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Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Yahoo hires former News Corp. exec to fill void (AP) : Technet

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Yahoo hires former News Corp. exec to fill void (AP) : Technet

Yahoo hires former News Corp. exec to fill void (AP)

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 06:16 PM PDT

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke, Ap Technology Writer – Wed Oct 27, 9:16 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Yahoo Inc. is turning to a former Internet sharpshooter at News Corp.'s media empire to fill a big hole on its management team.

In a hiring announced late Wednesday, Ross Levinsohn will be Yahoo's executive vice president in charge the company's advertising sales, media division and business partnerships in North America, Central America and South America. He will report to Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, although he will be based in the company's Santa Monica office instead of its Sunnyvale headquarters.

Although he left News Corp. nearly four years ago, Levinsohn is still best known for orchestrating that company's $580 million acquisition of the online hangout MySpace.com in 2005. The deal was seen as an Internet-savvy move by News Corp., a traditional media company that owns the 20th Century Fox movie studio, Fox television network and The Wall Street Journal.

Levinsohn made the acquisition look even better in 2006 when he sold MySpace's search advertising rights to Google Inc. for $900 million in 2006, but the site has been overtaken in recent years by Facebook.

MySpace's inability to keep pace with Facebook triggered a reorganization that brought in one of Levinsohn's business partners, Jon Miller, to shake things up. Miller had been working with Levinsohn at an Internet investment fund, Velocity Interactive Group, now known as Fuse Capital.

Levinsohn is leaving that fund to join Yahoo to replace Hilary Schneider, who announced her resignation last month along with two other top executives.

The defections raised doubts about Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz's efforts to revive the company's revenue growth and lift its long-sagging stock price.

Bringing in Levinsohn should help ease some investor worries about the depth and talent of Yahoo's management team as Bartz approaches the midway point of her four-year contract as CEO.

"Ross has a phenomenal track record of executing digital media strategies that increase user engagement and, most importantly, accelerate (revenue) growth," Bartz said.

Levinsohn could even emerge as a candidate for Bartz's job if Yahoo's struggles continue.

Yahoo's board so far has indicated it has no plans to replace Bartz, 62, before her contract expires in January 2013.

"Having this opportunity to work with a group of immensely talented people to enhance Yahoo's leadership position is a once in a lifetime opportunity," Levinsohn said.

Levinsohn's name came up as a potential Yahoo CEO in media reports published in 2008 after the company balked at an opportunity to sell itself for $47.5 billion, or $33 per share. Then, billionaire investor Carl Icahn, once one of the company's major shareholders, was pushing for the ouster of Yahoo's then-CEO, co-founder Jerry Yang.

Yahoo shares remain far below Microsoft's final offer in May 2008. The stock closed Wednesday at $16.42, down 4 cents.

As trial looms, Oracle taking aim at HP's new CEO (AP)

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 04:51 PM PDT

By JORDAN ROBERTSON, AP Technology Writer Jordan Robertson, Ap Technology Writer – Wed Oct 27, 7:51 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison is escalating his attacks on his friend-turned-foe Hewlett-Packard Co.

Ellison claims he has proof that HP's new CEO, Leo Apotheker, oversaw a corporate-espionage scheme at a previous employer, SAP AG, that involved the theft of Oracle software.

Oracle's trial against SAP is scheduled to start Monday in California, the same day Apotheker is scheduled to start work at HP.

The trial wasn't expected to produce fireworks, since SAP has acknowledged that a subsidiary stole Oracle customer-support materials, and the two sides are now fighting only over damages.

But it's now shaping up to be a spectacle involving three of the biggest companies in enterprise computing.

HP said that Apotheker didn't supervise the subsidiary and shut it down shortly after he took the reins at SAP in 2008. SAP called Ellison's comments an attempt to create a "sideshow."

The trial has let Ellison drag several old foes at once into a public brawl.

One is SAP. Oracle has long competed with SAP in business software.

Another is Apotheker, who spent more than 20 years at SAP, most recently as CEO. He went head-to-head against Oracle in software for years, and now at HP, will do the same in computer servers, earning him Ellison's wrath twice over.

And still another is Ray Lane, a former Oracle president whom Ellison ousted in a high-profile power struggle a decade ago, and who is HP's new chairman.

Ellison has broadcast his animosity for Apotheker and Lane in a series of news releases.

He criticized Apotheker for not immediately shutting down the SAP division that stole Oracle documents, TomorrowNow, when he was named SAP's co-CEO in April 2008, and Lane for coming to Apotheker's defense.

In July 2008, SAP announced plans to shut the troubled subsidiary, and several months later it was officially closed.

"Why so long? We'd like to know," Ellison said. "Ray Lane and the rest of the HP board do not want anyone to know. That's the new HP Way with Ray in charge and Leo on the run. It's time to change the HP tagline from 'Invent' to 'Steal'."

SAP called Ellison's comments show his "personal campaign against HP and desire to create a sideshow."

"Our focus in the case is on determining fair and reasonable compensation, and we won't let personal vendettas interfere with the court's judgment," SAP said in a statement Wednesday.

HP emphasized that Apotheker wasn't responsible for the problematic SAP division and had little knowledge about its innerworkings.

"Given Leo's limited knowledge of and role in the matter, Oracle's last-minute effort to require him to appear live at trial is no more than an effort to harass him and interfere with his duties and responsibilities as HP's CEO," HP said.

US regulators scold Google for taking e-mails (AP)

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 02:19 PM PDT

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke, Ap Technology Writer – Wed Oct 27, 5:19 pm ET

NEW YORK – The Federal Trade Commission is scolding Google Inc. without punishing the Internet search leader for collecting e-mails, passwords and other personal information transmitted over unsecured wireless networks.

In a two-page letter released Wednesday, the regulatory agency expressed its displeasure with Google for allowing potentially sensitive information to be scooped up for several years before management realized it. It took an inquiry from German regulators earlier this year for Google to realize it had been inadvertently pulling and storing information from wireless networks as its cars took photos of neighborhoods around the world for its "Street View" mapping service.

The activity outraged some privacy watchdogs who believed Google's activity may have violated laws against unauthorized wiretapping. It also triggered the attention of legal authorities in several of the more than 30 countries where Google's cars were snooping through Wi-Fi networks.

Although Google apologized for intruding, it has steadfastly insisted that it didn't break any laws because it got the data from Wi-Fi systems that should have been protected with passwords. That lack of security left the networks open to anyone passing by with the right equipment. Google's Street View cars no longer are equipped to detect Wi-Fi networks.

The FTC said it closed its investigation without any further action against Google because it's satisfied with a series of measures that the company announced last week in an effort to improve its internal privacy controls.

Consumer Watchdog, a group that has been among the most strident critics of Google's so-called "Wi-Spy" incident, called FTC's resolution "premature and wrong." It also suggested that Google's lobbyists may have swayed the outcome of the inquiry. The company has spent $3.9 million on lobbying activities so far this year and has met with the FTC on variety of topics, according to company disclosures.

"At a minimum, the public deserved a full report about Google's abuses from the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection," said John Simpson, who oversees a Consumer Watchdog project monitoring Google.

In a statement, Google said it welcomed the FTC's findings.

The company's collection of Wi-Fi information remains under investigation in the U.S. by a coalition of state attorneys general. Italy on Wednesday became the latest of several countries outside the U.S. to open investigations into whether Google's surveillance of Wi-Fi systems broke their laws.

Google says it gathered about 600 gigabytes of data -- enough to fill about six floors of an academic library -- and wants to delete all the information as soon it's cleared in all the affected countries. So far, it has only purged the information it picked up in Ireland, Denmark, Austria and Hong Kong.

The choice for e-reader users: LCD or e-paper? (Ben Patterson)

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 04:15 PM PDT

By Ben Patterson ben Patterson – Wed Oct 27, 7:15 pm ET

The latest Nook e-reader from Barnes & Noble delivers a pair of key features lacking on the Amazon Kindle: a touch-sensitive screen, and color.

And thanks to the high refresh rate of an LCD screen, the Nook Color ($250, slated to start shipping November 19) can do things like scroll Web pages, play videos, edit documents, and perform other interactive tricks that simply aren't possible on an e-paper display like that on the Kindle (or the original — and still available — Nook, for that matter).

But as good as the Nook Color's "VividView" display — which, Barnes & Noble promises, will deliver "stunning images and crisp text for easy reading day or night" — may be, it's still based on LCD technology, which is great for indoor viewing but not so hot when you venture outside, especially at high noon under a bright sun.

And while the Nook Color's eight hours of battery life (or so says Barnes & Noble, at least) is nothing to sneeze at, it can't compare to the days and weeks of use that an e-paper reader can squeeze out of a single charge.

These aren't criticisms so much as inherent trade-offs when it comes to today's e-reader devices, with the Nook Color and the iPad (both multi-purpose LCD tablets with e-reader capabilities) on one side of the equation, and the Kindle and the first Nook — stellar e-readers that do little else — on the other.

E-paper displays like those on the Kindle, the first-generation Nook (which is still available, by the way) and the Sony Reader work their magic using thousands of tiny, electrically charged black and white beads to render text. The beauty of e-paper is two-fold: It only uses power when "turning" the page, hence the amazing battery life, and it's highly reflective, meaning the display gets more and more vivid the brighter your surroundings.

Of course, e-paper has its own trade-offs: Most commercial e-reader displays are black-and-white only (there are color e-reader displays in the works, but manufacturers are struggling with image quality and cost), while slow refresh rates — as in a second or so to turn a page — mean that e-paper displays are nowhere near fast enough for video, or even the basic animation necessary to render the scrolling of a Web page.

Amazon, for its part, has at least for now opted to stick with an E Ink-manufactured e-paper display for its latest Kindle, which does neither color nor touch. Why? Because Amazon has made the strategic decision that a black-and-white but easy-to-read display is "a feature, not a bug" (as an Amazon rep told me before the launch of the revamped Kindle), while adding touch would entail another layer of glass that would cut down on screen contrast. And besides, most Kindle readers are simply clicking the "next page" button over and over. In other words, Amazon is doubling down on the Kindle as a dedicated e-reader. (Of course, none of those rationales preclude Amazon from eventually coming out with an LCD-based e-reader of its own.)

Barnes & Noble, meanwhile, sees the Nook Color as a "reader's tablet," combining the thousands of books and full-color magazines available from the company's Nook store with a real Web browser, mobile office apps, video, and online shopping. (Check out Technologizer for more Nook Color specs and features.)

Like the iPad, though, the Nook Color has a backlit LCD display, which excels at vivid color and razor-sharp video but stumbles when it comes to viewability outdoors — and because LCD screens depend on backlighting, they drain power at a much faster rate than e-paper displays do.

And then there's the price factor, with the Kindle and the Nook available for as little as $139 and $149, respectively, while the Nook Color goes for $250, and the iPad starts at $499.

Anyway, that's the choice as far as today's e-reader devices are concerned: LCD or e-paper, and there's no one right choice, except the one that's right for your needs. And to its credit, Barnes & Noble is keeping its original e-paper reader around so Nook users can make up their own minds.

So, which type of e-reader would you rather have: a dedicated e-paper device with a screen that's great outdoors, has a battery that lasts for days, but can't surf the Web or handle video or color? Or a multipurpose tablet that's a jack-of-all-trades but saddled with the inherent downsides of LCD technology?

— Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News.

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Android-powered PlayStation Phone revealed? (Ben Patterson)

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 03:53 PM PDT

By Ben Patterson ben Patterson – Wed Oct 27, 6:53 pm ET

Newly leaked snapshots of a purported PlayStation Phone would appear to confirm that Sony's looking to Android when it comes to rebooting its portable gaming platform — assuming the photos are real, of course. Meanwhile, ongoing rumors of an upcoming, stand-alone PSP2 continue to confuse matters.

First things first, starting with Engadget's scoop from Tuesday night: a series of refreshingly unfuzzy photos (check them out right here) of what looks to be an Android-powered Sony Ericsson phone with a four-inch-or-so touchscreen and slide-out gaming controls, including the standard PlayStation D-pad on the left, the four PS buttons (triangle, square, circle, and "X") to the right, and an oval touchpad in the center, which would presumably act as virtual analog joysticks.

The PlayStation Phone — if, indeed, that's what we're looking at here — would run on Android 3.0 "Gingerbread" (a future version of the Android OS), according to Engadget, with a peppy 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 processor under the hood and 512MB of RAM, along with a slot for microSD (not Sony's proprietary Memory Stick format) storage cards.

The handset in the Engadget photos looks pretty rough around the edges, with the plain-Jane Android interface devoid of any flashy PlayStation adornments. Then again, the phone in the spy shots is still in "prototyping mode," Engadget claims, meaning that the device we're seeing here lacks the spit and polish of a finished product.

So, are the photos for real? A handful of gaming bloggers aren't so sure, but Engadget is sticking to its guns. Sony, for its part, has issued its standard "we don't comment on rumor or speculation" line, essentially a non-denial denial.

The photos woud appear to bolster Engadget's claim from a couple of months ago that the long-awaited PlayStation Phone would run on Android, complete with a special section of the Android Market for PlayStation games.

Meanwhile, rumors of an all-new PlayStation Portable continue to fly, with Kotaku's sources claiming that the revamped handheld boasts a bigger display than the current PSP 3000 and PSP Go, a rear-facing touchpad (kind of like a "big mouse trackpad"), and dual analog sticks (replacing the existing PSP's one-stick approach).

All very interesting, indeed (and totally unconfirmed, of course) — but what I'm most curious about is whether we're talking two new PSP platforms here, or just one.

One possibility is that Sony wants to branch a couple of different ways with the PSP: an Android-based way with the rumored PlayStation Phone, with games that you'd download from the Android Market; and a stand-alone PSP2 way, with hardcore, non-Android games geared toward the specific controls (like the purported rear trackpad) on the new handheld.

Or maybe both the (rumored!) PlayStation Phone and the PSP2 will play the same Android-based games, with the PSP2's rear touchpad mimicking the phone's standard touchscreen ... or, alternately, with the phone sticking to its slide-out control pads rather than relying on the usual touchscreen.

Either way, it's clear Sony needs to do something — and fast — to beat back Apple and Nintendo when it comes to handheld gaming.

The 3D-enabled, glasses-free Nintendo 3DS is due to make a splash early next year, and Apple's iOS is gaining more and more credibility as a serious handheld gaming platform — a fact underlined by none other than Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, who recently called Apple a bigger threat to Nintendo than Microsoft. (The Nintendo exec stopped short of saying that Apple had overtaken Sony's position in the gaming market, though.)

What do you think: Should Sony be working on both a PlayStation Phone and a PSP2, or should it double-down on one or the other?

Engadget: The PlayStation Phone

— Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News.

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Remains of the Day: The secret life of tech (Macworld)

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 04:30 PM PDT

Dan Moren Dan Moren – Wed Oct 27, 7:30 pm ET

Some things are better left buried—but that's never stopped us before! The secret of the white iPhone 4's delay may be out, but there are plenty of known unknowns about a supposed Apple event next week, and nobody can even find Apple's data center on a map. Allow me to spill the beans in the remainders for Wednesday, October 27, 2010.

The real reason white iPhone 4 is delayed (Hint: the camera) (Cult of Mac)

The white iPhone 4 has been delayed yet again, but nobody seems sure exactly why. According to Cult of Mac, though, it's because the white case allows light to leak back in when taking pictures, ruining prospective shots. Funny, I've got a slightly different problem with my black iPhone 4's camera: there's always part of a thumb in the picture. Hope Apple fixes that in the next version.

Apple hosting secret iOS developer summit next week (Business Insider)

So claims Business Insider, which speculates that it may be to prep for the forthcoming release of iOS 4.2 and help developers produce better apps. What Business Insider doesn't know: "Who's attending, how big this event is, what sort of sessions will be held, and whether Apple will host any sort of media event." Are we just listing things we don't know, now? Because I'm great at that game—just off the top of my head: the mass of the moon, William Howard Taft's birthday, the point of Ulysses, how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop...

Apple's invisible server farm (Fortune)

What, you expect a company that holds secret developer summits to have a visible server farm?

Jobs turned down Bungie… at first: how Microsoft burned Apple (Ars Technica)

Turns out Jobs's anger over Halo developer Bungie's acquisition by Microsoft follows the pattern of the age-old story. According to one former Bungie employee, Apple was offered the chance to buy the company but Steve turned them down…until it turned out Microsoft was the other player. That's right: even Steve Jobs wants what he can't have. Which explains his unnatural craving for human brains.

Back to the Mac in 104 seconds: Amazing..Phenomenal…Great….Awesome….! (YouTube)

We realize watching the entire Steve Jobs Back to the Mac presentation from last week would be time-consuming, so one YouTube user boiled it down to 104 superlative seconds. Keep your eyes peeled for the puppy.

Judge grants injunction vs new Mass. obscenity law (AP)

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 02:51 PM PDT

By DENISE LAVOIE, AP Legal Affairs Writer Denise Lavoie, Ap Legal Affairs Writer – Wed Oct 27, 5:51 pm ET

BOSTON – A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction sought by free-speech advocates who argued that a new Massachusetts law aimed at protecting children from online sexual predators effectively bans from the Internet anything that may be considered "harmful to minors," including material adults have the right to view.

The new law closed a loophole that led the state's highest court to overturn a man's conviction for sending sexually explicit instant messages to someone he believed was a 13-year-old girl.

But Internet content providers, the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and others sought to block enforcement of the law as it applies to broad-based Internet communications. They did not seek to bar enforcement against sexual predators or others who use the Internet to send harmful material to minors.

U.S. District Judge Rya Zobel ruled Tuesday that the law, as it is now written, violates the First Amendment.

"Our goal is to ensure that our laws keep up with modern technology in order to protect kids from sexual predators on the Internet," Attorney General Martha Coakley said in a statement.

She said her office will draft an injunction that addresses the concerns raised in the ruling and will examine if the law needs to be changed to be sure "law enforcement has the necessary tools to protect children online."

The new law was passed quickly by the state Legislature after the Supreme Judicial court found in February that the old state law that imposes criminal penalties for disseminating material harmful to minors did not cover electronic communications.

Instant messages, text messages, e-mail and other electronic communications were added. Penalties include to up to five years in prison or a fine of as much as $10,000 for a first offense.

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Association of American Publishers, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and others filed a federal lawsuit in July challenging the new law.

The content providers argued that the new amendments amount to "a broad censorship law" that would ban from the Internet a variety of information that could be seen as harmful to minors, including material about contraception, pregnancy, literature and art that adults have a First Amendment right to view.

They also argued that people who disseminate information through a generally accessible website cannot discern the ages of those who view the information and that, as a result, the law inhibits the free speech of adults.

Zobel agreed.

"The plaintiffs have demonstrated, without question, that the 2010 amendments ... violate the First Amendment," Zobel wrote.

The judge did not specify in her ruling how the injunction would be enforced. She ordered the plaintiffs to submit a proposed injunction after seeking the agreement of the state Attorney General.

John Reinstein, legal director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, said the state could choose to appeal the ruling to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the case could go to trial for a final judgment or the law could eventually be rewritten.

"We think this is the right decision, and the solution is for the Legislature to re-examine this and see if there is language which is appropriately respectful to the First Amendment rights of all people," Reinstein said.

Coakley's office had argued that the new law only prohibits the dissemination of matter that is obscene to minors under a standard set in a 2006 Supreme Court ruling, that is, when the person sending the material specifically intends to disseminate it to someone under the age of 18. l

PlayStation phone is coming… but when? (Appolicious)

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 08:00 PM PDT

Oracle: Google 'directly Copied' Our Java Code (PC World)

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 06:30 PM PDT

James Niccolai James Niccolai – 2 hrs 53 mins ago

Oracle has updated its lawsuit against Google to allege that parts of its Android mobile phone software "directly copied" Oracle's Java code.

Oracle filed a surprise lawsuit against Google in August, claiming portions of Google's mobile OS platform infringe Java-related copyrights that Oracle acquired when it bought Sun Microsystems.

Oracle's original lawsuit provided few details about the alleged infringement, but in an amended complaint filed Wednesday it gets more specific, providing examples of code attached as exhibits.

The complaint says Android includes infringing class libraries and documentation, and that "approximately one third of Android's Application Programmer Interface (API) packages" are "derivative of Oracle's copyrighted Java API packages" and related documents.

"The infringed elements of Oracle America's copyrighted work include Java method and class names, definitions, organization, and parameters; the structure, organization and content of Java class libraries; and the content and organization of Java's documentation," Oracle says.

"In at least several instances, Android computer program code also was directly copied from copyrighted Oracle America code," Oracle alleges.

Oracle also accuses Google of infringing several Java-related patents. Those charges appear unchanged from its original lawsuit.

Google didn't immediately comment on the updated complaint. In the past it has called the charges a "baseless" attack on Google and the open source community and vowed to fight them.

Oracle is seeking an injunction to block the alleged use of its code and treble damages.

Geocities Archive to be Released Via BitTorrent (PC World)

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 03:43 PM PDT

Chris Head Chris Head – Wed Oct 27, 6:43 pm ET

It was about a year ago that Yahoo!-hosted Geocities sites started going offline. For the majority of Internet users, this event was met with little fanfare; Geocities had long gone out of fashion as a free web host and been replaced by sites like Myspace, Facebook, Wordpress, and more recently, Tumblr.

Yahoo! had given little notice that it would be shutting down Geocities hosting, which made the prospect of creating an archive difficult. Web historians and archivists at Textfiles.com believed the potential loss to be considerable and mounted a concerted effort to make a complete backup of all public Geocities sites. To quote Textfiles:

"What we were facing, you see, was the wholesale destruction of the still-rare combination of words digital heritage, the erasing and silencing of hundreds of thousands of voices, voices that representing the dawn of what one might call "regular people" joining the World Wide Web. A unique moment in human history, preserved for many years and spontaneously combusting due to a few marks in a ledger, the decision of who-knows for who-knows-what."

By using a bit of creative hacking used to forge a "user agent"--the bit of data that tells a server the method (e.g. Web browser, search engine bot, RSS reader) by which pages are accessed--textfiles.com volunteers made it appear if Geocities was being indexed by Google. Rather than simply indexing, the volunteers were scraping and storing all the data available on the Geocities servers to create a single, massive archive.

With the backup effort underway, the question remained: What should be done with data? The first task was to create a single archive, which would then be be compressed and released to the web via BitTorrent! Yes, that means you too can own a (rather large) piece of Web history, if you've got the storage space to spare. Compress, the entire archive will likely clock in at over 900-gigabytes. The archive is currently being compressed; the BitTorrent release should be available within a few days. Check out ascii.textfiles.com for details about the release!

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"Friday Night Lights" parents face family woes (Reuters)

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 06:05 PM PDT

By Lesley Goldberg Lesley Goldberg – Wed Oct 27, 9:05 pm ET

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – "Friday Night Lights" actress Connie Britton says her character will face major domestic problems on the acclaimed football drama, which begins its fifth and final season Wednesday on DirecTV.

"We see Tami and Coach (Taylor, played by Kyle Chandler) struggle with a few very powerful issues, one involving (rebellious daughter) Julie (Aimee Teegarden), who comes back from college with some issues," says Britton, who was Emmy-nominated for her role.

"Then the other between the two of them and an issue that calls things in their marriage to question."

Tami Taylor returns to East Dillon High this season as a guidance counselor.

"Tami has been moved down a few rungs and is dealing with what she wanted to deal with, which is a school situation that was very much in need of help and her services," Britton says. "I end up getting to do a lot of interesting things in the context of that during the course of the season."

After filming the final scene about four months ago, Britton teases that the path of the fifth season changes considerably from where the series ends up 13 episodes later: "Where we started was very different from where we ended."

With original cast members Zach Gilford (Matt Saracen), Taylor Kitsch (Tim Riggins) and Adrianne Palicki (Tyra Collette) set to return for guest stints this season, Britton says the series wrapped in a way that felt right.

"The final scene we shot was not actually the final scene of the show," Britton says. "It was the last scene that we shot ever and it just happened to be in this big beautiful open Texas field at sunset and all these people flew in -- a bunch of the writers, (creator) Peter Berg and (producer) David Nevins and all the people who have been involved with the creation of the show from the beginning -- and gathered in this big open field and watched the final scene be performed and as the sun went down.

"It really felt like a defining 'Friday Night Lights' moment. Then we all got to stand around and do little speeches and cry a little bit then go have a party. It was great."

HOW TO: Share Your Vacation With Online Pals --Without Annoying Them (Mashable)

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 01:55 PM PDT

Brenna Ehrlich Brenna Ehrlich – Wed Oct 27, 4:55 pm ET

After months and months of your cubicle walls contracting in on you like some kind of demonic fun house, it's finally time for that most coveted of reprieves: a vacation!

Sun! Drinking! Ill-advised hookups with accommodating locals! (Hey, an exotic foreign bed beats the Four Elks Motor Lodge ...)

While many of you may breeze out your office door, throwing around claims like "I'm leaving my laptop at home!" "No cellphone on this trip!" and "I might just stay and become Amish!" it's highly unlikely that you're going to completely divorce yourself from the technological realm the minute you pull on your fanny pack.

Why? Well, with the rise of the smartphone and the growing ubiquity of in-flight Wi-Fi, we're about as addicted to tech as your average hipster is to heartache and broken dreams (read: very). Case in point: According to research from Xobni and Harris Interactive, 72% of people in the U.S. check e-mail during their time off.

Although we're not advocating logging in to Gmail or Entourage while sunning on Hermosa Beach (that's just indicative of a bleak, coffee-stained future), we're all for staying at least a little plugged-in whilst unplugging.

Just remember, there's a fine line between sharing your vacation with your associates at home and becoming that annoyingly tan, infuriatingly-drunk-at-3-p.m. layabout who texts pictures of sun-drenched beaches to her cubicle-shackled friends.

Read on for three ways to keep your clock-punching compatriots abreast of your holiday goings-on -- without making them want to leap down the elevator shaft.

And so begins my Netiquette column -- which I write with my Stuff Hipsters Hate co-blogger, Andrea Bartz -- this week over at CNN.


Check out the column at CNN.com >>

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, PeskyMonkey

Fresh iPhone Apps for Oct. 27: Galaxy on Fire 2, Summit - Basecamp, Cars iManager (Appolicious)

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 07:29 AM PDT

Symantec Writes off $10 Million After Faulty AV Activation (PC World)

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 05:20 PM PDT

Robert McMillan Robert Mcmillan – Wed Oct 27, 8:20 pm ET

Symantec has been forced to write off US$10 million in revenue after a glitch in its sales system prevented some consumers from activating their Norton antivirus software at the time they bought it.

The problem affected less than half a percent of Symantec's customers, CEO Enrique Salem said in an interview. "You'd sign up and there'd be a delay in getting your service activated," he said. "There was just a lag between the front-end system and the back-end system, but it's all been corrected and we've accounted for it."

Symantec has identified the customers affected by the problem and adjusted their accounts accordingly, Salem said. The issue was disclosed Wednesday in Symantec's quarterly earnings announcement.

Starting in November 2005, Symantec began automatically renewing subscriptions for its consumer antivirus product. The company says it keeps customers safe by preventing antivirus signatures from going out of date, but the product has had a few problems too. Symantec paid $375,000 earlier this year to settle a lawsuit brought by the New York attorney general over the practice. The company also faces a class-action suit, brought by a customer who said he was charged for a renewal without notification.

The refund was another piece of mixed news for a flat fiscal second quarter that was more profitable for Symantec than analysts had expected.

Symantec's revenue for the quarter, ended Oct. 1, was $1.48 billion, pretty much level with a year earlier. Hurt by a weakening U.S. dollar, Symantec's consumer and security businesses grew by 3 percent and 5 percent year-over-year, but its storage and services groups dipped by 1 percent and 11 percent, respectively.

Excluding charges, earnings per share were $0.34 for the second quarter, $0.06 ahead of analyst expectations, as compiled by Thomson Reuters.

Salem said the services group revenue dropped in part because partners are providing more of Symantec's services.

Its profits from three of its recent security acquisitions -- VeriSign, PGP and GuardianEdge -- weren't as high as expected. Symantec had predicted they would add $0.04 per share to its quarterly earnings, but they came in a penny shy of that figure.

Still, Salem said the company's August acquisition of VeriSign's security business is going better than expected, generating $18 million in revenue during the period. "Our team has been working very hard to get the VeriSign, PGP, and GuardianEddge acquisitions integrated," he said.

Robert McMillan covers computer security and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Robert on Twitter at @bobmcmillan. Robert's e-mail address is robert_mcmillan@idg.com

EU, IBM to Increase Devices' Power Efficiency (PC Magazine)

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 11:01 AM PDT

Matthew Murray - PC Magazine Matthew Murray - Pc Magazine – Wed Oct 27, 2:01 pm ET

Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) and IBM announced today a new research initiative aimed at increasing electronic devices' energy efficiency by up to 10 times when active and virtually eliminating power consumption when they're idle.

The initiative, called "Steeper," is being funded by the EU, and will involve a consortium of European-based organizations, including research institutes such as IBM Research—Zurich, Infineon, and GlobalFoundries; and academic institutions such as the University of Bologna, the University of Dortmund, the University of Udine, and the University of Pisa. SCIPROM will provide the project management.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that electronic devices account for 15 percent of household electricity consumption, and that this may double by 2022 and triple by 2030. The IEA also claims that in the EU, devices using standby power accounts for about 10 percent of electricity used in homes, and is expected to rise to 49 terawatt hours per year by 2020.

Scientists involved in the project will specifically be investigating ways to improve devices' energy efficiency by studying the development of tunnel field effect transistors (TFETs) based on silicon, silicon-germanium, and III-V semiconducting nanowires, which are tiny cylindrical structures that allow optimum electrostatic control of the transistor channel. A press release issued today explained the logic behind the process: "In a TFET, quantum mechanical band-to-band tunneling is exploited to switch on the device and thus achieve a steeper turn-on characteristics compared to conventional" transistors. The overall goal is to reduce operating voltage to less than 0.5 volt.

"Power dissipation has become one of the major challenges for today's electronics, particularly as the number of devices used by businesses and consumers multiplies globally," said Dr. Heike Riel, head of the nanoscale electronics group at IBM Research—Zurich, in a statement. "By applying our collective research in TFETs with semiconducting nanowires we aim to significantly reduce the power consumption of the basic building blocks of integrated circuits affecting the smallest consumer electronics to massive, supercomputers."

The project began this past June and is slated to continue for 36 months.

US air travel security rules spark Europe debate (AP)

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 03:58 PM PDT

By ROBERT BARR, Associated Press Robert Barr, Associated Press – Wed Oct 27, 6:58 pm ET

LONDON – European officials accused the United States of imposing unnecessary and overly intrusive air travel security measures, calling on the Obama administration Wednesday to re-examine policies ranging from X-raying shoes to online security checks for Europeans.

The crux of the issue is every traveler's question of how much security is sufficient and how much delay is tolerable — and whether it's time for a review of security measures that have accumulated in the years since 9/11.

The U.S. government issued a statement Wednesday saying it would continue to review its security measures "based on the latest intelligence."

The debate flared a day after British Airways Chairman Martin Broughton accused the U.S. of demanding "completely redundant" security checks at airports, such as removing shoes and separate examinations of laptop computers.

Europe should not have to "kowtow to the Americans every time they want something done" to beef up security on U.S.-bound flights, Broughton said.

He won support Wednesday from the owner of Heathrow airport and the British pilots' union as well as several European airlines and security experts on both sides of the Atlantic.

The European Union, meanwhile, formally challenged the U.S. requirement that millions of European travelers undergo online security checks before they board flights to the United States. Europeans are singled out because they are allowed to enter the U.S. without visas.

The EU says the system is burdensome and raises privacy issues over how long such personal data is kept and used.

The debate over security has special resonance in a country that was the home of would-be shoe-bomber Richard Reid and where authorities discovered a plot to take liquid explosives aboard trans-Atlantic flights. Discovery of the plan prompted an immediate ban on taking most liquids aboard flights.

Speaking to the annual conference of the U.K. Airport Operators Association on Tuesday, Broughton suggested the U.S. security requirements imposed on Europe for U.S.-bound flights are more stringent than those on U.S. domestic flights.

"America does not do internally a lot of the things they demand that we do," Broughton said in comments quoted by the Financial Times and confirmed by British Airways.

"We shouldn't stand for that. We should say, 'We'll only do things which we consider to be essential and that you Americans also consider essential.'"

However, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday all domestic and international travelers in the U.S. are subject to the same shoe and laptop screening and other security measures.

"I can understand that people don't like waiting on line. I don't like waiting on line," Chertoff said.

But until there is sufficient and reliable technology to screen shoes and liquids, for instance, Chertoff said, it is better to operate in a world with a little inconvenience in exchange for secure aviation travel.

In a statement, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration said the U.S. "works closely with our international partners to ensure the best possible security. We constantly review and evolve our security measures based on the latest intelligence."

Still, security experts and several European airlines, including Virgin Atlantic, Iberia and Finnair, welcomed Broughton's comments, saying it was time to reevaluate the many layers of time-consuming airport security.

"We need to keep passengers safe, but there's also a whole bunch of security rules that could be eased out," said Chris Yates, an aviation security analyst in London.

The requirement to remove shoes for screening, for example, was "the knee-jerk reaction after Richard Reid." The newest metal detectors would sense any metal such as wiring in shoes, he contended.

Many of the security rules are in place because of history rather than real risk, agreed Todd Curtis, a Seattle-based security expert at airsafe.com.

"Shoes get special attention because of their potential to hide explosives, but there are literally thousands of other items that do not get such screening," Curtis said.

He noted that laptops must be taken out of your bag for inspection, but not notebook computers, which have much more capacity than most shoes to carry explosives.

Britain's Aviation Minister Theresa Villiers said the government planned to give airport managers more freedom in determining how to meet security goals. However, she dismissed Broughton's complaint about shoes. "If procedures are considered to be redundant we would lift them," she said.

Colin Matthews, chief executive of BAA PLC, which owns Heathrow airport, said regulations are set by European and U.K. authorities as well as by the United States, and that these overlap.

"We could certainly do a better job for customers if we can rationalize them," Matthews told the BBC.

The debate hit a nerve with travelers like Londoner Jonathan Burgess, 65.

"Technology should be able to detect anything I might bring in, so why should I have to half undress in order for them to make sure?" Burgess said.

Donald Smith, 48, of Providence, Rhode Island, agreed.

"I actually just flew in last night. I think the whole process has gotten slightly our of hand," he said. "I appreciate the concern, but for things like taking off shoes — shouldn't the machines be able to detect anything that could be potentially dangerous?"

___

Associated Press writers Robert Wielaard in Brussels, Jill Lawless, Greg Katz and Gillian Smith in London, Eileen Sullivan in Washington, Malin Rising in Stockholm and Dave Koenig in Dallas contributed to this report.

Mac Version of Koobface All Bark, No Bite - For Now (PC Magazine)

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 10:38 AM PDT

Mark Hachman - PC Magazine Mark Hachman - Pc Magazine – Wed Oct 27, 1:38 pm ET

A Java-based version of the Koobface virus is in the wild and attacking Mac OS X - although, in its current form, users need to manually allow it access to their computers.

The method of attack appears to be Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites, where users are asked to view a video and then connected to the page where the malware resides in the form of a Java applet. Facebook was the original medium for Koobface when it surfaced in 2009.

Intego Software, a developer of security products for the Mac platform, calls the trojan "OSX/Koobface.A". But the Java applet will also infect Windows PCs and Linux, where it is much more dangerous.

Because the Java applet currently requires a manual installation on Apple's OS X, users will hopefully be protected by common sense; users shouldn't allow unknown files and applets to be installed on their computer. However, if they do, the Mac version of the software apparently is flawed, to boot.

"While Intego has evidence of several infections in the wild, we are not currently able to go beyond this step, as either the malicious malware has bugs preventing it from running correctly, or the servers it contacts are not active or are not serving the correct files," Intego wrote in a blog post.

If fixed, however, the version of Koobface acts as it does on Windows, Intego said. It runs a local web server and an IRC server, acts as part of a botnet, acts as a DNS changer, and can activate a number of other functions, either through files initially installed or other files that are later downloaded. It spreads by posting messages on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

In 2009, Microsoft joined Facebook to try and stop the spread of Koobface. It later appeared on Twitter, where some wondered if its had been responsible for a DDoS attack against the service.

Intego warned that Mac users should be wary.

"Mac users should be aware that this threat exists, and that it is likely to be operative in the future, so this Koobface Trojan horse may become an issue for Macs," Intego said.

QuickBooks and Beyond: 5 Online Accounting Services (PC World)

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 06:00 PM PDT

Yardena Arar Yardena Arar – Wed Oct 27, 9:00 pm ET

QuickBooks and Peachtree desktop packages, has blossomed on the Web and diversified. You can find a wealth of services that will meet your business's accounting needs, from full-featured bookkeeping to payroll, expense accounts, invoicing, and more.

All of these services run in a browser, so you can crunch numbers from just about any Web-connected computer, and many have smartphone companion apps. Several offer integration features that let you take advantage of other sites and services--or even desktop software. All promise financial-institution-caliber safeguards for your data, which is probably better protected at an industrial data center than on most home PCs.

Here's a look at five accounting sites for small businesses. While all will help you keep track of income and expenses, each one has specific features that might make it a good fit for your accounting needs and preferences. Most have very basic free versions or 30-day free trials that will let you dip your toe into the water, too.

FreshBooks

Although primarily an invoicing application, FreshBooks also offers expense- and time-tracking features that will appeal to small, service-oriented businesses. Even the free version gives you a subdomain on the FreshBooks site (in the format mydomain.freshbooks.com), which you can customize with a logo and colors. You can import expense data from bank and credit card accounts--but only by exporting it manually to a CSV file, which you must then reorganize so that your fields correspond to FreshBooks' import format.

FreshBooks is a good fit for service-oriented companies.

FreshBooks will also appeal to small businesses that are willing to pay to outsource snail-mail invoicing: For between $0.99 and $1.39 a bill (depending on how many bills you mail each month), FreshBooks will create and mail invoices for you, complete with payment stubs and return envelopes.

It will also send out e-mail invoices and help you set up online payment receipt via any one of ten supported online payment services, including PayPal. You can collect and sync FreshBooks data via Android, BlackBerry, and iPhone apps, as well.

FreshBooks' free version limits you to one user account and no more than three clients; it also puts its brand on e-mail invoices. Upgrades ranging from $20 to $40 let you add clients and team functionality. FreshBooks doesn't really bill itself as a complete accounting service, however. Rather, it encourages you to use it for day-to-day time tracking and invoicing, and it suggests that you periodically export totals to other products for calculating taxes and performing other accounting functions.

WorkingPoint

This capable service seems directed primarily at companies that carry inventory, as it lets you import inventory items via CSV file and offers billing options that you don't see in most small-business Web services. But it has lots of other helpful automation functions, too, including the ability to download and import transaction data from bank accounts and credit cards, as well as support for manual import of contacts (via CSV or VCard files). As you import transactions, you identify the Schedule C line item where they'll go, which will help enormously at tax time.

WorkingPoint is a user-friendly choice for those who are just getting started.

WorkingPoint does a very good job of making its many features less intimidating for newcomers, providing step-by-step instructions everywhere as well as complete help files. Also reassuring is the ever-present orange Support tab on the right side of each page.

These features aren't free: After a 30-day trial, you must pay either $9 a month for up to ten invoices, or $20 a month for unlimited invoices, tax reports, support for PayPal payments and recurring invoices, and the ability to give other users access to your account.

Outright

This free bookkeeping service lacks some of the features you get in most accounting packages--it can't create an invoice, for example--but it does make the basics of expense and income tracking easy. More important, it tackles a problem that sends many self-employed people into the arms of a pricey accountant: figuring out quarterly tax liability.

Outright supports downloads for bank account and credit card transactions, which it automatically channels into income (Money In) and expense (Money Out) registers. You delete the transactions that aren't business related, and then assign Schedule C categories to those that are. Based on this data, Outright figures out what you owe the federal government each quarter. You're on your own for state taxes, however.

Outright's reports feature uses the same Money In/Out data to generate several nifty-looking charts of your profit-and-loss statements, expenses by category, and the like.

Outright offers bank and credit card support, and helps you with quarterly federal taxes.

During tax season last year, Outright offered a paid service for filing 1099 forms (statements documenting payments to independent contractors). Most Outright users probably wouldn't need that service, though. Outright really is for the smallest of small businesses: self-employed individuals who want an easy-to-use tool to track how well their business is doing and how much they have to send Uncle Sam every quarter.

Next page: A good option for multiple-currency support, plus Web-based QuickBooks

QuickBooks Online upgrade path is clear: The free (and surprisingly capable) Simple Start limits you to 20 customers and a limited set of reports; it may be worth investigating for former Quicken Home & Business Online users seeking a new home since Intuit folded all Quicken Online services into the strictly consumer-focused Mint.com.

QuickBooks Simple Start can do the trick if you're self-employed and don't need online banking support.

For $10, QuickBooks Online Basic offers 40 reports and lets your accountant log in, but you'll have to upgrade to the $35-a-month QuickBooks Online Plus for online banking support and a slew of custom invoicing, billing, and expense-tracking options (including client access for certain functions). Payroll and credit card payment support are available to all customers regardless of plan, as extra-cost options.

QuickBooks Online's handsome user interface and task-focused approach to bookkeeping put it on a par with the competition, but the paid versions are pricey and inventory support is sketchy. The free Simple Start, however, is a real gem that can easily meet the needs of a self-employed professional who wants to create invoices and keep an eye on the bottom line, and who doesn't particularly care about online banking support.

Who Should Use These Services?

Web-based accounting services for small businesses are becoming increasingly sophisticated and diversified. The ability to access account info and create invoices from any PC--or, increasingly, from a smartphone--makes them especially useful for businesses that render services on customer sites, but others can also benefit from these offerings.

For example, for individuals who are just starting out and need to keep expenses down, free services such as Outright and QuickBooks Simple Start--perhaps even in tandem--can be a godsend. Outright offers basic tax help that you don't get elsewhere, with transaction download support that competitors make you pay for; QuickBooks, meanwhile, has good invoicing and reporting features for up to 20 customers.

But for just pennies (or maybe dimes or quarters) a day, paid services such as WorkingPoint, with tools to handle billing for inventory, and Less Accounting, with its modular approach and many add-ons, can deliver real value. Both also save you data entry thanks to transaction download support; Less Accounting, on its higher-priced plans, particularly shines in that respect. FreshBooks' snail-mail invoicing service could be worthwhile if you seek to avoid the tiresome chore of printing, stamping, and sending bils via U.S. mail. At the higher end, QuickBooks Online's paid services cater to growing businesses with complicated payroll issues, and to anyone who can use sophisticated reports to tweak business plans. Less Accounting's higher-end offerings will help people who do business abroad.

These five services cater to everyone seeking to offload or at least simplify day-to-day bookkeeping tasks as inexpensively as possible so that employees can concentrate on what they make money doing. You may still need an accountant to look over the big picture of your tax situation, but these services can empower you to keep relevant data organized and handy on your own.
at 9:32 PM

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