Illegal file-sharers should be fined, rather than have their internet connection cut off, says the boss of BT.

Hard drives are about to undergo one of the biggest format shifts in 30 years but it could cause problems for Windows XP users.

A plan to create a .xxx net domain for adult content will be revisited three years after it was rejected by internet regulators.

A never-before-seen reaction in nanotubes could make for batteries that pack a mighty punch, say researchers.

The merging of social networks and games is set to dominate this year’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Twenty-three years ago, when I was a general assignment reporter at a soon-to-be defunct paper, the El Paso Herald-Post, I got a fabulous job offer. BusinessWeek asked me to open a bureau in Mexico City. If you had asked me at that juncture what a board of directors was for, or to distinguish between revenue and earnings, I would have been stumped. I had never covered business before (unless you count oil in Venezuela), and I didn’t know much about it. But BusinessWeek, I soon learned, was chock full of knowledgeable, friendly and forgiving folks who helped people like me learn on the job.

My career at BusinessWeek, which wraps up tomorrow, was an education. I’d start ignorant, and then learn on the job from sources and colleagues. That’s the great privilege of journalism, and BusinessWeek was the best place imaginable for it. When I was sent from Pittsburgh to Paris to cover technology in 1998, I knew far more about blast furnaces than semiconductors. When I came back to New York four years later as acting technology editor, I’d never worked as an editor or covered technology in the United States. People helped, and picked me up.

Many of those people are already scattered, and dozens more are leaving with me. I’d say I’ll miss them, but I plan to stay with them on the networks. Why would I ever venture out alone when I have the greatest colleagues? They’re the treasure of my career, and to forgo them at this point would be insane.

And so I move on. This is my last post at Blogspotting.net. A big thanks to Heather for the great company on this ride, and to all of you for your intelligence, feedback and friendship. We’ll stay in touch, I hope, at TheNumerati.net, and on your blogs and Twitter feeds. (I’m @stevebaker.)

I still haven’t figured out how to store the archives of Blogspotting. But I plan to write an email to the incoming editor in chief of BW, Josh Tyrangiel, asking him please not to pull the plug.

I came across a pumped-up email system called Pixetell that could help with a problem I’ve been having. Of late, I’ve been writing laborious click-by-click instructions to explain to people on a Ning network how to change their profiles. Sometimes the written word is a round-about way of communicating.

With Pixetell, it would be easier. You describe or explain whatever you want in your voice as you move the cursor around and click. And then it all goes in an email. The person receiving it might as well be looking over your shoulder. Here’s a video demo featuring my colleague Arik Hesseldahl.

The technology looks useful. It would be great for help desks. Not sure at this point if the rest of us would shell out $9 or $19 a month to be able to generate these messages. (Everyone can receive them, but for now, subscribers have to have Windows machines.) Looks like something that Microsoft and Google could add as an enhancement. In fact, it may compete with parts of Google Wave. But Pixetell looks far simpler. (I started to watch the Google Wave video, but then realized, to my horror, that it wasn’t a minute and 20 seconds, but an hour and 20 minutes.)

In a cluttered office, I’m discovering, almost nothing is worth keeping. But as I pack my things, I come across two books that give me second thought:

Are You Missing the Real Estate Boom–Why home values and other real estate investments will climb through the end of the decade, and how to profit from them. By David Lereah (sounds like something I should be on top of…)

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Microsoft Windows Vista. (Who knows, in two or three years, I might “upgrade” to Vista…)

Then my colleague Burt Helm, the marketing and advertising editor, comes by with an envelope. It’s a letter from the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation. You’d think these direct marketers would know Burt down to his weekend brunching habits. So it’s a surprise to see that they got his title wrong. They call him Bert [sic] Helm, Global President, Baby Kids & Wound Care Franchise. (I wonder if Bloomberg is quietly shifting his beat…)

Still working on saving the archives to this blog. It’s a bit of a problem here, because most of the people with control over the innards of this system have been let go. And even if they could help me, Bloomberg no doubt will own the content as of Dec. 1. Maybe I’ll just jury-rig something.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates it, and a Happy Thursday to the rest of the world. I’ll be seeing you at TheNumerati.net.

