Entries by danr

TechDirt - Lots of websites let users upload their own image or avatar. Most people use photos of themselves, but others like to toss up an interesting photo or artwork. And, of course, online some of that artwork may be covered by copyright. But, still, it seems a bit harsh for an artist to send a guy a bill for $500 after discovering that his artwork was being used as an avatar on an online poker site. This seems doubly stupid. First of all, no one is going to pay $500 for artwork to use as an avatar. They'll just switch to something else. And then fewer people will see the artwork and question who created it. So, basically, all this does is stop someone from freely promoting the artist's artwork, while also pissing off someone who had clearly been a fan. How does that make sense?

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TechDirt - Microsoft certainly recognizes the fact that most startups these days are automatically gravitating to a LAMP infrastructure (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP). So, now it seems to be trying out a new program to lure startups by offering them free software for a few years and combining it with additional services that they hope will appeal to startups. It's an interesting approach, though, in the long run, it still seems like they may have the equation backwards. While they are giving some stuff away free initially, the ultimate goal is to lock companies into paying for infinite goods like software, rather than scarcities like services.

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PCWorld - Dell will add a new wireless option to future laptops by installing radio chips that provide connectivity over the unused television spectrum known as white spaces.

On Tuesday, regulators at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted to open up white spaces, the unused portion of the spectrum from 512MHz to 698MHz assigned to broadcast TV.

Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Google were among the companies that fought to open up the white spaces, which will provide an additional broadband option for users, especially in rural areas.

Proponents say the TV spectrum can carry broadband signals significantly farther than Wi-Fi, and that opening up the spectrum will help expand the market for new smartphone-like devices.

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ars tehcnica - Google's Adam Langley feels that encryption is now so cheap that it should be applied to all web traffic. So from now on, please type HTTPS instead of HTTP in all of your URLs.

Oh wait, that's not what Langley had in mind. Actually, he suggests that encryption should activate opportunistically without user intervention. And without having to wait for additional network packets. Opportunistic encryption means getting encryption where you can—without first exchanging encryption keys or building a large public key infrastructure (PKI).

Traditional encryption mechanisms such as DES, RC4, or AES use the same key for encryption and decryption. They work extremely well if the two ends agree on a key beforehand—a requirement that can be impractical. Public key cryptography such as RSA uses a public key for encryption and a private key for decryption, solving the key exchange problem, but it requires authentication. It only works if you know you're using the right public key; otherwise, you're vulnerable to a man-in-the-middle attack.

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lifehacker - At the beginning of August we told you that the TSA was collaborating with laptop bag manufacturers to create checkpoint-friendly bags you can pass through security checkpoints without removing your laptop. PC World takes a closer look at the TSA's criteria for what makes a checkpoint-friendly bag. For example:

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When I saw a colleague bring up Google Maps on his iPhone and then surf to a few other sites, I was sold. What a beautiful machine! What a beautiful display! I visualized myself never getting lost again, able to keep up with my e-mail and my research any time and any place. As soon as I got home I bought one. I didn�t even consider the 4GB model, although there were a few left � I wanted that extra storage for all the stuff I wanted to take everywhere with me.

I soon discovered that the iPhone isn�t a very good cell phone. I live in an area with marginal coverage. I get only one or (on a very good day) two bars at home. But the iPhone dropped far more calls than my old Nokia, and would drop any call if I put the phone to my ear. I had to use the speakerphone option or the headset, and I found myself contorting into comical (for observers, at least) positions in a vain attempt to catch enough signal to complete a call. I was surprised to find that I got poor voice quality even when I was out and about and showing five strong bars.

My next disappointment came when I accessed Google Maps while on an urban exploration, expecting to resolve a navigational question in a flash. The snappy response my colleague demonstrated was nowhere to be found! Without a WiFi connection, I was already miles outside of the map�s boundaries by the time it appeared on that gorgeous display. I spent so much time dinking with my iPhone and waiting for it to respond that I might as well have stayed home. I saw very little of the countryside.

When I got home, I thought I�d listen to some music. I hadn�t had a chance to load any of my music, so I just typed (slowly and laboriously) the URL of my favorite Internet radio station. All I got was a tiny icon of a box! Nothing else at all. I did some research and discovered that the iPhone does not support Flash. What? The most graphically-oriented mobile device ever introduced ignores the most common way to deliver graphical content on the Web? Unfathomable! My radio station was programmed in Flash, so I got a little box icon and no tunes.

OK, so I�ll load some of my music from my PC. Plug the iPhone into the USB port and drag my favorite songs over, right? Not a chance! You have to use iTunes. That should be quick and easy � Apple is supposed to be the most intuitive stuff out there. Well, maybe to a long-time Mac user, that program is easy to figure out, but I never did find a way to select multiple songs and port them over. If you want to �synch� your entire library, it looks pretty easy, but mine would have exceeded the iPhone�s capacity. And why would Apple assume that I want exactly the same things in both places? After about a half hour of struggling to grasp the arcane logic and puzzle out the meaning of totally uninformative icons, I figured out how to manually load a single song at a time. I had to wait for that song to finish loading before I could select another. I loaded a few favorites and gave up in disgust.

Somebody tell me, please, why the iPhone, a USB device, does not even show up as a device when you plug it into a PC. Why not let me see that drive as a drive and store whatever I want on it? It is, after all, my 8 GB of mobile drive space � why dictate to me that I can use it only for media imported by iTunes? All that space was completely useless to me unless I wanted to fill it with songs, one�.. at�.. a�. time.

There were things I liked about the iPhone. The camera, and the way photos are stored and viewed � outstanding! The way I could start the iPod feature and have my (very few) tunes with me while I worked around the house. The access to YouTube. I enjoyed those. But c�mon, it�s gotta be at least as good a phone as my old one, and it�s gotta access the Web while away from WiFi points fast enough to be useful. I mean, isn�t that when the iPhone would be most useful? When I have WiFi access, I also usually have my PC. And the iPhone should certainly unwrap that little box and display the Flash content hiding inside.

I gave up. I happily paid the restocking fee to return the iPhone and go back to using my ugly, beat-up, three-year old Nokia that hardly ever drops a call and transmits clear, understandable voice. If I want to surf the Web or get navigational help while I�m out and about, I�ll lug my laptop with a Sprint card. Those options are bulky and certainly not as beautiful, but they work! And if I want to take my tunes with me when I�m away from my laptop, I�ll buy an MP3 player� one made by anyone but Apple!