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Quick disclaimer: I love cryptography. I don’t fully understand the math that goes into it, but I love it all the same.

Something that has baffled me for quite some time is why we don’t see more cryptography in consumer computing. Passwords, simple authentication tokens, are ubiquitous, even on single-user Windows computers. Real encryption, on the other hand, in virtually non-existant.

Why?

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When I was much, much younger, I was online. Every summer, I would spend a couple weeks with my grandparents. My uncle, a professor of computer science at a nearby college, secured for me a spare computer, a modem, and user account. A handshake later and I was connected to the network. A further authentication and I was online.

Looking back, the early internet didn’t really do much. I had access to a wealth of information, and I would spend hours crawling through Gopherspace, soaking up information like a sponge. Years later, and Gopher is a figment of the past, lost forever to the ever-evolving digital landscape.

What kills old technology?

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Sun Microsystems, one of the stalwarts of the computing industry, has a simple motto: “the network is the computer.” Yesterday, Google took that motto to an entirely new level with the announcement of it’s Chrome OS.

Details on Chrome are sparse (which has not stopped technology writers from writing ad nauseum about all the features it will have). What it appears from Google’s press release, however, is that Chrome will be an incarnation of the old “network computer” (NC) concept, where the bulk of the computing will be conducted on centralized servers. Rebranded “cloud computing”, this server-centric model is the latest fad.

NCs have a significant limitation not found in personal computers: to fully function, an NC requires a constant, reliable network connection. Chrome will likely utilize Google’s “Gears” framework. Even so, the dramatic push of an entire operating environment to the web seems both radical and unwise. When Gmail went down for several hours earlier this year, the world panicked. The harm caused by a Gmail outage will be miniscule compared to an outage of thousands of computers.

It is far too early to tell if Chrome will be a mere dumb terminal or something far more sophisticated. A number of important questions also remain to be answered, such as how open the Chrome platform will be, the willingness of people to adopt a new operating platform, and the response of the existing operating system developers.

While I was in Georgetown today, I saw this on the window of an office suite. I think this qualifies as the emptiest gesture of all time.

The European Commission (EC) today imposed a €1.06 billion fine on the Intel Corporation for “abuse of a dominant market position . . . by engaging in illegal anticompetitive practices to exclue competitors from the market for computer chips called x86 central processing units.” The Commission futher ordered Intel “to cease the anticompetitive practices to the extent that they are still ongoing.”

According to the Commission, Intel engaged in a practice of providing substantial rebates to PC manufacturers who either used exclusively or predominantly Intel processors. The rebates themselves were not the basis for the fine, but “the conditions Intel attached to those rebates.”

The Commission also found that Intel made direct payments to manufacturers to delay the launch of products containing processors from rival AMD. This “pay-for-delay” scheme, the Commission finds, was directly aimed at preventing AMD from selling its product on the open market and thus violative of EU Law.

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This weekend, I saw an advertisment from the U.S. Department of State promoting their new U.S. Passport Card. The new document corresponds with a tightening of travel restrictions within North America. After reading about this new form of ID, I’ve compiled a simple list of pros and cons:

Pro:

1. It’s really cheap to get the new Passport Card ($45 for first-time applicants versus $100 for a regular passport).
2. It’s small and portable (it fits into your wallet).
3. It’s shiny.

Cons:

1. It’s confusing.
2. It cannot be used for international travel outside of Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) countries.
3. It cannot be used for any international air travel, even within WHTI countries.

I really can’t see the point of this card, especially if you already have a valid passport. While I’m not opposed to having an ID card issued by the federal government (after all, many other country’s national government issues ID cards), this seems like it is an unnecessary addition.

My advice for people who travel anywhere is to get a traditional passport. Even if you are only traveling by land or by sea, emergencies do come up, and the last place anyone wants to be stuck is customs limbo.

UPDATE: The Passport Card featured in this article comes directly from the State Department website.  I just got a good look at it.  The date of birth in the photo is about a month earlier than mine, but the guy looks like he’s 40.

According to media reports, a car accident in Apeldoorn has left at least two dead and at least dozen injured. NRC Handelsblad cites to eyewitness accounts that the driver of the car “‘clearly intended’ to ram the busy carrying the royal family.”

You can follow the events on Twitter, NRC Handelsblad [English], or de Volkskrant [Nederlands].

Current Temperatures From Select Cities:

Washington, DC: -2ºC (Longitude: 38.833º N)

Helsinki, Finland: -2ºC (Longitude: 60.316º N)

Svalbard, Norway: -6ºC (Longitude: 78.250º N)

I’m starting to feel left out in the cold.