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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 14 Issue 12
Volume 14, Issue 12 Atari Online News, Etc. March 23, 2012
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2012
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 #1412 03/23/12
~ Power of the Internet! ~ People Are Talking! ~ No New Xbox Soon!
~ Web Address Controversy ~ AOL Killing AIM Dev Team ~ Celeb Hacker Guilty!
~ Yahoo Board Challenge! ~ Facebook Warns Employers ~ I Google with Bing!
-* Seattle Retro-Computing Meet *-
-* Chrome Wins Browser Battle With IE! *-
-* Microsoft Banning Apple Purchases by Staff *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
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Well, I apologize for my maudlin commentary last week, but apparently
today's culture states that it's good for one's soul. Whatever, but it
did help to "vocalize" some important concerns.
It's been a trying week, still waiting for the many contacts that I made
to follow up with some needed answers to my questions. About all that I
have learned is a couple of outstanding fees to cover some of the final
burial arrangements. Nothing from insurance companies or the probate
court in order for me to move forward with dealing with my father's estate.
It looks like I may have to retain an attorney to help manage a lot of
the inevitable red tape.
How about this summer-like weather we've been having lately?! Records
have been dropping like meteors lately - about 5-6 have been smashed in
this area this month already! It's mid-March and many of my perennials
are already flourishing, and tree buds have started to sprout. Now we
can look forward to being buried under a lot of pollen. Fun stuff! I
think we're fairly close to saying a final goodbye to the winter that
never was - at least for this year!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE User Group Notes! - Meetings, Shows, and Info!
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Seattle Retro-Computing Society Meets Saturday, March 24th
Come one, come all, to the Seattle Retro-Computing Society's regular
monthly meeting! It will be held Saturday, March 24th from 11:30 AM
to 5:00 PM (please note our new starting time, which is an hour later
than it was last year).
Please read the important announcement about our website at the end of
this message!
Do you do any of the following with old computers? Will you be near
Seattle on Saturday?
+ Use, collect, and/or restore them
+ Play games on them
+ Write programs for them
+ Develop new hardware for them
+ Help other people do any of the above
If your answer was "yes," then the SRCS is for you! We exist so you can
show off your awesome stuff, bounce ideas off of fellow enthusiasts, and
be inspired by one another's achievements, plans and aspirations.
No idea is too big or too small, and we're not picky about what flavor
of vintage machine you prefer! Come on down and tell us about it!
The meetings are graciously hosted by the Living Computer Museum, which
is gradually fitting out a computer museum in Seattle's SODO
neighborhood. There will be refreshments, a Buy-Sell-Free-Trade table,
and enough table space & power to set up anything you may want to show
off!
For further details, please see our web page at
http://www.seattleretrocomputing.com/ and our mailing list at
http://groups.google.com/group/seattle-retrocomp . Hope to see you
there!
We are pleased to announce that the feature on our website which says
who is coming, what they mean to bring, and what they hope someone else
will bring has been de-zombied. We formerly had trouble with it not
resetting after the meetings each month, so no one could rely on
anything they saw there unless it happened to contain a date.
Well, it now works properly (AND says when you're coming even if you
don't say you'll bring anything!) - but since everyone kind of gave up
on it over the last few months, as I write this only three people have
filled it out for the coming meeting. Please take a moment to fill in
your RSVP for March!
Gordon "gsteemso" Steemson
SRCS agitator-in-chief
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - No Plans for New Xbox Anytime Soon!
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=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
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Microsoft Says No Plans for New Xbox Anytime Soon
Microsoft says it's not coming out with a new Xbox gaming console anytime
soon.
Some video game players had hoped that Microsoft Corp. would unveil an
upgrade at the E3 Expo in June, a big, yearly video game conference in Los
Angeles where game makers show off new wares and titles.
Microsoft Corp. said Monday that it won't be discussing new Xbox hardware
at the event. Rather, it plans to focus on games, music and other
entertainment for the Xbox 360, which came out in 2005.
