ABC and Facebook Join For Election 2008

Boston (dbTechno) - ABC News made the announcement today that they have formed a partnership with the social-networking site Facebook to create an interactive political forum to push Election 2008 awareness.

Members are going to be able to take part in debate groups, as well as keep up on all of the Election 2008 news taking place as ABC campaign reporters cover it from the front line. They can also register who they support in terms of candidates.

The ABC News reporters have been embedded with the campaign of many candidates and will be posting blogs, news articles, as well as photographs to keep Facebook users edudcated with up-to-the-minute political coverage.

Facebook users can cast votes on many issues throughout the election using the Debate Groups tool.

Facebook users can also send the ABC News reporters personal messages.

This is not the first time that a social-networking site has tried to get involved in the presidential race as MySpace has already teamed up with MTV to roll out a series of Presidential Dialogues.

France Cracking Down On Online Piracy

Paris (dbTechno) - French officials are trying to crack down on online piracy by proposing a plan which will cut off broadband connections to people who illegally download movies or music online.

This is the hardest crackdown yet in France in regards to piracy on the internet. President Nicolas Sarkozy has come out and stated that they are going to go for a “three strikes” policy in regards to fighting internet pirates.

They also announced a new deal with film and music companies which would allow for more media to be available online.

Offenders are going to be sent a series of e-mail warnings. If they ignore the warnings they could face having their broadband account suspended or even closed, cutting off the internet indefinitely.

Entertainment companies are also going to drop all copyright protection on French material, allowing for any movies or music to be bought online and played on any device, with no DRM at all. This would make them easier to copy, but the new plan is to crack down on such things.

Sarkozy stated “Everywhere in the United States, in the United Kingdom, and elsewhere, professionals and governments have tried for years to find the grail to fight the problem of internet piracy. We are the first, in France, to form a big national alliance around concrete and effective proposals.”

Space Station Crew Complete Work On Harmony Module

Boston (dbTechno) - Two U.S. astronauts on the International Space Station completed a spacewalk by finishing the external wiring on a new component on the space station.

A spacewalk was held on the orbital outpost to finish the job as the Harmony module is now complete and ready to accept expansions to the ISS in terms of new laboratories.

The commander of the crew on the ISS, Peggy Whitson, stated that she and Dan Tani hooked up the wiring which link the station to the Harmony module.

The spacewalk was held on Saturday and took seven hours to complete. The U.S. space shuttle Discovery made the successful journey to the space station last month to deliver the module.

A European-built laboratory named Columbus is now ready to be delivered to the ISS next month and can now be linked up thanks to Harmony being ready to go.

The wiring which was hooked up included electrical and fluid connections for Harmony to the ISS.

Windows XP SP3 Proves Mighty Effective

Washington (dbTechno) - Windows XP Service Pack 3 is getting ready to release and has proven to give a hefty boost in terms of performance.

Windows XP Service Pack 3 is highly anticipated and according to testers from the Devil Mountain Software group, gives a 10% performance boost compared to computers running on Windows XP Service Pack 2. This is using the exact same computer configuration as well.

Windows XP Service Pack 3 is twice as fast as Windows Vista in the OfficeBench benchmark program.

Craig Barth of Devil Mountain stated that “Since SP3 was suppoed to be mostly a bug-fix/patch consolidation release, the unexpected speed boost comes as a ncie bonus. In fact, XP SP3 is shaping up to be a must-have update for the majority fo users who are still running Redmond’s not-so-latest and greatest desktop OS.”

15,000 testers have been given Windows XP SP3 Release Candiate. It will feature over 1,000 hot fixes and patches which have been put out over the past three years and at least four new features.

Windows XP users have been waiting for this one for quite some time and with the news that it gives a performance boost, the anticipation is higher than ever.

Internet Could Reach Capacity By 2010

Seattle (dbTechno) - According to a study released, the demand for internet services as well as infrastructure investment which is not up to par could lead to internet outages by 2010.

Nemertes Research has stated that internet providers are going to have to invest around $50 billion to avoid outages of the internet. The expectation is that the internet could actually reach capacity if these companies do not spend 60 to 70% more than their current plans call for.

Nemertes stated “Rather like osteoporosis, the underinvestment in infrastructure will painlessly and invisibly leach competitiveness out of the economy.”

The statement is that “The next Google, YouTube, or Amazon might not arise” if this is not fixed.

“We conclude by urging content and service providers to cooperate with researchers in sharing data.”

Tax credits were also suggested to spur internet providers to add more broadband capacity. If this is not done, 2010 could mean a traffic jam on the internet.

US Studios Sue Chinese Site For Piracy

Hollywood (dbTechno) - Five film studios in the United States have joined to file lawsuits against a Chinese website as well as a cyber cafe in Shanghai in connection with internet piracy.

The lawsuit claims that they aided in illegal downloading of their movies.

20th Century Fox, Walt Disney, Paramount Pictures, Columbia Pictures, and Universal Studios all are included in the lawsuit filed in September in Shanghai. They target the Beijing-based Jaboo Interactive Services and Technology as well as the East Cybercafe in Shanghai.

Jaboo illegally downloaded, according to the lawsuit, 13 films which include X-Men 2, Night at the Museum, and one of the Pirates of the Caribbean films.

$27,000 are being claimed in damages per title plus legal fees and court costs coming out to $432,000 in total.

This comes as the United States continues to state that China is not doing a good enough job to fight acts of piracy on the internet. They consistently have had a dispute in the World Trade Organization with China in this regard.

Wii Matches Xbox 360 For Total Market Share

Boston (dbTechno) - The Microsoft Xbox 360 is no longer the market leader in the next-gen console war as the Nintendo Wii has now pulled even in terms of total market share with the Xbox 360.

The Microsoft Xbox 360 launched one full year before the Nintendo Wii, but that has not slowed down the Wii console one bit as it has managed to make up that one year gap in record time and has matched the Xbox 360 in total market share.

The Xbox 360 still has a huge lead over its rival, the Sony PlayStation 3, but it is the Nintendo Wii that continues to both surprise and dominate sales.

This holiday season is going to be huge for the next-gen consoles as once it is all said and done you may have the Wii as your clear-cut total market share leader in the gaming industry.

This comes as Sony tries to catch up to the Wii and Xbox 360 by slashing prices of the PS3. They recently launched the 40GB PS3 for $399. This compares to the $599 price tag the PS3 launched at one year ago.

The Wii has sold 13.2 million units worldwide as of September compared to 13.4 million for the Xbox 360, and 5.6 million for the PS3. November and December are the biggest months of the year for gaming sales so these numbers could change drastically in that time period.

Romantics Band Sues Activision Over Guitar Hero

Boston (dbTechno) - The Detroit rock band the Romantics have filed a lawsuit against the publisher of the popular video game Guitar Hero, Activision.

They are claiming that the game infringes on the group’s rights. The rights they are talking about revolve around the sound-alike recording of one of their hit songs, “What I Like About You.”

The lawsuit has been filed against Activision and was filed on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court of Detroit. It seeks unspecified damages for use of the sound-alike recording.

This sound-alike recording is features in Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s which was released exclusively on the Sony PS2.

The Romantics are also seeking an injunction against the game Guitar Hero which could pull the game from store shelves during the busiest time of year for the video game industry.

The attorney for the Romantics stated that Activision properly secured permission to use the song What I Like About You. This gave them the right to record a cover version. What they did wrong though was that they created an imitation which was exactly like the original, which infringes on the group’s right to its own image and likeness.

MySpace Suicide Case Fallout

Boston (dbTechno) - A town is still in shock after a 13-year-old girl committed suicide, hanging herself after being a victim of “cyber-bullying” on the social networking site MySpace.

A campaign against “cyber-bullying” has already kicked into gear as many are pushing for a law to make internet harassment a criminal offense in the United States.

Officials in Dardenne Prairie, Missouri have voted to make internet harassment a misdemeanor offense which can be punishable by a fine of up to $500 and 90 days in jail.

The 13-year-old was Megan Meier. She committed suicide after she was harrassed on MySpace by what she thought was 16-year-old Josh Evans.

The two talked for six weeks online but ended abruptly. He told her that she was cruel. Megan suffered from depression and hanged herself minutes after receiving the last message.

Josh was a character created by the mother of a girl who had a feud with Megan. The mother was trying to find out what Megan was saying about her daughter in private.

The mother has not faced charges as there was no crime to get her on anything she did. The mayor of the town Pam Fogarty stated “It is our hope that by supporting one of our own in Dardenne Prairie, we can do our part to ensure this type of harassing behavior never happens again, anywhere.”

Microsoft Working On 80GB Zune Availability

Boston (dbTechno) - Microsoft has had problems with the launch of the 80GB Zune simply because they have not been able to keep up with demand. The product launched on November 13th and the hard-drive based Zune 80 was sold out online and in retail stores.

According to reports Microsoft did not expect the demand to be so high for the 80GB model of the Zune device. Because of this they focused on manufacturing the flash-based Zune 4 and Zune 8 which are 4GB and 8GB models of the Microsoft Zune.

Microsoft apparently focused the majority of their efforts on getting the flash-based Zune devices out in as much quantity as possible due to company forecasts and early retail orders.

The flash-based Zune devices compete head to head with the iPod Nano and other such MP3 players.

Microsoft has responded to the demand of the 80GB Zune devices though as they have stepped up the production of the 80GB models. They stated that within the next 7 to 10 days there will be many more 80GB Zune players arriving in retail stores, so get ready, they will be there in time for Christmas!

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