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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 11 Issue 23
Volume 11, Issue 23 Atari Online News, Etc. June 5, 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 #1123 06/05/09
~ Yahoo Is Fine, Thanks! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Web Sites Stung!
~ U.S. Nuke List Online! ~ EA's Fake E3 Protest! ~ New Opera Browser!
~ Win7 Gets Xmas Release ~ Bing Goes to Number 2! ~ Hackers Claim Prize!
~ 'Icon' Tetris Turns 25 ~ Squared Attacks Bing! ~ Sony's New PSP Go!
-* China Rounds Up Dissidents! *-
-* Russia Launches MS Antitrust Probe! *-
-* FTC Shuts Down Alleged Rogue Net Provider *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
It's late Friday night, and I just got home from work - I'm beat! I
had most of this week's issue put together, but still had many small
things to get done before the issue can hit the bricks! So, I'll forego
talking about anything this week so I can get your weekly dose of A-ONE
out at a "reasonable" hour.
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Well, there aren't enough new messages in
the NewsGroup to make a column, so they'll go in the folder to add to
next week's.
This week's column is going to be short, but I do want to talk about
President Obama's speech the other day in Egypt. And I wanted to try to
avoid comparing it to speeches given by U.S. presidents in the... oh, in
the past eight years or so.. but let's face it, it's just too good to
pass up. So I won't. [Grin]
President Obama, with this one speech, laid out his international agenda
and set us on a new path. Well, he set us upon an OLD path, actually.
It's the path we were on before the "either you're with us or your
against us", "Of course there are WMDs, we said so", "might-makes-right"
attitudes of the past administration.
Harsh? Not hardly. People around the world, politicians and businessmen
and farmers and school teachers in every country in the world need to
know what we're about. Too many already have a bad opinion (and often
justifiably so).
Let's face it, America's sphere of influence is global. Every economy,
every business, every educational institution, every army in the world is
influenced by the United States in some way.
Yes, that's an awesome power. But, as has always been the case, with great
power comes great responsibility. The days and ways of those who would
squeeze the rest of the world like juicing an orange and discard the
soggy, misshapen rind are over... for now. Perhaps it is only because we
now find ourselves in need of a... 'course correction', but we ARE a
different country than we were just a few years ago. I have no illusions
about the possibility of again returning to the ideologies and practices
that had/have so many watching us closely and mistrustfully, but for the
time being, it's going to have to be enough that we are upon the path
we're on now. What matters more than the past is the present, for it is
upon the present that the future is built. None of us have much control
over what has come before and what will come after. What we DO have
control over is what we do here and now; what decisions we and our
lawmakers and administrators make.
We, as a country, have made some bad choices of late. No, there's no
sense laying it all upon the shoulders of a few. We are all responsible
to some extent. I mean, heck, we ELECTED those guys in the first place,
right? Oops. I forgot. We DIDN'T! Okay, we lay the blame squarely upon
their shoulders this time. [evil grin]
It's going to be a long road back to where we want to be... where we
SHOULD be regardless of what the talking heads on TV and radio say. IF we
cannot provide for and protect our friends and neighbors around the world
and provide help and and assistance wherever needed without condition,
then we are fated to go the way all other empires in our history have
gone. Personally, I'd like to see that avoided.
I'm not saying that everything is going to be all roses and sunshine now.
I'm pretty sure that we're going to have many more rocky times. And we've
still got some work to do before we're back where we were, but we'll get
there. As far as I'm concerned, the "rights rollbacks" that we
encountered... that we allowed... over the past eight years, will take
some time to erase.
Personally, I am perturbed that we haven't rolled back all of the changes
that had been made in the name of national security and the safety of the
citizenry, and I hope that most things like warrant-less wiretaps, "sneak
'n peek" searches and National Security Letters are stopped, but I'm not
sure that we'll ever see the days of clear-cut, immutable... or should I
say "inalienable" civil rights, again.
That's one of the reasons I think it's so important to get as many new
Justices on the Supreme Court as we can, as fast as we can.
I'm not talking about "packing" the bench with liberals. While Rush
Limbaugh (aka The Hot Air Buffoon) and Newt Gingrich label her as
"racist" and "activist", the truth is that she is somewhat conservative
on most topics. That doesn't make her a bad choice, in my opinion. Sure,
I'm as liberal as they come, and I believe in liberal ideals, but what's
even more important than that is having someone INTERPRET our
Constitution in an honest way. The Supreme Court is not (or should not
be) about politics. It should be about determining the Founding Fathers'
intent when righting the Constitution.
I disagree with Justice Scalia's opinion that the Constitution is a
static document and that it means only exactly what it says as we
'understand' it to say. How often have you heard someone stumble over a
prayer or a song because the words were... old fashioned? They just can't
grasp the meaning of the old words and phrases. And sometimes, the old
and new meanings are completely different.
Well, the Constitution was written two and a quarter centuries ago. The
results of what a Twenty first Century American would glean from a 'carved
in stone' reading of many passages would probably would have left the
authors a gasp and confused. I'm sorry, Justice Scalia, but the
Constitution was MEANT to be interpreted. It was meant to be a living,
growing, evolving document. That's why the Founding Fathers gave us the
ability to amend it. But somehow I get the feeling that Justice Scalia
would like to do away with a lot of the amendments... Well, a lot of the
first ten anyway. For those unfamiliar with the first ten amendments to
the Constitution, they're also known as... The Bill Of Rights. The
Founding Fathers obviously never envisioned that a "Bill Of Wrongs" might
also be a good idea.
Well, that's it for this time around, folks. 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 - Sony Unveils New PSP Go!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" "Tetris" Turns 25!
X-Men Origins!
And much more!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Sony Unveils New PSP Go
Sony on Tuesday unveiled a sleek next-generation PSP Go handheld videogame,
movie and music gadget in a direct challenge to Nintendo's freshly-launched
DSi devices.
Sony Computer Entertainment president Kaz Hirai showed off a new PSP Go
at a press conference in the Shrine Auditorium as a major Electronics
Entertainment Expo (E3) got under way nearby in Los Angeles.
