[Quote:]

Earlier this year, 500 people received letters accusing them of illegally distributing a computer game. The letters demand a settlement payment, or a court appearance was threatened.

Many people wondered how they were caught at all, while others claimed they had no knowledge of such a game and stopped to consider that their router security may have been compromised. If security features are not enabled on a router, anyone can easily fall victim to an authorized connection. In this case, it’s feared that someone may have accessed an unsecured router, downloaded and redistributed even just a tiny piece of this file via BitTorrent or eMule, with the router’s owner getting the blame.

Lawyers representing the game’s publisher state as fact that a full copy of a game must have been uploaded to their monitors for the infringement to be flagged – clearly the lawyers have no idea how a protocol like BitTorrent operates. It would be virtually impossible to download a large file in it’s entirety from just one source and the time it would take would prove totally impractical. There is a very real probability that a tiny transfer of a few hundred kilobytes can trigger legal action against an alleged infringer, a transfer easily achieved by someone accessing a victim’s router for just a few seconds.

People who are using this defense are now starting to receive letters, part of which reads;

If it is your contention that at the relevant time you did all that you could to secure your network and PC but that, nevertheless, an intrusion occurred and that the infringing act complained of was perpetrated by a person or a person unknown who gained access to the network without your permission, please provide (in accordance with the Practice Directions for Pre-Action Protocol) all copies of the essential documents on which you rely.

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In other words, forget ‘Innocent Until Proven Guilty‘ and start getting used to ‘Guilty! Now Prove Yourself Innocent!‘

[..]

Furthermore, even though they demand ‘evidence’, don’t think for one minute that corresponding with these lawyers is something that can bear fruit. One unfortunate gentleman whose wife has been wrongly accused of distributing the game has been talking to Davenport Lyons via letter, trying to sort the matter out, until he received a letter from them with this paragraph;

….we consider that to enter into further correspondence with you on technical or evidential points is unnecessary and unhelpful and will serve only to increase costs. We are therefore instructed not to continue this circular correspondence.

So by this measure, trying to clear your name is deemed “unecessary and unhelpful’ by the lawyers, something which is considered by many as one of the cornerstones of British justice and a fundamental right of it’s citizens. Of course, if you’re a lawyer working on tight profit margins, any correspondence will cut into that profit. ‘Unhelpful’ indeed.

These lawyers should get the Arkell v. Pressdram response.

[Quote:]

Voting ballot from 10 April 1938. The ballot text reads “Do you agree with the reunification of Austria with the German Empire that was enacted on 13 March 1938, and do you vote for the party of our leader Adolf Hitler?,” the large circle is labeled “Yes,” the smaller “No.”

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Quanta Computer Inc (2382.TW) said it has no comment on a local newspaper report that it has secured an order from Apple Inc to assemble 5 mln iPhones.

As per its usual practice, the company makes it a point of not commenting on media reports pertaining to business secrets involving specific clients or contracts, the world’s largest contract maker of notebook computers said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

Earlier, the Commercial Times cited industry sources as saying that Quanta Computer is slated to start the delivery of iPhones in September.

This is the second company to make iPhones, the first batch is created by Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision Industry). Looks like Apple expects to sell at least 10 million before Christmas…

[Quote:]

Arguably two of America’s best run companies are Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) and International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM). Both have achieved high levels of success and shareholders have been rewarded along the way. However, both are treading in different waters and Apple is emerging as the winner going forward. In fact, I’m sure Apple will overtake IBM in value over the next two years. Bottom line: Apple will be bigger than IBM. I wrote in my book Stop Losing Money Today that Apple went from a fad/ niche player to a full-blown global phenomenon in the 1990′s. That fact is even more pronounced now in 2007.

Apple will be a bigger company than IBM in terms of market capitalization. As of this writing Apple is just about to hit $100 billion in market cap while IBM is at $158 billion.

If you predicted this in the ’90s you would have been sent to the lunatic asylum..

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Many people have wondered why I would travel from Michigan to, of all places, Chernobyl. I became interested in the accident and its aftermath several years ago after seeing pictures of the area on the internet. After reviewing many websites on the subject, I found one created by Washington State University English professor Paul Brians entitled “The Chernobyl Poems of Lyubov Sirota”. At the time of the accident, Lyubov lived in Pripyat, a city near the Chernobyl nuclear station. Reacting to the tragedy, she turned her emotions into poetry and authored a small book entitled “Burden”. While seeking more information about the disaster, I wrote a letter to Lyubov, never expecting a response. To my surprise, I received a reply approximately two weeks later, which was the beginning of a friendship that continues to this day.

While corresponding with Lyubov, I also befriended her son Sasha, who was nine years old at the time of the accident. Sasha is currently the editor-in-chief of Pripyat.com, an informational website created by former Pripyat residents. The site includes a forum which former inhabitants of the area can use to contact each other, after being separated all these years.

With a strong interest in the disaster and now having friends that used to live in Pripyat, I felt it was important to see the area for myself. As with many things in this world, a picture can speak a thousand words, but it is not the same as experiencing it in person.

(many great pictures at the link)

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Won’t somebody, please, think of the children? Three weeks ago I received my favourite email of all time, from a science teacher. “I’ve just had to ask a BBC Panorama film crew not to film in my school or in my class because of the bad science they were trying to carry out,” it began, describing in perfect detail the Panorama which aired this week.

[..]

This show was on the suppressed dangers of radiation from Wi-Fi networks, and how they are harming children. There was no science in it, just some “experiments” they did for themselves, and some conflicting experts. Panorama disagreed with the WHO expert, so he was smeared for not being “independent” enough, and working for a phone company in the past. I don’t do personal smear. But Panorama started it. How independent were they, and the “experiments” they did?

[..]

When the children saw Alasdair’s Powerwatch website, and the excellent picture of the insulating mesh beekeeper hat that he sells (£27) to “protect your head from excess microwave exposure”, they were astonished and outraged. Panorama were calmly expelled from the school.

What kind of journalism is this, if even kids debunk your claims?

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Apparently Sony thinks this one little “Special Screw” is so special, that it’s worth over 61 euro (appx. $82 US Dollars.)

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Google has been told that it may be breaking European privacy laws by keeping people’s search information on its servers for up to two years.

A data protection group that advises the European Union has written to the search giant to express concerns.

The Article 29 group, made up of data protection commissioners around the EU, has asked Google to clarify its policy.

[..]

A spokeswoman for Google said the firm would answer the EU’s privacy concerns before the panel’s next meeting at the end of June.

“The concern is about keeping information about people’s search for a definite period of time ranging from 18 to 24 months,” she said.

“They (the working party) believe it is too long.”

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In an unanimous decision released today, Helsinki District Court ruled that Content Scrambling System (CSS) used in DVD movies is “ineffective”. The decision is the first in Europe to interpret new copyright law amendments that ban the circumvention of “effective technological measures”. The legislation is based on EU Copyright Directive from 2001. According to both Finnish copyright law and the underlying directive, only such protection measure is effective, “which achieves the protection objective.”

The background of the case was that after the copyright law amendment was accepted in late 2005, a group of Finnish computer hobbyists and activists opened a website where they posted information on how to circumvent CSS. They appeared in a police station and claimed to have potentially infringed copyright law. Most of the activists thought that either the police does not investigate the case in the first place or the prosecutor drops it if it goes any further. To the surprise of many, the case ended in the Helsinki District Court. Defendants were Mikko Rauhala who opened the website, and a poster who published an own implementation of source code circumventing CSS.

According to the court, CSS no longer achieves its protection objective. The court relied on two expert witnesses and said that “…since a Norwegian hacker succeeded in circumventing CSS protection used in DVDs in 1999, end-users have been able to get with ease tens of similar circumventing software from the Internet even free of charge. Some operating systems come with this kind of software pre-installed.” Thus, the court concluded that “CSS protection can no longer be held ‘effective’ as defined in law.” All charges were dismissed.

Defendant Mikko Rauhala is happy about the judgment: “It seems that one can apply bad law with common sense, which was unfortunately absent during the preparation of the law” he comments. Defendant’s counsel Mikko Välimäki thinks the judgment can have major implications: “The conclusions of the court can be applied all over Europe since the word ‘effective’ comes directly from the directive”. He continues: “A protection measure is no longer effective, when there is widely available end-user software implementing a circumvention method. My understanding is that this is not technology-dependent. The decision can therefore be applied to Blu-Ray and HD-DVD as well in the future.”

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There are only a handful of folks consisting of Steve Jobs, Stan Sigman, John Blackstone, Brian Lam among others have gotten their mitts on the iPhone. So how is it possible for 90 percent of existing handset owners to rate the iPhone experience superior over other mobile handsets? It simply comes down to perception and the “Wow” factor.

None of the 35 test subjects even touch an iPhone, since the device doesn’t ship until late next month. So the next best thing was to capture their responses based on viewed video presentations of iPhone features developed by Apple, a spokesman said.

[..]

“An overwhelming 90 percent of respondents gave the iPhone higher marks than their own handset and over 40 percent of respondents rated the iPhone much better across key functional categories–including music player, web browsing, voice mail, and phone call management—indicating real innovation in designing a user experience,” said Harvey Cohen, President of Strategy Analytics, who conducted this research.

“While the iPhone “Wow” factor is impressive, our user panel indicated that challenges in pricing and positioning may act as a barrier to mass-market success,” said Kevin Nolan, Director of User Experience Research at Strategy Analytics. “Nonetheless, the iPhone clearly represents a breakthrough in terms of user experience.”

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From the entry way at Zune headquarters, we bring you today’s Flickr Find: the iPod Amnesty Bin. Yeah sure, it’s probably “art” more than it’s a real “amnesty bin”–but it says something that upon seeing this picture my heart skipped a beat. It’s like seeing adorable puppies in a pound. I instinctively wanted to grab those poor sweet neglected iPods into my arms and give them a proper home. Someone ought to notify the association for the prevention of iPod cruelty.

As one of the posters at the Flickr page points out, this makes you wonder exactly how many of these iPods were bought by the Zune team to seed the bin and make their point–to which I add, I wonder how quickly that bin is emptying as Zune employees wave goodbye for the day.

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As President Bush took a question Thursday in the White House Rose Garden about scandals involving his Attorney General, he remarked, “I’ve got confidence in Al Gonzales doin’ the job.”

Simultaneously, a sparrow flew overhead and left a splash on the President’s sleeve, which Bush tried several times to wipe off.

[insert joke here]

[Quote:]

In these days of nearly $4-a-gallon gasoline, a three-ton SUV that practically requires a bank loan to fill ‘er up would seem to be a tough sell.

Americans, however, are not shunning these beasts. Far from it. Auto industry figures show that after a two-year slump, sales of the gas guzzlers are up over 2006 — in some cases, way up.

The numbers for large SUVs rose nearly 6 percent in the first quarter of 2007, and the April figures were up 25 percent from April 2006, according to automakers’ statistics provided by Edmunds.com, an automotive research Web site.

The bigger the guzzler, the better the numbers. Sales of GMC’s Yukon XL were up a whopping 72 percent last month, and the totals for its Chevrolet sister, the Suburban, rose 38 percent. Topping off the tank on either one can cost as much as $120.

With the proper marketing campaign you could convince the Americans that cachet was to be had by driving around in dump trucks, bucket loaders, and cement mixers. Just call it “The Sport-Construction Vehicle”.

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Today’s set of image releases from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE team included this one, of a fairly bland-looking lava plain to the northeast of Arsia Mons. Bland, that is, except for a black spot in the center. What’s that black spot? It’s a window onto an underground world.

This black spot is one of seven possible entrances to subterranean caves identified on Mars by Glen Cushing, Tim Titus, J. Judson Wynne and Phil Christensen in a paper they presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in March (PDF format, 322k). Here’s the figure from their paper that shows the seven caves, which they refer to by the names Dena, Chloe, Wendy, Annie, Abbey, Nikki, and Jeanne:

[Quote:]

A TSA behavior detection team at a Florida airport helped catch a passenger allegedly impersonating a member of the military on May 10 as he went through the security checkpoint.

The passenger, who was en route to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, exhibited suspicious behavior that caught the attention of officers. In addition, he was in a military uniform but had long hair, which is not consistent with military regulations, and had conflicting rank insignias on the uniform.

[Quote:]

We spend billions on airport security, and we have so little to show for it that the TSA has to make a big deal about the crime of impersonating a member of the military?

Next up:

Transportation Security Officers SPOT Passenger in Fake Gucci Shoes at Florida Airport

[Quote:]

A worker from Rome’s Biopark zoo holds Testudo Kleinmanni hatchlings, an endangered species also known as Egyptian tortoises, in Rome May 22, 2007. The offsprings are the hatchlings of several Egyptian tortoises that were rescued from a smuggler’s suitcase in 2005 at Naples airport, southern Italy, by Italy’s forestry police and were entrusted to Rome’s main zoo. (Tony Gentile/Reuters)

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Van de 27 EU-landen mag er meer reclame komen op televisie. De televisiezenders mochten tot nu toe volgens EU-regels maar drie uur op een etmaal reclame toestaan, maar dat maximum is losgelaten.

Er blijft wel een maximum van twaalf minuten per uur, wat betekent dat er in een etmaal in totaal 4 uur en 48 minuten reclame mag worden uitgezonden.

En ik maar denken dat de TV al niet meer te gebruiken was door alle reclame…

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You might think, then, that companies could avoid feature creep by just paying attention to what customers really want. But that’s where the trouble begins, because although consumers find overloaded gadgets unmanageable, they also find them attractive. It turns out that when we look at a new product in a store we tend to think that the more features there are, the better. It’s only once we get the product home and try to use it that we realize the virtues of simplicity. A recent study by a trio of marketing academics—Debora Viana Thompson, Rebecca W. Hamilton, and Roland T. Rust—found that when consumers were given a choice of three models, of varying complexity, of a digital device, more than sixty per cent chose the one with the most features. Then, when the subjects were given the chance to customize their product, choosing from twenty-five features, they behaved like kids in a candy store. (Twenty features was the average.) But, when they were asked to use the digital device, so-called “feature fatigue” set in. They became frustrated with the plethora of options they had created, and ended up happier with a simpler product.

And that’s why the phone market, for example, is currently so fucked up.

[Quote:]

IT bods should be struck off if they create too many dodgy computer systems, according to Microsoft’s UK national technology officer.

Speaking to ZDNet yesterday, Jerry Fishenden, Microsoft’s key government liaison, said something needs to be done if the IT profession is to earn the respect of normal people.

“If you look at what you regard as the traditional professions — doctors, teachers, lawyers — their professional bodies can fire people, can investigate complaints, can impose penalties, and the ultimate sanction is to remove them from the profession so you can’t practice any more,” Fishenden said.

[..]

And anyway, if the industry was going to start expelling brothers and sisters who implement dodgy computer systems, how would the witch-hunt fare in Redmond?

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What does seem clear is that one of the principal factors accounting for the reluctance of Democrats to advocate de-funding is that the standard corruption that infects our political discourse has rendered the de-funding option truly radioactive. Republicans and the media have propagated — and Democrats have frequently affirmed — the proposition that to de-fund a war is to endanger the “troops in the field.”

This unbelievably irrational, even stupid, concept has arisen and has now taken root — that to cut off funds for the war means that, one day, our troops are going to be in the middle of a vicious fire-fight and suddenly they will run out of bullets — or run out of gas or armor — because Nancy Pelosi refused to pay for the things they need to protect themselves, and so they are going to find themselves in the middle of the Iraq war with no supplies and no money to pay for what they need. That is just one of those grossly distorting, idiotic myths the media allows to become immovably lodged in our political discourse and which infects our political analysis and prevents any sort of rational examination of our options.

That is why virtually all political figures run away as fast and desperately as possible from the idea of de-funding a war — it’s as though they have to strongly repudiate de-funding options because de-funding has become tantamount to “endangering our troops” (notwithstanding the fact that Congress has de-funded wars in the past and it is obviously done in coordination with the military and over a scheduled time frame so as to avoid “endangering the troops”).

For those who needed a reminder, this is what a spine looks like:

And as usual, Keith Olbermann is eloquent as well..

[Quote:]

Now four years after the war was won, we still do not have a contract with a legitimate Iraqi government to remove the oil from Iraqi sands. What is wrong with those Iraqi’s.  Don’t they want our oil revenues to rebuild their country?

The holdup seems to be what is known as the PSA’s (production sharing agreements).  These clauses guarantee US oil companies 70% of the profits up to amortization and 20% after that, whereas everywhere else in the world, the going standard rate is 10% of profits to oil companies, with 90% flowing back to the country.  This oil bill must be passed before the Iraqi congress goes on recess May 31st, just 8 days from the date of this posting.

The oil companies estimate that it will cost between 1$ and 1.50$ to extract a barrel of Iraqi gold, the premium of all crudes.  At today’s prices of 75$ a barrel this rate of return would be equivalent of kicking a baby in its face and stealing its candy.

Iraqi resistance understands this.   And yet this insider’s fact has not even made our evening news.

[Quote:]

Note this: Bush and Cheney have resorted to threatening the al-Maliki government with a withdrawal of American forces if they don’t pass the Oil Law. And the effect on the Iraqis is . . . “OK, go ahead and leave. We’ll start planning for that contingency now.” This means that Cheney and Bush just shot their wad, and lost.

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Those who think that Muslim countries and pro-terrorist attitudes go hand-in-hand might be shocked by new polling research: Americans are more approving of terrorist attacks against civilians than any major Muslim country except for Nigeria.

The survey, conducted in December 2006 by the University of Maryland’s prestigious Program on International Public Attitudes, shows that only 46 percent of Americans think that “bombing and other attacks intentionally aimed at civilians” are “never justified,” while 24 percent believe these attacks are “often or sometimes justified.”

Contrast those numbers with 2006 polling results from the world’s most-populous Muslim countries – Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria. Terror Free Tomorrow, the organization I lead, found that 74 percent of respondents in Indonesia agreed that terrorist attacks are “never justified”; in Pakistan, that figure was 86 percent; in Bangladesh, 81 percent.

24 percent of Americans. I wonder what the overlap with the Bush approval ratings is.

And what a shame we can’t get those 24% in an open market together…

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Nokia’s recent announcement heralding the arrival of “widgets” is further proof that the entire mobile industry is a rudderless ship furiously innovating in circles.

Having lost sight of consumer sentiment years ago, all sectors of the industry seem to be clamouring to give every crackpot idea a chance in a desperate attempt to differentiate themselves from the competition.

Nokia used to set the benchmark for everyone else, being renowned for its simple and snappy user interfaces, exceptional reliability, great battery life, and fantastic call quality.

Unsurprising to everyone else, is that these qualities are still paramount to the average consumer. That a company that got so many things right is now trying to distinguish itself with “widgets” is a telling depiction of how the mighty have fallen.

I think a large part of the reason the iPhone gets so much attention is that the industry badly needs a shake-up, as this opinion piece demonstrates…