Have you ever thrown out a jewel case? Or a CD, video tape, cassette tape, DVD, DVD case, the plastic packaging your DVDs and CDs come in, that annoying security sticker, or anything from AOL? Do you think anyone else has? Somewhere there must be a measure of what percentage of trash comes from package materials used for CDs, DVDs, and all the expendable media we consume. An easy way to start would be to see how much is produced. Eventually, all of that will likely be in the trash or in a recycling plant using fuel and the expensive chemical compounds that facilitate the recycling process. (I know nothing about how recycling works other than it is not a form of alchemy.)
Wouldn't it be amazing if there was some way that we could eliminate every single piece of waste that is produced by all of our consumable media?
The earth is in luck (the earth's luck seems to have been in short supply during the past couple centuries). Now instead of buying that CD or DVD with liner notes and a bar code you can eliminate your share of that form of pollution. Boot up your personal computer (which is of course also filled with all kinds of toxic chemicals) and download your media from one of the many online retailers.
Imagine if instead of eventually throwing out your jewel cases you never bought them in the first place? Imagine if you walked into Virgin Music and instead of seeing rows upon rows of plastic cases you saw interactive screens that you could browse for enticing music and then, after paying a nominal fee that primarily went directly to the artist, the album or track was transferred and licensed to play on your personal music playing device?
"I recycle all my plastic so it does not matter if I buy some jewel cases. When I get rid of it I'll recycle it and the liner notes as well."
It is more efficient to not produce the plastic in the first place, or use it to produce something more needed like tubing for irrigation. Additionally, recycling does not equate with perpetual motion: it is not resource consumption free. Similarly to fusion power there are circumstances when recycling is not efficient. (I don't know what these circumstances are but they are certainly less likely to occur than the circumstances in which fusion power is efficient, which is currently all circumstances.)
"But the liner notes! They have lyrics and pictures and biographies, plus it supports the artist."
Purchase a poster or a book about the artist with the extra money you save on not paying for plastic. Purchase something directly from the artist so they can see a nice one hundred percent of your appreciation and not the normal nine basis points. (I actually have no idea how much royalties are beyond that they are low.)
Consumers have moved on. Retailers must follow suit eventually.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
The Sleekest Botnet
The Apple store is always impressive. It's not the elegant use of glass, especially glass stair cases, nor the surfeit of outwardly cheerful employees sporting classy badges. It's the fifty or so top of the line Macs that anyone can walk up to and start using.
Apple has turned into the Barnes & Noble of computer (or electronics) stores. When Barnes & Noble first appeared they were able to grab such a significant piece of market share because you could wander in, read a book, and leave without buying anything. All the local bookstores were upset since they couldn't compete with the market of scale Barnes & Noble had created. (Now copy cats, like Borders, are starting to eat into Barnes & Nobles' market share.)
Why try to clandestinely check your email at Office Depot when you can roll into Apple and spend 3 hours "friending" people? Perhaps you'll even end up buying that 29.99 pair of headphones that you could purchase for 6.99 at a corner store, at the least you'll keep the store filled.
You could also use these publicly accessibly computers to do many other things. The adage, "physical access equals game over" is still true. You could plug in a thumb drive and at the very least get the box. Maybe you could even get the LAN, and if not, just stroll over to another shiny 2ghz box and that's that. Maybe they do some hardening but I know Disk Utility works fine on the Macs (erase free space, partition, format). Being optimistic, suppose thumb drive machine access leads to owning the LAN. So that's one store, can you hop through the internal network and get another store? If not take a quick walk, subway, or taxi ride and now you have two LANs. Is this possible (yes)? Is this hard (probably not)? Failing a thumb drive, you have internet access on the box, why not just download?
Has this not happened yet? If it has what has the exploiter gained? Very simplistically you could walk in and go to a Mac, download and install a stealthy key logger (hardware or software), then walk out and see what happens. I've seen lots of people checking email accounts (I've checked my low security email account) on an Apple store Mac. Have you ever seen someone checking a bank account? Even if not, email account access gives an extremely large amount of information, identity theft anyone?
If this has not happened yet (and I doubt it) it will happen soon and someone, then many people, will learn why public terminals are dangerous.
Apple has turned into the Barnes & Noble of computer (or electronics) stores. When Barnes & Noble first appeared they were able to grab such a significant piece of market share because you could wander in, read a book, and leave without buying anything. All the local bookstores were upset since they couldn't compete with the market of scale Barnes & Noble had created. (Now copy cats, like Borders, are starting to eat into Barnes & Nobles' market share.)
Why try to clandestinely check your email at Office Depot when you can roll into Apple and spend 3 hours "friending" people? Perhaps you'll even end up buying that 29.99 pair of headphones that you could purchase for 6.99 at a corner store, at the least you'll keep the store filled.
