Category Archives: History

History, Security

Google succumbs

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I think the Google Co-op concept is a novel idea. It allows individuals to rank information on the web “by creating ‘subscribed links’ for your services and labeling webpages around the topics you know best”. Wait, did I just read that correctly? Has something failed at Google? What happened to their pigeon algorithm revolution? Wasn’t the original concept of their search technology based upon figuring out a clever way to interpret page ranking through links? (Incidentally, I didn’t see a way to label webpages as safe/trusted, which would be the most interesting feature from a security perspective and also useful in the traditional sense of PGP.)

I must be missing something, because the announcement seems to suggest to me that so many attackers have been able to riddle the Google page-ranking system with holes, that the search giant has maxed-out their pigeon power and is essentially trying to ask everyone to help by sticking their own thumb into the cracks…

Don’t get me wrong, I agree that the power of the internet is in the people who have localized and specialized knowledge. But this is so completely counter to the origins of this “our algorithm is smarter than you are” company, one has to wonder if Google will next start trying to actually work within (or to help build) social fabric/structure rather than just pop out intellectually challenging tools. A better plow is great, since people can make better use of available land, but what’s your role when the plows turn into swords? Do you keep making swords and fan the discord among people fighting for resources or do you look for a way to establish localized rights and try to preserve the real value of plows?

More insight available courtesy of the Reg:

The problem is, Google has created a commons that is designed to be exploited beyond its capacity. Each user of a commons has an incentive to defect from the common good, to seek individual advantage. But in the Google commons, SEOs have an incentive to DESTROY the common good, to try to prevent anyone else from having any individual advantage. How the hell do you create a sustainable business model when everyone is intent on fucking up yours?

Many people have waxed lyrical about how Google was “God’s Brain” and contained some sort of magical Gestalt of all of mankind’s knowledge. But now it’s like an autistic brain that can’t say anything except advertising jingles.

— Charles Eicher

The Reg also had another take on the problem here:

creating junk web pages is so cheap and easy to do, Google is engaged in an arms race with search engine optimizers. Each innovation designed to bring clarity to the web, such as tagging, is rapidly exploited by spammers or site owners wishing to harvest some classified advertising revenue.

Recently, we featured a software tool that can create 100 Blogger weblogs in 24 minutes, called Blog Mass Installer. A subterranean industry of sites providing “private label articles,” or PLAs exists to flesh out “content” for these freshly minted sites. And as a result, legitimate sites are often caught in the cross fire.

History, Security

Minimum wage and trojan-horses

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I keep reading about the minimum wage debate in California, but I thought the OC Weekly staff clarified things nicely:

Fortunately, someone is looking out for California’s minimum wage workers: Thomas Hiltachk has filed a ballot initiative with the Attorney General that, if approved by voters, would raise the state’s minimum wage by a dollar an hour. Unfortunately, Hiltachk is a Republican who works as legal counsel to Governor Schwarzenegger, so therefore one must assume that such largesse comes with a nasty surprise attached. It does. In exchange for giving the worst paid workers an extra buck an hour, the charmingly named “Fair Pay Workplace Flexibility Act of 2006″ would abolish the 8 hour workday for all the state’s workers. Nice, huh? Especially considering that this week marks the 118th anniversary of the establishment of the 8 hour workday in California. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Republican party: Building a Bridge to 1887.

So, if you consider the law to be code, and Mr. Hiltachk to be a programmer…oh, what a virus he could deliver. Is “trojan-horse law” an official phrase yet?

History, Security

Cheney indicts self

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Can you say, double-standard or questionable ethics?

But 9/11 changed everything in the sense that it forced us to think anew about our enemies, about who our enemies were, about the kind of threat we faced as a nation, about what kind of strategy we needed to pursue to be able to safeguard our nation from those attacks. The President made a very basic, fundamental decision that very first night after the attacks. And that was that henceforth, we would hold accountable those — not only the terrorists, but also those who supported terror. If a state or a government provided safe harbor or sanctuary, or financing, or training or weapons to a terrorist organization, they would be deemed just as guilty of the terrorist act as the terrorists themselves.

Mr. Cheney, the threats you refer to were not new to you, but your change in thinking about the enemies of the US should have happened prior to 9/11. Why? Because that’s what the bipartisan commission said in early 2001, echoed by Clarke as well as the outgoing staff from the prior Administration. Remember when you and Bush ignored those? Ooops, so much for leadership. I guess you guys like to dismiss anyone who disagrees with you. Remind us again why your wife resigned from the Hart-Rudman commission? She refused to think anew about the “kind of threat” and didn’t like being disagreed with? Sad that it took such a huge disaster to open your eyes and allow you to agree with what honest and good people had been telling you; even more sad that your choice of words in the public forum do more harm to your nation than good. We expect this kind of incompetence from Rumsfeld, but you too now?

