BBC News - How online life distorts privacy rights for allPeople who post intimate details about their lives on the internet undermine everybody else's right to privacy, claims an academic.
Dr Kieron O'Hara has called for people to be more aware of the impact on society of what they publish online.
"If you look at privacy in law, one important concept is a reasonable expectation of privacy," he said.
"As more private lives are exported online, reasonable expectations are diminishing."
The rise of social networking has blurred the boundaries of what can be considered private, he believes - making it less of a defence by law.
We live in an era that he terms "intimacy 2.0" - where people routinely share extremely personal information online.
"When our reasonable expectations diminish, as they have, by necessity our legal protection diminishes."
Friday, 8 January 2010
BBC News - How online life distorts privacy rights for all
BBC News - 3D TV is being billed as possible industry saviour
3D TV is being billed as a possible saviour for recession hit manufacturers looking to boost sales.BBC News - 3D TV is being billed as possible industry saviourOn the opening day of the Consumer Electronics Show, CES, in Las Vegas, all the big names unveiled 3D TV's.
Industry experts said the picture looks promising with a survey showing around 3.4m 3D TV sets will be sold in the US this year.
"It's a challenging market. We need something to kick us out of this," said Panasonic's Elsuke Tsuyuzaki.
"To me, the thing that's going to get us there is 3D," added the firm's chief technology officer.
"2009 is a year none of us want to repeat," said Gary Shapiro the president of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) which hosts the annual tech gathering.
The association has predicted that for the coming year the whole consumer electronics industry should eke out a slight revenue increase of 0.3%. The rise of $440m (£280m) will take expected revenues to $165.3bn (£105bn)
However Mr Shapiro noted that lower average selling prices for TVs will be a drag. CEA expects TV revenues to decline 2% in this sector to $22.1bn (£14bn) even though unit sales will go up 5% to 37.7m (£24m)
BBC News - Microsoft and HP show off 'slate' PC
Market boostBBC News - Microsoft and HP show off 'slate' PC
This is not Microsoft's first attempt to introduce a tablet or slate-like computer.
Back in 2002, the company introduced a tablet PC version of Windows XP, which failed to take off.
Analysts however believe these new entries should give the middling $950m (£597m) US market for tablets a much needed jolt.
"Apple could do for the tablet market what it did for smartphones with the iPhone," analyst David Daoud of IDC told USA Today.
Other industry watchers fear that consumers might be a little wary with so many companies all rushing at once to bring out new devices.
"With this market awash in products, customer confusion is what we have for certain," said Silicon Valley analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group.
In his address, Mr Ballmer also focused on new PCs, software and the success of Windows 7 which was released last October.
"The biggest hit of the year was Windows 7," said Mr Ballmer.
"Windows 7 is by far the fastest selling operating system in history."
The software boss cited figures from the market analysis firm NPD that said that since the launch of Windows 7, sales of consumer PCs in the US over the latest holiday period were up more than 50% from the year before.
Just wondering if any economist could calculate how much of the current economic problems were caused entirely by Vista? I know I put off buying a new improved computer that I probably needed in 2007 until 2010 because I already had XP machines but refused to go to Vista. Certainly PC sales are up on Windows 7 but how far down did they go because of Vista.
I have been using Windows 7 now since New Years. Not only is it an amazing OS on level with the latest Mac OSX or Linux releases, but it wipes the slate clean of the Vista failure IMHO. The interesting thing about Vista is that Microsoft utterly blew one of the most anticipated Windows releases in its history and screwed the hardware producers who were forced to milk XP way beyond the point anyone had imagined it would go. I used Windows XP for 7 years!!!! I upgrade my Linux machines every year. And yet still Microsoft can come out on top, all it needed to do was get it right, produce an OS which just uses concepts that Linux and Apple had already proven. Sweet deal if you ask me.
Thursday, 7 January 2010
An amazing ride
Alice in Wonderland Dark Ride - Welcome to Wonderland
This combines a classic haunted house like ride with the artistic creativity and joy of Alice in Wonderland. It takes some time to figure it out, you have to rez a car to sit in and then touch a clock to get going. And you can't have an IM while watching the ride, which for me is kind of a problem since I always seem to have an IM or 2 going. But the ride is a wonderful example of the kind of new art that Second Life has made possible.
Description: Admission is free, but tips are requested. Enter the world of Lewis Carroll, with the White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, Jabberwocky, and Alice in Wonderland herself. Part of the Black Pearl Pleasure Beach Amusement Park.
What a strange trip its been
Alice in Wonderland Dark Ride - Welcome to Wonderland
This SIM really struck me, the strange beauty and random almost ugly chaos that is just emerging all over Second Life, and the Wonderland Ride is an amazing piece of art.
