Monday, July 20, 2009

Byte Into It - 22 Jul 09

Google to newspapers: Put up or shut up | Technology | Los Angeles Times
In a post written by Josh Cohen, senior business product manager, on the company's public policy blog Wednesday afternoon, Google said publishers can easily tell search engines to take a hike. All it takes is a two-line piece of code, which he helpfully included in his post. Tuck that on your website, and no search engine will crawl it; the stories won't show up when people look for content using search engines.

It's unlikely that newspapers will call Google's bluff. Here's why: Google's search engine and its Google News site sends 1 billion visits to newspaper websites each month. Those visitors drive up the traffic numbers that website ad rates are partially based on. More readers = higher ad rates, which is why few publishers will say no to Google's traffic referrals.

Granted, most of those readers don't pay for the stories they read. And that leads to statements like this one from the Hamburg protocol, which was signed by James Murdoch of News Corp., Robert Thomson of the Wall Street Journal and Ian Smith of Reed Elsevier, among others:

Numerous providers are using the work of authors, publishers and broadcasters without paying for it. Over the long term, this threatens the production of high-quality content and the existence of independent journalism.

Sam Zell, whose Tribune Co. owns the Los Angeles Times, has said much the same thing, if only in more colorful terms. "If all of the newspapers in America did not allow Google to steal their content, how profitable would Google be?" he told a group of incredulous Stanford University students in 2007.
New Zealand moves forward with child porn filtering system - Ars Technica
New Zealand is hopping on the child porn filtering bandwagon after it apparently went over so well in Australia (*cough*). The proposed scheme will involve filtering at the ISP level, comparing Internet requests against an unpublished blacklist maintained by New Zealand's Department of Internal Affairs.

The department announced earlier this week its official plans to launch the Digital Child Exploitation Filtering System, though it had begun discussing the system earlier this year. The program has been tested in trials across the country, and now a number of major ISPs are looking into the implementation. This list includes Yahoo!, Xtra, TelstraClear and Vodafone—when combined, these ISPs cover some 93 percent of New Zealand's Internet connections. Use of the blacklist is voluntary.
New Zealand proposes new "3 strikes" process for P2P users - Ars Technica
New Zealand's first attempt at passing a "three strikes" law fell apart as rights holders and Internet service providers were unable to agree on a voluntary code of practice. One of the biggest concerns was the lack of due process; how could New Zealand avoid presuming that the accused were guilty yet still develop a means of judging accusations that was cheaper and faster than the country's High Court?

Given the rancorous debate over the subject, the government scrapped its law earlier this year and went back to the drawing board. It convened a working group of "intellectual property and Internet law experts" to advise it on a fair solution to the problem of repeated online copyright infringement. That group has now concluded its work, and New Zealand's Ministry of Economic Development yesterday issued its policy proposal (PDF) for public comment.
The Hidden Cost of Microsoft's 'Free' Online Office Suite | BNET Technology Blog | BNET
It’s true that Microsoft will offer consumers a free “lightweight” version of Office 2010 through their Windows Live (formerly Hotmail) accounts. But that largess doesn’t extend to business customers, who will either have to pay a subscription fee or purchase corporate access licenses (CALs) for Office in order to be given access to the online application suite. Microsoft already does this with email – the infamous Outlook Web Access (or OWA, pronounced ow!-wah! because of the painful user experience).

But wait – there’s more! A Microsoft spokesperson told me that customers will need to buy a SharePoint server, which ranges from $4,400 plus CALs or $41,000, all CALs included if they want to share documents using the online version of Office 2010.

So let’s recap this notion of a free online Office suite for business:

* You need a SharePoint server and license in order to collaborate, and either:
o You need to pay license fees for an on-premise version of Office 2010 or
o You need to pay an as-yet-unspecified subscription fee.
12% of e-mail users have actually tried to buy stuff from spam - Ars Technica
Be honest: have you ever responded to a spam e-mail? Do you know anyone who has? If you're like most of us at Ars, you can't fathom why anyone would respond to most of the messages we get, but a new study released by the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) shows that there are just enough people responding to make spamming worthwhile—especially since most spam these days is sent by botnets.

According to the group's latest report, a disturbing number of e-mail users respond to spam, and not just because they're dumb—some of them did so because they were actually interested in the product or service. Shocking, we know.
Los Angeles - Style Council - Is All of Hollywood the Bitch in Twitter "Sex Tape," or Just P. Diddy?
Regardless of what you think of Techcrunch founder Michael Arrington's ethics, what has been revealed via the Techcrunch #twittergate is some of the most fascinating information to have hit the mediasphere in a long time. As Cult of the Amateur author A.J. Keen puts it, referring to the leak, technology start-ups have become the "hottest celebrities in America... receiving the same kind of obsessionally intimate coverage from the media that was once reserved for kings of pop like Michael Jackson or Elvis."
Twitter's security breach: a reminder to choose and use web passwords wisely. - Boing Boing
This seems as good a time as any to remind everyone about choosing and managing passwords wisely. The New York Times' Gadgetwise blog has a helpful post up today along those lines. Snip:

The lesson Twitter employees are learning the hard way is a lesson for us all. If you use cloud services for personal or work purposes, you need to:

* Use strong passwords
* Use a different password for each of your accounts
* Pick tough security questions
* Keep your passwords and answers to security questions to yourself.

If you use Gmail, here are tips on how to keep your account secure. There are also instructions on securely retrieving a forgotten password with a text message to your phone.)

If you find it difficult to remember multiple strong passwords, choose a secure way to store them.

Twitter Gets Hacked. Can It Happen to You? (NYT Gadgetwise)
Why Amazon went Big Brother on some Kindle e-books - Ars Technica
Amazon.com shocked customers yesterday when it reached out to hundreds, if not thousands of Kindles and simply deleted texts that users had not only purchased, but had started to read. A literary coitus interruptus, Amazon spoiled the readers' descent into Orwellian masochism with nary a warning or apology.

Sometime on Thursday, users had an eerie feeling that they were being watched, receiving emails stating that their purchases were being refunded. When they connected to the Kindle's WhisperNet, the purchases in question were automatically deleted. Some could only wonder: how often could this happen? Perhaps the Thought Police Amazon Customer Service team could cut off your books whenever they wanted to.
Australian Police To Go Wardriving
Some Australians who haven't secured their wireless networks may soon be getting a (relatively friendly) visit from the police. It seems that a few officers intend to do a little wardriving in order to find unsecured networks and warn the owners of possible problems.
Report: music fans cling to CDs, but discover music online - Ars Technica
Despite the popularity of music downloads and streaming, music fans still seem to love an old standby: the CD. A new survey conducted in the UK by The Leading Question and Music Ally Speakerbox has found that music customers of all ages still prefer the CD to downloading, a pattern that extends into the lucrative teenage demographic. That's not to say online offerings aren't important, though—those who use subscription or streaming services tend to buy more CDs than others, so online music discovery is clearly helping to keep those sales alive.

The firms conducted a thousand face-to-face interviews with UK music lovers between the ages of 14 and 64, all of whom have broadband connections. Seventy-three percent of the group reported being happier buying CDs than downloading, with 66 percent of those between the ages of 14 and 18 being among that group. Over half (59 percent) reported listening to CDs every day.
Slashdot Technology Story | Kazaa To Return As a Legal Subscription Service
"One of the most recognizable brands in the history of illegal downloading is due to officially resurface, perhaps as early as next week, sources close to the company told CNET News. Only this time the name Kazaa will be part of a legal music service. Altnet and parent company Brilliant Digital Entertainment attached the Kazaa brand to a subscription service that will offer songs and ringtones from all four of the major recording companies. For the past few months, a beta version has been available. The company tried recently to ratchet up expectations with a series of vague, and what some considered misguided, press releases. The site will open with over 1 million tracks." The NYTimes has a related story about how the music industry is trying to convert casual pirates by offering more convenient new services.
BBC NEWS | Technology | Symbian to develop mobile apps
Symbian, the operating system on nearly half the world's smartphones, is to become involved in the development of mobile applications, or apps.

Symbian will be a one-stop location for app developers, standardising and testing software and then making it available to existing app storefronts.

Called Horizon, the approach follows the lead set by other operating system makers such as Microsoft and Apple.

The not-for-profit Symbian Foundation will launch the service in October.
Survey: 41 percent of IT admins to adopt Windows 7 by 2010 - Ars Technica
Windows Vista was well-known for the poor adoption it saw in the business sector, even though consumers were choosing it over XP more often than not. Will the situation change with Windows 7? A new survey by ScriptLogic, a company that helps other companies manage their Windows systems and security, claims the majority of corporations have no plans to quickly move to Windows 7. Relax, it's not as bad as it may seem at first glance.

The survey, which received feedback from 1,000 IT administrators (20,000 surveys were distributed), found that 41 percent of organizations plan a wholesale migration to Windows 7 by the end of 2010 (after just over 14 months). 5.4 percent of respondents said they expected to move to Windows 7 by the end of 2009 (after just over two months). To give you some perspective, Windows 7 is expected to RTM by the end of the month and to hit General Availability (GA) on October 22, 2009. ScriptLogic pointed out that this is actually a strong adoption rate when compared to the 12 to 14 percent adoption rate of Windows XP in its first year.
Pre developers, start your engines; users, submit your ideas - Ars Technica
After stressing that it planned to open up its App Catalog to all comers since the day the Pre was unveiled, Palm has finally released the Mojo SDK to the public and will begin taking App Catalog submissions from one and all. The announcement was posted on Palm's blog today, and it boasted that 1.8 million apps have been downloaded from the beta store so far.
Week in Apple: Palm Pre on iTunes, iTablet rumors, Snow Leopard - Ars Technica
The latest iPhone beta was released to developers this week as well as new builds of Snow Leopard. Apple may have blocked push notifications to unlocked iPhones, too, and 3D CSS transforms are coming to Safari under Leopard. Curious? Check out our roundup of the top Apple news for the week.
Might Apple TV Morph into Games Console? - PC World
In a week when rumors that Apple is working on a 9.7-inch ultraportable laptop netbook run riot, a report suggests Apple also has an eye of the potentially lucrative video gaming market.

According to an analyst, Apple is working toward adding games to the Apple TV. The device currently lets you watch, rent and buy movies and TV shows, view HD content, listen to music and display photos on your TV.

Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan and outspoken commentator on the games industry, told Web site IndustryGamers Apple had a clear strategy to turn the Apple TV, hardly a best seller, into an all-around entertainment system.

"I think Apple has a deliberate strategy. They want to see what they can do with the handhelds -- iPod Touch and iPhone -- first, then move into console games," Pachter said in a Q&A. "Apple TV is the device that they can turn into a console, and they have essentially the same goals as Microsoft -- to turn Apple TV into an entertainment and Internet hub."


2 comments:

  1. [...] the rest here: Byte Into It – 22nd Jul 09 « Byte Into It – Computing and new … amazon, apple, australia, digital, Games, internet, microsoft, mortgages for bad credit, News, [...]

    ReplyDelete
  2. [...] about Boing Boing as of July 19, 2009 Byte Into It – 22nd Jul 09 - byteintoit.wordpress.com 07/19/2009 Google to newspapers: Put up or shut up | Technology | Los [...]

    ReplyDelete