Australia signs deals to expand Internet service

SYDNEY — 38 billion Plan of Australia to provide high-speed Internet to more than 90 percent of its households one of his last major obstacles Thursday, when the Government has signed $12,5 billion of net deals with Telstra and SingTel cleared.

The national broadband network, the largest Australian infrastructure project in decades, will use network Telstra in a bid to knit together a country the size of Western Europe with high-speed broadband, wireless or satellite services with covering any shortcomings.

The national broadband network, also known as NBN, which is owned by the State, to pay Telstra Australian 11 billion or 11.6 billion, to deliver most of their network.

Optus, which is owned by SingTel will receive 800 million dollars to move customers from fiber-optic network on national broadband network.

The deals are a victory for a Labour Government deeply unpopular, that made the network a main plank in his program, as the distances and terrain in Australia keep slow Internet Speeds and costs.

Some approvals remain before they can be resolved by the two deals, including a vote by shareholders on 18 October 2002 Telstra and wound up the competition regulator for the company's plan to divide.

Also offers facing a challenge from the conservative opposition, who argued against the national broadband network and has promised to review the project, if it comes to power.

"What we want to do is get broadband delivered, but at a lower cost and that would have involved at least in part by redesigning the network," Malcolm Turnbull, a spokesman for telecommunications for the opposition, told Australian radio.

"These contracts that will make it more difficult, but I don't think that will make it impossible."But there is no question of anything destroyed, ripped or terminated, or something like that, said Mr. Turnbull.

The network will require the total expenditure of capital of 35.9 billion dollars and will require 40.9 billion dollars of debt and equity. The Government plans to put up 27.5 billion dollar financing, while the project will have to borrow $ 13.4 billion of debt markets.

The Chief Executive of Optus, Paul O'Sullivan, said the company looked forward to using the national broadband network to turbo-charge.

"This agreement supports the NBN to create a level playing field for all telcos. Australian consumers will be the winners, "Mr O'Sullivan said in a statement.

As for Telstra, the deal removes an uncertainty that has weighed on its actions, but a rally in the short term is unlikely because of the challenges in implementing the deal and then adapts to new market, said Angus Gluskie fund management, a manager of wholesale Australian investment.

"People will see it as a positive sign that have gotten through this final step," said Mr. Gluskie. "But it's still an incredibly difficult for a telecommunications company to be".

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House passes patent Bill approaching global Norm

The legislation also takes measures to help the underfunded United States Patent and Trademark Office facing a backlog of 1.2 million pending applications that forces inventors to wait three years to get a decision.

The vote was 304-117, more than 95-5 votes with which a similar Bill cleared the Senate in March. The two have yet to reconcile differences in their bills, which are supported by the White House, key enterprise groups and leaders from both sides who have hailed as a measure that would create jobs.

"This legislation modernizes our patent system to help create private sector jobs and keep America on the edge of innovation", Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said.

Before coming to a final vote, the home fans had to overcome challenges from opponents who claimed that the legislation violated the Constitution and makes it more difficult for individual inventors to prevail in disputes with major corporations.

There was also a strong opposition to a provision that would allow financial institutions to challenge patents on business methods, such as systems for process controls. Opponents said the provision amounted to a bailout for banks, but representative Robert Goodlatte, Virginia Republican and Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on intellectual property, said business method patents, a fairly recent phenomenon, were "a fundamental flaw in the system which is costing consumers millions every year."

An amendment to remove the section on business method patents was defeated 262-158.

The most significant change caused by law would put the United States under the same system for patent applications used by Europe and Japan, which encourage inventors who file their applications for patents before. Currently the United States it operates on a first to invent system that the President of the House Judiciary Committee, Lamar Smith of Texas, said it was "outdated and dragged down from frivolous lawsuits and uncertainty on patent ownership".

A main opponent of the change, John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat and former Chairman of the Committee on justice, said that the Bill "would allow the Patent and Trademark Office awarded a patent for the first person who can win a race to the Patent Office, regardless of who is the inventor."

But Mr. Smith said that, for a fee of $ 110, an inventor may file a provisional application that would allow a year prepare a formal application. He said that could cost $ 5 million for legitimate inventors to defend against unwarranted lawsuits.

The Senate and the House will also have to work their differences on another important element of the Bill, how to finance the Patent Office.

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Crash puts spotlight on Hacking group shameless LulzSec

But charges of British police link Mr. Cleary to a group of hackers called Lulz, or LulzSec, which has been on a crime spree of the Internet in recent weeks, attacking Web sites and computer networks, including those of the Senate of the United States, the Central Intelligence Agency and Sony.

The British tabloids were quick to Mr Cleary, as the young criminal mastermind behind LulzSec, calling him a "Hack" the Lad "in titles on the front page of the cast. His mother, Rita, said his son is very intelligent, but has a history of mental illness, including agoraphobia. His lawyer, Ben Cooper, described Mr Cleary "vulnerable young."

Although it is unclear how much publicity it deserves, the arrest of Mr. Cleary made him a focus of public fascination with a wave of computer hacking cases, carried out by amorphous collective online.

Police say Mr Cleary is guilty of illegally using a computer to perform a denial of service — bombarding Web sites with so many automated messages that have closed. They say his targets were organisations including the British Serious Crime Agency organized.

In the hierarchy of computer hacking, the charges against Mr. Cleary and actions of LulzSec largely fall into the category known as hacktivism. Hackers are not motivated by money, but are primarily interested in protest or antagonize their goals, or in technical skills on display.

Hacktivists, according to computer security experts, are a different race from cybercriminals mainstream, seeking financial gain. These criminals, for example, manipulated the Citigroup Web site to steal personal information of credit cardholders.

The third category, say that experts are warriors, both working in the "cybercommands" governments like those of the United States and other countries, or for terrorist groups or mercenaries. They defend the computer networks, electricity networks and State secrets in his own country, while devising tactics to attack enemies.

Hacktivists tend to portray their activity as the sit-in digital, a form of protest. But security experts say that their actual attacks often cause damage to computer networks, and financial losses. LulzSec was more aggressive than most and most brazen in his choice of targets.

"This is organized crime that is typically distributed in several countries, said Mark Rasch, a former Justice Department Prosecutor, who is Director of security for CSC, a computer services company."It is a serious crime ".

The Thursday evening LulzSec released what it said were hundreds of internal documents from the Department of public safety to Arizona, including materials relating to counterterrorism and patrol operations. It says that it shall aim at the Agency because of anti-immigration policies of Arizona. A spokesman for the Department of public safety, Captain Steve Harrison, said the documents appeared to be genuine, but were sensitive, non-confidential.

Hacking was a mischievous young men — and are almost all men — because the computers were invented soon after. But the Internet has made an increasingly international pursuit. Power users of message boards online and chat software from the Internet, using these tools to communicate and organize activities became quickly the intruders.

"Hackers were among the first to understand the benefits of social networking," said Alan Brill, senior managing director of Kroll, a security consulting firm.

Hacker distant networks present a formidable challenge for law enforcement. But in recent years, they and prosecutors have formed their own international networks of communication, sharing information across borders. Arrest of Mr Cleary, for example, involved cooperation between Scotland Yard and the FBI

LulzSec, on a Twitter feed that you use to communicate with more than 250,000 followers, said that Mr. Cleary is "at best marginally associated with us." The Group did not respond to a Twitter message seeking comment for this article.

LulzSec, experts say, is a splinter group from anonymous, another line hacking collective. Anonymous is best known for his attacks in support of WikiLeaks, led by Julian Assange last year. The group went after the Web sites of companies such as MasterCard and PayPal, who had refused to process donations of WikiLeaks after it disclosed confidential diplomatic cables.

This year, said Barrett Brown, a former activist anonymous, "some of the most important leaders and hackers broke off and are now LulzSec."

