Mostly Harmless

I can’t help but laugh at the fact that the BBC had to implement Microsoft DRM technology into their iPlayer application. The reasoning behind this…

“The rights holders - the people that make the programmes, from Ricky Gervais to the independent producers that account for up to a third of our programming - simply wouldn’t have given us the rights to their programmes unless we could demonstrate very robust digital rights management.”

…is all well and good. But wait! Doesn’t the BBC already distribute programming in an unencrypted fashion through which it can be readily recorded and redistributed without restriction? (I’ll give you a clue, it’s on the roof…)

So this player developed presumably with license payer’s money is a total irrelevance to me as I don’t run a Microsoft operating system for more than a small % of time anymore. One of the major reasons I gave up the operating system is because it forces you to do things the way the company thinks you should do them, rather than the way that makes most logical sense. Can I get a refund on the bandwidth costs for this as well as anymore reality TV muck you choose to produce? No? Didn’t think so.

A decent digital TV card or box for the PC now costs about £30 - £50, recordings from which can be readily burnt to DVD. Funnily enough the ability for people to record television programming so that they can keep it historically hasn’t cause the market to collapse - the VCR was not the end of media as we know it and neither was the DVD or hard disk drive recorder. The sales of pre-recorded DVD format releases should have proved this beyond all doubt.

I didn’t take Ricky Gervais for a delusional paranoid - but there we go, stranger than fiction.

Rowan :: Jun.28.2007 :: Media, Operating Systems :: No Comments »

As further proof that whenever you have an idea the Internet is capable of crushing you by showing you that someone has already done it, I’ve been meaning to write an article on this for a while - and now I don’t need to.

Updating a personal website has always been something I’ve known I should do, but never got around to very well, Wordpress lets me easier than any other CMS I’ve used.

Rowan :: Jun.25.2007 :: Reviews, Web Apps :: No Comments »

I’ve been a reader of Bruce Schneier’s CRYPTO-GRAM newsletter for some years now and it always inspires mixed feelings. Schneier writes with authority on security, terrorism and the psychology of both. At the danger of being misrepresentative, here’s a quote

“We worry about airplane crashes and rampaging shooters instead of automobile crashes and domestic violence — both far more common”

Depending on the issue, you might feel safer after reading but generally you come away worrying about people’s ability to be duped over what is and isn’t an actual probable risk to them. You’ll worry about politicians taking advantage of these as easy emotive issues rather than focusing on more likely ones that are harder to “sell” and you’ll worry about the media herding people in the direction of their statistically improbable fears rather than acting as a responsible platform.

“I tell people that if it’s in the news, don’t worry about it. The very definition of “news” is “something that hardly ever happens.” It’s when something isn’t in the news, when it’s so common that it’s no longer news — car crashes, domestic violence — that you should start worrying”

On the good side, it’ll help you be more rational about the security threats that are actually likely to effect you. I’ve scared the crap out of my partner on more than one occasion by arguing that if someone really wants to get to you or the contents of your house, the lock on the door and the burglar alarm are really only a formality. They stop people wandering in but they won’t stop someone breaking in (unless they’re inept…which is another story). So what really determines if you should be scared of burglary is the amount of attractive swag you have in your home and how many people know you’ve got it.

It’ll also remind you that security theatre like a burglar alarm is still worth it so you don’t have to get up every time the freezer clunks in the hall, one thing I really like about Schneier’s writing is he doesn’t belittle people for being people (and that must be oh so tempting when you’ve been working in the field as long as he has).

The newsletter is perhaps over long for the “average” reader, but for every single intelligent person I’d advise having a read, it just might help you feel more rational and clear headed about what you ought to be spending your valuable time worrying about

Rowan :: Jun.18.2007 :: Personal Entries, Security :: No Comments »