If you’ve heard the furore over the MegaUpload website being taken down, but haven’t heard of the beast, then quite simply it was a place where you could drop files, and allow people to download them from your account.

According to the FBI, this allowed users to openly share illegal copyrighted material, and completely closed the site, confiscated it’s URLs, and arrested it’s owners.

This had the effect of all users of the site losing all of the data they had stored there ~ legitimate or not.

Personally I think this is a dangerous step, and is already producing a range of responses from other Digital Locker websites.

Filesonic has removed all access to be able to share files, whilst uploaded.to has completely blocked all access from the USA, annexing all it’s users ~ this is the bit I’m worried about.

This also prompted the biggest hack attack in history from the notorious hacker group Anonymous to be directed against the USAs’ Department of Justice and other sites.

If the USA continues this course of action, the very nature of the Internet is threatened, as they try to set themselves up as the Internet Police. Do we really want an Internet governed by people who themselves have a strange moral compass?

For instance (although not related to this topic exactly) how can it be morally correct to complain loudly over the showing of a female nipple at the Superbowl XXXVIII (the infamous ‘Wardrobe Malfunction by Janet Jackson), whilst having the globes largest legal Pornography industry?

Back on topic…

The blocking of the USA is the interesting part ~ the very nature of the Internet, and it’s greatest strength, is the ability to share things, and this is the very crux of the problems with MegaUpload; What should be available to share, and who should be responsible for checking. Blocking the USA has set a dangerous precedent in breaking that fundamental strength.

Also if I publish an article (such as this one) in the UK which contravenes some law in the USA, can I be held responsible in that country? Should I be forced to remove the offending post? Should I be arrested and taken to an American jail?

Apparently the FBI think so.

You must bear in mind that MegaUpload was a Hong Kong based company, and it’s top guy is German (Kim Dotcom ~ formally Schmitz, read the article, he’s a colourful character!), living  in New Zealand. Spot the complete lack of USA in those countries.

Add to this the recent Internet protests over the proposed new laws in America ~ the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) ~ and you’ve got a perfect storm brewing.

Maybe the USA should simply be disconnected from the Internet if it has such a problem with it!
Just imagine Apple, Mircosoft and Intel all offline, permanently!
A boy can dream 

The next biggest site to offer these services ~ Rapidshare ~ has yet to do something (at time of writing), but is being watched keenly by those in the know, their response will be seen as another precedent…

I’m going to watch these event with a keen interest as they are shaping the Internet for the future.
This is a dark time online…

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#Rant# No Apology for this one…

Picture the scene…

Visitors on the way, dashing round the house in full ‘panic cleaning’ mode, when an ungodly sound emerges from the living room where my co-skivvy was vacuuming.

What follows is an exercise in the more colourful use of the English language and a very pretty coloured cloud of smoke floating over the now to be known as ex-vacuum.

-1 vacuum in the Rochester household

Visitors enjoy a fun filled time and, despite the initial worries causing the cleaning frenzy, don’t seem to be too perturbed to be sitting in a quagmire morass of filth (this is what I assume my GF sees when looking at a room not immediately available for surgery due to the less than surgical level of cleanliness).

1 cup of tea later and I’m on the web – I’m a wolf searching out the prey of pre Christmas deals for the replacement of the aforementioned ex-vacuum. Seeking out those little known sites where the mythical ‘Bargain Beast’ resides.

Littlewoods – best deal – who’d have believed that!

Ordered – paid – time for the patience of the saints to manifest… ETA 12th December…

Nope

HDNL or as they are now known ‘Yodel’ seem to think that the company of my vacuum is a pleasure to savour. It’s obviously a vacuum of some social standing as they choose to delight in it’s presence for a full 7 days before reluctantly relinquishing the pleasure and dropping it to my home.

Meantime I’m corresponding with Littlewoods – via a system that seems to have an inherent delay longer than that encountered by NASA when speaking to the International Space Station ~ every time I send a reply it takes 2 days to receive a reply!

Now I get to endure the cleansing of the knee-deep banks of dust that have built up in the interim.

So, to recap, this is the delivery procedure from Littlewoods via Yodel

• Order
• Pay
• Wait the 3 days Littlewoods say the deliver will take (track the package online)
• Expect the delivery to be enacted within a day or so of the ‘arrived at depot’ report
• 2 days later spend about 45 minutes trying to converse with a bored employee of the couriers attempting to discover the location and likely ETA
• Send an email to Littlewoods complaining that this is not good enough – Google ‘Worst UK Courier” and experience a sad sinking feeling when multiple results come up with HDNL and/or Yodel
• 2 days later, receive an email asking for account confirmation details for ‘security porpoises’ (spelling intentional!) – reply as soon as possible
• 2 days later receive the stock “sometimes these things happen’ email – reply as soon as possible
• Finally get an update on the tracking system saying the package is on the drivers van
• Receive a package nearly 9 days after ordering it

Sigh…

 

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There are several technology giants currently at war in the courts over the IP (Intellectual Property) rights for smartphones and tablet computers.

