TCPA / Palladium FAQ

TCPA and Palladium do not so much provide security for the user, but for the PC vendor, the software supplier, and the content industry. They do not add value for the user. Rather, they destroy it, by constraining what you can do with your PC - in order to enable application and service vendors to extract more money from you.

No doubt Palladium will be bundled with new features so that the package as a whole appears to add value in the short term, but the long-term economic, social and legal implications require serious thought.

Apart from the obvious reason that the following report could mark a watershed in the direction and funding of computer sceince research in the UK, there is another reason why it's noteworthy: one of the authors is an ex-student of mine - Prof Tom Rodden - and another is an old friend and ex-colleague, and co-author of Inside the Dragon - Prof Ian Sommerville!

Computer Challenges to emerge from eScience is the (Google) html version of the file http://umbriel.dcs.gla.ac.uk/NeSC/general/news/Vision.pdf which sets out the fundamental computing research challenges that need to be addressed to realise the goals of eScience. In doing so it demonstrates both that eScience can make a major contribution to the scientific agenda of computing research (as well as to the agendas of other sciences) and that all areas of computing research have a role to play in this.

As eScience, eBusiness and eCommerce mature we will see the emergence of a digital infrastructure that is pervasive in nature and accessible through a diverse collection of devices. A future grid will provide a digital fabric to support a broad range of activities and will be open, flexible and heterogeneous in nature. Essentially IT will disappear into the background and those involved in these activities will focus on the work at hand rather than the technology they use.

Realising this future vision questions some of the fundamental assumptions about the nature of computing and requires us to reassess many of the existing theories, concepts and practices at the core of computing. To deliver the e-science vision requires us to answer a number of important questions.

• How can we develop an infrastructure that promotes and supports the management and traceability of knowledge?
• How can we develop an infrastructure that lets people trust ubiquitous computing systems?
• How can we develop techniques to rapidly design, configure and evolve these systems?
• How can we deal with the inherent complexity of these systems and develop infrastructures that help us manage them?
• How can we make these systems usable and what new forms of organisation can be supported?
• How can we understand the broader social and economic impact of these technologies?

Answering these questions outlines a far-reaching research agenda that will require significant progress across many aspects of computing. Issues of heterogeneity, scale, mobility, dependability and privacy pervade all aspects of the research agenda outlined in this document.

If you read the report it will become apparent just how important community building and collaborative working is to the initiative. Hmm!

Lots of good links in IU Technology Architecture Lodge

Random and not so random thoughts from Raymond Yee, mostly relevant to the IU

Raymond writes in the same blogspace as David C-T of SiT fame. Thanks to both for annotating such good stuff.

I, Cringely | The Pulpit - I Told You So

This is diabolical. If Microsoft is successful, Palladium will give Bill Gates a piece of every transaction of any type while at the same time marginalizing the work of any competitor who doesn't choose to be Palladium-compliant. So much for Linux and Open Source, but it goes even further than that. So much for Apple and the Macintosh. It's a militarized network architecture only Dick Cheney could love.

via SiT - RSS Workshop

n this workshop you'll learn how to create, validate, syndicate, and view your own RSS news channel. The emphasis will be the practical application of RSS XML/RDF metadata for dynamically publishing:

WeblogsInEducation(at)SchoolBlogs.com : Collaboration - No Strings Attached

"It is amazing how motivating an activity becomes when students realise they are in some way 'collaborating' with others across the globe."

Jon Udell: Transmeta gadgets and paradigm shift gear grinding

"Transmeta threw a great party last night at the Rockefeller Center. Lots of nifty Crusoe-based gadgets were on display, including the OQO Ultra-Personal Computer. It wants to be a universal engine that powers your desktop, detaches and docks into a notebook, or stands alone as a somewhat portly PDA. Everybody wanted one, including me -- and I'm not known for gadget lust..."

I must remember to regularly read Jon's Radio | Collaboration Category from now on. Interesting stuff.

ZDNet |UK| - News - Story - Warchalking: London Wi-Fi guerrillas take tips from hobos

"A new fad in London is taking the Internet community by storm: chalking runes on pavements and walls to indicate the presence of a wireless networking node..."

ZDNet |UK| - Comment - Matt Loney - Story - Who trusts 'trusted computers'?

"Microsoft wants you to trust them to build technology to ensure your privacy - but do you really want them policing copyright laws?

The words 'Microsoft' and 'trust' only really seem to fit together with the help of an 'anti' somewhere in the middle. I find it somewhat odd therefore, to find this particular company proposing the development of a 'trusted computer platform'.

Trusted by whom? Not by me, that's for sure..."

You have to read this article, if only to find out who Matt Loney trusts more than Microsoft ;-)