Your life will some day end; ACTA will live on

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) isn't just another secret treaty—it's a way of life. If ACTA passes in anything like its current form, it will create an entirely new international secretariat to administer and extend the agreement.

Knowledge Ecology International got its hands on more of the leaked ACTA text this week, including a chapter on "Institutional Arrangements" that has not leaked before. The chapter makes clear that ACTA will be far more than a standard trade agreement; it appears to be nothing less than an attempt to make a new international institution that will handle some of the duties of groups like the WTO and WIPO.

Why bother? Well, from the perspective of countries like the US, the existing institutions have problems. For one, they feature a huge number of nations, some of whom have blocked some of the anti-counterfeiting provisions desired by the US and others. Call this the UN problem—getting much done with so many people in attendance can be tricky, and ACTA has become a "coalition of the willing" who have decided to go form their own club instead.

But WIPO, especially, has also opened up over the last decade, and now has robust rules for the participation of consumer groups and other non-governmental organizations. It also requires far more transparency, with the publication of proposals and draft texts throughout a negotiating process. As we have seen too clearly, ACTA has none of this.

Jamie Love of KEI claims that the US Trade Representative has already "told members of Congress it is their intention to marginalize the participation by consumer interest organizations in the new forum."

The new ACTA secretariat won't be a mere administrator. The leaked chapter makes clear that the new governing body will "make recommendations regarding the implementation of ACTA" and will itself "identify and monitor techniques of piracy and counterfeiting."

In other ACTA news, a separate chapter has also leaked, and in it the EU wants to make sure that criminal penalties exist for "cases of willful trademark counterfeiting and copyright or related rights piracy on a commercial scale." On a "commercial scale" doesn't mean that such infringement must be done for financial gain, however; it also includes "significant willful copyright or related rights infringements that have no direct or indirect motivation of financial gain."

Despite the public support of President Obama, ACTA is running into bad press throughout the world. The European Parliament last week even managed to pass a strong resolution of displeasure with the ACTA process, which passed 633-13.

Source: Arstechnica.com

Mozilla Labs builds add-on to bring address book to Firefox

Firefox's flexible XUL framework and sophisticated add-on system offer a rich platform for enhancing browser functionality. Mozilla Labs takes advantage of this capability as it experiments with new concepts for augmenting Web interaction. Some of the latest experiments to emerge from Mozilla Labs aim to make contacts and identity a core part of the browser.

Mozilla has announced the availability of an experimental new add-on for Firefox that is designed to import information about the user's contacts from a variety of Web services and other sources. The add-on makes contact details easily accessible to the user and can also selectively supply it to remote Web applications. The initial implementation can import data from Gmail, Twitter, and the local system address book on OS X. It can optionally use the Gravatar service to find contact avatars.

After the add-on has imported and indexed the user's contact data, it becomes available to the user through an integrated contact management tool that functions like an address book. There are a number of ways that the contact information could potentially be useful in the browser itself. One of Mozilla's first experiments is an autocompletion feature that allows users to select a contact when they are typing an e-mail address into a Web form.

A number of more compelling usage scenarios involve making the user's contact information available to remote Web services. Consider, for example, the popular social networking website Foursquare, which requests access to your Gmail account so that it can connect you with your friends. Instead of giving it access to your Gmail account and all of your contacts, you could use the contacts add-on to selectively provide limited details about specific groups of contacts.

The add-on is designed in a manner which ensures that contact information is only made accessible to Web services with the user's explicit permission. In many ways, it could potentially be more secure and respectful of privacy than the existing mechanisms that are already widely used today by many social networks to automatically establish friend relationships for new users.

To make the browser's contact database accessible to Web applications, the add-on uses the W3C Contacts API specification. It's an emerging standard developed by Nokia that defines JavaScript methods for interacting with contact data. The functionality described by the standard is intended to allow Web applications to seamlessly integrate with the user's browser-integrated address book.

The API is still in the editing stage, but appears to be relatively comprehensive. It supports adding, removing, and updating items in the browser's contact database and also provides methods for searching and iterating over contacts.

The add-on also supports Plaxo's Portable Contacts standard, which is associated with the OpenSocial initiative. Mozilla says that its new contacts add-on is using the Portable Contacts format to store data internally.

Mozilla is enthusiastic about opportunities for making the new contacts add-on integrate with Raindrop, the experimental communication platform that is being developed by Mozilla Messaging. There is also a chance that we could eventually see contact synchronization support integrated in Weave. As the browser increasingly becomes the central hub of Internet communication, native support for managing and accessing contacts could be a valuable enhancement.

Source: Arstechnica.com

Google reportedly to part ways with China on April 10

April 10: General Robert E. Lee's last address to Confederate troops, the Titanic's departure from Southampton, England, my friend Jake's birthday, and now, Google's rumored pull-out date in China. The company is preparing to announce its decision as soon as March 22, according to an anonymous source speaking to the China Business News, though it likely won't be the end of the company's operations in the region.