"We call it the worst kept secret of E3," Hirai quipped, referring to
news of Go news leaks more akin to streams.
"There will be more content that is easier to get on your PSP. It's
entertainment everywhere."
Go is half the size of the original PSP and built to download and store
video, pictures and games, according to Hirai. Go devices have built-in
wireless Internet and Bluetooth capabilities.
"It's built for people who live a more digital lifestyle," Hirai said.
"It's designed to bring all kinds of content to the PSP."
All future PSP videogame titles will be available for digital download,
skipping any need to buy software on disks, according to Sony.
A new Sense Me feature analyzes music stored in Go devices and then
creates playlists to suit users' moods. Go gadgets will also be built
with a video delivery service Sony launched last year.
Hot videogame franchises including "Gran Turismo," "Metal Gear Solid,"
and "Resident Evil" are creating new games tailored to Go devices,
according to Sony.
"I think the PSP is getting really hotter," said Hideo Kojima, whose
eponymous studio makes the "Metal Gear Solid" franchise whose
protagonist is a fearsome soldier called "Snake."
"And Snake is coming back on the PSP."
Go devices will be priced at 249 dollars, or 249 Euros respectively,
when they are released in the United States and Europe in October,
according to Sony. The gadgets will be available in Japan in April,
Hirai said.
Nintendo reports that it has sold more than a million of its
new-generation DSi handheld videogame gadgets in the United States since
they became available here in April.
Electronic Arts Stages Fake Protest of Game at E3
Electronic Arts has been playing games with attendees of the nation's
biggest video-game trade show.
The game publisher hired a group of nearly 20 people to stand outside
the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles on Wednesday and appear
to protest the upcoming EA game "Dante's Inferno." EA spokeswoman Holly
Rockwood says the stunt was arranged by a viral marketing agency hired
by EA.
The group claimed to be protesting the third-person action game - loosely
based on Dante Aligheri's poem "Divine Comedy" - because they said the
game glorified eternal damnation.
The fake religious protesters passed out pamphlets and held up picket
signs with messages such as "Hell is not a Video Game" and "Trade in
Your PlayStation for a PrayStation."
With E3 Over, Video Games Will Get You Off the Couch
The hustle and bustle in Los Angeles is over for this year's Electronic
Entertainment Expo (E3) trade show, which closed Thursday, and the
future of video gaming can be summarized with one word: Motion.
After letting Nintendo's Wii have most of the motion-sensing fun for
some time with its revolutionary motion-detecting sensor, this year
Microsoft and Sony showed their own initiatives to get players moving.
Microsoft's innovation was introduced by movie director Stephen
Spielberg, who proclaimed that interactive entertainment's next step is
"to make the controller disappear." Microsoft's Project Natal -
pronounced "nuh-tall" - uses speech and facial recognition, along with
navigation by bodily motion, for game control.
The system combines a RGB camera, a depth sensor, a multi-array
microphone, and a custom processor running proprietary software. It is
compatible with any Xbox 360 system.
"It can recognize you just by looking at your face," Microsoft said,
"and it doesn't just react to key words, but understands what you're
saying." And, again following Nintendo's lead of including the family,
Microsoft set the bar for using its system quite low. "If you know how
to move your hands, shake your hips, or speak, you and your friends can
jump into the fun."
"Clearly," said Michael Gartenberg, a vice president at Interpret,
"Nintendo's success with the Wii has resonated with the industry." He
added that, if Project Natal "can be delivered to the market in a timely
fashion," it could be "potentially a huge thing."
Nintendo, which began the motion craze, previewed its
soon-to-be-released Wii Motion Plus, which enables smaller hand motions
and better targeting for players. It is also continuing to expand the
Wii into new directions with, for instance, the Wii Vitality Sensor,
which detects the pulse in your finger and could be used for relaxation
feedback - or, as Nintendo's president suggested to news media, it
could be used to measure how frightened you get playing horror games.
Motion-based controllers were also showing up in more familiar shapes.
Activision showed a skateboard controller for its Tony Hawk: RIDE game,
and a turntable controller for DJ Hero.
Sony also showed a wireless PlayStation 3 Motion Controller that uses a
PS Eye camera, although it's still being developed.
Much of Sony's emphasis was on its newest PlayStation portable, the new
PSP Go or PSP-N1000, which will be available in October. The PSP Go
offers 16GB of flash memory to store games delivered over the PSP
Network. It also highlighted new software for its portable game devices,
including a new, downloadable music recommendation feature that will
suggest playlists based on mood.
And, of course, there were lots of new game titles shown, including Tom
Clancy's Splinter: Cell Conviction for the Xbox 360; Uncharted 2: Among
Thieves and God of War III for PS 3; Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sports Resort
for Nintendo's console; and, for the venerable PS2, more than 100 new
game titles.
At 25, 'Tetris' Drops into Place as Gaming Icon
With its scratches and sticky brown beer stains, the "Tetris" arcade
machine near the back of a Brooklyn bar called Barcade has seen better
days. Which makes sense, given that the machine was made in the 1980s.
Even today, though, it's not hard to find 20- and 30-somethings plucking
away at its ancient controls, flipping shapes made up of four connected
squares and fitting them into orderly patterns as they descend, faster
and faster as the game goes on.
"You could just play infinitely," said Michael Pierce, 28, who was
playing against Dan Rothfarb, also 28. Both have been fans since they -
and the game - were young. "Tetris" has its 25th birthday this week.
Pierce recalls playing "Tetris" on a Nintendo Game Boy that was on
display in a department store when his family couldn't afford the unit.
Rothfarb played on his Nintendo until the game wouldn't go any faster.
Completed by a Soviet programmer in 1984, "Tetris" has come a long way
from its square roots. It's played by millions, not just on computers
and gaming consoles but now on Facebook and the iPhone as well.
