The satellite surprise: Telus ties up with BCE Globe and Mail
Telus Corp has flipped the switch on its new satellite television service in Western Canada, blanketing 90 per cent of homes in B.C. and Alberta with the option of more than 500 digital channels. The launch gives the nation’s No. 2 telecom player a means to fight back against Shaw Communications Inc., the cable powerhouse that has been winning over home phone subscribers in the West. But to do it, Telus had to turn to a big rival for help – BCE Inc.’s Bell Canada. Telus is re-selling Bell’s satellite TV service under its own brand in return for an undisclosed distribution fee. It is the latest co-operation pact between the two companies, and a sign of just how much has changed in the two years since the country’s dominant telcos knocked heads in a heated boardroom battle.

Canadians keep falling for Nigerian letter scam Canadian Press
Fraud artists are finding it easier amid a battered economy to entrap marks with dubious offers once easily dismissed as scams, and are snaring a growing number of victims to the tune of millions of dollars a month, experts say. The Competition Bureau is warning that recessions are “boom times for scammers” and predicts desperate Canadians will fall into traps offering easy cash online, by phone and mail. Statistics provided by Phonebusters — the Canadian anti-fraud call centre run by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Competition Bureau and Ontario Provincial Police — show Canadians are increasingly falling prey to scams of all types. “Fraud does tend to increase in economic downturns,” said Ian Nielsen-Jones, the Competition Bureau’s assistant deputy commissioner. Vulnerable people sometimes lower their defences and make bad decisions as times get tough, while others on the borderline of lawful society turn to crime, Nielsen-Jones said.

PSP Go’s 480MHz state refers to USB, not CPU Joystiq
FCC documents originally believed to have revealed that the PSP Go had a 480MHz processor — over 40% more than the PSP (1000-3000) — were actually talking about another part of the device … the USB. Sony Computer Entertainment has stated that those extra megahertz are being used to clock the USB transfer and not the CPU. So, other than the body and a slew of new accessories, it appears the PSP Go continues to be the same as its non-flipping cousin — at least the processor won’t put any extra drain on the handheld’s batttery.

HP changes tack after ACCC probe Australian IT
Hewlett-Packard Australia has been forced to change the way it handles cash back and gift promotions following nearly 200 complaints from customers.
HP implemented new claims processing and complaint handling mechanisms after the ACCC was alerted late last year. The competition regulator had received more than 190 complaints about HP’s promotions, mainly relating to computer and printer sales. Most related to delays in receiving the cash back, ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said.

Legal challenge to web child abuse inquiry The Guardian
One of Britain’s biggest online paedophile inquiries is to be challenged in the court of appeal amid allegations from campaigners that hundreds of men have been wrongly convicted in a mass miscarriage of justice. For more than two years a small group of experts have claimed that Operation Ore, the police inquiry into thousands of British men, was tainted because the database at the centre of the investigation contained evidence of widespread credit card fraud. Their allegations will be tested for the first time in the appeal court within weeks, when a judge examines a test case that could expose a huge miscarriage of justice, lawyers say. The single judge will decide whether the case should go to a full appeal.

Girl arrested for attempted bikini murder The Local
A sunbathing session in western Sweden took a sinister turn on Friday when a teenage girl in Lidköping attempted to strangle her cousin with a bikini top. Two cousins, both 17-year-old girls, began fighting with each other on Friday in Lidköping in western Sweden. One girl attempted to strangle the other by pulling her cousin’s bikini top up around her neck and pulling it tight.

Web advertisers propose self-regulation principles Reuters
Online advertisers are proposing a mix of consumer education, disclosures about what information is being collected and special protections for children and sensitive information in an effort to head off tough legislation. Four leading advertising trade associations — the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Association of National Advertisers, the Direct Marketing Association, or DMA, and the Interactive Advertising Bureau — drew up the “self-regulatory principles.” Their immediate impetus was criticism that too much information was gathered about Internet users that was shared too widely and stored for too long. The principles would require online advertisers to choose an icon or phrase that would be used by all web sites to point Internet users to a site where they could learn what information was being collected and perhaps opt out. [This is like the fox telling the chickens how to stay safe. ]

U.S. inquiry is confirmed into Google books deal New York Times
The Justice Department confirmed that it was conducting an antitrust investigation into the settlement of a lawsuit that groups representing authors and publishers filed against Google. In a letter Thursday to the federal judge charged with reviewing the settlement, the Justice Department said it was reviewing concerns that the agreement could violate the Sherman Antitrust Act.

National Federation of the Blind and American Council of the Blind File Discrimination Suit Against Arizona State University National Federation of the Blind
The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and the American Council of the Blind (ACB) filed suit today against Arizona State University (ASU) to prevent the university from deploying Amazon’s Kindle DX electronic reading device as a means of distributing electronic textbooks to its students because the device cannot be used by blind students. Darrell Shandrow, a blind ASU student, is also a named plaintiff in the action. The Kindle DX features text-to-speech technology that can read textbooks aloud to blind students. The menus of the device are not accessible to the blind, however, making it impossible for a blind user to purchase books from Amazon’s Kindle store, select a book to read, activate the text-to-speech feature, and use the advanced reading functions available on the Kindle DX. In addition to ASU, five other institutions of higher education are deploying the Kindle DX as part of a pilot project to assess the role of electronic textbooks and reading devices in the classroom. The NFB and ACB have also filed complaints with the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, asking for investigations of these five institutions, which are: Case Western Reserve University, the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, Pace University, Princeton University, and Reed College. The lawsuit and complaints allege violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

Google finally sued by makers of Finally Fast CNet News
Google has been sued again by a company mad over the use of its trademarks as keywords, but this one comes with a twist. Ascentive, the company behind those incessant “Finally Fast!” PC support ads, became the latest Google advertiser to sue the company for allowing advertisers to purchase ads using trademarks they do not own as search keywords. It will have to get in line behind Firepond, Rescuecom and several other companies challenging Google’s policy, recently expanded to allow some companies to use trademarks they don’t own in the text of their ads. Ascentive takes its suit a step farther, however, also claiming that Google has unfairly removed some of Ascentive’s Web sites from its search index.

‘The Creature’ To Make Stage Debut IMDb
Universal has brought the classic horror flick Creature From the Black Lagoon to the stage — not the Broadway stage, mind you. Not even one of the out-of-town tryout venues. No, it has brought it to its Universal Studios Hollywood theme park, although with production values, as Variety puts it, “typically seen on Broadway.” The musical (it’s subtitled “A Raging Rockin’ Show”), the trade paper observes, is intended to stir interest in a new screen version of the 1954 movie being directed by Breck Eisner and due to be released in 2011.

Wife exposes chief spy’s personal life on Facebook CNet News
It is always a case of some considerable concern when a lady reveals too much on Facebook. The site has standards, after all. The lady in question this time is Lady Shelley Sawers, the wife of Sir John Sawers, the new head of British spy agency MI6. According to reports in the Mail and numerous other media outlets, the fair lady may not have been quite aware that Facebook can be seen by a rather large number of people if you don’t specify that you want to keep your information vaguely private. Lady Sawers saw fit to wander onto the site and reveal where their London apartment is located and where their children are. This might not appear to be the wisest course of social action if your children happen to be the offspring of the head of an international spying network. Lady Sawers even posted 19 happy pictures of the family’s last vacation.

For Symantec and McAfee, ‘Arms Race’ for Security New York Times
They boast and frighten and denounce each other while trying to convince the crowd that their particular brand of salvation will ward off the devil — in this case, malicious e-mail viruses and evil Internet worms. The stakes are huge: millions of global followers willing to donate a steady sum every year for protection against online threats. Recently, the competition between the two has become fiercer, as both have tried to get their software tied to more new personal computers, Web sites and Internet service providers. McAfee has been particularly aggressive, using a string of deals with large PC makers in a bid to usurp Symantec’s leadership position.

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July, 2009

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