Byte Into It – 17 Dec 08 – The Wrap Up Show!

Internet Explorer flaw bigger than expected – Network World

A day after its massive Patch Tuesday release, Microsoft last week warned of a new Internet Explorer vulnerability that could be used to steal user information. At the time, it was thought that only IE7 that was affected. Turns out all versions of IE are vulnerable and hackers are taking action, according to the SANS Internet Storm Center. Microsoft has not yet released a patch for the flaw, which affects everything from IE5 to IE8 beta. The company is recommending a number of risk-mitigating steps, but it might be best to use a different browser until patches are available. If you haven’t yet patched IE to protect against the XML exploit, visit Microsoft’s December 2008 security advisory. This Web page, which began as an announcement of the Redmond company’s planned patch, changes automatically to information about installing the patch as soon as the fix is released.

Songbird – Open Source Music Player

Songbird is an open-source customizable music player that’s under active development.

We’re working on creating a non-proprietary, cross platform, extensible tool that will help enable new ways to playback, manage, and discover music.

Songbird: Killer Add-ons Make Songbird So Much Better

Songbird’s developers chose wisely when it came to the extensions it recommends installing when you first load Songbird. iPod Device Support, QuickTime Playback and Windows Media Playback give owners of protected files, and iPods, access to their tunes with few hitches. Shoutcast Radio and Last.fm integrate nicely as streaming players, and Concerts tells you whenever an artist you dig in your library is swinging by town to play a live gig. Last, but certainly not least, mashTape gives you all kinds of web-driven contextual content on your played artist, putting artist info, news, photos, and videos from a wide variety of popular sources—Flickr, YouTube, Wikipedia, Digg, etc.—in your bottom tray. All worthy of installation, and, in some cases, hard to imagine music browsing without.

Those familiar with Seeqpod’s find-and-stream MP3 search engine can smile at its seamless Songbird integration. A search bar and results listing pops open in a new tab, and you can queue up over-the-net tracks or download them directly to your library or specific playlists. Downloads head into your standard Songbird downloads window, and, well, that’s it—it just works, and it expands your library exponentially, assuming you’re down with the kind of quasi-legality involved.

As a long-time iTunes user, this is the add-on your long-suffering editor is probably most excited about. The Exorcist adds two views to your media listing options, Ghost Tracks and Duplicate Tracks, that do exactly what you’d hope—list songs referenced in your library without a related media file, and list any songs that seem to be similar in file size or metadata. Better still, those views show you the full path of duplicate files, and offer buttons to just clear out all duplicates or find your missing tracks.

If a single play/pause button just doesn’t do it for you, you can add a stop button that looks built-in with this tiny, helpful extension. Not the sexiest of extensions, for sure, but a good indicator of the Firefox-like potential to customize Songbird to whatever shape you want it in—once more add-ons make the list and get updated.

Tune Up: Your music collection is a mess, TuneUp fixes it

Best Of 2008: Most Popular Free Windows Downloads of 2008

Best Of 2008: Most Popular Free Mac Downloads of 2008

Best Of 2008: Most Popular Free Linux Downloads of 2008

Conroy and Trujillo break Mexican standoff over NBN? > Silicon Lust > Blogs > PC Authority

Sol Trujillo and his amigos at Telstra have been holding the country’s technological future to ransom during the debate over who will control the next generation of Australia’s internet infrastructure. Finally someone has the cojones to stand up to them.

Telstra’s arrogance in filing an NBN proposal that it knew didn’t meet the requirements was a strategic gamble that most people expected to pay off. Had Communications Minister, Senator Conroy conceded and accepted the proposal, it would have made a mockery of the process – giving Telstra a green light to walk all over the government.

Over the weekend Conroy delivered a rather rude shock to Sol by rejecting Telstra’s bid. This would seem to put Telstra out of the race, leaving the field wide open for the five other bidders.

Google Flu Trends

It’s been found that certain search terms are good indicators of flu activity. Google Flu Trends uses aggregated Google search data to estimate flu activity in US states up to two weeks faster than traditional systems

Macworld 2009 rumour mill: Windkintosh? > News > PC Authority

One rumour that seemingly won’t die is the idea of a Mac OS X Netbook PC.

Apple’s remaining mum, but that hasn’t stopped the Hackintosh community from “porting” OS X to a variety of Netbooks, albeit with limited functionality — most notably, a lack of Wireless functionality due to the absence of suitable drivers.

Asking a company to provide OS X drivers for their netbooks has, up until now, been met with silence, and probably a little quaking on the vendor side as they wait for the heavy footsteps of Apple’s army of lawyers.

It seems, however, that Realtek, who provide the WiFi chip found in the MSI Wind U100, are dipping their toes into the legally iffy world of the Hackintosh. Forum users at MSIWind.Net asked politely for drivers, and after a lot of patience, Beta drivers were provided.

There’s still a few catches; aside from the obvious legal issues, the drivers get WiFi functionality working, but not via Airport. Instead, what you end up with looks like a Bluetooth connection to OS X, which could be interesting if you wanted to pair with a mobile phone as well.

Macworld 2009: Apple says it’s the last hurrah > News > PC Authority

come Macworld in January 2009, where we’re hoping to see the likes of Snow Leopard on display, Jobs will not be gracing the stage. In news bound to send dismay into the hearts of the Apple faithful, Apple says the Macworld keynote – usually where Jobs takes the glory – will this time be delivered by Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior worldwide marketing vice president (that’s the shortened version).

That’s not all. Apple says the January 2009 event will be Apple’s “last year” at Macworld, an event which began in 1985.

Yahoo: Yahoo Mail to Get Third-Party Applications

The beta version of Yahoo Mail is getting third-party applications like Xoopit, WordPress, Flixster, and Flickr—and other Yahoo products are also seeing upgrades, TechCrunch reports.

In what at first appears to be an answer to Gmail Labs, Yahoo Mail is getting third-party apps that let you do things like attach one of your Flickr images to a new messages easily. More interestingly, the new “social” Yahoo Mail will be able to prioritize your incoming email by the people with whom you have an established relationship. TechCrunch writes:

When you view your inbox, you can choose to view messages from just your “connections”, letting you filter out all of the email that ostensibly means less to you. Contacts (which includes everyone in your address book) are different than connections, which are suggested by Yahoo’s algorithm and explicitly identified by users. Invitations to connect are either generated by Yahoo’s algorithm or sent manually by your contacts. Connections appear to be like “friendships” on social networks like MySpace and Facebook, but Yahoo is insisting that the relationships will be used in a variety of ways not found on traditional social networks (such as this mail filtering).

Wikipedia: Wikipedia Officially Launches Mobile Version

Popular user-edited online encyclopedia Wikipedia has finally released a mobile-friendly version of the web site at mobile.wikipedia.org.

The site offers a trimmed down version of Wikipedia proper, supports 14 languages, and even has a mysterious Spoken Wikipedia setting that—though currently not enabled, may presumably one day read Wikipedia articles to you.

Gartner Identifies Top Ten Disruptive Technologies for 2008 to 2012 | eHomeUpgrade

Social networking technologies, web mashups, multicore and hybrid processors and cloud computing are amongst the ten most disruptive technologies[1] that will shape the information technology (IT) landscape over the next five years, according to research and advisory firm Gartner, Inc.

2008’s top ten most-searched tech terms : Christopher Null : Yahoo! Tech

Some are surprises, some not so much. Either way: Here are the top 10 terms for 2008, as dictated by you.

10. Garmin – The GPS maker (with a 56% market share) considerably outclassed searches for “GPS.” Competitor Tom Tom was the #13 search term.

9. iPod – Now seven years old, ye olde iPod is still a perennial top search on the web.

8. PS3 – The PlayStation 3 is crawling into its own this year, with more games, new models, and an improved online experience.

7. Skype – Though growth is slowing, interest in the leading provider of VOIP calls continues to be high.

6. BlackBerry – With the new BlackBerry Bold and the upcoming BlackBerry Storm, interest in the venerable RIM smart phone continues to surge.

5. PSP – Surprise: The PSP outranks both the PS3 and the Nintendo DS when it comes to the sheer volume of web searches.

4. Xbox 360 – Another game console on the list, no big shock. The Xbox continues its popularity this year thanks to some big price cuts, awesome games, and its upcoming new dashboard.

3. Wii – No mystery on this one. Wiimania continues its run in 2008. “Wii Fit” alone was the #12 search term of the year.

2. iPhone – Have you heard of this device? Apparently Apple has some sort of mobile telephone product out now. Sounds interesting! Must research this.

1. Digital Camera – Check this out! Never mind your iPods, your iPhones, and your gaggle of video game consoles, it’s the humble, generic “digital camera” that was the top tech search term this year to date

Top 10 Best Gadgets of 2008 – Breakthrough Awards – Year’s Best Toys – Popular Mechanics – which includes:

Microsoft Photosynth -This remarkable software, which can be downloaded for free, analyzes dozens (or hundreds) of photos taken of a location or subject—the Eiffel Tower, say, or a room in a museum. It looks for overlapping points in the images, then arranges the snapshots into a browsable 3D model. The result is a fresh way to organize and share photography—opening up new possibilities for a 180-year-old art form.

Spore – Few video games have built up as much anticipatory buzz as Spore, and it’s not just the game’s pedigree (it was designed by Will Wright, the mastermind behind SimCity and The Sims) or its grand scope (players guide the evolution of a universe). It’s the technology. Spore doesn’t rely on stock characters stored in a library of animations. Instead, the software uses sophisticated logic to allow players’ creations to interact spontaneously.

Amazon Kindle – Like previous e-book
readers, the Amazon Kindle relies on an easy-to-read E Ink display that
needs no backlight and draws power only when loading a new page. (It
can handle thousands of pages between charges.) The Kindle’s key
innovation—the one that blazes the way for digital paper products—is
its inclusion of a high-speed EVDO antenna and a deal with Sprint that
allow users to download books quickly, from nearly anywhere.

Livescribe Pulse Smartpen – Smart pens, which
digitize handwriting for later manipulation on a PC, have been more
like novelties than productivity tools. Not this one. The Livescribe
Pulse smart pen uses an integrated microphone and a revolutionary
method to record and retrieve audio. The user taps his or her
handwritten notes to get the pen to play the appropriate audio.

Potenko PCG1 Power Generator – The Potenco PCG1
pull-cord generator creates electricity for portable gadgets with far
greater efficiency than hand-cranked devices. The PCG1 is the geek-chic
version of a generator for the developing world. It weighs 14 ounces,
has both an internal NiMh battery and a mini-USB output jack and can
convert 2 minutes of effort into 40 minutes of cellphone talk time.

Intel Atom Processor – In addition to being a marvel of miniaturization (47 million transistors on a single 26 x 26 mm chip), the Atom processor is brilliantly efficient, with a power specification ranging from below 1 watt to 2.5 watts. Chips such as the Atom, made possible by a new Intel manufacturing process, can bring computer-level power to highly portable devices—further blurring the distinction between cellphones and computers.

Byte Into It – 10 Dec 08

BBC – Newsbeat – Technology – Facebook users hit by virus

Facebook’s 120 million users are being targeted by a virus designed to get hold of sensitive information like credit card details.

‘Koobface’ spreads by sending a message to people’s inboxes, pretending to be from a Facebook friend.

It says “you look funny in this new video” or “you look just awesome in this new video”.

By clicking on the link provided they’re then asked to watch a “secret video by Tom”.

When users try and play the video they’re asked to download the latest version of Adobe Flash Player.

If they do, that’s when the virus takes hold and attacks the computer.

Guy Bunker works for Symantec, who make Norton AntiVirus, and says there are two ways Koobface gets people’s credit card details.

“It can either wait for you to buy something online and just remember the details you type in on your keyboard.

“Otherwise it can search your computer for any cookies you might have from when you’ve bought something in the past, and take them from there.”

Take Jane: a video from NO2ID on the dangers of Britain’s burgeoning surveillance state – Boing Boing

The UK NO2ID group has produced a video about one of the dangers of Britain’s new database state: Take Jane tells the story of a woman whose vengeful ex- is able to follow her around because she has to update the national ID database every time she moves, and any database that has that many people who are allowed to consult it will have someone her ex-husband can bribe to let him know where she’s living at all time.

How the Great Firewall of Britain works – Boing Boing

Here’s a flowchart showing how Cleanfeed — the secret British national firewall that is presently restricting access to Wikipedia – operates: Translation: a third party now monitors every request made to Wikipedia from the six ISPs that participate in the Great Firewall of Britain.

IWF backs down on Wikipedia censorship – Internet – iTnews Australia

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) has lifted its ban on Wikipedia, which slowed access to the site to a crawl in the UK.

On Saturday the IWF placed Wikipedia on its watch list, a group of web sites that are identified to internet service providers as hosting child pornography. The listing came after the site was reported to be hosting a picture a young naked girl, which was the cover The Scorpions album ‘Virgin Killer’.

The IWF listing slowed access to the site to a crawl as ISPs sought to block it and stopped edits being made by British users. However, the IWF has no rescinded its ban.

“Following representations from Wikipedia, IWF invoked its Appeals Procedure and has given careful consideration to the issues involved in this case,” said the group.

“The procedure is now complete and has confirmed that the image in question is potentially in breach of the Protection of Children Act 1978. However, the IWF Board has today (9 December 2008) considered these findings and the contextual issues involved in this specific case and, in light of the length of time the image has existed and its wide availability, the decision has been taken to remove this webpage from our list.”

However, the founder of Wikipedia Jimmy Wales has now said he is investigating wether legal action can be taken against the group for its actions.

“There’s no question that it’s a dodgy picture, but it’s an artistic protest made many years ago,” he told Channel 4 News.

“But my concern isn’t so much about the image. It’s the ambiguous way that they are behaving. It’s not clear if they are over-reaching their authority.”

“As a result of their actions, the image is actually being seen by more people, it’s appearing on thousands of blogs today. It will continue to be passed on. What are they going to do? Are they going to block all of the web if it continues to be spread?

Open source USB key to $2bn laptop plan – Hardware – iTnews Australia

The Rudd Government’s promise of a laptop for every child could fail without at least $2 billion in public funding, but an alternative USB ‘computer’ system pioneered in France may be its saviour.

Speaking to iTnews, Cybersource CEO Con Zymaris said a $2 billion funding injection – double the original commitment – would be needed to put some four million netbooks on the desks of Australian school students.

The Federal government estimates the total cost per laptop to be up to $2,500 over four years.

But that amount could be too high to put one in the hands of every student unless the government doubles its financial commitment or alternate proposals are considered, according to Zymaris.

“With the costs the states are putting forward, there’s no way a billion dollars will buy a laptop for every student,” said Zymaris.

“The current approach will mean one netbook between every five or ten kids.”

Cybersource is proposing a variation of a model adopted by French schools , where students are issued with a 2-4 GB USB key that contains a self-booting Linux operating system ‘and all the core applications they need’.

The USB key can be plugged into any computer – personal or shared – and the student’s data can be accessed either directly from the key or the cloud.

Under the Australian variation, students would receive a USB key and either a personal netbook or a laptop that can be shared between two students, depending on the final amount of government funding to be made available.

Cybersource has created a free online kit that state education departments and schools can use to assess and implement its proposal.

“Everyone is proposing a plan with one laptop and one set of systems and data per person,” said Zymaris.

“We’re saying you can shift away from that model in schools. You can still give students something that’s intrinsically theirs [the USB key] – essentially a ‘computer’ without a netbook terminal – and then provide terminals that are interchangeable.

Microsoft Patch Tuesday for December 2008: eight bulletins

Microsoft will issue eight Security Bulletins on Tuesday, and it will host a webcast to address customer questions on these bulletins the following day (December 10 at 11:00 AM PST, if you’re interested). Six of the vulnerabilities are rated “Critical,” and two are marked as “Important.” Seven of these earned their rating through a remote code execution impact, meaning a hacker could potentially gain control of an infected machine. At least four of the eight updates will require a restart.

Microsoft pledges to purge search info – Security – iTnews Australia

Microsoft is pledging to become the first company to meet European Commission guidelines on search anonymisation.

The company said in a letter to the commission earlier this week that it would be willing to undertake a programme which reduced the retention time of search information to just six months.

The commission first introduced the suggestion in an April report and has been pressing the major search providers to meet the guidelines.

Google did announce a plan to significantly cut its retention time in September. The nine month mark, however, was still too long for the EC’s tastes.

Telstra out of Conroy’s filtering trial: News – Communications – ZDNet Australia

Telstra has decided not to participate in the government’s controversial ISP filtering trial, for which expressions of interest were due today.

(Credit: ZDNet.com.au)

The company said its decision had been reached “primarily due to customer management issues” and stressed that Telstra would keep working with the government on filtering outside of the trial, including evaluating technology to block blacklists, since it had “no fundamental difficulties with a legislated regime for blocking a defined ACMA blacklist of illegal sites”.

The six-week trial, which was scheduled to start 24 December, involves either just blocking access to websites on the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s black list or additionally filtering non web-based applications such as peer-to-peer networks.

There have been concerns about the costs involved and the accuracy of filtering technology with many other service providers opting out of the trial. ZDNet.com.au rang around to see who had put in an expression of interest to be part of the trial and who had not.

www.stopthecleanfeed.com

Australians Against Internet Censorship
The Australian government is currently quietly going ahead with plans to filter all Australian’s access to the internet in a manner similar to the People’s Republic of China and Iran.

This is despite the facts that

* The filter will significantly slow down the internet for all Australians
* The filter will not be able to prevent distribution of illegal material anyway
* The filter represents a dangerous erosion of our freedom.

So, before this terrible idea is enacted we call on Australians to

get informed.
get connected.
get organised.
and Stop The Clean Feed.

Nationwide protests on the 13th of December – Click here for details

Hundreds protest net filtering on Conroy’s new blog – Internet – iTnews Australia

Just 24 hours since its launch, hundreds of people have used Senator Conroy’s new blog as a place to protest against his proposed net filtering scheme.

The Digital Economy Future Directions blog was launched by Senator Conroy yesterday as a place for people to comment on various areas of digital policy.

Conroy noted that an upcoming blog post, “How do we maintain the same civil society we enjoy offline in an online world?”, would touch on the issue of filtering. “We welcome your feedback about the [filtering] issue in response to this post,” he said.

But readers didn’t wait for that post to go live, instead flooding Minister Tanner’s welcome post with over 400 posts in less than 24 hours.

Digital Economy blog | Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Conroy has announced that the Australian Government will develop a Future directions paper for the digital economy—a roadmap for Australian businesses, households and government to maximise participation in the digital economy. And we would like you to help us create the roadmap.

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The National Human Rights Consultation provides an opportunity for you to share your views on human rights in Australia.

GetUp! Campaign Actions

This government consultation is a once in a lifetime chance to call for a Human Rights Act to permanently protect human rights in Australia.

Make your submission below – it can be as long or as short as you wish. We have included some handy talking points below help you out, but try to put your thoughts in your own words, and feel free to talk about how human rights protection might affect you.

Online journalists now jailed more often than other media

If you think it’s tough to be a blogger because your Google AdWords revenue has been in the toilet lately, the Committee to Protect Journalists wants to remind you that Internet journalist—including bloggers—can and do suffer much more around the world. According to the group’s new report, Internet journalists now make up the largest single group of imprisoned journalists.

Of the 125 journalists imprisoned around the world for doing their jobs, 45 percent are “bloggers, Web-based reporters, or online editors.” China continues its ten-year winning streak when it comes to tossing writers into jail, with Cuba, Burma, Eritrea, and Uzbekistan next in line.

Australia’s Internet filtering too ambitious, doomed to fail

It’s tough being a government these days; who has the energy to clean up the Internet after a hard day’s work bailing out the financial sector? Not the Australian government, it seems. Rather than actually doing something about illegal content, they just make a list of it and tell ISPs to filter everything that’s on the list. Sidestepping the murky political details and—for the moment—the civil liberties problems inherent in this approach, let’s take a closer look at the technical aspects of such a plan.

Government, EFF spar in court over telecom immunity

Lawyers for the Electronic Frontier Foundation faced off against government attorneys Tuesday, as Judge Vaughn Walker heard arguments in a legal fight over telecoms’ role in warrantless wiretapping that began almost three years ago. At issue is the constitutionality of the FISA Amendments Act, passed by Congress this summer, which could end the suit against the telecoms by retroactively immunizing them for their participation in the controversial National Security Agency eavesdropping program.

Danish court says ISP must block The Pirate Bay

The Pirate Bay has made a habit out of pointing and laughing at Big Content serving up thousands of links to copyrighted content to its 25 million+ users. The MPAA, IFPI, and other industry organizations have been left fighting skirmishes in courts around the world in an attempt to get TPB taken offline, or, at the very least, have access to it blocked. Big Content won a minor victory on Thanksgiving Day as a Danish court upheld a lower court decision forcing a Danish ISP to keep its customers from accessing the BitTorrent site.

Does the Drew verdict make ToS breakers potential felons?

The guilty verdict against Lori Drew, prosecutors crowed, would send an “overwhelming message” to online bullies. Though she escaped conviction on felony charges, the 49-year-old Missouri mom could still face three years in prison or fines of up to $300,000 for launching an online harassment campaign that ended in the suicide of a teenage neighbor. But the “message,” legal observers worry, may be that anyone who uses a Web site without paying close attention to those ubiquitous Terms of Service risks committing a federal crime.

Patent suit targets iPhone, all mobile web pages ever

It’s a new week, which means yet another lawsuit has been filed against Apple. The latest lawsuit comes in the form of patent infringement accusations from EMG Technology, LLC regarding Mobile Safari’s viewing, zooming, and scrolling capabilities on the iPhone.

EMG asserts that Apple’s built-in software on the iPhone violates patent number 7,441,196, titled “Apparatus and method of manipulating a region on a wireless device screen for viewing, zooming and scrolling internet content.” In brief, the patent describes a method by which a website would be rendered to create a “sister site” so that it can be presented on a TV, handheld device, or cell phone, and blocks of the site would be broken up in the code so that they could be zoomed in on easily when the user selects it. Sound sort of like Mobile Safari when you double-tap a section of the page? EMG thought so too.

But that’s only part of it. According to statements made by EMG attorney and “IP expert,” Stanley Gibson, the company is suing Apple over various other companies making mobile versions of their websites for easy display and navigation on the iPhone. “For example, to access NBC on a computer the URL is NBC.com. For the mobile site on the iPhone, the URL would be m.NBC.com,” Gibson said in a statement. “The ‘196 patent covers the simplified interface of reformatted mobile content to provide optimum viewing and navigation with single touches on a small screen.” Which is totally why EMG is suing Apple and not, say, NBC. Or Motorola, which also displays mobile-formatted web pages. Or Palm. Or Microsoft. Or anyone, really.

Byte Into It – 26 Nov 08

linux.conf.au opens on Wednesday January 21st 2009 and runs through Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The event finishes with a spectacle of colour and activity with the Open Day on Saturday January 24 2009. Miniconfs will be held as usual on Monday 19th and Tuesday 20th.

Australasian Virtual Worlds Workshop:
http://avww.org/

Nokia S60 users to get Lotus email – Hardware – iTnews Australia

Nokia has confirmed that S60 smartphone users will have access to Lotus email from December following a new deal with IBM, which owns the majority of Symbian.

Nokia said that S60 users, which the company estimates to be 80 million people, will be able to connect to corporate email accounts using Lotus Domino Server software called Lotus Notes Traveler.

“People need to be connected to their email, information and network when they are out of the office, and that has to be done conveniently and on their terms,” said Nokia senior vice president Soren Petersen.

Internet Explorer 8 inches closer to release – Software – iTnews Australia

Microsoft has announced that Internet Explorer 8 will be released in the first half of 2009.

Developers said in a blog posting on Wednesday that the browser is slated to enter its final beta stages in the early months of next year, and that a release candidate will follow shortly after.

“We will release one more public update of IE8 in the first quarter of 2009, and then follow that up with the final release,” wrote IE general manager Dean Hachamovitch.

“We want the technical community of people and organisations interested in web browsers to take this update as a strong signal that IE8 is effectively complete and done.”

ACMA response to Hyarchis alleged spam breach – Telecommunications – iTnews Australia

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has released a detailed response to claims by Hyarchis that its formal warning over alleged spam activities was unfair.

ACMA received a number of complaints from consumers regarding the sending of SMS messages by Hyarchis Ltd allegedly without the consent of these consumers.

Following these complaints ACMA conducted an investigation into Hyarchis Ltd.

As part of the investigation Hyarchis made written submissions to ACMA in relation to the complaints and its compliance with the Spam Act 2003. ACMA assessed the evidence, including the submissions made by Hyarchis Ltd and found that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Hyarchis Ltd had sent commercial electronic messages without consent in contravention of section 16 of the Spam Act, which is a civil penalty provision.

ACMA issued a formal warning to Hyarchis Ltd on 31 October 2008. The warning set out the particulars of the contravention and ACMA’s view that, in relation to one electronic address (mobile number), Hyarchis had sent unsolicited commercial electronic messages in contravention of section 16 of the Spam Act. ACMA has not made a finding in relation to the other complaints received.

Telstra baits Government with NBN ‘detail’ carrot – Telecommunications – iTnews Australia

Telstra will hold the government to ransom by submitting a ‘proposal’ to build a $9.7 billion National Broadband Network but withholding more detailed bid documents.

The telco’s chairman, Donald McGauchie, called a last-minute press conference 45 minutes after the RFP deadline to dangle the ‘detailed bid document’ carrot in front of the government.

“While Telstra has devoted very considerable resources to preparing a fully detailed bid, a number of fundamental issues have not been resolved,” said McGauchie.

“Each of these unresolved issues causes unacceptable risk at a time of significant economic uncertainty, resulting in the Telstra Board deciding it is not in the interests of shareholders for Telstra to put forward a fully detailed bid at this time.”

McGauchie said the NBN proposal was ‘essentially an upgrade of Telstra’s fixed network’.

It will cost around $9.7 billion to build – $4.7 billion in the form of a concessional loan from the government, and ‘up to $5 billion’ of Telstra’s own capital’.

BBC – Newsbeat – Technology – US Army warns of Twitter danger

US intelligence agencies are worried that terrorists might start to use new communication technologies like the blogging site Twitter to plan and organise attacks.

A draft of a US Army report posted on the internet identifies a number of mobile and web technologies that could be used in the future.

A chapter on Potential for Terrorist Use of Twitter notes that first reports of the Los Angeles earthquake in July appeared on the service before established news outlets.

Activists also used Twitter to organise protests at the US Republican National Convention in September.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Google strikes book search deal

Google’s reach into the world’s libraries looks more assured following a deal struck today.

The agreement with the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers will resolve a number of lawsuits from the last three years.

Google will establish a non-profit Book Rights Registry to ensure copyrighted works receive compensation via subscription services or ad revenue.

The registry and settlements will cost Google $125m (£80m).

However, the deal still needs approval from a US district court to resolve the pending lawsuits.

If approved, the agreement will provide much wider access to out-of-print books and a great many in-print, in-copyright works.

BBC NEWS | Americas | US ‘cyber-bullying’ case begins

Initial jury selection has begun in the trial of a Missouri woman alleged to have used a fake MySpace profile to bully a girl who later killed herself.

Lori Drew, 49, allegedly posed as a boy on the website to befriend Megan Meier, 13, who hanged herself after the “boy” broke off the virtual relationship.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Microsoft to offer free security

In a surprise move, Microsoft has announced it will offer a free anti-virus and security solution from the second half of next year.

It will stop selling OneCare, its all-in-one security and PC management service, from the end of June 2009.

The new software, code-named Morro, will be a no-frills program suited to smaller and less powerful computers.

The software will be free to download and will support Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Google unveils customised search

Google has unveiled a tool that will allow users to customise and refine their search queries.

The company’s SearchWiki lets users re-order, remove or add specific web search results.

This means the next time they perform the same search, the personalised version will pop up.

“I would call this revolutionary. It’s a huge step, not a baby step in the world of search,” Google’s product manager, Cedric Dupont, told the BBC.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Mobile internet usage on the rise

Mobile internet use is growing while the number of people going online via a PC is slowing, analyst firm Nielsen Online has found.

Some 7.3m people accessed the net via their mobile phones, during the second and third quarters of 2008.

This is an increase of 25% compared to a growth of just 3% for the PC-based net audience – now more than 35m.

It also found that the mobile net audience was younger and searched for different things.

HandBrake 0.9.3 accepts any files, boosts encoding quality (Updated)

Simple consumer options for quickly encoding video on the Mac have ridden a roller coaster lately. The demise and later rebirth of VisualHub, a leading app in the space, left many Mac users in need of video conversion feeling uneasy. Fortunately, a new version of HandBrake brings a long list of new features, as well as a new option for getting from point A to B in video formats.

Detailed on HandBrake’s site, the cross-platform DVD conversion app is now capable of accepting video files already existing on your computer. This brings HandBrake into holy grail territory, as it is now a great one-stop shop for converting just about anything you need, thanks to the incorporation of the FFmpeg project.

HandBrake 0.9.3 brings so many other enhancements, though, that it could really have been called 1.0 due to the 600+ items on this version’s changelog.

Byte Into It – 12 Nov 08

The International Digital Entertainment Festival (iDEF): http://www.idef.com.au/

Including the Digital Lifestyle Show: http://www.idef.com.au/dls_home.php

and the eGames Expo: http://www.idef.com.au/egames_home.php

Melbourne Exhibition Centre, November 14th-16th

VMware Brings Virtualization To Smartphones — Virtualization — InformationWeek

With the announcement of the Mobile Virtualization Platform on Monday, VMware is setting its sights on the mobile space.VMware’s MVP is a thin layer of software that will be embedded on mobile phones. It decouples the applications and data from the underlying hardware. The company said it will be optimized to run efficiently on low-power-consuming and memory-constrained devices.

“VMware is excited to extend the benefits of virtualization, which we pioneered for x86 hardware, to the mobile phone market,” VMware CEO Paul Maritz said in a statement. “By abstracting the applications and data from the hardware itself, we expect that virtualization will not only enable handset vendors to accelerate time to market but can also pave the way for innovative applications and services for phone users.”

For handset vendors and developers, MVP could reduce the amount of time it takes to make device-specific tweaks to applications and operating systems. With MVP a developer can build a software stack once, virtualize it over the hardware, and use the same software stack regardless of the handset’s hardware.

