The world after Wikileaks

December 16, 2010 Last updated at 11: 46 GMT Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has caused protests by the Governments of the world, things will be different after Wikileaks, but not in ways that we could wait, says regular commentator Bill Thompson.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange might not be Time Magazine Person of the Year for 2010-the distinction went to Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg-but certainly managed to dominate the global conversation the past few weeks.

You feel the reverberations of Wikileaks publishes many documents confidential and secret for many years and he has attracted a large band of supporters, but support for Assange is as much about your personal situation as it is an expression of support for what Wikileaks or proposing to do.

To properly understand the philosophy that underpins its activities or its long-term objectives, people should read interesting analysis by Aaron Bady Assange's policy, as posted on the blog zunguzungu.

Bady uses a narrow reading of an essay by Assange status and terrorist conspiracies that Assange sees modern governance as a conspiracy than those with the power that goes against the interests and wishes of the governed and that Wikileaks exists in order to weaken the ability of Governments to communicate secretly and decrease the power of authoritarian States.

By doing this, he believes, will be opening force and lead to more progressive forms of Government-or, at least, less repressive ones.

Also, inevitably, will lead to a response from the targeted institutions and in recent weeks we have seen what happens when a State feels threatened.

Although it is neither pleasant surprise: Governments, like other complex systems, will act to preserve themselves and try to hurt or neutralize the opposition, and nothing to the United States or other Governments have done so far is exceptional.

NET conflict

In a statement made to his mother, from his prison cell, Assange said "we now know that the Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and others are tools of u.s. foreign policy," referring to the way in which these large companies had decided not to provide the service of Wikileaks.

But anyone who has observed the growth of the internet might have been surprised by this.

Jack Goldsmith and Tim Wu wrote about this back in 2006 in their excellent book that rules the Internet, where they stressed that the Government will always go after gatekeeper and choke points in their attempt to regulate the online activities.

In that same year, Visa and Mastercard refused to pass the funds to the .com site allofmp3 download music, even if the site has been legal in Russia, but attracted little attention because it was cheap and not music freedom of expression.

Now we face a different type of conflict, and seems to be that shape the political landscape in the years to come.

The ending of the movie Ghostbusters heroes eponymous founders are obliged to defy God Gozer, but before he looks that are said to be "choose the shape of your destructor."

Gozer, they realize, will result in any form monstrous imagine and Venkman tells others don't display anything. Unfortunately, it's too late-Ray has already thought of "but which could, something that would never hurt me"-to the point that a giant Stay Puft Marshmallow man appears and proceeds to destroy New York City.

Something similar is behind the emergence of Wikileaks. Over the past two decades we have built the internet and the web and completed a process of digitization that has transformed most of the world's operational data in electronic form, from banking to love letters to diplomatic cables.

Status quo

We called away at the age of the network and still practiced in our daily lives as though nothing has really changed.

As a result we made this moment inevitable, even if it was impossible to predict the shape that would take our "destructor".

Wikileaks will inaugurate a new era of control, Bill Thompson wonders

Now it is materialized as a stateless person, formless "new media non-profit international organization that publishes observations of documents otherwise available from anonymous sources and leaks," as Wikipedia describes it.

This organisation is under threat from the outside by some of the world's most powerful States, whose action capacity is enormous. It is also challenged from within, as internal mail and documents, made available online on the website reveal the Cryptome.

But what really matters is that the disruptive power of the internet has been conclusively demonstrated, and the old order has been caused to respond.

This is the Napster of democracy, where the forms of Government that have evolved over 200 years of industrial society eager to demonstrate network, just as the business models of the recording industry were swept away by the ease with which the internet could make perfect digital copies of music file compressed.

Napster was castrated by court action in the United States, but his failure inspired-to-peer services that were much more difficult to control. Sharing of music, now is unstoppable and Wikileaks and organisations that come after will ensure that the same is true of secrets.

Of course we must never underestimate the power of the State, to reinvent itself, as well as modern capitalism and constitutional monarchy seem able to do.

Wikileaks has exposed weaknesses in the way their internal flow of information control of Governments and organizations dedicated to transparency and disclosure will observe the tactics used to shut it down and adapt accordingly. But the State may learn too and have the resources to implement what you learn.

I fear that Wikileaks is likely to usher in an era of more effective control as is to sweep away the authoritarian regimes that opposes Julian Assange.

He can look at a day when the conspiratorial power state has declined, but I think we are more likely to see new forms of governance emerge that take advantage of the features of the network age to ensure that their power is intact.

Bill Thompson is an independent journalist and regular commentator on the BBC World Service Digital Planet. Is currently working with the BBC on its draft archive.

Trio electric complete round the world

February 25, 2011, Last updated at 14: 19 GMT An Australian three was among the runners a trio of emission-free electric vehicles have pulled up silently in Geneva, completing a journey around the world to promote green energy.

A three Australian German, a scooter and a Swiss moto Monotracer arrived at the UN European headquarters in Switzerland.

Had taken 188 days to cover 27,000 km (16,800 miles), 80 days that were actually spent.

The main obstacle they faced was charging in remote areas.

"It was very difficult in some places, certainly for our team members in Russia and China," said Alexandra James, one of 12 volunteers who took their turn to guide the two-seater Australian bright green, dubbed Travolta.

"They were straight in the sheet feeder cable in certain situations, because he was the only way to get a reliable energy source-it was a challenge," he told AFP news agency.

Sylvie Motard, the United Nations Environment Programme, said the "race to Zero" had shown that might be self powered by clean, renewable energy "as effective as gasoline vehicles, but without emissions".

Mobiles become the eyes and ears on the protests of the world

Upload images of violence this week in Manama, the capital, on websites like YouTube and yFrog, and then sharing them on Facebook and Twitter, the demonstrators upstaged of public accounts and drew worldwide attention to their requests.

New in less than a decade ago, the camera of the mobile phone has become an essential tool for documenting the Government's response to the unrest that have spread across the Middle East and North Africa.

Recognizing the power of such documentation, human rights groups have published guides and has provided training on how to effectively use mobile phone cameras.

"You have finally technology video that can fit in the Palm of the hand of a person, and what the person is able to capture may end up all over the world," said James e. Katz, Director of the Center for studies of Rutgers Mobile communication. "This is the dagger throat of creaky old regimes that, through the manipulation of these old centralized technologies, were able to stifle the voice of the public".

In Tunisia, mobile phones were used to capture video images of the first protests Zid in December, which has helped to spread the unrest in other parts of the country. Images loaded required producers Al Jazeera satellite television network, to start focusing on the revolt that overthrew the Tunisian Government in mid-January and set the stage for demonstrations in Egypt.

While the built-in camera commercially available in phones since the late 1990s, it was not until the tsunami that struck South-East Asia on 26 December 2004 and the London subway bombings following July news organizations began to take serious the outpouring of images and videos created and published by nonprofessionals. Memorable, in June 2009, cell phone video of the death of a young woman in Tehran, known as Nedawere roll uploaded to YouTube, galvanizing the Iranian opposition and exploding all over the world.

Now, news organizations regularly seek, sift and publish these images. However, authentication remains a challenge, since photos can be easily altered by computer and can resurrect old video again, to be again. YouTube is using Storyful, a news aggregation site, to help manage tens of thousands of video that has been uploaded from the Middle East in recent weeks and to highlight those significant channel CitizenTube.

But journalists are not the only conduit. Mobile pictures are increasingly shared among users on mobile networks and social networking sites, and are widely being consumed on Web sites that aggregate videos and pictures.

Hosting Web sites are marked increases both in the comments from the Middle East and view the content of visitors.

Between sites, Bambuser has distinguished itself as a way to stream video. Mans Adler, co-founder of the site, she said she had 15,000 registered users in Egypt, most of whom signed shortly before the election last November. He said there were more than 10,000 videos on the site that have been produced around election time, focusing on activities at the polls, in what appeared to be an organized effort.

As a result, the level of activity settled at 800 to 2,000 videos per day, but then came back to 10,000 again someday when the mass protests erupted in Egypt last month, he said.

In Bahrain, the Government has blocked access to Bambuser.

Training sessions to help activists to use their cameras, Bassem Samir, the Executive Director of the Egyptian Academy of democracy, said that the improvement of picture quality and video was a high priority.

"Video stories," said Mr. Samir. "What happened on January 25 and 28, is a story. It's like a story of people who demanded of freedom and democracy, and we had, like, three or five minutes to say that ".

Robert Mackey has contributed reporting.

Smartphone: the next big security headache (PC World)

2011 is the year that mobile security is mainstream. Here at the 2011 RSA Conference in San Francisco many of security software companies I've spoken to have issued--or are planning to release an app mobile security of some kind.

And while the Smartphone is not yet an important goal in the United States, malware, there are reasons to be concerned about the future of mobile security.

One of Android is its openness. Just about anyone can write one application and deploy it without having to go through a review process long sometimes. But as is the case on the PC, this sort of openness makes it possible for malware writers to infiltrate smartphone. Security companies seem to think that Android is the next big target for malware, thanks to this opening and the fact that it runs on so many devices.

Some of the vendors I spoke also seemed concerned that the paranoia that users often make when it comes to downloading and installing the software on a PC may not carry forward to when they use a smartphone, even if there are threats.

Mobile Malware is already a problem in parts of the world. This past week, company of mobile security software that mobile Lookout found a Trojan that circulates through repackaged versions of Android apps and app deployed on alternative markets in China.

Raimund genes, Chief Technology Officer, Trend Micro, notes that malware authors are creating their own mobile shopping app to distribute malware in China. He predicts that in the United States see additional tests-concept malware mobile this year, and that it can become a serious problem in 2012.

Smartphone carrying additional information that we cannot keep on your PC, such as phone numbers of your contacts, photos, you've taken with your smartphone and so on. And unlike a PC, a smartphone that can be easily lost: you probably take your laptop with you if you get up and leave the Starbucks you're browsing the Web, but it is much easier to leave behind a smartphone.

In fact, Patrick Kennedy, Senior Director of Product Marketing with Webroot, sees this as the greatest threat to Smartphone now. And not surprising, many security smartphone applications that we have seen so far put great emphasis on the protection of your personal information if your smartphone gets lost or stolen.

Smartphone malware is in its infancy and is difficult to say what will happen next, but all signs point toward some serious problems in the not too distant future. In the meantime, keep the guard, remain vigilant and think before you install the next app.

Honeycomb ported to Nexus One, unfortunately you cannot make calls (PC World)

Until now, Android OS software imminent honeycomb Google was reserved for only the Tablet devices. In addition, other than a color Nook, there have been quite minimalistic hacks to try to get the operating system running on other platforms. A developer of XDA accepted the challenge of trying to get the honeycomb, working on a smartphone and he managed to some extent — here's the Nexus One running Android 3.0! But don't rejoice yet.

Forum member "bypass23" uses the honeycomb SDK to build a bootable ROM on your Nexus. He stresses that the SDK has remained virtually intact, paving the way for other developers willing to improve the user interface of the comb on phones. More information other than this is sadly lacking, even though we know that the trick is still a little green, so some areas still not working, or require workarounds clumsy. You know, important stuff like using your phone to make calls or write texts. According to a member who tried the hack for himself, however, Wi-Fi, camera, bluetooth, accelerometer and good work well, so you can have a little fun with the honeycomb.

It is therefore a nice trick in development, but don't forget the main point of having a phone to make calls and texts (Yes, not just playing cool apps!). Up to Bypass23 or other developers working on this hack to give him the nod, waiting for these important functions be added before you try it for yourself.

Check out the forum thread to see more screenshots of OS and what others are saying on the door.

By XDA developers

You have a cool hack phone or Tablet PC to share? Drop us a line!

The dark side of the Mobile World Congress 2011

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Everybody always wants to know the big story out of a major conference like Mobile World Congress, which ended last week in Barcelona.  

I can't purport to be the sage who knows for certain the big story for an event where 50,000 visitors attended, with more than 1,500 vendors showing off wares amid numerous press conferences and interviews. But I'll give it a try.

My colleagues and I noted many new smartphones and tablets with a heavy emphasis on Android machines. For the most part, those new smartphones and tablets seemed little more than variations of earlier versions announced at CES in January or in recent weeks, all of them basically still being reactions to the Apple iPhone smartphone or the Apple iPad tablet.

Saying that doesn't mean that Apple does everything right, but the updates by Apple competitors focus mainly on multi-core processors or bigger or smaller screens.  To vastly generalize, most of the competing smartphones are pushing above 4-inch screens, while the tablets seem to be either about 7 inches or nearly the 9.7-inch iPad size, some going above 10 inches.  (For smartphones, I liked the Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone a lot, based on a quick look and feel, but confess that I didn't get to play with most of the others announced.)

Instead of focusing so much on new smartphones and tablets at MWC, I heard and reported on some frankly disturbing comments by vendor executives, especially from Research in Motion but also AT&T, Nokia and Microsoft.

RIM's  Hampus Jakobsson, a director of strategic alliances for RIM and former head of TAT, a cutting-edge interface design company, gave a 15-minute address where he criticized smartphones, tablets and other devices for interrupting us too much, keeping us from interacting with  our communities of workers and friends.  He even suggested that maybe RIM devices shouldn't have games running on them. 

"We're not talking to each other, but talking to devices," Jakobsson said.

It almost seemed as if Jackobsson were setting up RIM as the device maker that would somehow use its BlackBerry smartphones and its coming PlayBook tablet as a kind of interruption gate-keeper or administrative assistant. 

Maybe in the future we will set our devices to partially shut off and automatically guard against interruptions when we enter a certain room like a boardroom, conference area or movie theater or when we decide to set aside time to talk to a spouse, a child or a boss. We can do that ourselves manually today, but we don't always.

It would be easy enough to pre-set a phone to detect a location where an intimate or important conversation should take place, with a voice call sent to voice mail or all texts and e-mails given some sort of answer with a priority given to certain information to pass through something serious, such as a fire in the building.

RIM has a lot of experience with enterprise workers, and uses its BlackBerry Enterprise Server to help IT shops guard against unwanted apps and uses on company devices. BES is also an effective way to wipe a device clean if it is lost, so that valuable corporate data is not stolen.  The issue of company policies on personal property has become more complex as RIM and other vendors see more workers bringing their own devices to work, where company information can be stored but where the IT shop has no automatic right to access.   

Given RIM's history in the enterprise, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Jakobssen would worry about how to keep devices from interrupting us from important tasks.  But my main reaction to his thesis is that most consumers of today's smartphones and tablets are really quite in love with the technology itself, both their hardware and the ability to download apps and interact with them.  Yes, they do take up our attention, especially for younger users, and consumers seem totally obsessed with them, but is that any different from the American consumer's obsession with the automobile?  You see people wanting to sit in an exciting sports car, and to be driving the car for the comfort and fun it represents, not just to have it as a functional alternative to taking the train or bus.  

I don't see any vendor slowing down the incessant rollout of new smartphones and tablets, trying to find the magic pricepoints and service deals that will attract the most buyers. RIM might be coming to grips with its declining market share with smartphones and fishing about for a new marketing appeal with the "interruption" theme (if it becomes a theme), but it probably won't be very successful in doing so unless RIM has some pretty amazing ideas for cool new devices that also control interruptions.

The same could be said for Microsoft, which has launched Windows Phone 7 on the marketing and TV ad theme that its interface allows a smartphone user to get into applications and out again with minimal time and trouble, so that we can all get back to our lives and the people in our lives. (Their ads are cute and do resonate.)

Still, I personally haven't found a Windows Phone 7 smartphone from HTC, the Surround, that I'm using on a review basis all that much faster to use than other smartphone devices I've owned or tried.  The maps functionality was amazing and useful in Barcelona for finding meeting places and restaurants, but the Windows Phone 7 active tiles for people and other groupings on the home screen just seem, well, confusing.  Microsoft seems to be trying to attract the younger, socially connected ultra-multi-tasker, while purporting to also put their lives more in their control.  I don't know whether that capability lessens the phone's control over one's life or just adds to it.  The jury is still out on whether that concept matters that much.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at CES introduced a coming upgrade to Windows Phone that would  add MORE capabilities to the phone.  If you can connect a Windows Phone gamer in XBox Live to a gamer using Kinect in a living room, as Ballmer introduced, you have arguably added a social connection, but something in me thinks Jakobsson would call it, instead, an interruption. (Unless your main object in life is gaming.)

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop spoke several times at MWC, with a striking number of references to the sophisticated and sleek hardware design elements that future Nokia devices running Windows Phone will have, given the new Nokia-Microsoft partnership. I kept wondering if the partnership will produce winning, cool and exciting designs that allow users to do more and more with a Windows Phone smartphone, or if they will be phones that give users more control over their lives or both.  Maybe the two themes aren't contradictory and maybe it ultimately doesn't matter.  

AT&T's CTO John Donovan also spoke at MWC, introducing the notion that personal information needs to be cloud-based and that there will be fewer devices carried by users in coming years. We will be able authenticate on a friend's device and activate all our contacts and other information in the cloud, he said.  While he may not have intended it, his comment seems to repudiate the value of all the new devices that are shown regularly at all the mobile and wireless shows and that AT&T sells every quarter.

Maybe we are eventually going to see fewer devices and devices that give us more control of our lives, but I am not predicting that Samsung, HTC, Motorola, Apple and even RIM, will want to sell fewer devices for many years.  It is also safe to predict that device makers will try to make it possible to do as much as we can on smartphones and tablets and other devices over ever-faster networks.  If that causes confusion and chaos for sellers and buyers alike, it will, and we will all simply adjust.

At the close of MWC, I had a simple dinner with a man and a woman from Montreal, both reporters, and their roommate in a rented Barcelona apartment who is a designer from Hungary.  The man from Hungary was in his mid-30s and only gave his name as Roman. He (naturally) asked me what was the BIG story from MWC.  I, and my reporter friends, started to describe all the things one could do with quad-core processors announced for new smartphones running over faster LTE networks.  But he seemed unimpressed, saying, "Why do I need a quad core?  I just want to put my phone in my pocket and keep it quiet. All the phone designers just seem to be selling to 17 to 25 year olds."

So maybe Roman should meet Jakobbson.  But I think the other 95% of the world will still be excited by the iPhone 5 come June, the same way many of the teenagers in my high school liked the latest Malibu, Corvette or Mustang. Nobody could afford to buy those cars, but they wanted them.

California School District Truancy battles with GPS (PC World)

Students with a trend of truancy in California Anaheim Union High School District shall be assigned GPS unit to make sure they're going to school on time, according to The Orange County Register. GPS units are the size of a mobile phone (chunky) and have been developed by Dallas goal truancy solutions, which operates in more than 100 middle and high schools in three States.

The Anaheim Union High School District is part of a voluntary pilot program for six weeks that is staging the seventh and eighth grade students who have more than three truancy with these devices. In Austin, Texas, where he also ran this experiment, was used for students in middle and high school who had racked up between 20 and 25 absences.

When asked why the Orange County Register are handheld devices rather than tied to Regional Director of students, Sylvan Miller, solutions to truancy goal, he said, "we don't want to criminalize children or have them wearing a bracelet or something around their ankle that he would have fired them."

Every school day, participants will receive an automated call reminding them to get to school on time. Then must enter a code which keeps track of their location during their departure for arrival at school, at school, during lunch, departure from school and at 8 p.m., the Register reports.

The cost between $ 300 and $ 400 apiece. All together, the six-week program costs about $ 8 per day per student or $ 18,000. It is estimated that schools lose $ 35 per day for every absent student, so program objective truancy solution is a cost savings.

Some parents were thrilled with the program. "This makes us seem like common criminals," a parent whose child has accumulated six unjustified absences, told the register.

But perhaps carrying a GPS unit and regularly logging path is better than the alternative: police investigator told the register that Armando Pardo if the District Attorney prosecutes, truant students may be sent to juvie and get sa with a nice $ 2,000.

"Nearly two-thirds of students in order [during the fall semester of 2010] made perfect attendance while the initial program and all students combined average 97 percent," according to a press release.

Fujitsu to launch Windows 7 Tablet Business (PC World)

Fujitsu, Japan will soon launch a tablet for business users that the security feature is not available in most consumer machines.

The Q550 style will get its official unveiling at next week's Cebit in Germany and has a fingerprint reader, smartcard slot and-trusted platform module (TPM), the company said. (See the tablet's video on YouTube).

Your computer will run Windows 7 Professional, and uses an Intel Atom "Oak Trail". It has a 10-inch LED touchscreen. Unlike previous stylistic tablet that required a stylus, the touch interface on the new model also works with a finger.

Other features include front and rear cameras, 32 or 64 GB solid state drive (SSD) drive, an optional 3 G module and a USB port.

Fujitsu says a combination of low power processor and LED backlit screen helped to extend the battery life for about eight hours.

Should appear in Europe in April.

Security features of tablet PC might respond to requests for some companies, but it remains to be seen if the tablet PC will take off among business users. Tablet PCs have been tried several times in the last decade and have failed to find widespread adoption every time.

The current boom in the Tablet-PC between consumers will probably again some companies facing products.

Martyn Williams covers the Japan and General technology breaking news for the IDG News Service. Follow me on Twitter @ Martyn martyn_williams. E-mail address of the Martyn is martyn_williams@idg.com

Fujitsu introduces the first MeeGo netbook world

Fujitsu announced the Lifebook MH330 's debut, the company's first MeeGo netbook based on Intel Atom processor. The company also seems to be the first supplier to offer a netbook with MeeGo; pre-installed While MeeGo for Netbooks is already available for any Pine Trail Netbook, Fujitsu says that this version specifically customized for MH330 (take advantage of the hardware buttons). The company is also offering MeeGo for exploring current machines.

The netbook is powered by a 1.66 GHz Intel Atom N455, 1 GB of RAM and a 250 GB hard drive. Comes with a 10.1 inch LED-backlit display (resolution 1024 x 600). The device is priced at S $ 488 at Singapore, which means I would go for some $ 400 in the United States.

Rich interface of MeeGo MH330 features that enables users to have unlimited access to a full suite of applications, including social networking tools like Facebook, Twitter and multimedia capabilities through a panel of media with an organized view of your video and music files stored in your media library. The biggest advantage of using MeeGo, however, is the significant reduction of startup time.

"For our valued users, human-centric nature of MeeGo based netbook not only transcends the boundaries of netbooks but also serves as the new standard for the tomorrow's computing experience," Mr. Lim Teck sin, Vice President of Engineering and Product Marketing Fujitsu PC Asia Pacific, said in a statement. "The netbook crystallizes the two products, Best-of-breed and MeeGo is part of efforts, Fujitsu and Intel, to bring the industry a great step forward. For native multimedia that long for greater interactivity and immediate access multimedia, the LIFEBOOK MH330 definitely exceed refreshed their expectations. "

Although Nokia has dropped very MeeGo and Symbian phone for Windows, we must remember that strategy only applies to Smartphones. The company still intends to ship a product related MeeGo later this year (we think that is their tablet). Additionally, Intel is pushing yet Nokia MeeGo despite change of strategy.

Warm, powerful smartphone tablets: Mobile World Congress 2011 begins officially

Largest largest wireless telecommunications show in the world, Mobile World Congress, is only the beginning here in Barcelona, Spain, where this week, dozens of new handsets and tablets will make its debut. Every February, thousands of journalists, people in the industry and enthusiasts gather at the Fira de Barcelona to find out what the hottest upcoming smartphones, tablets and apps will be in the year to come.

