CHI2007 with Firefox Co-inventor, SxSW, and Phishing

Commentary

Even while we were busy working on Enso, Aza has found time these last couple months to prepare talks for some upcoming shows, and to write a just-published chapter for a book.

Aza will be giving a talk with Blake Ross, the co-inventor of Firefox, at CHI2007, on Thursday, May 3rd. Both Aza and Blake are working towards the abolition of desktop applications, although from different directions: Aza with his work on Enso, and Blake with Parakey. Parakey is some sort of Firefox-based portmanteau that blurs the edges of desktop/internet and features/applications. Joe Hewitt, the creator of Firebug, co-founded Parakey with Blake, and those two minds on any project makes it worth watching.

Aza and Blake will be going head-to-head in a talk entitled “Toward a Less WIMPy Web”

Collectively, [Blake and Aza] call into question the recent wave of Web offerings that replicate traditional desktop applications. Their presentations will address human cognitive needs and basic usability problems with computers today. In turn, they will advocate the creation of “humane interfaces.” Asking, “what does a true Web platform look like and why is it different from anything we’ve used before?”

Despite the bland description, the talk should be pretty exciting. While both speakers believe that the web should not recapitulate the design patterns of the 20-year-stagnant desktop, their solutions to the problem appear to be quite different (nobody has seen Parakey in action yet). Expect some friendly sparks.

SxSW

In addition to speaking at CHI2007, Aza will also appear at SxSW this year. Go for the films, stay for the music, and stop by for Aza’s talk on the Death of the Desktop. It involves a demonstration of a Zooming User Interface, future Enso commands, and ParaPara-like gesticulations. It’ll be at Monday, March 12 from at 5pm.

Phishing Book

A year ago, Aza was asked to write a chapter for a book about the measures and counter-measures of phishing. It was published recently under the title Phishing and Countermeasures: Understanding the Increasing Problem of Electronic Identity Theft. The book shows just how wide-ranging and insidious phishing attacks can be. It’s almost enough to make you hide under your blanket and never touch a computer again. Luckily, the book also arms you with specific counter-solutions for battling those attack vectors. Just so you know, the book is on the academic side of things; it’s expensive, but it’s worth the buy if this is your cup of tea.

To whet your appetite and demonstrate just how devilish these attacks can be: have you ever bought, or thought about buying, a used router from eBay or Amazon? If you have, you could be at serious risk. It’s a simple matter for an attacker to buy a number of routers, modify them to perform man-in-the-middle attacks, and resell them on eBay or Amazon. If you then bought and used such a router, the attacker would gain access to every piece of information you access on the Internet: your name, your credit card number, your mother’s maiden name, and your browsing habits. The attacker will quickly remake any money lost in the buying/re-listing process on your credit card.

Aza’s chapter is about the “simulated browser” attack. It has cute pictures. Peruse it at a local bookstore.