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

Why people hate Sony

Comment The usual: Ego, arrogance, lies, delays

By Martin Lynch: Wednesday 14 June 2006, 11:32
"We have built up a certain brand equity over time since the launch of PlayStation in 1995 and PS2 in 2000 that the first five million are going to buy it [the PS3], whatever it is, even if it didn't have games." David Reeves, CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

LIKE A cartoon character, my mouth fell open this morning when I read this quote from a recent interview in CVG.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=140627&skip=yes

The words that spilled out are not fit for a family audience. In that one sentence was all the proof needed to show that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Sadly though, it doesn’t make Reeves wrong, since the maths will prove him correct. We will prove him correct. When I say 'we' I’m speaking of the collective console cattle that will buy the PS3 regardless of cost, performance, delays, lack of games, etc. Not the discerning, informed, cynical, back-stabbing and frighteningly knowledgeable INQ readers.

It's just the arrogance of the statement, regardless of truth, that has a growing number of people seriously looking for any reason not to buy another Sony product. A real “love the product/hate the company” attitude is building.

I own four Sony products. I’m telling you this before some Sony groupies start flaming me as a "Sony is the Devil" advocate. It is not. Merely a minor Demon Lord with ambitions, a sharpened knife and a well-thumbed copy of Julius Caesar tucked behind its pointy tail.

Over the past five years I have bought a Sony AV home cinema receiver, a small hi-fi, a PS2 and a notebook. With regard to the first and second products, they were the best in their class according to numerous reviews in consumer electronics publications. I tend to buy according to performance, not brand. The PS2 is two years old and was bought for my son but then sneakily, er, re-acquired by me. Research, you know? The Vaio notebook was – shock, horror - good value in a Christmas sale.

Let’s look at the basis for the arrogance though because it’s all based on fact. You probably saw some of the console sales figures yesterday but, if not, here’s the shocking update. The PS2 is kicking the Xbox 360’s ass. That’s right, the six-year old console is still outselling the brand spanking new, next-gen 360 – at least in the US. But since that market is so damn big, it’s a good general indicator. Since the launch of the Xbox 360, sales have averaged 246,000 units per month. During the same period, PS2 sales have averaged more than 470,000 a month. That’s an astounding stat but the fact is that the PS2 is still the key development platform for games and will remain so for some time. It is Sony’s cash-cow, something it freely admits. And, it will have to remain so since the whopping price tag on the PS3 rules it out as a mainstream console for at least a year after launch – maybe for good?

Truth aside, back to that damned quote. It leaves a bad taste and it perfectly illustrates the kind of arrogance permeating everything that Sony has done on the consumer front in the past few years. From Blu-Ray to the PSP to the DRM scandal to the PS3, Sony has pretty much steamrolled punters. Still, most people vote with their pockets and Sony knows it. But has it stopped listening to its fans, its customers – the rabid, bleeding-edge customers that will make up a massive part of the shopping vanguard for the PS3? It certainly looks like it.

A scan of some of the leading Sony fan sites shows a dangerous level of disappointment. One of the biggest gripes is that the PS3 has lost its shine. Much of the excitement they once harboured for the PS3 has been replaced by dejection because most of the news surrounding the PS3 is bad news. From delays, changing hardware specs, dodgy public demos and a ludicrous price tag, they want to know when Sony is going to announce something good. And that’s just it. Sony is hiding in its fortress. Microsoft is having a field day comparing the PS3 to Betamax. While veracity has little to do with the ‘war of words’ the general negativity is spilling over into the ‘real’ world. Lazy tech reporters on mainstream newspapers, sites and news programmes are now airing the mistakes and lies us nerds have been tracking for years.

Sony fans are jaded while marginal gamers and potential high-definition customers are taking a wait-and-see approach. Sony’s not listening to its fans because it doesn’t have to. A large number of gamers are resigned to the fact that their PS2 will remain their platform of choice for at least another 18 months. And why not, it’s cheap as hell and the games keep on coming.

Sadly, not enough people will know or care about Sony’s indiscretions to stop good, but not great, PS3 sales. The cattle will take their wallets and kids to PC World when the new Playstation hits because that’s what they have always done. But underneath the sales, all is not well in paradise. The Sony crown has lost its shine and the company’s shoddy treatment of customers and fans, coupled with its unhealthy fascination with copyright protection technology, spells long-term trouble on way. µ
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32413

 

Private Infringer vs the DMCA,

p2p news / p2pnet: Access Copyright's ridiculous Captain Copyright is being touted as an educational comic for parents and teachers and naturally it comes with its very own equally ridiculous Digital Restrictions Management rules.

Capt C caught the eye of lowly engineer Darryl Moore, inspiring him to create Private Infringer.

Now, read on >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Chapter II – Major Restrictions on DVDs
By Darryl Moore - Chapter I, in which Private Infringer first goes mano-a-mano with America's Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Infringer couldn't wait to see this new DVD. He tore open the package as he walked up the two flights of stairs to his apartment. He had been waiting for this for a while. “The Making of, The Making of Doctor Who Season 28”. It included a special bonus feature too. “The Saga of Shada. How episode 6 of season 7 got filmed, cancelled, filmed again, lost, found, buried in the mud, found again, repaired, and finally turned to a great featurette about how it really wasn't such a great episode anyway but at least it gave us something great to make this featurette about.”. And they say there isn't anything good on television these days.

He got to the door of his apartment and fumbled with the DVD, the opened package, the rest of his mail, the Anne of Green Gable (TM) figurine, and now his keys. He worked hard to prevent any of it from falling. So inevitably, all of it did.

When he did finally get the door open he picked up the contents of the floor from outside his door and carelessly dumped it all on the nearest table. This was going to be great he thought. Way better then that old movie he started downloading this morning. Oh wait. He pause for a moment to consider this. He had told Oprah that if he actually did manage to successfully download that movie that the two of them could watch it tonight.

Oprah Source was his girlfriend, and despite being a technical wizard with computers she was not a big science fiction fan. Very unusual Infringer always thought, for a technical guru not to be heavily interested in science fiction. Oh well, it was also very unusual for a woman to be such a technical guru, so perhaps one peculiarity cancelled out the other one.

He paused. Unless of course you were suppose to add them.

Oh well, Oprah was just going to have to put up with it tonight. Private Infringer was definitely going to watch this movie.

He made his way over to the DVD player figuring if he started watching it now, then when Oprah got here she would (a) find it more difficult to stop him from watching it, and (b) there would be that much less that she would have to sit through. See, he was thinking of her needs as much as he was thinking of his own.

He stuck the DVD into the machine, grabbed the remote, turned on his new 50” Sony Alphamax HDMI compliant 1080p progressive scan widescreen HDTV LCD flat screen wiz bang television, plunked himself down on the chesterfield and settled in to be entertained.

This television was the best investment he had ever made. It was brand new 6 months ago and cost him a whooping $4000. But it was worth every penny. He could watch movies with amazing clarity, on a big screen, with fantastic sound, and all from the privacy of his living room. It worked great too. Flawlessly. At least for the first 4 months. Then 2 months ago it started shutting itself down unexpectedly. The first time it happened Oprah was watching “Pride and Prejudice”. It happened again a few days later when she was watching one of the “Bridget Jones” movies. Then finally again when she was watching another movie “The Importance of Being Earnest”. Infringer was beginning to think perhaps it had something to do with his girlfriend, but when he called the manufacturer he discovered that no, it was just a software bug, and it was really caused by watching movies with Colin Firth in them. Unfortunately he discovered this a month too late as the television had at that point been discontinued, and the company does not support it any more. Now Infringer and Oprah just settle for not watching any Colin Firth movies. Ah yes, the best investment he ever made.

Private Infringer was not sitting on his comfortable chesterfield for very long before he noticed that something was wrong. First he noticed the alternating red and blue background on the TV screen. Rather hard to miss actually. The screen was so big and produced so much light that it lit up his whole living room in alternating red, then blue light. He felt like he was inside the projector for one of those cheap 3D movies where everyone has to wear those glasses with the red and blue lenses and everyone invariably leaves the theater with a headache. In the centre of the screen was a stationary white box with text in it. “This audio visual equipment in not licensed to view this disc” At the bottom in smaller text it said, “Please do not attempt to watch this again or we will be forced to sue your grandmother just as soon as the RIAA is finished with her”. That's odd thought Private Infringer. His grandmother died 6 years ago.

Infringer got himself up and walked across the room to the DVD player. He ejected the DVD, then tried putting it back in again. Another message appeared on the flashing screen. “I told you. Do not attempt to watch this movie. This equipment is not properly licensed for viewing this DVD and any attempt to circumvent these restrictions is a direct violation of the DMCA” What was the DMCA? The words sounded familiar, but Infringer could not recall what they were.

More words appeared on the screen now. “The Digital Millennium Copyright Act was passed by Congress in 1998 to address new issues in copyright law that were introduced as a result of new advances in technology, and to follow through on the commitment America made when it signed the WIPO Copyright Treaty of 1996. Part of the act states that we can put any measure we want in place to control, by whom, when, and where, our content is viewed. And you have no rights to say otherwise. In fact we can have you locked up if you disagree with us in any material way. Now go away.” When Infringer finished reading this the drawer of the DVD player popped open and Infringer's new disc flew out and landed on the floor. The drawer snapped closed again with a distinct attitude of smugness.

Well, this was absurd. So the machine wasn't licensed. So what? What did this have to do with Infringer? He paid good money for this DVD, and now he was being told that he could not watch it because the machine had apparently entered into some kind of licensing deal and had agreed not to show this DVD? Infringer hadn't made any such deal, and this DMCA thing couldn't apply to him. Could it? He paid for this DVD after all. As far as he was concerned this only made the machine defective.

He picked up the disc, dusted it off, and walked over to his computer on the other side of the room. It had a DVD-ROM. Maybe it would be a little more willing to read the disc. Perhaps he could copy the contents to a blank disc and try again on his entertainment system. Or, worse comes to worse, watch it on the computer monitor.

He put the disc into the computer and immediately Media Player came up. Ah great, thought infringer, at least now he could see the video. However Media Player too refused to play the DVD. It said that it too was not licensed to view this disc, made some scurrilous comments, this time something about Infringer's mother, and then promptly closed.

Private Infringer was beginning to get more than a little frustrated. He began to think. There was another piece of software somewhere on his computer. Something that Oprah put on a while ago. What was it again? He began checking all the different menus to try to find it. Ah, there is was, “DVD Copy Plus”. If he was remembering what Oprah said at the time, this software does not exist any more. Apparently the company that made it, 321 Studios, got sued out of existence by the motion picture industry some years back. That was probably a result of this annoying DMCA thing as well.

He ran this program, then tried to navigate through it's maze of menus and options. He did not really know what he was doing so he just stuck with the defaults for any options that were presented. And within about a minute the software had found the DVD and was happily working away at ripping it. Hallelujah. It was working. And the little timer in the window said it was only going to take 58 minutes to complete. Sigh. This was definitely turning out to be a little more complicated then he had imagined.

Infringer sat for a minute watching the timer count down when suddenly there was a loud crash coming from his bedroom. He immediately jumped to his feet and started running to the bedroom. The crashing sounds continued as he ran.

He got to the door within seconds and opened it to discover a very large and intimidating man in army fatigues standing on the other side of his bed. The man was immense. Standing at least a full 2 meters tall and wider probably than the bedroom door. Just how did he get into Private Infringer's bedroom?

Infringer gave out a gasp of horror and then meekly asked “Wh-wh-who are you?”

“My name is Major Restrictions”, said the man, with a strong authoritative voice similar to Captain Copyright's but also with a strong southern, Louisiana accent.

Major Restrictions was as awkward as he was large. He was certainly use to throwing his weight around though, even though doing so with his obvious lack of coordination inevitably lead to unnecessary damage.

He walked cumbersomely towards Private Infringer, but tripped over the corner of Infringer's bed as he tried to navigate around it. The bed complained about this with a loud snap and promptly fell apart under Restrictions great weight.

Private Infringer backed up as Major Restrictions righted himself again and approached the bedroom door.

“What do you want?”, asked Infringer, not at all sure if he really wanted to know the answer.

“You have been trying to circumvent the Technological Protection Measures which were put in place to protect the content of the DVD you just purchased. Those Technological Protection Measures were put in place to protect the content from evil hideous acts of piracy. I am here to protect the content owners rights.”

“Ah well, that's good you see. I bought this DVD.”, Infringer emphasized the word bought rather strongly. “And, huh, I haven't been able to make it work.”

“You should not have bought it.” Shot back Major Restrictions.

“Huh?”

“That DVD, the same as all major release DVDs, is encrypted. All DVD players have to be licensed to play the encrypted DVDs. That way the major motion picture industry can be sure that the machines are trustworthy and will not contribute to piracy.”

“But my machine can play all my other DVDs, Aren't they encrypted too?”

“Ah yes, but the encryption on those DVD's is different then the encryption on this DVD. The encryption on the DVD has to match the license for the DVD player. Your DVD is encrypted for Europe and the player is only licensed for North America.”

“What, so my DVD player can't be trusted not to pirate European DVDs? You think it'll pop off when nobody is looking and try to sell a few copies on eBay?”

“No” Major Restrictions was looking rather upset now, “It's because films don't tend to be released around the world at the same time. The restrictions are so that while a movie is being released in one region, it cannot be pirated and sold in another region before its release there.”

“Oh, you mean it's a marketing tool so you can extract the maximum possible in any given market without having to compete with... hmmm.. Yourself!”

“Now listen you good for nothing little pirate...” but Infringer interrupted him loudly before he could continue.

“But I bought this DVD. It isn't pirated. Your encryption seems to only be hampering my legitimate use of my property. I bet it does nothing for real pirating as I'm sure lots of stuff is available in flea markets and over the Internet despite your encryption.”

“The DVD you bought was released for the European market. Not the North American market. Therefore you purchasing it and importing it here is piracy!”

“BUT I PAID FOR IT”, Infringer yelled, “FROM A LEGITIMATE RETAILER”.

“That doesn't matter”, countered Major Restrictions. “The disc is yours, but you still have no right to the content. The DMCA says we have the right to limit your rights when we are enforcing our own rights. We have the right to force you to stop what you are doing when you try infringe our rights”

“You mean when I try to exercise my right to access the content of my disc?”

“That's right”

Private Infringer had a confused look on his face.

Major Restrictions raised his 'statutory damages' ray gun. It was quite similar to Captain Copyright's but much bigger and far more lethal.

Private Infringer had to think quickly. He remembered how General Intelligence saved him from Captain Copyright less than an hour ago.

“Wait,” Exclaimed Infringer, “the DMCA is an American law. Therefore you have no jurisdiction here.”

“American laws applies to every one”, shot back Major Restrictions, and began to take careful aim at Private Infringer.

“Certainly the rest of the world is affected by American laws to a ridiculous degree, but it still does not apply here, and definitely not this DMCA. You are going to need a court order to take any action against me.”

At this, Major Restrictions ray gun evaporated. “What!” exclaimed Major Restrictions suddenly.

Private infringer gathered his wits and then started pushing Major Restrictions out. Major Restrictions, without the necessary court documentation was helpless, and could not resist Private Infringer's pushing.

“You can't do this” Major Restrictions protested.

Infringer only responded with grunts as he strained himself pushing the massive burdensome weight of Major Restrictions out of his apartment door.

“You can't get rid of me”, Major Restrictions yelled at the top of his voice. “Canada signed the WIPO Copyright Treaty.”

“But we didn't ratify it”, rebutted Infringer.

Infringer expelled a final grunt as he gave Restrictions one last push out the door. As he slammed the door Major Restrictions yelled one final and ominous statement. “We still control your DVD players. We will control everything.”

Infringer breathed a sigh of relief once he had slammed the door shut and locked it. Major Restrictions was right on several very significant points though. His American corporate cohorts did indeed still control his DVD player, and most everybody else's too. They also control much of the functionality of computers and are working very hard to control HD televisions and HD video discs too. Also Canada did sign the WIPO Copyright Treaty, which although technically we are not required to ratify, that is none the less, what our trading partners expect and there have not been any strong voices of objection at home. Heck even without having ratified that agreement, our government was doing precious little to protect consumers rights. Without DMCA style legislation here we still have American corporations controlling our DVD players and other equipment. How bad would it get if we had DMCA style legislation like Major Restrictions and his accomplices wanted? This all quite worried Infringer, but he wasn't sure what he could do about it.

Private Infringer sat down again at his computer. Thirty four minutes left now.

A horrible thought crossed his mind though. Canada, he realized, does not have any fair use provision in its copyright laws. Technically that meant that right now he was breaking copyright laws by copying the DVD. He remembered Captain Copyright, tied up in the street with red tape. How long would that tape hold him? Would Copyright find out what Infringer was doing? He might not get off so easily next time. Infringer sat there staring at his computer for the next few minutes. He really wanted to watch this DVD.

Suddenly he jumped with a sudden shriek when he heard a loud knock at the door.

To be continued...

Also See:
Captain Copyright - Canada's Captain Copyright, June 1, 2006
equally ridiculous - The Case of the Critical Link, June 13, 2006
Capt C - Captain Copyright: SuperHero, June 2, 2006
Private Infringer - Capt Copyright vs Pvt Infringer, June 5, 2006

==================

p2pnet newsfeeds for your site.
rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss
Mobile - http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php

(Wednesday 14th June 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/9057

 

My bitch for the day is after reading the above articles I can't decide who I hate more Hollywood, Sony or Vista

 

A LITTLE FUN FOR NEWBIES,to get them to search.....

 

I just fired up google, that pic makes me want to search

 

good morning all

,

The Pirate Bay makes its voyage back home to Sweden
Posted by Seán Byrne on 15 June 2006 - 11:01 - Source: Torrent Freak

Just a couple a weeks ago, it appeared like another victory for the movie industry after the Swedish police brought down The Pirate Bay, with 50 police raiding some 200 servers and arresting 3 people. A couple of days later, the three were released and The Pirate Bay made its return back online by travelling to a hosting provider in the Netherlands.

Now their ship has sailed back home to Sweden, returning to their former provider "PRQ" going by their IP information. It also did not take long for the Dutch anti-piracy organisation BREIN to start threatening the hosting provider The Pirate Bay used in the Netherlands, but it looks like it is too late for them as the Site no longer appears hosted there. According to The Pirate Bay, they plan on spreading their site to various locations across the world, not only to improve its speed, but to make it even more difficult to shut down. Thanks to Kerry56 for telling us about this news:

It looks like The Piratebay is back home again. The Piratebay had to move because the Swedish police raided their servers. But, after a short stay in The Netherlands the torrent tracker returned to their provider “PRQ” in Sweden.

At least, that’s what the ip info tells us.

Another point of interest is the “reverse DNS” that sends out a clear message to the MPAA and their friends:

hey.mpaa.and.apb.bite.my.shiny.metal.ass.thepiratebay.org.

The full story can be read here.

For the entertainment industry, this is probably this probably one of the most embarrassing tmes them for them, particularly after publishing news about the shutdown only to find that they have not got victory after all. It seems like this is one ship that is built to keep battling on.

