Song Swapper Faces $5.5m Fine for Doing: 'What Kids Do'

By: Marco A. Ayllon
Science and Technology News
July 30, 2009

The major recording labels in the US are again going after an individual for swapping songs through file-sharing networks such as Kazaa.

In the previous case, in Minnesota, a single mother of four was fined more than $2 million for copyright infringement.

Tenenbaum is accused of downloading and distributing songs from bands such as Green Day and Aerosmith. The case centres on 30 shared songs, though the recording companies say he distributed many more than that.

The court heard that Tenenbaum was "a kid who did what kids do and loved technology and loved music".

The industry has typically offered to settle cases for about $US5000, though it has said that it stopped filing such lawsuits last August and is instead working with internet service providers to fight the worst offenders. However, cases already filed are proceeding to trial.

Charles Nesson, a Harvard Law School professor representing Tenenbaum, said his client - a graduate student in physics - started downloading music as a teenager, taking advantage of file-sharing networks that make it possible for computer users to share digital files with a network of strangers.

"He was a kid who did what kids do and loved technology and loved music," Nesson said in opening statements.

Nesson said the recording companies enjoyed decades of success but were slow to adapt to the advancements of the internet.

"The internet was not Joel's fault," Nesson said. "The internet sweeps in like the way the automobile swept into the buggy industry."

But Tim Reynolds, one of the lawyers representing the recording industry, said song-swappers such as Tenenbaum took a significant toll on the recording industry's revenues and on back-up singers, sound engineers and other people who make a living in music.

Reynolds said Tenenbaum used a computer in his parents' house in Providence and then at Goucher College in Baltimore, where he was a student, to download and distribute digital files.


He was flagged in August 2004 by MediaSentry, a private investigation company that was used by the recording industry to identify illegal song distribution.

Reynolds said that Tenenbaum continued distributing songs even after he had been confronted about it and that the defendant blamed his sister, friends and a foster child who had lived at the house.

"This defendant knew what he was doing was wrong at each step of the way," Reynolds said.

Under federal law, the recording companies are entitled to $US750 to $US30,000 per infringement but the law allows the jury to raise that to as much as $150,000 per track if it finds the infringements were wilful.

In the Minnesota case, the jury ruled Jammie Thomas-Rasset, 32, wilfully violated the copyrights on 24 songs and awarded damages of $US80,000 per song.

Nesson urged the jury to "find the minimum number of infringements" by Tenenbaum, if any at all.

The recording companies involved in the case are subsidiaries of Universal Music, Warner Music and Sony.


There's no subterfuge with Joel Tenenbaum.

The graduate student accused of copyright violations admitted in court on Thursday that he shared files and knew others were downloading the music he made available on Kazaa, according to a Twitter post from blogger Ben Sheffner.

Sheffner, a copyright lawyer who is covering the story from the courtroom, wrote "(Music industry) attorney getting scores of admissions from Tenenbaum. Joel doesn't resist."

The four major music labels, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, EMI and Sony Music filed the copyright suit against Tenenbaum and in previous statements he denied sharing, according to Sheffner.

By admitting guilt, it appears Tenenbaum is going to take his chances that his attorney, Prof. Charles Nesson can convince the jury that sharing unauthorized music files doesn't cause that much harm and ordering defendants to pay big damages isn't justified.


Tenenbaum, along with Jammie Thomas-Rasset, are the only people accused of illegal file sharing that have taken their cases before a jury. In June, Thomas was found liable of copyright infringement and ordered to pay nearly $2 million.

Computer Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man

By: Marco A. Ayllon
Science and Technology News
July 30, 2009

A robot that can open doors and find electrical outlets to recharge itself. Computer viruses that no one can stop. Predator drones, which, though still controlled remotely by humans, come close to a machine that can kill autonomously.

Impressed and alarmed by advances in artificial intelligence, a group of computer scientists is debating whether there should be limits on research that might lead to loss of human control over computer-based systems that carry a growing share of society’s workload, from waging war to chatting with customers on the phone.

Their concern is that further advances could create profound social disruptions and even have dangerous consequences.

As examples, the scientists pointed to a number of technologies as diverse as experimental medical systems that interact with patients to simulate empathy, and computer worms and viruses that defy extermination and could thus be said to have reached a “cockroach” stage of machine intelligence.

While the computer scientists agreed that we are a long way from Hal, the computer that took over the spaceship in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” they said there was legitimate concern that technological progress would transform the work force by destroying a widening range of jobs, as well as force humans to learn to live with machines that increasingly copy human behaviors.

