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

Warner Bros movies at $2.75

p2p news / p2pnet: The fact that, thanks to the Net and p2p communications, 'consumers' are becoming customers with free choice, again, is starting to have a marked impact on outmoded corporate business models, still locked tight into the physical 1970s and '80s although the companies are now in the digital 21st century.

Outrageous Hollywood prices have been forced down in one country at least.

Warner Bros is now selling “selected” movies for a mere $2.75 in major Chinese cities, “aiming to carve out a market for relatively affordable but high-quality, legitimate versions of movies in a sea of counterfeit products selling for less than a dollar,” says Associated Press.

"The reason why piracy's come along is that there weren't enough products at the right price soon enough," the story has Tony Vaughan, managing director of CAV Warner Home Entertainment Co, Warner Bros' joint venture distribution company in China, in a marvel of convoluted comment.

And there's been another innovation.

“Companies that once relied on lawsuits and police raids are diversifying their strategies, turning to competitive pricing and trying out new technologies to even up seemingly overwhelming odds,” says the story.

Competitive pricing? New technologies? Wash your mouth out!

It seems the movie industry is discovering a truth its brethren over in Corporate Music Land are slowly learning, at their customers' expense, of course, namely:

You can't sue people into buying shoddily produced, formulaic, over-priced product.

“Warner is also experimenting with releases in China's provincial cities of cheaper, simply packaged DVDs that sell for under $1.85,” continues AP.

Software and media companies, meanwhile, “are running into other hurdles as they develop new encryption and so-called digital rights management technologies meant to prevent excessive copying on personal computers,” says the story, adding:

“Sony BMG Music Entertainment faced lawsuits over flawed CD copy protection software that opened a potential security vulnerability when it was automatically installed on computers. Sony settled a number of lawsuits and offered a one-click 'uninstall' application to remove the copy protection program.”

 

Sanitizing movies illegal says judge

7/10/2006 1:59:46 PM, by Eric Bangeman

If you like your major motion pictures without cusswords and nudity, you may be out of luck. A federal judge in Colorado has ruled that it is illegal for third-parites to edit and release sanitized versions of movies.

Some background: a couple of years ago, we reported on a company called CleanFlicks which had drawn the ire of the motion picture industry. Based in Utah, CleanFlicks uses a homegrown system to check DVDs for questionable material and cleanse it from the movie. One of the results was a version of Good Will Hunting with 125 f-bombs and other colorful expletives muted.

When the technology was shown to a group of directors and other Hollywood types, they were furious. They felt that CleanFlicks and other companies offering the same sort of service were at best, undermining the artistic integrity of their films. The sanitizers argued that there was a strong demand for their services and that their edits were covered under Fair Use. Soon enough, a handful of companies offering movies appeared. Predictably, lawsuits ensued.

In his ruling, US District Court Judge Richard Matsch sided with the Directors Guild of America. He has handed down a permanent injunction prohibiting CleanFlicks, CleanFilms, Family Flix USA, and others from selling or renting the "cleaned-up" movies. In addition, the companies have five days to hand over every sanitized disc and videotape in their inventories to the studios for immediate destruction.

According to the judge, it is up to the moviemakers to decide who their film was appropriate for and tailor it accordingly. "Whether these films should be edited in a manner that would make them acceptable to more of the public playing on a DVD in a home environment is more than merely a matter of marketing; it is a question of what audience the copyright owner wants to reach," he wrote in his ruling. "What is protected are the creator's rights to protect its creation in the form in which it was created."

An appeal is possible, although one of the defendants—FamilyFlix—has already shut down operations. In the meantime, those who find cursing and nudity in movies unacceptable are advised to simply not watch films that contain content they find objectionable.

 

Why the iPod isn't Creative

7/10/2006 2:16:17 PM, by Clint Ecker

According to documents filed by Creative with the United States International Trade Commission in mid-May, Steve Jobs approached a Creative employee at MacWorld 2001 to talk shop about Creative's then flagship product, the Nomad Jukebox. What begun at this innocuous meeting may well have led to the creation of a digital audio empire that could have rivaled what Apple has put together on its own. On the other hand, it may have also led to stunning failure for both parties.

In the past few months, one of Apple's biggest rivals in the digital audio player space, Creative, has begun competing with Apple using legal tactics. Looking back before the birth of the iPod, Creative had a significant lead on Apple, with almost a full year's experience in developing and selling hard-disk-based players. What is almost completely unknown, however, is that Apple was willing to work with Creative to develop an Apple-licensed player as opposed to building their own from scratch.

According to Creative's legal filings (available via PACER) with the US International Trade Commission, Apple had originally sought to license Creative's IP and create the iPod on Creative's platform. The filings reveal that Apple was unsure that this scheme was going to be profitable in the long run, and proposed the radical (for Apple) idea of partnering with Creative to create a digital audio player. Creative decided against joining forces, and the rest is history.

