*HOT* Tech News And Downloads, I Would Read This Thread And Post Any Good Info

Paint.NET 3.07 Final
Author: Rick Brewster
Date: 2007-05-08
Size: 1.3 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win XP/Vista

Paint.NET is free image editing and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows. It supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.

It started development as an undergraduate college senior design project mentored by Microsoft, and is currently being maintained by some of the alumni that originally worked on it. Originally intended as a free replacement for the MS Paint software that comes with Windows, it has grown into a powerful yet simple tool for photo and image editing.

The programming language used to create Paint.NET is C#, with a small amount of C++ for installation and shell-integration related functionality.

This update enhances the Line/Curve tool, significantly reduces the download size, and fixes some bugs related to opening and saving files in Windows Vista.
New: Line/Curve tool has been enhanced to allow drawing arrowheads, and to draw with various dashed- and dotted- styles.
New: Image tab thumbnails now have an indicator if the respective image has unsaved changes (an orange asterisk is shown).
Improved: The Save Configuration dialog (choose JPEG quality, etc.) now allows you to maximize it. It also remembers its relative location and size.
Changed: The help file / documentation is now hosted online. This has reduced the download size by more than 3 MB, and will also allow us to provide translations without ballooning the size of the download (each language would have added between 2 and 4MB).
Changed: The "image list button" (downward triangle) is also shown when only 1 image is open (it used to only display if 2 or more images were open). This is being done for the sake of consistency.
Fixed: Some operations would reset the selected layer to the first/lowest layer. This selection is now preserved.
Fixed: The Image->Rotate commands no longer hangs if a selection was active.
Fixed: Several problems have been fixed with our implementation surrounding the new Vista Open/Save dialogs. This includes: opening an image from an http:// source, opening images from a digital camera that is not mapped to a file system path (such as a drive letter), the Save dialog not always prompting you about overwriting an existing file, and many corner cases that previously caused crashes.

DOWNLOAD
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4548.html

 

Macromedia Shockwave Player 10.2.0.022
Author: Macromedia, Inc.
Date: 2007-05-08
Size: 5.5 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All


Shockwave Player is the web standard for powerful multimedia playback. The Shockwave Player allows you to view interactive web content like games, business presentations, entertainment, and advertisements from your web browser.

Over 200 million web users have installed the Macromedia Shockwave Player. These people now have access to some of the best content the web has to offer including dazzling 3D games and entertainment, interactive product demonstrations, and online learning applications. The Shockwave Player displays web content that has been created by Macromedia Director, including content made with previous versions and Director MX 2004

Flash experiences across desktops and devices.

Flash lets designers and developers integrate video, text, audio, and graphics into effective experiences that deliver superior results for interactive marketing and presentations, e-learning, and rich Internet applications.

Play 3D games, view product demos, online learning applications...etc.

Flash is the world's most pervasive software platform, reaching 97% of Internet-enabled desktops worldwide, as well as many popular devices.

DOWNLOAD
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4272.html

 

Used CD Legislation Slows Used Game Sales

New legislation governing the sale of used CDs essentially puts the sale of used game CDs into the same category as things sold at a pawnshop, with the same limitations and restrictions. Good idea? Bad idea? Useful or useless legislation? Hit the comments link below and share your thoughts.

Florida's new legislation goes well beyond the measures of a traditional pawn shop law. The state now requires all retailers selling second-hand CDs to acquire a permit and invest in a $10,000 security bond through the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Stores must fingerprint individuals trading in CDs, copy their state identification, and pay them only in store credit; traded CDs must be held for 30 days before being resold.


Used CD Legislation Slows Used Game Sales [01:18 pm]
49 Comments - Chris Faylor

Stricter laws in Florida and Utah aim to hamper the sale of used merchandise such as CDs and video games, with similar legislation underway in Wisconsin and Rhode Island. Typical pawn shop laws require retailers to hold used merchandise for a set amount of days before selling it and to acquire some basic information on the person who sold it back. Such a process is meant to stem the trafficking of stolen goods and facilitate the ease with which authorities track thieves and return stolen items to owners.

Florida's new legislation goes well beyond the measures of a traditional pawn shop law. The state now requires all retailers selling second-hand CDs to acquire a permit and invest in a $10,000 security bond through the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Stores must fingerprint individuals trading in CDs, copy their state identification, and pay them only in store credit; traded CDs must be held for 30 days before being resold. With the new legislation already in effect, at least one retailer is reported to have discontinued sales of used items as a result. Pawn shop laws in many other states, which tend to be less restrictive than those in Florida and Utah, often go unenforced.

The policy also affects the sale and trade of used video games and DVDs, though to a lesser degree. Video game retailers are not required to acquire a permit, and they only need hold traded games for 15 days before they can be sold. This 15 day buffer could theoretically boost the number of new copies sold.

Industry veteran Mike Russell, formerly of Ritual Entertainment, explained to Shacknews that used game sales are more potentially limiting to publishers and developer than used CD and DVD sales, as sales of new games at retail generally comprise the sole revenue stream for games. "It isn't hard to see the attraction that game retailers have for used games," he said. "With a new console game, their margin is usually under 10%, while their margin on a used game can be over 50%. There has been growing developer and publisher discontent with chains that sell used product. After all, the publishers [and most developers] are paying for ad circulars, shelf space, in-store contests and promotions, point-of-purchase advertising, subsidized special editions for certain chains, and more...just to bring a customer into their store who is going to buy a used copy and not help recoup any of that money."

Gearbox Software president Randy Pitchford echoed Russell's concerns. "Used game sales are an access point for many gamers and I think the industry should support that path," he noted, "but there is a problem right now in that used game sales are a market that does not provide revenue to the game maker. The entire used game sales market exists only to support and provide profit to the retailers. Healthy retailers are good for our industry, but looking at how GameStop is doing, I think they should be passing more value to the developers and publishers."

Across the 2006 fiscal year, GameStop saw a gross profit of $651.9 million as a result of $1.36 billion in used video game and hardware sales, with retail sales of new software and hardware achieving gross profits of $504.3 million on $3.09 billion in sales. While used games comprised 24.8% of total sales revenue during that time period, they were responsible for 48.8% of total profits.

Russell added, "While delaying used console game sales for two to four weeks after the initial release would help in a small way as far as the bottom line for game sales (especially since the first thirty days are most crucial for sales of any title), the percentage of sales ceded to used sales during the initial thirty days is severely muted by supply constraints...used games are more likely to significantly impact sales after the first trimester."

"Laws like the ones in Utah and Florida won't significantly impact sales of new or used product," he continued. "The most sure-fire way that publishers could 'stem the tide' of used sales would be to eliminate [advertising] support for chains that sell used product, but given the quantity of new product that goes through those outlets as well, that would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater."

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/46853

 

DC ++ stymies RIAA at Ohio U,

p2pnet.net news:- Residencies in Ohio University's East Green were built in the 1940s and 50's and are all "traditional-style" halls with, "shared community bathrooms," says the online description.

But bathrooms aren't all that's shared.

Following out-of-control attacks by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG's RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), OU banned file sharing on the campus.

That doesn't mean, however, that file sharing has stopped. In fact, it's going full blast via a secret intranet run from East Green, says a surprising item in the school's The Post Online.

There, "a university-provided computer allows students to swap movies, music, software, pornography and an eclectic mix of other files that include military training manuals and fliers promoting file-sharing," reveals the story.

When the owner installed the 'hub' program late last month, "he took over the DC++ file-sharing network from a male senior who decided he couldn't take the risk any longer," it says, going on to quote the "male senior" as saying:

"I think it'd be better if no one really knows how the hub was run," said the male senior. "I would hate to see (the university) single out the owner of the hub and make an example of them."

Because files are shared within the OU network, "sharers get higher transfer speeds than peer-to-peer networks that extend outside the university," says The Post. "This also protects DC++ users from copyright enforcement companies hired by the movie and music industries."

How come? RIAA copyright cops can't penetrate OU's DC++ hub. And that, of course, means they'll eventually have to get staff to do their dirty work for them.

Says the story:

Both students asked not to be identified, fearful of punishment from the university — which has announced its intention to break up file-sharing groups that operate within its network but has not set a date. Malcolm Smith, director of University Judiciaries, said that running a file-sharing server is more seriously considered than other forms of file-sharing because of its clear intent.

Although the DC++ Facebook group lists more than 80 members, the most users ever on the network at one time was close to 60, said the hub's most recent operator. The average is between 20 and 30.

Users have to share files totaling at least 128 megabytes, and, "Normally between 1.4 and 1.7 terabytes are shared on DC++, but the largest amount of files shared on the network at once was 2.98 terabytes - the storage capacity of about 76 of the newest residence hall computers."

Intranet file sharers aren't subject to the new university policy, "because only peer-to-peer traffic entering and leaving the university network is monitored," says The Post, adding ominously, "for now".

DC++ is an open source client for Windows for the Direct Connect network which, "allows you to share files over the Internet without restrictions or limits," says the site, adding:

The client is completely free of advertisements and has a nice, easy to use interface. Firewall and router support is integrated and it is easy and convenient to use functionality like multi-hub connections, auto-connections and resuming of downloads.

DC++ is a highly ranked piece of software among the projects hosted at Sourceforge. With over thirty five million downloads, new users continue to find benefits from the software every day.

Definitely stay tuned.

Slashdot Slashdot it!

Also See:
out-of-control attacks - An Anthropologist Explores the Culture of Video Blogging, April 26, 2007
The Post Online - East Green home to file-sharing hub, May 7, 2007
http://p2pnet.net/story/12164

 

Will Canada ban camcorders?





p2pnet.net news:- Hollywood's MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) is pressuring the Canadian government to ban the unauthorised possession of camcorders, with jail terms for transgressors, p2pnet has been told by a normally unreliable source.

The MPAA is leading an all-out attack against Canada claiming the country's lax regulations are directly responsible for staggering industry revenue losses.

Canada is the favourite port of call for online pirates who use camcorders to 'steal' Hollywood features from cinemas, mostly in Montreal, states the trade organisation, which reported record revenues for 2006.

Canon says its HR10 slated for release in August at $1,200, is the smallest in the world. But it's, "ideal for online pirates," the anonymous movie industry source told p2pnet during a meeting in an ill-lit underground garage.

"Consumers should not be fooled by the small stature of the Canon HR10 High Definition Camcorder, says a Canon statement, adding, "Quick Start allows the camera to go from standby mode to shooting in a fraction of a second, helping to ensure that those special moments are not missed."

The industry source said MPAA lobbyists would shortly be visiting Ottawa to educate Canadian politicians on the dangers of allowing cameras such as the HR10, but excepting similar Sony products, into the country.

The lobbyists will also present detailed outlines for suggested new legislation. "We are sure your government will find our recommendations valuable," the source stated.

"Dear Prime Minister," wrote US senators Dianne Feinstein and John Cornyn to Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper recently.

"We are writing to call your attention to the explosive growth of pirating of movies from theaters through the use of hand-recorders known as 'camcorders.' The theft and sale of newly-released movies has always been a serious threat to the motion picture industry. Now, the advancements of digital technology and improved camcorder capabilities have compounded the problem."

Harper's response hasn't yet been reported.

Slashdot Slashdot it!

Also See:
all-out attack - Hollywood bans Canada, May 8, 2007
Canon - CANON U.S.A.'s NEW HR10 HD CAMCORDER, May 7, 2007
use of hand-recorders - Hollywood muscles Canada, March 6, 2007

http://p2pnet.net/story/12165

 

FOR MUSIC LOVERS

 

Have a Cup of Coffee and Shoot Me Your Resume
05.10.07 | 2:00 AM

So now coffee’s good for us, too.

A Harvard researcher said last week that regular coffee drinkers may be lowering their risks for certain kinds of cancers and Type 2 diabetes by indulging in what many of us already consider to be the nectar of the gods.

Whether coffee lowers the risks for those things or not matters not a whit to me. Good, bad or indifferent, I’m going to continue drinking it till I keel over because I’m a lot nicer to children and animals and yuppies when I’ve had my morning cuppa joe.

Still, it’s good to hear something positive about one of my four basic food groups. Actually, I’ve been on a pretty good run lately, drink-wise. A few years back they told us one reason the French live so long is all that red wine they toss back. There have also been studies saying that a little hard alcohol (which I assume includes all that yummy scotch) isn’t bad for you, and might even have benefits, taken in moderation. I’m working on that last part.

Other studies have also had nice things to say about dark chocolate and steak.

I’m reminded of the old Woody Allen movie, Sleeper, where Allen’s character, Miles Monroe, awakens after being frozen for 200 years, only to learn that doctors finally realized cigarettes were good for you all along.

Why, if all these current studies are to be believed, I must be one of the healthiest people on earth.

But even if I’m not, you know what? I know what I like and I’m going to keep enjoying them until the grim reaper shows up. Because it’s the sensual pleasures, like food and drink and sex, that make life worth living.

Maybe we could all live 20 years longer if we obsessed over carbohydrates, hung out in oxygen bars and exercised to the point of exhaustion. The question then is, with life reduced to such a repetitive, crushing bore, why would you want to stick around another two decades anyway? To do what? Eat more sprouts?

Give me 70 years full of good food, good drink and good friends. You go to the gym; I’ll go to the steakhouse with that little redhead in accounting who likes her good times. You’ll live longer, but I’ll have more fun.

And isn’t that what life is about? Having a good time while you’re here?

- - -

No idea is too stupid if there are enough suckers out there to fall for it. And there usually are.

Here’s one: Video resume services.

The idea is that you need something to differentiate yourself from all those sterling applicants scrambling for that big marketing job at Python Software Security. What better way to do that than to dazzle 'em with your wit? Show 'em a little bit of your stuff.

A really little bit. Like 30 seconds, or something. That’s what these services are offering.

One young collegian, quoted in an Associated Press story about this emerging internet trend, had no doubt that she’d only need 30 seconds to sell herself.

“I feel like my personality is what really seals the deal and if they can see my personality I’d get a better chance of getting the job,” she told the AP.

That may well be true, Ms. Job Seeker, but do you think 30 seconds of video will give your potential future boss a window into your soul? If you believe that, I wouldn’t hire you to tend my house plants.

Besides, even if the video ran an eternity -- say, three minutes -- what does it prove? Maybe you’re just telegenic, like John F. Kennedy was. Is that any reflection of your skills? Besides, your video service edits this snippet to make you look, well, simply mahvelous. You could be a drooler, for all I know. No video on earth will enlighten me.

Not that a prospective employer can’t be taken in by a slick package job. One woman who reviews resumes for a real-estate company told the AP reporter that she welcomes the video pitch:

"After a while (resumes) would become hypnotic. Everybody today knows to say the right things they know employers are looking for."

Really? And what is the “right” thing for someone to say in a cover letter? If you’re looking for a drone to punch in, do the work and sing the company fight song, then hire the guy who says all the “right” things. (The right things, I presume, are all the empty phrases about being a team player and being dedicated to boosting company sales.) If you’re a boss looking for talent, it requires a little work on your part.

The only way you can get even the most cursory read of someone’s personality is by using the old-fashioned method: a face-to-face conversation. You have to ask questions and receive answers. It’s the parry and thrust of the interview that really tells you whether someone will be a good fit or not.

But, you argue, a video might at least get you in the door for that critical interview. Maybe, but a cover letter tells me a lot more about you and is much likelier to pique my interest. Especially a concise, well-written cover letter, since stumbling across one of those these days is like finding a needle in a haystack.

No, the video resume sounds to me like a lame way of avoiding the necessity of describing yourself on paper, for a new generation of worker who lacks the requisite writing skills. And let's be brutally honest here: This service is intended for good-looking people, period. Because the only thing 30 seconds of video will tell me is whether you're a babe, or a babe magnet.

And I don't care.

All I know is this: If you can’t write me a lucid note and then sit down and talk with me, then you can’t work for me. No matter how pretty you are.
http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/commentary/theluddite/2007/05/luddite_0510

 

Freez DVD Ripper 1.5


# Freez DVD Ripper 1.5
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# Freez 3GP Video Converter 2.0
# Freez Screen Video Capture 1.2
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# Freez iPod Video Converter 1.5



Submit Date: 2007-05-10

OS: Win 9x/ME/NT/2K/XP/2K3


Fast, easy to use DVD Ripper to rip DVD, convert DVD to DivX, DVD to Xvid, DVD to AVI, DVD to MP4, DVD to iPod MP4, DVD to PSP MP4 with great quality.



Freez DVD Ripper is a DVD ripping tool to rip your favorite DVD movies to popular DivX/Xvid AVI files, H.264 MP4 files, and even iPod MP4 video files with fast DVD ripping speed and excellent quality.

With Freez DVD Ripper, you can choose which titles and chapters, audio tracks, and subtitle tracks of the DVD you want to rip. You can also choose the output video format from AVI (DivX MPEG4), AVI (Xvid), MP4 (H264) or iPod MP4 Video. You can also set the video size, bitrate and framerate, audio channel, bitrate and frequency.

Freez DVD Ripper has a user-friendly interface and you can rip DVD with only a few clicks. Enjoy it!

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* Can rip DVD movies and convert DVD to MPEG-4 DivX / Xvid AVI format.
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* Can rip both encrypted or unencrypted DVD movies.
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* You can select the titles and chapters to be ripped from DVD.
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* Set the output video resolution, video bitrate (up to 2500 kbps) and video framerate.
* Set the output audio channel, audio bitrate and audio frequency.
* High-speed conversion.
* User-friendly interface without any complicated settings.
* Free to use and free registration.

DOWNLOAD HERE
http://www.smallvideosoft.com/dvd-ripper/

 

Could God be an Extra-terrestrial Being?

http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/reflections/2007/05/10/could-god-be-an-extra-terrestrial-being/

Some comparatively new belief systems and books portray God as an extraterrestrial, holding that intelligent beings from another world have been visiting Earth for many thousands of years, and have influenced the development of our religions. Some of these books suggest that prophets or messiahs have visited earth from other areas of the galaxy in order to teach morality and encourage the development of civilization. David B. Trout suggests that the life form responsible for producing life on earth had to be light years ahead in terms of their development since interstellar travel demanded a technology that we are just beginning to understand. Additionally, it must be noted that David Treybig, has documented that the 1947 Roswell Incident was first reported as a “flying saucer”, only to be changed the following day in what appears to be a government cover-up.

However, I believe that information regarding alien life is found in the Bible and records expeditions to our planet. In Matthew 16:15-17 Simon Peter responds to Jesus’ question regarding His identity by saying “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” and Jesus responds “…flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven”. It is obvious that this understanding did not come through science but is a revealed knowledge that plays the missing component in man’s desire to understand his place in the universe. The difference between the earth’s religions and the Bible is the source of their information since all groups have fallible human leaders, while the Bible contains the very words of God Himself as revealed to us in II Timothy 3:16 which states, “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God.”

So while many on earth are afraid of extraterrestrial life believing it to be the evil beings seen in science fiction movies the Bible reveals that there is extraterrestrial intelligent life, in the form of a Spirit Being who “inhabits eternity” (Isaiah 57:15). The Bible further records in Genesis 3:9-10; 4:9; 16:9 the existence of many millions of angelic beings and in Hebrews 1:13-14 the existence of “ministering spirits”.

Eric Stetson postulates that the biblical God, while still the great ruler of Earth, is not a deity at all but instead represents an ultra-advanced extraterrestrial species that is intimately involved in the affairs of Earth. This idea may seem strange and radical at first, but suppose your best and most trustworthy friend revealed to you that he had once had an encounter with aliens that went something like this:

“I took a long hike in the countryside and when it started getting dark I was still a long way from the campsite so I decided to lie down and rest. I leaned my backpack against some stones for a pillow and soon fell asleep only to be roused in the middle of the night by incredible vision. I looked up and saw a beam of light stretched down from a hovering object to the ground, and strange-looking beings were going up and down what appeared to be a ladder and the leader of the aliens was standing at the top of it proclaiming that they wanted to ’spread my seed far and wide.” Would you believe his story, laugh it off, reassure him that it was only a dream, or would you perhaps pull out a Bible and turn to the 28th chapter of Genesis, where the patriarch Jacob’s nearly identical experience is described?

Although most people don’t realize it the Bible and other ancient religious texts actually contain a multitude of stories that can easily be rendered today as UFO sightings and encounters. Thus, it can be concluded that the Bible does indeed deal with the subject of extraterrestrials, for the super humans described therein come from the heavens (space) and have virtually unlimited power over the affairs of Earth and due to their high level of development could appear to humanity as a race of gods. This would have been especially true in the case of our ancient ancestors who had no knowledge of other planets or solar systems and would tend to interpret visits from the sky in a much less sophisticated way, idealizing relatively higher beings as absolute rulers of the Universe

The gods of old are part of the physical Cosmos and when Yahweh commanded the Israelites to “have no other gods before me,” one must see that He was speaking like a king who was demanding allegiance from his angelic legions and his human slaves. The power struggle with Lucifer was much like a political campaign, each side producing propaganda to win over the simpletons who tilled the fields of Sumeria.In any case, the important idea is that the early Hebrews believed in “Elohim,” a plural term that is literally translated as “the gods.” The single being God known as Yahweh by the people of Israel was physically imperfect but because of their relative superiority in all respects - biological, intellectual, spiritual, technological - they were deified by virtually every ancient culture including the one that produced our Bible.

Another reason to believe this explanation is that in Genesis 1:26 the Bible says, “let us make man in our image, after our likeness…” and according to Dr. Zecharia Sitchin, Genesis Revisited, the plurality of God in this quote is no coincidence. This translation was compiled from much earlier and considerably more detailed texts first written down in Sumer.” The Sumerian gods were called Anunnaki, translated as “those who came down from the heavens.” They were said to have interbred with primitive humans to produce the intelligent variety that built civilization. This information is revealed in Genesis 6:1-2, 4 that reads: “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth… That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. What this shocking biblical passage indicates is the belief that gods are physical beings so genetically similar to Homo sapiens as to make interbreeding possible. Their Elohim were just like the Sumerian deities before them and the Greek ones afterward: powerful beings that looked and acted much like humans and were intimately involved with them.

How then, we might ask, did the super humans make contact with people on Earth?Although many traditional Religions would reject this idea, the Bible speaks repeatedly of encounters with what today would be called UFOs. One just has to read the scriptures with an open mind to discover numerous examples of aerial craft described as shining clouds, balls of fire, wheels, and flaming chariots which bear a striking resemblance to extraterrestrial objects seen today. Here are a few general quotes that help to make this point:

* “Behold, he [Yahweh] shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind…” (Jeremiah 4:13.)
* “Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud…” (Isaiah 19:1.)
* “And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night…” (Isaiah 4:5.)

Keep in mind that the people who wrote these things did not have large vocabularies and they had never even heard of aircraft, disks, and warp-drives so their explanations used to describe unidentified flying objects are made within their frame of reference. Another example of this is found in Exodus 13:18, 21 where it describes the Hebrews wanderings in the desert:“… the children of Israel went up and harnessed out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light.” Since literal clouds don’t have fiery pillars, one can reasonably conclude that the object was something very different - perhaps a UFO with a descending beam of light. My last quote for this article will be from Ezekiel 1:4 where the prophet Ezekiel, a frequent recipient of extraterrestrial visitations, described a strange object in the sky:“And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it…” (Ezekiel 1:4.)This could very well be a modern-day account of a UFO sighting: a swirling wind accompanied by a huge disk-shaped object surrounded by an intense glow. Ezekiel goes on to describe the strange craft descending from the sky, noting its resemblance to a spinning wheel and mentioning that it is piloted by a powerful-looking being.

If these concepts are correct, and they are just ideas I am putting out there, many based on readings from others then it would make sense that God is a powerful ruler but instead of being a non-person, he is like us only from another planet that is much more advanced than earth. That in no way takes away his importance to humankind or denies His control of the universe it merely explains how he interfaces with us mere mortals.

So, before you decide to lynch me look at the possibilities and the logic behind them and see if you agree. Then think of many of today’s churches that interact as a business insisting that you give of your time and resources, thus increasing their coffers so that the ministers can live in extravagant houses and have tidy back accounts while the parishioners go without. Now I know that many of you will not agree but having been in business with them I know for a fact that several ministers from the small area where we used to live that their bank accounts were over one million dollars. This did not include the fact that they didn’t have to pay for housing, utilities, insurance or vacations as the congregation seemed more than willing to pick up the tab.

Therefore, one must wonder if the theologians out there will do anything to keep their congregations from looking at new ideas since doing so could cost them the lifestyle they are enjoying. If that is not the case the possibility of God, being a Superhuman from another planet should be openly explored.

Tags: god, extraterrestrial beings, superhumans, angels, genesis, bible tells of extraterrestrials, ufos, ezekiel, churches, fiery pillars, jacob’s ladder, human development, guidance, extraterrestrial guidance, godly guidance

 

The RIAA's 'shoddy logic'

p2pnet.net news view:- "The recording industry remains the only industry that continuously pursues legal action against its own consumers, which would lead one to wonder if there will be anyone left to buy its products after the dust has settled," says Michael Dennis in the University of Massachusetts' Daily Collegian OpEd.

Here's what else he had to say >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Refuting the RIAA
By Michael Dennis - The Daily Collegian

With the recent announcement that the Recording Industry Association of America has issued a new wave of letters to college campuses across the country, fear was stricken into the hearts of students everywhere. After all, it's been postulated by survey after survey that the majority of undergrads download, so one could assume that a lot of individuals have put themselves in harm's way. On the surface, file sharing appears to be a classic case of "everybody else is doing it, so why shouldn't I?" This may be true in a lot of ways; admittedly, it's easier to explain away your musical law-bending when you can confidently turn to the person next to you and chat it up about your favorite torrent tracker.

But dig a little deeper and the downloading phenomenon starts looking more and more like a technological sea change, one led by a new generation that's grown tired of the old way of doing things. That old way is perpetuated by the aforementioned RIAA, the much maligned grandpappy of the music scene.

The recording industry remains the only industry that continuously pursues legal action against its own consumers, which would lead one to wonder if there will be anyone left to buy its products after the dust has settled. It labels downloaders as thieves and categorizes downloading as stealing. It takes a general drop in total sales, which could potentially be attributed to anything from a declining economy to a constant rise in CD prices, and haphazardly and defiantly insists that it's due to illicit downloads (with nary a relevant statistic to back it all up).

And it uses the "struggling artist" image to front the moral battle against file sharing, despite the fact that - as a result of a brutally draconian business model - no one is responsible for starving more artists than record companies. But in spite of its shoddy logic and lack of reasoned arguments, the RIAA has successfully managed to put downloaders on the defensive through the use of sheer aggression and crafty rhetoric.

But, believe it or not, there are credible and relatively neutral individuals out there who have managed to systematically dismantle the RIAA's claims. In 2004, Felix Oberholzer-Gee of the Harvard Business School and Koleman S. Strumpf of the University of North Carolina conducted a detailed analysis of the file sharing phenomenon, which still stands as perhaps the most well-known study on the subject thus far. Over a period of time, they studied what they claim to be "a dataset containing 0.01 percent of the world's downloads" and compared this data directly to music sales records in the United States over the same period of time, in order to test the theory (put forth by record companies) that file sharing directly impacts record sales in a negative fashion.

They conducted a thorough empirical analysis using a painstakingly complex set of mathematical formulas and data - in other words, this wasn't your everyday straw poll of 20-somethings. They eliminated the problem of relying on individuals to provide anecdotal data as related to their downloading habits, something that can lead to less-than-straightforward answers. Rather than coming in with preconceived notions and hastily proving them, they dove into a monstrously large cluster of data and looked for some dots to connect.

Connect the dots they did - and then some. As a result of their study, Oberholzer and Strumpf emphatically declared that "downloads have an effect on sales which is statistically indistinguishable from zero" and that their findings were "inconsistent with the claims that file sharing is the primary reason for the recent decline in music sales."

"Even in the most pessimistic specification," they state, "$5,000 are needed to displace a single sale." Furthermore, their results led them to believe that "file sharing primarily serves to increase total music consumption." In other words, if you're one of the millions who finds yourself downloading music not to completely replace your purchases, but rather to expand your horizons and discover new music (other than what's being offered by the Billboard charts), take heart. You're onto something.

Oberholzer and Strumpf aren't alone either; numerous other examples of academic studies on the subject are out there. Though few have come to equally comprehensive conclusions, there are some researchers that make claims to the contrary, viewing file sharing as a potential threat to record sales. But do a quick search through an academic database and it's plain to see that the majority of researchers have drawn conclusions that overwhelmingly paint file sharing as, at worst, a nuisance.

These recent findings are significant because they offer a direct antidote to the tactics of the RIAA, which aim to marginalize downloaders and paint them out as being on the fringes of society. There's a reason why they use words like theft and piracy. Thieves and pirates tend not to be nice people. But these aren't black market arms dealers we're talking about here - they're college students.

And while all of this may not offer much comfort to those who open their mailbox tomorrow to find a cheery greeting from the RIAA, it's certainly a start.

(Thanks, Eric)
http://p2pnet.net/story/12189

 

Scientists Claim Major Leap in Engine Design
Posted by Zonk on Thursday May 10, @05:38PM
from the but-does-it-still-make-roaring-noises dept.
Science Technology
An anonymous reader writes "Purdue researchers say they have made a major advance in the design of the internal combustion engine, one that could seriously boost fuel efficiency and cut emissions. A key portion involves building intake and exhaust valves that are no longer driven by mechanisms connected to the pistons, a departure from the way car engines have worked since they were commercialized more than a century ago. 'The concept, known as variable valve actuation, would enable significant improvements in conventional gasoline and diesel engines used in cars and trucks and for applications such as generators, he said. The technique also enables the introduction of an advanced method called homogeneous charge compression ignition, or HCCI, which would allow the United States to drastically reduce its dependence on foreign oil and the production of harmful exhaust emissions. The homogeneous charge compression ignition technique would make it possible to improve the efficiency of gasoline engines by 15 percent to 20 percent, making them as efficient as diesel engines while nearly eliminating smog-generating nitrogen oxides, Shaver said.'"