The two groups of hackers certainly affect different poses. Declarations of LulzSec and his actions display a spirit of joy anarchist exuberant. Lulz, means essentially laughter mean-spirited and website LulzSec describes the group as "a small team of individuals who feel lulzy dullness of cybercommunity is a burden on what matters: fun."

The group is strongly antagonistic to the media. When a TV journalist for Russia today asked for an interview, she was told that he would be granted only if she and her producer wore shoes on their heads and wrestled in the mud while singing. They refused.

There seems to be much less joy in the anonymous culture. In a YouTube video that describes the group a voice intones: "there is no control, no leadership, only influence. The influence of thought ". Later, the video adds that the actions of anonymous have "brought justice to our world."

LulzSec Exploit have irritated others worldwide hacker who oppose its activities, particularly the exposure of the personal data of innocent Internet users. Those people are working to stop LulzSec investigates the identity of its members and providing information to the FBI

The LulzSec group, according to Mr. Brown, the former activist anonymous numbers between 5 and 10. Mr. Brown said members had faced — known by nicknames online as Topiary and Sabu — are mostly men in their 20s.

Mr. Brown said he had discussed with Mr. Cleary, and that he believed — contrary to the Declaration of LulzSec — who was involved with the group. But a person involved with anonymous, who declined to be named for fear of prosecution, said that Mr. Cleary was peripheral.

On Thursday, the Court decided to delay the application of Mr. Cleary for bail while police investigated.

Networks of hackers and their activities are murky by design, said Bruce Schneier, chief security technology officer of BT Group company. LulzSec, Mr. Schneier said, "is a badge, a name that is called each other, if you are one of the guys cool hackers now."

Riva Richmond contributed from New York.

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Gadgetwise: Using a Mac for converting a Windows laptop in a Linux machine

My old laptop Windows XP crashes constantly and I decided to erase everything and install Ubuntu on it maybe to squeeze a couple of years out of it as a Web browsing and e-mail machine. I would like to burn a CD from the software available on Ubuntu on my Mac, but a burned disk Mac-will work on a Windows computer?

If you burn the downloaded Ubuntu properly, should be able to create a system installation disc on your Mac that you can then use to reformat the old Windows laptop as a Linux machine. Start by downloading the Ubuntu CD files from the site of the company for Mac. The file must be named something like ubuntu-desktop-i386-11.04. ISO. (The file extension .ISO means that is an disc image and an exact copy of the master CD used to install Ubuntu Linux).

Use the Mac Disk Utility program to burn the ISO file to a CD so that the old Windows laptop can recognize as a system installation disk. After the file. ISO of Ubuntu has completely downloaded to your desktop, open the applications folder in the Mac and open the Utilities folder inside of it. The Disk Utility program is inside the Utilities folder, then double-click Disk Utility to start up.

Then, put a blank CD into the disc drive on your Mac. Drag the file. Ubuntu ISO from the desktop and drop it in the left pane of the open Disk Utility. Click the .ISO file listed in the left pane, and then click the burn button in the top of the Disk Utility to initiate the process.

After the CD burn, eject it from the Mac and put it in the disc drive on your Windows laptop. When you boot the CD, follow the on-screen instructions to install Ubuntu Linux.

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World Briefing | Europe: Britain: Hacker, 19, is charged

The three States opting out an immigration program are an essential tool of weakening rather than working to improve it. Mission of an American diplomat in Italy reveals confusion about war objectives of the Union.

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A revival in the art of buying on the Web

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Chad Batka for The New York TimesFrom left, Bill Fine, Artnet's president; Hans Neuendorf, the company's chief executive; and Brian McConville, its executive vice president, in front of Warhol's "Double Elvis" (1963-1976).

Roland Sledge, a 65-year-old lawyer for an oil and gas company in Houston, is no art world regulars. He began collecting prints and works on paper a little more than a decade ago, focusing on Abstract Expressionism, and has done some business with small New York galleries, "though I mostly just stumbled into things that I liked," he said in a broad Texas accent.

The latest on the arts, coverage of live events, critical reviews, multimedia extravaganzas and much more. Join the discussion. A recent Artnet sale: Robert Mapplethorpe's "Ken Moody and Robert Sherman" went for $83,636.