While one might be quick to assume that a merger between the two companies would have led to a marriage punctuated with hundred dollar bills falling from the mirrored ceiling of their honeymoon suite, it may also be that a mating of these two wildly different corporations would have been destined for failure. Apple's reckless abandon coupled with Creative's bulky hardware and stodgy corporate culture would likely have resulted in clashes of personality, among other things.

As it stands, Apple scored big when Creative turned down their proposal, freeing them up to engineer the iPod as they had envisioned it, rather than working off of one of Creative's prototyped designs—or using Creative's patented IP, as the lawsuits allege.

Creative and Apple's relations were dotted by pithy remarks and under-the-belt jabs until this lawsuit business reared its head. Apple was able to take a radically different approach to marketing, growing their market while making a lot of money. As a result, the iPod has become synonymous with the portable digital audio player market. Today, Creative and Apple stand with patent lawsuits loaded, waiting for the other to flinch first—unless they can come to a settlement themselves.

 

Lite-On to push HD-DVD and Blu-ray players in 2H
Posted by Dan Bell on 11 July 2006 - 03:55 - Source: DigiTimes

DigiTimes news service is reporting that Lite-On will make promotion of both blue laser format products, a high priority in the second half of this year. They best hurry.. it's already here. But, the good news for us is, it looks like the pressure is already on to drop those sky high prices! How do you do that? Volume!

Lite-On IT plans to work with Toshiba to launch HD-DVD players at prices less than US$1,000 in the beginning of August while aiming to ship 50,000 Blu-ray players per month before year-end, according to the Chinese-language Apple Daily.

Wow, can we really expect this many of these players to be needed so soon? We have to wonder if this isn't going to be an interesting holiday buyer season. Let's not forget though, you will still need something to watch this high def content on, so those monitor prices will have to drop as well, or most people will not need these fancy players just yet.
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13661

 

now will ye love Sony DRM Rootkit Virus corporation
now ye can get drm,porn and a Rootkit Virus all at the same time from sony!!!!!!

Sony inks deal with porn firm

p2p news / p2pnet: Warner Bros recently revealed it had climbed into bed with GUBA, a company specializing in online porn searches.

Now Sony Pictures has done the same.

“You may well know that some of the best porn gets circulated on newsgroups," says Supervert. But, "You need a news reader, and often you miss some of the best posts, or you end up with just fragments of a series." And, "That's where GUBA comes in. GUBA archives all the porn from newsgroups. Rather than pay for a news account, you pay for a GUBA account and bingo! You have access to all that porn. Good deal!"

The Warner deal with Guba bore remarkable similarities to the one the MPAA made with BitTorrent and Guba said it, too, had agreed, “to start filtering copyright and obscene content and institute tougher security measures after talks with the Motion Picture Association of America," said the Associated Press at the time.

“Sony Pictures has agreed to offer a 100 of the studio's feature-length films on Guba's online store,” says ZDNet News, also opining that of online video-sharing sites, “Guba is the only one offering a means to legally download movies over the Internet”.

Expect Viacom, Fox, NBC Universal and Disney, the remaining four of the Big Six Hollywood studios, to soon follow suit.

Meanwhile, like Warner, Sony believes it'll be able to milk gullible online movie lovers for $20 for “newer releases” with a $10 starting price for “older” titles.

Will it succeed? Well, as the saying goes, "There's a sucker born every minute."

Windows Media is the designated format.

 

UFO HACKER TELLS WHAT HE FOUND

By Nigel Watson| Also by this reporter
02:00 AM Jun, 21, 2006

The search for proof of the existence of UFOs landed Gary McKinnon in a world of trouble.

After allegedly hacking into NASA websites -- where he says he found images of what looked like extraterrestrial spaceships -- the 40-year-old Briton faces extradition to the United States from his North London home. If convicted, McKinnon could receive a 70-year prison term and up to $2 million in fines.

Final paperwork in the case is due this week, after which the British home secretary will rule on the extradition request.

McKinnon, whose extensive search through U.S. computer networks was allegedly conducted between February 2001 and March 2002, picked a particularly poor time to expose U.S. national security failings in light of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

McKinnon tells what he found and discusses the motivation behind his online adventures in this exclusive phone interview with Wired News.

Wired News: What was your motive or inspiration for carrying out your computer hacking? Was it the War Games movie?

Gary McKinnon: This is a bit of a red herring. I have seen it but I wasn't inspired by it. My main inspiration was The Hacker's Handbook by Hugo Cornwall. The first edition that I read was too full of information.... It had to be banned, and it was reissued without the sensitive stuff in it.

WN: Without this book would you have been able to do it?

McKinnon: I would have done it anyway because I used the internet to get useful information. The book just kick-started me. Hacking for me was just a means to an end.

WN: In what way?

McKinnon: I knew that governments suppressed antigravity, UFO-related technologies, free energy or what they call zero-point energy. This should not be kept hidden from the public when pensioners can't pay their fuel bills.

WN: Did you find anything in your search for evidence of UFOs?

