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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 12 Issue 30
Volume 12, Issue 30 Atari Online News, Etc. July 23, 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 #1230 07/23/10
~ LightSquared Is Close! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Get Disabled Access!
~ McAfee Protecting Macs! ~ Facebook & Filing Taxes ~ TheSmokingJacket!
~ Social Networking Fails ~ Floppy Drive With Legs! ~ $35 Tablet Computer!
~ Facebook At 500 Million ~ Kinect Price Set, $149! ~ MacPaint Source Code!
-* VeriSign Scans for Malware! *-
-* Facebook Ownership Claim Is in Court *-
-* New Rootkit Threatens All Windows Users! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Well, it "cooled" off a little today; and we're currently getting some
much-needed rain. My lawn looks like a low-cut hay field, with a few
patches of green to remind me that a lush lawn was once there! And with
a partial water ban, I don't always get a good opportunity to water the
lawn. Hard to imagine with all of the rain (floods) that we got around
here in the early spring!
And, atypical for New England, we had a lot of severe weather here this
past week. As I'm sure that Joe will likely mention in his column this
week, there were quite a few tornadoes touching down all over the place!
Connecticut (Joe's home state) had four tornadoes and Maine had three.
Massachusetts, where I am, had tornado warnings, but no tornadoes ever
touched down. Quite a scary time, not knowing what is going to happen
with these "storms" in your area! I can't imagine what those folks living
in that part of the country known as "Tornado Alley" must go through every
year at this time!
I know I promised (again!) to proffer some words of wisdom this week! But,
in addition from being exhausted from a busy week between the two jobs, I
have been affected with a lot of uncomfortable aches and pains this week.
Some tests I recently had are hinting at some arthritis in my foot, but I'm
not sure that's the problem. The pain is too localized, in my view. So,
I'll probably inquire some more and perhaps see a specialist or two to seek
some beneficial recourse. It's been tough to stay "immobile" at my desk
for any length of time - not that moving around is much better! So, I want
to get this week's issue finished as quickly as possible, and then try to
work out some of the kinks as best as I can. I know you'll forgive me for
another week of excuses!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Another week has come and gone, and there
really isn't a hell of a lot to talk about in the Atari world. Big
surprise, right? Well, Atari hasn't produced a computer in many many
moons, and even us diehards are slowing down. Of course, as our computers
get older, so do we.
It's been an interesting week here. Well, actually it's been a fairly
boring week with high temperatures and humidity and one 'interesting' day.
That one day, we had some really energetic thunderstorms. Now, we're not
Texas or Oklahoma or Kansas. We're Connecticut. We don't tend to have the
conditions conducive to tornadoes all that often. We're more likely to have
steambath conditions than whirlwind conditions. So when the Emergency
Alert System kicked in that day on every television and radio in three
counties, we all kind of took notice.
Yep, a real, honest to goodness tornado warning in three counties
(eventually four).
I looked outside. Bright and sunny out there. And no breeze at all. No
shaking telephone poles, no tree branches heaving to and fro, no
green-skinned women on brooms or bicycles. And only the usual number of
flying monkeys. [grin]
I wasn't too worried about it, since I've seen them issue tornado watches
before and never seen any indication of a tornado to go along with it.
Out of curiosity, I turned the television on and tuned to a local station.
There it was in technicolor; a big old cone superimposed on a map of the
state. Quite an angry looking mess it was, and the edge of the cone
stopped just short of my position on the map.
Then, when they updated the map, it was right on top of me. Then a
lightbulb blew and it got a little dim in the living room. I went to see
which lamp it was, and to my surprise, they were both out. They had been
out all along, this being afternoon on a bright and sunny day.
Then I realized what it was. The sky outside. What a nasty looking sky!
Dark shadows of purple and green. Yeah, that "no breeze at all" thing? The
proverbial calm before the storm. The branches on the trees were now
whipping back and forth, and there was a moderate rain falling.
I looked at the television again, that cone right on top of my town now,
and then back at the sky.
"Okay puppies," I said to the dogs, "let's go downstairs". They looked at
me and cocked their heads to one side, unsure, as usual, of what I was
saying.
Now, I've had one of the dogs for about three and a half years. The other
for just over a year. Neither of them have ever been down in the cellar.
They've been taught that they just don't go down there. So when I grabbed
one of them and carried her down the stairs as the other one followed,
they were quite confused. But, being dogs, they saw it as an adventure.
Back upstairs to fill a couple of gallon jugs with water... just in
case... packing up stuff I thought might come in handy: and a sleeve of
crackers and a box of cookies and granola bars, flashlights, the dogs'
water bowls and, of course, my laptop. It took two trips to bring
everything I wanted to have down into the basement, and the dogs were deep
into 'explore' mode now. It took a few minutes to get things squared away;
water jugs and edibles on a ledge, out of the dogs' reach, plugging in the
laptop and making sure I was getting a WiFi signal, etc., all the while the
dogs sniffing around and routing through half-open storage boxes.
Oh, phones! I forgot phones! I ran back upstairs and grabbed the cordless
phone, knowing it would be useless if the power went out, and picked my
cell phone up off the counter and pocketed it. I looked outside. Nasty! A
Dark and almost 'wounded' looking sky, wind tossing things about all over,
and rain. Thick, heavy drops, slapping on the ground, slapping against the
side of the house, the windows and doors. Quite a noisy rain. The kind of
sound that says, "Boy, git yer butt outta here.. now."
I listened to it and went back downstairs to the now anxious dogs. The
laptop was connected to both house current and WiFi. I fired up weather
dot com and hoped for the best.
Hail! The sound of ice pellets slapping against the house in the wind.
What I could see from the basement windows was dark, shadowed and
foreboding. Not at all a good sign.
The weather web page was showing the storm directly over me. No actual
tornadoes in my area, but the strong possibility of them. The storm was
projected to pass in another 20 minutes. Time enough for things to change
from bad to good or from bad to worse.
Strong winds. Very strong. Worrisome. I updated the weather page. The
storm was still centered right over me. The wind was picking up and
getting louder. The dogs didn't like that a bit.
The lights went out. Luckily, the laptop had a little bit of battery life.
I tried to update the weather page. It was taking forever.
Duh. The laptop could run on batteries, but the DSL modem and WiFi router
could not. I had no connectivity. Damn, the things you take for granted.
So I sat there with a flashlight and the dogs, the laptop with its lcd
panel glowing, waiting for an update page that wasn't going to come.
Darn. Why hadn't I thought of a radio? Oh, because I no longer had one.
That's right. The only radio I had was part of the stereo system. And, of
course, that requires electricity.
Nothing to do but sit there and wait. So that's what I did. I used my cell
phone to call someone I knew would check the weather site for me. Good.
The storm was passing. It was leaving the area. 2 minutes 'till the
National Weather Service bulletin expired. Oddly, the electricity came
back on. I still don't understand how or why, but it did. I took the chance
and went upstairs, leaving the dogs in the cellar. It was still windy,
still raining, but it looked to be brightening. When things calmed down
sufficiently, I stuck my head outside to quickly survey for damage.
Wow! Nothing! Not so much as a fallen branch. I brought the dogs back
upstairs, along with the supplies I'd brought down and the laptop.
Time for phone calls. Friends and relatives in the area. "I'm okay. How
about you?"
The results were mixed and ran almost the full spectrum from 'no damage'
to broken windows and fallen trees, one of them damaging a house. I was
very lucky. No damage here other than to my nerves while, a scant 2 miles
away, trees were pulled out by the roots and thrown everywhere, into
houses, onto cars, ripping out power lines. As I'm writing this, I still
haven't heard if there was actually a tornado in this area or if it was
just a very bad storm. There was a confirmed tornado in the county just
west northwest of me, so it IS possible.
I can't remember the last time there was an actual tornado here. As I
said, we're not Texas or Oklahoma or Kansas. It's unusual. There are power
lines down here and there and a good amount of damage to some property.
I'm not intending to compare this to even an 'average' tornado in "Tornado
Alley", but it was bad enough for me. As close as I ever want to get.
Well, that's all for this week, folks. Let's hope I don't have anything
like this to talk about next week.
So 'till next week, keep your ears open so you'll hear what they're saying
when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Kinect To Sell for $150!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" From Comics to Video Games!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Microsoft To Sell Kinect at $150, Also Sell Bundles
Microsoft Corp will sell its new Kinect motion-sensing gaming system for
about $150 and also offer it in a package with the Xbox 360 videogame
console when sales of the hands-free device start in November, the company
said on Tuesday.
The price, omitted by Microsoft when it introduced Kinect at the E3
videogame conference in June, matches the preorder price that retailers
such as Best Buy, GameStop and Amazon.com posted online weeks ago.
Kinect sales start on November 4, and Microsoft is sure to aim its
marketing message at the owners of the more than 40 million Xbox 360
models that have already been sold. The sensor will come with a family
game called "Kinect Adventures."
Kinect's camera-based system lets players control games with body and
hand gestures and is seen as a means to spark sales momentum into the
Xbox platform before the holiday season. The hopes are that it will lure
new and casual players to the Xbox and steal customers from the rival
Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 3.
It remains to be seen if cost-conscious consumers and game fans, many of
whom have already bought one or more of the consoles, will warm to
spending hundreds more on hardware, and Kinect-specific software costing
about $50.
Several analysts expect Microsoft to initially sell some 3 million
Kinect units, despite what is considered a steep price. Wedbush
Securities analyst Michael Pachter says the company has room to cut
prices or build attractive bundles, but doubts the sales of the
market-leading Wii will wilt.
"I don't see a meaningful threat to the Wii at these prices," he said.
"The all-in cost of the arcade bundle is $299, still $100 above the Wii,
although some people will find that attractive. At this price, it's not
particularly competitive with the Wii."
For industry analyst Michael Gartenberg, the price of Kinect is somewhat
higher than he had anticipated, but he said the inclusion of a game
should ease initial sticker shock, making the system an appealing
holiday season option.
"Given the costs of the competition for similar features, I think Kinect
will be able to hold its own in terms of pricing, especially against
Sony," said Gartenberg of Altimeter Group.
Sony will launch "Move," its motion-controlled feature for the
PlayStation 3 gaming system, on September 15, hoping to get the jump on
Microsoft's Kinect. Like the Nintendo Wii, Move's motion system is based
on a wireless remote control.
Pachter noted that the all-in cost of the PS3 plus a complete Move
package is $479: $399 for the PS3, a game, Move and Eye camera, plus
another $80 for an extra Move and a sub-controller.
While Kinect was a hit at E3, it relies solely on voice, body and hand
gestures - and no buttons - which some critics say may make precision
game controls difficult.
Microsoft said on Tuesday that it would also sell for about $300 a
Kinect unit bundled with a version of the Xbox 360 that has 4 gigabytes
of internal memory. The current standard Xbox model comes with 250
gigabytes and is priced at $300.
Superheroes Forge New Career Path in Video Games
Superheroes are enjoying a new career path, heading straight from the pages
of comic books into video games and no longer having to stop at Hollywood
to collect their credentials first.
For every movie blockbuster like Marvel Entertainment's "Thor" and
Universal Pictures' "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," there's a video game
counterpart but in many cases comic book games are now launching without
any Hollywood tie-ins.
"Not everyone reads comics, although most people know the major
superheroes, but the majority of people play video games," said Jim Lee,
co-publisher of DC Comics and executive creative director for Sony
Online Entertainment's "DC Universe Online" game.
"Games are a portal for us to bring new people into the world of comic
books," he said on the sidelines of Comic-Con International, the world's
largest comic book and popular arts convention taking place in San Diego
this week.
"DC Universe Online," an upcoming massively-multiplayer online (MMO)
game, will allow fans to create their own superhero and interact with
characters like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman in environments like
Metropolis and Gotham City.
Lee said DC Comics will unveil a "DC Universe Online" bi-weekly print
comic book that will launch before the new game this fall and tie into
the video game's backstory.
"We're going to look for opportunities where maybe we take individual
player-created characters from the game and bring them into the comic
book and give gamers a thrill by becoming an official part of the DC
Universe," said Lee.
Younger gamers will be able to put on Iron Man's suit, steer Silver
Surfer's famous board or don the red, white and blue shield of Captain
America in Gazillion Entertainment's MMO game, "Marvel Super Hero Squad
Online."
Based on the animated TV series, the game allows friends to unite online
and take control of pint-sized versions of classic characters like
Spider-Man, Iron Man and Hulk in Super Hero City and Villainville.
Gazillion is also developing a more grown-up MMO game, "Marvel
Universe," which is a few years out.
Comic book creator Stan Lee, who dreamed up many of Marvel's iconic
characters, is lending his voice to Activision's new "Spider-Man:
Shattered Dimensions" game.
Sony Pictures is rebooting the "Spider-Man" film franchise for 2012 but
from this September gamers can take part in an all-new adventure
featuring multiple versions of the web slinger.
"You have four different versions of 'Spider-Man' in one game and I
don't know what could be more appealing to fans than that," said Lee,
who provides the voice of the narrator in the game.
Another Lee creation, "Thor," is getting the video game treatment from
Sega which will be released in tandem with the Paramount Pictures movie
next summer.
Marvel superheroes like Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Spider-Man, and
Wolverine are expected to appear in Capcom's new fighting game, "Marvel
vs. Capcom 3," next spring.
"At Capcom we're good at making fighting games and Marvel is good with
creating characters and telling stories, so it's been a great
collaboration," said Ryoto Niitsuma, producer of "Marvel vs. Capcom 3."
Marvel Comic writer Rick Remender is one of a growing number of comic
book writers who have worked on original video games like Electronic
Arts' "Dead Space." His latest effort, Epic Games' shooter
"Bulletstorm," blends traditional comic book-style tongue-in-cheek
action and violence.
"I hope that these new comic book games encourage more people to get
their hands on comics and explore these worlds," said Remender.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
New Rootkit Threatens All Versions of Windows
Microsoft has confirmed a new, highly dangerous zero-day vulnerability
that has caused multiple researchers to issuing warnings. The exploit is
a whopper on all levels.
It comes into the enterprise via hidden files on USB sticks or via shared
network files. It requires no user interaction to infect the system
(simply viewing the icon is enough to trigger it). It propagates itself.
It loads as a rootkit infection. It affects all Windows operating systems,
even full-patched Windows 7 systems. It seems to target extremely sensitive
information - researchers say it seems to have been made for espionage. If
all that weren't scary enough, a researcher has already published
proof-of-concept code.
Anti-malware vendors are updating their software to add detection of the
threat. Microsoft is among them. According to the Microsoft Malware
Protection blog [1]: "We have multiple signatures that detect this threat
for customers using Microsoft Security Essentials, Microsoft Forefront
Client Security, Windows Live OneCare, the Forefront Threat Management
Gateway, and the Windows Live Safety Platform. "
McAfee Announces Internet Security, Family Protection for Mac
While malware threats for the Mac may still be limited, there are plenty
of other nasties to watch out for online. That's why McAfee has released a
pair of its popular protection products for the Mac: McAfee Internet
Security and McAfee Family Protection. These products allow Mac users to
surf the Web safely.
If youre just looking to keep your own surfing habits from getting you
into trouble, McAfee Internet Security can protect you from dangerous Web
sites and browser exploits as well as telling you if a particular online
shopping site has been checked over by McAfee (unfortunately, McAfees Site
Advisor, which adds safety markings right inside your browser is only
compatible with Firefox at the present time). It can also scan e-mail and
IM attachments from Mail and iChat to make sure nobody tries to slip you a
mickey while online, and can repair many files without damaging the
contents.
