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INTEREST: How the iPad changed my reading habits
by billing 17 Aug '10

17 Aug '10

...from: http://www.macworld.com/article/153299/2010/08/ipad_reading.html?lsrc=nl_mw… How the iPad changed my reading habits One editor reflects on how the device has changed how he peruses magazines and books by Jonathan Seff, Macworld.com The iPad is a curious device—not quite an iPod, not quite a laptop. I typically bring it to work with me during the day, and keep it on my nightstand at home at other times. And although I use it for many different purposes—checking e-mail, ordering from Amazon, catching up on Twitter, controlling one of the Macs in the other room—what I’ve really noticed is how the iPad has changed how and what I read. Magazines I typically have magazines strewn about the house in various states of being read—especially The New Yorker, which comes 47 times a year—with bind-in cards or random scraps of paper used as bookmarks. And when I’m done with them, they often wait their turn to be tossed in with the recycling. Zinio has been around for a while now, providing digital subscriptions to magazines that you can read on a Mac, PC, or iPhone/iPod touch. I never really found it very enjoyable to read a magazine on my computer or the small screen of my iPhone. But with the iPad and a universal version of the app, it’s a whole different story. (Disclosure: the digital version of Macworld is a Zinio publication as well.) Rolling Stone in Zinio With the Zinio app on an iPad, I have a large screen on which to enjoy digital replicas of magazines. Unlike with printed magazines, however, I can pinch out to zoom into section to make it easier to read. The app keeps my place without the need for paper bookmarks. There are hyperlinks that take me directly to the jumped portion of an article without making me flip to the back to pages that often have no page numbers on them. I can read in bed without a light after my wife goes to sleep. I can download new issues as soon as they’re available and carry around as many magazines as my iPad can hold. And there’s nothing to recycle. Thanks to Zinio, I’ve re-subscribed to Rolling Stone—a magazine I haven’t read for years. When my current print subscription to Outside Magazine is up after one more issue, I plan to switch to the Zinio version. And I look forward to Conde Nast bringing The New Yorker to the iPad (although I recently renewed my print subscription for another three years). To be fair, the Zinio app and experience are far from perfect. Subscription pricing is all over the map and seems to change on a whim—I checked the Outside Zinio page three times over the course of several weeks, and a one-year subscription went from $16 to $20 before finally settling to $24 in that time. Also, there are no multi-year subscription options. Although Outside currently offers me one year of print for $30, I can opt for two years for $40 or three years for $50, dropping the price per issue if I’ll commit for longer. With Zinio, that’s not an option. I don’t mind paying the same price for Zinio as for a printed magazine, but it shouldn’t cost more. Also, as with other types of digital publications, I can’t hand an issue off to a friend or family member when I’m done with. And there’s no way to loan or share these types of purchases with other Zinio members. Books Before the iPad, I had never read an entire book on a portable device. I’d read bits and pieces using the Kindle app on my iPhone (including a 25 cent version of Alice in Wonderland) but I don’t own Kindle hardware. Hitch-22 in iBook I tested out the iBookstore by purchasing Samantha Bee’s I Know I Am, But What Are You?. After adjusting the font, type size, and brightness to my liking (and turning on the Sepia background option) I enjoyed breezing through the book, without worrying about remembering my place. The iPad is heavier than other e-book-only devices, but I haven’t found it oppressively so. A nice thing about the iPad (or Kindle or Nook or other e-reader) is the ability to download and carry multiple books with you for a vacation, say, rather than schlep around lots of heavy tomes. Or buy a new book from your hotel room without having to care about finding the nearest bookstore (and worry about its selection). Having finished that first book, I’ve now moved on to Christopher Hitchens’ Hitch-22: A Memoir. Comic books I must admit that I haven’t read a comic book since I was a teenager (although I still have a few boxes of nicely preserved issues in the basement). Or at least I hadn’t until I started playing around with the Marvel app on the iPad. Ultimate Spider-Man in the Marvel app Thanks to Marvel’s selection of free comic book issues (which change on a regular basis) I’ve given the iPad a opportunity to show me what it can do with another type of reading material. (This “the first taste is free” mentality seems to be an important marketing tool for the shifting comic book business, as our editor in chief, Jason Snell, discovered at Comic-Con recently.) Although I’ve yet to plunk down my credit card to buy any comics, I’ve found the reading experience to be mostly a nice one. Text can be a little small and hard to read without zooming in—especially on double pages displayed while reading in portrait orientation. It’s not quite the same tactile experience as I remember from my comic-reading days, and digital distribution means an end to collecting in the classic sense. But in general, the graphics look great and are very colorful, and it’s nice to have yet another reading option on the iPad.

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INTEREST: Safari extensions
by billing 17 Aug '10

17 Aug '10

...from: http://www.macworld.com/article/152101/2010/08/safariextensionshandson.html… Hands on with Safari extensions Posted on Aug 10, 2010 8:00 am by Dan Frakes, Macworld.com The latest version of Safari (5.x), released earlier this summer, introduced a new extensions feature to Apple’s Web browser. Extensions allow you to alter the behavior of Safari through small, downloadable packages from by developers, created by using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Activating the extensions feature Now that we’ve logged a few months of browsing with Safari 5, it’s time for a closer look at this feature: how to turn it on (if it isn't already), how to install and use extensions, how to update extensions, and how to troubleshoot issues with misbehaving extensions. Once you've gotten a handle on Safari extensions, take a look at some of our favorite extensions. Starting with Safari 5.0.1, the Safari-extensions feature is enabled by default. Launch Safari 5.0.1, and extensions just work—you can skip to the next section to learn how to download and install them. If, for whatever reason, you're still using Safari 5.0 and can't update yet, turning on the feature isn’t as obvious as you’d think. In fact, Apple has hidden the feature in Safari’s Develop menu…which is alsodisabled by default. So the process for turning on extensions requires a couple steps: In Safari’s Preferences window (Safari -> Preferences), switch to the Advanced pane, and then check the box to Show Develop Menu In Menu Bar. In the new Develop menu that appears in the menu bar (between Bookmarks and Window), choose Enable Extensions. Once you’ve used the Enable Extensions command, you can uncheck the Show Develop Menu In Menu Bar setting to regain that valuable menu-bar space. Installing extensions With the extensions feature activated, Safari’s Preferences window sports a new Extensions pane that lists all installed extensions and lets you customize the behavior of each. This screen also lets you disable and enable individual extensions or turn off the extensions feature altogether—useful when troubleshooting (more on that below). So how do you get extensions? With the release of Safari 5.0.1, Apple introduced the Safari Extensions Gallery, a curated collection of third-party extensions Apple has chosen to showcase—you can even access the Gallery right from the Safari menu. Divided into categories such as News, Social Networking, Security, and Productivity, the Gallery currently contains more than 100 extensions, each with a short description, a link to the developer's site, and an Install Now button. (If you haven't updated to Safari 5.0.1, you won't see these Install Now buttons.) Click the Install Now button for an extension, and in a second or two the button will change to an Installed graphic indicating that the extension has been installed. But there are plenty more Safari extensions out there that don't appear in the official Gallery. Some you'll find while browsing the Web, but perhaps the best alternative source for extensions right now is the Safari Extensions blog, which has been publishing info about newly available extensions since Safari 5.0 was released. I recommend subscribing to the blog's RSS feed so you can keep an eye out for useful new extensions as they're released. However, extensions you download outside of the official Gallery require a different installation procedure—they don't install automatically. The Website hosting the extension will provide a standard download link, and then Safari will download the extension—a file (actually a Mac OS X package) ending in .safariextz. (If, instead of downloading a .safariextz file, Safari displays a window of ugly code, click the Back button and either Option-click the download link or right-click—or Control-click—on the link and choose Download Linked File.) Depending on how you’ve configured Safari to handle downloaded files, Safari may immediately ask you if you want to install the new extension. If not, find the newly downloaded file package in the Finder and double-click it to view the same Don’t Install/Install dialog. Read the official warning text, click Install, and the extension is installed. (In case you're wondering why a third-party extension isn't included in Apple's Gallery, there are a couple possible reasons. The first is simply that the developer hasn't submitted it to Apple for possible inclusion. The second is that the developer has submitted the extension and either Apple hasn't yet approved it or has rejected it for some reason. This doesn't mean you shouldn't install extensions that don't appear in Apple's Gallery, but you should be a bit more careful before doing so.) Safari's Preferences window sports a new view when extensions are turned on. Whichever method you use to install extensions—Apple's Gallery or manual download and install—installed extensions are stored in ~/Library/Safari/Extensions and appear in the new Extensions screen of Safari's preferences window. For some extensions, the new features they provide are immediately available—no restart or other action is required. In fact, if the extension uses a toolbar button, that button may automatically be added to Safari’s toolbar without any further action from you. (If it isn’t, just choose View -> Customize Toolbar and then manually add the toolbar button.) However, I've found that most extensions work only on new tabs you open after installing the extension—you won't get the new features on existing tabs. (This is often the case even if the extension has automatically added a toolbar button to Safari—the button won't do anything when viewing existing tabs.) Using and managing extensions As mentioned above, many Safari extensions function as new buttons for Safari’s toolbar. For example, Ars Technica and Macworld contributor John Siracusa’s Reload Button restores the Reload button found in Safari 3 and earlier, and Clint Ecker’s Short URL adds a new button that automatically shortens, using either is.gd or bit.ly, the current tab’s URL. You use these toolbar buttons just like any other: click the button to access the simple feature. Other extensions add new commands to Safari’s contextual menus: right-click somewhere on a Web page, and you’ll see the new options. For example, Shortenz Linkz lets you right-click on any URL link on a Web page to generate a shortened URL using the URL-shortening service