Blackboard is succeeding because ...

"Easy", 2. "Security", 0.

Blackboard to Set Up Chinese Colleges With Its Software

] "All I wanted to do is tell everyone, 'Hey, this
] is a problem, and it needs to be protected,'"
] Hoffman said. "Everyone was blissfully unaware of
] how it works. I looked at it and found the emperor
] has no clothes, and now everyone's mad at me."

Billy quotes well..

] "We took the legal course because what he's
] presenting and promoting was encouraging illegal
] behavior," said Blackboard spokesman Michael Stanton.
] "He was able to tap into the wires, like anyone could
] do if they took a sledgehammer to an ATM machine."

No, and is that all you got? Stop using ATM line for every article. Its pratically a troll..

] Charles Lester, an attorney for Blackboard, said he
] is concerned Hoffman's hacking could damage the
] company's business that has taken years to build.

You know, if you suck, it is your fault. Sucking costs you market share. It reflects on your reputation.. Imagine that! Now, if you don't want researchers to find critical flaws in your technology, don't make lame technology. Or at the very least, make your technology better, don't sue the messenger..

Hell.. Just show you are doing something about it.. There are companies out there that just do a decent job of showing they are doing something, while not actually doing anything at all! You don't even have that much creativity. Went to court on the first researcher who revealed your stuff crap.. Low threshold for criticism. You want people to trust your products with money?

You don't sue, you fix! Got it! Sue no, fix yes. Make new product that dosen't suck, sell it, encourage customers to secure wires better,, buy newer units to replace older ones in risky situations, etc.. Like, actually do good for your customers.

Jacksonville.com: Ga. Tech student barred from discussing flaws in debit card technology 4/17/03

] The complaint is constructed, as the lawyers say,
] "artfully". They vilify one of the defendants, without
] saying much about the other defendant; but they ask for
] an injunction against both. They gleefully quote one
] defendant calling himself a "hacker", apparently unaware
] that "hacker" is still a legitimate term of respect in
] some circles. They quote a law against distributing
] "access codes" and then trumpet a defendant's
] distribution of "code". And so on.
]
] There is no mention in these documents of the enormous
] free speech issue here. The injunction is a prior
] restraint on speech, which prevented the defendants from
] speaking to an specific audience that had gathered to
] hear them. Yet somehow neither Blackboard nor the court
] indicates that any consideration of the First Amendment
] was even necessary.

Felten takes notice..

Freedom to Tinker: Security Research Muzzled in Georgia

] Threats of DMCA-inspired lawsuits have been used to gag a
] pair of security researchers due to give a talk on the
] shortcomings of smartcard technology at the Interz0ne.com
] conference last weekend.
]
] Blackboard Inc. found out security researchers Billy
] Hoffman (AKA Acidus) and Virgil Griffith (Virgil) were
] about to present a paper on security flaws involving its
] popular university ID card system, and called in its
] lawyers.

The Register - DMCA threats gag security researchers

New from RAND:

Whether U.S. terrorism-prevention efforts match the threat continues to be central in policy debate. Part of this debate is whether the United States needs a dedicated domestic counterterrorism intelligence agency. To inform future policy decisionmaking, this book examines, from a variety of perspectives, the policy proposal that such an agency be created. These include its possible capabilities, comparing its potential effectiveness with that of current efforts, and its acceptability to the public, as well as various balances and trade-offs involved in creating such an agency. Reflecting the limits in the data available and the significant uncertainty associated with this policy area, if there is a unifying message from the study, it is one of caution and deliberation. In an area in which direct assessment and analysis are limited, there is a need to carefully consider the implications and potential outcomes of such significant policy changes. In doing so, examination from different perspectives and through different approaches — to ideally capture a sufficient picture of the complexity to see not just the benefits we hope to gain from policy change but the layers of effects and interactions that could either help or hurt the chances of those benefits appearing — is a critical ingredient of policy deliberation and design.

Your daily Simpsons reference -- this time, from "Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy":

In the treehouse, the neighborhood kids try to figure out what's up with the adults.

Bart: So finally, we're all in agreement about what's going on with the adults. Milhouse?

Milhouse: [steps up to blackboard] Ahem. OK, here's what we've got: the Rand Corporation, in conjunction with the saucer people --

Bart: Thank you.

Milhouse: -- under the supervision of the reverse vampires --

Lisa: [sighs]

Milhouse: -- are forcing our parents to go to bed early in a fiendish plot to eliminate the meal of dinner. [sotto voce] We're through the looking glass, here, people...

