Pc News

[abadani69]

طرح تازه برای کاهش قاچاق تلفن اینترنتی


21 مرداد 1385 - بزرگراه فناوری - سرنوشت نهایی نحوه ارایه خدمات VOIP (تلفن اینترنتی) ظرف سه ماه آینده در مجمع شرکت مخابرات ایران نهایی میشود.

مهندس صابر فیضی مدیرعامل شرکت مخابرات ایران در گفتوگو با هفتهنامه بزرگراه فناوری در خصوص تصمیم این شرکت برای ارایه خدمات VOIP گفت: ما نیز با سازمان تنظیم مقررات و ارتباطات رادیویی مبنی بر مرتبط بودن ارایه این خدمات با بحث زیرساخت که در حاکمیت دولت است، همنظر هستیم.

وی تاکید کرد: شرکت مخابرات اصولا با نفس واگذاری خدمات VOIP هیچ مشکلی ندارد ولی قطعا تعداد ارایهدهندگان باید محدود باشد.

مدیرعامل شرکت مخابرات ایران گفت: درحال حاضر چگونگی و تعداد شرکتهای ارایهدهنده خدمات VOIP در مجمع شرکت درحال بررسی است و نتیجه کار ظرف سه ماه آینده اعلام خواهد شد.

کاهش 80 درصدی قاچاق VOIP

وی در خصوص ادامه قاچاق مخابراتی از این طریق و زیان وارده به کشور نیز خبر از طرحی جدید داد و گفت: هماکنون سرگرمگرفتن تست از نرمافزار جدید و هوشمندی هستیم که روی شبکههای مخابراتی نصب شده و قابلیت شناسایی ترافیک غیرقانونی را دارد.

فیضی ادامه داد: این نرمافزار مراحل نهایی کار خود را طی میکند و پیشبینی میکنیم طی یک ماه آینده روی شبکه نصب و عملیاتی شود.

به گفته مدیرعامل شرکت مخابرات ایران، با نصب این نرمافزار هوشمند روی شبکه، تا 80 درصد قاچاق مکالمات کاهش مییابد.

اما وی در عین حال تاکید کرد: مسلما با وضع مقررات درست بهزودی قاچاق مکالمات بینالملل به هیچوجه مقرون بهصرفه نخواهد بود.

تعیین حدود مالکیت دولتی

مدیرعامل شرکت مخابرات در خصوص اظهارات متعدد پیرامون نامشخصبودن بحث زیرساخت که در قانون به دولتی ماندن آن تاکید شده است نیز به سابقهای تاریخی اشاره کرد و گفت: در سال 82 زمانی که اصل 44 در میان مدیران مخابرات مطرح شد، اختلاف نظرهای متعددی مبنی بر اینکه اصولا خصوصیسازی در عرصه مخابرات امکانپذیر است مطرح شد که در آن مقطع نیز دید بسیاری از مدیران این بود که چنین مسئلهای امکانپذیر نیست.

وی افزود: سپس موضوع به مجلس شورای اسلامی رفت و در مجلس نیز اختلاف نظرها مبنی بر واگذاری کل و یا بخشی از مخابرات مطرح شد که در نهایت نیز تعیین تکلیف بهعهده مجمع تشخیص مصلحت نظام گذاشته شد.

فیضی اظهار داشت: در سال 83، مجمع تشخیص مصلحت جلسات کارشناسی متعدد و فشردهای را درباره نحوه اجرای اصل 44 در بخش مخابرات برگزار کرد و در نهایت به این نتیجه رسیدند که بهجز شبکه زیرساخت مادر، سایر بخشها قابل واگذاری به بخش خصوصی هستند.

وی افزود: در نتیجه و در راستای اجرای اصل 44 شرکت مخابرات ایران از چهار شرکت مادرتخصصی، فناوری اطلاعات، ارتباطات سیار و ارتباطات زیرساخت تشکیل شد و براساس قانون، شرکت ارتباطات زیرساخت در حاکمیت دولت میماند.

وی تاکید کرد: اصولا زیرساخت در تمامی دنیا در دست حاکمیت باقی میماند.

مدیرعامل شرکت مخابرات ایران در خصوص جزئیات بیشتر تفسیر اصل 44 نیز گفت: درحال حاضر کمیتهای زیر نظر وزیر ارتباطات و فناوری اطلاعات تشکیل شده و تا دو ماه آینده حدود مالکیت دولتی در حوزه مخابرات مشخص خواهد شد.

مادرتخصصی پیشگام خصوصیسازی

فیضی در خصوص نخستین شرکتی که احتمالا خصوصی خواهد شد گفت: شرکت مخابرات ایران (مادرتخصصی) نخستین شرکت خواهد بود و اتفاقا از این موضوع حمایت نیز میکنم. وی به مزایای متعدد خصوصیسازی در مخابرات کشور اشاره کرد و افزود: با خصوصیسازی در عرصه مخابرات کشور یک سرویسدهی بسیار مناسب برای مردم و درآمد خوب برای دولت فراهم شده و ما شاهد افزایش قابل ملاحظهبهرهوری خوهیم بود. فیضی تاکید کرد: پرسنل مخابراتی نیز از این موضوع بیبهره نمیمانند و از نظام هماهنگ خارج شده و سود میبرند.

