Comcast Tests User Throttling

Publicly pummeled over slowing BitTorrent traffic, the cable giant turns to blacklisting heavy users.
Comcast is testing a new method of managing network traffic that would target heavy users instead of the applications favored by bandwidth hogs. Comcast claims only a handful of users are clogging its broadband network and slowing it down for the vast majority of users.
In testing beginning in three markets June 6, Comcast plans to compile a blacklist of its heaviest users who may find their Internet speeds slowed during peak network hours, regardless of the software used to download files. Comcast insists most users will not be affected by the approach.
"When we roll this out nationally by the end of the year, all those types of questions will be answered," Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas told The New York Times. "We are trying to figure out what do customers want, what techniques need to be in place to create the best user experience."
Comcast's first response to the problem was to throttle P2P applications such as BitTorrent during peak network hours. That approach, however, led to complaints, a lawsuit and a FCC (Federal Communications Commission) investigation that throttling is a violation of the FCC's network neutrality principles that prohibit the arbitrary blocking of applications.
The cable giant's subsequent public pummeling forced Comcast to come to an accord with BitTorrent and a promise to seek a more agnostic approach to network traffic management. The new testing is Comcast's first attempt to change its approach.
To Tier or Throttle
Comcast's solution is in sharp contrast with Time Warner Cable, which faces the same overburdened network problems. Time Warner is testing tiered service with monthly allowances for downloading and uploading files. Users exceeding their monthly allowance will pay $1 per gigabyte.
TW's tiers will begin at $30 a month for 768 kilobits per second service with a 5-gigabyte cap. The top tier goes for $55 a month for 15 megabits per second and a 40-gigabyte cap.
While the FCC has not completed its investigation of Comcast, Chairman Kevin Martin left little doubt of the ultimate outcome in testimony April 22 before the Senate Commerce Committee. Martin told lawmakers it appears Comcast broadband customers are not free to access all content on the Internet, including the ability to fully use peer-to-peer networks.
Comcast's technology, Martin added, "blocks the uploads of at least a large portion of subscribers in that part of the network, regardless of the actual levels of congestion at that particular time."
Since the beginning of the controversy, Comcast has admitted throttling BitTorrent traffic but insisted its policy falls within the FCC's rules for reasonable network management practices. Comcast also said the practice was "imperceptible to the customer," a notion disputed by Martin.
"It does not appear that this technique [throttling] was used only to occasionally delay traffic at particular nodes suffering from network congestion at that time," Martin said in his testimony.
According to Martin, the testimony so far presented to the FCC indicates Comcast's efforts at managing P2P traffic "is typically deployed over a wider geographic or system area and would therefore have impacted nodes within a system simultaneously."

Sanyo releases 1080i Xacti camcorder

Sanyo introduced the latest member of its Xacti camcorder family. The HD1010 records video sin 1920x1080i resolution and takes digital still image sin 4 megapixel resolution. Content is recorded to SD or SDHC memory cards, which are currently available with capacities of up to 32 GB.
Among the notable features of the camcorder are face detection, slow-motion video, a 7-picture-per-second digital still image mode as well as its light weight of just 9.9 ounces.
Then there is the price. The camcorder will hit retail shelves in July for about $800. Add to that the cost for a memory card. Since it is a high-def camcorder, you want to go with at least 16 GB, which will add about $150 to the bottom line. 32 GB cards currently run in the $400-$500 range, so expect spending between $950 and $1300 for this camcorder, if you don’t have a memory card already.
If cost is a concern, there are more economical camcorders on the market. For example, Sony’s 40 GB (HDD) 1080i camcorders can be purchased for less than $900 through the major retail outlets and for substantially less than $800 through online stores.

