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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 16 Issue 44
Volume 16, Issue 44 Atari Online News, Etc. October 31, 2014
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2014
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 #1644 10/31/14
~ Cyberattacks To Increase ~ People Are Talking! ~ Noriega Suit Tossed!
~ Atari Preorders on Steam ~ Microsoft Cuts 3,000! ~ New HP 3D System!
~ Twitch: No Naked Gaming! ~ Pirate Bay Head Guilty! ~ New Mac Office Soon!
~ Unlimited Cloud Storage! ~ Facebook Aids Tor Users ~ The VIGAMUS & Atari!
-* E.T. Documentary To Premiere *-
-* White House: Suspicious Cyber Threat? *-
-* U of Penn Offers "Wasting Time on Internet" *-
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->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
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BOO!!!
Happy Halloween, everybody!! I've always enjoyed this "holiday".
Perhaps it's one that everyone - especially the kids - can enjoy with
little fanfare (or a lot if that's your thing!). It's just a fun time
of the year! And, there are a lot of truly scary things going on in the
world today; some made-up scary activity sure takes the edge off of
reality for a day! Hope you get more treats than tricks!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Atari E.T. Xbox Documentary To Premiere!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Judge Tosses Noriega's Suit Out!
Twitch: No Naked Gaming, OK?
And more!
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->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
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Judge Tosses Ex-dictator's Suit Against Activision
Disgraced Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega's lawsuit over his inclusion
in a 2012 "Call of Duty" video game has been dismissed by a judge who
determined the game's use of his likeness is protected by the First
Amendment.
Superior Court Judge William Fahey's ruling determined that Activision
Blizzard, Inc. created a complex and multi-faceted game, "Call of Duty:
Black Ops II," and it relied very little on the inclusion of Noriega in
a pair of missions.
Noriega had sought unspecified damages in the lawsuit, which Fahey ruled
cannot be amended or re-filed. Noriega's attorney William T. Gibbs said
his office was still reviewing the ruling and would confer with Noriega
on any next steps, which could include an appeal.
Noriega sued Activision in July, claiming the company depicted him as a
killer and enemy of the state. The game features a story line in which
players capture Noriega, who then helps the game's villain.
"This was an absurd lawsuit from the very beginning and we're gratified
that in the end, a notorious criminal didn't win," said former New York
City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who was part of the legal team that represented
Activision in court earlier this month.
Giuliani had argued that Noriega's status as a public figure in the 1980s
prevented him from suing over his inclusion in the game.
Activision, which has featured historical figures such as President
John F. Kennedy and Fidel Castro in previous "Call of Duty" games,
praised the ruling.
"Today's ruling is a victory for the 40 million dedicated members of our
'Call of Duty' community and global audiences who enjoy historical
fiction across all works of art," Bobby Kotick, Activision Blizzard's
CEO wrote in a statement.
Noriega was toppled in 1989 by a U.S. invasion and served a 17-year drug
trafficking sentence in the United States. He later was convicted in
France of money laundering, and that country repatriated him to Panama
in December 2011. Noriega, 80, is serving a 60-year sentence for murder,
embezzlement and corruption.
He has had health issues in recent months and has been treated for high
blood pressure, flu and bronchitis. His family also has said he has a
benign brain tumor and heart trouble. In a sworn declaration, Noriega
wrote that he learned his likeness had been used in the game after his
grandchildren played it and asked why one of the missions focused on
captured the ex-dictator.
Noriega contended his appearance in the game boosted Activision's profits
from "Black Ops II." The game earned more than $1 billion in sales within
15 days of its release. Fahey disagreed, writing that the marketability
and economic value of "Black Ops II "comes not from Noriega, but from the
creativity, skill and reputation of (Activision.)"
Activision has pointed out that Noriega appears in one mission in the
game and he wasn't used in any of the marketing for "Black Ops II."
Twitch: No Naked Gaming, OK?
Still settling into its new digs at Amazon, video game streaming service
Twitch has updated its rules of conduct to remind users not to broadcast
in the nude.
The list is separate from the company's terms of service, and cover
behaviors that could lead to suspension of an account or channel.
"These behaviors fall under a common sense philosophy," the page said.
"If you find yourself asking whether or not you're crossing the line,
chances are you shouldn't do it."
Things like harming yourself physically, drinking excessively, or
endangering yourself while on screen, breaking the law, posting spam
content, or harassing other users or Twitch staff.
Just as important: Neither you, nor your game characters, should be naked.
Sure, if your character stumbles across the screen topless, it's OK. But
don't make naughty bits the primary focus of your broadcast. Typical "not
safe for work" images, whether on screen or linked in a chat, are also
forbidden.
"Nerds are sexy, and you're all magnificent, beautiful creatures," the
Twitch site said. "But let's try and keep this about the games, shall
we?"
Setting up shop in your birthday suit, or otherwise sexually suggestive
clothing (lingerie, swimsuits, pasties, and undergarments) will almost
ensure your suspension. Even fully exposed torsosman or womanare not
allowed.
"You may have a great six-pack, but that's better shared on the beach
during a 2-on-2 volleyball game blasting "Playing with the Boys," Twitch
said. If it is blisteringly hot wherever you are broadcasting, and you
just can't stand to wear a top, Twitch is willing to compromisecrop your
webcam to your face.
"There is always a workaround," the company said.
While you might wonder who would actually want to appear on Twitch in the
buff, a PS4 user last year was suspended after he appeared with his wife
on Twitch TV. Both had quite a bit to drink, and the wife eventually
passed out, at which point, the husband showed viewers her breast. Later,
the stream cut out and when it returned, the wife was completely naked.
Other rules apply, including no racist, sexist, homophobic, or other hate
speech, no streaming games before their release without permission, and
no non-gaming content. Disobey the guidelines, and you'll find yourself
temporarily kicked off the service. Attempt to evade suspension, and your
penalty will only be lengthened.
Two months ago, Amazon acquired Twitch for $970 million in casha move
that Twitch CEO Emmett Shear said "will let us do even more for our
community."
"We will be able to create tools and services faster than we could have
independently," he said in August. "This change will mean great things
for our community, and will let us bring Twitch to even more people
around the world."
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE Gaming Online - Online Users Growl & Purr!
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Atari E.T. Xbox Documentary To Premiere
Atari: Game Over is a documentary that's part of a gaming series that'll
be coming to Xbox One and Xbox 360 this fall. We'd heard about it before
- we've even seen photos of the digging up of the E.T. site in the
desert. But now we get to see it up close and personal. This documentary
will show "the untold story of the 80's tech giant and its fateful launch
of E.T., the video game." Until now this documentary did not have a
launch date - surprise! Now it does.
Alamogordo, New Mexico is the place, and the dig is what happened.
They're going to make a massive deal about it. It's going to be very,
very dramatic. E.T. for Atari. Brutal, unfair, and less than acceptable
for the industry, even back in the 80s.
Atari was the boss. Atari wanted to create the game for one of the
biggest movies in the history of the world.
The game was horrible.
The game tanked, and Atari took a dive.
They took the games they did not sell and dumped them in to the desert
into a hole. This is the digging.
You'll be able to see it on Xbox One and Xbox 360 on the 20th of
November, 2014. Be there - or watch it later. Epic event!
Atari's Buried Trash Is Now An Italian Museum's Treasure
Unearthed with great fanfare (and its very own documentary) earlier this
year, some of the long-buried collection of E.T. and other Atari game
cartridges are getting their first public outing this week at the The
Video Game Museum of Rome, a member tells Polygon.
The VIGAMUS, The Video Game Museum of Rome, is the first museum to
feature the exhibit pulled from the, some feared, radioactive dump site
in Alamogordo, New Mexico. VIGAMUS is the first Italian museum dedicated
to interactive games. It was set up in 2013 under the auspices of the
Ministry of Arts and Culture and Tourist to preserve, research and show
physical and digital works linked to the digital medium.
The exhibit, entitled "E.T. The Fall: Atari Buried Treasures," features
items found inside the "Atari Tomb" including E.T., Asteroids, Centipede
and Defender cartridges, hardware parts for the Atari VCS console, photos
of the dig and a certificate of authenticity provided by the city of
Alamogordo.
The exhibit also has large panels which walk visitors through the story
of the 1983 video game crash and E.T.'s ties to that crisis. The exhibit,
which you can see in the gallery below thanks to photos provided to
Polygon from VIGAMUS, runs from Oct. 29.
In September, the Alamogordo city council voted unanimously to approve
distribution plans for about 1,300 cartridges unearthed in the dig. The
plan included provisions for lending out some of the material to museums
around the world, and also selling some on eBay.
Atari Thrills Fans With Pre-Orders for Alone in the Dark: Illumination
and Haunted House: Cryptic Graves on Steam
Atari, one of the world's most recognized publishers and producers of
interactive entertainment, today announced the availability of
pre-orders for its latest PC titles, Alone in the Dark: Illumination and
Haunted House: Cryptic Graves. Ahead of Halloween, the announcement
features exclusive discounts and bonus items, with pre-orders of these
survival horror genre games available now on Steam.
To pre-order Alone in the Dark: Illumination visit the Steam page:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/275060
To pre-order Haunted House: Cryptic Graves visit the Steam page:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/314850
The pre-order bonus pack for Alone in the Dark: Illumination "Eldritch
Edition" includes limited-edition character and weapon skins, early
access during the game's beta launch starting later this fall and a
10 percent discount for a limited time.
The pre-order package for Haunted House: Cryptic Graves includes a
15 percent discount for a limited time. For a first look at the new
gameplay trailer of Haunted House: Cryptic Graves, fans can visit
www.HauntedHouseGame.com.
Full releases of both titles will debut in Holiday 2014. Alone in the
Dark: Illumination will be available on Steam for $29.99. As the latest
installment of the long-running Alone in the Dark®franchise, Alone in
the Dark: Illumination is a third-person action-horror game that brings
interesting new twists and gameplay including the power of
illumination, 4-player cooperative multiplayer mode, and a unique cast
of characters featuring descendants of the original Alone in the Dark
heroes. Players can choose between the four playable heroes, each armed
with an individual set of special abilities and weapons, including:
The Hunter - Equipped with powerful firearms such as an Assault Rifle,
SMG and Flamethrower attachment.
The Witch - Utilizing a combination of traditional weapons and
supernatural powers including a Revolver, Lightning Strike, Creature
Control and Lightning Crawler.
The Priest - Blessed with divine abilities including the Lord's Embrace,
Holy Light, Wrath of God, Cleansing of the Sinners and Sacred Chant.
The Engineer - Armed with mechanical items and weapons including a
Pistol, Pump Shotgun, Tesla Wall and Comet.
Haunted House: Cryptic Graves will be available on Steam for $19.99.
Inspired by the classic 1982 Atari hit of the same name, the new PC title
is a first-person horror-adventure game. Featuring enigmatic puzzles,
supernatural entities and paranormal activity, players are gifted with
psychic abilities which allow them to communicate with the land of the
dead and purge the spirits and monsters that haunt Abaddon Grange. The
pre-order trailer of Haunted House: Cryptic Graves shows new gameplay
footage for the first time.
Alone in the Dark: Illumination is being developed by PURE FPS and fans
can keep up with the latest on the game on Twitter at @AITDGame or
Facebook at facebook.com/aloneinthedarkgame. Haunted House: Cryptic
Graves is being developed by Dreampainters and can be followed on
Twitter at @HauntedHousePC or Facebook at
facebook.com/atarihauntedhouse.
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A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Suspicious Cyber Activity at White House Detected, Addressed
Suspicious cyber activity has been detected on the computer network used
by the White House and measures have been taken to address it, a White
House official disclosed on Tuesday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, would not say who
might have been responsible for the activity on what was described as an
unclassified computer network used by employees of the Executive Office
of the President.
The Washington Post cited sources as saying hackers believed to be
working for the Russian government breached the unclassified computer
network in recent weeks.
"In the course of assessing recent threats we identified activity of
concern on the unclassified EOP network. Any such activity is something
that we take very seriously. In this case we took immediate measures to
evaluate and mitigate the activity," the White House official said.
The official said the technical measures to address the activity had led
to limited access to some EOP network services. Some of the issues have
been resolved, but the work continues.