Kerry56 wrote: Those guys are still firing broadsides at the MPAA and their allies. Gotta admire their attitude if nothing else
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13546

 

Sweden Might Legalize Downloading

Posted in All, News, P2P, Right to copy on 06.12.06 18:26

Sweden may add charges to broadband subscriptions to, “compensate music and film companies for the downloading of their work, while legalizing the downloading of copyright-protected material,”

The Local quotes justice minister Thomas Bodström as saying.

And in the process, it might drop the ban on file sharing, it states, going on:

“Bodström told Sydsvenskan that he could consider tearing up legislation passed last year that made it illegal to download copyrighted material. He said that a broadband charge was discussed by Swedish political parties last year, but the Moderates and Left Party rejected it. If they have changed their minds, he is willing to discuss any new proposals they might have …”

Emphasising he hasn’t changed his stance, “I still think that [the current law] is the best option for two reasons,” he says in the story, “first, it would be unfair on those who have subscribed to broadband and don’t want to download, secondly because it would mean that the government was setting the price for goods, which I don’t think we should do, whether those goods are in a shop or on the net.”

Bodström is also quoted as saying he hasn’t been approached by the Left Party or Moderates. Rather, he’d, “only read about their proposals in the media”.

This might be a clever move since 75% of the young voters in Sweden support filesharing, even if it’s illegal.

p2pnet
http://torrentfreak.com/sweden-might-legalize-downloading/#more-311

 

Protect Yourself With an Antiphishing Toolbar

These browser plug-ins can help make your surfing safer.

Andrew Brandt
From the July 2006 issue of PC World magazine
Posted Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Think you can spot a phishing site? Don't be too sure. A recent study determined that a well-constructed fake Bank of the West page fooled 90 percent of the study's participants, including some very technically sophisticated people. Fortunately, several tools can help ensure that you don't fall for such a con.A number of companies make free browser plug-ins that can detect phishing sites. Most give you a visual warning when you're on a site that's trying to pass itself off as something it's not. Some assemble a list of fake sites based on reports from users who've stumbled upon them. Others analyze the site's address to see if it's misleading: For instance, the URL might have "ebay" in it when it's not actually a part of ebay.com. Several toolbars use a combination of approaches.

The Netcraft toolbar is my favorite.
http://toolbar.netcraft.com/
It shows you who the site is registered to, and provides a "risk rating" that can help you quickly decide whether you want to enter your password. A close second comes from TrustWatch,
http://www.trustwatch.com/
which makes a toolbar for Internet Explorer that validates legitimate Web sites and, like Netcraft, can provide a detailed site report. TrustWatch's reports let you know whether the site is included on any blacklists of suspect sites and whether it uses SSL technology for secure transfers. TrustWatch also makes an extension for Firefox that embeds site-report links in Google search-result pages.


Advertisement




Other good options abound. The EarthLink Toolbar
http://www.earthlink.net/software/free/toolbar/
with ScamBlocker alerts you with a pop-up message when you visit a site that has hosted phishing attacks. (You don't need to be an EarthLink subscriber to use the tool.) Corestreet's SpoofStick helps clue you in to a phishing site by putting the domain name of the site that you're visiting in huge, bold letters in IE's toolbar
http://www.spoofstick.com/
. Cloudmark's IE Toolbar automatically blocks sites known to host phishing scams.
http://www.cloudmark.com/
And eBay offers a toolbar equipped with an Account Guard feature that warns you if you're about to enter your eBay or PayPal password in a fake Web site's log-in page.

The phishing study cited above, however, found that a quarter of participants didn't look at phishing clues already present in browsers, like the padlock icon and address bar. These days it doesn't pay to be asleep at the wheel as you cruise the Net.
Andrew Brandt is a contributing editor for PC World. E-mail him at privacywatch@pcworld.com.
http://pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,125739,00.asp

 

MPAA, RIAA, US team up,

p2p news / p2pnet: The US government has, "joined forces with the entertainment industry to stop the freewheeling global bazaar in pirated movies and music, pressuring foreign governments to crack down or risk incurring trade barriers," says The Washington Post.

But it's not just the entertainment industry. As p2pnet has been emphasising for Lo! these many months, it'd be more accurate to say the Cheney / Bush administration is working hard for the music, movie and software cartels.

Police and other agencies in the US and elsewhere in the world, all wholly funded by local taxpayers, are increasingly being suborned as RIAA, MPAA and BSA pseudo-police units to terrorize citizens into buying cartel-made product.

"Last year, for instance, the movie industry lobby suggested that Sweden change its laws to make it a crime to swap copyrighted movies and music for free over the Internet," says the story.

"Shortly after, the Swedish government complied. Last month, Swedish authorities briefly shut down an illegal file-sharing Web site after receiving a briefing on the site's activities from U.S. officials in April in Washington. The raid incited political and popular backlash in the Scandinavian nation.

"In Russia, the government's inability, or reluctance, to shut down another unauthorized file-sharing site may prevent that nation's entrance into the World Trade Organization, as effective action against intellectual property theft tops the U.S. government's list of requirements for Russian WTO membership."

More than ten years of pressure from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), "has convinced U.S. lawmakers and law enforcement officials that it's worth using America's muscle to protect movie and music interests abroad," says The Washington Post, going on:

"Now, lawmakers are calling the trade groups, asking what else Congress and the government can do for the entertainment industry.

"Efforts to stem piracy within the United States by targeting peer-to-peer file-sharing networks have produced mixed results. Kazaa - once the most popular of them and a hard target of the music industry - has half as many users as it did at its peak three years ago, thanks in part to the music industry's lawsuit and education campaign. At the same time, the total number of peer-to-peer users has grown in the past year, according to Internet traffic researchers."

This hasn't, however, stopped RIAA boss Mitch Bainwol from disingenuously claiming his 'trade' association has "contained" the file sharing problem.

Kazaa's cynical efforts to climb into bed with the same groups persecuting Kazaa users, as well as owner Sharman Networks which, at the same time purports to espouse the 'p2p revolution;' and the fact Kazaa was used by most of the victims being attacked in the RIAA's bizarre sue 'em all marketing scheme, are as closely linked to its precipitous fall from favour as any efforts by the RIAA to kill it. And to add to its troubles, perversely, Sharman Networks and Kazaa ceo Nikki Hemming are currently suing p2p site p2pnet for alleged libel in a case which, if it's successful, will stifle freedom of speech in Canada.

In the US, the MPAA and RIAA, with the BSA (Business Software Alliance) lurking in the wings, say people who share files with each other are criminals and thieves. However, it's never been shown that a shared file equals a lost sale.