Mozilla says Firefox 3.0 bug-free

Mozilla Corp. late yesterday unveiled the second release candidate of Firefox 3.0 and said all of the issues that remain are on the server or site side, not in the application itself.
Firefox 3.0 Release Candidate 2 (RC2) fixed about 40 bugs identified after Mozilla issued the first release candidate three weeks ago. Among the higher-profile patches added to RC2 was one that addressed a performance problem in Firefox for Linux.
Mozilla made the decision to go with another release candidate last week -- rejecting the option of shipping Firefox 3.0 as is, then following up with a bug-fix update later. Mozilla executives assured users that the additional RC would not delay the expected launch date, which has been set for mid-month.
Previously, Mozilla has said it needs at least a week between issuing a release candidate and -- assuming no major problems crop up -- calling that build final and starting to ship Firefox 3.0.
Although all the bugs uncovered during RC1 testing have been fixed, several outstanding issues remain, according to Bugzilla, Mozilla's bug-tracking database and management system.
But none are in the browser itself, confirmed Mike Beltzner, Mozilla's lead developer. "[They're] all server side and Web site related," said Beltzner in an e-mail Wednesday afternoon. "And I should note that 'bug' in our parlance really means 'to-do.' It's our way of tracking issues." The remaining bugs will be handled before the browser ships, he promised.
One of Mozilla's to-dos concerns Firefox's online help and support, which for Firefox 3.0 will be handled by the company's support.mozilla.com domain. "That's awaiting resolution as our IT and WebDev teams work out the best way to handle the traffic," said Beltzner in reply to questions about the bug.
Some developers had expressed concerns last month that the online help pages took too long to render. Beltzner, in fact, said last week on Bugzilla, "Well, we damned sure can't ship with what we have right now. Hit F1 and tell me if you think that's good enough."
Yesterday, Beltzner was confident the problem would be solved. "[The bug] isn't fixed yet, but will be soon," he said. "The solution is all server side (the URL we load in the product is the right one) so we can make the required changes without issuing a new build of Firefox."
Firefox accounts for 18.4% of the browser market, according to the most recent data from Net Applications Inc. Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer remains the most widely used browser, with a 73.8% share, while Apple Inc.'s Safari comes in third with 6.3%. On Monday, Net Applications predicted that if Firefox keeps on its current pace, it should jump the 20% bar next month.

Disney creates Disney World from Google Earth map

Tourists overwhelmed by the mind-boggling size of Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., will now be able to plan their tour with the help of a 3-D Google Earth map created by Walt Disney The map of the four theme parks and 22 hotels contains details down to park benches, souvenir shacks and merry-go-round horses.
Disney called it the largest corporate initiative ever undertaken on Google Earth, an interactive 3-D mapping program that allows users to recreate trips by embedding photos, videos and commentary. About 100,000 photos by eight photographers helped create 1,500 3D models of buildings and other structures, the company said Thursday. The map also contains links to blogs, YouTube videos and other bits of information -
everything from the minimum rider height required for certain attractions to restaurant menus. Nearly nine in 10 park guests plan their vacations online, Disney said. "Guests and travel planners can now explore our world with just a few clicks of a mouse, and they can book vacations while being immersed in what the destination has to offer," resorts Chairman Jay Rasulo said in a statement.