The war for the Slate Space
I drew up a quick picture to try and show how I see the Slate fitting in to the bigger war in the IT space.
Presently the world of information technology is dominated by 2 giants: Google and Microsoft. Google has been long established as the king of the Cloud, but Microsoft Bing is making a try to fight for the title, and frankly Google's monopoly in the Cloud was not good for content producers and Microsoft should have no trouble taking a piece of the Cloud. But only a piece. Google is too big and too good and is to the Cloud what Microsoft is to the desktop.
Google has recently finally left just the Cloud to sell a real thing: the Droid mobile device. This places them competition with the established iPhone. Microsoft owns the desktop and laptop space.
So you have these three players. I don't take the current eReaders seriously and assume they will drop out. The Slate is the real space for devices in the future. Laptop and desktops are too clunky and mobile devices are too small. The Slate computer is the surface for Web 3.0. Slates will combine the excellent power of current desktops with the mobility and Geo sense of iPhones.
The question is who will get there first and then who will hold it. I don't know but these are the things to keep in mind:
1. Google has lots of money and lots of motivation but no established record in making hardware.
2. Apple is best at bringing out these new designs but has a history of falling off. But the iPod held up since 2001 only to be unseated by the iPhone. Maybe apple has found a space it can hold for good? Maybe that place includes the iSlate?
3. Microsoft has a shit record in going small, and the first Microsoft slates presentations were real dull. But it has an established record of taking over computing space.
Taking this in to consideration this is my prediction:
1. Apple opens with iSlate and takes the market.
2. Microsoft fights like crazy to get this space as it sees more and more slates taking the place of laptops. Microsoft has an army of hardware makers in Asia and the US who will throw massive R&D at getting this right. Either Sony or Samsung will finally produce the proper device.
3. Google will produce an Android Slate in 2010 or 2011, but it lack of hardware deployment and its bitter fight for the mobile will limit its penetration.
So my prediction: 2011 winner is the Mac iSlate, 2015 with will be the Windows 9 Slate or Courier 2, I can never make sense out of Microsoft's naming conventions.
BBC News - Microsoft and HP show off 'slate' PC
BBC News - Microsoft and HP show off 'slate' PCMuted reaction
Reaction to the as yet unnamed device was somewhat subdued.
"What we saw confirmed my worst suspicions that this is your standard Microsoft software in a slate form," Paul Miller, senior associate editor of technology website Engadget, told BBC News.
"It's an interesting product in itself but Microsoft could have gone further. It's not anything new in terms of software and that is what you really need to make a device like this make people want to buy it."
However, technology blogger Devin Connors of Tom's Hardware did not agree.
"It looked really good given the short amount of time we saw it for and it has Windows 7. Everyone loves Windows 7 and putting it in a device the size of an e-reader is probably going to be a winning combination."
The lack of enthusiasm for the product was in part due to speculation about what - if anything - Apple may launch.
Rumours of a Apple slate - dubbed the iSlate - has dominated the blogosphere in recent weeks, although there has been no formal announcement by the Cupertino-based company.
"Apple tends to change the game and this Microsoft/HP tablet didn't blow them out of the water," said Dean Takahashi of tech blog VentureBeat.com.
Myself, I love my Windows 7 Touch computer, and I will probably be getting an iSlate later this year. In this area its simple, Apple though expensive creates new gadgets better than anyone else. In 4 years a Windows or Google Slate will take Apples place.
Microsoft Office 2010 Pricing Revealed
Microsoft Office 2010 Pricing RevealedHere’s a list of the four retail editions of Office 2010, which applications they will include, and how much they will cost.
Office Professional Academic
Priced at $99, this edition includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Access and Office Web Apps. It’s basically a cheaper version of the business-aimed Professional edition, but it’s reserved for “qualified students and educators.” It will be sold through campus bookstores and retailers.
Office Home and Student
This one will set you back $149 for the boxed version and $119 for the Product Key Card. It includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Office Web Apps. It will be the most basic retail edition, separated from its peers primarily by its lack of the Outlook e-mail application. It will also be available in a Family Pack that will include licenses for three computers in your home, but Microsoft hasn’t officially announced the pack’s price.
Office Home and Business
The price: $279 for the box, $199 for the Product Key Card. For that, you’ll get Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook and Office Web Apps. Yep, compare it to Office Home and Student and you’ll find that Outlook alone will cost you either $130 or $80 depending on whether you buy the disc or the key.
Office Professional
At $499 boxed or $349 for a key, Office Professional will give you Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Access and Office Web Apps — the same as the much-cheaper Office Professional Academic version. This is the full suite for small businesses; apps like Access aren’t necessary for most home users.