You could also use these publicly accessibly computers to do many other things. The adage, "physical access equals game over" is still true. You could plug in a thumb drive and at the very least get the box. Maybe you could even get the LAN, and if not, just stroll over to another shiny 2ghz box and that's that. Maybe they do some hardening but I know Disk Utility works fine on the Macs (erase free space, partition, format). Being optimistic, suppose thumb drive machine access leads to owning the LAN. So that's one store, can you hop through the internal network and get another store? If not take a quick walk, subway, or taxi ride and now you have two LANs. Is this possible (yes)? Is this hard (probably not)? Failing a thumb drive, you have internet access on the box, why not just download?
Has this not happened yet? If it has what has the exploiter gained? Very simplistically you could walk in and go to a Mac, download and install a stealthy key logger (hardware or software), then walk out and see what happens. I've seen lots of people checking email accounts (I've checked my low security email account) on an Apple store Mac. Have you ever seen someone checking a bank account? Even if not, email account access gives an extremely large amount of information, identity theft anyone?
If this has not happened yet (and I doubt it) it will happen soon and someone, then many people, will learn why public terminals are dangerous.
Update: I've noticed some Macs that are more locked down, I think they have parental controls on. Still, it's a closed source operating system, who can't break mac parental controls on those?
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
The Automated Future
Normally I stay away from stores that vend a majority of poisonous substances however, recently, while in a Stop & Shop, I was given a vision of the future. A future were human interaction is the exception. It is something that occurs a couple times a week, something you might look forward to or something you might dread, in any case it is a rarity. Relish the moments you spend waiting for the incredibly slow cashier to change your twenty; the moments you spend chatting with them about the upcoming elections. Those opportunities are quickly disappearing.
The local Stop & Shop installed some (three or four?) self-checkout systems. These MRI-reminiscent devices do exactly what the name connotes. Scan your items, choose your payment method, enter your card info or insert your cash, and walk away.
I consider the honor system a wonderful form of enforcement. However, it is also an unrealistic form of enforcement in the current society of the United States. In the store that I was in the lines which used self-checkout were solely the 12 item or fewer express lines. I don't believe there existed any formal verification that the items you placed in your bag(s) were items that you scanned and payed for. There was an employee who bagged my item (not that my single 1x1x4 in. item needed a bag) but she had no idea whether I paid or not and I doubt she cared given the attitudes of the majority of Stop & Shop employees (that is of course no fault of hers, it may be difficult to care about such a job). What prevents someone from weighing and paying for only an ounce of the carrots out of the 5 ounces of carrots they purchase? If stopped, there would be a reasonable amount of plausible deniability, "Oh, it works that way? I'm so new to these machines!" Or, what prevents someone from swiping a stick of gum and then swiping a (insert something more expensive than a stick of gum) while holding their hand over the bar code? Still, lots of deniability, "Really? That didn't scan? I swiped it and everything?" Not that there would necessarily be anyone to stop you on your way out, although mind the innumerable security cameras.
Maybe that is the future we have to look forward to. After underpaying for a couple of ounces of rice, and not the pound you took, an automated surveillance system uses the fact that the rest of the self-checkout system also acts as an unbeknownst scale and notices a discrepancy between the weight of your rice on the scale and the weight in the bag. As you push against the door to leave the store you realize it's locked so turn around to push against the door behind you and realize your caught in the double door exit. You wait in between the doors for about 15 seconds before seeing a couple Stop & Shop security guards heading your way. It is the first time you've ever seen a human employee of Stop & Shop.
The local Stop & Shop installed some (three or four?) self-checkout systems. These MRI-reminiscent devices do exactly what the name connotes. Scan your items, choose your payment method, enter your card info or insert your cash, and walk away.
I consider the honor system a wonderful form of enforcement. However, it is also an unrealistic form of enforcement in the current society of the United States. In the store that I was in the lines which used self-checkout were solely the 12 item or fewer express lines. I don't believe there existed any formal verification that the items you placed in your bag(s) were items that you scanned and payed for. There was an employee who bagged my item (not that my single 1x1x4 in. item needed a bag) but she had no idea whether I paid or not and I doubt she cared given the attitudes of the majority of Stop & Shop employees (that is of course no fault of hers, it may be difficult to care about such a job). What prevents someone from weighing and paying for only an ounce of the carrots out of the 5 ounces of carrots they purchase? If stopped, there would be a reasonable amount of plausible deniability, "Oh, it works that way? I'm so new to these machines!" Or, what prevents someone from swiping a stick of gum and then swiping a (insert something more expensive than a stick of gum) while holding their hand over the bar code? Still, lots of deniability, "Really? That didn't scan? I swiped it and everything?" Not that there would necessarily be anyone to stop you on your way out, although mind the innumerable security cameras.
Maybe that is the future we have to look forward to. After underpaying for a couple of ounces of rice, and not the pound you took, an automated surveillance system uses the fact that the rest of the self-checkout system also acts as an unbeknownst scale and notices a discrepancy between the weight of your rice on the scale and the weight in the bag. As you push against the door to leave the store you realize it's locked so turn around to push against the door behind you and realize your caught in the double door exit. You wait in between the doors for about 15 seconds before seeing a couple Stop & Shop security guards heading your way. It is the first time you've ever seen a human employee of Stop & Shop.
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