Computers, Software, and Peripherals http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/ http://www.eblah.com en The Windows story http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1268320312/ http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1268320312/#num1
(Excuse the use of "Secret" in the article title. It's the original author's choice, not mine, and I really fail to see why he used it, other than to possibly attract readers looking for some sort of conspiracy based story.)

The Secret Origin of Windows

It's no surprise to see the old stories along the lines of "We wuz first", "We wuz robbed", "We wuz better", "Ww wuz faster"... yada yada yada

I'm sure they're ALL true - the important thing is that Bill Gates took Windows to the market, sold it, people bought, and DIDN'T beat a path to all the others who have spent decades bleating "We wuz..."

I'm also sure that if one of those "better" solutions had prevailed, the only difference would be that instead of everyone knocking Microsoft, we would merely be looking at the same moaning posts and blogs that rant and rave against Microsoft, only there would be different corporate name in their title.

(If any of you were/are particularly close to Microsoft. IBM, and similar large company stories and histories, you will probably also by aware of the number of original founders of such companies that have died in various accidents, and which conspiracy nuts love to read all sorts of plots into. It doeas actually make fascinating reading - provided you keep one toe in the bath of reality.)

I still remember the pre-Windows 3 days, when we had to boot and run our IBM PC compatibles under MS-DOS, and then load Windows just to run a graphics program - and unload it to carry on using the PC. I'd even admit that at that stage, I didn't even "get" Windows and what the point was, as running it consumed just about every resource a PC with no hard drive 640 kB of RAM (and another hidden 128 kB to be had if you were sneaky), and two 360 kB 5¼-inch floppy disks, hence having to unload it to do anything else.

Forget griping about Windows...

With the massive power we have in even a basic PC today, are we really (and I mean an honest really) doing that much more than we were back at the start, and suffering from lots of bad bloaty programmers, filling programs with useless and needless trivia to turn it into graphical eye-candy?

With the arrival of the internet - and even that is now twenty - we are moving into cloud computing, and adopting the concept of a dumb terminal with our data and programs stored somewhere out on the web, and little capability in out PCs.

The idea was proposed decades ago - look into the past of a company called ORACLE - but everyone laughed.

Not only not laughing now, but apparently happily walking into what amounts to the same principle now, with open arms and not a care - eg the facebook genreation, dumping their lives out onto the web; flickr and everyone's photos, etc etc...]]> Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:11:52 Apollo Interview with Sir Clive at 70 http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1267469881/ http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1267469881/#num1 Thirty years ago this month, Clive Sinclair launched a computer that he hoped would change the world. In the majority of cases it only changed the way people played primitive computer games, but it also turned a bespectacled, prematurely balding man into a hero for our times.

Sir Clive Sinclair: "I don't use a computer at all" | Technology | The Observer

Thirty years ago...that's depressing

I never had a ZX or Spectrum, but do have a couple of Sinclair calculators. I never aspired to the that generation of Sinclair computers, the crazy jumping and blanking display (whenever a key was pressed, because the keyboard interrupt interrupted the display handling) was just too off-putting.

Don't think I could afford a Black Watch, so missed out on that, although I would like to have had one for the collection.

I had one of his Micronic radios too (smaller than a matchbox) which has sadly disappeared, although I also had a Russian radio of the time which was both smaller and better - and I could even build smaller ones too.

I was spoilt, in having free access to, but not ownership of, a Commodore PET, which I really liked. I never managed to pick one up when they were current, again too expensive, but I do now have it's big brother in the collection, the version that came with a "proper" keyboard and separate disk drive unit and printer, rather then the PET's membrane keyboard and data cassette recorder.

I even had a BBC Micro at one point, which uncle Clive did not rate (for obvious reasons ).

A clever man, who some like to poke fun at, but he did succeed, made his fortune, and gained a knighthood - I wouldn't mind being made fun of on occasion with that track record.

You simply can't argue with his comment about today's computers:
Quoted Text
"Our machines were lean and efficient," he says. "The sad thing is that today's computers totally abuse their memory – totally wasteful, you have to wait for the damn things to boot up, just appalling designs. Absolute mess! So dreadful it's heartbreaking."

I have a Sinclair QL, and it (as will most computers of the time if running software of their time) will do much the same in real useful terms of wordprocessor, spreadsheet, and database, without any of the "modern essentials" of silly graphics, animations, and other bells & whistles, as a current computer.]]> Mon, 1 Mar 2010 18:58:01 Apollo High Performance Power Cables http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1267190379/ http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1267190379/#num1
Snake oil?

     
High Performance Power Cables


MB]]> Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:19:39 jmb Keep your personal data personal http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1266540157/ http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1266540157/#num1
I've also warn about Facebook and the like, although I suspect no-one is listening.

In order to get the same sort of message across, some Dutch developers have set up a web site called PleaseRobMe to show the dangers of sharing information on the web, and which could be used to identify unattended homes. The site scrutinises players of online game Foursquare, which is based on a person's location in the real world, and extracts information from players who have chosen to post their whereabouts automatically onto Twitter.

In real terms, this information alone would be of little use, but when combined (or data-mined) with other such sources, and individual details, then it doesn't take a great deal of imagination to see what could be done by a determined team.

This site is said to have taken only four hours to write, and use only html and javascript.

BBC News - PleaseRobMe website reveals dangers of social networks

Please Rob Me

Charity Crimestoppers advises people to think carefully about the information they choose to share on the internet.

"We urge users of Twitter, Facebook or other social networks to stop and think before posting personal details online that could leave them vulnerable to crimes including burglary and identity theft," said a spokesperson. "Details posted online are available for the world to see; you wouldn't hang a sign on your door saying you're out, so why would you post it online?" ]]> Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:42:37 Admin Strained Facebook brain cell http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1265928653/ http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1265928653/#num1
As if to confirm that the masses on Facebook really don't have any contact with sensible people, it seems that they can't even navigate to their own Facebook home page without the help of a Google search to find it for them!

When a recent web article resulted in this search returning not their usual Facebook login page, but the site which featured an article about it, they were stuffed, and complained bitterly about their login being changed, and demanded the old login page be returned...

How to confuse a Facebook user | Technology | guardian.co.uk

Reading the comments after this story, apparently I've not to be cruel to Facebook users, but rather criticise Google for not returning the page they wanted

Yes, as if it could read their minds.

15+ years of the web, and it;s probably still to soon to give allow "ordinary" people to use it ]]> Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:50:53 Apollo Memory is maybe not forever http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1265144957/ http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1265144957/#num1
Remember when they trotted out folk that introduced new storage technology like laser-disks and CDs, and other sorts of storage?

Remember they said it would last "forever"?

Gallery - Set in stone or written to disc: data through the ages - Image 1 - New Scientist

I don't know if things are quite as glum as NS portrays them. so far, at least, any old storage I've kicked into life has actually worked, but that doesn't mean it will continue to do so.

I'd hate to have to go back to carving my notes into stone tablets with a hammer and chisel, although some might say that those have just bought iSlates are already heading in that direction ]]> Tue, 2 Feb 2010 21:09:17 Apollo The iPad http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1264722386/ http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1264722386/#num1 Well?

A big iphone with extra toys? Have the iGuys designed an iWinner ?]]> Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:46:26 Captain Brittles Anonymous databases cracked open http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1264373777/ http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1264373777/#num1
But you shouldn't worry, because they probably intend to make the data anonymous - quite how to do that seriously in a database that is aimed at verifying identities may be hard to explain.

However, it is fair to say that data can be anonymised by breaking it up and using keys to substitute actual data for coded data.

However... since I did this for a living at one point, I also know this process can be run backwards to reassemble the anonymous data - you have to do this anyway when you need to use it, but as the data owner, this is relatively straightforward because you have all the parts, and know how they fit together.

However, I know from being handed broken datasets from clients that I could reconstitute this data even if they lost parts of it - provided they paid for enough of my time.

I also know nobody will listen to me when I suggest that the same will probably be true of supposedly anonymous personal data placed on the web, but maybe if someone who has a bigger company name attached to them says the same thing, somebody will listen, and maybe even believe them...

Computer experts in the US can now identify people from personal information, leading to concerns over security and confidentiality

Computer security: fraud fears as scientists crack 'anonymous' datasets | Technology | The Observer

Even if it takes a long time, maybe even equivalent lifetimes, I generally assume that what man takes apart, (another) man can put together again.]]> Sun, 24 Jan 2010 22:56:17 Apollo Wi-Fi and old walls http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1262471483/ http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1262471483/#num1
I do know there is wire reinforcement in all the ceilings, but it is wide (the spacing is about 1-inch) so it might not have a great effect, but since I don't have an upstairs, it doesn't matter.

I've never installed any wireless systems in premises that had any sort of wire reinforcement in the wall, they've always been hollow plasterboard, but I did always wonder if the stuff would screen wireless networking signals, and it looks as if it might. So if you do have an old house, or reinforced concrete walls, you might have a wireless networking problems:

Wi-Fi won't travel through your house? It might be the wire in the walls | Technology | guardian.co.uk]]> Sat, 2 Jan 2010 22:31:23 Apollo Sky falls as cellphone encryption is cracked http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1262095940/ http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/forum/forum/m-1262095940/#num1
BBC News - Secret mobile phone codes cracked

Apart from the story seeming to be one of a "brute force" attack to break the codes, rather some clever coding, and made possible by advances in hardware rather than software, I wonder if this is really the great problem the report and its producers seek to make it.

I only as the question because of the way things were, in the bad old days.

Mobile phones, private mobile radio, police, fire, ambulance, and any number of similar services used to be broadcast on conventional AM and FM systems (as were the communications of the Armed Services, using other modulation techniques needing only slightly more advanced receivers) which anyone could listen in on with fairly basic kit.

There didn't seem to be a great problem then, even though the same folk, or their equivalent at the time, were still jumping up and down, warning of all sorts of security issues.

Fact is, if you want secure comms, you should used a secure comms system, not a public system that happens to use algorithms to convert their content, and which can be easily accessed as they are in the public domain.

That said, reading some stories, it would seem that that those tasked with providing secure comms links don't even do as good a job as could be achieved simply using a mobile phone, so maybe, times are indeed changing.

It's probably pointless noting that no-one really wants to develop and unbreakable system, since the law says you can have one, and use it, but if you don't make it so the authorities can bypass it, you can "Go directly to jail", and if you use it and they want to see what you said, if you don't hand them the key to open the encryptioin, you will also "Go to jail" for up to two years by refusing.

Perhaps something that might merit a rethink?]]> Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:12:20 Apollo