Not so much today. Mixed bag, including outsourcing security, apes and apps, a new competitor in the smartphone market, and raspberry pie.
Find the Hole and Win!
Google is offering cash prizes for finding security holes in its Chrome browser. The total amount available to be won is US$1 million. The move lets Google do two things at once – it gets hackers to look hard at Chrome’s security for little cost except for when an exploit is found and gets the browser noticed in the news.
There’s an Ape for That
The Toronto Zoo is looking for an iPad to be donated to an orangutan. Apps for Apes, a program created to get iPads to primates, was created after a similar successful program at the Milwaukee Zoo. Orangutans at teh Milwaukee Zoo have been using the tablet for painting, music, and video chatting over Skype. The other purpose Apps for Apes has in mind for donated iPads is to let Puppe, an orangutan, speak with her daughter Jahe, who is now in Memphis, through a video chat.
New Player in the Smartphone Market
Mozilla is working on an open source smartphone OS. The non-profit, whose other works include Firefox and Thunderbird, is aiming to produce a an operating system that leads to a cheaper smartphone. If the OS allows for customization of apps along with the ability to run existing apps, the closed-world of existing smartphone and tablet OSes will be opened wide.
Raspberry Pi Sells Out
As mentioned in the last News of the North, a $35 computer called Raspberry Pi was ready for launch. It sold out. The Raspberry Pi Foundation had limited the credit card sized computer to one per person. Congrats! The takeaway – if you build it and can grab people’s attention, they will come.
–Scott D
Huge gap since the last time I posted. I’ll try to round up by subject.
Bill C-30
Here’s the reason for the gap. The news kept moving faster than I could cover. In the space of a week, lots has happened.
As attention focused on Bill C-30, aka the online surveillance act, Section 34 has been the major issue with the legislation. Section 34 requires ISP to turn over customer information – name, address, phone number, email address, and IP address – over to law enforcement when requested, no warrant needed. As I’ve pointed out before, this is in contravention of Section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Public Safety Minister Vic Towes has requested a probe into the Vikileaks30 Twitter account. Althought the information posted by Vikileaks30 was in the public domain via court records, Toews wants to find out who is behind the privacy breach. Toews has also stepped back from accusing people protesting against C-30 as “siding with child pornographers”, though the wording is very weasely. John Baird, the Foreign Affairs Minister, has accused the NDP of being behind the identity with no proof.
Also, Toews, on seeing the backlash build, has tried backtracking. Part of his march backwards included saying he didn’t know what was in the buill he himself introduced. The opposition NDP has jumped on the minister’s lack of knowledge of the bill’s contents. Both the Opposition and the Privacy Commissioner want to see the bill scrapped.
The cost of implementing the hardware and software to enforce C-30, if enacted, as been estimated at Cdn$80 million. ISPs don’t want to foot the bill for spying on Canadians, nor do their customers.
Anonymous has gotten involved in the protest and has released a video. The group has threatened to release even more info on not just Toews but any MP that supports the bill or accuses anyone of siding with the child pornographers. The goal is to get the bill withdrawn and scrapped. The hactivist group has also hacked the website for the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP), bringing the site down as part of the protest against C-30. The site was apparently chosen because police chiefs across Canada supported C-30, thinking the bill would help stop child predators.
Related to Bill C-30 is Bill C-11, the copyright bill. Another onerous section of C-30 allows the government to designate an agency as being law enforcement for the purposes of the bill. Coupled with C-11, this could let the movie and recording industries to spy unannounced for alleged piracy. Hearings for C-11 have opened, and changes are already being urged. So far, the only agreement is that Canada’s copyright laws need updating.
The identity of Vikileaks30 has been revealed. Bob Rae, interim Liberal leader, announced that Vikileaks was a Liberal research staffer. Rae has offered apologies to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews. The staffer, Adam Carroll, has resigned.
What’s next? With the Harper Government being battered because of C-30 and over the allegations of robocalls and live calls telling Liberal and NDP supporters of fictional changes of voting locations, there’s a chance of proroguement, effectively killing all bills on the order paper. A cabinet shuffle mayt be in the works to move Toews out and possibly put Baird, Harper’s go-to pitbull, into Public Safety. No resignations yet – the majority is only by 11 seats – but pressure from Anonymous may foce Toews out of office completely.
