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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 13 Issue 30
Volume 13, Issue 30 Atari Online News, Etc. July 29, 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 #1330 07/29/11
~ Protect User's Privacy ~ People Are Talking! ~ RIM Slashes 2000 Jobs!
~ TroopTube To Shut Down ~ New Ultra-thin MacBook? ~ IE Users: Lowest IQ!
~ China Bans Booth Babes ~ Music Penalty Appalling ~ Online Videos Study!
~ Mac vs. PC War Is On! ~ China Shuts Fake Stores ~ 3DS Price Slashed!
-* Blaming Video Games: Racist! *-
-* Senior Cybersecurity Official Quits *-
-* Scotland Yard Busts LulzSec Spokesperson! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Well, the recent heat wave has diminished quite a bit, at least here on
the east coast. That's a relief. It's still been hot and humid, but
not as nasty as it was last week. Maybe I'm just getting a little bit
older, but there gets to be a point where this type of weather makes life
almost unbearable. I guess when I was a lot younger, and had no
responsibilities, I could just head out to the beach and enjoy myself.
Now, it's hope to find an air-conditioned place and try to stay cool!
I wish that Joe was feeling better because I know he'd have quite a few
comments regarding the current political scene here in the United States,
with the ongoing battle over the budget fiasco going on right now. Here
we have partisan politics at its finest (ie, worst!)! Personally, I look
at this debacle as a prelude to the next election! As a taxpayer, I'm
tired of being a pawn for the politicians. They're supposed to be working
for us, not for themselves. I'll leave it at that because talking about
politics makes me ill. So, let's move on to something better!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Nintendo 3DS Price Slashed!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" New Metal Gear Solid Delayed!
Blaming Video Games Racist!
And more!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
The Nintendo 3DS Price Slash: 4 Takeaways
After a dreadful quarter for sales of its 3DS gaming system, Nintendo has
decided to drastically reduce the portable gaming device's price - from
$250 to $170 - beginning Aug. 12. Although the hand-held console sold 3.6
million units in its first five weeks of release earlier this year,
raising hopes of long-term success, the second quarter produced just
710,000 sales, according to The Wall Street Journal, sending Nintendo's
stock plummeting more than 20 percent on Thursday. What can we learn from
the Nintendo 3DS' implosion? Here, four takeaways:
1. The 3DS bombed because it was was overpriced...
The 3DS' original (inflated) price tag was "motivated by ego and greed,"
says Chris Morris at Gamasutra. At $250, the company "ignored the
budget-conscious consumer that had become the company's lifeblood." But
maybe it's not too late. "By slashing over 30 percent off of the price tag,
Nintendo is lining up" the 3DS for success, says Richard George at IGN.
2. ... And has overpriced games
"The price drop to $170 is Step 1 toward making 3DS more relevant," says
Chris Kohler at Wired, but Nintendo should develop better games at lower
prices, too. Right now, a game costs about $40. "When you're a kid, $40
means you get new games on your birthday, at Christmas, and maybe after
getting a root canal if you cry enough." And remember, "a game console
without games is no game console at all," says Ricardo Bilton at ZDNet.
3. Plus, the console was marketed poorly
Blame Nintendo's dense marketing strategy, says Jason Raznick at Benzinga.
"The company is most successful when it releases a ton of games people
want to play" in sync with the gaming system. But it released the 3DS
"without a single game people wanted to own." Worse, Nintendo had the
hubris to brag that it was pricing the 3DS so high because of "the
anticipated demand." Brilliant strategy, guys.
4. And the hand-held market is shifting
"With the rise of smartphones and tablets, the handheld market is getting
even more competitive," says Max Parker at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Nintendo used to dominate in the on-the-go gaming industry, but that's
changed. "Now there are more people fighting over the same slice of pie,"
and Nintendo needs to adjust accordingly. "I worry, though, that the
company doesn't yet comprehend the challenge posed by smartphones," says
Slate's Farhad Manjoo.
Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D for Nintendo 3DS Delayed Until 2012
There are two schools of thought on Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D for
Nintendo 3DS. One group believe that the PlayStation 2 game was never meant
to be played on a handheld device, and that the evidence so far suggests
that too little has been done to make the 3D update more friendly to those
on the go. The other group cant wait to have a portable version of the
classic title, even if that means spending the entire length of one commute
or another watching a single cutscene. Its the second group that isnt
going to like todays news: the release of Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater
3D has been delayed until 2012.
The news comes from Konami (confirmed by Kotaku), though thats all the
information weve got to go on right now. Other than knowing its coming at
some point next year, theres no indication of when that will be. Not even
a window. You could argue that theres a time limit on this release too;
Kotaku correctly notes that an HD version of the game is coming to Xbox 360
and PlayStation 3. The 3D presentation of the portable version might not be
enough to sway fans away from playing instead on a console (especially with
Achievements/Trophies in the mix) if the two re-releases come out too close
together.
Fortunately for 3DS owners, theres a solid lineup of games coming to the
new platform this fall. First-party offerings like Super Mario and Kid
Icarus: Uprising as well as third-party releases like Shinobi and Cave
Story 3D. Lots to look forward to for the little handheld - just no Metal
Gear yet.
