I had a previous post about certain CDs from Sony that contained a rootkit. Today I saw an article on RedmondMag.com at http://redmondmag.com/news/article.asp?editorialsid=8175 that says Sony has settled the charges against them. If you have purchased one of their CDs and had a problem with removing the software you can be compensated up to $150 for your trouble. Sony BMG will also tell you before they do something like this again. They are also making tools available to remove rootkits.

Since I never purchased one of the affected CDs I can't really say if the settlement is fair but from the outside looking in I would have to say that it is more than I expected to see from them. I figured that after the initial reaction people would forget about it and the practice would go on. Hopefully this means that we will see an end to sneaky DRM. Now if we can just figure out a way to protect copyright without making the honest users jump through hoops or treat them like criminals, then we will have something.

I have to admit I am a little confused at the New York Times and their apparent lack of research. What I am referring to is the article at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/27/technology/27vista.html that is a report that rivals of Microsoft have called on the European Commission to block XAML because:

The group said Microsoft’s XAML markup language — which it said was positioned to replace the current Web page language HTML — was designed “from the ground up to be dependent on Windows.”

It seems to me that a little searching on XAML on the web would lead them to the WPF/E page at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/asp.net/bb187358.aspx that states:

“WPF/E” is the Microsoft solution for delivering rich, cross-platform, interactive experiences including animation, graphics, audio, and video for the Web and beyond. Utilizing a subset of XAML (eXtensible Application Markup Language)-based Windows Presentation Foundation technology, “WPF/E” will enable the creation of content and applications that run within multiple browsers and operating systems (Windows and Macintosh) using Web standards for programmability. Consistent with Web architecture, the XAML markup is programmable using JavaScript and works well with ASP.NET AJAX. Broadly available for customers in the first half of 2007, “WPF/E” experiences will require a lightweight browser plug-in made freely available by Microsoft.

I don't have a Mac so I can't test it but I would assume that if the statement that WPF/E runs on a Mac were not true the New York Times would also have pointed that out. In any case is should be easy for the EU to look at XAML and that it runs on more than one browser and more than one OS and decide that it is a new language/plug-in/applet/whatever they want to call it just like Flash, Java Applets, AJAX, or any other technology that runs in a browser and throw out the whole complaint or make the decision that anything that is not a W3C approved HTML standard is not allowed to run in the EU.

I know that Microsoft has done some things in the past that make it hard for others to compete in the marketplace but this does not seem to be one of them. I see WPF and WPF/E as a way for me to make better web pages. I hope that the politicians will stay out of the decision and let the market place decide whether or not WPF and WPF/E are useful technologies. 

According to news.com Microsoft is already planning for Vista service pack 1. I suppose that they have to with the long lead times for testing all the different hardware and applications but it seems a little strange to be asking businesses to nominate themselves for inclusion in the program before the commercial release of the product. It will be interesting to see what features are in the service pack and how soon it comes out.

<rant>
From a purely marketing perspective I think they should release service pack 1 about 10 days after the initial release. That way they could sell to all the people who say they won't buy or install Vista until the service pack comes out. And yes, there are those people out there.
The other day I heard someone say they weren't going to allow Vista on their network until the first service pack to fix the bugs. I wanted to ask them how come they thought that the same people who developed, tested, and shipped the original version would suddenly become so much better that they could trust the SP1 version any more than the original version but then I remembered the old adage about "If you can't say something nice...".
</rant>

If the speculation in the article is correct and the service pack comes out around 11 months after the release it should be available around October and hopefully in time to be pre-installed on new computers. That would be a blessing for all of the people who will be buying a new computer for Christmas so they don't have to spend the first few minutes on Christmas morning downloading the service pack.
I guess only time will tell.

Microsoft released version 1.0 of their AJAX framework named ASP.NET AJAX (fka Atlas) to the web. You can read the official announcement on Scott Guthrie's blog at http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/01/23/asp-net-ajax-1-0-released.aspx. 

As Scott explains in his blog the actual code along with samples, documents, and videos can be downloaded from http://ajax.asp.net.

As I was picking up my bag late last night at the airport I was noticing all of the junk that was left on the baggage carousel. Some of it was candy, odd bits of paper, and what looked like an elementary school student's homework. Among the odd items were at least 3 luggage tags with a person's name, address, and phone number. I got to thinking about my own bags that have the same information on them. I do it because I want the airline to be able to get my bag back to me when they loose it. And if you think they won't loose your bag all I can say is you are either the luckiest person in the world or have not traveled enough. I don't mind putting that information on the bag because it is all public information available on the Internet and countless editions of phone books.

