links for 2005-11-19

• Easiest way to post del.icio.us to MT Powered blog | Kevin Wen’s Web
• Micro Persuasion: Ten Blogging Hacks

The evil that is Sony

Okay, I won’t really do commentary on this since so many people have been talking about this for several days now (an eternity in the Internet world). If you aren’t aware, a programmer named Mark Russinovich discovered that “copy protection” (DRM) software placed on some of SonyBMG-produced CDs installs a rootkit to “protect the software” itself. The reality is that a rootkit may be one of the most evil things you can install on a person’s computer– it’s essentially a piece of software that can conceal all traces of certain activities on a computer. As you can guess, this is a tool often used by hackers and virus writers to hide their activities once they’ve gained access to a machine. The term comes from the fact that the software is usually a recompiled set of Unix commands that allows the intruder to act as “root” (the super user on a system with all rights and permissions in all modes) without being detected even by the system administrator. Although the term stems from Unix, rootkits exist for a number of operating systems, including Windows. Evil, isn’t it?

On top of that, once Sony was outed, they offered a Web-based uninstaller for the rootkit. However, if you were to use the Sony-provided uninstaller, it would leave a security hole open on your computer that could be easily exploited by a mailicious user (i.e., hacker). Again, evil, no?

In any case, I thought I would post on this for those people who might read this little blog and who might have not been paying attention to the Sony DRM fiasco because they didn’t readily understand words like “DRM” and “rootkit.” If you consume music, if you use a computer, this is an important thing for you to be aware of and to learn about. In my mind, in the name of balancing the demands of fair use and copyright, Sony took advantage of a malicious technology because the average person could not understand it, much less detect it. Of course, what really amazes me is that in among all of the software engineers, product managers, and others who were involved in the development of Sony’s DRM software, not one person thought that this was a bad idea? There most likely was and I’d be interested to see if one of those people could give some insight into the origins of this fiasco, to help us make sense of this ridiculousness. Maybe that lone voice of reason lost his job or took some cash to shut up or was forced to sign an NDA or other confidentiality agreement over it, but I’ve got a feeling that if he was brave enough to talk now, I’m sure many would be interested in what he had to say and I bet some would even champion him for getting out the truth.

For more info on this whole thing, review Russinovich’s original post on his discovery as well as Ed Felten’s ongoing commentary, including Alex Halderman and his analysis of the security hole caused by Sony’s uninstaller and their proof-of-concept exploit.

An interesting experiment

I’m watching the West Coast broadcast of the live debate episode of The West Wing– from what I understand, Jimmy Smits (as Democratic presidential candidate Congressman Santos) and Alan Alda (as Republican presidential candidate Senator Vinick) were given position papers and extensive background on their characters to prepare for the debate. That is, they’re participating in a live episode as if they were actually their fictional counterparts. So, rather than this live episode being an exercise to see whether dramatic actors can do a live performance of a prewritten script, it’s an experiment whether two dramatic actors can improvise a political debate– something even real-life candidates barely do.

The West Wing is a great show for many reasons, but one of the most interesting ones is that although they have focused on a Democratic White House for over six seasons, that even if you don’t necessarily agree with the policies and ideologies championed on the show, when you watch The West Wing, you feel like those who work in government feel a sense of duty and, at the end of the day, truly believe they have the best interest of the country and the American people in mind. How close to the truth that really is, I don’t know, but as we watch the rest of the campaign this season, I can’t help hoping that Vinick will win the presidency and that we will get to watch a Republican West Wing. Because even though what side of the culture war I’m on is so very clear and my own distaste for the Republican party could hardly be greater, I think showing a positive, uplifting Republican White House might not only be an interesting writing experiment for the West Wing writers, but an interesting experiement for the rest of us.

The episode is over now. I am slightly concerned that there might be people out there who will think that Smits and Alda are actually running for political office.

High-Tech Pest Control

High-Tech Pest Control

Originally uploaded by sindy.

A beehive seems to have fallen outside of the building I work in at Stanford. Upon closer inspection, they seem to be your standard European honey bees, but the queen is down there and all. Pest control was called yesterday and this morning, this is what showed up. Go figure.