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A decidedly tame video plays on the bottom of a pool in a Google Lively chat room called 'porn place.'

(Credit:
Google)

Google is having to work to try keeping its Lively online 3D virtual worlds from getting a little too lively.

Despite some injunctions to the contrary, sexual overtones are creeping into Google’s cross between a chat room and Second Life.

“We’ve received complaints about recently created ’sex rooms’ in Lively, and we take these complaints seriously,” Google said on its Lively group. “Our community standards prohibit sexually explicit images and rooms intended for sexual activity, even if virtual. When we become aware of ’sex rooms’ that violate or Terms of Service, we’ll work to remove them.”

A little snooping around revealed some evidence of borderline rooms, but nothing as risque as shows in the more permissive realm of Second Life.

“So the girls are hidden in here,” griped one avatar in one room called SEXY & HOT Monday morning. “Show up,” ordered another. There wasn’t much in the way of naughty pictures beyond the welcome screen, but some posters in the room linked to girl.cb-w.com, a Web site that sells a guide about “How To Approach Any Woman, Anywhere And Know Exactly What To Say To Get Her To Give You Her Number And Go On A Date With You - NOW.”

Another room, called porn place, seemed fairly tame–even the YouTube video playing on the bottom of the pool. Other rooms were called Sexo Virtual, sexy babes, and BDSM Espana.

Google Lively’s community standards prohibit nudity and sexually explicit material: “We don’t allow nudity, graphic sex acts, or sexually explicit material. This includes making sexual advances toward other users. We also don’t allow content that drives traffic to commercial pornography sites or that promotes pedophilia, incest, or bestiality. Google has a zero-tolerance policy against child pornography. If we become aware of child pornography, the content will be removed and we will report it and its owners to the appropriate authorities.”

Google wants to keep it clean for mainstream users, and users who violate Google’s terms could find themselves banned from Lively and their Google account disabled, Google said.

“When browsing or searching for rooms, some Lively citizens come upon these rooms as the top results, which can erode their Lively experience…Lively is intended to be a place for Lively citizens to connect with each other and express themselves freely and in a safe environment,” Google said.

(Via Google Blogoscoped.)

commentary

In all the hype around Software as a Service (SaaS) as a way to bring down prices and drive value to the customer, one thing is conveniently overlooked: SaaS is the ultimate lock-in platform.

As Chris Keene, CEO of Wavemaker, suggests, however, SaaS may well succumb to the same forces that are driving software to open up:

Although SaaS development platforms like SalesForce and Coghead have gotten a lot of attention, this market has so far been remarkably closed and proprietary. The Platform as a Service leader, SalesForce, has both a draconian hosting policy (host your apps and data anywhere, as long as it’s with us!) but also a proprietary language (who needs Java when you’ve got Apex!?).

Moving forward, the same trends driving open source adoption everywhere else in the industry will ultimately drive SaaS adoption of open source, particularly by ISVs whose business plan does not include a low multiple sale to their proprietary hosting provider. Future SaaS platforms will converge with traditional tools, offering on-demand development based on traditional programming languages with built-in tools for mash-up based development for basic users.

Who will drive this move to open? Well, Chris clearly feels that his company, Wavemaker, will be among them (though I have money on Bungee Labs to help fuel this move, as well: Bungee is not nearly as closed as Chris’ post would suggest). But the real driver of this will be Google.

Google already has open-source Gears, and is also increasingly opening up its App Engine. Over time, Google will determine this market, and its stance is increasingly open. Open source, open APIs, and open data.

At that point, service will determine who wins the most customers and operational efficiency will determine who profits most from them. The former will be increasingly influenced by those vendors who make “software” easy to use. The latter will be influenced by those who quickly learn to manage scale through tools like Reductive Labs’ Puppet, Amazon’s EC2, etc.

Disclosure: I am an advisor to Bungee Labs.

Zell writes, “I do not see how a member of the Fourth Estate, dedicated to protecting the First Amendment, can censor what its own employees and partners can see. I have instructed that all content filters be removed. You are now exposed to the dangers of You Tube and Facebook. Please use your best judgment.” It’s not often that I applaud the actions of the bean counters in the mainstream media, but Zell’s actions in this matter deserve recognition and respect. It’s rather abominable that journalists in any publication would find themselves in a world wide web with fences restricting their access; it’s frustrating that any employer would engage in such tactics, but it’s encouraging to know that reporters at the LA Times and other Tribune publications will no longer have to leave the office to research a story deemed off-limits by the content filters implemented by their IT department.

In a memo from the Tribune’s owner Sam Zell, which was recently posted by Jim Romenesko at Poynter, Zell announced that employees at the company’s newspapers would no longer be hindered by the internet filters that so many companies have implemented to prevent their workers from engaging in personal websurfing.

