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PROFILE: Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales - share the knowledge

Jimmy Wales is constantly on the go. Most of the year he travels round the globe. His mission? To make all human knowledge accessible to everyone.

"Wikipedia is going to be increasingly global in the future," the 44-year-old American says. "We will have enormous growth in the developing world." It was 10 years ago, in January 2001, that he launched the online encyclopedia. Now, ten years later, it offers 17 million entries in more than 260 languages.

Wales was born in 1966 in Alabama. His father was a grocery store manager and his mother an educator. Even as a boy he had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and "spent lots of hours" reading the Britannica and World Book Encyclopedia.

His earliest education was at home from his own mother, who ran a small private school on the Montessori method. Later Jimbo, as friends call him, got a master's degree in finance and worked as the research director of a Chicago futures and options firm for several years.

His driving passion is computers. Since the earliest days of personal computing he has been an Internet addict and even wrote computer codes as a hobby, according to his own biographical entry on Wikipedia.

In 1996, he and two partners founded Bomis, a men's web portal featuring entertainment and adult content. This website provided the initial funding for the peer-reviewed encyclopedia Nupedia in 2000.

Thanks to the Wiki software, which enables each user immediate access -- as author or as editor -- Wikipedia was founded the following year.

Today Wikipedia resembles pretty much what he originally envisioned, he told the German Press Agency dpa in an interview.

"But of course it's a lot larger and more popular than I had ever imagined," he said.

So can we say that Wikipedia has made the world different and has made Wales a rich man? "I hope that the world has become a little better." And as for the financial side. "The pages are non-commercial and they will stay that way," Wales explained. But his for-profit Internet company Wikia is doing well and shows a profit.

"That may make me rich!" he said.

Wales is a self-avowed "Objectivist to the core", Objectivism being an individualist philosophy developed by writer Ayn Rand. And he is an avid chess player.

He is separated from his second wife, with whom he has a daughter. Although 10-year-old Kira consults Wikipedia on occasion, her father favours traditional education.

"Anybody who says you don't need to know anything these days, just know where to look it up, is mistaken, in my opinion," he said.

And Wales himself still loves to pore over books just as he did when he was a boy.

"Books are great. They're inexpensive and the batteries never run down," he said.

To see more of dpa, go to http://www.dpa.de/English.82.0.html Copyright (c) 2011, dpa, Berlin Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT)

Sony launches legal action against PlayStation hackers

Sony has launched legal action against hackers who uncovered and published security codes for the PlayStation 3.

The hack potentially allows anyone to run any software on their machine, including pirated games.

Sony's lawsuit argues that this constitutes copyright infringement and computer fraud.

But George Hotz, one of the hackers at the centre of the controversy, told BBC News that he was "comfortable" the action would not succeed.

"I am a firm believer in digital rights," Mr Hotz said.

"I would expect a company that prides itself on intellectual property to be well versed in the provisions of the law, so I am disappointed in Sony's current action.

"I have spoken with legal counsel and I feel comfortable that Sony's action against me doesn't have any basis."

The twenty-one-year-old, who rose to prominence for breaking the iPhone's security, is named in the lawsuit alongside more than 100 people associated with a hacking group known as fail0verflow.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

Already, pirate video games are being packaged and distributed with these circumvention devices.”

End Quote Court filing

In the filing, submitted to the Northern District Court of California, Sony asks for a restraining order that bans Mr Hotz from further hacking and prevents distribution of the software produced as a result.

"Working individually and in concert with one another, the defendants recently bypassed effective technological protection measures employed by Sony," the document states.

"Through the internet, defendants are distributing software, tools and instructions that circumvent the [protection measures] and facilitate the counterfeiting of video games. Already, pirate video games are being packaged and distributed with these circumvention devices."

Secret codes

The controversy centres around a series of secret codes that Sony uses to protect its system from being used for unauthorised purposes.

Among them is a number used to "sign" all PS3 games and software as a way of proving that they are genuine.

Once the key is known, however, it can be used to sign any software - including unofficial software and, potentially, pirated games.

The PlayStation's protection had remained impenetrable for several years, but members of fail0verflow demonstrated the first breakthrough in December when they presented a security exploit at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin.

Mr Hotz then revealed that he had uncovered the secret signing number using a similar method.

fail0verflow's website was taken down overnight, replaced with the message "Sony sued us" and a brief statement.

"We have never condoned, supported, approved of or encouraged videogame piracy," it says.

"We have not published any encryption or signing keys. We have not published any Sony code, or code derived from Sony's code."

The group has said in the past that it is vehemently against games piracy and that it had worked on the hack so that users could install other operating systems and amateur software on the console.

Sony had indicated previously that it would try to fix the hack by updating the PS3's software over the internet.

Console hacking and online copyright infringement is a contentious topic, frequently ending in high-profile court cases as technology companies seek to prevent their systems from being copied or modified.