Other Online Privacy
The Obama administration is calling for better privacy protection. Officials outlined a proposed “Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights”, urging companies and consumer groups to jointly craft new protections.
WikiLeaks is ready to post emails from Stratfor. Stratfor has been working with the US Government in the investigation of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Research In Motion, and Hewlett-Packard have signed an agreement to provide greater privacy security to their users. The agreement also will be upheld by developers for the companies’ mobile platforms.
RIM
RIM released an update for the Playbook OS that included native email, calendar, and Android support. The free Playbook OS2.0 update filled in the missing support needed on the tablet to keep it competitive in the market.
Netflix has announced that it does not have any plans to support Blackberry devices. However, it is unknown if Netflix will port its Android app over to the Playbook, now that the tablet can run those programs.
Apple
Apple has enacted new policy about how apps use customers’ contact information. Apps must now get explicit user approval before accessing contact information stored on an iPhone or iPad.
FoxConn Technology, Apple’s largest supplier of iPhone and iPad parts, will be giving its employees a raise. The new agreement will see monthly wages go up to 1800 yuan, up from 900 yuan two years ago.
The next version of the Mac OS has been revealed. The new OS, called Mountain Lion, will bring in features from the iPad.
Phone Durability
Finnish magazine MikroPC tested 18 cell phones for durabuility in cold weather. Phones from Apple, Nokia, and Samsung were placed in a lab where the temperature was slowly lowered until the phone stopped working. The iPhone stopped working at -10 degrees Celcius/16 degrees Farenheit. An older, cheaper Nokia survived until -40 C/F.
Rogers
Rogers Communications, one of the major telecomm companies in Canada, posted an 11% increase in profit for the fourth quarter of 2011. The profit came mainly from its wireless division. And people wonder why Canadians pay the highest in cellphone service fees.
Twitter
The head of Twitter tells users to not use the service so much. Christopher Isaac Stone, the co-founder of Twitter, has been told by users that they’ve been logged in for 12 hours or more. Stone believes that such usage isn’t healthy. He’d prefer that users check the site frequently over sacrificing their lives to it.
Raspberry Pi
The $35 computer, Raspberry Pi, is ready for launch. Developed at Seneca College in Toronto, the computer has a custom version of Fedora pre-installed and is meant to be used as a test platform for children. If they break it, it’s not the family PC but something that can be easily replaced.
— Scott D
With trying to keep up on Bills C-30 and C-51 in the Canadian Parliament, I wasn't able to get this week's Lost in Translation ready. Having already missed one week, I figured I should have some extra material set in advance to prevent another occurance. So, why tell you this now?
'Cause this is filler!
*ahem*
Right, so, after *mumble* weeks of looking at various adaptations, reboots, and remakes and trying to determine what worked and what didn't, it's time to look at the overall picture. Not so much why, but what sort of remakes can be done.
There's really two possibilities – remake a successful work or remake an unsuccessful work. Again, success is being treated broadly – a critical success might not be financially successful, and a financial success might not be seen as a good work by fans. It's a difficult target to pin down, really.
Remaking a successful work is a no-brainer, at least when deciding to put the effort into the remake. The work already has an audience – fans who enjoyed the work in the past and people who have at least heard of the work. It's something that execs like to see, an audience who just has to be told the remake is being released. For less work than creating an original setting, creating original characters, and marketing to convince people that the new piece is worth enjoying, the remake uses existing characters in an existing setting. The problem comes when execs, crew, and cast forget that people want to see the original characters and instead use the title as a vehicle for something else. This was the fate of Starsky & Hutch (the remake a Ben Stiller/Owen Wilson comedy vehicle) and Land of the Lost (the remake a vehicle for Will Farrell). If either were remotely closer to the tone of the originals, the movie would have done far better. As it stands, though, a lack of respect* to either the original or the fans of the original lost audiences.
