Report: China to require censorship software

China's government plans to require all PCs sold in that country as of July 1 to be shipped with software that blocks certain Web sites, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

The move, which is expected to give government censors heightened control over how China's citizens use the Internet, is intended to protect young people from "harmful" content such as pornography, according to the software's main developer.

The software, called "Green Dam-Youth Escort," would block access to banned Web sites by connecting to a regularly updated database of banned sites and block access to those addresses, according to the report. The requirement is aimed at "constructing a green, healthy, and harmonious Internet environment, and preventing harmful information on the Internet from influencing and poisoning young people," according to a May 19 Chinese government notice the newspaper cited.

The Chinese government has a reputation for restricting its citizens' access to the Internet.

Last week, on the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, China reportedly blocked access to Web sites like Twitter, Yahoo's Flickr, YouTube, Microsoft Hotmail, Live.com, Wordpress, Blogger, and many other social-networking sites.

Internet censorship in China took center stage last year during the Beijing Olympic Games when it was revealed that the International Olympic Committee had cut a deal to let the Chinese government block international journalist' access to sensitive Web sites, despite promises of unrestricted access.

________________________________________________________________

Verdiem dashboard displays PC power savings

What's the reading? Verdiem's dashboard can be customized to view energy and carbon emissions reductions.

(Credit: Verdiem)

Verdiem on Monday is expected to release an add-on to its PC power-management software that gives people a customizable view of energy savings and carbon emissions reductions.

The Seattle-based company said that the software, called Sustainability Dashboard, offers a visual display for a number of metrics, such as savings over time, and translates that into the equivalent of cars removed from the road or trees planted.

It works with Surveyor, a program that lets IT departments automatically put computers on standby mode on a schedule. For example, it can turn off PCs at night that are left on or put a PC on standby after being idle for more than an hour.

The company says it can save a business between $20 and $60 per year by setting up power-management policies and that payback for the upfront investment can come in less than a year.

The company developed the Dashboard product so those savings can be better shared within a business.

"The challenge when you talk about green IT is how do you show tangible results--the economic savings, the carbon reductions--and share that real-time information," said Brett Goodwin, Verdiem's vice president of marketing.

The Dashboard can be customized to view different data--such as changing the date range for money savings--and can be embedded in companies' intranets. Because it works with Surveyor's server-based software, it cannot be embedded in public Web pages.

Verdiem also makes a free PC power-management tool called Edison for individual PC users.

________________________________________________________________

Small wind turbine works at low wind speeds

Homeowners this fall will be able to buy a wind turbine at hardware stores that tackles the small wind industry'sbete noire: slow wind.

WindTronics, based in Muskegon, Mich., has developed a wind turbine sized for individual homes that it says can operate at speeds as low as 2 miles an hour.

It will be sold for $4,500 as the Honeywell Wind Turbine and distributed through Ace Hardware stores in the U.S. starting in October. WindTronics developed the turbine and licensed the technology to buildings systems giant Honeywell.

The fan-like turbine will generate 2,000 kilowatt-hours in a year for a home with a very good--called Class 4--wind resource, according to the company. That's between 15 and 20 percent of the annual electricity consumption for the average U.S. home.

Turning a turbine inside out: rather than having power generation occur at a gear box in the shaft, WindTronic's turbine has magnets at the edges of the fan to generate a current.

(Credit: WindTronics)

The turbine is rated at 2 kilowatts, but WindTronics executives say that most turbines' rated capacities--the amount of power they can produce at a given moment--are misleading.

"We say if a turbine only works between 8 and 25 miles per hour, you have a very limited range of operation," said Brian Levine, the vice president of business development at WindTronics, a division of EarthTronics. "Our device is rated to address a wider range at the low and high end."

The 95-pound turbine, which is 6 feet in diameter, can be mounted on rooftops, attached to chimneys, or put on a pole. The company hopes to sell the turbines through Ace Hardware stores or through contractors--who are needed for the installation--to homeowners or businesses.

Spinning magnets
With people seeking out alternative forms of power generation, there's been a surge in interest--and sales--in small wind turbines in the past year. But it's still not clear that these small wind turbines are cost-effective enough to be used beyond a niche of green-minded buyers.

Two studies--one in Massachusetts and one in the U.K.--discovered that many small wind turbines far underperformed manufacturers' specifications.

The tests found that people often chose locations that didn't have sufficient wind or obstructions that blocked wind. In most cases, turbine makers rate products assuming a very good wind resource--anywhere from 12 to 25 miles per hour.

By using a novel design, WindTronics' turbine can generate electricity between 2 miles per hour and 45 miles per hour, the company says.

Photos: Small wind turbines take shape

Typically, turbines convert the mechanical energy of spinning blades to electricity with a gearbox and generator in the turbine's nacelle, the enclosure where the rotor's shaft is mounted.

WindTronic's turbine has small magnets at the tips of its fan blades. When they spin from the wind, equipment in the fan's housing captures the current produced.

The installation kit also comes with an inverter to convert the direct current to household alternating current and a "smart box," which regulates the flow of electricity and monitors wind speed. At 45 miles per hour, the unit turns itself sideways to avoid damage.

Levine, who said the turbine was originally developed for developing countries, said WindTronics expects it can produce 50,000 units in its first year. A number of utilities, including Duke Energy, are testing the turbine, he added.

He said that mounting the turbine on a house should not cause vibration because the unit is lighter than most turbines. The sound is rated at between 35 and 45 decibels, which is quieter than normal conversation, Levine said.

Right problem
There is a growing number of companies designing turbines to operate in less-than-ideal wind conditions. A wind map from the Department of Energy shows that most of the fair and good wind--class 3 and class 4--is in the plains states and on the coasts of the continental U.S.

One technique to squeeze more power from available wind is to concentrate the wind to increase the speed of the air going past rotor blades. OptiWind, FloDesign Wind Turbine, and Green Energy Tech are among the companies exploring that approach in small or mid-size turbines.

Other turbine manufacturers, like WindTronics, use permanent magnets in a direct drive design rather than gearboxes to generate electricity.

WindTronics has only built prototype systems, which it first showed at a hardware show last month. But if its turbines can operate in low wind with little vibration and sound, the company could make small wind turbines economically attractive to a much larger audience.

________________________________________________________________

Interview: Dr Akbar Yezdani on music licensing & record labels:
http://tr.im/nIrL

Internet advertising slumps in first quarter

Spending on Internet advertising took a big drop in the first quarter of 2009 as troubles across the broader economy took their toll.

For the three-month period, Internet advertising revenue in the U.S. was $5.5 billion, down a notable 5 percent from the $6.1 billion for the fourth quarter of 2008, according to a report Friday from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

(Credit: Interactive Advertising Bureau/PricewaterhouseCoopers)

Aside from a handful of smaller quarterly declines, Internet advertising revenue has risen steadily since the middle of 2002, as the sector began to recover from the dot-com bust.

The IAB put a positive spin on the first quarter's downward motion.

"Consumers are spending more and more time with interactive media. For this, and other reasons, interactive media continues to gain share of marketing spend." Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB, said in a statement. "We're confident that growth will resume as the U.S. economic climate improves. Interactive advertising is the most accountable way to reach consumers--and in this economy, digital media will be a core component of any successful marketing campaign."

Internet companies such as Yahoo are banking on businesses continuing to migrate to online advertising.

"Your brand is not defined by 20 keywords. You have to put a persona out there," Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz saidWednesday at a luncheon with Wall Street analysts, talking about the potential allure of online display or video advertising to businesses used to buying ad time on television. But, she said, Internet ad sales forces need to get rid of some of the friction in their line of work that isn't there on the TV side.

________________________________________________________________

Down Under gets first dibs on Windows 7

The first retail sales of Windows 7 will take place in New Zealand and Australia on 22 October, Microsoft confirmed this week.

(Credit: Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au)

Windows 7 will hit first New Zealand, then Australia, due to the countries' placement with respect to the International Date Line. Microsoft announced last week that its new operating system would hit retail shelves and start showing up on new PCs from October 22.

"Our understanding at this time is that the availability of Windows 7 will 'follow the sun' on Thursday October 22," a Microsoft spokesperson said late this week. "As such, we're excited that the first retail sales globally of Windows 7 will take place in New Zealand and Australia as we cross the dateline ahead of other markets."

A number of large Australian organizations including National Australia Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Centrelink have already started examining Windows 7, and companies as large as Telstra have flagged their intention to eventually migrate to the platform.

ZDNet.com.au has also been informed by many early adopters that they have had positive experiences with Windows 7 after testing it on their home PCs in preparation for upgrading to the platform from Vista or XP installations.

Microsoft Australia could not confirm at this stage what upgrade programs would be available to locals. However, globally Microsoft has confirmed, without giving details, that it plans to offer some sort of "technology guarantee" giving those who buy Vista machines close to the Windows 7 launch a free or discounted copy of the new operating system.

As with past similar programs, details on pricing will be up to individual computer makers, although Microsoft did say the upgrade program will apply to Vista Home Premium and higher-priced editions (meaning not Windows Vista Basic).

The tech guarantee program is not beginning immediately, but Microsoft did raise the possibility it will offer some sort of lower-cost upgrade to those who are already using Windows Vista.

________________________________________________________________

And Moses asked God: Is Mac better than Windows?

I once was a God-fearing Windows user. But when an Apple shrine, uh, store opened in my area, I began to ask myself the age-old question that has confounded even the greatest biblical prophets: Is theMac better?

I avoided the Mac for years for the usual reason cited by the Windows faithful: a dearth of hardware and software. (The so-called Mac tax was never really an issue for me.) That said, I won't go into a broad platform critique because I risk rehashing Windows-versus-Mac religious arguments that have been repeated millions of times for (digital-age) eons. (Besides, I'll leave that faith-based debate to the digerati of the world.)

Suffice to say, I now use a MacBook full time. Though, in the spirit of complete disclosure, I do have a Vista-based HP tower that I still use when there's something I absolutely can't do on the Mac. And, no, I have not gone the Boot Camp or virtual machine route yet.

So, without getting into an unwieldy philosophical argument, there are some nuts-and-bolts things that make the transition a challenge (and it's different for everyone, as every user has different needs.)

And one more disclaimer: I'm writing this from the perspective of a Mac neophyte/new user. Not as a seasoned Macophile that can instantly troubleshoot issues as they pop up.

Docking stations (lack thereof): This is a biggie. I had grown attached to the convenience of Hewlett-Packard docking stations. Apple should have connectors for docking stations (or port-replicators) built into MacBooks. The ease of popping an HP business laptop--which I had been using for years--in and out of a docking station cannot be overstated.

Microsoft Entourage: This is not the Windows Outlook equivalent. In a word, it's slow. In two words, very slow. (Note: I can't use the OS X "Mail" client because it can't run the email programs that I use.)

Web compatibility: All things should be equal here. But they're not. Like many people, I use both Safari andFireFox. Last week, there was a live video stream that, while it loaded on my MacBook Air, wouldn't run. The applet was there but it wasn't streaming. I didn't have time to figure out why it wasn't streaming. I just needed it to work. Out of desperation, I tried it on the Vista-based HP tower. It streamed immediately. In my book, that's a problem. And generally, on many Web sites that I use, Windows Media Player (that is, WMP v.11) is more adept at streaming video than the applets that come standard on the Mac OS X platform.

OS X local search: OS X local search is great (e.g., Spotlight) but it won't let me exclusively search a folder full of JPEG files. This issue was validated by a Mac "Genius" at my local Apple Store who admitted it was "odd." Let me repeat, an Apple Genius verified that I could not do this. Of course, I can find these files a dozen other ways but there's an application I use everyday that would be a lot easier to use if I could search JPEG files exclusively in that folder.

(Update: After a second visit to my local Apple Store and a separate discussion about changing the user short name--which the Genius did, as this process is a little tricky--I can now do JPEG searches on one of my MacBooks. I do not know how this came to be fixed, however, as it was an unintended consequence.)

Hardware compatibility--in this case, camcorders: I found this out quite by accident. I was in my local Best Buy (Southern California) and overheard one of those illuminating matter-of-fact dialogs between a customer and a salesperson. "Are all of these camcorders Mac compatible?"--the customer asked. "No," the salesman said. "Only the Panasonic and Canon." After the salesman was done helping the customer, I followed up with more queries. The upshot: Most other brands are not Mac-compatible, according to the Best Buy sales force. Does a Best Buy salesperson always know the bottom-line, gospel truth about hardware compatibility? Probably not. But the larger point is that's what he is telling customers. And it's always an ugly reminder of that cliche that a lot hardware is not compatible with the Mac.

The Mac philosophy of how to use external displays: This, I suppose, is more a philosophical argument than a practical argument. But, to me, the way Windows handles external displays (with a laptop) using Fn-F4 is straightforward and extremely practical. And--returning to the lack-of-a-docking-station argument--inserting/removing a laptop into/from an HP dock is so well executed that it becomes second nature to the user: the internal laptop display shuts off, the external display goes on, and the external display automatically adjusts the resolution. Again, this may be partially a case of me simply being more accustomed to the Windows way of doing things--but not completely: Windows wins the ease-of-use award here.

No built-in 3G option: I've talked about this before in other posts. HP, Dell, and others offer integrated 3G connectivity. That said, I fully expect that this will become less of an issue when 4G hits, as I am confident that Apple is savvy enough to stay in front of this trend.

Of course, the list goes on (lack of development momentum from some software vendors on the Mac, being another minus often cited). But I would be remiss at this point to not preemptively answer the critics who will say, "Well, if you're going to whine all the time, go back to Windows you a#%*!#@." (And that's putting it charitably. Mac minions tend to be slightly more contemptuous.)

The reason I switched to Mac (if anyone really cares) was hardware, not software. I looked at all of the HP, Dell, Lenovo, and Sony laptops and saw nothing that came close to a MacBook Air. Not even remotely close. The Air is an incomparably well-balanced design that is light, fast, and aesthetically a knockout, to boot. The other unibody MacBooks inherit these attributes too.

Oh yeah, Mac OS X beats Windows in a lot of ways. You can run Windows, after all, if you choose, with Boot Camp or VMware Fusion. And all of the well-known virtues are true. You're not constantly on Virus/Worm/Malware alert, the interface is more intuitive in some ways, it's more streamlined than Vista, it boots faster, and the list goes on. I guess I can live without a docking station--for now.

So, as of summer 2009, which is better, Windows or Mac? Dare I ask?

________________________________________________________________