For the end user, the virtualization platform could potentially make it easier to migrate personal data off a phone and onto a new one. An end user also could have a handset that’s capable of running multiple operating systems or profiles. For example, a customer with embedded virtualization software could have a work profile that follows the company’s security policies, as well as an unfettered personal profile on the same handset.

Parallels Boosts Mac Virtualization Performance — Virtualization — InformationWeek

Parallels plans on Tuesday to introduce a new version of its virtualization software to run Windows and Linux on Macs, with improvements designed to increase performance by 50% over the previous version, and boost battery life by 20%.

Parallels Desktop for Mac Version 4, the first new version of the software in about year, includes new manageability features in addition to the upgrades. The new features are designed to allow users to more easily manage external storage devices, and create snapshots and backups for data protection.

One in four DNS servers still vulnerable to Kaminsky flaw, survey says – Network World

Despite industry efforts to lock down DNS servers, one in four remain vulnerable to cache poisoning due to the well-documented Kaminsky flaw identified earlier this year and another 40% could be considered a danger to themselves and others, recent research shows. (See how DNS works here.)

According to the fourth annual DNS report issued by The Measurement Factory, 25% of DNS servers in the sample group have not been upgraded to perform source port randomization, which is considered the patch for the vulnerability identified earlier this year by Dan Kaminsky, director of penetration testing at IOActive. The industry group bases its study on a sample that includes 5% of the IPv4 address space, or 80 million addresses.

“A surprising number of have not been upgraded and are very vulnerable to cache poisoning,” according to a press release from IP address management vendor Infoblox and DNS service and tools provider DNSstuff.

Net censorship plan backlash – BizTech – Technology – theage.com.au

As opposition grows against the Government’s controversial plan to censor the internet, the head of one of Australia’s largest ISPs has labelled the Communications Minister the worst we’ve had in the past 15 years.

Separately, in Senate question time today, Greens senator Scott Ludlam accused the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, of misleading the public by falsely claiming his mandatory censorship plan was similar to that already in place in Sweden, Britain, Canada and New Zealand.

Despite significant opposition from internet providers, consumers, engineers, network administrators and online rights activists, the Government is pressing ahead with its election promise of protecting people from unwanted material, this week calling for expressions of interests from ISPs keen to participate in live trials of the proposed internet filtering system.

Michael Malone, managing director iiNet, said he would sign up to be involved in the “ridiculous” trials, which are scheduled to commence by December 24 this year.

Optus and Telstra both said they were reviewing the Government’s documentation and would then decide whether to take part.

But Malone’s main purpose was to provide the Government with “hard numbers” demonstrating “how stupid it is” – specifically that the filtering system would not work, would be patently simple to bypass, would not filter peer-to-peer traffic and would significantly degrade network speeds.

“They’re not listening to the experts, they’re not listening to the industry, they’re not listening to consumers, so perhaps some hard numbers will actually help,” he said.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Web 2.0 or Web 2.No?

The economic downturn will not sound the death knell for Web 2.0 firms say analysts and experts.

But, they warn, tough times are ahead and to weather the downturn Web 2.0 must grow up focus on real problems.

“You have to conclude, if you look at the focus of a lot of what you call ‘Web 2.0′, the relentless focus on advertising-based consumer models, lightweight applications, we may be living in somewhat of a bubble, and I’m not talking about an investment bubble,” said Tim O’Reilly, who coined the phrase “Web 2.0″.

“It’s a reality bubble,” he said.

Mr O’Reilly, widely regarded as an industry visionary, bemoaned the frivolous applications on Web 2.0 sites that, for instance, let people throw sheep, poke friends or send virtual drinks.

“For me, Web 2.0 is about the internet as platform and its power to harness collective intelligence,” Mr O’Reilly told the BBC.

“Areas like the smart power grid, collective action on early disease detection or disaster response, or personalised medicine are all examples of how the principles that drove the consumer internet can be applied in other areas,” he said.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Full-length MGM films on YouTube

YouTube, the largest video-sharing website, will show full-length films from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s archives.

The partnership is aimed boosting advertising revenue for both YouTube and the Hollywood studio.

It will result in the launch of a video-on-demand channel called Impact, dedicated exclusively to action films, TV shows and clips.

iTunes Store finally gets a bargain bin for movies

With a new section unfortunately called “This Week’s Great Movies Under $5″ (iTunes link), a set of movies will be offered for purchase each week for… well, $5 (interestingly, they can still be rented at the regular $2.99 price). This first—and small—batch of movies is a bit older, most of them being on the action side of the store.

BBC NEWS | Technology | A hands-on preview of Windows 7

Microsoft has released an early preview copy of its new operating system, Windows 7.

The release follows in the wake of Vista, which has been subject to fierce criticism from a number of users.

When Vista launched in January 2007, many complained that it ran slowly and failed to work at all with some programs and devices.

Corporate customers have been slow to switch from Windows XP to Vista, although Microsoft said that the operating system had an unfair press, and that it enjoyed record sales.

Despite this Microsoft has extended the life of Windows XP so PC makers can continue selling it to those that do not want to upgrade.
Windows 7 desktop
Visually, Windows 7 has a lot in common with Windows Vista

Windows Vista took more than five years to develop but Windows 7 is likely to arrive within a couple of years.

Microsoft’s VP, Steven Sinofsky, described Windows 7 as an “exciting new version” and claimed it would deliver a more personalised experience.

With Windows 7, Microsoft has added a range of new functions including:

* A new taskbar to give more rapid access to files and programs.
* A feature called HomeGroup, allowing users easy sharing of data across PCs and other devices in the home.
* Support for devices such as cameras, printers, and mobile phones with a product called Device Stage offering a single window to manage tasks for each device.
* Windows Touch – software for touch screen devices that enables users to use different gestures to perform tasks.
* Improvements to some applications, such as MS Paint, and Calculator.

7 Keys to Cleaning Up Windows with Windows 7 | NetworkWorld.com Community

Now, here’s the seven things Windows 7 is doing to clean up the user experience in this new Microsoft operating system:

* 1. Clean Up That Mess – Taskbar, Quick Launch are combined and simplified. No more starting up applications in the order you want them to appear in the Taskbar. Windows 7 doesn’t want apps plopping down icons all over your desktop either. And we’ll see much less frequent balloon messaging, popping up and annoying us while trying to get other stuff done. Windows 7 also de-emphasizes some of the Windows controls and replaces it with large portions of user content. Viewing picture/graphics files in the Windows Explorer is a good example.
* 2. Do It Here – Want to see what’s in that application window? Want to close it? Want to organize your task bar to how you work? Windows 7 cleans up the task bar and makes managing the desktop easier with jump lists, bigger window previews and close boxes just a short mouse move away.
* 3. Do It Naturally – Windows 7 adds hot spots to the desktop, so expanding a window for editing or viewing windows side-by-side is just a matter of placing the window next to the screen’s edge. Windows 7 also knows that your default printer at home is your home printer, and the default at work is the work printer. Novel idea but little touches like this make your computer work for you rather than the other way around. Windows 7 also doesn’t make you remember which computer has what music files on it; you just play the music and it streams from the device the music lives on. Same with data on multiple volumes; Windows 7 keeps those organized in libraries and still knows about them when those devices are offline so you can find that pesky to locate files that live one of the eight flash drives you’ve accumulate over the past two years.
* 4. Keep In Touch – Windows 7 is clearly positioning itself for a touch screen revolution on the PC. Though the Microsoft Surface technology is separate from Windows, there were plenty of touch demos during the PDC. I imagine this will fit into some type of Windows Mobile 7 strategy supporting touch interfaces. Windows 7 is also incorporating location aware features and support for sensors like a light sensor, or an accelerometer, like we have in some SmartPhones and the Wii game machine controllers today.
* 5. Bringing Your Devices Together – Increasingly we’re a multi-device world, with mobile phone in one hand, a laptop in another, a media PC or device somewhere else in the house and yet another fixed desktop in the office. Windows 7 wants to be the place that brings all this together and helps you manage all those devices, rather than each being a one-off unto itself.
* 6. Device Center – Like that helpful little Window that Vista shows when you first begin using it, Windows 7 puts the most important things you do with your mobile device right there in one window; view files on it, sync it, check out the device user guide, etc. And the device icon looks the like device, not something warmed over from Windows 3.1.
* 7. Less Is More – Yes, as I’ve said Windows 7 takes the attitude that if it’s not needed, don’t add it, or at least don’t constantly shove it in the user’s face all the time. Make UAC even less obtrusive. (I’d still say turn the annoying thing completely off.) We’ll see fewer pre-installed apps, in favor of directing users to cloud base Live applications with online versions of Windows Mail, Live Writer and the Photo Gallery.

Now, will third-party apps take the queue from Microsoft and change from their ways of cluttering the desktop, displaying annoying balloon messages, and calling out for our attention like an unruly six year old with a hankering for a temper tantrum? Lets hope Microsoft’s good work cleaning up Windows won’t be wasted by old paradigm applications and crapware loaded on our PCs. Seems to me Microsoft Office is due for a major extreme makeover too.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Texting bug hits the Google phone

A text conversation has revealed a big problem with the G1 mobile phone – powered by Google’s Android software.

The newly discovered bug causes the phone to restart when owners type in the word “reboot” soon after starting up the device.

Google hurried to repair the problem, which causes the phone to interpret any text entered just after the phone was turned on as a command.

Google has rushed out a fix for the bug which will soon be available in the UK.

The bug was discovered when an owner of the phone typed the word “reboot” into a text message after restarting the phone.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Websites set government data free

The UK government has announced the winner of a website design contest.

“Show Us a Better Way” asked for ideas that would give the public better access to public information.

The finalists included ideas for a map site showing school catchment areas and a service telling people where to find the nearest public toilet.

More than 450 people entered the design contest, with the overall winner being “Can I Recycle It?” – where people can find out what they can recycle locally.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Web helps Obama with transition

Barack Obama is turning to the web as he prepares to become US president.

Via a website called Change.gov, the Obama campaign plans to provide a guide to the transition process.

The site also solicits suggestions from US citizens about their vision for America, and lets them apply for a post with the new administration.

On its transition website, the US governmental watchdog has listed the 13 most urgent issues that will soon confront President-elect Obama.

Byte Into It – 29 Oct 08

Hands on: Fennec alpha 1 puts Firefox on your handheld

Mozilla has announced the availability of the first Mobile Firefox alpha release. The project, which is codenamed Fennec, aims to bring the desktop Firefox browsing experience to mobile devices like MIDs and phone handsets. This early alpha release delivers a compelling user interface and demonstrates the impressive scope of the browser’s potential on diminutive devices, but suffers from performance limitations and instability that reflect the need for significant refinement before it’s mature enough for mainstream adoption.

Startup chipmaker hopes to hook enterprise with 1Gbps WiFi

Startup chipmaker Quantenna Communications says that it can push 1Gbps over regular WiFi without defying the laws of physics. This isn’t as hyped up as it sounds at first glance. The company’s initial goal is to cover houses with a combination of high bandwidth and mesh networking, making it possible to push multiple streams of video and data without glitches at slower rates—as fast as 100 to 200Mbps. Their future sights are set on the enterprise market where 1Gbps might mean something.

40 brilliant Gmail hints, hacks and secrets | News | TechRadar UK

Gmail goes from strength to strength as Google rolls out new features every few months.We’ve dug deep to bring you 40 top tips that’ll make you a Gmail super-user, with total control over every aspect of the service.

How to Improve Your iTunes Experience (Part 1) [Mac Only] | MakeUseOf.com

I love my music and everything else that goes along with it. I love the fact that in my iTunes, every song is properly labelled, is nicely arranged alphabetically by artist and have their particular album artwork attached in high resolution. It is so much easier to search for the songs you want when almost all the fields (i.e. genre, artist, album, year) are completed. Every little bit of information helps Genius to find the songs which match the ones you are listening to, creating a playlist which suits your current musical mood.I grimace when I browse though some of my friends’ playlists and most of the songs are labelled “Track 1, Track 2…. Untitled Artist”. They must have some kind of ESP or monumental memorizing ability to remember what track is by which artist.

Listening to music on iTunes can be more than simply “listening”. It can turn into a pretty interactive hobby which for me, has become an obsession. A fairly rewarding one, at least. Here’s how you can convert from mere music-listening to actively interacting and expanding your music experience. In this part 1, I’ll show you how to enjoy your current music collection.

25 essential Firefox add-ons for power users | News | TechRadar UK

A bare copy of Firefox is a wonderful thing, but when you start stuffing it with add-ons it gets even better.So what are the best add-ons for power users? Here’s our top 25:

Featured Download: LastPass Adds Form Filler, Syncs Form Profiles and Passwords

Windows/Mac/Linux: Previously mentioned Firefox extension and Internet Explorer plugin LastPass has updated, adding an automatic form filler to help you save more time filling out forms on the web. We’ve been on a bit of a password syncing kick lately, what with Foxmarks adding support for password syncing and our own guide to syncing passwords with Dropbox, but LastPass’ seamless browser integration for syncing both passwords and forms could attract a lot of people. After all, these useful features earned LastPass its honorable mention in our Hive Five Best Password Managers less than a week after we covered it. LastPass is a free download, works anywhere Firefox and IE do.

Featured Firefox Extension: Foxmarks Updates, Adds Password Syncing

Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): Popular bookmark-syncing Firefox extension Foxmarks has expanded to support password syncing between your browsers. Many of you have been looking for a good way to sync your passwords since Google discontinued Browser Sync, and now Foxmarks is filling that very need. We told you Foxmarks had been testing password sync a few weeks ago, and now the latest version of the extension bears the fruits of that labor. Once you’ve updated, syncing your passwords is as simple as ticking the checkbox next to Passwords in the Sync tab of the Foxmarks preferences. You’ll need to set a pin to secure your passwords (Foxmarks uses AES 256-bit encryption), but Foxmarks takes care of the rest. It’s not as comprehensive as syncing your passwords with Dropbox and KeePass or 1Password since Foxmarks only syncs browser passwords, but if that’s all you need, this one’s a winner.

Google Operating System: How to start a linked YouTube video at a specific
point
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/10/embed-part-of-youtube-video.html<http://www.lifehacker.com.au/tips/2008/10/13/start_a_linked_youtube_video_at_a_specific_point.html>

Digg – 52 Things To Do With Google

You can do a lot more than search the web with Google nowadays, from reading newspapers in languages you don’t speak to seeing the natural habitat of Komodo dragons.

Asustek to introduce Eee motherboards – TechSpot News

Asustek’s success with the Eee has led them to expand the line in numerous fashions, from creating desktop PC versions to making higher-power ultra slim versions available.

Now, Asustek is planning to expand the Eee line even further, with the introduction of Asustek Eee motherboards. No system specifications are available yet, but it’s easy to imagine that the boards would be similar in spec to existing Eee hardware. It’ll be interesting to see where they intend to compete with this board. They will most likely go up against the Atom and Pico-ITX platform.

Future Eee projects include potential touch screen units and more. What was just a short while ago nothing more than a cheap laptop has turned into an entire portfolio of hardware.

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard: Cocoa Finder and 64-Bit Changes – Mac Rumors

With the broad seeding of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, a few more details have been revealed about the direction Apple is going with Snow Leopard. According to the seed notes, Apple is migrating more towards Cocoa (rather than Carbon) and continues the transitioning of Mac OS X to 64-bit operating system. AppleInsider recently explored some of the details surrounding the changes.

Apple states that almost all user-facing applications in Mac OS X have been written in Cocoa with Finder being the notable exception. Apple will finally be migrating Finder to Cocoa in Snow Leopard. Despite Cocoa having a reputation amongst end-users that it is “better” than Carbon, AppleInsider notes that both will continue to coexist.

For users, the move to Cocoa means that applications will have more consistent appearance and behavior. Apps that make use of standardized interface controls rather than building their own will not only be more familiar, but users will also benefit from the code exercise and reuse, which removes bugs and allows for centralized optimizations. In other words, Apple can address user interface problems that in turn impact all apps.
Apple is, however, focusing on Cocoa and is now requiring 64-bit applications to make the switch from Carbon. This new requirement announced at the 2007 WWDC caught some developers off-guard and is why Adobe’s Photoshop CS4 remains a 32-bit application, while Windows CS4 already offers 64-bit support.

Apple – Business – Theater

Apple Shortcuts explained

http://www.apple.com/business/theater/#tutorial=shortcutsexplained?sr=hotnews?sr=hotnews.rss

plus a whole bunch of other interesting tid bits including Leopard server stuff

People Over Process » Getting used to a Mac – Applications and Behaviors for Every Day Use & Work

Much more so than when I used Windows, I use tons of third party applications on the Mac. On the one hand this is a (positive) testament to the integrated nature of Windows, on the other, it’s a testament to the vibrant third party ecosystem in Mac land.

There is no great, over-riding care for open source on the Mac as there is on Linux desktops. That said, there are many applications that are open source and still more that seem to follow the pre-OSS philosophies of freeware and shareware. What this means is that you often have to pay for software, but it’s also often free. The payments are trivial (usually US$5-30) and, at the same time, the open source software is often high quality.

Here are applications I often recommend for “business users” switching to Macs:

iTunes Folder Watch

This program is a companion for iTunes (Windows XP or Vista).
Are you frustrated that iTunes does not automatically detect new tracks in certain nominated folders and add them to the library automatically? This program does exactly that. It allows you to set up “Watch Folders” and to evaluate whether there are any new tracks in them which do not exist in iTunes, and allows you to add them selectively or fully automatically.

Firefly Media Server :: Home Page

The purpose of this project is built the best server software to serve digital music to the Roku Soundbridge and iTunes; to be able to serve the widest variety of digital music content over the widest range of devices. Current stable releases have been reported to run on Linux, all the BSDs, Solaris, AIX, and a variety of embedded devices such as the Linksys NSLU2, the Maxtor MSS, and the Buffalo Linkstation, to name but a few.

Current beta (or “nightly”) versions run on Microsoft Windows 2000 and XP, as well.

Anapod Explorer™ iPod Software, iPod Backup, iTunes Alternative, iPod Transfer, iPod Manager, iPod Management, iPod Explorer, iPod Utility, iTunes Replacement, iPod Copy, iPod Freeware, iPod Managing, PC Software, Windows Software, Windows Vista Software,

Anapod Explorer, our flagship iPod product, is composed of Anapod Explorer itself, Anapod CopyGear, and Anapod PhotoSync. Anapod offers iPod management through full Windows Explorer integration under My Computer, drag and drop iPod copy, iPod transfer and iPod backup, PDA function support, photo and video transfer, web page interface access to your iPod through a built-in web server, search and reporting capabilities using a built-in SQL database

Hamachi Features From LogMeIn

LogMeIn Hamachi is a flexible VPN service that enables anyone to easily connect multiple internet-enabled computers into their own secure virtual network.

Jing Project: Visual conversation starts here. Mac or Windows.

The concept of Jing is the always-ready program that instantly captures and shares images and video…from your computer to anywhere. It’s free.

Password Manager + Automatic Form Filler for Mac OS X

Too Many Passwords to Remember?

Byte Into It – 22 Oct 08

Keren’s list of virtual worlds via the browser:

http://www.rocketon.com/

http://www.lively.com

http://sketchup.google.com/product_suf.html

http://www.multiverse.net/index.html

http://www.smeet.com

http://www.exitreality.com

Ballmer’s tongue again causes trouble for Microsoft – Network World

Microsoft Thursday issued a statement saying it still has no interest in Yahoo after CEO Steve Ballmer said that for shareholders a deal would make economic sense.The company issued a terse statement to media around mid-day: “Our position hasn’t changed. Microsoft has no interest in acquiring Yahoo; there are no discussions between the companies.”
Read the latest WhitePaper – A Guide to Troubleshooting Application Problems

Ballmer’s words alone were a decent deal for Yahoo shareholders, who saw the stock rise $2.19 per share in just more than 60 minutes following the CEO’s remarks during his appearance at the Gartner Symposium in Florida. In the same time frame, Microsoft stock was up $2.10.

Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’ figures revealed – Music | thevine.com.au

Radiohead’s publishing company Warner Chappell is set to release the exact figures behind the ‘pay what you like’ model for In Rainbows.The band have been quiet on how many copies of the album they’d actually sold. The album was digitally released in October of 2007 and ever since the official response from management has been only that a “substantial” amount had been sold.

According to musically.com, Warner Chappell will reveal today that a total of three million copies of In Rainbows were offloaded, including box sets, CDs and all downloads including iTunes and pay-what-you-like downloads via the official site. Meaning that the venture was far a more successful release than previous albums Kid A, Amnesiac and Hail to the Thief, all of which instead sold in the low hundreds of thousands. In fact they made more money from In Rainbows on digital copies alone – before the CD even hit shops – than they did in total for previous album Hail To The Thief. And despite figures showing that more people downloaded it from BitTorrent search engines than bought it via legal means, the album has still gone on to shift 1.75 million copies of the physical release. Makes you feel a bit better about paying nothing?

The article states: “Really there seems little doubt that the experiment was a success fromboth Warner’s and the band’s perspective. For Warner it served to provea point that by licensing directly (ie outside the collecting societynetwork) and by offering a genuine one stop shop for licensing (iecombining all the digital rights into one offer from a single entity)the publisher was able to generate far more money for both themselvesand the band than would have been possible under the traditional system.”

MPAA to EFF on RealDVD lawsuit: you’re living in the past

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is firing back at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) over accusations that the organization is trying to limit innovation with its lawsuit over RealDVD. The MPAA said that the EFF’s claims are “disingenuous and wrongheaded,” and that Hollywood isn’t “living in the past” like the EFF apparently is.
Related Stories* Judge temporarily halts sales of RealDVD in wake of lawsuit

“Forgive us if we take offense when the EFF and other activist organizations that continually take the side of those who profit from widespread copyright infringement attack our industry,” wrote MPAA chief technology officer Jim Williams, according to a copy of the letter published by CNet. “It’s a desperate throwback to the Napster days of old when (EFF would) pull out this tired and weathered playbook. It’s not 2001 anymore. We’ve moved on. So should you.”

Report: Motorola planning to join the social with Android (Updated)

Motorola is no stranger to open mobile platforms. Being a founding member of the LiMo Foundation, the Symbian Foundation, and the Open Handset Alliance, we weren’t surprised when the company officially announced its plans earlier this month to introduce an Android phone. New rumors, however, say that the company is customizing the much-buzzed mobile OS to offer a “social smartphone.”
Related Stories* Motorola’s Linux strategy evolves with Android

As has become par for the course in the smartphone space, Motorola’s phone is said to have a large iPhone-like touchscreen, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and a focus on social networking, according to BusinessWeek. Motorola is said to have been shopping spec sheets and mockups to carriers around the world for the past couple of months. The Android phone is slated to land in the US sometime around the second quarter 2009, carrying expectations that it can help reenergize Motorola’s slumping handset division.

Hands on: Fennec alpha 1 puts Firefox on your handheld

Mozilla has announced the availability of the first Mobile Firefox alpha release. The project, which is codenamed Fennec, aims to bring the desktop Firefox browsing experience to mobile devices like MIDs and phone handsets. This early alpha release delivers a compelling user interface and demonstrates the impressive scope of the browser’s potential on diminutive devices, but suffers from performance limitations and instability that reflect the need for significant refinement before it’s mature enough for mainstream adoption.

RIAA now wants to avoid trial in innocent infringement case

The RIAA has apparently had a change of heart towards a Texas woman accused of sharing music over KaZaA when she was 16 years old. In Maverick v. Harper, the industry group has backed off its demand for a jury trial and has instead opted to accept a judge’s $7,400 damage award: $200 for each of 37 songs downloaded in whole or in part by the RIAA’s hired investigative gun, MediaSentry.
Related Stories* Judge: RIAA damages too high in innocent infringement case
* RIAA rejects damage award, forces trial, looks hypocritical
* Exonerated defendant sues RIAA for malicious prosecution
* Battle over attorneys fees’ brewing between RIAA, ex-defendant

Whitney Harper admits to using KaZaA, but said that she had no idea that it was illegal to download and share music over P2P. She cited a lack of warnings from the KaZaA software that the music contained on the popular network was “stolen or abused copyrighted material” and a general lack of understanding of copyright infringement, P2P applications, and P2P networks.

The week in Microsoft: Vista SP2, Silverlight 2, Windows 7

Related Stories* The week in Microsoft: I’m a PC, Windows Live and Windows 7, and Delish
* The week in Microsoft: boy band, US economy, and Windows 7
* The week in Microsoft: Windows XP, Live Search, Silverlight
* Journals week in review: news from One Microsoft Way

Vista SP2 and Server 2008 SP2: watch this space. Microsoft has put up a knowledge base article placeholder for Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2. Details are still scarce on the upcoming service pack, which may be released either in 2009 or 2010.

It’s official: Windows 7 to ship as… Windows 7. Codename Windows 7 will be called Windows 7 when it is released. I bet you had to do a double take on that one, but yes, it is true.

Final release of Windows 7 to have kernel version 6.1. Windows 7 will be shipping with kernel version number 6.1, despite the fact that the name implies it will be 7.0. Microsoft’s reasoning is that this will help with application compatibility.

Silverlight 2 lands for IE, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. Silverlight 2 RTW (Release to Web) has now arrived for both Windows and Mac. The new version supports IE, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. Opera and Konqueror support is still nowhere to be seen.

BBC NEWS | Health | Internet use ‘good for the brain’

For middle-aged and older people at least, using the internet helps boost brain power, research suggests.A University of California Los Angeles team found searching the web stimulated centres in the brain that controlled decision-making and complex reasoning.

The researchers say this might even help to counteract the age-related physiological changes that cause the brain to slow down.

Startup chipmaker hopes to hook enterprise with 1Gbps WiFi

Startup chipmaker Quantenna Communications says that it can push 1Gbps over regular WiFi without defying the laws of physics. This isn’t as hyped up as it sounds at first glance. The company’s initial goal is to cover houses with a combination of high bandwidth and mesh networking, making it possible to push multiple streams of video and data without glitches at slower rates—as fast as 100 to 200Mbps. Their future sights are set on the enterprise market where 1Gbps might mean something.

15 Linux Music Players – Download your Favorite

There are a lot of great music players out there for Windows and Mac operating systems but so does Linux. Some of these players support almost anything, some don’t. Some are heavy on the system, some aren’t. I’ve compiled a list of most used Linux based music/media/audio players

40 brilliant Gmail hints, hacks and secrets | News | TechRadar UK

Gmail goes from strength to strength as Google rolls out new features every few months.We’ve dug deep to bring you 40 top tips that’ll make you a Gmail super-user, with total control over every aspect of the service.

How to Improve Your iTunes Experience (Part 1) [Mac Only] | MakeUseOf.com

I love my music and everything else that goes along with it. I love the fact that in my iTunes, every song is properly labelled, is nicely arranged alphabetically by artist and have their particular album artwork attached in high resolution. It is so much easier to search for the songs you want when almost all the fields (i.e. genre, artist, album, year) are completed. Every little bit of information helps Genius to find the songs which match the ones you are listening to, creating a playlist which suits your current musical mood.I grimace when I browse though some of my friends’ playlists and most of the songs are labelled “Track 1, Track 2…. Untitled Artist”. They must have some kind of ESP or monumental memorizing ability to remember what track is by which artist.

Listening to music on iTunes can be more than simply “listening”. It can turn into a pretty interactive hobby which for me, has become an obsession. A fairly rewarding one, at least. Here’s how you can convert from mere music-listening to actively interacting and expanding your music experience. In this part 1, I’ll show you how to enjoy your current music collection.

Record Label ‘Infringes’ Own Copyright, Site Pulled | TorrentFreak

The website of a record label which offers completely free music downloads has been taken down by its host for copyright infringement, even though it only offers its own music. Quote Unquote Records calls itself “The First Ever Donation Based Record Label”, but is currently homeless after its host pulled the plug.QuoteUnquoteQuote Unquote Records is an Internet based record label, run by Bomb the Music Industry! and ‘The Arrogant Sons of Bitches’ frontman Jeff Rosenstock. A forward looking outfit, all artists on the label give their music away for free on the label’s website. Well, they would, if the webhost hadn’t have taken down the site for alleged copyright infringement

TECH SOURCE FROM BOHOL: From Evil to Good: List of Formerly Closed-source Software

Increasing number of software applications are going the free/open-source way these days. Looks like more and more software companies and developers have seen the barriers of closed-source programs and have now fully realized the significance of freedom.Here are some of the most notable software packages which were published under a proprietary software license but later released as free and open source software. Note that some software from this list are still published commercially alongside their free and open-source version.

Adobe Flex
Adobe Flex is a collection of technologies released by Adobe Systems for the development and deployment of cross platform, rich Internet applications based on the proprietary Adobe Flash platform. The initial release in March 2004 by Macromedia included a software development kit, an IDE, and a J2EE integration application known as Flex Data Services.

Adobe Flex was relicensed in 2007 under Mozilla Public License.

Apache Derby
Apache Derby is a Java relational database management system that can be embedded in Java programs and used for online transaction processing. It has a 2 MB disk-space footprint.

It was released as free and open-source software by IBM in 2004 and donated to the Apache Software Foundation.

Bitstream Vera
Bitstream Vera is a typeface (font) with a liberal license. It was designed by Jim Lyles from Bitstream, and is closely based on Bitstream’s Prima, for which Lyles was also responsible. It is a TrueType font with full hinting instructions, which improve its rendering quality on low-resolution devices such as computer monitors. The font has also been repackaged as a Type 1 PostScript font for LaTeX users, and is called Bera.

It was relicensed in 2003 through the efforts of Bitstream and the GNOME Foundation.

Blender
Blender is a 3D animation program which can be used for modeling, UV unwrapping, texturing, rigging, skinning, animating, rendering, particle and other simulations, non-linear editing, compositing, and creating interactive 3D applications.

Released in 1996 as proprietary, it was relicensed under GNU General Public License (GPL) in 2003.

Duke Nukem
Duke Nukem 3D is a first-person shooter computer game developed by 3D Realms and published by Apogee Software. It was released on January 29, 1996. Duke Nukem 3D features the adventures of Duke Nukem, a character that had previously appeared in the platform games Duke Nukem and Duke Nukem II which were also published by Apogee.

Duke Nukem 3D was relicensed under GPL in 2003.

Doom
Doom is a 1993 computer game by id Software that is a landmark title in the first-person shooter genre, and in first person gaming in general. It is widely recognized for pioneering immersive 3D graphics, networked multiplayer gaming on the PC platform, and support for custom expansions (WADs).