Having a successful remake to a successful original requires a deft touch and some hard work. But, there's another path. Take an unsuccessful original and remake it. The original, which may still have fans, won't have as many as a successful work. Even then, the existing fans may enjoy the new work. However, the risk here is that no one will have heard of the original. Marketing will actually have to work to spread the word. But, a successful remake will be known far more than the original. There is a caveat. Some apparently unsuccessful works may have an audience because of what made them fail. The Ed Wood films are a perfect example – people watch those not because they're good, but because they aren't yet Wood kept trying. Remaking Plan 9 From Outer Space misses the entire reason why the original has an audience.
Next time, back to the family.
* There's that word again.
Loeading off with more on the contentious anti-Internet bills in the Canadian House of Commons…
Don't Toews Me, Bro
The Canadian Internet is firing back against Bills C-30 and C-51. Between Twitter hashtags #TellVicEverything, where Tweeters tell @ToewsVic everything they're doing no matter how insignificant, and #Don'tToewsMeBro, where Tweeters are protesting the bills, the Public Minister's online profile is getting linked to the protest. To top off the backlash, Liberal MP Sean Casey added the following question to the Notice Paper:
"Q-465 — February 15, 2012 — Mr. Casey (Charlottetown) — With regard to websites accessed on the personal departmental desktop computers, laptop computers, mobile phones, tablet computers, or other internet-enabled devices issued to the Minister of Justice and to the Minister of Public Safety: (a) what are the URLs of all websites accessed on said devices between 12:01 a.m. on February 1, 2012, and 12:01 a.m. on February 14, 2012 (all dates and times inclusive), listed by ministry; and (b) at what times were those websites accessed, listed by ministry?"
Related, ISPs have come out against the bills. They're opposition is based on the cost of the equipment they'd have to add to their networks to perform the online spying. The Harper Government claims that the legislation will have measures to minimize the costs to ISPs.
The outcry against the bills has the Harper Government backing off and talking amendments. Many Conservative MPs have admitted that the populace finds the bills "too invasive". However, the Prime Minister has only hinted at changes.
In other news…
Chinese Hackers Cost Nortel
A former systems security adviser said that Chinese hacker attacks contributed to Nortel's downfall. The analyst, Brian Shields, said that hackers spied on Nortel for a decade, stealing business plans, R&D plans, and employee emails. Shields also said that other companies, including RIM, are current targets.
Girls Game Too!
Women are pushing back against the stereotype that gamers are only immature young men. The battle is against the hyper-masculism of online gaming, especially when dealing with men age 13-22.
Angry Birds Flying About
Angry Birds has made its debut on Facebook Tuesday. Rovio, the games maker, is aiming to get one billion people playing the game.
–Scott D
It's Flag Day here in Canada. What a better day than to give a background on a dangerous bill introduced in Parliament?
Bill C-51 has been introduced in the Canadian House of Commons by the Harper Government. C-51 will, if enacted, force ISPs to monitor and record customers' online usage – web, email, chat, you name it – to be turned over to law enforcement when asked, no warrant required. The Public Safety Minister, Vic Toews, has called anyone against C-51 as siding with child pornographers. A senior minister in the Harper Government told a critic of the bill, "either stand with us or with the child pornographers."
Minister Toews continues to pursue that line of defense when interviewed about C-51. He insists that the bill is needed to fight child pornography. However, the bill is direct contravention of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, specifically, section 8 which reads, "Everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure." Warrantless recording of online use sounds unreasonable and may be how the bill gets squashed if enacted.
The irony of this intrusive bill is that the Harper Government made the long form census voluntary and killed the long gun registry due to privacy issues. Apparently, it's fine to not ask questions or to not require weapons be registered, but just as fine to spy on people without them noticing.
What can be done at this point? C-51 has not yet gone through the full process of becoming a law. It has only had its first reading and still needs to pass through both the House and the Senate before it returns for a third reading in the Commons. However, the Harper Government has a slim majority in the House, and Prime Minister Harper himself has stacked the Senate to get Bill C-10, aka the Omnibus Crime Bill, shoved through. At this point, C-51 and its partner, C30, the online surveillance bill, looks like it'll get through unless Parliament is prorogued. At that point, a court challenge based on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms may be the only way to get the law tossed.
