Pc News

[Rasputin]

AMD Layoffs Announced

Four weeks after beating Wall Street estimates for financial earnings, chip maker Advanced Micro Devices will lay off 375 workers, according to published reports.

The move will weed out redundant positions caused by AMD's acquisition of graphics chip maker ATI Technologies on October 25, analysts said. It could also give AMD extra resources in its competition with rival Intel. The layoffs were reported in various newspapers with information attributed to an AMD spokesman. AMD did not return calls seeking confirmation.

AMD Beefing Up Production
AMD has been winning spots for its chips on computers from vendors such as Dell and IBM in recent months, despite a raft of new processors launched by Intel. To keep that momentum rolling, AMD must increase its production capacity, said Martin Kariithi, an analyst with Technology Business Research.

The company can gain the flexibility to do that by cutting redundant jobs in the sales and marketing and general and administrative departments (SG&A), he said.

AMD has announced plans to combine its processors with ATI's graphics and chip set technologies to create a family of more integrated chips for PCs and other consumer electronics devices. Once it has launched those new chips, AMD might replace some of the lost positions.

"From a manufacturing standpoint, AMD will keep driving to increase production capacity to keep gunning for Intel," Kariithi said. "To facilitate this I expect AMD to continue increasing its manufacturing, tech support, and engineering workforce. Toward mid-2007 AMD will once again seek to boost SG&A staff in order support the new ATI/AMD products coming to market at that time."

Cuts a Surprise
The number of layoffs is small, both in comparison to AMD's total roster of nearly 15,000 employees and to Intel's plan to cut 10,500 jobs by the middle of 2007, amounting to about 10 percent of its workforce.

Still, AMD has been so successful lately that the cuts came as a surprise. AMD reported third-quarter profits of $134 million in October, more than three times its number for that period last year.

[Rasputin]

PlayStation 3 Debuts to Crowds, Chaos

Peaceful PS3 hopefuls line up outside the Metreon in San Francisco.

A week after it first appeared in Japan, Sony's PlayStation 3 console went on sale in the U.S. and three other countries today.

The console is likely to have immediately sold out. Many stores stopped taking reservations weeks ago and the device is already selling for more than $2000 on eBay. That's about three times its U.S. retail price of $599.

Demand for the console is high because Sony is short of the blue-laser diode that sits at the heart of the console's Blu-ray Disc drive. Problems starting up production of that part pushed Sony to scale back the worldwide launch. There were supposed to be about 2 million PlayStation 3 consoles ready for the launch, but that was cut to about 500,000 units.

It's not clear if Sony managed to even ship that many. The company said that 100,000 of the consoles would be in Japanese stores for last weekend's launch but data from a recognized local gaming magazine said the PlayStation 3 sold out on launch day with 88,400 units.

Desperate Gamers Resort to Violence
There were reports of sporadic violence across the U.S. and Canada, where it also launched, as people waited in line to snap up one of the consoles. The most serious reported incident happened in Putnam, Connecticut, where a man was shot while waiting for the console to go on sale. The man apparently confronted two armed men who were trying to rob those in line, according to news reports.

Dozens of police were called to Boston's Copley Place Mall after security guards lost control of a crowd of about 400 people today, The Boston Globe reported in its online edition, and a 19-year-old man was injured after running into a pole while racing others to get a place in a queue outside a Wal-Mart store in Wisconsin, said the Associated Press. In Ottawa, Canada, one man was arrested for being intoxicated after a fight broke out at 2 a.m. this morning among people waiting for a game store to open, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

The console also went on sale in Hong Kong and Taiwan on Friday. It will hit Europe and Australia in March 2007, according to Sony's current plans.

[Rasputin]

Google Hires Spreadsheet Company Founders

A posting to the iRows blog on Tuesday announced that Israeli service iRows will shut down on Dec. 31 and that the company's founders will join Google.

Google confirmed that it has hired iRows founders Yoah Bar-David and Itai Raz and that they will work in Google's Tel Aviv and Haifa research and development centers.

Speculation Proves True
In June, Google introduced Google Spreadsheets, a Web-based offering that lets users create and share spreadsheets and documents online, without using a software program like Microsoft's Excel. The offering was developed based on Google's acquisition of 2Web Technologies, a company that specialized in online information sharing technology.

At the time of the Google Spreadsheet service launch, there was some speculation that Google had bought iRows to create the offering. In an iRows iRows blog posting, the founders wrote that the Google launch, though unrelated to iRows, drove more traffic to iRows than its servers could handle, presumably from people interested in other existing online spreadsheet offering. While iRows admitted that the Google offering has some more features than its own, iRows also has some additional capabilities that Google doesn't support.

Backup Your iRows
When iRows closes, all data from user spreadsheets will be deleted. IRows details how customers can transport their spreadsheets to Google Spreadsheets. Customers won't be able to transfer charts, however, because they aren't supported by Google Spreadsheets. Some iRows users complained in postings on the blog about having to sign up to a Google account in order to use Google Spreadsheets.

Google's spreadsheet offering also competes with AdventNet's Zoho online spreadsheet and document offering and Team and Concepts' EditGrid.

[abadani69]

اخيراً سايت امريکايي گوگل با پخش فيلمي درخصوص اينکه"شهر تبريز مرکز آذربايجان جنوبي است، ولي اکنون در تصرف وحشيان پارسي است"، خشم ايرانيان را برانگيخت. به گفته روزنامه گاردين، "اين ناحيه از 4000 سال پيش به ايران تعلق دارد".

حتي اگر گوگل نيز به طور مستقيم مسؤول چنين اشتباهي نباشد [قسمت های فيلم هاي گوگل توسط کابران اينترنتي بارگذاري مي شود]، ولي ايرانيان دراين مورد به شدت واکنش نشان دادند. گاردين دراين خصوص مي نويسد: "ايرانيان گوگل را که آگاهانه سعي کرده حاکميت و هويت ارضي ايران را زير سؤال ببرد و احساسات جدايي طلبانه مردم ترک زبان اين منطقه را برانگيزد، به شدت محکوم کرده اند."

ولي الله آذروش، يک نماينده ايراني اعلام کرده است: "مردم ايران هيچگاه چنين اشتباهي را نمي پذيرند. اين ناحيه از دو هزار قبل از ميلاد مسيح به ايران تعلق داشته و دارد. چگونه مي توان آن را متعلق به کشور ديگري دانست؟"

صمد مؤمن بالله، معاون وزارت فنآوري و ارتباطات نيز مي گويد: "اين اقدام نمونه آشکاري از مداخله خارجيان در مسايل داخلي يک کشور است."

اخيراً به دنبال چاپ کاريکاتوري در روزنامه دولتي "ايران"، ناحيه آذري زبان ايران صحنه درگيري هاي بيشماري بوده است. با توجه به حساسيت شديد دولت جمهوري اسلامي نسبت به ايجاد تنش در اين منطقه، اين روزنامه سريعاً توقيف و تعطيل شد.

گاردين همچنين خاطرنشان مي سازد که "مقامات ايراني هيچگاه جنبش هاي استقلال طلب منطقه اي را به ديده اغماض نمي نگرند و دراين خصوص، ايالات متحده و بريتانيا را به تحريک چنين جنبش هايي در برخي از نواحي و استان هاي ايران، به ويژه خوزستان و کردستان، محکوم کرده اند".

به علاوه، اين روزنامه انگليسي به بيان موضوع مشابهي نيز مي پردازد. در سال 2004، مجله نشنال جئوگرافيک از خليج واقع در جنوب ايران تحت عنوان "خليج عربي" و نه "خليج فارس" ياد کرده بود. پس از آن، اين مجله در ايران ممنوع اعلام شد.

[Rasputin]

A Closer Look at the Nintendo Wii

Members of Nintendo's huge, vocal fan base have been salivating in anticipation of the Wii for some time. But the curious and appreciative onlookers that I've noticed during my recent testing of a retail unit suggest that the Wii's appeal may well extend beyond the Nintendo faithful. The Wii seems poised to make console gaming more social, immersive, and--most importantly--fun than it has ever been.

Nintendo has announced that more than 1 million units of the $250 Wii will be available when the model makes its official U.S. debut on Sunday. So your odds of getting your hands on a Wii in the near future are better than your odds of snagging a PS3. Cryogenically freezing yourself to avoid the wait, as one of the characters in South Park did recently, won't be necessary.

Below is a video of the Nintendo Wii in action. To view it, you'll need to have the Adobe Flash Player plug-in installed.
Out of the Box
The Wii is the most compact of the next-generation consoles. It weighs just 2.7 pounds and measures 8.5 inches long by 6 inches wide by less than 2 inches thick. It has clean, sharp lines and an Apple-like glossy white finish, though we'll undoubtedly see units in black and possibly other colors at some point.

Like the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, The Wii can be oriented horizontally or vertically, thanks to its angled plastic stand. Once you've positioned it, your next step is to plug in the power supply (which is about the size a laptop brick), and connect the bundled composite audio/video cables to your television. To output content at the Wii's maximum 480p resolution in 16:9 wide-screen format, you'll have to purchase the optional component cable separately.

Next you must set up the included controllers: a Wii Remote and a Nunchuk--a joystick-style controller that connects to the remote for additional game control. I first hooked up the supplied sensor bar to the console and placed it just under the display of my TV. The sensor bar allows the console to communicate wirelessly (via Bluetooth) with up to four Wii Remotes at a time. The Wii Remote works for games within a radius of about 30 feet and functions as a cursor-type pointing device within about 15 feet. In my testing, the on-screen pointer jittered slightly when I tried to use it from farther away.

Photograph: Chris MannersThe final setup steps are to place two AA batteries into the Wii Remote, rearrange your furniture as necessary to clear plenty of space in front of the TV (to avoid any "Wiinjury"), and fire up the console.

Our colleagues over at GamePro have scanned in the Wii's manual, and it's worth a look to get an even more complete idea of the Wii's setup routine and overall features.

PC World also has a detailed account of a test drive of the PlayStation 3; and a review comparing the PS3 and the Wii.

[Rasputin]

The Wii Menu and Online Features
The first time I powered up the Wii, I had to create a gamer ID, which the system uses to save your games and also to identify you online. After creating my log-in and entering the date and time, I was presented with the Wii Menu. This interface, which uses a television/channel metaphor, is where you access the Wii's mostly free online features.

The first thing I wanted to do was jump online. I was particularly interested in the "sleepless" WiiConnect24 service that lets the console automatically download information, even when it's on standby.

The Wii includes a built-in 802.11b/g wireless network adapter, but you can also go online by using extra-cost options such as a LAN adaptor or a Wi-Fi USB adaptor that shares a PC's Internet connection. I tested the integrated Wi-Fi, and setup was a snap. The Wii scanned for and found my wireless ADSL router, and it let me type in the network's WEP key via an on-screen keyboard. I found that I could select letters and move around the Wii Menu using the Wii remote in the same way that I'd use a computer mouse. The remote even vibrated subtly in my hand as I hovered over menu options. Tactile feedback: great!

Unfortunately, since Nintendo's servers won't be up and running until the Wii launches, my online experience was limited. But the Wii will link to a lot of online elements after launch:

Wii Shop Channel (and Virtual Game Console): Nintendo's online store will eventually offer various extras to download, but the most notable one at launch is the Virtual Console, which will allow gamers to download and play games from past consoles such as the Nintendo 64, NES, Super NES, Sega Genesis, and TurboGrafx16. Nintendo will offer 12 classic console games at launch, including Donkey Kong (NES), SimCity (SNES), Super Mario 64, Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis), and Bomberman '93 (TurboGrafx16). Some 30 virtual console games should be available for download by year's end, according to Nintendo. The online shop will operate on a payment system called Wii Points. You'll be able to purchase Wii Points at retail outlets or with a credit card online. They'll be available in blocks of 2000 for $20 a block (which means that 1 Wii point is worth a penny, and 100 are worth a dollar). The retro NES games will start at 500 Wii points, TurboGrafx16 titles at 600 Wii Points, SNES and Sega Genesis games at 800 Wii Points, and N64 classics at about 1000 Wii Points.

Internet Channel: A customized version of the Opera Web browser (with Flash support) will be available for the Wii, Nintendo says. We can't tell whether it'll be ready for download at launch, nor how much it will cost, but Nintendo has confirmed that you'll have to surrender Wii Points to obtain it.

Forecast Channel: On this channel you'll be able to browse a 3D globe to obtain weather forecasts that are automatically updated each day.

News Channel: This channel will automatically display the latest news from around the world. The Associated Press will supply the headlines, Nintendo says.

Wii Message Board: Here you can post messages on a calendar for other Wii players in your house, exchange messages with Wii users around the world, and gather information about the latest game updates.

Photo Channel: The Wii's photo management and sharing options are far deeper than those of the PlayStation 3. You can use this channel to access digital photos via the Wii's SD card slot or a mobile phone. And besides just viewing the images, you'll be able to zoom in; create slide shows, a photo gallery or photo puzzles; draw on images; adjust colors in various artistic ways; and send your creations to other Wii users.

Mii Channel: This channel invites you to create customized caricature avatars for yourself; use them in a variety of Wii games; and save them to the Wii Remote for use later--even at a friend's house. You can store up to ten Mii characters on a single Wii Remote.

Disc Channel: Clicking here starts a Wii game disc that you've inserted.

Those Controllers
Wii controllers are designed to be perfectly usable whether you're left- or right-handed.

For games, the Wii Remote has a plus pad (D-pad), a large A button, an underside B trigger, and buttons labeled 1 and 2. The main surface has other buttons as well: power up, minus and plus (for escaping game menus, and the like) and a home button (for switching back to the Wii Menu and checking controller battery life).

The Wii Remote also contains a control for adjusting force feedback, a built-in speaker, a wrist strap (in case the remote flies out of your hand), and four blue LED lights that indicate which player/controller number you've been assigned. An expansion port on the remote lets you connect the Nunchuk and other optional controllers. The supplied Nunchuk controller is used in conjunction with the Wii Remote and provides an analog thumb stick, and two front trigger buttons labeled C and Z. A second Wii Remote costs $40, and a second Nunchuk costs $20.

Another option is a classic-style controller (which Nintendo has priced at $20) for non-motion-sensing titles such as fast-paced fighting games. At E3 last spring, I took photos of the classic controller and Nintendo's concept "Zapper," a gunlike shell for the Wii Remote.

As time goes by, you can expect independent vendors to offer a multitude of plastic shells to slide your Wii Remote into--all of them promising to improve your gaming experience. One product already on sale is UbiSoft's $20 Wii Steering Wheel. Web rumors suggest that Electronic Arts may be working on a way to let you strap the Wii Remote to your foot in order to play its FIFA soccer game. Another rumor has it that the Nintendo DS handheld's touch screen will be able to act as a controller for Wii games.

Nintendo has experimented with different controllers in the past. Anyone remember the Power Glove or Virtual Boy? This time however, the company's efforts seem to have produced a winner.

[Rasputin]

First Look: A New Treo for the Masses

With its distinctive candy-bar design and carefully crafted thumb keyboard, Palm's Treo has become an iconic PDA phone--but new models generally debut at prices only serious mobile professionals can easily stomach. The Treo 680 arrives with a lower price tag (especially if you buy the first carrier-subsidized model, from Cingular), a sportier and slightly svelter look, and features designed to attract a much wider audience. However, this successor to the aging Treo 650 also suffers from some drawbacks that seriously hobble the effort.

The first has to do with the pricing, and it's important enough to preface this review. Starting Friday, Cingular will sell you a Treo 680 for $300, but only if you commit to a two-year contract with a voice plan costing at least $40 a month. (It will cost $375 with a one-year contract.) You can bring the price of the device down to $200 through a mail-in rebate--but this also requires a two-year commitment to Cingular's all-you-can-eat PDA Connect data plan, which costs $40 a month. So to get the phone for $200, you must be prepared to shell out $80 a month for voice and data services.

Cingular's $20-a-month, all-you-can-eat MediaConnect data plan, which many people have been using with the Cingular Treo 650, will not be an option for 680 buyers. (Cingular says this plan was intended only for people whose smart phones don't have keyboards, and who are therefore likely to use a lot less data.)

If I'm going to pay more for data services, I'd want them to be faster than the dial-up-like EDGE service the Treo 680 supports. (At this writing Cingular has introduced only one PDA phone--the HTC-designed Cingular 8525--that supports its superfast, EvDO-competing HSDPA service.)

If you don't want to sign a contract (or are an existing Cingular customer and don't qualify for a phone-upgrade subsidy), the Treo 680 will cost you $450. In that case, you might want to consider getting an unlocked version of the quad-band GSM phone from Palm, which says that the units will go on sale on Palm's Web site and in retail stores for $400 starting December 1 (you can preorder one now on Palm's site).

A New Look
Announced six weeks ago, the 680 looks jazzier than its predecessors, in large part because it lacks the antenna stub found on all other models. The unlocked version will be available in four different colors: arctic (a sort of pale silvery grey), copper (orange), graphite (a darker grey similar to the color of the Cingular 650), and crimson (red). Cingular, disappointingly, is selling only the graphite model.

Some subtle sculpting on the case has made for a softer, less boxy look and a nicer feel in the hand. Palm has also tweaked the keyboard, making the keys slightly larger and flatter; though the change isn't the dramatic improvement that the 650's keyboard represented over the 600's, it does seem for the better.

But while the 680 is lighter than the 650 (5.5 ounces versus 6.3 ounces) and a tad thinner (0.8 inch versus 0.9 inch), it doesn't really feel like it's a whole lot lighter and thinner. And whatever progress Palm has made in slimming down the Treo is dwarfed by the skinny profiles of recent competitors such as the Nokia E62 and T-Mobile Dash.

The button layout on the 680 is similar to that of the 700p. A red power/hang-up button and a green send button flank a five-way navigation button. Surrounding it are phone and calendar buttons on the left and messaging and applications buttons (the latter bringing up the familiar icon-based Palm apps menu) on the right. Like other models, the 680 has a volume button and a customizable side button on the left; on the right, though, the 680 introduces a covered SD Card slot (previously located on the top, alongside the ringer on/off switch that hasn't moved). The Palm's SD support is limited to 2GB; you can't use some of the newer 4GB SD cards.

Speaking of storage, Palm has apparently learned its lesson following the fiasco surrounding the 650's launch with scarce and inefficient memory: The 680 has 64MB of user-available memory for storage of applications, and 64MB of SDRAM for executables (compared, respectively, with 24MB and 32MB on the 650).

Interface Changes
When you power up the Treo, you see the first visible indication that the Palm operating system has a new corporate owner: After the round orange Palm logo, a blue Access logo appears.

Next up, on the Cingular model, is the default phone screen with the default Cingular logo as its wallpaper. The bottom of the interface, however, has changed: Instead of four rectangular buttons with text that send you to your contacts, call log, voice mail, and the like, you see tabs with simple icons. I found the icons a bit cryptic at first, but I quickly adapted to not having the text cues.

Some go to the same places as the old buttons--tapping the human figure brings up contacts, tapping the list icon shows call logs, and tapping the phone keypad brings up--surprise!--the soft phone keypad. A new star icon brings up a useful, customizable list of Favorite buttons that can launch an application, send an e-mail or text message, initiate a call to a specific number, browse a specific Web page, or even show how much you owe on your Cingular bill or how many minutes you've used out of your monthly plan allocation.

And I really liked the 'Ignore with Text' phone feature introduced with the Treo 700 models: You can opt to answer an incoming call with a text message, which can be very useful if you're not able to talk but would like to give the caller something more personal than your standard voice-mail greeting.

Like previous Treos, the 680 is more usable as a phone than many other PDA hybrids. It's reasonably comfortable to hold to the ear, in part because it's not as wide as many competitors (2.3 inches, compared with, for example, the 2.8-inch width of the Nokia E62). I found the voice quality decent, and the volume seemed somewhat better than the 650's. The integration with Palm contacts remains a strong feature; the five-way navigation button lets you easily initiate calls with one hand, whether you're working from an address book entry or the call logs. (We have not yet lab-tested the Treo 680's talk-time battery life; check back for a full review.)

People who send a lot of text messages will appreciate Palm's threaded chat application for this sort of communication, which displays exchanges much the way they would look in an instant messaging application.

[Rasputin]

Tips & Tweaks: Microsoft Wants to Enhance Your Functionality

You've got to love the geniuses at Microsoft. In an effort to combat software piracy, Microsoft's adding a special "reduced functionality mode" to Vista. It's enhanced, as a press release explains: "Reduced functionality is already a part of the Windows XP activation process, but Windows Vista will have a reduced functionality mode that is enhanced."

George Orwell would be proud.

In other news, it looks as if Vista's going to be released to corporate users as soon as the end of November--even small businesses can get in on the fun. The rest of us should be able to get a copy in late January.

Not surprisingly, Microsoft wants us to buy in to the whole package--Windows Vista and Office 2007. The pundits are skeptical we'll take the bait.

Dig This: When was the last time your exercised? Seriously, I worry about your cardiovascular health. You know what I mean. You spend way too many hours pushing your Fortran+ and Cobol++ code to the limits, drinking soda, and scarfing up pizza. About the only way you get your heart rate up is when your PC kicks up a BSOD. I have a solution. Slimgeek's Geek-a-Cycle ($400) gives you a way to pedal while you debug your code.

Dig This, Too: Braindots will keep you busy just long enough to get behind on any project. My average reaction time was 4.73 and I'm sure you can do better. Have more time on your hands? Try out the rests of the tests at Cognitive Labs.

Get Up to Speed on WGA
I've been getting some questions about Windows Genuine Advantage, and I'm surprised by how of you aren't aware of the WGA fiasco. Basically, Windows XP detects whether you're using a legit copy and phones Redmond with a report. Andy Brandt's "Windows Genuine Annoyance" covers the topic.

If you're having problems, you might want to consider RemoveWGA, a freebie that does a number on WGA. We've got a copy of it in our software library. Take a look at what users have to say about the program, and download it if you're intrigued.

While you're spending time fretting over Windows, take a minute to read Scott Dunn's "Don't Let a Windows Update Bring You Down."

Dig This: I'm sure you knew the Federal Bureau of Investigation has files on Al Capone and the American Communist Party. But I was surprised by the jackets on the U.S. Supreme Court, Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein, J.F.K., and George Orwell. Browse the list of files released under the Freedom of Information Act and be amazed.

Dig This, Too: Ever wonder how much money your neighbors earn, or maybe how long it takes most of them to commute to work? Neighboroo shows you the demographics for practically anywhere in the U.S., and it makes for fascinating reading.

Free: Microsoft Office Accounting Express
Lest you think I have it out for Microsoft, here's something good the company's doing for us: It's giving away a free copy of its Office Accounting Express 2007 software. You can download a copy of the 208MB file, or order a free CD.

Quick Update: I've been mouthing off about spam being up, Up, UP for the last few days. Read IDG News' recent "Spam Levels Up by 80 Percent" for details and an explanation.

Dig This: It could have been a low overpass, or maybe a backhoe sitting too high on a flatbed trailer. Either way, "An Engineer's Story Problem" made for some amazing pictures.

Dig This, Too: A buddy sent me an amazing video of a tire's path along a race track. Chances are good you'll be as impressed as I was. BTW, no tires or auto were harmed in this video.

[Rasputin]

Microsoft: No Shutdown Switch for Office 2007

Microsoft has no plans to add a controversial Windows Vista antipiracy feature directly to its Office 2007 suite, but will consider offering it as an add-on system, the company said today.

In an e-mail through its public relations firm, Microsoft said that although it has not built its Software Protection Platform (SPP) into Office 2007 as it has in Windows Vista, it is considering adding it to its Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) Program, a validation system that checks whether a user has a legitimate copy of the software.

How the Vista Feature Works
Windows Vista's SPP feature requires users to activate the software with a valid activation key within 30 days of purchasing the OS. If that does not happen, the OS goes into reduced-functionality mode, which lets users browse the Web for an hour before the system logs them out. To browse more, users must log in again, but they will have only another hour before the process repeats itself.

Office 2007 has a product-activation feature that acts similarly to SPP, but it is not based on validating the legitimacy of the software and it is not new to the application, Microsoft said. Office has had a product-activation feature since Microsoft Office 2000 SR1. Product activation requires the system to be activated with a product key after being started 25 times. If it is not, the application will enter reduced-functionality mode.

Office Checks Will Be Mandatory
Microsoft is going to make validation checks for Office 2007 mandatory for users of Office Update through its OGA program. Starting in January, users of Office Update will have to validate that their Office software is legitimate before they can use the service.

OGA is a sibling program to Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), launched in July 2005 as a program that automatically checks a user's version of Windows to ensure it is not counterfeit or pirated. WGA evolved into SPP, becoming an inherent part of Vista.

Checks Unpopular
Microsoft's antipiracy checking systems have been unpopular from the start, meeting with some resistance from users. WGA was especially unpopular at first when early bugs in its checks were tagging legitimate software as counterfeit or pirated.

Microsoft also was forced to turn off a notification feature in WGA that sent information to Microsoft from users' PCs when some complained that the feature was acting like spyware.

[Rasputin]

Experts Endorse 'Peanut Butter' Yahoo Memo

Industry observers agree with the tenets of a scathing Yahoo internal memo that calls for a major reorganization at a time when many say the Web portal has lost its edge and trails competitors large and small.

Yahoo must stop spreading a thin layer of "peanut butter" across myriad opportunities and instead focus on key areas, improve upper-management accountability, and reorganize, including a head-count reduction of up to 20 percent, wrote Brad Garlinghouse, Yahoo's senior vice president of communications and communities.

"The basic idea is very much on the mark, and I'd expect Yahoo would try to respond and become more focused," says financial analyst Clayton Moran, a senior vice president at Stanford Group. However, he cautions that sharpening its focus will not be easy, given the portal's current structure.

Memo Leaked
The confidential memo, which the Wall Street Journal obtained and posted on its Web site, says Yahoo lacks "a focused, cohesive vision" that has made it "reactive" and eager to be "everything to everyone." By "reactive," Garlinghouse may have been referring to how Yahoo has seen nimble startups like MySpace, later acquired by News Corp., and YouTube, recently snapped up by Google, become leaders in areas like social networking and online video sharing. Meanwhile, Yahoo continues to trail Google in Internet search.

"We agree with the memo's point that Yahoo needs to be more focused and differentiate itself, and build a brand in certain categories, as opposed to being one portal for all categories," Moran says, adding that Yahoo should identify the next hot Internet trend and build a leadership position in it.

For Gartner analyst Allen Weiner, Yahoo has become a victim of its own success. By nailing the all-in-one Web portal model in the 1990s, it became the dominant player in that market, but now it must adapt to the changing landscape. "Yahoo is by no means out of the game, but the time is now to execute on a more tightly focused vision. That's what's missing. Garlinghouse is right in saying there are way too many people doing way too many things," Weiner says.

Background
The Wall Street Journal reported that Garlinghouse wrote the memo in October and circulated it among Yahoo's top executive brass. In response, chief operating officer Dan Rosensweig appointed Garlinghouse to head a committee to study the memo's issues, the newspaper reported.

Yahoo remains the world's most popular Web site, with 480.6 million unique visitors in October, according to comScore Networks, but it has disappointed Wall Street with its financial performance in recent quarters.

It has been seen as proactive in acquiring social-media startups like the photo sharing site Flickr and the social-bookmarking pioneer Del.icio.us, two companies Garlinghouse uses as examples of overlapping services that Yahoo should consider consolidating. In addition to Flickr, the company has a similar service called Yahoo Photos, while Yahoo's MyWeb is identical in focus to Del.icio.us.

"We need to get the discussion going; change is needed and it is needed soon. We can be a stronger and faster company," Garlinghouse wrote.

Reaction
Asked for comment about the memo, a Yahoo spokesperson provided a prepared statement via e-mail that says that during Yahoo's most recent earnings conference call, chief executive officer Terry Semel said that the company is narrowing its focus on boosting search and graphical ad sales and on prioritizing social media, video and mobile.

"We're moving forward aggressively on these priorities," she wrote. "The memo itself highlights that we have an open, collaborative culture and a senior management team that is intensely committed to helping Yahoo fulfill its potential as an Internet leader."

[Rasputin]

Windows Vista FAQ

The long road to Windows Vista is nearing its end. Microsoft has finally released its latest OS to manufacturers, which are busily tuning drivers, updating software, and readying their first hardware and PCs to ship with Vista preinstalled.

Whether you plan to upgrade right away or prefer to hold off while the early adopters work out the kinks, our Windows Vista FAQ can help you finalize your Vista plans. We've collected answers to every important Vista question we could think of, and we'll continue to update this FAQ with more details as Vista rolls out. In the meantime, check in at the forum thread below with your own Vista questions, and we'll see if we can dig up the answers.

Also, don't miss our twin features, "Everything You Need to Know About Windows Vista" and "Vista: The Upgrade," from the January 2007 print issue of PC World.

[Rasputin]

Microsoft Sues Phishers

Microsoft has initiated 97 lawsuits throughout Europe and the Middle East during an eight-month investigation into fraudulent Web pages, with another 32 criminal complaints filed in cooperation with local authorities, the company said today.

Thwarting ID Theft
All of the cases are against individuals who attempted to capture the log-in and password details of users by building fraudulent Hotmail and MSN.com sign-in pages, said Jean-Christophe Le Toquin, a Microsoft attorney. A total of 253 sites were investigated, he said.

Microsoft's Global Phishing Enforcement program, which started last March, aims to curtail fake Web sites built by criminals trying to obtain financial information or passwords by tricking users, called "phishing." The company uses its technology to crawl the Internet to find Web pages that look suspicious, Le Toquin said.

Once investigators identify a phishing site, Microsoft either files a criminal complaint or forwards the information to prosecutors, depending on the country's legal requirements, Le Toquin said.

By country, Turkey led the pack with 50 criminal complaints, followed by 28 in Germany and 11 in France. Legal actions were also filed in the United Arab Emirates, Italy, Morocco, the Netherlands, and the U.K.

Investigation Continues
Microsoft has settled with four phishers, all 16- to 20-year-old males, in France and Norway, Le Toquin said. Each of those pursued in France paid Microsoft $2564, a fine the company considered in proportion to their actions, he said.

Many of the fake sites were created by the phishers to trick their peers into divulging their log-in credentials, Le Toquin said. The phishers would try to lure their friends to the fake pages through links sent by instant messaging programs, he said.

The purpose was to "take control of the account of the victim," Le Toquin said.

Microsoft said it will continue its investigation, particularly focusing on phishing sites connected with more sophisticated hacking, Le Toquin said. The company has also been investigating and taking legal action against pirated software.

[Rasputin]

Vista Meets Antitrust Rules

Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system doesn't pose antitrust issues so far, according to the latest status report on Microsoft's compliance with the U.S. antitrust settlement.

Utility Vendors Worry
The company has addressed all of the bugs identified relating to how third-party middleware software interacts with Vista, according to the report, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

Microsoft has increased its cooperation with the court's technical committee in several ways to help ensure that middleware vendors have their software ready for Vista before the OS ships, the report says.

The document defines middleware as software programs such as instant messaging programs, media players, e-mail clients, and Internet browsers. Around 30 vendors are working with regulators and Microsoft on how their software works with Vista, the report said.

Releasing Specs
The U.S. government and states that were a party to the antitrust suit against Microsoft have conducted "extensive testing" of interim builds of Vista and Internet Explorer 7 to ensure compliance with the November 2002 antitrust settlement, the report said.

As part of that settlement, Microsoft agreed to license communication protocols to IT vendors interested in developing server software that works smoothly with its Windows operating system.

After complaints, Microsoft is rewriting some of the technical documentation for its Microsoft Communications Protocol Program.

The status report said Microsoft has made the new documentation easier to understand, but the company needs to stay on schedule for delivering further documents. Microsoft has until November 2009 to provide the information.

Europe Scrutinizes
The European Commission has also been scrutinizing Vista, following its 2004 antitrust ruling against Microsoft. So far, the Commission has taken no action against Vista. Microsoft has warned that if regulatory interference delays Vista's European launch, it could hurt Europe's economy.

Microsoft plans to release Vista to business customers on November 30.

In 2004, the Commission fined Microsoft $613 million for abusing its monopoly in the desktop OS market, ordered it to release a version of Windows XP without Windows Media Player software, and mandated it to license and document protocols used by its server products. Microsoft is appealing the decision before the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg.

[Rasputin]

Fast Chips Slow Server Sales

New market numbers from Gartner show that computer server sales slowed in the third quarter, a trend the research company attributes to virtualization.

Gartner's latest report on servers, released Tuesday, shows that worldwide sales grew by 4.4 percent, based on revenue, to just over $13 billion, and 9.1 percent by unit volume, to 2 billion servers. In the second quarter, sales rose 2.5 percent by revenue and 12.8 percent by unit volume.

"We have seen double-digit growth in the past," said Jeff Hewitt, research director for Gartner. "Server sales are still growing, but because of virtualization, customers don't have to buy as many servers."

Virtualization makes it possible to run more programs on one physical server, using more of its capacity and making it possible for a data center to handle more work with fewer servers.

IBM, HP Lead Sales
Among the server vendors, market share rankings remained the same in Gartner's numbers, which cover the three-month period ended September 30, compared with previous quarters.

IBM retained the market share lead, with 33.7 percent, based on a 7.4 percent revenue gain to $4.38 billion, from the third quarter of 2005. Hewlett-Packard followed with 25.3 percent market share on a 6 percent decline in revenue to $3.29 billion.

Dell ranked third with a 10.8 percent share on a 10.2 percent revenue gain to $1.41 billion. Sun Microsystems ranked fourth with a 10.1 percent share based on a 24.7 percent revenue gain to $1.31 billion. Fujitsu ranked fifth, with a 4.9 percent share on a 5.6 percent revenue gain to $634 million. Other vendors combined for a 15.3 percent share based on 6.5 percent revenue growth to $1.99 billion.

New Servers Spark Sales
Hewitt attributed Sun's resurgence to the introduction of new servers running the Opteron microprocessor from Advanced Micro Devices, which has emerged as a strong competitor to the processors from Intel.

In sales based on unit volume, HP led the way with a 26.5 percent share based on 7.2 percent growth to 540,609 units; Dell ranked second with a 22.5 percent share on 10.5 percent growth to 459,950; IBM third with 16.3 percent share on 7.7 percent growth to 332,777; Sun Microsystems fourth with a 4.1 percent share on a 6.4 percent growth to 83,018 units; and Fujitsu fifth with a 3.2 percent, based on a decline of 5.9 percent to 65,171. Other server brands collectively reported 27.5 percent share on growth of 13.4 percent to 560,913 units.

[Rasputin]

Sony's Packed PlayStation 3: The Nitty-Gritty Details

As the long wait for the much-anticipated PlayStation 3 game console dragged on, gamers started to joke that Sony stood for Soon, Only Not Yet.

The next-generation console finally went on sale November 17, though supply has not kept pace with demand. Having spent in-depth, quality time with a $599 shipping version of the PS3, I can tell you this: The system's impressive weaponry makes the wait worthwhile.

I'll describe my experiences with the PlayStation 3 over the past week in great detail, but you may also be interested in PC World's review comparing the PlayStation 3 with the Nintendo Wii, which goes on sale Sunday.

Below is a video of the PlayStation 3 in action. To view it, you'll need to have the Adobe Flash Player plug-in installed.