Doom’s source code was originally released under a restrictive license in 1997, but was later relicensed under GPL in 1999.

Netscape Navigator
Netscape Navigator, also known as Netscape, was once a proprietary web browser that was popular during the 1990s. Once the flagship product of Netscape Communications Corporation and the dominant browser in usage share, its user base had almost completely evaporated by 2002, partly due to the inclusion of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer web browser with the Windows operating system, but also due to lack of significant innovation after the late 1990s.

Netscape Navigator was later open-sourced in 1998 under Mozilla Public License.

id Tech
id Tech 2 and id Tech 3, formerly known as Quake II engine and Quake III Arena are game engines developed by id Software for use in their games, most notably the first-person shooter game Quake . Since its release, id Tech has been licensed for use in several other games.

id Tech 2 and id Tech 3 were relicensed in 2001 and 2005 respectively. They are both under GNU General Public License.

Java
Java is a programming language originally developed by Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun’s Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities. Java applications are typically compiled to bytecode which can run on any Java virtual machine (JVM) regardless of computer architecture.

On 13 November 2006, Sun Microsystems released much of Java as free software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). On 8 May 2007 Sun finished the process, making all of Java’s core code free and open source, aside from a small portion of code to which Sun did not hold the copyright.

Movable Type
Movable Type is a weblog publishing system developed by the company Six Apart. It was publicly announced on 3 September 2001, and version 1.0 was publicly released on 8 October 2001.

On 12 December 2007, Movable Type was relicensed as free software, under the GNU General Public License.

Qt
Qt is a cross-platform application development framework, widely used for the development of GUI programs (in which case it is known as a Widget toolkit), and also used for developing non-GUI programs such as console tools and servers. Qt is most notably used in KDE, the web browser Opera, Google Earth, Skype, Qtopia, Photoshop Elements and OPIE.

Released in 1991, Qt was relicensed in 1999 under Q Public License (QPL).

Open Sound System
The Open Sound System (OSS) is a standard interface for making and capturing sound in Unix operating systems. It is based on standard Unix devices. The term also refers sometimes to the software in a Unix kernel that provides the OSS interface; in that sense it can be thought of as a device driver or collection of device drivers for sound controller hardware. The goal of OSS is to allow one to write a sound-based application program that works with any sound controller hardware, even though the hardware interface varies greatly from one type to another.

In July 2007, 4Front Technologies released sources for OSS under Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) for OpenSolaris and GPL for Linux. In January 2008, 4Front Technologies released OSS for FreeBSD (and other BSD systems) under BSD License.

Second Life
Second Life (abbreviated as SL) is an Internet-based virtual world launched in 2003, developed by Linden Research, Inc (commonly referred to as Linden Lab), which came to international attention via mainstream news media in late 2006 and early 2007.[4][5] A downloadable client program called the Second Life Viewer enables its users, called “Residents”, to interact with each other through motional avatars, providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse. Residents can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items (virtual property) and services from one another.

Second Life started as proprietary software in 2003, but was relicensed under GPL v2 in 2007.

SimCity
SimCity is a city-building simulation game, first released in 1989 and designed by Will Wright. SimCity was Maxis’ first product, which has since been ported into various personal computers and game consoles, and enhanced into several different versions including SimCity 2000 in 1993, SimCity 3000 in 1999, SimCity 4 in 2003, and SimCity DS & SimCity Societies in 2007. The original SimCity was later renamed SimCity Classic. Until the release of The Sims in 2000, the SimCity series was the best-selling line of computer games made by Maxis.

On January 10 2008 the SimCity source code was released under the free software GPL 3 license. The release of the source code was related to the donation of SimCity software to the One Laptop Per Child laptop, as one of the principles of the OLPC laptop is the use of free and open source software.

Solaris
The Solaris Operating System, usually known simply as Solaris, is a free Unix-based operating system introduced by Sun Microsystems in 1992 as the successor to SunOS.

Solaris is certified against the Single Unix Specification. Although it was historically developed as proprietary software, a majority of its codebase is now open source software as OpenSolaris.

Watcom C compiler
The Watcom C/C++ compiler is esteemed amongst DOS developers by the high execution speed of the compiled code it produces and for having been one of the first compilers to support the Intel 80386 “protected mode”. In the mid-1990s, some of the most technically ambitious DOS games such as Doom and Duke Nukem 3D were built using Watcom C.

The Free version was released as OpenWatcom in 2003.

TechBlog: T-Mobile’s G1 with Google is no iPhone – but it’s close

Having been an iPhone 3G owner since July, I was prepared to not be too impressed with the T-Mobile G1, the very first mobile phone to use Google’s Android software as its operating system. The photos from its unveiling made it look big and clunky, and screen shots of the software seemed almost cartoonish in design.But as a product manager for T-Mobile admitted to me, the G1 “doesn’t photograph well”. It’s a lot more exciting in person — it’s sleeker than you think, and the software is quite impressive for an initial version. No, neither the hardware nor the software are as elegant as that of the iPhone, but the G1 is a close runner-up. Of the smartphones out there, it’s the closest contender yet.

I’ve been using a review unit for about a week, long enough to find both things I like and things I think need fixing. The best news about the G1 is that not only can T-Mobile fix its flaws, so can any other skilled programmer.

That’s because, like the iPhone, the G1 has a place you can go to download new applications for it. The G1 Market, like the iTunes App Store, is increasingly full of useful programs. But unlike the App Store, there’s no gatekeeper for the applications. Anyone can write a program and add it to the Market.

What this means is that, yes, quality is going to vary wildly. But G1 users will be able to rate and review apps, and it should become quickly apparent when a program is junk. This open system also means that features that are missing or don’t work well could be overcome by downloadable applications.

25 essential Firefox add-ons for power users | News | TechRadar UK

A bare copy of Firefox is a wonderful thing, but when you start stuffing it with add-ons it gets even better.So what are the best add-ons for power users? Here’s our top 25:

Featured Download: LastPass Adds Form Filler, Syncs Form Profiles and Passwords

Windows/Mac/Linux: Previously mentioned Firefox extension and Internet Explorer plugin LastPass has updated, adding an automatic form filler to help you save more time filling out forms on the web. We’ve been on a bit of a password syncing kick lately, what with Foxmarks adding support for password syncing and our own guide to syncing passwords with Dropbox, but LastPass’ seamless browser integration for syncing both passwords and forms could attract a lot of people. After all, these useful features earned LastPass its honorable mention in our Hive Five Best Password Managers less than a week after we covered it. LastPass is a free download, works anywhere Firefox and IE do.

Featured Firefox Extension: Foxmarks Updates, Adds Password Syncing

Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): Popular bookmark-syncing Firefox extension Foxmarks has expanded to support password syncing between your browsers. Many of you have been looking for a good way to sync your passwords since Google discontinued Browser Sync, and now Foxmarks is filling that very need. We told you Foxmarks had been testing password sync a few weeks ago, and now the latest version of the extension bears the fruits of that labor. Once you’ve updated, syncing your passwords is as simple as ticking the checkbox next to Passwords in the Sync tab of the Foxmarks preferences. You’ll need to set a pin to secure your passwords (Foxmarks uses AES 256-bit encryption), but Foxmarks takes care of the rest. It’s not as comprehensive as syncing your passwords with Dropbox and KeePass or 1Password since Foxmarks only syncs browser passwords, but if that’s all you need, this one’s a winner.

Byte Into It – 15 Oct 08

Interview with Jeff Waugh.

Jeff Waugh:
http://bethesignal.org/

http://www.olpc.org.au/
**
News:
OzPoliCon 2008: Australia’s politico bloggers and online activists
conference
http://www.australianpoliticstv.com/ozpolicon08

Blog Action Day 2008
http://www.blogactionday.org/

The Learn About Poverty Blog Action Day Competition
http://learnaboutpoverty.org/2008/10/09/blog-action-day-competition/

Lawrence Lessig: In defense of piracy
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB122367645363324303.html

Google Operating System: How to start a linked YouTube video at a specific
point
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/10/embed-part-of-youtube-video.html<http://www.lifehacker.com.au/tips/2008/10/13/start_a_linked_youtube_video_at_a_specific_point.html>

Russian researchers achieve 100-fold increase in WPA2 cracking speed – Security and the Net

Russian security company Elcomsoft just posted a press release (original PDF) detailing a new method to crack WPA and WPA2 keys:

With the latest version of Elcomsoft Distributed Password Recovery, it is now possible to crack WPA and WPA2 protection on Wi-Fi networks up to 100 times quicker with the use of massively parallel computational power of the newest NVIDIA chips. Elcomsoft Distributed Password Recovery only needs a few packets intercepted in order to perform the attack.

The 100-fold increase in speed is achieved with two GeForct GTX280’s per workstation; for €599 you can build a network of 20 workstations dedicated to “recovering” your “lost” WPA keys. This means that a WPA or WPA2 key could be cracked in days or weeks instead of years.

Slashdot | Bugs Delay Release of Debian Lenny

over 200 release-critical bugs continue to push back Debian Lenny’s release date. Originally slated for a September release, there is still a long road to be traveled before Lenny sees the light of day. Project leader Steve McIntyre says they may consider dropping some packages for the release if they continue to cause problems, and while an end of October release is the goal, only time will tell.

Screenshots of Firefox Mobile for Windows Mobile Finally Surface – ReadWriteWeb

Firefox Mobile looks to be coming to a Windows Mobile device near you very soon. With a reported Acid3 Test score of 88/100, the mobile web browser looks nearly complete in the screenshots that have surfaced. The address bar is reminiscent of Safari on the iPhone. However, it takes a visual cue from Firefox 3 with the addition of website favicons. Screenshots also show a really unique way for web surfers to visualize what tabs are open in Firefox Mobile. Mozilla may be foregoing traditional ‘forward’, ’stop’, and ‘back’ buttons located in the address bar. Instead, the screenshots show on-page text boxes that indicate these actions.

Digg – Why OpenOffice 3.0 Just Became An Even Better Alternative

OpenOffice.org is a free, open-source office suite that’s a serious alternative to pricey products such as Microsoft Office. It strikes me as a no-brainer to at least try it when you’re in the market for an updated productivity suite, because it costs you nothing but your time. OpenOffice 3.0 is a significant upgrade and, again, is completely free.

What’s Next After Web 2.0 – ReadWriteWeb

e’re clearly now at a point where the financial problems of the world will have a big impact on where Web Technology is headed. Indeed, it looks like we’ve arrived at one of those giant inflexion points – where one Web era is usurped by another.

Of course this last happened when Web 2.0 was coined by O’Reilly Media in about 2004. Luckily not long before that ReadWriteWeb was born (early 2003). So ReadWriteWeb has been documenting Web 2.0 ever since. Over the past couple of years, we’ve been focusing on other, perhaps more meaningful, trends – Semantic Web, recommendation technologies, web sites becoming web services, Mobile Web and more. We’ve documented these meta trends in a number of big posts, some of which are in our Best of ReadWriteWeb page and copied here:

* Web Technology Trends for 2008 and Beyond
* What’s Next on the Web: a ReadWriteWeb Toolkit for 2008
* 2008 Web Predictions
* 10 Future Web Trends
* 10 More Future Web Trends

Slashdot | Microsoft’s New Programming Language, “M”

“Microsoft announced Friday their new ‘M’ language, designed especially for building textual domain-specific languages and software models with XAML. Microsoft will also announce Quadrant, for building and viewing models visually, and a repository for storing and combining models using a SQL Server database. While some say the language is simply their ‘D’ language renamed to a further letter down the alphabet, the language is criticized for lack of a promised cross-platform function because of its ties to MS SQL server, which only runs on Windows.”

Digg – 52 Things To Do With Google

You can do a lot more than search the web with Google nowadays, from reading newspapers in languages you don’t speak to seeing the natural habitat of Komodo dragons.

Artists See a Future With BitTorrent | TorrentFreak

Giving away music for free might not sound like a very solid business model to most people, but it is. Most artists make most money from concerts and merchandise, not so much album sales. Even more so, the key to success are the fans, and what better way to introduce people to your music by giving it away for free?

A whole new generation of artists, most of who grew up with Napster, Limewire and BitTorrent, are starting to utilize the power of filesharing networks. This year alone, thousands of albums were released online for free, and this number is growing at an increasing rate. The possibilities are endless. Some artists use sites like Jamendo, others go for mainstream BitTorrent sites like The Pirate Bay and Mininova, and yet another group prefers niche BitTorrent communities such as What.cd.

On What.cd, one of the larger music communities with over 60,000 members, artists have found a particularly successful outlet. In fact, the free albums are particularly popular, and often among the most downloaded. The music minded members, of which quite a few are artists themselves, are very appreciative of every new album. This August a compilation CD was released with tracks from 19 artists who uploaded their music to the site. This CD, titled “The What CD” is the most active torrent of all time on the tracker.

Linux Summit will preview new advanced file system

The problem with contemporary file systems, Ts’o said, is that — following Moore’s Law — file sizes have grown bigger, and disk drives have doubled in capacity every couple of years. While the file system error rate per megabyte has remained constant, the increase in volume has created performance and quality control problems for large data centers, which find data more difficult to manage, he said.

In addition, data centers today want to be able to do things they didn’t dream of in the 1970s, like merge data from multiple hard drives, Ts’o said. Another challenge is the switch from conventional hard drives to solid-state disks, which use less power and retrieve data at a uniform rate irrespective of location but have lower overall performance than hard drives, he said. So file systems today need to be adaptable to the hardware people want to use and how they actually use it, he said.

But changing the file system to fix the scalability and functional limitations of ext3, the default file system in many popular Linux distributions, requires a significant education outreach. Because the consequences of data loss are so severe, data center managers are reluctant to trust their data to new file systems, Ts’o said. New-system information needs to be shared well ahead of time, including a roadmap of coming features so IT professionals know what to expect, he said. That’s where the Linux Foundation’s event hopes to make inroads.

Microsoft Patch Tuesday for October 2008: 11 bulletins

Microsoft will issue four Security Bulletins on Tuesday, and it will host a webcast to address customer questions on these bulletins the following day (October 15 at 11:00 AM PDT, if you’re interested). Four of the vulnerabilities are marked as “Critical,” six are rated “Important,” and one is considered to be “Moderate.” The first four earned the rating through a remote code execution impact, meaning a hacker could potentially gain control of an infected machine. Eight of the 11 updates will require a restart.

New Zealand’s copyright minister starts screaming when asked whether it’s fair to cut people off from the Internet on the basis of three unsubstantiated accusations of copyright infringement – Boing Boing

When we suggested that natural justice would imply that it was unreasonable to withdraw Internet access based on an accusation, she reiterated her position that something had to be done and that ISPs had to do it. ISPs, she said, need to negotiate with the licence holders to put in a regime to prevent copyright infringements. The licence holders’ associations had assured her that they would not be unreasonable.

In response to being told that it is technically impossible for ISPs to tell what people are doing, Judith said that it had been done for child pornography and that ISPs need to apply the same standards. It was pointed out that the state defines objectionable material, possession of which is a crime, but there’s no equivalent definition for copyright, infringement of which is a civil matter to be determined by courts.

Of all the unreasonable and awful proposals to come out of the entertainment industry, none is so bad as the three-strikes rule, a rule that would leave everyday people vulnerable to having the connection that brings them freedom of speech, of assembly and the press, the link that connects them to family, school, work and government, terminated because someone, somewhere made three accusations of copyright infringement, without having to offer a shred of evidence.

