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No 'Bing boom' yet: ComScore data confirms Bing's slow growth

Publié: juillet 16, 2009, 10:55pm CEST par Scott M. Fulton, III

By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews

Earlier this month, the first sampling data from Web researcher StatCounter suggested that Microsoft's new Bing search service was gathering momentum, albeit slowly. Today, the first broader-based data analysis from ratings service comScore closely confirms what the early samples were saying: During the month of June, Microsoft-hosted searches including Bing for US customers numbered just 30 million more than for Microsoft-hosted searches including Windows Live the month before. This is during a month when just over 14 billion general searches were processed by the nation's top five providers.
The news looks a little better for Microsoft when you consider that June was a slow month for searches overall -- down by 2% among the nation's top 5 providers, and flat overall when advanced searches and the sites that facilitate them, are entered into the picture. So while Google's general search traffic declined by 2% in keeping with the general trend, its US usage share overall stayed flat at 65%. Bing gained 0.4% of usage share over Windows Live last June -- better than flat, but not the "Bing Boom" that some made it out to be.
While Bing gained 30 million general searches over its predecessor in June, Facebook gained 16 million expanded searches (for specific classes of data) in the same period. Google processed 13.1 billion (with a "b") such searches over that period.
What had been perceived as a gulf between the early sampling statistics produced by services such as StatCounter and NetApplications, and the more conventionally processed broad base of data from services such as comScore, may actually be closing. Early StatCounter numbers suggested Bing was processing as much as 8.23% of US queries, with a share increase of 0.42%. Today's comScore tabulation shows Bing with 8.39% of general US queries, and 4.7% of advanced queries where the competition is broader, this time right in line with StatCounter.
Today, the latest sampling data from NetApplications shows Bing processing an estimated 5.31% of worldwide queries, although Live Search is curiously still showing up in the statistics with an extra two thirds of one percent.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Palm releases SDK for webOS

Publié: juillet 16, 2009, 10:26pm CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Today, Palm finally made its Mojo SDK available to the public more than a month after the release of the Pre, and more than five months of the Early Access Program, a sort of beta program for devs.
Now, Palm's app store is open to submissions from all developers, and apps submitted after today's SDK launch will start to appear in the app catalog this fall. In the meantime, submissions from the Early Access Program are "already in the pipeline" for release, according to Palm.
With the launch of the SDK, Palm has also launched the WebOS Developer Portal, and the Pre Virtual Device Lab. In the portal, developers can acquire the SDK, read reference guides, help docs, and associated FAQs, or post in the developer forums and blogs. With the Virtual Device Lab, developers can load their app onto a virtual Pre for remote testing.
It's fantastic news for owners of the Pre, who have up until now only had a very limited number of apps to play with.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
The Pirate Bay goes the way of Grokster

Publié: juillet 16, 2009, 7:57pm CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Imagine a peer to peer model where you got paid to seed a torrent, and had to pay every time you leeched. That's what the Pirate Bay could become, and it appears it could be a case of history repeating.
In an article published first in The Music Void, Wayne Rosso, former president of notorious P2P service Grokster and founder of Mashboxx says he has begun working with Global Gaming Factory X, the Swedish firm that recently bought the Pirate Bay, to turn the service legit and legal without changing the user experience at all.
Rosso said, "I'm calling this new model 'resource supported'. In short, the more computer resources the user contributes to The Pirate Bay, the more his content consumption is subsidized. I won't drill down any further due to commercial confidentiality, but it can actually work. And if it does, it will be huge."
If the model actually works the way Rosso makes it sound, not only could it become huge, but it could also solve the problem frequently encountered with Torrents, where the ratio of hosts to downloaders is extremely unbalanced, resulting in painfully slow file transmissions.
What's more, Rosso says the group has been in talks with major labels, and enthusiastically said, "Every one has been supportive and, dare I say, excited. They see that it could really work. I left a label meeting Tuesday unlike any I have ever had. They were fantastic! They are real partners and want to do what they can to actually help us keep all of the Pirate Bay traffic and not tie us up in Gordian knots that would drive all the users away."
Rosso's history in P2P litigation is eerily similar to the situation with the Pirate Bay. He was president of illegal peer to peer service Grokster, which was fined $50 million and forced to close down in late 2005 after the US Supreme Court ruled that P2P services could be held responsible for the illegal actions of its users. After Grokster was shut down, NPD reported illegal fire sharing dramatically dropped in the US, the same way groups reported that Swedish piracy legislation resulted in a global decrease in traffic (an issue also greatly overstated.) Months later, Rosso opened legal P2P service Mashboxx, which strove to be similar to Grokster, iMesh, and KaZaa, and also had major label participation.
But that's where it ended. The service never closed; it just never fully got off the ground, and now Russo looks to be working with the owners of the Pirate Bay to pick up where he left off.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Mozilla rushes Firefox 3.5.1 to address serious vulnerability

Publié: juillet 16, 2009, 7:51pm CEST par Scott M. Fulton, III

By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews

Download Mozilla Firefox 3.5.1 for Windows from Fileforum now.
After yesterday's discovery of a serious security hole left open by Mozilla Firefox's new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, the organization chose not to wait until next week -- as had been its plan on Tuesday -- to open up availability of its version 3.5.1 bug fix. Instead, the completed build showed up on Mozilla's FTP servers late Thursday morning, although access to that build through HTTP had been sporadic throughout the early afternoon.
Mozilla's intention was to use 3.5.1 as a vehicle for tweaks to TraceMonkey that did not make the final cut when it came time for the organization to finally release version 3.5. Betanews tests to earlier private builds of 3.5.1 showed that some of those tweaks did appear to produce slight speed gains over and above 3.5. What we don't know at the moment is whether all those tweaks actually did make it to the 3.5.1 version that's being made available today. Since the "Shiretoko" developers track will now effectively be shifted to 3.5.2, evidence of which code got the final tweaks may only be determined through testing.
The organization is also going ahead, as planned, with beta tests of a security build for the older Firefox 3 series, to be called 3.0.12. Today's release comes as Opera unveils its public Beta 2 for version 10 of its Web browser, and Google continues fast and furious with another Dev Channel update to Chrome 3, this time as a bug fix for crashes occurring in its V8 JavaScript engine.
Download Mozilla Firefox 3.5.1 for Windows from Fileforum now.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Microsoft should use Twitter data theft as hosted apps marketing FUD

