Curiouser and Curiouser!

Curiouser and Curiouser! on palladium http://matt.blogs.it/ RSS feed for topic palladium Copyright 2006 Matt Mower Squib/0.1 self@mattmower.com self@mattmower.com en-gb Palladium or bust Sat, 29 Jun 2002 08:55:40 +0100 Dylan Tweney: <A href="http://www.tweney.com/2002/0628trust.html">Broken trust</A>. The problem is that Palladium requires users to place a huge amount of trust in Microsoft. You don't get to decide what runs on your computer -- Microsoft does. You can't even open files unless you've been authorized by Microsoft, or by a third party. [<A href="http://www.tomalak.org/">Tomalak's Realm</A>] <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> » Definitely a case where the cure is worse than the disease. <UL> <LI>Spam : there is some evidence to suggest that P2P filtering will effectively reduce the spam problem down to manageable levels.  Developments in this direction can start providing benefits now and without costing investment in hardware & OS. <LI>Virii : I run Norton Anti-virus in the background.  I use auto-update to keep NAV current.  So far, I've not had a problem.  I don't open attachments unless they are scanned.  I trust that virus defence systems will continue to advance and provide greater and more seamless protection.</LI></UL> Palladium's safety mechanism sounds a lot like "pull the plug out of the wall."   You'll be protected, because there will be no software to run on your shiny new computer except that from the Pravda like M$crosoft and it's allies. Remember the pedigree of who we're dealing with here.  If you're an ISV will you be happy to pay Microsoft to have your software certified for Palladium?  Each time you release?  Even for a patch?  And what if your playing on Microsoft's turf or turf they have their beady eyes on, Think your customers might have just the odd extra problem that doesn't happen with Microsoft's possibly inferior entry?  Want to take that risk?  Remember who we're dealing with. It's only Microsoft's monopoly on the desktop and Intel & AMD's lock on the CPU market that allows this kind of applied stupidity.  In a healthy market for chips & OS's there would be too many options for one vendor to create a lock-in like this.  Of course, trust Microsoft to manage to spin this carbuncle in a way that could appeal to people. Remember the original MSN?  Customers flocked to Microsofts new and improved internet in their... dozens.  That's because they had a choice and the internet didn't suck ass.  Between now and LongHorn we need Linux to establish itself on the desktop to provide some kind of realistic alternative.  We need to be able to let  M$crosoft and Disney go their way, hand-in-hand, whilst we go ours. We need a choice.  </BLOCKQUOTE> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00000061.html Know thine enemy Wed, 03 Jul 2002 22:15:52 +0100 <A href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0103807/2002/07/02.html#a339">Palladium: Disturbing. Highly Disturbing.</A>. <H3>Palladium: Disturbing.  Highly Disturbing.</H3> If you don't understand Palladium, you should.  Excellent FAQ here: <A href="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html"><A href="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html">http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html</A></A> <A href="http://www.scripting.com/">Dave</A>, thanks for the link![<A href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0103807/">The FuzzyBlog!</A>] http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00000089.html I'd rather throw a pot Wed, 03 Jul 2002 23:14:07 +0100 A roundabout story re the Reuters story above. I got a call from Microsoft PR earlier this week about my blanket <A href="http://scriptingnews.userland.com/backissues/2002/06/29#When:8:30:41AM">dismissal</A> of their "DRM" operating system, aka Palladium. They may have a monopoly on OSes, but nothing says I have to use computers. I still have choice, even if they figure out how to impregnate my W2K machine with their viruses, theoretically I can still turn the fucker off and go make pottery or something that doesn't involve any of their mischief. Now, I can do the same with the music industry's product. As long as they keep treating their users with the same kind of disrespect that Microsoft does, they're going to end up just as <A href="http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=reviled&r=2">reviled</A>. The MS person asked what they can do to regain my trust. I said it's possible. Start by <A href="http://davenet.userland.com/2001/07/12/restoringCompetitionToTheBrowserMarket">restoring competition</A> to the browser market. Then we can talk about next steps. It comes down to this, how can they be a leader if they destroy everything they would hope to lead? [<A href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</A>] <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> » With Palladium Microsoft might singlehandedly kick start the pottery revolution.</BLOCKQUOTE> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00000095.html Trust Microsoft? Sat, 06 Jul 2002 18:12:24 +0100 <A href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0107099/2002/07/05.html#a243">Shawn Dodd</A>: "Microsoft wants to know what they can do to regain our trust. The answer: give up DRM altogether. Microsoft can't push DRM and regain our trust at the same time; we can't and shouldn't trust someone who is planning to hurt us." [<A href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</A>] http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00000103.html Sun, 07 Jul 2002 10:43:35 +0100 <A href="http://boingboing.net/#85225479">More sharp notes on Palladium</A>. Seth has posted further, in-depth notes about our meeting with Microsoft's Palladium team, going into great detail about the technical workings and intentions of the system -- and there's no Latin in sight this time! The closer you look at Palladium, the more civil liberties implications begin to surface. Again, Seth is the likely most technical person to have received a briefing like this without signing an NDA; his notes are lucid, accurate and well-informed. <BLOCKQUOTE>When you want to start a Palladium PC in trusted mode (note that it doesn't have to start in trusted mode, and, from what Microsoft said, it sounds like you could even imagine booting the same OS in either trusted or untrusted mode, based on a user's choice at boot time), the system hardware performs what's called an "authenticated boot", in which the system is placed in a known state and a nub is loaded. A hash (I think it's SHA-1) is taken of the nub which was just loaded, and the 160-bit hash is stored unalterably in the PCR, and remains there for as long as the system continues to operate in trusted mode. Then the operating system kernel can boot, but the key to the trust in the system is the authentication of the nub. As long as the system is up, the SCP knows exactly which nub is currently running; because of the way the CPU works, it is not possible for any other software to modify the nub or its memory or subvert the nub's policies. The nub is in some sense in charge of the system at a low level, but it doesn't usually do things which other software would notice unless it's asked to. </BLOCKQUOTE><A href="http://vitanuova.loyalty.org/2002-07-05.html">Link</A> <A href="http://www.quicktopic.com/boing/H/5Dxg3vRyNkY6">Discuss</A> [<A href="http://boingboing.net/">Boing Boing Blog</A>] http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00000108.html The Palladium Paradox Fri, 25 Oct 2002 15:19:00 +0100 David Weinberger on Palladium <A href="http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/wo_weinberger102502.asp">http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/wo_weinberger102502.asp</A> Microsoft to become Hollywoods new best friend? http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00000779.html You can put make-up on a pig.. Sat, 25 Jan 2003 09:08:55 +0000 <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <A href="http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/archives/000755.shtml">Palladium Name Change; Mission Still Same</A>. This just in from Microsoft's PR folks: "Microsoft is adopting a new name to replace the code name Palladium. Effective... [<A href="http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/">Dan Gillmor's eJournal</A>]</BLOCKQUOTE> Yes, it's just as easy to re-read their statement as "The name Palladium garnered a lot of bad press so we're going to give it a boring name with an odd acronym and hope you forget all about it." As Dan says, you can put make-up on a pig... http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00001104.html