Up Front: Jammie's still not sure what the 'Z' in 'KaZaa' stood for
Monday's tech headlines
BBC News
• A joint endeavor by Siemens and Nokia was instrumental in helping the Iranian government develop its massive Internet surveillance program, confirms correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones. In the second half of last year, the pair jointly sold the Iranian government something called "Monitoring Centre" (at least they didn't cloak it in some Orwellian euphemism), which a spokesperson for the venture described as "a standard architecture that the world's governments use for lawful intercept." The plurality of that last statement, along with the implied dismissive tone that everyone else is using it, so why can't Iran...also tends to sound more 2001 than 1984.
• Moves to incorporate digital downloads into the top-40 music charts are detailed in two BBC pieces. Ian Youngs has an overview of how online streaming services have affected the numbers, while the newsdesk reports that Hit40UK is going entirely digital -- for here on out, disregarding CD sales when compiling its figures.
• Wireless connectivity is still a fragile flower -- you can slave away on your perfect home Wi-Fi hookup, only to have the thing nuked by the neighbor's baby monitor, or your own Christmas decorations. Bill Thompson lays out the standards situation in the UK.
Wall Street Journal
• Some of the tech giants that have traditionally resisted offering online applications -- Oracle, IBM, Microsoft and so forth -- find the recession pushing them in that direction, according to Ben Worthen and Justin Scheck. (subscription required)
• Lauren Goode tested an tabletop HD radio -- the TEAC HD-1 -- and found it appealing for folks who are already inclined to buy a non-portable radio. Except for the alarm clock. That part of testing apparently didn't go so well.
San Jose Mercury-News
• Steve Wozniak spent Sunday at a rubber-ducky race. He rode in on his Segway and stood in a creek amidst the yellow ducks. There's a photo. Don't resist.
• Jessica Mintz (writing for the Associated Press) looks at Redbox, that DVD-kiosk system one sees around. It's a very different model from netflix, says founder Mitch Lowe (who spent six years at the Temple of the Red Envelope), but there's no reason the two can't co-exist.
• Troy Wolverton says we're entering a "golden age" of the Web browser. True story: 45 seconds after your reporter clicked on the story, her browser crashed. She suspects it was because it (Chrome) was barely mentioned in the piece.
Wired
• Brian X. Chen covers the rising call for closer scrutiny of Apple's approval process for its iPhone apps store, which they say raises net-neutrality issues.
• No one reasonable wants to test the Army's Terminal High-Altitude Air Defense missile system or the SBX x-band radar system against actual North Korean missiles, but as long as Korea's led by nutburgers, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is getting the gear into position.
New York Times
• In an unsigned editorial, the Times calls for the federal government to move on a bill offered by Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ) that would ban the use of paperless e-voting machines in the November 2010 elections. Rep. Holt's own site has a press release listing the bill's 75 (!) co-sponsors.
• Can haz free speech? Noam Cohen suggests that it's not blocking access to controversial online material that enrages the citizenry; it's messing with their lolcats. Your reporter thinks this is both very likely -- bread and circuses, etc. -- and a remarkably chilly thing to point out today.