New Delhi - An Indian court has ordered legal proceedings to begin against the Google internet search engine for an alleged 'Hate India' campaign propagated on its social-networking website, Orkut, media reports said Wednesday.

A court in the western state of Maharashtra on Tuesday made the ruling after considering public-interest litigation about a community called 'We Hate India' - which was full of anti-India propaganda with a picture of the Indian flag being burned - that has been created on Orkut.com.

The petition sought the removal of the community from the website as well as the appointment of a 'controller' to regulate such communities on the internet.

The 'We Hate India' group has 100 members, many of whom are from Pakistan. The community's creator calls himself Miraslov Stankovic and claims he is based in Russia. Another one of his Orkut communities is 'Israel Must be Destroyed.'

Orkut also has 10 communities called 'We Hate Pakistan,' most of whose members are Indians.

'It is part of the war between India and Pakistan in cyberspace,' cyber security analyst Subimal Bhattacharjee told the Hindustan Times newspaper.

The court directed the Maharashtra state government to issue a notice to Google, and if a case is brought against Google, it would most likely be filed by the cyber cell of the Maharashtra police, the Economic Times daily reported.

Google was surprised at the development. 'Like the offline world, there are some people who may object to something in the online world too,' a company executive told the Economic Times.

The executive added that Orkut was a public platform that relied on its users to object to any content online.

© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Google Launches Official Mac Blog

Google has reportedly launched the "Official Mac Blog" for Apple Mac users.

Using the Mac blog, Apple plans to update its users with the latest products and services for the Mac platform launched by the company. It will provide users with the latest news, tips, and insider stories about Macs at Google.

According to a Google representative, the company is taking their mission statement "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful" very seriously and the blog is a part of that initiative.

The Google Mac platform supports various Google features such as Dashboard Widgets, Gmail, Picasa, Safari support for Google Calendar, and Google Video. It will also feature a Mac version of Google Earth, a satellite mapping service.

In addition, Google has reportedly hired a team of Mac engineers for developing a competitor software for Microsoft. The company said that these upgrades are the result of work by its Mac Engineering team.
Additionally, Google has also updated their Mac homepage with the list of products compatible with the Apple Mac platform.

Techtree.com

Google combines word processing, spreadsheets

Google is diving further into the Web-based productivity-applications market by offering a new product that combines its online word-processing and spreadsheet programs.

The company launched on Wednesday a beta version of Google Docs & Spreadsheets. The free program lets people create, manage and share documents and spreadsheets on the Web.

The program enables people to collaborate online in real time, use a variety of file formats for importing and exporting, and publish documents and spreadsheets on a Web page or blog.

Google is not targeting the desktop productivity suite market place that Microsoft dominates with Office, despite speculation that it is, said Jonathan Rochelle, Google Docs & Spreadsheets product manager.

"It made sense to combine these products and people were asking for that," he said. "It doesn't change our strategy. This is complementary to desktop products...and lacks certain advanced features" of desktop products.

Starting with e-mail, Google has been launching Web-based services and software in a move seen by many as encroaching on Microsoft's turf. Microsoft has responded by revamping its business to focus on Web services under the Windows Live and Office Live monikers.

Google acquired the online word-processing application Writely in March and launched Google Spreadsheets in June. Google recently opened Writely up to the public.

Google also sells a product to corporations and organizations that they can offer their employees and members for free called Google Apps for Your Domain that ties together Web-based e-mail, calendar, chat and Web page publishing.

CNET News.com

Options scandal claims CNET, McAfee chiefs

Two top McAfee execs and three CNET Networks chiefs have quit their jobs in the wake of America's growing backdated options scandal.

Security software firm McAfee has appointed board member Dale Fuller as interim chief executive and president after CEO George Samenuk resigned, and president Kevin Weiss was fired by the board over misallocations of McAfee stock. Fuller joined McAfee's board in January, having previously served as Borland Software's CEO.

