Pc News

[Rasputin]

Linux vendor Xandros today unveiled version 4 of Xandros Desktop Professional, its en

Financial analysts watching the consumer electronics space report that early sales of Microsoft's Zune player should give little reason for iPod loyalists and Apple Computer to fear this holiday season.

Since its retail debut on Nov. 15, customer interest in Zune has been lackluster, analysts report. Early reviews of the product have been less than stellar as well. (Read PC World's Zune review.)

According to a research note published Tuesday by PiperJaffray senior research analyst Gene Munster, only 8 percent of 40 retailers surveyed by the firm recommend the Zune to customers, while 75 percent recommend Apple's iPod.

Moreover, some MP3 salespeople hadn't even heard of Zune, even though the players are being sold at their stores, he wrote in his report.

Quotes from retail clerks cited in Munster's report range from them claiming they don't know what the Zune is, to comments that Zune is a good option if a customer does not use Apple's iTunes software.

"To be honest, I don't really know much about the Zune," one clerk is quoted as saying in Munster's report. Another said, "I don't suggest the Zune because it is really heavy," according to the report.

Zune also did not fair well against other MP3 players and Apple's iPod even during its initial week of sales, when the hype surrounding the product was at its peak.

Zune 7th out of 10 in Amazon Sales
According to Munster's report, during its launch week on Nov. 16, Zune held the seventh spot on online retailer Amazon.com's top 10 best-selling MP3 players list, and it fell from that spot to 13 on the list only five days after launch, on Nov. 20.

"The buzz that Microsoft was able to generate for the Zune's launch clearly helped the player in its first week, but much of the publicity took the form of Zune/iPod comparisons," Munster wrote. He added that these comparisons show that Zune "failed to match up in the eyes of most reviewers" to the iPod, a fact that negatively affected sales of the device.

Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore wrote Monday that the iPod continues to be a strong seller going into the busy holiday shopping season, and the 30G-byte video iPods -- with which Zune competes -- "appear to be immune to the Zune." He said both the 30G-byte video iPods and the new 4G-byte iPods nanos currently are popular with consumers.

A note about Apple's performance from financial firm UBS IT hardware analyst Ben Reitzes also said that Zune does not appear to be any threat to iPod at this time.

To be fair, Apple has a five-year head start in the music and video player market, and no one expected Microsoft's first entry would be comparable right away to the immensely popular iPod. Microsoft has said it plans to invest significantly in the Zune over the next several years, and the device is expected to become more competitive.

Microsoft's 30G-byte Zune costs $249.99, the same as Apple's video iPod, but is different from the iPod in two key ways. Zune includes an FM tuner and wireless capability that allows users to share songs between devices.

[Rasputin]

AMD Launches Four-Core '4x4' Motherboard

Advanced Micro Devices today launched a motherboard with four cores, targeting gaming enthusiasts in an effort to keep pace with the release of quad-core chips by rival Intel.

AMD's Quad FX Platform includes two dual-core Athlon 64 FX-70 series chips and uses Nvidia's 680a chip set. AMD's choice of components shows it is willing to follow open standards even though the company acquired Nvidia's rival ATI Technologies earlier this month, said Ian McNaughton, product manager for Athlon 64 FX products.

AMD will sell the Quad FX Platform with three types of chips built with a 90-nanometer process, charging $599 for a pair of 2.6 GHz FX-70 chips, $799 for a pair of 2.8 GHz FX-72 chips, and $999 for a pair of 3.0 GHz FX-74 chips, if purchased in lots of 1,000 units.

What's a True Quad Core?
The AMD launch highlights a debate in the industry about the definition of quad-core processors. Intel has claimed it won the quad-core race on Nov. 14 by packaging two dual-core chips together in the Xeon 5300 for servers and Core 2 Extreme QX6700 for gamers.

But AMD calls its Quad FX Platform a "4x4," and says it won't release a true "quad-core" processor until 2007, when it combines four cores on a single piece of silicon called "Barcelona." Analysts say they won't be able to judge the winner of the debate until they can test comparable products.

In the meantime, one thing is certain: a PC with four computing cores can run a lot of applications at once. PC vendors who use the Quad FX will attract more than just hard-core gamers, McNaughton said. A desktop with four computing cores can be a workstation for "megataskers," those users who watch high-definition video while burning a DVD, downloading a BitTorrent file, and chatting on a TeamSpeak connection, even as their PC runs antivirus software, Skype, and instant messaging applications in the background.

"The PC usage model has changed. It's evolving, it's getting crazy and we love it," he said. "People are doing four, five, six things at the same time."

Gamers Love Quad Core
Of course, gamers are still a core audience for this product. The extra cores will allow fans of multiplayer online games to play two instances of the game simultaneously, controlling two characters in a single episode of EverQuest, World of Warcraft, or Lineage, according to AMD.

Many of these gamers have been using AMD's Opteron server chip to manage their heavy computing loads, McNaughton said. The Quad FX Platform will be a more efficient tool for the job and will allow them to upgrade to a pair of quad-core Barcelona chips in the middle of 2007.

As the hardware industry relies increasingly on multicore designs, chip power is measured by scalability and efficiency, not just frequency, said AMD spokesman Bubba Wolford. That development is pushing chip vendors to grow from being simple component suppliers to selling entire platforms. AMD has followed that trend to produce its AMD Live product for media center PCs and now the Quad FX.

[Rasputin]

The Truth About Shopping Engines, Part 2: A Shell Game?

Editor's note: For "The Truth About Shopping Engines, Part 1: How They Work," click here.

When PC World shopped online for a 42-inch Panasonic plasma television in early November, we found a number of tempting offers. But the "Smart Choice" buy, according to comparison shopping engine Shopzilla.com, was from Brooklyn, New York-based Butterfly Photo. The "Smart Choice" seal is supposed to indicate that buying from the company will be "worry-free" and that the merchant has a "proven track record of dependability and customer satisfaction."

But the New York Better Business Bureau paints a different picture of Butterfly Photo: It gives the retailer an "unsatisfactory" rating, saying (at this writing) that some 61 complaints had been filed against it, and that the retailer had failed to resolve the underlying issues responsible for the pattern of complaints the bureau had received.

Brian Smith, an analyst for market research firm Comparison Engines, says shopping engines rely on imperfect rating systems that are in need of an overhaul. "At the end of the day, it's buyer beware," Smith says.

Our investigation showed that leading shopping engines, including Shopzilla.com, Shopping.com, PriceGrabber.com, and Yahoo Shopping, frequently award accolades to companies with spotty records. Nearly a third of the merchants that came up in our searches for popular consumer electronics on Yahoo Shopping, for example, had "unsatisfactory" ratings with the BBB.