WalMart now says they’ll keep the DRM servers on forever – Boing Boing

After announcing that they’d be shutting off their DRM servers and nuking their customers’ music collections, Wal*Mart has changed their mind. Now they’ve told their customers that they’ll be keeping these servers online indefinitely — which means that they’ll be paying forever for their mistaken kowtowing to the entertainment industry’s DRM mania.

All those companies (cough Amazon cough Apple cough) that say they’re only doing DRM for now, until they can convince the stupid entertainment execs to ditch it, heed this lesson: you will spend the rest of your corporate life paying for this mistake, maintaining infrastructure whose sole purpose is to lock your customers into a technology restriction that no one really believes in. Welcome to the infinite cost of doing business with Hollywood.

Entertainment industry made up $250 billion/750,000 jobs losses due to piracy – Boing Boing

With Customs a dead end, we dove into press archives, hoping to find the earliest public mention of the elusive 750,000 jobs number. And we found it in—this is not a typo—1986. Yes, back in the days when “Papa Don’t Preach” and “You Give Love a Bad Name” topped the charts, The Christian Science Monitor quoted then-Commerce Secretary Malcom Baldridge, trumpeting Ronald Reagan’s own precursor to the recently passed PRO-IP bill. Baldridge estimated the number of jobs lost to the counterfeiting of U.S. goods at “anywhere from 130,000 to 750,000.”

Where did that preposterously broad range come from? As with the number of licks needed to denude a Tootsie Pop, the world may never know. Ars submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Commerce this summer, hoping to uncover the basis of Baldridge’s claim—or any other Commerce Department estimates of job losses to piracy—but came up empty. So whatever marvelous proof the late secretary discovered was not to be found in the margins of any document in the government’s vaults. But no matter: By 1987, that Brobdignagian statistical span had been reduced, as far as the press were concerned, to “as many as 750,000″ jobs. Subsequent reportage dropped the qualifier. The 750,000 figure was still being bandied about this summer in support of the aforementioned PRO-IP bill…

XKCD strip explains how DRM creates piracy – Boing Boing

XKCD strip explains how DRM creates piracy

BBC NEWS | Technology | Firefox users gain location tool

Mozilla, the company behind the Firefox browser, has released technology that helps websites detect the physical location of computers.

The system will allow users, for instance, to find local restaurants when they travel to a new town.

The Geode project is an experimental add-on ahead of a full blown launch of geolocation technology in version 3.1 of Firefox.

Users will have control over how much location information they give.

It uses technology from a firm called Skyhook which works out a computer’s location from nearby wireless networks.

Its so-called Loki system can determine location within seconds with an accuracy of about 10 to 20 metres.

YouTube fumbles remote with full-length TV shows

As part of YouTube’s ongoing effort to make some money, the site has begun testing full-length TV episodes. For YouTube, a video portal built almost entirely on user-generated content (UGC), this is another important step into a realm where Big Content giants stomp about and offer their magic beans only to the worthy. But the move also betrays just how much more work YouTube needs to do; offering a bit of Sulu won’t be enough to best Hulu.
Related Stories

* Rumors fly about Google acquisition of YouTube
* Google buys YouTube
* YouTube’s future (or lack thereof)

During this test run, YouTube features a handful of complete episodes from four TV shows: Beverly Hills 90210, MacGyver, Star Trek: The Original Series, and The Young and The Restless. Shows can be displayed in the typical YouTube video player or broken out in a new “Theater View” that widens the player horizontally, knocks most other elements down the page, and “dims the lights” on the rest of the page (save for a banner ad just above the video). Various pre-, mid-, and post-roll ads are placed in an episode’s typical TV commercial spots, and the timeline controls dim during ads so that they cannot be paused, skipped, or muted.

OpenOffice 3.0 released amid fears of development stagnation

As the OOo project increases in relevance, some friction has emerged between the growing number of stakeholders with different agendas. Allegations continually emerge that Sun’s management of the project is impeding acceptance of some third-party code contributions and is deterring additional corporate involvement. Novell’s Michael Meeks, a very active OpenOffice.org developer and a frequent critic of Sun, expressed some new concerns last week in anticipation of the release.

Novell maintains an OOo patchset which includes a number of changes that developers haven’t been able to push upstream to Sun’s version for a variety of reasons. Many of these patches maintained by Novell provide important features that are valuable to Linux users, including support for embedded multimedia via GStreamer, faster startup time, improved Excel interoperability, support for 3D slide transitions in Impress, and support for Mono-based automation and scripting. Many mainstream desktop Linux distributions now package Novell’s version instead of the one from Sun, because of these improvements.

Sun’s process for vetting new features is often viewed as excessively bureaucratic by third-party contributors and some are also concerned about Sun’s copyright assignment requirements. Novell’s patchset ensures that the improvements made by users who are unwilling to accommodate Sun’s procedural requirements will eventually reach users and don’t just languish indefinitely in the bug report system. Sun has responded to concerns from the third-party developer community by improving the contributor agreement and making an effort to act on community feedback. Critics, however, argue that Sun needs to turn over control to an independent foundation so that contributors will not have to assign copyright directly to Sun.

EU reminds us to lose the distraction, turn the volume down

The European Commission, concerned about the fate of all those Parisian teens drowning out the noise of le Metro with bad techno, asked the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks to look at the issue of personal music players and hearing loss. That report, released today, concludes that headphones “produce minimal risk of hearing impairment for the majority of PMP [personal music player] users.”

But the players aren’t without risk, The combination of duration and high volume is a toxic one, and it has long been recognized in industrial settings that noise can damage people’s hearings. The EU therefore says that factories cannot expose workers to noise above 80dB(A) for more than 40 hours a week. And each additional 3dB(A) of volume increase means that the duration has to be cut in half; at 83dB(A), workers can only be exposed for 20 hours a week.

With earbuds capable of pumping out maximum volume levels of 80-115dB(A), it’s clear that people need to be careful with their music. At 115dB(A), the limit is a mere half a minute.

Few people listen this loudly, but the EU does find that 5-10 percent of PMP users “are at high risk of developing permanent hearing loss after five or more years of exposure. Those are the individuals listening to music over one hour a day at high volume control setting [sic].”

The results of taking Spinal Tap’s advice, turning it up to 11
(Table based on WHO data)

These aren’t epidemic-type numbers, but the report does go on to point out that hearing loss isn’t the only side effect of noise exposure. Reading acquisition, for instance, is affected in children. Almost 20 studies have found that chronic noise exposure leads to delayed reading skills in kids, and “there are no contradictory findings.” Noise (airplanes overhead, loud motorways) may also lead to decreased performance in school, less motivation to achieve, and even higher blood pressure.

But, for my purposes as a writer, the most interesting result is buried in a brief paragraph on page 56. “The more boring, repetitive, and simple a task is, the more will it benefit, both in quality and quantity, from being performed in noise (Kryter 1994). On the other hand, the more complex and difficult a task is, the more it is prone to be hampered by excessive sounds.”

BBC blames Apple DRM for holding up iPlayer downloads

The BBC gas updated its iPlayer offerins once again, adding the ability to download TV shows for viewing on portable media players. Unfortunately, the BBC is using Windows Media DRM for the content, meaning that iPod and iPhone owners are still out of luck. The BBC’s Online Media Group head, Anthony Rose, even made a comment about the situation, chiding Apple for keeping its DRM under lock and key rather than licensing it.

The BBC has had to work around the iPhone’s lack of DRM support before, although the result was somewhat less than ideal. In this case, it seems that there’s a restriction preventing the BBC from offering DRM-free downloads, so we’re not going to see a similar concession this time. Rose claims that the issue has the BBC’s “full attention,” since the inability of iPod owners to download the iPlayer content is a pretty big omission. The BBC is a large organization, so it might be able to work out some sort of deal with Apple that would let the content work on iPods. Or it might not.

Additionally, the TV downloads only work through Windows for the time being. iPlayer uses a method called “sideloading” (downloading and then copying) to get content on to media players, therefore it still requires a computer that works with the Windows Media Protected content. Because of this, neither OS X nor Linux can be used to download the TV shows at the moment, although the BBC has a release coming “very soon” that will improve iPlayer options for users of those two operating systems. Whether that means TV downloads on the Mac is anyone’s guess, but I’m betting that the answer is “no.”

Asustek to introduce Eee motherboards – TechSpot News

Asustek’s success with the Eee has led them to expand the line in numerous fashions, from creating desktop PC versions to making higher-power ultra slim versions available.

Now, Asustek is planning to expand the Eee line even further, with the introduction of Asustek Eee motherboards. No system specifications are available yet, but it’s easy to imagine that the boards would be similar in spec to existing Eee hardware. It’ll be interesting to see where they intend to compete with this board. They will most likely go up against the Atom and Pico-ITX platform.

Future Eee projects include potential touch screen units and more. What was just a short while ago nothing more than a cheap laptop has turned into an entire portfolio of hardware.

Windows 7 to be officially named… Windows 7 – TechSpot News

As the Professional Developers Conference approaches, Microsoft plans not only to discuss their currently code-named Windows 7 product but also to distribute a pre-beta version among attendees. Many have been wondering what the official name will be once the next release of Windows hits the streets.

In a quick announcement today on the company’s Windows Vista Team Blog, Mike Nash, the corporate vice president of Windows product management revealed what some already suspected: Windows 7 will be officially called… Windows 7. He went on to explain that the company opted to keep the ‘7′ name for simplicity – as this is the seventh release of Windows – and because Microsoft doesn’t want to come up with a new “aspirational” name that simply wouldn’t do justice to their goal of staying firmly rooted in the ideas of Vista while evolving and refining the operating system.

MacBook Pro updated: now sports integrated and discrete GPU

While the MacBook Pros have been made out of aluminum since their inception, the manufacturing process has changed in this carnation of Apple’s high-end laptop. The machines are now being made using the company’s new unibody manufacturing technique, which involves using a solid piece of aluminum and then removing chunks, rather than joining what would have been multiple parts together and then welding. Also new to the exterior is the iMac-inspired black bezel surrounding the screen. Speaking of the screen, the resolution nor the size have changed; however, you now have no choice in screen finish: you will be buying a LED-backlit glossy model if you want to sport a new MacBook Pro. Also immediately apparent is the buttonless, glass, multi-touch trackpad.Unlike the MacBooks, the MacBook Pro line did not see a brand change in GPU as the Pro was already using NVIDIA chipsets. What it did see is kind of an unusual turn that I’m not sure anyone saw coming: the new line has both integrated and discrete graphics processors. Under normal use, the portables will use NVIDIA’s GeForce 9400M integrated (read: shared) processor with 256MB of RAM, but when needed, it can be ramped up to the discrete GeForce 9600M GT with either 256MB of memory on the low end and 512MB on the highend. The reason for this departure from the norm seems to be battery life. Apple claims that while using the 9400M, users can see up to a full hour more of battery-powered use.

Byte Into It – 08 Oct 08

Mozilla CEO John Lilly: Firefox Mobile Alphas coming “in a few weeks” » Unwired View

Mozilla CEO John Lilly: Firefox Mobile Alphas coming “in a few weeks”

In an interview that started with Mozilla CEO John Lilly explaining how he runs the company to San Jose Mercury News reporter Pete Carey, it was revealed that the first Firefox Mobile alphas could be released in “a few weeks.”

Pictured: The amazing bendy TV screen that folds up to fit in your pocket | Mail Online

Bendy screen

In operation: A snapshot of the running all-organic 2D-display

Traditional flat-screen televisions could soon become a thing of the past, as scientists have revealed an ultra-thin, flexible screen that could fold up and fit in your pocket.

The bendy screens – less than a millimetre thick – could be used for televisions, computers and phones, and may pave the way for easy-to-carry digital newspaper displays, which readers could upload their news on to daily.

Some speculate that the technology could even lead to wearable TV jackets, flexible laptop screens, and TV blankets.

Google contributes more code to WINE

With the recent release of Picasa 3 Beta for Linux, Google has contributed more code to the WINE project.

WINE is an Open Source implementation of the Windows API on top of Linux (and other Unix-like operating systems). It can be thought of as a compatibility layer for running Windows programs on Linux. WINE does not require Microsoft Windows, as it is a completely free alternative implementation of the Windows API consisting of 100% non-Microsoft code. With WINE you can run such programs as Microsoft Office and games like Counter Strike on your Linux machine.

Another popular application is Adobe’s Photoshop CS2 and here Google has been very active.

In January 2006, Google (working with CodeWeavers the commerical arm of the WINE project) improved WINE so Picasa 2.2 would run. This effort resulted in 225 patches committed to the WINE project.

Their work continued in 2007, committing a few dozen patches and they also worked again with CodeWeavers to improve Wine so it could run Photoshop CS2 properly. As a result, about 200 patches were committed to the WINE project.

Torvalds talks about his brand new blog | NetworkWorld.com Community

We tend to think that everybody who’s anybody in the tech world has a blog, right? Well, Linus Torvalds didn’t have a blog, at least not until dipping his toe into the waters with this one — “Linus’ Blog” — which launched last Thursday.

Linus TorvaldsThere’s not a lot there yet — three posts — and Torvalds tells me that he sees the undertaking as an experimental outlet for personal thoughts and family expressions. However, with the Torvalds name being practically synonymous with Linux, people are already beginning to take notice.

Australian ISPs offer US advice, smugness, on net neutrality

For years, US Internet service providers have been offering their users unlimited access to the web, creating high expectations among customers who have never had to think before accessing content. As that content has shifted from text to music to video, however, ISPs have found that living up to the promise of “all-you-can-eat” broadband can be expensive in a nation of gluttons.

One symptom of this problem is the industry’s opposition to net neutrality, which would prevent ISPs from profiting on specific services or content, or degrading and blocking others. In the midst of this fight, the executives of several ISPs in Australia have weighed in, suggesting that they’ve solved this problem already and that their US counterparts should pay attention to their model.

Wal*Mart shutting down DRM server, nuking your music collection — only people who pay for music risk losing it to DRM shenanigans – Boing Boing

Hey suckers! Did you buy DRM music from Wal*Mart instead of downloading MP3s for free from the P2P networks? Well, they’re repaying your honesty by taking away your music. Unless you go through a bunch of hoops (that you may never find out about, if you’ve changed email addresses or if you’re not a very technical person), your music will no longer be playable after October 9th.

But don’t worry, this will never ever happen to all those other DRM companies — unlike little fly-by-night mom-and-pop operations like Wal*Mart, the DRM companies are rock-ribbed veterans of commerce and industry, sure to be here for a thousand years. So go on buying your Audible books, your iTunes DRM songs, your Zune media, your EA games… None of these companies will ever disappear, nor will the third-party DRM suppliers they use. They are as solid and permanent as Commodore, Atari, the Soviet Union, the American credit system and the Roman Empire.

Boy, the entertainment industry sure makes a good case for ripping them off, huh? Buy your media and risk having it confiscated by a DRM-server shutdown. Take it for free and keep it forever.

MPAA spokeslawyers insist that they not be identified by name in reports from press-conference – Boing Boing

The MPAA is suing RealNetworks for making a product that will rip a DVD, crap it up with DRM, and store it on your hard-drive. The MPAA says that only their stupid DRM, and not RealNetworks’ stupid DRM, can be used to cripple DVDs. My take? A pox on both their houses.