Women Say Video Games Arent Just For Boys Anymore
Maybe at some point video games were thought of as just for boys - but
not anymore. Studies show girls are just as interested in playing video
games as boys.
Despite statistics, video game marketing is still all boy. Game
developers say they arent even sure what females want - but there are
some North Texas women, already in the business, who can tell them.
Grace Blessey, 28, has a law degree and now wants to become a video game
designer through the video game education program, or the Guildhall, at
Southern Methodist University.
"I always liked video games," said Blessey. "But at some point, I realized
I really just wanted to do something more creative, like truly artistic."
From Blesseys perspective, what women want from a video game is the
mental challenge. "Ultimately what it is, its like the hand-eye
coordination challenge that people like. Its like pointing, can I get it
while its moving fast and shoot it?"
That type of challenge is one of the things Elizabeth Stringer likes
about video games. "You look at who plays games and why they play those
games. You stop looking at gender at all," said Stringer, who is one of
Blesseys professors. "You dont need to draw those lines. You dont need
to draw that division."
Women who are already working in the industry say they just want a good
video game with female characters.
"I want to play a pink Master Chief," said video game enthusiast Alexis
Ruiz. "I want to have a unicorn on my shoulder when Im shooting other
people online. I want to be identified as a girl."
Ruiz says shes been playing video games since she was eight years old.
"Christmas morning I woke up and I got the Barbie House and my brother got
the Nintendo 88," she recalled. "And, I loved my Barbie house, dont get
me wrong but there was nothing quite as satisfying as destroying him [her
brother] at Duck Hunt."
At the age of 28 shes busting female video game myths as a Community
Relations Manager for Dallas-based video game developer Terminal Reality.
Thats where Jessica Nida-Wright has been building her career as a graphic
designer.
"Women want a good game," she said. "Women want a game that plays well,
that maybe has a good story to it. They want the same things."
Wright graduated two years ago from the Guildhall program. "I think the
biggest barrier is that they [women] want to be allowed into that tree
house that has that sign No Girls Allowed on it," Nida-Wright said.
But experts at Grapevine-based video game and entertainment software
retailer GameStop say women are already in stores buying half the video
games.
Though some women might be making those purchases for someone else,
44-percent of them say they want something other than casual, exercise or
music games; which is what many developers think women like.
GameStops Yavia Gipson said, "Women cannot be kept in a box in video
games. Theyre playing everything from Sims, to Call of Duty, to Super
Mario Brothers."
Blessey is answering a call to the video game industry and hopes, some day,
to pave the way for other women.
"Its always in the back of my mind. Like, I would like to influence games
that can bring more women in as players but also like someday be, maybe a
role model to get more young girls wanting to come into the industry," she
said.
While it seems the video game industry has all but ignored women, women
cant ignore the video games. Theyre just too fun.
Expert Calls Blaming Video Games On Tragic Massacres Racist
The recent massacre in Oslo, Norway that left 76 dead has once again opened
up an international debate centering on violent video games. The terrorist,
Anders Behring Breivik, wrote about how he used Activisions Call of Duty:
Modern Warfare 2 and World of Warcraft to help train for the attacks.
But clinical psychologist Christopher Ferguson, a leading expert on video
game violence and mass killings at Texas A&M International University,
said video games arent to blame for this tragedy. Nor are games like Doom
and Quake to blame for past U.S. massacres like Columbine. In fact, he
believes placing the blame on video games whenever a white male is guilty
of a killing spree is racist.
"I know its a little controversial to say but theres a certain type of
racism in place with these killings," said Ferguson. "When shootings happen
in an inner city in minority-populated schools, video games are never
brought up. But when these things happen in white majority schools and in
the suburbs, people start to freak out and video games are inevitably
blamed. I think that theres a certain element of racism or ignorance
here."
Ferguson said that mass killings are going to happen and theres nothing
anyone can do about it. Fortunately, theyre not going to happen very often.
Theyre like lightning strikes. You cant predict them or stay them off,
but society doesnt want to hear that.
"People really want to know what kind of boogeyman can we hang this on and
video games are still the top choice when it comes to any type of
tragedy," said Ferguson.
But things are changing. Ferguson said that video games havent received
the same type of sensationalist media attention with the Oslo killings as
past U.S. massacres have. Part of this could be because the tragedy
occurred far from U.S. soil and no Americans were involved. But it also
could be that video games have become so ingrained in our culture and our
lives, that more people understand that theyre just another form of
entertainment.
"There are groups out there who are going to blame video games on
everything," said Ferguson. "Theyre like ambulance chasers, really. I
think its irresponsible and thoughtless to try to make political gain off
of someone elses tragedy, but theyre going to do it. Thats what they do.
But even those groups have been much quieter with the Oslo tragedy."
Things are a lot more muted since 1999. After the Columbine massacre left
12 students and a teacher dead, special interest groups and media were
actually clamoring for a causal relationship between first-person shooters
like Doom and Quake and the planned killings by high school students Eric
Harris and Dylan Klebold.
"Scientifically, the idea that video game violence, movie, or television
violence contributes to mass homicides is pretty much a debunked idea that
has no real basis to it," said Ferguson. "I think certainly the Supreme
Court case helped, especially since they were so clear in pointing out that
current research was not able to support that line of reasoning."
