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Teacher Faces Jail Time For Porn Pop-ups
Who is responsible for keeping the computers at school clean and child-safe? A Connecticut court is siding with the school system in the case of substitute teacher Julie Amero, who has been convicted for four counts of “risking injury to a child.” Amero now faces up to 40 years of jail time for pornographic pop-ups that appeared on a computer she was using in a classroom—pop-ups that she and her lawyers argue were a result of spy and adware on the computer, out-of-date virus software, and an expired firewall license.
Forty years of jail time? That’s one insane judgement. Amero plans to appeal the case, but has a sentencing the beginning of March. As mentioned in the article, the school board seems to be swaying away from the real problem at hand… lack of firewalls and security software. Computers armed with Windows 98 and IE5 doesn’t help either.
Source: Ars Technica
YouTube Hands Over User’s Info to Fox
Three weeks after receiving a subpoena from the U.S. District Court in Northern California, YouTube has reportedly identified a user accused by 20th Century Fox Television of uploading episodes of the show 24 a week prior to their running on television. That user, named ECOTtotal, is also alleged to have uploaded 12 episodes of The Simpsons, some quite old. Apparently Google and YouTube were willing and able to identify the owner of the username ECOTtotal, acording to a report.
This should be a lesson to everyone who uses YouTube, as your information is not exactly safe. It will be handed over if need be, but will likely only happen if you leak shows that FOX airs ;-)
Source: Tech Crunch
US Group Wants Canada Blacklisted Over Piracy
The IIAA wants to add Canada to a blacklist of the worst intellectual property offenders. A powerful coalition of U.S. software, movie and music producers is urging the Bush administration to put Canada on an infamous blacklist of intellectual property villains, alongside China, Russia and Belize. ‘Canada’s chronic failure to modernize its copyright regime has made it a global hub for bootleg movies, pirated software and tiny microchips that allow video-game users to bypass copyright protections.
My favorite quote from the article would have to be, “The disturbing thing is that the Canadian government doesn’t seem to take this very seriously.” Yes, this is all we need. A canuck version of the RIAA and MPAA. Hopefully Canada will not cave in to the threat.
Does VoIP Break Home Security?
There is an ongoing story that consumer VoIP services can cause your home security alarm system to malfunction or not work at all. A news article brought up the problem with customer phone systems in Canada who were using Primus but Vonage customers in the U.S have complained too. And a number of sites have popped up offering suggestions to help deal with the problem. The situation isn’t all that surprising as the nature of VoIP has left other emergency services wanting – for example, e911.
This is more of a “should I get VoIP” argument, but a few good points are made. Something needs to be done to make sure a VoIP line can be implemented without any other adverse results.
Source: Network World
Peer-to-Peer Market for RMT Trading Debuts
parter is a new entry in the real money trading industry that uses an eBay-like “peer-to-peer†approach for the buying and selling of game gold for World of Warcraft and other MMORPG online games. The company has received venture capital funding from Bessemer Venture Partners and its management includes executives with experience at THQ, Walt Disney, Expedia, Ariba and IGN. Sparter describes itself as “the world’s first company devoted to enabling global Gamer2Gamer trading of virtual currencies.â€
It didn’t take long for a new method of virtual trading to come about, since eBay decided to de-list all such auctions just two weeks ago. This new service uses Escrow instead of PayPal (seeing as it’s owned by eBay), but is more secure overall. Will it be a success? Only time will tell.
Source: Virtual Economies
D-Link DGL-4300 Router Heatsink Mod
After reading about my router model (the D-Link DGL-4300 Wireless 108G Gaming Router) failing for people, I made this nifty little mod that pleases me every time I look at it. The Thermalright HR-05 was my best bet at the time, as it had the 30x30mm foot to let me center it fairly well between capacitors.
Router heat is a problem everyone seems to have. Although most can still function at 100% while hot, some become sluggish or can even result in a shortened the lifespan. Well, shoving a huge passive heatsink in the middle of the unit is one way to handle things!
