Wednesday, May 30, 2012


Samsung Chromebox Series 3 a $329 PC

review

·        

CNET Editors' Rating
3.0stars Good

The good: The Samsung Chromebox offers an attractive, low-risk entry point to the experimental world of Google's Chrome OS.
The bad: Absent features and occasional software and hardware incompatibilities mar a supposedly simple user experience.
The bottom line: The attractive, fairly priced Samsung Chromebox desktop turns Google's Web-based Chrome OS into a not entirely unreasonable option for certain low-cost PC shoppers.
MSRP:$329.00

I can think of a few customers who might consider the attractive, Google Chrome OS-powered Samsung Chromebox desktop. Schools, libraries, Internet cafes, even a parent shopping for a child's first computer might reasonably look into this $329 PC and its locked-down, almost entirely Web-dependent operating system.
I would not recommend the Chromebox for general-purpose budget computing due to occasional issues with general hardware and software compatibility. Its minuscule local storage also prevents the Chromebox from working well as a small home theater PC. If you follow either Google or operating system news, you will know that this PC represents Google's first attempt at expanding its Chrome operating system to the desktop. Given that the Chromebox's laptop counterpart, the Chromebook, is such a difficult proposition, I was surprised by how much I actually liked this computer.
Google's Chrome operating system is the search giant's grand system software experiment, played out in public since last year's launch of the Samsung Chromebook. A few other PC manufacturers sold Chrome-powered laptops, but in general they underwhelmed due to high prices and the need for a persistent Internet connection.

Staying online all the time can be a challenge for a laptop computer that's supposed to be mobile. Those devices accompany us during air travel, business meetings and conferences, and other circumstances with no guarantee of a reliable connection. Google tries to offset this difficulty by building in cellular data network support with its laptops. That, of course, comes with an added fee, throwing off the already dicey Chromebook value proposition.
Desktops, though, tend to stay put. Service interruptions happen, but in general, if you can maintain a more-or-less persistent connection to the Web, you take away one of the big question marks hanging over the Chrome OS.
Samsung released this PC and a new Chromebook laptop to coincide with a new, public version of Chrome OS. Rather than turn this into a review of both the computer and the operating system, I'll refer you to our standalone review of the Chrome OS. You can also read our review of the new Samsung Chromebook laptop.
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Among the most important things to know about the updated Chrome OS is that it has expanded support for offline document and media files. While most of your activities with the Chromebook will take place online in either the Chrome Web browser or through a Chrome-specific application, the operating system does let you see local files. The Chromebook comes with a 16GB solid-state hard drive (booting up happens in seconds), and it also supports USB keys and flash media cards (the latter if you connect a USB card reader). If you have any compatible files on either the local or connected storage, the Chromebook can open them.
Supported file types include most Microsoft Office formats (DOC and DOCX, for example), as well as PDF files, JPEG, GIF, and other common image files, and also various audio and video types (complete list here). You can't edit those media files, save for some basic photo manipulation tools, but the fact that you can consume them offline is a marked improvement over the previous-generation Chrome operating system.
Otherwise, the Chrome OS lives on as essentially an expanded version of Google's Chrome Web browser. The system boots into a familiar log-in screen and desktop environment, but once you start playing around with the included applications, or downloading new ones, you will most often find yourself operating within a traditional Chrome browser.
Samsung Chromebox Series 3
Price
$329
CPU
1.9GHz Intel Celeron B840
Memory
4GB DDR3 SDRAM
Graphics
Embedded Intel HD Graphics 1000
Hard drives
16GB solid-state hard drive
Networking
Ethernet, 802.11 a/b/g/n
Operating system
Google Chrome OS (M19)
Display outputs
DisplayPort (2), DVI
Even though most people will have little interest in Google's Chrome OS, for its hardware, the Samsung Chromebox is a reasonably priced budget computer. The 1.9GHz Intel Celeron B840 is an up-to-date, dual-core budget CPU. 4GB of system memory is also appropriate for this price range.
For those of you looking askance at the Celeron processor (yes, Intel still makes them), remember that this is a $330 computer that is almost entirely Web-driven. That doesn't mean the CPU makes no contribution to system performance, but most of Chrome OS's browser-based interactions are computationally lightweight. Except for certain downloadable games, which I'll address below, I found no apparent bottlenecks while using the system. It played 1080p video files from YouTube and elsewhere with no performance issues. It also opened a large spreadsheet in Google Docs with no trouble. For basic productivity tasks, general Web browsing, and light-duty multimedia consumption, the Celeron chip is adequate.
File storage is a known weakness of Chrome-based PCs, and the Chromebox's 16GB of local storage capacity is well below the 500GB drives you'll find in most traditional budget PCs. Then again, those other systems all use standard mechanical hard drives. The Chromebox comes with a solid-state drive.
Two DisplayPort outputs on the bottom of the Samsung Chromebook.
Combined with the lightweight operating system, the solid-state hard drive makes turning the machine on and off incredibly fast. You arrive at the Chrome OS log-in screen about 10 seconds after you push the power button. High-end, SSD-assisted Windows PCs are impressive when they only take 35 seconds to boot up. Even better, the Chromebox shuts down in about one second, or almost as fast as you can press the power button twice (once for standby, once for shutdown).
The Chromebox is also uncommon among traditional budget PCs for its variety of video outputs. The single DVI port is not unexpected. It works well for traditional monitors, or as a base port to plug in an adapter for a VGA- or HDMI-based display. Few, if any budget PCs offer a DisplayPort output, though, let alone two of them.
The DisplayPort outputs on the Chromebox work similarly to an HDMI-out, transmitting both video and audio signals over a single cable. The Chromebox scales up to a maximum resolution of 2,560x1,440 pixels, although the operating system currently decides on the output resolution via automatic detection, and there's no apparent way to change the resolution manually (the old "/usr/bin/xrandr" terminal command no longer works). A Google spokesperson told me that this auto resolution detection will be in place for "the next couple of versions of Chrome."
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Tuesday, May 29, 2012


