Porn Sites Extorting Customers After 'Free' Trial

McAfee's Avert Labs is reporting at least one online porn site is doing what many say amounts to extortion. The site, which is unnamed, allows visitors to access it free for three days after requiring them to download software to do so. You can already see where this is going. The site allows users access for the three days but if they don't end up subscribing afterwards they are subjected to a barrage of pop-up ads both on and offline. The large windows pop up and stay open for 10 minutes and appear on top of whatever windows are already open demanding payment of $80 for 90 more days of access to the pornographic site. The windows will not close and return to their original size if minimized. Imagine the unwitting businessman or schoolteacher giving a presentation from his laptop when this ad pops up for the next 10 minutes. Now the site actually states they will do this in small print in the terms and conditions but of course most users never read these, and who would expect such a policy to be stated? This just shows there are more hidden dangers of surfing porn sites than you may be aware of. Viruses and malware are often found on sites offering 'free' porn. Be especially wary of any site requiring you to download special software to view pictures or videos. Be sure of what you're clicking 'yes' to.

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Take A Look At The New KITT

Jalopnik is reporting sources that confirm the new KITT for the Knight Rider movie in pre-production will be a 550 HP Ford Shelby GT500KR Mustang. Even though the pic is photo shopped, they insist the information is legit. Time will tell.

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Judge To Record Labels: Reveal Wholesale Costs Of Music Downloads

One of the significant controversies regarding the RIAA's P2P lawsuits have been over the damages they seek when suing someone. The RIAA has asked for $750 to $150,000 per infringing file shared in many of the lawsuits. This has been argued by many to be unconstitutionally excessive; it has been put forward that a much more reasonable amount of damages to seek would be the actual amount of a lost sale if the song were legally downloaded from a legitimate music service .
Wholesale costs of music downloads up to now have been a closely guarded secret of RIAA member companies, but is thought to be around 70 cents a song. Now in UMG v. Lindor, the judge has ordered the record labels suing her produce this mystery figure for the songs involved in her case. The lawyer for the defendant in this case has argued statutory damages not exceed 10 times the amount of actual damages, which would come to around $7 per infringing music file, not hundreds or thousands of dollars as has been awarded in previous cases.

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Space Station Seen From Ground Telescope

Astronomers at a Boston-area high school snapped this stunning picture of the space shuttle Atlantis docking with the International Space Station, 190 nautical miles up. The folks at the Clay Center Observatory did it with a 25-inch diameter telescope in combination with a digital video camera -- and nothing but the simplest "adaptive optics" (bendable mirrors, which correct for how the atmosphere warps the light). "Makes one wonder what certain military/government instruments can do in similar situations," one observer quips.

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New Joker Revealed From The Dark Knight

Empire Magazine online is revealing today the look of the new Joker played by Heath Ledger. The pic to the right is one frame, for the complete set, click the link below. The Dark Knight releases July 18, 2008.

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New Photos: Indiana Jones 4

New photos released from the Indiana Jones production...these supposedly were posted on IMDB although they seem to have been taken down for now. Thanks to Slashfilm for finding these. Enjoy!

Scientists Thaw Ancient Ice In Search Of Microbes

Isn't this how they released those weird alien parasites on the X-Files?

Researchers from the University of Delaware and the University of California at Riverside have thawed ice estimated to be at least a million years old from above Lake Vostok, an ancient lake that lies hidden more than two miles beneath the frozen surface of Antarctica. The scientists will now examine the eons-old water for microorganisms, and then through novel genomic techniques, try to figure out how these tiny, living “time capsules” survived the ages in total darkness, in freezing cold and without food and energy from the sun.

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IBM Patent Could Insert Commercial Breaks Into Your DVD

First we had Disney and Universal give us un-skippable trailers/commercials before your DVD movie started. Not many people seem to know DVD is unprecedented in it's ability to control playback options on your player. Buttons and features on your DVD player can be changed or disabled by the disc you are playing and can result in things like virtually unskippable ads in front of your movie. Now a new technology from IBM would make it possible for the disc you rented/bought to pause during the movie for commercial breaks.
Wow. The main reasons I will not watch movies on TV is the butchering of the film from pan and scan and commercial breaks. I really don't like the idea of my player 'calling home' to determine how I purchased/rented the disc in order to decide what movie experience I am entitled to.
We tried this once before to an extent with the original DIVX and it was a miserable failure. At least with that format it was a relatively simple pay for play scheme, not an insidious way to insert additional advertising into your movie experience.
This is a great reason not to support either of the new HD formats since technology 'upgrades' like this are easy to integrate. HD-DVD and Blu-ray players need to be Ethernet connected for firmware updates and content interactivity. Arstechnica brings out it would be difficult (or impossible) to implement something like this on older DVD players, but not so hard on those nifty new HD formats.

