

There are also some creative/scripted options out there. Check these links for more info:

• Jay Allen has the MT-Blacklist for MT users.
• Dive into Mark has some thoughts on ridding spam, and many links to some practical solutions.
• James Seng also has an MT-plugin to help stop spam.

Of course, nothing is fool-proof. But short of approving every comment post (who has that kind of time?!) or disabling comments altogether, registration seems like the best option to me.

Aaron's Wrong

Aaron Swartz: The New York Times Upfront asked me to contribute a short piece to a point/counterpoint they were having on download. (I would defend downloading, of course.) I thought I managed to write a pretty good piece, especially for its size and audience, in a couple days. But then I found out my piece was cut because the Times had decided not to tell kids to break the law. So, from the graveyard, here it is.

In this piece, I think Aaron misses the ethical issues entirely, and draws an analogy between file sharing and libraries that simply doesn't hold up. In his piece, Aaron states:

"Stealing is wrong. But downloading isn't stealing. If I shoplift an album from my local record store, no one else can buy it. But when I download a song, no one loses it and another person gets it. There's no ethical problem."

Stealing is more than just denying someone availability. When you shoplift from a store, it impacts the store (which has already paid wholesale for the item) and sometimes the artist (as occasionally, and I know this for a fact from book writing, that shrinkage is forced back on the distributors who in turn, punk it back against my royalties). The person it affects the least is the consumer who wanted to buy it but couldn't because it was ripped off first.

As someone who makes a living from my creative output, I actually agree that there is nothing wrong with downloading. The act of downloading isn't illegal at all nor should it be. The questions arise from the content you are downloading, not the act of downloading

Aaron's library analogy fails miserably; Library's first purchase the books they loan out. And they loan the books, they don't let you keep them forever. To imply downloading is analogous to libraries is a leap of logic right off a cliff. If everyone who offers a file for download (be it text, video or music) first purchased it, and then if everyone who downloaded it only used it for 7 days and deleted it, then and only then would downloading be like a library. Some may try to argue that, like a library, in the downloading scheme at least one person has purchased the content. However, that fails as well. In the library system, each library purchases a copy of the item to be loaned out (often purchasing multiple copies of popular items). The New York Public Library doesn't get a photocopied version of The DaVinci code from the Chicago Public Library and start loaning it out to patrons.

The problem here is that by treating the ethical issues surrounding file sharing and downloading so callously, Aaron does more harm than good. It's no wonder the New York Times didn't run his piece. It doesn't tell kids stealing is okay, it doesn't even really examine what stealing is. And downloading is not necessarily stealing, but it's not necessarily all rainbows and lollipops either.

There are real issues to be addressed as technology allows information to be exchanged more easily among consumers. Pieces like Aaron's don't do anything to really address those issues... they preach to the choir about the virtues of filesharing while ignoring legitimate criticism from those in opposition. If we proponents of filesharing and downloading hope to really change the world, we should stop spinning our wheels with ill conceived rhetoric, and address the real issues at hand.

Foldable 35mm Cameras

Eli sez, "This Czech designed pinhole camera is made from carefully cut out and constructed paper (needs to be stiff and lightproof). The name comes from the Czech word for pinhole (dirka) and a pun on Nikon. Uses 35mm film. Remember that you'll want a long exposure for a pinhole camera."
From [Boing Boing]