Radical Engine Redesign Would Reduce Pollution, Oil Consumption

Science Daily — Researchers have created the first computational model to track engine performance from one combustion cycle to the next for a new type of engine that could dramatically reduce oil consumption and the emission of global-warming pollutants.

"We're talking about a major leap in engine technology that could be used in hybrid cars to make vehicles much more environmentally friendly and fuel stingy," said Gregory M. Shaver, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University.

A key portion of his research, based at Purdue's Ray W. Herrick Laboratories, hinges on designing engines so that their intake and exhaust valves are no longer driven by mechanisms connected to the pistons. The innovation would be a departure from the way automotive engines have worked since they were commercialized more than a century ago.

In today's internal combustion engines, the pistons turn a crankshaft, which is linked to a camshaft that opens and closes the valves, directing the flow of air and exhaust into and out of the cylinders. The new method would eliminate the mechanism linking the crankshaft to the camshaft, providing an independent control system for the valves.

Because the valves' timing would no longer be restricted by the pistons' movement, they could be more finely tuned to allow more efficient combustion of diesel, gasoline and alternative fuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, Shaver said.

The concept, known as variable valve actuation, would enable significant improvements in conventional gasoline and diesel engines used in cars and trucks and for applications such as generators, he said. The technique also enables the introduction of an advanced method called homogeneous charge compression ignition, or HCCI, which would allow the United States to drastically reduce its dependence on foreign oil and the production of harmful exhaust emissions.

The homogeneous charge compression ignition technique would make it possible to improve the efficiency of gasoline engines by 15 percent to 20 percent, making them as efficient as diesel engines while nearly eliminating smog-generating nitrogen oxides, Shaver said.

This improved combustion efficiency also would reduce emission of two other harmful gases contained in exhaust: global-warming carbon dioxide and unburned hydrocarbons. The method allows for the more precise control of the fuel-air mixture and combustion inside each cylinder, eliminating "fuel rich" pockets seen in conventional diesel engines, resulting in little or no emission of pollutants called particulates, a common environmental drawback of diesels.

The variable valve actuation system makes it possible to "reinduct," or reroute a portion of the exhaust back into the cylinders to improve combustion efficiency and reduce emissions. The system also makes it possible to alter the amount of compression in the cylinders of both conventional and HCCI engines and to adjust the mixing and combustion timing, allowing for more efficient combustion.

"Variable valve actuation and HCCI would help to significantly reduce our dependence on oil by enabling engines to work better with ethanol and biodiesel and other alternative fuels," Shaver said. "But accomplishing this is going to require a strong effort in several research areas - a commitment of funding, people power, industrial involvement and academic involvement."

In HCCI, the "charge," or fuel-air mixture, is homogeneous, meaning it is uniform. Adding the reinducted exhaust both dilutes and increases the temperature of this air-fuel mixture before compression. The process also allows for a uniform "auto ignition," or combustion without the need of a spark, at a lower compression than normally required for diesel engines, reducing engine wear and tear.

Inside the cylinders of ordinary internal combustion engines, there is a large temperature difference, or gradient, between portions of the air-fuel mixture that have been ignited and portions that are still not burned. The homogeneous fuel-air mixture and reinducted exhaust work together to eliminate this temperature gradient during the auto-ignition, which decreases the overall combustion temperature. Decreasing the combustion temperature is a key step in dramatically reducing nitrogen oxides.

A major challenge will be learning how to automatically adjust valve motions and fuel injection to match changes in operating conditions dictated by factors such as a vehicle's varying speed, how much weight it is carrying and what type of fuel is being used.

Engines incorporating HCCI will use sensors to monitor an engine's performance, providing crucial data needed to dynamically alter the valves' timing. Controlling the combustion process via variable valve actuation will require specialized software algorithms being developed by the Purdue researchers.

"We will use feedback control, where you have sensors that provide data from the engine and an algorithm to precisely control the valves," Shaver said.

Shaver, his colleagues and students are in the process of building a one-of-a-kind multicylinder engine design with "fully-flexible variable valve actuation," which will allow the study of HCCI and alternative fuel combustion, he said.

He was the lead author of a research paper honored with the 2006 Rudolf Kalman Paper Award for the best paper published in the Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control. The award was issued last year during the International Mechanical Engineering Conference and Exposition in Chicago. The paper detailed findings related to a new mathematical model to help develop the homogeneous charge compression ignition system.

In order for the system to work, it is critical to track changing engine performance from one combustion cycle to the next. The mathematical model Shaver has developed is the first of its kind to precisely track this dynamic cycle-to-cycle performance and other data.

The highest efficiency would be realized by combining HCCI technologies in hybrid vehicles that use an electric motor in addition to an internal combustion engine. "It's essential to continue research on multiple fronts, including work to tackle problems associated with fuel cells and hybrid systems and understanding how to incorporate the advanced combustion engines on hybrid powertrains," he said.

U.S. petroleum imports are predicted to increase about 35 percent by 2030. At the same time, the transportation-related emission of carbon dioxide is expected to rise by about 35 percent in the United States.

The authors of the paper published last year in the Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control were Shaver; J. Christian Gerdes, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford University; Matthew J. Roelle, a graduate student at Stanford; Patrick A. Caton, an assistant professor at the U.S. Naval Academy; and Christopher F. Edwards, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford.

Shaver's research team at Purdue includes graduate students David Snyder, Gayatri Adi and Anup Kulkarni, undergraduate students Armando Indrajuana, Elena Washington, Justin Ervin and Matt Carroll.

Further Information

Article: Dynamic Modeling of Residual-Affected Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition Engines with Variable Valve Actuation

Gregory M. Shaver, J. Christian Gerdes, Matthew J. Roelle, Patrick A. Caton, Christopher F. Edwards Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University

Abstract: One practical method for achieving homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) in internal combustion engines is to modulate the valves to trap or reinduct exhaust gases, increasing the energy of the charge, and enabling autoignition. Controlling combustion phasing with valve modulation can be challenging, however, since any controller must operate through the chemical kinetics of HCCI and account for the cycle-to-cycle dynamics arising from the retained exhaust gas. This paper presents a simple model of the overall HCCI process that captures these fundamental aspects. The model uses an integrated Arrhenius rate expression to capture the importance of species concentrations and temperature on the ignition process and predict the start of combustion. The cycle-to cycle dynamics, in turn, develop through mass exchange between a control volume representing the cylinder and a control mass modeling the exhaust manifold. Despite its simplicity, the model predicts combustion phasing, pressure evolution and work output for propane combustion experiments at levels of fidelity comparable to more complex representations. Transient responses to valve timing changes are also captured and, with minor modification, the model can, in principle, be extended to handle a variety of fuels.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Purdue University.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070510093248.htm

 

DIET: Thin people may be fat inside

May 10, 2007 04:28:16 PM PST

If it really is what's on the inside that counts, then a lot of thin people might be in trouble. Some doctors now think that the internal fat surrounding vital organs like the heart, liver or pancreas — invisible to the naked eye — could be as dangerous as the more obvious external fat that bulges underneath the skin.

"Being thin doesn't automatically mean you're not fat," said Dr. Jimmy Bell, a professor of molecular imaging at Imperial College, London. Since 1994, Bell and his team have scanned nearly 800 people with MRI machines to create "fat maps" showing where people store fat.

According to the data, people who maintain their weight through diet rather than exercise are likely to have major deposits of internal fat, even if they are otherwise slim. "The whole concept of being fat needs to be redefined," said Bell, whose research is funded by Britain's Medical Research Council.