Well done Zell …

Not helping Comcast’s credibility was its denial in August 2007 of early allegations that it was filtering BitTorrent traffic. A few months later, though, it turned out that Comcast really was throttling BitTorrent after all, and the company was forced to concede to the FCC that it blocks only “excessive” traffic. That also handed competitors like AT&T a perfect opening to say that they don’t throttle peer-to-peer traffic at all.

The vote was not unexpected. Martin said recently that he planned to side with the commission’s two Democrats on the request submitted in November by Free Press and its political allies, including some Yale, Harvard, and Stanford University law school faculty. That led to a backlash against Martin this week from economic conservatives, including the Bush administration and House Republican Leader John Boehner.

Free Press hailed the vote as a “landmark” decision. “Comcast’s history of deception and continued blocking show contempt for the online consumer protections established by the FCC,” said Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press, in a statement. “We commend Chairman Martin and Commissioners Copps and Adelstein for standing up for Internet users and working across party lines to protect free speech and the free market.”

Commissioner calls ruling unlawful
In an unusually pointed dissent, Commissioner Robert McDowell, a Republican, said the FCC’s ruling was unlawful and the lack of legal authority “is sure to doom this order on appeal.” McDowell said the order would invite far more extensive FCC regulation of the Internet, with the rules varying by which political party controls the White House: “The ground rules will change based on election results.”

“We need to protect consumers’ access, said FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, a Republican. “While Comcast has said it would stop the arbitrary blocking, consumers deserve to know that the commitment is backed up by legal enforcement.”

Under the plan, within 30 days of release of the Order Comcast must:

* Disclose the details of its discriminatory network management
practices to the Commission
* Submit a compliance plan describing how it intends to stop these
discriminatory management practices by the end of the year

* Disclose to customers and the Commission the network management
practices that will replace current practices

Details of the FCC’s ruling, which may not be available for a few weeks, remain unclear. While Comcast will face no fine, Martin said the FCC has adopted a new legal “framework” that will let federal bureaucrats deem whether future network management practices are permissible. The dissenting Republicans said they did not receive the final text of the order until late last night–it apparently includes a variant of a “strict scrutiny” test usually reserved to judge whether government policies are legal or not–and it is not yet public.

Comcast said in a statement on Friday that it believes “the commission’s order raises significant due process concerns and a variety of substantive legal questions. We are considering all our legal options and are disappointed that the commission rejected our attempts to settle this issue without further delays.”

To the extent that Comcast fails to comply with the steps set forth in
the Order, interim injunctive relief automatically will take effect
requiring Comcast to suspend its discriminatory network management
practices and the matter will be set for hearing.

A summary of the order released by the FCC on Friday says:

The Commission announced its intention to exercise its authority to
oversee federal Internet policy in adjudicating this and other disputes
regarding discriminatory network management practices with dispatch, and
its commitment in retaining jurisdiction over this matter to ensure
compliance with a proscribed plan to bring Comcast’s discriminatory
conduct to an end.

It also is likely to be challenged in court. In 2006, Congress rejected five different bills that would have handed the FCC the power to police Net neutrality violations; the FCC has acknowledged that its own Net neutrality principles “are not enforceable”; the Supreme Court has previously ruled that the FCC has no power to regulate “unless and until Congress confers power upon it.”

Federal regulators voted 3-2 on Friday to declare that Comcast’s throttling of BitTorrent traffic last year was unlawful, marking the first time that any U.S. broadband provider has ever been found to violate Net neutrality rules.

The Federal Communications Commission handed Comcast a cease-and-desist order and required the company to disclose to subscribers in the future how it plans to manage traffic. Comcast had said that its measures to slow BitTorrent transfers, which it voluntarily ended in March, were necessary to prevent its network from being overrun.

The is the FCC’s “journey into the realm of the unknowable,” McDowell said, saying that the outcome “may result in slower online speeds” for most Americans. Deborah Taylor Tate joined him in a dissent; Democrats Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein joined Martin.

The Sea Base Connector Transformable-Craft program is an integral part of the military’s “sea basing” concept (PDF), in which floating bases fill-in where land bases are unfeasible or real estate prices are just too high. This would allow U.S. forces to reduce reliance on foreign ports, friendly or otherwise (PDF).

“The T-Craft ship supports the rapid transfer of Army and Marine Corps equipment ashore,” said retired Vice Admiral Scott Fry, vice president of Alion. “This is game-changing technology. This capability does not currently exist. This ship can go across the ocean and link up with a large logistics ship and take on some of the roll-on, roll-off cargo, and then land it on the beach.”

