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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 09 Issue 51
Volume 9, Issue 51 Atari Online News, Etc. December 21, 2007
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2007
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
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To download A-ONE, set your browser bookmarks to one of the
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Visit the Atari Advantage Forum on Delphi!
http://forums.delphiforums.com/atari/
=~=~=~=
A-ONE #0951 12/21/07
~ Merry X-mas To Readers ~ People Are Talking! ~ IE 8 Beta In 2008!
~ All-In-One Printers! ~ Click-To-Give Charity! ~ Worm Hits Orkut!
~ Life Without Computers ~ OLPC Heralds New Era! ~ New Firefox Beta!
~ Anti-Social Parodies! ~ Atari BBS News Update! ~ Felon Became COO!
-* Text Messaging In Politics? *-
-* Americans Googling Themselves More! *-
-* Popular Apple Rumor Web Site To Shut Down! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I'm telling ya, we're not even at the official beginning of winter yet,
but we've had three snow storms within a week. White Christmas, Bah,
Humbug! We have almost two feet of snow on the ground already. Yes,
it's a winter wonder land, if you're into that kind of thing. Personally,
I could do without most of it (the snow)!
So, here we are, the next-to-last issue of 2007. Nine years of doing
A-ONE - wow! It's hard to imagine another year almost under our belts,
much less nine of 'em! But, here we are.
Before I forget, all of us here at A-ONE want to wish all of you, our
faithful readers, a happy holiday season. Regardless of which holiday
you celebrate, or even if you don't, we hope that it's a great one.
Personally, I'm looking forward to watching my wife and two dogs rip
into the Hanukkah gifts that I helped Hanukkah Harry deliver; and
naturally, the ones that Ole' St, Nick will bring as well. And yes, I
can't wait to use my new digital camera (yeah, I sneaked a peek!!). It
won't be long now!
I know that I usually take a moment at the end of each year to thank
all of you, our faithful readers, for your support over the past year,
and years. And, I will likely expand upon that next week. But one
thing I don't always remember to do, especially at this time of the year,
is to tank those folks who help put A-ONE together each and every week,
and those who help out behind the scenes - either by supporting our web
site and mailings, or regularly sending along bits of news throughout
the year. So, thanks to Joe Mirando and his People Are Talking column
and various other support functions; Rob Mahlert and his support of our
web site and more; TJ Andrews for his occasional columns; Peter West
(in the UK) for his keeping me on my toes regarding weekly mailing
problems!; and Fred Horvat, one of our loyal readers, who routinely
points out a variety of news articles that might interest our readers.
And there are others, I'm sure, whom I'm neglecting to remember at the
moment. Without all of you, A-ONE would have likely faded away into the
sunset years ago. So, thanks!
Please have a safe and joyous holiday. Be careful and drive safely (and
don't drink and drive!). Enjoy being with friends and family. Seasons
Greetings from all of us here at A-ONE!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
Atari BBS News Update
Some interesting BBS news... this is just to catch you up so that you can
go into the BBS's without having to dig for this and can therefore just
jump in....
1) Boot Factory sysop Abdul
(Atari 8-bit BBS, emulation, ATASCII option)
Running well. Marius (of the fifth BBS to be mentioned here) mentioned
thinking about selling his Atari equipment on the message base here. I
really hope he didn't.
GAMES ON THE BOOT FACTORY
1. Blackjack
2. Rule Prometheus! (Kingdom)
3. Pro-Zee
4. Keno!
5. Life Expectancy
-. Coal Mines of Midlothian (Selectable from main menu ATASCII needed)
2) Inside The Atari 8 Bit sysop Steve
(Atari 8-bit BBS, Real equipment, ATASCII option)
Up and going. Been a little activity on the first message base. The game
menu does not seem to be active at this time. However this BBS is known
for being possibly multi-channel, so you can have more than one user on
at a time, and this is run on the real equipment. Good ANSI screens and
menus too for the non-Atari user getting on this one.
3) Mousenet BBS
(Atari 8-bit BBS, Real Equipment?, ATASCII option)
"11-04-07 BBS Crash"
"sh*t happens, the BBS was crashed the last days and killed all the
Boardfiles and my Boot partition. The userist was not deleted. not I have
installed an older Backup from 10-03-07 (only the Boardfiles on
Partition 5)"
When I checked the message base was not letting me post. So if someone
could please let the sysop know if you know him.
MOUSENET has ATASCII cartoons and ASCII picture galleries.
4) Darkforces
(Atari ST BBS run on a Mega ST 2)
UDS-10 (Serial to Ethernel adaptor) is down. Will be back up when a
replacement comes.
DARKFORCES, when it comes back up, is a great ST BBS that has a variety
of message areas, and many online games. More on this soon.
5) Atari 8-bit Inside (Marius' BBS)
(Atari 8-bit BBS run on the real hardware)
See the first entry for the Boot Factory. Possibly down for good.
icon_sad.gif
6) ST Guild Chuck B
(ST BBS run on... ???)
telnet://stguild-bbs.dydns.org/
On Thu, 25 Oct 2007 22:16:19 -0400, Chuck B wrote:
> I have had some problems with over the last few months. I and had to
shut it
> down. But if you want I will put it back up right now!! I am going to
see
> how things go for a month so give it a try.
Will have to see if he is willing to give this another go. Posted a
message on the Atari ST newsgroups to see what the plans are. Hopefully
Chuck will reply.
7) Closer To Home Tom Hunt
(Atari 8 bit BBS run under emulation, ATASCII option)
This long time BBS has been basically up for forever. It has spells where
it is down while family uses the computer, so who knows on this one.
There is a discussion about Tom Hunt's work here.
8 ) The Grove BBS
(Atari ST BBS run under emulation.)
Telnet://shadow.skeleton.org
(Type BBS and then nothing for the password)
Just got on this BBS the other day, looks really promising.
Here are the games...
1. Assassin
2. Galactic Empire 2.41
3. Final Frontier 1.53
4. Space Trader Elite
5. Mount NevereST Trivia
6. Cows 9.0
7. Super Star Trek
8. Death
9. Air Defence 3.8
10. Moria/ST
11. DDST (AD&D ST)
12. Pirate Adventure
13. Ghost Town Adventure
14. Blackjack
15. James Bond: World Domination
16. Trivial Pursuit
PLEASE if you know of any BBS's that are up that are not listed, please
let me know ASAP as we are adjusting the BBS list at telnet://rdfig.net
(again x at the main menu for internet, then A for Atari, then select
the Atari BBS on the list. There are broken links, this will be all
updated completely soon).
Also don't forget the Atari IRC chat starting at 8 pm CST. (I'll be a
late arrival, but plan to be there eventually.)
--------------------
+------------ |||
|Doctor Clu / | \
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho-ho-ho, friends and neighbors. Well, here we stand at the 'edge'
of the year, like standing a right next to that dark area on some huge
old-fashioned map, where they used to write "beyond this place there be
dragons" because no one knew for sure what was in those regions.