The researchers — leading computer scientists, artificial intelligence researchers and roboticists who met at the Asilomar Conference Grounds on Monterey Bay in California — generally discounted the possibility of highly centralized superintelligences and the idea that intelligence might spring spontaneously from the Internet. But they agreed that robots that can kill autonomously are either already here or will be soon.

They focused particular attention on the specter that criminals could exploit artificial intelligence systems as soon as they were developed. What could a criminal do with a speech synthesis system that could masquerade as a human being? What happens if artificial intelligence technology is used to mine personal information from smart phones?

The researchers also discussed possible threats to human jobs, like self-driving cars, software-based personal assistants and service robots in the home. Just last month, a service robot developed by Willow Garage in Silicon Valley proved it could navigate the real world.

A report from the conference, which took place in private on Feb. 25, is to be issued later this year. Some attendees discussed the meeting for the first time with other scientists this month and in interviews.

The conference was organized by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, and in choosing Asilomar for the discussions, the group purposefully evoked a landmark event in the history of science. In 1975, the world’s leading biologists also met at Asilomar to discuss the new ability to reshape life by swapping genetic material among organisms. Concerned about possible biohazards and ethical questions, scientists had halted certain experiments. The conference led to guidelines for recombinant DNA research, enabling experimentation to continue.

The meeting on the future of artificial intelligence was organized by Eric Horvitz, a Microsoft researcher who is now president of the association.

Dr. Horvitz said he believed computer scientists must respond to the notions of superintelligent machines and artificial intelligence systems run amok.

The idea of an “intelligence explosion” in which smart machines would design even more intelligent machines was proposed by the mathematician I. J. Good in 1965. Later, in lectures and science fiction novels, the computer scientist Vernor Vinge popularized the notion of a moment when humans will create smarter-than-human machines, causing such rapid change that the “human era will be ended.” He called this shift the Singularity.

This vision, embraced in movies and literature, is seen as plausible and unnerving by some scientists like William Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems. Other technologists, notably Raymond Kurzweil, have extolled the coming of ultrasmart machines, saying they will offer huge advances in life extension and wealth creation.

“Something new has taken place in the past five to eight years,” Dr. Horvitz said. “Technologists are providing almost religious visions, and their ideas are resonating in some ways with the same idea of the Rapture.”

The Kurzweil version of technological utopia has captured imaginations in Silicon Valley. This summer an organization called the Singularity University began offering courses to prepare a “cadre” to shape the advances and help society cope with the ramifications.

“My sense was that sooner or later we would have to make some sort of statement or assessment, given the rising voice of the technorati and people very concerned about the rise of intelligent machines,” Dr. Horvitz said.

The A.A.A.I. report will try to assess the possibility of “the loss of human control of computer-based intelligences.” It will also grapple, Dr. Horvitz said, with socioeconomic, legal and ethical issues, as well as probable changes in human-computer relationships. How would it be, for example, to relate to a machine that is as intelligent as your spouse?

Dr. Horvitz said the panel was looking for ways to guide research so that technology improved society rather than moved it toward a technological catastrophe. Some research might, for instance, be conducted in a high-security laboratory.

The meeting on artificial intelligence could be pivotal to the future of the field. Paul Berg, who was the organizer of the 1975 Asilomar meeting and received a Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1980, said it was important for scientific communities to engage the public before alarm and opposition becomes unshakable.

“If you wait too long and the sides become entrenched like with G.M.O.,” he said, referring to genetically modified foods, “then it is very difficult. It’s too complex, and people talk right past each other.”

Tom Mitchell, a professor of artificial intelligence and machine learning at Carnegie Mellon University, said the February meeting had changed his thinking. “I went in very optimistic about the future of A.I. and thinking that Bill Joy and Ray Kurzweil were far off in their predictions,” he said. But, he added, “The meeting made me want to be more outspoken about these issues and in particular be outspoken about the vast amounts of data collected about our personal lives.”

Despite his concerns, Dr. Horvitz said he was hopeful that artificial intelligence research would benefit humans, and perhaps even compensate for human failings. He recently demonstrated a voice-based system that he designed to ask patients about their symptoms and to respond with empathy. When a mother said her child was having diarrhea, the face on the screen said, “Oh no, sorry to hear that.”

A physician told him afterward that it was wonderful that the system responded to human emotion. “That’s a great idea,” Dr. Horvitz said he was told. “I have no time for that.”

