Following the update on the Mosquito story, i.e. that it is to be switched off at a shop in Newport after questions were raised about human rights issues, the BBC story ‘Anti-gang noise box switched off’ carries an astounding quote from Compound Security, the manufacturers:
The fight back: Defeating cartridge expiry
Via Boing Boing (& thanks too to Jeremy Tirrell for alerting me), a very useful piece of free software from the SSC Localization Group which allows the user to get round a variety of architectures of control designed into Epson printer cartridges, including:
BBspot – New Starforce DRM Uses CD Made from Plastic Explosives
From the always excellent BBspot: ‘New Starforce DRM Uses CD Made from Plastic Explosives’. “Not only does this protect the software from being copied, but it also prevents the copier from ever copying anything again. If we’re lucky we’ll also take out his hacker brother […]
Philips: You MUST watch these adverts
Via Jack Yan’s excellent Persuader Blog, news of a patent application filed by Philips which would prevent television viewers either changing channel during commercial breaks, or fast-forwarding through the adverts when watching recorded shows.
‘Researchers develop prototype system to thwart unwanted video and still photography’
Via Boing Boing, ‘Researchers develop prototype system to thwart unwanted video and still photography’, news from Georgia Tech of a system that scans and finds the CCDs of digital imaging equipment and shines bright light (or a laser) into them in order to flood them […]
Welcome : About this site
Increasingly, many products are being designed with features that intentionally restrict the way the user can behave, or enforce certain modes of behaviour. The same intentions are also evident in the design of many systems and environments. This site aims–with readers’ input–to examine and analyse […]
What are architectures of control in design?
Architectures of control are features, structures or methods of operation designed into physical products, software, buildings, city layouts–or indeed any planned system with which a user interacts–which are intended to enforce, reinforce, or restrict certain modes of user behaviour. While the use of architectures of […]
Architectures of Control in the Built Environment
First, it is worth looking at the broad range of architectures of control both inside and outside of product design. The use of the term ‘architecture’ is no coincidence, since it is in the planned systems which people inhabit–buildings and environments–that the idea of shaping […]
Architectures of Control in the Digital Environment
The design field where architectures of control have become most firmly established is software; to a large extent any application which affords the user a limited range of behaviours is, by definition, an architecture of control. This may seem obvious, but it is not a […]
Simple control in products
Whilst architectures of control in digital systems can be complex, there are many very simple control architectures in products which are either self-evident, or become so once the design intention is explained. Restriction of access Some of the most obvious involve attempts to restrict access […]