The Growing Threat of DDOS as a Weapon
The more we build business and economies on top of internet infrastructure, the more we are vulnerable.
I was reading today about yet more DDOS attacks (Distributed Denial of Service) on websites. A DDOS is a lethally effective way to take a website unavailable, and often requires expensive and specialist help to solve if the attackers are determined and skilled.
These latest events may be political, may be grass roots or might even be government sponsored. If anyone knows, nobody is telling. Fact is though it would be naive to think only one group, country or movement is looking at this as a useful tactic. You can bet every government has at least investigated it.
The aim of these attacks could be to knock the site out so it is unavailable, degrade the service, so the users go to a competitor, for example, or to hold the owners to ransom. If the attack is politically motivated a satisfactory outcome could be for the site to be unavailable in the attackers home country, either as an outcome of the attack or due to heavy handed remedial measures.
DDOS works by flooding the host computer with requests. This could be as simple as getting a story to the front page of Digg for weaker hosts, or by getting a large group of people to all descend on the site at an appointed time.
Obviously in the recent cases they were more industrial strength, for example in the TechCrunch report about SlideShare
We’ve been told that the attack reached a peak of 2.5GB/sec and consisted entirely of packets sent from China.
That’s a serious attack. This will have required a large network of computers, a great deal of bandwidth capacity, and lots of separate lines. A common approach is to use “zombie” computers, that is computers infected with malware so the remote operator can use the resources to perform the attack while the unwitting owner is fully unaware.
You can read more on the topic and more sophisticated approaches at Wikipedia.
The concern is not so much that this kind of attack happens, but more how easily it can be done, and that, other than some basic protection, there is not a great deal many companies can do about it.
While a good network security plan can fend off lower level attacks, a seriously funded group could do a huge amount of damage to even the best protected business. Beyond that, Governments around the world are putting their tentacles into ISPs under various guises, overtly and covertly.
How difficult would it be for a government or security service to launch an attack if they wanted to? I expect it has already happened more than once.
Could this be the commerce or political weapon of the future?
Asus Eee PC the Wave of the Future?
The latest gadget on my “I want I need” list is this little gizmo. The Asus Eee PC.
It might not look much but I think it is a vision of things to come.
While Apple was making big about their thinnest notebook, Eee PCs were delivering something equally remarkable, perhaps more so.
This machine comes in at just over £200, less (even as low as $299) if you are lucky enough to live in a more reasonably priced country and choose the base model.
It weighs just 2 pounds. I have books that are heavier and bulkier.
You see, for me, thin is not much of a selling point. Light is. Add to light cheap, and you have right there a winning combination.
For travelers, being able to pack power into a compact and light unit, delivering everything you need without going over your weight allowance or getting funny looks from the nice TSA folks, has real benefits. Even better having it at a low enough cost that you don’t convulse into panic every time someone waves their Starbucks over it.
The benefits don’t just end there. It runs Linux, hence the low price, but you can install XP if you have to. Wifi is built in, and has no hard drive so is power efficient. You can plug in external monitor and keyboard but the keyboard is well equipped for touch typing. Some models even have mic and webcam.
Of course the clones have arrived, but the Asus is still the leader. The question I have is how are Dell and Apple going to respond? This machine has found a niche in the market full of hungry consumers. Could it lead them to create an ultra compact and lower cost device to compete? You could argue the iPhone is kind of in that market but not quite.
I’m seriously considering buying one of these Eee PCs for my next trip in May, but I hear there is a 9″ screen model with 1024x resolution coming so I might just try and pick one up while I am there
Anyone used one of these bad boys? What is the user experience really like? Is it cramped or comfy? Please share in the comments …
Retro Gaming and Childhood Computing Memories
Todays BBC News article about the computer they sponsored, the BBC Micro, takes me back to my childhood. While the machines back then didn’t have the power or cool factor of todays gaming machines, at the time they had a deep and lasting impact on the people, culture and what we take for granted today was born out of those geeks and their machines.

The BBC did have a big impact in the UK, particularly in schools. It was too expensive for the average household so they released a more scaled down version. The only other time I can remember the BBC being so involved in something was when the internet was just starting to kick off they sponsored an ISP.
While I didn’t own a BBC Micro, or its smaller, cheaper sibling the Acorn Electron, I am a proud member of the micro computer generation. We started out with one of those TV Sports Systems then graduated to a Commodore Vic 20.
Do you remember those sports consoles? Basically put batteries in, plug into the tv and play variations of Pong. Glorious black and white boxy wonderfulness. Kept me happy anyway.

