Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead!

Well, I live in hope anyway.... Imagine my delight in reading this headline this morning:

Korea to Unwind MS' Chokehold

Despite the stupid use of an apostrophe, I can only imagine someone in the Korean government has been reading The Bimbo's many takes on Active-X. (Die! You Son of A Bitch! Die!)

The Ministry of Public Administration and Security announced plans to reprogram the country's e-government sites to have them work properly on non-Microsoft browsers like Chrome, Firefox and Opera.

And that is quite possibly the best way to go about things. If the government manages to make standards compliant websites, hopefully the private sector will be quick to follow.

A new anecdote on Active-X crapness: From another K-Times article from earlier this month with a strangely contrary headline "MS Monopoly Deepens in Korea". I wish they would make up their minds! Anyway:

The Korea Communications Commission (KCC), the country's broadcasting and telecommunications regulator, will enforce new rules in December that will allow users to subscribe to Internet sites without submitting their resident registration numbers, the Korean equivalent of social security numbers.

Hoozah! No more pissing about stealing co-workers 주민번호 to register on Naver. But wait:

The government is aggressively promoting I-Pin in the fallout from the slew of privacy infringement cases in recent years, which many blame on an excessive amount of personal information gathered by Internet sites.

Although I-Pin may prove to be a safer option than resident registration numbers ― 13-digit codes that reveal sex, birth date and registration site ― the new verification system is only expected to strengthen Microsoft's presence here.

To receive I-Pin, users are required to download a keyboard security module that prevents the codes from being intercepted. However, the program can only be installed through Active-X controls, forcing users of non-Microsoft browsers to convert to Internet Explorer.

Public key certificates, which are required in the process of producing I-Pin numbers, are also reliant on Active-X controls.

Oh For Fucks Sake!

But back to today's good news:

``The Internet services now provided by Korean administrative organizations aren't based on open Web standards and work only on Microsoft's operating system and browser, but we are now focused on allowing computer makers and consumers select the browser of their choice,'' said Lim Jin-young, an official from the ministry's information resources policy division.

Yeah Baby!

``The project is also focused on having the Web services available on Linux, Macintosh and other alternative operating systems and improving accessibility for the disabled,'' he said.

I think I'm going to orgasm.

(Other operating Systems? Oh right, there is that one guy out in Bundang using Free BSD!)

According to the plans, about 500 Web sites operated by central government organizations and regional governments will be redesigned to work on standards-compliant browsers, which only used codes ratified by the World Wide Web consortium, thus allowing non-Microsoft browsers to function on them.

The Ministry of Public Administration and Security is now officially my favourite Government Ministry!

The Article goes on to talk about the history of Korea adopting 40-bit SEED encryption ahead of everyone else in the world who ended up settling on 128-bit encryption, and that in spite of this move by government, Microsoft still has the upper hand because no one else is prepared to make a move on ditching Active-X:

Nearly all of the country's encryption systems, including keyboard security programs, computer vaccines and online transaction programs are reliant on Active-X, and the ministry has no immediate plans to hire a private software maker to develop an alternative technology, citing a shortage in budget.

The Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute, the state agency managing electronic payment services, is also indifferent in developing Active-X alternatives.

Fuckers.

All that in the face of Microsoft itself scaling back Active-X because even they realise it's rooted.

Anyway more power to The Ministry of Public whosits and whatsits.

Next thing in my cross hairs....putting important documents in .hwp. Have you people never heard of a fucking .pdf?

Comments

[Dan]

Dream on Stafford. ActiveX is just too ingrained in the Korean psyche. Nobody, outside of a handful of techies, is interested in ridding the country of this evil. This isn't a Korean phenomenon. Just look at the market share for Explorer, it dwarfs all competitors.

I guarantee you that you that I will never live in Korea at a time when ActiveX is not required to interact with basic services (depending on how long you're around, likely you too). However, I do have faith that some of the larger, globally focused sites will likely get rid of it sooner than later.

Until then, keep on ignoring install requests when visiting mundane sites like Everland, though I know that ActiveX is surely needed for the best consumer experience...AHHHH!

Dan

[Whitey]

As a proud employee of MOPAS (Ministry of Public Administration and Security), I'm glad that you approve.

As for this:
"...the ministry has no immediate plans to hire a private software maker to develop an alternative technology, citing a shortage in budget."

I just groan. Think of all the money that goes to Fantasy Unification projects, and how many other places it could be put to good use in the government's budget.