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Wednesday, November 17, 2010

To 3-D or not to 3-D? 'Potter' people disagree (AP) : Technet

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To 3-D or not to 3-D? 'Potter' people disagree (AP) : Technet

To 3-D or not to 3-D? 'Potter' people disagree (AP)

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 02:28 PM PST

By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer David Germain, Ap Movie Writer – Wed Nov 17, 5:28 pm ET

LONDON – Disappointed the new "Harry Potter" film won't be in 3-D? Its star, Daniel Radcliffe, feels the opposite.

Radcliffe said he is delighted that the filmmakers and distributor Warner Bros. scrapped plans to convert "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" to 3-D. He also hopes they abandon their 3-D plans for "Part 2," due in theaters next July.

"If any film doesn't need a gimmick, it's these ones, and that's for me what 3-D is," Radcliffe said in an interview. "For me, 3-D adds nothing to the story."

It does add to the box office, however. Movies available in both two- and three-dimensional projection often derive two-thirds or more of their revenue from 3-D versions, with fans willing to pay the few dollars extra it costs to put on the dorky glasses that bring the illusion of depth to the images.

The filmmakers had been racing to create a 3-D version of "Deathly Hallows" in time for its theatrical debut this week, but they said they ran out of time to do it right.

"We lavish a huge amount of attention and care on the 2-D version, the normal version of the film," said producer David Barron. "We were just not prepared to throw off what you might call some half-assed version just for the sake of trying to generate more money."

How much more money? There's no way to pinpoint precisely what 3-D would have added to revenues for "Deathly Hallows," but producer David Heyman made an estimate.

"I think 10 to 20 percent, probably. On a film that's going to make $800 million at the box office, that's a lot of money," Heyman said. "Warner Bros. are going to have to alter their fourth-quarter projections because it's not in 3-D."

As bad as that sounds for shareholders, it's a rare instance of quality trumping commerce in greedy Hollywood. Warner Bros. pushed for a 3-D version but ultimately agreed to drop it once the filmmakers convinced studio heads it would be an inferior rush job.

Director David Yates, who shot both parts of "Deathly Hallows" simultaneously, said "lots of beautiful individual bits and pieces" of "Part 1" had been converted to 3-D, but other scenes simply did not look right.

With what the filmmakers learned on "Part 1" — and nearly eight months ahead of them — they are confident they can deliver a 3-D version of "Part 2" that lives up to the "Harry Potter" brand name.

"I think it's going to be really cool," Yates said. "We've been working with people since May on the whole 3-D thing, so it's not like we're starting from scratch. I want it to work. I really want it to work."

There are moments in the 2-D version of "Part 1" where the possibilities of 3-D can be clearly seen, including a scene where a giant snake hurtles itself at the camera and another where Harry's pet owl flies away from him toward the audience.

Such images were not created for 3-D jolt effect, though, since "Deathly Hallows" was not shot with 3-D in mind. The film was well into production before the digital 3-D craze took hold last year, culminating in James Cameron's sci-fi sensation "Avatar."

Digital 3-D comes in two basic flavors: Films such as "Avatar" specifically shot with 3-D cameras that create two slightly offset images, and movies converted to 3-D after the fact.

Done well, footage converted to 3-D can look great. George Lucas showed an impressive 3-D conversion of the opening scenes of 1977's "Star Wars" to theater owners at a convention in 2005, and the technology has advanced since then.

Lucas plans to release 3-D versions of all six "Star Wars" movies, while Cameron is converting "Titanic" for 3-D release.

As meticulous as Lucas and Cameron are, fans probably can expect top-of-the-line 3-D conversions. But some recent movies converted to 3-D have come off as hasty knockoffs to cash in on 3-D mania.

Critics carped that 3-D added little to such recent hits as "The Last Airbender," "Clash of the Titans" and even Tim Burton's blockbuster "Alice in Wonderland." Some claimed 3-D conversion jobs actually can be a distraction, leaving images looking smudged and blurry.

Radcliffe is not a fan of 3-D even when it's done well. He said that Christopher Nolan's sci-fi blockbuster "Inception" was the year's best film both visually and dramatically, "and that for me puts the 3-D argument to bed."

"`Avatar,' sure, it looked amazing, but not more amazing than `Inception,'" Radcliffe said. "And I thought about `Inception' for so much longer because it was a better film, because it was a more interesting film. And I don't think that technology is a substitute for story, which I think is how 3-D can sometimes be used."

Nolan, who also made "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight," is not shooting his next Batman movie in 3-D, either.

Warner Bros., which released "Inception" and the Batman movies, may be counting on a 3-D bonanza from next summer's finale to the "Harry Potter" franchise. Yet Radcliffe would like to see "Deathly Hallows: Part 1" work enough critical and commercial magic that the filmmakers and studio bosses will change their minds.

"What I'm hoping is that this film will get a good enough reaction so they all go, `Maybe we don't have to do the last one in 3-D. People don't miss it.' That's what I'm hoping for," Radcliffe said. "But it's sort of not in my control."

Hulu officially launches pay service, cuts price (AP)

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 01:48 PM PST

– Wed Nov 17, 4:48 pm ET

NEW YORK – Online video site Hulu formally launched its premium streaming service Wednesday and cut the price to $8 a month.

The service launched as a preview about five months ago for $2 more. Hulu said subscribers will receive credit for the difference on what they already paid.

Hulu's service offers back seasons of NBC, Fox and ABC and other TV shows, such as "30 Rock" and "Glee."

The free portion of the site, which has less content, remains available. Hulu Plus, however, offers high-definition content and is available on a slew of Internet-connected devices, including the iPhone, the iPad and the PlayStation 3. The free Hulu is only available on computers.

Hulu is jointly owned by General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal, Fox owner News Corp., ABC owner The Walt Disney Co. and Providence Equity Partners. Earlier this month, Hulu said it is on track to generate more than $240 million in revenue this year, more than double 2009 revenue of $108 million. The company said most of its revenue comes from advertising, but in a blog post Wednesday, CEO Jason Kilar said the subscription offering "is already accounting for a material percentage of Hulu's overall business."

Cable execs ask for new rules in programming talks (AP)

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 04:44 PM PST

By JOELLE TESSLER, AP Technology Writer Joelle Tessler, Ap Technology Writer – Wed Nov 17, 7:44 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Executives for two leading cable companies are asking lawmakers for new government rules that would give them more clout in negotiations with TV broadcasters over programming.

Thomas Rutledge, chief operating officer of Cablevision Systems Corp., and Glenn Britt, chairman, president and chief executive of Time Warner Cable Inc., told members of the Senate Commerce Committee Wednesday that new rules are needed following a series of high-profile disputes over the fees that cable companies pay broadcasters to transmit their signals.

Broadcasters have begun demanding more for those signals in recent years as advertising revenue has dropped off. But too often, Rutledge told the Senate panel, consumers are caught in the middle when broadcasters withdraw their signals during negotiations, often right before high-profile events.

Last month, a bitter stand-off between Cablevision and News Corp.'s Fox network left 3 million Cablevision subscribers in the New York area without Fox programming for 15 days — including through two World Series games — after the broadcaster pulled its signal.

Such contract disputes, Rutledge said, "are wreaking havoc on consumers, and we ought to find a way to resolve them without holding consumers hostage."

For his part, News Corp. deputy chairman, president and chief operating officer Chase Carey argued in his testimony that broadcasters are simply using free-market negotiations to seek fair compensation for the "very popular and expensive content we air." He added that if broadcasters are not paid enough for their programming, they will no longer be able to invest in high-quality content, including sporting events and local news.

But both cable executives argued at Wednesday's hearing that existing law and current Federal Communications Commission rules favor broadcasters in these so-called "retransmission consent" negotiations, since the ability to pull a signal gives them the upper hand.

Cablevision and Time Warner are members of a coalition of pay-TV providers that has asked the FCC to adopt new rules that would prohibit broadcasters from interrupting signals during negotiations or before popular events, and mandate binding arbitration in disputes. So far, the agency has remained on the sidelines — even during the recent Fox blackout on Cablevision — arguing that it does not have authority to get involved.

Britt told lawmakers Wednesday that this is the wrong approach. "The FCC has repeatedly signaled — incorrectly, we believe — that its hands are tied when it comes to protecting the public from the consequences of retransmission consent fights."

The cable executives' pleas found a receptive audience among some Senators.

"Our predilection is not to get involved, not to try to somehow manage the marketplace in ways that are inappropriate," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who chairs the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet. "But when the consumers keep getting crunched in the middle, and keep coming back to us and saying 'we feel powerless, and we're tired of it,' that's when we come to the table. Our constituents should not be the pawns in these corporate negotiations."

Kerry is drafting legislation intended to prevent broadcasters from pulling a signal until the parties have gone through a process with the FCC to ensure good faith negotiation and consider arbitration as an option.

‘Knight and Day’ to be among first ‘premium’ kiosk DVD rentals (Ben Patterson)

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 12:57 PM PST

By Ben Patterson ben Patterson – Wed Nov 17, 3:57 pm ET

You won't have to wait 28 days to rent Tom Cruise's summer thriller at a Blockbuster Express kiosk, but you will have to pay more than a buck a night. Meanwhile, a Redbox exec says the company has no plans to raise its nightly DVD rental prices … or not in the "near future," at least.

