a-cubed.info

I’m planning to try and blog a bit more in 2012. I wrote very little in 2011 due to various personal circumstances leaving me with little time for this kind of thing. One thing I’ve decided to do is to try and write a little something on each book that I finish reading, both fiction and non-fiction. The first non-fiction is coming up very soon.

A Cthulhu Knit Cap.

I have been watching the emerging news about the activities of the News of the Screws with some horror. While I knew that the journalists and editors working for Murdoch generally and the tabloid rags specifically were quite lacking in ethics, I hadn’t quite realised the despicability to which they had descended, typified by the emergence of allegations that they had hacked into the mailbox of missing (later discovered murdered) Milly Dowler and even deleted messages on her voicemail because it was full and they wanted to hear more frantic messages from her family and friends worried sick that something serious had happened to the poor girl, as it turned out it had.

My sinking feeling is further deepened by the fact that this utterly egregious lack of any sense of proportion on behalf of the so-called journalists at this now blessedly defunct rag (though as many have commented the gap in the market it leaves will no doubt be filled by another publication from Murdoch’s odious empire soon enough) will serve to chill the borderline cases where the public interest truly is served by obtaining information via technically illegitimate means. The Telegraph’s exposure of MP’s expenses fiddles is a good case in point. The expenses information they obtained and published were clearly gained in violation of both law and civil service regulations. However, the public interest (not the prurient attntion of the public but the over-riding benefit of lack of corruption in elected representatives) should in such cases be allowed to over-ride the technical illegality of the act involved in gaining the information. Sort of a reverse “fruit of the poisoned tree” argument – where the resulting information should be disclosed in the broader public benefit, any illegaility in obtaining it should be forgiven in the balance. Without such balance in the laws despotism and tyranny can flourish under the cover of the chilling effects of personal liability for obtaining information illicitly. This requires those with the possibility to exert this defence to act with care and strong ethics in only pursuing information truly in the public interest, for example health information about a minister might be fair game if those health problems are being concealed and potentially impact their ability to do an important job. Health information about their baby children is NOT fair game – no matter how much I disagree with Gordon Brown on policies and whether he was a suitable candidate for Prime Minister, I feel great sympathy for what he had to go through with the press intrusion into the health of his young children.

I agree with others that it is time that the Press Complaints Commission was given a proper statutory basis and independence from the industry it is supposed to regulate, but also from the government whose interests may diverge from that of the public at large in individual cases. A difficult but not impossible task.

From a talk by Anna Ronkainen of the University of Helsinki, at GikII VI:

Zombie = Human – Consciousness

(The philosophical definition of a zombie.)

However, some regard consciousness as an illusion, so all humans are zombies!

Program

I am (well, was by the time I finished editing this) currently at the Security and Human Behaviour conference at CMU in Pittsburgh. Here are my live notes from the presentations. (more…)

As Anderson discusses in his Security Engineering book, debates on fredom of information about security devices, starting with locks and keys, have been around for centuries. The latest salvo in this is the US (Massachusetts State Legislature and US Federal Congress) legislative proposal sometimes referred to as the “right to repair”. This proposal is about ensuring competition in the car servicing maintenance and repair market. In recent years, somewhat like the printer manufacturers and their attempts to prevent refilling of ink cartridges or the use of third party cartridges in their printers, car manufacturers have been addding in anti-features to the electronics running inside their cars. These electronics, which minutely control many aspects of the engine operation, will refuse to recognise parts from thirrd party manufacturers annd use proprietary data access protocols and encryption keys to prevent access to the diagnostic data that allows mechanics to know which parts need cleaning/repairing/replacing. Without access to these protocols independent garages can’t work on modern cars. As Roberrt Charette points out, the age old issue of access to information being a security risk is raising its head again as roups like the police and insurers are claiming that making it a right for people to access information about the things they own also gives thieeves access to information which helps them. As Anderson pointed out, there are enough smart thieves out there, and there are enough people with access to the information anyway that it’s not a security feature to not make it more generally available. As well as claiming that thieves and their associates could use this information to steal and re-process more cars, there are claims that this would allow more counterfeit parts on the market. All these claims are the standard mistakes about security by obscurity. Enough people already have access to this information that any criminal or counterfeit parts manufacturer can already get it. The restriction of access to this material is simply a matter of placing extra barriers in the way to a competitive marketplace. Indeed, the belief that such restrictions inhibit counterfeit parts increases risk by introducing a false sense of security. (True counterfeit parts are indeed a problem as they may not be subject to the correct safety testing and/or customers may be paying over the odds for what they beleive are quality parts which are shoddily manufactured.)

The Stross effect is when a science fiction or techno-thriller writer is writing a near-future piece and before the book is published (sometimes before it is finished and submitted to the publisher) real world events catch up with or even overtake the fiction. I recently posted about a paper I’d submitted to a journal. That submission is still under review. In the paper I talked about the recent case where a school pupil sitting the exntrance exams at various Japanese universities was using an iPhone on his lap to post queries about the questions to online Q&A sites. I also talked about the development of wireless Internet connectivity and very discrete cameras that will make it much easier for people to cheat in closed book exams. And before the paper has even been reviewed we have such a report.http://tinyurl.com/3fcmmu6.

Of course my background as a science fiction fan had an influence on my decision to move from my original research field of computer mathematics into information ethics. This new professional interest has been reflected back in my personal social life, in particular in appearances on panels at conventions discussing surveillance in fiction and reality and other information ethics topics. I’ve wanted to bring the SF into the professional side for a while but saw few opportunities, other than the GikII conference. Last year I put a lecture on Surveillance in Science Fiction into my Information Ethics module, including setting one student an essay on this topic. This year I’m doing the same with the Information Society module – though only because the one student taking that module this term is studying American Literature as their main course and as they’re the only student I can adjust the content somewhat to suit the student’s background. I’ve managed to stick another little bit of SF into another of my modules as well. In the session on digital entertainment in the Social, Legal and Ethical Aspects of Computing module, which includes video/computer games as well as TV and other digitised entertainment, I’ve set the discussion topic (which leads to a student presentation and essay) on Alternate Reality Gaming and hence set Halting State by Charles Stross and This Is Not A Game by Walter Jon Williams as follow-up reading.

While revising my lectures for the coming academic year I had some thoughts about the shape of economics in the Knowledge Economy that I thought I’d put down. These are just some initial ideas, not fully worked out. (more…)

My local swimming pool re-opened again today. It had been closed for the last ten days to help save power. Even now it’s only open until 18:30 each day. The Sumida City Gymnasium in nearby Kinshichou, which I go to on Tuesday when my local pool has its weekly closure day, has now re-opened its pool as well (repairs were needed to the adjustable pool floor which was damaged int he earthquake). It closes at 18:00 each day. I’ve been ill with a really bad cough for the last ten days anyway so probably would not have been able to swim during most of this period. I did my usual 50 lengths in just over 30 minutes – a little slower than standard but only just, so not bad after ten days off and while still a little under the weather. So, back to the exercise and diet regime now that I’m mostly well and that the pool is available again.

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