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Consumer rights move to superior court
Your right to listen to music in the way you want is up for review. The US superior court is currently hearing a case that MGM filed against the file sharing network Grokster.
You've probably heard it all before, but the case revolves around the question if the creators of peer-to-peer networks can be held responsible for the copyright violations that they enable.
We had a ruling on this case in the form of the Sony-Betamax case. There it was ruled that Sony couldn't be held liable for consumers using a video recorder to illegally copy copyrighted materials. After all, Sony developed the device to allow consumers to watch rented or purchased movies.
Similarly US courts have always denied liability claims against gun makers. Guns don't kill people, people kill people, gun makers and their buddies at the NRA will argue.
While copyright holders will cry foul over the massive theft of music that's going on a daily basis, and nobody seems to disagree that it is wrong to steal copyrighted materials. But technologists will argue that making the creators of peer-to-peer networks partially liable is taking it too far.
The problem is: what if the record industry has its way?
As Salon.com explains:
If the entertainment studios had their way, every time a format changed, you'd have to buy all your records all over again. In their ideal world, we would hold restricted licenses to our content, not ownership. Digital rights management would cripple our all-powerful computers, creating backups would be impossible, and the basic human impulse to share the wealth of information that helps define who we are would be beset with obstacles. This is not paranoia. At every step of the way, intellectual-property-right holders have resisted technological innovations that give ordinary people more scope to enjoy and consume music, television, movies or any other content.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed. And so should you.
March 31, 2005 at 07:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Low Debian voter turnout hints towards dwindling developer's interest
Debian is looking for a new leader, but developers don't seem too interested in who's at the helm of the Linux distribution. At the time of writing only 269 of the project's 960 developers had voted.
The low turnout could hint that the the developer community behind the project is falling apart, suspects Debian Project secretary Manoj Srivastava. The project could be "coming apart at the seams" as a result of a heated discussion about adding support for AMD64 in upcoming versions of the distribution.
A more optimistic view would be that voters simply can't choose between all these fine candidates who have so eloquently made their points in their campaigns.
Yet something tells me that the first reason is more likely to be the cause.
March 31, 2005 at 04:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
New HP CEO stands his first test
It must be the most hated part of Mark Hurd's new job: two days before he officially starts working as the new CEO for HP, Hurd this morning had his first meeting with financial analysts and the media.
Hurd got off an airplane yesterday (Tuesday) night at 9 PM, and that in fact was his main message: he wasn't going to reveal any big plans just yet.
At a press conference at HP's head quarters in Palo Alto, Heard faced a small army of Silicon Valley IT trade press and a collection of local and national media. I counted about ten television crews, most of which brought their trucks to do on the spot editing.
Hurd has two days before he officially takes over the helm as CEO. He'd better use that time to get settled and spend some of the $2.75 m he received as a relocation allowance (he must have some awfully large chairs that need moving…). And in the mean time he'd better get used to the level of media exposure that he gets. Because this HP company gets a little more interest than his former employer NCR.
Mark Hurd faces the media storm.
Television trucks take over the HP campus.
A press conference doesn't make for good TV, but that didn't stop a small army of crews from showing up.
March 31, 2005 at 12:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Another Comdex-less year awaits
Turns out that the covert sales mission to Cebit that MediaLive undertook earlier this month was only to benefit a 2006 edition of "Comdex".
The organiser had already decided to axe the 2005 edition of the trade show by January. At least, that's when the Las Vegas Convention Center cancelled the reservation for the event.
If the show resurfaces, it won't be called Comdex, according to the sales pitches that MediaLive used on exhibitors at the Cebit trade fair in Hannover earlier this month – but it still isn't know what the name for the event will be.
March 30, 2005 at 10:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Computing at the speed of light
The race to marry silicon and lasers took an interesting turn when a small chip firm managed to outsmart Intel.
Luxtera doesn't even have its own fab but has managed to build the ultra-fine conduits needed to send fast data successfully into silicon using lasers. This bypasses all the expensive fibre optic connection kit currently needed, and opens up fibre speeds of 10Gbps to many more people.
For those of us who can remember the excitement at finally getting a modem that could manage 10Kbps these are heady times. There's a way to go yet but the first steps are being taken.
One side-effect of the announcement is that Intel is going to be stepping up its research. The chip giant has been spending a lot of time shifting to multi-core processing and it'll be interesting to see if it has kept up with other projects as well.
One suspects that the lights were burning late last night in Intel's labs.
March 30, 2005 at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Intel's Pat Gelsinger still can't believe his luck
It won't happen to you every day that your job function changes from Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to general manager of the Digital Enterprise Group. But that's what happened to Pat Gelsinger a few months ago.
You would imagine that somebody who in the past has been involved with designing chips and since worked his way up to the CTO position (by the way, Gelsinger is the youngest vice president in the history of the company) is less than happy with having to worry about pesky details like sales and marketing.
But not Pat Gelsinger. "This is the job I picked," he said on Tuesday at a company event. "We are still a little bit in the honeymoon period. we are gaining momentum. we are getting ourselves more competitive and the future looks great."
March 30, 2005 at 09:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
HP goes for the mystery CEO
Let's hope HP's head hunter knows what it's doing. The company just went for the mystery price behind door number three in the quest for a new CEO and out came Mark Hurd.
