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smiley status'

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    The Black Rider

    authentic since 1981 'welcome to my bomboclot mind'

    Monday, January 9, 2012

    *bout to get me some of that power mat money...* Jay-Zed

    "I like being able to fire people..."

    I'm rich b****!

    Image of new dish dvr. Pseudo on demand type of thing.

    ceo Of olympus *i done ****ed up now...*

    Big ole ultra definition oled HD TV

    Reuter site - Internet body says name expansion won't hurt United Nations

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    Internet body says name expansion won't hurt United Nations

    Mon, Jan 09 16:04 PM EST

    By Patrick Worsnip

    NEW YORK (Reuters) - Internet domain name regulators on Monday played down fears by the United Nations and other international bodies that a planned expansion of possible Website addresses could cause them problems, saying safeguards were in place.

    The world body, the International Monetary Fund and 26 other organizations last month wrote to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, asking it to stop addresses like ".un" or ".imf" from being seized by "cybersquatters."

    Cybersquatters register addresses that appear to belong to others, sometimes in the hope of selling them to those who have a more logical claim to them.

    ICANN, an independent non-profit body, is due to begin accepting applications on Thursday for a hugely expanded number of options for top-level domains -- the code to the right of the period in a URL, such as ".com" or ".org."

    "We're very sensitive to those concerns," ICANN president Rod Beckstrom told reporters, referring to the objections by international bodies. "We'll be responding to that letter."

    Beckstrom said that if anyone applied for a top-level domain using a trademark or service mark owned by someone else, the owner could file a complaint to a panel of intellectual property experts, who would decide who had rights to the term.

    "If (those who registered the domain) have no rights to that term, then you're in a very good position," he said. "So you don't need to apply for the term for a top-level domain because you're concerned that someone who has no rights might apply."

    DEFENSIVE SPENDING

    Private corporations are also worried about increased potential for Web addresses falling into the wrong hands. A top executive of the U.S. Association of National Advertisers, Dan Jaffe, has warned there might have to be enormous "defensive spending" by companies to buy up each version of their name.

    Purchasing a top-level domain will cost $185,000, but Beckstrom said that with annual fees to ICANN added in, the cost would rise to over $400,000 over the first 10 years in payments to ICANN alone.

    In their letter to ICANN, the international bodies said: "The IGO (intergovernmental organization) community concerns relate to the increased potential for the misleading registration and use of IGO names and acronyms in the domain name system."

    Jamie Hedlund, ICANN vice president for government affairs, said that while international organizations did not have trade marks for their names, terms protected by international treaty would receive the same protection as trademarks.

    "If the United Nations is protected by treaty, (and) someone

    applies for dot-unitednations, they'll have lost their $185,000 application fee because ... they don't have the right to use that name," he said.

    ICANN, based in Palo Alto, California, was created in 1998 by the administration of former U.S. President Bill Clinton to take over domain name regulation from the U.S. government.

    It reported to the U.S. Commerce Department until 2009 but says it is now an international non-profit organization representing the world's 2 billion Internet users.

    Beckstrom described the application period, which will run from Thursday until April 12, as "the most significant opening in the history of the domain system" and said it was designed to promote competition.

    ICANN says the exercise could raise the number of generic top-level domains from about two dozen now to hundreds.

    (Reporting By Patrick Worsnip; editing by Todd Eastham)

    Reuter site - Samsung unveils new tablet, available via Verizon

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    Samsung unveils new tablet, available via Verizon

    Mon, Jan 09 19:38 PM EST

    LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co unveiled its latest tablet using a 7.7-inch OLED display on Monday, and said the product will be available through U.S. mobile carrier Verizon Wireless.

    The device is the Korean electronics giant's first tablet using organic light emitting diodes (OLED), which boasts better picture quality than mainstream LCD flat-screens.

    (Reporting by Miyoung Kim and Poornima Gupta)

    Reuter site - Apple's Siri puts voice-enabled search in spotlight

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    Apple's Siri puts voice-enabled search in spotlight

    Mon, Jan 09 19:37 PM EST

    By Poornima Gupta and Sinead Carew

    Las Vegas (Reuters) - Apple Inc will again dominate conversations at CES, the world's biggest technology showcase. Only this time, the talk is extending beyond iPad and iPhone chatter to include "Siri," the voice app that is capturing consumers' imagination.

    Apple's dulcet-voiced, speech-controlled personal assistant, a key factor in making the iPhone 4S a blockbuster, has breathed new life into the once-obscure and oft-maligned world of speech-recognition technology.

    Siri, which can do everything from taking dictation for text messages and entering calendar appointments to answering general-knowledge questions, has intrigued users. Experts say it demonstrated emphatically that voice recognition has moved beyond the days of misheard commands, narrowly defined keywords and anguishingly slow speeds.

    The smartphone industry is now scrambling to match and better Apple's offering. Google Inc and Microsoft Corp will likely want to cash in on an explosion of interest in an area they have invested in for years, without getting anything like the attention Siri is attracting.

    "All the mobile phone manufacturers are investing in speech, expanding investments in speech, creating more elegant designs and integrating it more deeply into phones," said Michael Thompson, senior vice president for mobile at voice-recognition specialist Nuance.

    Thompson was coy about his company's future plans but said he expects voice to be a central topic at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas as device makers jostle for attention from investors, media and consumers.

    While voice is expected to be used in many areas of consumer electronics, the technology is particularly pertinent to cellphones because it simplifies functions from Web surfing to typing.

    Internet merchants like eBay are also jumping on the bandwagon. And reports have emerged about a voice-control for TVS from South Korea's LG Electronics just before CES, which will open its doors in Las Vegas this week.

    Many companies at CES are not yet ready to showcase products that can match or outdo Siri, Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin said. But he said he expects the current flurry of activity to result in big voice product advancements in coming years as the technology is perfected.

    Apple's rivals are planning to ship phones with improved speech technology in the fall, in time for the 2012 year-end holiday season, said Thompson at Nuance, which supplies and licenses technology to Apple but has its own voice app.

    Even traditional PC makers will jump on the bandwagon: Intel announced at CES on Monday it will adopt Nuance's "Dragon NaturallySpeaking" voice-command technology on ultra-thin laptops -- dubbed UltraBooks -- coming out this year from the likes of Dell and Hewlett Packard.

    "Voice as an input mechanism is going to be more and more useful and more and more prevalent," Golvin said. "Consumers have a lot of bad historical experience with it. They are going to encounter good voice interfaces more and more."

    BANDWAGON ROLLS ON

    Experts say the technology will evolve as more consumers get acclimated to it.

    The interest in voice is already sparking acquisitions, with Nuance setting its sights on phones based on Google's Android operating system. Last month, it bought Vlingo, a developer of voice-control apps for a phones based on Android.

    Android phone manufacturers -- all major rivals of Apple -- include Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, HTC Corp and Motorola Mobility, which Google is buying.

    In the meantime, some developers are helping phone makers bridge the gap. A new app called "Ask Ziggy," launched a few weeks ago on Microsoft Windows-based smartphones, is generating buzz among users as it allows them to update Facebook, Twitter, answer texts and questions -- all through speech.

    The free app helps a Windows phone mimic Siri's features and is already one of the top downloaded apps in its category.

    "There's been a lot of interest globally," said Ask Ziggy developer Shai Leib, who told Reuters his inbox has been flooded with feedback from users, some even from Microsoft employees.

    Leib plans to incorporate speech technology further in the app, to make phones completely hands-free. Microsoft's gesture-based Xbox Kinect gaming system has also raised the possibility of using hand gestures to manipulate screens and execute commands -- the so-called "Minority Report" interface named after the Tom Cruise sci-fi vehicle.

    "With the success of the Microsoft Kinect and Apple's Siri, new ways to interface with CE devices have suddenly become top of mind," Ben Arnold, NPD's director of industry analysis, wrote in a blogpost last week. "I expect several companies to exhibit products using some of these new interface methods in an effort to differentiate themselves."

    Leib argues there's nothing to stop smartphones also adopting gesture-recognition.

    "The next level is to improve the speech, grammar and make the answers a little bit more conversational," he said. "The possibilities are amazing, especially with Kinect."

    "I am looking forward to see what's going to happen with Windows 8 and if there are going to be future updates on the Windows phone that can recognize gestures."

    HISTORY OF SPEECH

    Apple was not the first to incorporate speech on phones. Google has had speech-recognition applications for Android smartphones for more than two years, and is now possibly trying to beef up its capabilities through the recent acquisition of a company called Alfred.

    Alfred uses artificial-intelligence technology to sift through the Web's vast trove of data and recommend restaurants, bars and other real-world places users might like. Some experts say the technology could provide an important building-block that Google could pair with existing voice-recognition technology to create its own answer to Siri.

    E-commerce companies are also playing catch-up, not wanting to be caught flat-footed should consumers become more comfortable using voice to search the Web and shop online.

    EBay is planning a voice and image-based search function for its online market and "Red Laser" price-checking mobile software.

    EBay Chief Executive John Donahoe has said he believes Siri is just the beginning, and sees a future where users can speak their preferences into phones to narrow down shopping choices.

    Dan Miller of San Francisco-based Opus Research agrees. He was particularly intrigued by reports last November of an acquisition by Amazon.com of Yap, whose software coverts voice to text.

    "The clock is ticking. In the next year or year and half expect a talking Kindle that supports commerce," Miller said.

    Miller, who has studied voice technology for about 25 years, said he is gratified by the sudden spotlight on voice as he recalls years of consumer frustration over automated customer service systems.

    "We're really happy to see this much positive attention," he said, "As opposed to "Oh the machine doesn't understand me."

    (Reporting By Poornima Gupta and Sinead Carew; Editing by Edwin Chan and Steve Orlofsky)

    Reuter site - RIM touts PlayBook 2.0, minor BlackBerry upgrade

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    RIM touts PlayBook 2.0, minor BlackBerry upgrade

    Mon, Jan 09 16:58 PM EST

    LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Research In Motion showed off a major update to the QNX-based software running its poor-selling PlayBook tablet and unveiled minor improvements to its legacy BlackBerry phone software at the Consumer Electronics Show on Monday.

    But the Canadian company's products were left off the list of hot new devices being touted by AT&T, the second-largest U.S. carrier, highlighting the challenges for RIM in reinvigorating its flagging fortunes in that hyper-competitive market.

    Instead, AT&T featured high-speed devices from such RIM rivals as Samsung Electronics, Nokia, HTC Corp and Sony at the Las Vegas gadget show.

    RIM last month delayed the expected launch of its next-generation phones using QNX software, widely seen as a make-or-break overhaul for a company that once dominated the smartphone market.

    At the time it said the delay was necessary so it could make use of more powerful and energy-efficient chipsets expected to arrive in mid-2012. The chipsets would enable the phones to operate on high-speed networks using a technology known as Long Term Evolution (LTE).

    The U.S. carriers are racing to build LTE networks and heavily promoting devices that can handle the emerging standard.

    RIM's PlayBook 2.0 software adds in-built email, calendar and address book functions and the ability to run Android applications.

    RIM's tablet was launched last April to scathing reviews complaining about its inability to handle email and other features associated with the Canadian company's smartphones.

    RIM also added a video store in the PlayBook upgrade with thousands of films and television shows available for purchase or rent, and said a BlackBerry smartphone paired to the tablet could act as a remote control or wireless keyboard and trackpad.

    RIM did not provide an update on when it would make the free software update publicly available, repeating a planned February launch.

    The Android advance - which RIM did not highlight in a statement but did confirm later - may be the most popular feature with consumers wary of a dearth of apps for the next-generation software, which will also run RIM's future phones.

    But the integration of core BlackBerry functions is arguably more significant - proving that QNX works with the RIM infrastructure that crunches and encrypts data sent out to its BlackBerry smartphones.

    RIM says it will have a QNX phone by the latter part of 2012, after initially saying it would be ready by early in the year. The PlayBook software update was also delayed; it was initially due some time in the summer of 2011.

    RIM sold just 850,000 PlayBooks from the tablet's launch in April to the end of November, and took a $485 million hit to write down the value of unsold inventory it has discounted sharply.

    The smartphone software upgrade - to version 7.1 - adds a function called BlackBerry Tag that allows two BlackBerry phones equipped with a near-field communications (NFC) chip to share information and content by being tapped together.

    The upgrade also means a BlackBerry smartphone can be used as a mobile hotspot to share its Internet connectivity with up to 5 other devices including laptops and tablets.

    (Reporting by Sinead Carew in Las Vegas; Additional reporting by Alastair Sharp in Toronto; Editing by Frank McGurty)

    CES 2012: Dish debuts 'Hopper' DVR

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    The opposite of on demand eh? Bringing the cloud to your home.

    Jay-Z is new face of wireless charging

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    Additional comment is:

    Jigga Man Don't Quit huh?

    Reuter site - Symantec: parts of antivirus source code exposed

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    Symantec: parts of antivirus source code exposed

    Fri, Jan 06 17:49 PM EST

    By Nicola Leske

    (Reuters) - Symantec Corp, the top maker of security software, said hackers had exposed a chunk of its source code, which is essentially the blueprint for its products, potentially giving rivals some insight into the company's technology.

    The developer of the popular Norton antivirus software said the hackers stole the code from a third party and that the company's own network had not been breached, nor had any customer information been affected.

    The software maker would not confirm the claim of a group called the Lords of Dharmaraja, who said that they had obtained Symantec's source code by hacking the Indian military.

    Some governments ask their security vendors to provide their source code to ensure there is nothing in the code that could act as spyware, said Rob Rachwald, director of security strategy at data security firm Imperva.

    Microsoft Corp, for example, in 2003 began allowing governments including Russia and international organizations such as NATO to look at the source code for its Windows operating system to dispel rumors that it had a secret "back door" built in to let the U.S. government spy on its users.

    Symantec downplayed the risks, saying the exposed code was several years old.

    "Symantec can confirm that a segment of its source code used in two of our older enterprise products has been accessed, one of which has been discontinued," Cris Paden, a spokesman for Symantec, said in an email on Friday.

    Symantec, which reported $1.68 billion in sales in the third quarter, has benefited from heightened concern over hacking in the wave of high-profile attacks on Google Inc, Lockheed Martin and Nasdaq OMX Group Inc.

    A software maker's intellectual property, specifically its source code, is its most precious asset. Symantec's Norton Internet Security is among the most popular software available to stop viruses, spyware, and online identity theft.

    The code that was exposed for Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) 11.0 - which is used to block outgoing data from being leaked - was four years old and had been updated regularly since, Paden said.

    The code for Symantec Antivirus 10.2 was five years old and had been discontinued, he said, adding that while it was not on sale anymore it was still being serviced.

    "There are no indications that customer information has been impacted or exposed at this time," Paden said.

    Rachwald said it was likely that Symantec's source code had been overhauled and that there was not much in the exposed code that the hackers did not know before.

    "The workings of most of the anti-virus' algorithms have also been studied already by hackers in order to write the malware that defeats them," Rachwald said in a blog on the Imperva website.

    Unlike hackers who aim to get around firewalls and software protection, rivals could be more interested in having the source code to study the market leader's software, Rachwald said.

    On Thursday, the Lords of Dharmaraja said on the information-sharing website pastebin that it would soon list a Norton antivirus source code package. A person using the handle "Yama Tough" posted several items in an effort to prove the group had accessed the code.

    "...we are sharing here one technical documentation file from Symantec Soruce (sic) Code transferred to Indian Military Intel and located at MEA (Ministry of External Affairs) servers we owneed (sic) recently," Yama Tough posted.

    (Reporting by Nicola Leske in New York, additional reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston, editing by Matthew Lewis)

    Reuter site - Exclusive: Olympus sues current president, ex-directors

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    Exclusive: Olympus sues current president, ex-directors

    Mon, Jan 09 06:29 AM EST

    By Reiji Murai

    TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Olympus Corp has sued its current president and three ex-directors for several million dollars in compensation, sources told Reuters on Monday, as the company seeks to draw a line under one of the nation's worst accounting scandals.

    The maker of cameras and medical equipment filed suit against its president, Shuichi Takayama, with the Tokyo district court on Sunday, along with three former executives identified by investigators as having engineered or helped cover up a $1.7 billion fraud at the firm, the sources said.

    Takayama is planning to resign as a result of the lawsuit, said the sources who were familiar with the matter.

    An Olympus spokesman confirmed on Monday that lawsuits had been filed but declined to give details, saying these would be revealed at an announcement due on Tuesday. The writs are sealed and were not available for public examination on Monday.

    An outside investigative panel recently found former Chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, former Executive Vice President Hisashi Mori and former auditor Hideo Yamada had played leading roles in a 13-year scheme to hide losses from Olympus investors.

    The panel found the trio had misled investors about the company's financial health after it suffered heavy losses on investments dating from the early 1990s. It also found Takayama and other current directors had failed in their oversight.

    A separate, internal panel has recommended Olympus seek 90 billion yen ($1.17 billion) in damages from those involved in the scandal. This group's report has not been made public.

    The firm instead chose to sue for several billion yen, taking into account the ability to pay, sources said.

    Olympus has lost nearly 60 percent of its market value since the scandal first erupted in October, when it fired Woodford, a rare foreign CEO in Japan, for questioning dodgy acquisition deals at the heart of the scandal. Woodford immediately went public with his concerns after his sacking.

    Prosecutors and other authorities are still investigating the scandal, which could lead to criminal charges.

    Woodford, who on Friday dropped his bid to be reinstated as CEO, said he would sue Olympus for unfair dismissal and had instructed his lawyers to begin legal action in Britain.

    The firm's existing board plans to resign and aims to hold an extraordinary shareholders' meeting in March or April where a new team of directors would be voted in.

    OLYMPUS LIKELY TO REMAIN LISTED

    Many investors are optimistic that Olympus can remain listed on the Tokyo exchange, and hope that police, prosecutors and regulators do not turn up fresh evidence. Delisting would cut the firm off from equity markets and jeopardize its funding at a time when fresh capital is needed to repair its balance sheet.

    The Tokyo Stock Exchange is in final talks to keep Olympus listed with a designation as a "security on alert", sources familiar with the matter said on Monday. The exchange also plans to fine the company 10 million yen ($129,700), sources added.

    Once classed as "on alert", Olympus would effectively be on probation, allowed to keep its listing provided it showed steady progress on improving its internal controls, information provided on the exchange's website shows.

    Once the exchange is satisfied that internal controls have been rectified, the stock can regain its normal listing status. ($1=77.115 yen)

    (Writing by Mari Saito; Editing by Mark Bendeich)

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