Are you using the latest web browser?

Slashdot It! In view of mass defacements of hundreds of thousand of web pages - with the intent to misuse them to launch drive-by download attacks - security researchers from ETH Zurich, Google, and IBM Internet Security Systems were interested in looking at the other side of the attack: the web browser. By analyzing the web browser versions seen in visits to Google websites, they have shown that more than 600 million Internet users don't use the latest version of their browser. Slow migration to latest browser version The researchers' paper, entitled "Understanding the Web Browser Threat", shows that as of June 2008, only 59.1% percent of Internet users worldwide use the latest major version of their preferred web browser. Firefox users are the most attentive: 92.2% of them surfed with Firefox 2, the latest major version before the recently released 3.0. Only 52.5% of Microsoft Internet Explorer users have updated to version 7, which is the most secure according to multiple publicly-cited Microsoft experts (among them Sandi Hardmeier). The study revealed that 637 million Internet users worldwide who use web browsers are either not running the latest version of their preferred browser or have not installed the latest patches. These users are vulnerable to exploitation due to their web browser's "built-in" vulnerabilities and the lack of more recent security mechanisms such as improved phishing protection. Neglected security patches Over the past 18 months, the study also shows, a maximum of 83.3% of Firefox users were using the latest major version of the web browser and also had all current patches installed (i.e. latest minor version). Only 56.1% and 47.6% of Opera and Internet Explorer users, respectively, were similarly utilizing fully-patched web browsers. Apple users are no better: since the public release of Safari 3, only 65.3% of users operate the latest Safari version.

Maximum measured share of users surfing the web with the most secure versions of Firefox, Safari, Opera and Internet Explorer in June 2008 as seen on Google websites.

Obsolete browser warning The study's most important finding is that technical measures now in place do not sufficiently guarantee browser security, and that users' security awareness must be further developed. The problem is that most users are unaware that they are not using their browser's latest version. It must be made clear to web browser users that outdated software is associated with significantly higher risk. The researchers therefore suggest that, as a critical component of web software, a visible warning be instituted that warns the user of missing security patches in a way analogous to the 'best before' date in the perishable food industry. Software updates must also be made easier to find. The resulting transparency would go far in contributing to end user awareness of software weaknesses, and allow users to better evaluate risks.

Example "best before" implementation on a Web browser

As a side effect, having users migrate faster to the latest browser version would not only increase security but also make the lives of webmasters easier, as they would need to test and optimize websites for fewer older versions of web browsers. Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare

Victor's Earphone Makes Sound Deeper in Ear

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Google reveals scope of Web-crawling task

Slashdot It! It's a pity the National Security Agency can't talk about its computational challenges, because it's leaving a lot of the boasting rights to Google. In a blog posting on Friday the company shared some detail about the challenges of one aspect of its search operation, the Web indexing and processing that must take place before the results are delivered to users. The short version: Google has no choice but to think big. First comes surfing. "We start at a set of well-connected initial pages and follow each of their links to new pages. Then we follow the links on those new pages to even more pages and so on, until we have a huge list of links," said software engineers Jesse Alpert and Nissan Hajaj. "Even after removing...exact duplicates, we saw a trillion unique URLs, and the number of individual web pages out there is growing by several billion pages per day." Next comes analyzing the "link graph"--the mathematical representation of what links to what. That's a key foundation of Google's PageRank algorithm, which brought the company's search engine to prominence by assigning importance to those pages that other important pages point toward. In the early days of Google, computing PageRank for the company's collection of a mere 26 million pages took a workstation "a couple hours," and the results would be used for some unspecified period of time. Today, Google surfs the Web continuously and recalculates the link graph "several times per day." "This graph of one trillion URLs is similar to a map made up of one trillion intersections. So multiple times every day, we do the computational equivalent of fully exploring every intersection of every road in the United States. Except it'd be a map about 50,000 times as big as the U.S., with 50,000 times as many roads and intersections," the engineers said. Google likes to talk about how users have choice and competition just one click away, and that's a fair point. But the blog post also makes it even clearer just how high barriers to entry are in the search market. That's one of the reasons Yahoo's BOSS (build your own search service) program is intriguing: it lets search start-ups take advantage of Yahoo's crawling, indexing, and search technology in exchange for advertising or revenue-sharing partnerships. In a blog posting on Friday the company shared some detail about the challenges of one aspect of its search operation, the Web indexing and processing that must take place before the results are delivered to users. The short version: Google has no choice but to think big. First comes surfing. "We start at a set of well-connected initial pages and follow each of their links to new pages. Then we follow the links on those new pages to even more pages and so on, until we have a huge list of links," said software engineers Jesse Alpert and Nissan Hajaj. "Even after removing...exact duplicates, we saw a trillion unique URLs, and the number of individual web pages out there is growing by several billion pages per day." Next comes analyzing the "link graph"--the mathematical representation of what links to what. That's a key foundation of Google's PageRank algorithm, which brought the company's search engine to prominence by assigning importance to those pages that other important pages point toward. In the early days of Google, computing PageRank for the company's collection of a mere 26 million pages took a workstation "a couple hours," and the results would be used for some unspecified period of time. Today, Google surfs the Web continuously and recalculates the link graph "several times per day." "This graph of one trillion URLs is similar to a map made up of one trillion intersections. So multiple times every day, we do the computational equivalent of fully exploring every intersection of every road in the United States. Except it'd be a map about 50,000 times as big as the U.S., with 50,000 times as many roads and intersections," the engineers said. Google likes to talk about how users have choice and competition just one click away, and that's a fair point. But the blog post also makes it even clearer just how high barriers to entry are in the search market. That's one of the reasons Yahoo's BOSS (build your own search service) program is intriguing: it lets search start-ups take advantage of Yahoo's crawling, indexing, and search technology in exchange for advertising or revenue-sharing partnerships. Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare

Microsoft to build on auto unit

Slashdot It! Detroit may be struggling to sell cars, but Microsoft Corp. sees nothing but room to grow in its push to wire them. The Redmond, Wash.-based software company today will announce a massive new investment in its automotive business unit and tapped a Detroit native to lead the charge. "We're doubling down. We're going to increase the headcount and operating expenses by 30 percent this year," said Tom Phillips, a 16-year veteran of Microsoft who will replace Martin Thall as the head of the company's automotive division. "We know that things are tough for the auto industry, but it's the perfect time to make this investment. There are new customers coming into the market, and they are looking for new experiences." Microsoft works closely with a number of car companies to bring computer connectivity and infotainment to the automobile. The most visible fruit of those efforts is Sync, the product of Microsoft's collaboration with Ford Motor Co. that debuted last year and has already given the Dearborn automaker a much-needed boost with younger car buyers. It allows motorists to control their cell phones, music players and navigation systems with voice commands. Phillips, who is currently the chief technical officer of Microsoft's specialized devices and services group -- a post he will continue to hold in addition to running the automotive operations -- told The Detroit News that Sync is just the beginning. "There are a lot of technologies that are two to three years out that are going to provide even more connectivity and innovation," he said. "There's such a disconnect between what people experience in their cars and what they experience in the rest of their lives. It hasn't really evolved that much." Microsoft announced one today, saying it is now making its "Live Search" technology available to automakers. Using it, they will be able to develop in-car systems that allow drivers to search for nearby businesses. Despite a deepening downturn in the United States, Phillips said the auto market is too big for Microsoft to ignore. The company already dominates desktop computing. He said the 820 million cars in the world are the next great frontier to conquer. "Even if you get a 10 percent or 20 percent market share, you've got an enormous scale," he said. Ford welcomed Microsoft's new investment in automotive research and development. "Ford and Microsoft working together to deliver Sync has been a great experience and demonstrates what can happen when the power of two iconic brands comes together," said Jim Buczkowski, director of electrical and electronics systems engineering at Ford. "Ford Sync has proven to be a tremendous differentiator for us in the marketplace and working with Microsoft has been the key element in setting the industry benchmark for connectivity." Ford recently passed the 200,000-unit sales milestone and is on track to deliver one million Sync-equipped vehicles by the end of next year. More importantly, Sync has dramatically increased Ford's appeal to younger drivers, according to company survey data. And it has helped Ford increase the average transaction price of its entry-level Ford Focus sedan by $1,000 over the past year. "Clearly, the customers are recognizing the value and they are willing to pay for it," said Ford Americas President Mark Fields. Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare

Report: Toshiba, Matsushita will jointly make small EL displays

Slashdot It! Toshiba and Matsushita Electric Industrial will jointly manufacture small electroluminescent displays in an effort match the output from Korea-based makers, according to a Japanese report. The two companies will set up manufacturing lines in Ishikawa Prefecture in the fall of 2009, aiming to produce 1 million "high-quality" 2.5-inch organic EL displays, according to a report in Monday's Nihon Keizai Shimbun. This is a first for domestic Japanese production of EL displays on this scale, the report said. The displays are targeted at cell phones and other small devices. EL displays are based on organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology that uses electroluminescent organic materials. The display panels are extremely thin because they don't need backlights. The electroluminescent layer contains a polymer substance that directly converts electricity to light. The companies are chasing Samsung, which has already begun mass production. The goal is to bring costs down and stabilize quality. This then can be applied to the manufacture of larger-size TV panels. In December, Toshiba said it would postpone production of larger (up to 30-inch) organic EL displays and would focus initially on mass production of smaller displays. Toshiba has a 60 percent stake in the venture Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology, while Matsushita holds 40 percent. The operation is capitalized at 15 billion yen ($140 million). Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare

Online Bingo

Dear casino users, it is time to read this review of this casino website and be an expert in casino gambling and mix with all the small and inexperienced players in the new casino websites. Online Bingo The website that I am going to introduce to you is called Online Bingo Sites. It is a very good website which I had visited before. Trust me, it would be your favorite casino website after you had visited it. What they do? What they do is basically very simple, it is a website that reviews the rest of the casino sites that are available online. It is like a website that does the dirty job of finding the pros and cons of the casino website before you try it out. Not bad. They even separate the different casino websites into different parts, like poker, BlackJack, Baccarat, Roulette, Craps Keno Bingo Sweepstakes and many more. News They even post news of the current casino industry and of their website on their website for free. This is to ensure that you are kept updated with no charge at all Reviews They did certain reviews of casino websites like Golden Casino. This is what they say about them Golden Casino is the leading online casino accepting USA Players. As a first time depositor you will receive a generous $555 in free bonus money. The new slots powered by Vegas Technology Software are a major improvement over the 2D games of the past. The player support at Golden Casino is run by a professional team with more than 7 years in the online casinos industry. They have branded themselves in Internet gaming. The games are realistic and the service is first class. Play the video slots for the action. The main page is just a short summary of the review while they had also linked to the location of the full review.

Bathroom Fixes

Are you looking for some bathroom fixes now? Then you better read this review as I am going to reveal this website that is selling the things that you are looking for at a cheaper price and a better quality then the rest. bathroom fixtures The website I am going to review today is called faucet.com. They are selling things like Kitchen and bathroom fauce. Free Shipping They also have a free shipping offer where they offer free shipping for people whom spend more than 99 dollars on their purchase. Check them out

Lingerie Diva

Are you looking for lingerie now? Then you better read this review as I am going to feature this website that you would not want to miss. It is also mother's day and you might want to buy some lingerie for your mother. But before I continue, please, if you are turned off, please leave and stop reading. If not read on. corset The website I am going to review today is called lingerievia.com. They offer cheap yet good lingeries for you. I think you have to check them out yourself. Check them out

Acne Treatment

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Spammers Choose GMail

Slashdot It! A study by Roaring Penguin has discovered that during the past three weeks, the amount of spam originating from Gmail has risen sharply while spam originating from Yahoo and Hotmail remained flat or dipped slightly. Experts say this huge rise in spam is thanks to the cracking of Google’s CAPTCHA system. Spammers came up with an OCR scanner that was smart enough to read it and as a result were able to create large numbers of accounts to spam with. From June 13th through July 3rd, spam from Google rose from 6.8 percent to 27 percent. Aside from the successful CAPTCHA cracking, spammers also find Google attractive because of their strong reputation, which makes it highly unlikely the gmail.com domain would ever be blacklisted. Google’s response to the study was rather weak: We expect spammers to use every means possible to try to send spam. That’s why we have a robust spam-fighting effort at Google. We disable these accounts immediately and will continue to do so. Simply changing their CAPTCHA won’t be enough. Google needs to take a hard look at it’s sign up process and outgoing mail and come up with better filtering and verification features. Until then, the spammers will have the advantage. Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare

Hack a million systems - earn a job

Slashdot It! It has been a number of years since the fantasy that hackers will be offered a job by those who they hacked was even a potential reality, but there are reports that this might still be the case in New Zealand. An 18-year old hacker, it is claimed, was responsible for writing a number of applications used by an online group called 'A-Team' that not only allowed the creation of a million-plus machine botnet, but also allowed for a range of carding - credit card fraud - activities to take place. The hacker has since walked free from court, without conviction, despite admitting to his role and his authoring of the software that is certain to have led to real losses (estimated by the FBI at more than US$20 million) for not only the owners of the machines infected in the botnet but also those who had their credit card details stolen, and those who were targeted by machines in the botnet. The only cost to the hacker was a fine of around US$11,000. People who have been involved in both sides of Information Security research and activities might cringe at the news that the New Zealand police were interested in talking to the hacker about working for them, and that 'several computer programming companies' were also chasing him for his skills. Even if an individual has a proven unique ability, does their prior history mean that they are suitable for employment or can be trusted not to do anything that is inappropriate with access to sensitive law enforcement or business systems? Antivirus companies have been vocal in the past in denying that they employ any virus writers and similar claims have been made by many Information Security companies, though there are plenty of people who may have been Grey hats in a prior life who are now happily employed within the Information Security sector. Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare

The BSA singles out eight states in software piracy report, suggests public safety link

Slashdot It! The software industry's main lobbying group, the Business Software Alliance, would like you to know that piracy is a big problem. The BSA has just released its 2007 State Piracy Study, which found that one in five pieces of software in use in the United States was unlicensed. That's 20 percent! California, Illinois, Nevada and Ohio all had piracy rates over the national average -- except the study was only conducted in eight states, so we aren't sure if Nebraska is a hotbed of software piracy or not. The BSA notes that the piracy cost software vendors $4.2 billion -- "higher than the national figure for all other countries in the world except China." (Emphasis theirs) The BSA also says that the lost state and local tax revenue from piracy would have been enough to "hire nearly 25,000 experienced police officers." Who knew that if I had just paid for that copy of Microsoft Office in college, that there would be more cops walking the beat? "The United States may have the lowest PC software piracy rate in the world, but still..." This is an outrage! I, for one, think we should stop prosecuting all drug activity and focus on the scourge of society that is pirated software. Seriously. Piracy is bad, but I think it's a bit disingenuous to claim that "oh, if only people paid for their software, then little Timmy would have a new middle school to go to." The BSA finishes its press release by informing consumers of its "Know it, Report it, Reward it" program, which offers cash rewards for turning in pirates. Call 1-888-NO-PIRACY to report any software piracy at your employer. "The majority of BSA's leads come from current or former employees who have information relating to the unlicensed software activity." It's just like on the subway: "If you see something, say something" -- only this isn't terrorism, it's software piracy -- but Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare

Phone Giants Fight to Keep Subscribers

Slashdot It! With millions of people snapping up the iPhone, AT&T, the exclusive carrier for the popular phone, should be quite pleased with the stream of revenue it can expect from customers. But AT&T, the biggest telecommunications company in the United States, has a problem: analysts say consumers are dropping traditional landlines faster than expected. The company, which still gets 32 percent of its revenue from its landline business, reports its second-quarter financial results Wednesday and is expected to talk about how its traditional phone service is contracting. AT&T is not the only company facing a changing environment in the communications business. All of the major telecommunications companies — AT&T, Verizon and Sprint Nextel — are figuring out how to make more money from customers as they spend more time sending text messages or browsing the Web on their wireless phones, rather than talking. At the same time, as the American cellphone market gets saturated — nearly 85 percent of American consumers already own a mobile phone — phone companies are finding that growth is slowing. With more options, mobile phone buyers are also becoming more selective about the calling plans and the type of phones they want, making the market even more competitive. “In short order, sentiment in the telecom sector has gone from bullish to guarded to ... well, slightly queasy,” Craig Moffett, a research analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company who follows communications companies, wrote in a recent report. Wireless phones are, by far, more common than landlines. According to CTIA, the wireless industry’s trade group based in Washington, there are 262 million wireless subscribers in the United States. In contrast, the Federal Communications Commission counts 163 million business and residential landlines as of June 2007, its latest report. Analysts say that AT&T will report a decline in the number of its traditional landline subscribers. A spokesman for AT&T said executives could not comment ahead of earnings. Currently the company has 60.4 million traditional landlines — in contrast to 68.7 million subscribers in the second quarter of 2006 — and 71.4 million wireless subscribers. AT&T has been losing landline subscribers each quarter at an accelerated rate since 2006. It dropped 7.4 percent in 2007. Analysts think that the economic downturn could also have an impact on the landline business. They say consumers looking to cut expenses will drop their landline — which can cost up to $60 a month — before they drop their wireless phone plan. “I think AT&T is pedaling as fast as it can to transform themselves from a wire line to a wireless company,” Mr. Moffett said. “To a degree it is working.” The question, though, he said, is “is it fast enough?” Analysts also expect it will report slower growth in its wireless business as well. Verizon, which reports its second-quarter results on Monday, also is seeing slower growth. On Tuesday, Verizon Wireless said it added 1.5 million subscribers in the second quarter of 2008, the same number it added in its first quarter. Both numbers are down, though, from the fourth quarter in 2007, which was two million new subscribers. Verizon Wireless, which is a partnership between Verizon and Vodafone, has 68.7 million subscribers. “It’s still very strong,” said Roger Entner, a senior vice president for Nielsen IAG, a market research firm. But compared with earlier figures, he said, it “is indicative of a slowdown.” Verizon, too, is not immune from customer losses in its landline business. According to the report by Mr. Moffett, Verizon is vulnerable in the East Coast where it has a high percentage of customers. Despite the loss of customers, companies will still need to spend to upgrade their networks. (Verizon currently has 40.5 million traditional landlines.) A spokesman for Verizon said executives were not available to speak until its financial results were announced. Mr. Entner said AT&T and Verizon would have to sell customers more services to make up for the decline in traditional landline revenue. It is why they, particularly Verizon, are aggressively competing with cable companies to sell Internet and television services, bundled with traditional and wireless phone service. “If you own a home business, they are going to want to sell you not only a line for your home, but one for your office too,” Mr. Entner said. “They are going to want to sell you more, more of everything.” Keeping customers, along with acquiring new ones, is of paramount importance. Sprint, the No. 3 wireless carrier in the United States, has sought to stem the tide of customer defections of its wireless service. In the first quarter of 2008, 1.1 million of Sprint Nextel’s 53.9 million customers fled, and churn — a measure of turnover and therefore how unhappy customers are — was on the rise. It announces its financial results on Aug. 6. “The big carriers have fed on Sprint Nextel,” Mr. Entner said. “But there comes a time when all the people who want to leave have already left.” A bright spot, at least in the case of AT&T, is the debut of the latest iPhone. With a subsidized price of $199, it is sure to attract new customers, said Walter Piecyk, an analyst with Pali Research. “Economically, it turns out great for them,” he said, because new customers are required to sign a two-year contract to get the subsidized price. Carriers are seeking to address declining revenue in the landline business several ways besides focusing on the wireless business and bundling calling plans with Internet and television service. It would not be inconceivable, said one telecommunications executive who declined to be named because he was not authorized to discuss his company’s plans, that in the next 10 years, carriers could entice their least profitable landline customers to give up their old-fashioned phones for free or deeply discounted wireless service. Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare

SanDisk: Windows Vista not optimized for solid-state drives

Slashdot It! SanDisk said Monday that Windows Vista is not optimized for solid-state drives, delaying the delivery of optimized drives until next year. Solid-state drives (SSDs) are used instead of hard disk drives in select high-end notebook PCs today such as the Apple MacBook Air and Toshiba Portege R500. The next generation of SSDs will use multilevel cell (MLC) technology, which will require a more sophisticated controller--a crucial component in solid-state drives. These drives will have capacities ranging up to 128GB, 160GB, and later, 256GB. MLC drives are expected to appear in a wider selection of notebooks later this year. Speaking during SanDisk's second-quarter earnings conference call, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Eli Harari said that Windows Vista will present a special challenge for solid-state drive makers. "As soon as you get into Vista applications in notebook and desktop, you start running into very demanding applications because Vista is not optimized for flash memory solid-state disk," he said. This is due to Vista's design. "The next generation controllers need to basically compensate for Vista shortfalls," he said. "Unfortunately, (SSDs) performance in the Vista environment falls short of what the market really needs and that is why we need to develop the next generation, which we'll start sampling end of this year, early next year," Harari said. Harari said this challenge alone is putting SanDisk behind schedule. "We have very good internal controller technology, as you know...That said, I'd say that we are now behind because we did not fully understand, frankly, the limitations in the Vista environment," he added. In the very low-end of the market, however, this is not an issue. "In very low-end, ultra low-cost PCs, existing controllers can get the job done for 8-, 16-, and 32-gigabyte storage because these are relatively unsophisticated...requirements," he said. SanDisk has a production joint venture with Toshiba, which also makes solid- state drives. Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare

New worm transcodes MP3s to try to infect PCs

Slashdot It! A new kind of malicious software could pose a danger to Windows users who download music files on peer-to-peer networks. The new malware inserts links to dangerous Web pages within ASF (Advanced Systems Format) media files. [ Learn how to secure your systems with Roger Grimes' Security Adviser blog and newsletter, both from InfoWorld. ] "The possibility of this has been known for a little while, but this is the first time we've seen it done," said David Emm, senior technology consultant for security vendor Kaspersky Lab. Advanced Systems Format is a Microsoft-defined container format for audio and video streams that can also hold arbitrary content such as images or links to Web resources. If a user plays an infected music file, it will launch Internet Explorer and load a malicious Web page that asks the user to download a codec, a well-known trick to get someone to download malware. The actual download is not a codec but a Trojan horse, which installs a proxy program on the PC, Emm said. The proxy program allows hackers to route other traffic through the compromised PC, helping the hacker essentially cover their tracks for other malicious activity, Emm said. The malware has wormlike qualities. Once on a PC, it looks for MP3 or MP2 audio files, transcodes them to Microsoft's Windows Media Audio format, wraps them in an ASF container, and adds links to further copies of the malware, in the guise of a codec, according to another security analyst, Secure Computing. The ".mp3" extension of the files is not modified, however, so victims may not immediately notice the change, according to Kaspersky Lab. Most savvy PC users are aware of the codec ruse, but the style of attack is still effective since many media players do need to receive updated codecs occasionally in order to play files. "Users downloading from P2P networks need to exercise caution anyway, but should also be sensitive to pop-ups appearing upon playing a downloaded video or audio stream," Secure Computing said. Users on a digital audio enthusiast site differed over the danger level of the malware. "I never allow programs to choose which codecs I use to play back media," wrote JXL on the Hydrogen Audio forum. "I research it and get the codec bundles off of sites I know to be trustworthy and even then I still scan them and check to make sure they are what they are. I honestly don't feel that this malware has a very good chance of spreading fast." But most users will probably think the prompt to download a codec is just routine business, wrote a user by the nickname of Citay on the same forum. "I think that outside a minority of users who really know about all the dangers implied with Internet use, the vast majority of people have no idea that such a codec download could lead to a Trojan infection," Citay wrote. Trend Micro calls the malware "Troj_Medpinch.a," Secure Computing named it "Trojan.ASF.Hijacker.gen," and Kaspersky calls it "Worm.Win32.GetCodec.a." Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare

Japanese boffins develop long-life Flash

Slashdot It! Flash memory chips with a potential lifetime of hundreds of years have been developed by Japanese scientists. The new chips also work at lower voltages than conventional chips, according to the scientists from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and the University of Tokyo. Flash memory chips are widely used in products such as Apple's iPhone, mini notebooks like the Asus Eee PC, video games consoles such as the Nintendo Wii, flash memory cards, digital cameras and Flash-based SSD hard disk drives. Current Flash chips are estimated to have a useful lifetime of around a decade for most applications. However, some applications that require repeated writing and rewriting of data can theoretically cause cells to wear out much faster, sometimes rendering a Flash device useless within a few years. This can happen when a large area of Flash memory is used as a swap file or virtual memory, or to store constantly updated log files. The continuing miniaturisation of conventional Flash memory chips also threatens to reduce their lifetime. This and other factors make conventional high-density Flash cells unworkable at circuit sizes below 20 nanometres, the scientists claim. The new ferroelectric Nand Flash memory cell developed by the Japanese scientists can be scaled down to at least 10 nanometres. The next generation of conventional flash cells will use a 30 nanometre circuit density. The ferroelectric Flash memory cell can be rewritten more than 100 million times, compared to a conventional cells lifetime of around 10,000, its inventors claim. To prolong their life Flash memory chips use a 'wear-levelling' process in which all cells are used equally, and worn out cells are 'retired' without disabling the whole chip. The ferroelectric cells use a rewriting voltage of fewer than six volts, compared to about 20 volts for conventional chips. Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare

More-Efficient OLED Lighting

Slashdot It! Energy efficiency and flexible lighting applications have long been the promise of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). The technology hasn't lived up to its promise, however, because in typical OLEDs, only 20 percent of the light generated is released from the device. That means that most light is trapped inside the bulb, making it highly inefficient. Researchers at the University of Michigan and Princeton University believe that they're on to a way to break the OLED-efficiency logjam. The scientists have designed an OLED that boosts illumination by 60 percent using a combination of an organic grid working in tandem with small micro lenses that guide the trapped light out of the device. Stephen Forrest, a professor of electrical engineering and physics at Michigan, and Yuri Sun, from Princeton University, described the work in the August issue of Nature Photonics. In OLEDs, white light is generated by using electricity to send an electron into nanometer-thick layers of organic materials that behave like semiconductor materials. Typically, the light in the substrate is internally reflected and runs parallel and not perpendicular. That's the crux of the problem because the light can't escape in the vertical direction without some coaxing. In Forrest's devices, the grids refract the trapped light, sending it to the five micrometers dome-shaped micro lenses. The light is sent off in a vertical orientation that helps release the trapped rays. Forrest and his coworkers report that the technology emits about 70 lumens from a watt of power. In comparison, incandescent lightbulbs emit 15 lumens per watt. Fluorescent lights put out roughly 90 lumens of light per watt but have liabilities: they produce harsh light, lack longevity, and use environment-damaging substances like mercury. Forrest says that the next step in the research is to use OLEDs that are more efficient than those the team used in the current project. Looking beyond the research lab work on these OLEDs, he is cautiously optimistic that it should be possible to scale up the manufacturing of the devices, and that production costs for manufacturing the new OLEDs will be competitive. Today, an estimated 22 percent of the electricity produced goes to lighting buildings. A highly efficient form of OLED lighting could significantly reduce the electricity demand and boost savings. Another factor influencing broad adoption of LEDs is the fact that they outlast incandescent bulbs. Over the next 20 years, the rapid adoption of LED lighting in the United States could reduce electricity demands by 62 percent and thus eliminate 258 million metric tons of carbon emissions, according to the Department of Energy. It will take several years to replace current lighting in office buildings and homes with OLEDs. But the continued progress in increasing the efficiencies of the devices is encouraging to researchers. "Luckily, OLEDs are the light that just keeps giving," says Forrest, who has spent much of his professional research career focused on OLEDs. "There is so much to be done and so much that's been done, but this is nonetheless a quite exciting advancement." Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare

Google Blogger "hosts 2% of world's malware"

Slashdot It! Google's Blogger service is responsible for 2% of the world's malware hosted on the web, according to a new report from security firm Sophos. The security firm claims hackers are setting up pages on the free blogging service to host malicious code, or simply posting links to infected websites in other bloggers' comments. "Blogger accounts for around 2% of malware," according to Sophos's senior technology consultant, Graham Cluley. "It's head and shoulders above the rest [of the blogging services]." Cluley says Blogger is worse than other blogging services because of its close ties with the search behemoth. "The attraction for the bad guys in targeting Blogger is that things pretty much get spidered instantly into Google, because it [Blogger] is part of Google," he says. Sophos says it doesn't blame Google for the situation and that the company is proactive in weeding out malicious sites from its search results. It also claims pre-scanning blogs for malicious content simply wouldn't work. "The sheer weight of legitimate traffic makes that unworkable," claims Cluley. "We see 16,000 malicious web pages added every day - that's one every five seconds, and that's just little old Sophos. Google may see more than that." "You could post a link into someone's blog and even if you checked that link at the time, it may be totally harmless. In 20 minutes time the hacker says 'OK, Google's now checked me, now I'll update the page'. So you have to continually scan all of the links on all of the blog pages to do this properly. Which basically is another whole new Google, re-spidering the web to check if there's something malicious there." Google says its users mustn't be evil. "Google takes the security of our users very seriously, and we work hard to protect them from malware," a company statement reads. "Using Blogger, or any Google product, to serve or host malware is a violation of our product policies. We actively work to detect and remove sites that serve malware from our network." Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare

Amazon.com Announces Second Quarter Sales up 41% to $4.06 Billion; Sales Growth Accelerates to 31% in Media and to 58% in Electronics and Other Genera

Slashdot It! Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced financial results for its second quarter ended June 30, 2008. Operating cash flow was $1.09 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $0.89 billion for the trailing twelve months ended June 30, 2007. Free cash flow increased 16% to $0.82 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $0.70 billion for the trailing twelve months ended June 30, 2007. Common shares outstanding plus shares underlying stock-based awards outstanding totaled 446 million on June 30, 2008, compared with 435 million a year ago. Net sales increased 41% to $4.06 billion in the second quarter, compared with $2.89 billion in second quarter 2007. Excluding the $0.18 billion favorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales grew 35% compared with second quarter 2007. Operating income increased 86% to $217 million in the second quarter compared with $116 million in second quarter 2007. Excluding the $17 million favorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, operating income grew 71% compared with second quarter 2007. Included in the second quarter 2008 operating income is a $53 million non-cash gain recognized on the sale of our European DVD rental assets. Net income increased 102% to $158 million in the second quarter, or $0.37 per diluted share, compared with net income of $78 million, or $0.19 per diluted share, in second quarter 2007. "Customers continue to take advantage of our low prices, free shipping and Amazon Prime," said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. "Amazon Prime membership costs less than a tank of gas - more and more customers are joining the program and enjoying its benefits." Highlights -- Worldwide Media sales grew 31% to $2.41 billion in second quarter 2008, compared with $1.83 billion in second quarter 2007. -- Worldwide Electronics & Other General Merchandise sales grew 58% to $1.53 billion in second quarter 2008, compared with $0.97 billion in second quarter 2007, and increased to 38% of worldwide net sales compared with 34%. -- North America segment sales, representing the Company's U.S. and Canadian sites, were $2.17 billion, up 35% from second quarter 2007. -- International segment sales, representing the Company's U.K., German, Japanese, French and Chinese sites, were $1.89 billion, up 47% from second quarter 2007, and increased to 47% of worldwide net sales compared with 45%. Excluding the favorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, International sales grew 34%. -- Amazon.com customers can now take advantage of Bill Me Later, a new alternative payment method. Bill Me Later's next-generation payments service provides customers another convenient payment option when shopping on Amazon.com. -- The Company acquired Fabric.com, a leading online fabric store that offers custom measured and cut fabrics, as well as patterns, sewing tools and accessories. -- Amazon.co.jp launched Convenience Store Pickup Service, which offers customers the option to pick up their orders at any of the 8,500 Lawson stores throughout Japan. -- Over 400,000 developers have registered to use Amazon Web Services (AWS), up more than 30,000 from last quarter. -- AWS released a new family of instance types, the high CPU family. These instances have proportionally more CPU resources than RAM (compared to standard instances) and are well suited for compute-intensive applications such as rendering, search indexing and computational analysis. -- Amazon.com introduced a limited beta version of Amazon Video On Demand. The service lets customers rent or buy ad-free movies and television shows and watch them instantly within their web browser on Macs or PCs and through Sony BRAVIA television sets with the use of the Sony BRAVIA Internet Video Link. -- Kindle selection continued to grow with more than 140,000 titles available. Financial Guidance The following forward-looking statements reflect Amazon.com's expectations as of July 23, 2008. Results may be materially affected by many factors, such as fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, changes in global economic conditions and consumer spending, world events, the rate of growth of the Internet and online commerce and the various factors detailed below. Third Quarter 2008 Guidance -- Net sales are expected to be between $4.200 billion and $4.425 billion, or to grow between 29% and 36% compared with third quarter 2007. -- Operating income is expected to be between $115 million and $160 million, or between 6% decline and 31% growth compared with third quarter 2007. This guidance includes approximately $80 million for stock-based compensation and amortization of intangible assets, and it assumes, among other things, that no additional business acquisitions or investments are concluded and that there are no further revisions to stock-based compensation estimates. Full Year 2008 Expectations -- Net sales are expected to be between $19.35 billion and $20.10 billion, or to grow between 30% and 35% compared with 2007. -- Operating income is expected to be between $745 million and $920 million, or to grow between 14% and 40% compared with 2007. This guidance includes approximately $295 million for stock-based compensation and amortization of intangible assets, and it assumes, among other things, that no additional business acquisitions or investments are concluded and that there are no further revisions to stock-based compensation estimates. A conference call will be webcast live today at 2 p.m. PT/5 p.m. ET, and will be available for at least three months at www.amazon.com/ir. This call will contain forward-looking statements and other material information regarding the Company's financial and operating results. These forward-looking statements are inherently difficult to predict. Actual results could differ materially for a variety of reasons, including, in addition to the factors discussed above, the amount that Amazon.com invests in new business opportunities and the timing of those investments, the mix of products sold to customers, the mix of net sales derived from products as compared with services, the extent to which we owe income taxes, competition, management of growth, potential fluctuations in operating results, international growth and expansion, the outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center optimization, risks of inventory management, seasonality, the degree to which the Company enters into, maintains and develops commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, and risks of fulfillment throughput and productivity. Other risks and uncertainties include, among others, risks related to new products, services and technologies, system interruptions, significant indebtedness, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007, and subsequent filings. Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare

Blizzard Wins Key Judgments Against WoW Bot Maker MDY on Copyright and Tortious Interference Claims

Slashdot It! Blizzard has won its summary judgment motion against World of Warcraft bot maker MDY on copyright grounds. Blizzard also prevailed on its tortious interference claim. This means that liability for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement and tortious interference is completely off the table and will not go to the jury at trial in September, assuming that the parties do not settle before then. The only issue before the jury on these two claims will be damages. This is a major setback for MDY, which originally brought this action seeking a declaratory judgment that its WowGlider (now MMOGlider) bot software did not infringe Blizzard’s copyright. For the background of this suit, see Virtually Blind’s complete coverage of MDY v. Blizzard. Here is today’s Order re: Blizzard’s and MDY’s Summary Judgment Motions (.pdf). The Court ultimately held that: Blizzard owns a valid copyright in the game client software, Blizzard has granted a limited license for WoW players to use the software, use of the software with Glider falls outside the scope of the license established in section 4 of the TOU, use of Glider includes copying to RAM within the meaning of section 106 of the Copyright Act, users of WoW and Glider are not entitled to a section 117 defense, and Glider users therefore infringe Blizzard’s copyright. MDY does not dispute that the other requirements for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement are met, nor has MDY established a misuse defense. The Court accordingly will grant summary judgment in favor of Blizzard with respect to liability on the contributory and vicarious copyright infringement claims in Counts II and III. Blizzard had argued that: In this Circuit, the “copying” element may be proved in software cases by showing an unauthorized reproduction of a copyrighted software program in the computer user’s Random Access Memory (“RAM”). The Ninth Circuit has recognized that “the loading of software into the RAM creates a copy under the Copyright Act.” MAI Sys. v. Peak Computer, Inc., 991 F.2d 511, 519 (9th Cir. 1993), cert. dismissed 510 U.S. 1033 (1994); Triad Sys. Corp. v. Se. Express Co., 64 F.3d 1330, 1334 (9th Cir. 1995); see also Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. v. Cablevision Sys. Corp., 478 F. Supp. 2d 607, 621 (S.D.N.Y. 2007) (agreeing with the “numerous courts [that] have held that the transmission of information through a computer’s random access memory or RAM . . . creates a ‘copy’ for purposes of the Copyright Act,” and citing cases.) When such a copy is made in excess of a license, the copier is liable for copyright infringement. Ticketmaster LLC v. RMG Techs., Inc., 507 F. Supp. 2d 1096, 1107 (C.D. Cal. 2007) (‘“When a licensee exceeds the scope of the license granted by the copyright holder, the licensee is liable for infringement.”’ (citation omitted)). MDY argued that loading a copy of the software into RAM is protected by Section 117, and was joined in that argument by Public Knowledge, a digital rights advocacy group. The court rejected these arguments, noting that “the Court is not free to disregard Ninth Circuit precedent directly on point.” From the Order: MDY urges the Court to follow the approach recently taken by the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington in Vernor, 2008 WL 2199682. The Vernor court declined to follow MAI, Triad, and Wall Data, and instead applied an earlier Ninth Circuit case, United States v. Wise, 550 F.2d 1180 (9th Cir. 1977). Wise involved the application of the “first sale” doctrine under 17 U.S.C. § 109 to various transfer contracts between movie studios and recipients of movie prints. Vernor concluded that the critical factor in Wise for determining whether a transaction was a sale or a license was “whether the transferee kept the copy acquired from the copyright holder.” 2008 WL2199682, at *6. MDY urges the Court to follow Vernor and Wise and hold that the users of the WoW game client software are owners of the software because they are entitled to keep the copy of the software they acquire from Blizzard. The Court declines this invitation. Whatever freedom the court in Vernor may have had to disregard Wall Data when applying a different statutory provision – section 109 – this Court does not have the same freedom. This case concerns section 117, the very provision addressed by the Ninth Circuit in Wall Data. The Court is not free to disregard Ninth Circuit precedent directly on point. MDY prevailed on some other other pending summary judgment issues and Blizzard prevailed on others, but the key result is that MDY has been found by the court to infringe Blizzard’s copyright through the sale of its WoWGlider (now MMOGlider) bot program, and to have tortiously interfered with Blizzard’s relationships with its customers through those sales. VB will be interested in seeing if MDY appeals. Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare

Buy.com Deal With eBay Angers Sellers

Slashdot It! The golden era of the small seller on eBay, hawking gewgaws and knickknacks from the basement or garage, is coming to a noisy and ignominious end. Consumers appear to be tiring of online auctions, and rivals like Amazon.com are attracting more shoppers with fixed-price listings, while eBay has been struggling for growth. To shift toward that model, eBay has struck a deal with the Web retailer Buy.com that allows the company to sell millions of books, DVDs, electronics and other items on eBay without paying the full complement of eBay fees. The recent change is one of several under eBay’s new chief, John Donahoe, that is stirring rancor among the faithful who depend on the site for their livelihood. The deal with Buy.com has added over five million fixed-price listings to eBay.com since the beginning of the year — for items from Xbox 360 video game consoles to Weber grills. Since eBay’s search listings favor larger sellers who can add perks like free shipping, which improve their feedback ratings, Buy.com’s presence has hurt many smaller sellers that compete in those product categories. EBay is signaling that its future lies with big, reliable sellers, not the mom and pop shops that are objecting so vociferously to the Buy.com deal, said Tim Boyd, an Internet analyst with American Technology Research. “It’s a tragic ending to what was once a warm and fuzzy Silicon Valley story,” he said. EBay says the Buy.com deal will fill gaps in its product offerings while making shopping more predictable. Wall Street will be paying close attention to whether people are indeed buying at eBay.com in greater numbers when eBay reports its second-quarter earnings on Wednesday. This task is made more difficult because while there are more listings, it is not clear that more people are buying. “Frankly, we are challenging some of the core assumptions that we have made about our business,” said Stephanie Tilenius, general manager of eBay North America. “Instead of focusing on being an auction business, we are looking at what it takes to create the best marketplace out there.” Buy.com, based in Aliso Viejo, Calif., was founded in 1997. Within two years it made an initial public offering, only to nearly implode during the dot-com bust. In 2001, Scot Blum, its founder, took the company private. Buy.com carries no inventory, brokering sales through the same distributors that sell products to physical retail stores. Unlike many small sellers who have made eBay a home over the last decade, Buy.com is large enough that it can offer free shipping, readily accept returns and provide a toll-free phone number — just the kind of customer service that eBay executives have hoped to bring to the sometimes unruly Internet bazaar. To accommodate Buy.com, and other large sellers in the future, eBay last month announced a new “Diamond” level for its power sellers. Unlike its other classes of sellers, which pay eBay fees to list each item and share a percentage of each sale, Diamond sellers can negotiate their own fee arrangements with eBay. Details of eBay’s deal with Buy.com are being kept private, though it appears from the sheer number of Buy.com listings flooding the site that Buy.com is not paying listing fees. That has enraged many sellers, who have uncorked a wave of vitriol on eBay’s community forums about this and other changes. Many believe that eBay has violated the sacred tenet of the “level playing field,” which its founder, Pierre Omidyar, established as one of the company’s basic principles. The way that eBay’s relationship with Buy.com emerged into public view did not help matters. Tony Libby, a seller of technology items from Maine, first noticed Buy.com’s products on eBay in a quiet experiment the two companies conducted last December. When eBay began promoting Buy.com’s listings in its search results this spring, Mr. Libby, who says he used to sell more than $250,000 in computer hardware each month, watched his sales drop 50 to 75 percent. Mr. Libby tipped off My Blog Utopia, an eBay-watching site that published an item in April about the relationship with Buy.com before eBay had a chance to announce it itself. “As an independent seller, I felt betrayed,” Mr. Libby said. “I’ve paid eBay many hundreds of thousands in fees over the past several years and believed them when they talked about a level playing field. And they just plain and simple are going back on their word.” “There is fair, and there is outright stabbing you in the back,” he said. Kevin Harmon of Charlotte, N.C., who sold books, CDs and DVDs on eBay, said he stopped selling books altogether when the Buy.com effort began. “The way our fees are structured, we can’t compete with a company with free three-day fixed price listings,” he said. “You can imagine why most sellers are pretty upset about that deal.” Unlike many other sellers, Mr. Harmon takes a measured attitude to the changes at eBay. “We have to fit our business model to theirs. Most sellers think it should be the other way around. They are doing what they think is the best for them and we just have to try to hang onto their tail,” he said. Ms. Tilenius at eBay said the changes were fair because anyone can achieve Diamond power-seller status and have access to the same fee discounts as Buy.com — with a certain volume of monthly sales and high feedback from buyers. “This is open to everyone. It’s a strong incentive for sellers to strive for greatness and grow their eBay business,” she said. EBay resisted this type of arrangement for years, arguing that bringing other large sellers to the site would dilute eBay’s brand and reputation as a dynamic flea market. But buyers’ expectations for online commerce have changed over the years, while eBay’s stock price — it closed Friday at $28.01 — is where it was two years ago, largely because of investors’ worries about the lack of growth in the auction business, analysts said. “People now expect that something you buy online should be nicely wrapped in a box and sitting on your doorstep 48 hours later. The best companies like Amazon do that,” said Mark Mahaney, the director for Internet research at Citigroup. “EBay has to make it clear that it can participate in the fastest part of e-commerce growth.” Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare

ESA study: 40 percent of US gamers are women

Slashdot It! In the midst of E3's chaos last week, the Entertainment Software Association let its annual demographic study slip out, revealing that 2/5 of gamers in the USA are women. The release itself contained information from the ESA's annual study of American households, and it revealed a wide variety of information about just who is actually playing video games these days. The 2008 Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry also revealed that the average age of gamers has gone up to 35, 65 percent of American households play video games, and there are almost twice as many women playing video games as there are teenage boys (including Circe, of WomenGamers, pictured here). The information was collected from 1,200 households that own either a PC used for gaming and/or a game console. For those who are interested, the study is available for download straight from the ESA. Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare

Yahoo’s Revenue Rises a Bit, but Profit Falls 18%

Slashdot It! With the slowing economy taking a toll on the online advertising business, Yahoo said Tuesday that its net income dropped by nearly 19 percent in the second quarter from a year ago as revenue grew at a sluggish 6 percent rate. Analysts said the results would do little to improve Yahoo’s negotiating position with Microsoft, which has tried to buy all or part of the company. “This is not a quarter where they can go back to Microsoft and say they deserve a higher price,” said Youssef H. Squali, an analyst with Jefferies & Company. “And Microsoft can’t come to them and say the business is falling out of bed and we can pick you up for a song.” Jerry Yang, the co-founder and chief executive, said he was pleased with the company’s performance, especially in light of what we described as “extraordinary events,” including Microsoft’s takeover attempts and the proxy fight with the investor Carl C. Icahn, which was settled Monday. “The indicators of Yahoo’s progress are promising,” Mr. Yang said in a conference call with investors. The results fell slightly short of analysts’ lowered expectations. But to the relief of investors, Yahoo left financial forecasts for the remainder of the year largely unchanged despite ongoing economic uncertainty. Yahoo said that net income for the quarter was $131 million, or 9 cents a share, compared to $161 million, or 11 cents a share, a year ago. On average, Wall Street analysts had expected Yahoo to report net income of 11 cents a share. Yahoo said its profit was hit by $22 million in costs associated with the negotiations with Microsoft, the proxy fight and related lawsuits. Revenue was $1.8 billion, compared with $1.7 billion in the same quarter last year. Net revenue, which excludes commissions to advertising partners, was $1.35 billion, up 8 percent, from $1.24 billion a year ago. On average analysts expected net revenue to be $1.37 billion. By comparison, rival Google reported last week that its revenue for the second quarter grew at 39 percent. During the conference call, Yahoo’s president, Susan Decker, highlighted the importance of keeping Yahoo’s search advertising and display advertising business together. Noting that Yahoo’s share of search queries in the United States had inched up in the past two months — after months of declines — she said that she believed Yahoo could succeed in the search business, where it is a distant second to Google. Her remarks appeared aimed at persuading shareholders that the company was right in rejecting recent offers by Microsoft to buy Yahoo’s search business. Despite the truce with Mr. Icahn, who agreed to drop his fight for control of the company in exchange for three seats on an expanded Yahoo board, Yahoo shares remain in a slump and the company is facing mounting questions about its plans to reignite growth in the wake of its failed talks with Microsoft. Earlier this year, Yahoo executives gave a rosy three-year forecast for growth, which few investors believe the company will be able to meet. And many shareholders, including Mr. Icahn, believe that the best course of action is for Yahoo to resume negotiations with Microsoft. On Tuesday, Yahoo’s shares closed at $21.40, down 1.25 percent, and far below the $33 a share that Microsoft offered for the company on May 3. After Yahoo rejected that offer as too low — it wanted at least $37 a share — Microsoft withdrew it and said it was no longer interested in buying all of Yahoo. In the face of growing shareholder discontent, Yahoo has said recently that it would consider selling itself for $33 a share. Yahoo shares rose to $21.89 in after-hours trading following the company’s financial report. Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare

Nintendo Facing Ban on Some Wii, GameCube Controllers

Slashdot It! If you haven't yet gotten around to buying a Wii Classic Controller or old GameCube pad (for Virtual Console use, Smash Bros., what have you), then you might want to do so quickly. Bloomberg reports that Nintendo may be forced to stop selling the controllers as a result of losing a bid to overturn a $21 million patent-infringement court ruling. The lawsuit concerns the analog sticks in the Classic Controller and GameCube controllers, which Texas-based Anascape Ltd. claims to hold a patent on that Nintendo violated. The court has ruled in favor of Anascape, and U.S. District Judge Ron Clark has rejected Nintendo's request for a new trial. As a result, Clark said he will put a ban on the sale of the controllers (which includes sales of GameCube systems) starting tomorrow, July 23, unless Nintendo posts a bond or puts royalties into an escrow account. Nintendo, however, is already planning on appealing the decision in a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which would put the ban on hold while the case is being heard. "Nintendo was already planning to appeal this case to the Federal Circuit court," said Nintendo spokesman Charlie Scibetta. "The recent ruling by the trial court does not impact that decision." While the ruling concerns the analog sticks on the controllers, it doesn't include sales of the Nunchuck attachment for the Wii remote, which was deemed not to violate Anascape's patent. According to Doug Cawley, Anascape's lawyer, his client argued for the ban because Anascape wants to enter the market itself, and they claim that Nintendo has "clogged the channel." Nintendo isn't the only platform holder that's tangled with Anascape, though -- Sony licensed their patent in 2004, and Microsoft settled a looming lawsuit with them out of court on May 1 before the trial began. Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare