Spam: Matthew Wilson at Boomer Consulting has been having a field day — it looks like some smart google hacking has thrown up some doozies of places that should have fixed this by now:
and my favourites:
Of course, all of these are immaterial to SpamAssassin — we catch spammers using them anyway. But still, a surprising number of these out there.
Tags: boomer, com, consulting, day, field, google, gov, house, microsoft, spam, webmasterworld
Politics: The massive opposition to e-voting without a VVAT by Irish Citizens for Trustworthy Evoting and others, has clearly got Minister Martin Cullen thoroughly needled.
As John Lambe points out here, in the Dail on Wednesday he stated that ICTE are ‘not experts in this field’, ‘have no expertise or international accreditation’, and best of all, he has resorted to the 21st-century equivalent of calling ICTE ‘reds under the bed’ — they are apparently ‘linked to the anti-globalisation movement’. Here’s a cut and paste from the online transcripts:
Mr. Bernard Allen, FG: Electronic voting is a good idea but this system has been badly thought through and public confidence has been badly shaken by a Government unwilling to listen to anyone but its own so-called experts. The Government has called the introduction of this system a step forward, a point reiterated by the Minister. I submit that it is a retrograde step based on insufficient knowledge on the use of technology. The Minister has a new toy and thought everyone would like it. They do not. The Irish Computer Society said: ‘Any electronic voting system must include a paper-based voter-verified audit trail.’ The Minister in his arrogance recently said these people were cranks and Luddites.
Mr. Bernard Durkan, FG: Are they cranks?
Mr. Martin Cullen, FF: They are linked to the anti-globalisation movement. The Deputy should check them out. They are all the same.
Mr. Allen: It is all a–
Mr. Cullen: If Fine Gael bases its policies on such people, it is no wonder it is in decline.
Mr. Durkan: The people concerned are computer experts.
Mr. Allen: We do not know what the Minister’s policies are and where he stands on any matter.
Mr. Paul Kehoe, FG: The Minister should know more about policy having been a member of more than one party.
Mr. Allen: Irish technology experts have told the Government its system must include a paper-based voter-verified audit trail.
Mr. Cullen: They are not experts in this field.
Mr. Allen: The Minister has made a serious allegation about genuine people–
Mr. Cullen: They are not accredited to anything. They have no expertise or international accreditation.
(Interruptions).
Mr. Michael Ring, FG: Fianna Fáil are experts on everything. They have filled every tribunal in the country.
Mr. Allen: The Minister has come to this House and–
Acting Chairman (Jerry Cowley, Ind): Deputy Allen should direct his comments through the Chair.
Mr. Allen: The Chair should ask the Minister to cease interrupting.
Mr. Cullen: Such comments are pathetic. It is no wonder Fine Gael is in such a disorderly state.
Mr. Ring: Fianna Fáil are the experts.
Acting Chairman: I remind Members that this is not a Committee Stage debate. We are dealing with Second Stage and I ask Deputies to allow Deputy Allen to continue without interruption, please.
Mr. Allen: The Minister has vilified people who cannot protect themselves.
Mr. Durkan: Outside the House.
Mr. Allen: The Minister should withdraw the allegation against–
Mr. Cullen: I have not vilified them. I said they are not accredited–
Mr. Allen: The Minister said they are linked to the anti-globalisation movement and suggested we should check them out.
Mr. Cullen: Yes, they are.
Acting Chairman: Deputy Allen, please continue.
Mr. Allen: The Minister should withdraw that allegation against people who cannot protect themselves.
Mr. Cullen: I will not.
Acting Chairman: Deputy Allen, please continue.
Mr. Durkan: The Minister has cast aspersions on people outside this House. In accordance with Standing Orders–
Mr. Cullen: I think they are proud of their links.
Mr. Durkan: On a point of order, the making of such an allegation is not in accordance with the Standing Orders of this House. Perhaps the Minister would like to comment.
Acting Chairman: The Chair has ruled on that matter.
Mr. Durkan: With respect, the Chair has no authority to rule on this matter. Standing Orders apply.
Acting Chairman: That Chair has ruled on the matter.
Mr. Durkan: No, I am sorry, I do not agree. On a point of order, the Minister has cast aspersions–
Mr. Cullen: I paid them a compliment.
Mr. Durkan: The Minister has cast aspersions on people outside this House.
Mr. Cullen: They will regard my remarks as a compliment, a badge of honour.
Tags: audit, field, government, icte, irish, politics, step, system, technology, trail, voting
eVoting: Are you an academic, or do you know any academics, working in the field
of computer science in Ireland? If so, you should consider signing, or
collecting signatures, on
this ICTE statement.
It’s eminently reasonable — ’since computers are inherently subject to
programming and design error, equipment malfunction, and malicious
tampering, we join with (the ACM) in recommending that a voter-verified
audit trail be one of the essential requirements for deployment of new
voting systems.’ (thx for the pointer, Simon!)
Tags: academic, computer, design, equipment, error, evoting, field, icte, programming, science, statement
Tech: ATAC: Abusable Technologies Awareness Center. Great panel weblog, with some of the big names in the research field, dealing with several security issues quite nicely.
Found from a link to Simon Byers’ 2003 roundup of information leakage, which notes an interesting case I hadn’t heard of – a TechTV presenter accidentally posting topless photos of herself, due to a bug in Photoshop!
(link via Liudvikas Bukys)
Tags: abusable, atac, awareness, center, field, link, panel, research, security, tech, weblog
Patents: One thing that gets pretty confusing when one investigates the whole patents/open-source/copyright protection field, is the nature of the term Intellectual Property.
What’s called ‘IP’ consists of three parts: copyright, patents, and trademarks. This extract from Harvard’s ‘Intellectual Property in Cyberspace’ series notes:
In the eighteenth century, lawyers and politicians were more likely to refer to patents and copyrights as ‘monopolies’ than they were to refer to them as forms of ‘property.’ … Thomas Jefferson was the most prominent adherent of this view, but many others shared his attitude to varying degrees. ….
Another, more general manifestation of the same trend has been the growing power of the phrase ‘intellectual property.’ Before the Second World War, use of the phrase as shorthand for copyrights, patents, trademarks, and related entitlements was rare. Since that time, it has become steadily more common. n105 Today, it is the standard way for lawyers and law teachers to refer to the field.
Why does the popularity of the term matter? The answer … is that legal discourse has power. Specifically, the use of the term ‘property’ to describe copyrights, patents, trademarks, etc. conveys the impression that they are fundamentally ‘like’ interests in land or tangible personal property — and should be protected with the same generous panoply of remedies. ….
Regrettably, the pleas by Cohen and a few others that judges jettison the concept of ‘property’ and frankly confront the public policy implications of protecting certain kinds of information fell largely on deaf ears. The ‘propertization’ of the field continued — and is now well-nigh complete.
It’s common to read commentary by outsiders — journalists especially – who conflate all three forms of ‘IP’, and therefore assuming that all three should be considered as ‘equal’ to physical property. In other words, they fall into this trap.
In reality, a trademark should have much more protection than a patent; copyright over ‘bits’ is not the same thing as physical ownership of atoms; the concept of the public domain is a whole lot different between ‘things’ and ‘bits’; there’s a difference.
To this end, this disclaimer from the UN World Summit on the Information Society is very significant; they’ve recognised these issues.
This working group has come to recognize that the term ‘intellectual property rights’ carries bias and encourages simplistic overgeneralization. Therefore this working group does not carry the name IPR. In particular, this group does not endorse the legal school of thought, which advocates that productions of the mind shall be treated in a similar way as real estate property. This legal doctrine implicitly backs the concept that copyrights should last for ever.
Nice work! (thanks to Russell McOrmond and Seth Johnson for noting it.)
Tags: copyright, field, intellectual, patents, phrase, power, property, protection, term, thing, use
The Field Guide To Spam, by Dr. John Graham-Cumming of POPFile; seems to be a continuation of his ‘Spammer’s Compendium’ talk at the Spam Conference. Lots of examples of filter-evasion tricks used in spam, with a brief description, example, and categorization.
Worth noting some SpamAssassin dogma here: these may seem to be a good way to evade filters. However, since they are tricks that spam uses, and non-spam mail does not, they then make excellent spam signatures – and the spammers effectively just give us yet another way to identify their spam. ;)
Hacking: 
Fusor.net is a community of mad
scientists amateur fusion researchers, building nuclear fusion
devices in their garages and basements. They’re not quite
self-sustaining yet, but they’re definitely working on it.
In the meantime, some pretty pictures of poissors, buggle jets, and fusion stars here. Thanks to Mr. FoRK for posting a link to this… amazing.
Tags: continuation, cumming, field, fusion, graham, guide, john, popfile, spam, way
The weblog of Justin Mason; incoherent ramblings about Apache SpamAssassin, anti-spam, perl, software development, and the web, from an Irish software developer.
The opinions expressed on this web site are my personal opinions, and do not in any way represent those of my employer.
