Breaking

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Plasma Television

Plasma Television , what is this ? I never knew till two years ago . One day I was surfing the net and then I came across an advertisement which was about a plasma television which I was unable to understand as I have never seen any of such kind of TV's . Then I asked one of my friends who had keen knowledge about all these topics like electronics and such topics. He told me that





"A plasma display panel (PDP) is a type of flat panel display now commonly used for large TV displays (typically above 37-inch or 940 mm). Many tiny cells located between two panels of glass hold an inert mixture of noble gases (neon and xenon). The gas in the cells is electrically turned into a plasma which then excites phosphors to emit light."



Just Like the Image show here is a Plasma Television which is Pioneer Flat Panel Tv :PDP-6070HD Flat Panel



An Image of The Display Composition of Plasma television.


Well you can see more details of this PDP-6070HD Flat Panel Television .

If you are looking for a Television and having a budget of around $4000 then do not go anywhere else but just go with this PDP-6070HD Flat Panel Television .

While if you have a variable budget then you must visit here for the price range of Televisions and other electronics as well.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Friday, September 21, 2007

Free PR 5 Links

Hi , I have got a site which is offering PR5 links for free , you have to just do one thing just post a link to this site named as The Truth of My Life . I gave this site a link , so now its my turn to get the PR5 link , Hey now what I will get that link to this blog very soon may be in one or 2 days . Your Turn to get it freee.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Saturday, July 21, 2007

The Review Blog Contest

The Review Blog is holding a Review Contest . Anybody is invited who can write an honest review of his blog. He will give away $50 to who so ever wins by Paypal.

This is the saying from the The Review Blog which is holding a $50 Contest for the best review . Hope the best one wins.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Thursday, July 12, 2007

From $0 to $3,387.24.

At one time when i started my blog way back in September i was not sure whether this blog will run or not and whether this blog will pay me anything but with the advent of time i realised that most of the blogs started after my blog have even crossed a mark of $1000 per month income , then i got a domain and started blogging there and that blog even went higher its just three months there and my blog's value is estimated at around $13000 . This makes me satisfied and also makes me to do more things in my blog as well.

This does not mean that i will not care about this blog , NO ......
I will continue to do posts in this blog because this is my first blog which made me my first blogging income way back in starting of the year . This is now the scene that my blog bcalutech.blogspot.com is now having a technorati authority of 6 with just over 8lakh ranking . I will continue to post various items in the blog very soon .
Till then enjoy this blog.
Thursday, July 12, 2007

Video Conferencing

In today's world when people have to travel to far off places for business meetings and presentations Video Conferencing has become a necessity .
Do you want to keep in touch with employees, business contacts or clients? MegaMeeting's video and web conferencing services make it possible for anyone, anywhere in the world to log on and participate in your Internet meeting . The service works on any operating system, Mac, Windows or Linux, and users can take part even if their computers are protected by a firewall.

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The uses of MegaMeeting's web and desktop video conferencing systems are limited only by your imagination. Companies are presently using MegaMeeting's services to hold internet meetings (videoconferencing), demonstrate their products and services to potential clients, conduct staff training sessions and even perform after-sales servicing of their products and software (by using remote desktop control software).

Educational, social and religious organizations are using MegaMeeting's webinar server to connect with students and members at a distance. Many organizations are using the webinar hosting features to conduct virtual, web based meetings and seminars.

It comes in four options Personal , Professional,Enterprise , Enterprise Private Branding .
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Visit the sponsor so that you may be able to get most out of the internet for your business and also your profits will increase or maximize . Guranteed.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Factors you have to consider before starting a Blog - Blogging Tips

I made a list of some factors you should consider before going to start a blog. You should check them if you don’t have a specific topic in mind to write about. It is quite possible that you have so many unique talents that no particular talent is singled out in your mind. So, how [...]

Read More...

[Source: Linkrain Articles - Posted by FreeAutoBlogger]

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Vira Links

Join it Now and you will have a increase in your Technorati Rankings.

=======Copy and Paste below this line========

Instructions:
1. ) Copy and paste the matrix of “ViralTags” below courtesy of Founders Cafe.

2.) Substitute the Host Tag and one of the “Viral Tags” in the matrix with your anchor text of choice with your blog’s URL. Please keep anchor text to a max of 3 words to keep the matrix size manageable.

3.) When you get a ping back from someone that has your link in one of their “Viral Tags”, practice good karma by copying his/her Host Tag’s anchor text (automatically the associated link will also be copied) and paste it over one of your “Viral Tags” below.

4.) Encourage and invite your readers to do the same and soon this can grow virally.

Host Tag: The Review Blog

start a blog | Best Affiliate Program | Make Money Blogging | Tech at Hand| Marketing Made Simple | Everything iPod | Website Design Blog| BcaLutech | Technology Music Life| Russian Jokes | Manila Mom| Foximus | The Review Blog | Startup Entrepreneur Money| Mariuca’s Perfume Gallery | Malaysian Stocks INC | A Day In The Life | Nakanampucha | Agloco Internet Marketing| paid to blog | Tech Gadgets Stocks| SEO blog | Koolbirks.com | Anything and Everything | Good Jokes | Webtools | The Third Eye | Earn Money on Internet | Get A Life | Monetize Your Blog | Investing Women Online | ViralTags | Earn Money Online| Mariuca’s Perfume Gallery | ViralTags | Snacks | Entrepreneurship Internet Web| EMOI | humab | Revellian | ViralTags | ViralTags | ViralTags | Tech Startups Web2.0| ViralTags | ViralTags | Plugins TV Blogging| Really Funny Jokes| ViralTags | ViralTags | Internet Marketing German| ViralTags | WCBDigest | ViralTags | ViralTags | Business Blog Web | Celebrity Gossip | Anitokid Chronikos| ViralTags | esofthub’s web finds| ViralTags | ViralTags | ViralTags | ViralTags | ViralTags | ViralTags | Paris and Britney | Make Money Online | Make Money Blog | The Broken Bow| create a blog | Make Money Online

Important: Once I get a ping back from you, I will add your anchor text and the associated link you designate as “Host Tag” here, replacing one of the “ViralTags” from the matrix above. As more and more bloggers copy and paste this matrix, the more backlinks you will have with your anchor text. If everybody who copy and paste from your blog does the same, pretty soon this will spread and go viral. So, the sooner you participate, the more links with anchor text you will receive.

====== Copy and Paste from Above this line=====

Ok now just copy the above and if this works any where close to Viralink you will not be unimpressed with the results I assure you!.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Philips Unveils 1 TB External HDD

Digital pictures, music files or videos - all ever more fixed disk requires for. Goods so far sizes within the three-figure GB-range custom, come now slowly however surely ever more devices on the market, which a Terabyte capacity offers. So far only as solutions with two non removable disks available, Philips with the SPD5130 now a model presented, which in such a manner offers much storage location on a disk.

Philips which is better known for its TVs and high-end audio equipment has just introduced a new external hard drive, the SPD5130, at Computex 07, that offers 1TB of storage capacity and is built on the eSATA interface.
The SPD5130 is equipped with a USB-2.0-Schnittstelle, which is suitable for filling the equipment however only conditionally.The drive according to Philips’s website will include a thick aluminum shock-proof case, 32 MB buffer for speedy performance, 1 touch backup functionality and a heat control system. Baking UP procedures can be started over a Button at the non removable disk, “Safe shutdown” - key is to prevent overrun.
The noncommittal price recommendation for the SPD5130 amounts to 449 Euro.