Columbine was a pivotal sociological moment in the violent video game
debate, according to Ferguson. Hes done extensive research and written
numerous papers on the topic.
"Surgeon General C. Everett Coop, Senator Lieberman, and other politicians
were out there making grandiose claims about violent video games,
including Pac-Man and Zaxxon, acting as a digital poison corrupting the
minds of youths," said Ferguson. "Columbine wasnt the first school
shooting linked to video games - there were incidents in Kadoka, Kentucky,
Jonesboro, Arkansas and other places - but it was the biggest. And it
galvanized politicians, special interest groups and the mainstream media
against video games."
Ferguson said that rather than have these groups focus on the mental health
problems and psychological issues that were the cause of the tragedy, they
turned to violent video games. The crusade was to ban games in the hopes
that by illuminating violence games, the problem would simply go away.
"What was so scary about Columbine was that it could happen anywhere, even
in a seemingly safe suburban high school," explained Ferguson. "People
wanted something to blame and video games became the target. And they
wanted to just regulate games away."
But something good came from this tragedy. The scientific and research
community, including Ferguson, decided to explore whether there was any
truth to the media and political claims. Prior to 2,000, there was very
little research dedicated to violence and video games. Today, theres
extensive research on the topic. The Supreme Court used much of this
research, including studies by Ferguson, to make its recent decision on
violent games.
"One thing weve learned from research is that approximately 95 percent of
young boys have played a violent video game," said Ferguson. "That becomes
a tricky thing when these mass homicides occur and the shooter is a young
male. The odds are hes played violent video games."
But that wasnt the case with the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, which is
the deadliest shooting by a single gunman in U.S. history. Ferguson said
that fact that killer Seung-Hui Cho didnt play video games is a
statistical anomaly. It also shows that these things happen randomly and
video games arent to blame.
"Linking the playing of violent video games to a mass homicide when the
perpetrator is a young male is like blaming the killing on the fact that he
was wearing sneakers," said Ferguson. "The base rate of that behavior is so
common that it has no predictive value whatsoever."
Ferguson said that its also interesting that when older males, or females,
become mass killers, the media, politicians and special interest groups
never bring up video games as a cause. When you look at the fact that the
average gamer is now 37 years old and 25 percent of gamers are over 50
(according to the Entertainment Software Association), this shows just how
'off' these groups are in targeting violent games.
Unfortunately, Oslo wont be the last massacre in the world. Nor will it
be the last time violent video games are brought to the international
spotlight. But as more people play video games on mobile phones and tablets,
on PCs and on gaming consoles and portable devices; more people out there
understand that games are entertainment. And games are no more at fault for
a crazy person going on a rampage than movies or TV shows.
China Bans 'Booth Babes' from Video Game Convention
The Chinese government has pressured companies who are attending the
ongoing ChinaJoy Expo, a video game convention in Shanghai, to not use
scantily clad women to help promote their products, reports Reuters.
The appearance of these women - known in China as 'spicy girls,' or 'booth
babes' in the US - has the potential to violate Chinas government
directive against 'vulgarity,' according to a report from Shanghai Daily.
The newfound paranoia in the industry is said to have come from a recent
government crackdown on video games deemed too vulgar.
That doesnt mean no women are allowed to attend - though many ChinaJoy
attendees were less than please to discover the new dress code, which
allows no more than two-thirds of a girls back to show, and prevents the
placement of logos in 'sensitive positions' on the body, like the breasts
or buttocks.
"To be honest, I came here largely for spicy girls," said ChinaJoy
attendeed, Xavier Du.
"Im satisfied with the female models for this years ChinaJoy - I care
more about them rather than only sexy clothing."
The prohibition of booth babes from a video game convention may sound like
the work of an extreme communist dictatorship, but it actually happened
here in the US, first.
In 2006, the famous E3 convention in Los Angeles forbid vendors from hiring
the semi-clad models for their booths - it had gotten to a ridiculous level
by that year - and threatened to impose a $5,000 on any company that tried
to break the rules, starting with 2007. As is the case in China, the change
came primarily from pressure placed on the video game industry by
Washington politicians who were hellbent on blocking violent and sexually
explicit content from video games.
As anyone who attended E3 in 2007 knows, plenty of companies took the five
grand hit, and the booth babe tradition stayed alive in the face of
adversity. And in 2009, after attendance to E3 dropped, the convention
organizers revamped the rules and reopened the floodgates of glitter-covered
skin, which came pouring back in, for better or worse.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Internet Privacy Controls Challenge Tech Industry
The federal government has put Google, Microsoft, Apple and other
technology companies on notice: Give consumers a way prevent advertisers
from tracking their movements across the Web - or face regulation.
Yet for all its innovative know-how and entrepreneurial spirit, the
technology industry has yet to agree on a simple, meaningful solution to
protect consumer privacy on the Internet.
So privacy watchdogs and lawmakers are stepping up the pressure, calling
for laws that would require companies to stop the digital surveillance of
consumers who don't want to be tracked. They argue that effective privacy
tools are long overdue from an industry that typically moves at breakneck
speed.
"I want ordinary consumers to know what is being done with their personal
information, and I want to give them the power to do something about it,"
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller, D-W. Va., said at
a recent hearing.