Except this:

Lawyers for the MPAA, in a teleconference with reporters, said Kaleidesape and RealDVD are circumventing “technology designed to prevent copying.”

The lawyers, who asked that their names not be published, said they were concerned “Consumers will think this is a legal product…when in fact it is totally illegal.”

US Customs: Sketching an SUV makes you a copyright infringer – Boing Boing

“A woman stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the border, over a drawing of an SUV in her notebook. They thought the artist and college professor was an industrial spy and copyright infringer.”

IFPI Loses Another P2P ‘Wireless Defense’ Case | TorrentFreak

A man accused of being a music pirate has been cleared by a Danish court. The man denied the claims of the IFPI, based on his assertion that someone else must have accessed his wireless router to commit the infringements. This is the second major defeat for the IFPI in Denmark over the so-called ‘wireless defense’.

The music industry anti-piracy lobby IFPI has taken a severe beating in Denmark recently. In September the major Danish ISPs issued a joint statement rejecting the IFPI’s demands for a ‘3 strikes’ agreement aimed at ultimately disconnecting alleged pirates from the Internet, labeling it as a “contravention of the law”. However, the defeats don’t end there.

The IFPI also accused two Danish women of being Internet pirates, after they claimed to have monitored illicit file-sharing activities on an IP address registered to one of them. The IFPI demanded $62,000 in compensation from the pair, stating that even if their Wi-Fi had been used without their knowledge, they are ultimately responsible for what happens on their Internet connection. Eventually a court ruled in favor of the women and acquitted them of all charges, much to the displeasure of the IFPI.

Data-mining sucks: official report – Boing Boing

A multi-year National Research Council review of data-mining as a means of discovering terrorists has concluded that this just doesn’t work very well, and that it ends up harming and harassing — and terrorizing — innocents whose only crime is to have a profile that some database-designer thinks is hinky.

The report was written by a committee whose members include William Perry, a professor at Stanford University; Charles Vest, the former president of MIT; W. Earl Boebert, a retired senior scientist at Sandia National Laboratories; Cynthia Dwork of Microsoft Research; R. Gil Kerlikowske, Seattle’s police chief; and Daryl Pregibon, a research scientist at Google.

They admit that far more Americans live their lives online, using everything from VoIP phones to Facebook to RFID tags in automobiles, than a decade ago, and the databases created by those activities are tempting targets for federal agencies. And they draw a distinction between subject-based data mining (starting with one individual and looking for connections) compared with pattern-based data mining (looking for anomalous activities that could show illegal activities).

But the authors conclude the type of data mining that government bureaucrats would like to do–perhaps inspired by watching too many episodes of the Fox series 24–can’t work. “If it were possible to automatically find the digital tracks of terrorists and automatically monitor only the communications of terrorists, public policy choices in this domain would be much simpler. But it is not possible to do so.”

Michael Moore on Slacker Uprising’s Piracy ‘Problem’ | TorrentFreak

Michael Moore decided to give away his latest film ‘Slacker Uprising’ for free, but only to people in the US and Canada. However, since he chose to use BitTorrent, and open trackers such as The Pirate Bay, it was fairly easy for the rest of the world to download it as well. Was this done on purpose? Moore respond

Ballmer denies involvement in Vista Capable – Software – iTnews Australia

n a written deposition to court Steve Ballmer has denied all knowledge of the Vista Capable marketing program that resulted in a class action suit against his company.

The prosecution had been hoping to get Ballmer on the stand to justify the program but this now seems unlikely in light of his written statement.

In his deposition Ballmer said he was kept informed on the campaign by Jim Allchin, Microsoft’s retired co-president for platforms, products and services, and Will Poole, the former senior vice president for Windows client business, who has since left the company.

“I was not involved in establishing the requirements computers must satisfy to qualify for the Windows Vista Capable program,” the deposition reads.

BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Computer game boosts maths scores

A daily dose of computer games can boost maths attainment, according to a study carried out in Scottish schools.

Learning and Teaching Scotland – the main organisation for the development of the curriculum – analysed the effect of a “brain training” game.

It also found improvements in pupils’ concentration and behaviour.

The study involved more than 600 pupils in 32 schools across Scotland using the Brain Training from Dr Kawashima game on the Nintendo DS every day.

BBC NEWS | UK | Education | Oxbridge lectures play on iTunes

Oxford and Cambridge University are to make lectures by leading academics available through iTunes.

Cambridge says it will bring the work of its Nobel prize-winning academics in reach of a much wider public.

Oxford University says it will publish 150 hours of video and audio material of lectures and ideas from “world-leading thinkers”.

These are the latest UK universities to provide free education content through the online downloading software.

YouTube intros links to buy music featured in videos

The next time you see a video on Google and wonder to yourself, “What is that awesome song they’re using in the soundtrack?” you may be able to find out, and even buy it directly from the page. Google has begun adding links to some of its video pages that point users to where they can purchase the media found in the videos they’re watching, starting with partner videos (those uploaded directly by companies and content owners who have an agreement with YouTube). Now, when you watch music videos from EMI, for example, you’ll see links to buy the featured song on Amazon or iTunes.

Motorola’s Linux strategy evolves with Android

Motorola was one of the first major handset makers to embrace the Linux platform. Its earliest Linux-based phones were popular in China, enabling the company to sell over 5 million of the penguin-powered devices by 2006. Following that initial victory, Motorola brought its Linux phones to the US with its global launch of the Razr2 in 2007. Motorola’s current Linux lineup features eight LiMo-compatible handsets and the company boasts that its total sales of Linux-based phones has exceeded 14 million as of this year.

Plunging costs show there’s plenty of backbone bandwidth

Prices for data transit continue to plunge, according to new research out from TeleGeography, and they’re falling by almost 40 percent a year. Despite all the doom-and-gloom from ISPs, who claim they need to impose bandwidth caps and throttling in order to keep the bits flowing, the news is a reminder that the world’s backbone providers actually have huge surpluses of capacity and that transit costs are plummeting faster than the US stock market.

Not all ISPs pay for transit, of course; the larger ones are able to “peer” freely with other large ISPs. “Transit” applies between ISPs who don’t agree to freely swap data from each other’s networks, and it’s a major expense for local ISPs that need to purchase all of their bandwidth. (See our in-depth guide to peering and transit for a detailed discussion of the pricing and politics of the process.)

MySpace, Facebook holding mobile social networking back

Social networking made the leap from desktops to mobile phones a long time ago, and a new report suggests that MySpace and Facebook still dominate even on the small screen. Too bad the two market leaders may be doing more harm than good to mobile social networking.

The report, published by ABI Research, says that nearly half (46 percent) of social networking users have visited one such network on a mobile phone. Among these mobile socializers, almost 70 percent of them visited MySpace, while another 67 percent hit Facebook. Even though the mobile social networking landscape is rich with competitors, especially those innovating with location-based services, no other network garnered even 15 percent of mobile adoption.

It should come as no surprise that the most important activities to mobile socializers are checking on new messages and comments from friends (50 percent of users), and posting status updates (45 percent) to let others know what they are doing.

“The social network is increasingly becoming a central hub for communication across online and mobile domains for many consumers,” said research director Michael Wolf. “To a degree, it allows them to centralize messaging, communication and even digital media consumption through a centralized property on various screens. We believe this centralization of a consumer’s digital lifestyle through social networks will only increase adoption of mobile social networking in coming years.”

750,000 lost jobs? The dodgy digits behind the war on P2P: Page 1

If you pay any attention to the endless debates over intellectual property policy in the United States, you’ll hear two numbers invoked over and over again, like the stuttering chorus of some Philip Glass opera: 750,000 and $200 to $250 billion. The first is the number of U.S. jobs supposedly lost to intellectual property theft; the second is the annual dollar cost of IP infringement to the U.S. economy. These statistics are brandished like a talisman each time Congress is asked to step up enforcement to protect the ever-beleaguered U.S. content industry. And both, as far as an extended investigation by Ars Technica has been able to determine, are utterly bogus.

Apple finally drops NDA, iPhone developers rejoice

Apple has announced via its Apple Developer Connection website that it has dropped the NDA that has left iPhone developers frustrated since the release of iPhone OS 2.0 this past July. In a note addressed “To Our Developers,” Apple finally admitted that the NDA had “created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone’s success.”

Apple snoozes, researcher discloses risky iPhone UI flaws

Apple is arguably getting more proactive about iPhone security exploits. The iPhone OS 2.0 release fixed quite a few bugs, and last month’s 2.1 update was no security slouch either. Still, in the face of Apple recruiting full-time iPhone hackers, an Israeli researcher has released details on two potentially dangerous—though seemingly innocuous—design flaws that he says the company has ignored for too long.

Ex

Infinite reboots plague some early Apple TV 2.2 adopters (Updated)

Remember that Apple TV 2.2 update that we were all fawning over this morning? The one with all the awesome new features, like buying HD TV episodes straight from the device and the ability to play music video playlists? It turns out that once again, not all that glitters is gold in the Apple world, because this update is breaking many users’ Apple TVs.

iPhone gives Pandora twice as many new users daily

The Pandora personalized radio streaming service was already a popular destination before Apple’s App Store launched over the summer, but the launch of the Pandora iPhone application has apparently caused the site to really take off. Founder Tim Westergren spoke about the iPhone’s effect on Pandora and a variety of other topics during his keynote at the Digital Music Forum West conference and, according to paidContent, revealed that the device has caused a substantial increase in the amount of new Pandora users.

Apple Brick rumours building – Business – iTnews Australia

The web has been buzzing with rumours that a new Apple product, code-named Brick, would be announced in an industry keynote on October 14th.

Some commentators have guessed that the announcement, which is likely to become one of Steve Jobs’ infamous ‘just one more thing’ teasers, would be a new notebook design, or even a refresh of the Mac Mini.

One wag even suggested that Brick would be a new OS and that it was so named because it would ’smash Windows’.

But the latest mumblings from the rumour mill point to something altogether more substantial.

The ‘brick’ in question is a block of aircraft-grade aluminium and, rather than a new product, we’re looking at a new manufacturing process according to some sources within Apple.

The new manufacturing process, which apparently will allow Apple to carve cases and components from a single block of lightweight metal using high pressure water jets and three-dimensional lasers, could be a game changer for the laptop industry.

It means that chassis and cases will no longer have to be folded or joined, adding huge strength and making the next generation of Mac laptops seamless and virtually screwless.

Byte Into It – 24 Sep 08

The Power User’s Guide to Google Chrome
ExitReality launches 3D browsing for ‘the entire Web’ – Internet – iTnews Australia

Melbourne-based company ExitReality today launched software that renders two dimensional webpages into three dimensional scenes – like something out of a computer game.

Developers say that ExitReality is compatible with ‘the entire Web’, working inside browsers such as Internet Explorer and Firefox to display a 3D depiction of each page’s contents.

Some websites already have special designs for use with ExitReality. Major companies such as eBay and MSN are depicted as buildings which act as hyperlinks.

YouTube appears as a movie theatre, while social networking site MySpace appears as a virtual lounge.

Other websites are displayed as a grid of content that users can walk through.

“It is the entire web in 3D – making 40 billion virtual worlds – and it will instantly transform 2D content into 3D,” said ExitReality founder Danny Stefanic.

Users can search for websites using the software and instantly switch between 2D and 3D views.

EFF sues Bush, Cheney et al for AT&T spying – Telecommunications – iTnews Australia

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has filed a lawsuit on behalf of AT&T’s business and personal customers over the US government’s wiretapping of private telephone and internet records.

The organisation alleges that a secret National Security Agency was set up in San Francisco with AT&T’s help and was used to process the data from millions of telephone conversations and internet sessions.

The suit has been filed against the National Security Agency (NSA) but also names President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Cheney’s chief of staff David Addington, former Attorney General and White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and other individuals who ordered or participated in the warrantless domestic surveillance.

“Demanding personal accountability from President Bush, Vice President Cheney and others responsible for the NSA’s dragnet surveillance of ordinary Americans’ communications is the best way to guarantee that such blatantly illegal spying will not be authorized in the future,” said EFF legal director Cindy Cohn.

Nokia ‘free’ music phone sales to start Oct 17 – Telecommunications – iTnews Australia

Nokia’s first phone model with free access to music is scheduled to go on sale on October 17 in Britain, retailer Carphone Warehouse said on its Web page.

Nokia’s “Comes with Music” bundle of phone and music service could help the music industry make up for falling CD sales, while challenging dominance of Apple’s iTunes in the digital music market.

The package will differ from other bundles on the market as users can keep all the music they have downloaded during the 12 month subscription period.

Vodafone launches unlimited music downloads – Telecommunications – iTnews Australia

Vodafone today launched an unlimited music downloads service, allowing users to download thousands of songs to their mobile phones for a fixed price per month.

MusicStation will cost $11.95 per month, with no extra data download costs, and will give users access to a database of over a million songs.

Mandriva unveils Linux for netbooks – Operating Systems – iTnews Australia

Linux publisher Mandriva has unveiled a version of its platform designed specifically for the new breed of mini laptops.

Mandriva Mini is aimed primarily at vendors of so-called ‘netbooks’, and is customised for this category of small form factor device, Mandriva said.

It features a fast boot-up, comprehensive connectivity support and multimedia codecs, and is adapted to work on key netbook platforms such as Intel’s Atom.

Unlike Windows, which powers many mini laptops, Linux versions such as Mandriva Mini are customised for a small footprint and efficient power management, and have user interfaces adapted to smaller display screens.

Open Source makes historic UK breakthrough – Software – iTnews Australia

Open Source companies have been granted official permission to supply software to the UK public sector for the first time in British history.

At least two Open Source software suppliers have been awarded places on the £80 million Software for Educational Institutions Framework, making them official suppliers to UK schools and scoring a victory in what has been a long and frustrating battle against favouritism shown to conventional commercial software companies in UK politics and procurement.

Mark Taylor, president of the Sirius Corporation, one of the winning Open Source suppliers, said “We were utterly stunned. We are delighted. It’s a significant breakthrough for Open Source software.”

The UK’s procurement frameworks, a fast-track process for public sector purchasers, handled £4.4bn of business in the year to April 2008. They are not meant to prevent companies not on the lists from selling to the public sector but, said Taylor, this had not been the experience of the Open Source community.

Telstra ‘a disgrace’ to Aussie R&D, NICTA CEO says – Business – iTnews Australia

NICTA CEO David Skellern said that Telstra is ‘a disgrace’ and called on the federal government to give more support to the ICT industry.

“If Australia’s ICT sector was a national swim team, there’d be a huge outcry at its current state. We’d be throwing everything at it to make it go faster – special diets, training, coaches, the lot.

“We would bother, because we’d understand that the team had the talent – it just needed the support. So I’d like to let us bother about ICT innovation too.

“I have a deep conviction that it can flourish in this country, if it can attract the support it requires. You can rest assured that NICTA will be doing its part to bring home the gold.”

Delivering the keynote address at the Influence Forum 2008 in the Hunter Valley this weekend, Skellern condemned Telstra’s historical record as a poor investor in R&D.

“Companies like Telstra are a disgrace when it comes to research and development,” he said.

BBC NEWS | UK | Google climbdown on abortion ads

Google is to change its policy on adverts about abortion following a legal challenge from a Christian pressure group.

It had refused a Christian Institute advert, saying it did not allow the advertising of websites with “abortion and religion-related content”.

