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Volume 13, Issue 31 Atari Online News, Etc. August 5, 2011 Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2011 All Rights Reserved Atari Online News, Etc. A-ONE Online Magazine Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor Atari Online News, Etc. Staff Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking" Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile" Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips" Rob Mahlert -- Web site Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame" With Contributions by: Fred Horvat To subscribe to A-ONE, change e-mail addresses, or unsubscribe, log on to our website at: www.atarinews.org and click on "Subscriptions". OR subscribe to A-ONE by sending a message to: dpj@atarinews.org and your address will be added to the distribution list. To unsubscribe from A-ONE, send the following: Unsubscribe A-ONE Please make sure that you include the same address that you used to subscribe from. To download A-ONE, set your browser bookmarks to one of the following sites: http://people.delphiforums.com/dpj/a-one.htm Now available: http://www.atarinews.org Visit the Atari Advantage Forum on Delphi! http://forums.delphiforums.com/atari/ =~=~=~= A-ONE #1331 08/05/11 ~ Apple Sues Fake Stores ~ People Are Talking! ~ 'Spam King' Busted! ~ New Tech = Faster WiFi ~ Chrome Instant Display ~ PS PLAY Launched! ~ Vita To Miss Holidays! ~ PayPal Gaff for Lion! ~ .org Guns for .ngo! ~ Missouri Facebook Law! ~ Dumb IE Users A Hoax! ~ Foxconn Wants Robots! -* Teachers Friending Students? *- -* France Legalizes Banned Domain Names *- -* Senator Supports Online Sales Tax Reforms! *- =~=~=~= ->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!" """""""""""""""""""""""""" Wow, the U.S. avoids a financial meltdown temporarily. You knew that the politicians would "work things out" to make sure that didn't happen; they had to because there would be too much damaging finger-pointing had they failed. Didn't matter, the finger-pointing will still happen (and is). How much money did you lose in Thursday's Wall St. meltdown? My retirement investments certainly took a nosedive; and who knows if that will be recovered by the time I can truly retire and use it! And you know who is going to suffer the most in order for the politicians to do something - you and I will lose more, and pay more. We'll continue to pay for the poor planning and the over-spending that our politicians are famous. I don't know about you (but I can guess), but I certainly don't have any "extra" money to pay more taxes or whatever else you'd like to call it. Today's and tomorrow's politicians had better freshen up on their early American history - especially the 1770'2. Focus on the time around the famous Boston Tea Party, and similar acts of defiance. Another revolution isn't totally out of the question, if things get bad enough! Until next time... =~=~=~= ->In This Week's Gaming Section - PS Vita To Miss the Holidays! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" PlayStation PLAY Launched! =~=~=~= ->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News! """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Sony PlayStation Vita Will Miss Holidays, Launches in 2012 Sony won't launch the PlayStation Vita in the United States and Europe until early 2012, meaning that it will miss the coveted holiday season. Kazuo Hirai, the man tapped to replace current Sony chief executive Howard Stringer, made the announcement in a Tokyo press conference on Thursday, according to reports. In June, Hirai announced that the Wi-Fi-only version of the PlayStation Vita, formerly known as the NGP, would retail for $249.99, and the Wi-Fi/3G version will retail for $299.99. At the time, Sony said only that it was due to ship during the holiday season. That's still technically true; the Vita will launch in Japan by the end of the year, but won't come to the U.S, or Europe until next year, Hirai said. "The PlayStation business is a key pillar," Hirai said, according to Bloomberg. "The video-game industry is evolving constantly. My expectation is for the PlayStation business to remain at the forefront of this very dynamic industry." That means that, given the rivalry between Sony and Nintendo in the handheld gaming market, that the Nintendo 3DS will be left as the only dedicated portable gaming console in the United States and Europe for the holiday season. Nintendo's 3D console costs $250, though two separate teardowns have reported that the 3DS costs about $100 to produce. Although Nintendo recorded record sales of the 3DS at its launch, sales soon dwindled, with 3DS sales reaching 3.61 million devices by April, short of Nintendo's expectations. At the end of July, Nintendo dropped the 3DS price to $170. Bloomberg reported that Hirai said that Sony will not lower the price of the Vita to keep up with competitors. The elephant in