"Tetris" stands out as one of the rare cultural products to come West
from the Soviet Union during the Cold War. And the addictive rhythm of
its task-by-task race against time was an early sign of our
inbox-clearing, Twitter-updating, BlackBerry-thumbing world to come.
In her book "Hamlet on the Holodeck," Georgia Tech professor Janet
Murray called "Tetris" the "perfect enactment of the overtasked lives of
Americans." The game, she wrote, shows the "constant bombardment of
tasks that demand our attention and that we must somehow fit into our
overcrowded schedules and clear off our desks in order to make room for
the next onslaught."
Many people who grew up with "Tetris" haven't stopped playing.
"I'd stay up, wait for my parents to go to bed, smuggle my Nintendo into
my bedroom, hook it up to my television and play this game until all
hours of the morning," said John Clemente, another player at Barcade.
"Tetris," he says, was the only game to drive him "to the point of
insanity." As a child, he once kicked his Nintendo across the room.
"It was a very love-hate relationship," he said.
"Tetris" is easy to pick up. Rotate the falling shapes so that you form
full lines at the bottom of the screen. Fit the shapes so there are as
few open spaces left as possible. Aim for a Tetris: four lines completed
in one swoop. Repeat. Watch your score zoom.
But Tetris is hard to master. Because the shapes - technically known as
tetrominoes - come in a random order, it is hard to predict the best way
to organize them so that they can form neat rows.
In fact, in 2002, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers
determined that the potential combinations are so numerous that it would
be impossible even for a computer to calculate the best place to put
each falling shape. Erik Demaine, an associate professor of computer
science, praised the game's "mathematical elegance," which perhaps stems
from the background of its developer.
Alexey Pajitnov was 29 and working for the Moscow Academy of Sciences
when he completed "Tetris" on June 6, 1984, for a Soviet computer system
called the Elektronika. A computer programmer by day who researched
artificial intelligence and automatic speech recognition, Pajitnov
worked on the game in his spare time.
"All my life I liked puzzles, mathematical riddles and diversion,"
Pajitnov said in a recent interview from Moscow. "Tetris," he said, was
just one of the games he made back then. The others are mostly long
forgotten.
Pajitnov's creation spread in Moscow through the small community of
people who had access to computers. Word filtered through computer
circles to the West, where the game drew the interest of entrepreneurs.
A company called Spectrum HoloByte managed to obtain PC rights, but
another, Mirrorsoft, also released a version. Years of legal wrangling
followed, with several companies claiming pieces of the "Tetris" pie -
for handheld systems, computers and arcades.
Complicating matters, the Soviet Union did not allow privately held
businesses. The Soviet state held the "Tetris" licensing rights and
Pajitnov had no claim to the profits. He didn't fight it.
"Basically, at the moment I realized I wanted this game to be published,
I understood that Soviet power will either help me or never let it
happen," he said.
It wasn't until 1996 that Pajitnov got licensing rights. Asked whether
he made enough money off the game to live comfortably, he says yes, but
offers no more details. Today, he is part owner of Tetris Co., which
manages the game's licenses worldwide.
Nintendo Co. was an early and big beneficiary of the game, which stood
out from its mid-'80s peers because it had no characters and no shooting.
When Nintendo was preparing to release its Game Boy device in 1989, the
company planned to include with it one of the games that are also
classics today: "Super Mario," "Donkey Kong" and "Zelda." But Nintendo
wanted something everyone would play - a "perfect killer game" that
would sell the Game Boy, said Minoru Arakawa, the president of Nintendo
of America from 1980 to 2002.
The solution was "Tetris" - though Nintendo needed help from Henk
Rogers, a U.S. entrepreneur.
Rogers had spotted "Tetris" at the International Consumer Electronics
Show in Las Vegas and bought the rights to a PC version of the game in
Japan from Spectrum HoloByte. In February 1989, he went to Moscow on a
tourist visa to try to get the rights for Nintendo. He spent his first
day in a taxi with a driver who didn't speak English, communicating by
gestures and trying in vain to find the ministry of software and
hardware export. The next morning, he hired an interpreter and things
went more smoothly, and "Tetris" got bundled into the first Game Boy.
Since then, "Tetris" has expanded to all kinds of devices and inspired a
generation of knockoffs. Tetris Co. says 125 million copies have been
sold in various incarnations.
Pajitnov says "Tetris" could stick around another quarter-century.
"I hope so, why not?" he said. "Technology changes a lot, but I can't
say people change a lot."
X-Men Origins: Wolverine DLC "Uncaged Edition"
The feral fury rages on as Activision announced today that X-Men Origins:
Wolverine Uncaged Edition downloadable videogame content is now available
for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system. Inspired
by 20th Century Foxs X-Men Origins: Wolverine, in theaters everywhere,
players can now download the Weapon X Arena, a level composed of four
unique combat simulators, from Xbox LIVE Marketplace for 800 Microsoft
Points and from the PlayStation Store.
Gamers can spawn any combination of small and large enemies to face
combinations not available in standard gameplay, from hordes of grunts they
can cut down in seconds to a complex mix of enemies, including a Sentinel
Prototype, Jungle Grappler, Machine Gunners and more.
Once players have encountered all enemies in the game, the Ladder Challenge
room unlocks, presenting gamers with a preconfigured challenge. Enemy types
and numbers start small and ramp up, flooding the room for fifty waves of
increasingly difficult combat challenges.
This room includes all the unique environmental weapons in the game,
including broken tree branches that can be used as spears, forklift skids
to throw enemies toward and computer consoles into which players can smash
enemies - to name a few.
The Weapon X Arena also contains a bonus room with heightened enemy
reaction effects.
The X-Men Origins: Wolverine videogame is rated 'M' (for Mature) by the
ESRB on Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system, and PlayStation 3.
For more information and exclusive updates about the X-Men Origins:
Wolverine videogame, visit http://www.uncaged.com.
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE Gaming Online - Online Users Growl & Purr!
