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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 11 Issue 18
Volume 11, Issue 18 Atari Online News, Etc. May 1, 2009
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2008
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 #1118 05/01/09
~ Cybercrime Self-Help! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Trick Flu Emails!
~ Cablevision Is Fastest ~ New Twitters: Bye Bye! ~ HP ProBook Laptop!
~ New Firefox Beta Out! ~ Window 7 Public Debut! ~ Opera Turns 15!
~ Win 7, October Launch! ~ Anyone Using Explorer? ~ Recession Games!
-* EU: Microsoft Seeks Hearing! *-
-* Internet Firms Near "Last Chance"! *-
-* U.S. Cyber Warfare Needs Oversight, Debate *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Another long and tiring week; I must be getting old[er]!! However, the
weather has made it bearable, although I was really too tired to enjoy
it!
Even though I don't have the energy to do it, I'm going to make a few of
the comments I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. A promise is a promise!
In that issue, there was an article pertaining to how spam e-mail is doing
damage to the environment. No, of course not, directly. But the energy
used to send and read it via your computer generates carbon dioxide, which
is partially the cause of out problems. Well, I started to think about
that - for a couple of minutes anyway. Why stop at singling out spam?
How about other e-mail that one gets? You know the ones I mean. Those
messages from your friends with useless factoids. How about those
useless, yet well-meaning chain e-mails? You know the ones: here's a
little story that will cheer you up; send it to ten friends and you'll
have a better life, and such. Or how about the e-mails that have been
passed along to everyone every couple of years ago - send this letter to
all of your contacts and Microsoft will send you $25.00 for doing so!
How about the "you're un-American if you don't send this "Support the
troops" message to everyone you know!" How about all of the activity
generated by all of the porn sites that inundate the internet (speaking
of what I think is out there and not what I've [not] seen personally)?
The list can go on forever! Get rid of all that crap and we can save the
environment for another couple of generations!
The other thing that caused me to do a little thinking this week is the
recent outbreak of swine flu. Not, not the disease itself, but the
"other disease" that's been spawned. How anyone can use a potentially
deadly disease as the basis for spam or phishing schemes is beyond me.
Taking advantage of people's fears has to be one of the lowest forms of
cruel and deceitful behavior! Just one more event that led to
emotional terrorism.
I could go on, but it's getting late, and this issue has a deadline.
So, let's get on to the other news and comments for this week; and we'll
see what happens in the coming weeks!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Well, another week has come and gone, and
we've have some fairly interesting developments in the world of politics,
and you know me... I can't pass this stuff up. Add to that the fact that
there is an ongoing paucity of posts in the NewsGroups, and you KNOW that
I'm going to be talking about.
First of all, I want to share with you a couple of comments I got about
last week's column. First, someone emailed me to say that I was all wrong
about Senator Larry Craig, since he has said publicly many times that he
is not gay. Well, dear reader, that may be true. Senator Craig my NOT be
gay. Unfortunately, he was in an airport bathroom looking for some one who
IS.
The second comment was about my view of Minnesota's congresswoman, Michele
Bachmann. The only comment the respondent had was that her name was
spelled 'Michele' and not 'Michelle' as I had typed it. Ok. Mea cupla.
Now, THIS week, we have some really interesting stuff. U.S. Supreme Court
Justice David Souter announced that he's stepping down. I can remember
when the first President Bush nominated Souter. "Oh NO!" most liberals
cried, "He's FAR to conservative!"
Well, first of all. Something told me that he was more of a thinker than a
drum-beater. He's one of those old, New England types who's very quiet and
gives the impression (which may well be true in his case) of being very
prim and proper. He's always struck me as what a Supreme Court Justice
should be: A learned thinker who will speak his mind and take his stand
without needing a three-ring circus around him to do it.
I found it amusing that this guy had been nominated by George "Read My
Lips" Bush, and I still liked him. After I got over the initial shock of
that, I realized that he was going to be an interesting, if quiet,
Justice. A look at his record shows that I was right.
Let's move on to Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter. I'll tell you right
from the start that I've never been crazy about Senator Specter. I've got
enormous respect for him, but he's stood against some things that I've
thought were important, and for some things that I thought were the wrong
way to go. He's a savvy politician, and HAS put through some good and
worthwhile legislation, and he should be recognized and applauded for that.
The reason he's "jumped parties" is precisely because he knows that doing
his job has made it impossible to KEEP doing his job. He didn't jump
parties because he agrees with more of the Democratic Party's agenda than
the Republican Party's, he jumped because he stood no chance of remaining a
Senator if he didn't.
