Maximum PC Internet RSS Feed

Classmates.com Sued by Unpopular Man

Paul Lilly — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:19:07 -0600

Classmates.com user Anthony Michaels must have felt like he really left an impression on his former friends from school. After all, the social network service was emailing Michaels to let him know his past acquaintances were viewing his profile and trying to get in touch in with him, only he'd need to upgrade his membership to find out who and to be able to email these individuals. Fair enough, he thought, but after dropping $15 on a Gold Membership, Michaels claims the whole thing was a scam and in fact no one from his past was either viewing his profile or trying to contact him.

"Upon logging into his Gold Membership profile in order to view the classmate contacts … Plaintiff discovered that in fact, no former classmate of his had tried to contact him or view his profile," the complaint reads. "Of those www.classmates.com users who were characterized ... as members who viewed Plaintiff's profile, none were former classmates of Plaintiff or persons familiar with or known to Plaintiff for that matter."

Sad for Michaels? Yes. But did Classmates.com break any laws? Several, according to the San Diego resident's lawsuit, in which Classmates.com is being accused of intentional misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, negligence, fraudulent concealment, and violation of California business and professions code. Not to mention being a meanie head.

The suit alleges that there are hundreds of thousands of users just like Michaels who have been tricked into purchasing a membership to Classmates.com. The lawsuit asks the court to both refund millions in subscription feesand fine the company for its alleged deceptive advertising.

Does this lawsuit have merit? Hit the jump and post your thoughts.

Harvard Withdraws Support to Google Book Search

Pulkit Chandna — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:57:26 -0600

Harvard has fallen out with Google over the company’s recent announcement that it has reached an out-of-court settlement worth $125 million with authors and publishers. In view of the possible consequences of the settlement, Harvard has revoked its permission to Google to scan its in-copyright material for the Google Book Search service.

Harvard believes that the settlement will lend a commercial shade to the Google Book Search service and that “the settlement contains too many potential limitations on access to and use of the books by members of the higher-education community and by patrons of public libraries.” However, Google can blithely continue to scan Harvard’s out-of-copyright material.

Although the $25 million settlement is yet to be ratified by a judge, the Author’s Guild delightfully labeled it the "the biggest book deal in U.S. publishing history." The deal has opened the floodgates for millions of extra titles to be part of Google Book Search. Users will have the option of purchasing a book – the revenue will be split between Google, the publisher and the author – after previewing it; the service will allow them to preview 20 percent of the pages.

Captain Obvious: The Internet is Filled with User Rage

Paul Lilly — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:11:52 -0600

Tread carefully fellow surfers, for there are angry netizens all throughout the web. Apparently, the anonymity the internet provides has users flinging insults and saying things online they wouldn't otherwise say in a face to face confrontation. The epiphany comes courtesy of a CNN report, which points out that blogs and forum posts often times "descend into ad hominem attacks, insults, and plain old name-calling." Welcome to the internet, CNN.

The news site put a lot of research into its report and is worth reading if for no other reason than to see a major news outlet devote a paragraph to "lulz" and what the term means. True credit for this one goes out to The New York Times Magazine, who as CNN points out published a story about trolls back in August. As one ex-troll told the publication, "Lulz is watching someone lose their mind at their computer 2,000 miles away while you chat with friends and laugh."

And it's not just caffeinated teens who are responsible for internet-rage. CNN references the recent account of a 43-year-old Japanese woman who killed her online "husband's" avatar after he divorced her. And don't forget those "celebrity gossip sites [that] are full of snarky comments about stars."

Our response to the 1,200-world write-up? "No s*%t." Hit the jump and tell us yours.

MTV, MySpace Want to Insert Ads in Pirated Videos

Pulkit Chandna — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:59:04 -0600

It is common knowledge that a plethora of copyrighted video content is easily available across the social web. Content owners, however irate, have not been able to clamp down on rampant piracy across the social web despite the full cooperation of social networking websites.

But MySpace and MTV Networks have adopted a more out-of-the-box approach and have tacitly embraced piracy: they now intend to benefit from pirated content.

MTV and MySpace will test a new technology this month that will automatically replace pirated content – uploaded by users – with ad-backed content that is perfectly legal. The innovative technology, which has been developed by Palo Alto-based startup Auditude, is based on the company’s patented video identification tool.

MTV’s conciliatory approach is a straw in the wind as more content providers will be tempted to follow its lead.

Rackspace Acquires Two Startups to Challenge Amazon's Cloud Venture

Pulkit Chandna — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 09:16:00 -0500

Rackspace Hosting has made two acquisitions in a bid to establish itself as a major player in the lucrative cloud computing market. It has acquired Slicehost and Jungle Disk to bolster its Mosso cloud service. The acquisitions are said to be worth $28 million. Rackspace’s Cloud Files, scalable file storage service, will most probably be integrated into Slicehost, according to the Slicehost website.

Jungle Disk, which offers a cloud storage solution for multiple users, uses Amazon’s Simple Storage Service, but will begin offering Rackspace’s Mosso service as well. The two acquisitions will help Rackspace Hosting compete more fiercely with its more accomplished rival Amazon Web Services.

Comcast Announces 50Mbps/10Mbps Premium Service for $140/Month

Paul Lilly — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 10:38:57 -0500

Comcast is in the news again, but this time it has nothing to do with throttling connections or those ever-unpopular bandwidth limits. Instead, the ISP has announced it is rolling out DOCSIS 3.0 'wideband' internet service, giving (er, selling) subscribers up to 50Mbps downstream and 10Mpbs upstream.

At those speeds, Comcast puts itself nearly on par with Verizon's FiOS service, who's top-tier package offers the same downstream but twice the upstream at 20Mbps. But a key difference lies in compatibility. DOCSIS 3.0 means that cable operators don't have to install new lines and instead can use existing infrastructure.

The Extreme 50 service, as Comcast is calling it, will run $140 per month for residential subscribers and $190 per month for businesses. According to Comcast, Extreme 50 customers will be able to download a high-definition movie in about 16 minutes. Initial availability is limited to subscribers in parts of New England, Philadelphia, and New Jersey, with a planned expansion to more than 10 million homes and business by the end of the year.

Would you be willing to pay $140 per month for 50Mpbs/10Mbps? Hit the jump and let us know.

Yahoo Hands Pink Slips to 10% of its Employees to Save $400 Million in Costs

Pulkit Chandna — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 08:32:15 -0500

The entire text of the email that Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang sent to all Yahoo employees has been leaked. The email was sent after Yahoo announced its Q3 earnings. Jerry Yang began by telling the “Yahoos” that he felt it was important for him to reach out to them after the earnings announcement.

He once again reminded them that it has been a very challenging year for the company. After enumerating few of the things Yahoo is doing to survive in the “turbulent global advertising climate”, he came straight to job cuts.

Yang told all Yahoos that the company has no other choice but to slash jobs – in order to cut costs, as “compensation expenses are the single largest part of its costs.” He then apprised them of the heart-wrenching fact that 10% of them are going to loose their jobs by year-end.

IMOVIO Raises Curtain on Linux-enabled iKIT Ultra Mini-PC, the Size of a Nintendo DS

Pulkit Chandna — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 07:35:35 -0500

A Los Angeles-based manufacturer IMOVIO has announced an avant garde mobile messaging device called iKIT. The diminutive iKIT runs Linux and is as small as a Nintendo DS. IMOVIO is touting the iKIT as an affordable alternative to both smart phones and netbooks.

The device includes a 312MHz Marvell PXA270 processor, Linux 2.4.19, full QWERTY/AZERTY keyboard, an 8GB SD card slot ,Opera Mini 4.1 internet browser and 2.8 inch screen. The iKIT has inbuilt WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities, and supports HSDPA over USB. It has a standby time of 250 hours and power-up time of up to 3 hours.

The suggested retail price of roughly $170 makes it far more affordable than an Apple iPhone – a fact specifically called to attention by IMOVIO. However, practicality of such a product is just as important as the price, if not more, and will play a vital role in iKIT’s case as well.