the room, however, remains the wealth of mobile gaming apps that have sprung up for the Apple iOS and Android platforms. Reports from Flurry and others have suggested that gamers are enamored with low-price, "freemium" games for their phones and tablets, that they can upgrade with in-app purchases. Sony Mimics Xbox 'Summer of Arcade' with PlayStation PLAY Sony took a page from the Microsoft Xbox "Summer of Arcade" and launched PlayStation Network Play, a way to entice PS3 owners to download games with free bonus DLC goodies. Over a period of four weeks, the new annual Play program will offer users the opportunity to buy four $14.99 games: Street Fighter III Third Strike Online Edition, The Baconing, BloodRayne: Betrayal, and Rendegade Ops. If they buy all four, users an receive a code for a bonus gift, Payday: The Heist, which would otherwise cost $19.99 as a standalone game. Play kicks off on Aug. 23, and runs through Sept. 13; preorders start Aug. 9. Sony said that Plus members will receive an additional automatic 20 percent discount. Since Microsoft has offered a "Summer of Arcade" downloadable summer special on four separate occasions, it's difficult to see the core Play concept as something other than a direct copy of Microsoft's own offering. Microsoft's "Summer Fun Pack" offers users a free code for "Crimson Alliance" if users buy all four games on offer. (If you click the "Xbox Live Summer of Arcade" icon on the Microsoft Summer of Arcade page, you'll see video demonstrations of all the games, alongside summer scenes that look a lot more fun than sitting indoors, playing games.) Where the PSN Play offer differs, however, is that buying the downloaded games also allows the user to download one preset piece of downloadable content, as well as a theme. Here's the list of the DLC, according to Sony: When Street Fighter III Third Strike Online Edition is purchased during the PLAY promotion, purchasers will be able to unlock GILL, the self-proclaimed god, without having to beat the game with every character, as day-one DLC. All pre-orders will also receive a Capcom-produced theme. When The Baconing is purchased during the PLAY promotion, purchasers will receive an additional co-op character, Roesha - One Bad Mutha. All pre-orders will also receive a static theme, exclusive to PLAY. When BloodRayne: Betrayal is purchased during the PLAY promotion, purchasers will receive a BloodRayne: Betrayal virtual item for their PlayStation Home avatar and an exclusive dynamic theme. When Renegade Ops is purchased through PLAY, purchasers will receive a Vehicle & Character Pack with two new vehicles and special weapons. All pre-orders will also receive a static theme, exclusive to PLAY. =~=~=~= A-ONE's Headline News The Latest in Computer Technology News Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson Senator Supports Online Sales Tax Reform Cash-strapped states seeking to collect billions in taxes from online transactions gained an ally in Washington on Friday when a senator introduced a bill for a federal solution to the problem. Struggling with weak economies, states will lose an estimated $10 billion this year and $11.4 billion next year in sales taxes that go uncollected on online purchases, according to studies by three professors at the University of Tennessee. Although the fate of the bill by Democratic Senator Dick Durbin was uncertain given the anti-tax environment on Capitol Hill, his measure is backed by the National Governors Association and the National Retail Federation and even earned a pledge of cooperation from giant online retailer Amazon. "It's being brought to a head by actions at the state level," said Indiana state Senator Luke Kenley, who heads the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board, a group of 24 states that has been lobbying Congress to enact a uniform sales tax for all retailers - online and bricks and mortar alike. Also pushing the issue to the forefront has been the sheer size of the online retail market - $165 billion last year, according to Bernstein Research, which predicts 15 percent annual growth over the next decade. "Online sales are growing exponentially and this loophole is creating winners and losers based on the tax code," says Jason Brewer of the Retail Industry Leaders Association, a trade group in favor of federal rules. Durbin argued his bill involved no new taxes and applied only to taxes already imposed by the states that are not being collected. His goal is to provide states with the clear authority to require retailers to collect sales taxes already owed, treat all retailers equally regarding sales tax collection, and release consumers, currently expected to calculate and send in the taxes themselves, from that responsibility. Amazon, the largest e-retailer, has been locked in a series of state-by-state battles over the non-collection of taxes. Amazon declined comment on Durbin's bill. But in a letter to