"Mark who?" you ask? Mark Hurd. Up until today he was CEO for NCR, a company best known for making ATMs and other financial solutions for the retail industry. It made a tidy $6 bn in revenues last year, but that is still nothing compared to HP's $80 bn.
The guy's appointment couldn’t mean a bigger break with the past, the era when celebrity CEO Carly Fiorina held the helm at the printer and computer company.
Hurd worked at the same company for 25 years, slowly rising to the number one position. When he became CEO in 2003, he found a company in trouble. Revenues had plummeted. So Hurd started cutting costs like crazy and within months turned the company around.
That might be an admirable feat, but to be quite honest Hurd strikes me as extremely boring and lacking any vision.
What was HP's board of directors looking for? A CEO that would save HP by coming up with a new strategy that would change the world? Or someone more obedient, who would dutiful listen to the board and respectfully execute their plans?
Since they got the first with Carly Fiorina, HP's board seems to have chosen the latter now that the little Fiorina experiment has gone wrong.
Investors clearly like Hurd for now. The company's stock jumped 10 percent after the announcement.
March 30, 2005 at 07:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Microsoft has to stand at the back
Here's a story to warm the cockles of the heart this morning. A professor in Microsoft's home state of Washington has started a campaign to improve the quality of the company's grammar-checking function in Word.
It seems that the professor finally cracked when he noticed the poor quality of students' essays after they had been run through the software. Now he wants Redmond to do something about it.
As someone who spends more time than most hunched over a hot keyboard this can only be welcome news. I've long ago learnt to smother the annoyance that flares every time the computer asks me to make a duff change, but if students are relying on Microsoft alone to teach them grammar we're in for a garbled new century.
To be fair this kind of thing is a real pain to code successfully. Speech recognition software has similar problems. We humans are a capricious lot; our spoken and written languages might be organised along broadly accepted rules, but they're jam packed with the kind of exceptions and eccentricities that drive software developers nuts.
I wish the professor luck, although I don't rate his chances.
March 29, 2005 at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
New US law enforces computer security honesty
Banks whose computer systems are hacked or suffer any other breach in their IT security from now on have to inform their customers about that if personal data has been exposed, new regulations from several US federal agencies require.
The lucky residents of California have had the joy of living under the Security Breach Information Act for over a year. The local law has similar requirements as the new federal one, but in addition to that applies to any company that suffers a breach in their IT security.
The new rules are so amazingly obvious that it's remarkable that they haven't been put in place earlier.
Companies for years have been lacking the motivation to properly tackle IT security because it is cheaper to clean up a mess than it is to prevent it from happening. Now that they are required to go public with these embarrassing facts, they might have more of an inclination to spring into action.
Self-regulation has had its chance for the past decades, and by now we can state without the smallest doubt that it doesn't work. Let's hope that this is only the start of a slew of new rules and regulations around the world.
[Entry copied from vnunet.com's Security Watchdog blog.]
March 29, 2005 at 01:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
SunGard acquisition stuck between just another buyout and a trendsetting tech buyout
SunGard has agreed to a sale of the company to a consortium of seven financial parties for approximately $11.3 billion. SunGard developer software for the financial sector, including solution that do transactions at stock exchanges and back and disaster recovery.
The deal is noteworthy because buyouts are rare in the high tech sector.
A buyout is a deal where a financial party such as a bank or venture capital investor acquires a company. Such deals typically use highly complex financing constructions relying on bonds heavily. In SunGard's case the investors put up $3.5 billion in cash while taking out a $7.8 billion bond. The investors thereby create a leverage: if they sell the company for 13 billion, they only play $7.8 bn to the bond holders, keeping 5.2 bn to themselves (making for a cool 49 pct profit margin).
Buyout deals usually make sense when a company is underperforming due to an outdated strategy or heavy debt burden. By creating some new momentum, the buyout firms are able to do the necessary restructuring and kill loss making parts of the business. Eventually they'll achieve a return on their investment by selling of the company piecemeal, as a whole or by taking it public.
Traditionally buyouts take place in the manufacturing and retail sectors. Companies in such sectors have very stable revenue streams, minimizing the risk for buyout firms. Because the high tech sector is characterized by volatile revenues, buyout firms traditionally have shunned this area of the economy.
That's why the big question is: does the SunGard deal signal a growing up of the software space, readying it for more and similar deals in the future? Or is SunGard the odd duck, the one company in this high tech industry that is an attractive target for a buyout?
It could be that it's Easter Monday, or that SunGard is just one of the most boring companies in the software industry, because it seems that very few industry analyst firms cover SunGard. The most likely reason for it being so quiet from the industry analyst front is that buyout deals are so uncommon in this industry that no-one seems to know what to make of this one.
Computerworld seemed to be the only publication that found someone to comment on this story:
"These private equity firms are not looking to make this huge investment in the company just so that it can carry on the way it is," Octavio Marenzi, managing director of financial consultant Celent Communications told the publication. "The only thing that applies is breaking this company up and selling it off."
March 28, 2005 at 11:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
An alarm clock with a bite
If your morning ritual looks anything like mine, hitting the snooze button on your alarm clock plays a large part in it. For people like me – and maybe even you – a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab has developed the Clocky ultimate alarm clock.
