Revisiting an Old Friend

As many of my long-time readers know, I used to heartily recommend the use of Opera as an alternative web browser. It has always been a good browser, with lots of good features, very fast, and very easy to use. It also had the smallest footprint in your computer, much less than Internet Explorer (IE).

But Opera always seemed less than perfect as there were several web pages that it could not render properly and I had to revert to good old Microsoft's IE. As time went on, I found myself using Opera less and less. When Firefox came on the scene I tried it several times and, around the same time, I also found Maxthon, which I finally adopted as my new browser-of-choice.

As I tried out all these new browsers, Opera got left behind. In fact, when I purchased a new computer several months ago, I never reloaded it, although it remained on my laptop.

After I while, I removed Firefox as I didn't like it as much as Maxthon. And, while I love Maxthon, it greatest strength is also its greatest weakness: it uses the Internet Explorer engine, so while it will work as well as IE (and has many more useful features than IE) it is also subject to some of the same ongoing security vulnerabilities we keeps plaguing Microsoft products. Although Microsoft is very good about fixing them with their monthly patches, I have it in the back of my mind that one day some nasty little virus, spyware, or ID theft software will someday slip through.

All that being said, I read sometime this past summer, that Opera had come out with a new Version 8 that was better than ever before. I decided to give it a try again. And, after a few months of use, I must tell you that I like it better than their previous versions. Most web pages render just fine...and it has as many useful features as Maxthon, but does not use the IE engine.

When Version 8 was released, it still had the annoying advertising in the upper right hand corner. You still had to pay $39.95 to buy the advertising-free version. I learned how to really minimize the ads in the free version, so it never really bothered me. But a few weeks, ago, the company released version 8.5, which removes all advertising from the browser page in the free version. Plus they added a few more features.

All-in-all, it is an excellent program that is worth using. It is very fast and, as I said earlier, renders most pages just fine. It does seem to have some difficulty with a couple of the sites I use a great deal. For instance, it doesn't render all my editing buttons on my web blog page, so I am writing this blog using Maxthon. And on the Netflix pages, IE and Maxthon pop up a short blurb about a movie when you point at its title, while Opera can't do that yet.

But that being said, it works just fine for everything else and I do use it for most of my browsing. If you want to download it and give it a try, just go to the Opera web site. But the bottom line truth is...no matter what browser you use, you will sometimes need to access certain web pages with Internet Explorer. I am afraid there is just no getting around that right now. I hope someone will fix that someday.

OpenOffice Making Big Waves

OpenOffice.org, a free open source office suite that is now five years old, has just released it's long-awaited Version 2.0. The program was originally called StarOffice and was owned by Sun Microsystems. In the year 2000, Sun gave it to the Open Source community to continue development.

While Sun remains the project's chief sponsor and contributor, the project now boasts contributions from Novell, Red Hat, Debian, Intel, and many other large and small companies, plus the very important and numberless contributions from independent developers and government agencies. All these have made OpenOffice.org not just a free alternative productivity suite but one of the best and most advanced productivity suites available today. And, once again, it is free to download and use.

Version 2.0 is a major overhaul to an open-source software suite that is now a more serious rival to Microsoft Office. OpenOffice.org includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation creator and, new to version 2.0, a database. Project organizers had hoped to release the upgrade last week, on the fifth anniversary of the creation of the open-source project, but a last-minute bug derailed the plan.

Over the years, nearly 50 million copies of OpenOffice have been downloaded, but only recently has the software become a more serious threat to long-dominant Microsoft Office. Version 2.0 brings some significant new features, and Google has pledged to help distribute OpenOffice through a high-profile pact with Sun. But perhaps more significant, OpenOffice.org uses the standardized OpenDocument format that stands in stark contrast to Microsoft's proprietary formats.

One of the big reasons that Microsoft may be worried is that there is a strong movement afoot to adopt the OpenDocument format. The state of Massachusetts has required support of OpenDocument, and the vice president of IBM's standards and open source, has urged computer users to pressure software companies, governments and corporations to support OpenDocument.

Massachusetts' adoption of OpenDocument shuts Microsoft out of the state's procurement process because the software giant, which dominates the office application market, has said it does not intend to support the OpenDocument format. Governments and large corporations have complained for years about the high costs of continued Microsoft licensing and with the raves being heaped on OpenOffice V.2.0, Microsoft may be looking at some large losses in revenue as these organizations start to adopt OpenOffice.

What do I think about the new version? Well, I have only just downloaded it a couple of days ago, but so far I like it. I can open and save documents in the Microsoft Office format, so all the files I have created over the years are still very useful. The program's interface is similar to Microsoft's, so it is easy to learn and use.

It doesn't have an Outlook-type program, although I use Thunderbird as my e-mail software on my main home computer (I still use Outlook on my laptop), so that isn't a problem for me, but could well be for others. I will keep testing OpenOffice and write another blog about it in the near future.

If you would like to know more about the features of version 2, click on this link to the openoffice.org web site. You can also read a quick review done by PC Magazine of the beta version, written in September, prior to the release of the final version.

I am Back Home Again

Surprise, surprise...I'm back!! I know it has been a long time since you heard from me, but the life of an artist kept me pretty busy. But, now all the shows are over until May of 2006, my art is in storage for the winter, and I am free once again to write a tech blog and try to keep you update with the going's-on in the world of high tech.

Just to catch you up, it was a good year overall for me with sales of my artwork already exceeding last year's total with 2+ months to go in 2005. The year started out very slow in May in June, but took off in July and never really slowed down. I had my best show ever in late July in Richland, WA where I doubled last year's sales. Even Leavenworth was good to me in the late summer and fall.

This summer, I moved into the fascinating world of digital photography which I will detail in greater depth in future blogs. I really love shooting digital with my new Olympus E-300 Single Lens Reflex Camera. While traveling recently to California for two shows, I managed to spend two days learning my new camera in Mt. Rainier Natl. Park and three days photographing the Oregon Coast. I really got some great shots and am looking forward to finishing them up in post-processing and showing some of them off.

The family is all fine. Susan is still clear of any cancer problems (5 years now) and is still working at Family Services of Grant County. Aimee has graduated from Seattle Pacific University with a teaching credential in Music Education and is doing her student teaching in Seattle right now. She will shortly be moving to Ephrata to finish out her student teaching at Ephrata High School. Kristen is working full time in Seattle, and Eric is going to college on his GI Bill and working nights in Bellingham.

I am glad to be back home as the Art Show life can be pretty taxing. I was gone from home at least four days a week and when I did get home, I spent three days reprinting and replenishing stock to get ready for the next show. I did shows in four states this year, which was a killer, both in driving time and gas prices. Some of my time was also spent doing printing on my extra-large Epson 2700 printer for other artists. It became a nice little side business for me as I can print up to 24" wide prints on canvas and paper.

I had hoped to keep the blog up-to-date, but there was just no chance. Will try and do better from now on, although my plate still seems to be full right now. I will do my best.

In my next blog, I will tell you about a free office software that is taking the world by storm and forcing Microsoft to reconsider their office software. See you shortly.

Updates and Info

Hello everyone. My art shows are keeping me extremely busy so sorry about not writing more often while I am on the road. Here are some updates on stories we have talked about in the recent past.

Firefox

If you are using Firefox as your browser of choice, make sure you have the most current version. If not, it is possible for someone to steal all your personal data from your computer. How? Well, if some malicious person creates a website with the "Greasemonkey" script running on that site, they can expose the contents of every file on your local hard drive to that site. It is even possible for Greasemonkey to expose the contents of EVERY file on your local hard drive to EVERY site you visit. This means an attacker can quietly send this information anywhere in the world. So go to the Firefox web site and make sure you are running the correct version.

Microsoft and Spyware

Not so long ago, we told you that Microsoft was negotiating to buy a spyware company Claria. Well, the word is out now that the deal has fallen through. However, most people in the know recommend that you do not use Microsoft Anti-Spyware as they changed their software to ignore spyware made by Claria, unless the user overrides their setting. Even though the purchase of Claria is dead, they have not changed their Claria settings.

CounterSpy Ferrets Out Dangerous Spyware

As mentioned here before, I now use Sunbelt Software’s CounterSpy on all our computers. And new reviews by PC World Magazine still show it to be the best anti-spyware software by far. Well their reputation has just gone up another notch as their research department has found a spyware application that steals your personal information from off your computer.

They were analyzing a software called “CoolWebSearch” and found what appears to be a massive identity theft ring hijacking confidential data from millions of infected computers. They found that the software was a spam zombie that was placing callbacks to a remote server. When they visited the remote server, they discovered that it was being used to distribute sensitive personal information from millions of PC users infected by the spyware application.