McKinnon: Certainly did. There is The Disclosure Project.
The Disclosure Project is a nonprofit research project working to fully disclose the facts about UFOs, extraterrestrial intelligence, and classified advanced energy and propulsion systems. We have over 400 government, military, and intelligence community witnesses testifying to their direct, personal, first hand experience with UFOs, ETs, ET technology, and the cover-up that keeps this information secret.

This is the Smoking Gun! Learn more »
http://www.disclosureproject.org/



This is a book with 400 testimonials from everyone from air traffic controllers to those responsible for launching nuclear missiles. Very credible witnesses. They talk about reverse-(engineered) technology taken from captured or destroyed alien craft.

WN: Like the Roswell incident of 1947?

McKinnon: I assume that was the first and assume there have been others. These relied-upon people have given solid evidence.

WN: What sort of evidence?

McKinnon: A NASA photographic expert said that there was a Building 8 at Johnson Space Center where they regularly airbrushed out images of UFOs from the high-resolution satellite imaging. I logged on to NASA and was able to access this department. They had huge, high-resolution images stored in their picture files. They had filtered and unfiltered, or processed and unprocessed, files.

My dialup 56K connection was very slow trying to download one of these picture files. As this was happening, I had remote control of their desktop, and by adjusting it to 4-bit color and low screen resolution, I was able to briefly see one of these pictures. It was a silvery, cigar-shaped object with geodesic spheres on either side. There were no visible seams or riveting. There was no reference to the size of the object and the picture was taken presumably by a satellite looking down on it. The object didn't look manmade or anything like what we have created. Because I was using a Java application, I could only get a screenshot of the picture -- it did not go into my temporary internet files. At my crowning moment, someone at NASA discovered what I was doing and I was disconnected.

I also got access to Excel spreadsheets. One was titled "Non-Terrestrial Officers." It contained names and ranks of U.S. Air Force personnel who are not registered anywhere else. It also contained information about ship-to-ship transfers, but I've never seen the names of these ships noted anywhere else.

WN: Could this have been some sort of military strategy game or outline of hypothetical situations?

McKinnon: The military want to have military dominance of space. What I found could be a game -- it's hard to know for certain.



WN: Some say that you have given the UFO motivation for your hacking as a distraction from more nefarious activities.

McKinnon: I was looking before and after 9/11. If I had wanted to distract anyone, I would not have chosen ufology, as this opens me up to ridicule.

WN: Tell me about your experiences with law enforcement and the procedures you have gone through.

McKinnon: I was arrested by the British National Hi Tech Crime Unit in March 2002. They held me in custody for about six or seven hours. My own computer and ones I was fixing for other people were taken away. The other machines were eventually returned, but they kept my hard drive that was sent to the U.S. It was November 2002 when the U.S. Department of Justice started their efforts to extradite me.

WN: The British Crown Prosecution Service dropped charges against you because your activities did not involve British computers.

McKinnon: I was to be officially charged in 2003 but a warrant wasn't given until 2004.... In June or July 2005, I was scooped from the street by Scotland Yard. I was kept at Belgravia Police Station overnight. I just wore what I had on when I was out; I didn't get a chance to wear a suit in court. I was given police bail.

WN: When will they make a decision about extradition?

McKinnon: It's down to the Home Secretary, John Reid. The deadline for representations is 21 June 2006. Even after that date, it could be as much as 11 months for him to decide on my fate.

WN: How have you been coping?

McKinnon: God, it's very worrying and stressful. It's been worse because I'm unemployed. I worked on and off in IT, contracting and stuff, before this, but no one will touch me with a large barge pole now.

 

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http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/of...&offerid=441c2998-248b-49cf-b084-f3a237b58f71

 

Big Music hope for the future

p2p news / p2pnet: Warner Music, Vivendi Universal, EMI and Sony BMG, under federal and state investigation in the US, continue to accuse their own customers of being thieves and criminals, using spurious lawsuits to try to terrify them into kick-starting the as-yet undeveloped corporate online music market.

The labels have had zero luck with their bizarre sue 'em all marketing campaigns, but a trend offering hope for the future is emerging in Britain.

And it harks back to the past.

Once upon a time 45s, those shiny, round vinyl things with big holes in the centre - 45s - were where it was at. They were called singles.

Corporate downloads barely make a blip in the graphs compared to what's happening in the real world of online music where indie sites and the p2p networks rule. However, digital downloads, “will regularly break the one-million- a-week barrier this year as music fans push sales of singles to their highest for six years,” says The Herald.

Yes, singles.

Stacked against the fact that this May, globally, the number of p2p users simultaneously logged on to the p2p networks at any given moment was 9,735,661, as p2p research firm Big Champagne told p2pnet, four million corporate downloads a month doesn't amount to a hill of beans. But it does amount to a start, albeit it a tiny one.

This “digital revolution,” as the Herald is somehow able to call it, and which it says is, “currently rejuvenating the music industry,” will result in 50 million-plus singles being downloaded this year.

But the interesting this is it's, “bolstered by the grey downloader, or the over-50s buyer, many of whom are replacing their vinyl collections,” says the story, going on:

“For the first time many more obscure singles are available since they were originally issued in the 1960s or 1970s as bands and individual artists as well as record companies broaden online back catalogues.

