Sunday, June 24, 2007
stories off the web for monday
Posted Wed Jun 20, 2007 5:45pm AEST
Microsoft says it will modify its new Vista operating system to address Google's charge that it is rigged to give its desktop search software an unfair edge over rivals.
Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith says the changes were worked out in an agreement with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and state attorneys general monitoring Microsoft's adherence to a 2002 antitrust decree.
"We're pleased we were able to reach an agreement with all the states and the Justice Department that addresses their concerns so that everyone can move forward," he said.
Vista users will be able to set desktop search programs by Google or other competitors as preferred default options and be given more ways to launch programs made by others than Microsoft.
California-based Google and other makers of rival desktop search software will get information explaining how to automatically give their programs higher priority in Vista than the built-in Microsoft program.
Late last year, Google filed a complaint that Vista was designed to give an unfair advantage to Microsoft's desktop search feature.
Google makes a free desktop search program that competes with the one Microsoft built into Vista.
Desktop search software enables users to scour their computers for stored information or files using key words such as names.
"Microsoft believes that Google's complaint is without merit," DOJ and state attorneys wrote in court documents explaining the agreement.
"Nevertheless, Microsoft worked with [us] in a spirit of cooperation to resolve any issues the complaint may raise."
Microsoft expects a test version of modified Vista computer code to be available by the end of the year.
US officials wrote that they were "collectively satisfied" that the solutions promised by Microsoft address Google's concerns regarding desktop search.
The Washington-based software giant is bound by a decree barring it from stifling competing software with its operating system, which is used on approximately 90 per cent of the world's computers.
Extradited Copyright Infringer Sentenced to 51 Months
The leader of one of an Internet software piracy group was sentenced to prison for conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement.
Grant Gross, IDG News Service
The leader of one of the oldest and most widely recognized Internet software piracy groups was sentenced Friday to 51 months in prison on one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.
Hew Raymond Griffiths, 44, was extradited to the U.S. from Australia in February, and in April, he pleaded guilty to two copyright-related charges in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria. Griffiths, a British national, was the long-time leader of the DrinkOrDie software piracy network and an elder in the underground Internet piracy community, known as the warez scene, the DOJ said.
He faced a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a US$500,000 fine for the charges.
Griffiths "became one of the most notorious leaders of the underground Internet piracy community by orchestrating the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars in copyrighted material," Alice Fisher, assistant attorney general at the DOJ, said in a statement.
Griffiths had fought extradition for almost three years, and he was held in an Australian detention center during that time. His extradition was one of the first for a copyright offense, the DOJ said in a press release.
"Whether committed with a gun or a keyboard -- theft is theft," U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg of the Eastern District of Virginia, said in a statement. "And, for those inclined to steal Intellectual Property here, or from half-way around the world, they are on notice that we can and will reach them."
DrinkOrDie was founded in Russia in 1993 and expanded internationally throughout the 1990s. The group was dismantled by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in December 2001, with more than 70 raids conducted in the U.S. and five other countries, the U.K., Finland, Norway, Sweden and Australia.
The operation targeting DrinkOrDie has resulted in more than 30 felony convictions in the U.S. and 11 convictions elsewhere, the DOJ said.
The DOJ estimated that DrinkOrDie was responsible for the reproduction and distribution of more than $50 million worth of pirated software, movies, games and music.
In a 1999 interview, Griffiths said he ran DrinkOrDie's day-to-day operations and controlled access to more than 20 top warez servers worldwide. He said then he would never be caught.
DrinkOrDie specialized in cracking software codes and distributing the cracked versions over the Internet. The group distributed software from large companies such as Microsoft Corp., Adobe Systems Inc. and Symantec Corp., as well as smaller software vendors, the DOJ said. The group used encryption and other security measures to hide their activities from police.
AUSTAR selects Nortel to provide WiMAX to regional Australia
21/06/2007 By: Georgia Fekete
Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet. AUSTAR selects Nortel to provide WiMAX to regional Australia Following several months of competitive trials, AUSTAR United Communications Limited (AUN) said that they had selected NYSE listed Nortel as the preferred vendor for its proposed WiMAX broadband network in regional Australia. The firm noted that the arrangements were still subject to final negotiations.
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AUSTAR said the WiMAX network would provide regional Australians with a real alternative for local broadband access services at comparatively low costs.
CEO John Porter said that Nortel had established itself as a global leader in the future of WiMAX.
"They've committed tremendous resources to the research and development of the technology worldwide and as a company they're responsive and flexible in meeting the customer's needs," he added.
"We're excited about working with Nortel as we look to provide Australians with not only a real alternative, but one that is the future of broadband in Australia."
Mr Porter said that AUSTAR's low-cost network could be rolled out relatively quickly with Nortel's WiMAX technology.
"This would come at a cost-per-megabit and performance advantage that reflects a substantial improvement on the comparable costs, speed and quality of 3G mobile broadband offerings," he said.
"Through our licensed spectrum and the 802.16e technology, AUSTAR is now in a position to deliver not only a fixed wireless broadband, but importantly a world-class, inter-operable and mobile WiMAX."
The group noted that Nortel was working with Intel and other major global vendors to create a WiMAX ecosystem to meet the market's needs.
The firm said that Nortel was also conducting WiMAX trials and completing network deployments around the world, notably in Taiwan, Australia, Japan, USA, Germany, Canada, Greece, Russia and Mexico.
YouTube goes local in 9 countries Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet. PDF Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet. Print Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet. E-mail
By Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 21 June 2007
Not only has YouTube decided to launch 9 new local, country specific sites, but is offering YouTube in 7 new languages, as Google reinforces YouTube as the world's best video sharing site, wherever you live.
