Cory Doctorow wrote this Creative Commons-licensed fiction story for Radar Online magazine.

  Une version française est disponible ici

“Give me six lines written by the most honorable of men, and I will find an excuse in them to hang him.” –Cardinal Richelieu

“We don’t know enough about you.” –Google CEO Eric Schmidt

Greg landed at San Francisco International Airport at 8 p.m., but by the time he’d made it to the front of the customs line, it was after midnight. He’d emerged from first class, brown as a nut, unshaven, and loose-limbed after a month on the beach in Cabo (scuba diving three days a week, seducing French college girls the rest of the time). When he’d left the city a month before, he’d been a stoop-shouldered, potbellied wreck. Now he was a bronze god, drawing admiring glances from the stews at the front of the cabin.

Four hours later in the customs line, he’d slid from god back to man. His slight buzz had worn off, sweat ran down the crack of his ass, and his shoulders and neck were so tense his upper back felt like a tennis racket. The batteries on his iPod had long since died, leaving him with nothing to do except eavesdrop on the middle-age couple ahead of him.

“The marvels of modern technology,” said the woman, shrugging at a nearby sign: Immigration–Powered by Google.

“I thought that didn’t start until next month?” The man was alternately wearing and holding a large sombrero.

Googling at the border. Christ. Greg had vested out of Google six months before, cashing in his options and “taking some me time"–which turned out to be less rewarding than he’d expected. What he mostly did over the five months that followed was fix his friends’ PCs, watch daytime TV, and gain 10 pounds, which he blamed on being at home instead of in the Googleplex, with its well-appointed 24-hour gym.

He should have seen it coming, of course. The U.S. government had lavished $15 billion on a program to fingerprint and photograph visitors at the border, and hadn’t caught a single terrorist. Clearly, the public sector was not equipped to Do Search Right.

The DHS officer had bags under his eyes and squinted at his screen, prodding at his keyboard with sausage fingers. No wonder it was taking four hours to get out of the god damned airport.

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The Gartner Group launched during the IT Security Summit, a book written by Richard Hunter (Gartner vice-president) entitled IT Risk: "Turning Business Threats into Competitive".

The Register published an article highlighting some of Hunter's statement. Extracts:

• IT systems have become so integral to businesses that their failure can have disastrous consequences for an organization.

• IT risk is too important to be left to IT departments
• IT risk is related to IT value. It would be short-sighted not to recognize either value or risk

The complete article in available on The Register site.

More interesting than the article itself are indeed the comments which clearly show how wide is the gap between the theory (or the analysis) and the reality.

Best of :

• So the Bean counters and all the people who have no clue about it should have control? BAD IDEA.
• …This is the reason why an I.T director needs to sit on the board. Not however just some one who did a MBA but barely knows how to turn on their PC.
• …much of the problem can be resolved with a bit of education and common sense – and some money of course
• Ignorance, from middle management to board level, of even simple issues relating to IT risks that can be seriously detrimental to the business as a whole.
• Management, up to board level, simply not listening to IT managers who DO know what they are talking about
• In my experience IT risk auditors are finance types who don't understand IT and thus cannot adequately assess the risk
• Yes, let's take away IT disaster management and network security from the people that have a clue.

All comments are here.

I recognize in most comments highly experienced, realistic and well grounded IT guys. About the, so called, IT Analysts… same consideration than for the Burton Group.

As expressed, common sense would be to have IT director on the board, and the management to wake up and become IT skilled.

What's your opinion ?

Tags: 2007, analysis, art, best of, blog, book, ces, ethernet, failure, fon, gap, gartner group, how to, im, IT risk, King, lan, launch, LED, light, list, Management, MIT, money, network, nomadcom.net, pet, press, risk, security, simple, the register, threat, uk, wp, www, XP

Few years ago, it was Internet over Telephone network but the situation is shifting and we have now, with Internet broadband access, Telephone over the Internet.

With the so called "unify messaging system" all type of communication can reach your email inbox while travelling but in some situation, sending a fax (yes it still exists) while on the move may not be so easy than it seems and even very costly (money and time).  

This week, German company PamConsult launched a beta version of PamFax, a Skype Extra (add-ons), which makes possible faxing a document from any Internet broadband connected computer (with Skype software installed and activated).

The process is rather simple :

• Select the document to be sent
• Enter recipient(s) fax number
• Optionally, select a cover page
• Select notification methods : Skype Chat, SMS (0.26 USD) an/or email.
• Pay the fax using Sky Credits
• Optionally, preview it

PamFax comes with its own website where you can configure your default settings, consult logs and check current sending rates

There are 7 different, per page, rates which are currently the following:

• Most European countries and North America :0.23 USD
• 4 zones of selected countries from all over the Word with price tag between 0.40 and 1.38 USD
• Most African countries : 1.64 USD
• Rest of the World :  2.19 USD

  Check rates on Pamfax website

Technical requirments:

• Windows 2000 SP4, XP or Vista (32 or 64 bit)
• Internet Explorer 6 or better
• Latest Skype (min. Skype 3.0)
• Installed Skype Plugin Manager

During the beta phase, PamFax is only available to Skype users outside Canada and USA

Every user gets 1 test fax in zone 1 (0.23 USD) for free.

Download on PamFax website 

Tags: 2007, access, add on, api, blog, ces, communication, computer, europe, fax, free, ia, im, install, internet, ITU, lan, launch, LED, Mobile Communications, money, network, nomadcom.net, PamConsult, pamfax, phone, plugin, review, shift, simple, skype, skype extras, Skype Fax, sms, space, Telecommunications, Travel, USA, user, vista, web, website, windows, WinFax, world, wp, www, XP