While other kids were already onto their second computers, usually the Commodore 64, we were just beginning with the Vic 20 as I turned (I think) age 9.
That little 3.5k beast had a profound influence on me. That and Star Wars made me the geek I am. Obviously I was jealous of the C64 kids, in particular my cousin Ian who would bring his over when he visited, but I was glad to own this little box of tricks.
Do any poll of geeks and the Commodore machines will rank highly. In other countries you will hear other names bandied as competitors. The TRS-80, the early Apple machines, but in the UK there was Commodore, Acorn, Sinclair and later, Amstrad.
The alternative to the Vic for us at the time was the Sinclair ZX81. It was a popular (and cheap!) machine but far more limited than even the Vic 20. Sinclair had a massive share of the UK market with their machines but if it took the Spectrum to build real popularity.
Starting with the ZX80 they had several versions of the Spectrum, 48k, + and 128k models, even a 16-bit machine, the QL. That QL was the first mass market computer based on the Motorola 68000, beating both Apple and Atari to the punch, but ultimately failing in the marketplace.
The logical upgrade path for the Commodore kids was the Amiga, a 16 bit powerhouse. They did in fact have other computers that are lesser know, the 64c and the 128. The Amiga had its biggest rival in the form of the Atari ST.
Acorn didn’t want to sit back and let Commodore and Atari take the whole market. They built their most powerful machine, the Archimedes. It didn’t set sales figures alight outside of the education sector, but the legacy of that ARM RISC work lives on in a multitude of products to this day.
Which computer did you start with? Do you remember home computing fondly? Share your memories in the comments …
Free Mobile Phone Calls?

My wife lost her phone recently so we have been on a hunt for a new handset. While I saw that phones could do Skype when I bought my n95, I didn’t think the feature was as widespread or as good value as it really is.
Talking to the phone shop guy we discovered on Three network Skype calls are completely free. Yup, you don’t pay even for the data. How does that work? A voice call over the internet has to be quite a lot of bytes. If they don’t charge for the call, and don’t charge for the bytes, all they are getting is your monthly subscription?
Well, regardless, we will take it!
For those people without smart phones, or with phones where Skype is not available, there is now a Skypephone
handset available.
When I travel those short “how are you doing?” calls add up to a princely sum. To be able to make them for free will be a big bonus. Add to that the fact that if I am not online she knows not to contact me or the other way round.
One shame is despite the phones and Skype being capable, there doesn’t seem to be a video option. That would be really cool. After a few days away from family it is nice to get to see them as well as speak to them. My daughter is old enough now to be able to tell me in detail how her day went but the pets in particular don’t talk very much, heh.
OK, lack of video I can understand, but for some reason from my n95 I can not initiate text chat. Seems a strange thing to be missing, especially as the screenshots at Skype.com seem to imply you can.
From our small tests the call quality seems just as good as using Skype from your computer but I would love to know your experiences, I worry if it is seems to good to be true then it just might have a sting hiding somewhere!
More UK Government Data Goes Astray
First there was the computer discs that “went missing” containing personal details of all families in the UK with a child under 16, now a Government laptop with potentially sensitive data has been purchased on ebay
Counter terrorism police are today investigating the discovery of a Home Office laptop and encrypted data disc - apparently bought on eBay….
With the statistics showing that nearly 500 government devices have gone missing since 2001, it was only a matter of time before a confidential disc inadvertently ended up on Ebay. Luckily, the public sector finally seems to be learning from repeated mistakes, as the laptop and disc were encrypted.
While the first data leak was unencrypted, thankfully some sort of encryption was used on this latest goof. What worries me is I have seen how some public sector employees behave in this country and believe me, I wouldn’t trust them with my coffee order let alone my private data. What is going to happen when all data is centralized around an ID card system?
People say “if you are innocent you have nothing to fear”. The people on those disks and this laptop, and goodness knows how many other leaks, were innocent but they DO have something to fear. Identity theft and future credit problems.
Why AppleTV Will Fail. Again.

