Barthos Computers Blog

This year’s PWN to 0WN contest will begin on March 26th, the first day of the CanSecWest conference. The contest includes three laptops, running the most up to date and patched installations of MacOS X Leopard, Windows Vista, and Ubuntu Linux:

VAIO VGN-TZ37CN running Ubuntu 7.10
Fujitsu U810 running Vista Ultimate SP1
MacBook Air running OSX 10.5.2
The main purpose of this contest is to responsibly unearth new vulnerabilities within these systems so that the affected vendor(s) can address them.

To claim a laptop as your own, you will need to read the contents of a designated file on each system through exploitation of a 0day code execution vulnerability (ie: no directory traversal style bugs). Each laptop will only have a direct wired connection (exposed through a crossover cable) and only one person may attack each system at a time so that each team’s exploit remains private. Slots will be available for sign up in 30 minute increments at the beginning of each day. Slots are assigned in random order. Once everyone signs up each morning, spots will be assigned randomly. Any WiFi or Bluetooth exploits will be verified offsite in a secure lab to prevent snooping. The first winner of each laptop gets to keep it (one laptop per vulnerability entry) as well as a cash prize sponsored by ZDI. Once a laptop is won however, no more exploits may be submitted. Therefore there are a maximum of three cash prizes, one per laptop. All winning exploits will be handed over to the affected vendors at the conference through the ZDI, with the appropriate credit given to the contestant once the vendor patches the issue. Until then, the actual vulnerability will be kept quiet from the public. This is a required condition of entry into the contest; all entrants must agree to the responsible disclosure handling of their vulnerability/exploit through the ZDI. An awards ceremony at the end of the conference will present each winner with their prizes.

Any vulnerability that the Zero Day Initiative awards a cash prize for, becomes the property of the ZDI, and therefore the winner can not discuss or disclose details of the 0day until the affected vendor has successfully patched the issue. Any discussion of the bug prior to the public disclosure of a ZDI advisory will result in forfeiting of the prize. TippingPoint is collaborating with the vendors to ensure that their response teams will be ready and waiting to receive any and all 0day that comes out of this contest. For all other vulnerabilities, we are ready to forward the information on to the appropriate vendor (Adobe, Skype, Apache, Sendmail, etc.) upon verification of the issue.

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Need of cleaning a computer monitor

Monitor is the most important and expensive part of a computer/ laptop. Proper care has to be taken for maintaining the glow and charm of your computer. If you want your computer to run efficiently for long, then you have to clean it every now and then and it should be well maintained. If you clean your computer regularly, it can save your computer from getting damaged and being dusty. It is bad practice to place the monitor or computer on the ground. It should be placed on a proper table. Be sure that when ever you clean your monitor or computer, you unplug the computer. Other than the monitor other parts of computer can be cleaned with a vacuum cleaner, monitor is very delicate and as it is made of glass, it should be given separate care. Like all other parts of the computer, the monitor should also be cleaned.

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Make sure that your computer table is quiet clean, do not litter the place with all your food items or tea and coffee, as once if they fall on the monitor, it is completely spoiled and you will have you spend tremendous amount for buying a new monitor. Don’t press your monitor with fingers. Many people do not know how to clean the monitor of the computer. Never treat your monitor as a piece of empty box.

Even though many companies have come up with many liquid products for cleaning monitors, they are not so effective and some may perhaps ruin your monitor. Generally monitors are of two types, they are cathode ray tube (CRT) and Liquid crystal display (LCD), so depending upon the type of the monitor you can clean it. For cleaning the dust of a CRT monitor always use a cloth which is extremely soft or use an anti static cloth. Then spray a small amount of fluid liquid in the cloth and then gently rub the monitor in one direction throughout the monitor. After you’re done doing that then use a dry cloth to dry the monitor.

Cleaning a LCD monitor

The process of cleaning a LCD monitor is little different as the LCD monitor is little fragile. To start cleaning a LCD monitor take a soft cloth and first gently wipe the dust from the computer and then put cider vinegar or alcohol on the cloth and water as well upon the cloth and then rub the cloth tenderly on the LCD in the same direction for the entire LCD monitor. And finally use the other dry and soft cloth to dry the monitor.

Whether if you are cleaning a LCD monitor or CRT monitor, the first thing which you have to do is switch off your computers and unplug it. Don’t use a liquid which is very soapy. Always use a lint free cloth. If you do not have a soft or lint free cloth, then you can even clean the monitor with cotton swabs or foam swabs. All the above were few important points and tips for cleaning a monitor.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

The new product has an access time of 0.1 milliseconds, and maximum read and write speeds of 65 MB per second and 50 MB per second, respectively.
Super Talent Technology on Wednesday introduced a 256 GB solid-state drive that the company claims is thinner than any other similar capacity SSD for notebooks and other mobile devices.

The 2.5-inch drive, with the model number FSD56GC25H, is 12.5 millimeters thick, or slightly less than a half-inch. Super Talent claims the drive is 40% thinner than other similar drives.

The drive uses an industry standard SATA-I interface, making it interchangeable with conventional 2.5-inch SATA hard drives. The new product has an access time of 0.1 milliseconds, and maximum read and write speeds of 65 MB per second and 50 MB per second, respectively. Super Talent claims the drive can withstand shocks five times greater than traditional hard-disk drives.

“We designed this drive for applications that need rugged and reliable storage in a very compact form factor,” Joe James, marketing director for Super Talent, said in a statement.

The drive is designed, manufactured and tested in Super Talent’s San Jose, Calif., headquarters. Samples are available, and pricing is given on request.

Solid-state drives are faster and more rugged than hard-disk drives, but are also far more expensive. As a result, the drives are mostly used in notebooks used by the military, or by people who work outside. Manufacturers, however, have also started integrating SSDs with HDDs. So-called “hybrid drives” can store the operating system in the SSD, for example, for a faster startup time.

Intel (NSDQ: INTC) and Micron Technology (NYSE: MU) last month said they have developed technology for a high-speed SSD that’s five times faster than current products used in consumer and professional devices ranging from handheld computers and notebooks to digital cameras and camcorders.

The NAND flash memory chips developed jointly by the two companies can reach speeds of up to 200 MB per second for reading data and 100 MB per second for writing data, the partners said.

Source: InformationWeek

Microsoft will release Windows XP Service Pack 3 during the second half of April, according to a report from a Web site that has correctly predicted recent Windows ship dates.

TechARP.com, a Malaysian Web site that nailed Vista SP1’s release-to-manufacturing (RTM) date last month as well as its release to Windows Update last week, said that Microsoft will wrap up work on XP’s third and final service pack next month. The site pegged RTM for Windows XP SP3 as “second half of April 2008″ for seven languages, with a follow-on RTM of the remaining supported languages “approximately 21 days” later.

By TechARP’s account, Microsoft will first finish work on the Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean and Spanish versions of the service pack.

Microsoft declined comment, other than to repeat an earlier statement about the service pack’s timing. “We are targeting 1H [first half] 2008 for the release of XP SP3 RTM, though our timing will always be based on customer feedback as a first priority,” a spokeswoman said in an e-mail.

The last time Microsoft made a public move with Windows XP SP3 was a little over a month ago, when it posted a second release candidate to Windows Update.

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In the end, it was not the adult film industry that decided the high-definition format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD. However, this segment faces appears to be taking a lead role in the promotion of high definition as DVD sales are down dramatically and customers apparently are shifting to Blu-ray quickly. The new format opens new opportunities for large studios, but will bring massive challenges for smaller companies in the business, Digital Playground co-founder Joone told TG Daily.

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The PSP is an amazing little gadget for people from all walks of life, young or old. It’s great to be able to pull it out of your jacket to watch a movie on your morning commute to work, or grabbing it out of back pack on the bus to school.

If you do happen to have one you know exactly what I mean. However you have also found how the costs of keeping new games, new movies, and new music can quickly add up to a small fortune unless you look out the selection of PSP download websites that the internet has to offer.

How much do you think you have spent after your initial purchase on keeping your PSP fully loaded with the latest names?

I’m sure you have heard others going on and on about how they simply go online and download all of their stuff from PSP download websites. Perhaps you have gone on the hunt only to find it was more of a goose chase to find these so called sites.

Finding free PSP download websites is likely to make you feel like a five year old again running through a candy store with a few dollars in your dirty pockets. Have you had your prayers answered and actually found a great one? If not, don’t worry because you are not alone.

Searching through the various PSP download websites can start out as a simple task that you may think will take only a few minutes. But before you know it though, you realize you have been searching for hours upon hours and you still haven’t found what you were really looking for.

Maybe you innocently clicked on a download link that actually took you some other PSP download websites claiming, yet again, to have free games, movies and music. You tried to download there only to be taken to an expensive retail site. On the other hand, you may have just gotten lost by following a flashy, impressive banner that looked as if offered a better deal than the site where you were currently was.

As you see, finding PSP download websites is not always as easy as it seems. Luckily, there are a small number of websites online that not everyone knows about - and they offer literally millions of dollars worth of downloads for a very low price.

You know, the real free PSP download websites that are not just gimmicks trying to lead you elsewhere. Although, you may find it far more beneficial and much more user friendly if you opt to go with one that has a small membership fee as I suggest in my research.

Tim Godfrey founded Bizazi.com and after completing his in-depth research reveals where to find reliable PSP download websites that are cheap and virus free.

If you want to grab free PSP downloads in an instant, visit the website to find out why only three out of one hundred PSP download websites are worth your time.

The first service pack for Microsoft Windows Vista has finally gone public. Here’s how to get–or not get–it for your PC.

After considerable rumor and speculation, numerous false starts, and not a small amount of frustration on the part of consumers, Microsoft has released Windows Vista Service Pack 1 into the wild.

The bundle of updates, which includes all updates released for the OS since its debut in February 2007, is now available for download via Microsoft’s Windows Update service.

The easiest way to get your hands on Vista SP1 is to sit back, relax, and let Microsoft Update grab it for you. However, if you can’t wait, you can get the standalone update in a 32-bit version or a 64-bit version.

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What a sobering year it’s been for AMD. Its ray of hope, the Phenom processor with its four CPU cores, dynamic speed and power management and shared L3 cache, was not only released far too late, it also nearly became a flop despite its outstanding architecture. For one thing, AMD is still unable to ship CPUs running at more than 2.4 GHz. Also, the CPU maker had to completely halt shipments of Opteron processors based on the same core, since a bug in the translation lookaside buffer (TLB, also known as Erratum 298) for the L3 cache could cause data corruption under some circumstances. While this isn’t overly critical for home users, such an error or even the risk of it occurring are completely unacceptable in the business segment - and it proved to be nothing short of a fiasco for AMD.

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With Microsoft recently going behind Yahoo’s back and straight to their investors, and Yahoo repeatedly blowing Microsoft off, it seemed unlikely that a friendly get together was in the works. And yet, it has been reported that recently executives from both companies managed to get together, signs that they may be coming to a peaceful arrangement.

Does that necessarily mean Yahoo is ready to sell? Of course not, but if it is Yahoo’s intention to get more money out of Redmond it’s better off playing nice. Still, Yahoo has been looking for alternatives. Last week, Microsoft sweetened the deal they initially offered by making it an all-cash deal instead of a cash and stock mix. What will Microsoft do if Yahoo continues to stonewall, sell to another company or decide to do nothing altogether? I hope they have a better business plan for taking on Google than buying up other companies.

Source: techspot.com

Santa Clara (CA) - AMD has been pushing its Fusion idea for quite some time. The company claims the Fusion concept was one of the main reasons why they acquired ATI in the first place. The timetable for Fusion has been set, but Intel is working on a similar CPU/GPU combination and we are hearing that Intel may have its product earlier in the market than AMD, TG Daily has learned.

AMD’s Fusion is scheduled to arrive sometime in the second half of 2009, primarily targeting notebook applications. By the way, the dual-core CPU with an integrated ATI RV7xx core is codenamed “Black Swift", while the single-core with the ATI RV7xx core is known as “White Swift". There is no information on possible tri- or quad-core versions of Fusion at this time.

If you have been wondering what Intel is up to, we have reported previously that the company has been working on a similar CPU/GPU approach. Based on the Nehalem architecture, Intel will be rolling out two version of such a processor, Havendale and Auburndale.

Both Havendale and Auburndale should come to market in first half of 2009, were were told by industry sources. Both processors will combine two CPU cores as well as an integrated graphics subsystem based on the G45 successor. We can’t call Intel’s graphics solution really GPUs, since they do not support some key features of DX9 and DX10 APIs. Since these chips are based on Nehalem, they will also support Hyperthreading (Intel’s original virtual dual-core approach that was introduced with the Pentium 4), which means that the processors will be able to handle four threads total.

What makes Intel’s approach interesting is the fact that Havendale is a desktop CPU and Auburndale is a notebook CPU. Both feature an integrated dual-channel memory controller supporting DDR3-1333 memory, but neither of them has QuickPath, Intel’s shiny new Front Side Bus: Auburndale will support QuickPath when connected to a NorthBridge chip from the Ibexpeak-m platform.

There is also a difference in processor sockets - Havendale will be placed on a new socket for Intel’s desktop platform, LGA-1160; Auburndale will use the brand-new mPGA-989 socket. The thermal design power 75 watts for the desktop part, and 45/55 watts for the mobile part. Both processors will be manufactured in 45 nm. These power numbers may not sound that impressive, but consider that the first standalone dual-core Pentium was rated at up to 130 watts without graphics, and the progress becomes obvious.

Ibexpeak and Ibexpeak-m will be known as Intel’s desktop and mobile platform for 2009, with Ibexpeak most likely being branded as ?5 series? (P5x, X5x), while Ibexpeak-M will get a Centrino name.

The key difference difference between AMD Fusion and Intel’s Nehalem + VGA approach, as it appears today, is the fact that AMD is expected to actually use a real and very capable GPU. So, if Intel wants to make anything out of their CPU+GPU project, we would hope that the company throws its current products in the toilet and starts working on a new and more capable 3D architecture and drivers. Something like this here.

Source: TG Daily

Firefox 3.0 is dramatically faster than its predecessor and rivals, benchmark tests claim.

Firefox 3.0 is dramatically faster than its predecessor and rivals, benchmark tests claim – the result of hundreds of performance improvements designed to make the open-source browser the best at running complex Web 2.0 applications, Mozilla Corp.’s chief developer said Wednesday.

“We’ve been working on performance for a long time,” said Mike Schroepfer, Mozilla’s vice president of engineering. “Each beta of Firefox 3.0 got better. Beta 1 was better than Firefox 2.0, Beta 2 was better than Beta 1 and so on. Some of the big architectural changes [we’ve made] had begun paying off. Now we’re at the point where we can turn the knob to get it to perform well.”

Firefox 3.0 Beta 4, which Mozilla released late Monday, has been put through its paces by users and bloggers, some of whom have published the results of head-to-head benchmark tests between Firefox, Opera, Apple Inc.’s Safari and Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer. According to Percy Cabello, who posted his results on the Mozilla Links blog, Firefox 3.0 Beta 4 is 53% faster than Opera 9.5 beta, twice as fast as Apple Inc.’s Safari and three times faster than Microsoft Corp.’s IE7 on the SunSpider benchmark, which tests JavaScript performance.

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Optimize your Apple Macbook battery settings in Energy Saver preferences to increase battery life.

From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.

From the View menu, choose Energy Saver.

Click Show Details.

Choose Battery or Battery Power from the “Settings for” pop-up menu.

Choose Longest or Better Battery Life from the Optimize Energy Settings pop-up menu.

These settings will put the hard disk to sleep whenever possible and reduce the computer’s microprocessor performance in order to maximize its battery life.

If you are using intensive mac applications, you may wish to modify or change the settings so the microprocessor performance is no longer reduced.

Set your screen brightness to the lowest comfortable level

Press the F1 (dimmer) and F2 (brighter) keys to dim the screen until the brightness is as low as possible and the screen is still comfortable to look at.

Turn off unused features and technologies.

Just as you would turn off the lights in an unoccupied room, turning off unused features and technologies can help maximize your battery life, too. Here are a few suggestions:

Eject CDs and DVDs you’re no longer using. Every so often, the optical drive spins up to read CDs or DVDs. This consumes a small amount of power.

Disconnect peripherals when you’re not using them. Connected peripherals, such as printers and digital cameras, can draw power from your battery even when you’re not using them.

If you’re not in a location where you need to use AirPort or Bluetooth, you can turn them off to save power.

To turn off AirPort:

From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.

From the View menu, choose Network.

From the Show selection, choose Network Port Configuration.

Uncheck Airport from the list.

Click Apply Now.
To turn off Bluetooth in Mac OS X 10.2 or later:

From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.

From the View menu, choose Bluetooth.

Click the Settings tab.

Click Turn Bluetooth Off.

Author: Courtland_Santos

The Windows command-line tools are used to perform various tasks related to Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008.You can use the command reference to familiarize yourself with new and enhanced command-line tools, to learn about the command shell, and to automate command-line tasks by using batch files or scripting tools.

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2007 wasn’t quite a lucky year for AMD. The firm wanted its quad core Phenom processor to compete with Intel’s successful Core 2 family, which had run over AMD one and a half years ago by delivering higher performance and better energy efficiency. (This only applies to the processors, mind you; AMD has managed to stay competitive in the mainstream if you look at the entire platform.) The Phenom quad core processor, unfortunately, suffered from a nasty bug - it isn’t much of an issue in desktop environments, but hurt the reputation of the fresh brand. This was particularly disappointing given that the processor arrived half a year late, and still does not reach sufficient clock speed to challenge Intel.

While this was going on, AMD had to digest the acquisition of ATI, which has certainly bound up a lot of resources as well. All of this is unfortunate, as the processor and platform market requires competition to drive innovation. Who knows where processors would be today if Intel had not had its wall back to the wall with the Pentium 4 facing fast and efficient competition from the Athlon 64 family between 2003 and 2006…

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Santa Clara (CA) - While AMD is currently planning to ramp its 45 nm production in the first half of this year, and volume launch 45 nm processors for the second half, Intel is already ramping down 65 nm quickly, popping out 45 nm processors at a rate of 100,000 per day.

It may be much more difficult for AMD to catch up with Intel than previously anticipated. Intel is plugging away at an astonishing rate, its engines appear to be working flawlessly at this time, at least from what we can see. At yesterday’s analyst meeting, chief executive Paul Otellini said that Intel has shipped more than four million 45 nm processors so far since their launch late last year.

According to the executive, 72 different 45 nm models are currently shipping and the firm’s four fabs in Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico and Israel are churning out 100,000 processors each day. By the end of the first quarter, roughly 75% of Intel?s processor output will be based on 65 nm and 25% on 45 nm. Sometime in the third quarter, Intel expects to reach the crossover and produce more 45 nm chips than 65 nm units.

It isn’t a secret that Intel is heavily investing into its production technology with the goal of keeping and extending its leadership in this area. Otellini provided some insight into the financials and just how much it cost Intel to arrive at 45 nm at the time it did. The executive estimated the development investment at about $1 billion, product development (Penryn, Nehalem, Silverthorne) at about $2 billion and manufacturing facilities at about $9 billion. Add everything up and you have $12 billion at the bottom line.

It is a massive investment, and virtually impossible to match by companies such as AMD, but Intel expects something in return, of course: Otellini said that the $12 billion 45 nm investment will yield about $80 billion in revenues over time.

The next 45 nm processor, based on a completely new micro-architecture, is on track for a H2 2008 delivery. Nehalem will arrive with 2, 4 and 8 cores, an integrated 3-channel DDR3 memory controller, Hyperthreading support (up to 16 threads per CPU) and what Otellini called a “very flexible design". Sometime in 2009, he expects that Intel will have the capability to integrate non-CPU cores into Nehalem, but general purpose cores such as graphics as well. Yes, that would be AMD’s Fusion concept in an Intel processor.

Graphics will play an increasingly important role at Intel and its platform strategy. The company has begun its production efforts and will bring its graphics technology down 45 nm until 2009. By 2010 and 32 nm, CPU and graphics chip production will be “completely synced” Otellini said. The company is also moving from a “good enough graphics” approach to the higher end, competing with Nvidia and AMD for the crown of the segment. Of course, that product that company hopes will achieve this goal will be Larrabee, a multi-purpose ?programmable Intel architecture machine? for application areas ranging from high-performance computing to discrete graphics.

According to Otellini, Larrabee will have “lots of cores", “lots of threads” and represent Intel’s first “many-core” product".

Like Nvidia?s Tesla cards and AMD’s stream processor Firestream cards, Larrabee is expected to focus on visualization applications with supercomputer-like processing capabilities in floating point operations. Other than Tesla and Firestream however, Intel promises that Larrabee will have greater memory bandwidth and will also be easier to program, as it is based on regular IA architecture. Larrabee is slate for a late 2009 or early 2010 release.

Meanwhile, Intel noted that 32 nm is also on track for a H2 2009 introduction. The technology will debut with Westmere, a 32 nm refresh of Nehalem. Sandy Bridge, a new 32 nm micro-architecture is already under development - just like its 22 nm refresh, which has not received a public name yet.

Source: TG Daily

It’s certainly been a rocky start for Microsoft’s latest OS, which has had its ups and downs since launching a little over a year ago. Despite the fact that most of these people have never actually used it, there is still an overwhelming number of detractors. Many people see Vista as sluggish and bloated.

After a year, the market share for Vista has barely reached 12% (source), with most people preferring to stick with XP. Looking at this site’s visitors’ stats, it appears to be true (about 11% of the readers of this site use Vista).

It appears that Microsoft have a lot of work cut out for them in order to convince the majority of the public that they should upgrade to Vista. Personally, I have been using it since about Day 1, and have nothing but good things to say about it. Assuming you have a decent computer (anything built in 2007 or later will be fine) and enough ram (with today’s prices, there really is no excuse to have less than 2GB installed) it is quite snappy. The extra features and gadgets are nice, and stability is rock solid. I am writing this on a PC that hasn’t been rebooted in over 6 months.

Still, there is a lot of work to be done, and this month Microsoft is releasing a huge Service Pack that contains fixes and updates that range from important performance issues to deep-down functionality tweaks. SP1 is already available to MSDN subscribers, and will be made available to the public within a few weeks. For an insane amount of details, feel free to take a look at Microsoft’s SP1 whitepaper. It will tell you everything you need to know, and more. SP1 also includes all the fixes that have been released since launch.

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Online video can boost electronics retailers’ brand recognition and sales, although business and technical considerations have to be taken into account to achieve good results.

That was the message attendees at the eRetailer Summit in Miami heard loud and clear on Monday from speakers on the panel, “Video in Advertising: The Promises and Challenges.”

Although using Web video to market products and services is a relatively new practice, it can be extremely effective as long as clips are developed for an online audience and are not reheated TV spots, speakers said.

In the “Ad 1.0″ era, when the only medium for video advertising was the TV set and a few channels, the strategy was “shouting loudest and most often,” said Jeremy Lockhorn, director of emerging media at %7cAvenue A/Razorfish.

Today, consumers have a vast choice of devices, services, channels and Web sites, so marketers must make video ads engaging, clever and interactive in order to emerge from the clutter and earn consumers’ attention, Lockhorn said.

Thus, viewers of ads can be given a choice to go deeper and get more information about the product by clicking over to a longer documentary or to a Web page with complementary data, he said.

A 30-second spot should be broken up into segments that can be changed on the fly based on information about the viewer, such as their location or demographic profile, Lockhorn said.

The rules and best practices are being established now through trial and error, which causes great excitement and stress for marketers, said Mark Hillman, associate creative director at Resource Interactive. Among the emerging trends are video ads that allow viewer interaction and campaigns that call on consumers to make their own commercials, he said.

Meanwhile, Eric Elia, vice president of creative services at Internet TV services provider Brightcove, reminded attendees that there is a big technology component behind effective online advertising, whether it’s professionally produced or submitted by amateurs.

This includes managing the video, such as uploading and storing the file; publishing clips, which involves programming, rights management and delivery, and distribution via sharing, feeds or syndication; and revenue generation, which requires managing ad servers.

Finally, Rohit Bhargava, vice president of interactive marketing at public relations agency Ogilvy, said online video marketing can be used successfully to do recruiting, promotions and product education, and generate buzz.

He cited as a successful example a campaign that Ford Models has on YouTube to recruit models, in which some of the agency’s models tape videos in which they address aspects of their work.

Bhargava also mentioned LiveVault’s “Institute for Backup Trauma” as an effective and innovative example of the use of online video to educate customers about products through humor. In this case, the product is data backup gear. Typically, vendors such as LiveVault rely on white papers to gain customers, he said. “It’s a very engaging way to demonstrate the value of their products using video,” he said.

Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service

Mountain View (CA) - Thanks to its financial backing from Google, Youtube now plans to offer live video streaming by the end of 2008.

Steve Chen, co-founder of the popular video sharing site, told Pop17.com at a recent PR event, “Live video is just something that we’ve always wanted to do. We’ve never had the resources to do it correctly, but now with Google, we hope to actually launch something this year.”

Google acquired the site last year for over $1.5 billion.

The feature would allow users to submit video through an Internet-connected video camera, like a webcam, to stream live content to viewers across the Web with more features than traditional webcam features.

A few other websites, like Justin.tv, already allow live streaming, with real-time text chatting and a unique URL. Other services include Ustream and Mogulus.

Source: www.tomshardware.com

Developers talk over April code freeze to ‘get the ball rolling’

The Mozilla Foundation’s new e-mail spin-off is aiming at a quick delivery of the first alpha version of Thunderbird 3.0, according to discussions among developers.

Dan Mosedale, a former Firefox developer who joined Mozilla Messaging Inc. – dubbed “MoMess” by some – floated the idea of producing an alpha build as early as April in a thread on the mozilla.dev.apps.thunderbird group last week.

“I’d like to get the ball rolling on Thunderbird 3.0 Alpha 1,” said Mosedale, who in January committed to a four-month stint with Mozilla Messaging. “I propose… we arbitrarily set a tentative code-freeze date for Thunderbird 3.0a1 of Tuesday, April 8.

“I believe that it’s really worthwhile to get a release underway. Testers have only had nightlies for quite a while now, and the trunk is already notably better than [Thunderbird 2.0] in a number of ways,” Mosedale continued. “Getting something that we’re willing to recommend to a wider group of people is a great way to demonstrate real progress.”

Two weeks ago, Mozilla Messaging CEO David Ascher announced that the new company – the second for-profit spin-off of the Foundation – would tackle Thunderbird 3.0 as its first project. Ascher said that the mail client would add calendaring and improved search as it worked toward releasing a polished version before the end of the year.

Reaction to Mosedale’s call for an alpha was mostly positive.

“I’m with you,” said Phil Ringnalda. “If we’re going to ship something, ever, we have to start doing alphas, and giving people the feeling that they don’t have forever to write the code of their dreams.”

Gervase Markham, a Mozilla developer, agreed. “[An alpha] also gives a solid target for extension authors,” he noted. “I am reluctant to test trunk Thunderbird because there are a couple of extensions I rely on whose authors have said ‘I can’t support trunk; it moves too much’. Doing a ‘relatively stable’ alpha release allows them a fixed target, enabling long-term testing by people who don’t want to track trunk that closely.”

Mozilla Messaging grew out of a call last year by Mozilla Corp.’s then-CEO Mitchell Baker to break out Thunderbird development from the work on Firefox, the subsidiary’s big breadwinner. In July 2007, Baker said her company’s first priority was the browser, and that Thunderbird should be cut loose “to determine its own destiny.”

By September, Mozilla Corp. had seeded the new venture with $3 million in start-up funds and tapped Ascher to lead the venture.

Source: www.computerworld.com