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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.

Friday, April 06, 2007

Tokyo requests YouTube delete candidates' speeches

Tokyo's election commission Thursday asked the popular video sharing website YouTube to take off clips of candidates for the local governor's race, saying it gave some of them unfair advantages.

The election commission said it wanted to "ensure fairness" among candidates ahead of Sunday's election in the world's largest metropolis. "We made the requests via e-mail and fax to the YouTube office in the United States," said commission official Hiroyoshi Yone.

"The site has allowed only certain candidates' speeches to be viewed freely on the site, with which we cannot ensure the fairness of the election," he said. But the commission has not received any reply from the operator of the US website, he said. Japanese election law limits the broadcasting of speeches, which are aired only on public broadcaster NHK.

Soon after the race kicked off last month, the speech by one fringe candidate, street musician Koichi Toyama, 36, has become a popular attraction on YouTube due to his eccentric, confrontational approach. YouTube, which was bought in November by Google, has faced trouble in Japan before. In February, it agreed to post a copyright infringement warning in Japanese under pressure from media and copyright protection bodies. This week Thailand's military-installed government banned YouTube entirely after it failed to block a video considered insulting to King Bhumibol Adulyadej, a revered figure in the country.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Leopard leaping in June

The release will come at the tail end of spring, which ends June 21, enabling Apple to meet its original shipping estimate.

As recently as January Apple had been targeting a ship date of end March—as noted by multiple Think Secret sources and other media reports—but the company elected in recent weeks to move the date back. Sources privy to the reasons behind the June ship date could tell Think Secret the details only off the record, however.

"Leopard is shaping up to be a more significant release than anyone expected, with much more to come than any of the developer builds have led on," one source said.

Also scheduled for a June release now are new versions of Apple's iLife and iWork suites, which will pack extensive Leopard-dependent features. Sources say Apple continues to toy with the idea of bundling one or both suites with the new operating system free of charge in an effort to further play up the extra value and features Mac OS X offers over Microsoft's new Windows Vista.

In addition, there is a reasonable chance that Apple will drop its yearly naming convention for the software suites entirely, sources report, suggesting "'07" could be replaced with "Leopard Edition", or a similar naming convention that would free Apple from being tied to date-specific versions that appear older in consumer's minds as the calendar rolls over.

Competitor Microsoft plans to release the next version of Office for Mac in the second-half of 2007, for example, but will assign the software a 2008 label. Apple's next version of iWork, meanwhile, is poised to compete even more directly with Office with the addition of a new spreadsheet application.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Banks Starting to Look to Microsoft Vista

In February, Microsoft launched its much-anticipated Vista operating system (OS). According to the company, the successor to Windows XP sports several new features that are designed to increase productivity for Microsoft's clients -- including, of course, banks.

"XP [which was released in 2001] is pretty widely deployed in banks, from the lending side to product management, even in the back office," says Greg Haislip, managing director, banking, at Microsoft. "Vista will take over this role," he contends. However, there isn't a "financial services" version of Vista per se, Haislip notes, adding that Vista is a horizontal platform common across Microsoft's footprint.

Still, there are certain aspects of the OS that bankers can exploit to help improve their operations, specifically around security, mobile computing and search. For example, baked into Vista is encryption technology that leverages Microsoft's BitLocker solution. The OS can store centralized keys so users won't need to rebuild them if the data or hardware is compromised.

Further, Vista includes a new search feature that allows users to search different types of media on their computers. "Finding information fast is vital to banks," states Haislip. "This is true for lending officers, relationship managers, wealth managers and call centers."

Another of Vista's capabilities that can be exploited by bankers is on-demand networking for mobile workers. "Vista has P2P networking capability so you can access information from anywhere. This is great for private bankers, for example," Haislip states. "We're building a lot of these things into the core operating system so clients don't have to rely on third parties."