That's kind of what the end of the year is like, and for the past 51
weeks I've been watching the numbers of the A-ONE mag issues increase,
one number per week, until we find ourselves here with only one number
to go. And what awaits us on the other side of the year? Nobody knows.
But one thing is for sure, the coming year is going to have a way to go
to be as... ummm... interesting, yeah, that's the word: Interesting...
as this past year has been.
Another thing I want to mention is that it's time again for all of us
who are able to donate what we can to our local food-share, soup
kitchen, shelter or church organization. I know that for many of us
it's been a lean year, and I expect the situation to continue for a
while longer yet but, let's face it, we've all still got it pretty
good. I doubt that there are many reading this who cannot spare a
little something to donate.
It doesn't have to be a fortune or a feast. Fortunes and feasts are made
up of bits and pieces just like anything else. All you need to do is a
little... a can of cranberry sauce, a bag of stuffing, a couple of
bucks... whatever you can spare.
I'm not going to tell the story again of how Harry Chapin dope-smacked
me about donating. I'm sure that anyone who'd be interested has already
heard the story several times. But in brief, I got a chance to meet
Harry Chapin during the intermission of one of his concerts, and
proudly told him that I'd taken his advice and made a donation to a
local shelter. He burst my bubble by telling me that it wasn't enough
to do it once a year and sit back for the other 51 weeks and feel like
I'd just solved all the world's problems. There's a need all year long,
52 weeks a year.
Well, ya know what? He was right. But it's only recently that I've come
to think that he was talking more about the way we think and act than
about what and when we donate. This past year has hammered home to me
the importance of the phrase, "There but for the grace of God go I".
Oh! One other thing I want to mention... if you're an avid reader of
this column, first of all, you really need to raise your standards
some... but second, you may remember that last year I kind of went off
on a rant about the great "'Happy Holidays' versus 'Merry Christmas'"
argument, and about "holiday trees" and all that other silliness.
Well, just the other day I heard someone (and someone who's supposed to
know these things, to boot) say that you should just use the greeting
or phrase that has the most meaning to you. If you're a Baptist,
Episcopalian or Catholic, sure, go ahead and say "Merry Christmas". If
you're a Jew, say "Happy Hanukkah". Simple, huh?
It warms my heart to hear this... particularly since I said the same
thing (and with a good deal more flair) LAST YEAR! See that? I'm a
damned trend-setter! [grin]
So, to recap... if you're a Baptist or Episcopalian or Catholic and
someone says "Happy Hanukkah" to you, don't take offense. If
you're "religious enough" to take offense, you should also be religious
enough to realize that this is the season for good will.. the season of
miracles. Just smile and say "thank you" or "Happy Holidays" or
whatever. Accept the greeting in the spirit in which it was intended.
If you're not a Jew and someone says, "Happy Hanukkah", think about
this: Someone just shared something very special and private with you.
Accept it for the compliment that it is, and reply in kind. If you
don't feel right saying it back to them, or if you don't want to chance
annoying them by sharing YOUR beliefs with them, just smile and
say "thank you". You'd be surprised at how far a smile and a warm word
will go, even these days.
If I remember correctly, I was kind of gruff last year on the subject of
rebuffing a seasonal greeting like "Happy Hanukkah" by saying something
like, "I'm a Christian" (I particularly like the ones that feel the
need to draw it out..."Wull... I'm a kriss-chin..". You may find this
hard to believe, but I'm still a hard-liner on the subject...
If you can't reply graciously just keep your mouth shut! They didn't ask
you what religion you were. They offered you a greeting as a friend and
brother. If you can't accept the greeting and compliment, then just
shut your piehole and smile.
And if you're Muslim or Hindu or Sikh or anything else, just bear in
mind that these greetings are not some kind of "Good Ol' Boys' Club"
that you're excluded from. If there's a holiday that's special to you
just around the corner (or even just passed), feel free to share that
with me. Any good person will accept it in the spirit in which it was
intended.
Okay, I need to get to the news stuff, so let me just recap and get it
over with.
Just remember: It's okay to share your greetings with someone else. And
we're ALL 'someone else' when you come right down to it. Take a few
minutes this holiday season to try to be the person you want everyone
to believe you are. Got it?
There. Done. That was ALMOST painless, wasn't it? [grin] Okay, let's get
to the news, hints tips and info available from the UseNet.
From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup
====================================
Robert Bernardo posts this slew of information and links from Jack
Tramiel's appearance at the Computer History Museum:
"From Cameron Kaiser
References trimmed.
A rough cut should be up shortly at
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=504862715223996474&hl=en
I just noticed two typos while scanning the cut. I mistakenly rigged
the date as 12/11 (not 12/10), and it should be Monte Sereno, not Mount.
This is what you get for trying to do this quickly, but it takes about
nine hours to render, transcode and upload, so people can just deal
with that for now.
The quality of the video is not very good because I had only a single
camera, there was audience activity I could not always get, and there
were glitches in the PA system. Robert's two camera video will
undoubtedly be better, so I am not going to lose a lot of sleep over
it.
Whoa! Thanks to Al Kossow for telling this... the Impact of
the Commodore 64 event, filmed by the Computer History Museum,
is now available, along with many other videos, at
http://youtube.com/computerhistory
For those who want to go exactly to the event video, it is at
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NBvbsPNBIyk
Thanks to Larry Anderson for following up on this...
the Computer History Museum now has the video of the
event at their website, in addition to the same one being
at YouTube. The CHM website video is downloadable
and of higher quality than that of the one at YouTube.
Go to:
http://www.computerhistory.org/events/index.php?id=1193702785
and click on Full Lecture."
If you all haven't seen them, 9 more photos are available,
starting at:
http://content.techrepublic.com.com/2346-10877_11-179806-5.html
Also Jack Tramiel is interviewed at:
http://www.news.com/The-man-behind-the-Commodore-64/2008-1042_3-6222406.html "
Djordje Vukovic writes to tell us about the latest version of TeraDesk:
"Version 3.94 of TeraDesk open-source desktop for the 16-bit and 32-bit
lines of Atari computers is available at:
http://solair.eunet.yu/~vdjole/teradesk.htm
This release brings several improvements to existing features, including
new capabilities related to shutdown, special applications and display
of the hypertext help. It also fixes a number of bugs noticed since the
previous release. See the history file for more information.
By the way, it is almost exactly four years since the release of
TeraDesk 3.0 on December 14th 2003... "
Roger Burrows asks about the Riebl VME Ethernet card:
"I'm curious if anyone (else) has measured the throughput of their Riebl
card. Running the MintNet ftp client to the FileZilla ftp server on a
Windoze system, I get around 100 kbytes/sec for PC->TT, and 85 kbtes/sec
for TT->PC. This is for files of a "reasonable" size, around 10MB. It
seems to be slower than the Daynaport SCSI/Link, which is a bit
surprising (to me at least). Comments welcome!"
Uwe Seimet tells Roger:
"When transferring a file of 11 MB from my Linux PC to a TT with a
Riebel card (also running under Linux) I get transfer rates between 220
and 250 KB/s from PC to TT and a rate of 380 KB/s from TT to PC."