In one discussion I had, someone said, "But if he can't pass the primary,
he doesn't deserve to be a Senator".
That's 'kind of true', but the good Senator probably saw the way things
would play out... his own party machinery would be used against him, with
all its money and influence. They'd find some guy who they felt would be
easier to control and count on, shovel money into his campaign coffers,
and let Specter try to fight against it in the primary.
Now that he's "jumped ship", the Republicans can put up whoever they want,
and Specter will get the campaign funds and platform and airtime that he
needs and deserves. He knows he'll have to face an opponent sooner or
later, he just probably felt he deserved to have it happen on a level
playing field. Strange, huh?
For the Democrats who are thinking that this gets them closer to a
filibuster-proof congress, don't get your hopes up. Senator Specter has
proven time and time again that he's his own man, usually at the most
inconvenient time. That's okay. THAT I can respect. And anything that
keeps Senator Specter in the Senate IS a good thing. Whether I agree with
him or not, I think he's a good Senator. Now, if we can just get Senators
Collins and Snowe away from the dark side... [grin]
Okay, last topic for me for this week... North Carolina Congresswoman
Virginia Foxx.
This woman has caught my eye before. She's... not a pip.. a 'pip' is
someone who I find inept in an AMUSING way. She is not. She is inept in a
very basic and troubling, very hurtful way.
This past week, she stood on the House floor and, while sitting/standing
across from Matthew Shepherd's mother, said: "I also would like to point
out that there was a bill -- the hate crimes bill that's called the Matthew
Shepard bill is named after a very unfortunate incident that happened where
a young man was killed, but we know that that young man was killed in the
commitment of a robbery. It wasn't because he was gay....This -- the bill
was named for him, hate crimes bill was named for him, but it's really a
hoax that that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills."
Lady, you should be ashamed of yourself! Her 'excuse' was just as
pathetic. She said that she apologized IF some people found her 'mistake'
painful.
Painful or not Ginny, you owe Mrs. Shepherd an apology... and not just for
being the wrong about the reason her son died... they, beat him,
pistol-whipped him, violated him in the most terrible ways imaginable, tied
him to a friggin' fencepost and threw rocks at his head until he died...
and you owe not only his mother an apology, but you owe one to HIM. And
it's not a case of "IF" it hurt anyone, you owe an apology for being wrong
and using your 'power'... the voice of the United States government... to
make a comment as self-serving and as hateful as that. I would have thought
that if you were going to buck conventional wisdom, you'd at least read the
court transcripts or find some other way to be sure you knew what you were
talking about. Shouldn't you be apologizing for using the situation to make
your twisted and incredibly off-point statement in the first place? For
daring to use the death of a young man... who's mother was sitting right
the hell across from you, no less... as a talking point in your stupid
little agenda and getting it freakin' wrong anyway? You disgust me. Right
now I'd like to beat you WITH Michele Bachmann (Ha! Spelled it right this
time!)
Well, that's all for this week. 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 - `Fallujah' Game Gets Pulled!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Focus of Games: Recession!
Atari Is Atari Again!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Company Pulls Plug on `Fallujah' Video Game
The publisher behind a video game based on one of the Iraq war's
fiercest battles has pulled the plug on the title, called "Six Days in
Fallujah."
A spokeswoman for Japanese game company Konami Digital Entertainment
Inc. confirmed that the company is no longer publishing the game, which
was set to go on sale next year.
The game sought to re-create the 2004 Fallujah battle from the
perspective of a U.S. Marine fighting against insurgents. It was
developed by Atomic Games with input from the Marines.
Konami had advertised "Six Days" as a shooting game "unlike any other,"
combining "authentic weaponry, missions and combat set against the
gripping story of the U.S. Marines on the ground." The game was
criticized by veterans groups and others who called it inappropriate.
Recession Is Latest Focus of Games for Change
With the recession impacting college students, MTV's college network
mtvU is turning to one medium it knows will get attention to help teach
students to cope with tough financial times - a video game.
mtvU has joined with the Peter G. Peterson Foundation's Indebted
Campaign to launch the online video game "Debt Ski," which was designed
by a university graduate and developed by Persuasive Games that
specializes in video games with an opinion.
In the game players guide a pig, Piggy Banks, on a jet ski through
various obstacles to maximize his savings, limit his debt and keep him
happy while buying food, housing and other items, with the aim of
teaching players how to identify and manage debt.
Banks has the choice to buy the latest electronics and clothing which
can make him happy - but plunge him into debt. Spending tsunamis, such
as unexpected medical bills or increases to the cost of living, can hit
him along the way.
