Pc News

[Rasputin]

Wikipedia to Strive for Higher Quality Content

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS -- Free online encyclopedia Wikipedia needs to improve the quality of its content in the coming year, Jimmy Wales, the founder of the project, said Friday.

"We're going to have a really strong quality initiative," Wales told attendees in his opening keynote address at Wikimania, a three-day conference for users of projects run by the Wikimedia Foundation, taking place in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Wales is the founder and chair of the board of trustees of Wikimedia, a nonprofit corporation that operates Wikipedia along with several other wiki initiatives. The term "wiki" describes Web sites that can be accessed and changed using a browser-based user interface.

Looking ahead, Wikimedia plans to create a more formal advisory board, in part to help with Wikipedia's quality control issues, Wales said.

With the English-language version of Wikipedia containing close to 1.3 million articles, the organization believes the time has come to adopt a more considered approach to its content. "We will continue to turn attention away from growth and towards quality," Wales said.

Controversial Content
Wikipedia and Wales have battled criticism over the accuracy of information contained in the encyclopedia, which was originally set up to allow anyone to add and edit any content on the Web site.

The negative publicity reached fever pitch last year when John Seigenthaler, a U.S. journalist and former political aide, wrote an article about what he found in a Wikipedia biographical listing about himself.

The defamatory content, which had sat mostly unaltered for four months on the Wikipedia site, linked Seigenthaler to the assassinations of both U.S. President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert F. Kennedy, the U.S. Attorney General, for whom Seigenthaler had worked as an assistant.

"That was really bad, a terrible error, and we fixed it really quickly," Wales said, noting that after he appeared on CNN with Seigenthaler to discuss the incident in December, traffic to Wikipedia nearly tripled.

Controls in Place
Since that time, controls have been put in place on Wikipedia. Systems administrators can block access to the site by certain users who have repeatedly been vandalizing entries.

Wales acknowledged that Wikipedia's policies on biographies of living people need refinement. Wikipedia's approach to handling complaints by people objecting to content about themselves also has to improve, he said.

Soon after the Seigenthaler controversy, Wikipedia got positive feedback from a study in the science journal Nature. The study found that a group of scientific articles in Wikipedia had an average of three errors compared with four found in similar pieces from the Encyclopaedia Britannica, a traditional encyclopedia. "It contradicted people who said Wikipedia was rubbish," Wales said. "We got pretty lucky, we're stronger in science" than in other areas such as the humanities, he added.

Wales said he is keen to reach out to more good quality arts editors to improve Wikipedia's humanities coverage.

[Rasputin]

New Google Feature Flags Dangerous Sites for Users

Google has begun alerting users whenever they click on a search result that may take them to a dangerous Web site.

The new feature, which had been spotted earlier this week, goes live officially Friday, according to an announcement from The Stop Badware Coalition, which is collaborating with Google on this effort.

When users attempt to click over to a Web site considered to be potentially dangerous, Google shows users an alert page that informs them of the possible risk and gives them the option to click back to the results page or continue on to the questionable Web site.

How It Works
The flagged Web sites have been reported as dangerous to The Stop Badware Coalition. Google will progressively replace the generic alert page with pages containing specific reports about the Web sites. The Stop Badware Coalition will provide these individual reports as well.

The Stop Badware Coalition is a nonprofit organization led by Harvard University and the University of Oxford and backed by Google, Lenovo Group, and Sun Microsystems.

This new Google feature attempts to address a real problem: Search engines routinely display links to Web sites that download spyware and adware to visitors' PCs, exploit security vulnerabilities and attempt to scam users and include them in spam lists.

In the U.S., people land on malicious Web sites about 285 million times per month by clicking on search results from the five major search engines, according to a recent study conducted by McAfee's SiteAdvisor unit.

[Rasputin]

Is Online Free Speech In Danger?

WASHINGTON -- Freedom of speech online is under its fiercest threats in a decade because of two proposals in the U.S. Congress, the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) said.

"Free speech online is facing some of its most serious assaults" since the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) was passed in late 1998, said Leslie Harris, executive director of CDT, a civil liberties advocacy group. One of those proposals would require schools and libraries to block Internet chat and social networking tools.

The U.S. government continues to spend millions of dollars to fight successful court challenges to COPA, which required adult-themed Web sites to get proof of age before allowing Web surfers to access adult content, the CDT said this week.

On July 26, the House of Representatives passed the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA), which would ban social networking Web sites and instant messaging programs from schools and libraries. And a provision requiring Web sites with sexually related content to include warning labels is included in a wide-ranging broadband bill awaiting action in the Senate.

Going Too Far?
Both proposals go too far in their attempts to protect children from online pornography or sexual predators, the CDT said.

The adult labeling provision, authored by Senators Conrad Burns (R-Montana) and John Kerry (D-Massachusetts), requires any Web site with sexually explicit "depictions" to be labeled. Such a broad definition could mean that sites would have to include labels if they have text descriptions of sexual acts, sex education content, or videos with no nudity, said John Morris, director of the CDT's Internet Standards, Technology and Policy Project.

A site with PG-rated video including implied sex, with two people rolling around under blankets, may have to be labeled under the provision, Morris said.