"""""""""""""""""""
No Cave Man: Community-College Game-Development Student
Designs Game for Atari 2600, Prehistoric Times
Blake Leftwich spent six months developing the computer game Prehistoric
Times, which he said sold out in 45 minutes at a national gaming conference
in Leesport, Pa., in early May.
The game costs $15.
"It has been successful," Leftwich said. "It has already exceeded my
expectations. A man told me that he had more fun playing my game than any
other game at the convention."
Leftwich, 33, is expected to graduate in August with an associate's degree
in applied science from Surry Community College. He is a simulation and
game-development student enrolled in a joint program with Wake Technical
Community College in Raleigh.
Prehistoric Times is a "homebrew" release, a new game for an old gaming
system as it runs on the Atari 2600 system. Introduced in 1977, the Atari
2600 was the first machine to use interchangeable cartridges with games on
them. It had games such as Space Invaders and Adventure.
"I loved playing Atari when I was a kid," Leftwich said. "That is
partially why I wanted to develop the game."
Leftwich's game is about a lone prehistoric man struggling to survive by
hunting animals in a forest. The game is made up of three screens showing
the man and a volcano that produces lava and increased heat at higher
levels. Players also try to find a mysterious treasure.
Leftwich created the game using batari, a computer programming platform
developed to write programming for the Atari 2600.
Jody Hartle, an instructor in the simulation and game-development program
at Surry Community College, said in an e-mail that Leftwich is a
conscientious and imaginative student.
"His classmates have always looked to him for leadership and guidance,"
Hartle said.
Leftwich belongs to the "classic game" community - people who enjoy
computer games developed in the 1980s and 1990s.
He has worked as a manager for a Blockbuster video store in Mount Airy for
10 years. He also started the Surry Game Development Group, which helps
students learn the skills they need to move into the simulation and game
industry, Leftwich said. The group is a chapter of the International Game
Developers Association.
Computer games have become popular in American culture because they offer a
more "immersive" form of entertainment than movies, television or books,
Leftwich said. People can interact with the characters in the world that
they experience in the games.
"That is what keeps people coming back," he said.
Computer gaming is a relatively young industry with many opportunities, he
said. It also can be profitable.
Halo 3, a computer game, made more money in the first week of its release
than the movie Spiderman 3, which was released during the same week of
September 2007, according to news accounts.
As the computer-gaming industry evolves, Leftwich said, it will need
people with skills and vision.
Leftwich said he is a "pretty normal guy," and he rejects the stereotypes
of people interested in computer games as "nerds living in their parents'
basements."
He wants to work as a game developer, a level designer or programmer within
five years. In 10 years, he wants to be a leading designer or producer in
the gaming industry.
"I want to stay on the creative side of things," Leftwich said. "I feel I
am ready to move into one of those roles."
Walter Rotenberry, Leftwich's instructor at Wake Tech, said that Leftwich
is a "top-notch" student. He called Leftwich's game "a real achievement."
Leftwich goes beyond his course's requirements and has found new ways to
use the tools in game development, Rotenberry said.
"I wish all of my students would take the next leap and develop their
games," Rotenberry said.
Leftwich can reach his professional goals, Rotenberry and Hartle said.
Leftwich has applied to several gaming companies in the Triangle.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
China Rounds Up Dissidents, Blocks Twitter
Ahead of the 20th anniversary of the bloody crackdown on Tiananmen
Square this week, Chinese authorities have rounded up dissidents and
shipped them out of town. Now, they've even shut down Twitter.
Along with their usual methods of muzzling dissent, the authorities
extended their efforts Tuesday to silence social networking sites that
might foster discussion of any commemoration of the events of June 3-4,
1989.
The action is a new sign of the government's concern of the potential of
such technology in an authoritarian society where information is tightly
controlled.
"There has been a really intensified clampdown on quasi-public
discussion of awareness of this event," said Xiao Qiang, adjunct
professor of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of
California-Berkeley, and director of The Berkeley China Internet Project.
"It's a discussion about where China is now and where China can go from
here. So the authorities are making a major crackdown to block
user-generated sites such as Twitter and show there is no right to
public discussion," he said.
China has the world's largest online population, and Internet
communities have proven increasingly influential in spreading word of
events to everything from student protests to group shopping excursions.
People are going outside the normal, controlled channels to set up
communities online, spreading information about campus unrest and other
activities that the government considers to be potentially subversive.
Government Internet monitors have shut down message boards on more than
6,000 Web sites affiliated with colleges and universities, apparently to
head off any talk about the 1989 events, according to the Hong
Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.
Numerous blogs maintained by edgy government critics such as avant-garde
artist Ai Weiwei have been blocked and the text-messaging service
Twitter and photo sharing site Flickr could not be accessed within China
on Tuesday. Video sharing site YouTube has been blocked within China
since March.
"We understand the Chinese government is blocking access to Flickr and
other international sites, though the government has not issued any
explanation," said Yahoo spokesman Jason Khoury. "We believe a broad
restriction without a legal basis is inconsistent with the right to
freedom of expression."
Officials from Twitter did not responded to a request for comment.
Authorities have been steadily tightening surveillance over China's
dissident community ahead of this year's anniversary, with some leading
writers already under house arrest for months.
Government critics, including activist Ding Zilin and former top
government adviser Bao Tong, could not be reached amid reports that they
had been ordered to leave the capital prior to the anniversary of the
crackdown.
Bao, the 76-year-old former secretary to Zhao Ziyang, the Communist
Party leader deposed for sympathizing with the 1989 pro-democracy
protesters, had gone to his native province of Zhejiang and would not
return for another week, according to a woman answering the phone at his
Beijing apartment and identifying herself as the housemaid. She refused
to say when he left Beijing or provide contact numbers for him in
Zhejiang.
Ding, a retired professor and advocate for Tiananmen victims whose
teenage son was killed in the crackdown, had said earlier that security
agents "strongly suggested" she and her husband leave the capital during
the anniversary. Repeated calls to her Beijing home met with busy signals.
Elsewhere, in the Zhejiang province city of Taizhou, former educator Wu
Gaoxing - jailed for two years after the crackdown - was taken from his
home by agents Saturday, shortly after the publication of a letter he
had co-signed complaining about economic discrimination against
dissidents, according to another of the letter's signatories, Mao
Guoliang.
China has never allowed an independent investigation into the military's
crushing of the 1989 protests, in which possibly thousands of students,
activists and ordinary citizens were killed. The subject remains taboo
on the mainland, with officials routinely countering questions about
Tiananmen with remarks on how much China has developed and prospered in
the years since.
"The party and the government long ago reached a conclusion about the
political incident that took place at the end of the 1980s and related
issues," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a regularly
scheduled news conference Tuesday.
Despite the official silence, the crackdown remains a major topic for
human rights groups and pro-democracy supporters in Chinese-ruled Hong
Kong autonomous region, where this year's June 4 vigil is expected to
draw tens of thousands.
Overseas monitoring groups estimate that 30 men remain imprisoned on
charges relating to the protest, and Amnesty International issued an
open letter this week to China's top legislator, Wu Bangguo, calling for
their release.
Also Tuesday, exiled former student leader Chai Ling issued a rare
public statement calling for the release of political prisoners, an
independent investigation into the events, and permission for former
student leaders to return home.
"The current generation of leaders who bear no responsibility should
have the courage to overturn the verdicts" on the protests, said Chai's
statement, distributed by the Hong Kong human rights center.
FTC Shuts Allegedly Rogue Internet Provider
The federal government has severed the Internet connection of a company
accused of helping criminals serve up a "witches' brew" of nasty content
online, from computer viruses to child pornography.
It's likely to be just a short-lived victory in the fight against
cybercrime, though, since bad guys are very good at getting back online
quickly.
The Federal Trade Commission said Thursday that it has ordered the
shutdown of a company called Pricewert LLC, described in a complaint
filed in San Jose, Calif., federal court as an Oregon-based shell
company run by "overseas criminals", operating out of Belize and running
many its illegal operations out of servers in Silicon Valley.
Pricewert, which operated the "Triple Fiber Network" or "3FN," wasn't
the type of Internet service that average consumers would see or sign up
for. Instead, the service was advertised "in the darkest corners of the
Internet" and was targeted at criminals who want to put malicious Web
sites online, but need the servers and bandwidth to do it, according to
the complaint.
Technicians working for 3FN even helped criminals maintain the armies of
personal computers that they had infected with viruses, according to the
complaint. Those armies are known as "botnets," and they require some
sophistication to manage.
The FTC says the case marks the first time the agency has ordered the
shuttering of an Internet provider. The agency has usually focused on
taking out harmful Web sites individually. Companies that host malicious
Web sites are usually forced offline under pressure from the FBI or
computer security researchers, but without a formal government order -
which is what makes Thursday's announcement significant.
FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said the agency decided to move on 3FN after
getting information about the company's behavior that made it "so clear
this was a rogue (Internet service provider)" that the agency had a
strong case against it.
"This is very, very important because rather than go after the
individual spammers, in one action we can shut down a host of bad
actors," Leibowitz said in an interview. "There's always a whack-a-mole
problem in cases like this, but at the very least we've put a meaningful
wrench in their gears."
The FTC's complaint draws a link between 3FN and a notorious Internet
provider called McColo Corp., which was also operating out of a data
center in Silicon Valley.
McColo was believed responsible for half of the world's spam before it
was shut down in November. Spam dropped precipitously after McColo's
Internet providers pulled the plug on McColo, but it has since rebounded.
When investigators from NASA looked into intrusions into some of its
computers, they traced them back to McColo's servers. A search warrant
later revealed those servers were also routing instant message
conversations between 3FN employees and customers that formed the basis
of some of the FTC's allegations.
A man who picked up the phone at one of 3FN's offices Thursday night
said the company wasn't commenting and hung up.
Russia Launches Antitrust Probe of Microsoft
Russia's state anti-monopoly service launched a probe of Microsoft Corp
over cutbacks in supplies of the Windows XP operating system in Russia,
it said on Thursday.
The agency said it thought Microsoft had violated antimonopoly
legislation by cutting delivery of Windows XP to Russia both separately
and pre-installed on personal computers, as well as in its pricing
policy on the product.
"Analysis of the market for various operating systems shows that the
transfer to the new Windows Vista operating system is occurring while
demand for the previous operating system, Windows XP, continues," the
service said.
"Demand for separately packaged and pre-installed versions of Windows XP
is also confirmed by retailers and the number of orders from the
government."
It said it would consider the case on July 24, 2009.
Microsoft's Moscow office said it had not received an official query
from the anti-monopoly service.
"We (have) always answered antimonopoly service questions in full and
intend to continue this practice in future," Microsoft spokeswoman
Marina Levina said by telephone.
The anti-monopoly service is regularly in contact with Russian companies
but full-scale investigations are not common.
The suit bears no immediate resemblance to past antitrust claims against
Microsoft, target of a U.S. antitrust lawsuit in the United States a
decade ago, and which was fined 500 million euros ($708.4 million) by
the European Commission in 2004 for anti-competitive behavior in media
player and server software.
The commission later fined Microsoft an additional 900 million euros for
non-compliance but the software maker is appealing against that ruling.
Bartz: Yahoo Is Fine, Thank You, Without Microsoft
Yahoo will do perfectly fine even if it doesn't strike any type of deal
with Microsoft, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz said Wednesday.
There is excessive interest in whether the two companies will partner,
and although some benefits could come from a tie-up, Yahoo will succeed
regardless, she said.
"Yahoo doesn't have to do anything with Microsoft about anything," she
said, speaking at the Bank of America and Merrill Lynch 2009 U.S.
Technology Conference.
"Yahoo has a bright, bright future, probably cleaner and simpler without
even thinking of any Microsoft connections," said Bartz, who answered
questions from a financial analyst and from people in the audience.
"We'd be better off if we had never heard the word Microsoft," Bartz
added. Speculation about mergers or other deals started after
Microsoft's unsolicited acquisition offer early in 2008.