The sophistication of the operation suggests it's the work of a massive identity theft ring that used keystroke loggers to grab confidential information that could be used to create fake online identities and steal millions of dollars from bank accounts. Sunbelt has contacted the FBI along with several people whose bank account information they found on the remote server.

Besides the obvious dangers, Sunbelt found that the majority of spyware products on the market today would not have found this software on a spyware scan. If you would like to check your computer at once to see if you are infected with “CoolWebSearch,” anti-virus vendor Trend Micro Inc. provides a free online scanning tool that detects and deletes the "CoolWebSearch" application. I suggest you go online and run it.

Blockbuster Video to Raise Prices

As you may remember from my recent review of Blockbuster vs Netflix to find out who had the best DVD rental video service, the only reason I could find to go with Blockbuster was their lower monthly fee. Well that reason is now gone. Blockbuster raised its price from $14.99 per month to $17.99 per month…the same as Netflix. So, if you are thinking of joining one or the other, I strongly recommend Netflix.

Windows 2000 Final Update Needs Fixing

As reported here, Microsoft released their final update rollup for Windows 2000 in June of this year. Well, it turns out they may not quite be done yet. It seems that there are some problems with some of their patches that need to be fixed…again. They are working on them and will release them as they are completed.

Microsoft Says Be Legit...or Else!

Starting today, users of the Windows Operating System will have to first prove that they have a legitimate copy of Windows, or they will not be able to download any add-ons from Microsoft. We told you a few months ago that this was coming...and now it is here.

Believe it or not, there is one exception...and that is for security-related patches. Regardless of whether a system passes the test, security updates will be available to all Windows users via either manual download or automatic update. However, the Microsoft Update and Windows Update utilities, which provide notifications of new patches, will require validation.

All this is part of Microsoft's "Windows Genuine Advantage," a program that is designed to increase the number of Windows users that are actually paying Microsoft for its software. Currently, the company estimates that roughly a third of Windows copies worldwide are not legitimate. And, no doubt about it, that is a huge loss of revenue for the company that they would like to recapture.

With Windows' share of the desktop market estimated to be well above 90 percent, cracking down on illegal copies of the OS is seen as one of the few ways for Microsoft to grow its Windows business. The two other main ways that Microsoft has identified are increasing the number of PCs per household and expanding computer usage in emerging markets.

So what happens if you fail to pass the validation test? You will then be presented with two options: First, if you bought your PC with what you thought was a legitimate copy of Windows and you have the CD that was supposed to come with the system, you would fill out a piracy report and become eligible to get a legitimate copy of Windows at no charge.

If you don't have the CD or proof of purchase, you still fill out a piracy report. Then, you will have to pay for a licensed copy...$99 for Windows XP Home and $149 for Windows XP Professional. Those prices are higher than the upgrade cost for Windows XP, but lower than the price one would have to pay for an entirely new copy of the OS.

Just thought you would like to know.

Kodak Layoffs Reflect the Demise of Film

The name "Kodak" is synonymous with photography. After all, the company's founder invented photographic film. And, as an avid photographer for many years, it was sad for me to learn this week that Eastman Kodak announced that it would be cutting up to 10,000 jobs in the near future...this after last year's 12,000-15,000 person layoff announced last year. These job cuts total about 25% of Kodak's entire workforce.

It saddens me, not only for the employees who will lose their jobs, but because what the layoffs really represent is death of film as a media for taking pictures. Even Kodak admits that digital cameras and media are replacing traditional film products in the marketplace even faster than their predictions.

According to Kodak's Chief Executive Officer, Anthony Perez, "Sales of our consumer traditional products are declining faster than expected," he said. "Although we have been moving rapidly to get our costs down ... we are picking up the pace dramatically. This is what the company needs to succeed as a digital company."

Other analysts agree. The digital photography boom has been and still is, killing film sales at a pace much quicker than many companies, including Kodak, could have anticipated. And the market will continue to founder, with the effect on film vendors and processors being close to "catastrophic," said Charles LeCompte, president of Lyra Research.

"Kodak is the most public company to suffer from how quickly film is declining, but there are plenty of others hurting," he said, adding that a number of European companies focusing on film have gone bankrupt within the past few years.

These enterprises did see the size of the digital photography wave, LeCompte added, but not its speed. Kodak has been investing heavily in digital photography for nearly 10 years while demanding that executives to concentrate on the issue, but the company didn't move quickly enough to avoid layoffs, said Mike Wolf, director of digital photography trends at research firm InfoTrends.

"Anyone who has been reliant on film in the past has had to adjust their model or meet their maker," said Wolf. "What's happening at Kodak is happening across the industry."

"Some people didn't see the shift to digital cameras happening so fast, but we did see, early on, that film was on its way out," said Dan Havlik, public relations specialist at Canon USA.
Film will always have a place in the photography world, Havlik said, but it will likely get pushed to the hobbyist and specialist market as digital photography matures.

What does all this mean for people like you and me? It means we had better consider buying a digital camera in the near future, if we haven't already done so. Look for film costs to go up as well as film processing prices as the number of available vendors offering these services decreases. With costs going up on film and processing and the price of quality digital cameras coming down, it makes sense to think about moving to digital photography.

I offer myself as an example. As some of you may know, I shoot mostly slide film in my work as an artist. To shoot a roll of 36 exposure slide film these days costs me about $10 for each roll...$5 for film and $5 to process it. That means that every time I click my shutter, it costs me 28 cents. And I buy my film from a New York dealer who specializes in getting gray market film, otherwise I would be paying almost $10 per roll.

That is why I am looking strongly at going digital in the near future for much of my work. With 8 megapixel SLR digital cameras now being offered at a more reasonable price, it just makes sense to consider making the change. These cameras now offer me the same basic image resolution that I get when I scan my slide into my computer with my film scanner.

If I can get the excellent image quality that I now get with my film cameras and scanner, it just makes good sense to go digital. I can click the shutter to my heart's content and not worry about the costs. After the initial expenses for a camera and extra memory, there are no other costs to worry about.

I just bought Susan a 4 megapixel digital camera for her needs and am now beginning to experiment with it to see if going digital is right for me. We are very late in getting into the digital photography game as probably most of you have already done so. But, shooting film has been a big part of my life for many years and it will be difficult to let go. But, it is inevitable.

Just ask Kodak.

New Windows - New Name

For more than a year, Microsoft and the press has been calling the next version of Windows by its code-name designation, "Longhorn." Now, Microsoft, after much research and innumerable focus groups has come up with the official name.

The next version of Windows will be called, "Windows Vista."

This was, of course, not to be released to the general public yet, but like many internal secrets, it leaked out yesterday and was on the web by last night. Some enterprising person also discovered that Microsoft registered the WindowsVista.US domain name. This morning, Microsoft made the announcement official.

The advertising tagline for Vista is "Clear, Confident, Connected: Bringing clarity to your world," according to a video of the announcement posted by Microsoft.

The company also said that the first beta, or test release, of Vista is slated for release by Aug. 3. That release will be targeted at developers and IT professionals. A second, broader test release aimed at consumers will likely debut ahead of Vista's final release in the second half of next year.
Vista's three design goals include better security, new ways to organize information, and seamless connectivity to external devices, the company said. Microsoft will provide more detail on Vista features Aug. 3.

Among the key features of Vista are a new searching mechanism, lots of new laptop features, parental controls and better home networking. There will also be visual changes ranging from shiny translucent windows to icons that are tiny representations of a document itself.

By the way does anyone remember the original code name of Windows XP?

Actually, it was "Whistler."

The "We Are Not Afraid" Web Site

It seems that whenever we have some great, momentous event, someone creates a not-so-serious web site to commemorate it. Sometimes these have been labeled as "moblogs." For instance, after the elections of 2004, there was the "Sorry Everybody" web site, where hundreds of people posted pictures of themselves apologizing for the re-election of George W. Bush.

Now, after the London bombing attacks, there is a new web site called "We're Not Afraid" where people can post pictures emphasising the fact that they are not afraid of terrorists.

The site was created on the day of the bombings, when a bloke by the name of Alfie Dennen, posted a picture of the London skyline with this caption: "Show the world that we're not afraid of what happened to London today, and that the world is a better place without fear."

The web site became so popular overnight that it was difficult to get on during the first few days after the bombing. People began posting their own pictures or pictures of famous people or characters, all proclaiming that they are not afraid. I like the one of Yoda, proudly proclaiming, "Not afraid am I."

The pictures are serious and frivoulous, as well as defiant. I urge you to swing by the web site and have a look for yourself.

Microsoft Going Into Spyware Business?

First, let me apologize for my recent lack of blogs. I am on the road a great deal these days as it is the busiest part of my schedule. I just returned from six days in Eugene, OR and will leave early tomorrow for Sandy, OR. Then a quick return home for restocking, then down to Salem, OR. So, I will write when I can. Now, for today's story.

