Author Archive | David Worthington

Does the Internet Feel Slow? Google’s M-Lab Wants to Help

Posted by David Worthington on January 28, 2009 at 5:06 pm

googlelogoToday, Google is partnering with the New America Foundation (a non profit that is chaired by Google CEO Eric Schmidt) and a group of academics to develop an open platform for creating Internet connection measurement tools.

Google says the platform, called Measurement Lab (M-Lab), will help researchers create tools that help determine the root cause of sluggish Internet application performance. Over the course of the yea, Google will deploy 36 servers in 12 locations in the U.S. and Europe as a distributed backing infrastructure. A limited number of users will be supported initially.

Data aggregated by M-Lab will be freely available researchers, according to a blog post co-written by Vint Cerf, Google’s chief Internet evangelist, and Stephen Stuart, the project’s principal engineer. Google wishes for M-Lab to be a community-based effort, and invites anyone that wants to donate servers, tools, and other resources to participated, they noted.

“At Google, we care deeply about sustaining the Internet as an open platform for consumer choice and innovation. No matter your views on net neutrality and ISP network management practices, everyone can agree that Internet users deserve to be well-informed about what they’re getting when they sign up for broadband, and good data is the bedrock of sound policy. Transparency has always been crucial to the success of the Internet, and, by advancing network research in this area, M-Lab aims to help sustain a healthy, innovative Internet,” they wrote.

With companies such as Comcast (which prompted an FCC investigation) and Cox Communications prioritizing network traffic, this is good news for consumers and consumer advocacy groups. M-Labs could be a valuable research to help detect bandwidth throttling and let people confirm that they are truly getting what they are paying for.

2 comments

Yahoo Releases Fourth Quarter Financial Results

Posted by David Worthington on January 27, 2009 at 4:14 pm

YahooToday, Yahoo shared its fourth quarter financial results with investors, the first financial news it’s had since naming Carol Bartz as CEO. While revenue was relatively flat compared to 2007, Yahoo experienced a net loss of $303 million, compared to a net income of $206 million in 2008, due in part to strategic decisions that obliterated shareholder wealth.

According to the company, operating income was goggled up by a sundry of expenses before the customary subtraction of interest, tax and depreciation:

“restructuring charges of $108 million for severance, facilities, and other restructuring costs; a goodwill impairment charge of $488 million related to our international segment; and incremental costs of $7 million incurred for outside advisors related to Microsoft’s proposals to acquire all or a part of the Company, other strategic alternatives, including the Google agreement, the proxy contest, and related litigation defense (collectively, the “strategic alternatives and related matters”)”.

CFO Blake Jorgensen said that cost management and a Yahoo’s “strong balance sheet” helped it navigate 2008’s financial turmoil, and said that the company was well positioned for more challenging economic conditions. Blake probably wishes that he was on on a beach in Aruba sipping piña coladas instead of offering guidance to investors.

Bartz, meanwhile, told those listening in to Yahoo’s conference call that she didn’t take her new gig to sell the company. But she seemed to tippy-toe around questions of whether part of Yahoo, such as its search business, could be up for sale.

Yahoo made the mistake of turning down Microsoft’s $44.6 billion takeover bid, and now, those who remain have to drink from a muddy well.

2 comments

My.BarackObama.com’s Porn-and-Malware Problem

Posted by David Worthington on January 26, 2009 at 3:18 pm

An online community burgeoned out of Barack Obama’s use of Web 2.0 technologies during his campaign for the U.S. presidency. Supporters flocked to My.BarackObama.com to share blogs, videos and organized events. In the wake of that success, malicious hackers are leveraging the site in a socially engineered scheme to infect PCs with a trojan.

The hackers are embedding their My.BarackObama.com Web pages (content on the site is user generated) with links to Web sites that masquerade as YouTube, according to a report by Websense Security Labs ThreatSeeker Network. The fraudulent YouTube sites are filled with pornography, and prompt visitors to install a codec for video playback, which is really the trojan.

The good news is that today’s Web browsers don’t just automatically install software: end user interaction is required. While some people may be fooled into installing the trojan because the domain is legitimate, many will not simply because they did not recognize the My.BarackObama.com user’s Web page that directed them to it.

My.BarackObama.com is a community where people have reputations and interact with one another. I participated in the “blog wars” during the Democratic primary, and know whose URLs I would trust to click on. The trojan’s creators are plastering links to the malicious pages around the Web without regard for that community dynamic. My bet: Virus definitions will be updated to foil these scams, and they won’t spread far.

No comments

Apple Nano Settlement Reached, Lawyers Make a Windfall

Posted by David Worthington on January 23, 2009 at 5:26 pm

Steve Jobs With Original NanoShortly after the first-generation iPod Nano launched, it became apparent that they scratched far too easily. That inspired one disgruntled customer to blog about his complaints, leading some enterprising lawyers to contacted him. A lawsuit was born, and four years on, a $22 million settlement has been reached.

Apple tacitly acknowledged the problem when it began to ship Nanos with protective slipcovers. Customers that bought their Nanos before protective covers were included with the product are entitled to recover $25 in restitution; customers that received covers will be eligible for $15, according to CNBC. The lawyers that sued Apple stand to gain $4 million–a very lucrative payout.

The suit alleged that the Nanos’ screens were not coated to protect against scratches. Jason Tomczak, the gentleman whose blogging inspired the lawsuit, said that his nano had become unreadable after a relatively short period of time.

I highly doubt that many of those first generation Nano owners still use their devices–including Mr. Tomczak (his is probably sequestered in an evidence bag). I’ll postulate that Apple understood its customers upgrade frequently, and decided that scratch resistance was not worth the expense.

Apple should not have shipped the Nano with such a defect. There is no way that Apple could not know that the devices would be passing in and out of people’s pockets, colliding with coins and keys. It would have been simpler and more cost effective to issue $25 checks four years ago, when its customers were unhappy in the first place.

4 comments

Report: Windows Mobile 6.5 to Launch Midyear

Posted by David Worthington on January 21, 2009 at 4:57 pm

Windows Mobile LogoMicrosoft will distribute Windows Mobile 6.5 to its partners after it launches the OS at the Mobile World Congress in February, according to a report by DigiTimes. Microsoft will continue to rely upon current business model of working with phone manufacuters to deliver Windows Mobile based products on the market, the report said.

DigiTimes’ sources told it that Windows Mobile 6.5-based mobile devices will hit the market in the third and fourth quarters of the year. They also threw salt on rumors that Microsoft was preparing to launch its own Zune phone.

In November, I wrote that it was plausible that rumors about Microsoft being close to announcing its answer to the iPhone, a Zune device code-named “Pink,” were true. Other coverage in the media corroborated the rumors, including a CNBC report.

Part of my reasoning was that Microsoft did not acquire Sidekick creator Danger Inc. for nothing, and it did appoint Roz Ho (former head of its Mac business unit) to steer its efforts to absorb Danger into its Entertainment and Devices division. Since that time, my opinion has evolved.

I won’t completely rule out that Microsoft could eventually ship a Zune phone, but a knowledgeable source has since convinced me that Microsoft was more interested in Danger’s services. Customers that purchase Windows Mobile devices will have access to those services, which may be branded under Zune.

With Windows Mobile 7 far on the horizon, tailored services could go a long way toward keeping the platform competitive with the likes of Apple, Google and RIM. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what is announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month. Until then, here are some leaked Windows Mobile 6.5 screen shots as posted at WMPowerUser.com.

3 comments

NASA Tests Interplanetary Internet

Posted by David Worthington on January 20, 2009 at 4:54 pm

Big Blue MarbleIt might not be subspace communications, but NASA has successfully tested a deep space communications network that it says is the first step toward the creation of an interplanetary Internet.

Today, NASA announced that engineers from its Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., had transmitted images to a NASA science spacecraft that was located more than 20 million miles away. The engineers used the Disruption-Tolerant Networking (DTN) protocol, which was co-developed with Internet co-founder Vint Cerf, to transmit the data.

I’m always happy to learn of instances of the U.S. government giving scientists the time and resources to focus on their work. Research, while not always something that can be ‘productized,’ drives innovation. An interplanetary Internet might not be a practical venture yet, but neither was the original Internet when Cerf and others got it going forty years ago..

On this celestial body, DTN could be useful in situations where network connectivity is spotty. I’m not an expert, but it sounds like it could be useful for bringing the Internet to rural areas, and that is a good thing.

One comment

Patent Holding Company Sues Computer and Software Makers

Posted by David Worthington on January 19, 2009 at 3:48 pm

Software patents are increasingly being used like lottery tickets: If you file enough of them, you’ll eventually have the winning number for litigation. Information Protection and Authentication of Texas (IPAT) has sued a dozen computer makers and some software developers for allegedly violating two security related patents that it holds.

IPAT filed a formal complaint in a south Florida district court last Thursday. Some of the defendants are Apple, Dell, HP and Lenovo. It has also separately filed suit against software makers including Microsoft and Symantec in a Texas court.

The patents, US patent No. 5,311,591, titled “Computer system security method and apparatus for creating and using program authorization information data structures,” and its continuation, US patent No. 5,412,717, deal with how an an operating system monitors and enforces application permissions.

These folks would make Vito Corleone proud. IPAT is asking for jury trials to shake down the alleged violators for as much as it possibly can.

