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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 15 Issue 37
Volume 15, Issue 37-38 Atari Online News, Etc. September 27, 2013
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2013
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 #1537-38 09/27/13
~ Ballmer Exits Punching! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Spain Cracking Down!
~ NSA Scandal and Trust! ~ Novell Loses Appeal! ~ Apple's New iMacs!
~ Google Turns The Big 15! ~ Tesco's "Hudl" Tablet! ~ New Surface Tablet!
~ 15% US Adults Not on Web ~ The Internet in 2050? ~ Pay-per-view Web?
-* Too Late for China's Internet *-
-* Equity Holders May Keep Atari Stake *-
-* Gates Says 'Control-Alt-Delete' Was Mistake *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
First off, I must stop to apologize for the lack of an issue last week.
The fact was, our internet service was off and on for all of last week,
and mostly off! The majority of our material emanates from either the
internet, or via contributions via e-mail. Lack of access equals lack
of material, equals no issue.
It was a helluva week; and September hasn't been a very good month, either.
With everything else going on, I was also under the weather for the past
4-5 weeks - probably a culmination of effects due to various stressful
events over the past couple of years. And, I'm sure that getting up there
in age (I turned 62 last week!) isn't helping, either.
Anyway, after numerous doctor visits and tests performed (and more on the
way), I've learned that I don't have cancer, but I do have a large ulcer.
And there have been a few other medical issues discovered that are like
contributing to my maladies. So, if I seem a bit "off" for awhile, I have
a few good excuses!
Hopefully, my internet access woes are resolved for the present time (he
stated, while knocking on some proverbial wood!). I managed to spend some
time online this week and put together a good assortment of articles for
you this week - so, let's get right to it, shall we!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
Equity Holders May Keep Stake in Atari
Atari Inc. has filed a plan that aims to reorganize around the company's
remaining assets after it did not receive acceptable bids for its brand
name and classic games earlier this year.
Judge James M. Peck of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District
of New York in Manhattan had yet to set a hearing to consider the plan as
of Tuesday, Sept 24.
In its Sept. 20 plan, Atari proposes continuing to operate its main
business after failing to receive qualified offers for the assets by a
July 10 deadline.
The debtor had set a $15 million minimum sale offer for its main business,
comprised of the Atari brand name, Atari Classics and Atari Casino, in
May 22 bidding procedures. Games in the lot included classics such as
"Asteroids" and "Millipede."
Under the plan, the New York company would pay administrative claims,
priority tax claims and debtor-in-possession financing claims in full.
Secured tax claims, totaling $3,951 and priority claims, totaling
$171,879, would be paid in full.
General unsecured creditors, owed $5 million to $7 million, would receive
8% of their claims on the effective date plus a pro rata share of
$560,000. Unsecureds would receive the same treatment on the second
anniversary of the effective date. On the third anniversary, unsecureds
would receive 9% of their claims plus a pro rata share of $630,000.
Equity holders would maintain their interests.
Atari also failed to receive qualified bids by a July 10 deadline for its
"RollerCoaster Tycoon" and "Test Drive" franchises, which required
minimum bids of $3.5 million and $1.5 million, respectively.
Debtor counsel Scott L. Alberino of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP on
July 24 told The Deal Pipeline that Atari had just two remaining employees
and was in "full wind-down."
In the largest deal, Wargaming World Ltd. bought Atari's "Master of Orion"
franchise for $1.22 million in a series of sales approved July 24.
Wargaming also won the "Total Annihilation" franchise for $960,000.
Epic Gear LLC bought the "Backyard Sports" franchise for $1 million.
Tommo Inc. purchased the "Humongous" franchise, "Fatty Bear's Birthday
Surprise" and "Math Gran Prix" for $900,000.
Rebellion Interactive Games Ltd. bought the "Battlezone" franchise for
$565,500. Rebellion also paid $100,000 for the "Moonbase Commander"
franchise.
Finally, Stardock Systems Inc. acquired the "Star Control" franchise for
$305,000.
Atari filed for Chapter 11 on Jan. 21, the same day French parent Atari SA
commenced a restructuring in France in line with Book 6 of the French
Commercial Code. Atari SA said it made the filing because it was "starved
for funds and unable to finance its continued growth" after sole lender
BlueBay Asset Management LLP of London entered liquidation.
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Grand Theft Auto V Sales Zoom!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Sega to Purchase Index Corp.!
Linux, The Future of Gaming?
And much more!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Grand Theft Auto V Sales Zoom Past $1 Billion Mark in 3 Days
Grand Theft Auto V has crossed the $1 billion sales mark after three days
in stores, a rate faster than any other video game, film or other
entertainment product has ever managed, its creator Take Two Interactive
Inc said on Friday.
The latest installment of GTA, a cultural phenomenon that has sparked a
national debate on adult content and violence, received strong reviews
and racked up $800 million in first-day sales alone.
That marked a launch-day record for the Grand Theft Auto franchise which
is Take Two's most lucrative and allows players to cruise around a
make-believe gameworld based on real-life locations such as Los Angeles.
Take-Two shares were little changed at $17.48 in early afternoon-trading
on the Nasdaq.
Gamers had eagerly awaited the fifth installment of the 16-year-old game
after Grand Theft Auto IV was released in 2008.
It took more than five years to be developed by Take-Two's Rockstar Games
studio at a cost of between $200 million and $250 million, according to
some analysts' estimates.
Last year, it took Activision Blizzard Inc's first-person shooter title
"Call Of Duty: Black Ops II" 15 days to hit $1 billion in global sales
after its November release. That game took in sales of $500 million on its
first day.
While GTA V is off to a flying start, industry analysts are keeping a
close eye on Take-Two's ability to sustain sales momentum.
Grand Theft Auto V is currently only available on Xbox 360 and the
PlayStation 3 consoles, owned by over 160 million gamers. Take-Two is yet
to announce a version for the much-awaited next-generation Xbox One and
PlayStation 4 consoles, which will go on sale in November.
Sega to Purchase Atlus Parent Company Index Corporation
Sega Sammy Holdings is set to purchase Index Corporation for 14 billion
yen/$141 million, it has been revealed.
Financially challenged Index is the parent company of Atlus, known for
such games as the Persona series and Dragons Crown, so Atlus will now
become a part of Sega. Atlus previously said it would be unaffected by
the financial troubles, although Sega reportedly plans to restructure the
games business..
The report from Nikkei, comes after rumors in August that Sega was part of
twenty companies bidding for Index, as it went through financial
proceedings.
Appeal of Activision-Vivendi Ruling To Be Heard October 10
Activision Blizzard Inc will make its argument before Delaware's Supreme
Court next month to overturn a lower court's surprise decision to halt the
video game company's planned $8.2 billion deal with French media
conglomerate Vivendi SA.
The state's high court said on Monday it had scheduled arguments for
October 10.
Delaware Court of Chancery judge Travis Laster temporarily halted the
proposed deal on Wednesday.
Activision investor Douglas Hayes had sued the company's board, alleging
they breached their duty to shareholders by not putting the deal to a
stockholder vote.
Delaware's Supreme Court has a reputation for quickly resolving appeals in
large corporate disputes. The court ruled from bench last year to uphold a
Court of Chancery decision to halt a hostile bid by Martin Marietta
Materials Inc for Vulcan Materials Co.
The Activision deal is considered pivotal for Vivendi as it seeks to
streamline its diverse portfolio.
Under the deal, Activision said it would buy back 429 million shares from
Vivendi for $5.83 billion. As part of the terms, an investor group led by
Activision Chief Executive Bobby Kotick and Co-Chairman Brian Kelly will
separately purchase about 172 million Activision shares from Vivendi for
$2.34 billion.
The Activision Blizzard Inc et al v Douglas M. Hayes, Delaware Supreme
Court, No. 497, 2013.
New Skill-based Casino Slots Play for Video Gamers
Atari's 1981 hit Centipede is an antique in the video game world, but it's
the hottest new thing in the casino industry.
Slot machine manufacturers are rolling out a raft of games inspired by the
penny arcade, hoping to attract middle-aged gamblers with a dose of
nostalgia and the promise of finally cashing in on all those hours spent
in front of a screen.
A Centipede slot machine to hit casino floors soon is more than just a
clever licensing deal, or a sign of gambling's cosmetic change from
one-armed bandits to touch screens and digital music. It's part of a new
generation of models that let users show off a rare casino trait: skill.
The game, developed by International Game Technology, the industry's
largest slot manufacturer, converts points earned shooting digital insects
directly into money. If two gamblers sit down at an identical machine, the
better shot will walk away with more cash.
At the gambling industry's annual trade show in Las Vegas this week, a
stream of men in suits sat down to try out the new game. Bodies swaying
around a joystick, they maneuvered their character on an overhead screen,
dodging spider attacks and shooting at creepy insects amid a flurry of
"pew pew" sounds.
IGT's competitors are taking note.
Several manufacturers, including WMS and Aristocrat, say they are working
on incorporating skill into their own games. Bally Technologies is
approaching the trend differently, trying to bring back high score pride.
Two of its newer games, Skee-Ball and Total Blast, let players log their
initials on a scoreboard. The player doesn't get paid out directly in
cash, but can monitor the standings on Facebook.
"The casino would love it if players are like, 'Oh I got beat! I have to
go back and play some more to get in the lead,'" Bally spokesman Mike
Trask said. "If they were 15 years old in 1985 playing against their
friends, trying to get the highest score, that person is almost 50 years
old now, and they're right in the demographic."
Industry honchos hope the new breed of games will help slots beat their
reputation as "day care for the elderly." The games are normally marketed
toward women ages 55 to 65.
"I grew up playing Atari and Nintendo, and I want to believe my skill in
these games has some effect on the outcome," said Geoff Freeman, the 38
year-old head of the American Gambling Association. "Let me play Madden
football, let me play EA Hockey. We'll put $20 down, the winner gets $15
and the house gets $5."
It's an appealing idea for gamers, but unlikely to come to fruition
because casinos make far more money when gamblers play against the house,
as opposed to each other.
Skill will still only take you so far even with the new brand of slots.
The flashing, singing machines sometimes called "beautiful vaults"
because they are the most profitable game a casino can put on its floor
are only marketable if they can retain a consistent portion of wagers,
usually somewhere between 5 percent and 20 percent.
No matter how much of a joystick master a Centipede player may be, he or
she will still have to get lucky to reach the bonus round.
Nevada regulators have seen an uptick in the number of slot machines
incorporating skilled bonus rounds, according to Gaming Control Board
engineer Joel Eickhoff. But the state will only approve games that are
more slot machine than video game.
Advocates who work around gambling addiction worry the shoot 'em up bonus
rounds could hurt "escape gamblers," who use wagering as a narcotic to
forget about real world dilemmas.
"Any design feature that encourages increased play has the potential to
affect problem gamblers," said Keith Whyte, executive director of the
National Council on Problem Gambling.
The dynamic has some of IGT's competitors predicting recreational players
will tire of video game conceit.
Several years ago, Bally rolled out a Pong slot machine that let players
bounce a rudimentary ball during bonus rounds. But the interlude never
boosted winnings more than 4 percent.
Skilled Centipede players will be able to increase their winnings far
beyond that, and future games may raise the payout for hand-eye
coordination eve more, IGT game designer Keith Hughes said.
"We're figuring out how to deliver video games to players in a wagering
environment, and this game is helping us figure out the best way to do
it," he said.
In 10 years, millennials who played Grand Theft Auto in college dorm rooms
in the 2000s might find their old favorite blinking on the casino floor,
a perfect storm of vices.
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE Gaming Online - Online Users Growl & Purr!
"""""""""""""""""""
Linux Is The Future of Gaming, New Hardware Coming Soon
Gabe Newell, the co-founder and managing director of Valve, said that
Linux is the future of gaming despite its current minuscule share of the
market.
That seems hard to believe, given that Newell acknowledged Linux gaming
generally accounts for less than one percent of the market by any measure
including players, player minutes, and revenue. But Valve is going to do
its best to make sure Linux becomes the future of gaming by extending its
Steam distribution platform to hardware designed for living rooms.
Newell made his comments while delivering a keynote at LinuxCon in New
Orleans. "It feels a little bit funny coming here and telling you guys
that Linux and open source are the future of gaming," Newell said. "It's
sort of like going to Rome and teaching Catholicism to the pope."
Valve brought Steam to Linux in February, and the platform now has 198
games. Newell has previously promised to unveil a Linux-based "Steam box"
to compete against living room gaming consoles sometime this year, and
his company has updated the Steam software to work better on TVs. While
he didn't specifically mention the Steam box today, Newell hinted at an
announcement next week.
"Next week we're going to be rolling out more information about how we
get there and what are the hardware opportunities we see for bringing
Linux into the living room," Newell said.
Getting games to work on Linux has its challenges. If not implemented
right, "Just compile it yourself" could be the inconvenient solution to
the problem of installing games and applying updates, he said. However,
Valve worked through these problems in bringing Left 4 Dead 2 to Linux,
hopefully showing the way to other developers, he said.
Bringing Steam to Linux "was a signal for our development partners that we
really were serious about this Linux thing we were talking about," Newell
said.
Besides just releasing Steam on Linux-based operating systems, Valve is
contributing to the LLDB debugger project and is co-developing an
additional debugger for Linux, Newell said.
"When we talk to developers and say, 'if you can pick one thing for Valve
to work on the tools side to make Linux a better development target,'
they always say we should build a debugger," he said.
Newell has previously complained about Windows 8 being a "catastrophe for
everyone in the PC space," and he reiterated these concerns today. Closed
platforms are going to lose to open ones that allow innovation, he said.
But that won't stop Steam's rise: Despite year-over-year declines in the
PC market, Steam has seen a 76 percent increase in its own sales
according to Newell.
"I think we'll see either significant restructuring or market exits by
top five PC players. It's looking pretty grim," he said. "Systems which
are innovation-friendly and embrace openness are going to have a greater
competitive advantage to closed or tightly regulated systems."
Heres How SteamOS Destroys Microsoft
This week the gaming-centric company known as Valve has announced plans to
release SteamOS, a living room-aimed operating system that will be free to
download and free to license. This operating system is based on Linux
architecture similar to how Android is a Linux-based OS and the
company intends on expanding well beyond the confines of their current
video games-based model with TV, movies, and music. Is Microsoft too big
to fail? Were about to find out.
Here before the launch of SteamOS, users are already able to download
Steam as an application that launches inside Windows, OS X, or Linux, of
course. This system has a so-called Big Picture Mode with a focus on
moving the user through lists and features as quickly as possible, leading
them toward playing games, interacting with friends in the Steam network,
and purchasing new games. This system already works as a fully functional
home entertainment center software for those willing to take the time to
set a computer up to run it.
For those who tend to work with more traditional solutions, theres the
Xbox and the PlayStation. Xbox One has been promoted by Microsoft as a
video-centric beast of a multimedia machine, while the PlayStation 4
comically retorted with claim that theyre about to be in your living
room for games first and foremost yet theyve also got media on the
way.
So what will Valve do with SteamOS?
