A Real Big Brother...

It has come to light that Amazon, the leading online retailer, has overstepped the mark in protecting copyright laws and flagged up an issue of major concern for digital rights in the future.

 

The issue surrounds Amazon's excellent Kindle e-book reader, a device and service where users buy electronic versions of books and download them to the device wirelessly, allowing the content to be carried and read anywhere. The device, despite only being available in the USA, has proven to be very popular and built a strong base of users in its short lifetime.

 

However, controversy surrounded Amazon's recent discovery that two books it had been selling had been improperly licensed from the copyright holder, necessitating a recall. The scary development was that this was done without any warning to the customer and the refund was automatically credited back to user accounts. The main issue of digital concern was the fact that Amazon remotely deleted the content from every customer's Kindle device, again without warning.

 

One wag reckoned it was akin to a traditional paper bookshop sending someone to break in to your home to remove the offending book from your shelves but leaving the cash refund in full on the coffee table!!!!

 

Amazon has recognised that its approach had been 'stupid' and publicly apologised for what has been perceived as a breach of privacy laws and even their own terms and conditions of service as applied to the Kindle.

 

Yet the real classic moment in this whole affair were the books in question themselves - none other than George Orwell's '1984' and 'Animal Farm' - two books seen as the foremost writings on the dangers of censorship and a police state! How apt!

 

Questions have now surfaced once again about the whole concept of ownership in the digital age and the rights of consumers and copyright holders. Likely the only ones to profit in circumstances such as this in future will be the lawyers..

The Ultimate Technology Sport?

As a massive fan of cycling, probably due to the technology involved including those incredible carbon fibre bike frames, the Cyborg Ninja is delighted to see the Tour de France be all about the actual racing this year rather than any doping problems. Major respect to Lance Armstrong for being right up amongst the leaders again after several years away and increasing age and how good is Alberto Contador....outstanding stuff from outstanding athletes aided by outstanding technology...

 

 

Google OS - The future starts here?

Web-based giant Google announced last week that it was launching Chrome OS - it's web-based operating system designed to strike at the heart of the Microsoft empire. It will be Linux based and aim to be a robust and lightweight OS that will integrate a variety of online services (like GoogleApps, Docs, GMail etc.) to meet the services offered by Microsoft head-on.

 

The usp of this product - it will be free!

 

The funny thing is that free operating systems have been around for years (try Ubuntu for an excellent alternative to Windows). Yet Google's news has generated plenty of ink.

 

Chrome OS will, in essence be the first true cloud operating system, which is where the bulk of the processing, storage and oomph is provided remotely and our web-based world will be closely integrated directly with our pc, laptop, nettop and mobile phone. Google have long touted this as their ultimate objective with their web browser - in this case their recently launched Chrome browser after which the OS takes its name - at the heart of the whole system.

 

This product does make a lot of sense as we increasingly spend a lot our pc time on browser-based applications both at work and at play. Apps like GoogleDocs offer the ability to collaborate online on office documents whilst lifestreaming apps like Facebook and Twitter not only reside in the cloud online but integrate nicely with mobile phones and other devices as we send remote tweets and updates. An OS that can integrate all this effectively will have a significant impact, not just on us but on the way pc business works. Obviously Microsoft bases its business model on people paying for its software and services. Google operates differently as it primarily operates on an advertising-based model - Google merely wants to drive traffic to its various web-based services, ensuring maximal value in its ad space and therefore revenue.

 

Google therefore encourages people to use its services by offering them for free (or really cheap) as compared to Microsoft. Therefore Microsoft are the ones that stand to lose the most here. Obviously the impending launch of Windows 7 will be a massive cash cow for MS as it is highly anticipated and strong beta reviews have whipped up a storm of interest but it might be the last paid-for iteration of Windows.

 

Either way, it will be good for consumers - competition breeds innovation and in this rare instance it is also delivering massive price cuts...the key issue of concern is if Chrome OS will be any good...if it's not, they are in trouble.

The Ultimate Hack? Have a tinker with the global stock market..

