All about impossibles

Integrating Ethics Into The Core Of Your Startups: Why And How

- 8 hours and 37 minutes ago

When I came to the U.S. in 1980, I was young and naïve. I used to think that corruption and ethical lapses were just a third-world ill. Eventually, I became a tech CEO and learned the harsh realities of American business. Yes, standards are much higher, and breaches are punished, but the temptations are just the same here as they are in any other country. Ethical lapses (which are a form of corruption) are quite common.Â You watch stories about these on TV every other day and read about them on TechCrunch.Â It was the ethical lapses of our financial institutions that threw our economy into a tailspin, and for which we are paying the price, after all.

It is best to be aware of the temptations and to prevent the lapses from occurring. As Enron, Bernie Madoff, and Lehman Brothers have shown, it’s a slippery slope. Once you start compromising your values for short-term gains, there is no turning back. Business ethics are not something you need to start worrying about when your company reaches a certain size; they need to be sewn into the fabric of your startup from the get-go. The lessons are the same for tech businesses as they are for investment banks and for third-world economies.

Harvard Business School professor Michael Beer researched the difference between companies that perform at high levels for extended periods and those that implode when they reach a certain size. When analyzing the spectacular failures in the recent financial meltdown, he found that:

· Of the original Forbes 100 (named in 1917), 61 had ceased to exist by 1987. Â Of the remaining 39, only 18 stayed in the top 100, and their return during the period 1917 to 1987 was 20% less than that of the overall market.

· Of companies in the original Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index of 1957, only 74 remained in 1997; of these, only 12 outperformed the S&P 500 in the period 1957 to 1998.

· The average CEO tenure in the U.S. is 4.2 years, less than half the 10.5-year average in 1990.

Beer posited three core reasons for the failure of so many Wall Street firms in the fall of 2008: the firms lacked a higher purpose (in other words, they were focused on short-term gains, profits, and bonuses); they lacked a clear strategy; and they mismanaged their risk. Companies like Charles Schwab and US Bancorp were able to avoid the fallout by having a laser-like focus on customer service and on honesty and transparency. Neither company touched the subprime mortgage securitization market, because they saw it as risky and simply not the kind of business that served the company’s long-term interests.

Even outside Wall Street, companies like Cisco Systems, Southwest Airlines, and Costco Wholesale, with the strongest sense of higher purpose, achieved the greatest success. Take Costco. Wall Street analysts have long chastised Costco’s management for paying high wages and keeping employees around for a long time, because this results in higher benefits costs. But the company’s CEO, Jim Sinegal, lives by his belief that keeping good employees is strategic for Costco’s long-term success and growth. The company’s per-employee sales are considerably higher than those of key rivals such as Target and Wal-Mart; customer service at the stores is phenomenal and fast; and Costco continues to expand, both in number of warehouses and in products and services for business and consumer customers. The culture of the company flows downward from Sinegal and his focus on employees and, by extension, to customers.

One of the problems that Beer found with the failed banks was that their employees lacked the ability to “speak truth to power”. Employees felt intimidated by superiors; the institutions’ internal voice of conscience and purpose was silenced by a maniacal focus on short-term profits and whatever scheme would bring them in. The silencing of employees who sought to challenge strategy and risk-management practices likely also undermined the banks’ moral authority and emboldened those who already felt inclined to do the wrong thing. With a muted internal voice, these organizations lacked a moral compass. As a result, they drove off a cliff with astonishing speed.

The same things happen in Silicon Valley companies. Â I asked management guru â€” and head of the CEO Institute of Yale School of Management â€” Jeff Sonnenfeld for his advice on how startups can sow the seeds for building a Cisco or Costco. Here is Jeff’s advice:

1)Â Create a culture of openness and welcome dissent â€“ Internal constructive critics are your best friends â€” too often, founders are blinded by their own enthusiasm for their creative vision and then are surrounded by sycophants, kissing up. Founders who fall out of touch rapidly lose their ethical bearings. At Intel, founder Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore did not look for sycophantic followers in selecting the brilliant, contentious, but relentlessly honest Andy Grove as their colleague and successor. Similarly, Craig Barrett and Paul Otellini have consistently fought for different points of view internally â€” without undermining the enterprise, and always reinforcing Intel’s self-critical core ethic.