Original Article{German Language } Here
{English Translated Article Here }

Monday, June 11, 2007

Monday, June 11, 2007

Canon Powershot A570IS Review.

Image Stabilization is the most important aspect in any camera which we are going to use . Let me first tell you all about Image stabilization .
*****************************************************************
Image stabilization (IS) is a family of techniques to increase the stability of an image. It is used in image-stabilized binoculars, photography, videography, and astronomical telescopes. With still cameras, camera shake is particularly problematic at slow shutter speeds or with long focal length (telephoto) lenses. With video cameras, camera shake causes visible frame-to-frame jitter in the recorded video. In astronomy, the problems of lens-shake are compounded by variations in the atmosphere over time, which cause the apparent position of objects to move.

In short i must say that image stabilization is techniques in which if your camera is moving or image is moving then you don't have to worry about the image , the image will be perfect .
Ok Now to the topic . Back to Review.

Build of The Camera

A little bulky but elegant is what I would label the A570IS as. Though the design standards stay similar in the whole of Canon's A500 series of digicams, the A570IS looks the classiest of the bunch. This would probably be because of the metallic parts that make an appearance in the otherwise plastic body, and the use of dark shades of gray for the text and the handgrip.

The build quality, overall, is quite sturdy and built to last. The buttons feel firm yet responsive, which is the way it should be.
The top of the A570 consists of the power and shutter release buttons, along with a mode dial. The shutter release button has a ring toggle switch for zooming in and out. I personally find that a lot more convenient than having a switch at the back of the camera for zooming. The mode dial allows you to select between basic shooting modes like portrait, landscape, etc. along with a scene mode where you can select something more specific. You also have a range of manual modes like, well, Manual, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, etc. Even the video shooting mode can be accessed via this dial.

The back of the camera contains the rest of the controls, along with a 2.5 inch LCD display that works pretty well under most lighting conditions. Even when shooting in bright sunlight, the image on the display was clearly visible. The part I really appreciate about this series of cameras is that they come with an optical viewfinder option. It may seem redundant when you have such a nice LCD display, but when you're trying to save the little juice you have in your batteries, shutting down the LCD can really help.

This is like most of the cameras contains i.e. Digital Cameras contains.

Features :
High Image Quality
•7.1 megapixel CCD for high-resolution images.
•Retractable 4x optical zoom with 4x digital zoom.
•High ISO 1600 reduces camera shake and blurring of fast-moving subjects even in low-light condition.
•Night Display function automatically brightens the subject on LCD to improve visibility.
•Powered by Canon proprietary DIGIC III Imaging Processor for high-definition images with natural colour reproduction and razor sharp clarity at accelerated processing speed, even under high ISO shooting.
•Optical Zoom Viewfinder saves battery life and focus better in dark condition and bright sunlight.

Face Detection Technology
• Incorporates the Face Detection AF, Face Detection AE and Face Detection FE, which work hand-in-hand to capture stunning photos of subjects’ faces with sharpness and right exposure easily.

Face Detection AF: Detects as many as 9 subjects’ faces in a picture. If no faces are detected the AF system automatically switched to the conventional 9-point AiAF setting.

Face Detection AE: Focus and exposure are controlled and set correctly for capturing the human face so that the subject’s best expression is not missed.

Face Detection FE: Flash brightness and exposure automatically adjusted to ideal levels

Enables Red eye correction during playback

NEW ISO 1600
•Makes sure fast moving subjects stay sharp and camera shake eliminated
•Avoid blurry subjects when shooting in dark areas

Point & Shoot Simplicity
•9-point AiAF (auto-focusing) or single point AF (fixed to center) ensures the subject is sharply focused even if it is not in the center.
•10 shooting modes including 10 special scene modes. The Special Scene modes are pre programmed camera settings for specific shooting conditions: Fireworks, Snow, Beach, Indoor, Kids & Pets, Night Snapshot, Foliage, Underwater, Aquarium, Night Scene
• Vertical/ Horizontal Gridline Display for easy photo composition and framing.
•Stitch Assist to piece images together seamlessly to create wide panoramic landscapes.
My Colors Function
•Freely retouch color of still images and movies on the camera during shooting.
•Real-time color change on LCD monitor while shooting, hence saving the time and hassle of retouching via computer.
•Integrated with Photo Effect including:
Vivid
Neutral
Sepia
Black & White

Shooting Preferences
•Shooting Instants increases shutter speed to a maximum of 1/2000th of a second
•Shooting in 3 dimensions focus on what is in front of the camera, or for a sharp focus overall effect
•Powerful zoom for users to zoom in even more closely to subjects without having to use a tele-converter attachment, thanks to the Digital Tele-converter function.
•Steady Shots with Optical Image Stabilizer (OIS) to ensure sharp and clear images when shooting without a tripod.

Image Playback Modes
•With Auto Rotate function, images will be displayed and oriented correctly during playback, regardless when taken with camera held vertically or horizontally.
•Resume Playback safely turn off the power or remove memory card and still resume playback from where the last viewed image was left off.
•Easy location and management of images through enhanced Jump function with jump searches:
Jump 10 images: Shows every tenth image
Jump 100 images: Shows every hundredth image
Jump shot date: Shows image taken at shooting date.
Jump to movie: Displays movie only.
Jump to folder: Goes to folder where image is stored.

Connectivity
•High speed USB 2.0 transfer rate
•Direct connectivity and transfer to both Windows (Windows 98 SE and above) & Mac (Mac OS X v10.1.5 and above) computers.

Shoot and Print/Transfer Direct
•Print photos directly from Canon direct photo printers and any PictBridge compliant printer without PC.
•Easy print and transfer of images with just a touch of the Print/Share button.
•Exif 2.2 compliant for greater colour fidelity when printing to EXIF compatible printers.

More Printing Options (to CP printers)
•ID Photo Print - crop images to passport size for direct printing.
•Movie Print - print a single or series of selected frames from movie footage.
Movie Print – Single
•Only a single selected frame is printed in a single sheet.
•When connected to a Canon CP direct or a Pictbridge connection.
Movie Print – Sequence
•A sequence of selected images is printed in a single sheet.
•When connected to a Canon CP direct connection.


Optional Accessories
•New Conversion Lens Adapter (LA-DC52G)
•New waterproof case (WP-DC12)
•Tele-converter 1.75x (TC-DC52A)
•Wide Converter 0.7x (WC-DC52)
•Close-up lens 52mm (250D)
•High-Power Flash (HF-DC1)

Sample Images By This camera



Beware that the Original image is a large one , before opening the original image Note down these Image Specifications:
* File Size: 4638 KB
* Recording Pixels: 3648 x 2736
* Compression: Superfine
* Shooting Mode: Av
* Shutter Speed: 1/40 sec.
* Aperture Value: f/5.6
* ISO Speed: 80
* Exp. Compensation: +2/3
* White Balance: Manual

Final Words :
All the speeds were pretty much top notch. The camera shot at around 1.7 FPS in burst mode, which is fast by any consumer model standards. The start-up to shot and shot-to-shot times were also minimal just the way its meant to be.
Canon has tried to cheat its way in the night portrait mode. To avoid image blurring when shooting without flash, it spikes up the ISO sensitivity levels, which results in high amounts of digital noise. But there's always an option of shooting in manual mode using a lower ISO level and higher exposure settings to get the perfect low-light shot like the one below.
he battery life was pretty good too. A pair of alkaline batteries can last for around 50 shots, some with flash and some without.
Conclusion
Anyway you look at it, the A570 is an excellent camera. It fills all the missing gaps in the lesser models to make a very strong mid-range camera. Though I personally think that the MRP of Rs. 16,990 is kind of an overkill, I think at the street price of Rs. 15,300 it's well worth it. Perfect for home usage as well as a user who wants to learn more about taking better pictures without shelling big bucks.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Back To Work

Hi Guys , I was pretty busy with my examinations so that i was not able to continue and now that i am back in action with full force and will continue to write articles and more items so that most of you guys can get what you want.

From Now onwards i will be doing reviews and then posting everything that i can get from softwares and websites and other on this blog itself .
No More technical Blog , even though technology will be my first priority but all other items will also be present in it .

Monday, May 21, 2007

Monday, May 21, 2007

Yahoo linked to $1 Billion bid for Bebo

Yahoo is reportedly preparing a takeover bid for social networking site Bebo.

According to a report in the Sunday Telegraph, Yahoo is prepared to pay up to $1bn for the MySpace rival.

Bebo was founded by husband and wife team Michael and Xochi Birch in 2005, and has overtaken MySpace in the UK as the most popular social networking site. On a global basis, MySpace is still around four times the size of Bebo.

Yahoo has already shown its keenness to break into the social networking market with a bid to buy out Facebook last year, also for $1bn, which fell through.

It is rumoured that Bebo turned down a £300m offer from BT and a similar bid from Viacom last year, and Michael Birch has said in the past that he would rather float Bebo than sell it.

However, industry analysts believe that the current flood of internet deals could encourage Bebo to accept Yahoo's offer.Bebo is going from strength to strength and has around 25 million registered users.

The company has recently hired Angel Gambino, former vice president of commercial, strategy and digital at MTV, as vice president of music, and Joanna Shields, former Google EMEA managing director of strategic partnerships, as international president.

Yahoo declined to comment on what it refers to as "industry rumours".

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Microsoft Testing Multiple Searches on One Page

It seems Google isn’t the only one that has decided to redirect a handful of users to test a different approach to web search. Microsoft is redirecting a small number of random users who use Windows Live Search to search.imagine-live.com, a search engine that puts results from a number of Live searches on a single page. When searching for something, the user will be shown the typical results from the web as well as image results, maps results, news results, links to movie listings, weather, and so on. Hitting “view more results” or “explore more” will take the user to the corresponding search engine or web site. The site is obviously still in development as sometimes the search engine spits out an error about not being able to find anything.
Saturday, May 19, 2007

Hong Kong man loses appeal in internet piracy case

A Hong Kong man convicted of sharing pirated movies lost his final appeal on Friday in the territory's highest court and will now have to finish serving a three-month prison sentence.

Chan Nai-ming, 38, who used the screen name "Big Crook," is believed to be the first person to receive jail time for distributing movie files using BitTorrent file-sharing technology.

He was originally charged in April 2005 for copyright infringement after uploading and distributing three Hollywood movies — Daredevil, Red Planet and Miss Congeniality.

He was sentenced in November 2005 and had served several weeks in prison before filing a series of appeals.

Chan's lawyer argued before the Court of Final Appeal that he only uploaded the movies and did not distribute them, but the court dismissed the distinction.

"He plainly succeeded in distributing copies of the films in question," the court said in its judgment. "The appeal must accordingly be dismissed."

Tam Yiu-keung, the Assistant Commissioner of Customs and Excise, told the Xinhua news agency the ruling "will generate a strong deterrent effect on internet piracy activities."

The Hong Kong government said Chan's conviction was a milestone in the fight against illegal online sharing of intellectual property and that since his arrest illegal file-sharing had fallen by 80 per cent.

BitTorrent software is a "peer-to-peer" program that works by allowing high-speed downloads from multiple sources, each supplying a small part of the whole.

When anyone uploads a file, it becomes a source for others on the internet. Thus, locating those who upload or download material can be a difficult and complicated process, industry observers said.

Earlier this year the makers of the technology — San Francisco-based BitTorrent Inc. — announced they were launching a website that will sell downloads of films and TV shows licensed from the studios.

The move came two years after another file-sharing website, Grokster, was shut down as part of a court settlement after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Hollywood studios could pursue companies who allow customers to download illegally.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Sony's Announces Tiny High-Def Camcorder

Sony Corp. has announced its smallest high-definition camcorder to date.

The HDR-CX7, which is due to go on sale in June, records 1080i high-definition video directly to a MemoryStick Pro Duo card. Until now its camcorders have relied on MiniDV tape, DVD discs or hard-disk drives to store video, but the memory card slot and associated electronic take up less space and mean a smaller, lighter camera.

Using a memory card also means that getting video into a PC is as easy as removing the card from the camera and slotting it into a card reader. The video must still be copied to the PC's hard-disk for viewing, but a software upgrade due mid-year will make it possible to watch video directly from high-speed Pro Duo- or Pro HG-type MemoryStick cards on both a PC and the PlayStation 3.

The flash memory-based recording also helps reduce power consumption and noise over other methods. But it doesn't come without disadvantages. Memory cards are quite expensive, and users will be able to store only about 30 minutes of video on a 4G-byte card in the camera's highest quality mode.

Behind the lens is a 3-megapixel image sensor, and the camera can also capture 6-megapixel still images, Sony said. Other features include a 10x optical zoom lens and a 2.7-inch wide-screen, touch-sensitive LCD (liquid crystal display) monitor.

The CX7 weighs 450 grams and measures 69 millimeters by 67mm by 129mm. It will cost about US$1,200 in the U.S.

Sony will also begin selling two hard-disk drive-based HD camcorders in June. The HDR-SR7 has a 60G-byte drive and the HDR-SR5 a 40G-byte drive. The SR7 comes with the same 3-megapixel image sensor used in the CX7, while the SR5 uses a 2-megapixel sensor. In the U.S. the cameras will cost $1,400 and $1,100, respectively. Prices and launch dates for other markets have not been announced.

All three camcorders record in the AVCHD format, which was developed by Sony and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (Panasonic) and uses MPEG4 compression.

On Thursday Sony also announced an update to its Vegas 7 video editing software that adds support for AVCHD files. An upgrade for the consumer "Vegas Movie Studio Platinum Edition 8" software, adding AVCHD support, will be available from July, Sony said.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Memory Prices Set to Hit the Bottom in the 2H '07

After tumbling for more than four consecutive months, prices on dynamic random access memory (DRAM) may sustain rapid decrease in the coming months, causing memory chip makers to continue losing money. Nevertheless, as the demand towards computers increases in the second half of the year, towards back-to-school season, the prices may start to rebound, according to DRAMeXchange.

Price of one 512Mb DDR2 PC2-5300 (667MHz) chip has decreased by 53% in the last twelve months from $5.21 to $2.37, which is not really negative for large DRAM manufacturers as they continually implement new manufacturing technologies and, considering that prices remained pretty high till mid-December, 2006, hardly anyone suffered from changing pricing in 2006. However, starting 2007 memory pricing has been tumbling rapidly and may soon hit the bottom.

The persisting price declines have pushed DRAM makers to the verge of losing money. Migrating to more advanced fabrication processors, and boosting shipments of 1Gb chips will be two key factors in deciding how the respective DRAM makers perform in the second half of the year, according to market tracker DRAMeXchange.