“A total of 16.7 million singles were downloaded or sold in shops in the second quarter of 2006, according to new figures yesterday from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

“It represents a lean back towards the single, sales of which dropped with the onset of internet file-sharing and CD-burning in the 1990s.”

David Belcher, Saga FM DJ and Herald writer, is quoted as saying:

"For the over-50s, the range is always growing. Whereas before you could only replace CDs of your old vinyl and those were essentially what the record companies had sold you already and you were only getting the big selling artists.

"Now you are getting the artists themselves. A lot of them have got the rights back to the material that the labels didn't want to reissue. Among those veteran musicians attracting the attention of the more mature internet users are the Rolling Stones ..."

(Thanks, Nell)

 

Like a Virgin?

p2p news view / p2pnet: “Free filesharing is killing the music industry”, say the experts in the industry. But while they’re chasing, arresting, and suing innocent people for sharing legally purchased “product”, the real pirates are making a mint. And some of them are sailing under false flags.

The newest pirate is Virgin Records, which was recently found guilty by the Paris Tribunal of Commerce, of music piracy. They admittedly downloading a Madonna song, “Hung Up”, from a France Télécom website – which had exclusive rights to distribute the song for a week, cracked the DRM, and resold it on their own website.

"This is an amazing case of simple piracy", Hervé Payan, senior vice president for content partnership and service at France Télécom, said.

According to the International Herald Tribune, “Virgin said it had the interests of digital music consumers at heart when it broke the exclusive arrangement.”

Since when does a multinational corporation have the “interests of digital music consumers at heart”? Their main concern has always been firmly rooted in profiteering and stuffing shareholders’ pockets at any price – including theft and piracy. The consumer has nothing to do with what motivates the entertainment industry.

The company was ordered to pay €600,000, or $754,000, in damages. No one went to prison. No one lost his or her home or job. And the company was not forced into bankruptcy or to close down.

In stark contrast, any private person who's “caught” sharing music gets a subpoena and stands an excellent chance of having their homes searched and computers confiscated (including personal and private documents and data having nothing to do with the subpoena).

In short, any one of the 19,000+ people who have been victimized by the music cartels, pilloried and “found guilty” of piracy in the lamescream press faces the prospect of bankruptcy, total financial ruin, and a possible prison sentence if they don’t agree to pay an out of court settlement, which would have the same financial effect.

But Virgin justifies its actions this way: "We have always been ahead of the others posing questions that look to the interests of consumers," according to Laurent Fiscal, a director of the store.

If that were used as the defence by any of the 19,000 Big Music victims currently being sued, no doubt each and every one of them would be forced to sell their homes and possessions to help pay their court costs and subsequent fines, no matter that nothing was stolen and no one made a profit (as real pirates like Virgin did).

And if Big Music had anything to say about it, they’d also be put into stocks, or drawn and quartered in the town square.

Pirates like Virgin steal and profit from their criminal activities.

Filesharers don’t steal a thing and make no profit whatsoever.

That’s a big difference.

catflap - p2pnet

 

iPod mPod saga continues

p2p news / p2pnet: According to The New York Times, Microsoft wants to do a number on Apple by producing an iPod killer. But, contradicts the BBC, that's not the way it is.

“Microsoft has said reports that the company is planning an MP3 player to rival the iPod are based on 'speculation and rumours',” it says.

But iPod versus mPod is too good to drop and elements of the mainstream media are still treating it as a virtual fait accomplit.

“Microsoft is indeed developing a digital-media player to compete with Apple's iPod, and there's much more to the story,” says The Seattle Times' Brier Dudley.

"Microsoft isn't commenting, saying what's being developed is actually a complete line of Xbox-branded digital-media products, including Argo, a device that plays media, a software media player and an online media service” and being developed within the Xbox group under Xbox co-founder J Allard.

“His team includes people who previously worked on MSN Music, an online music service that had a promising debut in 2004 but fell victim to Microsoft's dithering over its music strategy,” says the story, going on, “Now the company is firmly behind Argo. It has committed hundreds of millions to produce and market the devices.”

And, the mPod will be Wi-Fi capable, says Dudley.

With that in mind, Microsoft and Apple are in a, “desperate behind-the-scenes race to develop a new generation of personal music and video players in time for Christmas, with Microsoft, the biggest name in software, aiming to finally break the dominance of the mighty iPod,” declares The Independent.

“It already looks as though the winner could be the first to develop a wireless player, where songs can be downloaded without having to plug the equipment into a personal computer.”

Moreover, “Apple is also said to be closing in on a new product launch in collaboration with Research in Motion, the maker of the Blackberry, plus a new version of the video iPod,” says the story, adding:

“The secrecy surrounding both sides' product development project reflects the high stakes being played for. Apple is selling about 3 million iPods every month and sales of the devices are expected to top $8bn (£4.3bn) this year. It makes a further $2bn in revenues from music sales through its iTunes online music store. Microsoft, whose MSN network of websites also sells music, is determined to move back in from the sidelines of this market.”

