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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 13 Issue 33
Volume 13, Issue 33 Atari Online News, Etc. August 19, 2011
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2011
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 #1333 08/19/11
~ Hack Facebook, No Way! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Firefox 8 Security!
~ Major Shuffling at HP! ~ Ceglia Claims Dwindle! ~ Sony Cuts PS3 Price!
~ Tweeted and Thrown Out! ~ Disliking Like Button! ~ The .xxx Shakedown!
~ Apple Stores in UK Riot ~ Web-speak Makes Oxford ~ New Brain-like Chip!
-* Amazon Boycott Over Sales Tax *-
-* Atari and Hasbro Settle D&D Dispute *-
-* Hackers Threaten Police Over Beating Death *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Another roller coaster ride on Wall Street this past week, and it was all
pretty much downhill. It's not fun seeing your retirement funds and
other investments quickly go down the proverbial drain! And while all
of this is going on, our illustrious president is starting his vacation
down on Martha's Vineyard! It must be nice to be able to "forget your
troubles" and take a great vacation on the Vineyard! Don't you wish that
you had that luxury these days? And those hapless apologists on the islands
saying that poor Obama has been working hard and deserves a vacation! Oh,
I forgot, the rest of us don't work hard and don't deserve a vacation! I
don't know about you, but I couldn't afford a vacation even if I had the time
to take one! The 60's rock group, The Byrds, had it right when they put out
the song: "When I Grow Up, I Wanna Be A Politician"!!
On another note, I finally had a second cortisone shot (a spinal injection)
this past week, and had some better results than my first one. I finally
had my first night of non-pain-interrupted sleep in over a year! While I
have had a few pangs of pain when I've stretched my leg inadvertently, the
episodes of discomfort and pain have decreased. Hopefully this will
continue to improve over the next couple of weeks, the usual period for
the treatment to take full effect. We'll see how it goes.
Anyway, I'm going to enjoy the euphoric feeling for the moment, so I'm not
going to get stressed out talking about some of the things I mentioned in
last week's editorial, or new topics from the past week. Doing so just
causes more heartburn and palpitations!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Sony Cuts Price of PlayStation 3!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Witcher 2 Getting A Big 2.0 Update!
Atari And Hasbro Settle D&D Dispute!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Sony Cuts Price of PlayStation 3
Sony says it is cutting the price of its PlayStation 3 gaming console by
$50 in an attempt to drum up demand for the 5-year-old video game
console.
It's now $249, down 17 percent.
The last time Sony Corp. lowered the price of the PlayStation 3 was in
2009.
The price cut announced Tuesday comes less than a month after rival
Nintendo Co. cut the price of its handheld Nintendo 3DS player. The 3DS
launched with much fanfare but lost sales momentum. That device lets
players view 3-D games and videos without special glasses. But the value
of 3-D is not apparent to everyone. The iPhone and other smartphones are
also competing with handheld gaming devices.
Sony is launching its handheld PlayStation Vita in the U.S. early next
year.
The Witcher 2 Getting A Big 2.0 Update
CD Projekt announced at GamesCom that a big update is in the works for The
Witcher 2, which was released for PC earlier this year and is coming to
Xbox 360 early next year. The content-oriented add-on will be ready on
September 29, and all of the material will then be integrated into the
eventual console release.
While there will be some under the hood improvements and gameplay tweaks,
the core of the update is additional game content. Dark Mode will be added,
a new difficulty level. Its easier than the Insane difficulty, which
literally deactivates your saves and ends your game the first time you die.
Its a bigger challenge though, balanced by the presence of powerful 'Dark'
items that players can use.
A much-needed tutorial will also by added. The Witcher 2 was praised pretty
widely for its strong gameplay and story, but many criticisms were leveled
at the steep learning curve. Having some pointers guiding you through the
opening sections ought to help a great deal. Rounding out the new content
is Arena Mode, a wave-based survival challenge in which players can pick
up XP and items for their character.
You can hear the details straight from the CD Projekt team in a newly
released dev diary.
