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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 09 Issue 46
Volume 9, Issue 46 Atari Online News, Etc. November 16, 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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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #0946 11/16/07
~ U.S. Urges Vigilance! ~ People Are Talking! ~ New OLPC Promo!
~ Dell Announces XPS One ~ UN Internet Forum Forms ~ Comics Go Online!
~ Cyber Bullies In Japan ~ UK Wants Net Terror Aid ~ eBay Evacuated!
~ Gaming With Kids? No! ~ PS3 Antivirus Software! ~ Top 10 Worst Ads!
-* Yahoo and Journalists Settle *-
-* Judge To White House: Back Up E-mail *-
-* U.S. Control of Internet Remains An Issue! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
And another week bites the dust! What a roller-coaster ride we had with
regard to the weather! Cold and wet early on, sunny and warm in the
middle, and more cold and wet at the end! This was one weather
"sandwich" I could have done without ('ceptin' the warm days!). I did,
however, manage to get in a round of golf - possibly the last hurrah for
this year's season. We'll see what happens.
Meanwhile, it's been too wet to clean up those leaves. And naturally,
the weather was perfect for helping even more leaves fall, and get soggy!
Maybe this weekend things will dry up enough to allow me to get back on
track and gain an edge on this seasonal delight.
So here we are, a week away from Thanksgiving. I always enjoy this
particular holiday, and everything that goes with it. As I've likely
mentioned over the years, my primary role during this holiday is putting
together all of the fixings for the turkey feast - a role I truly enjoy!
And the best part occurs after the holiday - all those leftovers and no
need for holiday etiquette!
So, as we close in on this holiday, all of us here at A-ONE wish to
express our best turkey day greetings. A great day for family and
friends gathering for a [hopefully] bountiful feast. And of course,
if you're so inclined, curling up after dinner to watch some football!
Enjoy!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho, friends and neighbors. Have you even been almost finished with
a document and hit the wrong key combination or something and lost it
all?
Yeah, it hasn't happened to me in a long time either. So, of course I've
gotten somewhat lax about saving my work periodically.
Well wouldn't you know it, it happened to me this morning with this
column. From now on, I'm going to try to be more conscientious about
saving my work.
It's been three weeks now since I've had a column in A-ONE. It's driven
me a little bit nuts, too, because there have been things I've wanted
to point out and things I've wanted to say. Unfortunately, there
haven't been enough messages in the NewsGroup to justify a column.
This week, after combining new messages with those from the previous two
weeks' messages, we've finally got enough messages to make a go of
it... I know that for a fact, since I've already done it once today.
One of the topics I've wanted to tell you about has had me so damned mad
that I can't see straight. It's so counter to what I've come to think
of as 'right' that I'm just... well, flabbergasted. I'm not even going
to try to justify talking about it in a computer magazine. I'm not
going to try to find some spiffy way to liken the situation to anything
that's ever happened in the Atari world. Hell, if anything like this
had ever happened in the Atari world, I'd have bugged out years and
years ago.
Three weeks ago, a court case that I'd been watching for a while had
been decided. The father of a fallen soldier (I don't recall now if he
was killed in Iraq or Afghanistan) sued a church in Kansas that decided
to protest at his son's funeral.
Now, if you know me at all, you know that I'm against the war (aka:
invasion and occupation) in Iraq. But what you'll never, EVER hear me
say is that our men and women in uniform should be treated with
anything other than our most heartfelt thanks and respect.
While I do not often agree with the military mindset or their current
supreme commander, what these men and women do is a sacred thing. As I
see it, it's not even serving your country; it's serving your
countrymen. And that service deserves, no, demands to be respected.
Every member of our military (and I include the Coast Guard here too)
deserves our thanks and our respect.
And any soldier who falls in the commission of his or her duty, whether
you agree with that duty or not, is deserving of our deepest thanks and
our most sincere respect.
This particular church wasn't even local to the town where the funeral
was held, and the subject of their protest had nothing to do with this
particular soldier. You'll see in a moment why I'm so incensed about
this, and that's only HALF of why I'm was so worked up.
You see, this church believes, as do many others, that homosexuality is
a sin. Okay, that's their right. While you may not agree with it,
you've got to admit that it's their right to believe it.
I've got to confess here and mention that, for all my liberal views and
all my rhetoric, I'm very uncomfortable about gays. It's not that I'm
afraid (as some of these church-goers seem to be) that I'll be 'turned'
by contact with gays, or that I'll fall victim to them. I'm just not
really comfortable with them. They make me uneasy. There. I've said it.
I know it's irrational, but that's the way it is.
Anyway, this church decided that the funerals of our fallen soldiers
would be a good place to spread their views.
Picture this: A dreary day in a cemetery. A line of limousines, several
members of the military dressed in their most ornamental and officious
uniforms, with rifles at the ready in their white-gloved hands, and a
grouping of relatives in dark suits and dresses, staring down into a
rectangular, dark hole in the earth. And not too far off in the
distance...
A crowd of jabbering, howling fools holding signs saying things like
"God Hates Fags" and "911 Was God's Will".
First of all, I grew up being taught that God didn't hate anyone, and
that what was between you and God was... well, between you and God. And
if you didn't believe in God, then that was your choice. I still
believe that.
Second, the soldier whose funeral they invaded was not gay, and did not
(as far as I know) support gays in any public way. They picked his
funeral service simply because he was a soldier and had died.
The soldier's father sued the church. The church claimed that they were
perfectly within their rights, since the U.S. Constitution guarantees
them the right to free speech and the separation of church and state.
Well, church folk, I've got bad news for you. Your right to free speech
does not include infringing on someone's funeral. It means that your
government cannot stop you from speaking your mind. It doesn't mean
that you have the right to say ANYTHING you want ANYTIME you want
ANYWHERE you want. With your rights come responsibilities.
Separation of Church and State means that the State cannot tell you what
you must believe, not that you can tell everyone else what THEY must
believe.
If you want to take out an ad in a newspaper and give your opinions,
that's fine. If you want to preach your point of view in your church,
I'll support your right to do so in any way that I can. But your rights
do not include determining everyone (or anyone) else's rights. You
cannot safeguard your rights by denying or curtailing someone else's.
And I suspect (though I don't consider it canon) that there's a special
section of hell set aside just for people who use religion (any
religion) to spread hate and intolerance.
To make a long story... well, a little less long, the soldier's father
sued the church and won a total of 10.9 million dollars in compensatory
and punitive damages.
Of course, he'll never see a dime of that money, since the church will
no doubt assert it's close relationship with God, and try to twist
Separation of Church and State to fit it's equally twisted aims. They
seem to think that the Constitution was written to apply only to them.
Hmmm... I must have missed that passage in the Good Book.
Okay, I'm done for the time being. Let's get to the news, hints, tips
and info from the UseNet.
From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup
====================================
Paul Matthews asks for help finding some applications:
"Hi All
I am looking for full copies of the following Atari applications in
English please with manuals etc.
Kobold 3.5
NVDI 5 (Upgrade is fine as I already have version 4)
Jinee 2.5 or Ease 5
MagiC 6.2
ImageCopy 4CD
Positive Image 2
View II
Thats Write 3
Protext 6
Oh, I have managed to get hold of NVDI 5 and I am still looking to get
hold of the other applications mentioned."
Peter West tells Paul:
"I think you'll find that Kobold 3.5 was never released in English.
I have a version of 3.51 that I translated for my own purposes,
but as it's still commercial, I don't think I am at liberty to
distribute it."
Paul replies:
"Thanks for your reply, I have Kobold 2.5 german edition that was
included with my Falcon which I purchased from Germany. I have tried
to buy Kobold 3, MagiC 6.2, Jinee 2.5 and NVDI 5 directly from Ash,
EuropeShareware and not one of these online companies has bothered to
reply to my mail let alone take my credit card and sell me the stuff.