When the alarm goes off and the snooze button is pressed, the clock will start moving, jumping off the night stand and finding a spot to rest. The next time the alarm goes off, the owner has to get out off his or her bed and find the alarm before he/she can hit the snooze button again.
The alarm clock is partially inspired by kittens who used to bite the toes of designer Gauri Nandathe in the morning.
Unfortunately Clocky is just a research project. The hiding alarm clock isn't yet available in stores.
March 28, 2005 at 10:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
HP close to announce Fiorina replacement
HP could appoint a new CEO within the next two or three weeks, suggests The San Jose Mercury News.
In a story based on unnamed sources, the newspaper claims that former Compaq CEO Michael Capellas has been scratched off the list of possible replacements. HP acquired Compaq in 2001 and Capellas for a brief period worked for the combined company before taking on a CEO position at MCI, formerly Worldcom – the telecommunications company that ripped off investors and customers with their deceptive bookkeeping.
HP executive vice president Shane Robison isn't an option either, the paper says.
The news story goes on to repeat some of the names of that have circulated in the past:
Vyomesh Joshi, HP executive vice president in charge of HP's most successful business unit: the printing and imaging business. He recently took on responsibility for personal computers too.
Ann Livermore, HP executive vice president in charge of professional services and enterprise servers.
James McNerney, chief executive of 3M.
Rick Belluzzo, a former HP executive and currently CEO of Quantum, a San Jose maker of storage tape drives.
Symantec CEO John Thompson, formerly with IBM.
Sean Maloney who's heading up Intel's Mobility Group.
John Joyce, Group Executive of IBM Global Services.
March 28, 2005 at 09:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The failure of the iTunes mobile phone: theory 3
Apple and Motorola might be working on a mobile phone that's equipped with a mobile version of the iTunes Music Store, but so far the project has been plagued by setbacks.
Motorola tried showing a demo last January at CES, but instead of showing a working model, the company insulted attendees by presenting them with a mock-up. The software wasn't ready yet, a red faced Motorola later had to admit.
No fear, the iTunes phone would debut at Cebit or a mobile conference in New Orleans mid march. But it didn't. This time Motorola blamed Apple. The company prevented the handset maker from showing the product because of its policy that prohibits the showing of products before they hit the stores.
But now Business Week suggests there are greater problems facing iTunes mobile. The mobile operators refuse to work with Apple because they prefer to set up mobile music stores themselves.
That's a fair point considering that the operators over the years have build up a multi billion dollar business selling ring tones. Meanwhile the iTunes music store operates on razor thin margins – and don't forget that Apple is working on creating its own little monopoly corner inside the music industry by using a closed digital rights management technology.
The iTunes music phone has a long way to come and as a consumer interested in fair use, that makes me very happy.
March 28, 2005 at 08:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Vonage's big plans
Vonage, the company providing VoIP service for consumers and small businesses, is looking to raise $100 million, claims Business Week. The figure is mind bogling not only because of its sheer size, but also because the company is currently being valued at $950 million and lastly, because only 7 months ago the company raised $105 million.
Lastly, the same news story says that Vonage is gearing up for an IPO later this year.
What does the company plan to do with all this money? Why conquer a market of course! The company currently has 550,000 subscribers who use their broadband internet connection to make "old fashioned" phone calls at a reduced rate. It is growing at a rate of 15,000 lines per week.
Vonage earlier this year expanded into the UK and by now is available in 100 cites. By year's end the company aims to have 550,000 subscribers in the UK market alone.
March 25, 2005 at 03:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Yahoo IM phising scam turns out to be latest hacking innovation
You (should) know that you can't trust email, now you'd better add instant messaging to your list of unreliable tools of communication. Phishers have started to target Yahoo! Instant Messenger in their latest attempt to get personal information from unsuspecting internet users, Cnet reports.
Attackers send instant messages to users, asking them to fill out their Yahoo ID and password on a fake Yahoo! Website. The scheme appears legit because the message seems to originate from somebody in the victim's bud list.
The internet is becoming more and more of a confusing place every day. At least in the real world you can assume that you know somebody when they are facing you – only in movies do people seem to get away with it when they pretend to be someone else.
March 25, 2005 at 03:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
HP gearing up for Media Center PC launch
HP has stopped stocking retailers with its current line of Media Center PCs, according to IDG News. The news service speculates that the company is clearing its warehouses to make space for new models.
Media Center PCs are computers that allow users to watch and record television shows. The models are equipped with a special version of Windows XP which among things contains a special programming guide. Using special peripheral equipment users can also access the content on their Media Center PCs on the television in a living room.
One analyst told IDG News that his company spotted one of the upcoming models in a retail store in the Boston area. The computer was priced at $1049, much cheaper than earlier models. The high price for Media Center PCs is often pointed at as one of the reasons why the first models showed a rather poor performance in the market.
March 25, 2005 at 03:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Open source strikes back at Red Hat
The cool thing about open source is, well, that it's open source. You don't have to go in and fumble the source code, you can just as well put it through a compiler and create a working application.
That's exactly what the makers of CentOS are doing, as Cnet describes.
By doing so, they create a version of Red Hat Linux they don't have to pay for– Red Hat itself only ships its operating system bundled with support and for a fee.
You shouldn't expect to see an Oracle database run on the cloned Red Hat Linux any time soon however. Developers still have to make tiny tweaks to the software – such as removing the Red Hat logos, which in turn leads to a requirement to get the software certified all over again.