Microsoft's Windows AntiSpyware application is no longer flagging adware products from Claria Corp. as a threat to PC users.

This all comes less than a week after published reports of acquisition talks between Microsoft Corp. and the Redwood City, Calif.-based distributor of the controversial Gator ad-serving software, Security researches have discovered that Microsoft has quietly downgraded its Claria detections. A coincidence? Doubtful.

Anti-spyware activist Eric L. Howes, who serves as a consultant to Sunbelt Software, makers of Counterspy, discovered the default changes during a recent test that included four Claria applications: Dashbar, Gator, PrecisionTime and Weatherscope.

According to the results published by Howes, four different builds of the Windows AntiSpyware beta detected the Claria products, but the default recommendation was "ignore." Prior to the recent tests, Microsoft's AntiSpyware tool detected Claria's products and presented users with a recommended action of "Quarantine." Although the default has been changed to "ignore," users can still change the action to "Quarantine" or "Remove" via a drop-down menu.

Writing on the popular Broadband Reports security forum, Howes described the default changes as "troubling," coming so close on the heels of the acquisition talks between Microsoft and Claria.

In addition to the Gator-branded products, Claria's adware applications include eWallet, DateManager, WeatherScope and PrecisionTime. The company's behavior-tracking database of users' surfing habits is believed to be among the biggest in the world. A recent spyware report from Webroot Software Inc. lists Claria's software as the second most prolific adware install, appearing on more than 2 percent of consumer desktops.

I think this move by Microsoft to possibly get into the spyware business is a betrayal to all of its customers. I understand that the business of Microsoft is to make money, but it shouldn't be at the expense of it's customers, especially since Microsoft makes the most popular operating system in the world today as well as the most used web browser in the world. Should they complete the purchase of Claria, they will no doubt leave the window open (no pun intended) for its products to allow the entry and use of it's own spyware software on unsuspecting user's computers.

My reaction is this: Today I have erased all copies of Microsoft's AntiSpyware software from all our computers and have purchased copies of Sunbelt Software's Counterspy software. If you don't want to spend the money for Counterspy ($19.95), I suggest you use either Adaware or Spybot-Search and Destroy...and remove all copies of AntiSpyware from your system.

Let me know what you think.

State to Charge Tax on Fiber Optic Users

Today, I came into possession of a letter from Scott Daniels, Vice President of Internet Operations for Genext, one of the providers of Internet service on the Grant County PUD Zip fiber system. It is disturbing in that it outlines the levying of an illegal tax on users of the Zipp Fiber Optic system here in Grant County by the Washington State Department of Revenue.

As you know, many years ago Congress made it illegal to charge sales or use tax on Internet users and that law is still in effect today. The State of Washington has chosen to violate that law by levying a tax on fiber users. It is not taxing any other broadband service, only fiber.

As many of my readers are fiber customers, I thought you should be made aware of this. Although I am publishing this letter from Genext, I am not one of their customers, nor do I in any way recommend their service. But, I must commend them for writing to to their customers in such plain language and letting them know how they feel. I hope some of you will take action as I know I will.

Here is the letter:

As you may have read in the Columbia Basin Herald over the past several months, the Washington State Department of Revenue has decided to place a 'Sales and Use' tax on the Fiber Internet Service that customers receive via the Grant County PUD Fiber Network. At a time when the FCC and our Nations Congressional leaders have protected the Internet from taxation, the Washington State DOR has decided to go against this federal policy and place
a tax on PUD fiber access. It is our understanding that this tax is not being levied on other Internet access services like DSL, Wireless or Cable wholesale services, only PUD Fiber!

Starting July 1st, 2005, Service Providers on the Grant PUD Network will be charged sales tax on the wholesale services they purchase for subscriber access. We feel that the State has no authority to place a retail sales tax on a wholesale communication transport service; however, we are highly compelled to comply. Regrettably, in response to this increase in cost, we are forced to increase the retail price of our Internet Services in Grant County, as of August 1st.

We have been battling this tax issue fiercely and up until official notice from Grant County on June 23rd 2005, we have held firm against charging taxes on Fiber Internet Services.

In spite of the fact that Genext will begin accruing taxes starting July 1st, we are providing 30-days advance notice as a courtesy to you, our valued customer. As of August 1st, all Grant County Fiber Connections will be charged a $2.50 flat rate 'recovery' fee. The monies generated as a result of this fee does not cover the entire expense incurred by Genext.

New rates are as follows:

Residential Internet Access
1 Mbps Internet Service $37.50
2Mbps Internet Service $47.50
Business Internet Access
1 Mbps Internet Service $47.50
2 Mbps Internet Service $57.50
Special VLAN's
10 Mbps VLAN $47.50

This is the first time since July of last year that we have been forced to increase our rates on Grant County Fiber Services and we have worked to offset these costs by offering additional value added services such as our E-Mail Security, as well as additional email addresses; now 5 included with your broadband account with increased storage upon request!

We sincerely regret this obligatory rate increase and feel that the Department of Revenue has gone far beyond their legitimate authority. If you, too, feel that this tax is improper and unwarranted, please contact your state legislative representative and let them know how you feel. Exercise your rights, voice your thoughts, contact your representative. Thank you for your understanding and support in voicing your thoughts to your Representative. Should you have any questions, please don't hesitate to call for more information.

We appreciate your support and continued patronage and look forward to continuing to provide you with exceptional service and reliability for years to come.

Regards,

Scott Daniels
VP Internet Operations
Genext, LLC

Supreme Court Rules Against File Swapping

The Supreme Court handed movie studios and record labels a sweeping victory against file-swapping, ruling Monday that peer-to-peer companies such as Grokster could be held responsible for the copyright piracy on their networks. In a unanimous decision, the justices ruled companies that build businesses with the active intent of encouraging copyright infringement should be held liable for their customers' illegal actions.

"We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement," Justice David Souter wrote in the majority opinion.

The decision comes as a surprisingly strong victory for copyright companies and stands to reshape an Internet landscape in which the presence of widespread file swapping has become commonplace. The ruling will give the recording industry and movie studios immediate ammunition to file lawsuits against other file-trading companies. It could also be a boon for legal music services such as Apple Computer's iTunes, which could see their strongest competitor, freely downloadable songs, driven further underground.

It won't immediately shut down access to the trading networks, however. The court's ruling will send the case back to the lower courts, which will review the evidence against Grokster and co-defendant StreamCast in the light of Monday's decision.

The file swapping industry has vowed to fight on, in spite of the expected onslaught of legal actions. Said StreamCast Chief Executive Officer Michael Weiss. "We're staying in this for the fight. We're going to continue to innovate and come out with new products."

It's Man vs Machine in Chess...Once Again

The United Kingdom's top chess player is going head-to-head with Hydra, a so-called cluster PC in the United Arab Emirates. The latest battle between man and machine is taking place at London's Wembley Centre, where Michael Adams is the latest player to take on a supercomputer.

In a contest that has echoes of Gary Kasparov's epic encounter with IBM's Deep Blue, Adams and the Hydra computer will play up to six games over the next week, for a prize fund of $150,000. While Adams will be seated at Wembley, his opponent is remaining at its Abu Dhabi base. According to the official tournament Web site, the Hydra project is financed by the Abu Dhabi-based PAL Group.

Some experts are already predicting that Hydra will win the contest. But correspondence chess grandmaster Arno Nickel, who recently beat Hydra 2-0 in a correspondence chess match, has predicted that Adams could secure a 3-3 draw.

Hydra is a clustered system made up of 64 PCs, each powered by a 3.06GHz Intel Xeon processor, although it will just use 32 PCs during its battle with Adams. According to the team that developed Hydra, it can calculate 200 million moves per second and see up to 40 moves ahead.

Adams is the United Kingdom's strongest chess player. He reached the rank of third in the world in 2002. Adams versus Hydra comes almost a decade after Garry Kasparov fought, and beat, IBM's Deep Blue supercomputer in 1996. But the Russian player lost a rematch a year later.

The action should be fast and furious!!

Update on Google vs. PayPal

Google's top executive has confirmed the story we wrote about in the last blog that the company is planning to expand into broader online payment services, but denied it will compete with a PayPal-like service. In a company-issued statement, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said the company does not plan to offer what he called a "person-to-person stored-value payments system."

One of the main features of PayPal, a division of eBay Inc., is the ability for consumers to store balances in order to make e-commerce payments.

Following a story that appeared in the Wall Street Journal last week, speculation ran rampant about Google offering a PayPal competitor. Instead, Schmidt said that Google is looking to expand its current online payment services, which is largely used to handle payments from advertisers and to Web publishers in Google's popular online advertising programs.

Schmidt stopped short of offering details about Google's next online payment plans or when the Mountain View, Calif., company will introduce a broader service.