Atari And Hasbro Settle Ongoing D&D Dispute
Back in 2009, Hasbro filed a lawsuit against Atari claiming that the video
game publisher had breached its licensing agreement for the Dungeons &
Dragons brand. The lawsuit threatened upcoming Atari projects, but today
the companies announced that an agreement has been reached.
Wizards of the Coast, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hasbro, has sent out a
press release stating that digital licensing rights for the Dungeons &
Dragons brand have been returned to Hasbro. Atari will continue making and
selling games under this license, including the disappointing downloadable
title Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale, the upcoming Facebook game Dungeons
& Dragons: Heroes of Neverwinter, and the online PC game simply named
Neverwinter, which has been delayed until late 2012. Neither Hasbro nor
Atari are discussing additional settlement details at this time.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Group Seeks Amazon Boycott Over Sales Tax Fight
A coalition of nonprofit groups is calling on customers of Amazon.com Inc.
to cancel their accounts unless the Internet retailer stops resisting a
California law that requires more online retailers to charge a state sales
tax.
The nonprofits along with several state lawmakers Monday called on Amazon
to "stop cheating California" by trying to repeal the law through a ballot
referendum.
Amazon's opponents held a news conference outside the Capitol announcing a
new website - ThinkBeforeYouClickCA.org - that is intended to organize
opposition to Amazon and explain how customers can close their accounts.
Amazon.com Inc. did not immediately respond to an email and a call for
comment Monday.
Lawmakers in June approved a measure to expand collection of California
sales tax to more Internet retailers, estimating it would bring in at
least $200 million a year.
Amazon has spent $3 million on the referendum to repeal that law so far.
The coalition combines groups supporting increased funding for health and
social services, which have been cut deeply by the state in the last
several budgets. They contend that by avoiding collection of the state
sales and use tax, Amazon gains a competitive advantage over businesses
based in California and deprives the state of revenue that could go to
help seniors, working families and the disabled.
The tax revenue that Amazon could collect could restore home assistance
for disabled Californians that help them go to work rather than languish
in expensive nursing homes, said Jessica Lehman, representing Community
Resources for Independent Living.
"If Amazon.com won't contribute to California, then we won't contribute to
Amazon," she said.
Other groups calling for the boycott included the California Alliance for
Retired Americans, the Health and Human Services Network of California and
Parent Voices.
Representatives of the groups were joined by three Democratic lawmakers -
Sen. Loni Hancock and Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner of Berkeley, and
Assemblyman Charles Calderon of Whittier - who introduced bills expanding
the online tax collection rules. The bills were combined into a single
measure that was passed as part of the 2011-2012 budget.
"Think before you click that mouse to buy anything from Amazon," Calderon
said.
Backers of the referendum didn't respond directly to the boycott call, but
restated their case that the new law is illegal and will hurt California's
consumers, businesses and economy.
"This law would hurt consumers at a time they can't afford to send more tax
dollars to Sacramento, and kill jobs when we need them for our economic
recovery," the More Jobs Not Taxes campaign said in a statement. The group
backing the referendum includes taxpayer groups, Internet companies and
small businesses.
Federal law allows states to require out-of-state businesses to collect the
existing state tax on sales if they have a physical presence in the state,
such as a store. The new California law expands the definition of physical
presence to include marketing affiliates and sister companies. Proponents
say Amazon has related companies in California that fall under the new law.
Amazon cut off its contracts with affiliates in California after the change
was signed into law and has not collected the tax from customers. The
California Attorney General's office on July 18 gave backers approval to
begin collecting the 505,000 signatures it would need to place a referendum
on the ballot next year to reverse the law.
At least six states have approved laws targeting Amazon and other online
retailers that don't collect sales tax, and more were weighing such
measures this year.
Kelly Thomas Death Spurs 'Anonymous' Hackers To Action
Self-proclaimed "Anonymous" hackers have just released a video threatening
the Fullerton Police department with a site-wide shutdown if certain
demands aren't met. Called "Operation Fullerton," (#OpFullerton), the
hackers are demanding that the officers involved in the beating of
homeless man Kelly Thomas be prosecuted, that the Fullerton Police Chief
resign, and that $5 million be awarded to Thomas' family.
