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Friday, February 06, 2004
What HBR doesn't know it's missing . . .
So, I think just under two months is a respectable amount of time to wait before conceding that a response is not forthcoming. I sent an article proposal to HBR in mid-December in the form and with the content they said they required. Obviously, either the value of (a) the idea is not in keeping with their storied (vaulted?) position as guardians of business "intelligence," or (b) I'm not.
So, although I'm not sure when I'll get to writing the actual piece, now for my own edification alone apparenlty, I've chosen to put the proposal out here for review. Download it; read it; review it; comment on it; tell me how obvious it is that it's not right . . . Whatever.
Knock yourself out.
So, although I'm not sure when I'll get to writing the actual piece, now for my own edification alone apparenlty, I've chosen to put the proposal out here for review. Download it; read it; review it; comment on it; tell me how obvious it is that it's not right . . . Whatever.
Knock yourself out.
What the hell's wrong with these people?
A little piece in the Globe and Mail says that fewer than a quarter of 1,500 people surveyed in Britain would quit work if they knew they only had 13 days to live. Although . . . twice as many said they'd stop worring about work. WTF?
A snip from the 3-grafer:
A snip from the 3-grafer:
More than three quarters of British employees would rather go to work than take a dream holiday if they had only 13 days to live, according to a survey by two U.K. charities, TimeBank and Help the Hospices.
Thursday, February 05, 2004
Racin' for ricin
Yesterday, I was on the Capitol ricin scare in DC. Today there's more in the NYTimes in this article: Ricin Poses Postal Risk, but Different From Germs
The thrust of the message is that, yes, the postal system has to cope with these things but poison (ricin) is considerably less troublesome than a biological/virus (anthrax), and screening systems are being upgraded. Besides, as a terror activity it's not that effective.
True enough, potentially knocking off a senator or congressman might actually be considered a heroic measure by some parts of the American population. And, poison in the mail is not as big as planes meeting buildings. But, if these anthrax or poison laced envelopes were being distributed randomly to people often in the news (hollywood stars, music stars, athletes [notice an alarming trend toward entertainment being "important" in this list? ed.], corporate executives, state and municipal politicians, and so forth), and you would have yourself an enormously effective terrorist activity. Remember, the impact of the terrorist action is not to kill or harm a specific target for its intrinsic value, but to cause destabilization of social systems. Making the US mail a cause for life-and-death caution in general would do that. Remember what happened to air travel -- and travel in general a couple years ago. There was and would be a significant economic impact, if not a restructuring of social systems.
Just a thought.
The thrust of the message is that, yes, the postal system has to cope with these things but poison (ricin) is considerably less troublesome than a biological/virus (anthrax), and screening systems are being upgraded. Besides, as a terror activity it's not that effective.
True enough, potentially knocking off a senator or congressman might actually be considered a heroic measure by some parts of the American population. And, poison in the mail is not as big as planes meeting buildings. But, if these anthrax or poison laced envelopes were being distributed randomly to people often in the news (hollywood stars, music stars, athletes [notice an alarming trend toward entertainment being "important" in this list? ed.], corporate executives, state and municipal politicians, and so forth), and you would have yourself an enormously effective terrorist activity. Remember, the impact of the terrorist action is not to kill or harm a specific target for its intrinsic value, but to cause destabilization of social systems. Making the US mail a cause for life-and-death caution in general would do that. Remember what happened to air travel -- and travel in general a couple years ago. There was and would be a significant economic impact, if not a restructuring of social systems.
Just a thought.
It's the little things that count
Here's a story about a little technology that has big potential: E-Mailing a Cellphone by the Numbers. Teleflip provides a service for people sending email to a mobile phone that eliminates the requirement for the domain name. In other words, rather than sending an email to my phone by dialing 6137979793@rogers.pcs.com (I think) you would only have to send to the 10-digits @teleflip.com. Their proprietary algorithms match the phone number to the correct domain and complete the delivery.