بازار سیاه E1 از بین میرود

مدیرعامل شرکت مخابرات ایران همچنین در پاسخ به کمبود خطوط E1 (خطوط مورد نیاز ارایهدهندگان خدمات اینترنتی) در تهران و شکلگیری یک بازار سیاه گفت: در مورد E1 محدودیتهایی در تهران وجود داشت که خوشبختانه قبل از پایان سال جاری مشکل حل شده و دیگر بازار سیاهی در کار نخواهد بود.

وی گفت: مدیرعامل مخابرات استان تهران نیز اخیرا تاکید کرده که هر کس، هر کجا مشکل دارد اعلام کند تا نسبت به رفع آن اقدام کنیم.

تالیا سیمکارت واگذار میکند

مدیرعامل شرکت مخابرات ایران همچنین از موافقت با واگذاری صد هزار سیمکارت تالیا در تهران خبر داد و ضمن اظهار رضایت از عملکرد تالیا گفت: ظرفیت توسعه تالیا در تهران فراهم شده و این پیمانکار میتواند تا ماه آینده نسبت به واگذاری صد هزار سیمکارت دیگر در تهران نیز اقدام کند.

وی تاکید کرد: تالیا تا پایان سال باید به تعهد خود مبنی بر واگذاری پانصد هزار سیمکارت باقیمانده در تهران عمل کند.

[abadani69]

شركت "سوني" به تازگي رايانه جيبي كوچكي به بازار دادهاست كه علاوه بر برخورداري از قابليتهاي صوتي تصويري متنوع، با پشتيباني از فنآوري اينترنت بيسيم "واي-افي" به كاربران اجازه ميدهد با استفاده از ايميل، مسنجرها و تلفن اينترنتي با يكديگر ارتباط برقرار كنند.

به گزارش خبرگزاري آسوشيتدپرس، رايانه جيبي "ميلو"( (Myloبا برخورداري از يك صفحه نمايش ۲/۴اينچي و يك صفحه كليد كوچك به كاربر اجازه ميدهد در هنگام قرار گرفتن در محدوده تحت پوشش اينترنت بيسيم "وايفاي"، توسط يك مرورگر اينترنتي به گشت و گذار در اينترنت بپردازند.

دستگاه "ميلو" هماكنون با مسنجرهاي دو شركت "ياهو" و "گوگل" هماهنگ شده و شركت "سوني" تلاش ميكند تا امكان استفاده از ساير مسنجرهاي معروف از جمله مسنجر شركت "اي او ال" را نيز بدين دستگاه بيفزايد.

رايانه جيبي "ميلو" به علاوه به نرمافزار تلفن اينترنتي "اسكايپ" نيز مجهز است كه كاربران ميتوانند در هنگام قرار داشتن در محدوده تحت پوشش اينترنت بيسيم، از آن براي تماس صوتي رايگان با ساير كاربران اسكايپ استفاده كنند.

"ميلو" داراي يك حافظه فلش يك گيابايتي داخلي است و كاربر ميتواند از كارتهاي حافظه جانبي براي افزايش حافظه دستگاه استفاده كند. اين رايانه جيبي همچنين انواع فايلهاي صوتي و تصويري را نيز پخش كرده و عكسهاي ديجيتالي را نمايش ميدهد.

شركت "سوني" قيمت رايانه جيبي "ميلو" را ۳۵۰دلار تعيين كردهاست.

[Hamidjan]

man in ra too computer news didam va yadam nist koja bood ke linke oon ra baratoon bezaram. amma computer-haye jadid dige mitoonand be andazeye yek Pen bashand. keyboard besoorate noori rooye miz miyofte va shoma rooye miz type mikonid (rooye tasvire nooriye keyboard). alan Microsoft rooye in system dare kar mikone.

[Rasputin]

Major Windows Hole - Patch Now

Make sure you've got this patch: Microsoft issued on Tuesday a fix for a major vulnerability in its server service, used for file and print sharing. Since then, security companies and even the Department of Homeland Security are raising alarms about the risk of a widespread worm attack. My colleage Robert McMillan at the IDG news service wrote about it yesterday and today.

According to Microsoft's bulletin, the hole makes Windows XP (including SP2), Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 vulnerable to a remote attack that can take over your computer. The server service is on by default, so most every unpatched Windows PC is potentially vulnerable.

This one raises the worm fears because a piece of malicious software using the exploit could spread itself from PC to PC. You don't need to be browsing a poisoned Web site or open a corrupted e-mail attachment to get hit.

To protect yourself, get the patch from Microsoft directly or use Windows Update. Also, use a hardware or software firewall to block the bad guys' attempts to remotely connect to your PC. Most every firewall blocks all incoming connections unless you specifically allow some through, but check to make sure, or that at least TCP ports 139 and 445 are blocked.