Washington's call to arms is a response to growing concern that invasive
Internet marketing practices are eroding privacy online as every consumer
move is observed, analyzed and harvested for profit.
Online publishers, advertisers and ad networks use "cookies," Web beacons
and other sophisticated tracking tools to follow consumers around the
Internet - monitoring what sites they visit and what links they click, what
they search for and what they buy. Then they mine that information to
deliver what they hope will be relevant pitches - a practice called
behavioral advertising.
"Right now we have a lawful system for tracking all of our movements
online," says Christopher Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American
Civil Liberties Union. "And not only is it legal. It's the business model."
Calls for online privacy protections began with the Federal Trade
Commission, which has challenged the industry to offer a digital tracking
off switch. The FTC envisions something akin to the government's existing
"Do Not Call" registry for telemarketers. Consumers who don't want to
receive telemarketing calls can add their numbers to the list online or
over the phone.
Companies including Microsoft and Mozilla have responded with various "Do
Not Track" technologies. But an industry-wide solution is not close at
hand.
That's because putting the Do Not Track concept into practice is much
more complicated than simply adding phone numbers to a database. The
challenge is in reaching industry consensus on what Do Not Track
obligations should mean, designing standard technology tools that are easy
for consumers to use and setting common rules that all Websites and
advertisers will follow.
One big part of the problem is that the industry needs to find a way to let
consumers halt intrusive online marketing practices without preventing
tracking critical for the Internet to function. After all, Internet
companies rely on tracking not just to target ads, but also to analyze
website traffic patterns, store online passwords and deliver customized
content like local news. Nobody wants to stop those things.
Also complicating efforts to reach broad agreement is the lucrative nature
of behavioral advertising.
Industry leaders argue that many consumers like targeted ads since they
deliver personalized pitches that people may want. And because these ads
tend to be more effective, advertisers are willing to pay more for them,
says David Hallerman, an analyst with eMarketer.
Research firm eMarketer projects U.S. spending on online behavioral
advertising will hit $2.6 billion by 2014, up from $775 million in 2008.
That enables Internet companies to offer everything from online stock
quotes to unlimited email storage for free, says Anne Toth, Yahoo's
chief trust officer. Without sophisticated advertising technology, more
websites and services could wind up behind pay walls, companies warn.
The problem, argues Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for
Digital Democracy, a privacy group, is that many consumers don't know
they're being tracked. And even if they do, they have no idea what happens
to their information - whether it is used to create personal profiles,
merged with offline databases or sold to data brokers - and no practical
way to stop the data collection.
With growing alarm in Washington, a coalition of industry trade groups -
called the Digital Advertising Alliance - has established a
self-regulatory program that places icons inside the online ads of
participating advertisers, ad networks and websites. The icon links to a
site that explains online targeting, and lets consumers install an opt-out
cookie if they just want standard ads.
Among the groups participating in the alliance are the Interactive
Advertising Bureau and the Direct Marketing Association, as well as
individual companies including Google and Yahoo.
Even so, these efforts don't go far enough for the FTC. While the agency
has not endorsed any particular Do Not Track technology, it believes one
promising approach could involve including a setting inside Web browsers.
Now the browser companies, led by Microsoft and Mozilla, are responding
with different approaches:
* Microsoft has a feature called "tracking protection" in Internet
Explorer 9.0 that lets users create "black lists" of Web sites to be
blocked and "white lists" of sites that are deemed acceptable. Users can
set their browsers to automatically build these lists or can download
existing lists.
* Mozilla has a setting in its Firefox 4 browser that sends a signal to
alert websites, advertisers and ad networks if a user does not want to be
tracked.
Apple is expected to include a similar feature, called a "header," in its
Safari browser. Microsoft, too, recently added the feature to IE 9.0.
* Google's Chrome browser is piggybacking on the Digital Advertising
Alliance by offering a plug-in that saves opt-out cookies even if other
cookies are erased. One criticism of the industry program is that users
lose their opt-out preferences whenever they clear their cookies.
For such tools to work, however, there must be industry consensus on what
Do Not Track obligations should actually mean. And right now, there is
little agreement.
Nearly everyone accepts that publishers should be able to measure traffic
volumes on their own sites, for instance. But should advertisers be
allowed to track how many visitors see or click on their ads?
The industry's self-regulatory program, for one, does not turn off data
collection. Consumers who install an opt-out cookie no longer receive
targeted ads from participating companies, but may still be tracked for
non-advertising purposes. That doesn't satisfy privacy watchdogs.
Microsoft Deputy General Counsel Erich Andersen says tracking protection
offers a way around this debate since it lets consumers decide what to
block. But this approach worries advertisers since it can block ads
altogether, even generic ads.
And anyway, with Do Not Track signals in several popular browsers, websites
and advertisers need to agree on how to respond, says Jules Polonetsky,
director of the Future of Privacy Forum, an industry-backed group.
Otherwise, he says, Do Not Track obligations could get defined for them by
browsers or government officials.
Equally important for Do Not Track to succeed, the technology must be easy
to find and use. If Do Not Track tools are too confusing or involve too
much effort, people won't embrace them, warns Marc Rotenberg, executive
director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "We can't expect
users to spend a lot of time reconfiguring their browsers," he says.