Nothing has been stolen, no one has been deprived of something he or she formerly owned, and no money has changed hands. Nor is there any such crime as file sharing. At absolute worst, someone's copyright has been infringed and in fact, at a time when the reputations and credibility of the movie and music industries are at an all time low because of bad product, bad management and bad business decisions and models, it could be said file sharing represents and priceless, and free, advertising in the digital 21st century.

Meanwhile, "Overseas, U.S. government officials say, it is in the national interest to work on behalf of Hollywood and other entertainment and intellectual property industries," The Washington Post continues. "The United States does not offer specific dictates on how other nations handle their border controls, said Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Victoria Espinel, 'but they need to have an effective intellectual property system for protecting our rights holders abroad'."

China and Russia are presently at the top of the US trade representative office "priority watch list" of countries, "that, in its estimate, do not adequately protect intellectual property rights" and the MPAA, in particular, has cosy links to the office.

Dr Susan C. Schwab is the new US trade rep, taking over from Rob Portman, a loyal Hollywood friend.

Interestingly, Schwab started out as a USTO agricultural trade negotiator and MPAA boss Dan Glickman is the ex-US secretary of agriculture who also appointed Greg Frazier as the MPAA's svp for international trade policy.

Frazier, Glickman's special advisor since 2004, was also Glickman's chief of staff at the agricultural department.

The story goes on to highlight The Pirate Bay case, initiated by the MPAA, as p2pnet was initially virtually alone in pointing out.

Now, "An ongoing battle between Swedish authorities and an illegal file-sharing service called the Pirate Bay can be traced to an April meeting in Washington between the Swedes and the U.S. government.

"Officials from the State Department, the Department of Commerce and the U.S. trade representative's office told visitors from the Swedish Ministry of Justice in April that Sweden was harboring one of the world's biggest Web sites for enabling the massive and unauthorized distribution of movies, music and games. It uses a file-swapping technology known as BitTorrent that is tougher to contain than earlier systems such as the original Napster, which the U.S. government shut down in 2001, and popular current peer-to-peer services, such as LimeWire.

"A little more than a month later, Swedish police hit the headquarters of the Pirate Bay and closed the site. The MPAA crowed, saying it had helped the effort by filing a criminal complaint against the site."

TPB did not, however, stay closed for long, re-opening a couple of days later in The Netherlands. And it's now apparently comfortably back at its home port in Sweden, operating much as before. But as far as the mainstream media are concerned, the MPAA triumphed and it and its fellows in the software and music industries continue to dictate US trade policy.

"Entrance into the World Trade Organization would grant the country numerous trading benefits," The WashingtonPost emphasises. "Each of the WTO's 149 members has veto power over accession and each has key demands of applicants.

"For the United States, the focus is on intellectual property. And the U.S. wants to make sure the mistake of China is not repeated. 'We let China in and China has not fully complied with the WTO requirements' for protecting intellectual property, Glickman said. The MPAA has an enforcement division in Hong Kong whose members accompany local law enforcement officials on raids. 'The time to get action is now, rather than after they get in,' Glickman said."

But the MPAA isn't alone in using Bush administration agencies to protect the bottom lines of its owners, the Big Six Hollywood movie studios, Time Warner, Viacom, Fox, Sony, NBC Universal and Disney.

Owned by the Big Four record labels, Warner Music (US), EMI (Britain), Sony BMG (Japan, Germany) and Vivendi Universal (France), the misnamed Recording Industry Association of America's equivalent of The Pirate Bay is AllofMP3.com, based in Russia.

It, too, is thumbing its nose at US efforts to crush it. American trade negotiators, "darkly warned that the Web site could jeopardize Russia's long-sought entry into the World Trade Organization" and the US trade office is going after the Russian download site on the Big Four's behalf.

"Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Espinel said shutting down Allofmp3.com 'is right at the top of the agenda," states The Washington Post. "This is a top-priority issue in terms of our discussion with Russia and the WTO'. As the bilateral talks with Russia continue, congressional leaders are bringing pressure to bear on President Bush, who has vowed to speed that nation's entry into the WTO. Working against Russia, the lawmakers say, are its plans to make intellectual property rights violators subject to civil, rather than criminal, penalties."

Stay tuned.

Digg this story.

Help p2pnet beat the Sharman / Hemming lawsuit

If you don't like PayPal, here's an address:

Jon Newton
PO Box 1532, Lake Cowichan
British Columbia V0R 2G0

Also See:
The Washington Post - U.S. Joins Industry in Piracy War, June 15, 2006
disingenuously claiming - P2p file sharing contained: RIAA, June 13, 2006
currently suing - Free speech in Canada, June 2, 2006
cosy links - Hollywood lauds US trade office, April 29, 2006
Greg Frazier - Hollywood's agronomical air, April 20, 2006
initiated by the MPAA - The Pirate Bay back online, June 3, 2006
home port in Sweden - The Pirate Bay: home again, June 14, 2006
darkly warned - AllofMP3.com statement, June 5, 2006

==================

p2pnet newsfeeds for your site.
rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss
Mobile - http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php

(Thursday 15th June 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/9068

 

BlackAngel.B loves MSN,

p2p news / p2pnet: With news of the Yahoo Yamanner JavaScript worm still echoing loudly comes a report of BlackAngel.B, a worm said to favour MSN Messenger.

However, Panda Software, which discovered BlackAngel.B, says the threat offered is low level.

It, "attempts to disable the processes belonging to several security tools, such as antivirus programs and firewalls, among others. It prevents users from accessing certain operating system tools such as the Task Manager and the Registry Editor.

"Additionally, it shuts down the computer."

BlackAngel.B can be easily recognized, says Panda, going on:

"The user receives any of the following instant messages via MSN Messenger, which contain a link:

- jaja look a that http://galeon.verti2/fantasma.zip
- mira este video http://galeon.verti2/fantasma.zip jaja

"When the user clicks on the link, an executable file that passes itself off as a Windows Media Player file compressed in ZIP format is downloaded to the computer."

It also shows the pic on the right which, roughly translated, says, "The first day, you're frightened, the second, you despair, the third you look for help, and the fourth, you die."

Also See:
echoing loudly - Yahoo nails email worm, June 14, 2006
Panda Software - BlackAngel.B, June 14, 2006

==================

p2pnet newsfeeds for your site.
rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss
Mobile - http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php

(Thursday 15th June 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/9071

 

Captain Copyright for kids,

p2p news view / p2pnet: John Degen posted his thoughts on Captain Copyright last week.

The character is silly, dumb, over-the-top and even, dare I say, derivative (in the critical sense). And I love him. I have a Captain Copyright sticker on my laptop... and I had vowed to never put a sticker on my beautiful little computer, but this guy is too great. He is way cooler than Elmer the Safety Elephant. I hope someday he too gets his own flag.

In the past few weeks I've been thinking why I felt such negative emotions about Captain Copyright taking flight. Here's my thinking, and I'm curious to learn what other people have been thinking.

I think suggesting you can teach current copyright law and related issues to children in grades 1-8 belittles those of us who've dedicated large amounts of our lives to this area of law. It reminds me of how frustrated I was reading the Government's Section 92 report where it prioritized copyright revision issues and listed "clarifying and simplifying the Act" as the last bullet on the lowest priority for the government.

I believe this should be the first priority of the government, and an overriding policy that directs any other change to the Copyright Act.

Today's reality is that the most experienced practitioners in copyright law get this area of law wrong every day, with copyright lawyers disagreeing on how to interpret existing law. There were mistakes on the Captain Copyright site which could easily have been corrected through peer reviewers sending bug reports to the authors. Instead, they became public articles.

I believe people were trying to alert potential audiences to the idea that if "The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency" couldn't get these issues right, it's unreasonable to suggest children under the age of 13 could understand and discuss them.

And clearly it's inappropriate to suggest these young children be encouraged to write letters to the editor in support of Access Copyright's narrow views on coyright.

If Captain Copyright had a 14+ target audience, and didn't contain suggestions that children should become free labour for Access Copyright special interest lobbying, I think I would have been far more supportive.

When I was in high-school I took a law course and even then I was interested in software copyright. While I don't think I could have discussed the types of issues that Access Copyright is proposing as the concepts were far too complex, I think this is the right age to start to get children involved.

Access Copyright indicated on their site that they intend to expand to discussions about Creative Commons and other licensing system alternatives to collective licensing or the "permission culture" (Lessig's wording, not theirs). My hope is that there'll be a way to simplify some of the economics behind these alternatives such that as high-school children grow up, they'll be able to make informed choices about their own creativity. They can choose whether they wish to charge royalties for their work, or specific uses of their work, and whether to join a collective. They may also choose to charge the up-front development costs, allowing the marginal price (the royalty rate) to be equal to the marginal cost for creativity which is zero.

There's so much work that needs to be done before any of this is possible. I am currently in a public discussion with Christopher Moore who's a director at Access Copyright.

While I believe that Moore is a smart individual (I like his reminders on Senate Reform), and that he has the interests of fellow authors at heart, we've had a hard time discussing the problems for protecting creators' rights when collective societies such as Access Copyright extend beyond being a voluntary (repertoire-based) collective.

We're two people who have dedicated very large parts of our lives to this topic, and we're theoretically on the same side of the debate: trying to protect the rights of creators.

But if the two of us can't understand each other or agree, how can it be reasonable for primary school children to do so?

Russell McOrmond - p2pnet contributing editor
[McOrmond is an independent author (software and non-software) who uses modern business models and licensing (Free/Libre and Open Source Software, Creative Commons). He's also the CLUE policy coordinator.]

Also See:
Captain Copyright - Canada's Captain Copyright, June 1, 2006

==================

p2pnet newsfeeds for your site.
rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss
Mobile - http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php

(Thursday 15th June 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/9074

 

HAY Lethal_B YE NEED THIS WITH YE IPOOD


iPod accessory with true value



p2p news / p2pnet: Atech Flash Technology is flushed with success! It's created a truly worthwhile iPod accessory!

With it, music while you work takes in a new meaning.

"Now you can enhance your experience in any room with your favorite music from your iPod," declares the company. Because its iCarta experience comes via what the company has designated a Stereo Dock for iPod with Bath Tissue Holder.

The system has four integrated moisture-free speakers (essential), it charges your iPod while in action, an audio selector allows you to play iPod shuffle or "other audio device," and the "Integrated Bath tissue holder" can be folded as a stereo dock.

"When contacted for comment, Atech Flash sales manager Eric Liu said," states the iPod Observer. "We want to create something that is different and brings people joy for buying such products. The idea was from our VP and we have spent about 12 months development on this product. The product is even protected by our own patent world wide."

And all for a mere $100.

Digg this story.

Also See:
iPod Observer - Listen to Your iPod While on the Throne, or in the Shower, June 13, 2006

==================

p2pnet newsfeeds for your site.
rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss
Mobile - http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php

(Friday 16th June 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/9080

Lethal_B ye favorite gal

 

Movies File Share Top Ten,(Friday 16th June 2006)



p2pnet.net Feature:- p2pnet's Movies File Share Top Ten is compiled from statistics supplied by p2p research company Big Champagne.

Only on p2pnet.

If you want to see how BC develops them, head over to our Q&A with ceo Eric Garland here.

Note: If a movie returns after being out of the charts for two weeks or longer, it's designated 'new'. 'Return' means back after a week's absence.

Movies Top Ten File Share Downloads, Global
Week ending June 15, 2006
Ranking Movie Number of Downloads
01 >>> X-Men: The Last Stand (unchanged) 1,398,185
02 >>> The Da Vinci Code (unchanged) 1,395,704
03 >>> Over The Hedge + #4 1,358,594
04 >>> Mission: Impossible III - #3 1,337,342
05 >>> The Break-Up + #10 1,333,760
06 >>> R.V. - #5 1,322,433
07 >>> Cars (new) 1,314,364
08 >>> Big Momma's House 2 - #6 1,284,050
09 >>> Just My Luck (new) 1,274,967
10 >>> The Wild - #8 1,270,695

Movies Top Ten File Share Downloads, USA
Week ending June 15, 2006
Ranking Movie Number of Downloads
01 >>> X-Men: The Last Stand (unchanged) 822,471
02 >>> The Da Vinci Code (unchanged) 810,317
03 >>> Over The Hedge + #5 807,919
04 >>> The Break-Up + #10 806,424
05 >>> Mission: Impossible III - #3 787,782
06 >>> R.V. - #6 787,256
07 >>> Big Momma's House 2 - #5 777,040
08 >>> The Wild (unchanged) 775,365
09 >>> Cars (new) 768,893
10 >>> Just My Luck (new) 729,688



(Friday 16th June 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/9082

 

US government helped sink The Pirate Bay; goes after other sites

6/16/2006 10:45:40 AM, by Nate Anderson

The Pirate Bay may not have been sent to Davy Jones' locker by the recent Swedish police raid on its servers, but the legal assault on the site made a lot of Swedes very förbannade. Some of them apparently thought it would be fun to take down a police website, while others were content to vent their outrage at politicians, who were accused of bowing to pressure from the US. Justice Minister Thomas Bodstrom took to the airwaves to reassure his fellow Scandinavians that this was not, in fact, the case.

Justice Minister Thomas Bodstrom denied allegations in a Swedish television report that the government ordered the crackdown on a U.S. request. "I have never acted individually or spoken about how the police and prosecutors should act, nor will I do it," Bodstrom was quoted as saying by Sweden news agency TT. Sweden's constitution bars ministers from directing police investigations.

It turns out that the minister was choosing his words carefully. While he may not have personally ordered the raid, a new report in the Washington Post claims that US authorities were involved in alerting their Swedish counterparts to the existence of The Pirate Bay. At an April meeting, the US delegation expressed its displeasure at the site.


go here to read it all
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060616-7072.html





U.S. Joins Industry in Piracy War
Nations Pressed On Copyrights

By Frank Ahrens
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 15, 2006; A01

The U.S. government has joined forces with the entertainment industry to stop the freewheeling global bazaar in pirated movies and music, pressuring foreign governments to crack down or risk incurring trade barriers.

Last year, for instance, the movie industry lobby suggested that Sweden change its laws to make it a crime to swap copyrighted movies and music for free over the Internet. Shortly after, the Swedish government complied. Last month, Swedish authorities briefly shut down an illegal file-sharing Web site after receiving a briefing on the site's activities from U.S. officials in April in Washington. The raid incited political and popular backlash in the Scandinavian nation.

In Russia, the government's inability, or reluctance, to shut down another unauthorized file-sharing site may prevent that nation's entrance into the World Trade Organization, as effective action against intellectual property theft tops the U.S. government's list of requirements for Russian WTO membership.

As more residents of more nations get high-speed Internet access -- making the downloading of movies and music fast and easy --

go here to read it all
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/14/AR2006061402071_pf.html

 

(NINE)9-freeware programs,
i have not tested any,
cheers

http://www.mt-soft.org/

SecureWorld
Great program that will detect and clean all the spyware and adware parasites on your computer. Scans extremely quickly and shows a list of infections. You can choose which ones to remove. There is also a LiveUpdate function that will download and install the latest definitions. SecureWorld is completely free for personal users and costs $10/year for corporate users. To be able to update the program, you will have to register (using the program's interface).

Transcreen
Small program that will make your whole screen transparent (optional with taskbar). You can customize the transparency rate. It is also possible to make the program run and apply transprancy automatically each time you start your computer.

Desktop Logo
A small program that will add your favorite pictures or your company logo to your desktop. The logos/pictures stay on the screen and you can choose their position and transparency rate. It's a perfect screen tool when using transparent and relatively small pictures. Supports most popular formats.

Open Port Scanner
Checks your computer for open ports. Gives information about some of them. So you can understand if you have trojan horses, viruses, etc.

VAT Calculator
You enter the price, VAT, or price+VAT value and it calculates the other ones. Can round the values. Includes VAT rates of more than 30 countries but custom values are also possible...

Digital Clock
An amazing clock for your desktop. Supports different skins and provides an easy way to create new ones. Stays at the top of the screen and can be moved across it. Includes an auto-hang function to the edges of the screen.

Small utilities
Disco - Makes your monitor blink as a disco light.
Messenger Disable - Enable/Disable your messenger service.
Password Generator - Generate passwords based on specific criteria

go here for downloads
http://www.mt-soft.org/products.php

 

GOOD MORNING ALL..
SOME INFO

f you have or don't have a legitimate copy of Windows, but it insists on reminding you constantly, simply remove the WGA reminders all together with this method

Remove the non-genuine copy of Windows XP nag screen and You may be a victim of software counterfeiting reminder

You will need to start in safe mode.
use task manager to stop the process wgatray.exe, this will allow us to delete the files giving the nag screens and reminders
*NOTE for some versions of XP (home edition) you will need to stop this process before restarting into safe mode

delete the file wgatray.exe in both of the following directories:
C:\Windows\System32
C:\Windows\System32\dllcache
*This stops the pop-up balloon

Now open regedit:
naviagate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify
and delete the entire folder called WgaLogon
and restart your computer.

You will be prompted to re-install these services which have been deleted, simply write down the services it says are missing, and de-select them from msconfig -> services tab, and they will be gone forever.
If you get the odd pop-up or returning screen you may also disable the System Event Notification under this same menu.
http://www.tech-recipes.com/windows_tips1445.html

 

Weird Al Yankovic Says Digital Is a Raw Deal For Some Artists

Posted Jun 14th 2006 1:07AM by Grant Robertson

King of comic rock, Weird Al Yankovic says digital is a raw deal for artists like himself. When asked by a fan whether purchasing a conventional CD or buying a digital file via iTunes would net Yankovic more pocket money the artist answered on his website.

"I am extremely grateful for your support, no matter which format you choose to legally obtain my music in, so you should do whatever makes the most sense for you personally. But since you ASKED... I actually do get significantly more money from CD sales, as opposed to downloads. This is the one thing about my renegotiated record contract that never made much sense to me. It costs the label NOTHING for somebody to download an album (no manufacturing costs, shipping, or really any overhead of any kind) and yet the artist (me) winds up making less from it. Go figure."

It confuses me too Weird Al. I think you deserve at least an equal amount of compensation for each digital track sold as you would be entitled to for that same one track on CD.

As you said Al, "Go figure". I'm a big fan, you've given me a lot of fun music over the years, and I wanted to do what you said. So, I went and did the math.

Here's what I found out: (more after the jump)
According to DownhillBattle, Apple pays the labels $0.65 (some say its as high as $0.80) of the $0.99 cents paid for your song.

So, for an album with the average 12 songs, like your current release "Poodle Hat" which has exactly 12, Apple takes in $11.88. Apple sends the label $7.80. That's $4.08 cents for the boys in Cupertino. And, it might be a pretty reasonable split if you then received the whole $7.80. Apple would take 35% of your work, for developing the infrastructure that makes you able to sell it to millions of people while you sleep, instead of selling it to 5 people out of your van in the parking lot of Stuckey's. That's what we call a value equation. Apple did work, and got paid for it. You did an arguably larger portion of the work, by creating something people wanted to buy in the first place, so Apple got a little money, and you got a good deal more.
Unfortunately, that's not how this version of the universe operates. So Apple sends the check to your record label.

The record label takes that $7.80. And, let's face it, they had something to do with your making the album. In some cases, you may have even been contractually required to make another album, whether you felt like it or not. So, you could say that without the record company, you'd not have made an album at all. They paid for the production, and some marketing, and now they should get paid right along side of you as the artist. You created the music, they recorded it and packaged it, marketed and distributed it. Right?

Well, not exactly. First, many artists can record fantastic music of very high quality in their own home studios. So, for some artists the record label is more marketing firm than recording technician(or, the guy who pays for one). But if the record label paid for your recording they will take 100% of sales until the recording costs are re-imbursed. They'll also keep taking money until paid back for promotional costs, packaging design and more.

If you manage to break even, here's where the money just starts rolling in. Right? The label got their money back (by taking $7.80 of every $7.80 that Apple paid them) so, now they're going to start sending you most of the $7.80 per record they are receiving.

Not so fast. According to widely circulated data from the coverage of The Alman Brothers suit against Sony BMG, you could expect something like $45 of each thousand songs sold to be paid to you in royalties. That's around 4% of the amount paid to Apple for your work, and around 5.7% of what was paid to the label. For The Almans', that works out to $24,000 when taking Nielsen SoundScan data of 538,000 Almans' songs sold as downloads since mid-2002. I don't have SoundScan data on your sales, but I'm sure you do. So the labels and Apple got 96% and you got %4. And as you said, there were no packaging, shipping or storage costs for your album sold though iTunes.

I went to Amazon.com and found that your album is selling for $14.98. That's $3.10 more than iTunes, but you get an actual CD, liner notes and a snazzy jewel case. And, you actually own the CD. You're really just kinda leasing the songs with iTunes, but we'll save that for another time. Suffice it to say that I think $14.98 is a totally reasonable price.

If your deal with your record company is like The Alman Brothers, then you're getting something like $315.50 for those same 1,000 songs (83.3 CDs worth). That works out to $0.31 cents per song, instead of the $0.045 on a digital download.

Ouch! It turns out you were being more than kind to that fan by telling him to buy either format he wanted, you're losing $0.265 cents per song! . If all of your fans bought through iTunes rather than buying CDs at the record store you'd be looking at an overall reduction in income of 85%!

Eighty Five Percent! If they cut my income by 85%, I'd be making soup from old shoes down by the railroad tracks!

My advice is probably similar to what your accountant's would be. Tell your fans to buy a CD, your retirement income may depend on it.
http://digitalmusic.weblogsinc.com/...-says-digital-is-a-raw-deal-for-some-artists/

and then go here to read the main story
http://digitalmusic.weblogsinc.com/...-says-digital-is-a-raw-deal-for-some-artists/

 

New Uses for Old Hard Drives

Avoid the frustration of burning DVDs, and save money on long-term storage.

Steve Bass
From the August 2006 issue of PC World magazine
Posted Monday, June 19, 2006

Call me cheap, but I use old hard drives, no matter how small, as long as I can. This month I have two neat ways to give ancient drives new purpose.


The Hassle: I legitimately downloaded a few episodes of ABC's Lost. I want to watch them on a TV, so I tried to burn them onto a DVD. But first I couldn't figure out the correct format, and then an episode wouldn't fit on just one disc.

The Fix: You can string all of your ruined discs together and build a wind chime, because I have a nifty contraption that makes playing movies on a TV a hassle-free affair--and it has nothing to do with DVD burning.

My secret is the Galaxy TVisto Multimedia Center, an external drive enclosure that you attach to your PC via a USB 2.0 or FireWire connection. You then hook up the device to a TV to watch your movies.

GO HERE TO GET IT
http://www.galaxymetalgear.com/Products/3500tvisto.html

Start by dragging and dropping the video that you want to watch, including uncompressed ISO files, onto the TVisto. (Your PC will see the TVisto as another drive.) Afterward, link the device to your TV, choosing from five standard connectors. The TVisto's built in, menu-driven, Linux-based software permits you to play back videos of various formats. I tried several kinds--MPEG-1, -2, and -4; DivX (which is based on MPEG-4); and AVI--and they all played. Though I was interested in using the device only for videos, the TVisto can play music (.wav, MP3, and other formats) and show images, too. The product costs about $143, and it includes a remote control and cables.

The catch is that you need to supply and install your own hard drive. I used an old 60GB, IDE hard drive I raided from an unused PC. But, hey, hard-drive bargains are everywhere. At press time, a Maxtor 80GB drive, adequate for around 20 videos, costs about $50; a 250GB drive runs about $80. Fortunately, installing the drive into the TVisto takes just a few minutes: You remove some screws, pop in the drive, connect the cable, and reinsert the screws. And when you're not watching videos, you can use the TVisto for backup storage.

The Hassle: I have some perfectly good hard drives I've removed from old PCs. They're small (most are 40GB), but I hate wasting the drives. What can I do with them?

The Fix: I have a quick, cheap fix that will let you use the drives for long-term storage of photos and videos: an $18 adapter that allows you to connect any IDE drive to your PC's USB port. The PCMS IDE to USB 2.0 Drive Adapter consists of a USB cable that terminates with an IDE connector and a power supply. That's it--there's no enclosure, and you provide the 2.5-, 3.5-, or 5.25-inch drive. Attach the drive to the connector, turn on your computer, copy the files, and disconnect the drive once you've shut down the system. This is a great way to use old 20GB drives. Though I wouldn't waste a new SATA drive in this manner, you might need to; if so, the $30 Young Micro USB 2.0 Adapter can help.
http://pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,126058,00.asp

 

FREE,CPU TRUE SPEED PROGRAM

CPU TRUE SPEED.......... CPU TrueSpeed will calculate the actual speed (frequency) of the microprocessor (CPU) in your computer. The speed of the CPU is rated by how many cycles it runs per second. This speed is measured in Hertz (Hz). 1 Hz is one cycle per second. A Pentium III computer, for example, with a CPU rating of 500 MHz has a speed of 500 million cycles per second. Actual CPU frequency is not the same frequency which is reported by CPU manufactures. The reported frequency is the clock frequency for which CPU is designed. The actual frequency, on the other hand, is the frequency at which the processor works under particular hardware and software configurations on a particular computer. Reported frequency you can get directly from a CPU vendor (Intel, AMD, etc.), but the actual can only be measured by running special tests designed to calculate the real speed of a CPU. The CPU TrueSpeed utility will run a frequency calculation algorithm (speed test) to determine at what internal speed the processor is actually running.....(free).....GO THERE!

http://www.geocities.com/izenkov/