A few minutes ago, Mozilla launched their new updated version of Firefox, Firefox 3.5. Thought I’d give you a mirror here, because the servers will probably overload like with the release of 3.0. Enjoy!

Things move quickly online, and we’ve beefed up the engine that runs Firefox to make sure you can keep up: Firefox 3.5 is more than twice as fast as Firefox 3, and ten times as fast as Firefox 2.* As a result, Web applications like email, photo sites and your favorite social networks will feel snappier and more responsive.

http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/products/download.html?product=firefox-3.5&os=win&lang=en-US

Mirror 1
http://hotfile.com/dl/7818683/b6a95ba/Firefox_Setup_3.5eng.exe.html

Last post made by: v n0x on Yesterday, 12:02 AM

A blind Boston-area teenager was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison Friday for hacking into the telephone network and harassing the Verizon investigator who was building a case against him.

Matthew Weigman, 19, was part of a group of telephone hackers that met up on telephone party lines and was associated with more than 60 "swatting" calls to 911 numbers across the country. Weigman, known as "Little Hacker," became involved in telephone hacking around age 14 and continued to operate until last year.

Swatters make prank 911 calls, but they use spoofing technology to make it appear as though the call is being made from a victim's house. The idea is to harass their targets, preferably by having police show up at their door, guns drawn.

Most of the members in the group have already been sentenced, and Weigman was given the longest sentence. He was arrested in May 2008, shortly after showing up at the home of a Verizon investigator who had been building a case against Weigman and the other swatters. Weigman, his brother, and another swatter named Sean Benton drove nearly 70 miles to the investigator's house in order to "intimidate and frighten him," the U.S. Department of Justice [DoJ] said in a statement Monday.

But the gang saved their really frightening swatting for others. On June 12, 2006, for example, another swatter, Guadalupe Martinez, dialed 911 using a spoof card to make it look as though he was calling from an Alvarado, Texas, phone number and told dispatchers that he was holding hostages and had killed family members with an AK47 while high on hallucinogenic drugs.

A single SWAT (special weapons and tactics) incident can eat up tens of thousands of dollars in emergency services costs, and it can be dangerous too, when victims suddenly have to deal with armed police officers.

Weigman used his skills to target "employers, landlords, families and friends of multiple party line participants," often in the hope that they would be fired or evicted from their homes, the DoJ said. Sometimes he and his group would cut phone lines, or listen in on victims' conversations.

Weigman and his crew used a variety of tricks to hack the phone system. They would trick phone company workers with "pretexting" calls, where they pretended to be employees or customers in order to obtain information; they would try war-dialing -- using a computer to dial thousands of phone numbers in hopes of gaining access to a system; and they would also trade passwords and information with other telephone hackers, known as "phreakers."

Last year, three other swatters -- Stuart Rosoff, Jason Trowbridge and Chad Ward -- were sentenced to five years in prison each. Martinez got a 30-month sentence.

Benton received an 18-month sentence on Friday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Weigman, of Revere, Massachusetts, was sentenced to 135 months. Another codefendant in the case, Carlton Nalley, has pled guilty, but didn't show up for sentencing.

Last year, another swatter named Randall Ellis was sentenced to three years in prison for dispatching a SWAT team to an unsuspecting Orange County family. Authorities say Ellis made about 200 such calls.

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/pcworld/20090630/tc_pcworld/blindphonehackergets11yearsentence

Last post made by: Spacebunny on Jun 30 2009, 02:48 PM

Swedish tech company Global Gaming Factory X said Tuesday that it has reached an agreement to acquire controversial file sharing outfit The Pirate Bay for about $7.7 million.

Global Gaming said it would introduce legitimate business models to Pirate Bay's Web site, which had become a haven for illegal file sharing. Pirate Bay's Swedish founders in April were ordered jailed for one year and fined $3.6 million.

"We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site," said Global Gaming CEO Hans Pandeya, in a statement.

Padeya said Pirate Bay draws enormous amounts of Internet traffic but added that it needs to adopt legitimate business models to stay in operation.

"The Pirate Bay site is among the top 100 most visited Internet sites in the world. However, in order to live on, The Pirate Bay requires a new business model, which satisfies that requirements and needs of all parties, content providers, broadband operators, end users, and the judiciary," said Pandeya.

"Content creators and providers need to control their content and get paid for it. File sharers need faster downloads and better quality," he added.

The deal could see The Pirate Bay evolve in a manner similar to that followed by Napster. A nexus for illegal peer-to-peer swapping several years ago, Napster was acquired by a string of legitimate vendors that instituted pay-to-play business models on the site.

Also Tuesday, Global Gaming said it agreed to acquire Peerialism, a Swedish company that specializes in the development of p2p file sharing technology. The move is not unrelated to Global Gaming's buyout of The Pirate Bay.

"Peerialism has developed a new data distribution technology which now can be introduced on the best known file sharing site—The Pirate Bay," said Peerialism CEO Johan Ljunberg, in a statement.

http://www.techweb.com/article/showArticle?articleID=218101960&section=News

Last post made by: thormat on Jul 2 2009, 12:36 AM

The world's most high-profile file-sharing website, The Pirate Bay (TPB), has lifted the lid on its new video sharing website, The Video Bay.

Billed as a rival to YouTube, the service will offer unrestricted video content, in violation of copyright law.

It is not clear when the service will actually go live; the site's founders said "it will be done when it's done".

In April, a court in Sweden jailed four men behind The Pirate Bay and ordered them to pay $4.5m (£3m) in damages.

TBP founder, Peter Sunde, announced The Video Bay to the Open Video Conference in New York.

In a statement on the site, Mr Sunde said the service would use the latest HTML 5 features.

"More specifically the audio and video tags with the ogg/theora video and audio formats.

"This site will be an experimental playground and as such subjected to both live and drunk encoding, so please don't bug us too much if the site isn't working properly," he said.

Although the site is in its early stages, a preview showed a number of copyright music videos available for viewing in the navigation sidebar.

The move will be seen by some as provocative, given that the founders of The Pirate Bay were found guilty of breaking copyright law and were sentenced to a year in jail in April, though they are currently still free men.

Piracy battle

Speaking to the BBC, the head of Sweden's Pirate Party, Rickard Falkvinge, said this was another step in a "prolonged legal battle with the record industry".

"It's obvious that, given enough time, The Pirate Bay will win this war which will go on as long as the record industry has yet another penny to file a lawsuit.

"I think they [The Pirate Bay] are taking an important part in that battle, fighting for freedom of expression and culture against monopolistic companies," he added.

A spokesman for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said they were monitoring developments but declined to comment at this time.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8123989.stm

Last post made by: Spacebunny on Jun 29 2009, 09:49 PM

Ten major device manufacturers have agreed to adopt a universal charger for mobile devices. The European Commission requested the standardized chargers, beginning in 2010. The universal charger standard is likely to spread beyond the European Union since the mobile-device market is global. The EC standard is expected to reduce waste.
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Bowing to a request from the European Commission, 10 major device manufacturers have agreed to adopt a universal battery-charging design for their mobile handsets. Though the agreement only applies to mobile-device sales within the member states of the European Union, the standard is expected to have a far wider impact since the mobile-device market is essentially global.

Phone-charger compatibility will make life much simpler for consumers, noted EU Industry Commissioner Günter Verheugen. "They will be able to charge mobile phones anywhere from the new common charger," Verheugen said. "This also means considerably less electronic waste, because people will no longer have to throw away chargers when buying new phones."

Eliminating Waste

Today's plethora of external power supplies for mobile phones means there are many chargers that can only interface with a particular handset. Any user buying a replacement handset today must get a new charger -- even though the charger for the previous phone may be in perfect condition.

According to the EC, the disposal of old chargers generates several thousand tons of waste each year. Moreover, consumers are paying for an accessory they shouldn't have to replace.

Beginning in 2010, consumers will be able to charge mobile phones from any external power supply compatible with the new common charger specs. Additionally, the agreement will protect consumers from unsafe operations, which can occur if an incompatible external power supply is used to charge a phone.

A new memorandum of understanding governing the changes has been signed by representatives of Apple, LG Electronics, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Qualcomm, Research In Motion, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and Texas Instruments. Verheugen said he was very pleased with the self-regulation agreement. "As a result, the commission does not consider it necessary to introduce legislation," he said.

Preferred Charging Rate

All 10 signatories have agreed to provide standardized chargers equipped with a micro-USB connector. However, the agreement excludes mobile phones that don't support USB data exchange and certain unique phone formats, such as those worn as wristwatches.

Among other things, the agreement establishes a "preferred charging rate," defined as charging a battery from 10 percent capacity to 90 percent capacity within a maximum of six hours. The manufacturers say they will ensure their mobile phones are capable of being charged at this rate beginning next year.

The EC says the agreement will not stifle innovation in battery and charging technologies, new interfaces, multimodal charging capabilities, and improved environmental or charging performance . A review process will be established to adapt charger specs as new technologies arrive, the EC said.

The U.S. wireless association CTIA also supports the move to a universal charging solution based on a micro-USB format, though not until 2012 for handsets sold in the United States.

"We recognize the need and the responsibility we have to help create a low-carbon economy," said CTIA Chief Executive Steve Largent. "The initiative to adopt a universal charging solution is an important step in the right direction."

Last post made by: Spacebunny on Jun 29 2009, 09:45 PM

It's not yet clear how badly, if at all, some iPhone 3GS devices are overheating. Also unclear is the number of handsets affected. Assuming that number is greater than zero, the cause of the sizzling phones remains a mystery. Some users are blaming GPS, while others are blaming game playing. Some are speculating it's a battery issue, while others suspect faulty power management in the iPhone 3.0 software.
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The iPhone 3GS may be selling like hotcakes, but some users are saying that's not where the comparison ends -- and it's just the latest in a string of complaints about Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) newest gadget.


iPhone 3GS


It's not all Apple's fault, though. Temperatures rose over AT&T's (NYSE: T) initial attitude toward iPhone users who wanted a subsidized 3GS upgrade before their contracts were up for renewal. And steam shot out of quite a few ears when users found there would be no tethering capability even though the iPhone 3GS (and the iPhone 3G with 3.0 software installed, for that matter) could support it. Thanks again, AT&T.

What else could happen to disillusion the owner of a shiny new 3GS? Try having it catch fire.

Pictures Tell the Story

That hasn't exactly happened -- at least, not yet -- but there are accounts percolating in the Applesphere that suggest 3GS batteries are quick to overheat. A French Web site -- Le Journal du Geek -- included a photo of what appears to be a 3GS that overheated to the point of scorching.

Nowhere Else, posted similar images of singed handsets.

Heated discussions of the issue also made it to the Apple Web site.



"There are internet reports that 3GS overheats and if it is white handset, the overheat causes pink/redish marks around the battery. A French forum reports similar problem," writes PrabhatB of San Mateo, Calif., in a post to the Apple forum.

"I have a black 32gb 3GS and recently I experienced overheating when I was using GPS. Everytime I use GPS it somehow overheats, however mild it may be. But in a region where 3G is out of reach and phone switches to Edge, the overheating is unbearable. You must shut down the phone," reports PrabhatB. "Anyone experiencing similar problem?"

Judging from the posts, others are.
How Widespread?

However, one serious iPhone watcher -- Rob Walch, host of the Today in iPhone podcast, told MacNewsWorld he has come across nothing of the sort in his research or through his show.

What's more, Walch said he has seen no signs at all of overheating, in spite of the fact that he has had his 3GS on continually since June 19.

"I am not sure how much credence you should give [this talk]," he said. "Of course, it is possible that a stray lithium battery may have overheated or there are a few bad devices out there. But from what I am seeing right now, I don't think there is a widespread problem brewing."

Apple did not respond to MacNewsWorld's request for comment in time for this story's deadline.
Dangers May Be Overstated

To be sure, manufacturing techniques have improved for electronic devices from two years ago, when it seemed that every other device manufacturer had to recall laptops due to fire-prone lithium batteries.

Toshiba , Fujitsu , Lenovo , IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) were among the vendors forced to recall products, costing them tens of millions of dollars -- as well as the goodwill of many customers.

There have been reports of injuries caused by overheating cellphone batteries in the past too. However, in at least two of the most widely publicized cases involving fatalities, the causes of death were later found to be unrelated to the devices the victims were carrying

Last post made by: Spacebunny on Jun 29 2009, 09:43 PM