Volume 12, Issue 09        Atari Online News, Etc.       February 26, 2010   
                                                                           
                                                                              
                  Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2010
                            All Rights Reserved

                          Atari Online News, Etc.
                           A-ONE Online Magazine
                Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
                      Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
                       Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor


                       Atari Online News, Etc. Staff

                        Dana P. Jacobson  --  Editor
                   Joe Mirando  --  "People Are Talking"
                Michael Burkley  --  "Unabashed Atariophile"
                   Albert Dayes  --  "CC: Classic Chips"
                         Rob Mahlert  --  Web site
                Thomas J. Andrews  --  "Keeper of the Flame"


                           With Contributions by:

                                



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A-ONE #1209                                                 02/26/10

   ~ Italy Convicts 3 Execs! ~ People Are Talking!    ~ Sandisk 64GB SD Card!
   ~ Missile Command Hits 30 ~ Brit Pols Are Scammed! ~ Facebook Misdelivers!
   ~ Lenovo Shows New Tablet ~ Missile Command Movie? ~ Nintendo DSi XL Soon!
   ~ School Webcam Spy Case! ~ Educator: Didn't Watch ~ New Zelda for the Wii?

                  -* MS vs. Botnet: Operation b49 *-
               -* New Clues Uncovered in Google Hack! *-
           -* U.S. Must Do More To Secure the Internet!  *-



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->From the Editor's Keyboard              "Saying it like it is!"
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Well, we dodged a few more bullets over the past week.  Plenty of snow all
around us, but next to nothing here.  Heavy winds and torrential rains, we
got all that and then some.  The major flooding alerts were everywhere,
including one of the rivers in my town.  So far, our area hasn't been
affected in any way in that regard.

It's been another long week; and I don't know where the time has gone.  I'm
exhausted, and just can't seem to get the right kind of rest when I need it.
I hate wasting one of my couple of days off during the weekend trying to
catch up on sleep, but sometimes you have to do what's right for yourself.
But, not this weekend!

More news regarding that Pennsylvania school system and its alleged spying on
some students via their laptop webcams.  It's simply amazing, and now it's
made national headlines.  There are a couple of more articles regarding this
story in this week's issue.  And you can be sure that this story will
continue to unfold.  It will be interesting to follow, and see what comes out
of this issue.  The free notebook computers for students is an excellent
program; and I hope that this particular problem doesn't have an adverse
effect on programs like this throughout the country!

Until next time...



                                  =~=~=~=



                             PEOPLE ARE TALKING
                          compiled by Joe Mirando
                             joe@atarinews.org



Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Another week has come and gone and I've
gotten a couple of emails about a couple of previous columns.
Specifically, some of the things I've said about global warming and
health care. I thought it might be worth taking some time to talk a
little bit more about both this week.

First of all, a couple of people wrote (in rather mocking tones, I might
add) about my mentions of global warming and the amount of snow we've
received this winter. How could it be, they asked, that it's getting
warmer and warmer and yet snow so much?

It's a good question. I remember when I was a kid and hoping against hope
that we'd get enough snow to have a day off from school. My father would
look at the outside thermometer and say, "No, it's too cold to snow."
Usually, we wouldn't get snow, but not because of the temperature. It was
because there just weren't any storms, not because it was too cold.
Nonetheless, it seemed that my father was right and that it hadn't snowed
because it was too cold. It was counter-intuitive, but I 'saw' the
evidence of it right there in front of me... it must be valid, right?

And that's kind of like what's happening now. We get snow, and people
figure that it's because it's cold... not TOO cold, but cold enough for
snow. Well guess what? It's FEBRUARY! It's SUPPOSED to be cold!

The more germane point is that there's more moisture in the atmosphere
available to condense out as snow. But why is there more moisture
available? There are probably at least two reasons: Because the oceans are
warmer, and the air currents are a bit different now.

Warmer ocean water allows more moisture to be absorbed by the air. That
moisture-laden air gets carried over land by the currents in the
atmosphere, where it cools and the moisture condenses out as rain or
snow. If it's cold enough, it's snow. And 'cold enough' is a relative
thing too. Aside from it having to be below 32 degrees (0 Celsius), it
doesn't matter how cold. The fact is that it's usually a good deal colder
than that in the atmosphere where snow begins.

It just came out that last month was the warmest January on record.
That's not data manipulation or a "science trick", it's fact. This is
is the warmest January since they've been keeping track.

There are some... regional variations, of course. Some places in Europe
are having a colder-than-normal winter. But the general trend and the
worldwide average is warmer.

There are also two icebergs that are floating of the coast of Antarctica
that are just plain huge. One is the size of Rhode Island. The other is
bigger than that even.

Now, there are icebergs in the antarctic all the time. That's nothing
new. But these suckers are HUGE. Imagine a piece of ice in that glass of
Kool-Aid the deniers keep drinking. In order for the proportions to be
right, you'd have to be a frozen molecule of water on the surface of the
ice cube. We just can't imagine that. So maybe it's better to imagine
yourself as your real size, standing on an ice cube the size of Rhode
Island. If I remember correctly, as a bit of unnecessary trivia, that's
about 700 billion tons of water tied up in a big block of ice. Yeah,
that's right... BILLION. That's enough water to supply more than 20
percent of the world's population with water for a year. Imagine it.. if
you could sell that water in chunks of a ton for just a dollar each, we'd
be able to keep a large portion of the people now struggling with drought
AND make a very tidy profit.

But back to reality. It's true that icebergs melt, that they eventually
disappear. But the problem is that something of this size (remember the
old adage that 90% of an iceberg is below the surface of the water?) can
actually divert ocean currents if it gets into the 'stream'. Those
currents deliver oxygen and minerals from the ice that's always slipping
into the ocean from the antarctic shelf and carry all that good stuff
throughout the world's oceans. Less oxygen, less animal life. Less animal
life, less 'bounty' for us.

And while that's all taking place in the southern hemisphere, the North
pole needs some consideration too... more and more of it is melting. So
what, right? Well, dark ocean water absorbs heat from the sun. Ice
reflects it. Less ice, more energy poured into the northern ocean. More
energy in the northern waters means more opposition to the southern
currents. That means that all that good stuff from Antarctica never makes
it up our way. That means the oceans fundamentally change. Who knows what
kind of "snowball effect" we could see from there? Not I, I assure you,
but I'd rather avoid finding out if you don't mind.

Okay, let's take a quick look at health care. One of the largest health
care insurance companies in the world is all set to increase rates by
forty percent. FORTY PERCENT! So if you live in California, and your
health care insurance through this company is costing you $100 a week,
it's going to cost you $140 a week next year. And this is despite the
fact that actual health care costs (not health care INSURANCE costs) have
only gone up by FOUR percent.

The president held his health care summit yesterday and the results were
quite predictable. That pouty sprayed-on-tan looking sonofagun kept
saying that people should decide on medical issues instead of government,
and the president kept explaining (as if to a slow child) that no one was
talking about the government deciding. Then you've got wackos like Ginny
Foxx and Michele Bachmann talking trash and raising fears about things
that simply don't exist. And the house minority leader sitting there like
a scavenger, waiting to pick up any bloody pieces left over, and you've
got a real beltway standoff.

The democrats are finally making noises like the Republicans did several
terms ago, threatening a "nuclear option", and it's about damned time.
The conservatives have had plenty of time to come up with something to
add and really haven't, other than their love letter to the insurance and
drug companies. Now they're saying "let's start over"? Why? Put something
on the table instead of trying to push stuff off of it.

What I fear is that the liberals in the House and Senate lack the spine
to follow through on anything for fear of losing their own
government-backed health care insurance.

I still say that a major part of the problem is that the nature of health
care has changed and we're still trying to treat it the same old way. It
just won't work. And simply mandating that everyone HAS to have insurance
isn't the answer either. We need bold new ideas, not more accounting
tricks. Make it worthwhile for companies to charge less. Give them
incentives, double tax credits for charitable donations of equipment and
support to public hospitals and clinics, make it worth their while to do
the right thing. The are corporations. Profit is their life's blood. Let
them do well without having to siphon it out of the rest of us. It's the
same for the drug companies. Cap their profits. Let them decide whether
they get the multi-million dollar bonuses or keep their precious
companies (and the public) healthy.

And patients and doctors are going to have to make do with less as well
if we're going to make anything work. Patients are going to have to
content themselves with paying for office visits and small stuff. Doctors
are going to have to content themselves with smaller fees, which we can
help them with by keeping their malpractice insurance more affordable.
What we cannot do is keep people with legitimate grievances from seeking
compensation and support. Tort reform sounds great until you realize that
it's usually the legitimate grievances that get kicked aside because it's
the illegitimate ones that don't follow the rules in the first place.

Well, I've probably ticked off enough people for this week. [grin]

Tune in again next week, same time, same station, and be ready to listen
to what they are saying when...

PEOPLE ARE TALKING



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->In This Week's Gaming Section  - A New Zelda for the Wii?
  """""""""""""""""""""""""""""    Nintendo DSi XL Next Month!
                                   Missile Command Turns 30!
                                   And more!


        
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->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News   -  The Latest Gaming News!
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                 A New Zelda for Wii in Second Half of 2010?


