In what was clear escalation at the highest level, Tehran, through Iran’s Supreme Leader and president, threatened the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei demanded that Riyadh gives special treatment to citizens of his country, even though he used the term “Shia”. Khamenei said that the Hajj pilgrimage this year is an opportunity that must be benefited from through “being close to the Masjid al Haram, the Prophet’s Mosque, shrines of the Imams of Guidance and the Companions [of the Prophet] in order to strengthen the value of faith and morality and submission to God the Creator.”
As for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he went further than this in the game of allocating clear-cut roles, as he said that the Hajj pilgrimage this year “is an extraordinary opportunity for defending Islamic values and if the Muslims come together, the Iranian pilgrims especially, they will thwart any enemy conspiracies and increase the unity of Muslims.” He reiterated the need to make the most of this [religious] rite in order to be free from those who attribute partners to God. Ahmadinejad concluded his comments with a clear threat to Riyadh saying that if his citizens are not treated in the right way then his country would take the appropriate steps towards Saudi Arabia!
Both statements simply mean that Iran intends to exploit the [Islamic] rite of Hajj this year because of goals and political slogans and this is contradictory to the values and teachings of the Hajj pilgrimage, as there are no sexual acts, no debauch and no arguments in the holy land and during the holy months. Moreover, this holy rite is for worship and not in any way for political exploits.
However, what’s clear to us is that Iran decided on escalation with Saudi Arabia so that it can move on and leave behind its internal crisis and the international pressure that is being put on it. Since the crisis of the last presidential elections, the Iranian regime has been practicing escalation in the media and elsewhere against Saudi Arabia in a continuous manner, as we saw how the Iranian Foreign Minister sought to drag Riyadh’s name [in the mud] in the UN, or via Iranian media, every time international pressure on Tehran regarding the nuclear file negotiations intensified.
The simplest example of this was when the Supreme Leader used the term “Shia” in a clear attempt to mobilise the followers of this sect through inciting sectarianism and this is an Iranian game par excellence that we are witnessing in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, and in the Gulf countries.
There is the saying that not every time the jar falls it breaks; but the mistake committed by the Iranians today will have detrimental consequences, as the Iranian threat to exploit the Hajj season is not only incitement against the Saudis but the mistake that Tehran committed in its threat against the Hajj pilgrimage and Saudi Arabia lies in the fact that it incites religious sentiments of Muslims everywhere. Religious sentiment, which Saudi Arabia serves in the best way, is not a platform for slogans and for eliminating opponents; it is a pure place for those performing the circumambulation, those spending the night in worship and those praying to God.
Therefore, the Iranian threat against Saudi Arabia to exploit the Hajj season – unless Iran follows the right approach – means it is a clear Iranian attack on one of Islam’s religious rites and an attack on religious sentiment. This is a very dangerous matter and there will be major consequences, and the Saudis are most aware of this as they have a long history of confronting Iranian attempts to exploit sentiment towards one of the pillars of Islam, i.e. Hajj.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Makeshift Bombs Spread Beyond Afghanistan, Iraq by Thom Shanker
Improvised explosive devices, as the military calls them, have been the largest killer of American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, showing up with devastating effect in Pakistan and India, but also with less notice in Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Colombia, Somalia and parts of North Africa.
Even Russian security forces have faced the devices in the republics of Ingushetia and Dagestan, although attacks in Chechnya have fallen.
“There is a robust and constant I.E.D. effort among violent extremists who are using it as their weapon of choice,” said Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz, director of the Pentagon’s organization in charge of seeking ways to counter improvised explosives. “That won’t change for decades. We are in this fight for a long time.”
General Metz, who will discuss the spread of improvised bombs during testimony on Thursday before a House Armed Services subcommittee, said global I.E.D. cases outside Iraq and Afghanistan averaged about 300 per month. The count includes detonations and the discovery of intact devices. The military’s global statistics on the bombs remain classified, to prevent extremists from knowing what the United States knows. But a compilation of worldwide episodes from private-sector security consultants illustrates the threat.
Jonathan M. George, of HMS Inc., a private company that analyzes the use of improvised explosive devices and consults on countermeasures, maintains a database on cases, gathered from public documents and news reports, that military officers consider reliable enough to cite in public statements.
Mr. George said the count of improvised bombs in Afghanistan had grown from 515 in 2006 to 705 in 2007, 828 in 2008 and 955 so far this year. In Iraq, the annual figures show the count has diminished, from 4,718 in 2006 to 3,275 in 2007, 3,253 in 2008 and 1,135 so far this year.
But his compilation also tracks the larger number of I.E.D.’s that explode or are found in the rest of the world: 3,267 in 2006, 4,027 in 2007, 4,273 in 2008 and 2,121 so far in 2009.
“Recent events show that although the number of I.E.D. attacks has fallen, the number of high-casualty and high-profile attacks continue to rise,” he said.
He said that Pakistan had experienced the worst problem after a rise that began in 2007, after the Pakistani military mounted an eight-day siege to end a standoff that lasted for months with Islamic extremists holed up at the Red Mosque in Islamabad. India has the second-highest number of I.E.D.’s, and the level there remains constant, Mr. George said. Thailand is third, but the number has decreased following a peak in 2007.
Extremists are not only increasing the power of their devices but also showing a grim cleverness in the delivery systems. Raids on a Tamil Tigers base in Sri Lanka uncovered an experimental, remotely controlled boat that could be loaded with explosives to slip alongside the hull of a ship for detonation.
Other American military officers say that the improvised bombs are being studied as a military tool by some state powers.
The senior American commander in South Korea, Gen. Walter L. Sharp, said that the North Koreans were studying the weapons and their uses.
“We started to work very hard, to make sure we’re learning the lessons out of Iraq and Afghanistan with I.E.D.’s and other types of devices,” General Sharp said in Washington last month.
Then, in referring to the North Korean government, he added, “I’m pretty confident that they have learned” from observing how insurgents used devices in Iraq and Afghanistan. The American military now believes that North Korean special operations forces are training to use improvised explosives.
“I’m confident they will use those capabilities,” General Sharp said. “So we’re working very hard on that now.”
He did not elaborate on how North Korea might employ the bombs. But other American government officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, described the assessments: While conflict with the North appears remote, the United States and South Koreans anticipate that if war breaks out, North Korean conventional forces will plant I.E.D.’s to maul any allied advance from south to north, and that North Korean commandos will try to infiltrate the south to plant them along major roadways to wound and kill civilians and allied troops.
Senior military officers confirm that American and South Korean forces on the peninsula are now incorporating countermeasures in updated war plans and practicing them in war games.
General Metz, who will retire from the military in the coming weeks, acknowledged that while the public had focused on the threat that the bombs posed to American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, part of his reason for describing the risk of spreading improvised bombs was to argue for continued financing for his organization’s work on countering them.
“What the American people do not realize is that this weapon of choice by violent extremists is being used for strategic purposes,” he said. “The United States cannot be beaten tactically by the I.E.D. — but strategically, these extremists hope to wear down our will.”
Even Russian security forces have faced the devices in the republics of Ingushetia and Dagestan, although attacks in Chechnya have fallen.
“There is a robust and constant I.E.D. effort among violent extremists who are using it as their weapon of choice,” said Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz, director of the Pentagon’s organization in charge of seeking ways to counter improvised explosives. “That won’t change for decades. We are in this fight for a long time.”
General Metz, who will discuss the spread of improvised bombs during testimony on Thursday before a House Armed Services subcommittee, said global I.E.D. cases outside Iraq and Afghanistan averaged about 300 per month. The count includes detonations and the discovery of intact devices. The military’s global statistics on the bombs remain classified, to prevent extremists from knowing what the United States knows. But a compilation of worldwide episodes from private-sector security consultants illustrates the threat.
Jonathan M. George, of HMS Inc., a private company that analyzes the use of improvised explosive devices and consults on countermeasures, maintains a database on cases, gathered from public documents and news reports, that military officers consider reliable enough to cite in public statements.
Mr. George said the count of improvised bombs in Afghanistan had grown from 515 in 2006 to 705 in 2007, 828 in 2008 and 955 so far this year. In Iraq, the annual figures show the count has diminished, from 4,718 in 2006 to 3,275 in 2007, 3,253 in 2008 and 1,135 so far this year.
But his compilation also tracks the larger number of I.E.D.’s that explode or are found in the rest of the world: 3,267 in 2006, 4,027 in 2007, 4,273 in 2008 and 2,121 so far in 2009.
“Recent events show that although the number of I.E.D. attacks has fallen, the number of high-casualty and high-profile attacks continue to rise,” he said.
He said that Pakistan had experienced the worst problem after a rise that began in 2007, after the Pakistani military mounted an eight-day siege to end a standoff that lasted for months with Islamic extremists holed up at the Red Mosque in Islamabad. India has the second-highest number of I.E.D.’s, and the level there remains constant, Mr. George said. Thailand is third, but the number has decreased following a peak in 2007.
Extremists are not only increasing the power of their devices but also showing a grim cleverness in the delivery systems. Raids on a Tamil Tigers base in Sri Lanka uncovered an experimental, remotely controlled boat that could be loaded with explosives to slip alongside the hull of a ship for detonation.
