Ramskov.org: February 2006

The joys of next generation DRM

The next generation of DRM (called HDCP) used for blue-ray and HD-DVD (the formats that are supposed to replace the current DVD format. These new formats will provide content in high definition, but formats will also be crippled with CRAP. The next Windows version (Vista) will require HDCP compatible systems to play content in high definition, otherwise, it will downgrade to a much lower quality.

The question then must be - is your PC HDCP ready? That answer appears to be a clear no. It seems that none of the graphics cards that are currently on the marked support it. I guess I'm not going to be watching any HD movies...

Update: Arstechnica has an update in this. Eventually, you'll be able to buy graphics cards that support HDCP, but there aren't any available yet. So what will the result be? Well, unless you buy a shiny new and expensive card, you'll not be able to watch high definition content legally, but the same content will no doubt be available illegally and that you WILL be able to watch...

What DRM is really for

So, you thought DRM was all about protecting content from the pirates? Think again. Arstechnica have a nice article about this lie. In reality, DRM is all about eliminating fair-use. what that legally bought DVD movie on your mobile player? Sorry, but we'd be happy to sell a copy that works nicely on your player.

EFF comments on AOL and Yahoo's plan to tax email

EFF has an excellent comment on their plans to start taxing emails.

Mohammed cartoons - how it all started

Not sure how many actually knows how it all started? Well, it may surprise you that it actually started with a childrens book to promote understanding between cultures.

The next revolution in data transfer!

A group of Israeli geeks have come up with a revolutionary idea for data transfers. It combines old and new technology in a fascinating and highly innovative way:

The system called SNAP (SNAil-based data transfer Protocol(, uses biological carriers, and, for the first time, taking advantages of the unique merits of the wheel for data transfer.

Funniest thing I've read in a while :)

The Mohammed cartoons

Being a Dane and not particularly religious, I'm quite surprised by all the anger those cartoons have caused. There is no doubt in my mind that this crisis has escalated far beyond the cartoons. The only ways this can have spread this far is because someone is using it to further their own agenda.

A group of Danish imams are most likely at least partly to blame for this. They visited various muslim countries and their religious leaders to get them to protest against the drawings. What really bothers me is that they spread a lot of misinformation. Apparently the original cartoons wasn't controversial enough, therefore the imams also showed 3 other pictures the newspaper didn't publish, pictures that are completely unrelated to this controversy. One of the pictures is a picture of a man from a pig festival (yes that apparently exists) that was wearing a pig mask. [Note: I don't know for how long that picture will be available there]

A Danish imam has also been caught saying one thing to arab television and something completely different to danish television right after. You have to wonder why such persons live here? If they really hate the freedom and democrasy that much, what are they doing here?

I hope that doesn't make me sound like a racist - I personally believe that our current imigration laws are way too strict and unfair, but I'm sad to say that certain political parties with such agendas have way to big influence in Danish politics today.

It is also nice to see that there's been peaceful demonstrations here in Denmark against the radical Danish imams to show that those imams don't have the support for all muslims living in Denmark. I honestly believe it is a small minority that is causing all the riots and trouble.

If you want to read a thorough and accurate article about this controversy, you should read Something Is Rotten Outside the State of Denmark. It is a nice overview of what has happened until now.

Web defacements - keeping your system updated

The current crisis about the muhammed drawings have made Denmark a big target in the online world too. Lots of danish websites (mostly personal or generally small) have been defaced in the last few days.

From what I've read most (if not all) of the defacements were done by either taking advance of known security bugs or because of weak passwords. I think the various content management systems should get better at being secure by default. There should be some default requirements for passwords (min. 8 characters and it should include both capital and lowercase characters and numbers).

The known security bugs is a different problem. How do you make sure your CMS is updated? How do the various systems handle that problem? If you have a webserver and install [insert random CMS] on it, then it will most likely be your responsibility to patch your system when a bugfix is released since these systems don't download and install the latest security fix themselves (of course, if the CMS comes as part of your linux distribution, then it will most likely be kept updated automatically). I bet many completely ignore this issue. How can this problem be fixed? I would say the first thing is to make sure the people using a given system will be made aware of any new security issues. Maybe make a strong suggestion to the people that download it to join the security mailinglist? Next up is the actual act of updating the system when a security fix is released. I believe the critical thing here is to make it very, very easy to do. I hope there is some focus on this issue in the CMS world.

Postage on email?

AOL and Yahoo will soon start using a system where you can buy you past their spam filters to make sure your mail reaches the recipient.

The Internet companies say that this will help them identify legitimate mail and cut down on junk e-mail, identity-theft scams and other scourges that plague users of their services. The two companies also stand to earn millions of dollars a year from the system if it is widely adopted.

I simply don't believe this is the real reason, it is just a lame excuse for earning more money and I think it's going to be a major failure. They will end up alienating many of their customers.

This news comes after some of the big telcos are warming up to kill the "network neutrality" of the internet. what they would like to see is that since they own the cables in the ground, the content companies like Google and Skype should pay to provide a "premium service" to their customers. It'll be interesting to see where this goes. I know I will get mad if my ISP starts on this. I pay for access to the internet and I want to decide myself what I use it for.

Update: Arstechnica has written about this too now.