We have 2010 release dates for Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid: Other M, but
could the next Zelda be on its way this year, too? A new Mario, Metroid,
and Zelda, all in the same 365-day timespan? Xbox and PS3s sacrificed,
Italian plumbers and koopa troopas living together...mass *euphoria*?

Chatting with Wired, Nintendo America VP of marketing and sales Cammie
Dunaway may have let the cat out of the bag. Wired apparently bet Nintendo
wouldn't release Mario, Metroid, and Zelda all in the same year.

During the interview Wired asked Dunaway if it owed her a steak dinner
for betting incorrectly, to which Dunaway replied "I think you do."

And then she more or less confirms Zelda's in part of a 2010 triple-header
here:

"One of the things that's true for Nintendo is that we're not driven by
a calendar for our release dates. When the games are ready to go, when
the quality is perfect, that's when we release. We all benefit if we can
keep a pretty steady pace, so the development teams have worked hard to
make sure that we've got a full lineup this year. If you compare the
first half of 2010 with the first half of 2009, it's night and day. And
from some of the things that Mr. Iwata has talked about, and that we
will talk about at E3, like Zelda, you know that we're going to have a
good back half of the year, as well."

Look for Zelda to feature prominently at E3, and release during the
second half of 2010, in other words.

Assuming Mario Galaxy 2's more challenging than its breezy predecessor,
Metroid's hybrid platform/shooter gameplay clicks, and Zelda's more than
just another Ocarina of Time riff, Nintendo might win more than sales
accolades for a change. Still, it's disappointing to see Nintendo
power-marketing the same old franchises to the same old fans.

Where's whatever comes after Mario or Metroid or Zelda, guys? I've been
asking this for years now: What's *next*?

Are so-called 'hardcore' Nintendo fans stuck playing Mario-Metroid-Zelda
"rhapsodies on a theme from Miyamoto" indefinitely?



                      Nintendo DSi XL To Launch March 28


Nintendo plans to launch the latest version of its popular handheld video
game system, the DSi XL, on March 28 in North America.

The XL will cost $190. It will have two screens like its predecessors,
but as the name suggests, the device and screens will be much larger
than the currently available versions. The XL is already available in
Japan.

Nintendo Co. also says it's launching "Super Mario Galaxy 2" for the Wii
console on May 23 and "Metroid: Other M" on June 27.

In addition, Nintendo will sell e-books, namely "100 Classic Books," for
the DS portable devices for $20. The 100 works will include pieces from
such authors as William Shakespeare, Jules Verne, Jane Austen and Mark
Twain. "100 Classic Books" launches June 14.



      Atari Celebrates the 30th Anniversary of Legendary Videogame
              Sensation With the Return of Missile Command


Atari Inc., one of the world's most recognized videogame publishers, is
bringing back a franchise that helped catapult the company into an
international household name with the 30th anniversary edition of Missile
Command. The new version has been updated and reimagined by OMGPOP,
operator of the omgpop.com website. Housed in a mini-site dedicated to the
game, the remixed Missile Command captures the original iconic DNA of the
1980's phenomenon, and adds compelling new dimensions and attitude -
highlighted by the entirely online multiplayer gameplay, a first for the
franchise. Missile Command is free to play and available at
www.missilecommand.com, www.atari.com/missilecommand and
www.omgpop.com/games/missilecommand.

The year was 1980 and all across the planet people had the very real fear
that one day the world's super powers would finally use their nuclear
arsenals. Missile Command was in many ways a reaction to those fears. The
premise of the game was simple: the player must protect six cities from an
ever increasing swarm of ballistic missiles. Control was taken care of by
a fast and accurate trackball that was notorious for pinching the skin of
players' fingers. That didn't seem to affect the public appeal of the game
which became an immediate arcade smash hit and one of the biggest sellers
of the Atari 2600 system.

Now Atari and OMGPOP have built upon that legacy with this exciting online
version. With enhanced features such as power-ups, new enemies, upgrades,
and an entirely online multiplayer co-operative gameplay option, the new
Missile Command has all the makings of a modern classic.

"Missile Command is a pop culture phenomenon that millions upon millions of
fans have enjoyed throughout the years," says Jim Wilson, President and CEO
of Atari, Inc. "The new Missile Command maintains the appeal of the
original while bringing it to today's casual and social game players. It is
an example of how Atari's games portfolio is well positioned for today's
growing online games market."

"Working with Atari was terrific," says OMGPOP CEO Dan Porter. "To be able
to work on a classic that many of us grew up playing and add the social and
multiplayer features was a great way to bring the game to the millions of
teens on omgpop.com."

Missile Command on Atari.com boasts thrilling new gameplay such as:

* Online Co-op Gameplay - play instantly with up to seven-players in
real-time
* Unlimited Levels - play with increasing challenge as you progress
* Unique Difficulty Scaling - difficulty scales based on number of players
and level progression into the game
* Power-ups - all new power upgrades help players increase blast radius,
missile speed, reload rates, missile supply and more
* Enemies - take on massive waves of enemy missiles, aircrafts and bosses
with varying speeds, health, behavior and characteristics
* Award Systems - Medals awarded to top players in each round and a
leaderboard support system  to track players and friends with most medals

Fans who visit www.missilecommand.com can immerse themselves in the game's
heritage by comparing the OMGPOP remix to the original 1980 release, also
playable on the site. In addition, to celebrate the game's place in gaming
history, Atari has created a retrospective charting the evolution of the
game from its coin-op origins with original cabinet images, box art,
screenshots and trivia.

There is also the opportunity to win a rare, refurbished original Missile
Command coin-op cabinet from the 1980s. For more information and details on
how to enter the sweepstakes please visit www.missilecommand.com.

For more information on the new Missile Command, please visit www.atari.com.



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->A-ONE Gaming Online       -       Online Users Growl & Purr!
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                    Atari Shops Missile Command Film Rights


Atari wants to bring the enduring missile-commanding thrills of Missile
Command to the big screen with a feature film adaptation of its classic
arcade hit.

According to a Los Angeles Times blog report, Atari is in talks with
numerous studios, but Fox and Chernin Productions - a production company
recently founded by former Fox Entertainment CEO Peter Chernin - are the
front-runners to distribute and produce the project.

Created by Dave Theurer and released in 1980, Missile Command became an
arcade sensation, and has since been ported to innumerable platforms.
Another Atari arcade all-star, Asteroids, was released one year earlier -
and its film rights were signed by Universal last year.

If this trend of 30-year Atari arcade game film option gestation continues,
it is possible next year will see a major Hollywood player acquire the
movie rights to Donna Bailey's Centipede or another Dave Theurer hit,
Tempest.

Steven Spielberg, a film director, is pictured above next to a Missile
Command cabinet. He has not been reported to be involved with the Missile
Command movie project.

Missile Command, which depicts the inexorable and simultaneous siege of six
cities, was partially born out of Cold War fears of nuclear holocaust.
Theurer, who worked long hours and lived near a NASA facility that
frequently conducted loud aeronautics testing, suffered nightmares during
development of the game.

Theurer's original premise for the game had its six besieged metropolises
representing the Californian cities San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego,
Eureka, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara. Atari's official canon, however,
revised the plot to center around an invasion of the planet Zardon - "the
last of the peaceful planets" - by the forces of the planet Krytol - whose
citizens are "warriors out to destroy and seize."

It is unclear which take on the Missile Command saga Atari hopes to depict
on the silver screen.



                                  =~=~=~=



                           A-ONE's Headline News
                   The Latest in Computer Technology News
                       Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson



                         New Clues Uncovered In Google Hack


Investigators have reportedly identified the author of the malicious code
used in recent cyberattacks against Google and more than 30 other U.S.
companies. The person responsible for the code that capitalized on a
weakness in Internet Explorer is a "freelance security consultant in his
30s," according to the Financial Times. The FT asserts that investigators
this recent discovery makes it "far harder for the Chinese government to
deny involvement."

The unnamed author of the malicious code reportedly posted a sample of
his work to an online forum, and that Chinese authorities had "special
access" to his work. It is not clear whether the government discovered
his work as a result of his forum posting, or what kind of "special
access" Chinese officials had to this code.

Despite being responsible for finding the exploit used in the attack,
however, the FT says the consultant was not a part of the operation.

The FT report comes on the heels of last week's assertion by The New York
Times that the attacks were traced back to two Chinese schools: Shanghai
Jiaotong University and the Lanxiang Vocational School. Both institutions
have denied involvement, according to Chinese state media.

The entire incident, however, raised international concerns and prompted
Google to threaten to shut its China operations, citing frustration with
both the security issues and the Chinese government's ongoing demands for
censorship of search results.

While investigators have been making headway in discovering important
clues about the recent cyber attacks, the investigation may not get much
further without Chinese involvement. Security expert O. Sami Saydjari
told The New York Times on Sunday that without cooperation from the
Chinese, investigators will be unable to discover who was truly behind the
attacks.



            Experts Say US Must Do More To Secure the Internet


The government must take a more active role in securing the Internet,
industry experts told Congress Tuesday, arguing that as businesses and
governments rely more on cyberspace the prospect of a serious attack
grows.

Comparing the digital age to the dawn of automobiles, analysts said more
government regulations may be the only way to force the public and
private sectors to adequately counter cyber threats. They compared the
need for new oversight to regulations for seat belts and safety
equipment that made the highways safer.

At stake is the need to secure the financial and power systems vital to
national security and daily life without choking off business innovation
and competition. President Barack Obama declared cybersecurity a major
priority early last year, but his administration struggled to make
progress, not naming a new cyber coordinator until December.

"Cyber has become so important to the lives of our citizens and the
functioning of our economy that gone are the days when Silicon Valley
could say hands off to a government role," Michael McConnell, former
director of national intelligence, told the Senate Commerce, Science and
Transportation Committee.

The panel has been trying for the past year to draft legislation that
would map out a way the government and private industry could work
together to protect critical computer networks, set industry standards
and promote more high-tech education and public awareness.

The calls for more government authority over the Internet's free
enterprise has alarmed privacy advocates and other critics, forcing
Congress to grasp for ways to encourage rather than mandate better
online security.

Now on their fourth major draft, committee leaders have struggled to
overcome protests from industry leaders and private groups who say the
government should provide financial and other incentives, but stay away
from regulation that might constrain the electronic age.

McConnell and others, however, warned that cyber attacks are already
siphoning millions of dollars out of the economy and that critical
networks that run the power grid, transportation lines, and nuclear
safeguards are all vulnerable to "hacktivists" aimed at striking America.

U.S. computer networks - from the Defense Department to small companies
- are scanned and probed millions of times a day. The assaults range
from small time hackers looking to steal credit card data to nation
states and terror groups aimed at espionage or disrupting vital computer
systems.

The days of the Internet Wild West are over, said James Lewis, a
cybersecurity expert and senior fellow at the Washington-based Center
for Strategic and International Studies.

"Just as cars were not built to be safe until government pressure
changed auto manufacturers' behavior, cyberspace will not be secure
until government forces improvement," he said.

Lewis said increased security will require new standards and rules for
industry, international agreements, and new ways to improve the
education and professionalism of those working on the networks.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chairman of the committee, said the
government must work with the private sector, because neither can do it
alone. He noted that private industry owns or controls roughly 85
percent of computer networks, and said companies meeting with the
committee have balked at greater government control.

The Senate bill, drafted by Rockefeller and Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine,
also would raise the White House cyber adviser to a Cabinet-level
position that would need Senate confirmation.



                Microsoft Uses Legal System to Combat Botnet


Microsoft moved the battle against spam-distributing botnets from
cyberspace to the court room, winning a temporary restraining order
shutting down nearly 300 domains thought to make up the command and
control structure for the vast Waledac botnet.

The restraining order was granted by a US federal judge in secret - a
critical element of Microsoft's plan, dubbed 'Operation b49'. By shutting
down the command and control domains for Waledac without alerting the bad
guys first, Microsoft was able to essentially decapitate the botnet -
severing the compromised bots from the brains of the operation.

Botnets have grown to be one of the biggest online threats currently.

Estimates suggest that tens of millions of PC's around the world are
compromised by some bot malware, and are lying dormant awaiting
instructions from the botherder - the person behind the botnet.

There are some who question whether the legal system is an effective
tool against botnets, or whether Operation b49 has any hope of long term
success.

Randy Abrams, director of technical education for ESET, is not one of those
people. "This is wonderful! This causes more work for the gang which means
it costs them more to commit their crimes."

"Any action against botnets is a good thing," agrees Qualys CTO Wolfgang
Kandek.

I agree that any action against a botnet is a good thing, but the primary
goal behind Microsoft's innovative two-pronged attack to shut down Waledac
was to cut off a major source of spam. Qualys' Kandek says that Operation
b49 will have some impact on spam, but that "Waledac is not one of the
major spam sources."

"The real measurement is not how much spam this reduces, but rather if this
type of action becomes another tool to combat the problem," suggests
Abrams. "The more approaches that can effectively be used, the better the
war can be fought. This may well be a step toward an effective blended
attack against botnets."

Generally speaking, laws themselves are not a deterrent for cyber-attacks
or malware. Those who execute attacks and develop malware already know
they're breaking the law, and obviously don't care. If they had a moral
compass and ethical framework to comply with the laws, they wouldn't be
creating botnets to begin with.

This is a different sort of approach though. Microsoft didn't seek to
criminally charge the botnet developer, or sue for damages in civil court.
It sought an ex parte restraining order to shut down the operation from
within.

Randy Abrams explains "Court orders are one attack vector. I think this
is an important development and may be used more frequently, it isn't a
panacea, but it is a weapon that causes disruption and helps in the
battle."

Court orders are a viable method of combating botnets according to
Kandek as well. "Yes, but we are still in the early stages to see what
legal methods apply and how legislation will have to be adapted to the
new realities of the international operations of botnet operators."

There are pros and cons to Microsoft's approach with Operation b49, but
doing something is better than doing nothing, and you have to start
somewhere.

Abrams notes "The pro is that it exposes a flank of the enemy. The con
is that going through courts can be time consuming. There may be ways to
streamline the process going forward and Microsoft has the legal
resources to do this well."

"There are no botnet nukes. Fundamentally such a weapon would have
unacceptable collateral damage. This is a battle that will require an
extensive arsenal of conventional weapons and innovative strategies.
Trial and error will be part of the process. Court orders and domain
take downs are essential weapons to have in the arsenal," concludes Abrams.

Kandek sums up "I only see positive effects, we need better publicity on
botnet penetration and the damages associated with it."



               Italy Convicts 3 Google Execs in Abuse Video Case


An Italian court convicted three Google executives of privacy violations
Wednesday because they did not act quickly enough to remove an online video
that showed sadistic teen bullies pummeling and mocking an autistic boy.

The case was being closely watched around the world due to its implications
for Internet freedom.

In the first such criminal trial of its kind, Judge Oscar Magi sentenced
the three in absentia to a six-month suspended sentence and absolved them
of defamation charges. A fourth defendant, charged only with defamation,
was acquitted.

"We will appeal this astonishing decision," Google spokesman Bill Echikson
said at the courthouse. "We are deeply troubled by this decision. It
attacks the principles of freedom on which the Internet was built."

Those convicted were Google's global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer, its
senior vice president and chief legal officer David Drummond and retired
chief financial officer George Reyes. Senior product marketing manager
Arvind Desikan, based in London, was acquitted. All four had denied
wrongdoing.

"The judge has decided I'm primarily responsible for the actions of some
teenagers who uploaded a reprehensible video to Google video," Fleischer,
who is based in Paris, said in a statement.

He noted with irony that he was convicted for privacy violations despite
devoting his career to "preserving and protecting personal privacy
rights."

Drummond said he was "outraged" that he was found criminally responsible
for the video, noting that both European Union and Italian law recognized
that Internet service providers like Google are not required to monitor
content that they host.

"This verdict sets a dangerous precedent," Drummond said in a statement.
"(It also) imperils the powerful tool that an open and free Internet has
become for social advocacy and change."

In the United States, the Communications Decency Act of 1996 generally
gives Internet service providers immunity in cases like this, but no
such protections exist in Europe.

The verdict could help define whether the Internet in Italy - and
perhaps beyond - is an open, self-regulating platform or if content must
be better monitored for abusive material. It comes as Google already is
facing regulatory challenges in Italy, where a draft bill would require
Internet sites to control content the same way television stations do.
Google has lobbied for changes to the bill.

Google, based in Mountain View, California, had called the trial a
threat to freedom on the Internet because it could force providers to
attempt an impossible task - prescreening the thousands of hours of
footage uploaded every day onto sites like YouTube.

Prosecutors had insisted the case wasn't about censorship but about
balancing the freedom of expression with the rights of an individual.

Prosecutor Alfredo Robledo said he was satisfied with the decision
because it upheld the principal of privacy and put the rights of the
individual ahead of those of a business. It could force Google, and any
other hosting platform, to better monitor its video, he added.

"This is the big principal affirmed by this verdict," Robledo said. "It
is fundamental, because identity is a primary good. If we give that up,
anything can happen and that is not OK."

The charges were sought by Vivi Down, an advocacy group for people with
Down syndrome, even though the boy does not have the syndrome. The group
alerted prosecutors to the 2006 video showing an autistic student in
Turin being pushed, pummeled with items, and insulted by bullies at
school, who called him a "mongoloid" in a mock telephone call to Vivi
Down.

"Unfortunately, in Italy, the term 'mongoloid' is used as an insult,
which we don't like," Edoardo Censi, president of Vivi Down, said
outside the courtroom. "Our problem is the defense of our children, of
the disabled ... when we learned of the video, our first concern was to
remove it."

Google Italy, which is based in Milan, said it took down the video two
hours after being notified by police, as is required by law. Prosecutors
argued that viewers had flagged it well before police contacted Google,
and the fact that it shot to the top of a "most entertaining videos"
list on the Italian site, had 5,500 views and 800 comments during the
two months it was online meant it should have been noticed sooner.

Thanks to the footage and Google's cooperation, the four bullies were
identified and sentenced by a juvenile court to community service. The
events shortly preceded Google's 2006 acquisition of YouTube.

In another setback Wednesday for Google, the European Commission in
Brussels said it had asked Google to comment on allegations by rivals
that it demotes their sites in its search rankings.

EU spokeswoman Amelia Torres declined to name the three rivals and
stressed that the EU hadn't yet opened a formal investigation.

Google said it would provide "feedback and additional information on these
complaints," but stressed it was not violating any EU antitrust rules. It
said those complaining were Foundem, a British price comparison site, the
French legal search engine ejustice.fr and Microsoft Corp's Ciao! from
Bing.

The low rankings complaint is significant because high rankings in Google
searches drive higher volumes of traffic to Web sites.



               British Politicians Fall Victim to Twitter Scam


British politicians were among those caught up Friday in the latest
Twitter-based scam which hijacks users' accounts to send out sexually
explicit messages to friends and followers.

The micro-blogging Web site has seen hit by a wave of so-called
"phishing scams," which lure users to a bogus Web site where they're
enticed to part with their passwords. The compromised accounts are then
used to distribute rogue messages to other users.

Those tracking the Twitter account of Ed Miliband, the British energy
minister, were surprised by a message carrying an unusually direct
reference to the politician's sex life.

"Oh dear it seems like I've fallen victim to twitter's latest 'phishing'
scam," Miliband said in a message posted shortly afterward.

He wasn't alone.

On Thursday, House of Commons leader Harriet Harman told lawmakers her
account had sent a bogus message to opposition lawmaker Alan Duncan.

She didn't say exactly what the content of the message was, but she left
British lawmakers wondering when she told them: "I wouldn't ever send a
tweet like that."

Other prominent politicians and journalists were among those who
received the rogue messages.

Even tech-savvy Twitter users have been hit.

Intel UK, the British arm of the chip maker, apologized to its followers
Thursday after saying its account had been hacked.

So too was the account of prominent tech blogger Cory Doctorow, who
blamed the small screen on his phone for falling victim to the scam.



                    Lenovo Introduces ThinkPad X201 Tablet


Lenovo on Tuesday introduced ThinkPad ultraportable laptops, including a
tablet, which the company said enterprises prefer over the new breed of
keyboardless tablets, which are also called slates.

The ThinkPad X201 Tablet has a 12.1-inch screen and runs on Intel Core
i7 processors, the company said. The laptop has a traditional convertible
tablet design, with a keyboard, and a touch screen that can be rotated and
placed on top of the keyboard to record data.

There is growing momentum behind a new generation of tablets, also called
slates by PC makers, which are handheld devices on which users can browse
the Internet, play games, read e-books and view video content. Slates
usually have software-based on-screen keyboards.

Slates have promise in the consumer segment, but have limited functionality
that could restrict their use in enterprises, said Mika Majapuro, senior
product marketing manager at Lenovo. While the convertible-tablet market
is small, enterprise users need laptops for more than viewing content.

"There are not many customers who are willing to give up their keyboards,"
Majapuro said. Convertible designs also have larger screens and offer the
flexibility for enterprises to run more software, Majapuro said.

Lenovo has, however, moved ahead with a slate product in the consumer space.
Lenovo earlier this year launched the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid, a laptop that
includes a detachable touch screen. The screen turns into a tablet on which
users can surf the Web, play games or read e-books. The U1 Hybrid will cost
about US$1,000.

IBM came out with the first tablet in a slate form in the early 1990s, said
David Hill, vice president of brand management and design at Lenovo. That
slate was developed for insurance companies to carry out certain tasks, but
the design was ultimately carried over to the new ThinkPad clamshell
laptops, Hill said.

"We've learned in a business situation - there's a large desire to marry
tablet function with rich content creation," Hill said. The tablet balances
the slate functionality of viewing rich content, while providing a keyboard
to create documents.

If the U1 Hybrid takes off with consumers, similar designs for tablet PCs
with detachable screens could make their way into the enterprise,Hill said.
But advances need to be made in developing strong on-screen keyboards.
Corporate buyers were initially skeptical about technologies like CD drives
in laptops when they first came out, but these became popular after the
technology took off in the consumer space, Hill said.

The X201 Tablet will come with the Windows 7 or Windows XP operating system.
It will include hard drive storage of up to 500GB or SSD storage of up to
128GB. Integrated wireless connectivity options include Wi-Fi, WiMax and
Bluetooth. It will weigh 3.57 pounds (1.62 kilograms) with a 4-cell battery
and 3.95 pounds with an 8-cell battery. Pricing for the laptop starts at
$1,549. The company didn't comment on worldwide availability.

The company also announced the new ThinkPad X201 and X201S laptops, which
are priced starting at $1,199 and $1,599, respectively, company officials
said. Based on Intel's Core i5 and Core i7 processors, the laptops include
12.1-inch screens and a runtime of up to 12.2 hours on 9-cell batteries.



                         SanDisk Ships $350 64GB SD Card


Flash memory maker SanDisk released its highest ever capacity SD memory card
this Monday. The new SanDisk Ultra SDXC has a massive 64GB capacity, and
although not the first SD card to boast such high-capacities, the company
claims that its new card is ideal for a wide range of demanding portable
gadgets.

The exFAT-formatted memory card can read data at a 15MB-per-second rate,
and according to SanDisk, it's enough sotrage for eight hours of
high-defnition video. However, don't jump for your wallet just yet, as
the new high-capacity card is priced at a hefty $349.99.

If the price hasn't put you off, then compatibility issues might: The 64GB
card is an SDXC card based on the SD 3.0 specification, so in order to
make use of SanDisk's latest you will need a recently released SD 3.0
capable device.

The new 64GB SanDisk Ultra SDXC card is available now for $349.99, with
an included lifetime warranty, from SanDisk.com.



        Lawyers Due in Pennsylvania Court in School Webcam Spy Case


Lawyers for a suburban Philadelphia school district accused of spying on
students via their school-issued webcams are due in court.

A federal judge is being asked Monday to stop officials of the Lower Merion
School District from removing any information from the 2,300 laptops issued
to high school students.

A lawyer pursuing a potential class-action suit against the district says
he needs to preserve evidence on the computers.

The FBI is investigating whether the district broke federal wiretap and
computer use laws.

The district says it activated the webcams to find more than 40 missing
student computers. Officials say they have now abandoned the practice.

District lawyer Henry E. Hockeimer Jr. says people should not jump to
conclusions about the case.



       Pennsylvania Educator Says She Didn't Watch Student Webcams


A Pennsylvania educator named in a webcam spying lawsuit says she never
monitored students through webcams or authorized anyone else to do so.

Harriton High School vice principal Lynn Matsko responded to last week's
lawsuit through a statement Wednesday. She did not take questions.

She did not address a lawsuit's accusation that she talked to a student
about "improper behavior" at home, citing images from his school-issued
laptop's camera.

The student, Blake Robbins, says that the Lower Merion School District
photographed him in his bedroom.

District officials have said they remotely activated webcams to locate
42 missing laptops without notifying students. Robbins' lawyers asked
again Wednesday for all the photographs and screenshots the district
obtained.



                Facebook Error Sends E-Mails To Wrong Friends


Facebook made a grave error this week when it sent users' e-mails to the
wrong friends. Users affected by the mixup weren't able to access the
site for a period of time.

Facebook moved quickly in trying to figure out how users' e-mails could
have been redirected. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based social network also
quickly apologized to users for any inconvenience.

"During our regular code push early Wednesday evening, a bug caused some
misrouting to a small number of users for a short period of time,"
Facebook's Kathleen Loughlin said. "Our engineers diagnosed the problem
moments after it began and worked diligently to get everything back in
its rightful place."

Facebook wouldn't say how many of its 350 million users were affected.
"We are still investigating and the information we are sharing right now
is limited," Loughlin said.

Details about what kind of content was in the redirected e-mails was
also not being shared. One user reported receiving more than 100 e-mails
intended for other Facebook users.

Before Facebook's error, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a
Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit research center, warned the Federal
Trade Commission of ongoing privacy risks associated with social
networking. Early this year, EPIC filed complaints against Facebook on
some of its privacy practices and pointed to some risks associated with
cloud computing.

Facebook users can post messages to their friends' walls that can be
seen by others if the user receiving the message hasn't blocked them.
Users' comments about photos and other posts are also often made
available for others to see. Sending e-mails from one friend to another,
however, was supposed to be the most private way of reaching out and
communicating with friends.

E-mailed content is not meant to be seen by anyone other than the
recipient. The only time more than one person can read an e-mail is when
the e-mail is sent to a group.

Facebook said it takes several steps to provide privacy. Information is
kept on a secured server behind a firewall, according to the company.
More sensitive information, including credit-card numbers and passwords,
is encrypted using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology. The company
also uses automated measures to enhance security such as analyzing
accounts for anomalous behavior and removes inappropriate content or
links to illegal content.

While Facebook might offer its users several layers of security, it
doesn't guarantee 100 percent security, according to the company.
Facebook states on its web site that users take their own risk of
information being shared when they create an account.

"Although we allow you to set privacy options that limit access to your
information, please be aware that no security measures are perfect or
impenetrable," Facebook's privacy page says.



                                =~=~=~=




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