The Great Firewall of China

by Jennifer Mason _My little brother, this month returned from several years living in small-city (population less than 2 million) China, leaped straight from the 14-hour flight onto his laptop, and fired up online poker with an ease to which he was not accustomed.
Avoiding the hassles of proxy servers which apparently only connect to gambling or gaming-related sites one in six times, or trying to get a game via .net sites, he was delighted to spend a high proportion of his time on UK soil on accessible virtual felt.
He mentioned something interesting while enjoying a spot of low-stakes full-ring cash, after a min-stacked player did what they do best, namely double through with pocket kings and immediately leave.
“I bet I can guess where this guy’s from,” he said, “It’s probably China.” In fact a quick search for this shortstacker, who did indeed list his location as the PRC, found him at several other tables at $0.15/$0.25 and $0.25/$0.50 level, along with about 15-20 others. “They’ve already started, and it’s 8:30 in the morning over there,” he said, “And they’ll be there all day, and I mean all day.”
Zhu Hai, Yi Chun, Beijing, Huazhou, Shanghai, and Hong Kong were usually to be found as the listed players’ home cities after a cursory mouse-wave over their names, which poses a couple of interesting questions.
The only area sanctioned (or not restricted) for gaming is currently Macau, the ex-Portuguese colony island. It is, incidentally, soon to be connected to Hong Kong by a very large bridge which will make transfer from mainland China to the “Monte Carlo of the Orient” take around an hour. With access to gambling growing easier in China, these hometowns, apparently providing new poker players to the online melting pot, are however most definitely not on the gambling-OK list.
Nor is online gambling legal anywhere in the country. So do these few poker players appearing now herald a coming relaxation of legislation online to mirror that which appears to be slowly happening in the real world?
There are over 300 million Internet users currently active in the People’s Republic of China, which makes it the largest online user base in the world. No corner of the country is free from Internet cafes crammed with people (mainly young and male) playing online massive multi-player online role-playing games. QQ, China’s all-purpose messaging software, already hosts a plethora of online games, from the ubiquitous mah-jong to Texas hold’em (for points, not money).
The framework and liquidity exists for a home-grown platform to take advantage of the Chinese people’s national fascination with gambling, but as it stands only the determined and computer-savvy get to try online poker for real, and only at a couple of US-friendly sites. Live gambling happens, officially, only in Macau or via the Chinese national lottery, which no longer has an online arm after lottery scam sites spiralled out of control.
It happens unofficially all over the place. China is credited with bringing Keno to the world during the Han dynasty, and exports a host of gamblers, including a large number of high rollers, to places like Las Vegas, where the visa requirements are apparently less of a hassle than those for Macau in some cases.
The government isn’t as bothered with the innumerable back-room mah-jong games between acquaintances (where cards take the place of gaming tokens and stakes run from pennies to fortunes) as with venues open to the public, and external online companies. The latter are pretty efficiently filtered out of the Chinese web (along with YouTube and Facebook); although you can search for any of them, clicking through doesn’t happen.
Last year, Reuters reported that the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) was prohibiting investment by foreigners in the online gaming industry (estimated at around $3 billion a year) although co-development of online games is still allowed to some extent.
This isn’t poker or casino-related, but aimed at restricting foreign interest in the huge multi-player and interactive gaming culture which has taken China by storm. A large proportion of these types of gamers are young and with low income, which throws up a potential societal problem with the relaxation of online gambling.
In order to introduce a potentially even more addictive form of online game play, regulations and support infrastructure need to be in place for these players. Quite a few scandals came out of World of Warcraft and similar over the last four years, including a murder (over the theft of a virtual sword) and the accidental death of a young man consigned to a mental institution by his parents for addiction to online gaming. When China develops a country-wide fascination, it is really on a spectacular scale, and dealing with the problems thrown up by un- or poorly-regulated online casinos would be a colossal task.
So far there are no signs of this regulation in development, and round the corner it definitely isn’t. The fact that the Chinese government does respond relatively quickly to fast-growing trends these days with regulation (and restriction) does suggest that if and when the PRC is ready to legalise online poker, it will have learned from its mistakes over the online lottery.
China will be ready if it decides to tap into a huge potential revenue source as the currently illegal live gamblers and the more liquid among online gamers move into a regulated virtual arena in which poker could easily become the next boom trend, the effects of which would be felt online the world over.

Tehran to carry on peaceful atomic energy activity – supreme leader

MOSCOW, February 28 (Itar-Tass) -- Iran will carry on peaceful atomic energy activity no matter what, Iranian Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Hoseini-Khamenei told Foreign Ministry staff members on Sunday.

“Despite the pressure the Islamic Republic is experiencing, it has achieved impressive results in nuclear research. The research will continue regardless the slanderous speculations started by certain countries, among them the United States, the United Kingdom and the Zionist regime. The research will continue as long as it takes Iran to achieve complete and scientific self-sufficiency,” Khamenei said.

He criticized the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which condemned Iran last November for building a new nuclear site in Qum and recently expressed doubts about the peaceful nature of the Iranian atomic program.

“Some latest steps and reports of the Agency show that this international organization has a deficit of independence,” the Iranian supreme leader said. “The IAEA should not yield to the influence of the United States and some other countries, as this yielding does not add authority to the agency.”

The uranium enrichment in Iran causes serious concern about the actual target of the Iranian nuclear program, Russia, the United States and France said in a joint letter to Amano on February 16.

The letter criticized the Iranian production of higher enriched uranium.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki said Tehran knew about the letter but noted that the letter did not contain any new proposals.

Russia will have a measured attitude to possible sanctions against Iran as long as the latter cooperates with the IAEA, Chairman of the Federation Council International Affairs Committee Mikhail Margelov told Itar-Tass on the same day.

“As long as Iran cooperates with the IAEA, our policy will be measured and cautious. I do not believe in the efficiency of sanctions. They do not work, as a rule,” Margelov said.

“The Russian stance is rather precise and clear. Being an Iranian neighbor, we want the Iranian nuclear program to be exclusively peaceful and strictly controlled by the IAEA. Not a single responsible politician in Russia is interested in the Iranian development of a bomb,” he said.

Iran is still ready for nuclear fuel exchange, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a February 16 press conference in Tehran.

“This is not a closed subject and we are ready for the exchange, even with the United States,” the president said.

The consultations go on, he remarked.

“We did not plan higher enriched uranium production because that was not expedient. However, our partners did not show goodwill and we had to tell them that we would have to produce the fuel ourselves,” he said. “The situation will change with the delivery of fuel,” he added.

The sides developed a general formula of nuclear fuel delivery for the Tehran research reactor producing medical isotopes. The sextet proposed to higher enrich Iranian uranium in Russia and to make fuel assemblies in France. Iran expressed its basic consent at first but then insisted on exchanging its uranium for ready fuel. No agreement was reached, and Iran launched higher enriched uranium production.

Higher enriched uranium production started in Natanz a week before to the president’s order. The 20% uranium is being manufactured for the Tehran research reactor, a maker of medical isotopes.

The decision of Iran to start higher-enriched uranium production disappointed Russia, which was traditionally reserved about proposed sanctions.

“The Iranian decision to start higher-enriched uranium production not only disagrees with resolutions of the UN Security Council and the IAEA Board of Governors but also deepens doubts about the Iranian sincere wish to lift the remaining international concerns about its nuclear program,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said.

“Definitely, we are disappointed with the Iran step, which did not allow diplomats to agree on mutually acceptable ways of the fulfillment of the IAEA proposal of higher-enriched uranium fuel production for the Tehran research reactor outside Iran,” he said. “We are confident that further discussion of possible ways of the fulfillment of that project would have yielded results within a short time and become a major step towards the restoration of confidence in the exclusively peaceful atomic program of Iran and an appropriate atmosphere for the dialog.”

Russia does not rule out the drafting of a new UN Security Council resolution enacting sanctions against Iran, Nesterenko said.

“There is no work on the possible new sanctions against Iran now, but we cannot rule it out under the current circumstances,” he said.

“Russia is adherent to the two-track policy in settling the situation around the Iranian nuclear program. That implies efforts of the sextet (five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) on negotiations with Tehran and sanctions if Iran does not act constructively,” he said.

“Russia is searching for additional options in the implementation of the October 1 agreements reached between Iranian representatives and the sextet political directors in Geneva,” Nesterenko said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow opposed sanctions that might be harmful for the country but did not rule out the UN Security Council measures due to the Iranian unwillingness of closer cooperation with the IAEA. “We are absolutely positive that sanctions per se can hardly bring desirable results. If such a proposal is made at the UN Security Council, we will scrutinize it very carefully,” the minister said.

