Senate, for Just the 8th Time, Votes to Oust a Federal Judge

Judge Porteous, the eighth federal judge to be removed from office in this manner, was impeached by the House in March on four articles stemming from charges that he received cash and favors from lawyers who had dealings in his court, used a false name to elude creditors and intentionally misled the Senate during his confirmation proceedings. The behavior amounted to a ?pattern of conduct incompatible with the trust and confidence placed in him,? according to the articles against him.

All 96 senators present voted ?guilty? on the first article, which concerned his time as a state court judge and his subsequent failure to recuse himself from matters involving a former law partner, with whom he was accused of trading favors for cash.

Tapping his fingers nervously on the table as he looked at the paper where his lawyer kept track of each vote, Judge Porteous waited in vain for a ?not guilty? vote. As the last of the senators stood to formally render a decision, a lawyer for the judge reached over to squeeze his arm in consolation.

On the other three articles, some senators did support Judge Porteous, with 27 voting in his favor on the article concerning meals, trips and car repair he was accused of receiving from a bail bondsman. The senators also voted 94 to 2 to disqualify him from holding future federal office.

?I am deeply saddened to be removed from office but I felt it was important not just to me but to the judiciary to take this fight to the Senate,? Mr. Porteous said in a statement.

The statement added, ?While I still believe these allegations did not rise to the level of impeachable offenses as a constitutional matter, I understand how people of good faith could disagree.?

The process was meant to be as solemn as it was unusual. Still, it often seemed as if members were struggling to pay attention. Some fiddled with their smart phones, and Senator Dianne Feinstein of California had to be poked in the arm by Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, a fellow Democrat, to get her to vote on the third article.

Mr. Porteous, 64, was appointed to the bench by President Bill Clinton in 1994 and has been suspended with pay since 2008. As a result of his removal from the bench, which took effect immediately, he will not receive his annual federal pension of $174,000.

In 1989, Judges Alcee L. Hastings and Walter M. Nixon were impeached, found guilty by the Senate and removed from office.

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Netflix strikes deal with Disney and ABC

Netflix has announced a new licensing agreement with Disney-ABC Television Group. Netflix will soon be able to stream hundreds of episodes from the ABC Television Network, Disney Channel, and ABC Family over the Internet. Relevant programming will appear on Netflix at least 15 days after initial telecast. After that, episodes can be streamed instantly with Netflix memberships starting at $8 per month. While the agreement encompasses hundreds of TV episodes, both new and old, it's important to note that Disney Channel and ABC Family movies, also both new and old, will also be available.

Netflix recently said it was willing to pay up to $100,000 per episode in order to put new TV shows on its Watch Instantly feature. The number is certainly impressive, even if the price didn't end up going that high in this particular deal. Unfortunately, it looks like Netflix users are still going to have to wait over two weeks to get many of the episodes they want to watch right away.

"TV content streamed from Netflix has proven to be immensely popular with our members," Ted Sarandos, Netflix's chief content officer, said in a statement. "Adding to our existing Disney-ABC lineup with great network and cable shows, and opening up ABC Family for the first time, are important steps in creating a wide and diverse selection of content Netflix members of all ages can watch."

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YouTube Android app gets major overhaul, available for Froyo and Gingerbread [TNW Google]

Google unbundled the YouTube app from Android, releasing the newest version of the app today, version 2.1. With the app now unbundled, it should mean more frequent updates as it will no long require you to wait to update your Android OS to get the latest version.

The app will only work on Android 2.2 and above and is available now in the Android Market, and will come pre-installed on the Nexus S (the first Android 2.3 phone).

The new app is completely redone ?from the ground up? as Google puts it, and has quite a bit of new features including in-page playback that allows you to watch videos on you mobile while browsing related videos, rating videos, and even post comments. YouTube has also simplified how video/channel subscriptions are updated, and subscriptions can now be viewed on the app?s homepage. Also, the new app now offers one other great feature: the ability to make a video full-screen on your phone just by rotating your handset, as well as new on-video controls while in portrait/full-screen mode.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/google/2010/12/09/youtube-android-app-gets-major-overhaul-available-for-froyo-and-gingerbread/

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Tax Deal Is Key to Avoid Recession, Obama Adviser Says

But Democrats in the House and Senate were still seething with anger ? both about the substance of the deal, which includes keeping the Bush-era rates even on the highest incomes, and the way they were iced out of the negotiations. It was unclear that the ominous economic forecast would help. Senate Democrats said they were still pressing for changes to the plan, but Republicans and the White House showed no signs of flexibility.

