Discover how mastering email communication can boost business efficiency, avoid common pitfalls, and ensure secure, respectful online interactions.
Turkey Revenge
The turkeys are pissed this Thanksgiving they are seeking revenge.
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Smartphone Sanitizing: A Practical Guide
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Why Soft Skills Matter in Today’s Job Market
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COVID Cover for Power Grab to End Encryption
Just in time for Independence day. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (SC) led the U.S. Senate to approve the EARN IT Act. The bill could end encryption and free speech as we know it, online. The EFF explains…
The bill will create a new government commission, dominated by law enforcement agencies, and give it unprecedented power over websites both large and small. Attorney General Bill Barr and the DOJ have demanded for years that messaging services give the government special access to users’ private messages. If EARN IT passes, Barr will finally get his wish—law enforcement agencies will be able to scan every message sent online. The EARN IT Act (S. 3398) is anti-speech, anti-security, and unnecessary.
The legislation is intentionally vague. The legislation gives this new commission unprecedented power. It can demand websites share nearly any information or do nearly anything it wants. It effectively makes encryption and protecting your privacy illegal.
Do something this Fourth of July!
1. Sign the Action Network petition to tell Congress. “Don’t kill online encryption! Reject the dangerous EARN IT Act.”
2. Call 1 (813) 213-3989. You’ll be connected to your members of Congress so you can tell them. Vote NO on the EARN IT Act, and any attempt to spy on our digital communications.
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In the midst of America closing up shop in fear over the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. government is not shutting down. Why? Perhaps they figure that most of us are too preoccupied with toilet paper hoarding and missing March madness. They figure they can sneak in additional restrictions on our freedoms.
Casey Newton at the Verge is tracking the Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies (“EARN IT”) Act EARN IT Act (S. 3398). The EARN IT BILL was the subject of a Senate hearing on 03/12/2020. The EARN IT Act was introduced by the self-quarantined Trump supporter, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. The premise of the bill is that technology companies have to earn Section 230 protections. This changes decades of precedent. The bill says tech firms have to earn Section 230 protections by complying with the politicians. Rather than being granted immunity by default by the Communications Decency Act.
EARN IT Act designed to hobble encryption
Experts believe that the bill is the latest effort by the government to destroy online free speech and security. It is designed to hobble encryption in the guise of child protection. Today, it is disguised as “Lawful access” in the U.S. government’s latest push against end-to-end encryption. CNet defines end-to-end encryption as a security technology that encodes your sensitive data. Data like passwords and financial and health information stored on your devices. Encryption protects your data from being viewed by employees of the company providing the service, and governments looking to spy on citizens.
The bill calls for tech companies to create an opening in their own encryption. An opening that only law enforcement agencies could use for investigations. The Feds have a long history of attacking encryption online. CNet explains that In 2017, the Justice Department called it “responsible encryption.” The feds wanted tech firms to provide encryption for everyone. But only if they hand over a special key that governments could use to snoop on communications. The FBI calls it the “Going Dark” problem. They claim investigations can hit a dead end because of encryption. Prosecutors have asked for backdoors to encryption. The Justice Department has called it “warrant-proof encryption.” The DoJ argues that encryption hinders law enforcement from keeping track of criminals or gathering evidence.
Protections under the First Amendment
Mr. Newton points out that it’s not clear that companies have to “earn” what are already protections provided under the First Amendment to publish and to allow their users to publish, with very few legal restrictions. But if the EARN IT Act were passed, tech companies could be held liable if their users posted illegal content. This would represent a significant and potentially devastating amendment to Section 230, a much-misunderstood law that is considered a pillar of the internet and the $26 Trillion businesses that operate on top of it.
The EARN IT Act would require tech firms to adhere to a bureaucratic set of “best practices.” The “best practices” would drawn up by a newly created national commission. They would have to be approved by the attorney general, homeland security, and the chairman of the FTC.
One of the “best practices” could be eliminating end-to-end encryption. That would deprive the world of a secure communications tool at a time when authoritarian governments are surging around the world. If the tech firms failed to eliminate end-to-end encryption, they could lose legal protection under Section 230.
Graham plan to weaken encryption
There is little doubt they plan to weaken encryption. Graham, says:
Facebook is talking about end-to-end encryption which means they go blind … We’re not going to go blind and let this abuse go forward in the name of any other freedom.
Berin Szoka, president of think tank TechFreedom said,
DOJ could effectively ban end-to-end encryption.