Video About:Self-Improving Artificial Intelligence:


Video About: New Version Amazing Robot Asimo:

Unpaid Uills? Good Luck Starting Future Laptops

By: Marco A. Ayllon
Nautilus Science and Techology News
March 31, 2009

As wireless carriers begin to subsidize computers that come with wireless Internet access, they're faced with a quandary: What do they do if the buyer stops paying his bills?


The company can cut off the computer's wireless access, but the carrier would still be out a couple of hundred dollars. The buyer would be left with a computer that's fully usable except for cellular broadband.


LM Ericsson AB, the Swedish company that makes many of the modems that go into laptops, announced Tuesday that its new modem will deal with this issue by including a feature that's virtually a wireless repo man. If the carrier has the stomach to do so, it can send a signal that completely disables the computer, making it impossible to turn on.


"We call it a `kill pill,'" said Mats Norin, Ericsson's vice president of mobile broadband modules.


The module will work on AT&T Inc.'s U.S. third-generation network, and on many other 3G networks overseas.


AT&T late last year started subsidizing small laptops known as "netbooks," which normally cost about $400, so that RadioShack Corp. can sell them for $100. The buyer commits to paying $60 per month for two years for AT&T's wireless broadband access. Such offers have become very common in Europe.


It's unlikely that carriers would resort to wielding the "kill pill." But the technology, developed with Intel Corp., has other uses. For instance, a company could secure its data by locking down stolen laptops wirelessly. Lenovo Group Ltd. has said it will build this sort of feature into its laptops.


The new Ericsson modem can also stay active while a computer is off, listening for wireless messages. That means it could wake up and alert the user when it receives an important e-mail, or if someone is calling with a conferencing application like Skype.


Laptop makers that use Ericsson modules include LG Electronics Inc., Dell Inc., Toshiba Corp. and Lenovo.

FBI: Cyber Crime Escalates in 2008

By: Marco A. Ayllon
Nautilus Technology News
March 30, 2009

Cyber crimes hit record numbers last year, according to a new report (pdf) released today by Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). IC3, a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center (a Glen Allen, Va., congressionally funded nonprofit that trains law enforcement on how to investigate financial and cyber crimes), says that in 2008 it received 275,284 complaints (up 33 percent from 2007's total of 206,884) of cyber fraud, computer hacks, spam, child pornography and other online offenses—and that cyber scams costs consumers an estimated $265 million, 10 percent more than the $239.09 million reported lost in 2007.

Online transactions in which either the goods or the payment wasn't received accounted for 33 percent of complaints that the feds received last year (up 32 percent from 2007). Auction fraud (think eBay transactions gone bad) actually dipped from 28.6 percent in 2007 to 25.5 percent last year. Ponzi schemes, computer fraud, and check fraud complaints represented 19.5 percent of all IC3 complaints. Overall, fraud victims reporting average losses of $931 each.

Some 74 percent of those who contacted authorities said they had communicated with the scam artists via e-mail. Ironically, one of the year's biggest e-mail scams involved bogus e-mails, supposedly sent by the FBI, soliciting personal information, such as a bank account numbers, by falsely claiming that it needed such info to investigate an "impending financial transaction." Some of the bogus e-mails even claimed to have come directly from FBI Director Robert Mueller, Deputy Director John S. Pistole, or some other high ranking official or investigative unit within the bureau. (The report notes that the FBI does not contact U.S. citizens regarding personal financial matters through unsolicited e-mails.)

Another common scam reported to the IC3 in 2008 involved hackers who broke into personal e-mail accounts (read more on how this can be done), enabling them to send out e-mails to people in the victims' address books asking for money. Posing as the e-mail account holders, fraudsters claim that they are stranded in Nigeria (or some other country), where they were allegedly robbed and now need $1,000 or some other sum to cover hotel bills and travel expenses.

Computer Security: New Conficker Worm Alert!

By: Marco A. Ayllon
Nautilus Technology News
March 30, 2009

A gouvernment information security watchdog has issued a warning to take precautions against a fast-mutating malicious computer program poised to strike on Wednesday.
In a bulletin sent out on Monday, the Singapore Computer Emergency Response Team (SingCert) warned that the latest variant of the Conficker worm, known as Conficker.C, may 'become active on April 1'.

SingCert, a unit of technology sector regulator Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, identifies information security threats and coordinates computer security responses to events like hacking attacks.

