Google Glitch Disables 150,000 Gmail Accounts

Mashable, February 27, 2011 by Charlie White

Google, we have a problem. About 150,000 Gmail account holders woke up to a nightmare this morning, with all their e-mail, attachments and Google Chat logs gone. What happened?

Google explains that “less than 0.08%” of all Gmail users were affected by the bug, which completely reset accounts, even down to the detail offering a welcome message to those users when they first logged on today. They, and especially visitors to the Gmail Help Forum, were not amused.

But there’s good news here. The way Google is explaining it on its Apps Status Dashboard: “Google engineers are working to restore full access. Affected users may be temporarily unable to sign in while we repair their accounts.”

In an earlier message, Google wrote, “For those Gmail users reporting missing messages, our engineers are working to restore them as soon as possible.” So maybe this is not so bad after all. As long as Google restores the messages, all we had was a big scare. Will Google restore all the messages? We’ve contacted a Google spokesperson, and will let you know when we hear back.

Meanwhile, I’m going to back up all of my Gmail forthwith. But wait a minute -– how do you back up Gmail? Here:

This is a free application for Mac, PC and Linux called Gmail Backup. I gave it a try and it’s easy to use. After a quick download, you just give it your credentials and it begins downloading all your e-mails, backing them up securely no matter what Google decides to do. After 30 minutes, it had downloaded 2.4% of my e-mails, so this is not going to take forever. It’s probably time well spent.

Related Articles:

Gmail Disruption Blamed On Storage Software Snafu

Gmail Bug Deletes E-Mails for 150,000 Users

Canada's ex-defense minister: U.S. knows how aliens can make us greener

CNet News, by Chris Matyszczyk

Somehow, freaky sci-fi movies don't seem to be favored by Oscar voters.

However, I think I may have found some subject matter that Peter Guber, the great Golden State Warriors owner and producer of "The Kids Are Alright," might want to get a budget behind.

Apparently, the United States already knows quite a lot about UFO technology. Apparently, there are secret "black ops" installations somewhere in--oh, I'm guessing Arizona--where new forms of energy have been created using technology that has been gleaned from those up there, rather than us down here.

Please, you know not to take my word for it. Hark the words of former Canadian defense minister Paul Hellyer. According to AOL News, Hellyer will be speaking this week at the International UFO Conference. (You will feel a chill to hear that this event is in Arizona too.)

Hellyer believes that humans have always fired on alien craft rather than attempt to approach their inhabitants and understand them. The aliens, he said in a previous speech in 2008, want to stop us from destroying ourselves.

In that speech, Hellyer declared: "Decades ago, visitors from other planets warned us about where we were headed and offered to help. But instead we, or at least some of us, interpreted their visits as a threat, and decided to shoot first and ask questions after," he told the conference.

Planes were lost, he said, either because of retaliation or stupidity.

Hellyer insists he has seen UFOs. In his book, "Light at the End of the Tunnel," he said he also believes that the U.S. has a "shadow government" that has black ops installations that have already created new forms of energy using extra-terrestrial technology.

"I do not have proof of that," he told AOL News. "But I believe that they have developed energy sources, and publicly I'm saying that if they do not exist in commercial form, that extraterrestrials would certainly give us that information if we would ask them for it and stop shooting at them."

I am fascinated. What kind of new alien-inspired energy sources might have already been created? Might they have something to do with San Francisco Giants' pitcher Brian Wilson and his strange, constant companion, The Machine?

And is it possible that, some day, somehow, the aliens might be able to bypass our government's alleged reluctance to go public with its knowledge of our friends out there? Why, indeed, haven't these clever aliens spoken to us directly?

I see Liam Neeson as the scientist who finally persuades the government that aliens are friendly and want to help us become, well, greener. I see Maria Bello as his love interest, a fellow scientist who lures the president to a secret location (in Arizona) to affect a summit with a friendly alien being.

But who might play the leader of the aliens? My first instinct says Charlie Sheen. Boyish, friendly, vulnerable.

Perhaps you have other suggestions.

