Shades of the Stasi

Bad news from Germany, Deutsche Telekom has been caught doing an HP spy job on its own directors.

The company is saying that while it did hire investigators to analyse phone records on directors and journalists calls it didn't listen to the calls themselves. This seems about as unlikely as finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. After all, surely the directors could claim they were talking about something else, and not every phone call leads to a story.

This case is bad in so many ways, but how it came to light is rather amusing. Apparently the details only leaked after Deutsche Telekom forgot to pay its bill to the investigator. Hell hath no fury like an accounts department scorned.

PS Sleuth has been taking an extended break but is now back in action full time. All tips and hints to the usual address please.

May 28, 2008 at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (126) | TrackBack

Negroponte: Laptops are like "fat people"

Kicking off the second day of NetEvents 2006, IT industry heavywieght Nicholas Negroponte has hit back at critics of his $100 One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) scheme by showing off one of the first production models and by saying that conventional laptops are like"fat people."

"It's a real computer," he said about his OLPC and illustrated, via slides of the Quanta production facility in Shanghai making the machine, that the OLPC dream is now a working reality.

Explaining his analogy, Negroponte explained that as fat people use most of their muscle to move their fat, conventional laptops need more ever more muscle to move the fat of bloatware on them. This makes them prone to instability, Negroponte said: "My (conventional) computer, Crashes five times a day."

In comparison, Negroponte said that because his OLPC machine is leaner using Linux and that it has been designed for kids rather than for using (Microsoft) Office, it is probably better option than a traditional machine for the purpose it is intended for.

The mission for Negroponte is all about eliminating poverty with education." It's not a lap top project its an education project," he said.

And education for the 1.2bn children in the developing world is the primary focus for Negroponte who explained that in some rural parts of the world, some school kids are only in school two and a half hours a day. So the key, for Negroponte, is to take advantage of the other hours when the child is out of school.

Although the machine is preinstaled with Linux ut this doesn't mean that you can't run Windows on the machine, Negroponte said. " We put in an SD slot just for Bill," he quipped. Negroponte also confirmed that there are currently machines at Microsoft that were being prepped for Windows. But he also revealed that Mirosoft was having a "geniune issue" with open source and that the Redmond giant was "struggling with it."

December 2, 2006 at 08:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack

Broadband: "A basic human right"

Sitting pool-side at the opulent Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong is perhaps not the best setting for thinking about all those poor souls that don't have access to high speed broadband and ICT, but think we did at the opening keynote of the 2006 NetEvents conference.

Opened by A. Reza Jafari, senior vice president and managing director at networking services and interoperability outfit NeuStar, the message was clear. Of the six billion people on the planet, four of those are currently denied access to ICT and this was causing a "digital divide" between the haves and the have nots. This, Jafari believes is preventing the developing world create a "stable economy and a better life."

Jafari's message was sincere. Coming from a background where he himself borrowed $500 from his family to generate a $65m business in seven years, he is a keen supporter of micro financing and believes that access to the life-changing benefits of IP, Wireless and broadband are a "human right."

If the same financing approach was offered to the developing world he believes people will have: better literacy; more jobs; a better standard of living and fundamentally more choice. And this, he believes, is "one of the foundations of freedom and democracy."

To this end, his dream of a "one world knowledge economy" will mean that future leaders and policy makers will be true global citizens. He urges current leaders to not be short-sighted for political gain and hopes that as an industry we can get people closer to each other via the advancements in technology.

"It's the destiny of the industry, its a matter of choice not chance, "he said.

Tomorrow, Nicholas Negroponte, Chairman of one laptop per child will talk about "No Lap Un-Topped, the bottom up revolution that could redefine Global IT Culture. See the Sleuth's exclusive video of the first working prototype here

December 1, 2006 at 05:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack