Security not primary focus of most new technologies

InformationWeek author Larry Greenemeier asks: is Google's recent vulnerability a sign of a broader Web 2.0 weakness? While implications that many of the Internet's hot new AJAX powered sites aren't secure isn't new, the recent article published on Jan 3rd highlights growing privacy concerns over social networking and other new technologies.

Most of the blame lies squarely on client-side or browser based functionality which for the most part is largely untested from a strict security standpoint. Still I find it hard to believe that solutions can not be found that will both patch existing vulnerabilities as well as prevent more serious flaws in the future.

The "Good Ole Days" were incredibly more so

Racing technology has progressed a long way over the past 100 years. It's hard to believe that in this day and age of HANS devices, carbon fiber monocoque and energy absorbing barriers that there was once a time when men drove without seat belts or helmets. As safety features have change so too has the attitude of racing drivers. Nothing illustrates this more than when former drivers from the "golden age of racing" set foot inside a modern racing machine.

The February 2007 Road and Track features an article on the Porsche RS Spyder in which sports car racing legend Brian Redman takes the car for a test drive. Redman won Targa Florio, the 12 Hours of Sebring twice, and was the last person to "drive the almighty Porsche 917-30 Can-Am car in anger". The drive took place at Porsche's Weissach test facility under the watchful eye of Porsche Motorsport boss Hartmut Kristen as well as ALMS series driver Sascha Maassen.

Has the company lost its "moral compass"?

Google isn't starting 2007 on the right foot, at least according to a host of commentators. The company's pristine reputation has recently tarnished in the wake of a security flaw in the company's Gmail service as well as accusations of "anti-competitive" behavior.

The former issue came to late in late December when several Gmail users noticed that their contact lists had been erased. Upon investigation Google's software team determined that code running on a malicious website could allow the site's owner to access Gmail if a user was at the same time signed in to the email service. Reports indicate that the flaw has been actively exploited for a number of weeks prior to its discovery.

Also Google has faced allegations of managing search engine results so its own services are on top. Firefox co-founder Blake Ross commented on his blog that terms such as "blog", "calendar" and "photo sharing" would show Google's own services as the "most relevant" result. He later commented that the company seems to have lost its "moral compass", no doubt a reference to the company's unofficial mantra of "don't be evil".

In reality criticism of Google is neither new nor unexpected. While the latest round of issues has made great headlines, they don't change the fact that some folks have always maintained doubts about Google's altruistic nature. As recent history has shown us no matter how much good will you generate some people will always view your company with distain and distrust.

The interesting thing is that as Google continues to grow and expand it will inevitably find its self in a similar place as Microsoft. Regardless of how good its products are or how much those products improve productivity or our lives, some will still find room to criticize the company. And honestly some of that criticism may be rightly leveled against the giant. However Google can avoid the Microsoft fate not in how much good will they do, but in how they deal with criticism and controversy. This has been an extreme sore spot for Microsoft and will ultimately determine Google's long lasting legacy.

Mark Cuban believes that it's a no brainer, but that ignores the challenges

Wired asks if the time has come for BitTorrent to move from the PC to the TV. The answer is a resounding yes according to HDNet chairman Mark Cuban. The topic was recently considered following the acquisition of µTorrent (micro torrent) by BitTorrent and an announcement by rival client software maker Azureus to distribute HD quality movies over BitTorrent networks.

Obviously there is room for legal peer-to-peer distribution of content; however movie and TV media may not be the best fit. For starters while the overall bandwidth requirement is distributed among swarm participants (those sharing the file), the maximum download speed can be quite slow since most of these sources are hosted on residential DSL and Cable modems. As a result it can take many hours for a full length movie or TV show to be delivered to a viewer's set.

In practice the viewer would need to either pre-schedule the download or wait until the file was completely downloaded. This is because BitTorrent sends chunks of the file, not necessarily in order, to the client who is responsible for reassembling them. Unlike a traditional download you can not start playing the file until it is completely reassembled on your PC or entertainment system.

While the idea of further legitimizing BitTorrent is a good, an application such as this will be met with little interest from consumers, regardless of how "easy" it is to use. In a way the idea of waiting for your show to download is counter to the last 20 years of "on demand" programming and instant gratification that we have all become accustomed to. That's not to say there aren't smart applications of the technology, it's just that I feel that it's not ready for prime time, TV that is.