Inconsistencies of Law...

From Engagdet - Unlock the Potential...?

A US District court judge issued a restraining order against George Hotz (GeoHot) to bar him from releasing his Sony PS/3 "hack" that allows the Play Station 3 to run non-Sony software.  As you may recall Hotz was able to break the iPhone strictures on requiring AT&T to be its carrier back in 2007.

Basically Hotz created some software tools that allowed the PS/3 to start-up bypass the TPM and run other applications - TPM is a key-based security hardware device that verifies that hardware or software can be run on a given device - in this case the PS/3.  This work was based on work done by "failOverFlow" which created the basic TPM bypass late last year.

Sony has sold about 35 million PS/3s world wide as of March, 2010.  Xbox, as of that same time frame, has sold about 40 million units, and Wii about 71 million units.

Now lets look at iOS (iPhone), Microsoft Windows 7 phones and Android as a bit of a comparison.

In 2008 and 2009 Apple sold about 35 million iPhones and is forecast to sell about 100 million iPhones by this year.  Android, the Google phone OS has already passed Apple in terms of units sold.  Windows 7 phone sales and still barely noticeable.

Sony appears to be somewhat of an also-ran here... Perhaps they think punishing this guy will increase their stature in the market...?

Hacker-wise things are a bit more interesting.  As I mentioned above GeoHotz was able to hack the iPhone in 2007 to run on alternate networks.  Jailbreaking (allowing the phone to run non-Apple approved apps) has been around about as long.

Android has also been hacked - even though its technically an open-source system.  Google, though, is not real big on the idea.

Finally, with a Windows 7 phone Microsoft basically admits the phone will be hacked up front and sort of provides some support for this in the sense that it just tells you to "be careful" (see image above).

Now all of this software is protected under the US DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act).  While this act makes it a crime to steal movies or songs the DMCA does not allow companies to prevent interoperability at a software or hardware level.

At the core of all this is how is something like the an iPhone different from your car?  Imagine if GM sold cars with the stricture that it could only be services by a GM dealer.  Would you still buy a GM car?

Sony itself has been down this road before (see this link) in the late 1990's with the original PlayStation.  A company called Connectix reverse engineered the original PS and was sued by Sony.

The problem Sony faces is that while the software itself may be copywritten the functions it performs are not entitled to copyright protection.  Thus I might have a Bios that is copywritten but the function its performs, e.g., talking to a game controller, is not copyrightable.

Thus with the car analogy the actual documents designing the hub onto which your tire is bolted can be copywritten.  But the notion that only wheels with that exact bolt pattern, and hence made only by the company that designed the hub, can be used on the car is truly nonsense.

I predict that Sony in the long run will lose out and relent as Apple and Google have with their respective DMCA cases.

Unfortunately for Mr. Hotz Sony's strategy is, even though they know they will lose, to cost him so much money in legal fees that they effectively bankrupt him.

Now this is the real problem and I think things like the DMCA should protect people against this common legal tactic.

By the way, all those radio ads for creating your Nevada corporation are pure nonsense.  Though you may conduct your business through such a corporation all someone need do to attack you personally is sue both you and the corporation.  And that's the issue here.  Though Hotz may not have actual broken the law Sony will have effectively punished him by causing him so much legal cost that he will be bankrupt.

And that's both the point and the real secret.

First and foremost no matter who you are or what kind of legal protection you think you have as long as someone knows your real name you can and will be sued in a situation like this.  Had Hotz created a company to publish his PS3 jailbreak Sony would simply have sued both him and the company.

iPhone Retail Heads-Up

Lest you think my rambling yesterday on biometrics was something that was more abstract than real today I will offer you this - a discussion of how the iPhone is being transmorgified into a modern point of sale device that has, among its elements, biometric elements.  But Apple's plans don't stop there as we shall see.

These ideas are not new, of course.  There is already a plethora of X-pass type devices available: EZ-Pass for toll roads, Speedpass for gas, and so forth.

However, Apple sees that there is more to purchasing that simply waving your "pass" device at the checkout.

First we are going to see phones adding Nearfield Communication (NFC) elements.  These allow the phone to "talk" to things like  the Speedpass-type checkout unit that allows you to simply wave your keychain fob at check out.

I guess there must be more middle-aged developer folks at Apple who have teenage children these days because low and behold there are some biometric security devices being added as well.  As anyone with a teenager knows leaving around cash, credit or gas cards can result in unexpected surprises at the ATM or when the bills come in the mail.  Here Apple includes a biometric fingerprint scanner to fend off Junior using the iPhone to gas up the car or load up on goodies from the local convenience store.

Speaking of little Junior Apple seems to feel that little Junior's job at the local Seven Eleven is shortly going to become a thing of the past.  It seems that once you have secure, in-store, biometrically controlled purchasing power there would be no need for a "checkout". 

Given I have my iPhone in hand why not let me simply purchase the item right then and there?

For this reason Apple is planning to add a iPhone scanner that can handle the retail laser scan and purchase functions.  Now all you have to do is simply point your phone at the SKU-barcode and push the "Purchase" button.  You phone will securely contact your bank or credit card company, debit your account, and away you will go...

Of course the practical reality of this probably going to be somewhat different.

Personally I have been in Apple stores and, to some degree, this model of "retail" is somewhat troubling.  As I have said the Apple store seems to me to most like a children's museum with all the exhibits chained to the tables.  There are not checkouts or registers in an Apple store - just helpful staff people with iPhone-enabled purchase units that can check you out on the spot.

From a retail perspective I don't like the notion of shopping for something without having the idea of going to a final purchase point.  For example, I may look at something and decide after a few minutes I don't want it and go to put it back.  With a checkout that sort of action does not have to involve staff.  But in an Apple store someone is always hovering around asking if I need help - which makes shopping for me more confusing and distracting.

I also think that the Apple store model will not work as well with, shall we say, the less sharp tools in the shed.  I am certain Apple works hard to hire the right staff - but at the convenience store level things might not be so easy.

I guess the good thing about all of this is that finally society in the US might be able to get away from the notion that any credit card at the point of purchase is fine - whether its the purchaser's or not.  In Europe things are not so lax.  Here as long as the credit card clears no one cares whether its mine or a stolen one.

At the same time I do not think I will have my fingerprint scanned by my iPhone.  Having my fingerprint biometric data in the database for hackers to steal along with my other data does not appeal to me.

And of course, where does this all end?

Once I have this notion why not add an iPhone driver to send this retail data in 3D to my computer enhanced glasses?  Why should I have to look at my iPhone to see the prices or to scan the items with it?  Then I can have 3D heads up advertising leaping off the shelves to tell me that Oranges are now $.50 USD each...

In fact, how far are we from simply having a heads up display permanently attached?

Everyone will be so busy watching the equivalent of a video game playing in front of their eyes no one will see the criminals (without iPhones or 3D glasses) simply taking things off the shelves and walking right out the front door.  (Since there won't be a checkout who would know?)

Maybe a market for dummy iPhones (basically empty cases) will appear.  Should someone bother to notice such a thief the thief can merely wave is bogus iPhone indicating that he's just made a purchase.

Biometrics: Involuntary Bread Crumbs

I have talked here about how we leave a digital trail behind us, bread crumbs as it were, as we move through the digital world online.

Unfortunately modern security technology has a number of equivalently malevolent means in place that further reduce your privacy.

One is biometrics.  Biometrics is technology focused on "automatic identification or identity verification of living persons using their enduring physical or behavioral characteristics" according to the Electronic Freedom Foundation website.  This might include identifying you from your face, your fingerprints, retinas, really anything that makes you stand out from everyone else.  Do you have a duck-like walk, tilt your head a certain way when you brush back your hair, have an obvious mole on your neck?  Any of these can be used as part of biometrics in addition to or along with the standard biometric data we are all familiar with.

We give our biometrics information out freely where ever we go - we leave DNA bits, fingerprints, we have our faces or eyes uncovered.

This has led modern governments to discover that the advancement of computer technology allows them to monitor society at large for these characteristics: everything from facial recognition at airports to cameras on street corners.

Unlink Google and its friends who collect your internet bread crumbs for mere profit the government, at least here in the USA, is required to do this.  For example: Section Sec. 303(b)(1) of the 2002 Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act requires that only "machine-readable, tamper-resistant visas and other travel and entry documents that use biometric identifiers" be used on things like documentation for aliens.  Section 403(c) of the USA-PATRIOT Act requires the government to "develop and certify a technology standard that can be used to verify the identity of persons."

And the list goes on.

All in the name of our security.

But is exchanging our liberty for this security really a good thing?

On-line security issues such as cookies, monitoring our searches, and so forth are all voluntary.  If I don't use a computer no one knows what I am thinking about or doing.  If I don't use my cellphone no one knows where I am.

Biometrics is different.

In the case of biometrics I am the information being captured.  So unless I stay out of the mall the mall's biometric systems (video, etc.) will capture and record my presence.

I suppose I could where a ski mask or space suite to the mall...

I think the point here is that its one thing to allow the government or private industry to monitor something that I may voluntarily use such as a cellphone.

Its quite another to all the government or private industry to collect personal information about me, without my consent, by my mere presence.

Are You Really My "Friend"...?

Facebook is going to turn what you "like" into the ability to put yourself into ads.

That's right. 

According to this SF Gate article and others Facebook is going to be creating ways for turning that post about how much you "like" that restaurant into an ad for that restaurant.  Walk into a Starbucks - your phone will "check you in" and you can post about "what's up".

This kind of thing is also in the works for Twitter - with promoted Tweets.  It will provide ads in searches and ultimately as sponsored tweets.

Now these abilities create an awful lot of interesting questions.

(Obviously all of this is targeted to a much younger audience then me.  But, being young my self one, though its hard to believe, does give me some insight into how people might use these services.)

For example, during my Starbuck visit the barista dumps coffee on my shirt or makes my order incorrectly - and I'm in a bad mood to boot...  Not sure what kind of "promotion" might result if I posted or tweeted about that.

Then there is the scenario like you see in the Progessive insurance advertisements, the one where the two guys from a competing insurance company are discovered by the Progressive girl "Flo" (Stephanie Courntey) sneaking around looking for insurance because the policies their own company sells are too expensive.

So now employers will have more reasons beyond what you post or your friends post about you to fire you.

And your probation office will have a much harder time believing that you really were at work or at home with your ankle bracelet on just like you said.

And then I may like competing products or I may like to talk about the products in a positive but less than flattering light - for example talking about Joe's Coffee House at Starbucks and about Starbucks at Joe's Coffee House or I might like posting with colorful metaphors or gross sophomoric descriptions of body parts and functions.  My friends might find this funny and it might even work (even work well) as an advertisement for a product or service - but the branding police might not agree with the form of the message.

Young people are usually quite concerned with dating and the opposite sex.  So imagine the fun that might be had by folks "rating" the staff and some of these concerns, i.e., its not so much the product that I "like" on Facebook but the staff member offering it (camera anyone?).  Again one imagines how less than flattering descriptions and/or pictures might come into play about just why young males like a particular coffee shop at a particular time of day.

If I owned the coffee shop I think I might be on the way to a sexual harassment lawsuit.

Of course all of this is just speculation on what might happen if I used the Facebook ad process in a positive way. 

One can only imagine what might happened should someone maliciously use this kind of service.

While all this might seem bizarre or voyeuristic if you really think about it its really no different than anything else you might see in nature. 

For example, if you've ever watched a flock of crows you will see this exact kind of behavior.  The flock will descend on a field or garden or on some road kill - then squawking is used to call attention to whatever interesting items are uncovered.  Not much different than tweeting or posting about what you are doing an this exact moment.

And, with further thought, things like mating and finding a freshly killed carcass really do have an advertising aspect to them - usually with scent.  How else would the crows find the carcass in the first place?

Similarly for dogs, if you have more than one outside in a group they are all careful to alert others to anything interesting or suspicious they might run across.

No, I think its just sort of a basic pack-style behavior - except somehow amplified with technology.

The only difference is that with traditional dog, avian or even human pack behavior there isn't a video or written blog of what went on for lawyers to uncover as part of a lawsuit.

Kodak: Digital Camera War Refugee?

Kodak and Apple have been at war for some time on the intellectual property front.

The latest round started about a year ago when Kodak claimed that Apple was in violation of US Patent 6,292,218.  This patent relates to the process whereby you open up the camera and see sort of a low-res real-time video of what the lens is seeing in high-res and then you can grab a frame as a "still" shot from that stream.

Kodak developed a treasure trove of intellectual property to tide it over as its film operations dwindle down to nothing.  The idea being that it can sue others and collect payments and royalties in lieu of film revenue until its own digital imaging businesses can take up the slack.

In May Apple filed a counter suit against Kodak related to, among other things, US Patent 6,031,964.  This patent relates to processing images in memory and being careful to watch the amount of power left in the battery.  Images are processed in a way that should the battery power become low the images will not be lost - even if they are still incompletely transferred between the camera portion of the phone and the user picture software.  (The issue is that raw pixels from the camera are not directly stored in the phone's memory and require image processing before the user an see them.)

At stake are some big dollar amounts.

Kodak was able to squeeze payments of nearly a $900 million USD from Samsung and LG Electronics.

However, Kodak was dealt a setback when the ITC recently decided that Apple and RIM devices don't violate Kodak's patents.

Since 2005 Kodak's film revenue has fallen from about $8 billion USD to about $4 billion USD.  During this time Kodak has worked to replace that revenue with intellectual property revenue.  In 2009 Kodak claimed this revenue would amount to between $250 and $350 million USD per year.

While this is all well and good - and as new technologies like digital cameras and phones become ubiquitous - this sorting out of IP is bound to happen.

On the other hand from what I see Kodak is acting much more like a refugee than a winner when you look at the big picture.

I have seen a lot of ads from Kodak touting its cheap ink for desktop printers.  The idea seems to be that Kodak is telling customers that everyone but Kodak is ripping them off as far as replacement ink is concerned.  Kodak's solution is to offer you a printer that uses its ink - which is far cheaper.

However, this to me appears to be a "race to the bottom" tactic.  Everyone knows that desktop printers are merely loss-leaders to get customers to buy the highly profitable ink.  But Kodak selling printers to get customers to buy less profitable ink does not seem like such a good idea in the long run.

Thinking about cameras there is something of a problem for Kodak as well.  Apple and RIM sell phones with cameras as an option.  Kodak, on the other hand, is not selling phones but only cameras.

Now carrying around a camera and phone is mostly silly in today's world.  Five years ago I bought a nice SLR-type camera with 8 mega-pixels.  Since it has good lenses I can take decent pictures.  Today many phone has cameras with that much resolution.  Why carry both unless you really need to?

