´óÏó´«Ã½

%3Ca%20href="/comedy/clips/p0082twv">In Tech Brief today: Babyberry, Batman and the return of the great AC/DC debate.

• You may have noticed %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10176138.stm">a certain product launch in the UK news headlines today. For those undecided on - or, indeed, uninterested in - the iPad, comedians David Mitchell and Robert Webb present you with an alternative: %3Ca%20href="/comedy/clips/p0082twv">The "BabyBerry" [some language not safe for work]. In the words of one delighted reviewer:

"It's got a cracking 64Gb memory - which is more than can be said for my real baby."

• Actor Adam West, aka TV's original Batman, has been waxing lyrical about gaming, %3Ca%20href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/05/28/adam-west-on-videogames/">reports Kieron Gillen at Rock, Paper, Shotgun:

"In the same way a painting allows us to gaze upon the faces and souls of people from another age, or a book permits us to linger on the thoughts of great figures from history and fiction, videogames can expand our awareness of the world as it is, was, or might be. The medium is still in its infancy, but read this again in a few years and see if this prediction hasn't come true: as videogaming grows, we will grow."

Well, that's one way of looking at the four hours you've just spent charging about killing the residents of a virtual world.

• Staying with gaming, %3Ca%20href="https://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/44-million-stolen-gaming-credentials-uncovered">web security firm Symantec claims to have found a database server containing the stolen account credentials of 44 million online gamers.

If you think your secret life as Zorro the Destroyer isn't worth much hard cash, think again - Symantec says an established World of Warcraft login can fetch up to $28,000. You probably wouldn't be able to get your hands on that cash legitimately:

"It's worth noting that the actual buying and selling of accounts is typically banned by many online gaming and hosting sites, as evidenced by the terms of their EULAs."

• Word reaches Tech Brief that, approximately a million years after the world settled on alternating rather than direct electric current in sockets, DC is enjoying a bit of a revival in the world of data centres. %3Ca%20href="https://blogs.intel.com/research/2010/05/dc_-_an_idea_whose_time_has_co.php">Intel research blogger Guy Allee reports that DC has been found to be far more energy-efficient than its more-popular rival:

"In 2006 we participated with Lawrence Berkley Lab in a study of power for the datacenter. The published, peer- reviewed findings are that you save an astounding 28% over the current North American AC power distribution practices by using DC."

There may be hope for Betamax yet.

• Google has launched its own trading floor %3Ca%20href="https://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_23/b4181033582670.htm">reports Douglas MacMillan at Bloomberg Businessweek:

"The plan is to keep the war chest growing safely and ready to be deployed should the right mergers-and-acquisitions opportunities arise."

MacMillan says the traders themselves are well looked after in an office space which includes a climbing wall, massage chairs and murals of tropical sunsets. All that's missing is the margaritas.

If you want to suggest links or stories for Tech Brief, you can send them to %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/bbctechbrief">@bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/">Twitter, tag them bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/">Delicious or e-mail them to techbrief@bbc.co.uk.

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="/comedy/clips/p0082twv">Madeleine Brettingham | ´óÏó´«Ã½ Comedy | The Babyberry
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/05/28/adam-west-on-videogames/">Kieron Gillen| Rock Paper Shotgun | Adam West on video games
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/44-million-stolen-gaming-credentials-uncovered">Eoin Ward | Symantec | 44m stolen gaming credentials uncovered
• %3Ca%20href="https://blogs.intel.com/research/2010/05/dc_-_an_idea_whose_time_has_co.php">Guy Allee | Research@Intel | DC: An idea whose time has come and gone?
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_23/b4181033582670.htm">Douglas MacMillan| Bloomberg Businessweek | Google's own trading floor

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what you need to know.

The %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8709930.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ says Downing Street refused to allow a minister to appear on Question Time unless Tony Blair's former adviser Alastair Campbell was removed. No minister appeared %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/27/government-boycott-question-time-alastair-campbell">reports the Guardian.

The long-awaited iPad goes on sale in the UK today %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10176138.stm">reports the ´óÏó´«Ã½.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1282024/Set-ways-25-000-people-watch-TV-black-white.html?ITO=1490">According to the Daily Mail 40 years after the first World Cup was broadcast in colour, 25,000 homes still have a black and white TV licence.

ITV's commercial director Rupert Howell has become the first executive to leave since the arrival of Adam Crozier as its chief executive %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/7773417/ITVs-commercial-director-to-quit.html">reports the Telegraph.

The %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8710119.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ newspaper review highlights the papers' discussions with friends of the three murdered women in Bradford.

Links in full

%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8709930.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Row over Alastair Campbell on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Question Time panel
%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/27/government-boycott-question-time-alastair-campbell">James Robinson | Guardian | Government boycotts Question Time over Campbell
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10176138.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Apple iPad tablet gathers crowds for UK launch
%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1282024/Set-ways-25-000-people-watch-TV-black-white.html?ITO=1490">Amy Oliver | Daily Mail | 25,000 people still watch TV in black and white
%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/7773417/ITVs-commercial-director-to-quit.html">Rupert Neate | Telegraph | ITV's commercial director to quit
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8710119.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Newspaper review

• Read %3Ca%20href="/blogs/seealso/2010/05/media_brief_13.html">Thursday's Media Brief

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://www.delicious.com/bbctorindouglas">my archive of media articles on Delicious

Commentators react to President Obama's management of BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W Bush %3Ca%20href="https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704717004575268752362770856.html">Karl Rove argues in the Wall Street Journal that President Obama has been too slow to react:

"Since the Deepwater Horizon rig blew up on April 20, a lethargic Team Obama has delayed or blown off key decisions requested by state and local governments and left British Petroleum in charge of developing a plan to cap the massive leak. Now the slow-moving oil spill threatens Mr. Obama's reputation, along with 40% of America's sensitive wetlands. Critics include some of his most ardent cheerleaders, who understand that 38 days without an administration solution is unacceptable."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/27/obamas-oil-spill-press-co_n_592720.html">In the Huffington Post Dan Froomin is not convinced that President Obama is doing anything substantial:

"[T]here was very little there for those who are more concerned with what's actually happening on the ground and in the water than with presidential optics.
And to those unhappy with the speed or the extent of the government response, to those scientists who question some of the decisions that have been made, and to those Louisiana residents who think not enough is being done, he didn't actually announce any changes. There is no new plan. He just tried to redefine what is."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/26/AR2010052604013.html">In the Washington Post EJ Dionne Jr says "The sludge in the gulf is, finally, the product of our own contradictions":

"So who is in charge of stopping the oil spill, BP or the federal government? The fact that the answer to this question seems as murky as the water around the exploded oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico suggests that this is an excellent moment to recognize that our arguments pitting capitalism against socialism and the government against the private sector muddle far more than they clarify."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/919f37fe-69c1-11df-8432-00144feab49a.html">David Scheffer says in the Financial Times [subsccription required] that there is a need for a rethink of regulation:

"BP has broken the mould of self-regulation. With all companies now operating in its shadow, we need tougher enforcement of CSR [corporate social responsibility]. Manipulation of objectives by PR departments has to stop. Congress should mandate that multinationals incorporated or operating in the US should create professionally staffed divisions to uphold Global Compact principles and core duties set forth in more enlightened codes of conduct. In a move beyond feelgood ethics and anaemic committees, compliance divisions should report directly to chief management and the board of directors, and periodically file public sustainability reports to regulatory bureaux in Washington ramped up for rigorous oversight. Ìý

"Compliance divisions should act with independent authority (like police departments' internal affairs offices) to enforce CSR and compel planning for worst-case scenarios. Conventional risk assessment reports focus on what risks might impair investors' confidence in a company. Future ones should also examine the catastrophic risks that would undermine society's confidence."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/may/27/cheap-oil-cost-developing-countries">In the Guardian John Vidal argues that the Gulf disaster is only unusual for being so near the US:

"If this accident had occurred in a developing country, say off the west coast of Africa or Indonesia, BP could probably have avoided all publicity and escaped starting a clean-up for many months. It would not have had to employ booms or dispersants, and it could have ignored the health effects on people and the damage done to fishing. It might have eventually been taken to court and could have been fined a few million dollars, but it would probably have appealed and delayed a court decision for a decade or more.Ìý

"Big Oil is usually a poor country's most powerful industry, and is generally allowed to act like a parallel government. In many countries it simply pays off the judges, the community leaders, the lawmakers and the ministers, and it expects environmentalists and local people to be powerless. Mostly it gets away with it."

On Tech Brief today: Public porn shaming, how gamers dream and Carmack's car hack.

• The day we swap our fleshy prisons for a gleaming steel robot host are a long way away, but it is heartening to know some are already preparing for that time. One knotty problem is translating nerve pulses into digital data and vice versa so none of the world's wonder is lost. %3Ca%20href="https://hplusmagazine.com/articles/neuro/porting-digital-memory/">H+ magazine wonders where it will all lead.

"Neural interfaces can be abused, obviously, and can be hacked into to enslave and torture minds, or drive people intentionally insane, or turn them into sleeper assassins or mindless consumers."

• Japanese men blackmailed by a computer virus that told the world about what they like in their pornography can now name their tormentors. The Japanese police have collared the writers of the Kenzero virus which named on a website those who downloaded pirated copies of, err, adult-themed games from file-sharing networks. %3Ca%20href="https://countermeasures.trendmicro.eu/japanese-porn-extorters-busted/">The virus writers asked for cash to remove the names.

"The arrests were made on the grounds of suspicion of fraud as the creation of malware is reportedly not a criminal act in Japan. The article states that the number of victims is around 5,000 but expected to rise and that the pair are charged with defrauding 'tens of thousands' of Japanese Yen."

• The childhood of many gamers was spent in the company of Doomguy - the unnamed marine who mows down imps and other ne-er-do-wells in the iconic shooter. %3Ca%20href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/green-tech/advanced-cars/hacking-a-ferrari">Given the fun we all had, who could begrudge Doom co-creator John Carmack his hobby of hacking his Ferrari Testarossa?

"It was a completely new intake and exhaust system which put it up to 800 horsepower, and we kept it like that for a while. I think we put the nitrous on there. Eventually we had an engine meltdown at high speed, so at that point we're like okay, now we'll take it apart and do all the really good stuff with the engine."

• It's not just fun with a gun that video games can give you. Oh no. The benefits stretch into real life, even unto your dreams. So says psychologist Jayne Gackenbach. %3Ca%20href="https://www.livescience.com/culture/video-games-control-dreams-100525.html">Prowess with a joystick can help defeat the many-tentacled monsters of the id.

"'What happens with gamers is something inexplicable,' Gackenbach explained. 'They don't run away, they turn and fight back. They're more aggressive than the norms.' Levels of aggression in gamer dreams also included hyper-violence not unlike that of an R-rated movie, as opposed to a non-gamer PG-13 dream. 'If you look at the actual overall amount of aggression, gamers have less aggression in dreams,' Gackenbach said. 'But when they're aggressive, oh boy, they go off the top.'

• Apple might be happy to have the phrase 'so simple a child could do it' levelled at their products. %3Ca%20href="https://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-20005801-233.html0">But not, perhaps, when said child is repairing a busted iPhone screen for a tenth of the price Apple charges.

"Brett did the whole thing for a little more than $20, but you can do it for even cheaper, depending on where and from whom you buy your kit."

If you want to suggest links or stories for Tech Brief, you can send them to %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/bbctechbrief">@bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/">Twitter, tag them bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/">Delicious or e-mail them to techbrief@bbc.co.uk.

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="https://hplusmagazine.com/articles/neuro/porting-digital-memory/">James Kent | H+ | Porting Digital Memory
• %3Ca%20href="https://countermeasures.trendmicro.eu/japanese-porn-extorters-busted/">Rik Ferguson | Countermeasures | Japanese Porn Extorters - Busted
• %3Ca%20href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/green-tech/advanced-cars/hacking-a-ferrari">David Kushner | IEEE Spectrum | Hacking a Ferrari
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.livescience.com/culture/video-games-control-dreams-100525.html">Jeremy Hsu | Live Science | Video Gamers Can Control Dreams, Study Suggests
• %3Ca%20href="https://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-20005801-233.html0">David Carnoy | CNet Reviews | Boy fixes cracked iPhone screen for $21.95

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what you need to know.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/7767118/Every-terrestrial-TV-programme-to-be-available-via-´óÏó´«Ã½-iPlayer.html">Telegraph says changes to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ iPlayer will link it to Twitter and Facebook and programmes from rival terrestrial broadcasters.

BSkyB has attacked the changes to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ iPlayer, saying they need regulatory approval %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/26/bbc-iplayer-attacked-bskyb">according to the Guardian.

The %3Ca%20href="https://timesonline.typepad.com/law/2010/05/lord-lester-publishes-bill-to-reform-archaic-libel-laws.html">Times reports that changes to the "archaic" libel laws are being proposed in a private member's bill by Lord Lester.

Facebook's new privacy changes are %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10167143.stm">explained by ´óÏó´«Ã½ News.

The %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8707716.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ newspaper review highlights that the murders of three women working as prostitutes in Bradford appear on several of Thursday's front pages.

Links in full

%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/7767118/Every-terrestrial-TV-programme-to-be-available-via-´óÏó´«Ã½-iPlayer.html">Matt Warman | Telegraph | Terrestrial TV to be available via ´óÏó´«Ã½ iPlayer
%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/26/bbc-iplayer-attacked-bskyb">Mark Sweney | Guardian | ´óÏó´«Ã½ iPlayer upgrade attacked by BSkyB
%3Ca%20href="https://www.timesonline.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://timesonline.typepad.com/law/2010/05/lord-lester-publishes-bill-to-reform-archaic-libel-laws.html">Frances Gibb | Times | Lord Lester publishes bill to reform "archaic" libel laws
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10167143.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Facebook reveals 'simplified' privacy changes
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8707716.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Newspaper review

• Read %3Ca%20href="/blogs/seealso/2010/05/media_brief_12.html">Wednesday's Media Brief

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/bbctorindouglas">my archive of media articles on Delicious

Commentators debate plans to increase capital gains tax.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/7768913/Questionable-gains.html">Telegraph editorial says that the policy is against traditional Conservative ideology:

"Evidently, this is not a policy with which many Conservatives are comfortable. It was not in the party's manifesto, and was only included in the coalition programme at the behest of the Liberal Democrats. In his interview with this newspaper at the weekend, David Cameron was unequivocal in his support for lower taxes. In addition, there is compelling evidence that an increase in CGT of the sort being suggested would produce less revenue, not more."

Former shadow home secretary %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1281755/Capital-Gains-Tax-rise-punish-middle-classes.html">David Davis says in the Daily Mail that the plans will "punish the hard-working middle classes":

"An important element of social mobility is breaking through the tendency of whole families to suffer cycles of decline down the generations.
One way to break out of this is to encourage parents to save to help their own children.
In this way, savings and inheritance act as a social ratchet - lifting each generation one step at a time. So unless it is very carefully designed, the plan to increase Capital Gains Tax will not only fail to raise the money needed, it will cost money."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.cityam.com/news-and-analysis/allister-heath/capital-gains-tax-hike-very-bad-idea">In City AM Allister Heath argues against the claim that taxpayers can easliy dress up income (taxable at up to 50%) as capital gains (on which tax is only payable at 18%):

"There are undoubtedly abuses - but it is simply not true that most investors are able to do this. If Cable can't see that, he ought to ask any small shareholder, investor in an ETF or buy-to-let entrepreneur. They are trapped. As the Adam Smith Institute points out in a new report, if it were so easy to convert income to capital gains, then how do countries that have a zero capital gains tax still manage to raise significant revenue from income taxes? US income tax receipts did not collapse when the capital gains tax rate was cut. What about Hong Kong, which has no capital gains tax? Or Belgium, which also has no capital gains tax but a top income tax rate similar to that in the UK? Why can it still collect income tax at these high rates? Or the Netherlands, with an income tax rate of 52 per cent and capital gains tax of zero? Or New Zealand, which also doesn't tax capital gains at all? Converting capital gains to income is nigh on impossible for most people and the authorities ought to be capable of limiting attempts at income arbitrage by professionals. If the current legislation isn't sufficient, passing new anti-avoidance legislation would be easy and wouldn't require hiking the tax rate for everybody else."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/tax-and-economy/capital-tax-fiasco/">Madsen Pirie argues at the Adam Smith Institute blog why increasing capital gains tax would reduce revenue:

"By making capital investment less attractive, increased capital taxes result in lower levels of investment. The productivity gains produced by investment are reduced, as are the wage increases which they bring in their wake, and the price reductions enabled by lower unit costs.The proposed increase in Capital Gains Tax made no economic sense when it first appeared in the Lib-Dem manifesto. Now that it has been examined and analyzed, it makes even less."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.economicvoice.com/the-flight-from-tax/50010564">Jeff Taylor in the Economic Voice blog suggests that whatever the technicalities, the result will be an increase in revenue from capital gains tax:

"Many of the assets held are part of people's future wealth, financial and inheritance planning. They possibly hold property and / or shares as part of a carefully balanced portfolio. Any major tax changes will of course upset that balance.
"We may well see a return to a taper relief type system, with exemptions for certain assets or types of asset holders. But whatever we should expect an overall increase in the amount of tax raised by CGT."

Today on Tech Brief: A new breed of nanotechnologist, back to school for the Kindle and a jigsaw-solving computer programme.

• Nanotechnology is a burgeoning industry but with only about 20,000 trained nanotechnologists in the world a recruitment drive is on.

It has led firms to offer a nanotech curriculum in some unexpected places, including the slums of Bogota in Colombia.

In an interview with the %3Ca%20href="https://www.examiner.com/x-48665-Dallas-County-Environmental-News-Examiner%7Ey2010m5d24-One-million-nano-technicians-needed-soon">Dallas County Environmental News Examiner, Tom Levesque, general manager of Nanolnk described how it was changing lives.

"The setting is that these children come down from these virtual slums behind the school, they go through these programs, and emerge out of the front of the building into society with an education that is not even available at some of the best private schools in Bogota."

• E-books are exciting plenty of interest at the moment but one of its key audiences appears to have rejected them, at least as study aids. US students who were asked to give feedback on Amazon's Kindle said they preferred the look and feel of real text books.

%3Ca%20href="https://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2011938870_kindle24.html">One student told the Seattle Times

"You don't read textbooks in the same linear way as a novel. You have to flip back and forth between pages, and the Kindle is too slow for that. Also, the bookmarking function is buggy."

• Jigsaws have traditionally been time-wasters, something to while away a rainy Sunday afternoon when there is nothing good on telly so news that a computer can solve a 400-piece puzzle in only three minutes could take some of the fun out of it.

A team of scientists at MIT and Tel Aviv University chopped a 5-megabyte picture into 400 squares and fed the date into their computer software, which it interpreted to reform the photo.

Lead scientist %3Ca%20href="https://www.physorg.com/news193908598.html">Taeg Sang Cho told Physorg that he hoped the software could be used to solve other problems.

"Such as DNA modelling or reassembling fragments of documents or archaeological relics, all of which can be modelled as jigsaw puzzles"

• Tony Blair was not renowned as a techie when he was prime minister but it seems he has finally seen the light. Tech Brief is not sure whether being offered the post of senior adviser to a green technology venture capital firm Khosla Ventures in any way influenced his change of heart but welcomes him heartily to the fold.

Talking to the%3Ca%20href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/technology/25blair.html?ref=technology"> New York Times Mr Blair said:

"The more I studied the whole climate change issue and linking it with energy security and development issues, I became absolutely convinced that the answer is in the technology"

If you want to suggest links or stories for Tech Brief, you can send them to %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/bbctechbrief">@bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/">Twitter, tag them bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/">Delicious or e-mail them to techbrief@bbc.co.uk.

Links in full
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.examiner.com/x-48665-Dallas-County-Environmental-News-Examiner%7Ey2010m5d24-One-million-nano-technicians-needed-soon">Colonel Mason | Dallas County Environmental News Examiner|
• %3Ca%20href="https://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2011938870_kindle24.html">Amy Martinez|Seattle Times| Amazon Kindle fails first college test
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.physorg.com/news193908598.html">Lin Edwards|Pysorg| Computer software solves jigsaw puzzle
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/technology/25blair.html?ref=technology">Claire Miller|New York Times| Blair to join venture firm as adviser on technology

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what you need to know.

There were more protests to mark the final day of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Trust consultation on proposed ´óÏó´«Ã½ cuts. The %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8704961.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ and the %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/25/bbc-6music-flashmobs-protest">Guardian ask what lies ahead for ´óÏó´«Ã½6 Music.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/may/26/does-god-exist-advertising-standards-authority">Guardian reports that posters about whether God exists led to an increase in complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority last year.

Facebook is simplifying its privacy settings from today, the %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10157454.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ reports.

The %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8705144.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ Newspaper review shows that Wednesday's papers all look at the Queen's Speech, with their own interpretations of what it set out.

Commentators discuss the details of the Queen's Speech on Tuesday which outlined the government's plans for the new Parliament.

To see how the press covered the event, see the %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8705144.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ Newspaper Review.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/25/david-cameron-radical-original">In the Guardian Simon Jenkins defends the proposals in the Queen's Speech:

"The Queen's speech and pre-announced cuts will cleanse only the most fouled of Labour's stables. Illiberal registers, databases, inspectorates and regulatory quangos typified the regimes of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and obsessed such control-freak ministers as David Miliband and Ed Balls. Disbanding these bodies meets the libertarian spirit of Tories and Liberals, saving money and freeing frontline administration. To deplore this as a savage assault on the welfare state is ludicrous."

Ex-Labour party employee %3Ca%20href="https://hopisen.wordpress.com/2010/05/25/cuts-redux/">Hopi Sen gives a word of warning in his blog about the planned council funding cuts:

"You are going to get the almighty shaft. Here is Eric Pickle policy prescription for you: No increase in Council tax, freedom to choose your own priorities. Over a billion pounds less to spend. You do the sums. Yup, in this brave new age of devolution and local power - it's all going to be your fault. I hope to come back to this because it's important."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article7136559.ece">Alice Thomson argues in the Times that capital gains tax changes announced in the speech hurt "citizen stockbrokers" who are the backbone of Tory support:

"They are the people that Mr Cameron should be talking about when he lays out his Queen's Speech extolling responsibility. They are the ones who volunteer, who donate money to charity, who believe in the family and standing on their own two feet. They are the jam in the coalition's Big Society sandwich.Ìý
The Prime Minister knows them well. His father was a stockbroker, his mother a magistrate. Many of them live in Tory shire constituencies, and their children work in Central Office. Yet the new coalition Government has clobbered them. Most of them wouldn't mind paying more VAT; they understand the need to tackle the £163 billion deficit. But now they may be asked to pay 40 or 50 per cent in capital gains tax, an increase of at least 22 per cent on savings that have already been taxed.Ìý
This pledge was never mentioned in any Conservative manifesto. The Tory grass roots are baffled."

Also %3Ca%20href="https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/peter_riddell/article7136415.ece">in the Times, Peter Riddell says that the coalition is trying to do too much:

"At the core of the Queen's Speech is the paradox that an administration committed to the priorities of deficit reduction and reining back the power of the State has produced a programme of unprecedented legislative activism. Nearly two dozen Bills, half of them important, were announced.Ìý
"They seek to reshape the economy, welfare, the NHS, schools, policing, local government, financial services, pensions and the political system. Most would have featured even if there had been a Conservative majority administration. But the creation of the coalition has added to the total."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/andrew-grice/andrew-grice-the-coalition-leaders-may-have-bonded-but-have-their-parties-1982944.html">The Independent's Andrew Grice observes a suspected tension in the coalition during the speech:

"Mr Cameron has said he hopes the coalition will succeed by its success. In other words, that it will win over doubters in both parties and among the public, although the early evidence is that people rather like the idea of parties co-operating rather than scoring points off each other.Ìý
"Sitting alongside each other on the government benches yesterday, Tory and Liberal Democrat MPs somehow did not look like comfortable bedfellows - unlike their two leaders on the front bench. A lot of hard pounding lies ahead if the coalition is to prove a success."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/32b8eea0-6832-11df-a52f-00144feab49a.html">
In the Financial Times John Lloyd analyses [subscription required] what the proposals mean for those who are ideologically centre-left politicians:

"Philosophically, the coalition partners have united in opposition to the "big state": the Lib Dems, who in seemingly permanent opposition were able to hedge between local and civic power on the one side and state provision on the other, have in joint government come down on the side of the former. The state on which Beveridge and Keynes relied for their prescriptions, and to which the first social liberals - Thomas Green, Leonard Hobhouse and John Hobson - also looked, now appears to be seen as more leviathan than liberator, by liberals as well as conservatives.Ìý
"Yet we are living through a paradoxical political moment. A centre-right coalition governs a country that in many respects is in a left-of centre mood, hostile towards the bankers it blames for the financial crisis and resentful of the austerity that must ensue. The future of David Cameron's government will depend on how it negotiates that paradox."

On Tech Brief today: Collapsing dimensions, cows coloured like ice cream and how much cash Google will give you.

• The walls separating the real and the virtual are getting thinner all the time. Now 7-Eleven has kicked another hole through to cyberspace by selling drinks and foods that can be used to unlock extras in games such as Farmville, Mafia Wars and YoVille. Get enough of the goodies and you can have a Neapolitan cow, coloured like the ice cream, on your virtual farm. %3Ca%20href="https://www.virtualgoodsnews.com/2010/05/zynga-kicks-off-7eleven-promotion.html">Note, some restrictions apply:

"Players are limited to receiving 10 gifts per day through the 7-Eleven promotion. Any individual player may only own three of the 7-Eleven exclusive items. "

• More evidence that the dimensions are collapsing from Bruce Sterling, who considers what's coming in augmented reality. %3Ca%20href="https://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2010/05/augmented-reality-holographic-design-fiction">He writes at Wired about one design project that considers how the pavement might become the canvas for many kinds of digital extras. Doubtless it'll show up, ooh, any day now:

"It's so cute. I like practically everything about this. Nice punchy music, the interaction design is attractive... The gestural schtick is well thought-out, and I like the brief, ragged, nerdy-looking summer clothes on the actors... I'm even willing to forgive the rather horrid bent street-projected QWERTY keyboards."

• Metres are for wimps. GPS may be a modern wonder, but it only gets you close to where you want to be. Close, but no cigar. %3Ca%20href="https://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/23/business/la-fi-gps-20100523">An upcoming $8bn (£5.6bn) upgrade to the system will see accuracy improve to centimetres, says the LA Times' WJ Hennigan:

"The new system is designed to pinpoint someone's location within an arm's length, compared with a margin of error of 20 feet or more today. With that kind of precision, a GPS-enabled mobile phone could guide you right to the front steps of Starbucks, rather than somewhere on the block."

• %3Ca%20href="https://adsense.blogspot.com/2010/05/adsense-revenue-share.html">Google has ended speculation about how much cash it gives back through its AdSense programs via a blog post. This spells out who gets what and reveals that content publishers get 68% of the cash Google collects from ads it puts on their pages. %3Ca%20href="https://battellemedia.com/archives/2010/05/68_of_85_is_really_578">Veteran Google-watcher John Battelle runs the numbers.

"This 68% split is relatively new. How do I know that? Well, as recently as two years ago, sources I know to be extremely reliable were actively negotiating with Google to get a 65% cut - less than what was announced today. So... you do the math."

If you want to suggest links or stories for Tech Brief, you can send them to %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/bbctechbrief">@bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/">Twitter, tag them bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/">Delicious or e-mail them to techbrief@bbc.co.uk.

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="https://www.virtualgoodsnews.com/2010/05/zynga-kicks-off-7eleven-promotion.html">Alicia Ashby | Virtual Goods News | Zynga Kicks Off 7-Eleven Promotion
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2010/05/augmented-reality-holographic-design-fiction/">Bruce Sterling | Beyond the Beyond | Augmented Reality: holographic design fiction
• %3Ca%20href="https://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/23/business/la-fi-gps-20100523">William Hennigan | LA Times | GPS is getting an $8-billion upgrade
• %3Ca%20href="https://battellemedia.com/archives/2010/05/68_of_85_is_really_578/">John Battelle | Battelle Media | 68% of 85% is really 57.8%

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what you need to know.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/">The Times and Sunday Times have unveiled their separate websites, for a four-week preview, before they impose a paywall %3Ca%20href="https://blogs.ft.com/techblog/2010/05/behind-the-times-new-paywall/">reports the Financial Times.

´óÏó´«Ã½ Technology Correspondent %3Ca%20href="/blogs/thereporters/rorycellanjones/2010/05/the_times_paywall_an_end_to_sh.html">Rory Cellan-Jones asks in his blog Dot Rory if the paywall will mark the end of sharing on the web.

The Editor of the Times %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8702000/8702510.stm">James Harding defends the decision on Radio 4's Today programme.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/24/coalition-freezes-advertising-budget">Guardian reports that the coalition government is going to freeze its £540m-a-year advertising budget, except on "essential" campaigns. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport will have to find £88m in savings, including £27m from the Olympic Delivery Authority.

The music industry has told the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Trust the planned closure of 6 Music "defies belief". The Trust's consultation on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Strategy Review ends today. %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/24/6-music-bpi-aim">According to the Guardian it's expected to publish its provisional conclusions next month.

The %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8702416.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½'s newspaper review says the press is focusing on the child rape trial at the Old Bailey and the Government's austerity measures.

Links in full

%3Ca%20href="https://www.timesonline.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/">Times | New site with paywall
%3Ca%20href="https://www.ft.com/">%3Ca%20href="https://blogs.ft.com/techblog/2010/05/behind-the-times-new-paywall/">Tim Bradshaw | Financial Times | Behind the Times' new paywall
%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/24/coalition-freezes-advertising-budget">Mark Sweney | Guardian | Coalition government freezes advertising budget
%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/24/6-music-bpi-aim">James Robinson | Guardian | 6 Music closure 'defies belief', says music industry
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8702416.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Newspaper review

• Read %3Ca%20href="/blogs/seealso/2010/05/media_brief_10.html">Monday's Media Brief

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/bbctorindouglas">my archive of media articles on Delicious

Commentators discuss the conviction of two boys aged 10 and 11 at the Old Bailey for attempted rape.

%3Ca%20href="https://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article7135567.ece">
The Times' Legal Editor Frances Gibb outlines the questions arising from the case:

"[W]hether from the perspective of the child witness/accuser or from that of the child defendants - and this case has both elements - it will fuel pressure for reform.Ìý

"There are two obvious areas for change: the age of criminal responsibility, which at 10 for England and Wales is one of the lowest in Europe; and the issue of the right venue for such cases."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/virginia-ironside-did-none-of-the-jury-have-a-normal-childhood-1981939.html">Virginia Ironside says in the Independent that children's interest in sex starts earlier than most of us would like to admit:

"Did none of the members of the jury have a normal childhood? Did none of these ever show their 'thingies' to other children behind the bike shed? If every male child were arrested for playing doctors and nurses, then I doubt if there'd be a single bloke walking the streets free today."

%3Ca%20href="https://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/philipjohnston/100040818/was-this-really-attempted-rape-or-children-playing/">
In the Telegraph Philip Johnston asks if the concept of childhood has been lost:

"Boys of that age are almost certainly pre-pubescent and their interest in the little girl almost certainly non-sexual. A jury at the Old Bailey heard the evidence and found them not guily of rape but guilty of attempted rape. They will now be on the sex offenders register, though as the judge said he had no idea what that meant for children of this age.Ìý

"Is there any other period in our history, or any other country in the world, where the pre-pubescent fumblings of children would result in a rape trial? We bombard children with sexual imagery and then are surprised when they show interest in what it means. It is astonishing that they were convicted but even more amazing is that it even came to court at all."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article7135435.ece">Ken Macdonald QC says in the Times that we are at risk of demonising damaged children and wonders if we are any nearer to the truth:

"The murder of James Bulger and, more recently, the tormented little boys in the Edlington case, were terrible examples of youthful cruelty; naturally some behaviour must lead to prosecution. But we need to keep this in the strictest proportion. We need to be more mature than to design a system of youth justice around the barbarism of the most extreme cases. 'You show me yours and I'll show you mine' litters every playground in the country. When did we forget?"

The Metropolitan Police Federation's %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8702000/8702535.stm">Peter Smyth said on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4's Today Programme that the case wasn't just punitive:

"Justice is not just about punishment: it's a search for the truth. The families and victims need to know what the truth is. Can you imagine the hoo-ha if they hadn't been tried and two years later one or both of them assaulted another eight-year-old girl?"

Barrister %3Ca%20href="https://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article7135411.ece">Aisling Byrnes says in the Times that questioning children is not easy, but it is crucial to the truth:

"In many cases, no matter how carefully and sensitively I have sought to put the case, there is a palpable sense of disapproval on the part of some jurors. To them I am unnecessarily adding to the trauma suffered by the child by asking questions.Ìý

"But test the evidence we must, because the reality is that witnesses do tell lies from time to time - particularly children, who may not appreciate the consequences of making false allegations. In two cases in which I was involved, the children admitted under cross-examination that they had made things up: one because she had been told to do so by her mother, who had an axe to grind; the other because she was afraid, once the police became involved, to admit that her initial allegation had been exaggerated.Ìý

"No cross-examination of a child has ever given me satisfaction. Whatever it is that brings a child to court is a matter of regret: there can be no winners."

Co-author of the Sexual Offences Handbook and barrister %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8702000/8702535.stm">Felicity Gerry criticised the case on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4's Today programme:

"My view is that these cases generally benefit from good social intervention rather than a prosecution.Ìý

"Most boys of 10 or 11 know that to kill a three-year-old with an iron bar - the Bulger case - or to drop concrete on another child - the Edlington case - is wrong,
but for boys of ten or eleven sexual awareness really only comes with greater maturity. And it's those sort of issues that any decent prosecutor has to keep in mind when deciding whether to charge or not."

More from the ´óÏó´«Ã½

%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8692223.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Two boys guilty of attempted rape charges in London
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8702365.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Charities criticise handling of child rape trial
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8692823.stm">Andy McFarlane | ´óÏó´«Ã½ | Putting children on trial for an adult crime
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2010/05/did_rape_trial_serve_public_in.html">Mark Easton | ´óÏó´«Ã½ | Did rape trial serve public interest?

On Tech Brief today: A backpack-sized artificial heart, a Flash video plug-in which doesn't play video, and a map of the Twitterverse.

• The United States Food and Drug Administration has just approved %3Ca%20href="https://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-20005702-247.html">a backpack-sized artificial heart.

Patients requiring a heart machine are normally stuck in hospital, attached to a device weighing close to 200kg, so the first user of the backpack-sized heart, 43-year-old Charles Okeke, was thrilled:

"I am about as happy of a person as you can have right now... to be able to sleep in my own bed after two years on a hospital bed, you can't imagine."

• There was a %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10133047.stm">much-heralded launch for an Adobe Flash plug-in for smartphones, as well as a new Android smartphone operating system at Google's recent I/O developer conference.

Technology writer %3Ca%20href="https://smarterware.org/6085/android-2-2-screenshot-tour-my-favorite-features-in-froyo">Gina Trapani shares screenshots of some of her favourite bits of Google's new Android Operating System 2.2 for mobile phones, codenamed Froyo.

But she also found that the Flash plug-in for smartphones does not yet work with media from the popular video sites Hulu or Vimeo:

"On Hulu I got a 'your device isn't supported' message, and Vimeo told me I needed to download Flash 10. So, Adobe's Flash 10 plug-in for Android 2.2 is indeed beta."

• While we're all used to watching clips on websites like YouTube, it seems watching entire movies is growing rapidly in popularity.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.ipsos-na.com/news-polls/pressrelease.aspx?id=4783">Research from Ipsos MORI indicates it trebled between late 2008 and late 2009. One in five US consumers streamed a full-length movie in October 2009. Brian Pickens, Senior Research Manager at Ipsos OTX MediaCT said:

"Video on the internet is no longer the domain of short, amateur clips, but has become a viable alternative for all forms of video, regardless of length."

• Is the Twitterverse like the Universe?

The web design studio Information Architects thinks so. And it's even identified a Big Bang, around which the team %3Ca%20href="https://mashable.com/2010/05/24/twitters-influential-users/">draw planet-shaped circles to show when and in what sphere Twitter's top 140 users started using the microblogging service.

Stan Schroeder at Mashable said:

"As hard as it is to determine the exact level of influence of individual Twitter users, the %3Ca%20href="https://informationarchitects.jp/c140_0_9.pdf">visualisation [1.14Mb PDF] is an amazing sight to behold. It's huge, complex, and beautiful."

• And apparently %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/in-the-loop-twitterrsquos-transformation-of-british-politics-1981015.html">Twitter has transformed political reporting. John Rentoul says, for example, there is no other way he would have discovered this strange-sounding law:

"The Food (Jelly Mini-Cups) (emergency Control) ( Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2010"

That aside, he's quite serious about how Twitter has transformed his job:

"We who remember the waiting for dates, the missed phone calls and the microfiche libraries of the era before the Amstrad personal computer should recognise that Twitter completes the range of options available to writers."

If you want to suggest links or stories for Tech Brief, you can send them to %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/bbctechbrief">@bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/">Twitter, tag them bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/">Delicious or e-mail them to techbrief@bbc.co.uk.

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="https://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-20005702-247.html"> CNET News | Man goes home with 'Total Artificial Heart'
• %3Ca%20href="https://smarterware.org/6085/android-2-2-screenshot-tour-my-favorite-features-in-froyo"> Gina Trapani | Smarterware | My Favourite Features in Froyo
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.ipsos-na.com/news-polls/pressrelease.aspx?id=4783"> Ipsos MORI | Movie Downloading and Streaming Triples in 2009
• %3Ca%20href="https://mashable.com/2010/05/24/twitters-influential-users/"> Stan Schroeder | Mashable | Twitter's Most Influential Users
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/in-the-loop-twitterrsquos-transformation-of-british-politics-1981015.html"> John Rentoul | The Independent | How Twitter transformed political reporting

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what you need to know.

The ´óÏó´«Ã½'s global news audience has risen to 241 million despite the loss of 20 million shortwave listeners. The shortfall has been made up on TV and the internet.

Ed Vaizey, the new minister for media and the arts, has confirmed that the Government won't freeze the licence fee under the current settlement. %3Ca%20href="https://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article7134071.ece">He's interviewed by the Sunday Times.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/hundreds-join-rally-to-save-bbcs-6music-1980692.html">Independent reports there were protests outside Broadcasting House yesterday over the planned closure of ´óÏó´«Ã½ 6Music and the Asian Network.

The News of the World sting exposing the Duchess of York - "Fergie 'sells' Andy for £500k" - was in the public interest, unlike others recently, %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/may/24/newsoftheworld-prince-andrew">says Roy Greenslade in the Guardian.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/phillip-knightley-a-cheap-way-to-deliver-quick-results-as-newspapers-slug-it-out-in-hard-times-1981112.html">In the Independent Philip Knightley of the old Sunday Times Insight team questions the recent spate of exposes:

The %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8699923.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ newspaper review shows several papers question whether ministers can protect front-line services, while cutting public spending by £6bn.

Links in full

%3Ca%20href="https://www.timesonline.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article7134071.ece">Richard Brooks | Times | Conservatives shelve plans to freeze TV licence fee
%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/hundreds-join-rally-to-save-bbcs-6music-1980692.html">Nina Lakhani | Independent | Hundreds join rally to save ´óÏó´«Ã½'s 6Music
%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/may/24/newsoftheworld-prince-andrew">Roy Greenslade | Guardian | Why the News of the World was right to expose the Duchess of York
%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/phillip-knightley-a-cheap-way-to-deliver-quick-results-as-newspapers-slug-it-out-in-hard-times-1981112.html">Phillip Knightley | Independent | A cheap way to deliver quick results
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8699923.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Newspaper review

• Read %3Ca%20href="/blogs/seealso/2010/05/media_brief_9.html">Friday's Media Brief

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/bbctorindouglas">my archive of media articles on Delicious

Commentators discuss the %3Ca%20href="https://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/822206/Duchess-of-York-Sarah-Ferguson-plots-to-sell-access-to-Prince-Andrew.html">News of the World investigation which appeared to show the Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson attempting to sell access to her trade envoy ex-husband Prince Andrew for £500,000.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/23/desperate-duchess-queen-failure">
James Whitaker says in the Guardian that he is not surprised:

"The woman is skint. And, like any desperate person, she will do almost anything to get her hands on some cash. Fergie has made it abundantly clear that if this means 'using' Andrew she will not think twice. It isn't attractive - it's not so different from selling your mother. But the question has to be asked: how has the Queen allowed the situation to deteriorate to this level? The duchess was always a loose cannon and needed looking after."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/libby_purves/article7134460.ece">Libby Purves suggests in the Times that the problem lies in what she says as Sarah Ferguson's lack of intelligence:

"Sarah Ferguson was just not born to be looked at and judged by millions of strangers, or to racket around the world like Becky Sharp: to put it kindly, she's not very sharp at all. The News of the World undercover team - who say that the operation was launched because she was reputedly doing such deals with real businessmen - are not magical masters of the Dark Arts. The conversation as recorded is, to anybody who has done real business, implausibly vague, unbusinesslike and frankly unlikely. It reads like a dodgy bit of script from Howards' Way or Footballers' Wives. It is ludicrous on a professional level, and downright tragic when you remember that this is a real family with real feelings and two humiliated daughters."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/phillip-knightley-a-cheap-way-to-deliver-quick-results-as-newspapers-slug-it-out-in-hard-times-1981112.html">Phillip Knightley in the Independent wonders about the motivation for the investigation:

"Going undercover is considered glamorous. Acting a role that exposes wrongdoing or greedy and bad behaviour attracts some journalists, particularly those seeking to become the heroes of their own stories. But above all, at a time of falling circulations and editorial financial restrictions it is a comparatively cheap form of journalism with a quick result. Standard investigative journalism is expensive, often open-ended and uncertain. Many stories simply fail to stand up."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/theroyalfamily/7757080/How-the-Duchess-of-York-fell-head-first-into-a-tabloid-trap.html">Gordon Rayner says in the Telegraph that Sarah Ferguson had an "overspending disease":

"The Duchess's two greatest weaknesses - money and her complete lack of guile - made her an obvious target for the tabloid sting which exposed the depths to which she has sunk. Although she blamed the Royal Family for her perilous financial position - saying her £15,000-a-year divorce settlement had left her 'without a pot to p*** in' - the real reason for her alarming debts is her uncontrolled spending."

Scientists in the US have succeeded in developing the first living cell to be controlled entirely by synthetic DNA. Experts and commentators look at the development.
%3Ca%20href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=now-aint-that-special-the-implicati-2010-05-20">

Arthur Caplan explains in Scientific American why the scientists wanted to create artificial life:

"Why did they do it? Well, in part to resolve the age-old debate that life is not reducible to the sum of any parts. But, they also know that the techniques of gene synthesis involved in this remarkable achievement hold out much promise for humankind.

"Synthetic biology should permit scientists to make microbes that solve many of our most pressing problems. Building bacteria that digest oil and chemical pollution from leaks and spills or eat cholesterol and other dangerous substances that accumulate in our bodies is all to the good."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18942-immaculate-creation-birth-of-the-first-synthetic-cell.html">Ewen Callaway describes in the New Scientist what can be done with a synthetic cell:

"Venter's work was a proof of principle, but future synthetic cells could be used to create drugs, biofuels and other useful products. He is collaborating with Exxon Mobil to produce biofuels from algae and with Novartis to create vaccines.
'As soon as next year, the flu vaccine you get could be made synthetically,' Venter says.
Ellington also sees synthetic bacteria as having potential as a scientific tool. It would be interesting, he says, to create bacteria that produce a new amino acid - the chemical units that make up proteins - and see how these bacteria evolve, compared with bacteria that produce the usual suite of amino acids. 'We can ask these questions about cyborg cells in ways we never could before.'"

%3Ca%20href="https://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1990836,00.html">Alice Park illustrates in Time why it is a significant scientific development:

"The paper is the final and most critical step toward realizing what began as scientific curiosity among the scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute back in the early 1990s, when many of the same researchers first succeeded in sequencing the entire genome of a self-replicating organism, the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae. That led to the generation of the complete sequencing of the smallest known genome, at 582,000 base pairs, belonging to another bacterium, Mycoplasma genitalium. Such smallness was intriguing because it led Venter to the philosophical question that inspired the current research - what was the minimum genome required to create life in the lab?"

%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/7745868/Scientist-Craig-Venter-creates-life-for-first-time-in-laboratory-sparking-debate-about-playing-god.html">In the Telegraph Richard Alleyne outlines why he thinks the study is controversial:

"While a major technological leap forward the life form is still incredibly simple in natural terms. Its DNA is made up of 485 genes, each strand of which is made up of one million base pairs, the equivalent of rungs on a ladder.

"A human genome has 20,000 genes and three billion base pairs.
Nevertheless it is the beginning of the process that could lead to creation of much more complicated species, and into a world of artificial animals and people only envisaged in films such as Ridley Scott's Blade Runner and Steven Spielberg's Artificial Intelligence."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-ropeik/scientists-bring-back-art_b_583876.html">In the Huffington Post David Ropeik says the ethical debate uncovers "our fear of Frankenstein":

"The ability to construct DNA to our specifications and insert it into living reproducing cells, to create new forms of life, has almost unimaginable promise; to eliminate hunger, clean the environment, cure disease. Far less of that promise will be realized if the people doing this work fail to recognize and address our worries about what they are doing. Otherwise they may learn how to create their Adam [the name Mary Shelley reportedly unofficially called Frankenstein's monster], only to find that, out of fear, we want to chase down what they have done and kill it."

The director of the Centre for Practical Ethics at Oxford University Professor %3Ca%20href="/worldservice/news/2010/05/100521_synthetic_life_nh_sl.shtml">Julian Savulescu told the ´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service that this could win a Nobel prize:

"This is an industrial bio-revolution that has enormous benefits - to deal with pollution, provide new energy sources, provide new treatments for cancer...

"Also the risks are unimaginably huge. You can also engineer novel agents that humans have never encountered. You could release these accidentally, or the military or terrorist groups could create the most powerful bio-weapons imaginable.

"So the challenge is going to be to eat the apple without choking on the worm inside it.
It could be the greatest revolution that we face and it could also be our destruction."

More from the ´óÏó´«Ã½

%3Ca%20href="/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/science_and_environment/10134341.stm">'Artificial life' breakthrough announced by scientists
%3Ca%20href="/">%3Ca%20href="/worldservice/news/2010/05/100521_synthetic_life_nh_sl.shtml">´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service: experts' views

On Tech Brief today: Old data, old-school gaming and the oldest Usenet server.

• Gamers who cannot wait to get their hands on %3Ca%20href="https://kr.starcraft2.com/splash-launch7_en.xml">Starcraft 2 can soothe their craving with an 8-bit version of the game. %3Ca%20href="https://www.joystiq.com/2010/05/21/we-really-wish-8-bit-starcraft-was-a-thing-we-could-play">David Hinkle is enraptured:

"...after checking out this 8-bit recreation of the game that started it all, we're inclined to cancel our pre-order and spend the rest of our days praying for a playable version. It takes us back to our elementary school days, when we thought getting to play Oregon Trail in school was about the best thing ever. Can you imagine if we had this instead? Zerg rushing would be at, like, a whole 'nother level."

For Mr Hinkle it answers a deep spiritual need:

"Instead of pining for what could've been, you should head past the break to watch the game in action and hope for what could be: an actual playable release of this charming 8-bit recreation. What else could you possibly want in life?"

• A security conference should be, you might think, the last place you should have to worry about contracting a computer virus. Foolish mortal. %3Ca%20href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/21/ibm_usb_malware_snafu/">At the AusCert security shindig, IBM was handing out flash drives loaded with malware:

"The unlovely gift was supplied to an unknown number of delegates to the Gold Coast, Queensland conference who visited IBM's booth. Big Blue does not identify the strain of malware involved in the attack beyond saying it's a type of virus widely detected for at least two years which takes advantage of Windows autorun to spread."