Related Articles:

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Top NASA astronaut discloses shuttle encounter with disc UFO

Retired Army Colonel: UFO's exist and disable nuclear weapons

Ships of Light - The Carlos Diaz UFO Experience – Video 1-2

One of the first of many UFO photographs taken by Carlos Diaz-Mexico.

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Twitter helps homeless man reunite with daughter

CNN News, by Leigh Remizowski, CNN, February 25, 2011

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Social media helps homeless man, daughter reconnect
• Sarah Rivera moved from Puerto Rico when she was a teen
• Daniel Morales took part in New York project to give voice to the homeless

New York (CNN) -- One tweet was all it took to reunite a homeless New York man with a daughter he had not seen in 11 years.

Daniel Morales was reunited with his daughter,
Sarah Rivera, Friday in New York.

Daniel Morales, 58, joined Twitter three weeks ago when he was given a phone as a part of "Underheard in New York," a project aimed at giving voice to homeless New Yorkers.

Since, he has built a cohort of more than 3,000 followers from around the world and has used the social media site to track down his daughter, Sarah Rivera, 27.

Father and daughter reunited by telephone on Thursday during an interview with CNN en Espanol.

The held each other again Friday in Bryant Park. It was the first time Morales had met his grandchildren, Navaeh Cuff, 4, and Akai Carranza, 1.

"This is an awesome moment," Morales said. "I am rejoicing."

Morales and Rivera last saw each other in 2000, when they were living together in Puerto Rico. Rivera left to live with her mother and lost touch with her father when she moved to California, Morales said.

After moving to Harlem, Morales lost his job and his home in 2010.

It was at the New York City Rescue Mission shelter that Morales volunteered to be a part of Underheard in New York's advocacy initiative, which was started by a group of interns at advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty.

RELATED TOPICS

• Twitter Inc.
• Homelessness

Along with three other men, Morales was given a prepaid cell phone February 2, intern Rosemary Melchior said.

His only instructions were to give his followers 140-character updates about his life.

"We are just so excited, because what we really wanted to do was give them a voice and a chance to speak for themselves, and people are really listening now," Melchior said.

One such tweet -- a photo of his daughter taken in Puerto Rico in 2000 -- led one of his Twitter followers to contact Rivera on Facebook, she said. Although skeptical at first, Rivera knew it was her father after seeing his photo online.

"It's been rough not having my father, to be honest," she said.

Rivera credits social media for their miraculous reunion. "You can instantly find anybody," she said. "And it's amazing."

Morales said he will continue to live at the homeless shelter but has high hopes for fostering a relationship with his newfound family.

"I'm going to do whatever it takes to keep them near me," he said.

The founders of Underheard in New York hope that Morales' story is the first of many happy endings for the subjects of their online experiment, which they hope to extend to other cities around the country, Melchior said.

"It just kind of shows how powerful social media is and the kind of community that Danny has connected to," Melchior said. They have all wanted to support him, and it's through them that this happened, and that's wonderful."

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Unveiled

TechTree, Jayesh Limaye, Feb 23, 2011 

 

Includes all the cumulative
updates to date

Microsoft released the first official service pack for Windows 7 today. This is an important update that includes previously released security, performance, and stability updates for Windows 7. SP1 also includes new improvements to features and services in Windows 7, such as improved reliability when connecting to HDMI audio devices, printing using the XPS Viewer, and restoring previous folders in Windows Explorer after restarting.

There are different ways to install Windows 7 SP1. But before you start downloading, please note that you may need to keep from 750MB to 7400MB of free space (depending on the version of Windows) on your Windows partition to be able to install it. Also check if your Windows 7 is already updated to SP1. You can find this by looking under System in Control Panel, next to System type.

The easiest and safest way to install SP1 is using Windows Update service. If you use this, then your total download size will be 750MB for 32-bit Windows 7, and 1050MB for the 64-bit version. For this, you need to click Start, click All Programs and click Windows Update. In the window that opens, click "Check for updates" on the left. In the list of updates, you will see Service Pack for Microsoft Windows (KB976932), select it and click OK. Click Install updates to start downloading and installing the update. Enter your administrator password if prompted for the same. This method requires your computer to remain connected to the internet while the update downloads and installs.

