What The Heck Blog

GoogleVoice App for iPhone due to AT&T's shithole.Does that give Google Voice a chance to launch in Canada? or on other devices?

In a letter titled “What our Microsoft deal means to you“ Yahoo salesperson CEO Carol Bartz gives an insincere apology for screwing the troops, without thinking twice.

It’s inhumanly early in California, but it’s already a great day at Yahoo!. We’ve just signed a major search deal with Microsoft. Under the terms, Microsoft will become the search engine behind Yahoo! and we will become the worldwide exclusive relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers.

Translation - I have been up all night partying like a rock star, knowing that my personal fortune has increased immensely, and though I’ve sold our collective souls to Satan, we will enjoy ourselves immensely until we die … then, the cheese gets binding. In truth we are already dead, but though we are on our collective way to hell, at least we’ll enjoy the ride.

While you’ll read a lot about why this is good for our business and for advertisers, I want to talk about what’s in it for you–the Yahoo! fan.

Pay close attention, because no one else will tell you this, just this way; everyone else will want to confuse you with facts.

Here’s the rundown:

Better search: You’ll still find search boxes all across Yahoo!, but this deal will make the difference between a great Yahoo! search experience and an awesome one. Some of the biggest brains in the business work on Yahoo! Search, and they will continue to innovate to create a better search experience on Yahoo!. As a result of the deal, Microsoft, which has great technologists and deep pockets,will have the scale to bring users faster, more useful and more personally relevant search.

And if you believe me, I have a great deal on retirement property in Florida for all of you, it will make your dollars go much further, you simply must learn to wear scuba gear and hold a shock prod 24/7.

Better everything else: With Microsoft powering Yahoo! Search, we’ll be able to focus on the things we do best–being the center of people’s lives online with properties like our homepage, mail, finance, news, sports, entertainment, mobile, etc. Sure, we’re the world’s largest online media company and your loyalty has made that possible. But we’re not satisfied–we still want you to say “wow” a lot more often. And that’s what makes this deal especially exciting.

Better still, we (actually I) will be able to concentrate more on what we (I, sorry, I keep forgetting that) do best, selling out and planning staggered layoffs. We want you to say Wow, you know, in the same way that Microsoft brought the Wow 3 years ago, with Vista,

Better competition: Competition equals innovation. But with one player dominating 70% of search, that field has been pretty lopsided. This transaction will create a healthy competitor that’ll keep everyone on their toes.

Frankly, I don’t believe this myself, but Darth Ballmer told me to include it, it’s his idea of humor.

In short, everything’s just going to get a whole lot better for you.

And one final note–what this agreement does not cover is any of Yahoo!’s other properties or products. In those areas, Microsoft can expect a fierce competitor.

We’ve set up a special site,www.choicevalueinnovation.com, that answers your questions.

Carol Bartz
CEO

In short, I really can’t say anymore, for legal reasons, Microsoft already has enough troubles with things in Europe. Thanks for pretending to believe me, it makes the deception almost seem possible. Yes, as for competition, I’ll be sitting on a beach somewhere, pretending to come up with ideas, but, I have a premonition that none will be better than the ones coming our way from Redmond. A quick tip, stock up on Preparation H.

Yes, it’s almost like reading ‘Alice in Wonderland’. yet having no idea that Lewis Carroll was experimenting with drugs.

***Update:

I just watched the video clips for the Yahoo - Microsoft deal, with Ballmer looking incredibly unlike the CEO of a company, even a small one. His unease while speaking made me think he was lying the entire time he was speaking. He simply oozes untrustworthiness.

Bartz looked as though she had to be tranquilized to give her side of the speech. She was more likable than Ballmer, but did not do much better. Both of these people looked like bad actors in a high school play.

By the way, the clips were shown on Nightly Business Report on PBS. Along with the videos, there were some interviews with stock market honchos, all of them stating that the deal was bad for Yahoo…that Yahoo could have gotten more to lie down and die… and also that Ballmer and Bartz are dreaming if they believe they can seriously challenge Google.

It’s great when those of us on the outside are vindicated by the professionals! BTW, the Yahoo stock, and to some degree, the Microsoft stock, tanked on the market, showing that investors were underwhelmed by the news.

oday, Yahoo died as a search engine. If the deal with Microsoft is approved, what will replace it will be Bing, the search engine that Microsoft launched only two months ago. Within a few months time, Microsoft will go from owning 8 percent of the U.S. search market to 28 percent (comScore). That is still less than half of Google’s 65 percent, but it could give Microsoft a fighting chance in the search wars against Google.

While the agreement was a long time coming, Bing was the cherry on top, so to speak. Earlier today, I spoke with the two executives who oversaw the negotiations for both sides, Yahoo EVP Hillary Schneider and Microsoft SVP Yusuf Mehdi. I asked how big an impact Bing’s sudden success had on bringing the deal to a close. “Seeing Bing as a live experience was a nice assurance,” says Schneider, “but did not change our rationale or timing. This was a conversation that went on over several months. Bing was introduced after we had material momentum in how we wanted to approach this partnership.”

Yet Bing was able to gain market share in its very first month, and it took it from Yahoo, not Google. And Bing is just going to get better. Yahoo faced the very real prospect of market share erosion from below as well as from above. Now in one fell swoop, Microsoft will control all of Yahoo’s search volume. In a conference call today, Steve Ballmer explained how important market share is in search:

Do we think we will have better algorithms for relevance? Yes we do. There is a feedback loop in search. the more searches you serve, the more you learn about what people click on. Scale drives knowledge. There is a return to scale from seeing that much activity [that is more] than Yahoo or MSFT see independently

Microsoft will measure the success of this deal in two ways: increased market share with advertisers and increased market share with consumers. When I asked Mehdi what success would look like a couple years out, he defines it in terms of “shares of queries and spends.” Even before mentioning gaining share with consumers, he says: “Success is a smooth transition for advertisers as they shift more share of wallet from traditional media and competitors to get the better ROI.”

