"Designed to be user-friendly, the new packaging is a small, hard, plastic container that’s designed to protect the software inside for life-long use.  It provides a convenient and attractive place for you to permanently store both discs and documentation."

At least they didn't rip off another Apple design.

technorati tags: vista, windows, vista, apple, microsoft

Users looking to share their connections require a special router. After months of subsidizing this hardware, FON founder Martin Varsavsky now claims that his network is large enough to end the subsidies.

Router prices in a few days therefore will be raised form 5 euro/dollar to 29.95.

Cynics could argue that FON is simply running out of money and is facing disappointing subscription rates, forcing the company to raise prices. But the current maps seem to indicate a decent ramp-up.

Wi-Fi access points listed on Fon's map in downtown San Francisco.

technorati tags: fon, wifi, wi-fi, internet, Martin Varsavsky

Printing your boarding pass at home is one of the conveniences air travel in the internet age. These printouts will get you past the first security check that allows passengers into the gate area. This security check is the only time when a passenger's identification is checked.

Soghoian wasn't the first to warn about the weakness in the online check-in system. But he is the first one to create a publicly available service that allows people to create new passes with just a few clicks.

As any seasoned security researcher knows, you don't warn the world against the dangers of nuclear weapons by setting one off. We've got governments to do that.

Soghoian's boardpass forging service

technorati tags: security, christopher+soghoian, airport

But if consumers demand that their new systems run Vista Premium, they will make those demands from every PC maker. Consequently, all PC makers have to buy Vista Premium from Microsoft and end up with the same cost structure.

The introduction of Windows Vista won't cause Acer's cost structure to change, compared to that of Dell, HP or Gateway.

Then why could Acer be upset?

Industry analyst Rob Enderle has a suggestion: the introduction of Windows Vista will change a loophole that Acer used to sell consumer PCs to small businesses.

Looking to cut costs, low cost system vendors often equip their business PCs Windows XP Home. Premium brands meanwhile stick to Windows XP Pro. The price difference is about $25 to $50, and most small businesses never really miss the features (such as Active Directory) in XP Pro.

But Microsoft doesn't agree with the practice. For once thing, the company likes the added revenues from the more expensive XP Pro sales.

Windows Vista Basic therefore has been stripped of several business features that make the systems easy to manage. Throw in Microsoft's marketing machine and businesses are expected to shy away from the consumer versions of Vista.

If Acer should be upset about anything, it should be upset about the unattractiveness of Vista Basic for bargain enterprise systems. But the evaporating profit margin argument is bullocks.

Microsoft shuts down Acer's blowout sale

technorati tags: vista, windows+vista, SKU, microsoft, Acer, bill+gates

Beer actually is the essential ingredient that turns the project from a mundane IT pilot into the obsession of every IT developer.

It took IT geeks after all to explain the term free in open source software as "free as in free speech, not free as in free beer."

When Sun Microsystems unveiled its project Black Box earlier this month, one excited employee yelled the first (and only) question: "Does it have a beer cooler inside?"

Life is all about priorities.

More beer getting hauled across the big pond

technorati tags: beer, ibm, tracking, beer+living+lab, black+box

Authentium on its website explained that access to Patchguard was required for one of its forthcoming products. While the company probably expected the Microsoft patch, the hack will generate some nice publicity around its software.

Furthermore, it keeps the issue of Microsoft blocking access to Patchguard on the agenda.

Microsoft might have promised to provide APIs, but has yet to publish a timetable. Gartner last week suggested that it will probably take at least one year before the initial APIs will be launched, and even longer before they are fully done.

Independent security vendors can't wait that long. And more importantly, the world can't be left to rely on Microsoft as the main source of security applications.

technorati tags: symantec, mcafee, patchguard, vista, windows+vista, microsoft, antitrust, monopoly

Zango pays webmasters to push its adware, offering an estimated 50 cents per installation. Webmasters now are charging that Zango is letting other affiliates take credit for their installations.

Although the practice itself isn’t new, it has been the subject of heated debates in the past weeks. Webmasters are pissed off because they are cheated out of their money, and Zango allegedly isn't doing enough to fight this.

Zango's lacking response now has prompted a group of adult website operators to hit back. Visitors who run the Zango software are presented with a warning and receive instruction on how to remove the software.

But Zango isn't prepared to go down without a fight. The company will create blacklist of these online porn vigilantes, allowing it to launch a pop up screen that overshadows the warning screen.

It's great when internet rats turn on each other, but in this case things are only getting more confusing for users.

technorati tags: zango, adware, 180solutions

At stake is Google's trademark. Once a decent percentage of the world's population starts saying: "I googled the shop for some tomatoes, but they were out," there is no way to prevent a maker of navigation systems to launch an ad campaign that states: "We'll do you're googling for you." And a porn site or Yahoo could do the same.

But language is a living cultural being that doesn't respect trademark laws.

The makers of scotch tape or trampolines will tell you that it doesn’t hurt to be genericized. But try explaining that to the makers of spam (the canned kind).

technorati tags: google, to+google, verb, trademark, commodity

In the video below, Oracle's Edward Screven explains why the vendor feels it needs to step in with Red Hat support.

Oracle indemnifying could actually show benefits far beyond Red Hat. Anyone going after Linux, will now by default also go after Oracle. That alone could scare away the next SCO.

The small company (some call it a patent troll) EpicRealm earlier this year witnessed exactly how that could happen. Trying to enforce one of its patents, … sued some small companies hoping that they would settle. One of them however turned out to be an Oracle customer with indemnification. Oracle was forced to settle the case, and then sued …, seeking to invalidate the patent.

Click To Play

technorati tags: oracle, ellison, larry+ellison, linux, red+hat, oracleworld, oracle+openworld

Oracle putting the squeeze on Red Hat might not help the vendor win any popularity contests with the open source community.

The events on stage at Oracle OpenWorld could give an indication. Oracle sent out three penguins that were supposed to approach the billionaire. Except that they quickly turned around when they saw the executive. One caretaker picked up one of the birds and brought it closer. To no avail.

Tux is released (Ellison is standing further to the right)...

... glances at the 10,000 people in the keynote room ...

... and marches away

Oracle claims to make Linux even more unbreakable

technorati tags: oracle, ellison, larry+ellison, linux, red+hat, oracleworld, oracle+openworld

Fedora today is more than just a playground where developers get experiment with new technologies without having to worry about breaking enterprises. Today it is the Linux distribution of choice for enterprises and education institutions that are too cheap to purchase a Red Hat subscription.

In addition to plenty of anecdotal evidence, there is hard data to back up Fedora's popularity. According to Red Hat, the project within hours of the official publication had logged more than 10,000 downloads through the Red Hat Bittorent server.

technorati tags: fedora, linux, distro, red+hat

Of course, you can do the same by using third party products. But Oracle knows very well that Oracle shops are more likely to stick to Oracle tools, as they will offer easier integration.

Oracle's middleware boss Thomas Kurian.

technorati tags: oracle, kurian, thomas+kurian, middleware, web2.0, ajax

Claiming that he didn't like charts, Hurd pulled up a chart to explain the fundamental dilemma that IT maintenance is taking up an ever increasing percentage of IT resources, leaving no funds to invest on innovation.

HP internally is looking to break through this cycle. Where the industry today on average spends 80 per cent of its budget to maintain its existing infrastructure, HP claims to be at 50-50, and in the near future is looking to move to 20-80.

That's all great, but we've heard it all before. Vendor X takes its own medicine and is magically cured from all IT ailments. But then in the real world it turns out that things are a bit more complicated.

While the overall spending on IT as a percentage of world wide GDP is declining, the number of worldwide IT workers is growing. Conclusion: IT is getting increasingly less efficient. The solution: just give all you money to HP.

technorati tags: mark+hurd, hurd, hp, oracle, oracleopenworld, openworld

Cisco's entry into this market hardly comes as a surprise, as the company's chief executive John Chambers earlier this year already declared his love for the technology (you can watch him speak about it on video here).

The big disappointment actually lies in the fact that Cisco didn't declare telepresence an "advanced technology" and instead is labelling it as an "emerging technology". With the first Cisco is convinced that there is a billion dollar market, with the latter the company is merely praying for it to evolve into one.

These telepresence rooms sell at $299,000 each (list price). That includes three big ass 1080p televisions, servers, lightning and microphones, but doesn't pay for the network traffic and installation.

The plus side is that you only have to sell 3,500 rooms to hit the billion dollar mark. The bad news is that few people will spend that much. HP has had a comparable solution in the market for about one year allegedly sold about 50 of them.

Click To Play

technorati tags: cisco, telepresence, chambers, john+chambers, marthin+de+beer

Below you can watch a video of the new server as well as the rendering demonstration (the Sunguard analysis isn't very exiting to show on video).

technorati tags: intel, quadcore, server, amd, opteron

The call however was the final straw for McAfee. Fed up with Microsoft's half baked attempts to provide information about the interoperability, the security vendor send out a press release blasting Microsoft for its "lack of action" and its "hollow assurances".

"Despite pledges, press conference and speeches by Microsoft, the community of independent security companies that consumers rely on for computer protection has seen little indication that Microsoft intends to live up to the promises it made last week", said McAfee's legal counsel Christopher Thomas.

McAfee's strategy is obvious. Microsoft last week called a press conference pledging to improve the interoperability for third party security software in Windows Vista, and at the time claimed that these promised would suffice to prevent further anti trust measures from authorities in Europe and Korea. McAfee's attack aims to put sanctions back on the table.

The stakes are high for both parties. If McAfee wins, Microsoft could face a ban on shipping Vista in Europe and Asia. If Microsoft gets its way, McAfee and several other security vendors will be essentially locked out from selling security software for 64-bit Vista.

McAfee and Microsoft square off in high stakes game

technorati tags: microsoft, security, mcafee, antitrust, europe, korea

Except that the installation apparently didn't entirely remove IE7. The browser suddenly started issuing warnings every time we tried to paste text onto a web page. That might not look like a big issue, but it's frustrating nonetheless.

No worries. We figured, Microsoft is offering free phone support for IE7 problems. We had a problem getting rid of IE7, so surely we would be entitled to free support...?

"Wrong," said the help desk operator with an obvious Indian accent who identified himself as Ron. We would have to pay somewhere around $35 if we wanted to ask Microsoft a question.

A request to speak with a supervisor however made Ron change his mind and the loyal gate keeper allowed us to advance to the second level of Microsoft's helpdesk nirvana.

There we were greeted by Prim who guided us to the internet setting. It turned out that IE7 had completely messed up Windows XP's internet settings. The internet security settings are supposed to offer a vertical bar that allows users to change the setting from low to high. But this bar was suspiciously missing.

Together with Prim, we ended up manually applying the correct settings. Working with Prim was a delight and 45 minutes later, our system once again was running hunky-dory.

Thank you Microsoft for cleaning up your own mess.

The mysterious case of the missing vertical slider bar

Which somehow is available for trusted websites.

technorati tags: microsoft, IE7, internet+explorer, browser, helpdesk, hell

But according to Microsoft, the bug affects Outlook Express instead of Internet Explorer 7.

Surely some day Microsoft will have to face the embarrassment of the first Internet Explorer 7 security vulnerability. But today wasn't it.

technorati tags: ie7, security, bug, microsoft, secunia

Mindless price reductions only work until the moment that some other low cost provider succeeds in cutting cost even more. Then you'll be forced to cut prices beyond profitability. HP witnessed that and Dell today is facing the same fate.

HP made a wise decision when it chose to start innovation and stop imitating. New data from Gartner indicates that HP has leapfrogged Dell as the world's largest PC maker, where IDC sees a dead heat.

HP chief executive Mark Hurd witnesses that true passion gets you much further than copying.

The company next reminds us why many consumers started hating Apple back in the 80-ies and 90-ies: for it's unrivalled arrogance:

"As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it," an security warning on Apple's website reads.

Apple has every right to lecture the world on security standards. Because there is no malware for OS X. The company is known for its flawless quality control and testing procedures and its software never suffers from vulnerabilities that put users at risk of remote code execution.

Fact is that Apple produced hardware that put its users at risk. But apparently it would be too much of an effort to admit that.

The cult of Mac is back, and ready to ignore all facts that shows the empty facade of its utopia.

Sizing up Apple's arrogance

technorati tags: osx, apple, ipod, security, trojan, malware, ravmone

Doors on both sides allow for easy access.

The inside is cramped to say the least. Service reps certainly don't want to spend time inside there. Instead, they can cart out an entire rack and replace it with with a new one. Allowing for repairs to be performed elsewhere.

The container houses four racks next to each on each side of the container, allowing for a total of about 250 servers.

If you can't power the server container, a medium sized generator will do the trick. The blue thing in the back is the cooling system that pumps around water.

All that needs hooking up is two hoses for the water cooling, power and a network connection.

technorati tags: black+box, sun, sun, microsystems, container, project+blackbox, blackbox

Serving massive amounts web pages, analysis for oil exploration or new chip design simluations require a massive grids of high power computers. There is no "good enough" when it comes to these grids. The only limiting factor is the amount of money that a company is willing to invest.

So saving a few dollars on the monthly power bill actually makes an impact there. As does being able to stack servers more densely. All this leads up to Sun's "Project Black Box", which is essentially a data centre that is housed inside a shipping container. It may not be for your average ERP system, but it just may be your thing if you're looking to rapidly grow your data center.

Below you can watch a video where Sun Microsystems' chief executive Jonathan Schwartz makes a case for the Black Box.

technorati tags: sun, sun+microsystems, moore, moore's+law, project+blackbox, blackbox, black+box, schwartz, jonathan+schwartz

Below you can watch a video of the unveiling and a tour the (cramped) inside of the unit.

technorati tags: black+box, sun, sun, microsystems, container, project+blackbox, blackbox

Sun's container will still allow enterprises to open the doors and unscrew the servers inside, but the general idea is to provide a system that requires hardly any configuration and will provide compute power the moment it arrives. Sun claims that the device will cut set-up times by up to 90 per cent.

The Black Box therefore comes in a storage (up to , web server and high performance computing model. Such applications require monolithic hardware configurations and are generally very straightforward to use.

The systems might be conveniently modular, but will companies really replace their expensive data centres with cheaper Sun containers?

Sun is suggesting that enterprises might put some of these units in their parking lots, inside a warehouse or even on top of their Manhattan high rises.

But isn't that a security problem waiting to happen? Brazen criminals could come and pick up one of the containers on a weekend – just rent a helicopter for the Manhattan models.

Nonetheless, Sun could be on to something. Companies that shy away from outsourcing and public grid services might still be interested in a systems that provides compute power as a service.

Plenty of enterprises have emergency power generators because they don't want to rely on public utilities. But that doesn't mean that they are in the power generating business.

Enterprises today are in the compute power generating business, even though there is no logical explanation for it. We just have to find the proper device that convinces them to replace their datacentres with a container-like appliance.

technorati tags: sun+microsystems, sun, black, box, shipping+container, schwartz, project+blackbox, blackbox

But the Oracle event dwarfs all of those shows. Expected to draw a record crowd of 41,000, Oracle is taking up all three wings of the convention centre. Pedestrian crossing lights will stay on "walk" for 10 seconds longer than usual to accommodate the crowd. Meeting rooms in nearby hotels are all taken up.

And still the event ended up being short of space. Delegates therefore will be forced to have their lunch breaks in tents that will be put up on one block of Howard Street.

That might not seem like a big deal, but the five-lane strip of tarmac is one of downtown San Francisco's main traffic arteries.

Planning for the closure took one year and the event is bound to cause massive commuter frustration. But you won't hear the local government complaining. The Oracle show is providing a $50m boost to the local economy through the added restaurant and taxi revenues as well as an estimated 65,000 hotel nights.

Oracle furthermore is paying for all the additional police forces and emergency services that are required to keep the event in San Francisco.

technorati tags: oracle, oracleworld, database, enterprise+applications

You can see two USB ports and the rabbit ears that house antennas for the Wi-Fi connectivity.

Don't be thrown off by the green colour by the way. The final product will come in multiple colours. But changing colours for the early design makes it easier to tell them apart.

Earlier last week, the project showed off its dual mode LCD screen which functions as a full colour backlit screen and has a monochrome mode for use in direct sunlight.

Furthermore, did Google open a Pandora's Box by acquiring the company? It didn't make a lot of sense to file legal claims against Youtube, because the company didn't have much money anyway. But Google has several billions in the bank.

Time Warner and News Corp have publicly speculated about their 'legal options', as have others.

It's going to be interesting to see if online video can mature beyond these copyright issues, of if it will go Napster's way.

technorati tags: google, youtube, video, online

But instead of a spontaneous fan blog, the operating was carefully scripted by PR firm Edelman. One of the travelers furthermore turned out to be Jim Thresher, a staff photographer with the Washington Post. He also authored several posts that are blatantly pro-Walmart.

The store has had its share of bad publicity. Last week the company in Pensylvania was ordered to pay a $78m fine for forcing employees to work through their breaks. Similar lawsuits have erupted in other states.

But just like the cigarette companies claim that smokers purchase their cancer causing cigarettes because they like them (not because they are stuffed full with chemicals that make them more addictive), Walmart claims that it's merely providing a service to shoppers who seek inexpensive goods. And if that involves putting up fake blogs and breaking labor laws, that is merely the fault of those cheap shoppers.

technorati tags: walmart, blog, edelman, fake

But more importantly, the world needs a new Microsoft browser because IE7 is far more security than its predecessors.

Application compatibility might remain an ongoing concern, but once those issues have been solved, every users running IE6 or IE5 should upgrade. Not because of tabbed browsing and other nice to have features, but because running an insecure browser allows attackers to hijack your computer and use it to send spam and attack other computers.

You wouldn't lay guns on the street either, would you?

technorati tags: IE7, firefox, security, internet, internet+explorer, browser

If any new skeletons happen to turn up in the coming months, your position will only get stronger. After all, the HP way is supposed to be an ethical way.

In related news, HP's main spying target Cnet could use an ethics officer too. This week the firm's chief executive was forced to step down because he had degraded himself to stock option back dating, which essentially will help overpaid executives make even more money through their stock option programmes.

technorati tags: hp, spying, ethics, cnet

But all kidding aside, Sun has demonstrated a new way to use virtual worlds as an online meeting and collaboration tool. At least it looks far better than WebEx.

technorati tags: sun, sun+microsystems, secondlife, pr

We tested voting for the service last week which resulted in our Digg account getting banned within hours. Users who persist and create additional accounts have been hit by IP bans, completely blocking their access to the website. User/submitter has since responded by removing direct links to the Digg.com website and advising users to add diggs to random stories to prevent detection.

But enough introdction. What follows are user/submitter's answers to some questions that we asked by email:

When did User/Submitter launch?
We aren't sure exactly. The general idea was conceptualized many months ago, but the foundation wasn't laid until August. The project had dispersed into several radically different forms before we finally decided on making the "User/Submitter" variant public. During what was supposed to be a mostly-isolated testing phase, we were hit with a trickle of unexpected members. Before we could lock the shop, a few Submitters had already expressed interest. Granted, we eventually had to keep the gates open if the project was to ever be endeavored.

Have you had any contact with Digg regarding your service?
No.

Do you expect any response from them?
We don't expect too much of a public breath in our direction, but initiating a private dialog would be in their best interests. (And, no, we're not cleverly hinting at extortion or anything remotely similar.)

Who, in general, are the types of submitters signing up for the service?
You would be surprised at the number of A-list sites (say, Alexa Top 3000) that have used User/Submitter already (during and after the public's general reception). You might be surprised at a certain political group's determination to infiltrate Digg. That aside, mostly blogs – individuals interested in SEO [search engine optimization] and increasing visitor conversion rates.

Any specific industries or topics on Digg that seem to be more interested in your service than others?
Since Digg is a news site, the industry of news and news blogging is most common. Unsurprisingly, considering the background of Digg, a lot of Submitters have been pushing Tech-related stories onto Users.

Are there any concerns that User/Submitter will lower the credibility of Digg and its ranking system?
Absolutely. But that stems from the notion of Digg lowering the credibility of Digg. Fact is, because of Digg's overgenerous social nature, the active participants that mold the Digg network are suffering (whether they know it or not) from a) their lack of digging privacy and b) the weight of the network. We're not at all claiming that Digg is a social failure and users should give up hope, but we're placing the spotlight on some ridiculously wide holes in their social atmosphere -- holes that need closing. The 'loose social networking' trend is over. Digg needs to regress some of its social networking features.

While it's possible that we could determine nearly every front page story on digg, that's not our goal; we desire limitations. That said, the goal of User/Submitter is to exploit but control the fundamental flaws in Digg's social network so that it can sustain. Maybe then, they'll fix these flaws.

technorati tags: digg, manipulation, gaming, web20, user/submitter, usersubmitter

Disney isn't amused about the movie that show it's billion dollar characters humping in a poorly lit back room. The footage has already been removed from Youtube. But of course that didn't prevent it from showing up elsewhere.

technorati tags: eurodisney, youtube, video, sex, disney

Eudora since slipped into obsolesce and was replaced by online email services and free, bundled software such as Outlook or Apple's Mail client.