"The payment services we are working on are a natural evolution of Google's existing online products and advertising programs, which today connect millions of consumers and advertisers," Schmidt said in the statement. "We are building products in the area to solve new problems in e-commerce."

I am not sure what all this means, but I thought I should write an update to provide more details that were not included in the previous blog.

A New Enterprise for Google?

The word on the street these days is that Google is developing an online-payment system to rival PayPal's. People familiar with the matter leaked the news to The Wall Street Journal late Friday, offering few details beyond the most obvious. And in the pages of today's New York Times, an online retailer claims to have been been approached by the search giant to take part in just such an effort. Lending heft to both reports is the new business Google filed to incorporate, not two months ago: Google Payment Corporation.

If you are not familiar with PayPal, it is a company that offers credit card transactions to other companies that have web sites. I use them on my web site as it saves me the expense of having to buy a separate secure web server just to take credit cards and it provides me with all the codes I need to incorporate into my web pages for both a shopping cart and secure checkout services.

For instance, if you want to buy one of my paintings from my web site, you select the painting you want and it is put into a "shopping cart." You can then check out through a secure PayPal web site page using any credit card you want. I am then notified and after I ship the painting to you, I then transfer the funds from PayPal directly into my bank account, minus a small transaction fee.

Some time ago, PayPal was bought out by eBay and has greatly diversified its capabilities. They basically now have a monopoly in the field that Google is trying to break into.

With a full 99 percent of its revenues tied to online advertising, Google is a company in obvious need of diversification. Offering an innovative way for people to transact money online would be an easy way for it to achieve that. Certainly it could potentially be integrated into Google's core advertising program and, beyond that, be extended to target the broader online merchant opportunity.

This could get interesting.

Do You Get Your News From A Paper or the Net?

One of the nice things about my stay in Walnut Creek with my friends, the Millers, was that every morning, we would send their white Labrador Retriever, Doc Holiday, down the hilly driveway to retrieve the two morning papers...the San Francisco Chronicle and the Contra Costa Times. While it was great fun to see the dog do his job, the real joy was being able to sit down with my morning cup of coffee and read a real newspaper again.

That really isn't very possible here in Ephrata since we are so far away from the major cities that by the time the paper is delivered, the news is many hours old. Sometimes they are printed so early they don't even have the complete ball scores from the previous night's games.

So, I have got in the habit at home of reading my morning news (with coffee) on the Internet. Oh, I have become very used to it and like the freshness of the news and feature articles, but there is just something special about holding a newspaper in one hand and a cup of coffee with the other. A computer mouse just doesn't give the same feeling.

Which brings me to the point of this blog...according to a new survey, nearly one-fifth of Web users who read newspapers now prefer online to offline editions. The first-time study from Internet audience measurement company Nielsen/NetRatings found that 21 percent of those Web users now primarily use online versions of newspapers, while 72 percent still read print editions. The remaining 7 percent split their time between online and offline editions.

This new study reflects a broad trend in the newspaper publishing industry. U.S. newspaper circulation has been falling as audiences increasingly turn to the Internet for news, both on newspaper-run sites and through companies such as Yahoo and Google, which display news gathered from various sources.

Newspaper publishing revenue is growing slowly, but remains in a prolonged slump. Meanwhile, Internet companies such as Google and Yahoo are posting booming revenue gains on a revival in more traditional online advertising, as well as fast-growing Web search ads.

In response to the increased traffic to news sites, the online versions of many major newspapers often now include frequent news updates, original content, message boards and editorial blogs, items not available in the published edition.

The online edition of the New York Times newspaper is the most visited U.S. newspaper site. It had an audience of 11.3 million in May, up 25 percent from a year earlier, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. USA Today had the second-biggest online reach, with an audience of 9.2 million in May, up 15 percent. Rounding out the top three was the Washington Post web site whose audience in May grew 10 percent year over year to 7.4 million.

By contrast, Yahoo News had an online audience of 23.8 million in May and the audience for Google News was 7.1 million.

So how do you like to get your news?

New Windows XP Fixes Released

If you are a Windows XP user, be on the lookout in the next couple of days for a new set of ten fixes designed to fix security flaws in both the operating system and Internet Explorer. Three of the ten patches are listed as "critical" by Microsoft. These fix flaws that could allow a malicious attacker to take remote control of a computer.

One fix deals with vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, while the others tackle problems with HTML Help and Server Message Block in the Windows operating system.

The other security bulletins included four rated "moderate" that affect Windows and the Exchange e-mail server. Three "important" alerts address problems in Windows, Windows Services for Unix, Internet Security and Acceleration Server and Small Business Server.

Microsoft's rating system deems a security issue as critical, its highest ranking, if it could enable a worm to spread without any action from the PC user. Important flaws are those that could compromise people's data or threaten system resources, while the risk from moderate security holes can be restricted by measures such as configuring the default.

Unless you have set your Windows XP system to update automatically, look for an icon to appear in the lower right hand corner of you task bar that informs you that critical Microsoft updates are ready for downloading.

The Future of Podcasting

One of the fun parts of being in the San Francisco Bay Area is listening to the local radio stations, many of which I grew up with. I like to hear how they have changed over the years and what they are doing these days. For instance, the local far left wing station, KPFA in Berkeley is still on the air and still airing some of the wierdest radio programming you have ever heard. Sports radio KNBR, which airs the Giants and 49ers and can be heard in the evenings in Washington state, now has a second radio station on the air for sports talk radio.

But the biggest change in the local radio scene, and one I was anxious to hear, was KYCY-AM, 1550 on the dial. Less than a month ago, they switched all of their programming over to podcasting. If you are not familiar with the term, podcasting is like a blog, only it is done with audio. It emerged in 2004 as a web phenomenon, allowing amateurs to distribute audio programming over the Web. Listeners can subscribe to certain programs, download them and play them later on digital music players such as Apple Computer's iPod.

But the phenomenon has spread its wings. Now, talk radio hosts of all kinds are offering their already-aired shows as podcasts. And as mentioned above, amateurs are now having their podcasts aired on the radio.

The podcasts I listened to on KYCY were a mixed bag. Some where downright boring while others were interesting and well done. The best ones seemed two or three people interacting on their themes, such as the fashion industry or high tech. Several had musical themes, the best one being on Irish music. But, usually when a DJ got off on some topic that interested him, they became boring and I usually wound up switching to another station. Fortunately, most podcasts are short and no more than 30 minutes long. All-in-all, it was an interesting experience.

But Podcasting itself has emerged as the Internet's hottest fad, but is it more than just a passing fancy?

Forrester Research estimates that 300,000 podcasts, which deliver digital audio content from the Web to computers or portable media devices, will be available by year's end, growing to 13 million in 2009. That is a big number. But, the number of podcast listeners is more difficult to track; and right now there are so few that research firms like Forrester cannot get an acceptable sampling to survey.

As I discovered, this is partly because there is a lack of worthwhile content and partly because the current user experience is unappealing. Podcasting may sound sexy and easy to use, but downloading the necessary software and searching for compelling programming is anything but.

However, with Apple Computer adding support for podcasting to the next version of its iTunes Music Store, as well as interest from such market leaders as Clear Channel Radio, Infinity Broadcasting and Microsoft, content and ease-of-use are expected to improve. With all of this interest, the music industry is eager to determine how, or if, it should support the new medium.

"It's the Wild West right now, and it's incumbent on anyone involved to look at this now to address the business model and the social implication and come up with some rules," EMI Music senior VP of digital development and distribution Ted Cohen says. "If we just sit and stare at it for a while, we'll end up having to go back and modify behavior again."

Podcasting refers to the software and service that deliver digital audio content from the Web directly to the computers or portable media devices of consumers who request it. The content is delivered automatically to users' computers, with no need for them to search for or download it. The content can then be transferred to a portable device like an iPod (hence the name).

As I mentioned earlier, it was originally adopted by amateur broadcasters, but now is drawing attention from mainstream radio, which is pursuing the technology in much the same way that traditional journalism outlets are pursuing blogging.

"The 'professionalism of podcasting' is what I'd call it," Forrester analyst Ted Schandler says. "The biggest shift under way is from 'homebrew' to professional. There's just so many real companies putting material up."

There are many examples from the nation's biggest radio chains. Clear Channel's mainstream top 40 WHTZ (Z100) New York recently began offering the prank phone call segment of its morning show as a podcast. Premiere Radio Networks in April began podcasting seven of its most popular syndicated shows. Infinity Broadcasting plans to offer free daily podcasts from nine news stations. And NPR has begun podcasting some of its programming.

Shows that contain music are not part of these offerings, however, because of licensing issues. NPR even strips out the jingles that precede programming segments.