Other American military officers say that the improvised bombs are being studied as a military tool by some state powers.
The senior American commander in South Korea, Gen. Walter L. Sharp, said that the North Koreans were studying the weapons and their uses.
“We started to work very hard, to make sure we’re learning the lessons out of Iraq and Afghanistan with I.E.D.’s and other types of devices,” General Sharp said in Washington last month.
Then, in referring to the North Korean government, he added, “I’m pretty confident that they have learned” from observing how insurgents used devices in Iraq and Afghanistan. The American military now believes that North Korean special operations forces are training to use improvised explosives.
“I’m confident they will use those capabilities,” General Sharp said. “So we’re working very hard on that now.”
He did not elaborate on how North Korea might employ the bombs. But other American government officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, described the assessments: While conflict with the North appears remote, the United States and South Koreans anticipate that if war breaks out, North Korean conventional forces will plant I.E.D.’s to maul any allied advance from south to north, and that North Korean commandos will try to infiltrate the south to plant them along major roadways to wound and kill civilians and allied troops.
Senior military officers confirm that American and South Korean forces on the peninsula are now incorporating countermeasures in updated war plans and practicing them in war games.
General Metz, who will retire from the military in the coming weeks, acknowledged that while the public had focused on the threat that the bombs posed to American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, part of his reason for describing the risk of spreading improvised bombs was to argue for continued financing for his organization’s work on countering them.
“What the American people do not realize is that this weapon of choice by violent extremists is being used for strategic purposes,” he said. “The United States cannot be beaten tactically by the I.E.D. — but strategically, these extremists hope to wear down our will.”
Feds’ Smart Grid Race Leaves Cybersecurity in the Dust by Kim Zetter
Amid the government-funded rush to upgrade America’s aging electric system to a smart grid comes a strange confluence of press releases this week by the White House and the University of Illinois.
Tuesday morning, President Obama, speaking at Florida Power and Light (FPL) facilities, announced $3.4 billion in grants to utility companies, municipal districts and manufacturers to spur a nationwide transition to smart-grid technologies and fund other energy-saving initiatives as part of the economic stimulus package.
FPL will receive $200 million to install 2.6 million smart meters and other technologies that promise to reduce energy costs for customers. CenterPoint Energy in Houston, Texas, gets $200 million to install 2.2 million smart meters (.pdf) and more than 550 sensors and automated switches. Baltimore Gas and Electric in Maryland is another $200-million recipient.
Strange, then, that another press release distributed Monday by the Information Trust Institute at the University of Illinois announces a grant of $18.8 million to four academic institutions to fund a five-year research project into securing the power grid. The project is supposed to make certain that the smart meters and other devices implemented by power companies can resist hackers and other attackers.
The latter grant, from the U.S. Departments of Energy and Homeland Security, provides funding to the Institute, along with Dartmouth College, the University of California at Davis in California and Washington State University for a research program called Trustworthy Cyber Infrastructure for the Power Grid.
“It reflects a strong consensus that cybersecurity and resilience will be critical to the realization of a modernized, reliable, and efficient power grid, so that it will be able to guarantee delivery of electricity to consumers and maintain critical operations, even when malicious cyber attacks occur,” reads the press release.
The only problem is, by the time the research project is completed, most of the nation will have already adopted untested and unsecured technologies.
Richard Clarke
How do we know they’re insecure?
Earlier this year IOActive, a computer security firm in Washington state, was contracted to examine the security of smart meters deployed by an unnamed utility company in the northwest. Mike Davis, an IOActive security consultant, and his fellow researchers developed a malicious worm that, in a simulated attack, was able to spread from meter to meter to take out power in more than 15,000 homes in 24 hours. Davis says IOActive submitted his findings to the Department of Homeland Security. DHS, in response to a Threat Level FOIA request, said it can’t find the report in its files.
“Given the degree of seriousness that the Obama administration is applying to cybersecurity and the smart grid, we can look forward to the kind of things happening here that happened to Brazil, where hackers successfully brought down the power,” says Richard Clarke (at right), chairman of the Good Harbor security consulting firm and former special adviser to President George W. Bush on cybersecurity.
Clarke is referring to veiled reports made last year by the CIA’s chief cybersecurity officer, Tom Donahue, that extortionists had taken down the power grid in multiple regions outside the United States. The location of those outages has never been publicly identified.
“Smart grid” refers to the transition from the current, outdated power-grid infrastructure to a more technologically advanced structure that allows expanded real-time monitoring and energy delivery that’s more efficient and cost effective for utilities and consumers. The technology promises to solve a number of problems, but it also (as the Illinois press release states) could “introduce new problems, such as increasing the vulnerability to cyber attack as power grid resources become increasingly linked to the internet.”