I am left with no other option but to buy second hand or use copies. I
want the full pack with manuals but two months i have only managed to
buy NVDI 5 from a chap in Wales.
How did you translate kobold as there is no resource file? I would be
happy to try out your version of Kobold and would be willing to buy
the 3.5 German edition if somebody would sell it to me."
Derryck Croker tells Paul:
"Hope Peter doesn't mind me jumping in.
He would have used a binary file editor to directly edit the German
text. We (DDP Translations) would have deal(t) with the wider
distribution of the translation by generating a patch file with eed
like we did with Papillon.
What tends to suffer is keyboard shortcuts, depending on how they were
implemented."
Paul tells Derryck:
"Thanks for the reply, I think I may have bought some software off you
in the 90's? Is there a translated file for Kobold 3 available? If
there is i will happily buy the German version (if some company is
willing to sell it to me) and install the patched version. If not
what utility would you use to change the text in the application?"
Peter Schneider jumps in and tells Paul:
"I think it depends on what you intend to do with KOBOLD. If you just
use it as a fast copier, maybe you won't need an English translation.
If, of course, you'd prefer to execute /KOBOLD jobs/, ok, it's better
to know precisely (in your mother tongue) what you are doing.
Ok, German is a hard language to learn, but in some terms it is very
close to English. If you've got questions concerning KOBOLD, ask them
to me, and I'll try to give you an answer. By the way: Did you ever see
what happens when you click on the cactus you see when you have a look
at /Über den KOBOLD/ (about the KOBOLD) in the /Datei/ (file) menu?
You know, so many people leave the Atari platform (nicknamed system
changers to the industrial standard...), and at any these times a lot
of hardware (and soft, of course) changes its owner.
A few weeks ago, a friend of mine got a spare TT from another friend of
mine (for nothing) and got a lot of soft. I'm going to ask him if he
has an original disk of KOBOLD that he won't need and if he agrees to
leave it to you."
Peter West jumps back in and gets back to the question of what utilities
he uses for translation:
"I used hex_edit.prg to edit the text in the kobold.prg file and
since English is normally shorter than German, it fitted; I padded
with spaces where the new text was shorter than the old.
If you can obtain a legal version of the German 3.5, I will gladly
let you have a translation. Note that I don't have an English
translation of the manual for 3.1 - only for 2.5. There isn't much
difference, except that 3 will handle long filenames - though only
slowly since it copies these in GEMDOS mode, file by file.
Have you tried writing to the makers? They are (or were!):
Kaktus
H.J. Richstein & E. Dick GbR
Konrad Adenauer Str. 19
D-67663 Kaiserlautern
Germany."
Uwe Seimet tells Peter and Paul:
"I do not know a current address, but this one is definitely outdated.
As far as I know Kaktus does not exist anymore."
'Art Go' asks for opinions on games:
"What do You think, guys? What are some of the best games for the Falcon
030? Any sort of list would be great..."
Ronald Hall tells Art:
"Umm, lets see...
Ishar 2
Ishar 3
Crown of Creation
Running
Robinsons Requiem
Killing Impact
and ST or STe games that I just like better on the Falcon:
Stardust
Obsession
Ultima 6
and actually many more, but thats it off the top of my head."
Hallvard Tangaraas asks for info on the MegaSTE's connectors:
"What's the connector on the left side of the Mega STe keyboard for?
Apparently the mouse doesn't work with it, so is it for a joystick?
Strange that they're not marked in any way.
Is it possible to (with the aid of e.g. an AUTO program) to make it
work with a mouse?
Finally, is there a downloadable user-manual for the Mega STe
somewhere? Actually, user-manuals for all the Atari ST computers would
be nice, but I've only found sites containing service manuals,
schematics etc (which is also great of course)."
Mark Bedingfield tells Hallvard:
"Digital joystick connector. Like all ST's the JS is controlled by the
keyboard controller. No manuals available afaik, system disks would be
handy too."
Everyone's favorite techie, Aly, adds:
"I used to have the MSTE disks somewhere. There's nothing different
about them from the stock STs. The 16Mhz mode is automatically picked
up by the later CPX versions."
Hallvard now asks about ethernet solutions for the ST:
"I'm hoping some of the German Atari ST users out there can help me....
I'm very interested in the EtherNEA solution ("EtherNE" interface
board to be used together with PC compatible ISA type NE-2000
networking card and finally an "EtherNEA" board which connects
everything to the ACSI port), or even better: the self-contained
"Ethernet Adapter II" which connects to the ACSI port.
Unfortunately the authors have never replied to my email, even though
their websites are still active.
I'm trying to get in touch with:
Thomas Redelberger
(http://home.arcor.de/thomas.redelberger/prj/atari/etherne/index.htm)
and
Elmar Hilgart
(http://www.asamnet.de/~hilgarte/)
Perhaps someone who speaks better German that me could ask in a few
German Atari ST newsgroups in case someone else knows about their
whereabouts and possible new email addresses."
Dave Wade replies:
"I don't think that these two have been involved for some time now.
Lyndon built the last one I got. Whilst I don't use mine very often I
guess I could probably answer questions about them."
Hallvard asks Dave:
"Wasn't Lyndon Amsdon involved only with the EtherNEC (the cartridge
port version)?
I'm interested in the EtherNEA (the "A" standing for "ACSI" meaning it
plugs into the Atari ACSI hard drive port). Is that the version you
have?"
Dave answers:
"Nope, because I couldn't find any connectors. When I spoke to Lyndon he
said that the "A" version was much more tolerant of Ethernet card. What
issue do you have?"
Hallvard replies:
"Well, I don't have any ethernet abilities at all and thought the
EtherNEA or Ethernet Adapter II looked like good solutions for my
setup as my cartridge port is already chock full."
Dave tells Hallvard:
"I would guess that any work on this has stopped. The page
elmar.hilgart's pages has not been updated for 3 1/2 years, so the
"new" and "available soon" are real oxymorons, but on
http://www.eh-systems.com/ there is a phone number. You might try
that... Lyndon has moved onto a new USB and Ethernet cartridge port
board, which is no use to you...
The etherNEA board is very simple. Why don't you try breadboarding one
up on Vero?
When I build my EtherNec I really wanted to make a the EtherNEA but like
you couldn't find a PCB layout or an ASCI port connector, so I built
the EtherNeC as I managed to buy all the bits and it worked once I
found an RTL8019AS card. I don't think any one has an Ethernet II card
apart from Elmar, which is a pity. Again as the info on Elmars page
say "First Prototype" then I guess he has never produced a commercial
PCB layout. I wonder if the reason why is that if he does he must make
the layouts available, as this is required in the license agreement for
the software."
And last but not least, here's a very interesting post from Brian
Bagnall:
"Last week I received a call from Karen Tucker, who is organizing the
December 10th appearance of Jack Tramiel at the Computer History Museum
in California.
The event will include key people from Apple, IBM, and Amiga (see
below). When writing the book "On the Edge: the Spectacular Rise and
Fall of Commodore" I tried getting an interview with Jack by calling
him almost a dozen times, writing several letters to him, and getting
his son Leonard to convince him - everything short of showing up at his
ranch and demanding an interview. I'm in awe that Karen has been able
to make this happen. Apparently she and Leonard convinced Jack that it
was important for him to talk about his experiences before it was too
late.
Karen wanted me to pass on some information. Basically Jack is done with
the confrontational period of his life where he had to be hard nosed in
order to run a company in a cutthroat industry. He's now a retired
grandfather who spends most of his time traveling with his family.
Karen wants Jack to feel welcome, where everyone in the audience can
listen to his history with an open mind. Hopefully if he feels welcome
at the museum he will participate in other events and we can eventually
piece together his experiences in the early computer industry. Karen
knows that most people will be receptive to Jack, but she was a little
worried that a few might decide to throw his kind gesture back in his
face by confronting him. If you know of anyone who plans to do this,
please discourage them from attending.