When players lose, they get debt management information.
"Arguably, the economic crisis is one of the biggest challenges facing
this generation," said Ross Martin of MTV360.
"College students are dealing with a broad range of issues from rising
tuition to entering one of the most daunting job markets in recent
history. Students don't sit on the sidelines, they take action -- they
become the creative engine driving social change."
"Debt Ski" is the third in a line of games sponsored by mtvU that deal
with serious world issues, with previous games focused on Darfur
refugees - "Darfur is Dying" - and HIV positive patients - "Pos or Not?"
The Peter G. Peterson Foundation was founded last year by the chairman
emeritus of The Blackstone Group with a commitment of $1 billion to
increase public awareness and action on the nature and urgency of key
fiscal challenges threatening America.
Its Indebted Campaign seeks to educate students about their debts as
well as the growing federal debt.
The foundation's president and CEO Dave Walker said there was strong
appeal to using a video game as a messenger as college students spend a
major portion of their day in front of computer.
"Young people, who are arguably the most important audience to reach
these days when it comes to inspiring social change, are hard to reach
through traditional media," said Walker.
The game was designed by 26-year-old Lehigh University graduate Brian
Haveri who won a contest to come up with a video game to promote the
messages of the Indebted Campaign.
Haveri won $10,000 and students are being encouraged to play "Debt Ski"
with a prize of $250 a week on offer through June.
"Early data shows that there are high replay numbers, which means the
audience is spending time on the site and playing the game multiple
times - increasing the odds that the core messages are coming through
and have the potential to make an impact," said Martin.
Over the next few months, the Indebted Campaign is aiming to expand the
ways it puts out its message, such as exploring the iPhone as a new way
to reach gamers.
The Foundation has also partnered with New York-design school Parsons
The New School and the National Association of Public Administration to
create "Budgetball" that teaches students the trade-offs involved in
responsible budgeting.
"Learning about social challenges through games is a great way to help
you visualize the extent of the problem and the impact of possible
solutions," said Walker.
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE Gaming Online - Online Users Growl & Purr!
"""""""""""""""""""
Students Make Atari Games Look Like Atari Again
Ian Bogosts students re-create visual artifacts of old TV video games
for the flat-screen age.
In this sample from Yars' Revenge, the texture of the scanline/CRT grid
pattern is noticeable, whereas the LCD emulated version looks like flat
areas of color. Here you can also see the faint afterimage of the Yar as
it moves toward the Qotile shield.
One of the main themes of Racing the Beam is the strong affinity between
the Atari VCS and the CRT television. The system was designed around the
TV and it interfaces with that display in an unusual and specific way.
In today's world of huge, sharp LCD monitors, it's hard to remember what
a videogame image looked like on an ordinary television of the late
1970s. Emulators like Stella make it possible to play Atari games on
modern computers, serving the function of archival tool, development
platform, and player for these original games. But unfortunately, they
also give an inaccurate impression of what Atari games looked like on a
television.
An Atari game played on a television would exhibit a number of visual
characteristics that cannot be seen on an LCD display:
Texture - The display itself is not constructed out of pixels like a
monitor, but out of the phosphorescent glow of an electron beam as it
shines through a focusing grate. The result produces slightly separated
colored dots on the screen, which become less visible as the viewer
moves away from the set.
Afterimage - The phosphor glow padding a bit of time to "burn off" and
leaves more of an afterimage on the human retina compared to an LCD
display. As a result, images might linger after they had moved or
changed. Atari programmers took advantage of this feature to "flicker"
objects between frames.
Color Bleed - The edges of sprites and scanlines appear as sharp edges
in an emulator. But on a television, luminance from these areas would
bleed into neighboring sectors, both softening the hard edges of
pixel-objects and blending colors together.
Noise - A television transmission is sent via RF, so a natural amount of
noise is introduced into the image ... this is hard to see in a normal
TV broadcast, but the large, flat areas of color in a videogame will
exhibit slight vibration.
Many of today's players may only experience Atari games in emulation.
Indeed, many of my students may have little to no memory of CRT
televisions at all. Given such factors, it seems even more important to
improve the graphical accuracy of tools like Stella.
In Spring 2009, I tasked a Georgia Tech Computer Science capstone group
to modify Stella, adding settings to simulate the CRT behaviors
described above. The group consisted of five committed and talented CS
seniors: Edward Booth, Michael Cook, Justin Dobbs, Will Rowland, and
Prince Yang.
Despite being mighty impressive, the results in a live game are far more
remarkable. Edward and his colleagues have done a fantastic job.
