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Incidentally, the bill uses the term “phonorecord” to describe an audio recording. I just heard a presentation on IP law from one of my colleagues who’s studying the topic right now, and he noted that “phonorecord” is standard language in the U.S. Code, and doesn’t necessarily mean LP records. It’s just one of those odd legal terms leftover from a bygone era.

It’s just a bill, it hasn’t been brought up in the Senate, so if you think this is a step too far, you have time to express your opinion to your senator.

Obviously, this is intended to stop large-scale pirates–the folks burning millions of CDs for resale–but looking at some of the individuals sued by the RIAA, I wouldn’t be surprised if some average folks are caught in the net. Of course, if you’re on the hook for $220,000, like Jammie Thomas is, losing your PC is a small part of the overall penalty, but expanding goverment forfeiture rights to crack down on digital audio and video piracy seems a bit extreme to me.

Some new intellectual property (IP) enforcement legislation passed the U.S. House yesterday by a wide margin. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has been against the proposal since its inception, put out a release highlighting the silliness of creating a new presidential appointee (complete with official seal) specifically to oversee IP policy. But reading through the coverage of the bill, and wading through most of the bill itself, there’s another part that seemed more alarming to me.

I’ve never studied law, but it looks like the bill allows the government to seize any computer used in the process of making unauthorized copies of audio recordings. In other words, if you’re convicted in a civil or criminal case of posting songs to file-sharing networks, or making unauthorized live recordings and posting them to the Web, or using DeCSS to make unauthorized copies of a movie from a DVD…then say goodbye to the PC used in the process. (You can read the entire bill by submitting a search for “HR 4279″ here.)

This type of recommendation engine, which taps into the social graph, is like a Las Vegas slot machine that keeps on giving. Every time you pull the lever you get a bunch of new friend connections, which makes you want to keep pulling the lever until it runs out of recommendations.

People You May Know finds people within six degrees or so of separation and suggests them as potential friends. It appears that the threshold is set at four, meaning you are connected to four of the same people as the suggested “friend.” FriendFeed has taken a somewhat similar approach for recommending new people to “follow.”

Along with the new privacy options, the forthcoming chat service, and People You May Know, Facebook is making some smart moves to stay ahead in the social-networking game.

The end result is that Facebook generates some exponential growth, creating more density in its web of people connections. And, Facebook members now have an easy way to find new connections based on relationship proximity, as well as a potential source of irritation as they get inundated with friends of friends requesting connections.

Facebook has about 67 million members. With the new “People You May Know” feature, the number of connections per member will skyrocket, extending the reach and stickiness of Facebook’s social graph.

Still, I really want to know what “strange activity” caused the service to take down the account. I’ll update this article if I find out.

But as of Friday morning, his Twitter account (@theatavist) had been suspended for “strange activity.”

The challenge is an interesting way to draw attention to a recent article of Ratliff’s about the difficulties of disappearing from society. And in the original contest challenge, it was suggested that contest participants might draw some conclusions as to the methods the reporter would use–or wouldn’t, as the case may be–from that story.

Whoever finds Ratliff (and is the first to send his editor a photo of him) will win $5,000. And while there are a number of different ways to source up clues as to his whereabouts, one of them was supposed to be his Twitter account.

This game, then, has many of the makings of a traditional alternate-reality game: online and offline components, widespread community involvement, clues spread across a wide swath of the Internet and a prize that may, in the end, have to be shared by a number of people who worked together.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for information as to why the account was suspended.

When Wired recently launched its Vanish contest, a challenge to readers to locate reporter Evan Ratliff, who has gone on the “lam,” it suggested that a major source of clues would be Ratliff’s Twitter and Facebook accounts.

For now, those trying to find him and win the cash–and no doubt, bragging rights, as Ratliff said that to collect the prize, the winner has to agree to be interviewed on his or her methods–will have to do so without the assistance of his Twitter account. Then again, Twitter has been going through a rough time recently, with several periods of downtime.