From what I could gather, this is in celebration of the 25th anniversary
of the C64. There will first be a one-on-one interview with Jack
moderated by John Markoff of the NY Times. After that, Steve Wozniak
(Apple II), Bill Lowe (IBM PC) and Adam Chawniac (Amiga) will take to
the stage for more discussion.
The discussions will probably focus on Commodore, though it's possible
his Atari history will be included. Everyone is welcome and if you
aren't in the area there will be a video webcast of the event available
on their website. This promises to be a great event, and I hope to see
you there!
More information should be available soon at:
http://www.computerhistory.org/events/"
Now ain't that just too cool? Stay tuned for more information!
So that's it for this time around, kids. Tune in again next week, same
time, same station, and be ready to listen to what they are saying
when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Wii Tops In Downloadable Games!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Nintendo, Sony Roll Out Biggies!
Many Parents Avoid Kids' Gaming!
And more!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Nintendo Wii Tops in Downloadable Games
Nintendo Wii currently has the greatest number of games available for
download, though all are re-released titles says, Electronic
Entertainment Design and Research.
While Nintendo's Wii leads in the quantity of downloadable games, Xbox
360 offers the greatest number of original downloadable games over Xbox
Live Arcade, the research found.
Additionally, 84 percent of downloadable 360 games have online
functionality compared with 45 percent of PS3 titles and zero percent for
Wii games.
Only 12 percent of downloadable games are original titles, says EEDAR,
especially given Nintendo's lopsided contribution of older games.
In terms of median game prices, PS3 titles are the cheapest at $5.99,
followed by Virtual Console games at $6, and Xbox Live Arcade games at
$10, the most expensive of the three. Furthermore, 80 percent of the
downloadable content on the PlayStation 3 is free compared to just 29
percent on Xbox 360.
"In an environment with crippling production costs, publishers have new
ways to dramatically impact their financial gain, while making gamers
happy, if they understand how to utilize the new generation of console
storefronts," the report said, adding that games with downloadable
content sell 114 percent more on average.
Nintendo and Sony Roll Out Big Titles
Two new video games from Sony and Nintendo have players exploring jungle
islands for lost treasure or skipping across the galaxy to save a
kidnapped princess.
On the face of it, Sony's "Uncharted" and Nintendo's "Super Mario Galaxy"
can't be more different.
"Uncharted" harnesses the PlayStation 3's graphical muscle to produce a
movie-like adventure, while "Super Mario Galaxy" for the Wii uses
cartoonish graphics and simple controls to breathe new life into an aging
franchise.
The games also answer challenges facing Sony and Nintendo.
Although Nintendo has been selling as may machines as it can make,
players have started to grumble about the lack of must-have titles that
offer a more rewarding experience than short mini-games.
That's where "Super Mario Galaxy" comes in.
A product of Nintendo's legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, "Super
Mario Galaxy" is being hailed as the most innovative and fun Mario
adventure in more than a decade.
The portly Italian plumber once again has to save Princess Peach from the
clutches of the evil Bowser, and this time his path hops across an
amazing variety of planetoids.
Add in dizzying perspectives, weird gravity effects, and finely-honed
motion controls, and you end up with a game that has scored 97 out of 100
on Metacritic.com and is expected to sell 16 million copies worldwide,
according to online prediction market simExchange.com.
"It definitely captures the essence of what makes Mario so great," said
Jeremy Parish, features editor at gaming news Web site 1up.com, which
scored the game a 9.5 out of 10.
"Some hard-core gamers might be turned off by how cutesy this is, but if
you look beyond that, the gameplay is rock-solid, it's incredibly new and
inventive," Parish said.
For Sony, "Uncharted" is the kind of showcase game it sorely needs to
drive sales of the PS3, which has languished behind the Wii and
Microsoft's Xbox 360.
"Uncharted: Drake's Fortune" puts players on the trail of a hidden
treasure of Sir Francis Drake, the 16th century English privateer. It is
set in the modern day but crafted in the style of classic adventure
movies - think Indiana Jones meets "Tomb Raider" meets "Lost."
Its lush jungle settings and mix of brawling, shooting and exploration set
it apart from other popular games this year that feature heavy military or
alien-invasion themes.
"There are lots of sci-fi games that are very dark and brown and grey and
sort of post-apocalyptic. We wanted to do something more lush and green
and vibrant," said Evan Wells, co-president of Naughty Dog, the Sony
studio known for cartoony games like "Crash Bandicoot" and "Jak and
Daxter."
"The goal was to create this pulp action adventure and make it very
cinematic and make it feel like playing the lead role of a hero in a
summer blockbuster," Wells said.
"Uncharted" has an average rating of 89 on Metacritic.com, the highest of
any exclusive game for the system along with "Ratchet & Clank Future:
Tools of Destruction," which came out last month.
"It is another solid addition to the library and I'm sure that for some
folks that is something that would push them to buy a console this
holiday," said Billy Pidgeon, games analyst for market research firm IDC.
"Super Mario Galaxy" was released in the United States on November 12
while "Uncharted" comes out November 19.
Many Parents Avoid Video Games With Kids
Jesse Lackman says his son spends a dozen hours a week waging medieval
combat across the dreary dreamscapes of computer games. Just don't expect
to find Lackman sitting beside him battling ogres and dragons.
"It's just such a waste of time," said Lackman, 47, a power plant
operator from Center, N.D. "I tell him, 'Do something that has some
lasting value.'"
Lackman's avoidance of the digital diversions that captivate his
15-year-old son, Tyrus, is shared by many parents. More than four in 10,
or 43 percent, of those whose young children play video or computer games
never play along with them, according to an Associated Press-AOL Games
poll released Monday.
While experts debate whether electronic gaming is bad news or a blessing
for children and their families, many parents are voicing their
preference by never - or seldom - joining their kids when it's time to
slay cyber scoundrels.
Besides those who simply don't play the games with their children, another
30 percent say they spend less than an hour a week doing so. All told,
about three in four parents of young gamers never or hardly ever touch the
stuff.
"I don't think it's good for them, the violence, the obsession," said
Karen Kimball, 55, of Hale, Minn., another nonplayer who estimates her
17-year-old son plays 25 hours weekly. "No longer is it, 'Let's go out
and throw a football.'"
Those who game with their children are likelier to be younger, single and
part-time workers than those who don't, the poll showed.
Among them is stay-at-home dad Marvin Paup, 33, of Golden Valley, Ariz.,
who says he plays 30 hours a week with his son and dozens more on his
own.
Their current favorite is "Halo 3," a shooter game played online by
thousands of players at a time. His state-of-the-art equipment includes
an Xbox 360 console, surround-sound turned up "really, really loud" and
a 65-inch wide-screen television, he said.
"That game has bonded me with him," he said of his 10-year-old son Allen.
"It's like a whole new reality with me and him."
Overall, the survey highlighted how pervasive - yet age-related -
interest in electronic gaming is today.
According to the poll, in which only adults were questioned, 81 percent of
children age four to 17 play computer or video games at least
occasionally, compared with 38 percent of adults. Typically, both adult
and child gamers play two hours weekly - half play more and half less -
including about three in 10 who play five hours or more each week.
Reflecting the technology's relatively recent introduction, 59 percent of
those age 18 to 29 play at least sometimes, double the rate for people
age 50 to 64. There is little difference among users by race or region,
with middle-income earners likeliest to indulge.
"It's something to take your mind off business and everything else," said
Todd Williams, 33, a salesman from Lexington, Ky., who estimates he plays
10 hours weekly, especially interactive adventure games. "I guess it's
the time, which is seldom, that I spend alone."
Sales of games and gaming hardware are rising steadily, said David Riley,
marketing director of the NPD Group, a market research firm. He estimates
that video and computer game sales this year will total $19 billion in
the U.S., up from $13.5 billion last year.
Even so - and despite the publicity given to newer game consoles like the
Nintendo Wii, Sony's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 - the
proportion of adults saying they play electronic games was virtually
unchanged from April 2006, when an AP-AOL poll asked the same question.
Casual games like card or board games were the favorite of 31 percent of
gamers, about twice the number who like action games, the next most
popular alternative. About half of women cited casual games as their
favorites, triple the number of men who did so, while twice as many males
than females preferred action games.
Adventure, strategy and sports games were also among the most popular.
The poll also found that among gamers:
* 44 percent said they play over the Internet;
* 26 percent said they spent nothing on the pastime last year, another 46
percent spent up to $200 and 12 percent spent $500 or more, with men
usually the bigger spenders;
* Price is the chief factor for people purchasing a gaming console,
followed by the availability of games.
The poll involved telephone interviews with 2,016 adults conducted Oct.
9-11 and 16-18, and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.2
percentage points. Included were 770 people who said they play computer
or video games, for whom the margin of sampling error was plus or minus
3.5 points.
New Antivirus Software for Playstation 3
Video game consoles, which are increasingly being used to surf the
Internet, aren't generally equipped with antivirus protection like PCs.
Security vendor Trend Micro Inc. thinks they should be, though. It has
launched software for Sony's Playstation 3 that promises to block
malicious Web pages and those dealing in sex, drugs and violence.
The company bills the software as the first of its kind for a home gaming
system. It was released earlier this month as part of a PS3 upgrade and
will be free until April.
Some industry experts wonder whether consumers will leap for the
technology the way they snap up security products for the more vulnerable
PC and whether protection for video game consoles is really necessary.
"I think the jury's still out," said Daniel Ives, an analyst at Friedman
Billings Ramsey. "Over the coming years, as the console becomes more
common in terms of Web browsing, that's when you can really try to gauge
what type of opportunity it is for the antivirus vendors."
Tokyo-based Trend Micro's software applies the company's technologies for
identifying Web sites that host malicious code and those that serve as
launch pads for scams to steal passwords, financial data and other
personal information.
The company says video game players are increasingly vulnerable to Web
attacks as they use their consoles for more than just gaming. It vows the
new software will make PS3 users feel safer browsing the Internet.
In addition to blocking malicious Web sites, parents can use the software
to block their children's access to sites that depict illegal activities
or sexually oriented material. A password is needed to access that
feature.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
OLPC Launches 'Give 1, Get 1' Laptop Promo
One Laptop Per Child's long-awaited "Give 1, Get 1" program launched
Monday at www.laptopgiving.org. For the next 15 days only, geeks and
other supporters of computing for kids can pay $399 to get two XO laptops
- one of which will automatically be sent to a child in the developing
world.
Wayan Vota, editor of the OLPCNews Web site, said his site is getting
heavy traffic from readers talking about their experiences in making the
purchase. "Everyone I know is buying one," he said in a telephone
interview.
The purchase process was quite simple, Vota added. OLPC is using PayPal
for online payments, so it was "click, click, you're done," Vota said.
The purchase price is $399 plus $24.95 in shipping.
Douglas Beagley was one of the first to order. He noted that the operator
told him that the entire $399 purchase price was tax deductible, even
though technically he is only donating half of his purchase - the "give"
in "Give 1, Get 1."
Taxpayers must deduct the value of any thank-you gift they receive in
exchange for a donation, so the operator's statement appears to misstate
the extent of the tax deduction. Purchasers should be sure to deduct only
half the amount on their taxes.
Another question about OLPC has been whether and how the organization
would provide support. At least as far as Give 1, Get 1 buyers are
concerned, the answer appears to be that OLPC is not offering any.
The terms and conditions for the sale states: "Although we believe you
will love your XO laptop, you should understand that it is not a
commercially available product and, if you want help using it, you will
have to seek it from friends, family, and bloggers."
OLPC claims that by participating in the Give 1, Get 1 initiative, buyers
are joining an "informal network of XO laptop users in the developed
world" who will support users in the developing world. In other words,
there is no tech support, but buyers may purchase a fee-based support
service.
"We urge participants in the G1G1 initiative to think of themselves as
members of an international educational movement rather than as
'customers,'" the contract says.
Vota called this language an "interesting way for them to keep from
having to handle service requests." OLPC doesn't currently offer any
documentation other than a wiki. "One page on a wiki does not make a
constructive user guide," he said. "They need to have some comprehensive
support plan in place."
It's not only buyers in North America who need a support plan. "Ministers
in the developing world need this in order to be able to buy laptops,"
Vota said. "Without a maintenance plan, what are they supposed to do, tell
the kids to get a screwdriver and fix it themselves? That's Humpty Dumpty
on a massive scale."
On the other hand, Vota said, "OLPC is trying to get people engaged." With
its innovative Sugar interface, "this is not a replacement for your Xbox
or your MacBook. It's a tool for children to learn. Parents will have to
be involved with helping children use the machines."
In testing, children appear to pick up the Sugar interface easily, Vota
said. But adults will have to realize that it's "not Mac or Windows or
even Linux - it's a total revisioning of a computer interface." Vota said
he doubted that OLPC would open the Give 1, Get 1 program up beyond the
current two-week window "because it would take energy away" from getting
the laptops placed in the developing world.
Dell Announces All-in-One 'XPS One'
Dell launched the all-in-one Dell XPS One on Friday, a rival to both the
Gateway One as well as the Apple iMac.
Although the company won't begin shipping the new PCs for a few days,
Dell is accepting orders on the company's Web site. Prices range from
$1,499 on up to about $2,400, according to Dell.
Like the iMac or Gateway all-in-one PCs, Dell is touting the XPS One as a
unified, space-saving experience. The XPS One contains some components
typically found in laptops - a 2.0-Mpixel camera, an array microphone,
glass LCD, and an Mobile PCI Express (MXM) graphics card module - plus
desktop performance. In all models, the display measures 20 inches, while
the included processor is either an Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 or E6550. Two
gigabytes of RAM come standard.
Dell is pitching the one in four different configurations - the
"Essential," "Music," "Performance" and "Entertainment". Of note is the
latter model, which includes both a high-performance 256-Mbyte ATI
Radeon HD 2400 (just days after the official launch of the Radeon 3850)
and a Blu-ray writer drive.
In a PC Magazine review, analyst Joel Santo Domingo could find little
fault with the XPS One, ranking it on par or superior to the Apple and
Gateway machines, and awarded it an Editor's Choice. "The Dell XPS One,
like the HP Blackbird 002, uses design to add 'Wow,' and just about
everything about the design and features make sense," Santo Domingo
wrote. "This is the all-in-one PC to beat for now."
Judge To White House: Back Up E-mail
The White House must preserve e-mail and maintain copies of millions of
backup e-mail messages that were allegedly deleted improperly from
servers, according to a temporary restraining order issued Monday by a
U.S. judge.
The order from Judge Henry Kennedy in the U.S. District Court for the
District of Columbia was a victory for the Citizens for Responsibility
and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a watchdog group that filed suit against
the Executive Office of the President and the National Archives and
Record Administration in September. The group contends that the White
House has not been accountable about the deleted e-mail messages and has
a deficient e-mail archival system in place.
The lawsuit also alleged that the defendants knowingly failed to recover,
restore, and preserve millions of electronic communications records in
the White House. CREW alleged that the e-mail messages were improperly
deleted from the servers.
CREW said that if any copies of the deleted e-mail messages existed, those
would be on backup storage devices, and asked for devices and documents to
be preserved.
The restraining order will add transparency to "an administration
committed more to secrecy than compliance with the law," said Anne
Weismann, chief counsel for CREW, in a statement referring to the
administration of President George Bush.
The White House routinely assured CREW that it had a proper e-mail
archiving system in place, according to court filings related to the
case. White House officials couldn't be reached for comment.
The White House discovered in 2005 that an unknown number of e-mail
messages were missing from its archive, said Keith Roberts, the deputy
general counsel of the White House Office of Administration, in a May
briefing to the congressional Committee on Oversight and Government
Reform. Roberts also stated that a contractor responsible for daily
audits of the e-mail system and archiving failed to detect and report
the problems at the time.
US Control Of Internet Remains Issue
A U.N.-sponsored Internet conference ended Thursday with little to show
in closing the issue of U.S. control over how people around the world
access e-mail and Web sites.
With no concrete recommendations for action, the only certainty going
forward is that any resentment about the American influence will only
grow as more users from the developing world come online, changing the
face of the global network.
"I think that there are many Third World countries and developing
countries and people from Asia and so on who are pressuring for changes,"
said Augusto Gadelha Viera, coordinator of the Brazilian Internet
steering committee and chairman of a closing session on emerging issues
at the four-day Internet Governance Forum.
As the conference drew to a close, Russian representative Konstantin
Novoderejhkin called on the United Nations secretary-general to create a
working group to develop "practical steps" for moving Internet governance
"under the control of the international community."
At issue is control over Internet domain names, the monikers after the
"dot" like "com" and "org" that are crucial for computers to find Web
sites and route e-mail.
The domain name system is now controlled by the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers, a Marina del Rey, Calif.-based nonprofit over
which the U.S. government retains veto power. By controlling the core
systems, the United States indirectly influences the way much of the
world uses the Internet.
The Internet Governance Forum, the result of a compromise world leaders
reached two years ago to try to resolve the issue of U.S. control, has no
decision-making powers. At most those seeking change can use the
conference to pressure the United States to cede control.
The United States insists that the existing arrangements ensure the
Internet's stability and prevent a country from trying to, say, censor
Web sites by pulling entries out of the domain name directories.
Supporters of the current system denounced the Russian proposal.
"The Russian proposal seeks to exponentially increase government
interference in the ICANN process, introducing a dangerous and
destabilizing force into a global Internet addressing system that has
been a paragon of stability under the current oversight structure," said
Steve DelBianco, executive director of NetChoice, a coalition of
high-tech leaders like Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, eBay Inc. and Yahoo Inc.
Brazilian officials, however, called for an independent ICANN and sought
more concrete recommendations out of the forum; if not this year, then
by the time the last one is held in 2010.
"As we approach the end we're going to have to see what the world wants
and perhaps it will be necessary to take more concrete decisions, or if
not decisions, recommendations," said Hadil da Rocha Vianna, co-chairman
of the forum's advisory group and director of science and technology at
Brazil's foreign ministry.
There's little indication, though, that the U.S. government and ICANN
plan to cede their roles over domain names anytime soon.
Internet pioneer Vint Cerf, who stepped down as ICANN's chairman earlier
this month, dismissed the complaints as misguided.
"I think (there are) a small number of countries that are very agitated
and almost don't care what the facts are," he said. "It's a very small
vocal group bothered by this issue. ICANN has existed for eight years and
done a great job with its plans for internationalization."
ICANN recently elected its first chairman from outside the United States
and started tests on domain names entirely in other languages, something
many countries have sought to expand Internet usage among those
unfamiliar with English.
But ICANN still must craft guidelines on how to assign such names and
resolve any conflicts or complaints. For example, should the operators of
China's ".cn" automatically be entitled to the Chinese version of that
and ".com," or might Taiwan have a claim as well?
Governments that criticize ICANN and the U.S. role are seeking more
influence over such policy matters.
Cerf said the forum's mandate as a discussion venue free of decisions or
recommendations results in better dialogue. The climate would change, he
said, if participants spent their time hammering out consensual
agreements.
"It's a non-negotiating climate and I can't emphasize how important that
is," Cerf said. "The opinions expressed here help inform ICANN."
Other issues discussed at the forum included how to provide greater
Internet access to the 5 billion people around the world still offline
and how to combat cybercrime like child pornography, identity theft,
credit card fraud and terrorism.
The next forum will held next year in New Delhi, India.
Yahoo, Jailed Journalists Settle Lawsuit
Yahoo Inc., reeling from a growing backlash over human rights and its
China operations, settled a lawsuit Tuesday that accused it of illegally
helping the Chinese government jail and torture two journalists.
Neither side disclosed details other than to agree Yahoo would pay the
attorneys fees of Shi Tao and Wang Xiaoning and the family member who
sued on their behalf. Yahoo also said it would "provide financial,
humanitarian and legal support to these families."
The settlement has reopened debate over Internet companies cooperating
with governments that deny freedom of speech and crack down on
journalists.
It marked a dramatic change of heart for Yahoo, which had steadfastly
maintained it had to comply with a request from Chinese authorities to
share information about the online activities of the two Chinese
nationals.
But Yahoo's cooperation turned into a public relations nightmare over the
last week after irate federal lawmakers lambasted it on Capitol Hill,
accusing it of collaborating with an oppressive regime.
"While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are
pygmies," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos, D-Calif.,
said at a hearing.
Alibaba.com, China's biggest online commerce firm, has run Yahoo's
mainland China operations since Yahoo bought a 40 percent stake in
Alibaba in 2005. Shi and Wang sued Yahoo and Alibaba in April.
Yahoo would not say whether its dealings in China or Alibaba's mode of
responding to government requests will change as a result of the
settlement. But Yahoo has said it only owns a 40 percent stake in
Alibaba and has no control over the Chinese company, a subsidiary of
Alibaba Group.
Many other U.S. companies, including Google Inc., Cisco Systems Inc. and
Microsoft Corp., are facing similar quandaries in China, said business
professor Peter Navarro of the University of California, Irvine.
"They have all crossed a gray ethical line in China with their
anything-for-a-buck mentality," Navarro said. "I don't believe that will
change without a broader examination of the U.S.-China relationship."
He and other China watchers said the settlement would do little to stem
similar behavior by other U.S. business operating in one of the world's
fastest growing economies.
"Congress hasn't figured out that Yahoo is not the only culprit," said
Navarro, who just published the book "Coming China Wars."
Shi, a former writer for the financial publication Contemporary Business
News, was jailed under state secrecy laws for allegedly providing state
secrets to foreigners. Shi's e-mail allegedly contained notes about a
government memo on media restrictions.
Wang was arrested in 2002 in connection with anonymous e-mails and other
political writings he posted online. They are both serving 10 year prison
sentences.
The pair were represented in the lawsuit by The World Organization for
Human Rights in Washington, D.C.
At the congressional hearing, Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang and
General Counsel Michael Callahan apologized to Shi's mother, who sat
behind them.
Yang met with family members afterward.
"After meeting with the families, it was clear to me what we had to do to
make this right for them, for Yahoo and for the future," Yang said in a
statement Tuesday. "We are committed to making sure our actions match our
values around the world."
Yang said the company was establishing a "human rights fund to provide
humanitarian and legal aid to dissidents who have been imprisoned for
expressing their views online."
The journalists' U.S. attorney, Morton Sklar, said Yahoo's will to fight
the lawsuit withered amid growing outcry after members of Congress accused
company officials of misleading them.
"There was a dramatic change in their position and that was strong
incentive to settle," Sklar said. "They did not want to be on the wrong
side of this issue."
Sklar said he suspects there are many more dissidents in Chinese jails
because of U.S. companies' cooperation with the Chinese government. Sklar
said there may be other lawsuits filed and further pressure on Capitol
Hill if U.S. companies don't soon change their business practices in
China.
"They will have to recognize they have to do more than just follow the
law," Sklar said. "They can negotiate with the host countries and not be
complicit in torture."
Lantos also called on other Internet companies to "resist any attempts by
authoritarian regimes to make them complicit in cracking down on free
speech, otherwise they simply should not do business in those markets."
"It took a tongue-lashing from Congress before these high-tech titans did
the right thing and coughed up some concrete assistance for the family of
a journalist whom Yahoo had helped send to jail," Lantos said in a
statement. "What a disgrace."
Cyber Bullying Bedevils Japan
For many Japanese children, a cell phone is a social lifeline they can't
imagine being without. For high school student Makoto, it became an
instrument of mental torture that nearly drove him to suicide.
"Even when I stopped going to school and stayed at home, my cell phone
kept ringing with harassing e-mails," said Makoto, who became anorexic
and rarely emerged from his room for nearly half a year after becoming
the target of "cyber bullying."
Makoto, now 19 and working as a hair stylist after graduating from high
school, said classmates posted photos of him along with insults on a Web
site and e-mailed him at all hours telling him to die. He attempted
suicide twice.
"When people tell you your life is not worth living, you start to think
that way," said Makoto, who requested that his last name not be used.
"I couldn't believe in human beings anymore."
Schoolyard bullying has long bedeviled Japan and, as in other countries,
has taken a high-tech twist in recent years.
Ten percent of high school students said they have been harassed through
e-mails, websites or blogs, a recent survey by the Hyogo Prefectual Board
of Education showed.
Cyber bullying is a global trend, but the anonymity it provides for
perpetrators may have extra significance in Japan, where wariness of
direct confrontation is a cultural norm, said Shaheen Shariff, principal
investigator for the International Project on Cyber Bullying at McGill
University in Canada.
"Something is falling through the cracks, so they need to address what
the problem is," she said in a phone interview.
"Are they (children) too controlled, are they under too much pressure to
be academically successful, do they have an avenue to express their
feelings ... are those taboos?" Shariff said.
Most cyber bullying in Japan, where 96 percent of high school students
have their own cell phone, is conducted through mobile phones with
Internet and e-mailing capabilities.
Common methods include e-mailing pictures showing victims' genitals to
classmates and posting insults on class Web sites.
Experts say high-tech bullying is far harder for parents and teachers to
police than physical violence because of the anonymity of cyber space and
a lack of technical knowledge.
"Schools often do not have Internet-savvy teachers, and parents cannot
control or see what is going on in the cyber world," said Yasukawa of
the National Web Counseling Conference.
"No one knows what is going on."
The obscurity of cyber bullying is making the problem of bullying, which
schools have long been accused of sweeping under the carpet, even harder
to address.
The problem drew public attention in July, when an 18-year-old boy leapt
to his death at his high school in Kobe, western Japan, after classmates
posted a nude photo of him on a Web site and repeatedly sent him e-mails
demanding money.
The school first denied bullying had occurred and only admitted that was
the case after some of the teen's classmates were arrested.
"Things that shouldn't have happened are secretly settled and hidden by
schools as if they never took place," said Chiharu Utsumi, a
representative of the Association for the Bereaved by School Accidents
and Events, whose 11-year-old son committed suicide 13 years ago after
being beaten by his teacher at school.
Education ministry surveys from 1999 to 2005 reported no suicides related
to bullying, but the ministry decided earlier this year to review 16
cases that took place over the six year period.
Some Japanese schools and parents are already using e-mail filtering
software and special settings on cell phones and computers that protect
children from harassment by blocking messages sent through suspect
servers or IP addresses.
But experts agree that the solution to cyber-bullying requires more than
the latest technology.
"In terms of technology, e-mail filtering systems are effective," said
Motohiro Hasegawa, associate professor of Department of Information and
Culture at Kinjo Gakuin University.
"But in the end, the problem is not about technology - it is about
humans."
UN Internet Forum Focuses On Fighting Sex Predators
The second UN forum on governance of the Internet has closed with
participants agreeing on the need to protect children from sexual
predators using the web to lure victims.
Participants at the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Rio de Janeiro
also called for finding ways to expand web access to close the gap
between the world's richest and poorest countries.
But the meeting, which was attended by more than 1,300 representatives of
governments, the private sector and the Internet from 109 countries,
centered on keeping children safe from pedophiles lurking on the Internet.
"While there were disagreements on certain topics such as access and
diversity, there was a consensus regarding protecting children," French
delegate Bernard Behnamou told AFP.
During the forum, which started Monday, the Council of Europe unveiled a
game - called the Wild Web Woods - designed to teach children how to stay
away from sexual predators and other Internet dangers.
Council of Europe Deputy Secretary General Maud de Boer-Buquicchio
encouraged countries to join a convention seeking to strengthen
international cooperation in tracking down "pedo-pornographers" and
"groomers" of children.
While web pedophilia was a top issue at the forum, participants also
discussed the need to reduce inequality in Internet access between rich
and developing countries.
Brazil's Augusto Gadelha, who represented his government's science and
technology ministry, said the Internet "must be governed for the benefit
of all of humanity."
Gadelha called for "affordable prices" for developing nations to gain more
Internet access.
Forum participants also insisted that the World Wide Web should maintain a
cultural and linguistic diversity.
"The Internet must widen to reflect, in its content and address system,
the cultural and linguist diversity that exists," Gadelha said.
European, Brazilia, Chinese and Indian participants called for "greater
independence" at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN), the US-based body overseeing the assignment of domain names and
addresses.
Evacuation Of eBay Building Ends
EBay employees who were evacuated from their offices Wednesday after a
suspicious-looking package was found in the company's mailroom were
allowed to return to work after a bomb squad determined the parcel was
harmless.
More than 200 eBay were ordered out of one of nine buildings at the
online auction company's headquarters when workers found the package just
before 8 a.m. They were allowed to return about 12:30 p.m.
"It has happened before, but it is a very rare thing," eBay spokesman
Hani Durzy said of the scare. "EBay is a company and an entity in Silicon
Valley and is not immune to what other companies and organization have to
deal with."
Durzy refused to describe what about the package raised alarms.
EBay's whole San Jose campus houses a work force of about 2,500.
The evacuated workers were given the option of waiting outside while
police and firefighters investigated, finding another building to work in
or working from home, according to Durzy.
UK Wants Net Companies To Fight Terror
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown wants Internet companies to help
stifle online terrorist propaganda, he told lawmakers Wednesday, as
officials say they plan to meet leading service providers to find ways of
putting a lid on extremist content.
But the providers argue they already do all they can to fight illegal
terrorist material online, and experts say even powerful filters cannot
block determined users from getting their message out.
"Fundamentally, it's a losing proposition," said Ian Brown, a research
fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, noting that even countries such
as China and Myanmar have had trouble with their online censorship
efforts.
The prime minister's proposal comes as the European Union considers ways
to sanction Web sites that display terror propaganda or recruit for
terrorist groups.
Addressing lawmakers, the prime minister said Home Secretary Jacqui Smith
was "inviting the largest global technology and Internet companies to
work together to ensure that our best technical expertise is galvanized
to counter online incitement to hatred."
The Home Office said it would meet leading British Internet service
providers to examine ways of curbing online propaganda, but said Brown's
plan had not yet been considered in detail. Not clear, for instance, was
whether the plan would require new laws or different ways of enforcing
existing regulations.
British law already forbids the publication of statements likely to be
seen as encouraging terrorism or the dissemination of terrorist material,
such as bomb-making information, according to the Internet Watch
Foundation, an EU-funded body that works with the British government to
monitor and remove illegal online content.
Under so-called "notice and take down" procedures, authorities, companies
and individuals can demand that Internet service providers remove content
considered to be unlawful. That includes child pornography, as well
libelous, obscene or terrorist material, the group said.
Although the removal of child pornography is relatively uncontroversial,
service providers have expressed unhappiness at having to shut down their
customers' sites over, for example, allegations of libel, where guilt is
difficult to determine at a glance. They are unlikely to welcome similar
demands over material that allegedly glorifies terrorism.
Besides taking down their own customers' sites, service providers also
might be pressured to block ones hosted abroad. The government might draw
up a list of banned sites, similar to one the Internet Watch Foundation
has maintained since 2004 and updates twice daily to block Britons from
visiting child pornography sites hosted overseas.
Another method might be to persuade search engines like Google Inc. or
Yahoo Inc. to filter out prohibited content from their search results, or
manage their searches so that the words "bomb," "al-Qaida," or "video"
did not lead users to terrorist-related sites.
But both these measures would do little to deter the computer-literate
youth being targeted by al-Qaida, Ian Brown said. He noted that users
could still swap terror-related content through file-sharing networks,
discussion forums, or access material through sophisticated proxy servers
and programs that allow users to browse the Net anonymously.
Efforts to use Internet service providers to police online content
amounted to a "censorship proposal" and was bound to be problematic, said
John Gage, vice president and chief researcher for Sun Microsystems Inc.
"It's one of these things that's going to be very difficult to
implement," he said.
U.S. Panel Urges Vigilance On China Spying, Cyber War
Chinese espionage posed "the single greatest risk" to U.S. technology, a
congressional advisory panel said on Thursday and called for efforts to
protect industrial secrets and computer networks.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission also called in
its annual report to Congress for closer work with China to promote
energy security and deal with environmental problems such as climate
change and pollution.
The panel urged the U.S. Congress to examine "military, intelligence, and
homeland security programs that monitor and protect critical American
computer networks and sensitive information, specifically those tasked
ith protecting networks from damage caused by cyber attacks."
"Chinese espionage activities in the United States are so extensive that
they comprise the single greatest risk to the security of American
technologies," the report said.
China was supplementing impressive gains in research and development of
commercial and military technology with an "aggressive and large-scale
industrial espionage campaign" that required S. Congress to examine and
consider increasing funding for export controls and counterintelligence,
it said.
China's military, growing and making technological gains at a pace that
often surprised experts, also required greater scrutiny, said the
report,
based on hearings with experts and officials over the past year.
"Sophisticated weapon platforms are coming off production lines at an
impressive pace and with impressive quality," it said. It recommended
beefed up U.S. intelligence and checks into whether the Chinese were
gaining military technology from research conducted by U.S. firms in
China.
The commission, set up by Congress in 2000 to examine potential Chinese
threats to U.S. economic and national security, urged similar measures to
protect space assets in the wake of China's controversial anti-satellite
test in January.
The report called on Congress and the U.S. government to cooperate to
help Taiwan modernize its military and boost its capacity for operating
jointly with U.S. and allied forces.
China "must stop providing trade and diplomatic cover to countries such
as North Korea and Iran" amid concerns about illicit weapons programs,
it said.
China had improved its record in halting proliferation of dangerous
weapons and components since the 1990s, the report said. But Chinese
proliferation continued and China's opaque government made it hard to
determine whether those cases were deliberate or caused by rogue Chinese
firms, it said.
A separate U.S. congressional panel monitors human rights and civil
liberties in China. But the Economic and Security Review Commission used
the 2007 report to highlight concerns prompted by China's tight control
of media and Internet.
"China's control and manipulation of information make it difficult or
impossible for officials responsible for food and product safety in the
United States and other nations to identify potential safety problems in
Chinese imports on a timely basis and intervene," it said.
Media in China, all state-controlled, were used by Beijing to "create
deep feelings of nationalism," the report observed. It warned that such
nationalism may constrain China's options during international incidents
in ways that could risk "turning a misunderstanding into a conflict."
The Top 10 Most Annoying, Frustrating, Irritating, and Sinister Online Ads
Today's annoying online ads are a mix of Big Brother meets Madison
Avenue, old-fashioned in-your-face marketing, and tactics that are
downright mean. I rounded up a list of today's ten most annoying online
ad categories. Many of them probably have you longing for the days when
the most pesky ads promoted an X-10 wireless camera.
Some of these ads flash, blink, vibrate, and somersault around your
browser window. Others expand, pop open a window (even if you have a
pop-up blocker), and play sounds or video. The most sinister don't appear
to do anything at all and quietly attempt to hijack your PC.
What's behind this new breed of advertising? Naturally, money is greasing
the wheels of online ad innovation. Consider eMarketer's forecast, which
indicates that U.S. Internet companies are spending $21.4 billion in 2007
on online ads. That budget will grow - by 2011, an estimated $42 billion
will go toward online ads, according to eMarketer.
However, as you grind your teeth trying to ignore a banner for Smiley
Central riddled with talking emoticons, keep in mind that as irritating
as Web ads are, they help keep Web content free. Without them, we'd all
have to pay a nickel every time we wanted to watch a YouTube video of
people riding down escalators in shopping carts.
Even so, "rich media advertising" can consume a lot of CPU cycles and tax
your system - never mind your patience. Other forms of online
advertising, such as column ads (those adjacent to content on a page),
often interfere with surrounding content. When online advertising goes
too far, sometimes you have to fight back with ad-blocking tools.
What's too much advertising? What's the just the right amount? That's for
you to decide.
1. Old-School, Annoying, Attention-Grabbing Ads
Recently I was having trouble focusing on the text of a CNN.com story. I
quickly realized that my concentration troubles were due not to a bout of
attention deficit disorder, but rather to a LowerMyBills ad that was
blinking, jiggling, and dancing beside the text I was trying to read.
It occurred to me then: Why are online ads so obnoxious? The answer is,
they work by grabbing our attention. Just as I can't ignore the
silhouetted images of two-stepping cowboys in the LowerMyBills ads, the
LowerMyBills brand is now stuck in my head like a song I hate and can't
shake. (LowerMyBills would call that effective marketing).
Experts say that obtrusive ads are going out of vogue in exchange for ads
tailored to the interests of individual Web users. If that's true, would
someone please tell CNN.com? In the meantime, if you're interested in
death by LowerMyBills ads, visit the Web site Adverlicio.us, which has
archived nearly all the LowerMyBills ads.
2. Noisy Ads
Obnoxious isn't quite strong enough an adjective to describe ads that
automatically start playing audio on my PC without any warning. I'm not
naming names, but I've spotted such ads on plenty of sites. It leads me to
wonder: Whose hair-brained idea was it to hijack my PC's audio, anyway?
If you want to place blame, start with the advertiser, of course, but then
consider the Web site where the ad appears. According to online-ad
experts, Web site owners set the policy governing the types of ads their
pages display.
One online-advertising company, EyeWonder, says that about one out of ten
video ads it creates on the behalf of its customers will initiate audio
when you roll your pointer over the ad. Most advertisers provide a button
to start the audio, says Jason Scheidt, director of marketing for
EyeWonder.
3. Floating Ads
on - gulp - PCWorld.com) running across your screen as the page loads.
I asked one advertising insider (who didn't want to be identified) if he
would confirm my suspicion that some advertisers intentionally make it
impossible to find the Close button. His response? "Of course they do.
These advertisers know they are getting away with something. And that
'something' is not about making your life easier."
4. Triple Threat: Floating Video Sales Pitch
Sometimes in the technology world, things go together like peanut butter
and jelly. Other times, the convergence is a car wreck.
I spotted an online ad for Toyota in which a pint-size pitchman waltzed
out from the lower-left corner of my screen. The ombination
video-audio-floating-takeover ad simply started yakking, with no warning,
and the ad didn't disappear until he was done. Talk about an annoying car
salesperson.