Seems a disgruntled employee of Goldman Sachs, the massive global investment banking company that has dealings in oil, television (they own the CSI franchise), toll roads and many, many other areas, has been arrested for releasing code and details of the software that runs the company’s online investment process.

 

Apparently the software works at hyper-quick speeds, allowing the company to buy rising stock and sell it on quicker than other investment firms to other investors at a small premium. The difference is milliseconds but on such timespans and billions of small transactions and amounts, trillions of dollars are made. In essence the software allows Goldman to beat everyone else to the punch. Obviously the software is coupled with the fastest of hardware to make it work.

 

However, any potential hacker could skew the market by utilising even quicker hardware to get in ahead of Goldman Sachs to buy stocks and then sell them on to them, usurping their place in the pecking order, reducing Goldman’s revenue per trade and skimming a monumental profit out of the market.

 

And the size of this potentially devastating piece of code – about 32mb…yes global financial meltdown could be transported in the form of a cheap 2 cent memory stick. It actually is a fairly large piece of source code because it is ASCII but even so – 32mb can rule the world….very scary indeed…

 

To add further to this blackest of black hat stories, it seems there are rumours of a cover-up by the New York Stock Exchange, fearful of any interference with the liquidity of the trading process and potential customer confidence issues.

 

Reading like a very murky techno-thriller, complete with a shady Russian element, cutting edge technology, global crisis and oodles of money, this story has potentially massive implications, especially in these most delicate of global financial times…

Xbox 360 cleans up at E3

 

The Ninja is a big fan of the Xbox 360 and the recent E3 expo held in the US has seen an incredible number of impending arrivals for Microsoft’s console, both in terms of hardware and software, announced...

 

Top announcement and demonstration was surely the unveiling of ‘Project Natal’. Natal allows the gamer to control and interact with games using only their body – no Wii-like controller needs to be held or swung about, just your arms and legs! Not only does it pick up your body movements but it can recognise your face, facial expressions, your voice and can even recognise items like drawings. The possibilities are endless for game immersion – sports games would rock, first person shooters would take on a more visceral feel if you had to duck and cover when under fire. Imagine playing something like Far Cry, going feral, running up to a ledge and jumping to get across a ravine in to a group of enemies and then getting stuck in – fantastic! Apparently developer kits are already in the wild so it shouldn't be long before it lands. Imagine a version of Halo that could be controlled this way? WOW!

 

Beyond this incredible hardware development – a number of prominent game ips were unveiled including Metal Gear Solid Rising – the first MGS game for the 360 (featuring Raiden rather than Solid Snake), Crysis 2 and a new Halo game called Halo Reach. This marks a pretty incredible line-up featuring two of the biggest game franchises ever (Halo and MGS) and the first console version of probably the ultimate pc game (Crysis). The Cyborg Ninja is an obvious fan of the Metal Gear universe and to finally have the series coming to the 360 is mind-blowing!

 

All in all it was a pretty impressive unveil from the Microsoft stand!!!

The Hot List

Top ten tech that gets the Ninja’s current cloaked nod of approval…

 

1. Photosynth – software for analysing and interlinking photographs to create a virtual 3d space you can move around in.

 

2. Microsoft ICE – software for merging snapshots in to large scale panoramas and gigabyte sized images – just plain works and is awesome!

 

3. GPS-enabled photo tagging – Geo-tag images so you can plot them on a map. Well cool!

 

4. Xbox 360 Natal Project – control games using only your body. No controller, just your body movements! Gimme, gimme gimme!

 

5. HD Camcorders – simply awesome image quality in hand-held devices.

 

6. Touch screens – I never tire of these and Windows Touch looks sweet.

 

7. Netflix – we need this in the UK asap!

 

8. Windows 7 – lean, mean and just flat out works – roll on October 22^nd!

 

9. Nvidia Ion and Intel Atom – tiny but powerful pc architecture – one of these will be the basis for my next home theatre pc – just can’t decide which!

 

10. Windows Home Server – media streaming throughout the house, pc backups, remote desktop access and data security – job done!