VERY,VERY HOT READS, I Would Read The News In This Thread This Thead Is To post Any Thing Ye Want About The News,,NEWS WAS MOVED,READ MY FIRST POS...

Man Arrested for Placing Trojan in IRC Channel

keys A man from the Seattle, Washington area was indicted for releasing computer viruses, sometimes referred to as Trojan horses or malware, that caused harm to systems across the country, including a computer system in the Eastern District of Missouri, United States Attorney Catherine L. Hanaway said on Tuesday.

"Computer viruses have the potential to cause an incredible amount of damage to the nation's economy," said Hanaway. “This office will pursue these cases aggressively.”

RICHARD C. HONOUR, 30, was indicted by a federal grand jury in St. Louis, Thursday, February 23, and was arrested in Seattle today, on one felony count of transmitting internet viruses. According to the indictment, Richard Honour developed and caused the release of harmful computer programs which infected systems associated with an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) “chat room,” called DarkMyst. Honour's harmful programs, which are referred to in the indictment as "malware," allowed him to gain unauthorized access to compromised computers. With this access he was able to obtain banking and identity information from those computers. Honour used spam techniques to perpetuate and extend the distribution of his malware. LinuxElectrons - Man Arrested for Placing Trojan in IRC Channel


Man Arrested for Placing Trojan in IRC Channel


Friday, March 03 2006 @ 09:37 PM CST
Contributed by: ByteEnable

General NewsSt. Louis, Missouri – A man from the Seattle, Washington area was indicted for releasing computer viruses, sometimes referred to as Trojan horses or malware, that caused harm to systems across the country, including a computer system in the Eastern District of Missouri, United States Attorney Catherine L. Hanaway said on Tuesday.

"Computer viruses have the potential to cause an incredible amount of damage to the nation's economy," said Hanaway. “This office will pursue these cases aggressively.”

RICHARD C. HONOUR, 30, was indicted by a federal grand jury in St. Louis, Thursday, February 23, and was arrested in Seattle today, on one felony count of transmitting internet viruses. According to the indictment, Richard Honour developed and caused the release of harmful computer programs which infected systems associated with an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) “chat room,” called DarkMyst. Honour's harmful programs, which are referred to in the indictment as "malware," allowed him to gain unauthorized access to compromised computers. With this access he was able to obtain banking and identity information from those computers. Honour used spam techniques to perpetuate and extend the distribution of his malware.

If convicted, Honour faces a maximum penalty of ten years in prison and/or a fine of $250,000.

Hanaway commended the work done on the case by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Assistant United States Attorney John Bodenhausen, who is handling the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations, and each defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

http://www.linuxelectrons.com/article.php/20060303213709258

 

Analyzing a SSL Trojan's inner workings

trojan I was recently sent an SSL Trojan from a security consultant assisting a bank with a large online presence. This particular SSL Trojan had installed itself on more than 100 of the bank customers' computers. The most interesting part was that the Trojan could insert itself in the SSL connection between the customer’s browser and the bank’s SSL Web site. I made a weak attempt to disassemble the Trojan, followed by executing it on my specially configured analysis virtual machine computer.

I fired up the excellent IDA Pro Disassembler and opened the Trojan. I immediately learned it was packed (compressed to minimize size and complicate malware analysis) using ASPACK. IDA Pro still showed me a few API calls: I now knew the Trojan manipulated the Windows registry, and used basic Windows APIs (Ntdll.dll) and some C libraries (Msvcr71.dll). An SSL trojan unmasked | InfoWorld | Column | 2006-03-03 | By Roger A. Grimes

An SSL trojan unmasked
Analyzing an especially dastardly trojan's inner workings produces startling -- but useful -- results

By Roger A. Grimes
March 03, 2006 E-mailE-mail
print thisPrinter Friendly Version

As mentioned in last week’s column, I was recently sent an SSL Trojan from a security consultant assisting a bank with a large online presence. This particular SSL Trojan had installed itself on more than 100 of the bank customers' computers. The most interesting part was that the Trojan could insert itself in the SSL connection between the customer’s browser and the bank’s SSL Web site. I made a weak attempt to disassemble the Trojan, followed by executing it on my specially configured analysis virtual machine computer.
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I fired up the excellent IDA Pro Disassembler and opened the Trojan. I immediately learned it was packed (compressed to minimize size and complicate malware analysis) using ASPACK. IDA Pro still showed me a few API calls: I now knew the Trojan manipulated the Windows registry, and used basic Windows APIs (Ntdll.dll) and some C libraries (Msvcr71.dll).

The latter file reveals that the Trojan was probably written in Microsoft (Profile, Products, Articles) Visual C++. But I could not see any immediately interesting ASCII text strings. I’d have to wait on my better-skilled, professional friends for a more detailed disassembly.

I then executed the Trojan on my analysis virtual machine host, which was running two images: Windows XP Pro SP1 and SP2. I use both images because SP2 often prevents malware from running. The images have multiple monitoring utilities, including Ethereal and Sysinternals' Regmon, Filemon, Autorun, and Process Explorer.

I froze Trojan execution in several different phases and examined my monitoring logs. Here’s what I learned.

When the Trojan launches, it immediately looks for the Microsoft C Runtime library (Msvcr71.dll). I discovered that the library file wasn’t on my XP SP1 image, but was on my SP2 image and any XP images with .Net Framework installed. The Trojan also called Ntdll.dll and Gdi32.dll, which contain some of the most-used Windows APIs.

The Trojan next wrote 60K-80K (depending on VM image) of content to \System32\Config\System.log. When I checked, the System.log file was its normal 1K size and not full of Trojan code. At this point, I didn’t know what the Trojan was doing here, but I planned to find out in the future.

Next, the Trojan queried the following keys and various subkeys:

* HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Image\FileExecutionOption

* HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot\Option

* HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Safer\CodeIdentifiers\TransparentEnabled

* HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Safer\CodeIdentifiers\TransparentEnabled

* HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TerminalServer\TSAppCompat

* HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Compatibility32\<hostname>

Many of these key queries are interesting because the Trojan seemed to be looking to see if it has already been installed in such a way as to bypass various Windows security mechanisms, including SafeBoot and Software Restriction Policies. The Trojan didn’t manipulate the keys, however, so I didn't really know why it was checking -- yet.

The Trojan eventually created and wrote the following registry key: HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\PendingFileRenameOperations.

Using this key, it told Windows to delete the host file from which it was executed upon the next reboot.

Next, the Trojan wrote itself to a file called Csrss.exe and stored itself in the \Windows folder. This is an interesting trick. The legitimate Csrss.exe file is stored in \Windows\System32, which the Trojan could not modify, overwrite, or delete (because of Windows File Protection). So, it wrote itself into another directory that most casual users would not think twice about checking.