Publié: juillet 16, 2009, 7:35pm CEST par Joe Wilcox
By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Microsoft couldn't pay for counter marketing as good this. Twitter has officially admitted to a security breach, via personal e-mail account, and the pilfering of confidential documents stored in Google Apps. Can you say, "On-premise computing?"
Based on the cycle of renewals, an unusually large number of Microsoft volume-licensing subscribers must re-up by July 31 or not at all. Given the econolypse's impact on IT spending and, because of layoffs, number of seats to renew, those license renewals may come harder than ever. Then there are all those newfangled hosted applications, some from Microsoft, and Google's push into the enterprise with Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook.
Microsoft talks about the "Apple Tax," but I've heard plenty of IT managers complain about the "Microsoft Tax" in reference to Software Assurance fees or CALs (client-access licenses). They see that off-premise hosting can cost loads less per employee, provide immediate software and feature upgrades and reduce management costs. It's to these businesses considering hosted services -- and not from Microsoft or one of its partners -- that the Twitter/Google Apps data breach could be used as effective counter marketing. Microsoft sales people can spin the story to emphasize the importance of on-premise software and to call out new security features coming in Windows 7.
Twitter cofounder Biz Stone blogged "Twitter: Even More Open Than We Wanted" yesterday. Sorry, I'm a day late putting perspective on this one. In fairness to Google and Twitter, there wasn't an overt security breach but pilfering of passwords that allowed unauthorized access. But details like that don't much matter in counter marketing, particularly when the audience is receptive, even if unsure about whether to stay with the Microsoft software they've got or embrace the next new thing.
Many enterprises -- some bound by regulatory obligations -- are wary of letting information outside the confines of the firewall. Hosted services are scary to them, because they don't want to lose control over data -- the corporate crown jewels. Yet off-premise hosting appeals to some businesses, for the aforementioned reasons.
Letting information outside corporate confines is really a fear factor thing, anyway. Major businesses let terabytes of data leave the firewall every day, on laptops, BlackBerries and other mobile devices. These are high-theft items that also are often used for personal and professional purposes. There is commingled personal-professional behavior and data. which creates huge risk of data loss or password pilfering.
Twitter's security breach really may be a woeful tale of what can happen when commingling goes awry. Biz Stone blogs:
"About a month ago, an administrative employee here at Twitter was targeted and her personal email account was hacked. From the personal account, we believe the hacker was able to gain information which allowed access to this employee's Google Apps account which contained Docs, Calendars, and other Google Apps Twitter relies on for sharing notes, spreadsheets, ideas, financial details and more within the company. Since then, we have performed a security audit and reminded everyone of the importance of personal security guidelines."
The red warning in that paragraph is "personal account." He continues:
"This attack had nothing to do with any vulnerability in Google Apps which we continue to use. This is more about Twitter being in enough of a spotlight that folks who work here can become targets. In fact, around the same time, Evan's wife's personal email was hacked and from there, the hacker was able to gain access to some of Evan's personal accounts such as Amazon and PayPal but not email. This isn't about any flaw in web apps, it speaks to the importance of following good personal security guidelines such as choosing strong passwords."
Evan refers to Twitter's CEO, Mr. Williams. Biz Stone doesn't reveal how the personal e-mail accounts were hacked. He doesn't have to. It's clear from the brief explanation that the hacker got access to passwords, some of which were likely the same across multiple accounts.
For Microsoft, the sales spin is obvious:
- Hosted applications are yet unproven compared to on-premise software. You get the security that you pay for.
- Microsoft software is the safer, known choice. You're in control of employee access and passwords, not some administrative assistant or unpaid summer intern.
- Windows 7 and Microsoft server software provide tools that allow IT organization to control who has access to what.
- Windows Vista and 7 encryption tools can protect information leaving the corporate confines from theft or loss.
Bottom-line sale pitch: Renew your contracts now.
Microsoft couldn't ask for better timing, right at the close of a big volume-licensing renewal cycle. There's fear in the air, or there will be plenty if Microsoft's sales force stirs up some marketing FUD -- fear, uncertainty and doubt -- around the security of hosted apps served up by Web companies without rich heritage of software development; or business model (e.g., not Microsoft or its partners).
Is it fair counter marketing? Well, no. Microsoft has got its own software security problems, and there was no hacking of Google Apps or Twitter -- just the pilfering of passwords. Marketing isn't about fairness but selling more stuff. Twitter's data loss is premo marketing ammo. Fire away, Microsoft.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
In the Palm of iTunes' Hand: Why won't Apple play nice?

Publié: juillet 16, 2009, 3:48pm CEST par Carmi Levy

By Carmi Levy, Betanews

I tune, you tune, we all tune to iTunes.
Except if you own a Palm Pre.
Or anything without an Apple logo, for that matter.
When Palm announced earlier this year that its spanking new Pre smartphone would be able to sync with Apple's iTunes, it raised eyebrows for tweaking the nose of the mighty fruity company. After all, Apple has spent years -- and likely huge amounts of money and countless souls of lawyers and judges alike -- setting the standard for zealously protecting its intellectual property. One doesn't cross Apple lightly, or expect to get away with it for too long.
The other shoe drops
So it comes as no surprise that barely a month after issuing a support note containing a thinly veiled warning against the practice, Apple has officially and concretely responded to Palm's opening move by releasing an update to iTunes. Known as version 8.2.1, the new code specifically kills the ability of earlier versions of iTunes to sync content on non-Apple devices. Palm Pre users with a particular addiction to iTunes now face a short list of inelegant alternatives: They can either elect to never upgrade iTunes beyond 8.2, or revert to dragging and dropping their music files onto their device. If they're feeling really adventurous, they can always pull out that scuffed up first-generation Shuffle from the junk drawer and go to town. Either way, the Pre's days as a wannabe-iPod are over.
Of course, Apple is free to do whatever it wants with its software. It built iTunes as a value-add to its iPod -- and later iPhone -- franchise and in doing so taught the rest of the industry that you needed more than a cool device to dominate the media player market. The resulting troika of hardware, software and online store set the bar for seamless acquisition, management and use of content, and now most other players in this space are rushing similar software/store combinations to market. But Apple was the first, and it remains the gold standard against a fleet of half-hearted competitors.
Apple rightfully owns the digital music market, and since all's fair in marketing and war, the company is completely justified in protecting its interests when at least one of the legs of its painstakingly built triad comes under threat. We may not have liked the kid at the playground who took his ball away from us and went home in a snit. But it was his ball, after all.
Because iTunes is an OS
What's good for the company, however, may not be good for the rest of us…and that playground kid always ended up with no friends, anyway.
Apple's move to cut Palm off begs the question of how closed we want our operating systems to be. And don't doubt it for a second: ITunes has evolved into an operating system in its own right, an ecosystem within which developers and content creators bring productions to market, and within which consumers consume those productions and fuel significant revenue streams for all involved. Like any good OS, iTunes is now the focal point of a large, vibrant marketplace within which a wide range of stakeholders interact almost constantly as they build increasingly sustainable businesses within it.
We may dismiss iTunes' claim to OS status because it's "only" music and video, but there's no denying how influential Apple's once-modest playground has become. And given the broader world's slow and inevitable move toward more open platforms that invite diversity in, Apple's decision to maintain its walled garden suggests it's nowhere near comfortable giving up even the slightest bit of control.
Apple's core values have long revolved around tight integration of hardware and software, and rigid control of the resulting environment. By keeping third-party hardware vendors out, Apple avoids the kind of billion-iteration challenge faced by Microsoft, which devotes vast resources to ensuring Windows runs on every combination of system board, video subsystem and disk controller known to humankind. Apple's short-lived experiment with clones in the mid-90s ended for precisely that reason: The company's culture simply couldn't accommodate a big, wide interface with third-party providers. Back then, Apple decided it would be easier to design an experience around a small number of its own designs. That fanaticism holds true today whether it's a Mac or an iPod/iPhone, and will probably remain true in virtually everything Apple brings to market for the forseeable future.
But it's publicly unfair
While this may be good for Apple, it makes me wonder how this serves the public's interest. Do we want one company exerting such tight control over something that's so instrumental to so many of us? Is it fair to consumers that the now-mainstream capability of iTunes can only be had on Apple-branded devices? And does barring access from competing hardware ultimately harm Apple's ability to grow its market? You may laugh at that last one -- after all, Apple's done pretty nicely for itself thus far. But you've got to wonder whether revenues would grow more quickly if iTunes could be used seamlessly on a wider range of devices.
Want more heresy? Should Apple's App Store be open to other hardware platforms aside from the iPhone and iPod touch? Would the iPhone universe be a happier, or more profitable, place if iPhone apps ran on non-Apple hardware? It's fair to speculate given the slowly growing open source influence in the mobile market as Google's Android OS is joined by offerings from the Nokia-backed Symbian Foundation and LiMo. While it's preposterous at this point to assume any of these new entrants will render Apple's model obsolete overnight, it's not much of a stretch to conclude the open source trend is being watched carefully in Cupertino. But will that be enough to convince Apple to voluntarily play nice with Palm and any other vendor that wants sanctioned hooks into its software?
We may never know, because hell will probably freeze over before Apple pulls down the walls to its various gardens. From where Steve Jobs and Co. sit, it ain't broke, so they have no intention of fixing it.
Carmi Levy is a Canadian-based independent technology analyst and journalist still trying to live down his past life leading help desks and managing projects for large financial services organizations. He comments extensively in a wide range of media, and works closely with clients to help them leverage technology and social media tools and processes to drive their business.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Can Linux manage updates and upgrades more easily than Windows?