I have been thinking about identity a little lately and I am planning on submitting a session on it for TechEd. One thing that is very interesting for me is how free some people are with their information. About 10 years ago I was complaining to a co-worker about how many web sites were starting to require an e-mail address to download trial versions of their software. He suggested that I open a Hotmail account for them. I did that and I have been putting all that junk mail into the account and signing into it occasionally to just make sure that I keep the account and to clean it out. Over the years I have noticed that I am not the only one who uses "my" e-mail account. Of course my wife uses it also but I also have some other "friends" who have decided to use it.

One of these people lives back east. I know they have a girl who is about 15 years old and is active in a swim team. I have figured this out from the e-mails that come for this girl and her parents. At first I tried responding to the sender telling them that they had the wrong address but they keep sending them. One of the senders has also been kind enough to include his address and cell phone number.

I also have 2 other friends. One who is sending their Delta Skymiles e-mail to me and the other who is sending his American Airlines account e-mail. In both of these cases if I decided to be malicious I could go in and request a password reset. Since the new password would be sent to me I could change it to whatever I want and then transfer their miles, request an award ticket, or even change their mailing address to somewhere else. Since I have not way of getting in touch with these people other than changing the password on their account and getting a physical address I am just hoping that they sometime have an interaction with the airline that will help them to correct their e-mail address.

I realize that just having a name and an address is not really enough to start identity theft (or more accurately identity fraud) on that person it is still a start and I could probably start targeting them off that information and figure out if they live in an affluent area or more details about their lives.

I guess maybe I am a little bit paranoid but as I am prone to say "better safe than sorry". If you want to become my friend and send all your personal e-mail into my account so I can blog about you as well please feel free to contact me and I will make sure to publicly berate you some time in the future.

I have been a little silent lately (I may be in danger of ruining my New Year's resolution of blogging twice a week or more in 2007) because I have been busy and the hotel I am staying in has had spotty wireless connections. What I wanted to talk about on this post is my new cell phone.

I went into the store and told them that I needed a phone without a camera. The nice lady there looked at me like I had 2 heads. I had to explain that I sometimes go to secure locations where a camera is not allowed. Unfortunately those same locations are the ones where I don't have a permanent land line and they tend to be far away from anything else so it is the perfect scenario for when you would *need* a cell phone if you had car trouble or just to check in and say that you are heading home in the middle of a storm and that your family should not worry.

I have service through Cingular and they only had 2 models in the store that didn't have a camera. One was a Blackberry and the other was the Nokia E62. On the whole I have liked the phone but I have some things I don't like. So here is my list of what I like and don't like:

Like:

• Screen: The screen is fairly large and bright. I have set the background as a picture of my children that was taken with my wife's camera phone (she doesn't have the same restriction) and it is easy to see even with the appointment and to-do information overlaid on it.
• Phone: This is a lot better phone than the LG one that it is replacing. To be fair the LG was the free model but it was hard to hear a lot of conversations where I haven't had a problem with this one.
• Form Factor: I have a blue tooth head set but I have also used my phone with it up to my ear and I like that the phone is small enough to be comfortable holding but also large enough that I can cradle it between my shoulder and ear when I need to jot down a quick note. I have also found that it does fit in my pocket when I don't want to wear it on my belt.
• Keyboard: At first I didn't think I would like the QWERTY keyboard but I have found that it is a lot faster to enter data and easier to figure out than the old phone where I would have to press the same key several times to cycle through the letters it represented.

Don't Like:

• Synchronization: For some reason when I synchronize with Outlook it will pull down appointments but when I go into view the details (notes in Outlook) they aren't there. If I add a new one it will replace it in both the phone and Outlook. That is not good for things like conference calls where the phone number is in the details instead of the location.
• Symbian OS: I was really hoping for a Windows Mobile 5.0 phone so I could continue to play around with mobile phone development. Unfortunately they all have a camera in them. I have no idea how to program for the Symbian OS and quite frankly I doubt that I will ever have the time.
• Belt Clip: I got the Cingular belt clip for free and twice I have had the whole thing come off my belt. Once was when I was picking up my backpack with the laptop in it and bumped the phone. The other was when I was getting out of my car. I think the seat belt caught on it but I am not sure. In both cases the phone didn't take a hard fall but it was kind of disappointing that it doesn't stay on better, especially considering the cost for the phone.

All in all I would have to say that I am satisfied with the phone. I don't think it has the cool factor that the BlackJack (the phone I really wanted) has but then again I have never really thought of a phone as a fashion accessory. That is one of the many reasons I will not be rushing out to get the iPhone (if Cisco doesn't stop it).