Source: Review Desk
OCZ Announces Equalizer 2500 DPI Laser Gaming Mouse
Sunnyvale, CA—February 14, 2007—OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra high performance and high reliability memory and components, today unveiled their plans to introduce gaming peripherals, and offer the best gaming mouse on the market. The new OCZ Equalizer Laser Mouse is sure to excite today’s demanding gamers with its unique features, high performance engine, and competitive edge. Designed to give gamers an extra edge, the Equalizer features quality ergonomics and advanced features so gamers can excel in even the most demanding games.
I had a chance to briefly use this mouse at CES and have high hopes to see it succeed in more thorough testing. You can look forward to our review in the coming weeks and can read the full release here.
AMD Recognized Among Leading Corporate Citizens
SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Feb 14, 2007 – AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced its No. 2 ranking on the “100 Best Corporate Citizens” list for 2007 by CRO magazine. The “100 Best Corporate Citizens” list identifies companies that excel at combining strong financial performance with responsible practices on environmental and social issues. This is the second consecutive year AMD has been recognized in the top five on the list for its corporate and social responsibility practices.
You can read the complete release here.
More Buyers home in on Office 2007
Retail sales of Office 2007 were 108.3% better than those of Office 2003 during the first week of its launch, according to a preliminary study by the NPD Group, a consumer and retail trade researcher. The report noted that while the average selling price for Office 2007 declined 1.1% to $206.93, the dollar volume jumped by 106.3%. According to Chris Swenson, NPD director of software industry analysis, sales of the cheaper Home and Student editions of Office contributed to the dip in average selling price.
The release seems to have hit a good accord with people all over. Personally, I have to say it’s for good reason. I’m not normally a big fan of Microsoft products, but Word and Excel 2007 have me trapped… they are fantastic. If only most people felt the same way about Vista…
Source: Neowin
LG Accuses Apple Of Ripping Off iPhone Design
A few days after Apple announced the iPhone, Korean handset maker LG officially unveiled the Prada phone, a Prada-branded touchscreen phone that bore some similarities to the iPhone. Unlike the iPhone, the Prada Phone was not a closely guarded secret, as pictures of it had been available to the public for some time.
First Apple is sued for using the iPhone name and now they are accused of ripping off a design. In the end, Apple is still the real winner. I wouldn’t go as far as to say they could get away with murder, but it’s pretty close to that point.
Source: Tech Dirt
New NVIDIA Intel Desktop Chipsets for 2007
MCP73 is NVIDIA’s headline integrated graphics chipset for Intel in 2007. It will come in no less than three flavors. The main chipset, dubbed MCP73P, is a 1333MHz front-side bus chipset. A cut down version of the same chipset, dubbed MCP73PV, will only feature a 1066MHz FSB. Our sources would not reveal the third chipset, although is it likely a derivative that does not feature integrated graphics.
The chipset will also offer DDR2-667 support, so it doesn’t seem to be geared for the enthusiast market at all. SLI is not going to be supported either, but HDMI and HDCP will be.
Source: Daily Tech
Dream.WinCustomize.Com Launches
Today, Neowin.net partner site, WinCustomize.com, has launched the officially sanctioned Windows DreamScene community, Dream.WinCustomize.com in which users of Windows DreamScene can download additional animated wallpapers (right now) that are in the new .Dream format that has been designed with animated wallpapers in mind.
It was only a matter of time, but the site looks great. If you are a Vista Ultimate user and want to get to dreamin’, head over to the new site. The selection is extremely limited right now, but shouldn’t take long to grow.
Source: Neowin
One Laptop Per Child Has Remote Kill Switch
At the end of the latest Reuters puff piece on the devices, someone involved in the project notes that to keep these devices off the black market, the devices can be remotely shut down by project organizers. That seems both pointless and silly. If the recipients of the devices find that they can be better off selling such a device for food or shelter, why shouldn’t they?
When I first heard of the OLPC project, I thought it was great. Fast forward to today though, and I don’t think anyone knows of it’s future. The project as a whole doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Then with news like this.. it’s going to be hard to continue shedding good light on this project.
Source: Tech Dirt
Vistas UAC Opens Wide Security Hole
“[When] you try to run such a program, you get a UAC prompt and you have only two choices: either to agree to run this application as administrator or to disallow running it at all. That means that if you downloaded some freeware Tetris game, you will have to run its installer as administrator, giving it not only full access to all your file system and registry, but also allowing it to load kernel drivers! Why should a Tetris installer be allowed to load kernel drivers?”
Good point. The article mentions that in XP, you had the choice whether or not to run the installer as an Administrator or not. When you don’t run as Admin, the installer has far less control over your system. Vistas scheme however, gives slim options. Admin, or nothing.
Source: ZD Net
Demystifying Display Connectors
DVI as a standard features a number of sub-standards, some analog, some digital. Now DVI is already seeing the writing on the wall due to its limited bandwidth, just as the world grows accustomed to it. HDMI is crossing from the TV set to the computer, UDI is creeping into the market, and DisplayPort is riding over the horizon and hoping to take over the world. What if you just want to play Supreme Commander or do your taxes? Can’t you just poke a monitor cable plug into a display adapter and be done with it?
If you are confused by display connectors, this article may be of some use to you. They go over the basics of VGA, DVI, HDMI and even UDI.
Source: Extreme Tech
Blu-Ray and HD-DVD Broken
Arnezami, a hacker on the Doom9 forum, has published a crack for extracting the “processing key” from a high-def DVD player. This key can be used to gain access to every single Blu-Ray and HD-DVD disc. Previously, another Doom9 user called Muslix64 had broken both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD by extracting the “volume keys” for each disc, a cumbersome process. This break builds on Muslix64’s work but extends it — now you can break all AACS-locked discs.
It goes to show, protections will not last long while hackers are around. The article mentions that AACS took years to develop and billions of dollars to fund, yet it was cracked in a few mere weeks. When will the companies realize it’s a losing battle? I don’t agree with piracy, but the reality is there.
Source: Boing Boing
Firefox Hits 300 Million Downloads
Firefox has reached a new milestone: 300,000,000 downloads since its initial release back in November 9, 2004. That’s 825 days ago, which makes a cute rate of : 363,636.3636..downloads/day. As usual, it must be noted that it says nothing about the actual number of users (except they are a pretty big bunch) as a single user may have downloaded it several times for his/her different computers or a single download may have been installed in several computers.
*raises hand* I must’ve downloaded Firefox at least 20 times in the past two years (if not more), before I used common sense and decided that I should just save the installer on a thumb drive. So it’s no wonder this height has been reached, but it’s impressive nonetheless!
Source: Mozilla Links
Vista’s Ready Boost is no match for RAM
There’s a new way to enhance your cache in Vista – simply plug in your Flash memory stick. But how much performance gain can you really expect? TG Daily ran an average PC through a benchmark parcours and discovered that the old rules still apply: There is no substitute for an adequate amount of system memory. Period.
I think it’s safe to say that if you -need- an extra “boost”, the thumb drive will serve you well. It’s still no match for actual RAM though.
Source: TG Daily
FBI lost 160 laptops in last 44 months
When the initial audit was completed in 2002, the FBI was losing 3.82 functional weapons a month (training weapons were going missing at an even higher rate of 5.07 each month). Laptop losses were even worse, with 10.71 disappearing every thirty days. The new audit shows significantly better numbers: only 1.09 functional weapons and 2.64 laptops were lost each month, and losses of training weapons dropped all the way to 0.41.
The number seems low, but 144 laptops in the span of four years? It’s nothing when an average Joe’s laptop is lost, but these are notebooks with incredibly sensitive information!