After that, the Trojan searched the Temporary Internet Files folder of Internet Explorer, looking for evidence of files and cookies from more than 100 different banking Web sites. It then used this information to create localized copies of the logon pages of various bank Web sites.

This is the amazing part: When the user visits one of these Web sites, the Trojan intercepts the legitimate banking Web logon request and replaces the bank’s logon screen with a localized copy. That's why it was mysteriously manipulating the files and querying the keys. By watching the browser carefully, I was able to see the local version load, but I think most end-users would miss the switcheroo.

Thanks to the sneaky swap, the users' browsers appear to have an SSL connection to their bank’s Web site (and shows an SSL icon in their browser), but the SSL connection is really to the Trojan’s local Web page. As the user logs in, the Trojan captures the logon credentials, writes them to a file called Temp.dlb, and then passes them along to the bank’s Web site. This technique has been referred to as “SSL mixing,” “SSL-proxy,” and “SSL man-in-the-middle.” (The latter is the more traditional name.) The Trojan uploads the Temp.dlb file to a Russian-addressed Web site, and goes back into hiding.

Seeing the worm in action was startling. Although I’ve known about and demonstrated many SSL man-in-the-middle attacks, I had never seen one so automated and so criminal. After doing some more research, I found out that SSL mixing Trojans aren’t new -- just new to me. They have been documented since about six months ago.

Thankfully, many banks are using more sophisticated logon screens than just an SSL-protected page asking for a name and PIN. A great example of this is Barclays’ UK Web site. After asking for a surname and account number (some of which is provided), the user is prompted for their passcode and two randomly chosen letters of their “memorable word.” Although an appropriately coded Trojan might eventually collect all the letters of the memorable word and possibly put them together in the right order, it’s complicated enough right now to defeat the current SSL and other keylogging Trojans. It's also something that more banks and other online entities should adopt.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/03/03/75970_10OPsecadvise_1.html

 

Microsoft to make Vista easily upgradeable


By Ina Fried
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: March 6, 2006, 3:50 PM PST
Tell us what you think about this storyTalkBack E-mail this story to a friendE-mail View this story formatted for printingPrint

Microsoft is planning to make it very easy for Windows Vista owners to upgrade to a pricier version of the operating system.

In the past, such upgrades would have required users to go to a store to get a physical disc to update their machine. With Vista, which is due to go on sale later this year, Microsoft is adding a second option. Dubbed Windows Anytime Upgrade, the new mechanism will let customers buy the update online. New PCs that come with Vista will come with a Windows Automatic Upgrade DVD, which can be used with a later update that is purchased online.

"If you want more features in Windows Vista, you can upgrade to another version," Microsoft said in help notes that accompany the most recent test version of Windows. "You can either buy a separate upgrade disc at a retail store or use Windows Anytime Upgrade to buy the upgrade online, and then use your Windows Anytime Upgrade disc or the Windows installation disc to complete the process."

Microsoft confirmed Monday that such a process is being planned for Vista, but offered scant additional details.

"We are working closely with our partners to put the right infrastructure in place to support Windows Anytime Upgrade, and we will have more information to share at a later date," a Microsoft representative wrote in an e-mail.

The move is one of several efforts Microsoft is making with Vista to encourage users to opt for higher-end versions of the software. Among the other efforts is the introduction of an "Ultimate" edition that combines the best of Microsoft's consumer and business features.

According to information in the Vista test version, the upgrade feature will allow Windows Vista Home Basic users to go to Windows Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate edition, while Vista Business users will be able to move only to the Ultimate edition. Microsoft's other business version--Windows Vista Enterprise--is available only for volume licensing customers.

Microsoft announced last week that there would be six major editions of Vista, comprising those listed above, along with a "starter" edition of Vista that will be sold only on new PCs in certain emerging markets.

The mention of the update plans within the test release of Vista was noted by a number of enthusiast sites, including Vista Buzz.
http://news.com.com/Microsoft+to+make+Vista+easily+upgradeable/2100-1016_3-6046512.html?tag=nefd.top

 

Wireless USB devices arriving by September


By Stephen Shankland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: March 6, 2006, 5:18 PM PST
Tell us what you think about this storyTalkBack E-mail this story to a friendE-mail View this story formatted for printingPrint

SAN FRANCISCO--The first devices using a wireless version of the Universal Serial Bus connection technology will begin arriving in the third quarter, the leader of an industry group overseeing the standard said Monday.

Wireless USB promises help for consumers frustrated with PCs sprouting a profusion of cables linking their PCs with printers, digital cameras, music players and external disk drives, said Jeff Ravencraft, chairman of the USB Implementers Forum and an Intel technology strategist. Wireless USB permits the same 480 megabits-per-second data transfer speed as the current wired USB 2.0 standard, but requires small radios inside PCs or devices rather than the cables.

"Early movers are going to be external hard drives, cameras and printers," Ravencraft said in an interview here on the eve of the Intel Developer Forum. "You'll begin to see products move in the third quarter through the back half of the year."

To make wireless USB practical, though, some aspects of the technology had to be ironed out. On Monday, the USB standards group announced a new element to that work, the Wireless Association Specification that makes sure only authorized connections are made between PCs and devices.

USB has caught on widely as a way to connect cameras, scanners, mobile phones, PDAs (personal digital assistants), DVD burners and innumerable other devices to PCs. The Wireless Association Specification governs how the PC end of the wireless USB connection will be able to connect to as many as 127 devices, Ravencraft said.

There likely will be a learning curve in the arrival of wireless USB. The specification requires one of two ways to set up the association between a device and the PC so the connection can be used. In one, the two are connected by a cable initially and set up their association for future wireless links. In the other, the device will show a number that the user then has to type into the PC.

Wireless USB uses an underlying wireless communication technology called ultrawideband (UWB). Where 802.11g uses a relatively narrow frequency range centered on 2.4GHz radio waves, UWB uses a very broad range from 3.1GHz to 10.6GHz, Ravencraft said. The UWB signal levels are low enough that it appears to be noise to other radio communication technology.

Wireless networking using a separate technology known as Wi-Fi or by its standard number, 802.11, has caught on widely in notebook computers. It even is shipping in some cameras from Nikon and Canon. Wireless USB is a different technology, however, and gadget makers are keen to embrace it for its relative simplicity and the fact that it consumes about half the power of 802.11.

"With very high-end phones and cameras, you're starting to see 802.11. The issue in those mobile devices is the battery power and cost of battery life in implementing that," Ravencraft said. "The cell phone and camera guys see UWB as a very good solution for point-to-point connections with very low power."

Wireless USB runs at full 480mbps speed only when a device is within about 10 feet of a computer. Beyond that but still within the maximum 30-foot distance, the transfer rate drops to 110mbps. However, wireless USB later will reach 1 gigabit-per-second speeds and faster, Ravencraft said.

The UWB radio communication is useful for more than just wireless USB. It also can be used simultaneously for wireless Bluetooth links, IEEE 1394 "Firewire" links and even WiNet short-range Internet Protocol networks.

Initially, wireless USB will require an add-in card or plug-in device for a PC to use it. Eventually it will be built in, then integrated gradually more tightly with computing electronics, the same path wired USB took, Ravencraft said.
http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-6046560.html?part=rss&tag=6046560&subj=news

 

COULD YE IPUD,I MEAN IPOD DO THIS? HELL NO..

Samsung SGH-i310 first Mobile phone with 8 GB hard drive

Samsung continues to awe us with it's innovation in mobile phones, this time with a phone with 8GB hard drive. The SGH-i310 is an upgrade to the Samsung SGH-i300x which has a 4GB hard drive. The i310's mammoth 8GB hard drive can hold upto 2000 songs. It's MP3 player can playback MP3, WMA and AAC files and includes powerful stereo speakers. The i310 runs on Windows Mobile 5.0 and includes a 2 Megapixel Camera with video recording at 30 FPS. It includes USB 2.0 and can function as a USB mass storage device so you can say goodbye to your Flash drives. It features Bluetooth, Infrared, GPRS and high speed EDGE connectivity. The i310 includes dedicated Music player keys and a unique jog dial for browing through playlists.

 

Top 5 Value Graphics Cards

testcenterThese are the top value graphics cards today, but ratings and rankings can change quickly due to pricing and technology changes, so check back frequently for the latest info.
Edited by Ramon G. McLeod



REVIEWS & RANKINGS

Top 5 Value Graphics Cards
Top 5 Mainstream Graphics Boards
Top 5 Power Graphics Cards
See All Graphics Boards




Generate a side-by-side comparison using the COMPARE check boxes.
# #
Rank # Top 5 Value Graphics Cards # PCW Rating
1
BEST BUY

#

#

# PNY GeForce 6600 GT #
87
Very Good
Bus: PCI Express
Chip Set: nVidia GeForce 6600 GT
Installed RAM (MB): 128
TV Tuner: No
Price When Reviewed: $137
Check latest prices

Bottom Line: Despite a relatively modest amount of memory, this card clearly benefits from having fast DDR3 RAM. Last Rated: February 02, 2006
Test Report
2

#

#

# XFX GeForce 6600 #
82
Very Good
Bus: PCI Express
Chip Set: nVidia GeForce 6600
Installed RAM (MB): 256
TV Tuner: No
Price When Reviewed: $117
Check latest prices

Bottom Line: This attractively priced board turns in top performance, but it skimps on extra features and has a thin software bundle. Last Rated: February 02, 2006
Test Report
3

#

#

# Asus EAX1600Pro #
81
Very Good
Bus: PCI Express
Chip Set: ATI Radeon X1600 PRO
Installed RAM (MB): 256
TV Tuner: No
Price When Reviewed: $129
Check latest prices

Bottom Line: A solid performer, this card has a good cooling system and a decent bundle of games. Last Rated: February 02, 2006
Test Report
#
#
CHART CONTINUES
# # #
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4

#

#

# MSI GeForce NX6600 #
78
Good
Bus: PCI Express
Chip Set: nVidia GeForce 6600
Installed RAM (MB): 256
TV Tuner: No
Price When Reviewed: $134
Check latest prices

Bottom Line: Though a modest performer, this model includes an outstanding video cable and solid software utilities. Last Rated: February 02, 2006
Test Report
5

#

#

# EVGA eGeForce 6600 #
69
Fair
Bus: PCI Express
Chip Set: nVidia GeForce 6600
Installed RAM (MB): 256
TV Tuner: No
Price When Reviewed: $110
Check latest prices

Bottom Line: An affordable price doesn't make up for so-so performance (especially at high resolutions) and the lack of a software bundle. Last Rated: February 02, 2006
Test Report
http://pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,124588,00.asp

 

USA New Jersey vs Free Speech

p2p news / p2pnet: p2pnet is here to spread the word, not take names. So although it's always nice to know who's talking, we don't force people to register to be able to contribute comment posts.

Online anonymity may be OK with us, but it isn't with New Jersey assemblyman Peter J. Biondi. He wants web site operators to make posters identifiable, in some way, so they can be sued if they upset someone.

Biondi's bill, "Makes certain operators of interactive computer services and Internet service providers liable to persons injured by false or defamatory messages posted on public forum websites."

It would, "require an operator of any interactive computer service or an Internet service provider to establish, maintain and enforce a policy requiring an information content provider who posts messages on a public forum website either to be identified by legal name and address or to register a legal name and address with the operator or provider prior to posting messages on a public forum website.

"The bill requires an operator of an interactive computer service or an Internet service provider to establish and maintain reasonable procedures to enable any person to request and obtain disclosure of the legal name and address of an information content provider who posts false or defamatory information about the person on a public forum website.

"In addition, the bill makes any operator or Internet service provider liable for compensatory and punitive damages as well as costs of a law suit filed by a person damaged by the posting of such messages if the operator or Internet service provider fails to establish, maintain and enforce the policy required by section 2 of the bill."

(Thanks, JaLo)

Stay tuned.

(Tuesday 7th March 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/8106

 

Can't make it work?

p2p news / p2pnet: If consumers can't work out how to operate a new device within about 20 minutes, the product goes back.

So says Dutch scientist Elke den Ouden, a PhD candidate at the Technical University of Eindhoven.

Complaints and returns of hardware such as mp3 music players and wireless audio systems were supposedly down to defective design, she says in her thesis, according to Reuters.

But in fact, half of all products returned to stores by consumers are failures because the buyer couldn't figure out how to operate the device, den Ouden said.

She also used product managers at Philips, the Netherlands-based electronics giant, as guinea pigs, giving them new products to test over a weekend, says the story, adding:

"Even the managers returned with complaints about not being able to puzzle out the hardware."

Den Ouden is slated to defend, 'Developments of a Design Analysis Model for Consumer Complaints: Revealing a New Class Of Quality Failures,' on March 16.

Also See:
Reuters - Scientist: Complexity causes 50% of product returns, March 6, 2006

(Tuesday 7th March 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/8104

 

Why I hate media producers

p2pnet special: Everyone has at least one story they remember from their childhood, maybe from a picture or comic book, a television series or a movie. In later life we look back fondly on those stories, thinking "Wow! I remember that!" as we see them sitting on the shelves of a bookshop or a video store. Or increasingly online, where we suddenly find there are thousands of other people who remember those stories and who congregate in message boards or newsites dedicated solely to keeping them alive.

My little ball of childhood glee is Wind In The Willows, made by the legendary British studio Cosgrove Hall.

Continuing on from their 1983 movie of Kenneth Grahame's classic childrens book, Cosgrove Hall developed Wind In The Willows into a highly successful and award winning stop motion series (stop motion animation? Think Wallace & Gromit). In fact they made, five 13-episode series out of it, plus another full length movie. Cosgrove Hall managed to the seemingly impossible: take a much loved classic and do a screen version that was faithful to the book. It won awards. It was lauded in the press. Princess Margaret turned up for the premiere.

I remember my mother liking it, too, because it was one of the few shows on television that was guaranteed to contain absolutely no swearing, violence, dangerous stunts or anything else that might influence a young mind for the worse.

She (illegally) made compilation tapes of the series as they aired on TV and I'd watch them over and over again. Over the years, those old VHS tapes degraded or were accidentally taped over so now I only have four and a half barely watchable episodes out of the sixty five that were made.

Now, after more than 20 years, thousands of production hours and millions of happy children, you'd think you'd be able to buy Wind In The Willows on DVD, wouldn't you?

Well, you can't. The original movie was released in 2004 by A&E Home Video. Series 1 was only released on DVD less than a year ago. Series 2 made it a few months later. A&E plan on releasing the second movie in a few weeks time but, get this, don't really feel like releasing series 3, 4 or 5. Oh, and any/all DVDs released will be Region 1 encoded, with no plans to even distribute them outside of North America and Canada.

This is why I hate media producers with a passion. To a Wind In The Willows fan like myself, this is akin to only releasing the first two Lord of the Rings movies on DVD, or George Lucas deciding that he's not going to release The Empire Strikes Back in a Collectors Edition Star Wars boxed set. Over the years various companies have taken Wind In The Willows and done the usual release-three-random-episodes-and-forget-about-it routine, but this is the first time anyone has released entire seasons at a time. Now they don't think the "demand" will remain steady.

Well, considering the fact you can convert anything from analogue to digital with less than $500 worth of equipment and software, what is the damned problem here? Hell, give the master tapes to me and I'll do it for free. If you can't be bothered making pretty packaging and sending out stock to hundreds of shops, why not make an .iso file and release the content via BitTorrent? I gather there are a number of torrent sites around who'd just love to distribute legal content, even if few people in the media business actually care about it.

Content producers are so blasé about their damned important intellectual property it never fails to astound me.

Take the BBC as a prime example.

During the 60s and 70s they managed to wipe thousands of programmes by taping over them. Tape was expensive and, well, nobody really wanted to watch this stuff again, did they?

To this day, there are huge holes in the BBC archives where episodes Dr Who, Z-Cars and Dad's Army should be, but aren't because nobody could be bothered storing them. Well guess what? People do want to watch this stuff again.

People buy boxed sets of TV shows. People buy boxed sets of old TV shows. People dedicate hours and hours of their free time trying to track down missing episodes of progammes like The Goon Show in some strange kind of modern day media treasure hunt.

We don't need great catastrophies like nuclear war or global warming to destroy our culture. All we need to do is let the media companies store it for us and everything will be gone in a few decades.

(PS. If any p2pnet readers can spare the time to email A&E - click Contact Us at the bottom of the page. I'd be personally very grateful - this is one programme that I'd like to see passed down to the next generation.)

Alex H, p2pnet - Sydney, Australia
[Alex is an operations manager for an ATM (automatic teller machine) supplier and he specialises in infrastructure development and maintenance, and logistics. He’s also an[other] active member of the Shareaza community. You'll find previous p2pnet posts, as well as other good stuff, on Alex's Tech Loves Art blog.]

(Tuesday 7th March 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/8107

 

Anatomy of a She-Nerd

In Tokyo, girls who want to get their geek on head for Otome (Maiden) Road in trendy Ikebukuro. Retail stores on the 200-meter commercial strip cater to the emerging subculture of onna otaku (she-nerds) by stocking femme-friendly comics, gadgets, and action figures instead of makeup and clothes. Increasingly, the sought-after goods - from cosplay outfits to anime DVDs - are being co-opted by wannabes in the States. Here are some tips for spotting a real onna otaku in the wild. - Lisa Katayama

10 Ways to Identify an Onna Otaku

Hair: No chestnut dyes, no colored highlights, minimal brushing.

Wardrobe: Generic jeans, shirts, and sneakers (with price tag left on, Minnie Pearl-style). Jacket from store at train station. For more formal occasions: school uniform, kimono, or Dhoulmagus costume. (He's the mysterious jester from Dragon Quest VIII. Duh!)

Pets: Six virtual pups on her Nintendo DS. (She feeds and walks them hourly.)

Phone: Worn clipped on pocket to look "technical." It's got a 3-megapixel camera, built-in smartcard purchasing, TV tuner, MP3 player, and browser.

Storage: Cute bags are OK for jaunts, but she prefers wheeled luggage for comic cons and epic shopping trips.

Magazines: Four different anime monthlies, Cosmode (for cosplayers), and Dolly Dolly (for figurine fans).

Diet: Why cook when 7-Eleven has beef bowls and habanero snack chips?

Recent Purchases: Action figures and manga galore. Spool of DVD-Rs for, uh, "backup" copies of her fave shows.

On her laptop: Script for Sailor Moon/Anakin Skywalker doujinshi (fan comic), links to manga release schedules and 2ch.net (think Slashdot).

Under her mattress: Boy's Love comics, which depict romantic, tragic, and hot pretty boy-on-pretty boy action.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.03/play.html?pg=3

 

Nero 7 Premium 7.0.8.2
all nero homepage with the update
http://www.nero.com/nero7/eng/nero7-demo.php

per baldbear

Nero 7 - The Ultimate solution for Data, Video, Photo, Audio and BackUp! The redesign of the user interface improves the usability and makes Nero Burning ROM 7 the fastest to use ever. The access from Nero Burning ROM to the Nero Home database guarantees easy access to media files including advanced search options with Nero Scout.

Nero 7 Premium enables you to experience your digital media in completely new and innovative ways. With the addition of a Nero Home – media manager, you can now have the complete PC and TV experience. Whether you want to access your media files from the comfort of your living room, or complete digital media projects on your PC, Nero 7 Premium is all you need.

Now, with more features than ever before, this powerful software can transform your digital photos into professional animated slideshows, backup all of your valuable data, manage or search your media files, edit video or photos, create DVDs (including menus), and stream your files over a media server, and compress files to take on the go.

Now supports Blu-ray technology. Nero 7 Premium now gives you the ability to burn your data to BD-RE and BD-R (Blu-ray) media, which enables you to store enormous amounts of data (25-50 GB) onto a single disc.

New Features at a glance:
- Quick & easy access to all your digital media files from the comfort of your living room using a remote control
- Integrates TV time-shifting, DVD, video, photo and audio playback
- Easy wizard setup and user interface
- Support for all popular media formats
- Powerful database for storing and organizing of media files into playlists
- Complete multiple tasks concurrently
- Advanced search options with Nero Scout
- Redesigned to maximize ease-of-use, efficiency and speed
- LightScribe support
- Support for DVD-R Dual Layer format and DVD+R Double Layer

http://httpdl.nero.com/software/nero7/Nero-7.0.8.2_eng_no_yt.exe

 

Anti-home recording bill

p2p news / p2pnet: Bill HR 4861, the Audio Broadcast Flag Licensing Act Of 2006, boils down as another element in entertainment and software cartel plans to gain complete control over what you see, hear and do both online, and off.

It calls on the US FCC (Federal Communications Commission) to impose restrictions on in-home, private, personal, and recording from digital radio services.

Dressed up as a narrow bill giving the FCC 'limited authority' over new HD radios and satellite radios from XM and Sirius, in reality, it's a, "fundamental attack on traditional home taping practices that consumers have engaged in since the first analog cassette recorder reached the U.S. market in 1964, and the reel-to-reel recorder decades before," says Home Recording Rights Coalition chairman Gary Shapiro.

Like other proposals supported by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) the bill isn't just a "flag" proposal meant to preventing mass redistribution of music online, he says.

Rather, it gives the FCC remote control over consumers' right to engage in reasonable and customary "unauthorized" recording, even in the privacy of their homes for noncommercial purposes, he says. Virtually all home recording is "unauthorized" by copyright owners but as the Supreme Court held in the Betamax case, that doesn't translate into "unlawful".

"Exercising their 'fair use' rights under the law, consumers have lawfully been making unauthorized tapes of music off the radio for more than 50 years," Shapiro declares, adding:

"In recent Congressional testimony, the head of the RIAA said 'the one-way method of communication [enabled by HD radio] allows individuals to boldly engage in piracy with little fear of detection.' In other words, the RIAA believes that when Members of Congress, their staff, and their constituents tape a song off the radio they have engaged in piracy and ought to be criminally prosecuted."

Also See:
limited authority - RIAA to Sirius, XM -, March 7, 2006

(Tuesday 7th March 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/8110

 

Google as your PC

p2p news / p2pnet: Pretty soon, if things go according to plan, Google will have access to everything on your computer because it will, in effect, be your computer.

Google Über Alles.

"The existence of the previously rumored GDrive online storage service surfaced after a blogger discovered apparent notes in a slide presentation by Google executives published on Google's site after its analysts presentation day last Thursday," says Reuters.

"With infinite storage, we can house all user files, including emails, web history, pictures, bookmarks, etc and make it accessible from anywhere (any device, any platform, etc)," the notes in the original Google presentation state," according to the story.

"Google declined to comment on the reports but said the slide notes had now been deleted."

On SearchEngineWatch, Barry Schwartz describes GDrive as a, "virtual location to store your files without using a Gmail hack".

Google may have chopped the notes but, "Derrick posted a comment with the notes for those slides at Greg's [Greg Linden] blog, where GDrive is mentioned," Schwartz points out.

Here's part of it, from Geeking with Greg:

Theme 2: Store 100% of User Data

With infinite storage, we can house all user files, including: emails, web history, pictures, bookmarks, etc and make it accessible from anywhere (any device, any platform, etc).

We already have efforts in this direction in terms of GDrive, GDS, Lighthouse, but all of them face bandwidth and storage constraints today. For example: Firefox team is working on server side stored state but they want to store only URLs rather than complete web pages for storage reasons. This theme will help us make the client less important (thin client, thick server model) which suits our strength vis-a-vis Microsoft and is also of great value to the user.

As we move toward the "Store 100%" reality, the online copy of your data will become your Golden Copy and your local-machine copy serves more like a cache. An important implication of this theme is that we can make your online copy more secure than it would be on your own machine.

Another important implication of this theme is that storing 100% of a user's data makes each piece of data more valuable because it can be access across applications. For example: a user's Orkut profile has more value when it's accessible from Gmail (as addressbook), Lighthouse (as access lis... [...TRUNCATED...]

Think about it.

And this would, of course, mesh very nicely with its apparent plans to found its own global internet. DRM to the nth degree.

Also See:
Reuters - Google lets slip talk of online storage service, March 7, 2006
SearchEngineWatch - GDrive: Google's Virtual Hard Drive, March 6, 2006
Geeking with Greg - In a world with infinite storage, bandwidth, and CPU power, March 2, 2006
nth degree - Google wants its very own Net, February 3, 2006

(Tuesday 7th March 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/8109

 

Online music service La la Media Inc to let users swap Cd's
Posted by Dan Bell on 07 March 2006 - 19:09 - Source: Yahoo News

Hypnosis4U2NV used our news submit to tell us about this interesting development coming from a new company called La la Media. Here we have a proposed online CD swapping service that will let people trade their unwanted Cd's for ones they wish they had. The intriguing part about this, is that the company intends to give 20% of its trade revenue to artists. We have to wonder how negotiations will go when the RIAA isn't calling the shots. But, on the other hand, it seems that technically, they probably don't have to give the artists a thing. Maybe some of our legal minded visitors have an opinion on this! Or even those out there that try to make a living via music sales.

Backed with $9 million in funding by Bain Capital and Ignition Partners, La la works like an online music co-op by enabling members to trade physical CDs they own for physical CDs they want, Bill Nguyen, co-founder of La la, said ahead of the Tuesday announcement.

With 1.8 million album titles available, members trade the CDs in prepaid envelopes, much like the way popular mail-order DVD service Netflix Inc. operates.

La la founders argue that, unlike underground online file-sharing services, which have been sued for copyright infringement, La la is protected under an exception to the U.S. Copyright Act. They argue that the owner of a CD can transfer a legally-acquired copy without permission or payment of additional royalties.

Members will pay $1 to La la for facilitating the trade once they receive the disc from other members, plus a 49 cent shipping charge.

La la said it will set aside 20 percent of its trading revenue to recording artists.

La la said it is currently talking with the world's major music labels to obtain licenses for the sale of digital music.