'Likejacking': Spammers Hit Social Media
By Olga Kharif on May 24, 2012 

Michelle Espinoza thought a single photo was going to ruin her business. It was an image of one of the pearl cuff bracelets she designs that showed up on Pinterest, a site where users create virtual bulletin boards, grouping images in categories—whether it be chocolate desserts or bohemian jewelry. For 10 days in April, anybody who clicked on the photo ended up watching pornography or unwittingly downloading a virus. “I can’t gauge how many customers I lost,” says Espinoza, a resident of Santa Rosa Beach, Fla. “But I did have people messaging me asking, ‘Are you linked to spam?’ I was just distraught.”

When Pinterest debuted two years ago, e-mail was the format of choice for spam peddling diets, sexual enhancement, and get-rich scams. Better filters have since banished many of the unwanted missives from in-boxes. Instead, scammers are turning to social media sites that are often poorly equipped to deal with the influx. “Social spam can be a lot more effective than e-mail spam,” says Mark Risher, chief executive officer of Impermium, which sells anti-spam software. “The bad guys are taking to this with great abandon.”

Spammers create as many as 40 percent of the accounts on social-media sites, according to Risher. About 8 percent of messages sent via social pages are spam, approximately twice the volume of six months ago, he says. Spammers use the sharing features on social sites to spread their messages. Click on a spammer’s link on Facebook (FB), and it may ask you to “like” or “share” a page, or to allow an app to gain access to your profile.

Facebook and Twitter have hired programmers and security specialists to deflect the flotsam. “Tens of millions of dollars are spent on our site-integrity systems, including hundreds of full-time employees,” says Facebook spokesman Frederic Wolens.

In January, Facebook sued advertising network Adscend Media, accusing it of sending unsolicited messages to Facebook users. A typical lure cited in the suit: “You will be SHOCKED when you see this video. Simply “Like” this page to see the video.” By clicking on a link, some users may unwittingly “like” the spam, a practice security experts call “likejacking.” At least 280,214 users were tricked into interacting with spam. About 80 percent of Adscend’s monthly revenue of $1.2 million comes from Facebook scams, according to the suit. Adscend denied the allegations and settled the case this month for $100,000. The company did not respond to e-mailed requests for comment.

Twitter last month sued spam software makers Skootle and JL4 Web Solutions, plus five individuals, claiming that they were responsible for spam that resulted in some users canceling accounts. Twitter, in the suit, said it spent more than $700,000 to combat spam attacks by the defendants. Skootle has denied wrongdoing. JL4 has yet to respond to the complaint.

Pinterest encourages users to form a virtual neighborhood watch and report spam before it spreads. Last month the site put up a blog post urging visitors to use its “Report Pin” button to tag spam.

On Pinterest, spam often lurks in the embedded links attached to photos, making it tricky for users to spot. Espinoza, the jewelry maker, said she contacted the company at least 10 times in as many days before the fraudulent links tied to images of her bracelets were banished. Pinterest declined to make executives available for an interview. “Our engineers are actively working to manage issues as they arise and are revisiting the nature of public feeds on the site to make it harder for fake or harmful content to get into them,” said a spokesperson in an e-mailed statement.

The bottom line: Largely exiled from e-mail, spammers are invading Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other social networks.

Kharif is a reporter for Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Businessweek in Portland, Ore.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-24/likejacking-spammers-hit-social-media

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Crackdown on Chinese Bloggers Who Fight the Censors With Puns
By MICHAEL WINES
Published: May 28, 2012

BEIJING — One of China’s largest hosts of Twitter-like microblogs decreed new punishments on Monday for users who post comments that its editors — and by extension, China’s government censors — deem inappropriate.

The service, Sina Weibo, imposed “user contracts” that award each of its 300 million microbloggers a starting score of 80 points.

Points can be deducted for online comments that are judged to be offensive. When a blogger reaches zero, the service stated, a user’s account will be canceled. Users who suffer lesser penalties can restore their 80 points by avoiding violations for two months.

Deductions will cover a wide range of sins, including spreading rumors, calling for protests, promoting cults or superstitions and impugning China’s honor, the service stated.

Most notably, the contracts also will punish time-honored tactics that bloggers have used to avoid censorship, like disguising comments on censored topics by using homonyms (where two different Chinese characters have nearly identical sounds), puns and other dodges.

To evade censors, bloggers have referred to the dissident artist Ai Weiwei by using the Chinese characters for “love the future,” a rough homonym of his name. Such ploys would be punished with a loss of points under the new rules.

Sina officials left unclear how many points a user would lose for a specific violation. But they said that microbloggers could increase their score to 100 points by supporting unspecified promotional activities, and would receive “low credit” warnings should their total fall below 60 points.

The restrictions are not new by themselves. Government censors already control what appears on the Internet, and corporate minders at Sina Weibo and other sites have long complied with their orders, deleting offensive comments, sly homonyms and other posts that rile the government’s sensibilities.

The point system, however, appears to be a muted effort to extend that control by warning users when they approach the boundaries of official tolerance. Internet companies like Sina that are privately operated tread a thin line between too-lax censorship that might draw government punishment and overly strict rules that would quash the lively debates that make the services popular.

The new rules were announced in early May and took effect on Monday.

Chinese propaganda authorities have progressively clamped down on the freedoms of Internet users since last year, when a high-speed train wreck in Zhejiang Province unleashed an online flood of angry antigovernment comments.

Censors have all but shut down comments this spring about the scandal involving Bo Xilai, the suspended Politburo member, and Chen Guangcheng, the dissident who sought refuge in the United States Embassy in Beijing.

The government briefly banned users from commenting on microblog posts on Sina Weibo and a rival service, Tencent QQ, apparently as a warning against spreading rumors about government instability surrounding Mr. Bo’s troubles.

A version of this article appeared in print on May 29, 2012, on page A5 of the New York edition with the headline: Crackdown on Chinese Bloggers Who Fight the Censors With Puns.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/world/asia/china-cracks-down-on-its-cagey-web-critics.html?_r=1&hp

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Sunday, May 27, 2012


House to examine plan for United Nations to regulate the Internet
By Brendan Sasso  - 05/26/12 08:10 AM ET

House lawmakers will consider an international proposal next week to give the United Nations more control over the Internet.

The proposal is backed by China, Russia, Brazil, India and other UN members, and would give the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) more control over the governance of the Internet.

It’s an unpopular idea with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in Congress, and officials with the Obama administration have also criticized it.

“We're quite concerned,” Larry Strickling, the head of the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said in an interview with The Hill earlier this year.