Source: Ars Technica
Racial Ambiguity in Games
I’m digging through all the email that accumulated during DICE, and just found a news tip from a reader named Jason Ellis, who points out that he’s got a list of black video game main characters going on his blog Microscopic. I’d already seen the list, because it was the subject of a little mini-controversy going on over at NeoGAF right now — specifically over the fact that the poster girl of Ellis’ piece is Jade, the main character of Beyond Good and Evil.
Hah, this seems like a silly issue to bring up, or is it? It’s mentioned in the article that there is a lack of black people in games, which does seem to be a case but is it on purpose? It’s an interesting issue however you look at it.
Source: Wired
Is the High-Def Format War Over?
Seizing on widely reported January sales numbers from Neilsen VideoScan, a Sony executive said Friday that the studio plans to begin marketing Blu-ray as the winner of the high-def format war. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment worldwide president David Bishop made the comments to trade newspaper Video Business in reaction to widely reported Neilsen/VideoScan sales figures indicating that Blu-ray discs outsold HD DVD in January by a ratio of 2:1.
It seems kind of early to declare an actual winner at this point in the game, but hey, that’s marketing. If only they were this quick to jump to action when the slew of battery explosions occurred last year.
Source: High-Def Digest
Vista Not Playing Nice With FPS Games
Computerworld is reporting that gamers who have installed Vista are reporting problems with first person-shooter titles such as CounterStrike, Half-Life 2, Doom 3. and F.E.A.R. (Users have compiled lists of games with Vista issues.) The complaints, which have turned up on gamers’ forums, cite crashes and low frame rates. Not surprisingly, the problems relate to graphics hardware and software: ‘Experts blame still-flaky software drivers, Vista’s complexity, and a dearth of new video cards optimized for Vista’s new rendering technology, DirectX 10.
This is the price you pay for jumping on a new OS as soon as it comes out. You’d have to be very naive to believe that everything would work out of the box ;-)
Source: Slashdot
Josh Wolf Interviewed
Josh Wolf, 24, has spent almost six months in jail. More time than any journalist in US history for protecting his sources. He was jailed on August 1st of last year when he refused to turn over video that he had shot of an anti-G8 demonstration in San Francisco to a federal grand jury.
You have to give props to this guy for sticking to his guns in the face of adversity. I have to say, I don’t think I’d have the willpower to spend an undetermined amount of time in prison, semi-willingly. It’s amazing that 170+ days have passed already; It seems just like yesterday he walked up to the prison. Good read if you have been following the story.
Source: Democracy Now!
AMD Offers New Products, Expands AMD64 Longevity Program…
Embedded World, Nürnberg, GERMANY – Feb. 13, 2007 – At the Embedded World Exhibition & Conference this week, AMD (NYSE: AMD) announced the next step in the evolution of its embedded business-including the addition of Second-Generation AMD Opteron(tm) processors and AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 dual-core processors to the AMD64 Longevity Program, plus the release of the new AMD Geode(tm) [email protected] processor. With a commitment to lowering customers’ time to market, AMD is also offering several new Reference Design Kits (RDKs). Spanning high-end to very low power embedded markets, these new AMD solutions are part of a continued focus on delivering a stable, consistent, high-performance architecture for embedded designers.
You can read the full release here.
NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTS 320MB Released…
… and of course there are many reviews available for your consumption.
HardOCP – “What we’ve learned is that the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB has the shader horsepower to play the latest games at their maximum playable settings. The 8800 GTS GPU is pushing a high level of game performance and its foundation is strong, The only bottleneck, as should be expected, is the “missing†320MB of memory capacity, but this only affects your current games minimally and usual in terms of a single level of AA.”
Legit Reviews – “When it comes to performing well in today’s current games the XFX 8800 GTS 320MB XXX edition graphics card is no slouch. In some cases, it was very near the class leading 8800 GTX, which speaks volumes about the kind of gaming experience you can expect. I was more than a little skeptical when I first heard that NVIDIA planned to bring a card to market with half the memory size of the standard GTS but I have been thoroughly impressed with the performance of the XXX 320MB card. It delivers exactly where it counts, at resolutions the largest percentage of the market actually games…”