LESLIE D’MONTE

By now most people acknowledge that a majority of the patents filed by companies border on the ludicrous. Take, for instance, the latest from the stable of software giant Microsoft that is one of the largest patent holders in the world.

Microsoft has now filed a patent for an architecture which provides feedback to a user on fashion and other personal appearance decisions that the user may desire. The user can upload self images for viewing and rating (or voting) by viewers who choose to provide an opinion on a set of images that depict the user in different fashion and/or cosmetic looks. For example, the user (or contributor) takes photo snapshots that show the user presented with a number (e.g., two) of different fashion choices. The snapshots can then be processed for upload to a website or other accessible location for viewing by one or more viewers.

The viewers can cast a vote for one of the images by selecting the desired image (e.g., clicking on an image). In response, the viewer(s) and/or contributor will be presented with overall statistics for that set of images as to how other viewers voted, as well as a next set (e.g., pair) of photos depicting the user in different fashion and/or cosmetic choice. Alternatively, or in combination therewith, the viewer(s) will be presented a set of images of other users desiring to be voted on. This process can continue until terminated, based on the viewer not voting, the contributor no longer providing images for voting, scheduling information, and so on.

The viewer is enticed to continue with the voting process by streamlining the way in which contributor images are formatted and allowed to be uploaded and processed for presentation. Additionally, the viewer is enticed to continue participating by receiving statistics that indicate how the viewer compares to other viewer opinions. For example, the statistics can be obtained via users and/or groups of users of a social network that may have similar interests. The statistics and new set of images are quickly presented to the viewer to optimise viewer participation by reducing delay in providing the feedback to the viewer. Other enticements can be provided such as rewards, points, content, discounts, etc., that serve to maintain viewer participation.

The contributor can also select a specific set of viewers rather than allowing public access to the viewer feedback process. For example, if the contributor values one viewer opinion over another, the viewer with the valued opinion can be selected and notified for a voting opinion.

In a broader implementation, the contributor can upload images or other types of media (e.g., video files, audio files, etc.) related to non-fashion content for viewing and voting by other viewers. For example, the contributor can upload images of automobiles for viewing and voting by the viewers.

REASON: Microsoft argues that the advent of global networks such as the internet has made available enormous amounts of information not only in the form of static data but also for dynamic interaction with other systems and users. Users can now access information and other users to discuss and exchange views on virtually any topic and in realtime. Moreover, the fact that this exchange is interactive (reality-based) rather than a receive-only scenario provides immediate feedback. This is evidenced in an emerging trend in TV shows that provide technology for allowing viewers to vote on contestants in a variety of different competitions (e.g., singing, dancing, etc.).

Commercial enterprises, it adds, have realised the potential in reaching millions of potential customers to conduct anonymous surveys to obtain demographics and other desired information in order to determine the type of advertising to present on websites, and so on. A website may present information (e.g., audio data, video data, image date, text, etc.) or questions to which users can take a few minutes to rate or answer in anonymity.

A variation on this model is also applied to rating websites where users can rate other on physical appearance, pets, personality and other user traits and attributes. In voting sites, typically, it is a general purpose question posed to viewers, and once the viewers have answered the question they tend to leave the website to do something else. In other rating websites, when viewers have rated an image, the viewers are presented with a seemingly endless series of other images to be rated or voted on, the purpose of which is to generate a flow experience so the viewers will stay at the website to continue participating. This process can generate revenue for advertisers by presenting advertisements while the viewers are voting. Moreover, there is a fascination with anonymously critiquing the appearance of another person.

In SUM One thought that the software giant would be more busy warding off threats from Google. But then, Microsoft employees reportedly get a $2500 bonus for every patent. They don’t have to write it either, The patent lawyer does. All you do is describe the idea and give any relevant documentation and someone else converts it to a patent. Maybe that’s one of the reasons there are so many patents to be filed. Incidentally, the Patent Office now gets some 500 million applications a year, leading to litigation costs of over $10 billion a year to define who has what rights.

And if the goal of patent law is “to promote the progress of science and useful arts”, one wonders where this “hot or not” type of patent fits in.

Incidentally, Microsoft, this May, was also granted a patent for a way of limiting access to certain features of an operating system depending on whether a user has paid for those features. The patent, titled “Restricted software and hardware usage on a computer”, covers a means by which it can offer software that has features either enabled or not enabled depending on which edition a user has purchased. It’s a concept already in use at the company.

Microsoft has already said it will offer all versions of Windows 7 on a single disc, with a particular product key unlocking the features that come with that edition. Users will be able to upgrade to a higher-end version of Windows 7 just by purchasing a new product key.

“Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.” — Oscar Wilde

I’m no political analyst. And I surely do not know which party will eventually come to power. However, regardless of the coalition that comes to power in this deeply-divided Lok Sabha elections, it just takes just one look at the manifestos of the current major political parties and a bit of listening to the incantations of local MPs, to wonder whether things will really improve for the masses.

Consider this. Besides the macro-economic policy announcements in the manifestos, there are hardly any concrete suggestions for local upliftment. Governments come and go and yet the paani (water), bijli (electricity) and sadak (roads) issues remain unsolved over the years.

Having shifted from Mumbai city, I now stay in Mayur Vihar, East Delhi. I was told that Delhi is much better than Mumbai — more spacious with gardens and cleaner roads. Yet, when I go for my morning walks, there’s hardly a stretch of land without an open garbage dump. The garbage generally spills on to the road, and people have to skillfully avoid landing into bits and pieces of it while simultaneously avoiding a speeding bike or car. Then there’s the odour, which spreads for at least 25 metres radius. How long can one hold one’s breath that long? Phew.

Thankfully, the pollution level is lower than Mumbai (where I stayed the major part of life). The roads are another menace. Somehow, they always appear to have a bulge in the middle and taper at the sides (in most parts of India). Potholes, thanks to the metro barricades and construction work, make life more miserable. Moroever, the dust can make a simple walk traumatic. What do your guard? Your nose with a handkerchief, your feet with extra pads, or head with a helmet so that no stray piece of brick falls on your head from a metro site?

When I come home, I see the water filter, and I wonder why I bought it? Am I not paying enough taxes that the government should not provide me with safe and clean drinking water? On my foreign trips, my friends sarcastically remind me that drinking water directly from the tap is perfectly acceptable. The list is endless.

I’ve often heard the argument that we get the government we deserve since many of us don’t take the trouble to vote for good governments. I don’t believe this is the whole truth. It’s hard to believe that voting in this country, despite the efforts of a vigilant Election Commission, is 100 per cent fair.

An urbanite and agnostic like me, for instance, still does not understand why religion should become a plank for votes or why minorties should form a clan to fight for their rights. Obviously, minorities may be feeling cheated and hence are raising a hue and cry. Ramadoss feels, for instance that LTTE chief Prabhakaran is not a terrorist. And there are sections of people who believe that Naxalities were forced to become what they are today since our country’s leaders did not address the issues on time.

And I still can’t undertand why political parties in states should be allowed to publicly make statements that they will not allow outsiders to work and stay in the city. Aren’t these unconstitutional statements? Shouldn’t the courts and police take suo moto action? Why should such people be allowed to get away scot-free?

I know there are no simple answers. One has to understand castes, sub-castes, multitude of religions, languages, et al to understand the Indian political scenario. There’s nothing in black and white here. Again, I’m no expert here. However, my humble opinion as a tax-paying citizen of India is that I have a moral right to be heard on this subject. Simultaneously, I do believe that instead of ranting here, I perhaps should take a shot at becoming a politician. I do have quite a few concrete ideas on making this country a better place. Moreover, politics is no longer a bad word I guess — especially after 26/11. After years of self-denial I finally agree with Aristotle that I’m a political animal. Indeed! So watch this space.

Public memory may be shortlived or so the saying goes. However, not many will forget last year’s government ruckus over the issue of encryption of Blackberry from Research in Motion (RIM).

The security officials wanted RIM to lower its encryption from 256 bits to a 40-bit encryption. RIM refused the request, saying that its data encryption is designed so that no third party, or RIM itself, can access the data being transmitted wirelessly. RIM officials were later reported to have reached an understanding with the government since encryption is a “politically-sensitive” issue too given the recent terrorist attacks.

The government now has quietly introduced a policy on encryption — for the first time in India since the advent of the internet.

Clause 84A of the Information Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2008, states: “The Central Government may, for secure use of the electronic medium and for promotion of e-governance and e-commerce, prescribe the modes or methods for encryption”.

Accordingly minor amendments have been made under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Act too. In Section 118, for the words “voluntarily conceals, by any act or illegal omission, the existence of a design”, the words “voluntarily conceals by any act or omission or by the use of encryption or any other information hiding tool, the existence of a design” shall be substituted; and in Section 119, for the words “voluntarily conceals, by any act or illegal omission, the existence of a design”, the words “voluntarily conceals by any act or omission or by the use of encryption or any other information hiding tool, the existence of a design” shall be substituted.

However, it’s still not clear what will actually take place. Cyber experts are saying that the government needs to be complemented for enacting special provisions pertaining to encryption. However, the real challenges begin now. One of the major challenges before the Government would be how to come up with appropriate secondary legislation that mirrors the aspirations of corporate India regarding using encryption and how further encryption can be utilised as an effective servant for furthering the cause of furthering electronic governance.

Needless to say, the government should encourage bonafide use of encryption for legitimate purposes and should provide an enabling platform for the industry. Similarly, the government must come down strongly against any detected misuse of Encryption.

We need to learn from our own mistakes as a nation. We should not come up with new secondary legislation that would be observed in breach than in observance, being the condition what happened pertaining to the earlier provisions of 40-bit encryption.

With some ecommerce activities not only demanding 128- and 256-bit encryption but also 512- and 1024-bit encryption levels, a 40-bit one will only become one big media joke again.

This worm is really troubling Microsoft so much so that the software giant has announced a $250,000 (around Rs 1.25 crore) reward for information that results in the arrest and conviction of those responsible for illegally launching the Conficker malicious code on the Internet.

The company has also announced a partnership with technology industry leaders and academia to implement a coordinated, global response to the Conficker (aka Downadup) worm. Together with security researchers, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and operators within the Domain Name System, Microsoft coordinated a response designed to disable domains targeted by Conficker.

This is not the first time that the company is offering money to catch worms. In 2005, Microsoft paid out $250,000 to two individuals who helped identify the creator of the notorious Sasser worm. The author was arrested and sentenced by the German authorities. Rewards of $250,000 were offered over three other major computer worm threats known as Blaster, MyDoom and Sobig worms.

Millions of Windows-based personal computers worldwide, including thousands in China and India, have been affected by a family of network worms which goes by the name conficker (also called kido or downadup).

The problem has been compounded since the worm keeps on mutating with new variants and a large number of companies and small and medium businesses have not yet fixed their machines with an emergency patch-up (MS08-067) provided by Microsoft in October 2008 as well as this month.

Anti-virus company F-Secure estimates that 15 million machines have been infected till date, making it the worst outbreak of its kind since a worm called Slammer in 2003.

The worm, according to Microsoft, infects computers across a network by exploiting a vulnerable spot in the Windows server service (SVCHOST.EXE) which could allow remote code execution when file sharing is enabled. Depending on the specific variant (said to have numerous variants), it may also spread via removable drives (USB sticks for instance) and by exploiting weak passwords (password, 12345 and qwerty etc).

It disables several important system services (including email) and security products and downloads arbitrary files (making it difficult to detect).

Even the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team has cautioned that “…disabling AutoRun on Microsoft Windows systems can help prevent the spread of malicious code. However, Microsoft’s guidelines for disabling AutoRun are not fully effective, which could be considered vulnerability.”

You may read the full article here: http://business-standard.com/347182/

Leslie D’Monte

He made Vodafone a household name in India, and now is all set to make his mark online too if a Wall Street report turns out to be true that the former Vodafone Group chief Arun Sarin is close to becoming Yahoo! CEO.

Sarin, 54, retired from Vodafone this May after being CEO of the European telecommunications giant for around five years. He has, among other things, ardently spoke about the mobile Internet, and has had served a stint of less than one year as CEO of InfoSpace in 2000 to 2001, which make him a good candidate for the distant number two online search player. Sarin had reportedly resigned from InfoSpace due to the rigours of commuting between its offices in Washington state and his family’s home in the Bay Area.

Yahoo!, of course, expects to come up with a pool of about a dozen candidates and settle on one within six months, though there’s no firm deadline as such.

The move follows Jerry Yang’s recently decision of stepping down as CEO of Yahoo!. Investors were delighted with the announcement. It helped its ailing stock soar nearly 9 per cent to close at $11.55 on the Nasdaq, a day after the announcement. Of course, the Yahoo! chief — who took the job as CEO in June 2007 to unsuccessfully attempt to spur it to glory again — said he’ll stay on as CEO till a replacement is found (expected in Q1 next year).

The company — founded three years before Google — is now way behind the internet search giant. The Yahoo! Board, reported the Wall Street Journal earlier, is said to be looking for an “anti-Jerry” to turn things around — executives who are not mere thinkers but have strong operational skills who may be veterans of the high-tech and media worlds. Tim Armstrong, a senior vice-president at Google, and Peter Chernin, president of News Corporation are reportedly being considered at this stage though there was no confirmation.

However, hiring a replacement CEO with “Chief Yahoo” Yang still at the helm might make things difficult for a stalwart like Sarin who himself has been in-charge of driving things with his own vision.

However, it may be exactly the medicine that the ailing Yahoo! might need with Google and Microsoft breathing down its neck. Besides, if Google has its Eric Schmidt despite the two mavericks in-charge (Larry Page and Sergie Brin), there’s no reason why a Sarin (or some other CEO) should not be able to work with Yang. Watch this space.