Conficker targets computers running Microsoft Windows software, automatically jumping from an infected computer to another over a local network or by hitching a ride on a portable storage devices like USB-drives. Only computers that have not been updated with new security signatures are vulnerable. The worm is one of the more sophisticated such programs developed to date.

Unlike earlier versions like 2004's Sasser worm, which was easily found and subsequently de-wormed by a vigilant user, Conficker's creator, who remains at large despite a US$250,000 (about S$380,000) bounty put up by Microsoft, regularly comes up with new and improved versions of the worm to foil such efforts.

The newest variant, Conficker.C, the fourth incarnation of the worm since it was first discovered last year, disables security features like Microsoft Windows Automatic Update. One of Conficker's key features is its ability to call up a 'master computer' via the Internet for directions, which is also present in its newest variant in a new and improved form.

On Wednesday, Conficker.C infected computers will do just this, SingCert warned on Monday, although 'the exact nature of the activity that will occur on that day is not known at this time.'

Since it was released last year, Conficker has claimed more than ten million victims worldwide, including computers used by the British Parliament. While definitive statistics of Conficker infections here are not available, at least 269 companies have been infected as at January, according to security company F-Secure.

Visit SingCert's website at www.singcert.org.sg for instructions on how to check if your computer is infected, and how to remove the worm.

Information States Disney, Hulu.com Resume Talks for Bringing ABC Shows

By: Marco A. Ayllon
Nautilus Technology News
March 30, 2009

According to Friday reports from paidContent. org, citing unnamed sources, with talks between the Walt Disney Co and Hulu. com having resumed, there are chances of ABC shows coming to the popular online video site; along with content from Disney's cable networks, like ESPN and Disney Channel.

Disney, which is the ninth rank-holder among the video sites in the US, has long been trying to negotiate a deal with the fourth ranker Hulu - as well as other web-based content distributors - in an attempt to increase the viewership of the ad-supported ABC shows being offered on ABC. com and its local TV affiliates like AOL. com, and Fancast site by Comcast Corp.

Though there has been no official confirmation about the supposed resumption of talks from either Hulu or Disney, "inside sources" say that Disney is also keen on an equity stake in Hulu, similar to the equal ownership stakes held by NBC Universal and News Corp; both with 45 percent stake apiece. In case the deal comes through, Hulu would have three of the biggest broadcast TV networks, excluding CBS.

However, it is still not clear about which of the ABC shows will be brought over to the Hulu site, there are indications that the shows being considered for the crossover include ABC prime time shows like `Lost,' `Desperate Housewives,' and `Ugly Betty'.

Attention, Bargain Hunters: Circuit City Is Now Closing

Nautilus Science & Technology News
By: Marco Ayllon
March 7, 2009

It’s coming to a close a bit sooner than expected: Circuit City’s going-out-of-business sale will end Sunday, March 8. Great American Group, one of four firms managing the liquidation of the once-great electronics chain, has announced that Circuit City’s $1.7 billion in inventory is just about gone. So if you’re looking for a killer bargain on whatever’s left in stock -- or even store fixtures like display shelves, a ratty office chair, or the manager’s coffee mug -- now’your last chance.

I’ve seen Circuit City ads over the past few days that promote discounts of 90-percent or so, but it’s a pretty safe bet that the 65-inch plasmas and Blu-ray players are all gone. What’s left? When it comes to the final days of a liquidation sale, you can never tell. Maybe there’s a 32-inch HDTV with a cracked bezel, an open 50-pack of DVD-R discs (with a few missing), or a demo laptop that may or may not boot.

Liquidation sales are always a bit sad: Roped-off areas to shrink the retail space; open boxes with manuals, cables, and other flotsam scattered everywhere. Harry McCracken of Technologizer captured the mood beautifully in his The Tragic Last Days of Circuit City pictorial. It’s hard to believe that Circuit City was once the second-largest consumer electronics retailer in the United States.

If we’ve learned anything about going-out-of-business sales over the past few weeks, it’s this: Don’t bother going the first week. That’s when the liquidator, hoping to reel in the suckers, cuts prices a measly 10 percent. You’ll almost always find better deals at competing retailers, particularly if you comparison-shop online. The real deals come deeper into the sale -- say, weeks 4 to 6 -- but by then you run the risk of missing out on the items you want.

If you’re planning to stop by your local Circuit City this weekend, it’s wise to call first. Some of CC’s 567 stores in the U.S. have already closed their doors.