Qualcomm could have applied the legacy open source formula: release the software under an open source license. This would have allowed the company to stop wasting money on supporting the existing user base and it could even rekindle interest in the software. Such open sourcing projects rarely work. So instead, Qualcomm will abandon its current Eudora client and replace it with a version based on the Thunderbird open source client.

Such open sourcing projects rarely work. So instead, Qualcomm will abandon its current Eudora client and replace it with a version based on the Thunderbird open source client.

You might question the business value of an application that is very similar to its open source parent. But you never hear Sun Microsystems complaining about the fact that its Staroffice suite is based on OpenOffice.

technorati tags: qualcomm, opensource, eudora

The bad guys however have shifted their focus from knocking down networks to data theft, and its time for security vendors to follow. Below you can watch a vidoe where Thompson explains his security 2.0 vision.

technorati tags: security20, thompson, symantec, security, hackers

Just like web2.0 is revolving around data mash-ups and data sharing, security 2.0 is all about secure data. Anti virus software after all has done very little to help block phishing websites.

As it goes with big visions, this one too is big on expensive talk and short on concrete products. But its good to see Symantec stepping up and take the leading role that is expected from it.

Symantec chief executive John Thompson rolls out security 2.0

technorati tags: symantec, thompson, security2.0

The upgrade at first progressed nicely, although especially copying the system files went painstakingly slow. That was until the installation was nearly done, the system rebooted and the screen went pitch black.

We gave it some time but in the end called in the troops. It turned out that the Vista graphics driver had spontaneously decided to switch the video signal on our graphics card from the VGA port to the DVI port (only a VGA cable was connected). Microsoft conveniently had some DVI to VGA converters on hand and even allowed us to take it home. But if this had happened at home, I doubt that we'd ever figured this one out.

Next, the operating system refused to provide us with the smooth Aero user interface (which enables transparency and 3d application switching), although this wasn't previously flagged by the upgrade adviser software. Admittedly this was a smaller problem than the VGA to DVI switch, but it was frustrating nonetheless. It turned out that our graphics card's limited memory made it a borderline case, allowing only for Aero in lower screen resolutions.

About ten per cent of all Windows XP to Vista upgrades runs into issues like we did, according to one of the Microsoft engineers that we spoke with.

Our direct neighbor obviously belonged to the other 90 per cent. He spent about one hour upgrading his system and walked out again.

But for us and numerous other testers, the upgrade towards Vista was painful. The system prior to the upgrade had warned that it couldn't provide a driver for our on-board sound card. A 5-year-old HP scanner too does no longer work because it lacks a driver, as does our Microsoft keyboard and mouse.

Most consumers will get Vista when they purchase a new system while historically few upgrade. This past weekend once again emphasized that that's probably the best option. Because we doubt that support for legacy devices will vastly improve in the next month.

Microsoft provided laid back, sugar powered weekend entertainment for Silicon Valley's geeks

Our stumbling system. The white tower in the background did even worse, with the owner leaving without ever upgrading

Just like in hospitals, it's NOT a good thing when a crew of puzzled specialists gathers around your system

Trying to find out if the log files provide any clues

The valuation however might seem like a lot given that everybody from, Novell, Microsoft, Red Hat and Sun Microsystems offer Xen support either now or in the future. Xensource however is betting that it can claim the role of a trusted third party. After all, why trust that Microsoft's Xen implementation offers decent support for Novell and Red Hat – or the other way around?

That might leave Xensource as the only independent alternative, but the company has yet to proof that customers see share its views. Until then, $100m is a lot of money.

Xensource chief executive Peter Levine

technorati tags: xen, xensource, virtualization, open+source, opensource

The initiative gets an A for originality, but an F for execution.

Press and other individuals interested in attending the event will have to download the game and create a (free) user account. It's just as bad as dialling into a phone meeting only to be told that other party will be using slides that are hosted on some obscure online service that doesn't support your browser or takes five minutes of downloading and entering login names.

I've never wandered around in the digital world of Second Life, and I certainly wasn't planning on installing yet another application to attend a press conference and uninstall the software afterwards (except for the system grinding registry keys that are left behind).