Bartz answered several questions about Yahoo and Microsoft, and
acknowledged that a search partnership would help Yahoo better compete
against Google by providing more scale and reducing some operating costs.
She also said that it would be a good idea for Yahoo to buy Microsoft's
Internet unit, or parts of it, but that such a deal would never pass
antitrust review in the U.S., particularly if it involved Yahoo
acquiring Microsoft's webmail and instant messaging services.
Bartz also indicated that Microsoft's strategy on the Internet is very
different from Yahoo's. Microsoft has "Google envy" and feels pressured
to put up a stronger fight in the Internet market in order to curb
Google's "money machine," which allows Google to make advances against
Microsoft in office and communication software, she said. Yahoo, on the
other hand, is entirely focused on the Internet.
Google's dominance in search is due more to its strong brand in the
space, which has created a habit among users, and to the scale it has
amassed, than to technical superiority, she said. Yahoo's search result
relevance is better than Google's, she said.
About 98 percent of queries on Yahoo's search engine are made by people
who are already on a Yahoo site, so the key to growing the company's
search usage is to attract more people to Yahoo Web properties, she
said. Yahoo isn't a search company, but rather a broader provider of
useful online services and content, she added.
After five months as CEO, Bartz is exhilarated and excited about the
future of the company, which she said had been held back by a management
structure that made it difficult to act quickly. "Anything you can do in
three steps, Yahoo does it in 22," she said.
The argument that Yahoo missed the boat on social networking and video
is flawed because both areas are still in their infancy, and Yahoo
approaches them differently by attempting to use those technologies in
the context of its Web sites.
Thus, Yahoo's interest is to enrich existing services with video and
social features rather than go head-to-head against Facebook or Twitter
in social networking or YouTube and Hulu in video sharing and broadcasting.
While Yahoo does a good job assisting chief marketing officers with the
creative part of their advertising campaigns, it is horrible at making
it easy for marketers to purchase ads, she said. "We have to take a lot
of that friction out" of buying online ads, she said.
Another key area for Yahoo is mobile, and the emphasis now is on
attracting users. "Monetization is the last thing on my mind. I want the
audience. You get the audience and you get the money," she said.
Bing Zips Past Yahoo To Be Number Two in Search
Microsoft's new search service, Bing, has hit the Internet with a bang.
The search engine made available on May 28 has surpassed Yahoo search in
its first week, according to StatCounter Global Status, an Internet
research firm that tracks page loads.
Its Internet traffic has made Bing number two on the list of top search
engines in the U.S. and worldwide. In the U.S., Bing passed Yahoo on
Thursday for second place with 16.28 percent of the market, while Yahoo
dropped to third with 10.22 percent.
Microsoft brought Bing to the search-engine table to solve several
problems it found with search, including a report that said 30 percent
of searches are abandoned without a satisfactory result.
Bing uses features such as Best Match to find the best answer for a
search, Deep Links to give searchers information on what a Web site
offers, and Quick Preview, an additional window that expands over a
search caption to give users more information about the site's
relevancy. The search engine also incorporates Instant Answers, a
feature designed to provide information within the body of the
search-results page.
Google still dominates the U.S. search market with 71.47 percent,
according to StatCounter. Globally, Bing has taken a smaller lead over
Yahoo at 5.62 percent, while Yahoo has 5.13 percent and Google 87.62
percent.
"It is big news and is a big change," said Aodhan Cullen, chief
executive of StatCounter, from his office in Ireland. "Bing just came on
a few days ago and has taken the number-two slot both in the U.S. and
worldwide."
While Bing began its leap from day one with 2.07 percent, then climbed
to 3.65 percent, it did drop off on its third day to 3.46 percent. As of
Thursday, however, Bing regained its footing and had 5.56 percent of the
market, leaping past Yahoo.
Cullen said the company has plans to closely monitor the progression of
Bing to see if the search engine, or "decision engine," can sustain its
number-two spot.
"It looks promising at the moment," he added. "I definitely thought it
would have taken a little longer for them to achieve this."
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said Microsoft's plan is to make Bing
the second-biggest search engine within five years. If Bing can sustain
the number-two slot, the company would have achieved its goal four years
earlier than expected.
With more than 80 percent of the market worldwide and more than 70
percent in the U.S., Google is obviously the dominant search player.
"Obviously Google is hugely dominating, but there is a demand for an
alternative search engine to use," Cullen said. "In any industry it is
not good to have one dominant player, and it is better for the industry
and better for the market in general."
Smarter Google Squared Fires Back at Microsoft's Bing
Google wants the searching population to forget about Bing and focus on
its latest product: Squared.
Google Squared is an experimental search tool that collects facts from
the Web and presents them in an organized collection, similar to a
spreadsheet. If users search for roller coasters, for example, Google
Squared builds a square with rows for each of several specific roller
coasters and columns for corresponding facts, such as image, height and
maximum speed.
"Some information is easy to find. If you want to learn the rules of
golf, you can search Google for 'golf rules' and we'll return a list of
relevant Web sites right at the top," said Alex Komoroske, an associate
product manager for Google Squared. "But not all your information needs
are that simple. Some questions can be more complex, requiring you to
visit 10, perhaps 20, Web sites to research and collect what you need."
Continuing with the roller-coaster theme, Komoroske drills down into
Google Squared's value compared to the market leader's traditional
search box. In the past, Komoroske said he has used Google to search for
information about roller coasters, such as which ones are the tallest,
fastest and have the most loops.
"Finding this information used to take multiple searches - I'd find
roller-coaster sizes on one Web site, heights on another, and speeds on
a third. By manually comparing the sites, I could get the information I
was looking for, but it took some time," Komoroske said. "With Google
Squared, a new feature just released in Google Labs, I can find my
roller-coaster facts almost instantly."
Komoroske pointed to the technology behind Google Squared. While
gathering facts from across the Internet is relatively easy for humans
to do, he said, it's far more difficult for computers to do
automatically. He called Google Squared a first step toward solving that
challenge by searching the Web to find the types of facts users might be
interested in, extracting them, and presenting them in a meaningful way.