Microsoft Recruiting For Windows 7 Small Biz Blitzkrieg

Nautilus Science & Technolgy News
By: Marco A. Ayllon
March 6, 2009

Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) wants small businesses that have avoided Windows Vista like the plague to upgrade to Windows 7, and the software giant is enlisting the aid of its small business-focused solution providers to help make that happen.
Earlier this week, Microsoft quietly unveiled its Windows 7 Small Business Ignite Program, which gives small businesses a chance to test out the Windows 7 Beta with guidance from Microsoft channel partners.

The program, details of which are scarce, appears to be aimed at convincing small businesses that, unlike Vista, Windows 7 won't actually destroy their businesses and ransack their homes. In other words, it's another effort to counteract entrenched negative views of Vista.

But despite the positive early returns on the Windows 7 beta, Microsoft faces enormous challenges in getting small businesses, many of which are perfectly content running their day-to-day operations on Windows XP, to justify spending for the upgrade to Windows 7. And that would be the case even if the economy weren't in a full-fledged meltdown mode.

"Windows XP is a very stable operating system that all of my clients are familiar with, trust, and have no reason to upgrade from. They will not go en masse to Windows 7, regardless of the price," said Jere Terrill, principal at My Computer Mechanic, a Castle Rock, Colo.-based solution provider.

Microsoft's small-business-focused partners were among the last to receive the final release of Windows Vista, and that put a big dent in their confidence in Vista's ability to perform in a production environment, according to Mark Crall, president of Charlotte Tech Care Team, a Charlotte, N.C.-based solution provider.

By getting the Windows 7 Release Candidate in small business partners' hands earlier, Microsoft can help erase those bad memories. However, there is no financial incentive for Microsoft partners to sell new deployments of Windows 7 to small businesses under current licensing arrangements, as their only options are upgrade, OEM or Retail licensing, Crall noted.

"Unless you are a system builder, or selling large quantities, then all you can do is wait for their hardware to die and suggest they call Dell (NSDQ:Dell)," Crall said.

Last November, speculation flared that Microsoft might be planning to offer a "Windows 7 for Small Businesses" edition at some point in the future. This was fueled by the appearance of a Microsoft job posting for a Senior Marketing Manager, whose responsibilities would be to "increase the effectiveness of partner co-marketing direct to Small and Medium Business customers and through partners' extensive indirect channel partners, including distribution and breadth reseller network."

With Vista, small businesses had just two choices -- Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Enterprise -- neither of which fit their needs and both of which were too expensive for the segment.

If Microsoft does come out with a small-business-focused Windows 7 SKU, with a lighter price tag to match, that could help remove some of the barriers and spur Windows 7 adoption, according to solution providers.

Microsoft tweaks Experience Index for Windows 7

Nautilus Science & Technology News
February 25, 2009
By: Marco Ayllon

New performance tool better measures multi-core CPUs and drives

Microsoft Corp. has changed the PC performance rating tool Windows Experience Index for Windows 7 to better measure faster graphic cards, multi-core processors and drives.

The index's top score will go up from 5.9 to 7.9, and add several new tests to more accurately measure the performance of hard-disk and solid-state drives, says a mid-January post at the Engineering Windows 7 blog.

Windows Experience Index, first introduced with Windows Vista, is intended to help users discover which parts of their system needs to be upgraded for Windows and applications to run well, or if the PC needs to be replaced.


Reviews of the first public beta of Windows 7 indicate that it generally runs faster and more smoothly than Vista, despite the two sharing a very similar codebase.

But critics have alredy begun questioning the revamped index's usefulness and accuracy. One beta tester, going by the handle 'Hurricane Andrew' on Microsoft's MSDN developer Web site, complained that an older hard drive using the slower IDE interface was awarded a much higher rating than his newer, larger hard drive using the faster SATA-II interface.

"I hardly believe that's accurate," he wrote.

Others complained that the new scale, from 1.0 to 7.9, was counterintuitive, or that the criteria for drive performance should not have changed between Vista and Windows 7 for consistency's sake.

Michael Cherry, an analyst with the independent firm Directions on Microsoft, said he "doesn't put much stock" in the index's scores.

A Microsoft representative said in an e-mail that the company was "closely monitoring" input from beta testers aboutWindows 7, including for the new index, but would not say if changes would result from the feedback.

Windows 7 apps may not run faster on quad-cores
The Windows Experience Index, found under the System Icon in Vista or Windows 7's Control Panel, quickly scans hardware befor delivering five results, including for: processor, memory (RAM), graphics for general desktop work, gaming graphics performance, and the primary hard drive's performance. The results are based on the rated specifications of each component, not on their actual performance history in the scanned PC.

