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Song You Need To Know: Rihanna, Featuring Justin Timberlake, 'Hole In My Head'

11/24/2009 11:43:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments


As we mentioned earlier today (while discussing her neck tattoo), Rihanna's Rated R is, generally, a pretty gloomy affair. Rainy days, cloudy skies; pure pain, a lot of ballads, and slow, creeping beats.

So it should come as no great surprise that, despite the star power involved, "Hole In My Head," a collaboration between Rihanna and Justin Timberlake, was relegated to bonus-track-status (and not even, U.S. bonus track...it's U.K.-only!).

Unlike Rihanna and Justin Timberlake's first collabo, "Rehab," "Hole In My Head" is a jumping, jittery song, reminiscent of Justin's Futuresex/Lovesound or Timbaland's "The Way I Are." It's a fun, dance-y, Pussycat Dolls-leaning number, but it would have stuck out on the moody Rated R.

Windows 8 in 2012?

11/24/2009 11:40:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , 0 Comments

Microsoft Windows 8 may be coming as early as 2012, based on a recent rash of comments and hints dropped by Microsoft personnel in official capacity and informal context.



Some are taking heart from a roadmap Microsoft was supposedly showing off during its recent Professional Developer's Conference (PDC), according to electronista. The map (click to enlarge it for a closer look) refers specifically to Windows Server products, but suggests the plan would extend to Windows desktop systems as well.

Microsoft Speeds Up

According to the roadmap, Microsoft is trying to get into a regular pace of releasing major Windows upgrades every three or four years, with a signficant update happening every two.

Windows 8 by 2012 is an admirable goal, but product delays seem inevitable when it comes to getting a new iteration of Windows out the door. Microsoft had a six-year gap between the major release of Windows XP in 2001 and then Windows Vista in 2007. Vista was originally scheduled for 2006, but Microsoft was forced to push Vista's release to 2007. Then, after a poor reception for Vista, Windows 7 was rushed out to stores less than two years later. Microsoft may not want to have another six-year gap between OS releases, but it also needs to avoid another Vista-sized flop. Nevertheless, it's a good bet that a Windows 8 release candidate will be available as early as 2011.

As a side note, the roadmap also confirms that Windows 7 was considered a release update to Vista, while Windows 8 would be a major release and therefore a significant upgrade from Windows 7.

Windows 8 Plans

Microsoft has been looking forward to the next iteration of its operating system, in at least a limited fashion, since early October, when job listings looking for Windows 8 program managers came to light.

There have also been a rumor that Windows 8 would boast 128-bit architecture. That rumor came to light after Microsoft employee Robert Morgan disclosed company information on his LinkedIn profile. Morgan said he was working on "research and development projects including 128-bit architecture compatibility with the Windows 8 kernel and Windows 9 project plan."

Windows 8 Predictions

With Windows 7 being a done deal since July, some pundits have been busy making up wish lists and predictions for Windows 8. InfoWorld's Randall Kennedy predicts that Win 8 will be the end of the 32-bit operating system--all the more likely if a 128-bit version is in the works. Computerworld's Preston Galla wants a more simplified version of Windows Media Center and easier ways to network Windows, Mac OS X and Linux machines. Kennedy is also big on Live Mesh integration for Windows 8. Live Mesh is a Microsoft cloud-based service that allows you to sync documents across multiple computers, as well as access your files through an online desktop.

Speaking of the cloud, it will be interesting to see how pervasive online computing is among home users by 2012. By that time, Google's Chrome OS will have been available for a year or two, and it should be clearer how effective or ineffective it is to use a Web-only operating system. Will the success or failure of Chrome OS influence Windows 8? I'm looking forward to finding out.

Battle of the females at the Golden Disk Awards 2009

11/24/2009 11:39:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , , , 0 Comments

The award for Best New Artist will be a battle of the females at this year's Golden Disk Awards, which will air on December 10th at 7PM. As you all undoubtedly know, 2009 has been the year of female idol groups. In the past, the nomination for best new artist would have gone to comparable number of male and female idol groups, but for this year, all four groups nominated happen to only be girl groups. Sorry, guys!


The four female idol group that will be duking it out at this year’s Golden Disk Awards are 2NE1, 4minute, T-ara (Tiara), and f(x). As none of the four groups released a full-length album this year, album sales will not be a factor in deciding which group will receive the coveted award. Instead, the groups will be scored based on sales from their singles, popularity and scores from judges.

Who do you think will take home the prize when the Golden Disk Awards airs this year? I’m personally a huge fan of 2NE1, since I Don’t Care was on constant repeat when I was going through a tough break-up.

Firefox hopes to one-up IE with fast graphics

11/24/2009 11:39:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

Last week, Microsoft showed off some browser technology that could help Internet Explorer leapfrog the competition. But if Mozilla succeeds in its hope, Microsoft could be playing catch-up instead.

The technology in question is hardware-accelerated graphics and text using interfaces called Direct2D and DirectWrite that provide an easy way to use graphics cards' computing power. They're built into Windows 7, and Microsoft is bringing them to Windows Vista but not Windows XP.

The performance boost from Direct2D and DirectWrite was the centerpiece of Microsoft's demonstration of Internet Explorer 9 goodies shown last week. Online maps flashed on the screen quickly and tracked mouse movements responsively; text was clearer and changed sizes more gracefully.

But the day of Microsoft's demo, Mozilla evangelist Chris Blizzard had this to tweet: "Interesting that we're doing Direct2D support in Firefox as well--I'll bet we'll ship it first."

There's work to back up his rhetoric. On Sunday, Bas Schouten, the programmer who's been leading the work for Mozilla, posted a prototype of Firefox using the Direct2D and DirectWrite.

However, any Firefox fans tempted to crow about a victory should be cautious. Mozilla wouldn't commit to including the technology, much less to a release schedule such as Firefox 3.7 due in the first half of 2010. "We are currently investigating Direct2D for Firefox, but do not have a target for shipping it in Firefox at this time," the organization said in a statement..


This Mozilla demonstration of photos and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), with transparency and click-and-drag resizing, works more than twice as fast Direct2D graphics.

The race is on

Microsoft declined to comment for this story, referring readers just to last week's blog post about coming Internet Explorer 9 features. "While we're still early in the product cycle, we wanted to be clear to developers about our approach and the progress so far," the company said while sharing a Direct2D demonstration video.

There's no doubt the race is on, though, given the potential benefits of the new interface and the commercial success of Window 7. Microsoft is lighting a fire under its developers, but the company's browser has lagged Firefox and other rivals in many technological areas for years, and many Web developers loathe earlier versions of IE still widely used. IE's market share has steadily eroded, though it remains dominant overall.

The attention is giving Google ideas, too. In a Chrome issue logged Sunday, Chrome programmer Peter Kasting pointed to Chouten's blog post on the subject as "motivation."

"If we can speed up the rendering time, the most noticeable benefit will probably be smoother-feeling scrolling," Kasting said. He also directed attention in October to DirectWrite support in Chrome, though cautioning that it might not work with the browser's present "sandbox" design to isolate elements of the browser for security reasons.

Mozilla has its own results to show off, too. Schouten offered a graph showing improved performance displaying a variety of Web pages. Facebook, Google, and Twitter rendered on the screen in half the time using the Direct2D; Slashdot and a Wikipedia entry were barely changed. One taxing page using the Scalable Vector Graphics format (SVG) to show movable, resizable graphics showed more than twice as fast, dropping from about 11 milliseconds to less than 4 milliseconds.


Microsoft's DirectWrite permits smoother display of many fonts.

What actually changes?

Direct2D replaces an older technology called Graphics Device Interface (GDI) used in Windows XP. Both offer a way for programs to tap into computing hardware without having to worry about the particulars of video card capabilities and settings, but Direct2D taps into hardware acceleration features.

The technology lets programmers control basic elements such as transparent boxes, curved lines, and resizable photos. Out of these, user interface elements are constructed; Direct2D calls upon a computer's graphics processor to speed that up. It's particularly helpful for dynamic situations that change element properties such as color, size, or opacity.

DirectWrite offers a similar graphics chip boost to the task of displaying text. That may not sound computationally intense, but some parts of it are. In particular, DirectWrite offers a more sophisticated mechanism for displaying text to take advantage of something called sub-pixel positioning of letters.

