Confirmed: Video Game Rentals Hurt Sales

A new report by Magid Associates confirms what many already know -- that video game rentals (as is the case with any type of rental) significantly hinder sales.

This is not a surprise but normal thing in the market. F.ex. if you're not able to sell 100 chocolates in box just produce 10 chocolates box. So either rental or selling only certain parts of games.

quote source

Identity Thieves Hit 8.3 Million U.S. Residents in 2005

About 8.3 million U.S. residents -- nearly 4 percent of the nation's population -- were victims of identity theft in 2005, but few victims identified computer-related crime as the culprit, according to a U.S. Federal Trade Commission report released Tuesday.

"Whether you're from Malibu or Manhattan, Tacoma or Tallahassee, no one is immune to identity theft," Lydia Parnes, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement. "The important thing is that people learn how to deter identity thieves, detect suspicious activity on their financial records, and defend against the crime, should it happen."

Seventeen percent of all ID theft victims said that their personal information was used to open at least one new account. The two most common types of accounts thieves opened were telephone service accounts, reported by 8 percent of victims; and credit card accounts, reported by 7 percent of victims.

The study was conducted through interviews using a random-digit-dialing sampling methodology. More than 4,900 telephone interviews were conducted between March 27 and June 11, 2006.

And what about you? Are you a victim of id theft? Have you reported such case to PD.? Maybe you've been forced to pay ransom?
Write your case.

quoted txt source

China, US, Germany, Spain and France – Top 5 Infected Countries

The botnets evolve every day as more users fail to protect themselves and their computers, helping the attackers expand their malicious attempts. Today, ENISA, the European Network and Information Security Agency, released a report concerning the botnets, revealing that China, US, Germany, Spain and France are the top 5 infected countries when it comes to this kind of threat installed on residents' computers. Moreover, the agency reports that approximately 6 million systems worldwide might represent important components of large botnets. According to the report, most users got themselves infected after they are assaulted by browser exploits, 65 percent of the consumers becoming victims of botnets attempts after this kind of attack.

"Currently, the most dangerous infection method is surfing to an infected webpage. Indications of a bot on your computer include e.g.: Slow Internet connection, strange browser behavior (home page change, new windows, unknown plug-ins), disabled anti-virus software; unknown autostart programs etc," ENISA noted in the report.

source: softpedia

Google has energy for new business

Google's core business is Internet search but that isn't keeping the company from exploring some other very different areas. On Tuesday, Google announced an ambitious plan to develop electricity from renewable energy sources that will be cheaper than electricity produced from coal. The newly created initiative, known as RE < C, will focus initially on advanced solar thermal power, wind power technologies, enhanced geothermal systems and what Google referred to as "other potential breakthrough technologies."

As part of its capital planning process, Google said it anticipates investing hundreds of millions of dollars in breakthrough renewable energy projects which generate positive returns. Near term, Google said it plans to spend tens of millions of dollars next year on research and development and related investments in renewable energy.Makani Power, based in Alameda, CA, is developing high-altitude wind energy extraction technologies. According to the company, high-altitude wind energy has the potential to satisfy a significant portion of current global electricity needs. Google said it's on track to meet an internal goal it set last spring to be carbon neutral in 2007 and beyond. The company has extensive solar panel installations at its Mountain View, Calif. campus. But last year rival Microsoft announced it had installed the largest solar electric system in Silicon Valley at its facility, also in Mountain View. Google said RE < C signifies the effort to create renewable energy at a cost less than energy from coal, thus, R(enewable) E(nergy) < C(oal).

Source: internetnews

Google Gdrive online storage

Google may release an online storage and backup service in the coming months, adding to its suite of hosted services, which already includes a variety of communication and collaboration applications, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Rumors that Google is developing such a service, informally known as the "Gdrive," have been circulating for more than two years. It's not clear why it has taken Google so long to deliver Gdrive, considering its concept is far from new and online storage and backup services are available already from a variety of vendors.

Google hopes to differentiate the service from existing competing ones by making it easier to use, the Journal reported.

Source: InfoWorld

Hackers profit 2008: goldenEgg Vista

Microsoft Corp. will face more than 40 vulnerabilities in Windows Vista next year, as the operating system climbs past the 10% market-share milestone and malware authors really start to find flaws, a McAfee Inc. analyst said today.

I think it's ment for us to face them :-) Any hope...?

Source: Computerworld

Notepad++: New Release v4.6

Notepad++ is a free generic source code editor and Notepad replacement, which supports several programming languages, running under the MS Windows environment.

The latest Notepad++ release (v4.6) is available here.

More about newest version

Vista Capable lawsuit story

The lawsuit over Microsoft's "Windows Vista Capable" marketing program has reached a key juncture. Lawyers for the plaintiffs have formally requested class-action status for the case, seeking to open it up to many more people, and Microsoft last week filed its official opposition to that request. The filings contain some interesting tidbits on both sides.

First, a quick summary for anyone just tuning in: The case revolves around the marketing of Windows XP PCs as "Windows Vista Capable" last holiday season even in cases when they only had the horsepower to run Windows Vista Home Basic. The plaintiffs, two PC buyers, say that was deceptive, because Home Basic doesn't offer many of Windows Vista's signature features, such as the Aero Glass interface. They say it's not a "real" Windows Vista version. Microsoft says Home Basic is a real Windows Vista version, and it says it went to great lengths to make consumers aware of the differences among the different versions. It also says the case doesn't meet the legal requirements for a class action.

Source: Todd Bishop Blog

Google: Search risk is manageable

In the TechBriefs section of the Sept. 10 issue of GCN, we ran an item with the results of a survey that showed 70 percent of government information technology respondents were concerned that the Search Across Computers feature in Google’s desktop search engine — which involves temporarily storing data on Google servers — represents a security risk.
Google, not surprisingly, took exception to the drift of the respondents’ concerns. And we have to concede, they’ve got some legitimate reasons for taking exception.

“The purpose of the search across computers feature is to allow a user who uses multiple machines to be able to share information between them,” Matt Glotzbach, director of product management at Google Enterprise, told GCN. Glotzbach said the feature could violate data security policies, just as copying a file to a flash drive and taking it home could. That’s why, he said, Google takes steps to ensure that organizations that are concerned about security can prevent such a thing from happening.

For starters, Glotzbach said, the file can’t be accessed in its native form. “I’ll be able to see a cached text version but I will not be able to retrieve the actual file.”

But more importantly, the capability itself is turned off by default. “The user would have to enable it,” he said, adding, “it’s not the kind of feature that can be accidentally enabled. And the administrator can prevent the user from enabling it.”
“We’ve really tried to put a lot of thought into how are these applications going to be used in these organizations and what are the necessary levels of control that we can hand to administrators such that they can ensure that we are abiding by their corporate organization and policies,” Glotzbach said.

Source: GCN

Defend GPL. Yet another lawsuit

The Software Freedom Law Center, an organization focused on protecting open-source and free software, has filed copyright lawsuits against two U.S. companies, alleging that they are redistributing software in violation of the GNU GPL (General Public License).

The SFLC filed lawsuits Monday on behalf of the developers of BusyBox against High-Gain Antennas of Parker, Colorado, and Xterasys of City of Industry, California. The lawsuits, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, allege that the companies are distributing BusyBox illegally, without meeting the GPL requirement of providing access to the source code of their implementation.

Source: Computerworld

BSA: give $67ooo or...

Michael Gaertner worried he could lose his company. A group called the Business Software Alliance had written him to claim that his 10-person architectural firm in Galveston, Texas, was using unlicensed software.

The letter demanded $67,000 — most of one year's profit — or else the BSA would seek more in court.

"It just scared the hell out of me," Gaertner said.

The BSA is well within its rights to wring expensive punishments aimed at stopping the willful, blatant software copying that undoubtedly happens in many businesses. And its leaders say they concentrate on small businesses because that's where illegitimate use of software is rampant.

Read more from the source below and be aware of BSA! :D

Source: Yahoo