Microsoft launching Sidewinder keyboard this fall?
July 18th, 2008
Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals
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Archive for July 18th, 2008
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UK Mobile Operator O2 Leaks MMS Photos
July 18th, 2008
Anonymous Hero writes "UK Mobile Operator O2 allows its customers to send Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) photos to email recipients by way of a web interface. The URLs published by the MMS-to-email application are not authenticated, so a simple Google search reveals hundreds, if not thousands of private photos." Reader ttul points out similar coverage of this issue at InformationWeek.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
With Exits Barred, VCs Keep Investments Flat (Stacey Higginbotham/GigaOM)
July 18th, 2008
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
With Exits Barred, VCs Keep Investments Flat — If you believe the venture capitalists on Friday's conference call about the latest MoneyTree Survey results, which covers venture investing in the second quarter, now is the best time to contact them with your ideas.
Army seeking psychologically inspired object recognition system
July 18th, 2008
Filed under: Robots
[Via Wired, image courtesy of ACM]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Why San Francisco’s network admin went rogue (InfoWorld)
July 18th, 2008
InfoWorld:
Why San Francisco's network admin went rogue — Last Sunday, Terry Childs, a network administrator employed by the City of San Francisco, was arrested and taken into custody, charged with four counts of computer tampering. He remains in jail, held on $5 million bail.
Roundup: Yahoo gains key shareholder in proxy fight, Motorola sues former employee for giving secrets to Apple and more
July 18th, 2008
Here’s the latest action:
Yahoo may live to die another day — Legg Mason Capital Management, which controls 4.4 percent of Yahoo’s outstanding stock shares, is backing Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang and the current board of directors at the company’s upcoming shareholder meeting. This is a big blow to Carl Icahn’s hostile takeover bid. Yang is so happy, he even made an internal “victory” video, Silicon Alley Insider has the transcript.
Motorola sues a former employee now with Apple over trade secrets — It should be no surprise that this is all surrounding the iPhone, which has all the buzz in the world right now while Motorola’s phones have well, none. Bloomberg has more.
California is using more gas than China — California uses more gas and diesel than any country in the world, with the exception, of course, of the United States, according to Wired. But we have electric cars!
Corporate social networking STILL sucks — Or at least it’s a waste of money. ReadWriteWeb has more on the study.
ComScore finds Microsoft making gains in search — Could it be due to its comical attempt to pay users to use its search, or is it something else? Either way, Google is still utterly dominating and even Yahoo is still more than doubling Microsoft.
We’re still 15 years from fuel cell cars — 2 million electric vehicles powered by fuel cells would be in use by 2020 in the United States in the best-case scenario plan, a government-funded report finds.
Facebook wants you to talk about yourself? — A new feature in the new profile design soon to roll out apparently wants you to “write something about yourself,” according to Allfacebook.
Shopping site Become.com confirms new funding — We wrote about it a couple days ago.
EStyle sells assets for $6.4M — The baby and maternity products retailers which has raised almost $150 million in VC and private equity money is getting out for much less than than, according to VentureWire.
A new self-hosted life streaming site — SweetCron is a Tokyo-based new piece of blogging software that allows you host your own FriendFeed-style stream of social networking data. This will appeal to users who don’t want all of their information accumulating traffic for a third party site. StartupMeme has more.
With Exits Barred, VCs Keep Investments Flat [GigaOM]
July 18th, 2008
If you believe the venture capitalists on Friday’s conference call about the latest MoneyTree Survey results, which covers venture investing in the second quarter, now is the best time to contact them with your ideas. Just because the exit environment is brutal doesn’t mean VCs won’t continue to put their time and dollars into seed and early-stage deals, two of them said. And so far the data bears that out. But if the exit environment stays grim, early-stage fundings will drop as well.
Venture capitalists invested $7.39 billion in 990 deals in the second quarter of 2008, according to a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association based on data provided by Thomson Reuters. That’s slightly less than the first quarter of 2008, when $7.5 billion was invested in 977 deals, and flat compared to the second quarter of 2007, when VCs placed $7.37 billion into 1,033 deals.
John Taylor, VP of research with the NVCA, said that there’s no need to sound the alarm on the exit environment just yet. He also noted the fact that IPOs are more difficult to complete than they used to be. Taylor tied the inability to take a company public or sell it to “fears of the macro economy” and a market that’s unwilling to bet on early-stage companies. But he expressed confidence that once investors realize that the overall tech sector is strong and resilient, in part because it has global exposure, “the slowdown in the exit market will stop.”
Meanwhile, the MoneyTree data shows a buildup of companies that have raised later-stage financing, with 318 late-stage deals getting money in the second quarter, the highest number ever. If those companies don’t exit within the next two to three years, VCs will have to start selling at a loss or pushing firms into bankruptcy. Those types of decisions take up a lot of time and effort on the part of general partners. And that’s why it soon may not be a great time for early-stage companies.
Trevor Loy, a managing partner with Flywheel Ventures, a seed-stage firm focused on cleantech and hardware deals, said that if a VC can carve out the time and allocate the capital, seed investments made now will reach their full potential in five to seven years’ time and will be strong contenders for exits. However, he also noted that “venture capital is a return on time rather then just a return on capital,” and that it can be hard to juggle a lot of late-stage investments while undergoing the rigors of starting new businesses.
So as VCs are trying to negotiate exits and attend board meetings for companies that they need to get off their plates, they also need to be finding and guiding new deals to fruition — a time-intensive process in and of itself. And if exits aren’t forthcoming, VCs may find they have less time to put into new deals while they shepherd their old ones out the door.
image from the MoneyTree Survey
Cleantech Investment Rises Again [Earth2Tech]
July 18th, 2008
It’s still a great time to be a clean technology company seeking funding, according to data released today from the quarterly MoneyTree Survey. The cleantech sector reached an all-time quarterly high in investment dollars in the three-month period ended June 30, with $883.6 million going into 65 deals, according to the report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association based on data provided by Thomson Reuters.
This dollar figure represents a slight increase from the first quarter, when $870.9 million went into 60 deals, and a whopping 62 percent rise over the $544.4 million dollars that went into 53 companies during the second quarter of 2007. And the top two deals involved clean technology companies: OptiSolar, which captured $132 million (and far more than the $38 million we had noted back in April), and BrightSource, which raised $115 million.
Notably, Thomson Reuters changed its definition of cleantech this quarter to include more companies; it also changed the historical data to reflect the category change.
Cleantech companies are faring better than the overall venture climate, which stayed flat from the previous quarter and flat compared with the second quarter in 2007. Venture capitalists invested $7.39 billion in 990 deals in the second quarter of 2008, while in the first quarter, $7.5 billion was invested in 977 deals. For the second quarter of 2007, VCs placed $7.37 billion into 1,033 deals.
Cleantech is a growth area for venture firms; it comprised half of the industrial and energy segment deals in the latest three-month period. Trevor Loy, a managing partner with Flywheel Ventures, a seed-stage firm focused on clean tech and hardware deals, said the investments are now moving beyond renewable energy into categories such as clean building trends, petrochemicals and devices that use less energy. Water is also a big interest for Flywheel as the firm believes it will grow in importance as a resource over the next 10-20 years.
Venture capital report: Investments are flat, but good luck with those first-time deals
July 18th, 2008
Despite the dreary economic climate, venture investments held relatively steady in the second quarter of 2008. But more of that money is going to later-stage deals, not funding young startups.
Venture firms invested a total of $7.4 billion in 990 deals during April, May and June of this year, according to the latest MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association. Alhough that’s well below the peak of $8.1 billion invested in Q4 2007, it’s only a slight drop from from the $7.5 billion of funding in Q1, and the similar amount to the same period last year.
Not that VCs aren’t affected by the rather inhospitable market for IPOs and acquisitions — if you have a quarter without a single IPO, that’s going to have consequences. In this case, it means more venture dollars are needed to keep later-stage startups going as they wait for the exit environment to improve. That’s why later-stage funding rose 15 percent, to $3.8 billion, while first-time investments fell 12 percent, to $1.6 billion.
So why hasn’t venture investment taken a bigger drop? In the report press release, NVCA President Mark Heesen argues that venture firms are taking the longer view and betting that their portfolio companies can weather a temporary downturn. I certainly hope that’s the case, although the dearth of first-time deals doesn’t seem like long-term thinking to me. (Venture firms are benefiting themselves from investors with a long-term view — they actually saw an increase in fundraising during Q2.)
The software industry received the most investment, with $1.25 billion going to 219 deals. But its prominence is waning — software is down substantially from the $1.56 billion invested during the same period last year. Industrial/energy companies, on the other hand, are on the rise, placing second among the industries with $1.15 billion of funding, more than double the $571 million invested in Q2 2007.
The data for the report comes from Thomson Reuters.
Amazon To Launch New Streaming Video Service
July 18th, 2008
The New York Times reports that Amazon has begun a limited testing of its new Video on Demand service, which will replace its Unbox store. The significant difference between the two is that the new service will stream movies through your browser rather than requiring you to download them and use Amazon's video player. Users will also retain access to movies and shows they're previously purchased. The service is not expected to be particularly profitable; Amazon is most likely looking to the future.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A Detailed Explanation Of How The BSA Misleads With Piracy Stats
July 18th, 2008
A couple months ago, when the Business Software Alliance (BSA) released its latest stats on "piracy," it's VP of anti-piracy, Neil MacBride, gave me a call to discuss my earlier complaints about the organizations methodology. Needless to say, we did not see eye-to-eye, and the phone call did little to resolve our differences. I'm still hopeful that eventually the BSA will recognize that it's doing more damage to its own position by publishing obviously bogus numbers. So, with the organization releasing another bogus stat today, it's time to explain why it's wrong and misleading.
Today's report is an attempt to get the government involved in protecting BSA member companies' business model, by claiming that the US is losing out on $1.7 billion in tax revenue due to "pirated" software. And, of course, it comes with a lovely quote from Mr. MacBride: "The most tragic aspect is that the lost revenues to tech companies and local governments could be supporting thousands of good jobs and much-needed social services in our communities." And the BSA is even so kind as to quantify what that (not really) lost tax revenue could do: "For example, the lost tax revenues to state and local governments -- an estimated $1.7 billion -- would have been enough to build 100 middle schools or 10,831 affordable housing units; hire 24,395 experienced police officers; or purchase 6,335 propane-powered transit buses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
Except that this is almost entirely incorrect and it's relatively easy to show why:
Most of these points have been made to the BSA and IDC in the past, and both organizations chose not to address them. The fact that they're continuing to use these obviously false numbers and methodology to now push for the government to prop up an obsolete business model should be seen as troubling not just for the dishonesty of it, but for the negative impact it will have on the software industry and our economy as a whole.
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Today's report is an attempt to get the government involved in protecting BSA member companies' business model, by claiming that the US is losing out on $1.7 billion in tax revenue due to "pirated" software. And, of course, it comes with a lovely quote from Mr. MacBride: "The most tragic aspect is that the lost revenues to tech companies and local governments could be supporting thousands of good jobs and much-needed social services in our communities." And the BSA is even so kind as to quantify what that (not really) lost tax revenue could do: "For example, the lost tax revenues to state and local governments -- an estimated $1.7 billion -- would have been enough to build 100 middle schools or 10,831 affordable housing units; hire 24,395 experienced police officers; or purchase 6,335 propane-powered transit buses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
Except that this is almost entirely incorrect and it's relatively easy to show why:
- The report counts every unauthorized piece of software as a lost sale. You have to dig through separate PDFs to find this info, but when you finally get to the methodology it states:
The software losses are based on the piracy rate and equal the value of software installed not paid for.
That's a huge, and obviously incorrect assumption. Many of the folks using the software likely would not have paid for it otherwise, or would have used cheaper or open source options instead. - The report makes no effort to count the positive impact of unauthorized use of software in leading to future software sales. This is something that even Microsoft has admitted has helped the company grow over time. But according to the BSA's report, this doesn't matter.
- The report also proudly notes: "Software piracy also has ripple effects in local communities." However, "ripple effects" are easily disproved as double or triple counting the same dollar. Using ripple effects like that inflates the final number by two or three times. In the link here, Tim Lee explains this (in reference to an MPAA study done by IPI, but it applies here to the BSA study done by IDC as well):
If a foreigner gives me $1, and I turn around and buy an apple from you for a dollar, and then you turn around and buy an orange from another friend for a dollar, we haven't thereby increased our national wealth by $3. At the beginning of the sequence, we have an apple and an orange. At the end, we have an apple, an orange, and a dollar. Difference: one dollar. No matter how many times that dollar changes hands, there's still only one dollar that wasn't there before.
This is a huge fallacy that the BSA an IDC refuse to acknowledge. When I discussed it with them in May, they insisted that they only wanted to talk about piracy rates, not the loss number. I wonder why...
Yet in IPI-land, when a movie studio makes $10 selling a DVD to a Canadian, and then gives $7 to the company that manufactured the DVD and $2 to the guy who shipped it to Canada, society has benefited by $10+$7+$2=$19. Yet some simple math shows that this is nonsense: the studio is $1 richer, the trucker is $2, and the manufacturer is $7. Shockingly enough, that adds up to $10. What each participant cares about is his profits, not his revenues. - Next, if they're going to count ripple effects in one direction, it's only fair to also count them in the other direction. That is, they complain that:
Lost revenue to technology companies also puts a strain on their ability to invest in new jobs and new technologies. For example, the $11.4 billion in piracy losses to software vendors and service providers in the eight states would have been enough to fund more than 54,000 tech industry jobs.
But what they don't acknowledge is the ripple effects in the other direction. That is, if (going by their assumption, remember) every company that uses an unauthorized copy of software had to pay for it, that would represent $11.4 billion in money that all of those other companies could not use to fund jobs at those companies. What about all of those jobs? - The BSA/IDC stat on lost tax revenue also miscounts on the point above, since it includes the lost income tax revenue from those 54,000 lost jobs, but does not count the equivalent income tax revenue from those other jobs. In fact, in the fine print, the report notes:
"Employment losses are calculated from revenue losses, and only apply to employment in the IT industry, not IT professionals in end-user organizations. Tax revenue losses are calculated from revenue losses (VAT and corporate income tax) and employment losses (income and social taxes)."
In other words, the income tax losses only count one side of the equation and totally ignore the lost income tax revenue from the lost jobs on the other side of the equation. Oops. - It seems likely that the eventual tax benefits of the unauthorized use of software is most likely to greatly outweigh the lost tax revenue elsewhere. That's because the use of software within industries is a productivity tool that increases overall productivity and output, which would increase taxes beyond just the income taxes of the employees. The study, of course, ignores this point.
- Worst of all, the report seems to assume that direct software sales are the only business model for the software industry, ignoring plenty of evidence from companies that have adopted business models that embrace free software -- generating billions of dollars for the economy (and in taxes). And that's what this really comes down to. It's a business model issue. If others started adopting these business models as well, there wouldn't be any "losses" at all.
Most of these points have been made to the BSA and IDC in the past, and both organizations chose not to address them. The fact that they're continuing to use these obviously false numbers and methodology to now push for the government to prop up an obsolete business model should be seen as troubling not just for the dishonesty of it, but for the negative impact it will have on the software industry and our economy as a whole.
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Pistorius Short In Historic Cybernetic Olympic Bid [Oscar Pistorius]
July 18th, 2008
It's a sad day for Cyborg-Americans, as the first of their kind (albeit not from America) with a shot at competing in the Olympics didn't qualify for the games. He just missed the needed score in the...
Double-Amputee on Cheetah Blades Fails to Qualify For the Olympics [Oscar Pistorius]
July 18th, 2008
Oscar Pistorius, double-amputee with carbon-fiber "cheetah" blades failed to qualify for the Olympics. He just missed the needed time in the 400 meter of 45.55 seconds, though it should be noted he...
Moto Sues Former Exec For Jumping Ship To Apple [Law Suits]
July 18th, 2008
Motorola, upset that one of its former executives might be violating a no-compete clause in his contract, has sued him for going to work at Apple with the iPhone as an executive in sales. The...
Danamics debuts liquid metal-based LM10 CPU cooler
July 18th, 2008
Filed under: Desktops
Still not satisfied by the many, many cooling options out there to keep your toasty CPU under control? Then perhaps upstart Danamics' new liquid metal-based LM10 cooler will meet with your approval. According to the company, the LM10 is not only the first liquid metal-based cooler to hit the market, but it says it'll do a better job at keeping your CPU cool than most water-based cooling systems. That's apparently possible thanks to a combination of liquid metal (the exact specifics of which seem to be under wraps) and a "multi-string" electromagnetic pump, which has no moving parts and doesn't require external housings or large resevoirs. Unfortunately, there's no word on pricing or availablity just yet, but judging from the way the company's talking about it, it seems like it's about ready to go.