So again, without the cellphone aspect associated with its cameras Kodak seems to be facing kind of a dead end.  Apple, on the other hand, with its billions in cash, can afford to work the patent system around Kodak.  Apple's primary products are not cameras per se.  And "having a camera", while important, is not the primary purpose of all the devices it sells (iPads, iPods).

Evading the Law, Group Style...

I came across a site called http://www.trapster.com/ the other day.

This company offers a free app for most smartphones that allows you to record the locations of police activity, speed traps, red light cameras, and so forth into the phone.  The information is transmitted to the trapster site and everyone and anyone else in the area is able to see where these things are.

This is not a new concept.  Back in the 1960's and 70's, perhaps earlier, drivers would flash their highbeams to indicate a speed trap to drivers in the oncoming lane as a courtesy.  It was sort of an unwritten rule of the road which everyone followed.  According to this the legality of highbeam flashing varies wildly from state to state.  In some states is perfectly legal free speech, in others its a offense carrying a stiff fine.

At issue is whether or not such activity (alerting others to police activity) is in and of itself a crime.  For example, in Maryland, flashing headlights is considered to viloate laws prohibiting obstruction of a police investigation (see this article).

According to this summary of US law there are many ways to obstruct justice - and though this is mostly related to federal law the actions of some states, such as Maryland, reflect how this law might be interpreted.

So, if you're busy with trapster while driving along the highway (and presuming your passenger is filling out the trapster data so that you are not yourself violating any laws related to use of cell phones while driving) are you perhaps conspiring with your fellow drivers to "obstruct" a police investigation?  Or are you merely exercising your rights to free speech?

Certainly there are many types of criminal conspiracy: planning to commit a burglary with someone, for example.  In these cases using your cellphone to call your buddy to plan such an activity is part of the conspiracy.  But is it a crime to call you buddy and alert him to a police traffic investigation as with trapster?  This is much less clear.

When we look at these kinds of things we need to examine the consequences of "where does it end"?

If, for example, I am involved in looting in NYC during a power blackout and I use something link trapster to evade arrest I think you would agree that I would be committing conspiracy.  Looting is a crime.  Similarly if I was committing burglaries and using something like trapster to evade a police investigation.

On the other hand, most people do not really believe that if they are driving over the speed limit they are really committing a crime (though in fact you are).  The reasons for this are not so clear but I think its mostly that people believe they have the right to travel at any reasonable speed they feel they can as long as they do it safely.  Of course there generally aren't any problems with this so long as no police are around.

The police might be able to look at the GPS information your phone sends to cell towers are you drive along.  This data would be plotting you exact location every so many seconds which would offer clear and convincing evidence of, for example, speeding.  While you might scoff at this consider that once law enforcement figures out you cellphone is somehow involved in your speeding activity, say by using trapster, then whatever that phone does during the commission of your "crime" is also subject to policy scrutiny.


(If you don't believe this just as Scooter Libby or Martha Stewart - both convicted of lying about their supposed crimes - not actually of committing the crimes themselves.)


So if the police stop you and ask you if you were signaling  people about the speed trap and you say "no" even though your had used trapster - suddenly you are convicted of a much more serious crime than speeding: lying to a police officer, obstructing justice, and so on.


To me this falls into the same category as giving an underage child a cellphone - and then the child breaks child pornography laws by sexting.


A piece of technology created for one purpose - calling others or taking pictures or communicating via the internet - suddenly becomes a means to commit crimes - either knowingly or unknowingly.


One imagines that kids in particular might find creative uses for this type of technology which would create all sorts of legal problems - it probably goes on already but its less clear that the activity is institutionalized with web sites: cheating on tests, indicating the best place to race cars, shoplift, etc.


The problem is that unwittingly creates a motivation of for law enforcement to "ratchet up" against these activities.  Sure the activities are basically "free speech" - but creating an environment where the purpose of the speech, e.g., flashing headlights, is used to "evade the law' gives the "law" reason to investigate.


I wrote about Groupon a while back - while this is a perfectly legal version of trapster what happens if faux groupons are used to get a "deal" that was actually fraud?


Part of the problem is that with technology things happen so much more quickly and easily than with hard copy (think coupons) the fraud might not be detected until much later if ever...

Posting Your Way to Unemployment...

Ashley Payne - Innocent Fun in Europe

There's sort of an odd split on the way "social media" is interacting with reality.

On the one hand you have this recent decision by the US Supreme Court finding that government contractors and employees may be subjected to having "...information from any source surrounding an employee’s sex life, finances and drug use" be used in a hiring decision (see this article).

At the same time you have an explosion of social media being used to flagrantly talk about all manner of things that go fly directly in the face of "company policy".  For example Ashley Payne claiming she was forced to resign over the photo of her drinking a glass of wine on vacation in Europe according to this WSJ article.

According to numerous Supreme Court decisions there is "no constitutional right to informational privacy".  Now this means that anytime someone tells you that they have any sort of "right to privacy" they are flat out wrong.  The Constitution is all about what rights the people grant to the government, e.g., defense of the country.  The Constitution in no way "grants rights" to people - the assumption is that the "people" are free and can only be restricted by laws the people allow the government to make.

The US Supreme Court, however, has made it quite clear that whatever you put out into "reality" about yourself, such as Facebook posting, Tweeting, and so forth is totally fair game for anyone looking for a reason to create misery in your life: a reason to fire you, make you resign, not hire you in the first place, whatever.

What is interesting to me is that, despite this, people are, at an exponentially growing rate, putting more and more personal information out onto the Internet.  And its not just you putting information out about yourself - its also your friends putting out "tagged photos" of you as well.

So, for example, if I am lying drunk in a pool of my own vomit and urine and my buddy snaps a picture of this and posts it on Facebook my boss might decide I have violated my employment contract or the company's "moral standards" and I get fired.

Of course only a couple of years ago all of this was a non-issue.  Sure my buddy might have had his camera with him, might have snapped the same picture, but there was no place to put it that would cause me potential harm.  Sure, I could go to my boss and confess I had done whatever but in general, as an employer, I have found that sort of behavior to be rare.

Along with this there is the issue of photoshopping a post.  For example, my buddy photoshops the picture before posting it.  Its his picture, he took it, he owns it.  But what if he adds something to the picture that's patently illegal. 

For example, there is this guy (see link).  A former prosecutor who created fake child porn with Photoshop to make a point in a trial - no one disputes the stuff was fake - not even the judge.  Now he is being sued for doing it.

What's happening here is that everyone is now a publisher as well their own content.  That's right - not only can you be your own publisher but you have the chance to be your own content as well.  In fact, you can even be content without your knowledge - just tagged by someone at random.

The bottom line here is that before social media you had no right to privacy.  However, in reality it was almost never an issue.  Pictures and comments are made "off line" and no one, like a boss, ever found out what you were up to unless someone was "out to get you" and kept copies.

Your privacy was kept by the fact that there was no "outlet' for your private information.

However, today that's all changed.  Facebook and others are pure content outlets with no privacy governors at all (save for posting of lewd material which can happen on various alternate adult Facebook-like sites).  If you can be photographed you can be tagged.  If you can be tagged you name will come up on a search and bingo - whatever you were doing is now public information.

The inertia here is with the Facebook side of things.  The courts and laws are woefully far behind - by this I mean that laws and criminality were not really designed to have a fully color digital stream of consciousness and activity beamed to employers and law enforcement.