“The concern is that the existing technologies can’t offer [security] guarantees, and that we could even open the door to new risks if we carelessly put together new systems that don’t have resilience and security guarantees built in from the ground up,” explained Ilesanmi Adesida, dean of the College of Engineering at Illinois, in the Information Trust Institute’s press release.
So why would the federal government accelerate the adoption of insecure technologies at the same time it touts cybersecurity as one of the nation’s biggest national security concerns?
According to the Department of Energy, the government has the smart-grid security issues under control.
Spokeswoman Jen Stutsman said all the entities awarded smart-grid funds under Obama’s $3.4 billion stimulus grant were required to submit a cybersecurity plan with their proposal.
“Each application was examined by at least two interoperability and cybersecurity experts, and it was a central component to the selection criteria for each of the awards,” Stutsman said.
Stutsman wouldn’t identify the experts who reviewed the cybersecurity plans or provide details about the plans applicants submitted.
According to the grant-proposal requirements, each applicant was required to submit a summary of known cybersecurity risks (.pdf) and explain how the applicant would mitigate them. They also had to identify the cybersecurity criteria they used for selecting vendors and technologies and the cybersecurity standards or best practices they planned to follow. And they had to explain how they would adapt to new standards that might emerge — such as those being developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Stutsman, addressing why the government would urge the move to smart meters before researchers had fully examined them, said that DoE “has spent years researching cybersecurity issues” and is “constantly and on a continuing basis … putting in place policies and programs that will help us gather more information.”
While the department is modernizing the electrical grid and using knowledge it already has, she said it will continue to apply new information as it becomes known. The government, she said, will continue to monitor utilities and others “to ensure that we are taking every step we can to secure the country’s electric grid.”
Himanshu Khurana, principal scientist for the Information Trust Institute’s power-grid research project, noted that many of the grants to utility companies and municipalities are for a three-year period.
“So there is still time between something being announced and everything being deployed for making sure that the technologies” are evaluated, he said.
Separate to his Institute’s research grant, Khurana belongs to a team that has been contracted by one of the utility companies that received a federal grant. His team’s job will be to help evaluate the utility company’s network and the technologies it plans to deploy and perhaps develop needed software.
“So people have reached out to cybersecurity experts and formed appropriate teams,” he said. “Now, it’s hard to provide assurance right now that everything is going to go safe. But the plan is feasible and there has been a lot of weight given to cybersecurity in the administration’s grants.”
Clarke is not so confident.
“We have no way of having any confidence that there’s any cybersecurity plans since we don’t know anything about the qualifications of the experts who examined them or the criteria they’re using to judge them,” he said. “In the absence of someone like the NSA or the cybercenter at DHS [to certify every smart-grid proposal], there’s no reason to believe they’re taking security seriously.”
More important than asking companies to submit a cybersecurity plan for future technologies, he says, is to require that utility companies and energy distributors pass an audit for their current state of security.
He says he’s spoken with auditing firms that have examined utility companies and energy distributors and found that — in every case — they were able to infiltrate the company’s production SCADA system (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) from the public internet in less than an hour.
“No grant should be given to any company that doesn’t pass an audit today with its existing system,” he said. “Paper audits are worthless. Real-world audits are what count. So if the company today has flagrantly bad performance with regard to cybersecurity, then it shouldn’t win an award for new technology until it fixes that problem.”
Tuesday morning, President Obama, speaking at Florida Power and Light (FPL) facilities, announced $3.4 billion in grants to utility companies, municipal districts and manufacturers to spur a nationwide transition to smart-grid technologies and fund other energy-saving initiatives as part of the economic stimulus package.
FPL will receive $200 million to install 2.6 million smart meters and other technologies that promise to reduce energy costs for customers. CenterPoint Energy in Houston, Texas, gets $200 million to install 2.2 million smart meters (.pdf) and more than 550 sensors and automated switches. Baltimore Gas and Electric in Maryland is another $200-million recipient.
Strange, then, that another press release distributed Monday by the Information Trust Institute at the University of Illinois announces a grant of $18.8 million to four academic institutions to fund a five-year research project into securing the power grid. The project is supposed to make certain that the smart meters and other devices implemented by power companies can resist hackers and other attackers.
The latter grant, from the U.S. Departments of Energy and Homeland Security, provides funding to the Institute, along with Dartmouth College, the University of California at Davis in California and Washington State University for a research program called Trustworthy Cyber Infrastructure for the Power Grid.
“It reflects a strong consensus that cybersecurity and resilience will be critical to the realization of a modernized, reliable, and efficient power grid, so that it will be able to guarantee delivery of electricity to consumers and maintain critical operations, even when malicious cyber attacks occur,” reads the press release.
The only problem is, by the time the research project is completed, most of the nation will have already adopted untested and unsecured technologies.
Richard Clarke
How do we know they’re insecure?
Earlier this year IOActive, a computer security firm in Washington state, was contracted to examine the security of smart meters deployed by an unnamed utility company in the northwest. Mike Davis, an IOActive security consultant, and his fellow researchers developed a malicious worm that, in a simulated attack, was able to spread from meter to meter to take out power in more than 15,000 homes in 24 hours. Davis says IOActive submitted his findings to the Department of Homeland Security. DHS, in response to a Threat Level FOIA request, said it can’t find the report in its files.
“Given the degree of seriousness that the Obama administration is applying to cybersecurity and the smart grid, we can look forward to the kind of things happening here that happened to Brazil, where hackers successfully brought down the power,” says Richard Clarke (at right), chairman of the Good Harbor security consulting firm and former special adviser to President George W. Bush on cybersecurity.
Clarke is referring to veiled reports made last year by the CIA’s chief cybersecurity officer, Tom Donahue, that extortionists had taken down the power grid in multiple regions outside the United States. The location of those outages has never been publicly identified.
“Smart grid” refers to the transition from the current, outdated power-grid infrastructure to a more technologically advanced structure that allows expanded real-time monitoring and energy delivery that’s more efficient and cost effective for utilities and consumers. The technology promises to solve a number of problems, but it also (as the Illinois press release states) could “introduce new problems, such as increasing the vulnerability to cyber attack as power grid resources become increasingly linked to the internet.”
“The concern is that the existing technologies can’t offer [security] guarantees, and that we could even open the door to new risks if we carelessly put together new systems that don’t have resilience and security guarantees built in from the ground up,” explained Ilesanmi Adesida, dean of the College of Engineering at Illinois, in the Information Trust Institute’s press release.
So why would the federal government accelerate the adoption of insecure technologies at the same time it touts cybersecurity as one of the nation’s biggest national security concerns?
According to the Department of Energy, the government has the smart-grid security issues under control.
Spokeswoman Jen Stutsman said all the entities awarded smart-grid funds under Obama’s $3.4 billion stimulus grant were required to submit a cybersecurity plan with their proposal.
“Each application was examined by at least two interoperability and cybersecurity experts, and it was a central component to the selection criteria for each of the awards,” Stutsman said.
Stutsman wouldn’t identify the experts who reviewed the cybersecurity plans or provide details about the plans applicants submitted.
According to the grant-proposal requirements, each applicant was required to submit a summary of known cybersecurity risks (.pdf) and explain how the applicant would mitigate them. They also had to identify the cybersecurity criteria they used for selecting vendors and technologies and the cybersecurity standards or best practices they planned to follow. And they had to explain how they would adapt to new standards that might emerge — such as those being developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Stutsman, addressing why the government would urge the move to smart meters before researchers had fully examined them, said that DoE “has spent years researching cybersecurity issues” and is “constantly and on a continuing basis … putting in place policies and programs that will help us gather more information.”
While the department is modernizing the electrical grid and using knowledge it already has, she said it will continue to apply new information as it becomes known. The government, she said, will continue to monitor utilities and others “to ensure that we are taking every step we can to secure the country’s electric grid.”
Himanshu Khurana, principal scientist for the Information Trust Institute’s power-grid research project, noted that many of the grants to utility companies and municipalities are for a three-year period.
“So there is still time between something being announced and everything being deployed for making sure that the technologies” are evaluated, he said.
Separate to his Institute’s research grant, Khurana belongs to a team that has been contracted by one of the utility companies that received a federal grant. His team’s job will be to help evaluate the utility company’s network and the technologies it plans to deploy and perhaps develop needed software.
“So people have reached out to cybersecurity experts and formed appropriate teams,” he said. “Now, it’s hard to provide assurance right now that everything is going to go safe. But the plan is feasible and there has been a lot of weight given to cybersecurity in the administration’s grants.”
Clarke is not so confident.
“We have no way of having any confidence that there’s any cybersecurity plans since we don’t know anything about the qualifications of the experts who examined them or the criteria they’re using to judge them,” he said. “In the absence of someone like the NSA or the cybercenter at DHS [to certify every smart-grid proposal], there’s no reason to believe they’re taking security seriously.”
More important than asking companies to submit a cybersecurity plan for future technologies, he says, is to require that utility companies and energy distributors pass an audit for their current state of security.