The newspaper's source, quoted by Bloomberg, said that Google's Chinese staff will find out what their options are on March 22 as well. Previously, Google had told them that they could either move to the US to work at Google's headquarters or that they could work for Google's Asia-Pacific business.

Chinese officials have been warning Google's partners to continue censoring search results in the event that the company decides to either open the floodgates on taboo topics or pull out altogether. Though some believe Google has already begun to let some results leak through, it seems as if the official decision has not yet been made.

Google will continue its Asia-Pacific operations, even if Google.cn ends up going away.

Source: Arstechnica.com

Apple to iPad devs: on your mark, get set, submit!

Apple is alerting developers that they have just over a week to prepare iPad apps and get them submitted for review if they want them to be in the App Store on April 3.

Developers must build their apps using beta 5 of the iPhone OS 3.2 SDK and submit them by 5pm PDT on March 27 to get an initial review by Apple, according to an e-mail sent to developers this afternoon. Reviewers will run the apps on iPad hardware and e-mail developers with notes on the "readiness" of the app, and information necessary to submit the app for final review for inclusion in the App Store by April 3. Only apps that are submitted for the initial review process will have a chance to go on sale at the "grand opening of the iPad App Store."

The crux of the problem is that most developers won't have access to actual iPad hardware to test and debug their apps before they go on sale. Beyond a select few developers given early access under reportedly rigid security provisions, this is the only chance most will have for their app to run outside of the iPad Simulator unless they wait until after April 3 to test on hardware themselves. Unfortunately, that could mean giving competitors a big jumpstart.

The good news, though, is that iPad owners will have more than just Apple's apps to choose from on day one. Also, developers have observed especially quick review times of late. This suggests that even in the worst case that some apps require an early fix, developers should be able to get it out to users with little delay.

Source: Arstechnica.com

Image hosting on the cheap: a look at three free services

Image hosting is the kind of service many people use for sharing their images. There are several great options that cost money—like SmugMug, for instance—but unless you're a major shutterbug, a free service might fit your modest needs and usage pattern better. Here we round up three of the top options for free image hosting around the Web—Flickr, Picasa, and Photobucket.

Flickr

Flickr has been around for many years, and is now owned by Yahoo. Most of us in Orbiting HQ have used Flickr for some time, and by virtue of its longevity, popularity, and well-documented API, many desktop and mobile imaging apps feature some kind of Flickr integration.

Like many image hosting solutions, Flickr has a free basic account which you'll only need a verifiable e-mail address to activate. If you already have a Yahoo ID, you're good to go; otherwise, you'll have to go through the registration process at Yahoo to get started.

Once that's out of the way, you'll have plenty of options for uploading images to Flickr. You can use Flickr's Web 2.0-ified uploading interface by clicking on the prominent "Upload photos & videos" link on the home page, or by clicking "Upload Photos" from the drop-down navigation menu labelled "You." You can select multiple images from your machine using a native file picker. Once you have your list, you can select to make the images public or private, and click upload.

Once all the images are uploaded, you can add titles, tags, and descriptions. A Flash-based Organizr tool helps you arrange photos into "sets" (commonly called "albums" on other sites). You can also arrange sets of sets called "collections."

In addition to the online uploader, Flickr has a number of Flickr-made and third-party apps that you can use to get images into your photostream. Flickr makes an Uploadr app for both Mac OS X and Windows. iPhoto '09 includes native Flickr support, but plugins exist for iPhoto, Aperture, and Adobe Lightroom for exporting images directly from those apps to your Flickr account. Other apps for desktop and mobile platforms are available as well.

From any individual image page, you can edit tags, title, and a description; you can view shooting data; and logged-in users can add comments. Two easy sharing options include "Blog this," which will publish a post on a configured blog with the image and a link to its Flickr page. Clicking "All sizes" will let you choose from a range of automatically generated images sizes, and give you the option to copy HTML code to insert the image into a blog or webpage. Flickr's terms of service require a link back to an image's Flickr page when embedded in another site, so keep that in mind if you have to use custom code to insert images into forums.

Flickr has a number of ways to share images directly through the site. One way is by joining various topical groups. For instance, I'm a member of a Band Photography group for images of live bands, and a member of a group that's just for users of Tamron's 28-75mm f/2.8 zoom lens. You can also add Flickr members as a contact, and view that contact's images. Flickr provides an RSS feed with all new uploads from your contacts, so you can easily keep up with what your friends are posting.

Other options for doing things with your images are available as well. Flickr includes integrated image editing via Picnik. Flickr also has integrated support for making prints, photo books, calendars, and more via SnapFish. And if you like, you can simply browse using Flickr's "Explore" options, which will show you images based on certain tags, locations, or "interestingness."

A standard free account comes with a number of limitations. You can only upload 100MB of images per month, and images are limited to 10MB each. Flickr now allows short video uploads (90s max, 150MB per video), and free accounts are limited to two per month. Other limits: you can only post an image to 10 groups, browsing your photostream will only show the last 200 uploads, and you'll only have access to resized versions of your images.

Upgrading to a Pro account costs $24.95. Doing so allows you to upload unlimited photos and videos, though images are limited to 20MB max. You get unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, archiving of and access to full resolution images, and the ability to share videos in HD. You'll be able to choose a custom URL name, replace uploaded photos with edited versions, post images to up to 60 different groups, and access detailed viewing and referrer stats. You'll also have the benefit of ad-free browsing and sharing, so not only will you not see ads while viewing the site, visitors to your images won't see them, either.

Picasa Web Albums

Of course, Yahoo isn't the only search company with an image hosting service. Some time ago, Google bought the Picasa image cataloguing and editing application, and added a Picasa Web Albums service to Google's stable of cloud services.

You'll need a Google ID to get access to Picasa Web Albums. Once you have an account, you can start uploading images directly via the Web. Unlike Flickr, which has the concept of a photostream of continuous, not necessarily related images in chronological order (by upload date), uploads in Picasa Web Albums are always assigned to an album. The online upload tool allows you to select up to five images for uploading at one time. To get the best uploading experience, Google encourages you to use the Picasa application. It has been available for Windows for some time, but Google has released a beta for version for Mac OS X.

Picasa itself is quite comparable to iPhoto for Mac OS X, only it uploads images to Google instead of MobileMe, and it has a Windows version. It keeps track of your images, allows you to edit them, and collects images into virtual albums. Using Picasa, you can upload as many photos at a time as you want, up to your 1GB free storage limit. Google doesn't limit features for free users, just storage space. Additional storage starts at just $5 per year for 20GB, which is shared across Picasa, Gmail, and Google Docs. Options go all the way up to 1TB, which costs $256 per year, and also includes a free Eye-Fi WiFi-enabled memory card for direct Picasa uploads.

Like Flickr, individual image pages allow you to add and edit tags, titles, and captions. You have options to edit using Picasa (if it's installed), order prints online, and download the image. You can also click "Share" to send the image via e-mail using your Gmail account, or you can click "Link to this Photo" in the sidebar to get either a link to the Picasa page or HTML code to embed in another webpage.

One nice feature that Google recently added to Picasa is facial recognition. iPhoto added this feature January of last year, buy Google takes it one step further—the facial recognition works via Picasa Web Albums, even if you don't use the Picasa application itself. You can link faces to your Gmail contacts, and sort all your images by who is in them.

Photobucket

Photobucket is another great sharing option if neither Flickr nor Picasa float your boat. Photobucket uses a Java-based uploader that lets you browse your file system for images to upload. It will also pull in images from any accessible URL, and offers options to upload via MMS or e-mail (Flickr offers these latter two options).

Like Flickr, the free option includes ads and a number of limits to uploads, resolution, and bandwidth. For registering, you'll get 500MB of storage space, in which you can store images limited to 1024x768 pixels and 1MB total file size. You'll have a 10GB per month bandwidth limit, with limited statistics reports about how your images are viewed.

Moving up to a Pro account will cost $2.00 a month, or $24.95 per year. Photobucket offers a 20% discount if you pay for two years up front. Pro accounts have unlimited storage space and bandwidth, can upload images as high as 4000 x 3000 pixels, and can also access images via FTP. This last feature is especially nice if you need to replace images lost on a local drive or move images somewhere else at a later date. Pro users get ad-free albums, custom URLs for each album, support for Flash files in addition to photos and videos, "premium" tech support, and Photobucket promises to keep links to your images active.

One area that sets Photobucket apart from other services are the extensive sharing options. You can link your Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter accounts to share directly with those services. You can also grab a link to the Photobucket page, a direct link to the image file itself, HTML embedding code, and IMG code compatible with most popular bulletin boards and forums. You can send an image directly to a cell phone as an MMS, but it'll cost you $1.99 for the privilege each time.

Also similar to Flickr, you can edit images directly via built-in support for FotoFlexer.com, which offers a number of options similar to Picnik. Photobucket partners with Kodak to offer traditional prints as well as photo-adorned gifts like mugs, cards, puzzles, and t-shirts via Kodak. You can also have prints sent to a local Target store for printing and pickup.

Now get uploading and sharing

These are just a few of the many options available. There are several sharing sites, such as TwitPic and yfrog that are specifically for sharing with Twitter. There are other services, such as Skitch, which interface for sharing directly from a screen grabbing app. But these three options are the most popular among Ars staff for free, general purpose image hosting.

Source: Arstechnica.com

Most students use Wikipedia, avoid telling profs about it

Surprise! Most students use Wikipedia at some point during their research on a paper or project, and they usually do so early on in the process. Online peer-reviewed journal First Monday recently published the findings of its research on student Wikipedia use and said that the service often serves as a starting point for the students who use it, allowing them to gather information for further investigation elsewhere. This is despite the fact that their professors still frown on Wikipedia use—but it seems that students believe what their profs don't know won't hurt them.

The research was done as part of Project Information Literacy (PIL) out of the University of Washington. Researchers included data from focus groups across seven university campuses in the US as well as survey responses from six campuses. What they found was that a full three-quarters of students use Wikipedia at least occasionally, with 30 percent of the group saying they always use it when performing their own research. Thirteen percent used it rarely and only nine percent said they never used Wikipedia (mysteriously, three percent said they didn't know whether they used it or not).

The reasons for Wikipedia use aren't very much of a reach. Eighty-two percent of the students surveyed said they went to Wikipedia for background information or a summary about a topic, often using it as a way to get started on further research (76 percent). "Students reported they could not begin their research process until they had an idea of what they were going to write about. They did not think that they could approach an instructor about an assignment, until they knew more about their topic," reads the report. "Wikipedia was a convenient go-to source under these circumstances. The source delivered results students could act upon, allowing them to get unstuck and move forward."

It's clear, however, that students are aware of the limitations of Wikipedia. Only 17 percent said they used Wikipedia because they felt it was more credible than other websites, and that's not even including more academic research materials. A very heavy majority (97 percent) still referred to course readings to get background on a topic, as well as scholarly research databases (93 percent).

Additionally, students are aware of the stigma against using Wikipedia—so much so that they avoid telling their professors that it was included in the research process at all. "Sure, I use Wikipedia just to get a taste, even though my professors say not to," one focus group participant said. Indeed, the PIL report says that most students simply avoid citing Wikipedia after having used it to get off on the right foot.

Wikipedia's role in higher education has always been a hotly debated topic, with a large majority of instructors expressing a very negative view of the service. This is despite the fact that some experts have rated Wikipedia's overall accuracy higher than regular Joes on the street, following a highly publicized study that rated Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica around the same level of accuracy. As long as students are aware of the limitations—and it certainly seems that they are—the PIL study seems to indicate that their usage behaviors are pretty safe.

Source: Arstechnica.com

Ubuntu prerelease testing made easy with TestDrive

I frequently download the latest Ubuntu daily build and set up a fresh install in a virtualized environment so that I can test software that I'm developing or evaluate the status of Ubuntu development.

Canonical's Jorge Castro recently introduced me to a nifty tool called TestDrive that simplifies the setup process by automatically downloading the ISO and configuring a VM. TestDrive provides a simple command-line tool that allows you to select which ISO image you want to test. It will download the image and then configure and launch a VM. The real win is that it caches the ISO images and uses rsync to update the parts that have changed so that you don't have to download the whole ISO again every time you want to test a new daily build.

It has saved me a bit of time over the past week. It's also fairly easy to use, which makes it a handy tool for casual Ubuntu users who want to see the latest updates to the new default theme or try out some of the new features that have been prominently discussed in recent reviews. It supports both KVM and VirtualBox. You can configure your preferred virtualization software, the default ISO caching path, and the default memory configuration by editing the /etc/testdriverc file.

To get TestDrive on Ubuntu 9.10, you can install it from the project's PPA. For more details, visit its project page on Launchpad.

Source: Arstechnica.com

Canonical's new COO gets religion on Linux desktop

Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu Linux distribution, is undergoing significant changes in management. Founder Mark Shuttleworth has stepped down from his role as the CEO so that he can increase his involvement in the software design and development process. Jane Silber, who has long served as the company's chief operating officer, will be taking over as CEO. To fill the COO vacancy left by Silber's ascension, Canonical has recruited Matt Asay, the former vice president of business development at open source content management software company Alfresco.

Asay seems like a good choice for Canonical in some key ways. He accumulated knowledge of the enterprise Linux ecosystem during his time at Novell and he brings a wealth of real-world expertise in monetizing open source software from his experiences at Alfresco. Despite these strong points in his favor, there are also some reasons why he is a surprising choice for Canonical. In particular, Asay has always been an extremely vocal skeptic of Linux's viability on the desktop. During the month that he has been working for Canonical, his views on the matter seem to have evolved considerably.

Asay's opinions about Linux and open source software are well known because he writes a blog at CNET. He has consistently been supportive of Ubuntu's vision and identified it in 2007 as Linux's best chance for desktop success. Despite his enthusiasm about Ubuntu's commitment to usability, he doubted its potential to make a real impact.

"I will admit to being a Linux desktop nonbeliever. It feels a bit like yesterday's battle fought with the wrong weapons: geekiness rather than ease of use. There's a chance—still a slim one, but a chance nonetheless—that Ubuntu will change that," he wrote in 2007.

In a more strongly-worded piece a year later, he declared that Linux on the desktop was a lost cause. He thought that Ubuntu might have a chance on netbooks, but argued that the real opportunities for open source are in the cloud.

"I am an ardent open-source advocate, but I admit to perplexity as to why the Linux community so desperately wants its year on local systems. Who cares?" he wrote in 2008. "It's time to move on. Next year won't be the year of the Linux desktop anymore than 2010 will be. Why? Because we don't need a Linux desktop. We need to accelerate efforts toward the cloud, which is open source's game to lose."

Apple leads in some areas, but I think if we were to tally up its total record against Linux, and not simply in the narrow categories it chooses to target, we'd see the balance weigh heavily in Linux' favor.

A short time after he joined Canonical, he had a revelation. In a complete reversal of his previous position, he boldly declared that the year of the Linux desktop isn't just imminent, but has already arrived. He came to this new conclusion about desktop Linux after spending a few days running Ubuntu. Yes, all it took to convince Asay of Ubuntu's viability was actual hands-on experience with the software. A dedicated Mac user since 2002, he apparently never bothered to seriously test a Linux desktop distro until after he joined Canonical.

"In my new role at Canonical, I've switched to using Ubuntu on my Lenovo ThinkPad X200s and have found Linux comfortably routine. Like my Mac, it just works—no drama with day-to-day Internet activities like e-mail, Web browsing, IM, Twitter. It lets me do all the things I used to do, and still largely with the same applications I used on my Mac," he wrote recently. "The desktop battle is largely over for Linux. There's really no reason not to use it, other than habit."

In an interview with the Linux Foundation that was published yesterday, he elaborated on some of his new opinions. Pointing to the strength of Linux in the mobile and embedded markets and Ubuntu's improvements to Linux usability, Asay said in the interview that Linux has an opportunity to surpass rival Apple.

"Apple leads in some areas, but I think if we were to tally up its total record against Linux, and not simply in the narrow categories it chooses to target, we'd see the balance weigh heavily in Linux' favor," he said.

The mixed messages and conveniently sudden transformation into a true believer could raise some serious questions about his credibility. I happen to think that his reversal of opinion is genuine (he wouldn't have joined Canonical if he thought it was doomed), but he seems to be overcompensating a bit in his newfound enthusiasm for desktop Linux. It could be problematic because he risks making his endorsement of the platform sound insincere.

It's going to take him a while to earn the trust of the Ubuntu community. Practically all of Canonical's previous and ongoing efforts to monetize the distro have been met with a certain degree of concern by some users and contributors. The volunteers who have helped to make Ubuntu a success are wary of being exploited and are slow to accept Canonical's monetization strategies.

As the COO, Asay will play an important role in making Ubuntu become commercially successful. If the community is distrustful of Asay's motivations and agenda, it could exacerbate the friction that arises when Canonical seeks new revenue streams to make Ubuntu sustainable. He needs to prove to the Ubuntu community that he truly cares about Linux on the desktop and is not just out to make a quick buck. His previously dismissive attitude about the relevance of desktop Linux is obviously not particularly conducive to that. It's not an insurmountable obstacle, however.

Although Asay's views about the Linux desktop have a clear continuity problem, it's important to acknowledge that his position about open source business opportunities has largely been consistent. He has always been a strong proponent of seeking success in the cloud. This is a strategy that Canonical is already starting to embrace: over the past year, we have seen the company place an increasingly strong emphasis on the cloud in its commercial offerings. The Ubuntu One service is emblematic of that shift.

He doesn't know much about the Linux desktop, but Asay is well-equipped to help guide Canonical's cloud strategy and turn it into a successful business that will sustain the company as it pursues its desktop ambitions.

Source: Arstechnica.com

Windows Phone 7 Series in the Enterprise: not all good news

Microsoft has been quite explicit on the matter: Windows Phone 7 Series is being designed first and foremost for the consumer market. The result is the emphasis on a strong, consistent, effective user interface, possibly at the expense of functionality; Microsoft wants to have this thing out in time for the "holiday season" this year, so there's a limited window for further development, at least for the initial release.

That said, the phone does have features aimed at the enterprise market. Obviously, there's Exchange support, with ActiveSync, providing push mail, address book sync, and all those features that we know and love. In common with Outlook 2010, Windows Phone 7 Series also seems to support multiple Exchange servers concurrently. I say "seems" because it didn't quite work when we tried, but that seemed to be due to a bad password rather than any fundamental flaw—the phone was happy to accept the configuration and created two distinct Outlook Tiles on the Start page, so it looked like it was doing the right thing.

The other big enterprise feature is Mobile Office. Microsoft showed off Mobile Excel, using it to edit and save a spreadsheet, and the new Mobile apps, in their Office hub, seem to be much more functional than the current offerings for Windows Mobile. If nothing else, the high resolution of the demo devices (800x480) made Excel much more useful.

What there won't be is much beyond that. When I asked if the devices would support, for example, policy enforcement to disable cameras (as many workplaces prohibit the use of camera phones, and with 5 MP cameras a mandatory part of Windows Phone 7 Series devices, policy-based lockouts are the only option), full device encryption, or remote wipe, the answer was nonspecific but broadly negative.

Though I would be quite surprised if, at the very least, encryption and wiping were not a part of the official release (many Exchange servers are configured to refuse to allow ActiveSync with devices that don't support these features), things extensive policy support and application management won't be a part of the initial release, with a result that the new platform may well represent a regression relative to the current Windows Mobile 6.x/System Center Configuration Manager platform, and move Windows even further from the full range of remote device management capabilities offered by BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

Coupled with the continued refusal to clarify how enterprise applications might be deployed (though the company says that it will provide an answer within the next few months), this leaves Windows Phone 7 Series looking quite anaemic for enterprise users at the onset.

Microsoft believes that Exchange support plus Mobile Office will be enough to make the platform compelling to corporate customers. I'm not convinced. And while I believe that targeting consumers is the right thing from the perspective of building a phone that isn't miserable to use (unlike the current Windows Mobile platform), I don't think it needed to come at the expense of these enterprise features.

Source: Arstechnica.com

Globular cluster divorcees could shed light on dark matter

A paper released in Science last week detailed research that showed globular clusters may be more noncommittal than previously thought. The spherical collections of stars are normally anchored to a single galaxy, but a new study shows that there may be some globular clusters that are currently between galaxies, floating within galaxy clusters and looking for a new home. Scientists are hoping that by tracking globular clusters as they settle down in a new galaxy, the motion could provide information about the effects of dark matter.

Globular clusters usually sit in the halo, or in the vicinity of the disk, of a single galaxy. However, since we've been finding other objects—like red giants and planetary nebulae—in the no-man's land between galaxies, scientists thought they might find globular clusters that are also under the gravitational influence of multiple galaxies at once.

A survey of the sky turned up a few rogue globular clusters in the galaxy cluster Virgo, 54 million light years away, hanging around in the space among galaxies M87, M49, and M60. Most of the globular clusters emitted light that was bluish in color, indicating they did not contain much metal (metal-rich globular clusters are reddish, and the subject of some recent news). Their lack of metal content suggests that they are recently divorced from smaller dwarf galaxies.

Scientists will watch the globular clusters closely as they move under the galaxies' gravitational influence, looking for indications that they're likely to settle down with a single galaxy. Since scientists generally know the masses of these objects, studying their trajectories and controlling for gravitational behavior caused solely by each object's mass could provide new measurements on the effects of dark matter.

Science, 2010. DOI: 10.1126/science.1186496

Source: Arstechnica.com

China warns Google partners as censored results leak through

Google's partners are getting a stern warning from Chinese authorities over Google's decision to ditch censorship in the country, which some believe has already begun. An "industry expert" speaking anonymously to the New York Times said that a notice went out to Google's biggest online partners on Friday, telling them to be prepared to continue censoring search results no matter what Google does.

As we covered on Friday, Google is on the verge of either ending its censorship of search results or pulling its business out of China, although insiders say that Google is trying to work out an agreement with a handful of agencies so it doesn't have to leave altogether. China's Minister of Industry and Information Technology, however, has made it clear that if the company doesn't respect Chinese laws with regards to censorship, "the consequences will be on you."

According to the Times, the government's warning to Google's partners is primarily meant to avoid confusion if China is forced to flip the switch on the Great Firewall to block Google's results. Like other parts of the world, there are numerous Chinese portals that use Google-powered search boxes on their sites, and readers might be a little more frustrated when it's not just Google.cn that's being blocked, but also sina.com.cn or ganji.com. Implementing a last-minute switch to another search service could be difficult for those sites, though, so it seems reasonable to expect that there will be some downtime for one and all.

According to some, however, Decision Day has already arrived: Silicon Alley Insider notes that Beijing resident Bill Bishop is already pulling up uncensored results for the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, which were previously blocked within China. Other taboo subjects remain inaccessible, however, meaning that the Tiananmen Square results are either a bug or evidence of Google testing the waters before going whole hog. Given the company's commitment to standing by its original word, we're going to guess the latter.

Source: Arstechnica.com

Losses from Internet crime more than doubled in 2009

Back in the golden age of comic books, you always knew what was coming after the bad guy got a good dose of hot lead from the cops. "Remember boys and girls..." the last panel warned in 30 point type, "crime doesn't pay!"

Alas, it appears that Internet crime pays.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation reports that the total dollar loss from all cases referred to its Internet Crime Complaint center was $559.7 million in 2009. That's more than double the previous year: $264.6 million. And the number of complaints grew substantially as well: 336,655—a 22.3 percent jump from 2008's 275,284.

"The figures contained in this report indicate that criminals are continuing to take full advantage of the anonymity afforded them by the Internet," the FBI's Donald Brackman of the National White Collar Crime Center commented on the latest statistics. "They are also developing increasingly sophisticated means of defrauding unsuspecting consumers. Internet crime is evolving in ways we couldn't have imagined just five years ago."

In 2009 the median dollar loss from these incidents was $575. That means half of all the complainers sustained losses higher than that amount. But what is probably most frustrating to the FBI is that the top scam for which the agency received cries for help came from the victims of bogus e-mails purporting to originate from the Bureau itself. These represented 16.6 percent of the total number of complaints.

Report.exe

Typical of this kind of dodge was the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate e-mail that made the rounds last June. It gave the appearance of a confidential report on terrorism accidentally released by the FBI. "Recipients are reminded that FBI Intelligence Bulletins contain sensitive terrorism and counterterrorism information meant for use primarily within the law enforcement and homeland security communities," the phony e-mail temptingly explained. But when the curious clicked on the supposed document ("report.exe"), they downloaded malware designed to steal their own sensitive computer data or spew out spam messages.

Or they might have received a phony "official order" e-mail from the FBI's Monetary Crimes division informing them that they were under investigation for some financial crime. The message commanded them to hand over personal financial information, such as their bank account number, or face prosecution. Some of these e-mails even claimed to come from top FBI officials.

Next to fake FBI documents, consumers contacted the agency about merchandise which they ordered online and never received. These represented 11.9% of complaints. That category was followed by Advanced Fee Fraud scams (9.8%) —typically in which an e-mail recipient was told that they'd won some lottery, but must pay a fee up front to get the prize.

Close on the heels of these came identity theft (8.2 percent) and overpayment fraud schemes (7.3 percent). The latter involved recruiting people to (supposedly) ship merchandise overseas and receive payment from a creditor of their employer. The victim was then told by e-mail that they'd been overpaid for their last shipment, and to transfer some money back to the company. The trick was to get the target to wire the money back before their payment check cleared.

Free money!

Interestingly, the FBI report mentions as part of a scam trend a website that, when we checked on Sunday, was still up: nevergitback.com. The trend involves unsolicited phone calls urging consumers to go to various online venues to get their share of government stimulus money. "These sites require victims to enter personal identifying information after which they are directed to a second page to receive notification of eligibility," the report says. "Upon completion of an online application and payment of $28 in fees, victims are guaranteed to receive a large sum of stimulus money, but they never do."

We entered an e-mail address and name into nevergitback.com's online form, and were led to a page that told us that $28 would buy us a "free money list" with intel on "thousands of Government Agencies & Private Foundations" that "Give Away Millions Each Weak! [sic]"

"Currently there are over 1,425 US Government Agencies & 62,393 Foundations that are Giving Away Free Money," the site continues. "But not every one of these Free Money sources will give YOU Free Money... So... we have a Monthly List for you to use... So You CAN Find Free Money!" It also promises consumers that if they haven't received $7,500 "OR MORE... from the Sources on our 'Free Money List' -- Simply let us know and we will RETURN your $28 Refundable Deposit to you instantly!"

We're not planning on sending $28 to this outfit, so don't ask us how things went.

We're on a mission

In any event, all these activities are continuing through 2010. There's a brisk business in rental/real estate scams these days, the FBI says—grifters duplicating legitimate Web-based rental ads. "When the victim sends an email through the classified advertisement website inquiring about the home, they receive a response from someone claiming to be the owner," the Bureau warns. "The 'owner' claims he and his wife are currently on missionary work in a foreign country. Therefore, he needs someone to rent their home while they are away. If the victim is interested in renting the home, they are asked to send money to the owner in the foreign country."

The report also notes that, based on incidents in which the complainer could identify a possible crime suspect, the District of Columbia, Nevada, Washington, Montana, Utah, and Florida "have the highest per capita rate of perpetrators in the United States." We'll leave it to Ars readers to come up with fair and regionally unbiased explanations for those demographics.

Source: Arstechnica.com

Classmates.com settles suit over misleading e-mails

In 2008, the social networking site Classmates.com found itself on the receiving end of a class action lawsuit that focused on its membership recruitment tactics. The company has now settled the suit via the typical mechanism: trivial discounts to the affected parties, and some hefty legal fees. But, as part of the settlement, the company will have to abide by an agreement that's specific enough to dictate how it will set browser cookies on its members' computers.

Classmates.com was sued because it allegedly sent out e-mails to anyone registered for its free service, suggesting that their fellow graduates were looking to contact them—they could find out who that person was if they'd simply upgrade to one of the subscription tiers. At least two individuals did so and quickly discovered that the mystery classmate didn't exist—nobody they knew had been looking.

As part of the settlement, Classmates.com didn't have to admit that it had actually sent out misleading e-mails, but the settlement does recognize that there's a distinct class of individuals who had received marketing e-mails during the time the offenses allegedly took place. Those individuals will have a choice of $3 in cash or a $2 credit towards their paid Classmates subscription. These payments are capped at a total of $9.5 million; if more people sign up, this total will be divided evenly among them. Any members, even if they didn't receive one of the marketing e-mails, will get a $2 credit.

For their troubles, the two initial representatives of the class who filed suits will get $2500. Their lawyers, however, can collect up to $1.3 million in attorney's fees.

So far, nothing out of the ordinary. But the company has also agreed to injunctive release terms that are rather specific about how it goes about its business. For starters, it won't be able to simply refer to its "guestbook" in any marketing; instead, it will have to use "Classmates® Guestbook," and hyperlink any use of the term to a detailed explanation of how the feature works. (The e-mails at issue said that a former classmate had browsed a user's guestbook.) Similar links will have to appear in the company's terms of service and information pages.

Another issue that's addressed by the injunctions is the handling of login credentials in some of Classmates e-mails. Apparently, the e-mails contained HTML, and would use it to test for the presence of a cookie that specified if a user was logged in; if they weren't, the e-mail would set the cookie to do so. This, not surprisingly, led to some problems when the company's users forwarded these e-mails—all the recipients would end up logged in to someone else's account.

Going forward, Classmates will clearly indicate this in its Privacy Policy, and each e-mail that uses a cookie of this sort will contain warnings against forwarding the message in all-caps. Not as good as ending the practice, but better than nothing.

Although the basic terms of the settlement are nothing out of the ordinary, the injunctive relief is rather unusual, in that it addresses both issues related to the practice at issue, and those that don't seem to directly relate, but could very well have seriously annoyed the parties to the suit—those parties not only seem intent on reforming Classmate's business practices, but its security practices as well. This seems unlikely to set a trend, but it's difficult not to wish that it would.

Source: Arstechnica.com

The Weird Science of toilet plants and rhythmless reindeer

Well, that's one way to get a balanced diet: We all know that carnivorous plants have evolved in regions where the soil isn't very nutrient-rich, and they use their prey to supplement what they don't get via roots. Apparently, however, there are alternatives to eating the victim. I'll let the authors of a recent paper explain matters: "Three Bornean pitcher plant species... produce modified pitchers that 'capture' tree shrew faeces for nutritional benefit. Tree shrews (Tupaia montana) feed on exudates produced by glands on the inner surfaces of the pitcher lids and defecate into the pitchers." Apparently, it's possible to identify feces-eaters based on the distinct morphology of their pitchers.

Reindeer got no rhythm: Circadian rhythm, that is. In the Arctic, light doesn't provide cues regarding daily activities; rather, it indicates seasonal changes. So it's no surprise that reindeer have somehow managed to unplug their biological clock, both at the cellular and whole-body level.

Tracking the exponential decay of an Internet meme: The number of zeroes used in the term "w00t" fits a power law distribution. This has previously been found in a less rigorous study of the number of A's used when typing out Captain Kirk's immortal line, "KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"

Biomedicine meets industrial synthesis: My research career was focused on basic biology. Writer Matt Ford worked on the use of zeolites in industrial-scale catalysis. Who would have guessed our interests might meet via medical research? Studies of basic biology have shown that nitric oxide regulates things like wound healing, inflammation, and blood vessel function. So, researchers have built a fabric that includes an NO-permeated zeolite, which slowly releases the molecule to its surroundings. Possible uses include bandages and a wrap for organs destined for transplants.

Gaming hurts, no, make that helps—well, it does something to students: This is one of those situations that shows why the public so often gets confused about research-based guidance. In a single week, we've seen a study in which some lucky kids were gifted with a free video game system; some got it immediately, others after a four-month delay. Those who got the games earlier saw reading and writing scores plunge in a manner that correlated with amount of time spent gaming. So, games are bad.

Or not. The same week saw a press release from Spanish researchers who have found that, although heavy gaming can cause problems, moderate gaming can be beneficial, and increase a student's sense of self-sufficiency, something that is generally correlated with academic achievement. A little thought would suggest that the two studies are actually consistent with each other, and the impact of gaming primarily depends on how the games are used.

Reality-based geology might help with evolution education: Some faculty at the U of Minnesota decided to survey freshmen in a biology course about their understanding of evolution and education history. Nearly a quarter of the students had been taught creationist ideas during high school, and a substantial fraction of them didn't accept evolution. All of that's consistent with other polling data, but the big surprise was the following: a lot of the students who didn't understand evolution thought the Earth was less than 20,000 years old. Since the evidence for an ancient Earth seems much easier to grasp than things like cladistics and DNA sequence alignments, it's possible we could fix one of the vexing problems with biology instruction just by handling geology better.

Source: Arstechnica.com

Surprise: iPhone app use heaviest at night and on weekends

Apple has made inroads into the professional market with the iPhone—the company has noted that some Fortune 500 companies have deployed them alongside or even replacing BlackBerrys. Despite this, analysis of app usage suggests that it remains a mostly personal device.

Mobile analytic firm Localytics examined logs of use of third-party apps and found that app use during the week typically begins to ramp up around 5am and slowly increases to a peak around 9pm. Weekdays also tend to have a little bump in use right around lunch time.

On weekends, however, use starts picking up around 6am, reaching a steady peak around noon until 11pm. App usage sharply ramps down after 11, but slightly slower than it does on a typical week day.

This usage pattern is typical for a device that is used for personal rather than business reasons. However, it's also possible that business users are either sticking to Apple's supplied apps or are using custom-developed in-house apps for specific business needs. For instance, a business user is more likely to fire up Mail or Calendar than, say, Tweetie or Plants vs Zombies during the work day. Localytics notes that it expects to find similar usage patterns for the iPad, and that developers may want to consider these patterns when designing apps for either platform.

Source: Arstechnica.com