They are currently working with the maintainer of the free, open-source
Stella emulator to patch their changes into the main build, where the
effects will be available as a configurable option. Expect to see it
there shortly, where hopefully it will benefit players, creators,
educators, and archivists alike. Given that we'll be placing the code
back into Stella's repository, I'm also hopeful that this software might
be extended for use in other emulators for computer systems that used
televisions as their primary output.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
FTC Says Internet Firms Near "Last Chance"
Companies that track consumer behavior on the Web for targeted
advertising without proper consent are near their "last chance" to
self-regulate, the head of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on
Monday.
Privacy advocates say regulations on big phone and Internet companies,
such as AT&T Inc and Google Inc, are too lax, giving the firms excessive
control over consumers' personal information.
"From my perspective, the industry is pretty close to its last clear
chance to demonstrate" that it can police itself, FTC Chairman Jon
Leibowitz told the Reuters Global Financial Regulation Summit in
Washington.
Earlier this year, the FTC issued new guidance urging websites to tell
consumers that data is being collected during their searches and to
allow them to opt out.
If companies fail to do a better job of making their privacy policies
understandable to the average person, momentum will keep building for
greater regulation, Leibowitz said. "It's really up to industry."
EU Says Microsoft Seeks Hearing in Antitrust Case
Microsoft is seeking a hearing from EU antitrust regulators in its defence
against accusations of unfairly crushing rivals in the web browser market,
the European Commission said Wednesday.
The commission, Europe's top competition watchdog, opened a new front in
its epic antitrust battle with Microsoft in January, hitting the company
with fresh charges of unfairly squashing competition.
A commission spokesman said that Microsoft had formally responded to the
charges late Tuesday and had requested the hearing, which companies are
allowed to do as part of their defence under EU antitrust rules.
If Microsoft fails to beat back the charges, the commission could slap
the company with huge new fines and order it to change its ways.
The commission accuses Microsoft of crushing rivals by bundling its
Internet Explorer web browser into its ubiquitous Windows personal
computer operating system, giving the programme a huge advantage over
competitors' browsers.
The European Commission and Microsoft have long clashed over the US
company's practice of bundling other software such as media players into
Windows.
In September 2007, Microsoft lost an appeal before Europe's
second-highest court against a fine of nearly 500 million euros (661
million dollars) that EU regulators slapped on the company in 2004 for
abusing its dominant power, partly in the media players market.
In February 2008, the commission hit Microsoft with a further fine of
899 million euros for defying its 2004 ruling.
US Cyber Warfare Needs Oversight, Debate
Shrouded in secrecy, the U.S. government's policies on how and when to
wage cyber warfare are ill-formed, lack adequate oversight and require a
broad public debate, a new report by the National Research Council says.
The report warns that the "undeveloped and uncertain nature" of the
government's cyber warfare policies could lead to them being used
hastily and ill-advisedly during a crisis. That danger is compounded by
secrecy and lack of oversight, the report's authors cautioned on
Wednesday.
"Unsound policy formulated and implemented during crisis may prove
difficult to change or reverse when the crisis has passed," concludes
the report, the first to take a comprehensive look at American cyber war
capabilities. The research council is the working arm of the National
Academy of Sciences.
The U.S. government has spoken only broadly about cyber warfare in the
past, noting its value as a national security tool. Officials routinely
refuse to talk about computer attacks America has launched.
The 322-page report, prepared by an independent panel of academics and
cyber security experts, comes as the Obama administration is on the
verge of releasing its own review of the nation's cyber security.
That review, however, is expected to focus largely on defensive and
administrative measures, including who will lead the nation's cyber
effort, and how the government can better manage and use technology to
protect everything from the electrical grid to the stock market.
Officials have warned in recent months that the nation's computer and
internet networks are at risk and are repeatedly probed by foreign
governments, criminals or other groups.
U.S. offensive cyber war options could range from a more passive cyber
intrusion such as listening in on a foe's communications to an attack
that cripples an enemy's air defense systems to clear the way for a
bomber attack.
A key challenge, however, may be determining who the enemy is,
particularly if U.S. officials are considering a response to a cyber
attack or intrusion against America.
Conducted from hundreds or thousands of miles away, a cyber attack can
be over in a millisecond, with the press of a button. The perpetrator
can be a single hacker looking to do mischief, a terrorist seeking to
kill thousands, or a nation aiming to cripple the U.S. economy.
The council emphasized its call for greater public debate on the
government's plans for cyber warfare, which to date has been
clandestine. The council likened the need for further public airings to
the debates that accompanied the use and testing of nuclear weapons more
than 50 years ago.
