UK drive recovery company Retrodata is warning customers of a rash of failures involving a particular Seagate drive model, a SATA unit made in China and used in Apple laptops. This specific mechanism, according to Retrodata's intake notes, seems to be prone to a spectacular self-destruct where the drive heads auger into the platter, rendering the data mostly dead.
How to spot the potentially affected drive: check System Profiler under Serial ATA, and if you have a Seagate drive with a 7.01 firmware revision... well, double-check those backups.
USB malware on the rise - Security - iTnews Australia
Around a tenth of all malware is designed to use portable storage media, such as removable USB drives, as an attack and spread vector..
Security firm ESET said that 10.3 per cent of malware detections last month were identified as files containing information on programs to be run automatically when removable media are inserted into a computer.
ISO announces OOXML success - Software - iTnews Australia
The International Standards Organisation (ISO) has announced that Microsoft’s Office Open XML (OOXML) file format has received the necessary number of votes for approval as an ISO/IEC International Standard.
Subject to there being no formal appeals from ISO/IEC national bodies in the next two months, OOXML will proceed to publication as an international standard for word-processing documents, presentations and spreadsheets.
Conroy plans feedback forum for telecommunications policy - Telecommunications - iTnews Australia
Federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is calling for participants to take part in a forum aimed at identifying ways to make consumer representation in telecommunications policy making more effective.
Scheduled to take place in Canberra on Thursday 1 May 2008, the forum will provide an opportunity for participants to discuss ways in which current consumer representation strategies can be improved.
Prominent stakeholders in the telecommunications market -- including consumer, carrier, disability, government and industry representatives -- have been invited to attend.
Windows XP gets two-year extension - Software - iTnews Australia
Microsoft is to extend the availability of Windows XP by two years..
But the extension will apply only to extremely specialised low-end PCs, and not to common consumer models.
A company spokesperson said that availability will be limited to PCs classified by Microsoft as "ultra-low cost" .
"We believe that Windows Vista is the best way to address customer and partner needs on mainstream PCs," said the spokesperson.
BBC hits out at iPlayer 'traffic shaping' - Internet - iTnews Australia
The BBC is threatening to name and shame ISPs that attempt to 'traffic shape' downloads from its increasingly popular iPlayer service..
Traffic shaping is a means of controlling the volume of users visiting a network at any one time.
ISPs have proposed using the procedure to cope with increased traffic levels caused by the popularity of the iPlayer. Visitors are now accessing a quarter of a million shows every day, according to the BBC.
IBM to build corporate Second Life - Internet - iTnews Australia
IBM is to team up with Linden Lab to develop an in-house version of Second Life for businesses..
The pair will begin work on a project to turn Second Life's grid platform into a product which will allow enterprises to build secure virtual worlds that can be deployed behind a firewall.
IBM hopes that the project will yield a secure version of Second Life that the company can run in-house.
Big Blue is demonstrating a sample of a Second Life grid running on one of its BladeCenter modules at the Virtual Worlds Conference in New York.
Microsoft Windows 7 two years away - Operating Systems - iTnews Australia
Despite ramping up efforts to improve Vista traction in the marketplace, Microsoft is already preparing for the release of its latest operating software – codename Windows 7 – following an announcement by Bill Gates.
At the annual meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said he expected Windows 7 to be released within the next two years, around three years after the launch of Vista.
Yahoo rebuffs Microsoft’s advances, again - Business - iTnews Australia
Yahoo has rejected yet another aggressive advance from Microsoft in which the software giant issued a three-week ultimatum: either accept a US$44.6 billion buyout offer or face an ugly proxy battle.
During the past weekend, Microsoft chief executive, Steve Ballmer, sent an open letter to Yahoo that warned that if the Internet search company failed to agree to its proposed financial terms within a three-week deadline, Microsoft would take its offer direct to shareholders and instigate a proxy contest to elect an alternative board of directors.
Google releases application development engine - Software - iTnews Australia
Google is previewing a new service aimed at web application developers. The preview release of the Google App Engine will let developers host, create and run applications as easily as they might create a blog, said the firm.
In his blog post, Kevin Gibbs, Google Tech Lead on the Google App Engine, said that the engine took the typical building blocks used by developers, and packaged them with a scalable infrastructure, meaning that developers could, "spend less time dealing with system administration and maintenance, and more time building and improving their applications."
The SDK gives access to Python application servers, GFS data store services, and Google's own scalable BigTable databases. As well as this, any apps developed using the tools will work seamlessly with Google apps, and developers have full access to the firms' APIs.
The preview version of the App engine is free, but limited to the first 10,000 people to sign up. Interested subscribers will need a Google log-in, such as that used with the Googlemail email service.
Vignette goes social - Internet - iTnews Australia
Vignette Community Services features ratings, reviews and tagging tools to enable users to make and review content, also present is functionality for administrators to analyse user-generated content (UGC), according to the firm's product marketing manager, Guy Westlake.
"A key point is that user-generated content has greater penetration for online buyers – it could help strengthen brands, drive revenue and by leveraging the knowledge and comments on products, it could feedback into development," he explained. "It could also increase loyalty, because a key battleground for e-commerce is getting your customers to stay online and interact with the site. "
Vignette Community Applications, meanwhile, gives firms the ability to add blogs, wikis, forums and other collaborative features to their sites, and can also be used on intranets to aid content discovery and knowledge management, said Westlake.
BBC NEWS | Business | Google executive poached by EMI
Record label EMI has appointed a senior executive from Google to run its digital strategy, the first time such a post has been created at the firm.
Douglas Merrill, who led Google's successful stock market listing in 2004, will take up his post on 28 April at EMI's Los Angeles office.
BBC - Newsbeat - Music - Radiohead offer Nude remix
Radiohead are giving fans the chance to remix Nude, the second single from their latest album, In Rainbows.
The band have split the track into five different parts - voice, guitar, bass, drums and strings. Users can also add their own instruments and effects.
Remixers are sent an access code to transfer the files into music production software like Garageband or Logic Pro.
Finished mixes can be uploaded to a new website - radioheadremix.com - where users vote for their favourite. The winner will be announced on 1 May.
If social networking isn't Mac-centric enough, try net4mac
Social networking has become de rigueur for many, with sites like MySpace and Facebook overtaking the original—and mostly forgotten—Friendster. LinkedIn is popular with business types. But does anyone even remember Orkut? Well, if none of these services quite do it for you, and you're a snob who only wants to network with other Mac users, you might want to take net4mac for a spin.
Rick Rolled to child porn = you're a pedophile, says FBI
be careful of what you click on and from whom. If that link points to anything even pretending to be child porn, that's enough evidence for the FBI of intent to download it. The authorities could then raid your home and possibly throw you in jail. No joke, it just takes one click and you're under intense suspicion.
Second Life lawsuit over purloined naughty bits settled
The not-nearly-as-sordid-as-you-might-think story goes like this. 19-year-old Robert Leatherwood allegedly stole scripts written by Florida-based Eros, LLC that gave people's avatars lifelike naughty bits and enabled them to engage in kinky, virtual sex. He then resold them without permission, which sparked a lawsuit from Eros founder Kevin Alderman over copyright violations last July. That was apparently when Leatherwood decided to stop selling the scripts, according to the Associated Press, and was likely part of the reason Eros decided to settle.
Pirate Bay on IFPI lawsuit: Labels can "go screw themselves"
The four main backers of The Pirate Bay could be personally on the hook for 15 million kroner ($2.5 million) after record labels requested the amount in damages from the Stockholm District Court yesterday. Gottfrid Warg of The Pirate Bay responded with the elegance that always characterizes the group's pronouncements, telling Sweden's The Local that "the record companies can go screw themselves."
A class of copyright thieves? A lawsuit over lecture notes
The suit pits a professor at the University of Florida, who has published course materials commercially, against one of the commercial note-taking services that exist to serve the needs of students at most large campuses. Back in the '90s, the University of Florida itself sued a similar service over the ownership of lecture materials; they lost. This time around, the ability of electronics to capture and transform lecture material may have changed the issues dramatically.The professor involved, Michael Moulton, teaches wildlife ecology and
conservation. A few years ago, starting with the notes that he used to
deliver his lectures, Moulton gradually built an electronic version of
a textbook. After getting the University to waive its copyright on the
material, he worked with a company called Faulkner Press to copyright
and formalize the material. That material is now available
as a $90 CD that includes audiovisual material, study guides, and
practice examine questions. It's apparently required material for any
students enrolled in Moulton's class.
Meanwhile, a company called Class Notes, doing business as
Einstein's Notes, was performing the typical service of collecting
notes and class materials, and selling them to students. In the
process, the suit alleges, they ran afoul of Moulton's copyrights;
Faulkner seeks an injunction against their distribution of course
material, plus fees and damages.
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Labels seek billions in damages over Baidu MP3 deep-linking
A major copyright infringement case against Chinese search engine Baidu is moving forward, as Beijing's No.1 Intermediate People's Court has agreed to hear claims brought forward by three of the Big Four record labels. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry announced this morning that the three labels were seeking maximum damages of 500,000 yuan (roughly US$71,000) per track on at least 127 tracks, totaling 63,500,000 yuan (US$9 million) in damages. But that could just be the minimum, as the IFPI says Baidu may face damages in the billions.
Trademark lawsuit could put the squeeze on Google AdWords
Trademark law is designed to protect consumers by preventing companies from selling their products under false pretenses. The core issue of the Rescuecom case is whether choosing a competitor's trademark as an advertising keyword is likely to confuse consumers. Rescuecom has argued that Google profits from consumer confusion by obscuring the distinction between organic search results and paid advertising. Google, in contrast, compares its advertisements to a grocery store that stocks a generic product on a shelf alongside its brand-name competitor—a use that courts have consistently upheld as legal.
Blame games: bill says content makers liable for violence
A bill currently under consideration in the Arizona state legislature would impose liability on persons who produce or distribute "dangerous or obscene" content (including audio, video, interactive media, and even written content) that is found to be the material cause of a terrorist act or felony. The broadly-worded proposal, which is touted by its supporters as a tool for financially punishing makers of violent rape films, is viewed with serious concern by movie producers and video game developers who fear that it will be abused.
Flood of revelations in Vista-capable suit paused for appeal
It appears that Microsoft will get a brief reprieve from the flood of bad news pouring out of its "Vista Capable" lawsuit. Judge Marsha Pechman has put the entire case on hold while Microsoft challenges her ruling that the case be granted class-action status. Once the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals weighs in on that question, though, the case will resume and discovery will continue. If such discovery proves as revelatory as what has already emerged, Microsoft may well be thankful for a breather.
EU groups: data retention policies violate Rights Convention
A group of 43 European civil liberties groups today filed a brief with the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg that argues for overturning a 2006 EU directive mandating data retention policies across EU countries. The groups assert that the directive is illegal, but more importantly that the directive interferes with basic human rights granted to all Europeans. Not only that, but they don't think data retention will make people safer, and on a continent with a history of surveillance states, potential abuses of power are always an issue.
Featured Windows Download: Reconfigure Windows with TweakNow
Windows utility TweakNow puts a friendly interface on the most common registry settings on your PC, complete with an Undo button. Tweak your Start menu, Control Panel, Desktop, user accounts, and other settings using TweakNow, which shields you from the decidedly not-fun and risky undertaking that is editing the registry by hand. This looks particularly useful for locking down a PC for the kids—for instance, you can use it to disable access to the Control Panel and desktop context menus. TweakNow is a free download for non-commercial use, Windows only.
Featured Windows Download: Temporarily Disable Flash in Internet Explorer with Toggle Flash
Once you've installed the toolbar button, a single click turns off Flash functionality in the background; click again, hit refresh, and the videos, animations, and other Flash elements return. It's small, it uses no background memory, and it just works. Toggle Flash is a free download for Windows systems and Internet Explorer 7 only; hit either link below for help getting the button to show up on your toolbar.
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