2)Â Lead by example. Â The authenticity of the leader’s character is essential â€” if colleagues don’t believe you, they will not take needed risks on your behalf â€” such as training subordinates to be able to do their own jobs. Â Startups are often defined by the hip clichés of VC firms, adoring press, and HR consultants â€” but the startups don’t really practice what they preach.

3)Â Learn from immediate peers or distant models. Too often, founders atrophy because they believe that the unique quality of their business or technological mission means that they too are truly unique in leadership values.Â Steve Jobs has patterned himself after Polaroid founder Ed Land â€” and tried to learn from Land’s strengths and weaknesses.Â Henry Ford regretfully once claimed “History is bunk” but in reality revered Thomas Edison.Â Michael Dell put legendary tech entrepreneur (Teledyne) and educator Dr. George Kozmetsky on his board right from the start to learn from this brilliant then septuagenarian.

4)Â Recognize your own fallibility as a leader, know your limits, and beware of the myth of immortality.Â Entrepreneurs often are horrified at the thought of leadership succession. The founders of great firms such as Google, Cisco, Amgen, and Microsoft have known that they would need to prepare for a day when they no longer could be the lone day-to-day internal boss, primary external ambassador, and symbolic cultural icon. The founder of the original (pre-Starbucks) coffee house chain Chock-Full-o-Nuts started his first café on BroadwayÂ 43rd Street in 1923 and was a great national success.Â Sadly, sixty years later, as a dying man who had been flat on his back for two years at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, he still clung to the job of leader of the enterprise, his full-time physician serving as acting president.

5)Â Remember that institutional character â€” like a liquid cupped in your hand â€” is fragile; easily lost; and hard, if not impossible, to regain. Egomaniacal moves, personal grandiosity, greed, and deception create impressions that are hard to erase.Â Whole Foods founder, John Mackey, sabotaged the integrity of his own exalted brand, damaging the company’s internal pride and customer admiration far more badly than any competitor could have, due to his self-inflating and his misleading “anonymous” blogging, hiding his identity through an anagram of his wife’s name, “rehodab.”

I’ll add another very important point: Establish an independent board. Venture firms often demand a majority of board seats as a condition for their investments. Conflicts invariably arise. The board begins to serve the needs of VCs and management, rather than of the company itself, which loses the independent voice to warn it not to do the wrong things. The inconvenient truth is that all board members have a fiduciary duty to act in the interests of the company, and not in their own interests. Board members must not engage in transactions in which they or their partners stand to gain. They are legally required to avoid these conflicts of interest.

Finally, remember that in business, you have to make tough choices at every juncture. Though business decisions usually have clear consequences and outcomes, ethical decisions are always hard. Making the right choice doesn’t always bring success, but ethical lapses almost always lead to failure. No matter what the consequence, doing what’s ethical and right is always the better long-term strategy.

Editor’s note: Guest writer Vivek Wadhwa is an entrepreneur turned academic. He is a Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University. Follow him on Twitter at @vwadhwa.

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YABI 1.0.2 - Birthday importer for iCal. (Free)

The New Commandments

Internet Explorer 9 Will Not Support Windows XP

British Airways cabin crew strike gets under way

Guardian Unlimited

- 13 hours and 1 minutes ago

Picket lines and standby queues grow at Heathrow after last-ditch talks between BA and Unite union collapse

British Airways cabin crew today began three days of strike action which will cause severe disruption for tens of thousands of the airline's passengers.

Last-ditch talks between BA and the Unite union, which represents the crew, collapsed acrimoniously yesterday, with BA warning that unless a new framework is drawn up it will scrap an agreement that gives shop stewards the use of company offices and time off to represent members.

Unite said early indications were that its 12,000 members were solidly supporting the three-day walkout, called in response to BA's decision to cut staffing levels on every flight by at least one crew member.

Picket lines were set up at airports including Heathrow, which will be the worst affected by the strike. Unite said more than 80 BA planes were grounded at the airport and so far no buses that transport crew to work had crossed picket lines.

BA said more than 60% of long-haul flights would operate at Heathrow, although only 30% of short-haul flights were expected to do so.

Many BA passengers at Heathrow's Terminal 5, from where most of its flights operate, said the only difference was that many of their flights were operated by other companies.