"There needs to be a national debate, just as there was in the 1950s
about nuclear weapons," said Kenneth W. Dam, co-chairman of the
committee on offensive information warfare that put together the report.
"The problem is, there is no national decision-making apparatus."
Earlier this month, Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton, who heads U.S.
Strategic Command, told reporters that the military has rules and
procedures for cyber warfare, just as it does for armed conflict. He
then declined to provide details, adding: "A good defense also depends
on a good offense."
The Research Council's report warned that such secrecy surrounding the
government's exploration of cyber warfare has "impeded widespread
understanding and debate about the nature and implications of U.S. cyber
attack."
It said that while the U.S. has highly developed and sophisticated
capabilities to launch a cyber attack, it is difficult to determine the
outcome of such a move compared to a traditional armed assault.
So far, said study director Herbert Lin, Americans have been focused
more on defensive digital maneuvers - building firewalls, using
anti-virus and other protective software and implementing safety
procedures, such as the Pentagon's recent ban on the use of external
computer flash drives.
Those efforts are important, he said. But he added that the U.S. cannot
just continue to build bigger walls, particularly as cyber attacks grow
and become increasingly easier to execute.
In its final recommendations, the report said the U.S. government must
develop a clear decision-making process for cyber actions, require
periodic accounting of cyber attacks at least in a classified form to
those charged with oversight, and work with other nations around the
world to establish a better legal and ethical framework for such
attacks.
Beware Swine Flu Spam
Swine flu spam is spreading like a virus of its own and recently turned
malicious.
Spam campaigns often start with harmless e-mail messages and slowly
build into more serious threats, according to Stephan Chenette, manager of
security research at Websense Inc.
"Spammers are generally very well connected with each other and see how
well it's working. It always goes through the test phase," he said.
They test campaigns with less threatening approaches, share feedback
between each other, figure out what works and what doesn't and then
launch increasingly harmful attacks, he explained. "
"By us seeing they've increased the number of e-mails that are going out
surrounding the swine flu, it indicates that so far it's been a very
successful campaign," he said.
Websense has been tracking this latest trend, which has grown in the
past week. The number of e-mail messages with subject lines related to
Swine Flu is in the tens of thousands, according to Chenette.
The trend started off with traditional medical spam - or medspam -
that didn't necessarily scam users, he said. "They were enticing the
users by scaring them, but there were no malicious attachments."
Then the spam evolved into money-making schemes, with spammers trying to
sell pharmaceuticals, medical devices and PDFs that contain generic
information on the swine flu for $20 to $30, he explained.
"Medspam has always been something that spammers have used for making
money and the fact that there's a flu-type symptom that allows them to
sell their story in a more convincing way has been good for spammers,"
he said. "
The first swine flu e-mail with a malicious attachment surfaced this
week. Symantec Security Response analyzed the file, which poses as a PDF
document of Swine Influenza FAQs.
"When users attempt to access the PDF file, malcode within the PDF
attempts to exploit an old Adobe vulnerability (BID 33751) in order to
drop malware on the local computer," said a Symantec report.
Symantec detects the malicious PDF as Bloodhound.Exploit.6 and the
dropped file contained in the PDF as InfoStealer, a trojan. Symantec
rates it a Level 1 threat - on the low end of the scale.
Users that follow typical best practices don't have much to worry about,
said Marc Fossi, manager of Symantec Security Response.
A patch from Adobe has been available for some time now, antivirus
software would detect the threat if it attempted installation and
anti-spam software might stop the e-mail in the first place, he explained.
"There's actually nothing overly unique about it. We've seen malicious
code using this sort of technique fairly commonly ... the social
engineering aspect is the real standout here," said Fossi.
Current events are great triggers for spam and phishing campaigns, said
James Quin, senior research analyst at Info-Tech Research Group Inc.
While the underlying malware in the Swine Flu FAQ e-mail is
inconsequential, the technique used to get the malware into end machines
is interesting, he said.
"What makes this one stand out is the same type of techniques that
phishers use are now being used for malware," said Quin.
But the malicious e-mail doesn't surprise Chenette. "There's going to be
more malicious attachments and exploits and various kinds of malicious
executables attached to these e-mails going out," he said.
A similar pattern occurred during the SARS outbreak in early 2000,
according to Chenette. SARS-related spam led to malicious executables
attached to the e-mails, so that's the direction Websense sees spammers
going with the Swine Flu, he said.
Attaching malware to spam isn't typical anymore, according to Chenxi
Wang, principal analyst in Security and Risk Management at Forrester
Research Inc.
"In the old days, when spam first came into existence, they carried
malicious attachments," she said. But as companies "became smarter" and
started disallowing e-mail attachments, spammers stopped adding
malicious attachments to their e-mails, she explained.
It's more common for spammers to put URLs in spam messages and entice
people to click on them, sending them to a Web site that may carry
malware or the Web site may link to another site that carries malware,
she said.
"I don't know how successful attaching malware straight in an e-mail
would be because unless the malware is very polymorphic ... it's pretty
easy to be detected by antivirus software," said Wang.
Wang also doesn't consider the malicious e-mail attachment a sign that
spammer techniques are changing. "You will still see spam with embedded
URLs versus those with malicious attachments," she said.
While it's hard to say whether spam related to the swine flu will
continue to grow, Fossi said it wouldn't surprise him. Symantec saw the
same pattern occur during the U.S. presidential election and last fall
with the economic crises.
Spammers often work with themes, which could include sporting events
like the Olympics, but themes that induce fear are often the most
successful, according to Chenette.
"Spammers are heavily making use of the theme around the swine flu
because there is a big scare. Whenever they are able to scare users, the
likelihood of it being successful greatly increases as opposed to
sporting events," he said.
But the amount of spam circulating around the swine flu isn't unusual
for a major event, according to Wang. "I think it's average in terms of
scale," she said.
"We've seen inauguration spam when Barack Obama took office and we saw
things like Twitter spam when Twitter became popular," she said
Cablevision Has Fastest Internet Speeds for Cable
Cablevision Systems Corp. on Tuesday unveiled the fastest Internet
speeds available from any cable or phone company.
Starting May 11, the Bethpage, N.Y.-based cable operator will offer
speeds of up to 101 megabits per second downstream throughout its
service area, and 15 megabits per second upstream.
That means a 4-gigabyte, high-definition movie can be downloaded in 5
1/2 minutes. It would take two minutes for a 1.6-gigabyte standard
definition movie.
Cablevision, which has 3 million subscribers in the New York metro area,
also plans to double the downstream speed of the Wi-Fi Internet service
it offers at "hot spots" in New York's Long Island, Connecticut and
Westchester County, and in parts of New Jersey.
Cablevision is in a race against Verizon Communications Inc., which is
rolling out its fiber-optic FiOS service in New York City.
At present, Verizon's top Internet speed is 50 megabits per second with
a starting cost of $140 a month plus a free wireless router. Cablevision
is offering its service at $99.95 a month.
The second-fastest Internet speed offered by a cable operator is up to
60 megabits from Charter Communications Inc., available only in the St.
Louis area. Charter, based in St. Louis, is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy
protection.
Philadelphia-based Comcast Corp. offers speeds of up to 50 megabits per
second.
HP Unveils ProBook Laptop Line
Hewlett-Packard Co, the world's top PC maker, is launching a new line of
inexpensive business laptops with fresh features targeting users at
small and medium-size companies.
The HP ProBook s-series, which starts shipping globally on Tuesday, is
the company's new mainstream business notebook, following the release of
its higher-end, lightweight EliteBook line last year.
The ProBook replaces the HP Compaq line, although the Compaq name will
continue to be used as a master brand name in other PCs.
The ProBook offers users a number of new features, including an optional
Linux-based operating system pre-installed - Novell Inc's SuSE Linux
Enterprise Desktop 11 - for those seeking an alternative to the
dominant Microsoft Corp Windows platform.
It is HP's first-ever Linux pre-install on a standard business laptop,
the company said. The PC maker does offer some netbooks with Linux.
"It's pretty much a natural evolution," said Carol Hess- Nickels, HP's
director of marketing for worldwide business notebooks.
"We want to provide a different option ... it's probably a little time
yet before we'll know exactly what the demand is, but we did think it
was something worth trying."
The ProBooks come with 14-inch, 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch screen sizes,
with prices starting at $529. In another first for an HP business
notebook, buyers will be able to add a color finish - "merlot" - if
they choose.
Some models will also feature Qualcomm Inc's Gobi technology, allowing
them to use a single module to access different mobile broadband network
technologies and mobile operators.
HP will also bring higher-end durability features, like its 3D
DriveGuard - which protects the hard drive if a laptop is dropped -
and a spill-resistant keyboard to the ProBook.
HP is the world's No. 1 PC vendor, with a first-quarter global market
share of more than 20 percent, according to research house IDC, well
ahead of second-place Dell Inc. HP also took over the top spot in the
U.S. market from Dell in the first quarter.
Mozilla Releases Firefox 3.5 Beta 4
Mozilla on Tuesday released Firefox 3.5 beta 4, a release that promises
improvements to performance, web compatibility, and speed.
It is now available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux via an online
download.
Beta 4 is based on the Gecko 1.9.1 Web-page layout rendering engine.
Improvements to Gecko include speculative parsing for faster content
rendering, Mozilla said.
The release also adds six additional languages, bringing the total to 70.
Mozilla championed the inclusion of the browser's Private Browsing Mode
and TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, though both features were available in
beta 3.
Mozilla released Firefox 3.5 beta 3 in early March, changing the official
title from Firefox 3.1 to Firefox 3.5.
Beta 4 also includes location-based browsing using geolocation, support
for native JSON and web worker threads, and support for new web
technologies such as: HTML5 and elements, downloadable fonts and other
new CSS properties, JavaScript query selectors, HTML5 offline data
storage for applications, and SVG transforms.
Mozilla warned that the release is still for testing purposes.
"Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 is a public preview release intended for developer
testing and community feedback," the company wrote in a blog post.
"We recommend that you read the release notes and known issues before
installing this beta."
Windows 7 To Make Public Debut May 5
Microsoft said Thursday that a nearly-final version of its
next-generation Windows 7 operating system will be publicly released on
May 5.
The release will be available at microsoft.com/downloads in a move intended
to signal that the software giant is putting finishing touches on an
operating system that it hopes will escape criticism heaped on its
predecessor Vista.
"Listening to our partners and customers has been fundamental to the
development of Windows 7," said Bill Veghte, senior vice president for
the Windows business at Microsoft.
"We heard them and worked hard to deliver the highest quality release
candidate in the history of Windows."
The Windows 7 release candidate (RC) was made available to developers on
Thursday.
The release indicates that little is likely to be changed in the final
version of Windows 7 and that companies can begin tailoring software or
hardware to the operating system, according to Microsoft.
Touted features include compatibility with touch-screen computer
controls and with software designed to work with earlier-generation
Windows XP operating system.
Critics lambasted Vista for being too complex and not being compatible
with older software programs.
Windows XP holdouts are being told they will have to upgrade to Vista to
make a transition to Windows 7.
"Windows 7 shows significant promise," Forrester Research analyst Ben
Gray wrote in an independent report on the operating system. "Start
preparing for it now, and the best way to prepare for Windows 7 is by
deploying Windows Vista."
Windows 7 To Launch on October 23
A report by Pocket-Lint.com quotes an Acer executive as saying that
Windows 7 will launch on Oct. 23.
Acer America representatives could not be reached for comment by press
time. A Microsoft spokesman said that the company has not changed its
public plan of record, as far as the launch timing of Windows 7 is
concerned.
"23rd October is the date the Windows 7 will be available. There is a 30
day upgrade time so that customers don't wait to buy a new computer, so
if you buy during that 30 day period, you'll get a free upgrade to
Windows 7", Bobby Watkins, Acer's UK managing director told Pocket-lint.
A Microsoft spokesman did not confirm or deny Pocket-lint.com's report.
"On 30 April we made the Release Candidate (RC) of Windows 7 available
for download to MSDN and TechNet subscribers," a spokesman said in an
email. "Windows 7 Release Candidate is a major business and engineering
milestone, and indicates that the operating system is entering the final
phases of development. Windows 7 RC is the result of feedback from
millions of customers and partners around the world, and is ready for
partners to develop and test applications, device drivers and services.
As we have said for some time, we are committed to making Windows 7
available within three years of the General Availability of Windows
Vista."
Windows Vista for businesses launched on Nov. 30, 2006, while
Microsoft's consumer version launched in January of 2007.
Opera Browser Turns 15
It's hard to believe, but Norwegian browser Opera is celebrating its
15th birthday today.
Jon von Tetzchner, Opera's current CEO, and Geir Ivarsøy first developed
the browser back in late April 1994.
"Geir and I knew the Web would forever change how people live, work and
play - the Web browser would be the tool to enable that transformation,"
von Tetzchner said in a statement. "Today, I am humbled by what our
company, together with the worldwide community of Opera users, has
achieved. In the next 15 years, billions of people will join the Web. I
am confident we will give them even more reasons to choose Opera.
Everyone deserves a good browser, regardless of how or where they
connect to the Web."
According to the company, some 40 million people across the world use
the browser on their PCs. The company is celebrating the birthday on its
site with the "top 15 reasons to use Opera."
Is Anyone Using Internet Explorer?
GigaOM reports that a new survey of the most used applications on
Windows puts Firefox at the top, followed by Google's Chrome browser.