Like Google and Android, SteamOS will be distributed in a way where
developers and manufacturers of hardware will be able to modify it. With
Android, manufacturers of hardware only need to follow a set of
guidelines if they want an official implementation of Google Play
(Googles media store) on the device right out of the box. If a
manufacturer does not want Google Play for example if theyve got their
own app store they need not follow any rules at all.
Valve will present a model very similar to this. Theyve been very clear
in their intent with openness and users ability to alter or replace
any part of the software or hardware they want. Valves Game Newell
spoke famously harshly of Microsofts move to Windows 8 back in July of
2012, speaking specifically of how the open nature of the PC was the
only way Valve was ever able to exist in the first place.
We want to make it as easy as possible for the 2,500 games on Steam
to run on Linux as well. Its a hedging strategy. I think Windows 8 is a
catastrophe for everyone in the PC space. Well lose some of the top-tier
PC/OEMs, who will exit the market. I think margins will be destroyed for
a bunch of people.
It will be good to have alternatives to hedge
against that eventuality. Gabe Newell of Valve
He went on to speak of how Windows 8 works with their Windows Store in a
way that closes off the rest of the gaming universe. For those of you
thatve worked with Windows RT (aka Windows 8 RT), this is doubly true.
In an interview with AllThingsD, the same interview as spoken of above,
Newell spoke on closed platforms too.
In order for innovation to happen, a bunch of things that arent
happening on closed platforms need to occur. Valve wouldnt exist today
without the PC, or Epic, or Zynga, or Google. They all wouldnt have
existed without the openness of the platform. Theres a strong tempation
to close the platform, because they look at what they can accomplish when
they limit the competitors access to the platform, and they say Thats
really exciting. Gabe Newell of Valve
What does Valve have to do to destroy Microsoft? They need only to stay
focused on key products. Its difficult to tell at the moment exactly
what Valve is planning to do with this operating system as far as its
own line of hardware products.
Valve has been up-front about delving into wearable computing a little
over a year ago. That was April of 2012 a few months later (September,
that is), Valve released Big Picture Mode. By December, Newell was
suggesting turnkey Valve PCs would be appearing in the near future.
In January of 2013, Newell gave an interview with The Verge where he
suggested three tiers of gaming products for what was then called the
Steam Box of the future.
The way we sort of think of it is sort of Good, Better, or Best.
So, Good are like these very low-cost streaming solutions that youre
going to see that are using Miracast or Grid. I think were talking about
in-home solutions where youve got low latency. Better is to have a
dedicated CPU and GPU and thats the one thats going to be controlled.
You can always sell the Best box, and those are just whatever those
guys want to manufacture. [Valve's position is]: lets build a thing
thats quiet and focuses on high performance and appropriate form
factors. Gabe Newell of Valve
Sound familiar? It should. Googles methodology with Nexus devices has
always on some level been about creating a device to which all other
Android devices can aspire. The Google Nexus device collection is also out
in the wild to provide developers with a single center point to
concentrate their efforts for development of apps and games if it works
here, it can work on a whole lot of other machines as well.
While Android continues to fork with systems such as the stand-alone OS
CyanogenMod and their newly-solidified mobile OS plans. There the company
bases their OS on Android (so thats an OS based on Android which in turn
is based on Linux) and has already begun finding hardware homes in a
manner that could very well be quite similar to how Valve will find homes
for SteamOS.
Then theres NVIDIAs SHIELD device. This machine sits in our bags and we
use it daily its become quite familiar to us how Steam will play in on
the living room with SHIELDs PC game streaming feature. NVIDIA worked
with Valve to include Big Picture Mode on this Android-based
handset/all-in-one gaming mobile device, and theyve allowed it to hit
the living room with HDMI and Miracast (courtesy of Android 4.2 Jelly
Bean with NVIDIA finessing). Have a peek at how the syncing process
works here:
And how SHIELD works with Steam Big Picture Mode here (note that this is
also well before release its a whole lot quicker at this point in real
life):
This will be a feature of SteamOS as well. In our full NVIDIA SHIELD
review youll see that Steam already works like a top-notch living room
system even on a display as (relatively speaking) small as the one on
SHIELD.
Valve will release an operating system with a built-in userbase. According
to Sega vice president of digital distribution via PCGamesN, back in
November of 2012 Steams Big Picture Mode already had 500,000 users
working with it and that was just the Beta mode. Also back in November,
Valve announced that Steam had a total of 50 million users total.
So supposing SteamOS an operating system with value for built-in users
even before it launches decides to start courting Windows app developers
too? How difficult would it be to convince developers to jump aboard a
ship thats already sailing at high speed? No more difficult than it was
for Android to jump in on a market where the clear leaders were Nokia,
BlackBerry, and a rising Apple.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Zuckerberg: NSA Scandal Hurt Users Trust in Facebook
The fallout from the National Security Agency surveillance scandal hasnt
just hurt trust between American tech companies and foreign governments
its also damaged the relationship between American tech companies and
their own customers. Per Reuters, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said this
week that revelations about the NSAs vast data collection practices have
made users less likely to trust Facebook and said that the governments
handling of the scandal has been woefully inept.
Response to the NSA issues that have blown up are a big deal for the
Internet as a global platform, Zuckerberg said. And some of the
government statements I think have been profoundly unhelpful
Oh, we
only spy on non-Americans. Gee thanks
were trying to provide an
international service, not get crushed in those places either.
Much like Google and Microsoft, Zuckerberg wants the government to let
his company be more transparent about what information it provides to the
government and about how many requests it receives to cough up
information on its users each year.
From reading in the media, you couldnt get a sense whether the number
of requests that the government makes is closer to a thousand or closer
to a 100 million, he said. I think the more transparency the government
has, the better folks would feel.
Snowden Disclosures Prompt Warning on Widely Used Computer Security Formula
In the latest fallout from Edward Snowden's intelligence disclosures, a
major U.S. computer security company warned thousands of customers on
Thursday to stop using software that relies on a weak mathematical formula
developed by the National Security Agency.
RSA, the security arm of storage company EMC Corp, told current customers
in an email that a toolkit for developers had a default random-number
generator using the weak formula, and that customers should switch to one
of several other formulas in the product.
Last week, the New York Times reported that Snowden's cache of documents
from his time working for an NSA contractor showed that the agency used
its public participation in the process for setting voluntary
cryptography standards, run by the government's National Institute of
Standards and Technology, to push for a formula that it knew it could
break.
NIST, which accepted the NSA proposal in 2006 as one of four systems
acceptable for government use, this week said it would reconsider that
inclusion in the wake of questions about its security.
But RSA's warning underscores how the slow-moving standards process and
industry practices could leave many users exposed to hacking by the NSA
or others who could exploit the same flaw for years to come.
RSA had no immediate comment. It was unclear how the company could reach
all the former customers of its development tools, let alone how those
programmers could in turn reach all of their customers.
Developers who used RSA's "BSAFE" kit wrote code for Web browsers, other
software, and hardware components to increase their security. Random
numbers are a core part of much modern cryptography, and the ability to
guess what they are renders those formulas vulnerable.
The NSA-promoted formula was odd enough that some experts speculated for
years that it was flawed by design. A person familiar with the process
told Reuters that NIST accepted it in part because many government
agencies were already using it.
But after the Times report, NIST said it was inviting public comments as
it re-evaluated the formula.
"If vulnerabilities are found in these or any other NIST standards, we
will work with the cryptographic community to address them as quickly
as possible," NIST said on September 10.
Snowden, who is wanted on U.S. espionage charges and is living in
temporary asylum in Russia, disclosed secret NSA programs involving the
collection of telephone and email data.
U.S. Officials Woo Tech Companies in New Push for Cybersecurity Law
Senior U.S. officials on Wednesday sought to mend fences with the
technology industry as they renewed their pleas for legislation to
increase the flow of information about cyber attacks between federal
agencies and private companies.
A plan to protect companies from privacy lawsuits if they turn over data
on electronic intrusions was a central feature of the administrations
cybersecurity agenda last year, but legislation containing it failed to
pass and it has not gained momentum during this Congressional session.
The previous bill brought opposition from privacy advocates who feared
too much data would end up in the hands of the National Security Agency,
which is aligned the with military and generally charged with spying
overseas. Those arguments resonate more now that documents leaked by
Edward Snowden showed that the NSA collects domestic calling records and
that big Internet companies provide information on thousands of overseas
customers.
"If we thought that information-sharing was moving slowly before, now
it's moving even more slowly," a senior administration official said in
an interview granted on condition of anonymity.
The White House task would be easier with technology companies' support,
but some are reluctant to endorse anything that would exacerbate the
negative publicity from Snowden's documents.
NSA Director Keith Alexander stressed Wednesday that Google Inc, Facebook
Inc and other technology companies revealed by Snowden as assisting the
NSA were only doing what courts had ordered them to do in a "compelled
relationship." A half-dozen companies are petitioning U.S. courts for the
right to disclose more about how much they turn over, saying that early
media reports exaggerated their role.
"Industry has done the right thing, and we need industry to work with us
on cyber legislation," Gen. Alexander said in a speech at Billington
Cybersecurity Summit in Washington. "If we can't share information with
them, we won't be able to stop it."
The senior U.S. official said the White House wants security legislation
that would minimize data on Americans and limit what the NSA could do with
that data.
In the meantime, federal agencies are working to share more information
with each other more rapidly and automatically where feasible, and
officials are expanding a program to use secret data about emerging
threats to protect private companies that are critical to the country's
economic health.
In another bid to make amends with the technology industry, the U.S.
National Institute of Standards and Technology is revisiting its past
endorsement of a cryptology tool developed at the NSA that Snowden's
papers show was promoted because it was weak and could be broken by the
NSA. EMC Corp's RSA security division and others adopted the tool and
have recently asked software writers to stop relying on it, but many
programs using it are in wide circulation.
A NIST official told Reuters that the agency would work closely with
outside cryptography experts to see whether other standards were
problematic. "We are looking at reviewing our processes," said Donna
Dodson, deputy cybersecurity advisor at NIST.
Alexander and Mike Rogers, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, gave
spirited defenses of the NSA programs, which Alexander said had helped
prevent dozens of terrorist attacks, and said that most of the violations
described in declassified court rulings were minor.
"It's not a privacy violation. It's a bureaucratic issue and a technology
issue," Rogers said at a cybersecurity event put on by the U.S. Chamber
of Commerce.
Alexander said that over the past decade, the NSA had self-reported 12
"willful" violations of its own spying rules overseas, and that the
majority of those responsible had taken retirement afterward. Two were
demoted and had their pay docked.
Facebook, Other Banned Sites To Be Open in China Free Trade Zone
Facebook, Twitter and other websites deemed sensitive and blocked by the
Chinese government will be accessible in a planned free-trade zone (FTZ)
in Shanghai, the South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday.
Citing unidentified government sources, the Hong Kong newspaper also said
authorities would welcome bids from foreign telecoms firms for licences
to provide Internet services in the zone.
China's ruling Communist Party aggressively censors the Internet,
routinely deleting online postings and blocking access to websites it
deems inappropriate or politically sensitive.
Facebook and Twitter were blocked by Beijing in mid-2009 following deadly
riots in the western province of Xinjiang that authorities say were
abetted by the social networking sites. The New York Times has been
blocked since reporting last year that the family of then-Premier Wen
Jiabao had amassed a huge fortune.
The recently approved Shanghai FTZ is slated to be a test bed for
convertibility of China's yuan currency and further liberalization of
interest rates, as well as reforms of foreign direct investment and
taxation, the State Council, or cabinet, has said. The zone will be
formally launched on September 29, the Securities Times reported earlier
this month.
The idea of unblocking websites in the FTZ was to make foreigners "feel
like at home", the South China Morning Post quoted a government source as
saying. "If they can't get onto Facebook or read The New York Times, they
may naturally wonder how special the free-trade zone is compared with the
rest of China," the source said.
A spokesman for Facebook said the company had no comment on the newspaper
report. No one at Twitter or the New York Times was immediately available
to comment.
For Facebook, the world's largest online social network, with 1.15 billion
users, China represents an important new market for growth.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has studied Mandarin and visited China
to meet with local Web entrepreneurs, has said that making Facebook
available in China is in keeping with his company's goal of connecting
the world.
Earlier this month, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg met
with the head of China's State Council Information Office during a visit
to Beijing. The pair discussed Facebook's importance as Chinese
enterprises continue to expand abroad "and various cooperation matters
around that," according to a post on the Council's website.
Shares of Facebook were up more than 4 percent at $49.19 in trading on
Tuesday, though some analysts attributed the gains to Citigroup upgrading
its rating of Facebook's stock from neutral to buy.
Twitter, which is preparing for an initial public offering, could also
benefit by being available in China, the world's largest Internet market
by users. Still, many Chinese Web users already use similar services, such
as Sina Corp's Weibo.
China's three biggest telecoms companies - China Mobile, China Unicom and
China Telecom - have been informed of the decision to allow foreign
competition in the FTZ, the sources told the newspaper.
The three state-owned companies had not raised complaints because they
knew the decision had been endorsed by Chinese leadership including
Premier Li Keqiang, who has backed the Shanghai FTZ, the sources added.
Facebook and Twitter Too Late for China's Internet
Facebook Inc and Twitter face a daunting task in China, if access to their
social networks is unblocked, as they would be up against deeply
entrenched domestic rivals which cater to local needs and tastes.
Years of isolated growth means China's sophisticated social media
companies, including Tencent Holdings , Sina Inc and Renren Inc, won't be
too worried if Facebook and Twitter prise open the door to China's 591
million Internet users, the world's biggest online population.
Access to Facebook and Twitter has been blocked in China since 2009, but
will be lifted by the government in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone (FTZ)
which is due to launch this weekend, the South China Morning Post reported
on Tuesday - a move that has been popularly dubbed the "Internet
Concession".
But it may be too late for them to repeat their success elsewhere in one
of the world's most promising, yet most restricted, Internet markets -
where online advertising revenues soared almost 47 percent last year to
$12.3 billion.
"The Chinese social media landscape is among the most developed,
sophisticated landscapes out there," said Sam Flemming, chief executive of
China-based social media intelligence firm CIC. "These aren't just niche
social networks, these are a major part of the Internet in China."
Tencent's popular messaging app WeChat has 236 million active users, more
than half of all China's smartphone users, and micro-blogging service Sina
Weibo had more than 500 million registered accounts last year.
Tencent, whose market value topped $100 billion this month, stole the
march on rivals with its WeChat social messaging app that lets users talk
privately and in groups, play games, update friends on recent events,
send voice messages and make online payments.
Facebook, valued at $118 billion, said in its IPO prospectus last year
that its China market share was almost zero, and recent studies say
Twitter has no more than 50,000 active users in China. Access to both is
limited to people with Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) that can bypass
China's Great Firewall - the colloquial term for Beijing's Internet
blocking mechanism.
"Weibo has similar features to Twitter, but its role in China for the
dissemination of news, information and entertainment, that's what's
critical," said CIC's Flemming.
"Weibo is the zeitgeist of China, the water cooler of China."
A major challenge for the likes of Facebook and Twitter on entering the
Chinese Internet would be how to address the issue of official
censorship, which has a stranglehold on domestic online media. Chinese
authorities are cracking down on anyone posting "online rumours" and have
arrested influential celebrities on Weibo, known as "Big Vs", and even
jailed a 16-year old boy for spreading rumours online.
"Facebook would make extensive compromises it's not willing to make in
other parts of the world in order to facilitate its introduction in
China," said David Kirkpatrick, author of 'The Facebook Effect', adding
that a Chinese fondness for brands, and a desire to interact globally,
would draw users to the social network, which has 1.15 billion monthly
active users worldwide. Renren, its nearest Chinese equivalent, has 54
million users as of June, and a market value of less than $1.3 billion.
While Twitter - which has 200 million active users and has been valued at
around $15 billion ahead of a likely IPO - can offer information and
content from outside China, little of it is in Chinese.
Overall, the effect of China unblocking these social networks, even on a
scale larger than just the Shanghai FTZ, is likely to be limited.
"The impact is primarily on people who have a global point of view and
need to communicate globally. Most Chinese people are not pining for an
alternative to Weibo and WeChat," said Kirkpatrick.
Hacker 'Mercenaries' Linked to Japan, South Korea Spying
A small, sophisticated international hacking group was responsible for a
widely publicized 2011 spying attack on members of Japan's parliament as
well as dozens of previously undisclosed breaches at government agencies
and strategic companies in Japan and South Korea, security researchers
said.
Researchers at Kaspersky Lab believe they have found a squad of hackers
for hire, who contract out to governments and possibly businesses, in
contrast to recent reports on hacks said to be carried out by full-time
government employees.
"What we have here is the emergence of small groups of cyber-mercenaries
available to perform targeted attacks," said Kaspersky's global research
director, Costin Raiu, in an interview with Reuters.
"We actually believe they have contracts, and they are interested in
fulfilling whatever the contract requirements are," he said.
The espionage against members of the Japanese Diet had been blamed by that
country's officials on Chinese hackers, according to local media, but few
details had been provided. Kaspersky attributed the attack to the new
group. He was unable to say if the Chinese government was behind or
contributed to the attack.
Logs and other records show that the same group also took aim at some of
the world's biggest shipbuilders, media companies and defense contractors
including Selectron Industrial Co., although Kaspersky did not say which
attacks had been successful.
Selectron, which supplies U.S.-designed components to defense and
industrial customers in Korea, Japan and elsewhere, had no immediate
comment.
Kaspersky said it was working with some of the companies and with law
enforcement in multiple countries.
In a report released on Wednesday, Kaspersky said researchers had won
access to many of the command computers used in the campaigns and that
logs and other material showed a long list of intended victims.
They said that comments within the attack programs and the names of some
internal files were in simplified Chinese, but that members of the group
were also conversant in Japanese and Korean, suggesting a presence in all
three countries.
Servers were discovered in China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and the
United States.
Hacking teams often suck up enormous amounts of data with little
discrimination over long periods, aiming to filter through the trove
afterwards, according to reports suspected state-sponsored electronic
espionage.
But this team acted with great precision, targeting specific documents or
log-in credentials and then leaving the victimized network within weeks.
The report by Moscow-based Kaspersky follows a September 17 research paper
by SymantecCorp that blamed a separate, larger Chinese group for
well-known attacks on Google Inc, EMC Corp's RSA division, and Adobe
Systems Inc.
Kaspersky dubbed the new campaign IceFog, after the name of one of the
control servers, and said attacks typically began with emails tailored to
a specific person at a victim company.
Microsoft Word or other attachments, once opened, allowed direct access to
the attackers, who then roamed the network looking for blueprints or other
treasure. The multiple security holes that were used were previously
known, but the systems had not been patched.
There were a few dozen victims who used Windows, Raiu said. A Mac variant
of the same malicious software was detected in thousands of infections,
but was spread casually on a Chinese-language bulletin board, perhaps as
a test. He said there was no evidence that any of the Mac victims had
files copied and removed.
The hackers have changed their attack software in the past two years,
leaving fewer clues to what was done, Kaspersky said.
The objectives of the customers appeared to vary. In one case, the
detailed budget for a national army was sought, Kaspersky said, declining
to name the army. In other cases, product blueprints were sought.
Raiu saw no evidence of tampering or destruction, only the removal of
sensitive information.
Spain Readies Hefty Jail Terms over Internet Piracy
Spain can jail for up to six years the owners of websites that link to
pirated content under a measure it approved on Friday as it tries to keep
off a U.S. list of countries where copyright is violated most.
Countries on the watch list could face trade sanctions from Washington.
Spain was in danger of finding itself back on after dropping off last
year.
The amendment to the penal code, approved by the government, will affect
only those trying to make money from sites by linking to copyrighted
material provided illegally by third parties.
That includes making "direct or indirect profit" - for example from
advertising, the government said.
Spain previously only had the means to punish those who copied and
distributed copyrighted material but it did not pursue sites that linked
to providers of pirated music, films and television shows.
Users of the link-hosting sites will not face any punishment under the new
regulation.
Peer-to-peer file sharing sites and search engines are exempt from the
rules and will not face legal action.
"This is a real balance between protecting copyright and new
technologies," Spain's Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon said at a
news conference after a weekly cabinet meeting on Friday.
Microsoft Prepares To Pay More To Keep Top Executives During CEO Search
Microsoft Corp's board has authorized special stock awards to hold onto
top executives as the world's largest software company searches for a new
chief executive officer, according to a regulatory filing made public on
Monday.
The company has not yet earmarked any payments, but said in the filing to
the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it "may from time to time
make awards to executive officers," partly to ensure "continuity of key
leaders during the transition to a new chief executive officer."
In August, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced his plan to retire within
12 months, setting off the company's search for a new leader. The board
committee in charge of appointing the next CEO has said it will consider
both internal and external candidates.
Several Microsoft insiders are thought to be contenders for the CEO spot.
No executives were named in the filing.
Microsoft said the awards would be in the form of stock and would range
from 25 percent to 150 percent of the recipient's annual target
compensation. Senior Microsoft executives are already eligible for a cash
bonus and stock awards each year.
Ballmer Goes Out Punching at Last Microsoft Employee Meeting
Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer took his farewell bow before
thousands of applauding employees on Thursday with a typically loud and
emotional performance at his last companywide meeting, talking up the
software giant's prospects and taking swipes at rivals.
The CEO, whose screeching and dancing at company events is the stuff of
YouTube legend, stormed the stage to "Can't Hold Us" by Seattle
rap/producer duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, and kept up his usual high
tempo, according to several people present at the employee-only meeting.
He departed to the strains of Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin'
Somethin'," the song played at Microsoft's first employee meeting in
1983, followed by "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" from the finale of
"Dirty Dancing," getting a standing ovation from the 13,000 or so
Microsoft full-time employees in attendance.
"We have unbelievable potential in front of us, we have an unbelievable
destiny," said a visibly moved Ballmer, reusing a quote from the 1983
meeting. "Only our company and a handful of others are poised to write
the future," he continued. "We're going to think big, we're going to bet
big."
Ballmer, who announced his plan to retire within 12 months in August, was
the last act of the all-day event at Seattle's KeyArena, former home of
the city's SuperSonics basketball team.
Thousands of full-time Microsoft employees showed up, most of them bussed
in from Microsoft's campus on the east side of Lake Washington - while an
estimated 25,000 more tuned in via webcast.
The event is an annual traffic nightmare for Seattle, with 220 buses
making the 15-mile journey from Microsoft's campus in Redmond to the
center of the city.
During his time on stage, Ballmer talked about telling his parents about
deciding to drop out of Stanford's business school to join Microsoft on
1980, recalling that his father - a long-time Ford Motor Co executive -
asked him what a personal computer was.
He dwelled on his new plan to transform the company from a
software-centric operation into a more innovative devices and services
company, which he said would make it "fundamentally more powerful."
He also took a swipe at rivals, declaring that Apple is about being
"fashionable," Amazon.com is about being "cheap," Google is about "knowing
more," but Microsoft is about "doing more."
Microsoft has a bright future, Ballmer said, echoing his theme from last
week's meeting with Wall Street analysts.
"I believe in you, I believe in the mission," he told employees, choking
up slightly. "We've been a great company for years. We will be a great
company for many more years."
Novell Loses Appeal on Case Against Microsoft
A federal appeals court is throwing out Novell Inc.'s complaint that
Microsoft Corp. undermined the WordPerfect writing program in favor of
Microsoft's own Word program with the Windows 95 rollout.
The Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that
Novell has no viable claims left after the Utah company lost an
eight-week trial against Microsoft in Salt Lake City two years ago.
The case was so important to Microsoft that it put co-founder Bill Gates
on the stand for two days, saying he had no idea a last-minute decision
to drop a tool for outside developers would sidetrack Novell.
Novell says the decision cost it time and market share, and that it was
forced to sell WordPerfect for a $1.2 billion loss.
The 10th Circuit ruled that Novell's complaint came too late and it failed
to make the larger case that Microsoft was protecting a monopoly on
operating systems.
Apple Launches New iMacs
Getting an internal rather than external makeover, Apple's super-slim
desktops keep the same good looks but now come with processing speed and
storage space to spare.
Not content with the overwhelming success of its latest iPhone sales
figures, Apple has launched two new iMac all-in-one desktops complete with
next generation processors, graphics Wi-Fi, and storage. In fact all that
hasnt changed are the computers outward appearances.
As expected, like its latest MacBook Air ultra-light notebooks, the iMacs
have made the jump to Intels Haswell processors - quad-core Intel Core
i5 processors up to 3.4 GHz to be precise - meaning faster, more
responsive processing and graphics, which have been paired with NVIDIA
GeForce 700 series graphics cards, doubling the video memory and
boosting performance by 40 percent over the existing models. And of course
if that is not enough, there is an upgrade option to a quad-core Intel
Core i7 processor up to 3.5 GHz and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M series
graphics with up to 4GB of video memory.
Wi-fi is now 802.11ac, meaning that as long as the router and other
elements of the home network support it, surfing speeds are comparable to
a wired Ethernet connection, while also giving everything a boost is the
inclusion of a bigger fusion drive (up to 3TB) Apples part solid state
flash, part spinning disc hard drive that gives faster boot-up times,
instant access to open files and to applications without overwhelming the
RAM.
However, there is plenty of RAM to go round. The computers ship with 8GB
as standard but can be maxed out to a whopping 32GB.
Available Tuesday, the entry-level 21.5-inch iMac will cost $1299 (£1,149
or 1299) from Apples online store while its bigger 27-inch brother will
retail for $1799 (£1,599 or 1799).
Tesco Eyes Slice of Tablet Market with 'Hudl'
Tesco , the world's third-biggest retailer, has entered Britain's
intensely competitive tablet market with a low-priced own-brand product
that it hopes will boost online shopping and drive sales of its digital
entertainment content.
The British firm said on Monday its "Hudl" device, which has a seven-inch
screen, runs Google's Android operating system and has 16 gigabytes of
storage, would be priced at 119 pounds ($190), taking on a market
dominated by Apple , Samsung and Amazon .
Tesco is attempting to revive its fortunes in its home market after losing
share to rivals but has suffered a series of setbacks to its reputation
this year, including the discovery across Europe of horsemeat in products
labeled as beef.
In June the firm posted a drop in quarterly underlying sales in Britain,
resuming a trend seen for most of the past three years and raising doubts
about its 1 billion pound turnaround plan.
"It's a reflection of the way Tesco is changing and also a reflection of
the way the world around us is changing," Chief Executive Phil Clarke
told reporters at the Hudl launch.
Though a quarter of Britain's households own a tablet computer, Clarke
said Tesco had identified a gap in the market because many shoppers were
put off by the expense and by intimidating technology.
"Tesco in the UK reaches 20 million customers a week, many of whom have
not previously considered buying a tablet ... So we are uniquely
positioned to open up the tablet market," he said.
The Hudl device has quick access to Tesco's online shopping and banking
sites, as well as its blinkbox movies and TV on demand service, Clubcard
TV, music streaming and e-book services.
If Tesco customers utilize a scheme that doubles the value of their
Clubcard loyalty vouchers they can effectively buy the Hudl for 60
pounds.
Tesco's device will compete with Amazon's Kindle Fire, which retails for
99 pounds, Google's Nexus 7, which costs 199 pounds and Apple's iPad mini,
which sells for 269 pounds.
"If you compare the specification that we've put together with the
specification of similarly priced products on the market we'll beat them
hands down," said chief information officer Mike McNamara.
Gareth Beavis, phone and tablet editor at online technology publication
TechRadar, said Tesco was attempting to "do an Amazon" by encouraging
shoppers into buying something that has its own services onboard.
It was a logical move for Tesco, he said, but for consumers possibly less
so.
"The Nexus 7 is a few tens of pounds more, but it is an absolutely
mind-blowing machine in comparison," he said.
Sebastian James, CEO of Dixons Retail , Europe's second biggest
electricals retailer, said earlier this month that although there is a
market in Britain for cheap and basic tablets, consumers were often left
disappointed by purchases.
"We get a lot back because people use them and they say 'no, what I wanted
was an iPad' and they are not," he told Reuters.
"There's a reason why an iPad is more expensive, it's just better."
Tesco declined to say how many Hudls it expected to sell but said its
supply chain can be flexed to meet demand.
The device will initially launch in Britain only, though a roll-out to the
group's overseas markets in Europe and Asia could be considered in the
future.
Microsoft Unveils New Surface, Fixes Shortcomings
Microsoft refreshed its Surface tablet computers Monday, giving them
longer battery life and better comfort on laps as the software giant
continues its transformation into a devices and services company.
The company said it tried to address many shortcomings of the
first-generation Surface models, sales of which have been slow. Microsoft
needs to boost its tablet business to make up for sales declines in
traditional desktop and laptop computers. IDC is forecasting a nearly
10 percent decline in PC shipments this year. The research firm also said
tablets will outsell traditional PCs in the last three months of the year.
The new tablet models come with a better built-in kickstand so they can
rest more firmly on users' laps while they sit on the couch. Microsoft is
also making a docking station and a wireless mouse for business customers
who need the mobility of tablets but also desire the traditional ways of
using computers while in the office.
"We've definitely gotten a year smarter," Brian Hall, general manager of
sales and marketing for Surface, said in an interview.
The redesigned Surface tablets come at a time of transition for Microsoft.
Earlier this month, Microsoft struck a deal to acquire Nokia's phone and
services business for $7.2 billion. The company is also searching for a
new CEO to replace Steven A. Ballmer, who announced last month that he
plans to retire within the next year.
The Surface Pro 2 is targeted at professionals who want the full power of
a laptop in a tablet-style device. With a starting price of $899, the
Pro 2 uses a full version of the upcoming Windows 8.1, meaning it can run
any program written for Windows desktops and laptops.
The Pro 2 promises 75 percent more battery life than the debut Pro model,
which came out in February. Microsoft, which did not specify the number
of hours of expected use, said the improvement comes partly from the use
of Intel's Haswell chip, which uses less energy. There's also an optional
Power Cover accessory that extends battery life even further.
A cheaper model, Surface 2, offers a 25 percent improvement in battery
life, which means it can get up to 10 hours of use. It also has a better
screen compared with last October's Surface RT. It uses Windows RT 8.1,
meaning it can run only apps specifically designed for it. Microsoft said
it now has 100,000 apps, or 10 times what was available last year. Like
other RT tablets, Microsoft is including a version of its Office software
for free with the Surface 2. But now, the package will have the Outlook
email and calendar program, not just Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Microsoft is selling the Surface 2 starting at $449 and will continue to
offer last year's Surface RT for $349.
The Surface 2 and the Surface Pro 2 will come with 200 gigabytes of free
online storage through SkyDrive for two years, as well as free calls and
Wi-Fi hotspots through Skype for a year. The new tablets will go on sale
Oct. 22, a few days after Microsoft releases its 8.1 update to its
Windows 8 operating system on Oct. 17. The screen on both new models
remains at 10.6 inches, measured diagonally.
Keyboard covers will cost extra: $120 for a Touch Cover 2, which has
working, printed keyboard on the inside surface but whose keys don't move
when pushed, and $130 for Type Cover 2, which have keys that move. A new
Power Cover with a built-in spare battery will cost about $200 when it
comes out early next year.
A $200 docking station also will come out early next year and will work
only with Pro models, including the older one already out. Hall said
Microsoft chose not to make the Pro 2 smaller so that accessories would be
compatible.
In an interview, Hall said the company will fine-tune its marketing
strategy by showing specific things that the Surface can do in ads. Last
year's ads, he said, tried to create an energetic feeling, but failed to
show consumers what the tablets did.
Hall also said Microsoft won't try to compete directly with Apple's
popular iPad. Microsoft is positioning the Surface as ideal for tasks
people normally tackle on laptops, such as creating documents and editing
movies. That's also the reason the Redmond, Wash., company opted not to
make models with smaller screens, Hall said, as those tend to be used more
for entertainment and content consumption.
"We have to get people to think of it as a little different (from) an
iPad," he said. "iPads are great, but these are a different device. ...
We're building a product for a different set of people."
Verizon's Diabolical Plan To Turn The Web Into Pay-per-view
Think of all the things that tick you off about cable TV. Along with
brainless programming and crummy customer service, the very worst aspect
of it is forced bundling. You can't pay just for the couple of dozen
channels you actually watch. Instead, you have to pay for a couple of
hundred channels, because the good stuff is scattered among a number of
overstuffed packages.
Now, imagine that the Internet worked that way. You'd hate it, of course.
But that's the direction that Verizon, with the support of many wired and
wireless carriers, would like to push the Web. That's not hypothetical.
The country's No. 1 carrier is fighting in court to end the Federal
Communications Commission's policy of Net neutrality, a move that would
open the gates to a whole new - and wholly bad - economic model on the
Web.
As it stands now, you pay
your Internet service provider and go wherever
you want on the Web. Packets of bits are just packets and have to be
treated equally. That's the essence of Net neutrality. But Verizon's
plan, which the company has outlined during hearings in federal court
and before Congress, would change that. Verizon and its allies would
like to charge websites that carry popular content for the privilege
of moving their packets to your connected device. Again, that's not
hypothetical.
ESPN, for example, is in negotiations with at least one major cellular
carrier to pay to exempt its content from subscribers' cellular data caps.
And what's wrong with that? Well, ESPN is big and rich and can pay for
that exemption, but other content providers - think of your local jazz
station that streams audio - couldn't afford it and would be out of
business. Or, they'd make you pay to visit their websites. Indeed, if
that system had been in place 10 years ago, fledglings like Google or
YouTube or Facebook might never have gotten out of the nest.
Susan Crawford, a tech policy expert and professor at Yeshiva University's
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, says Verizon wants to "cable-ize the
Internet." She writes in her blog that "The question presented by the case
is: Does the U.S. government have any role in ensuring ubiquitous, open,
world-class, interconnected, reasonably priced Internet access?"
They argue that because they spent megabucks to build and maintain the
network, they should be able to have a say over what content travels over
it. They say that because Google and Facebook and other Internet companies
make money by moving traffic over "their" networks, they should get a
bigger piece of the action. (Never mind that pretty much every person and
business that accesses Google or Facebook is already paying for the
privilege, and paying more while getting less speed than users in most of
Europe.)
In 2005, AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre famously remarked that upstarts like Google
would like to "use my pipes free, but I ain't going to let them do that
because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it."
That's bad enough, but Verizon goes even further. It claims that it has a
right to free speech and, like a newspaper that may or may not publish a
story about something, it can choose which content it chooses to carry.
"Broadband providers possess 'editorial discretion.' Just as a newspaper
is entitled to decide which content to publish and where, broadband
providers may feature some content over others," Verizon's lawyers argue
in a brief.
That's so crazy I won't bother to address it. But the FCC has done such a
poor job of spelling out what it thinks it has the right to regulate and
how that should work that the door is wide open for the carriers' bizarre
- not to mention anticonsumer - strategies and arguments.
I don't want to get down in the regulatory weeds, but there is one bit of
legalese that's worth knowing: common carrier. Simply put, it means that
the company doing the shipping can't mess with the contents. A railroad is
a common carrier, and as such it can't decide whose cargo it will carry
and whose it won't.
Before railroads were common carriers, they did things like favor products
made by John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, which made him even richer and
also led to the creation of a wildly out-of-control monopoly. (Yeshiva's
Crawford has an in-depth but readable explanation of these issues in her
book "Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the
New Gilded Age."
But the FCC has never ruled that ISPs are common carriers, partly because
it's afraid of the power of the lobbyists to influence Congress and
partly because its directors lack spine. And now that lack of spine is
about to bite the butt of everyone who uses the Web.
According to people who follow this stuff closely, because ISPs are not
common carriers the judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington,
D.C., are looking askance at the FCC's defense against Verizon's lawsuit,
although a verdict isn't likely for months.
Here are the stakes: "If Verizon - or any ISP - can go to a website and
demand extra money just to reach Verizon subscribers, the fundamental
fairness of competing on the Internet would be disrupted. It would
immediately make Verizon the gatekeeper to what would and would not
succeed online. ISPs - not users, not the market - would decide which
websites and services succeed," writes Michael Weinberg, vice president
of Public Knowledge, a digital advocacy group.
You don't have to wait for the Verizon verdict to get a taste of what the
New Web Order would be like. Time Warner Cable and CBS just had a dustup
over how much Time Warner would pay CBS to carry its programming. When
the pair couldn't agree, the cable giant stopped carrying CBS programming
in New York City, Los Angeles, and Dallas. CBS then retaliated by
stopping Time Warner subscribers from streaming its programming over the
Internet.
They settled after about a month. Staying true to form, Time Warner
refused to give customers a rebate as compensation for lost programming.
That's not exactly the same issue that we're facing in the fight over Net
neutrality, but it should give you a sense of what life is like when the
giants fight it out over what you're allowed to access and for how much.
Users get caught in the middle, and the rights we've taken for granted
simply disappear.
At 15, Google Revisits Past, Eyes Future
Google celebrated its 15th birthday Thursday with a trip down memory lane,
and an update to the search engine formula which helped spawn the tech
giant.
The company took journalists on a tour of where it all started - Susan
Wojcicki's garage in Menlo Park, California, where Larry Page and Sergey
Brin began working on Google in 1998. Wojcicki is currently a Google vice
president.
A Google+ page meanwhile included a photo album of the original home
search page, and collected dozens of birthday wishes.
But Google, which has grown into one of the world's biggest companies,
was not content to just look at the past. It announced an upgrade to its
main search engine, with new ways to integrate its use across different
devices.
Since 1998, the tech world has changed dramatically and Google said its
search engine has been constantly improved.
"The world has changed so much since then: billions of people have come
online, the web has grown exponentially, and now you can ask any question
on the powerful little device in your pocket," said Google Search chief
Amit Singhal in a blog post.