But for test environments or for people who want to run a free version of Red Hat Linux at home, CentOS offers a great alternative for the real thing.
March 25, 2005 at 03:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Forrester Research tries to prove its manhood by pissing off Ford
It's the secret dream of any reporter to write a story that makes his publication loose an advertiser because of what the story says about that particular company. It's even better when you succeed in doing so in the very first issue of a publication. And yet even more so if it's in a sponsored publication that has to prove its independence more than its commercial peers.
The powers behind Forrester Research's new "Forrester Magazine" therefore must be thrilled. In its first issue, the publication dug up some piece about the dark past of Ford Motor Company. It's founder liked Adolf Hitler and his anti-Semitic ideas just a bit too much. That's been common knowledge, but Ford is still in denial about it. In response to the publication the company pulled a contract with the technology research firm that was worth a couple hundred thousand dollars per year. Both Silicon Valley Watcher and Silicon Beat report about this little mishap.
The car maker must long back to the ages when you could just beat the hell out off people you disagreed with (as the company did when it had a union representative killed in 1937). But this is 2005, so instead Ford opted to telltale and called Forrester Research CEO George Colony. He had a good laugh about Ford's childishness, revised his upcoming financial statement to reflect Ford's contract cancellation and went on with his business.
That's what Ford should have done in the first place when they learnt that some historic facts would be published in the free media.
March 25, 2005 at 03:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Mozilla plugs another security hole and pops a myth in the process
When the Mozilla foundation claimed that it's Firefox browser was more secure than Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE), it must have overlooked the fact that IE's insecurity is largely caused by the endless barrage of patches that computer users have to apply.
Make that: fail to apply.
Mozilla just released its second patch of this month, this time diffusing a possible threat that would allow hackers to infest your breach your computer's security with an animated GIF image that causes a buffer overflow.
I applaud the responsiveness of the Mozilla foundation, but would hereby argue that the claim that Firefox is inherently more secure than Internet Explorer is hereby blown to pieces. With every new patch that the foundation releases and as the adoption rate of Firefox goes up, the number of computers running a non-current version of Firefox is bound to rise, simply because users are lazy and fail to apply software patches.
In addition to poor software code itself, the whole notion of having to patch an application to fix security leaks is what has lead up to the current state of abysmal computer security. If the Mozilla foundation is serious about creating a more secure browser, they should tackle this problem first.
March 24, 2005 at 09:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Wishful thinking: security complexity pushes outsourcing deals
Gentronics' hunger for new outsourcing business is clouding its common sense, it seems. In justifying the acquisition of security services specialist RedSiren by the global managed services company, Getronics claims Getronics that computer security has simply become too complex for firms to do themselves. This complexity is pushing companies towards outsourcing.
The problem is that for most companies handing over control over their IT security feels like passing out keys to their company vaults. In a recent survey among UK businesses, 80 percent of the respondents said that they were manageing their IT security in-house. Of that group another 88 percent said the need to have control was the main reason why they wouldn't consider changing this practice in the future.
March 24, 2005 at 08:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Churn looms for mobile operators
Everybody must be able to relate to this research: nearly half of all the mobile phone users in the UK consider switching operators, according to a YouGov poll.
The ability to switch is one of the perks of today's age of hyper competition and number portability. Operators have a tendency to focus on the average revenue per user (ARPU), but sometimes seem to forget that the groups with the highest ARPU also tend to be demanding the most in terms of customer service and service levels.
For the operators I have only one word: you wanted unobstructed competition? That's what you got. Now deal with it.
March 24, 2005 at 07:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Did Google kill it's first beta?
Google seems to have abandoned its catalogue indexing service. As the unofficial Google Weblog points out, the index hasn't been updated since last December.
The service created a vast index of shopping catalogues and made them searchable through its portal.
Although creating an index of catalogues fits Google's mission statement of wanting to "index the world's information", it was the odd duck in the company's portfolio of services. Google indexes mostly digital data that is easy and cheap to obtain.
More importantly, the fact that Google is abandoning the project means it cleans up its long sheet of beta projects. That allows the company to focus its development efforts on more important tasks.
March 24, 2005 at 07:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
File sharing moves underground
The number of people who buy music off the internet from legal stores has nearly doubled since last year, according to a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. As much as 48 percent of the online population used paid services like the iTunes Music Store, MSN Music or Napster, relative to 24 percent last year.
The study however is not all bad news for the army of lawyers that feed of the RIAA's suing frenzy, trying to stop illegal file sharing one lawsuit at a time.
The use of peer-to-peer networks might have gone down, but the researchers suspect that users simply are less likely to admit that they use the file sharing networks.
More importantly, they have found new ways to still their hunger for a multi-gigabyte collection of free music. 19 percent of the internet users simply raid their friends' MP3 players and 28 percent get their music via email.
The RIAA better hire some more lawyers to stop this gross injustice. Or maybe they can focus their efforts on trying to make it more affordable and even easier for consumers to obtain music files in a legal way that they are comfortable with.
March 24, 2005 at 07:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Lenovo might become a little more American
Lenovo, the number three maker of PCs and laptop computers in the world from China that recently purchased IBM's PC and laptop division, is about to get an investement from three American investment companies, according to The Wall Street Journal (paid subscription).