Spokesmen for Burns and Kerry didn't immediately respond to a request for comments.

DOPA, sponsored by Representative Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pennsylvania), would give the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) "remarkable power" to determine which Web sites and applications schools and libraries must block, Harris said. The legislation would require any schools or libraries receiving funding through the federal E-Rate program to block those sites or applications.

The broad labeling requirement likely violates the free speech protections in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, Morris said. DOPA would add "a whole new category of social conversation" that's restricted speech, he said.

"99.999 percent of instant messages that minors participate in are healthy," Morris said. "And they're perfectly legal."

A representative of Fitzpatrick didn't immediately respond to a request for comments.

[abadani69]

امروزه سواد رايانه بطور روزافزون يك مهارت ضروري براي كودكان محسوب ميشود. اما بهترين سن براي معرفي رايانه به كودكان چه زماني است و آيا دانش رايانه برتري در شروع تحصيل به آنها ميدهد يا خير؟
به گزارش منابع اينترنتي، برخي تحقيقات نشان داده است كودكان رايانه را به تلويزيون ترجيح ميدهند و سن استفاده از اين وسيله كاهش يافته است. مطالعات ديگر نيز بازيهاي خشن رايانهاي را با افزايش پرخاشگري در كودكان مرتبط دانستهاند.

درحال حاضر در بازار شمار زيادي رايانههاي كودكان موجود است.

بيشتر اين رايانهها بازيهاي آموزشي و امكان تعامل را براي كودكان فراهم ميكنند، اما ارتباط اينترنتي ايجاد نميكنند. فايده اين رايانهها آشنايي كودكان با صفحه كليد است. كودكان احساس ميكنند بر محيط خود نفوذ مستقيم دارند.

در مدرسهاي در شمال لندن هر شنبه صبح كلاسي براي پرورش مهارت رايانه كودكان و آمادهسازي آنها براي امتحانات بعدي برگزار ميشود.

بزرگترين شاگرد اين كلاس هفت سال و كم سنترين آنها چهار سال سن دارد. در اين كلاس به كودكان آموزش داده ميشود چگونه اطلاعات را در برنامه صفحهگسترده اكسل مايكروسافت وارد كنند.

سن كم افراد شركتكننده در اين كلاس و پيچيدگي كارهايي كه انجام ميدهند استفاده كودكان از رايانهها را مورد ترديد قرار ميدهد.

تا سن چهار سالگي ۴۵درصد از كودكان از ماوس براي كليك كردن و ۲۷ درصد از رايانه خانگي خودشان استفاده كردهاند.

"مايك رايد" كه يك آموزگار است ميگويد كودكان حتي ۱۸ماهه نيز در اين دورهها شركت ميكنند.

وي افزود: با اين وجود بسياري از اين كودكان مدت كمي از كلاس را با رايانه كار ميكنند.

در فاصله سني ۱۸ماهگي تا دو سال و نيم بسياري از كودكان كار با نحوه استفاده از صفحه كليد رايانه و ماوس آشنا ميشوند.

تحقيقات جهاني در مورد كودكان كم سن و سال و استفاده آنها از فناوري اطلاعات ITمحدود است. با اين حال خواندن گزارش اخير دانشگاه "شفيلد" در انگليس به نام "تازهكارهاي ديجيتال" جالب است.

براساس اين گزارش ، بطور مثال در چهار سالگي ۴۵درصد از كودكان تجربه استفاده از ماوس براي كليك كردن را پشت سرگذاشتهاند و ۲۷درصد از رايانههاي خانگي خود استفاده كردهاند. اين ميزان در شش سالگي به ۵۳درصد افزايش مييابد. همچنين ۳۰درصد كودكان در خانه وبسايتهاي ويژه كودكان را مشاهده كردهاند.

گروه "ارتباط تعامل رايانه و كودك" ( (ChiCIكه ارتباط پوياي كودكان و رايانهها را بررسي كرده است معتقد است استفاده از رايانه نبايد از سنين بسيار كم شروع شود.

جانت ريد از گروه ChiCIمعتقد است هجده ماهگي سن مناسبي براي كار با رايانه نيست.

وي گفت: تصور نشستن يك كودك ۱۸ماهه در پشت يك رايانه سنتي كمي خندهدار است.

جانت در پاسخ به اين سوال كه اگر كودكي در سن دو يا سه سالگي استفاده از رايانه را آغاز كند آيا به اين معني است كه عملكرد بهتري در مدرسه خواهد داشت ميگويد، كودكاني كه از رايانه استفاده ميكنند شروع بهتري خواهند داشت.

برخي از اين كودكان همانگونه كه جذب تلويزيون ميشوند به سمت رايانه نيز كشيده ميشوند بنابراين محرك اشتباهي دريافت ميكنند و يا محركي فاقد هرگونه ارزش دريافت ميكنند.

[Rasputin]

New Lenovo Boasts Top-Flight Performance

Our chart of ultraportable laptops this month hosts both stalwarts and newcomers. Lenovo's classy ThinkPad X60s retains the number one spot and our Best Buy nod, thanks to its excellent performance (including stellar battery life) and top-notch design. The other two returning systems are the fourth-ranked Fujitsu LifeBook P7120 Notebook and the fifth-ranked HP Compaq nc4200 Notebook PC.

Two machines make their debut: the HP Compaq tc4400 and the Lenovo 3000 V100.

The HP Compaq tc4400 is a compact, convertible tablet. The $2179 model's design features such thoughtful touches as a fingerprint reader at the top of the screen--so it's usable in both tablet and laptop modes--as well as a Ctrl-Alt-Del button at the side of the screen, for easy access in tablet mode. However, this laptop is a bit bulkier than you might expect of an ultraportable. In addition, the device weighs 4.6 pounds, a little heftier than competing ultraportables we've seen. Its WorldBench 5 performance was quite strong (it achieved a score of 8; but its tested battery life, though good at 4 hours, 11 minutes, was more ordinary.

The other new kid in town is Lenovo's 3000 V100. This ultraportable model comes in at a lower cost than the flagship ThinkPad X60s--and it doesn't match its pricier sibling's excellence of design. Most notably, the keyboard took a little getting used to, and we hated the ultrastiff mouse buttons, to the point that we found it necessary to switch to an external mouse.

Design complaints aside, however, this system didn't skimp on either features or performance. It includes such niceties as an ExpressCard slot and instant-on multimedia. And its performance rocked the house, earning the V100 a high-flying WorldBench 5 score of 93, the third-best result that we've seen for an ultraportable. Its battery life was decent enough, too, running just over 4 hours in our trials.

Each of the four other models we tested this month had shortcomings that kept them off the chart. Acer's TravelMate 3002WTCi looks sharp, costs a reasonable $1199, and weighs just 3.2 pounds, but it lacks an integrated optical drive; and when you add on an external DVD-ROM/CD-RW combination drive and power supply, its travel weight soars to 5.3 pounds.

Averatec's $1399 AV1150-EW1 and $950 AV2260-EH1 differ slightly in specs and size, but neither packs performance punch, and each has a mediocre keyboard. HP's $1649 Compaq nc2400 offered nearly 5 hours of battery life, but the lithe, compact unit performed poorly, placing last among notebooks tested under WorldBench 5.

-- Melissa J. Perenson


Find the Very Latest Notebook Charts
Click on the links below for the latest online notebook rankings or a comprehensive list of all Notebooks we've tested.

Most current Top Ultraportable Notebooks chart
Most current Top All-Purpose Notebooks chart
Most current Top Power Notebooks chart
All Notebooks
Top Notebooks From the September 2006 Issue of PC World Magazine

[Rasputin]

Tips & Tweaks: Be Less Annoying

I've come to the conclusion that everyone needs to take a test before being able to use e-mail. No, I'm serious. You have to take an e-mail test. If you pass, you get an e-mail license. Proudly hang it on the wall. Screw up--send lots of messages with blank subject lines, say--and your license is pulled. You go on probation and attend mandatory remedial e-mail training.

Why am I being so hardnosed? I have a laundry list of ways people drive me wild with e-mail. I wrote about a few in "Get Relief From Annoying E-Mail," my July "Hassle-Free PC" column.

I ran out of room in the print column, so here are some more--and how to stop being obnoxious with your e-mail.

To Whom Am I Speaking?
Sometimes I have absolutely no idea who's sending me an e-mail, and this is a problem. I mean, I'll say something to another guy that I wouldn't dream of uttering to a lady my mother's age. [Sorry, Mom.]

Don't share. If you and your live-in (spouse, significant other, whatever) use the same e-mail address, stop it. Extra e-mail addresses are free and consolidating e-mails into one mailbox is confusing the dickens out of me because I never know who I'm writing to.

Use a sig line. Make life easier for me: Add a signature line with your name and e-mail address using the hot-linked mailto:steve_bass@pcworld.com format. It's easier to reply just to you if your e-mail was sent to many people; it's also great for when I forward your e-mail--the new recipient doesn't have to cut and paste your address.

Use your real name. Don't get me wrong, I love your beerbelly49832@yourisp.com. The problem is, I haven't a clue who you are. Be a champ and add your real name in the signature line. And a favor? Don't use initials.

Dig This: You're not going to like this one. Even if you're a mathematician, an engineer, or a nonlinear thinker. The puzzle doesn't have a name. It doesn't come with instructions. When you start, you're just there, plunging in and doing it. Well, maybe doing it. I wasn't doing much of anything besides struggling for the first ten minutes.

Okay, stop whining. Here's a hint: the next page is at http://n.nfshost.com/2.html; watch the pattern. (BTW, you can blame Alex Eckelberry for this.)

Do I Need to Read This Right Now?
Look, I'm a very busy man (or so I tell my wife and editor), and I get tons of e-mail every day. I need to do e-mail triage--you know, scanning the inbox for the hottest messages and reading them first. But honestly, I can't do this with most e-mail I get. So here's what I recommend:

The subject is... Tell me, clearly and briefly, what your message is about in the subject line. I delete all messages with vague subjects--Hi, Hello, or worse, an empty subject line (oh, do I hate that!). And make sure you don't trigger my spam filter by using all capital letters, exclamation points, and words you typically see in junk e-mail, like "free," "spam," "mortgage," or "Viagra."