"You can explore the world with the Knowledge Graph, ask questions aloud
with voice search, and get info before you even need to ask with Google
Now."
Singhal said the change includes "a simpler, more unified design on mobile
devices."
"You'll also notice a new look and feel for Google Search and ads on your
phones and tablets," he added.
"It's cleaner and simpler, optimized for touch, with results clustered on
cards so you can focus on the answers you're looking for."
Danny Sullivan of the tech blog Search Engine Land said the upgrade of
main search engine is based on a new algorithm with the code name
"Hummingbird," which he said is "especially designed to handle complex
queries."
15% of U.S. Adults Still Dont Use The Internet
Considering just how much time we spend online every day, its hard to
fathom a life completely devoid of an Internet connection. Yet according
to a recent poll by Pew Internet, 15% of American adults ages 18 and
older do not use the internet or email. Pew went on to ask why these
adults didnt get online, and only 19% of non-internet users cited the
cost of a computer or an internet subscription as the primary cause. Most
people, as many as 34%, said the Internet is just not relevant to their
interests they have better things to do. The second most popular reason
was usability. 32% of non-users say that the Internet is complicated and
frustrating, or that they just dont feel physically comfortable
attempting to maneuver cyberspace.
Control-Alt-Delete? Gates Says Command Was a Mistake
It's a shortcut all Windows users know. A frozen program? Slow
performance? The first move is, of course, holding down those three keys
- Control-Alt-Delete. It's a three-finger move to get to the task manager
or get to a log-in screen, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates now admits
the rather clunky command was a mistake.
When asked who came up with the shortcut during an interview at Harvard
University this week, Gates said "it was a mistake."
"We could have had a single button, but the guy who did the IBM keyboard
design didn't want to give us our single button," Gates said. "We
programmed at a low level. ... It was a mistake." The part in the
interview was first spotted by Geekwire.
That IBM PC engineer was David Bradley. Bradley, who designed the computer
in 1980, said in an older interview that "it was originally intended to be
what we would now call an Easter Egg, just something we were just using in
development - it wouldn't be available elsewhere."
That certainly wasn't the case. Introduced in 1981, the command still
lives on in Windows, including Microsoft's current Windows 8 operating
system.
According to a 2010 article in the Indianapolis Star, the original idea
was to create a way to restart the computer. He chose those keys because
he didn't want people to mistakenly hit the keys and on that original IBM
keyboard the Delete key was on the other side and, thus, required two
hands.
Bradley said he didn't think it would become a "cultural icon," and then
taking a shot at Gates and Windows' all-too-well-known issues, he said,
"I might have invented it, but I think Bill made it famous."
LA Students Breach School iPads' Security
It took just a week for nearly 300 students who got iPads from their Los
Angeles high school to figure out how to alter the security settings so
they could surf the Web and access social media sites.
The breach at Roosevelt High and two other LA schools has prompted Los
Angeles Unified School District officials to halt a $1 billion program
aimed at putting the devices in the hands of every student in the nation's
second-largest school system, the Los Angeles Times reported. The district
also has banned home use of the iPads until further notice as officials
look for ways to make sure students use the devices for school work only.
The actions come as school officials nationwide grapple with security
measures for iPads and other devices as they introduce them to tech-savvy
students.
"I'm guessing this is just a sample of what will likely occur on other
campuses once this hits Twitter, YouTube or other social media sites
explaining to our students how to breach or compromise the security of
these devices," School District Police Chief Steven Zipperman wrote in a
confidential memo to senior staff obtained by the Times. "I want to
prevent a 'runaway train' scenario when we may have the ability to put a
hold on the rollout."
Roosevelt was among the first schools to distribute iPads as part of the
district rollout. Its students initially were allowed to take home the
Apple tablets, and they learned they could easily delete their personal
profile information, giving them greater access to the iPads'
capabilities.
Westchester High and the Valley Academy of Arts and Sciences in Granada
Hills also reported the problem, though in smaller numbers.
Roosevelt students began to tinker with the security software on the
devices after "they took them home and they can't do anything with them,"
Alfredo Garcia, a senior at the school, told the Times.
Before long, students were on the Internet, sending tweets, socializing
on Facebook and streaming music through Pandora, students told the
newspaper.
The district said in a statement Wednesday that steps have been taken "to
ensure it has 100 percent control over what is accessible" on the devices.
Potential precautions include permanently barring home use of the tablets
and strengthening the security software that limits how the devices are
used.
Zipperman suggested in the memo to senior staff that the district might
want to delay distribution of the iPads.
When the technology breaches came to light Tuesday, Superintendent John
Deasy "ordered a moratorium on allowing tablets to leave campus until the
problem has been resolved," the district statement said.
What Will The Internet Be in 2050?
A global computer-based communication network has fundamentally changed
our social, cultural, and political landscape over the past 20 years. As
an evolutionary anthropologist, I have to point out that there has been
no previous communication revolution of this speed or intensity.
Consequently, this communication tool gives us the power to completely
restructure our entire existence, both on an individual and collective
level.
As inescapably pervasive as the Internets emergence has been, fewer
scientists are studying it, than you would think. Even fewer scientists
are attempting to situate its emergence within the context of our
technological evolution, or understand its potential future development
in the 21st century.
So Ill ask
what will the Internet be in 2050?
Today, I cant help but notice that the Internet is getting more and more
intelligent. When it first emerged it was passive and unorganized. Today,
it is massively active, alerting you about opportunities that may
interest you. It is also massively organized, with weighted hyperlinks,
wikis, and powerful search engines.
Also, consider the obvious:
1) We keep giving the Internet more and more data every year
2) We keep using the Internet more and more every year
3) And finally, more and more of us are able to use the Internet every
year
The end goal of some of these trends seem evident to me. We will
eventually have all of our lives recorded in some way, shape, or form on
the Internet. Some of this information may exist in mediums that dont
currently exist today.
We will also eventually have our entire communication existence mediated
in some way through the Internet. The devices that we use to access the
Internet keep getting smaller, and more intimately accessible. Will they
eventually just become a part of our bodies this century? After the
wearables revolution, the internals revolution will probably not be
far behind.
And clearly all humans will eventually be able to access the Internet,
wherever they are. Just consider the Google Loom project. All 7 billion of
us (and then 8 billion, and then 9 billion of us) all interacting
seamlessly and intimately on the Internet in new digital worlds of our own
making.
Sharing, commenting, liking, buying, selling, writing, tweeting,
hash-tagging.
When you stop and think about this, it may start to become overwhelming.
The 21st century is clearly going to be a very different one from the
20th century. And one could make the argument that the 21st century will
be so different primarily because of the emergence and full establishment
of the Internet as a communication medium binding human thought together.
A communication revolution like this offers us fantastic opportunities.
First it allows us to build a global culture. Over evolutionary time
this was obviously not possible even though our species had colonized
all of the unfrozen continents ~20,000 years ago. With instant global
communication, the formation of a truly global culture is in reach this
century.
Second, the Internet allows us an opportunity to make the borders of the
19th and 20th century obsolete. Why should the national structure of our
planet remain static with a global communication network? It doesnt have
to, and it probably wont. The longer humans are engaging deeply with the
Internet, and the more integrated the Internet becomes within all
human-life, the less likely we are to relate at all to the nation state.
The Blue Marble image made us all think about becoming citizens of the
planet. The Internet makes this a practical reality.
But can we know the Internets deeper future? Some of the trends I
mentioned above are likely to manifest in the 2020s, or the 2030s. What
will the Internet be in 2050? And if our knowledge of the future Internet
was well developed, could it help us make more intelligent decisions
about our careers and our personal lives today? And from an intellectual
level, can we situate this communication revolution within the context of
previous communication revolutions?
=~=~=~=
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