In addition, a dedicated Secure Search tool allows you to make sure that
phishing sites dont find their way into your results; a two-way firewall
keeps an eye on all the traffic entering or leaving your computer as well
as locking down outside access to protect from hackers; and all the while
McAfee Internet Security can scan for both Windows and Mac malware.
McAfee Internet Security runs $80 and covers one Mac for one year; after
that, youll need to buy a new copy as there's currently no upgrade
pricing available.
Thats all well and good for your own personal Web surfing, but if youre
more concerned about what your kids might be getting up to, theres McAfee
Family Protection (also available for the iPhone and iPod touch. Not only
does it allow parents to filter searches by keyword and prevent access to
Websites from 35 different categories of content, but reports provide
parents an overview of all the Websites that their kids are visiting.
Alerts can be sent to parents via e-mail or text message if a child tries to
access a site thats not appropriate for them. In addition, parents can
specify time limits to manage their kids Internet use and block the use of
specific programs on the Mac. Parents can also remotely modify a childs
profile if necessary.
McAfee Family Protection covers up to three Macs for a year for $40. As
with Internet Security, youll need to shell out for a new copy after
that due to any lack of upgrade pricing at present.
Both products available now and require Mac OS X 10.5 or later. They
also come with a 30-day money-back guarantee and 30 days of free support.
VeriSign 'Trusted' Service Now Scans Sites for Malware
VeriSign said Monday that it has begun to add a "VeriSign Trust Seal"
logo to search results and on Web sites, that can be used to verify that
a site does not harbor malware.
VeriSign already places a logo on some sites that tells the user that it
has secured the site via an SSL certificate. The "VeriSign Trusted" logo
now also means that the site is checked on a daily basis to see if an
attacker was able to penetrate its security and inject malware that
would then be downloaded by the site's customers.
A related "Seal-in-Search" technology will place a VeriSign logo next to
search results, including Google, alerting users that VeriSign has
certified the site as safe to visit, where malware is concerned.
"In the face of increasingly elaborate attacks and fraud schemes, web
sites need solutions that do more than data encryption," said Tim
Callan, vice president of product marketing at VeriSign. "By enhancing
our SSL Certificate services with new features that instill trust at
every step of the online experience - at no additional charge to our
customers - we're delivering a more robust and value-driven solution. In
the process, we're redefining what web sites should expect from online
security."
If malware is found on the customer's site, VeriSign turns off the Trust
Seal for the site, preventing it from being loaded and displayed. The
site then can go to VeriSign's site, where the malware code is
identified, and remove it. About 24 hours after the code is removed, the
site will be re-scanned. If the malware is truly gone, VeriSign will
re-enable the "Trusted" logo, VeriSign said.
Wireless Broadband Network Set To Launch Next Year
U.S. consumers and businesses may get more options in wireless service
starting next year, with the launch of a new wireless broadband network
that aims to provide competition to the incumbent phone companies.
Private-equity firm Harbinger Capital Partners on Tuesday revealed details
of the launch of its wireless network, LightSquared, which should cover 92
percent of the population by 2015.
But there are financial and regulatory hurdles to overcome. And in another
wrinkle, LightSquared won't initially be offering conventional cell phone
service, just data. It's possible to send phone calls over data connections,
but that technology is not fully mature or standardized.
Still, LightSquared represents a rare new entrant in the wireless market.
Only two other companies, Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc., have firm plans
to build nationwide networks using the same, fourth-generation network
technology that LightSquared will use. Sprint Nextel Corp., through its
Clearwire Corp. subsidiary, is building a third one with a different 4G
technology that's likely to get less support from equipment makers.
Consumers won't buy service directly from LightSquared. Instead, it will
sell access wholesale to other companies that can resell it to consumers.
LightSquared hopes to attract cable TV providers, phone companies that
don't have wireless networks of their own and retailers that want to
provide wireless service under their own brand.
Dan Hays, who focuses on telecommunications with consulting firm PRTM, said
LightSquared "could provide a renewed opportunity for retailers and major
brands such as Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Office Depot to enter the wireless
market as service providers to consumers."
LightSquared plans to start providing service in the second half of 2011 in
Las Vegas, Phoenix, Denver and Baltimore.
LightSquared said Nokia Siemens Networks will build, maintain and operate
the network under a $7 billion, eight-year contract. Nokia Siemens is a
joint venture of Finland's Nokia Corp. and Siemens AG of Germany.
The contract is an important step for Nokia Siemens, which hasn't had much
of a presence in the U.S. market for wireless equipment. On Monday, it
announced a deal to buy Motorola Inc.'s networks business for $1.2 billion,
with a view to increasing its foothold in the U.S.
One reason it's rare for new national wireless carriers to spring up is
that it's difficult and expensive to procure the rights to airwaves across
the nation. Verizon Wireless paid $9.4 billion for nationwide spectrum
rights in a 2008 auction, for example.
LightSquared is in an unusual position in that it owns nationwide wireless
spectrum once set aside for satellite phone use. Harbinger bought SkyTerra,
a satellite company, earlier this year.
Placing calls over satellites is expensive and impractical compared with
using cell towers, so the FCC allows spectrum holders to back up satellite
coverage with towers. That gives LightSquared a "back door" to building
out a conventional ground-based network of cell towers.