He says he’s spoken with auditing firms that have examined utility companies and energy distributors and found that — in every case — they were able to infiltrate the company’s production SCADA system (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) from the public internet in less than an hour.
“No grant should be given to any company that doesn’t pass an audit today with its existing system,” he said. “Paper audits are worthless. Real-world audits are what count. So if the company today has flagrantly bad performance with regard to cybersecurity, then it shouldn’t win an award for new technology until it fixes that problem.”
ICANN Set to Approve Web Addresses Using Non-Latin Characters by Caleb Johnson
Despite what some might say, it's not often that an opportunity comes along to change the lives of billions of people. But that's just what the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will do by changing the rules of Web addresses, shaking up the Internet like never before.
According to the Daily Mail, the ICANN board will pass a resolution this Friday that will allow entire Web addresses to be written in non-Latin alphabets. Those languages could be anything from Japanese to Arabic, or Hindi to Greek. The change means that many people around the world could more easily navigate the Web, and even create Web sites in their native tongue. Of the 1.6 billion people who use the Internet, about half are native speakers of languages that do not use the Latin alphabet. "This is the biggest change technically to the Internet since it was invented 40 years ago," said ICANN chairman Peter Dengate Thrush at a press conference in Seoul, South Korea yesterday. If approved, the first non-Roman domain names should hit the Web sometime in mid-2010.
But why now? For years, the group has been testing a new translation system to convert multiple scripts into a single address, and it finally feels ready to put the system to use.
We don't want to count our chickens before they hatch, but this is big news, folks. It's akin to the introduction of a three-point line in basketball, or the forward pass in football. This resolution will totally change the game, so you might want to brush up your Arabic or Chinese.
According to the Daily Mail, the ICANN board will pass a resolution this Friday that will allow entire Web addresses to be written in non-Latin alphabets. Those languages could be anything from Japanese to Arabic, or Hindi to Greek. The change means that many people around the world could more easily navigate the Web, and even create Web sites in their native tongue. Of the 1.6 billion people who use the Internet, about half are native speakers of languages that do not use the Latin alphabet. "This is the biggest change technically to the Internet since it was invented 40 years ago," said ICANN chairman Peter Dengate Thrush at a press conference in Seoul, South Korea yesterday. If approved, the first non-Roman domain names should hit the Web sometime in mid-2010.
But why now? For years, the group has been testing a new translation system to convert multiple scripts into a single address, and it finally feels ready to put the system to use.
We don't want to count our chickens before they hatch, but this is big news, folks. It's akin to the introduction of a three-point line in basketball, or the forward pass in football. This resolution will totally change the game, so you might want to brush up your Arabic or Chinese.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Net Neutrality: Net Neutrality Worst Case
The Net Neutrality argument is fairly nebulous for the average user but this image from a Reddit reader shows the effects of the law in a way everyone can understand. If you’re tired of paying tiered pricing for stuff like cable and Internet access, how would you like to pay tiered pricing for the websites you visit. Want to watch Hulu? Add $10. Need eBay, even for a month? $5, please.
While this is obviously a worst case scenario, this sort of bundling is a favorite pastime of most stream providers. For years voicemail was a privilege, not a right, and there are still grannies out there renting phones from the phone company. While month-to-month the costs might not seem like much, this sort of thing adds up to delicious profit.
Announcing Google Maps Navigation
Since 2005, millions of people have relied on Google Maps for mobile to get directions on the go. However, there's always been one problem: Once you're behind the wheel, a list of driving directions just isn't that easy to use. It doesn't tell you when your turn is coming up. And if you miss a turn? Forget it, you're on your own.
Today we're excited to announce the next step for Google Maps for mobile: Google Maps Navigation (Beta) for Android 2.0 devices.
This new feature comes with everything you'd expect to find in a GPS navigation system, like 3D views, turn-by-turn voice guidance and automatic rerouting. But unlike most navigation systems, Google Maps Navigation was built from the ground up to take advantage of your phone's Internet connection.
Here are seven features that are possible because Google Maps Navigation is connected to the Internet:
The most recent map and business data
When you use Google Maps Navigation, your phone automatically gets the most up-to-date maps and business listings from Google Maps — you never need to buy map upgrades or update your device. And this data is continuously improving, thanks to users who report maps issues and businesses who activate their listings with Google Local Business Center.
Search in plain English
Google Maps Navigation brings the speed, power and simplicity of Google search to your car. If you don't know the address you're looking for, don't worry. Simply enter the name of a business, a landmark or just about anything into the search box, and Google will find it for you. Then press "Navigate", and you're on your way.
