Rampant In China

Software piracy is rampant in China. It's been estimated that 90% of software in use is pirated. (Cheap-skates!)

China will surpass the USA on Internet users. (Interesting...)

Botnets are becoming a serious security problem. 50% of pirated copies of Windows have been hacked with malware. (Nasty...)

Therefore, China is going to become a botnet farm and it will strangle the Internet. (Aaarrgh!)

... but thankfully, the Chinese love Linux. They're even producing their own computers with Linux. (Phew!)

Stupid People

It still amazes me how moronic people are in this Internet Age – an Age where digital information can be copied an infinite number of times and beamed around the globe in the blink of an eye.

Common sense dictates that anything personal and private should not be digitally recorded ... but if it absolutely has to be recorded then sensitive data should be protected by encrypton.

This incident (and many others like it) reinforce my belief that the evolution of technology and humanity run at vastly different speeds - human behaviour is just as stupid now as it was ten thousand years ago.

High-Time-Microsoft-Lost-it Email

HTML email has always been a very bad idea.

I can still remember the first HTML email that I received from a friend (almost a decade ago). It was an unpleasant experience – big type mixed with small type, shitty fonts in shitty colours over a shitty coloured background. It was like watching my email program being raped.

I can still remember the first HTML spam email that I opened. I opened the email and basically watched a webpage load in front of my eyes – which if you know anything about computer security is a very bad thing indeed.

Email should consist of two parts: plaintext for the message that you want to communicate; and the ability to attach a binary file - if you absolutely have to send anything other than plaintext.

I’ve been using the internet long enough to remember how good email used to be before the dark-ages of HTML and spam.

Most people who use computers don’t have a frigging clue what they are actually doing half the time. If we had the same level of global incompetence with driving skills it would be probable that most people driving would be crashing their cars every other trip. We wouldn’t put up with that level of chaos on the roads, so why do we put up with HTML and spam in emails? Computers and their networks are a vital part of our economic infrastructure. They are as important as roads.

It seems fitting that Microsoft should be the company to scale-back support for HTML email in Outlook (seeing as they were the buggers who introduced it – I’m thinking of Outlook Express in Windows 98).

I applaud Microsoft for having the common sense to do this. I just wish that they had gone further and completely removed support for HTML rather than have the ability to render HTML in a Word engine (a decision which was obviously taken to lock people into Office, but hey, that’s Microsoft for you).

Microsoft has a responsibility to improve the security of their products like Windows and Office (because they are so widely used by the business community), but the community also has to share some of that responsibility and train their staff properly so that they can recognize security threats on their computers. Only a joint effort will improve computer security for everyone.

If you’re going to miss HTML email then I have some simple advice: put your HTML message on a website server (where it belongs) and include a link to it in your email.

The Three Cs

There’s been a lot of focus as of late on the three Rs in British education. What’s the point of a kid leaving school with excellent qualifications in art and media studies if they can barely string a sentence together and balance a cheque-book? The three Rs are basic skills that every school-leaver should possess.

I can see a similar inadequacy in the blogging realm. Naturally, every blogger should possess the three Rs, but they should also possess the three Cs – the ability to carefully choose their words (because words are powerful things); the ability to express their thoughts in a candid manner (because political correctness is despicable); and the ability to keep their blog posts concise (because their readers’ time is valuable).

Double Standards

There’s been some fuss over the National Security Agencies (NSA) code “contribution” to Microsoft's new Operating System (OS) Windows Vista. The proposition is as follows: the NSA colluded with Microsoft to provide "backdoor access" through Vista to facilitate clandestine computer surveillance.

I believe that government agencies like the NSA have been “contributing” to Microsoft’s Windows OS code for a long time - not just with Vista. It’s in their interests to have the capability to spy on as many people as possible. Various versions of Windows run most of the PCs in the world. Windows is also a “closed-source” operating system - meaning that it’s not open to inspection by the general public.

It’s interesting to see nobody up-in-arms about Apple "seeking the advice of the NSA over security issues" for Mac OS-X (which also happens to be a closed-source OS).

It's obvious that anyone in need of a secure OS isn't going to choose a closed-source product like Mac OS-X or Windows Vista - they're going to choose an “open-source” OS like Linux. Linux code is open to examination - giving the user peace of mind that they are not being monitored.

There is the argument if you’re not doing anything wrong then you have nothing to fear but I don’t accept that reasoning. We are all entitled to privacy.

There have recently been many foreign governments that have switched from Microsoft Windows to Linux.

I’m under no illusions about computer security - if the NSA wants to spy on you they will do it - whatever OS your PC is running.