Microsoft also offers a Vista desktop optimization pack that allows users to virtualize applications. "This can be used, for example, on an archaic teller system or an internal system based on an older version of ACT," explains Microsoft's Marley Gray, technical architect, banking. "You can run the new and the old applications in parallel to help lower your risk when you migrate completely to the new version."

The Vista Plunge

Doubts have been expressed about the extent to which Vista is ready for prime time, however. Some industry analysts, such as Gartner (Stamford, Conn.), say it will take at least a year of testing before most banks are able to switch to the new OS, mainly due to issues around compatibility of Vista with their applications and whether their vendors' applications can support Vista.

Therefore, expect a gradual adoption of Vista, says IDC (Framingham, Mass.). According to a report from the firm, during 2007, "Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Enterprise will account for 35 percent of the new Windows client operating environments deployed by business users." The following year, the study says, this figure will grow to 80 percent for new deployments.

Some organizations, however, have already taken the Vista plunge. The Dalles, Ore.-based Columbia River Bank ($1 billion in assets), for example, was invited into Microsoft's technology adoption program for Vista and began beta-testing the OS in February 2006. It started upgrading its systems to the nonbeta version in December, according to Nathan Church, VP and IT manager at Columbia River.

"The main reason we went with Vista was that it has a lot of security built into it that we wanted to implement -- encryption, BitLocker, the ability to lock down your desktop," explains Church. "Otherwise, we would have had to look to third parties for this."

Vista's compatibility with its bank-specific systems also was of particular concern to Columbia River, Church adds. "One of the reasons we looked at Vista so early was to see if it was compatible with our systems," he explains. "We were able to see where any glitches were early on. Through the entire [beta] process, we were able to communicate with the vendors to fix these things."

Church also cites Vista's enhanced search capability and new mobility features as efficiency-boosters. "It just allows better management in a notebook environment," he asserts.

"Every single PC will be upgraded to [Vista] -- desktops and notebooks. This includes our call center, front line, tellers, loan officers, private bankers, administrative staff and executives," Church continues. "There are almost 500 computers throughout the bank," he says, adding that the migration should be completed by May.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

UK hacker loses extradition fight

A British man has lost his High Court fight against extradition to the US for allegedly carrying out the "biggest military computer hack of all time".

Glasgow-born Gary McKinnon, of north London, is accused of gaining access to 97 US military and Nasa computers. Home Secretary John Reid granted the US request to extradite him for trial.At the High Court in London, his lawyers argued the 41-year-old had been subjected to "improper threats" and the move would breach his human rights. His lawyers had argued that, if extradited, he would face an unknown length of time in pre-trial detention, with no likelihood of bail. He would also face a long prison sentence - "in the region of 45 years" - and may not be allowed to serve part of the sentence at home in the UK, his lawyers had said.

But, on Tuesday, Lord Justice Maurice Kay and Mr Justice Goldring dismissed his legal challenge, saying they could not find any grounds for appeal. Ben Cooper, for Mr McKinnon, said his client would now seek to make an appeal against his extradition at the House of Lords. Alleged threats by US authorities, including one from New Jersey prosecutors that "he would fry", would be among issues raised, Mr Cooper said. "We will certainly be applying for this court to certify a point of law of public importance and to grant leave," he said.Mr McKinnon had been suffering from ill health during recent court hearings, he added. Mr McKinnon has never denied that he accessed the computer networks of a wide number of US military institutions between February 2001 and March 2002. Mr McKinnon, arrested in November 2002, has always maintained that he was motivated by curiosity and that he only managed to get into the networks because of lax security.


Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Blu-ray Disc Specification Change Threatens Current Players

Blu-ray Disc Java is coming this fall, and it may be incompatible with some of today's machines.

The most common piece of advice given to those unsure about which high-definition optical format to buy is to simply wait until a victor emerges. Early adopters, however, should be aware that being cutting edge could come with a price, such as the risk of bugs or complete hardware and software obsolescence.

