Byte Into It - 04 Feb 09

Belkin fake reviews case raises broad questions about peer ratings - Network World

Belkin's admission that an employee has been offering to pay for favorable
Web-based peer reviews of its network gear raises the question of not
only how widespread such practices are but whether they undermine
community and trust in the connections and relationships that the Web
seems to foster so easily.

Lucky schoolkids get 10,000 netbooks - News - PC Authority

Education departments are all in a lather over netbooks, and obviously think they're the best new thing to come along since Décor lunchboxes.A whopping 10,000 Acer and Lenovo netbooks are to land in the laps of kids across 344 schools in Victoria as part of a three year trial. Schools will own the units, which are worth $900 including accessories, but students can take them home.

The netbooks will come with Microsoft Office, Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium and Google Sketchup.

Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac now runs Windows 7 - News - PC Authority

Virtualisation software, Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac, has had a bit of an upgrade, now offering both more CPU and RAM capacity as well as the ability to run Windows 7.The latest updates mean Parallels no longer lags embarrassingly far behind VMware Fusion, or Sun's free VirtualBox for OS X in the race to virtually win over Apple hardware users.

Running Parallels for Mac requires a minimum of an Intel Core Duo, 1.66GHz processor and can use to eight CPU cores and a maximum of 8 GB of RAM, or 256 MB of RAM on the video adapter.

Parallels has also bunged security tools from Kaspersky Labs into its new Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac, with the first year of the subscription covered by the cost of the Parallels license. The package also includes data management and back up tools from Acronis, free of charge.

Apple righting iTunes Plus upgrade snafus - Ars Technica

Last week, Apple introduced a more flexible iTunes Plus upgrade policy. Users can now choose which tracks and albums they want to upgrade, rather than having to upgrade an entire library at once. Now, you can upgrade all the songs you really want to keep and skip the othersUnfortunately, some of these upgrades aren't going as smoothly as one might hope. It turns out that some customers were being charged $9.99 for their three-dollar album upgrades; i.e. they were charged the full album price rather than the upgrade amount. If you were affected by the pricing glitch, we suggest that you contact Apple. Go to your purchase history by signing into your account and then click Report a Problem.

Apple has apparently been quite responsive to these reports and reimbursements are being processed back to the purchasers. Christopher Breen at Macworld was issued five courtesy song credits in addition to the amount of the error, for example.

Déjà vu all over again: Apple patent hints at tablet - Ars Technica

Apple has filed yet another patent that describes yet another tablet-like device. The latest patent application, which was published in January, is really for a "Display Housing for Computing Device" and largely describes ways to design an external housing for a display. However, one part of the patent describes a housing for an actual computer, once again spurring speculation that Apple is planning a Mac tablet

10 Things That WON'T Happen in 2009 - Network World

1. Organizations will pay greater attention to security And pigs will fly! In spite of a series of security breaches in 2008 and increased awareness on the need to secure data, organizations will not heed the warning signs any more than they did in 2008. The 'it won't happen to me' syndrome will strike again and thousands of records will be put at risk

BBC NEWS | Technology | Google Earth dives under the sea

Google has lifted the lid on its first major upgrade to its global mapping software, Google Earth.Google Ocean expands this map to include large swathes of the ocean floor and abyssal plain.

Users can dive beneath a dynamic water surface to explore the 3D sea floor terrain.

The
map also includes 20 content layers, containing information from the
world's leading scientists, researchers, and ocean explorers.

Al
Gore was at the launch event in San Francisco which, Google hopes, will
take its mapping software a step closer to total coverage of the entire
globe.

Microsoft reveals five Windows 7 versions - News - PC Authority

Choosing your Windows 7 version will be far easier than for Vista, but XP users will have to do a full install.One
of the most confusing aspects of Vista’s release was that it came in
six product versions, without clear information differentiating between
them. It meant that the high-end Vista products looked too expensive
for what they offered, and for anyone looking to upgrade from XP, the
choice was bewildering.

Microsoft is set to continue with
multiple versions in Windows 7, opting for five versions: Windows 7
Starter, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate form the
full range. A version of Home Basic will only be available in emerging
markets, sold on new computers.