Encryption backdoor
The problem with lawful access, is that the backdoor or key created for governments would essentially create an opening for everyone. The Feds have already proven they can’t keep their secrets secret – as EternalBlue Vault7 and Snowden have proved.
Sophos Naked Security blog spoke to Riana Pfefferkorn, Associate Director of Surveillance and Cybersecurity from The Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School about EARN IT. Her analysis says the proposed bill containing no tools to actually stop online child abuse. The bill would actually make it much harder to prosecute pedophiles. She explained that as it now stands, online providers including Apple, Facebook and Google proactively, and voluntarily, scan for child abuse images.
The keyword is “voluntarily,” Ms. Pfefferkorn says. Those platforms are all private companies, as opposed to government agencies, which are required by Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search to get warrants before they search our digital content.
The reason that private companies like Facebook can, and do, do exactly that is that they are not the government, they’re private actors, so the Fourth Amendment doesn’t apply to them.
Agents of the state
Turning the private companies that provide those communications into “agents of the state” would, ironically, result in courts’ suppression of evidence of the child sexual exploitation crimes targeted by the bill, she said.
That means the EARN IT Act would backfire for its core purpose, while violating the constitutional rights of online service providers and users alike.
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The U.S. Department of Defense has explained that it depends on encryption to protect its employees and sensitive data.
Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon criticized the bill for its potential effects on encryption.
This bill is a transparent and deeply cynical effort by a few well-connected corporations and the Trump administration to use child sexual abuse to their political advantage, the impact to free speech and the security and privacy of every single American be damned.
I am not a fan of Facebook, but they do provide millions of reports to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children every year. Sadly the amount of action taken by the Feds isn’t quite the same. It is due to a lack of resources and funding from the federal government, according to a New York Times report.
A better way to address the issue would be to give law enforcement more resources. Sen. Wyden argues that the EARN IT Act is a distraction from the Justice Department’s lack of funding and resources to handle online child exploitation.
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
Category: Uncategorized |
Tags: 2020, COVID-19, EARN IT, ecommerace, EFF, Encryption, First Amendment, Fourth Amendment, Politics, Ron Wyden
Detroit M&A Action
The tech world is in a consolidation frenzy – mergers and acquisitions have reached a record level. Two iconic Detroit-based tech firms have been swept up in the M&A action. Dan Gilbert’s Rocket Fiber and Compuware have been involved in M&A.
Rocket Fiber, an internet service provider based in Detroit and owned by Dan Gilbert, has been sold to Everstream. The Cleveland company announced it would be acquiring Rocket Fiber, in an effort to expand its network of over 13,000 route miles into the Detroit market. Everstream already operates in parts of Michigan, including Lansing and Grand Rapids.
The Rocket Fiber acquisition includes:
- 41 route miles of fiber network in greater downtown Detroit.
- Two offices in downtown Detroit, including more than 75 team members.
- All Rocket Fiber clients will continue to receive all services without disruption.
- Direct connection to Everstream’s existing fiber network infrastructure in Michigan and its other Midwest markets.
When Rocket Fiber was founded in 2014 by Marc Hudson, Randy Foster, and Edi Demaj, access to fiber-based infrastructure was extremely limited in Michigan and non-existent in Detroit.
Rocket Fiber’s goal was to offer faster and more reliable internet solutions in the city. In 2015 they secured funding from Dan Gilbert – who shared their goal of providing Detroiters and Detroit businesses with dependable, unrestrained connectivity and helpful, authentic client service for the community – and began to install miles of brand-new fiber-optic cable throughout the city.
Rocket Fiber provides gigabit-speed internet to some of the city’s most highly trafficked spaces including Ford Field – home of the Detroit Lions, Greektown Casino-Hotel, the QLine, and the home of the North American International Auto Show – TCF Center (formerly COBO). Marc Hudson, CEO, and Co-Founder, Rocket Fiber said for the presser:
What began six years ago as a moonshot idea to leapfrog Detroit’s technology infrastructure has come full circle as we’ve matured into a rapidly growing and profitable business. By joining Everstream, our customers have access to the same incredible client service along with the added benefit of Everstream’s much larger Midwest footprint.
Compuware, one of Detroit’s original tech firms which provides mainframe application development, delivery, and support is being acquired. BMC, a KKR portfolio company and a provider of IT solutions for digital enterprises announced its intention to acquire Compuware from Thoma Bravo company.
This is BMC’s third acquisition in less than two years. It is expected to be one of the largest. BMC states it continues to focus on investing in innovative and disruptive technologies. The financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
Compuware customers include Amtrak, Cigna, and Neiman Marcus. BMC has the third-largest mainframe business behind CA Technologies and IBM. Thoma Bravo acquired Compuware in December 2014 in a $2.4-billion leveraged buyout. Compuware was once the largest tech company in Michigan. The company had as many as 15,000 employees around the globe at its 2000 peak. Between 500 and 1,000 employees are believed to work there now.
BMC and Compuware declined to comment when the Detroit Free Press asked if the company plans any layoffs or relocations of Compuware employees. The representative also didn’t comment on whether the deal will add a significant debt load to Compuware, which often happens to the acquisition targets of private equity deals.
Compuware was founded in 1973 and relocated from Farmington Hills to downtown Detroit in 2003. The firm was the first major business to move from the suburbs to downtown Detroit in the 2000s. Compuware constructed its Detroit headquarters building near Campus Martius at a cost of $350 million, which was far more than what the building sold for a decade later.
BMC states the combination of BMC and Compuware will build upon the BMC Automated Mainframe Intelligence (AMI) and the Topaz suite, ISPW technology, and product portfolios from Compuware to further modernize the mainframe industry. Compuware CEO Chris O’Malley says,
Without a doubt, a combined BMC and Compuware is the best, brightest, and most collaborative partner for a new generation of mainframe stewards.
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This is the sad part about most successful companies – they grow up and move on. But sometimes leaders stick around. Peter Karmanos is a pioneer in Detroit tech. He founded Compuware in 1975.
Mr. Karmanos has a new cloud tech venture MadDog Technologies based in metro Detroit. He donated $15 million to the Michigan Cancer Foundation, which was renamed the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in memory of his first wife, Barbara Ann Karmanos which located in Detroit.
Dan Gilbert, who was born in Detroit and still lives in the area founded Rock Financial in 1985. Rock Financial grew into one of the largest independent mortgage lenders in the U.S. In the late 1990s, the firm pivoted to a web-first firm and became Quicken Loans. By 2018, Quicken Loans had become the largest retail mortgage lender by volume in the U.S. while staying in Detroit.
Quicken Loans moved its headquarters and 1,700 staff to downtown Detroit in August 2010, where Mr. Gilbert’s firms leading a revitalization of Detroit’s urban core. Gilbert-owned businesses employ more than 17,000 people in the city. Since 2011, Mr. Gilbert’s Bedrock Detroit has purchased 100 properties totaling over 18 million square feet in Detroit.
Mr. Gilbert is partnering with the University of Michigan to build a high-tech research campus at the eastern edge of downtown Detroit. The anchor building will the $300-million, 190,000-square-foot – Detroit Center for Innovation on Gratiot Avenue.
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
Category: Uncategorized |
Tags: 2020, BMC, Business, Compuware, Dan Gilbert, Detroit, Fiber networks, Mainframe computer, Mergers and Acquisition, Michigan, Rocket Fiber, Thoma Bravo
Cornoravirus Will Make the PC Market Sick
2019 was the first year of positive growth in the PC market since 2012. But tech prognosticator International Data Corporation (IDC) slashed its 2020 forecast for PC shipments. The Framingham, MA-based market researcher believes the Cornoravirus (COVID-19) effect on global supply chains will cut PC shipments in 2020 by 9%, with total shipments reaching 374.2 million for the full year.
The big drops in shipments are expected in the first half of the year, with a decline of a little over 8 percent in Q1 and nearly 13 percent in Q2. Linn Huang, an IDC research vice president, wrote in a presser.
We have already forgone nearly a month of production given the two-week extension to the Lunar New Year break and we expect the road to recovery for China’s supply chain to be long with a slow trickle of labor back to factories in impacted provinces until May when the weather improves … Many critical components such as panels, touch sensors, and printed circuit boards come out of these impacted regions, which will cause a supply crunch heading into Q2.
IDC’s definition for PCs includes desktops, notebooks, workstations, and tablets. Before the coronavirus appeared, IDC was already expecting a difficult year for PCs. 2020 sales figures had to overcome last year’s boost from the Windows 7 replacement cycle. Despite the drop in PC shipments for 2020, IDC’s long-term forecast remains slightly positive as global shipments are forecast to grow to 377.2 million in 2024
The sales decline is driven by a lack of inventory as the Chinese government ordered Foxconn and others factories to shut down in some cases until March halting production of not just finished products, but also parts and components needed for those items. The NYT reports that slightly over half the country’s population is under various kinds of lock-down. FierceElectronics reports there are already product shortages shown up.
- The Apple (AAPL) iPad Pro tablet has limited availability at stores in the U.S., Australia, and Europe.
Some Facebook (FB) Oculus virtual reality headsets are “unavailable.”- HP‘s (HPQ) website says some Envy, Pavilion, and Slim desktop computers are out of stock.
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
Category: Uncategorized |
Tags: 2020, AAPL, Apple, China, Cornoravirus, COVID-19, Facebbok, FB, Foxconn, Hardware, HP, IDC, iPad, Oculus, PC, Risk Management, Supp;y chain, Virtual reality
Son of Facebook Phone
The tech world never learns from its mistakes. Rumors are that data-leaker Facebook is combining two bad ideas, software from Windows NT with FB hardware. The Verge reports that Facebook is developing its own operating system. Facebook’s effort is being led by Mark Lucovsky, who co-authored the Windows NT operating system.
The reports say the FB OS could be used on Facebook’s hardware products. Oculus, Portal, and forthcoming augmented reality glasses, code-named “Orion,” currently run on a modified version of Google’s Android. FB wants to reduce or remove entirely the control GOOG has over its hardware.
Ficus Kirkpatrick, who heads Facebook’s AR and VR group hedges his bets, he told The Verge “it’s possible” that future FB hardware won’t rely on Google’s software. Facebook’s head of hardware, Andrew Bosworth is more definitive, “… we’re gonna do it ourselves.”
The Verge points out that Facebook’s last attempt at producing its own OS did not go so well. The Facebook phone, or, more precisely, the Facebook phone mobile operating system, crashed and burned almost immediately. Unveiled in 2013, Mark Zuckerberg promised the $99 device would “turn your Android phone into a great social device.”
It didn’t exactly work out that way. Instead, shortly after the Facebook phone went on sale, the price dropped to 99 cents. The operating system was called out as mediocre, and early adopters complained that it was counter-intuitive and hard to — of all things — place a phone call. By 2014, the New York Times reported that Facebook had disbanded the mobile OS engineering team.
The FB mobile OS attempt resulted in a forked version of Android that ran on an HTC produced phone back in 2013. Flooding a phone with Facebook’s social feed was wildly unpopular even back before Facebook’s brand was tarnished with numerous privacy scandals. Facebook will have an uphill battle on its hands if it wants people to give its software another shot.
For those with short memories FB has leaked nearly 1 billion personal data records that we know about since 2018:
- December 2019 – 267 million
April 2019 – 540 million- December 2018 – 6.8 million
- October 2018 – 14 million
- September 2018 50 million
- June 2018 –14 million
- March 2018 – 87 million
The idea of another FB OS gets even scarier when you add the legacy of Windows NT on top of FB’s lack of respect for its user privacy. The for uninitiated, Windows NT was released in 1993. It was Microsoft’s first foray into a network operating system (NOS). WinNT had a number of issues that made the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) a household phrase.
A blue screen occurs when Windows encounters a “STOP Error.” This critical failure causes Windows to crash and stop working. The only thing Windows can do at that point is to restart the PC. This can lead to data loss, as programs don’t have a chance to save their open data. FB has put Mark Lucovsky, who co-authored the Windows NT operating system in charge of writing the FB OS. Some of the more notable problems with WinNT included,
- Allowing the default user to run at admin/root privilege without a password.
- Noted cryptographer Bruce Schneier, noted that part of Windows NT 4.0 is so broken it can’t be fixed with patches. Schneier said, “Last time they released a fix, it broke so many other parts of Windows NT.”
- WinNT did not support USB.
- NTVDM (also known as Windows on Windows, or WOW) that blocked access to the hardware so that legacy applications would run as though on a DOS computer, except without access to protected areas of memory. This resulted in a substantial number of applications simply did not work.
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People back then perhaps thought better of letting Facebook on their phones. Toward the end of the decade, it seems we’ve come full circle
The rumor mill also says Facebook is working on a brain control interface for its devices, which could allow users to control them with their thoughts. But of course, that also means that FB could have access to the user’s brain – and sell their thoughts and then your brain will throw a BSOD, and will you have to reboot your brain to recover.- I’m just saying……
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
Ink Profits Driving HP-Xerox Tussle
With all of the drama about Xerox trying to take over HP, I got to thinking why? Both firms are dinosaurs with a history of innovation but why are they in a $35 billion tug-o-war now? – Printer Ink. Go to any big-box office supply store – the cost of the ink should shock you. It can be cheaper to buy a new printer than to buy ink for the current printer.
Bloomberg reports that current ink cartilages are stuffed with foam sponges that hold a fraction of an ounce of cyan, magenta, and yellow dyes that make up the printed image. The printers then spray the contents of the cartridge at 36,000 drops per second on to your paper. Typically the ink needs to be refilled after 165 pages.
The Business Insider calculates that a gallon of printer ink can cost you $12,000. When in cartridge form, ink is more expensive than vintage Champagne and even human blood. When I first wrote about the high cost of printer ink in 2013, ink was estimated to cost 105 times the cost of a latte.
BI explains that inkjet printers were first developed in the 1960s, and early computer inks were made from food dye and water. Because of this, they would fade after a few months, so companies scrambled to develop a permanent photographic quality dye. In 1988, Hewlett-Packard achieved just that, with the HP DeskJet, the first mass-market inkjet printer, which sold for about $1,000.
BI recently interviewed David Connett. He’s the former editor of The Recycler and activist lobbying for change in the printer-ink industry. Mr. Connett says the reason ink is so expensive is simple: greed – and an outdated razor-and-blades model.
Printer manufacturers sell their printers cheaply. They sell the consumables at a very expensive price. And basically, it’s a formula: The cheaper the printer, the more expensive the consumables. BI says that once you’ve bought a printer that uses cartridges you’re trapped in a cycle. You have no choice but to buy their ink cartridges or throw away your printer.
Since a printer is usually a long-term purchase, companies don’t mind selling them at a loss and making the money back through cartridge sales. BI cites the HP Envy 4520 all-in-one printer as an example. It sells for $70 but is estimated to cost $120 to manufacture. The loss HP takes on printers means they need to sell ink cartridges to make a profit, and this model has led to a battleground between printer manufacturers and third-party ink suppliers.
The companies do everything they can to keep you buying official ink cartridges. Manufacturers install microchips into their cartridges and frequently issue firmware updates to prevent the use of third-party ink, which can be more affordable.
Tech firms won’t keep their devices up to date – unless there is a profit in it. Mr. Connett noted that last year, almost 900 firmware upgrades were issued by just nine printer manufacturers, so that’s almost three a day. He speculates there are a couple of reasons for that many updates, “either absolute incompetence, ’cause you’ve got to do it so much, or it is a definite stealth tactic to control the market.”
The materials they use, however, cost very little. Mr. Connett says the manufacturing cost of ink is between $70 and $140 a gallon. The printer companies told BI the high costs of ink are due to the research and development that goes into perfecting printer ink. In addition to begin expensive, a lot of the ink you buy never even gets used for printing.
According to 2018 tests by Consumer Reports, more than half the ink you buy could end up lost in maintenance cycles for cleaning the print heads. And printers that use multiple-color ink cartridges also stop working as soon as one color runs out, even if the other colors are still full.
BI reports that today you’re getting even less for your money. While the cartridges themselves are the same size and price, they often contain far less ink. The ink in many manufacturers’ cartridges has shrunk from 20 mils to around 5 mils over the past few years, without any reduction in price. The original-size 20 mil cartridges are often still on sale but sold as extra-large cartridges for even more money. And some new cartridges can have only 3 milliliters of ink inside
Mr. Connett concluded,
This product .. can be better engineered … ultimately, this is bad for the consumer, because it’s overpriced and expensive, and it’s bad for the environment because it doesn’t need to be made that way.
BI reached out to HP for comment. HP replied with this statement:
Original HP ink and toner cartridges deliver the best possible printing experience for customers. We make significant investments in R&D each year to provide the highest levels of print quality, safety, and environmental sustainability…
Despite a 2017 supreme court ruling, Impression Products, Inc. v. Lexmark International, Inc. in favor of third-party ink, printer manufacturers remain relentless in their drive to eliminate cheaper ink alternatives. They have turned to everything from stealth firmware updates disguised as security patches, to questionable takedown notices on eBay to keep their users hooked on high cost ink.
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In the three decades following HP’s introduction of the desktop laser printer, in 1984, the print division brought in over a half-trillion dollars of revenue.
To further protect their half-trillion dollars of revenue, HP has started an ink subscription program, which will deactivate your cartridges remotely if you print more than your allocated pages.
Related articles
Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.