As mentioned at the start of this article, Infinity launched the first podcast radio station, KYCY-AM San Francisco. The radio group and Sirius Satellite Radio are using podcasting technology with music, but only to receive guest-DJ programming from listeners.

Others have begun experimenting with using podcasts to promote music. BMI created a monthly podcast of unsigned artists who have licensed their work through the society. Also getting into the game is label Razor & Tie, which launched a series of podcasts from its roster, starting with Danko Jones.

Where podcasting goes from here is anyone's guess right now. But it looks like it does have a future, especially since so many professional broadcasters are jumping on board right now. In a way, its time-shifting, just like using a Sony Tivo to watch TV programs when you want. As for amateurs, they are just having fun and producing programs that few if any can hear, unless they are lucky enough to to be picked up by KYCY. But, with AM and FM radio suffering significant user loss, I suspect we may see more stations around the US turning to amateur podcasts for content.

This is a new phenomenon that is not going away.

Digital Deadline Moved Up

The Federal Communications Commission has voted to move up the deadline requiring television manufacturers to ensure all mid-size sets they sell in the United States can receive digital signals. That date is now less than one year away...March 1, 2006.

As part of an effort to speed the transition to digital television, the Consumer Electronics Association had asked the FCC to move the date up from the original July 1, 2006 deadline. This decision affects all sets made with screens 25 inches to 35 inches. The digital signal is a higher quality signal than the current analog signal that has been used since the inception of television in the 1940's.

However, the FCC rejected another request by the association to eliminate a July 1, 2005 deadline (less than a month away) for the manufacturers to ensure half of those sets with the mid-size screens are capable of receiving digital. Manufacturers had argued that the 50 percent deadline did not work because consumers would end up buying the cheaper analog sets, and retailers were less willing to order the more expensive, digital sets.

The FCC also proposed moving up by at least six months the July 1, 2007, deadline for manufacturers to make small television sets, with screens 13 inches to 24 inches, that can capture the digital broadcasts. Congress and the FCC are anxious for Americans to adopt digital television so the old analog airwaves can be reclaimed and sold for billions of dollars to commercial wireless companies, as well as be used by public safety agencies. The Bush administration also wants the revenue from the sale of the analog airwaves to help stem the federal budget deficit.

Shopping at Frys

One of the fun things about coming to the San Francisco Bay Area, or for that matter, the Portland area or the Seattle area around Renton, is the ability to go shopping at Frys Electronic Superstores. They actually started in the Bay Area and have been here for years. It is a recent event that they have expanded to other states.

Frys is like no other computer/electronics store you have ever been in before. Quite frankly, it is huge. Imagine a store the size of a Costco that is devoted strictly to computers, peripherals, and other electronic goodies. It is difficult to image, so I urge you to visit one when you are close by.

I usually go to Frys when I need something, which is most of the time. And before going, I always check their current ads in the newspaper, which usually come out every other day. Sometimes their sale items only last for two days, sometimes a week. Finding one of their ads in the store is next to impossible as they are usually hidden somewhere that is difficult to get to. But they are there. Just ask.

It is worth checking out the ads as many of their ad items are at incredible prices. For instance, when I arrived here, I discovered that I had left my wireless adapter for my laptop back in Washington. I look at the latest Frys ad last Friday and found they had a wireless card on sale for $10. I got one and it works great (if it didn't, I would be unable to be write this blog).

Not too long ago, I purchases a 200 Gb USB-2 external hard drive for $100, after the rebates (which did come in). That was an in-store special rather than an advertised item. I have picked up many items at great prices over the years shopping at Frys, but you need to exercise some caution when shopping there.

Not all their items are well priced. In fact, many of them are marked up at full manufacturer's retail prices and are available much, much cheaper at other places. They use the Wal-Mart practice of offering some things at incredible prices to fool you into thinking that everything in the store is discounted.

For instance, while picking up my new wireless adapter, my friend Paula needed a PCI card with a parallel port. At Frys, they were selling for $39.95. I found them at several places on the Net for $10-12 and at a local computer store for $29.95. As I do a lot of shopping and price comparisons, I am pretty up-to-date on pricing. All I am saying is that you need to be aware of this when shopping at Frys.

But a trip to their superstore is definitely worth the time and effort, especially if you are a computer nerd. They also carry TV, sound systems, books, DVD's, CD's, appliances, candy and sodas, and much more. Stop by there and have some fun.

Still More on Homeland Security

I am trying not to write too much about my criticism of Homeland Security goals and operations, so as not to drive my readers away, but I can't help but pass this one along.

While Homeland Security was keeping us safe from Star Wars file swappers (see blog dated 5/31/05), a report was issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) saying that the Department of Homeland Security has failed to meet a single one of its 13 cybersecurity goals.

According to the report, the DHS has not created national cyber vulnerability assessments or government and industry recovery plans for cyber attacks. Cyber attacks are becoming more and more likely to threaten vital national infrastructure, the report says, and the tools to launch cyber attacks are becoming more and more easy to find.

Still more from the report...the DHS needs to address several challenges, including more organizational stability in its National Cyber Security Division, better awareness of its cybersecurity roles, and better partnerships with private industry. "Much work remains ahead," the GAO report said. "Until it confronts and resolves these underlying challenges and implements its plans, DHS will have difficulty achieving significant results in strengthening the cybersecurity of our critical infrastructure."

The GAO report will come as no surprise to many IT vendors and trade groups, which have called for DHS to focus more on cybersecurity issues. DHS needs to better work with the private sector and provide cybersecurity leadership, said Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), in an interview earlier this month. The ITAA and other groups have called for DHS to appoint an assistant secretary for cybersecurity, instead of the current lower-level director of cybersecurity, as a way to bring more attention to cybersecurity issues.

Another update to my story on 6/1/05 about bugging cell phone calls on airplanes, the FCC has been inundated with letters, e-mail's and phone calls from thousands of people who do not want cell phone usage to be allowed on airplanes. They are not objecting to Homeland Security listening in on their calls. Rather, they do not want to listen to the guy in the next seat talking on his cell phone on a cross-country flight while they are trying to sleep or read. I could not agree more.

Apple Switching to Intel

Talk about turnabout...after years of trying to get people to switch from Intel-based computers to Macs, Apple Computer itself has switched. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has announced that Apple will gradually shift its Mac line to Intel-based chips over the next two years.

Jobs' announcement formed the centerpiece of a keynote speech to Mac programmers attending the company's annual Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco. The conference is a traditional venue for Apple product launches.

Apple will begin moving its systems to Intel processors by June 2006 and will finish the transition by June 2007, according to Jobs. He underscored his point by demonstrating a Power Mac running Apple applications on a 3.6GHz Intel Pentium 4.

The move will be made possible by work that's been ongoing at Apple for some time. Apple's Mac OS X has been leading a secret double life, having been compiled for both for Intel and the PowerPC, Apple's current processor of choice, Jobs said in the keynote. The company will support the PowerPC, which currently uses IBM's PowerPC 970FX chip, for some time to come.

Apple will use dynamic translation software called Rosetta, named after the famous Rosetta stone, to allow applications designed for PowerPC chips to run on Apple's Intel systems.
To underscore the point, Jobs showed Adobe Systems Inc.'s PhotoShop running and opened Microsoft Word and Excel files on an Apple-Intel system. The chief executives from Adobe and Intel joined Jobs on stage to express their rapport.

Apple, which has been maintaining a complete version of OS X for Intel chips, (code-named Marklar) in secret for some time, could not build the machines it wanted with IBM PowerPC chips inside, given their power consumption. Intel won out, he said, on watts. Although he declined to say specifically what new products he had in mind, the implications of Jobs' comments are that IBM's PowerPC roadmap will not meet Apple's needs for notebooks and miniature desktops, both of which are sensitive to power consumption and heat.

Last Windows 2000 Update Due Next Week

If you are using Windows 2000, you need to be aware of this. Microsoft plans to announce as early as next week that it is ready to ship a Windows 2000 Update Rollup, the final security patch for the 5-year-old operating system. The Update Rollup, which replaces Windows 2000 SP5 (Service Pack 5), is a cumulative set of hot fixes, security patches and critical updates packaged together for easy deployment.

The Update Rollup will contain all security-related updates produced for Windows 2000 between the time SP4 was released and the date the update ships. It will also feature a small number of important, non-security updates.

The Update Rollup comes just one month before mainstream support for Windows 2000 client and server releases expires on June 30. Microsoft divides its support lifecycle into two phases: mainstream and extended. Once a product enters the extended support period, Microsoft charges for support.

Windows 2000 remains the most dominant operating system used in the enterprise, but once mainstream support ends later this month, analysts expect corporate migration to Windows XP to speed up.

As we wrote in a recent blog, this basically marks the end of Microsoft support for Windows 2000. Someday in the future, the same thing will happen to Windows XP, a few years after the next version of Windows (code named "Longhorn") is released. Just a friendly warning.