What's the source of the problem? Shopping engines depend on customer ratings to make these recommendations--and ratings and reviews can be faked by interested parties. That isn't a new phenomenon, but unfortunately, we found evidence that some shopping engines--despite their claims to the contrary--are still being manipulated to get customers to visit certain online stores.

Good Advice? You Decide
When we asked Shopzilla how a company with an unsatisfactory BBB rating could earn its "Smart Choice" seal, Shopzilla spokesperson Helen Malani said, "Ratings and reviews are just one component in the shopper's decision-making process." She wouldn't say whether recommending Butterfly Photo, in retrospect, was a mistake.

Shopzilla, however, wasn't the only engine recommending Butterfly Photo. When we searched on Shopping.com for a Samsung 32-inch television, Butterfly Photo's offering again earned special attention, showing up in the search results as a "Smart Buy." The "Smart Buy" seal, according to Shopping.com, indicates that the search result is the lowest available price from a "Trusted Store." Shopping.com's sibling sites, Dealtime.com and Pricetool.com, also displayed Butterfly Photo's price with the Trusted Store logo. NexTag.com and its sibling site, Calibex.com, show "Trusted Seller" logos that indicate Butterfly Photo has received positive customer ratings, displays accurate prices, and "address[es] customer service complaints quickly and fairly."

Merchants cannot purchase these automatically generated "certified," "smart," or "trusted" logos. PriceGrabber (with whom PC World partners with to display shopping information on the PCWorld.com site) and its sibling site, BottomDollar.com, do not display such logos.

NexTag cofounder Rafael Ortiz says, "Our ratings are a function of reviews written by shoppers on our site and not on local BBB (ratings)." Regardless, he says NexTag is further investigating store reviews that PC World brought to its attention.

When we asked Rob Goldman, vice president of Shopping.com's U.S. business unit, how a company with such a negative BBB rating could be listed on the engine's site, he declined to comment. However, since we began our investigation, Butterfly Photo has been suspended from Shopping.com.

Butterfly Photo Chief Operating Officer Eli Sakkal said he had attempted to contact the BBB to resolve all complaints on file, but that he had had trouble reaching the right people at the agency. "There is no way we make 100 percent of the people 100 percent happy all of the time," Sakkal says.

[Rasputin]

New Version of Microsoft's Windows XP Antipiracy Tool Coming Soon

Microsoft plans to roll out a new version of its antipiracy Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Notifications tool for Windows XP over the coming weeks and months, following a barrage of criticism from users.

The software giant has incorporated user feedback into the new version to make installation of the tool and validation of the operating system less opaque, according to a Microsoft statement issued today.

The upcoming release of WGA Notifications features a new installation wizard and will display validation results as soon as the tool has been installed. The software doesn't need to be rebooted after its installation, Microsoft said. Instead of the tool simply flagging a copy of the OS as genuine or not, Microsoft has added an additional "indeterminate" result category and access to resources to troubleshoot issues if users are unable to validate their operating systems.

Microsoft plans to update the tool every 90 to 120 days, as a way to react to re-evaluation of the software and any changes in software piracy.

Background
Microsoft began piloting an initial version of WGA Notifications in April to ascertain whether users' copies of Windows XP were genuine, as part of the vendor's Genuine Software Initiative to crack down on pirated and counterfeit versions of Windows. Users who can't validate their copy of Windows as genuine forfeit the right to install many of the updates Microsoft provides for Windows and add-on software.

So far, WGA Notifications has proved highly unpopular with users, with criticism reaching a crescendo in June.

First, the tool came under attack for exhibiting spyware-like behavior since WGA Notifications was checking in with Microsoft's servers each time users rebooted their PCs even though the software had already certified the copy of Windows XP as genuine. Microsoft disputed the spyware allegation, saying that although the tool regularly called home, it wasn't providing any information to Microsoft, just checking to see if it should run.

Later that same month, users complained that Microsoft was delivering WGA Notifications as a high priority automatic update for Windows XP despite the tool still being in a test version. The software vendor has typically provided test versions of its software separately from updates. Microsoft said the tool's license explained the software was a pre-release version, but customers countered that fact wasn't made sufficiently obvious.

Microsoft finally responded by issuing a second version of WGA Notifications in late June that only periodically checked if the copy of Windows was genuine every time users logged on to the system. At the same time, the software vendor moved the tool out of the testing stage.

Microsoft remains committed to having WGA Notifications fully deployed worldwide by year-end.

[Rasputin]

Replies End From Google Answers

Google is pulling the plug on Google Answers, a service that allows people to submit questions over the Internet that researchers answer for a fee.

The search giant didn't say why it was closing the service, which launched about four years ago and was one of Google's first non-search projects. Danny Sullivan, editor in chief of SearchEngineWatch.com, said the service never achieved the popularity of Yahoo's rival offering, Yahoo Answers.

Google will stop accepting new questions for the service later this week, it said in its official blog late Tuesday. It will accept new answers to questions until the end of the year, and it will maintain the archive of questions and answers online for browsing.

"Google is a company fueled by innovation, which to us means trying lots of new things all the time--and sometimes it means reconsidering our goals for a product," the company said.

Short History
Google Answers started as "a rough idea" from cofounder Larry Page and was brought to fruition after four months' work by a team of four developers, the company said.

The service allowed users to submit a question and specify how much they would be willing to pay for an answer, which could be anything from $2 to $200. Any of about 500 researchers selected by Google could then go to work on the question.

Some researchers had noted a decline in the service. In October, one of them posed his own question to Google Answers: "What has happened to Answers?". Some replied that the service had declined because it was not linked any more from Google's home page. Others said Google had stopped notifying people when their question had been answered, leading to dissatisfaction with the service.

Rivals Stronger
Sullivan said Google Answers never achieved the success of Yahoo Answers, which managed to generate more of a "community" feel among its users. Yahoo Answers is free, and questions can be answered by any registered user. Google said its paid service offered better answers because they came from hand-picked researchers.

Google's retreat "feels like an odd, almost surrendering move in the face of Yahoo Answers being such a success," Sullivan wrote. But killing the service is probably a smarter move than allowing it to languish online, he said.

Microsoft launched its own offering, Windows Live QnA, in August. The service is in beta and, like Yahoo Answers, is free to use.

[Rasputin]

Intel Preps 45nm Quad-Core Chips

Intel has started to produce samples of a quad-core processor called Penryn that offers faster clock speeds and larger cache sizes, an executive said today.

"Our first Penryn chips are being fabricated right now and we expect them to come out of the fabs very soon," said Rob Willoner, a technology analyst at Intel, during a conference call with reporters. Fabs, or semiconductor fabrication plants, are factories that produce chips.

Based on the same microarchitecture as the Core 2 Duo, Penryn is the first Intel processor to be made using a 45-nanometer process. The chip will be available in versions for notebooks, desktop PCs, and servers.

Smaller, Faster Chips Expected Next Year
Currently, most Intel chips are made using a 65-nanometer process. Moving to the more advanced process means that the size of each transistor shrinks, allowing more of them to fit onto a piece of silicon. In addition, smaller transistors require less power and are generally faster.

Penryn chips will hit the market during the second half of 2007. In addition to faster clock speeds, the quad-core chips will consume less power than existing Intel products and will include new features, such as additional instructions for multimedia and high-performance computing applications, Willoner said. Intel plans to release more information about the chip next year, he said.

Chip Plant Being Converted
As part of Intel's move to the 45-nanometer process, the company's D1D fab in Hillsboro, Oregon, is moving from using the 65-nanometer process to the 45-nanometer process, Willoner said. That leaves three Intel plants--in Oregon and Arizona, and in Ireland--using the 65-nanometer process to manufacture chips, he said.

[Rasputin]

First Look: Battle of the TV Place-Shifting Devices

Today, it's anything but simple. You have HDTVs and LCDs and the DVRs, which let you shift when you watch TV. As if all that wasn't enough, now you also have place-shifting devices: gadgets that let you watch your TV even if you're not in the same room--or building--as the TV. I looked at two new place-shifting devices, the HAVA Wireless HD from Monsoon Multimedia and the LF-B20 LocationFree Base Station from Sony's LocationFree TV product line. Both products offer some excellent features, but overall, I preferred the HAVA Wireless HD.

Both gadgets are also similar to Slingbox's popular place-shifting device. Like the Slingbox, the HAVA Wireless HD and the LF-B20 both let you watch your TV from any Internet-connected computer, and even some portable devices. All of the place-shifting devices work in a similar way, via a hardware component that you attach to your TV and video source and then connect to your home network. They also include a software component that you must install on your PC in order to connect to the TV and watch the video. The ease of setup, however, varies.

Get Connected
Much like the new Slingbox AV, which I recently reviewed, the HAVA Wireless HD was a snap to install. It is slightly larger than the sleek Slingbox--the HAVA is about the size of a large textbook--but it doesn't feel as sturdy as the Slingbox. I connected the HAVA to my TiVo Series2 DVR via S-Video and composite audio. What's nice about the HAVA (and the Sony device as well) is that it has built-in wireless capabilities--unlike the Slingbox. The Slingbox must be connected to your router via an ethernet port, which was problematic for me because my router and TV reside on different floors in my house. The HAVA was able to connect to my router wirelessly. Within minutes, the device was set up, and my TV was connected to my PC.

Connecting the Sony LocationFree TV took longer. The LFB-20 base station is slim and by far the sleekest-looking of the three place-shifting devices I looked at. This black unit is about the size of a paperback book and comes with a base that lets you stand it up perpendicularly. It fit in nicely with my TV setup.

Even though the device is wireless, I first had to connect it to my router via ethernet to set it up. That process was quick; connecting it to my TV was considerably more complicated. The quick-start guide that accompanied the product contained so many diagrams and arrows that it was difficult to follow. The text directions that it offered were incomplete, and the illustrations were too small to be helpful. After incorrectly connecting the LFB-20 to my TiVo the first time, I gave up and called Sony's excellent toll-free customer service line. The gentleman on the phone walked me through the process of installing the product step-by-step, and soon enough, it was working.

Let Your TV Play
The software (on CD) that comes with both the HAVA and the LFB-20 is what lets you watch the content of your TV on your PC. Both applications were simple to use; both CDs included a wizard that took just a few minutes to install and fine-tune the programs. Once the software is installed, you can connect to your HAVA or Sony device, whether it's on your current network, or over the Internet. The software will find the device automatically on your network; to connect via the Internet, you need to know the name and password of the device, and the software will find it for you.

Both apps show a large video screen and a remote control for changing the channel and otherwise controlling your TV remotely. One major drawback, though: Unlike Slingbox's SlingPlayer, neither the HAVA PC Player nor the Sony LocationFree Player shows an exact replica of your TV's remote control. SlingPlayer uses skins that allow you to see, for example, your TiVo remote on the screen. This makes it easy to do things like scroll through and playback your stored recordings and schedule future recordings. Both the HAVA PC Player and LocationFree Player show an industrialized-looking, very basic remote that offers most of the same functions, just without the familiarity of the SlingPlayer remote. HAVA says it will be adding skins in a future version of the software.

The HAVA PC Player software does offer some features that both of the other apps don't have, however. It allows you to record TV content directly to your PC's hard drive from within the application. You can also schedule recordings and play back previously recorded content from your hard drive. HAVA PC Player also offers excellent video quality; I found it to be the most consistent of all three applications, especially when the video windows were expanded to full-screen size.

Sony's device does offer a unique feature: It lets you connect to your TV from your PlayStation Portable. The PSP guides you through the set-up process, which takes just a few minutes. Video looks surprisingly good on the handheld's 4.3-inch screen.

Overall, though, I preferred the HAVA Wireless HD. At $249, it's slightly cheaper than the Sony product. The LF-B20 alone is $250, but Sony charges $30 for the LocationFree Player software. (Currently, the HAVA Wireless HD is available only from the company's Web site, but Monsoon is considering deals with OEMs to make it available in retail stores.) The HAVA is also easier to set up and offered better video quality. But the Sony LocationFree TV is a solid choice, especially if you already own a PSP.

[Rasputin]

HP Faces Expanded Civil Lawsuit In Spying Case

A shareholder lawsuit against Hewlett-Packard for attempting to spy on board members and reporters has been expanded to include charges of insider stock trading.

An amended complaint filed Wednesday in the Superior Court of California for Santa Clara County accuses HP Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd and seven other company executives of selling $41.3 million worth of HP stock at "inflated prices" shortly before the company revealed that its investigators had used questionable and possibly illegal techniques to gain access to personal records such as phone call logs.

The eight executives sold 1.7 million shares of stock between Aug. 21 and Sept. 6, according to the lawsuit. In an Aug. 31 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), HP said an outside investigator used the practice of pretexting, pretending to be someone else, to gain access to personal records.

Criminal Charges
Former HP Chairman Patricia Dunn and four others face criminal charges stemming from their alleged participation in the spying, which also used e-mail tracer technology, according to testimony before a U.S. congressional committee.

HP also tried to prop up the value of its stock price by announcing on Aug. 21 it would repurchase $6 billion worth of its stock, the lawsuit says.

"In the midst of this acrimony HP executives cashed in," says the complaint, filed by the Lerach, Coughlin, Stoia, Geller, Rudman & Robbins LLP law firm.

HP issued a statement calling the lawsuit "baseless." The lawsuit "represents a transparent effort to exploit issues related to HP's recent investigation for personal gain at the expense of HP, its shareholders and its employees," the statement said. "HP will defend itself vigorously."

HP acknowledged that it had obtained the phone records of 12 people by using pretexting.

Spying Scandal
The stockholder lawsuit, originally filed in September, asks the court to declare that HP's executives have "committed breaches of their fiduciary duties" and to order executives to repay the amount the company has been damaged by the spying scandal. The lawsuit also asks the court to require HP to reform its corporate governance and to extract punitive damages from Dunn, Hurd and other HP executives.

[Rasputin]

Ohio County Eyes Switch To Optical-Scan E-Voting

Ohio's Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners is considering scrapping a $17 million investment in touch-screen electronic-voting hardware and switching to precinct count optical scan devices.

Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, runs Diebold Election Systems' AccuVote TSX systems. Board members are concerned that the systems now in place can't handle a growing number of voters. By contrast, optical scan systems could accommodate increased numbers of voters by allowing officials to add more places for them to fill out paper ballots in heavy-turnout elections.

Paper Trail
The use of touch screen systems in the county's May 2 primary was the subject of a critical report by the Election Science Institute (ESI). Based in San Francisco, ESI is a nonprofit group that works to promote the development of auditable election systems. The report noted that the performance of the paper trail system used by the machines to record votes was flawed, as well.

That the commission is considering swapping out Diebold's TSX gear in favor of optical scan technology is noteworthy, said Steven Hertzberg, project director at ESI. "Diebold's rhetoric about the performance of its direct record electronic (DRE)-based election system does not withstand objective scrutiny, and the Cuyahoga Commissioners obviously now know this." He also said he believes the county spent more money, effort and energy evaluating the system than perhaps any other jurisdiction in the nation.

Diebold, however, is claiming its systems work very well with large numbers of voters. Diebold spokesman David Bear noted that the vendor has sold DRE systems in huge jurisdictions, including the states of Utah and Georgia, and the machines are able to support high numbers of voters there. Moreover, the issues in Cuyahoga County involving DRE use have tended to result from training issues and familiarity with the devices, rather than the performance of the technology itself.

Diebold also sells optical scan devices, which have their own advantages, as well, said Bear. "Cuyahoga County will make the decision appropriate to itself and we'll be there to work with it," he said.

Verification of Accuracy Infeasible
Meanwhile, members of the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have posted a draft set of recommendations (download PDF) related to the use of voting systems. The federal agency develops and promotes measurement, standards and technology and in their paper, NIST researchers offered several recommendations for the 2007 Voluntary Voting Systems Guidelines (VVSG).

Perhaps the most significant of the recommendations is that NIST believes there should be a requirement for software independence placed in the VVSG. Software independence means a system's electronic counts can be independently audited, or that there is an auditable paper trail, such as exists in optical scan technology. NIST asserted that DREs are software dependent -- that is, they don't produce a voter-verified audit trail.

The verification of DRE accuracy is "so complex as to be infeasible" and current testing methods cannot guarantee DRE accuracy, NIST said in the report. It urged that no software-dependent approaches be allowed in the 2007 guidelines.

The NIST report is expected to be presented at the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC) meeting next week in Gaithersburg, Md.. The TGDC helps set elections regulations.

[Rasputin]

AMD Receives DOJ Subpoena Over Graphics Processing

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has subpoenaed Advanced Micro Devices(AMD) as part of an antitrust investigation into the market for graphics processors and graphics cards, AMD said Thursday.

AMD recently entered the graphics chip business with its acquisition of ATI Technologies, which was finalized last month. The DOJ has not made any allegations against AMD or ATI, and AMD intends to cooperate with the investigation, it said.

Price Fixing
While the DOJ hasn't said specifically what it is investigating, one industry analyst speculated that the case could be about price fixing. The DOJ has already charged a number of chip companies in the DRAM (Dynamic RAM) memory chip market for price fixing, and is investigating several in the SRAM (Static RAM) chip market.

"If the DOJ wanted to, it could just go down every line in the semiconductor industry and find the same issue," said Gartner analyst Richard Gordon. That's because there are a relatively few number of suppliers in the chip industry and an open flow of communication between competitors and customers, who may not define price fixing the same way the DOJ does, he said.

The investigations are unlikely to benefit end users, according to Gordon. Historically, prices in the chip industry have gone up and down based on supply and demand and he doubts that such investigations will result in lower pricing.

A spokeswoman for AMD in Europe, Hollis Krym, said she did not know if the investigation has a broad scope and includes other graphics chip companies or if it is in the context of the ATI acquisition. U.S. antitrust authorities have already approved AMD's merger with ATI.

Widespread In Industry
In the DRAM market, the DOJ has charged Samsung Electronics, Hynix Semiconductor America, Elpida Memory and Infineon Technologies with price fixing and sentenced the companies to pay multi-million dollar fines.

Sony, Cypress Semiconductor and the U.S. arms of Mitsubishi Electric, Samsung Electronics and Toshiba have all been asked to turn over information to the DOJ for an investigation into SRAM price fixing.

[abadani69]

همزمان با انتشار متن کامل آئين نامه دولتي ساماندهي سايت هاي اينترنتي، روزگذشته نيمي از از خطوط اينترنت کشور قطع شد. علاوه بر اين بر اساس خبرهاي منتشره فيلترينگ در کشور نيز تشديد شده، و حتا سايت هايي چون ويکي پديا و آمازون نيز از دسترس کاربران ايراني خارج شده اند.

ساماندهي با نقض قانون

همزمان با اختلال سراسري اينترنت در کشور، روز گذشته متن آيين نامه ساماندهي سايت هاي اينترنتي مصوب هيات دولت منتشر شد. اين آيين نامه هر سايت و وبلاگي را که در وزارت ارشاد به ثبت نرسيده باشد "پايگاه اطلاع*رساني با هويت نامعلوم" نام داده و تنها "پايگاه اطلاع*رساني اينترنتي كه مسئول آن اطلاعات و مدارك شناسايي خود و پايگاه را به وزارت فرهنگ و ارشاد اسلامي ارائه و مطابق قوانين و مقرات از جمله مقررات مصوب شوراي عالي انقلاب فرهنگي به ثبت رسيده و رسيد آن را دريافت كرده باشد و امكان برقراري ارتباط با شخص مورد نظر وجود داشته باشد" را پايگاه اطلاع*رساني ثبت شده دانسته است.

علاوه بر اين در فصل دوم اين آئين نامه، که به وظايف وزارت ارشاد درباره سايت هاي اينترنتي و وبلاگ ها مربوط است تاکيد شده که اين وزارتخانه "پيش*بيني و راه*اندازي ساختار مناسب تشكيلاتي با استفاده از ظرفيتهاي موجود براي ساماندهي، هدايت و حمايت از فعاليتهاي اينترنتي مجاز و برخورد با فعاليتهاي غيرمجاز... پيش*بيني بودجه مناسب ساليانه به منظور سالم*سازي و سامان*بخشي به فعاليتهاي اينترنتي در كشور... تعيين شرايط لازم براي پايگاه، مديران مسئول سايت ها و نيز تعيين ساز و کار مناسب به منظور ثبت رسمي پايگاه هاي اطلاع رساني و لغو آن و اعلام عمومي هر مورد" را بر عهده دارد.

همچنين کليه "پايگاه ها و سايت هاي اطلاع رساني اينترنتي ملزم به ثبت مشخصات مربوط و ثبت هويت مدير مسئول خود" در وزارت ارشاد شده اند. اين آئين نامه به "پايگاه هاي اطلاع رساني که فعاليت خود را قبل از ابلاغ اين تصويب نامه آغاز کرده اند" حداکثر دو ماه فرصت داده تا "براي ثبت" اقدام کنند، زيرا "پس از اين مهلت در صورت عدم ثبت در وزارت ارشاد سايت اينترنتي و يا وبلاگ مورد نظر در رديف پايگاه هاي اينترنتي با هويت نامعلوم" قرار خواهد گرفت. اين در حالي است که بر اساس ماده ششم فصل دوم اين آئين نامه "پايگاه هاي اينترنتي که با هويت نامعلوم" شناخته شوند مسدود خواهند شد.

فصل سوم اين آيين نامه به "تخلفات و نحوه رسيدگي به آنها" اختصاص دارد. در اين بخش که به نظر مي رسد اصلي ترين بخش اين آيين نامه نيز هست "انتشار و نگهداري هر نوع داده اعم از متن، صدا و، عکس، تصوير، کارتون، پويا نمايي، فيگور، کاريکاتور، فيلم و غيره که" بر اساس نظر وزارت ارشاد غير مجاز يا غير قانوني اعلام شود در"در پايگاه اطلاع رساني ممنوع است".

غير از اين فهرست ديگري از موارد ممنوع و قابل پيگيري که مي تواند به مسدود شدن سايت يا وبلاگ و معرفي مديران و نويسندگان آن به دادگاه منجر شود نيز عنوان شده است: "مطالب الحادي و نفي يا تضعيف اصول و ارزش هاي اسلامي و يا توهين به اسلام و مقدسان آن و اهانت امام و يا رهبري... توهين به اديان آسماني و کتب مقدس و انبياء و معصومين و مقدسان... تحريک و تشويق به ارتکاب اعمال عليه امنيت، حيثيت و منافع جمهوري اسلامي ايران... تحريف مطالب امام خميني و مقام معظم رهبري... تحريف انقلاب اسلامي ملت ايران و توهين به ارزش هاي آن" از جمله اين موارد هستند.

به علاوه، "هر گونه اقدام عليه قانون اساسي و يا تفرقه افکني و خدشه در وحدت و وفاق ملي و استقلال و تماميت ارضي و يا القاء بد بيني و نا کارآمدي در مردم نسبت به مشروعيت و کار آمدي نظام... . توهين به اقوام و اقليت هاي مذهبي... افشاي اسرار و اسناد طبقه بندي شده از قبيل نظامي، امنيتي وسياسي دولتي و خصوصي... اشاعه منکرات و ترويج فحشا و مطالب مغاير با عفت و اخلاق عمومي" بر اساس آيين نامه ممنوع است. "انجام فعاليت هاي اقتصادي غير قانوني از قبيل پولشويي، تجارت هرمي و غير " نيز در رديف مواد ممنوع قرار دارد.

هيات دولت همچنين در اين مصوبه مبارزه با سانسور و فيلترينگ اينترنتي را به هر شکلي و ممنوع و "تبليغ يا آموزش پايگاه هاي اطلاع رساني غير مجاز"و "آموزش و ارائه هر نوع روش مقابله با مسدود سازي پايگاه هاي اطلاع رساني غير مجاز" را نيز در شمار موارد ممنوع معرفي کرده است.

"نشر اکاذيب و افترا... برقراري هر نوع پيوند که مبلغ و مروج پايگاه هاي اطلاع رساني حاوي مضامين جزء هاي فوق الذکر باشد. . هر نوع اقدام خلاف شرع يا قانوني ديگر يا مخالف ضوابط و مقررات... انتشار هر نوع داده ممنوع "نيز" منجر به ارسال گزارش از طريق وزارت فرهنگ و ارشاد اسلامي به کار گروه تعيين مصاديق پايگاه هاي غير مجاز اينترنتي ( مرکب از وزيران فرهنگ و ارشاد اسلامي، اطلاعات، ارتباطات و فناوري اطلاعات و دادگستري ) به منظور مسدود سازي پايگاه اطلاع رساني خواهد شد".

بر اساس اين آيين نامه "رسيدگي به اداره فعاليت غير مجاز پايگاه هاي اطلاع رساني ثبت شده با توجه به نوع و آثار آن" ممکن است به "تذکر رسمي به مسئول پايگاه هاي اطلاع رساني نسبت به حذف داده يا داده هاي ممنوع و جبران آن مانند اصلاح يا عذر خواهي" منجر شود. علاوه بر مسدود سازي سايت يا وبلاگ مورد نظر و ساير تصميماتي که کميته تعيين مصاديق پس از گزارش وزارت ارشاد خواهد گرفت در اين آيين نامه تاکيد شده که "اتخاذ تصميم نسبت به پايگاه هاي موضوع اين آيين نامه مانع طرح شکايت عليه آنها در مراجع ذي صلاح و جبران خسارت و مجازات قانوني نمي باشد".

در اين آيين نامه تنها در يک مورد به حقوق دارندگان سايت ها و وبلاگ هاي ثبت شده در وزارت ارشاد اشاره شده و آن اينکه به "مسئولان پايگاه هاي اطلاع رساني ثبت شده که به دليل تخلف مسدود شده اند"، اجازه داده شده در صورت مسدود شدن سايت و وبلاگ شان "رد خواست تجديد نظر خود را براي بررسي در کار گروه ياد شده به وزارت فرهنگ و ارشاد اسلامي ارائه کنند".

اختلال در اينترنت

بامداد ديروز کاربران ايراني در حالي بارديگر شاهد کاهش سرعت اينترنت و قطع کامل آن در برخي مناطق کشور بودند که مسئولان وزارت ارتباطات مي گويند اختلال در اينترنت کشور ناشي از قطع شدن فيبر نوري جاسك ـ فجيره در خارج از آب*هاي ايران است که از ساعت سه و50 دقيقه صبح ديروز به اختلال در ارتباطات كشور منجر شده. محمد چهره *قاني، مدير روابط عمومي شركت ارتباطات زيرساخت، در گفت و گويي با خبرگزاري ايسنا با تاييد اين خبر گفته است: "بازسازي ارتباطاتي كه به دليل قطع فيبر نوري جاسك ـ فجيره دچار مشكل شده بود، تا 50 درصد از ساير مسيرها تامين شده و تا غروب به 70 درصد مي*رسد". او گفته که "مشكلات ارتباطات تلفني كه از مسير اين فيبر تامين مي*شد، رفع شده است، اما هنوز اختلالاتي در ارتباطات اينترنتي وجود دارد".

چهره*قاني گفته که كابل قطع شده 50 درصد ارتباطات شبكه را تامين و 50 درصد ديگر از جاهاي ديگري تامين مي*شد. مدير روابط عمومي شركت ارتباطات زيرساخت دليل تاخير در بازسازي کابل قطع شده را نيز قرار گرفتن آن در خارج از مرزهاي آبي کشور ذکر کرده و گفته: "براي ترميم اين فيبرها بايد كشتي اعزام شود كه در حال حاضر در حال تجهيز كشتي براي اعزام به آن منطقه هستيم".

از يک سال پيش تاکنون اين سومين باري است که کاربران شاهد قطع سراسري اينترنت هستند. دهم دي ماه سال 84 نخستين بار اينترنت در سراسر ايران دچار اختلال وسيع شد. مسئولان در آن روز نيز اعلام کردند که "در پي قطع کابل نوري مسير جاسک - فجيره کيفيت اينترنت در ايران به نحو کاملا محسوسي افت کرد و از سرعت ارتباط بسياري از کاربران کاسته شده است".

اواخر مرداد ماه گذشته نيز کاربران اينترنت در اغلب نقاط کشور بارديگر دسترسي به اينترنت را غير ممکن يافتند و اعلام شد بيش از 80 در صد شبکه ايتنرنت در ايران قطع شده است. سايت خبري بازتاب در آن هنگام به نقل از يک مقام مسئول نوشت: "مشكل اصلي اينترنت كشور ما اين است كه ما مسير پشتيبان نداريم و طبيعي است كه چنين مشكلاتي به وجود آيد. اين در حالي است كه همه كشورهاي دنيا داراي مسير پشتيبان هستند و با روبه*رو شدن با چنين مشكلات فوق*العاده*اي به راحتي آن را كنترل مي*كنند. گفتني است، قطع و وصل* شدن*هاي پي در پي شبكه اينترنت در روزهاي اخير، به يكي از."

اما نظرهاي ديگري نيز درباره قطع اينترنت منتشر شده که از بارش برف تا آزمايش سيستم تازه فيلترينگ در کشور را در بر مي گيرد. در ميان کاربران اينترنت هم شايع شد که قطع مکرر اينترنت به نوعي سانسور فني مربوط مي شود و برخي از مقامات کشور به اين نتيجه رسيده اند که اينترنت تنها رسانه اي است که کنترل آن از دست دولت خارج است و به همين دليل برنامه هايي براي پيشگيري از افزايش کاربران و محدود سازي دسترسي آنان به اينترنت در حال اجراست.

اگر چه هنور به درستي معلوم نيست که قطع اينترنت در ماه هاي اخير ناشي از مشکلات فني و ناگهاني است و يا ارادي اما وقتي چند ماه پيش دستورالعمل عدم ارائه اينترنت پر سرعت به کاربران معمولي در کشور به شرکت هاي سرويس دهنده ابلاغ شد اين گمان تقويت شد که برخي مراکز در کشور دل خوشي از افزايش دسترسي به اينترنت ندارند و اراده اي مبني بر پيشگيري از نفوذ روز افزون اينترنت در کشور وجود دارد.

[Rasputin]

Vista Lands in the U.S

After five years and numerous delays, customers can now get their hands on the final version of the Windows Vista operating system.

Well, business customers can at least. Though Microsoft celebrated the launch of Vista--as well as Office 2007 and Exchange 2007--at events across the globe today, both Vista and Office 2007 won't be generally available through retail in the U.S. until January 30, 2007. Today marked the day business customers could purchase those products through Microsoft's volume licensing program.

And though business customers can begin ordering Exchange 2007 today, the new version of Microsoft's messaging server software won't be released to manufacturing until the end of December.

Analysts Unimpressed
Not only was today's launch party for all three products a bit premature and anticlimactic after so long a wait for Vista, it could also be the last of its kind, according to industry watchers. With more software being pushed out to customers over the Web as services, launch parties for packaged software products may soon be a thing of the past, they said.

"This is a big launch for them but for everyone else it's ho-hum," said James McQuivey, a professor for Boston University's College of Communication who specializes in marketing research and business management. "It's the biggest wait-and-see event of the week. Customers are going to wait and see when they need [Vista] and if they need it."

'Biggest Launch in [Microsoft's] History'
These concerns aside, Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer was on hand with his usual enthusiasm at the New York launch event to promote what is arguably the industry's most highly anticipated product launch of the year.

"It's an exciting thing to finally be here," Ballmer said. "That's all I'll say about the past." He had previously promised that Microsoft will never again have another lengthy gap between the major releases of its client operating system. The vendor debuted Windows XP, the previous version of its client OS, in October 2001.

"This is the biggest launch in our company's history," Ballmer said. "These are frankly the most significant releases of these two products [Vista and Office] we've ever done."

Vista was the big star of today's event, though Microsoft teamed the OS launch with Office 2007 and Exchange 2007 for several reasons. One is that the company is trying to promote the technology links between the products to show how they can bring better worker productivity and cost savings to business customers in the hopes companies will purchase and deploy all three at once.

Another reason for the triple product launch is that Vista has been so long coming, Microsoft felt it had to give customers a little extra incentive to be excited about it, said Sunil Misra, vice president of Getronics. The provider of managed services and consulting has been helping business customers prepare for Vista deployment.

"It's the love campaign," Misra said, referring to the launch of all three products together. "People have been waiting a long time for Vista."

Customers Likely to Hold Off
The last time Microsoft released Windows and Office together was with Windows 95. But during that time in the heyday of Windows, customers would have flocked to the new OS release even without its tie to Office. "It's not nearly as exciting as it used to be in the old days," said McQuivey. "With Windows 95 and 98, you actually had people waiting in line at [retail store] Best Buy" to purchase the OS.

This certainly isn't the case now, as consumers can't purchase Vista until January. And it may not even be the case then, as consumers in addition to business customers have said they may hold off on purchasing Vista until they need a new PC.

Many of those new PCs are bought during the busy holiday shopping season that is currently in progress, but since Vista is not available yet in retail outlets, it can't benefit from that rush. In lieu of that, Microsoft's hardware partners such as Hewlett-Packard and Dell are offering discount coupons for the OS if customers buy PCs that are capable of running it this holiday season.

On the business side, customers will likely continue their Vista planning process throughout the end of the year and most of 2007, Misra said. Indeed, most analysts think the bulk of Vista business deployments won't happen until 2008.

[Rasputin]

Office 2007, OpenOffice.org Work Together

Microsoft and Novell have wasted little time in demonstrating there is real work being done as part of their recent Linux interoperability pact. Just a month after the historic deal between the companies, Novell said today it will support the proprietary document format in Microsoft Office 2007, Open XML, in its open-source version of the OpenOffice productivity suite by the end of January.

Novell also will release software that will bi-directionally translate word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations between its version of OpenOffice.org's productivity suite and Microsoft Office to the OpenOffice.org project so Open XML can become a part of that open-source project, the company said.

However, this does not guarantee that Open XML will be integrated into the OpenOffice.org code, said Justin Steinman, a Novell director of marketing for Linux. "We are going to release the code to the open-source community. Whether it gets integrated or not is up to the community," he said.

Novell and Microsoft worked together on the translation project, which will allow users of a new release of OpenOffice due in January to create, save and send files as Open XML documents, Steinman said.

Teaming Up
Creating interoperability between the OpenOffice and Microsoft Office suites was a goal that was part of the companies' deal, announced November 2, to make Microsoft's proprietary software work more seamlessly with Novell's SuSe Linux and other open-source software from the company.

The Open XML work will ultimately allow users to more easily share files between Microsoft Office 2007 and OpenOffice, which support different document formats, Steinman said.

The native document format in OpenOffice is OpenDocument Format (ODF), an XML-based file format recognized as a standard by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Microsoft so far has chosen not to support ODF and instead created its own file format, Open XML, for Office 2007.

Microsoft's lack of support for ODF has been controversial, and the company further stirred up concern in the industry that it was trying to promote its own proprietary file format as an industry standard instead of ODF by submitting Open XML to Ecma International in November 2005. Ecma is a standards organization that can fast-track technology standards through the ISO.

Ecma plans to vote on whether to approve Open XML for submission to the ISO as an international standard on December 7.

Microsoft released Office 2007, which supports Open XML, last week to business customers. The suite is expected to be widely available to consumers in retail outlets on January 30.

[abadani69]

چند روز پس از تصويب "آئين نامه ساماندهي سايت هاي اينترنتي" در هيات دولت، معاون حقوقي وزارت ارتباطات خبرهاي تازه تري را براي مهار وبلاگ ها و سايت هاي اينترنتي اعلام کرد. صمد مومن بالله گفت: "بايد اشاعه مطالب در سايت*هاي فارسي سروسامان داده شود... و همان طور كه براي ايجاد نشريات بايد مجوز دريافت شود، براي ايجاد نشريات الكترونيكي نيز بايد اين صورت عمل شود".


"نبايد اجازه داده شود كه هر فردي هرچه مي*خواهد در سايت*ها و وبلاگ*ها بنويسد و به هتك حرمت فردي و ملي افراد بپردازد". اين جمله اي از سخنان معاون وزير ارتباطات در گفت و گو با خبرگزاري ايلنا است تا بيانگر تلقي مقامات جمهوري اسلامي از وب سايت ها و وبلاگ ها باشد.

صمد مومن بالله، معاون حقوقي وزير ارتباطات همچنين تاکيد کرده که "ساماندهي به معناي نظام مندي سايت*هاي اينترنتي است"، و گفته "در حال حاضر سايت*ها و وبلاگ*هايي ايجاد مي*شود كه در بسياري از موارد با روح نظام و اعتقادات ما منافات دارد".

معاون حقوقي و امور مجلس وزارت ارتباطات، با بيان اينكه آيين نامه سامان*دهي محتواي سايت*هاي اينترنتي به "محتواي مقولات سايت*هاي اطلاعاتي جهت و سروسامان مي دهد" با اشاره به بعضي ديگر از سايت*هاي فارسي، گفته: "آنها به نوعي از زواياي مختلف با اشاعه فساد مشكلاتي را به وجود آورده*اند"، و به همين علت "بايد اشاعه مطالب در سايت*هاي فارسي سروسامان داده شود".

معاون حقوقي وزير ارتباطات هم چنين از شناسايي سايت هاي اينترنتي خبر داده و گفته است: "با شكل گيري شبكه ملي، بحث سامان*دهي محتواي سايت*هاي اينترنتي در دستور كار قرار گرفته است تا مشخص شود سايت*ها در چه مقولاتي فعاليتي دارند". او با تاكيد بر اينكه "آيين نامه ساماندهي سايت هاي اينترنتي سرويس دهنده*هاي اينترنتي را موظف خواهد كرد كه طبق ضابطه به تعريف سايت بپردازند" اضافه کرده: "آيين نامه سامان*دهي محتواي سايت*هاي اينترنتي ارتباطي به مقوله فيلترينگ نخواهد داشت".

معاون وزير ارتباطات علاوه بر اين با اشاره "به شروع تبليغات براي انتخابات كه بعضا در برخي سايت*ها منجر به تخريب و عدم رعايت حقوق كانديداها مي*شود"، تاكيد كرده که "بايد حرمت همه افراد در مطالب منتشر شده در سايت*ها حفظ شود".او اعلام کرده است: "بايد جلوي سايت*هايي كه به تخريب كانديداها به هر نحوي مي*پردازند گرفته شود، بايد براي اين گونه موارد مجازاتي لحاظ شود، چرا كه هر كس نمي*تواند هر چه مي*خواهد بنويسد و به هتك حرمت افراد بپردازد".

به نظر مي رسد "آئين نامه ساماندهاي سايت هاي اينترنتي" که برخي آن را نقض آشکار قانون اساسي مي دانند، از نظر معاون حقوقي وزير ارتباطات براي کنترل و مهاراينترنت در کشور کافي نيست.از همين رو او تاکيد کرده:"بايد دستورالعملي براي ايجادكنندگان سايت*ها به وجود آيد تا طبق آن با دقت عمل بيشتري مطالب درج شود كه نه تنها در انتخابات بلكه به طور كلي مطالب يك سايت منجر به توهين ملي و يا توهين فردي نشود".

مومن بالله، همچنين با انتقاد از عدم آينده نگري در مواجه با سايت هاي اينترنتي و وبلاگ ها گفته: "نگاهمان رو به آينده نيست و تنها به حال توجه مي*كنيم، بايد رويكردمان را به سمت آينده تغيير دهيم و اقداماتي انجام دهيم كه از اتفاقات پيشگيري كند".


از شايعه تا واقعيت

تا پنج سال پيش ميزان توليد فارسي در اينترنت در حدود صفر بود، اما با فراگير شدن اينترنت در ايران و ظهور وبلاگ ها، در طي پنج سال گذشته روند توليد محتواي فارسي روز به روز با افزايش مواجه شده است. نخستين سرويس دهنده وبلاگ فارسي در سال 81 با راه اندازي پرشين بلاگ توسط سه جوان ايراني آغاز به کار کرد. در ابتداي سال 82 با راه اندازي بلاگ اسکاي دومين سرويس دهنده وبلاگ هاي فارسي نيز آغاز به کار کرد. پس از آن چندين سرويس دهنده ديگر وبلاگ هاي فارسي و از جمله بلاگفا توانستند در مدتي کوتاه گروه بزرگي از جوانان ايراني را به وبلاگ نويسي جذب کنند.به تدريج بر تعداد سايت هاي فارسي نيز افزوده شد، روندي که تاکنون تداوم داشته است. ا اين حال تلقي اغلب تصميم سازان در جمهوري اسلامي در طول پنج سال گذشته نه تنها تغييري نکرده، بلکه کوشيده اند با همان عينک خوب يا بد به فضاي مجازي نگاه کنند. همين نگاه سبب شده تا وبلاگ ها و وب سايت هاي بي شماري دچار فيلترينگ و ده ها وبلاگ نويس و تعدادي از نويسندگان سايت هاي اينترنتي دستگير و زنداني شوند.

تقسيم بندي وبلاگ ها و وب سايت ها هم به خودي و غير خودي، همچنان سياست محبوب گردانندگان امور در کشور است. بر همين اساس در طول دوسال گذشته با صرف بودجه هاي کلان راه اندازي "سرويس هاي خودي وبلاگ نويسي"، يا به کنترل در آوردن سرويس هاي پيشين در دستور کار نهادهاي مختلف حکومتي قرار گرفته است. "برگزاري دوره هاي اموزش وبلاگ نويسي" يکي از تدابيري است که براي افزايش وبلاگ نويسان خودي مورد استفاده قرار مي گيرد. اين دوره ها که اکنون در اغلب حوزه هاي علميه و پايگاه هاي بسيج به راه افتاده در تلاش است تا بر کميت وبلاگ نويسان خودي بيفزايد.

همزمان فشار بر وبلاگ نويسان منتقد که غير خودي حکومت تلقي مي شوند افزوده شده است.فيلترينگ اغلب وبلاگ هاي پر خواننده منتقدان به دولت يا حکومت، ابتدايي ترين راهي بود که مقامات برگزيدند. تذکرات بي واسطه يا با واسطه به برخي از وبلاگ نويسان، و در مواردي برخوردهاي تندتر که با بازداشت و زنداني کردن وبلاگ نويسان همراه بوده، از جمله ديگر تدابير مقامات کشور براي مهار فضاي وب و هدايت آن به سمت دلخواه است.

وقتي در شش ماه پيش، در جريان برگزاري سمينار "بررسي مسايل فيلترينگ سايت*هاي اينترنتي" رييس دفتر اينترنت داستاني تهران گفت که "بايد به سمتي برويم كه سايت*ها و وبلاگ*ها براي انتشار مطالب خود، آن را ابتدا عرضه كنند و مجوز بگيرند"، کمتر کسي فکر مي کرد آن پيشنهاد به اين زودي به مرحله اجرا درآيد. اما برخلاف ساير پيشنهادات و طرح ها که اغلب موارد به اجرا در نمي آيد، و يا اجراي آن سال ها به طول مي انجامد، در کمتر از شش ماه پيشنهاد مهندس طوسي عملي شد و "آئين نامه ساماندهي سايت هاي اينترنتي" به تصويب هيات دولت رسيد، تا براساس آن همه وبلاگ ها و وب سايت هايي که مي خواهند "مجاز" باشند با دريافت مجوز از وزارت ارشاد در چارچوب مورد نظر مسئولين فعاليت کنند.

اشتباه نه چندان کوچک

صرف نظر از اينکه مقاماتي چون معاون وزير ارتباطات چه تلقي اي از اينترنت و فضاي مجازي دارند، و چرا تا به اين حد نگران آن هستند، به نظر مي رسد که آنها در ازاي از دست دادن حلوايي نقد وعده اي نسيه به مقامات بالادست خود داده اند. زيرا با يک حساب سر انگشتي مي شود حدس زد تنها بررسي تقاضاي دويست هزار وبلاگ نويس براي گرفتن مجوز به چه ميزان از وقت، بودجه و امکانات نياز دارد.علاوه بر اين مي شود از هم اکنون پيش بيني کرد که مستعار نويسي، انتقال مرکز ثقل وبلاگ ها و وب سايت هاي فارسي به سرويس دهنده هاي خارجي، از نتايج اوليه اجراي"آئين نامه ساماندهي سايت هاي اينترنتي" باشد.

[Rasputin]

Toshiba Develops 1.8-Inch 100GB Hard Drive

Higher capacity music players and laptop computers could be on the way thanks to a new hard drive from Toshiba that manages a 25 percent jump in storage space over current models.

The new 1.8-inch hard drive can store 100GB of data whereas current models hold a maximum of 80GB. The drives are about the same size as a PC Card and are commonly used in music players, like Apple's iPod, and compact laptop computers.

Production Starts in 2007
Toshiba plans to start mass producing the drives in January next year. The company doesn't sell them direct to end-users but to other companies for integration into their products. In the past device makers have typically incorporated higher capacity drives quickly into their products.

The drive will be on show at the Consumer Electronic Show, which takes place in Las Vegas from January 8 to 11.

Toshiba first developed a 1.8-inch drive in 2000. The device, which was at the time the highest capacity such drive available, could hold up to 2GB of data and cost around $740 at the time. Today the drives have not only risen in capacity but also fallen in price to the point where an Apple iPod, which includes an 80GB drive and color screen, costs $349.