Here’s a smattering of the recent news reports:
Samsung to pay Microsoft royalties over Android
Samsung and Apple warring over patents again
T-Mobile wants to prevent U.S. ban on Samsung products
Microsoft ‘extorts profits from rivals’, claims Google
US trade body to probe HTC’s Apple technology complaint

So currently we seem to have several protagonists in this technology war:

• Samsung
• Apple
• T-Mobile
• Verizon
• Microsoft
• HTC
• Google

Samsung and Apple are locked in a legal wrangle over technology patents; It’s a ‘who owns what’ tit-for-tat battle, triggered by the release of the Samsung Galaxy Tab, tablet PC.
Now I know a client who has one of these little beauties and I can see that it is significantly different from the iPad, in both look and feel – the very thing that Apple have launched the case over.
It’s interesting that both T-Mobile and Verizon have asked that the Apple case be set aside – both of these companies are massive telecom companies –  and come to stand side-by-side with Samsung.

In the case of Samsung and Microsoft it seems ridiculous that they [Samsung] are having to pay Microsoft royalties when their device runs the Andriod operating system – i.e. not running Windows.

To give a personal insight, I have been involved in a lengthy case regarding these very issues and know just how murky they can get. The work ‘complex’ doesn’t even get close to the reality of what can be called in to question. It took me a long time to defend a legal claim which we finally won. What a waste of everyone’s time… 

The ridiculous laws concerning copyright and IP are also partly to blame in the way these things are conducted, as it’s sometimes necessary to replicate something to achieve something else.

Imagine if I wanted to design a car and someone had IP rights for the wheel, or a bolt, for instance. Would I expect to have to pay someone for the use of that wheel or bolt? In the case of programming and electronics, without creating a whole new way of writing code, or making a component, it is impossible to make something without infringing someone’s rights.

Want to know something really scary? In the USA they have started protecting DNA, the fundamental building block of life. Soon you may not even have the right to your own DNA ~ how ridiculous is that??

I think the bottom line is simple – ditch these stupid laws. They don’t stop copies being made and simply make the legal practitioners lots of money. Consumers never get a better product as a result of these cases, and it harms the progression of technology.

One day perhaps…

 

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I’ve read 3 little articles in this weeks news that got me thinking…

1^st up was Low demand hurts Blackberry maker
This details that RIM (Research in Motion – the people behind Blackberry) are have a few business problems.
It reminded me of a conversation I had with a supplier of the Blackberry devices – and possibly the only time I’ve had a decent conversation about Blackberry without someone saying they were either loved or loathed.

I was asking why someone could possible choose a Blackberry when any of the recent smart phone releases would be better choice.

He replied by telling me that the point of the Blackberrys was to provide the absolute needed information without any of the bloat associated with the other devices. This would only ever be relevant if you conduct business outside of your usual country. Less guff = lower roaming costs (in this case considerably lower costs!).

At that moment I had an epiphany!

2^nd home was No web Flash on Windows 8 tablets
This a simple story written by Microsoft’s head if Internet Explorer development.

It says that on some version of the next release of Windows (namely the ones aimed at tablet PCs), Flash technology would not be supported – to put that in context, YouTube, Hulu, VEVO, Yahoo! Video, metacafe, Reuters.com, and the BBC all use Flash to display video content (I’m sure you’ll have heard of at least one of those sites!).

This seems like a phenomenally stupid thing to do – Dean Hachamovitch says that it’s because they don’t want to support ‘old’ technology, but I cant help thinking that this is a massive ‘oops’ moment on the horizon.

Finally this really got me ranting: Sony asks gamers to waive rights
Sony – that behemoth of the electronics industry – has new T&Cs agreement that Playstation Network subscribers have to agree to to play. You know that annoying ‘I agree’ thing you get when installing any software? That.

Now this states that by agreeing – and you have to to play remember – “any Dispute Resolution Proceedings, whether in arbitration or court, will be conducted only on an individual basis and not in a class or representative action or as a named or unnamed member in a class, consolidated, representative or private attorney general action”. I.E. if you are going to sue you must do it on an individual basis – and then only after seeing a Sony appointed ‘arbitrator’.

What?!!?!?!

Now people must agree to waive their legal right to sue if they have an issue with Sony? What if their nice new shiny TV burns down the neighbourhood killing all occupants but a Playstation Network subscriber?

This is mental to say the least.

Sadly the T&Cs appear at the bottom of the agreement, and I don’t know of anyone who will read it before they join the masses of online players, and will get carried forth on the zeal of gamers lust for their latest fix.

Some things are just simply wrong…

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Please bear with me on this one – it’s a bit of a personal rant..!

I have, for the past few weeks, needed some joinery work doing on my home ~ nothing too complex you understand, just a door re-hanging and some simple boxing in of pipes.

WHY THEN, IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO FIND SOMEONE TO DO IT!!!!

I have recently been through 3 joiners, trying desperately to get them to at least give me a quote.

The 1^st guy, left me hanging for about 2 weeks, and then was mysteriously ill for a couple of days – coincidentally when he was supposed to be doing the job – when I told him to forget it he didn’t miss a beat despite having needed to buy some stuff to do the job.

The 2^nd guy was at best uninterested and gave me a ballpark quote of “about £xxx”, about £100 more than the first guy AND didn’t bother to leave any other details…

The 3^rd guy has let me down this evening; not even getting to the quote stage.

Apparently he’s ‘Not in my area’ – HE ONLY LIVES ABOUT 3 MILES AWAY!

If I ran my business like these idiots I’d not be doing it much longer – that I can tell you.

I am seriously unimpressed by tradesmen at the moment – I’d have thought that tough times in the business world would mean people are more keen to provide good service – it seems that I’m sadly wrong in this

Suffice to say I’m not my usual chicken of happiness
Grr… 

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