The constitution says that you have liberty - which you do - to act like whatever kind of jackass you might want to be.  Implicit in that liberty, though, was the notion that if you wanted to act like a jackass you didn't go down to the local police and do it in front of them.

However, the eye of the law is now in every cell phone, camera, video recorder, everywhere.  And its only a Facebook or Twitter away from costing you your job, a spouse, a career, a degree, whatever.  Best of all, you don't even have control over what's being published about you...

This is what life must be like for celebrities.


Isn't this fun? 

Apple and "Apps"

I have been working on some iPad software for a new product.

The Apple software development environment for  the iPhone/iPad is very interesting.  First of all, without jailbreaking, its very hard to do much on these devices without Apple's "permission".

Permission involves, among other things, paying the $99 to be an iPhone developer.  But that only gives you access to restricted parts of the iOS (what Apple now calls the operating system on its iPhonish devices) portion of their web site.  To actually develop software you need to download the XCode software development system and all its associated iOS goodies.

The XCode environment has been around for some time - I think since the days of the original 17" aluminum MacBooks.  Its easy enough to use and, compared to Windows, its really not all that bad.  I have also spent a lot of time with the .NET software development environment (I am on VS2008 and about to switch to VS2010).  Its a bit more polished but, considering the number of developers involved at both companies, Apple gets high marks for doing so much with so few.

For iOS you use the XCode environment to build iPhone/iPad (iaps) applications.  To do rudimentary testing there is a on-computer (on your laptop or computer, not you iPad/iPhone) simulator.  The simulator is an app that looks like an iPad or iPhone but its just a program.  Your software can run on that for a variety of testing.

I say its rudimentary because out of the box I was able to find differences in the OpenGL implementation on the simulator and the iPhone.  For most things though, so long as they do not involve things like GPS, accelerometers, multi-touch and other hardware not available on the hosting device it seems pretty good.

Running your application on an actual device requires you to link your development environment to the device.  You have to do this through the Apple website and its tedious to do the first time.  However, once its all up and running its fairly easy to work with.  Basically you connect the device to the development machine with a USB cable.  Then the software is loaded there instead of the simulator.

Debugging works just as if you are on your own computer debugging software.  I've had very little trouble with the connection between the two - only having to reboot things once to straighten out a problem.

In terms of building apps Apple has made it fairly easy to get started.  Its easy to see why they are so successful in this area based on my experience so far.

Along these same lines Apple has also set up an "app store" for Mac OSX applications.  This is very similar in concept to the iPhone app store except things cost a bit more.

In the long run I think that most software people buy on a small scale for computers will be handled by something like this.  Its easy to use for both the user and developer.  It allows the developer to instantly access a large market with very little work.  And users have a relatively uniform experience.

The alternative is the world of "jailbroken" devices - which Apple must also live with.

However, I think that this gives users even more choice and is not necessarily bad for Apple, either.

As with the transition of print to digital and electronic media I think that software will now start to transition from the "amorphous" form it has now to specific, concrete things.  These "things" will be represented by little, cute icons in an "app store".

Users will no long have to deal with "installs" and "reinstalls" to get things they want or need.

Devices like tablets and phones will become as powerful as laptops today.

(Apple's iOS 4 has most everything Mac OSX does, but on a smaller scale: networking, OpenGL, USB, etc. etc.)

Large, complex software elements will live on "servers" or "in the cloud" away from users.  "Experts" will manage these systems away from the prying eyes of the everyday users.

More About Volly

The Game of Hearts: All or Nothing

I spent a bit more time reviewing some of the information on Volly.  The post I made regarding this new Pitney Bowes (PB) service generated a lot of interested.

The service is described in more detail here: http://www.volly.com/about.

Operationally this service is present as "cloud based" virtual mail box.  Presumably PB provides the end-point consumer (you or I) this service "for free" and the traditional PB content customers (mailers and so forth) replace their expensive mailing operations (printers, inserters, etc.) with some sort of digital process that sends the content directly to the "cloud" and hence right into the consumers virtual mail box.

In a world where this kind of information is already available online PB tries to make the deal for the endpoint consumer "sweeter" by adding in the ability to interact with the content, as no only receive the bills but also to pay them, archive them, and other things.

Of course there would be the usual panoply of "apps" on iPhones, computers, and so forth to "help remind you" of what's going on.

The website also contains a long and detailed description of security: passwords, public key encryption, SSL, and so forth to ensure that no ones personal data is let free or stolen.

From the perspective of businesses the number one "benefit" of Volly would appear to be the acceleration of what they call "paper turn-off".  There is talk about branding advantages and so forth but those seem less clear.

Considering all of this lets think about what PB is saying and doing here.

First of all, internet usage in industrialized countries hovers around 70-80%.  This compares favorably with the 100% penetration of the local postal service.  My guess is that companies like Fedex and UPS touch that same 80%, at least here in the US, and that the 20% without internet likely only rely on the US mail for their content.  I would guess a large percentage of those without internet would be the elderly - particularly those who live in communal situations like assisted living and nursing homes.

So Volly basically believes that those 20% or so can still get paper mail - that's basically a given. 

The rest are happy to be online with things.

As far as bill paying goes (according to this PDF which only covers to 2005) about 38% of people bank online.  So lets say that's roughly half of those who are online in the first place.  I would estimate that if you are paying a bill online then you already have at least some online access to banking and billing material, e.g., via your bank website or something like that.

Now, based on my Iceland experience, its seems that if you have high penetration of internet within the base of the countries postal service users you have a good chance, at the "country" level of doing something like Volly successfully.  The reason I believe is that you have a captive market - both physically and financially.  Physically in the sense that there is no other way to interact with the mail stream and financially because no one wants to spend the $.50 USD per piece to physically mail something they don't have too.

For a Volly to succeed in the long run I think it basically has to become the USPS.  Otherwise there will be fragmented access to online content as there is now.  Today its fragmented by vendors I use.  I have various credit and bank accounts, retail accounts, and so on - each with their own web site.  Most of these don't send me mail so they are not potentially part of Volly.  For those that do, e.g., a banking statement, those just serve as backups.

Now if you introduce a new Volly "layer" into this mix where will would you be?  I think in a worse situation.

I don't what to have to log onto Volly to get my mail, then have to switch to another site to do something interesting with that account.  One reason is that physical bills for me create a sort of queue of work. 

Being a geezer I feel no need to live in a world where my iPhone rules my life. (By this I mean that I jump to respond to a text or phone call on demand.  Why is this a good thing?  Mail coming three times a week, as I mentioned before, is more than enough.  I don't need Volly sending me a reminder every time a bill shows up.)

I think that Volly ends up being like the card game Hearts.  Its all or nothing.  Either Volly becomes the USPS in some way and everything is done that way or its a loser.

If I could cause my physical mailbox to "go away" and be replaced by an  online service for everything that might otherwise show up there I would go for it.  Now I still only have one place to go for mail.  On the other hand if half my mail shows up in the physical mailbox and some other percentage shows up in Volly that would be a pain.

I would much rather go to the bank site and deal with that than do it through some third party.

Only an act of Congress is going to change postal law.  Rather than fool around with things as they are now PB should be trying to goad the USPS into cutting delivery back to 3 days a week and taking the savings and executing pilot programs to replace the current USPS with something like Volly (it would become the next big thing - like defense contracting - or the IRS).  I can image Google and Microsft all vying for a position in this as well.

Side Rant: 

Eventually the world is going to figure out that living in an interrupt driven society is a mistake (interrupt driven meaning that your life is driven by phones, texts, reminders, and so forth triggering you to respond).  I mean, how do you get anything done?  Much of my work involves complex thinking - the kind that might take 5-10 minutes just to get into the place where I have all the mental content loaded up in order to do the work.  If an interruption occurs every 5 minutes then I never get anything done because the interruption sort of necessitates restarting the whole process from the start.

I have learned that the best thing I can do with my iPhone is to make it serve me better - not everyone else.  I mean, do I really need to see "LOL - I wrecked my car!! (pic attached)"?

I think business all want to jump onto the social network bandwagon as well - its what's hot.  But physical things that are nuisance in the first place aren't any more fun with social media-type web interactions.

The Bell Telephone system, telegraphs, buggy whips, and countless other things have retired from our lives - lets look at the USPS in the same way - but let's have some pride and vision in the replacement  and try an replace it with something that will last as long as possible rather than hitching our wagon to the next fad.

Elementary My Dear Watson...

HAL = IBM with each letter shifted one up...

I heard about the IBM Watson Jeopardy contestant the other day.

In case you don't know IBM has built a new supercomputer to play on the show Jeopardy.  Its called Watson.  Watson has 15 terabytes of memory, 2,880 processors and untold gigabytes of content.  He'll stand tall with his spinning orb avatar in February competing against two top human Jeopardy players.

What's interesting about this to me is the long road computers have trodden over the last thirty years to get to this point.

In around 1980 or so I lived and worked in New York City.  In those days I worked on the original UNIX operating system from Bell Laboratories.  UNIX was a pun on a system called MULTICS.  MULTICS was a giant time sharing system built by GE, MIT and Bell Labs in the 1960's.  It was ugly and slow and a couple of fellas decided that they could do better.

So in the early 1970's (or late 1960's) on an unused PDP-11 two fellows, one named Ken Thompson and the other Dennis Richie, created a new operating system called UNIX.  At first it was all based on assembly language (the original language was called A).  It worked well enough but, according to one fellow I knew, the assembly language programming was tedious.

So Richie invented the C language.  I had heard him give a talk about his C-compiler around 1976 or so.

UNIX turned into what is today Linux, BSD, and Mac OS X.  The story of how all that came about is long and complicated but by 1979 or so Richie and Thompson had moved on to other things.

And that's where I met "Belle".

I was at some conference in NYC one afternoon and I realized that the one of the guy's on the stage in a round table discussion was Ken Thompson.  He had brought along his chess computer called "Belle".  Thompson was always interested in chess (the first UNIX from Bell Labs had a chess program).  Belle was a box about 10 inches high and about 18 inches square.

She had a chess board on top (I think there were LED lights under the squares but I am not sure anymore).  On the chess board were special chess pieces with electronics in them so Belle could tell where they were on her chess board.

Ken Thompson (right)

Belle went on to win the Third World Chess Championship in Linz, Austria in 1980.

This is the first time that I am aware of a computer competing effectively as a person in a world-class event.

Later there was IBM's Deep Blue.  In 1997 Deep Blue beat human world champion Garry Kasparov in a chess match.  Deep Blue was built from IBM RS/6000 processors.  No doubt this work was influenced by Ken Thompson's work with Belle.

Deep Blue

And next month we will have Watson playing Jeopardy.  Probably not as prestigious as a world chess match but certainly more accessible.

In the intervening 15 or so years the face of this sort of computing has changed right along with the basic capabilities of computing.

"Belle" had a physical chess interface, i.e., an actual chess board.

Blue had a traditional computer interface.

But Watson will stand tall on "his/its/her" own right on the game show floor:

Watson center during a practice round.

I imagine that it won't be long until we have a real 3D version of a computer system playing some game somewhere, or perhaps doing something even more interesting like driving in a race...

Postal Weaponry...

Before the days of email there were limited things one could do as far as using postal transactions as weapons.  There was the Anthrax attack in September of 2001 that resulted in the deaths of five people.  And who could forget Ted Kaczynski as the Unabomber.

These ideas and actions by terrorists are nothing new.  The first historical account of using the postal system for delivering weapons dates to 1764 (from Wikipedia): "Colonel Poulsen residing at Børglum abbey was sent by mail a box. When he opens it, therein is to be found gunpowder and a firelock which sets fire unto it, so he became very injured."

With the advent of email things have changed, or maybe not...

I have been reading about STUXNET.  This is the specifically targeted computer virus that has been attacking the Iranian nuclear facilities for the last couple of years.

Now this is not your run-of-the-mill "click here to see naked coeds" (or "buy Viagra" or "acquire a new Russian bride") email viruses that infects your PC.  No, this virus was much more specifically targeted to Iran's particular nuclear plant.  How it actually got in in the first place is a mystery - but one images that a craftily designed email sent to all the employees at the Iranian nuclear facility probably did the trick:

From: Zem Sibabuah
To: All Employees
Subject: Help me access my enriched uranium... 

I am Mr. Zem Sibabuah from Nigeria.  Due to unforeseen circumstances I have a warehouse of highly enriched uranium that was left to me by my grandfather.  However, do to unforeseen political circumstances I am unable to leave the country and make use of this uranium.

However, with your assistance I will be able to ship you all 30 pounds of uranium and pay a finders fee of $300,000 Euros.

Please open the attached instructions below and submit to me the forms it contains...

...

Sincerely 
Mr. Zem Sibabuah
Nigerian Uranium Counselor


Attachment: instructions.zip

So one click by any one of the thousands of Iranian nuclear employees (or one of their Russian contractors) probably did the trick.

(I wonder if Russians get emails advertising US brides?)

Now the Stuxnet virus is a very specific virus.  It was designed to target something called the Siemens AG PCS 7 Industrial Controller.  This is a big, fancy computer system for controlling industrial machinery.  It reads sensors, controls machines, adjusts motor speeds and all of that sort of stuff.  In the case of Iran it controls something called the P-1. 

The P-1 is a nuclear gas centrifuge.

A nuclear gas centrifuge is a device that holds a gas containing uranium hexaflouride.  It is tube that spins around very fast and the uranium parts of the gas tend to move outward and collect at the outside of the tube.  In order to build atomic weapons you have to collect a lot of uranium.  It takes a lot of centrifuges a long time to collect enough gas to make a weapon - probably a thousand or so running for years.  These devices are fairly fragile and, if run at a higher rotational speed than recommended, for example, fly apart in fragments or otherwise break.

In the case of Iran there are 984 centrifuges.  These centrifuges are controlled by a Siemens PCS-7.

Now its probably no surprise that at the heart of the PCS-7 is our old friend Windows 2003.  That's right - Iran's entire nuclear centrifuge program is controlled by a Windows-based system.  Not surprisingly by 2008 people at the Homeland Security Department figured out that having a Windows-based system running something important was a "bad idea".

Now Stuxnet is very clever according to this NY Times article.

For one thing it seems to only like Siemens PCS-7 controllers in configurations that talk to 984 P-1 centrifuges. 

My, my, what a coincidence!

For another, it cleverly tells the centrifuges to run faster than their rated speed while happily reporting to the operators monitoring the PCS-7 system that everything is running exactly as it should be.

Stuxnet likes the PCS-7 only when connected to something called a PCL "Programmable Logic Controller".  This is a device that actually connects the computer network to things like pumps and other industrial things. 

Another surprise - Iran uses a PLC to run its centrifuges.

Finally it turns out that, surprisingly, Iran did not buy all of its software from official sources, i.e., like Microsoft and McAfee.  Since they don't have support they don't have the latest virus signature updates and Stuxnet just keeps on slipping by.  Imagine running your entire atomic weapons program on an unsupported set of Windows 2003 servers.

While a lot of this commentary is tongue-in-cheek I think its important to point out what can be done with a little clever hackery and a single email.

Iran's nuclear program is, I am sure, costing them billions of dollars.  By all accounts the Stuxnet virus has rendered it useless - at least for a time.  While Iran will eventually overcome this problem it has set their nuclear program back years.

The idea of mailing someone a box full of gun powder with a flint rigged to explode when its opened has sure come a long way in the last 250 years...

Volly - Less Rain, Snow and Dark of Night

Pitney Bowes is moving toward a new digital mailing age with a product called Volly.

Its hard to tell exactly what Volly might be from a technical perspective there there some clues.  What's more interesting is how Pitney is working hard to escape its old mailing image.

From this PDF on the www.volly.com web site:

Pitney Bowes: Uniquely qualified in this emerging market
• Current relationship with 74% of high-volume mailers across U.S.
• More than $650 million in free cash flow
• 90 years’ expertise in encryption and payment security
• Scalable systems that capitalize on mailers’ existing infrastructure
• Intuitive user experience that promotes mailers’ brand
• Leadership in customer communication management technologies
• One of the world’s largest software companies, according to Software Magazine
• Proven coverage across the full mailstream—both paper and digital

One of the world's largest software companies?  90 years' expertise in encryption?

These are pretty impressive claims.

At any rate I ran across this PDF on the Volly website.

It talks about the Pitney Bowes (PB) eBoks integrated mail and email Postal System in Denmark.  Basically the idea here is that PB takes over and creates a sort technological mail system that integrates output devices for print and non-print.  Postal customers then have the official Denmark "seal of approval" on their "important" (banks statements, etc.) electronic mail because it goes through a system blessed by the government.

I was involved indirectly in something like this a while back for one of my customers.  This customer was doing a similar integrate with the Icelandic Post Office.  The idea was that things like greeting cards and other traditional paper things would be replaced by websites and an integrated print/emailing system that would allow the recipients to receive mail in whatever form they chose.

Needless to say this all stopped with the crash of the Icelandic currency a few years ago.

What's interesting to me is that these countries are taking on the transition from print to electronic mail in novel and effective ways.  PB claims that half of Denmark's population receives its "important" mail through this system.

Here at home in the US we see that again the USPS is after yet another rate increase.  This time for commercial mailing (leaving the individual First Class postal customer alone for now).  Sadly we are not getting what the Danes and Icelanders are in terms of service or technological advancement for our money.

The Danes have been using their new Post Office system for nearly 9 years - nothing to sneeze at and perhaps showing the old PB is not resting on its laurels.

As you can see from the above picture "getting the mail" has become, at least this time of year, a chore.  Personally I would like to see a system like the Danes or Icelanders have.  Trudging through the snow to the mailbox isn't much fun through a foot of snow.

Yes I know that I can opt for "e-delivery" of many bills and such but what I would really like is more control over what I have to go and get from the mailbox.  But that won't get ride of the junk mail I will have to get anyway.

I don't want physical mail six days a week either - three is plenty.  One or two is probably enough with a Volly or eBoks-type system.

Ideally I'd like a one-click junk mail elimination system as well - either via email or to stop physical delivery of stuff I don't want to carry around all the time.  Junk email and a problem and its one of the reasons I don't go all electronic with what I have now - its too easy to lose important email in the endless parade of Viagra, pain killer, watch and other junk ads that jam my inbox each day.

How about some real reform so I don't have to trudge out in that snow...

The Finale (Part III)

So once the curved elements are completed we can add on the platform.

The back of the Korg as you can see from the image has a number of connectors and things in a group on the back.  The Q25 is just a bit wider than this connector group.

I figured that two "C" hooks would work on each side of the connector group and give the platform plenty of stability.  Once I had two decent "C"'s completed I made a check to be sure that they wouldn't hit anything else, like feet on the bottom.  In the end there is just room to either side of the connector group for the "C"'s.

The next step was to attach the "C"'s to the Korg and figure out where the top piece would go.  After figuring the top piece position I marked both "C"'s and cut them to the exact same lengths.  Next I modeled two triangular pieces to fit on the "C".

The triangular pieces would lock into the top piece.  The top piece would have a lip which would fit over the face of the Korg and hold the entire thing in place.

Figuring this out took some work.  At first I wasn't sure if the top piece would extend out over the Korg's face or would remain essentially flush.  I also had to make sure that the top piece wouldn't obstruct anything important - like a knob or indicator light.

In the end I came up with this:

The triangular part sits on top and creates a kind of level platform on the top of the SV-1.

Due to slight differences in how the wood bending went I had to take the time to align and trim the two triangles down to match exactly.  The "C"'s were not quite the same and without that step the platform would not be level.

Next I created the top piece.  For this I used a piece of hardwood plywood about 7" by 16" - large enough to provide some room on either side of the "C".  I cut two slots in the bottom to hold the top of the triangles.  I measured this in place on the Korg to get the positioning right.  I then attached two small wooden blocks to hold the top piece against the face of the Korg.


Here the top piece is sitting on a platform for finishing. 


Once this was completed I did a test fit.  That complete I did the finishing.

For things that get frequent use and handling I like tung oil (oil from the tung tree Vernicia fordii) and marine varnish.  Usually I thin out the tung oil and apply multiple coats over several days.  Once that's dry I apply multiple coats of varnish.

The finished pieces came out like this (pre-varnishing):

Attaching them works as follows (very simple) - attach the "C"'s:

Next attach the base plate (note the wood blocks on the front are out of the way of anything important on the face of the Korg):

All that was left at this point was to add the Q25:

The Q25 sits nice and tight against the stop of the Korg.  It also fits quite tight and doesn't rock or move when played.

Bend Me, Shape Me, Any Way You Want Me (Part II)

So as I covered last time I was about to bend the wood strips for my project into a curve to match the SV-1.  The first round of bending failed.  For that I soaked the strips in hot water for about an hour.  The strips, while becoming more flexible than they were initially, did not really become flexible enough until they were fully soaked.

At that point I put them onto the form and glued them.  Unfortunately the glue would not work properly with wet strips and the resulting piece was a failure.

The next round was steam bending.

The first trick here is patience.  My little kettle here is fairly full of water (to just below the spout) so I get maximum steam time.  You have to focus on one strip at a time and not rush things.  First off I sort of steamed the whole strip by moving it back and forth through the main steam stream.  Its important to figure out where most of the stream is emanating from the spout - if you miss that you spend a lot more time making a bend.

The next step is to start putting gentle pressure on the strip to curve while you heat it.  You have to keep in mind the general shape of what you are trying to accomplish and you have to work at forming the piece to that shape.  This is a bit more tricky because you need to get most of the strip streamed (which is tough on your fingers) and because you have to keep the strip moving so that it doesn't cool too quickly.

So basically you just keep working it until, in the stream, you can bend it beyond where it will need to go on the form.  I worked each piece until it got to this point, then switched to the next pieces, then switched back to reinforce the previously pieces, and so on.

It helps to have the form ready to go so that when the strips are bent you don't have to rush to organize the form and so forth.

Once the strips are ready it was time to get them on the form.

The pieces must be fully clamped to the form.  This means that there must be continuous pressure around the full curve of the piece.  If there isn't, some parts will separate and the lamination will look bad or fail.  For this I used a motorcycle strap with a ratcheting clamp along with some wood clamps to get the parts that needed extra tightening.

Each strip gets a good coating of glue (Titebond II) on the faces that will be touching.  You can't glue just one side and expect the other to stick because the glue will not always flow evenly when you clamp things up.

Some skill is required to line up the strips, get things clamped before the glue dries, and otherwise make it work.  I screwed up a couple of tries before I got it working the way I wanted.


You have to let these dry overnight so that the glue has a chance to set.  They don't need to be on the form for more than a couple of hours.  Once I took them off I set them aside in another clamp to dry overnight.

I test fitted the first piece to make sure it matched the back of the SV-1.

On to the next step next time....

SV-1 Bass Rig (Part I)

About a year ago I purchased a Korg SV-1 for gig use.  Previously I had a Kurzweil SPX 88 which I had used for about five or six years.  The Kurzweil was a great keyboard - rugged, reliable - and had survived rain, cold and a large variety of misery over the years.  Sadly the power supply connections internally went flaky - it would not reliably turn on without an extensive power supply rain dance to get it going - not the sort of thing you want at an important gig.  Though I tried to fix it I could not isolate the problem.  It has since retired to Philadelphia.

As for the SV-1 - there aren't enough nice words for it.  It sounds good and its reliable.  The only problem is that it cannot be stored vertically.  If it is the keys stop working until it lays back down horizontally for a while...  A while being anywhere from 15 minutes to 1/2 hour.  Then the keys start to work again, one by one, until they are all okay.  Needless to say it now spends all of its time horizontal - without incident.

Until recently I just used the SV-1.  But lately I have begun to need a small, second keyboard for bass sounds for some weeknight gigs. The SV-1 keyboard cannot be split so that leaves a second keyboard as the only solution for adding bass.  Ideally this second keyboard would be located immediately above the left end of the keyboard while still leaving room to use the SV-1 keys and knobs.   While I have an X-stand I use for the Korg the options for adding a second tier to it are cumbersome, heavy, ugly and difficult to adjust.

First thing I tracked down a very inexpensive 25 key keyboard.  I chose the Alesis Q25 (see link) - for $79 USD you can't go wrong with this.  I've had Alesis keyboards in the past - the oldest is about 15 years old or so - and still in use (I gave it to a friend's daughter).  They are good quality though not usually the most feature packed or fancy.


This particular keyboard has exactly what I needed: one MIDI out, USB port (for power/computer connectivity), small footprint, and easy programming and setup.

The only problem is how to put the Q25 on top of the SV-1.  As you can see from the picture at the top of the post its not exactly conducive to having something set on it - far too much curvature.

After some head scratching I came up with an idea.  Looking at the curved back and the lipped front of the SV-1 control panel face (above the keys) I decided I could make a curved "hook" that would extend around the back to the bottom of the SV-1, lock into a platform for the Q25 and grab hold of the front face.  If the hook were a little springy and could grasp the curved back without sliding it seemed like a reasonable approach to getting a flat platform onto the SV-1.  I reasoned the tension between the springy clamps and the catch on the front face would keep things from moving.

I decided that the platform had to have a couple of key features:

- Quick and easy to attached and remove from the SV-1 (since I don't always need it).

- Simple, light weight, and easy to break down flat to fit in my single gig case.

- Solid so that it would not move around or rock back and forth while being used.

So the first step was to come up with some kind of "C"-shaped clamp to reach from the top of the front keyboard face around to the bottom of the keyboard.  Being interested in creating some new wood products to sell as well as use for other things I decided to create a laminated wood "C" that was matched to the back of the SV-1.

To do this I needed to capture the shape of the SV-1 back.  Given its curvy shape this was not an easy task to  do well.  I settled on what basically amounted to a piece of cardboard and a compass which I traced the back shape with.  The compass was not easy to keep oriented to exact tangent of the back so some fiddling with knives and tape was required to make the proper pattern.  After an hour or so I came up with this.

The face of the SV-1 (where the knobs are) is in the foreground.  The curved back is toward the rear.  Once this was completed I converted it into a plywood form to support the lamination.  Since I don't have a band saw I had to cut it by hand and manually shape it.

Because I would be wrapping glue-soaked strips of would around its edge it needed to be varnished to keep the glue from sticking.  Initially the right edge of the form was flat but, after some experimentation I decided that it needed a slight curve to get the "C" hooks formed properly.  The little notch on the left side is where the front face of the SV-1 meets the curved back.  I made the notch to ensure that I would be able to match the curvature and orientation of multiple "C"s.

The next step was to cut some 1/16" oak slats (you can also buy these but it was easier for me to make them).  I figured three per "C" would be strong yet flexible.  I had some handy 150 year old oak from our barn tear-down so I cut a number of these figuring it would take a few tries to get it right.

By themselves the strips are not flexible enough to bend around the form so I had to steam them.  The strips were small - only about 3/4" wide and about 18 inches or so long so I headed to the kitchen for the most efficient steamer I could find.  (I also tried soaking but the results were not as quick or as good as steaming).  The basic steaming setup looked like this.

(To be continued.)

How to Read a Newspaper

I started reading the WSJ (Wall Street Journal) in the late 1970's. At that time we lived in New York City and I used to ride the trains to work. Initially we lived near Jamaica in Queens and I used to take the "F" or "E" train (I think the name has long since been changed) to work on Wall Street.

Later on we moved to Levittown, NY. From there I had to take Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) from the Hickstown station to Penn Station and then the "2" or "3" train down to Wall Street.

(Wall street is an actual street as well as a place. As a place its serviced by a variety of subway stops - only a few of which are actually on Wall Street itself.)

At any rate both train rides were quite long - probably at least 45 minutes for the "F" train, probably much longer for the LIRR when you factored in changing trains. There was little to do on the train in those days - no iPad, no cell phone, and things like Walkmen were just starting to become popular.

So most of the time you read something: books or newspapers.

This was easy to do because the subway stations will filled with "vendors". Vendors sat in what amounted to giant open wooden steamer trunks filled with racks of newspapers and magazines. At night they would be folded shut and locked for security. During the day the vendor sat on a small stool - usually right in front of the magazines and sold his wares.

All the subway stops had these vendors. All vendors carried the standard NYC newspapers - the NY Times, the Post, the WSJ, the Daily News (at least this is what they were called at the time I lived there) plus whatever other specialty items they chose: candy, magazines, paperbacks, other newspapers the the Village Voice.

So rather than have an expensive yearly subscription to a newspaper like the WSJ you simply bought one on the way to work for $.50 USD. In 1979 this was a lot of money to spend on something like a newspaper - particularly if you had a family and other such financial obligations. On the other hand, if you worked on Wall street you were supposed to have some idea of what was going on in the world and this was a good way to learn about it.

The only problem with newspapers in those days was that the ink was not very dry on the paper when you bought them. So as you road the train and flipped the pages your hands became progressively blacker with newspaper ink. This was not a problem so long as you did not touch your clothes or your face.

Being a rural boy from Wisconsin I was not used to this idea at first. I often forget and had to scratch my nose and ended up with smudges on my face or clothes - mostly this resulted in ridicule at the office from those with more experience.

