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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 12 Issue 38
Volume 12, Issue 38 Atari Online News, Etc. September 17, 2010
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2010
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:
Fred Horvat
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #1238 09/17/10
~ EULA's Upheld, Busted! ~ People Are Talking! ~ IE9 To Be 'Zippier'!
~ Chattanooga To Be Fast ~ Yahoo Upgrading E-mail! ~ XP Users: No IE9!
~ Acer Working on Laptop ~ Samsung Launches Galaxy ~ Wi-Fi on Steroids!
~ GoDaddy.com for Sale! ~ Chrome 7 To Be Faster! ~ Trojan Blackmailer!
-* HDCP Master Key Possible Leak *-
-* U.S. Urges NATO: Build Cyber Shield *-
-* Cybercrime World's Most Dangerous Threat! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Well, the summer season is rapidly coming to a close. While I am
ready to welcome the cooler weather, the season was much too short! It
seems like just yesterday I was heralding the unofficial start of the
summer; and now it's almost gone! I think I had better start thinking of
taking a few days off between the two jobs while I still can. Maybe I'll
finally get a chance to play a little golf before the season ends!
Lots of things going on in the world, but I just don't feel much like
having a go at some of them this week. Political primaries in a number of
states this week, but I'm tired of the wrangling going on these days with
politicians. The bottom line is that our politicians aren't doing enough
these days to get things going in a forward direction. Taking things a
step at a time is fine, but we're following those steps with three or four
steps backward! But, you don't need me to remind you all on just how
brutal things are out there today!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Well, you know by now that the NewsGroup
has slowed to a crawl these past several months. There just isn't enough
going on to use here. I know it's not surprising, since Atari hasn't put
out a computer in at least a decade and a half, and it sometimes amazes me
that there's any discussion at all of Atari computers, once so prominent
in the world of home computing.
I even used networked STs on the job for inventory and shipping for a
while. It was quite a kick to be able to tell people that I was using
neither PC nor Apple, and no, thank you very much, we weren't using
TI-99/4A's either. [grin]
But those days are gone forever (although I understand that the TI-99/4A
still has a large, loyal following too), and things have changed greatly
in the intervening years; Graphical User Interfaces are now the norm, with
Windows and OS X and even Linux with its plethora of available 'desktops'
like GNOME and KDE. And the next generation promises to do many things for
us, like give us the ability to shrink, enlarge, change, move, morph and
modify things right on the desktop with just our fingers or maybe even eye
movements.
And, of course, all this wondrous magical ability will suck the life out
of whatever processors Intel and AMD can come up with, and turn our
computing power back to what it was in 1993.
Bells and whistles. That's what people want. Of course, people want
EVERYTHING. They want the equivalent of a super computer in the palm of
their hand and they want it for the cost of a fake Rolex bought on
Broadway.
But there are those, like Bill Gates, who have the ability to drive not
only the direction of their products, but the direction of technology
itself. If Windows wasn't so demanding on a processor, I doubt
offerings from Intel and AMD would be where they are now. If games and
GUIs weren't so involved and intensive, I doubt that video cards would be
as advanced as they are today.
Now, if you read this column with any frequency, you know that I have very
few good things to say about Bill Gates. But I DO give credit where credit
is due. He saw not only where the market was going, but where it COULD go.
And he drove a huge portion of technology toward a place that it might not
have gone otherwise. Many, if not most, of the things we take for granted
today are more convenient, more accessible, more... useful.. than they
would have been if Gates had been contented with DOS.
Apple is another case. Steve Jobs and Wosniak had a really cool idea:
Offer a computer that people can afford. Start off by selling kits. When
you can, offer them pre-assembled. Graduate to better and better, faster
and faster computers. That's about there Steve Jobs shined brightly. The
Apple ][, the ][g 'updated' machine, the different flavors of GUI based
machines making use of the Motorola CPUs from the 68000 family through the
Power PC chips, and then finally, when those processors could not provide
performance to rival that of Intel's offerings, moving to Intel's
processors.
I've always found Apple's machines... interesting. Once they got out of
the Apple ][ series and began making their machines aesthetically pleasing
instead of just boxy, functional "other choices", it became something of
an event to see how they'd decided to "spiff up" their latest offerings.
And they've done it very well.
Of course, like Microsoft, they've not been content to simply confine
their business to computers. There's the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad, etc.
not to mention iTunes. All useful offerings, although I must admit that I
have none of the above. I've got no need of a smartphone like the iPhone,
and instead of an iPod I opted for a much more affordable MP3 player from
another manufacturer. I know, I know. There are bunches of you jumping up
and down right now, shouting that it's so much more than an MP3 player...
and you're right. But an MP3 player is all I need and want. I saw no need
to "splurge" on an iPod.
Why am I mentioning all this stuff; Microsoft and Apple and Intel and AMD?
Because they understood one thing that Atari didn't with its ST series. By
designing the machines from the start to be more affordable, they
neglected to make them upgradeable. The OS was in firmware, the memory was
set at a certain limit, the whole product made it almost impossible to
upgrade. Even if you were good with a soldering iron and had the technical
know-how, you had to deal with a limit in the OS and with the rest
of the hardware itself. You couldn't go above 4 megabytes of RAM in an ST.
Video cards? Forget it. By the time more colors and better resolution
became a sought-after by the PC world, the ST's market share had dropped
to the point where it was barely worth designing something for it. It's an
expensive proposition to design and build an interface, and the "pot of
gold" at the end of the rainbow is always selling enough product to
make it all worthwhile. That just wasn't possible with the ST by that
time; people who are willing to do their own modifications and then
dealing with the resulting software compatibility issues are a minority in
any group, and the ST group was already small.
But having said that, I also realize that there ARE people out there still
doing mods on and for the ST. Heck, there are still people designing and
building incredibly ingenious things for the Atari 8-bit computers. But
they do it for the same reason (or, rather the inverse reason) that some
mountain climbers climb mountains. Because its there. Or, in this case,
isn't there.
But there has always been something about the ST... something indefinable
that has always made it special to me. My first ST was always special. It
had its own personality. Even the replacement (with the next generation of
TOS 1.x) was different. Yes, hard drive access was faster, and there were
a few other changes that made it "nice", but it just wasn't the same.
Almost, but not quite. And with each iteration of machine, it was a little
more removed from my 'baseline'. Yes, I still preferred using the Mega,
the MegaSTE, STacy and TT more than a PC... it was still familiar and
comfortable, and Geneva and NeoDesk gave me most of what I'd grown so
accustomed to (I'd been a NeoDesk user for a long, long time). I miss
those days. I really do. An 8 MHz processor, a megabyte of memory, an
external 60 Meg hard drive and a 2400 baud modem... who could ask for
anything more?
Well, that's it for this week, friends and neighbors. 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 - 'Halo: Reach' Takes in $200 Million!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Move Gets Gamers Off the Couch!
Super Mario Bros. Turns 25!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
'Halo: Reach' Takes in $200 Million in First 24 Hours
"Halo: Reach" generated $200 million in sales in its first 24 hours in
the U.S. and Europe, Microsoft announced Wednesday.
Those numbers make it the biggest entertainment launch of 2010 in the
U.S., according to Microsoft, which said its sale numbers topped the
three-day opening weekends of movies like "Iron Man 2," "Alice in
Wonderland," and "Toy Story 3."
"'Halo: Reach' is the biggest game Microsoft has ever released, and its
launch has already surpassed every game, movie, and entertainment launch
this year," Phil Spencer, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game
Studios, said in a statement. "Every major installment has grown in
scope and popularity, firmly cementing the 'Halo' franchise as one of
the most popular entertainment properties in the world over the past
decade."
"Halo: Reach" went on sale at 12:01am on Tuesday morning. Thousands of
retail stores opened their doors at midnight for eager fans to snatch up
their copy of the popular video game. Larger launch events were also held
in London, Seattle, Stockholm, Oslo, and at New York's Best Buy Theater in
Times Square (above).
"Consumer demand for 'Halo: Reach' has been phenomenal, as we saw Monday
night at the new Best Buy Theater in New York's Times Square and at more
than 400 Best Buy stores across the U.S.," said Chris Homeister, senior
vice president and general manager of the home entertainment group at
Best Buy.
The first "Halo" game made its debut in 2001, and the franchise includes
follow-ups "Halo 2," "Halo Wars," and "Halo 3: ODST." Microsoft released
a beta version of "Halo: Reach" in May, which attracted more than 2.7
million players logging more than 16 million hours of game play.
Sedentary Gaming Gets A Shot in the Arm with Move
Sony Corp. gets gamers off the couch with its new motion controller, the
PlayStation Move.
The Move is a sensitive device with extremely accurate character and
object control. It's an attractively priced add-on to the PS3 system
that allows gamers to enjoy a different breed of games they needed a
Nintendo Wii to enjoy.
The Move sells for $49.99, but you need the PlayStation Eye camera
($39.99) to use it. And for titles where your character has to walk or
run around, you also need the PlayStation Move navigation controller
($29.99).
The best bargain available at launch is the PlayStation Move bundle,
which includes the Move and Eye devices and a title called "Sports
Champions."
Move works by focusing the USB-connected Eye camera (attached to the PS3
and placed near the TV) on a glowing, color-changing rubber ball at the
end of the motion controller. An internal gyroscope and accelerometer
help determine the exact position you're holding the Move and how fast
you're swinging it in any direction. The main "Move button" is most
comfortably accessed with your thumb, and it's surrounded by the usual
PlayStation controller action buttons.
The placement of the buttons and the feel of the controller seem
comfortable and intuitive. The Move also sports a trigger button
opposite the Move button for additional control.
"Sports Champions" (SCEA, $39.99, rated E10-plus) includes disc golf,
table tennis, fencing, archery, beach volleyball, bocce and a gladiator
duel. I compared several of the sports with my experience on the "Wii
Sports Resort" title.
Disc golf on the Wii is fun, but disc golf on PS3 using Move is a fuller
experience. It's stunningly realistic, with challenging built-in
opponents and detailed terrain. One minute I was scrambling for par
through a cave entrance guarded by trees and waterfalls; the next
moment, I was skipping my choice of discs over the top of an icy lake,
hoping to win the match and unlock some new hidden opponents.
Gladiator Duel was also a blast to play. Using two Move controllers, I
wielded a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. Both could be
angled precisely to deliver and deflect blows. Finishing moves sent
built-in opponents, like a blond girl named Boomer, crashing to ancient
columns that surround your fighting stage.
Another decent title for Move's debut is "Kung Fu Rider" (SCEA, $39.99,
rated E10-plus). I played as Toby and spent all of my time on the run
from some bad guys. Toby's getaway vehicle is a series of office chairs.
Sounds silly, but the game was a lot of fun. I careened around cars and
under repair-work barriers while spin-kicking bad guys in the face.
In "EyePet" (SCEE, $39.99, rated E), a monkeylike virtual pet appeared
to scamper around my room as it was presented on-screen. The Eye camera
captured a live view of the room as I interacted with my pet, which I
named Pip. It soon wore thin for me, but "EyePet" went over quite well
with five children, all under age 6. Pip hopped around the children's
legs and arms, and fell asleep as one child stroked his blue fur with
the Move controller.
"EyePet" is equal parts weird and fun, but some games don't translate to
the Move's capabilities quite as well.
"Racquet Sports" (Ubisoft, $29.99, rated E), available this fall, opts
for the doe-eyed cartoon characters similar to the Wii. But I didn't
have much control over my player's movements or shot selection during
the tennis and table tennis games.
I'm a veteran of the Tiger Woods series, both on consoles and the PC,
but I've never felt less control over my shots than when swinging the
Move controller in "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11" (Electronic Arts, $59.95).
Even with practice, the Move took the fun out of this hallowed title,
and everything felt like a punch shot that pulled up well short of the
title.
