Category: Technology

Gilmore's 15 reasons not to trust Apple's crypto claims

Apple FaceTime and iMessage
From Apple’s Web site, this image shows the interface for iMessage on the left and shows what Facetime looks like in action on an iPhone or iPad.

For the most of the past decade, the posts at this blog have been mostly about politics — an unsurprising result of the fact that I began reporting from Parliament Hill in early 2005. But in the decade before that, I was a technology reporter, fascinated less by the finances of the industry than by its inventors and inventions, by its rebels, and by its deep thinkers. John Gilmore is an inventor, a rebel and — to me, at least! — a deep thinker. Made wealthy from his work at Sun Microsystems, Gilmore is one of the c0-founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and has long been a champion of the empowering possibilities of software, knowledge, and access to information.

This week, Apple got the (re-newed) attention of Gilmore Continue reading Gilmore's 15 reasons not to trust Apple's crypto claims

My first-ever tweet and, 50,000 tweets later, some other meditations on Twitter

50,0000

Some time on Tuesday, I expect I will send out my 50,000th tweet. Seems like a lot when you look at a big number like that. But then, this is post number 3,743 at this blog and these posts are way longer than 140 characters. So when I think about it,  3,743 blog posts sounds like way more work than 50,000 tweets.

In any event …

Continue reading My first-ever tweet and, 50,000 tweets later, some other meditations on Twitter

Network management geeks: Dad needs help!

This post is a plea for help from smart network administrators/geeks and/or Bob Metcalfe:

Like a lot of dads, I’m the on-site technical support for my household and while that job used to just involve keeping software updates fresh on a single desktop computer, dads like me now have a whole clutch of computers and other gadgets (DVD players, refrigerators, tablets, laptops, TVs, cameras)  — all of which have IP numbers — and all of which are used by any one of four family members to gobble up bandwidth. Like a like lot of Canadians who get their Internet service from a major cableco/telco, I have a bandwidth cap. Exceed the cap and the Akin household pays through the nose. That makes the Akin household’s Accounts Payable Manager (my wife) very unhappy with On-Site Technical Support (that would be me.)

So I need help. Let me describe the genesis of today’s plea for help: Continue reading Network management geeks: Dad needs help!

Huawei's problem? It ain't the secret backdoors but wide-open front doors

Huawei sales booth in China
Photo: Reuters/Stringer

Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei is under fire, as colleague Jessica Murphy reports:

Huawei sells mobile technology to companies that include Bell Canada, Telus, Wind Mobile, Sasktel and Ice Wireless, but has come under intense scrutiny following a recent scathing report from a U.S. congressional committee outlining cyber-espionage concerns with Huawei and another global telecom company, ZTE.

Meanwhile, at a conference in Asia for computer security and IT types, Continue reading Huawei's problem? It ain't the secret backdoors but wide-open front doors

Google goes north — waaay north

Google Street View Team in Cambridge Bay
Canadian Googler Mike Pegg peddling the Google bike through Cambridge Bay, Nunavut (Google handout)

I think this is terrific. While Google has sent those little Google cars with the camera balls attached to the roof to photograph the streets capes of most of urban North America, it’s just now getting around to collecting the visual data to do Street View for Canada’s north. Google “cars” aren’t practical north of 60 where the only way you get vehicles in and out is by barge and so Google has shipped Google bikes by air equipped with the camera balls. Great idea.  Continue reading Google goes north — waaay north

India's government moves to take control of the Internet

The government of India moves to take control of the Internet’s plumbing in that country, a troubling development that could have repercussions not only for that country’s digital development but perhaps also for the Internet in the rest of the world.

India’s proposal could prove controversial for multi-stakeholder communities within the country and across the world, since it entails moving away from the prevailing democratic ‘equal say’ process for internet governance to one in which governments would be front and centre, receiving advice from stakeholders and deciding the way forward.

Read the piece: The Hindu : News / National : India’s proposal for government control of Internet to be discussed in Geneva.

The head of Google News on the future of journalism, objectivity, and everything else

Richard Gingras is the head of Google News. Here’s one of the many interesting things he had to say about journalists during a recent talk at Harvard’s Nieman Foundation:

We need to reconsider our missions and our ethical guidelines (in terms of behaviors and audience engagement, not core ethics), and the concept of objectivity. Richard sides with transparency in this debate and believes readers place their trust in the individual online rather than the brand, and expects reporters to be transparent about their views. He doesn’t buy the opaque objectivity of yore where reporters said, “Trust us,” and consumer opinion surveys bear this out. Continue reading The head of Google News on the future of journalism, objectivity, and everything else

Hoeppner celebrates death of gun registry, defends lawful access bill

Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner was in the spotlight today. First, third and final reading of the bill that will kill the long-gun registry passed the House of Commons. Hoeppner has been at the “face” of Tory attempts to kill the bill  for the last couple of years. Second, as parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Public Safety, Vic Toews, Hoeppner has had to defend the controversial “lawful access” legislation, Bill C-30. (I’m not a fan). Continue reading Hoeppner celebrates death of gun registry, defends lawful access bill