Nintendo Co. will be showcasing the Wii U, the successor to the Wii. Unlike
the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3, the current Wii doesn't offer
high-definition graphics, so it's in greater need of an upgrade.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
The Power of The Internet at The Heart of One World Festival
The One World international documentary festival, which opens here on
Wednesday, will focus on the new weapon in revolutions and revolts across
the world: the Internet.
"If the Romanian 1989 revolution was the first one to be televised, the
Green movement from Iran blossomed on the Internet and was fuelled via
virtual networks. This change of tools has only taken 20 years", the
organisers underlined.
"Young generations are contesting the existing power in the West but also
in the rest of the world, especially in the East. We want to reflect these
changes", festival director Alexandru Solomon told a press conference.
A special section called "Revolution Online" will showcase "Rouge Parole",
the story of the Tunisian revolution and the expulsion of strongman Zine
El Abidine Ben Ali. The Internet and social networks played a crucial role
in the mobilisation against the regime in several countries, such as
Egypt.
"Fragments of a Revolution" shows how Iranian exiles depended on the
Internet to follow the "Green movement" in their home countries, trying to
find images and comments on social networks, anxiously expecting mails
from their friends and families who were left behind.
But the power of new technologies also helped British students to find new
ways of protesting against austerity cuts. The film "The Real Social
Networks" follows the backroom meetings of a group of London students as
they hacked computers, occupied universities and shut down banks.
A total of 50 documentaries from around the globe will be shown until
Sunday in Bucharest in one of the biggest documentary film festivals in
eastern Europe.
Major Yahoo Shareholder Launches Board Challenge
A major Yahoo shareholder has launched a campaign to win four seats on the
Internet company's board, setting the stage for a nasty battle that could
drag on for months.
Hedge fund Third Point LLC, which owns a 5.8 percent stake in Yahoo Inc.,
thinks the struggling company would do better if Third Point
representatives were in the boardroom helping recently hired CEO Scott
Thompson overhaul the operations. Thompson joined Yahoo's board in January
after the company lured him away from eBay Inc.'s PayPal to become its
CEO.
Third Point formally began its attempt to shake up Yahoo's board with a
Wednesday regulatory filing that comes more than a month after the hedge
fund announced it would revolt unless the company accepted its slate of
candidates as directors. In a letter last week, Third Point CEO Daniel
Loeb gave Thompson a final chance to avert a mutiny by allowing the hedge
fund's candidates to join the company's board.
Yahoo now must grapple with a shareholder mutiny that will add to the
turmoil surrounding the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company, as Thompson mulls
a dramatic reorganization that could bring a large number layoffs.
This marks the second time in four years that Yahoo has faced a boardroom
challenge from a disgruntled shareholder. In 2008, billionaire Carl Icahn
sought to overthrow Yahoo's board after the company balked at a chance to
sell itself to Microsoft Corp. for $47.5 billion, or $33 per share. Icahn
wound up accepting a truce that gave him and two of his hand-picked
choices seats on Yahoo's board. Icahn and his allies are no longer on the
board.
Third Point, based in New York, wants to use the botched Microsoft
negotiations as an example of why Yahoo's board needs more expertise. The
hedge fund opposes a Yahoo request to maintain a court seal on certain
documents contained in a lawsuit filed by shareholders upset about how
the Microsoft talks were handled. The Delaware Chancery Court case has
already been settled, but Third Point still wants the opportunity to
review some of the evidence that so far has been kept under wraps.
Third Point's proposed directors are Daniel Loeb, the hedge fund's
manager; former NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker; former MTV Networks
executive Michael Wolf and turnaround specialist Harry Wilson. In its
filing, Third Point estimated it will spend about $8 million trying to get
its nominees elected. The hedge fund already has invested about $1 billion
during the past seven months to acquire its Yahoo holdings.