However, under current FCC rules, all devices that use LightSquared's
spectrum have to come with the ability to connect to a satellite besides
conventional cell towers, according to satellite industry consultant Tim
Farrar. That would add to the cost of devices and limit the selection.
LightSquared is banking on the FCC changing its rules to allow devices
that only talk to towers. Regardless, it needs to launch a satellite
later this year to satisfy the FCC's condition that it be able to
provide satellite connectivity.
The launch of the new network would fit into the FCC's goals of creating
more competition in the wireless market. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski
said Tuesday that he was pleased to learn of the creation of LightSquared.
Farrar said it's also not clear if Harbinger will be able to raise the
billions needed to build out the network, and other expenses.
"It's going to be very interesting to see where this money comes from,"
Farrar said.
Tom Surface, a spokesman for LightSquared, said the company "will evaluate
our funding needs as we develop and grow our business."
LightSquared's CEO is Sanjiv Ahuja, who was CEO of French cell phone
company Orange from 2004 through 2007. He then founded a company that
started wireless service in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
NY Man's Facebook Ownership Claim Lands in Court
Facebook will try to get a New York man's claim for majority ownership of
the website thrown out of court, attorneys for the social networking site
said Tuesday.
A complaint by Paul Ceglia of Wellsville claims that a 7-year-old contract
he signed with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for software development
entitles him to 84 percent of the company.
"No one's ever said it's not his signature or it's a fake contract,"
Ceglia attorney Terrence Connors said during a federal court hearing in
Buffalo.
Connors said the two men met when Zuckerberg, then a Harvard University
freshman, responded to an ad Ceglia had posted on Craigslist looking for
someone to develop software for a street-mapping database he was creating.
Zuckerberg offered to take on Ceglia's project for $1,000, Connors said,
and then told Ceglia about a project of his own, a kind of online
yearbook for Harvard students that he wanted to expand.
Ceglia said he gave Zuckerberg another $1,000 to continue work on
Zuckerberg's "The Face Book," with the condition that Ceglia would own a
50 percent interest in the software and business if it expanded. The
percentage grew to 84 percent based on a clause that added a percentage
point for each day the project went past its Jan. 1, 2004, due date.
Zuckerberg's undertaking "at that time was a fledgling project," Connors
said. "Who knew it would turn into what it has turned into today."
Facebook recently celebrated its 500 millionth user, Connors said.
At the center of Ceglia's claim is a two-page "work for hire" contract
bearing the names of both men.
Facebook attorney Lisa Simpson acknowledged on Tuesday that Zuckerberg
and Ceglia had worked together on the street-mapping website but said
the contract submitted by Ceglia was full of "inconsistencies, undefined
terms and things that don't make sense."
"We have serious questions about the authenticity of this contract,"
Simpson told U.S. District Judge Richard Arcara. "What the contract
asserts is there is a relationship about Facebook and there isn't one."
Ceglia's complaint was filed in state Supreme Court in Allegany County
on June 30 and transferred to federal court at Facebook's request. A
state judge's temporary order restraining Facebook from transferring
assets was frozen by the federal judge last week. Both sides agreed
Tuesday to let it expire July 23.
The attorneys also agreed to come up with a filing schedule for the case
by Aug. 6, after Ceglia's attorneys indicated they may file a newer
version of their complaint and Facebook attorneys said they planned to
file a motion to dismiss it altogether.
Ceglia was the subject of a temporary restraining order issued by New
York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in December 2009, after Cuomo said a
wood-pellet fuel company operated by Ceglia and his wife took more than
$200,000 from consumers and failed to deliver the pellets or refunds.
The case is pending.
A telephone listing for Allegany Pellets was not in service Tuesday.
In 2008, Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook settled a lawsuit over its
origins brought by three of Zuckerberg's former Harvard classmates, who
claimed he turned their idea into Facebook after they hired him to work
on a website that later became ConnectU.
U.S. Looks To Improve Disabled Access to Internet
The Obama administration on Friday proposed trying to enhance access for
people with disabilities to websites for hotels, retail stores and other
public sites as well as improve access to movie theaters.
Most of the proposals are aimed primarily at improved access for the
deaf and the blind.
With the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act on
Monday, the Justice Department issued four proposals for public comment
aimed at finding ways to keep up with advancing technologies so people
with disabilities are not left behind.
"Just as these quantum leaps can help all of us, they can also set us
back -- if regulations are not updated or compliance codes become too
confusing to implement," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement.
However, the proposals could draw criticism from the business community,
which already has a rocky relationship with the Obama administration
over issues including new regulations on the financial industry.
One key proposal focused on improving access for people with
disabilities to websites of state and local governments as well as those
sites of private businesses like restaurants, hotels and other
commercial outlets.
Noting that the Internet has evolved substantially since the 1990 law
went into effect, the department asked for comment on what resources are
available to help those with disabilities access existing websites as
well as what the costs would be for making them accessible.
"We're generally supportive of the Americans with Disabilities Act but
we need to come up with a reasonable way to provide these services,"
said Randy Johnson, a senior vice president for the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce and worked on the 1990 law while a congressional staff member.
"It's a matter of concern, but we're going to work with them on it," he
said.
The Justice Department noted that the federal government has encouraged
self regulation of the Internet, but said that in this case there was a
potential need to intervene to improve access for those with disabilities.
