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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 10 Issue 46
Volume 10, Issue 46 Atari Online News, Etc. November 14, 2008
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2008
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #1046 11/14/08
~ Malware Host Shut Down ~ People Are Talking! ~ New Gmail Features!
~ Sun To Help Microsoft! ~ Palin Hack Trial Delay ~ Windows 7 Not Fast?
~ AVG Antivirus Warning! ~ eBay Feedback Milestone ~ Google Tracks Flu!
~ Virtual Sex, Real Split ~ World of Warcraft Blitz ~ USB Atari Joystick!
-* New Net Neutrality Bill Soon *-
-* FDR Used Radio, Obama To Use the Web *-
-* Military Launches TroopTube, Bans YouTube! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Well, the post-election celebrations are over, and "things" are back to
"normal" as far as I can see. Wall St. is still crashing, businesses
are still closing, more and more people losing their jobs, and more
homes being foreclosed. And of course, it will be you and me who will be
paying for it. Imagine that! Here in Massachusetts, finances are in a
troubled state of affairs. So, let's raise tolls and other "non-taxes"
that they have enjoyed doing under similar circumstances in the past.
How about taking some fiscal responsibility first!? Fortunately this
doesn't go into effect just quite yet, and needs a final vote next year.
But, the point that raising taxes is usually the first things that our
lawmakers come up with!
So, of course this makes things difficult on all of us financially.
Like many people, I've been looking for "real" work for awhile now. As
time has gone on, finding something has taken on more urgency, especially
in today's economic conditions. I've also been trying very hard to avoid
tapping into my 403b and pension plan. So, after not hearing any positive
news regarding my last batch of job attempts, I decided to apply for a
job that doesn't pay all that much, but does provide some steady income.
So, at least I'll be working, something that will help make things a
little easier around here, and will give me a little breathing room to
continue to look for something "better". We'll see how that goes.
Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching. Hopefully, we're all in a position to
still be thankful for something this year. Personally, my family is still
healthy, and I still have a house to live in. I hope it continues.
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Another week has come and gone, and the
election and it's excitement are over. Now begins the hard work of
making at least some of those promises come true. I'm not saying that
the promises were lies, but I'll bet that there are a lot of things that
are going to be much harder to implement than expected for a variety of
reasons.
It seems that everyone's got their hands out... hands in our pockets, is
more like it... and instead of worrying about the big things
(multi-hundred-million dollar bail-outs and excruciatingly expensive
wars), the powers that be want to concentrate on knocking down the small
stuff... the crumbs that you and I get... you know... Infrastructure,
education, social security, etc.
Well, enough politics for this week... there's something else I want to
gripe about this week...
Text editors.
All I want... all I need to put this column together is a simple ASCII
text editor that will wrap text for me. It's not so much of a pain for
me if it doesn't wrap text, but poor Dana, who has to put the damned
magazine together, appreciates it if there are defined stops. I had a
very good text editor that came with my Linux distribution and the
desktop I normally use, KDE. It was part of the KDE suite of utility
applications. KDE (K Desktop Environment) has undergone a version
upgrade, and the app that I liked using, kedit, is no longer supported.
No problem, I thought. I'd just load up one of the many other text
editors available and use it just like kedit.
No such luck. None of them seem to like doing 'static' or 'hard'
word-wrapping. I never thought of that as an odd request. Microsoft's
NOTEPAD didn't do it either, but hell, it was Microsoft. Know what I
mean?
So, after going through all of the text editors I could find, even my
namesake, 'joe', I found that none of them really did word wrapping
well. NOW what am I going to do? Well, what I'm using now isn't really
optimal, but it'll have to do for the time being. If worse comes to
worst, I may just have to load up an Atari ST emulator and beg Dan Wilga
of Gribnif Software for a copy of STeno... that's what I used the whole
time on the ST/Mega/MegaE/TT.... And I was very happy with it.
Progress ain't always for the best. This I know. But it amazes me that
something as simple as hard wrapping text goes un-implemented. Oh, there
are a couple of apps that TRIED to implement it, but they have an
annoying glitch: when you come to the end of a line and it wraps text,
it moves the part of the word you're typing to the next line, then it
resets the cursor to the beginning of the line... I know it's hard to
visualize, but if you have access to kate, gedit or kwrite, try it out
and you'll see what I mean. It's very annoying.
Hmmm... where's Dan Wilga's phone number? I know I had it here
somewhere...
Another thing I'd like to mention is that Thanksgiving is coming up, and
there are plenty of people in need out there. If you think of it, buy
an extra can of veggies, cranberry sauce, a box of rice or bag of beans,
and donate them to your local food-share, soup kitchen or civic group.