Yahoo's 11-member board already has changed. Four directors, including
Chairman Roy Bostock, plan to step down at the company's annual meeting
this year. The company appointed two directors, Alfred Amoroso and
Maynard Webb, to its board last month and says it is still evaluating
other candidates..
Unless a compromise is reached, the showdown between Yahoo and Third Point
will be settled at the company's annual meeting. A date for the meeting
hasn't been set yet, although Yahoo usually holds it in late June. When
Icahn mounted his 2008 challenge, Yahoo postponed the meeting until
August.
The upcoming departures from Yahoo's board are part of an attempt to
placate shareholders frustrated with a long-running financial funk that
has depressed the company's share price.
Web Address Controversy Deepens after U.S. Warning
A controversial attempt to expand Internet addresses far beyond the likes
of .com, .org or .net has provoked a rare threat from the U.S. government
to withdraw a key license from the body that runs the Internet's core
functions.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) depends
on its U.S. government contract to coordinate the unique addresses that
tell computers where to find each other, without which the global
Internet could not function.
But this month the government warned that the non-profit body's rules
against conflicts of interest were not strong enough and only temporarily
extended ICANN's contract - which it has held since its formation in 1998
- instead of renewing it as many in the industry had expected.
A failure to secure the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)
contract would severely damage ICANN's ability to implement its address
expansion program, the most radical move in the organization's history.
The conflict of interest concerns arise from the fact that some past and
present board members stand to benefit financially from the liberalization
of Web addresses through ties to organizations that make money from
registering new domain names or consulting on the expansion.
Currently, organizations are restricted to a couple of dozen so-called
top-level domains, such as .com, .org or .net, or country code domains
such as .co.uk.
ICANN wants to enable brands, cities or firms seeking to build new
Internet businesses to apply to own and run their own domains, for example
.apple, .nyc or .gay, giving them more control over their Web presence and
a greater choice of names.
"Not to award ICANN the IANA contract would be to completely knock it off
its foundations," said Philip Corwin, who is legal counsel for the
Internet Commerce Association, an organization for domain name investors
and developers.
"ICANN needs that contract to have the authority they need to really make
this program work."
The contract has been renewed until September.
A whole industry has already sprung up to take advantage of ICANN's
initiative. One of those is Top Level Domain Holdings, a London-listed
firm set up to acquire and operate the new domains, whose chairman, Peter
Dengate Thrush, was chairman of ICANN when it approved the change.
TLDH has already put in 40 applications and intends to submit more for
domains including .miami and .music.
Many critics are skeptical as to whether ICANN will achieve its stated aim
of boosting competition and innovation, pointing to previous experiments
with the likes of .aero, .travel and .museum, which have gone largely
unused.
But convinced or not, hundreds of consumer brands feel forced to apply for
their own domains - a costly and complex process that comes with
obligations to actively operate the domain - fearing they will lose out to
rivals if they do not.
A three-month window will close on April 12, likely for years and possibly
forever.
A recent survey by Internet registry services company Afilias, which is
applying for about 150 new domains on behalf of clients and already
provides key infrastructure for .org, .info and .mobi, found considerable
uncertainty about the process.
Of 200 major consumer brands it surveyed in the United States and Britain,
53 percent were either not aware that they could participate in the
process at all or did not know that the application window was open and
when it would close.
Of those who were aware, however, 54 percent of brands were in the process
of applying, and only 6 percent said they definitely would not.
"There's a buzz about this now," said non-executive Afilias director
Jonathan Robinson.
Others with less of a stake in the process call such behavior outright
defensive.
"Of the people that I'm talking to, the vast majority of those that are
moving ahead to apply don't have a concrete business initiative in mind
for how they will use the registry," said Jeff Ernst of technology
analysis firm Forrester.
"They're fearful of another organization getting their string, or they're
fearful that another competitor will buy its own and get first-mover
advantage in doing something strategic."