Microsoft will also become the new home for Yahoo’s search technologies. That is a good thing because even before this deal was announced, the spirit of technology innovation at Yahoo which produced projects such as Yahoo Boss and Search Monkey seems to have fizzled. These efforts will now be passed on to Microsoft. The fortunate news is that Mehdi says he wants to keep those projects alive. “For Search Monkey and Boss, we will integrate that technology and determine how to take that forward. There is a lot of goodness there.” At least Microsoft knows a good developer platform when it sees one.

So the deal is good for Microsoft. It puts them in the game, and they didn’t even have to pay $1 billion upfront. But is it good for Yahoo?

Instead of that upfront payment, Yahoo is getting 88 percent of search advertising revenues on Yahoo-owned sites every year for the next five years (at which point the so-called TAC rate will be renegotiated for the last five years of the deal). “This is a materially higher TAC than any of the previous arrangements,” says Schneider. But it’s also not much higher than what big affiliates like AOL are believed to be getting from Google today. And Yahoo needs to keep paying its sales force, but can only keep 88 percent of the revenues they generate. (Although there are some revenue-per-search guarantees baked into the deal to protect Yahoo on the downside).

Investors aren’t thrilled with the deal, and it is not just because they tend to value cash over potential. This is a ten-year arrangement between two lumbering giants that is filled with execution risk. It is a very complicated deal. Yahoo’s sales team has enough trouble communicating with its own engineers. Now they have to learn how to talk to Microsoft’s.

Jason Calacanis argues that Yahoo just committed suicide, while Bill Gurley thinks the opposite, that Yahoo had to get out of Google’s way to survive.

The two companies will work hard to pull this off. Their futures depend on it. And the deal is structured in a way that makes sure both sides make more money the more searches and advertising dollars Bing generates. Getting to that ideal state, though, won’t be easy. In the meantime, as they work through all of the implementation issues, Google could strengthen its position and take even more share.

No matter what happens, Yahoo just took itself out of the search game. It got Binged.

MOBILE, Ala.---- Police in Mobile, Ala., used pepper spray and a Taser on a deaf, mentally disabled who they said wouldn't leave a store's bathroom.

The family of 37-year-old Antonio Love has filed a formal complaint over the incident on Friday.

Police tell the Press-Register of Mobile that officers shot pepper spray under the bathroom door after knocking several times. After forcing the door open, they used the stun gun on Love.

Police spokesman Christopher Levy says police didn't realize Love had a hearing impairment until after he was out of the bathroom. The officers' conduct is under investigation.

The newspaper says the officers attempted to book Love on charges including disorderly conduct, but a magistrate on duty wouldn't accept the charges.

Bill Gates confessed at an event in New Delhi today that he gave up on Facebook because he couldn’t keep up with the friend requests. Gates remarked that there were “10,000 people wanting to be my friends” after he tried out the service, and it was time consuming to decide if he “knew this person, did I not know this person”.

Gates was speaking at a gathering to accept the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development on behalf of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In addition to saying that Facebook “was just way too much trouble so I gave it up”, the AFP story on the event quotes Gates as saying he’s “not that big at text messaging”. The Microsoft co-founder also mentioned that he doesn’t spend all day using technology and that “All these tools of tech waste our time if we’re not careful.”

And while Gates insists that he’s “not a 24-hour-a-day tech person”, it’s clear that a growing number of Facebook users are – it’s the very reason why Microsoft has a stake in the networking giant, as users’ time and attention are increasingly consumed by these somewhat addictive services.

I have no idea what Bill Gates’ Facebook page looks like, but we’d like to imagine it’s similar to this hilarious mockup: http://ping.fm/25qxb

As an illegally-obtained video of sports reporter Erin Andrews is being passed around the web, security firm Sophos has renewed warnings that scammers are posting fake clips in order to propagate malware. It adds that link sharing on Twitter (Twitter) and blogs is only worsening the situation.

A video posted by Sophos earlier this week (below) warns of a fake CNN.com clone that prompts users to download a malicious file to view the video: links to the fake site are being propagated through forums like Yahoo Answers.

Sites like Twitter “Chockablock” with Fake Links

On Thursday, Sophos security expert Graham Cluley renewed his warnings, and implored web users to stop sharing these links with friends. He writes:

Hackers have created webpages claiming to contain the controversial footage that Erin Andrews’ legal team are trying to have wiped off the net. The cybercriminals are not doing this because they want to share the unauthorised footage, however. Their interest is to infect your computer with Mac or Windows malware…many news blogs and sites like Twitter are chockablock with messages that claim to point to the forbiddden video footage.

…One of the peculiar aspects of the Erin Andrews Peephole Video attack is…that it can show you footage of what appears to be Erin Andrews in her hotel room….it may mean that users click on these links, get infected on their Mac or Windows PC and then forward the link so their online buddies can also “benefit” from the sleazy footage not realising that they are helping the hackers catch more victims.

As Sophos mentions, the usual refrain of “get a Mac” to avoid viruses doesn’t apply here: the threat affects both Windows and Mac machines.

This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.

Name: Tweetmondo

Quick Pitch: Tweetmondo finds local Twitter users and shows you where they are on a map.

Warning: Tweetmondo sends out an auto-tweet after registration.

Genius Idea: It’s becoming clear that location-based services are in high demand. The rise of GPS-enabled phones, LBS adoption, and social networking has created a need for location-based social networks and tools. Twitter’s no exception – in fact, we highlighted 9 different ways to find local Twitter users last month. Tweetmondo, however, seeks to drive location-based Twitter applications to another level with filtering and realtime features.

The Twitter application makes a simple promise: give it a location (the more specific, the better) and it will tell you which Twitter users are nearby. For example, I was just at the Googleplex (for a tweetup), so I typed in “Googleplex” and, in a few seconds, I was provided with a Google Map containing Twitter profile pictures and a list of people who were likely to be nearby.

That alone is nice, but Tweetmondo’s additional features help you really hone your results. They key is the precision gauge; this will tell you how accurate Tweetmondo believes it is as to the location of specific Twitter users. From there, you can filter results (i.e. only show me users with a 50% precision level or better) and even exclude anyone without a certain number of followers.

It also has a “keep me updated” feature – if you activate this, Tweetmondo will DM you whenever a new person is found at that location – a nice touch. The last kicker is that Tweetmondo works in realtime; just like Twitter Search, it will show you if new people are in the area and will ask you to refresh to see their information. It will also show you how many minutes or hours ago someone was located by the app.

While Tweetmondo’s features are detailed and well thought out, they don’t matter if it doesn’t accurately find nearby Twitter users. In that regard, Tweetmondo is only above average – it’s useful for finding people who actually live nearby, but not as adept at finding people right now. Of course, it’s tough to know where someone exactly is unless they announce it or they update their location with an app like Foursquare. Still, Tweetmondo’s feature set, especially its “keep me updated” feature, make it a useful Twitter location-based service.

This is one of those stories that gets passed from one friend to another by e-mail and twitter, and quickly spreads around offices. It almost sounds like something you’d read in The Onion, but the deeper you get into the story, the more serious it becomes. Who knows if its even true? The story is being reported by a bunch of international newspapers, which would lead you to believe so (but I’m still skeptical). Read on..

Shanghai Daily is reporting that a 14-year-old from Yibin in Sichuan, China has been drinking Gasoline for the last five years to become a “valiant fighter” like Optimus Prime. The youngster first saw the animated Transformers tv series when he was nine years old, and was so impressed that be “that he began drinking fuel on a daily basis to “obtain energy” and become a mighty warrior like the Transformers.”

The kids parents scolded the kid after he started smelling the gas in cigarette lighters, and later began to notice that the gasoline in their motorcycle had begin disappearing. They caught the kid in the act and locked the motorcycle away, but the boy started stealing gasoline from unsuspecting neighbors. After the parents learned that their child was drinking two or three bottles a day, they decided to take him to a hospital. The doctor explained to the boy that he would not gain supernatural strength, but instead now has mental disorders from the lead and a strong “gasoline dependence.”

“Since my son start to drink gas, his intelligence quotient dropped sharply and he couldn’t figure out addition and subtraction of sums within 100,” the father said. “Before that, he was a very smart boy, and he could even repair the television. But now he doesn’t know the answer of 7 plus 17.”

When Facebook first rolled out custom usernames, we cautioned that much like a bad tattoo, you wouldn’t be able to undo them. That didn’t stop some people from registering ridiculous names or clearly trademarked terms that might be funny today but not good long-term choices.
However, it now appears that Facebook has updated their policy, perhaps after being inundated with requests to change poor name choices, or maybe just because registrations have slowed to a more manageable pace and they intended to add the option all along. In any event, users are now able to change their usernames by going to “Account Settings” and looking under “Username.”

As ReadWriteWeb notes, Facebook is still imposing some limitations, alerting you that “You can only change your username once” when you click the “check availability” link on the new setting. Realistically, Facebook is probably just trying to scare you into taking a name that’s a little less absurd than “rickroll” or “jackbauercouldwhoopchucknorris”.
Nonetheless, the name choices available to those who now wish to change them will be a bit less fruitful than before. Millions of usernames were registered within the first few days of their availability, and now that smaller brands can also get custom URLs for their Facebook Pages, the selection is even smaller.
Will you be attempting to change your Facebook username? Let us know in the comments.

Earlier this evening, I caught wind of a promotion Baja Fresh was running via their Facebook Page: a free burrito with the purchase of a soft drink. Since there’s a restaurant close to my house, I decided to jump to what I assumed would be Baja Fresh’s Facebook Page (facebook.com/bajafresh) and print out the coupon.

Much to my surprise, that URL does not belong to the Mexican casual dining chain, but to one Helen Scott of Miami, Florida. Figuring out the actual URL of Baja Fresh’s page was as simple as a Google search, but it did lead me to question how exactly Facebook plans to handle the situation, and similar ones that are likely to emerge in the wake of Facebook rolling out custom URLs to everyone – both regular users and brands – over the past month or so.

A Facebook spokesperson got back to me, informing me that they “can strip the name from a user if the trademarked entity is requesting it. We would then reassign it to the rightful entity.” In other words, even if a trademarked brand failed to pre-register their name prior to the custom URL rollout, they’ll still be able to get their name from a user that has beaten them to it, provided they have the proper credentials. This is certainly the right policy for Facebook to be following, though it will surely upset those that were able to secure clever albeit trademarked usernames.

In any event, Helen Scott, your memorable Facebook URL may be living on borrowed time. All Facebook needs is “a representative of Baja Fresh to confirm that they would like this done” and you’ll be back to your own name, variation of it, or an alias, just like the rest of us.

One of the major hazards of playing games online is that you oftentimes have to deal with some pretty obnoxious folks saying some pretty obnoxious things. Muting options obviously help with this, but they can really only do so much. And while we often hear about the people forced to listen to someone’s inane ramblings, we don’t normally hear about the players whose comments make multiplayer gaming a frequently frustrating experience. Enter one Erik Estavillo.

As GamePolitics reports, Sony recently banned Estavillo’s PlayStation Network access for comments he made while playing Insomniac Games’ FPS Resistance: Fall of Man. Naturally, Estavillo believes this to be a violation of his First Amendment right, which is why he has brought suit against Sony for damages incurred as a result of his banning. (Sadly, the brief doesn’t specify what Estavillo said to cause the banning, but that’s hardly surprising, considering Estavillo filed the suit himself, and doesn’t appear to have legal representation).

Estavillo claims that the banning, combined with his various medical conditions, has caused him $55,000 worth of pain and suffering. According to the brief, Estavillo suffers from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Panic Disorder, depression, Crohn’s Disease and, most importantly, agoraphobia. You see, because of his debilitating fear of crowds, PSN is the “only way the plaintiff can truly socialize with other people.” Well, now we’re getting somewhere.


And if the irreparable personal suffering wasn’t enough, Estavillo is also accusing Sony of stealing money from users by blocking access to PSN cash acquired via PSN Redeem Cards once users have been banned from the service. Sadly, Sony’s PSN user agreement clearly states, “Upon termination for any reason, you will not receive a refund for items, value accumulated on in-game items or any unused balance in your wallet except as expressly provided in this Agreement and to the extent permitted by applicable law.”

As far as whether Sony was within its rights to issue the banning in the first place, a quick glance at the Resistance online user agreement pretty much says it all. “If you violate this Agreement in any manner, SCEA may at its discretion and without notice to you temporarily or permanently block your account and/or reset your stats and/or rankings in this game and any related games.”

Estavillo also alleges that because gamers under 17 years of age are able to play the game online, despite the game’s Mature rating, the entire PSN user agreement system should be deemed nonbinding. This obviously has nothing to do with his particular case, and even if it did, Sony’s user agreement takes care of this issue as well.

Clearly, Estavillo should have focused all of his effort on the pain and suffering claim. Sure it would require significant medical examination to prove, but it’s the only argument of the bunch that even comes close to holding a drop of water. Of course, if Estavillo’s comments were in fact of the inflammatory variety, the whole case is shot anyway. I’ll keep you posted on how this whole thing turns out.

Can you see any way that this guy could win this case?

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – An independent investigator has found evidence that Gov. Sarah Palin may have violated ethics laws by trading on her position in seeking money for legal fees, in the latest legal distraction for the former vice presidential candidate as she prepares to leave office this week.

The report obtained by The Associated Press says Palin is securing unwarranted benefits and receiving improper gifts through the Alaska Fund Trust, set up by supporters.

An investigator for the state Personnel Board says in his July 14 report that there is probable cause to believe Palin used or attempted to use her official position for personal gain because she authorized the creation of the trust as the "official" legal defense fund.

The practical effect of the ruling on Palin will be more financial than anything else. The report recommends that Palin refuse to accept payment from the defense fund, and that the complaint be resolved without a formal hearing before the board.

Palin posted an entry on Twitter in which she said the "matter is still pending," a statement echoed by her lawyer.

The fund aims to help Palin pay off debts stemming from multiple ethics complaints against her, most of which have been dismissed. Palin says she owes more than $500,000 in legal fees, and she cited the mounting toll of the ethics probes as one of the reasons she is leaving office.

The investigator, Thomas Daniel, sided with Palin in her frustration with having to defend herself against a barrage of ethics complaints. He suggested that Alaska lawmakers may need to create a law that reimburses public officials for legal expenses to defend complaints that end up being unfounded.

Palin's friends and supporters created the Alaska Fund Trust in April, limiting donations to $150 per person. Organizers declined to say how much it has raised, and had hoped to raise about $500,000. A Webathon last month brought in about $130,000 in pledges. Kristan Cole, the fund's trustee, said the fund has been frozen pending the personnel board's review.

In his report, Daniel said his interpretation of the ethics act is consistent with common sense.

An ordinary citizen facing legal charges is not likely to be able to generate donations to a legal defense fund, he wrote. "In contrast, Governor Palin is able to generate donations because of the fact that she is a public official and a public figure. Were it not for the fact that she is governor and a national political figure, it is unlikely that many citizens would donate money to her legal defense fund."

The ethics complaint was filed by Eagle River resident Kim Chatman shortly after the fund was created, alleging Palin was misusing her official position and accepting improper gifts.

"It's an absolute shame that she would continue to keep the Alaska Fund Trust Web site up and running," Chatman told the AP.

At least 19 ethics complaints have been filed against Palin, most of them after she was named the running mate for GOP presidential candidate John McCain. Most of those have been dismissed, and Palin's office usually sends a news release with the announcement.

The multiple ethics complaints include an investigation by state lawmakers over Palin's firing of her public safety commissioner in the so-called Troopergate scandal.

John Coale, a Washington lawyer who helped set up the fund, called the probable cause finding "crazy," adding that if upheld, it would mean that no governor could ever defend themselves against frivolous ethics complaints.

"If this complaint is true, there's no way to defend yourself" as governor, Coale said. "Anybody can keep filing ethics complaints and drive someone out of office even if you're a nut."

Coale said that unlike other states, Alaska's governor has no legal counsel's office to defend the governor from allegations brought against the governor in her official capacity.

Coale said he recommended creation of the legal defense fund, a common practice in Washington. The Web site for the Palin fund cites similar accounts created for Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and other prominent politicians.

A young Chinese worker commits suicide over a secret prototype gone missing.

HONG KONG -- The design of the latest, yet unreleased, fourth-generation iPhone is top secret at Apple--one so "priceless" that it claimed the life of a young Chinese engineering graduate who was held responsible for misplacing a prototype.

Sun Danyong, a 25-year-old employee of Foxconn ( FXCNY - news - people ), which manufactures the iPhone for Apple ( AAPL - news - people ), jumped from the twelfth floor of his residential building in Shenzhen at 3:30 a.m. on July 16. Ninety minutes earlier, he sent a text message to a friend, saying his apartment had been searched and that he had been beaten up by senior officials of his company, according to Chinese newspaper Nanfang Daily. The story ran Tuesday alongside a picture of Sun's last text message, shown on the friend's phone.

Sun also had an online chat with his former university classmate Gao Ge about three hours before his death. Sun told Gao he was suspected by his company of stealing the latest iPhone prototype. During Foxconn's internal investigation over the missing iPhone, Sun was illegally detained and physically abused by a security manager surnamed Yuan, and Sun's apartment raided by three Foxconn employees. Sun described the scrutiny as the most humiliating experience of his life.

Sun's last online chat was posted on Tianya, a well-known Chinese blog, two days after his death. It roused strong criticism of Foxconn among Chinese Netizens and on the Twittersphere.

According to the blog, Sun worked in Foxconn's Shenzhen production site, the company's largest, which employs more than 270,000 workers. Sun's job involved handling product communications with Foxconn's clients. On July 9, Sun picked up 16 prototypes of Apple's fourth-generation iPhone from the assembly line and was responsible for shipping them to Apple. In the next few days, he discovered one of the phones was missing but couldn't find it at the factory, where he thought he had left it. On July 13, he reported the situation to his supervisor.

Meanwhile, as Apple received one iPhone sample fewer than it requested, the U.S. computer giant suspected its highly confidential latest model, which has yet to launch, was leaked out by Foxconn. Apple applied immense pressure on the Chinese manufacturer, and Foxconn's security manager allegedly instigated unlawful methods in interrogating Sun two days later.

After Sun's death was exposed by bloggers and Chinese media, Foxconn founder and CEO Terry Gou, a Taiwanese tycoon who ranks No. 334 on the latest Forbes list of The World's Billionaires, ordered an investigation on whether Sun's tragedy was related to any misconduct by other Foxconn staff. Gou further indicated the company would cover Sun's funeral expenses. "He was a child from rural village, it was not easy for his parents to bring him up," Gou said, as reported by Nanfang Daily in its follow-up coverage Wednesday. Born to a poor peasant family in Qujing, Yunnan Province, Sun graduated from the renowned Harbin Institute of Technology last year.

Foxconn spokesman James Lee apologized to Sun's family for their loss. "His suicide, for whatever reason, in a way reflects a management defect on the part of Foxconn to some extent, especially over the troubles faced by our young employees," China Daily quoted Lee as saying.

Lee also told the state media that the department head who allegedly mistreated Sun had been suspended from his job and is under police investigation.

Eric Eldon, editor of popular tech blog DigitalBeat, said Sun's death is a story of "how Apple's secretive ways send extreme pressure all the way down the company's international supply chain."

It's been Apple's strategy to use the element of surprise in building up sales mania whenever it launches a new model of iPod or iPhone. And in the interest of protecting its effectiveness, Apple imposes immense pressure on its suppliers and contractors to maintain secrecy.

"A leak of the next generation of Apple's crown jewel, the iPhone, could badly hurt Foxconn's business relationship with Apple," Eldon wrote on his blog. "The pressure within Foxconn to maintain Apple's secrets, then, is not surprising."

Hong Kong-listed Foxconn is the world's largest cell phone and computer electronics components contractor. It principally produces iPod and iPhone for Apple; the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 for Sony ( SNE - news - people ), as well as Wii for Nintendo ( NTDOY.PK - news - people ).

Due to severe market competition, Foxconn's turnover in 2008 dropped 15.4% to $9.3 billion from the previous year, while net profit declined even more drastically, by 83%, to $197 million.

A Chinese worker killed himself after a fourth-generation iPhone prototype he was responsible for disappeared.

The 25-year-old engineer, Sun Danyong, who worked for Foxconn, jumped from a 12-story building last week. A Chinese newspaper reported that his property had been seized and that he was held in solitary confinement, where he faced "unbearable interrogation techniques" for having lost one of 16 "4G" prototypes. Foxconn apologized, but questioned reports that police beat Sun.

Apple issued a statement this afternoon in response to a report by CNET. A spokeswoman said the Silicon Valley firm is "saddened by the tragic loss of this young employee and we are awaiting results of the investigations into his death. We require our suppliers to treat all workers with dignity and respect."

VentureBeat, AppleInsider and The Register are among the tech sites covering this story.

AppleInsider notes that it's the second piece of bad news for the company recently. Last week an investigation found that 45 of the 83 factories that built iPhones and iPods in 2008 weren't paying valid overtime rates, and that 23 weren't even paying some of their workers China's minimum wage.

Like many of you out there, I have been hit with a number of people concerned with finding an easier way to upgrade from XP to Win 7, without putting themselves through a Vista purchase along the way. Well today I received word from a company called Laplink Software
that there may be hope. Enter PCmover.

Designed to make upgrading from XP or Vista into your new Windows 7 install a snap, PCmover could very well translate into money well spent. What struck me the most was just how simple it is to use. Just run the software and follow along…it is shockingly easy.

At $40 for the home edition and $70 for the pro level option, not buying this seems rather silly to me. Sure, you could have everything done in a fresh installation of Windows 7. However for many people, going with an upgrade is really the easiest choice and it seems to me that PCmover is a decent place to get started in making this happen.

NEW! Alice in Wonderland Trailer available to watch at http://ping.fm/1kAzp ! on the front page! sned and retweet!

NEW! Alice in Wonderland Trailer available to watch at http://ping.fm/QgFk7 ! on the front page! sned and retweet!

It’s no secret that the web’s been buzzing about Tim Burton’s theatrical rendition of Alice in Wonderland, coming out in March 2010. With Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Anne Hathaway as The White Queen, and the unique directing style of Tim Burton, how could there not be throngs of excited moviegoers?

Today though, the buzz has hit fever pitch. Why? Because a copy of the trailer arrived on the web, first posted by IGN. Tim Burton was supposed to show it tomorrow at San Diego’s Comic-Con, so speculation is that the trailer leaked early. But, as you know, when a video hits the web, no matter where or when, it’s going to find its way onto YouTube (YouTube). Dozens of people uploaded the Alice trailer from IGN to YouTube. Then Disney made a bonehead move: they forced YouTube to take them all down.

Thousands of links from Twitter (Twitter) and Facebook (Facebook) are pointing towards the YouTube videos. But instead of being greeted by the trailer, you get this lovely message instead:


Yes, instead of leaving the trailers alone, which are essentially extended commercials for the movie, Disney made YouTube take them all down. Make no mistake about it: Disney’s actions are an utterly mindboggling mistake. Why would Disney take away a promotional video for its new movie from millions of people? People want to be excited about Alice and instead of embracing that excitement and fueling the fire, Disney cut off the oxygen. This type of behavior can and does affect ticket sales, reviews, and can create unnecessary backlash.

Good thing IGN hasn’t taken it down – yet. Here’s the new trailer for your viewing pleasure:



http://ping.fm/ea6lE

Police raided Micheal Jackson's doctor's office for evidence of homicide/murder. A few documents were siezed

By now, you may have heard the rumors about YouTube in 3D. Yes, they’re true: you can watch some videos in three dimensions. And while it’s nifty that YouTube has enabled a feature that’s recently received a boost from high-profile movies like Pixar’s Up and Monsters vs. Aliens, it’s essentially useless if nobody actually makes content with the third dimension.

That’s why YouTube’s making a push for you to create 3D videos. In a blog post, the Google-owned video site highlights the steps necessary to shoot and upload your own 3D video. And because it’s YouTube, you know that there’s going to be a video tutorial involved.

YouTube’s instructions are actually quite simple, although they stress patience if you’re going to embark on this experimental adventure. Their instructions are as follows:

- Use two cameras arranged like a pair of eyes.

- Start both cameras recording simultaneously.

- In your video editing program, place the footage for the left and right eyes together in the frame side by side, with the right eye on the left and the left eye on the right.

- Upload your video! Edit your videos tags and add yt3d:enable=true. If video is widescreen, add yt3d:aspect=16:9 too.

While creating a 3D video seems doable, the 3D experiment still has kinks and bugs. The big one: you can’t embed 3D videos yet. At least, not correctly. Watch the video below, then compare it to the video on YouTube.com and you’ll see the difference.

Here at Switched, we're big fans of Firefox, the once alternative Web browser from Mozilla that, within a few years, has become hugely popular, with nearly one in four Web surfers using it today. We quickly downloaded the 3.5 release when it was made available a few weeks ago -- alas, a raft of security warnings are making us wonder whether that was necessarily the best idea.

Not long after the eagerly-anticipated 3.5 release, a major security vulnerability was found -- a flaw that could have allowed shady Internet sites to infiltrate your computer and, possibly, install spyware. That flaw was patched last week, but now, just a few days later, another security hole has been found. It's called the "Unicode Data Remote Stack Buffer Overflow Vulnerability," and, as of now there's no fix from Mozilla.

Should you be worried? Probably not, as it's unlikely that more than a handful of sites are using this exploit, and they're surely relegated to the darkest corners of the Web. This is really just more of a black eye for the browser, which was pledged as a more secure alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Still, you should always be careful and be wary before you go to random sites you've never heard of -- and, when Firefox prompts you about an important security update in a day or two, you'd best install it.

German prosecutors said Thursday that they have launched an enquiry into whether a garden gnome with its right arm raised in a Hitler salute in a Nuremberg art gallery is against the law.

"The investigation is ongoing and people are being interviewed," Wolfgang Traeg, a spokesman for the public prosecutors office in the southern city, told AFP.

Hitler salutes and Nazi symbols have been illegal in Germany since World War II, but Traeg said that investigators may establish that the garden gnome is in fact ridiculing the Third Reich.

"It is also a question of art a bit .. and a garden gnome," he said. "It will also depend on what the artist and the owners of the gallery have to say for themselves about the whole thing."

According to media reports, the artist in question is German-born Ottmar Hoerl, who has designed numerous exhibitions and projects in public spaces -- and since 2005 has been president of the Academy for Fine Arts in Nuremberg.

We here at the Switched offices have seen a lot of stories about stupid people, including a few about seriously dumb thieves, but this tale about some moronic criminals from Morelia, Mexico is certainly our favorite. Unlike this tale about thieves who left behind perfectly good steal-ables, our friends from Mexico didn't take anything that could possibly be construed as valuable.

Employees at a Telefonica Movistar, a cell phone store, arrived Tuesday morning to find they had been burglarized. Astoundingly, the only thing missing was the hollow dummy handsets intended for display only. The thieves left the registers full of cash and the store's stock of actual, functioning cell phones unperturbed.

We really hope theft isn't the primary source of income for these dimwits. Otherwise, it's going to be a real tough month around their den.

Technology means that foreign policy will never be the same again, the prime minister said at a meeting of leading thinkers in Oxford.

The power of technology - such as blogs - meant that the world could no longer be run by "elites", Mr Brown said.

Policies must instead be formed by listening to the opinions of people "who are blogging and communicating with people around the world", he said.

Mr Brown's comments came during a surprise appearance at TED Global.

"That in my view gives us the first opportunity as a community to fundamentally change the world," he told the TED Global (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference.

"Foreign policy can never be the same again."

Global change

The prime minister talked about the power of technology to unite the world and offer ways to solve some of its most pressing problems.

He said that issues such as climate change could not be solved alone, adding that digital technology offered a way to create a "global society".

"Massive changes in technology have allowed the possibility of people linking up around the world," he said.

In particular, he said, digital communications offered the possibility of finding common ground "with people we will never meet".

"We have the means to take collective action and take collective action together."

He talked about recent events in Iran and Burma and how the global community - using blogs and technologies such as Twitter - was able to bring events to widespread attention.

He also highlighted the role of technology in recent elections in Zimbabwe.

"Because people were able to take mobile phone photographs of what was happening at polling stations, it was impossible for [Robert Mugabe] to fix that election in the way that he wanted to do."

But Mr Brown also stressed the need to create new organisations to tackle environmental, financial, development and security problems.

"We are the first generation to be able to do this," he told the conference. "We shouldn't lose the chance."

He said that older institutions founded after the Second World War, such as the United Nations or the International Monetary Fund, were now "out of date".

"You can't deal with environmental problems through the existing institutions," he told the conference.

'Delighted'

Ted Global is invitation-only conference dedicated to "ideas worth spreading".

Each speaker - including the Prime Minister - is given 18 minutes to present to the audience.

Most talks are given by designers, technologists and scientists. However, events - usually held in the US - have seen talks by former US presidents and Nobel laureates.

Mr Brown was given an additional 15 minutes for questions and answers.

"Can I say how delighted I am to be away from the calm of Westminster and Whitehall," he joked at the beginning of his speech.

The Prime Ministers talk was met with applause. However, members of the audience, commenting on Twitter, were also skeptical of his speech.

"I hope Gordon Brown listens to his own words of wisdom at TED and actually makes change rather than talking about it - again," read one.

The Prime Minister was brought on stage at the end of the first session of the conference.

Previous speakers had included Swiss philosopher Alain de Botton and British comedian and tech enthusiast Stephen Fry.

This year's conference runs from 21 to 24 July in Oxford, UK.

A man was arrested early Saturday after allegedly ringing residents' doorbells naked then leading deputies on a chase in a pickup truck, a San Mateo County sheriff's lieutenant said Thursday.

Two residents of the 2000 block of El Prado Street in unincorporated Redwood City reported around 3 a.m. that a naked man was ringing their doorbells, sheriff's Lt. Ray Lunny said.

A deputy who responded to the calls spotted a blue Dodge pickup truck driving away from the area, Lunny said.

The deputy attempted to stop the truck but the driver refused to yield.

Deputies pursued the man as he allegedly drove recklessly for nearly seven miles before stopping truck on the Sand Hill Road on-ramp to northbound Interstate Highway 280.

He then exited the car and ran, entering an occupied house in the 500 block of Sand Hill Circle by kicking in a door, Lunny said.

The man then left the house and tried to hide behind nearby trees and shrubs, Lunny said. Deputies attempted to subdue him with an electronic control device but were unsuccessful.

Deputies then shot two "bean bags" at the man and were finally able to take him into custody, Lunny said. He was transported to Stanford Hospital for an evaluation and was then booked into San Mateo County jail.

The man was identified as 38-year-old Peter Allen Steele. He was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, evading a peace officer, driving with a suspended license, indecent exposure, entering a house without permission, vandalism and resisting arrest.

AS THE internet threatens to kill the established music industry, the Rudd Government is considering a three-strikes policy against computer users who download songs illegally.

The Government will examine new legislative proposals being unveiled in Britain this week to target people who download films and music illegally. Internet service providers (ISPs) there might be legally required to take action against users who access pirated material.

The music industry estimates 1 billion songs were traded illegally by Australians last year.

Under the three-strikes policy, a warning would be first issued to offenders who illegally share files using peer-to-peer technology to access music, TV shows and movies free of charge. The second strike would lead to the offender's internet access being suspended; the third would cancel the offender's internet access.

The policy would mirror legislation being introduced in Britain, which would require ISPs to police the activities of users.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said the Government was aware of the views put by the music industry for a code of conduct for ISPs to address file-sharing by subscribers.

"We will also examine any UK legislation on this issue [including any three-strikes policy] with particular interest," he said.

Music Industry Piracy Investigations general manager Sabiene Heindl said her organisation had been lobbying for the policy for 12 months.

She said action had been taken to remove illegally downloaded tracks from blogs, Cyberlocker and BitTorrent sites but this had failed to stem the estimated 2.8 million Australians downloading music illegally last year.

"Because P2P file sharing involves these music files sitting on individual people's computers, there is very little that MIPI can do to remove those files or stop them being shared," she said. "That's why we have been pushing a proposal to internet service providers for a commonsense system of warning notices which, if unheeded, would ultimately result in a user having their account suspended or disconnected."

National Internet Industry Association chief executive Peter Corones said his members' reservations over the three-strikes and code of conduct proposals would be discussed with Mr Conroy this week.

He said present legislation provided severe penalties for dealing in pirate sound recordings that infringe on the rights of artists, composers, record companies and music publishers. Yet there was no action to date.

Penalties include injunctions, damages and costs, fines of up to $60,500 for individuals and up to $302,500 for corporations per infringement and up to five years' jail.

"Internet service providers are not the enforcers of copyright," Mr Corones said. They are "a mere conduit" for internet connectivity.

Any action by the Government is likely to displease young broadband users. Quantum Market Research YouthSCAN released the findings of a new study this month showing 63 per cent of young Australians felt there was no point in paying for music that was freely available.

It asked 600 Australians aged between 10 and 17 across NSW and Victoria in August and September about accessing music.

Consultant Nick Dawes said a no-pay attitude had developed among young people because they did not fear any retribution.

Their attitude is: "If we can get it for free, why not?"

And it isn’t one of those crazy unnil + something names, thank goodness.

from BBC

Discovered 13 years ago, and officially added to the periodic table just weeks ago, element 112 finally has a name.

It will be called “copernicium”, with the symbol Cp, in honour of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.

Copernicus deduced that the planets revolved around the Sun, and finally refuted the belief that the Earth was the centre of the Universe.

The team of scientists who discovered the element chose the name to honour the man who “changed our world view”.

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) will officially endorse the new element’s name in six month’s time in order to give the scientific community “time to discuss the suggestion”.

For those paying attention, this is another one of those elements that are found only for nanoseconds, in the inner reaches of nuclear reactors. The exciting part is that with each new element produced, we grow closer to finding out if there is a new series in the Periodic Table, that will have very heavy nuclei, and be stable, instead of radio active.

an obviously older table, as it doesn’t get to 112.

This should occur at about element 119, from what I’ve read, which should be an alkali metal (Group 1) and is predicted to be stable.

It’s a piece of information that eludes and confuses people from the very first day they hear about it. Linux is not an operating system. No, rather it is a kernel that is used with various distributions that make up different bundles of software that happen to use the kernel.

Perhaps an easier way to look at it is by desktop. While not completely accurate, it is close enough to get the point across. KDE is a desktop environment bundled with a number of distros. Using the Linux kernel, it is not at all representative of what Linux actually is as it is merely the face of one type of desktop environment.And the same goes for GNOME.

As for whether or not we consider the various distros of Linux built for the desktop to be successful or not, I suppose you would have to consider that for Linux users, it is simply not a numbers game. It’s about personal experiences. If a specific desktop distro is meeting with your needs, then chances are that it is going to meet the needs a number of others who have yet to discover it yet. But it helps to present Linux on the desktop pre-installed and ready to go.

Oh, this is stupid and sad. Pez Candy Inc., makers of pixel-y candy dosed out in those iconic character dispensers, is suing the Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia for copyright infringement. Doctor Popular blogs about it over at Laughing Squid:

The suit, filed last week, claims that the museum deceives the public into believing they are operating under the authority of Pez and asks that the museum’s 7 foot tall replica of Pez dispenser be destroyed. The lawsuit also takes issue with the museum’s sales of toy truck Pez dispensers which had been modified with Obama and McCain logos during last years elections. The museum has been opened since 1995 and is said to be the only place in the world were you can see every Pez dispenser ever made.

Honestly never thought I would mutter these words, but from what I am seeing thus far from Office 2010, Microsoft has made a wise move. Releasing their own Google App competition to the Web in 2010, designed to be a free, light-weight option for those interested in using Microsoft Office without the price tag attached.

What surprised me is that the early reviews state that this version will work in most popular web browsers! Wow, does this mean that Microsoft is finally getting that aliening non-Windows users and those who prefer Firefox is really counter-productive? It would sure seem like it. I also like the fact that overall layout of the software appears be vastly better looking than that of Google Docs.

To be fair, it is little more than an idea with some developers giving a select few a sneak preview. And that is fine. But if this release looks half as good as it sounds, this could very well be the first time I find myself giving MS Office a second look in a VERY long time.

RT @BuzzEdition In case you missed it, Coldplay is giving away their new album FREE Download http://bit.ly/WTgiP ♫♪♫

LOS ANGELES - Michael Jackson's 7-year-old will was filed Wednesday in a Los Angeles court, giving his entire estate to a family trust while making his mother the guardian of his children and cutting out his former wife Debbie Rowe.

Court documents estimated the current value of his estate at more than $500 million.

It names his mother, Katherine Jackson, 79, as a beneficiary of the trust and the guardian of Jackson's children, who are also named as beneficiaries of the trust.

It also names entertainer Diana Ross as a successor guardian for the children and their estates if something happens to Katherine Jackson.

Ross introduced the Jackson 5 on the Ed Sullivan Show in the late 1960s and was instrumental in launching their career. She was a lifelong friend of Michael Jackson.

Jackson's longtime lawyer John Branca and John McClain, a music executive and a family friend, are named in the will as co-executors.

In a statement, Branca and McClain said: "The most important element of Michael's will is his unwavering desire that his mother, Katherine, become the legal guardian for his three children. As we work to carry out Michael's instructions to safeguard both the future of his children as well as the remarkable legacy he left us as an artist we ask that all matters involving his estate be handled with the dignity and the respect that Michael and his family deserve."

The executors moved quickly to take control of all of Michael Jackson's property, going to court Wednesday to challenge a previous ruling by the judge that gave Katherine Jackson control of 2,000 items from Neverland.

Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff said Katherine Jackson will retain authority over the items until another hearing set for Monday.

Beckloff urged attorneys from both sides to try to reach a compromise soon.

"I would like the family to sit down try to make this work that we don't have a difficult time in court," the judge said.

An effort to bury Michael Jackson at Neverland Ranch fizzled, and it appears more likely a funeral and burial will take place in Los Angeles, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press. The family has the final say.

Authorities in Santa Barbara County had been preparing for tens of thousands of fans to descend on the ranch after media reports said a public viewing would take place later this week.

But the person, who is not authorized to speak for the family and requested anonymity, said nothing was planned for Neverland, at least through Friday.

A private memorial service for family and friends could take place at the ranch, most likely after the funeral.

"The family is aware a Neverland burial is not possible. They are expected to make decisions about whatever funeral and memorial service" will take place, the person said.

Heavy construction equipment and workers were seen passing through the wrought-iron gates of Neverland on Tuesday. The property is about 170 kilometres northwest of Los Angeles.

At once a symbol of Jackson's success and excesses, Neverland - nestled in the hills of Santa Barbara County's wine country - became the site of a makeshift memorial after his death Thursday.

The will, dated July 7, 2002, gives the entire estate to the Michael Jackson Family Trust. Details of the trust will not be made public.

California's attorney general, who oversees charitable donations from estates, is also named as a person who must be notified. It suggests some of the trust's proceeds could go to charity, although which ones might benefit was not clear.

The documents said Jackson's estate consisted almost entirely of "non-cash, non-liquid assets, including primarily an interest in a catalog of music royalty rights which is currently being administered by Sony ATV, and the interests of various entities."

One of Jackson's most lucrative assets is his stake in the massive Sony-ATV Music Publishing Catalog, which includes music by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Lady Gaga and the Jonas Brothers, and is estimated to be worth as much as $2 billion. The five-page will is signed by Jackson, and each paragraph includes Jackson's scrawling initials.

Jackson, who died June 25 at age 50, left behind three children: son Michael Joseph Jr., known as Prince Michael, 12; daughter Paris Michael Katherine, 11; and son Prince Michael II, 7. Rowe was the mother of the two oldest children; the youngest was born to a surrogate mother, who has never been identified.

Katherine Jackson was granted temporary guardianship Monday of Jackson's three children. A judge held off on requests to control the children's estates.

Rowe, who was married to Jackson in 1996 and filed for divorce three years later, surrendered her parental rights. An appeals court later found that was done in error, and Rowe and Jackson entered an out-of-court settlement in 2006.

Neither Rowe nor her attorneys have indicated whether she intends to seek custody of the two oldest children.

Funeral plans have not yet been announced.

Members of Jackson's family met Tuesday with officials from the Los Angeles police and California Highway Patrol about funeral services. But "details are still pending," according to Fran Clader, a spokeswoman for the patrol. The patrol would need to be consulted if the body was moved from Los Angeles to Neverland.

It was unclear whether Jackson could be legally buried at the ranch. The state's health and safety code makes interring any uncremated remains outside of a cemetery a misdemeanor. Cremated remains can be kept in a home or private mausoleum outside a cemetery.

It was not possible to rule out that Jackson's body might return to the ranch, either for the private service or a burial sometime in the future, if the family can get the go-ahead from state and local officials.