Search by voice
Typing on a phone can be difficult, especially in the car, so with Google Maps Navigation, you can say your destination instead. Hold down the search button to activate voice search, then tell your phone what you want to do (like "Navigate to Pike Place in Seattle"), and navigation will start automatically.
Traffic view
Google Maps Navigation gets live traffic data over the Internet. A traffic indicator light in the corner of the screen glows green, yellow or red, depending on the current traffic conditions along your route. If there's a jam ahead of you, you'll know. To get more details, tap the light to zoom out to an aerial view showing traffic speeds and incidents ahead. And if the traffic doesn't look good, you can choose an alternate route.
Search along route
For those times when you're already on the road and need to find a business, Google Maps Navigation searches along your route to give you results that won't take you far from your path. You can search for a specific business by name or by type, or you can turn on popular layers, such as gas stations, restaurants or parking.
Satellite view
Google Maps Navigation uses the same satellite imagery as Google Maps on the desktop to help you get to your destination. Turn on the satellite layer for a high-resolution, 3D view of your upcoming route. Besides looking cool, satellite view can help you make sense of complicated maneuvers.
Street View
If you want to know what your next turn looks like, double-tap the map to zoom into Street View, which shows the turn as you'll see it, with your route overlaid. And since locating an address can sometimes be tricky, we'll show you a picture of your destination as you approach the end of your route, so you'll know exactly what to look for.
The first phone to have Google Maps Navigation and Android 2.0 is the Droid from Verizon. Google Maps Navigation is initially available in the United States. And like other Google Maps features, Navigation is free.
Click here to learn more and browse a gallery of product screenshots. Take Google Maps Navigation for a spin, and bring Internet-connected GPS navigation with you in your car.
Today we're excited to announce the next step for Google Maps for mobile: Google Maps Navigation (Beta) for Android 2.0 devices.
This new feature comes with everything you'd expect to find in a GPS navigation system, like 3D views, turn-by-turn voice guidance and automatic rerouting. But unlike most navigation systems, Google Maps Navigation was built from the ground up to take advantage of your phone's Internet connection.
Here are seven features that are possible because Google Maps Navigation is connected to the Internet:
The most recent map and business data
When you use Google Maps Navigation, your phone automatically gets the most up-to-date maps and business listings from Google Maps — you never need to buy map upgrades or update your device. And this data is continuously improving, thanks to users who report maps issues and businesses who activate their listings with Google Local Business Center.
Search in plain English
Google Maps Navigation brings the speed, power and simplicity of Google search to your car. If you don't know the address you're looking for, don't worry. Simply enter the name of a business, a landmark or just about anything into the search box, and Google will find it for you. Then press "Navigate", and you're on your way.
Search by voice
Typing on a phone can be difficult, especially in the car, so with Google Maps Navigation, you can say your destination instead. Hold down the search button to activate voice search, then tell your phone what you want to do (like "Navigate to Pike Place in Seattle"), and navigation will start automatically.
Traffic view
Google Maps Navigation gets live traffic data over the Internet. A traffic indicator light in the corner of the screen glows green, yellow or red, depending on the current traffic conditions along your route. If there's a jam ahead of you, you'll know. To get more details, tap the light to zoom out to an aerial view showing traffic speeds and incidents ahead. And if the traffic doesn't look good, you can choose an alternate route.
Search along route
For those times when you're already on the road and need to find a business, Google Maps Navigation searches along your route to give you results that won't take you far from your path. You can search for a specific business by name or by type, or you can turn on popular layers, such as gas stations, restaurants or parking.
Satellite view
Google Maps Navigation uses the same satellite imagery as Google Maps on the desktop to help you get to your destination. Turn on the satellite layer for a high-resolution, 3D view of your upcoming route. Besides looking cool, satellite view can help you make sense of complicated maneuvers.
Street View
If you want to know what your next turn looks like, double-tap the map to zoom into Street View, which shows the turn as you'll see it, with your route overlaid. And since locating an address can sometimes be tricky, we'll show you a picture of your destination as you approach the end of your route, so you'll know exactly what to look for.
The first phone to have Google Maps Navigation and Android 2.0 is the Droid from Verizon. Google Maps Navigation is initially available in the United States. And like other Google Maps features, Navigation is free.
Click here to learn more and browse a gallery of product screenshots. Take Google Maps Navigation for a spin, and bring Internet-connected GPS navigation with you in your car.
Iran Does What It Wants by Tariq Alhomayed
Two important news stories about Iran [surfaced] on the same day; the first was that Pakistani authorities had arrested 11 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC] the moment they crossed onto Pakistani territory, and the second news item was the announcement that Yemeni security authorities had seized an Iranian ship carrying anti-tank shells, which Yemeni authorities believed was destined for Houthi rebels in the north. The five crew members on the Iranian ship were arrested.