Additionally, McAfee said it will re-state earnings for a 10-year period, a move that is expected to cost between $100m and $150m.

And so to Shelby Bonnie, CEO and co-founder of CNET Networks - the biggest online tech site - today quit his job over misallocations of CNET stock, between "at least" 1996 and 2003. But, get this: Bonnie retains his position - and presumably remuneration - as a CNET board member.

Two other CNET employees have also resigned, following an investigation by a special committee, which reports: "A number of executives of the company, including the former CFO and the recently resigned CEO, general counsel and SVP of human resources, bear varying degrees of responsibility for these deficiencies."

In a departing statement on Wednesday, Samenuk - McAfee's CEO for six years - said: "I regret that some of the stock option problems identified by the special [options] committee occurred on my watch. I am proud of the accomplishments of the McAfee team in serving our millions of customers during my tenure."

Bonnie expressed his deep disappointment. "I apologize for the option-related problems that happened under my leadership," he said.

The fat cats that caught the cream<?h3>

Samenuk, Weiss and Bonnie are the latest casualties in a scandal that has seen some 120 US public companies - most in IT - either come under government investigation, or launch their internal probes into allocation of stock. So far, more than 30 executives, including CEOs, presidents, CFOs and heads of human resources (HR), have left companies that are under investigation. Executives from two, Brocade Communications and Comverse Technology, have been indicted.

Internal investigations are intended to clear house and stave off prosecution by either the US government or financial regulators. The FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are taking a tough line to help restore the public's confidence in the market place. Misallocation of stock, involving falsifying the date when grants were awarded, is believed to have cost $2.5bn in earnings.

It became common practice for tech companies to hand out stock to retain staff in the highly competitive recruitment environment of the late 1990s. It also became common practice, though, to bend the rules over when stock was granted, without anyone really bothering to stop and question the legality.

In the Brocade case, ex-chief executive George Reyes was granted sole authority to approve stock allocations - a process that usually goes through a special committee at most corporations. Prosecutors claim the practice of backdating stock became institutionalized at Brocade, as it drew the active support of the former vice president of HR and CFO. ®

The Register

Windows Vista RC2: Nothing but Small Bugs, Bugs, Bugs.

Can you believe it? Microsoft might actually keep its promises!!! All of them?!…

So the last, ultimate and final Release Candidate for Windows Vista is out to play. After more than 5 years of development, lots of delays and concerns for future ones, Microsoft triumphantly declares that the moment of truth nears fast: Vista is on track to be released to the public as planned in January 2007.

When Vista was initially introduced to the Beta testers this summer at WinHEC, many developers and IT engineers have expressed serious doubts about Microsoft’s capacity to overcome the serious flaws encountered in early versions of its OS and to ship it on time.

Symantec jointed the club of critics signaling at least 3 major vulnerabilities in a sector considered crucial for Redmond’s next-generation OS: the security module. Symantec first revealed a missive about the bugs in the next-generation OS in mid-July, stating that networking is one of the weak points. A second report implied that what Microsoft calls advanced security features could actually be the next cadaver to be scavenged by worms, viruses and hoax, serving as loopholes.

In particular, Symantec detailed a handful of vulnerabilities that affect Vista’s UAP (User Account Protection) feature. The UAP is designed to help companies reduce the impact of an infection with a virus, banning the malicious code to escalate its privileges on infected machines in order to further propagate itself or inflict other damage on affected computers.

Microsoft replied that the critical vulnerabilities signaled by the security company are not to be found in the final version of Vista. And apparently not only have they fixed Symantec’s signaled vulnerabilities but they also managed to have Vista ready in time for its November 2006 launch (for the corporate customers) and January 2007 (general public).

According to Microsoft’s official blog, “This new build of Windows Vista offers users a higher level of performance and stability- improving what was established in Windows Vista RC1. The improvement shows as we raised our quality bar even higher.”

Jim Allchin, Platforms and Services Co-President, boasts with the fact that Vista’s many bugs have been fixed (…) and that all they did since the RC1 was unleashed was to track ‘em down and kill ‘em: “All your great feedback has helped us focus on nothing but bug fixes over the past month since RC 1 — each and every day. There are thousands of quality improvements since Windows Vista RC1. You’ll probably notice improvements in performance, application compatibility, as well as fit and finish work. We will continue improving quality until RTM.”

Moreover, Allchin calls Vista a “great product” and invites testers to send their feed-back : “We are just around the corner from RTM and shipping this great product to the world. This will be the last build made available prior to RTM, so please keep the feedback coming so we can hit the finish line.”

The author of the blog where Vista RC 2 is announced also urges customers in the Customer Preview Program to start hunting for bugs and send them back to Micrsoft for…analysis: “Submit as many bugs as you can as we continue to work hard toward shipping.”

The reactions to the new build are contradictory: “Install OK (less than 30 mins) in my Toshiba U200. So far, so good. The best build yet (as expected)” says one user. But others make a list of bugs that are yet to be dealt with: “Fast install. Vista is great on a Tablet PC.

I stall have a few unresolved problems:

1. WebMail OWA- replying or forwarding does not work.

2. Right click menu in IE7 does nothing.

3. Start menu links to programs do nothing,” said one Alex Daryan. “IE7 won't run flash 9 apps without hanging. When it does run it doesn't functioning properly.”

The question in everybody’s minds, now that we are close to the RTM, is: will Windows Vista be better THAN XP or a better XP (and I don’t mean the code for Vista, which is built from scratch)? Those bugs Allchin was talking, are they really going to be eliminated by January 2007 (it’s impossible 100% I now…)

Because if not, all these positive declarations and confident statements will turn against Microsoft and the smallest bug will gain colossal proportions (“hey, they’ve worked 5 years for this crap?”). If Microsoft does not keep ALL of its promises about Vista I'm afraid their target of 200 million installs in the first two years might be far-fetched.

playfuls.com

Study: Gene Doubles Breast Cancer Risk

According to results recently published in the European Journal of Cancer, young women have a poor understanding of lifestyle and genetic risk factors involved in the development of breast cancer.

It is estimated that one in eight women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer within their lifetime. Due to the prevalence of this disease, researchers have been trying to educate the public about certain risk factors that may increase or decrease a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer. The goal is to influence women to make appropriate lifestyle choices or undergo screening measure if they are at a high risk of developing the disease. Young women can benefit the most from knowing about risk factors for breast cancer because these factors are present during their entire lifetime.

Researchers recently conducted an international survey among female university students regarding risk factors associated with the development of breast cancer. This study included students from 23 countries between 1999 and 2001.

• 57% of women were aware of a genetic link to breast cancer.
• Only 5% were aware that alcohol consumption, lack of exercise, and obesity contributed to an increased risk of developing breast cancer.
• Participants often named factors that have not demonstrated an association with risks of breast cancer.

The researchers concluded that many younger women do not understand specific risk factors and their role in the development of breast cancer. Women in the United States had a better understanding of these risk factors than women from other countries; however, it is remains important for the public to understand specific risk factors, particularly those that can be affected by lifestyle, for developing various types of cancer.

Source Consultants.com

www.ecanadanow.com

Google Adds Warner, Sony Music Videos

NEW YORK — Google Inc. on Monday announced it signed content deals with Warner Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment to show music video's on the search leader's video site.

Google has been rumored to be in talks to acquire YouTube, a video-sharing startup company, for several days. On Monday morning, YouTube announced several content partnerships of its own, including one with Sony BMG.

Google said its ad-supported video site will offer thousands of Sony BMG music videos, along with Warner Music videos, behind-the-sceens footage and other artist-related content, under two separate revenue-sharing agreements.

The company said users can also purchase and download Warner Music video clips.

Google added that in coming months, Web sites on its AdSense network will also be able to display music videos from both companies, generating additional advertising revenue.

Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based search company said it also plans to develop technology to let users mix some of the content from music companies into their own amateur videos.

Monday's YouTube deals allowed for similar use of copyrighted materials. YouTube also announced technology that lets copyright holders track down unauthorized video clips.

Shares of Google Inc. rose $8.30, or 2 percent, to $429.80 in morning trading on the Nasdaq. Warner Music Group's stock fell 32 cents to $26.51 on the New York Stock Exchange, and Sony American Depositary Shares lost 23 cents at $37.55.

© 2006 The Associated Press
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4245718.html

Google ropes Microsoft, Yahoo into copyright lawsuit

Google is sending subpoenas to Microsoft and Yahoo as part of its legal defense in a copyright lawsuit brought against it by authors and publishers.

In addition, Google will subpoena documents from Amazon, Random House and the Association of American Publishers and agree to keep confidential files under a protective order, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

The lawsuit filed last October by the Association of American Publishers revolves around Google Print. The plan is to digitize large parts of the book collections of the University of Michigan, Harvard University, Stanford University, the New York Public Library and Oxford University. Google plans to let people search the texts and sell advertisements related to such searches.

Posted by Declan McCullagh
http://news.com.com/2061-10803_3-6123730.html

Google crawls into source code search

By Martin LaMonica
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Google is taking its search expertise to one of its favorite audiences: software developers.

The company on Thursday launched a Web site, Google Code Search, which the company says will let programmers search billions of lines of code for tips on how to write their own software.

The service, conceived by the Google Labs early technology group, will crawl publicly available code, most of which is made available through open-source projects. The search and indexing covers code on Web pages and code that resides in compressed files, said Tom Stocky, a product manager at Google.

Google expects that the search engine will be used primarily as a learning tool to help students and serious programmers, rather than a way to find and copy another person's code.

"Most of the code is open source so you can reuse it. But I don't think that's the primary use--it's more about how to learn about things and, when you're building open-source packages, to make sure you doing it the right way," Stocky said.

For example, a developer may need to write a function as part of an application and search the Web to see other examples.

Google engineers, many of whom participate in open-source projects, already use these code-searching capabilities internally. Since it is a Google Labs project, the company is not yet seeking to make money through ads linked to searches, Stocky said.

The search engine will let people do both keyword search and "regular expressions," which allow people to search a specified pattern, he said. For example, a person could narrow a search to JavaScript functions, which will help find more examples, Stocky said.

As it does with many of its services, Google will release an application programming interface (API) to create an XML feed based on a specific query.

Although it doesn't sell programming tools, Google has an active developer-outreach program and relies on third-party programmers to enhance its services.

For example, developers have created popular mashup applications that display information from a Web site, such a real-estate listings site, using Google Maps.

"More and more (the developer community) is the way Google products are getting to scale," Stocky said. "We think developers can really improve Google products and use Google technology to improve their own products."

CNET Networks

Gay Marriage Dealt Defeat in California

California Court Hands Defeat to Advocates of Marriage for Same-Sex Couples

By LISA LEFF

SAN FRANCISCO Oct 5, 2006 (AP)— A state appeals court upheld California's ban on gay marriage Thursday, a critical defeat for a movement hungry for a win after similar losses in two other states.

In reversing the March 2005 ruling of a San Francisco trial judge, the 1st District Court of Appeal agreed with the state's attorney general, who argued it is up to the Legislature, not the courts, to change the traditional definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

"We conclude California's historical definition of marriage does not deprive individuals of a vested fundamental right or discriminate against a suspect class," the court said in a 2-1 decision. "The time may come when California chooses to expand the definition of marriage to encompass same-sex unions. That change must come from democratic processes, however, not by judicial fiat."

The justices, in their 128-page opinion, noted that California's ban on same-sex marriage does not discriminate against gays and lesbians because of the state's strong domestic partner law, which gives registered couples most of the same rights as married spouses in California.

The ruling does not guarantee, however, that same-sex couples will not ultimately be able to get married in California. Gay marriage advocates said beforehand that they would appeal to the California Supreme Court if the intermediate court did not decide in their favor.

"Though we are disappointed, we always knew this issue was going to be decided by the California Supreme Court," said Molly McKay, a spokeswoman for Marriage Equality USA. "We believe that the California Supreme Court will enforce the constitutional guarantee of equality under the law and strike down the discriminatory barriers denying same-sex couples access to civil marriage."

Opponents of gay marriage praised the decision.

"This is a victory for the right of the people of California to make fundamental policy decisions through democratic processes," said Monte Stewart, President of the Marriage Law Foundation, a Utah-based group that opposes same-sex marriage. "It is also a victory for society's most consequential social institution, and that is marriage."

In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage after gay and lesbian couples in that state successfully sued for the right to wed. In the aftermath of that change, 19 states passed constitutional amendments barring gay marriage. Another 26 have statues limiting marriage to a man and a woman. Connecticut and Vermont allow civil unions.

Advocates of same-sex unions had seen California as one of their best chances to expand their marriage rights after recent high court rulings in New York and Washington state upheld bans in those states.

Thursday's ruling came three months after the appeals court heard six hours of arguments in as many related cases four of them filed by the city and lawyers for 20 couples seeking the right to wed, and two brought by groups that want to maintain the status quo barring same-sex unions.

The lawsuits arose out of the 2004 same-sex marriage spree that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom ignited when he instructed city officials to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. Hundreds of couples from across the country flocked to City Hall to marry, but groups opposed to gay marriage persuaded the state Supreme Court to invalidate the licenses.

"This is a disappointing second round in what we've always known is a three-round fight," San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said of Thursday's ruling.

In March 2005, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer ruled that the state's existing marriage laws violated the civil rights of gays and lesbians by denying them "the basic human right to marry a person of one's choice" and by discriminating on the basis of gender and sexual orientation.

Following Kramer's decision, the Legislature last year became the first lawmaking body in the nation to legalize gay marriage. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill, saying it was up to voters or the courts, not lawmakers, to settle the contentious issue.

With a gubernatorial election next month, Thursday's ruling is sure to put the issue squarely back in the state's political arena. The bill's sponsor, Assemblyman Mark Leno, plans to reintroduce the measure to allow gay marriage at the end of the year.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2533249

’مشرف کادعویٰ مضحکہ خیز‘

پاکستان کے اسیر سائنسداں ڈاکٹر عبدالقدیر خان کی بیٹی نے صدر مشرف کی خود نوشت میں کیئے جانے والے دعوں پر تنقید کی ہے۔

یہ پہلا بیان ہے جو انہوں نے 2004 میں اپنے والد کی گرفتاری کے بعد جاری کیا ہے اور دینا خان کا کہنا ہے کہ وہ یہ بیان ریکارڈ کی درستی کے لیئے جاری کر رہی ہیں۔

http://www.timesofpakistan.com/Article/--1605---1588---1585---1601----1705---1575---1583---1593---1608---1740---1648----1605---1590---1581---1705---1729----1582---1740---1586-/1447

دنیا کا سب سے بڑا فوجی ہیڈکوارٹر

پاکستان کے دارالحکومت میں پاک فوج کے لیے دو اعشاریہ چار ارب ڈالر کی لاگت سے ڈیفنس سروسز کمپلکس کے نام سے ایک نیا ہیڈکوارٹر تعمیر کیا جا رہا ہے جو کہ دنیا کا سب سے بڑا فوجی ہیڈ کوارٹر

http://www.timesofpakistan.com/Article/--1583---1606---1740---1575----1705---1575----1587---1576----1587---1746----1576---1681---1575----1601---1608---1580---1740----1729---1740---1672---1705---1608---1575---1585---1657---1585-/1442

Cordially and faithfully yours,
Faisal Malik
Editor
http://www.timesofpakistan.com
e-Mail info@faisalmalik.com
Karachi Pakistan.