American Jodi Rogers, 39, who is returning to Boston after a holiday, said: "As far as I know we are flying with BA and it's on time. So far, there has been no trouble."

But Par Svensson, 47, from Sweden, had his flight to Copenhagen cancelled this morning due to the strike and he was waiting at the terminal to see whether he could catch a later flight to get home for his son's birthday.

"I'm on standby for a flight and I will find out soon if I get on board. To be sure, I'm booked on a flight tonight from Stansted," he said.

At Gatwick, all long-haul flights and more than half of short-haul flights were expected to operate as normal, while all flights to and from London City airport were expected to fly as scheduled.

BA said 65% of passengers would still be able to reach their destination during the strike, although 1,100 of the 1,950 scheduled flights would be cancelled. In a bid to break the strike, BA is using 1,000 volunteer cabin crew and 22 chartered jets, including three Ryanair planes complete with flight attendants.

The company said it was confident of handling as many as 49,000 passengers today and the same number tomorrow, which compares with a figure of around 75,000 for a normal weekend day in March. It has warned that the strike could disrupt flights into next week.

Another four days of industrial action are set to begin on 27 March and further action is expected from mid-April unless the deadlock is broken.

Unite's joint leader, Tony Woodley, accused BA of wanting a "war" with the union and complained that the BA chief executive, Willie Walsh, had tabled a worse offer than one withdrawn last week.

Woodley said today that he had been set "mission impossible" because of the new offer, which included a four-year pay deal which the union maintained would at best freeze wages until 2014.

The union had offered a 2.6% pay cut this year as part of a three-year deal.

Woodley said: "The disruption that passengers will inevitably experience over the next three days could have been spared had BA grasped that you cannot put an offer on the table one day, take it off the next and then come back with a worse one a few days later.

"To expect this union to recommend to its members any such proposal shows an insecure grasp of industrial relations reality.

"Unite remains available at any time to talk to BA. We urge them to think again about what is truly in the long-term best interests of this great airline."

Labour MP John McDonnell, whose Hayes and Harlington constituency includes Heathrow airport, said: "This dispute is a prime example of the current industrial relations climate, with the employer not only seeking to win but to break the union too.

"This is an indication of the coming disputes, and requires maximum solidarity. We need to learn the lessons and co-ordinate industrial action across the economy if we are to ensure ordinary people do not pay for this crisis."

One industrial relations expert said if BA ended its current arrangement with Unite, which stipulates how much work airline employees can do for the union and what facilities they can use, it would reduce co-operation to the "bare minimum".

The failure of the peace talks is a bitter blow to Gordon Brown, who is desperate to banish the spectre of large-scale industrial action 46 days before the likely election date.

David Batty guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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Football - Ligue 1 - Sont-ils déjà condamnés ?

Microsoft under fire in Argentina: it faces a fine of more than 50 million euros for anticompetitive activities

Opinions

- 1 days and 1 hours ago

(Version Française ici).

About five years ago, I wrote a detailed report on how one could have the choice between GNU / Linux and other operating systems in Argentina. that was most surprising for French people, that have always had the greatest difficulties in getting such a choice, despite the remarkable efforts made by the Working Group Detaxe and Racketiciels. It was even possible at that time in Argentina to compare on the website of major retail chains (Fravega, Garbarino, the equivalent of Darty or Boulanger in France) the price for the same machine with another operating system or with a Debian-based, customised Argentinian GNU / Linux, developed by an SME named Pixart (not to be confused with the studio Pixar!).

But starting from 2 years ago, I have seen that it has become impossible to find any longer a single machine with GNU / Linux in retail: worse, we saw some very dubious agreements negotiated under the high patronage of the founder of the multinational software company that monopolises the operating systems market.

One may well ask why: this is not without reminding us of the situation here in France, where after SFR placed on the market more thatn 250000 Netbooks all equipped with GNU / Linux about two years ago, we can not find now a single netbook without Windows (yes, I write the name in full letters now, because I am particularly upset: I wanted to buy one for personal use this Christmas, but despite my efforts, I have not found a single model with a GNU / Linux preinstalled in France).

The few remaining fans of software monopolies like to say that this sudden vanishement proves that the other operating system is superior to GNU / Linux.

Well, I happen to have in my hands right now a copy of the appeal filed against Microsoft by the little Argentine SMEs Pixart, and it is very helpful in understanding what really happened there ... and very likely what is happening here too.

The Windows For The Poor

Microsoft does not usually sit back when it loses market share, and I already noticed back then that Redmond had put in place a strategy to counter the spread of GNU / Linux in emerging markets. In Argentina, already in 2005 they had managed to convince the government to spend taxpayer money on an operation codenamed 'Mi PC', which through a microcredit whose interests were paid by the state, encouraged the public to buy machines that are sold with Windows SE (Starter Edition, they say), better known today as Windows FTP (For The Poor). This edition sports ludicrous limitations like the following: only recognises 256 Mb of RAM (with XP, It's a little short), 80 GB hard disk (ditto), screen resolution was limited to 800x600, no local network, and you cannot open windows for more than 3 applications at once (oh well, if there is something that poor people have in abundance is time, therefore they will only run 3 tasks in parallel, and no more).

This version was sold cheaper than the standard Windows editions , with the aim to compete with GNU / Linux machines, but at that time this move made me laugh quite a bit because the early machines with Windows FTP still costed at least 500 pesos more than the equivalent GNU / Linux systems, which had no such ridiculous limitations: one really had to be poor in spirit to purchase them!

The rear margins (or Market Development Agreements)

What I did not know in 2006 is that the Windows For The Poor was just a first step in the strategy: The second step was to artificially lower the final price of computers running Windows, and financially strangling Pixart, which could not charge anymore its service for pre-installation of custom GNU / Linux on machines manufactured in Argentina.

In reading the appeal filed by Pixart, we learn that Microsoft would have started in 2008 to give back large amounts of money to the whole distribution chain to convince them to buy exclusively Windows, and these sums have been disguised in various forms.

For example, I heard that Microsoft would have payed hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to some distributors, officially for the Microsoft logo to appear on the leaflet advertising the chain. Well, this kind of operation is called 'rear margin' here, and generally corresponds to an abuse of dominant position from retailers who charge abusive fees to small suppliers for purported advertising campaigns that hide forced rebates. But in our case, I have a hard time thinking that a small retail chain in Latin America has a dominant position when facing a multinational that generates profits of billions of dollars a year.

But why, you will say , is Microsoft complicatin its life like this? Was'nt it easier to simply lower the cost of licensing Windows to, say, $ 5, rather than continue to charge $ 100 initially, to repay $ 95 to distributors right after?

Well, no! Because, if we lower the cost of the officially licensed Windows FTP to $ 5, then it must be sold $ 5 everywhere, and we can no longer pretend to charge $ 200 to large customers (such as ministries in Argentina) for the full version .

It is much more interesting to pretend that the cost is 50 or 100 dollars, and find a way to give back 45 or 95 dollars under the table: on one side the illusion is maintained that the price is high and constant, on the other, one can happily strangle competition, by lowering prices only on the competitive segment (the rebate is conditioned, of course, to stopping any sale of the rival product).

The competition law

This wonderful monopolistic invention has one flaw, though: it brutally violates the rules of competition, which are codified, for better or worse, in almost all countries, including Argentina. To function properly, it must be carried out in the greatest secrecy, and stay safe from prying eyes.

But it may well be that this discretion is not going to las much longer: using the laws on competition in Argentina, Pixart filed appeal, describing what it thinks is the strategy followed by Microsoft, and asking the judge to compel Microsoft, and distributors to provide all evidence of purchases, grants, rebates, in short, an account of all financial transaction, even by means of intermediaries, between Microsoft and distributors.

Pixart also suggests that the judge checks whether Microsoft properly pays tariffs for imports of these licenses: it is well known that Microsoft

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When Netflix Isn't Enough

Cinematical

- 1 days and 5 hours ago

There used to be two independent movie rental places in my neighborhood, with one just a few blocks further away offering a seemingly endless array of movies - blockbusters, esoteric indies, extreme horror, sexploitation and grindhouse, triple X features, and even dubiously dubbed impossible to get films like the infamous Skidoo, Preminger's LSD freakout featuring a stoned Groucho Marx as God.

Since rents have skyrocketed and Netflix has appeared on the scene, these brick and mortar stores have been wiped out like the T-Rex, and if I don't like my Netflix offerings at home or if I need to find a movie for research, well, my choices are Blockbuster (which does have some surprising DVDs to rent) or the rental place that's squeezed into the corner of a pizza joint.