"It is clear that the system of voluntary compliance has proved
inadequate in providing website accessibility to individuals with
disabilities," the proposal said.
The Justice Department set a six-month comment period and said it
planned to hold a public hearing on the subject.
The department said it was also considering requiring movie theaters to
show movies with closed captions and video descriptions at least 50
percent of the time and sought comments on the benefits and potential
costs.
That could have a big impact on national chains like Regal Entertainment
Group and AMC Entertainment, because the Justice Department said those
technologies are not generally made available in theaters.
The department also proposed improving furniture and equipment like ATM
cash machines and communications with 911 emergency call centers.
Facebook as Popular as Filing Taxes - What?
Here's a head-scratcher for you: a recent survey conducted by the American
Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) determined that Facebook scores
alongside airlines, cable companies and - wait for it - filing taxes
online -in terms of customer satisfaction. That means the Web's most
popular site, with half a billion users, is also the scourge of our
existence. What?
Let's take a look at the ACSI's data and see why Americans apparently
hate spending 7 hours per month on Facebook.
So Facebook scored in the bottom 5 percent of all private sector companies
- the same range as the IRS tax e-filing system, airlines and cable
companies. How did other sites do? The scale is 0 to 100, with 0 being the
worst and 100 being the best.
Twitter was not included this year because most users access the
micro-blogging site via third-party apps. It's also worth mentioning that
though it is not a social media site, Netflix scored 87 points - proof that
Netflix is, in fact, awesomesauce.
I'm having a hard time believing that Facebook is just one point above
MySpace. We're talking MySpace, the world's forgotten social networking
site.
Looks like Americans enjoy automobiles (a tanking industry, breweries
(duh), and pet food more than social media. Yet we spend * so much time *
clicking through status updates and watching cat videos.
Does this mean that people are logging into Facebook, fists clenched and
shaking with anger? What are we so angry about?
Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results, which partnered with
ACSI on the e-business survey, sheds some light on the most common
complaints. "Our research shows that privacy concerns, frequent changes to
the Web site, and commercialization and advertising adversely affect the
consumer experience," Freed said.
Makes sense. Facebook did have a hell of a year with privacy complaints,
so much so that it had to hold a privacy summit, much like Steve Jobs had
to personally break up the Antennagate fiasco. Plus users have never been
a fan of the aesthetic changes.
As far as advertising goes, well, that's how you run a business. TechCrunch
also notes that "information posted by a user's 'friends' about Mafia Wars
or Farmville" frustrated users. Don't you know you can hide that stuff
from your feed?
Facebook took this public whipping in stride with a statement given to
TechCrunch: "We haven't reviewed the survey methodology in detail, but
clearly we have room to improve. Building a simple, useful service is the
best way to earn and sustain the trust people put in us. That's why we
spend so much of our time and energy focused on improving the products we
offer and introducing new ones," a Facebook representative said.
Facebook's failures might mean good news for its competitors, who gained
some cred after Facebook's privacy disaster. The biggest winner may be
Google, who is reportedly working on building its own social networking
site called Google Me.
"Some will definitely see these ratings as an opportunity to come up
with something better that could unseat Facebook. But this wouldn't be
an easy task. It's would take a lot of effort and a serious sum of
money, plus some inspired marketing too," Dan Olds, an analyst for The
Gabriel Consulting Group, told Computerworld.
Manpower? Marketing? Money? Yeah, that sounds like Google, which is
worth almost $150 billion.
If Google can crank up the heat on Google Me in a big way, it stands a
chance not to beat Facebook (I doubt anything could /beat /Facebook),
but it could become a major thorn in Facebook's side.
The American Customer Satisfaction Index is a national indicator of
customer satisfaction with products and services. About 70,000 people
are surveyed every year to measure their satisfaction with 225 companies
in 45 industries. The Index was founded at the University of Michigan's
Ross School of Business.
Businesses Failing at Social Networking, Study Says
Companies are doing a poor job of using social networks, such as Facebook
and Twitter, to engage their customers and employees. In fact, 70 percent
of consumers want to interact with businesses via social media, but only
30 percent of companies are equipped to handle it. The grim news comes
from a study by research firm Yankee Group, commissioned by Siemens
Enterprise Communications.
Most customers and employees would rather use social media for business
communications, but one-third of enterprises either lack formal social
networking polices, don't allow their employees to use social networks
at work, or are unaware of their company's participation in social
media, the study showed.
By failing at integrating social networks, including corporate blogs,
into regular business communications, enterprises are missing a golden
opportunity to engage their customers and enhance worker productivity.
"Social media is changing the way businesses, customers and employees
interact, and this creates significant opportunities for contact centers
and the enterprise as a whole to leverage the integration of these tools
into business processes," said Yankee group research Zeus Kerravala, in
a statement.
Other study findings show the importance of a strong social media presence
for business:
* Fifty percent of survey respondents use social networks daily, or
several times a day.
* Social media boosts devotion: Almost 60 percent of customers say that
business outreach via social networks would improve their loyalty to a
company.
* Enterprises should monitor social networks for consumer feedback,
customers say.
* Employees love social media. Nearly 70 percent of workers want better
tools to manage social networks for business. Example: They want the
ability to launch a Web conference and invite people from their social
and work networks.