If these demands aren't met, the hackers threaten to bring down the
Fullerton Police Department's website and destroy all of its communication
channels.
The newly published video is basically a recitation of this August 5th
statement released by people who claim to be affiliated with the worldwide
hacking network. While the letter lists the officers allegedly involved in
the death of Thomas, The Huffington Post confirmed with police
spokesperson Sgt. Andrew Goodrich that the Fullerton Police Department has
not released these names. Goodrich maintains that any names that are "out
there" come from dubious sources and are not confirmed.
Both the letter and the video compare the city of Fullerton to the Biblical
cities Sodom and Gomorrah because of its "broken moral compass."
"Anonymous" also calls the $900,000 offered to Ron Thomas (Kelly's father)
"hush" and "blood money."
Ron Thomas told the OC Weekly that he does not condone the cyber threats,
saying "were not going to do anything thats violent or illegal."
Instead, he encourages his son's supporters to visit the Kelly Thomas
Memorial Fund and keep on peacefully protesting at the Fullerton Police
Department on Saturdays.
While the date of the threatened cyberattack has come and gone without
incident, Fullerton Police are still on high alert.
From an official police statement:
There has been a cyber-threat made against the City of Fullertons and
the police departments electronic communication system. We believe this
threat was received in relation to the death of Kelly Thomas in July. Our
citizens may be denied Internet communications with the city and police.
However, city services including police and fire will continue to operate
as usual.
We are in the midst of several independent investigations related to
the Kelly Thomas incident, and if officers are found to be culpable, they
will be held accountable. However, we have to wait for the investigations
to be complete.
Kelly Thomas was a 37 year-old homeless man suffering from untreated
schizophrenia living in Fullerton, California. On July 5, Fullerton police
officers were responding to reports that a man was breaking into cars at a
local bus depot. When police tried to search Thomas' backpack, he resisted
and it took several minutes for officers to subdue him. Five days later,
he died of the injuries he sustained during the altercation with the
police. Fullerton police are still investigating the incident. Meanwhile,
audio of the fight has surfaced, as well as video of eye witness accounts
retelling what happened in vivid detail.
Yesterday, hackers claiming to be affiliated with "Anonymous" broke into
the Bay Area Rapid Transit website and posted the private user information
of more than 2,000, reports the Associated Press. The action targeted Bay
Area Rapid Transit officials who blocked cellphone service last Thursday to
prevent people from organizing a protest of a recent fatal shooting by
police.
Don't Even Think About Trying to Hack Facebook
Glenn Manham, a U.K.-based hacker who tried (and failed) to break into
Facebook earlier this year, finally got out of prison on Wednesday. It's
unclear how long Manham spent in jail but since he was arrested on June 2,
it sounds like two months. As a condition of his bail, British courts have
forbidden Manham to access the Internet, and despite the fact that he
botched his attempt to crack the world's most popular website, he's now
the subject of a Scotland Yard investigation as well as one by the FBI.
Frankly, the ratio of things that Manham did not do to the amount of
trouble he's in sends a strong message to the hacker community. The
Guardian reports that Manham is accused of attempting to access Facebook a
number of areas on Facebook servers, but failed on every count. "It is not
known what data Mangham is accused of accessing," write Shane Dean and Josh
Halliday. "The information commissioner's office, which investigates
potential data breaches of this kind, said that Facebook had not reported
any incident over this period." A Facebook spokesperson confirmed that "no
user data was compromised."
So far, Manham has not been connected to the threat from Anonymous to "kill
Facebook," but whomever is behind that threat might want to think twice.
Once the FBI catches you hacking the consequences can be severe. Legendary
hacker Kevin Mitnick just published his memoir about growing up hacking in
the 1990s and his sort of hilarious escapades running from the FBI for
three years. After they caught him in 1992, Mitnick was sentenced to five
years in jail and afterward was forbidden to access the Internet for three
years and to profit from telling his life story for seven years. It should
be noted that Mitnick was actually very successful at hacking things, but
he only did it out of "intellectual curiosity, pursuit of knowledge and
seduction of adventure."
Apple Retail Stores Granted 'Special Attention' During UK Riots
While agressive protestors were busy burning down various buildings and
businesses across the UK, reports suggest Apple retail stores were granted
'special attention' by the Metropolitan Police.
The first report suggests that while a 20,000 square meter Sony warehouse
was being burned down, the Police were treating the protection of an Apple
Store at the Oxford Circus in London as a higher priority.
Various reports suggest that all major Apple retail stores were heavily
guarded by the police - more so than any other retail store. The Apple
Stores were also cleared of stock in an attempt to prevent looting. And
with the police on guard protecting the stores and preventing damage, Apple
had maximum defense.
Its common sense that Apple products are some of the most expensive on the
market and would be one of the first to be stolen from a street full of
retail outlets.
Although these defensive strategies were carried out, it doesnt mean that
no damage was done at all, and only that the full extent of the damage
cannot be determined at this time.
HP To End Mobile Products, May Sell PC Division
In a dramatic reshuffling, Hewlett-Packard Co. said Thursday that it will
discontinue its tablet computer and smartphone products and may sell or
spin off its PC division, bowing out of the consumer businesses.
It's one of the most extreme makeovers in the company's 72-year history
and signals new CEO Leo Apotheker's most transparent move to date to make
HP look more like longtime rival IBM Corp., which now makes most of its
money from software and services.
The most apparent result for consumers will be the end of HP's TouchPad
tablet, a sales dud, and HP-branded smartphones, also-rans in a booming
market crowded with the iPhone and devices based on Google's Android
system. By the end of next year, HP computers could be sold under another
company's name.
HP will continue to sell servers and other equipment to business customers,
just as IBM now does.
It was not immediately known whether any jobs will be cut. HP employs more
than 300,000 worldwide.
A decade ago, HP emerged from a bitter fight to spend more than $24 billion
on Compaq Computer, setting the stage for HP to become the world's No. 1
maker of personal computers. Now, three CEOs later, HP is changing course
- hard.
The PC division is HP's biggest revenue generator but least profitable
division. The move has long been rumored, but just six months ago HP
dismissed reports of the possibility as "irresponsible reporting" and that
PCs are "core to HP's strategy for the connected world."
The PC industry is under pressure from hot-selling smartphones and tablet
computers, which have contributed to already weak consumer demand for PCs
in the U.S. and Europe.
More striking is that HP plans to shutter its fledgling smartphone and
tablet business just two years after spending $1.8 billion on smartphone
maker Palm, which gave HP the webOS software that has been praised by
critics but largely been ignored by the marketplace. It is here that HP was
the victim of the Apple and Google juggernauts, as iPads and iPhones and
smartphones running Google's Android software have been hot sellers, while
HP devices have languished.
HP also announced it is buying Autonomy Corp., a business software maker,
for about $10 billion, ranking the deal among HP's biggest.
The decision to buy Autonomy also marks a change of course for HP, one that
makes HP's trajectory look remarkably similar to rival IBM's nearly a
decade ago. IBM, a key player in building the PC market in the 1980s, sold
its PC business in 2004 to focus on software and services, which aren't as
labor- or component-intensive as building computer hardware.
HP, which is based in Palo Alto, Calif., also announced its latest
quarterly results an hour earlier than planned.
HP's net income increased in the fiscal third quarter, which ended July 31,
but its lower-than-expected outlook for the current period weighed on the
stock.
The company earned 93 cents per share in the latest quarter. That's up
from 75 cents per share a year earlier. Its adjusted earnings were $1.10
per share, a penny above analyst expectations.
Revenue climbed less than 2 percent to $31.2 billion, matching analysts'
average expectations, according to FactSet.
For the current quarter, HP forecast adjusted earnings of $1.12 to $1.16
per share, below analysts' expectation of $1.32 per share. Revenue should
be $32.1 billion to $32.5 billion, short of analysts' estimate of $34
billion.
The company plans to record a one-time charge of $1 billion in the fourth
quarter related to the webOS business shutdown and other restructuring
costs. It said may also book a charge related to the value of the webOS
business but did not say how much that would be.
HP also lowered its full-year revenue outlook. It now expects revenue of
$127.2 billion to $127.6 billion, down from its previous estimate of $129
billion to $130 billion. Analysts were predicting $129.1 billion in
revenue.
Firefox 8 Kills Malicious Add-ons Installed Without User Permission
Even though the most up to date users are currently on version 5 of
Firefox, Mozilla announced plans for a feature in Firefox 8 that will
automatically block any add-ons have have been bundled into third-party
software. Users will have to specifically approve each add-on through an
in-browser alert that appears within Firefox. This security feature is a
response to the vast quantity of self-installed toolbars and other nagging
software additions that slow down browsing the Internet with Firefox. High
profile examples of this type of tampering include Microsoft slipping a
change to its .Net Framework Assistant into Firefox through Windows Update
as well as Skype inserting a toolbar that continually crashed the browser.
After a user upgrades to Firefox 8, they will be prompted with a screen
that details the third-party add-ons installed on the computer as well as
the add-ons that the user specifically installed. All third-party add-ons
will be deactivated and require user activity to turn them back on. This
action is designed to help users that are unaware of invasive third-party
add-ons and offer them a fresh start with the newly upgraded browser.
Also, add-ons that arent compatible with the new version of the browser
will be turned off by default. According to the development schedule,
Mozillas Firefox 8 will hit the stable channel on September 27.
While Firefox fanatics will have to wait until the end of September to
start using Firefox 8, Firefox 6 is nearing completion and scheduled to be
released on August 16. Major changes include faster startup time, better
management of permissions for individual websites, increased plugin support
and a more friendly developer environment. When Firefox 7 rolls out weeks
later, its expected to use 20 percent less memory than previous versions
as well as launch quicker, snyc passwords and bookmarks between computers
and render text clearer for users that rely on the zoom function.
Businesses in U.S. Complain of .xxx Shakedown
In preparation for a new triple-x Internet domain that will launch in
December, lawyers for the most storied brands in the United States are
scrambling to prevent an x-rated rip-off of an invaluable asset: corporate
Web addresses.
The domain operator administering the .xxx domain is accepting early
applications from brand owners who want control over their names. ICM
Registry says it has received over 900,000 "expressions of interest" from
companies that want to preregister their trademarks or block others from
snapping them up to create, say, a Barbie.xxx or Coke.xxx.
While some adult-content providers are paying the approximately $200 fee
because they want to use the domain, other non-porn brands ranging from MTV
Networks and Budget Travel to the Red Cross are preregistering to avoid
future legal battles with cybersquatters who register trademarks with the
intention of reselling them.
Porn and mainstream businesses alike complain they are being forced to buy
domain names they don't want, don't need and won't use - and compare the
process to a hold-up.
"Many feel they're being blackmailed to protect their brands," said Kristina
Rosette, a trademark lawyer at the law firm Covington & Burling. She added
that requiring preregistration fees to protect trademarks is not uncommon
among domain registries, which then include the expected revenue in their
business plans and projections.
ICM Registry, the private company that is introducing .xxx, was founded by
Stuart Lawley, a British tech investor. He and his partners first proposed
the .xxx domain in 2000 to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN), the international governing body that oversees top-level
domains and reviews new applications. Yet because of fierce opposition from
religious and conservative groups on moral grounds, and the Internet
pornography industry, which feared censorship, it took ICM until this past
March to win a final approval from ICANN's board and a 10-year contract to
manage the .xxx domain.
Now that Lawley is finally in the home stretch and preparing to launch ICM
in December, he dismisses charges that he is shaking down registrants.
"We're doing it on a cost-recovery basis. We don't make a dime out of it,"
he said, adding that the fees would serve to cover the cost of verifying
the applicant's identity and trademark ownership.
ICM is the latest company to stake out territory in the fast-growing
registry landscape. The most established player in the field is Verisign,
which operates both the .com and .net domains. Another outfit, Afilias,
owns .info and .mobi for sites designed for mobile devices. The number of
registry companies is expected to explode next year, when ICANN will allow
any company to apply for its own domain extension, like .apple or
.facebook.
Most big companies own tens of thousands of domain names, according to
Frederick Felman, the chief marketing officer of MarkMonitor which helps
companies protect their brands online. Warner Brothers, for example, owns
not only warnerbros.com but also batman.com, harrypotter.com and
looneytunes.com among many others.
Each new domain brings a new round of cybersquatters, who register
well-known trademarks to increase Web traffic or later sell them at an
inflated price. Close behind are typosquatters, who register famous names
with slight typographic errors, like Peppsi instead of Pepsi. The threat of
rampant brand hijacking has alarmed companies who worry about the costs of
defensive registrations with the launch of new domains.
A trademark owner that falls victim to cybersquatting or typosquatting must
take legal action against the domain name holder, invoking ICANN's dispute
resolution policy to wrestle back the address. The process can take months
and several thousand dollars in legal fees.
When ICANN opens the gates to new domains starting in January 2012, the
cost of brand protection is going to skyrocket. "Multiply .xxx times
several hundred, and that's the scale of the problem," said Felman.
The businesses most affected by the launch of the .xxx domain are big name
adult entertainment companies, such as Canadian-based Manwin and
U.S.-based Hustler, which own dozens of domain names. They are not only
refusing to pay, but also demanding that ICM block their domains free of
charge.
Manwin, one of the world's largest online porn companies, owns domains
including Brazzers.com, Xtube.com and YouPorn.com. In June, its lawyers
sent a letter to Lawley, listing 57 of its pre-existing domain names and
warning ICM to protect those names or risk the consequences.
Manwin "has placed ICM on notice that registration of its domain names
without its consent will constitute a violation of Manwin's rights," the
company said in a statement. Hustler, which owns domains including
Hustlertv.com, Hustlerclothing.com and Hustlerstore.com, has sent a similar
letter.
ICM responded to the legal threats with a seven-page report in July,
claiming that a registry cannot be sued for trademark infringement. The
letters, though, have placed ICM on notice, which increases the potential
for liability if ICM sells the trademarked names, said Rosette.
Eighty percent of registrants so far have been from outside the pornography
industry, according to Easyspace, a British registrar which has been taking
preorders on behalf of businesses that want to protect their brands before
the official registration period opens in September.
MTV Networks was among the early brands to sign up to protect names such
as VH1 and Comedy Central. "This is a unique launch," said MTV spokesman
Mark Jafar in an emailed statement. While the company will not operate a
website at spongebob.xxx, it will "be preventing others from owning it,"
Jafar said, noting that MTV is registering more brands with .xxx than it
normally would for a new domain.
Budget Travel cited similar concerns about a potential budgettravel.xxx.
If people are Googling "budget travel" while planning a vacation, "We don't
want them coming across something inappropriate," said Lisa Schneider, the
digital general manager for the travel site Budget Travel.
Not all registrants have to pay the $200 to $300 fee. Under ICANN's rules,
certain nonprofits including the Red Cross and the International Olympic
Committee receive special protection in new domains because of their
international status. At ICM's request, Red Cross has submitted a list of
its brand names, along with their Spanish and French translations, which
will be blocked from .xxx free of charge, according to a Red Cross
spokeswoman.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals also signed up. However,
instead of blocking its name, said PETA spokeswoman Lindsay Rajt, the
organization will launch peta.xxx as a pornography site that draws
attention to the plight of animals.
Facebook: Paul Ceglia Doesn't Own Half The Company
Facebook attorneys late Monday revealed evidence that they say proves a
New York man fabricated a contract that he says entitles him to part
ownership of the $50 billion social network.
Included in an after-hours court filing is an image of a two-page contract
signed by Paul Ceglia of Wellsville, N.Y., and Facebook founder Mark
Zuckerberg recovered by forensics experts from Ceglia's computer. The image
is blurry and difficult to read but appears only to refer to a
street-mapping database Ceglia hired Zuckerberg to work on in 2003 - and
not Facebook.
Ceglia's lawsuit against Zuckerberg is based on a contract that he says
shows that when he hired Zuckerberg for the streets project, he also
invested $1,000 in the then-Harvard University student's fledgling Facebook
idea on the condition he'd own half if it expanded.
From the beginning, Facebook has said the contract submitted by Ceglia was
doctored. Now, attorneys said, they've got the original, retrieved from
embedded electronic data.
Facebook alluded to the find as "smoking gun" evidence in earlier court
filings but was barred from publicly identifying it by a confidentiality
order which has since been modified.
"This smoking gun evidence confirms what defendants have said all along:
the purported contract attached to the complaint is an outright
fabrication," attorney Orin Snyder of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, wrote
Monday.
Ceglia's attorney, Jeffrey Lake of San Diego, did not respond to an emailed
request for comment from The Associated Press Monday night. Ceglia is in
Ireland, according to emails he's written to his hometown newspaper, the
Wellsville Daily Reporter.
In court papers filed last week, Ceglia's attorneys took issue with
Facebook's claims that Ceglia had concealed certain documents.
"No good-faith basis has been shown for such an accusation," Lake wrote.
He said Cegla had complied with the court's instructions to turn over all
of his computers and electronic media as part of the discovery process in
the case.
Zuckerberg's lawyers say six removable storage devices containing files
entitled "Zuckerberg Contract" and "Facebook Files" are missing.
The lawyers are scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie
Foschio in Buffalo on Wednesday to argue a series of motions. Ceglia wants
the judge to compel Facebook to turn over emails between Ceglia and
Zuckerberg captured from Zuckerberg's Harvard account from 2003 and 2004.
He's also asked that the case be sent to mediation for possible settlement
to avoid protracted proceedings.
Facebook wants the judge to require Ceglia to produce the original
electronic version of the contract and other electronic files and to allow
further ink sampling from a hard-copy version of the contract.
Zuckerberg's attorneys oppose mediation as "pointless," saying the only
resolution to the case they're willing to accept is to see it thrown out.
German Privacy Watchdog Dislikes Facebook's "Like"
The state of Schleswig-Holstein's data protection commissioner, Thilo
Weichert, on Friday ordered state institutions to shut down the fan pages
on the social networking site and remove the "Like" button from their
websites, saying it leads to profiling that violates German and European
law.
Facebook insisted Friday that is in full compliance with European data
protection laws.
On Friday, Weichert issued a statement saying technical analysis by his
office shows Facebook violated German and European data protection laws by
passing content data to the social network's servers in the U.S.
"Whoever visits facebook.com or uses a plug-in must expect that he or she
will be tracked by the company for two years," Weichert said. "Facebook
builds a broad individual and for members even a personalized profile."
A Facebook spokesman conceded that the company can see "information such as
the IP address" of users who visit a site with a "Like" button.
"We delete this technical data within 90 days," said the spokesman, who did
not give his name in keeping with company policy. "That is in keeping with
normal industry standards."
Weichert's office ordered website owners in Schleswig-Holstein to
"immediately stop the passing on of user data to Facebook in the USA by
deactivating the respective services" and threatened to take legal action
if they fail to comply.
He also urged Internet users in general to "keep their fingers from
clicking on social plug-ins" and "not set up a Facebook account" to avoid
being profiled.
The keepers of Germany's strict privacy laws have repeatedly clashed on
issues of privacy with international Internet giants, such as Facebook and
Google - often with success.
Last year Google allowed Germans who opposed its Street View mapping system
to blur images of their homes, while Facebook in January granted members
more control over their email address books, after a dispute over its
"Friend Finder" service.
Germany's latest spat with the Palo Alto, California-based Facebook also
comes a week after a leading member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's
conservative party in Schleswig-Holstein stepped down after admitting to
having an affair with a 16-year-old he met over the social networking site.
Christian von Boetticher's resignation sparked a debate about the role of
social media in politicians' lives, with German newspapers carrying reports
from party members, angry that the state legislator spent more time posting
personal information to Facebook than focusing on his job. He has since
deleted his Facebook profile.
IBM Creates Brain-like Computer Chip
In science's storied quest to mimic how the human brain functions, IBM has
hit a major milestone. In a joint venture being funded in part by the
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the computer
manufacturer has created the first of what it calls "cognitive computer
chips" which are designed to emulate the workings of a living brain.
The new technology - nicknamed SyNAPSE (Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive
Plastic Scalable Electronics) by DARPA - is miles ahead of any computer
system before it, and works much differently. DARPA researcher Dharmendra
Modha notes "The computers we have today are more like calculators. We want
to make something like the brain." This includes functions like memory and
learning, which are already present in the prototype chips built by IBM.
The next step in the ambitious project is to build a full computer system
around these thinking chips, with the hopes that it will learn and adapt as
it is introduced to new information and concepts. We know what you're
thinking, and we're pretty sure this is how the Terminator movies started
as well, but what IBM and its partners have done is still quite remarkable.
Woman Tweets Comment About Restaurant Employee, Gets Thrown Out
It isn't uncommon for Twitter users to tweet about their restaurant
experiences - be they good or bad - but rarely does a casual social network
comment get you booted from an establishment. That's just what happened to
Allison Matsu when she visited a local restaurant bar in Houston called the
Down House.
After hearing one of the bartenders make a harsh comment about a popular
local bar owner, Matsu tweeted that the young man was a "twerp," mentioned
the name of the restaurant, and tagged the tweet with a derogatory hashtag.
Shortly thereafter, Down House manager Forrest DeSpain called the eatery
and demanded that the phone be given to the young lady responsible for the
tweet. Matsu claims that DeSpain then berated her with a lengthy slew of
insults and insisted that she either publicly apologize for the comment or
leave the Down House immediately.
Predictably, Matsu decided to take off, and once again took to Twitter to
voice her frustration, noting that she was in tears after the decidedly
one-sided conversation with the angry manager. Both Matsu and the Down
House have received a bounty of comments since the incident, most of which
are staunchly on one side or the other. Does a social network comment
warrant a refusal of service, or should we be muting our opinions for fear
of repercussions? It's up to you to decide.
Sexting, Retweet and Woot Added to the Oxford English Dictionary
The list of ridiculous Internet speak that the Oxford English Dictionary
has officially recognized as real words has expanded once again this week
to include retweet, woot and sexting.
The words will appear in the upcoming edition of the Concise Oxford
Dictionary, which was first published 100 years ago. According to Angus
Stevenson in the Oxford University Press blog, the 12th edition of the
Concise Oxford English Dictionary will contain a total of about 400 new
words, including cyberbullying, domestic goddess, gastric band, sexting,
slow food, and textspeak.
The additions bring the dictionarys word count to more than 240,000 words.
As Stevenson explains, the publishers of Oxford Dictionary have a long
history of including slang and other unconventional words.
"The editors of the first edition, brothers Henry and Frank Fowler, stated
that we admit colloquial, facetious, slang, and vulgar expressions with
freedom, merely attaching a cautionary label," writes Stevenson. "Among
the slang words they included were flapper, girl not yet out [in society],
foozle, do clumsily, bungle, make a mess of, mag, halfpenny, piffle,
talk or act feebly, trifle, and potty, trivial, small.
"Sadly, the new edition has no room for tremendous words like brabble
paltry noisy quarrel and growlery place to growl in, private room, den
- what we might call a man cave these days. But the preoccupations of
todays Generation Y have opened the door to some equally colourful
vocabulary - how about momo, noob, nurdle, and woot?"
Retweet, woot and sexting were actually added to the Oxford Dictionaries
Online all the way back in February. Their inclusion in the Concise Oxford
English Dictionary will be the first time these terms appear in a printed
tome.
The additions of retweet and sexting follow the adoption of a variety of
other web-related terms to the Oxford-endorsed lexicon. Those terms
include OMG, LOL, NSFW, Twittersphere, infographic, unfollow and newb.
=~=~=~=
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