“Russia has no doubts that Iran shares the same rights with other non-nuclear members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, including the right to enrich uranium. However, Iran must comply with related commitments in order to use this right freely. In this case, it is necessary to answer all the remaining questions to the IAEA satisfaction,” Lavrov said.

“As no progress has been made and the Iranian administration has not responded to the constructive compromises, including the offer to supply fuel to the Tehran research reactor, I do not rule out that the UN Security Council may have to review the situation once again,” he said.

The UN Security Council has already applied sanctions to Iran in support of the IAEA requirements, Lavrov remarked.

The scale of possible sanctions on Iran will not be discussed at the Monday negotiations of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy, a high-ranking diplomat said on Friday.

“It would be premature to discuss the scale of possible sanctions,” he noted.

“The Russian president emphasized his readiness for cooperation with the sextet in New York last September. He also noted that sanctions were inevitable under certain circumstances, and the Russian readiness for joint work was important,” the diplomat said.

“I do not think that the presidents will have time to go into details [at the Paris meeting],” he said. “Possibly, they will discuss Russia-France interaction at the sextet and the United Nations at large. The leaders will compare their positions. In fact, there are no large disagreements between Russia and France.”

Toyota Chief to Visit China

BEIJING—Akio Toyoda's planned visit to Beijing reflects the importance for Toyota Motor Corp. of containing damage to its reputation in China's huge market, where the Japanese company was struggling even before its recent recall problems.
The 53-year-old Toyota president and grandson of the company's founder is expected to hold a press conference in the Chinese capital Monday to address quality concerns, the company said. He also is expected to meet with high-level government officials to remind them of the company's commitment to safety and quality, according to Toyota executives who briefed reporters Sunday night.
"Given China's strong sense of rivalry with the U.S., after we explained our situation to American lawmakers and apologized to U.S. customers last week, there isn't an option for Mr. Toyoda and the company to skip China," one U.S.-based senior Toyota executive, who is close to the Toyota president, said in a telephone interview Sunday.
Toyota's quality issues haven't been as severe in China as in the U.S., where it has recalled millions of cars over problems with accelerator pedals and other issues. In China, Toyota has recalled 75,552 RAV4 vehicles, a tiny fraction of the 8.5 million vehicles it has recalled world-wide.
But Toyota's overall recalls in China rose sharply last year—it recalled a total of 989,000 vehicles in China in 2009, up from the 209,000 in 2008. And China's quality watchdog warned in a notice late last week that there could be more Toyota cars in China affected by the current recalls, pointing to the existence of Toyota cars brought into China outside its formal distribution channels. A Toyota spokesman said the number of such cars in China should be "very small."
Toyota was late to expand in China, and it has lagged behind global rivals like Volkswagen AG and General Motors Co. That has hurt the company, as China overtook the U.S. last year as the world's biggest car market, with sales surging about 50% to 13 million vehicles, compared with just over 10 million in the U.S.
Toyota fell severely behind the market last year—its sales grew just 21% in 2009 to 700,900 vehicles—because it failed to provide cars that matched consumers' growing appetite for smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. China's government has encouraged the purchase of such cars through incentives and other stimulus measures, a policy the car maker didn't anticipate.
The planned China visit follows a multistop fence-mending tour in the U.S. last week during which Mr. Toyoda appeared before a Congressional committee to answer often-angry questions about Toyota's quality problems. He also apologized to victims of sudden acceleration accidents and to customers concerned about the spate of quality problems, and sought to reassure Toyota's dealers and workers that the company will regain its footing. The trip was highly emotional, with Mr. Toyoda occasionally choking up.
Sales of Toyota vehicles began picking up toward the end of last year, but the Toyota executive said it was deemed desirable for Mr. Toyoda to personally reach out to consumers here to contain any damage from the quality debacle.
Hitoshi Yokoyama, a Toyota spokesman, said it was tough to gauge the effect of the current problems on sales in China in part because the country's Lunar New Year holiday, during which retail sales tend to slow, fell in February this year but in January last year, making comparisons difficult.

A senior Beijing-based Toyota sales executive said sales have slowed "noticeably" in Beijing and Shanghai, where he said local media outlets reported more aggressively about Toyota's latest quality lapses. Southern China, a major market for Toyota in China, was more immune to the bad news, but Toyota is considering sales incentives or other measures to maintain customer traffic into showrooms, the executive said.
Liu Jiaxiang, a Toyota dealer in Shenzhen, said sales at his stores in southern China have been "steady" since late January. "What keeps me awake at night is a possible long-term erosion of customer confidence in the Toyota brand" because of the recall problem, he said.
Toyota has suffered criticism over a recall before in China. Last April it recalled 259,119 Camry sedans because of brake problems—the company's biggest single recall announcement in China. China Central Television, the state-run broadcaster, in a report on the brake problems featured an interview with a legal adviser from the China Consumers Association who accused Toyota of hiding the problem. Toyota issue the recall three days after that program aired.
Mr. Yokoyama, the Toyota spokesman, said the accusation it hid the problem was "completely groundless" and that the recall wasn't related to the CCTV report.

National Geographic Abu Dhabi to take viewers inside some of the world’s most inaccessible places

While many people might think twice about posing as an actor to sneak into North Korea or flying in a decrepit helicopter over Afghanistan, French journalist Diego Buñuel thrives on these treacherous adventures in some of the world’s most inaccessible countries. Beginning on March 5 at 22.00 (UAE), National Geographic Abu Dhabi’s Don’t tell my mother… follows Diego as he embarks on journeys through Afghanistan, Colombia, the Congo and North Korea – places often dismissed as violent, war-ravaged and corrupt. The four-part series is an eye-opening encounter that provides an insider’s look at life in these countries, from the effects of poverty and civil war to new hopes and the progress being made.
In Afghanistan, Diego’s journey gets off to a rough start when he finds the road to Kabul is closed and he must ride in a dilapidated helicopter. However, he finds the first of many positive surprises when he meets his female helicopter pilot. Banned from flying during the Taliban rule, she is once again able to take to the skies. There are other beacons of light popping up in this war-ravaged country. Diego visits the first mixed night club that entrepreneurs have opened in Kabul and he also meets the stars of Afghanistan’s first private TV station, which offers programmes such as Afghanistan’s version of American Idol. But after leaving Kabul, Diego finds that the country still has far to go. During his travels, Diego also takes the time to meet with a Russian ex-patriot living in Salang, and attends Buzkashi Day in Mazar, where he brushes with warlords overseeing one of the country’s oldest sports.
In Colombia, Diego puts a bullet-proof suit to the test after meeting a tailor who specialises in bullet-proof clothing – everything from bullet-proof underwear to suits. In a country that produces 80 per cent of the world’s cocaine, Diego goes on patrol with the farmers tasked with destroying cocaine plants one-by-one in the mine-littered fields of guerrilla country. Travelling to Medillin, Diego visits the abandoned home of notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar, where he tours Pablo’s dinosaur park full of towering dinosaur statues, and visits Pablo’s pet hippos. On Dead Man’s Road, Diego heads to Cali, where travelling at the wrong time of day can get you kidnapped. But despite the rampant civil war dividing the country, Colombia has made steps forward – in Picalena Prison, one warden has helped unite right-wing paramilitaries with left-wing guerrillas through an unlikely tactic: soccer.
While in the Congo, Diego follows UN peacekeepers and Congolese soldiers on a special mission to protect the mountain gorillas in one of Congo’s national parks. Many rebel bases and armed groups are also found in this park, and some of these groups are using the gorillas as pawns, killing the animals – and the rangers who protect them – in the hope of attracting international attention. Entering deep into the forest, Diego and the soldiers find the elusive gorillas, which pause long enough to take an inquisitive reach towards the cameras. Finally, Diego meets with a former beauty queen who is now preparing girls for the Miss HIV contest, created to help raise awareness about the disease.
Forced to leave behind his cell phone, GPS and even newspapers before entering the country, Diego must pose as an actor to enter North Korea. Every move he makes is constantly monitored, with two watchers ‘escorting’ him wherever he goes. Starting in the capital of Pyongyang, Diego is housed in a hotel built on an island to stop visitors from interacting with locals, and where all the rooms are bugged. Diego tours a fairground where children have the chance to ‘Kill American Imperialism’ in a shooting game, and venturing to the world’s largest stadium, Diego watches 100,000 dancers perform in celebration of 60 years of dictatorship. While this festivity paints an image of happiness and unity, the portrait is not quite as picturesque in the countryside…

Watch Don’t tell my mother… only on National Geographic Abu Dhabi:
Show
Date
Time (KSA)
Time (UAE)

Don't tell my mother…Afghanistan
5-Mar-10
21.00
22.00

Don't tell my mother…Colombia
12-Mar-10
21.00
22.00

Don't tell my mother…Congo
19-Mar-10
21.00
22.00

Don't tell my mother…North Korea
26-Mar-10
21.00
22.00

India, Saudi Arabia to sign about ten agreements

Around ten agreements, including an extradition treaty, is likely to be signed during the current visit of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Saudi Arabia.