"I don't have a lot of connections," he added.

But Mr. Sledge, and a growing number of collectors like him, have lately been demonstrating that connections may not be as important as they once were — and that online sales, a segment of the art business given up for dead not long ago, are becoming an increasingly important part of its future.

Over the last year and half, Mr. Sledge has collected almost exclusively online, buying nine pieces at an average of about $ 4,000 each at online-only auctions through Artnet, the art market information company. Artnet tried and failed to become one of the pioneers of online sales in 1999, suspending those auctions two years later after it lost millions of dollars and decided that the market wasn't ready. But it got back into the business in 2008, and after less than three years, the auctions now account for 14 percent of the company's income.

The glamorous, newsmaking sales of Sotheby's and Christie's "these are not. The average price of an artwork won through an Artnet auction is about $6,800 now, up from $5,600 last year, which wouldn't come close to paying the commission on most high-end auction sales. But Artnet is one of many companies that believe the time might finally be right for a sizable portion of the art market to begin migrating online, the way sales for specialized items like rare books and antiques already have.

The VIP Art Fair, a weeklong online event that mimicked the mechanics of a traditional art fair with virtual booths, attracted a large international group of blue-chip galleries last January and, despite some well-publicized technical glitches, was seen as a success by dealers and collectors. Art.sy, a venture that will use Pandora-like technology to help art buyers find pieces and the galleries selling them, has already lined up heavyweight supporters like the dealer Larry Gagosian and Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter. And most major auction houses also now allow online bidding for sales happening in the physical world.

But while online bidding and fairs and services like Art.sy essentially serves as a digital bridge to bricks-and-mortar galleries and auction houses, Artnet officials say that much of the art market below a certain price level will soon operate almost entirely in the virtual realm. Auctions on Artnet take place around the clock, eBay-style (though the lots close only on weekdays, so far), and the company vets sellers and relies on their photographs and descriptions of the provenance and quality of artworks.

A buyer, who pays a 15 percent commission to Artnet, usually sees only a single picture of the work and often doesn't talk to the seller, who could be an art dealer, a private collector or an artist's family. (Sellers pay a 10 percent commission.) After the auction, the buyer pays the seller, and the work is shipped.

"It's one thing to point out to someone where they can find something and give them to the gallery's phone number," said Hans Neuendorf, the company's chief executive, referring to many other online art-selling services. "It's another thing to make a sale online."

"That's a sea change, in my opinion," said Mr. Neuendorf, who presents himself as a kind of revolutionary, "and it's happening."

Art sellers have been waiting for it to happen for many years. Sotheby's tried online-only sales for lower-priced works in the late 1990s, but, like Artnet, it abandoned the initiative a few years later, convinced that buyers simply were not willing to pay four-or five-figure sums for art they had not seen in person.

Mr. Neuendorf said several factors led Artnet, a public company based in Berlin, with offices in New York, to venture back into the field. One was the comfort people have begun to feel with online commerce in general, he said. But the more important factor was the considerable increase in the last decade in the number of people who spend money on contemporary art as a pastime or as an investment. They tend to see online art sales as more accessible and transparent than sales in the gallery world, with its reputation, fair or not, for being a kind of exclusionary club. And as many online art vendors like to point out, there are far more $ 5,000 and $ 10,000 prints and photographs in the world than there are 50,000 .000 Warhols changing hands at marquee auctions.

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Personal Tech: Smartphone With games, downtime becomes a pastime

5: 37, 23 June 2011 LOVES the new site allows you to check whether the information publicly available in 13 stashes that contains over 800,000 records stolen. 5: 26, 23 June 2011 process of PC LOVES three-way to transform a Windows machine to a PC Linux only e-mail and the Web. 5: 57, 22 June 2011 laptop bag like that held in what you needwithout overwhelming the wearer. 5: 36, 22 June 2011 4.04.40 Casio g'z one Commando is a shock and waterproof phone with applications for outdoor types, but its many features make it complicated.

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