Meanwhile, “Microsoft's mobile player probably will look like an iPod but with a larger screen,” says James Coates in The Los Angeles Times.

“It will access a huge Microsoft-sanctioned version of Apple's online music store for 99-cent downloads using the Windows Media Player 11, Microsoft's version of Apple's iTunes music software.”

And it looks as though it'll also do an Apple, using DRM to make sure consumers only consume what they're told to consume..

Apple iTunes are for iPods alone. Similarly, having cost the now standard rip-off dollar per download, “Apparently the only music [files] that the Media Player will permit sharing will be tunes acquired from Microsoft's store" to prevent, "swapping pirated music files,” says Coates, adding:

“Remember that this same software is the program that you will use to play sounds and videos on your PC. There will be no escaping the Media Player when the next Microsoft operating system arrives."

 

Not all consumers are bootleggers

p2p news view / p2pnet: A Los Angeles Times OpEd is a must-read, says Canadian Net and IP expert professor Michael Geist.

Why is it so important? It discusses, “the dangers associated with current 'copyright' proposals before the U.S. Congress,” he points out.

Because what the entertainment industry wants, “isn't merely protection from piracy; it's after increased leverage to protect its business models,” says the LA Times, going on:

That's why lawmakers must bear in mind the balance needed between copyright holders' interests and the public's, something Congress has not done well lately. In 1998, it gave copyright holders broad power to block legitimate uses of works, even those in the public domain, through the use of electronic locks that impede copying of digital products. And that same year, it prolonged the public domain's starvation diet by extending copyrights an additional 20 years, to 70 years beyond the death of the creator.

The movie and music industries have similar interests, but their agendas this year are distinct. The major studios want to alter digital TV receivers, recorders and home networks to stop shows from being redistributed indiscriminately online - a proposal that has won grudging support from some consumer-electronics and high-tech firms. They also want to redesign computers, set-top boxes and other products to ensure that the limits placed on digital videos are not removed when the data are converted from digital to analog. This approach could deter people from making a permanent copy of a pay-per-view movie, but it also could make it hard for digital movie buyers to create backup copies or transfer videos to portable players.

The music industry, meanwhile, is focusing its fire on satellite and digital radio services that make it easy for listeners to record and save individual songs. Those recorders don't fuel piracy, given that federal law already requires them to include a form of anti-piracy technology. Instead, a more immediate effect of the industry-backed proposals would be to give labels and music publishers more control over listeners' ability to record broadcasts, while helping them collect more money from XM, Sirius and other digital music businesses.

Clearly, the industry-backed proposals would do more than just defend copyrighted works from pirates. They also would impinge on devices that have legitimate uses and steer the development of technology, cutting off some innovation.

As they weigh the entertainment industry's pleas, lawmakers shouldn't assume all consumers are bootleggers and every digital device is a hand grenade aimed at Hollywood. [Our emphasis.]

 

Firefox continues gains at Internet Explorer's expense

7/11/2006 11:44:33 AM, by Eric Bangeman

It was almost two years ago to the day that we reported on Internet Explorer's first-ever drop in browser market share. At the time, IE usage had dropped from 94.8 percent at the beginning of 2004 to 93.9 percent a few months later. As Firefox approached the big 1.0 milestone, its market share continued to soar, and it passed the 10 percent barrier in October 2005.

Web analytics firm OneStat.com is now reporting that Firefox has grabbed an almost 13 percent market share worldwide, while IE has dropped to just over 83 percent. Firefox's current 12.93 percent market share is up from 11.51 percent in November 2005, while Internet Explorer is down almost 2.5 percentage points. In the US, IE has dipped below the 80 percent mark, down to 79.78 percent, while Firefox has 15.82 percent of the market.

OneStat.com measures browser usage by looking at the traffic at its clients' web sites. The figures from sites using the company's commercial traffic analysis package are combined to come up with numbers that represent the average number of visits from a particular browser. According to TheCounter.com, while IE 5 and 6 combine for 84 percent market share, Firefox has just 10 percent and Safari 2 percent. That's a significant gain for Firefox, which had just 6 percent at the beginning of the year by TheCounter.com's stats.

Here at Ars, the picture is a bit different. A quick glance at our stats shows that Firefox is the most popular browser with our readers, with 41.92 percent. Internet Explorer accounts for 29.1 percent with Safari at 9.9 percent and Opera at 2.45 percent.

Source: OneStat.com

Firefox is even stronger in other parts of the world. In particular, the browser accounts for 39.02 percent of all web traffic tracked by OneStat.com in Germany, with IE sitting at 55.99 percent. Firefox has also broken the 20 percent barrier in Italy and Australia.