A Riyadh Declaration is likely to cement the bilateral ties that have gone "beyond the normal cliches", Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor said in Riyadh.

"You may see language in the Riyadh Declaration you may not have seen before," Tharoor said while informally interacting with the media late Saturday night.

The prime minister is on a three-day visit leading a powerful delegation of ministers and officials.

It is the first visit of an Indian prime minister to Saudi Arabia in 28 years.

The Riyadh Declaration is likely to take forward the historic Delhi Declaration, signed during the visit of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz to India in 2006, had chalked out.

Around 10 agreements covering fields like security, science and technology, culture and media are likely to be signed during the course of the prime minister's visit, the highlight of which will be an extradition treaty between the two sides.

Calling for a wide-ranging strategic partnership between the two sides, the Delhi Declaration had charted out a new path for enhanced cooperation in energy and economic ties and a commitment by both sides to cooperate in the fight against terrorism.

Stating that there has been a qualitative change in relations between India and Saudi Arabia, Tharoor said: "It has gone beyond the normal cliches of bilateral relations. This is a relationship that has genuinely taken a leap forward."

According to the minister, when the Saudis use terms like strategic partnership, "one talks about a shared view of the world".

"We have seen the problem of so-called state terrorism. But we can sensitise our friends here on this," Tharoor said.

During parleys with King Abdullah Sunday night, the issue of regional security and anti-terrorism measures is likely to get top priority.

Regarding the issue of good Taliban and bad Taliban, Tharoor said the Indian side would make it very clear that there will be no place in the peace dialogue for those who try to enforce their extreme views on religion through the barrel of the gun.

"Those people who are called Taliban and who are willing to accept the democratic process and are willing to lay down arms and participate in the national integration of the Afghan country within the national system under (Afghan President) Hamid Karzai, such people India is willing to see coming," he said.

"Those who believe that pluralism is wrong, who believe in the extreme view of their religion and who want to enforce their views of their religion through the barrel of the gun, such people will have no place in the dialogue," Tharoor said.

"This is what we will be saying to the Saudi side. And I am sure the Saudis will not disagree."

"After 26/11, they were vociferous in their condemnation and sent a senior leader to India to express their views," the minister pointed out.

Pre-release Microsoft Windows 7 RC expires tomorrow

If, like us, you couldn’t wait to get your hands on the new Windows OS when the release candidate (RC) surfaced all those months ago, then you’ll have been seeing a rather annoying pop-up over the course of the last two weeks…

We actually got in on the action when the beta launched over a year ago but dutifully upgraded to the RC when it became available and over the course of the last two weeks Windows Activation reminders have been constantly popping up reminding us that;
“This pre-release version of Windows 7 Ultimate will expire in xxx days. To keep using Windows, back up your files, and then install any edition of Windows 7 Ultimate”
For people still running the RC OS, tomorrow is the beginning of the end. It was initially thought that the RC would be fully functioned until June 2010, and it will. Kind of.
From tomorrow, machines running the pre-release OS will periodically shut down every two hours, with no warning, so if you do intend to keep running it as long as you can, then you’ll want to keep on top of saving your work as you go.
This little elbow in the ribs will continue until June, at which point the release candidate software will be marked as non-genuine, and will boot your PC to a black screen telling you to install a genuine version of Microsoft Windows if you wish to continue using the OS.
To make matters a little worse, Microsoft doesn’t allow in-place upgrades from the RC to a genuine version of Windows 7. However, there is a way around this inability to upgrade, but it will only work if you want to upgrade to the Ultimate Edition as that was the build released as the RC.
If you want to know more about upgrading from the RC to a genuine copy then drop us a comment below and all will be revealed…

Pentagon Loosens Reins Over Facebook, Twitter, Web 2.0 Apps

The Department of Defense granted military personnel access to Facebook, Twitter, Google Apps and other user-generated applications in a Feb. 26 memorandum. The move followed a review that began last August after the U.S. Marines and U.S. Army released contrasting policies for social network site use. The DOD clearly is trying to strike a balance between national security and acceptable social communication and collaboration. How military personnel behave in the wake of this decision will determine how long the current policy stands.

The Department of Defense has loosened the reins over the use of Facebook, Twitter and other user-generated applications among its personnel, ending the maddening inconsistency of Web 2.0 application use among the military.

In a Feb. 26 memorandum covering the "safe and effective use of Internet-based capabilities," the DOD said the entire non-classified network may provide access to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other user-generated content and Web 2.0 applications, such as Google Apps, wikis and blogs.

"This directive recognizes the importance of balancing appropriate security measures while maximizing the capabilities afforded by 21st Century Internet tools," said Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn III.

However, the document also gave the right for military management to deny access to sites in the case of abusive use and punish users abusing those privileges. The memorandum noted:

"Commanders at all levels and heads of DoD components will continue to defend against malicious activity on military information networks, deny access to prohibited content sites (e.g., gambling, pornography, hate-crime related activities), and take immediate and commensurate actions, as required, to safeguard missions (e.g., temporarily limiting access to the Internet to preserve operations security or to address bandwidth constraints).

With this move, the DOD is tacitly acknowledging the value of social media and other modern tools in letting colleagues and soldiers communicate and collaborate with each other, as well as with the family and friends. However, the DOD is also trying to strike a balance between national security and acceptable social communication and collaboration.

David M. Wennergren, deputy assistant secretary of defense for information management and technology, told the American Forces Press Service:

"If you look at either one individually, you will fail,” Wennergren said. "You will have great security, but no ability to access information sharing. [Or], if you think only about sharing, you will run into issues of operational security and letting bad things into your system. So you can no longer think of them as two separate subjects."

How military personnel behave in the wake of this decision will determine how long the current policy stands. Abuse of the social network sites and other apps could just as easily result in a permanent ban on these sites by the DOD.

The decree should solidify what have been nebulous policies regarding social network site use in the military.

For example, last June the U.S. Army decided to let its personnel access Facebook and Twitter, but banned MySpace and YouTube.

In August, the U.S. Marine Corps halted the use of Facebook, MySpace and Twitter for the next year. The Marines noted:

"These Internet sites in general are a proven haven for malicious actors and content and are particularly high risk due to information exposure, user generated content and targeting by adversaries. The very nature of it creates a larger attack and exploitation window, exposes unnecessary information to adversaries and provides an easy conduit for information leakage that puts OPSEC, COMSEC, personnel and the MCEN at an elevated risk of compromise. Examples of Internet SNS Sites include Facebook, MySpace and Twitter."

Right after the Marines' decision, the Pentagon began reviewing the use of social network use among the DOD.

Palm Releases WebOS 1.4 To Sprint And Verizon, Adds Video Recording

Google's Android and Apple's iPhone OS are easily the leading two Mobile operating systems in terms of sheer mindshare, but the coemption is heating up. Microsoft has just launched Windows Phone 7 Series(slated to ship later in the year), and has just released their latest version of the multi-tasking webOS. Both the Pre and the Pixi are receiving the update, which has been distributed to both Sprint users and Verizon users (the latter of which own the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus).

WebOS 1.4 is the first major update for Palm's mobile smartphone operating system in quite some time, and the changes are fairly significant. The list of fixes include a time zone bug that has been squashed, a network time sync error that has been sealed up and a solution that does away with random browser formatting quirks and a bug that incorrectly displayed Sprint when actually was Digital Roaming.

The list of enhancements is even more robust, with video recording (and in-phone editing) being the highlight of the bunch. There's also the ability to upload videos to YouTube or Facebook, new export options from the address book, new e-mail sort options, a new application launcher and a new "Blink" option in Notifications. The full list of changes are below, and if you're an owner of one of these phones, you'll need to follow the instructions once Sprint or Verizon sends you an alert to say that the 39MB (Sprint) or 43MB (Verizon) file is ready to be downloaded onto your device. And then you can shoot a video about just how happy you are--imagine that!

First Media Launch FastNet Kids Internet Education Based Service and Safe Access for Children

Jakarta, Indonesia, 02/28/2010 - FastNet Kids is the first broadband internet access solution in Indonesia dedicated for children which offer a safe and controlled access through internet network system

PT First Media Tbk (First Media), the largest state-of-the-art broadband network provider in Indonesia, launched new feature called FastNet Kids in Jakarta, Wednesday (February 24th).

“We educate children on how to surf properly, safely, and get benefit in cyber space through FastNet Kids,” said Hengkie Liwanto, President Director First Media.

Hengkie engaged, First Media with over 10 years of entertainment experience in information technology and broadband communication network are very concern about education and character building for early childhood. He said, through FastNet Kids facility, parents and teachers do not have to worry about children activity in accessing the internet.

“We protect internet access automatically by filtering and blocking inappropriate websites. We became the pioneer in internet based education. FastNet Kids is a real evidence about our concern and seriousness to educate children as nations’ future generation by giving them a safe surfing to cyber space,” said Product Development General Manager First Media, Dedy Handoko.

Dedy explained, FastNet Kids is the first education based internet access in Indonesia that assured parents and computer teachers about the way to use an effective and useful internet access.

Dicky Moechtar, Corporate Sales Director First Media, said due to Indonesian Internet Service Provider Association (Asosiasi Penyelenggara Jasa Internet Indonesia/APJII) data, today only one of three parents in Indonesia used special software to block and filter websites to avoid inappropriate contents for their children.

“Now parents and teachers don’t have to “dizzy” anymore to setting computer, create password, and install application in their computer. FastNet Kids application will running automatically because this product is technology friendly,” said Dicky Moechtar.

“Users don’t have to dial before. FastNet Kids give unlimited upload and download data. Users can enjoy on-and-on internet connection for 24 hours a day, 7 days in a week, and 4 weeks a month,” Dedy Handoko explained.

Previously, First Media have launched FastNet internet service with 10 Mbps. This facility enable customers to watch high resolution video streaming without handicap (don’t have to download), enjoy online games, and download music and photo in very high speed access.

“This technology makes internet network access unlimited, so users are able to get benefit from the advance internet technology through any server devices, information, data, audio, video from anywhere,” Dicky Moechtar added.

First Media is the first internet provider in Indonesia that offer unlimited speed access of 10 Mbps to customers. This service is believed to bring important change in multimedia internet network access.

About PT First Media Tbk

PT First Media Tbk (firstmedia.com) established on January 16th 1994 with name PT Broadband Multimedia Tbk. The company provides a broadband communication network service and electronics signal distribution though broadband network.

With over 10 years of entertainment experience and the largest state-of-the-art broadband network in Indonesia, First Media combines fast-speed internet, entertainment options of cable, and business solutions of data communication as a response to the country’s evergrowing demand for fast and reliable Broadband service. First Media is making 3Triple-Play a reality in Indonesia.

First Media’s unique offering is its ability to provide 3 services under one broadband network. These products are FastNet ( Fast speed broadband Internet service), HomeCable ( Multi channel digital TV) and DataComm (business solution services).

In multimedia exhibition, Asian Art Museum captures Shanghai's vibrancy, present and past

SAN FRANCISCO — After an esteemed tradition of showcasing collections of ancient masterpieces, the Asian Art Museum steps boldly into the 20th and 21st centuries with "Shanghai," a vast new show tracing the visual culture of this ultramodern, forward-looking Chinese city, from 1850 to the present.

Today, Shanghai is a teeming center of commerce, a cosmopolitan city on the vanguard of art and design, with skyscrapers, 19 million people and big ambitions on the international stage. But, even when the British arrived in the 1800s, it was a thriving concern with a population of 400,000, rather than the backwater of Western myth.
Since it was designated a treaty port in 1842 by England and China, Shanghai has beckoned to the world, rapidly evolving into a mecca for finance and a haven for Chinese fleeing rebellion and immigrant communities seeking economic opportunity. A hotbed of political tumult and artistic debate, the city, as the show amply demonstrates, has been and remains attuned to the new, embracing Western influences while retaining its distinctly Chinese character.
An eclectic overview encompassing 160 years and multiple art movements, the exhibition is short on historical context or depth and without a linear chronology to firmly anchor it; nonetheless, it's crammed with cool stuff. Loosely organized into a four-chapter format (Beginnings, High Times, Revolution and Shanghai Today) with intersecting subplots (if this sounds
a bit confusing, it is), the show's some 130 works include richly expressive oil and ink paintings, dramatic, sometimes politically charged woodblock prints, fabulous art deco furnishings, vibrantly colorful propaganda posters, watercolors, contemporary art installations and edgy videos laced with social commentary, as well as film clips from the city's heyday as the cinema capital of China. "The show has the ability to transport you to a distant place that also feels familiar in a strange way," observes Dr. Michael Knight, the museum's senior curator of Chinese art. "I hope people experience some of Shanghai's complexity and that they'll come away with an interest in learning more. We're just scratching the surface here and want this to be a point of entry for further exploration. There are a lot of little tidbits that will get people's attention and get them curious."
Any mention of attention-grabbing works must include oil and ink paintings rarely, if ever, seen outside of China, by great masters, such as Liu Haisu, a leading innovator of Western-influenced art partial to Cézanne, Van Gogh and Picasso, and his competitor, the more conservative, Xu Beihong, who studied in France. (Most Shanghai artists studied Western techniques in Japan.) Tao Lengyue's delicate ink painting "Plum Blossoms Under the Moon, 1934," a moody depiction of a gnarled blossoming tree bathed in blue-gray twilight, is magical.
One of the exhibit's more dynamic sections chronicles the so-called High Times of the 1920s and '30s. The period represented an apex of sophistication, glamour, fashion, graphic art, Western-style oil painting and progressive thought. Women enjoyed a level of independence in Shanghai unknown in the rest of China at the time, and images of seductive, chic, smartly dressed young models grace the covers of magazines like The Movie World, which features Zhou Manhua, a popular screen actress, or are laid out in front of the city's shimmering nighttime skyline as in Yuan Xiutang's "A Prosperous City That Never Sleeps, 1930s," enticing visitors with a promise of exoticism and excitement.
However, in keeping with its legacy of duality, Shanghai was also a notorious open city. Known as the Paris of the East, it was home to a thriving sex trade, gun-toting gangsters, glittery nightclubs and opium dens. Two prominent underworld bosses of the infamous Green Gang are immortalized in Yu Ming's disconcertingly dignified painting "Huang Jinrong and Du Yuesheng, 1924," the only surviving portrait of the pair, who, here, are seated in a serene garden, their faces so realistic they appear to be photographs superimposed on painted bodies.
"To paraphrase from Dickens, this period of Shanghai history represented the best of times and the worst of times," Knight says. "The use and abuse of people was prevalent. In many ways, life was cheap."
Exploitation, decadence and the chasm between lavish displays of wealth and crushing poverty triggered a backlash as early as the 1930s, and full-scale repression following Mao's takeover in 1949.
Mao singled out Shanghai as the embodiment of bourgeois excess, and the crackdown there was especially draconian. Despite severe restrictions imposed by the communist regime, the city's artists continued to create works of aesthetic beauty. Shen Roujian's "Evening Glow on the Huangpu River, 1955," a dreamy woodblock, ink and watercolor rendition of the city's main shipping artery at sunset, couldn't be lovelier; brilliantly colored, propaganda posters such as "Parade on Huangpu River, 1950" are as eye-catching as Mao intended; and, painter Zhang Longji humanizes, rather than exalts, a common laborer softly lit by the glow of a furnace in "Power Distribution Worker, 1957-59."
In the last galleries, devoted to Shanghai today, the convergence of East and West, tradition and modernity, that have defined the city throughout its history, assumes tangible form in two large, horizontal ink paintings. Exhibited side by side, both Li Huayi's "Forest, 2004" and "The Dimension of Ink No. 1, 2008" by Zheng Chongbin are enigmatic, theatrical and fuse past and present in their own distinct ways. (Both artists divide their time between Shanghai and the Bay Area.)
Inspired by the Surrealists' use of shadow for visual and psychological effect, monumental Chinese landscape and Francis Bacon's dramatic manipulation of space, Zheng Chongbin ventures into pure abstraction in this painting, which resembles a giant Rorschach test with velvety blacks, hollow X-ray tones and splashes of white acrylic and fixer that lend a sense of depth and mystery. Li Huayi, rooted in Abstract Expressionism and a tension between formal structure and chance, recalls the lineage of Chinese landscape in his ink wash of an enchanted wood haunted by the unconscious mind.
"Today, artists utilize ink in a postmodern, theoretical, abstract sense," Knight says, "tradition in postmodern terms, that brings us back to the old artistic debate: Can you do ink on paper or paint with traditional materials and still be contemporary? It's a long-standing question that goes back to the very beginnings of Shanghai."

Canada sees double, Chinese sweep

Canada's Charles Hamelin (C) displays his two gold medals together with his relay team mates Olivier Jean (L), Francois Hamelin (R, front), and Francois-Louis Tremblay after the men's 5000 metres relay short track speed skating final at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics February 26, 2010. Charles Hamelin won the gold in the men's 5000 metres relay and the men's 500 metres competitions.

Credit: Reuters/Jerry Lampen

VANCOUVER (Reuters) - Canada's short track men triggered wild party scenes among home fans with two Olympic gold medals in half an hour on Friday and China completed a clean sweep of the women's titles.

Sports

Charles Hamelin avoided a last-corner collision caused by 2006 champion Apolo Anton Ohno to win the 500 meters before helping his team survive a crowded 5,000 relay final to make up for losing the title on the last lap to South Korea in 2006.
"They will be going crazy in Quebec, they will be going crazy in Montreal, party all night," Hamelin told reporters. "I got two gold medals in 30 minutes and it's incredible."
China's Wang Meng won her third gold of the Vancouver Games, adding the 1,000 meter title to her 500 and relay golds. Zhou Yang had triumphed in the 1,500 meters.
"I don't feel these three gold medals belong to me. What is important is that the Chinese short track team has won four (gold) medals," the ginger-haired Wang told reporters.
Hamelin had endured a frustrating Games but made up for it by taking the 500 crown from American Ohno, who was disqualified for knocking over South Korea's Sung Si-bak and Canadian Francois-Louis Tremblay just before the finish.
KISS GIRLFRIEND
While Hamelin kissed girlfriend Marianne St Gelais, who won silver in the women's 500, without waiting for the official result, Ohno sensed he would be disqualified as he circled the ice with an air of resignation despite crossing the line second.
The referee watched the replay and Ohno's suspicions were confirmed when Sung was awarded silver and Tremblay bronze.
"There was no space ... I had so much speed, I put my hand up so as not to run into the Canadian but it was out of my control," Ohno said.
Hamelin returned to the ice half an hour later to steer Canada to the relay title in a race featuring 20 skaters on the ice at the same time, making a normally hectic event chaotic. France had been advanced to make it five teams instead of four.
Hamelin, roared on every time he was pushed into the race, almost lost it for Canada with five laps to go as he slipped on the ice and almost tripped over but he regained his balance.
The Koreans took the silver and raised eyebrows with their unconventional celebrations. They unfurled a large Korean flag on the center of the rink and all knelt down and bowed their heads in unison.
The non-Koreans in the stands whistled the gesture, perhaps believing the Asian powerhouse, who had won the other two men's titles, were trying to steal Canada's moment of glory.
"We bowed in the direction of our coaches as we wanted to show them our thanks," Kwak Yoon-gy told a news conference.
The United States grabbed the bronze to hand Ohno his third medal of the Games and eighth in three Olympics.
None of Ohno's medals were gold this time but China's Wang completed a hat-trick of top prizes in Vancouver.
She survived a near collision with South Korea's Park Seung-hi and American Katherine Reutter on a bend with three laps to go in the 1,000 final but kept her nose in front to cross the line first. Reutter took silver and Park bronze.

MIDEAST: How to Check Both Iran and Israel

Analysis by Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler

TEL AVIV, Feb 27, 2010 (IPS) - The U.S. is raising the stakes in its bid to halt Iran's nuclear programme, putting the issue on a "pressure track", says top U.S. general David Petraeus. The U.S. and other world powers are drumming up support for a fourth round of UN sanctions against Iran for its refusal to comply with repeated ultimatums to suspend uranium enrichment and to agree to a deal involving UN-backed nuclear fuel.

Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central command, said the Obama administration intends to "send the kind of signal to Iran about the very serious concerns that the countries in the region and, indeed, the entire world have about Iran's activities in the nuclear programme."

In parallel, his commander, Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff who just returned from the Middle East, made a point of warning that any military strike against Iran would not be "decisive" in countering Tehran's nuclear programme.

The top U.S. military commanders were speaking on the eve of talks in Washington with Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak.

For now, both Barak and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have lined up solidly behind the U.S.-led attempt to gain Security Council approval for sanctions against Tehran. However, in Netanyahu's description this week, the sanctions must be "crippling".

The Israeli leaders have been careful not to express publicly any doubts about the U.S. strategy. But there remain residual misgivings here whether sanctions will indeed go through at the UN. And, whether they will work.

That was what lay behind Mullen's pointed recent visit to Tel Aviv.

The motive for the U.S. admiral's visit was unexpectedly transparent - his purpose not only to coordinate policy with Israel, but to restrain Israel from independent action.

Although re-emphasising that President Obama has made his policy abundantly clear - "Iran cannot have nuclear weapons," Mullen addressed the persistent speculation that Israel has not abandoned its ongoing preparations for a possible pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.

If a regional confrontation were to break out following a strike on Iran, the U.S. military chief said bluntly, "it would be a big, big, big problem for all of us. I worry a great deal about the unintended consequences of a strike."

To underline this concern, Mullen took the almost unprecedented step of convening a short news conference at the U.S. embassy here before entering meetings with Barak and Israel's military command.

He even agreed to be interviewed by the three main Israeli television stations, using the opportunity again to caution that Israel should exercise complete restraint and do nothing to disturb U.S. coordination of the international sanctions drive.

Mullen's strictures were an echo of the last time he was in Israel 18 months ago when he was dispatched by the Bush Administration to deliver a similar message that Israel should not think of going it alone in trying to neutralise the perceived threat from Iran.

Mullen did, however, reiterate the U.S. assessments that unless the Iranian nuclear programme is halted, Tehran could make a nuclear bomb "within one to three years."

The Israeli prime minister seems to have absorbed the message.

When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned that Iran would side with Syria and Lebanon if attacked by Israel, Netanyahu made the point of stating categorically that Israel "was not planning any wars", blasting the Iranian president for trying to "manipulate the situation" in a bid to head off the sanctions drive.

So, where does all this leave Israeli concerns about Iran?

The answer may be in another candid interview - with Israel's UN ambassador, Gabriella Shalev. Asked by Israeli reporters in Washington, "Why is Israel recently so calm regarding Iran?" she responded, "We are very anxious. But...if the Security Council will not impose on Iran what Secretary Clinton called 'crippling sanctions,' we'll end up just having the individual states working together on this issue."

Shalev expressed concern that the Security Council "can be paralysed" because of the veto power of the five permanent members. "It took some time for the new U.S. administration to figure out that the UN is not what they hoped for. Now they realise the complexities," she added quite undiplomatically.

Pressed on the possibility of the Israeli pre-emptive strike, she said frankly, "It's one of the options and all options are on the table. It's one of the bad options, though we don't think it's as bad as Iran having nuclear weapon. For us it's an existential threat."

Pressed further whether the U.S. and Israel were still on the same page, the Israeli ambassador said, "I'm sure yes we are. The U.S. fully understands the threat. There are two very bad possibilities: That Iran will go forward and end up with a bomb - just imagine that terrorist groups on our border will have this terrible weapon; and, the second is war. We hope neither of these possibilities occurs."

If, back in Jerusalem official Israel is being particularly careful not to express such public doubts about whether sanctions will eventually be effective, this is not true of some informed experts.

Emily Landau, a senior research associate at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, and an expert on arms control and regional security, writes in Haaretz: "If we assume that ultimately there will be sanctions, so what? The involvement with sanctions, who's for and who's against, when, why and to what extent, deflects from the primary problem - the absence of an American strategy for tough negotiations with Iran."

At this stage, the problem is not so much whether Israel will disrupt the U.S. sanctions strategy, but a still deep-rooted conviction held by many in Israel that the Obama Administration might be beginning, in Landau's phrase, "to resign itself not only to the fact that Iran will continue to enrich uranium, but also to recognition that the Islamic republic could ultimately build a nuclear bomb."

Which is why, unless sanctions prove to be working and Tehran is really made to shift its determined stance that it has the right to develop a nuclear capability as it itself sees fit, the potential for open confrontation will keep haunting the region. And, will keep bedeviling the diplomatic attempts to defuse global tensions on several fronts.

Iran bank wins case against UK sanctions

A Bank Mellat building

Iran's Bank Mellat has reportedly won a preliminary court case against British sanctions at the High Court of Justice in London.

The British Treasury moved in October to forbid any financial company within the UK to do business with Bank Mellat over its alleged connections with Tehran's nuclear program and missile development.

In recent months, the Iranian bank has been fighting to overturn the Treasury ruling and finally made a breakthrough on Thursday when High Court Justice John Mitting ruled against the imposition of British penalties on the bank.

According to the High Court, under the European Convention on Human Rights, Bank Mellat is entitled to information about allegations against it.

The Judge said the Treasury ruling directly impinges "on the bank's civil rights and obligations" and that any restriction on the bank's activity resulting in the loss of shareholders' capital, “is illegal and in breach of human rights.”

He explained that the British Treasury would have a hard time finding compelling evidence to substantiate its accusations against Bank Mellat.

To pressure Tehran over its nuclear program, Western powers, particularly Britain and the UK, have imposed unilateral sanctions on a number of Iranian-owned banks, namely Melli, Saderat, and Sepah, and have demanded that world financial institutions follow suit

Dance, drums and dope in Pakistan's festival of happiness

FOR THOSE who think Pakistan is all hardliners, all the time, three activities at an annual festival here may come as a surprise.  Thousands of Muslim worshippers paid tribute to the patron saint of the eastern city of Lahore this month by dancing, drumming and smoking pot.  It is not an image one ordinarily associates with Pakistan, a country whose tormented western border region dominates the news. But it is an important part of how Islam is practised here, a tradition that goes back a thousand years to Islam's roots in South Asia.  It is Sufism, a mystical form of Islam brought into South Asia by wandering thinkers who spread the religion east from the Arabian peninsula. They carried a message of equality that was deeply appealing to indigenous societies riven by caste and poverty. To this day, Sufi shrines stand out in Islam for allowing women free access.  In modern times, Pakistan's Sufis have been challenged by a stricter form of Islam that dominates in Saudi Arabia. That orthodox, often political, Islam was encouraged in Pakistan in the 1980s by the American-supported dictator, Muhammad Zia ul-Haq.  Since then, the fundamentalists' aggressive stance has tended to eclipse that of their moderate kin, whose shrines and processions have become targets.  But if last week's stomping, twirling, singing, drumming kaleidoscope of a crowd is any indication, Sufism still has a powerful appeal.  ''There are bomb blasts all around, but people don't stay away,'' said a 36-year-old bank teller, Najibullah. ''When the celebration comes, people have to dance.''  Worshippers came from all over Pakistan to commemorate the death of the saint Ali bin Usman al-Hajveri, an 11th-century mystic.  Known today as Data Ganj Baksh, or Giver of Treasures, the Persian-speaking mystic journeyed to Lahore with Central Asian invaders, according to Raza Ahmed Rumi, a Pakistani writer and expert on Sufism. He settled outside the city, a stopover on the trade route to Delhi, started a meditation centre and wrote a manual on Sufi practices, Rumi said.  The joyful dancing and drumming last week was part of a natural rhythm of life that after nearly 10 centuries is as much about culture as it is about faith.  ''It's a festival of happiness!'' shouted a cook, Muhamed Nadim, over the din, when asked what was being celebrated. ''People feel comfort here.''  Vast crowds of men walked barefoot, pushing past police barricades and vendors selling fabrics and sweets.  Brightly lit bookstores remained open, their owners gazing out at the crowds. One of those owners, Naeem Ashraf Rizvi, settled easily into a conversation with a foreigner about life in Pakistan. The overwhelming majority of Pakistanis are Sufi, he said, and despise violence inflicted by some of the more hardline Deobandis, the school of thought that was supported by General Zia.  Last year was Pakistan's worst for militant attacks since 2001, with the death toll more than triple what it was in 2006.  ''Sufis have not spread terrorism,'' Mr Rizvi said, his small daughter on his lap. ''We are its victims.'' The violence, he said, has damaged not only Pakistan, but also the reputation of Muslims, who he said ''are seen with suspicious gazes everywhere in the world''.  ''We are condemning the violence, but no one is listening to us.''  Worse than the violence, Mr Rizvi said, was the weakness of the government, which seemed unable to accomplish much of anything.  Nor was a military takeover the answer. The only solution, he said, was a revolution by the people, such as the one in Iran in 1979.  But in Pakistan, where illiteracy is rampant and leaders are more focused on jockeying for power than fulfilling a political vision, that is a distant wish.  ''Everyone is quiet,'' he said. ''They are not listening yet. They are sleeping.''

XP SP2 and Vista RTM Bow Out, Upgrade to Windows 7

Time is near for older editions of Windows that have run their course to bow out and leave the stage to the latest versions of the platform, Windows 7. It is the natural evolution course for all Microsoft software products, outlined in detail on in the company’s Support Lifecycle Policy. Next to go will be the release of Windows XP which established the operating system’s dominance on the OS market for the vast majority of the past decade, and the Windows Vista version which contributed to enabling XP’s dominance to endure. Both Windows variants will reach the End of Support milestone.

Windows Vista RTM was ostracized long ago, a process started even before the operating system was launched, but which only found additional fuel after the January 2007 General Availability deadline. Few will be those shedding a tear for the successor of XP, which was extensively criticized for being inferior to the OS it was designed to replace, especially in terms of device driver support, software compatibility and performance. April 13th, 2010, will bring with it the End of Support for Windows Vista RTM, namely the original release of the OS with no service packs installed.

But parting ways with Windows XP Service Pack 2 is a whole different matter altogether. SP2 took Windows XP to a stage in the operating system’s evolution which many, including Microsoft’s own, saw as equivalent to the release of a new Windows client. Light years away from XP RTM or XP SP1, SP2 made XP the ubiquitous OS that it still is today. On July 13th, 2010, Windows XP SP2 will also reach the End of Support milestone. XP will be accompanied by Windows 2000.

“All editions of Windows 2000 will reach the end of the Extended Support phase on July 13, 2010. This will be the end of support for Windows 2000,” revealed Jared Proudfoot, Group program manager, Microsoft Support Lifecycle. “Windows Server 2003 will also undergo a support transition later this year. On July 13, 2010 all editions of Windows Server 2003 will be moving from the Mainstream Support phase to the Extended Support phase.”
What does End of Support mean?

What is critical to underline is the fact that all unsupported version of Windows are no longer served software updates via Windows Update. The highest impact is associated with the lack of security updates. Microsoft, as do all members of the software industry, constantly update their products with fixes designed to resolve security vulnerabilities. Without security updates, Windows operating systems become exposed to exploits targeting security flaws, which will allow attackers to potentially gain control of an affected system and to execute code remotely. In addition, Microsoft also uses Windows Update in order to deliver the latest software updates for reliability, stability, performance, application compatibility, hardware drivers support, etc. End of Support means that Windows will be effectively stuck in the same place, and will no longer evolve in the least.

“As you may recall, at the end of the Extended Support phase, Business & Developer products are no longer publicly supported, although Self-Help Online support (such as Microsoft online Knowledge Base articles, FAQs, troubleshooting tools, and other resources) will be available for a minimum of 12 months after the product reaches the end of its support. This means that there is no more paid support, no support assistance and no further security updates. Due to this, customers are highly encouraged to move to a supported product as soon as possible,” Proudfoot stated.

End of Support is not equivalent with the death of Windows, for either XP or Vista. Both operating systems will continue to run under normal parameters for as long as the customer desires. Still, XP and Vista users that will decide to stick with their current versions of the platforms will no longer be protected against new exploits/attacks released, and in addition, will find that in the future they won’t be able to install and run new versions of software or the latest hardware products made available, as developers and manufacturers will also no longer support XP SP2 and Vista RTM.

“Keeping your PC up to date and as safe as possible is something that people need to think about beyond just being on the latest service pack. I want to remind everyone of the benefits of keeping Windows Update turned on. Through Windows Update, not only are you provided with the latest security updates and service packs for Windows at no cost, but also the latest updates to products such as Internet Explorer 8 and Microsoft Security Essentials,” said Brandon LeBlanc, Windows Communications manager on the Windows Client Communications Team.

The solution? Upgrade!

Windows XP SP2 & Windows 2000 - It’s not recommended, even in the least, for XP SP2 customers to continue running their current operating system. The obvious solution involves upgrading to Windows 7, as the latest iteration of Windows offers a superior user experience. However, in the context in which jumping to Windows 7 is not possible, for various reasons, customers should at least upgrade to XP SP3. As is the case for all Microsoft service packs, XP SP3 is available for download free of charge. The same is valid for Windows 2000 users, who also need to make the jump at least to XP SP3, although Windows 7 is the best choice. Windows XP SP3 will be supported until 2014.

Windows Vista RTM – Users of this particular version of Vista have the least amount of time available to upgrade. While SP1 continues to be a valid choice, customers need to consider upgrading to SP2 instead. Particularly since deploying SP2 actually requires deploying SP1 beforehand. Of course, as is the case for XP SP2 and Windows 2000, users might find that the best solution would be to embrace Windows 7. For both XP and Vista customers, Microsoft is offering the Upgrade Advisor, a piece of software designed to assess computers for their readiness in terms of accommodating Windows 7.

Windows 2000 – “Those enterprise customers who are unable to complete their migration to a supported product before July 13, 2010 may also want to consider the Custom Support program. Custom Support provides customers with the opportunity to receive support on legacy versions of some Microsoft products and service packs that have reached the end of support. This program may help fill the gap for customers who are actively migrating, but will not be able to finish prior to the end of support deadline. For additional details on Custom Support, please contact your local Microsoft representative or Technical Account Manager,” Proudfoot stated.

Yahoo! and the future of search

YoelleMaarek says the search deal with Microsoft will allow Yahoo! to focus on front-end search innovations  Photo: Yahoo! 

Yahoo! and Microsoft’s multi-million pound search deal was given the green light last week by both the US and European regulators. The arrangement, which will see Microsoft’s search technology power Yahoo!’s search engine for the next decade, will probably go totally unnoticed by users of both services, as it is no more than back-end tweaking.
But what does the union really mean for the future of Yahoo!’s search offering, ambitions and the overall search market? To some, Yahoo!'s decision to "outsource" its search operation (in exchange for managing the search advertising business of both companies) is a sign that it has ducked out of the search war that's raging between Google and its competitors, including Microsoft's own Bing platform.
 indeed, even Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder, said it was a "shame" that Yahoo! was apparently exiting the market, as it had some interesting ideas. “I think Yahoo! had a number of innovations there, and I wish they would continue to innovate in search,” he told delegates at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco last year. However, according to Yoelle Maarek, senior director of Yahoo! Research, nothing could be further from the truth. The deal, she explains, should be seen as liberating Yahoo! to focus on front-end search innovations, rather than spending time and money on ensuring the back-end technology is working well. If anything, says Maarek, the Microsoft deal has freed the company up to start fighting the search war in the most important area – the bit the consumer can see. Yahoo!’s search teams are planning to launch several new initiatives in this area over the coming months, to try and steal share from search Goliath Google, and also, somewhat confusingly, from Bing, the search platform of Microsoft, its new partner.
It’s useful to contextualise Yahoo!’s current search performance. In January 2010, its search engine recorded eight million unique users in the UK, versus Bing’s seven million and Google’s whopping 31.8 million, according to Nielsen Online’s latest figures. It’s current share of the UK search market is joint with Bing at four per cent, while Google accounts for 86 per cent. However, the picture differs slightly in the US, with Yahoo! accounting for 14 per cent of the search market during January 2010, Bing (combined with its traffic from Windows Live and MSN) coming in with 11 per cent and Google out in front with a proportionately smaller 66 per cent.
Maarek, a former Google engineering director at its Haifa Engineering Center, which she founded in 2006, believes that Yahoo! has always been quicker and better than its rivals at innovating in search – but has never got the credit.
“When I worked at Google – my team launched ‘Google Suggest’ [a tool which offers users similar searches while they are typing]. But this was a year after Yahoo! launched essentially same tool, ‘Yahoo! Assist. It’s just no one took enough notice and we need to get better at publicising our products.”
Over the coming months, Maarek says Yahoo! is focusing on three core search areas. Firstly the company is investing in lots of research and “data crunching” to understand how its search engine can better anticipate a person’s "intent" when they enter a search term – for instance, how it can discern whether a person is looking for business news, the record label or the fruit if they enter the search term 'apple'.
Secondly there are new tools being built upon and promoted to make searching via Yahoo! easier and help the company “establish a dialogue” with its users, according to Maarek. ‘Search Pad’ is one of these initiatives. It is a note-taking application which automatically assists a user in saving the addresses of the websites they are visiting on a virtual pad. It helps users collect, edit, organise, save, print and email their notes for immediate or future use. However, unless a user is logged into a Yahoo! account, it will not save or send a user the URLs after the browser window is shut down.
Thirdly, Yahoo! is trying to build upon is ‘web of things’ concept – the idea that the web should be seen as an entity built up of ‘objects’ rather than documents. This should be reflected in the way search results are presented. For instance, if a user searched for Lady Gaga, then instead of receiving a list of blue links, the search results will be presented like a mini newspaper – with a variety of types of result including, images, ticket offers, videos (presented as videos and not just links) and news articles.
But despite these innovations, which cynics would predict will go largely unnoticed while Google reigns supreme, why does Yahoo! still bother trying to up its search game when the market share figures stay pretty consistently in the same order: Google top, everyone else bottom. Maarek smiles and says: “Yahoo! has always been about content and its verticals. Google has never been about content. We started life as a directory with search – that tried to intelligently curate the internet – which is what everyone else is attempting to do now. When you have content – you have to have an excellent search function to reap the full benefits.
“When people come to Yahoo!, which they might do through Google or Bing, they start with one given need – for example to read about France – which then changes into another need – such as booking a flight to France. We have to give them the tools to search for those needs as they change while they are with us – and it needs to be the best service possible. Our aim is not to compete with Google head-on just in search – we are an internet media company trying to provide a holistic service which caters for a users’ entire set of web needs.”
Yahoo! Mail and its portal figures are very healthy and compare well against Google and Microsoft – especially in the US. It has also just announced an interesting partnership with Twitter which will see tweets added to its search results – giving its users a more ‘real-time’ experience – as well becoming a Twitter client that enables people to send tweets while using Yahoo!’s products.
However, despite Maarek’s optimism that web users are not loyal and could change from using Google search to Yahoo!’s service if they found it to be better, many people don’t seem to want to change their search habits. The goalposts are moving all the time, too: Google is also innovating at a fierce pace, and is pretty good at publicising it.
The most compelling argument, however, that Yahoo! presents for its reason to keep fighting the search war is to ensure there is a rival to the major player. That forces everyone to keep on innovating, and that's good news for users. Yahoo! and Microsoft’s deal will take a good year to bed in, but if it does help facilitate better innovation and healthier competition in the search market, then it could be worth the wait.

Tablet PC News Dell vs Apple, and then some

Tablets Wars begin, just the mention of the word tablet and Apple’s iPad comes to mind. But with that much Buzz on a product there will be challanges, other companies are busy building their own version of a touch-enabled, multimedia-sporting, slab of portable computing goodness. Microsoft, Dell, Apple and many more are now in a tablet pc war.

First off – a quick definition of a tablet computing device. It falls between the smart phone and the netbook in terms of computing power, size and portability, and is keyboardless, using touch input instead, similar to the iPhone.

While the iPad will run on a version of the iPhone operating system designed for ultra-mobile devices, several others, including the HP Slate, are designed to work on a scaled-down version of the Windows 7 operating system.

The HP Slate is easily the biggest competitor to Apple’s iPad right now. It was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January of this year by no less than Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer who demonstrated how well it will work with Windows 7 as well its ability to double as an e-book reader by running the PC version of Amazon’s Kindle software.

This alone is challenging Apple’s notion of revolutionising the publishing industry and, as Ballmer said, it is “almost as powerful as a PC”, but crucially Apple has the App Store and the iPhone’s legacy of a huge back catalogue of transferable apps at its fingertips.

Remember Asus, the company that kick-started the netbook phenomenon with the EEE PC? Unsurprisingly, these guys also have their own tablet device – in concept form – that runs on the Android operating system, so like the Streak it has the advantage of an open developer community, lacking the App Store restrictions that can slow down third-party developers working the iPhone.

The 10-inch Adam tablet device from Indian start-up Notion Ink is probably one of the most tangible of devices on the market right now. It is set to come to market in the second quarter of 2010 – around the same time as the iPad – and will have a price tag anywhere between $300 and $800 but one of the sexiest-looking tablets has got to be the Vega from Innovative Converged Devices: this has a whooping 15.6-inch screen and will be on sale in the UK before the end of the year.

Lenovo has revamped its line of ThinkPad tablets and laptops to take advantage of the latest technology from both Intel and Microsoft. These new PCs are not only designed for enterprise users, but also for small businesses that need solid computing technology despite a tighter budget. The most noteworthy of these PCs is the ThinkPad X201 tablet. Lenovo decided against a slate-style tablet in order to create a convertible tablet that addresses business needs.

Dell’s first effort at a tablet will be the Mini 5 (a name that is still in beta) — a slice of plastic and glass with a 5-inch capacitive touchscreen that according to Michael Dell will debut “in a couple of months.”

The Mini 5 will sport a 5-megapixel camera on the back, a separate front-facing camera that can be used for video conferencing, a standard 3.5-mm headphone jack, Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1-GHz processor.

The 5-inch screen also means it will be be closer to the Sony PSP in its form factor than the longer legal notepad design of the iPad.

The Mini 5 will run the latest version of Google’s Android operating system, version 2.0 or higher. And instead of the 4:3 aspect ratio of the iPad, Dell’s tablets will support the 16:9 ratio. Widescreen films anyone?

“It’s a device optimized for media consumption,” Neeraj Choubey, general manager of the tablets division at Dell told Wired.com. “It will offer the full Web-browsing experience so you have something that you are holding in your hand that replaces everything the smartphone does and takes on quite a bit of the features of a laptop.”

The Dell 5 Mini will also just be the first in a series.

“We are going to have a family of tablets,” says Choubey. “The first one is a 5-inch screen but we want to scale that up to a variety of screen sizes.”

That means future versions of the Mini 5 could have larger screens that will be closer in size to the iPad.

Dell wouldn’t comment on pricing, beyond saying it will be “competitive,” or when it will launch this year. Apple’s iPad ranges from $500 to $830.

With the launch of iPad in January, the tablet PCs are going through a renaissance.

Though PC makers have offered slates and convertible notebooks for nearly a decade, consumers haven’t bought them in droves. With its 9.7-inch display, sleek design and Apple’s relentless hype, the iPad could alter the way we experience mobile computing. And Dell knows this.

Three years ago, Dell started expanding its product line to include mobile products. Dell smartphones are now sold in Brazil and China and it hopes to bring a version to North America. Meanwhile, the company set up a tablet division, and three weeks ago Choubey joined Dell from venture capital firm Venrock.

As he sees it, the Mini 5 will offer the apps that are available on smartphones, a set of specialized tools and programs for business users, a strong movies-and-music experience and Web surfing — Flash and all included. Take that, iPad.

Along with the apps on the Mini 5, users will have quick access to e-mail, YouTube, Amazon’s MP3 store for music, as well as spreadsheet, presentation maker and documents. It will also support voice recognition.

And these are characteristics that will be common to all tablets from Dell.

Still it will be a hard sell to consumers, says Van Baker, an analyst with research firm Gartner.

“If all you are bringing to the market is another media-playing or handheld-gaming device, then it’s not going to work,” he says. “It’s all about the services you have behind the device.”

And that’s where the iPad scores, with its strong developer ecosystem and 100,000 apps, along with iTunes and iBooks, says Baker.

Dell is betting it can offer that and add a compelling value proposition for business users: a promise that its tablet won’t just be a coffee-table device but instead a powerful productivity tool.

“There’s no reason why you can’t use the tablet to take notes in class,” he says.

Dell will also offer services such as syncing that will allow users to move music, documents and other data between their PC and tablet easily.

“At a very basic level, you would have a service that will share content across the devices seamlessly and have it in the cloud,” says Choubey.

Dell also hopes to draw on the Android ecosystem by offering developers the opportunity to port their Android apps to the Mini 5 and its successors.

For the Mini 5, though, its PlayStation Portable-like form factor could be a big drawback, says Baker. The Dell Mini 5 is closer in its looks to gadgets better known as mobile internet devices or MIDs, a category that has been languishing despite products from companies such as Lenovo and Archos.

“If the Dell Mini 5 is this small and it is pocketable, then why isn’t it a phone?” asks Baker. “If I am going to carry a second device, it better have something that’s a significant advantage over what I can do with my phone. With the iPad, the value proposition is a much larger display.”

But Choubey says the innovation is not just in the form factor but also in the business model. Dell will work with carriers to bundle inexpensive data plans for the Mini 5 and other tablets.

“That type of model — the way iPad was able to do with AT& T — will become more prevalent with these tablet devices,” he says. “It allows the carrier to increase number of devices per user.”

Apple introduced a $15 for 250 MB, or an unlimited $30 a month, no-contract data plan for use with the iPad.

Apple admits using child labour in China

Apple has admitted that child labour was used at the Chinese factories that build its computers, iPods and mobile phones. 

Apple has been repeatedly criticised for using factories that abuse workers and where conditions are poor 

 

At least eleven 15-year-old children were discovered to be working last year in three factories which supply Apple.
The company did not name the offending factories, or say where they were based, but the majority of its goods are assembled in China.
Apple also has factories working for it in Taiwan, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, the Czech Republic and the United States.
Apple said the child workers are now no longer being used, or are no longer underage. "In each of the three facilities, we required a review of all employment records for the year as well as a complete analysis of the hiring process to clarify how underage people had been able to gain employment," Apple said, in an annual report on its suppliers.
Apple has been repeatedly criticised for using factories that abuse workers and where conditions are poor. Last week, it emerged that 62 workers at a factory that manufactures products for Apple and Nokia had been poisoned by n-hexane, a toxic chemical that can cause muscular degeneration and blur eyesight. Apple has not commented on the problems at the plant, which is run by Wintek, in the Chinese city of Suzhou.
A spokesman for Wintek said that "almost all" of the affected workers were back at work, but that some remained in hospital. Wintek said n-hexane was commonly used in the technology industry, and that problems had arisen because some areas of the factory were not ventilated properly.
Last year, an employee at Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that is one of Apple's biggest suppliers, committed suicide after being accused of stealing a prototype for the iPhone.
Sun Danyong, 25, was a university graduate working in the logistics department when the prototype went missing. An investigation revealed that the factory's security staff had beaten him, and he subsequently jumped to his death from the 12th floor of his apartment building.
Foxconn runs a number of super-factories in the south of China, some of which employ as many as 300,000 workers and form self-contained cities, complete with banks, post offices and basketball courts.
It has been accused, however, of treating its employees extremely harshly. China Labor Watch, a New York-based NGO, accused Foxconn of having an "inhumane and militant" management, which neglects basic human rights. Foxconn's management were not available for comment.
In its report, Apple revealed the sweatshop conditions inside the factories it uses. Apple admitted that at least 55 of the 102 factories that produce its goods were ignoring Apple's rule that staff cannot work more than 60 hours a week.
The technology company's own guidelines are already in breach of China's widely-ignored labour law, which sets out a maximum 49-hour week for workers.
Apple also said that one of its factories had repeatedly falsified its records in order to conceal the fact that it was using child labour and working its staff endlessly.
"When we investigated, we uncovered records and conducted worker interviews that revealed excessive working hours and seven days of continuous work," Apple said, adding that it had terminated all contracts with the factory.
Only 65 per cent of the factories were paying their staff the correct wages and benefits, and Apple found 24 factories where workers had not even been paid China's minimum wage of around 800 yuan (Pounds76) a month.
Meanwhile, only 61 per cent of Apple's suppliers were following regulations to prevent injuries in the workplace and a mere 57 per cent had the correct environmental permits to operate.
The high environmental cost of Apple's products was revealed when three factories were discovered to be shipping hazardous waste to unqualified disposal companies.
Apple said it had required the factories to "perform immediate inspections of their wastewater discharge systems" and hire an independent environmental consultant to prevent future violations.
However, Apple has not stopped using the factories.
In 2008, Apple found that a total of 25 child workers had been employed to build iPods, iPhones and its range of computers.