p2pnet World Headlines – July 14, 2009
The Best Internet Addresses Will Cost a Cool .Million New York Times
One of the characteristics the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has been its commitment to create a level playing field between big companies and individuals who use the Internet. Its cumbersome decision making process is open to input from all sides. And its core roleâassigning the domain names used by Web sitesâhas been quite egalitarian: First come first served. (Trademark issues aside.) That’s all changing with a radical revision to the way domain names are assigned. Big companies are going to be able to get prime addresses that individuals and small business will not be able to afford. Icann is about to let anyone start a top-level domainthe part of an Internet address to the right of the period. It mainly says this plan will let entrepreneurs sell specialty addresses to people and companies interested in certain areas, such as .shoes or .movies. But there is another use for the new top level domains: simpler Web addresses for companies. Expect to see the likes of .amazon, .ibm and .pepsi. This will let them offer slightly faster ways to get to their various subsections, books.amazon or servers.ibm. I’m not so sure how much of a benefit to users that is over books.amazon.com, but every character is a chance for an error or confusion, so a simpler name can’t be anything but better.
HTC Smartphones Left Vulnerable to Bluetooth Attack IDG News Service
If you have an HTC smartphone running Windows Mobile 6 or Windows Mobile 6.1, you may want to think twice before connecting to an untrusted device using Bluetooth. A vulnerability in an HTC driver installed on these phones can allow an attacker to access any file on the phone or upload malicious code using Bluetooth, a Spanish security researcher warned Tuesday. “HTC devices running Windows Mobile 6 and Windows Mobile 6.1 are prone to a directory traversal vulnerability in the Bluetooth OBEX FTP Service,” security researcher Alberto Moreno Tablado said in an e-mail exchange. HTC handsets running Windows Mobile 5 are not affected. For the attack to work, the targeted device must have Bluetooth enabled and file sharing over Bluetooth activated.
EU antitrust regulators charge LCD panel makers Associated Press
European Union antitrust regulators have charged Royal Philips Electronics NV and LG Display with fixing the price of liquid crystal display monitors, Philips said Monday. Philips said it would “vigorously oppose” the allegation that it was jointly liable for a cartel operated by South Korea’s LG Display. It sold its remaining shares in LG Display in March. The European Commission did not name all the companies it had charged but said they made monitors for PCs and laptops and smaller screens used in mobile phones, digital cameras, handheld computers and MP3 players. The world’s No. 1 and No. 2 LCD screen makers – both South Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Display – had no comment on the EU charges. Sharp and Hitachi did not immediately reply to calls and e-mails seeking comment.
BBC begins work on open source documentary series Heise Online
The BBC has begun working on a series of four one-hour documentaries for its BBC Two channel about how the web has, and still is, changing our lives. The current working title for the open and collaborative documentary series is the “Digital Revolution”. According to a post on the Digital Revolution Blog, the goal of the project is to open up the production process as much as possible by asking for advice and stories from online users and by sharing as many of the production teams thoughts and ideas as possible. The documentary will take a look at the World Wide Web, created by Sir Tim Berners-Lee over twenty years ago, and focus on how it has changed our lives, including how we communicate, disseminate knowledge and share information.
Mosaid sues IBM for patent infringement Reuters
Patent licensing firm Mosaid Technologies Inc said on Monday it was taking IBM to court for allegedly infringing on six of Mosaid’s U.S. patents. Mosaid said the long-running dispute was over IBM’s making and selling of microprocessor and application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) products. The Ottawa-based company said it was granted the patents on its fundamental dynamic random access memory (DRAM) circuit inventions. “We are taking this action to protect our intellectual property because we have been unable to reach a reasonable settlement with IBM, despite many years of negotiation,” John Lindgren, Mosaid’s president and chief executive, said in a statement.
‘Businessman’ took millions from faulty cash machines The Local
Charges have been filed against a 54-year-old man who managed to withdraw nearly 3 million kronor ($380,000) from various cash machines in Landskrona in southern Sweden. A technical glitch at the bank allowed the man to make 376 withdrawals from five different cash machines within a few hours late during the night of April 6th this year. Altogether, the man managed to take out 2.825 million kronor before disappearing out of the country. The man was arrested in Poland on April 19th, but had to be released because an international warrant had not yet been issued for his arrest, according to the Helsingborgs Dagblad newspaper. Police eventually issued a warrant and were able to bring the man back to Sweden, whereupon he was remanded in custody.
AP settles lawsuit with AHN Media Agence France-Presse
The US news agency the Associated Press announced Monday that it had settled an intellectual property lawsuit against AHN Media, an online company accused of misappropriating AP articles. “AP is pleased to have successfully resolved the litigation through a principled settlement,” Laura Malone, AP associate general counsel for intellectual property governance, said in a statement. “AP invests hundreds of millions of dollars to gather and to distribute essential breaking news worldwide that customers legitimately access and use by payment of a license fee,” Malone said. “Unauthorized use of these proprietary news reports by copying or rewriting published AP news stories is inimical to the interests of AP and its legitimate licensees,” she added. The AP, a cooperative owned by 1,500 US daily newspapers, filed suit against AHN Media in January 2008 seeking unspecified damages and a permanent injunction against misappropriation of AP stories. The AP alleged that AHN had instructed its staff to rewrite their stories and published them without crediting the agency.
Mobile phone directory suspended The Guardian
A controversial service which allows connection to millions of mobile phone numbers in an online directory has been suspended, just weeks after it was launched. The 118 800 service, which charges up to £1 to put people in touch with a mobile number from its list, went live in June. Since then it has been deluged with people trying to remove their details from the system. The site had caused concerns about privacy after it emerged it was making available details of 15m mobile phone numbers it had bought from market researchers and list brokers. Consumers who wanted their numbers removed from the site were told they needed to log on and apply to be ex-directory. Those who tried to do so late last week were unable to access the site. Visitors are now told the service is unavailable online and by phone while “major developments” are undertaken “to improve the experience for our customers”. The message says: “All ex-directory requests made by people in our directory to date are being processed. There will be no need to resend these requests.
Comcast to stream HBO, Cinemax online in trial Associated Press
And you thought the HBO hit TV series “Entourage” would never be streamed over the Internet – at least legally. Comcast Corp. said Monday it will be streaming HBO and Cinemax shows, movies and other content online to 5,000 subscriber households in a national trial set to start in coming weeks. It is the first time the two premium movie channels will be offering their programs over the Internet to computers. Downloads to mobile devices may come in the future. HBO and Cinemax will join TNT, TBS and Starz in Comcast’s online video trial. If the technical test is successful, Comcast will roll out access coast-to-coast to its subscribers at no additional cost.
Microsoft takes on Google as Office moves to Web Reuter
Microsoft Corp will release three versions of its dominant Office software that users can access over the Web, catching up with products that rival Google Inc launched three years ago. The news helped send shares in the world’s largest software maker up 2.7 percent by midday, more than double the gain in the Nasdaq Composite Index. It is the latest salvo in an intensifying war between Microsoft and Google. Google announced plans last week to challenge Windows with a free operating system. Microsoft introduced a new search engine, Bing, last month.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
July, 2009
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November 17th, 2009 at 8:13 am
118800 is looks very promising I hope more people have changed their mind as I have 118800