With new browsers in the offing from both Microsoft and the Mozilla Foundation, those numbers may be shaken up a bit once Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2.0 ship (beta candidate 1 of Firefox 2.0 was released yesterday) later this year. Of course, Internet Explorer is a more radical change from its predecessor, while Firefox 2.0 is a more evolutionary revision. Whether IE 7's new features and improved security settings will be enough to stop the defections to alternatives remains to be seen.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060711-7234.html

 

Movie studios expand online distribution, still forbid DVD burning

7/11/2006 12:05:12 PM, by Nate Anderson

Movie studios are showing themselves increasingly willing to put their films up for sale and rental on the Internet—and not just through sites that they own or control. The most recent example comes from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, which has just inked a deal with online video distributor GUBA. GUBA becomes the first "video sharing community" to get access to the Sony catalog of films, but don't think that "sharing" means "free."

GUBA plans to charge 20 bucks to download new features and a ten spot for films from the back catalog. Though the service initially has only 100 Sony films, this will be expanded to 500 within the next year. The films are protected by Microsoft DRM (sorry, Mac users), and they're only viewable on a Windows computer (or an HTPC hooked up to a television). As is usual with this type of setup, no DVD burns will be allowed.

In some ways, GUBA is an odd choice for a Sony partner. Much of the site is a YouTube-style assortment of zany videos, which means that you can have a link to a man who can touch his eye with his tongue on the same page as the link to Underworld: Evolution. Such pairings can make the site feel a bit schizophrenic, but GUBA has done a good job of making it simple to look for either free or premium content.

GUBA has made quite a name for themselves the last few months. In addition to scoring the recent Sony deal, the site also announced a partnership with Time Warner in June. Warner, like Sony, has shown a willingness to experiment when it comes to Internet distribution, though they've been doing it longer than Sony has.

Warner already has a deal in place with one-time pariah BitTorrent. The plan to offer DRMed movies to users through BitTorrent's efficient distribution system is a telling admission of the legal uses of peer-to-peer technology, though studio insistence upon strict DRM controls and a lack of DVD-burning options make the service no more attractibe than GUBA.

Warner has also been active in Europe, partnering with another peer-to-peer company there to offer movie downloads. Such moves are excellent news for consumers, but not for the reason you might expect. What's exciting about the recent announcements is that they show the movie studios have learned their lesson from the music business and are determined to provide good legal alternatives to piracy right from the start.

Unfortunately, the actual services that have been rolled out are underwhelming unless you own an HTPC. Even then, they aren't a great deal when you consider that picking up the DVD costs about the same price and offers more flexibility and portability. When movie studios finally discover the magic combination of price and DRM that makes their product compelling to consumers, online distribution could become a lucrative alternative to traditional retail. That day has not yet arrived.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060711-7235.html

 

Magic mushrooms really cause 'spiritual' experiences

* 05:01 11 July 2006
* NewScientist.com news service
* Roxanne Khamsi

“Magic” mushrooms really do have a spiritual effect on people, according to the most rigorous look yet at this aspect of the fungus's active ingredient.

About one-third of volunteers in the carefully controlled new study had a “complete” mystical experience after taking psilocybin, with half of them describing their encounter as the single most spiritually significant experience in their lifetimes.

However, psilocybin use has been associated with side effects such as severe paranoia, nervousness and unwanted flashbacks and so experts warn against experimentation. “Once you’ve started down the path, you might not like where it ends,” comments Herbert Kleber, a psychiatrist at Columbia University in New York, US. “These are powerful agents that are just as likely to do harm as to do good.”

Psilocybin is found in mushrooms such as the liberty cap (Psilocybe semilanceata and about 186 other species. Hippies embraced the compound during the 1960s, after its mind-altering potential was touted by Timothy Leary, then a researcher at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. But as its use grew, US lawmakers took action. It is now generally illegal to sell or possess psilocybin drugs in the US.
Demonised compound

But Roland Griffiths, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, US, and his colleagues believe there is a need to revisit the biological effects of psilocybin, which have been virtually ignored by the scientific community for about 40 years. “It so traumatised our society that we’ve demonised this compound,” he says.

Griffiths's team recruited 36 healthy volunteers who had not experimented with the drug before. They were informed that they would receive a hallucinogen but did not know in which of two or three sessions they would receive it. Each session was separated by two months.

They either received a substantial dose – about 30 milligrams – of psilocybin or a similar dose of an "active" placebo, Ritalin. The latter has a stimulating effect but is not known as a hallucinogen. An inactive placebo would be easy to identify by the volunteers when compared to psilocybin, which could bias the experiences they reported.

The researchers used psychological questionnaires and found that 22 of the 36 volunteers had a “complete” mystical experience after taking psilocybin – far more than the four who reported this type of experience after taking Ritalin.

More than one-third of the volunteers said that their encounter with psilocybin was the single most spiritually significant experience in their lifetimes – no person given Ritalin said the same. Experts say the study is the most rigorous study of psilocybin’s potential to elicit spiritual feelings because it is the first to use an active control.
Spiritual shortcut

However, more than 20% of the participants described their psilocybin sessions as dominated by negative feelings such as anxiety. And while psilocybin appears to mimic the brain signalling-chemical serotonin, its precise action on mind function remains elusive.

