Also: Firefox vs. IE, DRM, E911, and more
Becoming service-aware
Regarding your Face-off on whether users need application-aware networks: Applications in the future will be made up more and more of services. It is my belief that networks will need to become service-aware as well as application-aware. As service-oriented architecture (SOA) moves beyond the firewall, SOA hubs will develop where “service-oriented communities” will share services between trusted parties. Then these hubs will evolve to SOA networks where we will have a “service-oriented economy” that shares services among unknown parties.
Gary Smith
SOA network architect
SOA Networks
Deer Valley, Saskatchewan, Canada
Real-world issues
Regarding “New York county enacts wireless security law”: Andrew Jacquith, an analyst at Yankee Group Research, has a point that enforcement may be difficult. However, in the real world, small businesses do not have the technical expertise to hook their POS systems to a good order entry/inventory control system. They aren’t going to hire IT talent to secure their wireless networks unless a law will affect their bottom line via fines for non-compliance. They are too busy just trying to stay in business.
Phil Burke
Nashville, Tenn.
Pick your battles
Regarding “Firefox backers aim to ‘destroy’ IE with campaign”: I wish these people would focus on standardization issues that have a bigger effect on the economy. Let’s look at some things that are far more important than having to support two browsers:
· In the U.S., 50 different sets of state regulations for insurance, healthcare, labor, retail stores, building codes.
· Around the world, umpteen different PTTs and private monopolies imposing different standards on manufacturers of telecommunications products.
· Different power systems around the world that result in all those annoying wall-warts and their different output voltages. Each of these power systems has associated regulatory and certification agencies.
· Different spectrum allocations around that world that result in different TVs, radios and other RF-based products.
· The AF/metric difference between the U.S. and everyone else. · The A4/letter paper size differences between the rest of the world and the U.S., which results in different page designs for different markets.
· Sales tax differences between U.S. states that add complexity to e-commerce sites.
· Currency and taxation differences between countries that make global commerce more difficult.
· Different languages between peoples that make it difficult to create universal Web pages that can be read by everyone.
· Different legal systems around the world that result in extra cost, complexity and risk for buyers and sellers.
· Varying political systems that impose different censorship requirements on the press, search engines, libraries, etc.
Where does the IE/Firefox difference rate among these? Go fight a battle that makes a difference!
Peter Quirk
Via e-mail
No turning the tide
Regarding James Kobielus’s column, “DRM will prevail, like it or not”: DRM will proliferate, but it will not prevail, for two reasons. First, any technology that prevents consumers from freely and easily playing purchased content when and where they want will be circumvented. Second, as more fundamentally honest consumers feel that the cost of purchased content is grossly excessive, the technology will likewise be circumvented. Sure, the mass market will be inconvenienced for a while during the time “innovators” develop the black boxes and/or software necessary to copy and transmit digital replicas of content — but it will happen. No matter how hard media companies try, content will be illegally copied until the cost and value of the purchase is less than the expense and effort required to make illegal copies. And make no mistake — it’s illegal. It’s not right. There is no rationalization that works. But it will happen.
Having said all of the above, Microsoft’s activation feature on Windows XP actually works. It’s invisible. It does not require repeated or periodic updates that would interrupt my computer use. But software and media content are two completely different animals. I’m not hooking up my DVD player or my TV to the Internet to get authorization to watch content. Nor am I going to purchase content that will only play on a single, compatible device.
Technology is about driving excess cost out of the marketplace. Value and convenience will win the day. Content is one of those areas bloated with excess cost and becoming more inconvenient every day to own and use that is trying like hell to resist the tide. The Sony rootkit fiasco was one pitiful example. The tide will win. It always does.
Gary Lavery
Executive vice president
GAF Seelig
Woodside, N.Y.
Location, location, location
Regarding Scott Bradner’s column, “E911 plans fail to impress”: Bradner hits a couple of solid nails, yet misses the chance to really seal the coffin shut. He points out quite strongly that providing any sort of 911 service for wireless is difficult at best, but what he fails to really slam home is that as VoIP is getting stronger, it will become almost impossible to locate someone using a VoIP connection regardless of how mature the E911 system is. If I have an analog telephone adapter registered and functioning at my house today and listed in the E911 system as being in Manassas, Va., there is nothing to say that I am actually calling from there. With SIP redirection, or simple pick up and carry, I could be calling from anywhere there is an Internet connection, making tracking and locating 911 calls almost impossible. Worse, those who are not technologically savvy will assume their 911 calls are being routed to the correct Public Safety Answering Point or 911 center because that is where they happen to be physically calling from. It puts the burden of public safety squarely on the shoulders of the (unprepared) public.
What is happening is a breakdown of location. This is good. But in the event of an emergency, locating someone who is calling for help is only going to get harder, regardless of what the FCC would like the VoIP companies to do.
David Lane
Manassas, Va.
(Lane is emergency coordinator/RACES officer for Prince William County Amateur Radio Emergency Service/Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service.)
