W_A_R_S_H_O_C_K - BETA nyak yak yak

Mohammad Mannan and P.C. van Oorschot of Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, have come up with ObPwd (object-based password), a way of creating complex, random passwords from SHA-1-based hashes generated using a range of image and sound file types as input.

Instead of using the easy-to-guess name of a pet cat as the password — easy meat for a dictionary cracker — the user could use a picture of the same animal to generate something sophisticated enough to withstand even the best password cracking tools. Getting round the technology would mean having to have access to the specific image or file from which the password was generated.

“Users keep a record (memorized or written) of a pointer to their content used in generating each password. Users can write down the password in a `secure’ place, or re-create it from the content when needed,” write the authors in a public paper on the concept.

The end user’s mental effort is transferred from having to remember a string of text to simply having to know which file was used to create the password, they point out. ObPwd is advanced enough for the researchers to have released the software in beta form as an add-on tool for Mozilla, and as a stand-alone Windows XP utility.

The concept has some limitations. They recommend using files above a certain size — 30 bytes - to create long enough passwords, but not so large that the generation process is slowed down. This rules out using large video files, unless the password is based on only part of the file. They also warn against creating passwords from public material, such as pictures on a Facebook page or common image files. The password from a given file will always be the same, making secure possession of file imperative.

The program could, however, be secured using what is called a ’salt’, a PIN number used to protect the program’s output from a given image, though this would obviously detract from the simplicity of the ObPwd idea.

Obpwd should not be confused with the much simpler idea of using images themselves as pictorial passwords or mnemonics, which has been around for some years. Numerous systems exist to do the latter, including the UK-based PicturePIN.

Twitter
When: April, May, June. July too? Who cares? What happened: Twitter began to get unreliable. It’s up, then it’s down. Repeat.
Corporate coping behavior: During the bad spells, Twitter turns off key features of the service — like access from Twitter helper apps, or the “replies” tab on the site — to decrease the load. Twitter also buys the search engine Summize, which adds a new level of utility to the service.
The damage: Twitter was becoming part of the social fabric of the technology community. When it began to get flakey, marquee users abandoned the service and fled to rivals like Friendfeed. The problems appear to have been resolved, but the damage may never be repaired.

Firefox
When: June 17
What happened: Mozilla announced the release data of the Firefox 3.0 and its goal to get a million downloads on that day. When the day comes, the download doesn’t work. The downloads start up later, and Mozilla goes on not just to meet its download goal but utterly crush it.
Corporate coping behavior: Mozilla changes “Download Day” to “The 24-hour Period that Starts When We Say it Does.”
The damage: Temporary embarrassment, which is overshadowed by insane success.

Amazon
When: June 17
What happened: Amazon went offline for a big part of the U.S. workday. Millions of users had to go back to work.
Corporate coping behavior: Mad scramble to fix. What did you expect?
The damage: Estimated at $16,000 a minute. But long-term damage to the company is negligible (unlike the S3 outage).

Google Docs
When: July 8
What happened: Online productivity apps went offline, stranding users’ files in the cloud.
Corporate coping behavior: Apology. Google has offline support (Google Gears) for an increasing number of its online apps. Which is fine, if you remember to set it up before the next outage.
The damage: Credibility. Online apps are being pitched by companies like Google as credible replacements to traditional apps like Microsoft Office. Outages like this shake users’ already tenuous faith in the reliability of services that hold their most important data files.

MobileMe
When: July 10
What happened: Apple launched its 3G iPhone with a new data sync service to replace .Mac. Sadly, it didn’t work. For many users, key services like e-mail wouldn’t update.
Corporate coping behavior: Jobs berates his staff in public; Apple gives subscribers 30 days of free service.
The damage: Poor uptake of the service, many disgruntled users, negative halo effect on the iPhone.

Cuil
When:July 27
What happened: Google scientist leaves Google, builds competitive search engine. At launch, it sucks. By the time it’s working as advertised, nobody’s paying attention anymore.
Corporate coping behavior: Company claims millions of users are so anxious to dump Google that they overload the new engine. Begs for time.
The damage: You only get one chance to make a first impression. Cuil’s growth will be seriously clipped by its botched launch.

Scrabble
When:July 29
What happened: After finally getting off the stick and suing the much-loved Scrabulous off of Facebook, Hasbro releases its own online Scrabble app on the social platform. It crashes.
Corporate coping behavior: Scrabble owner Hasbro claims that hackers killed the service. No surprise: As Caroline McCarthy reported, “if you just look at the Scrabble application wall, it’s pretty clear that there are a few people who are angry enough at Hasbro and EA to want to sabotage the game.”
The damage: What’s a seven-letter word for “global acrostic withdrawl?”

Gmail (Also: Hotmail)
When: August 12 (Gmail); February 26 (Hotmail)
What happened: OMG, Gmail is down. And unlike with client-based e-mail (Outlook), when your Web mail is offline, you can’t even read the old stuff sitting in your inbox.
Corporate coping behavior: Google apologies, knows users will be back.
The damage: In the recent Gmail outage, upset users flocked to Twitter to complain. Miraculously, Twitter stayed up, despite a crushing load of hundreds of tweets a second from disgruntled Gmail users.

Netflix
When: August 14 and March 24.
What happened: Undisclosed troubles fell all 55 Netflix shipping centers. Twice. Users don’t get their discs.
Corporate coping behavior: Netflix plans to refund fees to affected users, and reminds them they can watch streaming Netflix on their PC or Roku box. Although the company refuses to use the word “fallback” to describe this benefit.
The damage: Netflix customers have to watch old DVDs, live TV, Tivo, Unbox, Hulu… Wait a minute, do we really need Netflix?

And don’t forget…
It’s just August. There’s plenty of time left in the year for more Web 2.0 disaster.

It’s true: Microsoft has confirmed that it’s abandoning Windows as we know it. Cagey as ever, the Microsofties won’t say when it’ll happen, but they have talked a little bit about what the next OS is going to look like–or not look like.

Microsoft code-named the project Midori. As best I can figure, it’s cloud computing: Everything, including applications and data, is on the Internet.

What Exactly Is Midori?

My colleague Elizabeth Montalbano, with the IDG News Service, tried making some sense of it in “Microsoft Prepares for End of Windows With Midori” and Erik Larkin, our crackerjack OS and Web guy, has plenty to say in “Cloud Computing, Microsoft’s Midori, and the End of Windows.” There are also details–and speculation–in an SDTimes piece, “Microsoft’s plans for post-Windows OS revealed.”
Midori for Linux?

One of my smarter-than-me buddies, Gary F., told me that Linus Torvalds worked on something called Midori a few years ago, an embedded Linux for mobile devices: “I doubt Microsoft would ever release something that could be traced back to Linux, but if I recall correctly, Transmeta’s Midori had some rudimentary ‘cloud computing’ features vaguely similar to Microsoft’s Midori.”