Griffiths says that in the future psilocybin might have a therapeutic use, perhaps helping people who have just learned they have cancer come to terms with the news. But he is quick to add that “the therapeutic application is very speculative”.

“My guess is that there will be people saying ‘You’re looking for a spiritual shortcut’” says Griffiths. He stresses that the drug is no replacement for the mental health benefits of continuous personal reflection: “There’s all the difference in the world between a spiritual experience and a spiritual life.”

 

Microsoft puts end to Windows 98 support


By Munir Kotadia
Special to CNET News.com
Published: July 11, 2006, 9:32 AM PDT
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From Tuesday, Microsoft will no longer issue security updates or provide support for Windows 98 and Windows ME, which are still being used by more than 50 million people.

Eight years after launching Windows 98, Microsoft is finally washing its hands of updating and plugging security gaps in the aging operating system.

The software giant originally planned to pull the plug in January 2004, but decided to extend support because of the increasing competition from Linux.

This time round, Microsoft is hoping that the remaining users of Windows 98 and Windows Millennium Edition will upgrade to Windows XP, according to Peter Watson, chief security advisor, Microsoft Australia.
If Microsoft sees a Win9x attack in the wild in the next few months, we would not be surprised if they issued a fix.
--Michael Silver, research vp of client platforms, Gartner

"Microsoft works closely with leading retailers to undertake promotions such as upgrade discounts to encourage users to upgrade to Windows XP," Watson told ZDNet Australia.

Analyst firms estimate that there are still between 50 million and 70 million computers running Windows 95, 98 or ME.

AND DDP IS ONE OF THOSE IN THE ABOVE LIST

Hardest hit by the cancellation of support will be home users and schools, according to Michael Silver, research vice president of client platforms at research group Gartner, who agrees that support has been extended to fight off the threat from Linux.

"Consumers and schools will be most affected by this announcement because they will no longer get security fixes," Silver told ZDNet Australia. "I suspect that Microsoft's original extension of the Windows 98 support date a couple of years ago was, in part, to make sure Linux was not brought in to replace these systems."

Silver believes that as far as the overall security landscape goes, the prospect of millions of unsupported PCs is a "cause for concern." In addition, he said Microsoft may be pressured into creating a fix if there is a serious virus outbreak.

"Microsoft has not fixed every hole in Win9x, but I'm not sure they've been attacked, either. If Microsoft sees a Win9x attack in the wild in the next few months, we would not be surprised if they issued a fix--wide-scale outages are not good for their customers or for Microsoft--but since there is no automatic update, users may not be able to get the fix in time," said Silver.

Silver believes that some users may decide to switch to Linux instead of upgrading to XP, but he said existing applications that require Windows are likely to stop a mass-migration.

"School PCs are likely more at risk. Win9x PCs used regularly on the Internet need up to date security software. Some of these users--companies, schools and governments--may switch to Linux or Mac, but application issues often makes that an expensive option," Silver said.

Dropping support justified
Microsoft's Watson said consumers have the choice to use any version of Windows and dismissed any suggestion that Microsoft has a responsibility to secure older versions of its software.

"This issue is not unique to the IT industry. For example, there are many people on the road who choose to drive the latest cars with the latest safety features, such as ABS brakes and air bags. But at the same time, there are many others who are happy driving their cars which may not have these features," he said.

"It is not the responsibility of automotive manufacturers to have their customers acquire the latest technology. This is the same issue for makers of mobile phones, washing machines, dishwashers, TVs, fridges, radios and so on," Watson said.

However, Watson said Microsoft would try to "encourage" users of Win9x systems to upgrade to XP.

"Microsoft encourages users to upgrade to Windows XP and provides information which helps educate users on the benefits of upgrading, but it is ultimately the customer's choice," he added.

Gartner's Silver said that although there are still millions of Windows 9x users, compared with alternative operating system vendors, Microsoft's support schedules are still "better than most."

"Most software vendors and hardware vendors are no longer developing Win9x drivers for their new products--and have not been for some time now. Further, most free Linux distributions are supported for a year, some for two. Microsoft has supported Win98 for eight years, 98SE for seven years, and Windows ME for six years," he said.

"These do not meet Microsoft's current enterprise standard of 10 years--they shipped before the 10-year policy--but they're better than most," Silver added.

Munir Kotadia of ZDNet Australia reported from Sydney.
http://news.com.com/Microsoft+puts+end+to+Windows+98+support/2100-1016_3-6092653.html?tag=nefd.top

 

MPAA sucker panel

p2p news / p2pnet: The entertainment cartels are running one scam after another in their desperate efforts to turn former consumers, who are steadily reverting to customer status, back into brainless cash-cows.

Consumers have no ability to think for themselves and are led like cows to the slaughter to ingurgitate inferior, over-priced 'product' endlessly churned out by the corporations.

Customers, on the other hand, are individuals with free will who choose whether or not to avail themselves of corporate offerings, their choices based on whether or not said product is worth buying in the first place.

Which it usually isn't.