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who failed on Tuesday to persuade many of his old Senate colleagues to get behind the plan, met with House Democrats for more than an hour on Wednesday. Dozens of lawmakers lined up to voice their displeasure, and to ask if there was any chance of reworking the plan, especially a provision setting a generous tax emption for wealthy estates.

?There is a substantial amount of dissatisfaction with the deal that was cut,? Representative Jim McDermott, Democrat of Washington, said after the meeting. ?The Democratic caucus put itself on notice that it would not vote for tax cuts for the wealthy because we can?t afford them and because they are not needed, and that?s the point one Democrat after another is making.?

The continuing anger in Congress raised the likelihood that the tax deal would be approved largely with Republican votes. Enough Senate Democrats were expected to support the plan to surmount any filibuster. And in the House, given Republican support, it seemed possible for the tax plan to be adopted even with two-thirds or more of Democrats voting against it.

The deal would extend for two years the Bush-era tax cuts at all income levels, not just on income up to $250,000 per couple as President Obama had sought. In exchange, Republicans agreed to the administration?s demands for a 13-month continuation of jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed, a one-year reduction in the payroll tax for nearly all workers, and other steps aimed at lifting the economy.

The plan also includes an agreement to reduce the estate tax, which lapsed completely this year but is set to return on Jan. 1 with an exemption of $1 million per person and a maximum rate of 55 percent. The deal will set the exemption, or unified credit, at $5 million per estate, and the maximum rate at 35 percent ? a higher exemption and lower tax than many Democrats want.

The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, excoriated Democrats for trying to bring up several other issues, including an immigration bill and a Pentagon policy measure that includes authorization to repeal the military?s ?don?t ask, don?t tell? ban on open service by gay men and lesbians. Mr. McConnell urged the Democrats to bring the tax plan to the floor.

?Are we here to perform or to legislate?? Mr. McConnell asked, accusing the Democrats of forcing show votes on liberal ideals.

The majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, struggled on Wednesday to chart a path on several major items, including the tax proposal. Votes were tentatively scheduled for Thursday morning on the immigration measure, which would create a path to citizenship for certain illegal immigrants brought to the United States as young children, and on the military bill.

As attention focused mainly on the tax issue, House Democrats muscled through a stripped-down spending bill that would finance the federal government through Sept. 30 of next year, freezing the budgets of most agencies but including money for the war in Afghanistan.

The bill cuts nearly $46 billion from the president?s requested budget, and includes provisions for a two-year pay freeze for non-military federal employees.

The vote was 212 to 206, with 35 Democrats and all 171 Republicans in opposition.

With the president on the defensive with his own party, the White House marshaled an offensive that included circulating dozens of private-sector economic analyses and endorsements from public officials.

But the big gun was the economic warning from Lawrence H. Summers, the soon-departing director of the White House National Economic Council.

?Failure to pass this bill in the next couple weeks would materially increase the risk that the economy would stall out and we would have a double-dip? recession, Mr. Summers told reporters at a briefing.

Mr. Obama, in a brief appearance with the president of Poland, rebutted a reporter?s question alluding to Congressional Democrats? sense of betrayal.

?It is inaccurate to characterize Democrats writ large as feeling ?betrayed,? ? Mr. Obama said. ?I think Democrats are looking at this bill, and you?ve already had a whole bunch of them who said this makes sense. And I think the more they look at it, the more of them are going to say this makes sense.?

The fight over the Bush-era rates would resume in the coming two years, Mr. Obama said, adding that he would make the case for ?tax reform, that we?ve got to simplify the system.?

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TI intros dual-core 1.5GHz SoC for phones, tablets

Texas Instruments has announced its new OMAP4440 system-on-a-chip, an updated version of the OMAP4430. Designed for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, the package carries a dual-core ARM Cortex A9 processor running at speeds up to 1.5GHz (OMAP4430 tops out at 1GHz), as well as two Cortex M3 cores for offloading time-critical tasks, and a graphics engine with support for 3D video.

Naturally, you don't release new hardware without boasting speed gains, and TI does precisely that. Compared to the OMAP4430, the OMAP4440 is 33% faster at loading web pages, it packs 25% more graphics power, has double the video playback performance, and offers improved video quality in low-light conditions. The OMAP4430 tops out at 720p stereoscopic 3D, while the OMAP4440 can handle full 1080p stereoscopic 3D.