Without a clear warning signal — like a rounder middle — doctors worry that thin people may be lulled into falsely assuming that because they're not overweight, they're healthy.

"Just because someone is lean doesn't make them immune to diabetes or other risk factors for heart disease," said Dr. Louis Teichholz, chief of cardiology at Hackensack Hospital in New Jersey, who was not involved in Bell's research.

Even people with normal Body Mass Index scores — a standard obesity measure that divides your weight by the square of your height — can have surprising levels of fat deposits inside.

Of the women scanned by Bell and his colleagues, as many as 45 percent of those with normal BMI scores (20 to 25) actually had excessive levels of internal fat. Among men, the percentage was nearly 60 percent.

Relating the news to what Bell calls "TOFIs" — people who are "thin outside, fat inside" — is rarely uneventful. "The thinner people are, the bigger the surprise," he said, adding the researchers even found TOFIs among people who are professional models.

According to Bell, people who are fat on the inside are essentially on the threshold of being obese. They eat too many fatty, sugary foods — and exercise too little to work it off — but they are not eating enough to actually be fat. Scientists believe we naturally accumulate fat around the belly first, but at some point, the body may start storing it elsewhere.

Still, most experts believe that being of normal weight is an indicator of good health, and that BMI is a reliable measurement.

"BMI won't give you the exact indication of where fat is, but it's a useful clinical tool," said Dr. Toni Steer, a nutritionist at Britain's Medical Research Council.

Doctors are unsure about the exact dangers of internal fat, but some suspect it contributes to the risk of heart disease and diabetes. They theorize that internal fat disrupts the body's communication systems. The fat enveloping internal organs might be sending the body mistaken chemical signals to store fat inside organs like the liver or pancreas. This could ultimately lead to insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, or heart disease.

Experts have long known that fat, active people can be healthier than their skinny, inactive counterparts. "Normal-weight persons who are sedentary and unfit are at much higher risk for mortality than obese persons who are active and fit," said Dr. Steven Blair, an obesity expert at the University of South Carolina.

For example, despite their ripples of fat, super-sized Sumo wrestlers probably have a better metabolic profile than some of their slim, sedentary spectators, Bell said. That's because the wrestlers' fat is primarily stored under the skin, not streaking throughout their vital organs and muscles.

The good news is that internal fat can be easily burned off through exercise or even by improving your diet. "Even if you don't see it on your bathroom scale, caloric restriction and physical exercise have an aggressive effect on visceral fat," said Dr. Bob Ross, an obesity expert at Queen's University in Canada.

Because many factors contribute to heart disease, Teichholz says it's difficult to determine the precise danger of internal fat — though it certainly doesn't help.

"Obesity is a risk factor, but it's lower down on the totem pole of risk factors," he said, explaining that whether or not people smoke, their family histories and blood pressure and cholesterol rates are more important determinants than both external and internal fat.

When it comes to being fit, experts say there is no short-cut. "If you just want to look thin, then maybe dieting is enough," Bell said. "But if you want to actually be healthy, then exercise has to be an important component of your lifestyle."

 

Satellites solve mystery of low gravity over Canada

* 20:16 10 May 2007
* NewScientist.com news service
* Kelly Young

If it seems Canadians weigh less than their American neighbours, they do – but not for the reasons you might think. A large swath of Canada actually boasts lower gravity than its surroundings.

Researchers have puzzled for years over whether this was due to the crust there rebounding slowly after the end of the last ice age or a deeper issue involving convection in the Earth's mantle – or some combination of the two.

Now, ultra-precise measurements taken over four years by a pair of satellites known as GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) reveal that each effect is equally responsible for Canada's low gravity. The work could shed light on how continents form and evolve over time.

GRACE, a joint mission of NASA and the German Aerospace Center, was launched into space in 2002. The two spacecraft fly 500 kilometres above the Earth, 220 kilometres apart. Using a microwave ranging system, the two spacecraft can measure distance differences between them as tiny as a micron.

That allows them to measure tiny changes in the distribution of mass – and hence gravity – on the Earth. For example, if the leading spacecraft were to encounter an area with more gravity, it would be pulled ever-so-slightly closer to Earth than the trailing spacecraft, and that distance can be measured.
Crushing weight

A team led by geophysicist Mark Tamisiea, who performed the work while at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, has now used GRACE to study the gravitational low over Canada's Hudson Bay. Scientists first noticed this low in the 1960s, when the planet's first global gravity fields were mapped.

At first, researchers suspected it was due to an ice sheet called Laurentide that blanketed a sizeable chunk of North America during the last ice age. In places, the sheet was more than 3 kilometres thick, and it depressed the Earth's crust beneath it.

When the ice age ended about 20,000 years ago, the ice rapidly melted. But the crust has been springing back much more slowly, and it is rebounding today by about 12 millimetres per year.

But in the last decade or so, scientists have begun to suspect that convection in the Earth's mantle, a layer of hot, flowing rock beneath the crust, also plays a role.

The sludge-like mantle rises and falls in plumes as it is heated from below and cooled from above. The mantle can drag the overlying tectonic plates with it as it moves.
What lies beneath

GRACE cannot directly detect that movement since it is so slow. But scientists inferred the gravitational contribution of convection by subtracting the post-glacier effect from the region's overall gravity signal.

"It's a very good piece of evidence that allows us to look beneath the surface of the Earth," says team member James Davis of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US. "It would be very hard for someone to say it's 100% post-glacial rebound."

Even after the Earth's crust rebounds completely from the glacier melting, there may still be a gravitational low over the area due to mantle convection. That would suggest that even parts of a continent away from the tectonic plate boundaries are affected by mantle convection.
Climate change

Ultimately, scientists hope to use such data to learn how continents form and evolve over time. "With this information, people could infer better whether the North America plate is actually predominantly stable," says C K Shum, an expert on the Earth's gravity at Ohio State University in Columbus, US, who was not a part of this study.

Using this same set of data, researchers have also found that there were two ice domes in the ice sheet on either side of Hudson Bay, given the features in the gravity field that have been left behind. The way the thickness of any ice cover changes at different periods could be used by climate modellers to understand past climate change.

"Where the ice formed, and how thick it was, is a clue to temperature, precipitation, and other weather/climate (for example, the jet stream) changes in the distant past," says team member Jerry Mitrovica of the University of Toronto in Canada.

Journal reference: Science (vol 316, p 881)

 

Top 5 All-Purpose Laptops
These laptops can do it all and are a great choice for most notebook users. Ratings and rankings can change due to pricing and technology changes, so check back frequently for the latest info.
Edited by Kalpana Ettenson
Monday, February 12, 2007, 01:00 PM PST
Test Center About the Test Center
How We Test • What Our Ratings Mean • How the Charts Work
Compare
Use the Check Boxes to see a Side-by-Side Comparison
Rank Name PCW Rating
1
BEST BUY

Dell Inspiron E1505
Dell Inspiron E1505
CPU: 2-GHz Core 2 Duo T7200
Display Size (inches): 15.4
Wide Screen: Yes
Total HD Size (GB): 120
Min. Weight (lbs.): 6.9
Price When Reviewed: $1139
Manufacturer's Pricing
Bottom Line: With "instant office apps" capability and fast performance, the E1505 is a good all-around notebook for getting work done.
(Last Rated: February 06, 2007)
Full Review • Test Report

83.3Very Good
2
Lenovo ThinkPad R60
Lenovo ThinkPad R60
CPU: 2-GHz Core Duo T2500
Display Size (inches): 15
Wide Screen: No
Total HD Size (GB): 100
Min. Weight (lbs.): 6.8
Price When Reviewed: $1299
Check latest prices
Bottom Line: Providing long battery life but a staid design, the R60 overall is a solid choice for mainstream users on a budget.
(Last Rated: February 06, 2007)
Full Review • Test Report

