Month: September 2003

The Dangers Of Monoculture

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A report by a group of computer security experts warns of the dangers of monoculture in the computer world:

Want PC Security? Diversify
By Joanna Glasner, Wired News

Will Rodger, CCIA’s director of public policy, said concerns regarding Microsoft’s monopoly prowess, and the analogies to farming, are nothing new among members. But worries are intensifying.
Rodger likens today’s situation, in which Windows dominates the vast majority of desktops, to conditions faced by farmers during the Irish potato famine and by American cotton growers devastated by the boll weevil. In both cases, he said, farmers were ravaged by a blight that would have been far less severe had they had a greater variety of strains in cultivation.

Misleader.org

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I’ve been thinking in recent weeks about how former President Clinton developed a reputation as a liar. And how President Bush has taken lying to a whole new level, and yet maintains a reputation as an honest, “straight-shooter.” (There’s likely a puritanical ethic mixed up in there somewhere.)

The Bush White House is clever at lying, but a bigger problem seems to be two-fold. First, for the most part, the press in this country plays the role of lap-dog. Second, the American people apparently really, really want to believe that Bush is an honest, decent President, despite ample evidence to the contrary.

Whether or not the President will be able to continue tossing out outrageous whoppers is not clear. Despite what the President says, things are not getting any better either in this country or in those parts of the world the U.S. now occupies.

To help catalog the divide between reality and Bush-speak, the folks at MoveOn.org have started Misleader.org: A daily chronicle of Bush Administration distortion.

Misleader.org will provide an accurate daily chronicle for journalists of mis-representations, distortions and downright misleading statements by President Bush and the Bush Administration.

The site just started, so it’s a little light on content now. I figure they could build a pretty impressive archive section if they set their minds to it.