Durbin, the company's vice president for global public policy, Paul Misener, supported returning discussion of the interstate collection of sales tax to Congress and pledged to cooperate. On a state level, Amazon has been less accommodating. It is backing a referendum to end California's new tax collection policy and has pushed for and gotten incentives in Tennessee and South Carolina tying sales tax holidays to putting Amazon facilities and jobs in those states. The company argues the current sales tax system is too complex for it to handle reasonably. A recent study by analysts at William Blair & Co of more than 2,000 items for sale at 24 retailers found more than half the products were also available on Amazon.com at an average of 11 percent below store prices. If Amazon collected all state sales taxes, that price discount would drop into a "mid single-digit" range, the analysts said. Amazon warned in a recent SEC filing that if states or foreign countries succeeded in forcing the company to start collecting taxes where it did not do so already, it "could result in substantial tax liabilities, including for past sales, as well as penalties and interest." Brick and mortar retailers have been waiting for federal action for nearly two decades since a Supreme Court decision encouraged Congress to come up with some kind of national framework for remote sales taxes. Apple Takes Aim at Copycat Fake Retail Stores with New Lawsuit After a number of fake Apple retail stores in China gained publicity online, Apple appears to have taken legal action, undoubtedly looking to shut down the counterfeit locations designed to look like its own operations. Apple has gone on the offensive against a number of defendants, including 50 John Does and unnamed businesses, in a new trademark infringement suit. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York remains under a court seal, so the specifics of the complaint are not known. However, one of the defendants in the case is "Apple Story Inc.," matching the name of a retail outlet that mimics Apple's own highly successful retail operation. "Apple Story" is located in the neighborhood of Flushing in Queens, New York; Apple's lawsuit was filed in Brooklyn. A photo of the "Apple Story" store, submitted to BirdAbroad, shows accessories for Apple products held in displays designed to look like Apple's iPhone and iPad. Based on the photo, the New York store does not appear to go to the same great lengths taken by some highly elaborate fake stores in China. A handful of locations in the city of Kunming look nearly identical to Apple's legitimate stores, and employees at the fake locations even wear signature blue t-shirts. AppleInsider attempted Thursday afternoon to contact Samuel Joseph Chuang, the attorney representing defendants Apple Story Inc., Fun Zone Inc., and Janic Po Chiang, to confirm the exact nature of Apple's lawsuit. A request for comment was not returned as of the time of publication. Because the lawsuit is sealed, it is unknown whether this particular complaint, filed on July 25, also targets the elaborate overseas operations. It's possible that Apple does not yet know who runs those stores, and could be included in the 50 anonymous John Does that are named as defendants with no attorney listed. Also named as a defendant in the case are generic "XYZ Businesses," with no total number given. Finally, a person named Jimmy Kwok is also listed as a defendant with no attorney. Apple is represented by New York-based attorneys Mark N. Mutterperl and Todd Ryan Hambridge of the firm Fulbright & Jawardi LLP. The case's docket report reveals that Apple's legal team spoke with defense attorney Chuang on Tuesday of this week, and both gave the court consent that the case be unsealed, which is how its existence was discovered by AppleInsider. However, the documents will remain sealed with access only to counsel and the court, leaving the exact details unknown. After the fake Apple Stores in China garnered attention around the world, city officials in Kunming began investigating the retail locations. Outraged customers duped by the operations also reportedly returned, demanding proof that their purchases were genuine Apple products and not cheap knock-offs. Two of the fake retail locations were ordered to close by the government because they did not have official businesses permits. But those stores were allegedly not found guilty of any copyright infringement in China. Las Vegas Man Accused of Mass Spamming on Facebook A federal grand jury has indicted a Las Vegas man on charges he sent more than 27 million spam messages to Facebook users. Forty-year-old Sanford Wallace, the self-proclaimed "Spam King," turned himself in Thursday to face charges outlined in last month's indictment filed in San Jose, Calif. Prosecutors say Wallace compromised about 500,000 Facebook accounts between November 2008 and March 2009 by sending massive amounts of spam through the company's servers. In March 2009, a judge banned Wallace from using the social networking site, but the indictment alleges that he violated that order within a month. Wallace is charged with six counts of electronic mail fraud, three counts of intentional damage to a protected computer and two counts of criminal contempt. He posted $100,000 bond after a court appearance Thursday. PayPal Users Mistakenly Charged As Much As $4,000 for Mac OS X Lion Multiple PayPal users have been incorrectly charged for purchasing Mac OS X 10.7 Lion from the Mac App Store numerous times, with one user claiming to have received a bill of nearly $4,000 for the $29.99 software. One customer who contacted AppleInsider on Wednesday said they were charged $3,878 on July 28 in a series of 122 separate charges for $31.79 each. They said they reached out to Apple but have not been able to secure a refund. "Apple blames PayPal, PayPal blames Apple," they wrote in an e-mail. "They both are claiming to investigate, but I am stuck broke for three days now." The story is bolstered by a growing thread on the official Apple Support Communities, filled with users who have also seen multiple mistaken charges for Lion. The thread was started by user "abhas," who found they were charged by the iTunes Store 20 times for Lion, leaving them with a bill of $599.80. The problem seems to lie solely with users who have a PayPal account connected to their iTunes Store account for payments. Some who contacted PayPal said they were told that the multiple charges were made by the iTunes Store, while Apple has insisted to some that the iTunes Store only charged ones. "I just got off the phone with PayPal," user "JustinIowa" wrote. "They said that even though Apple has refunded the balance and it shows that in my PayPal account, that they will not refund the money back to my bank account. It will wait until it withdraws the full amount from my bank balance, then it will be refunded to my PayPal balance." Some reported that they have been hit with overdraft fees and other charges because of mistaken multiple charges. Some have also been left waiting days for the refunds to reappear in their PayPal accounts. "App Store agents have told me this is now a known issue and Apple is investigating the specific causes," user "teknikks" wrote on the Apple forums. "So far they can only blame an overload in their automated payment system from all the Lion downloads." Currently available only on the Mac App Store, Lion got off to a strong start last week, topping a million downloads in its first day of availability. That's the fastest start of any operating system in Apple history. The switch from disc-based operating system installs to the Mac App Store did result in issues for a handful of users who experienced problems updating their systems to Lion. But by all accounts those issues have been rare, as 14,772 customers on the Mac App Store have given Lion an average score of four-and-a-half stars out of five. With New Domain Names on Market, .ORG Guns for .NGO The Public Interest Registry, the non-profit that runs the .org domain name has officially announced its intention to grab the soon-to-be-released .ngo domain name. New generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) will be launched worldwide in 2012. This means websites can end with something other than the usual .com, .net and so on. The .ngo domain name will be reserved exclusively for non-government organizations. So far, .org has been the de facto domain for non-profits and charity groups. However, there are no formal restrictions against for-profit companies signing up under the banner. To qualify for .ngo, an organization must be official identified as a non-governmental organization. The Public Interest Registry hasn't disclosed how it will accurately vet applications though a process will be put in place. The .ngo domain will be a way to both consolidate and expand the global NGO community. "NGOs themselves have a very strong identification with that acronym," says Brian Cute, the registry's CEO. The registry is also hoping to bring more organizations online from the developing world. Cute says the registry is working with partners in developing countries on how to take their philanthropy online and expand their reach. The goal, Cute says, was not to simply collect money a second time: "There are a lot of NGOs, grassroots NGOs, who are not online. The intent here is not to effectively garner a second registration fee [on top of .org]." Losing .ngo, a dedicated charity domain, would be a big hit to the Public Interest Registry, which has staked its name and brand on online philanthropy. Right now, .org has more than 9 million users, according to the registry. France Legalises 30,000 Banned Internet Domain Names French Internet authorities have been swamped by demands for domain names since a new law authorised the use of around 30,000 previously banned website addresses such as "islam.fr" and "internet.fr". The decree authorising the new law was published on Wednesday, and French authorities say they now have to deal with over 6,000 requests that have been made since the law was passed a month ago. France's constitutional court in October ruled the 2004 law banning the use of the French words for such terms as xenophobia, Satan, mosque, slave, Jew, brothel, church, cannabis and business was unconstitutional. "More than 6,100 requests have been made," since July 1, Mathieu Weill of the French Association for Internet Naming and Cooperation (AFNIC) told AFP. "By far the most sought after are terms like 'internet.fr', 'url.fr' and 'entreprise.fr' (business)," Weill said. Anyone who can demonstrate a "legitimate interest" and was the first to put in a request since the new law came into effect will get the domain name they want. For sensitive names such as those of religions, an applicant can be refused because of the risk of "disturbing public order," Weill said. The law's decree also says that offices receiving requests for domain names should tell the government immediately "of requested or registered domain names that are obviously illicit or against public order." New Tech Will Allow 22Mbps for 100 Kilometers over TV Broadcast Bands The IEEE standards body that oversees the development of WiFi technology announced today a next-generation WiFi 802.22 technology designed to facilitate wireless data transfer up to 22Mbps over great distances up to 60 miles, or a hundred kilometers. The interesting thing is, the new technology is utilizing television bands without interfering with reception of existing TV broadcast stations: This new standard for Wireless Regional Area Networks (WRANs) takes advantage of the favorable transmission characteristics of the VHF and UHF TV bands to provide broadband wireless access over a large area up to 100 km from the transmitter. Each WRAN will deliver up to 22 Mbps per channel without interfering with reception of existing TV broadcast stations, using the so-called white spaces between the occupied TV channels. The technology will be great in rural areas and developing countries with vacant TV channels, IEEE says. In our view, this could also knock out any rationale for the much talked-about AT&T/T-Mobile merger. For example, why use pricey cellular data if your phone is within the range of a 802.22 hotspot? Apple is one of the leading backers of WiFi and has long ago incorporated wireless capabilities to all their products. As of recently, Apple ships its Macs with souped up WiFi capable of hitting 450Mbps over wireless networks, even though they arenÆt advertising this as a feature. Newest Version of Chrome Displays Web Pages Instantly Hate waiting a few seconds for pages to load in your web browser? Perhaps it's time you thought about switching over to the latest version of Chrome. The latest stable version of GoogleÆs web browser, Chrome 13 build, brings with it Google's Instant Pages feature. "When we can predict with reasonable confidence that you'll click the first result, Instant Pages will begin loading the webpage early. By the time you click on the result, the entire webpage will often appear to have loaded instantly," said Google Software Engineer Ziga Mahkovec in an August 2 post on the company's Inside Search blog. Additional Chrome enhancements include a smarter omnibox ("Chrome's combination search box and address bar") that makes it easier to get back to previously visited pages and a built-in print preview for Windows and Linux users. According to web metrics firm Statcounter, Chrome overtook Firefox to become the the second most used browser in the UK in June. Missouri æFacebook LawÆ Bans Teachers From Friending Students Online In Missouri, a new bill effective on August 28 will formally ban teachers from befriending students on social networking websites like Facebook. The law is an aggressive step toward dictating the interactions educators are allowed in online social spaces - a relatively uncharted legislative territory. Missouri Senate Bill 54 is also known as the Amy Hestir Student Protection Act, named for a Missouri student who allegedly had a sexual relationship with an abusive teacher beginning when she was 12. The case, which happened decades ago, exceeded Missouri's statute of limitations and never came to trial. Under the stipulations of new bill, school districts must report sexually-related allegations within 24 hours, and disclose any allegations of sexual misconduct to other school districts in the state during the hiring process. While the law expressly forbids direct, private online contact (or "exclusive access") between social media-savvy youth and their educators, its wording may permit teachers to use more transparent platforms, like the kind of Facebook pages that businesses and organizations often use. Should Teachers Be Allowed To 'Socialize' With Students After School? Teachers in Columbia, MO are outraged by the requirements enforced by a recent state law that bans them from communicating with their students after the bell rings. Specifically, they're prohibited from befriending or following their classes in virtual environments like Facebook and Twitter. According to DigitalBurg.com: The law was proposed after an Associated Press investigation found 87 Missouri teachers had lost their licenses between 2001 and 2005 because of sexual misconduct, some of which involved exchanging explicit online messages with students. The teachers are now protesting this stemming of extra-curricular interaction, declaring that it impedes their capacity to offer advice, additional scholastic attention, even emergency help. Last year, the Chronicle of Higher Education focused on Tanya M. Joosten, a professor at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, who gives out her Facebook address to students, uses privacy settings to control what various "friends" can see, and posts updates to her courseÆs Facebook page, which are automatically pushed to the pages of students who follow it. And in the case of younger students, social mediaÆs two-way communications capabilities have helped parents, law officials and teachers track and rescue children who are the victims of natural disasters like earthquakes and tornadoes. Neither argument is black-and-white. In a 2009 article in TheJournal.com, Patricia Deubel wrote: The National School Board Association [NSBA] published results of three surveys regarding social networking, which included 9- to 17-year-olds, parents, and school district leaders in charge of Internet policy...more than 50 percent talk specifically about schoolwork'...schools and especially parents have strong expectations about the positive roles that social networking could play in students' lives, and both are interested in social networking as a tool. The NSBA makes clear references to several caveats, of course, each of which prioritizes the safety of all students. So what's the primary complaint? Public forums that extend the classroom to transparent conversations in concert are still permitted. But some teachers feel that stopping private social messaging is viewed as too harsh a rule. Some students need more direct, one-on-one attention, is the argument. According to DigitalBurg, private messages enable teachers to aid students that may be "in dangerous or compromising situations," says Lucinda Lawson, an English teacher who must remove roughly 80 current and former students from her Facebook friends list, per the new law. I wonder if building more walls actually does keep the abusers at bay, or if it merely makes their pursuit to abuse more insidious and stealthy. Are social networks really useful as education tools, or are they the new "don't talk to strangers" cautionary tale? There seems to be too much gray area to find an extreme. Mary Kay Letourneau didn't need social media to develop an after-school relationship with her sixth-grade student, after all. While the educators seem to be the focus of this legal kerfuffle, the medium itself is also targeted as suspect. That's always the case, though. When television started to gain popularity and began diversifying its programming, the potential for the technology to educate was driven by the likes of Edward R. Murrow: This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and even it can inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it's nothing but wires and lights in a box. Less than 25 years after Murrow, one of the most trusted newsmen in America, said those words during his speech to the Radio and Television News Directors Association in 1958, TV shows had explored, broken and dismissed the boundaries of what many audiences deemed appropriate viewing for mass consumption. Less than 25 years after that, the Internet had been packaged and distributed to consumers as a tool that would take information and education to new heights, lengths and depths. Social networks have made global classrooms easy to put together, participate in, even preserve. They've also further facilitated identity theft and sexual predation. All media can be corrupted and can corrupt. That's not news. But stifling a medium - or rather access to it - for its potentially dangerous capacity can be a dangerous practice. Who's got ideas for keeping this system in check? Or opened up more? Social media also enter our - and our children's - daily lives via a box, or some sort of technological device that broadens and exposes. Foxconn To Replace Workers with 1 Million Robots in 3 Years Taiwanese technology giant Foxconn will replace some of its workers with 1 million robots in three years to cut rising labor expenses and improve efficiency, said Terry Gou, founder and chairman of the company, late Friday. The robots will be used to do simple and routine