Wrap up from the weekend!

Facebook Worm
The Ramnit worm has hit approximately 45 000 Facebook accounts, primarily in France and the United Kingdom.  Ramnit allows hackers to access the credentials needed to access bank accounts and corporate networks. Facebook is assisting users in regaining control of their accounts. The main problem is that people tend to use the same password for multiple sites; yet, many sites require a password where it's not really needed, adding to the password issue.

Computer-Aided Medicine
The American National Institute of Health is developing a database to assist harried doctors. Researchers are using over 200 000 questions compiled by AskTheDoctor.com and 9000 questions gathered by Stanford University and the University of Minnesota. The NIH has also contacted IBM over the possibility of using Watson to test the questions. The goal is to reduce the amount of time needed to research medical problems with doctors being able to ask their computer assistant to do the work instead. The takeaway here is the coming together of different knowledge bases towards a common goal. We'll be seeing more of this in the coming decade.

More Bad Internet Law to Come
This time, in Canada. The ruling Conservatives are expected to introduce a bill that will force Canadian ISPs to hand over client data to law enforcement without a warrant. The bill would also require ISPs to implement technology to intercept customers' communications. I'm not surprised, really – the Canadian Conservative Party tends to be a few years behind the American Republican Party when it comes to enacting bad laws like this. Tends to not work out as well, though. The Canadian privacy commissioner already has reservations and the activist group OpenMedia.ca is warning canadians about the proposed bill. (Also in the story, more security issues even with RIM's BlackBerry Messaging System, which is still more secure than text messaging. It's not a question if something can be hacked, just a question on when.)

Classic Getting a Remake
Wizards of the Coast has announced that the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons is open to playtesting. It's a way to see how games are created and refined.

The Future of the Consumer Electronics Show
With both Microsoft and Apple pulling out of the CES, people are starting to wonder if the expo has a future. The main question is without two of the biggest companies, will people and the media continue to go to CES.

Siri Doubles iPhone Traffic
Users of Siri have double the data traffic of people who don't use it. For people who have bandwidth caps, this could cause extra charges.

Microsoft Improving WiFi Networking
Microsoft has developed a new WiFi protocol that uses white spaces to improve speed even with interference. The network uses multiple transmitters and receivers and switches frequencies as needed.

–Scott D

So far, I've left out tie-in novels, treating them more as merchandising more than an adaptation. Probably an unfair assessment, but it does cut out a large number of reviews as quality can vary author by author. This time around, though, I will look at a series of tie-in novels.

In 2009, ABC first aired Castle, a police procedural/murder mystery series starring Nathan Filion as the titular mystery writer who managed to cajole a ride-along with a New York City homicide detective. What could have been just yet another police procedural lasted several seasons because of the chemistry and abilities of the lead actors Filion and Stana Katic. The show is one part Moonlighting, one part Murder She Wrote and one part Law & Order.

Naturally, whenever a show becomes popular, the studio tries to make the most of it. Most shows wind up with a variety of merchandise, from backpacks and shirts with logos to action figures. However, with mysteries attracting a literary crowd and the geek factor inherent in Nathan Filion, ABC went meta.

Instead of releasing a series of novels using the characters from the show, ABC hired a ghost writer to work under the penname Richard Castle to write the books that the character Castle was researching with the homocide unit in the show. To get things truly twisted, Castle has a self-insert character, Jonathon Rook, who is a writer who had spent time with the main character, Nikki Heat who is based off Katic's character Kate Beckett, to research a story for a magazine. So, we have a fictional author writing a real book based loosely on the fictional homocide unit in the show and writing himself into the story.*

Yet, anyone who follows the show can recognize the different characters and acknowledge the differences because it's a Nikki Heat novel, not a Castle tie-in novel. At the same time, anyone unfamiliar with the series doesn't have to worry about not getting the metacharacters and can enjoy the story on its own merits, a light read that is still filled with plot twists that keeps the reader guessing whodunit until the reveal.

So, how successful is the book, in terms of an adaptation? On one hand, technically, it's not a Castle tie-in novel. It uses a fictional fictional character** created in-universe. Characters line up but aren't one-to-one matches. At the same time, the meta levels of the characters from the show shine through, leaving no doubt about which character is which. The humour of the series comes through, even when dealing with murder. And, it's a fun read. The author (the real one, not the guy on the back cover, unless Filion is the real one***) had a deft touch while writing, making sure that the characters from the series were seen through the character Castle's eyes. It looks like the writer took the time to get to know the characters in the show and applied that knowledge, and, as seen many times in this column, that seems to be the key element into making a successful adaptation.

Next time, something far less meta.

* And this doesn't even include the author's bio on the back page, complete with photo.
** Math-wise, it'd look like "fictional (fictional character)" if that helps parsing.
*** Which would start creating a meta-black hole.

More movement at RIM, cheap tablets, and the cost of charging too much.

RIM to License Blackberry Platform?
RIM may be in talks with Samsung and HTC about licensing the Blackberry 10 platform. This may keep RIM afloat in the short term, but the company gets 79% of its revenue from hardware sales.