–Scott D
Not a good week for privacy…
Canadian Big Brother
The Harper Government will be introducing a bill this week that will, if passed, allow police to better track Canadians' web habits. The law would require ISPs to install software and equipment to monitor their customers' online use. Lobbyists and even the Privacy Commissioner of Canada have warned the Harper Government that the law is invasive and a serious infringement of civil liberties. OpenMedia.ca has already started a petition against the bill. Meanwhile, Vic Toews, the Minister of Public Safety has fired back, saying that people opposing the bill (C-51) are aligning themselves with child pornographers. This will get nasty here and will probably be quashed by the Supreme Court in a few years if C-51 does pass. In the meantime, though, expect more polarization between the two sides.
American Big Brother
The FBI has placed a formal request for information about software that can mine social media. This is not going to be a great week for online privacy.
iPad3 Expected in March
AllThingsD reported that Apple will introduce the iPad3 in March. Although Apple declined to comment, the previous versions of the iPad were revealed in the first quarter of the year, January for the original iPad and March for iPad2. Maybe Apple will then reveal the proper capitalization for the iPad when the name leads a sentence.
Google Cleared to Buy Motorola
Google's $12.5 million bid for Motorola has been okayed by regulators in the US and the European Union. The only regulators left to chime in are China, Taiwan, and Israel before Google can buy the cell phone company. The purchase is to get access to Motorola Mobility's patents, though owning a company that uses Google's Android OS is a nice perk.
iPhone and iPad Factories iNspected
The Chinese factories that build Apple's iDevices are being inspected by the Fair Labor Association. The inspections follow reports of health and safety concerns and poor labour conditions in factories building the Apple products.
First Video Game's 50th Anniversary
MIT celebrated the first video game's 50th anniversary. Spacewar! was re-created during the celebrations on a computer the size of a business card. The original game was created by four students in 1961 on a Digital PDP-1 the size of a refridgerator. Hooray for progress!
App Creation App
Need an app? There'll be an app for that! A start up in Moncton, New Brunswick, is working on an app that allows users to create their own apps. Beta access has opened.
–Scott D
In 1983, Stephen J. Cannell submitted a pilot to NBC. The pilot did well in the ratings, to NBC's surprise. The pilot became a TV series, set against Tuesday night's ratings champion*. Against the odds, the new show did well. If you wanted a change of pace, and if you could find it, you could watch The A-Team.
The A-Team was an oddity in the early 80s. Light action shows were starting to become popular, being a change from the sitcom friendly 70s. However, NBC placed the new series up against Happy Days, the reigning king of Tuesday nights. However, between viewers wanting a change of pace and Happy Days getting long in the tooth and a shadow of its former self, The A-Team won the time slot. The show had a formula – someone, usually a young woman or someone with an older daughter, ran into corruption that threatened their livelihood or their lives tracked down Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith (George Peppard), who had disguised himself to get a feel for the someone. Usually, the fees were waved if the would-be employer was in dire straits. The rest of the team would be told about the job and HM "Howling Mad" Murdoch (Dwight Schultz) would be broken out of the VA mental hospital. If flying was involved, BA "Bad Attitude" Baracas (Mr. T) Along the way, Templeton "Faceman" Peck (Dirk Benedict) would start a relationship with the damsel in distress. Plus, explosions, car chases, the junkyard remodeling montage, and lots of gunfire.
In 2010, the TV show was remade as a feature film starring Liam Neeson as Hannibal. The movie took into account the passage of time, changing the Vietnam vets to Gulf War I** vets. Also changed was the focus; the movie was an origins story, how the A-Team came to be, including promtply escaping from a maximum security prison and why BA hates to fly. Once the origin is dealt with, the action ramps up, including flying a tank.
Was the movie successful? As mentioned in previous weeks, one element that leads to success is respect for the original work. In /The A-Team/, the characters were recognizable as their original counterparts, just brought forward by thirty years. The actors were convincing, with Liam Neeson channelling George Peppard in many scenes. The format was the right one; the original series was essentially an hour-long action movie. Shout-outs to the original abounded, including a clip being played at Murdoch's hospital when the rest of the team broke him out. A cameo at the end by Dirk Benedict and Dwight Schultz helped. The movie worked as a pilot; which may have been its main problem. As a pilot, time was spent establishing details that were never covered in the series. The original A-Team used the opening theme to explain who the team was and what they did. The movie, instead, showed, what happened. Evem with the story tying back into what happened in the Middle East at the beginning, the background took time away from what The A-Team did best – entertaining mayhem.
