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Internet Explorer

After 100M IE7 Downloads, Firefox Still Gaining 425

Kelson writes "Internet Explorer 7 hit the 100 million download mark last week. Yet in the three months it's been available, Firefox's market share has continued to grow. InformationWeek reports that nearly all of IE7's growth has been upgrades from IE6. People don't seem to be switching back to IE in significant numbers, prompting analysts to wonder: has Microsoft finally met its match?"
United States

Submission + - Reed Hundt: America in China's Shadow?

Anonymous writes: In a Q&A posted at CIOInsight.com, former FCC chairman Reed Hundt (author of "In China's Shadow: The Crisis of American Entrepreneurship") says the U.S. has fallen behind in the global race for innovation. From the article:

CIO Insight: You paint a dire picture of the rivalry between Chinese and U.S. businesses. Are we in an economic war with China?
Hundt: It's a battle between groups of knights or chevaliers — thousands of American firms against thousands of Chinese-based firms. So if you worked in the textile industry, you would say, here are these 20 American firms, each battling their vigorous Chinese competition. Or if you're Cisco, you say, of course, my competition is Huawei.
And if you look at the strength that Chinese firms bring to the competition, it's significant. First of all, China is now at the same level as Japan in R&D spending, and soon will be almost at the level of the United States. Second, it's so much cheaper for Huawei to run its business than for Cisco, by a factor of ten times. And finally, China has extremely easy access to capital, and all their markets are wide open for competition, mostly because they're growing. Nothing is a mature market there. It's very vigorous domestic competition, much more vigorous than most of the American markets. There's much more of what Americans used to think America was.
Classic Games (Games)

Why Your SNES Turned Yellow 87

If, back in the day, you ever wondered why your old Super Nintendo tended to discolor, your curiosity will now be sated. Via Ars Technica's Opposable Thumbs blog, an article on the Vintage Computing and Gaming site which explains the mysteries of plastic discoloration. From the article: "Since ... different batches of plastics had ... different aging results ... then there must have been a difference of additives between them. Perhaps in one of the production runs of plastic, they didn't get the catalyst or flame retardant mixture quite right and more residues were left over in the top half's plastic batch, thus causing it to degrade more rapidly over time. And by the time Nintendo produced the later runs of Super Nintendos, they had perfected the manufacturing process of their plastic, meaning that those later models aren't as susceptible to oxidation as the earlier models are."
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - the post-antibiotic apocalypse

lpq writes: "We are facing a future where there will be no antibiotics and hospital will be the last place to be if you want to avoid picking up a dangerous bacterial infection," he says. "In effect, cut your finger on Monday and you'll be dead by Friday if there's nothing to prevent it." — Richard James, Healthcare Center Director at Nottingham University comments on the increasing death count from antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Increasing deaths coming from athletic centers, military, prisons and childrens' play-grounds from super-bugs. Sara Boseley reports.

Can drug companies be persuaded to engage in research for the public good and not just for the profit? If not, what are the alternatives? It looks like we are nearing the end of the golden-anti-biotic era. While new antibiotics may be "just around the corner", the pharmaceuticals much prefer to research "life-style" drugs that people will have to take for life, rather than an antibiotic regimen that someone might take for 14 days. Even with treatment, some of the new "Superbugs" infections have only a 50% survival rate in the "West" with modern drugs. This is in comparison in many countries in Africa where the mortality rate is 100%. It's much better to research drugs for people who are likely to live many years, but who will remain sick enough to need your product for life. It's the "ethical" form of addicting someone to your drugs for life...
The Internet

Submission + - Web Site Raises $25,000 For Darfur

jsburke writes: "Four hundred thousand numbers cover the The Darfur Wall. Each represents a victim of genocide in Darfur, Sudan. By donating $1 or more, you can turn a number from dark gray to brilliant white and honor one lost life. In its first two months, The Darfur Wall has raised over $25,000 from donors in 27 countries. 100% of the proceeds benefit four Darfur relief organizations: Doctors Without Borders, Save Darfur, Save the Children, and the Sudan Aid Fund."
XBox (Games)

Microsoft Readies 360 Launch For China 38

The Xbox 360 was launched in Hong Kong in November of 2005, but the system is not officially part of the Chinese gaming market. Microsoft aims to change that this year, pending approval from the Chinese government. Gamasutra has the details on the deal, which will receive intense scrutiny from the country's culture ministry. From the article: "Looking to China specifically, the report notes that Microsoft has begun working with Chinese internet service providers and computer manufactures regarding the impending launch, and also plans to hire personnel to handle sales activities concerning the Xbox 360 on the Chinese mainland, though a specific time frame for these future hires remains as unknown as the launch itself. Likewise, a price has yet to be confirmed for the console as well, though the Xbox 360 sells for HK$2,329 ($300) in Hong Kong."
Enlightenment

Submission + - Global Warming Exposes New Islands in the Arctic

circletimessquare writes: "The New York Times has a sobering article about the rapidly accelerating pace of glacial melting across the arctic, focusing on the discovery of new islands and the fact that this is occuring far faster than climate scientist's models predict. What were called Nunataks or "lonely mountains" in Inuit, trapped in the ice, only a few years ago, are now in the open ocean by kilometers. Off of Greenland, what was known previously as penninsulas have been revealed to be islands as the ice retreats. Dennis Schmitt, a modern day explorer and discoverer of one of these new islands and fluent in Inuit, has named it Uunartoq Qeqertoq: the warming island."
Movies

Submission + - Netflix Launches Downloads: Watch Now

Mike writes: "Netflix launched a new movie download service called "Watch Now" at no charge for current subscribers. The typical Netflix subscriber will get 18 hours of free movie downloads, in addition to access to 70,000 DVD movies. Access will be limited at first, but HackingNetflix has screen shots and more info."
Businesses

Submission + - Who should foot the bill for phishing?

unfunk writes: "According to this report recently aired on ABC Radio (Australia), the financial sector is pushing for the cost of phishing to be offloaded onto the consumers. Currently, if a person is a victim of fraud, the bank reimburses them the money lost, and chases up the fraudster.
Under the proposed changes to the Electronic Funds Transfer Code of Conduct, then the customer will simply be out of pocket by however much they were defrauded.

From the article:
Taking money out of the ATM machine or using EFTPOS to pay for the groceries is now the preferred payment option for most Australians.
People are also embracing the BPAY system that allows people to pay their bills on the internet. Each month, some 14 million bills worth $9 billion are paid online.
But this growth in electronic transactions has also led to a surge in internet fraud.

Greg Tanzer is the Executive Director of Consumer Protection at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, or ASIC.

GREG TANZER: We're quite often releasing warnings about the latest internet based scam. Also these phishing emails, where someone sends out a blanket email asking you to verify your account details and password and there's certainly a very large number of those that circulate around the internet every day.

JENNIFER MACEY: Twenty years ago, ASIC set up the Electronic Funds Transfer Code of Conduct.
This code of practice covers ATM and EFTPOS transactions, telephone and internet banking and bill payments.
Now this code is under review.

GREG TANZER: We really think that it's important to update the code to take account of changes in technology and changes in the way that consumers do their banking.

JENNIFER MACEY: So are the banks pushing for consumers to take on greater responsibility?

GREG TANZER: I think there are some in the industry who certainly want much more specificity about when it is that customers should be held liable.

On one hand, if you are silly enough to fall for these types of scams, then you deserve what you get. On the other hand though, with banks increasingly encouraging their customers to do all of their financial transactions electronically via EFTPOS, BPay, online banking, and the like, then should they not be required to protect the customers as best they can?
With bank profits in Australia acheiving new records each year, then a cynical person might suggest that they are only interested in looking after their own accounts, rather than that of their customers..."
Wireless (Apple)

Submission + - Real Cost of the iPhone: $1936

An anonymous reader writes: CenterNetworks calculated the real cost of purchasing and using the iPhone for one year. The cost comes out to $1,936. Just amazing. Who can afford this type of cash?

True cost of the iPhone
Democrats

Submission + - Dem Moves to Stifle Free Speech

sycodon writes: Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) made an surprise appearance at the convention (National Conference for Media Reform)to announce that he would be heading up a new House subcommittee which will focus on issues surrounding the Federal Communications Commission......Also in consideration is the "Fairness Doctrine,". Kucinich said in his speech that "We know the media has become the servant of a very narrow corporate agenda" and added "we are now in a position to move a progressive agenda to where it is visible."

It is common knowledge that the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine was responsible for the explosive success of Talk Radio and enabled (for better or worse) hundreds of new media outlets to flourish.

Read the full scoop here http://www.fmqb.com/Article.asp?id=333927
Communications

"Series of Tubes" Metaphor Implemented 266

meisteg writes to tell us about Tubes: a beta application that uses a tube metaphor to enable users to share files over the Internet. The Windows-only app is free and the company hopes to make money on an enhanced version targeted at businesses. See this video for some details of how Tubes works. From the article: "[Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens] endured ridicule last year for his assertion that the Internet is 'a series of tubes.' But one Web startup hopes to bring that metaphor to life with a new service that makes it easy for people to share videos, songs, pictures and other big files."

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