80.1Very Good
3
Lenovo 3000 C100
Lenovo 3000 C100
CPU: 1.73-GHz Pentium M 740
Display Size (inches): 15
Wide Screen: No
Total HD Size (GB): 80
Min. Weight (lbs.): 6.3
Price When Reviewed: $873
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Bottom Line: This affordable notebook has a basic design but long battery life and fairly robust features for the price.
(Last Rated: February 06, 2007)
Full Review • Test Report

79.9Good
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Find multimedia & wireless notebook mobility. Get low prices at Dell.
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$150 Off HP Compaq Computer. Offer is through May 31st.
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Experience 2x the multitasking performance for notebook computers.
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4
HP Pavilion dv2000t
HP Pavilion dv2000t
CPU: 2.16-GHz Core Duo T2600
Display Size (inches): 14.1
Wide Screen: Yes
Total HD Size (GB): 120
Min. Weight (lbs.): 6.1
Price When Reviewed: $1570
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Bottom Line: Offering stunning looks and great battery life, the dv2000t is an excellent home and small-business notebook.
(Last Rated: February 06, 2007)
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79.4Good
5
Sony VAIO VGN-N170G
Sony VAIO VGN-N170G
CPU: 1.6-GHz Core Duo T2050
Display Size (inches): 15.4
Wide Screen: Yes
Total HD Size (GB): 100
Min. Weight (lbs.): 6.7
Price When Reviewed: $1100
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Bottom Line: This inexpensive, stylish notebook has modest processing power but lacks a user-upgradable hard drive.
(Last Rated: February 06, 2007)
Full Review • Test Report

link for all the info
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,123678-c,notebooks/article.html

 

Hackers Hijack Windows Update's Downloader

Hackers are using Windows Updates' file transfer component to sneak malicious code downloads past firewalls.
Gregg Keizer, Computerworld
Thursday, May 10, 2007 2:00 PM PDT

Hackers are using Windows Updates' file transfer component to sneak malicious code downloads past firewalls, Symantec researchers said Thursday.

The Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) is used by Microsoft Corp.'s operating systems to deliver patches via Windows Update. BITS, which debuted in Windows XP and is baked into Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista, is an asynchronously file transfer service with automatic throttling -- so downloads don't impact other network chores. It automatically resumes if the connection is broken.

"It's a very nice component and if you consider that it supports HTTP and can be programmed via COM API, it's the perfect tool to make Windows download anything you want," said Elia Florio, a researcher with Symantec's security response team, on the group's blog. "Unfortunately, this can also include malicious files."

Florio outlined why some Trojan makers have started to call on BITS to download add-on code to an already compromised computer. "For one simple reason: BITS is part of the operating system, so it's trusted and bypasses the local firewall while downloading files."

Malware, particularly Trojans which typically first open a back door to the system for follow-on code, needs to sidestep firewalls to bring additional malicious software -- a keylogger, for instance -- to the PC. "[But] the most common methods are intrusive [and] require process injection or may raise suspicious alarms," said Florio.

"It is novel," said Oliver Friedrichs, director of Symantec's security response group. "Attackers are leveraging a component of the operating system itself to update their content. But the idea of bypassing firewalls isn't new."

Symantec first caught chatter about BITS on Russian hacker message boards late last year, Friedrichs added, and has been on the lookout for it since. A Trojan spammed in March was one of the first to put the technique into practice.

"The big benefit BITS gives them is that it lets them evade firewalls," said Friedrichs. "And it's also a more reliable download mechanism. It's free and reliable, and they don't have to write their own download code."

Although BITS powers the downloads delivered by Microsoft's Windows Update service, Friedrichs reassured users that there was no risk to the service itself. "There's no evidence to suspect that Windows Update can be compromised. If it has a weakness, someone would have found it by now.

"But this does show how attackers are leveraging components and becoming more and more modular in how they create software. They're simply following the trend of traditional software development," said Friedrichs.

Florio noted that there's no way to block hackers from using BITS. "It's not easy to check what BITS should download and not download," he said, and then gave Microsoft some advice. "Probably the BITS interface should be designed to be accessible only with a higher level of privilege, or the download jobs created with BITS should be restricted to only trusted URLs."

Microsoft was unable to immediately respond to questions about unauthorized BITS use.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,131737-c,hackers/article.html

 

iPod, iTunes Cited in Cease and Desist For Apple
MRT has filed a Cease and Desist letter claiming that Apple and others are responsible for DCMA violations.
Peter Cohen, Playlist
Thursday, May 10, 2007 1:00 PM PDT

Media Rights Technologies (MRT), developers of technology that prevents users from ripping digital media streams, has filed a Cease and Desist letter against Apple and other companies. The organization claims that Apple and others are responsible for violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and intellectual property law.

MRT claims that Vista, Adobe Flash Player, Real Player, iTunes and the iPod have been produced "without regard for the DMCA or the rights of American Intellectual Property owners." The DMCA, signed into law in 1998, makes it illegal to manufacture products that are designed to circumvent copy protection. Accordingly, MRT has filed Cease and Desist letters against Apple, Microsoft, Adobe and Real to stop production or sale of products that infringe on the DMCA.

MRT's X1 SeCure Recording Control has proven effective against stream ripping, the company said in a statement, and these companies have been "actively avoiding the use of MRT's technologies."

"Together these four companies are responsible for 98 percent of the media players in the marketplace; CNN, NPR, Clear Channel, MySpace Yahoo and YouTube all use these infringing devices to distribute copyrighted works. We will hold the responsible parties accountable. The time of suing John Doe is over," said MRT CEO Hank Risan.

An MRT spokesperson had not responded to a request for comment as Playlist posted this article.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,131733-c,legalissues/article.html

 

who owns Canada ? >>>>Bush administration and Hollywood<<<<





Canada caves in to Hollywood

p2pnet.net news:- Stephen Harper's Conservatives have all but agreed to Hollywood's contention that Canada is responsible for the vast majority of illegal camcorded copies of movies which show up on the p2p networks and street corners around the world.

Following pressure from Hollywood, with the Bush administration in lock-step behind it, the federal government plans to introduce legislation which will make it a crime to use handheld cameras to copy movies in cinemas, says the Ottawa Citizen.

"Pressure from the film industry has been mounting for months, culminating this week with Warner Bros. film studio announcing it will cancel its sneak preview screenings in Canada, starting with this summer's releases of Ocean's Thirteen and the next Harry Potter film," says the story.

The government was until recently "cool" to a Criminal Code crackdown, but it, "now hopes to move a bill quickly through the parliamentary process," according to a government insider.

Another anonymous spokesperson, this time from Warner Bros, said in the past 18 months, "70 per cent of the studio's bootlegged movies originated in Canada," states the item.

He didn't say how the number was compiled. However, as Canadian Net expert Michael Geist said recently, when Hollywood launched its war against Canada, the camcording piracy figure was 50%. But, "Over the weeks that followed, industry sources began altering that number, with suggestions that the figure was actually 20 percent, 23 percent, 30 percent, or 40 percent".

What are the MPAA members smoking?

Your "friendly neighborhood Canadian supposedly accounts for 7 out of every 10 pirated movies," said Cinema Blend's Stuart Wood, going on, "Well in a new report by the MPAA, they also claim that New York is responsible for 40% of world piracy. Four out of every ten pirated movies."

How, Wood wonders, can you have 110% of anything?

And, "When you consider other US cities and places like China, Malaysia, UK, the rest of Europe etc etc etc aren't even included in these statistics, you start to wonder just what the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) members smoke while watching movies?" - he says. "Is the western world in total responsible for 231 out of every 10 pirated DVDs???"

