Pc News

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Rum and Coke mixing it up with digital tunes

Beverage giants Coca-Cola and Bacardi -- regular glass-mates at bars around the globe -- have launched separate marketing campaigns that use digital music to connect with consumers.

Coca-Cola has created the entertainment Web site Stageside.tv, from which fans can download exclusive videos from select acts using peer-to-peer file-sharing networks. The first artist featured on the site is Island Def Jam's Ne-Yo, whose label debut, "In My Own Words," entered The Billboard 200 at No. 1 six weeks ago.

Bacardi, meanwhile, unveiled plans for a worldwide Internet radio station called Bacardi B Live Radio that will be available online and via mobile phones. The station will primarily stream dance music -- with exclusive mixes provided by popular DJs -- and live streams from Bacardi-sponsored concerts and events.

These are two more examples of brands using music to carry their marketing messages over digital channels. The music industry is jumping at the chance to participate as the sponsoring brands not only bankroll the creation of new services that more widely distribute music and expose artists, but also pay labels licensing fees to access content.

Bacardi, for instance, is spending as much as $40 million to fund the online and mobile radio station, paying standard Internet radio licensing fees. Coca-Cola is paying Ne-Yo's label, publishers and the artist himself for the right to exclusively film a 15-minute "day in the life" minidocumentary interspersed with two minutes of music.

[Rasputin]

First Look: New nVidia-Based Cards Hit Every Price Range

New graphics boards based on nVidia's latest crop of chips offer something for just about everyone. There's an ultra-high-end card for big spenders, an inexpensive power board for serious speed enthusiasts, and a fast mainstream product for generalists. I examined three shipping products using the chips, and got some interesting results.

Big Shooters


You obtain more than just the oversize two-slot board in PNY Technologies' $525 GeForce 7900 GTX Limited Edition package. The company throws in a handy tool kit, a 500MB flash drive, and a felt-lined metal carrying case (with a too-flimsy plastic lid). The extras are fun--though getting a game or two would have been nice--but the real reason to buy a card like this is performance, and here the 7900 GTX's results were mixed.


That's not to say it isn't fast--it is--but in our tests the 512MB board rarely outperformed a previously tested XFX GeForce 7800 GTX XXX Edition; admittedly, however, the new card costs considerably less than the outrageous $750 commanded by that hard-to-find board. The 7900 GTX did outrun ATI's $600 Radeon X1900 XTX on most tasks, though rarely by a significant margin. In the end, PNY's card didn't blow by the competition, but the 7900GTX did earn our top performance rating for the Power category.


Specifically, in tests performed at 1600 by 1200 resolution with antialiasing turned off, the 7900 GTX beat competing boards (often by only a few frames per second) on five of our tests and tied on three others with the 7800 GTX. The 7800 GTX won a single test, as did the X1900 XTX. Test results were comparable with AA turned on. The 7900 GTX's less-than-astounding performance on our tests isn't entirely its fault--these high-end cards are so fast that they're starting to outpace the rest of our test systems in some benchmarks.


One notch below the 7900 GTX is BFG Technologies' $330 GeForce 7900 GT OC, with 256MB of memory. BFG doesn't offer much in the way of extras (the only included app is GameDrive 9.0), but for the budget-minded performance hound, this card is a solid bet. In our tests it generally outperformed the competing XFX GeForce 7800 GT ($300) and Asus Radeon EAS X1800 XL ($380).


The 7900 GT outpaced both cards in our Battlefield 2, Half Life 2, Quake 4, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, Doom 3, Halo, and Far Cry tests performed at 1600 by 1200 with antialiasing turned off (it tied the 7600 GT in Unreal Tournament 2004). Tests results were comparable at the same resolution with AA turned on.

[Rasputin]

PBS considers putting shows online

The Public Broadcasting System is considering making its television shows available on the Internet or portable devices like MP3 players, its new president and chief executive officer said on Monday.

PBS is also weighing whether to partner with technology companies, in the same way that Walt Disney Co. has teamed up with Apple Computer Inc. to sell episodes of some of its ABC television network series on iTunes for downloading to iPods, CEO Paula Kerger said.

