Archive for August, 2007

I bet the record companies will be squawking now…

A Russian court on Wednesday acquitted the former boss of music download Web site www.allofmp3.com of breaching copyright in a case seen as a key test of Russia’s commitment to fighting piracy.

The allofmp3.com Web site angered Western music companies by offering downloads far cheaper than the market price in deals they said breached copyright law.

Denis Kvasov, head of the company which owned the site, was put on trial after entertainment companies EMI Group Plc, NBC Universal and Time Warner Inc. pressed for a prosecution.

“The prosecution did not succeed in presenting persuasive evidence of his involvement in infringing copyright law,” said the judge Yekaterina Sharapova.

Does this mean allofmp3.com will be back sometime soon?

Although your computer is supposed to be aware enough to remind you to update, you might want to check Windows Update and make sure the process is actually done.

Microsoft Corp. issued fixes for nine security flaws, including four meant to keep hackers from breaking into computers through Web pages, during a regularly scheduled update Tuesday.

Microsoft gave the four Web browsing-related patches its most severe “critical” rating. The updates affect many versions of Windows, Server and Office software — including Windows XP and Windows Vista — and are meant to prevent hackers from breaking into Web surfers’ computers using specially crafted Web pages.

The other two critical updates target holes in the Excel spreadsheet program and in technology that lets users see downloaded images from e-mails or social networking Web sites.

Microsoft assigned the second-highest “important” rating to three security updates.

Although the software maker has said Windows Vista, which became available to consumers in January, is its most secure operating system ever, one of the important patches Tuesday fixes a hole in “gadgets” — small software applications — that deliver Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, feeds to the desktop.

[Source: AP via Yahoo! News]

It’s been one hell of a couple weeks at the office. I spent the better part of three days instructing people how to use some software that, if they had read the manual, could have put me three days closer to finishing my next project.

I did make progress though by late Thursday afternoon, and each of those I was training finally realized what they were doing wrong, and that the software was indeed, not buggy. I had half a mind to print graduation announcements for them but thought better of it when I realized I might have to explain what it was they were graduating from.

Wow, this is really cool news, for anyone using their hotmail address.

Microsoft Corp. is increasing the storage limit for its Web-based e-mail service, surpassing competitor Google Inc.’s limit but far short of Yahoo Inc.’s unlimited storage.

The limit for a free Windows Live Hotmail account will increase from 2G bytes to 5G bytes. The change will be rolled out to users over the next few weeks along with a series of other upgrades, wrote Ellie Powers-Boyle, a Microsoft program manager, on a company blog.

Google offers around 2.8G bytes of storage space for a free account. Last week, Google began selling storage space that can be used for either its Gmail or Picasa photo sharing services for US$20 a year for another 6G bytes as well as more expensive plans.

Under the new changes, Microsoft will let users store 10G bytes of e-mail data for a $14.99 annual subscription. Those subscribers will also get a new feature: the ability to forward e-mail from their Hotmail account to a Gmail or other e-mail account.

I have a hotmail account that I haven’t used for email in three years. Will this make me start? I’m not sure.

A few weeks ago we had some major power issues. It turned out to be a problem in the line more than 7 miles from our home, but each night the power would fluctuate, the lights would dim, and the battery backup units would bark real loud.

The end result? The problem has been fixed, but I still have to replace 2 battery backups that the power company has informed me they are not responsible for, since it was lightning that hit the regulator. Wonderful.

Loren Feldman nails it when he shows us Gnomedex in 60 seconds.

Hahaha. It’s like being there I tell you.

I’m posting this as I head out to the back deck to take in a few shooting stars.

Looking for some dirt-cheap entertainment tonight? Look up in the sky.

The annual Perseids meteor shower is caused by flying dirt, tiny meteors that will hit Earth’s atmosphere at high speed and then leave streaks as they burn up.

Some folks call them meteor showers. Others call them shooting stars. But astronomy experts agree that this weekend’s show should be extra special because there will be little or no moonlight to wash out the display.

The Perseids always peak in mid-August but are visible for several days. This year, the optimal viewing hours will be late tonight and early Monday, when there’s a new moon or no moon.

The Perseids should also be visible Monday night, although the shooting stars won’t be as abundant.

Pretty awesome schtuff if you ask me.

I still don’t know what the fascination with Second Life is all about. Isn’t real life enough of a challenge?

Kevin Alderman didn’t bring sex to “Second Life.” He just made it better. The 46-year-old entrepreneur recognized four years ago that people would pay to equip their online selves — which start out with the smooth anatomy of a Barbie or Ken doll — with realistic genitalia and even more to add some sexy moves.

Business at Eros LLC has been brisk. One of his creations, the SexGen Platinum, has gotten so popular that he’s now had to hire lawyers to track down the flesh-and-blood person behind the online identity, or avatar, that he says illegally copied and sold it.

The $45 SexGen animates amorous avatars in erotic positions. It is software code, written in the scripting language of “Second Life” and placed in virtual furniture and other objects. Avatars click on the object and choose from a menu of animated sex acts.

[Source: AP via Yahoo! News]

Wow, I didn’t see this coming, at all.

AOL is considering killing off the “Digg Clone” social news site that they launched a little over a year ago at Netscape.com, and redirecting traffic to the Netscape portal instead. One source says it’s a done deal. Another says no final decisions have been made. But the Netscape editorial team is rumored to be completely freaked out, and they are starting to talk to outsiders.

Of course, I didn’t see the site that regularly either, because I just don’t dig those types of sites. Really.

[Source: TechCrunch]

While there is no word yet on Vista SP1 or XP SP3, Microsoft has “officially” released two Windows Vista updates that “leaked” on to the Internet.

Microsoft released the two Windows Vista updates that had leaked to the Internet at the end of July on Tuesday but won’t say when it will begin pushing them to users via Windows Update.

Pegged as performance and reliability packs, the pair install a long list of non-security bug fixes, among them speed improvements to wake-from-hibernation, a patch that eliminates the long wait to calculate the time it will take to copy or move large directories, and several that target compatibility glitches with video drivers.

Microsoft even described one of the quashed bugs with the vague but ominous-sounding: “The computer stops responding or restarts unexpectedly when you play video games or perform desktop operations.”

How nice of them, huh? I wonder what else these “fixes” break?