The Downside of Usage Based Billing
Canadian ISP Teksavvy will be raising rates due to "capacity-based billing", allowing the big ISPs to charge smaller ones for chunks of capacity for potential use. Teksavvy says that while fixed costs have gone down, variable costs, such as capacity, has grown and blames the CRTC for instituting capacity-based billing after usage-based billing turned out to be unpopular enough to get all three parties (Liberal, NDP, and Conservative) to force the agency to back down from it. However, even capacity-based billing will stifle Canadian Internet expansion as costs rise.

India to get $35 Tablet
Canadian company Datawind has created the Aakash Tablet, which will be sold in India for $35. The Aakash has a basic touch screen and can run word processing, web browsing, and video-conferencing with its Android co-processor.

The Future of North American Entertainment?
Two Chinese sites, Youtu and Tudou, are going to court over rights on what shows and content could be shown by the companies. At stakes are 400 million online viewers and the ad revenue chasing the eyeballs. The sites started out as Youtube imitators, allowing people to upload videos, including the ubiquitous cat vids. However, the sites since branched out, getting foreign content and creating their own much like a TV station would. North American broadcasters may want to pay attention to how this shakes out. content creators may also want to think about creating original content for online streaming.

Texting Down
The use of texting is down as people find cheaper means of communicating. US providers are still getting 12% of their revenue from texting, but the costs are driving some people to use social networking instead. Given that it is cheaper to use Facebook on a smartphone dataplan than to send a text directly, the providers have themselves to blame, really.

Canadian Government Cracking Down on Spam
The Canadian government will be opening a spam resource centre (SRC) to identify, track, and analyze spam and malware sent via email. Industry Canada will be responsible for the centre. The purpose of the SRC is to prevent the undermining of the online economy by spam. Unlike in the US, where the CAN SPAM act was written by companies who wanted to send junk email once the spammers were dealt with, Canadian companies are mostly on board against spam, seeing it as a threat to the Internet.

–Scott D

Netflix Streaming
Netflix streamed over 2 billion hours of content in the last quarter of 2011. In Canada, though, this has led to subscribers being dinged for going over bandwidth caps, a controversial (to be nice about it) way major ISPs like Rogers use to get more money out of users.

Smartphone Help After Disasters
A team of British computer scientists has developed software to help in the aftermath of natural disasters. The software, which can be deployed by rescue workers, can locate missing persons by tracing GPS signals and help direct people with smartphones to safety.

RIMpocalypse Continues
RIM has slashed prices on Playbooks. US prices are now $299 for each of the three models while Canadian prices are $199, $249, and $399 (for the 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB models, respectively). This looks more like an attempt to clear out backstock than anything else at the moment.

Yahoo! Gets New CEO
Yahoo has hired Scott Thompson, former CIO of PayPal, as its new CEO.  Given that Thompson is a technology person, not a slash-and-burn-style CEO that sells off chunks of companies, Yahoo! may be trying to leverage itself back into being a mover in the online world.

–Scott D

A bit of backlog after being offline for a couple of days.

Social Networking to Meet Customer Service
A Halifax, Nova Scotia, company is working on software that will allow two people online to surf together, as if they were sitting together instead of on opposite coasts, without the need for plugins. Co-found and CEO Jevon MacDonald already reports having some of the bigger websites interested. Halifax geeks, you know where to send resumes.

More Trends for 2012
Covers some of what others here at FanToPro have mentioned, though ITBusiness.ca differs on RIM's future (they'll survive through 2012). Not on FanToPro's radar was the development of Ultrabooks, lightweight laptops with extended battery life. Toshiba, LG, HP, and Lenovo have been working on ultrabooks. HP has already released the Folio, a $900 ultrabook with a nine-hour battery life claim. Intel is assisting companies designing ultrabooks by investing $300 million into them. If the companies can get the price down to tablet levels or lower (and keep in mind that a netbook can run about $250 before taxes, lower than an iPad), ultrabooks may give tablets a run.

Apple Lead Designer Knighted
Jonathan Ive has been made a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his work at Apple, including introducing coloured Macs and the clean designs of the iPod and iPhone. For geeks in the Commonwealth, being good at something may mean getting recognized from on high.

Why the Occupy Movement Exists
The gap between CEOs and workers continues to grow. Making 189 times what the average worker does, CEOs have made their employees' salary by noon on January 3. And this is just in Canada.

McAfee's Top Threats for 2012
McAfee Labs have released their top five security threats. Among them, hacking attacks on both mobile devices and embedded hardware and "legal" spam. Security geeks will have a lot of work in the new year.

RIM Shakeup?
RIM may wind up having a new chair, replacing founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie. The move, if it happens, comes from pressure from shareholders to reform the management structure. Something to keep an eye on, if people aren't watching RIM already.

Texting Injuries
As texting becomes more popular, the risk of repetitive strain injuries grows. Most of the injuries occur to the thumb because of how it is used when typing on a smartphone or even a regular old cellphone (do they exist anymore?). The first people to come up with an improved interface will win the hearts of many people with sore thumbs.

iPassport Gets Man Across iBorder
A Montreal man used a scan of his passport on his iPad to get into the US. He had forgotten his actual passport on a day while going to Vermont to visit friends. He was allowed through. The problem? A scanned passport is not a secure document. However, if an electronic passport can be created that prevented the obvious security issues, they could become popular.

–Scott D