IBM already owns a stake in Lenovo as a result of the transaction of its PC division. The new investors are said to be able to help Lenovo integrate the acquisition. The investment would amount to about $350m.
March 23, 2005 at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
IBM gives spammers a taste of their own
IBM has launched a software application that hits spammers back just as hard as they hit the public. The new FairUCE service bounces spam emails directly back to the senders computer, not the email address from which they originate.
If enough people use the service, it creates the equivalent of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on the spammers computers, clogging up their systems and taking up processor capacity and bandwidth that otherwise could be used for sending spam. And the great thing is: legally it isn't even a DDoS attack because all the service does is bounce the emails back.
March 23, 2005 at 10:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Did Microsoft sabotage it's Windows without Media Player?
Microsoft might have removed more than just Windows Media Player from the version of Windows XP that it has to offer to European users.
According to a story in The Wall Street Journal (paid subscription), the European Union is looking into possible sabotage by the software giant. The company is said to have fumbled with the registry, which for instance might prevent users from embedding a video or audio clip into a Word document.
To punish Microsoft for abusing it's monopoly, the European Commission forced the software maker to make available a version of Windows XP without the Windows Media Player. Microsoft was also fined 497 million euros. The software company has appealed the decision, but in the mean time is complying.
Microsoft claims that the issues are the result of stripping the media player from the software. But the European Commission believes that the glichtes are an illegal attempt to make this "light" version Windows XP less attractive.
March 23, 2005 at 10:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
New Apple OS storms the charts even before it's born
Apple's upcoming OS X Tiger operating system (version 10.4) hasn't even started shipping yet, but already the software has become the best selling product in Amazon.com's Electronics store.
Apple has said that the software will become available in the first half of 2005. Amazon offers a $35 rebate that customers have to fill out and send in no later than 1 July. So worst case scenario they still have one month to send in their forms.
Although the launch date for the software is still a well guarded secret, book publishers are set to launch a slew of books about the new software. Mac OS X Tiger for Dummies starts shipping on 28 May on Walmart.com. The same store lists a May 31 release date for Hacking Mac OS X Tiger.
March 23, 2005 at 08:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
YOU are to blame for the spam problem
Fed up with spam? Look at your neighbours for the cause. As much as 31 percent of the people who receive spam emails still click on the links inside the messages, according to a study by the Radicati Group.
Another 18 percent make one of the beginners' mistakes by responding to the "unsubscribe address". Instead of unsubscribing those collect proof that an email address is actually alive and kicking and increasing the likelihood of new spam being sent.
But wait, there is more: as much as 10 percent of email users have actually place orders for products that are advertised in spam.
And you wondered why the state of computer security is so bad?
March 23, 2005 at 07:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Fair use: 2 – Apple: 1
DVD Jon and his buddies have once again opened a backdoor into Apple's iTunes music store. Apple only yesterday thwarted an earlier attempt by a trio of programmers to circumvent its digital rights management (DRM) technology.
The PyMusique application allows users to purchase iTunes music from Apple's online music store that is stripped from the DRM technology, circumventing the Apple instated rules that limit the number of computers that can play a song, as well as limiting the number of times a playlist can be burnt to an audio CD.
In a blog posting, the makers claim they create the hack to allow Linux users to play music from the iTunes music store. The service currently supports only the Windows and Mac OS X platforms.
March 23, 2005 at 12:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Plaxo misses out on a chance to change the world
Online address book provider Plaxo has launched two premium services, but misses out on the opportunity to make a difference.
One of the premium services offers to eliminate duplicate entries in a users' address book, the other makes the data, including calendar, accessible on a user's mobile phone through a WAP connection. Each costs $29.95 a year or $49.95 for a bundle of both.
I can see why having access to my Plaxo data on my mobile phone has some appeal. The opportunity to delete duplicate contacts from my address book is nice to have, but not worth a dime unless you run your company's database on Plaxo.
The services are overpriced and too easy to be true. While the service could have done something creative and useful, it chose not to.
Plaxo owns one of the largest databases of address data in the world, and the company has plans to exploit that database. Before you jump off your chair screaming "privacy violation!", think about the usefulness of, for instance, a moving service that instantly and automatically notifies your bank, newspaper and mobile phone company of your new address.
It won't even cost you a dime, because those companies will happily pay Plaxo for providing them with your latest address information. I'm not speculating here, Plaxo has previously talked about such services.
But taking the road of offering a mediocre addition to a free service apparently was more appealing than doing something creative.
March 22, 2005 at 11:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Mac gains in popularity, but that might not be all good
Financial analysts one after another upgrade their price ranges for Apple stock, based on the assumption that consumers like their iPods so much that they will want to replace their Windows computer with a Mac.
This prediction is based on a Morgan Stanley survey of 400 iPod users that found that 19 percent of them expect to switch from a PC to a Mac, double the number that came out of a previous study.
But being a current Mac user I have mixed feelings about the masses joining the ranks of us who so blindly follow Steve Jobs. Symantec on Monday pointed out that the number of hacker attacks on Mac computers is on the rise now that the platform has become more of an attractive target.
"Contrary to popular belief, the Macintosh operating system has not always been a safe haven from malicious code," Reuters quoted from the report. "It is now clear that the Mac OS is increasingly becoming a target for the malicious activity that is more commonly associated with Microsoft and various Unix-based operating systems."
Time to buy some anti-virus software (which Symantec just happens to make). Or even better: show some real guts and switch away to a really cool platform such as Linux.
March 22, 2005 at 09:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Microsoft doesn't need Linux to make a fool of itself
Microsoft's hardware group, makers of keyboards and computer mice, this morning put out a press release about a survey the company commissioned.
Brace yourself for some of the mind-boggling highlights:
- "nearly two-thirds of respondents perceived repairing their mouse and keyboard to be more difficult than repairing a flat tire."
Maybe that's because your car comes with a spare tire and instructions to install it – a computer mouse has some tiny, hidden screws and is often glued shut. The more amazing fact is that one third of computer users see themselves unscrewing a computer mouse or keyboard to make repairs. I've tried it all, and I can vow that replacing a flat tire really is easier.
- "Eight out of 10 computer users believe that high-quality mice and keyboards have an important impact on their ability to be productive at work." In other words: 80 percent of computer users believe that they need a keyboard to type and a mouse to navigate their computer screens. I am tempted to make some demeaning comment about Microsoft finally realising that users want to use Microsoft products instead of having to stare at blue screens, but that would be stating the obvious, much like this survey.
As always: read the fine print. "The survey was conducted by InsightExpress, and fielded to more than 200 full-time or part-time office workers in the United States who use computers regularly." As a rule a "survey" has to be conducted among at least 350 subjects to qualify as an official "survey". This piece of rubbish isn't even worth tearing apart.
March 22, 2005 at 08:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack
AOL goes for an internet without training wheels
If you read blogs and live in the US, you probably don't use America Online (AOL) as your ISP. The company that boasts that it taught America how to surf the internet, now is mainly known as the company that brings its customers a trivial cross section of that internet.
AOL offers subscribers a "fenced off" version of the internet with unique content and protection against worms and viruses version. The company charges $23.90 per month for a dial up connection. That makes it a very profitable bussiness, but it is also loosing subscribers by the dozens.
At the height of the internet boom, AOL made waves with its $99 billion acquisition of Time Warner. It signalled the beginning of the end for the internet hype, and the demise of AOL as an online powerhouse.
As the internet evolved, AOL stuck to its business model. But now that subscribers are replacing AOL with faster broadband connections, it is time for a change. "What I'm trying to get to over time is a balance" between subscriptions and advertising, AOL Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Miller told the LA Times (free registration).
AOL is slowly and quietly making some of its premium content, such as AOL Music and a price comparison service called Pinpoint, available to non-subscribers.
In the future you can expect the company to start offering email accounts and a new version of the AOL instant messenger to the general audience. Looks like even the dinosaur of the internet is getting ready to evolve.
March 22, 2005 at 07:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Lenovo shows first signs of Thinkpad overhaul
Lenovo, the proposed new Chinese owner of IBM's desktop computer and laptop business, will change the name of the "IBM ThinkPad", the company said at PC Forum. The new name will likely be "ThinkPad" or "Lenovo ThinkPad."
The name change will become a test of the public's preparedness to accept Lenovo as the successor of IBM as a PC and laptop manufacturer. Analysts have warned that users will shun the brand because it doesn't have IBM's image of reliability and trustworthiness.
March 21, 2005 at 11:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Oracle's hawks circle SAP in Retek battle
Just days after SAP raised its bid for Retek, Oracle countered and increased its competing offer.
We'll just sit back and see how this thing works out. But it's fun to just watch how the two leading enterprise software companies are battling over Retek, a maker of enterprise software for the retail market.
Oracle is being its usual flexible and responsive self, while SAP appears to be clueless about how it is going to respond to Oracle's bullying. Earlier this month at Cebit SAP CEO Henning Kagermann had an ideal opportunity to tell the world how he plans to win the bidding war against Oracle. Instead he stood quietly behind his podium and avoided all questions on the subject.
The difference between the two companies is one between night and day.
Oracle is the more aggressive one, running around its victim and placing a few well-aimed blows. Although this strategy might lead to disappoints because the company over-promises and under-delivers (which is another thing that Oracle is known for), it can also pay off big time as the company proved in the takeover battle over Peoplesoft.
SAP on the other hand revels in its suit and tie. Like a child heading for the sand box on a Sunday all dressed up before going to church, it is moving carefully and cautiously in the world business arena. Strategies are there to be executed and deviations from the preset course have to be plotted and approved by many management layers. Much like its enterprise software, it takes forever to get a project implemented, but at least it works by then.
I'm not saying one company is better then the other. But I do know it's much more fun to watch Oracle than it is to watch SAP.
The necessary background:
Retek develops enterprise software including ERP and SCM for retail stores. The company agreed to a takeover bid by SAP of Germany. Oracle responded by acquiring a 10 percent stake in Reket and launched a counter offer that was slightly higher than SAP's.
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UPDATE 3/21/05 9:56 PM:
In a press release Oracle claims that SAP has dropped its offer for Retek and that Oracle and Retek have signed a takeover agreement. There nothing up on Retek's website however. Again Oracle wins by putting up a big mouth.
March 21, 2005 at 11:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Apple scrambles to plug iTunes hole
Apple on Monday released an upgrade to its iTunes music store that closes a security hole in its anti-piracy protection.
The measure is a response to the PyMusique tool that a trio of independent programmers created. The group included Jon Johansen, the Norwegian who in 1999 cracked the security for DVD movies.
The copyright protection for the songs sold in Apple's iTunes music store are among the best guarded assets of the company. The fear of the code leaking is one of the major reasons why Apple refuses to license it to third party manufacturers of audio equipment, sources inside the industry claim.
The upgrade to iTunes service will force current users to upgrade to the latest version of the iTunes software. The number of people affected by this requirement however is limited to about 15 percent, Apple told Cnet.
March 21, 2005 at 10:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Make Apple's new Powerbook find Mekka
Apple's newest line of Powerbook notebooks has a feature similar to IBM's "airbag" for notebooks, preventing data loss when the computer drops on the floor. The service uses an accelerometer dubbed the "sudden motion sensor" to notice sudden movements, allowing it to park the head safely on the hard drive before it hits the floor
Thanks to scripts, users and developers can tap in this feature. The blog interconnected.org points to a few fun ways that users can do this.
By far the most appealing use of this feature might very well be the ability to control applications by moving the machine forward or backward. The bloggers used this to skip their iTunes music players to the next or previous track on a playlist.
It might not be the most useful application in everyday life, but it sure is making use of the sudden motion sensor in a creative way.
March 21, 2005 at 10:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Ask Jeeves reignites its fire
If you hear about Ask Jeeves and your response is "are they still around then?", you're not alone. For years the search engine was best known for the fact that it was still in business, as Forrester analyst Charlene Li points out.
The search engine was founded roughly ten years ago and has the ability to process natural language: users can ask it a question instead of having to enter keywords as search queries. It was and is a nice service, but never succeeded in getting out Google's and Yahoo's shadow. The company's market share stands at a insignificant 3 percent, making it the number five player in the online search market.
This morning Ask Jeeves claimed its place in the spotlight when it revealed that IAC/InterActiveCorp will acquire the service in a stock swap valued at $1.8 bn. IAC is the company behind websites including Ticketmaster, Evite and several travel sites like Hotwire, Hotels.com and Expedia (it is in the process of spinning the latter off).
The sale will no doubt beef up the number of visitors to the Ask Jeeves website, which is profitable and makes most of its revenues through Google ads.
March 21, 2005 at 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Hidden talents
Just when you begin to give up on business regulation, the Federal Trade Commission pulls off a blinder like this.
It seems that this firm has been trying to scare people into shelling out $30 for a spyware detector that doesn't work. Most techies know that there are two perfectly good free anti-spyware programs out there: Spybot and Ad-Aware.
The real people being hurt by this sort of scam are the techno-newbies: people who've bought a computer because they think they should, and have little idea of how to use it. Such people are ripe for the fleecing and unsurprisingly there's a class of people out there who'll do it.
So keep an eye out for the scamsters. Maybe by moving fast we can shut these people down.
March 21, 2005 at 04:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Die hard with a keyboard
Over in Britain police have foiled an attempt to steal $421 million from a Japanese bank. The team used key-loggers to get log-in codes and planned to transfer the funds out. Luckily the police were watching their every move and acted internationally.
While this may lack the glamour of an Alan Rickman villain the case shows the advantage of police forces working together. The fact that US police aren't doing anything similar has been raising eyebrows on both sides of the Atlantic.
At the recent CeBIT trade show in Europe the spokesman for the Liberty Alliance was scathing in his condemnation of new American security procedures and how little they were sharing information with foreign police. He spoke, only half jokingly, of being barred from entering the country because he liked foreign food.
We know that online criminals are working internationally, so it's logical that our police should do the same.
March 17, 2005 at 05:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Eggs is eggs
Remember the seminal section in the seminal novel Catch 22 when Milo Minderbinder "explains" how he can buy eggs for seven cents in Malta and sell them back to his own mess halls for five cents, and still make a profit?
There is an answer that does eventually make some kind of sense, but it's totally counter-intuitive. Ditto the US academics who claim to have proven, using very hard sums and game theory which we guess is not as fun as it sounds, that internet commerce actually makes things more expensive.
Apparently, according to the university researchers, making it easier for consumers to compare prices on the web may result in higher prices.
This is something to do with the fact that allowing consumers to compare prices on a product from several different businesses also allows these businesses easily to check on their competitors and this leads to price fixing.
Still sounds to us that you lose two cents per egg.
March 17, 2005 at 05:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Comdex uses CeBIT to test the waters for a resurfacing
Representatives from MediaLive, the organisation that used to throw the famed (but now defunct) Comdex trade show in Las Vegas in November, are recruiting exhibitors here at CeBIT in Hannover to show up at a new Comdex.
The new show won't be called Comdex however, your Silicon Valley Sleuth found out. The name has too suffered too much damage, the exhibitors were told.
As Las Vegas is the epitome of America's consumerism, Comdex became the symbol of the internet hype and the IT industry's tendency to over-promise and under-deliver. At its peak the show attracted 200,000 visitors. The last time the event took place in 2003 it attracted a mere 40,000 delegates. By then Comdex' parent company Key3Media was forced into bankruptcy, from which it emerged under the MediaLive brand.