But as time went on I started to learn the tricks of keeping yourself free of newspaper ink.

First you hand to learn to scratch your face with the back of your hand or your knuckle. Not something I did as a kid so this took a certain amount of concentration to master consistently.

You also had to learn to keep your hands off of your clothes or wear dark clothes. Sometimes, but not always, you had to wear suites with white shirts so this was not always a good plan.

When you got to work the first thing you had to do was wash the ink off of your hands. So you went right from the elevator to the washroom - if you went to your office you might get distracted and dirty yourself up without realizing it.

Another problem with the newspapers were their size. On the subway you were often a "strap hanger" which meant standing the entire trip. Standing entailed much more than simply "standing".  First, you had to learn the laws of physics - subway trains often jolted to a start and stop with enough force to cause you to loose your balance. You quickly learned to hold onto the strap (actually a metal loop or bar) at these moments. There were also a plethora of metal poles placed throughout the subway cars for this same purpose.

(Sitting was never an option on the subway in those days. The seats were always full of little old ladies, urine, or bums who lived there.)

In any case you could not ride the subway with your newspaper fully open.

Instead you had to learn how to fold the pages first the long way in half and then fold the paper over to make it book size. This was not an easy skill because you were jammed into the subway care often to the point of being immobilized by the crowd. So all the folding and manipulating of the paper had to be done without impinging on your close neighbors personal space.

Personal space was a big deal on the subway. It was hard to define exactly and you never wanted to push the limits because who knew what sort of person your "neighbor" might turn out to be - Donald Trump, a serial killer, a bum or other weirdo, a flasher, etc. There was no talking on the subway either for the same reason unless you already knew the person. If you did start talking randomly to your neighbor you were viewed as a potential threat.

On the other hand the LIRR was much more "civilized".  Since the rides where longer and the cost higher there was a much better chance of getting a real seat. Most of the same rules as you had on the subway applied but there was more tolerance - you could introduce yourself and chat with your neighbors because many people rode in the same seats - perhaps for years, breaching the physical "space" was less of an issue, and so on.

Here riders read more exotic financial journals besides the lowly WSJ - Barrons, various orange and green financial papers - often from foreign countries. I guess this was because you had to have a decent job (which usually meant in the financial industry) to live that far away to begin with - and these jobs often involved knowledge of the world outside the USA.

Today, thirty years later, I can sit at my dinning room table or office couch and read that same WSJ using a iPad or laptop. No inky hands to worry about. No worrying about finding a place to stand.

The final death knell for ink and dirty, inky hands in my house will probably come soon when I don't renew the print part of my subscription.   On the other hand, doing that would eliminate my supply of paper for lighting the fire place, painting and staining woodwork, etc. 

I wonder if I can get just the paper without the print on it?

A lot has changed in thirty years...

iPads and Ends

The V2 story is final coming to a conclusion. On my desk is a box containing all the V2 e-cigarette materials purchased over the last month or two. They are being returned and the company has already refunded all of the money.

This seems like a victory for the consumer.

As for the business owner, V2 in particular, there are still some issues.

One is the concept of credit card purchasing and shipping. Come to find out that the modus operendi at V2 was to take an order for a product which was not fully in stock, i.e., a kit that contained multiple items some of which were known not to be in stock. Then to fully charge the credit card you provided for the entire purchase amount. Then to ship all the in stock items only - leaving your credit card to fund the difference between the first particle shipment and second particle shipment.

This is a big no no for any company that takes orders and ships products. I believe that its part of the agreement you make when you agree to accept credit cards.

The e-cigarette world is still the wild and wholly west - fortunes to be made, etc. Stigmatized smokers are desperate to escape the high tobacco taxes and scorn of the elite. Where there is desperation there will always be profiteers.

My iPad arrived a few days ago and I have been writing my blogs on it for the last couple of days. Over all I would say that, so far, I am reasonably happy with it. However, there are still some big issues.

Most disappointing is that the iPad 32G Wifi that I purchased does NOT have GPS. Apparently Apple is very clever about hiding this - they never say anywhere that it does not have one - its just sort of not mentioned anywhere. Only after I received mine and I complained to the seller it wasn't working did I find out that there wasn't one to work. I bought it for, among other things, software develop of some music and sound applications, so it won't really matter - but its still disappointing that I was fooled.

The lack of flash is a problem if you intend to do anything serios with your iPad - like write. Many websites, like Google blogspot, use these features for various editors and other tools and its a pain when they don't work. So while I write the blog on this new iPad I still have to use my MacBook to publish it.

I will have to explore the other non-Safari browsers as well - but that seems even more stupid - to have to pick a browser to use based on what you want to do. There are several out there - including one that runs flash on a remove server and sends you the output - but I doubt it would work for anything interactive.

Safari on the iPad at least does not seem to have any way to get at the underlying link for images. Another big pain. In Firefox you just click the image and a menu appears to get at the link location. No dice on the iPad.

I also bought an Apple wireless keyboard. Required in my book for doing anything on the iPad that requires more than about 25 characters of text input. This works quite well and it seems to sleep and wake up in a reasonable, automatic way. The only annoyance is that if I pick up the iPad and take it somewhere else without the keyboard to work I have to go and tell it to turn off the bluetooth - otherwise there is no way to enter text.

I also bought an Apple Magic Trackpad - stupidly thinking it would work with the iPad. No dice. There are several interesting things about this. First, there is a bizarre religious hate for mouse-type input devices for the iPad. Post after post on forums about "why on earth would you need a mouse for your iPad' (the Trackpad is basically a mouse).

The biggest problem is that if you prop up the iPad and use the keyboard you are left with reaching to the screen to do most everything you would do with a mouse - like go back and select text, hit buttons, and so on. Sure you can do it - but its literally a stretch. The trackpad would make this just a wrist-motion issue.

A jailbroken iPad will work with the Apple wireless mouse - so that's next on my agenda - to jailbreak my iPad and see if I can get the trackpad working. I don't see why not.

What's more curious is why the iPad does not support the mouse. My guess is that it makes using the iPad just enough like a toy (that is, not having a mouse) that people will not through away their computers or laptops for iPads. The 32G Wifi iPad + keyboard + trackpad is probably about $800 USD in total. Quite a bit less than a low-end Apple Mac or laptop.

The combo has the advantage that you can take the "screen" part off and use it as its own device quite easily - not something you can do with a MacBook. This is very handy - I leave the iPad on the kitchen table when I am not using it. If in want to read or do something with it while I watch TV I simply pick it up and start using it. Its small enough not to be a problem - a laptop would be quite a bit bigger and more cumbersome.

The final thing I bought with the iPad is a sort of compass-type stand. It looks like a metal compass you might have used in high school. It makes a good stand for the iPad and its convenient and closes up to a fairly small foot print.

As for iPad and iPhone software development: I have gotten started with that. I looked at this a long time ago - probably iOS 1.0 or 2.0. It was still pretty immature at that point. Now its quite a bit better and everything, like the devleopment iPhone simulator, is reasonably mature as well.

I have been reading the Apple Human Interface Guidelines for iOS (which is the iPhone/iPad operating system software). The perspective for these devices is very different from a UI perspective than, say, a laptop. The focus is on what I would consider to be very game-like, low attention-span issues.

Very different from a commercial application where you have a dedicated GUI and task in mind when you write software. I will cover more of this as things unfold.