News and Trends in the Telecommunications Industry

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/01/25/come-for-coffee-dont-forget-the-cocaine-dotcom-joked

COATESVILLE, New Zealand - Kim Dotcom, the founder of file-sharing site Megaupload.com who faces a lengthy jail term in the United States if convicted of racketeering, money laundering and Internet piracy, seems to have a mischievous sense of humor.

Shortly after arriving in New Zealand in 2010 and moving into a sprawling luxury estate near Auckland, Dotcom emailed a neighbor who had raised questions about his character, having previously been convicted as a hacker in Germany.

The email was addressed to the local Neighborhood Watch, a community group aimed at stopping crime in the Coatesville area, a nouveau riche community of hobby farms and wealthy city workers.

“First of all, let me assure you that having a criminal neighbor like me comes with benefits,” Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz, wrote in the email, which was sent to Reuters by neighbour France Komoroske.

“1. Our newly opened local money laundering facility can help you with your tax fraud optimization. 2. Our network of international insiders can provide you with valuable stock tips. 3. My close personal relations with other (far worse) criminals can help you whenever you have to deal with a nasty neighbor,” Dotcom quipped in the email, which Reuters has not been able to corroborate.

Komoroske said the email startled her family.

But Dotcom did try to allay his neighbor’s concerns.

“In all seriousness: My wife, two kids and myself love New Zealand and ‘We come in peace’,” he wrote.

“Fifteen years ago I was a hacker and 10 years ago I was convicted for insider trading. Hardly the kind of crimes you need to start a witch hunt for.

“Since then I have been a good boy, my criminal records have been cleared, and I created a successful Internet company that employs 100+ people,” he added.

Dotcom then asked his neighbor to choose.

“Now you can make a choice: 1: Call Interpol, the CIA, and the Queen of England and try to get me on the next plane out of New Zealand. 2: Sit back, relax and give me a chance to do good for New Zealand and possibly the neighborhood.”

Doctom then invited his neighbor over for coffee, adding “… and don’t forget to bring the cocaine (joke). All the best, Kim.”

Komoroske said she replied to Dotcom, saying, “We’d love to come over for coffee. How’s tomorrow?”

But the invitation was never taken up, after Dotcom demanded Komoroske bring another neighbour, calling the two of them “leaders of the Coatesville Inquisition movement.”

Reuters was unable to contact Dotcom, who is in custody, and an email to his lawyer was not answered.

Other neighbors spoken to by Reuters said Doctom lived almost a reclusive life in his rented 30-acre estate, occasionally seen driving on the local winding roads, but getting his entourage to organize any jobs on the property.

A New Zealand judge on Wednesday ordered Dotcom - who stands 2 meters (6-foot-6) tall and weighs more than 130 kg (285 lbs) - to be held in custody for another month, saying the suspected Internet pirate posed a significant flight risk.

Dotcom, a German national also known as Kim Tim Jim Vestor, faces a February 22 hearing of an extradition application by the United States.

Prosecutors say Dotcom was the ringleader of a group that netted $175 million US by copying and distributing music, movies and other copyrighted content without authorization.

His lawyers say his company, megaupload.com, simply offered online storage, and that he will fight extradition.

(Reporting by Michael Perry, Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

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http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/24/tech/social-media/facebook-timeline-rolls-out/index.html

(Mashable) — Facebook announced in a blog post Tuesday that Timeline will be coming to all users in the next few weeks.

According to a Facebook blog post Tuesday — or rather, an update to the post published when Timeline became available to all users — you will have seven days to preview your Timeline and hide content you don’t want out in the open.

Facebook says you’ll receive a notification at the top of your home page when Timeline has landed in your account. That seven-day preview period is the same for users who activate Timeline and those whose accounts are activated automatically.

The new interface and features have been opt-in, until the roll out becomes universal. Beginning in December 2011, users could enable the new look with one click, and then publish their Timelines for their friends to see.

Those particularly eager for the new Facebook could first access Timeline in September 2011 by creating developer accounts.

If you’re confused by the new look, Facebook describes its new product, “Timeline gives you an easy way to rediscover the things you shared, and collect your most important moments. It also lets you share new experiences, like the music you listen to or the miles you run.” Facebook’s Introducing Timeline page walks new users through the new features, such as covers, stories and app integration.

By Zoe Fox, Mashable

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http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2012/01/google-doubles-plus-membership-with-brute-force-signup-process.ars

Google CEO Larry Page trotted out an impressive statistic during last week’s quarterly earnings call: Google+ now has 90 million users, double what it had three months ago. Even better, 60 percent of those users are engaged daily, and 80 percent weekly.

But those users aren’t necessarily engaging with Google+. Any action taken during a logged-in Google session—whether it be searching the Internet, checking Gmail or using Google Docs—counts as engagement under the statistic Page used. Google has refused requests from journalists and interested bystanders to reveal exactly what percentage of those 90 million signed-up Google+ users actually view Plus content each day, week or month. Instead, Google is arguing that it doesn’t matter: Google+ is so integrated into the overall experience that what matters is the number of users interacting with any Google site. Combined with other steps Google has taken to integrate Plus into search results and other Google properties, the message is clear: Eventually, Google Plus will just be there whether you want it to or not.

Facebook has 800 million active users, and 50 percent of them log in each day, an impressive feat given that Facebook is really just one site (albeit one with hooks into many other websites). Given the vast number of services Google offers, and the simple fact that Google performs a large majority of Internet searches, it’s not surprising that most Plus users interact with Google sites each day. It would be hard for them not to.

Still, 90 million people signing up for a service in just over six months is a big number, a quite impressive one if it was all due to organic growth—people consciously deciding to create a Google+ account and use the site in the same way they’ve done with Facebook and Twitter. But it turns out the act of creating a Google+ account is often just an incidental byproduct of signing up for other Google services.

On Friday, the Google Operating System blog (not affiliated with Google) wrote a post titled “New Google Accounts Require Gmail and Google+.” While this isn’t strictly true, the blog demonstrates how Google is making it difficult for new users not to sign up for Google+.

“If you try to create a Google account from Google’s homepage, you’ll notice that Google redesigned the page, but that’s not all. You’ll now have to create a Gmail account, a Google Profile and you’ll automatically join Google+,” the blog states. “Until now, creating a Google account was quite simple. You could either use an existing e-mail address or create a Gmail account. The redesigned form includes new fields: name, gender (required for Google+) and mobile phone number (not required).”

One exception is that Google+ accounts are not created for users who are under 18 years of age.

Another story on the matter states that the new signup process was put into effect Friday. But it’s actually been in place for a couple of months. We checked with Google’s public relations team on Friday, and were told that the new signup process was rolled out in November. That helps explain why Page was able to announce such a large increase in the number of Google+ signups, while avoiding any mention of how often people actually use Google+.

“We hadn’t changed our Google Accounts sign-up flow in more than seven years so it was due for a refresh,” Google tells us. “We’re working to develop a consistent sign-up flow across our different products as part of our efforts to create an intuitive, beautifully simple, Google-wide user experience. Making it quick and easy to create a Google Account and a Google profile enables new users to take advantage of everything Google can offer.”

Google notes that once you’ve signed up, you can delete your entire Google account, or just your Google+ profile in the account settings page. As for Android, a Google spokesperson tells us the latest version of the mobile OS lets users sign up for Google+ when creating a Google account, but it’s optional.

The Google Operating System blog also notes that the old Web-based signup page, which doesn’t force you into Google+, still exists, and you can access it if you know the URL. This process lets you create a Google account, including Google Docs access, without being forced to create a Gmail address or Google+ profile. We asked Google if the company will continue to maintain this older, more limited signup page, but didn’t get an answer.
Testing the signup process: Is Google+ avoidable?

We tested out the new signup process to see if there’s any way to avoid creating a Google+ account. The process is the same whether you start from the Google home page, or Gmail. Once you’ve clicked “Sign up for a new Google Account,” you’re already almost halfway through the process of creating a Google+ profile. The signup screen allows you to uncheck a box that says “Google may use my account information to personalize +1s on content and ads on non-Google websites,” but doesn’t give you the option to decline creating a Google+ account.

The second screen tells the user “Now that you have a Google Account, create your Google profile.” There are only two options: “Add profile photo” or click “next step.” There is no “skip Google+” option. Clicking either available option results in the creation of a Google+ account, which is by default public and discoverable in Google search results.

By Jon Brodkin

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http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/01/23/tech-crtc-rogers-throttling.html

The CRTC has notified Rogers it has evidence the company is violating federal net neutrality rules by deliberately slowing down or “throttling” some of its internet traffic.

Andrea Rosen, CRTC’s chief compliance and enforcement officer, notified Rogers of the findings in a letter last Friday. Rogers has until noon on Feb. 3 to respond or face a hearing.

To avoid a hearing, Rogers must present a rebuttal of the evidence or provide the CRTC with a plan to come into compliance with the act. If Rogers fails to do so, the regulator may order the company to partially reimburse customers and to change its practices.

The CRTC based its findings on the results of an investigation in collaboration with Cisco Systems, the hardware and software vendor that Rogers uses.

The probe was launched last October after a complaint by the Canadian Gamers Organization, an advocacy group for people who play video games, that accused Rogers of hindering online games. Specifically, the group detailed slow internet speeds experienced while playing Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Jason Koblovsky, a Canadian Gamers Organization co-founder, called the CRTC findings “historic” and “a big win” not just for game developers but all Canadian internet users.

“There’s a tremendous amount of throttling going on. Basically, any game that’s running above 80 kilobits per second with peer-to-peer file sharing open is affected,” he told CBC News in a phone interview.

“We hope that the evidence uncovered by the CRTC’s investigations will also help game developers improve online environments. Their product is being hindered by Cisco’s throttling equipment causing problems with connectivity and lag in a lot of gaming environments.”

The Telecommunications Act and CRTC regulations allow throttling of peer-to-peer file sharing programs like BitTorrent, but not of time-sensitive internet traffic like video chatting or gaming.

CBC News is awaiting a response from Rogers.

In March Rogers admitted its network systems were unintentionally slowing down, or throttling, internet traffic for the game World of Warcraft, and then said it had resolved the problem. Then in September, the company said other games and programs might be getting tripped up by its throttling.

Bell recently announced it will stop all throttling as of March 1.

CBC News

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