The Siemens news release for the study included a pitch for its OpenScape
software tools, which help enterprises unify their communications services
with social networks. The self-serving nature of the announcement ("Your
social media strategy stinks, so buy our software") might lead some to
question the veracity of the study's conclusions.
However, the Yankee Group's findings corroborate earlier studies that
essentially say the same thing: Most businesses are too disconnected from
social media for their own good.
A poor or nonexistent social media presence gives customers and employees
the impression that your business is out of touch or disinterested in open
communication - a strategy that could drive business elsewhere in the long run.
Playboy Unveils 'Safe-for-Work' Website, TheSmokingJacket
Playboy founder Hugh Hefner launched a new website on Tuesday stripped of
his trademark nude playmates in a bid to make it "safe for work."
TheSmokingJacket.com is named after the leisure apparel favored by the
84-year-old Hefner around the celebrated Playboy Mansion.
Playboy Enterprises, publisher of the iconic men's magazine and the new
website, said the site is intended to be a "men's entertainment
destination that provides guys with smart and sexy distractions
throughout the day."
"The smoking jacket isn't just something I like to wear around the
mansion," Hefner said in a brief video introducing the site.
"It's Playboy's new safe-for-work website," he said. "Next to the
mansion it's the best hangout on the planet."
TheSmokingJacket.com does not feature any nudity but there is no scarcity
of bikini-clad women including pictures from Playboy's vast archives.
"Cube dwellers and office drones alike shall rejoice at this fun, sexy,
satirical antidote to the drudgery of the work day," Playboy's editorial
director Jimmy Jellinek said in a statement.
The site features video clips and articles in several categories - Girls,
Entertainment, Sex, Videos and Lifestyle - and is designed to appeal to a
younger audience.
For nudity, Web surfers can always go to Playboy.com, which attracts more
than six million unique visitors a month, according to Playboy Enterprises.
Hefner, who launched Playboy in 1953, recently announced plans to buy
all of the outstanding shares in the company to take it private.
Penthouse owner FriendFinder Networks has announced an unsolicited rival
bid for the company.
Playboy, known for its curvaceous centerfolds and bunny logo, went public
on November 3, 1971 and enjoyed decades of success.
It has been struggling in the digital age, however, and was threatened with
delisting from the stock exchange last year.
India Unveils Prototype of $35 Tablet Computer
It looks like an iPad, only it's 1/14th the cost: India has unveiled the
prototype of a $35 basic touchscreen tablet aimed at students, which it
hopes to bring into production by 2011.
If the government can find a manufacturer, the Linux operating system-based
computer would be the latest in a string of "world's cheapest" innovations
to hit the market out of India, which is home to the 100,000 rupee ($2,127)
compact Nano car, the 749 rupees ($16) water purifier and the $2,000
open-heart surgery.
The tablet can be used for functions like word processing, web browsing
and video-conferencing. It has a solar power option too - important for
India's energy-starved hinterlands - though that add-on costs extra.
"This is our answer to MIT's $100 computer," human resource development
minister Kapil Sibal told the Economic Times when he unveiled the device
Thursday.
In 2005, Nicholas Negroponte - cofounder of the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology's Media Lab - unveiled a prototype of a $100 laptop for
children in the developing world. India rejected that as too expensive
and embarked on a multiyear effort to develop a cheaper option of its own.
Negroponte's laptop ended up costing about $200, but in May his nonprofit
association, One Laptop Per Child, said it plans to launch a basic tablet
computer for $99.
Sibal turned to students and professors at India's elite technical
universities to develop the $35 tablet after receiving a "lukewarm"
response from private sector players. He hopes to get the cost down to
$10 eventually.
Mamta Varma, a ministry spokeswoman, said falling hardware costs and
intelligent design make the price tag plausible. The tablet doesn't have
a hard disk, but instead uses a memory card, much like a mobile phone.
The tablet design cuts hardware costs, and the use of open-source
software also adds to savings, she said.
Varma said several global manufacturers, including at least one from
Taiwan, have shown interest in making the low-cost device, but no
manufacturing or distribution deals have been finalized. She declined to
name any of the companies.
India plans to subsidize the cost of the tablet for its students,
bringing the purchase price down to around $20.
The project is part of an ambitious education technology initiative,
which also aims to bring broadband connectivity to India's 25,000
colleges and 504 universities and make study materials available online.
So far nearly 8,500 colleges have been connected and nearly 500 web and
video-based courses have been uploaded on YouTube and other portals, the
Ministry said.
Facebook Membership Hits 500 Million Mark
The number of people using Facebook hit the 500 million mark on Wednesday,
meaning one in every 14 people on the planet has now signed up to the
online social-networking service.
"As of this morning, 500 million people all around the world are
actively using Facebook to stay connected with their friends and the
people around them," Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post.
"This is an important milestone for all of you who have helped spread
Facebook around the world."
To celebrate, the California firm introduced an application that lets
members of the online community "tell the incredible stories of the
moving and interesting ways they've used Facebook."
Examples given by Zuckerberg included NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh
Rasmussen jogging with Facebook fans during his term as Danish prime
minister and a US woman using the service to battle breast cancer.
"Our mission at Facebook is to help make the world more open and
connected," Zuckerberg said.
