Software Piracy in Asia Expands

Despite some gains in fighting copyright infringement in many countries, brazen piracy remains visible in Asia. Producer Pros Laput visits Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Hong Kong in this report brought to us by Heda Bayron.

Mozilla issued a fifth beta of Firefox 3.6

Mozilla on Thursday issued a fifth beta of Firefox 3.6 rather than move on to a release candidate, a decision that will push the final code ship date into early 2010. Firefox 3.6 Beta 5 was released as an update to current testers early Thursday, and can also be installed by others who download it from Mozilla's site.

Malaysians - Beware Of Phishing Website

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 22  09  |  Bernama

 

-- Members of the public are reminded to beware of phishing or fake websites used to conduct 'phishing attack' by masquerading as trustworthy entities such as familiar banking websites.

The reminder came from CyberSecurity Malaysia which revealed that the number of phishing attempts is on the rise and accelerating.

Google, Bing deals make Twitter profitable

khaleejtimes | 22 December 2009,

Twitter has reached profitability after signing deals with Google and Microsoft to make the micro-blogging service searchable on the Internet, BusinessWeek magazine reported on Monday.

BusinessWeek, which was purchased in October by financial news agency Bloomberg, said Twitter had signed a 15-million-dollar data-mining deal with Google and a 10-million-dollar agreement with Microsoft.

“The deals were huge,” Bloomberg BusinessWeek quoted an unidentified person “familiar with the company’s finances” as saying. “With two scoops of the pen, a lot of revenue came in.”

Cloud Computing the 2010 buzz word?

TOP CONTRIBUTORS

Dave Cleveland

Cloud computing is an emerging computing technology that uses the internet and central remote servers to maintain data and applications. Cloud computing allows consumers and businesses to use applications without installation and access their personal files at any computer with internet access. This technology allows for much more efficient computing by centralizing storage, memory, processing and bandwidth. Cloud computing is broken down into three segments: "applications," "platforms," and "infrastructure." Each segment serves a different purpose and offers different products for businesses and individuals around the world. In June 2009, a study conducted by VersionOne found that 41% of senior IT professionals actually don't know what cloud computing is and two-thirds of senior finance professionals are confused by the concept,^[1] highlighting the young nature of the technology. In Sept 2009, an Aberdeen Group study found that disciplined companies achieved on average an 18% reduction in their IT budget from cloud computing and a 16% reduction in data center power costs.^[2]

Microsoft is going to end support to Windows XP SP2?

So,  What does that mean? 

Earlier in the week, my news article mentioned that Microsoft would be ending support for Microsoft XP SP2 in July 2010. Before the day was over, my inbox was stuffed with emails from readers worried about what would happen to their computer: Will my computer stop working? Will I continue receive security updates? Should I upgrade to Windows XP SP3? What does "end all public support" truly mean?

YouTube short lands budding director $30M movie deal.

A budding filmmaker from Uruguay, whose low-budget alien invasion short became a viral video hit, has landed a $30-million US movie deal in Hollywood.

Fede Alvarez uploaded his short film Ataque de Panico (Panic Attack) onto video-sharing website YouTube in early November. It has since registered more than 1.5 million views and garnered the attention of a host of Hollywood studios.

Ataque de Panico portrays an assault on and destruction of Uruguay's capital, Montevideo, by an invading army of giant alien robots and flying spacecraft.

Though made for about $300 US and lasting less than five minutes, the stylized, special effects-laden film evokes such Hollywood blockbusters as War of the Worlds and Independence Day.

Microsoft suspends its Chinese micro-blogging service

BEIJING, December 15 09 |  Xihuanet

-- Technology giant Microsoft has suspended its Chinese based micro-blogging service after accusations it plagiarized the design and programming code of a rival client.

Plurk, a free social networking and micro-blogging service, laid out its case against Microsoft in a blog post on Monday. The post displayed screenshots of both the Plurk platform and Mocrosoft's MSN Juku, also known as Club MSN.

A Plurk spokesman said the company had been investigating for a few weeks, trying to determine whether the resemblance was accidental or deliberate. "With more research, we found out that Microsoft blatantly took our code, slightly changed it and used it on their new Club MSN site," Plurk's Dave Thompson said.

Malaysia Committed To "Net Neutrality" - Salang

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 14  08  |  Bernama

-- Malaysia is committed to the general principles of net neutrality' and no internet censorship, the Dewan Rakyat was told on Monday.

Deputy Information Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Joseph Salang Gandum said the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) had been practising open access for holders of telecommunication licence under the Communication and Multimedia Act 1998.

Malaysia, Cyber Threat Cases Up 87 Pct In 10 Months

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 09 | Bernama  -- 

An 87 per cent increase in cyber threat cases were reported through the Cyber99 Assistance Centre between January and October as compared to the same period last year.

MAIK Introduces Online Network Through MAIK-NET

KOTA BAHARU, Dec 10   |  Bernama -- 

The Kelantan Malay Custom and Islamic Religious Council (MAIK) has introduced an online programme, MAIK-NET, linking all religious institutions under its jurisdiction in the state.

What is a browser? What is a browser-not?

Basic explanation of the web browser. Learn more at http://whatbrowser.org

Googe chrome is out of Beta, do you like to try it? Click on the screen shot!

Google Chrome Final - Benchmarking review

11 Dec 09 -Today Google Chrome came out of Beta with a final release in a record time! It is available for Windows only at this time however it is faster then previous betas and other browsers fixes. 

The Internet Detective - Switzerland

There is a new breed of super-sleuth emerging in the virtual world of the web. For both petty criminals and major terrorist groups, internet detectives are fast becoming a force to be reckoned with.

Making it his business to track down criminal activity through the web, Guido Rudolphi, the Sherlock Holmes of the cyber world, considers himself a legal hacker. "So much more information can be accessed, quite legally, than the individual user would ever imagine."

Malaysian company buys Friendster

MOL Global Pte Ltd, a Malaysian company, will acquire the whole of social networking site, Friendster. The two parties signed a definitive agreement Thursday (yesterday).

PayPal expands services in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 — Bernama

PayPal, a subsidiary of eBay Inc, has expanded its services in Malaysia with the introduction of support for payments in Malaysian ringgit and a new bank withdrawal feature that enables members to transfer money from their PayPal account directly to a Malaysian bank account.

The two new services give Malaysian buyers and sellers the option to pay and get paid in local currency for their domestic transactions, as well as Malaysian sellers to gain fast and convenient access to their funds, ultimately making e-commerce even easier, the company said in a statement today.