journalism, security and mexicans

so in a discussion (you can guess where easily) last night, we wondered about new definitions for a
Mexican Wave (stay away from US - we're all ok)

Mexican Hat (keeping the infected at arms length)

Mexican standoff (sneeze at me & I sneeze at you)

etc etc - ah, Tequila Mockingbird, you may say...

meanwhile, why do the media (sorry, Ben Goldacre, you are right again as is Nick Davies
always cite security companies when reporting items about cyber-security threats eh?

do you really expect a security company to be moderate when discussing this? they have products (and shares) to sell....

it'd be like asking Big Pharma their opinion on Pandemics... ...

(c.f. Davies comments on the Millenium Bug)

more biased sampling of sources about botnets....

The Internet has a Great Future Behind it

I'm sitting here in Brussels listening to talks about the EU FIRE projects.
While there's lots of useful work going on, I am having a very hard time finding a
possible Future Internet in any of it.

The idea that is common and cool as a research experiment is the notion of a Living Lab.
The idea that's probably least useful is the Public Private Partnership as a vehicle to fund such a thing.

oh well.

A simple model of tussel spaces

if you have apolyadic op
x op y
such that there is also an inverse op, po
such that op aggregates, and po de-aggregates
a resource (where a resource can be an identifier space such as names
or a transmission resource such as links or a processor resource etc etc)
then obviously op and po aren't information hiding in some sense, but they may be land grabs

when are they land grabs? when the ag-op or de-ag-op stat mux, or
(essentially) do anything that is sub-linear (superlinear in the de-agg op case)
then there is an economic advantage going on (scaling, in internet terms)
so then you have a tussel...

qed

truly, the internet was for sharing moustache pictures

taches of distincion

they all look gay

truly, this is what the internet was invented for...

http://www.juliensauctions.com/auctions/2009/michael-jackson/catalog-list.html

making botnets out of voip pieces

I seem to recall saying something about this a few years back - now slashdot links to a
story about abuse of skype and google voice tech to do bad things...

anathematica

so thinking about neal stephenson's last tome, Anathem, it is a paeon to
science - the point of the story (spoiler alert:) Is that
the best people to communicate with aliens are scientists
because the "language" of science is (quite literally) universal (actually, it is meta-universal) so even if aliens show up from (several) parallel Universes
then we (scientists, or "avout" steeped in "theorics") can communicate with them - indeed, the aliens have a helpful clue (much as voyager does) which is they have a diagram of the geometric proof of Pythagoras (of coruse, neither they nor the folks
on the planet (arbre) call it Pythagoras) on the outside of their "ship"

one discussion about meta-theory centers on whether the metaverse is ordered (DAG) or random, and whether there is some "higher" versus "lower" plane; another discussion is about Hemn (quantum state) spaces....another is about cross breeding plants to grow a simulation of a part of history....still another is about time

most religions are given fairly short shrift in the book (though not all) and of course there are (as in snow crash) some cool dudes who do marshal arts quite well...

digital signatures in a mixed reality world

so here's an idea (this is because increasingly I am asked for PDFs of references to include a signature - this is annoying since I have to print out a PDF, sign it, scan i in then email the resulting (larger therefore network and storage wasteful, as well as waste of paperful) file.

so if printers had a robot arm on them, this could be used for 3 things

1. I could have a remote control for it, so I send them the plain reference, but then SIGN it remotely using a haptic interface at my end - this has the added benefit that they witness the signature re as well as me

2. if I decie (too late) that I've sent something to the printer that is private, but I wont get too the physical device's outtray soon enough, I could tell the robot arm to
take the printout up and tear it up

3. if someone is printing way too much stuff ahead of me, I could tell the robot arm to beath them soundly about the ears as a lesson.

figures of squeech

as lazy as a simile

as slippery as a metaphor

as onomatopoeic as a thump

as lyrical as a lyre

A telecom Engineer explaisn the credit crunch

1. black swan events are just rare events in a heavy tailed self similar arrival process - using large deviation theory from admission control algorithms is fine for explaining this.

2. instability and cascades happen when you don't implement feedback controls and damping (regulation, in old steam engine terms)

employing both of these would be necessary and sufficient for non divergent, stable, non cascading markets.

people that don't get this should be fired.

putting out the fire...

with gasoline

FIRE is a "me too" european programme to do next gen internet infrastructure

time for a rant - putting out the FIRE with GASOLINE...