Roger replies:
"Thanks for the feedback, Uwe! The board is obviously capable of high
rates - in fact IIRC 4Mbits/sec is about the maximum to be expected on a
10Mbps ethernet, so your performance is pretty good. Sounds like either
a MintNet or driver problem ... perhaps I should take a look at the
Linux drivers and see if they're doing anything noticeably different
when talking to the hardware."
Roger then thinks about it a bit and says:
"The first place I should have looked was in the mirror. I was doing a
transfer to the root directory which (I believe) is not on a regular
disk in MiNT. When I changed to a normal directory, in this case in a
FAT filesystem, I got transfer rates of 285 kbytes/sec for PC->TT, 300
kbytes/sec for TT->PC, which is a lot closer to what I expected.
But I did turn up something (slightly) interesting in the MintNet
driver: it's only using 4 transmit buffers, whereas there's space for 8
(and that's how many the Linux driver uses). One of these days I must
try playing with that ..."
Michael Schwingen jumps in and tell Roger:
"Maybe for a Riebl card - 10Mbps ethernet is capable of just a bit less
than 10Mbps - I have regularly seen 800KB/s TCP throughput on ISA PC
cards, and more than 1MB/s on SUN and PCI-based PC hardware. The
theoretical maximum is for back-to-back frames without collisions,
backoff delay and header overhead is 1250KB/s, so 1100KB/s TCP
throughput is a good result."
Roger tells Michael:
"You're right, I was having a nap. Now I think about it some more, I
believe I saw the 4Mbits/sec number quoted as the approximate total
throughput when you have many multiple transfers going on concurrently,
with collisions & resulting backoffs. A straight ftp with no other
traffic is of course not much like that."
Well folks, that's it for this week. Tune in again next week for our
final issue of the year. I can't promise anything earth-shaking or
special but, hey, it's the last issue of the year.
'Till then, keep your ears open so you'll hear what they're saying
when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - 'The Witcher' Demo Download!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" "Hidden Object" Series
Auction of Videogame Sparks
Online Debate! And more!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
'The Witcher' Downloadable Demo Available Now
Atari, Inc., announced the launch of the playable demo for The Witcher,
the acclaimed first game from Polish development studio CD Projekt RED
and a distinctive PC role-playing game which delivers a thrilling story in
a unique fantasy universe alongside stunning tactical combat. The Witcher
is a Games for Windows title, rated M for Mature and available at the
suggested retail price of $49.95. The demo can be downloaded at various
file-sharing sites such as GameSpot.com, GameDaily.com, FileFront.com,
FileShack.com, Gamershell.com and Worthplaying.com.
Giving players a tantalizing taste of the world of The Witcher, the demo
begins with the first part of the prologue in which the seeds of the epic
story are sown and the white haired witcher Geralt learns the
fundamentals of combat. The prologue is followed by the entirety of
Act 1, during which Geralt of Rivia will see the first threads of the
story weave their web around him and be called upon to slay man and beast
to stay alive and earn his keep.
In The Witcher players take the role of Geralt of Rivia, a professional
monster slayer who exists on the fringes of a complex society afflicted
by the kind of problems more commonly found on the front pages of
newspapers than in a fantasy universe. Taken as a child, mutated and
trained in the arcane ways of the witchers, Geralt is a reluctant hero,
who nonetheless finds himself all too frequently in the heat of battles
that are not his own. His is a path he might not choose to walk, but walk
it he must, guided by his head, heart and only faithful companion - his
sword.
Based on the fictional world created by best-selling Polish author
Andrzej Sapkowski, The Witcher is set in a unique fantasy universe where
real-life issues dominate a troubled society. In this world there is no
right or wrong, only decisions and consequences.
The Witcher is available now at retailers across North America as a
standard game pack and as a Limited Edition containing exclusive content.
For more information about The Witcher visit www.thewitcher.com and for
more details about Atari's entire product line up visit www.atari.com.
"Hidden Object" Series Hit for Holidays
Glance at a recent computer game sales chart and you'll see that nestled
between the typical combat and science fiction titles lies something a
little different.
That would be "Mystery Case Files: Ravenhearst," which was the
third-best-selling PC title in the United States for the week ending in
the annual Black Friday shopping splurge.
Gamers who got lost in super-realistic fare like "Call of Duty 4" and
"Crysis" may scratch their heads, but a growing number of casual players
will nod knowingly at the mention of the leading example of the "hidden
object" genre.
"Hidden object" titles are virtual scavenger hunts in which players hunt
for items against minutely detailed backdrops, often racing to beat a
clock or reveal clues to an overarching mystery.
Seattle's Big Fish Games essentially defined the genre with the "Mystery
Case Files" series two years ago. The company estimates that 100 million
people have at least sampled trial versions of the games since then.
The fourth installment, "Madame Fate," launched last month for download
on Big Fish's Web site, sold 100,000 copies in six weeks - big numbers
for a casual game.
Unlike a hard-core game franchise like "Call of Duty" where each sequel
overshadows its predecessors, the debut of the new "Mystery Case Files"
title rekindled interest in past games. Hence the strong retail sales of
"Ravenhearst," the third title in the series.
"When it hits retail during the holidays, people recognize the brand and
buy it," Big Fish founder Paul Thelen said in an interview.
"Our best guess - we don't have actual data - is that it's people who
have played or bought 'Case Files' online and now, with the holiday
coming, they want to give that to friends or relatives," Thelen said.
Another difference between "Mystery Case Files" and a big title for a
gaming console like Sony's PlayStation 3 is that a big console game
usually makes a splashy debut and then sees sales taper off.
Big Fish, however, gets more mileage out of "Mystery Case Files" by first
posting it for download and then offering it more broadly in shops and on
other Web sites several months later, which leads to a second spike in
sales.
The first game took about six months to program, but Big Fish, not
wanting to rush what it sensed could be a hit, spent more than twice as
long before that polishing the design.
"We initially came up with concepts that didn't work well. At first it
was a kids' game, and that didn't work well with audiences," Thelen said.
Big Fish has cranked out four "Mystery Case Files" games in two years,
but that pace is set to slow a bit as developers get more ambitious.
"We would like to get one out every year because it is episodic," said
Paul Handelman, head of business development for Big Fish. "We are
really trying to think of ways to bring the whole brand together."
Like all success stories, "Mystery Case Files" has spawned ranks of
imitators, and even Big Fish has rolled out other hidden object games,
such as its "Hidden Expedition" series, and a new one featuring 3D,
360-degree scenes in London.
"Mystery Case files" mainly appeal to women aged 35 to 50, but a mobile
version launching in partnership with Glu Mobile next year should appeal
to younger players who are more likely to play games on their phones.
"We're pushing the limits in terms of what has ever been done on mobile,
in terms of the graphics quality, use of the networks, and game design,"
Handelman said.
Auction of Videogame Sparks Online Debate
A Canadian man who said he sold his 15-year-old son's prized video game
on eBay after catching him smoking marijuana has sparked an online debate
on who is wrong - father or son.
The unidentified man decided to punish his son by selling the popular and
hard-to-find Guitar Hero III videogame he had bought him for Christmas
for $90 on the auction site where an Australian buyer bid $9,100.
"I had finally got the Holy Grail of Xmas presents pretty much just in the
nick of time. I couldn't wait to spread the jubilance to my son," the
father said in a letter accompanying the posting on eBay.
"Then, yesterday, I came home from work early and what do I find? My
innocent little boy smoking pot in the backyard with two of his delinquent
friends."
The seller, who describes himself as an elementary school teacher, said
that by selling the game he intended to teach his son a lesson.
The five-day auction that ended on Dec 10 elicited more than a hundred
comments, some siding with the disgruntled father and others who accused
him of "publicly humiliating" his son.
The father has since updated the posting with more responses to the
feedback, including accusations that the sale was a hoax.
"All I can do is assure you that yes, the auction is real," he said on the
site.
No one from eBay was available to comment.
"I am still considering getting him a game for his Nintendo. Maybe
something like Barbie ...," the father added.
MTV, Bruckheimer To Launch Game Studio
Viacom Inc's MTV and award-winning television and film producer Jerry
Bruckheimer will launch a video game development studio, marrying
Hollywood and technology in what has been historically an uneasy
alliance.
Bruckheimer, producer of Walt Disney Co's wildly successful "Pirates of
the Caribbean" film franchise among a long list of film and TV hits like
"CSI," said he plans to do for video games what he has done for other
well-defined genres of content.
"It's no different than what we did with movies," he said in a phone
interview. "We did 'Top Gun' when everyone said you couldn't do an
aviation movie because they all failed. We did a pirate movie when they
said pirate movies aren't going to work."
Bruckheimer added, "We approach gaming the same way. We see things a
little differently, that maybe other people wouldn't see."
MTV Networks earmarked over $500 million earlier this year to invest in
video games, including this venture, for its more than 300 Web sites and
on game systems of Sony Corp, Microsoft Corp and Nintendo Co Ltd's.
Its success with the recently launched "Rock Band" music-based game has
inspired MTV to explore other new categories untapped by the $30 billion
global video games market.
Rather than shoehorn Bruckheimer into creating games for existing genres,
such as shooters or extreme sports, the new studio aims to break new
ground in interactive storytelling on the Internet, computers and video
game systems, said Van Toffler, president of MTV Networks' Music and Logo
Group.
The teaming up of Hollywood and the games industry has met with mixed
success in the past.
Hong Kong action film director John Woo's "Stranglehold," a video game
sequel to his movie "Hard Boiled," and the Wachowski brothers "Matrix"
series of games have not been breakout hits like the blockbuster films
they were based on.
Moreover, the video games industry has also begun to scale back the
licensing of movie properties for games as development budgets soar.
"These are for original games for MTV Games and it is our hope that some
of this IP (intellectual property) and characters will migrate to TV and
film," MTV Networks President Van Toffler said in an interview.
Left unanswered is how big of a budget the new studio will have at its
disposal. Top tier games such as Microsoft's "Halo 3" and Activision
Inc's "Call of Duty 4" command budgets of anywhere from $20 million to
well over $30 million, according to one game industry veteran.
Media executives including those at Time Warner Inc, which has invested
in video games, are eyeing the potential rewards. "Halo 3" sales, for
example, topped $170 million within 24 hours of its release and $300
million globally in the first week.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Click-To-Give Holiday Gift of Charity
Feeling light in the wallet but generous of heart this holiday season?
You can still benefit your favorite cause - without spending a dime -
via a host of fun and easy Web sites.
Among the most popular charity sites is Free Rice (www.freerice.com),
with some 500,000 daily visitors looking to play word games and at the
same time donate food for the hungry. Sponsors, who run advertisements
on the site, pay for the food.
Free Rice is the brainchild of computer programmer John Breen, who came
up with the idea of a vocabulary game to help his son prepare for college
entrance exams. Breen later decided the game could also be used to help
charities and teamed up with the United Nations World Food Program (WFP).
Here's how it works: A word pops up on the home page of the site, with
four short definitions listed below. When you click on the right answer,
20 grains of rice are donated to the WFP by the site's advertisers.
So far, more than 10 billion grains have been donated.
"We get phone calls all day long about the site. People love it, they are
delighted by it," said Bettina Luescher, a WFP spokeswoman. "A school
child can play this game and a nuclear scientist can play this game."
Those who want to skip the word games have plenty of other click-to-give
charities to choose from, including The Animal Rescue Site
(www.theanimalrescuesite.com), a partner of Petfinder.com.
Each time a visitor clicks on a large purple rectangle on the right-hand
side of the Web site, a donation is made to provide food and shelter for
unwanted animals. It also tells you how much was donated with your click
- and the entire operation is sponsor-funded.
"This is money out of nowhere," said Lisa Halstead, chief operating
officer of CharityUSA.com, which runs the site. "This is money that
people are contributing because they're willing to take quick action."
You can shop their on-line store for jewelry, clothing and accessories,
with up to 30 percent of the proceeds going to the cause. Gift packages
include everything from feeding a rescued wild horse ($22) to paying a
teacher's salary in Afghanistan ($40).
As part of a broader network run by CharityUSA.com, breast cancer, child
health, literacy, hunger and protecting endangered habitat such as the
rainforest also have links to sites on which you can click to give.
"We get a lot of feedback from people thanking us," said Halstead, adding
that they also receive many inquiries about how the system works.
Meanwhile, some corporations are getting into the act, moving away from
fruit cakes, mouse pads, and desk calendars as gifts for business
contacts during the holidays.
Take marketing company NSI, which last year came up with an idea to send
"Joy of Giving" holiday cards to clients, staff and vendors with a link
to its seasonal Web site.
Once there, the "Joy of Giving" card recipient can click on one of 10
charities, including the American Cancer Society, Make-A-Wish donation to
the charities depending on the number of clicks each one received.
NSI Chief Executive Mark Montavani said the response this year had been
even better than in 2006 from the roughly 1,000 card recipients.
"I've never heard anything but positive response. I think people really
like to be included," he said. "The bottom line is it's nice to be able
to do something that's a little bit different and in the spirit of the
season."
If you want to donate to a charity but need assurance that your money is
used in the best possible way, try one of the Web sites to help guide
you. Charity Navigator (http://charitynavigator.org/), for example,
rates charities and provides tips on everything from protecting yourself
from scams to specific questions to ask before donating.
msg 2 candidates: u get more votes with txt
Text messaging is playing a growing role in the 2008 presidential race as
a handful of candidates look to the technology to reach younger voters
often glued to their mobile phones.
The three leading Democratic candidates - Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama
and John Edwards - are providing "mobile updates" to supporters who
choose to receive SMS or short message service updates on their cell
phones.
Political observers say that although this technology has been available
for a number of years, its use as an organizing tool has been
demonstrated in other countries: some say text messages helped fuel
rallies that led to the ouster of Philippine president Joseph Estrada in
2001; and it may have tipped the balance in the 2004 elections in Spain
as a "viral" messaging campaign got out the vote.