• One of the earliest parts of the net's history has been shut down. The original Usenet server at Duke University has gone offline for the last time. %3Ca%20href="https://memex.naughtons.org/archives/2010/05/21/11042">John Naughton wipes away a tear:

"Usenet archives provided a wonderful treasure-trove. They also provided a picture of the Net as it was before the arrival of AOL's redneck hordes. When the groups alt.sex and alt.drugs were started (after a hoohah) on April 3, 1988, for example, it was immediately felt necessary to start alt.rock-n-roll. One has to be consistent in these matters. Those were the days."

• It is not just seeds that need preserving; obsolete data formats need help too. A secret bunker in the Swiss alps has become the home of a digital genome that will help our children's children's children read future formats. %3Ca%20href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64H4GE20100519">Adam Farquhar of the British Library spells out the problems:

"In 25 years people will be astonished to see how little time must pass to render data carriers unusable because they break or because you don't have the devices anymore... The second shock will probably be what fraction of the objects we can't use or access in 25 years and that's hard to predict."

If you want to suggest links or stories for Tech Brief, you can send them to %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/bbctechbrief">@bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/">Twitter, tag them bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/">Delicious or e-mail them to techbrief@bbc.co.uk.

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="https://www.joystiq.com/2010/05/21/we-really-wish-8-bit-starcraft-was-a-thing-we-could-play/">David Hinkle | Joystiq | We really wish 8-bit StarCraft was a thing we could play
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/21/ibm_usb_malware_snafu/">John Leyden | The Register | IBM hands out malware-stuffed USB
• %3Ca%20href="https://memex.naughtons.org/archives/2010/05/21/11042">John Naughton | Memex 1.1 | My old Carolina Home
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64H4GE20100519">Jason Rhodes | Reuters | "Digital genome" safeguards dying data formats

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what you need to know.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/british-library-newspaper-archive-plan-riles-murdoch-1978970.html">Independent reports that James Murdoch has attacked the British Library's plans to digitise 40 million newspaper pages and make them widely available. The Times and Sunday Times will start previewing their paid-for websites next week.

Plans to give the National Audit Office full access to the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s accounts appear in the Government coalition document. The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/20/bbc-accounts-coalition">Guardian asks if this will mean greater transparency or if it threatens the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s independence from Parliament.

The %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10131375.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ reports that the document also says surplus licence fee money could be used to pay for high-speed internet broadband in rural areas.

But the %3Ca%20href="https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=45472&c=1">Press Gazette notes that Labour's plans to replace ITV regional news with "independently funded news consortia" appear to have been buried, as the Conservatives pledged before the election.

Google has joined the race to unite live TV with the web, in collaboration with Sony. But, the %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10132877.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ reports, the public demonstration was plagued by glitches as too many people in the hall were using WiFi.

The%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/20/lost-finale-5am-uk-simulcast"> Guardian reports that Sky is to show the final episode of Lost at the same time as it's seen in the US, to foil internet pirates. It's showing it five days earlier than planned - at 5 o'clock on Monday morning!

News that scientists have created an artificial life-form is scrutinised by the papers, as %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8696189.stm">reflected in the ´óÏó´«Ã½ newspaper review.

Commentators analyse %3Ca%20href="https://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Nl1/Newsroom/DG_187877">The Coalition: Our Programme for Government.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/20/coalition-could-outlive-the-decade">Martin Kettle says in the Guardian that the document is extremely significant:

"As the two men say in the introduction, theirs is a historic document. British governments do not normally set out their five-year plans in this way with carefully written pledges under 31 separate detailed headings. Such things are normal elsewhere in Europe, where coalitions are routine. For Britain, by contrast, this is unprecedented governmental programme transparency, a step forward, real grownup, nitty-gritty stuff. Danny Alexander and Oliver Letwin, who jointly did the heavy lifting, should take a bow."

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1280113/MAIL-COMMENT-Daunting-task-Conservative-PM.html?ITO=1490">Daily Mail editorial has a mixed review:

"On the plus side, we welcome the commitment to reduce immigration, plans for freeing schools from the dead hand of the state, and the determination to reform the welfare state, including the overdue overhaul of incapacity benefit.
It's also good news that - after a long campaign by this newspaper - the point les s and expensive Home Information Packs are to be scrapped.
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"Best of all, both parties are signed up to take rapid and determined action to tackle our calamitous public sector deficit, starting next week.
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"But regrettably, some valuable Conservative ideas have been ditched. There is no mention of repatriating powers from the EU, the Human Rights Act appears destined to survive and plans to cut stamp duty and freeze council tax have been watered down."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/steve-richards/steve-richards-start-reform-with-the-civil-service-1978632.html">Steve Richards says in the Independent that there are "very big holes":

"As the The Independent pointed out yesterday quite a lot of the thorny issues, from Lords' reform to care for the elderly, are subject to review. This is either because there is 'no money', as the departing Chief Secretary to the Treasury put it in his farewell note, or because the two sides cannot agree.
Ìý

"I am reminded of an observation made by a Labour cabinet minister in the summer of 1997 when apparent hyperactivity disguised lack of direction and purpose. 'We have hit the ground reviewing,' he noted. Most of the reviews then ran into the ground, usually the fate of such exercises and often the objective in setting them up. For the coalition the long grass will prove to be impenetrably long in relation to some policies. If agreement cannot be reached in this honeymoon period there will be no consensus in a few years' time."

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/21/coalition-agreement-compromising-positions-editorial">Guardian editorial suggests the next five years of government may lack substance:

"The connecting themes of modernity, social mobility and enabling governance were also themes of the outgoing administration, and its patchy record should warn Nick Clegg and David Cameron that use of such verbiage does not guarantee that anything will actually happen. The rhetorical continuity with what went before confirms that Britain's centre ground is crowded. That will dismay those who hanker after politicians who dream bigger dreams, but it also confirms how the coalition process has capped five years of Cameronian leadership by anchoring the Conservatives away from wilder Tory shores."

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/7746880/Discarded-policies-are-the-price-of-coalition.html">Telegraph editorial argues that discarded policies are the price of coalition:

"Coming from a partnership that has emphasised a belief in small government, the programme offers a dauntingly long list of proposals, intended to reassure party activists that many of their cherished policies have survived the axe, even if some have been sacrificed as part of the negotiations. The Tories have retained their demand for early spending cuts, for a cap on economic migrants from outside the EU, and for new 'accountable' state schools, though how free they will be of local authority control remains to be seen. The party had to give way in several areas that will concern its core supporters, but that is the price of coalition government."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1280075/PETER-OBORNE-Awesome-ambition-work.html?ITO=1490">Peter Oborne says in the Daily Mail that the document displays "awesome ambition", but asks if it will work:

"Many hurdles lie ahead - and the biggest danger to their plans is the economic crisis.
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"Some of the most ambitious plans in this manifesto (such as the scheme to encourage unemployed back to work) require extra funding in the early stages. As the document acknowledges: initial investment delivers later savings.
The burning question is whether, at a time of terrible financial difficulties, that extra investment will be available."

%3Ca%20href="https://www6.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2010/05/21/was-the-coalition-a-triumph-for-the-civil-service/">In his blog Political Betting Mike Smithson asks who wrote the document:

"Could it be, I wonder, that the civil service had a draft 'Conservative - Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement' all ready to be taken off the shelf should the election work out as it did which is why it all seemed to work out so smoothly?
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"I guess, as well, that the Sir Humphreys of this world are secretly quite pleased with what's happened - if only because they might expect a bigger role in running the country than was the case during the Blair and Brown years. We see in local councils where there is no overall control that policy and decisions tend to be more officer-led."

More from the ´óÏó´«Ã½

%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8693832.stm">Policy-by-policy: The coalition government's plans

Tech Brief is feeling sociable today... unlike some of the people we've been hearing about. Read the latest digital faux pas and meet Alan Turing's teddy - surely he is smarter than your average bear?

• Self-styled internet entrepreneur Jason Calacanis is planning to delete his Facebook profile live online today, %3Ca%20href="https://eu.techcrunch.com/2010/05/20/jason-calacanis-lets-his-jasonnation-army-hit-reply-all-intentional/">reports Mike Butcher on the Techcrunch blog. Calacanis decided to announce his intentions via JasonNation, a daily e-mail brief with over 23,000 subscribers.

However, the e-mail distribution list somehow turned into a "reply all" free-for-all to the increasing annoyance of everybody on the receiving end, including Mr Calacanis himself. %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/Jason/status/14355248997">In a tweet, he blames a "newbie" for the error, which has now been resolved:

"wow.... this is not fun. i have so many bounces in my email I can't even diagnose the problem and it's 4am and the baby is awake... nice!"

• Speaking of Twitter, eagle-eyed Tim Ireland, AKA %3Ca%20href="https://www.bloggerheads.com">Bloggerheads spotted that the UK's new culture minister, Jeremy Hunt, %3Ca%20href="https://www.bloggerheads.com/archives/2010/05/jeremy-hunt-memory-hole.asp">has deleted all his tweets and cleared his blog history, essentially removing everything he wrote during the election campaign. %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/jeremy_hunt">An explanation has now popped up on his feed:

"For those of you 'concerned' about deleted tweets was just 'new job, new tweets' rather than to hide anything!!"

Whatever you say, Mr Hunt.

• Singer M.I.A has scored a bit of an own goal by giving her new album a name that completely foxes the search engines. %3Ca%20href="https://www.hipsterrunoff.com/2010/05/did-m-i-a-eff-up-by-giving-her-album-an-un-google-able-name.html">Blogger Hipster Runoff reports that the only letter Google recognizes from the cunningly titled "/\/\/\Y/\" (a combination of forward- and back-slashes) is the "Y"... leading to over 2 million results about a certain web directory and search engine. Hipster speculates whether this was M.I.A.'s intention all along:

"Maybe her new album is some sort of marketing gimmick for Yahoo."

• Codebreaker extraordinaire Alan Turing practised his lectures in front of a teddy bear called Porgy. The practice of working through your dilemmas with an inanimate object rather than boring your friends, family or colleagues is known by some as %3Ca%20href="https://c2.com/cgi/wiki?RubberDucking">"rubber ducking".

Fast forward to the 21st Century and %3Ca%20href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Porgy-Alan-Turings-teddy-bear/117989284907639">Porgy has his own Facebook page, set up for him by %3Ca%20href="https://blog.jgc.org/2010/05/talking-to-porgy.html">Bletchley Park fan John Graham-Cumming:

"It's common in the computer industry, at least, to find that talking aloud your problem (even to a teddy) can help organize your thoughts. So, here's Porgy. If you've got a problem: talk to the teddy."

Tech Brief hopes that Porgy understands the privacy settings.

• Say goodbye to awkward meeting venues. Researchers at the University of Tsukuba %3Ca%20href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-software/the-conference-room-that-rearranges-itself?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IeeeSpectrum+%28IEEE+Spectrum%29">have created a conference room that re-arranges itself, writes Josh Romero on IEEE Spectrum:

"Select the arrangement you want from a graphical interface, and the tables will move to their new locations. The movement is monitored by an overhead camera with a fish-eye lens, and the software uses a trial-and-error approach to determine the best sequence of motion."

It was designed to save time, but who could resist playing around with the seating arrangements during a particularly boring meeting?

If you want to suggest links or stories for Tech Brief, you can send them to %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/bbctechbrief">@bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/">Twitter, tag them bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/">Delicious or e-mail them to techbrief@bbc.co.uk.

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="https://eu.techcrunch.com/2010/05/20/jason-calacanis-lets-his-jasonnation-army-hit-reply-all-intentional/">Mike Butcher | Techcrunch | Jason Calacanis lets his JasonNation Army hit reply all
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.bloggerheads.com/archives/2010/05/jeremy-hunt-memory-hole.asp">Tim Ireland | Bloggerheads | Jeremy Hunt: a minister and his memory hole
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.hipsterrunoff.com/2010/05/did-m-i-a-eff-up-by-giving-her-album-an-un-google-able-name.html">Hipster Runoff | Gewgle: the ultimate hype machine
• %3Ca%20href="https://blog.jgc.org/2010/05/talking-to-porgy.html/">John Graham-Cumming | Talking to Porgy
• %3Ca%20href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-software/the-conference-room-that-rearranges-itself?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IeeeSpectrum+%28IEEE+Spectrum%29">Josh Romero, | IEEE Spectrum | The conference that re-arranges itself

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what you need to know.

Marie Stopes will run the first TV commercial for an abortion advice service next week. The %3Ca%20href="https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7131254.ece">Times reports that it's been welcomed by campaigners, and condemned by anti-abortion groups. Commercial abortion clinics are not allowed to advertise on TV.

A "Radio Amnesty" is being launched by the ´óÏó´«Ã½ and commercial stations to encourage listeners to switch from analogue to digital radio the %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8693613.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ reports.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/19/oft-project-canvas">Guardian carries a story that the OFT has concluded that Project Canvas, the broadband Freeview joint venture between the ´óÏó´«Ã½, ITV, Channel 4, Five, BT, Talk Talk and Arqiva, does not qualify for investigation.

ITV is moving Coronation Street to 9pm for a week, to capitalise on the extended live broadcasts of Britain's Got Talent %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/19/coronation-street-britains-got-talent">according to the Guardian.

The %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8693636.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ Newspaper review reflects the papers' analysis of the eurozone crisis.

Links in full

%3Ca%20href="https://www.timesonline.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7131254.ece">Rosemary Bennett | Times | Fury as TV advert for abortion advice gets go-ahead
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8693613.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | 'Scrappage' scheme launched to boost digital radio
%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/19/oft-project-canvas">
Mark Sweney | Guardian | OFT clears Project Canvas
%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/19/coronation-street-britains-got-talent">Mark Sweney | Guardian | ITV moves Coronation Street to maximise Britain's Got Talent boost
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8693636.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Newspaper review

• Read %3Ca%20href="/blogs/seealso/2010/05/media_brief_7.html">Wednesday's Media Brief

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/bbctorindouglas">my archive of media articles on Delicious

Commentators consider whether BA cabin crew should strike.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/19/clegg-ignores-right-to-strike">Seumas Milne argues in the Guardian that the right to strike is being threatened by the courts:

"Unite is hoping to be rescued tomorrow by, of all people, the lord chief justice and the master of the rolls, who are due to rule on the union's appeal in the morning. But even if they throw out the original judgment, the BA ban is only the most extreme of what is fast becoming a high court habit of declaring null and void democratic votes in the workplace.
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"On Tuesday it was the turn of the National Union of Journalists, whose strike at the Johnston local newspaper group was outlawed over whether the company or its subsidiaries was the direct employer. Last month the Rail Maritime and Transport union had a strike banned at Network Rail on another technicality. In December, an earlier Unite ballot at BA was thrown out by the courts over yet another. Eight such injunctions have already been imposed this year, compared with four in the whole of 2006."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1279501/BA-strikes-Whats-turned-kindly-cabin-crew-suicidal-strikers.html?ITO=1490">
In the Daily Mail Melanie Phillips isn't sympathetic to the strikes:

"These strikes lump Unite and the crews it represents as one solid militant block, facing Willie Walsh across the barricades. But is this union really representative of its members? For whatever their grievances with the BA management, surely nothing justifies using the poor, suffering passengers as hostages like this. And those crews just don't look like the kind of people one associates with such militant contempt for the public."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/andy-mcsmith-a-union-in-name-only-why-ballot-blunders-threaten-unites-resolve-1976452.html">In the Independent Andy McSmith detects trouble within Unite the Union:

"Unite is so large and fragmented that a more apt name for it would be Disunite. It is not a monolith but an amalgam of unions brought together in a two-headed monster run by competing general secretaries, Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson...
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"BA's cabin crews see Unite as an outside body paid to give professional back up to Bassa's shop stewards, and since that advice had led to two unfavourable court judgements, some are wondering whether they are getting their money's worth."

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1279507/DAILY-MAIL-COMMENT-BA-needs-recover-good-lost-strike.html?ITO=1490">Daily Mail editorial says BA needs to regain the goodwill of customers:

"The Mail repeats: We have enormous respect for BA cabin crew, who work with great courtesy and good humour.
Ìý
"But at this dreadful time, when jobs are at risk throughout the economy, we ask in genuine bafflement: What have they to gain by bringing BA to its knees?"

