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Editorial

Which anti virus product do you use? There are quite a few on the market, all stating that they provide the best service. A good way to determine which of the many may be a good anti virus product is to listen to users. I came across the following articles where users have voted on their anti virus product preferences. The following two links will take you to these articles and they are worth a read, including the users comments.

Which Anti virus product do you prefer? Round I

Which Anti virus product do you prefer? Round II

Bruce Beresford, Manager & Editor

In this Issue:

• Featured Site - Heritage Memorials
• Beware of Facebook and MySpace: IT vendors
• Watchdog hits local spammers
• Missed call spam nets AU$150,000 fine
• Coming to Your Laptop: 1.2TB Hard Drives
• New Windows OS within 3 years: Microsoft
• Quotes of the day

Featured Site  

Heritage Memorials

A Memorial is a lasting symbol of remembrance: a tribute or gift to someone dearly loved & missed. It is therefore extremely important that the firm chosen to build such a memorial has a reputation for quality workmanship at a reasonable price.

Heritage Memorials is Australian owned & operated by qualified stonemasons with over 20 years experience in the manufacturing of quality cemetery memorials up and down the east coast of NSW. We have built a reputation that has seen us registered with all Cemetery trusts and are often contracted by the cemeteries themselves to restore important projects such as Lawrence Hargraves, Dorothea Mackellar Memorial, war memorials and others.

When purchasing a memorial the work is always either completed or overseen by the owners so we can guarantee a professional finish at a fair price.

Heritage Memorials can help you in this stressful time by offering advice on materials or with the laying out of your inscriptions. We hope to offer our clients a compassionate service that takes the time to listen to their needs to ensure the right monument is chosen to reflect the love they feel. Visit the Heritage Memorials website...

Beware of Facebook and MySpace: IT vendors  

IT security vendors are urging users to be more careful with personal details when on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

In the last three months, Facebook has experienced dramatic growth in the the number of Australia members signing up to join the network.

Facebook, which was originally launched by Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg in 2004, has emerged as a serious competitor to the Rupert Murdoch-owned MySpace.

At almost 200 million members, MySpace is the world's largest network while Facebook boasts about 35 million users.

Facebook was originally designed to connect college students at a handful of universities on the US east coast before it eventually expanded to other universities and later became an open network for all Web users.

The sites have many drawcards but the main attraction is an increased ability to not only stay in touch with a wider group of friends, but see what they are up to, where they live and who they are partners with.

Data from net activity monitor Hitwise recorded a 273 per cent increase in Australians using Facebook between April and June this year.

But data security vendors believe users are too cavalier in their attitudes to what they disclose about themselves online. ZDNet Australia >>> more

Watchdog hits local spammers  

THE communications regulator has imposed its heaviest fine for beaches of the Spam Act, dishing out over $15,000 in penalties.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) said Pitch Entertainment Group, which trades as Splash Mobile in Australia, was fined $11,000 for sending out over one million commercial text messages without a functional unsubscribe facility.

The Spam Act, 2003 regulates unsolicited commercial electronic messaging in Australia.

The fine is the largest imposed by ACMA to date and has been levied with the imposition of stringent compliance reporting and staff education obligations.

ACMA also fined IMP Mobile $4400 for the same breach.

"By not including these instructions, Pitch and IMP Mobile made it difficult for consumers to stop unwanted messages," ACMA chairman Chris Chapman said.

"All commercial electronic messages must be sent with the recipient's consent, clearly identify who the message was sent by and provide instructions on how to unsubscribe from receiving further messages."

Pitch started including instructions on how to opt out of receiving its commercial electronic messages in mid-2006, when it first became aware that it was in breach of the Act.

Nevertheless, "ignorance of the law is not an acceptable defence", Mr Chapman said.

"While we welcome Pitch's efforts to lift its game, all businesses sending commercial electronic messages must make sure that they and their staff fully understand the requirements of the Spam Act."

If either Pitch or IMP repeat the offence, they face fines imposed by the Federal Court of up to $1.1 million per day. AustralianIT June 2007.

Missed call spam nets AU$150,000 fine   

Media and communications watchdog ACMA has handed down a fine of almost AU$150,000 to a company found to be using mobile marketing techniques banned under the Spam Act.

According to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), DC Marketing Europe has found to have committed "serious breaches" of the 2003 Spam Act -- which merited a maximum penalty of AU$149,600.

ACMA said DC Marketing Europe had breached the act 102 times with missed call marketing during July and August of last year. The company made short calls to mobiles, leaving the recipient with a missed call message. If users called back, they were put through to marketing messages from the company.

"The missed call marketing messages sent out by DC Marketing were unsolicited, did not identify the sender and did not contain an unsubscribe facility, each of which is a breach of the Spam Act," ACMA said.

The AU$149,600 fine marks the largest penalty for any company since the Spam Act came into force. The second largest was issued last month to Pitch Entertainment Group, trading as Splash Mobile in Australia, which sent over one million electronic messages without a working unsubscribe function. Pitch Entertainment Group was fined AU$11,000 for the contraventions.

The maximum possible fine for repeated breaches of the act is AU$1.1 million per day, ACMA said.

The watchdog said that, thanks to a funding boost from the federal government, it will spend more time ensuring the mobile industry complies with the anti-spam legislation and targeting companies found to be breaking the law. AZDNet Australia July 2007.

Coming to Your Laptop: 1.2TB Hard Drives  

As hard drive manufacturers relentlessly pursue packing greater aerial density on smaller devices, Fujitsu Computer Products of America Inc. may have an ace in the hole. The company is announcing later this week that it has created ideally "ordered" alumina nanohole patterns for isolated bit-by-bit recording on a large disk area.

With that feat, Fujitsu says it has successfully demonstrated the ability to perform basic read/write capability of each individual nanohole of the patterned media using a typical flying head on a rotating disk. That breakthrough could lead the company to produce hard drives with storage capacities of up to 1.2TB on a two-platter, 2.5-in. drive as soon as 2010, noted Joel Hagberg, vice president of business development at Fujitsu Computer Products of America, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tokyo-based Fujitsu Ltd.

The construction of ideally ordered alumina nanohole patterned media was done through a collaboration between Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Yamagata Fujitsu Ltd. and Kanagawa Academy of Science and Technology. The achievement is published in the July online version of Applied Physics Letters. PCWorld... more

New Windows OS within 3 years: Microsoft  

Microsoft is already planning its next major version of Windows and it won't be five years in the making as its predecessor Vista was.

The software giant's timeframe to ship the upgrade -- known internally as version "7" -- is roughly three years ZDNet Australia's sister site CNET News.com has learned.

The company discussed Windows 7 last week at a conference for its field sales force in the US, according to sources close to the software maker.

While the company provided few details, Windows 7, the next client version of the operating system, will be among the steps taken by Microsoft to establish a more predictable release schedule, according to sources. The company plans a more "iterative" process of information disclosure to business customers and partners, sources said.

Windows Vista, the oft-delayed most recent release of Windows, shipped to businesses in November and to consumers in January after more than five years of development. Vista's gestation period was marked by shifting product details as internal priorities changed and problems arose with development.

Like Vista, Windows 7 will ship in consumer and business versions, and in 32-bit and 64-bit versions. The company also confirmed that it is considering a subscription model to complement Windows, but did not provide specifics or a time frame.

Next up on Microsoft's agenda is Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista, which is expected before the year's end. ZDNet Australia July 2007... more

Quotes of the Day  

Everything is in a state of flux, including the status quo. Robert Byrne

You probably wouldn't worry about what people think of you if you could know how seldom they do. Olin Miller

Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so. Gore Vidal (1925 - )

The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority. Ralph W. Sockman

Brought to you by The Quotations Page

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