Sun seems to know me. The server vendor is offering to show the event in the office of its PR firm in downtown San Francisco. Just don't expect us to be there.

Small picture: U2 singer Bono in Second Life

technorati tags: second+life, sun+microsystems, PR, public+relations

Community?
Youtube's power lies in its social elements – video ratings, daily rankings, comments and so on. Users are encouraged to participate, and do so. It's engrained in the service's design.

The thing with these social services is that they tend to create network effects (Metcalfe's law) that have allowed Ebay to become the unrivalled auctioning network. Producers post to Youtube because that's where the audience is and the audience goes there because producers post. Youtube's 46 per cent North American market share indicates that it hasn't yet achieved dominance, but it could still be well on its way.

Advertising?
Youtube's sole asset is the more than 100m pageviews that it generates on daily basis. But then, the firm's hosting bill also has gone through the roof. And what kind of advertising are you going to sell around videos of Mentos-Coke rockets or backyard wrestling matches?

Google's business is based on search advertising. Because when people are doing online research, they are more open to relevant commercial messages. But what's the relevant commercial message around a Mentos rocket?

Landgrab?
Somebody is going to end up buying Youtube, simply because it's one of the hottest web2.0 companies of the moment. If Google doesn't buy it, somebody else will.

But should Google spend $1.6bn of its shareholder's money on a defensive buy?

technorati tags: youtube, google, techcrunch, rumours, acquisition

All you need is a set of URLs and search keywords that you're looking to check. A few line of Javascript will do all the rest. The company has posted proof of concept code on its website. Although we couldn't always make it work, we've verified that it does work on both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

If this doesn't set off your privacy alarm bells, I must have given up on online privacy a long time ago.

Internet Explorer 6

Firefox 1.5.0.7

technorati tags: privacy, security, browser, history

Vnunet.com's Shaun Nichols did some extensive digging into the story, but in the end it didn't add up.

We created a new Digg account and signed up for the User/submitter service (it was subsequently disabled by Digg due to "misuse"). Sure enough it pointed us to stories that we needed to vote on. And looking at the voting patterns, there certainly were numerous users the expressed an interest subjects that were as diverse as SQL servers, body building and the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) - to name just three stories that were pushed through User/Submitter.

But did all these submitters really pay to get their stories more digg votes? One of the stories links to a Forbes story on the fading taboo on porn. I doubt that Forbes.com is desperate for the Digg traffic – the site seems to be doing rather well just by itself.

Instead it appears that the URLs are just randomly pulled from the Digg.com website.

We very much doubt that anybody is actually getting paid at this point, since nobody seems to be paying either. The service requires users to 'earn' at least $20 before any payments are made, and we didn't wait that long.

Why is User/submitter doing this? We can only speculate, as the website operators didn't return our requests for comment. In the best case, they are currently testing the service to proof to potential clients that it actually works. In the worst case, it's just a big hoax or fraud scheme.

It's also obvious that Digg won't allow this service to proceed. Our test account was disabled within hours after we voted on the stories. Creating another account will just result in the blacklisting of your entire IP address.

There are several ways to detect these kinds of abuse. Chief executive Jay Adelson told vnunet.com that the company is monitoring the situation and considering new (unnamed) technologies to prevent User/submitter schemes.

Digg founders Jay Adelson and Kevin Rose

Photo: Dan Gilmore

technorati tags: digg, manipulation, gaming, web20, user/submitter, usersubmitter

Apple is well on its way to destroy all the goodwill and brand awareness that it created with the iconic iPod.

The company more and more is getting known for its lacking quality control and poor customer service rather than its sleek design. The Intel powered MacBooks have been suffering from whining cooling fans from day one, and the recent iTunes 7 was an outright disaster.

Dell travelled down this same road, and didn't do very well. But then Apple shouldn't need any scary examples of what happens if you start ignoring your customers. The company has been there before during the nineties when it saw its market share plummet to today's single digits. Surely the company realises that it shouldn't make the same mistake twice?

Is Apple facing Dell's fate?

technorati tags: apple, support, dell, hell

The Open Document Format offers an open alternative to proprietary format including those from Microsoft. It allows users to read and edit documents in any editor that supports the format and effectively eliminates one of the pillars under Microsoft's Office monopoly.

Where Quinn resigned following a below the belt smear campaign from Microsoft, none of that seems to be the case this time. Gutierrez simply is fed up with the chronic underfunding of the state.