5. Mouse-Over Land Mine Ads
an iPhone and other objects are pulverized in Blendtec blenders. Blendtec
created the videos to promote its products in an unconventional way. The
idea behind viral marketing is to make ads so compelling that a viewer
wants to share them with a friend. Ideally, the viral ad, which is often
a video, a picture, or a blog, spreads from inbox to inbox or blog to
blog as quickly as a computer virus might.
The only problem with this often obnoxious form of advertising is that
for every interesting viral ad we're subjected to at least a dozen
annoying duds.
Sony tried to create buzz with a viral marketing campaign for its
PlayStation Portable. Sony hired marketing company Zipatoni to create a
blog titled "All I Want for Xmas Is a PSP" and pass it off as created by
someone named Charlie. The blog contained glowing tributes to the PSP and
linked to YouTube videos starring "Charlie" singing the praises of the
handheld.
The blog created buzz all right, but not the positive kind that Sony
sought. Word got out that both the blog and Charlie were fake.
Immediately, Sony had to deal with an angry Web mob who ridiculed the
vendor for trying to trick its customers. Sony eventually came clean and
admitted to the charade.
Sony is in good company, joining other firms, such as Wal-Mart, that have
taken grief for unsuccessful attempts at viral advertising.
7. Expanding Ads
PCWorld.com runs this type of ad on occasion as well.
8. Personal and Tailored Ads
The behavioral-advertising business is booming with major online ad
companies, with DoubleClick leading the pack. These companies give me the
creeps, because they track my Web whereabouts and likely know more about
my surfing habits than I do. Many create digital dossiers of online users
that advertisers can use to show you ads tailored to your online
activities.
The move toward behavior-based marketing is a trend, says Greg Sterling,
an analyst with mobile market research firm Opus Research in San
Francisco. That trend motivated Google to acquire DoubleClick, with the
intention of targeting and selling ads more effectively. Privacy
activists, of course, are foaming at the mouth, concerned that Google and
DoubleClick will know too much about Internet users.
This approach marks a shift from the online advertising model Google
established, which displays ads based on a person's keyword searches.
To counter the trend, many privacy activists are urging the Federal Trade
Commission to create a "Do Not Track" database; consumers registering
there could opt out of being tracked by DoubleClick and other online
marketers.
9. Malware-Laced Ads
No question about it: Online ads that deliver malicious software are
beyond merely annoying. Security firm ScanSafe tracks dangerous banner
ads that have shown up on MySpace, PhotoBucket, and other leading sites.
Such parasite ads typically contain a Flash file that silently installs a
Trojan horse or backdoor program on vulnerable Windows systems.
Reportedly, 12 million such ads came from RightMedia, an advertising firm
in which Yahoo owns an 80 percent stake.
The most devious aspect of these ads is that they require no interaction
from you, and Web sites sometimes deliver them innocently. They often
come from third-party ad suppliers that act as middlemen between Web sites
and advertisers. Sometimes the company delivering the ads to a site is
unaware that a bad-apple advertiser has embedded Trojan horses in them.
By sheer bad luck you could visit a Web site that inadvertently hosts a
Trojan horse ad, and risk infection, says Mary Landesman, a senior
researcher at ScanSafe.
"We find this stuff all the time," Landesman says. "We could report one
every week."
10. Bait, Switch, and Infect Ads
A related type of online ad is the kind that entices you with
too-good-to-be-true offers. Such messages predate the Web, of course, but
online they cause a lot of grief, notes Paul Piccard, director of threat
research at Webroot Software.
Earlier this month the Web site of the Arizona Daily Star in Tuscon was
hit with a "maliciously coded online advertisement," according to the
newspaper's own report. The Star reports that the online ad was purchased
by a company using a fraudulent credit card. The ad appeared on the
newspaper's site for 18 days and "directed some Web visitors to sites
that could have installed harmful software," says the Star's report.
Piccard says that such ads typically promote free software or another
giveaway, trying to drive traffic to a booby-trapped Web page. If you
click on such an ad, it whisks you away to a Web site that attempts to
install malware onto your system through Web browser security holes.
As the Arizona Daily Star will attest, these ads can make their way onto
legitimate sites and cause havoc. Piccard says that the malicious
payloads these ads deliver to PCs include keyloggers (which collect and
send personal identifying financial information), adware, and spyware.
What Can You Do?
For the online-ad weary, there is both good news and bad news.
The bad news: If you don't like these ads, tough luck. Market observers
say that today's browser-based advertising technology is as creative as
it is annoying. This breed of online ad technology is so tightly fused
with browsers and Web sites that it's extremely difficult to block.
The good news is that ad-blocking technology also continues to advance -
although not nearly at the breakneck speed that ads do. If you want to
learn more about additional defensive weapons, my colleague Steve Bass
outlines a few of the latest and greatest tools in "15 Ways to Block
Annoying Ads and Pop-Ups."
Marvel, Other Comics Go Online
Marvel is putting some of its older comics online Tuesday, hoping to
reintroduce young people to the X-Men and Fantastic Four by showcasing the
original issues in which such characters appeared.
It's a tentative move onto the Internet: Comics can only be viewed in a
Web browser, not downloaded, and new issues will only go online at least
six months after they first appear in print.
Still, it represents perhaps the comics industry's most aggressive Web
push yet. Even as their creations - from Iron Man to Wonder Woman -
become increasingly visible in pop culture through new movies and video
games, old-school comics publishers rely primarily on specialized,
out-of-the-way comic shops for distribution of their bread-and-butter
product.
"You don't have that spinner rack of comic books sitting in the local
five-and-dime any more," said Dan Buckley, president of Marvel
Publishing. "We don't have our product intersecting kids in their
lifestyle space as much as we used to."
Translate "kids' lifestyle space" into plain English and you get "the
Internet." Marvel's two most prominent competitors currently offer online
teasers designed to drive the sales of comics or book collections.
Dark Horse Comics now puts its monthly anthologies "Dark Horse Presents"
up for free viewing on its MySpace site. The images are vibrant and
large.
DC Comics has also put issues up on MySpace, and recently launched the
competition-based Zuda Comics, which encourages users to rank each
other's work, as a way to tap into the expanding Web comic scene. Company
president Paul Levitz said he expects to put more original comics online
in coming years.
"We look at anything that connects comics to people," Levitz said. "The
most interesting thing about the online world to me is the opportunity
for new forms of creativity. ... It's a question of what forms of
storytelling work for the Web?"
For its mature Vertigo imprint, DC offers weekly sneak peeks at the first
five or six pages of upcoming issues. The publisher also gives out
downloadable PDF files of the first issues in certain series, timed to
publication of the series in book or graphic novel format.
The Web release of DC's "Y the Last Man" sent sales of that book
collection soaring at Bridge City Comics in Portland, Ore., the shop's
owner Michael Ring said.
"They really do tend to be feeder systems," Ring said of online comics.
"They give people that initial taste."
For Marvel, the general public has often already gotten its initial
taste through movies like "Spider-Man" or the "Fantastic Four"
franchises.
The publisher is hoping fans will be intrigued enough about the origins
of those characters to shell out $9.99 a month, or $4.99 monthly with a
year-long commitment. For that price, they'll be able to poke through,
say, the first 100 issues of Stan Lee's 1963 creation "Amazing
Spider-Man" at their leisure, along with more recent titles like "House
of M" and "Young Avengers." Comics can be viewed in several different
formats, including frame-by-frame navigation.
Ring expects Marvel's effort to put a slight dent in the back-issue
segment of the comic shop industry, where rare, out-of-print titles
sell for hundreds of dollars on eBay and at trade shows.
Though most comic fans are collectors, some simply want to catch up on
the backstory of their favorite characters and would no longer have to
pay top dollar to do so.
About 2,500 issues will be available at launch of Marvel Digital
Comics, with 20 more being released each week.
On the Net:
http://marvel.com/
http://www.dccomics.com/
http://www.zudacomics.com/
=~=~=~=
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