The Blu-ray Disc Association has mandated that all players of the format released after October 31 must adhere to a specific feature set that is currently not standard for today’s hardware. All Blu-ray Disc players after the fall date must support BD Java, a programming language for Blu-ray Disc media used mainly to deliver picture-in-picture for in-movie commentary and special features.

“Blu-ray player requirements and BD-Java specifications have been gradually changed over and over again, which has caused a good amount of grief for player manufacturers,” said optical storage analyst Wesley Novack. “The new specification and requirements will ensure that all Blu-ray players manufactured past October will be able to support the full range of BD-Java capabilities, including picture in picture and more.”

Early adopters of Blu-ray players may find themselves with inadequate hardware to support media using BD Java software.

Novack continued, “This might be bad news for early adopters who have already purchased a player, but it will not prevent them from playing back future Blu-ray movies. Owners of first generation Blu-ray players will probably not be able to use the full range of interactive features available on future Blu-ray Disc titles.”

Owners of current Blu-ray Disc players who are concerned about the future utility of their hardware are assured by manufacturers that current players won’t be made completely obsolete with the new standard.

“As is common in new format introductions, future products will include some additional features such as picture-in-picture,” said Philips VP Marty Gordon to Video Business. “Regardless of whether first-generation hardware supports these new features, the discs will still play.”

Unlike the HD DVD standard, Blu-ray players are not required to have Ethernet ports for firmware updates. Blu-ray machines with upgradable firmware likely will have a greater chance of conforming to the mandated format this fall.

Although HD DVD is not without its own set of early adopter issues, support for a standard programming language is already solidified for the format. HDi, an XML-based format developed by Microsoft and Toshiba, is mandatory on all HD DVD players and enables picture-in-picture special features to run alongside the feature length film.

Warner Bros. has released titles such as Batman Begins and V for Vendetta for HD DVD but not Blu-ray for the sole reason of the latter format’s lack of standardization. The upcoming Matrix trilogy release will also appear on HD DVD first for the same reason. Warner Bros. said that it would release Blu-ray Disc versions of such films in the fall, assumingly after the BD Java mandate takes effect.

Paramount has taken a different approach with Blu-ray’s apparent shortcoming. The studio released Mission: Impossible 3 on both HD DVD and Blu-ray, though the HD DVD version features a video picture-in-picture commentary, while the Blu-ray version does only with audio.

Only a couple Blu-ray movies feature picture-in-picture commentaries, those titles being Descent and Crank, though they do so without BD Java. Cleverly, and perhaps inelegantly, two complete versions of the movie are stored on a 50GB Blu-ray disc. One version contains the normal version of the film, while the second one features the picture-in-picture commentary hard-encoded on top of the film.

The addition of BD Java is not the only new requirement for Blu-ray players this fall. All players released after October 31 must hold a minimum 256MB of persistent memory storage. Those with network options will have to have 1GB of memory to support Web downloads.

Famed DVD producer, Van Ling, expresses discontent over the lack of standardization of the Blu-ray format. “The whole problem comes in when some manufacturers toe the minimum line and some others might make twice the minimum [functionality] on players,” said Ling. “In my view, I shouldn’t have to know what every single player can do. Rather than downgrade my creative vision for the lowest common denominator player, I want to create something [that fully realizes Blu-ray abilities].”


Tuesday, April 03, 2007

EMI Music launches DRM-free superior sound quality downloads across its entire digital repertoire

London, 2 April 2007 -- EMI Music today announced that it is launching new premium downloads for retail on a global basis, making all of its digital repertoire available at a much higher sound quality than existing downloads and free of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions.

The new higher quality DRM-free music will complement EMI's existing range of standard DRM-protected downloads already available. From today, EMI's retailers will be offered downloads of tracks and albums in the DRM-free audio format of their choice in a variety of bit rates up to CD quality. EMI is releasing the premium downloads in response to consumer demand for high fidelity digital music for use on home music systems, mobile phones and digital music players. EMI's new DRM-free products will enable full interoperability of digital music across all devices and platforms.

Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI Group, said, "Our goal is to give consumers the best possible digital music experience. By providing DRM-free downloads, we aim to address the lack of interoperability which is frustrating for many music fans. We believe that offering consumers the opportunity to buy higher quality tracks and listen to them on the device or platform of their choice will boost sales of digital music.

"Apple have been a true pioneer in digital music, and we are delighted that they share our vision of an interoperable market that provides consumers with greater choice, quality, convenience and value for money."

"Selling digital music DRM-free is the right step forward for the music industry," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "EMI has been a great partner for iTunes and is once again leading the industry as the first major music company to offer its entire digital catalogue DRM-free."

Apple's iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) is the first online music store to receive EMI's new premium downloads. Apple has announced that iTunes will make individual AAC format tracks available from EMI artists at twice the sound quality of existing downloads, with their DRM removed, at a price of $1.29/€1.29/£0.99. iTunes will continue to offer consumers the ability to pay $0.99/€0.99/£0.79 for standard sound quality tracks with DRM still applied. Complete albums from EMI Music artists purchased on the iTunes Store will automatically be sold at the higher sound quality and DRM-free, with no change in the price. Consumers who have already purchased standard tracks or albums with DRM will be able to upgrade their digital music for $0.30/€0.30/£0.20 per track. All EMI music videos will also be available on the iTunes Store DRM-free with no change in price.

EMI is introducing a new wholesale price for premium single track downloads, while maintaining the existing wholesale price for complete albums. EMI expects that consumers will be able to purchase higher quality DRM-free downloads from a variety of digital music stores within the coming weeks, with each retailer choosing whether to sell downloads in AAC, WMA, MP3 or other unprotected formats of their choice. Music fans will be able to purchase higher quality DRM-free digital music for personal use, and listen to it on a wide range of digital music players and music-enabled phones.

EMI's move follows a series of experiments it conducted recently. Norah Jones's "Thinking About You", Relient K's "Must've Done Something Right", and Lily Allen's "Littlest Things" were all made available for sale in the MP3 format in trials held at the end of last year.

EMI Music will continue to employ DRM as appropriate to enable innovative digital models such as subscription services (where users pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to music), super-distribution (allowing fans to share music with their friends) and time-limited downloads (such as those offered by ad-supported services).

Nicoli added: "Protecting the intellectual property of EMI and our artists is as important as ever, and we will continue to work to fight piracy in all its forms and to educate consumers. We believe that fans will be excited by the flexibility that DRM-free formats provide, and will see this as an incentive to purchase more of our artists' music."
Tuesday, April 03, 2007

New bill lets colleges use federal funds to fight P2P

Representative Ric Keller (R-FL) feels that colleges in America are teaching students more than literature, history, and computer science. They are also dens of thievery, places where students learn to steal "billions of dollars in intellectual property from hardworking people whose jobs hang in the balance." Rep. Keller is talking about illegal file-swapping, of course, and his new bill (HR 1689) could give schools more money to combat the P2P scourge.

The bill is called the "Curb Illegal Downloading on College Campuses Act of 2007." It amends the Higher Education Act, a bill that supplies federal money to universities, allowing that money to be used for programs that reduce illegal downloading of copyrighted content.

The goal is to free up university money that would otherwise be spent on bandwidth costs and to keep networks more secure by keeping out viruses that may attach themselves to P2P files. The bill notes that "computer systems at colleges and universities are intended primarily to aid in educating and increase research capability among students and faculty;" clogging a campus network with BitTorrent traffic does not fall under the school's educational mandate.

The Higher Education Act (HEA) generally allows schools to spend the money they receive only on certain prescribed areas such as financial aid grants and Pell loans. The new bill would allow that money to be used for more things, but does not contain a request for additional funding. Whether schools would be interested in using a limited pool of federal money to police student file-swapping remains to be seen.

There's no guarantee that the bill will make it to a vote, of course. It has already been shunted to the House Committee on Education and Labor, and might languish there until the end of this Congressional term except for the fact that the HEA needs to be reauthorized, and soon. The HEA expires this summer, and Congress will certainly find a way to extend it yet again or fully reauthorize it, since few things look worse than cutting massive student aid programs.