When I first heard about Apple TV I thought it sounded pretty cool. Then I found out what it actually was, and thought “Ah well, pretty lousy but hey, it’s version one.”. We now get to know the news from Macworld and anticipation was high, along with the new video rental service. This could be what we were looking for! Sorry, no joy.
What would you expect from a TV device? Tivo-like functionality? Media Center capability? Storage? Apple TV has none of those things. Sad, but true.
Yes, it has a hard disk, but the device is like an over-sized iPod. It’s depends on your computers iTunes library. It can’t record, doesn’t have a digital or analog tuner. Heck, it doesn’t even play DVDs.
So it is just one more box and not a very smart one at that.
“But” Mr Jobs would say “We now have our video rental service!”. And they do. And it is lame.
iTunes Rentals Good News
- Relatively Inexpensive - Compared to video rentals and pay per view it is not expensive, certainly inexpensive in relation to purchasing a new release DVD
- Instant Access - It’s nice that in theory you can hit a button and start watching, something you can’t do with torrents or rentals
- No Clutter - No DVD packages to store, no hard disk clutter (you don’t get to keep it even if you wanted to)
- Portable - Apparently you can start watching on one device and finish watching another, providing this happens within the alloted 24 hours
Bad News
- Old News Movies - Films will be released 30 days after DVD release. IE, when you will have either seen it already or have gone off the idea. DVDs in the UK already come out shockingly delayed compared to the USA theatrical release. Do they really think people will wait that long for a film they actually want to see? This leaves it a very long tail proposition and is mostly going to compete with cable/satellite viewing.
- Frustrating Limitations - Watch within 24 hours of starting sounds fair until you realize one of the reasons I stopped renting movies (other than the “old news” point above) was because of the amount of times I had to pay late fees. When you have a busy life and a child you don’t always get to watch a film in one sitting, if at all.
- Expensive - Looks reasonable at first glance but when you see these will not be new films and compare to supermarket prices for non top 10, it starts to look pricey. Remember you have only one chance to view, if you miss the 24 hour window you have to pay again. Keep in mind this service is not aimed at your parents, this is aimed at the Torrent Generation. Still look cheap?
- Missed Opportunity - The target audience for this has no incentive. No one I know wants one of these. Most talk is about a Linux or Mac Mini cobbled together media player. And I know lots of Apple fans. This smells of pandering to the big studios. Again.
Summary
What should they have done?
In an ideal world you should be able to use it as a true media center. It should have tuner and DVR capability. You should be able to sync your iPod directly with it and copy files over the network. It should be a safari-based browsing device. Yes, have rentals, but they should be new films and you should have a full 30 days to view as many times as you like. This isn’t pie in the sky, they could do this with the existing hardware and maybe a tuner ad-on.
That, I would buy.
Macworld Fanboy Frenzy
I am a Mac fan, but I don’t really understand what the big excitement is about Macworld. As I write this the Jobsnote has not started so any big news is yet to leak out, but still I do not expect to be as thrilled as lots of people are expecting.
What is it about Apple that has this impact on the media and public? Is it just the fanboys and journalists getting their underwear in a knot or are ordinary Jo and Joe public as fascinated? I doubt it.
Put it this way, there is unlikely to be a massive game-changing launch today. It’s not anticipated that something of the scale of iPhone will be announced. Of course if there is, and I am happy to be wrong in this case, all the speculation and frenzied breath-holding would have been worth it.
Let’s take a look at what is expected to be announced:
- Ultra-thin Macbook - Nice, but not something to queue in the rain for 24 hours for?
- Tablet - Meh, though iPhone touch interface might be nice
- iPhone-style networking - My Macbook already allows me to use my cell connection, but built in would be nice to have
- Apple TV + iTunes movie rentals - Even if they offered this in the UK, I wouldn’t be a customer. Meh, again
- Other stuff - DRM-free music, new displays, bigger iPhone … more Meh
Perhaps I am just losing my geekness. It had to happen one day.
Are you excited about Macworld? Why?
Domain Search Means Domain Registration at Network Solutions
“Domain Search Means Domain Registration at Network Solutions”
What do I mean by that headline? Suprisingly it means just that; if you do a search at Network Solutions to see if your chosen domain is available … they register it right away. That domain you were thinking about? It’s now theirs. All you can do is wait for it to expire or buy it from them. For your convenience. Much more expensively than your usual domain company.
Let me show you what I mean.
First we do a search …

… oh great, the domain is available!

Oh, but if you check … no it isn’t!