One interesting title takes PlayStation 3 gaming with Move in a
direction I hope will continue. In "Heavy Rain" (SCEA, $59.99, rated M),
I played as FBI profiler Norman Jayden. It was a new experience to open
doors and drink orange juice while making those natural motions with the
Move controller. Small icons appeared on the screen to help me learn how
to interact with objects as the plot grew more dangerous and involved.
Sony has taken motion control leaps further than Nintendo Wii in terms
of fine movements and detailed control; combine that with the full
high-definition graphics offered by the PlayStation 3 system and the
Move becomes a must-have device for the game shelf.
Four out of four stars.
Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. Turns 25
Last week the Sony PlayStation turned 15, and now Nintendo's iconic Super
Mario Bros. franchise turns 25.
Microsoft on Tuesday released its much-anticipated "Halo: Reach" video
game, but 25 years ago, it was all about Mario. The original game sold
40.24 million copies worldwide, popularized the side-scrolling format, and
kicked off elements of the Mushroom Kingdom still in use today, Nintendo
said.
"Stimulated by advancements in technologies, we have always enjoyed
developing the Super Mario Bros. series," Nintendo designer and Mario
creator Shigeru Miyamoto said in a statement. "The Super Mario Bros. series
has always taken advantage of the latest technologies and is the fruit of
the creativity of a number of my hard-working friends working as a team."
To celebrate, Nintendo has set up a special anniversary Web site, which
includes a video that features game-play footage from "Super Mario Bros."
all the way through "Super Mario Bros. Galaxy 2." It also includes the
Super Mario music and sound effects that are sure to be stuck in your head
for the rest of the day.
PCMag will publish a more in-depth Super Mario Bros. retrospective on
Wednesday, so check back tomorrow for a trip down memory lane.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
US Urges NATO To Build 'Cyber Shield'
NATO must build a "cyber shield" to protect the transatlantic alliance
from any Internet threats to its military and economic infrastructures, a
top US defence official said Wednesday.
Cyber security is a "critical element" for the 28-nation alliance to
embrace at its summit of leaders in Lisbon on November 19-20, US Deputy
Defence Secretary William Lynn said in Brussels.
"The alliance has a crucial role to play in extending a blanket of security
over our networks," Lynn said.
"NATO has a nuclear shield, it is building a stronger and stronger defence
shield, it needs a cyber shield as well," he said at a forum hosted by the
Security & Defence Agenda think-tank.
The Pentagon's number two called for adopting the Cold War-era strategy of
"collective defence" in the cyber arena.
"The Cold War concepts of shared warning apply in the 21st century to
cyber security. Just as our air defences, our missile defences have been
linked so too do our cyber defences need to be linked as well," Lynn said.
The US government estimates that more than 100 foreign intelligence
agencies or governments try to hack into US systems "on a daily basis," he
said, highlighting the magnitude of the challenge.
"I think they see the asymetric advantage that can be gained through cyber
technology," Lynn said.
The threat of cyber attacks was highlighted in Estonia, a NATO member, in
2007 when it suffered an assault that paralysed key business and government
web services for days.
The Pentagon was forced to review its own digital security in 2008 after
the most serious cyber attack on the US military's networks, which came
from a tainted flash drive that was inserted in a military laptop in the
Middle East.
Lynn said the Pentagon strategy has identified "five pillars" to cyber
security: recognising cyberspace as the next domain of warfare; the need
for active defences; the protection of critical infrastructure; enhancing
collective defence; and the need to "marshall our technological prowess."
Lynn stressed that any cyber security strategy needs to take into account
threats to critical infrastructure for economies such as power grids,
transport systems and financial markets.
"NATO indeed needs to take decisive action to defend its networks," he
said.
"I think at Lisbon we will see the kind of high-level leadership commitment
to cyber defence. It's the foundation for any alliance effort," he said.
Lynn said he discussed cyber security at a meeting with NATO's
decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, in Brussels on
Wednesday.
"I was very impressed with the unity of purpose and the similar vision that
most nations in the alliance seem to have towards the cyber
threat," he said.
Cybercrime Is World's Most Dangerous Criminal Threat
A crime epidemic is silently sweeping the globe as criminals turn our
ever-increasing dependence on computers against us, and even the head of
Interpol is not immune.
On Friday 300 of the world's top law enforcement officials concluded the
first ever international police anti-cybercrime conference, facing the
stark and growing threat from an estimated 105-billion-dollar illegal
business.
And Ronald K. Noble, secretary general of the international police
agency Interpol, told the cream of law enforcement from 56 countries
that his identity had been "stolen" to create two Facebook profiles.
One of the impersonators used the fake profile to obtain information on
fugitives targeted in a recent Interpol-led operation seeking on-the-run
criminals convicted of serious offences, including rape and murder.
"Cybercrime is emerging as a very concrete threat," he said at the
opening ceremony of the first Interpol Information Security Conference
at Hong Kong's police headquarters on Wednesday.
"Considering the anonymity of cyberspace, it may in fact be one of the
most dangerous criminal threats we will ever face."
And terrorists could also inflict a significant blow with a cyberattack
on a nation's infrastructure, he added.
"Just imagine the dramatic consequences of an attack, let's say, on a
country?s electricity grid or banking system," he said.
"We have been lucky so far that terrorists did not - at least successfully
or at least of which we are aware - launch cyberattacks.
"One may wonder if this is a matter of style. Terrorists may prefer the
mass media coverage of destroyed commuter trains, buildings brought
down, to the anonymous collapse of the banking system. But until when?"
The scale of the problem was also highlighted at the Asia launch of a
new report, also in Hong Kong, on Thursday by Internet security firm
Symantec.
Almost two thirds of all adult web users globally have fallen victim to
some sort of cybercrime, the 2011 Norton Cybercrime Report: The Human
Impact study says, from spam email scams to having their credit card
details stolen.
China had the most cybercrime victims, at 83 percent of web users,
followed by India and Brazil, at 76 percent each, and then the US, at 73
percent.
The study, of over 7,000 Internet users, also found that 80 percent of
people believed the perpetrators would never be brought to justice.
Fewer than half ever bother to report the crime to police.