Campuses have come under plenty of scrutiny in the past few weeks, with the RIAA and the MPAA calling schools out for high levels of illicit P2P usage. Individual representatives in Congress have also taken an interest in the issue; can it be long before the carrot of additional funds for security is supplemented with the stick of penalties for not addressing the problem?


Tuesday, April 03, 2007

MySpace bug hunt off to a slow start

As You all know about the bug which was going to Invade Myspace starting April 1 as proclaimed by 2 Hackers or say persons , So this is in continuation of the News and Attacks on Myspace.

A group of hackers has kicked off its month of MySpace vulnerabilities, which it hopes will make more of a splash than January's month of bugs for Apple Inc.'s software.

But they acknowledge they've started off with a softball, as the first one revealed on Sunday isn't too dangerous, they wrote .

The problem involves URL (Uniform Resource Locator) spoofing. An attacker could build an official-looking MySpace page using MySpace's CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) editing features that's designed to solicit a person's log-in details. The fake page could have a URL that reads "www.myspace.com/PasswordReset."

The problem is credited to mybeNi websecurity .

"Note, it's a pretty light one, seeing how today is Sunday, and we don't really expect the crack MySpace Security Squad to actually do a lot of code changes on Sunday," they wrote. "So, we went with one they probably don't care about, and isn't terribly dangerous on its own."

The hackers, who go by the names Mondo Armando and Müstaschio, have said they picked MySpace for their project for its high number of users. MySpace had 64.4 million unique visitors in February, according to comScore Networks Inc., which tracks Web site traffic.

The hackers have informed MySpace of the project, they said.

"They are adhering to the company line that they do not respond to inquiries regarding security," one of the hackers wrote in an e-mail to IDG News Service.

The "month of bugs" theme has been criticized as gimmicky and, sometimes, just not that exciting. Others have done the "Month of kernel bugs" and "Month of PHP bugs" projects. The month of Apple bugs, which ran throughout January, turned up flaws but nothing too alarming.

But MySpace might prove more fertile. It has frequently been targeted by hackers since a single compromised account can open a door to potentially hundreds of thousands of other users, which can be targeted with spam or infected with malicious code.

In December, a worm rapidly spread across user profiles using a cross-site scripting weakness and a feature within Apple's QuickTime multimedia player.

Users who visited another MySpace profile could be infected by viewing an embedded QuickTime file, which could then begin an attack to capture the user's log-in details.

If the MySpace vulnerabilities aren't that thrilling, the hackers said it could aid the end of month-long bug-finding sprees.

"If it kills this Month of Whatever fad, then hurray for everyone, it's over," they wrote on their Web site.



Tuesday, April 03, 2007

US$499 blue-laser player models to be generally available in 2H07

Samsung Electronics lowered the retail price for its Blu-ray Disc (BD) player BP-1000 by about 48% to US$469.99 in late March of 2007 and in response, Toshiba immediately reduced the US retail price for its entry-level HD DVD player HD-A2 to US$399. The price competition will lead to the situation that many BD and HD DVD player models will be launched at US$499 or less during the second half of the year, according to Taiwan makers of optical disc drives.

With US$500 regarded as an indicator of market acceptance for optical disc drives, BD or HD DVD players for sale at US$499 or lower were originally expected to come up in the fourth quarter of 2007, the sources indicated. However, Toshiba took the initiative to launch an entry-level HD DVD player, HD-E1, at a retail price of US$499 early in March 2007, triggering the US$499 price competition two quarters earlier than originally expected, the sources pointed out.

Monday, April 02, 2007

Monday, April 02, 2007

Today Starts Again

This Post is done so that i may recall attention of all the persons coming to this blog that please tell me about some sort of the themes or customizations that need to be done in order that my blog should look good.

Please Post about the good and bad things about the blog.