The 2004 edition of Comdex was canned, but MediaLive talked about a "postponement", vowing that the show would come back. The company now has decided that there is nothing to "postpone". Seems that all that will be left of the old Comdex is the mailing list and some fade photographs next to the coffee maker in MediaLive's coffee maker.
[Entry copied from the vnunet.com CeBIT blog]
March 14, 2005 at 02:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Germans taking it too far with copy levy, says Acer
It must be great to be a copyright holder these days. You can whine and moan about how internet pirates are stealing your bread and butter. How the whole world is against you. And then you hold out your greedy hand and ask for a little help, similar to the way homeless people beg their way to their next score.
In Germany the copyright holders have come up with a great new way to further exploit their pain and misery: a new €54 levy on new computers.
But this time they are taking it too far, said Oliver Ahrens, general manager for Acer Germany at press event at CeBIT.
"It gets a never ending story. Next will be the DSL modem and then the mobile hard disk? It looks a bit like a cash collection game."
"Acer's impression is that the copyright association is trying to find out how far it can go."
All fairness is lost in the way that the copy-lobby is exploiting its misery. "You can not have fees on the media and on the scanner and the pc and the optical device. You have to decide."
I suddenly got a warm feeling for Acer inside.
[Entry copied from the vnunet.com CeBIT blog]
March 11, 2005 at 06:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Sun Microsystems: I don't want to be a grid operator. I want to be a lumberjack*
Sun Microsystems might be breaking new ground with its grid computing and storage services, at Cebit the company admitted flat out that it doesn't want to be in this business.
It's just that the company intensely believes that utility services are the next phase for the computer industry, said Robert Youngjohns, who heads up the utility computing business for Sun Microsystems. And because no-one else shares that vision, Sun has decided to take this route alone.
But over time the company hopes that utility providers like AT&T or British Telecom will take over the arduous task of dealing with those pesky end users. By then, Sun thinks that it has at least established itself as a leading provider in the market for grid infrastructure. But the company can't wait until that day is here:
"I see ourselves become more the infrastructure vendor to multiple vendors who put this thing in the market," Youngjohns said. "But in the mean time we have to get this thing going."
The industry is just too comfortable with how things are currently going, the Sun senior vice president added. By taking the lead, he hopes he will wake up and shake up the competition. "I have to irritate the market into doing this."
* in case you're not aware of your world literature: this is a reference to Monty Python's "The lumberjack song"
Youngjohns: "I build a grid, I wear high heels, suspendies and a bra. I wish I'd been a girlie, just like my dear papa."
Entry copied from vnunet.com's Cebit blog
March 10, 2005 at 07:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Oracle deals a blow to SAP
Oracle has started a bidding war with SAP over the acquisition of Retek. Oralce's bid comes in about $30 higher than an earlier offer by SAP for the provider of ERP and SCM software for retailers.
What can we say? Oracle once again lives up to its reputation of being a fierce and aggressive player in the market for enterprise applications. The company earlier this year won a lengthy takeover battle over Peoplesoft.
Soon after the presentation of the combined Oracle|Peoplesoft venture in January, Oracle executive Larry Ellison already announced that new acquisitions wouldn't take long. But we never thought it would be this soon – and would have expected an acquisition in the middleware space more than one in applications.
March 9, 2005 at 01:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Europe stubbornly keeps refusing to enter HDTV heaven
Sharp won't put up with the refusal by European broadcasters to start transmitting shows in the HDTV format – which in turn has led to a very lacklustre demand for the next generation television sets by European consumers.
At Cebit in Hannover, Sharp unveiled its latest weapon in the battle for the European living room: the industry's first HD LCD TV designed for the European PAL and SECAM TV formats.
By launching the PAL-specialized TV, Sharp aims to put HDTVs in European living rooms through the back door. The model will attract customers who are interested in buying a LCD TV, which just happens to be ready for HDTV.
HDTV has seen great interest from consumers in Japan and the US. But there customers can sign up to special HDTV packages from satellite and cable providers. In Europe only specialised premium channels, most of them specializing in sports, support HDTV. And hopefully the rise of the Blu-ray and HD DVD high definition standards spark additional demand.
But there will be much blood, sweat and tears before Europe becomes a HDTV market, Sharp Europe CEO Hans Kleis admitted to vnunet.com. "I doubt consumers are ready [for HDTV]," he said. " We have to warm them up."
Hans Kleis: "If I keep saying HDTV often enough, you will buy them. Just wait!"
[Item copied form the VNUnet's Cebit blog
March 9, 2005 at 12:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
SV Sleuth goes back to old world for the newest on tech
Silicon Valley Sleuth is travelling back to Europe to check out what the old world is up to in technology these days. Yes I will be attending Cebit in Hannover, the largest technology tradeshow in the world.
Unfortunately the weather in Germany is said to be awful: nothing like the 25 Celsius / 77 Fahrenheit temperatures we had over the weekend here in Silicon Valley.
Only an endless array of technology gadgets and novelties can make up for this setback. And German beers beat the watered down lemonade that they call Budweiser any day.
Silicon Valley Sleuth will join forces with his colleagues from vnunet.com in keeping you posted on the latest Cebit gossips, news and oddities on a dedicated Cebit blog. Hope to see you there.
Btw, we are proud to announce that that Silicon Valley Sleuth has gone dotcom: www.siliconvalleysleuth.com
March 7, 2005 at 06:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack