Linked List: December 15, 2010

Wednesday, 15 December 2010

Charles Arthur for The Guardian:

But Stallman is unimpressed. “I think that marketers like “cloud computing” because it is devoid of substantive meaning. The term’s meaning is not substance, it’s an attitude: ‘Let any Tom, Dick and Harry hold your data, let any Tom, Dick and Harry do your computing for you (and control it).’ Perhaps the term ‘careless computing’ would suit it better.”

He sees a creeping problem: “I suppose many people will continue moving towards careless computing, because there’s a sucker born every minute. The US government may try to encourage people to place their data where the US government can seize it without showing them a search warrant, rather than in their own property. However, as long as enough of us continue keeping our data under our own control, we can still do so. And we had better do so, or the option may disappear.”

A Bayesian Take on Julian Assange ★

Speaking of the WikiLeaks saga, Nate Silver has a good piece about the unusual circumstances of Julian Assange’s incarceration in the U.K.:

The handling of the case has been highly irregular from the start, in ways that would seem to make clear that the motivation for bringing the charges is political.

The Inhumane Conditions of Bradley Manning’s Detention ★

Glenn Greenwald:

From the beginning of his detention, Manning has been held in intensive solitary confinement. For 23 out of 24 hours every day — for seven straight months and counting — he sits completely alone in his cell. Even inside his cell, his activities are heavily restricted; he’s barred even from exercising and is under constant surveillance to enforce those restrictions. For reasons that appear completely punitive, he’s being denied many of the most basic attributes of civilized imprisonment, including even a pillow or sheets for his bed (he is not and never has been on suicide watch). […]

In sum, Manning has been subjected for many months without pause to inhumane, personality-erasing, soul-destroying, insanity-inducing conditions of isolation similar to those perfected at America’s Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado: all without so much as having been convicted of anything. And as is true of many prisoners subjected to warped treatment of this sort, the brig’s medical personnel now administer regular doses of anti-depressants to Manning to prevent his brain from snapping from the effects of this isolation.

What’s Wrong With OpenID? ★

Scathing critique of OpenID by Yishan Wong:

The short answer is that OpenID is the worst possible “solution” I have ever seen in my entire life to a problem that most people don’t really have. That’s what’s “wrong” with it.

(Via Marco Arment.)

Chrome OS and IT Platform Longevity ★

So, re: the previous item about Chrome OS not appealing to me, personally, in the least — that clearly doesn’t mean it doesn’t appeal to anyone. Obviously, it does. But how many? On our podcast, Dan Benjamin and I have talked about it being targeted at the corporate enterprise market. I opened a new bank account a few weeks ago, and I noticed that the guy from the bank did so using a web browser on a PC running an old version of Windows. Presumably, running a web browser that accesses an intranet web app is the sole purpose of that computer. Are not such machines prime candidates to be replaced by cheaper, easier-to-maintain Chrome OS machines?

In theory, yes. But Marco Arment raises some interesting points regarding the profound conservatism of corporate IT:

In the context of replacing business software platforms, longevity is a major requirement. For Chrome OS to be considered by any reasonably large business, their IT decision-makers are going to want to know that Chrome OS is going to be around and supported by Google many years from now. Support means, at least, that compatible hardware must be available, software licensing must continue, and security issues must be patched.

And any reasonably competent IT executive can plainly see that Google, for all of their algorithmic might, isn’t known for product longevity.

Gmail Creator Paul Buchheit Predicts: ‘ChromeOS Will Be Killed Next Year (or “Merged” With Android)’ ★

Here’s what he wrote on FriendFeed:

ChromeOS has no purpose that isn’t better served by Android (perhaps with a few mods to support a non-touch display).

I was thinking, “is this too obvious to even state?”, but then I see people taking ChromeOS seriously, and Google is even shipping devices for some reason.

I’ve had this thought ever since Chrome OS was announced. The logic is: if everything in Chrome OS is a WebKit browser view, and Android has a good WebKit browser, then isn’t Android capable of everything Chrome OS is, but with the added goodness of native apps? I’m not saying that’s right. And these Cr-48 prototypes seem to be getting decent reviews.

I’m just saying, if I quit every app on my MacBook other than Chrome and ran it full-screen, I’d be miserable.