And as is often the case with ARGs, this game, too, is in the service of promoting something else, in this case, Ratliff’s larger article.

In the meantime, there are plenty of other ways to find clues. One is another Twitter account that was set up as a clearinghouse for information (@EvansVanished). Another is a Facebook account called The Search for Evan Ratliff, where fans are posting clues and working collaboratively to solve the puzzle.

(Credit:
Twitter)

Wired readers who want to try to win the $5,000 prize for finding reporter Evan Ratliff may not be able to use clues posted to his Twitter account, as the account has been suspended for ’strange activity.’

Of course, given that Ratliff is surely employing everything he can think of to stay below radar (theoretically not using credit cards or doing anything that might too easily give away his whereabouts) the Twitter account suspension might somehow be intentional. Then again, one would have to wonder what he would have had to do to get Twitter on board.

Update (2:27 p.m.): The account is now back up. According to a Twitter spokesperson, it was “infected” for some reason.

(Credit:
Microsoft)

As far as technical requirements, XP Mode needs a beefier system than that required to just run Windows 7 or XP alone, including at least 2GB of memory and a system that has chip-level virtualization from either Intel or AMD. One of the challenges is that today it is often not that easy to tell whether one’s PC has such support.

“Some PCs have it and some don’t,” said Scott Woodgate, a director in the Windows unit. “It’s not as clear as it should be relative to which PCs have (hardware-based virtualization) support and which don’t.”

Larger businesses may also have need to run older applications, but typically want control over things like who can install programs on their machines and other management issues. For them, he said, Microsoft has a product called MED-V that allows such control. An updated version of MED-V, due to be in beta within 90 days of the launch of Windows 7, will add support for Windows 7’s XP Mode, he said.

Microsoft is aiming XP Mode primarily at small businesses, Woodgate said.”That’s a class of customers that may have Windows XP apps that they may want to run on Windows 7,” he said.

A screenshot of Windows 7's XP Mode, which allows programs designed for Windows XP to run inside a virtual machine within Windows 7.

The existence of XP Mode emerged on an enthusiast site on Friday, later confirmed by CNET sources, and then through an official company blog post.

Microsoft has been working on the XP Mode as long as it has been developing Windows 7, and Woodgate said even he is surprised it stayed secret for so long.

Woodgate noted that XP Mode isn’t a security solution. Indeed, to protect their systems, users will need antivirus software running both on their Windows 7 desktop as well as a copy running inside their Windows XP virtual machine.

The beta version of XP Mode is debuting alongside the Windows 7 Release Candidate that is going to developers this week and being made publicly available on May 5. Microsoft said a final release will depend on the feedback to the beta, but Woodgate said Microsoft hopes it can be ready for download at the same time Windows 7 is made broadly available.

Microsoft on Tuesday offered up a few more details on its once-secretive project to use virtualization to offer an “XP Mode” for Windows 7.

At its core, XP mode consists of two things, the Windows Virtual PC engine and a licensed copy of Windows XP Service Pack 3 as a packaged virtual machine. Although neither piece will be included in the Windows 7 box, XP Mode will be a free download for those who have a license to Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Enterprise, or Windows 7 Ultimate.

As noted on Friday, Microsoft is using its Virtual PC technology to allow
Windows 7 users to run programs that work in Windows XP but not in Windows Vista. On Tuesday, it noted some more of the fine print regarding the product.

One of the benefits of XP Mode over Microsoft’s existing virtualization products is the fact that, after a setup process, the Windows XP virtual machine runs in the background so users don’t have to manage multiple desktops. XP Mode automatically installs shortcuts for XP programs in the Windows 7 start menu. The experience from that point on is similar to the one offered by VMware’s Fusion and Parallels in their virtualization products.

As I said, I’m in favor of giving my readers a good way to reach me live, but this tool doesn’t cut it, which is why I, too, am showing only a graphic of it and not the thing itself.

Google yesterday announced in its Talkabout product blog that there’s a new way to connect your site or social page visitors directly to you: a Google Talk chatback widget that instantly connects the visitor to your GTalk or Jabber IM client.

I like giving my readers a chance to connect with me directly in real-time, so I’m all about products like this. But the implementation of this little product is so lightweight and so lacking, that I understand perfectly why even the Google blog post announcing it shows only a picture of the widget instead of a live version of it.

Proof that Google is about to buy TinyURL.

The two big problems that I saw right away are these: There’s no way to tell people who see your chatback widget that you’re unavailable without also turning off your availability to people in your buddy list; and the product doesn’t ask people who want to reach you to identify themselves. There’s just not enough control of the chat session before it starts to make it enjoyable.

However, my Twitter friend Ryan says it does do a good job of parsing photo site URLs and will display the images they link to inline.

If you do like this idea but not Google’s implementation, check out MeeboMe (review).

No, not really. Sorry.

Then there’s the product’s gaping user interface weirdness: When someone wants to chat with you, you get a giant unreadable link in your instant message window, which opens up the discussion in a browser-based chat window. Why it can’t just run the chat in your existing IM client, I don’t know.

I like this new Google. It’s a company that has the potential to win in a very different way from how Microsoft won the desktop wars: Through open, rather than through closed. Yes, proprietary software will play an active role, but not the only role, as in Microsoft’s empire. The times seem to be a’changin’.

Stocky replied that typically companies sell the underlying proprietary platform and then try to get developers to build on top of that (he didn’t specifically mention them, but he’s obviously referring to MS and Adobe). However, he said, Google’s mission is to build on top of the open web platform. Stocky said that Google not only aims to build on the open Web platform, but actively improve it.

ReadWriteWeb’s Richard MacManus had the chance to talk with Google’s Tom Stocky, a director of Product Management, about its increased emphasis on developers. The result is an interesting look into the mind of Google as it pertains to developers.

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I like that. Google wants to make the web a first-class application citizen, and is committed to investing the resources to make this happen. To get there, it needs to engage developers and, in turn, the open-source communities of which they increasingly take part.

MacManus asked Stocky about Adobe’s and Microsoft’s efforts to blend the web with the desktop through Rich Internet Applications. Stock’s response is highly intriguing:

See CNET’s iPhone page.

Apple's Scott Forstall talks about the iPhone's core operating system.

The iPhone SDK will allow developers to have access to the same cool hardware features built into the iPhone that Apple’s own developers have, such as the multitouch interface and the iPhone’s accelerometer. Apps can also talk to each other. For example, a Salesforce.com app can talk to the iPhone’s built-in mapping app–an example discussed during the launch event for the SDK. Another example is an AIM app from AOL that supports multiple conversations that are easy to switch between.

The SDK also offers links into geolocation data, so developers can build native location-aware apps. The iPhone still doesn’t have built-in GPS, relying instead of less-accurate Wi-Fi-based location, but this is a start.

But it couldn’t really last. The Web is too slow, browsers too limited, AT&T’s paranoia (about third-party apps running on their network) too Orwellian, and the iPhone too powerful to force developers to fit everything into
Safari. Hence, Jailbreak hacks. And, finally, Apple’s own version of a native software development kit (SDK) for the iPhone, announced today.

So the iPhone (and also the
iPod Touch) is becoming an Internet appliance, not just a Web browser. That’s great. As we’ve seen with the release of Adobe AIR, you really can do more with online resources when you’re not trying to squeeze the interface through the pipes. Hybrid apps–apps that use heavy local resources as well as relying on the Internet for data and community–make tons of sense, especially on mobile devices that are likely to move in and out of coverage areas. Once Google Gears gets up and running on the iPhone, we could see some really interesting apps that gracefully transition from connected to isolated.

The iPhone SDK doesn’t blow the platform all the way open, in other words. Apple will be watching over the apps to make sure they all behave. Hopefully, they’ll do a good job of it. And there will always be the Web for developers who want to attract iPhone users without getting permission first.

When the iPhone first shipped, I thought it was pretty cool that there wasn’t a way for developers to write software for it. It forced people who wanted to build
iPhone “apps” to create Web apps instead, which were then delivered to the iPhone via its browser. It was a great day for Webware.

(Credit:
Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)

Apple is leveraging the iTunes store to deliver apps to the phone. There will also be a new store, the iPhone-friendly App Store, that will handle the directories, downloads, and the collection of software licensing fees. Apple will keep 30 percent of all software purchase fees for itself (free apps can also be downloaded through the store). Most importantly, the store will be the only way to get apps (until it’s hacked), and it won’t be a free-for-all. Apple will not allow pornographic software and reserves the right to remove apps that pose security or privacy risks. So, the iPhone isn’t a free-for-all apps platform like a personal computer. We’ll see how well Apple manages to stay out of the way of developers, all of whom have to register with Apple (for $99) to deliver apps through the store.

Adobe has a massive, multi-billion dollar software business, roughly $0.00 of which has traditionally depended on open source. The company is on a tear, blowing out its last few quarters.

It makes no sense to develop software in an isolated bubble anymore. Adobe gets this. Other companies are still dragging their feet to this realization, perhaps because they haven’t felt the pull of the ‘Net as forcibly as Adobe and others have.

So it’s not just to be cool. There’s a compelling reason for Adobe to adopt more open source. And it has: SQLite, Flash Player (significant chunks of it), Flex, etc. etc. Adobe has been getting closer and closer to open source. Why?

Because Adobe recognizes the power and allure of the Internet, Lynch notes:

We’re really working to increase our usage of open-source technologies and to contribute to open-source. Because we developed AIR so openly, we were able to share it with developers and make sure we were developing the right things.

That’s OK. They’ll learn. Or they’ll go out of business. Either way, customers win.

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And yet, and yet, the company apparently sees a future in open source. Just ask Kevin Lynch, Adobe’s chief technology officer, who suggested that Adobe will be doing more and more with open source:

The fullest realization of that social network is that the community around the software not only wants to comment on it, they actually want to help improve it and change it and fix it. That’s what I think generates the impetus to make your software open-source and really embrace that network of people around your software who want to help make it better….

The other effect is hosted services. Software is moving from being packaged, where you develop for a particular operating system and put it in a box, to being developed and distributed over the internet and being designed to run across operating systems. That’s where all the innovation has moved to. Software isn’t as OS-specific anymore, it’s moving to rich internet applications. It’s a sea change in how software in general is being built.

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Why is this such cool news? Because OpenAds rocks the online advertising world, shaking up Google’s cozy dominance of the industry:

Openads lets publishers take control of their advertising, providing
simple, powerful and independent tools to schedule, manage and track online
campaigns. The software also supports a broad range of ad formats and
advertiser types (including direct advertisers and ad networks such as
Google AdSense, Yahoo! and Advertising.com). The new hosted version will
make it even easier and faster for publishers to make more money from
online advertising by eliminating the need to run the software on their own
servers.

OpenAds, one of the world’s most exciting open-source companies, just pulled in $15.b million in Series B funding. The valuation represents a major “up-round,” say my sources (and I’ve got really good sources on this one). The round was led by Accel out of its Palo Alto office.

You can think of OpenAds as the “bottom-up” approach to online advertising. It’s a more populist way of going about an increasingly populist phenomenon.

Content-delivery network Proximic, which has a unique contextual matching system, now has ads to sell that can help bloggers and others monetize their sites.

Proximic, which launched in October, differs from Google AdSense and other keyword-based systems in that it automatically reads and matches relevant content according to “interconnected patterns” in documents that seem to be based more on concepts than words. This can help niche sites attract more relevant ads, says Proximic Chief Executive Philipp Pieper.

The company was set to announce on Wednesday that it has signed deals to syndicate the product catalogs of the Yahoo Shopping Network and eBay’s Shopping.com. This dumps nearly 50 million ad units into Proximic’s advertising network.

(Credit:
Proximic)

Next up is a self-service ad site for bloggers and partnerships with large publishers, he says. The site already offers a way for publishers to distribute their content, like news articles.