Update: As Bob McMillan notes in his story today, attack code that hits this flaw is currently available as part of Metasploit, a popular tool for exploit research and penetration testing. HD Moore, head of the Metasploit project and well-known hacker, wrote that the Metasploit attack code doesn't affect Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows 2003 Service Pack 1.

Microsoft does say in its security bulletin that both those OS's are vulnerable, though, so be sure to patch no matter your OS.

[Rasputin]

Researchers: OpenOffice.org Security 'Insufficient'

Though Microsoft's Office suite may currently be targeted by hackers, researchers at the French Ministry of Defense say users of the rival OpenOffice.org software could be at even greater risk from computer viruses.

"The general security of OpenOffice is insufficient," the researchers wrote in a paper entitled "In-depth analysis of the viral threats with OpenOffice.org documents."

"This suite is up to now still vulnerable to many potential malware attacks," they wrote.

How Leaky?
The paper describes four proof-of-concept viruses that illustrate how maliciously encoded macros and templates could be created to compromise systems running the open-source software. "The viral hazard attached to OpenOffice.org is at least as high as that for the Microsoft Office suite, and even higher when considering some... aspects," they wrote.

The report was written by researchers at the French Ministry of Defense's Signal Corps and is set to be published in the Journal in Computer Virology, a Paris-based academic journal for computer scientists.

A number of the problems described in the report have to do with the basic design of the software. For example, OpenOffice.org does not perform adequate security checks on the software it runs, the researcher said. And because of the extreme flexibility of the free office suite, there are many ways for writers to create malicious macros, the researchers found.

The OpenOffice.org team has already fixed a software bug discovered by the French researchers, and the two groups are in discussions about how to improve the overall security of the software, said Louis Suarez-Potts, an OpenOffice.org community manager.

"The one real flaw in the programming logic has been fixed," Suarez-Potts said. "The others are theoretical."

Patches in Progress
OpenOffice.org has patched a number of vulnerabilities in the past few weeks, and Suarez-Potts says users should upgrade to the latest version.

These latest bugs show that the open-source project has some security work ahead of it, said Russ Cooper, a senior information security analyst at Cybertrust. "If these types of vulnerabilities had been discovered in Microsoft Office, it would be front-page news," he said, adding, "Whoever did the security for OpenOffice has totally ignored what Microsoft has gone through" with the security problems of the Office suite.

Attackers have exploited a number of bugs in Microsoft's Office applications of late, sending maliciously encoded Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents via e-mail to a small number of victims in extremely targeted attacks. On Tuesday, Microsoft patched the latest such flaws, which related to PowerPoint.

Signal Corps Researcher Eric Filiol has also discussed some of the team's OpenOffice.org findings during a conference presentation. View a PDF in French of his presentation slides.

Filiol declined to be interviewed for this story.

[abadani69]

تا پايان امسال پروژه شهروند الكترونيك توسط مركز فناوري اطلاعات سازمان فرهنگي هنري شهرداري تهران اجرا ميشود.

به گزارش روابط عمومي اين مركز به حوزه آي تي ايرنا، پروژه شهروند الكترونيكي، درراستاي تحقق شهرالكترونيكي وآرمان استقرار دولت الكترونيكي در پي آن، با ارايه آموزشهاي لازم به شهروندان تهراني مطابق با نياز آنها طراحي شده است.

در مديريت جديد شهري، اين مركز چند ماموريت مهم را دنبال ميكند كه مهمترين آن آمادهسازي شهروندان براي دست يابي به آموزشهاي شهروند الكترونيكي و در پي آن فراهمسازي بستر استقرار شهر الكترونيكي است.

بر همين اساس و با توجه به اينكه هدف از تربيت شهروند الكترونيك از سوي مركز، آموزش علوم پايه كامپيوتر ( (ICDLو صرفا آموزش كليشهاي نيست، در اين طرح به محتوا پرداخته شده و آموزش كاربردي فناوري اطلاعات مد نظر قرار گرفته است.

برنامه ريزي براي اجراي اين طرح بر اين هدف استوار است كه هر يك از شهروندان پس از گذراندن آموزشهاي لازم بتوانند از ابزارهاي الكترونيكي براي تامين نيازهاي خود استفاده كنند و از اكثر قابليتهاي آن و آنچه با هزينه بسيار خريداري كردهاند، نهايت استفاده لازم را ببرند.

در حال حاضر اين طرح، مرحله تربيت مدرس را پشت سر ميگذارد كه پس از آن تا پايان تابستان امسال دورههاي مختلف شهروند الكترونيكي به شهروندان ارايه ميشود.

بر اساس اين گزارش، در راستاي فرهنگسازي فناوري اطلاعات، اين مركز، اجراي برنامههاي فرهنگي فناوري اطلاعات را در ماموريتهاي خود دارد كه برگزاري جشنوارههاي موضوعي مانند عكس ديجيتال شهري، وبلاگ نويسي فرهنگي و انيميشن در حوزه شهري از آن جمله است.