The cartels don't like customers because not only do they exercise intelligent choice, they also exhibit an unfortunate tendency to look to the competition for alternatives.

So the cartels don't like competition, either, and are therefore doing everything within their very considerable powers to crush anything and everything they don't own and/or control.

How can we find out what to hit the marks with? - is the single most important question facing not only the entertainment cartels, but all corporations whose success [read shareholder profits] depends entirely on being able to continue scamming you and I into buying stuff we really don't want and definitely don't need.

A mark is someone who's the intended victim of a swindler and the MPAA, owned by the venal Big Six Hollywood movie studios, thinks it's found a great way to not only get into the minds of marks (that's you), but also to have them do all the work!

It's organizing something called My Movie Muse, an online “consumer panel” through which it'll get marks to, “periodically participate in online surveys about all things related to the movies”.

They'll be expected to provide priceless data (which'll be passed along the line to third party affiliates) “from theater attendance to home video rental and advertisements to piracy”.

For starters, an unnamed research firm will, “provide some of the original participants to ensure a range of input from an age and geographic standpoint,” says the MPAA. But eventually, it hopes it'll suck in enough people so the studios won't have to actually pay to get marks to take part in the 'surveys'.

So what kind of data will the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) collect about you?

“MyMovieMuse survey website, participants in MyMovieMuse surveys are asked to provide some Personal Information (e-mail address, state and zip code, gender, age, marital status, education, race/ethnicity, type of employer and income, motion picture viewing habits, and opinions about the motion picture industry and about types of motion pictures),” it says.

It makes no mention of what it'll do with these data if someone – let's say the US government – decides the material will come in handy to protect America against the Terrorist Threat, or anything else the Cheney / Bush administration may dream up now, or in the future.

Stay tuned.

 

House approves online gambling ban

7/11/2006 3:53:11 PM, by Eric Bangeman

Legislating "immoral" activity on the Internet has been a popular pastime for as almost as long we've been online. The latest salvo in the 'Net legislation war comes in the form of a bill that would make life difficult for online gamblers in the US. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act fo 2006, which was introduced last year, passed today by a 317-93 margin. It attempts to address online gambling by prohibiting wire transfers, "payment system instruments," and credit cards from being used as payment methods for online gambling sites.

Online gambling has been a growth industry for the past several years. Sports books have been popular for some time. More recently, the popularity of Texas Hold 'Em has led to the rise of a number of poker sites, some of which are pay to play. Worldwide, Internet gambling sites are estimated to take in upwards of US$12 billion annually. Half of that US$12 billion comes from gamblers in the US, and the impact of raising the bar higher for online wagering has many gambling firms outside the US concerned.

Unfortunately for opponents of online gambling, the prospects for similar legislation in the Senate are murky. There have been no comprehensive antigambling bills introduced to the Senate yet, although the possibility exists that an amendment barring online gambling could be tacked on to legislation currently under consideration. With the Senate becoming more preoccupied with fall elections, thay may not happen this year.

Unlike other legislative attempts to regulate the Internet, this one could actually have a significant effect. Instead of trying to outlaw gambling sites (many of which are based outside the US), the bill makes processing or facilitating payments to them illegal. As a result, would-be gamblers would be unable to use their credit cards, debit cards, or make direct transfers from their US bank accounts to pay gambling sites. There are always ways around prohibitions like that, but the legislation will likely have the desired effect on casual gamblers.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060711-7239.html

 

good morning all'

today i is having steak and eggs for breakfast

 

Good morning Ireland and everyone. As always, after April, it's iced coffee for me and a blueberry muffin from a Mennonite bakery along the route to work (eveyone calls them amish but they aren't).

Speaking of the Pennsylvania Dutch, how about some scrapple with ye breakfast Ireland? Not originating from this area, I won't even go near it!

Hmmm...seem to be having a problem with my nasty scrapple pic! I keep clicking on the scrapple in photobucket yet my mum pictured above keeps coming up and I wouldn't want anyone to think I've made scrapple of my mum!

 

good morning gerry1


Scrapple is a food in which the cornmeal and flour, often buckwheat flour, is simmered with pork scraps and trimmings, then formed into a loaf. Small scraps of meat left over from butchering, too small to be used or sold elsewhere, were transformed into scrapple to avoid waste, a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition.

Scrapple is typically made of hog offal, such as the head, eyes, heart, liver, bladder, and other scraps, which are boiled with any bones attached (often the entire head), to make a broth. Once cooked, bones and fat are discarded, the meat is reserved, and (dry) cornmeal is boiled in the broth to make a mush. The meat, finely minced, is returned, and seasonings, typically sage, thyme, savory, and others, are added. The mush is cast into loaves, and allowed to cool thoroughly until gelled. The proportions and seasoning are very much a matter of the region and the cook's taste.

Commercial scrapple often contains these traditional ingredients, with a distinctive flavor to each brand, though homemade recipes often specify more genteel cuts of pork, with a consequently blander taste. A few manufacturers have introduced beef and turkey varieties.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrapple