Robotank

A new toy from DARPA. A prototype unmanned armoured vehicle. Its potential is obvious – and it looks pretty cool too. Who knows – not to long from now maybe there won’t be any people on the battlefield? I won’t hold my breath…

Oh – those waggish WACs …

“I present to you an urgent and confidential request: I request your attendance at The 3rd Annual Nigerian EMail Conference. This is an excellent opportunity to meet your distinguished colleagues, learn new marketing techniques, and spend your hard-earned money. Attending this conference demands the highest trust, security and confidentiality between us”.

Seriously – people must be dumb as a post to be sucked in by Nigerian mail (now e-mail) scams. But still the scams persist – and succeed – in recruiting more “post” brains. You do have to admire the patience and persistence of the scammers – I swear every e-mail they send is hand drafted. Surely they have to be – no computer could spell that bad!

(WAC = West African Crime)

Protection through transparency

Perhaps the answer to misuse of identity is to cease trying to protect it? Maybe personal information shouldn’t be private. If the companies and government agencies that relied upon identity validated and authenticated it properly, maybe this approach would work. Why does the onus of proving it wasn’t actually you who incurred that debt fall upon the identity holder?

This short piece suggests US Social Security Numbers (SSNs) should not have to be protected, and the continued insistence they are personal and private and should be kept secure just makes the situation worse.

I am somewhat inclined towards this view … in theory. Unfortunately, I suspect it is somewhat utopian. Good luck trying to convince (in particular) the financial world that it is their fault for being defrauded. I guess the best explanation of this issue was one put forward by Bruce Schneier in his blog. While it is necessarily a very controversial view I find myself drawn to it.

It simply goes like this. “Identity theft is a bad term. It puts the blame and responsibility upon the identity holder. In reality the crime is fraud against a particular organisation, agency or institution. The fact the crime was perpetrated using a person’s identity should be of no concern to the identity holder. It is the problem of the entity who was defrauded. Why should the identity holder have anything to do with the result, especially as they usually had no way to prevent it happening?”

Of course, its all about the money. No company wants to accept responsibility for being defrauded. Far better to push it back on the poor old identity holder.

The problem with this argument is I can’t prove it yet. It makes perfect sense to me, and I like it, but that isn’t quite enough to launch what will amount to an attack upon the significant institutions who have a vested interest in opposing it.

We offer anonymity – oh, wait, whoops …

This article is a relatively dry but otherwise good examination of an emerging topic – how web sites deal with anonymous users and why they need to address this issue. Many web sites interact with users or members who are anonymous and unregulated. Often this is a major factor in the user’s decision to participate. However, now awareness is rising about the potential for misuse and abuse by users, and the problems that may result.

“Many popular websites such as Wikipedia offer little differentiation between the experience and tools available to registered users and to anonymous visitors. Many active users of such websites may, therefore, be virtually unknown to their hosts. As most party hosts knows, it’s usually the people who just “show up” and that you don’t know who can create the biggest headaches.”

It amuses me that the community traditionally most obsessed with anonymity is starting to wake up to what some of us already know – its all good fun until somebody loses an eye …

Shantaram – my five cents

I finally managed to finish 933 pages of Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts (ISBN 1 92076920X). Now I commend it to you. It is the first book by this author and claims to be autobiographical, although interestingly enough it is catalogued as Fiction. Mind you, Roberts is an Australian so that seems quite reasonable.

However, throwing caution to the wind and assuming it is, indeed, factual, Shantaram is a detailed and fascinating introduction to Bombay, India. In particular this book is set in the Bombay most visitors are unlikely to experience, never mind understand.

Shantaram picks up the author’s life as he touches down in Bombay on a false New Zealand passport, having formerly escaped an Australian prison whilst serving a sentence for heroin addiction motivated armed robberies. Our anti-hero is on the run and has chosen Bombay as a refuge. By a combination of his open and accepting personality and some small good fortune Roberts slowly becomes an established part of Bombay. He befriends locals, learns the languages (and more importantly the culture) and eventually takes up residence in a Bombay slum where he quickly becomes a free medic for his neighbours.

Things really become interesting as Roberts develops from a fairly discreet street fixer into a member and eventually trusted lieutenant of a branch of the Bombay “mafia”. Along the way he spends some time in a Bombay prison, works as a smuggler, counterfeiter and black marketeer, and tops it off with a smuggling trip into Afghanistan in the middle of the war with the USSR.

This book was lent to me because of the detailed descriptions of the sophisticated identity document counterfeiting operation the author became involved in. However, while the details of those and other criminal activities were interesting, ultimately I was most impressed by the insights into Indian culture and life, and most of all the culture and daily life in the slum Roberts lived in for some time.

The slum is revealed for something far more than what I ever imagined. It is quite clear from the outset this is exactly the sort of pestilential hell hole we have all seen on TV – plastic sheets and cardboard boxes for structures, streams of excrement running down the middle of the street and poverty and sickness throughout. But, at least in the author’s experience, the occupants and their dwellings were spotless, hospitable and unified with an informal social structure. Even more fascinating, a place in a slum was actually much sought after and a step up for the many thousands who live literally on the street. Daily life in the slum was hard, but also full of laughter and love and life – food was cooked well and many people spent most of their day happy.