Stuart Durham, European sales director of consultancy Melbourne IT, which
is preparing about 100 applications for customers, says interest is
rapidly increasing as the end of the window approaches.
Joshua S. Bourne, a managing partner and co-founder of FairWinds Partners,
a consultancy that works with brands on their Internet strategy, said some
of the world's biggest brands were refusing to apply.
"I think we're going to be very surprised on May 1st when some of the
world's biggest brands aren't included," he said. "They want to make a
statement because they don't agree with the whole ICANN process, but in
the end I think they'll regret it."
Rod Beckstrom, ICANN's outgoing chief executive, told Reuters this week
the expansion was going smoothly. "We're holding the course. There's not
a single complaint about anything to do with the administration of the
program."
But at a major ICANN meeting earlier this month he warned it was time for
the organization to tighten up its rules.
"ICANN must be able to act for the public good while placing commercial
and financial interests in their appropriate context. How can it do this
if all top leadership is from the very domain name industry it is
supposed to coordinate independently?"
"Preserving ICANN's ability to act independently, in the public interest,
is paramount to the future of the Internet and this institution," he
said.
Facebook Warns Employers Not To Demand Passwords
Facebook is warning employers not to demand the passwords of job
applicants, saying that it's an invasion of privacy that opens companies
to legal liabilities.
The social networking company is also threatening legal action.
An Associated Press story this week documented cases of job applicants
who are being asked, at the interview table, to reveal their Facebook
passwords so their prospective employers can check their backgrounds.
In a post on Friday, Facebook's chief privacy officer cautions that if an
employer discovers that a job applicant is a member of a protected group,
the employer may open itself up to claims of discrimination if it doesn't
hire that person.
"If you are a Facebook user, you should never have to share your
password," Erin Egan wrote.
Chrome Wins Weekend Browser Battle with IE
Google Inc's Chrome web browser overtook Microsoft Corp's Internet
Explorer (IE) to become market leader globally for the first time last
Sunday, web analytics firm StatCounter said on Wednesday.
"While it is only one day, this is a milestone," said Aodhan Cullen,
StatCounter's chief executive.
"At weekends, when people are free to choose what browser to use, many of
them are selecting Chrome in preference to IE."
On March 18, Chrome was used for 32.7 percent of all browsing, while
Explorer had 32.5 percent share. When people returned to their offices on
Monday, the IE share rose to 35 percent and Chrome's share slipped to 30
percent.
"Whether Chrome can take the lead in the browser wars in the long term
remains to be seen, however the trend towards Chrome usage at weekends is
undeniable," Cullen said.
On a monthly basis, Chrome's market share has surged to 31 percent so far
in March from 17 percent a year ago, while Explorer has slipped to 35
percent from 45 percent a year earlier.
The market share of Firefox - which is popular in Europe - is globally
around 25 percent.
Apple Inc's Safari is a distant number four with a 7 percent share of all
browsing, with Opera at number five on 2 percent.
StatCounter statistics are based on aggregate data from more than 3
million websites with a sample of more than 15 billion page views per
month.
AOL Isn't Killing AIM... Just Most of Its Dev Team
Internet veteran AOL has had its fair share of documented struggles in
recent years. The mobile revolution and appification of the Internet
hasnt been kind to the Web 1.0 company, which has largely tied its hopes
around its acquisition of The Huffington Post. Now speculation has turned
to its latest round of layoffs and the possible execution of one of its
core products: AIM.
According to the New York Times, some 40 employees were eliminated from AOL
last week, and the AIM division felt the deepest hurt. One staffer told the
paper that AIM is "eviscerated and now only consists of support staff"
nearly all of the West Coast tech team has been killed."
