iZania Blogs

 

Extensive Internet failure has affected much of Asia, the Middle East, north Africa CNN is reporting…”An undersea cable carrying Internet traffic was cut off the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai, officials said Friday, the third loss of a line carrying Internet and telephone traffic in three days. The loss of the two Mediterranean cables -- FLAG Telecom's FLAG Europe-Asia cable and SeaMeWe-4, a cable owned by a consortium of more than a dozen telecommunications companies -- has snarled Internet and phone traffic from Egypt to India. For more info

the following two views on your compter as a means of self-incrimination were voiced this week in a criminal case: BOUCHER VS. THE UNINITED STATES OF AMERICA

Orin S. Kerr, an expert in computer crime law at George Washington University, said that Boucher lost his Fifth Amendment privilege when he admitted that it was his computer and that he stored images in the encrypted part of the hard drive. "If you admit something to the government, you give up the right against self-incrimination later on," said Kerr, a former federal prosecutor.

Lee Tien, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group, said encryption is one of the few ways people can protect what they write, read and watch online. "The last line of defense really is you holding your own password," he said. "That's what's at stake here."

 

One may want to consider adding CryptoHeaven or  PGP, Pretty Good Protection to their computer for free after concidering the above case. Just some food for thought.

Fears of a deteriorating U.S. economy and falling DVD industry sales helped drive Warner Bros's decision to back Sony's Blu-ray next generation DVD format exclusively, a top executive told Reuters on Monday.

Warner's decision is seen cementing Blu-ray's victory in what could possibly be the last physical format for movies and TV shows as technology and Internet companies race to build online distribution channels, according to Citigroup analyst Tony Wible.

A 2007 decline in DVD sales, which account for half of Hollywood's profits, and anticipated further declines in 2008 sped Warner's decision making process.

Merrill Lynch said on Monday the United States had entered its first full blown recession in 16 years.

Read this complete Reuters story at http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSN0742944620080109

CONSUMER ALERT-Analog Broadcast Televisions

A television receiver that has only an analog broadcast tuner will require a converter box after February 17, 2009, to receive over-the-air broadcasts with an antenna because of the U.S.A.’s transition to digital broadcasting. Analog-only TVs should continue to work as before with cable and satellite TV services, gaming consoles, VCRs, DVD players, and similar products.

For more information, call the Federal Communications Commission at 1-888-225-5322 (TTY: 1-888-835-5322) or visit the Commission’s digital television website at: www.dtv.gov.