In the United States, some say this potential has yet to be tapped for
political campaigns, which already use a variety of technologies such as
email, websites, blogs and online videos.
Industry figures showed 158 billion text messages were sent in 2006
between Americans, who own some 243 million mobile phones. About 43
percent of 18- to 24-year-olds in the US text daily, according to Insight
Express, as do 10 percent of the 55- to 64-year-old generation.
"It could be an incredibly useful mobilization tool," says Julie Germany,
deputy director of the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet
at George Washington University.
The use of text messaging "is catching on little bit in the US but text
messaging in this country is nowhere near as big as it is in places like
Europe, Latin America and Asia."
Aaron Strauss, a Princeton University graduate student who has
researched technology and elections, said savvy candidates are looking to
SMS to reach younger voters whose participation has been disappointing in
recent years.
Strauss said his study showed that persons who received a text message
reminder ahead of an election were about four percent more likely to vote
than those who did not.
"The newest generation of voters is starting use text messaging and as
they become politically active I think you'll see text messaging become
more important in campaigns," he said.
Mobile phone users can text for updates to Obama (62262), Clinton (77007)
or Edwards (30644).
"By harnessing the power of text messaging, we can engage voters in the
political process using the latest technology and provide personalized,
local campaign updates to our supporters nationwide," Clinton said in a
statement on the launch of her service.
Julie Ask, analyst at JupiterResearch, said Obama appeared to have an
early edge in using mobile technology, with a snappier code - 62262
spells Obama, for example - and with mobile content and "wallpaper" for
phones.
She said candidates should not assume that only young voters will be
moved by text. "I would remind (candidates) that the percentage of
cellphone users ages 55 and over using text messaging doubled last year,"
Ask said.
But analysts say the United States is not ready for the "smart mobs"
created by SMS such as in the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine, or
around the 2002 South Korean elections. Some say text messaging did help
organizers in the 1999 anti-globalization protests in Seattle,
Washington.
Americans are less frequent text messagers because they use email more
frequently and because mobile operators charge 10 to 15 cents per
message, which can make it costly for frequent users, say analysts.
So far Republican candidates have yet to use mobile messaging, but some
activist groups, including environmentalists and organizations on both
sides of the abortion debate, have used SMS to help get out the vote.
Julie Germany said text message campaigns are most effective when they
become "viral," or spread from one person to another, instead of a single
message sent to thousands from a campaign headquarters.
"Messages spread from friend to friend, person to person and have an
immediate action attached to them are the most effective," she said.
Justin Oberman, a mobile marketing consultant who has advised political
candidates, said text messaging can help campaigns broaden their reach.
"You will reach about 10 percent more people, people you won't get by
mail or other traditional methods, but you have to hold onto them," he
said.
Oberman said mobile messaging may not be a critical element in the
current race but may be at some point in the future.
"It's going to happen, maybe not this year, but it's going to happen in a
way even the campaign doesn't expect," he said.
Felon Became COO of Wikipedia Foundation
The foundation that runs - and accepts donations for - the online
encyclopedia Wikipedia neglected to do a basic background check before
hiring a chief operating officer who had been convicted of theft, drunken
driving and fleeing a car accident.
Before she left in July, Carolyn Bothwell Doran, 45, had moved up from a
part-time bookkeeper for the Wikimedia Foundation and spent six months
as chief operating officer, responsible for personnel and financial
management. In March, she signed the small nonprofit's tax return, which
listed more than $1.3 million in donations.
At the time, she was on probation for a 2004 hit-and-run accident in
Virginia that had landed her seven months in prison. Doran had multiple
drunken-driving convictions, and records show earlier run-ins for theft,
writing bad checks and wounding her boyfriend with a gunshot to the
chest.
The revelation comes as the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs the
volunteer-written Wikipedia and its sister Web encyclopedias in other
languages, is staging a fundraising drive and trying to expand beyond a
ragtag startup.
"This is indicative of poor management of the Wikimedia Foundation," said
Charles Ainsworth, a frequent Wikipedia contributor. Ainsworth said he
had been considering donating to support the encyclopedia, but won't
"unless they clearly get things fixed."
The foundation said it had no indication Doran did anything improper with
donors' money. However, the organization's most recent audit is
incomplete, despite a goal of completing it months ago.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, who is on Wikimedia's board, said he did
not expect to find anything amiss but would personally cover any losses
that turned up.
"We are very saddened and hurt by these shocking revelations," Wales
wrote in a message to the Wikipedia community. "Of course we are doing
soul searching about what we could have done different."
Doran's background was reported first in The Register, a London-based
technology Web site. The Associated Press independently examined Doran's
record.
On May 20, while she was still with Wikimedia in St. Petersburg, Fla.,
police arrested Doran for another DUI and driving with a suspended
license. She was released on bond that day. In August, a month after she
left Wikimedia, she was arrested for violating probation on the 2004
hit-and-run. She was extradited to Virginia and has been jailed there.
Her attorney did not return messages seeking comment.
Wikimedia leaders said they knew nothing of her past until the Register
story broke last week.
She had been sent by a temporary agency in 2006 and worked part time as
Wikimedia's bookkeeper. Soon after, Wikimedia's board voted 6-1 to
promote her to chief operating officer.
Even partial details she shared in the office hinted at a complex tale.
Danny Wool, a former Wikimedia staffer who described Doran as
personable, stylish and funny, recalled that she revealed being the
daughter of a CIA official. That is supported by a 1992 Washington Post
obituary on the CIA's James Bothwell, listing daughter Carolyn Bothwell
as a survivor.
Doran also had a picture on her desk of her late husband - intelligence
officer Sean Doran, a former CIA employee and Air Force major who
drowned on their honeymoon in the Cayman Islands in 1999.
There had been other trouble she didn't talk about, such as the 1989
shooting of her then-boyfriend, the father of her son. Bothwell allegedly
had been beaten by the boyfriend and received probation after he asked
that the case be dropped.
Bothwell also popped up in 1995, when a former roommate was accused of
poisoning a man for insurance money. Bothwell worked with investigators
to secretly record incriminating conversations with the ex-roommate.
Defense attorneys countered that she helped authorities so she could win
leniency in a pending credit-card forgery case.
Even when Doran was originally appointed chief operating officer, the
post was considered temporary, until Wikimedia found a new executive
director. The foundation, which is moving from Florida to San Francisco,
has been growing from just a handful of employees as it tries to solidify
its operations.
Because of that development and not because of Doran, Wikimedia now is
working with a background checking agency, said Mike Godwin, who
recently joined the foundation as general counsel.
So far, the project's core supporters appear forgiving.
Philip Greenspun, a computer scientist who recently gave the foundation
$20,000, said he wasn't surprised the foundation would stumble on a
background check, something that "isn't core to their mission."
"I would be more dismayed," he said, "by a lengthy server outage."
Stand-Alone Printers Giving Way to All-In-Ones
Sales of stand-alone ink-jet printers are fading fast, replaced by
popular "all-in-one" printers that usually combine a printer, copier and
scanner.
