Google's Blogger fixes bug, adds video uploading (InfoWorld)

Published in August 25th, 2007

San Francisco (IDGNS) - Google's Blogger team solved this week and introduced a new feature that gives publishers the ability to upload videos to their sites. ADVERTISEMENT
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An undetermined number of Blogger publishers had trouble performing various editing and posting operations on Monday and Tuesday, but by Wednesday the problem had been solved.

One of the people affected was Lisa Kasanicky, owner and chief editor of Arizona Spa Girls, which publishes the , a directory of spas and beauty salons in the state.

Arizona Spa Girls organizes a series of summer events in the state and publishes another Web site called to offer information about these activities.

Although both of those sites are hosted internally, Kasanicky chose Blogger to launch for SummerSpaAZ in May.

With the summer events wrapping up this past weekend, there was much expectation among attendees and readers to see the latest reports and photos early this week on the blog.

But when Kasanicky tried to post to the blog Tuesday morning, she got an increasing number of server code errors. "It got worse and worse. At first I couldn't publish anything, and then I couldn't access the blog at all," she said on Thursday.

Although Kasanicky doesn't plan to use Blogger for additional work-related blogs any time soon, she hopes Google will continue to enhance it to the point where Blogger might provide professional-grade uptime.

"I'm not giving up on Blogger. It's a Google product, and I'm a big fan of what they do. I know they perfect things," she said. "I'd use it again for keeping in touch with family, something that's more recreational as opposed to something professional, until it gets to a point when it's a reliable product."

On Wednesday, Blogger and its Blogspot hosting platform also suffered an outage that lasted little over an hour and affected the entire system.

After marking the eighth of this free blogging service on Thursday, Google announced the video upload feature on Friday.

"This feature allows you to upload videos and create a video podcast with the same ease that we currently provide with photo uploading," reads the .

Publishers will see a new button in the Blogger editing console to upload videos stored in their computers. More information and a how-to video can be found on .

Update: Press watchdog blasts China's blogging policy (InfoWorld)

Published in August 25th, 2007

Posted by admin in Hitech

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San Francisco (IDGNS) - Reporters Without Borders criticized the Chinese government for what the press advocacy group considers a move to end anonymous blogging in the communist country. ADVERTISEMENT
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The government, through the Internet Society of China, recently drafted a pact that was signed by at least 20 major blog service providers in the country, including Yahoo and Microsoft, the Paris-based watchdog group said Thursday.

"The pact stops short [of] the , but it can be used to force service providers to censor content and identify bloggers," the group said in a . The pact, unveiled Wednesday, signals an "imminent" new wave of censorship and repression, the group said.

Blogging services, which make it easy and simple for people to publish writings, photos, and videos on the Web, have become popular among individuals wanting to anonymously disseminate information that governments would rather keep confidential.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., didn't immediately reply to a request for comment. A Yahoo spokeswoman referred a request for comment to , which manages Yahoo's China operations, but that company hadn't replied at press time.

Microsoft, in an e-mail statement on Friday, acknowledged that on Aug. 21, MSN China, a joint venture with Shanghai Alliance Investment, signed the document, which it says is "in line" with similar agreements adopted by other countries and organizations.

"Such self-regulatory codes are an effective means of helping to protect our customers from cybercrimes and other threats to online security and privacy, and to promoting a safe, friendly environment in which to enjoy our services," the statement reads.

Although it signed the document, Microsoft doesn't agree with some of its recommendations, such as requiring people to register with their real names for the company's Windows Live Spaces blog hosting and publishing service.

"It should be emphasized that these are indeed recommendations only, and we retain discretion to determine how to best achieve the overarching goals of the agreement," Microsoft said.

The pact "encourages" blog service providers to require that people provide their real names and contact information in order to let them post blogs, and then store the individuals' information, the group said.

The pact also says blog service providers should "monitor and manage comments" as well as delete "illegal and bad information," according to Reporters Without Borders.

In its statement, the group quotes Internet Society of China Secretary General Huang Chengqing as saying: "Blog service providers who allow the use of pseudonyms may be more attractive to bloggers, but they will be punished by the government if they fail to screen illegal information."

China's Internet policies, such as the censorship of search engine results, have become a frequent target of criticism by organizations that advocate for human rights and press freedom.

These organizations, like including Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google for going along with Chinese government requirements that these groups charge violate human rights and press freedom.

The companies' defense is that they must comply with the local laws of the countries in which they operate.

Yahoo in particular has been blasted often in recent years for cooperating with the Chinese government and providing information that has led to the arrest of dissidents and journalists.

In April, the in the U.S. for divulging information about her husband's Internet activity, which allegedly led to his arrest and torture. The suit was filed by the World Organization for Human Rights USA on behalf of Yu Ling, the wife of Wang Xiaoning, arrested in September 2002 on charges including "incitement to subvert state power."

This month, a whether or not a Yahoo representative lied during testimony over the company's role in a human rights case in China that sent journalist Shi Tao to jail for 10 years.

In its statement, Microsoft said that government actions taken to address security, safety, and other concerns and which impact free expression and privacy "should be taken with deliberation and restraint."

Ultimately, through international dialogue, Microsoft supports the establishment of consistent "national actions" and the development of a set of principles to guide Internet companies providing services worldwide.

"To this end, Microsoft has joined with a diverse group of companies, academics, investors, technology leaders, and human rights organizations to seek solutions to the free expression and privacy challenges faced by technology and communications companies doing business internationally," the statement reads.

This story was updated on August 24, 2007

Old Worm Slammer Threatens Again (PC World)

Published in August 25th, 2007

Posted by admin in Hitech

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An old worm known as Slammer, which originated back in January 2003, is still going strong according to Gunter Ollmann, director of security strategy at IBM's Internet Security Systems (IBM ISS).

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Ollmann, the author of the white paper "Old threats never die", says that Slammer is still the threat most commonly encountered by IBM ISS.

But it isn't just high-profile vulnerabilities and malware that are a problem, Ollmann said. In effect, the security industry is now witnessing a snowball effect, where threats are accumulating at an "exponential" rate, and it isn't really possible to eradicate any of those threats.

"Organizations need to be aware that old threats never actually retire from the digital landscape," Ollmann wrote in the white paper. "Rather, they tend to become background noise on the Internet– ready to burst into life with each new software update, host recovery, device deployment or embedded system release."

The problem is that many of the protection mechanisms companies rely on, like signature-based security software, are no longer able to keep up with the rate at which new threats are appearing.

That's worsened by the fact that whenever security firms retire older signatures, they open a hole through which old attacks can instantly reappear, Ollmann said.

"Antivirus systems can handle tens of thousands of new signatures without blinking, but after a few hundred thousand they begin to struggle a bit," he wrote in a blog post this week. "Now, with several hundred thousand new virus strains each year (and increasing faster than Moore's Law), things are getting pretty creaky."

Security vendors are at a disadvantage, because it costs nothing for attackers to append the latest exploit to their attack systems, keeping all the old attack methods in place as well, Ollmann said.

"The consequences for all of us are that old exploits (and the threats they represent) will never disappear– and there continues to be a steady supply of hosts vulnerable to flaws for which patches have existed for half a decade," he wrote in the blog post.

IBM ISS advised companies to think twice about retiring their old, creaking protection systems, but instead to evaluate more efficient protection models such as heuristic engines.

"Instead of a one-for-one signature protection model, more advanced heuristic engines can be used to protect the entire threat class," Ollmann wrote in the white paper.

Skype Woos SMBs with new Deal (PC World)

Published in August 25th, 2007

Posted by admin in Hitech

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Skype has launched a package for small businesses that bundles up the company's software with call credits and subscriptions for multiple users.

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The Skype Small Business Pack gives SMBs ten 5-month subscriptions to the new Skype Pro software, plus programs to integrate this into a manageable whole, including Skype for Windows Business Edition, and the MSI Windows Installer used for multi-PC installation. The package also includes 50 Euros-worth of call credit.

The company said customers would pay 99 Euros (plus VAT) for a package that would normally cost 150 Euros (plus VAT) if bought separately. The particular benefit of Skype Pro is that is provides free local and national-rate calls within a customer's home country for all employees using it, a large potential saving when compared with the PSTN.

The package has its own online control panel to assign bought credit to different users, providing a consolidated view of total usage.

What's less clear is whether after Skype's recent serious service outage, small businesses will be in any mood to trust it. As a number of rivals have pointed out, one of the disadvantages of Skype's proprietary call protocol is that its calls can't be routed over other SIP-compliant networks in the event of a problem

Others have cast doubt on the program's underlying design, which is based on a sophisticated P2P scheme that turns some of its customer's PCs into 'supernodes'. The company's explanation that the service went down last week due to a problem Microsoft Windows patch has also been challenged.

Hello world!

Published in August 25th, 2007

Posted by admin in Hitech

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Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

New LiteFeeds 2.0 …. Reloaded with new features !

Published in August 11th, 2007

Posted by admin in Mobile

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[]

Announcing the release of LiteFeeds 2.0 !! Download the latest version of the mobile application to take advantage of all the great new features (point your mobile browser to http://litefeeds.com/m). All features available FREE of charge! The new features are listed below. In addition we have released a custom version for Nokia Symbian Series 60 phones. There is also a new Java version which will work on any mobile device that has a JVM (most phones do) and a new version for Blackberry. Thanks to all our current users ! Please blog about LiteFeeds to help spread the word. * Post articles to your blog from your mobile (Wordpress, Moveable Type, Blogger and more). * Bookmark articles from your mobile (del.icio.us). * Email articles to friends from your mobile. * Receive email alerts for important subscriptions. * Improved image and full article support : images and text are compressed and formatted for mobile. * Improved Web-based reader : better unread/read tracking and improved interface and performance. * View secure feeds (SSL) such as your Gmail or Corporate feeds. We just launched and are officially in “beta” testing, so any feedback is very appreciated Email : info@litefeeds.com

IMSafer rises the level of parental control on IM

Published in August 11th, 2007

Posted by admin in Mobile

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If there is one single area of parental concern that I hear often from parents, it would have to be that of the use of teens and IM. Well, it looks like there is one solution out there on the mobile front at last.

Instant messengers are like the second mobile phone for kids and young adults. Studies confirmed what we already know, and the IM penetration in other categories of population is increasing as IMs one by one go mobile.

And as scammers and/or sexual predators hang out on MySpace, both those trouble people tease kids on IM. One month, Windows Live Messenger has softly introduced a anti-pedophilia button both on its Live and MSN messengers….

The Holy Grail of Synchronization?

Published in August 11th, 2007

Posted by admin in Mobile

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It’s close for Pocket PC users in Linux, but only up to Windows Mobile 2003 it seems. Oh well, it looked pretty cool, though.

The full title for this article is “The Holy Grail of Synchronization: How to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol / ScheduleWorld”, and that title sums up nicely what this article is about. Synchronization is always a dark art, and while it’s pretty simple when you have one computer running Outlook and one Windows Mobile device, things get rapidly more complex when you add in more devices and services. This article covers a whole array of services - it’s unlikely that many of you are using exactly that same services as he is, but perhaps you can adapt the same basic principles to your own scenarios.

Myself, I’ve found that using a combination of 4smartphone [affiliate], Foldershare, FeedDemon, and the Google Browser Sync Tool has let me hit about 90% bliss when it comes to synchronization. I wish some other things would synchronize across all my PCs - like my ActiveWords data file, but for the most part I’m quite pleased with the way I’m able to keep my life in sync. What about you? How “in sync” are you?

Carphone to run Sony store

Published in August 11th, 2007

Posted by admin in Mobile

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Even in the mobile space, content is king. However do the mobile companies have a firm enough understanding that they are ready to start providing content in a store front just yet?

Sony Ericsson will take its first step into standalone retailing when it opens a Carphone Warehouse-managed mobile phone store in London’s Kensington district this November.

The 7,300sq ft store will encourage mobile phone buyers to sample Sony music and movie content before they buy or upgrade phones. Sony hopes its emphasis on content-related accessories such as speakers and headsets will also tempt consumers to prioritise content capabilities when they buy phones.

‘If we were going to open hundreds of them on every high street yes it would be competitive,’ said retail director Salvatore D’angelo. ‘But we want to showcase our products because our corporate HQ is based in the UK and many overseas visitors come here to visit us.’

The move comes as Nokia prepared to add a new flagship UK store to its existing portfolio of Nokia-branded stores run by Carphone Warehouse and other local providers….

BenQ weighs closing former Siemens unit

Published in August 11th, 2007

Posted by admin in Mobile

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BenQ has some pretty big decisions to make it would seem. Apparently, closing the former Siemens unit has not totally been ruled out of the equation.

PARIS The largest maker of mobile phones in Taiwan, BenQ, said mounting losses might prompt it to file for insolvency protection for its German unit, less than a year after taking over the operation from Siemens.

The unit employs about 3,000 people in Munich and western Germany. The move would be a setback for a company that aimed to capitalize on the Siemens name to become a consumer-focused international brand along the lines of Sony Ericsson.

German employees of the former Siemens unit had job guarantees until mid-2006, but the Taiwan company’s management and the IG Metall labor union were unable to agree on details to extend the deal.

BenQ has estimated that its mobile phone division has had losses of about €600 million, or $762 million, since it took over the Siemens business in October 2005….