wish list

Tim O'Reilly's 2004 wish list. [Scripting News]

FedEx buys Kinko’s

FedEx buys Kinko’s FedEx, the leading overnight service in the world, announced a buyout of Kinko’s, the #1 copy center chain in the world, with 1,200 locations mostly in the US. Kinko’s business includes photocopying, color printing, signage, document management, videoconferencing, and computer rental. The buyout will be for $2.4 billion. The majority holder of… Continue reading FedEx buys Kinko’s

Old wine in new vessels ?

Old wine in new vessels ?. Where in the world did I hear this message before? At least the practice of tithing is well documented. It is a wheel that hardly takes fundamental innovation His organization, NewTithing Group in San Francisco, has researched the giving patterns of wealthy Americans. Its conclusion: The rich could give… Continue reading Old wine in new vessels ?

On Hardware Failures

On Hardware Failures. One of the computer industry's dirty little secrets is hardware failure. The few of us who work in, near, or otherwise around large computer installations take this for granted. Companies like Yahoo have people on staff that spend a lot of their time dealing with failing memory, buggy motherboards, smoked power supplies,… Continue reading On Hardware Failures

2004!

2004!. Happy and Healthy New Year![Adam Curry's Weblog] I just want to wish all my friends and family a very happy and healthy 2004.  (and Happy Birthday to my brother, of course.) I've seen some great pictures of the celebrations in Sydney and Athens.

Booming concepts for 2003 that will do well in 2004 (initial list):
  1. RSS 2.0 aggregators and feeds:  Wow, what a year!  More feeds than any of us can keep up with!
  2. Cameraphones:  More cameraphones were sold than digital cameras earlier this year.  This will become ubiquitous.
  3. Guerrilla warfare (IEDs, RPGs, and suicide cars):  Watch what happens to Iraqi infrastructure over the next year.  Will the US stay in Iraq through the year with 2-3 casualties a day?
  4. Political weblogs (and political social software):  Dean has the oppportunity to build a third party based on his campaign's Internet efforts.  Nuff said.
  5. Personal hard-drives (multimedia players with attachments):  Storage is on a roll, step aside if you are in the way.  Watch for screens, TiVo like functionality, and more to take off.
  6. Second Superpower movements:  All over the global map.  Challenging nation-states and corporations everywhere.  Powered by social technology.
  7. Professional virus developers.  Watch 2004 to see where many of the world's most talented software developers are spending their time.  This isn't for teenagers anymore.  A virus with a professional development cycle is an amazing thing to watch.
  8. Skype and VoIP software.  On a roll.  Simple and effective.

Bust concepts for 2003 that will continue to decline in 2004 (initial list):

  1. Personal privacy and fair use rights.  Thank you MPAA and the RIAA!
  2. The Bill of Rights.  Thank you Bush and the Patriot Act II!
  3. Cures for currently incurable diseases.  Thank you to the Religious Right and the Bush Administration! 
  4. Social networking software (it will take another year to work out how to use it correctly).  Friendster et. al. in retreat.
  5. Most wanted lists.  It takes more than eliminating certain despised individuals to change the world.
  6. Prosecution of corporate and financial bad behavior.  Not in my lifetime.  Steal $1,000 from the house of the guy down the street and he will chase you with a gun.  Steal $1,000 from him via abuse of his pension fund and he doesn't have a clue, nor do the authorities have a clue how to prosecute the perps. 
  7. P2P software.  The lawsuits have done their work to slow adoption.  Adware and spyware included with P2P systems have finished the job.
  8. The UN.  On the run in 2003.  Will continue in 2004.  Without US support, the UN is useless.
[John Robb's Weblog

Booming concepts for 2003 that will do well in 2004 (initial list): RSS 2.0 aggregators and feeds:  Wow, what a year!  More feeds than any of us can keep up with! Cameraphones:  More cameraphones were sold than digital cameras earlier this year.  This will become ubiquitous. Guerrilla warfare (IEDs, RPGs, and suicide cars):  Watch what happens to Iraqi infrastructure over… Continue reading Booming concepts for 2003 that will do well in 2004 (initial list):

  1. RSS 2.0 aggregators and feeds:  Wow, what a year!  More feeds than any of us can keep up with!
  2. Cameraphones:  More cameraphones were sold than digital cameras earlier this year.  This will become ubiquitous.
  3. Guerrilla warfare (IEDs, RPGs, and suicide cars):  Watch what happens to Iraqi infrastructure over the next year.  Will the US stay in Iraq through the year with 2-3 casualties a day?
  4. Political weblogs (and political social software):  Dean has the oppportunity to build a third party based on his campaign's Internet efforts.  Nuff said.
  5. Personal hard-drives (multimedia players with attachments):  Storage is on a roll, step aside if you are in the way.  Watch for screens, TiVo like functionality, and more to take off.
  6. Second Superpower movements:  All over the global map.  Challenging nation-states and corporations everywhere.  Powered by social technology.
  7. Professional virus developers.  Watch 2004 to see where many of the world's most talented software developers are spending their time.  This isn't for teenagers anymore.  A virus with a professional development cycle is an amazing thing to watch.
  8. Skype and VoIP software.  On a roll.  Simple and effective.

