Most of the time, if you hear "Microsoft" and "OMG" you'd think about what they have done wrong again. After all, what else can it be, rather than
"OMG, Microsoft...?" Well, what about Microsoft and Object Management Group, shortly known as OMG? Obviously, this is exactly what we're going to find out right now!

Tell me OMG, and I will think about the "Oh, my God!" interjection, or about "Online Multiplayer Game," especially since I am not crazy about the IT business standards, enterprise software, and other things that usually are about a bunch of companies united to turn some ideas into standards, as it happens with the Z-Object Management Group (OMG or ZOMG)...

ZOMG, originally aiming to set standards for distributed object-oriented systems, is a consortium founded back in 1989 by no less than 11 companies, including HP, IBM, Apple and American Airlines.<-125x125 Button - right-> In the meantime, they became focused on modeling and model-based standards, and over 800 companies have become members.

Leaving details aside, I will get now to the point by telling you what just happened: Microsoft joined the OMG! With standards that include UML (Unified Modeling Language) and BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation), OMG is the perfect part to be added to Microsoft's strategy for model-driven software development.

According to Burley Kawaski, director of product management for the Microsoft Connected Systems Division, "We think OMG is important to help contribute to the open industry dialogue. Modeling has been something that has really been viewed as sort of a niche."

What does this whole thing mean for the end user? Well, apart from UML backing, Microsoft also has in mind adding support for BPMN in Oslo and its Visio drawing and modeling tool.

You know what's the funniest part of this? That it took Microsoft 19 years to realize the need for joining such a group in setting industry standards, rather than fighting on its own...but maybe I am missing something here, so feel free to enlighten me, if you know more about the topic!

I don't know if you got bored with all this P2P talks we've had lately, but I think you should pay attention. Why? Well, you could be next! For now, it's not that bad for the end user, especially if he doesn't try to destroy the evidence, and the quantity of shared copyrighted information is not impressive, but what can you do if you're the admin of a large torrent tracker, and you got caught? Well, last guy who found the answer to this question will spend a year and a half in the shadows...

Once upon a time, there was a site called Elite Torrents. To be honest, I had no idea about it, until they started falling down like flies. First, Grant Stanley, now 28 years old, was convicted to five months in jail, five months of house arrest, and three years of probation. Oh, and you can add a $200 assessment to that! Anyway, that was happening 2 years ago, and now, the time has come for another former Elite Torrents admin, namely Daniel Dove.<-336x280 Large Rectangle - right->

P2P, jailed, that's the story, and I am really sad to say it, especially since these guys shouldn't be thrown in jail. They made the mistake of being caught, all right, make them work for the government, but don't send them in prison! Anyway, this is only my opinion, because the judge handling the case decided to sentence Dove to 18 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release (probation), all nicely decorated with a $20,000 fine...

To clear some things out, let me tell you that Elite Torrents had over 100,000 members at its height, sharing about 700 movies, collectively downloaded over a million times, at least according to prosecutors.

The funny part is that, if Dove could share his punishment with all those who took advantage of his work, each of the Elite Torrents users would have to serve a bit over 6 minutes in jail, 13 minutes of probation, and pay a $0.16 fine. Now, that would be much better, don't you think? Unfortunately, reality is completely different...

Still afraid of using some P2P program? If you're located in the US, then I can't blame you. Every time you even think about P2P music downloads, I guess a huge red light is turned on in some obscure office belonging to the RIAA, and a blue light goes up in one of MPAA's surveillance offices. Wait, this is not true - but things are pretty nasty, as I see them from here. Anyway, while you're wondering about how illegal is to use LimeWire, spammers are using your fear to send fake copyright infringement messages...

...and this makes me wonder only one thing, as most of you, I am sure of that: Why??? Good question, and there's a good answer to that one, too - you get "information" about copyright infringement, and you end up with a malware installed on your machine. Wicked, don't you agree?

Here's how this whole P2P spam works - you get an email "from Media Defender," informing you about "hard evidence" that you stole content online. <-250x250 Square - right->As curiosity pushes you to view this evidence, you are getting closer and closer to installing a variation on the Mytob worm on your computer.

I know this may not sound like a brilliant advice, but here's what I tell you - trust yourself before anything else, especially if you know there can't be any evidence about copyright infringement available against you. If you need to know more about torrents, you should check our Spotlight On Torrents article, it should help clearing out some things for absolute beginners.

Why Media Defender? This may sound like something new to you - I must confess it was pretty hard for me to remember about them, but it's enough to say that Media Defender is RIAA's investigative arm, so most of those really downloading illegal content and being a bit paranoid are very likely to open this kind of "P2P spam" I mentioned above.

If all the P2P spam story can make some people go crazy, then what about the LHC experiment tomorrow? I had a good laugh today, hearing the insane news pushed forward by audience-hungry media outlets, going as far as the "end of the world" scenario! Anyway, I think you should be careful with those emails, first of all, and we'll see about the end of the world stuff in the meantime. First a beer, then the end of the world, then tomorrow's software&IT news, all right? Have a nice Big Bang Day!

Looking for satellite images? Live satellite images? I am sorry to disappoint you, but best way to get some satellite images live right to your computer or other Internet device would be to launch your own satellite! Since Google Maps doesn't sound like anything new, some details about it must be pointed out before moving on to the real subject of today's article, so here they are - until now, Google used high resolution imagery from DigitalGlobe, as well as from various government sources. Now, Google just got its satellite images a few times better, because they have exclusive rights to the images provided by the most powerful commercial satellite!

What happened yesterday is a "first time" for Google, and it gets deeper than just "the most powerful commercial satellite handling space images has been launched." The storry goes like this: on the 6th of September, a Delta II rocket nicely painted with the Google logo jumped up from Vandenberg Air Force Base, carrying the GeoEye-1 satellite into space.

Since this satellite is the most powerful commercial space image one orbiting as we speak, it should be obvious that Google Maps will soon be able to provide the best satellite images live to our computers(well, at least sometimes), <-336x280 Large Rectangle - right->since they have exclusive rights to use the images for mapping, as I said earlier. Any word about the resolution of the maps provided by GeoEye-1? Sure, why not, it's no secret!

The GeoEye-1 satellite is able to provide 41-centimeter (16-inch) imagery to the United States government, while Google will only get downsampled 50-centimeter (20-inch) imagery, but this is still insanely accurate. I don't even want to imagine how accurate could be military satellites, these days, but I guess they could count the flies on top of the White House, if they would really need that!

Current press releases say Google's imagery will allow from now on to display home plates in baseball parks, and just for your knowledge, the IKONOS satellite, currently providing images to Microsoft and Yahoo's mapping applications, only has a maximum resolution of 82-centimeter (32-inch).

Unfortunately, there's no official information available from Geoeye just yet to confirm that Google will use the images provided by the GeoEye-1 satellite or not, but the presence of the corporate logo on the rocket used to launch the satellite doesn't leave much room for "maybe" or "it is possible that..."

I know we won't ever get our satellite images live unless we pay a serious amount of money for such a thing, especially because this is also a matter of national security for the US, but today's news seems to give me hope. I am not hoping for higher resolution images, I know it may sound strange, but here's what I dream of - detailed maps for the entire planet, all coming from Google Maps/Google Earth or any other company that can turn this into reality first.

Until then, I guess we'll have to replace satellite images live with satelite images..."go take a nap, Uncle Sam doesn't want you to count the flies on top of the White House, we have experts able to do that!"

If you look well at what's happening around you, sometimes you can even get scared when downloading a new kit of your freeware Internet browser, or music player. What if somebody's watching? What if this program is not so legal as it seems? I am not paranoid, but I know people suffering from a computer-related paranoia, and if it's not about viruses, it's the fear of being watched, even when all they have to hide is one or two kinky Yahoo! Messenger conversations with their wives. Obviously, the RIAA is not hunting this kind of people, but now laws protecting the regular Internet user started to pop up...

The standard procedure of the recent campaign conducted by the RIAA against filesharers follows the same pattern every time: they find some computer offering files for download, obtain a court order to force the ISP or organization providing the IP of that computer to reveal the identity of its owner, and then sue the poor guy(or chick). The problem appeared with the methods used by MediaSentry to gather data, and in Michigan has just been passed a law specifically calling for computer forensics groups to be licensed!<-125x125 Button - right->

This won't really help those caught in the act, but I don't think it's fair to see people investigated by a so-called authority that is, basically, breaking the law. Well, it wasn't breaking the law before, but now they are unlicensed, so they are breaking it as we speak, if any investigation is still conducted...

The whole story goes deeper than this, but we should wait and see what happens next. For now, it's only a small step, but in the future, I really hope to see things moving in the right direction, especially regarding those huge fines RIAA obtains in court for people sharing a few tracks they had no idea of being illegal content.