Take a minute and visit over at Yahoo News if you want to check out the whole story. This is a very controversial business model and we can be sure that the music industry will vehemently oppose this paradigm. La la Media must be very new though, as there is not a trace of it on the web that we can find. Maybe one of our talented Googlers out there can dredge up a link for us to check out.
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13157

 

France debates whether to legalise Internet downloads

Tue Mar 7, 9:27 AM ET

PARIS (AFP) - The French government and MPs are preparing to do battle over a digital copyright bill that could clear the way for the legal downloading of music and movie files from the Internet.
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Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's centre-right government is trying to block MPs from voting to give such permission to Internet users, who would pay a small extra monthly fee to their Internet service provider for the right.

Representatives from both the ruling UMP party and the opposition benches had already voted to adopt the download fee idea in December while debating an original version of the bill.

As a result, Villepin hastily withdrew the original bill and had it slightly modified for re-submission to parliament Tuesday.

Several days of debate are scheduled before a vote due on March 14.

If the downloading fee becomes law, France would join a small number of Western countries -- among them Canada and the Netherlands -- which allow consumers to legally make copies of copyrighted digital files for private use.

Many other countries, most notably the United States, take an opposing view and have passed legislation expressly outlawing the practice.

On Monday, in a sign of the government's determination to quash the fee idea, Villepin's administration withdrew the article in the bill to which was attached the two amendments that would have legalised downloads.

The parliamentary leader of the opposition Socialists, Jean-Marc Ayrault, said the government's strong-arm tactics reeked of "panic".

The French government -- which is trying to bring its copyright laws into line with a 2001 EU directive -- modified the fines stipulated in its bill after December's vote.

The fine for a first-time offender downloading tunes or a film was reduced to 38 euros, with higher penalties for those who broke copyright protection on a commercial DVD or who made public "hacks" to get around protections.

Other articles in the bill provide for the establishment of a government body that would decide how many private copies of a digital work an individual can make and what copyright exceptions should exist for libraries, journalists and handicapped people.

Big music companies and a few famous French singers, veteran rocker Johnny Hallyday among them, are hostile to a download licence for Internet users -- expected to amount to, say, eight or 12 euros -- saying it would not nearly compensate them for the royalties they earn from more traditional music sales.

But French consumer groups -- and quite a few MPs -- counter that the Internet age has changed consumer habits, and an estimated eight to 10 million French peopl, out of a population of 60 million, download files anyway.

A new economic model is needed, they argue, and a download fee would provide money to artists who lose out entirely under current practices.

"The government bill is wrong to attack the private exchanges between consumers and to aim to create by decree new fines," one consumer group, UFC-Que Choisir, said in a statement.

"It is also wrong to submit the private use of works bought by consumers to a unilateral control by companies that wipes out the notion and spirit of private-use copying" up to now enshrined in French law, it added.

Both sides of the debate have acknowledged that platforms such as Apple's Music Store do provide legal downloads on a pay-per-file basis.

But they also note that such files are not always playable on a variety of machines (for instance Apple music files will only play on iPods), limiting their appeal -- and possibly even breaching French anti-competition law.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/francei...xMBIAAh2.cA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3cjE0b2MwBHNlYwM3Mzg-

 

What to Upgrade and How to Do It

Exclusive from: Ziff-Davis
Wed Mar 1, 6:54 PM ET


Joel Durham Jr. - ExtremeTech

Three years ago, when you bought it, your new super-system seemed to be the ultimate computer, the PC with which you could rise to power and rule the world! It chewed through the most demanding games like a shredder eating envelopes; it let you run a half-dozen office applications at a time with no pauses, even with anti-virus and scheduling apps running in the background. It was supreme.
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As the months flew by, software became more demanding. Minimum system requirements crawled up the CPU scale; what in one version required 500MHz in its latest revision wants 2GHz. Doom 3 came out, and your system would only spit out 14 frames per second with average detail levels. When you jump from one application on the taskbar to another, there's a noticeable pause while the hard drive churns and you wait. And wait.

In fact, you find yourself waiting more and more for everything you do. From loading apps to encoding home movies or changing a TIFF to a JPEG, you simply hate the fact that you can actually go and get a cup of coffee while the computer sits there and thinks.

It very well could be time to upgrade your system. That's not to say you have to toss the whole thing out and start with a brand-new computer; most PCs can at least accept minor upgrades, and desktop systems built with standard parts are almost completely interchangeable.

But how do you tell exactly which component needs to be upgraded? And how do you know if your particular system will accept an upgrade? Where do you buy the parts? What steps do you take to perform the upgrade itself? Read on.

What's Dogging Your System?

When your system seems sluggish, you first need to narrow down the symptoms to find the culprit. Could it be a lack of sufficient main memory? A pokey graphics card? An aging CPU? What about a stuffed-full hard drive? Deciding what needs to be upgraded requires a bit of detective work.

Let's look at some symptoms, and the part that most likely causes them:

SYMPTOM: You've installed a new, super-powerful GeForce 7800-based graphics card. Ever since then, when you play 3-D games, the computer sometimes crashes or reboots. You've checked the connection and it's fine, the card is powered, and its GPU fan is running.

SOLUTION: Check your power supply. Those new cards pull well over 75 watts alone. If your system's PSU was just getting by with its current components, the new load could be causing it to brown out other components when the graphics card demands its utmost power draw. Get a 500+ watt PSU with dual 12V rails.

SYMPTOM: Everything works great--except new games. You used to be able to run Quake 3 Arena at 125 frames per second. Quake 4 barely makes it over 15 fps. You meet the minimum requirements, so what gives?

SOLUTION: You should swap out your computer's graphics card. Newer cards not only have more raw processing power, but also more memory. Look for a modern GeForce series 6 or 7 series, or a Radeon X800 or higher, with at least 256MB of local memory.

SYMPTOM: Everything is slow. Loading programs takes forever, when it used to be speedy. Changing from one open program to another through the taskbar or Alt-Tab brings the system to a crawl. No matter what you do, it takes forever.

SOLUTION: Check your hard drive space. It sounds like it's so full that the paging file is fragmented, and therefore everything that swaps data to the hard drive in lieu of main memory is going to drag down system performance. You could either install a bunch more memory to stave off the computer's need to swap, uninstall anything you don't use on your current hard drive and run Disk Cleanup to clear up as much space as possible, or upgrade the hard drive itself to a much larger size.

SYMPTOM: You've discovered your artistic bent and begun editing movies and pictures and rendering 3-D objects and scenes. The problem is, when you do something like encode a video, render the 3-D stuff or save big picture files that you've altered, it takes eons to complete the process.

SOLUTION: Those are CPU-intensive activities. The processor crunches all of the operations necessary to transform and render the images. A faster CPU would make a world of difference.

SYMPTOM: The system boots up quickly and works great when you use one or two programs at once, but as you open more applications, it starts to slow down. This is especially noticeable when you have a program that loads lots of huge files, like PhotoShop Elements, with a bunch of massive TIFF images open.

SOLUTION: You need more memory to handle all that up-front computing. The data and program files of open programs are stored in main memory, but when that bank runs out of room, they're swapped to the much slower paging file. More memory will allow more programs and data to reside in the much faster main memory area.

Can You Upgrade?

Now that you have an idea of what needs to be upgraded, you have to determine whether your computer will handle the upgrade. This requires research on your part. You must first find out what your computer's motherboard is capable of, the form factor of your computer case, PSU and motherboard, and more. This may require you to research the motherboard manual, or even do research at the motherboard manufacturer's Web site. You also will have to open the case.

Before opening the computer case, power down the PC and unplug it. Be static safe; use an antistatic bracelet properly or plant your feet and ground yourself before you reach into the PC. Handle circuit boards by the edges and, whether removing or installing something, don't force it. You might break something.

• For a CPU upgrade, learn the fastest CPU your computer's motherboard will support (check the manual). If it won't support a CPU significantly faster than the one it's already rocking, you need to upgrade the motherboard.

• For memory, remember that
Windows XP only makes use of a maximum of 4GB of RAM. Find out your computer's current memory configuration, how many memory slots it has, what type of modules are installed and so on. Then, research the motherboard manual for acceptable configurations. Can you add memory, or must you replace the modules already installed? Note: don't mix memory types. If your computer has, for instance, PC3200 memory already installed, and you plan to add to it, add PC3200 memory.

• For the graphics card, make sure you get a replacement that fits the proper slot. Graphics cards come in both AGP and PCI Express X16 varieties, and they're not interchangeable.

• For the hard drive, make sure you get a drive with the same interface. Don't get a SATA (Serial ATA) drive if your motherboard doesn't support it unless you also purchase a SATA adapter. For a drop-in replacement, find out what interface your old hard drive supports (IDE or SATA) and get a drive of the same type with a larger capacity.

• For a motherboard replacement, you need to learn the form factor of the board and get a replacement that will fit your case. Anything not compatible with the new board (possibly the CPU, memory, power supply and graphics card) will have to be replaced.

• For the power supply, be sure to get the same type with all of the necessary connectors connectors.

The Basic Steps to Performing an Upgrade

• Get the right parts! Research, research, research. Check manuals, manufacturer Web sites, and every other resource to ensure compatibility with your system.

• For components with drivers: Uninstall the current drivers.

• Power down the machine. Unplug it.

• Remove the component to be upgraded if necessary. Be on the lookout for clips and brackets that secure the components in place. Expansion cards have a screw that secures them; memory modules have clips on either side of them.

o You can remove graphics cards, sound cards, CPUs and memory modules that are no longer needed.

o Don't remove memory modules that you're supplementing with more modules. If you're replacing an onboard graphics or audio solution, don't try to physically remove it from the board. Disable it in the BIOS.

o If you're removing the entire motherboard, first remove all the expansion cards, then unplug all of the cabling. Remove all of the screws holding it in place. Gently remove it from the case.

o If you're removing a hard drive, note that many hard drives reside in removable brackets. Remove the bracket itself, then remove the hard drive.

o If you're removing an optical drive, pay attention to whether the case uses drive rails to seat the 5-inch external drives. If it does, look at how the drive rails are attached to the drive, and replicate their configuration when you prepare to install the new drive.

• Install the new component.

o If you're installing a motherboard, it helps to first install its CPU, memory and any cables that will reach, before placing it in the case and screwing it down. Before seating it, install the riser bezel (the metal shield that fits in the rectangular area where the ports, like the USB and Ethernet ports, reside.)

o If you're installing memory, seat it gently into place and then press along its length evenly until it snaps into its sockets.

o Secure drives with all four screws to reduce vibration and extend the life of the drive. This is especially true for hard drives.

o Make sure you cool a new CPU with a compatible cooler, and use a thermal compound between the cooler and the top of the CPU.

o Make sure expansion cards are fully seated before you screw them down.

o For a hard drive replacement, install the new drive as a slave. You can then use Norton Ghost to replicate the old drive onto the new drive, remove the old drive and discard the old drive.

• Check all of the cables and connections before powering up the computer. You may wish to power it up before you close the case, on the chance that you have to troubleshoot a loose connection.

• Fire up Windows. Install the drivers for your new equipment if necessary (and it will be necessary for graphics cards, sound cards, motherboards, other expansion cards and some CPUs). You might have to cancel the Windows hardware detection wizard and install the drivers through their own installation routine; read the instructions that came with the new part to find out for sure.

• If you've replaced a motherboard, Windows XP might not be happy without reinstalling it over the top of your current installation. It doesn't take kindly to low-level hardware replacements.

Those, in a nutshell, are some techniques to upgrading your computer. More thorough write-ups of each component could easily fill articles this size on their own, so consult the instructions that came with your components for more details. Also, hit upgrade guides on Web sites like PCMag.com and ExtremeTech.com.

Joel Durham Jr. is a freelance technology writer and author of "PC Modding for Dummies"(Wiley, 2005).
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ttzd/200603...xMBJgAh2.cA;_ylu=X3oDMTA4ZnRnZjhkBHNlYwMxNjk1

 

Big Music goes after Yahoo



p2p news / p2pnet: The members of the Big Four Organized Music cartel are going after Yahoo China for alleged copyright violation.

The IFPI, owned by Sony BMG, EMI, Warner Music and Vivendi Universal, says Yahoo China's music pages link directly to unlicensed downloads and streams, according to a Reuters/Billboard story.

"Sony BMG China's Wong says the Asia Pacific regional office of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the music business' main lobbying arm, sent Yahoo China cease-and-desist warnings on behalf of the four major international labels in December," it says.

" 'Deep linking,' as the practice is known, differs from sending Web searchers to other pages that may host unlicensed music," says the item. "Instead, the links on Baidu and Yahoo directly trigger a download of music hosted by sites that appear to be unaffiliated with Yahoo."

Examples of Yahoo China's apparent copyright violation include deep links to Beatles music.

However, the band's catalogue has never been licensed to a digital service and when DJ Danger Mouse's Grey Album, a mix compiled from Jay-Z's Black Album and The Beatles' White Album, appeared, EMI, which controls all Beatles sound recordings, did everything it could to stomp it.

Meanwhile, Porter Erisman, international marketing VP of Beijing Net auction site Alibaba International, which manages Yahoo China, is quoted as saying if content is streaming or being downloaded from another site, such violations would be the responsibility of that site.

"Yahoo China doesn't actually post the works which (users) are downloading," Reuters/Billboard has him stating.

Yahoo paid $1 billion for a 40% stake in Alibaba last August, then turned over management and operation of its China portal to Alibaba, says the story, continuing, "Yahoo China is a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S.-based Internet portal Yahoo. The U.S. operation http://www.yahoo.com links directly to http://www.yahoo.com.cn, which makes yahoo.com users three clicks from downloading unlicensed music."

Baidu was found guilty of copyright infringement in September last, "in a case brought by Shanghai Bu-sheng Music Culture Media, the local distributor for EMI," says the article, going on:

"Billboard also found links on yahoo.cn for ringtone downloads at http://www.3721.com, a site bearing the Yahoo name and logo and registered to Alibaba.com Corp. of Hong Kong. Users of 3721 are asked to provide their name, cell phone number and handset model before a ringtone is sent to their phone for a charge of 2 renminbi (25 cents). A Chinese software and keyword engine, 3721 Network Software was acquired by Yahoo for $120 million in 2003.

"Billboard was unable to determine the licensing status of ringtones sold on 3721. But the Beatles' music, which has never been made available for ringtones, was for sale."

Also See:
Reuters/Billboard - Yahoo China offers direct link to music pirates, March 5, 2006
Grey Album - Grey Album goes Gold, February 25, 2004

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

If you're Chinese and you're looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent website blocking outside of China.

Download it here and feel free to copy the zip and host it yourself so others can download it.

(Wednesday 8th March 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/8119

 

Vista set to swallow 800MB of RAM

Memory, disk space hungry

By Fuad Abazovic in Wien: Wednesday 08 March 2006, 12:08
A CHAP who managed to sneak a peek at the Vole's internal beta version 2 of Windows 53xx informed us that, even while idling, Vista eats as much as 800Mb of system memory.

Yeah, we were shocked too, but you have to believe the screenshot below.

Memory manufacturers couldn't be happier about that, as it will make people to go out and buy more memory. Our source reported that Vista runs ok with 1024Mb of system memory but no-doubt 2048Mb would be much better.

Vista won't install on FAT32 partitions, it only likes NTFS partitions. We also know that the system performs quite well on an Athlon 4000+ and a Geforce 7800 GTX 512 works just fine in the mix. Aero glass looks good, we liked it when we first clapped eyes on Beta 1 version.

Vista occupies roughly three times more space than Windows XP. In fact, it'll require up to a whopping seven gigabytes of drive space.

Have a butcher's:

A view of Vista. µ



http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=30128

 

IBM to dump Microsoft

Andreas Pleschek

p2p news / p2pnet: IBM has cancelled its contract with Microsoft as of October this year, says Andreas Pleschek, who runs IBM's open source and Linux technical sales efforts in north eastern Europe.

Pleschek was giving a talk at the LinuxForum 2006 in Copenhagen, Denmark, and his statement is quoted by elhaard in Groklaw.

Elhaard goes on, "That means that IBM will not use Windows Vista for their desktops. Beginning from July, IBM employees will begin using IBM Workplace on their new, Red Hat-based platform. Not all at once - some will keep using their present Windows versions for a while. But none will upgrade to Vista."

Earlier, "Overall, I had the impression that IBM has seen the writing on the wall that proprietary software eventually will be a thing of the past," elhaard says. "But on the other hand they have a huge investment in proprietary software, and that is still where they get their money. So of course, they cannot just open source it all at once. They have to do it gradually so that they can grow a new business to replace the income of the former.

"Personally, I do not like their closed source/free download idea, but I realize that it is the only way for them to keep the business for the full-blown versions. I think they would open source it if they could. But then again, a more cynical interpretation could be that the 'community editions' is just a way to get people dependant on them in the hope that they will upgrade to paid-for versions later on.

"At the end of the presentation, Andreas Pleschek revealed that the laptop he used for the presentation was running a pre-release of their new platform, the Open Client. It is actually a Red Hat work station with IBM's new Workplace Client, which is built in Java on top of Eclipse. Because of Eclipse, it runs on both Linux and Windows, and they have been able to reuse the C++ code in Lotus Notes for Windows to run it natively on Linux via Eclipse. Internally in IBM, for years, they have had a need to run Lotus Notes on Linux, and now they can. And they will offer it to their customers."

Also See:
Groklaw - More from LinuxForum 2006 - Day 2, March 6, 2006

(Wednesday 8th March 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/8125

 

Vonage claims unfair "tax" by Canadian ISP

3/8/2006 11:39:06 AM, by Nate Anderson

Vonage has always been in a tough situation. The company was one of the first to offer VoIP services to consumers, but its business model brought it into conflict with cable and telephone companies from the start. The established players also wanted to get in on the VoIP game, and none of them were thrilled about letting another company use their network to deliver phone services. Predictably, several companies tried to cause problems for the new service. Last year, Madison River Communications, a local telecom provider based in North Carolina, paid a US$15,000 fine after the FCC brought an action against it for blocking Vonage traffic. Vonage also accused an unnamed cable provider of forcing Vonage customers to upgrade to a broadband account with a static IP address after claiming that such a move was necessary to comply with federal regulations. Indeed, Vonage customers have grown so suspicious that they have lately accused Comcast of purposely degrading their service, a charge that both Vonage and Comcast deny.

It turns out that such persecution is not limited to the US, though. Vonage Canada has just issued a press release detailing the actions of Shaw Communications, a Canadian provider of broadband and television services. Apparently, Shaw has been recommending that Vonage customers pay an additional fee of CA$10 per month in order to provide a "quality of service enhancement." It's not clear what this "enhancement" consists of, since regular Vonage usage is not bandwidth intensive in the way that, say, streaming high-quality video over the Web might be. Vonage Canada's requests for more details about the service have been refused, and the company is now turning to the Canadian Radio-Television & Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in an effort to find out what's going on.

If the "recommended" fee sounds a lot like "protection money," you're not the only one to think so. Shaw customers have already paid for the use of the network, and Vonage calls run just fine over US networks without any "enhancement" from the network provider. Oh, and did we mention the fact that Shaw provides its own VoIP service, which is more expensive than Vonage? Of course, Shaw's service doesn't require any "enhancement," and this does not sit well with Vonage Canada.

"In the absence of credible, complete information, there is good reason to believe (Shaw's) service offering is not an enhancement to Shaw's high-speed Internet service but rather is an anti-competitive measure aimed at either increasing the perceived cost, or damaging the perceived reliability, of the services of independent Internet telephone service providers when compared to Shaw's higher-priced phone service."

The fee may be less about collecting money, then, and more about spreading FUD to Shaw customers concerning the quality of Vonage service. This isn't a new issue, of course, but it does highlight once more the importance of network neutrality. As network providers around the world ponder plans to transition us to a "tiered Internet," cases like this show us what such a model looks like in practice—and it's not a pretty picture.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060308-6339.html