I’m one of those people. I knew from the very first story that I wrote 25 years ago for the Viking, Loudoun Valley High School’s own monopoly of a newspaper, that journalism was for me. I liked trotting around the halls interviewing the lead cheerleader about tryouts (the most important event at school), chatting up the music teacher about the annual musical (of course we only had one) and taking pictures of the boys’ soccer team (who wouldn’t like that). I quickly figured out the three or four different paths you could take to get into journalism (work for a wire service; get an internship at Time or Newsweek; cover courts and cops for the local edition of a metropolitan paper), and the path that you would travel after that (be a writer, start editing, become a senior feature writer or editor, then retire). It all seems so quaint now.

I went the wire route, starting my career (ironically) at Bloomberg, a young startup and one of the few media joints hiring in the early 1990s. (And a place where the word “ironically” was banned from stories.) The thing about starting with a young company is you get a lot of opportunity. And my opportunity was to build from scratch their coverage of the Internet, starting with Netscape’s IPO. It was phenomenal to meet those people (Jerry Yang, Jeff Bezos, Marc Andreessen) when meeting them meant hanging out on couches at tiny conferences and talking about what all this Web stuff might turn into. It was 1994 and no one had a clue.

When I was hired by Bloomberg, the fellow hiring me asked me where I wanted to be in 5 years. He used to work at Businessweek (I know because it was one of the first things he told me when we sat down ) and so to impress him back, I said “Businessweek.” I soon figured out that that was actually a good idea and 3 years later I landed there, covering the Internet and continuing my love affair with emerging tech.

The environment at BW was incredible. Collegial, analytical, devoted to journalism. And that’s what I will miss. I could bore you all with stories of the past 12 years. But I’d rather discuss things that I am most thankful for.

First, just the opportunity to meet incredibly capable, thoughtful people and exchange ideas. Every time I got on the phone or sat in a conference room with someone from a startup or IBM or Amazon or what have you, I just felt privileged to be able to learn about something new. I was just as lucky to work with the fantastic group of folks here at BW. It’s hard to believe even now the level of conversation and analysis that I was exposed to here. I want to thank everyone who met with me or worked with me over the years for their patience, their insight, and their time.

Second, I’m thankful for the skills I learned. I am so lucky to have been able to learn to blog and podcast and use Twitter and be on Facebook for my job. I was literally paid to learn the skills that journalists need these days to thrive and given the foundation to consider new careers. And all of you helped me along, encouraging me and Steve to try new things, providing us with insight about different technologies and approaches to journalism. You taught us what we needed to know, whether it was evolving our thoughts about what journalism is or learning what new technology we should use.

Third, I’m thankful that I was able to explore an area that I am passionate about: clean tech and environmentalism. Now, with leaving Businessweek, I will have the opportunity to explore carving out a new career in that arena.

Fourth, I’m thankful that I was able to be a journalist. I loved writing, I loved the ethics, I loved grousing about how editors were asking for stupid new facts. I’ve been lucky to work at the kind of organization that really put a Chinese wall between journalists and advertising, that respected the work reporters did, and that hired the kind of people who did everything they could to make a story better.

I know that there is a lot more that I am forgetting right now. But, I let me just repeat, thank you all, within Businessweek and outside of it. And thank you Steve, for being the generous, warm, intelligent, and curious person that you are.

Heather and I both got the word on Thursday that we won’t be part of BusinessWeek once Bloomberg takes over, on Dec. 1. (We’re both pleased with this outcome, though it’s no picnic watching the staff get decimated, with good friends and colleagues heading off in every direction.) In the coming week, I think I’ll write a nice long eulogy for this blog.

But in the meantime, a question: Does anyone know how to preserve and store our four and a half years of blog posts and comments? Our colleague Arik Hesseldahl said something about turning each month into a pdf. I’ll look into that (as soon as I close my last story tomorrow). But you have a specific how-to, I’m all ears. As I wrote in September on my Numerati blog, I’m not sure how committed Bloomberg will be to social media. There’s no telling when someone might pull the plug on a server housing the archives of a discontinued blog.

gollum123 writes “US regulators may dedicate spectrum to free wireless Internet service for some Americans to increase affordable broadband service nationwide, the Federal Communications Commission said on Tuesday. The FCC provided few details about how it would carry out such a plan and who would qualify, but will make a recommendation under the National Broadband Plan set for release next week. The agency will determine details later. One way of making broadband more affordable is to ‘consider use of spectrum for a free or a very low-cost wireless broadband service,’ the FCC said in a statement.” Nobody has more than a couple of paragraphs on this story. None of the press coverage mentions the obvious likelihood that any such free network would be heavily filtered, censored, and monitored.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

eldavojohn writes “A new report from Games Industry indicates that MMO gamers in the United States paid $3.8 billion to play last year, with an analysis of five European countries bringing the total close to $4.5 billion USD. In America, the report estimated that payments for boxed content and client downloads amounted to a measly $400 million, while the subscriptions came to $2.38 billion. Hopefully that will fund some developer budgets for bigger and better MMOs yet to come. The study also found that roughly a quarter of the US population plays some form of MMO. Surely MMOs are shaping up to be a juicy industry, and a market that can satisfy people of all walks of life.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

ElectricSteve writes “It’s been a long time coming. While Arthur C. Clarke’s geosync satellites have taken to space, and James Bond’s futuristic mobile technology has become commonplace, still the dream of sustained personal flight has eluded us — until now. At $86,000, the Martin Aircraft jetpack costs about as much as a high-end car, achieves a 30-minute flight time, and is fueled by regular gasoline. A 10% deposit buys you a production slot for 12 months hence.” Here’s a video of some indoor test flights. This isn’t Buck Rogers’s jetpack — it’s about 5 by 5 feet and weighs more than the average human. You won’t be able to commute with it (the FAA has not certified this class of device) so it’s recreational only for now.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

gollum123 sends an excerpt from the NY Times on how Google has taken a lead in language translation, in one of the company’s few unqualified successes as it attempts to broaden is offerings beyond search. “…Google’s quick rise to the top echelons of the translation business is a reminder of what can happen when Google unleashes its brute-force computing power on complex problems. The network of data centers that it built for Web searches may now be, when lashed together, the world’s largest computer. Google is using that machine to push the limits on translation technology. Last month, for example, it said it was working to combine its translation tool with image analysis, allowing a person to, say, take a cellphone photo of a menu in German and get an instant English translation. …in the mid-1990s, researchers began favoring a so-called statistical approach. They found that if they fed the computer thousands or millions of passages and their human-generated translations, it could learn to make accurate guesses about how to translate new texts. It turns out that this technique, which requires huge amounts of data and lots of computing horsepower, is right up Google’s alley. …Google’s service is good enough to convey the essence of a news article, and it has become a quick source for translations for millions of people.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

blozza2070 notes the news that Jeff Jaffe has been appointed CEO of the World Wide Web Consortium. Until January Jaffe was CTO at Novell and, while his name hasn’t come up very often in this community, he is one of the architects of the Novell-Microsoft patent deal. A reading of Jaffe’s blog while at Novell tends to paint him as a software patent supporter, Microsoft apologist, and no fan of the FSF. This strongly worded page at Boycott Novell features copious links to support the above characterization.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

NIESTETAL (IT-TIMES) - Die SMA Solar Technology AG (WKN: A0DJ6J), deutscher Hersteller von…

LONDON (IT-Times) - Der britische Telekommunikationskonzern BT Group Plc. (WKN: 766433) verlangt…

NEUBIBERG (IT-Times) - Glaubt man dem Branchenverband ZVEI, befindet sich die Halbleiterindustrie…

DARMSTADT (IT-Times) - Die Software AG (WKN: 330400) sorgt ab sofort mit ihrem Partner Logica,…

HAMBURG (IT-Times) - Der Solarprojektierer Colexon Energy AG (WKN: 525070) sucht sein Glück…

Microsoft bietet ab sofort ein kostenloses Theme-Pack für Windows 7 zum Download an. Das Theme-Pack nennt sich “Life” und enthält einige interessante Naturbilder.

Die Entwickler des quelloffenen Multiplayer-Shooters OpenArena haben einen Patch zum Upgrade auf Version 0.8.5 veröffentlicht.

Dell erweiterte seine Notebook-Palette um drei günstige Notebooks der Vostro-3000-Serie. Erhältlich sind sie in den Größen 13,3, 15,6 und 17,3 Zoll.

Das heutige Champions League-Spiel AC Florenz - FC Bayern München gibt es normalerweise nur bei Sky. Wir zeigen Ihnen, wo und wie Sie das entscheidende Achtelfinal-Rückspiel dennoch im Internet verfolgen können.

Genervt von vielen Geräten und Fernbedienungen im Wohnzimmer? Ein schicker Media-PC für wenig Geld sorgt für beste Unterhaltung und schafft Platz.

Wir sagen Ihnen, worauf Sie im Kleingedruckten Ihres neuen Handy-Vertrags oder Prepaid-Angebots achten müssen - damit Sie nicht zuviel bezahlen.

Das lustlose Zappen durchs TV-Programm könnte bald der Vergangenheit angehören. Google testet nach einem Bericht des “Wall Street Journal” eine spezielle Suche fürs Fernsehen….

Im Mai 2004 soll sich der damals 19-Jährige in die E-Mail-Konten zweier Journalisten der Harvard-Studentenzeitung “The Harvard Crimson” gehackt haben.

Wegen zu hoher Ticket-Preise für ein Konzert in Tel Aviv riefen Metallica-Fans per Facebook zum Streik auf. Jetzt griff das Management der Band ein.

Auch bei vertrauenswürdig erscheinenden Absendern von E-Mails sollten Empfänger vorsichtig sein. Derzeit seien Mails im Umlauf, in denen angeblich Software-Hersteller auf Updates hinweisen,…

Летом этого года в США начнет вещание спортивный 3D-телеканал ESPN.

Компания занимает лидирующее место на рынке доступа к сети интернет, и, по мнению антимонопольщиков, в разы завышает цены на эту услугу.

Директор по внешним связям Telenor Russia Анна Иванова-Галицина подтвердила, что Высший арбитражный суд России отказал в передаче дела на рассмотрение в Президиум.

Впрочем, данная функция будет интересна разве что пользователям из стран с развитой инфраструктурой спутникового телевидения.

Сейчас доменом с одним из самых привлекательных в сети имен www.sex.com принадлежит компании DOM Partners LLC, которая зарегистрирована в штате Нью-Джерси.

Как пояснил глава государства, речь идет о некоем поселении, которое будет территориально обособлено, и в рамках которого будут решаться самые разные задачи.

Накануне президент РФ Дмитрий Медведев высказался о решимости властей построить в кратчайшие сроки Центра для исследований и разработок.

На кладбище кораблей случайно набрели катера, экипажи которых занимались исследованием морского дна.

Однако женщины, выпивающие по 15-30 граммов алкоголя в день, сумели снизить риск ожирения на 30% по сравнению с трезвенницами.

Ведь написать или отредактировать статью в этой интернет-энциклопедии может каждый.

W najbliższy czwartek finał konkursu Miss Uniwersytetu Mikołaj Kopernika 2010. W auli uczelni zaprezentuje się dwadzieścia kandydatek.

Elitarna jednostka saperów krąży po Iraku rozbrajając bomby. Jeden z członków oddziału cierpi na szczególną przypadłość. Jest uzależniony od napięcia i stresu.

Maciek Stawinoga ponad rok temu wyruszył w drogę. Od tego czasu przejechał całą Polskę i rozdał tysiące opasek odblaskowych.

„Zawrócić” będzie miało swoją wydawniczą premierę w maju. Tym razem czytając teksty nie ruszamy z ich autorką na bieszczadzki szlak.

Z problemem alkoholowym lub przemocą w rodzinie wciąż musi sobie radzić wielu mieszkańców Torunia.

W najbliższym czasie będziemy świadkami największej od 30 lat zmiany w metodach formatowania dysków twardych. Pozwoli to na udoskonalenie technologii, jednak użytkownicy starszych systemów operacyjnych mogą mieć w związku z tym kłopoty.

Samsung ogłosił polską premierę nowego telefonu z wytrzymałej serii Solid. Model E1130B spełnia międzynarodową normę odpornościową IP54 - jest odporny na kurz, zabrudzenia oraz zachlapanie.

Jak donosi gazeta “Rumorville Gazzette”, Intel po raz kolejny chce zaskoczyć swoich użytkowników nowym rozwiązaniem. Tym razem pracuje nad dwurdzeniowym procesorem Atom z rodziny Pineview.

O prawo startu w konkursie Imagine Cup walczą setki drużyn z całego świata - Polacy mogą pochwalić się już pierwszymi sukcesami.

Firma Panasonic wprowadziła do sprzedaży w Polsce nowy model odtwarzacza Blu-Ray DMP-BD85. Urządzenie wyposażono w zaawansowane funkcje sieciowe - bezprzewodową łączność poprzez Wi-Fi oraz poprzez system DLNA.

Doing clean sweep of Windows Vista.
Download cleaning soft: vista.mycleanser.com.

Doing clean sweep of Windows XP.
Download cleaning soft: xp.mycleanser.com.