اين ماموريتها در پي اجراي پروژه راه اندازي ۸۵مركز فناوري اطلاعات در سال ۸۵است كه با توجه به تاخير در تامين اعتبار با پايان زمان يكساله تا مردادماه سال ۸۶به اتمام ميرسد.

بر اساس اين گزارش در كوي دانشگاه با همكاري مديريت فرهنگي كوي و دانشگاه، راه اندازي دو مركز ،ITيكي ويژه برادران با نام غدير و ديگري ويژه خواهران و با نام كوثر پيش بيني شده كه پس از برگزاري جلسه مشترك، زمان افتتاح آن اعلام خواهد شد.

شهرك شهيد محلاتي در شمال تهران نيز با توافقات ميان مركز و بسيج منطقه، ميزبان افتتاح مركز فرهنگي فناوري اطلاعات بسيج است كه با توجه به تعيين محل و تامين تجهيزات، بزودي راه اندازي ميشود.

همچنين مركز فرهنگي فناوري اطلاعات امامت در منطقه ۱۳تهران آماده بهره برداري است و بزودي بهره برداري خواهد شد.

مركز فرهنگي فناوري اطلاعات ويژه نابينايان در منطقه ۶شهرداري تهران نيز طي يكماه آينده به بهره برداري ميرسد.

لازم به ذكر است مركز، تومار الكترونيكي را آماده و بر روي وب سايت شهرداري با آدرس WWW.tehran****قرار داده است تا علاقه مندان با تاييد و امضاي آن به حمايت از ستم ديدگان قانا برآيند.

مركز فناوري اطلاعات كه حدود دو سال از راه اندازي آن ميگذرد با رويكرد فناوري اطلاعات و پيگيري كاربردهاي آن در جامعه فعاليت ميكند.

[Rasputin]

AOL Revamps Photo Site

AOL has begun publicly testing an upgrade of its AOL Pictures photo site that incorporates tagging, management, and sharing features made popular by Yahoo's Flickr.

The beta site lets people create public galleries of their photos, categorize pictures with descriptive tags, add comments to them, and search through all the public photos on the service's catalog, AOL said.

"AOL Pictures is the new place to go for a holistic pictures experience that will enable you to easily find, view and share images from AOL and a wide variety of other available sources," reads a note in the company's AOL Beta Central Web site.

Making a Splash
As a startup, Flickr quickly revolutionized the stale world of online photo sites with a platform that fostered interaction among users by letting them categorize their photos with tags, share their albums, and comment on each other's work. Google recently retooled its Picasa photo management site with Flickr-like features.

The "social media" approach at the heart of Flickr, considered a cornerstone of the so-called Web 2.0 era, has now been embraced by most major Internet companies, and it has been applied in other contexts, like news, video, search, blogging, and podcasting sites.

Last year, Yahoo acquired Flickr and another tagging pioneer, del.icio.us, whose social bookmarking concept is having a deep effect in search engine evolution. Social bookmarking services let users save links to favorite Web pages, tag the links, share their lists with others, and search through the service's index.

[Rasputin]

Worm Fears Raised After Release of Windows Malware

Attack code exploiting a recently-patched vulnerability in Microsoft's Windows operating system has been posted to the Internet, prompting concerns of a widespread attack.

The software was added to the widely used Metasploit project--a favorite of both security researchers and malicious hackers--at around 1 a.m. Thursday morning Pacific Time, according to H.D. Moore, the Metasploit project leader. "It works very reliably against Windows 2000 and Windows XP systems that do not have SP2 [Service Pack 2] installed," he said in an e-mail.

Security experts had worried that the Windows Server services vulnerability--described in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-040--could be used in a widespread worm attack. Windows Server services are generally enabled by default on Windows systems, and are used for common network applications like file sharing and printing.

The bug was patched on Tuesday in one of 12 Microsoft security updates.

Government Warning
On Wednesday the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) took the unusual step of warning PC users to make sure they had installed this patch. The DHS statement warned that the vulnerability "could impact government systems, private industry and critical infrastructure, as well as individual and home users." This statement can be found online.

"This is a great opportunity for an unskilled hacker to launch a worm," said Marcus Sachs, deputy director with research group SRI International's Computer Science Laboratory. "A skilled hacker will use the vulnerability to quietly infect millions of computers for the purposes of sending spam, stealing credit card numbers, or countless other subversive activities," he said in an e-mail interview.

Microsoft executives were not immediately available to comment on the Metasploit code. In a blog posting dated early Thursday, Microsoft Security Response Center Program Manager Christopher Budd, said his company was seeing "very, very limited exploitation of the vulnerability."

Microsoft's patch had been downloaded by about 100 million users in the first 30 hours, he added. Budd's post can be found here.

Metasploit's Moore believes that any worm based on the MS06-040 vulnerability will probably not be as widespread as the Zotob worms, which made headlines last year after taking down computers at CNN, SBC Communications, and American Express.