Privacy watchdogs are gravitating to Mozilla's approach as particularly
user-friendly. But it presents a different challenge: ensuring websites,
advertisers and ad networks respect user requests not to be tracked. While
Microsoft's tracking protection blocks unwanted content - and requires no
compliance by Websites and advertisers - a signal in a browser means
nothing if it is not honored.
"Without anyone on the other end to recognize it, it's a tree falling in
the woods without anyone to hear it," says Mike Zaneis, general counsel for
the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Zaneis insists the Digital Advertising
Alliance offers the best approach since so many Websites and advertisers
are on board.
Alex Fowler, Mozilla's global privacy and public policy leader, says the
browser maker is talking with many big websites, advertisers and ad
networks about honoring its Do Not Track signal. And many are open to the
idea. Still, so far only a handful of industry players have actually
pledged to honor the signal.
And that, privacy watchdogs say, shows why the government needs to get
involved.
Senator Rockefeller is sponsoring a bill that would direct the FTC to write
binding, industry-wide Do Not Track rules. There are similar bills in the
House and the California legislature.
The Internet marketing industry wants to head off those efforts and insists
it just needs more time to establish meaningful privacy controls.
For now, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz is willing to give the industry a
chance before calling for legislation. Even without a government mandate,
he noted, it's in the industry's self-interest to make Do Not Track work.
After all, Leibowitz says, "nobody wants to be on the wrong side of
consumers."
Scotland Yard: We've Arrested LulzSec Spokesman
Scotland Yard's cybercrime unit has arrested a teenager it suspects of
working as the spokesman for the Lulz Security hacking collective,
officials said Wednesday.
The Metropolitan Police's Central e-Crime Unit arrested a 18-year-old at
an address in Scotland's remote Shetland Islands, the force said in a
statement. His name wasn't released, but police said he was believed to be
"Topiary," one of LulzSec's most prominent members.
Police originally gave his age as 19 but later issued a correction.
LulzSec shot to prominence in May with attacks on the U.S. Public
Broadcasting Service - whose website it defaced by posting a bogus story
claiming that the late rapper Tupac Shakur had been discovered alive in
New Zealand.
The group is a spin-off of Anonymous, an amorphous collection of Internet
enthusiasts, pranksters and activists whose targets have included the
Church of Scientology, the music industry, and financial companies
including Visa and MasterCard.
Topiary was linked to both groups, serving as the on-again, off-again media
liaison for the publicity-hungry hackers.
In his only known television interview, on the "David Pakman Show" earlier
this year, Topiary phoned in via Skype to feud with Shirley Phelps-Roper
of the Westboro Baptist Church, a Kansas-based group notorious for
picketing the funerals of slain American soldiers.
Anonymous vandalized the church's website live over the course of the
interview.
In conversations with The Associated Press, Topiary said he controlled
LulzSec's Twitter feed, which garnered some 300,000 followers over the
course of its six-week-long Internet rampage.
LulzSec has claimed responsibility for breaches at pornography websites,
gaming companies, and law enforcement organizations. It's also claimed
credit for harassing seemingly random targets including an obscure New
Jersey-based magnet manufacturer.
One its most spectacular hacks was against Sony Pictures Entertainment.
The group posted the usernames, passwords, email addresses and phone
numbers of tens of thousands of people, many of whom had given Sony their
information for sweepstakes draws. Another stinging series of breaches
last month targeted Arizona's police force in protest against its
contentious immigration law. Officers had to scramble to change their
numbers because their phones were being jammed with calls.
Shortly thereafter the group abruptly announced it was disbanding, although
Topiary said at the time that the group wasn't bowing to police pressure.
"We're not quitting because we're afraid of law enforcement," he said in a
Skype call. "The press are getting bored of us, and we're getting bored of
us."
Attempts to reach Topiary since then have been unsuccessful, although his
group recently re-emerged from retirement, defacing The Sun newspaper's
website with a fake story claiming that media tycoon Rupert Murdoch had
died. In one of its last messages, LulzSec said it was working with unnamed
media outlets on a WikiLeaks-style release of emails it claimed to have
stolen from the tabloid.
Topiary's once-plentiful Twitter feed was practically wiped clean Wednesday.
The only remaining post, from nearly a week ago, read: "You cannot arrest an
idea."
The latest arrest is one of an increasing number claimed by law enforcement
in Britain and the United States in connection to their investigations into
Anonymous and its offshoots. Last week, the FBI, British and Dutch officials
carried out 21 arrests, many of them related to the group's attacks on
Internet payment provider PayPal Inc., which has been targeted over its
refusal to process donations to WikiLeaks.
Last month another 19-year-old, Ryan Cleary, was charged with attacks on
Britain's Serious Organized Crime Agency and various U.K.-based music
sites. Although at least one of the attacks he was charged with seemed
linked to LulzSec, Topiary claimed at the time that Cleary was at most only
tangentially involved with the group.
Scotland Yard said Wednesday it was also searching a residential address in
Lincolnshire, in central England, and interviewing an unnamed 17-year-old
in connection with the investigation. The second teen has not been
arrested.
Senior US Cybersecurity Official Resigns
A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official responsible for defending
US government networks against cyberattacks resigned on Monday.
Randy Vickers stepped down as director of the US Computer Emergency
Readiness Team (US-CERT), the operational arm of the DHS's National Cyber
Security Division.
Vickers' resignation was announced in an email to staff from Bobbie
Stempfley, the DHS's acting assistant secretary for cybersecurity and
communications.
A DHS official declined to provide an explanation for his departure saying
the department does not discuss personnel matters.
But Information Week, which first reported Vickers' resignation, noted that
it followed a string of cyberattacks on US government networks by hacker
groups such as Anonymous and Lulz Security.
Lulz Security has claimed responsibility during the past few weeks for
attacks on the websites of the Central Intelligence Agency, the US Senate,
the Arizona Department of Public Safety and others.
US Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn said earlier this month that a
foreign intelligence service swiped 24,000 computer files from a US defense
contractor in March in one of the largest ever cyberattacks on a Pentagon
supplier.
The Washington-based US-CERT is responsible for the protection of US
government computer networks and also cooperates on cybersecurity with the
private sector and state and local authorities
Stempfley, in the email obtained by AFP, said Vickers' resignation was
effective on Friday. She said he would be replaced by US-CERT deputy
director Lee Rock until a new director is named.
"Lee has been the deputy director for US-CERT for over a year and we are
confident that our organization will continue its strong performance under
his leadership," Stempfley said. "We wish Randy success in his future
endeavors."
Lightweight Portable Security (LPS) from the US Department of Defense
Lightweight Portable Security (LPS), created by USA's Department of Defense,
is a small Linux live CD focusing on privacy and security, for this
reason, it boots from a CD and executes from RAM, providing a web browser,
a file manager and some interesing tools. LPS-Public turns an untrusted
system into a trusted network client.
As i said before, the Lightweight Portable Security distribution was
created by the Software Protection Initiative under the direction of the
Air Force Research Laboratory and the US Department Of Defense. The idea
behind it is that government workers can use a CDROM or USB stick to boot
into a tamper proof, pristine desktop when using insecure computers such
as those available in hotels or a workers own home. The environment that
it offers should be largely resistant to Internet-borne security threats
such as viruses and spyware, particularly when launched from read-only
media such as a CDROM. The LPS system does not mount the hard drive of
the host machine, so no trace of work activity can be written to the local
computer.
A new maintenance release was announced earlier this week and is accessible
via the web. Changes: fixed a problem with iMac Radeon video drivers;
fixed problem with trackpad not working on older MacBooks; Rdesktop -
enabled compression to improve performance, fixed problem with cursor
control keys not working properly; updated NVIDIA display driver to
version 275.09.07; added UVC USB web camera support; added minicom 2.4 as
a serial port terminal emulator under the Communications menu; updated
Firefox to 3.6.19; updated DOD Configuration add-on to 1.3.1; updated
Gmail S/MIME add-on to 0.5.2; updated Flash to 10.3.181.34."
RIM Adjusts to New Reality by Slashing 2,000 Jobs
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion plans to cut about 11 percent of its
workforce as it struggles to keep pace with Apple and Google in the mobile
market it once dominated.
The Canadian company's shares sunk 3 percent after the Monday announcement
of 2,000 job cuts, a month after RIM said would reduce headcount for the
first time in almost a decade.
The company, which described the cost reduction as "a prudent and
necessary step" for its long-term success, said it would inform employees
who will lose their jobs this week.
The job cuts, which were slightly deeper than some had expected, raised
questions about whether lower costs alone would go very far in addressing
RIM's lackluster financial performance or the steady erosion of its
market share.
"The problem is you can't cut your way into growth or market leadership,
and while I'm sure there was fat at RIM, the core problem sits squarely
with management," said Ed Snyder from Charter Equity Research.
RIM also announced changes among its top executives. It said one of its
three chief operating officers, Don Morrison, would retire and the other
two, Thorsten Heins and Jim Rowan, would take on additional
responsibilities.
"Cost-cutting is unlikely to change the competitive position for the
company" or accelerate RIM's revenue growth, BGC Partners analyst Colin
Gillis said.
That said, analysts also saw lower costs as a necessary adjustment to a
new reality facing RIM, once the leading force in the multi-billion dollar
smartphone market.
Apple's iPhone and devices powered by Google's Android software have
steadily eroded BlackBerry's market share, especially in the United States,
while RIM's PlayBook, introduced in April, was a late entry to a tablet
computer market that Apple's iPad virtually invented.
RIM's shares - halved so far this year - have been weighed down by
earnings that missed the company's own limp forecasts and a dire warning
that sales will slip further because of delays in getting new smartphones
to market.
"I think this is obviously realigning the cost structure to a new growth,
or sales, reality," said Peter Misek, an analyst at Jefferies & Co.
RIM said it would explain the financial impact of the cuts when it reports
second-quarter results on September 15. RIM said the second-quarter and
full-year outlooks it had already issued did not reflect the impact of the
cuts.
Mike Abramsky, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, called the job cuts "more
significant than previously suggested." He estimated the pre-tax charge at
between $200 million and $250 million.
Monday's announcement was the first time RIM quantified its job cut plans,
which it revealed last month. The reduction will bring its workforce to
17,000.
RIM has not cut jobs in nearly a decade. In 2002 it slashed 10 percent of
its staff following a dip in revenue and spiraling costs as it started
selling its early BlackBerry phones via carriers.
The departure of Chief Operating Officer Don Morrison was expected.
Currently on temporary medical leave, the executive will retire after more
than 10 years at the company.
RIM said Thorsten Heins will now oversee both hardware and software product
engineering, and Jim Rowan will take charge of operations.
RIM also promoted Patrick Spence, who has impressed analysts and investors
as managing director for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, to
head of global sales and marketing.
Chief Technology Officer David Yach will focus on software platform
development and developer and application ecosystem as RIM juggles upgrades
to its aging BlackBerry operating system and a transition to QNX, which
powers the PlayBook tablet.
His responsibility for the enterprise business has been shifted to Chief
Information Officer Robin Bienfait.
The changes follow a stream of senior RIM executives who have defected
lately, including two who left for rival Samsung Electronics in a month.
Misek, who has an "underperform" rating on RIM's stock, said the job cuts
were less important to RIM's outlook than a successful launch of devices
due within months and its eventual transition to the QNX operating system
on its smartphones.
"I think the key here, more than ever, is when do their products launch and
what kind of reception will they have and most importantly, when will QNX
come in. We don't think those answers are here yet," he said.
Rumors Swirl Around New, Ultra-thin 15-inch MacBook
Could a bigger MacBook Air or revamped MacBook Pro be in the works?
It's been just days since Apple unveiled its revamped MacBook Air and Mac
Mini lines, and there's already have a new, well-sourced Apple rumor
lighting up the web. Allegedly, the California-based company is already in
the final testing stages of a new, super slim 15" notebook. Sources from
both TUAW andMacRumors were unable to identify it as being either in the
company's Air or Pro lines, leaving us wondering what Apple might have in
store.
Currently, the company's MacBook Air comes in sizes of 11" and 13", while
its MacBook Pro notebooks can be had in 13", 15", and 17" screen sizes.
Along with the refresh of the Air and Mini lines, Apple killed off the
beloved base model MacBook, positioning the Air as the "everyday notebook."
This slimmer 15" laptop could be a top-end Air model, a redesign of the
Pro series (as TUAW predicts), or perhaps its own line of new MacBooks to
replace now-retired plastic versions. Whatever the case may be, the new
notebooks are rumored to be on course for a late 2011 release, which could
mean their official reveal will come alongside the iPhone 5.
Pentagon Shutting Down TroopTube
The US military is surrendering to YouTube. Less than three years after
its launch, the Pentagon is shutting down TroopTube, a video-sharing
site set up for US soldiers and their families.
A statement posted on the home page of TroopTube.tv said it would close
on July 31.
TroopTube was launched in November 2008 at a time when many members of
the US armed forces were restricted from using YouTube.
Its stated mission was to be "an online video site designed to help
military families connect and keep in touch while miles apart."
The site, however, never really caught on and restrictions on use of
YouTube were lifted by the Defense Department in February 2010.
"Since then, TroopTube's usage has declined as military members and their
families adopted other methods of sharing videos," the TroopTube statement
said.
The statement posted on TroopTube urged service members to "please
continue to share your videos through video hosting service websites such
as YouTube."
It warned them, however, to be "especially mindful of operational security
when sharing information about deployments, troop movements, and detailed
personal information."
China Closes Two Fake Apple Stores
Chinese authorities have closed two fake Apple stores in the country's
southwestern Yunnan province, state media reported Monday, following a
storm of publicity over the rip-off shops.
An investigation of 300 IT stores in the city of Kunming found five outlets
using the Apple trademark without the US giant's permission, a local news
site kunming.cn said in a report carried on the government's website.
Officials found two of the so-called Apple stores did not have a business
licence and ordered them to stop operating pending the results of an
inquiry, the report said.
The investigation into the fake stores was launched after an American
blogger posted photos of a near-flawless copy of an Apple outlet showing
employees wearing the company's trademark blue T-shirts.
While the shop looked like a genuine Apple store, a closer inspection
revealed poorly painted walls and a shopfront sign saying "Apple Store" -
whereas the real deal just sports the now-famous fruit logo.
The Apple website lists four official stores in China - two in Beijing and
two in Shanghai, and none in Kunming.
China is home to the biggest counterfeit market in the world, and despite
repeated government pledges to root out fake goods, these are still widely
available throughout the country.
As the craze for all things Apple slowly spreads around China, fake
iPhones and iPods have also emerged.
Judge Cuts Damages In Minnesota Music Downloading Case
A federal judge in Minnesota has reduced the penalty imposed on a Brainerd
woman for illegally sharing 24 songs online from $1.5 million to $54,000.
U.S. District Judge Michael J. Davis says in a ruling Friday that the
penalty of $62,500 per song imposed by a jury last year was appalling and
unreasonable. He reduced the penalty to $2,250 per song.
Attorneys for Jammie Thomas-Rasset had argued the $1.5 million judgment
violated the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution because the
penalty had no reasonable relationship to the damage caused.
The recording industry sued Thomas-Rasset in 2006 for illegally sharing
music on the file-sharing site Kazaa. Three juries have ruled against her,
but the case has seen multiple appeals.
A message left for Thomas-Rassets attorney was not immediately returned.
McDonalds WiFi Guide Pits Mac Against PC, Mac Wins
The battle of which is better, Mac or PC, is a long and unending one. Since
Apple stopped its infamous Mac vs. PC commercials in 2010 - with Justin
Long as a relaxed, laid back Mac and John Hodgman personifying a stuffy,
uptight PC - the battle has been adopted by trolls in the comment sections
of any article deemed worthy of the argument. Every once in a while,
something pops up that gets commenters all riled up and ready to prove
their allegiance to Apple or Microsoft.
Mac Prices Australia, an Australian site that lists pricing on Apple
products, recently tweeted a TwitPic of a McDonalds WiFi guide that shows
the difference between setting-up the restaurants WiFi on a PC compared
to a Mac - and the difference is pretty obvious. The relatively clean page
on the right is what Mac users have to do, the two left hand pages thick
with text and diagrams is for Windows. I dont think anyone in the comments
can argue for the PC side in this battle, Mac wins hands down.
So why the difference? With the Mac, users simply have to click on the
AirPort icon and turn the AirPort on, select McDonalds Free WiFi from the
list of wireless networks, and open their browser to the McDonalds Free
WiFi landing page. There are two small figures to guide the Mac user to
free-WiFi goodness.
When it comes to Windows, McDonalds just has to cater for more options.
Are you running XP or Windows Vista? Theres also multiple settings changes
to make purely because of the way Windows networking is setup.
As you can see, Mac diehards have good reason to boast about Apples
simplicity and ease of use. We have yet to see these WiFi cards in
McDonalds restaurants in the U.S., but Australia is very thorough in its
instructions.
Internet Explorer Users Have Lowest IQ of All Web Surfers
A newly released study has found that users of Microsofts line of Internet
Explorer browsers have the lowest IQs, on average, than people who
regularly use other web browsers. Conversely, Opera users have the highest
average IQ.
The study (PDF) comes via Vancouver-based 'psychometric consulting company'
AptiQuant, who tested 101,326 people, from English-speaking countries, over
the course of four weeks, using the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale to
determine their intellectual prowess.
"Because cognitive scores are related to tech-savviness," the researchers
write in the study, "we hypothesized that the choice of web browser is
related to cognitive ability of an individual."
While the study is not on par with, say, a scientific paper, and IQ is
hardly the only factor in determining a persons full intellect, the report
certainly does a lot to make non-IE users feel good about themselves.
Perched at the pinnacle of brainpower are users of Opera, who scored an
average IQ of 126.5. Mozillas Mac-specific browser, Camino, came in a
close second, with a score of 124.4. As you might expect, the most widely
used browsers fell somewhere in the middle: Safari users scored a 113.5;
Chrome, 111.2; and Firefox, 108.7.
Crowded at the bottom of the brain heap are users of Internet Explorer. Of
those, users of IE 9 had the best score, about an 87. And it just goes down
hill from there, with each previous versions users scoring worse and worse.
The plunge ends with IE 6 users, who scored about an 82.
"From the test results, it is a clear indication that individuals on the
lower side of the IQ scale tend to resist a change/upgrade of their
browsers," AptiQuant writes. The company also says that this information
should add another nail to the coffin of the Internet Explorer line.
"It is common knowledge, that Internet Explorer Versions to 6.0 to 8.0 are
highly incompatible with modern web standards," the company writes. "In
order to make websites work properly on these browsers, web developers have
to spend a lot of unnecessary effort". Now that we have a statistical
pattern on the continuous usage of incompatible browsers, better steps can
be taken to eradicate this nuisance."
Only 71 Percent of Adults Watch Online Videos
When you spend as much time online as we do, you think that every person who
goes on the Internet watches online videos, at one point or another.
Surprisingly, thats just not true. According to a newly released study from
Pew Research, 71 percent of web surfers use video sharing sites like YouTube
and Vimeo. Thats up from last years staggeringly low total of 66 percent,
and 33 percent in 2006, the first year Pew polled such usage.
In addition, Pew found that 28 percent of Internet users watch online videos
daily, a major jump from the 8 percent who watched every day in 2006.
Much of the growth in online video usage comes from rural Americans, who
now watch Internet videos nearly twice as often as they did in 2009. This
has also resulted in an increase in the number of white Americans who watch
online videos, a total of 69 percent. Thats up 13 points from 2009.
Despite these gains, however, online video usage among whites remains 10
percent lower than that of non-white Americans, amongst whom 79 percent
partake in online video watching. The number of non-whites has also
increased, from 67 percent in 2009 to 79 percent this year.
The group that watches online videos the most is, of course, young adults:
92 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds reported online video usage. Other groups
that most frequently watch include Hispanics (81 percent) and people who
make over $75,000 per year (81 percent). Also, 81 percent of parents watch
online videos, compared with only 61 percent of non-parents. This
discrepancy, says Pew, is likely due to parents having young children at
home who are more likely to watch online videos.
The increase in online video watching is also due to a surge in new content,
from both amateur and professional video-makers.
More users has been a boon for online video king, YouTube. Since the end of
2005, YouTube has grown from 8 million views per day to more than 3 billion
daily views. More than 200 million of those impressions come from mobile
devices.
=~=~=~=
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material herein is believed to be accurate at the time of publishing.