PS. I am writing this blog from Walnut Creek, CA as I am down here for an art show. I should have an Internet connection for most of the time I am in CA, so I can write the occasional blog from time-to-time between shows. My first show begins this morning.

More News from Homeland Security

I guess the Department of Homeland Security read my plea yesterday about focusing on stopping terrorist as they have come up a new project. The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are now objecting to a proposal to permit the use of cellular telephones and other wireless devices on airplanes. Unless telecommunications providers follow a lengthy list of eavesdropping requirements for calls made aloft, the FBI and Homeland Security don't want cellular or wireless connections to be permitted.

In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission sent last week, the police agencies said any rule permitting "in-flight personal wireless telephone use must consider public safety and national security" concerns (as a student of history, I have heard this phrase used many times by totalitarian regimes).

"There is a short window of opportunity in which action can be taken to thwart a suicidal terrorist hijacking or remedy other crisis situations onboard an aircraft, and law enforcement needs to maximize its ability to respond to these potentially lethal situations," the agencies say in their letter.

The police agencies, for instance, want to be able to eavesdrop on conversations no "more than 10 minutes" after the call is made. Other requirements the FBI and Homeland Security are requesting that the FCC mandate include: identifying the seat number of the passenger making the call, making sure police can "expeditiously interrupt" a conversation, cut off service to all passengers except government agents on a plane, and so on.

So, if I understand this correctly, Homeland Security wants to listen in on all telephone calls made from commercial airlines. I am not sure this is what Congress wanted when they passed the Homeland Security Act. While I am all for thwarting terrorism aloft, history has taught us that once you enable a government to invade our privacy in the name of security, they will begin to take liberties far beyond the intent of the law.

I must also say at this point that this administration and Congress are really beginning to make me nervous. I think the best thing to do is to continue to ban cell phone use aloft so as to not give the government more excuse to invade our privacy. Oh, and of course, ban the showing of Star Wars on airplanes as it might be a pirated copy.

New Terrorist Threat - Star Wars Pirates?

I feel a little ignorant here, as if I missed something. Wasn't the Patriot Act and the resulting Homeland Security Agency meant to protect all of us from terrorist plots around the world? Didn't we just give up more of our rights for protection against the evil lords of terror that threaten to destroy our lives, our property, and our country in the name of their religion, politics, or other some such silly reason?

Then answer me this...why was it that Home Security Agents went forth in the last few days to shut down a popular Web site that allegedly had been distributing copyrighted music and movies, including versions of "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith." It was Homeland Security agents from several divisions that served search warrants on 10 people around the country suspected of being involved with the Elite Torrents web site, and took over the group's main server.

The Homeland Security Agency said it was the first criminal enforcement action aimed at copyright infringers who use the popular BitTorrent file-swapping technology. According to the investigators, "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" was made available through the Elite Torrents site before being shown in theaters and was downloaded more than 10,000 times. Investigators said that the site had 133,000 members and that it distributed more than 17,000 individual movie, software and music titles.

"Our goal is to shut down as much of this illegal operation as quickly as possible to stem the serious financial damage to the victims of this high-tech piracy--the people who labor to produce these copyrighted products," Acting Assistant Attorney General John Richter said in a statement. "Today's crackdown sends a clear and unmistakable message to anyone involved in the online theft of copyrighted works that they cannot hide behind new technology."

"Today's actions are bad news for Internet movie thieves and good news for preserving the magic of the movies," said Motion Picture Association of America Chief Executive Officer Dan Glickman in a statement. "Shutting down illegal file swapping networks like Elite Torrents is an essential part of our fight to stop movie thieves from stealing copyrighted materials."

I am just having a small problem with Homeland Security being used to do Hollywood's dirty work. But, I guess a little pressure from the Hollywood-owned Congress can work wonders. I just wish they would focus their energies on protecting us from the real evil that's out there in this world, waiting to release their havoc.

Maybe I am just mad I didn't get a chance to get the new Star Wars movie before the site was shut down. No, not really. It is a very good film, by the way and I will happily lay down my $20 bucks for it when it comes out on DVD.

Google's Digital Library Plans Under Attack

Back in December, I wrote about Google's ambitious plan scan to scan and digitize the books in the world's largest libraries including nearly all the 8 million books in Stanford's collection and the 7 million at the University of Michigan...as well as the New York Public Library and libraries at Harvard and Oxford.

However, this idea and plan has been denounced by a group of academic publishers who complain that the project may violate copyright laws and hurt book sales. In a letter to Google, Peter Givler, executive director of the Association of American University Presses, called Google Print for Libraries a "broad-sweeping violation of the Copyright Act" and questioned the search leader's right to digitize the entirety of copyrighted works.

It doesn't matters, said Givler, that materials that are not out of copyright will not be full-text viewable (they will be full-text searchable). "The fact is Google Print for Libraries appears to be built on a gigantic fair use claim, which we think is questionable at best," Givler wrote. "If the fair use is not valid, it could be a gigantic copyright violation. ... Google's claim that it is fair use to make copies of every copyrighted work in even one major library, let alone three of them, is completely unprecedented in scale; it is tantamount to saying that Google can make copies of every copyrighted work ever published, period. Courts have never recognized a fair use claim of that magnitude."

The association is hardly the first organization to object to Google Print. Back in March, Sally Morris, chief executive of the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers, an international association of more than 300 not-for-profit publishers, registered the same complaint.

"The law does not permit wholesale copying (which is what digitization is) by a commercial organization of works that are still in copyright," she told The Harvard Crimson. "It is also illegal to make those works available digitally once they have been copied."

This is such a wonderful plan that I hate to see it attacked and perhaps even shut down. Sometimes life seems to be full of disillusionment. But of course, we live in an age of full blown greed.

VOIP Phones Must Now Include 9-1-1 Service

In one of the biggest challenges yet for the young VoIP telephone industry, the Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously that Net phone operators must be able to steer 911 calls to the geographically appropriate emergency call center. In addition, the calls themselves must be accompanied by the originating address and phone number, the FCC said.

VOIP phone operators will have 120 days to comply after the ruling is published, which is expected in the next few days. The commission is responding to concerns from lawmakers and the public about a growing number of U.S. residents who use VoIP services. VoIP, or voice over Internet Protocol, allows a broadband connection to double as a phone line, and Net phone calling plans are cheaper than regular landline plans.

But because the calls aren't routed through the traditional phone system, carriers must engineer a way to get them onto the 911 infrastructure serving the nation's 6,200 emergency call centers. That task involves many technical, business and political hurdles.

Congress is joining the effort to force Internet telephone companies to link up to the 911 network. A 10-page measure, which has been introduced in both the Senate and House of Representatives, also would permit state and local governments to levy taxes on VoIP companies in exchange for providing access to 911 operators. The bill was made public just hours before the meeting at which the FCC passed its 911 regulation.

Focus on the VoIP 911 issue heightened in late 2004, following a string of incidents in which VoIP subscribers couldn't get through to emergency services, some with allegedly deadly consequences. According to Florida resident Cheryl Waller, her 3-month-old child died as a result of the delays.

Attorneys general in Texas and Connecticut are suing Vonage, alleging the company misleads customers about its 911 services. This is the direct result of a Houston teenager who failed to reach 911 on her Vonage line to get help for her parents who were shot during a home burglary. Vonage did advertise a limited 9-1-1 service, but typical VoIP 911 calls are answered by someone in the emergency call center's administrative offices and aren't accompanied by a call-back number or the caller's location. And, callers after business hours hear a recorded message that the offices are closed and that they should call 911 if there's an emergency.

VoIP operators blame 911 problems on their inability to access the telephone infrastructure owned by Verizon Communications, Qwest Communications, SBC Communications, and BellSouth that serve the nation's 6,200 emergency call centers. In turn, those Bell companies say VoIP operators have always had access, just not under the terms they want.

As I mentioned here before, the VOIP phone service I use, Packet8, does already have and E911 service now mandated by the FCC. Although they don't get the press that Vonage does, Packet8 is an excellent phone service that is actually cheaper than Vonage, and has local Grant County numbers.

A Big "Whoops" for the New Netscape

On Thursday, AOL, owners of the web browser Netscape, released the new version, 8.0. It was touted as the security-conscious browser for all of us as it took aim to protect users from spyware and phishing scams.

In less than 24 hours, they had to release an update to fix several serious security flaws. Whoops!! Apparently there were 44 security issues that had to be hurriedly patched, which to their credit, the Netscape folks did in a hurry and had version 8.0.1 on the market the next day.

The new Netscape is based on version 1.0.3 of Firefox, and the Netscape folks thought the new browser was immune to security vulnerabilities in the Firefox software that were fixed last week in Firefox 1.0.4. Well, it turns out that Netscape 8 was vulnerable after all.

"We had been misinformed by an external security vendor that the Firefox security issues did not affect us," Netscape spokesman Andrew Weinstein said Friday. "Within hours of discovering that the vendor was not accurate, we had addressed those issues and posted an updated version of the browser."

Netscape, is still facing heat over the security goof-up from Mozilla developers. Ben Goodger, lead engineer for Firefox, on Thursday posted an exploit on his blog to demonstrate that Netscape 8 was vulnerable. At the same time, he pitched Firefox as a more secure Web browser.

"If security is important to you, this demonstration should show that browsers that are redistributions of the official Mozilla releases are never going to give you security updates as quickly as Mozilla will itself for its supported products," Goodger wrote.

Sounds to me like the Netscape people were set up to look bad.

Still, Netscape does have some nice new features. It protects users against online scams such as phishing and spyware by automatically adjusting security settings while people surf, based on lists of sites that are known to be malicious and of trusted sites.

If you would like to read a PC Magazine review of the new Netscape, as compared with the newest version of Opera and Firefox, go to:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1815833,00.asp

WalMart Out - Netflix In

Netflix will take over Wal-Mart's DVD rental business. Under the deal, announced today, Netflix and retailing giant Wal-Mart will co-promote DVD sales and rentals. Wal-Mart will shut down its online rental service to concentrate on DVD sales.

The deal calls for Netflix to promote Wal-Mart DVD sales to its 3 million subscribers, and Wal-Mart will offer its online customers the opportunity to sign up with Netflix at the current subscription price for a year. Wal-Mart is the world's largest DVD retailer, and Netflix is the world's largest online DVD rental service.

Netflix will also take over Wal-Mart's online service, allowing its customers to pay the $12.97 per month guaranteed by Wal-Mart for 12 months.

The partnership radically changes the competitive landscape for the online DVD rental industry pioneered by Netflix, which more recently has been against larger rivals such as Wal-Mart and Blockbuster. The new partnership also could discourage Amazon from bringing its U.K.-based online rental service to the United States.

New Windows OneCare Program

Microsoft will soon be releasing the beta of a new service called Windows OneCare, which is designed to keep busy computer users' machines automatically updated and protected from viruses, spyware and other threats and running at top performance.

It's an interesting idea, and it will certainly be of benefit to consumers who don't have time to spend on PC maintenance and administrative tasks. You can read more about it here:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/may05/05-13WindowsOneCarePR.asp

The service will eventually be subscription-based and will will draw in part on existing tools like the company's anti-spyware software, as well as on basic PC management functions inside Windows. But it will add a more powerful firewall, ongoing antivirus protection, and the right to get a live support person on the phone without paying extra.

The OneCare service marks the first time that Microsoft has offered antivirus software directly to consumers, even though it has spent several years buying companies that offer the technology. Executives said they did not plan on offering the virus-fighting technology outside the OneCare bundle of services.

The service will be launched in beta form to Microsoft employees in a week, and will be released to consumers in late summer or fall. The company did not provide any details on projected pricing.

Is 1/3 of All Software Pirated?

According to the latest study released the software trade group, the Business Software Alliance, more than a third of the software installed on PCs worldwide during 2004 is pirated, with losses from unauthorized software increasing by $4 billion from 2003. The actual number is 35%, which is down 1% from the previous year. The study was put together for the BSA by the research firm IDC.

Estimated losses from software piracy climbed, however, from $29 billion to $33 billion, as both the legal and unauthorized software markets grew from 2003 to 2004. IDC estimated that $90 billion worth of software was installed in 2004, compared to $80 billion in 2003, with sales of legal software growing 6 percent.

Lest you think this is all attributable to US users, the countries using the most pirated software, according to IDC, are Vietnam, Ukraine, China, and Zimbabwe. Ninety percent or more of the software used in those countries was pirated during 2004, according to the BSA report. In more than half the 87 countries studied, software piracy exceeded 60 percent.

IDC estimated that 21 percent of software in the U.S. was pirated, compared to 23 percent in New Zealand, and 27 percent in the United Kingdom. Austria and Sweden were also among the countries with the lowest software piracy rates.

Frankly, I believe these numbers are a little high and that the results of the study are to be used for political purposes; ie: the White House and Congress putting heat on countries like China and the Ukraine. I also think the US numbers are a little inflated, although I know software piracy does occur on a regular basis. I have nothing to base my thoughts on except my knowledge of good, old fashioned hard ball politics.

Firefox News and Updates

If you use, or are thinking about using Firefox as your web browser of choice, you might be interested to know that the Mozilla Foundation has released a new version of Firefox that fixes three security flaws that have recently been uncovered. The new version, V.1.0.4 is available on the Firefox/Mozilla web site.

As with all the other recent security fixes, the new versions are not patches but complete new versions that must be completely downloaded and installed through normal program installation means. Firefox 1.0.4 for Windows is a 4.7MB download.

Security updates are getting to be a common occurrence with Firefox and Mozilla. This update is the fourth addressing 32 security holes in 2005. But what separates Mozilla from Microsoft is the fact that they fix their problems within days of being uncovered, rather than months.

Recently, an Internet security company released information that there were only 7 days out of 366 in 2004 during which Internet Explorer had no unpatched security holes. This means IE had no official patch available against well-publicized vulnerabilities for 98% of the year. On the other hand, Firefox users went only 26 days in 2004 with a known security hole.

For this and other reasons, IBM is encouraging its employees to use Firefox instead of IE. Firefox is already used by about 10 percent of IBM's staff, or about 30,000 people. Now, IBM workers can download the browser from internal servers and get support from the company's help desk staff.

For IBM, the move is a significant step in lessening dependence on a product from rival Microsoft. By supporting Firefox internally, IBM is also furthering its commitment to open-source products based on industry standards.

Meanwhile, Mozilla is self-promoting Firefox with three new video ads. The short videos show people getting so entranced by Firefox that they do things like scream loud enough to crack office walls and become disoriented enough to take a bite out of a cell phone, as if it were a candy bar.

The videos had registered 300,000 hits by the end of the weekend, and were nearing 500,000 hits by Monday. The videos can be viewed at Funnyfox.org, a site set up by Mozilla Europe. They are cute.

Buying Wine on the Internet

Wine drinkers rejoice! The U.S. Supreme Court this morning ruled that state governments cannot prohibit people from purchasing wine from out-of-state wineries, determining that states' claims of possible lost taxes or shipments to minors don't justify such prohibitions.

The justices, voting 5-4, said the traditional state authority over alcohol sales must yield to the constitutional requirements that states not engage in protectionism. "States have broad power to regulate liquor," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority. "This power, however, does not allow states to ban, or severely limit, the direct shipment of out-of-state wine while simultaneously authorizing direct shipment by in-state producers. If a state chooses to allow direct shipments of wine, it must do so on evenhanded terms."

The ruling is a great victory for smaller vintners and Internet commerce and a blow to the liquor distributors who'd been enjoying enjoy fat markups. About half of the states now have protectionists laws prohibiting interstate sales.

There is a loophole, however. Because the court was only concerned about discriminatory state laws favoring in-state wineries, a state could require that all alcohol sales take place face-to-face, and levy the same strict rule on its own wineries as well.

We shall see...

Hidden Menu - An Excellent Utility

Let's talk about your computer's desktop. Is it covered with shortcut icons to launch programs...and/or do you have launch icons in your system tray? I know that is probably true for most of you. I know I used to do the same thing. I had icons on my desktop that I hadn't used in a long time.

I tried moving my most important icons into the Quick Launch tray on the task bar, but found that it got too crowded. So I decided to look for a utility that would allow me to store my program icons unobtrusively, but would be there immediately when I needed it.

I found a wonderful free program called, "Hidden Menu" that does exactly what I wanted. It stores all of my most used programs in a menu that is hidden from view. To see the menu, I just move my mouse pointer to the upper left hand corner of the screen and Hidden Menu opens right up, allowing me to launch the program I want.

Hidden Menu has a variety of user options including what locations you want to have it open when you move your mouse there. I chose the upper left hand corner as there are useful icons already in the other three corners. But you could have the upper left and lower right if you wanted.

Getting the icons into Hidden Menu is also easy...you just drag and drop them from your desktop. After dropping them into Hidden Menu, I just delete the original icon from the desktop. I then go into Hidden Menu and edit what I need, such as the title I want to be seen when the menu opens or move the icons around so that similar programs are grouped together. That's all you need to do.

To prepare for Hidden Menu, I just analyzed what programs I use the most and want to be easily available for a fast launch. If they are not on the desktop to drag and drop, I use the [Start] [Programs] buttons to find the program, then right click on it and select [Send To] [Desktop], which then puts a shortcut icon for the program on to the desktop. Again, after dragging it to Hidden Menu, I delete it from the desktop.

I still use the Quick Launch on my task bar for programs I use several times a day, such as e-mail and Internet browsers. I also have Excel and Word there because I use them several times a day.

Check out Hidden Menu and see if it is for you. To get your free copy, go to:

http://home.i-cable.com/lokinwai/

First Review of Dual Core Chips

Both AMD and Intel are up against the wall when it comes to making their chips any faster. To make higher speed processors using today's chip technology would bring bring them to the point of meltdown because of the amount of heat being generated.

But, both companies have come up with an ingenious solution for making computers faster and more efficient. To put it simply, their new CPU's will have two processors built on one chip. Hence the name, "Dual Core" CPU's. These new computers can do more because it is almost like having two computers controlling your work flow.

Both AMD and Intel introduced their new chips within two weeks of each other. Right now, these chips are very expensive (as you would expect) and are used mostly in network servers, although one of the Intel processors is available in a high end gaming computer.

Soon, these new processors will find their way to our desktops. Inevitably, people will want to know whether AMD or Intel is building the better chip, at least in terms of speed and efficiency. Our friends at CNet have already gathered all these chips together in one place to run the first series of tests.

For those of you who don't want to read the review, the clear winner was AMD. If you would like to read the review, go to:

http://www.cnet.com/4520-6022_1-6217968-1.html?

The Search Engine Wars Continue

The boys and girls at Yahoo and Google are working overtime to not only improve their respective products, but looking for new ways to search for previously unsearchable items.

To start, Yahoo is developing a search engine for finding music data and downloadable songs from across the Internet. The search giant plans to introduce the music search engine within the next couple of months, according to a well-placed source. The specialty engine will let people search on an artist's name and retrieve all the available songs from other music services, as well as album reviews and band information from Yahoo Music. Yahoo considers audio and video to be cornerstones of its future. In addition to buying song outlet MusicMatch for $160 million, Yahoo is working on another music service in conjunction with rival MusicNet.

But wait, were not done. Both Yahoo and Google turned to video search this week, with each company touting more searchable content and superstar partnerships. Yahoo released a finalized version of its video search engine, after five months of testing. The company will also announce alliances with CBS News, MTV, Reuters and others to include their video clips within its searchable database.

Meanwhile, Google announced a string of new liaisons with television programmers, including the Discovery Channel and CNN, so that people can find still images and text of their shows in Google's index. The company, however, is continuing public tests of Google Video, which launched in January.

Google is also seeking to patent a technology meant to help its Google News section sort stories based on their overall quality, which would augment the current methods of ranking results by date and relevance to search terms. In separate filings with the U.S. and world patent offices, Google detailed the new ranking formula. The technology would let Google prerank content from specific news outlets to ensure that those stories appear above other search results.

And the winner of this consumate search engine rivalry...all of us.

Spyware Roundup - Keeping Informed

Have you ever wondered why there is so much spyware out there and why companies keep trying to infect your computer with it? The answer is simple...there's lots of money involved. In fact, the spyware industry is worth billions of dollars.

I've written many articles in the past about spyware, mostly about how to get rid of it off your computer. I would be willing to bet that everyone who is reading this article is infected with some sort of spyware. When I started using Counterspy, I discovered that I was picking up spyware on a daily basis, usually in the form of cookies. Many of them keep showing up daily, depending on where I surf the net.

All this made me wonder why people or companies want to know so much about me and my computer habits. So I did a little research. But rather than rehash it all, I am going to give you a few links to the most informative articles I found. What you read may surprise you, but at least you will know why spyware is so rampant.

Research: Spyware industry worth billions
Spying on Spyware Makers
The remedy for spyware…not anytime soon
New spyware bill needs a rewrite

Because there is so much money involved, don't expect our government to come to our help anytime soon. There may be a new law enacted sometime soon, but it will probably be a toothless fraud. Politicians are anxious to tell you that they have done something about this problem, but it will be as useless a law as the anti-spam laws they have enacted in the recent past. Am I cynical, or what?

On a personal note, I will be back on the road later today for another art show (where there is no wireless connection), so there will be no blogs for a few days.

New Sober Worm Spreading at Light Speed

The newest variation of the Sober worm has spread rapidly across the Internet in the past 24 hours and now makes up two-thirds of virus traffic on the Internet, according to security experts.

Sober.P, first detected on this last Monday, now accounts for 77 percent of all viruses detected by Sophos's threat-monitoring stations worldwide. Kaspersky Lab, a Russian maker of antivirus software designed to combat such threats, described the worm's spread in Western Europe as an "epidemic."

Variants of Sober have been circulated since 2003 and have continued to hit corporate and home systems. The mass-mailing worm has continued to spread because people still open attachments in infected e-mail's, despite warnings.

The latest Sober offshoot uses an e-mail written in both English and German. One of its lures is a message saying the recipient has won free tickets to the 2006 World Cup soccer tournament. Once victims open the infected attachment, the virus harvests their e-mail addresses. The virus copies itself onto the user's computer and then sends a similar e-mail to the harvested addresses.

Free tickets to the World Cup won't thrill too many people in the US, so the spread of this Sober is not very big in this country. But, in Western Europe, its a different story. Soccer is almost a religion over there, hence the epidemic proportions of the infections can be traced to that area.

States Want Those Sales Tax Dollars

It's a big sticking point with many states that so many purchases made over the Internet don't include sales tax. For instance, if you live in Washington State (as does your's truly) and you buy something from a company that has no presence in this state, you pay no sales tax. If they have a presence here, under the same corporate name (like Amazon) sales tax is collected.

If you live in Washington State and you buy one of my paintings, I must (and do) charge sales tax. But if you live in New York State or any of the other 48 states, I will not charge you any sales tax. I do report the sale when I fill out my Washington State business tax forms, but I get to deduct it as an exception since it was an out-of-state sale.

All this, of course, is a real sore point with Washington and all the other states that charge sales tax. They want those tax dollars! But there is a way they can collect them, especially if they come after you.

You see, every state that has a sales tax, also has a Use Tax. What's that, you ask? Its basically a law that says if you buy something from out-of-state and are not charged sales tax, you are required to pay your state the same amount of tax that you would have paid in-state in the form of a use tax.

Example...you live in California and go to Oregon, a state with no sales tax. You buy $100 worth of goods. California's use tax is 7.25%, therefore you would be required to pay the state of California $7.25. In Washington State, you are required to pay the same amount of use tax that you would have paid had you bought the item in your home town, since every area here has its own tax rate.

Of course, very few consumers report their out-of-state or non-taxed Internet sales. But states are looking to beef up their enforcement of use tax collection. Here is how California is doing it:

Last year, California added a line on its state income tax form that requires residents to estimate how much use tax they owe. So, if you report nothing and did actually do some tax-free Internet buying, you are lying to the state (remember, you sign your tax form under penalty of perjury) and, if you get audited, you could wind up paying a pretty hefty penalty.

This year, the state tried a use-tax amnesty program that brought in about $2.3 million. That leaves the estimated $1.34 billion that went uncollected, according to California. Other states report similar shortfalls.

From the perspective of state tax collectors, the simplest solution would be to require out-of-state shippers to collect taxes. But shippers generally can't be compelled to do that, thanks to a Supreme Court decision that said only businesses with offices or other tangible connections in the destination state can be required to collect sales taxes.

Still, state officials are lobbying Congress to change these rules. They're proposing a so-called "streamlined sales tax." The idea is to create a uniform set of rules effectively permitting tax agencies to require out-of-state sellers to collect use taxes.

Look for state governments to keep hammering to get these sales and use taxes any way they can. Remember the old adage from Howard Jarvis..."if you've got a dollar in your jeans, there is always some government agency trying to take it."

Time Warner Employee Data May Have Been Stolen

I sure hope you are not now, nor have ever been an employee of Time Warner. Why? Because personal information for 600,000 current and former Time Warner employees has been lost, potentially setting the stage for one of the largest cases yet of identity theft.

Time Warner said the mishap occurred on March 22, when data storage company Iron Mountain was transporting its backup tapes to a storage facility away from its offices. The company lost the tapes while in transit. The tapes were discovered missing on the same day they were picked up, and when they could not rule out foul play, they contacted the U.S. Secret Service to investigate.

Time Warner waited for more than a month before notifying current and past employees that their personal information may have been compromised. The reason for the delay was that they didn't want to comprimise the investigation by going public. The media giant has set up an 800 number to answer past and current employees' questions and provide free credit monitoring for a year. A few days ago, the company began the process of encrypting its data.

The Time Warner case is just the latest in a string of data theft cases to rock corporate America, from Bank of America to educational institutions such as the University of California at Berkeley.