As a movie, The A-Team could have been more. It did its best to recapture the heart of the original series, but acted more as a pilot towards a longer running series than as a standalone movie. These days, though, green-lighting sequels requires a strong receipts from the original movie, which didn't quite happen.
Next time, a functional family.
* Happy Days
** The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the repelling thereof.
ISPs Not Subject to Broadcasting Act
The Supreme Court of Canada has rules that ISPs are not subject to the Broadcasting Act. Because ISPs only provide the medium of transport, the Court said that "they no part in the selection, origination, or packaging of content." Rogers is pleased with the decision. I wonder how long they'll be pleased when this ruling goes towards forcing Rogers to maintain net neutrality?
Android Malware on Rise
Malware targetting Android devices is on the rise. With Android becoming the most popular OS for smart devices, hackers are turning their attention to cracking the OS's security. Google has released an app screening tool called Bouncer to help with security. As pointed out in yesterdays News from the North, with companies switching over from Blackberries to allowing personal Android and iPhones for business use, the chance of a critical leak will grow.
–Scott D
Large round up today…
Depressed? There's an App for That
Researchers at Northwestern University in Chicago are working on new technologies to detect and treat depression. Among the approaches being looked at is a mood-sensitive smartphone that will check up on the depressed. The takeaway here is the use of new technologies in different ways; anyone who can adapt social media and smartphones to a new, critical sphere would be heralded a hero.
Astronaut Applications Up
Over 6300 people have applied to NASA to become astronauts, the second highest annual number of such applications. Nine to fifteen will be chosen after a battery of tests (medical and psychological) and interviews with existing astronauts. NASA is looking beyond academic and professional background and will examine hobbies and life experience. Geeks, looks like NASA wants you.
Mainstream Hacktivism
With the fight against SOPA and PIPA, hacktivism has gone mainstream. Along with Anonymous' fight against such organizations as Scientology, white supremecists, and child pornographers, their work against laws that would censor the Internet made the news. The hacktivists' trend towards self-policing also helps quell questions about their motivations.
RIMpocalypso
Not helping RIM's fortunes is the trend of corporations to allow their employees to use Apple and Android devices. Although the Blackberry has strong security, companies such as Credit Suisse, Barclays Capital, and Standard Chartered have allowed some employees to use personal devices, claiming a savings from paying a monthly fee to RIM. Research in Motion announced in November a move to offer security features to iPhone and Android users. The use of personal devices for corporate business could harm the companies, though; many countries have strict laws on how personal data can be disseminated and an employee's personal device could be used at home by members of the family, breaching privacy.
iWant my iTV
Both Rogers and Bell are in negotiations to bring Apple's iTV to Canada. Details are sketchy at the moment, but it appears that Apple approached both companies for negotiations.
IBM's Watson Turns to Sales
Although Watson, IBM's AI and Jeopardy ace, isn't available for sale, the program is helping Big Blue with sales. IBM is paving the way to a commercial version of Watson with a line of "Ready for Watson" hardware and software. Again, Big Blue seems to be doing a lot behind the scenes and may burst out when least expected.
–Scott D
Pirating Physical Goods
Pirate Bay has added designs to print on 3D printers to its line up. The first "physible" downloaded in Canada was a model of the Pirate Bay logo. The cost to take the plans and turn it into a physical object was $100. Expect a change in how stores operate in the future as the Star Trek replicator starts becoming feasable as a household appliance.
Facebook Hiring
With its IPO, Facebook is hiring more coders. Apparently, the company read Steve's column today and turned the search over to the Engineering department, who set up challenges for potential hires. The brain teasers include creating anagrams from alphabet soup. Three more rounds are expected before the finals, with Facebook looking to hire from the competing talent along the way.
Arrested Development Revival
More of a Lost in Translation news point than anything else, the show Arrested Development is being revived thanks to success through Netflix. The episodes will be full 22-23 minutes. As pointed out by Serdar last week and in the comments of the post, we're seeing ways around the traditional Hollywood studio system.
–Scott D