"This technology is by no means perfect. That's why we designed Google
Squared to be conversational, enabling you to respond to the initial
result and get a better answer," Komoroske said. "If there's another row
or column you'd like to see, you can add it and Google Squared will
automatically attempt to fetch and fill in the relevant facts for you.
As you remove rows and columns you don't like, Google Squared will get a
fresh idea of what you're interested in and suggest new rows and columns
to add."
Google Squared's approach may sound somewhat similar to Bing's
organizational capabilities from a conceptual standpoint, but Squared's
results aren't up to par with Bing, according to Greg Sterling,
principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence.
"Squared is very interesting as an alternative way to display and
compare information. The fact that it can be configured both in terms of
the content that you compare horizontally and vertically could be
helpful in many ways," Sterling said. "But it's definitely an
experimental project."
If Google Squared does catch on, Google would have a different
challenge: How to integrate it into its classic search results.
Hypothetically, Sterling said, Google could allow users to conduct
searches and then offer a prompt box to open a window that would show
the results through Google Squared.
"Google has proven that it can integrate new features into search. That
is something that over the past year or so Google has done well,"
Sterling said. "But this is still very much of an experimental project."
Thousands of Web Sites Stung by Mass Hacking Attack
Up to 40,000 Web sites have been hacked to redirect unwitting victims to
another Web site that tries to infect PCs with malicious software,
according to security vendor Websense.
The affected sites have been hacked to host JavaScript code that directs
people to a fake Google Analytics Web site, which provides data for Web
site owners on a site's usage, then to another bad site, said Carl
Leonard, threat research manager for Websense.
Those Web sites have likely been hacked via a SQL injection attack, in
which improperly configured Web applications accept malicious data and
get hacked, Leonard said.
Another possibility is that the FTP credentials for the sites have
somehow been obtained by hackers, giving them access to the inner
workings of the site. It appears the hackers are using automated tools
to seek out vulnerable Web sites, Leonard said.
The latest campaign underscore the success hackers have at hosting
dangerous code on poorly secured Web sites.
Once a user has been directed to the bogus Google analytics site, it
redirects again to another malicious domain. That site tests to see if
the PC has software vulnerabilites in either Microsoft's Internet
Explorer browser or Firefox that can be exploited in order to deliver
malware, Leonard said.
If it doesn't find a problem there, it will launch a fake warning saying
the computer is infected with malware and tries to get the user to
willingly download a program that purports to be security software but
is actually a Trojan downloader, Leonard said. Those fake security
programs are often called "scareware" and don't work as advertised.
As of last Friday, only four of 39 security software programs could
detect that Trojan, although that's now likely changed as vendors such
as Websense swap malware samples with other companies in order to
improve overall Internet security.
It's not clear what the hackers are doing with the newly compromised
PCs, although it's possible they can be configured to send spam, become
part of a botnet or have data stolen from them.
The malicious domain serving up the malware is hosted in the Ukraine,
the same region where notorious Russian Business Network (RBN) operated.
RBN is a gang of cybercriminals involved in phishing campaigns and other
malicious activity, Leonard said. That Web site appeared to be down as
of Tuesday afternoon. The RBN is thought to be inactive now.
"Whether this is a part of that group or whether it's a copycat using
some of the techniques that are similar to those used by the malware
group in the past we are not quite certain yet," Leonard said. "It is
very difficult to pinpoint the exact people behind this."
Since so many Web sites have been hacked to deliver the attack, it's
nearly impossible to contact them all, Leonard said.
Websense said the latest attacks don't appear to be related to Gumblar,
a malware campaign under way last month. Gumblar resulted in at least
3,000 Web sites getting infected with malicious code that scanned users'
computers for vulnerabilities in Adobe Systems software.
Once on a PC, Gumblar steals FTP log-in credentials, using that
information to help spread to other computers. It also commandeers a
person's Web browser and replaces Google search results with other
dangerous links.
'Embarrassing' Mistake Puts US Nuke List Online
The government's inadvertent and red-faced Internet posting of a 266-page
list of U.S. nuclear sites provided a one-step guide for anyone wanting
details about such sensitive information. Obama administration officials
said Wednesday the document contained no classified material about nuclear
weapons. They contended the locations and other details already were
available from public sources.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu said "a snafu" led to the online posting. "A
little embarrassing," he acknowledged.
The document, stamped "highly confidential safeguards sensitive," made
it onto the Government Printing Office's Web site - and why that
happened was not immediately clear. A newsletter that focuses on
government secrecy quickly picked up on it. The printing office removed
the document when informed "about the potential sensitive nature" of the
list, the agency said.
By then it was too late.
The information, compiled for international nuclear inspectors, is a
compilation of hundreds of civilian nuclear sites, along with maps and
details of the facilities. The material includes sites for uranium
storage, nuclear fuel fabrication plants and nuclear research facilities.
"It's an easy locator for civilian sites," Thomas D'Agostino, head of
the National Nuclear Security Administration, told Sen. Bill Nelson,
D-Fla., when questions about the disclosure came up at a Senate Armed
Services subcommittee hearing.
"We don't want to make this easier for people to get this kind of
information. Unfortunately something like this makes it easier,"
D'Agostino said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the release exposed lax
safeguards. She asked congressional investigators to review the incident.
Chu said he was stepping up security at one of the sites, a storage
facility for highly enriched uranium at the Y-12 Oak Ridge complex in
Tennessee. "That's of great concern," he told a House Appropriations
subcommittee when asked about the disclosure.
Oak Ridge holds large quantities of highly enriched uranium, which can
be used to fashion a nuclear weapon. The department plans to move the
material into $549 million high-security warehouse to be competed next
year.
"There's no secret or classified information that's been compromised.
... The sites and everything are public knowledge," Chu told reporters.
Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists'
government secrecy project, which distributed the document, said he was
perplexed about all the attention surrounding the disclosure.
"Some people are painting this as a road map for terrorists, which it is
not," Aftergood said. "It is simply a listing of the numerous nuclear
research sites and the programs that are under way. So it poses no
security threat whatsoever."
In addition to the Y-12 facility, the document lists facilities at the
Hanford nuclear site in Washington state and various civilian nuclear
fuel processing sites, including one that produces nuclear fuel for the
Navy.
Beth Hayden, a spokeswoman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said
the agency reviewed the document as it relates to civilian facilities
with NRC licenses. "We are confident that information of direct national
security significance was not compromised," she said.
The NRC has jurisdiction over commercial nuclear power plants and
civilian uranium processing and storage facilities.
The Government Printing Office processes and produces various
congressional documents. The lengthy nuclear list was transmitted to
Congress in advance of providing it to the International Atomic Energy
Agency as part of a nonproliferation-related inspection program.
Some of the pages are marked "highly confidential safeguards sensitive,"
a designation used by the IAEA, but not the U.S. government.
New Opera Web Browser Offers More Tab Options
Web browsers from the Norwegian company Opera Software ASA have been
better known for their innovation than their usage.
For instance, they sported the ability to open multiple tabs in a single
window long before that became standard practice. Now a new version
available as a "beta" test lets you work with those tabs more easily.
A resizable tab bar in Opera 10 lets you stretch the row of tabs at the
top so that mini, "thumbnail" versions of your open pages appear inside.
That way, you can choose which tab to switch to based on the appearance
of the Web page, not just its name.
Thumbnails aren't new to browsers. Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer
offers them, as do previous versions of Opera. But Opera 10 lets you see
those thumbnails up top while you continue to browse a Web site normally
in the larger space below. IE lets you do one or the other.
Opera 10 retains the Speed Dial feature, which displays thumbnails of
your favorite sites, not just your open ones - similar to what's
available on Google Inc.'s Chrome and Apple Inc.'s Safari browsers. You
simply click on any thumbnail to load the full site.
The new version is more customizable: Instead of just nine Speed Dial
sites, you can choose four to 25.
The new Opera browser also has built-in compression technology that can
help improve browsing speeds, particularly for those with dial-up
Internet access. Such technology is commonly offered by Internet service
providers, but not by browsers.
It's not clear whether any of these features will significantly improve
Opera's market share, which is tiny compared with market leader Internet
Explorer and the increasingly popular Firefox. Unlike IE, though, Opera
has versions for Mac and Linux computers as well.
Windows 7 Confirmed for Holiday Season PCs
Microsoft Corp. said Tuesday that Windows 7, the next version of its
computer operating software, will go on sale Oct. 22, in time to
possibly give the slumping PC industry a lift in the holiday season.
Windows 7, which will replace the much-complained-about Windows Vista,
will be available then on new PCs. Microsoft, the world's largest
software maker, will also sell versions that people can install on
existing PCs.
PC makers and resellers will offer free upgrades to Windows 7 for people
who buy a new computer running the Home Premium, Business or Ultimate
version of Windows Vista shortly before Windows 7 arrives. However,
Microsoft did not say whether the upgrade program will begin in time for
back-to-school shopping, another crucial period for the PC industry.
Industry analyst Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies said it's reasonable
to think Microsoft would offer upgrades two months in advance of Windows
7's launch - late August, in other words.
"The industry must be careful not to kill sales leading up to the
introduction, and back-to-school is the first possibility of some relief
in this market," Kay said.
Hackers Claim $10,000 Prize for Breaking Into StrongWebmail
Hackers love a challenge. And more than that, they love cash.
That's what Telesign found out this week. A provider of voice-based
authentication software, the company challenged hackers to break into its
StrongWebmail.com Web site late last week. The prize? US$10,000.
On Thursday, a group of security researchers claimed to have won the
contest, which challenged hackers to break into the Web mail account of
StrongWebmail CEO Darren Berkovitz and report back details from his June
26 calendar entry.
The hackers, led by Secure Science Chief Scientist Lance James and
security researchers Aviv Raff and Mike Bailey, provided details from
Berkovitz's calendar to IDG News Service. In an interview, Berkovitz
confirmed those details were from his account.
However, Berkovitz could not confirm that the hackers had actually won
the prize. He said he would need to check to confirm that the hackers
had abided by the contest rules, adding, "if someone did it, we'll kind
of put our heads down," he said.
Contest rules prevent the researchers from disclosing how they performed
their attack, but they were also able to compromise a test StrongWebmail
account set up by IDG News Service. The IDG attack did not work
initially, but succeeded when security software called NoScript was
disabled on the Firefox browser, running on a Windows XP machine.
"We found multiple cross-site attacks that allow us to attack other
users," James said. "You have to have a registered account to launch the
attack."
StrongWebmail uses Telisign's telephone authentication system to give
webmail users another layer of security. Instead of logging in with a
username and password, customers must also enter a secret code that gets
telephoned to them whenever they want to log into the site.
Banks have been using these phone-based authentication servers to help
fight cybercriminals who often steal usernames and passwords from victims.
But this kind of authentication - called two-factor authentication -
can be thwarted by hackers using what's known as a man-in-the middle
attack. In this attack, the hacker's software waits for the user to
legitimately log into the Web site and then takes over. "They just wait
for you to log in and they can do whatever they want," James said.
James said that these contests might be fun, but they don't provide a
realistic measure of real security because they are encumbered with
rules. The StrongWebmail contest prohibits working with a company
insider, for example. "A bad guy won't care about rules, he said.
Webmail security has gotten a lot of attention over the past year. In
September a hacker gained access to Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's e-mail
account and published details of her correspondence on the Internet. A
college student named David Kernell has been charged in that incident.
Whatever the contest's outcome, Berkovitz says he hopes his contest gets
users - and webmail providers like Google and Yahoo - thinking more
about security. "We're not claiming that this is the ultimate, ultimate
solution," he said. "But we're trying to bring attention to the username
and password portion."
=~=~=~=
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