Bust concepts for 2003 that will continue to decline in 2004 (initial list):

  1. Personal privacy and fair use rights.  Thank you MPAA and the RIAA!
  2. The Bill of Rights.  Thank you Bush and the Patriot Act II!
  3. Cures for currently incurable diseases.  Thank you to the Religious Right and the Bush Administration! 
  4. Social networking software (it will take another year to work out how to use it correctly).  Friendster et. al. in retreat.
  5. Most wanted lists.  It takes more than eliminating certain despised individuals to change the world.
  6. Prosecution of corporate and financial bad behavior.  Not in my lifetime.  Steal $1,000 from the house of the guy down the street and he will chase you with a gun.  Steal $1,000 from him via abuse of his pension fund and he doesn't have a clue, nor do the authorities have a clue how to prosecute the perps. 
  7. P2P software.  The lawsuits have done their work to slow adoption.  Adware and spyware included with P2P systems have finished the job.
  8. The UN.  On the run in 2003.  Will continue in 2004.  Without US support, the UN is useless.

[John Robb's Weblog

Next Gen Terrorism: Virtual operations. Do network-centric cells of terrorists need to plan and coordinate moderate to large operations along traditional lines?  Probably not.  Here's why.

The traditional approach (at least the way I used to do it in special ops) is to first gather a team of specialists to develop an operations plan.  The plan is then built, either over hours or days, with a limited amount of flexibility built in.  Time is closely managed.  Targets are precisely defined.  Unit operations are tightly coupled to ensure economy of force.  In execution, the plan is overseen by specialist team managers and senior staff.   Decision makers on the ground typically have little flexiblity other than to abort the mission.

In the emerging world of next generation terrorism, enabled by rapid communications  and plentiful targets of opportunity, the traditional approach is counterproductive.  A loose approach composed of ad hoc communications and individual initiative can provide much greater levels of security and higher probabilities of success.

In this approach cells would develop a range of targets within general guidelines (a section of a city) based on their capabilities (a type of attack).  The time schedule would be fluid.  The date for an op would be set within a general time frame without specifics.  Coordinated action would be done in an ad hoc manner.  For example: “once your cell begins operations, my cell will begins too.”  “Your cell just hit this target, my cell will hit this complimentary target.”  Abort points would be determined based on what each cell sees on the ground or what other cells communicate to each other on the fly (ie.  “flash me an SMS message to abort and throw away the phone”).  Ops could continue indefinitely using this method until local conditions are too difficult to ensure success.

The benefits of this approach would be as follows:

  • Difficult to disrupt.  The loss of any one cell would not necessarily imperil the operation since there are few co-dependencies.  For example: if a single cell was shut down, other cells could continue operations since no one cell would have another cell's list of targets, an overarching mission plan, or require the other cell's support to continue operations. 
  • Hard to defend against.  The time period of the op could be sufficiently large to make a high level readiness difficult to maintain (could you imagine months of Orange alert?). 
  • Nearly impossible to detect.  Decision cycles would be slow and communications would only be made when security was assured.  Target selection would be wide ranging and independently authored.

The real power of a framework like this is in its ability to disrupt systems.  More on that later. [John Robb's Weblog

Next Gen Terrorism: Virtual operations. Do network-centric cells of terrorists need to plan and coordinate moderate to large operations along traditional lines?  Probably not.  Here's why. The traditional approach (at least the way I used to do it in special ops) is to first gather a team of specialists to develop an operations plan.  The plan is… Continue reading Next Gen Terrorism: Virtual operations. Do network-centric cells of terrorists need to plan and coordinate moderate to large operations along traditional lines?  Probably not.  Here's why.

The traditional approach (at least the way I used to do it in special ops) is to first gather a team of specialists to develop an operations plan.  The plan is then built, either over hours or days, with a limited amount of flexibility built in.  Time is closely managed.  Targets are precisely defined.  Unit operations are tightly coupled to ensure economy of force.  In execution, the plan is overseen by specialist team managers and senior staff.   Decision makers on the ground typically have little flexiblity other than to abort the mission.

In the emerging world of next generation terrorism, enabled by rapid communications  and plentiful targets of opportunity, the traditional approach is counterproductive.  A loose approach composed of ad hoc communications and individual initiative can provide much greater levels of security and higher probabilities of success.

In this approach cells would develop a range of targets within general guidelines (a section of a city) based on their capabilities (a type of attack).  The time schedule would be fluid.  The date for an op would be set within a general time frame without specifics.  Coordinated action would be done in an ad hoc manner.  For example: “once your cell begins operations, my cell will begins too.”  “Your cell just hit this target, my cell will hit this complimentary target.”  Abort points would be determined based on what each cell sees on the ground or what other cells communicate to each other on the fly (ie.  “flash me an SMS message to abort and throw away the phone”).  Ops could continue indefinitely using this method until local conditions are too difficult to ensure success.

The benefits of this approach would be as follows:

  • Difficult to disrupt.  The loss of any one cell would not necessarily imperil the operation since there are few co-dependencies.  For example: if a single cell was shut down, other cells could continue operations since no one cell would have another cell's list of targets, an overarching mission plan, or require the other cell's support to continue operations. 
  • Hard to defend against.  The time period of the op could be sufficiently large to make a high level readiness difficult to maintain (could you imagine months of Orange alert?). 
  • Nearly impossible to detect.  Decision cycles would be slow and communications would only be made when security was assured.  Target selection would be wide ranging and independently authored.

The real power of a framework like this is in its ability to disrupt systems.  More on that later. [John Robb's Weblog

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Technology: Professional Virus developers target P2P

Technology: Professional Virus developers target P2P. Professional development has finally come to virus development.  The growth path of SoBig and Blaster shows that there are smart developers driving their development cycles and not idle teenagers.  New research on this concurs and puts KaZaA in the crosshairs of the next big wave of attacks: Hughes predicted… Continue reading Technology: Professional Virus developers target P2P