The company plans to ship samples of the OMAP4440 sometime in early 2011 and mass production is expected in the second half of the year, or around the same timeframe as Samsung's Orion. Meanwhile, OMAP4430 is already in manufacturer's hands and should appear in products around the same time the 4440 starts sampling, but we're not sure what devices plan to use the chip. Feel free to speculate in the comments.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/41488-ti-intros-dualcore-15ghz-soc-for-phones-tablets.html

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Blog - White Worm Could Stop Bluetooth Viruses

Mobile phone viruses have been with us for some time. The first virus designed to spread via Bluetooth contacts first reared its head in 2004.

Called Cabir, it infects Series 60 mobile phones running the Symbian operating system and it is highly infectious. When computer security researchers first downloaded Cabir into a test device, they soon found their own phones under attack.

Today, computer security researchers use copper-shielded rooms where they can test how Bluetooth and WiFi viruses spread, without fear of an uncontrolled release.

But while these viruses continue to evolve, there has been relatively little work on how to stop them. That's partly because viruses that spread by email or SMS message can be scanned relatively easily by a network operator using existing technologies (ie by comparing them to a database of known malware).

But short range viruses that spread from phone to phone via Bluetooth and wifi are more insidious. Mobile phones do not necessarily have the computing power to scan all incoming messages.

This problem is compounded by a crucial difference in the structure of the networks formed by short range wireless devices compared to the larger mobile phone network. Bluetooth links constantly change throughout the day in a way that mimics the pattern of face-to-face connections between humans. That's hardly surprising given that Bluetooth has a range of just a few metres.

However, the mobile phone network is largely static, because calls have to routed through a centralised fibres.

The rapid change in the links between nodes has important implications. We looked at some of them earlier this year, such as the order in which contact occur. John Tang at the University of Cambridge in the UK and pals point out that dynamic nature of networks has been ignored in anti-virus strategies so far.

That looks set to change. Today, Tang and co reveal the new tricks they hope will smother this threat to dynamic networks.

One of the key differences between the way viruses spread on static and dynamic networks is the effect of the order in which infections occur. A seemingly trivial example is that it's impossible to catch a virus from someone who is not yet infected. And once your link with that person is broken, as happens in dynamic networks, you're safe. In a static network, by contrast, the links don't break and you simply become infected later.

That has important implications for the spread of mobile malware. In any phone network, certain phones make far more connections than others. One traditional approach is to target these nodes with patches that prevent the spread of malware.

But in a dynamic network the constant rewiring means that these important nodes change too. So the best connected nodes at one instant may not be the best connected at another. Clearly, this has to be taken into account in any effective anti-malware strategy.

So what to do? Tang and co say the answer is to beat the malware at its own game by spreading any patch through the network via the same Bluetooth or WiFi routes that the virus is using. In that way, the patches should reach the best connected nodes automatically.

What's more, since the dynamic network more or less exactly mimics the pattern of face-to-face interactions between humans, wireless viruses spread mainly during weekdays when most human contacts are made. But they are largely dormant during the night when few contacts are made

That's significant because it means that any patch can catch up during the night. In fact, Tang and co show that their patch can spread at a rate that outpaces any virus.

Tang and co say this "white worm" approach can completely contain the malware in a limited amount of time, a claim that is rarely made of other anti-virus strategies.

That looks to be an interesting development in the cat and mouse race between the virus makers and and breakers. But it seems unlikely to be the last word. It can only be a matter of time before malware developers exploit the techniques outlined by Tang and co to spread their viruses more effectively through dynamic networks. And when that happens, the cycle will begin again.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1012.0726: Exploiting Temporal Complex Network Metrics in Mobile Malware Containment

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iPhone 3GS goes free at Best Buy on December 10th [TNW Mobile]

According to a report from the guys over at BGR, Best Buy Mobile is going to be offering up Apple?s iPhone 3GS for the paltry sum of nothing on December 10th. It will apparently be free that day only and it will be available to those that are signing up for a new line, adding another line or qualify for an upgrade.

The offer will apparently work like an instant rebate.

The report claims that the inventory current held at Best Buy stores will be sufficient to cover the promotion, although, we wouldn?t be surprised to hear about shortages  or inventories becoming depleted come Friday.