Generally
Architectures are
Simple-minded
Obsession.
Let the
Internet
Nonetheless
Evolve.

I cannot see ANY work going on in Fire that's actually delivering something real, relevant or not just redundent.

now I know the internet will never die...IP over social nets

my facebook account now has an IP router cpu -see

http://apps.facebook.com/ipoverfb/

Router operator: Jon A Crowcroft
Loopback0 address: 2001:db8:face:b00c::2bb1:7b2a/128
Friend interfaces: 1
Connection proposals from friends: 0
Your router does not have a default route yet... So, you cannot send traffic to the real IPv6 Internet. Please connect to more friends and wait until RIPng has converged.
Incoming packets waiting for your actions: 0
Last CPU run:
FIB size: 1
RIB size: 1
Received packets: 0
Forwarded packets: 0
Transmitted packets: 0
Dropped packets: 0
Received SIP messages: 0
New SIP messages: 0
Enabled debugging: The wizard mode allows you to change these settingsenable all debugging
Your Neighbors
You have no configured interfaces, please go to the 'Configure' tab.
Your Friends' Routers
Name Last CPU run Packets waiting Packets forwarded/
Received/Transmitted FIB Size Loopback address
Scott Brim 2009-02-27 13:36:21 3 329/356/189 445 2001:db8:face:b00c::6207:3daf
Richard Gold 2009-02-27 13:23:34 0 18/10/14 4 2001:db8:face:b00c::28ca:2112
Kenjiro Cho 2009-02-27 13:13:58 0 2/27/57 446 2001:db8:face:b00c::3c0e:7b4e
Manish Lad 2009-02-27 13:11:40 0 0/8/7 4 2001:db8:face:b00c::1ec0:e865
Tristan Henderson 2009-02-27 13:01:44 14 0/3/2 3 2001:db8:face:b00c::7:d45b
Simon Leinen 2009-02-27 11:30:13 8 49/698/454 442 2001:db8:face:b00c::28ef:7c60
Tom Vest 2009-02-27 08:54:07 60 199/708/428 445 2001:db8:face:b00c::25bb:b4bf
Geoff Huston 2009-02-27 07:14:10 4 0/1/1 446 2001:db8:face:b00c::2790:17e6
Bob Hinden 2009-02-26 19:53:34 10 0/33/24 442 2001:db8:face:b00c::222e:129d
Harald Tveit Alvestrand 2009-02-26 15:30:10 18 0/62/47 442 2001:db8:face:b00c::21e9:5a5d
Fred Baker 2009-02-25 16:45:29 260 0/212/146 423 2001:db8:face:b00c::2828:266e
Mark Townsley 2009-02-25 09:20:31 183 0/143/56 394 2001:db8:face:b00c::20f1:6bb9
David Oran 2009-02-24 17:55:57 108 0/11/11 356 2001:db8:face:b00c::2354:62f8
Ping Pan 1 0/0/0 1 2001:db8:face:b00c::235e:3cc4
Jari Arkko 14 0/0/0 1 2001:db8:face:b00c::29de:3483
Christian Huitema 6 0/0/0 1 2001:db8:face:b00c::2798:f96
David Meyer 0 0/0/0 1 2001:db8:face:b00c::29a5:a855
Lixia Zhang 0 0/0/0 1 2001:db8:face:b00c::2ba3:b64c
Christian Vogt 2 0/0/0 1 2001:db8:face:b00c::3fdd:8414
Scott Bradner 0 0/0/0 1 2001:db8:face:b00c::0:1db4
Ricardo V. Oliveira 0 0/0/0 1 2001:db8:face:b00c::26:5194

cloud computing clarified

after a vigorous discussion at a retreat in the castle yesterday, experts from Xensource (now Citrix) were able to help me understand what Cloud Computing is all about.

Basically, high up in the earth's atmosphere, there are these grey or white amorphous blobs of droplets of water and ice - there are officially ten types of these objects,in the now classic Hamblyn scale, ranging from Linux Nimbus, through Windows 7 Stratus and on to OSX Cumulus and finally down to TinyOS Pryoumulus. Some of these condense on
small intel ice particles, while others appear to be dropets of pure AMD.

