Category: News

Today marks the deadline for the first round of comments to the FCC regarding its proposed “net neutrality” regulations. Here’s a quick summary of what EFF had to say in its comments to the Commission:

While the question of how to best protect the openness of the Internet is a timely and important one, EFF believes the FCC currently lacks the statutory authority to issue the broad regulations on ISPs that it has proposed. The “ancillary jurisdiction” that the FCC has asserted as a basis for the regulations is legally insufficient and would, if accepted, give the FCC potentially unbounded power to regulate the Internet however it likes. In other words, if the FCC wants to issue net neutrality regulations, it needs to wait until Congress passes a net neutrality bill.

If the Commission nevertheless chooses to forge ahead with the regulations proposed, EFF urges it to make the following revisions designed to protect the free speech and privacy interests of Internet users, and to foster competition and innovation.

First, in order to protect the free speech interests of Internet users, the Commission should reject copyright enforcement as “reasonable network management.” Copyright enforcement has nothing to do with the technical business of network management. Moreover, the proposed regulations, by their terms, already exclude “unlawful content,” making any exception for copyright enforcement unnecessary. Should ISPs want to deploy copyright enforcement technologies that inflict collateral damage on lawful content, those ISPs should be required to submit any such technologies to the Commission for pre-deployment review as part of a transparent public waiver process.

Second, in order to protect the privacy interests of Internet users, the Commission should clarify that the law enforcement exception applies only to an ISP’s legal obligations to address the needs of law enforcement. Because the six proposed neutrality principles do not, by their terms, apply to unlawful content or activities, a general exception for law enforcement is unnecessary. Should ISPs want to voluntarily deploy technologies that would block lawful activity in the course of addressing the needs of law enforcement, those ISPs should be required to submit any such technologies to the Commission for pre-deployment review as part of a transparent, public waiver process.

Third, in order to protect the privacy interests of Internet users, the Commission should make it clear that its proposed regulations do not reach noncommercial providers of broadband Internet access service, whether they are individuals who operate open Wi-Fi networks at home, or public-minded entities that provide free Internet access in their local communities. The Commission should avoid the specter of federal regulation looming over noncommercial, public-spirited network providers. Federal regulation of these initiatives is not necessary to vindicate the openness, competition, innovation, and free expression goals of this proceeding.

Fourth, in order to foster competition and innovation, EFF urges the Commission to make it clear that the proposed “transparency” principle is not subject to an exception for “reasonable network management.” As exemplified by the Commission’s ruling against Comcast regarding its discriminatory treatment of BitTorrent traffic, it is precisely when ISPs invoke the need for “reasonable network management” that the principle of transparency becomes most vital. Only if ISPs are required to adequately disclose their network management practices will consumers, competitors, innovators, and the Commission be able to evaluate whether the practices are, in fact, “reasonable.”

Fifth, in order to foster competition and innovation, the Commission should require wireless ISPs to allow “tethering” as a form of device interconnection. This requirement is a necessary corollary to the principle that consumers should be entitled to use any lawful device or application that does not harm the network. Tethering facilitates interoperability, competition, and openness. Furthermore, tethering blocks some troubling practices that are already emerging in the marketplace.

Young startups looking to get the word out about their new product or service may want to enter a new competition from digital magazine publisher Alister & Paine. The New York-based company is hosting its first annual Young Entrepreneur of the Year Competition with help from digital marketing firm Pyxl and public relations social platform PitchEngine.

The winner of the competition will receive a micro-marketing campaign from Alister & Paine, as well as an interview and editorial in their weekly online magazine geared towards business executives. Pyxl will provide the winner with two free press releases, and PitchEngine is offering a free on-year subscription to their service.

Sponsor

The judges of the competition will be the founders and CEOs from Alister & Paine, Pyxl and PitchEngine, as well as Jeffrey Miron, the director of the undergraduate Economics program at Harvard University.

“Winners of the Alister & Paine Young Entrepreneur competition will get a terrific boost to their projects in ways which otherwise may not have been available to them,” said Miron. “Helping these young entrepreneurs now will become a boon to the economy’s future.”

Entrepreneurs must be U.S. citizens aged 18-25 and the companies must be domestically held and formed on of after January 1st, 2007. Applications are due by April 30th, and the winners will be announced a few weeks later on May 17th.

Discuss

One of my kitchen gadgets I cannot live without is my 1.5-cup food processor. What I love most about this cute little processor is that it takes up very little room and takes 30-seconds to clean. Again, back to the lazy thing, I really don’t like cleaning 5-cup blenders and 12-cup food processors because mentally, it always makes me feel like cleaning them is doing a chore. The mini-me is effortless to clean and one of the things I love to make in it are smoothies.

I like thicker smoothies. Mine though are sometimes too thick and have a consistency closer to drinkable pudding, kinda like this very simple one I made the other day which was simply organic blueberries, half a banana, chopped walnuts, and rice milk. Fire up the mini-me and this smoothie makes for a great afternoon sweet snack packed with some MUFAs.

Filed under: Nissan, Toys/Games

The GT Academy, the partnership between Sony’s Gran Turismo game and Nissan, released a time trial demo last month to begin searching for a racer good enough to jump from high-def screen to high-speed chicane. Last year Lucas Ordoñez was the first to go from gamer to racer, scoring a podium in his first race with the GT Academy team. You need to get on it if you want to follow in his footsteps, because you’ve already got a million competitors – that’s how many folks have downloaded the time trial in the first three weeks.

If that isn’t convincing enough, there is another less appealing reason to download the demo: GT5’s release has been delayed indefinitely. Sony didn’t indicate on its web site what caused the delay, saying only, “We apologize for any inconvenience.” It was not, however, the previously attributed marketing issues. Some reports point to “production issues” with the $60 million game. London’s Times newspaper, however, said analysts think this could be a deliberate Sony strategy. They suggest that Final Fantasy XIII did so well that Sony wants to release GT5 in the next financial year, after March, to lengthen the sales boost.

We’ll lean toward production issues as opposed to a deliberate strategy. Heck, we’d believe werewolves caused the delay before we’d believe this was planned. The game does look phenomenal but it’s already three years overdue, meanwhile Forza 3 eats into market share. On top of that, we have never heard of a successful business strategy that involved telling your biggest fans, repeatedly, “We don’t have it yet,” then switching to, “We don’t know when we’re gonna have it… um, we’ll call you.”

Will GT5 do well whenever it shows? Of course. But we will wonder how well it could have done. For now there’s always the GT Academy demo, and among those million downloaders you’ll want to look out for the one who goes by the name Duke Nukem Forever (whose initials are, coincidentally, DNF). There’s a press release on the time trial after the jump, and a pretty bunch of high-res screenshots below. Thanks to everyone who sent tips!

[Source: Reuters]

Continue reading Gran Turismo 5 demo hits 1M downloads in three weeks, but game delayed indefinitely

Gran Turismo 5 demo hits 1M downloads in three weeks, but game delayed indefinitely originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Europe, Government/Legal, Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, Plants/Manufacturing

Despite the fact that the Detroit Auto Show put the focus back on General Motors‘ new products and pulled the spotlight away from the will-they/won’t-they saga that is the Saab sale/wind-down, there are no shortage of developments to report in the ongoing story.

Yesterday, Genii Capital and Bernie Ecclestone submitted a freshly revised bit for Saab, and Spyker Cars reportedly also did so, with CEO Victor Muller going so far as to say that, “We have shown Mr. Whitacre the money.” For its part, Merbanco has also apparently been asked to tweak its bid by General Motors, and it has done so as well.

Swedish-language outlet Svenska Dagbladet has reported that Genii and Spyker may team up to present an even stronger bid, and Dagens Industri has gone so far as to speculate that Genii and Spyker might try to pull Renault into a three-way deal (as you may remember, Genii purchased Renault’s Formula One team recently), but Saabs United indicates that there’s not much to this rumor.

In what critics are suggesting as a less-than-good-faith move, GM may also schedule transportation of the 2010 Saab 9-5’s tooling to China as early as tomorrow, January 15, where the model would likely be built wearing Buick badges. The General appointed Steven Taylor and Peter Torngren to oversee the liquidation of Saab on Monday, and as part of that move, they replaced both Saab’s CEO and board effective immediately.

Despite all of this, GM’s new president of North America, Mark Reuss, has been quoted suggesting that the protracted bidding struggle may continue until early February, all while GM continues to the process of shuttering the brand. It’s enough to make us long for the simpler days of last November, when Saab was nearly sold to Koenigsegg for the symbolic sum of one krona (about .14 cents).

While all of this has been happening, Saab enthusiasts have apparently been gearing up for dozens of rallies around the globe to show support for the sale of the battered marque, with organizers in Yekatarinburg, Russia going so far as to create a commercial and running it on local television. On Tuesday, workers at Saab’s Trollhätten plant rallied, calling for the newly-appointed liquidators at AlixPartners to “go home.” This, as the very first Saab 9-3 convertible came off the line in Sweden – previous droptops had been assembled by Valmet in Findland and Magna Steyr in Austria.

Given how painfully drawn-out this process has become, we have to wonder… will there be anything left to save when all the chips fall? A final, they-really-mean-it-this-time decision on Saab’s fate could happen as early as tomorrow, but sources close to the negotiations seem to think that the proceedings are likely to drag out into next week.

[Sources: Saabs United, Saab History, Swedish Wire, Earth Times, Business Week; Contract Hire and Leasing]

Saab Saga Update: Genii and Spyker pondering joint bid? Workers rally in Trollhätten, etc. originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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by Agence France-Presse

NEW YORK—The minute hand of the Doomsday Clock was moved back slightly Thursday, indicating the world has inched away from nuclear or environmental catastrophe, but still is not out of danger.

“It is six minutes to midnight,” the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, which created the Doomsday Clock in 1947, said in a statement read out as the clock’s countdown to midnight was nudged back by one minute from where it has been since 2007.

“For the first time since atomic bombs were dropped in 1945, leaders of nuclear weapons states are cooperating to vastly reduce their arsenals and secure all nuclear bomb-making material,” read the statement by the panel of international scientists, including 19 Nobel laureates.  “For the first time ever, industrialized and developing countries alike are pledging to limit climate-changing gas emissions that could render our planet nearly uninhabitable.  These unprecedented steps are signs of a growing political will to tackle the two gravest threats to civilization—the terror of nuclear weapons and runaway climate change,” the statement said.

Since its creation, the Doomsday Clock has come to be seen as a barometer of what progress, if any, the world has made in moving away from the risk of nuclear, climate-caused, or bio-warfare catastrophe.  Midnight on the clock signifies the apocalypse, and the minute hand symbolizes the countdown to disaster.

The last time the minute hand of the clock was moved was in 2007, when it was bumped two minutes closer to midnight.

In resetting the clock this year, the scientists said they were encouraged by recent developments, but had put back the clock back by only one minute to show they were “mindful that the clock is ticking,” said Lawrence Krauss, a physicist and co-chair of BAS’s board of sponsors.  

“We moved it back by just one minute and what that means is that there’s great potential for it to move again, in either direction,”  Krauss said. “We have a unique opportunity right now to begin to free ourselves from the terror of nuclear weapons and to slow drastic changes to our shared global environment.  We must take advantage of that opportunity now,” said Krauss, calling on world leaders, scientists, and ordinary people to work together to make the world safer.  “Let’s not blow it,” he urged.

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists was founded in 1945 by scientists from the University of Chicago who had helped to develop the first atomic weapons.

Related Links:

German solar industry faces subsidy cut

U.N. climate panel will probe disputed Himalayan glacier forecast

Small cars make it big at Detroit Auto Show [slideshow]

French fashion magazine Spray has new editorial highlighting a new Western trend for the Fall/Winter season. Styled by Charlotte Briere, the looks of the editorial exhibits down jackets with a Western flair. Flannels are mixed in, as well as boots, ties, and bow ties to give this look a less rugged feel.

Continue reading for more images.

Source: Mode

Now here’s an awesome mod: an old Sega Genesis that’s been converted into some sort of remote-control car. And the original Genesis controller works with it! Just skip to 1:50. If only it still played games! [Kotaku]

Are you a bank stock investor worried about Obama’s new too-big-to-fail tax?

For the most part you shouldn’t be.

Oppenheimer’s Chris Kotowski has run the numbers and concluded that the tax represents the equivalent of a measly 15 basis point hike in the fed funds rate — so on balance, the government is still giving banks a massive cheap-money gift.

If you’re worried about something, worry more about Bernanke being forced to raise rates to stem inflation (though again, we wouldn’t worry too much about this, because there’s little evidence that such a hike is imminent).

Now here’s how things would look if the assessment were to go straight to the bottom line:

See that? Morgan Stanley (MS) is going to get creamed nearly twice as bad as Goldman Sachs.

That being said, Kotowski says not to worry:

However, we don’t believe that the fee will run directly to the bottom line. We view it as ef fectively an increase in the wholesale cost of funds that will be  passed through to the customers that utilize these institutions’ balance sheets.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• The Obama Tax Plan: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
• SHOCKER: We Do Not Completely Hate Obama’s New Bank Tax Plan
• It’s Official: Obama Set To Tax 50 Big Banks $90 Billion Over The Next 10 Years

Harvard chemistry professor Sunney Xie was one of six recipients of the 2009 E.O. Lawrence Award for his outstanding contributions in research and development supporting the Department of Energy and its missions.

Specifically, Xie will be honored for his innovations in nonlinear Raman microscopy and highly sensitive vibrational imaging, his scientific leadership in establishing the field of single-molecule biophysical chemistry, and his seminal work in enzyme dynamics and live cell gene expression. Xie is in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, who announced the six winners on Dec. 16, said, “The contributions made by these researchers to advance the national, economic, and energy security of the United States are wide-ranging and meaningful. I congratulate the winners and look forward to their discoveries still to come.”

The award recipients will receive a gold medal, a citation, and $50,000.  They will be honored at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., early this year.

The Lawrence Award was established in 1959 to honor the memory of Ernest Orlando Lawrence who invented the cyclotron (a particle accelerator), and after whom two major Energy Department laboratories in Berkeley and Livermore, Calif., are named.

For a full list of winners, visit the Department of Energy’s Web site.

Such has been the strength that traders suspect a single massive contrarian buyer could be at work, purposefully trying to conceal itself:

FT: Auctions of US Treasury notes this week have attracted extremely strong buying from domestic institutional investors, fuelling speculation that "one big bidder" has decided to defy the conventional wisdom on Wall Street that US government debt is due for a fall.

The surprising demand for Treasury notes has come in the form of "direct bids", the term used for US institutional investors who bypass the so-called primary dealers that underwrite government bond sales.

Yesterday, direct bids accounted for 17 per cent of the sales of $21bn in 10-year Treasury notes, far higher than the recent average of 7.4 per cent. It was the highest percentage of direct bids in a 10-year Treasury auction since May 2005.

On Tuesday, direct bids accounted for a record 23.4 per cent of the bidding for $40bn in three-year notes, up from an average direct bid of 6 per cent.

Market participants say the unusually high level of direct bidding suggests that a large investor is looking to accumulate Treasuries without alerting the primary dealers on Wall Street to its intentions.

Read more here >

Whoever it is, they may have backed off from today's auction, given that direct bids were only 5% of the total this time. Nevertheless, the auction appeared to do well regardless since the high yield (at 4.64%) came in lower than where similar treasuries traded ahead of the auction Check out today's treasury auction results here >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Long Term Treasury Yields Scream 2007
• Eric Sprott: The Fed Is A Ponzi, The Treasury Purchase Data Is A Lie
• Treasury In Denial About Goldman's Role In AIG Crisis

Google may be helping advertisers more easily include overlays in YouTube videos. The company has apparently created a method to create video overlay advertisement for display with a digital video, according to a patent filed today with the US Patent and Trademark Office and spotted by GoRumors.

Google has allowed overlay advertising for some time now. While some advertisers have taken advantage, others lack the resources to overlay ads on video. Technologies like Adobe Flash are required that use various multimedia development tools and are complex and costly. With Google’s patent pending technology, advertisers could soon be given a quick and easy way to overlay ads.

The patent, dubbed “Video Overlay Advertisment Creator,” appears to be a web-based user interface that will allow advertisers to choose from templates made up of text fields to overlay attributes on videos. The interface will then allow the advertiser to leverage various playback options to review the final video before submitting. The ad video will then be stored within a remote advertisement database.

With the millions of videos and users on YouTube, it’s no surprise that advertisers would want a way to push ads within the videos. While this new interface could benefit advertisers greatly, along with anyone who has a product or service, Google will be the real winner.

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Here’s an interesting little new media legal dilemma for you: apparently there are several paid apps in the iPhone App Store that bill themselves as “readers” for publications like the New York Times, CNET, and the BBC, but aren’t actually licensed or official in anyway — they’re just pulling RSS feeds. That means people paying for an app like The New York Times Mobile Reader aren’t actually getting an app from the Times — and, perhaps more importantly, the Times isn’t getting anything from anyone. Seems like Apple should probably just shut these apps down, but that’s the interesting part: all these apps are pretty much just custom-built feed readers, and you can generally access all of the same content using Safari. Now, there’s obviously a trademark issue involved here, especially if these apps are confusing people into thinking they’re official, but we’re curious to see how these pubs and Apple handle the situation in the next few weeks, since it’s relatively uncharted territory.

P.S.- Let’s not even get into the fact that Apple’s rated the NYT Mobile Reader app “12+” for “Infrequent / Mild Mature / Suggestive Themes.” Oh, the App Store.

Unauthorized iPhone news readers raise eyebrows originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Segway Inc. confirms merger with UK-based firm

Segway Inc. confirms merger with UK-based firm originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel Atom processors, capacitive touchscreens, NVIDIA Tegra 2 graphics, Moblin installs… sounds like a suite of hot next-gen ultra-portables, right? Think again. Those are just some of the technologies used in the dashboards of cars that will be appearing on showrooms in the coming months and years, dashes that were largely on display at CES — minus the cars themselves, usually. There we were treated to mobile glimpses of Google Earth, Pandora, and Slacker Radio on the go, plus the ability to lock and unlock your car via Ye Olde Internets. It’s the future, and it’s coming soon, so click on through already and get a sneak peek.

Continue reading Next-gen dashboards get Tegra 2, Moblin, Atom, we go hands-on

Next-gen dashboards get Tegra 2, Moblin, Atom, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 12:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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During Honda’s press conference at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show, CEO Takanobu Ito confirmed that the Japanese automaker will be adding hybrids to its Acura brand.

“Last year, due to the business conditions and to focus on reducing CO2 emissions, we re-focused some of our product development resources,” Ito said. “Now, I’m pleased to say that we will be adding hybrids to the Acura brand. And based on my history in developing several Acura products, I have strong confidence in our ability to advance the Acura brand.”

While Ito admitted that fuel-cell electric vehicles are the best way to reduce CO2 emissions, he feels that in the near term, the most important approach is to use gasoline hybrid vehicles.

“To increase the opportunity for more customers to choose a hybrid we must be able to meet different needs with family, luxury and sporty hybrid vehicles,” said Ito. “We will apply hybrid systems which are compact, lightweight and affordable to a wider range of products in the near future.”

– By: Omar Rana