"My goal in running PBS is that no matter what choice consumers in the digital age decide to do ... we recognize the need to make content available to any of those platforms, and right now we're moving in that direction," Kerger said at a luncheon sponsored by the Media Institute.

She also pointed to PBS's archive of educational shows like "Nature," "Frontline" and other documentaries as a possible resource that could be accessed "anytime, anywhere."

She said some PBS stations already make some shows available free on the Internet but that depends on broadcast rights, which can vary. She noted that PBS does not have the financial resources available to commercial broadcasters.

"So I think we probably will look at partnerships," she told reporters after the speech. She said initial discussions were under way with possible corporate partners, but PBS was trying to figure out the right direction.

Kerger pointed to podcasting already done by the "Newshour with Jim Lehrer," but noted that news largely has a limited shelf life.

"I think we will not do a full flung leap into any one area. I think we'll start to experiment and I think we'll experiment along the product that seems to make the most sense," she said.

[Rasputin]

Future sex: gizmos, robots

When America's top sex researchers gathered recently to discuss the next decade in their field, some envisioned a future in which artificial sex partners could cater to every fantasy.

"What is very likely to be present before 2016 would be a multi-sensual experience of virtual sex," said Julia Heiman, director of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University, Bloomington.

"There is a possibility of developing erotic materials for yourself that would allow you to create a partner of certain dimensions and qualities, the partner saying certain things in that interaction, certain things happening in that interaction."

A field dubbed "teledildonics" already allows people at two remote computers to manipulate electronic devices such as a vibrator at the other end for sexual purposes.

"People who use it are just blown away," said Steve Rhodes, president of Sinulate Entertainment, which has sold thousands of Internet-connected sex devices over the past three years. "This is not something that just the lunatic fringe does."

"The Iraq war...was kind of a boom for our company."

Gina Lynn, who writes the "Sex Drive" column for Wired magazine, says she has used and enjoyed the Sinulator and says there is no reason to fear the technology.

"People are still really afraid of...any sort of combination of sex and technology and of the Internet," she said. "What people are missing here is the point, which is the human connection that we are facilitating through the technology."

"No one who is even inventing this stuff wants or even thinks that technology could ever replace human connection or sex."

Annie Sprinkle, a former adult film actress, prostitute and author of "Spectacular Sex," said teledildonics are a logical outgrowth of improvements in pleasure devices.

"Now people use vibrators like mad and rightly so; the technology of sex toys has vastly improved," she said. "The more options the better; I mean it can never replace body to body."

"Some people will love it more than anything else and others won't be into it."

[Rasputin]

Critical Windows Security Patch Butts Heads With HP Software

If you've been having severe problems over the past week with Internet Explorer and Office applications, it could likely trace back to a major conflict between a recently distributed critical Microsoft security patch and Hewlett-Packard software shipped with numerous HP products.

Microsoft acknowledged the glitches in an official TechNet posting that describes a conflict between the patch and HP's Share-to-Web software, which ships with HP PhotoSmart software, DeskJet printers that have card readers, cameras, scanners, and some CD burners.


Microsoft believes that the problem is primarily affecting consumer users and is having "little to no impact on corporate networks," wrote Microsoft Security Program Manager Mike Reavey in a posting to the Microsoft Security Response center blog over the weekend.


First released on April 11, the KB908531 security patch closes a critical security hole in Windows Explorer that could give a remote attacker complete control of your computer. However, users began posting reports on various Microsoft forums of serious issues--like Office-application and IE lock-ups--almost immediately after the release.


This is not the only problem being reported concerning Microsoft's latest set of patches. An Internet Explorer update, also released last week, includes significant changes to the way the browser processes ActiveX components. Those changes have caused serious problems with Oracle's Siebel client software, as well as a variety of issues with dynamic content like Flash animations and Java applets.

A Fix, a Flaw

The good news is that the software giant has provided a workaround (to find it, go to the Resolution section of this blog entry). The fix does involve using the Registry Editor, which can be tricky. To try it, click Start, Run, type regedit, and press <Enter> to open the Registry Editor. Then type in the Registry key described in the blog. Note: PC World recommends backing up your Registry before making changes. Go here for information on how to do this.


If using the Registry Editor sounds daunting, Microsoft said it will offer free phone support for this issue at 866/727-7233 (in the United States and Canada).


However, this snafu puts Microsoft in a deeply unfortunate position. The company has taken some heat lately for waiting for the regular patch day to release critical security patches. Its response was that it had to take sufficient time to test patches for potential bugs and incompatibilities--like with common HP software.


The release of a flawed patch like this doesn't just poke holes in that argument. It also leads some users, including many of those who reported problems on Microsoft forums, to remove the security patch and even disable automatic Windows Update patching altogether.

PCW's Advice: Keep Automatic Updates

I cover the security beat here for PC World, and I also edit Stuart J. Johnston's popular Bugs & Fixes column. And I have to say that disabling automatic patching entirely is a very bad idea. You need Windows patches to protect your computer, particularly if you use Internet Explorer. Hackers are getting faster at exploiting new vulnerabilities. As Stuart notes in his upcoming June column, so-called zero-day attacks, where widespread attacks precede a patch, are becoming more common.


Here's what I suggest: Change your Windows Update settings to automatically download any new updates, but to also wait for your say-so before installing them. You'll get a little yellow shield in your system tray when updates are ready to install. That way, you'll know the cause if your computer begins acting up immediately after.


If trouble arises, you could then check Microsoft's site or, say, PCworld.com for reported problems (and ideally a workaround) concerning the patch in question. In a worst-case scenario, you could remove that particular patch by going to Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, and clicking Show Updates at the top of the window. Windows patches show up individually under 'Windows (version)--Software Updates'. But keep in mind that removing a security patch would reopen a potentially serious vulnerability on your PC.

[Rasputin]

Internet plays bigger role in life decisions

Nearly half of U.S. users of the Internet went online for help with major life decisions such as finding a college for their child or looking for a new place to live, according to a survey released on Wednesday.

The results show that the Internet is becoming increasingly important to users in their everyday lives, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a non-profit group which conducted the survey.

Some 45 percent of Internet users, or an estimated 60 million Americans, said the Internet helped them make big decisions or face a major moment in their life during the previous two years, the survey found. That was up from 40 percent of Internet users who answered the same survey questions in 2002.

Specifically, the survey asked 2,201 adults last month if the Internet played a crucial or important role in making at least one of eight major life decisions.

An estimated 21 million Americans turned to the Internet when seeking more training for a career, while 17 million used it to choose a school for a family member or to help another person with a major illness, the Pew Internet group said.

Some 16 million Americans used the Internet when buying a car or making a major investment or financial decision, it said. An estimated 10 million Americans used the Internet when looking for a new place to live; 8 million when changing jobs; and 7 million when dealing with their own major illness or health condition, the survey said.

"It seems likely that the convenience of broadband draws more users to the Internet to deal with some decision," the Pew Internet group said. However, better online content and more widely advertised web sites may also contribute to the rising use of the Internet with major life decisions, it said.

The survey results were posted on the Internet at www.pewinternet.org.

[Rasputin]

Google to search inside business software programs

Google Inc., the consumer Web search favorite, will help office workers dig deeper into business software programs and databases to find relevant information tidbits, the company said on Tuesday.

Google is introducing a new version of its system to trawl for information locked inside an organization's key business systems, working with software makers including Oracle Corp., Salesforce.com and Cisco Systems.

The Mountain View, California company seeks to answer criticism that its basic keyword system of searching for information on the public Web is too blunt an instrument to cut through complex office filing systems to find salient details.

The new feature, known by the mouthful "Google OneBox for Enterprise," is built into boxes Google sells to businesses. They help create custom search systems for employees inside organizations or for consumers on the company's own Web site.

"Google is becoming more and more savvy about what the enterprise needs in the way of search," said IDC analyst Sue Feldman, an expert in the enterprise search field.

"It is taking commodity search, adding features, and making search more appealing" for business users, she said.

While Google lacks the sophistication of systems that have long focused on the corporate search market -- from suppliers like Autonomy, Fast Search and Transfer and IBM -- Google is quickly making in-roads, Feldman said.

Google plans to allow corporate customers to create company-specific searches where employees can use the familiar Google search box to locate information such as contacts or calendars, employee benefits, sales leads or purchase orders.

"Over time Google has become a gateway for searching for all types of information," said Dave Girouard, general manager of the company's enterprise business. "We have been doing this on the consumer side for years," he said.

Already, when a consumer goes to http://www.google.com and types in a query for certain types of information, Google analyzes the request to figure out if it may refer to, say, a song or airline flight times, the weather or stock prices.

The seeming simplicity of Google disguises how different search terms whisk a user into entirely different databases.

[Rasputin]

Microsoft to Unveil New Patch Management Software

Microsoft plans to give customers a peek at the next version of its Windows Server Update Services software at the Microsoft Management Summit conference in San Diego next week.

Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) 3.0, which is expected to be released in the first half of 2007, will have a more dynamic user interface based on the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) framework and will include several features that make the software easier to use, according to Joseph Dadzie, a Microsoft group program manager.


WSUS is a free alternative to Microsoft's Systems Management Server (SMS) product, which gives customers a way to control the deployment of Microsoft patches and security updates. It will be shown in public for the first time at the systems management conference during an April 27 session.

New Interface

The new MMC-based interface will give customers an improved view of how their patch deployments are rolling out and will allow them to roll reports from different servers into one root server, Dadzie said.


Version 3.0 will also introduce the notion of "nested target groups" that enable customers to set patch policies for one group of computers--servers, for example--and then fine-tune those policies for a subset of that group such as "Exchange servers," or "engineering servers."


Microsoft also plans to streamline the way WSUS detects the need for software updates in the systems it manages.

Better Beta Later This Year

WSUS 3.0 has been available in a "small focused beta," since January, and a more widespread beta 2 release of the product is scheduled for the second half of this year, Dadzie said. Also due out during second half of the year is a service pack update to WSUS 2.0, which will include support for Microsoft's upcoming Windows Vista operating system.


The WSUS software is useful to a limited group of Microsoft users who want more control over their software updates than they'd get from the automatic update service that ships with Windows, and who are unwilling to pay for Microsoft's SMS, according to Peter Pawlak, a senior analyst with the Directions on Microsoft research firm.


"For any company that has a few IT people and more than 50 or 100 computers, it isn't that overwhelming to install and manage SMS," Pawlak said. "And if you're real small, you're probably just going to install automatic updates."

[Rasputin]

Web site of wartime show now a window to the past

One man's discovery of a treasure trove of Vietnam War-era memorabilia has spurred the creation of an online museum commemorating one of the longest running variety shows in the history of the armed forces.

The man was Ace Lundon, and he has become the curator of http://www.VietnamJeanLondonShow.com, a 60-page Web site highlighting in photos and words the days of "The Jean London Show," which entertained 750,000 Vietnam warriors from 1966-72.

The Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based live production featured Lundon as master of ceremonies and showcased a parade of comedy skits, musical performances and pinup girls, a cavalcade that included Yvonne De Carlo, Rhonda Fleming and Lundon's then-wife, Jean London, at center stage.

It all started when Lundon got a call in January 2005 from the editor of the magazine VVA Veteran. He wanted photos and suggested the show's online immortalization. So Lundon began to create the Web site, first giving himself a crash course in the new technology.

"I knew nothing about the Internet and had moved like 82,000 times -- once after my garage in West Hollywood was flooded," said Lundon, 69, who now lives in his native South Dakota. "I didn't think there were still any photos floating around."

Two weeks later while rummaging through a closet, he discovered about 400 negatives -- many with mold around them -- that had been at the bottom of a box for 30 years.

After futile trips to a host of photo labs that insisted the negatives were too old to print, Lundon left 60 of them with a tiny backwoods shop in South Dakota as a last resort. What he got back were black-and-white prints depicting such celebrities as Aldo Ray, Ann B. Davis (Alice from "The Brady Bunch") and original Mousketeer Sherri Alberoni taking pictures, shaking hands and posing with U.S. troops.

[Rasputin]

Niche Web networking sites chase MySpace ad dollars

Social networking online isn't just for hip twenty-year-olds any longer, as a new wave of targeted Internet community sites build business models to attract larger audiences and more advertisers.

The Internet will see a lot more targeted community launches in the coming months, both from start-up companies and established media businesses, rather than the general youth community sites that defined the sector such as MySpace.com, Facebook.com or Friendster.com, industry watchers say.

At least two new sites were unveiled this week. Sisterwoman.com caters to women over 21 while JokeBox.com invites users to share jokes and other funny material.

Like most social networking sites, both allow users to create and share blogs, pictures and videos with friends and the wider public.

"You're going to see a lot of these kinds of sites in the next six to nine months, both start-ups and major companies," said Andrew Frank, an analyst at Gartner Research.

Frank said that sites such as Sisterwoman would offer advertisers added value in reaching an audience that will be prepared to engage with marketers.

The sector drew investor attention after News Corp. bought MySpace for $580 million last July. In March, General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal said it planned to buy women's online network iVillage for $600 million.

Sisterwoman launched on Wednesday after signing on ahead of time four major advertisers, including beauty-care line Neutrogena and cable network The Learning Channel.

Sisterwoman is offering them the opportunity to sponsor services around which users can share their own photos, videos or other links.

[Rasputin]

Torvalds Patches Linux Kernel, Fixes Broken Virus

The hacker who created a widely reported cross-platform virus that could affect both Windows and Linux PCs may have inadvertently done some free bug testing for the Linux operating system. Linux creator Linus Torvalds said today he had patched his operating system kernel to fix a bug that had been preventing the virus from running.

The virus, called Virus.Linux.Bi.a/ Virus.Win32.Bi.a, was first reported on April 7 by security vendor Kaspersky Lab, which labeled it an interesting proof-of-concept program, because of its ability to affect both Windows and Linux.


After discovering that the virus didn't work on recent versions of Linux, open-source developers did some investigative work and discovered that the cause was an obscure bug in the compiler used by Linux. News of this bug was first reported on NewsForge.com.


The bug affects versions of Linux that were compiled using a certain kernel option, called REGPARM, which was recently enabled by default, according to Torvalds.


Torvalds has now patched the problem in his version of the Linux kernel, which is used by developers. Most users, however, won't see the patch until version 2.6.17 of the kernel is released, he said.

'Benign' Bug

This patch fixes what Torvalds calls a "benign" bug that has no effect on most programs. It also helps Virus.Linux.bi work in systems where it otherwise would have been ineffective.


But Torvalds pointed to a couple of reasons why his fix doesn't really help the bad guys. First, he disputed the idea that Virus.Linux.Bi is actually a virus. "It ends up really being just a program that writes to files that it has permissions to write to. Nothing wrong with that," he said. "It just does so in an interesting manner that means that it gathers more publicity."


And even if the proof-of-concept code could be put to malicious use, "any serious bad guy" would have had no trouble overcoming the compiler bug that was preventing it from working, Torvalds added.

[Rasputin]

Google declines to rule out wireless airwave bid

Google Inc. on Thursday opened the door to the possibility that it could bid on U.S. licenses for wireless radio spectrum in order to offer Internet access services, but said no plans were imminent.

Co-founder Larry Page said the company has no wireless spectrum acquisition plans to announce but declined to rule out speculation that Google may be gearing up for a push far beyond wireless trials it is working on in the San Francisco area.

"We haven't announced any plans with regard to spectrum, but we are generally interested in improving access to the Internet," he said in a tone mixing the excitement of a keen science student with that of a billionaire ready to pay for the undertaking.

He was responding to a question by a Wall Street analyst over whether the company's wireless strategy would lead the company to bid in upcoming U.S. airwave auctions.

"In general we are interested in anything that can provide better, more transparent access to the Internet," said Page, who is co-president of Google in charge of products and also the company's biggest shareholder.

Later, in a phone interview, Chief Executive Eric Schmidt also said Google had no current plans to bid on radio spectrum.

The Federal Communications Commission is slated to auction 90 megahertz of wireless airwaves starting June 29 and initial applications to participate in the sale are due by May 10.

The licenses could be used for advanced wireless services like high-speed Internet access and video.

[Rasputin]

Panasonic to Sell 103-Inch Plasma TV

Panasonic will sell a flat-panel TV with a 103-inch screen by the end of the year, the company said Wednesday.

Based on currently announced screens, the new television stands to be the world's largest flat-panel set.


A prototype was first shown at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in January this year, but at that time Panasonic didn't have anything to say about a commercial product. However, on Wednesday the company's U.S. unit, Panasonic of North America, said it will be available in December this year. Pricing was not announced.


The widescreen panel has a full high-definition resolution of 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels and a 3000:1 contrast ratio.

Big-Screen Battle

When it was unveiled at CES it was widely seen as a dig against South Korean rivals LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics, both of which compete with Panasonic in the PDP market and both of which had been constantly trying to better the other by producing larger and larger plasma screens.


The size tussle had momentarily ended with LG and Samsung both laying claim to the world's largest plasma display panel with 102-inch screens. Panasonic stole that title from both companies with its new panel.


While the large screen represents an impressive manufacturing achievement simply because of its size, all PDP makers are currently concentrating on technological development at the opposite end of the market.

[Rasputin]

PortalPlayer shares plunge on iPod &quot;nightmare&quot;

Shares of PortalPlayer Inc. nearly halved on Thursday after it said Apple Computer Inc. would not use its chips in some new iPod Nano devices -- a scenario one analyst said was PortalPlayer's "worst nightmare" come true.

Shares of PortalPlayer, which makes chips and software designed for use in digital music players, tumbled as much as 45 percent on Nasdaq to $12.57, their lowest level since the San Jose, California-based company went public in 2004. In afternoon dealings, the shares were trading at $13.19, down $9.40 or over 41 percent, and were the biggest percentage loser on Nasdaq.

Late on Wednesday, PortalPlayer said that its new chip platform, due later this year, will not be designed into the next generation iPod Nano. Analysts have estimated that as much as 70 percent of PortalPlayer's revenue comes from the Nano.

"We were clearly surprised with the change," said Chief Executive Gary Johnson on a conference call with analysts. "We are shipping in today's video iPod's, (but) the visibility for us has become more clouded."

[Rasputin]

Celebrity blogging goes wireless with BlogStar

Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson are back together.

In the wireless world, anyway. Both are participating in a new mobile blogging service offered by Sprint called BlogStar, which also counts Wesley Snipes, the Game and Bam Margera as contributors. The rich and famous stars are documenting their lifestyles with camera phones and posting pictures, text and, eventually, video to their personalized mobile blogs. Access to each blog costs $5 per month. Subscribers receive alerts when new posts are uploaded, to which they can leave replies as well as discuss content with other subscribers.

It's just one example of how the blogging and social networking that have taken the Internet by storm are going wireless.

At a time when ringtone and wallpaper image sales are beginning to flatten, the music industry is looking for new mobile revenue streams and promotional opportunities. MySpace has a tremendously strong impact on the music industry, and now the pieces are in place for a wireless version to do the same.

BlogStar CEO Keith Yokomoto -- founder of the original ArtistDirect service -- says he and ArtistDirect co-founder Ted Field formed BlogStar to better capitalize on MySpace's promise.

"Just imagine if 100,000 of your fans were all connected," Yokomoto says. "You send out a blog that goes straight to their cell phone, and you've got an army of folks out there blogging back in real time. How powerful is that?"

On paper, the marriage of blogs and mobile phones seems like a perfect match. Everyone seems to have a mobile phone, and increasingly these devices have photo and video cameras included. Supporters say the ability to blog on the fly rather than hold off until reaching a computer adds a more intimate, real-time element to the experience.