New Apple Magic Mouse with Multi touch!
dimanche 25 octobre 2009
vendredi 9 octobre 2009
Triple-X domain likely to be reality soon
The U.S. has pulled out of its agreement with ICANN, the international organization that makes decisions about the Internet -- and that greatly concerns one pro-family attorney.Final decisions by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers are determined by a 21-member board, 15 of whom have voting rights. Incorporated under the law of the State of California, ICANN must abide by the laws of the United States as it oversees the complex network of unique identifiers -- IP addresses and domain names -- that allow computers on the worldwide web to find one another.
But there have been complaints about the dominance of the U.S. over the Internet, resulting in Washington recently relinquishing some control over the way the network is run and ICANN ending its agreement with the U.S. government.
Pat Trueman, special counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, recalls the influence exerted by the U.S. over the creation of a particular domain name -- one which he believes would have resulted in pornography being far more widespread than it is now.
"There have been some [U.S.] values that had been imposed on the organization that runs the Internet," says Trueman. "For example, a few years back the Bush administration weighed in heavily to say that it would not allow a .xxx domain -- a pornography domain -- to be added to the Internet."
Trueman -- a former porn prosecutor with the Department of Justice -- now believes it is a foregone conclusion that the .xxx pornography domain will be approved eventually, making the case for pornographers that their material is a part of the standard of the Internet. That, says the pro-family attorney, does not bode well for those seeking legal constraints on smut.
"When you try to prosecute...an Internet pornography case [here in the United States], I believe that legally this will make things much more difficult for the prosecutor," he laments.
In addition, Trueman notes that pornography sites will not be required to move their domain from .com to .xxx, effectively providing them added exposure.
Microsoft Tries to Quell European Complaints
BRUSSELS — European antitrust regulators said Wednesday that they had tentatively accepted Microsoft’s concessions to settle two antitrust cases, which the company said left both organizations free to focus on the next generation of technology giants, including Google.
The European Union competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes, said at a briefing Wednesday that concessions made by Microsoft to give European computer users a choice of Web browsers appeared to address many antitrust concerns. She said another case against the company could be settled this year.
In a telephone conference call with reporters, Microsoft’s chief lawyer, Brad Smith, did not mention Google by name. But he said clearing the decks in Brussels meant the company could turn its attention to the market for Internet search technologies and winning approval for its proposed merger with Yahoo. That deal would allow Microsoft to become a bigger player in online advertising, a market currently dominated by Google.
“It is very important for us to resolve competition law issues that have been on the agenda for more than a decade,” Mr. Smith said. “I don’t think that hurts, and it probably helps as we address some other issues.”
“There are still loose ends to tie up, but it looks like the battle with Microsoft is in the end game and there is a clear vacancy for antitrust poster child in Europe,” said Stephen Kinsella, an antitrust partner with the law firm Sidley Austin. “My money is on Google.”
Earlier, Ms. Kroes said she had “good grounds for thinking we are moving towards a very satisfactory resolution” of two cases, one concerning the way Microsoft bundles its Internet Explorer Web browser with its Windows operating system, and the other involving the way other brands communicate with Microsoft products.
But a coalition of Microsoft’s competitors, the European Committee for Interoperable Systems, which has an outstanding complaint against Microsoft over failure to provide information necessary to achieve compatibility with its products, remained wary.
Thomas Vinje, the legal counsel for the organization, which represents companies like I.B.M., Nokia and Oracle, questioned whether consumers would have a “real and unbiased choice” of browsers and whether competing companies would be able to enforce the commitments made by Microsoft on interoperability.
Mr. Vinje said the commission still had “to ensure that Microsoft lives up to its part of the deal.”
Mr. Smith of Microsoft said, however, that the European Union should be able to drop the complaint by Mr. Vinje’s group without further action as part of the wide-ranging settlement.
Mr. Smith said that moving on from the European case would also allow regulators to concentrate on potential competition law issues raised by I.B.M., which is developing a new generation of powerful computers. He cited the merger of Oracle and Sun Microsystems as evidence of the emergence of potentially powerful new forces.
European officials have been informally market-testing the offer — first made by Microsoft in July — that would give European computer users a choice of Web browsers.
Since then, Microsoft has offered more tweaks to its software so that users of new and existing Windows-based computers in Europe already loaded with Internet Explorer would get a so-called ballot screen that would let them download other browsers and turn off Microsoft’s default Explorer.
Users of existing Windows-based computers with Internet Explorer in Europe would receive an update prompting them to choose from among competing browsers, European officials said.
Ms. Kroes said she would spend the next month holding formal testing of the Microsoft offer with consumers and clients. She said she intended to reach a so-called commitment decision on the browser case enforceable with fines if Microsoft wavered in its compliance.
The European Union competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes, said at a briefing Wednesday that concessions made by Microsoft to give European computer users a choice of Web browsers appeared to address many antitrust concerns. She said another case against the company could be settled this year.In a telephone conference call with reporters, Microsoft’s chief lawyer, Brad Smith, did not mention Google by name. But he said clearing the decks in Brussels meant the company could turn its attention to the market for Internet search technologies and winning approval for its proposed merger with Yahoo. That deal would allow Microsoft to become a bigger player in online advertising, a market currently dominated by Google.
“It is very important for us to resolve competition law issues that have been on the agenda for more than a decade,” Mr. Smith said. “I don’t think that hurts, and it probably helps as we address some other issues.”
“There are still loose ends to tie up, but it looks like the battle with Microsoft is in the end game and there is a clear vacancy for antitrust poster child in Europe,” said Stephen Kinsella, an antitrust partner with the law firm Sidley Austin. “My money is on Google.”
Earlier, Ms. Kroes said she had “good grounds for thinking we are moving towards a very satisfactory resolution” of two cases, one concerning the way Microsoft bundles its Internet Explorer Web browser with its Windows operating system, and the other involving the way other brands communicate with Microsoft products.
But a coalition of Microsoft’s competitors, the European Committee for Interoperable Systems, which has an outstanding complaint against Microsoft over failure to provide information necessary to achieve compatibility with its products, remained wary.
Thomas Vinje, the legal counsel for the organization, which represents companies like I.B.M., Nokia and Oracle, questioned whether consumers would have a “real and unbiased choice” of browsers and whether competing companies would be able to enforce the commitments made by Microsoft on interoperability.
Mr. Vinje said the commission still had “to ensure that Microsoft lives up to its part of the deal.”
Mr. Smith of Microsoft said, however, that the European Union should be able to drop the complaint by Mr. Vinje’s group without further action as part of the wide-ranging settlement.
Mr. Smith said that moving on from the European case would also allow regulators to concentrate on potential competition law issues raised by I.B.M., which is developing a new generation of powerful computers. He cited the merger of Oracle and Sun Microsystems as evidence of the emergence of potentially powerful new forces.
European officials have been informally market-testing the offer — first made by Microsoft in July — that would give European computer users a choice of Web browsers.
Since then, Microsoft has offered more tweaks to its software so that users of new and existing Windows-based computers in Europe already loaded with Internet Explorer would get a so-called ballot screen that would let them download other browsers and turn off Microsoft’s default Explorer.
Users of existing Windows-based computers with Internet Explorer in Europe would receive an update prompting them to choose from among competing browsers, European officials said.
Ms. Kroes said she would spend the next month holding formal testing of the Microsoft offer with consumers and clients. She said she intended to reach a so-called commitment decision on the browser case enforceable with fines if Microsoft wavered in its compliance.
dimanche 4 octobre 2009
L'outil antispam Captcha sert à la numérisation de livres anciens
Une nouvelle vie pour un outil qui fête ses huit ans...
Captcha, ce sont ces petites lettres que vous retrouvez au moment de vous inscrire sur un site, ou de publier un commentaire, et qui assurent que vous êtes humain et non un bête robot. Les lettres sont déformées de sorte qu'il faut (parfois avec de l'imagination) réfléchir pour les reproduire dans la case prévue à cet usage.
L'antispam au secours des livres
Conçu voilà huit ans pour empêcher les ravages du spam dans les boîtes à courriel, Captcha est actuellement en cours d'évolution et servira prochainement à transcrire les journaux et manuscrits aux lettres passablement... déformées. Sa sécurité n'est pas de 100 %, et l'on rapporte çà et là des systèmes de robots qui en sont venus à bout, mais dans l'ensemble, ça freine bien.
Captcha, ce sont ces petites lettres que vous retrouvez au moment de vous inscrire sur un site, ou de publier un commentaire, et qui assurent que vous êtes humain et non un bête robot. Les lettres sont déformées de sorte qu'il faut (parfois avec de l'imagination) réfléchir pour les reproduire dans la case prévue à cet usage.
L'antispam au secours des livres
Conçu voilà huit ans pour empêcher les ravages du spam dans les boîtes à courriel, Captcha est actuellement en cours d'évolution et servira prochainement à transcrire les journaux et manuscrits aux lettres passablement... déformées. Sa sécurité n'est pas de 100 %, et l'on rapporte çà et là des systèmes de robots qui en sont venus à bout, mais dans l'ensemble, ça freine bien.
Le système, pensé par Luis von Ahn, à l'origine du modèle Captcha, et qui supervise la numérisation de livres dans 70 universités, a ainsi proposé d'ouvrir son système à qui veut s'inscrire et permettra alors d'aider à la numérisation. En effet, les personnes vont scruter le mot affiché, proposer leur version et par recoupement, Captcha relaiera à un ordinateur le mot mystère. Cela aiderait alors à la numérisation de 160 livres par jour.
reCAPTCHA, version reloaded !
Le nouveau système, modestement baptisé reCAPTCHA servira pour des livres publiés avant 1900 et serait doté d'une efficacité de 80 % de réussite. En passant par une phase de reconnaissance optique de caractère (OCR), on s'appuiera ensuite sur la base de données de référence pour décoder le mot qui pose problème.
« Environ 60 millions de Captcha sont utilisés à travers le monde chaque jour - chacun prenant environ 10 secondes. Par personne, cela ne représente pas grand-chose, mais bout à bout, ces puzzles impliquent 150.00 heures de travail », explique von Ahn.
Encore à perfectionner
Si la numérisation et la reconnaissance tendant de toute manière à être perfectionnées, elles semblent tout de même plus attentives que les opérations de numérisation de masse. Du côté de Google, quand on ne numérise pas à la main, on se sert d'un logiciel de détection maison, ainsi que sur la reconnaissance humaine. Mais on refuse de dire si reCaptcha pourrait devenir un partenaire...
source >>>>> ici
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