The vulnerability exploited by Zotob "was actually much more reliable and affected a wider range of systems," Moore said. With this latest malware, "the only shops that really need to worry are those running older XP clients or 2000/NT desktops," he said.

[Rasputin]

PC Sales Slow, But Apple Shines

PC market growth slowed during the second quarter compared to the first three months of the year as the World Cup soccer tournament distracted Europeans, leading to a steep slowdown in shipment growth on the continent, market researcher IDC said in a report.

Despite slower growth overall, some computer makers thrived, including Apple Computer, the report said.

Global PC shipment growth softened to 9.7 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, from a blistering 12.9 percent pace during the first quarter, IDC said.

"While overall growth remained strong, there were some unexpected twists in regional performance. Inventory from the first quarter and distractions from the World Cup significantly cut into European growth," the market researcher said.

Gartner, which also released its preliminary second quarter PC shipment figures this week, said global PC shipments rose 11 percent over the same time last year to 54.9 million units. For the first quarter, Gartner reported that shipments grew 13.1 percent.

PC shipment growth in Europe rose just 7 percent in the April through June period, IDC said, compared to a 14 percent increase during the first quarter and an IDC forecast calling for 12 percent growth.

Bargains Coming Soon?
The slower second quarter figure should mean more PC bargains for users. Increased competition among PC makers and sluggish growth in some key markets such as Europe and the U.S., which grew just 6.7 percent year-on-year during the second quarter, should ensure low prices.

"We can expect to see heightened competition in the second half of this year as companies vie for growth," IDC said, noting that U.S. PC makers have slashed prices over the past six months to increase shipment growth. The company also cited aggressive competition between microprocessor makers Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, as well as the delayed release of Windows Vista as factors that will affect PC market growth going forward.

Processor competition has already hurt Intel. The company on Wednesday reported second quarter sales that disappointed Wall Street, and blamed price competition with AMD as part of the reason for the shortfall.

Bright Spots
There were several bright spots for PC vendors during the second quarter. Apple shipments grew by roughly 16 percent thanks to strong portable PC sales at its retail stores, IDC said.

"The strong growth reflects a successful transition to Intel-based systems--a critical transition for the company that sets the stage for future growth," IDC said.

Apple on Wednesday reported earnings for its fiscal third quarter that solidly beat Wall Street estimates as sales of iPods and Macintosh computers soared.

Taiwanese PC maker Acer also continued to gain PC market share on growth that outpaced all other top vendors, IDC said. Gateway shined as its growth topped 15 percent for the second quarter, while Dell remained the PC market leader and gained global market share despite facing tough competition.

By region, the Asia/Pacific excluding Japan continued to grow at a faster clip than the rest of the world due to strong PC buying in China, IDC said. India and South Korea grew at a slower than expected pace during the quarter, moderating PC shipment growth to the region at just over 18 percent year on year.

[Rasputin]

Next iPod Killer--From Microsoft?

Microsoft is reportedly readying an iPod killer set to hit retail shelves in time for the end-of-year holiday shopping season.

Microsoft's portable music and video player is rumored to include wireless connectivity, enabling users to download songs without being tethered to a PC, according to a report Thursday from The New York Times.

Microsoft faces an uphill battle in its efforts to take on Apple Computer, which shipped 8.5 million iPods in the second quarter of 2006 alone, marking a 61 percent increase from its sales for the same quarter in 2005. Apple is due to announce its third-quarter earnings July 19.

Microsoft has already introduced initiatives to compete with Apple's iTunes music service. In May it launched along with MTV Networks the Urge music store as part of the Windows Media Player 11 public beta. The Urge store allows users to purchase songs for $1 and albums for $10, as well as to buy a $15 monthly subscription. The service is not compatible with Apple Macs or iPods.

[Rasputin]

Apple iPod Nano

Apple IPod Nano
Slender, lightweight music player has a bright color display and 4GB of flash memory.

The first thing you notice about the flash-based iPod Nano, of course, is its tiny size. The slim 4GB Nano costs $249 (as of 4/13/06), and a 2GB model sells for $199. And its bright, crisp color display makes navigating your tunes a snap. But what's really impressive is its sound quality.

In PC World's new audio-quality tests, the Nano outscored every other flash-based audio player other than the Creative Zen Nano Plus; both players earned a mark of Superior. The Nano reproduced a broad range of frequencies more accurately than any other flash player and turned in the lowest (best) signal-to-noise ratio, so you're less likely to notice hum or hiss during quiet songs or in between tracks. In our test measuring how loud each player could get before adding 1 percent distortion--a commonly accepted threshold--the Nano produced clear sound at a louder volume than any other player.

The Nano weighs 1.5 ounces and is about 0.25-inch thick--so small that you scarcely feel it when you have the player in your shirt pocket. Surprisingly, its size was no impediment to functionality: I navigated the Nano's menus, displayed on its nearly postage-stamp-size display, without difficulty. The unit's screen resolution is sufficiently high that it can fit as many as 27 characters across, in extremely readable type.

But as good as the display is, you shouldn't get too excited about the Nano's ability to display photos: The shots I viewed looked dark, and even high-quality photos don't look so great when they are shrunk down to 1.5 inches across.

Whereas most flash-based players top out at 1GB, the Nano falls into the midcapacity range once exclusively the domain of players that carried internal hard drives. Because it uses flash memory, the Nano should be more rugged than its hard-drive counterparts (like the iPod), and thus more attractive to joggers, bicyclists, and others unwilling to risk ruining a hard-drive player during their exertions.

Apple has refashioned its signature scroll wheel into Nano-size proportions. This initially concerned me, since I have big, clumsy thumbs, but I had no trouble navigating the Nano. In my tests, the sound was very good, too, even through the included earbuds.

Like other iPods, the Nano uses a rechargeable battery that you can't replace. It ships without an AC adapter, so you have to charge it through the included cable and your USB port. That process takes about 3 hours; a single charge should last you 14 hours, according to Apple.

Most of my complaints about the Nano could apply to any iPod. Because it doesn't have a standard USB port, you're out of luck if you lose the proprietary cable or just don't happen to have it with you when you want to transfer some tunes. It doesn't play music from subscription services like Rhapsody or Napster. And you have to go through iTunes to move music on and off the Nano--your computer won't access the music library as just another drive. One Nano-specific grumble: The headphone jack is at the bottom of the player. This arrangement prevents users from standing the player on a table while listening to it.

But if you're an iTunes devotee already--or if you want a featherweight, fashionable MP3 player--you'll find plenty to love about the iPod Nano.

[Rasputin]

Q&A: What You Should Know About Macs Running Windows

FRAMINGHAM--Apple today unveiled software that will allow new Macintosh computers to run Microsoft's Windows XP software natively on its Intel-based Macs. The software, which Apple has dubbed "Boot Camp" has been released as a free public beta for users to try now. A final version will be included in the next upgrade to Mac OS X, due out later this year.

PC World today used Boot Camp to install Windows XP on an Intel-based Mac. Go here to read their story: First Look: PC World Installs Windows XP on a 20-Inch iMac.

Here's what else you should know.

What was actually announced Wednesday? Apple's released software allows its newest Intel-based computers to run Windows XP natively. The free public beta is 83MB. (Go here to download Boot Camp.) It is available without technical support "for a limited time."

What models of Apple computers actually run Boot Camp? Only Apple systems with Intel chips will run the software. So far this year, the company has released several Intel-based models: The Mac mini, the 15-inch MacBook Pro laptop, and two versions of the all-in-one desktop iMac. Apple also notes that you need a computer with a built-in or USB keyboard and a built-in trackpad or USB mouse. Wireless keyboards and mice don't work during the installation process.

What else do I need to run Boot Camp? You need Mac OS X 10.4.6 or later. Apple updated Mac OS X a few days ago, so run Software Update if you haven't done so recently. You also need the latest firmware update available for your Intel-based Mac; at least 10GB of free space on your startup disk; and a full, single-disc version of Windows XP Home Edition or Professional with Service Pack 2 or later, as well as a blank CD. The CD will be used to create a disc of Windows XP drivers for the hardware in your Mac.

I've got an earlier version of Windows XP. Will that work? No. Apple is very clear on this point. "Your Windows XP installation disc must include Service Pack 2 (SP2). You cannot install an earlier version of Windows and upgrade it to Windows XP, nor install an earlier version of Windows XP and update it with SP2 later."

Why did Apple release this software? There are probably a lot of reasons. Hackers had already been able to create a kludgey way of booting Windows XP on the new Macs, mostly because they wanted to see if it's possible. But Apple had, until today, expressed little interest in making it easy to do. Including it in its upcoming version of Mac OS X 10.5, or "Leopard," also adds real value to that upgrade for Mac owners--making it more likely that they'll buy it. It also means that would-be Mac owners who must run a program that works only in Windows can now buy Apple hardware and keep using their Windows-only software.

How else could this be good for Apple? This could be extremely beneficial to Apple's market and mind share. Apple will see computer sales rise as people see a win-win situation and try the company's computers. In essence, they're getting two computers in one--a Macintosh that runs Mac OS X and Windows XP. If even a quarter of new Apple customers stay on Macs, Apple's market share will boom. Developers will see this and respond accordingly.

What does this mean for companies considering a switch to Mac hardware? It means they have a backup plan if they choose not to go solely with Mac OS X. Any Apple hardware using Intel's chipset can run Windows, and any company looking to try Macs, risk free, now has a legitimate exit strategy if they find that the Mac platform isn't what they were looking for. This is very much a win-win situation for Apple's customers.

Why did Apple do this now? Apple is touting this as a preview of one of the features for Leopard. Consider that hackers have already gotten Windows XP to run on Mactel hardware, virtualization software company Parallels announced plans to offer something similar and there are a variety of open-source projects in the works. In light of all that, Windows on the Mac was only a matter of time. But to have Apple officially support this is a huge vote of confidence to companies and individuals wanting to try Macs but afraid of spending hundreds of dollars for untested and (as far as they are concerned) unproven technology.

How does this affect Mac software development? Theoretically, it shouldn't hurt Mac development. The most obvious argument is that with Macs able to run Windows applications--either in dual boot or in parallel--software writers know that they could write just the Windows version and that would work on both platforms. However, that argument could (and was) used regarding the old "Classic" OS environment when Mac OS X was first announced, and developers wrote OS X-native apps anyway. Software developers will always listen to their customers, and as more and more people use Macs (especially now that there really is no risk to them with Boot Camp), these same people will begin to demand that applications run natively on their preferred platform.

Microsoft is a good example of this. They've had versions of Office for Classic MacOS and MacOS X, and they're currently working on the Intel MacOS X version. Why? Because their customers demand it. Money talks, and if customers are willing to pay, developers are willing to code.

Does this hurt Microsoft? Not really, if you think about it. Suddenly, if anything, Microsoft has gone from catering to about 90 percent of the market to catering to almost 100 percent of the market. If Apple decided to sell dual-boot machines or, better yet, a version of the OS X that can run Windows in parallel, then people would still have to have a license of Windows. If Apple sold Macs with Windows on it, Microsoft would still make money. Plus, there's Microsoft's Office, which is the industry standard and isn't going anywhere any time soon. Since Office is cross-platform, Microsoft is making money, regardless.

What about using Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware? Will Apple allow that? The answer is no, as long as Steve Jobs is in charge. Don't look for Apple to turn into just a software company. Jobs believes that one of his company's strengths, and what makes Apple highly competitive and innovative, is the fact that it makes and sells the whole widget. Keeping the amount of hardware Mac OS X officially supports (through Apple) guarantees complete hardware and software parity.

However, third-party vendors will have a much easier time writing drivers of their products for Mac OS X because of the Intel switch. They no longer have to worry about writing drivers for a variety of processor platforms and instead of dealing with processor-specific code, they can write drivers for their products for MacOS X.

Note: Harry McCracken, PC World Editor in Chief, had more questions about Boot Camp.

[abadani69]

عبدالمجيد رياضي ، دبير شوراي عالي فناوري اطلاعات در نشست سوم آسيب شناسي اينترنت ، درباره علت و ضرورت فيلترينگ شبکه اينترنت در ايران گفت: بحث فيلترينگ را با جديت دنبال مي کنيم و بايد سايتهاي ضداخلاقي و سايتهاي سياسي ضد نظام بشدت فيلتر شوند.
به گزارش ايرنا ، سخنرانان در اين نشست ، از ضرورت اعمال پالايه بر شبکه اينترنتي براي فيلترينگ محتواي غير اخلاقي و غيرقانوني در اين فضا، قوانين بين المللي و داخلي کنترل اين محتوا ، شيوه هاي فيلترينگ و محتواهاي غيرقانوني سخن گفتند. رياضي به عنوان سخنران افتتاحيه اين نشست همچنين اظهار کرد: ما بايد از مزايا و فرصتهاي اين شبکه به نحو مطلوب استفاده و از تهديدها و ضررهاي آنها بشدت جلوگيري کنيم.
به گفته وي ، همان گونه که وزارت بهداشت وظيفه دارد از ورود بيماري هايي چون آنفلوآنزاي مرغي و وبا به کشور جلوگيري کند، وظيفه ما هم اين است که حتما مرزهاي کشور را روي اخلاق هاي فاسد ببنديم.
رياضي افزود: در سالهاي گذشته براي فيلترينگ مشکل داشتيم ، زيرا فناوري ها و ظرفيت هاي اينترنتي بسرعت پيشرفت مي کند و براي پروکسيها هم سريعا ضدپروکسي ساخته مي شود ولي اکنون ما هم در حال ايجاد ظرفيت هايي هستيم که بتوانيم به طور مسلط از فساد جلوگيري کنيم.
رضا پرويزي ، کارشناس حقوق و دبير سابق کميته مبارزه با جرايم اينترنتي نيز در سخناني به نحوه دسترسي به اينترنت ، نقطه اعمال فيلترينگ ، تعريف و روشهاي ارائه و انتشار محتواي غيرقانوني در فضاي اينترنتي و پيشگيري در نقطه آغاز ارائه محتوا و روشهاي مقابله با ارائه آن ، پرداخت.
پرويزي که هم اکنون مشاور معاون آموزش قوه قضاييه است ، با بيان اين که از سال 78 چه در قوه قضاييه و چه در نيروي انتظامي گروههاي مختلفي براي تحقيق روي تهديدهاي فضاي اينترنت تشکيل شد ، افزود: فوريت نخست لايحه جرايم اينترنتي کشور در مجلس شوراي اسلامي به تصويب رسيده است و فوريت دوم آن نيز تصويب خواهد شد. پرويزي ، تهديدها در شبکه اينترنتي را ايجاد جرايم جديد ، کمک به انجام آسان و مخفي ماندن و فرار از دست قانون مجرمان عنوان کرد و گفت : موضوع فيلترينگ به محتوا در شبکه هاي رايانه اي بازمي گردد و صرفا محدود به شبکه اينترنتي نمي شود.

بايد فيلترينگ ملي اينترنت طراحي شود

همچنين سيدمحمدرضا ميراسکندري ، کارشناس امور رايانه و اينترنت گفت : بايد يک پالايه (فيلترينگ) ملي اينترنت طراحي شود که با سياست هاي جمهوري اسلامي منطبق و قابليت به روزرساني نرم افزارهاي اينترنت پرسرعت را داشته باشد. وي به عنوان يکي از سخنرانان نشست آسيب شناسي اينترنت ، در مقدمه اي درباره سرمايه گذاري روي محتواي غيراخلاقي در جهان ، نرم افزارهاي پالايه (فيلترينگ) را به چهار دسته URL که بانک اطلاعاتي و آدرس ها را جستجو مي کند و موارد ممنوع را در آنها مي بندد ، پالايه محتوايي URL که محتواي متن را هم جستجو مي کند ، پالايه محتوا و پالايه ميزبان ها (HostBase) ذکر کرد و براي هر يک مزايا و معايبي برشمرد.

[Rasputin]

Fire Hazard Prompts Gigantic Dell Laptop Battery Recall

Computer maker Dell today said it will recall 4.1 million laptop computer batteries because of a potential fire hazard. It's reportedly one of the largest consumer electronics recalls in history.

The lithium-ion batteries being recalled are installed in 2.7 million laptops sold in the United States and 1.4 million sold overseas between April 2004 and July 18 of this year, Dell said.

"Under rare conditions, it is possible for these batteries to overheat, which could cause a risk of fire," Dell said in a statement. The comapany said the overheating was caused by a manufacturing defect in batteries made for it by Sony.

Customers may continue to use the laptop computers safely by turning the system off, ejecting the battery, and using the AC adapter and power cord to power the system until the replacement battery is received, the company said.

Models Affected
The recalled batteries were sold with the following Dell notebook computers: Dell Latitude D410, D500, D505, D510, D520, D600, D610, D620, D800, D810; Inspiron 6000, 8500, 8600, 9100, 9200, 9300, 500m, 510m, 600m, 6400, E1505, 700m, 710m, 9400, E1705; and Dell Precision M20, M60, M70 and M90 mobile workstations; and XPS, XPS Gen2, XPS M170 and XPS M1710.

The batteries were also sold separately, including in response to service calls. The words "Dell" and one of the following are printed on the batteries: "Made in Japan" or "Made in China" or "Battery Cell Made in Japan Assembled in China," Dell said.

Dell urged customers to visit the firm's Web site beginning at 1 a.m. U.S. Central Daylight Time Tuesday or call toll-free at 1-866-342-0011, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CDT. Dell is headquartered in Round Rock, Texas, near Austin.

In past instances of battery recall, Dell and the CPSC urged consumers to stop using the laptops' batteries until they received a replacement. Lithium-ion batteries also are used in cell phones, camcorders, digital cameras and other consumer electronics products.

Dell said it is cooperating with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) in conducting the recall. The federal agency described it as the largest recall in the history of the consumer electronics industry, according to published reports.

According to the CPSC, lithium-ion batteries have been cited in recalls of other laptop models, including computers from Hewlett-Packard and from Apple Computer.

Other Recent Laptop Battery Recalls
Dell made other voluntary recalls of 22,000 laptop batteries in December 2005, 284,000 in 2001 and 27,000 in 2000, according to the CPSC.

Dell reported six instances in which laptops overheated and caused fires since December of last year, although no one was injured in any of the incidents, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported today.

[Rasputin]

Google Tests Blogger Upgrade

Google has started testing an enhanced version of its popular Blogger blog publishing service, adding long-awaited features such as the ability to categorize entries with labels, to control access to blogs, and to make layout changes by dragging and dropping.

For now, Google is limiting the number of Blogger members who can switch over to the new beta version of the service. When they are able to switch their blogs, members will see a link to the new version on their Blogger "dashboard," which is the service's management console. Those who want to try the new features out right away can create a new account at beta.blogger.com.

"You've been asking for ways to do more with your blog, and you can with this new release," reads a note posted Monday on the official Blogger blog announcing the new version.

New Elements
The new Blogger adds new page elements as well as font and color options, and it allows members of the free blogging service to customize their sites in a new drag-and-drop interface, reducing the need to make the layout changes by writing code. Meanwhile, a new setting lets users make their blogs private and specify who can view them. Google is also adding new templates to Blogger.

On the content syndication front, Blogger now provides a feed for all the comments posted on a blog, as well as individual feeds for comments made on specific entries. Support has also been added for the RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 standards.

Google also enhanced the dashboard, which has an overhauled interface. Also, bloggers don't have to hit the "publishing" button to publish posts or replicate changes to existing posts. The service now detects when a post has been added or changed and publishes it automatically.