My Writings. My Thoughts.

Amazon puts out one e-book pricing fire as others flare up

// February 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

Just as it looked like Amazon was about to achieve an iTunes-style lock on the e-book marketplace, the impending arrival of Apple’s iPad seems to have emboldened book publishers. After a pricing dispute caused all Macmillan titles to disappear off Amazon’s virtual shelves , other publishers joined the pricing revolt , demanding greater flexibility in setting prices on their wares. According to the Wall Street Journal , Amazon has apparently settled the first of these disputes by capitulating. According to the Journal’s report, Amazon will give up on its $9.99 pricing target for e-books, and allow Macmillan greater flexibility to set the rates for its content. The new prices may be as much as $5.00 higher. Although Amazon had announced that it had no choice but to concede given what it termed Macmillan’s “monopoly” over its content, the publisher’s books were slow to reappear in the retailer’s site. That apparently changed over the weekend following a full settlement of the dispute on Friday. Unfortunately for Amazon, it appears that Macmillan will be the first of many publishers that seek to renegotiate terms, as at least two others (Harper Collins and Hachette) have voiced their intention of doing so. The trigger for the sudden uprising, according to nearly every report on the �matter, is the impending arrival of Apple’s iPad, as Apple has negotiated deals that allow publishers to retain significant control over e-book prices. As we noted in our earlier coverage, this is a complete role reversal compared to the dispute over downloadable music pricing. For Amazon, it all has to be a major disappointment. After remaining relatively circumspect about Kindle sales, the company allowed itself a bit of back-patting after both hardware and e-book sales boomed over the holidays. Its primary competitor, Sony, appeared to be struggling in comparison, and newcomers to the e-book reader market appeared to have a bad case of first-generation hardware blues, something that Amazon had already put in its past. But the mere threat of Apple releasing a competing product seems to have encouraged Amazon’s key suppliers (the publishers) to think different.

Dell users’ victory

// February 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // p2p

p2pnet view P2P:- In 2004, Ian Andrews purchased a Dell laptop computer for $1,700. About 2 1/2 years later, the computer began to malfunction, periodically shutting down unexpectedly. Stuck with a problem computer that was past the standard warranty period, Andrews complained to Dell. The computer giant responded that the online contract governing the initial purchase required him to resolve the dispute by arbitration. Andrews recognized this was not a realistic approach, later stating that, as a university student, he was not in a financial position to retain counsel to support an arbitration claim. Instead, he chose a different course of action, suing the company as part of a class-action lawsuit that brought together thousands of consumers experiencing similar problems. Dell challenged the class-action suit, but last month the Ontario Court of Appeal sided with Andrews, ruling that it could proceed. The case raised a wide range of legal issues, from the impartiality of the proposed arbitration provider (a U.S. firm that had ceased accepting new consumer arbitrations after allegations of “serious impropriety”) to the applicability of an Ontario consumer-protection statute. But the heart of the case was whether consumers can click away their class-action rights when they agree to online contracts mandating that disputes be resolved by arbitration. The use of such clauses has been commonplace among many businesses that are willing to trade the higher costs associated with a handful of individual arbitrations for the threat of a big payout in a class-action suit. From businesses’ perspective, the math makes sense: class actions hold the prospect of bringing together thousands of aggrieved consumers who may individually receive less, but collectively could cost the company far more. Although quite common, contracting out of class-action rights has long been a source of frustration for consumers and consumer advocates. Conventional contract analysis posits that businesses and consumers have an equal opportunity to negotiate a satisfactory contract. Yet, the practical reality is that online contracts are rarely, if ever, the product of actual negotiation. Rather, businesses present the lengthy terms and conditions – often buried behind a link or unreadable fine print – and consumers have little choice but to accept if they want the product or service. The Ontario government recognized the inequity of the business-consumer relationship in 2002, when it enacted the Consumer Protection Act, which outlawed mandatory arbitration clauses in consumer contracts. The reasoning was simple: individual consumer disputes are rarely financially viable as independent legal actions and only make sense if aggregated as a class action. Applying the law to Andrews’ situation and those similarly facing the Dell arbitration clause, the unanimous court was clearly persuaded that arbitration was not an option, concluding “the choice is not between arbitration and class proceeding; the real choice is between clothing Dell with immunity from liability for defective goods sold to nonconsumers and giving those purchasers the same day in court afforded to consumers by way of the class proceeding.” This latest case represents a major win for Canadian consumer groups, who have tangled with Dell before in a case that ultimately went to the Supreme Court of Canada. Businesses operating online may understandably prefer to limit their likely liability through arbitration, but the resounding response from the Ontario legislature and courts indicates that it should not be possible to force consumers to click away their class-action rights. Michael Geist - Michael Geist’s Blog [Geist is the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. He can be reached by email at mgeist @ uottawa dot ca ] - … .. … and identi.ca More First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi February, 2010 Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to - | | rss feed: http://-/feed -? -

Hacker training site reappears after takedown by China

// February 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

Chinese authorities are making a cursory effort to crack down on hackers as of late, and have shut down hacker training website Black Hawk Safety Net. According to state-run news organization Xinhua , police in the Hubei Province made three arrests associated with the massive recruiting site and have confiscated numerous assets, including cash, servers, and a Honda Accord. With all eyes on China thanks to the Great Google Scandal of 2010 , a move like this may calm fears that China is allowing itself to become a Wild West of cybercriminals. The problem is that Black Hawk already has a contingency plan in place and may be back sooner than later. Police allege Black Hawk Safety Net is responsible for distributing hacking tools, viruses, and malware for members to use, and say that it is among the largest—if not the largest—of such sites in the country. According to Xinhua, the site has more than 12,000 VIP members plus 170,000 free members, and has collected over 7 million yuan (just over US$1 million at today’s conversion rates) in membership fees. When police raided the site, they confiscated nine servers, five computers, and froze some 1.7 million yuan in cash, though the paper reported that this was part of a long-term effort to investigate the site.

The World According to Google

// February 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // p2p

p2pnet view P2P | Advertising:- “Sometime in the middle of October, Google silently launched a new net domain — a barely-disguised doppelgänger to the familiar google.com — and according to the latest stats from the site watchers at Alexa, this mystery domain is now visited by nearly three per cent of all net users, making it the 44th most visited domain on the interwebs.” Yeh? Yup. “In other words, it’s bigger than AOL, Apple.com, or the BBC,” says The Register . By an amazing coincidence, almost exactly four years ago, “It seems Google, the world ’s largest advertising company, was “lusting for its own personal and private global internet,” said p2pnet , going on to quote Times Online as saying > > > “Last month, Google placed job advertisements in America and the British national press for ‘Strategic Negotiator candidates with experience in…identification, selection, and negotiation of dark fibre contracts both in metropolitan areas and over long distances as part of development of a global backbone network’. “Dark fibre is the remnants of late 1990s internet boom where American web companies laid down fibre optic cables in preparation for high speed internet delivery. Following the downturn in the technology sector during the early 2000s, the installation process for many of these networks was left incomplete. This has resulted in a usable network of cables spread across the United States that have never been switched on. By purchasing the dark fibre, Google would in effect be able to acquire a ready made internet network that they could control.” Google already owns a large telecom interconnection facility in New York and “it’s believed from there, ‘Google plans to link up and power the dark fibre system and turn it into a working internet network of its own’,” we said, adding: “It was also reported in November that Google was buying shipping containers and building data centres within them, possibly with the aim of using them at significant nodes within the worldwide cable network.” Sebastian Stadil, founder of the Silicon Valley Cloud Computing Group, note “1e100.net translates to ‘Google Network’ – the ever-growing Google private infrastructure that spans nearly forty custom-built data centers worldwide”, says The Register, adding:” “According to a recent company presentation, Google intends to expand this private interweb to between one million and 10 million servers, spanning ‘100s to 1000s’ of global locations.” ‘ … all that information could be made available to the authorities’ “If you’re worried about giant online advertising company Google getting your personal data,  you must be doing something you shouldn’t be doing, reckons Google boss Eric Schmidt,” said p2pnet a while back when Schmidt announced > > > If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines — including Google — do retain this information for some time and it’s important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the authorities. Then we posted Part II of Google Sneak Views in which we point out your privacy is just another ‘product’ hook for Google. It’s scary, we went on,  and, “Am I the only one that’s not eating the ‘Google Red Pill’?” asked Gubatron.com , continuing > > > If you’re not scared it’s my intention to shake you up a little bit. Let’s see what Google has done and what it’s trying to do. Google controls over %70 of the Web Search Traffic, and over 57% of all advertising on the internet Google started as a Search company and they’re supposedly great at it (until someone else can show us better) so everyone uses their search and that means Google knows what everyone wants on the internet, therefore giving it one hell of an advantage over everyone else when it comes to decision making of any kind. What technologies to build, What websites are successful (which services should they buy or compete against). They know about all trends of all kinds. From lottery ticket search, to medicine search, to what new website is being searched for. Their great search capabilities made them hit gold when they started advertising next to search results. They made so much money that they were able to buy lots of ad networks including very powerful ones like DoubleClick ($3 billion, April 13 2007) which together with Adsense control 57% of the market share of Internet advertising. Just know that pretty much almost every ad printed on the web puts money in Google’s Pockets, the company that controls search. I wonder if their PageRank algorithm also includes the eCPM of the ads shown on the target sites, if not, it’s a direct consequence of being on the top search results that you’ll get more visitors thus making your CPM pay higher… it’s all a little fucked up the amount of control they have. And let’s not to forget that the little publisher on Adsense Gets Pwned with probably less than 10% of the cost of the click (Google gets $2 a click, you get less than $0.20 for that click), a percentage that is never shown to the publisher, a percentage that Google can adjust to their liking however they want. If you can sell your own ads, do so (and then tell me how). On top of that, there’s tons of money to make on statistics for all of that search data. You may want to read about a company called DemandMedia.com , in short they buy a lot of search engine data (probably Google’s included in there) so that they can generate a list of the things people want to know about every day, then they match that data to marketing databases (to see what the highest priced keywords are, data which may come from Google Adsense statistics) and they make a list of about 4,000 video titles, which they shoot and distribute EVERY SINGLE DAY. Internet Video YouTube… owned by Google, gets close to 100 million unique visitors every month. They’re the most influential video service on the internet. There are companies that exist and thrive (making millions a year) only because youtube is there (think again if you believe youtube is not making money). Oh and they know what you’re watching. Privacy Stuff Let’s forget about Search and Ad Monopoly, that’s their money maker, let’s start thinking about the creepier stuff, power. GMail alone as of July 2009 had an approximate of 146 million unique users during one month. That’s a lot of conversations being tracked in one way or the other. Can’t imagine all the money they make on Gmail alone, since it’s one of the applications that people keep open most of the day, and that’s a lot of contextual ads right there, plus a lot of tracking on clicks to external sites linked inside the emails you read. So they did Email great, you gotta give them that, but then they also have Groups, GTalk (instant messaging) and more recently they were talking about redefining email with Google Wave (which has been in my perspective a total failure, nobody is ever logged in or replying to the waves, it needs to integrate with email in order to replace it, maybe that’ll be the key and since they’re smart they should know this but they’re waiting for the right time…) This year Google has gotten super scary with all the announcements they’ve made, one of the scariest is Google Public DNS, the service that converts a domain name like “google.com”, into an IP address so that your computer can connect to it. Boasting on their excellence and good performance they’re trying to convince system administrators to switch over to Google Public DNS. What do we know if already our local ISPs have turned off their own DNS servers and just redirected all requests to 8.8.8.8 (Google’s DNS) to save on costs and to have one less thing to manage?. This is pretty scary because Google now would know where you go, even if you don’t use Google.com Another really scary thing is having this company also build for you the web browser. Not only they control all the traffic, but they want to control the application that you use to browse the web. They already own Firefox (a nice +$50 million dollar/year tax deduction) whose default search is, you guessed it… Google, and now they even want to make an Operating System that runs only their browser with the purpose of having you log in with your Google Account every time you turn on your computer (currently aimed at Netbooks, please install Ubuntu Netbook Remix and be safe) If their plans go accordingly, they’d be controlling everything, from every request that comes out of your internet connection (DNS), to the kernel and browser in your computer, to your email, to your documents (Google Apps), to where you go (Google Maps), to where you are (Google Latitude). And if that’s not enough, they want to give you a phone number (Google Voice) and transcribe your conversations and voice messages… but wait I forgot they’ve also built an operating system for your phone, Android, and next month they will sell their own phone. Are you scared yet? Other Services: Google Healthcare (They want your medical records too) Google URL Shortener (They want to track all the clicks inside Twitter and Facebook, they couldn’t let other companies deal with this, bit.ly FTW! ) Google Finance (They also know what stock quotes a lot of people are looking for) Google Reader (They know what news and feeds you’re reading) Google News (They want to control what news are read) Google Blogger (They know what you write about, and bank on you) Picassa (They want your pictures) Google Maps and Driving Directions on Android (They want to know where you’re going) Google Product Search (They wanna know what you’re shopping for) Google Checkout (Do they have your credit card number yet?) GMail (They know your contact list, who you talk to, who you do business with, what you want, what you hate, everything) And so many other scary things… they must be so pissed they don’t own Facebook. Way to go Mark. The scariest part however is that everyone is just looking at how convenient all this free services are, praising Google but not thinking if there’s a hidden agenda, it’s like nobody could ever suspect the real intentions. At least with Microsoft you knew what to expect. Doesn’t it all sound like an internet monopoly? It’s becoming impossible to compete with such a big monster… however like a friend said “History repeats, all Giants fall eventually” Google wants every byte coming in and out of you, they own every major piece of the action, it’s all becoming like big media and newspapers, like the food industry which is controlled by only a handful of corporations and we really have no choice in what we eat because everything is so cheap and convenient. Google at this pace will own the internet, or should we call it The Googlenet. By way of a kind of footnote, in Google Sneak Views: p2pnet, Part II, “Google used to be a ‘good beats evil’ business,” we quoted Umair Haque, director of the Havas Media Lab, in Harvard Business , as saying, going on: “But that was yesterday. Today, ‘increasingly, Google is an “evil subsidizes good” business,’ says  Haque. ‘It’s not so different from Coke. The historic, globe-spanning bad stuff Coke does — selling toxic sugar-water to kids and the poor — subsidizes a threadbare patch of good stuff: a handful of spare change for charitable giving and public partnerships. “Increasingly, the evil stuff Google does — supporting censorship , selling more and more toxic ads , squeezing suppliers and turning a blind eye — subsidizes a shrinking green patch of good stuff, like investing in the Mozilla Foundation.” Stay tuned. - … .. … and identi.ca More First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi The Register – Google doppelgänger casts riddle over interwebs, February 8, 2010 p2pnet – Google wants its very own Net, February 3, 2006 Times Online – Rumours mount over Google’s internet plan, February 3, 2006 a while back – Only wrong-doers worry about online privacy, December 8, 2009 ‘product’ hook – Google Sneak Views: p2pnet, Part II, December 14, 2009 Gubatron.com – The Internet is becoming The Googlenet, December 14, 2009 Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to - | | rss feed: http://-/feed -? -

Welcome to the Monkey House

// February 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // p2p

p2pnet view Freedom | P2P:- The net can never have too much of blogs focusing on “the RIAA, the entertainment industry in general, and any other douche bags who think that suing people, disconnecting internet service, or other measures against file sharers is a good idea”. The words are p2pnet regular Monkey D. Luffy’s, and they appear on his new site — Monkey House , billed as the “ugliest p2p news site! Monkey says he was mulling over the shortager of dedicated pro-p2p news site so, “I decided to roll out Monkey House”, he says, going on > > > I figured considering how hostile the main stream media has been towards p2p, one more site representing the other side can’t be a bad thing. Nope. Can’t be bad. His first two post centre on Jammie Thomas-Rasset and ACTA. Good luck — and all the best, Monkey. - … .. … and identi.ca More First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi February, 2010 Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to - | | rss feed: http://-/feed -? -

Microsoft loses ads on Facebook, expands Bing search deal

// February 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

Microsoft and Facebook have ended their advertising deal in which the software giant sold display ads on the social network, while at the same time expanding their search relationship. The announcement comes as a major Facebook redesign is being rolled out gradually to users. Microsoft will continue to sell search advertising for Facebook, but the social network will take over the selling of its own display advertisements in the US (it began taking over international sales in the last few months). Microsoft said this was a “mutual decision” since “it just made more sense” for Facebook to lead its own advertising strategy. Nevertheless, it’s hard to believe the company is happy about losing the advertising section of its partnership, although banner ads weren’t doing so well on the site anyway. In fact, Facebook stopped running traditional banner ads altogether when it launched the new design and instead is focusing on selling social campaign display ads. Meanwhile, Bing will continue to be the social network’s exclusive Web-search partner, and that exclusivity will soon go beyond US borders. Facebook users will also get access to more Bing search engine features, Microsoft said, describing it as “a more complete search experience” with “full access to great Bing features beyond a set of links.” Microsoft says users will see Bing updates to Facebook roll out over the coming weeks and months. Four months ago , Microsoft announced a global partnership with Facebook that would bring the social site’s status updates to Bing search results, and while the company touched upon that again, it did not give a specific date for when to expect those improvements.

Tim Hortons bans complaining coffee lover

// February 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // p2p

p2pnet view Off Topic:- Tim Hortons coffee outlets rule in Canada. Founded in 1964 in Hamilton, Ontario, the company merged with Wendy’s International in 1995, but its “biggest drawing card remains its legendary Tim Hortons coffee”, it boasts. However, decaffeinated coffee served at an outlet in St Andrews, New Brunswick, “was like brown, burnt water,” according to devotee Jimmy Craig. “I almost, you know, got sick in the sink”, the CBC has him saying. So Craig isn’t welcome there any more. He’s also been banned from the Tim Hortons in nearby St Stephen, says the story, going on, “Craig said he voiced his concerns to the store manager and corporate office, then got a meeting with the owner, Edwin Dow. “That’s when Dow served Craig with a letter banning him under the province’s trespass act.” Now, “he can only return to the Tim Hortons if he’s on the job as a paramedic, responding to a medical emergency”, the story adds. - … .. … and identi.ca More First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi CBC – Tim Hortons bans complaining customer, February 8, 2010 Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to - | | rss feed: http://-/feed -? -

Black Hawk Safety Net down

// February 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // p2p

p2pnet view Politics:- The Black Hawk Safety Net, said to be China’s largest hacker training website, has been shut down, and three of its members arrested. The site “taught hacking techniques and provided malicious software downloads for its 12,000 members in exchange for a fee, says the Wuhan Evening News newspaper, quoted by Blogtactic . Hacking from China is on the front burner, thanks to Google, which said it was pulling out of the country following hack attacks . “The website was shut in late November and three of its members arrested on suspicion of criminal activity, the newspaper reported, without saying why the news was only released now,” says the story, going on > > > Wuhan happens to be home to the Communication Command Academy, which trains hackers, according to U.S. congressional testimony by cyber expert James Mulvenon in 2008. The popularity of hacking in China, and hackers’ use of multiple addresses and servers, in Taiwan and elsewhere, makes it hard to prove how or by whom they are coordinated. Would-be hackers in China don’t have to look far to “figure out how to do it, thanks to a healthy hacking industry and sites such as Black Hawk Safety Net (www.3800hk.com), which was unavailable on Monday”, Blogtactic adds. - … .. … and identi.ca More First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi Blogtactic – Black Hawk Safety Net Shutdown by China, February 7, 2010 hack attacks – Google’s China about-face, January 19, 2010 Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to - | | rss feed: http://-/feed -? -

feature: Daddy’s Home: Ars reviews Bioshock 2

// February 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

The world of Rapture has a lot in common with Jurassic Park . Both fictional places tried to create a sort of closed paradise, playing with nature to fulfill the needs of their respective creators. Both experiments went horribly wrong, making a point about the will of man. In popular culture, when reach exceeds grasp, people die terrible, action-packed deaths. Bioshock 2 takes place ten years after the events of the first game.�I’ll keep this review spoiler-free for both games for those who are still playing through Bioshock due to various Steam sales, but allow me to say that things haven’t settled down since we last saw the underwater world of Rapture. Everyone is still breathing, you see lumbering riveters repairing damage to windows and other structures, and the Splicers are still hunting for ADAM and coming into contact with the Little Sisters and their hulking Big Daddy escorts. It’s a constant fight for survival, and as the frequent scenes of death prove, most are not successful. There is something of a power vacuum, however, and a few personalities have risen to try to fill it. Bioshock 2 is the story of a Big Daddy. You might call him the Big Daddy. The game begins with a violent act, and you wake up to a world even more violent now than how it was left at the end of the previous game. You have a single name on your lips: Eleanor.

FBI still wants two years of ISP Web logs

// February 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

Largely at the behest of the European Union, search engines like Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo have cut their data retention periods over the last few years. Now, all those sensitive search queries you make will be anonymized in a matter of months—Yahoo will do so after 90 days , Microsoft will remove all IP addresses after six months , and Google anonymizes IP addresses after nine months. Europe has decided that six months should be the limit. But the US continues its push to make ISPs and other Internet companies keep data longer than they do now, hoping to have access to two full years of records at any given time.

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