You don't have to donate a turkey. If you can swing it, by all means do,
but canned and dry goods are always in need too, and will last much
longer. And cash is always good... write out a check for five or ten
bucks and bring it with you to the grocery or department store when you
go. It won't be long before we start seeing people outside collecting
for charities. Just write in the name of the group on the check, drop it
in the box or hand it to them, and your canceled check will be your
receipt for tax purposes. Of course, if you can swing more than five or
ten bucks, by all means do so. This is going to be a rough season for a
lot of people, and donations are going to be needed for everything from
food to clothing to heating oil. Remember how it was in the early 80's
with the church soup kitchens and the food-share pantries? Well, we're
going to be seeing it again. If not this holiday season, then the
next... No, this is not over. Not over by a longshot. Our recovery is
going to take years, not weeks. So be a good guy/gal and kick a couple
of bucks to the charities even if you're not in the greatest financial
position yourself (and who among us IS these days?).
Okay, that's enough for now. Let's get to the reason for this column in
the first place... the news, hints, tips and info from the UseNet.
From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup
====================================
'AtariNut' asks about converting graphics files:
"What's the method or software used to convert other picture formats
(jpeg, giff, etc.) to img in order to use them for desktop wallpaper?"
Jo Even Skarstein tells AtariNut:
"I've always used ImageCopy for this."
Rodolphe Czuba posts this about the CT63:
"I may produce some CT63's.
If you want one (if you're SURE you want one), please contact me ASAP."
Mark Duckworth tells Rodolphe:
"I love my CT60 and it would be nice to buy another CT63 and
falcon, but Falcons are going for $400+ on eBay and are way too
expensive. I'm really not even sure who is buying them! Add to that
$200+ for another CT63, tower case, etc, and there is simply no way I
can sneak this past my sanity checker (wife). Anyway, I have 2 TT's a
Mega STe (and a spare fried mega ste board that I can ravage for parts)
and ST's are pretty easy to find.
What are the chances that we could get a CT60 for TT? I know this was
discussed repeatedly and you said no before, but maybe worth bringing
up again. You know I think people with TT's would be willing to send you
perhaps 250+EUR for a TT accelerator since we would be just that happy
A Mega STe 68030 board with fast ram Mega STe/TT VME video card
ST RAM expansion (16MB) ST 68030 board...
Newer faster DSP for falcon/ct60 to play with DSP card for TT
IDE for any of the above accelerators.
And finally - very interesting to me. A powerpc expansion for the
falcon. Similar to the blizzard cards for the amiga. It'd be nice to
have a way to get us all used to PPC to move on the platform in the
future. The coldfire is very expensive and as tested barely has more
power than a CT60. Maybe it would be better to develop for old apple
g3/g4's but just feels fake.
I can't help but to think that after the CT60, such a board would be
easy for you, and I also can't help but to think every single person
who bought a CT60 from you has at least one lonely ST lying around that
would love to scream in ST high with XaAES and MiNT on it and plenty of
spare RAM.
It's just an idea and of course you should work on what you want to.
I know someone made some board called the Magnum for Mega STe which
allowed 16MB of ram, but I wouldn't be able to buy this right now for
any amount of money. A sad situation, especially when you query ebay
for amiga accelerators and ram boards. Even original A500 can easily
have 8MB.
I am curious above what you think of all of this and what you want to
do in the future."
Dr. Uwe Seimet, author of HD Driver, posts this about FAT32 with MiNT:
"To Jean-Luc and everybody who contributed to the discussion of MiNT not
accepting a FAT32 partition of 4095 MB created by HDDRUTIL:
I finally checked HDDRUTIL's FAT size calculation and did not find
anything wrong, even though MiNT reports "FAT too small".
Let me summarize the calculation, so that you can comment on it:
When creating a FAT32 partition of 4095 MB HDDRUTIL allocates 8386528
sectors of 512 bytes for the FATs and the actual data area. 8174 sectors
are allocated for each FAT, which means that 8386528-2*8174=8370180
sectors remain for the actual data. There are 8 sectors per cluster,
which means that there are 8386528/8=1046272 data clusters. For each of
these 1046272 clusters a 32 bit FAT entry is required, which means that
1046272*4=4185088 bytes are needed per FAT. This is exactly what 8174
sectors per FAT amount to: 8174*512=4185088.
This calculation shows that the number of FAT sectors allocated by
HDDRUTIL is exactly the number of sectors needed.
If my calculation is right MiNT is wrong and should be fixed. If my
calculation is wrong please point out the error so that I can fix my
code."
Jo Even Skarstein tells Uwe:
"I took the liberty to forward this to the MiNT-list, in case there is
a bug in MiNT."
Uwe replies:
"Thank you. I guess this will result in this problem being resolved
soon."
Jo Even asks Uwe:
"Are you a member of the MiNT mailing list? Frank Naumann posted a
reply today:
"What about the two empty (unused) entries at the start of each FAT
table?"
I don't have a clue what you're guys are talking about, but as he's the
one who's written the FAT-code in MiNT he does at least know how MiNT
expects things. I suggest you contact him so you can sort out the
correct way to calculate FAT size."
Uwe asks Jo Even:
"Are they (the two unused entries) present in FAT32 tables? (Is there a
document that says so?)
I do not have his current email address. Can you please give him my
email address that he can contact me?...
...After rethinking this I think they must be present, indeed. I will
try to check that.
Anyway, it might be a good idea to talk to Frank about this."
After thinking about the problem and doing some math, Uwe comes back and
tells Jo Even:
"For now there is no need anymore to contact him. After sitting in front
of my TT with a pocket calculator I figured out what was wrong in my FAT
size calculation. The bug is fixed now and MiNT is happy again.
The new release HDDRIVER 8.23 is already available. Details are
available on http://www.seimet.de/atari/en/hddrivernews.html "
I just love a happy ending, don't you? [Grin]
Well, that's it for this week, friends and neighbors. Tune in again next
week, same time, same station, and be ready to listen to what they are
saying when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - 'Mirror's Edge' Is Innovative!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" World of Warcraft Blitz!
EA Jumps into Fitness!
And more!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
'Mirror's Edge' Is Innovative
Occasionally, a video game will reshape the way gamers see virtual
worlds. Much like "Wolfenstein 3D," "Super Mario 64" and "Half-Life"
before it, the stunning first-person action-adventure game "Mirror's
Edge" (Electronic Arts, for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, $59.99)
smashes the conventions of its predecessors.
As a superagile courier named Faith - who's usually being chased by bad
guys - players can run, walk, leap, hop and slide across rooftops,
within warehouses, through sewers and inside office buildings. Faith's
goals are never more complicated than getting from Point A to Point B.
How she accomplishes that is where "Mirror's Edge" comes alive.
Created by Swedish video game developer DICE, "Mirror's Edge" mimics
real-life running - complete with panting sounds. There's no on-screen
meters, so the minimalist display lets players' eyes focus on the game's
parkour-inspired moves. (You know, that froggy style of movement made
famous by "Casino Royale" and all those soda and sneaker commercials.)
Luckily, the free running isn't disorienting. It's liberating,
especially when players gain enough momentum to acrobatically parlay a
series of maneuvers into an impromptu ballet, resulting in a spring from
a construction crane or lunge toward a helicopter. Of course, the fear
of going splat or being shot to death by your pursuers is omnipresent.
To keep the action moving, objects and surfaces that Faith can bounce
off of or use to her advantage glow a distinct shade of candy apple red
and are usually easy to spot within her sterile urban environment, which
resembles what it might look like if Ikea erected a city in Japan. Once
you get the hang of the light-footed game play, it's strangely blissful.
Players can also tackle what few foes get in Faith's way and apprehend
their firearms. However, guns sorta seem to slow her down. Ultimately,
this game is all about the chase. So, with the tap of a button, she'll
toss weapons aside and continue on her way, making "Mirror's Edge" a
surprisingly nonviolent yet continually adrenaline-pumping affair.
"Mirror's Edge" isn't perfect. The story line is pedestrian and the
wannabe anime cutscenes aren't compelling. Tapping the bumper button to
vault or wall climb don't always seem to elicit the desired response,
which can send Faith tumbling to her death - and force players to
restart the sequence.
Those issues aside, the game's 10 chapters will definitely leave players
craving more places to lunge and run. Innovative games like "Mirror's
Edge," with a sleek "Fifth Element" aesthetic and "Run Lola Run" sense
of urgency, don't come around very often. It would probably be a mistake
to let such a visionary piece of work pass you by. Four stars.
'World of Warcraft' Blitz on Game Fans
Top video game maker Activision Blizzard on Thursday launches a new
extension of its record-breaking "World of Warcraft" which already has a
claimed 11 million players worldwide.
"Wrath of the Lich King" releases in Europe and the United States at
midnight in what has been called "the next epic chapter" in the life and
times of Azeroth, a medieval fantasy world that smartly links into
affairs of the real universe.
While the game world remains similar from day to day, seasonal events
such as Halloween, Christmas, Olympics have been added, regional
editions modified - in China flesh was placed on the living dead - and
pop culture celebrities such as Jean-Claude Van Damne or William Shatner
used to sell it.
First released in 2004 in North America and 2005 in Europe, the online
role-playing game sees competitors line up as members of eight races
divided into two opposing good and evil factions, the Alliance or the
Horde.
"It's not a game, it's a world," says Blizzard, "a living breathing
online adventure world of myth and magic."
The "Lich King" throws adepts into a new cold and inhospitable
environment set four years after the previous extension and ruled over
by Lich monarch Arthas Menethill.
In gaming terms, players can increase the powers of their character
avatars to a level of 80, compared to 60 when originally launched and 70
on the launch of the first extension "The Burning Crusade" early 2007.
It also throws out a new race of super-heroes, the Deathknights.
Following on the huge sales of "The Burning Crusade", which sold 2.4
million copes on the first day of release, Activision Blizzard, which is
owned by French group Vivendi, is organising a giant launch campaign.
Stores around world over are being decorated in "World of Warcraft"
colours.
In Paris two stores on the Champs-Elysees boulevard are being dressed up
as either of the Alliance or the Horde, with senior producer John
Lagrave on hand. In New York, Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime will be
at Times Square for the launch.
EA Jumps into Fitness Products
US videogame publisher Electronics Arts on Thursday moved to get couch
potatoes on their feet and exercising more than just their thumbs with a
fitness product similar to Nintendo's "Wii Fit."
EA Sports Active is an "innovative new customizable and personalized
fitness product" that will be available in stores in March and cost 60
dollars, the Redwood City, California-based company said.
EA, the market leader in sports videogames with such titles as Madden
NFL, PGA Tour and NASCAR, said EA Sports Active was aimed primarily at
women and would operate on Nintendo's Wii console.
It said the workout regimen had been "developed in collaboration with
fitness experts," including Bob Greene, the personal trainer to talk
show host Oprah Winfrey.
"We have a real opportunity to redefine the home fitness experience with
a more Western cardiovascular approach and exercises that will appeal to
a diverse audience," EA Sports president Peter Moore said.
The company said EA Sports Active would be the first in a new line of EA
fitness and sports performance products that would get "people off the
couch and into shape."
Nintendo recently launched "Wii Fit" videogames that employ the
console's motion-sensing Nunchuk controllers and a pressure sensing
balance board the shape and size of a typical bathroom scale to get
people conditioning their bodies with exercises such as running, yoga,
and push-ups.
EA said EA Sports Active comes with two leg straps to hold the Wii's
Nunchuk controllers and a resistance band to track upper body exercises.
Feedback such as the number of calories burned and instructions on
technique is provided on-screen.
Video Game Sales Soar in October
Despite a slowing economy, sales of U.S. video games and hardware soared
18 percent from the same month a year ago, according to data released
Thursday by market researcher NPD Group.
Hardware sales were up 5 percent to $494.7 million, led by Nintendo's
Wii game console. Wii held onto the top spot by selling 803,000 units in
October, up from 687,000 in September. The Wii, which has been plagued
by shortages, has sold more than 13 million units since its release in
November 2006.
Microsoft's Xbox 360 held onto the No. 2 spot by selling 371,000 units,
a 7 percent increase over September following a price cut that month.
Sony's PlayStation 3 came in third with 190,000 units sold, an 18.2
percent increase over the prior month.
Software sales were up 35 percent to $696.8 million, led by Microsoft's
Fable II, which sold 790,000 units. Second place went to Nintendo's
exercise game Wii Fit, which sold 487,000 copies.
Meanwhile, sales of portable video games were down 14 percent.
The video game industry faces a tough holiday shopping season, following
a bankruptcy filing by retailer Circuit City and a revenue warning from
rival Best Buy.
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE Gaming Online - Online Users Growl & Purr!
"""""""""""""""""""
Classic Atari-style Joystick Goes USB
Legacy Engineering Group has released a USB joystick that looks and
performs just like the joystick included with the classic Atari 2600
video game console. It costs US$14.99.
The stick is a standard USB input device, and incorporates a single fire
button. No drivers are necessary; it works out of the box with Mac OS X,
Windows and Linux operating systems.
The stick is ideal for MAME and other emulation software products
designed to enable old arcade and computer games to run on the Mac,
according to the company. It also works with commercially-released
games that support joystick or gamepad input.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Sun To Help Old Foe Microsoft Get Search Traffic
In its latest move to increase Internet search traffic, Microsoft Corp.
has turned to an old rival, Sun Microsystems Inc., for marketing help.
Under the terms of a deal being announced Monday, Sun will promote a
Microsoft toolbar for the Internet Explorer browser to U.S.-based Web
surfers as they download Sun's Java software - which is required to view
some Web sites. The toolbar has a built-in box for queries to
Microsoft's Live Search and buttons that give people access to MSN
content.
"We need to provide more volume to our advertisers," said Angus Norton,
a senior director in Microsoft's Live Search group. Microsoft ranks a
distant third in the Web search market behind Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc.
Sun and Microsoft have competed bitterly on several fronts. In
particular, Sun was one of the most prominent antagonists in Microsoft's
long antitrust battles. In 2004, Sun reaped nearly $2 billion in a
patent and antitrust settlement payout from Microsoft.
Sun and Microsoft did not disclose the financial details or the length
of their new deal. It comes as Sun is struggling mightily, having posted
a $1.7 billion loss in its most recent quarter.
Through the agreement with Microsoft, computer users installing the Java
software will be able to check a box to get the MSN toolbar, too. (As
the programs download, Sun also opens a window promoting OpenOffice
programs - a free competitor to Microsoft Office software.)
Sun has struck similar deals with Google and Yahoo in the past. The
Yahoo agreement, which offers a Yahoo search toolbar to people who use
the Firefox browser, will continue, but the Google deal is ending, said
Sun's vice president of Java marketing, Eric Klein.
Microsoft is trying several ways of getting unstuck from third place in
the search market.
After Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft dropped a bid to buy Yahoo in May,
it vowed to invest in its own search technology and spend money on deals
aimed at attracting more Web surfers.
The most prominent deal so far calls for Hewlett-Packard Co. to make
Microsoft's search engine the default on all PCs shipped in the U.S. and
Canada, starting in January. HP will also include a browser toolbar on
those computers.
Microsoft is focusing on toolbars and default settings because,
according to Norton, 35 percent of Web searches are conducted from the
browser's address line, built-in search boxes and add-on search
toolbars, as opposed to a search provider's Web page.
U.S. Lawmaker Plans Bill on Web Neutrality
A senior U.S. lawmaker plans to introduce a bill in January that would bar
Internet providers like AT&T Inc from blocking Web content, setting up a
renewed battle over so-called network neutrality.
Sen. Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, believes a law is essential
to prevent telephone and cable companies from discriminating against
Internet content, even though regulators have taken actions to enforce
free Web principles, a top Dorgan aide said on Thursday.
"We feel that legislation is definitely necessary," said Frannie
Wellings, telecom counsel to Dorgan, speaking at a University of
Nebraska law school event on changes in telecom law after the election
of Democrat Barack Obama.
Dorgan has been influential on the issue, and will be among the highest
ranking Democrats on the Senate's Commerce Committee when it reconvenes
in January.
The net neutrality fight pits Internet service providers (ISPs) like
AT&T against content companies like Google Inc and Microsoft Corp.
The ISPs, which also include Verizon Communications Inc. and cable
company Comcast Corp, say they need to manage the ever-growing traffic
on their networks without government interference.
Content companies say the ISPs hold too power much to block or slow down
traffic requiring more bandwidth, such as movie downloads, or certain
content altogether.
President-elect Barack Obama supports net neutrality legislation. The
election of Obama and more Democrats who back the concept adds momentum
to the cause, Wellings said.
A recent Federal Communications Commission decision ordering Comcast to
stop impeding the sharing of certain content between users proves
regulators already have the authority, an AT&T official said.
"The current (FCC) principles already deal with unreasonable
discrimination," said Jim Cicconi, AT&T executive vice president for
regulatory affairs, pointing to the Comcast case.
The public would not pay for its Internet services if AT&T discriminated
against content, he added. "We'd be shooting ourselves in the foot."
Comcast is suing the FCC over the issue, and much depends on the outcome
of that case, experts said. If the court sides with Comcast, legislation
will become much more likely.
"The telephone and cable companies say trust them," said Markham
Erickson, director of the Open Internet Coalition, a trade group that
lobbies for net neutrality, with members such as Google and eBay Inc.
"We will trust but verify."
After Banning YouTube, Military Launches TroopTube
The U.S. military, with help from Seattle startup Delve Networks, has
launched a video-sharing Web site for troops, their families and
supporters, a year and a half after restricting access to YouTube and
other video sites.
TroopTube, as the new site is called, lets people register as members of
one of the branches of the armed forces, family, civilian Defense
Department employees or supporters. Members can upload personal videos
from anywhere with an Internet connection, but a Pentagon employee
screens each for taste, copyright violations and national security issues.
Part of Delve's work was to build speedy tools for approving and sorting
incoming videos. Its technology also crunches video files into several
sizes and automatically plays the one that best suits viewers' Internet
connection speeds.
But the startup's real forte is making sure searches on the site turn up
the best video results. Delve's system turns a video's sound into a text
transcript. It pares unimportant words like "this" and "that," then
compares what's left against a massive database of words commonly
uttered in proximity to each other, collected from crawling hundreds of
millions of Web pages.
The result: Even if speech recognition software trips on the one word
someone is searching for, there's a good chance Delve can still deliver
relevant results.
In May 2007, the Defense Department banned employees and soldiers from
accessing sites including YouTube and MySpace, citing security and
bandwidth issues. Delve Chief Executive Alex Castro called TroopTube a
"retention tool" aimed at a generation of soldiers who bring laptops to
the front lines.
"A lot of people are excited in the company to be doing something for
the people who make sacrifices," said Castro, his eyes tearing. "We're
proud of this."
InfoWorld Says Windows 7's Not That Fast
While many of those who have played around with the early version of
Windows 7 have noted that it feels pretty zippy, especially for a pre-beta
version, InfoWorld says early benchmarks show the software is just on
par with its predecessor.
In an article on Monday, InfoWorld said that Windows 7 is a "virtual twin"
of Vista when it comes to performance.
On the one hand, this could be seen as bad news, considering Microsoft's
efforts to position Windows 7 as better performing. At the same time,
this is a pre-beta version. Early releases often lag in performance
since optimizations tend to be among the later steps in operating system
development.
For its part, Microsoft is encouraging folks to withhold judgment.
"Microsoft consistently encourages people to hold benchmark tests until
software is finished and ready for broad release," Microsoft said in a
statement to CNET News.
I've been using Windows 7 for a couple of weeks on a loaner machine from
Microsoft (a Lenovo X300). It does feel considerably faster than my work
machine, but that's a several-year-old IBM ThinkPad T42. And, as a
colleague points out, a new Windows image often feels fast, until you
load all of your usual add-ons and third-party software on top of it.
I will say, the new Windows has been incredibly stable for an early
build. I used it a bunch at PDC and WinHEC and am currently using it as
my main machine. Most things I have tried are working, including the
software I use every day, such as iTunes and several IM programs.
On the not-so-hot list, I haven't gotten it to work with my Sprint
wireless broadband card. I also haven't been able to connect to CNET's
VPN, meaning I've been using Outlook Web Access as opposed to the real
thing. But to me, the testament to Windows 7 is that I still want to use
it, even though Outlook Web Access is way less convenient than Outlook
itself.
I'll be interested to see if Microsoft continues in the right direction
with its broad beta, which is slated to be released early next year, as
well as whether it hits its internal goal of shipping Windows 7 in time
for next year's holiday shopping season.
AVG Antivirus Update Mistakenly Deletes System File
An update for the AVG 8 antivirus software for Windows 2000, XP and
Vista released Saturday mistakenly warned that the Windows system file
user32.dll was a Trojan horse. The problem affected the Dutch, French,
Italian, Portuguese and Spanish versions.
AVG Technologies immediately corrected the problem for both free and
paid versions of its software. If users acted on the update's warning,
the user32.dll file was deleted, leaving Windows XP systems endlessly
rebooting or unable to reboot.
The Czech-based AVG posted details of the problem and a method to fix it
on the AVG Web site. The fix involves disabling AVG services and copying
the user32.dll file from the Windows installation CD - but only if the
PC was not rebooted.
The effect on Windows Vista systems, if any, was not clear.
A company representative said, "AVG is actively working to remedy the
problem some users are experiencing related to the most recent update to
commercial and free versions of AVG 7.5 and AVG 8.0 in some languages. A
number of users who installed the update mistakenly received a warning
that the Windows system file user32.dll product version 5.1.2600.3099
was infected with a Trojan virus and were prompted to delete a file
essential to the operation of Windows XP."
Palin Email Hack Trial Delayed Until 2009
The trial of 20-year-old college student accused of hacking into Gov.
Sarah Palin's Yahoo e-mail account has been delayed until May 2009.
A judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee
moved the trial of David Kernell from December to May 19, 2009 after the
government said it needed more time to sift through the evidence.
"Because of the nature of this case, significant forensic evaluation is
required [and] the parties agree that - an extension should be granted
to allow counsel the reasonable time necessary for effective
preparation," according to a November 4 filing from the U.S. Attorney
and the Department of Justice.
Kernell, a student at the University of Tennessee and the son of Tennessee
state Rep. Mike Kernell, a Democrat, turned himself in to authorities on
October 8. He is accused of hacking into Palin's "gov.palin@yahoo.com"
e-mail account on September 16 by successfully navigating Yahoo's password
recovery system.
If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and
three years of supervised release. He is accused of gaining unlawful
access to stored communications and obtaining information from a
protected computer via interstate communication.
The government said Kernell's legal team raised no objections to
delaying the trial. Kernell's lawyers did, however, try unsuccessfully
to have the case thrown out in an October 27 filing, arguing that the
government was trying to convict Kernell of a felony when he was guilty
of a misdemeanor, if anything.
Kernell was charged with accessing a computer without authorization and
obtaining information, which is usually considered a misdemeanor,
according to the filing. Though this statute can be elevated to a felony
if combined with other crimes, Kernell's team said the government is
charging Kernell with additional crimes that are identical to the
original crime simply to obtain felony status.
The indictment is "factually duplicitous," his lawyers argued.
The two parties will meet on March 9 for a pre-trial conference and
motion hearing.
Google Adds Video and Voice Chat to Gmail
Google Inc added a voice and video chat feature to its Gmail email service
on Tuesday, launching a free Web-based service that competes with the
likes of eBay's Skype.
Gmail and Google App subscribers can now choose to speak with friends on
a video screen and simultaneously instant message them in a Google Chat box.
The video screen can be popped out of the chat box and moved around a
user's computer screen. Users can also change the size of the screen and
expand it to full-screen size.
"The idea was to make it quicker and easier to communicate with other
people by whatever means is best convenient," said Google spokesman
Jason Freidenfelds.
"It's a nice alternative for businesses looking for another way for
people to connect," he added.
The feature is available for both PC and Apple computer users.
A webcam and small web browser plug-in are required to use the video
chat. Users who do not have a webcam will still be able to chat with
friends by voice.
Security Alliance Slashes Spam, Closes Malware Host
The Internet is a little less jammed with spam after a cybercrime group
blew the whistle on one of the biggest offenders. HostExploit, an
alliance of volunteers who work at Google, McAfee and Arbor Networks, has
been tracking and documenting cybercrime activity and its latest effort
slashed worldwide spam by 50 percent and junk e-mail by 75 percent.
The alliance this week released its Cyber Crime USA report pointing to
McColo, a San Jose, Calif.-based Web hosting service, as one of the
biggest spam offenders. The company used servers which depend on U.S.
transit peers, according to HostExploit, and beyond spam, McColo was
also sending malware and hosting child-pornography sites.
HostExploit tracks cybercrime using several measurements, according to
spokesperson Jart Armin. "We came up with the world's biggest spam
botnets were hosted by McColo," Armin said in a phone interview. "Of
course, what we came up with was 24 botnet links and lots of malware and
loads of Trojan horses."
The group found that 40,000 visitors per day were lured to fake Web
sites and paying for antivirus software that didn't exist. While
downloading this fake software, the sites would steal information from
computers, including credit-card numbers and other identifying
information.
"We also found 40 child-pornography Web sites and payment systems for
those," Armin said. "It's a lot of work to put this together and expose
it." But it was worth it when McColo's Web site was shut down by its two
Internet service providers, Hurricane Electric and Global Crossing,
Armin added.
This isn't the first time HostExploit has come to the rescue. In its
first report, the group focused on Activo/Interchange, which resulted in
a 10 percent drop in spam and malware worldwide.
The group said it's the members' duty as Internet security specialists
to be responsible and blow the whistle on cybercrimes.
"If you look at the Association of Computing Machinery code of ethics,
it says as professionals if we know things are wrong, we should do
things about it if it does harm to others," Armin said. "Obviously it is
an ethical point, but it is also a case of professionalism. It is our
Internet as well."
HostExploit, however, does not act to stop cybercrime other than urging
the Internet service providers to consider action.
"Most of these problems are not originating in the U.S.; it's in Russia
and Europe," Armin said. "We don't pull the plug, we provide the
information to the main transits or peers - in this case, Hurricane
Electric - and they checked it and they pulled the plug."
The latest report is only the tip of the iceberg, according to Armin.
"These guys ran a dirty operation," said Jose Nazario, a security expert
with Arbor Networks. "With McColo gone off the air, I do not suspect
I'll find little to do in the coming weeks, months and year; the badness
they hosted will simply move."
And when they do, HostExploit will be ready. Once the group determines
the host, it can track who is controlling the operation and where it
will come from next.
"It's an overall war; this is just a battle," Armin said.
Google Tracks Flu Outbreaks Through Search Queries
Google is putting the power of the Web to work in tracking the onset of
influenza in the United States, tracking patterns in search queries to
determine the spread of the disease.
Google Flu Trends, a new tool unveiled by the Internet giant on Tuesday,
counts the number of flu-related queries on the Google search engine and
provides estimates on influenza outbreaks in the 50 US states.
"We found that there's a very close relationship between the frequency
of these search queries and the number of people who are experiencing
flu-like symptoms each week," Google said in a posting on its official
blog.
"If we tally each day's flu-related search queries, we can estimate how
many people have a flu-like illness."
Google said it had shared its results with the Atlanta-based US Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which does its own flu tracking.
"It turns out that traditional flu surveillance systems take 1-2 weeks
to collect and release surveillance data, but Google search queries can
be automatically counted very quickly," Google said.
"Together (with the CDC) we saw that our search-based flu estimates had
a consistently strong correlation with real CDC surveillance data," it
said.
The company cautioned that Google Flu Trends, which can be seen online
at google.org/flutrends, is "still very experimental," but said it could
possibly be a useful tool in prevent the spread of other diseases.
"By making our flu estimates available each day, Google Flu Trends may
provide an early-warning system for outbreaks of influenza," the
Mountain View, California-based company said.
"For epidemiologists, this is an exciting development, because early
detection of a disease outbreak can reduce the number of people
affected," Google said.
"Our up-to-date influenza estimates may enable public health officials
and health professionals to better respond to seasonal epidemics and -
though we hope never to find out - pandemics," it added.
Influenza is responsible for some 500,000 deaths around the world each
year.
Obama Will Take to Internet as Roosevelt Took to Radio
Barack Obama's Internet-savvy campaign team will revolutionize White House
communications like late president Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) did with the
radio, according to NDN think tank president Simon Rosenberg.
"Senator Obama just ran the first true campaign of the 21st Century
using these internet tools to help organize his supporters and fight on
a new battlefied of modern politics, said the veteran of former
president Bill Clinton's 1992 election campaing.
"He reivented the model of advocay," he added of the Indiana Senator who
on Tuesday won became the first US black president elect.
Obama's campaign team used the Web to organize volunteers and in
fundraising, dealing a decisive victory over his Republican rival John
McCain, who resorted to more traditional methods of communications.
Rosenberg said the incoming US administration had significantly revamped
political communications in the country and lowered the barrier to entry
into politics for everyday people.
"It allows a much more meaningful participation by our citizens in their
politics and democracy. We saw an enormous surge of civic participation
in America this year, in terms of people giving money and voting.
"All future campaigns in America will be run on this people-based
internet model Obama ran," he said.
He said the use of modern 21st-century tools will bring "an enormous
reinvention" of the US presidency, as the radio did in the first half of
the last century.
"FDR was using the radio in a very powerful way to establish his power
in his country. In the US, now, every Saturday morning the president
does a radio address.
"My assumption is that it will now be a Youtube address that will be
translated in the principal languages of the world: Spanish, French,
Arabic, Farsi and others.
"This way (the president) will be adressing not only his own citizens
but the citizens of the world.
Rosenberg said the new technology will not only change the relationship
betwen the US president and his own people, "it is going to change the
American relationship to all the world ...
"It's going to be exciting to some governments, not so exciting to
others."
As to whether the White House will be setting an example for other
democracies to follow, Rosenberg predicted first there would be "a
period of massive experimentation not only in the US but also in the
rest of the world.
"Every elected leader in the world is going to want to try to use these
tools at their own advantage there is no doubt about this.
"David Cameron, the leader of the Tories (in Britain), has done amazing
YouTube videos way more creative than anything anybody in the US has
done," Rosenberg said.
UK Couple in Real-Life Divorce over Virtual Affair
A British woman is divorcing her husband after discovering his online
alter-ego was having an affair with a virtual woman in the fantasy world
of Second Life, media reported on Friday.
Amy Taylor, 28, said her three-year marriage to David Pollard, 40, came
to an end when she twice walked in on him watching his online character,
Dave Barmy, having sex with other virtual women.
Second Life enables players to create online lives in which their
virtual alter ego, or avatar, can socialize, develop relationships, buy
property and set up businesses in an imagined world using the game's
virtual currency.
The couple met in an internet chatroom in 2003 and married in real life
and in a fantasy tropical setting in Second Life.
However, Taylor always had suspicions about Pollard's online loyalty. At
one point she hired a virtual detective to test whether his avatar was
cheating on her, after finding him at the computer watching his
character having sex with a prostitute.
Pollard passed that honeytrap test but earlier this year Taylor found
his character in a compromising position with another virtual woman.
"He confessed he'd been talking to this woman player in America for one
or two weeks and said our marriage was over and he didn't love me any
more," said Taylor, who filed for divorce the next day.
"The solicitor wasn't at all surprised - she said it was her second
divorce case involving Second Life that week."
EBay Vendor Passes Gigantic Feedback Milestone
If you've ever sold something on eBay, you may have been pleased to
receive positive feedback from the buyer. Multiply that by a million,
and you can imagine how Jack Sheng feels.
Sheng, 33, owns Los Angeles-based Eforcity Corp., which has been selling
electronics accessories on the online auction site since he started his
business in 2000 with two childhood friends. In the past two months,
four separate eBay user IDs belonging to Sheng and his company each
surpassed more than 1 million feedback points. No one else on eBay has
come close.
EBay sellers can get a positive feedback point from a buyer by sending
items quickly, having them arrive as advertised and helping to solve any
issues that come up. Those positive customer points are offset by any
negative ratings the seller receives.
Eforcity employs almost 200 people, which is many more than it had eight
years ago. Back then, it was a part-time job for Sheng, who used to work
as a technology consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers. After about two
years, he and his friends began working full-time on Eforcity and hiring
other employees.
Sheng realized about six months ago that Eforcity would probably hit the
1 million feedback marks this year. "It's a great morale booster for our
employees," he said.
His advice for new eBay sellers? Find your own niche.
"If early on if we'd tried to sell electronics rather than electronics
accessories, we might be out of business right now," he said.
Sheng is a ways ahead of the No. 2 feedback holder on eBay, a DVD and CD
seller with a score of about 754,000.
EBay planned to honor Sheng in a ceremony at its San Jose, Calif.,
headquarters Thursday afternoon, with Chief Executive John Donahoe in
attendance.
=~=~=~=
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