Top Tech Stories from Around the World Thursday, 3 July 2008

Ahsu said, "I think this explains Bob's strange behavior since his return from prison." She said, "I don't know whether to love him or hate him anymore." I said, "Listen, Bob had no way of knowing about this. Even if he did, what would be a good defense against such things?" Ahsu said, "We've got to get back what's ours. We have to be in control of our own lives. If by working with George we can do this, we must. I don't think I could handle what Bob went through."

I tried to calm Ahsu, but I wasn't having much luck. She kept on going on about Bob's ordeal. I told her to take the day off, but of course, she wasn't about ready to do that. We ate breakfast together and talked some more.

Bob didn't show up for work all day. I was just getting ready to leave for the day and I asked Ahsu if Bob was okay? She replied, "I don't know. I really don't know. He didn't even call. So I don't know what he's been doing." I asked if she wanted me to walk home with her. She told me "no Joe. Go on home. I'll be okay." I started down the street to my house. I was looking at everything. I was a little paranoid about everyone around me. It seemed like every face I looked at was looking back at me and saying "we're going to get you."

I got home and the first thing I did was tried to call Bob. He wasn't there, so I left a message for Ahsu just telling her to call me if something wasn't right.

I yelled out "robot! Get me a cup of coffee and bring it into the bathroom." I sat down and lit a cigarette. In the morning Ahsu Bob and myself were going to meet with George and Bill again. This time we would find out what George is really all about.

The robot brought the coffee in and said "Coffee Sir. Anything else I can do for you?" I replied, "Yes. I want to know everything you can find on an organization called Free America." The robot responded "Yes Sir. Accessing central database now." It paused for a few seconds then said "Sir. I have an unusual request from the central computer to provide the reason for this inquiry. What would be that reason Sir?" I told the robot I want to know because." I stopped for a second, and then I said, "Because I'm working on some research. That's it. I need the information because I'm doing some research." The robot said "Sir. The central database shows nothing on Free America. Would you like another search?" I told the robot "no. Just hang up." The robot replied "Yes Sir. Can I do anything else for you?" I said "no robot. Not right now." The robot said "Sir. I don't know why the central computer wanted a reason for my inquiry. This has never happened before. Is there something about this you would like to tell me?" I replied "no. I think the central computer may be having some problems." The robot said "Sir, would you like me to ask the central computer if it requires any maintenance?" I said "no. That will be all. Go back to work."

The Domain Blast

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By Naseem Javed
E-Commerce Times

ICANN's move to open up the process of assigning top-level domain names creates a potential flood of activity and confusion that will leave even established players behind if they don't act quickly. Without the limitations on domain naming, writes columnist Naseem Javed, creative domain namers could overtake the Web.

Now you can buy any domain with any suffix. If a dot-com is gone, so what? For a cost, you can create your own suffix using any letters and any name.

Domain names are made of three parts. The www, the "name" and the suffix like .com. With the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' latest decision, you now have full creative control over the last two parts. This is a revolutionary new concept creating a global-scale boom in new names, massive potential confusion from duplication and global copycatting, all compounded with cyber-squatting, where piles of popular names will be turned into pyramids of shared stupidity.

The explosion of new names will eventually hit the fan, and the global entrepreneurial community in desperate need of making some mega online bucks will ride this flood by paying top dollar to have any desired name with an equally desired suffix to corner markets.

Globally Beneficial
However, it's a great move that favors the global consumer. This move creates a new wave of interconnected global interactions and equally provides existing powerhouse name owners with a new set of strategies and angles to expand their global outreach by marking new territory.

With this new decision, big and small players will have their own suffixes like ibm.ibm, while others would create hotels.paris or play.casino all the way to sex.sex. Never in the history of business will a single decision create so much impact as this bold new policy by ICANN. Even when domain names were originally introduced, the adaptation process matured over a decade, and now everyone engaged in e-commerce has become so financially dependent on the structure of their domain names, the impact will be massive. Without a clear blueprint or a proper evaluation of its existing dot-com potential, a business can make huge blunders as sharks enter in protected waters.

Copycats, by the millions, like the early dawn of e-commerce, tried to register at times entire phone books and dictionaries in hopes of selling them to other bidders. Most eventually got exhausted while some made huge killings.

Who are the winners and losers of this policy? At a time where old media and new ones are clashing head on, the alliance of Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) could wipe out old-fashioned advertising while search engines track our every move and predict every buying decision well in advance. This move sits very well for globally e-commerce driven models of the new world.

Marketing Opportunity
The winners of this move are the holders of creatively unique identities with a solid Five Star Standard of naming, which are not only globally protected under trademark laws, but have also earned the recognition and respect of global customers. One-of-a-kind names like Sony (NYSE: SNE) , Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) , Rolex or Panasonic all have many new options opened up with additional control for global online marketing and image building.

The losers in this case will be the remaining 90 percent majority of the global businesses that are somewhat chasing illusionary fame and are still convinced that their dysfunctional names are real winners.

They believe that by hopping all over the world with new suffixes, they will be able to push their names to the very top -- and they never will. Cyber identities such as dynamic.net, dynamic.biz, dynamic.info or dynamic.dynamic could be of a single business empire, or many different ones.

The fact remains, it will never become an exclusive identity as long as it is grossly diluted. Today, a huge portion of businesses are in serious duplication or global language confusion mess. When the laws of corporate nomenclature are sacrificed over logo-based identity that creates a false illusion of fame, this disregard for the value of alpha-structure will now once again result in failure.

Wake Up
This domain blast is a noisy wake-up call to big and small players of the world alike.

As predicted in 1998 in my book Domain Wars, global pressures will eventually force the opening of domain registration to a free-for-all model. All these additional suffixes will now lead to billions of redundant domain names and massive confusion that will stem from a boom in domain name registration aftermarkets. Trademark lawyers will also benefit greatly from this tidal wave while businesses, on the other hand, will be forced to acquire a sharper awareness of the complexity of naming and Five Star ownership.

The internationalization of the Net is also a good thing, and this policy accommodates billions of new players ready to join the race online. English domain names will eventually be dwarfed by the sheer numbers of Chinese and other foreign-language names. The new name-economy clearly predicts non-English-based e-commerce powerhouses. There are also looming dangers on how the Internet, based on population, could end up being split among super nations.

Never in corporate history has there been a time quite like this, where every corporate identity has been forced to take a pause with an urgent need to be evaluated on its message delivery mechanisms and qualities of its own name structures.

Doing It Right
Names that exist simply for names' sake have no place in this global arena. Either you have a 100 percent owned, proprietary stronghold on a name that can withstand the test of time, or you are out. Registering weak names in 100 different suffixes and 100 different countries is not the answer.

Suddenly the struggle for visibility becomes the No. 1 challenge, and it is the power of names that will now decide the e-commerce visibility. It's either have a name mechanism in place in order to be visible or just stay lost in oblivion.

The biggest losers at this junction are those large companies that have stubbornly avoided any CEO-level discussions to evaluate their names and dysfunctional components. They must now stop denials, bite the bullet and evaluate to re-emerge as brand new once and for all under a global, Five Star Name Identity solution.

Simply put, lead or take cover from the domain blast.

Virus Update from Symantec

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Trojan.Proscks.B is a Trojan horse that infects files and displays advertisements on the compromised computer.

Symantec Security Response is currently investigating this threat and will post more information as it becomes available.

XF.Gydhex is a Microsoft Excel macro virus that infects all worksheets opened.

Backdoor.Lusillon is a Trojan horse that opens a back door on the compromised computer.

Packed.Generic.123 is a heuristic detection for files that may have been obfuscated or encrypted in order to conceal them from antivirus software.

Packed.Generic.35 is a heuristic detection for files that may have been obfuscated or encrypted in order to conceal them from antivirus software.

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Thursday, 3 July 2008

Our Daily Bit of the U. S. Constitution. Law Makers Turn Your Heads Like Always

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Section 3. New states may be admitted by the Congress into this union; but no new states shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress.

The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular state.

Section 4. The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence.

Article V

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state , without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.

ISO Approves Pdf as an International Standard

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The new standard is based Adobe's Version 1.7 of PDF

By Elizabeth Montalbano

The ISO has approved Adobe Systems Inc.'s widely used Portable Document Format as an international standard, and the organization is now in charge of any changes made to the PDF specification.

The format is open and accessible to anyone as ISO 32000-1, the standards body said Wednesday. The standard is based Adobe's Version 1.7 of PDF.

PDF, the file format for Adobe's Acrobat software, has long been used as a standard way for people to exchange and view business documents. However, Adobe kept a proprietary hold on the format until it finally succumbed to industry pressure and submitted it for standardization in February 2007.

Adobe's move reflected an industrywide trend to standardize broadly adopted file formats to increase interoperability among different applications that people use to create business documents.

Microsoft submitted Office Open XML, a proprietary XML-based document format it built for its Office 2007 productivity suite, to the ISO. The ISO approved OOXML on April 1 in a controversial vote that is still being contested by some of the standards bodies that took part in it.

Microsoft had also aimed to include PDF support in Office 2007 but revised that plan at the last minute over a squabble with Adobe. However, PDF support will be added to Office 2007 in a service pack from Microsoft expected to be released early next year.

That update also will add support for Open Document Format for Office Applications (ODF), an XML-based file format that is also an ISO standard. ODF is a rival to OOXML; it became an international standard in May 2006.

Current Activity Reported by the US-CERT

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Mozilla Releases Firefox 2.0.0.15

Mozilla has released Firefox 2.0.0.15. This version addresses multiple vulnerabilities that may allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code, conduct cross-site scripting attacks, upload arbitrary files, or escalate privileges. As described in the Mozilla Foundation Security Advisories, some of these vulnerabilities also affect Thunderbird and SeaMonkey.

US-CERT encourages users to do the following to help mitigate the risks:

Review the Mozilla Foundation Security Advisories.
Update to Firefox 2.0.0.15.
Update to SeaMonkey 1.1.10.