"I could have never imagined all of the ways people would use Facebook
when we were getting started 6 years ago."
Zuckerberg has pointed to Facebook's unrelenting growth to rebuff
criticism of feature changes or privacy safeguards at the website.
Americans are increasingly obsessed with Facebook and many young women
check their page even before using the bathroom in the morning,
according to a poll released last week.
However, a US study released on Tuesday indicates that while people may
be addicted to Facebook they rank it near the bottom when it comes to
customer satisfaction.
Facebook landed with notoriously despised airlines and cable television
companies in the bottom 5 percent of private companies ranked in a 2010
American Customer Satisfaction Index E-Business Report produced in
partnership with ForeSee Results.
"Our research shows that privacy concerns, frequent changes to the
website, and commercialization and advertising adversely affect the
consumer experience," ForeSee chief executive Larry Freed said in a
release.
Zuckerberg openly advocates Internet firms releasing innovations quickly
and "iterating" with improvements.
"It's clear that while innovation is critical, sometimes consumers
prefer evolution to revolution," Freed said.
Facebook recently overhauled privacy controls in the face of a barrage
of criticism that it is betraying the trust which has made it the
world's biggest social network.
Facebook is growing despite criticisms because "there really isn't a
strong alternative and Facebook is relatively sticky, migrating off is a
ton of work," said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley.
Leaving Facebook ostensibly involves finding a new online home for
photos and other digital content from profile pages and then convincing
friends to join one there.
"People keep joining Facebook because that is where their friends are,"
Enderle said.
"Until there is a strong alternative, we won't even have the beginnings
for change. And the more people that join Facebook, the stronger that
competitor is going to have to be."
Technology titans Google and Microsoft have the resources and the
motivation to field or back a Facebook rival, according to the analyst.
Microsoft bought a small stake in Facebook three years ago for 240
million dollars (US).
Microsoft added Facebook to Outlook last week, giving users of its
popular email program the ability to view status updates, pictures and
wall posts from their friends on the social network.
Meet the Floppy Drive With Legs
We all know that floppy drives are pretty much dead technology at this
point, but that didn't stop design duo Chambers Judd from devising this
clever concept. Floppy Legs is a concept-design external floppy drive with
legs that extend when it comes in contact with water.
The idea behind Floppy Legs is to design a product with self-preservation
in mind. Chambers Judd describes Floppy Legs as "part of the Attenborough
Design Group, a fictional organisation charged with investigating the use
of behaviours found in nature to defend products from threats in their
everyday environment."
Whether or not we'll actually ever see such a product remains to be
seen - most "ruggedized" gear is designed to take whatever life dishes
out (flamethrowers included, not to get out of the way - it's an
interesting concept nonetheless. Though I can't help but wonder, if such
gadgets were to become self-aware, would they run away from abusive gadget
owners?
Just a thought.
MacPaint Source Code Archived Online
If you were a Mac user in the 1980s, chances are you knew - and loved -
Apples MacPaint drawing program, developed by Bill Atkinson. The
application, which paved the way for programs like Photoshop by
developing key tools like the paint bucket and lasso, has long been
remembered fondly by developers and users alike - and on Tuesday, its
source code was formally inaugurated into the Computer History Museums
online collection.
Bloomberg Businessweek has the full story of the programs journey from
discarded diskette to museum piece. After declaring MacPaint "the best
program ever written" at an event celebrating the Macintoshs 20th
anniversary, Stanford University computer science professor Don Knuth asked
those in attendance if they knew how he might get his hands on the original
source code, to study it as research for an upcoming book.
In the audience that night was former Macintosh developer Andy Hertzfeld
(who has become somewhat of a historian and author on the early Apple years.
Out of curiosity, he called up Atkinson to see if he still had a copy of
the code lying around.
Atkinson did indeed have a copy, though restoring it proved to be initially
challenging, as the floppy disks had been formatted for a developmental OS
version of Apples Lisa computer. After finding a suitable machine to get
"the bits out of the box," Atkinson and Hertzfeld then had to deal with the
difficult task of convincing Apple, who still owned the software, to
release the source code to the public for historical research.
Though Apple initially seemed amenable to such an idea, a series of
unfortunate roadblocks prevented anything from happening until January
of 2010, when Hertzfeld met with Steve Jobs personally to discuss the
request. With Apples CEO on the case, the request was pushed through
almost immediately, and as of Tuesday the code is now freely available
on the Web through the Computer History Museum.
Additionally, Apple has provided the museum with the source code to
QuickDraw, a component of the OS that provided for the creation of
bit-mapped graphics for MacPaint and other programs. According to Herzfeld,
this source code alone (which amounts to 17,101 lines spread out over 36
files) made up about one-third the code of the entire original Macintosh
operating system.
The Computer History Museum, in addition to hosting the source code for
both MacPaint and QuickDraw, has provided a short history (with screenshots)
of the programs, along with several anecdotes about the software. Creator
Bill Atkinson describes the compiling of MacPaint as an "art form, like any
other art form," and repeatedly emphasizes the beauty of clean, simple code.
To read more about MacPaints history or to download the source code, you
can visit the Computer History Museums Website. Andy Herzfeld, who now
runs Folklore.org, has several additional stories about the program, plus a
gallery of MacPaint art made by former Macintosh UI designer Susan Kare.
=~=~=~=
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