I’m getting to this a day late but it should be noted that Iranian weblogger Arash Sigarchi yesterday received a 14-year prison sentence. A “revolutionary tribunal�? in Gilan, northern Iran found him guilty of espionage and insulting the country’s leaders.

He joins another blogger, Mojtaba Saminejad, who was already serving a prison sentence on similarly trumped-up charges. The Iranian government has so far replied to calls for the bloggers’ freedom with a raised middle finger.

Source: News.com

Just in time for the Oscars, Google, the leading search engine introduced a new “movie:” operator that enables you to find movie-related information. Whether you’re looking for titles, actors, director, genre, famous lines or obscure plot details Google can find it for you. Can’t remember the name of that film where Tom Hanks made friends with a volleyball? Search for [movie: Tom Hanks talking to a volleyball] and Google will tell you: it was Cast Away. Want rental recommendations? Try searching for [movie: awesome car chase] or [movie: good chick flick] or even [One ring to rule them all].

In the search results you’ll get reviews from around the net, movie ratings, articles and even local movie listings.

Looking for a multiplex near you? Use “movie:” followed by a U.S. zip code or city/state to find theaters and showtimes in your area (a search for [movie: Mountain View, CA], for example, will show you what’s playing near the Googleplex). You can also just search on “movies,” “showtimes” or the title of a current film, and your top result will be movie-related info for your area (if you haven’t already saved your location using Google Local, just fill in your U.S. zip code or city/state and click the “Get Showtimes” button). And for those on the go, movie showtimes are also available on Google SMS (send a text message to 46645 — aka. GOOGL on most phones — to look up showtimes for nearby theaters).

Microsoft Research has pioneered promising new ways to combat one of humankind’s most deadly viruses with advanced software typically used to analyze large computer databases and complex digital images, or to separate spam from legitimate e-mail.

Today at the 12th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), Microsoft Research will show how medical researchers can use machine-learning, data-mining and other software techniques to comb through millions of strains of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to find the genetic patterns necessary to train a patient’s immune system to fight the virus. The first of these vaccine designs are currently undergoing laboratory testing.

Microsoft Corp. researchers David Heckerman and Nebojsa Jojic are the first to use algorithms similar to those in Microsoft Corp.’s database and anti-spam software to uncover hidden patterns within the genetic mutations of the virus and the immune system of the patient. The researchers, in collaboration with doctors and scientists from the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle and Australia’s Royal Perth Hospital, plan to exploit these patterns to create improved vaccine designs that pack more HIV-fighting genetic markers into vaccines. Microsoft researchers Christopher Meek and Carl Kadie and Jojic’s brother (and former Microsoft Research intern), Vladimir, also contributed to the project.

Apple Computer Inc . on Wednesday introduced new versions of its hugely popular digital music player, including an ‘iPod mini’ with a color screen, featuring improved battery power, with some at lower prices.

Apple unveiled an “iPod mini” with 4 gigabytes of memory at around $200, as well as an “iPod photo” model with 60 gigabytes for about $450.

Source: Reuters

A Georgia woman has sued Hewlett-Packard Co. claiming the ink cartridges for their printers are secretly programed to expire on a certain date, in some cases rendering them useless before they are even installed in a printer.

The suit filed in Santa Clara Superior Court in northern California last Thursday seeks to represent anyone in the United States who purchased an HP inkjet printer since Feb. 2001. HP is the world’s No. 1 computer printer maker.

An HP spokesman said the company does not comment on pending litigation.

HP ink cartridges use a chip technology to sense when they are low on ink and advise the user to make a change. But the suit claims those chips also shut down the cartridges at a predetermined date regardless of whether they are empty.

“The smart chip is dually engineered to prematurely register ink depletion and to render a cartridge unusable through the use of a built-in expiration date that is not revealed to the consumer,” the suit said.

The suit, which seeks class-action status, asks for restitution, damages and other compensation.

Source: Reuters

Update — 3/2/05: Microsoft Clear Up Windows Activations Misconceptions

On February 28, Microsoft® will disable Internet activation for all Microsoft Windows® XP product keys located on the Certificates of Authenticity (COA) labels distributed by large, multinational OEMs.

Direct OEMs of Microsoft (large multinational OEMs that that have a direct signed license agreement with Microsoft) usually preinstall Windows software using System Lock Preinstall (SLP), which is a direct OEM’s method of legitimately bypassing Product Activation on behalf of their customers.

One form of piracy occurs when Product Keys are stolen from Certificates of Authenticity (COAs) that have been placed on direct OEM machines where the Windows software was preinstalled using SLP. Pirates take the Product Key from these COAs and sell them to resellers or customers who then use them to activate a hard disk loaded copy of Windows.

To reduce the illegal trafficking of these OEM product keys Microsoft will “disable�? the ability to activate these direct OEM Product Keys over the Internet. When a customer or reseller tries to activate using a Product Key found on the list of “disabled�? Keys, the online product activation wizard will instruct them to call Microsoft where a customer service representative can assist them further. Call center operators receiving these calls will only issue an override key to customers who correctly answer a series of questions which manually verify them as legitimate.

The first phase of this Product Activation policy update will affect product keys from the top 20 Direct OEMs only. This policy will go into effect on February 28th with additional updates throughout the year to extend this policy to all OEMs authorized to use SLP. This change will affect all Windows XP product keys already shipped from the top 20 OEMs in the market today as well as shipments going forward.

Microsoft is to compensate Dutch web company Ilse Media because its AntiSpyware software blocked one of Ilse’s portals, Startpagina (”Startpage”).

Not too long ago Microsoft released a beta version of its anti spy software, which offers the choice of signing up for real-time protection. Windows AntiSpyware can monitor the PC and warns when unwanted software is installed.

Apparently, it also blocked Startpagina, one of the most popular directory pages in the Netherlands. Internet users that wanted to select Startpagina as their home page, were forced to use MSN.com instead.

Ilse wasn’t amused: the company is a fierce competitor of MSN on the Dutch market. Although only a dozen internet users must have used Microsoft’s software, Ilse threatened Microsoft with legal action. Microsoft told Dutch news site Planet Multimedia today it will pay Ilse €10.000 to compensate for legal costs, despite the fact that the bug has already been fixed in the new version of Windows AntiSpyware, which was released last week.

The incident may spark off a whole parade of court cases by web companies or even spyware merchants who believe that they are illegitimately expelled by Microsoft’s anti spyware software.

Source: The Register

Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) contains major security improvements to provide better protection against hackers, viruses and worms. Up untill now Microsoft have provided the ability to temporarily block the delivery of SP2 via Automatic Update and Windows Update and this ability will expire on April 12, 2005.

Beginning 12.01AM, April 12, 2005, this temporary blocking mechanism will expire and systems with Automatic Update enabled or interactively download SP2 via Windows Update will begin receiving SP2. Note that this is also the scheduled day for the monthly cumulative release of security updates

Sony is bringing an end to its Clie line of PDAs in Japan, the company says this week. The move comes eight months after the company said it would no longer sell new models of PDAs overseas and puts the cap on a product line first announced by the Tokyo company in mid-2000.

The company won’t be launching any new Clie PDAs in Japan although it will continue to offer service and support for its users, says Aki Shimazu, a spokesperson for Sony in Tokyo.

Sony is considering further products built in collaboration with other group companies including telecommunication-orientated products with Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications and computer gaming-orientated devices with Sony Computer Entertainment and its recently launched PSP PlayStation she says. However, at present no such firm plans for products have been decided.

Source: AP

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 21, 2005 - Intel Corporation today announced the availability of five new processors for desktop computers that deliver entertainment and IT benefits for consumers and businesses. When coupled with the widely adopted Intel® 925/915 Express chipset family, the processors can help enable improved performance and more rapid response times for computing platforms.

Intel is now shipping the Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor Extreme Edition 3.73 GHz supporting Hyper-Threading (HT) Technology and four new processors in the Intel Pentium 4 Processor 6xx sequence supporting HT Technology. These new processors represent the latest in Intel’s family of high-performance desktop processors.

All five of the new processors support 64-bit memory addressability through Intel® Extended Memory 64 Technology (Intel® EM64T). Intel plans to ship EM64T on versions of every newly introduced Intel desktop processor including the company’s Intel® Celeron® D processor lines later this year.

A U.S teenager has become the first person to be arrested on suspicion of sending unsolicited instant messages–or spim.

Anthony Greco, 18, was lured from New York to Los Angeles under the pretence of a business meeting. He was arrested upon arrival at Los Angeles International Airport last Wednesday.

Greco allegedly sent 1.5 million messages advertising pornography and mortgages. According to reports, the recipients of the messages were all members of the MySpace.com online networking service.

In a further twist upon the scam, Greco had allegedly threatened to share his methods for spamming members of the group if MySpace.com didn’t sign an exclusive marketing deal that would have legitimized the messages he was sending via the service.

Greco believed he was flying to Los Angeles to cement that agreement with MySpace President Tom Anderson.

MySpace.com launched IM for its members in December 2003. Reports claim Greco began spamming members using the service in autumn 2004.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Hoffstadt confirmed the arrest was the first criminal case brought against an individual sending spam over IM. But he warned there may well be more to come.

Source: News.com

Verizon today announced a long-term agreement with TVN Entertainment for video-on-demand programming and services. Video on demand (VOD) will be a key feature of Verizon FiOS TV service when it launches later this year.

TVN will provide Verizon with a wide range of VOD programming including new studio releases, a library of previous releases, independent movies, family and kids programming, and a broad array of free on-demand and specialty VOD networks.

Verizon FiOS TV will offer customers a competitive alternative to cable or satellite. In addition to video on demand, FiOS TV will deliver hundreds of digital channels, high-definition programming, an interactive programming guide and other customer-friendly features via the company’s fiber-to-the- premises broadband network, now under construction in parts of 12 states.

Customers will be able to buy FiOS TV as a stand-alone service or packaged with voice and FiOS high-speed data services, which are already available in some areas.