August 2005 - apple-list - University of Manitoba Mailing Lists

INTEREST: CEO Eric Schmidt doesn't reveal much about himself but [his] Google search engine...
by billing 15 Aug '05

15 Aug '05

Google balances privacy, reach Published: July 14, 2005, 4:00 AM PDT By Elinor Mills Staff Writer, CNET News.com Google CEO Eric Schmidt doesn't reveal much about himself on his home page. But spending 30 minutes on the Google search engine lets one discover that Schmidt, 50, was worth an estimated $1.5 billion last year. Earlier this year, he pulled in almost $90 million from sales of Google stock and made at least another $50 million selling shares in the past two months as the stock leaped to more than $300 a share. He and his wife Wendy live in the affluent town of Atherton, Calif., where, at a $10,000-a-plate political fund-raiser five years ago, presidential candidate Al Gore and his wife Tipper danced as Elton John belted out "Bennie and the Jets." Schmidt has also roamed the desert at the Burning Man art festival in Nevada, and is an avid amateur pilot. That such detailed personal information is so readily available on public Web sites makes most people uncomfortable. But it's nothing compared with the information Google collects and doesn't make public. Assuming Schmidt uses his company's services, someone with access to Google's databases could find out what he writes in his e-mails and to whom he sends them, where he shops online or even what restaurants he's located via online maps. Like so many other Google users, his virtual life has been meticulously recorded. The fear, of course, is that hackers, zealous government investigators, or even a Google insider who falls short of the company's ethics standards could abuse that information. Google, some worry, is amassing a tempting record of personal information, and the onus is on the Mountain View, Calif., company to keep that information under wraps. Privacy advocates say information collected at Yahoo, Microsoft's MSN, Amazon.com's A-9 and other search and e-commerce companies poses similar risks. Indeed, many of those companies' business plans tend to mimic what Google is trying to do, and some are less careful with the data they collect. But Google, which has more than a 50 percent share of the U.S. search engine market, according to the latest data from WebSideStory, has become a lightning rod for privacy concerns because of its high profile and its unmatched impact on the Internet community. "Google is poised to trump Microsoft in its potential to invade privacy, and it's very hard for many consumers to get it because the Google brand name has so much trust," said Chris Hoofnagle of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "But if you step back and look at the suite of products and how they are used, you realize Google can have a lot of personal information about individuals' Internet habits--e-mail, saving search history, images, personal information from (social network site) Orkut--it represents a significant threat to privacy." Kevin Bankston, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said Google is amassing data that could create some of the most detailed individual profiles ever devised. "Your search history shows your associations, beliefs, perhaps your medical problems. The things you Google for define you," Bankston said. The Google record As is typical for search engines, Google retains log files that record search terms used, Web sites visited and the Internet Protocol address and browser type of the computer for every single search conducted through its Web site. In addition, search engines are collecting personally identifiable information in order to offer certain services. For instance, Gmail asks for name and e-mail address. By comparison, Yahoo's registration also asks for address, phone number, birth date, gender and occupation and may ask for home address and Social Security number for financial services. "It's data that's practically a printout of what's going on in your brain: What you are thinking of buying, who you talk to, what you talk about." --Kevin Bankston, staff attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation If search history, e-mail and registration information were combined, a company could see intimate details about a person's health, sex life, religion, financial status and buying preferences. It's "data that's practically a printout of what's going on in your brain: What you are thinking of buying, who you talk to, what you talk about," Bankston said. "It is an unprecedented amount of personal information, and these third parties (such as Google) have carte blanche control over that information." Google uses the log information to analyze traffic in order to prevent people from rigging search results, for blocking denial-of- service attacks and to improve search services, said Nicole Wong, associate general counsel at Google. Personally identifiable information that is required for consumers to register for and log in to Google services is not shared with any outside companies or used for marketing, according to Google's privacy policy, except with the consent of the user, or if outside "trusted" parties need it to process the data on Google's behalf. What Google knows about you • Gmail -- The e-mail service offers two gigabytes of free storage and scans the content of messages to serve up context-related ads. • Cookies -- Google uses cookies, which are commonly used to link individual users with activities. • Desktop Search -- Google's Desktop Search lets users easily search files stored on their computer. • Web Accelerator -- The application speeds Web surfing by storing cached copies of Web pages you've visited; those page requests can include personal information. ...complete article at: http://news.com.com/Google+balances+privacy,+reach/ 2100-1032_3-5787483.html

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INTERST: Ya gotta love convergence.... Google Street Maps, meet Google Satellite maps
by billing 02 Aug '05

02 Aug '05

> last Friday, Google introduced Google Maps Hybrid which is > "Google Maps Transparancies" on steroids. Just point your web browser > to > > http://maps.google.com/ > > search for something, and then in the upper right corner of the map > click on the "Hybrid" button. Google Maps will show you a satellite > image with street names and points of interests laid on top of that > image. For example, if you go to > > http://tinyurl.com/8tqs7 > > you'll see Tower Bridge--and the surrounding street names--in London. > And, yes, like all Google maps this map is draggable. > > Google Maps is still in beta, so some of the hybrid maps are still a > little off [like Tower Bridge Road or streets north of Ground Zero at > http://tinyurl.com/7banf .] Still, the Hybrid maps > feature is an amazing addition to a tool that is already amazing. >

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INTEREST: Microsoft drops LongHorn (name) for new VISTA...
by billing 02 Aug '05

02 Aug '05

I guess so the hype'ing can begin again, Microsoft has changed the code name for it's next version Operating System; it was "LongHorn", it is now "Vista". Microsoft is saying to expect Windows Vista by the holiday season of 2005.... ...from: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5672671.html?tag=nl.e539 http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/default.mspx Getting a handle on Windows Vista By Ina Fried, CNET News.com Published on ZDNet News: July 22, 2005, 7:30 AM PT Longhorn--now Windows Vista--may be arriving more slowly than expected and it might not have everything that was once planned, but Windows chief Jim Allchin maintains "It's a big deal." Among the features in the OS are security improvements, some snazzy new graphics, and a new means of searching and organizing information. Rather than having to remember the single folder where something is stored, users will be able to put documents in any number of virtual folders. They can also establish folders that will automatically update, such as "files edited in the last week" or "documents from Jane." In addition, Microsoft is trying to simplify an array of other tasks, such as adding a PC to a home network or connecting a laptop to a projector. When will Windows Vista arrive? Microsoft has promised that Vista will be widely available on computers for the 2006 holiday buying season. A beta, or test, version is planned for release on August 3. The server version is slated for 2007. So what's in this Vista thing? Vista--what used to be called Longhorn--has evolved quite a bit since Microsoft first demonstrated an early version in 2003. The company has dropped plans to include its all-new WinFS file system and has also changed the way it's implementing a new Web services architecture, known as Indigo, and a new graphics engine, dubbed Avalon. Among the key features of Vista as it currently stands are: security enhancements, a new searching mechanism, lots of new laptop features, parental controls and better home networking. There will also be visual changes, thanks to Avalon, ranging from shiny translucent windows to icons that are tiny representations of a document itself. On the business side, Microsoft said Vista will be easier for businesses to deploy on multiple PCs and will also save costs by reducing the number of times computers will have to be rebooted. [...]

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Well looks like heck has frozen solid ... again
by Doug Hamilton 02 Aug '05

02 Aug '05

Hey Everyone: First the switch to Intel processors, what could be next. Well, how about a two button mouse from Apple. Here it is: http://www.apple.com/ca/mightymouse/ Regards, Doug

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INTEREST: Canada’s Supreme Court Thursday rejected attempts to levy a special tax on iPods
by billing 01 Aug '05

01 Aug '05

...from: http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=12212&Page=1&pagePos=3 http://playlistmag.com/news/2005/07/29/ipodtax/index.php Canadian Supreme Court rejects iPod tax By Macworld.co.uk Staff, Macworld.co.uk Canada’s Supreme Court Thursday rejected attempts to levy a special tax on iPods and other digital music devices. The court refused any further arguments on the matter. There will be no such levy applied in Canada. A local royalty collection body, the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC), had fought to reinstate the tax, which was quashed by Canadian Federal Courts last year following action by retailers and manufacturers including Apple. A nonprofit agency CPCC had been collecting the tax on behalf of musicians. When implemented, the tax was designed to compensate artists for illegal downloads of their music. The rates were: CDN$2 (US$1.62) for non-removable memory capacity up to 1GB, $15 for 1-10GGB, $25 for over 10GB. CPCC had collected $4 million for artists.

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