Try it in your browser …

Your idea, their domain. If you want it you can buy it back for up to three times the price of a normal domain registration.
My advice is to ask around your friends for recommendations of friendly and efficient domain registration companies and keep your domain ideas to yourself.
Being a Mac Guy One Year On

A year ago I bought my first Mac. Looking back on the year, my Apple-using experience was not at all what I had expected it to be.
My motivations for moving to Mac were twofold; 1) I was developing for Apache, PHP and MySQL, and 2) I received regular Microsoft operating system betas through my membership of their developers MVP program, and I didn’t like what I saw.
At the time I had struggled for a month to get my wifi network talking to Ubuntu with no joy. Really, had Ubuntu provided a store selling compliant hardware I might not have even tried the Mac. As it is, neither the Linux community (seemingly split evenly between extremely generous and helpful human beings and people who despise n00bs) nor network hardware retailers could help me. For a supposedly free operating system it was becoming expensive in time and money so I shot for the Unix-based operating system and hardware combination I knew would work; the BSD-based Macos.
The Apple Store experience was a joy. Without visiting other stores for comparison I have no way of knowing if this particular store is typical, but it was great going to a computer store with a nice non-pushy atmosphere and staff who actually knew about the products they were selling. Contrast this joyful experience with the grunts and extended-warranty pushing PC stores, it was an early indication that Apple had some things right.
I almost got sucked into the style over substance element of Apple fanboyism. Those iMacs do look lovely, don’t they?
While it took some getting used to the Mac way of doing things, one motivation to stick with it was Vista. Everything I had anticipated in the betas and early conversations came to pass. Vista sucks. My one Windows machine still runs XP. I haven’t even bothered trying to “upgrade”, and it makes me thankful for the Mac.
I had been using PCs since I was 15, I had grown up with the Microsoft way of doing things. Of course it was going to take some adjusting. Having said that, there is a lot said about Macs that isn’t true. While the operating system does seem more stable, software crashes just as often, especially Firefox. I don’t always find it any more intuitive than Windows, some things such as getting peripherals to work are actually easier on Windows as of course the manufacturers will put more effort into pleasing the larger customer base.
Using the Mac has been fun. I have found though many Mac fan-boys are quite strange, as you would expect, but it is funny the negative reaction I get lugging my Macbook around airports. You see, I own the cheaper white Macbook, not the nice shiny silver pro model. At the same time I get snorts of derision for owning an Apple emblazoned laptop, I get the “Oh, it’s only that one” talk from the Apple snobs. I have even been told that the model I own is for girls, whatever that means.
That said, while Vista is still a mess and Linux is beyond my meager nerd skillz I am happy to stick with the Mac. It seems according to CNET I am not alone in jumping ship …
According to a recent study by research firm ChangeWave, Apple’s Macintosh line of computers is well on its way to gaining a sizable portion of the computing market in the coming months.Polling customers about their computer buying preferences over the next 90 days, ChangeWave found that 29 percent of respondents claimed they would be buying a Mac over that period, while 24 percent will buy HP desktops and 31 percent will buy Dell desktops.
Amazingly, just two years ago, only 16 percent of respondents indicated that they would plan on buying a Mac notebook, while 11 percent claimed they would buy a Mac desktop.
But perhaps most important, Tobin Smith, founder of ChangeWave pointed out that, “these are not just the Mac-heads who are buying.” And most consumers (24 percent) are choosing Macs because of Leopard and their distaste for Vista.
The last point is particularly telling in my opinion. As I mentioned before, I grew up with Microsoft software. Microsoft has been a huge part of my career, up until a few years ago their .NET platform was crucial to my employment potential. Now the only Microsoft product I use is Word.
By no means am I a Mac power user. I can still work the PCs most geeky innards far better than I can the Mac. In fact I still feel completely square one with the Apple machine. Tiny issues like inserting a CD but not being able to see it in finder, or finding I can’t pick up a supposedly wide open wifi hotspot, leave me stumped. For all Apples trumpeted ease of use, I find Microsofts help documentation more helpful.
I have to think while many people are pointing to Steve Jobs as the savior of Apple, I think in large part Microsoft handed success on a plate by fouling up Vista. Had Vista launched in a vacuum we would have had to have taken what was on offer, but by launching a sub-par and over hyped OS into a world that was already looking to Apple favorably, it could have been a major blunder.
Microsoft could still reset their course. For all the headlines, Apple hasn’t made that great inroads into the PC market, and for all the hype, the latest upgrade to Macos didn’t exactly set the world alight. There is only the backup software that appeals to me, not that much of a step up is it?
Let’s not forget either the growth of Linux on the desktop and the flood of cheap Linux-based computers threatening to take over the bottom end of the home market, even Walmart got in on the act!
It seems the next decade could be any for the taking. Which is all good. Keeps techy life interesting!
