-Caveat Lector-
----------------- ------ ----------- ---------------------
"You should view the world as a conspiracy run by a very closely-knit group
of nearly omnipotent people, and you should think of those people as
yourself and your friends."
--Robert Anton Wilson
NEURONAUTIC INSTITUTE on-line: http://home.earthlink.net/~thew
------ Forwarded Message
>
> Looks like this is where it's all going, doesn't it.
>
> http://www.theregus.com/content/3/26259.html
>
Intel's new chip for security Renaissance
By Thomas C Greene in Washington
Posted: 09/10/2002 at 08:06 EST
Hideous viruses and terrifying hackers will soon be neutralized so that the
computing public might finally doze blissfully in a cocoon of safety, Intel
announced yesterday at the Developers' Forum. The proposed solution is
LaGrande -- which is not, as it sounds, a genteelized pickup truck for
suburban use, but a hardware system which will control your computing
experience for your own good. It will prevent you from doing silly things by
sandboxing numerous risky processes and apparently establishing a secure
sanctum sanctorum on one's HDD along lines of the IBM rapid restore gimmick.
Details are sketchy, but LaGrande is, we're assured, "a new level of safer
computing," according to Intel COO Paul Otellini, who gave the keynote
address and announced the new initiative. It will also be engineered to
dovetail with Microsoft's 'Palladium' controlled-computing scheme, according
to a report from the Associated Press.
With the world's largest software maker and largest chip maker both
officially embracing controlled computing, we can now see the future as
imagined by the Wintel colossus.
Stagnation
Surely, the most recent 'innovations' in Microsoft products have been
entirely self-serving. For example, virtually all of Win-XP's mighty
engineering effort was devoted to making it more difficult for consumers to
use one copy on more than one computer, save for a few minor cosmetic
changes and trivial whistles and bells. It was all about product activation,
and almost nothing else. Come on, really Mr. Consumer, does XP do anything
for you that 98 didn't? (I mean aside from binding itself to a single
machine.) Outlook is still the Prime Mover of viruses; IE is still riddled
with scripting vulnerabilities; the OS still crashes. Office is still the
same too. Oh, XP's got maybe a score of obscure little 'features' that 2K
lacked. Do you need any of them? Do you even know what they are? Can you
name three? It organizes your day; it formats; it prints; it saves; it makes
backups; it tracks changes for committee editing. What else does it need to
do?
The fact is, Windows and Office have for quite some time done virtually
everything a Windows home or small-business user wants done. There's really
no need to 'upgrade'.
And what about your hardware? Got a P3 or P4? I bet your computer runs just
fine. Unless you're running servers or databases or doing scientific work or
hard-core graphics work, you don't need a more powerful machine. If she's a
bit sluggish, strap on some extra RAM or drop in a nice graphics card.
There's really no need to buy a new system.
But Microsoft and Intel (not to mention Dell and Gateway and HPQ, etc, etc)
desperately need to sell new desktop systems, whether you need them or not.
Recent advertising has emphasized low-end systems which can be had cheap, to
attract first-time users who perhaps have long felt that a computer is an
expensive luxury. Now it's not. The $699 complete system is all the rage
these days.
And that's smart, certainly; but it's obviously not enough. To keep the tech
gravy-train running at full speed, we're all going to have to start buying,
and that's where controlled computing comes in. If it succeeds, it will mean
that we all have to buy new kit. New hardware and new software: all
different; all improved; all selflessly engineered with our safety in mind.
In three years or so the dominant PC marketing pitch will be the Lullaby of
Trust.
"I'm sorry, Dave..."
But as we've pointed out on numerous occasions, controlled computing is not
at all about protecting you and your stuff, but very much about protecting
digital content from you. The software and media industries are convinced
that you're a criminal, and they're determined to control in minute detail
what you can do with content you've paid for, by controlling minutely what
you can do with your machine.
You've bought some music and you want to listen to the MP3 on your computer
and the CD on your DiscMan. Forget it. There will be no more ripping and
burning except under conditions of which the labels approve, like if you pay
a surcharge, say. This technology is just too well suited to industry
extortion for that not to be a significant driving force behind it.
Here's a simple example: let's say studio X sells you a CD for $15.00 with
no copying permitted. Perhaps for $20.00 they'll sell you almost the same
CD, but one which can be copied twice (allowing for the accidental loss of
the copied content); but of course you won't be able to duplicate the data
files. Your trustworthy set-top box masquerading as a computer simply won't
do it, and the bloody CD won't copy to an untrusted machine at all.
It can work just as well in the other direction. Say you buy the content
from an official download site. You'll pay extra for the privilege of
burning it to removable media; and the scheme will require a
specially-formatted blank medium which prevents duplication. If these
conditions aren't met, the computer you thought you owned refuses to comply.
"I'm sorry, Dave..."
Thus we find Otellini's assurance that the LaGrande scheme will be "strictly
opt-in" to be the most disingenuous bit of corporate hair-splitting we've
heard in months. The hope is, the time will come when you quite simply have
to opt in to get your digital content to work.
The content itself -- software and media -- will drive the need for
controlled computing because these products will gradually be designed not
to work otherwise. That, in turn, will drive the need for us to go out and
buy heaps of expensive new kit and operating systems and applications and
media for which we otherwise would have no use at all. Intel and MS will be
back in business hard-selling to the consumer market. The OEMs will stand up
and cheer, while Hollywood counts its guaranteed profits off a brand new
distribution monopoly. It will be nothing short of a Renaissance.
It's quite a beautiful scam -- the evil ingenuity of Corporate America never
ceases to swell my heart with profound nationalistic pride. But if the US
economy continues down its current path, I seriously doubt it has a chance.
We may all be a good deal poorer three years hence; and the likelihood of
selling Joe Sixpack a $1000 desktop that does less than the one he's already
got is going to be slim to none.
Unless there's some economic miracle (or at least another economic
mass-delusion such as we enjoyed in '96--'00) in store for us, basically
this Palladium/LaGrande business is a crackpot scheme that does nothing so
much as illustrate the growing desperation of the consumer tech sector to
sell stuff. ®
------ End of Forwarded Message
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