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Great Void In Space Found

I know this is from August but it's in the news again due to an astounding statement from a team of physicists that the void is evidence of a parallel universe poking into our own. Apparently the void is 1000 times larger than would be expected in even the largest cosmic gaps between galactic bodies.

Astronomers have found an enormous void in space that measures nearly a billion light-years across. It is empty of both normal matter - such as galaxies and stars - and the mysterious "dark matter" that cannot be seen directly with telescopes. The "hole" is located in the direction of the Eridanus constellation and has been identified in data from a survey of the sky made at radio wavelengths.
The void is roughly 6-10 billion light-years away and takes a sizeable chunk out of the visible Universe in its direction.

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Star Wars Galaxy Map

Found this online today; cool if you're a Star Wars fan. The colored lines represent different trade routes. The yellow is the Corellian run which goes right by Tatooine. Many Bothans died to bring us this information, so show some appreciation. Click on the image for a larger view.

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Cnet Streaming Live Today

Not much is going on this holiday week, as you can see from the dearth of tech related news.
Most companies don't really make announcements, release products or do anything exciting in these last few weeks of the year as they are busy shipping stock and preparing for CES.

Cnet is streaming a live show today, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. PST and answering your holiday tech shopping questions on the Holiday Help Desk 2007. They are taking phone calls at 1-888-900-CNET. If your call is answered on the air, you'll be entered into a drawing to win one of eight Nintendo Wii Holiday Mega Bundles valued at $600.
Click here to watch

Viewing Atoms 100 times faster

Scientists from Cornell and Boston Universities, headed by Keith Schwab, Associate Professor of Physics at Cornell University, have developed a new scanning tunneling microscope (STM). The microscope's design is based on an existing technique, which is used in a novel way. The scientists can analyze the data from the microscope to achieve images of individual atoms on a surface. In addition to being very accurate, the results are acquired incredibly quickly, at least 100 times faster than with previous techniques.
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Overly-Broad Copyright Law Makes Us All Infringers

John Tehranian, a law professor at the University of Utah, has published an interesting paper (PDF warning) where he calculates that he rings up $12.45 million in liability over the course of an average day without illegally downloading any music.
Everyday activities, like responding to emails (you include the senders text in your response, don't you?), singing 'Happy Birthday' (which Time Warner owns the rights to), and forwarding a friend's pictures to your mom (ownership of a physical work and it's intellectual property rights are not the same) all infringe on someone's copyright.

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Comet Holmes Appears Bigger Than Moon

From Adventures In Astrophotograpy:
Comet 17P/Holmes burst onto the astronomy scene just three weeks ago. In that time, its captured the attention of astronomers worldwide. Brightening one million fold literally overnight, the comet has grown steadily as well. From its earliest days, Comet Holmes has proved to be far more interesting than almost anyone would have imagined.

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Cloverfield Monster Revealed In New Trailer?

The newest trailer from J.J. Abram's new movie Cloverfield shows, what looks to be, a shot of the secret monster. Is it Godzilla? Watch the clip and see for yourself.

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Judge To RIAA: Why Shouldn't I Throw Out All Your Subpoenas?

The saga of RIAA vs. 19 GWU John Does continues...
After that student, John Doe #3 filed his fairly well-argued motion last week, the RIAA's legal position has been weakened.

It doesn't look like they will be able to use either the CCPA or the DMCA as basis for these subpoenas. In layman's terms, the CCPA is a law that actually protects the personal information of customers of cable service providers except in the event of detection of cable piracy. Since GWU is not a cable provider, this law is argued to not apply and has been successfully used before in an RIAA lawsuit. The DMCA, or Digital Millennium Copyright Act, requires content owners to file a takedown notice against the entity hosting the infringing content before taking legal action. Since GWU did not host the content, it seems the DMCA also will not be able to be used to authorize these subpoenas.

In Arista v. Does 1-19, a case brought against 19 George Washington University students by the Big Four record labels, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has ordered the RIAA to show cause why the ex parte subpoenas issued to GWU shouldn't be quashed.

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Unbelievable Star Trek Home Theater

Having just come from the Star Trek Experience a couple weeks ago when I was at BlogWorld, I have to say this is impressive. I've seen other Star Trek themed home theaters before, however, this one is a very well done interpretation of TNG bridge done as home theater. This guy not only did a theater, they did a bar and lounge in Trek theme. Check it out.
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12 Ways To Green Your Black Friday

Black Friday...it’s the day after Thanksgiving that so many retailers rely on to help them go in the black by selling us on the need for salad shooters and other gadgets and gizmos. I never fail to be amazed at people that will stand in line for hours and fight crowds to buy more stuff. If you must shop, this short article from Thedailygreen.com lists 12 ways to green your Black Friday.
I like number 9. Stay at home, avoid all the craziness, and buy nothing. Ok, if you have to buy something, save all the gas and buy online.
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First Look At JLA Film Cast?

With Warner Bros set to announce the official cast of the new Justice League film next week, Slashfilm is reporting on the rumored casting choices that will be announced. If these casting picks are true, I am somewhat underwhelmed. Even though this will be a Beowulf-style mo-cap film, the voice acting and physical presence still has to come through for this to work. I am somewhat concerned, Warner has a spotty record at best when it comes to producing good superhero films.
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Second Cloverfield Trailer In Front of Beowulf

Remember that weird movie trailer that showed before Transformers in theaters? Now the second trailer promoting what has come to be known as 'Cloverfield' is being shown in front of Beowulf, now in theaters. This film, from JJ Abrams, is beginning to look like a cross between Blair Witch and Godzilla. Hit the link to watch the obviously camcorded clip.

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Record Fifth Planet Orbiting Nearby Star

Astronomers have announced the discovery of a fifth planet circling 55 Cancri, a star beyond our solar system. The star now holds the record for number of confirmed extrasolar planets orbiting in a planetary system. 55 Cancri is located 41 light-years away in the constellation Cancer and has nearly the same mass and age as our sun. It is easily visible with binoculars. Researchers discovered the fifth planet using the Doppler technique, in which a planet's gravitational tug is detected by the wobble it produces in the parent star. NASA and the National Science Foundation funded the research.
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Comcast Sued Over BitTorrent Blocking

This story is a great example of what net neutrality is all about. Comcast has long been thought to practice blocking of internet traffic it doesn't like. Last month, the Associated Press conclusively proved the cable company was doing just that with it's now famous King James Bible download test. Comcast's blocking has also affected computer applications other than BitTorrent. Earlier this month, public interest groups filed a complaint with the FCC over this traffic blocking. Now someone has taken the next step.
California Comcast customer John Hart filed a lawsuit in state court accusing Comcast of breach of contract, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and violating the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act. He is also stating Comcast did not adequately disclose its traffic management practices when he signed up for high speed internet or when he upgraded to a higher tier of service. He is seeking class-action status for the suit.

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Lightning Hits Vegas 'Eiffel Tower'

Although there is some argument over whether this is a genuine lightning strike caught on video, it's cool to watch.

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Evidence for Colliding Planet Embryos in Famous Star Cluster

Astronomers have found evidence for the formation of young rocky planets around the star HD 23514 located in the well-known Pleiades (Seven Sisters) star cluster that is easily visible in the current evening sky. Using an infrared sensitive camera (MICHELLE) on the Gemini North Telescope, Joseph Rhee of UCLA and his collaborators have measured heat from hot dust surrounding a 100 million year old star in the bright star cluster. The star has properties very much like our Sun except that it is 45 times younger and is orbited by hundreds of thousands of times more dust than our Sun. The star is also one of the very few solar-type stars known to be orbited by warm dust particles.

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Student Named In Subpoena Files Motion Against RIAA

'John Doe #3' is a student at George Washington University that was named in a subpoena filed by the RIAA. He has filed a motion with the court to have that subpoena quashed and the complaint dismissed. He uses several compelling arguments in his favor; and if successful, could become significant roadblocks to the RIAA's shotgun lawsuits against students.

An anonymous George Washington University student targeted by the RIAA for file-sharing is seeking to have the subpoena served on his school quashed and the complaint dismissed. In his motion, the unnamed student raises a couple of issues that could become significant roadblocks for the RIAA in its campaign against on-campus file-sharing.