The Challenge of Domestic Intelligence in a Free Society

From Publishers Weekly:

When President Eisenhower famously warned against the military-industrial complex, he largely meant the Department of Defense–funded programs of the RAND Corporation. Alex Abella presents a sometimes dry but thorough account of this think-tank, which he asserts not only played a key role in the U.S.'s biggest foreign misadventures in Vietnam and Iraq but also, through its development of rational choice theory, has affected every aspect of our lives, not necessarily for the better. Abella, working with the cooperation of the usually secretive organization, details RAND'S history, from analyst Herman Kahn's energetic support of a virtually unrestrained nuclear arms buildup to the organization's role in sparking America's involvement in Vietnam and the current war in Iraq. But even more, Abella says, RAND theorists' notion that self-interest, rather than collective interests like religion, governs human behavior has influenced every aspect of our society, from health care to tax policy. The RAND Corporation continues today—as brilliant, controversial and, in Abella's view, amoral as ever—with the complicity of all Americans. If we look in the mirror, Abella concludes, we will see that RAND is every one of us. The question is, what are we going to do about it?

Your daily Simpsons reference -- this time, from "Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy":

In the treehouse, the neighborhood kids try to figure out what's up with the adults.

Bart: So finally, we're all in agreement about what's going on with the adults. Milhouse?

Milhouse: [steps up to blackboard] Ahem. OK, here's what we've got: the Rand Corporation, in conjunction with the saucer people --

Bart: Thank you.

Milhouse: -- under the supervision of the reverse vampires --

Lisa: [sighs]

Milhouse: -- are forcing our parents to go to bed early in a fiendish plot to eliminate the meal of dinner. [sotto voce] We're through the looking glass, here, people...

Soldiers of Reason: The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire

OOXML needs to die. It's clear that OOXML is a faux standard -- not because it's a vendor standard. There are lots of vendor-created standards which are real standards (e.g. PostScript). No, OOXML is a botch because it's expressed in terms of an undocumented Microsoft graphics library. OOXML is all "and then a miracle occurs". You've seen that cartoon, right? Where the left and right sides of the blackboard are filled with equations, and the blank space in the middle says "and then a miracle occurs". Well, when there's a miracle required, there's no science even if the miracle is surrounded by scientific-seeming accoutrement. A standard which is expressed in terms of miracles is still a miracle and not a standard.

Any standards body that approves OOXML needs to blush. Any company which submits OOXML as a standard needs to blush.

Microsoft needs to blush

Dear AS3Oers,

It's time again for the almost-weekly meeting of AS3O, the organization that dares... well, to go to coffee and work. We were not overwhelmed by attendees at Gathering Grounds last week, and I heard from a few that Atlanta's seven different Kirkwoods, only one of which intersects with one of Atlanta's twelve different Hosea L Williams drives (intermittently also known as "Boulevard"), may have contributed.

So, Friday July 20th, back to the downstairs room at Java Vino -- North Highland just south of Ponce and North. See the web site at http://javavino.com , directions at http://maps.google.com/?q=579+N+Highland+Ave+30307 , and more info at http://as3o.org

Make sure to find us downstairs -- we're not sure we'll be able to put up a sign at the entry level. Thanks again to everyone -- we look forward to seeing you on Friday!

-Jackson, Russell, and Ali

PS - As always, we're looking for suggestions -- please let us know if there are any great (locally-owned) places to meet, if some times are better than others, etc. We'll be having our first evening meeting soon -- beer and a blackboard, maybe? And please forward this e-mail on to anyone who might be interested in hearing about future meetings.

AS3O: Atlanta Seed-Stage Second Office July 20th Meeting at Java Vino

Holy crap. What a lecture to Bush from KO. Jesus. I'm not the President and even I feel like I should write, "I will not engage in fascism/jingoism/torture/incompetence," 100 times on the blackboard.

CountDown-SpecialComment-ClintonInterview.mov (video/quicktime Object)

Dc0de has joined what we have started referring to as "the club." People we know who have received legal threats for saying true things in a public place. This seems to happen a lot to computer security people.

People who use the legal system to squash critics instead of appropriately addressing their criticism in print are operating in a manner that is out of sync with the core values of this nation. I hold this sort of behavior in very poor esteem.

All around scary stuff. Its a sad day when opinions get silenced by lawsuits.

That slander charge is a bitch. I said a lot of very bad, public things about Blackboard, their executives, and the sexual habits of their mothers. Thankfully no one ever pulled that crap on me.

Actually, slander is a growing concern of mine. The way you all have seen me give a presentation at say, Phreaknic, is the same way I give a presentation at BlackHat: rather informal with a fair amount of profanity directed at those who deserve it.

Its only a matter of time before some no talent ass clown somewhere takes offense.

RE: Telling the Truth hurts...