"Our actions are ongoing and some of our actions have resulted in
temporary outages and loss of connectivity for some EOP users," the
official said.
A second administration official told Reuters there were no indications
that classified networks had been affected.
The White House, like many government entities in Washington, frequently
faces cyber threats.
Cyberattacks Will Increase Over The Next Decade
Cyberattacks are likely to increase in the next 10 years, but effective
counter measures will minimize damage, a new study found.
The Pew Research Center and Elon University's Imagining the Internet
Center surveyed more than 1,600 experts and Internet builders about the
state of cybersecurity and found that 61 percent of them believe a major
attack causing widespread harm would occur by 2025, according to
"Digital Life in 2025," released Oct. 29.
The Internet's expansion and growing use of it especially as critical
infrastructure for defense, energy, health and finance are contributing
to the problem, the report states. Many respondents said essential
utilities are among the most vulnerable targets, and most agreed that
individuals' accounts and identities will be more vulnerable to attacks
in the future, while businesses will be under constant attack.
In a recent survey on Federal IT Reform, Senior government IT executives
laid out their vision for the coming year, detailing challenges and
identifying priorities.
"I would not say that a major cyber attack will have caused widespread
harm to a nation's security and capacity to defend itself and its people,
but the risks will be there," said respondent Dave Kissoondoyal, chief
executive officer of KMP Global, according to the report. "By 2025,
there will be widespread use of cyber terrorism and countries will
spend a lot of money on cyber security."
Other experts were less sure of an impending attack, citing progress in
security fixes and standards. Some also said that the threat of
retaliation will be a sufficient deterrent, while others cautioned
against buying into cyber hype.
"Perhaps I am optimistic, but this concern seems exaggerated by the
political and commercial interests that benefit from us directing
massive resources to those who offer themselves as our protectors,"
said Jonathan Grudin, principal researcher at Microsoft Research. "It is
also exaggerated by the media because it is a dramatic story."
But the Internet's popularity and use lead some experts to believe
vulnerabilities of all kinds will grow. "The Internet of Things is just
emerging," said respondent Tim Kambitsch, an activist Internet user. "In
the future, control of physical assets, not just information, will be
open to cyber attack."
The last time Pew and the Imagining the Internet Center asked about the
future of cyberattacks was 2004. In that time, cyberattacks and defenses
have evolved greatly already. The report cites the Stuxnet worm, which
aimed to disarm Iranian nuclear facilities that could make enriched
uranium, as well as the Defense Department's establishment of the Cyber
Command. It also references the July breach at JPMorgan Chase and Co.
that put information from 76 million households and 7 million small
businesses at risk and last week's attack on the Apple iCloud data
storage system by a China-based actor.
Pirate Bay Co-Founder Found Guilty of Hacking Crimes in Historic Case
Swedish hacker Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, who co-founded torrent site the
Pirate Bay in 2003, was found guilty by a Copenhagen court of stealing
data from the systems of CSC, a major American IT firm that holds Danish
public records, along with a 21-year-old accomplice.
Warg and his accomplice were convicted of hacking into the CSC mainframe
between April and August 2012, gaining access to various sets of data,
including the Population Register, the police criminal record and
SIS-register of internationally wanted persons.
In total, hundreds of thousands of Danish social security numbers,
extradition agreements and criminal records were stolen from the
mainframe, as well as the email addresses and passwords of over 10,000
policemen.
Wargs defence acknowledged that his computer had been used in the
hacking of the CSC database, however they argued that the device had been
compromised by a third party. Jacob Appelbaum, a well-known activist and
leading member of the Tor project - a free anonymous browser service,
testified that it would have been easy for an outsider to gain access to
Wargs computer. Appelbaum has previously collaborated with Edward
Snowden in the leaking of NSA files.
A 21-year-old Danish IT professional was found guilty of collaborating
with Svaltholm Warg. However Judge Kari Sørensen, who presided over the
case, called for news outlets not to publish his name.
When the hacking took place, Svartholm Warg was based in Phnom Penh, the
Cambodian capital, where he had fled in 2011 to avoid facing charges of
violating copyright laws through his involvement with the Pirate Bay.