The current declines in the DRAM contract price have been much bigger than originally expected, the research firm claims. This has been mainly attributed to the weak seasonality in the PC market, and huge imbalance in the demand and supply chain. DRAM makers have been forced to sell their chips at particularly low prices, as their monthly capacities continue to enhance. However, with the inventory levels of PC makers now running lower and seasonally weak second quarter coming to its end, DRAM demand may start to pick up, which will result in memory pricing rebound.

Computer hardware developers tend to start shipping new hardware to PC manufacturers starting in mid-June so that the latter could prepare new systems for the back-to-school season. The increase in demand towards hardware in overall will indisputably cause memory price increase.

The ongoing price declines are dragging DRAM makers to the brink of losing money. In response, manufacturers are trying earnestly to further cut down costs, notes DRAMeXchange. For instance, Micron recently announced the successful development of the 1.5V DDR2 chip using the 78 nm manufacturing process. The smaller voltage is capable of saving approximately 24% of power. As Micron owns a larger ratio of the less cost-effective 200mm fabs, it is introducing chips with special specifications, in order to avoid the fierce price competition in the commodity DRAM market. For Samsung and Hynix, they have begun to run test trials using the 68nm and 66nm process, along with increasing the shipment ratio of 1Gb chips for 2H07. On the other hand, Taiwan manufacturers are continuing to boost the capacity of their 300” fabs. Needless to say, amid the rapid capacity increase, the cost down mechanisms being introduced by the DRAM manufacturers will play an instrumental role in their future competitiveness.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Microsoft Windows Server Code Name Longhorn Beta 3

Microsoft Windows Server Code Name "Longhorn" helps you to increase the flexibility of your server infrastructure while saving time and reducing costs. Powerful new management tools and security enhancements allow you to have more control over your servers while providing advanced protection so you can spend less time on everyday tasks and more time bringing greater value to your organization.


wsl_6001.16510.070417-1740_x86fre_server-KB3SFRE_EN_DVD.iso

1804.3 MB

Download Link

Friday, April 27, 2007

Friday, April 27, 2007

New Features in IIS 7 Beta 3

Beta 3 was just signed off and will be posted very soon to connect.microsoft.com.

There is so much coolness in IIS 7 in Beta 3 that's hard to know where to start.

We've had several customers beating up this build pretty hard, including Microsoft.com. This is a good build for the web server platform (can't speak about the rest of it cause I don't know, but from the looks of things, it's all good).

What to look for in IIS7 Beta 3:

Of course, you've heard all about the modular pipeline. Right? what! Snap out of it! This is a big deal.

Shared configuration: You can now configure multiple IIS 7 servers to share a single application host config file. Whohoo! No more metabase replication.

Remote Administration: This is coolness in action. Use https from within IIS manager to connect to another IIS manager. Since it's https, it's firewall friendly and not special ports need to be open. You authenticate to the remote IIS manager using Windows users, or you can define users in the IIS manger that are stored in Administration.config (encrypted credentials of course)

Disable Anon user: So if you disable the anon user in IIS7, anon access is still allowed, but you don't use the built in IUSR account. All anon access occurs as the process identity. If you give each process a unique identity, you also give it a uniqu anon users when this is enabled. Add sandoxing and shared config, and you have a nice package for web farms with secure pools.

App Pool Sandbox: This takes a while to explain, but essentially, each pool winds up with a configuration file that contains only the settings for that pool and can only be read by that pool. In this way, an applicaiton pool cannot revert to self and read the configuration of any other pool.

Extensible UI: The UI is not just new from IIS6, it's a platform in and of itself that can be modifed and updated. Look to Carlos' blog and the downloads page on IIS.net for new extensions that are already available. http://www.iis.net/downloads/default.aspx?tabid=34&g=6&i=1328

Are you ready for this: New FTP server! released at the same time as beta 3 is a long awaited new FTP server AND yes, it support FTP with SSL (FTPS as I recall as opposed to SFTP). You will find this as a seperate donwload on IIS.net soon. It is not built into longhorn. When you install this puppy you will see first hand how that we aren't kidding about IIS 7 extensiblity. There will be new UI icons and configuration features. In the past, this is something that only Microsoft or a few ISVs would do (modify the UI and IIS configuration), but since the UI is a Winform app extensiblity built in, and the IIS 7 schema can be extended with just an XML snippet - developers are going to be adding all kinds of newness. BTW, tf you install FTP on Longhorn using the Server Manager or package manager command line, you get the old FTP server in the MMC console.

I know you asking "where can I get more info" and the answer is that papers are being uploaded to IIS.net very soon. Questions? Ask on the IIS.net forums.

I got to go, but I'm really psyched about this release. There is a lot more to talk about so stay tuned.

PS. Bill Staples just posted an annoucment to his blog. http://blogs.iis.net/bills/archive/2007/04/25/what-s-new-in-iis7-beta-3.aspx


Friday, April 27, 2007

Google Scratches Google Calendar Maintenance

Google Inc. has scrapped a planned 13-hour maintenance of Google Calendar that had some users confused and worried about potentially significant disruptions of the online calendaring service.

Apparently, Google decided to cancel the maintenance work after hearing from enough concerned users of Google Calendar and of the Google Apps hosted applications suite of which it is part.

"Google is focused on its users, and in this case we listened to user feedback in making our decision," a Google spokesman wrote via e-mail on Wednesday.

In a brief e-mail, Google notified Google Apps administrators that it planned to conduct "routine maintenance" of Calendar between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Thursday, but it didn't specify a time zone, leading some users to post

messages in discussion forums seeking clarification.

Others posted messages expressing concern about the length of service disruptions, which wasn't addressed in the initial e-mail, particularly because the maintenance work was scheduled during a weekday and during work hours. IT maintenance work that takes services offline is usually done during weekends or, if done during weekdays, very late at night.

Subsequently, Google sent these administrators another e-mail, clarifying that the first e-mail referred to Pacific Time and that end users might find Calendar unavailable for no more than 5 or 10 minutes during this 13-hour window.

However, Google is now saying Thursday's maintenance work has been scrapped, and that future work of this type in Calendar will be coordinated in a way that doesn't affect Google Apps users at all, according to the spokesman.

The incident has also triggered a review of how Google Apps software is maintained in the future. "We are actively working on changes in routine maintenance procedures for other products on the Google Apps platform so updates such as these will either take place outside of peak hours or not impact our customers at all. We are sorry for any confusion this has caused," the spokesman wrote.


Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Japan's KDDI to Provide Cell Phone Service in U.S

TOKYO (Reuters)—Japan's KDDI said on Sunday it aims to offer a cellphone service in the United States using a network operated by Sprint Nextel.

KDDI, the second-biggest mobile phone operator in Japan after NTT DoCoMo, aims to cater to mainly Japanese customers in the United States, a spokesman said.

Tokyo-based KDDI will offer services using CDMA standard, developed by Qualcomm, and adopted by U.S. carriers such as Verizon and Sprint Nextel. That is different to the W-CDMA standard of technology popular in Europe and Asia.

Japanese operators have been eyeing new sources of revenue abroad as they expect slower subscriber growth in the saturated home market.

In 2001, DoCoMo invested about $10 billion in AT&T at the height of the Internet and telecom bubble, but later ended up booking huge losses from stakes in overseas operators.

Tokyo-based DoCoMo has since shifted its strategy to holding minority stakes in Asian carriers to expand in international roaming and help procure handsets more cheaply.

The Asahi newspaper said KDDI aimed for a full U.S. roll-out by the middle of this month, offering phones made by makers such as Sanyo Electric under the KDDI Mobile brand.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Sunday, April 08, 2007

YouTube held to answer for videos

YouTube has become a superstar of the Internet since the video-sharing website was launched in California slightly more than two years ago.

The following are some of the flashpoints in the history of the firm, which was bought by Internet search colossus Google in November:

Nov 2006 - YouTube removes copyrighted works in the face of complaints by the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers

Nov 14, 2006 - Google completes its 1.65-billion-dollar acquisition of start-up YouTube. Google sets aside slightly more than 200 million dollars of the purchase price in a lawsuit defense fund

Dec 3, 2006 - Iran blocks YouTube and several other websites to keep out "corrupting" foreign films and music

Jan 4, 2007 - A Brazilian court orders YouTube blocked for failing to withdraw a compromising video of supermodel Daniela Cicarelli on a beach in Spain. The ban is lifted after YouTube removes the video

Feb 2, 2007 - YouTube agrees to remove more than 100,000 unauthorized clips of Viacom television programs

Feb 26, 2007 - Malaysia announces that it will prosecute anyone that posts clips of motorbike gangs performing dangerous stunts on Internet websites such as YouTube

Mar 1, 2007 - An Australian state bans YouTube from school computers in a bid to clamp down on cyber-bullying

Mar 7, 2007 - Turkey's largest telecommunications provider, Turk Telekom, blocks access to YouTube on a court order due to a video deemed insulting to the country's founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The ban is lifted after YouTube removes the video

Mar 13, 2007 - US entertainment giant Viacom files a billion-dollar lawsuit accusing Google and YouTube of "massive" copyright infringement

Mar 26, 2007 - The International Cricket Council tells YouTube to remove World Cup clips, claiming copyright infringement

Apr 4, 2007 - Thailand blocks YouTube after it carried a clip seen as insulting the country's revered king. New videos lampooning the king appear on the site two days later

Apr 5, 2007 - Tokyo's election commission asks YouTube to take off clips of candidates for the local governor's race, saying it gave some of them unfair advantages
Sunday, April 08, 2007

Google Tests Directory Assistance for Phones

Computer Web search leader Google stepped up an experiment to use speech recognition on telephones so consumers can ask for local information, in a challenge to directory assistance providers.

The company is inviting U.S. callers to dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) from any phone to test a voice-activated service free-of-charge that it calls Google Voice Local Search, which is available on its experimental Google Labs site.
"Using this service, you get fast access to the same local information you'd find on Google Maps," an explanation of the new experiment said on the Google Labs site. "You don't need a computer, you don't need an Internet connection, and you don't even need to use your cellphone keypad," it said.

Details are available at
http://labs.google.com/goog411/


Google's experiment comes weeks after Microsoft Corp. agreed to acquire voice search firm Tellme Networks, in a deal sources said is valued at more than $800 million. The transaction is Microsoft's largest acquisition in five years.

Improving quality and falling costs of voice search technology are enticing Internet players Google, Microsoft, and rival Yahoo Inc. to expand beyond pay-per-click Web search advertising business into pay-per-call marketing.

Kelsey Group analysts estimate the U.S. directory assistance market generates $9.4 billion a year. Worldwide, the market rings up $13 billion, according to data published by Opus Research.

Google has staged on-and-off again tests stretching back to 2002 of ways to allow phone users to use their voices to ask for information, rather than telephone keypads or other more cumbersome approaches. The prior test remains up on the Web at:
http://labs1.google.com/gvs.html/

Matt Booth, an analyst with Kelsey Group in Pasadena, said Google's potential entry into the directory assistance market could transform the economics of the business, where callers to conventional "411" services can expect to pay $1 or more.

Booth said it costs such services at least 16 cents per call to pay human operators to answer such calls.

By hooking the automated service into advertising-supported local business information, Google could be able to slash the costs of providing directory assistance to around 2 cents per call, while generating around 10 cents for each business referral, Booth said, citing estimates by investment bank Thomas Weisel.

"This would allow Google to put its Internet ad business onto mobile phones," Booth said. "It's voice in and data out," he said, contrasting the voice search service to how users type keywords into a browser using classic Google search services.

Start-ups that offer free directory assistance include 1-800-FREE411, a service Jingle Networks Inc.

In a blog post, Booth said Google is running advertising tests on Jingle Networks (800-Free411) in two local markets.

Google Voice Local Search can be used from either mobile phones or land lines. Mobile phone callers can request listing details to be sent as a text message to their phones.

Callers dial the Google number and can ask for a pizza parlor, dry cleaner other business by name, Google said. The service runs on computers and uses no human operators.

"Eventually, I think you will be able to call up and do a voice search and have general Google results come back," said in a phone interview.

Google said it is seeking to fine-tune the computerized system to improve how the service recognizes users' requests. Voice Local Search is available in English, in the United States, and offers only U.S. local business listings for now.

The Mountain View, California-based company cautioned that Google Voice Local Search remains an experiment: "It may not be available at all times and may not work for all users."

Google doesn't charge users for the toll-free call or for connecting the caller to the business. Regular phone charges may apply, depending on the user's telephone service provider.

Copyright 2007 by Ziff Davis Media, Distributed by United Press International

Sunday, April 08, 2007

O'Reilly launches online school for geeks

Geeks in need of continuing education credit have a new resource: the O'Reilly School of Technology. The online-only course offerings cover programming, Unix, and web development, and can help coders in need of some résumé-buffing do so from the comfort of their favorite browser.

The school was launched this week, but it's not a new initiative. The University of Illinois actually launched and ran the precursor to the site, which was called the "IT Learning Sandbox" when it began in 1997. The company that ran the program eventually expanded it to include 17 different IT courses.

O'Reilly Media acquired the Sandbox in 2005, rebranded it, and updated the content. The school now offers 19 courses and 5 certificates in everything from .NET to XML to Linux sysadmin topics.

The University of Illinois has continued to work with O'Reilly after the acquisition and will provide official continuing education credits for users who complete the courses. The university also issues certificates to those who complete prescribed sequences of coursework. Most courses cost $400, and also require the rental of online lab space at $10 a month.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Corel updates WinDVD to stop AACS hackers

Corel Software, who purchased InterVideo last August, have announced that they have issued a mandatory update for all WinDVD owners who wish to continue to use the software to view Blu-ray and HD DVD discs.

The update is being issued to address the recent cracks that have extracted volume and title keys from AACS-protected Blu-ray and HD DVD titles. "Our decision stems from recent reports that hackers have illegally obtained certain software licensing keys and have used them to duplicate copyrighted content without prior authorization," a Corel spokesperson explained in a press release. "Corel takes this situation very seriously. We have been working closely with our partners and other industry organizations to ensure we take the steps necessary to prevent copyright infringement from happening in the future."

The AACS system of copy protection was designed to adapt to hackers figuring out the Device Keys for playback units—these keys combined with the Volume and Title Keys stored on each disc are used to decrypt the content. Compromised Device Keys can be revoked, and all new high-definition discs made afterwards will simply refuse to play on a revoked device.

According to the AACS spec, only titles that are produced after the Device Key has been revoked will fail to play; existing titles should still play back without any problems. However, Corel warns WinDVD users that they should "Please be aware that failure to apply the update will result in AACS-protected HD DVD and BD playback being disabled," implying that no high-def discs will play without applying the update. It is possible that Corel designed the software to check for updates in the background and simply disable Blu-ray and HD DVD functionality if a new update was found but not installed. However, it seems more likely that Corel merely neglected to mention this aspect of the AACS specification.

While the hackers responsible for the AACS cracks did not mention WinDVD by name, it was clear that they were using this software to make their discoveries. Reaction to Corel's announcement has been fairly muted: everyone expected this patch to arrive, and the hacking community hopes that the new Device Key for the updated software will be found soon. The battle between hackers and copy protection developers will continue, with neither side gaining a decided advantage just yet.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

WinInfo Short Takes: Week of April 9

This Article has been taken from Windowsitpro.com where Paul Thurrott writes about Windows. So the Article Continues.

An often irreverent look at some of the week's other news, including Windows Weekly Live, a coming "free" version of the Zune, Home Server SDK, nerd in space, Vista SP1 stupidity, XP SP3 stupidity, Longhorn Server Beta 3 candidate, and so much more...


WinInfo Blog

t feels like Saturday today because the kids are off from school (Good Friday?) and because my wife didn't set the alarm as a result so I slept in by mistake. Now I've got to race through Short Takes so I can make it to the gym on time and... arrgggh..... Anyway. There's nothing like the sharp, cold blast of reality in the morning.

And speaking of cold, I'm going to stop talking about the weather. After essentially promising myself and others that winter was over, we lapsed into a week of frigid temperatures and even had some snow. I almost ran outside and covered up the flowers that had burst through the ground a week earlier. It's finally going to be milder this coming week, but the past week has just been brutal. Spring always comes in fits and starts in this part of the world, but this is ridiculous.

My son Mark turns nine on Saturday. He's selected "Monster Golf" as the location for this year's party, so our family, and almost 20 screaming nine-years old kids, will be immersed in a dark, black-lighted indoor mini-golf nightmare for a few hours this evening, and I as much as I love the kid, I have to admit I'm not all that excited about this event. And if you're curious, there's still no word on his pending cochlear implant surgery. Apparently, we're waiting on the parts, which is also true of my wife's Mazda, and yes, I find that coincidence more than vaguely disturbing.

For the next ten days, friends of ours from France will be visiting, which is a nice turnaround, as we've stayed with them more than a few times now when we travel there.

Last night, Leo and I recorded a live version of our Windows Weekly podcast, which was fun. We had quite a crowd, and a number of people calling in via Skype or otherwise. I'm not sure how this works, exactly, but I assume a recording will be made available normally via the podcast. In the meantime, you can hear it on the TalkShoe Web site.

Short Takes

Microsoft Considers Near-Free Zune Model

While there have been rumors of a Zune smart phone lately, it seems that Microsoft's designs on the smart phone market are more about distribution plans than actual hardware: The company is considering taking a page from the cell phone/smart phone playback by offering a Zune model for little or no cost and then making up the difference by requiring the buyer to sign on to a yearly subscription plan. If Microsoft does pursue this tact, it won't happen any time soon, but the company noted that it got the idea in recent months after watching the number of subscribers to its Zune Marketplace surge early this year. I think that's a fine idea, but I'd like to see Microsoft attack some core Zune issues first, by adding additional model types (like a flash-based version) and some missing functionality (including podcast support).

Microsoft Releases Home Server SDK


Microsoft's upcoming Windows Home Server product is a nifty idea, and my experience with the beta version thus far has been surprisingly positive. This week, Microsoft revealed that it will be making Home Server even more useful, however: It released a software development kit, or SDK that will allow developers to write applications and services that can integrate with Home Server. And I'd like to once again clear up some confusion about this product: Despite what virtually every report I've seen about Home Server says, Microsoft will make two versions available: Software-only, which you can install on your own PC or server hardware, and as a bundle with Home Server-specific hardware. This, too, makes the product more valuable.

Hungarian Notation Creator Heads to Space


Charles Simonyi, the Hungarian-born ex-Microsoft developer responsible for the so-called Hungarian Notation style of programming, will soon rocket into space onboard a Russian Soyuz spaceship. The self-described "space nerd" has been training for months, and he paid a $20 million fee to become the 450th person in space. Or, as he calls it, "the first nerd in space." Dr. Simonyi and his crew will blast off on Saturday and spend ten days at the International Space Station. Now, that's what I call a vacation with a view.

Microsoft Threatens Poster of Vista SP1 Info


This is a weird one: Last week, a blogger named Ethan Allen posted a list of the 100-plus hot-fixes and patches that Microsoft plans to ship as part of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), due later this year. He claimed that the list was mostly derived from Microsoft's publicly available knowledge base (KB) articles, though it has never been assembled in a single place as he did on his site. He also supplied a download of the fixes, which he called the Vista SP1 Preview. Microsoft was not amused. The company sent Allen a cease and desist order, for some reason, and demanded that the blogger remove his "unauthorized redistribution of [Microsoft's] hot fixes." More problematically, from my perspective, is that Microsoft program manager Nick White was harshly critical of Allen's list in the Windows Vista blog on the Microsoft Web site. I find that offensive: Allen is an enthusiast trying to help people, and the way he's rewarded is with a legal threat and a dismissive mention in a Microsoft-run Web site. Bravo, Microsoft. What's next? Do you think you could just tar and feather the guy while you're at it?

The Truth About Vista SP1


I'm tired of Microsoft's insane posturing about Windows Vista SP1. I've written about this before, but it bears repeating. Every single time Vista SP1 comes up, some representative from Microsoft--all the way up to CEO Steve Ballmer, by the way, who has done this twice in public--acts as if the company has no idea when it will ship SP1 or what features it will include. That is not true. Microsoft will ship Windows Vista SP1 concurrently with Longhorn Server in Q3 2007 and SP1 will include a major kernel update for Vista that will bring the client OS up to speed with the version of the Windows kernel in Longhorn Server. That has been the plan for quite a while, and they all know it. Why the company can't just say, "We'd rather not discuss SP1 at this time" is beyond me. Instead, they're simply lying, and for no good reason. And that's not right, especially when there are millions of customers waiting on this release to upgrade. You'd think a company that supposedly cares about transparency as much as Microsoft would realize when they're being so, well, transparent.

And What About Windows XP Service Pack 3?


And while I'm ranting a bit, let's dredge up Windows XP Service Pack 3, which was delayed from 2005 to 2006 to 2007 and now to 2008. If you were looking for any glimpse into the mind of Microsoft, this is it: The company has completely abandoned Windows XP, and it has absolutely no plans to ever ship an XP SP3. My guess is that Microsoft will do what it did with the final Windows 2000 Service Pack: Claim years later that it's no longer needed and just ship a final security patch roll-up. This is the worst kiss-off to any Microsoft product I've ever seen, and you'd think the company would show a little more respect to its best-selling OS of all time. But the reality is, Microsoft is looking ahead to new revenue and not behind to money that's already in the bank. And though hundreds of millions of people will be running XP for years to come, despite Microsoft's best efforts at selling them a later Windows version, the company has absolutely no plans to actually support those customers. This flies in the face of its publicly-stated life cycle support plans. And it really freaks me out. It should freak you out as well.

Microsoft Preps Longhorn Server Beta 3


And while we're on the topic of future revenues, Microsoft this week shipped a candidate build for Windows Server "Longhorn" Beta 3, which should be finalized sometime this month. The interim build, which is called a Community Technical Preview (CTP), adds an unexpected feature, Windows PowerShell, the Microsoft command line and scripting environment that was originally not slated for inclusion in Longhorn. I'll be reviewing Longhorn Server Beta 3 on the SuperSite for Windows when it becomes available.

In Wake of Lawsuit, Microsoft Changes Vista Logo Branding


It seems that Microsoft's "Windows Vista Capable" labeling for pre-Vista PCs was a little too confusing for consumers, who were expecting such PCs to include support for Vista features like Aero "glass." As a result, there's a lawsuit winding its way through the courts that argues that Microsoft's logo branding was deceptive, and they're shooting for class action status. Now, there's a debate to be had over this is bad enough to warrant a lawsuit, but as Brier Dudley of "The Seattle Times" noted this week, Microsoft has already changed the wording of its Vista Capable program. Originally, it read, "The Windows Vista Capable logo is designed to assure customers that the PCs they buy today will be ready for an upgrade to Windows Vista and can run the core experiences of Windows Vista." Now, it reads as, "All Windows Vista Capable PCs will run these core experiences at a minimum." Frankly, Microsoft brought these problems on itself by making too many Vista product editions and then trying to diversify them by arbitrarily adding and removing features from each. Again, I'm not sure it warrants a lawsuit, but it's certainly not consumer-friendly.

Microsoft Moves Hotmail Plus to 4 GB as Yahoo! Goes Unlimited


Microsoft this week raised the storage limit on its subscription-based Windows Live Hotmail Plus service from 2 GB to 4 GB, though the increase is being staged over time, so you might not see the additional storage for a few weeks or even months. Those who have been upgraded, unfortunately, are reporting problems: Though the system reports that they have 4 GB of space, they can only store 2 GB of mail. Microsoft says they'll work out the kinks over time. But maybe they should be looking to Yahoo, which recently announced that it will raise its email storage limit from 1 GB to unlimited storage. The best part? This will be available to users of the free version of Yahoo Mail as well. Sounds like we have a winner.

Acer Notebook Sales Surge


Speaking of winners, PC maker Acer is coming on strong in the notebook market, thanks to new retail pushes. In the fourth quarter of 2006, Acer pushed aside Toshiba to become the third best selling maker of notebook computers, behind HP and Dell. In the quarter, HP sold 5.05 million notebook computers, compared to Dell, with 3.52 million, and Acer, with 3.37 million. Fourth place Toshiba sold 2.45 million units. Researchers at IDC now believe that Acer has enough momentum to pull into third place overall in the PC industry. To do so, they'll have to displace Lenovo, which is currently in the top three behind HP and Dell.

Sony Cuts PSP Price


Sony this week cut the price of its PSP (PlayStation Portable) portable video game system from $199 to $169 in the US, in an attempt to spur sales. The PSP, which in my book is demonstrably better than the Nintendo DS that is currently outselling it, has fared somewhat poorly in the marketplace, though Sony reports it has sold 25 million units since 2005. What's odd is that this is the first price cut for the PSP. Odder still, the PSP is still more expensive than the DS, which has already seen a fairly major product update. The PSP, curiously, has not.

Microsoft Improves Xbox 360 Warranty... Again


You know, it's almost like there's an endemic problem with this thing. Microsoft this week unveiled yet another change to its Xbox 360 warranty, this one aimed at ensuring that customers who need to return the console for repairs can do so with free shipping and with a faster turnaround. Best of all: Repaired consoles include a fresh one-year warranty. Previously, Microsoft enhanced the Xbox 360 warranty in December, when it increased the length of the warranty from 90 days to 1 year. Still, my advice on the Xbox 360 is very simple: Buy it locally and get the warranty from whatever retailer you visit. This is the one time where the ability to exchange it locally will really pay off. Too many of these things are turning up lame.


Sunday, April 08, 2007

ICANN is considering becoming a private entity

The strategy was recommended in the group's recently-released Strategy Committee report, but observers fear going private will just be a ploy to avoid accountability .


ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is considering a change in the way the Internet's governing body is organized that could allow it to skirt some potential legal issues.

In late March, a committee that was formed to make recommendations to ICANN related to certain strategic issues released the President's Strategy Committee Report with its findings. The committee recommends that ICANN and relevant stakeholders consider the advantages of "moving ICANN's legal identity to that of a private international organization based in the U.S."

As the committee sees it, that change would offer the organization immunities to limit liabilities.

Some onlookers are skeptical of the idea. "ICANN's new President's Strategy Committee Report makes public for the first time what insiders have been muttering about for almost a year: ICANN has a great new idea for avoiding all accountability," Michael Froomkin, a professor specializing in Internet and administrative law at the University of Miami School of Law, wrote on ICANNWatch.org, a Web site he helped found.

If ICANN were to go the route of reclassifying itself as an independent international organization, it would be on par with groups like the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), the international soccer association. That model hasn't necessarily worked perfectly, he said. "Not surprisingly, the lack of accountability at the IOC and FIFA created a climate for scandal and speculation," he wrote.

Also, the U.S. is unlikely to agree to such a change, which would essentially shield ICANN from any liability or judicial supervision, he wrote.

If ICANN does move forward with the plan, it should be sure to establish full accountability and review mechanisms, including a process for using international arbitration panels, the committee wrote. It should also consider incorporating relevant California or U.S. federal law into its arbitration process, the committee said.

The proposal comes after a decision late last year to extend U.S. government oversight of ICANN for three more years. That decision drew praise from onlookers eager to ensure that a transition to independence is smooth for the organization and criticism from those pushing for ICANN to be truly international without the influence of any one government.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Damon Albarn releases EMI's first DRM-free album

Former Blur member Damon Albarn's latest music project is the first EMI album to be released without copy protection.

Kingdom of Doom, by The Good, The Bad & The Queen, is available to download as 256Kbps MP3 files.

EMI said that the unlocked files give fans the option of choosing to play the music across a range of devices and platforms, including digital music players, mobile phones and home music systems.

"We are delighted that this amazing band's songs can now be purchased directly from their website in a format that can be enjoyed on all music players," said Eric Nicoli, chief executive of EMI Group.

Apple's iTunes service will be the first online music store to receive EMI's DRM-free downloads.

The Good, The Bad & The Queen is made up of Damon Albarn, Paul Simonon, Tony Allen and Simon Tong.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Photobucket Rules its Market

Photo-sharing site is by far the most popular in its category among U.S. users.

Photobucket Inc.'s eponymous photo sharing site is by far the most popular in its category among U.S. users, dwarfing the traffic of competitors like Yahoo Inc.'s Yahoo Photos and Flickr.

Photobucket nabbed 41.4 percent of U.S. visits to photography Web sites in March, a market share that is more than seven times larger than its nearest competitor, according to Hitwise Pty. Ltd.

Yahoo Inc.'s Photos came in a distant second place with 5.8 percent, while Flickr, also owned by Yahoo, had 4.6 percent, Hitwise said Wednesday. Slide Inc.'s Slide.com (4.5 percent) and Eastman Kodak Co.'s Kodak Gallery (3.4 percent) rounded out the top five.

Storing, displaying and sharing of photos is one of the most popular activities on the Internet, as digital cameras and camera phones have become ubiquitous devices in the general population. As such, photo sites are strong vehicles for advertising revenue.

Photobucket lets users store photos, slide shows, videos and graphics on its servers and then link them to other Web sites. It is particularly popular among users of the social networking giant site MySpace, from where it receives almost 57 percent of its upstream traffic, according to Hitwise.

Photobucket, founded in 2003, has 39 million registered users. It links its photos, videos and graphics to 500,000 different Web sites, according to the company. Its users upload about 7 million photos and 40,000 videos to the site every day.

Photobucket ranked 34th among ComScore Networks Inc.'s top 50 U.S. Web properties in March, with almost 16.8 million unique visitors.

Friday, April 06, 2007

Friday, April 06, 2007

Samsung Launches Quiet SpinPoint Hard Drives

Silence is golden with Samsung's new hard drives

Samsung today announced that its new 3.5” SpinPoint S166 Series of ultra silent and high-speed hard disk drives are currently shipping in 80GB and 160GB capacities. The S166 Series has a spindle speed of 7,200RPM and provides an 8MB buffer. The Series features the SATA 3.0Gbps interface and includes Native Command Queuing (NCQ). The drives are also available with a PATA interface for customers who require this application.

The new SpinPoint S Series of hard drives offer upgraded versions of Samsung’s proprietary SilentSeek and NoiseGuard technologies to accelerate operational speed while reducing noise. Benchmarking results presented by Samsung show competing hard drives generate on average 2.8 bel (1 bel = 10 decibels) in idle mode and 3.2 bel in seek mode, while Samsung’s S166 series generate just 2.4 bel and 2.75 bel respectively.

Samsung claims the fifteen percent noise-level reduction is “significant” and makes the drives ideal for use in office computers, as well as in home consumer electronics such as DVR/ PVRs, or any other hard drive equipped products intended for use in a quiet environment.

“Samsung is constantly pushing the technology envelope with the introduction of new and innovative products that meet the computing needs of today’s most demanding customers and operating environments,” states TJ Lee, vice president of sales & marketing at Samsung Electronics’ Storage System Division. “This latest technology development by Samsung in the new SpinPoint S166 Series makes our high-end, award-winning hard drive products attractive to a wider audience by even further reducing acoustic noise and improving disk data transfer speed.”

Friday, April 06, 2007

Google to build $600M datacenter in South Carolina

Google is also looking to build a second site in South Carolina
Google plans to invest $600 million in a new datacenter in South Carolina, the state government said on Wednesday.

The datacenter will be built on a 210 hectare site at the Mt. Holly Commerce Park in Berkeley County near Charleston. Land at the site was purchased by a Google subsidiary last year, according to a statement by the State of South Carolina.

Google plans to use as many local vendors as possible to build the center to maximize the boost to the local economy, the state said. The center is expected to lead to the creation of an initial 200 jobs and should see Google paying just under $2 million per year in property taxes to the county.

The Internet search and advertising giant will be partially reimbursed by the state for site preparation and infrastructure as part of South Carolina's Job Development Credits incentive program. The state legislature has also updated the tax rules so that electricity and capital investment in equipment necessary for data centers used in the web search portal and internet service provider industries are exempt from sales tax., the statement said.

Additionally Google is looking at a second site in South Carolina near Columbia, the state capital, the statement said.

The identity of the site was not specified but a report on the Web site of the Charleston-based Post and Courier newspaper said a Google-affiliated company, Arum Composites, recently bought 466 acres (189 hectares) of land north of Columbia.

The local community will start benefiting from the decision before the data center comes online. In neighboring North Carolina the city of Lenoir is already seeing the pay-off from Google's decision to build a datacenter there. Several hundred construction workers are living in local hotels, eating at local restaurants and buying from local shops.

Friday, April 06, 2007

Hitachi Ships 1TB Hard Disk Drive

Hitachi Ships 1TB Hard Disk Drive.
Hitachi’s 1000GB HDD Available in Japan



Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) has started to ship its 1TB hard disk drives (HDDs) introduced early this year commercially. But the hard drive that represents a milestone in desktop data storage costs a little less than two times higher compared to slightly less capacious one, which makes it not very affordable.

Hitachi’s Deskstar 7K1000 HDS721010KLA330 model features five 250GB platters and ten heads, has 7200rpm motor as well as 32MB data buffer. The manufacturer claims that the drive has 8.5ms read seek time, 9.2ms write seek time and 1070Mb/s (133.75MB/s) maximum media transfer rate. Currently the company ships 1TB hard disk drive with Serial ATA-300 interface, but a model with Parallel ATA interface is also expected to be available.

Hitachi’s 1TB hard disk drive indisputably represents a milestone in desktop storage, as only ten years ago the world’s most capacious hard disk drive was 16.7GB IBM Deskstar, whereas 1GB landmark in desktops was achieved in 1995. But, it appears, end-users will have to pay a significant premium to acquire the product that reached 1TB milestone.

Currently Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 hard disk drives with 1TB capacity are available in Japan for ¥51 500 - ¥55980 ($433 - $470), much higher compared to Seagate Barracuda 750GB, which retails for ¥29400 - ¥39660 ($247 - $333) in Tokyo, according to Akiba PC Hotline web-site. The recommended price of the 1TB drive from Hitachi for the U.S. is $399, whereas Seagate’s 750GB product costs starting from $249 in the country.

Friday, April 06, 2007

Yahoo Tests Customizable Alpha Search Engine

Prototype tool lets users tailor searches by components from different sources.

Yahoo Inc. is quietly testing a search engine which users can customize by adding, removing and rearranging components, suggesting that the company may plan to make it easier for users to tailor search sites to reflect their interests.

Yahoo Alpha, which is hosted on an Australian domain, offers a default results page with a list of Web sites on the left hand column and six specialty search result boxes on the right hand column.

The specialty boxes display results from three Yahoo search engines: the Flickr photo service, the Answers question-and-answer service and Yahoo News. It also returns non-Yahoo results from Google Inc.'s YouTube video site and from the encyclopedia Wikipedia. Finally, it has a box for displaying search ads from Yahoo's online ad network.

It gives users the option to customize the default layout of the results page by repositioning the different elements and by adding or removing the specialty search boxes. Apparently, users can insert a search results page from any Web site that syndicates its content via RSS (Really Simple Syndication).

A quick test-drive of the site shows that anyone can query Alpha and obtain results in the default page, but to customize the layout and search sources, users need to log into Yahoo.

A handful of Yahoo Alpha sightings began sprouting up on the blogosphere on Wednesday. Asked for comment and details about Yahoo Alpha, which is in beta, or test, phase, the company would provide only the following statement on Thursday: "This is a very early prototype and we are always testing new products and services to get feedback from our users on improving the user experience."

Yahoo already provides a service called Search Builder to let Web publishers build customized search engines for their sites based on the Yahoo search platform. However, Yahoo Alpha seems targeted at end users interested in creating a search page tailored to their interests. Users can also share their Yahoo Alpha search pages with others.

As such, Yahoo Alpha seems to be yet another experiment in social search for the company, which has been exploring and providing search services that let users participate by contributing content and tags. For example, Yahoo Answers lets users answer each other's questions, while Del.icio.us lets users post and share their favorite Web site bookmarks. Flickr does a similar thing with photos.

Yahoo Alpha seems similar, at least conceptually, to Google Inc.'s Co-op, which also lets users create a customized search engine. People can use their Co-op-created engine for their personal use, and they also have the option of embedding it on their Web site for others to use.

Social-search services have become popular as tools for users to tame the often unmanageable amount and breadth of search results that general Web engines return for average queries.