2002.12_Digital Spy.pdf

Welcome

COMMENT

Digital Spy

We pride ourselves on the origins

of our publication, which come

from the early days of the Linux

revolution.

Our sister publication in Germany,

founded in 1994, was the first

Linux magazine in Europe. Since

then, our network and expertise

has grown and expanded with the

Linux community around the

world.

As a reader of Linux Magazine,

you are joining an information

network that is dedicated to

distributing knowledge and

technical expertise. We’re not

simply reporting on the Linux

and Open Source movement,

we’re part of it.

Dear Linux Magazine Reader,

Christmas will soon be upon us and, with it, the chance to over indulge. Have we all been

good girls and boys? Just how does Santa know these days if you are good, or that you’ve

been caught looking at a Windows XP site and so will be missed this year. Will Santa bring

me a new Sun Blade server? Can someone, anyone please stop all the spam?

I live my life by email. I have a continuous webcam pointed at me. I drive an automatic

car because even that is digital – stopped or foot full to the floor (30 mph max because it is

a small engined untuned Mini). I listen to music digitally, watch digital news feeds and

play digital games. Slowly my life is becoming digital. This is fun at times, but I know

many find the amount of information held about someone intrusive and if correctly

datamined and sifted, whole patterns of your life are open to the world.

Buy something with a credit card and what you’ve bought, when and where are all

recorded. With enough records we could build up a typical weekly picture with your habits

and movements. Deviate from your normal routine and it could be highlighted. Not that it

is infallible, otherwise every car would have tax and insurance. It is all a case of who is

doing the data mining and for what purpose.

Santa will no doubt be using technology this year to keep checks on people. A quick browse by name

brings up many associations, email archives show just what you said to whom and when, and if cross

referenced just how long it took to send the apology. Mailing lists will not just be harvested by

spammers to steal your valid email address but for your comments and views. It is no use trying to

correct a webpage when the spiders have already taken a cache copy.

Should this be a problem? After all we are all honest and, in a cowboy film, would wear white. We use

Linux so we must be good. The problem is things get taken out of context. Misquoting is easy to do and

leads to the wrong opinions being formed. Mr W Gates is usually quoted as saying “640K should be

enough for anyone”. The quote appears in so many web sites and

books that if he did not say it, as he now points out to people, then he

should be a little pleased because of the publicity.

With Human Resources departments now doing a scan on the name

for job applicants, will they have the time to read around any

misquote to understand the context?

With the changing digital age will this mean we become more

sensitive to what we say online? Even IRC channels now have logging

bots so what was once a free flowing form of communication is

occasionally becoming stilted and people think about future

consequenses before typing.

Will I be misquoted in the future – Yes.

Will anyone take the time to check the context – No.

“I am sorry, I apologise, I meant to say: My mistake.”

There, that should get me out of a few future problems.

Online Archive

Linux Magazine is proud to

announce the availability of

our online archive. Under

http://www.linux-magazine.

com/Readers/Archive you will

find a database of Linux Maga-

zine articles in PDF format.

Note than in addition to the

current articles available

online, we will be adding the

complete content of back

issues as well. New articles are

added every week, so check

frequently!

Now Santa, about that new Ferrari…

Happy Hacking,

P.S. You will have noticed the cover date of this issue is December 2002 /

January 2003. We are not skipping a month but falling into line with the

rest of the publishing industry. The date is used in the UK as the date to

remove from the newsagents’ shelves and overseas as the sale date.

John Southern

Editor

www.linux-magazine.com

Dec 02 / Jan 03

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