He said the measure would expose the Internet to “top-down regulation where it's really the governments that are at the table, but the rest of the stakeholders aren't.”

At a hearing earlier this month, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) also criticized the proposal. He said China and Russia are "not exactly bastions of Internet freedom."

"Any place that bans certain terms from search should not be a leader in international Internet regulatory frameworks," he said, adding that he will keep a close eye on the process.

Yet the proposal could come up for a vote at a UN conference in Dubai in December.

Next week’s hearing is expected to bring more attention in the U.S. to the measure, which would give the UN more control over cybersecurity, data privacy, technical standards and the Web’s address system. It would also allow foreign government-owned Internet providers to charge extra for international traffic and allow for more price controls.

The House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Communications and Technology will hold the hearing and hear testimony from Robert McDowell, a Republican commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC); David Gross, a former State Department official; and Sally Shipman Wentworth, the senior manager of public policy for the nonprofit Internet Society.

The Internet is currently governed under a “multi-stakeholder” approach that gives power to a host of nonprofits, rather than governments.

Strickling said that system brings more ideas and flexibility to Internet policymaking. 

“We lose that when we turn this over to a group of just governments,” Strickling said.

In an op-ed earlier this year in The Wall Street Journal, McDowell warned that “a top-down, centralized, international regulatory overlay is antithetical to the architecture of the Net.”

“Productivity, rising living standards and the spread of freedom everywhere, but especially in the developing world, would grind to a halt as engineering and business decisions become politically paralyzed within a global regulatory body,” McDowell wrote.

He said some governments feel excluded from Internet policymaking and want more control over the process.

“And let's face it, strong-arm regimes are threatened by popular outcries for political freedom that are empowered by unfettered Internet connectivity,” McDowell wrote.

http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/229653-house-to-examine-plan-to-let-un-regulate-internet

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Friday, May 25, 2012


Google alert claims users' Internet may shut down July 9

Google is spreading information about the DNSChanger malware, but for some the warnings may persist even after removing the malware.
by Topher Kessler May 24, 2012 9:21 PM PDT

If you have been browsing the Web lately and have used Google's search services, you may find the search results page show a warning at the top that states "Your computer appears to be infected" along with a small description about systems not being able to connect to the Internet in the future. The message also includes a link to an information page that generally describes what malware is and how to detect it.
This alert has had a few people concerned about their abilities to stay online.
MacFixIt reader Naomi writes:
"I noticed the google message saying my computer is infected and I have clicked on the links to clean up the malware/spyware/ whatever it is -- but the message is still there. Then I read that my Internet will go dead on July 9th!!! I followed the instructions to check my Mac for malware, and spent ages removing the detected spyware. Having run those tests, I thought the Google notice would not appear on the top of the Google searches, but it's stil there today."
As CNET's Declan McCullagh reported yesterday, this message from Google is an effort to help people who were infected with a widespread malware infection called "DNSChanger."
The DNSChanger malware is a Trojan horse infection that at its peak affected approximately 4 million PC systems worldwide, with about 500,000 of those being in the United States. When installed, the malware changes the system's DNS server settings to point to a rogue DNS network set up by the malware developers.

The number of DNSChanger-infected systems was at around 450,000 worldwide at the end of January, but remains at around 330,000 today.
(Credit: DCWG)
The DNS network is essentially the phone book for the Internet, and allows the system to convert URL names such as "www.cnet.com" to the IP address for the Web site (a number that the computer and network devices can use). The effort behind the DNSChanger malware was to interfere with this IP address lookup routine and provide a false IP number to the computer. As a result, if you typed in the URL of a legitimate Web site, then the malware developers could redirect you to a fake Web site that tries to phish information from you, have you click on ads for revenue, or otherwise perform unwanted behavior.
In November 2011, the FBI and authorities from other countries arrested the crime ring behind the malware; however, they were faced with a problem about how to fix the millions of PCs that have been infected with the malware. For these systems, their DNS server settings will continually revert to point to the rogue DNS network, even if they are manually changed by the user. Therefore, in order to keep affected people online, the FBI kept the rogue DNS network active, and only converted it to be a legitimate DNS service.
This setup was intended to be a temporary fix while people removed the malware from their systems; however, the eradication of the malware has taken a lot longer than anticipated. The rogue servers were originally to be shut down on March 8, but by that time an estimated 450,000 systems were still infected so the shutdown date was pushed back to July 9.
Even with the criminal arrests and seizure of the DNS network over 6 months ago, an estimated 330,000 systems are still infected to this date, with about 77,000 of them being in the U.S.
This slow response for removing the malware is in part because users with the malware were not properly informed of the issue. Their Internet connections have continued to work just fine, so there has been no reason for them to suspect any problems.

By running these commands in the Windows Command Line or the OS X Terminal you can look up the DNS server settings on your system, though this can also be done in the control panel and system preferences. (click for larger view)
(Credit: Screenshots by Topher Kessler/CNET)
As the July 9 shutdown deadline looms, these systems are in danger of losing their ability to resolve URLs to their respective IP addresses, and thereby lose their ability to connect to the Internet. Because this threatens the connectivity of thousands of PC systems, to help inform people of this malware threat, Google has implemented a service that determines if the rogue DNS network is being used by your computer, and then issues you the warning.
If you see this warning, then there are several things you can do:
1.     Check your DNS settings
Since the DNSChanger malware alters your DNS settings, you can easily determine if your system is infected by going to your network settings and looking up your DNS servers. Alternatively you can use the OS X Terminal utility (in the /Applications/Utilities) folder to look up your DNS servers by running the following command (change "Wi-Fi" to "Ethernet" if you use ethernet connections):

networksetup -getdnsservers "Wi-Fi"

If you use Microsoft Windows (even within a Virtual Machine or Boot Camp on your Mac), then you can look up this same information by going to the Windows command line and then running the following command:

ipconfig /all

In addition to checking the DNS settings on your computers, be sure to check the settings in your router (consult your router's manual for how to do this). Later variants of the DNSChanger malware did affect hardware routers and change their DNS settings, which would in turn affect all systems on the network.

With your DNS IP addresses known, you can then use the FBI's DNS IP checker tool to ensure they are legitimate DNS servers.
2.     Update antivirus utilities
Another step you can take is to update or install an antivirus utility on your computer, and have it scan the system for known malware with the latest malware definitions. Most utilities should have fully updated definitions for the DNSChanger variants, and should be able to detect them. Some good options you can try are the free Sophos Home Edition scanner, ClamXav, and Symantec's rerelease of iAntivirus for Mac, and PC Tools, AVG, and Avast for PC systems (these are only a few out of many good options).
3.     Run DNSChanger removal tools
In addition to global anti-malware tools that will detect and remove all types of malware, there are some standalone tools that were built to directly detect and remove the DNSChanger malware, such as the DNSChanger Removal Tool for Mac.
4.     Clear browser caches and monitor the system
After checking your DNS server settings, changing them to legitimate ones (such as those from your ISP), and perhaps scanning your system with an antivirus tool, be sure to continue monitoring your DNS settings to ensure they do not revert. If so, then you have not properly tackled the problem, but if you have removed the malware from your system, then the DNS settings should remain as you set them.

In addition to monitoring your system's settings, be sure to clear your browser's caches and cookies (see how to do this for various browsers in this article), to prevent warnings from being inadvertently reloaded after you have cleaned your system and networked devices of the malware and rogue settings.
       

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57441163-263/google-alert-claims-users-internet-may-shut-down-july-9/
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Students will be tracked via chips in IDs
By Francisco Vara-Orta
Updated 11:44 p.m., Thursday, May 24, 2012

Northside Independent School District plans to track students next year on two of its campuses using technology implanted in their student identification cards in a trial that could eventually include all 112 of its schools and all of its nearly 100,000 students.

District officials said the Radio Frequency Identification System (RFID) tags would improve safety by allowing them to locate students — and count them more accurately at the beginning of the school day to help offset cuts in state funding, which is partly based on attendance.

Northside, the largest school district in Bexar County, plans to modify the ID cards next year for all students attending John Jay High School, Anson Jones Middle School and all special education students who ride district buses. That will add up to about 6,290 students.

The school board unanimously approved the program late Tuesday but, in a rarity for Northside trustees, they hotly debated it first, with some questioning it on privacy grounds.

State officials and national school safety experts said the technology was introduced in the past decade but has not been widely adopted. Northside's deputy superintendent of administration, Brian Woods, who will take over as superintendent in July, defended the use of RFID chips at Tuesday's meeting, comparing it to security cameras. He stressed that the program is only a pilot and not permanent.

“We want to harness the power of (the) technology to make schools safer, know where our students are all the time in a school, and increase revenues,” district spokesman Pascual Gonzalez said. “Parents expect that we always know where their children are, and this technology will help us do that.”

Chip readers on campuses and on school buses can detect a student's location but can't track them once they leave school property. Only authorized administrative officials will have access to the information, Gonzalez said.

“This way we can see if a student is at the nurse's office or elsewhere on campus, when they normally are counted for attendance in first period,” he said.

Gonzalez said the district plans to send letters to parents whose students are getting the RFID-tagged ID cards. He said officials understand that students could leave the card somewhere, throwing off the system. They cost $15 each, and if lost, a student will have to pay for a new one.

Parents interviewed outside Jay and Jones as they picked up their children Thursday were either supportive, skeptical or offended.

Veronica Valdorrinos said she would be OK if the school tracks her daughter, a senior at Jay, as she always fears for her safety. Ricardo and Juanita Roman, who have two daughters there, said they didn't like that Jay was targeted.

Gonzalez said the district picked schools with lower attendance rates and staff willing to pilot the tags.

Some parents said they understood the benefits but had reservations over privacy.

“I would hope teachers can help motivate students to be in their seats instead of the district having to do this,” said Margaret Luna, whose eighth-grade granddaughter at Jones will go to Jay next year. “But I guess this is what happens when you don't have enough money.”

The district plans to spend $525,065 to implement the pilot program and $136,005 per year to run it, but it will more than pay for itself, predicted Steve Bassett, Northside's assistant superintendent for budget and finance. If successful, Northside would get $1.7 million next year from both higher attendance and Medicaid reimbursements for busing special education students, he said.

But the payoff could be a lot bigger if the program goes district wide, Bassett said.

He said the program was one way the growing district could respond to the Legislature's cuts in state education funding. Northside trimmed its budget last year by $61.4 million.

Two school districts in the Houston area — Spring and Santa Fe ISDs — have used the technology for several years and have reported gains of hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for improved attendance. Spring ISD spokeswoman Karen Garrison said the district, one-third the size of Northside, hasn't had any parent backlash.

In Tuesday's board debate, trustee M'Lissa M. Chumbley said she worried that parents might feel the technology violated their children's privacy rights. She didn't want administrators tracking teachers' every move if they end up outfitted with the tags, she added.

“I think this is overstepping our bounds and is inappropriate,” Chumbley said. “I'm honestly uncomfortable about this.”

Northside has to walk a tightrope in selling the idea to parents, some of whom could be turned off by the revenue incentive, said Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services, a Cleveland-based consulting firm.

The American Civil Liberties Union fought the use of the technology in 2005 at a rural elementary school in California and helped get the program canceled, said Kirsten Bokenkamp, an ACLU spokeswoman in Texas. She said concerns about the tags include privacy and the risks of identity theft or kidnapping if somebody hacks into the system.

Texas Education Agency spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said no state law or policy regulates the use of such devices and the decision is up to local districts.

fvara-orta@express-news.net

Twitter: @fvaraorta

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/article/Students-will-be-tracked-via-chips-in-IDs-3584339.php#ixzz1vuezbjP7

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/article/Students-will-be-tracked-via-chips-in-IDs-3584339.php#ixzz1vsssNfl7

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Thursday, May 24, 2012


'We face a fight for the future of the web,' says Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt

JEROME TAYLOR    WEDNESDAY 23 MAY 2012
 
One of Google’s most senior executives issued a stark warning tonight that the power of the internet to free some of the world’s most oppressed people risks being overturned by autocratic governments who seek to “Balkanise” the web by controlling what can be accessed.

Eric Schmidt, the current executive chairman of the Silicon Valley internet giant, said technology had the potential to be a “great leveller” which would empower the poor like never before. But he added that dictatorial regimes were increasingly looking to control who has access to the web by “filtering information they fear or prohibit.”

The 57-year-old software engineer, who stepped down as Google’s CEO last year after more than a decade in the driving seat, called on the international community to “fight for the future of the web” stating that at least 40 governments are now known to engage in online censorship compared to just four a decade ago.

“Last year we saw in Egypt what happened when a government tried to turn the Internet off, “ he said last night in a speech at the Science Museum in Kensington, referencing the moment when the struggling regime of Hosni Mubarak tried to block the web in the face of mass street protests. “Now many governments are attempting to build their own walled Internet, a Balkanised web in which you and I do not see the same information and no one knows what has been censored.”

Using somewhat apocalyptic language, he stated that web users “face the real possibility we could end up living in society in which software silently deletes our voices, our thoughts our culture.”

“Make no mistake, he added. ”This is a fight for the future of the web and there is no room for complacency.”

Mr Schmidt’s comments came in a speech that outlined his belief in how the internet will develop over the coming decades. He painted a utopian portrait of a world increasingly liberated by technology, where the growing affordability of smart phones and web connections would help the world’s poorest join the information super highway and fight their would-be oppressors. A smartphone which currently costs $400, he predicted, might be as cheap as $20 in 12 years time.

“Technology will be a great leveller,” he said. “It empowers by its very nature. By ensuring universal access – to the cloud, to each other, to the world – we will create greater freedom and opportunity for all.

He added: “States will struggle to sell propaganda to the public as citizens get constant access to mobile phone and social networks. In times of war and suffering it will be harder to ignore the voices that cry out for help”.

But the Google executive also issued a series of warnings over where the future of the internet remains acutely vulnerable. As well as fretting about the increasing willingness of states to filter access to the web, Mr Schmidt admitted that it will take at least a decade to secure the web from criminal networks.

“Fixing this problem is a huge task,” he said.” Except for military networks, every single note on the web is connected and will need to be upgraded.”

He also expressed concerns about the difficulty citizens have in removing data about themselves from the web, remarking that the Internet currently had no “delete button.”

“A false accusation in your youth used to fade away; now it can remain forever,” he said. “I hope that ranking emerges that distinguishes between truth and falsehood to allow people to start over on a new footing.”

The Google executive has previously expressed reservations about the amount of personal information people leave on the internet – even once suggesting that younger generations might have to create new identities to escape their cyber record once they enter the work place.

His concerns over online privacy is perhaps surprising given that he has helped create a company that has made billions by perfecting the art of hoarding, storing and retrieving information on us.

Much of Mr Schmidt's speech was dedicated to whether we are doing enough to train future generations of engineers and software developers – a theme he has often expressed concern about. Last year he delivered a devastating critique of Britain's education.

In his latest speech he struck a more conciliatory tone saying he was “impressed with [the government's] willingness to engage on this crucial issue”. But he warned that more needed to be done to promote science and engineering to younger generations.

“So long as more kids aspire to win the X-Factor than win a Nobel Prize, there is room to improve,” he said.
 
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/we-face-a-fight-for-the-future-of-the-web-says-googles-executive-chairman-eric-schmidt-7782353.html

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Judge Rejects RIAA Claim Of 'Trillions' Against Limewire
May 24, 2012 at 5:36 AM (PT)

Off The Hook For $72 Trillion

The RIAA's contention that LIMEWIRE owes it trillions of dollars in damages is "absurd," a federal judge has ruled. COMPUTERWORLD.COM reports, "In a scathing ruling filed earlier this month, Judge KIMBA WOOD of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of NEW YORK flatly rejected the industry's claims that LIMEWIRE should pay up to $150,000 for each download of some 11,000 songs included in the RIAA lawsuit."

That would have added up to over $72 trillion dollars in damages.

The RIAA had argued that the file-sharing site LIMEWIRE allowed thousands or even millions of people to illegally download one or more of 11,000 songs. The association contends its members are entitled to statutory damages for every single illegal download.

But the Judge disagreed, ruling the RIAA's position "offends the canon that we should avoid endorsing statutory interpretations that would lead to absurd results," and continued "If Plaintiffs were able to pursue a statutory damage theory based on the number of direct infringers per work, Defendants' damages could reach into the trillions."

http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/106363/judge-rejects-riaa-claim-of-trillions-against-lime
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