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) wants a T-Craft that does 40 knots, carries at least six tanks, and is able to survive 57-knot winds and 60-foot waves. It must also mitigate wave motion, to allow the transfer of vehicles from one ship to the other while rocking on the high seas.

Also, the thing has to float. So ONR will be scrutinizing seal design (PDF).

To accomplish that, the companies Alion Science and Umoe-Mandal will need to develop and deploy some combination of new propulsion system, experimental hulls, exotic composites, “variable-geometry” bows that adjust to different dock set-ups, and retractable skirts for under-hull air cushions.

This is phase II of the program. The companies will build full scale models for evaluation and testing. The best design may go on to full production in Phase III.

(Credit:
ONR)

(Credit:
Alion Science )

The U.S. Navy has selected two companies to develop a Transformable Craft capable of ferrying heavy tanks from ships at sea, through the surf, and onto beachheads around the world.

The transformer will be able to operate in four modes: from “open ocean transit” to an amphibious mode that can negotiate sand bars and mud flats.

As first reported on CNET News.com in early March, ‘The Lost Ring’ is sponsored by McDonald’s and the International Olympic Committee.

May also posted a video of the exercise.

Players of the new alternate-reality game The Lost Ring take part in a training session for the ‘lost sport of Olympia,’ the human labyrinth late last month, according to the alternate-reality game’s lead developer, Jane McGonigal. Whether or not the activity is an April Fools’ joke is not entirely known.

The piece quotes McDonald’s Chief Marketing Officer Mary Dillon as saying, “The Olympics in Beijing are a very big event for us, and we have a lot of different types of activation, with The Lost Ring being the most creative. Our goal is really about strengthening our bond with the global youth culture.”

(Credit: Flickr user thebruce0)

As for me, I have to figure out what the proper revenge is to take on a colleague who has decided that today, finally, is the perfect day to discover Rickrolling and to spend the day perpetrating that crime against humanity on everyone in the newsroom she can think of.

It turns out that up in Kitchener, Ontario, a bunch of players spent some time over the last few days taking part training for the “lost” sport of Olympia, the human labyrinth, McGonigal told me Tuesday morning. Of course, the overarching story line of The Lost Ring is to discover the great lost sport of the Olympics.

Well, it’s been a couple of weeks since we had anything here about The Lost Ring or its lead designer, Jane McGonigal, or how the game works. So, it seemed like a good time to catch up with the players and see what they’re up to in the snow in Canada.

But, then again, maybe these folks really were taking part in a legitimate exercise in the long and still unraveling story line that is The Lost Ring.

To my untrained eye, it’s hard to tell exactly what the folks are doing in the snow up there in Kitchener. And, being that this is April 1, I suppose I should don my hat of skepticism and wonder if maybe someone’s trying to play a little joke on those of us who weren’t there to hear the secret whispers of those involved.

I appreciated that The Times got someone from McDonald’s on the record about this. When I first wrote about the fast food company’s involvement, as well as that of the International Olympic Committee, last month, I didn’t get a chance to speak with them, so it’s good to get their thoughts on the matter.

So I trundled over to Flickr, where one of the major players of The Lost Ring, a fellow called thebruce0, or Geoff May, has a bunch of pictures from the training session.

Players in Kitchener, Ontario gathered in the snow for the human labyrinth training exercise.

(Credit:
The Lost Ring)

Over at The New York Times on Tuesday, Stephanie Clifford has a piece (Free registration required) pointing out that McDonald’s is the main sponsor of the new Olympics-themed alternate-reality game, The Lost Ring.

I suppose if you want to find out, you’ll need to dig your way through the forum threads on Unfiction.org, one of the main community Web sites devoted to ARGs.

(Credit: Flickr user thebruce0)

Griffin will offer the PowerDock in two sizes. The four-port model seen above will go for $70 in April, while a two-port version will sell for $50 when it debuts in June.

(Credit:
Griffin)

Looks like an iPod family photo

At first glance it’s hard not to snicker at the PowerDock for
iPod from Griffin. But then I realized how many families across the country could take advantage of a central charging station. It can charge up to any four iPods with a dock connection simultaneously–including the
iPhone. Plus, who doesn’t know an iPhone owner who switches between that and a full-size iPod? Just don’t expect anything beyond battery charging–that’s the PowerDock’s one and only function. That said, we wouldn’t be surprised to see syncing or audio/video outputs added in future models.

Facebook chose a Sunday afternoon, when much of the tech blogger corps was pleasantly enjoying real life (we can hope), to start rolling out its previously announced instant-messaging client. That’s likely no coincidence: this is a major new feature for the social-networking site, and debuting it on a weekend afternoon probably ensured a smoother integration.