Since its launch in 2003, the site has become the most visited torrent
directory on the internet. The site is predominantly used to share
copyrighted material such as films, TV shows and music files, free of
charge. After Svartholm Warg and his co-founders were found guilty of
infringing copyright agreements, several countries forced their internet
service providers to block the website. Since then, numerous proxies
have sprung up, providing access to the site.
Warg was arrested in Cambodia in 2012 and subsequently extradited to
Sweden to serve a one year jail sentence for hacking the mainframe of IT
consulting firm Logica, which provides tax services to the Swedish
government. He has been detained in Denmark since November 2013, when he
was extradited partway through his jail sentence in Sweden for
questioning over his involvement with CSC.
The Prosecution pushed for a five year sentence, arguing that Svartholm
Wargs sentence should be longer than those normally given to hacking
cases in Denmark in view of these convictions.
Elisabeth Braw, Newsweeks Europe correspondent, said that the trial had
attracted the attention of the world, partly because of the sensitive
nature of the information stolen from CSC - but mostly due to Svartholm
Wargs personal mystique.
The Swede is a legend in the hacking community, she said.
"Svartholm Warg has also served as a consultant to Wikileaks, and Julian
Assange has called him a 'political prisoner'."
She added that the ease with which Svartholm Warg and his accomplice were
able to hack into the CSC database had highlighted the dangers of our
modern digitised society.
If two hackers can gain access to a critical registry, so can plenty of
other hackers and, perhaps more frighteningly, hostile countries'
intelligence agencies."
The nature and length of Svartholm Wargs sentence has not yet been
revealed, but is likely to be more severe, in view of his previous
hacking convictions. The final verdict is expected to be announced at
1pm on Friday.
Microsoft Cuts 3,000 Jobs, Finishing Layoffs
The bad news: Microsoft cut another 3,000 employees today. The good news:
this is pretty much the last of the layoffs announced by CEO Satya
Nadella this summer.
In a statement to PCMag, a Microsoft spokesperson said the reductions
are taking place across a variety of teams in many different countries,
though there's no word as to which departments will be hit hardest.
"We've taken another step that will complete almost all the 18,000
reductions announced in July," the spokesperson said.
Today's cuts follow two previous rounds of layoffs. Microsoft kicked
things off in July, axing 13,000 in the first wave before cutting
another 2,100 workers in September.
GeekWire reported that about 638 of today's layoffs were in the Seattle
area, for a total of 2,700 layoffs in Microsoft's home region, where the
company employed some 42,500 people at the end of September. The report
noted that many of the downsized positions were in support roles,
including finance, human resources, sales, and marketing.
The reductions come as Microsoft works to integrate the Nokia handset
business it acquired in April for $7.2 billion. Following the Nokia deal,
Microsoft's employee headcount rose from about 99,000 last year to
127,000. About 12,500 of the 18,000 layoffs came from Nokia, including
professional and factory workers.
In a July memo to employees, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, pictured, said
the company would largely nix work on Android-based devices. "We plan to
shift select Nokia X product designs to become Lumia products running
Windows," he wrote. "This builds on our success in the affordable
smartphone space and aligns with our focus on Windows Universal Apps."
Facebook Offers Hidden Service to Tor Users
Hidden services running on the Tor network got major support on Friday
when Facebook began offering Tor users a way to connect to its services
and not run afoul of the social networks algorithms for detecting
fraudulent usage of accounts.
On Friday, the company added a hidden service address with a .onion
top-level domain, facebookwwwi.onion, which allows Tor users to protect
their data and identity all the way to Facebooks datacenters. Hidden
services accessed through the Tor network allow both the Web user and
website to remain anonymous.
Facebooks onion address provides a way to access Facebook through Tor
without losing the cryptographic protections provided by the Tor cloud,
Alec Muffett, a software engineer with Facebooks security infrastructure
group, said in a blog post. It provides end-to-end communication, from
your browser directly into a Facebook datacenter.
The addition of a hidden service address allows Facebook to better filter
out connections using Tor that may be malicious. Malware has increasingly
begun using Tor as a way to make it much harder to identify the
compromised systems involved in an attack and stymie clean-up efforts.
In June 2013, for example, Facebook cut connections to Tor following a
deluge of malicious traffic from the anonymizing network. Facebook is
not blocking Tor deliberately, the Tor Project said in a statement at
the time. However, a high volume of malicious activity across Tor exit
nodes triggered Facebooks site integrity systems which are designed to
protect people who use the service.
Facebook has already implemented a number of other security measures
across its entire service, including secure HTTP (HTTPS), Perfect
Forward Secrecy, and the HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS).
Hidden services on Tor have most often been associated with criminal
enterprises, such as Silk Road marketplace that sold drugs and other
illegal items until it was shut down a year ago. But the anonymizing
feature enables a variety of legitimate services, such as forums for
dissidents, anonymous source submissions for newspapers and media sites,
and private search engines.
The privacy benefits of going through an anonymizing network to connect
to Facebook are questionable, however. Matthew Green, an assistant
research professor in computer science at Johns Hopkins University,
summed up the issue in a tweet.
On the one hand, cool! On the other, it seems a little like taking a
shower and rolling in mud, he stated, adding: Ok, all cynicism aside:
companies providing direct Tor links is an unalloyed good. Keep it up
Facebook! Now maybe Twitter can get onboard.
HP Reveals New, Ultra-Fast 3D-Printing System
HP announced Multi Jet Fusion, a new 3D-printing technology that,
according to the company, can print objects in 3D at much faster speeds
and lower costs than existing methods.
Its speed is due to the fact that it can quickly apply and fuse large
areas of material rather than extruding it point by point. HP's
3D-printing system is geared to commercial use in short-run
manufacturing, at least for now.
According to HP, the new technology is 10 times faster than the existing
3D-printing methods of fused deposition modeling, in which acrylonitrile
butadiene styrene (ABS), polylactic acid (PLA), or similar molten plastic
is extruded through a nozzle, and selective laser sintering (SLS). It is
designed to produce output that is beautiful and mechanically useful,
with the ability to manipulate part and material properties, including
form, texture, friction, strength, elasticity, electrical and thermal
properties.
HP Multi Jet Fusion incorporates the company's Thermal Inkjet technology
that it uses in commercial-grade printers. The process starts with the
laying down a thin layer of material in the working area. Next, a
carriage containing an HP Thermal Inkjet array passes from left to
right, printing chemical agents across the full working area. The
layering and energy processes are combined in a continuous pass of a
second carriage from top to bottom. The process continues,
layer-by-layer, until a complete part is formed. At each layer, the
carriages change direction for optimum productivity. Using HP Thermal
Inkjet arrays with their high number of nozzles per inch, HP's
proprietary synchronous architecture is capable of printing over 30
million drops per second across each inch of the working area.
The technology uses a multi-chemistry process, including a fusing agent
that is selectively applied where the particles will fuse together, as
well as a detailing agent that is selectively applied where the fusing
action needs to be reduced or amplified.
As one example, the detailing agent reduces fusing at the boundary to
produce parts with sharp and smooth edges. The method is designed to
provide uniform part strength in all three-axis directions. Over time,
HP plans to incorporate a full range of colors into a part, to bring the
color capabilities of traditional printing into the 3D world.
Availability of the end-to-end HP 3D-printing system is planned in 2016.
HP is enlisting early customers in the development process with its Open
Customer Engagement Program, which enables HP to work with them for
expedited solution product testing and feedback.
Microsoft Announces New Mac Editions of Office and Outlook
Microsoft understands that Mac people have just as much work to get done
as its Windows PC owners do. So, as its done for the past umpteen years,
the company has announced that it will again bring its latest Office
suite of programs for spreadsheets, word processing, email, and more to
Apples line of computers.
But not until next year.
The company wrote in a blog post Friday about its plans to bring the
successor to Office 2011 for Mac, which will include Word, PowerPoint,
Excel, and OneNote, sometime in the second half of 2015. Its popular
email software program, Outlook, is being released now, ahead of the
pack, available for download by Office 365 subscribers.
Microsofts pay-by-the-month 365 program, starting at $6.99, allows
subscribers to download and install the latest versions of Office software
to PC and mobile devices, as well as access its tools online from any Web
browser. The company also sells stand-alone software packages of Office
for desktop the old fashioned way, with the full version starting at $219.
Other than promising that you will like what you see in the upcoming
Outlook for Mac update, no other details were given. Though, if the new
Outlook is any indication, the rest of the Office package will
essentially mirror the look and feel of the latest Windows version,
Office 2013.
The list of new features baked into the latest Outlook for Mac include
faster overall performance, a cleaner and more Windows-y look, real-time
email delivery with Office 365 push support, and enhancements in mail
category/color organization sync between Mac, Windows, and Outlook Web
Access clients.
If youre planning on installing the new Outlook for Mac today, youll
need to first uninstall the Office 2011 version. Microsoft explains how
to do that in this .
So as long as your work computer isnt hamstrung by some Type A IT
department, get on that pretty new email software update. And then get
back to work!
Microsoft Gives Office 365 Subscribers Unlimited Cloud Storage
Microsoft is offering unlimited cloud storage to all of its Office 365
subscribers, doing away with data caps and pricing tiers as it amps up
the storage fight with Google, Dropbox and others.
Thats not to say its freean individual Office 365 subscription costs
$70 a year, and a home subscription, which would give unlimited storage to
up to five users, costs $100 a year. Yet even without access to
Microsofts famous productivity software, that pricing is competitive.
Google sells a terabyte of cloud storage for $10 a month but gives away
its productivity software free.
Microsofts move puts even more pressure on providers such as Dropbox and
Box, which dont currently rely on software or advertising revenue streams
to supplement server costs. They have already had to drop prices in order
to remain a viable option for customers.
Even though the storage isnt limited to Office documentsit can be used
to upload monster files and automatically back up every picture taken on
smartphones running iOS, Android or Windowsthe majority of eligible
users probably would have a hard time filling up their previous limit of
1 TB, let alone spilling over.
But unlimited storage opens up new possibilities that users may not have
previously considered, such as wholesale backup of their computer hard
drives, or even of their local backup drives. (Back up your backup is
sort of a 21st-century version of the Boy Scout motto Be prepared.)
Microsoft says the deal will roll out to customers in the coming
months, but you can edge toward the front of the line by going here.
Office 365 for Business customers will see this roll out in 2015.
Ivy League University To Offer Class on Wasting Time on the Internet
Next semester, students at the University of Pennsylvania will have the
option to enroll in a course that requires them to do what young people
do best: waste hours and hours online.
Per the description of the Ivy League English course, officially titled
Wasting time on the Internet, students will be asked to find meaning
in the time they spend alone with a computer:
Using our laptops and a wifi connection as our only materials, this
class will focus on the alchemical recuperation of aimless surfing into
substantial works of literature, it reads. Students will be required
to stare at the screen for three hours, only interacting through chat
rooms, bots, social media and listservs
Distraction, multi-tasking,
and aimless drifting is mandatory.
The course is headed by none other than Kenneth Goldsmith, a poet and
professor whose previous projects include printing out all of the
scholarly database JSTOR and also attempting to print the entire
Internet. (Hes no friend of trees.)
Im very tired of reading articles in The New York Times every week
that make us feel bad about spending so much time on the Internet,
about dividing our attention so many times, Goldsmith told
Motherboards Jason Koebler, who first spotted the course offering.
In practice, the course will play out a little like this: Students will
spend a lot of time chatting with friends, watching YouTube videos,
surfing Facebook, exploring Reddit, and, who are we kidding, skimming
UPenn-specific BuzzFeed lists. Eventually, however, theyll have to take
the detritus from that time wasted tweets, posts, photos, browser
history, a painkiller prescription for their carpal tunnel and turn it
into substantial works of literature.
(Using Net surfing as a medium is actually a burgeoning field for some
digital artists. My colleague Rob Walker has written about adaptations
of classic dramas into iMessage, for example, as well as several
artistic reinterpretations of different Google services.)
Parents picking up their kins $40,000-a-year tuition tabs shouldnt
worry: There will also be some reading. Specifically, pieces from
authors famous for their meditations on boredom and time-wasting.
Notables include John Cage, Betty Friedan, and Guy Debord.
So take note in case you want to audit the class from home. From behind
your laptop. With Netflix blaring in the background. Its all part of
the curriculum.
=~=~=~=
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