Now, it's not exactly rocket science as best as I can figure out: take the number, use the first three digits to locate the geographic area where the phone is tied, the second three digits to determine which carrier the phone belongs to, append the carrier's domain, and forward the message. There are problems too. First, number portability will make my little approach more difficult, so maybe there's more to their algorithm than all that. Second, some people might be off-put by sending their private email to a third party (although I think that's mostly a red herring).
The capability is kind of cool and relatively simple. So, were your ISP to license the capability, it's not entirely impossible that it could catch on. Me, I'm less thrilled about scrolling email on my phone, but there are others . . . It could also, if successful, fallow the ground for Neustar's eNUM project.
Now, it's not exactly rocket science as best as I can figure out: take the number, use the first three digits to locate the geographic area where the phone is tied, the second three digits to determine which carrier the phone belongs to, append the carrier's domain, and forward the message. There are problems too. First, number portability will make my little approach more difficult, so maybe there's more to their algorithm than all that. Second, some people might be off-put by sending their private email to a third party (although I think that's mostly a red herring).
The capability is kind of cool and relatively simple. So, were your ISP to license the capability, it's not entirely impossible that it could catch on. Me, I'm less thrilled about scrolling email on my phone, but there are others . . . It could also, if successful, fallow the ground for Neustar's eNUM project.
Wednesday, February 04, 2004
Sure, but would it remember to forget?
I guess it's good that the Darpa Lifelog project was quietly cancelled as this Wired News article, Wired News: Pentagon Kills LifeLog Project notes.
Lifelog's intent was to gather everything a person says (emails, phone calls, etc.) and does (air tickets purchased, television watched, movies seen, meetings taken, etc.) into a single data directory. The rationale is that:
Can you say "Big Brother's watching"?
Lifelog's intent was to gather everything a person says (emails, phone calls, etc.) and does (air tickets purchased, television watched, movies seen, meetings taken, etc.) into a single data directory. The rationale is that:
the all-encompassing diary could have turned into a near-perfect digital memory, giving its users computerized assistants with an almost flawless recall of what they had done in the past.
Can you say "Big Brother's watching"?
If this doesn't drop the per unit cost . . .
High-end smart cards with all the bells and whistles, like a RF proximity loop, suitably large chips, etc., etc. are a little bit expensive for the average profit-based entity to undertake. If ONLY there were enough volume being produced to reduce the per unit cost . . . The several million-large CAC (common access card) deployment in the US military over the past several years is still pretty puny.
Well hang on there sparky because it seems that China's about to pump up the volume as this story from cardtechnology.com points out.
Because it's small, here's the item:
Well hang on there sparky because it seems that China's about to pump up the volume as this story from cardtechnology.com points out.
Because it's small, here's the item:
02/03/04 The world's largest smart card rollout is set to begin: starting in March, all Chinese over the age of 16 will be issued a smart card as ID document. The rollout of chip cards to 1.3 billion citizens is expected to be completed by the year 2008, according to the official news agency Xinhua. Officials of the Ministry of Public Security expect the new ID card to be a way of preventing the rampant forgery of old ID cards. The new card will be put into use in the cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Changsha.Expect some outsourcing to China.
The ID cards will be the size of standard bank card and use contactless smart card chips. Further, they will carry only the identification application and be fixed memory cards with 4 kilobytes of memory. Only Chinese vendors supply the chips and the modules that encase them. According to Chinese officials, the technology must be supplied domestically "for security reasons".
China started to issue ID cards in 1984 in light of a fledgling market-oriented economy that required more traveling. Traveling had previously been restricted by the household registration system set up in 1958. This system specified where each Chinese should live, which normally was where they were born. If they moved, they lost rights to cheaper education and missed out on job opportunities. China now considers the 1958 system to be outdated. In the past two decades of economic reforms millions of Chinese have left their homes to find work.
Tuesday, February 03, 2004
More things telephone operators don't have to worry about
First anthrax, now ricin; like there aren't enough things for mail sorters and carriers to worry about. This story in the NYTimes, Powder Found in Senate Leader's Office Confirmed as Poison, describes the latest poison-mail incident on the US Capitol.