of your choice. It also provides an option to send the URL in a Twitter message. But many Safari extensions work in the background, doing their thing without any effort on your part. For example, there are already extensions that automatically reformat YouTube pages or Google Reader’s interface for easier viewing, that add additional options to specific Web pages, or that disable JavaScript elements hosted by particular servers. If an extension provides settings to customize its behavior, you’ll find those settings in the Extensions pane of Safari’s Preferences window. Select the extension in the list on the left, and that extension’s options appear to the right. If you decide you don't like a particular extension's feature(s), you can disable it. Just select it in the list of installed extensions and then uncheck the Enable [extension name] box. Alternatively, you can uninstall it, as explained below. Updating extensions Like other software, Safari extensions are updated to fix bugs and add new features. This is especially true right now, as developers are still learning how to create and perfect extensions. Thankfully, Safari provides a built-in mechanism for checking for, and updating to, new versions of extensions. Open the Extensions pane of Safari Preferences, and click the Updates item in the lower-left corner. To the right, you’ll see a list of any extensions for which newer versions are available. Click an individual Update button to update that extension—the new version is downloaded and installed. Alternatively, click Update All to install all pending updates with a single click. To avoid having to manually check for available updates, you can check the box to Install Updates Automatically. This configures Safari to automatically download and install updates whenever they’re available. Given how frequently extensions are being updated these days, this is a welcome option, although it’s not yet clear how often Safari checks for new versions of installed extensions. Troubleshooting extensions Depending on which extensions you choose to install, the neat features you gain may come with a price: Safari crashes. Between the release of Safari 4 a year ago and the release of Safari 5 in June, I had very few problems with Safari; in the first couple weeks after installing Safari 5.0 and testing extensions, I had literally dozens of crashes, and I was able to trace nearly all of them back to issues with extensions. (Unfortunately, unlike the Safari 4-and-later feature that lets Safari plug-ins crash without taking down the entire browser, an extension problem often crashes Safari outright.) I've personally had the worst luck with extensions that aim to block specific JavaScript hosts that alter the behavior of sites. For example, several extensions block JavaScript from intellitxt.com in order to let you avoid those annoying ads that pop up on Web pages when you mouse over words. Unfortunately, whenever I’ve had one of these extensions installed and active, Safari would crash regularly. I also occasionally experience a problem where simply disabling a particular extension, by turning off that extension in the Extensions screen of Safari Preferences, crashes Safari. This seems to be especially common when disabling an extension that use a toolbar button. In many cases, I've been able to avoid such crashes by manually removing the extension’s toolbar button (using Safari's Customize Toolbar screen) and then disabling the extension. Thankfully, over the past couple months, I've found that Safari's stability has improved dramatically when using extensions. I suspect the biggest reason is that extensions developers have been improving their extension-coding skills, but it's also possible that Safari 5.0.1 included some extensions-handling improvements of its own. Whatever the combination, using extensions seems to be notably safer—in terms of browser stability—these days than when the feature first debuted. That being said, extensions can still cause problems with Safari, so it's good to know some basic troubleshooting procedures. If you know which extension is causing a problem, you’ve got two options: The first is to simply disable that extension (as explained above) and then wait for an update to see if a new version fixes the problem. The second is to remove the extension completely. To do this, select the extension in Safari Preferences and then click the Uninstall button that appears to the right. What if you don’t know which extension is causing a problem? Remember the “classic” Mac OS extension conflict? Welcome back, old friend. It’s time to do some conflict testing. The first step is to turn off Safari extensions completely: Open the Extensions screen of Safari Preferences and move the main slider to the Off position. Then browse the sites that were open the last time Safari crashed or exhibited otherwise troublesome behavior—Safari’s Reopen All Windows From Last Session command (in the History menu) is great for this. If the problem still occurs, you know extensions aren’t the cause. If the problem is gone, at least one of your extensions is to blame. Turn the main extensions slider back to On, then scroll through the list of installed extensions in Safari Preferences, noting which ones are currently enabled. Then disable one and reload your last session. If the problem occurs again, the extension you disabled is likely not the cause. Disable the next suspect and reload the last session again. Is the problem gone? You’ll want to repeat this process until disabling an extension fixes the problem—that extension is likely the cause. Of course, just as with classic Mac OS extension conflicts, it’s possible that a combination of Safari extensions is the real issue, but I haven't yet come across such an issue (and uncovering such combinations is the topic for another article…). Use it wisely As you browse Apple's Gallery and the Web for useful extensions, keep in mind that the more extensions you install, the more you increase the chance of problems. But just as important is that you increase the complexity of the browser itself—more toolbar buttons, more keyboard shortcuts, more contextual-menu commands, and more ways in which the content on Websites is tweaked or otherwise affected. So use extensions judiciously. Despite downloading and testing scores of extensions, I've kept only a couple dozen installed, and only a few of those are currently active. Nevertheless, Extensions has become one of my favorite new Safari features in years.

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INTEREST: UK government: Upgrading away from IE6 costs too much
by billing 06 Aug '10

06 Aug '10

...from: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/08/despite-petition-uk-governmen… UK government: Upgrading away from IE6 costs too much By Emil Protalinski | Last updated a day ago The UK government is not yet interested in ditching Internet Explorer 6, saying the costs required to do so outweigh the benefits. Six months ago, an online petition started in hopes that the UK would abolish all use of the world's most-loathed browser. The petition debuted soon after the German and French governments began to advise their citizens to use a different browser than IE in the wake of the Chinese-Google hack attack. It closed on June 6 after gathering 6,223 signatures; on July 30, the government gave an official response. Here's the crux of it: Complex software will always have vulnerabilities and motivated adversaries will always work to discover and take advantage of them. There is no evidence that upgrading away from the latest fully patched versions of Internet Explorer to other browsers will make users more secure. Regular software patching and updating will help defend against the latest threats. The Government continues to work with Microsoft and other internet browser suppliers to understand the security of the products used by HMG, including Internet Explorer and we welcome the work that Microsoft are continuing do on delivering security solutions which are deployed as quickly as possible to all Internet Explorer users. The UK government is correct in saying that Microsoft will continue to keep IE6 updated and secure. In fact, the software giant has promised to do so until April 2014, which is when Extended Support for Windows XP (which includes IE6) ends. That said, Microsoft trash talks IE6 every chance it gets, promoting the increased security of IE8 at the same time. Furthermore, as IE flaws are discovered, IE6 and IE7 are affected more often than not, while IE8 usually remains unaffected. The true reason the UK government doesn't want to upgrade becomes clear in the last paragraph of its explanation. It doesn't want to spend the money: It is not straightforward for HMG departments to upgrade IE versions on their systems. Upgrading these systems to IE8 can be a very large operation, taking weeks to test and roll out to all users. To test all the web applications currently used by HMG departments can take months at significant potential cost to the taxpayer. It is therefore more cost effective in many cases to continue to use IE6 and rely on other measures, such as firewalls and malware scanning software, to further protect public sector internet users. On some level, this makes sense; not every benefit is worth the costs. But such testing will have to be done eventually, and not even Her Majesty's Government can stick with IE6 indefinitely.

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INTEREST: Bluetooth footpedal
by billing 28 Jul '10

28 Jul '10

...from: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/19/airturns-bt-105-footpedal-is-a-real-page… AirTurn's BT-105 footpedal is a real page turner (video) By Sean Hollister posted Jul 19th 2010 9:06AM If you carry your sheet music in a laptop, AirTurn's got a USB dongle for that, but if you've migrated your musical cues to an certain slate, never fear, Bluetooth is on the way. The AirTurn BT-105 will bring the company's page turning technology to iPad, using a transmitter that attaches to standard professional footswitches, allowing you to turn full pages and half pages of sheet music while keeping hands firmly affixed to your instrument. Though there's no word on price, we imagine it'll cost close to the existing 2.4GHz version, which runs from $40 for a dongle to $100 for a package with two Boss pedals, and when it surfaces in Q4 of this year, we're hoping it will extend bicycling input to all the other wild and crazy appsyou dream up. PR and video after the break. = - = - = - = Airturn's home site with demo: http://airturn.com/press-releases/ipad-bluetooth-page-turner-footswitch-pro…

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FYI: Apple responds to congressional inquiry...
by billing 28 Jul '10

28 Jul '10

...from: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/20/apple-responds-to-congressional-inquiry-… Apple responds to congressional inquiry, details location data collection in 13-page letter By Sean Hollister posted Jul 20th 2010 1:00AM When Apple's latest privacy policy revealed the company could track any iPhone's location in real time, it threw some for a loop... including a pair of gentlemen from the US House of Representatives, who asked what Cupertino was up to. In a thirteen page letter dated July 12, Apple's legal counsel explains the whole matter away, while giving us a fascinating look into how the company collects -- and justifies collecting -- all that GPS data. Legally the defense is simple, as Apple claims users grant express permission via pop-up messages for every single location-based service and app, and if you don't care to be tracked, you can simply shut down location services globally or (in iOS 4) on a per-app basis in the phone's settings panel. Where it gets more interesting is when Apple explains what it actually collects, and who they share it with -- namely, Google and Skyhook, who provided location services to earlier versions of the operating system. In iOS 3.2 and beyond, only Apple has the keys to the database, and what's inside are locations of cell towers, WiFi access points, and anonymous GPS coordinates. None of these are personally identifying, as the company doesn't collect SSIDs or any data, and in the case of device coordinates they're reportedly collected and sent in encrypted batches only once every 12 hours, using a random ID generated by the phone every 24 hours that apparently can't be linked back to the device. In the case of iAd, Apple says coordinates don't even make it to a database, as they're immediately converted (by remote server) to a advertising-friendly five-digit zip code. Concerning location data collection for services other than iAd, there's still the little question of why, but we'll just leave you with Apple legal's quote on that subject after the break, and let you hit up the full document yourself at Scribd if you want the deep dive. "To provide the high quality products and services that its customers demand, Apple must have access to comprehensive location-based information... these databases must be updated continuously to account for, among other things, the ever-changing physical landscape, more innovative uses of mobile technology, and the increasing number of Apple's customers."

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FYI: "autofill" exploit found in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari
by billing 28 Jul '10

28 Jul '10

More information may be forthcoming when Mr Jeremiah Grossman, CTO of White Hat Security, gives his presentation at next week's "Black Hat Security Conference" (http://www.blackhat.com/) but for now, you may wish to disable "autofill" on your browser until this has cleared up: Safari: Preferences: Autofill > deselect check boxes FireFox: Preferences: Security > deselect REMEMBER PASSWORDS FOR SITES ...from http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07/20/browser_info_disclosure_weaknesses/ IE and Safari lets attackers steal user names and addresses Ripe for the picking, researcher says By Dan Goodin in San Francisco • Get more from this author Posted in Security, 20th July 2010 21:15 GMT Free whitepaper – Robin Johnson: Questions and Answers The Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari browsers are susceptible to attacks that allow webmasters to glean highly sensitive information about the people visiting their sites, including their full names, email addresses, location, and even stored passwords, a security researcher says. In a talk scheduled for next week's Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, Jeremiah Grossman, CTO of White Hat Security, plans to detail critical weaknesses that are enabled by default in the browsers, which are the four biggest by market share. The vulnerabilities have yet to be purged by the respective browser makers despite months, and in some cases, years of notice. Among the most serious is a vulnerability in Apple's Safari and earlier versions of Microsoft's IE that exposes names, email addresses, and other sensitive information when a user visits a booby-trapped website. The attack exploits the browsers' autocomplete feature used to automatically enter commonly typed text into websites. It works by creating a webpage with fields carrying titles such as “First Name,” “Last Name,” “Email Address,” and “Credit Card Number” and then adding javascript that simulates the user entering various letters, numbers or keystrokes into each one. Users who in the past have used the autocomplete features to store that information in versions 6 and 7 of IE or versions 4 and 5 of Safari will find that the information will be automatically zapped to the rogue website. No interaction is necessary other than to visit the page. Webmasters can set the input fields to be invisible to better conceal the attack. In the case of Safari, Grossman's proof-of-concept attack simulates a user entering various letters or numbers into the fields. In a demonstration, when the script entered the letter J under a field titled “Name,” the browser automatically exposed “Jeremiah Grossman” to the web server. Grossman said he alerted Apple to the vulnerability on June 17, but received no reply other than an automatic response saying his message had been received. “I would never have talked about this publicly if Apple had taken this seriously,” he told The Register. “I figured somebody else must have found this before because it's so brain-dead simple.” When he sent a follow up query “I never heard anything back, human or robotic.” Tricking IE 6 and 7 into coughing up the autocomplete details works in a similar fashion, but instead of simulating the entering of numbers or letters into a field, Grossman enters a user's down arrow twice and then the enter key to extract the stored information. If more than one record is stored in that field, the script will repeat the process so they can be lifted as well. Grossman's research is the latest to shatter the widely held myth that web surfing is largely an anonymous act, at least when done from a public or widely used IP address. In May, researchers demonstrated how a decade-old browser history disclosure vulnerability made the vast majority of web users vulnerable to practical attacks that lifted their viewing habits, including news articles they've read and the Zip Codes they've entered into online forms. That same month, separate researchers showed how most browsers leave behind digital fingerprints that can be used to uniquely identify their users. Grossman's research take those findings to new highs. In addition to the weaknesses in IE and Safari, he has uncovered flaws in Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome that can expose passwords stored by the browsers. The feature is designed to automatically enter the user name and password when a user visits a site such as Gmail or Facebook. The researcher says it's possible for unscrupulous webmasters to steal that information by hiding malicious code on their pages. For the attack to work, an XSS, or cross-site scripting vulnerability must be present on the site on which the stored password is used. Grossman's Black Hat presentation will also demonstrate how a webmaster can silently delete all of a user's browser cookies. The mass cookie deleter works by setting thousands of cookies as soon as a user visits the site. When the number of cookies set exceeds a certain amount – it's about 3,000 for Firefox and just slightly higher for other browsers – all older cookies will automatically be erased. His proof-of-concept takes about 2.5 seconds.

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INTEREST: Google signs 20-year wind energy deal
by billing 21 Jul '10

21 Jul '10

...from: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/20/google-signs-20-year-deal-to-power-data-… Google signs 20-year deal to power data centers with wind energy By Donald Melanson posted Jul 20th 2010 3:45PM It's not the first investment Google has made in wind power, but anyone wondering about its commitment needn't look any further than the company's just-announced deal with NextEra Energy. It's agreed to buy wind power from NextEra's wind farm in Iowa for the next twenty years, which it says will provide enough power to supply "several" of its data centers. What's more, Google says that the size and length of the deal (taking 114 megawatts of energy off the market) will also lead to other indirect benefits for the wind power industry, and give NextEra the flexibility to invest in additional clean energy projects. Head on past the break for NextEra's press release on the deal.

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INTEREST: Google acquires airflight search software
by billing 17 Jul '10

17 Jul '10

...from: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/02/google-acquires-ita-for-700m-dives-headf… Google acquires ITA for $700m, dives headfirst into airline ticket search By Darren Murph posted Jul 2nd 2010 1:02PM Look out, Kayak / Bing Travel -- you both are about to have your respective worlds rocked. While Google has managed to stay on top (or close to the top) when it comes to almost everything search related, the company has curiously allowed smaller niche brands to handle the travel side. Even amongst the hardcore Googlers, avid flyers typically head to a place like Kayak to weigh their options, while vacation planners either do likewise or turn to Bing Travel. In a few months time, we suspect some of that traffic will be diverted back to El Goog. The company has just announced plans to acquire Cambridge-based ITA Software for a cool $700 million, which will put one of the world's most sophisticated QPX software tools for organizing flight information into the hands of the planet's most dangerous search ally. According to Google, the pickup will allow consumers to search and buy airline tickets with less hassle and frustration, though it's quick to point out that it has "no plans to sell airline tickets [directly] to consumers." For the travel junkies in attendance, there's a high probability that you won't find any better news coming your way today than this.

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INTEREST: Sony launches Road to Zero environmental plan
by billing 17 Jul '10

17 Jul '10

...from: http://oto-online.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1845&Itemid… Sony launches Road to Zero environmental plan Share Wednesday, 14 April 2010 Sony Corporation has announced its Road to Zero global environmental plan. The plan includes a long-term goal of achieving a zero environmental footprint by 2050. It uses backcasting methods to set specific mid-term environmental targets for the next five years in line with that goal. Sony's definition of zero environmental footprint is not only limited to the neutralisation of carbon emissions, but also extends to waste and use of finite materials such as oil-derived virgin plastics. Targets are based on four environmental perspectives - climate change, resource conservation, control of chemical substances and biodiversity - across all product lifecycle stages, from research and development to recycling. The mid-term targets will be implemented globally across the Sony Group beginning in April 2011, and will extend through the end of fiscal year 2015 (March 2016), at which time new targets for the following five years will be set. "We are fully committed to putting our innovative spirit and technological expertise to use to help solve environmental challenges," said Sir Howard Stringer, chairman, CEO and president of Sony Corporation. "From the development of new materials and energy-efficient technologies, to the introduction of better processes in manufacturing and production, we will work aggressively to meet the ambitious targets we are setting for ourselves and, at the same time, establish a model for others in our industries to follow."

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FYI: Time Capsule repair eligibility
by billing 13 Jul '10

13 Jul '10

...from: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3351 Last Modified: July 09, 2010 Article: TS3351 Symptoms Some Time Capsules sold between approximately February 2008 and June 2008 may not power on or may shut down unexpectedly after starting up. Products Affected Time Capsule Resolution Affected Time Capsule models Some Time Capsules with serial numbers in the following range may be affected: XX807XXXXXX - XX814XXXXXX How to find the serial number on your Time Capsule. If your Time Capsule falls within serial number range above and it does not power on or shuts down unexpectedly after starting up, it may be eligible for repair or replacement. Contact the Apple representative most convenient for you: Apple Authorized Service Provider. Find one here. Apple Retail Store. Set up an appointment with a Genius (available in some countries only). Apple Contact Center. Find the phone number for your region. If Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider confirms that your Time Capsule is affected, Apple will repair or replace it free of charge. Note: If you need to retain the data that is on your affected Time Capsule, Apple provides options depending upon where you live. If you live in the U.S. or Japan and want to retain the data on the affected Time Capsule, contact Apple to arrange for mail-in service. Turnaround time for mail-in service will be 3 to 5 days. In all other countries, an Apple Retail Store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP) can transfer your data from the affected Time Capsule to a replacement Time Capsule if desired. Your Retail or AASP representative can provide specific turnaround times for this service. If you believe that you paid for a repair or replacement Time Capsule due to this issue, contact Apple regarding a refund. As always, Apple recommends that you back up your data. Learn more about other back up options while you are without your Time Capsule. Apple is not responsible for data loss. This program covers affected Time Capsule models for 3 years from their original date of purchase. Apple will continue to evaluate the service data and will provide further updates to the program if needed. Wayne Billing Classroom Technology Support Audio Visual and Classroom Technology Support 130 Machray Hall Building 474-6649 474-7598 (fax) Wayne_Billing(a)umanitoba.ca

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