LG Electronics and Google Team Up to Enhance the Mobile Experience

LG Electronics and Google Team Up to Enhance the Mobile Experience

LG Electronics (LG), a leading worldwide provider of advanced wireless handsets and accessories, and Google today announced a global collaboration to pre-install Google’s services on millions of LG mobile phones. Mobile users around the world will now be able to easily search for information, find locations, update blogs and manage email while on the move. “Building on our efforts to set new standards for wireless handsets, we are excited to partner with Google to offer extra value to consumers with enhanced mobile Internet experiences,” said Mr. Paul Bae, Vice President of the Product Planning Team at LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “LG’s mobile devices, combined with Google, will provide consumers with easy access to their favorite Internet services even without a PC and make it easy for them to stay connected while in motion.” Select LG handsets, pre-installed with Google™ products and services will be shipped globally including North America, Europe and Asia starting in the second quarter of 2007. These handsets will create a more dynamic user experience, including one click access to Google search through an icon in the application menu. More features of LG-Google handsets include: - Google Maps™ for mobile, an application that enables users to view maps and satellite imagery, find local businesses, and get driving directions - Gmail™ for mobile, a Java-based application that brings more speed, convenience and functionality to the mobile Gmail experience - Blogger™ Mobile, an application to upload/download images and text to blog from mobile devices (www.blogger.com), keeps avid bloggers upwardly mobile. “We’re pleased to work with LG to make it easier than ever for mobile internet users to have powerful applications and personalized information at their fingertips,” said Deep Nishar, director of product management, Google. “Users around the world now have more options for accessing information while on-the-go through search and Gmail. With applications like Blogger, users are now free to express themselves from wherever they are in the world.” Through this new partnership, LG and Google will jointly market LG-Google handsets, then further extending their collaboration to develop digitalized home in the future. LG plans to launch mobile handsets pre-installed with Google and products and service for the next few years with at least ten new handsets in 2007.
Attached File :	LG Electronics and Google Team Up to Enhance the Mobile Experience_0328_Final.doc (132608 Bytes)

Microsoft Live Labs: Deepfish

Microsoft Live Labs: Deepfish

Take Deepfish for a Swim

We are excited to announce public availability of the Deepfish technology preview from Microsoft Live Labs. Deepfish is a new type of mobile information browsing experience, aimed at preserving the rich layout and full form of documents on mobile devices while providing novel ways of effectively navigating that content on small screens. Deepfish's unique interface enables you to zoom in and out of page, quickly getting to the areas you are interested in without screen length after screen length of scrolling. And because the layout is preserved, navigation menus, lists of search results or news headlines, and other elements that might have been bent so thoroughly to fit the usual single column layout that they were no longer legible can now be browsed simply and easily. A consequence of Deepfish's multi-resolution approach to browsing pages is that it loads a thumbnail of pages initially and then only what is needed for more detail when requested or in the background as you browse the initial the view, resulting in substantially quicker load times for most pages.

The preview is available for download now for Windows Mobile 5.0+ devices. There are a limited number of slots available, and they will be distributed on a first come, first serve basis. So, give it a try, and don't forget to let us know what you think about Deepfish.

Sound familiar? Deepfish has surfaced briefly before through videos of an earlier build, but now is the first time you can try Deepfish for yourself. As a technology preview, it is important to note that Deepfish is not a complete implementation of what you would expect of a shipping mobile browser--it does not support cookies or javascript for instance--however, it does provide for a great experience on most sites. We have more information on how to use Deepfish and other details in our overview and FAQ.

The Deepfish Technology Preview enhances existing mobile browsing technologies by displaying content in a view that is closer to the desktop experience. Our zoom-able interface and cue map allow you to quickly access the information you care about over the web without ever losing track of where you are.

Note : Deepfish is currently only available by invite only to a small number of beta users. Please visit http://labs.live.com/deepfish page to keep informed of future updates and availability.

Deepfish is a lightweight client application that leverages a powerful server side technology for delivery of content such as web pages to a Windows Mobile device. Content is displayed in a familiar desktop format that requires no additional work by the content or site author.

Deepfish provides:

• A familiar look and feel of web pages on mobile as seen on desktop.
• Bandwidth optimized rendering for faster content delivery.
• Address bar web navigation.
• Intuitive zooming, panning and cue map for quick navigation and browsing.
• Support for simple link navigation and form submission.

Current Limitations

As a technology preview, Deepfish is early in its development cycle (still a few releases from beta quality). As a result some features are not implemented or are only partially implemented. Currently, the technology preview does not support ActiveX controls, AJAX, cookies, Javascript, and HTTP POST.

Currently, the Deepfish technology preview is available only on a limited basis. Access to the technology preview is provided on a first come, first serve basis and the technology preview will be closed to new participants once our initial limit is reached. We may increase the size of the preview over time to gather additional feedback and preview new features. If you were unable to get access to the first round and would still to try Deepfish, please stay tuned to the team blog for updates.

How to Back up Your iPod — Without iTunes

How to Back up Your iPod — Without iTunes

Mon Mar 19, 2007 12:54PM EDT

Your precious iPod—your friend, your status symbol, your companion during good times and bad. It comes with you wherever you go; until one day, it disappears without a trace. Here's a cautionary tale, plus some tips on how to preserve your tunes if this nightmare scenario happens to you.

For me, there's no better time for cranking my iPod than while cruising at 35,000 feet; nothing whiles away the hours faster than dialing up a few podcasts or the odd TV show. But what if you leave your ice-white buddy on the plane? Not good. Unfortunately, it just happened to Shiny Shiny editor Susi Weaser, who had about 3,000 tracks on her iPod that weren't saved on her PC and now faces the task of rebuilding her extensive music collection from scratch. Ouch.

The moral of the story, of course, is to back up your iPod. Now, most of us essentially do just that every time we sync our iPods using iTunes, but if you're a power user like Weaser and you have untold thousands of songs on your iPod from multiple sources, the standard iTunes sync won't cut it. Luckily, The Gadgets Page has compiled a thorough list of iPod backup utilities that promise to keep your music safe and sound. Even better, these apps can transfer songs from your iPod back to your PC if, say, the hard drive on your system suffers a meltdown (which happened to me last year).

Just remember that these backup programs aren't sanctioned by Apple, and that using them to rip songs from your buddy's iPod to your PC or Mac is, of course, a no-no.

Mickey Mouse's new web strategy rakes in the cheese

Mickey Mouse's new web strategy rakes in the cheese

By Nate Anderson | Published: March 28, 2007 - 11:30PM CT

When you serve more than one billion pages a month, redesigning your web properties is a Big Deal™. Disney recently completed a year-long revamp of its site at the direction of Bob Iger, the company's CEO. Eric Freeman, the company's VP of Technology, said that getting the project done nearly killed his team, but the results have already been spectacular.

Speaking at the ETech conference here in San Diego, Freeman laid out the stats: 100 million videos now streamed each week, page views are up 10 percent, six million unique broadband visitors a month, and a ten-fold increase in site registrations. As Mickey would say, "Gosh!"

Disney's grinning mouse has morphed into a giant online rodent, trampling all competitors in its quest to find more cheese (users). Disney.com is already the number one web destination for kids and families, with more than 25 unique users a month. It's not hard to see why: the company has an enviable archive of characters and content to draw on, much of which is "long tail" material that is no longer viable at retail. The brand is trusted by parents and kids alike, and is known for offering "clean" content that parents don't need to monitor.

On the other hand, the company faces the same legal and contractual issues that have bedeviled rights-owners across the world who have attempted to put old content online. Older contracts contained no provisions for web publication, and clearing rights to use material is the sort of task that can drive teams of interns to drink. The trust that Disney has earned from parents also comes at a price; it means that the company is expected to build a completely controlled environment that's still entertaining for kids to use.

Disney addressed the challenges by building the new site around five key principles: community, remixing content, user-generated content, online video, and story-driven experiences. The site is now organized around characters and stories rather than around Disney's org chart, and the transition has proved popular with users. More than 40 percent of visitors now navigate the site by the Flash-based "character wheel" at the bottom of the main screen, showing that many people like to access different Disney franchises instead of generic categories like "video clips" or "merchandise."

The need to keep kids safe is nowhere more obvious than in the chat functionality, which is pervasive throughout the site. Initially, the chat is "clean": kids can only select chat dialog from a string of menus ("Your avatar is really cool!"). Open chat is available, but parents can be notified about every friend who is added to the open chat list and must approve the names first.

The ideas aren't cutting edge among the technorati, but Disney's Paul Yanover has previously called them "right on time for mainstream America." They are well-implemented, though, and seem to be paying dividends. Next up on Disney's plate, according to Freeman, is increased personalization, more character channels, more long tail content, and true cross-platform features, such as making video available both to PCs and mobile phones, as well as integrating chat between all of Disney's properties. It's a good time to be a web-enabled Mouse.

Child Predators: Waiting, Watching, and Engaging on Social Networking Sites

Child Predators: Waiting, Watching, and Engaging on Social Networking Sites

Virtual Community Article | Author: Etienne A. Gibbs | Submitted: 2007-02-19

MySpace and other social networking sites offer thriving communities where young people engage in countless hours of banal chatter and photo sharing. Not coincidentally, these social networking sites also have become hangouts for child predators, child pornographers, and other cybercriminals.

To stay one step ahead of authorities, these cybercriminals use tricks to conceal their identities online. One of the most common is lying about their ages, claiming to be younger than they are. And to hide their IP addresses and locations, predators and other cybercriminals often piggyback on Wi-Fi connections or use proxy servers. They use decentralized peer-to-peer networks to prevent material from being tracked to a specific server. They also use encryption to allow them to keep online chats private from those policing the Web. When law enforcement, ISPs, and others take down the websites of these pedophiles, predators, and cybercriminals, it's not long before they're back up, hosted by a different service.

Skillful with their cell phones, instant messaging accounts, and with access to personal computers at home and school, young people are easy targets for sexual predators. Too many of them are ready and willing to share personal information online without a thought to how it might be misused by others. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports that one in five kids online has been solicited or enticed. Reports of child pornography on the center's CyberTipline have increased six of the last seven years.

Business and technology professionals may think of online child safety as a family issue, but it's a workplace issue, too. Social networks aren't just a teen phenomenon. A recent survey by Web filtering company, Websense, found that 8% of respondents visit social networking sites while at work. Companies can use Web filters to limit access to the sites, though Websense says its customers don't seem overly concerned. Whiling away company time on social networks is a productivity issue; luring children for sex is a criminal one.

There's little evidence that sexual predators are trolling from workplace personal computers, but it's been known to happen. In 2003, a Cincinnati-area police chief admitted to soliciting sex from someone he thought was a 15-year-old, using his work computer. And a deputy press secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, arrested in March for attempting to seduce a child, had his workplace computer seized as part of the investigation and gave the number to his government-issued cell phone to a police office posing as a 14-year-old girl.

Child porn stored on company computers and servers has been a bigger problem. Filtering and blocking can help keep the images off networks, though it's not failsafe. Keyword and URL-based filters have spotty coverage. Other software scans images for limbs and skin tones and blocks pictures it identifies as porn, but skin often takes up too little of the photographs, and innocuous material can be inadvertently blocked.

The Internet Crimes Against Children program last year investigated 2,329 cases of enticement and of predators traveling to meet minors, and 252,000 cases of child pornography. Yet those numbers provide just a glimpse of the activity, since many local police forces are too small to investigate child porn. "It's absolutely overwhelming," says Brad Russ, director of Internet Crimes Against Children's training and technical assistance program, which trains 1,000 officers each year. "The scope and the scale of the problem far exceeds our capacity." Intensifying the epidemic is that more than half the world has no laws dealing with child pornography.

Vigilante groups are fighting back. In January, NBC's Dateline featured a report about one such group, Perverted-Justice.org, which set up a sting that resulted in 51 men being busted in three nights. The group hasn't seen one acquittal from those it's helped bring to justice, and nearly all of its work is done with law enforcement. Yet some in law enforcement are wary of such efforts. "We certainly take any information that anyone has regarding an offender," says Randy Newcomb, an investigator with the New York State Police in Canandaigua, N.Y. However, vigilantes expose themselves to liability for entrapment or possession of child porn and might not properly maintain digital evidence, Newcomb says.

Putting filtering and monitoring software on kids' computers provides some protection. SearchHelp's Sentry line, for example, blocks Web sites based on keywords and creates a log of visited sites. It also lets parents and other guardians monitor a child's activity from other computers. Parents can be notified of violations via E-mail or cell phone. Sentry also monitors IM conversations, using expertise culled from law enforcement to flag phrases commonly used by predators. Any IT pro knows of the limitations of such tools. The filters don't work perfectly, and even if kids post and browse safely, social networking sites present a new set of problems. Profiles on the sites often link to other online information sources, providing the type of data a fixated predator might use to locate a child, such as a school name, says Michelle Collins, a unit director at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Investigator Newcomb recently spoke to an auditorium of elementary schoolers in western New York. He asked kids in the audience how many of them had more than 200 friends on their online buddy list--a bunch of hands shot up. Out of those, he asked how many have only friends on that list they can put a face to, and half of the hands remained raised. Finally, he asked if any of the kids had ever gone and met someone they'd got to know online, and a few hands were raised. "That's just totally frightening to me," Newcomb says. "The superintendent looked like his eyes were going to pop out of his head."

It may take a village to raise a child, but in a world of online social networking, decentralized networks and servers, and increasingly tech-savvy child predators, it's going to take a united effort among government, industry, and families to keep them safe. To protect your child, you need an Internet security team of experts making sure that you, your family, and your business computer are always safe and secure.

The best protection you can have in today's rapidly changing world of cyber-attacks is to have expert support for all your Internet security needs that will provide technical support without any hassles and without charging you extra fees. It will become even more critical than it is today as time goes on. You need to find your own personal team of experts to rely on. If you ever have a security problem, you will want to have a trusted expert you can call for professional help, without any hassles and extra costs!

Etienne A. Gibbs, Internet Safety Advocate, recommends to individuals and small business owners the protection (including free lifetime technical support and $25,000 identity theft insurance and recovery) package he uses. For more information, visit www.SayNotoHackersandSpyware.com/.

Apple Cult Becoming a Religion

Apple Cult Becoming a Religion

By DAN MITCHELL

Published: March 24, 2007

APPLE will not release the iPhone until June, but Leander Kahney, the writer of “The Cult of Mac” blog, posited this week on Wired News that the new phone is already partly responsible for a major change in how the company is perceived (wired.com). After nearly three decades, Apple is finally being taken seriously not just by the true believers, but by just about everybody.

Alex Eben Meyer

According to Mr. Kahney, this shift has taken place in the last few weeks, as both the iPhone and, more recently, Apple TV, have quickly become “must have” products. “A lot of people thought Apple got lucky with the iPod,” Mr. Kahney wrote. “It was a one-hit wonder, a fluke not likely to be repeated.” But the iPhone is already thought of as an “industry-changing smash hit,” and Apple TV, which at first drew shrugs, now may even eclipse the iPhone, according to the predictions of some (though by no means many) people (ipodnn.com).

Apple TV, which began shipping this week, stores up to 50 hours of video, which can be wirelessly beamed from a computer to a television set. Like several other competing products from the likes of Sony, Microsoft and TiVo, it aims to capitalize on the increasing availability of downloadable movies and TV shows.

Apple’s decision to move to Intel processors is another big reason for what Mr. Kahney says is “a cultural shift that’s changing the way people think about the company.” The Mac’s ability to run both Apple’s operating system and Microsoft’s Windows (by using BootCamp software, which is still in beta), means some organizations are able to save money by using more-expensive Macs. Wilkes University in Pennsylvania, for example, recently dumped all its Windows-only machines in favor of Macs because the university now can do just as much with fewer computers (computerworld.com).

The “dual boot” functionality also means that it is far easier to find needed software. “The old argument against Macs is moot,” Mr. Kahney writes. “New Intel Macs can run Windows software as well as any PC.” And technology managers like the Mac’s relative protection against computer viruses and security breaches.

Perhaps most intriguingly, Mr. Kahney points to Apple’s steadfastness in keeping its products proprietary as a main reason for its success. Apple for decades has weathered criticism that the reason it was marginalized by the likes of Microsoft was its refusal to allow third parties to develop related products. But “Apple’s traditional closed system,” Mr. Kahney writes, “is now a selling point.”

The popularity of the iPod and iTunes, he writes, shows that consumers seem to prefer buying “products and services from one company that are guaranteed to work well together.”

Financial Wisdom Get-rich-quick schemes abound in the personal finance sections of bookstores, encouraging everyday people to play the derivatives market or promoting “no money down” real estate investing.

But hidden among the sillier works are helpful volumes. J. D. Roth presents 25 of what he says are the best of them on his blog, Get Rich Slowly (getrichslowly.org). Some are well known, others less so. There is “The Total Money Makeover” by Dave Ramsey and “Miserly Moms” by Jonni McCoy. They emphasize saving, avoiding too much credit, and living well but simply. None, Mr. Roth writes, “go into much detail about any one subject, but they provide motivation to get started. And that’s what’s most important.”

Google: Not Worried SearchWithKevin.com promises that “every time you search the Web, you stand a chance of winning a prize from Kevin Federline. It’s that simple. Really.”

Simple, indeed. The Yahoo-powered site features a photograph of Britney Spears’s estranged husband playing poker, smoking a cigarette and apparently enjoying some kind of brown liquor over ice. The company behind the site, Prodege, offers prizes including Mr. Federline’s autograph on an 8x10 glossy, his latest CD and a T-shirt bearing his carefully cultivated bad-boy visage. DAN MITCHELL

EU Commissioner says Microsoft continues its market abuses

EU Commissioner says Microsoft continues its market abuses

By Joel Hruska | Published: March 23, 2007 - 12:31PM CT

It's no secret that Microsoft's relationship with the European Union has been anything but cozy. Over the past three years, the EU has been after Microsoft for antitrust violations, forcing the company to make unspecified changes to Vista, and recently demanding that the Redmond, WA-based company alter its server protocol pricing. In a speech yesterday to the European Parliament, top EU antitrust official Neelie Kroes fired yet another shot across Microsoft's bow by accusing Redmond of continuing to abuse its position as market leader and of having gained market share as a result of doing so.

"Microsoft is constantly gaining market share and that is what is worrying me in the workgroup server operating market," Kroes said according to Reuters. "As a consequence of your abusive behavior you are getting positive results for the company—that's not acceptable in my opinion."

According to the European Commission, Microsoft's share of the workgroup server market has grown from 35-40 percent in 1999 when the EU began its investigation to 70-75 percent today. Kroes' own comments imply the EC has been ineffective at stopping Microsoft abuses. If Microsoft has continued to grow solely (or even primarily) due to abusive behavior, it has done so in spite of all the fines, penalties, and demands of the EU.

Although the EC has held that Microsoft's product edge exists because the company is unwilling to share information with its competitors, the direct line between cause and effect isn't nearly as simple or clear-cut. Based on Kroes' rhetoric, the EC appears to be on the verge of stating that Microsoft has only gained market share as a result of illegal, abusive behavior. That would be a strong statement, especially when dealing with a company as large and complex as Microsoft. There's a fine line between preventing abuse of monopolistic power and implying that Microsoft has only been "dealt with" appropriately when the company ceases to grow its market share, or even loses share to a competitor's products.

Intel, Already With Operations in China, Appears Ready to Build a Chip Plant There

Intel, Already With Operations in China, Appears Ready to Build a Chip Plant There

By LAURIE J. FLYNN

Published: March 23, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO, March 22 — Intel appears set to build a chip fabrication plant in northern China, a move that would mark a major milestone in the countries’ trade relations and could improve Intel’s competitiveness as it moves operations closer to its biggest customers.

Intel officials in Santa Clara, Calif., declined to comment Thursday on the possibility of such an agreement. The company confirmed only that it had scheduled a news conference Monday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing with Paul S. Otellini, Intel’s chief executive officer, who will discuss “Intel’s commitment in China.”

“We have long said we’d be interested in building a fab in China,” said Chuck Mulloy, an Intel spokesman. “But we have nothing more to say about it at this time.”

China’s National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top economic planning agency, said this month that it had approved Intel’s building of a $2.5 billion chip fabrication plant in the northeastern city of Dalian. That announcement, posted on the agency’s Web site, has since been removed.

Reports that Intel would open a fabrication plant, called a “fab” in chip industry parlance, have circulated for several years. But the Bush administration’s tightening of controls on technology exports to China in recent years has led many analysts to conclude that such a move might be challenged in Washington.

Adam Segal, a senior fellow on China studies for the Council on Foreign Relations, said the company could face resistance if it tried to bring its state-of-the-art technology to China.

“The further behind the technology is, the less chance they have of encountering opposition,” Mr. Segal said. For that reason Intel might agree to use the 90-nanometer manufacturing process, which will soon be considered obsolete in the American market.

The Chinese commission’s announcement said that the approved plant would have a monthly capacity of 52,000 chips and would use 90-nanometer technology.

Today, Intel makes chips using 65-nanometer technology. Production using next-generation 45-nanometer technology — where the transistors on the chips are so small that 30 million of them can fit onto the head of a pin — is set to begin later this year. That means that by the time an Intel plant in Dalian is up and running, 90-nanometer technology would be at least two generations behind the state of the art for Intel.

Furthermore, the plan calls for Intel’s China plant to make chipsets, the technology that serves in a supporting role to the main microprocessors, rather than the microprocessors themselves.

Dean McCarron, an analyst at Mercury Research, said that using older processes, combined with lower labor costs in China, could mean a greater profit margin for Intel.

Intel’s move to increase its presence in China signals the growing need of chip makers to find new ways to meet the demand for chips for cellphones, MP3 players and personal computers. Many of Intel’s largest customers do their manufacturing in Asia, including Dell.

Intel already has two assembly test sites in China, along with two research and development centers, employing about 5,000 people.

Mobile Phone Protection

Mobile Phone Protection

Author: jennifer lopez [ Website ]

A big controversy is using mobile phones while driving. This is because you cannot concentrate on two things at a time and conversations on the cellphone while driving may take your attention off the road

Today, mobile phones have become an essential part of our everyday lives. They allow us to communicate with our friends, family and customers in a flexible way at any time and place. Mobile phone safety has been a serious concern nowadays. You spend a lot to buy a mobile phone to fulfill your needs and to get the useful features and add on accessories which come along with it like mobile games, ringtones, wallpapers, etc. After buying a mobile phone, the difficult task is the safety concern.

There are two kinds of mobile phone safety: first one is the practical mobile phone safety which addresses the safest ways to use your mobile phone and the other one is are the health risks to the mobile phone users. A big controversy is using mobile phones while driving. This is because you cannot concentrate on two things at a time and conversations on the cellphone while driving may take your attention off the road. This can even lead to accidents. In fact, in many places, use of mobile phones in cars is banned. So you should try to avoid the use of mobile phones while driving. However, if you wish to make or receive an important call, make use a hands free kit. It is a good choice as it allows you to maintain your attention on the road. But still you should ensure that your conversation is not intense and is as quick as possible. Another safest way to handle calls while driving is to let your voice mail pick up the call.

According to researchers, mobile phones can cause adverse health effects. But it has not been proved yet. It is believed that cancer, headaches, memory loss, high blood pressure can also be caused by excessive use of mobile phones. As we know that mobile phones use radio frequencies to make and receive calls, there is a serious risk of radiation emissions from your phone into your ear which can damage your health.

During the use of mobile phone, the antenna of the handset is very close to the user’s head, so there is a concern about the level of microwave emissions to which the brain is being exposed. The exposure levels decrease rapidly with increasing distance from the antenna. Low emissions have not been proven to cause any health risks. So amount of exposure to radiation can be minimized by holding your phone at the bottom. This probably won’t block your antenna. You can also try to increase the distance between the phone’s antenna and your head by using a hands free kit.

Another serious concern is loss of mobile phones due to thefts. The only way out is to take care of your phone and get it insured. So, only buying a mobile phone is not the end, there are a lot of other things to be taken care of. Therefore, you need to be a responsible, safe and a considerate mobile phone user.

Blogger Help : On the Go with Blogger Mobile

Blogger Help : On the Go with Blogger Mobile

By Biz Stone

See also: Blogger Mobile FAQ

Back in the day, mobile phones were rare and pricey. Rich businessmen carried them around in suitcases. I remember when I was in middle school and Melissa Miller's dad had a car phone. That was fancy. Mr. Miller is a fancy guy. These days, mobiles are low-cost and everywhere. In many countries, mobile phones outnumber their land-line counterparts. Around the world, mobile phones are increasingly pervasive and this is especially true when it comes to developing areas. People even decorate, customize, and accessorize their phones to reflect their personality. Sound familiar?

Mobile phones are perfect little blogging appliances that people carry around with them everywhere. Sharing photos and stories with friends while you're on-the-go by sending them straight to your blog—what could be easier? Turns out it can be easier, that's why we created Blogger Mobile. To create a blog and post to it using your mobile phone, you will need to follow these directions:

(Send stuff to go@blogger.com and you're done.)

As indicated by the graphic above, sending an MMS or email to go@blogger.com will automatically create a new blog. Your photo, along with any text you add, will be uploaded to that blog right away and then we'll message you back with the address so you can visit your new blog on the web. It's all free. When you feel like changing anything or you already have a Blogger account and you want the posts to go to your existing blog, you can log in to go.blogger.com and enter the token we sent to your phone.

Just so we're clear on this, you send something from your phone; a subject line, a photo, and maybe a caption if you so choose to go@blogger.com and we do the rest. That's our thing. We set you up with a standard issue blog using a popular design template and we upload your content so your friends and family can view it and leave comments. Your first post might look something like this:

Optional: Claiming Your Blog

We will name your blog "My Mobile Blog" and insert some text in the sidebar as a reminder that you can claim your blog. The text will read:

Claim your blog at go.blogger.com so you can change the style and colors, edit previous posts, or activate aditional features. Note: You'll need the claim code that was sent to your phone.

You don't have to claim your blog. In fact, you could never sit down in front of a PC again and just keep sending content from your phone to the Web. However, when you sign in and enter your token at go.blogger.com, that note about claiming will be replaced with your profile block and once you claim your blog, you have full access to all your settings so you can change the template and modify your account to your heart's desire.

Optional: Switch Your Mobile Posts to Another Blog

Another part of the claiming process is the ability to switch to an existing blog that you'd rather have your mobile posts sent to. For example, if you already have a blog and think it would be cool to occasionally send a post from your mobile phone in addition to posting normally. Once you make that switch, both existing and future posts will be sent to the blog of your choosing instead of the blog that was automatically set up for you when you sent that first message to go@blogger.com.

Note to users whose blog address does not contain blogspot.com: Once you make the aforementioned switch, new mobile posts will be published to your chosen blog but mobile posts published prior to the switch will not be moved over automatically. So, if you plan on publishing mobile posts to your non-blogspot.com hosted blog, we recommend you claim and switch early thus avoiding a potential nuisance.

What Services Does Blogger Mobile Support?

The initial launch of Blogger Mobile will work with your phone if you are a US customer of Verizon, AT&T, Cingular, Sprint, or T-Mobile. We will be expanding that list so if your provider is not on there yet, check back with us here.

Use It Your Way

There was an article on the BBC's web site a couple weeks ago by a guy who was using his camphone and a blog to create what he called "digital postcards" to the web so his friends and family could follow along on his trip across the United States. That's the stuff! There's even a professional photographer traversing the US snapping photos exclusively with his camera phone. He's got a web team building his site—all you need for yours is Blogger Mobile.

Setting up a great looking web site that is yours to customize as you please and using a mobile phone to keep it updated is not as futuristic as your own personal jet pack, I appreciate that. In fact, when I was back in middle school watching Mr. Miller talk on his car phone I figured that by 2005 we'd have personal jet packs. We don't. However, if I see someone flying around in a jet pack I will blog it with my camphone. That is most definitely something. We're getting there.

Biz Stone works at Google on Blogger and writes books about blogging.

ICANN proposal would shield contact info in Whois record

ICANN proposal would shield contact info in Whois record

By Eric Bangeman | Published: March 21, 2007 - 04:10PM CT

An ICANN Task Force has recommended some changes to the domain registration process that would allow registrants to more easily shield their identities. A report released by the Task Force on Whois Services suggests that registrars make it easier for domain name owners to shield their identities.

The Task Force is recommending that domain name owners be permitted to list third-party contact information instead of their own. Administrative and technical contacts would be no longer displayed within the whois system, with their information being supplanted by an "operational point of contact."

An operational point of contact would be responsible for resolving—you guessed it—operational issues themselves, or passing on data to the actual owner of a domain.

Domain name owners who have seen their personal data plucked from whois records and used by spammers, along with privacy advocates, will likely welcome the change. Other constituencies aren't so happy about it. Cybersquatters and other scam artists could more easily hide their identities from law enforcement, while others with a legitimate need to discover the identity of a domain owner would find it much more difficult.

Currently, there are a handful of proxy registrars that provide third-party registration services, and are popular with astroturfing organizations such as the Advanced Technology Alliance. Those, too, have come under criticism, with some countries—like the US—prohibiting their top-level domains from being registered by proxies.

One alternate proposal from the ICANN task force would force domain owners to disclose their identities with the exception of "special circumstances," domains that are used for noncommercial purposes and where the owners can demonstrate a "basis for concern that public access to specific data about themselves that would otherwise be publicly displayed in Whois would jeopardize a concrete and real interest in their personal safety or security that cannot be protected other than by suppressing that public access," according to ICANN. The Netherlands uses a similar model for its .nl TLD due to its privacy and data protection laws.

The Task Force findings will be considered by ICANN's Generic Names Supporting Organization Council at a meeting in Lisbon later this month, where there will also be public hearings on the topic. The GNSO Council will then make a policy recommendation to the ICANN Board or reconvene the task force to revise its recommendations.

Google Tests an Ad Idea: Pay Only for Results

Google Tests an Ad Idea: Pay Only for Results

By MIGUEL HELFT

Published: March 21, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO, March 20 — Google is experimenting with a new proposition for advertisers: if you don’t get results, you don’t pay.

The company said Tuesday that it would expand a test of a system that allows advertisers to pay only when an ad spurs a consumer to take an action, be it purchasing a product, subscribing to a newsletter or signing up to receive a quote from a mortgage broker or car dealer.

The vast majority of advertisers now pay Google when a user clicks on ads that are displayed alongside its search results or on other Web sites, while some are billed based on how many people view the ads.

“We’re optimistic that it will be something that will be very compelling for advertisers,” said Susan Wojcicki, vice president of product management at Google. Ms. Wojcicki said the system would also give participating Web publishers a wider choice of ad types for their sites.

Under the “cost per action” system, advertisers decide what they are willing to pay for a specific action, like a purchase or a software download. Armed with that information, Web site publishers then choose whether to run a specific ad or group of ads on their sites.

Many advertisers find cost-per-action appealing, as it greatly reduces their risk, since they are not charged for ads that are ineffective. The model has long been used online by “affiliate marketing” companies like ValueClick, which have created networks of hundreds or thousands of Web sites that display small ads for e-commerce sites. The publishers are paid when they refer a user who makes a purchase.

But many other companies are using cost-per-action ads in different ways. They include the search-engine start-up Snap, which displays cost-per-action ads next to search results, and Turn, a network that matches advertisers and publishers interested in cost-per-action ads.

“We think it is a model that all the large players in search will be embracing over time,” said Tom McGovern, the chief executive of Snap.

For the time being, Google is not putting cost-per-action ads next to search results, limiting them to publishers’ Web sites and essentially creating its own affiliate marketing network. Industry insiders said Google’s entry into the market was likely to accelerate its growth.

“This is a big market at an early stage,” said Ellen Siminoff, chief executive of Efficient Frontier, a search marketing firm.

Cost-per-action ads have another advantage: They virtually eliminate the problem of click fraud, a scam in which people or computers generate clicks on ads for the sole purpose of getting a payment.

While the appeal of the cost-per-action model to advertisers is clear, some analysts believe publishers may be more reluctant to embrace it, at least for now.

“For publishers, it increases the complexity of their business,” said Mark Mahaney, an analyst with Citigroup. Publishers have limited space for ads and need to maximize the revenue they generate. A cost-per-click model is risky, since it provides no guarantees that a publisher will receive any payment for a given ad.

Mr. Mahaney said Google could make the system more effective and appealing if it figures out an automated way to predict how much revenue each ad is likely to generate. Advertising.com, a unit of AOL, uses such a system to determine the right placement for cost-per-action ads on publishers’ sites.

For now, the affiliate marketing business remains relatively small. ValueClick’s affiliate marketing unit, the industry’s largest, had sales of $112 million in 2006, while Google’s revenue topped $10 billion.

Google’s test is limited to about 75 advertisers and 75 publishers. A test last summer had about 30 advertisers and 30 publishers.

MySpace Restrictions Upset Some Users - New York Times

MySpace Restrictions Upset Some Users - New York Times

News Corporation is too greedy! (by viewer)

By BRAD STONE

Published: March 20, 2007

Some users of MySpace feel as if their space is being invaded.

MySpace, the Web’s largest social network, has gradually been imposing limits on the software tools that users can embed in their pages, like music and video players that also deliver advertising or enable transactions.

At stake is the ability of MySpace, which is owned by the News Corporation, to ensure that it alone can commercially capitalize on its 90 million visitors each month.

But to some formerly enthusiastic MySpace users, the new restrictions hamper their abilities to design their pages and promote new projects.

“The reason why I am so bummed out about MySpace now is because recently they have been cutting down our freedom and taking away our rights slowly,” wrote Tila Tequila, a singer who is one of MySpace’s most popular and visible users, in a blog posting over the weekend. “MySpace will now only allow you to use ‘MySpace’ things.”

Ms. Tequila, born Tila Nguyen, has attracted attention by linking to more than 1.7 million friends on her MySpace page. To promote her first album, she recently added to her MySpace page a new music player and music store, called the Hoooka, created by Indie911, a Los Angeles-based start-up company.

Users listened to her music and played the accompanying videos 20,000 times over the weekend. But the Hoooka disappeared on Sunday after a MySpace founder, Tom Anderson, personally contacted Ms. Tequila to object, according to someone with direct knowledge of the dispute. She then vented her thoughts on her personal blog.

MySpace says that it will block these pieces of third-party software — also called widgets — when they lend themselves to violations of its terms of service, like the spread of pornography or copyrighted material. But it also objects to widgets that enable users to sell items or advertise without authorization, or without entering into a direct partnership with the company.

A MySpace spokeswoman said yesterday that the service did not remove anything from Ms. Tequila’s page. “A MySpace representative contacted her and told her that she had violated our terms of service in regards to commercial activity,” the spokeswoman said. “She removed the material herself, after realizing it was not appropriate for MySpace.”

Ms. Tequila and her representatives would not comment.

But Justin Goldberg, chief executive of Indie911, said MySpace’s actions undercut the notion that the social networks’ users have complete creative freedom. “We find it incredibly ironic and frustrating that a company that has built its assets on the back of its users is turning around and telling people they can’t do anything that violates terms of service,” he said.

“Why shouldn’t they call it FoxSpace? Or RupertSpace?” Mr. Goldberg said, referring to the News Corporation’s chief, Rupert Murdoch.

The tussle between MySpace and Indie911 underscores tensions between established Internet companies and the latest generation of Web start-ups. Without a critical mass of visitors to their sites, many of these smaller companies are devising strategies that involve clamping on to sites like MySpace and Facebook and trying to make money off their traffic.

MySpace, meanwhile, is trying to show that it can generate stable revenue. Google will pay it at least $900 million over the next three years to serve ads to the site’s users. And last fall, MySpace announced a partnership with Snocap, a San Francisco-based company, to sell music.

Perhaps not coincidentally, this year, MySpace blocked widgets from Revver, a video-sharing site that embeds advertisements in its clips, and Imeem, a music buying service.

“Our users weren’t happy,” said Dalton Caldwell, Imeem’s chief executive, who was nevertheless ambivalent about the MySpace ban because he thought the move might encourage his users to visit his site directly. “If MySpace isn’t really ‘their space’ after all, maybe users will think about things differently.”

In the past, MySpace executives have said that the service failed to block companies like YouTube that began successful businesses from MySpace’s pages.

“We probably should have stopped YouTube,” Michael Barrett, chief revenue officer for Fox Interactive Media, a part of the News Corporation, said in an interview in late February. “YouTube wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for MySpace. We’ve created companies on our back.”

MySpace and its corporate parent say they want to find ways to support and exploit the growing widget economy. Last year, Fox Interactive Media introduced a service called Spring Widget. The service provides tools to help developers create widgets for use both on computer desktops and online networks like MySpace.

In a recent use of its technology, the studio behind the horror film “Dead Silence” used a Spring Widget tool on its promotional MySpace page to count down the minutes until the film’s release.

Fred Wilson, a New York-based venture capitalist who invests in social media companies, said the strategy showed that the News Corporation was trying to take advantage of growing interest in widgets while also trying to carefully control what made it onto MySpace.

But that could be a dangerous strategy, Mr. Wilson said.

“Every attempt everyone has ever made to try to dictate what a person’s Internet experience will be has ended up coming up empty,” he said. “You have to accept the fact that you are never going to be the be-all and end-all of everyone’s experience. They are one click away from everyone else on the Web.”

As for Ms. Tequila, who wrote on her blog that she was a personal friend of Mr. Anderson, the MySpace co-founder, she wrote that she felt bad about blasting the site but that she could not stay silent.

“You guys used to be so cool,” she wrote of MySpace. “Don’t turn into a corporate evil monster.”

oneSearch™ on Yahoo! Mobile Web. Search for anything from anywhere.

oneSearch™ on Yahoo! Mobile Web. Search for anything from anywhere.

Get instant answers

Finally mobile search that works! Yahoo! oneSearch is now available for internet—enabled phones. oneSearch results are delivered to you in a new, breakthrough format that redefines search for the mobile phone. It’s all about getting instant answers with just one click—no need to sift through a bunch of links to find exactly what you’re looking for.

Looking for a new camera? oneSearch gives you what you need to make the best choice including product reviews, images of different models and where to buy. Tracking a hot stock? oneSearch gives you the important info you need to stay up to date including stock quotes, company news and the latest products.

oneSearch results are easy to read, scroll through, and expand when you want more information—like more images to view—with a single click. You don’t have to “feel lucky” to be lucky every time with oneSearch!

Find practically anything

Yahoo! oneSearch gets you the answers you seek for just about anything you need: driving directions, maps, movie showtimes, sports, upcoming events, news, weather, celebrities, images, shopping—you name it.

And, oneSearch gives you results based on where you are. For instance, searching for a movie title will give you local theaters and showtimes. Searching for a city name will give you the latest weather, traffic reports, local news and more for that city.

Your way to the entire Web

oneSearch also makes it easy to get to any website. Simply type in the name of a website you want to visit in the search box (like eBay), and oneSearch returns the website link. Click the link and you’re there.

* Available on internet enabled phones

ViewSonic's iPod Projector

ViewSonic's iPod Projector

by Gina HughesThe Techie Diva
Mon Mar 12, 2007 11:56PM EDT

Sick of iPod accessories yet? The iPod accessory overload is far from being over, and Viewsonic's iPod projector is going to make a lot of iPod owners very happy. Remember when we thought how great it was to finally be able to download videos to the iPod? That feeling soon faded after watching hour-long TV shows on the tiny 2.5 inch screen. Then we spotted the ViewSonic ViewDock, and thought, "Aha! now we can watch those videos on a bigger screen." Unfortunately, that didn't work either because videos couldn't be played straight from the iPod; and yes, we're all still wondering what the whole point of an integrated iPod dock on an LCD screen was all about.

Let's hope Viewsonic finally gets it right with the PJ258 Video iPod DLP projector. A dock sits on top of the glossy projector ready for some plug-and-play action that doesn't require the need for a computer. I can see how this could prove useful to executives who know how to load presentations to their music player. As far as entertainment goes, the PJ258 has a resolution of 1024 x 768 that magnifies TV shows on the big screen. Laptop Magazine reviewed the projector, and thought the image was quite clear even when it was blown up on a 60-inch screen, but the projector itself was a little distracting throughout the movie due in part to a noisy fan. Sounds like a nice idea, but at $1,400 I'd recommend you stick to an LCD display for entertainment purposes.

Ipod Music Download

Ipod Music Download

In a world fastly changing in tehnological wonder, it is comforting to know that all this technology still delivers to us the basic comforts and conveniences of everyday life. Such is the case with ipod and the benefits and conveniences of ipod music download. It wasn't long ago, that the Walkman in audio and video format was the rage and wonder technology of its time.

Ipod is a great leap forward in digital entertainment. Whether your desire is in movies of all types or you are like me, a music lover, ipod delivers! Ipod is truly a wonder of the current technology generation. You can easily and quite simple take your favorite movies, classic television shows, sporting events or music with you wherever you go - whenever you want.

With ipod, you can have unlimited movie downloads and unlimited and staggering amounts of ipod music download. The best ipod download services allow you to find and download movies, music and TV series (even old-time favorites). With some of the better services, you get instant access to dvd quality music, mp3s and more!

You can now have premium quality music and movies while you travel, jog, even while flying on a plane. I travel, work and relax with my own ipod music download and video downloads constantly. I find the sound and visual quality truly awesome and an outstanding bargain with the premium service I own.

Speaking of ipod music download and video download services, I highly recommend searching out and finding a premium service for your ipod ownership experience. As stated above, a premium service brings endless hours of entertainment, joy and benefits to your life.

The best services will offer you many services and benefits including things like unlimited access to movies, music, TV shows, music videos and more. Also, look for a service that offers a "No Pay Per Download" feature.

Millions of people own and use ipods to bring state-of-the-art digital quality entertainment to their lives. Ipod is convenient, fun, affordable and a great way to take your entertainment with you, wherever you go. If you own or you are considering buying an ipod, I strongly suggest signing up for an ipod music download service to greatly enhance your ipod ownership experience.

ipod Music Download

By: David Chenault

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

To learn more about ipod music download check out my new site @ ipodmusicdownload1.blogspot.com.

http://hitechflow.blogspot.com/2007/03/ipod-music-download.html

You may distribute this article in any form as long as you leave this bio box intact as is.

Month of MySpace bugs coming?

Month of MySpace bugs coming?

With equal doses of satire and self-denigration, two anonymous hackers announced a plan last week to make April a month of daily MySpace vulnerability disclosures.

The duo--who use the online names "Mondo Armando" and "Müstaschio"--outlined the plan to release daily flaws in MySpace's online social networking software on their Web site, while poking fun at the whole Month of Bugs phenomenon. Calling the effort MOMBY for "Month of MySpace Bugs, Yuss," the two hackers stated that the effort is less motivated by security concerns and more designed to head off thoughts of any future Month of Bugs projects.

"If it ends up being just as lame as the Month of Apple Bugs, then we haven't really missed the mark," wrote "Mondo Armando" on the site. "If it's funnier, then great. If it kills this Month of Whatever fad, then hurray for everyone, it's over."

The effort, if indeed it happens, will be the fifth Month of Bugs in the last year. In July, security researcher HD Moore started the trend with a Month of Browser Bugs, in November came the Month of Kernel Bugs, followed by the Month of Apple Bugs in January and the Month of PHP Bugs in March.

Beseiged MySpace has become a popular target for security researchers and malicious coders. Two Web worms have infected users of the social-networking site: The Samy worm spread quickly in October 2005 and the Quickspace worm wended through the company's servers last December. MySpace has also come under fire over fears that sexual predators are using the site to find young victims online and has irked security researchers with some of its aggressive tactics.

The Month of MySpace Bugs will focus on relatively easy to find cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities, the hackers said. XSS flaws were by far the most common software vulnerability found in 2006.

by: Robert Lemos

Boost for web content labelling

Boost for web content labelling

Jemima Kiss
Monday March 19, 2007
MediaGuardian.co.uk

Internet searching: Users can not usually identify the suitability of web content just from search results, said Segala chief Paul Walsh

Technology firm Segala is spearheading an initiative to help internet users identify trusted web content through a comprehensive labelling system.

Irish-based Segala has been developing content labels for more than two years and is now in talks with major web organisations and publishers to roll out the service for a number of applications.

Different content labels could be developed for different uses, although three of the most significant applications could be for labelling sites that meet accessibility standards for web users with disabilities; blogs that have signed up to a set of agreed editorial standards; and adult content.

Sites that have signed up to agreed editorial standards would display a small logo in search results and different content labels would have different logos. The logo could also be displayed on the site itself.

Segala co-founder and chief exectutive Paul Walsh, who is running the content labels operation as a separate non-commercial project, said that users can not usually identify the suitability of web content just from search results, so end up clicking through to sites that may not be appropriate.

The scheme has already been approved by W3C, the global body that develops guidelines and standards for the web.

W3C's semantic web education and outreach group has agreed to formally back and promote content labels, and Mr Walsh has also had interest from telecoms firm Verisign, AOL and Microsoft.

Mr Walsh added that the content labels scheme will reach mass adoption within the next two years.

"Today, you have to land on a site before you see a trust mark but content labels can be detected by search or by the browser," he said.

"This isn't about policing the internet, it's about enabling users to make an informed choice."

Dermot O'Mahony, the head of online content for T-Mobile, described content labels as "the holy grail" the web sector has been looking for.

"Everyone with a website wants to be seen as legitimate service provider. For businesses, this enables them to build trust and ensure that they don't get lost in the noise of the internet. For the user, it means a real feeling of control," Mr O'Mahony said.

The main hurdles to mass adoption are awareness among consumers and integration with search and web browsing tools, he added.

"Search companies need to take ownership of this and take a stand to make sure that content is safe and responsible," Mr O'Mahony said.

At the moment, web users need to install the "search thresher" extension for the Firefox browser to identify sites with content labels.

Ultimately, that function is likely to be combined in all web browsers although as more sites adopt labelling, search engines will begin to include a content label field in search options.

Mr Walsh is also talking to UK blogging platform Terapad about creating an approved accessibility free blogging service, as well as helping to develop an ethics committee for blogging services.

The labelling system could also work for medical websites, which could sign up to a code of conduct and professional practice with verification by a medical authority.

A UN-funded Swiss organisation, the Health on the Net Foundation, already provides free, independent verification of medical websites.

The chancellor, Gordon Brown, last week unveiled a separate scheme by Ofcom to classify digital media output that will aim to help parents identify unsuitable content.

Password Makeover : Becky Worley : Yahoo! Tech

Password Makeover : Becky Worley : Yahoo! Tech

Passwords are a hassle to make and remember, but they keep us all safe. And it doesn't really have to be a hassle: a strategic password plan can keep the bad guys out and keep you from forgetting your passwords.

Start Your 30 minute Password Makeover
Commit to writing down all the websites or networks where you use a password. Only write down the name of the site, and your user name, NOT your passwords. A master list of passwords is an open invitation for someone to access your accounts: roommate, co-worker, burglar, kids.

Security Levels: High, Medium, and Low
Once that list is done, divide the sites into three categories: high-security, medium-security and low-security.

High-security logons should include anything associated with money or sensitive personal information: financial brokerages, online banking, PayPal, travel sites that store your credit card numbers, any site that has your social security number (school site, medical insurance site, tax site), and your work network.

Medium-security logons should include anything of a personal nature: your email accounts, your ISP account at home, your alumni network, instant messaging logons.

Low-security logons can consist of email groups, news sites that require a logon, or random sites that require you provide a password.

Assign a password to each group
To cover the requirements for all logons, make your passwords eight characters long and a combination of numbers, letters (including at least one uppercase letter), and a symbol, like an *, %, or #. One tip for creating a memorable password is to script it like a vanity license plate: Pr3t3nd$ (Pretends), W8ing4U2 (waiting for you two).

Change your passwords
Now go through your list of high-, medium-, and low-security sites and networks and change the passwords of your accounts. On your master list of accounts and user names, instead of writing the password next to the account, just indicate which security class it's in: high, medium, or low. You know those three passwords by heart (this is the challenge here—you have to memorize those three passwords).

Where to Use Your Passwords
Access your high-security passwords only from home or on trusted computers, never on a public computer that might contain a key-logger. Key-loggers are software programs that record every stroke typed on the computer including every user name and password you enter.

Use your medium-security passwords based on your own judgment—in an Eastern European Internet Café? Not a good idea. In your university's computer lab? That's a better gamble.

Low-security passwords can be used on any public account; if someone gets access to your New York Times log-in? That's not a big deal.

Good luck, stay safe, and hopefully you'll never be locked out of your own accounts again.

IBM and Cisco Alliance Value Proposition

IBM and Cisco Alliance Value Proposition

Together, IBM and Cisco are the proven resource to seamlessly and rapidly integrate business processes, industry knowledge, information technologies, and the intelligence of the network, thereby maximizing our clients' ability to envision, design, and innovate to exceed their business objectives.

Executive Perspectives on the Alliance "The Cisco and IBM Strategic Alliance provides customers with a resilient, end-to-end infrastructure and industry-oriented solutions designed to meet the needs of today's competitive environment. Our partnership helps enable our customers to spend less time worrying about technology issues, and spend more time as a customer-focused, on demand business." Sam Palmisano, Chairman & CEO, IBM Corporation "Cisco and IBM, combining our long-standing industry expertise, are committed to helping our customers by implementing Internet business solutions that can help position them for success in today fast-paced business environment." John Chambers, President & CEO, Cisco Systems

Cisco and IBM Expand Global Services Alliance to Collaborate on Maintenance Services in 46 New Countries

Cisco and IBM Expand Global Services Alliance to Collaborate on Maintenance Services in 46 New Countries

Expanded Relationship Provides Mutual Customers with Single Source for Product Maintenance Services

SAN JOSE, Calif. & ARMONK, NY, March 12, 2007 - Cisco® and IBM today announced the expansion of their Global Services Alliance and their collaboration to provide product maintenance services for mutual enterprise customers in 46 new countries. This collaboration builds on the success that IBM and Cisco have seen within the United States and means that IBM customers who purchase Cisco networking technology solutions will now get a globally consistent level of IT infrastructure support. The collaboration includes IBM's extensive service-delivery capabilities and Cisco's technical expertise in one integrated support offering.

"This is a significant evolution in our Global Services Alliance," said Karl Meulema vice president, Cisco services marketing and channels. "Providing a collaborative maintenance service offering means our mutual customers will no longer need to choose between Cisco networking skills or IBM multivendor systems integrator capabilities. Instead customers get the collective expertise of both companies, combining the best of both worlds."

"We have been working together on these service offerings in the United States for the past three years and are excited to offer a broader global customer experience by expanding our efforts into additional markets around the world," said Robert Kritzer, vice president, IBM-Cisco Strategic Alliance, IBM Global Technology Services. "Our relationship with Cisco allows us to provide our customers with a single resource to seamlessly and rapidly integrate business processes, industry knowledge, information technologies and the intelligence of the network."

"The 'IBM managed maintenance solution for Cisco products' provides us with a single escalation point for maintenance services across multiple vendor products that comprise our global reservation system," said Charlie Majane, director of technical services at Carey International, a leading global provider of limousine services and luxury ground transportation. "Our clients count on Carey's reservations specialists and customer care representatives 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. IBM and Cisco's collaborative service relationship has simplified our billing and service delivery processes spanning 65 countries."

IBM will market and sell this services offering under the name "IBM managed maintenance solution for Cisco products," while collaboratively delivering the service with Cisco. IBM will provide the customer with consolidated call management for all networking devices and will retain responsibility for resolving customer issues. Technical support will be provided via IBM Technical Support Centers by highly experienced network specialists, trained by Cisco, who have access to IBM's technical support resource base. Cisco will provide, through IBM, such benefits as worldwide, 24x7 escalation to the Cisco Technical Assistance Center, access to cisco.com, ongoing operating system updates, advance hardware replacement, and tools and best practices to address network issues. Specific details regarding the "IBM managed maintenance solution for Cisco products" offering can be found at: http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/index.wss/offering/its/a1002560.

Cisco Global Services Alliances

The Cisco Global Services Alliance program has been in place for three years and is intended to increase customer success with Cisco networking technology. The program promotes greater collaboration and alignment between Cisco and its Global Service Alliance partners in order to deliver a consistent level of IT infrastructure support across the network lifecycle.

Cisco, (NASDAQ: CSCO), is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

For more information on IBM (NYSE: IBM), please visit www.ibm.com.

# # #

Cisco, Cisco Systems, and the Cisco Systems logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. This document is Cisco Public Information.

Tor hack proposed to catch criminals

Tor hack proposed to catch criminals:

Robert Lemos, SecurityFocus 2007-03-08

The Tor network--a distributed system of computers that anonymizes the source of network traffic--has a slew of beneficial uses: Human-rights workers, the military and journalists all use the system. However, the anonymity of Tor has also attracted seedier elements as well: digital pirates, online criminals and, quite possibly, child pornographers.

“ Mr. Moore's solution will not solve the problem he is trying to solve, and in the process, he will hurt a lot of people that he should be helping. ”

Shava Nerad, executive director, Tor Project

Now, one security researcher aims to make the distributed network less of a haven for the shadier side of the Internet.

HD Moore, the lead developer of the Metasploit Project, has created a rough set of tools that allows anyone operating a Tor server to attempt to track the source of network data. Moore originally created the software to block file sharers from eating up his computer's bandwidth, but soon targeted potential child pornographers who appeared to be using the network, he said.

"I don't want my network connection to be used to transfer child pornography or pictures of child models," Moore wrote in an e-mail to SecurityFocus on Thursday. "I don't want my server confiscated by law enforcement because of some Tor user who thinks they are anonymous."

The tools, which Moore dubbed "Torment," use a number of known techniques to link content handled by the exit servers--the computers that manage the border between the Tor network and the Internet--to their source.

The Tor Project uses a method known as onion routing to obfuscate the source of data. (Tor originally stood for "The Onion Router.") Data from a user is encrypted in layers using keys from each of the servers that will handle the data--or "cell"--and delivered to an entry node into the Tor network. The data is passed to one or more servers, each removing a layer of encryption until the cell reaches the exit node. Thus, only the exit node sees the data fully decrypted.

Moore's Torment code modifies the normal Tor proxy server software to implement the necessary functions, resulting in a poisoned proxy server.

However, the techniques also rely on the targeted Tor user taking risky actions, such as allowing Javascript to run in their browser. The Tor documentation specifically warns users to use a browser with stripped down functionality when visiting Web sites using the anonymizing network.

Unsurprisingly, Moore's actions have stirred up controversy. Tor operators have criticized the project as endangering the vast majority of legitimate Tor users to pursue a smaller number of bad actors.

"This is a general-purpose attack tool--there's no reason it can't be just as useful for identifying the IPs of misconfigured Tor users looking for information on democracy in China, or for the nearest VD clinic, or for information on how to run for office, or whatever," said one poster to the Onion Routing Talk (OR-Talk) mailing list. "Snoops everywhere should be pleased."

Shava Nerad, executive director of the Tor Project, agreed that any technique that could be used by law enforcement to track down criminals, could also be used by authoritarian regimes to track down democracy activists or by the United States' enemies to track down the military intelligence officers that use the network.

"Mr. Moore's solution will not solve the problem he is trying to solve, and in the process, he will hurt a lot of people that he should be helping," Nerad said.

Moreover, Moore's reliance on keywords to identify potential illegal transactions would likely have a high false positive rate, Nerad said.

The Torment project, which Moore first unveiled at a meeting of the Austin Hacker's Association in August, consists of modified client code, a domain name service (DNS) server, and SQL schema. The current version of the code is based on an outdated version of Tor, he said. A ZDNet blog first reported on the project on Wednesday.

In an e-mail to SecurityFocus, Moore explained how his system--basically a form of Web bug--works.

The modified server software uses scripts to process data before sending it back to the targeted Tor user. The patched software, dubbed Torment, uses the Ruby scripting language to match certain parameters and then allows, modifies or drops the packet.

When specific keywords are detected, the Torment software will inject some HTML into the Web request, causing the browser to load an applet on the targeted user's computer to help identify that user. The code includes a unique identifier to track the users. The code requests that the victim's browser resolve a unique host name containing the identifier, a request that will end up being sent to the DNS server run by the attacker, and in so doing, disclose the victim's Internet service provider.

The piggybacked Javascript also loads an applet that attempts to determine the internal network address of the targeted machine and to send a raw UDP packet to the attacker's DNS server to identify the external Internet address of any router that--by using network address translation (NAT)--may be obfuscating the user's address.

"The only difference between this and a standard IMG (image) tag is the multiple correlation points that it uses to identify users," Moore told SecurityFocus. "By combining standard HTTP requests with a custom DNS server, a Java applet, and a database, it can abuse client-side information leaks to pinpoint a user's real IP address."

The attack also relies on the attacker's ability to have its server become an exit node for the Tor network. Exit nodes are key servers that act as the drop point for encrypted data cells from the Tor network, which are translated into unencrypted network packets and sent out to the Internet. Responses are processed by the same server, translated back into data cells, and sent through the Tor network back to the user.

In a paper released in February, computer scientists from the University of Colorado at Boulder outlined a method to dramatically increase the chance of a malicious server being selected as an exit node by the Tor network's algorithms. However, the technique would leave recognizable fingerprints that the Tor service could identify, the Tor group stated in a blog post at the time.

And, that's not the only hurdle that Moore's attack would have to leap.

Tor servers meet the definition of an Internet service provider, which means that operators are not required to know what data passed through the server, said Kevin Bankston, staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which hosts the Tor Project's site. While it is possible for the operator of an exit node to see the data, it would likely increase their liability, because if the operator became aware of illegal activity, they would have to report it, he said.

"In the ordinary course of operation of a Tor node, there is no reason for someone to become aware of what content is traversing that node," Bankston said. "If you do become aware of specific child pornography images transiting your network, you do face a legal obligation to inform the authorities, but that does not translate to some over-duty to monitor your customers' communications."

Moreover, anyone who implement's Moore's tools could be violating federal wiretap laws, Bankston said.

For his part, Moore intends to turn the tools over to law enforcement for their own use, he said.

"I agree that evidence collected in this fashion may not be admissible in court, but my end goal is to provide a software package to law enforcement, not stream evidence directly to the agencies," the researcher said in an e-mail to SecurityFocus.

The Tor Project has already taken steps to inform its users. On Thursday, the project added a warning to its documentation and further outlined what users need to do to protect their anonymity online.

"Tor by itself is NOT all you need to maintain your anonymity," the site read. "There are several major pitfalls to watch out for."

The list of threats is not small: misconfigured applications, using any of a number of browser plugins, visiting sites that have set cookies, and a lack of encryption from the Tor network to the destination server.

If nothing else, the list underscores that, in the digital world, anonymity is not easy.