Because PC performance is often determined by the speed of the slowest-performing component, the index's "base score" is defined by the lowest of the five scores, rather than an average of all five.

PCs with a base score of between 1.0 and 2.9 can run Office applications and surf the Web, but not play games and videos or use Vista and Windows 7's Aero graphical user interface, Microsoft says.

Computers with a base score in the 3.0-range should be able to run Aero and most of Vista and Windows 7's new features, while those with scores in the 4.0 to 5.0-range should be able to enjoy high-definition (HD) video and 3-D gaming.

For more information visit: Official Microsoft Windows 7 Blog

Marvell’s SheevaPlug is a Plug Computer

Nautilus Science & Technology News
February 25, 2009
By: Marco Ayllon

Marvell Introduces Plug Computing with SheevaPlug

With the economy in nearing 1997 lows we all need a distraction from the pains of the market and today that distraction is the Marvell SheevaPlug (Originally designed by GlobalScale Technologies). Marvell’s SheevaPlug looks like night light, but it is a what they are calling a plug computer — an embedded computer that plugs into the wall socket and is capable of running network-based services that normally require a dedicated personal computer. The enclosure is designed to plug directly into a regular US wall socket and draws less than one tenth of the power of a typical PC being used as a home server, which should lower your monthly electric bill if you run a PC at home 24/7. Even better the SheevaPlug development kit is available right now for $99 through Marvell, so this is a product that you can actually purchase.



The SheevaPlug is just 110mm (L) x 69.5mm (W) x 48.5 mm (H) and features a 1.2GHz Marvell Sheeva CPU with 512MB of flash memory and 512MB of DDR2 memory, the SheevaPlug provides what is said to be enough processing power and resources to run nearly any embedded computing application. As one would guess the PC plug doesn't consume much power and draws on average, less than five watts under normal operation compared to 25-100 Watts for a PC being used as a home server. The Marvell SheevaPlug also has Gigabit Ethernet for network connectivity as well as a USB 2.0 connector.



Today digital home services such as media servers, file sharing and backup software all need to be installed on a PC. A plug computer is a small, powerful computer that connects to an existing network using Gigabit Ethernet and it eliminates the need for an always-on PC in the digital home to access these services. The software for the SheevaPlug includes multiple Linux distributions that follow the opensource model which makes the SheevaPlug an ideal platform on which to develop or port any application. The SheevaPlug development kit contains the SheevaPlug as well as all the software tools needed to develop applications for the platform.



The Plug Computer is an inexpensive computer solution that has the technology and advancements to run a service on its own. This allows a software service to be bundled together with a plug computer and provides a simple deployment model for a consumer or small business. Specialized plug computers can be targeted at different market segments allowing vendors to clearly communicate the value proposition and deliver the optimal installation and use for the consumer. Consumers can use the plug for media sharing or for backup services. The convenient compact form factor of a plug computer promotes an energy efficient design and simplifies installation.



When Legit Reviews spoke to Marvell about the SheevaPlug we were told that it works well with USB 2.0 switches, so hooking up several USB 2.0 hard drives and using this as a file server is very much a possibility. Marvell also said that the Sheeva We also asked Marvell if the 1.2GHz Sheeva CPU would be able to keep up with streaming HD Blu-Ray content from the USB 2.0 input and they said that it had plenty of horse power to playback smooth HD content. If that proves true with the sample we have in route this could cause an issue for NVIDIA with their upcoming Ion Platform. NVIDIA expects the Ion platform to cost between $50 and $100 more than the the cost of a typical Intel Atom powered netbook ($225-$300), which means that the Marvell SheevaPlug will be roughly one third the price. With the way the economy is right now the lower the price the higher the sales and since many of use have USB 2.0 external hard drives or can get them for a low price. The $99 SheevaPlug should be an interesting product for those that run a PC at all times and doesn't need a ton of horse power. If you have a large network you can place the virsus scanner on the SheevaPlug and let it scan and fix issues found on the network without running the local machines. The SheevaPlug is an interesting PC, but we will save our full thoughts on it for when we get our hands on one this week and will bring you a detailed review after we use it!

Questions or Comments? View this thread in Legit forums!

Browsers Battles: Google backs case against Microsoft's Explorer

Browser makers Opera, Mozilla and Google are adding weight to an EU attack on Microsoft's dominance.

Nautilus News Science & Technology
February 24, 2009
By: Marco Ayllon

Google is joining forces with European regulators in an attack on Microsoft's dominance of the web browser market, injecting more bad blood between two of computing's richest and most powerful companies.

The latest assault on Microsoft's Internet Explorer comes as Google is trying to expand the usage of its own web browser, a six-month-old product called Chrome.
A complaint by another Internet Explorer rival, Opera, prompted the European Commission to open an investigation into whether Microsoft's bundling of its web browser with the Windows operating system had stifled competition and innovation. In their preliminary findings, the European regulators concluded that Microsoft had indeed given its web browser an unfair advantage that has been in violation of European law since 1996.

Microsoft has until late March to respond, which could force the Redmond, Washington-based software maker to detach Internet Explorer from Windows.
By becoming a third party in the European proceedings, Google hopes to build a case as to why Microsoft should be required to level the playing field for Chrome and other competing browsers.

"Creating a remedy that helps solve one problem without creating other unintended consequences isn't easy - but the more voices there are in the conversation the greater the chances of success," Sundar Pichai, a Google vice president, wrote in a blog post.

The makers of Firefox, which has risen in popularity in recent years and is the second-most-used browser behind Internet Explorer, already have offered to help the European Commission crack down on Microsoft.

A Microsoft spokesman declined comment on Tuesday, referring instead to a statement that the company issued last month after the European Commission's preliminary findings.

"We are committed to conducting our business in full compliance with European law," Microsoft said at that time.

In a quarterly report to shareholders last month, Microsoft said European regulators might force the company to set up a version of Windows that would bundle several browsers with the operating system, to make it easier for users to pick something other than Internet Explorer.

While Microsoft's has been at odds with other browser makers, its rivalry with Google is the most prickly.

Google has milked its leadership of the lucrative internet search market to undermine Microsoft's influence on how people interact with their computers. Microsoft has unsuccessfully tried to thwart Google's growth by pouring billions of dollars into its own search engine.

The battle between the two foes has occasionally spilled into the regulatory arena. Last year, Microsoft spearheaded a campaign that raised serious antitrust concerns about Google's plans to sell some ads on behalf of Yahoo, which is a distant second in the internet search market.

Google scrapped the Yahoo alliance in November, averting a lawsuit that US Justice Department planned to file to block the partnership.

Report: Free Windows 7 upgrades to run until January 2010

Nautilus Science & Technology News
February 12, 2009
By: Marco A. Ayllon

Latest clue that Windows 7 will ship by Christmas, says analyst

To encourage consumers to keep buying Windows Vista PCs this year despite Windows 7's looming release, Microsoft Corp. will give away free Windows 7 upgrades to people buying PCs with Vista until as late as Jan. 31 of next year, according to a report.

The report, from the Malaysian blog TechARP.com, which has called similar details correctly in the past, is another clue that Microsoft plans to release Windows 7 before year's end, said Matt Rosoff, an analyst at the independent research firm Directions on Microsoft.

Citing purported confidential memos from Microsoft, TechARP.com had earlier reported that the Windows 7 Upgrade Program will begin July 1 of this year.

That would mean that any Vista PCs purchased between then and Jan. 31, 2010, would be eligible for free upgrades to Windows 7.

TechARP reported today that those Windows 7 upgrade DVDs should be delivered by PC makers to customers by April 30 of next year. These dates are "open to change," TechARP reported.

The veracity of the report "seems reasonable to me," said Rosoff. "If they're soliciting OEM feedback now, that points to a possible release in time for holiday 2009."

Microsoft declined to comment on the TechARP report.

"Microsoft often explores options with our partners to determine product offerings," a spokeswoman said in an e-mail. "We are not announcing anything new at this time."

TechARP correctly named the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) dates for several Windows editions last year.

In Microsoft's prior Vista Express upgrade program, Windows XP PCs bought between October 26, 2006, and March 15, 2007, were eligible for free Vista upgrades.

Microsoft launched Vista to consumers officially on Jan. 30, 2007, or 45 days before the program's eligibility ended.

The program was plagued with delays, with consumers waiting weeks or months to get their Vista upgrade DVDs mailed to them.

TechARP has other purported details from the upgrade program, including screenshots and upgrade paths.

"The program sounds very similar to what they did before Vista," Rosoff said. "I think the terms are slightly different, but that's because there were fewer [versions] in XP, so the edition upgrade paths were similar."

Google's Grid Meter Looks to Save Homeowners Some Green

This is an example screenshot of Google's power meter software in action. The service, once it receives more partner support should eventually help reduce the stress on the grid and save users power bills by monitoring their usage and comparing it with grid demand for live information feeds. (Source: Google.org)

Nautilus Science & Technology News
February 12, 2009
By: Marco A. Ayllon

Google distinguishes itself from the pack by offering its green grid meter service for free.

DailyTech previously covered IBM's efforts to release a "green meter" which monitored the amount of electricity that small businesses use and equating it to green house gas emissions. Now Google has joined IBM and others by releasing its own entry into the burgeoning grid meter market.

The new service from Google is called PowerMeter and it's free to both home and commercial users. While this sounds great, there's one significant catch -- PowerMeter relies on others to provide the information it needs. Google is hoping that makers of home electronics and appliances will add hardware which will feed the service information wirelessly. It also needs utilities to provide it with grid metrics.

Kirsten Olsen Cahill, a program manager at Google.org, the company’s corporate philanthropy arm which developed the service, states, "We can’t build this product all by ourselves. We depend on a whole ecosystem of utilities, device makers and policies that would allow consumers to have detailed access to their home energy use and make smarter energy decisions."

The new service, if it gains a hardware foothold, will offer homeowners their first chance to participate in a smarter grid. Google is among the firms leading such efforts which seek to use existing resources more efficiently.

The service and others in the future may interface with the chips inside devices such as washing machines, dryers, and dishwashers to give users an ever-changing visual display of how much money it will cost to use the device at that particular time of the day. Electricity charges are tied to demand, something most consumers never pay much attention to when it comes to power usage. By using devices at times when demand is lower, users could potentially save a great deal of money, depending on their utility's policies.

Describes Rick Sergel, chief executive of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, an industry group that sets operating standards for the grid in an interview with the New York Times, "They’ve been putting a chip in your dishwasher for a long time that would allow you to run it any time you want. (These services) provide an opportunity to create dancing partners that will help the system balance itself."

The new meter could also be very useful for plug-in electric vehicles. With GM and others preparing to unleash a fleet of electric plug-ins on the streets, advanced grid meters could allow for billing, at local recharging stations and could also help users and utilities work together to figure out the optimal time for daily recharges. If the user leaves the car plugged in, the smart meter would help the power companies figure out the lowest demand time of the day and recharge the car then. This would save the user money, while helping the utility by reducing the stress on its networks.

The new stimulus package which has almost passed through Congress should help further finance efforts such as Google's. It includes $4.4B USD for "smart" power technologies, with money earmarked specifically for 4 million meters. James Hoecker, a former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has some jurisdiction over transmission lines says the efforts will not only improve the grid, but will also create jobs. He states, "You can hire a lot of people to install smart meters."

ConnectU’s ‘Secret’ $65 Million Settlement With Facebook

Nautilus Science & Technology News
February 12, 2009
By: Marco A. Ayllon

One of the sideshows in the quest to peg a valuation on the rapidly growing social network Facebook has been its continuing legal battle with the founders of a rival Harvard site, ConnectU.

I’ve chronicled the continuing skirmish, most recently here and here. The case was settled last year, but then the ConnectU founders, who include the Olympian brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, contested that settlement, claiming that part of it was in Facebook stock, whose value had been misrepresented to them. They also sued one of the law firms that brokered the deal on their behalf, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges, claiming the firm had failed to do proper due diligence on Facebook’s internal stock price.

Curiously, the value of Facebook’s contested legal settlement with ConnectU was guarded almost religiously by all parties -– until now. The Recorder, a legal newspaper in San Francisco, reported Tuesday that Quinn Emanuel had published the amount -– $65 million -– in some of the firm’s own promotional literature.

“WON $65 million settlement against Facebook” appears in the firm’s most recent newsletter, along with dozens of other settlements reached by Quinn during 2008, according to The Recorder.

The Recorder also said that John Quinn, the firm’s chairman, asked the paper not to print the amount and declined to comment further.

It’s unclear why the firm would trumpet a “settlement” that represents less a triumph than a continuing legal morass, a disputed valuation and a furious client. The $65 million number is somewhat misleading anyway, since part of that amount is based on Facebook stock that was once valued at $15 billion, by the famous Microsoft investment, but has since fallen drastically.

What is certain is that this latest twist is not likely to help Quinn Emanuel assuage the anger of its former clients, whose dispute with the firm is currently in arbitration.