Top Tech Stories from Around the World Issue Number 1,230 Saturday, 13 March 2010

I finally was getting somewhere with this stuff. I used the terminal to inquire about the history of radio but there was only one article on the local service. It read "Radio: A primitive means of electronic communications. Use of radio created a broad audience of listeners for the first time. However, there was a price to pay: The radiation generated by radio transmitters was proven the cause of many diseases of the time. As soon as the capability existed, governments all over the world stopped radio use and replaced it with local service or optical connections. The quality of a radio signal depended greatly on the distance between the transmitter and receiver. But even at best, the quality wasn't even close to local service." This is not what I was hoping for. I wanted to find some history on radio stations, but there was nothing. It was times like these that an antique encyclopedia would have been nice.

I always thought it should be illegal to delete files. I never really bought off on the idea that it was possible to have too much information.

I went to the bathroom to have a cigarette and think about everything that happened today.

I kind of missed having a robot around. I mean I had to get my own coffee.

I think the robot may have contributed greatly to the reduced number of married couples. I guess it could also have something to do with the government's policy of making a raising all of the kids. The government raised most of the kids. Ever since the 'Real Equality Act', Men and women between 20 and 30 years old must donate eggs or sperm, twice a year. I think the government saw this as a way of guaranteeing that unqualified parents will raise no children. This also gave the government a chance to match only those extremely healthy to reproduce. You can still have your own children, but if you do this, you invite a social worker to just about live with you. Most the people I knew were not married, nor did they live with anyone. Ahsu and Bob are a dying breed. Well, maybe I could find a new robot tomorrow. I was a little tired, so I went to sleep.

The next day while I was at work, I mentioned that I might buy a new robot. Ahsu asked, "What are you going to do with this new robot?" I said, "God, only knows. I don't have a robot at home right now. Besides that, my robot has been acting a little funny. I mean it started asking me about everything. I think maybe one if its memory banks is broken or something." Ahsu said "if you need any kind of special purpose robot, you might want to get it underground." I said "underground?" She replied, "you know. The black market." I asked "why? Does it cost less?" She said "No. In fact, it may cost you more. However, you can get a robot that does special tasks, or has more memory than normally allowed. Or for that matter, a robot without a communications port." I said, "They actually sell robots without communications ports?" She said, "You can by them with a lot of different options." "Where do I go to get one of these?" I asked. She said "Later tonight, I will take you robot shopping."

Heads Up from TechJim.com

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Top Tech Stories Complete as of Friday, 12 March 2010

The Archive starts with Sunday, 19 December 2004 and continues throuh Thursday, 11 March 2010, over 5 years.

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Colorado has Joined Oklahoma, KGB Wanna be

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Colorado has joined Oklahoma, now requiring residents to pay sales tax on anything they buy outside the state. I am sorry Folks for Governors acting like KGB agents to squeeze another seven cents out of there own citizens. TechJim will respect your Constitutional right to privacy, even when your own lawmakers will not. The Colorado KGB has ordered me to what? City leaders all over the world are now going to start hearing cash registers!

I think all governments should try to go at least five years without any new ponzie schemes like Social Security. Wait at least until the economy is better.

The only good thing about dealing with corrupt officials in places such as California, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Cooke County, Texas, is the bribes are cheaper than the taxes!

FCC Posts Tools to Measure Broadband Speeds

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By Mark Long

The Federal Communications Commission has posted digital tools for users to test their broadband speed. The FCC's broadband tools are available in three versions -- fixed locations, Android devices, and iPhone OS devices. The tools will also help the FCC map U.S. broadband coverage. The FCC's broadband plan will go to Congress next week.

The Federal Communications Commission unveiled three digital tools Thursday that will enable consumers, businesses, schools and other organizations to test the real-world performance of their fixed and mobile broadband connections and help identify gaps in the nation's broadband coverage. The tools include downloadable applications for mobile devices based on Google's Android platform and Apple's iPhone OS.

With the launch of the testing apps, the commission's goal is to empower consumers, promote innovation and investment, and encourage competition by fostering transparency, noted FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.

"The FCC's new digital tools will arm users with real-time information about their broadband connection and the agency with useful data about service across the country," Genachowski said. "By informing consumers about their broadband service quality, these tools help eliminate confusion and make the market work more effectively."

Seeking the Public's Input

The fixed broadband test tool at broadband.gov measures connection speed and latency, and reports the results directly to users as well as the FCC. What's more, the commission has launched a broadband reporting tool that will enable Americans to submit the address of a "dead zone" where broadband connectivity is unavailable.

The mobile test tools for Android and iPhone OS devices are available from the Android Market and Apple's App Store. "In the future, the FCC anticipates making additional broadband testing applications available for consumer use and across different mobile platforms," noted broadband task force attorney-adviser Jordan Usdan in a blog.

All three offerings will help the commission gather data to analyze broadband performance and availability on a geographic basis, Usdan noted. To protect user privacy, the FCC said it will not release any personal information gathered by the new tools.

The FCC's national broadband plan, which is slated for release next week, will recommend ways in which Congress can help consumers understand the difference between the maximum speed tiers that the nation's service providers advertise and real-world broadband speeds. "These proposals will further the goals of disclosure and transparency and empower consumers to drive competition in a technology-neutral manner," Usdan explained.

A Competition Red Flag

The FCC also intends to call for the creation of a National Digital Literacy Corps to help individuals develop the skills they need to enjoy a comfortable and productive online experience. However, the biggest barrier to broadband that Congress will need to find ways to overcome is cost, noted FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn.

In a recent FCC survey, cost-related reasons were cited as the main barrier to adoption by 36 percent of those who do not have broadband service, followed by lack of digital literacy (22 percent), and the Internet's lack of personal relevance (19 percent). Of those citing cost as a key adoption barrier, 15 percent pointed to the monthly cost of service, while nine percent said "they do not want a long-term service contract or find the installation fee too high," Clyburn said.

Clyburn is clearly worried that the FCC's efforts to promote broadband adoption will be thwarted by the nation's major broadband providers, which plan to raise the rates they charge for the lowest tiers of broadband service.

"Across-the-board price increases -- especially on those who can least afford [them] --should raise a red flag for the commission," Clyburn said. "When prices rise across the industry, and where there are only a limited number of players in the game, we have to ask ourselves whether there is any meaningful competition in the marketplace."

Clyburn also is concerned about industry executive comments indicating that the rollout of faster broadband speeds will be limited to the few markets where service providers face competition. "If we fail to think deeply about these issues, consumers will suffer and low-income Americans, in particular, will be left long behind," Clyburn said.

Adobe Flash

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The problem with Flash is if you have it installed, your computer will run all Flash programs without telling the user. Spy-ware, Ad-ware, and Viruses will be put on your computer because, you didn't get a chance to turn off Flash.

I have suggested to Adobe for years to put an on/off switch in the Flash player, but still no switch.

Adobe has claimed for years there is no way for flash to cause problems with a computer, for that same time, Flash issues are in the news almost once a week. The only easy quick fix, is to kill all ActiveX on your browser. If Adobe Flash player had an off switch, we could turn off just flash.

We will not use Adobe Flash until they have a switch we can turn flash off and on.

The easy fix for Flash for users right now is, uninstall flash as soon as you get home today!

Mit Researchers Discover New Energy Source

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By Shelby Lin Erdman

(CNN) -- It's so tiny, you can't see it with the naked eye.

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have discovered an energy source that you can see only through a microscope.

The researchers devised a process for generating electricity using nanotechnology. They plan to refine the process in hopes of creating a new environmentally friendly battery, among other products.

It works like this: Researchers used tiny wires, known as carbon nanotubes, to create a powerful wave of energy, according to Michael Strano, and MIT associate professor of chemical engineering. He is also the senior author of a paper on this new phenomenon, published in this week's Nature Materials journal.

After coating these tiny wires with a layer of fuel, Strano said his team generated a so-called thermopower wave and stumbled across a reaction that may eventually be used to power electronics, computers and cell phones.