Prices have fallen so dramatically that all-in-ones are often priced on
par with or below single-function printers, and consumers feel they're
getting more for their money. Manufacturers are offering price cuts to
help spur holiday sales.
For consumers, buying an all-in-one is like "getting a scanner for free,"
says Colin Donahoe, director of the consumer ink-jet division at printer
manufacturer Epson.
Scanners aren't just for making high-resolution copies of old photos.
You can also use them to make digital copies of receipts and important
documents such as passports and tax returns. Once digitized, they can be
stored on hard drives and shared in e-mails.
The Epson RX595, a printer/copier/scanner that sold for $149.95 in
September when it launched, is now discounted to $99 in many promotions.
A multifunction printer/copier/scanner from market leader
Hewlett-Packard is on sale at Best Buy for $75 - less than a
stand-alone printer cost a year ago.
Lexmark's X5470, which also includes a fax function, is selling for
$89.99 at Target.
Most popular all-in-ones offer "photo" quality printing, with six ink
cartridges for more colorful prints, instead of the four colors used on
most stand-alone printers.
In the first three quarters of 2007, some 17.6 million ink-jet printers
have sold - 12.3 million all-in-ones, compared with 5.3 million
single-function printers, according to researcher Gartner.
That compares with sales of 17 million in the first three quarters of
2006 - 10.5 million all-in ones and 6.5 million stand-alone printers.
Multifunction printers now have 74% of the market, up from 66% at the
beginning of the year, says Gartner.
The drop-off in sales of single-function printers is so dramatic that
Donahoe predicts they could eventually disappear.
"I see them pretty much going away within the next two years," he says.
Manufacturers prefer selling multifunction units, which run through ink
more frequently as consumers use them for color printing, scanning and
copying, says Gartner (IT) analyst Federico De Silva. "This way,
(manufacturers) make more money on ink sales, where the real money is,"
he adds.
Printing manufacturers historically have used the razor/razor blade
approach - selling cheap printers, with expensive and highly profitable
ink. Color ink refills often cost nearly as much as a new printer.
The scanning quality on early all-in-one printers was inferior to
stand-alone scanners, but Donahoe says that's changed.
Professional photographers, architects and other creative professionals
will "still want a (separate) scanner, to make wall-size copies," he
says. "But for the mass market, the scans they get on the multifunctions
are perfectly good."
De Silva says consumers might have a hard time finding single-function
printers in 2008, though he believes they will remain available for
awhile. "There's always a need for the low end of the market," he says.
Microsoft To Release IE 8 Beta 1 in First Half of 2008
Microsoft plans to release the first beta of the next version of Internet
Explorer in the first half of 2008 and said Wednesday that IE 8 has
passed a key Web standards test that ensures the browser won't "break"
the Web.
IE8 has passed the "Acid2 Browser Test" from the Web Standards Project,
which shows whether a browser renders a Web site in a certain way. If
the browser renders the site correctly, it means the browser supports
certain accepted Web standards.
Microsoft posted a video about the browser passing the test on its
Channel 9 Web site.
Microsoft developed IE before some Web standards, such as CSS (Cascading
Style Sheets) and RSS, were developed, and so older versions don't
support some current standards. Developers would write applications to
work with IE rather than to support Web standards because the browser was
the de facto standard for surfing the Internet for so many years.
Microsoft also was lax in updating IE to meet the demands of Web
standards because there was little competition in the browser market for
years.
With the release and subsequent popularity of open-source browser Mozilla
Firefox three years ago, a browser's need to stay current with Web
standards once again moved to the forefront. When Microsoft developed
IE7, released in October 2006, the company had good intentions and
decided to improve support of Web standards with the new release.
However, Web sites that were created for older versions of IE didn't work
properly on IE7. Microsoft hopes to remedy this problem so the situation
is not repeated with IE8, according to an IE Blog posting attributed to
Dean Hachamovitch, a Microsoft general manager on the IE team.
"With respect to standards and interoperability, our goal in developing
Internet Explorer 8 is to support the right set of standards with
excellent implementations and do so without breaking the existing Web,"
according to the blog posting.
Hachamovitch said Microsoft is taking a cue in lessons learned from
making improvements to CSS in IE7 that "made IE more compliant with some
standards and less compatible with some sites on the Web as they were
coded." The key design goal for IE8, he said, is compatibility with
existing Web sites and Web standards supported in other browsers to
provide a premium user experience.
"As a developer, I'd prefer to not have to write the same site multiple
times for different browsers," according to Hachamovitch's post.
"Standards are a (critical!) means to this end, and we focus on the
standards that will help actual, real-world interoperability the most.
As a consumer and a developer, I expect stuff to just work, and I also
expect backwards compatibility. When I get a new version of my current
browser, I expect all the sites that worked before will still work."
Microsoft said the final release of IE8 depends upon feedback received
from the beta process.
Mozilla Releases New Firefox 3 Beta
Mozilla rolled out its second beta release of Firefox 3 in less than a
month with the goal of receiving feedback from developers on the
browser's core functionality. The Beta 2 release now available for
download features builds for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux in over 25
different languages.
"The next Milestone is Beta 3 scheduled for February," explained Mozilla
vice president of engineering Mike Schroepfer. "We'll either do more
betas or move to final release based on feedback from users and Web
developers."
Mozilla is making several changes to Firefox that it hopes will compel
more Internet users to try the free browser. For example, Firefox 3
sports improvements to the browser's look and feel, including a full page
zoom capability, one-click bookmarking, and a location bar that matches
against the user's history and bookmarks for URLs and page titles. In
addition, Firefox 3's menus display using Vista's native theme.
Web-based applications, such as the user's favorite e-mail provider, can
now be used instead of desktop applications such as Outlook for handling
"mailto:" links. And a new keyword tag function allows Firefox users to
sort their bookmarks by topic.
Users can resume downloads after restarting the browser or resetting
their network connections. Or type in all or part of the title, tag, or
address of a Web page to scan a list of matches from the browser's
personalized history and bookmarks.
Firefox 3's security enhancements include antivirus integration in the
download manager, version checking for insecure plug-ins, malware alerts,
and better presentation of Web site identity and security. The content of
Web pages suspected to be forgeries is no longer shown. And bookmarks,
history, cookies, and preferences are now protected from system crashes
through storage in a new database format.
For its part, Microsoft says that its own next-generation browser,
Internet Explorer 8, has passed the Web Standards Project's Acid2 test
"of how modern browsers work with some specific features across several
different Web standards," said Internet Explorer general manager Dean
Hachamovitch. Showing the Acid2 page correctly is a good indication of
IE8 "being standards compliant," he explained.
Microsoft plans to offer its first beta release of IE8 in the first half
of 2008. "With respect to standards and interoperability, our goal in
developing Internet Explorer 8 is to support the right set of standards
with excellent implementations and do so without breaking the existing
Web," Hachamovitch said.
Mozilla's Schroepfer pointed out that Firefox 3 first passed the Acid2
test a little over a year ago. "I look forward to verifying IE8 passing
the Acid2 test whenever they decide to release a public version of it,"
he said.
While the general public awaits the arrival of both next-generation
browsers on the desktop, Microsoft and Mozilla will continue their global
battle over browser market share. Of particular interest is the fact that
Firefox held a 20.4 percent share of the U.S. browser market in September
- up from 18.9 percent in July, according to Xitimonitor.
Moreover, Mozilla's share of the South American market for September rose
more than 2.5 percentage points over the prior month, the French
consulting firm said. And Firefox has been growing its popularity in
Australia/New Zealand and Europe, where the browser held September market
shares of 30.3 percent and 27.7 percent, respectively.
OLPC Heralds Era of Low-Cost Computing
Critics of the One-Laptop-Per-Child (OLPC) Project like to point out that
it has not yet lived up to its goal of putting US$100 notebooks in the
hands of millions of kids in poor countries, but that's a short-sighted
view considering the impact it's already having on the computer industry.
OLPC's XO laptop and the dream of the $100 notebook PC have driven down
the cost of computing and highlighted the issue of the lack of computing
resources in developing nations.
It has inspired an entirely new class of low-cost laptop, which already
includes two rival devices in the Eee PC and Classmate PC and will have
many more by the end of 2008, according to research company IDC. The
laptop has also roused big technology companies to join the fray with
research dollars and plans for the future.
Intel and Microsoft, for example, are hard at work tweaking chips
(Diamondville) and software ($3 for XP, Office and a suite of additional
software) for this low-cost segment of the laptop industry.
"There's a lot of potential, because everyone is looking at this market,"
said Richard Shim, research manager for personal computing at IDC.
A number of trends are occurring due to the low-cost laptop drive, he
said. Prices are falling and companies are branching out with new laptop
designs. The Eee PC, for example, is ultra-portable, weighing less than
a kilogram and carrying a small, 7-inch screen.
Shim says he has already seen new low-cost laptops that have yet to be
unveiled, and said "all the major guys" are looking into such devices,
but he declined to reveal further information due to nondisclosure
agreements.
To be sure, laptop PC prices were already falling prior to the launch of
OLPC's XO laptop, said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle
Group. The proliferation of LCDs (liquid crystal displays) in laptops,
desktop monitors and other devices has pushed down the price of such
screens to below that of older, CRT (cathode-ray tube) monitors in some
cases, and iPods and other digital music players have helped lower the
price of hard disk drives and flash memory storage.
But the challenge OLPC Chairman Nicholas Negroponte raised a few years
ago, to design a $100 laptop computer for kids in developing countries,
crystalized the need for lower-cost computers and unleashed new energy
for the effort, he added.
In microprocessors, for example, not only has Intel stepped up its
efforts to lower costs and increase power efficiency, but other processor
makers are challenging the company by winning designs in the low-cost
area as well, including Via Technologies Inc.
The competition is prodding processor makers to improve their designs and
lower prices, according to market researcher iSuppli. That's important
because the microprocessor is normally the most expensive component in a
computer, or second only to the LCD screen in some cases.
Ultra-low-cost mobile PCs are likely to have an impact on the component
supply chain going forward, said Jamie Wang, computing analyst at
Gartner. In addition, the average price of mainstream mobile PCs will
probably be driven down to compete with the new breed of low-cost
notebooks.
Still, people interested in buying a low-cost mobile device should beware,
the analysts warned. In the electronics business, you often get what you
pay for.
"You're making very severe trade-offs to get these costs," said Enderle.
"You can't have too many trade-offs, or you lose the usefulness."
While products such as the XO and the Eee PC can be had for under $250,
there are mainstream laptops with far better performance available for
$500, he said.
There's also the problem of creating such devices for developing nations,
where poor infrastructure such as a lack of electricity and Internet
access make computing a far more difficult issue than just providing
laptops, say Matt Wilkins and Peter Lin, analysts from iSuppli.
But the groups promoting low-cost laptops for developing countries are
trying to take care of some of these infrastructure issues, and the
devices could help narrow the digital divide in countries where
development is already in full swing and electricity and Internet
connectivity are more available, such as India and China.
Enderle compared the XO to Volkswagen's original Beetle, "a very plain,
utilitarian vehicle that became iconic." It met a need for low-cost
driving in the same way the XO and rivals will give people in developing
countries a low-cost device for computing. It may not meet everyone's
needs right away, but it's a good start.
For the rest of us, it will reduce computer prices.
Americans Googling Themselves More
A report released Sunday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project
found that growing numbers of Americans are searching for information
about themselves and others on the Internet.
According to "Digital Footprints," nearly 50 percent of Americans have
searched for themselves online, more than double the number who reported
doing so in 2002. Even more people - 53 percent of those surveyed - said
that they searched for information about acquaintances or business
contacts.
In general, the Pew report found that younger users are more comfortable
searching for information about themselves and others than older Internet
users. Pew researchers found little difference in the frequency with
which men and women searched for themselves online, but concluded that
as education and income rise, so does the tendency of people to monitor
their online profiles.
Not surprisingly, the Pew report found that a much higher percentage of
teens (55 percent) than adults (20 percent) have created profiles of
themselves on one of the social-networking sites such as MySpace or
Facebook. But teens, the report also found, are much more likely to post
information on their profile pages (particularly photos and videos) that
adults would consider private.
"This gap between young people not caring about privacy, and older people
caring more about privacy has existed over a long period of time," said
Ari Schwartz, the deputy director of the Center for Democracy and
Technology. "Younger people that just don't have experiences of older
people of information coming back to haunt them. And now technology gives
them the opportunity to be more careless than they were in the past."
Somewhat surprisingly, teens were more cautious about who can view their
social-networking information. Nearly 60 percent of teens restrict access
to their Web 2.0 profiles to "friends."
The opposite is true for adults: some 60 percent make their
social-networking profiles open to everyone. Schwartz suggested that the
greater openness on the part of adults might be due in part to the fact
that kids have a better grasp on how to use social-networking privacy
tools.
The Pew report classifies nearly half of its survey respondents as
"unfazed and inactive" - people who do not take any steps to limit or
control the information about themselves that appears online, and do not
worry about what is available.
The Pew researchers defined three other groups of roughly equal size:
the "confident creatives" (17 percent), who actively upload information
and are not terribly worried about who sees it, but still take steps to
limit who has access; "concerned and careful" (21 percent), people who
are actively worried about what information is available and try to
protect or limit their personal information; and "worried by the
wayside" (18 percent), people who are worried about the amount of
information available online, but don't take any steps to try to control
their personal information.
Schwartz said that it will take some time before researchers can
determine how the privacy experiences of the new online generation will
affect public policy. "We haven't had enough time to really measure
whether all of these people who are online so much have a stronger sense
of privacy," he said. "That's going to be the interesting question over
time."
Computer-Free Students Find Life Hard Without Them
Caitlin Magnusson's laptop was on the top shelf of her closet, sealed in
flowery wrapping paper, covered in duct tape and caged in a box.
But every morning she would wake up in her dorm room and still turn to
her desk to reach for it. It had become muscular memory.
Capturing the experience of going without a computer - for Magnusson it
was five weeks - is part of a documentary-making course at Carleton
College in Northfield, Minn. She and two other students who went on the
"computer fast" are the documentary subjects; eight others took turns
filming. When the documentary is finished, they plan to screen it on
campus and submit it to film festivals.
Magnusson, of Renton, Wash., and the rest of the class discovered the
intense influence computers have on their lives. Ditching them entirely
is impossible, says Mitchell Lundin of Lakeville, Minn., who also went
computerless. Giving up e-mail, Internet news and social networking
sites, and relying on phones and print newspapers, rapidly became
a
burden, he says.
About 87% of 18- to 29-year-olds use the Internet, according to a 2007
report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which studies Net
use.
Those statistics reflect the perplexed looks and "You're crazy" remarks
that Magnusson, 20, Lundin, 22, and Andrew Tatge, 20, got from their
peers. Each student set a goal for how long they would go computerless.
Lundin went for three weeks. Tatge, of Des Moines, went four.
For Magnusson, the fast was a roller coaster of emotions. At first she
was proud, but when she was forced to use a typewriter and skip out on
watching YouTube videos with friends, she experienced deep frustration,
she says.
Lundin, who had pitched the idea to the class, saw it as a means to
sift out the unnecessary. He had used instant messaging since 7th grade
but now shuns it as "incredibly distracting."
Tatge is philosophical. "It hasn't changed how I look at things, but it
challenged who I am," he says. He filled his free time with campus
walks and drawing comics in a journal.
When Lundin went to register for classes in person or when Magnusson
had a meltdown the first time she used a typewriter, a cameraman from
the class was with them. When the class asked the student body to
abstain from computers for 24 hours and met to discuss it, the camera
crew was there. The students spent most of this term filming. Next
term will be focused on editing and post-production, says Melody
Gilbert, their professor and "executive producer."
Schoolwork was especially challenging without a computer, the students
found. Lundin says he felt guilty when he asked for special treatment
from professors, who expected him to participate in online class
discussions and check e-mail for last-minute updates. Tatge says he had
to cheat once to complete an assignment for his Chinese class that
required the computer. All three missed out on parties and campus
events because they could not check Facebook and didn't know what was
going on.
Lundin says the class realized that "there is no turning back. The
role of computers is steamrolling forward. You can resist it. You can
hold off for a little bit. But in the end, it will keep moving forward
with or without you."
Parody Sites Start Anti-Social Networking Trend
Tired of phony online friends? Make enemies instead. Riding on the
popularity of social networks such as Facebook and MySpace, new Web
sites are poking fun at online friendships that connect you to the
people you like, by turning attention to the ones you don't.
Over the past 18 months, sites such Snubster, Enemybook and Hatebook are
appealing to Internet users who get a kick out of the tongue-in-cheek
humor of mocking their friends and others who are just plain cynical.
"I didn't understand these fake-friend war chests that people were so
busy building online," said Bryant Choung, a technology consultant who
started Snubster last year.
"I would get Facebook requests from people I talked to for three minutes
at a bar or party, and now this person wants to go online to peruse all
of my photos and contacts. I just didn't get it," the 26-year-old added.
Snubster, a Facebook application and a Web site with 16,000 users
worldwide, lets users compile people and things they dislike.
No one from Facebook, which boasts 59 million active users worldwide, was
available to comment about the sites.
When Facebook opened up its network to outside applications earlier this
year, some users decided it was an opportunity to poke fun at the
phenomenon.
Kevin Matulef, the creator of Enemybook, said the idea for his Facebook
application started as a joke last summer when friends at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were asking if someone was a
real friend or a Facebook friend.
"It started basically as a satire, sort of a parody of some of the
superficial aspects of Facebook and the connections that you have, but
now it's kind of evolved and it allows people to express themselves via
their dislikes," said Matulef, 28.
Enemybook, which has 9,000 users, is similar to Snubster in that it lets
you "enemy" so-called friends, public figures and fictitious characters.
"A lot of people like myself use it just to joke around with our good
friends," said Matulef.
Choung agrees. "I hope that most people take it as a joke, on occasion I
do get complaints from people about others who take it too seriously."
But Murray Pomerance, a professor of pop culture sociology at Ryerson
University in Toronto, said most people take their online relationships
very seriously.
"There are a lot of people who do not believe the friends that they have
on these sites are phony," he explained.
"I know people who have lots and lots of friends on these sites and who
say things about themselves on these sites that they would never say to
anyone straight up in public or in private."
Pomerance added that any online social networking, whether it's making
friends or enemies, could be dangerous.
"Who you liked and who you hated used to be private," he said. "What
they're doing is taking human feeling and emotion and making us actually
register them through these online services."
Popular Apple Rumor Web Site To Shut Down
Apple Inc and a popular Web site that published company secrets about the
maker of the Mac computer, the iPhone and the iPod have reached a
settlement that calls for the site to shut down.
Apple and the site, ThinkSecret.com, settled the suit, which Apple filed
in January 2005, and no sources were revealed, Apple and ThinkSecret
said in statements.
College student Nick Ciarelli, ThinkSecret's publisher, said he plans to
move on. He started the site at 13.
"I'm pleased to have reached this amicable settlement, and will now be
able to move forward with my college studies and broader journalistic
pursuits," he said in his statement.
Cupertino, California-based Apple filed its suit after ThinkSecret
published details of a stripped-down Macintosh computer called the Mac
mini two weeks before the product was launched formally.
"We are pleased to have reached this amicable settlement and happy to
have this behind us," an Apple spokesman said.
Worm Hits Google's Orkut
Google's Orkut social networking site appeared to have been hit by a
relatively harmless worm, but one that demonstrated the continuing
vulnerability of Web applications.
Some Orkut users received an e-mail telling them they had been sent a
new scrapbook entry - a type of Orkut message - on their profile from
another Orkut user.
They only had to view their profile to become infected by the worm,
which added them to an Orkut group, "Infectados pelo Virus do Orkut,"
wrote the blogger Kee Hinckley on his site TechnoSocial.
The name of the group, in Portuguese, roughly translates to "infected
by the Orkut virus." Orkut is popular in Brazil, as well as India, but
has not caught on as well outside those countries compared to MySpace
and Facebook.
The description of the group reveals that the worm was designed to show
Orkut could be dangerous to users even if they do not click on
malicious links, Hinckley wrote. The worm apparently did not try to
steal any personal data.
The worm was also noted by Orkut Plus, a site that offers Orkut
security tips, and discussedin Google's Orkut help group.
At one time the infected group was adding new members at a rate of 100
per minute, and had reached a few hundred thousand members, according
to various postings, but the problem appears now to be fixed, Hinckley
wrote.
Orkut's scrapbook feature allows people post messages that contain
HTML code, but it may lack a filter to strip out malicious JavaScript,
Hinckley wrote.
"It does not appear at first glance that the worm does anything more
dangerous than pass itself on to one or more of your friends," he
wrote. "I think it unlikely that it would be able to steal your
password, although it could potentially access other private
information."
=~=~=~=
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