Exec summary. Give me a one- or a two-sentence overview at the start of your e-mail. "I have a complicated issue," you might start out, "involving a Dell, memory cards, and SP2. If you have time to help, I've provided details below.'

Save time. Use [NM] or [EOM] (they stand for "no message" or "end of message") in the subject line as a shorthand way of responding with a simple "thank you" or an acknowledgement. This helps reduce the number of e-mails I need to open; many of the people at PC World use the trick and it's increased everyone's productivity.

Dig This: If you like to sketch along with others, you'll get a kick out of SwarmSketch (subtitled "Collective sketching of the collective consciousness"). Each time you visit the site, you add a line. So does everyone else. After about four days, the masterpiece is done.

And Your Point Is?
Once I actually open an e-mail, I need to get the point quickly so I can reply to the sender if necessary, then move on to the next one. But lots of the missives I get are, how to say it?, a mess.

Use paragraphs. Obvious, right? Nope. I get e-mails with one long paragraph the length of the Gettysburg Address. Break it up into three or four smaller ones. By the way, my limit is three or four paragraphs; after that I start dozing. [Editor's note: I noticed.] And send a test message to a buddy to make sure your e-mail program isn't removing paragraph returns.

By the numbers. If you have more than one question or point, number them. It makes replying a whole lot easier if I can refer to the numbers.

Subject shorthand. When you reply or forward an e-mail, it's helpful if you stick one or two descriptive words in front of the original subject so the recipient has an idea of what's in store. For instance, I use tags such as "Update," "Confirmation," or "Really Dumb."

Miscellaneous Gripes
Think I'm done kvetching? Nope, no such luck.

Attachment don'ts. Don't attach anything executable--period. If on the off chance I've asked you to send a program, stick it into a zipped file.

Keep it private. Don't reply to a mailing list with "great idea" or "I agree." Reply privately instead. Select a small part of the original message for context's sake.

Stay plain, Jane. Avoid fancy formatting, gaudy colors, and flowery backgrounds. Two reasons: first, what's cool on your monitor looks like hell on mine; and second, that extra coding increases the download time for folks with slower connections.

Dear [InsertName]. Private note to PR flacks: If you can't use mail merge properly, don't.

Dig This: Pipedream is a very cool 3.5-minute animation that's great fun to watch (and you probably won't believe it's an animation).

Steve Bass writes PC World's monthly "Hassle-Free PC" column and is the author of PC Annoyances, 2nd Edition: How to Fix the Most Annoying Things About Your Personal Computer, available from O'Reilly. He also writes PC World's daily Tips & Tweaks blog. Sign up to have Steve's newsletter e-mailed to you each week. Comments or questions? Send Steve e-mail.

[Rasputin]

Researcher Discloses Serious Xerox Printer Flaw

Xerox is scrambling to update a security patch following the disclosure of a major security flaw in its WorkCenter multifunction printers.

By taking advantage of a configuration error in the printers' Web interface, security researcher Brendan O'Connor was able to run unauthorized software on the printers, compromise network traffic, and access sensitive information being printed on the machines. He shared details of how to compromise the machines during a presentation at the Black Hat USA conference in Las Vegas today.

Printers Used in Every Business
"Think of all the sensitive data that's going through these," O'Connor said. "Everybody prints and there's an inherent trust in these types of devices."

O'Connor said he was not trying to "pick on Xerox," but rather using his hack as a case study to draw attention to the security threat posed by increasingly powerful embedded devices.

"I don't think they're getting the level of scrutiny that they require," said O'Connor, who identified himself only as a security engineer with a U.S. financial services company.

"This is a Linux server wrapped in a copier box. These things are all over the enterprise," he said.

Which WorkCenters Affected?
Xerox issued a patch for the vulnerability in February. It affects WorkCenter and WorkCenter Pro series 200 devices sold between October 2005 and June of this year, said Armon Rahgozar, a manager with Xerox's Solutions and Partnership Technology Office.

However, that Xerox patch does not fully address the vulnerabilities, O'Connor said. "My company is still vulnerable to these things," he said.

Rahgozar said that Xerox was working to address the situation and would issue an updated patch.

Customers can either download the patch from the Xerox Web site or wait for service technicians to apply the patches at their next scheduled servicing.

Xerox is also developing an automatic update system for its products, similar to Microsoft's, Rahgozar said. "We probably want to follow the model that Microsoft has learned the hard way," he said. "You provide the push mechanism, but it's controlled by administrators at the site."

When Rahgozar showed up for O'Connor's Black Hat talk, the researcher said that he was worried that Xerox might be considering legal action against him in the same way that Cisco Systems sued security researcher Michael Lynn at last year's conference. "When the guy said, 'I'm from Xerox,' I thought Mike Lynn," O'Connor said in an interview after his presentation.

Those concerns were unfounded however. After the talk, Rahgozar thanked the researcher, saying he was doing the industry a service.

[Rasputin]

Google to Distribute MTV Video Clips With Ads

In continuing efforts to expand its online advertising business, Google will distribute ad-supported video content from Viacom International's MTV Networks to Web sites in its extensive advertising network.

The deal is a first for both companies, a Google spokeswoman said today.

It marks the first time that integrated video programming and advertising will be directly available to Google's huge AdSense advertising network, which delivers text and image ads to Web sites and blogs. It is also the first time music and entertainment video clips from MTV Networks will be available to consumers across the Web on an ad-supported basis on sites outside the network's own.

In effect, Google will syndicate Viacom's programming to a much larger segment of the Web, allowing the content to reach many more viewers than it would on the company's own sites.

"We will put video clips on our partner sites that contain advertising, offering content providers a new way to make money from the Internet," the spokeswoman said.

The companies plan to begin testing the new service later this month with a number of programs, such as Nickelodeon's "SpongeBob Square Pants" and MTV's "Laguna Beach."

Changing Environment
The alliance comes amid a sea of change in video content distribution, propelled in part by pervasive broadband connections, which allow users to stream and download content relatively quickly and inexpensively, and by the growing popularity of video-on-the-Web sites such as YouTube.

The partnership could also send a signal to other producers of news and entertainment content that Google, occasionally criticized for using content without appropriate consent, is eager to create a legitimate business model.

In addition to the ad-supported video clip service, Google has agreed to sell popular MTV Networks programs through its Google Video portal. For $1.99 per episode, consumers can download full-length episodes of comedian Dave Chappelle's "Chappelle's Show" and of the animation "South Park."

[Rasputin]

AOL Search Data Reportedly Released

AOL has apparently released details of Internet searches performed over a period of three months by hundreds of thousands of its subscribers, raising privacy concerns.

The data, apparently made available for research purposes, is no longer available at the Web site research.aol.com, but details of the data were cited by technology blog site Techcrunch, and the page linking to it was cached by Google's search engine.

The cached copy of the page said the data comprised about 19 million Web searches performed by 658,000 users from March through May. The page warned of sexually explicit language in some of the queries, and said of the data, "This collection is distributed for noncommercial research use only." The page contained a link to a compressed copy of the data archive.

The page asked researchers using the data to cite a research paper entitled "A Picture of Search" based on the data, which names two AOL employees as co-authors. That paper is still available for download.

AOL officials in London are aware of the issue, they said Monday morning. They had no further comment, and referred queries to the company's U.S. headquarters.

Cause for Concern?
The release of such information poses serious privacy concerns. Major search engine companies fought a request for similar data on user searches last year by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The U.S. government wanted to use the data to check the effectiveness of a federal law aimed at minors' access to harmful material. In January it filed a motion with the court to compel Google to comply with its subpoena and turn over a "random sample" of 1 million Web site addresses found in its search engine index. It also asked the company the text of all queries filed on the search engine during a specific week.

America Online, Yahoo, and Microsoft's MSN were also subpoenaed, and complied to varying degrees.

[Rasputin]

Top 10 Value Desktop PCs

These well-priced desktop PCs are well equipped to handle the tasks most people need to perform. Ratings and rankings can change due to pricing and technology changes, so check back frequently for the latest info.

CPU: 2.13-GHz Core 2 Duo E6400
Graphics Adapter: eVGA e-GeForce 7600 GS
Monitor Model: ViewSonic VA702b
Total HD Size (GB): 250
Case Type: Midsize tower
Price When Reviewed: $1099

CPU: 2-GHz Athlon 64 3200+
Graphics Adapter: Integrated Radeon Xpress 200
Monitor Model: Cisnet NCA-701
Total HD Size (GB): 160
Case Type: Minitower
Price When Reviewed: $699

CPU: 2.8-GHz Pentium 4 521
Graphics Adapter: Integrated Intel 915GV
Monitor Model: Dell E176FP
Total HD Size (GB): 160
Case Type: Midsize tower
Price When Reviewed: $738

CPU: 3.2-GHz Pentium D 940
Monitor Model: HP vs17e
Total HD Size (GB): 500
Case Type: Minitower
Price When Reviewed: $1460

CPU: 2.2-GHz Athlon 64 X2 4200+
Graphics Adapter: OEM
Monitor Model: AG Neovo F-419
Total HD Size (GB): 250
Case Type: Midsize tower
Price When Reviewed: $1350

CPU: 2.2-GHz Athlon 64 X2 4200+
Graphics Adapter: eVGA e-GeForce 7600 GT
Monitor Model: ViewSonic VA902b
Total HD Size (GB): 250
Case Type: Midsize tower
Price When Reviewed: $1499

CPU: 2.8-GHz Pentium D 920
Graphics Adapter: nVidia GeForce 6200SE
Monitor Model: HP vs17
Total HD Size (GB): 300
Case Type: Midsize tower
Price When Reviewed: $1460

CPU: 2.2-GHz Athlon 64 X2 4200+
Graphics Adapter: eVGA e-GeForce 7600GS
Monitor Model: Avidav M1931
Total HD Size (GB): 320
Case Type: Compact
Price When Reviewed: $1375

CPU: 3-GHz Pentium 4 531
Graphics Adapter: Integrated Intel GMA 900
Monitor Model: ThinkVision L150p
Total HD Size (GB): 80
Case Type: Compact
Price When Reviewed: $1018

CPU: 1.73-GHz Pentium M 740
Graphics Adapter: Intel 915GM
Monitor Model: Shuttle XP17
Total HD Size (GB): 160
Case Type: Compact
Price When Reviewed: $1150

[Rasputin]

Desktop Killers

Go on, admit it. You've been thinking about ditching your desktop in favor of a laptop. You're not alone--many people have already made the switch and now revel in the ability to pick up their computer and go. Thanks to dual-core processors, dual hard drives, multiformat DVD burners, powerful graphics, and brilliant 17-inch wide-aspect screens, the latest crop of high-performance portables stand ready to replace your desktop PC. Who wouldn't be tempted?

To help you decide whether to opt for a big, powerful laptop instead of a desktop PC, we looked at seven notebooks. Four of these were entertainment-focused: Alienware's Aurora m7700, Dell's Inspiron E1705, HP's Pavilion dv8000z, and Toshiba's Qosmio G35-AV600. We also tried two big business-minded laptops--the Gateway M-685E and the HP Compaq nx9420. The final model in our test group, Acer's TravelMate 8200, possesses both entertainment and business appeal.

To gauge how these notebooks stacked up against desktop PCs, we tested each model using our WorldBench 5 benchmark, conducted our regular battery life and graphics tests, and completed a thorough series of hands-on evaluations.

Ultimately, we determined that two notebooks--HP's Pavilion dv8000z and Toshiba's Qosmio G35-AV600--deserved Best Buy awards. The dv8000z offers the best balance of speed, usability, and features, for a reasonable $2200, while the $2548 Toshiba Qosmio is the best audiovisual notebook on the market today.

Of the others, we liked the HP Compaq nx9420's 7.4-pound weight and the Acer TravelMate 8200's built-in Webcam. The pricey Alienware Aurora m7700 offers the option of dual hard drives and dual optical drives, while the Gateway M685-E is a good all-around small-business desktop replacement for graphics pros. The Dell Inspiron E1705's superb graphics results will entice gamers.

While the entry point for ownership is now remarkably similar for desktops and laptops--about $500--feature for feature, you'll still pay about 40 percent more for a notebook. You might spend $2400 on a portable with a dual-core CPU and a 17-inch screen, or you could invest $1400 in a faster desktop and a 20-inch flat-screen panel--and save $1000.

Desktops continue to have the edge in expandability, too, because of their size and the easy access to internal components they afford. Though you can replace a notebook's hard drive and upgrade its RAM, in most cases you can't swap out the graphics card yourself or add another internal hard drive or a second optical drive. Finally, desktops are usually the first to incorporate new technologies--whether a line of new processors, an improved drive interface, or bigger and faster hard drives. But notebooks also have an edge: Most now offer the added convenience of built-in Wi-Fi, and some support mobile broadband services, so you can work wirelessly almost anywhere.

[abadani69]

رييس انجمن شركتهاي اينترنتي گفت: توقف فعاليت ISPها صحت ندارد اما مجوز جديدي در اين زمينه صادر نخواهد شد.


"مسعود رياضيات" روز دوشنبه در گفت و گو با خبرنگار آي تي ايرنا در مورد اينكه در برخي از رسانهها اين مطلب منتشر شده است، افزود: سازمان تنظيم مقررات و ارتباطات راديويي اعلام كردهاست تا زماني كه مقررات جديد تعيين نشود، مجوزي در اين زمينه صادر نميشود.

وي تصريح كرد: اين تقسيم بندي كه اكنون در زمينه خدمات اينترنتي در كشور وجود دارد پيش از اين توسط مصوبههاي قبلي انجام شده است كه شامل )ISPشركتهاي ارايهدهنده خدمات اينترنتي) ، ICP(توزيعكنندگان پهناي باند)، VOIP(تلفن اينترنتي)، PAP(خدمات اينترنت پرسرعت) و بسياري موارد ديگر است.

به گفته رييس انجمن شركتهاي اينترنتي، اين تقسيم بندي اكنون با پيشرفتي كه در زمينه فناوري اطلاعات به وجود آمده، جايگاه مناسبي ندارد.

رياضيات اضافه كرد: در سراسر دنيا به بخشي كه خدمات اينترنتي ارايه مي دهد، ISPاطلاق ميشود كه اين ISPها ميتوانند خدمات تهيه، توزيع و ارايه خدمات اينترنتي را انجام دهند، در واقع امور خدمات اينترنتي در اين مراكز تجميع شده است.

به گفته وي، فلسفه وجودي ICPها نيز اين بود كه اين مراكز از ماهواره استفاده كرده و نقطه تماس بينالمللي داشته باشند، تا تامينكننده پهناي باند اينترنتي باشند.

رياضيات افزود: اما اكنون با جمعآوري ماهواره ها، شركت فناوري اطلاعات اعلام كرده كه خود تامينكننده پهناي باند بوده و با قيمت مناسب آن را تامين ميكند.

وي ادامه داد: به همين سبب موضوع وجود و فعاليت ICPها با ابهام مواجه شده است، و همچنين به دليل اينكه اكنون بيش از هزار ISPدر كشور در حال فعاليت است، اعلام شده كه بيش از اين ديگر مجوز ISPصادر نميشود.

به گفته وي، اكنون قرار است فعاليتها محدود شود، تا مقررات جديد به نتيجه برسد.

[Rasputin]

First Look: LG's Tasty Chocolate Cell Phone

LG's Chocolate cell phone will draw your attention as much for its high-concept name as for its rich looks. Also known as the LG VX85000, the Chocolate--distinguished by a slick design, a bright screen, and amazing sound quality--is now available through Verizon Wireless for $150 with a new account and a two-year contract. While I admired the phone's sleek appearance and excellent sound, I found its navigational controls and convoluted menus frustrating.

Smooth as Chocolate
The Chocolate, which actually has a shiny, piano-black finish rather than the dark brown you might expect from its name, is definitely eye catching. This slider-style phone is slim and compact, measuring 3.8 by 1.9 by 0.7 inches when closed--about the same size as one of its closest rivals, the Sony Ericsson W810. However, while the Chocolate slides open to reveal its keypad, becoming longer as a result, the W810 is a candy bar-style phone that is as compact in use as it is when it's riding in your pocket.

Sturdily constructed, the Chocolate's slider mechanism is smooth; the top half of the phone glides effortlessly up, making it easy to use single-handed. The keypad itself is also extremely finger-friendly, with large, easy-to-press buttons.

Its 2-inch LCD is a 262,144-color TFT, with a resolution of 240 by 320 pixels. The display looked terrific and showed lots of crisp details in typical indoor use and in the shade, but I found it difficult to see in the glare of direct sunlight.

After the striking screen, the next thing I noticed was the Chocolate's slick-looking navigation. It lacks the usual complement of buttons on the front, offering touch-sensitive controls instead. Directly below the LCD, the face of the phone features a navigational ring that consists of four programmable buttons for accessing various phone features, with another button in the center. The front of the phone also presents two additional touch-sensitive soft buttons, located at the lower left and lower right of the LCD; their function varies depending upon the phone's use.

When the unit is activated, the center controls and the four navigational buttons illuminate in red, causing the phone to glow. The buttons certainly look cool, but in use they prove to be a mixed bag, and will require some getting used to. Though the sensitivity of the touch controls is adjustable, I often found myself invoking operations I hadn't intended. The Chocolate's detailed manual actually warns about this issue, and also advises against using the phone's touch buttons in a "humid environment."

Conveniently ringing the sides of the handset are other buttons: dedicated volume controls and a voice-command/recording button on the left, and controls for music, the camera, and end/power on the right.

I have a few other gripes with the interface. The convoluted menus are hard to navigate, and the context-sensitive menu options and button behaviors don't always act as you might anticipate. For example, the clear and back soft touch key doesn't always take you back; sometimes you have to use the end button instead.

In addition, the camera button on the right side of the handset shows only a camera icon, not a camera and video camera icon, even though it serves both purposes. When you go into the camera mode, the video camera isn't even an option, as you might expect it to be (you have to push the camera button twice to invoke the video camera). Once accessed, however, both the camera and the video camera seem to work well; I was particularly impressed with how the camera handled tricky lighting indoors.

The Chocolate does let you customize which menu items you'd like to see on your home page, but it would be a much stronger phone if the interface were cleaner and more self-explanatory from the outset, as not everyone will want to read the 118-page manual. You will need to break down and at least read the handy quick-start guide, if not the full manual, to figure out which buttons do what.

Feature-Packed Phone
The Chocolate is no slouch on features. In fact, it's so chock-full of capabilities that I'll start by calling out the one glaring omission: It has no speakerphone.

If you can get past that detail, you'll find tons of functions inside. The unit supports Web-based e-mail and instant messaging, and includes support for Verizon's high-speed EvDO network. It also has a microSD Card slot (no card is included with the basic phone package); support for playback of MPEG-4, 3GP, 3G2, and H.264 videos and MP3 and WMA audio; a capable 1.3-megapixel camera/camcorder; an alarm clock with music; and stereo Bluetooth, a boon for music fans who want to listen to tunes wirelessly. It also comes with a calendar, a notepad, and two calculators--one for basic math, and the other for helping determine how much you should tip.

Verizon Wireless's Web site says of the Chocolate: "Part MP3 player. Part phone." And, like LG's Fusic phone before it, the Chocolate features an iPod-like design. The buttons in the circular navigation pad on the phone's face double as controls for the audio player.

While the handset offers some impressive audio (and video) playback features, you'll need to purchase extra accessories and services if you want to take full advantage of its capabilities. The basic $150 handset that I tested lacks a USB cable for connecting the phone to your PC, a microSD Card for storing your music, and software to help you transfer your tunes. Verizon is offering a $200 package that includes the handset, a leather case, a car charger, and a Music Essentials kit consisting of a stereo headset, Music Manager PC software, and a USB cable. Another bundle, which features everything found in the previous package plus a 2GB microSD Card for storing tunes, costs $250.

If you're interested in acquiring songs or videos from Verizon's V Cast service, you'll have to pay an additional $15 per month, on top of your voice plan. For this fee you get the ability to download tunes to your PC for 99 cents (from there you can transfer them to the phone for free), or to the phone directly (via a messy interface) for $1.99.

The external speaker at the back of the unit produces reasonable sound quality, given its small size. But since the unit lacks a speakerphone, the speaker is there only for playing back audio and for sounding the alarm.

