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Facebook Cofounder Leaving To Start New Company

Admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:11:05 +0000

The Facebook duo is no more. One of Facebook's two cofounders is leaving the popular social-networking site.

Dustin Moskovitz is leaving and forming a new duo by taking engineer Justin Rosenstein with him. Together, the two will launch another company, Rosenstein said on his Facebook page.

Rosenstein, who was recruited from Google by Moskovitz in the early stages of launching the company, said the two have had similar visions on software and what Facebook needs to do to evolve as a company.

"Leaving Facebook makes me sad, but I feel I have to follow my passion on this," Rosenstein said. "I can't say enough about Facebook and the friends I've made here, and I am enormously excited for the company's future success, a destiny I'm confident it will reach regardless of my participation."

Complementary Venture

The two will leave Facebook in about a month, Rosenstein said, and build an "extensible enterprise productivity suite" and a "high-level open-source software development toolkit." The new software will use Facebook Connect as a default option for identity and authentication, according to Rosenstein.

He said the new venture is complementary to Facebook and he hopes the new company's products will be as integral to users' professional work lives as Facebook has become in their social lives.

The decision to leave was a tough one, according to Rosenstein. "As our visions for how productivity software could work came into alignment, we thought about building it inside of Facebook," he said. "It was an attractive option in many ways, and neither of us was eager to exit a company that was in such an exciting phase of its development."

The fog soon lifted and Rosenstein said it became clear that doing so would not be good for Facebook or the duo.

"Facebook needs to continue its mission of making the world more open through...

Apple’s ‘Brick’ Is an Innovative Manufacturing Process

Admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:31:02 +0000

New laptops from Apple, maker of such advanced products as the iPhone, the iPod and the Mac, could be made from bricks. An aluminum brick, that is.

According to reports on the Web, the computer and consumer-products innovator is about to unveil a new kind of manufacturing that carves a solid-aluminum chassis for MacBooks out of an aluminum brick. With new MacBooks scheduled to be released next week, speculation has grown that it might include models made with the brick process.

'Totally Revolutionary'

According to the reports, the manufacturing process uses lasers and water-jet cutting tools to carve the aluminum block. Some observers have suggested that, rather than making the laptop heavier, it could lead to stronger and lighter laptops.

The reason is that a solid chassis could mean no seams, bends, screws or other fastenings, saving a bit of weight and increasing strength. And, as with all Apple products, it could result in a visually pleasing device.

According to the Mac enthusiast site 9to5mac.com, the new manufacturing process is "totally revolutionary, a game changer," adding that it was the "biggest Apple innovation in a decade."

The site also reported that Apple has spent several years perfecting the process, and that it can now become more self-reliant in controlling the manufacture of its products, rather than farming them out to Chinese or Taiwanese factories. They point out that Apple CEO Steve Jobs built a totally automated plant in 1990 for his NeXT computers, an accomplishment that he said made him as proud as the computers from that company.

There are several advantages to making a chassis out of a solid metal block, the site said. In addition to seamless smoothness and no need for fasteners, the site said the chassis can be very inexpensive and creative in its shape.

'Another Stroke of Innovation'

Mark Margevicius, a research director...

Fuel Costs Drive Increased Contact Center Interactions

Admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:33:54 +0000

The rise in fuel costs has far-reaching implications, even in the contact center industry. While this phenomenon has been attributed to the rise in home-based agents, it is also causing a rise in contact center interactions as a result of an increase in Internet use among rural residents.

di According to New Zealand rural broadband provider, Farmside, there was a 97 percent increase in inquiries through its contact centers in April, with a similar pattern emerging through May. The company contributes this increase to a surge in rural residents opting to use the Internet for routine tasks in an effort to offset rising fuel costs.

"They realize they can save money by using the Internet for errands that have traditionally required a personal trip, like banking, shopping, vehicle registration, study or even doing tax returns," Farmside sales and marketing director Nick Carter said, in a company statement.

A Ministry of Transport Ongoing Household Travel Survey has found that the average driver in rural New Zealand spends 300 hours driving nearly 15,000km each year. Nearly 30 percent of this travel is due to shopping or carrying out other personal business.

Carter noted that with the increase in online services offered by the retail, business and government sectors, rural people are becoming more aware of how using the Internet could save on travel costs.

The challenge in this increase is that contact centers may not be adequately prepared for such increases. Workforce management software solutions can go long way in helping the contact center to prepare for spikes in call volume. Such programs, however, examine known variables, such as campaigns, seasons, and past performance, to name a few.

While it is true that rising fuel costs are impacting economies throughout the world, contact centers may not be fully prepared for the increase in volume. This is where it...

Apple’s Case Against Psystar Comes into Focus

Admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:17:14 +0000

Apple's filing to dismiss with prejudice Psystar's countersuit revealed the tenants of Apples' strategy to win. The basis of Apple's argument is that Mac OS X and Macs do not, in themselves, create a legally plausible market, antitrust does not apply, and Apple has no obligation to share its sources of advantage.

An attorney who has been following the case, and wishes to remain anonymous, explained Apple's argument to [The Mac Observer] on Thursday:

"First, all of Psystar's counterclaims require the definition of a legally plausible relevant market. Second, Psystar's attempt to define the markets as OS X and OS X-capable computers do not define legally and factually plausible relevant markets. That's because the U.S. Supreme Court and all of the U.S. Circuit Courts, that have considered the issue, have rejected the proposition that an company having a monopoly in its own brand of a class of products is a violation of antitrust law. [TMO emphasis added.]

"Even Psystar's own responses admit that Apple's Mac OS X is only one brand of operating system in a vigorously competitive market consisting of Mac OS X, Windows and Linux -- where the dominant player is Microsoft. As a result, Apple has no 'market power.'

"Finally, even if Apple did have market power, according the U.S. Supreme Court and the 2nd Circuit, Apple wouldn't have any obligation under antitrust law to share the legitimate sources of its advantage in the market (for example, valid patent or copyrights) with competitors," he said.

The key to all this is that Mac OS X is just one brand of an OS, a minority OS, in a broader market, and so Antitrust issues do not apply. Apple, in its arguments, has supported these facts that are well accepted in law and confirmed by higher courts, and, accordingly, has asked that the countersuit...

Cyber Expert Details Internet-Safety Dangers

Admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:12:19 +0000

It took computer safety expert Linda Criddle only nine minutes to snag the phone number of a teenage girl in Nebraska who had posted just a little information about herself on a social networking Web site.

Criddle is a former Microsoft employee who specialized in online safety and is the author of a consumer-safety book, "Look Both Ways: Help Protect Your Family on the Internet."

She spoke at the Economic Crime Conference sponsored by the Utah Attorney General's Office on Thursday -- with a message that would send shivers down any parent's spine.

Criddle said social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, can be useful tools, as are other things such as online banking and shopping, which she uses regularly. But she strongly urges consumers to protect themselves with the best safety software available and to be extremely cautious about revealing personal information.

Criddle on Thursday focused primarily on how criminals profile victims through the Internet. The Nebraska teen, Brittany, offered a sobering example.

The girl offered scant written material but posted two photos that could be a road map for crimes -- not only for sexual predators but also for other types of criminals. The first showed a young girl sitting on the porch of her house. Another photo showed the view from her home, with a car and her father in the foreground.

What's the problem?

Criddle pointed out that the girl's socioeconomic status could be determined by the house, car and the child's manner of dress; the house address numbers were visible; the view from the house showed an easily identifiable business; and a railing suggested an older person might live there.

Thieves might want grandma's valuables. Someone could stake out the house from the business across the street and burglarize it. As for Brittany, what little data she provided was enough to reveal...

Nokia Bolsters Music Service To Challenge Apple

Admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:11:38 +0000

Nokia, the world's leading mobile phone maker, said Thursday that it had added EMI and smaller record labels to its "free" music package to challenge Apple's dominance in the digital music market.

Nokia said Carphone Warehouse, the exclusive retailer in Britain for the first mobile phone to include the "Comes with Music" package, will sell it for pound(s)129.99, or $230, starting Oct. 16.

The package will differ from other bundles on the market because users can keep all the music they have downloaded during the 12-month duration of the mobile subscription period. Music can be downloaded for no extra charge since the cost is bundled with the phone price.

The music industry hopes that "Comes with Music" will help the recording companies make up for falling CD sales while challenging Apple's hold on digital sales. The industry is also looking at the "free" model as a way to fight piracy.

After the deal with EMI, Nokia has all major labels on board, after having signed up Universal, Sony BMG and Warner Music Group.

Nokia, which is based in Finland, will also add millions of tracks to its catalog through deals with independent record labels, including the Orchard, Beggars Group, the Independent Online Distribution Alliance, the Ministry of Sound, PIAS and Pinnacle, all of which were introduced on Thursday.

The market for mobile music is increasingly crowded, with Sony Ericsson starting its music service this month in Sweden, while the South Korean company LG Electronics is planning a service similar to Nokia's.

'"Comes with Music' could potentially bring free music to millions of consumers, radically changing the music industry, and offering a significant threat to Apple's dominance," David MacQueen, an analyst for Strategy Analytics, wrote in a research report.

"In a market where price and selection are so much more important than brand to consumers, Apple cannot count on...

Google Aims To Reform Energy Grid

Admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:10:47 +0000

Google hopes to do for the power grid what it did for the Web.

Having conquered the market for Web search by first simplifying how it is done and then making sales of related advertising more efficient, Google is now funding green technology and using its brand power to lobby for policy change.

Google introduced a plan Wednesday to wean the United States off the burning of coal and oil for power by 2030 and to cut oil use for cars by 40 percent. Such initiatives could cost trillions of dollars, but Google believes they should ultimately save money.

Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said the annual cost of the Google energy plan would still be less than the $700 billion being considered to bail out the financial industry. He also cited parallels between the energy challenge and the credit crisis.

"That is an unconscionable failure of system design," he said, referring to the credit crisis. "It is inconceivable to me that the sum of the financial industry would have created that as a possible outcome."

He said Google had not yet felt the economic impact of the financial turmoil, but he added that it was hard to say what would happen next.

"There is an equivalent-scale problem in energy," he said after delivering a speech to the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco. His talk was titled "Where Would Google Drill?"

"I'm a computer scientist and computer scientists love scale problems," Schmidt said. "We like scale and replication and leverage in a technical way."

Through its philanthropic arm, Google.org, the company is backing start-ups designing wind, solar and geothermal technologies, which it hopes will eventually be cheaper than coal. Google invested $45 million in such companies this year.

"But that is a drop when we need a flood," Google says on its official blog.

Calls for energy efficiency and...

Microsoft Announces European Expansion

Admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:09:58 +0000

Microsoft said Thursday that it would set up research centers in France, Germany and Britain to improve its Internet search technology, describing the move as a vote of confidence in the European economy and in the company's ability to close the gap with Google.

Steven Ballmer, the Microsoft chief executive, said at a news conference here that the three "centers of excellence," to be based near Paris, in London and in Munich, would employ several hundred people all together.

He declined to say how much the company would invest. But Microsoft, which has fought pitched battles with European regulators over its Windows operating system, said it was making a major commitment to Europe at a time when many companies were nervous about spending on new projects.

"Investing in anything at this time can be a tough sell," Ballmer said. "But when economic times are tough, we have to keep our faith in the promise that technology holds to transform the future."

Microsoft has been pushing to improve its ability to conduct Internet searches and to attract the advertising revenue that comes with them, following its failed bid to acquire Yahoo. Instead, Yahoo struck a deal with the market leader, Google, to share some search capabilities. "We are the challenger, not the leader, in search," Ballmer said. "But search is in its infancy, and there is so much room for innovation."

In Europe, where Google accounts for nearly 80 percent of Internet searches, according to the research company ComScore, it is even more dominant than in the United States, where it has a share of slightly more than 60 percent.

Microsoft has barely 1 percent of the European search market, according to ComScore. In some countries it trails local search engines.

In addition to working on improvements to Microsoft's existing search technology, Ballmer said, the European research centers...

A Fog of Anxiety Invades Sunny Thinking in Silicon Valley

Admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:08:58 +0000

Ever since the credit crunch first gripped the financial world, Silicon Valley has watched from the sidelines, secure in the faith that it was insulated from the coming storm.

With the stock market in turmoil, a U.S. bailout up in the air and recession seemingly inevitable, that faith is now being seriously undermined. High-tech entrepreneurs, investors and executives now believe the question is when, not if, the financial chaos will have an impact on the cradle of innovation in the United States.

From San Francisco to San Jose, the effects are already palpable. This week, Apple, one of the Valley's high-fliers, lost 13 percent of its value as investors reasonably concluded that consumers would shun pricey gadgets over the holidays in favor of lower ticket items -- or paying down their credit cards.

On Monday, Microsoft's chief executive, Steve Ballmer, traveling in Europe, conceded that financial problems would drag down business and consumer spending -- and that many technology companies, including Microsoft, were vulnerable. (Page 20)

The heart of the Valley's success is, of course, its ecosystem of start-up companies. Many claim that ecosystem remains healthy, thanks to the lessons learned and prudence gained from the dot.com crash.

Nevertheless, a dense fog of anxiety has settled over the land.

"Funding will tighten up. We are certainly going to see some ripple effects," said Ron Conway, a prominent angel investor who has invested in hundreds of Web start-ups over the last decade. Start-ups that have less than six months of cash in the bank "better reduce costs," Conway said. "I will certainly be advising my companies to do that."

Silicon Valley has recited several calming mantras to itself during the prolonged economic turbulence. As the influence of the Internet becomes even more pervasive, goes one mantra, advertising will inevitably follow. Blue-chip tech firms like Google, eBay and...

Skype Investigates China Surveillance of Messages

Admin — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:20:11 +0000

Skype is answering concerns about its joint venture with TOM Online in China. A report released Thursday by Canadian human-rights activists revealed a massive surveillance system that monitors Skype messages containing words China's government deems offensive.

Citizen Lab, a research group at the University of Toronto, released the report, Breaching Trust: An analysis of surveillance and security practices on China's TOM-Skype platform.

Skype Speaks Out

Skype President Josh Silverman wrote on the company's blog about the company's position and what the eBay subsidiary is doing.

Silverman wrote that Chinese regulations include the requirement to monitor and block instant messages that offend Chinese authorities. Examples include "Taiwan independence," "the Falun Gong," and "political opposition to the Communist Party of China."

"It is common knowledge that censorship does exist in China and that the Chinese government has been monitoring communications in and out of the country for many years," Silverman wrote. "This, in fact, is true for all forms of communication such as e-mails, fixed and mobile phone calls, and instant messaging between people within China and between China and other countries."

Silverman added that Skype publicly disclosed in April 2006 that TOM operated a text filter blocking certain words in text messages, and that if a message is found to be unsuitable, TOM is supposed to discard it. Skype, he insisted, didn't realize TOM was storing the messages and is now digging into the issue to find out why the protocol changed.

Could Internet Monitoring Come to U.S.?

What's more, Skype said it learned about a security break for the first time on Wednesday. The breach made it possible for people to gain access to the stored messages on TOM's servers. Silverman said TOM quickly moved to fix the breach.

"It's important to remind everybody that the issues highlighted in yesterday's Information Warfare Monitor/ONI Asia report refer only to...