As stated above, the two news items came out on the same day. Even if it was reported that the five Iranian officers had entered Pakistan by mistake, Iranian officials in the IRGC had previously threatened that Iran might pursue elements of the Jundullah organization (which claimed responsibility for the suicide operation that took place in Iran) on Pakistani territory. This raises questions about the alleged story that the IRGC had entered Pakistan by mistake!
What’s important about both news stories is that Iran is moving around in the region without being monitored or supervised. The two incidents in Pakistan and Yemen would not have been brought to light had it not been for the authorities of both countries. What if Iraqi authorities declared the degree of Iranian interference in Iraq? Or what if the Iraqi authorities disclosed documents and images revealing what the Quds Force did and is still doing [in Iraq], especially as some Iraqi officials have close ties with head of the Quds Force Qassem Suleimani and, in fact, meet with him both inside and outside of Iran and at the highest levels?
What if the Lebanese authorities revealed the magnitude of Iranian interference in their country, not only via the support of Hezbollah but through the pumping of money and weapons, and the mobilizing of leaderships and men and even through interference on the cultural level?
The problem with the Iranian regime is that it is yet to learn the harsh lesson, as for a long time, Iran has been interfering, directly and indirectly, in the region’s causes and internal affairs, and today Iran wants everyone to leave it and its affairs alone. Furthermore, they [the Iranians] are surprised at what is written about them in the media, despite that they ridicule the media and media figures to serve their own goals. The best example of this is when Tehran was alarmed by the news that was leaked about an energy meeting being held in Cairo attended by an Iranian official who spoke to an Israeli official about nuclear weapons. After all of that, Iran wants to pursue anybody who does anything on its territory, without realizing that its own illegitimate interference in other countries is what made others do the same.
The problem is that even though Iran’s actions represent a violation of international laws, it contradicts what it says in its criticism of US interference in Iraq or Afghanistan, or [what it says about] the uproar that Israel is causing in Lebanon and the Palestinian Territories, and even [what it says about] Israeli talk of striking Iranian nuclear plants. Iranian interference in the affairs of regional states, whether militarily or by supporting armed groups, contributes to supporting or in fact legitimizing chaos in our region.
Has the time come for Tehran to grasp the danger of what it is doing in our region?
As stated above, the two news items came out on the same day. Even if it was reported that the five Iranian officers had entered Pakistan by mistake, Iranian officials in the IRGC had previously threatened that Iran might pursue elements of the Jundullah organization (which claimed responsibility for the suicide operation that took place in Iran) on Pakistani territory. This raises questions about the alleged story that the IRGC had entered Pakistan by mistake!
What’s important about both news stories is that Iran is moving around in the region without being monitored or supervised. The two incidents in Pakistan and Yemen would not have been brought to light had it not been for the authorities of both countries. What if Iraqi authorities declared the degree of Iranian interference in Iraq? Or what if the Iraqi authorities disclosed documents and images revealing what the Quds Force did and is still doing [in Iraq], especially as some Iraqi officials have close ties with head of the Quds Force Qassem Suleimani and, in fact, meet with him both inside and outside of Iran and at the highest levels?
What if the Lebanese authorities revealed the magnitude of Iranian interference in their country, not only via the support of Hezbollah but through the pumping of money and weapons, and the mobilizing of leaderships and men and even through interference on the cultural level?
The problem with the Iranian regime is that it is yet to learn the harsh lesson, as for a long time, Iran has been interfering, directly and indirectly, in the region’s causes and internal affairs, and today Iran wants everyone to leave it and its affairs alone. Furthermore, they [the Iranians] are surprised at what is written about them in the media, despite that they ridicule the media and media figures to serve their own goals. The best example of this is when Tehran was alarmed by the news that was leaked about an energy meeting being held in Cairo attended by an Iranian official who spoke to an Israeli official about nuclear weapons. After all of that, Iran wants to pursue anybody who does anything on its territory, without realizing that its own illegitimate interference in other countries is what made others do the same.
The problem is that even though Iran’s actions represent a violation of international laws, it contradicts what it says in its criticism of US interference in Iraq or Afghanistan, or [what it says about] the uproar that Israel is causing in Lebanon and the Palestinian Territories, and even [what it says about] Israeli talk of striking Iranian nuclear plants. Iranian interference in the affairs of regional states, whether militarily or by supporting armed groups, contributes to supporting or in fact legitimizing chaos in our region.
Has the time come for Tehran to grasp the danger of what it is doing in our region?
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