Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Learning the Wrong Lesson from a Ripoff

Posted on June 8, 2015 by Michael Froomkin

Peter Himler draws the wrong conclusion from his bad experience with The F***ing Internet of Things — Adventures in Consumer Technology.

I soon learned that I had very few options in terms of service providers. The design of the Crestron system is quite complex, i.e., each system is programmed to the individual specs of the dealer and the dealer is the only one with the keys.

For my deep-pocketed and tech-luddite neighbors, this fact probably mattered little. If you have a $10-million dollar home, what’s tens of thousands of dollars? For us, however, it mattered.

Conversely, for the small group of local Crestron dealers, it’s a virtual bonanza.

Rather than conclude (as he does) that the makers of high-tech IOT-enabled products ought to remind their dealers to be less grasping, not to mention criminal, Himler should have concluded that we ought not to buy expensive (or mission-critical) products that have proprietary systems.

Open source, my friend, open source.

Posted in Sufficiently Advanced Technology | 1 Comment

The Past Isn’t Even Past

Posted on June 6, 2015 by Michael Froomkin

I remember it well:

Editor’s Preamble! Back in 1997 I gave a paper on crowdfunding – I believe the first ever proper paper, although there was one "lost talk" earlier by Eric Hughes – at Financial Cryptography 1997. Now, this conference was the first polymath event in the space, and probably the only one in the space, but that story is another day. Because this was a polymath event, law professor who’s name escapes Michael Froomkin stood up and asked why I hadn’t analysed the crowdfunding system from the point of view of transaction economics.

I blathered – because I’d not heard of it! But I took the cue, went home and read the Ronald Coase paper, and some of his other stuff, and ploughed through the immensely sticky earth of Williamson. Who later joined Coase as a Nobel Laureate.

The prof was right, and I and a few others then turned transaction cost discussion into a cypherpunk topic. Of course, we were one or two decades too early, and hence it all died.

Now, with gusto, Vinay Gupta has revived it all as an explanation of why the blockchain works.

—Financial Cryptography: Coase's Blockchain – the first half block – Vinay Gupta explains triple entry.

Posted in Cryptography, Econ & Money | Comments Off on The Past Isn’t Even Past

Swiss Cheese Hole Crisis Averted

Posted on May 29, 2015 by Michael Froomkin

Best story in today’s paper:

The mystery of Swiss cheese and its disappearing holes has been solved: The milk is too clean. A Swiss agricultural institute discovered that tiny specks of hay are responsible for the famous holes in traditional Swiss cheeses like Emmentaler and Appenzeller. As milk matures into cheese, these microscopically small hay particles help create the holes in the cheese. The government-funded Agroscope Institute said in a statement on Thursday that the transition from age-old milking methods in barns to fully automated, industrial milking systems had caused the holes to decline during the past 15 years. In a series of tests, scientists added different amounts of hay dust to the milk and discovered that it allowed them to regulate the number of holes.

Switzerland: Scientists Find the Secret to the Holes in Swiss Cheese: Hay Dust

Posted in Science/Medicine | 2 Comments

Dream ON

Posted on May 28, 2015 by Michael Froomkin

Posted in 2016 Election | 1 Comment

Tracking Protection Greatly Speeds Firefox

Posted on May 25, 2015 by Michael Froomkin

Firefox’s optional Tracking Protection reduces load time for top news sites by 44%.

How to turn on Tracking Protection:

  1. In the Location bar, type about:config and press Enter.
    • The about:config “This might void your warranty!” warning page may appear. Click I’ll be careful, I promise! to continue to the about:config page.
  2. Search for privacy.trackingprotection.enabled.
  3. Double-click privacy.trackingprotection.enabled to toggle its value to true.

This will turn on Tracking Protection. If you later want to turn it back off, repeat the above steps to toggle the preference back to false.

Posted in ID Cards and Identification, Internet, Software | Comments Off on Tracking Protection Greatly Speeds Firefox

No Joke

Posted on May 24, 2015 by Michael Froomkin

As The Wall Street Journal recently reported, “There’s an Uber for everything now. Washio is for having someone do your laundry, Sprig and SpoonRocket cook your dinner and Shyp will mail things out so you don’t have to brave the post office. Zeel delivers a massage therapist (complete with table). Heal sends a doctor on a house call, while Saucey will rush over alcohol. And by Jeeves — cutesy names are part of the schtick — Dufl will pack your suitcase and Eaze will reup a medical marijuana supply.”

I thought MoDo had been played, but it’s all true, even if some of them only serve Seattle and Silicon Valley.

Posted in Internet, Shopping, So-called Sharing Economy | Comments Off on No Joke