The institute threatened to use British equality laws to contest the decision.

But after an out-of-court settlement, Google will now allow religious groups to advertise about abortion.

It means when the word “abortion” is typed into the search engine, internet users will no longer just see adverts with details of abortion clinics and support groups, but could also find links to religious groups which may oppose abortion.

BBC NEWS | Technology | YouTube bans some weapons footage

YouTube is to ban footage showing weapons being used to intimidate people on its website in the UK.

The new policy was being introduced because of “particular concern” in Britain over the subject, the site’s owners, Google, said.

MPs criticised video-sharing websites, including YouTube, in July, saying they should be doing more to vet content.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith welcomed the YouTube ban and called on other internet sites to follow suit.

YouTube said the introduction of the new rule on weapons and intimidation would be the first time the site had made a policy change targeted specifically at the UK.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Palin e-mail hack details emerge

Details of how an e-mail account of US Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin was hacked have emerged.

Following the hack, screenshots of Mrs Palin’s messages, inbox, pictures and address book were posted to the Wikileaks whistle-blowing site.

It is thought the attackers exploited the password resetting system of Yahoo’s e-mail service.

Details about Mrs Palin’s life pulled from public sources reportedly helped defeat security questions.

Fake popup study sadly confirms most users are idiots

For most of us, security issues happen to “other people”—we block popup ads, we carefully examine dialog boxes and, for those of us on the Mac platform, we snicker when confronted with something that attempts to mimic a Windows system warning. But everyone knows that they are exceptional—what’s the behavior of a more typical user like? Some researchers have tested how college students respond to fake dialog boxes in browser popup windows and found that the students are so anxious to get the dialog out of the way, they click right through obvious warning signs.

Google’s T-Mobile G1 Android phone: the first review – Tech & Web News – Times Online

The arrival of Android signals the opening round of the battle between Google and its rivals, such as Nokia and Apple, to create software for the next generation of mobile phones that allows users to connect seamlessly to the internet.

A Google spokesman said that, these days, using phones “does not just mean a phone call, but rather access to the world’s information” and that mobiles will be one of the most important ways to connect to the internet in future.

However, when The Times was granted a first glance at the new device, the phone did not seem to offer a ground-breaking feature to rival the “wow factor” of the iPhone’s touchscreen. Instead, the G1 happily adopts the best features of the iPhone and BlackBerry — two of the best smart phones on the market.

Apple’s redesigned power adapters already shipping, sort of

Owners of iPhone 3G, and those who simply had to gobble up a few of Apple’s cute lil’ USB-to-AC power adapters, may have to wait a few weeks to swap theirs out for units that won’t cause an electric shock. However, according two different reports, Apple’s replacement plugs are already shipping with new iPhones, and analysts say that the company shouldn’t have much backlash to worry about from the whole affair.

New royalty agreement leaves Internet radio out in the cold

This afternoon, the Digital Media Association announced a new agreement with organizations that represent musicians and songwriters that will provide a streamlined licensing procedure for many models of digital music distribution. The new agreement doesn’t apply to “download to own” music, but will apply to streaming services, including subscription and ad-supported music (think Last.fm and SpiralFrog). The agreement has been submitted to the Copyright Royalty Judges for approval.

For the purposes of this agreement, musicians and songwriters were represented by he National Music Publishers’ Association, the Nashville Songwriters Association International, and the Songwriters Guild of America. They negotiated the deal with the RIAA and the Digital Media Association, which includes industry heavy-hitters like Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft. But the DiMA also includes a variety of companies that are doing less well under the current system, such as the recently-purchased Napster, and Internet radio services like Live365 and Pandora, which are buckling under the current royalty system.

Bad seed ISP Atrivo cut off from rest of the Internet

Malicious ISP Atrivo has lost the confidence and support of the last upstream provider willing to do business with the company. Up until last Saturday, Pacific Internet Exchange (PIE) had kept Atrivo connected to the rest of the world, but evidently felt the cost of doing business with the rot-filled ISP was too high to justify. Pacific was the last company to get the memo on that particular decision, but as of Saturday, Atrivo is offline.

The chain of events that ultimately led to Atrivo’s shutdown may have been touched off by an August report from HostExploit on the company’s illegal endeavors. At the time, Atrivo was a major hub of illegal activity; some 66 percent of the fake antivirus scanners and false malware-laden “codecs” were on Atrivo’s network. The situation also persisted over time, a significant indication that Atrivo’s disproportionate share of the malware market was no mere blip or oversight.

Windows 7: an upgrade to Vista, not an overhaul | NetworkWorld.com Community

Screenshots of Windows 7 leaked this week on the ThinkNext.net site shows Windows 7 looking more like an update to the Vista user experience and not an overhaul of Vista. That makes sense given the short timeframe to develop and release Windows 7, and Microsoft’s change to shorter OS release cycles over the past mega-Windows OS releases. Balmer is saying Windows 7 should be here in 2009. Frankly, most of the screenshots show pretty minor updates to the Vista user interface: a simplified Start menu, ribbon menus (BOO!) in apps like Wordpad, and redesigns to Windows Explorer and other control panel apps. So far, not a lot to get excited about, at least in this group of leaked screenshots.

Byte Into It – 17 Sep 08

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BBC NEWS | Technology | Retailer Best Buy to buy Napster

Consumer electronics giant Best Buy has entered the online music arena, purchasing the Napster online music service for $121m (£67.5m) in cash and investments.

The acquisition values Napster at $2.65 a share, more than twice its market value on Friday.

Best Buy said the move was to “reach new customers” and leverage Napster’s 700,000 existing subscribers.

The deal is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Best Buy said Napster’s easy-to-use interface, streaming music and mobile offerings were the service’s key strengths.

Neuros open set-top box goes HD – Boing Boing

Computers becoming open in the early 80s transformed the category from proprietary computing machines to PCs. Can the same thing happen with the TV set? Will an open device that allows content providers and third party software developers (Miro as an example) to access the TV render proprietary set-top devices obsolete as happened in the computer space? This is Neuros’s strategy as they enhance their Neuros OSD with HD capability

Google puts wallet behind African wireless broadband effort

The new venture is a startup called O3b networks, named for the “other 3 billion” that aren’t currently getting Internet service. Although the first deployments will be in Africa, the company hopes to eventually deploy its access model across other poorly served areas of the globe.

That model takes into account a couple of realities that are sometimes ignored in plans to connect the developing world. Equatorial Africa is vast, politically fragmented, and unstable. No private entity is likely to put up the money necessary to provide and maintain comprehensive access to fiber in the region, and assistance from other governments has primarily focused on wiring up academic centers that tend to be in the already-developed regions of the continent.

The solution, in O3b’s view, is to go wireless and leverage the region’s infatuation with the cell phone. The company plans to use the existing infrastructure of cell phone towers, and add hardware that enables 3G and WiMax networking. That hardware will then be linked to the big-ticket item in the plan: a series of low-earth orbit satellites, which will serve as a bridge to the wider world at speeds approaching 10Gbps. Should the full plan be rolled out, there will be a total of 16 satellites connected to over 2,300 earth-bound access points.

TiVo fans rejoice: HD, MPEG-4 TiVo returning to DirecTV

Ever since DirecTV decided to part ways with TiVo and roll its own DVR, fans of the pioneering TiVo have fervently hoped that the two service providers would reunite. While the companies have played nicely with one another since the split, providing a handful of modest feature improvements to DirecTV TiVo owners, there was no indication that DirecTV had any plans to embrace the TiVo platform once again. That has finally changed, as a new HD-capable TiVo for DirecTV customers will be launching in the second half of next year.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Yahoo defends Google advert deal

Yahoo said it will implement its much-criticised search ad deal with Google despite possible anti-trust hurdles.

Under the agreement, from October Google will sell ads alongside Yahoo search results on some of its pages.

Rumours the US justice department would challenge the deal grew this week when it hired a veteran anti-trust lawyer.

Hilary Schneider, executive vice-president of Yahoo US, told the BBC the agreement was “fully within the guidelines of the law”.

Both companies voluntarily agreed to have the US Department of Justice (DoJ) examine the plan, which was announced in June.

They also committed themselves to wait three and a half months to give regulators time to scrutinise it.

Google’s chief executive Eric Schmidt recently said both companies were aiming to go forward with the deal.

Woman sues city after it orders her to remove a link to the local cops’ website – Boing Boing

A woman in Sheboygan, MI is suing the city because the city’s attorney used legal threats to get her to remove a link to the local police department website — the city apparently believes you need permission to communicate the URLs of its pages:

Jennifer Reisinger says the Sheboygan city attorney ordered her to remove from her Web site a link to the city’s police department, in what she believes was retaliation for her support of recalling Mayor Juan Perez, according to the suit filed last week.

CALL YOUR SENATOR: Stop proposal to make taxpayers responsible for MPAA’s copyright claims! – Boing Boing

ast week, the Senate Judiciary Committee gave the green light to S. 3325, “The Enforcement of Intellectual Property Act of 2008.” We need you to show them the red light, and quick! Among other things, this intellectual property enforcement bill lets the DOJ enforce civil copyright claims and lets the government do the MPAA and RIAA’s intellectual property rights enforcement work for them—at tax payers’ expense.

Beta Beat: Foxmarks Beta-Testing Profile-Specific Password Sync

bookmark-syncing extension for Firefox, Foxmarks, is venturing into syncing your passwords as well as your bookmarks between browsers over the internet. Coupled with Foxmarks’ new profile support, you can selectively sync what passwords go where and keep your banking passwords at home and your IT passwords at work. You have to opt into the password sync beta to enable it in your Foxmarks account. Of course, trusting your important passwords to a feature in beta—no matter how secure it appears to be—should make anyone concerned about security and privacy antsy, so do proceed with caution, and maybe only use this feature for your low-security passwords. Do you sync your passwords to the cloud, or do you wish you could?

Beta Beat: Firefox 3.1 to Add Private Browsing Mode

You can already switch on private browsing in Firefox with previously mentioned Stealther, but in the wake of IE8’s InPrivate Browsing and Google Chrome’s Incognito mode, Mozilla is set to incorporate their own private browsing mode with Firefox 3.1.

Firefox: Enable Chrome’s Best Features in Firefox

The internet is atwitter with Google Chrome’s innovative new features, but there was no clear winner in our speed test comparing Firefox and Chrome—which means your choice of browser may depend solely on features. Apart from a few specific issues (namely process management), many of Chrome’s best features are already available in Firefox 3, proving yet again the power of extensibility. From incognito browsing and the streamlined download manager to URL highlighting and improved search, let’s take a look at how you can bring some of Google Chrome’s best features to Firefox.
Stealther Turns On Incognito Browsing

Chrome’s Incognito browsing allows you to shop for your significant other look at porn without keeping any history of that browsing session anywhere on your computer. In Firefox, the Stealther extension does the same thing. The main difference: In Chrome, a single window can enter Incognito mode, whereas in Firefox it’s enabled globally (this is probably possible in Chrome because of how it manages each tab as a separate process). But let’s be honest, are your multi-tasking skills really that good? (Original post)
Download Statusbar Puts Downloads in Your Status Bar (Surprise!)

Chrome is all about saving space, so files you download don’t break out into a separate window. Instead, they live in your status bar. Not bad, but guess what: The Download Statusbar Firefox extension has been doing this for five years, and it offers lots of additional options and wastes even less screen real estate. (Original post)
Speed Dial and Auto Dial Power Up Your Empty Tabs

Chrome’s empty tab page—which displays your most visited sites, most used search boxes, and even your recently closed tabs—is awesome. There isn’t currently anything quite as full featured for Firefox, however there are a couple of options that are very close. The Speed Dial extension (which itself is a ripoff of the Speed Dial feature in Opera) provides a very similar thumbnail-based new tab page, but you decide which sites you want in your speed dial and you can quickly access any of them from your keyboard with shortcuts. (Original post)
Locationbar2 Adds Domain-Highlighting to the Address Bar

Google Chrome’s “omni bar” sports root domain highlighting, a cool feature that doubles as a nice anti-phishing device (if you see the root domain more easily, you are less likely to give your information to an imposter domain). That sort of domain highlighting isn’t new by any means, though; the Locationbar2 Firefox extension has been boasting this same highlighting—in addition to several other excellent features—for well over a year.
Prism Extension Turns Any Site into a Separate Application

If you want to break out a webapp you use all day long into a separate window and desktop shortcut, Chrome makes it easy on you. Just click x and do y. The concept of separating webapps into their own application isn’t new, though. At Mozilla, they’ve been cooking up Prism to do just that for quite some time. With Prism and the Prism for Firefox extension installed, just go to Tools -> Convert Website to Application to break a webapp into a separate window and application. Right now this extension is Windows only, but hey—so is Chrome.
Keyword Search Bookmarks Integrate Site-Specific Search with the Address Bar

Chrome boasts that after using a site’s search engine once, you can perform that same search from the address bar the next time. For example, after you search Amazon once, the next time you may just be able to go to your address bar, type ‘a’, press Tab, and then perform your search. That’s pretty saucy, but it’s also not much of an innovation over keyword searches in Firefox. Granted, you have to manually add a search box (here are 15 of our favorite Firefox quick searches), but you can also define exactly what you want that shortcut to be. Chrome also doesn’t currently support keyword bookmarking in general, which is one of the most time-saving features in Firefox.

On the other hand, previously mentioned Auto Dial automatically populates the new tab page with your most frequently visited sites. It’s not as attractive as Speed Dial or Chrome’s new tab page, though. Either way, give Firefox extension developers some time. We’ll have an even better alternative before you know it.

Pew study: cloud computing popular, privacy worries linger

A new survey by the Pew Internet and American Life project, released Friday morning at Google’s Washington, DC headquarters, finds cloud computing applications taking off among Internet users. But respondents also told pollsters that they have profound concerns about ways their personal data might be used—among them, the kind of ad-targeting practiced by… Google.

As Internet users increasingly find themselves using multiple (potentially incompatible) networked devices to get online from a variety of locations, it should come as little surprise that large numbers of them are availing themselves of “cloud” services that offload computing or data storage functions to someone else’s server, allowing e-mail, photos, or documents to be accessed anywhere. More than half of Internet users have used Web-based e-mail services, which study author John Horrigan called the “starter drug” of cloud computing, while just over a third have stored personal photos on sites like Flickr or Photobucket. Cloud apps like Google Documents and Adobe Photoshop Express were third most popular, with 29 percent of respondents saying they’d used one, while fewer than 10 percent had used Web-based services to store personal videos or back up their hard drives. All told, 69 percent of users had used at least one form of cloud computing; 40 percent had used two or more. For users under 30, those numbers jumped to 87 percent and 59 percent respectively.

Perhaps more surprising is that 68 percent of respondents who said they’d used cloud services declared that they would be “very” concerned, and another 19 percent at least “somewhat” concerned, if their personal data were analyzed to provide targeted advertising. This, of course, is precisely what many Web mail services, such as Google’s own Gmail, do—which implies that at least some of those who profess to be “very” concerned about the practice are probably nevertheless subjecting themselves to it.

Copyright bill blasted as “enormous gift” to Big Content

The United States Congress returned to work this week, and senators appear to have copyright on the brain: A broad intellectual property enforcement bill introduced in July is slated for markup by the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, and another aimed at cracking down on piracy overseas was introduced Wednesday.