Publié: juillet 16, 2009, 3:31pm CEST par Angela Gunn

By Angela Gunn, Betanews

Our continuing Linux-vs.-Windows series turns now to the absolute basics -- the most universal, and occasionally most important, task you will undertake with any computer. Whatever software and OS you use, whatever you do with the machine, sooner or later you're going to install, update or upgrade something. How does the process compare on the two platforms?
(Again, Mac OS folk, you're not the topic of discussion here. If you want to comment on the .dmg experience or other aspects of tending your Apple orchards, please do so in comments, civilly.)
There are two classes of people who shudder at the prospect of maintaining their machines: Civilian users like your mama (or mine, who happily ran Windows Me for years rather than go through the XP install process), and sysadmins who have to handle matters for multiple users, whose machines may or may not be physically present for it. We'll try to address both in our comparison.
Breaking it down task by task:
Installing applications
Windows applications these days, whether downloaded or installed from optical disc, tend to include installation wizards; at the very least, there's likely to be a setup.exe program in there. Click and go (or just "go" if it's an autorun).
Linux packages come in a few different wrappings, depending on your preferred flavor. The installation process for *nix packages used to be rather tedious. Many experienced users are familiar with .tar balls, which are similar to .zip files under Windows. The .tar, .gz, and .tgz extensions all indicated that you had before you an archive, which had to be unpacked and the readme or install file sought in the collection within.
Fortunately, we're past all that now, thanks to package management -- a development that brought Linux installation management on an ease-of-use par with other operating systems by making the install process part of the operating system, not part of the individual package. The first iteration of the genre was given the unfortunate name "pms" (package management system). Perhaps in deference to the greater needs of humanity, it was followed quickly by RPP (Red Hat Software Program Packages), Red Hat's first essay in the field. Red hat later turned to RPM (RPM Package Manager, thank you Unix recursivity fiends), still a going concern for the Red Hat/Fedora/RHEL contingent. Yum (YellowDog Updater Modified) is one of the most popular package managers for that crowd.
The Ubuntu project (which is based on Debian -- the full family name is actually Debian Gnu/Linux, so you know) focused especially on making the install and upgrade process pain-free -- and in doing so actually provides a model that closed-source OS vendors would do well to follow. Like its progenitor Debian, Ubuntu uses the APT (Advanced Package Tool)-based Synaptic package-management tool to handle installations (and, as we'll see, updates and upgrades). APT, which is one of the centerpieces of the Debian/Ubuntu usability philosophy, is the interface to the wide world of DEB packages; instead of every individual package toting its own installation, the smarts for the process lie in the OS itself. Specifically, APT manages and resolves problems with dependencies -- a ticket out of the dreaded "dependency hell," in fact. APT sits atop dpkg, a Debian package manager.
To APT, a repository looks like a collection of files, plus an index. The index tells APT (and, therefore, Synaptic) about a desired program's dependencies, the additional files required to make the thing run. (Windows users, think "dynamic link library" here.) Synaptic checks the local machine to see if any of the listed dependencies need to be retrieved along with the program itself, and it tells you before installation if it will retrieve those for you.
More importantly, APT handles problems in which a package's dependencies conflict with each other, are circular to each other, or are otherwise out of control. Windows users will easily recognize that mess: It's DLL Hell by another name -- and if Windows' Add/Remove Programs function (Programs and Features in Vista) behaved nicely, it would actually do this sort of dependency tracking rather than simply enquiring of the setup.exe files it finds on the computer.
Jeremy Garcia, founder and proprietor of LinuxQuestions.org, notes that "the newer repository-based Linux distributions have gone to great lengths to mitigate the dependency hell issue... it's something I rarely hear complaints of anymore."
For our purposes, let's look at how the process works in Ubuntu. When installing a new app, the easiest method is to fire up Synaptic Package Manager and type in the name or even just a few description terms concerning what you want: "yahtzee game," for instance. Synaptic knows of several software repositories -- collections of software that are carefully maintained and checked for malware and such -- and users can add third-party repositories to check if they choose. By default, all repositories signed their packages, providing a level of quality assurance.
Some people find the Linux package management tools and repositories confusing, and some of that is due to the creative (and sometimes silly) naming of the tools. When the rubber hits the road, though, it's not that complicated. RPM, YUM, RHN, and several others all relate to management of packages in RPM format. APT, Synaptec, Ubuntu Update Manager, Canonical's commercial package manager -- all of these relate to management of packages in the Debian DEB format. And if you happen to want a package that's only available in RPM format for your Debian system (or vice versa) you can use a utility called Alien to translate between the two package formats, and keep everything on your system under the watchful eye of your chosen package manager.
There are four types of repositories in the Ubuntu universe: main, restricted, universe and multiverse. Main repositories hold officially supported software. Restricted software is for whatever reason (local laws, patent issues) not available under a completely free license, and you will want to know why before you install it. ("Free" in this case doesn't mean free-like-beer but free-like-speech; if a package may not be examined, modified, and improved by the community, it's not free.) Ubuntu has sorted matters out in this fashion, but once again it's a wide Linux world out there, and you're apt to encounter other terminology if you choose other flavors of the OS.
Software in the "universe" repository isn't official, but is maintained by the community; sometimes particularly popular and well-supported packages are promoted from universe to main. And many "multiverse" wares (e.g., closed-source drivers required to play DVDs on an open-source system) are not free-like-speech; you'll need to be in touch with the copyright holder to find out your responsibilities there. Many repositories of any stripe are signed with GPG keys to authenticate identity; APT looks for that authentication and warns users if it's not available.
To the end user, all this looks like: Open Synaptic. Type in search term. Select stuff that looks cool. Click "Apply." Done. Because the default repositories are actively curated, there's very little danger of malware; because the packages themselves must conform with Debian's install rules, the end user needs to do little to nothing to complete the process; because APT manages every files and configuration component completely, every package can be updated or removed completely without breaking the rest of the system. The applications are even sorted appropriately; my new Open Yahtzee game (I really do knock myself out for you people, don't I) appeared under Games with no prompting from me at all.
If you're determined, you can still do old-style installs in Debian, circumventing APT. If you're compiling your own software or installing some truly paleolithic code, you can end up scattering files and such all around your system, none of it tracked by APT. But you've really got to try.