Stacey Wu, a Symantec senior director, told AFP that just one of the firm's
offices - in Chengdu, China - alone detects 100,000 cybercrime threats
every single day.
"It is no longer just high school kids in their bedrooms sending out
malicious emails," she said. "It's organised criminals.
"They carry out silent, hit-and-run attacks that steal relatively small
amounts of 20 dollars or so from 20 or 30 people. Then they move on."
Cybercriminals also trade in data stolen, often unnoticed, from a
victim's computer. Credit card details, for instance, are sold on the
black market for between five and 20 dollars.
"Identity and personal information theft is a big problem," Wu told AFP.
"For example, if the criminal knows a person makes a lot of transactions
online, the value of that person's information can be worth a lot more."
Cybercrime is worth an estimated 105 billion dollars, according to rival
computer security firm McAfee, and US police say cybercriminals can earn
around 23,000 dollars a week.
The biggest problem, and the criminal's greatest advantage, is
complacency, says Professor Joseph Kee-Yin Ng, treasurer of the Internet
Society Hong Kong.
"It is hugely important for people and companies to protect themselves,"
he told AFP. "The criminal is as real as any thief or mugger, you just
can't see them."
HDCP Master Key May Have Leaked
If the rumours are true, and if this Pastebin post (be sure to mirror the
key if that won't get you in trouble with your authorities) is legitimate,
then it looks like High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection has been
cracked so hard its mother's mother felt it. HDCP is a copy protection
mechanism which protects the audio and video streams sent over DisplayPort,
HDMI, and DVI.
HDCP is an invention from Intel, which secures the data path between
playback device (source) and receiver (sink). Each source and sink device
has its own private key, generated in such a way that each pair can decrypt
the data sent from source to sink without revealing the actual keys in use.
To achieve this, each key - source and sink - has to be generated from the
same master key.
As early as 2001 people warned that it would only take about 50 source/sink
keys to be able to generate the master key, and if the rumours are indeed
true, then this has finally happened over the past few weeks. There's also
the possibility that the key has been leaked instead of generated, but the
author of a 2001 paper warning about the possibility to generate the key
doesn't think this is the case.
The master key is a a 40×40 matrix of 56-bit numbers. While the web has
been buzzing about this one for a few days now, it's a little difficult to
ascertain the validity of the claims made. Assuming the master key is
indeed legitimate, it wouldn't be of much use for average consumers at
this point, as Ars Technica's Peter Bright explains.
"This is unlikely to be of much interest to the typical consumer - most
people don't have digital capture devices anyway - but it does mean that
someone suitably motivated could build an HDCP sink device that could
decrypt incoming HDCP data and produce full fidelity digital streams, and
that this device could never be blocked," Bright argues, "Such a system
would be of interest both to pirates and those with legitimate data
archival needs."
Still, if the master key is real, it could start to bring an end to the
myriad of incompatibility issues people encounter when mixing and matching
HDMI/DVI/etc. devices - such as a PS3 not being able to use a certain
monitor, or a Blu-Ray disc not playing in your player.
There isn't a whole lot the HDCP licensing company, Digital Content
Protection, can do about this, save for starting over with a brand new
master key. However, this is not a likely course of action since it would
be incompatible with all devices still using the old master key. On top of
that - such a possible new master key would be cracked in the same way
eventually.
So, yet another epic fail on the DRM front, proving once again that DRM is
a total and utter waste of money, and that the concept only serves to
encumber legitimate consumers. I guess the content industry hasn't been
beaten hard enough just yet.
US Court Upholds EULAs, Criminalises Pretty Much All of Us
Remember the Vernor v. Autodesk case? We talked about this one before -
about a year ago, a US judge sided with Vernor, declaring that software is
sold, not licensed. I think I need to freshen everyone's memory up a bit
on this one, so let's get going.
Timothy Vernor had bought up several disks, including the licenses, of
Autodesk's AutoCAD software from an architecture firm. The software was
no longer in use, so Vernor figured he could easily resell it on eBay.
Autodesk, however, did not agree with this, arguing that the software
was licensed, not sold; the license was non-transferable, old copies had
to be destroyed, and you could not carry the physical disks outside of
the Western hemisphere (I'm not making this up). Vernor was violating
the license, Autodesk stated, and issued a DMCA takedown.
Vernor, for his part, then sued Autodesk, arguing that he never agreed
to anything - he didn't actually use the software, he merely bought it
only to resell it straight away. This case has been going through the
courts for a while now. About a year ago, judge Richard A. Jones, after
seeing the undisputed facts, sided with Vernor on /every possible
account/, making it very clear that while Autodesk owns the copyright to
AutoCAD, the copies in question belonged to Vernor. This was a slam-dunk
win, but Autodesk appealed.
And now we're here: the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has
today overturned Judge Jones' decision on every possible account, siding
with Autodesk all the way (.pdf version of the ruling. The court argues
that the First Sale doctrine does not apply in this case, because Vernor
had not bought the software from legitimate owners - the architecture firm
had merely licensed the software.
The court further stated that whatever is in the license is binding, no
matter how ridiculous. A ban on resale? A ban on lending? A ban on carrying
the physical disks outside of the Western hemisphere? Forcing people to
phyisically destroy their old disks? All perfectly legal, according to the
court. In the official words of the courts:
We determine that Autodesk's direct customers are licensees of their copies
of the software rather than owners, which has two ramifications. Because
Vernor did not purchase the Release 14 copies from an owner, he may not
invoke the first sale doctrine, and he also may not assert an essential step
defense on behalf of his customers. For these reasons, we vacate the
district court's grant of summary judgment to Vernor and remand for further
proceedings.
The court has devised a test to determine whether software is sold or
licensed. "First, we consider whether the copyright owner specifies that a
user is granted a license. Second, we consider whether the copyright owner
significantly restricts the user's ability to transfer the software.
Finally, we consider whether the copyright owner imposes notable use
restrictions."
So, there you have it.
And I haven't even touched upon the part of the ruling that really scared
the living daylights out of me. The ruling also addresses the "significant
policy considerations raised by the parties and amici on both sides of this
appeal". Siding with Autodesk we have the Software & Information Industry
Association and the Motion Picture Association of America - whose arguments
all align perfectly with the court decision.