The second way is to download the from the Microsoft Download Center. Choose the version of SP1 according to your Windows version and click Download. Run this downloaded file to install SP1.

There is also a provision to order a DVD from Microsoft containing SP1 from here, but it is valid only for users living in U.S. or Canada.

Please note that Geniune Windows validation is required to be able to download Windows 7 SP1.

How microbloggers vault the 'Great Firewall of China'

CNN News, From Peter Shadbolt for CNN, February 20, 2011

An Internet user points to the account page of China's President Hu Jintao
on a microblog operated by the official People's Daily.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Censorship has been a way of life in China for more than 60 years
• The cat-and-mouse game of getting around it is a high art
• Chinese microbloggers are finding ways to cheat the bots that seize on keywords

Hong Kong, China (CNN) -- Type the words "Egypt," "Tiananmen" or "June 4th, 1989" into any of China's microblogging sites and the search will return this message: "According to relevant law and regulations, the results are not displayed."

But type in "8x8" -- shorthand for 64, in turn shorthand for 6/4 or June 4th; the date of the Tiananmen crackdown -- and you may catch some lively and surprisingly open exchanges on the social networking sites.

Censorship has been a way of life in China for more than 60 years and the cat-and-mouse game of getting around it is a high art.

References to "the Pharaoh nation" instead of Egypt, misspelling democracy as "democrasy" or "democrazy" or even scanning written comment and posting it as an image are just some of the ways microbloggers cheat the bots that seize on keywords and bring them to the attention of censors employed at social networking sites such as Renren and Sina Weibo.

Others use a mixture of street slang or dip in and out of one or more of China's 45 regional dialects to disguise comment. Others still are either past caring whether their comments are detected or like to test their nerves and those of the censors.

"We could have done it [overthrown the government] 22 years ago, but in the end we failed," laments one microblogger from Guangzhou on Sina Weibo, comparing Egypt with the Tiananmen protests of 1989. "Now we can only dryly witness another's happiness and project our dreams on it, imagining it."

Later the microblogger retweets.

"Even though he [former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak] was forced to resign, he still deserves some respect. Here [China], nothing ends without the use of force or bloodshed."

Microblogging has exploded in China, presenting a serious pressure point to a government that has built an industry around restricting comment. Microblogging campaigns have targeted corruption, suspicious lawsuits, kidnapped children and the plight of activist lawyers.

Unrestricted social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are banned in mainland China and only determined or relatively wealthy individuals use virtual private networks (VPN) to get around the Chinese internet restrictions which have been dubbed "The Great Firewall of China."

RELATED TOPICS

• China
• Internet
• Censorship

Chinese social networking sites such as Renren employ as many as 500 censors -- all of them centrally located in the Chinese city of Wuhan -- to make sure that comment on the site does not contravene Chinese information laws.

Nevertheless, strong comment still makes it online and for many of the new microblogging sites, the banks of censors are simply a requirement in China of doing business in a new industry.

"Compared with two years ago, I would say the government is much more relaxed now," said Gang Lu, a Chinese internet entrepreneur who moderated at the Social Media Week Hong Kong event last week. "There is a lot more negative comment on microblogging sites than there used to be."

"From the operators' point of view, censorship and restrictions are a fact of life. The government has already closed down some Twitter clones," said Lu. "Almost half the team at Sina Weibo are engaged in monitoring content at some level. Even so, Sina is very bold but they are under pressure as well -- they still have to be responsive to the government."

He said one of the positive signs was that local officials -- from police to local mayors and even China's President Hu Jintao -- now have their own microblogs.

"It may just be for show, but I think it's a good sign," he said. "It shows that they are at least prepared to listen and are responding to the phenomenon of microblogging."

The size of the microblogging community in China is growing exponentially. There were 420 million internet users in China in June, 2010, or about 35 per cent of the entire population, according to statistics from the China Internet Network Information Center, a non-profit group affiliated with the Ministry of Information Industry.

Of this number, Sina Weibo -- a site similar to Twitter and run by China's largest internet portal Sina Corporation -- says it has more than 80 million users and is adding 10 million new users per month.

"At this rate, Sina estimates that the microblogging market in China will be mature within two years," said Lu.

High-profile microblogging campaigns have included a site dedicated to reuniting street children with their parents. Called "Take a snapshot and save the child beggars," it calls on the public to post photos of street children to help reunite them with their families and raise awareness about the problem of kidnapping in China.

Other sites have given people an unprecedented voice on local issues such as petty corruption.

This month 23-year-old Li Qiming -- a Chinese man who killed a college student while drink driving and then tried to use his father's name as a police official to escape punishment -- was sentenced to six years' in jail, sparking a furious reaction on microblogs where the verdict was condemned as too lenient.

Bigamy -- condemned by the Chinese Communist Party but unofficially practiced by the wealthy and powerful in China -- has become the latest microblog hot topic, along with other previously uncanvassed social issues.

Qiu Xiaohua, a former chief of China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) who was sentenced to a one-year term of imprisonment in 2007 for bigamy, opened a microblog account this month which attracted 37,300 followers within days despite the fact that he posted just two messages online.

Most Chinese Web users, however, are relatively unconcerned about government censors and use microblogs to catch up on entertainment and gossip.

Famous microblogs no sooner emerge than parody sites are set up. A mirror site of the child anti-kidnapping campaign called "Take a snapshot and save an 'over aged' single woman or bachelor" is the latest microblog parody to go viral, making fun of the pressure young people come under from their families to bring home a marriageable candidate for the Chinese Lunar New Year.

Since the dating microblog opened on February 11, it has attracted more than 31,000 followers and has become such a sensation that a Shenzhen jewelry store has offered three free rings to the first three women successfully "rescued."

Jie Chen contributed to this report

Look at Barack Obama, Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs hanging out

Salon, by Adam Clark Estes, Friday, Feb 18, 2011

President Barack Obama chats with Mark Zuckerberg at a private
dinner in Silicon Valley.

Barack Obama dined with Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs and other Silicon Valley leaders last night at the secluded home of John Doerr about 25 miles south of San Francisco. The conversation focused on investing in education, jobs and, of course, the future of technology in America.

Can you identify the attendees in this holidays-style raise-your-glass-and-smile photo?

Here's a cheat sheet of some of the attendees:

• Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google
• Carol Bartz, head of Yahoo!
• Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter
• Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix
• Arthur Levinson, Genentech chairman
• John L. Hennessy, president of Stanford University
• Steve Westly, managing partner of the Westly Group venture capital firm
• John Chambers, head of Cisco Systems
• Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle

And just because we think it's endearing, here's a bigger version of the president chewing the cud with Jesse Eisenberg -- I mean -- Mark Zuckerberg.

Related Article:

Barack Obama 'friends' Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg

Goodbye Outsourcing, Hello Insourcing: A Trend Rises

More IT groups are ending outsourcing deals and bringing certain work back in-house. Is this the answer to your cost, control and quality issues?

CIO, By Stephanie Overby, Thu, February 17, 2011

CIO — Looking back on the last twelve months, most outsourcing analysts agree that the level of IT services deals sealed has held relatively steady, year-over-year. The total value of outsourcing contracts signed in 2010 was $62.4 billion, according to outsourcing consultancy TPI, a figure that's pretty consistent with their last five years of total contract value data. The number of IT services deals inked in 2010 grew by six percent, according to outsourcing consultancy Everest, noting that eight of them were so-called mega-deals of $1 billion or more. About half of IT service providers polled by outsourcing consultancy EquaTerra reported growth in their business pipeline, despite expectations for a much stronger year-end close. Deal flow was uneven in the fourth quarter, EquaTerra reported, and subject to delays.

But what's most notable to David Rutchik, partner with outsourcing consultancy Pace Harmon, is not the deals that are getting done. It's the deals getting undone.

Rutchik says he has seen insourcing decisions gaining steam within the last year and expects that trend to continue to increase in 2011. "Companies are still outsourcing significant projects and transactions," he says. "But they are strategically assessing subsets of broader outsourcing relationships and determining whether to pursue a best-of-breed provider approach or take it back in-house completely."

Why to Pull the Plug

Among the reasons IT leaders cite for pulling the plug on outsourcing deals—or subsets of their contracts—are poor service quality, failure to meet business objectives, and the desired for more control over the future direction of the IT function, according to Rutchik. "Another reason is that some companies were working with more generalist outsourcing providers who had been managing areas outside their core competencies," Rutchik says. "In some cases the results were less than stellar."

Not all "backsourcing" will remain in-house ad infinitum. While some IT leaders are intent on a more permanent insourcing arrangement, others are employing insourcing "as a way to get a fresh start before pursuing a new outsourcing engagement," Rutchik says.

Some IT leaders report big savings bringing outsourcing IT back in-house. But repatriating IT services can be as complex and costly process as outsourcing them in the first place; it's not for every company or function.

For more advice on when to insource, see CIO.com's "Questions to Consider Before Insourcing Outsourced IT"

End-user computing support and network management are most likely to be successfully "backsourced" — or brought back into the corporate IT fold, Rutchik says.

While there's no lack of data on outsourcing deals each quarter—total contract value and number of deals broken down by any number of variable from corporate size to geographic location to IT function—insourcing information is virtually untracked by sourcing consultancies who may or may not be involved in corporate backsourcing decisions. Rutchik says his analysis is based on the collective activity he has seen in the industry rather than any formal research or data.

Clinton: Nations suppress Internet at own risk

AP, MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press , Feb. 15, 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) — Restricting the Internet will not hold back surging popular demand for democratic reforms in the Middle East or elsewhere and the Obama administration is ready to help dissidents evade cyber curbs to promote human rights and democracy in repressive states, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says in a major policy address.

In remarks to be delivered Tuesday at George Washington University, Clinton challenges autocratic regimes in Iran, the broader Middle East and elsewhere to embrace online freedom and the demands of cyber dissidents or risk being toppled by tides of unrest. There is no "app" for ending online repression, Clinton says, but she also pledges U.S. support for ending curbs on Internet usage that have become common amid calls for change.

"There is no silver bullet in the struggle against Internet repression," she says in excerpts released Monday night by the State Department. "There's no 'app' for that. And accordingly, we are taking a comprehensive and innovative approach — one that matches our diplomacy with technology, secure distribution networks for tools, and direct support for those on the front lines."

A major element of that, officials say, will be to assist civic leaders, students and rights activists in overcoming government controls on the Internet to get their messages out.

Clinton's remarks, her second major address on the topic of Internet freedom since becoming America's top diplomat, come amid a groundswell of protests around the Middle East that have been abetted by online agitators using social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to organize anti-government demonstrations from Algeria to Yemen, Syria, Iran and Jordan. Two longtime autocratic Arab presidents, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, have been driven from power in the last month.

"History has shown us that repression often sows the seeds for revolution down the road," she says. "Those who clamp down on Internet freedom may be able to hold back the full impact of their people's yearnings for a while, but not forever."

To varying degrees, countries beset by calls for change have attempted to stifle dissent by shutting down specific social media websites or limiting or interrupting Internet service altogether. But, Clinton argues, governments that clamp down on opposition websites, activist bloggers and news outlets do so at their own risk.

"We are convinced that an open Internet fosters long-term peace, progress and prosperity," she says. "The reverse is also true."

The State Department has jumped into the fray over the course of the past week, launching Twitter feeds in both Arabic and Farsi to reach out to people throughout the Arab world and Iran, where anti-government protests were met with a severe police crackdown on Monday.

"Leaders worldwide have a choice to make," Clinton says. "They can let the Internet in their countries flourish, and take the risk that the freedoms it enables will lead to a greater demand for political rights. Or they can constrict the Internet, choke the freedoms it naturally sustains, and risk losing all the economic and social benefits that come from a networked society."

Despite the Obama administration's own problems with an unfettered Internet, most notably the release of hundreds of thousands of sensitive diplomatic documents by the WikiLeaks website, Clinton says that the U.S. is unwavering in its commitment to cyber freedom, even as it seeks to prosecute online criminals and terrorists.

"Our allegiance to the rule of law does not dissipate in cyberspace, neither does our commitment to protecting civil liberties and human rights," she says. "There are times when these principles will raise tensions and pose challenges, but we do not have to choose among them. And we shouldn't. Together they comprise the foundation of a free and open Internet."

Clinton argues that the Internet is neither good nor bad, a force for neither liberation nor repression. It is the sum of what its users make it, she says.

"What matters is what people who go online do there, and what principles should guide us as we come together in cyberspace," she says. "That question becomes more urgent every day."

Related Articles:

Group plans to beam free Internet across the globe from space

Clinton calls for internet freedom after Egypt uprising

Mrs Clinton said Wikileaks was about theft, not freedom

Group plans to beam free Internet across the globe from space

The Raw Story, By Eric W. Dolan, Thursday, February 10th, 2011

The charity group A Human Right said it was planning to purchase a satellite that would provide free basic Internet access to developing countries around the world.

The group, which was founded by 25-year-old Kosta Grammatis, is currently raising money to buy the TerreStar-1, the largest commercial communications satellite ever built. TerreStar, the company that owns the satellite, filed for chapter-11 bankruptcy protection in October 2010, opening the possibility that the satellite may be up for sale.

The group hopes to raise $150,000 to finalize a business plan, investigate the legal and business aspects of submitting a bid for the satellite, and hire engineers to turn the plan into a reality. After this initial phase, the group plans to develop an open source low cost modem that could be used to connect to the satellite and finalize plans with partner governments.

"We believe that Internet access is a tool that allows people to help themselves - a tool so vital that it should be considered a universal human right," the website for Buy This Satellite stated. "Imagine your digital life disconnected. Without access to the 100 million man-hours that have been put into Wikipedia, how much do you actually know?"

Nearly 5 billion out of the world's 6.9 billion people don't have access to the Internet.

A Human Right plans to finance their satellite by allowing telecommunication companies to purchase bandwidth, while providing basic service for free to everyone. "Our goal is to not only get everyone online, but also facilitate the growth of an industry," their website said.

The group has already managed to raise $44,781.

"The idea for global connectivity was born in Berlin, Germany in an innovation 'Do-Tank' called Palomar 5," according to the group. "Thirty people under the age of thirty came together to innovate on what the future might look like, and how to address some of the worlds problems."

"In Egypt we've watched as the government, in an unprecedented way, shutoff Internet access for the entire country," Grammatis told TIME. "We're building a system that can't be shutoff--it's as decentralized as possible. You could jam the signal somewhat, but to do that at the scale of a country is a very very difficult task."

"Big ideas, that can improve our society as a whole, are worth doing, and this one will be done," he added. "It's the logical next step in communications: a network available to anyone everywhere for minimal cost."

Similarly, President Obama announced Thursday his plan to get 98 percent of the United States connected to the Internet in five years.

Related Article:

Obama Says Plan to Expand Wireless Access Is Critical

Nokia and Microsoft join forces against Google and Apple

Reuters, by Tarmo Virki, LONDON, Fri Feb 11, 2011

(Reuters) - Nokia and Microsoft have teamed up to take on Google and Apple in the fast-growing smartphone market as the Finnish cellphone maker attempts to regain its leading position in the sector.

A girl tests out the new Nokia N8 mobile phone at the Nokia
Flagship store in Helsinki September 10, 2010. (Credit: Reuters/
Markku Ulander/Lehtikuva)

Nokia said it would use Windows Phone as the software platform for its smartphones as part of new chief executive Stephen Elop's overhaul of the world's biggest cellphone maker.

"Nokia and Microsoft will combine our strengths to deliver an ecosystem with unrivalled global reach and scale. It's now a three-horse race," Elop said ahead of an investor day in London.

Investors were not convinced by Elop's eagerly anticipated strategy announcement and shares in Nokia tumbled more than 11 percent as the market reacted to Nokia' saying that 2011 and 2012 would be "transition years" as it built up the partnership.

Friday's deal marks a major breakthrough for Microsoft after years of struggling to establish itself in wireless. Its Windows Phone had a mere 2 percent market share in the last quarter.

Microsoft's Windows Phone platform is widely recognized by industry experts as a leading edge technology but has not yet gained success among consumers.

"This is a partnership born out of both parties' fear of marginalization at the hands of Apple and Google but there is no silver bullet," said analyst Geoff Blaber from CCS Insight.

Nokia has rapidly lost share in the higher-margin smartphone market to Apple's iPhone, and products based on Google's Android platform, which claimed the top spot from the company last quarter.

"This is a very frank admission that Nokia's platform strategy has failed and underlines the seriousness of Nokia's position. Such a move would have been unthinkable just 12 months ago," Blaber added.

In a bid to stem Nokia's losses, Chairman Jorma Ollila brought Elop in from Microsoft last September. The 47-year-old is the first non-Finn to head the company.

Nokia said in a statement it would stick with its current management team, with only one senior executive to leave. There had been speculation of a wider cull at the company.

Nokia also said it would use Microsoft's Bing search engine across its cellphones, potentially opening up a huge market for Microsoft as it seeks to build up its challenge to Google as the world's leading search engine.

Analysts said the Finnish company, which invested billions of dollars in building up mobile internet services under its previous CEO, had effectively admitted defeat in its services strategy by joining forces with Microsoft.

(Reporting by Tarmo Virki; Writing by Alexander Smith; editing by Jane Merriman)

Twitter Acquisition Talk with Facebook, Google: report

Jakarta Globe, February 10, 2011

Related articles

• Facebook’s Asia Invasion Opens Hong Kong Front  - Feb 9, 2011
• Google, Facebook, Twitter Speak Out Against Egypt Internet Ban  - Feb 2, 2011
• Indonesia Still Learning Do’s, Don’ts of Social Networking  - Jan 27, 2011
• Facebook and Twitter Seen Playing An Important Role in Egypt Protests  - Jan 27, 2011
• Indonesia’s Social Media Obsession Seen Changing Rules of Marketing  - Jan 13, 2011

Microblogging sensation Twitter has discussed the prospect of acquisition with Internet titans Google and Facebook, the Wall Street Journal said on Thursday.

Executives at both the eminent search engine and social networking giant have met with Twitter for what the Journal called “low-level talks” on the possibility of an acquisition deal, the financial daily said, citing people close to the situation.

“The talks have so far gone nowhere, these people say,” added the Journal.

The Web site, in which users post messages of 140 characters or less, has soared in popularity in recent years, and according to the Journal its valuation for potential suitors would be between $8 billion and $10 billion.

It is expected to rake in $150 million in advertising revenue in 2011, according to a study by digital research firm eMarketer released last month.

Last year ad spending on Twitter was an estimated $45 million, and could reach as high as $250 million by 2012.

Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo has previously said that Twitter, which has fended off several buyers, intends to remain an independent company and is not considering going public.

Twitter late last year received an injection of $200 million in funding from investors to help fuel its growth, reportedly giving the San Francisco-based company a current valuation of $3.7 billion.

Agence France-Presse

Crowdsigliere: Plouffe Asks for a Little Public Guidance

Personal Democracy Forum, Nancy Scola, February 8, 2011

The Obama White House's latest effort to use this here Internet to connect members of the public with folks working inside the executive branch is a little project they're calling "Advise the Advisor," where-in an administration official frames what's happening on the presidential front and then asks for feedback from anyone who cares to give it. Think of it as "Your Direct Line to the White House," said the White House at the program's launch yesterday, and in the first installment, David Plouffe, the Obama campaign manager who joined the administration in a formal capacity last month, asks for takes from the masses on what they're seeing in the world of innovation, and in particular what seems to be stymieing it in the United States at the moment.

The White House breaks down how "Advise the Advisor" is meant to work:

• Here’s how it works: one of the President’s closest advisors will post a short video to let you know more about what’s going on here at the White House and ask for your advice, opinions and feedback on important issues. We’ll go through as much of your feedback as possible and post a summary of what you’ve told us later in the week.

(Worth noting: over down on Capitol Hill, House Oversight Committee Chair Darrell Issa is making much the same pitch as Plouffe, asking the public to let the California Republican know what's holding back job creation in the United States. You never quite know what the response to these sorts of things might be, but the White House here enjoys the advantage over Issa of being, well, the White House, and thus considerably more in the public eye.)

Unusual for the Obama White House's online efforts, there's no Twitter or Facebook or other "social media" way for the public to engage here; responses must come in the form of text inputted into a web form, and they're only known to the recipient. That medium, though, offers the chance for extended thought: the input box accepts up to 2,500 characters -- or about the equivalent of a letter five pages long set in single-space 12 point Times New Roman. During President Barack Obama's sit-down with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly that aired Super Bowl night, he complained about "being in the bubble," saying that as a result of the constraints of the White House "what happens is that you feel like you're not able to just have a spontaneous conversation with folks."

Russian hacker admits guilt in $10 mln cyber theft

Antara News, Tue, February 08 2011

Moscow (ANTARA News/Reuters) - A Russian man has pleaded guilty in court to stealing $10 million from former Royal Bank of Scotland division World Pay in 2008 by hacking into accounts, RIA News reported on Monday.

Investigators said 27-year-old Yevgeny Anikin was a member of an international hacking ring that copied client account information and boosted the daily maximum withdrawal limit before taking cash out of bank machines across Europe, Asia and the United States.

"I want to say that I repent and fully admit my guilt," Anikin in his final comments to the court in Novosibirsk in Siberia, where he was charged with theft.

Anikin, who was detained in 2009, bought two apartments in Novosibirsk as well as a luxury car.

Russia has produced some of the world`s most renowned hackers, including the programmer who wrote ZeuS, a malicious software introduced as spyware that hides in computers and logs keystrokes to steal passwords. The software has helped steal an estimated $10 million.

Anikin, who is currently under house arrest, asked the judge for leniency in sentencing, saying he had already started paying back the money to the company. RBS Group sold World Pay in 2010 to a consortium of Advent International and Bain Capital.

Another member of the hacker ring was sentenced by a St. Petersburg court to six years in prison in September 2010.

The judge in the case, Lyubov Nazarov, said the verdict and sentence would be announced either on Monday or Friday.

Editor: B Kunto Wibisono

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Egyptian TV: Missing Google exec to be released by authorities Monday

CNN News, By the CNN Wire staff, February 6, 2011

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Egyptian authorities to let Google executive go, executive says
• Wael Ghonim missing since January 28
• Amnesty International protests holding of Dubai native

(CNN) -- Wael Ghonim, a Google executive who has been missing for more than a week following his purported arrest in Cairo, is to be released Monday, according to two Egyptian television news networks.

Telecom executive Naguib Sawiris announced on OTV Sunday that Ghonim would be released at 4 p.m. Monday. Saweris told CNN that Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman assured him during a Sunday meeting between government officials and opposition leaders that Ghonim would be released.

State-run Nile TV reported that Prime Minister Ahmad Shafiq called the network to announce that a Google executive missing for more than a week will be released Monday. There was no explanation as to the executive's whereabouts or condition.

Sawiris is a member of the so-called Committee of the Wise, a group of independent elite leaders of Egyptian society taking part in talks over the future of the country.

The announcements follow the release of a statement earlier Sunday by the human rights group Amnesty International. The statement warned that Ghonim was at risk of being tortured by Egytian authorities.

"The Egyptian authorities must immediately disclose where Wael Ghuneim is and release him or charge him with a recognizable criminal offence," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, deputy director of Middle and North Africa at Amnesty International.

"He must be given access to a doctor and a lawyer of his choice and not be subjected to torture or other ill-treatment. His case is just one of many that highlight the continued crackdown by the Egyptian authorities on those exercising their right to protest peacefully."

Ghonim, according to Amnesty International, was declared missing after he failed to meet with his brother January 28, as planned, to take part in street demonstrations. Ghonim, who heads Google's marketing operations in north Africa and the Middle East, had been in Cairo on a business trip since January 23.

Ghonim is from Dubai, according to the human rights group.

Family members became concerned when they discovered that Ghonim's telephones had been disconnected, according to the human rights group. Eyewitnesses later told family members they had seen Egyptian authorities arrest Ghonim during demonstrations near Mustafa Mohamed Street.

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