Illegal images sweeps in Wi-Fi, Web sites...

December 5, 2007 5:47 PM PST

A new bill would triple fines for ISPs that fail to report child pornographic images.

Legislation passed by the House Dec. 5 would triple the penalties for ISPs that knowingly fail to report child pornography on their service and expand the reporting requirements to cover all communications providers, including Wi-Fi operators that offer open connections to the public.

Approved 409-2, the SAFE (Securing Adolescents From Exploitation Online) Act of 2007 would increase the fine for failing to report illegal images to $150,000 per image per day for the first offense, up from the current $50,000 per image per day. Repeat offenders would face $300,000-per-day fines.

By law, ISPs are already required to report child pornography to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a nonprofit organization in Alexandria, Va., that works closely with law enforcement officials. In a companion bill, the House voted 408-3 to double funding to the group to $40 million annually through 2013.

"These two bills will put some teeth into the battle against child pornography and the people who produce it, the people who distribute it, the people who buy it and the people who use it as a form of child abuse," Adam Walsh, the center's founder and host of America's Most Wanted, said at a Capitol Hill press conference.

More Here: House Passes SAFE Act

It won't affect your local coffee shop's

We Are For It! "Safe act'

Yule Log "Tis the Season"

I seen the on Chris Pirillo's Ustream site, it was on his computer and then the search was on!

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Why should you pay for this?

Well, a portion of the proceeds is going to charity. ‘Tis the Season for giving, after all. In Cali’s own words:

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With a new generation of iPods on the market this holiday season, your reliable old iPod may not seem as shiny as it once did. But with the help of third party applications and utilities, you can unlock tons of useful functionality you never knew was there and revive that aging iPod so it doesn't look quite so bad next to its successors. Whether new or old, the following 20 iPod utilities can help you get the most from your iPod.

The Rest of the Story here! LifeHacker

Edit Your Photos Directly in Flickr

Post from: http://lifehacker.com/

Popular photo sharing web site Flickr has partnerted with online image editing web site Picnik to integrate photo editing directly in your Flickr account. To use it, just log into your Flickr account, click on a picture, and then click the new Edit Photo button. When you do, you'll be asked if you want to enable Picnik to open inside your account (see screenshot below). Once you accept, the Picnik editor will fire up in your browser and you can crop, rotate, resize, sharpen, correct red-eye, and tons more from the comfort of your Flickr account.

Go to LifeHacker for the rest of the story!

Microsoft Softens Response to Piracy

By JESSICA MINTZ (AP Technology Writer)

SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. is pulling back from a system that disables programs on users' computers if it suspects the software is pirated, opting instead for a gentler approach based on nagging alerts.

Microsoft said late Monday it will roll out the new version of Windows Genuine Advantage with the first "service pack" for Windows Vista, due in the first quarter of 2008.

When computer users activate a copy of Windows Vista or try to download certain software from Microsoft's Web site, the Windows Genuine Advantage system scans their PCs for signs of pirated software. Today, if the tool finds an unauthorized copy of Vista, the glassy Vista user experience disappears and other features are suspended.

In the new version, PC users found to have a pirated copy of Vista will continue to be able to use their computers, but with unmistakable signs their operating system is a fake. The desktop wallpaper will turn black, and a white notice will appear alerting users to the problem. Each time they log in, they will be prompted to buy legitimate software, and every hour, a reminder bubble will appear on the screen.

Users with a high tolerance for irritation can put off switching to genuine software indefinitely, but those who relent and buy a real copy of Windows can do so at reduced prices - $119 for Windows Vista Home Premium, half the regular retail price.

"We want to make sure unwitting victims get a great treatment," said Mike Sievert, a corporate vice president in Microsoft's Windows marketing group.

Windows Genuine Advantage collects several pieces of information about a PC during the check, including the serial number on the hard drive and its IP address, but Sievert says none of that can be used to identify individual PC users.

In August, the Windows Genuine Advantage team at Microsoft accidentally updated its servers with computer code that wasn't quite ready for prime time. As a result, Microsoft said "fewer than 12,000" people who tried to validate software over a two-day period couldn't.
Some found legitimate copies of Windows hobbled after the tool labeled them pirated, and an outcry spread across Web forums and technology news sites.

Sievert said the glitch in August was unrelated to the change in how the Windows Genuine Advantage tool will work.

"Microsoft realizes it has to take a different approach with their customers," said Chris Swenson, a software industry analyst for market researcher NPD Group. "If you shut down someone's computer, you're going to anger customers."

Microsoft also said Monday the package of Vista updates will fix two holes in the operating system that have allowed pirates to create counterfeit copies - one that mimics the activation of software by computer makers before a PC is sold, and one that extends a grace period given to people who install new software, before they must activate it.

Sievert said Microsoft plans to offer an update for Windows Genuine Advantage that will run the piracy check regularly without the computer user initiating the process.

America’s 10 Best Outdoor Towns!

From Alaska to Maine, these spots offer a walk on the wild side for fans of everything from windsurfing to fly-fishing. You can even try the luge.

For MSN City GuidesIn choosing the “101 Best Outdoor Towns: Unspoiled Places to Visit, Live & Play” (The Countryman Press, 2007), authors Sarah Tuff and Greg Melville researched access to national and state parks, major bodies of water, hiking and mountain biking trails, and ski and snowboard terrain; population; affordability; and such downtown resources as gear shops, brewpubs and coffee houses.

This top 10 is adapted from the book; these towns have not only back doors to some of the country’s best adventure terrain, but also lively, livable communities that are dedicated to playing in and preserving the great American playgrounds.

Lake Placid, New York
The numbers speak for themselves: 6 million acres of the surrounding Adirondack Park, 2,000 miles of trails, 3,000 lakes and ponds and five Olympic Rings. Lake Placid has hosted the Games twice, and somehow still glows with an inimitable, warm-fuzzy feeling about winter sports. Hockey fans can check out the 1980 Miracle on Ice site at the in-town Olympic Center, also home to the Olympic Speed Skating Oval (518-523-1655), which is open to the public all winter. Then venture to the toboggan run on Mirror Lake for a plummet down a track and a skitter across the ice; if you’re even braver, try the bobsled and luge runs at the Olympic Sports Complex (518-523-4436), just outside of town. In the summer, hikers hit 5,344-foot Mount Marcy while triathletes compete in the Ironman; year-round, you can refuel with the legendary UBU ale and refresh at the rustic Adirondack Loj (518-523-3441).

The Rest is Here!

Infra Recorder

The Free CD/DVD Burning Solution

InfraRecorder is a free CD/DVD burning solution for Microsoft Windows. It offers a wide range of powerful features; all through an easy to use application interface and Windows Explorer integration.

InfraRecorder is released under GPL version 2.

Dublin Beer Bandit Raids Guinness!

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK (Associated Press Writer)

The "Largest Heist" ever at Ireland's Largest Brewer.

DUBLIN, Ireland - Irish police were hunting for a beer bandit who stole 450 full kegs from the Guinness brewery - the largest heist ever at Ireland's largest brewer.

National police said a lone man drove into the brewery - a Dublin landmark and top tourist attraction - on Wednesday and hitched his truck to a fully loaded trailer awaiting delivery to city pubs.

Diageo PLC, the beverage company that owns Guinness, said the brewery had never suffered such a large-scale theft before in its 248-year history.

Police said the raider took 180 kegs of Guinness stout, 180 kegs of U.S. lager Budweiser and 90 kegs of Danish beer Carlsberg. Guinness brews both of those foreign brands under license for sale in Ireland.

Police declined to say whether the theft had been captured by closed-circuit surveillance cameras. No description of the suspect was issued, suggesting that nobody got a good look at him.

Each keg holds about 88 British-sized pints, the most common serving size in Ireland, equivalent to 20 ounces each. The total theft involves 39,600 pints with a retail value exceeding $235,000.

Police said it would be difficult for the thief to sell the stolen beer without attracting attention, unless he has criminal associates who own a network of pubs.

But customs agents say it is common for pubs to sell stolen or smuggled cigarettes and alcohol, particularly counterfeit-labeled supplies of vodka, to avoid paying hefty taxes.

In the past, the outlawed Irish Republican Army and other gangs have hijacked truck shipments of alcoholic beverages and cigarettes for resale in pubs run by sympathizers or friends. Those raids typically happen in rural areas, never in the center of Dublin.

The Republic of Ireland, a country of 4.2 million, has more than 10,000 pubs and bars. The Guinness brewery in Dublin is the biggest supplier, producing more than 5 million kegs annually.

Testers See Windows XP Passing Vista!

By JESSICA MINTZ (AP Technology Writer)

SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP operating system is about to get faster and Windows Vista isn't, according to a report that caused a stir online this week as industry watchers speculated that a zippier XP could keep customers from upgrading to Vista.

Microsoft, however, said it's too early to evaluate the two service packs it plans to release next year.

Early versions are already in the hands of testers like Devil Mountain Software Inc., which helps big financial services companies track trading-floor computer performance.

Wellington, Fla.-based Devil Mountain Software ran several versions of XP and Vista through a test simulating common desktop computing tasks. It found the original Vista performed 50 percent to 100 percent slower than the prevalent XP Service Pack 2, or SP2.

Vista SP1, due out in the first quarter of 2008, barely improved the operating system's performance.

But XP SP3, scheduled for the first half of 2008, did improve on XP's earlier performance, running 10 percent faster than SP2.

That's a strike against Vista for IT professionals on the fence about switching, according to Craig Barth, the company's chief technology officer.

Kevin Kutz, director of Microsoft's Windows Client group, said the company is working on speeding up tasks like moving files between PCs, but it's a work in progress.

Michael Cherry, an analyst for research group Directions on Microsoft, said it's impossible to say if Microsoft has started tuning Vista SP1 for speed. Even if XP gets faster, consumers and businesses may still switch to Vista.

"It might be an acceptable thing to me if it were slightly slower but more stable," Cherry said.

Benjamin Gray, an analyst for Forrester Research, said businesses will upgrade to Vista regardless, to "stay current with Microsoft's support life cycle."

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