Sound Amazes, Interface Disappoints
The Chocolate's sound quality on calls impressed me. Generally speaking, I found it to be one of the best phones I've heard: virtually crystal clear, with little noticeable background noise. I heard a bit of an echo once, but the reason was unclear; it subsided shortly after it started, and didn't return. Another time I had crackling on the line; again, it went away, and the source (the phone itself, or the connection) was indeterminable. Of course, the sound quality of a phone is dependent on its connection, but some phones never sound good--and most never sound as good as this one did.

Beware if you don't plan on using a headset with the Chocolate: Our review unit got warm after a 20-minute phone call. Even the LCD felt a bit toasty (although not unbearably so) next to my cheek. I confirmed this phenomenon with a colleague who bought a Chocolate this weekend and had the same experience.

We're still completing our lab testing on the Chocolate, so check back to find out how well it performed in our tests of its talk-time battery life, and to see our final rating.

The hard-to-use navigational controls and messy menus temper my enthusiasm for the Chocolate and its far-out design. But its sound quality was stellar, and for that alone I can heartily recommend the phone. It also has strong potential as a multimedia device, especially if you're willing to upgrade to one of Verizon's music bundles.

[Rasputin]

Trojan Horse Takes a Bite Out of BlackBerry

Security researcher Jesse D'Aguanno has developed what he bills as the first Trojan horse malware for Research in Motion's BlackBerry e-mail device.

The software, which was demonstrated at the Defcon hacker conference over the weekend, appears to be a free tic-tac-toe download. Once downloaded, however, it works with another piece of code, called BBProxy, that can be used to attack vulnerable machines within the corporate network.

D'Aguanno plans to make the BBProxy software, but not the Trojan horse code, available on his company's Web site within the next few days.

The BlackBerry hack was written to show that while these devices are often not treated with the same concern as PCs, they can be equally dangerous, said D'Aguanno, director of professional services and research with Praetorian Global.

When users think of the BlackBerry's security, they are too focused on protecting the device's data, and tend to ignore its networking capabilities. D'Aguanno said. "It's a computer that has constant access to your internal network."

Avoiding Attacks
After reviewing his research, RIM published two documents describing how to configure BlackBerry Enterprise Servers so they are not vulnerable to this attack, D'Aguanno said.

RIM said that attacks such as D'Aguanno's were possible on any mobile device and that they could be avoided by properly configuring the BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

"The IT policy settings for preventing malware exploits are built into the BlackBerry Enterprise Server software and can be set by the administrator," RIM said in a statement. RIM's white papers on the subject can be found online.

One security expert agreed that users tend to overlook the capabilities of machines such as the BlackBerry.

"When people install these types of devices they are very casual about the policy around the device," said Paul Henry, vice president of strategic accounts with Secure Computing. "There's the assumption that because they're encrypted, they have to be secure."

"It all points to a much bigger problem," he said. "For whatever reason, as soon as a device is put into the marketplace with encryption being used, everybody forgets about the endpoints."

[Rasputin]

Skype Goes Mobile With iSkoot

Skype will help market an application that will put its contact list and VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) and instant messaging services on high-end mobile phones.

The program, called iSkoot, will allow users to have the same Skype features on a mobile phone as on a PC, said Jacob Guedalia, chief executive officer of iSkoot of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Skype and iSkoot will market the application to mobile operators, who could eventually offer service packages that include iSkoot, Guedalia said. ISkoot would share in that revenue, he said. Handset manufacturers will also be courted to preload iSkoot on devices.

Skype's phone book has become an integral part of some users' lives, Guedalia said. The application allows the "ability to continue to interact with a group of people that you used to have to be sitting in front of a PC to have access to," he said.

The iSkoot interface allows users to see who on their contact list is currently online, and to check their SkypeOut account balance. The user can change their status, such as to "away," which will then be visible to others logged in to Skype at their PCs. The contact list can be refreshed, a feature enabled through the user's data plan, according to iSkoot.

When the software makes a call to a name in the Skype contact list, it first dials a regular voice call to an iSkoot gateway server. The server then transfers the call to Skype's VoIP system. Callers pay for the call to the server from their cellular calling plan. The remaining portion of the call is either free, if it's to a PC, or charged at Skype's SkypeOut rates if to a regular telephone.

For now, the gateway is available in the U.S., and will be available later this month in Europe and Asia, Guedalia said. The company is offering free use of the gateway network for a limited time; eventually, they will charge a flat rate for access, he said.

Phone Companies Concerned?
Some telecommunication companies are "nervous" about mobile VoIP applications, Guedalia said. The fear is that VoIP applications using cellular data connections will take away lucrative circuit-switched voice revenues.

The advantage for carriers is that iSkoot gives them a way to make revenue from VoIP calls, giving them a new service they can bill for, Guedalia said. "We have good traction as we talk to some carriers," Guedalia said.

To receive a call to their Skype ID on their cell phone, users must have remaining SkypeOut credit. Paying to receive calls will come as no surprise to U.S. cellular users, but may be less popular with Europeans. For European cellular users, incoming calls are free within their home country: they only pay to receive calls while roaming abroad.

Guedalia said iSkoot is working to enable the software to eventually accommodate Google's Talk VoIP service.

ISkoot will work on certain Java-enabled phones from Motorola, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications. A list is available online.