Anti-war protesters go digital
April 2, 2003
As bombs blasted Baghdad last week, dozens of cell phones in China buzzed with messages about where to stage an anti-war protest. In Cairo, activists tapped out text messages to summon 5,000 demonstrators to a central square. And in San Francisco, technophiles beamed live footage from protests to anti-war Web sites. Throughout the world, technology is allowing activists to stage spontaneous rallies in reaction to the war. Full Story
Sweden beats U.S. as top Web-savvy nation
April 2, 2003
I've learned to never try and out-drink a Swede. I guess, I'll have to resort to being number two at surfing the Internet as well. "Sweden has overtaken the United States as the Web-savviest nation on the planet, a survey showed on Tuesday. One other European country, Denmark, was also more aggressive in taking advantage of the Internet than the United States, according to research carried out by IBM and the intelligence unit of British magazine The Economist. Of the 60 countries surveyed, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan were at the bottom of the list with 2.37 and 2.52 points respectively out of a possible 10." Full Story
Cyberterrorism Seen as Future Threat
April 1, 2003
People intent on committing cyberterrorism are likely to attack critical elements of the world's computer infrastructure in the future, but they do not yet have the capability to do so, a U.S. expert on cyberterrorism said last week. Full Story
Abuses with mini-cameras tough to curb
March 27, 2003
As with the introduction of any new technology, abuses are bound to be rampant. The article below discusses concerns over the inappropriate use of cameras imbedded in cell phones. As I am currently in Japan, I can assure you that camera phones are establishing a strong market presence. For a while I carried around a digital camera the size of a large pen, and the spy museum in Washington DC is supposed to sell cameras hidden in ties, so this problem is certainly not unique to cell phones with cameras. I wonder if the media will cover the first time a cell phone camera is used to catch a criminal in action. Of course, the district in Japan that sells thousands of these phones also sells cell phone jammers, so if you are worried about…
Voice over IP
March 27, 2003
I've become a big fan of my voice over IP phone service provided by Vonage, but it hasn't been really tested until I visited Japan. Since arriving here, I have used it exclusively for voice communications and it has worked almost flawlessly. When I visited New Zealand and Australia, telecommunications back the US cost me over $1000.00 by the time I was done. Estimated cost for voice telecommunications for the Japan visit is less than $10.00. Also, I have one number that follows me no matter where I am, so it is easier for my family to reach me and I don't have to provide detailed listings of what hotels I am staying at.
The Animatrix
March 27, 2003
Seven animated films all dealing with the Matrix movie trilogy. If I have to explain it any further, you probably won't be interested in this link.
Japan Trip
March 26, 2003
I am currently on travel to Japan speaking on Cyberterrorism issues for Japanese government, business and academic organizations. The trip is sponsored by the State Department and part of their international speakers program. I've found the audiences to be very receptive to the topic. I was told that Japanese audiences wouldn't ask questions, but I've had an hour of very topical questions following each of my presentations. This is also the first time that all of my presentations have required an interpreter, which is an interesting experience for me and certainly provides a sense of appreciation for the challenges of that job. Walking through Tokyo is like stepping into a science fiction novel. The city just has a presence that you…
Manufactured Pop Culture
March 26, 2003
If you can come up with a better example of manufactured pop culture than this, I'd like to see. A shrink for a producer, two teenage Russian girls, a techno beat and lots of lesbian sexual themes. A good example of U.S. pop culture being taking to an extreme and pushed right back at us. I don't watch MTV, but I hear it is in rotation. Tatu.ru
March 22, 2003
The U.S. military action in Iraq has stirred up computer virus writers and malicious hackers, who have apparently decided to vent by defacing websites and releasing e-mail worms that prey on people's fears and curiosity. Antagonists and activists based in the United States, Europe and the Middle East are engaged in their own form of war games. Some are vandalizing websites, particularly government sites, scrawling scornful cybergraffiti or urging people to "make love not war." Full Story
The Way We Were
March 19, 2003
I've been a fan of Wired Magazine since issue number 1. Many think the collection of striped magazine covers that are still displayed on one of my bookshelves should be discarded, but I won't budge. This issue marks Wired's 10th anniversary and there is a great recap of the past ten years and the excellent articles the magazine has produced. "What a dull, distressing decade it promised to be. San Francisco was taking the early '90s hard. The city had always been a boomtown, and now, in the aftermath of recession and the Gulf War, it languished in the stale atmosphere of a boomtown in distress. There had been a drought for five years, and the sidewalks were lined with sickly trees. The old revolutionary spirit was hard to discern. Two…
Ghosts of the Abyss
March 16, 2003
Jame's Cameron is releasing a new movie within the next month called Ghosts of the Abyss. I had an opportunity to meet Cameron at his production company Lightstorm Entertainment last month and got a once in a lifetime opportunity to see him review and comment on this film in the Lightstorm screening room. Cameron makes a habit of pushing the bounds of technology and film and this film is no different. The 3D technology in this film is very impressive. It isn't some animated feature that has been generated in 3D, it is the representation of real actors and film sequences in three dimensions. The combination of this technolgoy IMAX will create a very unique experience. Check it out and see if it is playing near you. As a side note,…
Sterling Speaks
March 15, 2003
I had the occassion to eat and drink with Bruce Sterling several years ago, so whenever I read something like this, I can picture him delivering with the typical Sterling zest: "Let me put this to you straight: cyberspace has become a slum. It's a diseased slum, festering with Microsoft Outlook viruses. The viruses turn people into unwilling, unwitting agents of corruption and destruction. If you dare to use Microsoft's web products, which are so easily and cruelly sabotaged, then you run a gruesome, unconscionable risk of doing horrible virus damage to your best friends and your closest collaborators. You can give AIDs or herpes to the people who choose to have sex with you, but you can give Klez.E to people you don't even know.…
Chinese Espionage
March 15, 2003
3DGeo Development, a Silicon Valley company, had its first scrape with trade secret theft several years ago when a visiting PetroChina employee was collared trying to hack into its computer system. Then last year a second visiting PetroChina employee was caught trying to download 3DGeo's source code, the foundation for its proprietary seismic imaging software. Full Story
Iraqi Cyberwar: an Ageless Joke
March 15, 2003
Did U.S. infowar commandos smuggle a deadly computer virus into Iraq inside a printer? Of course not. So why does it keep getting reported? Full Story
William Gibson Blog
March 14, 2003
Blogging has momentum. William Gibson is on-line and operating a blog that gets updated daily. It provides for great reading from one of my favorite authors of all time. If you haven't had a chance to check out his latest book "Pattern Recognition", I highly recommend it. Just today, he posted the following information regarding the ending of Neuromancer. It was interesting to read his take on it, and I was encouraged to discover that my interpretation of the ending, developed over ten years ago, was in-line with his. He writes: "And his voice the cry of a bird Unknown, 3Jane answering in song, three notes, high and pure. A true name. Anyone daydreaming of a feature film of NEUROMANCER might want to pause to ponder just how the hell…
The Simulation Argument
March 13, 2003
In 1994, I wrote a paper that looked at issues relating to virtual reality and philosophy. One of my main arguments was that true pervasive virtual reality, where the user couldn't distinguish or remember the real world, was closely aligned to concepts of Hinduism. Since then, we had several movies on the topic, including the Matrix and the 13th floor and now there is an academic web site dedicated to the issue. The web site intro says: "This website features scholarly investigations into the idea that you might currently be literally living in a computer simulation on a computer built by some advanced civilization. Films like The Matrix and novels like Greg Egan's Permutation City have explored the idea that we might be living in…