While most cases in recent years have involved music and video file-sharing services like Napster, Grokster and Kazaa, a growing number of cases have involved the hacking of video games consoles.

Last year, a team released a piece of hardware called PSjailbreak that allowed gamers to play homemade and pirated games on the PlayStation 3.

Although the company has issued software to block the device and launched legal action, it has not prevented it entirely - with a Spanish court ruling that the gadget is not illegal.

In December, meanwhile, federal prosecutors dropped their case against a student accused of pirating games for Microsoft's Xbox 360.

The case against California resident Matthew Crippen was dropped after the judge said that he had "serious concerns" about the legality of the evidence collected against him.

Inside the Computer History Museum's Stunning Exhibit

This Thursday, the Computer History Museum in Mountain View will unveil "R:Evolution," a $19 million renovation focusing on the first 2,000 years of computing. And it's amazing.
Reporters were invited to tour the facility in advance of the formal grand opening later this week. About 100,000 artifacts are spread across 19 galleries - with more in storage - each devoted to a different subject - the topics include video games, mainframes, logic, and much more.
According to John C. Hollar, the president of the museum, the expansion makes the museum the "leading institution in the field," he claimed. Funding was provided by Bill Gates and many other donors.
Although the Computer History Museum has been in existence for about 30 years, it only arrived in Silicon Valley in 2002, when it moved from an exhibit in Digital Equipment Corp.'s headquarters to the former executive briefing center of SGI, which it now owns.

"We are trying to construct an institution that will live forever, that will be around 100 years from now, and will tell the story of computer history that's not over yet," Hollar said.
The museum invited computing celebrities including Frances Allen, an IBM fellow who pioneered work in optimizing compilers; Al Alcorn, the co-founder of Atari; Don Knuth, who authored a seminal work on software; and Steve Wozniak, the iconic co-founder of Apple. In an interview, Wozniak revealed that he owns and uses three iPhones, and will buy a "VeriPhone" as well.
I had the privilege of touring parts of the museum, where I literally got lost among the exhibits. If you go - and I recommend you do - expect to see virtually all of the devices that shaped the technology industry, including many you probably had no idea existed.
Let me be clear - if you are an avid PC Magazine reader, you owe it to yourself to spend a day at the museum.
I spent an hour or more taking way too many photographs, as just a teaser of what to expect. There's some great stuff there - Pixar computers, Russian PC knockoffs, the Apple Pippin, police robots - so please check out the associated slideshow.
And when you're done, check out how a motherboard is made and the London retrospective exhibit on video games.

CES Tablet Extravaganza: Motorola, RIM, Toshiba & Asus Stand Out

CES provided a tableau of what buyers can expect in tablets, nearly all of them evolutionary hardware improvements over the currently-shipping iPad, none of them available now, and most of them, predictably, clones. Here's a guide, based on a modest round of discussions and demonstrations at a frenzied CES; videos included where appropriate.

The tablet tease is finally over. Even if nothing new has shipped, if pricing and availability have yet to be revealed, if mobile operators are still being courted, and if a viable underlying tablet platform (besides iOS) has yet to be made available, there is little left to learn, other than the answer to that pesky question about which device will dare challenge Apple's relentless success, or at least emerge as the leading also-ran. Motorola is the early favorite, but there are equally compelling competitors, including Asus, Toshiba and RIM; and a few cool twists, like dual-screen devices, slide-out keyboards, and 4G connectivity.

Most new tablets will run Android, but since Google hasn't shipped version 3.0 (aka Honeycomb) -- the version that promises a better tablet experience -- it's best to focus on hardware. The iPad exceeded consumer expectations despite plenty of griping about what else should have been possible (like cameras). Almost a year in and there's no sign the device is wearing around the edges. But the next wave of tablets does offer significant hardware improvement: dual-core processors (1 GHz), both front and rear-facing cameras (the latter at 5 megapixels; 2 megapixels for the former), 1GB of RAM and at least 16GB of storage (how useful more storage will be in a web application world can be our next debate), USB (mini and regular) and mini HDMI (for video out). Hold out for everything.

Size matters. Certainly content consumption is possible -- even acceptable -- at seven inches, which fits even the smallest hand. Ten inches is better where web browsing and video viewing is constant. We saw 8 and 12 inch devices as well. But size comes down to buyer preference. It's also likely that Honeycomb will allow developers to detect and adjust for screen size and resolution.
None of the newly-announced devices ship now; some don't even exist. Most will wait for Honeycomb. Buyers would be wise to do the same (and wait for whatever Apple has next). It wouldn't hurt to take a closer look at RIM, whose seven-inch PlayBook is likely a prelude to other form factors (video demonstration below); nor would it hurt to hear what HP (Palm) is expected to unveil next month. 


The Clones
Beyond that, buying a tablet is going to be like buying a PC: brand preference will matter, and feature differences will seem insignificant. Price will factor heavily.
Motorola Xoom. Motorola is regaining its footing with a slew of popular Android phones, and that momentum has carried over into Xoom, its new tablet. That's great news for Motorola, and certainly its offering is plenty packed with all the right hardware, although the 512MB of RAM is half of what most of the other devices carry -- indeed, half of what Motorola's new 4G phone will provide. Motorola was the only company with an early build of Honeycomb -- a somewhat meaningless achievement, unless garnering headlines or being "first" matters that much. By the time all of the latest tablets actually start to ship, Honeycomb will be shipping and all of the tablets will run it.
That the Xoom is upgradeable to 4G (in Q2) is compelling, but the rest of what it offers depends on Honeycomb -- the 3D Maps, the video chat, and the ability to create your own widgets, for example. Motorola was only demonstrating a pre-recorded video of Honeycomb, anyway.
Motorola also demonstrated its Atrix "virtual laptop" (a laptop dock, which the company calls a "webtop") powered by the company's new Atrix 4G phone; if the Xoom can also power the Webtop, the role of the laptop could well become scrutinized, especially considering that you can run virtual sessions using a Citrix Receiver client. Others are also offering the laptop/docking functionality. 

4G Wireless Evolution - Verizon iPhone Could Spell Trouble for Android-Based Handset Manufacturers

After months of reporting on rumors, hearsay, conjecture and even gossip, we can finally tell you that Verizon (News - Alert) will begin carrying the iPhone in February. 

While the carrier's Tuesday press conference cleared up one long-unanswered question, it also provides us with a host of others. One of which being: How will the arrangement affect the Android (News - Alert) operating system, which currently runs Verizon's most popular phones and has been gaining ground on Apple's iOS as the world's leading platform?

Long story short; the news is not good for Google, its thriving OS and the phones that run on it.

Dan Hays, partner at consulting firm PRTM Gartner (News - Alert) Inc., told Bloomberg (News - Alert) News yesterday that the partnership between Apple and Verizon could cause Android shipments to decrease by as many as 2 million units per year.

"A lot of people who bought Android phones were buying it in lieu of an iPhone (News - Alert) because they couldn’t get one on the Verizon network” added Charlie Wolf, an analyst with Needham & Co. in New York.

Meanwhile, Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray in Minneapolis, told the news source that he expects Apple to ship approximately nine million Verizon iPhones this year. Obviously, a high number of those consumers will have to be long-time Verizon customers who will be ditching their Android-based handset for an iPhone.

Meanwhile, Verizon is adding to these problems by making it easier for current customers to get rid of their newly-purchased Android-based phones, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Toward the bottom half of Verizon's iPhone FAQs page, the carrier answers the question: “Can I exchange a device that I recently purchased for iPhone?"

"Yes, we will gladly accept returns or make exchanges on all wireless devices and accessories purchased from Verizon Wireless within 30 days of purchase," reads the answer. "All merchandise must be in like-new condition and accompanied by the original receipt."

Although this doesn't differentiate from Verizon's normal policy, it does mean that manufacturers of Android-based smartphones could soon experience an influx of returns, not to mention lower sales projections moving forward.

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HNintendo CEO: 3-D Warning From Experts

The chief executive of Nintendo Co. said Sunday that a recent warning against young children playing the new three-dimensional hand-held gaming device "is not saying the product is dangerous," but rather, a precautionary measure to fully inform customers and fend off possible litigation.

"We are proactive about informing our customers. Otherwise we won't put out a notice that wouldn't necessarily be positive for our sales," Chief Executive Satoru Iwata said in an interview.

In December, Nintendo said on its website that children under the age of six shouldn't play three-dimensional games on the eagerly anticipated 3DS portable game machine.

The device, due out in Japan on Feb. 26 and in the U.S. and Europe in March, is expected to be among the first mainstream products to deliver 3-D images without requiring special glasses.

But some experts think heavy exposure to 3-D images could have an adverse effect on young children as they are still developing the ability to grasp 3-D images in real life, Mr. Iwata said.

"Our notice on 3-D viewing for children is based on the opinions of experts we have consulted," he said. He didn't identify the experts. Compared with other 3-D devices, people tend to use game machines continuously for longer hours, Mr. Iwata said.

"Parents may sometimes use video games almost as a babysitter for their kids." He said Nintendo thought it was better to put out a more visible notice on the potential risks of 3-D viewing than a single line in the product manual.

While some medical experts cite the possible effects on much younger children, Mr. Iwata said the age threshold of six was meant to take into account individual differences.

Mr. Iwata also said the company expects to ship about four million 3DS units worldwide by the end of March, and about 1.5 million of those will likely be in Japan.