It's only a matter of time before this extensively open system (which, I found out last time I was at Dulles, has been closed modestly: there are no blue mail boxes, not sure whether it's because of bombs or poison -- probably bombs) is closed down for public safety reasons. Of course, there is a digital identity application here in the form of a need to slip a credential card into a mail receptical before putting the mail/parcel in. The machine would then record the depositor's identity for future tracing requirements. How the civil right to private and unimpinged communication would be addressed is another matter.
Interesting to note that, at least to my untrained, anecdotal view, the story of poisoned mail on the Capitol is receiving less media time this go round.
It's only a matter of time before this extensively open system (which, I found out last time I was at Dulles, has been closed modestly: there are no blue mail boxes, not sure whether it's because of bombs or poison -- probably bombs) is closed down for public safety reasons. Of course, there is a digital identity application here in the form of a need to slip a credential card into a mail receptical before putting the mail/parcel in. The machine would then record the depositor's identity for future tracing requirements. How the civil right to private and unimpinged communication would be addressed is another matter.
Interesting to note that, at least to my untrained, anecdotal view, the story of poisoned mail on the Capitol is receiving less media time this go round.
Monday, February 02, 2004
It's a DRIVER'S licence, not a general ID!!
Some of us who pay attention to these things understand that digital identity is (a) important, (b) inevitable, (c) complex, (d) is an execution problem, and (e) very likely to evolve out of driver's licensing (at least in North America). Let's look at the last item, if only because there's a relevant new item today in the NYTimes. The article, Report Focuses on False ID?s Made at Motor Vehicle Offices, starts pointing out that the driver's license is not meant to be an all-around identity credential. And, using it this way has its problems inasmuch as, there are systemic design problems in how license registries issue and control the credential.
The industry group representing driver's license issuers takes a position that this blog has made clear here and in other writings (at the Website): many different special credentials are needed to make the credential and information itself less valuable to identity theives and fraud artists. Quoting the article:
The industry group representing driver's license issuers takes a position that this blog has made clear here and in other writings (at the Website): many different special credentials are needed to make the credential and information itself less valuable to identity theives and fraud artists. Quoting the article:
Most of all, it [American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators] recommends that agencies issue different ID's for different uses, thus making the driver's license less of a prize. 'Strengthening the standards only helps us to a certain extent,' Mr. Schwartz said. 'The real answer is to stop relying so heavily on this form of ID.'How novel ;-)
Where's the Post Office in all this?
Second time in the same number of weeks, major media has taken note of the idea of postage on email. [Bill Gates, like a head of state, is a human starting gun! ed.] In today's NYTimes is a story entitled,
Speech by Gates Lends Visibility to E-Mail Stamp in War on Spam. In the article is a modest look at what Microsoft and Yahoo! are doing to create friction in the email system to prevent spam. Several tech companies developing systems that levy "postage" fees on email are highlighted as well. A quotation:
1. Why isn't the original and valid "postage" administrator noted in the article?
2. Why isn't that "natural party" finding a voice now in this nascent discussion before it's too late?
Speech by Gates Lends Visibility to E-Mail Stamp in War on Spam. In the article is a modest look at what Microsoft and Yahoo! are doing to create friction in the email system to prevent spam. Several tech companies developing systems that levy "postage" fees on email are highlighted as well. A quotation:
Now, though, the idea of e-mail postage is getting a second look from the owners of the two largest e-mail systems in the world, Microsoft and Yahoo.Ten days ago, Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman, told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that spam would not be a problem in two years, in part because of systems that would require people to pay money to send e-mail. Yahoo, meanwhile, is quietly evaluating an e-mail postage plan being developed by Goodmail, a Silicon Valley start-up company.The article is worth reading, but it begs the obvious questions:
1. Why isn't the original and valid "postage" administrator noted in the article?
2. Why isn't that "natural party" finding a voice now in this nascent discussion before it's too late?