A Facebook employee told me in the days before the launch that it was “a big challenge” to get ready to roll out Facebook Chat to the site’s 67 million members. Because of that, Facebook has opted for a gradual rollout rather than a large-scale launch to all members at one time. The in-browser client, which lets members of the site talk to their Facebook friends who are logged in, is still not live on many Facebook accounts–mine, for example.

Facebook has earned criticism from some performance monitoring firms for unreliability, and the Techmeme set is notorious for not cutting companies a whole lot of slack–remember when Google relaunched Blogger late in 2006? After “Beacongate,” Facebook doesn’t need another PR debacle.

The new addition to Facebook likely won’t have the impact of drawing new members or “converting” people from other social networks. Where it will make a difference, however, is on the amount of time that members spend on the site, which can make a big difference for advertisers.

In that respect, the launch of Facebook Chat is much like the history of Facebook itself. The service famously started in a Harvard dorm and was limited to students with Harvard e-mail addresses before gradually rolling out to other universities, then companies, and finally the general public.

On the flip side, this could spell doom for those hours you whittle away on Facebook at the office all day. If your boss hasn’t blocked access to the site yet, browser-based instant messaging could be the final straw.

Considering the site remains the toast of the town all over Silicon Valley nearly a year after the launch of its developer platform thrust it into the spotlight, it looks like they’ve been pretty successful in spite of that caution.

And as an extra precaution, the debut version of the application is extremely light. There is no support for external IM clients yet, though the company has said it’s exploring Jabber support. For now, that means it probably won’t be pulling chat-friendly Web users away from their existing services (the AIMs, Yahoos, and Google Talks of the world) and clients like Meebo and Adium. Yet.

The MG-450HD should be available soon in North America for $250, but it’s already been reviewed at PC World Australia. If the capability to add your own internal hard drive is appealing, also check out the very similar Mvix MX760HD.

The MediaGate MG-450HD lets you add your own hard drive.

The MG-450HD is a triple threat: it can stream digital media from the hard drive of a networked computer; from an attached USB device (camera or flash drive); or from its optional internal hard drive (just drop in your own SATA hard disk if you want multigigabytes of on-board storage). The unit boasts the same full range of AV outputs you would see on a top-tier DVD player–HDMI, component, S-Video, composite, analog stereo, plus digital optical and coaxial. Network access is via wired Ethernet or 802.11g wireless–that’s a bit of a disappointment, compared with the faster 802.11n found on the Apple TV. No word yet on the exact file support, but you can assume it’s at least as good as its predecessor, the MG-350HD.

(Credit:
MediaGate)

The problem: You’ve got a ton of digital music, photos, and video on your computer’s hard drive, but you want to enjoy all that media on the big TV and stereo system in your living room–not hunched over the laptop screen. If you’ve got a network connection and one of the latest game consoles (an Xbox 360, a PlayStation 3, or–when paired with the free Orb software–even a Nintendo Wii), you may not need any new hardware–each of them can stream a wide variety of audio, video, and photo formats from your PC to your TV over your home network. However, if you’re not a gamer, or you need a more robust solution–more file support, for instance–there are alternatives, such as the MediaGate MG-450HD.

JVC’s Bi-Metal structure is designed to enhance performance across the frequency range by housing the drive unit in a steel base wrapped in a high-specific-gravity brass ring to eliminate vibration and energy loss. The HA-SX500 also offers a vast reduction in friction noise. The headphones feature flexible rubber joints, reducing friction noise while increasing comfort, and use OFC (oxygen-free copper) to minimize transmission loss in the 0.8 meter friction noise reduction cord.

The lightweight HA-SX500 headphones are designed to provide a comfortable and secure fit while delivering superior isolation from external sounds and minimizing sound leakage. The ergonomic silicon rubber earpieces come in three sizes to provide snug, customized sizing, supported by a cushioned metallic foldable headband for a secure fit and hours of comfort.

“The new JVC HA-SX500 achieves high quality sound by employing JVC’s original Bi-Metal structure and a new large 16mm neodymium driver unit, offering greater power handling and sensitivity.

All folded up.

(Credit:
JVC)

Here’s the news release if you want the details:

(Credit:
JVC)

A number of convenient accessories complete the package, such as a 0.7m extension cord and a handy carrying case. In addition, the HA-SX500 offers a plug that is compatible with Apple’s iPhone.”

The HA-SX500 will carry a list price of $79.99.

You remember those fold-up Sony headphones that you used to take with you to the gym? Well, JVC’s added a new “high-end” version of that type of headphone to its Bi-Metal line of in-ear canal headphones. JVC’s HA-SX500 will be out this month with a list price of $79.99. Oh, and it’s
iPhone-compatible.