"This could lead to batteries that are up to 10 times smaller and still have the same power output. In the portable energy and energy conservation arena, we're trying to find power sources that have a smaller profile but hold more energy," Strano told CNN Radio.

To build a power source, such as a battery, it's necessary to move electrons in a material from one end of the battery to the other, creating an electrical current. This thermopower wave MIT researchers discovered, using the class of molecules know as carbon nanotubes, does just that.

Strano said "some of the advantages of this technology [are] you can generate a lot of power from a very, very small device."

And that's not all. Most batteries on the market now are made from highly toxic heavy metals, which are very bad for the environment -- metals like lead, nickel and cadmium.

Batteries made from this new thermopower technology would be completely nontoxic, Strano said.

"The materials we use to make these thermopower waves are organic. They're not grown naturally, but they're made of carbon. In other words, you could essentially incinerate them, or they would degrade over time, there's no heavy metal residue," Strano said.

There's another potential benefit in using a so-called thermopower battery: energy savings.

"Most people don't realize a battery sitting unused in your laptop is leaking its power away," Strano said. "If you take all the laptop batteries that are produced in one year, in the off state, they're leaking an amount of power during that year that we could store in a small nuclear reactor ... and that's power that's essentially lost and dissipated just from laptop batteries."

Current Activity Reported by the US-CERT

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Apple Releases Safari 4.0.5

Apple has released Safari 4.0.5 to address multiple vulnerabilities in ColorSync, ImageIO, PubSub, Safari, and WebKit. These vulnerabilities may allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code, cause a denial-of-service condition, obtain sensitive information, or bypass security restrictions.

US-CERT encourages users and administrators to review Apple article HT4070 and upgrade to Safari 4.0.5 to help mitigate the risks.

Our Daily Bit of the U. S. Constitution. Law Makers Ignore This Like Always

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Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation:--"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Section 2. The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.

He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.

Why Verizon Fios Sucks. Here's My Experience.

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FIOS sucks. Big time. This blog recounts my tortuous experience with Verizon and their pathetic customer "service" in an attempt to prevent others from sharing the same fate.

*** As mentioned by The Sports Guy, Bill Simmons! ***

To share your story, email shareyourserviceexperience@gmail.com

E-Tailers Should Act Fast to Comply with Colorado's New Tax Law

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By Marvin A. Kirsner
E-Commerce Times

It is not certain whether Colorado will have the authority to enforce its new tax obligation notice and Annual Purchase Statement requirements, because of U.S. Supreme Court cases holding that a company must have a presence in the state in order to be required to collect sales tax. Until the issue is settled, however, sellers should take the necessary steps to comply.

Legislation signed into law on February 24 will have a profound effect on e-commerce and catalog companies that sell to customers in Colorado.

Companies that do not collect Colorado sales tax must notify their Colorado customers that they are obligated to file a use tax return to pay the sales and use tax themselves. It also requires them to send out an annual information statement. In addition, out-of-state e-commerce companies with related companies (for example, subsidiaries or sister corporations) in the state must collect sales tax.

E-commerce companies that do not have a related company in Colorado will have to give a notice to Colorado purchasers of their obligation to pay use tax. They will also be required to provide annual information statements to their customers, giving details of the sale transactions. These information-like returns must also be sent to the Colorado Department of Revenue, which will certainly follow up with the Colorado customers to make sure that they pay applicable use tax (at the same tax rate as the sales tax).

Although it is not certain whether Colorado has the power to mandate e-commerce companies to comply with these requirements, they should consider taking steps to do so until further guidance is issued by the Colorado Department of Revenue or by the courts.

Notice to Colorado Purchasers of Their Tax Obligations
This new law requires e-commerce and catalog companies ("Remote Sellers") that do not collect Colorado sales tax on sales to Colorado purchasers to notify them of their tax obligations and to report such sales made as of March 1, 2010. This very fast moving sales tax bill was passed to help balance the state's budget, and could be a precursor to similar actions in other states that are struggling to close large budget deficits. Due to the short lead time between passage and the new law's effective date, many Remote Sellers might be caught off guard, without adequate time to tweak software to modify the record keeping that will be necessary to comply with this new notice rule.

A Remote Seller that does not collect sales tax is required to send a written notice to its Colorado customers that the customer is required to file a Colorado sales and use tax return if the Remote Seller does not collect sales tax. The penalty for each failure to notify purchasers of this obligation is US$5. This penalty will often be more than the sales tax that would otherwise have been due on the sale, in many cases, and many believe that Colorado is imposing this requirement to persuade Remote Sellers to collect the tax.

On March 2, the Colorado Department of Revenue published Emergency Regulation 39-26-102.13 on its Web site, detailing the notice companies are required to give to Colorado customers.

The Emergency Regulation provides that the sales tax notice must be given on all sales of tangible personal property that are shipped to a Colorado address, and on electronic downloads of digital goods where the "bill to" address is in Colorado. The notice must be given on the invoice, or if no invoice is normally provided, the notice must be given to the purchaser as part of the sale,either immediately before or immediately after the sale.

If an invoice is not normally given and the vendor does not have a reasonable method of giving the notice, then the notice may be given sending a confirmation email containing the notice. Remember, if an invoice is given, or if any other type of notice is usually given to the customer, the sales tax notice must be on the invoice or other notice, not just sent by email.

The sales tax notice must contain the followingstatement prominently, immediately adjacent to the dollar total of the transaction, in bold font: "Please see important tax information." The notice must provide the following information:

(i) The retailer is not obligated and does not collect Colorado sales tax;
(ii) The purchase is subject to Colorado sales tax unless it is specifically exempt from taxation;
(iii) The purchase is not exempt merely because it is made over the Internet or by other remote means;
(iv) The State ofColorado requires that the taxpayer file a sales/use tax return at the end of the year reporting all purchases that were not taxed and pay tax on those purchases;
(v) Retailers that do not collect Colorado sales tax are obligated to provide purchasers with an end-of-year summary of purchases to assist them in filing their tax report;
(vi) Details on how to file this return may be found at the Colorado Department of Revenue Web site; and
(vii) Retailers that do not collect Colorado sales tax are required by law to provide the Department with a report of the total amount of all of a purchaser's purchases at the end of the year.

The Emergency Regulation also provides a de minimus rule that will relieve small e-commerce companies of this obligation. It says that any Remote Seller that made total gross sales in the prior year of less then $100,000, and reasonably expects total gross sales of less then $100,000 in the current year will be exempt from the notice requirement to Colorado customers. The language of this exception states that the $100,000 threshold is for total gross sales of the Remote Seller, not just sales to Colorado customers, so it should not be widely applicable to established companies. However, this exception may be helpful to start-up companies just getting sales under way.

Year-End Sales Information Requirements
In addition to the tax obligation notice requirement, a Remote Seller is obligated to send a year-end tax information statement to each Colorado purchaser (the "Annual Purchase Statement") by January 31 of each year .This Annual Purchase Statement is to include the dates of the purchases, the amount ofthe purchases, and whether the purchase was an exempt item for all purchases made during the prior calendar year. The Annual Purchase Statement is to be sent by first class mail, with a label on the envelope that reads "Important Tax Document Enclosed." A Remote Seller is subject to a penalty of $10 for each required Annual Purchase Statement that it fails to send. Once again, this penalty will often be greater than the sales tax actually due, which might motivate some companies to collect the tax rather than comply with this requirement. The Emergency Regulation says that additional rules will be published on this Annual Purchase Statement requirement in the future.

An annual information statement showing sales to Colorado residents must be provided to the Department of Revenue by March 1 of each year. If the Remote Seller has more than $100,000 in annual sales to Colorado customers, it will be required to file this information on magnetic media. This disclosure of information will present interesting privacy issues, because the information to be provided is to include the category of merchandise purchased. This might cause a chilling effect on purchases from some Remote Sellers.

Finally, Remote Sellers will be required to respond to subpoenas of sales information on sales to Colorado residents.

Constitutional Issues
It is not certain whether Colorado will have the authority to enforce these tax obligation notice and Annual Purchase Statement requirements, because of U.S. Supreme Court cases holding that a company must have a presence in the state in order to be required to collect sales tax. It is possible that Colorado will take the position that this notice requirement is not a tax, but a regulatory requirement, which does not require the same level of presence that a sales tax collection obligation does. It is also possible that the Department of Revenue will first seek to enforce the penalties for failure to give the sales tax notice, or failure to provide the Annual Purchase Statement against e-commerce companies with affiliate programs when affiliates are present in Colorado.

This is not clear at the moment. In the interim, all Remote Sellers should, for the time being, give the Colorado use tax notice as required by the Emergency Regulation and also modify software in order to be able to generate the Annual Purchase Statement. Since the Annual Purchase Statement for 2010 sales would not be due until January 2011, there is still be time to decide whether the Annual Purchase Statements will be necessary for Remote Sellers that have no presence in Colorado, and that have no affiliates in the state.

Remote Sellers Required to Collect Sales Tax
Under the new law, a Remote Seller that is a member of a controlled group of corporations under Section 1563 of the Internal Revenue Code is deemed to be doing business in Colorado if any other member of the controlled group has a physical presence in the state, and so would be required to collect sales tax on sales to Colorado purchasers. This definition of a related company is very broad, and it would apply to many parent-subsidiary corporation and brother-sister corporation relationships.

This presumption that the Remote Seller is deemed to be doing business in the state is the statutory vehicle that attempts to establish the nexus that would allow Colorado to impose this sales and use tax collection requirement. Note that it might be possible to modify a corporate ownership structure so that a Remote Seller and a related entity with a physical presence in Colorado are not members of the same controlled group of companies. This would require a careful analysis of the ownership chart of the controlled group.

The presumption that a Remote Seller is doing business in the state can be rebutted by a showing that the in-state affiliate did not solicit any business on behalf of the Remote Seller. So a Remote Seller should take very specific actions to be certain that any related companies in Colorado do not solicit any business for the Remote Seller. For example, if anational retailer has a store in Colorado, the store should not advertise the related Remote Seller's Web site, or offer coupons for purchases made on the Web site. Furthermore, it would be a good idea for the in-state related company to give an annual certification to the Remote Seller that it did not engage in any type of solicitation on behalf of the Remote Seller.

So, Remote Sellers that do not collect Colorado sales tax and have a related corporation doing business in Colorado should either: (1) register as a dealer and begin to collect Colorado sales tax on sales to customers there; (2) take steps to be able to prove that none of its related Colorado entities conduct any activities that can be construed as soliciting on behalf of the Remote Seller; or (3) consider a corporate restructuring so that the Remote Seller and the related Colorado entity are not considered part of the same controlled group of corporations.

This sales tax collection obligation was a compromise in the Colorado legislature. The bill began as an affiliate nexus bill, similar to the legislation adopted in New York in 2008, which would have required sales tax collection as a result of sales referrals from click-through arrangements. However, the final result requires an actual corporate relationship with a related company in order to establish the sales tax collection obligation.

Windows 7

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Microsoft

Windows 2000 was the last reliable product from Microsoft.

Microsoft Product Activation will cause your computer to fail, like any other virus!

Microsoft Windows 7 (Vista 2.0) will not run Microsoft Visual Studio, just like Vista.

Windows 7 is Windows Vista 2.0. They did not fix the big problem you can not turn off the task scheduler service, the same as Vista. On a new Windows 7 machine, 1 day old and 33 tasks are in the schedule that I did not put there.

Windows 7 requires product activation. This is like showing your receipt at Wal-Mart every time you use the tooth brush that you bought months or years ago.

Do not buy anything from Microsoft until they get rid of product activation.

Symantec

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All companies that use Product Activation are suspended, to include Norton and Symantec.

Virus Update from Symantec

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Trojan.Pidief.I is a Trojan horse that exploits the Adobe Acrobat and Reader CVE-2010-0188 Unspecified Remote Code Execution Vulnerability in order to drop additional malware on to the compromised computer.

Heuristic.ADH is a detection for files that may be malicious.

Trojan.ADH is a detection for files that may be malicious.

And Now, a Word from Our Sponsor

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Web Store

It is fun building your own store. Fun, Fun, Fun.