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The Internet As an Intrinsic Threat: Yesbutters vs Whynotters

Italian politcians’ mantra, starting from the Chair of the Low Chamber, Boldrini and down to local parties’ minions is “The Internet is an opportunity but…” and then a stream flows of statement like “we need to regulate it”, “we need to keep it free for the righteous citizen”, “we must block hate speeches” and so on.

This reminds me of an old, untitled essay I read on Giancarlo Livraghi’s gandalf.it:

Yesbutters don?t just kill ideas.
They kill companies, even entire industries.
The yesbutters have all the answers.
Yesbut we?re different. Yesbut we can?t afford it.
Yesbut our business doesn?t need it.
Yesbut we couldn?t sell it to our workforce.
Yesbut we can?t explain it to our shareholders.
Yesbut let?s wait and see.
All the answers. All the wrong answers.

For the positive part, dedicated to the Whynotters, just follow this link.

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War is fought with bullets

True, the monumental unscrupulousness of the ICT business (which sells systems
without concerns for the security side), and the na?vet? of its clients (trusting hardware instead of good practice and appropriate security processes) built today’s western digital infrastructure as a Colossus with feet of clay.

True, this made the Western World a soft target for computer-related criminals and terrorists.

True, a lot of damage can be done in a short time by a committed digital strike.

But don’t forget that war is fought with bullets, real bullets.

And bullets do hurt.

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L?gion ?trang?re and Kamikaze. Dangerous Rethorical Stunt of Italian Politicians and Media

Undersecretary Marco Minniti, superseeding the Italian Intelligence activities on behalf of the Government, gave out his two cents about the war on terrorism – the Italian Way, announcing a private-public project to fight cyberterrorism and claiming that Europe hosts the?L?gion ?trang?re of Terror.
Here is the screen-shot of his statement:
ForeignLegionWell, I don’t want to talk about the merit of the cyberterrorism response of his announcement. It is too early to actually assess a proposal that ranges from catastrophically ineffective to functional.

Let’s wait and see, but in the meantime I’ve found grossly misinformed and misleading the association Mr. Minniti? did between the terrorist forces and the French L?gion ?trang?re. It is a fact that people from many different countries are joining the terrorist camp, but in no way this can be compared to what (like it or not) the L?gion is.

What I find rather disappointing is that to obtain a rhetorical stunt in front of the Press, a politician that is supposed to know better just let slip easy and wrong messages. I can imagine a newspaper’s title when the next attack will strike: “Terror Foreign Legion vs France’s Foreign Legion!” Awful sounding isn’t it?

This is what happened so far with the word “Kamikaze” whose meaning has been turned upside down by the Italian media.

Kamikaze was (and still is) the name for a desperate military tactic (BTW, not so different from the one Winston Churchill thought of fighting German panzers in case of invasion of the British soil) conceived by an army against another army, and has nothing to do with the exploitation of an individual as human bomb carrier targeting people with non combatants status.

Words’meaning grip loss leads to confused ideas, and cloudy thoughts produce wrong decision.

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Italy To Storm Playstation Networks? The Steve Jackson Game Case Strikes Back

According to Andrea Orlando, Italian Minister of Justice, Italy plans to fight? the war on terrorism on Playstations.

In a press conference, Mr. Orlando said that new technologies are exploited by terrorists, and it is imperative to keep pace with the innovation, by allowing the capability to wiretap chat (whatever this means) and Playstations.

Apart from the merit of the issue (we might either agree or not about the strategy, but this is a horse of different colour) what matters is the clear uneasiness of the Minister in? talking about topics he’s clearly not knowledgeable in.

I really wander how the law enforcement agencies will be able to extract something useful by wiretapping network games that deal with assaults, terrorist actions, covert operation and so on.

Will they be able to sort the truth from the game?

Are we on the verge of a new Steve Jackson Games scandal?

The usual approximation showed by a politician in charge of taking the lead on technology-related issues shows that key decision on such a sensitive matters are made elsewhere, by someone else not at all well versed in the matter. And it would be interesting to know who this “Mr. Someoneelse” actually is.

To have a better grasp on the operative issues before talking to the Press,? maybe it wouldn’t had been a bad idea? for the Minister to spend some spare time playing Call of duty or Splinter cell.

 

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Audi (Volkswagen) Ads and the Ignorance of Logic

Another (Volkswagen) Audi commercial, another interesting detail.

The TV ad for the Audi Quattro line broadcasted yesterday in Italy is based on creating a climax of even number, with the number “Quatttro” (four, in Italian) on the top of the ladder.

To obtain this effect, the copywriter of the Italian advertising agency thought of a line that reads something like “due sono le alternative” (two are the alternatives”) and then something about the uniqueness of the car. In other words, the script is based on this sequence: two (alternatives) to one and only car, the four (Quattro).

As much as this script looks tricky, it contains a logical fallacy: “alternative” include two options (either going right or left, fight or flight and so on) thus if the Audi script says there are two alternatives, it actually means four (different coupled) options.? To be? correct, the script should have said something like “there are two OPTIONS” instead.

No big deal at the end of the day: advertising, as a form of art, is entitled to be sloppy.

Carmaker, on the contrary, shouldn’t.