If this case doesn’t demonstrate why patent reform is necessary, I don’t know what is. The patent, which was granted in the 1990s, does not seem unique, and I hope that prior art is found which invalidates it.

5 comments

AMD Cuts Employees, Compensation

Posted by David Worthington on January 16, 2009 at 2:36 pm

amdlogoDeflation is rearing its head in the chip-making business. Advanced Micro Devices intends to reduce its workforce by nearly 9 percent and will reduce employee compensation during its first quarter.

Even its top executives are taking a hit to their base salaries (no word about their bonuses); the rank and file will see their incomes drop on a staggered basis depending on their employment status. Other perks, including the company’s 401(k) matching program are being suspended indefinitely.

AMD must take difficult and prudent steps to reduce its cost in response to the worldwide economic downturn, it explained in a statement to the press.

This should come as no surprise considering there has been a corresponding downturn in the sales of semiconductors. Chip sales dipped to $20.8 billion in 2008 from $23.1 billion in 2007, according to a recent report by the Semiconductor Industry Association. Public companies like AMD are going to respond to reduced demand by cutting expenses, because they have to act in the interest of shareholders.

The company is not selling the copper plumbing–yet. While its sales have dipped, it still remains second largest semiconductor producer in the world next to Intel, and it has laid out long term road maps for future technologies. Further, new chips designed for low-cost computers, such as its Neo processor, could entice spendthrift consumers to open up their wallets.

Should PC buyers worry about AMD’s prospects or even shy away from buying machines that use its chip? Not really. Companies  that big don’t just close up shop overnight, and AMD is also highly unlikely to skimp on its manufacturing processes or R&D, lest it risk damaging its brand or ceding even more market share to Intel. Customers can buy AMD-based systems with confidence.

No comments

Apple Strongarms Wired to Remove Hackintosh Video

Posted by David Worthington on January 14, 2009 at 7:55 pm

HackintoshApple has a history of hypersensitivity toward the media. It once sued Think Secret, a now defunct Apple rumor Web site, because Think Secret published information about upcoming hardware and software products (for the record, that hardly counted as trade secrets). Now, Apple’s lawyers have sent Wired a cease and desist order for posting a video tutorial on hacking netbooks to run Mac OS X. In response, Wired has pulled the video.

I’m all for the freedom to tinker, and my first inclination was to think  “Apple’s off attacking the press again.” However, after watching the Wired video–which is still available at Gizmodo as I write this–I have to take Apple’s side on this one, for one specific reason. The video tells viewers, in detail, where they can download illegal copies of OS X (while recommending that they purchase OS X legally) to be installed on non-Apple netbooks. The piracy advice was a big no-no; otherwise, it was a very interesting video.

If a journalist published the source code to Mac OS X, that would be a clear violation of trade secrets. Fiddling with hardware? Not so much. Apple has the right to void warranties, and to sue clone makers that violate its software license agreements and profit from it, but stopping the press from reporting on geeky projects is a bridge too far.

I’d like to see the video re-posted with the piracy bit removed, and would hope that Apple would then back off.

No comments

Microsoft Security Vulnerabilities Pose Worm Threat

Posted by David Worthington on January 13, 2009 at 6:03 pm

Vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s Server Message Block (SMB) file-sharing protocol could pose a serious threat to enterprise networks if companies fail to promptly patch their systems, according to reports. Microsoft has released fixes for the holes.

For Microsoft, the days when worms like Blaster and Sasser regularly blackened its eye have passed; the number of major operating system vulnerabilities fell dramatically after it weaved security into its development life cycle. However, two out of the three SMB vulnerabilities that the company disclosed today are critical enough that virus writers could exploit them in a similar fashion.

I don’t expect anything on the scale of Blaster or Sasser to happen even though un-patched enterprise systems will be easy targets. Microsoft has better security procedures in place, and will get the word out to network administrators. Most home users will be using firewall and have anti virus protection; the average user should be well protected.

These defects do not mean that Microsoft is returning to the bad old days of Windows security. It has made a big investment in its security development life cycle, and has top down approval from upper management. In fact, Microsoft invests more into security than most software makers, has a comprehensive patch process, and has firm plans for how future operating systems should handle security.

Microsoft’s problem is all of the legacy code and protocols that it must continue to support – they weigh like an anchor around its neck. While Microsoft introduced the affected protocol SMB 2.0 in 2006, SMB itself dates back circa the early 1990s. It would not at all surprise me if these vulnerabilities have something to do with legacy support (it’s too late in the evening to expect a response from Microsoft).

We attempted to reach several security experts for analysis, but did not receive a response before press time. I will update this story should any contribute their ideas this evening.

No comments