Most new computers sold in
Australia, once Windows 7 has launched, will come with either Home
Premium or Business. Netbooks will likely carry Windows 7 Starter or
Home Premium.

Microsoft’s sop to those who found Vista’s range
confusing is to make sure that from Starter up, each version contains
the features of the version before it. So you won’t find that the
Professional or Enterprise versions lack a Media Center that Premium
contains, for example.

In addition, the Windows Anytime Upgrade
function in Windows 7 will allow you to upgrade electronically to a
higher-end product. If you buy Home Premium, and really need Ultimate,
it should be a simple matter of a few clicks and a small amount of
installing to upgrade.

While there will be upgrade versions for
those people currently using Vista, you won’t be able to upgrade from
XP to Windows 7, or from 32-bit Windows to a 64-bit version. In those
cases, you’ll have to perform a clean install, though you will be
eligible for a discounted 'upgrade' version of Windows 7 if you move
from XP.

Microsoft announces 20 editions of Windows 7! (j/k) - Boing Boing Gadgets

But
if there's an instinct that Microsoft will find hard to put to bed,
it's the one that led to more versions of Vista than can be counted on
one hand. The place is run by a sales guy, after all! Click through for
our exclusive leaked ad covering the 20 separate editions of Windows 7,
straight from our anonymous sauce

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How Harvard Law threw down the gauntlet to the RIAA - Ars Technica

In retrospect, Harvard's eventual involvement was obvious. As far back as 2007, we noted that RIAA prelitigation letters had yet to be sent to Harvard, and one reason for that may have been the quite public opposition of Harvard Law School to the entire RIAA legal campaign.Law professor Charles Nesson and John Palfrey, director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society (which Nesson co-founded), made their position clear. "Recently, the president of the Recording Industry Association of America, Cary Sherman, wrote to Harvard to challenge the university administration to stop acting as a 'passive conduit' for students downloading music," they wrote in 2007. "We agree. Harvard and the 22 universities to which the RIAA has sent 'pre-litigation notices' ought to take strong, direct action... and tell the RIAA to take a hike."

EFF to judge: Let's webcast the RIAA's lawsuit - Boing Boing

EFF filed a really well-done brief today in support of Professor Nesson and Harvard's Berkman Center and their quest to provide a live webcast of the defense they providing to students against the RIAA.Public.Resource.Org and the Internet Archive have offered to host the video. We've previous worked with the provider here, Courtroom View Network, to put the Nifong disbarment trial on-line (link). All that video is hi-res with no restrictions on re-use.

Media Access Project, Free Press, and the California First Amendment Coalition, and even attorney Ben Sheffner have joined this call to open up the court proceedings.

Sony BMG lawyer takes over as RIAA litigation chief - Ars Technica

Jennifer Pariser, the Sony BMG attorney who testified memorably at the Jammie Thomas file-sharing case in 2007, has just landed a new job at the RIAA. Pariser will become the Senior Vice President of Litigation and Legal Affairs for the music industry trade group, meaning that she will head up the RIAA's new approach to addressing rampant illegal file-sharing.The recording industry recently pledged to abandon its mass lawsuit strategy, hoping instead to address P2P file-sharing through voluntary "graduated response" agreements with ISPs in the US. In her job at Sony BMG, Pariser was actively involved in that lawsuit campaign, one which she admitted in court was losing money for the record labels.

Kiwis get strict copyright, three-strikes law at month's end - Ars Technica

"It is a strange fate we should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing," says Boromir in the recent movie adaptation of the Lord of the Rings. The scene, shot in New Zealand, might pop into the minds of many Kiwis these days, as one tiny legislative change to copyright law is poised to bring "graduated response" (or "three strikes") rules to the country. And disconnection of users isn't just on the table—it's mandatory.

Microsoft: employee stole documents for patent lawsuit - Ars Technica

Microsoft is accusing ex-employee Miki Mullor of using his inside access to download internal documents for a patent complaint that his startup company, Ancora Technologies, has since filed against Dell, HP, and Toshiba. The suit alleges that the companies are infringing on Ancora's patent by selling computers with Windows Vista preactivated, which is possible thanks to one of Microsoft's anti-piracy technologies, System Locked Preinstallation (SLP). When Seattle Tech Report covered this story, the publication noted that Ancora's website described the case as follows:To secure each copy of (Windows), without burdening the honest user, (PC makers) use a technology known as System Locked Pre-Installation (SLP) to protect Windows against piracy. SLP is Ancora's technology and is covered by our pioneer patent, US Patent 6,411,941. This lawsuit is about protecting our patent rights from being infringed by HP, Dell and Toshiba. This is not David vs. Goliath. This is David vs. three Goliaths.

SEC inquiry into Steve Jobs' health may set precedent - Ars Technica

A number of investors raised questions about Steve Jobs' health disclosures when his original quips that he needed "simple and straightforward treatment" became a leave of absence from the company. Those investors would like to know just what Steve Jobs and Apple's directors knew when Jobs made the disclosures, and this sentiment may have prompted a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation. According to Bloomberg, the SEC inquiry may break new ground, since executive health is not normally discussed or disclosed.

Week in tech policy: "First thing, let's kill all the lawyers" edition - Ars Technica

The recording industry is clearly not amused that the target of one of their remaining file-sharing lawsuits has not only decided to fight back, but gotten Harvard law prof Charles Nesson to defend him. While they attempt to persuade an appeals court to prevent a hearing in the case from being webcast, RIAA attorneys are also seeking sanctions against Nesson himself for a variety of alleged procedural errors they say constitute "frivolous legal action." Can you copyright the sound of a thousand Ars readers' irony detectors simultaneously overloading?You've probably seen those seat-belt promoting highway signs that remind you to "Click it or Ticket." Now one congressman wants to apply the same rule to cell phone cameras. Rep. Peter King (R-NY) has introduced legislation that would require device makers to make it impossible to silence the sound a phone makes when a photo is taken, in hopes of deterring the sneaky, geeky, and creepy from engaging in illicit digital voyeurism.

Judge's ruling that WoW bot violates DMCA is troubling - Ars Technica

Blizzard notched another victory in its legal campaign against World of Warcraft bots when a judge on Wednesday ruled that a leading bot violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. MDY Industries LLC, the firm that develops and sells the Glider bot, already suffered a major setback last summer when the judge granted Blizzard summary judgment on several key issues. This week's decision deals with the issues the judge believed could not be decided until the conclusion of this month's trial. The judge ruled that Glider violated the DMCA's ban on "circumvention devices," and he also found that MDY's founder, Michael Donnelly, was personally liable for the actions of his firm.As we've noted before, Blizzard's legal arguments, which Judge David G. Campbell largely accepted, could have far-reaching and troubling implications for the software industry. Donnelly is not the most sympathetic defendant, and some users may cheer the demise of a software vendor that helps users break the rules of Blizzard's wildly popular role playing game. But the sweeping language of Judge Campbell's decision, combined with his equally troubling decision last summer, creates a lot of new uncertainty for software vendors seeking to enter software markets dominated by entrenched incumbents and achieve interoperability with legacy platforms.

Electronic Frontiers Australia slams the Great Firewall of Australia - Boing Boing

"Electronic Frontiers Australia vice-chair Colin Jacobs joins the growing chorus of those opposed to the Australian Government's plans for mandatory ISP-level filtering."The Government wants the power to add any page it sees fit to a secret blacklist, yet law enforcement and child-welfare organisations will not benefit at all. Technical obstacles remain intractable. Any eventual scheme will be trivial for children or lawbreakers to circumvent, yet the technology will come at an enormous cost to the taxpayer and will severely impact ISPs' ability to deliver the much-hyped broadband improvements our country needs.

Melbourne Twestival 2009

Entry will be via $5 donation - you can buy tickets now at Amiando or simply pay at the door. Any extra donations are welcome, with all money from every ticket and each donation going straight to charity: water. We’ll have limited free drinks (kindly provided by Zendesk - get there early!), Twitter DJs and the chance to meet other members of the Twitter community in Melbourne, all for a good cause. Spread the word now - follow @MelbTwestival on Twitter, retweet updates and RSVP to the Facebook event.