For what it's worth, I love Netflix. Love it. I love rating films and seeing what it comes up with, and I love getting those little envelopes in the mail. I love seeing what my friends have rated. My queue is topped out, and I have started bookmarking movies I need to Netflix. Streaming to my Xbox is great, and new films are being added at an alarmingly awesome rate.

At the risk of sounding like a younger female Richard Corliss, I do miss browsing my local video store - a good one, mind you. I could examine each shelf for ages, looking for the perfect movie to suit my mood that night, or getting something on a whim because its cover catches my eye or because it's an employee pick I'd never heard of, in the same way I visit my favorite book store and peruse the books they have handpicked to display in the shelves at the front.

Filed under: Fandom, Home Entertainment

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Des captures d’écran du BlackBerry OS 6.0 leakées ?

Salade de fraises saupoudrée de pétales de roses en poudre par la fée des jardins

Lagardère vend Virgin 17, Bolloré est preneur

Heavens Above

365 tomorrows

- 1 days and 18 hours ago

Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer

The radiation levels following the Great Holy War of the twenty third century made living on the surface of the Earth impossible. Consequently, humanity moved underground. After millennia of self-sufficient, artificial environments, humanity lost all ties to the surface. Eventually, the sum on the “known universe” consisted of 50,000 humans, living in 800 cubic miles of subterranean rock. The very existence of the sun and moon, of the land and sea, of the sky and horizon, were all forgotten. Nothing else existed. That is, until an urban Expansion Project penetrated into the unknown.

“Okay, okay,” bellowed the governor as he entered the meeting chamber. “What’s so damn urgent that it became necessary to interrupt my sleep cycle?”

“I’m sorry, Governor,” replied the Secretary of Construction, “but there was an â€˜incident’ in one of the mine shafts.”

“An Incident! What kind of incident?”

“Well, sir, as you know, urban expansion projects are typically limited to the X-Y plane, where the ambient rock temperature is between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. However, the Limestone Expansion Project is moving in the positive-Z direction, where the rock temperatures are generally lower. Although expanding in this direction will have higher recurring cost, the lower construction costs tunneling through the softer limestone are too significant to ignore.” The Secretary sensed that the governor was losing patience, so he cut to the chase. “Anyway, sir, late yesterday, the exploratory mine shaft broke into an extremely large chamber.”

The governor snapped to attention. “What’s that you say? A chamber?” A wave of spontaneous thoughts raced though his mind. Could there be other life forms in the universe? What would that mean to their society? Chaos, unrest, revolt, the end of civilization? This could be very bad news indeed. “Was the chamber natural of artificial?”

“Unknown, sir. It had its own light source. Initially, the light source was hundreds of times brighter than anything we have in the City. However, after half a cycle, it became significantly darker. We were able to send a team through the shaft. They say there is a large semicircular light on the ceiling and thousands of diamond lights surrounding it. They say they cannot see the walls. They estimate that the chamber is hundreds of miles in diameter.”

“That’s ridiculous. No chamber can be that large. What do your engineers say?”

“They are at a loss, sir. But, there are a few eccentric scientists that claim that the universe physically ends several miles above our heads. These scientists say that the Earth is just a solid spherical ball with nothing beyond.”

“That’s the stupidest idea I ever heard. The rock extends forever in all directions. Everybody knows that.”

“Of course, sir. But there are also crackpots who say that man once lived on that spherical surface, but was banished to the â€˜underworld’ because of a great sin.”

“Ignore my earlier statement. Now, that is the stupidest idea I ever heard. How can anyone live on a sphere? They’d fall off. No, I suspect that the positive-Z direction contains evil beings. They probably blind their prey with the bright light, and then attack them. I wouldn’t be surprised if they eat their victims while they’re still alive. Recall your men immediately. We must seal the shaft before it is too late. In the morning, I’ll meet with the full Senate. We must pass a law that forbids expansion in the positive-Z direction. And for now, we must all pray that the gods will forgive our blasphemous behavior, lest we all perish.”

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Ravitailleurs : EADS pourrait encore participer selon le Pentagone

Pixel : "Ainsi fond"

Pop-Rock.com, le site de la pop et du rock des années 80 à nos jours

- 2 days ago

Deuxième LP d'un trio parisien encore méconnu mais qui mérite qu'on s'y attarde, Ainsi fond creuse sa voie entre influences anglo-saxonnes et tradition hexagonale. Résultat : un bel ensemble de morceaux de styles variés, agencées entre eux selon une logique propre à tous les véritables albums, celle du parcours.

Le disque s'ouvre avec Première classe, titre d'une grande efficacité, limite obsédant, qui ne surprendra pas les habitués du rock français. Des riffs de guitare en cascade, superposés les uns aux autres portent un couplet, un refrain... une belle chanson sur un amour impossible. Le morceau trouve son pendant sur la dernière plage avec Corinnes, titre plus sombre, où derrière les mots "bistrot", "mégot", etc. plane l'ombre d'un Miossec, fondu dans un univers purement rock.

Entre ces deux pôles, le groupe se promène, d'influences pop-folk minimalistes (Peter Pan, Non conforme) en décharges d'électricité (Dernière à Paris). Avec, sur Correspondances, un hommage très métropolitain aux vieilles chansons de zinc qui ont fait la réputation de la capitale française. Parmi les tours de force de l'album, on retiendra A.I., soudaine envolée lyrique, portée par une ambiance électro et des chÅ“urs pop très originaux : un peu indie, un peu hippie... En somme assez ovnis.

Grâce à son riche panel instrumental (glockenspiels, melodicas, mellotrons...) et à des compositions toutes en nuances qui dévoilent leur complexité petit à petit, Ainsi fond ne lasse pas. Au contraire, il impose son originalité, son univers dégagé des courants et des statues des commandeurs qui plombent trop souvent le rock hexagonal.

En dernière instance, on s'attardera sur les textes. Nassib, chanteur, guitariste et parolier (David s'occupe de la batterie, Natan de la basse et, en gros, de tout le reste) s'avère une plume affutée et délicate, maniant les mots tendres comme les coups de gueule. Préférant, sur un titre écolo comme L'épouvantail, les images et les impressions, aux leçons de morale. Jouant avec le vocabulaire amoureux pour en tirer des leçons désabusées sans être plombantes (Etonnamment). Témoignant à son tour pour une génération qui a bien du mal à grandir et à abandonner ses rêves, fussent-ils des chimères...

Que dire de plus à part : dépêchez-vous d'écouter ce disque. Il vient de sortir...

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Nvidia admits GeForce drivers responsible for fan problems, issues updates

BetaNews.Com

- 2 days and 2 hours ago

By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews

Download Nvidia ForceWare Drivers for Windows version 197.73 from Fileforum now.

Nvidia top story badge Version 196.75 of Nvidia's GeForce/Ion drivers were indeed responsible for fan overheating problems reported by users. That's the verdict from Nvidia, which in a second round of responses to customer concerns has released version 197.73, which it assures users doesn't have the problem.

According to a frequent contributor to Nvidia's support forum, the problem was with the release version of the driver (other contributors reported no such problem with the beta). Specifically, version 196.75 ran the on-board graphics chip fan at 40% speed like it's supposed to. But when the card got hotter, the speed boost failed to kick in.

As one tester verified, "Up to 72Â° [Celsius], the fan remains at 40%. At 73Â° it increases to 41%, at 74Â° to 42%, and at 75Â° it varies between 44 and 45%."

To its credit, Nvidia's response has actually been quite swift. Over the past few days, registered driver users received e-mail messages advising them to roll back to an earlier version. One Dell XPS M1730 customer tried that, only to find that certain data left behind from a simple uninstall made it impossible to reboot his computer except into Safe Mode -- where, after a short time, it would freeze. A volunteer pointed out the M1730 is a laptop...and the 196.75 drivers were for desktop PC cards.

Other volunteers suggested the use of driver cleaning utilities such as Guru3D Driver Sweeper. Meanwhile, they advised others to use manual utilities to monitor their processor temperatures.

Though some long-time forum members were prematurely lamenting about how long they'd have to wait to see software fixes, they actually did come within a few days. But that wasn't good enough for some who complained they lost their cards entirely. Over the weekend, prior to Nvidia's announcement, one forum contributor commented, "I have filled out an error report form and it seems that all I (we) can do now is wait. The possible fixes I have heard include: RMA video card for a new one; buy a new video card. These seem like rather poor fixes."