Each pixel on an LCD screen is actually made of three tiny slices--for red, green, and blue components--and sub-pixel technology subtly draws letters using pieces of these pixels to make the overall appearance smoother. The older GDI permitted some sub-pixel positioning, but only smoothed letters in the horizontal direction; DirectWrite smooths curves vertically as well.

Using the graphics chip in Direct2D and DirectWrite operations brings several advantages. Performance is the first: some operations are faster or smoother, and having more power on hand lets programmers tackle more ambitious projects. Second, the general-purpose central processor, relatively inefficient at handling graphics tasks, is unburdened, freeing it up for other tasks and saving battery power.

Firefox already has a graphics system of its own called Cairo. Schouten has been adding a Direct2D and DirectWrite.

Firefox is of course a browser that doesn't just work on Windows. The DirectWrite technology helps that operating system catch up to its rivals, said Mozilla's John Daggett in a blog post Sunday. "Platform APIs [application programming interfaces] on Mac OS X and Linux already do a good job rendering Postscript CFF [Compact Font Format] fonts," he said. "This just brings them up to parity under Windows 7."

Direct2D is used elsewhere in the browser. "We've made significant progress and are now able to present a Firefox browser completely rendered using Direct2D, making intensive usage of the GPU," or graphics processing unit, Schouten said. And because Cairo is used by other open-source software, other projects will benefit from the work, he added.

The Direct2D work is Mozilla's second hardware acceleration effort; the company also is working on one using a different hardware acceleration interface called OpenGL for mobile devices using Nvidia's Tegra chips, according to Mozilla.

The interactive Web

Microsoft went out of its way to emphasize that the Direct2D and DirectWrite work will help existing Web pages without programmers having to change a line of code. Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of Internet Explorer, contrasted that to other hardware acceleration efforts including Native Client and O3D from Google and WebGL from Mozilla and the Khronos Group.

Native Client, O3D, and WebGL are part of a long list of developments designed to transform the Web into a foundation not just for static pages but also for interactive applications. Those technologies, though, require new programming skills and tools.

Mozilla, Google, Apple, and Opera have been pushing this interactive Web agenda, and Microsoft is showing signs of interest, too. However, for now, Microsoft emphasizes that Direct2D support will help the existing Web. But the browser makers have their eyes on interactive technology as well. Direct2D will help with complex sites that use 2D graphics interfaces such as SVG and Canvas, Mozilla said.

Added Schouten, "As Web sites become more graphically intense, dynamic graphics will start playing a larger role, especially in user interfaces."

Chrome OS will rise or fall on the safety dance

11/24/2009 11:38:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , 0 Comments

Google has the chance to make desktop Linux secure.


By starting with a blank sheet of paper, and lessons learned while developing its browser, Google wants to build a lightweight OS for netbooks that avoids the weekly “security update” hassles of its big-time rival.

This means the processes Google is addressing with Chrome — system hardening, process isolation, secure auto-update, verified boot, intuitive account management, defenses in depth, and devices secure by default — have to be more than buzzwords.

But there is something even more important Chrome OS has to do in terms of security. That is it has to develop an ecosystem of applications around itself that are themselves secure.

This is something it has yet to do with the underlying browser (and Google is clear that the browser is the technology under its operating system). Most Chrome add-ons are Google-written. Compare it to what Firefox offers — there is no comparison.

Google has to find a way to reach out to the creators of add-ons and plug-ins, as well as applications, and not only get them supporting the OS but supporting it in the same secure way Google supports it.

This will not be easy.

An alternative is to focus on the Linux application space rather than the browser space, even though, as Google says, all Chrome OS applications will run from the browser.

In this case Google must convince Linux application developers to emulate its secure process, promising massive distribution for apps that may not now be ready for prime time.

So it’s not just about what Google’s programmers do in terms of security that will drive Chrome OS. Google needs application developers to accept its security development framework as well. That means doing the kind of marketing to developers (developers, developers, developers, developers) Microsoft has been doing for decades.

And it’s not just about doing the Ballmer dance. It’s about getting those developers to do the safety dance.

Zaizai can't differentiate "ung" and "ang" : That's what Japanese fans love !

11/24/2009 11:38:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , 0 Comments

Since Zaizai entered the Showbusiness, he had been troubled by his pronunciation problems, to broascast in Mainland, the TV drama "The Last Night of Madam Chin " had to dub his voice.

Unexpectedly, when "The Last Night of Madam Chin " sold its Japanese copyrights, the Japanese side felt that Zaizai, who has a huge Japanese fanbase, was the strongest selling point, and for them his problems to separate "ung" from "ang" isn't an issue at all, as the Japanese fans wouldn't understand anyway, what matters is to hear Zaizai's original voice, so they strongly demanded the crew to redub the drama.

"TLNOMC" is produced and starred by Fan Bing Bing, with Zaizai, Fann Wong, Alex Fong, Anthony Wong and Eric Huang as co-stars, for the second half of this year, it has already started to broadcast successively in different areas of Mainland, such as Jiangsu, Shandong and Chongqing, snatching everytime the first place in ratings, now it will go to the main battlefield, broascasting in Beijing, Shanghai etc... constantly holding functions to build up its name.

FTV, who had bought the Taiwanese rights of "TLNOMC" at the Taipei TV festival had confirmed that they'll start to broadcast it starting the 8 th of December at the 10pm.

"TLNOMC" is Zaizai's first Mainland drama, he is acting as Madam Chin, Fan Bing Bing's first love, sharing a very rough path.

At that time, due to "Black and White" delaying, as soon as Zaizai started "TLNOMC", he had to work non-stop, filming heavy scenes one after the other, that put gave him a lot of pressure ; his manager Zhi Xiang Li says, after "Black and White" where Zaizai had deep emotional scenes, he immediatly acted in "TLNOMC" with his character causing his mother's death in the name of Love : for a long period, he had been stuck in a depressed mood, making his manager worried that he would fall ill because of that.

After "Rouge snow", "The Last Night of Madam Chin" is the second drama Fan Bing Bing produces ; to reproduce the splendor of Shanghai, she not only spent a lot of money to reconstruct the Paramount club in its original size and appearance, but also paid out to have over 100 gorgeous QiPao made, the producing fees amounting to a total of 180 Millions.

But because the cast was brilliantly picked, the overseas copyrights are selling wonderfully, making Japan, which is seldom interested in Mainland dramas, buy it, aiming on Japanese fascination for Zaizai.

First ELSE smartphone promises more intuitive UI in Q2 2010

11/24/2009 11:38:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

Have we been premature in lauding the iPhone, Android and webOS for their nifty user experiences? According to the team behind the First ELSE cellphone, we should’ve waited for them to come along and show off their initial device; it uses a “splaying” one-thumb navigation system that promises to bypass digging through menus. Pocket-lint were around to grab some live shots of the UI in action.



From the look of things, you shift between functionality on the handset by panning up and down a semi-circular menu and then select by pushing across. There are also various sensors which change the button actions; face-down on the desk, for instance, the First ELSE remaps the camera button into a voice-recorder trigger. There’s also a proximity sensor which shuts off the touchscreen when you’re holding the phone near your face.

According to the company’s site, the phone will also record voice calls and voicemail messages and store them along with records of when the call was made; there are also contextual reminders which seem to flag up alerts whenever you’re near a preset geographic position, for instance a shopping list while you’re near a supermarket.

Hardware details are scant, but 3G, WiFi, GPS and a 5-megapixel camera (with 30fps video recording) are all confirmed, together with an 854 x 480 touchscreen display. The First ELSE will apparently make it to shelves in Q2 2010, though the company is being coy on which carriers might be offering the device. Target markets are the USA, Western Europe and Russia; no word on pricing.




Microsoft isn't the only one developing a hardware-accelerated browser

11/24/2009 11:37:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , 0 Comments

Microsoft has shared very few details so far about Internet Explorer (IE) 9, but has said the company is planning to accelerate the performance of text and graphics rendering by taking advantage of the power of PCs’ graphics-processing unit (GPU).

Specifically, Microsoft officials said at the Professional Developers Conference last week that with IE9, it will be “moving all graphics and text rendering from the CPU (and GDI) to the graphics card using Direct2D and DirectWrite.” (Istartedsomething blogger Long Zheng posted a good write up on Microsoft’s hardware-acceleration plans for IE 9 last week, if you want more details.)

But as News.com reported on November 24, Microsoft isn’t the only browser provider planning to harness hardware acceleration. Mozilla is planning to do the same with Firefox. Firefox developers have posted a prototype demonstrating the ability to take advantage of Direct2D and DirectWrite. Google is interested in the possibilities of hardware-accelerating Chrome, as well, as News.com’s Stephen Shankland notes. Unsurprisingly, the Chrome team is keeping any plans, concrete or otherwise, close to the vest.

The Mozilla folks already are claiming they believe they’ll be first to deliver a hardware-accelerated browser. I’d bet they’re right. Microsoft officials aren’t saying when to expect a test or final version of IE 9. But if the IE team stays on the same trajectory that it followed with IE 8, I’d bet the earliest we’ll see a final version of IE9 is spring 2011. (My calculation? I’m betting Windows 8 will be released in summer/fall 2011, two years after Windows 7 was released to market, and that IE 9 — the version of the browser that will be part of Windows 8, will hit a few months earlier.)

Besides being unwilling to share dates, the Microsoft folks also are not yet talking about which versions of Windows they plan to support with IE 9. Will Microsoft still support XP machines with the next version of IE? There’s no word. My guess is IE 9 won’t work on XP. And based on the less-than-optimal way IE 8 runs on lower-memory XP machines, I’d say XP users might want to steer clear of it if it does run.

TVB artist Chan Hung Lieh dies of heart stroke on the 24th at the age of 65

11/24/2009 11:37:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

TVB actor Chan Hung Lieh, who had been acting as the Corporation CEO in "Off Pedder", lose consciousness at around 4PM due to a heart attack, he got transported by ambulance to Tseung Kwan O hospital's emergencies.


It is reported that while he was filming, popular actor Chan Hung Lit's heart started to hurt and he was sent to the hospital, however, after the doctors tried to reanimate him for 2 hours, they had to declare his death at 19h11.

TVB executive Virginia Lok announce the news of his death to the public from the hospital.


It is reported that his widow is flying right now from Taiwan to organise his funeral.

Core i7 iMac DOA and cracked-screen woes reported

11/24/2009 11:36:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , 0 Comments

Apple’s 27-inch iMac did the Cupertino company proud when we reviewed the Core 2 Duo model last month, but trouble is afoot with the freshly-shipping Core i7 models. Various Apple support forum threads are suggesting that not only are some Core i7 iMacs turning up DOA and refusing to power on, others have hit desktops only for their eager buyers to discover the glass screen has cracked.

Neither of those is a particularly happy situation when you’ve just spent in excess of $2,000 on a high-end computer. The cracked glass issue is being blamed on both shipping companies (whether those responsible for getting the iMacs to the Apple Stores, or direct to consumers for online orders) and insufficient packaging inside the box itself, and generally seems to be happening around the lower left-hand corner of the display. Apple are replacing the iMacs, but deliveries don’t seem to be expected to take place until early December.

As for the DOA issue, it’s a similar frustration in terms of the delay in sourcing a new unit. The Core i7 iMacs are built-to-order, and despite Apple customer support telling some owners that their replacement will be priotized over other customers, that doesn’t necessarily seem to be the case.

Nokia X6 arrives in UK this Friday

11/24/2009 11:36:00 PM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

Nokia UK have finally announced launch and pricing details for the Nokia X6, the company’s new Comes With Music flagship media phone. Packing a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen, 32GB of integrated storage and a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, the Nokia X6 will arrive at UK retailer Phones4U on Friday November 27th, free with a £35 ($58) per month agreement.



If you have an old Nseries Nokia you fancy trading in, you can knock £10 off that contract price and still take the X6 away without spending a penny on the handset itself. It’s also available to preorder SIM-free online, at Nokia’s UK store, for a somewhat extravagant £449 ($746), though at time of writing we couldn’t find any sign of it.

Other features include 3G, up to 35 hours battery life for music playback, the Ovi apps store and a TV output and support for video recording. It also has a touch-enabled browser with Flash Lite 3.0 support, Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi, A-GPS and a micro-USB port.

Adam Lambert's AMA Performance Was A Bit Too 'Dirty' For Some Fans

11/24/2009 11:43:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

Adam Lambert certainly knows how to get people talking. His AMA performance could have just been his post-'Idol' breakout show, but instead it's become one of those "did he take it too far?" moments of awards show folklore that has everyone taking sides (Watch the Video Here!) and caused thousands of complaints, according to ABC. So, with all of the buzz and chatter about his pelvis-thrust-heavy show, allow PopEater to break down the key moments of the performance, including the key turning point where things got way too hot for TV.


"American Idol" runner-up Adam Lambert sparked a lot of chatter after his provocative performance of "For Your Entertainment" at the American Music Awards on Sunday. The singer, who promised MTV News before the show that his AMA debut would be "sexy," hit the stage with a routine that featured a group of dancers, leashes, polls and an impromptu kiss with a male keyboard player.

We headed to New York's Times Square on Monday (November 23) to find out what fans thought of the edgy performance.

Lindsay, 16, a longtime Lambert fan, said she enjoyed the AMA routine. "I just liked the dancers and everything," she said. "I thought it was really good."

Jaquita, 18, applauded the use of props. "I really liked all the chains," she said.

But they were both in the minority, as nearly 78 percent of the fans we polled said they weren't feeling the performance.

Kaley, 16, thought the performance was surprising — but not necessarily in a good way. "It was kind of really dirty and sexual, I would say," she said.

Meanwhile, Malia, 16, thought the leashes and some of the more controversial choreography were unnecessary: "His fans are going to be like, 'What are you doing?' "

Lambert himself weighed in to Rolling Stone after the show, saying: "We're in 2009 — it's time to take risks, be a little more brave, time to open people's eyes, and if it offends them, then maybe I'm not for them."

Chrome OS And The Microsoft Squeeze

11/24/2009 11:43:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , , , , , 0 Comments

Now that we’ve all actually seen Chrome OS, the immediate reaction that most are jumping to is that it won’t be killing Windows anytime soon. Obviously. But that doesn’t mean it won’t hurt Microsoft, and apply long-term pressure to the dominant OS. In fact, Google’s positioning for Chrome OS reads like a page out of Apple’s playbook, only from the opposite direction.

Google is aiming Chrome OS right at the bottom of the market. That is to say, cheap computers, netbooks. Apple, of course, takes the opposite approach, targeting the high end of the market with their high-quality and high-margin machines. If Google is successful with its Chrome OS netbooks (let’s call them ChromeBooks), what we could see is the squeezing of Microsoft, an idea I first laid out a month ago. With attacks from the top and bottom, Windows will be relegated to the middle. And ultimately, if Google has its way, marginalized.

There are a number of problems with being in the middle. First and foremost, the middle is average, boring, bland, etc. There’s nothing particularly wrong with that, unless you’re a company like Microsoft with an image problem. After years of taking hits, Microsoft is trying to revamp its image with expensive ads, new stores, and a new OS, among other things. But the middle is hard to sell. It’s neither the cheapest nor the best. It’s the thing people have to settle on.

Microsoft, of course, is also in the netbook space with Windows XP and now Windows 7. But after being a sector on fire for much of the year, signs point to a slowdown in sales. While you might think that would be bad news for both Microsoft and Google, Google’s ChromeBooks are really a new category altogether. As Google said during its event, they’re working with specific hardware manufacturers to make machines set to a certain standard. This means that they’ll have larger keyboards and trackpads than most netbooks, among other things. In other words, they’ll be better, from a hardware perspective, than most netbooks.

And they potentially serve a different purpose. A couple days ago, Daring Fireball wondered if the real key for Chrome OS (and netbooks) may be to serve as your secondary computer. But there’s really no need to wonder, Google’s VP of Product Management, Sundar Pichai, said as much during the Q&A session. “This will be a secondary device. It may be a primary device in terms of time spent on it, but we expect people to have other computers too,” he said when asked about more powerful editing software not being able to run on Chrome OS.

People aren’t buying $300 computers with the expectation of running Photoshop (which costs $700) on them. They are buying them mainly to get an extremely portable machine that can surf the web. Google’s promise with Chrome OS is the fastest way to do that.

And that’s what a lot of critics are missing (but we’ve been saying since July). Google isn’t trying to compete with a standard OS, they’re trying to help users realize that for the majority of computing they do, they don’t need one in the first place. Maybe you have a desktop computer at home for those few tasks that need dedicated native applications, and maybe that runs Windows or maybe that runs OS X. But maybe the machine that you use most of the time is your cheap, fast ChromeBook.

Though they get criticized a lot for not making a netbook, Apple also competes in this highly mobile space — their “netbook” is the iPhone. While unlike Chrome OS, the iPhone can run native applications, it speaks to a similar point: Increasingly, for most of your computing, you don’t need Windows.

The point is that consumer computing is shifting to a place where speed and mobility are paramount. The reason people are so excited about products like the CrunchPad and Apple’s tablet isn’t because they can run Photoshop — they can’t — it’s because they offer an easy way to use the Internet. Same thing with the iPhone. Same thing with Android phones. And it will be the same thing with Chrome OS and the ChromeBooks.

The difference is that these ChromeBooks will be the first devices that actually look like the traditional computers we’re used to. They will look like they could be Windows machines, but they won’t be. That’s a powerful stereotype to break. And if Google breaks that at the bottom of the market, with Apple continuing to break it at the top of the market, Microsoft will begin to feel squeezed.

Actress Vicki Zhao has come a long way since her My Fair Princess days

11/24/2009 11:43:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

ONE woman, many faces - that's Vicki ZhaoWei.

In her latest film, Mulan, the Chinese actress plays Hua Mulan, the famous woman warrior in Chinese forklore.

The real-life heroine pretended to be a man and took the place of her father in the army to fight invading foreign tribes.

Her story has been dramatised in movies, operas and even a Disney cartoon.

Vicki, 33, said she could understand the role well 'because I'm a bit like her'.

She told The New Paper over the phone from Shanghai last Thursday: 'Mulan never does anything for herself. As actors, we must have this quality too.'

'I'm usually willing to help others. I'm not calculative; otherwise, it's very tiring.'

But recent reports have painted Vicki as the exact opposite - a self-centred, boyfriend-stealing vixen.

Hong Kong's Next Magazine accused her of snatching the fiance of Miss Hong Kong 2005 Tracy Ip - a certain Mr Huang Youlong, a 30-year-old real estate magnate from China.

It also reported that Vicki married Mr Huang in Singapore in August.

The New Paper's checks with the Registry of Marriages here did not throw up any records of such a marriage.

And during our interview, Vicki rubbished the allegations, saying: 'There's no such thing.'

In China the Guangzhou Daily newspaper reported in September that Vicky had denied she is married, though she admitted she had found a life partner.

Meanwhile, Tracy confirmed to the Hong Kong media that she once dated Mr Huang. And there have been press reports that the two were engaged.

But Tracy would not confirm whether Vicki had indeed snatched her man.

And Vicki told The New Paper: 'I won't comment further, otherwise I will be accused of creating news deliberately.'

Actor Chen Kun - who played Vicki's love interest in Mulan and last year's Painted Skin - told The New Paper over the phone from Beijing in a separate interview that Vicki is easy-going.

'She likes to joke a lot, but she's very serious when it comes to acting,' he said.

Vicki's roles have definitely evolved.

She first rose to international fame with her portrayal of a wilful princess in the 1997 Chinese drama My Fair Princess.

Since then, she has appeared in movies such as Red Cliff, Warriors Of Heaven And Earth, So Close, Chinese Odyssey 2002 and Shaolin Soccer.

In Mulan, she plays yet another feisty woman, who becomes a military general.

Said Vicki: 'This is the most demanding role I have undertaken.

'I not only had to act as a man, but I had to fight while riding a horse. There were also many emotional scenes.'

She went through two weeks of rigorous physical training to get used to wearing heavy armour and 'slitting enemy throats' with a sword.

Maturity

Her on-screen transition in characters mirrors her maturity in real life, said Vicki.

'In My Fair Princess, I was a naive and innocent girl. But in Mulan, I had to shoulder many responsibilities as a military commander. I could take on this role only because I have experienced a lot in life.'

Vicki has also become more composed and adept in handling controversies over the years.

In 2001, pictures of her in a dress featuring the Japanese rising sun symbol were published in the Chinese magazine Fashion.

The emblem, associated with Japanese imperialism, irked Chinese readers and media.

Vicki, through her spokesman, blamed the magazine publishers and the American designer of the dress, claiming that she could not object to wearing it because it was part of a New York fashion shoot.

But that failed to appease her detractors. Following boycotts of her in China, she was forced to make several public apologies.

In contrast, during the recent interview, she remained calm and amicable even when questions about her controversies, past and present, were raised.

Perhaps that's because she is clear about what she wants in life.

'I won't respond to what others are saying,' said Vicki.

'My main goal now is to improve my acting skills. Without dreams, we would be crippled.'

Chrome OS security: 'Sandboxing' and auto updates

11/24/2009 11:42:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , 0 Comments

With most computers threatened by attacks coming through Web applications, it's no surprise that security would be a key piece of Chrome OS, Google's browser-based operating system that stores data in the cloud.

Google showed off its new lightweight operating system designed for Netbooks and cloud computing on Thursday. As anticipated, it will rely on many of the same security features and concepts used by the Chrome browser.

"The browser is the operating system. We've expanded the browser to add operating system functionality," Caesar Sengupta, a group product manager at Google, said in an interview.

Chrome OS uses a combination of operating system-level protections and exploit mitigation techniques to limit the attack surface, or amount of code that can be targeted in an attack, and to reduce the likelihood of an attack being successful. "The biggest security impact is that all applications run within the browser," Sengupta said.

Chrome relies heavily on sandboxing, keeping different processes and applications in separate partitions. This limits the interaction between applications and the OS kernel.

For example, with conventional operating systems, if an application crashes, it can crash or otherwise affect other programs that are running, Sengupta said. "But if everything is sandboxed, that becomes more difficult to do," he added.

Many systems are compromised by deceptive attacks, such as when a user opens an innocent-looking PowerPoint file which unleashes a virus or other malware that can get access to everything on the computer.

With Chrome, "applications can't just download any binary and run it," Sengupta said.

Chrome has a verified boot process that uses cryptography to ensure that the Linux kernel, the nonvolatile system memory, and the partition table are not tampered with when the system starts up, according to a security overview of Chrome. (Google security engineer Will Drewry explains the security concepts of Chrome OS in a video on YouTube.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9WVmNfgjtQ

"Right now, on your conventional operating system, any kind of process can run, which makes it difficult to predict what any process will do," Sengupta said. "On Chrome, because the whole operating system is essentially signed by Google, there is a lot we can do to make it secure."

If an application manages somehow to break out of the browser sandbox, to get through the kernel hardening and processing infrastructure, and manages to change something on the operating system, the changes will be detected the next time the user boots up the machine. "As soon as it detects something is different and not signed by Google, it will warn the user and try to clean itself again," Sengupta said.

Cleaning up is easier than with a standard operating system, too, because the system data is separated from the user data, which includes user preferences, system settings, and a local cache of data stored on the Google servers in the cloud, he said.

All user data stored by the operating system, browser, and any plug-ins are encrypted and users cannot access each others' data on a shared device, according to the Chrome OS security page.

Meanwhile, Chrome will automatically update to get the most recent software and patches for the operating system, just like the Chrome browser updates in the background while users are online, Sengupta said. Users will not run the risk of having their system get infected or compromised before they can install updates, as happens with Windows and other software.

In addition, the antiphishing technology found in the Chrome browser will protect Chrome OS users from inadvertently visiting malicious Web sites, he said.

Google is publishing detailed design documents on Chrome OS, which will allow security experts to scour the code for weaknesses over the next year before the operating system is released to the public, according to Sengupta.

There are some security and networking technologies that are supported in other operating systems that Google is passing on, at least for now.

Google will keep an eye on biometric authentication technologies, but believes that the cost/reliability trade-off is not where it needs to be just yet, according to the security overview for Chrome OS. Smart cards and USB crypto tokens are "interesting technology, but we don't want our users to have to keep track of a physically distinct item just to use their devices," the overview concludes.

Google is likewise not interested in Bluetooth, a wireless protocol widely used in laptops and handheld devices. "Bluetooth adds a whole new software stack to our login/screenlocker code that could potentially be buggy, and the security of the pairing protocol has been criticized in the past," the security overview says.

Rob and Kristen "Relaxed" Together in NYC

11/24/2009 11:41:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , , 0 Comments

After grueling months of promotion for New Moon, the Twilight cast has been finding some time to unwind in New York City. All while their li'l film dominates the box office.

Friday night Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart skipped out on the New Moon afterparty and opted for a more private party together at Avenue in NYC, even showing some PG PDA.

The couple also supposedly hit the town together last night.

Rob was photographed leaving trendy eatery Megu in Tribeca, but Kristen was nowhere in paparazzi sight.

How is it possible that they keep going to all these places without getting photographed together? Could it be because K.Stew just really wasn't there?

Nope, Robsten's just that good!

It has been confirmed that Stewart joined Rob and his party of eight for dinner at Megu last night.

A source inside the restaurant tells E! Pattison was drinking a few of the Fritz Briem, an artisanal beer, as part of Megu's beer night, and was munching on some signature Japanese dishes like the kobe beef skewers and okaki asparagus.

Kristen enjoyed a sashimi platter and the king crab, and since the actress is still underage, she drank coca cola all night, natch.

"They weren't overly affectionate," says a restaurant spy, "but everyone knows by now [Rob and Kristen] are together. They were all laughing and seemed to be having a really good time. They actually looked relaxed."

Could New Yorkers be immune to this Twilight craziness?

"People pretty much just let them be," our source says at the restaurant. It's shocking but true that New Yorkers seem to care less about celebs out and about in their city.

But don't think Robsten got too comfortable. They were sure not to get pictured leaving together.

Obviously, Rob took one for the team, offering up his sexy mug to the swarm of paparazzi waiting out front, while Kristen was able to slip out the back pretty much unnoticed (or rather, unphotographed).

Way to be chivalrous, Rob! Maybe you two have been reading this blolumn after all.

Where they'll be spending Thanksgiving is still up in the air, but something tells us you might see R.Pattz on a flight back to Los Angeles.

Can News Corp. afford calling Google's bluff?

11/24/2009 11:41:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , 0 Comments

It was inevitable that someone would seriously consider taking Google's dare.

For years, Google has all but dared traditional media companies trying to develop online businesses to live without the traffic it sends their way. The folks at the Googleplex make it clear that content owners who believe Google is unfairly indexing (or stealing, depending on your point of view) their content can easily remove that content from Google's massive corner of the Internet.

There's a tradeoff for that independence, of course: Don't expect the advertisers that have signed deals based on site traffic to pay the same amount next year.

News Corp. might be getting ready to do what many think is unthinkable. Reports have surfaced over the last several months, most recently in the Financial Times, that News Corp. is in talks with Microsoft to enact a plan that would see News Corp. properties hiding their content from Google's search engine in return for exclusive listing with Bing.

Rupert Murdoch, News Corp.'s famously cantankerous leader, isn't stupid: Microsoft would also have to pay News Corp. for the privilege of exclusive access to that content. But as Microsoft continues to lose billions of dollars a year on its online business, can it afford to be successful with this strategy?

Even if Microsoft is willing to cough up a huge sum (which Kara Swisher at Boomtown thinks is unlikely) for News Corp. content, this plan would only have a chance of turning the tables on Google if News Corp. and Microsoft can convince other large media companies to follow their lead.

First off, the practice of actually removing News Corp. content from Google would be relatively simple. News stories from The Wall Street Journal, commentary from The New York Post, and videos from News Corp.'s myriad cable and satellite television organizations can be tagged with a "noindex" tag, and Google won't index those pages as they are published. This also applies to pages that have been previously indexed, since they will be crawled again, this time with the new tag attached.

However, News Corp. would then need a backup plan to compensate for the revenue it would lose from the precipitous drop in traffic. With 65 percent of the search market, Google is the largest Web site in the world as measured by traffic. And its stated goal is to be the best information kiosk ever created by fielding queries and sending searchers on their way as fast as possible.

Murdoch has proposed removing his Web sites from Google only after constructing pay walls like the one used at the Wall Street Journal to limit free access to content, which is a somewhat controversial notion in this media era.

What News Corp. and Microsoft are reportedly discussing, however, is slightly different. Under the scenario outlined by the Financial Times, it does not appear that News Corp. would erect pay walls for all its content upon removal from Google. Instead, it would continue to make that ad-supported content available for free exclusively through Bing, helping offset the decline in traffic with a cash payment.

The two companies would then presumably market the hell out of the arrangement, because it would require a sizable shift in consumer expectations for Internet search. Right now, people are used to the idea that DirecTV is the only television provider that can offer a full package of NFL games every week, or that Comcast's Versus channel isn't available on DirecTV because of a licensing spat.

But that's not what they expect when they search online for news or information about a certain topic, and it would take some effort to educate them that The Wall Street Journal or Fox News' content can only be found if you're searching on Bing. Microsoft has already invested $100 million into Bing advertising, and would need to increase that amount to drive home the point that Bing is the only place you can find Fox News stories.

So will enough people be interested in that content as to change their search behavior and dramatically increase Microsoft's search market share? It's hard to see News Corp. moving the needle by itself, but modest results could embolden Microsoft to cut similar deals with other news companies and start the ball rolling toward the idea of Bing 2.0 as "the world's news search engine." That would be an interesting product.

As with just about everything, however, such a deal will likely come down to the amount Microsoft is willing to invest in such a project. Microsoft's Online Services Division, which runs Bing, is currently hemorrhaging money to the tune of $480 million in losses during its first quarter alone. Setting up content deals with the media industry would increase short-term costs with an iffy notion of when that investment would pay off in terms of increased search market share. And while Microsoft continues to milk Windows and Office profits, it can't throw money down a rabbit hole forever.

That means there's a sizable chance that this whole operation is geared around News Corp. negotiating a search and technology services deal with Microsoft to replace its current one with Google, which expires next June. Installing Bing as the search provider on News Corp. sites would generate increased searches for Microsoft while denying a common enemy Google some revenue, without kick-starting a huge battle that would have wide-ranging effects.

Murdoch has been able to tap into a well of frustration among those in the traditional media business over the way they are unable to duplicate the profits they enjoyed in the offline world on the Internet. But does he really want to call Google's bluff?

If so, he's banking on the notion that while basic news is a commodity, opinion and analysis is not. And whatever you might think of the various News Corp. properties, it's hard to argue they haven't earned a reputation for themselves as a unique source of opinion and analysis.

Kate Hudson narrowly escapes a wardrobe malfunction with her incredibly low-cut dress

11/24/2009 11:41:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

Wearing a vintage silver Versace mini-dress to the American Music Awards last night, Kate Hudson was looking to make a good impression.



But as she took to the stage to introduce the Black Eyed Peas, the 30-year-old narrowly escaped exposing her breasts at the audience as her loose-fitting neckline hung off her chest.

Clearly aware of the lack of coverage the shimmering gown gave her modest cleavage, the How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days actress fiddled nervously with her top as she talked on stage.

Joining her statuesque Nine co-star Nicole Kidman on stage, Hudson incited giggles from the audience as she repeatedly touched her plunging neckline.

But once backstage at Los Angeles' Nokia Theatre with boyfriend Alex Rodriguez, Hudson appeared much more relaxed about her dress now she was out of the public glare.

The New York Yankees player, who Hudson has been dating since May, was also on presenting duty at the ceremony, introducing Jay-Z and Alicia Keys.

The mother-of-one has always been confident about her body, and despite her small chest, has often worn revealing low-cut tops and dresses.


During an interview with People magazine last year, Hudson said she would consider having a boob job after she finished having a family.

She said: 'Probably after I have all my babies, I'll be wondering. It will definitely be something I'll go think about like every woman after they have babies.

'And then I think, "You know what? I just like being small-chested, and it would feel really weird and bizarre if I was anything different."'

Hudson admitted she was stunned when her breasts were digitally-enhanced for the posters of her 2008 movie Fool's Gold.

She said: 'They are so not my boobs - they look too perfect. Seriously, if I ever wanted to have them done, I'd take this poster to the doctor and say, "This is what I want them to look like."

'You can't help what your genes are. My mom [Goldie Hawn] was way skinnier than I am. With the Hudson gene [her dad, Bill Hudson], I got a little more girth on me, but we're a skinny family.'

Hudson was joined on stage by her latest co-star Kidman, who showed off her slender physique in a loose-fitting pink and grey Balenciaga mermaid gown.

Microsoft's IE9 to tap hardware for speed boost

11/24/2009 11:40:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , 0 Comments

Rivals, including Mozilla and Opera, also working to boost their browsers' rendering speeds

Microsoft's next browser, Internet Explorer 9 (IE9), will offload image and text rendering chores to the PC's graphic processor, one way the company plans to increase the browser's overall performance, according to the firm's top IE manager.

But Microsoft won't be alone. Rivals including Mozilla, which makes Firefox, and Norwegian developer Opera, are working on ways to use a computer's graphics processor unit (GPU) to accelerate their browsers.

Microsoft last week revealed a few details about IE9, which has no set ship date or even a publicly-disclosed development plan. While acknowledging that the company had a lot of catching up to do, however, Steven Sinofsky, Microsoft's president of Windows and Windows Live, said that early work on IE9 had already shown significant performance strides.

In a follow-up interview, Dean Hachamovitch, the general manager for IE, explained one way that Microsoft would speed up IE9.

"One reason why you get such great value from PC hardware comes from the machine's graphics, [so] we're moving IE on top of the modern Windows graphics engine, DirectX," said Hachamovitch. Specifically, IE9 will ditch Windows' GDI (Graphics Device Interface) used by earlier versions for image rendering, and instead call on the Direct2D and DirectWrite APIs (application programming interfaces) to render two-dimensional images and text, respectively.

Those APIs shift the processing from the PC's CPU to its GPU. "Graphics hardware acceleration means that rich, graphically intensive sites can render faster while using less CPU," Hachamovitch said.

Although Hachamovitch declined to peg a goal for IE9's hardware-based acceleration, he said early results have been encouraging. "On top of GDI, we were seeing IE render at 5-10 frames per second. Users don't know whether that's [caused by] the network, or a site script, but it just seems kind of slow to them. Using [Direct2D], we're seeing 40, 50 or 60 frames per second. That's game-like responsiveness."

Because the image and text rendering -- DirectWrite results in much sharper text -- is done by Windows in conjunction with the GPU, there's nothing Web site or Web application developers will have to do to make their sites seem faster to IE9 users. "Web developers can take advantage of the hardware ecosystem's advances in graphics, but don't have to rewrite their sites to do that," Hachamovitch said.

Microsoft isn't alone in exploring graphics acceleration: The top engineers at Mozilla and Opera both said that their companies are pursing the same grail.

"We have our own projects to use OpenGL on open platforms, and Microsoft's APIs on Windows," said Mike Shaver, Mozilla's vice president of engineering. OpenGL, or Open Graphics Library, is an open-source set of function calls used to render two- and three-dimensional images.

Opera, like Mozilla, doesn't limit itself to building a browser for Windows only, as does Microsoft, and so faces the same cross-platform issues as Mozilla. But hardware acceleration is coming, argued Hakon Wium Lie, Opera's chief technology officer. "We're going to see hardware acceleration across the board," Wie said. "But we can't tie ourselves to a single API, like Microsoft."

Both Shaver and Lie noted that graphics-based browser acceleration would deliver even more benefits on mobile devices, such as smartphones. Mozilla is working on a mobile version of Firefox, dubbed Fennec, while the mobile version of Opera is much more popular than its desktop sibling.

Shaver said that hardware acceleration would debut in one of the upcoming editions of Firefox, although not in Firefox 3.6, which is slated to hit release candidate status later this month and ship before the end of the year. "We'll put it in when it's ready," Shaver said. Firefox 3.7, another minor upgrade, is set to wrap up in the first half of next year, while the major upgrade to Firefox 4.0 is currently scheduled for later in 2010.

Although some have accused Microsoft of ignoring available standards -- including OpenGL for rendering two-dimensional images -- charges that have been leveled against the company numerous times in the past over other issues, Shaver and Lie refused to be drawn into that conversation. "It would be nice if we could use OpenGL on Windows, but you have to play the cards that are dealt," Shaver said. "On Windows, DirectX and Direct2D are the only reasonable path right now, so for building a Windows browser, using the DirectX APIs is reasonable. Microsoft isn't doing anything that we wouldn't be able to do."

Shaver pointed out that Direct2D was only available on Windows Vista and Windows 7, a limiting factor. Most Windows PCs, however, still run the eight-year-old-and-counting Windows XP.

"Microsoft's approach is reasonable as long as [the APIs] remain documented," said Lie, who added that if they weren't, Opera would be the first to object. Opera has done that in the past by filing complaints with European antitrust regulators over Microsoft's bundling of IE with Windows, and IE's purported lack of support for widely-used Web standards.

"Hardware acceleration will deliver extraordinary performance [to IE9]," said Microsoft's Hachamovitch, something that Shaver and Lie echoed.

"Everyone will have a better experience on the Web," Lie agreed.

Taiwan singer Angela Chang says her family woes have turned into a public joke

11/24/2009 11:40:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

ELEVEN years ago, she decided to be an entertainer.

But now, Taiwanese songbird Angela Chang is resigned to the fact that her private family problems have become part of public entertainment.

The doe-eyed 27-year-old told The New Paper last Friday: 'I started out hoping to provide enjoyment for everyone. But now it's all coming back to me. My family difficulties have become a joke.'

Angela, who rose to fame acting in Taiwanese drama My MVP Valentine, was in town last week to promote her sixth album, titled The 5th Season.

And Angela knows the public is more interested in her season of domestic disputes.

In September, her parents went to Taiwan's Next Magazine with allegations that she had refused to take care of them. Her mother also accused Angela's Vietnamese friend Jenny of putting a hex on Angela.

Angela's mum commented that the stick-thin singer-actress looked like she was in a trance and had dark circles around her eyes, insinuating that she could have been taking drugs.

Legal action

Later that month, it was Angela's turn to spill the beans about her parents when she held a press conference in Taiwan.

According to Angela, the eldest of three children, she had cleaned cars and delivered lunch-boxes to support the family since the age of 15, after her dad stopped working due to a heart problem.

And last year, after recovering from a heart ailment in Canada, she returned to an empty home in Taiwan. She claimed her mum had taken off with her savings, amounting to NT$100 million ($4.3m).

Angela's music label Linfair Records has since issued a statement dismissing all the allegations about her, and indicated it may take legal action against Next Magazine for its 'non-factual' reporting, to protect Angela's reputation.

But Next Magazine insisted it was merely 'reporting whatever she (Angela's mum) told us'.

The magazine's spokesman added that if Linfair Records plans to take legal action, they should be clear about the facts involved or risk being guilty of making false allegations.

Angela's family argument escalated quickly to become a public dispute between the two companies - and it all took place during the final stage of confirming the songs in her new album.

Angela self-deprecatingly included a cover version of the Bee Gees classic I Started A Joke in The 5th Season. It is the only English song on it.

The lyrics go: 'I started to cry, which started the whole world laughing, oh, if I'd only seen that the joke was on me.'

Angela told The New Paper: 'That was exactly how I felt at that time.'

Privacy

Is the domestic dispute resolved?

'Thank you for the concern, but I hope to settle this on my own,' said Angela with a weary smile.

She did reveal, however, that she is tired of losing her privacy, but has accepted it as part of her job as a public figure.

'You gain some, you lose some,' she added philosophically.

She also said her working schedule is draining - up to 12 hours on a short day, but longer when there's filming to be done.

Yet, having the love and support of her brother, 18, and sister, 26, makes it all worthwhile, she said.

Both siblings are now working.

Her sister had accompanied her to the Taiwan press conference where Angela spoke out against their parents.

Said Angela: 'I have always been a responsible daughter and sister, and I hope to give my family a better life.'

But most people wouldn't wash their dirty linen in public. So was all this staged by Angela to milk publicity for her new album?

She denied it, saying: 'When such a family problem happens, nobody really knows what to say or do.

'Every member of the public is entitled to his own opinion, but not all are true.'

Angela added that after more than a decade in showbiz, she has discovered that 'everyone learns different things due to his unique experience in life'.

'I'm actually just like any normal human being.'

Mike Fisher: Carrie Underwood Is Only My Second "Serious Girlfriend"

11/24/2009 11:39:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

He's a star hockey player for the Ottawa Senators today, but Mike Fisher might be turning over a new leaf: recording artist!

After his girlfriend Carrie Underwood wrote "I love you" to him in her new album's liner notes, the 29 year-old athlete jokes, "I told her that when my CD came out, I'd return the favor."

In an interview with the Toronto Sun, Fisher poo-poos marriage talk but admits that Underwood, 26, is only his second "serious girlfriend."

"There has been only one other girlfriend, really," he says. "It lasted a while, but it was a long time ago."

Similarly, Underwood recently told Ellen DeGeneres that her one-year relationship with Fisher is "the longest relationship I've had."

In the Play On liner notes, Underwood coos of Fisher. "You make my life better in every way! I thank God for you every day."

"Obviously, it was very nice," Fisher tells the Toronto Sun of the tribute. "I was happy she included me in something like that."

Stressing their need for privacy, Fisher acknowledges, "we're both happy with the way things are . . . I'm obviously happy . . .things are great off the ice."

Last week on Ellen, Underwood stressed that they have no plans to move in together. "Call me old fashioned," she said. "The next guy I move in with will be my hubby. Who ever that is. I'm not saying it's going to be him."

Windows Mobile is better than you think

11/24/2009 11:39:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , 0 Comments

Regular readers here know that I am a fan of the Windows Mobile operating system, even though that is not necessarily a popular opinion since it isn’t the flashiest and newest OS. I have talked about the strengths of Windows Mobile quite a bit and was pleased to see my friend and MoTR cohost, James Kendrick, post a fair comparison article between Android and Windows Mobile. James takes a look at multi-tasking, available apps, user interface, and computer desktop integration. It was refreshing to see James award the advantage to Windows Mobile in 3 of 4 areas with the last one being a tie.

I have said this same thing to folks regarding the Symbian S60 platform too. While S60 and Windows Mobile are not the freshest and most exciting platforms, they are still extremely functional and useful. I personally also find the S60 platform to be much more stable than anything out there and is just runs and runs without issues. All four of the areas James listed are also strong for Symbian devices.

Microsoft confirms IE6, IE7 zero-day bug

11/24/2009 11:38:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , 0 Comments

No word on patch plans; disable JavaScript, say researchers

Microsoft today confirmed that exploit code published last week can compromise PCs running older versions of Internet Explorer (IE), but said its security team has not yet seen any in-the-wild attacks.

The attack code, which was posted Friday to the Bugtraq security mailing list, affects both Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) and the newer IE7, Microsoft acknowledged. "Microsoft can confirm that the publicly available exploit code affects IE6 and IE7, not IE8," a company spokesman said in an e-mail reply to questions today.

IE6 and IE7 account for more than 41% of all browsers used worldwide, according to the most recent data from metrics firm Net Applications. IE8, meanwhile, has an 18.1% market share.

Over the weekend, Symantec researchers took note of the exploit code, but said that it was shaky. "The exploit currently exhibits signs of poor reliability, but we expect that a fully-functional reliable exploit will be available in the near future," the security company's analysis team said in an entry on a company blog Saturday.

According to Danish vulnerability tracking vendor Secunia, the flaw is in IE's layout parser, and could be exploited by hackers to hijack fully-patched Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) machines. Secunia rated the vulnerability as "highly critical," its second-highest threat ranking.

Microsoft declined to answer questions about which versions of Windows are vulnerable. Windows Vista, for example, ships with IE7. Windows 7, however, relies on the unaffected IE8.

The company also declined to spell out plans for quashing the IE bug. "Microsoft is investigating new public claims of a possible vulnerability in Internet Explorer," the spokesman said, using boilerplate that the company regularly rolls out when it's asked about patching progress. "Once we're done investigating, we will take appropriate action to help protect customers ... [which] may include providing a security update through the monthly release process, an out-of-cycle update or additional guidance to help customers protect themselves."

Microsoft will issue its next scheduled security updates in a little more than two weeks on Dec. 8.

One security researcher said it's unlikely Microsoft will move fast enough to make that deadline. "Seeing as though they haven't even posted an advisory, and with the holiday this week, I'm doubting a Dec. 8 release," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Network Security.

More likely, said Storms, is that Microsoft will offer steps that IE6 and IE7 users can take to defend themselves.

On Saturday, Symantec recommended that users disable JavaScript in IE6 and IE7, a move that could stymie attacks, since the current exploit code requires JavaScript.

To turn off JavaScript, users should select the "Tools" menu in IE, then click "Internet Options," the "Security" tab and the "Internet" content zone. Next, click "Custom Level" and in the "Settings" box, click "Disable" under "Active scripting." Click "OK" in the current dialog box, as well as the next.

Lee Hyori’s heads to NYC for new album concept

11/24/2009 11:38:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

Sexy Queen Lee Hyori has boarded a plane headed to NYC to formulate concept ideas for her new upcoming album.

Lee Hyori's rep stated:

"She will be in NYC for about 2 weeks where she will plan her new albums' concept, clothing and other preparations."

Originally Hyori's 4th album was to be released at the end of this year, but because she was not completely satisfied with it yet, the release date has been pushed to early next year.

NYC, keep your eyes peeled for Lee Hyori!

Courteney Cox Returning to Cougar Town Set

11/24/2009 11:38:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

Cougar Town is getting back its Realtor.

The ABC show, which stopped filming briefly last week so star Courteney Cox could attend to a "family matter," resumes production Nov. 30 following an already-planned weeklong break for Thanksgiving, the network says.

The nature of the family issue wasn't disclosed. But Cox's reps confirm to PEOPLE the actress and her family are fine and that she'll be returning to work following the Thanksgiving hiatus.

Cox's costar Busy Phillips wrote in a Twitter message Monday that Cougar Town was "only down one day" and that "we're back shooting after Thanksgiving. I'll pass along the love to CC."

Technology We'll Miss When It's Gone

11/24/2009 11:37:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , 0 Comments

As tech speeds inexorably forward, many gadgets and services will be left in heaps on the roadside. Problem is, we'll truly miss some of them.

The times, they are a-changin'. When haven't they been? But change isn't always good. Here are ten tech items whose days are numbered, and we're going to miss them all--though some more than others--when they're gone.

1. MP3 Players

Sure, we'll still have portable devices that can play MP3s, but a few years from now they'll all be cell phones. Even the once-mighty iPod is no longer a growth product for Apple; in fact, iPod sales are now declining in double-digit percentages. It probably won't be long before Apple gives up on the thing, what with the far fatter profit margin that the iPhone offers, but consumers will lose out in the bargain. After all, wouldn't it be nice to listen to a song or two on the subway without having to pay 80 bucks a month?

2. Optical Drives

Suppose that you need to install some software on several computers. You could download a copy from an FTP site, copy it to a thumb drive, and then carry that thumb drive from one computer to another, pausing at each waystation for drivers to install and for Windows to recognize the thing. Or you could grab a labeled, archivable application CD, pop it into each computer's optical drive, and handle the task that way (assuming that they have such a drive). And don't get us started on the agony of trying to watch a movie on your laptop without having a drive on your laptop.

3. The Mouse

A funny thing happened this year. Computer manufacturers got it into their heads that people would rather lift their entire arm up off the table and draw on their screen with their fingers instead of using a touchpad or mouse as they have for the past 25 years. Blame the iPhone, of course: Multitouch went from the next big thing to the big thing right now, all because of that blasted device--and despite the fact that a phone in your hand and a mammoth laptop on your desk have virtually nothing in common. We'll miss the mouse (here's its history so far), at least until mountains of chiropractor bills outrage consumers, who then force vendors to wake up and bring it back. What's next? Putting multitouch into a table ? Wait, don't answer that.

4. Dumb Phones

Your phone has a camera, a GPS device, a compass, voice control, a stock market tracker, a weather center, a calculator, a music player, video game controls, an e-mail management system, a Web browser, an instant messaging client, a restaurant review navigator, a Twitter feed, Facebook, an e-book reader, a happy-hour locator, a virtual DJ, and a sushi identification system. That's all great. But once in a while, we'd just like to make a phone call.

5. Digital Cameras

There's nothing quite like receiving via MMS a grainy, underlit, out-of-focus, badly framed shot of your niece. Yet more and more the phone-clutching American populace is abandoning stand-alone digital cameras as the device of choice for snapping occasional photos; instead they're turning to their cell phones, which are always at the ready and are "good enough" for sending a snap to the 'rents or posting something pithy to their blogs. Fortunately, cell phone cameras are getting better (some even have a flash) and though they lack the manual controls of even a basic point-and-shoot camera, you can't argue with the convenience of carrying a single gadget instead of two. Stand-alone cameras will continue to exist, of course, but the days of the ubiquitous shooter-around-the-neck are rapidly drawing to a close.

6. Microsoft Windows

From the over-the-top marketing campaigns to the soothing default backgrounds to the dulcet startup sounds, what's not to like about Microsoft Windows? Again, don't answer that. But mock it all you want, Windows has served lots of people reasonably well over the years. Now the twilight of the OS is approaching, as the cloud consumes more and more of what we used to need our computers to do (explainer: Cloud Computing). From Webmail to hosted apps, online conveniences have rendered full-fledged computers unnecessary for many former users, who can get by with a Linux netbook or a Mac. We'll miss you most of all, Clippy!

7. MySpace

We hasten to say: MySpace is horrible. We certainly won't miss the gaudy wasteland that fills 99 percent of MySpace space. Rather, we're going to miss the original idea underlying this social network--of a place where in theory you might go to find out where your favorite band is playing, listen to their latest tracks, hear a comic try out a few new jokes, and maybe keep in touch with your friends. Instead, MySpace has become a useless (and dying) magnet for spammers, clueless preteens, and attention addicts, none of whom seem to be in on the joke. Good riddance.

8. Pay Phones

Every horror movie fan knows the drill: When things get dire, there's no cell phone signal; or if there is, the battery dies within a couple of minutes (hot link: "Cell Phone Battery Explodes in the Night!"). If only Homeland Security could come up with a system of publicly accessible telephones that accepted pocket change and let citizens make calls from any street corner in America. Alas, the telephone companies have largely dismantled the country's pay-phone system, though you may still find a few phones in an airport or subway station. Worst of all, the remaining pay-phone stations sit idle and ignored. Whatever happened to turning old phone kiosks into Wi-Fi hotspots?

9. Packaged Media

There's nothing quite like handing little Debbie a carefully wrapped Christmas present and watching her eyes light up as she opens it to reveal...an iTunes gift card. The death of packaged media--CDs, DVDs, laserdiscs, you name it--has turned thoughtful, recipient-focused gift-giving into a boring and perfunctory affair, about as heartfelt as slipping your grandkid a twenty and telling him not to spend it all in one place. And something else bothers us even more: With a digital download, you're in possession of an album or movie that has zero resale value. In the packaged media days, you could always resell unwanted media on eBay or trade it in at a local record store.

10. Good Manners

So there you are, pouring your soul out to your best friend over a Sazerac cocktail, and just when you hit the meat of your story, he reaches into his pocket, pulls out his cell phone, and starts looking through his text messages and e-mail. Sure, he's nodding along while you relate your tragic tale...but is he really listening or just arranging a hook-up for later. Being connected by technology means never being out of touch with anyone else...and the rise of texting makes simultaneously carrying on multiple conversations less obvious than it would be via voice. That doesn't make it right of course, but...hey, you can keep talking while I check this message.

What will you miss when it's gone?

Actress Fann Wong down with H1N1

11/24/2009 11:37:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

The local full-feature comedy "Happy Go Lucky" held its first day shoot ceremony on Monday without leading actress Fann Wong, who has been diagnosed as having H1N1.

Fann, who had returned on Thursday from a work trip to Hainan Island, developed flu symptoms the next day and a fever on Sunday. She was diagnosed that evening with the virus when she visited a doctor.

While the artiste rests at home, production of the movie – slated for a Chinese New Year release – is in "tremendous chaos" as a new filming schedule has to be planned, her manager told MediaCorp.

The actress has been given a 10-day medical leave. The comedy is Fann's first movie since her September wedding to actor Christopher Lee.

Intel Core i9: Six-Cores Of Speed

11/24/2009 11:37:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , 0 Comments

Intel's Core i9 chips won't hit the market for a few more months, but that hasn't stopped Polish site PCLab from putting the new 32 nanometer processors through its paces in a recent series of benchmark tests.



While testing pre-release 2.8 GHz Gulftown chips, PCLab found a significant speed increase with certain applications. According to their report, certain resource-intensive tasks tasks, such as editing video or 3D modelling, perform up to 50% faster than Intel's currently available Core i7 chip.

Unfortunately, the chips didn't shine in all areas; its performance is similar to that of older Core i7 chips when handling less demanding general activities.

However, the Core i9 CPUs fared well when it came to power usage, using less power and running cooler in comparison to older chips.

These results, which you can read in full here, could change before the Core i9's release in the first quarter of next year, so watch this space.

AMAs: Jennifer Lopez lands on her derrière after tricky dance move goes wrong

11/24/2009 01:09:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , , 0 Comments

It was a daring dance manoeuvre that could have gone terribly wrong - and unfortunately for Jennifer Lopez - it did.



The diva fell flat on her famous rear end while performing her new single Louboutins at the American Music Awards in Los Angeles last night.

The 40-year-old mother of two began the dramatic stunt by climbing up a human pyramid of semi-naked male dancers.

She then drew gasps from the audience when she lost her balance after jumping off a dancer's back, and landed on her derriere.

Fear in her eyes: Jennifer Lopez looked uneasy as she jumped off the shoulders of a dancer during her performance at the American Music Awards in Los Angeles last night

Down for the count: Jennifer, who chose a boxing theme for her performance, took a hit to her ego after
landing with a thud

But, ever the professional, Jennifer quickly recovered her poise and carried on with the show.

After hours of rehearsals, the slip up would have disappointed the singer, who is known to be something of a perfectionist.

But it seems that the only thing bruised was her ego, with her spokesperson assuring concerned fans that 'she's fine, totally fine.'



Jennifer's boxing themed act was just one of many high profile appearances on the night.

Rihanna returned to the AMA stage, sporting blonde hair, a skintight, white peek-a-boo bodysuit and a tattoo down the front of her neck that read Rated R, the name of her new album.

Her rendition of Wait Your Turn marked Rihanna's first U.S. performance since she pulled out of the Grammys in February after she was assaulted by ex-boyfriend Chris Brown.



The Black Eyed Peas, voted favorite pop/rock band, energized the crowd when they performed two of the year's most popular hits: I Got A Feeling and Boom Boom Pow.

Janet Jackson opened the show with a medley of some of the biggest hits from her long career - all tracks that appear on her new greatest-hits collection, also called Number Ones.



Alicia Keys and Jay-Z duetted on their ode to New York City, Empire State Of Mind. Shakira was flanked by a dozen dancers in tiny black bodysuits as she sang her new single.

Kelly Clarkson performed a stripped down version of her hit Already Gone, backed by a string quartet.

Lady GaGa performed her new single Bad Romance while Whitney Houston gave an emotional performance of her track I Didn't Know My Own Strength.

The show closed with an S&M-themed, sexually charged performance by American Idol runner up Adam Lambert - which included him shoving a male dancer's face into his crotch.

Michael Jackson made history by winning four American Music Awards, but he couldn't beat Taylor Swift as the year's favourite artist and the evening's top winner.

The 19-year-old took the show's top award Sunday night, giving Jackson his only loss of the night, and giving her five trophies in all.

'Music has never been ultimately about competition,' she said as she accepted the top prize via satellite from London, where she is to perform today.

'To even be mentioned in a category with Michael Jackson, who we will miss and love forever, is an unimaginable honour.'

Jackson's trophies were accepted by his brother Jermaine, who paid tribute to his late brother by wearing glittery white glove. He thanked 'Allah for blessing my entire family' and named each of his brothers and sisters.

Rihanna wins the battle of the body suits with Lady GaGa at the American Music Awards

11/24/2009 01:08:00 AM kenmouse , Posted in , , , , , 0 Comments

Rihanna and Lady GaGa may not have won anything at the American Music Awards last night, but there was no missing the eccentric singers in their outlandish outfits.

Both Rihanna and GaGa stole the show with their raunchy performances in their skin-tight ensembles, which left little to the imagination.



Bajan singer Rihanna, 21, flashed the flesh in both her red carpet and on stage outfits - she arrived in a black cut-out Marchesa gown, before changing into her futuristic white catsuit with white shoulderpads, which shot lasers across the stage.

Last night's rendition of Wait Your Turn marked Rihanna's first U.S. performance since she pulled out of the Grammys in February after she was assaulted by ex-boyfriend Chris Brown.


Despite being nominated in three categories, Lady GaGa went home empty-handed, but still managed to wow the audience at Los Angeles' Nokia Theatre with her performance of Bad Romance and Speechless.

As expected, the New Yorker put on a typically flamboyant show as she danced on stage in a nude bodysuit, bandages and skeleton bones attach to her torso.


Gaga, real neal Stefani Germanotta, was widely tipped to win the Breakthrough Artist award, but lost out to country music band Gloriana.

The quartet even admitted they thought GaGa was going to win, saying in their acceptance speech: 'Hands down, we thought Lady Gaga was gonna win. We just freaked out when they called our name.'

While Rihanna and GaGa had to contend with performing last night, it was teenage country singer Taylor Swift who was the big winner.

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