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YouTube users in Brazil, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the UK now have access to country specific versions of YouTube, available in local languages and featuring local content, with the original US site still available to those who still want to search through US video content.
The sites aren't fully localized yet, but are in 'stage one'. This first stage does see each site fully translated into their respective languages, but the complete localization of country-specific video clips, along with country-specific video rankings, comments and more is still being finalized.
Once complete, the new YouTube sites will allow users in each country to "share and create videos in their local language, discover the most popular and relevant videos in their markets, and connect with other local users".
Chad Hurley, co-founder and CEO of YouTube, said in a statement that "Video is universal and allows people around the world to communicate and exchange ideas. With our announcement today we are expanding upon our already global platform to make it even more relevant for our local communities".
Hurley continued by saying that "YouTube will now be more accessible and interesting to a worldwide audience, and we look forward to rolling out in other countries in the months to come."
YouTube's other co-founder, Steve Chen, also the CTO, said that: "From the beginning, we have been totally focused on creating an incredible YouTube user experience and service. We're really excited to now offer that same great service to a global community, by bringing them local sites that not only promote their communities but speak their language."
A posting at Google's official blog states that: "In response to many requests, each new site is fully translated and localized for each country including content (Featured Videos, Director Videos, Promotions), as well as the interfaces, search, user support, and such community features as video ratings, sharing, and content flagging".
The blog entry continues that: "And these new localized versions are built using Google search technology, so you can quickly find more of what you want to see. Perhaps best of all, you can continue to use youtube.com, or move to one of these localized sites -- and switch seamlessly between the two. Happy creating, viewing and sharing!"
YouTube's new expansion plans are happening despite the $1 billion lawsuit Google and YouTube received from Viacom in March, over allegations of copyright infringements with video clips that YouTube users were uploading to the service.
To try and avoid similar lawsuits as YouTube fights the Viacom action, YouTube has signed a range of deals with European media organizations so their content can legally appear in YouTube's collection.
Deals that YouTube highlighted in their statement have been struck with the BBC, France 24, the Spanish Antena 3 and Cuatro TV, the Portuguese RTP, the Dutch VPRO and NPO; European football clubs such as Chelsea FC, AC Milan, Barcelona FC and Real Madrid; and non-profit organizations such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, UNHCR and Medecins du Monde.
YouTube advises that the new sites have launched on the following local domains: www.youtube.com.br, www.youtube.fr, www.youtube.ie, it.youtube.com, www.youtube.jp, www.youtube.nl, www.youtube.pl, www.youtube.es, and www.youtube.co.uk.
IBM aims to take social networking to businesses Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet. PDF Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet. Print Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet. E-mail
By Stan Beer
Wednesday, 20 June 2007
IPTV offered by ISPs
ISPs that do not use Telstra Wholesale infrastructure are looking to offer bigger plans at less cost to the customer
At least one of the big players has broken the trend of steering away from high volume plans by announcing a 150GB ADSL2+ plan for just $70/month, plus it has begun trialling its IPTV solution.
A local Port Macquarie is also investigating IPTV offerings but it’s a while off even if they do say its coming soon.
Free Hotspots set to open around the country.
Free Hotspots set to open around the country.
Internet hotspots are well known to be widely available in Australia where you can access internet on your wireless laptop for a fee at a café, Scottish hamburger joint or other public area like and airport or train station. However, in an attempt to stimulate local economies a few local government organizations and chambers of commerce are evaluating and planning on installing wireless hotspots in their local towns that allow free access.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Wimax, 3G HSPA or Fibre?
I have been doing a research into the into the Wimax broadband. It is certainly being rolled out across many countries as a legitimate broadband service. It appears its purely economy of scale that is pushing the use of such technology in rural areas. Broadband via FTTN – fibre to the node or FTTR fibre to the residence is of course an expensive option much more than rolling out a series of towers. However, FTTN and FTTR provides more secure, stable and faster provision of services. Wireless services no matter what type it is, can be effected by interference from weather conditions, other signals and atmospherics. Packet loss can also be significant issues with any wireless technology.
Most new developments are installing fibre, here in Port Macquarie the new residential town that is developing at the gateway into Port Macquarie called Sovereign Hills will have fibre to the residence supplies by one ISP locally here in Port Macquarie, this ISP has also run fibre right through the CBD of Port Macquarie. Professor Smarr recently indicated that copper infrastructure is capable for maybe another factor of 10, on broadband speeds... But it's not going to go to 1000 megabits or a gigabyte per second, where most of the action is right now, will the Wimax provide such speeds as well, probably not.
However, from what we are hearing the WiMax technologies compared with the current 3G High Speed Packet Access technologies being rolled out it appears to fail in providing truly mobile applications, 3G wins out there, but where the WiMax wins is on point to point wireless for example a house having an external on the roof of a building.
WiMAX on the other hand faces a number of challenges. Mobile WiMAX standards are still under evaluation. The capex for deploying WiMAX is upto 5-10 times higher than HSDPA because the size of mobile WiMax cells is upto 16 times smaller than the cells in an HSPA system, which would necessitate a larger number of base stations to cover the same geography. (Credit paragraph to http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=166108)
WiMax is currently under evaluation for use in many countries including
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Good google, bad google, buying google!
In the last 12 months google has made massive amounts of acquisitions, so much so companies are in deed wondering if they will be the next company google buys. The search engine is on a quest to rule the technology world. Just this week google announced it was buying a photo-sharing Web site called Panoramio and confirmed the acquisition of security software vendor GreenBorder Technologies.
Google is said to be in talks to purchase an online RSS feeds site and software called Feedburner for US$100 million. Google last year paid US$1.65 billion for YouTube and US$3.1 billion for DoubleClick.
Google is working on several product lines, but most prominently is an online office suit that is free which is going to put a dint in Microsoft’s office suit.