A further surprising gem was many of the slum inhabitants had relatively good jobs and sources of income, leaving their slum dwelling every day to go to work. They simply couldn’t afford to live elsewhere, but were not necessarily without income. And the piece de resistance was, I think, that despite a major part of the slum dwelling existence involving criminal activity and theft of essentials, within the slum itself nobody stole from anybody else – security being impossible anyway when your door consists of air or a sheet – nobody stole.

Roberts has a readable turn of phrase and a vivid descriptive style, albeit tending towards the over dramatic at some points. He also periodically descends into doleful introspection laced with considerable guilt about his (many and varied) sins – however these are usually placed at the end of many chapters and easy to skip over. Predictably he spends a good deal of tree pulp assuring the reader of the honourable and admirable aspects of organised career criminals. I personally didn’t empathise with that sort of line – its old news and it always has been and always is self serving fiction.

Despite these criticisms I do recommend this book for two reasons – firstly it is genuinely a good (if somewhat overlong) read and secondly because it should make you look at Indian culture, and particular aspects of third world culture, in a different and perhaps more sympathetic light. At least it had this effect on me, and expanded my understanding of a place and people I formerly had little knowledge of or interest in.

It certainly makes me want to go there.

Always thinking about Power

“A large populace held in check by a small but powerful force is quite a common situation in our universe. And we know the major conditions wherein this large populace may turn upon its keepers -
One: When they find a leader. This is the most volatile threat to the powerful; they must retain control of the leaders.
Two: When the populace recognises it’s chains. Keep the populace blind and unquestioning.
Three: When the populace perceives a hope of escape from bondage. They must never even believe that escape is possible!”
Herbert, Frank, “Children of Dune“, 1976, Great Britain, p. 104.

However, one could add that populations have an uncanny knack of removing leaders who do not eventually achieve the basic desires of that populace; nourishment, shelter, entertainment. There are some things a populace cannot be fooled about – an empty stomach, cold or heat, unhappiness. Of course these states are relative – the human state is always relative – but within its own scale a populace can be aware.

It is all to tempting to ascribe mindlessness to the masses, merely because they are many. Accident and individual should not be discounted, but very rarely in history can events be ascribed purely to the desires and directions of the powerful. The great, communal hordes always have a say.

Those that credit the rise of the Third Reich and its policies simply to Hitler’s leadership foolishly ignore the social and economic climate not only allowing that perverted genius to have his way but actively pushing the Reich down its ill fated and evil road.

The ultimate error of the powerful is to forget from where their power arises.

Power is truly in the people, the malleable, stupid, blind but infinitely hungry people.

What is in a name

If it wasn’t for a desire to avoid clumsy repetition of the blog title I would call this entry “Who goes there?” This link is a news story about a man in the United Kingdom who has been arrested and convicted of assuming the identity of a dead child. The unusual (although certainly not unprecedented) aspects are firstly his wife’s complete ignorance of his assumption of a different persona (she married him after the event – twenty years ago) and secondly his refusal to admit his real identity.

The obvious conclusion is he has something to hide – and probably does – but in the apparent absence of any evidence to link him to a prior identity what he is hiding may never come to light. His motivation is secondary to the focus of my discourse. The point of interest to me is who he is now.

I assume this unknown man has been charged under the assumed alias he has offended in respect of, in absence of any other identity to use. If he continues to deny others his true identity details, then to all intents and purposes he remains who he has already lived as for two decades. Despite the fact he has misrepresented the world as to assuming the identity of a dead child, and presumably caused the family of that dead child some anguish, he will remain known to the world under that name.

This appears to undermine the primacy of names as the definer of individual identity. Of course, if we think about it few people would be comfortable defining themselves simply in terms of a name. Almost all of us can formally change our name or even legally adopt aliases (in many contexts). But names have developed into a ready and efficient way to identify individuals in society. It would be extremely difficult to operate and interact within our current society without reliance on names for identity. It is clear to me, however, that examples such as the story above indicate some fundamental limitations upon the name as a unique identifier.

In addition to the aforementioned potential for persons to simply adopt a new name (usually best effected in concert with a change of birth date details) there are several other immediate issues with names as identifiers.

One is the legitimate and oft times unconscious variation of existing names. This occurs commonly when people use or are referred to by shortened or modified versions of their names – for example interchanging “John” and “Jonathon” or all the numerous shortenings of “Elizabeth” (Eliza, Liza, Liz, Beth, Libby, Bet, Bettie to name but a few). There is also the use of a preferred “middle” name rather than the given name normally adopted.

A second set of problems arises in a multi-cultural society when naming conventions differ across cultures. In many Asian cultures the family name is usually delivered first, and the given name second. This, of course, can cause confusion especially when terms such as “first name” are commonly used. A more difficult challenge is the development of names in some cultures over time in accordance with events, changes in relationship or status that result in new or varied names appearing within the set of words the holder uses to identify themselves. This is common at least in some Polynesian cultures.

A further challenge arises when a culture has no tradition of fixed naming conventions whatsoever. This traditionally occurs in some Arab cultures, where a person’s name may never include a constant such a “family” name, but may include variables such as a name of a honoured or favoured relative, friend, important figure, religious reference (such as a reference to the Prophet) or even nickname. And there is no prohibition against dropping or adding to such names throughout life.

A third problem arises with the translation of names, especially into written language. It is little understood that there is no universally agreed upon translation of Chinese writing into written English. Existing translations are a phonetic rendering of the spoken word into alphabetic English. Variations dialect occur, as well as variations of the correct phonetic rendering of sounds. Therefore I have seen the former leader of the Peoples Republic of China called Mao T’Sung, Mao Tesung, Mao Tezung and Mao Zedong. I have been assured there is no mistake with any of these!

So, where to from here? So what? Well, this little taster provides an introduction to what I intend to be an ongoing examination of issues surrounding identity and its use in our society. What I am quite sure about at present is I do not have answers to any of the apparent problems raised here. I am not even sure if they are truly problems, although I do know these issues result in difficulty throughout certain aspects of our society. What I am quite sure about is this stuff makes your brain hurt. Big time. And pain shared has got to be pain relieved. So come share some – it’ll be fun.

Dr Tom

I never knew Hollywood stars were so clever. Heh.

I want Midget Lion Fighters!

Some myths and illusions are too good to shatter, and life is a little less when they are; Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Peace on Earth and Lion Fighting Cambodian Midgets, to name but a few. In a world where we think we are much smarter than ever before (although sometimes don’t act it) media such as the world wide web make the chance of perpetuating untruths increasingly unlikely.

I think that’s right, isn’t it? The information age and instantaneous intellectual interaction – it all makes for a smarter, better world. I’m sure that’s what the salesman at the computer shop said.

Anyway, if you do find yourself in possession of some rumour or anecdote there is always someone around to bring it to account. I feel so much safer and smarter knowing there are whole web sites devoted to debunking or confirming the stories floating around the electronic ether. Of course, mentioning the fact we never needed these sites before e-mail and the internet is a little uncharitable.

Mind you, I was sorry to learn the truth about the midgets. Not that I have anything against them, please understand. It was just the thought of those plucky little men and women, girding themselves for the challenge of facing up to 400 odd pounds of endangered big cat, aroused in me great admiration for their courage, pride and – well damn it all – sheer gutsy pluck.

And it was kind of cool to think there was still somewhere in the world this kind of thing could happen…

Never mind. Truth will out.

Why white?

Why indeed? In this world of high impact and assertive opinion my choice to present the fresh, clean page may seem a little conservative … minimalist … even dowdy. Bland, uninteresting or unimaginative all seem reasonable observations about this page. Maybe I was rushed, or lazy, or just plucked the scheme at random.

Well no. This choice of scheme was a considered one – although some of the readily available options made it easy – banana?!

The real culprit is band width. Specifically lack thereof. Or, in the absence of credible technical knowledge, my perception of bandwidth and what makes a difference.

I have the privilege, nay, the joy, of renting a house that appears to have, some time in the past, fallen victim to some maniacal Telecom contractor who, just for kicks, meticulously wired telephone jacks into every room in the house – in some rooms even two plugs.

“Way hey” one might think. “How convenient” or “somebody with insight into the demands of the new age” even.

But no. The real effects of the tangled knot of analogue ganglia stretched about the house are delights including constant snap, crackle, popping on the phone, a tendency for the modem to disconnect every time the house creaks in the wind or, my personal favourite, a variable connection speed between the giddy flash of 33000 kilo-doodlywhatsits per something right through to 11000 … thingies.

And let me tell you, with that kind of hook up speed, things really hum along.

Well, at least, I hum. Emails, on the other hand, filter down the wire like oysters through a needle eye (especially when some clown decides to send you 3 megs worth of banal US sports fan footage).

I also twiddle my thumbs and stretch a good deal. The internet, meanwhile, takes up residence on my screen in much the same way as (I imagine) the Chinese water torture fills a pot under the subject’s head.

I go and watch some telly. iTunes, meanwhile, searches online for a whole five songs worth of info (anybody else spot the irony of going off to watch TV when you are “using” the computer?).

So, I tend to be a little fixated with bandwidth. Or whatever it is that determines how many ones and zeroes shoot in and out of my ‘puter at any given time. (Yes yes, I’m a guy so of course I’m fixated by the size of my pipe, hah bloody hah).

Hence – white. Its simple. Its clean. And even if it doesn’t really make a difference (because apparently its all in the code and it takes the same volume to tell my computer to display a black screen as it does a white screen) I have no intention of letting technical reality interfere with my take on what works.

Oh – and it actually looks all right, I think.