p2pnet World Headlines: Aug 30, 2010
Cisco May Be Making A Run For Skype TechCrunch
Cisco has made an offer to acquire Skype before they complete their IPO process, says one of our more reliable sources. We have not been able to confirm this rumor one way or another via other sources, which isn’t surprising. A company in lock down during the IPO process is usually even more tight lipped than normal. But if true this would be one very big acquisition. Skype insiders are hoping for an out of the gate valuation of $5 billion or so, we’ve heard. Presumably Cisco would have to bidding in that range to make it interesting.
RIM Averts BlackBerry Ban in India With 60-Day Security Test Bloomberg News
Research In Motion Ltd. averted a ban on its BlackBerry services in India that would have impacted more than a million users and halted the Canadian company’s expansion in the world’s second-largest mobile-phone market. India’s department of telecommunications will test RIM’s monitoring solution for 60 days to see if it allows both its messenger and enterprise mail services to be tapped by security agencies, Indian home ministry spokesman Onkar Kedia said today. Officials had given the Waterloo, Ontario-based company until tomorrow to provide monitoring tools or face a possible ban.
Retargeting Ads Follow Surfers to Other Sites New York Times
Julie Matlin was tempted by a pair of shoes on Zappos.com. Then the shoes started showing up in ads on other sites she visited. Then the shoes started to follow her everywhere she went online. An ad for those very shoes showed up on the blog TechCrunch. It popped up again on several other blogs and on Twitpic. It was as if Zappos had unleashed a persistent salesman who wouldn’t take no for an answer. ‘For days or weeks, every site I went to seemed to be showing me ads for those shoes,’ said Ms. Matlin, a mother of two from Montreal. ‘It is a pretty clever marketing tool. But it’s a little creepy, especially if you don’t know what’s going on.’ People have grown accustomed to being tracked online and shown ads for categories of products they have shown interest in, be it tennis or bank loans. Increasingly, however, the ads tailored to them are for specific products that they have perused online. While the technique, which the ad industry calls personalized retargeting or remarketing, is not new, it is becoming more pervasive as companies like Google and Microsoft have entered the field. And retargeting has reached a level of precision that is leaving consumers with the palpable feeling that they are being watched as they roam the virtual aisles of online stores.
Halo: Reach pirates will be permabanned, says Microsoft Geek.com
Gamers who have decided to forgo the 3-week wait and download illegitimate copies of Halo: Reach will suffer some less than pleasant consequences. A group of modders managed to nab the entire build from Xbox Live without paying the steep price of 99999 MS Points ($1250). While the group said it had no intention of releasing the hacked build to the public, it inevitably ended up on file-sharing sites where many anxious gamers have purportedly snatched the opportunity to play Halo: Reach early. Unfortunately for them, Microsoft is tracking these pirates down and slamming them with a permanent ban from Xbox Live, according to a policy document obtained by MaxConsole. The ‘Notification of Permanent Suspension’ cites ‘prerelease title play’ as the cause for the ban, stating that players will never be able to connect to Xbox Live again. Microsoft has yet to say whether they will ban the GamerTag or the Xbox 360.
YouTube in talks with Hollywood over video service Telegraph
Google’s YouTube video-sharing website is in talks with Hollywood movie studios over a global pay-as-you-go video service that could be launched by the end of the year. The new service is expected to first launch in the United States, followed by other countries over time. Viewers would stream films on the site and pay about (£4) $5 for new titles. The films would become available at the same time as their release on DVD and on Apple’s iTunes store and Amazon.com.
Prosecutor Loses Case For Citing Wikipedia Slashdot
The Philippine Daily Inquirer reports on a recent case where the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) lost an appeal after seeking to impeach the testimony of a defendant’s expert witness by citing an article from Wikipedia. In her brief, the defendant said ‘the authority, alluded to by oppositor-appellant, the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders DSM-IV-TR,” was taken from an Internet website commonly known as Wikipedia,’ and argued that Wikipedia itself contains a disclaimer saying it ‘makes no guarantee of validity.’ The court in finding for the defendant said in its decision that it found ‘incredible … if not a haphazard attempt, on the part of the (OSG) to impeach an expert witness, with, as pointed out by (the defendant) unreliable information. This is certainly unacceptable evidence, nothing short of a mere allegation totally unsupported by authority.’
Murdoch, McSlarrow Saluted By Media Institute Broadcasting & Cable
News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch and National Cable & Telecommunications Association President Kyle McSlarrow will share top honors at the Media Institute’s 19th annual Friends and Benefactors Banquet Oct. 6 in Washington. Murdoch will receive the American Horizon Award, which is for “visionary leadership in promoting the vitality and independence of the media industry.” McSlarrow, will receive the Freedom of Speech Award for his and the association’s efforts to promote National Freedom of Speech Week, which this year is Oct. 18-24.
Paris Hilton’s lawyer urges public not to prejudge her cocaine charge National Post
Say what you will about Paris Hilton, the lady takes one heck of a mug shot. Just after her arrest for cocaine possession in Las Vegas a few days ago, she tilted her head for a police camera and gave a well-practiced smile — a smile bigger than the one she gave back in 2007. What does she know that the public does not?
… and identi.ca
August, 2010
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