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/mark-steel/mark-steel-ba-strike--a-complete-load-of-ballots-1976257.html">In the Independent Mark Steel pokes fun at the reason for the original ballot to strike being banned:

"At last, someone's come up with a clean, decisive system for holding elections. The way it works is everyone has a vote, and then the management of British Airways and a judge decide the result. They've tried this method with the ballot for a strike amongst cabin crews, who voted 7,482 to 1,789 in favour. So the courts ruled that this didn't count because the Unite union didn't mention, in some of its announcements, that 11 ballot papers had been spoilt.
Ìý
"There has been the odd critic of this ruling, such as the President of North Korea who said, "Oh that's going TOO far", but you can see BA's point."

More from the ´óÏó´«Ã½

%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10129183.stm">BA union Unite waits to hear strike appeal decision

On Tech Brief today: Pirate Bay sails again, work begins on the digital genome and how cows could become the real power behind the Google throne.

• The controversial file-sharing directory The Pirate Bay is back online, this time hosted by the Swedish Pirate Party, a political movement born out of music file-sharing.

It was happy to launch the pirates back onto the high seas of the web. %3Ca%20href="https://mashable.com/2010/05/18/pirate-bay-unsinkable/">The Pirate Party's Rick Falkvinge told Mashable:

"We got tired of Hollywood's cat and mouse game with the Pirate Bay so we decided to offer the site bandwidth. It is time to take the bull by the horns and stand up for what we believe is a legitimate activity."

In a slightly less articulate %3Ca%20href="https://thepiratebay.org/blog/179">blog post, The Pirate Bay boasted:

"TEH PIRATE BAY IZ AN UNSINKABLE SHIP. IT WILL SAIL TEH INTERWEBS 4 AS LONG AS WE WANTS IT 2. REMEMBR DAT, K THX."

• The tech press has been enjoying the lost iPhone prototype story, largely because pretty much every tech journalist can sympathise with the poor Apple engineer who left the precious gadget behind on a bar stool after an over-indulgent after-works drink.

Now it emerges that Steve Jobs personally intervened to try and retrieve the missing phone, e-mailing Gizmodo, the tech blog to which the phone was sold, asking for his phone back.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.computeractive.co.uk/v3/news/2263093/jobs-stepped-back-iphone-4g">Phil Muncaster reports in ComputerActive on what was said by Apple to persuade the police to investigate.

"By publishing details about the phone and its features, sales of current Apple products are hurt wherein people that would otherwise have purchased a currently existing Apple product would wait for the next item to be released thereby hurting overall sales and negatively affecting Apple's earnings."

• We have all had days when the duvet seems a whole lot more enticing than the office so imagine how great it would be to have a robot you could send to work in your place.

Robocommuting is the brainchild of Mountain View start-up Anybots. As a starting point for its project, it has unveiled a robot that allows teleconferencing from a range of locations.

Founder and chief executive %3Ca%20href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robots/051810-anybots-qb-new-telepresence-robot">Trevor Blackwell told IEEE Spectrum:

"We wanted to create a technology that allows remote workers to collaborate more fully - and feel part of the team,"

• Did Bill Gates invent the iPad? Apple is no stranger to patent rows but footage uncovered by %3Ca%20href="https://gizmodo.com/5541969">Gizmodo suggests the Microsoft boss might have a case himself. Back in 2007 Bill Gates sat next to Steve Jobs and offered these musings:

"I think you'll have a full-screen device that you can carry around and you'll do dramatically more reading off of that... yeah, I mean, I believe in the tablet form factor... You'll have some way of having a hardware keyboard and some settings for that. And then you'll have the device that fits in your pocket."

He must be kicking himself...

• V3 is reporting that work has begun on creating a so-called digital genome, a record of old data formats to make sure that future generations can read everything that is stored digitally.

This important project, funded to the tune of 15m euros, will see data stored in a suitably secure mountain vault in Switzerland, dubbed the Swiss Fort Knox.

The British Library's%3Ca%20href="https://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2263261/work-begins-digital-genome"> Adam Farquhar told V3 why it was needed:

"Einstein's notebooks you can take down off the shelf and read today. Roll forward 50 years and most of Stephen Hawking's notes are likely to be stored digitally and we might not be able to access them all."

• We have had Froogle and now it could be time for Moogle as HP engineers point to a future of cow poo computing.

In a paper published today, the engineers demonstrate how manure could be turned into fuel which could power the vast data centers needed by companies such as Google.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/technology/19cows.html?src=linkedin">Chandrakant D. Patel told the New York Times:

"Information technology and manure have a symbiotic relationship"

Farmers may not agree when they find out that it will cost them $5m to purchase the equipment needed for such a system.

If you want to suggest links or stories for Tech Brief, you can send them to %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/bbctechbrief">@bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/">Twitter, tag them bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/">Delicious or e-mail them to techbrief@bbc.co.uk.

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="https://mashable.com/2010/05/18/pirate-bay-unsinkable/">Stan Schoreder, Mashable, The Pirate Bay - We are Unsinkable
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.computeractive.co.uk/v3/news/2263093/jobs-stepped-back-iphone-4g">Phil Muncaster, ComputerActive - Steve Jobs intervened to retrieve iPhone prototype
• %3Ca%20href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robots/051810-anybots-qb-new-telepresence-robot">Erico Guizzo, IEEE Spectrum, Telepresence Robot
• %3Ca%20href="https://gizmodo.com/5541969">Gizmodo, Bill Gates told Steve Jobs about the iPad
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2263261/work-begins-digital-genome">Iain Thomson, V3, Work begins on digital genome
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/technology/19cows.html">Ashlee Vance, New York Times, One Moos and one hums

US media commentators consider the results of Tuesday's primary elections in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Arkansas and Oregon and a special House election in Pennsylvania.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/19/election-results-arlen-sp_n_581240.html">Liz Sidoti, writing for the Huffington Post, weighs in on voters choosing outsiders over insiders:

"Future implications could be huge. Candidates like Paul and Rep. Joe Sestak, who defeated White House-backed Specter, owe little or nothing to their parties. Coalition building, already a lost art in Capitol Hill, could become tougher if more candidates come to Washington as insurgent free agents. Big-monied special interest groups could recruit and fund candidates, the domain of a strong Democratic and Republican parties."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2010/05/anti-establishm.html">Susan Milligan of the Boston Globe warns that winners of the primary election may be greeted by more experienced candidates in the general election:

"The primary winners may not be the strongest candidates going into the November general election, political specialists said. Primary voters tend to be party activists; general election voters draw from a broader pool that may favor a more moderate candidate. And while establishment candidates are an unappealing choice for many primary voters, they often have better campaign apparatus and experience. That gives veteran candidates an edge, especially in traditionally low-turnout mid-term elections, when get-out-the-vote efforts can make the difference between victory and defeat."

%3Ca%20href="https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/05/arlen-specter-mark-critz-joe-sestak-tim-burns-blanche-lincoln.html">Andrew Malcolm and Johanna Neuman for the Los Angeles Times's Top of the Ticket blog question whether either party came away victorious:

"Yes, Specter's ouster did come at the hands of a real Democrat, Joe Sestak, who defied the White House's wishes.

"But here's what Tuesday really means: Both parties took it in the ear. Nationally.

"American voters are, for lack of a polite p-word, mad as hell and they're gonna dump on any incumbents they can find. (Can you say Harry Reid? Barbara Boxer?)"

%3Ca%20href="https://www.examiner.com/x-15870-Populist-Examiner%7Ey2010m5d19-Antiincumbent-fever-rattles-political-establishment-on-primary-day">Bruce Maiman of Examiner.com questions whether the outcome of the elections means Republicans will take control come November:

"Democrats remain on the defensive heading toward November, in large part because of divisions over Obama's agenda, the high jobless rate and the size of the federal budget deficit. The Kentucky race underscored the energy of anti-government conservatives who intend to shake up the capital. But the results in Pennsylvania's special House election will raise questions about whether Republicans will be able to take control of the House in November, as many of their leaders have predicted."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/37468.html">On Politico.com, John Harris and Jim Vandehei reflect on the anti-incumbent mood amid changes in political campaigning:

"This is a stark and potentially durable change in politics. The old structures that protected incumbent power are weakening. New structures, from partisan news outlets to online social networks, are giving anti-establishment politicians access to two essential elements of effective campaigns: publicity and financial support."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1990185,00.html?xid=rss-topstories/">Michael Scherer, writing for Time.com, attempts to sum up the primary elections in one sentence:

"This is how it goes in 2010 at the ballot box: old orders are upended, political lions become roadkill, chosen successors get left behind and the outsider, riding a wave of discontent, becomes the new front-runner.

"In quick succession Tuesday night, the jittery inhabitants of Washington's marble halls found three more reasons to worry about their staying power."

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what you need to know.

The Press Complaints Commission chairman Lady Buscombe has denied critics' claims that the watchdog is "toothless". The %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8691030.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ and %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/19/pcc-not-toothless-lady-buscombe">Guardian report that in its annual review, she defends the PCC's decision not to uphold 25,000 complaints over Jan Moir's article about Boyzone singer Stephen Gately.

The British Library is to digitise 40 million historic newspaper pages, opening them up to historians, genealogists and students %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8690919.stm">reports the ´óÏó´«Ã½. It's signed a ten-year deal with online publisher BrightSolid, which will take the financial risks.

Gary Lineker that he has given up his Mail on Sunday column in protest against its Lord Triesman sting which threatens England's bid to host the World Cup in 2018 %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/8690639.stm">reports the ´óÏó´«Ã½ and %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/football/david-conn-inside-sport-blog/2010/may/18/gary-lineker-triesman-mail-sunday">Guardian.

The %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8691080.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ newspaper review says the papers are previewing Nick Clegg's plans for a radical redistribution of power from state to people.

Links in full

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/19/pcc-not-toothless-lady-buscombe">Caroline Davies | Guardian | Press Complaints Commission is not toothless, says chair
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8690919.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | British Library to digitise 40m of its newspaper pages
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/8690639.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Gary Lineker quits Mail on Sunday over Triesman story
%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/football/david-conn-inside-sport-blog/2010/may/18/gary-lineker-triesman-mail-sunday">David Conn | Guardian | Gary Lineker quits Mail on Sunday column over Triesman sting
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8691080.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Newspaper review

• Read %3Ca%20href="/blogs/seealso/2010/05/media_brief_7.html">Tuesday's Mediabrief
• Read %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/bbctorindouglas">my archive of media articles on Delicious

Commentators look at the euro's four year low against the dollar, Greece's first bailout instalment from the EU and the international implications.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6ef50972-6214-11df-998c-00144feab49a.html">In the Financial Times Gideon Rachman explains the international fascination with the European crisis:

"In the past few weeks, Europe has certainly got the world's attention - but not in the way that it had hoped. Rather than admiring the EU for its dynamism and power, the rest of the world is watching the unfolding economic crisis in Europe with fascination and horror. Observing the struggle to save the euro from Washington or Beijing is a bit like watching a car crash on the other side of the road. It is bad enough being a spectator - but there is the added fear that you will be hit by flying debris."

%3Ca%20href="https://chinapost.com.tw/commentary/the-china-post/special-to-the-china-post/2010/05/19/257117/Euro-starting.htm">In the China Post Richard Quest says the euro is "starting to look like a car with too many drivers":

"The euro is starting to look like a car with 16 drivers, all running on different fuels and following individual maps with no one really sure who is at the wheel. You think I am being unfair?

"It has only been a week since the european Union and IMF put together their US$1-trillion plan for eurozone countries and the markets have now given their verdict. The bailout will prevent attacks on european government bonds, but it will not rescue the single currency (nor has it brought the stability that was intended)."

"Euro politicians are now blaming speculators - a sure sign that they want to shoot the messenger - speculators are the harbingers of economic reality, not the creators. The euro is at a four-year low for good economic reasons, not because traders are shorting it.

"Britain is spared this financial contagion as it stands in splendid isolation from the European Central Bank. Let us hear no more from europhiles on the laughable 'stability' that joining the euro will bring."

%3Ca%20href="https://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2010/05/is-the-european-crisis-a-net-positive-for-the-us.html?">In the blog Economist's View Tim Duy argues that the crisis might be good for the US:

"First, the weaker Euro has taken a bite out of oil prices, which fell back below $70 today. Make no mistake - keeping a lid on oil prices offers continued support for US consumers. And while we can all dream of a more balanced economy less dependent on household spending, for now it remains the best game in town...

"Likewise, the rush to Treasuries is keeping a lid on US interest rates...
Add a lid on interest rates via a steady surge of capital flows to sustained job growth, and the odds of sustainable recovery look better every day. Moreover, we are still in a sweet spot with regards to monetary policy. The Fed was not inclined to tighten policy this year, expecting continued downward pressure on inflation via a persistent unemployment gap. The European crisis only adds to the willingness of monetary policymakers to hold tight. No, in the near term, the Fed is not likely to derail the recovery."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2010/05/debt_crisis_8">The Economist calls into question the argument that the fall in the value of the euro will be good for the US economy because it will improve US purchasing power:

"Oil prices and American borrowing costs plummeted during the fall of 2008. That didn't mean good times for the American economy were ahead then, and it doesn't mean it now. The European crisis is a blow to one of the world's largest economic areas, which will have negative impacts on Asian and American businesses, and the increase in uncertainty and delayed rebalancing are most unwelcome. It's a situation we could all do without."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/may/18/greece-latvia">In the Guardian Mark Weisbrot compares Greece to Argentina and Latvia and suggests a rethink on their internal devaluation plan:

"So before making a commitment to indefinite recession and slow recovery, including many years of high unemployment and other social costs, Greece may want to consider the alternatives. They may be less painful and allow for a speedier, more robust economic recovery."

More from the ´óÏó´«Ã½

%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10124179.stm">Euro drops to new four-year low against US dollar
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8688620.stm">Greece receives first tranche of EU bail-out loan
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10104169.stm">Q&A: Can Europe's 750bn euro bailout package work?

On Tech Brief today: Sergey Brin the robot, cracking quantum codes and African cyberpunks.

• Cyberpunk and North America seem inextricably entwined. It was the stage for some of the defining stories of the genre even though many of its props came from other cultures. %3Ca%20href="%3Ca%20href="https://afrocyberpunk.wordpress.com/2010/05/13/cyberpunk-reborn">Now Jonathan Dotse makes a good case for Africa being its new home:

"[H]ere in Africa, development has been dangerously asymmetrical. By the time any product hits our soil it's already fully-developed and ready to be abused by the imagination. Technology designed for vastly different societies invariably trickles down to our streets, re-sprayed, re-labeled, and hacked to fit whatever market will take it."

Already he suggests, cyberspace is taking over when the physical infrastructure of Africa falls short.

"[T]he Net's architecture fails to reflect the reality on our continent as the expansion of cyberspace exceeds the reach of our road networks. How do you track someone who doesn't have a social security number or a physical address? Someone who never really made it onto the Grid?"

• If you want true security, go quantum, or so the thinking goes. Quantum cryptography is supposed to be secure because it is so good at revealing eavesdroppers. However, Feihu Xu, Bing Qi and Hoi-Kwong Lo at the University of Canada have found a way to compromise even this system. %3Ca%20href="https://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/25189/">Kentucky FC considers what this means for us mortals.

"But while the known loopholes can be papered over, it's the unknown ones that represent threats in the future. The problem that Feihu and co have opened up is in showing how easy it is with a little malicious intent to bend the assumptions behind perfect quantum cryptography. That will have a few quantum cryptographers losing sleep in the months and years to come."

• Friends and foes are lining up to kick Facebook in its privacy policy, so its no surprise that MySpace has joined in. It has announced that it is to tweak its privacy settings so the default is for friends only. Those who have any item on their MySpace page set to friends only will be switched to the blanket policy soon. %3Ca%20href="https://mashable.com/2010/05/17/myspace-privacy-settings/">Jennifer Van Grove reads between the lines.

"[T]he company has nothing to show just yet - changes are slated for the weeks ahead - which makes the timing of the announcement all the more interesting. The subtext here is that MySpace hopes to position itself as the privacy-conscious alternative to Facebook. We don't think that message will be enough for the company to reclaim its social network throne, but it's a crafty manoeuvre at an opportune time nevertheless. "

For those wanting to stick with Facebook but are worried about what they are sharing, help is at hand. %3Ca%20href="https://www.reclaimprivacy.org/">Matt Pizzimenti has put together a browser-based scanner that lets you know what you are sharing.

• Many fear Google is poised to usher in an era of AI overlords. As a harbinger of that time, Sergey Brin, co-founder of the search titan, has been seen stepping out in robotic form. %3Ca%20href="https://gawker.com/5540954/google-founder-transforms-himself-into-a-robot">He attended an XPrize science gala via a Willow Garage Texai robot.

"The e-creature has a two-way computer monitor for a head, which displayed a live shot of Brin's face, a long metal 'neck,' and wheels to propel it around a room in response to remote commands."

If you want to suggest links or stories for Tech Brief, you can send them to %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/bbctechbrief">@bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/">Twitter, tag them bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/">Delicious or e-mail them to techbrief@bbc.co.uk.

Links in full
• %3Ca%20href="https://afrocyberpunk.wordpress.com/2010/05/13/cyberpunk-reborn/">Jonathan Dotse | Afrocyberpunk | Cyberpunk Reborn
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/25189/">Kentucky FC | Arxiv Blog | Commercial Quantum Cryptography System Hacked
• %3Ca%20href="https://mashable.com/2010/05/17/myspace-privacy-settings/">Jennifer Van Grove | Mashable | MySpace Positions Itself as Facebook Alternative
• %3Ca%20href="https://gawker.com/5540954/google-founder-transforms-himself-into-a-robot">Ryan Tate | ValleyWag | Google Founder Transforms Himself Into a Robot

Commentators try to explain and analyse the current violence in Thailand.

• %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7584005.stm">Q+A: Thailand protests

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/17/redshirts-talks-democracy-thailand-monarchy">In the Guardian Jonathan Steele looks at the root causes of the conflict:

"Thailand's current crisis is many things. In part it is a class war involving impoverished farmers of the north and east who fear the loss of their land to corporate logging and other forms of agribusiness. In part it is a struggle between two types of politics: on one hand the old inward-looking army-based and royalist elite and its padded bureaucracy which faced no challenges for decades; on the other the globalising capitalism of a tycoon like Thaksin Shinawatra who used control of the television stations he owned to take advantage of universal suffrage to mobilise a mass following."

%3Ca%20href="https://search.japantimes.co.jp/rss/eo20100513a1.html">In the Japan Times Christopher Johnson gives some context:

"Massive occupations of two areas of central Bangkok the past two months show that the rise of Thailand's 'red shirt' protesters is one of the most significant developments in Asia in 25 years, as it signals a new type of conflict involving entrenched elites and millions of workers who have migrated from farms to cities across Asia.

"In the 1970s, when most Asians lived on farms, ideologues fought their battles in mountains and jungles across Southeast Asia. Now, after some of the largest demographic changes in history, radicals can recruit massive followings in cities such as Bangkok with millions of disaffected laborers who no longer have farms to return to."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=114760">Ian Buruma says in Lebanon's Daily Star that the Thai protests reflect a worldwide uprising against the elites:

"In Thailand, the rage stems from the perceived neglect of the rural poor by the ruling class, backed by big business, the army, and the king. The populist billionaire and former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, appeared to be different. He used some of his vast wealth to shower money on rural areas. Rural people, grateful for his largesse, voted for him twice.

"Authoritarian, crude, and somewhat megalomaniacal (almost as though he were a king himself), Thaksin was a Thai version of Silvio Berlusconi. He was removed from office in 2006, following a bloodless military coup that was supported by the Bangkok middle class, whose members took to the streets in yellow T-shirts (the color of the Thai monarchy). Today's ongoing pro-Thaksin red-shirt rebellion is a form of revenge."

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/7734343/Tragedy-in-Thailand.html">Telegraph editorial argues that the only path to peace is through a democratic election:

"The army's tactics may force the protesters to submit - the Red Shirts' number has already reduced by half from its peak. But that will not resolve the instabilities that continue to dog a country that relies heavily on tourism for its foreign earnings. Thailand has seen 18 military coups since 1945, and may be on the verge of another. What is missing is any recourse to the democratic practices it promised to build on in 2007, when it adopted what was hailed as a pluralist constitution that would serve as a model for the rest of the region."

In the pro-government paper the %3Ca%20href="https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/178171/un-intervention-unnecessary">Bangkok Post Veera Prateepchaikul argues that Thaksin Shinawatra's call for UN intervention is "unnecessary and unacceptable":

"Why bother with the UN when Thaksin himself is a key to help solve the conflict and put an end to the bloodshed.

"He is revered by the red-shirt leaders, the red-shirt protesters and the mob on the streets who have been causing mayhem in the past few days in Bon Kai, Sala Daeng, Witthayu, Din Daeng, Ratchaprarop and Victory Monument.

"Why can't Thaksin just instruct the red-shirt leaders to end the protest and allow the protesters to return home instead of asking for the UN's help? It is an open secret that the leaders are still answerable to him and often consult him."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.chinapost.com.tw/commentary/the-china-post/special-to-the-china-post/2010/05/17/256855/p1/Thailand%27s-credibility.htm">
Kavi Chongkittavorn says in the China Post that Thailand's election to the UN Human Rights Council last week saved the country from "sinking deeper into the abyss":

"The hard-won seat, which came at the height of street tensions and battles, showed that the country still enjoyed a good reservoir of support among the international community. Scoring the second highest votes of 182 after the Maldives at 185, they did better than the other 12 countries, including Spain, Switzerland and Poland. However, the diplomatic capital, especially on the home front, is getting thinner by the day."

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what you need to know.

More people trust the news on radio than on the internet and TV, according to %3Ca%20href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/advice/media_literacy/medlitpub/medlitpubrss/adultmedialitreport/adults-media-literacy.pdf">Ofcom's survey of media literacy[PDF]. People in Northern Ireland are the most cautious about the internet %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8688186.stm">reports the ´óÏó´«Ã½ and the %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7733312/Radio-news-more-trustworthy-than-TV.html">Telegraph.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/17/alexander-lebedev-independent-newspapers">Alexander Lebedev has given his first interview to the Guardian about his plans for the Independent. His son Evgeny, who chairs the new Independent company, has given a slightly different view in his %3Ca%20href="https://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f3ab16c8-5fb9-11df-a670-00144feab49a.html">first interview in the Financial Times [subscription required].

%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1279050/´óÏó´«Ã½-executive-cut-parents-100-000-salary-disclosed.html?ITO=1490">According to the Daily Mail a ´óÏó´«Ã½ executive has reportedly been cut out of their parents' will after their salary was revealed to be over £100,000. The backlash over executive pay was discussed by the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s chief creative officer Pat Younge in the staff magazine Ariel.

The %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8688639.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ newspaper review highlights that some of the newspapers are busy trying to predict the new chancellor's budget plans.

Links in full

%3Ca%20href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/advice/media_literacy/medlitpub/medlitpubrss/adultmedialitreport/adults-media-literacy.pdf">Ofcom | UK Adults' Media Literacy
%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7733312/Radio-news-more-trustworthy-than-TV.html">Caroline Gammell | Telegraph | Radio news 'more trustworthy than TV'
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8688186.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Ofcom: Northern Ireland people cautious about internet
%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/17/alexander-lebedev-independent-newspapers">Luke Harding | Guardian | Alexander Lebedev: 'I'm thinking about alliances'
%3Ca%20href="https://www.ft.com/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f3ab16c8-5fb9-11df-a670-00144feab49a.html">Esther Bintliff | Financial Times | Looking for more than just paper profits
%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1279050/´óÏó´«Ã½-executive-cut-parents-100-000-salary-disclosed.html?ITO=1490">Daily Mail | ´óÏó´«Ã½ executive is cut out of parents' will after £100,000 salary is disclosed
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8688639.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Newspaper review

• Read %3Ca%20href="/blogs/seealso/2010/05/media_brief_5.html">Monday's Media Brief

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/´óÏó´«Ã½TorinDouglas">my archive of media articles on Delicious

On Tech Brief today: Cakes for all, illegal data for 3D printers and virtual slaves.

• Thanks to the web, fame is cheap. Except when it almost puts you out of business. San Francisco bakery %3Ca%20href="https://missionminis.com/index.php">Mission Minis offered coupons via the web which gave patrons 50% off the price of 24 tiny pastries. Cue %3Ca%20href="https://www.switched.com/2010/05/13/groupon-deal-unleashes-cupcake-horde-on-understaffed-bakery/">3,000 people turning up for their cut-price cupcakes:

"Things have gotten so bad that the bakery has been forced to put up a disclaimer on its site asking customers to give it at least 48 hours to fulfill an order. Three employees have threatened to quit, and supply runs are now being made twice daily."

• If you need proof of how fast technology develops, look no further than the pages of Shawn McHenry. In an astonishing feat of high-wire geekery, Mr McHenry has got Windows 3.1 running on an Android phone. %3Ca%20href="https://androidblog.therevolve.com/?p=12/">Posting instructions of how to repeat this feat, he writes, of the key moment:

"...and now you should see your Windows 3.1 splash screen. You are now running Windows 3.1 on your Android enabled device! Do a dance! However, it's completely useless, but really damn cool."

"The simple answer, I'd suggest, is 'yes': nation-states will almost certainly try to outlaw or control ownership and/or access to design files for objects with potentially criminal uses."

• News about Vincent Ocasla's marathon four-year effort to conquer Sim City was all over the web in April. He created a city of six million people, called %3Ca%20href="https://www.imperar.webs.com/">Magnasanti, that exploited every last corner of the virtual plot upon which the city grows. Now, finds Mike Sterry, there was a method to this glorious madness. %3Ca%20href="https://www.viceland.com/blogs/uk-games/2010/05/10/the-totalitarian-buddhist-who-beat-sim-city/">Chilling words from Mr Ocasla.

"Many people say, 'Oh, it's just a game!' But they are mistaken."

Instead, Mr Ocasla saw the creation of Magnasanti as a political comment.

"I wanted to magnify the unbelievably sick ambitions of egotistical political dictators, ruling elites and downright insane architects, urban planners and social engineers."

He also has little pity for the inhabitants:

"They don't rebel, or cause revolutions and social chaos. No one considers challenging the system by physical means since a hyper-efficient police state keeps them in line. They have all been successfully dumbed down, sickened with poor health, enslaved and mind-controlled just enough to keep this system going for thousands of years. 50,000 years to be exact. They are all imprisoned in space and time."

• In cheerier news, some bankers at Standard Chartered have new toys to play with. The bank is taking away the Blackberries of its staff and giving them iPhones. %3Ca%20href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64G0SI20100517">It is not clear if this is a marker of a wider trend:

"Bankers at other financial institutions such as HSBC Holdings Plc and Morgan Stanley have so far been restricted to the BlackBerry as the standard device issued by their firms for business communications. Despite some indications of change, it may take time for a broader switch to take place, mainly because of security concerns, according to financial professionals and information technology analysts."

If you want to suggest links or stories for Tech Brief, you can send them to %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/bbctechbrief">@bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/">Twitter, tag them bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/">Delicious or e-mail them to techbrief@bbc.co.uk.

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Commentators discuss %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1278706/FA-chief-Lord-Triesman-Spain-bid-bribe-World-Cup-referees.html">allegations made by the Mail on Sunday that the Football Association's first independent chairman Lord Triesman had been recorded suggesting that the Spanish and Russian Football Associations were trying to bribe referees.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-1278931/MARTIN-SAMUEL-Vanity-bit-fluff-did-Lord-Triesman.html?ITO=1490">In the Daily Mail Martin Samuel chronicles his distaste for Lord Triesman:

"I won't shed crocodile tears here. I christened him Lord PleasedMan several years ago because I had never heard a public figure so delighted by his own wisdom. I used that pet name in every mention of him in a column since.
Ìý
"Sometimes you make a gag and nobody joins in; on this occasion there were plenty in football willing to share the joke. They recognised that same trait, present again at the weekend in the reported extracts of conversations with his treacherous friend Melissa Jacobs."

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup-2010/teams/england/7732097/Lord-Triesman-scored-a-spectacular-own-goal.html">Telegraph editorial suggests that the root of the problem was an "unhealthy link that developed between government and our national game under Labour":

"For Lord Triesman, a former Labour general secretary, was pensioned off with a peerage and the FA job thanks to his party's laddish obsession with football. Labour politicians felt they gained from close association with the game - which is also why Sir Alex Ferguson was knighted at the behest of Alastair Campbell. And woe betide any Labour upstart who was not a committed fan. Football does not exert the same grip on the new coalition, and for that we should be grateful. The game has plenty of problems, financial and disciplinary, without being used as a retirement home for superannuated politicians."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/may/17/lord-triesman-fa-2018-bid">In the Guardian's football blog David Conn calls the end of Lord Triesman's two-year tenure as the Football Association's first independent chairman a "very English coup":

"[N]ot the result of some fierce row over principle with the vested interests on the FA board, but a kiss-and-tell sting which delivered its tabloid sponsor more loose talk than it could have hoped for.
Ìý
"Only Melissa Jacobs knows why she decided to betray Triesman to the Mail on Sunday, the paper has not said whether or how much it paid her and many football fans were more furious with the paper for damaging the 2018 World Cup bid than with Triesman for talking big with a woman in a restaurant. But, however much Triesman justifiably complained about "entrapment" in the FA's statement yesterday, he had no option but to go."

Children's football coach %3Ca%20href="https://caniplayupfront.footballunited.com/2010/05/17/triesman-whos-the-real-traitor/">Andy Smith says in his blog I Can Play Upfront that in his opinion the real traitor is Melissa Jacobs, as she recorded and passed on to the Mail a private conversation:

"Answer this, who hasn't had private conversations with friends where rumours have been repeated or even made up on the spot? I know I have. You feel safe in having these conversations because of your relationship with the person that you're speaking to. As did Triesman.
Ìý
"With this in mind, I would suggest that Triesman is no more a traitor than you or I.
Ìý
"Naive. Yes.
Ìý
"A fool? Almost certainly.
Ìý
"But a traitor? No, not in my opinion."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.spada.co.uk/triesman-entrapped-and-undone/">On the blog for public relations company Spada there's a sarcastic look at the story:

"No doubt said friend [Melissa Jacobs] has now been removed from the Triesman Christmas card list, but perhaps the most worrying aspect of this affair is the simple fact that Triesman has lost his job for lamenting the existence of corruption in football.
Ìý
"Of course, there is no such a thing as corruption in football. Back-handers and brown envelopes never change hands, bribes are never offered, still less accepted, footballers are role models and men of virtue, and the game as a whole is a bastion of rectitude and propriety. Oh yes."

US media commentators consider the continuing drama over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

%3Ca%20href="https://blogs.forbes.com/csr/2010/05/17/the-bp-oil-spill-unexpected-consequences/">Jay Whitehead, writing for Forbes.com's CSR blog, sees unforeseen trouble ahead for the oil industry:

"In the Gulf oil spill, two big lapses have combined into a perfect storm of irresponsibility. First, the black hole in drilling standards highlighted by my colleague Elliot Clark of Corporate Responsibility Magazine. Second, the reality that BP had no contingency plan for a catastrophic blowout, but will nevertheless be partially rescued by government clean-up operations and court limits on plaintiff settlements. That perfect storm will result in two mammoth, unexpected financial consequences."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/16/AR2010051603254.html">In the Washington Post, Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin say that law firms with experience of previous big class-action lawsuits are now lining up all-star teams to sue over the spill:

"The prospects of getting big dollars in this case are good, too, lawyers say. They are eyeing BP, one of the five biggest publicly owned companies in the world; Transocean, the largest offshore driller in the world; Halliburton, the big oil services firm; and Cameron, maker of the well's failed blowout preventer. Anadarko Petroleum and Mitsui, BP's partners in the offshore lease, also are liable.

"Unlike the Exxon Valdez tanker accident, which happened in Alaska's remote Prince William Sound, the current spill could have a much bigger economic impact because the Gulf of Mexico is a busy home to valuable fisheries, tourism and shipping."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/17/business/energy-environment/17green.html?ref=us">Writing in the New York Times's Green blog, Kate Galbraith highlights concern that as the slick spreads, gaps in international rules over liability may become apparent:

"In the event of a spill that affects multiple countries, a number of global conventions devised through the International Maritime Organization govern prevention and clean-up efforts. There are also regional agreements - the United States, for example, maintains agreements with Canada, Mexico, Panama, Russia and the British Virgin Islands, according to the State Department.

"But experts say there are large gaps in what the international agreements cover."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2010/05/federal_oversight_of_oil_indus.html">An editorial in the New Orleans-based Times-Picayune newspaper draws parallels between the handling of the oil spill and the events that followed Hurricane Katrina:

"Investigations into the cause, or causes, of the accident will take time to sort through what promises to be voluminous amounts of evidence.

"It is already clear, though, that federal oversight was virtually nonexistent, and safety suffered because of it. Going forward, the oil industry must be required to meet a high standard for safety and training, and government agencies need to ensure that they meet those standards.

"Twice in the past five years, South Louisianians have ended up in dire straits because institutions that were supposed to protect us didn't. That should never happen again."

%3Ca%20href="https://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2010/05/how-responsible-is-us-government-for-gulf-oil-spill/1">Wendy Koch, in USA Today's Greenhouse blog, looks at how much responsibility the federal government bears for the spill:

"Does the US government deserve blame for the Gulf oil spill? It didn't build, own or operate the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that caused the spill, but new reports raise questions about its oversight."

%3Ca%20href="https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100517/ap_on_bi_ge/us_oil_spill_coral_reefs">Jason Dearen and Matt Sedensky, for the Associated Press, report that methods used to tackle the spill may increase the threat to the Gulf's underwater environment:

"Experts say the well's depth and Friday's decision by the US Environmental Protection Agency to allow BP to shoot massive amounts of dispersing chemicals deep underwater may help protect vital marshes and wetlands on the Gulf Coast. But the trade-off may result in significant effects on more sea life."

Commentator %3Ca%20href="https://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/wehner/295081">Peter Wehner, posting on Commentary magazine's blog Contentions, suggests President Barack Obama is too keen to shift the blame elsewhere:

"Here we have the most compulsive finger-pointing, blame-shifting, I'm-not-responsible-for-anything-that's-happening-on-my-watch president imaginable lecturing others about finger-pointing. He's like an alcoholic who sermonizes to his college-age son for drinking a Bud Light."

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what you need to know.

The Tory chairman of the Lords Communications Committee %3Ca%20href="https://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/175415/Savage-pay-cuts-for-´óÏó´«Ã½-fat-cats-">Lord Fowler has told the Sunday Express the new government could install a non-executive chairman on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ board to push through salary cuts for stars and executives. They would be separate from the chairman of the governing body, the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Trust.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7730639/Church-warns-´óÏó´«Ã½-not-to-cut-religion.html">Telegraph reports that the Church of England has told the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Trust the ´óÏó´«Ã½ must not cut religious broadcasting and should introduce a regular religious programme on Radio 1 to appeal to young people.

The %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8686029.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ newspaper review says the papers are analysing Lord Triesman's reported remarks about bribery in world football.

Links in full

%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/175415/Savage-pay-cuts-for-´óÏó´«Ã½-fat-cats-">David Stephenson Sunday Express Savage pay cuts for ´óÏó´«Ã½ fat cats
%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7730639/Church-warns-´óÏó´«Ã½-not-to-cut-religion.html">Caroline Gammell Telegraph Church warns ´óÏó´«Ã½ not to cut religion
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8686029.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ Newspaper review

Commentators look at the challenges ahead for the coalition.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/matthewd_ancona/7729063/The-allies-work-on-the-deficit-as-Labour-plays-in-the-sandpit.html">In the Telegraph Matthew d'Ancona predicts that rivalry between Nick Clegg and David Cameron will never be as bad as other intra-party competition:

"The Cameron-Clegg bromance cannot possibly last at its present intensity. But I doubt that the TB-GBs of the Blair Brown years will ever be matched in scale, bitterness or frequency of outburst by the inevitable NC-DCs. Indeed, that was the whole point of the way in which the Lib Con administration was launched in the Rose Garden on Wednesday - or Orange Wednesday, as it will surely become known to historians of the Liberal Democrat party.
Ìý
"There could be no more powerful way to mark the end of an era dominated by the implacable rivalry between two men. The mutual loathing of Tony and Gordon poisoned politics and policy for more than a decade. Whatever else you think of the coalition, admit that the warmth between Nick and Dave is an improvement."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1278966/MELANIE-PHILLIPS-Dont-fooled-love-Hugh-Grant-Colin-Firth-politics--Left-wing-coup.html">In the Daily Mail Melanie Phillips claims that Lib Dems demonstrating against the coalition at this weekend's conference don't know how lucky they are:

"Over the weekend, however, one feature of British life resurfaced that is as predictable as the flowering buds of May - the deep aversion in the Lib Dem psyche to reality. True to form, assorted Lib Dem grandees and others came out against the coalition - on the grounds they couldn't stomach an alliance with 'unprogressive' Conservatives. So blinded are they by their tribal antipathy to the Tories, these Lib Dems can't see just how advantageous this deal is for them.
Ìý
"Even though three-quarters of the country didn't vote for them, this party of traditional losers has no fewer than five Cabinet seats."

Political blogger %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1278966/Dont-fooled-David-Cameron--Nick-Cleggs-love--Left-wing-coup.html">Mike Smithson suggests in Political Betting that ex-Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy's abstention may be linked to his resignation in 2006:

"[I]n the days after Cameron's elevation all the focus was on Kennedy with suggestions that the Lib Dem leader did not have the charisma of the new Tory and then Labour leader, Tony Blair.
Ìý
"It wasn't long before the rumblings within his party started and the betting opened on who was going to replace him. By the end of the month Kennedy felt bound to issue a statement saying that he was staying and none of his party critics were prepared to go public.
Ìý
"A week later, however, he was gone after senior colleagues forced the issue of his drinking.
Ìý
"Maybe this puts his current position into context?"

%3Ca%20href="https://www.alastaircampbell.org/blog.php?id=430">Alastair Campbell says in his blog that Charles Kennedy speaks for many Lib Dems:

"But Charlie Kennedy speaks for a lot of Lib Dems in suggesting this marriage of convenience goes against everything every Lib Dem leader since Jo Grimond has stood for in working for a realignment of the left.
Ìý
"And once Parliament is back, just wait for the noise of the Tories once they spot a bit too much Cleggery on Europe, let alone this 55 per cent unconstitutional stitch up."

%3Ca%20href="https://conservativehome.blogs.com/thetorydiary/2010/05/three-cheers-for-the-liberal-democrats.html">At Conservative Home Tim Montgomerie expresses disappointment when comparing the Lib Dem and Tory methods of dealing with their party members since the coalition:

"On a number of occasions Clegg met his MPs and party officers in a bid to hear their views and explain what he was doing. Today's ratification of the deal will help bind the party into the fascinating Cameron-Clegg experiment.
Ìý
"What a contrast with the Conservative Party where there has been next to no consultation of the party membership. Coming on top of Team Cameron's various attempts to dilute Tory members' role in membership selection it is all very disappointing."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/16/coalition-lord-adonis-cameron-clegg">In the Guardian Julian Glover urges readers to draw on the Fox-North coalition of 1783 for political lessons:

"Fox himself provides a much better one in his Commons speech defending the coalition: 'If men of honour can meet on points of general national concern, I see no reason for calling such a meeting an unnatural junction. It is neither wise nor noble to keep up animosities for ever.'...
Ìý
"[C]ritics of the present coalition should note [Charles Fox's] words. The Cameron-Clegg pact is not an unprincipled combination but a remarkable - because it was unexpected - recognition of the fact that the British obsession with party purity can make for bad government and unattractive politics."

%3Ca%20href="/iplayer/episode/b00sbpk3/Westminster_Hour_16_05_2010/">On ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4's Westminster Hour Michael Cockerell says [13 minutes in] he expects the strain in the coalition will show if war with Iran is debated:

"If there were a move to attack or bomb Iran supported by the rather hawkish Liam Fox, who's the defence secretary, with the Liberal Democrats, who were against the war in Iraq after all, that will be the tester."

On Tech Brief today: Welcome the table overlords, how to exploit the vanity of New York ad men, and playing with Twitter.

• Vanity! Thou gaudy bauble. To everyone but Alec Brownstein, that is. The enterprising copywriter bought adverts based around the names of the creative directors at advertising firms that he wanted to work for. %3Ca%20href="https://gawker.com/5538726/copywriter-uses-peoples-incessant-self+googling-to-get-a-job">When they Googled their own names, up popped his ad asking if they had a position for him:

"It worked: Everyone but one of his targets called him, and today Brownstein works for Young & Rubicam, a fancy New York ad agency."

• At almost nine years old, %3Ca%20href="https://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-xp/default.aspx">Microsoft's Windows XP is getting on a bit. Perhaps this explains why the Redmond software giant is pensioning off some of the older bits. It has announced that versions only patched with Service Pack 2 will have support cut on 13 July. %3Ca%20href="https://lastwatchdog.com/microsoft-security-support-windows-xp-service-pack/">Byron Acohido predicts this will not end well because so many PCs inside large firms are just such XP machines:

"And as anyone paying attention knows, infected PCs in corporate settings are in high demand by cyber gangs controlling the botnets driving all forms of cybercrime. Botnets are used to spread spam, steal data, hijack online bank accounts, commit click fraud and conduct denial-of-service attacks for extortion or political reasons."

• Twitter: good for microblogging; bad for gaming. Until now. Thanks to coders Tom Scott and Dom Hodgson, you can use your followers and those of friends to play %3Ca%20href="https://tweettrumps.com/">Tweet Trumps. %3Ca%20href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/05/13/the-failstate-whale-tweet-trumps">Like Top Trumps but with friends rather than supercars:

"Basically, it looks at any given username and works out who is mutually following who, and then presents the statistics about those accounts in the Top Trump format. I'm pleased with my ability to work out which of my friends are actually sweariest."

• Beware the tables. They have found a way to reproduce without the aid of humans. Designers %3Ca%20href="https://www.kramweisshaar.com/">Reed Kram and Clemens Weisshaar have found a way to make tables that resemble each other like siblings do. Alike but not identical. %3Ca%20href="https://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2010/05/kram-weisshaar-breeding-tables">Bruce Sterling likes what he sees:

"They'll fire up the algorithm, laser-cut one of those babies, powder-coat it, and it'll look like and yet unlike all others. They've made seven years' worth of 'em. Imagine the joy of doing something on this solid, generative table... dunno what, planning nonlinear world domination maybe... a table supported by stout iron legs created with minimal human intervention!"

If you want to suggest links or stories for Tech Brief, you can send them to %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/bbctechbrief">@bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/">Twitter, tag them bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/">Delicious or e-mail them to techbrief@bbc.co.uk.

Links in full
• %3Ca%20href="https://gawker.com/5538726/copywriter-uses-peoples-incessant-self+googling-to-get-a-job">Adrian Chen | Valley Wag | Copywriter Uses People's Incessant Self-Googling to Get a Job
• %3Ca%20href="https://lastwatchdog.com/microsoft-security-support-windows-xp-service-pack/">Byron Acohido | The Last Watchdog | Microsoft to end security support for Windows XP Service Pack 2
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/05/13/the-failstate-whale-tweet-trumps/">Kieron Gillen | Rock Paper Shotgun | The Failstate Whale: Tweet Trumps
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2010/05/kram-weisshaar-breeding-tables/">Bruce Sterling | Beyond the Beyond | Kram Weisshaar Breeding Tables

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what you need to know.

The %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment_and_arts/10116004.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ reports Graham Norton is to replace Jonathan Ross on Radio 2 on Saturday mornings.

The Times has announced a 10 per cent cut in its editorial budget %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/13/the-times-seeks-job-cuts">reports the Guardian. The Sunday Times is expected to follow suit. They will shortly unveil their separate websites, ahead of introducing charges.

As Chris Evans wins 9.5m listeners a week (not per day, as the article says), critic %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1278271/As-9-5m-tune-radio-critic-admits-Sorry-Chris-I-wrong-You-ARE-worthy-heir-Wogan.html?ito=feeds-newsxml">David Thomas admits in the Daily Mail that he was wrong.

As the dust settles, %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8677492.stm">political bloggers consider on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ the role of the internet in the election - and their future role.

The %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8681849.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ newspaper review reflects reports of backbench concern over plans to require a 55% Commons majority to dissolve Parliament.

Links in full

%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment_and_arts/10116004.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Graham Norton to replace Jonathan Ross on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 2
%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/13/the-times-seeks-job-cuts">Ben Dowell | Guardian | The Times seeks up to 50 volunteers for job cuts
%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1278271/As-9-5m-tune-radio-critic-admits-Sorry-Chris-I-wrong-You-ARE-worthy-heir-Wogan.html?ito=feeds-newsxml">David Thomas | Daily Mail | As 9.5m tune in to his radio show, a former critic admits, 'Sorry Chris, I was wrong. You ARE a worthy heir to Wogan'
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8677492.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | View from the blogs: Was this the internet election?
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8681849.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Newspaper review

• %3Ca%20href="/blogs/seealso/2010/05/media_brief_3.html">Read Thursday's Media Brief

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/´óÏó´«Ã½TorinDouglas">my archive of media articles on Delicious

[Introduction updated 17 May]: Commentators discuss the coalition government's move to introduce a new mechanism for the dissolution of Parliament. The plans would require 55% of MPs to vote for dissolution. Notwithstanding how some of the commentators below may have interpreted the proposal, the threshold for a vote of confidence is not being changed and will remain at 50% of MPs plus one - so the extracts below should be read with that in mind.

%3Ca%20href="https://paulflynnmp.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/05/cinderellas-at-the-ball.html">Labour MP Paul Flynn says the Liberal Democrats should be ashamed:

"Today a tiny sharp thought pierced the sensitive brains of conscientious LibDems. They have signed up to the illiberal power-hugging cheat of 55% majority for a confidence vote. There is no argument for this except party advantage to the Tories. It's a shameless, blatant denial of democracy.
Ìý
"When they sober up, the LibDems morphing into Con'Dems will remember their past indignation at alleged Labour sins on democracy and freedoms during the past thirteen years. The Con-Dems have proved their mettle.
Ìý
"They have slashed a basic tenet of democracy within thirteen hours."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.headoflegal.com/2010/05/12/no-to-55/">In the Law blog Head of Legal Carl Gardner argues against the move:

"This proposed legislation, though, seems to aim at preventing an election even if 54% of MPs want one. That is wrong in principle, it's undemocratic, and it must be opposed.
Ìý
"What it would mean is that if the coalition broke down, the Con-LibDem administration would end too. Of course. But there wouldn't and couldn't be an election. Instead, a minority Conservative government would be able to carry on - its 306 seats giving it a blocking minority of 47% - and as long as it kept discipline it could rule without the confidence of Parliament. Bear in mind that this could happen the moment this new legislation comes into force, which is presumably intended to be soon, so that government could go on, effectively behind Parliamentary barricades, for months or for several years. Even for this to be theoretically possible is, I'm afraid, outrageous and unconscionable. Whatever government we have, it must be accountable to Parliament."

%3Ca%20href="https://blogs.wsj.com/iainmartin/2010/05/12/the-55-rule-is-a-very-dangerous-constitutional-innovation/">Iain Martin says in the Wall Street Journal that he thinks the 55% rule is a "very dangerous constitutional innovation":

"It has slightly sinister sounding connotations, as though a ratchet effect might operate. If it is being suggested that 55% of votes is needed to express no confidence in a government this year (all in the interests of strong government, you understand) then why not 60% or higher at some point in the future?
Ìý
"It is rather stretching things to try and present this piece of proposed gerrymandering as 'Political Reform.' It is actually designed to ensure that even a walk -out of the whole Lib Dem parliamentary group couldn't actually bring down this government. This would weaken Parliament and strengthen the hand of the executive considerably - when it is only weeks since both parties were talking of doing the opposite."

%3Ca%20href="https://conservativehome.blogs.com/centreright/2010/05/the-tyranny-of-the-minority.html">Lee Rotherham at Conservative Home says the change would betray "the most basic and fundamental principles of how a democracy works":

"A majority of MPs could vote down a government, and yet it could keep on trundling in power.
Ìý
"I am not sure where this idea came from; it has rather a tinge from the days of the sacked European Commission.
Ìý
"Having pondered the revolutionary change last night and pored over Erskine May this morning, the reality seems even more striking. I could find in its many pages no actual definition of what constitutes a majority in Parliament. The centuries-old presumption is that it is a majority of one. Ink is expended explaining Speaker Addington's decision of 1796, and three decisions by Speaker Denison between 1860 and 1870, where votes were tied and the Speaker's vote (and his deputy's) counted. But beyond that, the definition of a majority is so obvious it requires no comment or definition.
Ìý
"That is the measure of the revolution at hand."