The news comes as part of a new distribution deal struck between 20th Century Fox and NCR (which owns and operates Blockbuster Express kiosks, not bankrupt Blockbuster Inc.) that calls for a 28-day delay before Fox's latest DVDs are available for rent through Blockbuster Express, the L.A. Times reports.

But the deal also entails trying out "premium" DVD rental pricing for a few upcoming titles, and "Knight and Day" — the Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz action caper that I wasted two hours of my life watching back in July — will be among the first of movies to get the "premium" treatment, with "The A-Team" another "likely" guinea pig, according to the Times.

Fox isn't the only movie studio tinkering with premium rental pricing for early access to DVD rentals in kiosks. Universal was the first to announce that it would give the scheme a try, also with Blockbuster Express.

So, how much more than $1 a night are we talking about, here? That's still up in the air, although one scenario that's been floated involves paying $3 for the first night, followed by $2 for additional nights.

Given that "Knight and Day" is slated to arrive on DVD on November 30, it appears we're about to find out.

Not taking part in the premium DVD rental trial — or not yet, anyway — is Blockbuster Express competitor Redbox.

Still, it's worth nothing that Redbox has tinkered with its famous buck-a-night DVD rental pricing over the past several months. Earlier this year, Redbox experimented with nightly DVD rental prices as high as $2 for the first night, followed by $1 for subsequent nights.

Redbox also tried different, flat pricing schemes in other markets, such as charging between $1.15 and $1.25 each night for DVD rentals. (Redbox already charges $1.50 a night for Blu-ray discs and $2 a night for games.)

But while Redbox believe that there's some "elasticity" to the $1-a-night price, Coinstar CFO Scott Di Valerio told investors at a conference Wednesday that Redbox will stick to its buck-a-night guns, for now. (Coinstar is the parent company of Redbox, by the way.)

"We don't believe at this point it is the right level to pull," said Di Valerio, according to Home Media Magazine, adding that "we don't see increasing the price for standard definition [DVD] in the near future" — leaving the door open, of course, to raising the price in the not-so-near future.

Fox, Universal, and Warner Brothers are holding their latest releases back from the likes of Redbox, Netflix and now Blockbuster Express in the hopes that doing so will boost sagging DVD and Blu-ray sales. Indeed, an executive for Warner Bros. recently floated the idea of extending the 28-day "window" even longer, citing recent increases in disc sales after the delay was implemented.

Not all the Hollywood studios are on board with a 28-day delay, however. Disney, Paramount, and Sony still offer their latest releases to Redbox and Netflix the day they arrive in stores.

So, would you pay extra at a Blockbuster Express (or Redbox) kiosk to rent a new release the day it goes on sale? Or would you be happy to wait?

Los Angeles Times: Fox to test premium pricing for DVD kiosk rentals starting with 'Knight and Day'
Home Media Magazine: Redbox Eying Catalog Rentals

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

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Hulu lowers monthly fee for Plus service to $8 (Ben Patterson)

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 10:02 AM PST

By Ben Patterson ben Patterson – Wed Nov 17, 1:02 pm ET

If you weren't too keen about the idea of paying $10 a month to watch Hulu videos on your iPhone, iPad or PlayStation 3, how does $8 a month strike you?

Clearly hoping to attract more subscribers to its for-pay Plus service, which offers a greater selection of TV shows along with the ability to stream videos to selected phones, set-top boxes and game consoles, Hulu has dropped its monthly subscription fee to $7.99 a month.

Rumors began swirling late last month that Hulu was considering cutting the fee for Hulu Plus, which first launched back in June as an invite-only beta, by as much as half.

In a post on the official Hulu blog, CEO Jason Kilar announced a free week for anyone who wants to test-drive Hulu Plus. Those who have already joined will get a one-week credit, along with another credit for the $2 a month extra they've been paying during the initial Hulu Plus "preview" period—which is now over, meaning that anyone can join.

Kilar also promises two free weeks of Hulu Plus for anyone who refers a friend to the service, as well as a month of free service with the purchase of a Roku set-top box, or 11 weeks gratis if you buy a new Sony TV or Blu-ray deck with Bravia Internet connectivity.

Hulu has yet to announce exactly how many viewers have signed up for Hulu Plus, although Kilar writes in his blog post that Hulu is "highly encouraged by the response."

Dropping the monthly Hulu Plus subscription fee by 20 percent, though, says to me that the suits at Hulu (which counts ABC, Fox and NBC among its stakeholders) are hoping to attract more paying members than they were getting at $10 a month.

So, what will 8 bucks a month get you? More than 2,000 episodes from 120 seasons of TV shows that you can't get through Hulu's free Web portal, including full seasons of current shows like "Glee," "The Office," "House" and "Modern Family," as well as older series such as "The X-Files," "Roswell," "Ally McBeal," "Quantum Leap" and "Miami Vice."

Recent additions to the Hulu Plus lineup include full seasons of "Monk," "Psych" and "Battlestar Galactica," with every single episode of "Saturday Night Live" slated to arrive by the end of the year. (Netflix has also been boosting its selection of streaming TV episodes, by the way, and Hulu execs were said to be "fuming" after Netflix landed its own deal for day-after episodes of "Saturday Night Live.")

Besides gaining access to the deepening collection of TV shows, signing up with Hulu Plus gives you access to Hulu videos on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, as well as on Net-connected TVs and set-top boxes from Roku, Samsung, Sony, TiVo and Vizio.

The PlayStation 3 also got its own Hulu Plus app. The Xbox 360 is set to get Hulu Plus access early next year.

One of the biggest sticking points about Hulu Plus (besides the monthly price tag) is the fact that even paid subscribers can't skip the ads that pepper each TV episode.

At a recent conference, Kilar said that keeping the ads in Hulu's videos—even for paying customers—is "just the economics" of its current pricing structure. Presumably that means that offering ad-free videos would entail raising the monthly subscription fee.

So, would you sign up for Hulu Plus now that it's $8 a month rather than $10? How do you think Hulu Plus compares with Netflix and its catalog of streaming TV shows and movies?

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

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Dell's Mobile Head Steps Down (PC World)

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 05:30 PM PST

Nancy Gohring Nancy Gohring – Wed Nov 17, 8:30 pm ET

Just as it gets back into the mobile-phone business, Dell is losing its top mobile executive.

Ron Garriques, president of its communications solutions group, has decided to leave the company, Dell said in a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that was published on Wednesday. His last day will be Jan. 28, but he'll offer consulting services to Dell through the end of 2011.

Dell hired Garriques in 2007 from Motorola, where he was president of mobile devices.

At Dell, he was most recently responsible for bringing connected products to market through distribution channels like telecom and cable, according to his biography. Under his watch, Dell re-entered the mobile devices market. This year, it released the Streak, an Android device that falls between a smartphone and a tablet.

Dell also was one of the first companies to launch a Windows Phone 7 device, the Venue Pro, but that launch wasn't totally smooth. Dell had to offer replacement phones to some Venue Pro buyers who complained of problems with Wi-Fi and who had batteries that were labeled as samples.

Dell is also selling the Aero smartphone, which runs the Android operating system.

Dell did not reply to a request for comment about who might take Garriques' place and why he's leaving the company.

The Associated Press reported that he decided to leave after a reorganization eliminated his group.

Garriques will receive severance and incentive plan payments of US$1.8 million, according to the regulatory filing. For his future consulting services, he'll be paid $6.3 million.

Nancy Gohring covers mobile phones and cloud computing for The IDG News Service. Follow Nancy on Twitter at @idgnancy. Nancy's e-mail address is Nancy_Gohring@idg.com

Research firm sees growth for Android-based tablets (Reuters)

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 04:33 PM PST

– Wed Nov 17, 7:33 pm ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Tablet computers using Google Inc's Android-based system will steal some sales from Apple Inc's iPad and hold 15.2 percent of the market in 2011, industry tracker IMS Research said.

The firm said in a report that over 15 suppliers will sell Android-based tablets by mid-2011, including Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Acer Inc, Cisco Systems Inc and Dell Inc.

On the strength of those devices, IMS projected that Android will command 15.2 percent of the tablet market in 2011. And that will grow to 28.4 percent in 2015, IMS said.

Samsung has said it plans to sell 1 million of its Galaxy Tab tablets this year, according to Nikkei business daily.

"The availability of Samsung's Galaxy Tab tablet via mobile carriers such as AT&T in the U.S. will quickly boost Google Android's presence in the tablet market," Anna Hunt, the IMS report author and principal analyst, said in a statement.

Research firm iSuppli expects 15.6 million tablets to ship this year, with 13.8 million of those being iPads, which got a head start on the competition with a launch in April.

Next year, 57.3 million tablets are expected to ship with the iPad making up 43.7 million of those units, iSuppli said.

Companies competing against the iPad by bringing out a new tablet must contend with the fact many application developers are gearing their products to the iPad's specifications, said Rhoda Alexander, an analyst with iSuppli.

The IMS Research report also notes that technology companies Research in Motion Ltd and Hewlett Packard Co have invested in operating system technology for tablets. As a result, IMS forecasts that, in 2011, 7.8 percent of tablets shipped will run on operating systems other than Apple OS, Android or Microsoft Corp's Windows.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; editing by Andre Grenon)

China Unicom to launch own-brand smartphone by year-end (Reuters)

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 08:24 PM PST

– 40 mins ago

HONG KONG (Reuters) – China Unicom, the country's No.2 mobile operator, said it will launch an own-brand smartphone series by the end of this year to draw more business to its 3G data network.

The Uphone would be manufactured by Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp, but pricing details and production numbers had not yet been set, Zhang Zhijiang, head of China Unicom's technology department, said on Thursday.

"We haven't set prices yet because the phone will only be released at the end of this year," Zhang said.

China Unicom is the only mobile operator authorized to sell Apple Inc's iPhone in China. Bigger rival China Mobile Ltd also sells a self-branded smartphone, which it calls the Ophone.

While the iPhone has grabbed global headlines, ZTE's and Huawei's smartphones, most based on Google Inc's free Android operating system, are quietly gaining a reputation for their functionality at lower costs.

Like their peers in mature markets, all of China's three mobile operators are trying to attract customers to their data networks to fuel growth as revenue from voice calls falls amid rising competition and mobile phone penetration rates.

(Reporting by Huang Yuntao; Editing by Chris Lewis)

Twitter looking to friend Facebook (AFP)

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 08:27 PM PST

by Glenn Chapman Glenn Chapman – 37 mins ago

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Twitter wants to friend Facebook but the hot Internet stars have been unable to make a relationship work, a co-founder of the microblogging said.

"We are talking to them often to see if there is a way to work together, but so far neither side has seen a way to do that," Twitter co-founder Evan Williams said about Facebook at a Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.

Williams noted that he was "frustrated" that Facebook blocked an integration of contact lists that would have allowed people to see whether friends from one service were also using the other.

"We'd like our users to tap into Facebook to make their Twitter experience better," Williams said.

"But I understand their position," he continued. "They see the social graph as their core asset."

Twitter's freshly instituted revenue model of letting businesses or people pay to "promote" tweets -- terse text messages of no more than 140 characters -- to eye-catching spots was "going great," according to Williams.

He contended there are "a million ways" for Twitter to make money.

Williams refused to answer questions about a TechCrunch report that Twitter is in line for a multi-billion-dollar round of venture capital funding, most likely headed by Russian investor Yuri Milner of DST Global.

During an on-stage chat at the Summit a day earlier, Milner dodged questions about his interest in buying a piece of Twitter.

Milner has stakes in social networking king Facebook; online games sensation Zynga, and Internet coupon startup Groupon.

"That is great company to be considered in," Williams said when moderator John Battelle pressed him about possible Milner backing.

"We have a lot of money in the bank," Williams quickly added.

Milner said he invests in "late-stage companies with billion-dollar-plus valuations in the social Internet space." Twitter fits that bill.

The number of people using Twitter around the world rocketed after the startup launched in San Francisco in mid-2006.

"I feel like we spent very little time improving the product because we had to spend all our time ramping up our team and infrastructure," Williams said of the years of explosive growth.

"We got to a point this year where we had time and resources to do improvements that weren't just superficial."

Coming improvements include integrating Google Translate tools into Twitter so "tweets" can be converted between languages, according to Williams.

People getting into real-world trouble for messages fired off on Twitter is an example of societies grappling with how the Internet is breaking down barriers to sharing information and thoughts.

"Getting more voices and ways to find the truth means there will be more truth available for more people," Williams said of Twitter.

"I think society is not yet prepared for everyone having a voice; that includes people having access to text messaging and alcohol. There are going to be some painful lessons."

Report: Online video providers not protecting kids (AP)

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 06:34 PM PST

By JAKE COYLE, AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle, Ap Entertainment Writer – 2 hrs 30 mins ago

NEW YORK – Mainstream online video destinations don't do enough to keep explicit content from kids, the Parents Television Council said in a report released Wednesday.

The advocacy group, which monitors decency issues, evaluated the child appropriateness of four online video portals: Hulu, Comcast's Fancast, AOL's Slashcontrol and AT&T's U-verse. None received a better grade than a D.

The study looked at home pages and 602 videos over a three-week period. The council found that standards are more lenient online than on broadcast television, that content ratings were vague and that content that may be unsuitable for children under 14 could be watched by young children.

The president of the Parents Television Council, Tim Winter, said the report proved that the four websites "are failing to protect kids on the Web."

"The content ratings and parental control devices (media corporations) tout as a solution to indecent material on television are not being applied to similarly indecent material on their websites," Winter said.

AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said in a statement that through a program called Smart Limits the company provides various tools that enable parents to limit the kinds of videos children can view on computers, TVs and cell phones.

AOL disputed some of the report's findings. A spokeswoman for the company said that parental controls can be put in place for Slashcontrol and that it's a site with a primarily adult audience.

"Slashcontrol is not a kids and teens site and is not promoted to kids and teens," AOL said in a statement.

Hulu (which is owned by NBC Universal, News Corp., The Walt Disney Co. and Providence Equity Partners) and Comcast didn't respond to requests for comment on the study.

The report calls on online providers to implement more effective ways of filtering out content unsuitable for children, including home pages with a parental control option and more explicit ratings.

The Parents Television Council said it chose the sites it did for the study because they're aggregators of commercially supported streaming video. It excluded sites that display their own content exclusively and those that focus on user-generated videos.

___

Online:

http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/publications/reports/OnlineVideo/Study.pdf

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Automatically Share What You Browse with Friends [INVITES] (Mashable)

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 03:25 PM PST

Sarah Kessler Sarah Kessler – Wed Nov 17, 6:25 pm ET

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: Sitesimon

Quick Pitch: Share your click stream with friends in real time and increase your influence score by discovering good content first.

Genius Idea: Sharing what you find online can be a great way to stay in touch with your network and become a valuable social media connection. And there are scores of services to aid you in this mission. There are different services to help you share multiple links with one short URL, share your text messages, share your music, share photos, and share videos.

Instead of managing the tools to accomplish all of this sharing, Sitesimon (pronounced "site simon" though originally contrived as "sites I'm on") gives users the option to just share everything automatically. Your friends can browse through your click stream and visit the sites that you've visited.

Using a browser add-on, you can choose to either select certain sites that you want your friends to see or, if you set the service to automatic, to block from view what you want to keep to yourself (whose Facebook profile you're visiting 12 times a day, for instance).

The major challenge for the company will be convincing users that Sitesimon is a worthwhile way to share content. The company's main argument is that what is most interesting on the web isn't necessarily what people decide to share. Plus, it's a lot easier to passively share content than to copy, shorten, and broadcast it.

Recently launched competitor Discover.Me lacks the feature that we think might make Sitesimon worth signing up for: a "site score" that measures web influence. Your score improves when you see a web page earlier than other Sitesimon users and when other people on Sitesimon view pages through your click stream. In other words, you're rewarded for discovering cool stuff on the web, even if you don't make an effort to broadcast it.

Sitesimon was founded by three recent graduates of NYU and is currently unfunded. Only about a month into private beta, it's too soon to tell how the concept will catch on. But it will be interesting to see if people are ready for the "all-in" level of sharing that the company is betting on.

Sitesimon is currently in private beta, but 500 Mashable readers can get early access by signing up here.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, 7immy

Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

Will mobile editing capability make Google Docs a universal killer app? (Appolicious)

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 12:56 PM PST

Microsoft Gives Free Symantec Software in Limited Offer (PC World)

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 05:30 PM PST

Nancy Gohring Nancy Gohring – Wed Nov 17, 8:30 pm ET

Microsoft is now offering free Symantec security software to small businesses for a limited time, through retailer PC Mall, following some grumbling in response to the free distribution of its own security software.

In October, Microsoft began offering small businesses free copies of Microsoft Security Essentials for as many as 10 PCs. It has also started letting customers download the software from Windows Update.

Panda Security and Trend Micro are among the companies that complained about Microsoft offering the security software free, with Trend Micro suggesting that the software giant could be violating competition laws in distributing it via Windows Update.

Panda suggested that Microsoft offer free antivirus software from a variety of companies as a way to prevent a security software monoculture that could make it easier for viruses to spread quickly.

It appears Microsoft is taking that suggestion, although not in partnership with Panda, and only through one retailer.

From Nov. 1 until Dec. 31, businesses that buy a new copy of Windows 7 Professional from PC Mall will also get a copy of Symantec EndPoint Protection Small Business Edition free. The offer is good for up to 50 PCs.

In September, Microsoft said that Security Essentials had been downloaded more than 31 million times. The free software, distributed by Microsoft, poses a competitive threat to other antivirus software developers.

Nancy Gohring covers mobile phones and cloud computing for The IDG News Service. Follow Nancy on Twitter at @idgnancy. Nancy's e-mail address is Nancy_Gohring@idg.com

China Telecom denies US web hijack allegations (AFP)

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 08:37 PM PST

– 27 mins ago

BEIJING (AFP) – State-owned China Telecom on Thursday rejected US claims that its servers "hijacked" highly sensitive Internet traffic on American government and military websites earlier this year.

The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission said in a report to Congress on Wednesday that the Chinese firm re-routed email traffic to and from websites of the US Senate, the Department of Defense, and "many others" including the national space agency NASA for 18 minutes on April 8.

The rerouting began at a smaller Chinese Internet service provider called IDC China Telecommunication before being propagated by China Telecom, the commission's report said.

However the listed arm of China Telecom, one of the country's major telecommunications operators, said in a statement emailed to AFP that the company "denied any hijack of Internet traffic".

AFP was unable to immediately contact IDC China Telecommunication for comment.

The US report said that some 15 percent of the Internet's entire traffic was routed through Chinese servers during the brief period.

"What could you do if you had the stream of email traffic for 18 minutes" to and from the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, asked commissioner Larry Wortzel on Wednesday.

"Most importantly you would get the Internet addresses of everybody that communicated" and be able to engineer an address to plant a virus, he said.

China's capacity to launch cyberattacks on US commercial interests was also highlighted this year when Internet giant Google said it had become the target of a series of sophisticated cyberattacks there.

The search engine giant rerouted mainland users to its site in Hong Kong and threatened to completely shutter its operations in China.

Stuxnet virus could target many industries (AP)

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 11:44 AM PST

By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press – Wed Nov 17, 2:44 pm ET

WASHINGTON – A malicious computer attack that appears to target Iran's nuclear plants can be modified to wreak havoc on industrial control systems around the world, and represents the most dire cyberthreat known to industry, government officials and experts said Wednesday.

They warned that industries are becoming increasingly vulnerable to the so-called Stuxnet worm as they merge networks and computer systems to increase efficiency. The growing danger, said lawmakers, makes it imperative that Congress move on legislation that would expand government controls and set requirements to make systems safer.

The complex code is not only able to infiltrate and take over systems that control manufacturing and other critical operations, but it has even more sophisticated abilities to silently steal sensitive intellectual property data, experts said.

Dean Turner, director of the Global Intelligence Network at Symantec Corp., told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that the "real-world implications of Stuxnet are beyond any threat we have seen in the past."

Analysts and government officials told the senators they remain unable to determine who launched the attack. But the design and performance of the code, and that the bulk of the attacks were in Iran, have fueled speculation that it targeted Iranian nuclear facilities.

Turner said there were 44,000 unique Stuxnet computer infections worldwide through last week, and 1,600 in the United States. Sixty percent of the infections were in Iran, including several employees' laptops at the Bushehr nuclear plant.

Iran has said it believes Stuxnet is part of a Western plot to sabotage its nuclear program, but experts see few signs of major damage at Iranian facilities.

A senior government official warned Wednesday that attackers can use information made public about the Stuxnet worm to develop variations targeting other industries, affecting the production of everything from chemicals to baby formula.

"This code can automatically enter a system, steal the formula for the product you are manufacturing, alter the ingredients being mixed in your product and indicate to the operator and your antivirus software that everything is functioning as expected," said Sean McGurk, acting director of Homeland Security's national cybersecurity operations center.

Stuxnet specifically targets businesses that use Windows operating software and a control system designed by Siemens AG. That combination, said McGurk, is used in many critical sectors, from automobile assembly to mixing products such as chemicals.

Turner added that the code's highly sophisticated structure and techniques also could mean that it is a one-in-a-decade occurrence. The virus is so complex and costly to develop "that a select few attackers would be capable of producing a similar threat," he said.

Experts said governments and industries can do much more to protect critical systems.

Michael Assante, who heads the newly created, not-for-profit National Board of Information Security Examiners, told lawmakers that control systems need to be walled off from other networks to make it harder for hackers to access them. And he encouraged senators to beef up government authorities and consider placing performance requirements and other standards on the industry to curtail unsafe practices and make systems more secure.

"We can no longer ignore known system weaknesses and simply accept current system limitations," he said. "We must admit that our current security strategies are too disjointed and are often, in unintended ways, working against our efforts to address" cybersecurity challenges.

The panel chairman, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said legislation on the matter will be a top priority after lawmakers return in January.

___

Online:

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee: http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/

Tiny Linux Kernel Patch Delivers Huge Speed Boost (PC World)

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 11:28 AM PST

Katherine Noyes Katherine Noyes – Wed Nov 17, 2:28 pm ET

What a difference 233 lines of code can make.

That's the size of a small new patch to the Linux kernel's scheduler that has been found to reduce the average latency of the desktop by about 60 times. It's a small patch with a really, really big gain for desktop users of the open source operating system, in other words.

Though not yet merged into the mainline kernel, the new patch--written by Linux kernel developer Mike Galbraith--has already received high praise from Linux creator Linus Torvalds himself.

"I have to say that I'm (very happily) surprised by just how small that patch really ends up being, and how it's not intrusive or ugly either," Torvalds wrote Monday in an e-mail. "I'm also very happy with just what it does to interactive performance.... It is a _huge_ improvement."

Web pages, in particular, load "a lot faster" following the patch, Torvalds noted. "I think this is firmly one of those 'real improvement' patches. Good job. Group scheduling goes from 'useful for some specific server loads' to 'that's a killer feature'."

60 Times Faster

Essentially, the patch works by automatically creating task groups per TTY--or input/output device--so as to improve desktop interactivity under heavy loads. The feature is enabled from boot by default, but it can be turned on or off on the fly.

In tests by Galbraith, the patch reportedly produced a drop in the maximum latency of more than 10 times and in the average latency of the desktop by about 60 times. Though the merge window is now closed for the Linux 2.6.37 kernel, the new patch should make it into version 2.6.38.

Two contrasting videos on Phoronix demonstrate the difference the patch makes.

The New Speed Demon

Linux has just recently made a round of fresh headlines for its stellar performance on supercomputers--the current leader in that race runs the open source operating system, for example, as do the majority of the top 500.

But it's especially exciting to see such speed advantages coming to the desktop. Soon, not only will Linux deliver superior security, reliability and numerous other advantages, but it will be a speed demon as well. For businesses, in particular, that's a combination that will be hard to beat.

Follow Katherine Noyes on Twitter: @Noyesk.

NATO mobilises for cyber warfare (AFP)

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 07:07 PM PST

by Pascal Mallet Pascal Mallet – 1 hr 57 mins ago

BRUSSELS (AFP) – In 1989, before the Internet revolution, Suleyman Anil was the lone man in charge of the security of NATO's IT system, armed with a single computer.

Two decades later, with the threat of cyber attacks on the rise, Anil oversees two teams tasked with protecting the networks of the alliance's political headquarters in Brussels and operations command in Mons, Belgium.

The threat is constant, with as many as 100 attempted cyber attacks on NATO every day, but it could take just "one in a day to be dangerous," said Anil, a Turkish IT expert who heads NATO's Cyber Defence and Countermeasures Branch.

NATO leaders meeting at a summit in Lisbon on Friday and Saturday will enshrine cyber security as one of the 28-nation alliance's priorities when they endorse a "strategic concept" to guide its strategy for the next decade.

A message seen on a computer in a NATO office makes the threat clear: "Computer viruses pose a risk to our organisation, varying from anonymous to outright dangerous."

The warning seeks to discourage employees from using USB keys, which can serve as a Trojan horse to plant viruses. But such worms are not the only threat.

The vulnerability of its servers to "professional" and "amateur" hackers was highlighted in 1999 when Serbs flooded NATO with thousands of emails to protest the alliance's bombing campaign in Kosovo, Anil said.

The turning point for NATO came at a summit in Prague in 2002, when leaders asked NATO to improve the security of its computer networks, he told AFP in an interview.

Cyber warfare is one of five sections within a new NATO division against emerging security threats that was created in August.

A costly cyber strike against Estonia in 2007 and the Stuxnet computer worm attack in Iran this year gave new urgency to the need to protect networks.

Following the attack on the Baltic NATO member, the alliance established a research and development centre in Tallin called the Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence.

It also decided to establish a rapid reaction team that would be deployed to help any NATO member following a cyber attack.

Although NATO has taken huge strides towards cyber security, it still has work to do.

The transatlantic military organisation will have to wait until 2013 to have 100 percent protection coverage for all its structure following a programme that was launched five years ago.

"We are not yet at the level where we would like to be," Anil said.

There are also legal challenges to linking up cyber defences between allied nations.

Since last year, NATO has signed a memorandum of understanding with seven alliance members on data sharing and procedures to follow in case of a cyber attack. Four other nations will follow suit.

US Admiral James Stavridis, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, noted earlier this year the difficulty of governing cyberspace, comparing it to the 10 years it took to establish an international law of the sea.

Meanwhile, the alliance is gearing up for cyberwarfare.

Last year, the United States created its own Cyber Command to respond to computer threats and launch its own offensives.

NATO is in the midst of its third cyber defence exercise since 2008 which began Tuesday and ends Thursday. It involves 24 of 28 alliance members plus Austria.

The "Cyber Coalition 2010" exercise simulates "multiple simultaneous cyber attacks" against NATO and alliance members to test their strategic decision-making process.
at 9:33 PM

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