The internet should be free and there are few areas that I believe should be filtered or banned. Freedom of speech and freedom of expression are two of the most important elements of any kind of free system. Services like Google's YouTube should not be selectively filtered just because one ideology says so. People living in southern Thailand are very familiar with this scenario as it has caused many problems there. A case in point is a third-rate movie called The Innocence of Muslims which is being used to justify violence across the world, including in Thailand. The governments of the US, Australia and other _ what would normally be called _"free" societies have demanded a ban on this film. Google initially resisted, but eventually bowed to the pressure and some access was restricted from certain countries, including even India. Free-speech advocates have criticised Google for doing this, and rightly so, because if this continues then all posts are at risk.
It's hard to ignore the release of the iPhone 5. It is also difficult, after carrying out an objective review, to call it anything more than a 4ss. Let me explain. November was the release date originally given for the new phone. After the Galaxy S3 was released and Apple started losing market share, it tried to change that to August but the manufacturers said it wasn't possible, so the launch was brought forward to September. But to achieve this, a few bits and pieces had to be left out, like the bump and pay system based on NFC (near field communication). Apple justified this by suggesting that its own solution was a better, long-term strategy; in other words, yet another attempt to justify a proprietary technology. Hours after I wrote the above, shipping estimates for all models ordered online were pushed back two weeks from the expected 21st. So you have to have it immediately, the only way is directly from a store.
There's an advertisement seen worldwide with the heading "It doesn't take a genius ...", showing a side-by-side comparison of features. The only categories in which the iPhone 5 has any advantage is in weight, thickness and pixel density. In all other areas the Samsung Galaxy S3 wins out in an honest comparison. This is, of course, a problem for Apple where each new phone it released was normally well ahead of the competition. This time, however, there are many Apple users who don't see the point of jumping to a 4ss when it was supposed to be a 5. There are plenty of first-time buyers, but that's always a given. It will be the sales figures a month from now that will tell the real tale; and I don't think the switch in the connectors or the introduction of yet another SIMM format will help at all. Me, I'm excited about the Galaxy S4 rumours _ the ones that turned out not to be true, that is.
If you're still using Windows XP and have Internet Explorer 8 then it may be time to make a change, if not of the operating system, then at least of the browser you're using. The alarm has been raised by Rapid7 which has identified a rather large security hole: when the wrong kind of site is visited, and that includes Twitter, your machine gives privileges to the attacker. Of course the same problem exists for Windows 7 and Vista users using IE7 to IE9, which is a little unusual. The attack itself bypasses the address space layout randomisation, something implemented to stop such attacks.
Another reason to get away from IE and perhaps XP is that Google will no longer be supporting XP and IE8 after November 15. Apparently, with IE10 coming out, Google has decided to drop support for older versions of things. Basically Google no longer cares about XP users and wants everyone to upgrade so that they can move into the cloud. To be fair, it was Microsoft after all that gave up on XP users, with IE8 the last version to run under XP. Ironically, it is estimated that about 40% of computer users around the world are still using XP. So that's two good reasons to either get off XP or move to a new browser. Firefox, Chrome or just about anything else these days will work.
Hands up if you know the names Kazaa or Morpheus. Definition of irony? These two are joining together to file a legal action against names like Yahoo!, Apple, IBM, Microsoft and Facebook for _ wait for it _ patent infringement. This adds to the list of names like Google, Amazon, YouTube and VMWare already listed. All in all 13 patents that the founders of the complainant companies developed when building their file-sharing empires including such basics as data search using identifiers, data distribution and access, content-based file systems and others that impact directly on technologies like the cloud. At the very least, it is amusing; at best, is could net the two founders a great deal of money if the patents are upheld.
James Hein is an IT professional of over 30 years' standing. You can contact him at jclhein@gmail.com.