Gutierrez also decided to use a plug-in that allows Microsoft Office to open and edit ODF documents. If only he had opted for OpenOffice, he'd saved far more money.

technorati tags: odf, quinn, gutierrez, massachusetts, cio, office, proprietary, open

The group faces four charges that carry a combined maximum prison term of 12 years and $75,000 in fines.

But while it should be relatively easy to peg down the investigators who carried out the illegal acts, the challenge will be to make a case against Dunn. Much like the king-pin of mafia organisations, there appears to be no evidence (yet) that directly links Dunn to any mischief.

So far she has been able to claim ignorance. The question remains if a jury will believe her.

HP chief executive Mark Hurd takes the scandal like a man and admits responsibility, simply because he's the boss. 

technorati tags: hp, dunn, spying, pretexting, lockyear

The kill switch however is buried in a feature that is described as "reduced functionality mode". It will be activated when if a users fails to successfully register the software within 30 days. Hartje completely fails to explain what this feature actually does, so we turned to a 15 page whitepaper (.doc download).

Even there the information could have been presented more clearly, but in the end it clearly explains what "reduced functionality" means:

"There is no start menu, no desktop icons, and the desktop background is changed to black. The Web browser will fully function and Internet connectivity will not be blocked. After one hour, the system will log the user out without warning. It will not shut down the machine, and the user can log back in."

To be perfectly clear: the kill switch will only be engaged if Microsoft has verified that you're using a stolen or counterfeit product registration key. If you succeed in hacking Windows Vista and circumvent the registration feature (which is bound to happen) Windows Vista will move block access to the advanced features.

Not access to data. No access to applications and a system that logs off every 60 seconds. That's called a kill switch or self destruct button.

Microsoft is entitled to get paid for its software. But why is the company trying to cover up its new kill switch?

technorati tags: microsoft, Software+Protection+Platform, SPP, piracy, kill+switch, software, piracy, vista, windows, windows+vista, hartje

Following his presentation, we pulled Sequiera aside for a quick interview. You can watch the video below.

If all the acronyms confuse you, you can see examples of what the new Google feature enables in the video below.

technorati tags: google, ajax, ajaxworld, search

The issue isn't just that computers are full of toxic waste, but Apple's lacking recycling programme also is seriously flawed, Greenpeace claims. The message therefore is simple: clean up your computers and take recycle them at no charge to the consumer.

It isn't the first time that Apple is singled out for being a poor corporate citizen. It appears that the computer maker is just too busy counting all the money that it makes from its iPods.

If you feel Apple needs to change, Greenpeace urges you to drop Apple's Steve Jobs an email.

technorati tags: apple, environment, green, toxic

Researcher Paul Robichaux (photo above) with 3Sharp apparently doesn't know the difference between a phishing filter and a service that protects against spam, spyware, exploits, link practice, and does pop-up analysis. But then, those are exactly the analytics skills that you can expect from a programmer who specialises in Microsoft Exchange.

McAfee pointed out this minor point of oversight on its Siteadvisor blog:

"We suppose the study needed some comic relief to take away from the fact that a study that finds its paid sponsor to be the best at something is more of an ad than a study.

We couldn't agree more.

technorati tags: microsoft, siteadvisor, mcafee, skewed+research,

Silicon Valley has a love affair with its garages because HP started out in one back in 1939, marking the first official garage start-up. HP in 2004 purchased its garage, which has been turned into an office.

The garage symbolizes the nimble, low cost beginnings to the beginnings of today's Silicon Valley juggernauts like Cisco, Ebay and Intel (although none of those were started in garages).

The myth is so strong that Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos picked a garage because of it's appeal. The e-tailer had plenty of money for a genuine office, but Bezos was thinking about his PR strategy at a very early phase.

The HP garage that started it all.

technorati tags: hp, google, garage, amazon, start-up

SAP and Oracle have been going at it like two hormone-laden teenagers since 2004. That year Oracle spent $10.3bn on the acquisition Peoplesoft, turning the high end enterprise software marketing into a two-horse race.

The two do anything they can to point out (alleged) weak spots in the other's strategy and revenue figures.

Childish would be the first word that comes to mind when describing this. Except that this little spat involves a billion dollar software market.

Photo: Dawn Allynn

technorati tags: oracle, SAP, fight, philips, charles+philips