Yahoo's First Search Gallery Apps Leaves You Searching For The Right Results

I want to love the search apps in Yahoo's newly opened Search Gallery. I really do. Opening up its search engine to outside developers is an idea worth applauding (although it could still do more). That's why I was excited when Yahoo announced its SearchMonkey platform, which essentially allows outside developers to create their own search "applications" that changes the display of search results.
Today, Yahoo publicly launched a gallery of these apps, which Yahoo members can add as customizations to Yahoo search. Some of these include apps that are supposed to highlight public LinkedIn profiles, Yelp reviews, Epicurious recipes, Digg stats, and music info from Last.fm. When you perform a related search, a little icon and customized detail information is supposed to appear within the search results. Think of these as Firefox search add-ons, but all in one place.
Well, that's the idea. But after putting some of these enhancements through a quick test drive this morning, I am completely underwhelmed. The following searches failed to produce any enhanced results: "fried snapper," "baked ziti," "U2¿ (got the regular Yahoo Music shortcut, but not any Last.fm results), "Rolling Stones" (same). "White Stripes" (same), several current headlines on Digg (nothing).
The LinkedIn app seemed to work okay for famous tech CEOS like "Reid Hoffman" and "Max Levchin," but it didn't prioritize the LinkedIn results in any way. For Levchin it was No. 6, even though I told Yahoo by adding the LinkedIn enhancement that I want to see those results. But SearchMonkey only lets developers change the display, not the order of the results.
Then I put in a very specific search for something I know is listed on Yelp: "bar tabac brooklyn restaurant." Nothing. Or, rather, too specific. When I tried just "bar tabac," I finally got this enhanced result:
So it kind of works, but you shouldn't have to hunt and peck to find these enhanced results. And you'd think that the more specific your search query, the more likely you are to find one. But the reverse is true.
I'm not sure if this is Yahoo's fault or the fault of the developers. What I do know is that SearchMonkey apps have along way to go before they create a better search

WWDC: Developers see big potential in iPhone apps

If developer interest in iPhone sessions at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) next week is any indication, we should see an explosion of software for the device. While the conference typically focuses on Mac programming, this year developers are diving head first into iPhone applications.
Long time Mac developers and new developers alike are anticipating big things for iPhone application demand. As you would expect from a developer community that has made so many innovative apps for the Mac, people are lining up to do the same for the iPhone.
“I’m pretty much going to attend iPhone sessions this year,” said John Casasanta, President of Inventive Software. “I’m just on fire with the iPhone.”
AppZapper developer Austin Sarner echoed those sentiments regarding the potential for iPhone application development. With developers expecting the Mac sessions to be similar to last year, many are turning their attention to the iPhone.
“Even though iPhone apps aren’t available to the public yet, it seems like there will be a lot of interest in them,” said Sarner. “Everyone who owns an iPhone will receive the software update and instantly have access to tons of third party software right from an Apple supplied browser. WIth this kind of integration, which puts these apps right in front of people who may have not even thought to look for them, I feel like iPhone has a lot of potential as a development platform in the future.”
The positive outlook for the iPhone also extends to Apple's gaming market. "We think the iPhone will be huge, and game-changing in ways most people have not fully realized yet," said Colin Lynch Smith, Vice President of Freeverse. "This will be the first time the world has seen full, robust computer applications on a mobile device. The iPhone is a computer."
This year marks the first time in Apple's history that WWDC has sold out a developer conference. It seems clear that iPhone developer tracks are the big draw, as new companies send teams to learn about making applications.
We may even see some apps from new companies — or at least new to Mac users. As Ken Aspeslagh, co-founder and chief engineer of Mac software developer Ecamm Network, points out, some of the interest in iPhone development might be coming from outside the traditional Mac developer community.
With all the focus on iPhone development from Apple, could we be in danger of developers losing focus on the software we’ve come to depend on? Probably not — even developers who'll focus on the iPhone next week don’t plan to give up on the Mac.
“What’s brilliant is what Apple has done with the iPhone SDK — they’ve made it so accessible to existing Mac developers that very little reinvention is required,” said Daniel Jalkut, founder of Red Sweater Software, makers of MarsEdit blogging software and more. “I think there is some short-term risk that Mac software developers will slow down their desktop software development, in order to come up to speed with iPhone development, but in the longer term the same basic factors will motivate development.”
Some developers are already overflowing with ideas for iPhone apps. Inventive’s John Casasanta said his company has eleven potential applications it is working on. One new app, called Where To?, will be ready when Apple’s App Store launches, said Casasanta. Where To? helps you find restaurants, gas stations, or other points of interest around your location (similar to a traditional GPS system).
Developers still have a lot of questions, however, and are looking to WWDC to get some answers. Unlike typical conferences, the answers developers are looking for don’t just surround code.
“I want to get a feel for the market,” said Casasanta. “One of the issues I have is pricing because there is no precedent set.”
For some developers, like Austin Sarner, the immediate focus will remain on finishing up work on outstanding Mac projects. However, that doesn’t mean they will ignore potential opportunities for the iPhone.
“Hopefully I will be able to work on more Mac projects while experimenting on iPhone at the same time,” said Sarner.

Facebook violates privacy laws

A Canadian privacy group has filed a complaint against the social networking site Facebook accusing it of violating privacy laws.
The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic has listed 22 separate breaches of privacy law in its country.
Clinic director Phillipa Lawson told the BBC that, with more than seven million users in Canada, "Facebook needs to be held publicly accountable".
Facebook rejects the charge, claiming some of the highest standards around.
The complaint, filed with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, states that Facebook collects sensitive information about its users and shares it without their permission.
It goes on to say that the company does not alert users about how that information is being used and does not adequately destroy user data after accounts are closed.
Minefield
"Social networking online is a growing phenomenon," said Ms Lawson.
"It is proving to be a tremendous tool for community-building and social change, but at the same time, a minefield of privacy invasion.
"We chose to focus on Facebook because it is the most popular social networking site in Canada and because it appeals to young teens who may not appreciate the risks involved in exposing their personal details online."
The 35-page action was lodged after students at the clinic analysed the company's policies and practices as part of a course this past winter and identified specific practices that appeared to violate the Canadian Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (Pipeda).
Harley Finkelstein, 24 and a Facebook user for the past three years, told the BBC:
"A great percentage of Canadians using Facebook are aged between 14 and 25 and that raises vulnerability issues.
"Some 14-year-old kid might not know that privacy settings exist or how to take advantage of them or appreciate the ramifications of having their private information disclosed to third parties."
'Industry leading controls'
In a statement, Facebook said: "We pride ourselves on the industry leading controls we offer users over their private information. We believe that this is an important reason that nearly 40% of Canadians on the internet use our service.

"We've reviewed the complaint and found it has serious factual errors, most notably its neglect of the fact that almost all Facebook data is willingly shared by users."
But Mr Finkelstein disagrees. "Our investigation found that this is not entirely true," he said. "For example, even if you select the strongest privacy settings, your information may be shared more widely if your Facebook Friends have lower privacy settings.
"As well, if you add a third-party application offered on Facebook, you have no choice but to let the application developer access all your information even if they don't need it."
"We're concerned that Facebook is deceiving its users," said newly signed-up Facebook user Lisa Feinberg, another law student behind the complaint.
"Facebook promotes itself as a social utility, but it's also involved in commercial activities like targeted advertising. Facebook users need to know that when they're signing up to Facebook, they're signing up to share their information with advertisers."
Publicly accountable
The Canadian Privacy Commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart, has a year to act on the CIPPC's complaint. The commissioner's office focuses on negotiation to resolve privacy disputes, but it can seek court injunctions if that fails to resolve the issues.
Ms Lawson told the BBC the clinic's reasons for going after Facebook publicly were because past issues they have tried to discuss with the company went nowhere:
"We don't see the point in going down that route again.
"Our experience is it gets dragged out and they might make a few changes but they are making representations about their privacy controls and they need to be held accountable. That would be difficult if we did it through private conversations."
Facebook said: "We look forward to working with Commissioner Stoddart to set the record straight and will continue our ongoing efforts to educate users and the public around privacy controls on Facebook, including a brochure and video project we have completed with Ontario information and privacy commissioner Ann Cavoukian."
Shot across bows
Facebook has been accused of crossing the line over privacy issues in the past.
Earlier this year, however, the Silicon Valley start-up introduced new tools it said would let users have greater control over their privacy, such as letting only certain groups of friends see their photos and other personal information.
The director of the CIPPC sees their complaint as a shot across the bows of all social networking sites.
Ms Lawson told the BBC the only reason they are focusing on Facebook at the moment is because they did not have the time or resources to look at others:
"They are all suspect. Facebook is the most popular site in Canada and so that is why we looked at it particular but I am hoping to be able to do an analysis of MySpace later this year."

Adobe launches Acrobat community

Adobe has made a move into online document sharing with the launch of the Acrobat.com community site.It allows people to create, store and share documents online, and hold web conferences to discuss changes. It was unveiled at the same time as the new version of Adobe's Acrobat software in which Flash video can now be embedded.

The service pits Adobe squarely against Microsoft, Google and others keen to bridge the online and offline worlds. Currently the Acrobat.com service exists only in trial, or beta, form; but anyone can sign up. Those using the service get access to the Buzzword word processor that lets them create basic text documents. Document creators can store their files on the site and invite others to collaborate, read or comment.

It also allows the creation of web conferences so co-authors can collaborate on and discuss a document in real time. The trial version allows users to convert up to five documents per month to the PDF format free of charge. These documents can be embedded on a website or a blog. Adobe said it would make the programming interfaces for the site available so others can plug it into their own services. Acrobat.com can be used without buying any other Adobe products. However, built in to the new version of Acrobat are menu options that link directly to the site so a document can be shared instantly.

The completed version of Acrobat 9.0 is due in July 2008. Adobe is coming relatively late to the market for business document and file sharing on the web. In October 2007 Microsoft set up a trial version of Office Live Workspace that lets people get at and share Word, Excel and Powerpoint files via the web. Google runs a similar system via its online Documents service. Online services such as Zoho have been offering stand-alone office programs that can be used online for some time.

Mobile phones and human habits

The study concludes that humans are creatures of habit, mostly visiting the same few spots time and time again.
Most people also move less than 10km on a regular basis, according to the study published in the journal Nature.
The results could be used to help prevent outbreaks of disease or forecast traffic, the scientists said.
"It would be wonderful if every [mobile] carrier could give universities access to their data because it's so rich," said Dr Marta Gonzalez of Northeastern University, Boston, US, and one of the authors of the paper.
Dr William Webb, head of research and development at the UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, agreed that mobile phone data was still underexploited.
"This is just the tip of the iceberg," he told BBC News.
Money search
Researchers have previously attempted to map human activity using GPS or surveys, but it is expensive.
One innovative approach tracked the movement of dollar bills in an attempt to reconstruct human movements.
The study used data from the website wheresgeorge.com, which allows anyone to track a dollar bill as it circulates through the economy. The site has so far tracked nearly 130 million notes.
Studies such as this suggested that humans wander in an apparently random fashion, similar to a so-called "Levy flight" pattern displayed by many foraging animals.
However, Dr Gonzalez and her team do not believe this approach gives a complete picture of people's movements.
"The bills pass from one person to another so they can't measure individual behaviour," she explained.
The new work tracked 100,000 individuals selected randomly from a sample of more than six million phone users in a European country.
Each time a participant made or received a call or text message, the location of the mobile base station relaying the data was recorded.
The researchers said they were "not at liberty" to disclose where the information had been collected and said steps had been taken to guarantee the participants' anonymity.
For example, individual phone numbers were disguised as 26 digit security codes.
"Furthermore, we only know the coordinates of the tower routing the communication, hence a user's location is not known within a tower's service area," they wrote.
Each tower serves an area of approximately 3 sq km.
Information was collected for six months. But, according to the researchers, a person's pattern of movement could be seen in just three.

Model behaviour
"The vast majority of people move around over a very short distance - around five to 10km," explained Professor Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, another member of the team.
"Then there were a few that moved a couple of hundred kilometres on a regular basis."
The results showed that most people's movements follow a precise mathematical relationship - known as a power law.
"That was the first surprise," he told BBC News.
The second surprise, he said, was that the patterns of people's movements, over short and long distances, were very similar: people tend to return to the same few places over and over again.
"Why is this good news?" he asked. "If I were to build a model of how everyone moves in society and they were not similar then it would require six billion different models - each person would require a different description."
Now, modellers had a basic rule book to follow, he said.
"This intrinsic similarity between individuals is very exciting and it has practical applications," said Professor Barabasi.
For example, Professor John Cleland of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Disease (LSHTM) said the study could be of use to people monitoring the spread of contagious diseases.
"Avian flu is the obvious one," he told BBC News. "When an outbreak of mammalian infectious airborne disease hits us, the movement of people is of critical concern."
Dr Gonzalez said that traffic planners had also expressed an interest in the study.
Sensor overload
Although the scale of the latest study is unprecedented, it is not the first time that mobile phone technology has been used to track people's movements.
Scientists at MIT have used mobile phones to help construct a real-time model of traffic in Rome, whilst Microsoft researchers working on Project Lachesis are examining the possibility of mining mobile data to help commuters pick the optimum route to work, for example.
Location data is increasingly used by forensic scientists to identify the movements of criminal suspects.
For example, the technique was used by Italian police to capture Hussain Osman, one of four men jailed for the failed suicide bombings in London on 21 July.
Commercial products also exist, allowing parents to track children or for friends to receive alerts when they are in a similar location.
These types of services and projects will continue to grow, Dr Webb believes, as researchers and businesses find new ways to use the mobile phone networks.
"There are so many sensors that you could conceivably attach to a phone that you could do all kinds of monitoring activities with," he said.

For example, Nokia have put forward an idea to attach sensors to phones that could report back on air quality. The project would allow a large location-specific database to be built very quickly.
Ofcom is also planning to use mobiles to collect data about the quality of wi-fi connections around the UK.
"I am sure there will be tens if not hundreds of these ideas emerging over the next few years," said Dr Webb.

Google to get new space age home

Google is to get a new home after signing a 40-year lease to build a high-tech campus on land owned by Nasa.
The 1.2m sq ft site will include a huge office complex, and research and development facilities.
The search giant will pay an initial base rent of $3.66m a year for the undeveloped land at the Nasa Ames Research Centre in Mountain View.
Google says it needs the space for the thousands of workers it expects to hire as the company expands its business.
"This long-term lease agreement is a key component of Google's strategy for continued growth in Silicon Valley," says David Radcliffe, Google's vice-president of real estate and workplace services.
In the last four years, Google has added more than 17,000 employees to boost its payroll to 19, 156 workers.
This workforce expansion has spurred the company to lease or buy many of the smaller offices circling its Googleplex headquarters, a 1 million sq ft campus that Google bought for $139m two years ago.
NASA's mission
The deal is being seen as a win-win situation for Nasa as it endeavours to establish itself as a high-tech centre of excellence
"With this new campus, we will establish an era of expanded collaboration with Google that will further enhance our Silicon Valley connections," says Ames director S. Pete Worden.
"This major expansion of Nasa Research Park supports Nasa's mission to lead the nation in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research."
Nasa will use the money for improvements and maintenance costs at the Research Park.
Mr Radcliffe agrees the agreement will enhance Nasa's reputation and allow the company to draw on the brain power that will be available on its new doorstep.
"We believe this collaboration between Google, Nasa and the city of Mountain View is emblematic of the mutually beneficial partnerships that can be created between the public and private sectors. "
Google has not said how much it will cost to build the new campus, which is also expected to include housing for employees, sports, conference, dining and child care facilities and perhaps some retail outlets.
Building work is expected to get under way no later than 2013 with the final phase of work starting in 2022.
After the 40-year lease expires, the agreement could be extended by as much as 50 more years.
Closer ties
The real estate deal is being seen as further evidence of Google and Nasa becoming closer.
The relationship between the two caused something of a backlash last year when company co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin negotiated an unusual deal to take off, land and park their private jet at a government managed airport near where the new offices will be built.
Moffett Federal Airfield has been off-limits to most private plans, but Mr Brin and Mr Page got around that restriction by agreeing to pay Nasa $1.3m a year and making a commitment to fly the space agency's equipment on research missions.