On the side of Vernor we have eBay and the American Library Association,
who argue that ruling against Vernor will seriously hurt libraries and the
creation of secondary markets for copyrighted works.
The ruling simply dismisses Vernor's, eBay's and the ALA's arguments
without even looking at them. The court focuses on two precedents from the
same court, Wise and the MAI trio, and tries very hard to make their
current decision compatible with those two precedent cases. "These are
serious contentions on both sides, but they do not alter our conclusion
that our precedent from Wise through the MAI trio requires the result we
reach," the court states.
This seems odd to me. Someone obviously has to enlighten me on this, but if
Wise and the MAI trio were ruled by the same court, and were apparently
policy-setting, shouldn't it then be possible for the court to re-evaluate
these rulings in light of our new digital age? I mean, Wise is from 1977,
and the MAI trio from 1993, 1995, and 2006.
Which brings me to the final issue that I personally have with a ruling
like this. Here in The Netherlands we have a traffic rule which states that
in case of an accident between a motorised vehicle and a non-motorised
participant (pedestrian or a bike), the burden of proof always lies with
the motorised vehicle, because motorised vehicles pose additional risks to
pedestrians and bikes, who are classified as "weaker" traffic participants.
This rule acknowledges that e.g. car drivers carry additional
responsibilities.
When I read about disputes between individuals and large companies or
government institutions in The Netherlands, I get the feeling that the same
mentality is prevalent in the Dutch court system; i.e., a mentality to
protect the weaker of the two parties - in this case, the individual. That
is, a court decision should not unfairly burden an individual when the
damage done to the large company or government institution is minimal by
comparison.
In the case of Vernor v. Autodesk, it would seem that the damage done to
Autodesk is pretty much zero, while the benefits of allowing software - and
ther copyrighted works - to be resold unconditionally far outweigh the
damage done to Autodesk. As such, it just seems fairer - in the short and
long run - for the court to side with Vernor. It just makes more sense.
Remember, siding with Vernor would be just as possible within US law as
siding with Autodesk - it's the precedent cases that make the deal here.
You'd think these older decisions ought to be viewed in a different light
after the digital revolution.
In any case, only Congress can do anything about this now (note from OSNews
reader chandler: "Absolutely wrong. This was a ruling by a panel of the 9th
circuit. It can be overturned in an en banc hearing or by the Supreme Court
- and an en banc hearing is plausible if it contradicts previous rulings of
the 9th circuit."). Whatever is in an EULA is now legally binding, the large
corporations win again, and the consumer can suck a big fat popcicle. With
this ruling, I think pretty much every OSNews reader has been turned into
a criminal - I can assure you each and every one of us has, at one point,
violated one of the licenses of our software.
Samsung Launches Galaxy Tablet for U.S. Market
Samsung Electronics has struck deals with four U.S. carriers to begin
selling a Google Android-powered tablet computer during the coming holiday
season, taking on Apple Inc's iPad on its home turf.
Samsung on Thursday announced details of its new 7-inch touchscreen Galaxy,
to be sold through Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile and AT&T,
which also carries the iPad.
The Korean electronics giant has secured deals with Viacom's MTV Networks
and Paramount and NBC Universal, which ComCast Corp is buying, to buy or
stream TV episodes, full television seasons, and new and old movies.
Unlike the iPad, the Galaxy - which shares many of the same features as the
Galaxy S smart phone launched during the summer - has front- and back-facing
cameras for video conferencing, Samsung said in a statement.
It runs on Google's fledgling Android operating system, which has taken
market share away from Apple, and has access to some 80,000 applications
on the Google apps store.
Acer Reportedly Developing Dual-Touchscreen Laptop
Acer is working on a dual-touchscreen multitouch laptop with no physical
keyboard or mouse that would be available by fall 2011, according to
several reports. Instead of using physical inputs, one touchscreen would
function as the display and one would act as the keyboard and trackpad,
similar to Toshiba's Libretto W100.
Acer's device is reportedly sporting two 15-inch touchscreens, runs Windows
7 and has an Intel Core i5 2.67GHz processor under the hood, according to
TechReview Source.
No further specs about the device are available, such as RAM, storage
capacity, or whether the it wil handle pen-based touch inputs as well as
Windows 7's multitouch.
However, Acer's device could be the largest dual-screen laptop so far.
Toshiba's limited edition Libretto W100 features two 7-inch touchscreens.
Computer manufacturer MSI was showing off a dual-touchscreen laptop with
10-inch screens during the Consumer Electronics Show in January.
Asus has also been discussing a smaller dual-touchscreen device called
the Eee Reader since early 2009.
If you take a quick look at Intel's current list of Core i5 processors,
you'll notice the only processor that fits TechReviewSource's specs is
the Core i5 750, a desktop chip. It's not un heard of for a manufacturer
to try and cram a desktop processor into a laptop, just look at the
Eurocomm D901C Phantom-X, for example. But what's more likely is that the
rumored Acer laptop is sporting the equally rumored Intel Core i5 580M.
The 580M reportedly runs at 2.66GHz and could be available before the
end of the year.
Another possibility is that the rumored device would not run a Core i5
at all, but the Intel Core i7 620M launched in January.
TechReviewSource claims it is trying to get a video of Acer's dual screen
laptop in action, but an anonymous source tells the blog Acer's prototype
is "slow and buggy." That wouldn't be surprising considering the device
is supposed to be in development and wouldn't launch until late 2011.
But a 15-inch dual screen laptop is an awfully large and presumably
expensive device to produce - especially when it's not clear if anyone
would even want a dual-touchscreen laptop. However, Engadget reported in
August that the Libretto W100 sold very quickly during its debut on
Amazon.
So, who knows? Maybe double-screened laptops are the future, as electronics
makers experiment with virtual keyboards in place of physical keys on more
than just mobile devices.
Yahoo To Upgrade E-mail, Search Results This Fall
Yahoo Inc. wants to prove it has regained its technological stride after
years of meandering that have caused the Internet company to lose ground
to its rivals.
The proof of Yahoo's renewed vigor will come this fall when the company
plans to unveil facelifts to its free e-mail service and search results,
a top executive told reporters Thursday.
Those upgrades will be major steps toward "bringing cool back to Yahoo,"
said Blake Irving, who was hired as the company's chief products officer
in April.
Over the next three years, Yahoo will be quickly rolling out more
innovations that will give people more reasons to stay on Yahoo's website
for longer periods and reel in more revenue from advertisers clamoring to
reach a more engaged audience.
Although Irving is relatively new to the company, his goals echo those of
other Yahoo executives, including some from prior regimes that crumbled
after failing to fulfill their promises. Former Yahoo CEO, Terry Semel,
even played a Frank Sinatra song, "The Best Is Yet To Come," at a 2004
investment conference to underscore his resolve to recapture the buzz that
helped make Yahoo the most successful Internet company during the 1990s.
Instead, Yahoo fell even further behind Google Inc. and now it's trying
to reverse a recent shift that is driving more people and advertisers to
Facebook's popular online hangout.
The troubles have battered Yahoo's stock, which has lost more than half
its value since another CEO, co-founder Jerry Yang, turned down an
opportunity to sell the entire company to Microsoft Corp. for $47.5
billion, or $33 per share, in May 2008.
Irving, a former Microsoft Corp. executive, believes Yahoo's strengths
have been overlooked both by investors and the media. Among other
things, Yahoo still has about 600 million worldwide users and a pool of
engineers that Irving believes is among the brightest in the world.
"I expected to find some good, some bad and a lot of ugly here," Irving
said. "There is a lot more good than I expected."
That's a theme Irving's boss, Carol Bartz, has been emphasizing since
she was brought in as CEO 20 months ago to orchestrate a turnaround.
Although analysts have praised Bartz for sharpening Yahoo's focus and
shedding unprofitable services, Yahoo's stock price and financial
performance have remained lackluster since her arrival. Bartz has
repeatedly said it could take several years before Yahoo begins hitting
on all cylinders again.
Rather than fight Facebook, Yahoo has been trying to piggyback on the
social network by enabling its e-mail users to interact with their
Facebook circle of friends from their inboxes. The company will build
upon that effort this fall when e-mail users will be able to start
sending the short messages known as tweets to their Twitter accounts.
Yahoo's e-mail also is supposed to run twice as fast with the upcoming
upgrade.
The company, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., declined to provide a precise
timetable for its latest e-mail overhaul. It has been working on the
e-mail revisions for more than a year already.
To lower its expenses, Yahoo is relying on Microsoft for most of the
search results on its website.
But Yahoo is still trying to distinguish its search results by packaging
some of its recommendations differently than Microsoft's Bing does.
The latest changes to Yahoo's search results will debut sometime this
fall when the company will start bundling more key information in a
capsule that will be highlighted above links from other sites. For
instance, a search for Lady Gaga will contain different strips within
the capsule that show pictures of her, popular songs and video clips.
Microsoft's New IE9 Promises Zippier Performance
Microsoft Corp. unveiled the "beta" test version of Internet Explorer 9 on
Wednesday, the first of a new generation of Web browser programs that tap
into the powerful processors on board newer computers to make websites
load and run faster.
IE9, which is free, also arrives with a more minimalist look and a few new
tricks that start to blur the distinction between a website and a
traditional desktop application.
Following the lead of Google Inc.'s stripped-down Chrome browser,
Microsoft's IE9 comes with far fewer buttons, icons and toolbars cluttering
up the top of the screen. Its frame is translucent, and as people browse
the Web, IE9 can be subtly adorned with small icons and signature colors of
the websites being viewed.
The new browser also takes cues from Windows 7, Microsoft's most recent
operating system software for personal computers. In Windows 7, people
can "pin" favorite programs to the task bar at the bottom of the screen,
creating a one-click shortcut. They can also customize a menu of options
for each program, such as opening a frequently used file in Microsoft
Word.
IE9 lets people pin individual websites to the taskbar, and some sites
have already customized their so-called "jumplist" menus. For example,
when people pin USA Today's site, the icon in the taskbar can display a
menu that mirrors the color-coded sections of the newspaper.
The aesthetic changes bring IE9 in line with Microsoft's newer software,
but the changes under the hood push Microsoft's technology a step ahead
of its competition. The browser can take advantage of multicore
microprocessors to crunch website code faster. It also uses the PC's
graphics processing unit - the same chips that make the images in elaborate
video games run smoothly - to make images, animations, movie clips and
other visuals appear or play faster.
And IE9 supports HTML5, a catch phrase for an updated set of rules and
specifications that website programmers use. HTML5, which is currently
under development, will include video playback and other graphics-intensive
features that, in the past, could only be done by adding third-party
software.
"What I saw impressed me," said Endpoint Technologies Associates analyst
Roger Kay, who attended Microsoft's media event to promote the new browser
in San Francisco Wednesday. "The bottom line is, this product is good.
It's pretty and it's fast."
Microsoft won't stand alone at the front of the pack for long, however.
Google and Mozilla, maker of the Firefox browser, are also working on
similar technical upgrades to their software. All three players have
different motivations for pouring resources into making their free programs
stand out from the pack.
For Microsoft, selling Windows is a massive and profitable slice of its
business. Dean Hachamovitch, corporate vice president of Microsoft's
Internet Explorer group, said the software maker is driven by the desire
to make Web browsing on a Windows PC "great." That, he said, will encourage
people to keep buying Windows computers, rather than defect to Apple Inc.'s
Mac machines.
Google, which makes most of its money from online advertising, simply wants
to encourage people to spend more time surfing the Web. The Web search
leader says it introduced the speedy Chrome two years ago in part to prod
the market's dominant players to accelerate Web surfing.
And Mozilla, a nonprofit, sees its own browser development as a way to make
sure that users' privacy and the tenets of free, open-source software
don't get left behind as Google, Microsoft and others try to shape
technology in ways that boost profits.
With the new crop of browsers, the companies are doing more than competing
against each other. IE9 has arrived at a time when the future of
traditional Web surfing is itself in question. Today, people can skip
visiting many websites in favor of "apps" available for download for
devices such as Apple's iPhone and iPad, or Google's Android mobile phones.
The apps deliver the same content but don't limit people to pointing and
clicking links with a mouse.
The new browser works on PCs with Windows 7 or Vista, but not on PCs with
the much more widely used Windows XP computers or on Macs. At the media
event, Microsoft showed off several big-name websites that have been
designed to take advantage of the new browser, including ones from
Amazon.com Inc., Facebook and Twitter. The sites are built with code that
older browsers can understand, but some may be sluggish without IE9.
Microsoft did not say when IE9 will leave the test phase, but the final
version isn't likely to change much. It is available for download at
beautyoftheweb.com.
Windows XP Users Can't Ride the IE9 Train
The release of Internet Explorer 9 beta garnered a lot of attention and
positive reviews. Cribbing from Chrome's UI and significantly boosting
speed over previous iterations of the browser, IE9 looks like a real
winner. Too bad Microsoft left Windows XP users - more than half of all
Windows users - out in the cold.
In a statement to The Register, Ryan Gavin, senior director of IE business
and marketing, said Windows XP users couldn't download IE9. Not now; not
ever. Instead, Microsoft plans to "continue to focus on how we do a great
job with Windows 7," Gavin said.
According to recent stats, Windows XP represents the vast majority of
the OS market with more than 53 percent. Windows 7 has only 22 percent.
The roadblock here is that XP doesn't have the capabilities required to
support the hardware acceleration and HTML5 features of IE9. The hardware
acceleration in IE9, according to The Register, comes courtesy of DirectX
10 - an update to the DirectX program that does not run on Windows XP
unless it's been "modified." But quick Web search shows a handful of sites
where DirectX 10 can be downloaded onto machines running XP, which leads
me to believe that eventually someone will find a way to dump IE9 on XP,
whether Microsoft likes it or not.
That Microsoft is keeping IE9 exclusive to those running Vista SP2 or higher
seems like a foolish move that is likely to inspire millions to find an
alternative browser, such as Firefox or Chrome. This could further damage
IE's current supremacy of the browser market. All versions of Internet
Explorer combined currently dominate with 60.4 percent of the Web browser
market. Firefox has 22.93 percent, and Chrome has 7.52 percent.
Barring XP users also seems like a sneaky ploy to get more people to upgrade
to Windows 7. I can't imagine many people would be so discouraged by the
news that they cannot download a beta browser that they'd drop hundreds on
an OS upgrade.
So while predictions have it that IE9 will crush the browser competition,
over half of Windows users won't get a chance to play around with it.
Chrome Beta, anyone?
Chrome 7 Will Get 60 Times Faster, Google Says
Microsoft's hardware-accelerated Internet Explorer 9 may be dominating the
headlines this week, but Chrome isn't waiting around for the dust to
settle.
Not only did Google release a slew of patches affecting various
vulnerabilities in the current version of the browser on Tuesday, but it
also announced that new GPU acceleration advances in the upcoming version 7
are achieving speeds 60 times faster than in version 6.
Chrome has traditionally been considered the browser to beat when it comes
to speed.
"This system picks the best graphics API to use on each OS that Chromium
supports: Windows XP/Vista/7, Mac OS and Linux," Google software engineers
James Robinson and Gregg Tavares wrote on the Chromium Blog.
"These early numbers show up to 60x speed improvement over the current
version of Google Chrome," they added. "With Google Chrome's fast release
cycles, we expect to be able to get these enhancements to users quickly
and add new performance improvements over time."
The latest beta version of Mozilla's Firefox 4 also uses hardware
acceleration for faster speeds.
In addition to rapid advances in Chrome's 2D graphics performance, however,
Google is also working on 3D graphics capabilities.
"We're excited to give developers fast 2D graphics, but we think truly
hardware accelerating graphics on the Web means giving developers access
to a programmable 3D graphics pipeline with WebGL," Robinson and Tavares
explained. "With WebGL and 3D CSS, developers can create modern games,
impressive photo galleries, 3D data visualizations, virtual environments,
and whatever else they can dream up."
A video on YouTube demonstrates Chrome's upcoming 3D capabilities in
action.
A developer version of Chrome 7 is now available, with a stable release
expected later this fall.
The 10 security patches Google released this week for Chrome 6, meanwhile,
addressed one critical flaw in the Mac version along with six considered
high-priority, including one unique to the Linux version. Three
vulnerabilities were considered low-priority.
Through the Chromium Security Research Program, Google offers users,
developers and researchers bounties of up to $3,133 for reporting a single
bug. This time, Google handed out six $500 awards and one worth $1,000.
The resulting version - Google Chrome 6.0.472.59 - has now been released
to the Stable and Beta channels for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Chattanooga Utility Offering Fast Internet Service
Chattanooga's city-owned electrical utility has started offering an Internet
service that is among the fastest in the world, and it is hoping the move
will attract businesses looking to relocate.
The Chattanooga Electric Power Board's new Fiber Optics network will
provide a 1 gigabit-per-second Internet service. The utility said the
service is more than 200 times faster than the average national download
speed today.
At a cost of $350 a month, it's also much more expensive than the
typical residential plan. Harold DePriest, the Chattanooga Electric
Power Board's president and CEO, said residential customers don't really
need that fast a service, but businesses might.
He said the high-speed service won't be costly for EPB to operate, yet
it should put the Chattanooga community at the forefront of attracting
businesses - possibly Internet providers - that can benefit from having it.
"Chattanooga represents the next frontier in communications technology,
with limitless potential for new applications for education,
entertainment, health care, industrial development and more," DePriest
said in a statement.
The Chattanooga utility is working with telecom equipment maker
Alcatel-Lucent SA on the project.
DePriest said the fast Internet service is immediately available.
DePriest said providing the high-speed Internet service is part of the
utility's $37 million fiber-optic network venture.
EPB provides electricity, television, telephone and Internet service to
more than 169,000 residents in a 600 square-mile area in southeastern
Tennessee and northwest Georgia.
In a community with a new Volkswagen new assembly plant and the University
of Tennessee at Chattanooga's SimCenter computational engineering lab,
Mayor Ron Littlefield said the Internet service announcement has helped
put Chattanooga "on the short list of progressive communities in the
world."
"It's a great place to imagine the future," Littlefield said at a news
conference Monday.
He said Chattanooga would "welcome Google or any other technology company"
that would be interested in using such a high-speed Internet system.
Google Inc. earlier announced plans to select one or more communities for a
1 gigabit network by the end of this year and spokesman Dan Martin said
there have been about 1,100 responses. Martin declined comment about the
planned service by Chattanooga's EPB.
"We're excited to see enthusiasm for ultra high-speed broadband," Martin
said in an e-mail statement. "It's clear that people across the country
are hungry for better and faster Internet access."
Verizon Communications Inc. in August said it had tested 1 gigabit service
on its network but the company hasn't announced any plans to sell it.
FCC Paving the Way to "Wi-Fi on Steroids"
The FCC will vote next week to make the white space portion of the
television broadcast spectrum publicly available for use in wireless
networks. If approved, it could enable a new generation of "Wi-Fi on
steroids" devices capable of transmitting data through walls and over
much greater distances than current wireless technologies.
Broadcast television networks and organizations that rely on wireless
microphones have opposed the use of the broadcast spectrum white space,
citing fears that data transmitted in that range will interfere with
their signals. The FCC has developed a framework designed to prevent any
disruption of existing service, though, and is now set to move forward.
The FCC has worked with the concerned parties and come up with a plan that
ensures that devices using the white space spectrum will not interfere
with adjacent broadcasts. The FCC has mapped TV channels and major
wireless microphone usage (such as the Broadway theater district in New
York City, or major sports arenas), and will require that wireless devices
using the white space be configured to avoid the frequencies in use in a
given area. Devices could be built to be location-aware, and automatically
configure themselves based on information in the database.
The pros seem to heavily outweigh the cons for opening up the spectrum
white space for use by wireless networks. The "super Wi-Fi" possible in
the broadcast white space has a range of several miles, rather than the
length of a football field, and it is capable of traveling through
obstructions like walls. With a range like that, and speeds rivaling cable
modem broadband, it is easy to see how this could open up a whole new
realm of wireless technologies and fundamentally change how and where
wireless is used.
Of course, there are two sides to the "Wi-Fi on steroids" story. Businesses
and consumers today are still struggling to understand and implement
effective wireless network security. If you can drive down the street and
find random unprotected wireless networks with the current range
limitations, imagine how many unsecured wireless networks you could detect
if the signal could travel farther and go through walls. With a wireless
network that extends beyond walls and covers a greater range, security
will be even more critical.
For now, the white space spectrum is not yet available, and the devices
and technology needed to tak advantage of it don't yet exist in the
mainstream. All that could change, though, when the FCC meets next week,
and "super Wi-Fi" enabled devices could begin emerging by early next year.
GoDaddy.com Puts Itself Up for Sale
Internet domain name registry GoDaddy.com has put itself up for sale, the
Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
The privately held company could fetch more than $1 billion in an auction,
the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
GoDaddy has hired investment bank Qatalyst Partners, the Journal reported.
Private equity firms are expected to bid.
The company declined to comment.
GoDaddy is the world's largest domain name registrar. The company was
founded by Bob Parsons in 1997, and says it has more than 43 million
domains under management.
The company posted revenue between $750 million and $800 million in 2009,
the report said.
GoDaddy has made a name for itself by running racy television ads to promote
its brand, some of them featuring race car driver Danica Patrick.
Engineer Fired for Privacy Violations, Google Says
A Google engineer was fired for violating the company's privacy rules,
Google said Wednesday, responding to a report that the engineer had
improperly accessed the accounts of several teenagers.
"We dismissed David Barksdale for breaking Google's strict internal privacy
policies," said Bill Coughran, senior vice president of Google, in a
statement.
Barksdale was fired in July because he abused his position as a site
reliability engineer at Google office to access Google Voice call records
and Gmail and Google Chat accounts belonging to several teenagers,
according to Gawker.
As a site reliability engineer, Barksdale had access to databases that
contain e-mails, chat logs and other files that belong to Google users,
the report said.
Google acknowledged the seriousness of the privacy violations, but said
there would always be a need for its engineers to have this level of
access to user accounts.
"We carefully control the number of employees who have access to our
systems, and we regularly upgrade our security controls - for example, we
are significantly increasing the amount of time we spend auditing our logs
to ensure those controls are effective. That said, a limited number of
people will always need to access these systems if we are to operate them
properly - which is why we take any breach so seriously," Coughran said.
Trojan Monitors Your Porn Surfing Habits, Threatens to Blackmail You
In an era where online privacy seems like an oxymoron, is it so bad to have
your browsing history publicly available? Or to pay less than $20 to have
these details removed from the Internet?
Several Trojan horses spreading around the Internet these days spam your
entire address book with bogus messages and attempt to delete your
computer's security software. But the Kenzero Trojan out of Japan goes
further than pretending to be a legitimate program: Hackers behind the
program not only post your browser history, favorites, illegally-downloaded
porn, and clipboard content to a public Website, they demand payment of
about $18 to remove the personal details of your
browsing history.
Kenzero is a Trojan of the 'ransomware' variety, where a malicious program
masquerading as a game registration window takes your personal details then
attempts to extort money out of you.
The Trojan then posts that you've been downloading illegal Hentai (explicit
anime) games, and that instead of just being out $20, you'll find that
scammers have sold your credit card information to the highest bidder. How
does Kenzero spread? Mostly via the Winny file-sharing network, which has
approximately 200 million users).
Though if you're illegaling downloading computer games, why would you give
personal details to a pirated piece of software? It's food for thought.
While you're mulling that, there's even a paper on similar Japanese scams
being presented at the upcoming Association for Computing Machinery
Computer and Communications Security conference.
=~=~=~=
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