Internet Explorer trailed at #3. And among the youngest users, IE did
even worse.
The survey, by Wakoopa, includes the most used applications on Windows,
Mac and the Web. It is based on the activity of 75,000 participating
users.
Firefox also came out on top among Mac users. On the Web, Facebook was
#1, but Google took four of the top 10 slots. Gmail was #2. The survey
also shows that younger users prefer Firefox over IE by a larger margin.
For more details, check out the Top Ranking Applications chart at GigaOM.
New Twitter Users Say Tweet-Tweet, Goodbye
Oprah Winfrey may have marked a tipping point boosting Twitter. But new
research from Nielsen shows that although new tweeters are signing up in
droves and driving triple-digit monthly membership gains, fewer are
continuing to tweet.
David Martin, vice president of primary research for Nielsen Online,
noted some of the high-profile media attention Twitter has received
recently: Oprah embarrassed herself on Twitter with a stuck caps-lock
key. An actor competed with a major news network to see who could gain
one million followers first. And TV-show host Jon Stewart shook an angry
fist at Twitter.
Indeed, the media hype surrounding Twitter continues as more celebrities
sign on, more news outlets sign up, and more everyday Joes get on the
tweeting bandwagon to follow their favorite stars and shows. But despite
the hockey-stick growth chart, Martin said Twitter faces an uphill
battle in making sure these flocks of new users return to the nest.
According to Nielsen Online, more than 60 percent of Twitter users fail
to return the following month. Put a another way, Twitter's audience
retention rate - the percentage of a given month's users who come back
the following month - is about 40 percent. For most of the past 12
months, pre-Oprah, Twitter has languished below 30 percent retention.
"By plotting the minimum retention rates for different Internet audience
sizes, it is clear that a retention rate of 40 percent will limit a
site's growth to about a 10 percent figure," Martin said. "To be clear,
a high retention rate doesn't guarantee a massive audience, but it is a
prerequisite. There simply aren't enough new users to make up for
defecting ones after a certain point."
Some might think Martin jumped the gun with his analysis. After all,
Twitter is still an upstart and other sites that lived up to
Twitter-like hype suffered from poor retention in the early days, didn't
they? To answer that question and put things into perspective, Martin
compared the Twitter phenomenon to two other social-networking darlings,
MySpace and Facebook, when they were gaining momentum.
Martin's conclusion: Even when Facebook and MySpace were emerging
networks like Twitter is now, their retention rates were twice as high.
When they went through their explosive growth phases, retention went up,
and both sit at nearly 70 percent today.
"Twitter has enjoyed a nice ride over the last few months, but it will
not be able to sustain its meteoric rise without establishing a higher
level of user loyalty," Martin said. "Frankly, if Oprah can't accomplish
that, I'm not sure who can."
Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, agreed
that the 40 percent retention rate is a troubling statistic for Twitter.
The retention rate, he suggested, may suggest that lots of people are
hearing about Twitter and test-driving the micro-blogging site but not
finding real value there.
"As Twitter usage continues to grow, I would expect that people will
start to see more value - as an information resource and communication
tool - and retention will improve," Sterling said. "But if this
'quitter' trend persists over the next 12 months, it will require
Twitter to address the issue."
McAfee Launches Cybercrime Self-help Site
Antivirus software maker McAfee today launched a new Web site intended
to provide advice and services to those who suspect they may be victims
of cybercrime.
The Cybercrime Response Unit site starts out with a risk assessment
questionnaire, with questions such as ""There are unexplained charges or
suspicious activity on one or more of my financial accounts," "I opened an
attachment to an email and am now concerned that it might have been
malicious," and "I am worried that my child or I have encountered an
Internet predator."
Ticking checkboxes next to various questions will take you to pages that
provide advice and links for dealing with ID Theft, which includes fraud
reporting phone numbers for major banks. The help page for malware
infections includes a link to a free "Cybercrime scanner" that will scan
your PC for malware, unauthorized network connections and other risks
(using Internet Explorer), and there's also a short page on dealing with
cyber-bullies or online predators.
You'll find the expected occasional plug for a McAfee service or
software, along with pages of decent, basic advice such as "Do not open
messages or click on links from unknown users in your instant messaging
program." There are a good number links to external sites and services,
particularly for dealing with ID theft, but some surprising lacks. I
didn't see any links to annualcreditreport.com under recommendations to
check your credit reports regularly, for instance.
Speaking of plugs, if you're interested in some tips on free security
tools and services, here's my own list of best practices for protecting
yourself against online threats.
=~=~=~=
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