Supporting the "AIM is dead" mantra is the fact that Jason Shellen has been
let go. He was VP of AOL messenger products and was brought over from
Things Labs in 2010. Things Labs was the home of Brizzly, a social Web
product that was killed off in order to focus efforts on AIM. "We didnt
plan to get rid of the service we spent the prior year or so building, but
we knew there was a possibility it might not make sense to continue work
on it," a blog post from the team posted earlier this month reads. "Sure
enough, once we set to the task at hand - improving the hell out of AIM
- we had little to no time to work on Brizzly, and it became clear that
the new things were working on are far more worth our time and
attention."
Thats an understatement: until recent renovations, AIM was a sad, pitiful
excuse for instant messaging dying a painful death at the hands of GTalk
and Facebook Chat. If you havent used it since you got your Gmail or
Facebook account (like some of us), it deserves another look. The refresh
makes it better looking, less juvenile, and practical with its
integrations with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Gmail.
Improvements or not, AIM isnt in a safe position. A system error
yesterday caused more red flags: tons of users were unable to log into
their AIM accounts. AOL has since said this was not an indication of
abandonment but simply a 'hiccup' that the team has fixed. Touche, AOL,
but my AIM client continues to misbehave, working on and off all morning.
I can sign in but IMing someone (who I can see in my GTalk window is
online) simply pings me with a 'user unavailable' notice. Sometimes it
works, sometimes it doesnt. Let us know if any of you are having
problems.
So the problem with AIM is different than we thought: AOL isnt outright
killing the IM client, it just killed off the team - weeks after launching
the overhaul. Now we have a beautiful new interface and expanded,
necessary features and no one to clean up the technical messes inside. AOL
is trying to go lean on products, and its AIM redesign was a bit ambitious
considering the scope of the companys layoffs.
But AIM will live (or some version of living). Its a legacy product and
something the AOL will continue to use but probably not invest as much
energy or money into. Its trying to transition into an ad-based Web
media network, and AIM probably wont be a big part of that (email likely
will face the same fate). Other divisions should prepare for similar
treatment, including the oft-targeted Patch. Though its part of the whole
Web content strategy, its only been criticized by investors as a
moneyhole. Still, its CEO Tim Armstrongs passion project, so even if
Patch is subject to layoffs, AOL wont forsake it entirely.
The treatment of AIM and its development team sort of embodies the mindset
of once-great, now-grasping Web companies: innovation is overrated.
Man To Plead Guilty for Celeb Hacking
A Florida man has agreed to plead guilty to hacking into the email
accounts of celebrities such as Christina Aguilera, Mila Kunis and
Scarlett Johansson, whose nude photos eventually landed on the Internet,
according to court documents filed Thursday.
Christopher Chaney, 35, of Jacksonville, Fla., will plead guilty Monday in
Los Angeles federal court to nine felony counts, including unauthorized
access to a computer and wiretapping, the documents say. He faces up to
60 years in prison.
Defense attorney Christopher Chestnut said Thursday night that he is still
working with prosecutors and wouldn't confirm the number of felony counts
Chaney will plead guilty to.
"To date, Chris has been very cooperative with prosecutors, he's
remorseful for any of the harm caused to the stars, and just looks to a
resolution of the case," Chestnut said.
Chaney was arrested in October as part of a yearlong investigation of
celebrity hacking that authorities dubbed "Operation Hackerazzi."
Prosecutors said Chaney hacked into the email accounts of more than 50
people in the entertainment industry, including Aguilera and Johansson.
Nude photos Johansson had taken of herself were later posted on the
Internet. Aguilera also had private photos put online, court documents
show.
Johansson told Vanity Fair for its December issue that the photos were
meant for Ryan Reynolds, who is now her ex-husband.
Chaney mined through publicly available data to figure out password and
security questions for celebrity accounts. He hijacked a forwarding
feature so that a copy of every email a celebrity received was sent to an
account he controlled, according to court documents.
Chaney said he managed to hack into Johansson's email account to send one
of her acquaintances an email containing a nude photo of her in exchange
for a photo, authorities said.
A search warrant unsealed and obtained by The Associated Press said
Chaney's computer hard drive contained numerous private celebrity photos
and a document that compiled their extensive personal data.