The presence of very small particles of silicon in these droplets was made possible by the UC Berkeley research into so-called "smart" "dust", and followon work in Scotland on "speckled" "computing". Originally, it had been envisaged that these arrays would be used for weather prediction - indeed, one large storm grid was run for a while to detect or predict the weather, but then it became clear that self-fulfilling prophesy was the way to go, and the systems were used to control and pre-set ratehr than predict Internet weather.

However, early cloud computing was confusing and difficult to programme - much like the weather, it had a mind of its own, and was prone to chaotic, and even catastrophic
outcomes.

So then along came virtualisation. Now instead of a vast array of different clouds, we can now report that every cloud is controlled via its silver lining.

The wisdom of the Cloud is now commonplace. The layered architecture, with
clouds at ground level providing isolation through fog, while cloud 9 at the highest level presents an ecstatic API to the user, is complete. Many users are no longer at sea when the use the Cloud to access Ocean store services.

The Wisdon of the Clouds

aside from the wonderful novel, cloud atlas, we
have to put up with the latest internet fad in
cloud computing

but enough about xen - now
how to compare two competely different network architectures?

think about these:

1. internet & telephone
2. road and rail
3. food chain, family tree
4. social network, circulatory system

what is common and what would be a category error to try to compare?

a) user perception/mental model

1 - computers transfer information around v. humans communicate with each other
2. I can drive my car from a to b v. i get to sit and read a newspaper
going from a to b
3. a eats b eats c v. a begat b begat c
4. I know she thinks he hates her v. blood gets oxygen to let ADP/ATP
changes work so muscles can do things

b) economics
1. anyone can put any information application anywhere and everyone
else can use it - k*n^2 scale in income v.
I can call you or you call me....
2. road infrastructure is there, everyone has own vehicle v.
track and rolling stock are both infrastructures.
3. you need constant supply of food, so there has to be breeding as
well as good chain v. you convert O2 to CO2 so you need plants to do
CO2 -> O2 ,or we are in trouble - i.e. mutual dependency
4. If I know who relates to who and context, I can advertise right
good and services to them

c) technology
1. smart network + dumb edge, v. dumb network + smart edge
2. expensive wasteful car v. efficient rail, + user choose when to go,
but not control journey time, v. operator chooses when to go and
control journey time
3. biosphere v.
4. facebook and internet v. arteries and veins & heart

d) complexity
1. need moores law for end systems to keep going,
v. telephone service becomes marginal profit business
2. if oil and safety cost too high, individual car ownership bad idea
whereas if cheap, rail isnot worth infrastructure costs
3. food chain is exponential complexity, family tree is just
logarithmic
4 social net structures follow power law - so does artierial system

e) application/intended use
1. phones were origianlly thought to be useful for music (less
interference than radio) whereas internet was originally intended for
command and control and distributed community for US army.
2. road were for armiens to invade places - rail for industrial
revolution working class to go on vacation.
3. predators and prey...
4 advertising

proving the existence of google^H^H^H God

maxwell's demon sits at the entrance to heaven and asks you if you have free will or not

if you do, you go to hell - if not, heaven

if this is not true, there is no good. if it is true, there is no argghhhH!!!!!

lily allen admits...

...she doesn't "get" the rolling stones - all I can say is that the 72 live version of
Love in Vain sends shivers down my thing - Mick Taylor slide + keef and mick vocal/guitar is awesome

but really the meisterwerk is Exile on Main St.....definitive R'n'B

Tips on the Digital Economy...

1. there's no money in it:)
2. keep your fingers off!
3. I'm done.

et in arcadia, placet

went to a talk at wolfson about publishers views on the academic world of stuff in the digital era -

basic premise is that:

past/once upon a time, a publisher was the venture capitalist of gutenberg

then/now (recently) they turned into the bankers of the journal/monograph era

future/where they'd like to be is the tax inspector of metadata...

sort of...

bra xkcd ket

toay's toon poses a problem for which the solution stands out:

linux, :-( bsd :-)
or
osx ;)

game over.

william gibson continuity error

In all tomorrow's parties
gibson refers to Rei Toei
as post human at one point.

here is your starter for ten:
why is this the wrong term for an Idoru?