...more recent posts
Homograph attacks allow for the spoofing of domain name URLs and SSL certificates thanks to a problem with International Domain Name [IDN] support in modern browsers. This is devastating.
Vulnerable browsers include (but are not limited to):Proof of concept. Damn. IE is safe because it doesn't have IDN support built in. Let's see how fast these vendors respond. They need to fix this immediately.
Most mozilla-based browsers (Firefox 1.0, Camino .8.5, Mozilla 1.6, etc)
Safari 1.2.5
Opera 7.54
Omniweb 5
A couple pieces of Apple (and Steve Jobs) history have been released recently. The first is a video from the original (1984) introduction of the Apple Macintosh. God he looks so young. You can see the RDF (the famous Jobs' Reality Distortion Field) already at work.
The second is of Steve demonstrating NeXTSTEP 3.0. NeXTSTEP is the operating system developed by NeXT, the company Jobs founded between his first and second stints as head of Apple. When Jobs returned to Apple he had them purchase NeXT in order to lay the groundwork for what was to become OS X. Insiders like to joke that this acquisition amounted to a NeXT take over of Apple since the influence was so pervasive. It is amazing to see what NeXT had in 1992! They were so far ahead of the curve it is amazing.
Ant is a video blogging (vlogging) aggregator application.
More bad news from the cellular front. These 3G networks are so cool, but the carriers are completely fucking it up by being greedy bastards. I guess I'm the fool for hoping it might go some other way.
In any case, the bad news here is about "Symbian Signed" and the trend to lock down Symbian OS devices so that the end user can only install carrier approved software. Symbian and MIcrosoft are the two big OS makers for smartphones (yes, the Treo has a Palm OS, but they are on the way out.) And we know Microsoft is going to try to screw the consumer (or, more gently, we know Microsoft will do whatever their customers - the cellular companies - want,) so the hope was that Symbian would go the other way. But it looks like there is reason to suspect that won't be the case.
I think the cellular industry learned from the "mistakes" of the PC world. If you give the people control of the computer (in the PC world that meant the desktop; in the new world that means your smartphone,) they won't be interested in using it for what you, the carrier, want them to use it for (buying Britney Spears ringtones at $2 a pop, and useless crap like that.) So you have to severely limit what the user can do with her computer in order to lock them into using just the services you are selling.
Crap.
Earthlink and the Korean giant SK Telecom are teaming up to bring advanced cellular services to the U.S. market.
Think of SK-EarthLink as the wireless carrier for the geek squad. When it launches later this year, it will target what [Earthlink founder Sky] Dayton calls "Internet-savvy early adopters" -- those consumers who will be the first to buy the latest 3G (third-generation) cell phones and will eagerly use data services via cell or Wi-Fi networks. The joint venture will build on EarthLink's well-deserved reputation as a company willing to try new technologies. It was one of the first ISPs to offer voice-over-Internet-protocol service to its 5.5 million customers and was also an early supporter of broadband. SK Telecom has a similar legacy: With 18 million subscribers, it was the world's first CDMA carrier to launch a 3G network, and it's a pioneer in GPS-based location services, as well as video applications for cell phones....This MVNO thing looks like a ray of hope to me. All the big cellular companies appear to be going the walled garden route with their 3G networks. This is going to create a big opportunity. I think there are a lot of people like me who are willing to pay for fast 3G cellular service. But we want to pay for open access to the internet, not for some specialized content created by the cellular industry! (D'uh!) So charge me by the bit, fine, just let me choose what the bits are going to be from the internet at large.
Here's the cool part, from an investor's point of view: SK-EarthLink will try to reach that goal without spending a dime developing its own infrastructure. Instead, the upstart carrier will rely on Sprint and Verizon Wireless to provide the backbone for its wireless offerings. SK-EarthLink will function as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), essentially renting access to each network. It will pay the carriers a per-minute fee each time one of its customers makes a phone call or streams a video broadcast. SK-EarthLink will also integrate Wi-Fi into its devices, drawing on Dayton's experiences at Boingo Wireless, the nation's largest Wi-Fi hotspot aggregator.
Maybe SK-EarthLink, or some other MVNO, will give the people what they want. Sky Daton has done some cool stuff before so I am a tiny bit hopeful.
For my own reference: notes on one click subscriptions for RSS feeds. Atom feeds will be added around here shortly.
Interview with a comment spammer.
New Apple Powerbooks released today. Still G4. Very small bump in processor speed (to 1.5 and 1.67 Ghz.) 512 megs RAM now standard using 1 DIMM, so going to 1 Gig is only $150 more from Apple (probably a little less if you buy yourself.) It's about time they stopped with the 256 meg nonesense. Slightly faster hard drives (5400 RPM.) And slightly bigger video card with the option of adding a 128 meg ATI with dual-link DVI support for driving the 30 inch Cinema Display (I can dream!)
The trackpad now supports scrolling (horizontal and vertical) through an interesting sounding interface - touch the pad with two fingers at once and it then acts as a scroll wheel type surface (drag up and down and the page moves up and down.)
Nothing to get too excited about, but lots of nice little things and the prices drop a bit too.
Looks like Cingular, following in Verizon's footsteps, will also disable the Bluetooth DUN profile on the Treo 650. (DUN stands for 'Dial Up Networking' and is the part of the bluetooth stack that lets a bluetooth equipped computer use a bluetooth cellphone as a modem.) Jerks. Why not just charge by the bit and let us do what we want?
Again, I don't mind paying! But at least offer me what I want to pay for. Do they not like profits? We are talking about telecoms, so judging by their recent performance the answer might actually be yes.
The Motorola E815 looks really nice. Due 2nd quarter 2005. Presumably on Verizon since it's EV-DO. But will they (Verizon) let the bluetooth do file transfer? And what about (even less likely,) acting as a modem? With EV-DO speeds this would be very reasonable. So far Verizon wants you to buy the PC Card version if you want to use EV-DO for your computer's data connection. This is silly. Look, I don't mind paying more, so why not give me the option of using my phone for both? I don't want to pay $x/month for my EV-DO phone plus $100/month for my EV-DO data access, especially when I don't need voice and data at the same time (I barely need voice at all.) Why not offer a single package in the form of a cellphone/modem?
Still, until Cingular rolls out UMTS, Verizon is the only way to go for high speed cellular in the U.S. So I guess they can be jerks if they want.
Jerks.