work such as spraying, welding and assembling which are now mainly conducted by workers, said Gou at a workers' dance party Friday night. The company currently has 10,000 robots and the number will be increased to 300,000 next year and 1 million in three years, according to Gou. Foxconn, the world's largest maker of computer components which assembles products for Apple, Sony and Nokia, is in the spotlight after a string of suicides of workers at its massive Chinese plants, which some blamed on tough working conditions. The company currently employs 1.2 million people, with about 1 million of them based on the Chinese mainland. Journalists Miss Hoax Clues in Dumb IE User 'Study' A press statement and "study" released online Friday claiming lower IQ test scores for Internet Explorer users was a deliberate attempt to trick journalists into publishing bogus information. The data reported by AptiQuant was distributed by major news sites around the world. As the BBC reported early Wednesday, however, investigators discovered that the content hosted online by AptiQuant - which claimed to be a psychometric consulting company - was actually lifted from a number of other legitimate web sites. For example, the thumbnail images of the firm's researchers were lifted from the official site of French research company Central Test, the BBC reported. The prankster has since admitting having "pasted most of the material from 'Central Test' and got lazy to even change the pictures." The perpetrator also listed eight telltale signs "that should have uncovered the hoax in less than five minutes, [including the fact that] the domain was registered on July 14, 2011," and the test mentioned in the report "is a copyrighted test and cannot be administered online." Over the weekend, the hoax gained worldwide traction as major media outlets gleefully ran with the scam's principal theme. Examples include Forbes ("Internet Explorer Users Are Stupid"), the International Business Times ("Internet Explorer Users Not so Clever: Study"), NPR ("Study Suggests Internet Explorer Users Are, Um, Kind Of Slow") and PC World ("Just How Stupid are Internet Explorer Users?"). Using the name Leonard Howard, the prankster responded to an e-mail from this reporter sent Friday questioning the validity of the study's findings. When I pointed out that business users often have no browser choice and asked whether the "study" had taken this into account, he replied, "No." "The people who took the test could either be using their home computers or office computers," the prankster wrote in an e-mail. In a later posting at the AptiQuant web site picked up by other journalists, Howard claimed his "firm" was being threatened with legal action by Internet Explorer users. "A win in a court would only give a stamp of approval and more credibility to our report," Howard wrote. However, it remains to be seen whether Microsoft deems the hoax an amusing episode or a liable action. AptiQuant's original statement contended that Microsoft thwarted innovation in the past by adopting technologies in older IE versions that don't comply with web standards, which suggests the prankster might be a disgruntled web-page designer or app developer. "This trend not only makes their job tougher, but has also pulled back innovation by at least a decade," the bogus AptiQuant statement read. As our article pointed out on Friday, Microsoft has long since moved to adopt web standards and is actively encouraging IE6 users to upgrade to a modern browser. Still, the anti-Microsoft bias of the so-called "research" was a red flag that should have alerted journalists that something was not on the level. The individual behind this hoax has demonstrated that you don't have to launch a distributed-denial-of-service attack to wreak havoc on the Internet. The good news is that journalists will be more careful before accepting at face value whatever appears in press statements released by organizations lacking an established standing. =~=~=~= Atari Online News, Etc. is a weekly publication covering the entire Atari community. Reprint permission is granted, unless otherwise noted at the beginning of any article, to Atari user groups and not for profit publications only under the following terms: articles must remain unedited and include the issue number and author at the top of each article reprinted. Other reprints granted upon approval of request. Send requests to: dpj@atarinews.org No issue of Atari Online News, Etc. may be included on any commercial media, nor uploaded or transmitted to any commercial online service or internet site, in whole or in part, by any agent or means, without the expressed consent or permission from the Publisher or Editor of Atari Online News, Etc. Opinions presented herein are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the staff, or of the publishers. All material herein is believed to be accurate at the time of publishing.