p2pnet World Headlines: Aug 27, 2010
An Overdue Update Diaspora
Since August is nearly over, it is time for an update and answers to some questions. We have been coding. We have Diaspora working, we like it, and it will be open-sourced on September 15th. [...] Our original goals remain the same …
Developer of Tablets Loses Apple as Customer New York Times
Apple severed ties with a small Silicon Valley design firm that for nearly a decade had helped with the development of some of its products, after the firm showcased its own prototype tablet computer. Eric Bauswell, a founder and chief executive of the engineering design company SurfaceInk, confirmed on Thursday that his company and Apple had “gone separate directions.” Mr. Bauswell declined to give details of its relationship with Apple, citing client confidentiality agreements. But he said that his company was let go because of “Apple’s growing awareness of our turnkey capabilities,” referring to SurfaceInk’s business of designing products for its clients. “I think they view our capabilities as an opportunity for competitors, “ he said.
The resurrection of the Commodore 64 Telegraph
The Commodore 64 is set to make a commercial comeback in time for Christmas. The classic all-in-one personal computer, which first went on sale in 1982, has not been sold officially since 1994. New company Commodore USA is hoping to produce a machine with an almost identical chassis to the original C64, with the original, thick, chunky keys, off-white housing, and the striped rainbow logo, but using significantly upgraded internal parts. The first version of the C64 was a true phenomenon at the time, and original models still sell on eBay for around £20.
Google Street-View Car Searched by Paris Privacy Regulators Before Ruling Bloomberg News
A Google Inc. car used by its Street View mapping service was stopped for inspection in a Paris suburb yesterday by agents of France’s privacy regulator, the National Commission for Computing and Civil Liberties. The inspection was a result of Google’s decision to resume photographing France prior to a ruling on whether the Mountain View, California-based company complied with orders to limit Street View’s data collection, said Yann Padova, secretary general of CNIL, in an interview today.
US movie tickets get biggest price hike in history Ars Technica
Don’t weep for the movie biz. While still concerned about camcording and P2P piracy, the industry has been hauling in the cash at the box office. 2007, 2008, and 2009 all set new historic highs for movie theater revenue in the US and Canada, and 2010 looks poised to do even bigger business. “Theater owners have gotten away with the biggest year-to-year increases in ticket prices ever,” says Hollywood-focused publication The Wrap, “with average admission costs spiraling upward more than 40 cents in 2010, or over 5 percent.” The biggest increase in ticket prices, ever, and in the midst of the worst economic downturn in 50 years? Business execs everywhere have just one question: how do the movies manage it?
Entourage star Adrian Grenier talks about his documentary Teenage Paparazzo CBC
Adrian Grenier became a celebrity by playing one on TV. In the hit HBO series Entourage, he’s Vincent Chase, the chilled-out movie star who transports his childhood pals from Queens, N.Y., to Hollywood so they can all enjoy the temptations of Tinseltown together. These guys are just enjoying the ride — the money, the women, the weather and the non-stop media attention. In real life, Grenier has a much more ambivalent attitude about tabloid culture. His new documentary, Teenage Paparazzo, is a fascinating study of celebrity and those who feed off it — it’s a rare on-screen example of a star asking serious questions about the industry that provides his livelihood.
Fake iTunes reviews row settled BBC
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has ruled against a marketing firm that posted favourable reviews of its clients’ gaming applications on iTunes. Reverb Communications employees posed as ordinary reviewers in a ploy that the FTC called “deceptive advertising”. The firm must now remove all of the reviews posted by its employees. The ruling is the first under new FTC guidelines, introduced last year, that cover bloggers and celebrity endorsements as well as online reviews.
… and identi.ca
August, 2010
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August 27th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
What “Pravda” had to say about the latest wikileak:
WikiLeaks’ Explosive Publications Masterminded by US Administration?
http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/26-08-2010/114758-wikileaks-0
How did it become possible to make top secret documents public? Someone apparently dug them up from the Pentagon databases and archives. The question is – how was it possible from the technical point of view?
If Assange penetrated into the sanctuary of the US Department of Defense, it means that the Pentagon’s security system leaves much to be desired.
One may also assume that it was the US administration that orchestrated the information leak to the media. It is not ruled out that the whole story is just a campaign to mislead the adversaries.
That is starting to be my line of thinking. Wikileaks is being used by the US gov in order to pull-out and to also pass newer laws in the US. If the claim by the US is that these “confidential” leaks are copyright US gov (and they did claim that, thus they want it back), how does this fit in with the likes of ACTA?
Could these leaks be leaks by the gov itself to justify new American laws (and too pull out of course).
August 27th, 2010 at 8:19 pm
“New company Commodore USA is hoping to produce a machine with an almost identical chassis to the original C64, with the original, thick, chunky keys, off-white housing, and the striped rainbow logo, but using significantly upgraded internal parts.”
It sounds with a Wintel machine to me, meaning that this would be a Commodore 64 in name only. Infact, it’s kind of an insult to the C64 to turn it into an IBM clone.