Chaney forwarded many of the photographs to two gossip websites and another
hacker, but there wasn't any evidence that he profited from his scheme,
authorities said. He has since apologized for his actions.
Microsoft Banning Mac, iPad Purchases by Its Sales and Marketing Group?
Summary: An alleged internal Microsoft e-mail claims the companys
marketing and sales organization is about to halt Mac and iPad purchases
made with company funds. Smart or pointless?
Microsofts Sales, Marketing, Services, IT, & Operations Group (SMSG) may
be putting in place a policy to prevent employees from using corporate
funds to buy Macs and iPads.
Based on an alleged internal e-mail passed on to me by one of my contacts,
this edict just came down last week. SMSG encompasses 46,000 Microsoft
employees worldwide, according to a Microsoft Careers page about the
group, and includes Microsofts front-line consumer and business sales,
service and support people.
Heres that supposed e-mail, from Alain Crozier, the chief financial
officer of SMSG:
From: Alain Crozier
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2012 1:17 PM
Subject: Apple Purchases
Within SMSG we are putting in place a new policy that says that Apple
products (Mac & iPad) should not be purchased with company funds.
In the US we will be turning off the Apple products from the Zones
Catalog next week, which is the standard purchasing mechanism for these
products.
Outside of the US we will work with your finance and procurement
teams to send the right message and put the right processes in place.
The current purchase levels are low, however we recognize there will be
a bit of transition work associated with this. Details of historical
purchases in the US are provided in the attachment to help understand the
changes that will be needed.Thank you for your support and leadership on
this.
Alain Crozier
CFO | WW Sales, Marketing & Services Group
WW SMSG Finance
I asked Microsoft for confirmation that the email was real. I was told by a
spokesperson that the company had no comment. No confirmation; no denial.
It has been Microsofts policy for years - dating back to Windows Mobile in
2009 - that iPhones, Blackberrys and Palm devices (and their respective
data plans) cannot be expensed. Microsoft provided its own employees with
free Windows Phones in 2010 (just like Apple did in 2007 when it gave its
employees iPhones). Microsoft hasnt attempted to require its employees to
use nothing but Windows Phones or Windows PCs, as is evident at any
Microsoft conference and/or campus visit.
Some folks think moves like the alleged Mac and iPad ban make sense. Others
find them overblown. If current purchase levels really are low, as the
alleged memo says, why go so far as to ban them, asked one former Softie.
And what about knowing your enemy?
Whats your take? If its really happening (which I believe it is, given
where I got the e-mail), is this a smart or a pointless move on
Microsofts part? My vote is smart. In fact, Im surprised this policy
wasnt put in place before.
'I Google Everything With Bing Now'
Even fed-up former Googlers who have migrated to Bing can't really get away
from the search giant. "I google everything with Bing now," said commenter
Azalp Yerbua in response to our post on Google's betrayal of its users.
Yerbua has decided, like many others, that he or she doesn't approve of
Google's moves of late, so our commenter will now "google" with Bing. With
the use of google as a verb Yerbua reminds us, however, just how dominant
the company is. Not only is Google the default search engine of choice for
so many of us, it also runs our email accounts, or navigation systems, our
Internet chat clients, etc. Google is everywhere! Even in our lexicon.
=~=~=~=
Atari Online News, Etc. is a weekly publication covering the entire
Atari community. Reprint permission is granted, unless otherwise noted
at the beginning of any article, to Atari user groups and not for
profit publications only under the following terms: articles must
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No issue of Atari Online News, Etc. may be included on any commercial
media, nor uploaded or transmitted to any commercial online service or
internet site, in whole or in part, by any agent or means, without
the expressed consent or permission from the Publisher or Editor of
Atari Online News, Etc.
Opinions presented herein are those of the individual authors and do
not necessarily reflect those of the staff, or of the publishers. All
material herein is believed to be accurate at the time of publishing.