Sensing the onset of a possible customer revolt, forum contributor ImNutz4NvSLI (who, we can assume, is nuts for Nvidia SLI) attempted to put out the flames: "Paying attention to your GPUs temps is your responsibility. I can't imagine a situation in which my GPUs would get to over 100c and I wouldn't know about it. I am not trying to be cruel or insensitive, I am just stating it like it is. In this world today people are always looking for something for nothing, and looking to pass blame and not take responsibility for their own actions. While this driver may have broken automatic fan control on some users GPUs, certainly not all, fan control was still there to use and was working, all you had to do was pay attention to the temps."

The contributor pointed to a thread he set up last Saturday, containing illustrated instructions for setting up manual temperature monitors in Windows. Utilities such as EVGA Precision, for instance, show little temperature indicators in the Windows system tray, and can even overlay game screens with temperature monitor information on-demand.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

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YouTube Details Hypocrisy of Viacom’s $1 Billion Lawsuit

Mashable!

- 2 days and 3 hours ago

In response to opening briefs filed by Viacom today in its now three-year-old lawsuit against YouTube, the video-sharing site has posted some startling accusations about the hypocrisy of the media giant’s claims.

In a blog post, YouTube claims that at the same time Viacom was trying to sue YouTube into oblivion, it was secretly having its own content uploaded to the site. YouTube says that Viacom hired “no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies” who “deliberately â€˜roughed up’ the videos to make them look stolen or leaked.”

Then, YouTube claims, Viacom would demand the takedown of content, but because of the mess that it created, “there is no way YouTube could ever have known which Viacom content was and was not authorized to be on the site.” YouTube also says that Viacom tried to acquire the company on numerous occasions (of course, Google ultimately won that battle).

Beyond those arguments, though, YouTube’s main legal defense is simply that it is protected by the DMCA, which puts the onus on copyright holders, not service providers, to keep track of and help enforce copyrights. Because of Viacom’s actions, however, YouTube says that thorough enforcement was impossible.

Viacom, however, contests that YouTube didn’t do enough to protect copyright content and built its huge following thanks in no small part to unauthorized content. It makes its most convincing case with a series of e-mails between the co-founders of YouTube, who at time seems more concerned with a big pay day than dealing with copyright issues.

YouTube certainly makes a compelling case, and considering the plethora of media companies that have moved on and now do content deals with YouTube, it’s hard to imagine Viacom finding much support, at least in the court of public opinion. Nonetheless, the case moves forward, and Viacom will ultimately have the chance to show that YouTube knowingly let copyright content stay on its site.

Tags: viacom, youtube

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YouTube Accuses Viacom of Uploading Clips, Making Its Life Difficult

NewTeeVee

- 2 days and 3 hours ago

Court filings in the three-year old copyright infringement suit between Viacom and YouTube have finally been made public, which should make some interesting reading and take over the rest of my afternoon. But in the meantime, YouTube Chief Counsel Zahavah Levine has written a pretty damning post on the YouTube blog, condemning Viacom for having its employees pose as normal users to upload promotional content to the video-sharing site.

Asking for a summary judgment in the case, YouTube argues that it should be protected by safe harbor provisions in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which state that Internet hosts should not be found liable for content that is uploaded to their sites, so long as they respond to takedown notices issued by copyright owners within a reasonable period of time. In the blog post, Levine writes that the DMCA “recognizes that content owners, not service providers like YouTube, are in the best position to know whether a specific video is authorized to be on an Internet hosting service.”

Viacom might believe otherwise, arguing that YouTube should have done a better job of keeping copyrighted material off the site. But Levine argues that even if YouTube were tasked with doing so, Viacom’s actions would have made policing its content impossible. YouTube accuses Viacom of uploading its own content, and doing so in a way that made it difficult for YouTube to distinguish between its employees and common users. If true, the accusation is pretty damning. Levine writes:

“Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its content to YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there. It hired no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies to upload its content to the site. It deliberately “roughed up” the videos to make them look stolen or leaked. It opened YouTube accounts using phony email addresses. It even sent employees to Kinko’s to upload clips from computers that couldn’t be traced to Viacom. And in an effort to promote its own shows, as a matter of company policy Viacom routinely left up clips from shows that had been uploaded to YouTube by ordinary users.

The results were so effective, Levin writes, that Viacom couldn’t tell if a piece of content was uploaded by its employees or not, which resulted in Viacom demanding that some clips be taken down — and then later asking for them to be reinstated. “Given Viacom’s own actions,” Levine writes, “there is no way YouTube could ever have known which Viacom content was and was not authorized to be on the site.”

Related content on GigaOM Pro:

Will Automated Rights Management Take Down Fair Use? (subscription required)

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Le numéro du 13ème fauteuil

La république des livres

- 2 days and 5 hours ago

«Â Je n’écoute plus rienÂ ; et, pour jamais, adieu.../ Pour jamaisÂ ! AhÂ ! Seigneur, songez-vous en vous-même/ Combien ce mot cruel est affreux quand on aimeÂ ?/ Dans un mois, dans un an, comment souffrirons-nous,/ Seigneur, que tant de mers me séparent de vousÂ ?/ Que le jour recommence et que le jour finisse. Sans que jamais Titus puisse voir Bérénice...Â »

Â Â Jean d’Ormesson (mais non, c’est pas du d’OrmessonÂ !) ne pouvait décemment commencer son discours de réception à Simone Veil à l’Académie française autrement que par le rappel des plaintes de Bérénice. Sixième femme académicienne depuis la création de l’institution en 1635, elle est en effet devenue cet après-midi l’héritière du 13ème fauteuil dont Racine fut le plus prestigieux séant (pardon Claudel, mais c’est ainsi, la consultation de la liste est sans appel). Pourtant, à la lecture des deux discours qui furent prononcés aujourd’hui sous la coupole, le nom que l’on veil2.1268934642.jpg retiendra n’est ni son nom, ni celui de tout autre génie de la langue française, mais celui d’un camp d’extermination. Là où elle est née à l’âge de 16 ans. Son ombre portée a comme enveloppé l’assistance durant ces quelques heures. Quels qu’aient été les mérites de Simone Veil à divers égards au cours de sa carrière, et ils sont nombreux, tout l’y ramèneÂ : le regard des autres et le sien propre.

Â Â Â Le nom d’Auschwitz résonna tout au long de l’après-midi comme jamais en ces lieux qui eurent bien des indulgences pour l’esprit vichyste, pendant l’Occupation et bien après. Après la cérémonie, les plus curieux auront eu à cÅ“ur d’approcher l’élue non pour lui parler mais, comme il est d’usage, pour contempler son épée et découvrir ce qu’elle y avait fait graver. On en connaît au moins deux motifsÂ : la devise «Â Liberté , égalité, fraternitéÂ », le nom “Birkenau”Â et 78Â 651. Son numéro de matricule. On songe alors à Primo Levi qui obtint que le sien (174Â 517) figurât en bonne place sous son nom au cimetière où il est enseveli. Preuve que si les rescapés ont réussi à quitter le camp, le camp ne les a jamais quittés.

Â Â Â Contrairement à d’autres, Simone Veil née Jacob s’est refusée à faire effacer son tatouage de l’avant-bras. Un soir, après une émission de télévision à laquelle nous avions participé, comme elle me proposait de me ramener dans sa voiture, j’en profitais pour lui demander si elle, que l’on crédite d’un certain caractère (entendezÂ : un mauvais caractère), si elle n’avait jamais baissé la garde. Elle m’a alors raconté que cela ne lui était arrivé qu’une seule fois, jusqu’à fondre en larmes en public, la cuirasse s’étant soudainement fendueÂ : jeune magistrate dans une délégation en visite en Allemagne, alors qu’elle discutait avec des collègues dans un cocktail à l’ambassade de France, elle fut interrompue par un Français qui, désignant son bras nu, lui demandaÂ :Â «Â C’est votre numéro de vestiaireÂ ?Â ». Impossible de ne pas y penser en regardant cette épée.

Â Â

Â Â Â On se dit alors que, dans cet endroit qui tient son charme à ce qu’il ne sert à rien sinon à maintenir une tradition, il est remarquable qu’une femme qui a déjà goûté de tous les honneurs et joui de tous les pouvoirs, trouve un certain bonheur à faire graver ce qui lui fut autrefois une marque d’infamie dans ce qui lui sera à jamais un objet de fierté.

(Photo Philippe Wojazer/ Reuters)

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