Just for reference, here is another voice of leadership to compare yourself with:

The president of the United States hears a hundred voices telling him that he is the greatest man in the world. He must listen carefully indeed to hear the one voice that tells him he is not.
—Harry S Truman

Now, if you want to talk about accountability…

Energy, History, Poetry, Security

Touareg Poems

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The enigmatic Touareg people have been struggling for survival for over forty years. Drought and state repression menace their future. And from that VW names a giant SUV after them. Why?

The Germans have interesting names for their cars. The Bora is a cold, north to northeast wind that blows down from the mountains of Hungary and across the Adriatic Sea. The Passat is a tradewind and also may be an old name for a trader’s sailboat. And of course the warm desert winds that blow from Africa across the Mediterranean are known as the Scirocco. Apparently VW claims the Golf is some sort of transliteration of gulf stream currents, but that seems like a stretch to me.

Was the name “Touareg” intended to draw attention to their survival or elevate world consciousness about these people? Doubtful. That’s about as likely as Porsche trying to help Cayenne drivers learn to add a little spice to their palate. Was it the Germans making light of yet another French colonial debacle of international proportions? Nah. Marketing is probably just marketing and someone thought the Touareg (for those who have heard of them) represent strength and survival in harsh conditions; exactly the sort of thing that a soccer mom driving around suburban American can really appreciate. Hmmm, when will a car company name one of their vehicles “the soccer mom”?

Incidentally, someone recently said to me that they think cars shouldn’t be named after people at all. I agree! The “New Yorker” was a horrible name for a car and certainly did no justice to inhabitants of that fine city. In its original incarnation it was a 19 foot 5000 pound monster with a 440 cubic inch engine that burned gasoline like it would never disappear. Does that say “New Yorker” to you?

Touareg in Indigo

Alas, a web search for Touareg brings up 10,000 pointers to an automobile. Well, who knows what the impact of that will be, but I just thought I might be able to do my part and bring a little attention back to international history as well as poetry by talking about the real people here.

In brief: the Touareg (who call themselves Kel Tamsheq) live in the southern Sahara, dispersed across the borders of several countries including Algeria, Mali, Libya, and Niger. Despite this separation they share a common language apparently related to Berber. They are perhaps most known historically for establishing the north African city Timbuktu in the 10th century near the Niger river and fostering trade including scholarship, literature and books.

They were essentially tribes of caravans around the Sahara with agricultural work performed by non-Touareg serfs. Fast forward several hundred years to their fierce resistance to French colonization in the 1890s — colonial guns against swords of the nomads. The French feared them as raiders, which led to massacres of the nomadic minority. They were thus forced to sign treaties that led to oppression by the state. Their attempt to gain autonomy during the Mali independence movement in the 1960s failed and so they struggled as dislocated minorities through severe African drought in the 1970s and 1980 that devastated their livelihood. With little or no control of government, and rampant corruption, foreign aid rarely was distributed where it was needed most.

Their suffering resulted in a cultural revival and rebellion. By the start of the 1990s the Touareg attempted again to gain more autonomy in Niger and Mali through armed resistance. This led many into years of rebel training camps, imprisonment and even exile to Mauritania, Algeria and Burkina Faso. The mid-1990s, finally saw cease-fire agreements and they are apparently doing better under President Konare.

Touareg in IndigoI think. Anyway, the Touareg are said to be famous for their literature, wit and poems, especially women’s love songs, but I have had a hard time finding any examples that aren’t buried away in impenetrable ethnographic tomes. Instead I have been listening to an all-woman call-and-response group called Tartit (apparently their name means “united” or “union”). Some of the more interesting things about the Touareg traditions include the fact that despite the prevalence of Islamic influence only men wear veils. Women are also allowed to divorce and choose their own husbands. And perhaps most shocking is that men aren’t allowed to play the tinde (drum). Yes, I’m being sarcastic, although I have to admit that women drummers are rare in Western culture and almost unheard of in military/marching bands. Touareg men instead play an imzad (guitar) or tehardent (violin). Thus they appear to be a people known for wit, pride and fearlessness and the women clearly play a dominant/respected role. All this tells me that their lyrics and poetry may have some interesting insights and matrilineal perspectives that we would be wise to preserve before it is too late. My favorite song so far is Holiyane Holiyana, that is said to tell the story of a man who seduced women by advising them to beware of him. I might have botched the translation, though.

If only I could find someone who could point me to the language of the Touareg poems…perhaps next year I’ll have to attend the Festival in the Desert and sit among the indigo robes in the sand.

And if anyone’s looking for a real mind-bender, check out the MIT puzzle pages called Timbuktu. I especially like the History Lesson puzzle, which reminded me of the news about the code buried in the da Vinci ruling not to mention Scott Crosby’s infamous method of hiding DeCSS code in a news report about the DeCSS trial itself.