No official word yet from Best Buy but from the looks of things, this is all but certain.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2010/12/09/iphone-3gs-goes-free-at-best-buy-on-december-10th/

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Intel, AMD, system builders to drop VGA by 2015

Intel has announced plans to cease support for the widely used VGA and LVDS display connectors in its processors and chipsets by 2015. Additionally, Chipzilla has teamed up with other industry titans, including AMD, Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, and LG to phase out the dated interfaces in favor of newer, more capable connection types, such as DisplayPort and HDMI.

In fact, AMD's plans are even hastier. The company intends to begin phasing out native VGA and LVDS output from most products by 2013, with expansion to all AMD products by 2015. It was noted that this also means DVI-I will be dropped in the same period.

In its press release today, Intel said HDMI is increasingly used in PCs for easy connection to consumer electronic devices and TVs, while DisplayPort is expected to become the single PC digital display output for embedded flat panels, monitors and projectors.


Both allow for slimmer laptops and support higher resolutions and more colors than the 20-year-old VGA connector. On top of the better visuals, Intel says DisplayPort and HDMI consume less power, so they're also better for battery life on mobile systems.

"Display standards are rapidly evolving, with new features such as multi-display support, stereoscopic 3-D, higher resolutions and increased color depth quickly moving from early adopter and niche usage to mainstream application," said AMD. "VGA, DVI and LVDS have not kept pace."

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Netflix strikes deal with Disney and ABC

Netflix has announced a new licensing agreement with Disney-ABC Television Group. Netflix will soon be able to stream hundreds of episodes from the ABC Television Network, Disney Channel, and ABC Family over the Internet. Relevant programming will appear on Netflix at least 15 days after initial telecast. After that, episodes can be streamed instantly with Netflix memberships starting at $8 per month. While the agreement encompasses hundreds of TV episodes, both new and old, it's important to note that Disney Channel and ABC Family movies, also both new and old, will also be available.

Netflix recently said it was willing to pay up to $100,000 per episode in order to put new TV shows on its Watch Instantly feature. The number is certainly impressive, even if the price didn't end up going that high in this particular deal. Unfortunately, it looks like Netflix users are still going to have to wait over two weeks to get many of the episodes they want to watch right away.

"TV content streamed from Netflix has proven to be immensely popular with our members," Ted Sarandos, Netflix's chief content officer, said in a statement. "Adding to our existing Disney-ABC lineup with great network and cable shows, and opening up ABC Family for the first time, are important steps in creating a wide and diverse selection of content Netflix members of all ages can watch."

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Awesome Daft Punk Edition TRON neon headphones and more from Monster [TNW Gadgets]

We?ve added one more item to our Christmas list here at The Next Web. Check out these glowing, neon headphones made by audiophile manufacturing king Monster in partnership with Disney. The new Daft Punk-inspired TRON: LEGACY headphones were announced today and we?re not sure whether we?re more excited to see the 3D movie, which comes out on December 17th or to listen to its soundtrack composed entirely by Daft Punk on these killer headphones.


Daft Punk Edition TRON: LEGACY Headphones by Monster (SRP $349.95)

?To complement the futuristic TRON: LEGACY soundtrack created by Daft Punk required cutting-edge products that utilize the most innovative technology and high-end design,? said Chris Heatherly, vice president of toys and electronics, Disney Consumer Products. ?We sought out true industry leaders to bring to life Daft Punk-inspired merchandise that will take the TRON: LEGACY experience to a whole new level for fans.?

Daft Punk Edition TRON: LEGACY Gaming Headphones by Monster (SRP $299)

The new futuristic looking headphones include Monster?s leading-edge sonic technologies and a few new innovations including:

  • Monsters advanced studio driver design for ultra-precision surround-sound clarity
  • Extra-large over-ear drivers to deliver deep bass and thunderous low-end effects
  • LED Light Drive System used for the first time in Monster headphones to recreate TRON: LEGACY animated lighting effects
  • Advanced noise isolation technology that blocks external sound so users can remain immersed in music, movies and games
  • Removable boom microphone that can be placed on either side, giving gamers a useful edge while playing and conversing hands-free with opponents.
  • Monster ControlTalk?*, which enables easy and clear hands-free calling

And one last cyber-cool gadget to add to our list:

TRON: LEGACY audio dock is inspired by the iconic data disk from TRON: LEGACY ($249.95)

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2010/12/09/daft-punk-edition-tron-headphones-and-more-from-monster/

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