Next: Updating and backing up Linux applications...
Updating applications
Microsoft some years ago combined its two main update services -- Windows Update and Office Update -- into one big Microsoft Update service. (For administrators, there's WSUS, which gives sysadmins greater control over updates.) And then the other programs folks use on Windows often have their own update processes of greater or lesser frequency and persistence.
Linux offers a few choices for managing your updates, but in Ubuntu, again, the method of choice is Synaptic. The system periodically checks online for updates to all the applications it sees on your system. Updates fall into four categories: critical security updates, recommended updates from serious problems not related to security, pre-released updates (mmmm, beta), and unsupported updates, which are mainly fixes for older, no longer generally supported versions of Ubuntu. Most users will automatically update only those patches falling in the first two categories.
The process is otherwise identical to install -- click and go. It is recommended, by the way, that users always do updates before upgrades to either individual programs or the OS.
Backing up applications
Windows users installing from optical disc are wise to keep those in case they're needed later (along with any required license keys, of course). Because the repository model works as it does, Linux users may choose to simply rely on those servers. However, the program APTonCD makes it quite simple to create discs with backup copies of the packages installed on your system. The Ubuntu system must, however, be told about the specific disc from which you wish to install. That's a three-step system-administration process, and you will need to have the actual disc in hand and ready to drop into the machine. (It can also help you burn discs of packages you don't have on your system -- if you wanted to hand someone a nice clean install disk, for instance -- as Jeremy Garcia points out, "There are many corporate environments where Internet access in not available, for a variety of reasons.")
Or, if you like, on the basic Synaptic menu, there's an option to export a list of every blessed item on your system that APT is tracking. Take that list to another machine, import it, and Synaptic will install everything on the list, including appropriate updates, from the repositories.
Rolling back applications
Though the Internet often provides little recourse when one seeks an earlier version of a Windows program one didn't have the sense to back up before an ill-advised install, both Linux platforms have a wide range of rollback ease, depending on which applications you're dealing with.
Debian / Ubuntu leaders made a decision that new packages would not automatically uninstall older versions. This may or may not present tidying-up challenges for tiny-disked systems -- in my own experience I find that the Computer Janitor utility does an adequate job of keeping things in check -- but it certainly makes it easier to revert to an earlier version of a particular program.
Updating the OS
Minor updates to Windows are pushed out about once a month, or more often when Microsoft chooses to release an out-of-cycle patch. Major updates -- the Service Packs -- are less frequent. Desktop systems are often configured to automatically install updates when they become available, while Windows servers are typically configured to notify (but not install) updates so that proper testing can occur.
In Linux, the operating system and the kernel are constantly being updated. That doesn't mean you need to update every time something changes, and as with Windows there are perfectly good reasons to wait -- as with other operating systems, an upgrade can occasionally cause confusion with dependencies and break third-party software (especially, Murphy's Law being what it is, on production machines). On the other hand, tiny performance improvements, support for newer gadgets, and assorted bug fixes may mean you find the prospect of frequently freshened kernels appealing, especially if you're not doing the installation for any machine but your own. And many sysadmins would in any case like to automate the update process as much as possible for civilian users.
One good reason to update your kernel is to prepare for a larger upgrade; while a major version installation itself can't be easily rolled back once installed, the kernel, modules or specific applications all can. A cautious or curious sysadmin could get a preview of how a newer version of the OS treats an older application by upgrading the kernel, checking its behavior, then testing individual applications to see how they behave, rather than upgrading the whole shebang and hoping for the best.
In related thinking, smart Linux users make their /home/ -- the directory for data and documents -- on a separate partition from the OS installation. That way, changes to the OS -- up to and including switching to an all-new Linux distribution -- don't necessarily require you to reconfigure all applications and reload all your documents, photos, and other user data.
Upgrading the OS
Late October is going to a big time for you no matter which OS you use; Windows 7 is expected for release on the 22nd, while Ubuntu is expected to level up to Karmic Koala (did we mention the amusement factor in Ubuntu's naming system?) on the 29th.
Whether or not you think Windows or Linux has the edge here is perhaps dependent on what you expect from a large install process. With Windows, the process goes relatively well if you remember to do your BIOS upgrades before you start the process (and are sure your current version can be upgraded to the new one). Linux upgrades must be done in lockstep, and if you're more than one version behind you'll have to install all the intervening versions until you're up to date. On the other hand, upgrades for Linux can be done over the Net if you like; when upgrading Windows, on the other hand, you're wise to get offline completely.
Backing up the OS
Windows users who purchase their machines with the OS pre-loaded used to be supplied with rescue disks in case of disaster; these days, it's on a partition on the hard drive itself (and heaven help you if the drive fails). Various good options exist for backing up one's Registry and system files in case of trouble. But things can get a little awkward (or expensive) when it's time to start absolutely fresh with a clean install. (And every machine needs to do that now and then.) Did you save your license key? If the Debian / Ubuntu effort made nothing else simpler, the "free" part ensures a lot less drama when chaos strikes.
Rolling back the OS
It happens: You need to be where you were, not where you are. In Windows, you're hosed; format and start again. In Linux... you're still hosed. You can, however, roll back the kernel as mentioned. (In fact, you're not really rolling back the kernel itself; the upgrade process leaves the old kernel in there, available from the boot loader just in case. They're only about 10-15 MB, after all; you have room.) That's rather helpful for testing purposes, and can save you some unpleasant surprises with individual applications; careful use of the testing technique described above may well spare you the need to roll back at all. (Also, this is an excellent time to have done that /home/ partition we mentioned.)
I am fairly sure RPM supports rollback, although I think it's disabled by default. I'm not sure about dpkg. It's also possible to force install an older version of the package you're having issues with in many cases.
So what's the verdict? For maintenance of applications and the operating system with minimum pain and maximum control, the answer to this Can Linux Do This question is YES, and well enough that Microsoft and other closed-source shops ought to be taking notes.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Analyst: Apple game console by 2013

Publié: juillet 16, 2009, 3:30pm CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Speaking with Industrygamers about the state of the Video Game business, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter said it's "natural" that Apple could convince a large number of iPod and iPhone gamers to buy a game-enabled AppleTV, similar to the way it has drawn users to the Mac platform through the iPod.
Pachter, however, doesn't think it will be a full-blown gaming machine like Microsoft's Xbox 360 or Sony's PlayStation 3, but that it will instead be more Wii-like." We'd get cool stuff like World of Goo or Geometry Wars," Pachter said, "but probably not super cool stuff like Gears of War until they bought a few developers."
The tail end of this statement refers back to the position that Apple needs to produce first-party game software by acquiring an existent studio. When rumors began to circulate last May that Apple was eyeing game studio Electronic Arts for acquisition, Pachter pointed out that while it was unlikely at the time, Apple did not own any entertainment content.
But Apple's rapid growth as a handheld gaming company is not only about the availability of a multitude of content. It has long been suggested that the iPhone would make a perfect controller for AppleTV. With the iPhone OS 3.0 update, new APIs were opened that enhance the device's ability to be used as a controller, and drawing it even closer to AppleTV, the recent AppleTV Remote 1.3 update included new gestural controls in addition to the simple on-screen button and menu interface.
"The 'Trojan horse' is that the device would be an Internet access hub, and that they could then sell movies and other products," Pachter continued. "What Apple cares about is getting into the living room, and an Apple TV with games has a higher likelihood of succeeding than an AppleTV without."
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
What's Now: Amazon sued, Nokia not skidding so much, and Dell plunges

Publié: juillet 16, 2009, 3:00pm CEST par Angela Gunn and the Betanews Staff

By Angela Gunn and the Betanews Staff, Betanews

Nokia earnings sequentially up, at least
Morning of Thursday, July 16, 2009 • One of the most wince-inducing earnings calls for reporters in recent months has been Nokia's, but things seem to be a tiny bit brighter at the Finnish phone firm as sales rose 7% in Q2 from the previous three months. They're still down 25% year-over-year, of course, but company officials Thursday said they believe the market for mobile devices to be "bottoming out." (The company still chose to revise its earlier target of raising its market share; now the company says it aims to maintain that share at 2008 levels.) Earnings per share were likewise down year-to-year (65.5%) but up sequentially (233.3%).
Nokia said it has sequentially increased its shares of the global mobile device and smartphone markets to, respectively, 38% and 41%; in a similar vein, the company says it estimates industrywide device volumes to be up sequentially about 5%, to 268 million gadgets. (It's down 12% year over year.) Looking ahead, Q3 may see some slight industry improvement in sequential sales numbers, but full-year sales results for 2009 will show a decline of around 10% from 2008 levels.
Amazon bows to Kindle-replacement pressure, but getting sued anyway
Wednesday, July 15, 2009, 1:18 pm PDT • Two ears and a tail to Brier Dudley, tech columnist at the Seattle Times, whose persistent reporting appears to have pushed Amazon to make right on all those cracked Kindles that one hears about. But the class-action suit is still on; as the lawyer for the lead plaintiff puts it, "If they would like to resolve the matter I think the way to do it is through a court-approved process." (A cynical observer might suspect that that particular Seattle-based barrister is familiar with the Amazon way of doing business.)
Facebook tops 250 million users, gets a little creepier
July 15, 2009, 9:08 am PDT • It was inevitable that Facebook would break the quarter-billion barrier, and it took only three months to get that last 50 million, according to a post by Mark Zuckerberg yesterday morning -- not the most exciting post, really (what? he only had three months to write it, people! how much can you expect from a Harvard man?), but the video showing the service's pandemic-style propagation was kind of fun. In all the [*yawn*] hubbub, though, no one seems to have noted an afternoon post on Facebook's developers' blog mentioning that advertisers can now target people based on which applications they're running. Slightly unnerving.
MySpace, a place for...who knows?
July 14, 2009 • See if this sounds familiar to you: A Web site that's been around for a good number of years is desperately seeking to define itself. And in desperation, it looks to its users, and well, they haven't got a clue either. Sure it does. Same song, thousandth verse.
Well, in one of the bigger demonstrations of that same plague affecting a major player, TechCrunch this morning has the Quote of the Week by a long shot: It has obtained a company memo from MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta, summing up the problem that...well, maybe his site always had:
We consider our diverse content offering a strength but t oo many logos and disorganized verticals makes the site difficult to navigate and creates confusion about our brand identity. Our users don't know if we're a social portal, a music site, or an entertainment hub. In the last week, we've made some small but meaningful site changes that will lay the groundwork to provide more clarity on our brand and business. Unifying MySpace is critical to how we define ourselves to the world.
Bill Gates eyes hurricane management
January 3, 2008 • An assortment of recently noticed patent filings indicate that the Microsoft alumnus has some ideas about "dampening" hurricanes by pulling warm water deeper into the ocean beneath the storms. IPWatchdog digs in on the filings, while InformationWeek explains why we're just noticing these filings now and Daily Kos goes into O NOES HE IS PLAYING TEH GOD!!!1 mode. Meanwhile, the Gates Foundation quietly dropped another $6.5 million on computer upgrades for 800 public libraries Thursday, just like that.

Is it the economy, or is it Dell?
Q4 2009 > Global PC shipments for the second quarter of this year would have declined by only four tenths of one percent over the same quarter last year, had it not been for the sudden and precipitous decline of Dell. IDC's Quarterly PC Tracker numbers released yesterday show Dell and only Dell in a calamitous freefall, with shipments declining 17.1% to just 9.1 million units.
On Tuesday, Dell was actually straightforward about its troubles. Even though the general press categorized the company's out-of-cycle earnings warning as another sign of the bad economy, alongside General Motors and "More to Love," CFO Brian Gladden made it clear that everyday market factors such as competitive pricing and low margins were pretty much to blame here. By IDC's numbers, Dell is very much in danger of losing its #1 position in US shipments -- only 40,000 units separated Dell from US #2 HP in the second quarter. And Acer's strength, which now reflects all of its consolidated brands including Gateway, is a clear sign that the global economy is no longer so terribly unstable.
Contrast that to iSuppli's report yesterday, which indicated single-digit growth for the entire PC industry into the foreseeable future. Take Dell out of the picture and suddenly that doesn't seem to be the case; and if Dell keeps performing the way it has been, including losing over five points of market share in the states, then it could be out of the picture in just a few short years. At this rate of decline, Acer could become the undisputed global #2 player by the end of the year, and conceivably the leading consumer PC brand in the world.
IBM, Google release earnings reports today
After the markets close > Mark Loughridge, senior vice president and CFO, steps up to the mic for Big Blue; SVP and CFO Patrick Pichette (along with presumably some other folk) step up for Big Goo. Both are expected to announce profitable quarters, with IBM up an estimated 4 cents per share year-to-year and Google sailing along with a 45-cent per-share increase.
Thursday's tech headlines
Wired
• Plans for health-care reform may backfire if the system relies on current her (electronic health records) software, reports Brandon Keim. And we're not just talking paperwork snafus, but deaths.
• The Obama administration really wishes the EFF would shut up about electronic surveillance dragnets, asking a federal court on Wednesday to toss the EFF's ongoing lawsuit.
• Twittering behind the pop-culture curve? Checking out porn at work? BitTorrenting movies or music you can't buy online? Wired's cover story on The New Rules for evolved humans is full of useful guidelines, plus advice from that inglourious basterd Brad Pitt.
Ars Technica
• The debate over whether to block mobile-phone signals in and around prisons continued at a Senate Commerce and Science committee hearing on Wednesday. Read Matthew Lasar's writeup and see if you can't find good arguments on both sides of the conversation.
• The Digital Millennium Copyright Act provides the underpinnings for three indictments unsealed this week against three men connected to the Viewsat satellite receiver. Looks like one of them managed to get himself recorded saying "I don't want no traces or records" concerning the group's decryption efforts. Oops.
The Register
• Sorry, Symbian friends: Researchers have spotted the first spambot known to target your phones. YXES-B isn't widespread yet, but it sounds like a nasty piece of work if you get hit.
• As John Ozimek puts it, you know your "child-protecting" net filter is a loser when even children's charities say it is, as they're doing in Australia these days.
LA Times
• So what happens when -- not if -- AT&T loses its exclusive iPhone deal? David Sarno reports that the telco should expect a significant defection to "faster, more reliable networks."
• Zookz.com, an Antigua-based site, believes it has the legal right to offer unlimited music and movie downloads for $18/month based on its interpretation of a 2007 WTO ruling. The RIAA and MPAA just might have another interpretation. (This ought to be entertaining.) Jon Healey reports.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Microsoft laughs off Apple legal request to kill TV ads

Publié: juillet 16, 2009, 4:50am CEST par Joe Wilcox

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Apple is a company known for good design -- meaning also that appearances matter beyond just the products. Apple's legal department may have done something that appears simply laughable. Even if untrue, it's a helluva good story -- and a Microsoft executive tells it. Well.
Apple has a reputation for issuing legal take-down notices. The practice is a byproduct of the company's penchant for secrecy. Many Websites posting leaked Apple product pics have felt the burning ire of Apple lawyers. Today, at Microsoft's annual partner conference, COO Kevin Turner described receiving what could be characterized as the ultimate take-down notice.
"Two weeks ago we got a call from the Apple legal department saying, hey -- this is a true story -- saying, 'Hey, you need to stop running those ads, we lowered our prices.' They took like $100 off or something. It was the greatest single phone call in the history that I've ever taken in business."
"I did cartwheels down the hallway. At first I said, 'Is this a joke? Who are you?' Not understanding what an opportunity. And so we're just going to keep running them and running them and running them."
In June, Apple introduced 13-inch MacBook Pros for $100 less than the MacBooks they replaced and cut $300 off 15-inch and 17-inch laptops. Assuming the story is factual as told, Apple legal actually has a point about the price comparisons in most "Laptop Hunters" commercials. That said, the prices were correct when Microsoft first aired the ads.
Is there a little tit for tat going on here? Of course. I had noticed that in recent weeks Microsoft started airing older Laptop Hunters commercials more frequently, after a hiatus. I didn't make the connection until today that these same commercials also call out the higher Mac notebook prices.
Is that unfair? In marketing there is no love between competitors. Just war. Microsoft took the marketing two-by-four to Apple's head. Whack. Whack. That's what effective marketing is for.
It's no wonder Kevin Turner cartwheeled around the office. For nearly three years prior to Laptop Hunters, Apple dominated PC purchasing messaging with "Get a Mac" commercials, which brilliantly use two people -- Mac and PC -- to simply communicate complex ideas about computer buying. KT told Microsoft partners about reactions a year ago:
"Gosh, when I went home for the holidays, brothers, sisters, cousins -- hey, hope you don't have anything to do with marketing over there at Microsoft. What are you guys going to do about those Apple ads?"
Apple and Microsoft are both readying new operating systems for autumn release. I expect Microsoft to all but literally cover the planet in advertising. According to KT:
"When we put Windows 7 in there, which we've got coming out in October, what an incredible opportunity for us to fight back. And it feels really good to be on the offensive here. And we know we've got plenty of work to do. We don't have it all figured out."
Laptop Hunters commercials have proved to be a surprisingly effective response to Apple marketing. "I'm a PC" ads were OK and "The Rookies" spots were much better. The Laptop Hunters series is the big home run. The commercials have improved perceptions about Microsoft and Windows PCs. The company stated so during its earnings call three months ago. By the way, the Bing commercials are even better -- some of best tech ever run on TV.
I suspect Apple's sensitivity is more than about Laptop Hunters. Microsoft has played up value by highlighting what it calls the "Apple Tax" -- the price premium paid for Macs compared to Windows PCs. In fairness to Apple, that premium is in the market under $999, which is the entry price to join the iMac, MacBook Pro or Mac Pro clubs.
Microsoft plans to expand the "Tax" concept. Apple is one target. VMware is another. Kevin Turner told Microsoft partners: "Just like we did with Apple...we're going to get this virtualization tax, the VMware tax out there and start driving people crazy with the value proposition."
Given the econolypse, Microsoft has picked a good time to reemphasize value in its marketing.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Top 5 non-obvious feature enhancements to Office 2010

Publié: juillet 16, 2009, 4:40am CEST par Scott M. Fulton, III

By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews

The question has been asked, who really needs to use Microsoft Office these days? The answer is, anyone who is in the business of professionally generating content for a paying customer. Word 2010 may not be the optimum tool for the everyday blogger, and Excel 2010 maybe not the best summer trip planner, just as a John Deere is not the optimum vehicle for a trip to the grocery store. But in recent years, Microsoft is the only software producer that has come close to understanding what professional content creators require in their daily toolset.
So far, the improvements we've found from actually using the Office 2010 Technical Preview released Monday (as opposed to the ones Microsoft told us about) can mainly be described as usability enhancements -- tools that appear to be responses to how people actually use the products. Compared to Office 2007, which threw out the old instruction manual with regard to how applications should work, Office 2010's changes are subtler, slicker, and less ostentatious. Of those we've noticed in our initial tests, here are five which we feel will make compelling arguments for at least some users to upgrade:
5. Embedding Web videos in PowerPoint presentations. Technically, it's possible to embed a YouTube video into a PowerPoint 2007 presentation, but you need a third-party plug-in to pull it off. Otherwise, PowerPoint is only geared to play locally accessible files, essentially using a Media Player component.
One of the very few functional changes to PowerPoint 2010 is the addition of a mechanism that enables you to embed YouTube and other videos into a presentation the same way you'd embed them into a Web page: by copying the HTML <EMBED> code directly in. PowerPoint 2010 (gauging from the Technical Preview) will allow you to preview the video in-place without having to view the presentation as a slideshow first, which demonstrates the depth of functionality Microsoft truly intends for this component -- apparently an in-place Adobe Flash object. It will be even nicer when this feature works; in our tests, the new component often did not locate the video online and looked for it in the "My Documents" directory instead.
4. Restrict Editing command in Word 2010. Many publishing organizations use Word as their principal tool for editing textual content, which means collaborators shuttle multiple documents between authors, editors, and proofreaders. Microsoft's collaboration tools are supposed to enable only certain parties to make changes. But in the publishing business, formatting codes are the keys to the final formatting of a production document, and if someone who has access rights can change those paragraph formats, even accidentally (which is easier to accomplish than you might imagine, thanks to customizable document templates belonging to each user), the entire production process can be held up, sometimes for days, while formatters work out the kinks.
This simple tool may go a long way toward preventing these kinks from popping up. On a per-user basis, Restrict Editing (located in the Developer panel, which is not displayed by default) can prevent named individuals from making certain types of changes to a document, even if he's generally permitted to make changes. Among the available restrictions are changes to styles, which creates the possibility for a safeguard that publishers can use to prevent authors from changing manuscripts willy-nilly to suit their tastes. (Can you tell I've been in the editing business?)
Next: Does Scott get his #1 Office 2010 wish?
3. Document properties at a glance. In the old days of Word, the Document Properties dialog box was what editors used to maintain control over versioning -- which version of a document was being edited based on how many editing cycles it had passed through, and when it was last modified and saved. Versioning control in Word has improved dramatically since then, but many publishers' control and validation processes have not. For editors who have to work with these publishers, it was a pain to discover that the designers of Office 2007 had buried Document Properties in an odd location: in the Office menu (the big round button, which has been replaced in Office 2010), under Prepare, followed by Properties and then Advanced Properties. (Nothing advanced about them, really, it should be "Basic Properties.")
With the BackStage feature in all Office 2010 components, a document's basic properties shows up on the front page -- no excavation necessary, no "advanced" dialogs. You'll also find there the most basic and necessary features that Office 2007 buried under its little-used Prepare menu; in fact, I'm fairly certain that many folks will think the "Check for Issues" feature is new, when it actually premiered in the 2007 version.
2. The Share menu takes center stage 'BackStage.' Office 2007 introduced something Microsoft was fairly excited about at the time, called the Publish menu (under the big Office button). Its projected purpose was to enable any number of possible options for preparing a document to be received by multiple people, whether through SharePoint or Microsoft's Document Management Server, or to a blog post someplace. But Microsoft's "Johnny Appleseed" approach to the notion of publishing (a blog post and DMS are pretty different things) meant this menu became another of the 2007 version's buried treasures.
In Office 2010, BackStage's new Share menu replaces Publish with a full and richly self-documented selection of functions you can perform to enable the active document to be consumed by someone else, typically without using Office. This is Microsoft's acknowledgment, at long last, that Office is not the universe which binds together all intellectual property.
The Change File Type menu is particularly interesting and useful here, as it presents well-explained options for doing the kind of thing we used to call "exporting." Here is where you'll find one of the multiple places where Office now supports OpenDocument format, both as an alternate default file save format and as a vehicle for sharing files with others. The concept of "share" makes more immediate sense to new users than "export," and it has a more open and positive connotation: It doesn't mean to move data out of one universe to warp it into another.
While I'm on the subject of BackStage: When Office's designers first premiered the ribbon for the 2007 version, they claimed one of its principal benefits was to get options and commands out of the way of the document being edited. Nothing in the ribbon drops down, and the document is obstructed by dialog boxes only when vitally necessary. But BackStage runs completely contrary to that design ethic. When you're about to save a document or print it or see what it will look like on your printer or in SharePoint, the BackStage screen totally occludes the document you're working on, although in some cases it leaves a thumbnail open in the upper right corner as a reminder.
And yet it works surprisingly well. Because it uses all that space, there's all that space for it to use, and it gets used for explaining the user's options in clear and concise language. Here is where Microsoft finally learns a lesson from Web page design. Notice also the construction of the menus, in a three-tier fashion with the categories running top to bottom, and subcategories expanding to the right. Little left-pointing arrows align the commands to their respective categories like notations in an open book. It's very legible, very attractive, and yet in runs in stark contrast to the very design decisions that gave rise to it.
1. Fully customizable ribbons. The ability to customize Office completely, to make it into the application you need it to be, is something I've not only treasured but cashed in on. Two of the 17 books I've published under one of my two names, including this one, were exclusively about the subject of Office customization.
So when I learned that you needed Visual Studio to customize Office 2007's ribbons, I was a taken aback. I heard a number of various excuses, one of which being that the everyday end user was not familiar enough with the principles of ribbon design to be making a ribbon for himself (it's too dangerous, boys and girls!). And the bone that Microsoft threw for us customizers in the meantime, the "Quick Access toolbar," is not only too trifling to be fully functional or adaptable, but also (as its name clearly suggests) contrary to the ribbon design ethic -- it's a toolbar!
This glaring omission in Office's long-established functionality -- perhaps the most prominent regular Office feature ever to be omitted from a successor version for lack of readiness -- will be fixed in Office 2010. I would like to say it's fixed now, but in early Betanews tests, adjustments I've made to the ribbons in Word and Excel did not stick -- for some reason, components revert to their default layouts. (We're legitimately testing Office 2010, so when I discover the reasons, Microsoft will most certainly hear from me.) Nonetheless, you can see where in the new Options panel, there are separate tiers for the Quick Access toolbar and the complete ribbon.
Everything here can be changed, including the order and names of the menus themselves, and you can create completely new menu categories on your own -- you don't need Visual Studio or a lesson in "line-of-business applications." The background programming language for Office remains Visual Basic for Applications, which isn't altogether bad -- it means older macros remain compatible -- but it does forsake the enormously powerful possibilities of opening up access to the .NET CLI, and letting the user choose her language (VB, C#, F#, IronPython, IronRuby). While VBA is, on the whole, slower and based on an older Windows component model, it still has access to the complete Office type library, and that's the most important feature for developers. Now it's possible once again to re-engineer Office into a sophisticated information management system exclusively for global publishers. And yes, you're sensing a huge smile on my face.
We can debate the monolithic nature of Office applications until Steve Ballmer stops repeating the word "tenacity." It's almost a moot argument until anything the Web can deliver enables the degree of productivity, and the level of flexibility, as Microsoft Office. There remains no equal in the applications field, and that's actually a shame because there appears to be ample opportunity and talent out there quite capable of engineering a better and more efficient way of working. Until then, we Office users may have even less reason to complain for at least the next three years.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Security and the e-textbooks proposal

Publié: juillet 16, 2009, 1:00am CEST par Angela Gunn
By Angela Gunn, Betanews

I have a test of nerves for you. I want you to go grab $200 in twenties and some plastic wrap. (Look in the kitchen for the plastic wrap; you're on your own for the cash.) Wrap the cash in the plastic. Now find a kid, preferably one of about elementary-school age. An assortment of kids of various ages is better, if you have multiple instances of plastic-wrapped bills, though the ease of finding extra cash around the house is of course inversely related to the number of kids present.
Each child should come naturally equipped with a backpack, which they use to haul stuff to school, playdates, and the homes of other family members as well as for random covert storage purposes. Now, I want you to reach into each backpack (don't be scared!) and place a plastic-wrapped bundle of money in there. Tell the child that the money is her responsibility from now on; it must be present and accounted for at all times; they will spend much of every day looking at it but will not be allowed to use it as they please; damaged money or plastic will get the child into trouble.
And oh yeah -- if anything bad happens to this money, no homework for the kid.
Ri-i-i-ight.
The proposal released yesterday by the Democratic Leadership Council entitled "A Kindle In Every Backpack" (PDF available here) is a fine example of why many of us (yes, conservative friends, even on the left) still have a hard time using the words "democratic" and "leadership" in sequence without flinching. Lack of electronic books is the core problem facing our public schools, really? I would have guessed... I don't know, disintegrating facilities or disastrous testing mandates or vanishing funding for staff and programs or lack of money for basic supplies or even creepy security theater, this being a security column.
But since this is a security column, let us view the proposal through that lens. Because honestly, someone should have before this "just a concept, an idea" piece was ever released to a nation that needs serious thought about fixing its schools, rather than dreamy-eyed drooling over a gadget.
- A Kindle, really? I appreciate that the title "A Kindle in every backpack" was a ploy to get our attention. But the very fact that Thomas Z. Freedman and his co-writers could name-check a single dominant device in the space points to problems with both a potential monoculture and with intellectual property issues as DRM enters the classroom.
- And in a backpack? The report frets about the high incidence of back pain among kids currently hauling masses of textbooks around. But I corralled a child in my vicinity, and found that the weight of the back in question (held together by duct tape, by the way, and suggestions that it may be due for replacement are screaming-fit fodder) isn't just books but Pokemon cards, random pieces of vaguely steampunk-looking debris, an extra roll of duct tape, various papers I assume he was supposed to have shown his parents (dating from the previous school year)... you get the idea.
  I'm pretty sure there's no current e-book reader suited to that high-test environment. I'm also sure that any other environment -- separate bag, hand-carry, world's largest belt holster -- presents some seriously enhanced loss opportunities, not only when kids mislay the device (because they're naturally focused on the treasures in their backpacks) but when devices are taken accidentally by classmates, or not-so-accidentally by bad people of any age.
- And with DRM? Printed textbooks, once they're sold, undergo a brutal and hyper-extended lifespan -- the report notes this and so say we all. However, they have the added advantage of staying bought once they're bought -- in other words, publishers aren't known to swoop down and remove books from the classroom once they're paid for.
  The report cites the potential convenience of publishers being able to push new content to textbooks as the world changes; that implies an ongoing financial relationship. (Or did you think that publishers and authors were just going to update all that stuff free? If so, let's pause here while you think back to college textbook purchases and how often a "new edition" -- required for your coursework! -- was all but identical to the previous edition the bookseller was selling for half the price.)
  The specter of digital content management (digital rights management, DRM) in the classroom is chilling, not least for one of the very things the report says it would help: curriculum flexibility.
  Students of copyright history will recall Basic Books Incorporated v. Kinko's, in which the publisher sued the copy shop for photocopying materials for educational purposes -- a practice Kinko's argued constituted fair use for non-profit educational purposes. (No, Kinko's was not an educational facility; that was part of the problem with the case.) In the aftermath, most schools got very, very nervous about photocopying "packet" materials for students, often requiring them to buy an entire textbook in order just to acquire one or two pages of relevant content.
  The Kinko's case took years and many lawyers to get the publisher's desired result -- that is, shutting down the practice. With an electronic book, the process could be as simple as flipping the proverbial switch. Amazon has already run into controversy for locking Kindle users out of their accounts (and thus their purchased texts). What happens when a school can't pay for "updates" and the publisher decides to pull access entirely? For that matter, what happens when some kid messes with the settings on her e-book reader and the device decides it hasn't got any of the textbooks it's supposed to have?
- Who's protecting these devices? The paper claims that students want electronic textbooks because they want (among other things) podcasts and videoconferencing and Google Earth. You may well ask yourself exactly how many podcasts have to be playing in one classroom before the teacher might as well just leave for a coffee break, but from a security point of view, I wonder who's managing anti-malware efforts on these devices -- which, as I mentioned, would likely be a monoculture, which all the trouble that implies.
A nation full of kids using Net-enabled devices in a [*yawn*] classroom setting looks to me like a gorgeous target for a sliver of social engineering backed up by a fat malware payload, as we just saw with Neopets. Make sure those machines have a nice load of personally identifiable information on them, and we're off to the races. Do you want to be the guy in charge of protecting those machines? Ask the sysadmins in the Julie Amero case how that might play out in a classroom setting.
TechFlash today is reporting on a spate of cracked Kindles -- by which they mean actual cracks in cases -- owned by grownups who simply used a certain leather cover case for the gadget. Look into your kid's backpack and ask how long a Kindle would survive in there; look at the Kindle and ask if the best use for your local school's budget is to divvy it up into piles of $200, wrap it in plastic, and throw it in the bottom of a duct-taped backpack.
And then there's this: We're all still getting to the bottom of the horrific home-invasion murders of Byrd and Melanie Billings, but something about today's report caught my eye: Apparently some other accomplice was supposed to disable the Byrd's surveillance system, but failed to do so. The sheriff investigating the mess hypothesized that perhaps the unknown disabler had an attack of conscience. I'm not sure simply neglecting to do evil is a moral action equivalent to, say, telling someone about an imminent double murder, but it does remind us that, as with passwords or sensitive files, one is careless with access to one's physical-security plant at one's peril.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Apple iTunes builds onto its garden walls with Palm Pre sync shutdown

Publié: juillet 16, 2009, 12:38am CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

With the latest version of iTunes (8.2.1), Apple has addressed what it calls "an issue with verification of Apple devices," that is, it now verifies that the Palm Pre is not one.
It was bound to happen. Both Palm and Sprint warned Pre owners of a possible rejection, and Apple last month issued an a report saying, "Newer versions of Apple's iTunes software may no longer provide syncing functionality with non-Apple digital media players."
Now, when a user with the newest version of iTunes selects Media Sync on his Pre, the device will show up as a USB mass storage device on the desktop, but not in iTunes. For these folks, third party media sync tools like doubleTwist and The Missing Sync are the only option for iTunes syncing.
California software company Mark/Space Inc, makers of The Missing Sync, were quick to remind the public today that its software "utilizes APIs provided by Apple to properly and validly access music and pictures in iTunes and iPhoto," and can be purchased for $39.95.
For those aware of the change, simply hanging onto the last version of iTunes seems to be the immediate and most commonly employed solution.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009