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Scientists Find That Low Self-Esteem and Materialism Feed Each Other

You don't need to drink Fiji water and drive an SUV to be happy. As a society, Americans have far more material possessions than 50 years ago. We also have more depression, more alcoholism and more crime. Not to mention the environmental impact of all this consumerism. Does every kid in your family have to have the latest iPod? Do we have to have DVD players and LCD TVs in every room? The article I'm linking to quotes Tyler Durden from Fight Club: “Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy s--- we don't need.”
Something to think about this Black Friday?

Researchers have found that low self-esteem and materialism are not just a correlation, but also a causal relationship where low self esteem increases materialism, and materialism can also create low self-esteem. The also found that as self esteem increases, materialism decreases.

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Awesome Sunlight Map Image

This reminds me of the world clock application on the Palm OS.
Click the image for a full size view.

New Bill Wants Colleges To Become Copyright Cops For RIAA

I've been trying to wrap my head around this one. It's amazing that the entertainment industry has this much power. I guess I'm being naive, the RIAA and MPAA are industry associations that, like trade unions, wield enormous political power. Right from it's website, the RIAA's ''mission is to foster a business and legal climate that supports and promotes our members' creative and financial vitality."
So far the RIAA has been suing individuals it claims violate copyrights of member companies. They have had mixed results dealing directly with colleges and universities to stem the tide of P2P file sharing on campus networks. Now they want some additional leverage.

A massive education bill introduced into Congress contains a provision that would force colleges and universities to offer "technology-based deterrents" to file-sharing under the pain of losing all federal financial aid. Section 494 of the College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007 is entitled "Campus-Based Digital Theft Prevention" that could have just as easily been called "Motion Picture and Recording Industry Subsidies," as it could force schools into signing up for subscription-based services like Napster and Rhapsody.

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TV Writers Strike: When Will Your Show Go Dark?

There is little doubt the TV writers strike will result in shorter TV seasons this year. How short? Most shows this season will only produce 11 to 13 episodes total. Wow. This is especially hard on new shows that will not have a full season to build an audience. Bionic Woman will only have 9 shows this season, Chuck will have 13, Smallville will fare slightly better with 15. They will have to stand on the episodes left that have already been written. I wonder if this means DVDs of these short seasons will be released any faster to help make up for lost revenues. Thanks to Mike Ausiello at TV Guide for putting this list together.

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This Guy Loves ST:TNG A Little Too Much

He gets all the episodes in the correct order sung to the theme of Star Trek.

Confused About The TV Writers Strike? Watch This

Initially many think TV writers are being greedy when demanding more residuals for their work. This video may help you to understand what they are striking for.

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'Unbreakable' Blu-ray DRM Cracked Already

Remember the BD+ extra copy protection that was recently added to Blu-ray releases making them unplayable in the older players? Well it's now worthless. SlySoft, makers of AnyDVD, have released a new beta of their AnyDVD HD disc ripping application that it claims can successfully crack and allow users to copy Blu-ray discs protected by BD+ to their hard drive. The Blu-ray Disc Association has not yet commented on this, but it can't be happy. BD+ was touted as a key differentiator between it and HD DVD and with this announcement is made effectively worthless.

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Tim Kring Picketing His Own Show, Heroes

On the chilly Monday morning that Hollywood's writers went on strike, Heroes creator Tim Kring called from the streets outside the Hollywood studio where his NBC series is shot. ''Yes, I'm picketing my own show,'' says the 50-year-old writer-producer. ''So surreal.'' But Kring wasn't calling to discuss labor woes — he was calling to explain why Heroes, suffering a creative decline and a 15 percent ratings drop from the same period last year... read more | digg story

Google Announces New Android Phone OS

At least for the time being, the oft-rumored 'Gphone' is going to be a phone operating system, instead of a branded hardware device. Hoping to integrate Google services into your phone handset, the G has announced the Android open source OS. Partnering with over 30 companies, Android is based on the Linux kernel, and is designed not to differentiate between the phone's core applications and third-party applications. So any application will run taking full advantage of the hardware capabilities of the handset.
Reading about this, it sounds more like a PC than a phone OS. Enabling you to use any image for the screen background, the style of the dialer, whatever application you want to view images...while undoubtedly offering you those nifty Google services you just can't live without.
Privacy alert: With Android, a software developer can "combine information from the web with data on an individual's mobile phone -- such as the user's contacts, calendar, or geographic location -- to provide a more relevant user experience." Read: advertising. Location tracking seems to be a big deal with this new OS, with the ability for developers to program interactivity with social media. Imagine your phone beeping at you when a Twitter pal is nearby, enabling you to meet up. Could be a neat feature; although applications for new technologies have a way of evolving into some creepy uses...

Blog World In 2 Days!

An exciting week awaits bloggers in LasVegas at BlogWorld and New Media Expo 2007!
For up to date posts and more detailed information regarding BlogWorld, i set up my BlogWorld blog!

Buying a Plasma or LCD? Don't Get Extended Warranty

A new report by Consumer Reports states buying an extended warranty for a new LCD or plasma TV would be a waste of money. Their Annual Product Reliability Survey found that the flat panel sets overall had a 3% repair rate. Rear-projection TVs, on the other hand, were found to be much more repair prone. Interestingly, among rear-projection TV brands, Toshiba and RCA had the most repair-prone sets that were based on digital light processing (DLP) technology.
Fortunately, just like computers, defects will usually show up very early in the life of a flat-panel TV, while the manufacturers warranty still covers the set.
At this point in time, I think it goes without saying if you are getting a new TV, get an LCD or plasma, not an RPTV. In fact, this could be a very big season for flat-panel televisions, with prices expected to drop 30% by the end of the year.

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University Says 'No' To RIAA Demand

The University of Oregon is believed to be the first US educational institution to refuse a RIAA demand to hand over the names of students alleged to have illegally downloaded music. Two legitimate reasons were given, one was that due to double occupancy dorms, it is not possible to identify an individual from even an internal IP address. Another was that complying with the demand meant conducting an investigation to create evidence for the RIAA, which the university is not obligated to do.

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Do You Know What A Blog Is?

Four days to BlogWorld 2007!

Many Consumers Unclear What "Online Tracking" Even Means

A new poll released this week showed that more than half of people surveyed believed that a company's privacy policy prohibits it from using information to analyze an individuals' activities online, when that is actually a very common practice. People surveyed also assumed that an online privacy policy meant that a company they're doing business with wouldn't collect data on their online activities and combine it with other information to create a behavioral profile. The fact is thousands of companies try to track everything their customers do online and offline, maintain profiles of them and sell them to whoever will pay the most for it...
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Frustrated People Resorting To Cell Phone Jammers

I have to admit I've thought about making one of these...this article from the New York Times shows how the awareness and use of cell phone jammers is on the rise. A search on the web reveals several sites selling them for as little as $49. I'm not linking to any of them, you'll have to find them yourself. Keep in mind these devices are definitely illegal in the US and most countries. Still, lots of people proudly admit using them in public places such as restaurants, movie theaters, and churches as seen in the article. Until more people learn courtesy and discretion, their popularity may only increase.

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11 Phenomenal Images Of Earth

And this is one of them. This pic is of the Mt. Egmont volcano which last erupted in 1755 and is now situated in the middle of Egmont National Park. Park regulations have ensured the survival of a forest which extends at a 9.5 km radius from the summit of the volcano, the result of which can be seen from space in the form of huge dark green disc. This photo was taken during STS110 mission, in April 2002. Follow the link to 10 more images of Earth.

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$99 HD-DVD Player Hits Retailers

In a move that may kick start mass adoption of HD players, Wal-Mart is getting an early start to holiday sales this year with loss leader prices on several items today including the Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD player for $98.97. Engadget is reporting Best Buy following suit with the same player for $99.99. Best Buy's online store is currently down for maintenance. Hmm. Previously the lowest price you could find this player sold in stores was $200.
Many may remember the frenzy Wal-Mart made back in 2003 when it began offering DVD players for just under $40. Consumers still on the fence about the DVD format adopted it after that, a move which practically killed VHS within a year.

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Fake Gphone Pics Circulating Web

Just like every other rumored or known upcoming device, mock up pictures of the Gphone will start circulating the web now.

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MIT Builds a Mini Tractor Beam

Taking up the sci-fi staple of "tractor beams," scientists have developed a way to use light to grab and move minuscule particles on a microchip. The research could lead to fine-grained biological sensors and other precisely built nanoscale devices. The work by Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers could extend the possibilities for "optical tweezers" - super-focused beams of light that have been used for years to study and manipulate tiny biological structures or even individual atoms.
Today the tractor beam, tomorrow the transporter?

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