Before the show officially kicked-off also Sony Ericsson has already announced his game of Xperia phone (aka the "Playstation"), the game Samsung unveiled the Galaxy card 10.1 smartphone's Galaxy II and LG announced a 3D smartphone and Tablet PC. We are looking forward to seeing more tablets, possibly including one from HTC and of course more phones 4 G with dual core processors. The show officially opens today and runs through Thursday.

(See: adapter Samsung Galaxy 10.1: first look and Sony Ericsson Xperia Play Gaming Phone: Hands On)

Most news from Mobile World Congress Europe impacts before and the United States at the end. For example, last year HTC has introduced a new line-up of Android phones that debuted in Europe in the first place, but then came to the United States under several different names and slightly tweaked specifications.

But the show is not entirely Europe-centric; some really big news that has affected the entire industry have been announced here. Two years ago, the second Android phone, the HTC Magic (known as the myTouch States) made her debut, and last year, Microsoft announced its new Windows Phone 7 operating system.

Mobile World Congress draws people, as well as companies from around the world. For example, in a Japanese aircraft carrier Docomo occur, RIM Blackberry and Ireland-based developer app. In terms of scale Mobile World Congress is great about how CES--except for just about every stand is a showcase something mobile-connected.

LG will make an announcement this morning and HTC will hold their press conference tomorrow morning. Check back here for exciting news from both of these companies as well as more news and hands-ons straight from the show floor.

Apple: the most valuable tech company in the world

Jason d. O'Grady developed an affinity for Apple computers after using the original Lisa and this affinity turned into an obsession of good faith when he got the original 128 k Macintosh in 1984.

He began writing one of the first websites on Apple (O'Grady's PowerPage) in 1995 and is considered one of the fathers of blogging. He has been a frequent speaker at the Conference to Macworld Expo and a member of the Faculty Conference. He also founded the first dedicated PowerBook User Group (PPUG) in the United States.

After winning a major legal battle with Apple in 2006, together with him the precedent that independent journalists are entitled to the same protections under the first amendment as members of the mainstream media.

O'Grady ISA, author of the Nexus One Pocket Guide, The droid Pocket Guide, The Google Phone Pocket Guide, and the Garmin nuvi Pocket Guide (Peachpit Press), the author of corporations that changed the world: Apple Inc. (Greenwood Press) and a contributor to the Bible Mac (Peachpit Press). In addition, has contributed to numerous publications of Macs over the years, including MacWEEK, Macworld and MacPower (Japan).

When not writing about Apple for ZDNet at The Apple Core, he enjoys spending time with his family in New Jersey.

Co-founder of PayPal: Facebook could be "the most important companies in the world"

Max Rafael Levchin, co-founder and former CTO of PayPal, has had some good things to say on Facebook, today, the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco. Levchin and Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital has responded to questions about "game-changing technology," one of which was the unprecedented growth of Facebook and its impact. Levchin reportedly claimed that Facebook could become the "most valuable companies in the world" if it can successfully replace core messaging "," according to Mashable:

"Facebook has monopolized all but white pages correctly," Levchin said, explaining that, when you want to find and connect with someone, go to Facebook. Unlike white pages, however, Facebook has also information on a person's interests, tastes and social graph. That alone has turned Facebook into a company of 50 billion dollars. However, Levchin says that becoming the repository for personal information that could lead to "" Facebook successfully replacing the core messaging. If it becomes the primary communication platform on the web, could become the most valuable company in the world.

As a side note, the giant social networking certainly wants to pull it off. Rumors say executives want to see Facebook to turn the company around the world the first trillion dollars.

Levchin founded another company in 2004: Slide, a personal media sharing to social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. Google bought the company in August 2010 for 182 million dollars, and so now works for the search giant, as one of the many people of the company with the title "vice president of Engineering."

It is therefore no wonder that Levchin was quick to point out that Facebook should not be confused with demand generation, or request Discovery (search thinks). The Ukrainian-BORN computer scientist and entrepreneur says that he had read that signals social graph are not particularly effective in optimizing search related advertising. I would say that this may be for today, but what's coming tomorrow has simply not yet materialized. Facebook has some of the best engineering talent in the world.

Emil is currently employed at Research in Motion. Has no investment.