"One would hope that government policy would be dictated by facts rather than by lobbying," the Ottawa Citizen quotes Geist as saying. "We've got all these numbers out there about Canada being this piracy haven and we've never had any sort of independent, verifiable data to support that."

According to the MPAA, the US, "is still the top source of pirated movies," says the story, and, "The notion that somehow stepping up the penalties against camcording will solve this issue is completely undermined by the experience in the United States, where there are laws, but the U.S. is the largest source of camcorded movies in the world and it is also experiencing a proliferation," states Geist.

77% of these samples appear to have been leaked by industry insiders

Judging by the tremendous fuss suddenly kicked up by Warner, et al, the flood of flicks must be a recent development, one would think.

But that's not the case at all. And nor are camcording pirates the principal villains. Of a total of 285 movies researchers sampled on the p2p networks, 77% were leaked by industry 'insiders,' says a 2003 AT&T Labs report.

It states:

We developed a data set of 312 popularmovies and located one or more samples of 183 of these movies on file sharing networks, for a total of 285 movie samples. 77% of these samples appear to have been leaked by industry insiders. Most of our samples appeared on file sharing networks prior to their official consumer DVD release date. Indeed, of the movies that had been released on DVD as of the time of our study, only 5% first appeared after their DVD release date on a web site that indexes file sharing networks, indicating that consumer DVD copying currently represents a relatively minor factor compared with insider leaks.

"There are so many articles about this issue pointing to made-up numbers about the amount of camcording that happens, how much of it is Canadian, and how much comes out of Montreal," says Digital Copyright Canada's Russell McOrmond, continuing:

To be honest, I like the idea of having a specialized bill to deal with this issue so that it can be separated from the larger set of copyright revision issues.

While I don't like my taxpayer money going to redirecting law enforcement from more important criminal activity, I think that having camcordering be clearly unlawful is appropriate. The misdirection of tax money is a minor problem in my mind compared to the infringement of users and IT property rights proposed in other copyright revision.

Charlie Angus is quoted in Variety and The Edmonton Sun as suggesting that the only way to really solve this problem is to monetize the system, rather than trying to rely on enforcement. The article suggests that many people want the Copyright act modernized, but doesn't at all document the fact that different people want it changed in different directions (IE: Recording industry wanting to turn back the clock, etc).

Meanwhile, Warner Bros will, "rethink its cancellation of early promotional screening and 'sneak peaks' if the federal government comes up with a new law," says the Ottawa Citizen.

Jon Newton - p2pnet

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Also See:
illegal camcorded copies - Waltzing pirates in bulky clothing, May 10, 2007
Ottawa Citizen - Government plans new movie piracy law, May 11, 2007
altering that number - Hollywood 'Pirate Canada' claims, May 11, 2007
Cinema Blend - MPAA Lies About Movie Piracy!, May 10, 2007
AT&T Labs report - Analysis of Security Vulnerabilities in the Movie Production and Distribution Process, September 13, 2003
Digital Copyright Canada - Canada cracks down on camcorders? Best to have a special bill on this..., May 11, 2007
http://p2pnet.net/story/12194

 

ITS ABOUT TIME THIS CAME ABOUT

Apple, Microsoft, sued under DMCA

p2pnet.net news:- "The time of suing John Doe is over," says Hank Risan, ceo of DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) consumer control firm Media Rights Technologies (MRT).

Apple and Microsoft are violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and intellectual property law, he says.

MRT and subsidiary BlueBeat.com, an online radio service, have fired Cease and Desist letters at Apple, Bill and the Boyz and other companies which, it says, stop users from ripping digital media streams.

"MRT and BlueBeat have developed a technological measure which effectively controls access to copyrighted material," says a statement.

"That product, the X1 SeCure Recording Control, has been tested by the industry's standards bodies, the RIAA and IFPI, and has been proven effective against stream ripping, while protecting privacy and limiting infringement liability for users, distributors and academic institutions. It has been designed for rapid deployment on a reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) basis."

MRT says it "creates and licenses content management and enablement solutions, empowering the effective distribution of digital content: entertainment, personal, commercial, or educational".

It's issued the C&D notices to Microsoft, Adobe, Real Networks and Apple "with respect to the production or sale of such products as the Vista OS, Adobe Flash Player, Real Player, Apple iTunes and iPod".

It claims they've, "produced billions of these products without regard for the DMCA or the rights of American Intellectual Property owners, actively avoiding the use of MRT's technologies. Failure to comply with this demand could result in a federal court injunction to any of the above named parties to cease production or sale of their products and/or the imposition of statutory damages of at least $200 to $2500 for each product distributed or sold.

"Together these four companies are responsible for 98 percent of the media players in the marketplace; CNN, NPR, Clear Channel, MySpace Yahoo and YouTube all use these infringing devices to distribute copyrighted works," states Risan.

"We will hold the responsible parties accountable."
http://p2pnet.net/story/12192

 

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I see they are cooking numbers again for there benefit.....

 

Hollywood, smoking, movies, teens




p2pnet.net news:- A mandatory R rating for smoking in movies would not "further the specific goal of providing information to parents on this issue".

'R' means a movie has a Restricted rating, which in turn means anyone under 17 who wants to see it is supposed to have a parent or adult guardian with him or her.

Who made the statement? A Big Tobacco spokesman?

MPAA boss Dan Glickman.

The percentage of films, "that included even a fleeting glimpse of smoking" declined from 60 per cent to 52 per cent between July 2004 and July 2006," Canadian Press has Glickman saying.

And, "Descriptions on sex, violence and language that accompany movie ratings now will include such phrases as "glamorized smoking" or "pervasive smoking," Glickman said.

That should do it.

Meanwhile, " Teenagers are significantly more likely to start smoking if they watch movies featuring stars who smoke cigarettes, and teens whose parents don't smoke are the most likely to be swayed by actors lighting up onscreen," said The Washington Post in 2003.

It was quoting an article in Britain's The Lancet medical journal from June 10, 2003

"Smoking in movies is responsible for addicting 1,080 U.S. adolescents to tobacco every day, 340 of whom will die prematurely as a result," it stated.

Old stuff?

"Two new studies by Dartmouth Medical School pediatrician researchers underscore the significant impact that movies have in influencing teens to smoke," says Science Daily.

"The studies show that movies deliver billions of smoking impressions to American teens; and that even teens outside the U.S. are affected by smoking images in films distributed internationally by American studios."

"Exposure to Movie Smoking Among US Adolescents Aged 10 to 14 Years: A Population Estimate" studied a "nationally representative sample of 6,522 U.S. adolescents aged 10-14 years," and assessed their exposure to 534 popular contemporary box-office hits, says the story, going on:

Three out of four movies (74%) studied contained smoking, for a total of 3,830 smoking images. Based on the number of U.S. adolescents seeing each movie and the smoking contained in each, the researchers estimated that these movies delivered 13.9 billion gross smoking impressions.

Sixty one percent of these impressions were delivered by youth-rated movies and, " Of the group of movies surveyed, some 30 of the movies delivered more than 100 million smoking impressions each. Many of these high-impact movies were rated PG-13."

The, "apparently free delivery of star smoking to a young teen population is a tobacco marketer's dream," Science Daily has co-author Dr James Sargent stating.

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Also See:
Canadian Press - U.S. board makes smoking a bigger factor in assigning film ratings, May 11, 2007
The Washington Post - Study: Teens Who See Smoking in Movies More Likely to Light Up, June 10, 2003
Science Daily - US Movies Expose Youth To Billions Of Smoking Images, May 9, 2007


(Friday 11th May 2007)
http://p2pnet.net/story/12202