A senior lecturer in the school of law at Aberdeen University, %3Ca%20href="https://timesonline.typepad.com/law/2010/05/plans-for-fixedterm-parliaments-not-credible-and-dangerous-says-law-expert.html">Scott Styles is reported in the Times as pointing out a few problems with the plans:

"Firstly, Cameron is renouncing his right as PM to dissolve Parliament at a time of his choosing. Politically this seems unwise but legally it is unproblematic: in effect, the government is surrendering a right.
Ìý
"The second and much more fundamental problem is the raising of the bar of a no-confidence vote in the government to 55% rather than simple majority of those MPs present and voting. This is a major and fundamental alteration in our constitution and what is being changed is not a right of the PM but a power of the Commons."

The constitutional and government expert from Queen Mary University %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8681000/8681942.stm">Peter Hennessy says on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Today Programme that the idea is "iffy":

"You can't actually create hurdles that make it easier for you to last in power. It just looks all wrong."

Supporting the 55% rule, %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/13/55-per-cent-coalition-constitutional-law">Alan Travis says in the Guardian that it shouldn't scare voters:

"But it is worth asking if the controversial 55% rule set out in the Lib-Con coalition agreement needed to force an early general election really is a conspiracy against the opposition parties or a legitimate stabiliser for an infant coalition taking its first steps.
Ìý
"The first thing to clear up is that there does not appear to be any change in the rules surrounding a vote of no confidence. A government could still fall on a simple majority of MPs. The text of the coalition agreement appears clear. It only refers to providing a vote for the dissolution of parliament, that is, the calling of a general election."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/05/is-55-too-low/">Will Straw asks in Left Foot Forward whether 55% too low:

"All this begs the question of whether 55 per cent is too low a threshold for a dissolution resolution. If the point of a fixed term parliament is that the governing party cannot dissolve parliament to suit itself, perhaps the threshold should be two-thirds as in both the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.libdemvoice.org/confusion-reigns-over-55-the-reality-is-rather-different-19488.html">Iain Roberts argues in Lib Dem Voice that the reality is different to the critics' description:

"So this proposal makes no difference to motions of no confidence and gives MPs power they've never had before to dissolve parliament, moving power from the Executive to the Legislature. Whilst the percentage might be a little low, the basic principle is both sound and democratic."

Former foreign secretary %3Ca%20href="/programmes/b00shsvh">Douglas Hurd discusses the proposal with presenter Andrew Neil on the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s Straight Talk [forthcoming; transmission details below]:

Andrew Neil: You say you hope the coalition lasts for five years. How long do you think it will last?
Douglas Hurd: Well, I'm not 100% in favour of fixed Parliaments, because I think you can have circs, we may get into circs where the existing Parliament is just not working.
AN: You just need a change?
DH: Well, you need a change, and somebody has to produce that change. Now, there's a proposal now that it would be 55%, something of that kind, a substantial majority of the House of Commons has to vote for change. Well, maybe that's adequate, I'm not quite sure.
AN: But doesn't that leave you a little bit uneasy, this requirement that you can only bring a five-year Parliament to an end if you get a 55% majority in a vote of no confidence?
DH: Yes, it makes me slightly uneasy. I'm prepared to live with it because there is that 55% rule, I'm prepared to live with it, but, you know, I'm a Tory really, and Tories believe in a strong prime minister and a strong prime minister is somebody who can actually say at the end of an evening, of a bloody evening, 'well, that's the way you want it, right, I'm off to the Palace.'
AN: It continues, this changing of our constitution with not too much debate or forethought, Mr Blair did a lot of that - remember the argument over the Lord Chancellor? - and now we're saying, here was something that everybody understands, that when a government loses a motion of no confidence in the Commons, it is finished; either there's an election or it has to, the Queen invites someone else to form a government and here is something that both of us were brought up with, suddenly gets changed in a back-room deal.
DH: It suddenly gets changed, but of course it won't be a back-room deal; it will be thoroughly debated and mulled over, not least in the House to which I belong. The House of Lords has become a real expert in interpreting the constitution and many governments haven't liked that.
AN: And may not get through?
DH: May get changed. I mean, there will be a debate, there will be a discussion, there ought to be a discussion exactly as you say.

Douglas Hurd's appearance on Straight Talk with Andrew Neil is on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ News Channel at the following times:
Saturday 15 May 0130, 0430 and 2330 BST
Sunday 16 May 0130, 1530 and 2230 BST
Tuesday 18 May 0330 BST

On Tech Brief today: Oprah versus Gaga, Sony versus the USAF and Nelson versus Napoleon.

• There's no doubt that Twitter can be seen as a way to show off and that some Tweets have the air of "envy me" about them. Interesting then to see %3Ca%20href="https://mashable.com/2010/05/12/popular-twitter-users-accept-bug/">Mashable's list of who people were trying to make it look like were following them using the accept bug that recently plagued Twitter. %3Ca%20href="https://blog.rowfeeder.com/2010/05/analysis-of-twitters-accept-bug-by-the-tweets/">According to RowFeeder, Oprah topped the list:

"The new guard of Twitter celebrities as revealed by the bug is pop-culture heavy. Although Bill Gates and Barack Obama made the cut, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber scored much higher for follower-happy users. And celeb blogger Perez Hilton ranked as the fifth most popular Twitter account for the exploiters of the 'accept' bug."

• Pity the poor student, especially those attending Northern Arizona University. It has decided to make attending classes contribute to grades. So far, so what. And it is planning to use RFID tags that can interrogate the ID cards students carry so they know who is learning and who is sleeping in. NAU says students who go to classes do better than those who don't. %3Ca%20href="https://www.govtech.com/gt/760670">Govtech says the students are not impressed:

"A student-created Facebook page opposing the plan, 'NAU Against Proximity Cards,' had nearly 1,500 members as of Wednesday, May 5. 'I feel it violates our rights as students to choose whether or not to go to class and control our own success,' the page's description reads. 'Plus, it allows the school to keep track of our whereabouts in a 'Big Brother' way'."

• It's not just open source fanboys and coders who were put out by Sony axing the ability of the PlayStation 3 to run Linux. The US Air Force is upset about it too. %3Ca%20href="https://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/05/how-removing-ps3-linux-hurts-the-air-force.ars">Arstechnica reports that the future of a 53 Teraflop computing cluster built by USAF boffins in New York built of PS3s has been thrown into doubt by the decision too:

"We will have to continue to use the systems we already have in hand,' the lab told Ars Technica, but 'this will make it difficult to replace systems that break or fail. The refurbished PS3s also have the problem that when they come back from Sony, they have the firmware (gameOS) and it will not allow Other OS, which seems wrong. We are aware of class-action lawsuits against Sony for taking away this option on systems that use to have it."

• Who doesn't like tall ships? The smell of the sea, the canvas cracking in the breeze and the ability to blow your enemies to kingdom come. %3Ca%20href="https://www.channel4.com/play-win/trafalgar-origins/">Channel 4 Education wants to give those experiences to youngsters with a game that simulates Napoleonic era naval warfare. %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2010/may/11/games-gameculture">Keith Stuart says in the Guardian that the game is addictive:

"I only meant to play for a few minutes last night, but ended up spending two hours sailing through the tutorial missions, then tackling the historical encounters, each based on genuine face-offs between the English, French and Spanish navies."

• Cyber criminals are busy people and some are proving busier than others. The %3Ca%20href="https://apwg.org/">Anti-Phishing Working Group claims that one hi-tech crime gang called, appropriately enough, Avalanche was behind 66% of phishing attacks in the latter half of 2009. %3Ca%20href="https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerability_management/security/cybercrime/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224701763">Tim Wilson says in Dark Reading that the good news is that the success of Avalanche has dented its ability to pull off the big scores:

"In mid-November 2009, members of the security community affected a temporary shut-down of the Avalanche botnet infrastructure," the report continues. "This lasted about a week before the criminals behind the attacks re-established their network. After this event, Avalanche's activities changed significantly."

If you want to suggest links or stories for Tech Brief, you can send them to %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/bbctechbrief">@bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/">Twitter, tag them bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/">Delicious or e-mail them to techbrief@bbc.co.uk.

Links in full

•%3Ca%20href="https://mashable.com/2010/05/12/popular-twitter-users-accept-bug/">Jolie O'Dell | Mashable | The 20 Most Popular Twitter Users
•%3Ca%20href="https://www.govtech.com/gt/760670">Karen Wilkinson | GovTech | University Plans to Install Electronic Sensors
•%3Ca%20href="https://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/05/how-removing-ps3-linux-hurts-the-air-force.ars">Nate Anderson | Ars Technica | Air Force may suffer collateral damage from PS3 update
•%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2010/may/11/games-gameculture">Keith Stuart | Guardian Games Blog | 'Trafalgar Origins' takes teens to sea
•%3Ca%20href="https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerability_management/security/cybercrime/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224701763">Tim Wilson | Dark Reading | Two-Thirds Of Phishing Attacks Generated By One Criminal Group

Commentators consider the Lib Dem / Conservative policies.

%3Ca%20href="https://marbury.typepad.com/marbury/2010/05/two-for-the-price-of-one.html">Writing in the blog Marbury Ian Leslie looks forward to the coalition:

"The most exciting thing about this is that it's not just a reconfiguration of power - it has the potential to change the way we do politics here, to work its way into our political rhetoric and body language. Ìý
"How for instance, will 'collective responsibility' work in this government? One of the things that kills politics here is that all front-bench politicians of one party have to stick to one line, even when they plainly disagree with it - hence the public perception that all politicians are dishonest. Ìý
"Will the Lib Dems and Tories be able to find a new, more candid way of discussing their differences in power, without undermining their cohesion?"

%3Ca%20href="https://indyeagleeye.livejournal.com/286163.html">Also in the Independent, John Rentoul pinpoints the Lib Dem policies which have been sacrificed:

The 'Liberal Conservative' (that's what Cameron called it) coalition document contains the word 'abstain' three times. That's an advantage of the digital age, you can search the pdf on the Conservatives' website.
Ìý

"Those are three policies on which the Liberal Democrats say that they will abstain if they do not agree with the Conservatives. They are:
Ìý

"1. The marriage tax allowance.
2. Replacing nuclear power stations.
3. Higher tuition fees."

Conversely the %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1277943/DAILY-MAIL-COMMENT-Brilliant-tactics--principles.html?ITO=1490">Daily Mail editorial says the Tories gave away too much power to the Lib Dems:

"But the question still needs asking: was it really necessary for Mr Cameron to give the LibDems such enormous influence over policy - from the increase in Capital Gains Tax, which will hammer savers, to the radical plans for the voting system? Was he really obliged to give a quarter of Cabinet seats to partners who polled 3.8million fewer votes and behaved with such duplicity during the coalition talks? And why did Mr Cameron feel obliged to keep referring to a 'Liberal-Conservative coalition'? Did he really need to rub his party faithful's noses in it? The Mail acknowledges that the new Prime Minister has played his poor hand with consummate tactical skill."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7716972/Dont-believe-everything-that-the-happy-couple-is-telling-you.html">Benedict Brogan says in the Telegraph that Conservatives have antipathy towards Lib Dem policies:

"Conservative MPs who have fought the Lib Dems are looking green around the gills at having to swallow stuff that a week ago they were telling us would destroy the nation. For them, the only good Liberal is a dead one, preferably suffocated by the mendacious campaign leaflets that are the yellow peril's stock-in-trade. High-profile jobs for Liam Fox and Iain Duncan Smith will not easily calm the anger of the traditional Right. Many Lib Dems, in turn, are appalled at finding themselves in bed with David Cameron, when they had spent the night before chatting up that Labour bloke they'd always fancied."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/mark-steel/mark-steel-dont-be-fooled-this-is-tory-rule-1971994.html">Mark Steel says in the Independent that the coalition will result in mostly Tory policies:

"But nothing that made the Lib Dems distinctive, such as cancelling Trident or offering an amnesty to asylum seekers, will be even up for discussion. Instead they'll be boasting: "The new Budget is a positive example of coalition rule, in that the Conservatives made the economic decisions, but Vince Cable decided on the font it was published in... A consensus has been created that the deficit must must MUST be cut, as if to oppose cuts in welfare and public spending is as futile as trying to stop the laws of physics. So we'll now have a period of new modern politics, in which a Prime Minister from Eton and a Chancellor from St Paul's in coalition with a chap from Westminster Public School force the bulk of the population to pay for a mess they didn't create, rather than upset the richest one per cent who've enjoyed an unprecedented rise in their wealth."

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what you need to know.

Jeremy Hunt, the new Culture Olympics Media & Sport Secretary, says the Olympics is his top priority. He's also looking for £66m cuts. The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/12/jeremy-hunt-new-culture-minister">Guardian and %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8678797.stm">I analyse his in-tray.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/13/bbc-radio-commercial-stations-rajars">Guardian and %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8679214.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ report that radio listening is booming, with Chris Evans' new Radio 2 Breakfast Show reaching a record 9.5m listeners a week, over a million more than Sir Terry Wogan. ´óÏó´«Ã½ 6 Music, threatened with closure, is up 50% to over 1m listeners.

BT has announced plans for the roll-out of super-fast broadband to around two-thirds of UK homes by 2015. Its profits have risen to £1 billion in the year to March. Its chief executive %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8679000/8679244.stm">Ian Livingstone was on Radio 4's Today Programme.

The %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8679224.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ paper review says Matt's cartoon in the Daily Telegraph depicts what some papers call the shotgun marriage of David Cameron and Nick Clegg. Others call it a love-in or a civil partnership.

Commentators consider the dynamic between David Cameron and Nick Clegg.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1277871/David-Cameron-Nick-Clegg-Downing-Street-garden-Pure-Mills--Boon.html">Quentin Letts says in the Daily Mail the announcement of the coalition was lacking in policy but revealed an interesting aspect of their relationship:

"The power posing was a whole sub-plot in itself. Mr Clegg stood away from his lectern, perhaps to look independent. He snaked an arm round Mr Cameron as they concluded the event.

"This is an old trick, a way of projecting yourself as the senior partner. But Mr Cameron did most of the talking and, being a little chunkier, probably won the gravitas contest. He is the PM, after all, and three months older. Mr Clegg's yellow tie needs to go. It makes him look washed-out. Mr Cameron tans more easily and his voice is smokier."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/12/coalition-government-polly-toynbee">In the Guardian Polly Toynbee is not alone in comparing the coalition to a civil partnership:

"In the spring garden the Clegg-Cameron civil partnership looked magnificent, the two men perfectly cloned in face, age, education, accent and style. Naturally the audience of cynical hacks from all sides of the political spectrum came away shaking their heads. Bets were laid, jokes made, the wedding gifts would soon be on eBay and it would all end in tears.

"But there was too much wishful thinking in the air from ill-wishers yesterday. The right will hiss and spit from David Cameron's back row - and with good cause. Look hard at the agreement and the bitter truth Labour must swallow is that much here is more radical than their own manifesto."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/christina-patterson/christina-patterson-cameron--clegg--consensual-civilised-depressing-1971991.html">Christina Patterson says in the Independent that David Cameron and Nick Clegg came across as consensual and civilised - which she finds depressing:

"This is pretty much what we voted for. It's consensual. It's civilised. It's grown-up. So why do I feel so depressed? It's not just because the Tories, though shackled, are back. And it's not just because the 'new politics' is beginning to look an awful lot like the old politics, just politer, posher and younger. And it's not just because the only non-male member of the cabinet is most famous for her leopard-print shoes. It's because I still have no idea at all why most of them are there."

Conservative political blogger %3Ca%20href="https://iaindale.blogspot.com/2010/05/dave-nick-show.html">Iain Dale blames the media for his feeling of boredom about the Cameron-Clegg relationship:

"Cameron and Clegg seem totally at ease with each other. Their body language is very good and yet the hacks still ask the same tired old questions. Boring, boring, boring. If all journalists want to do is ask smart arse questions about some apparent disagreement on policy which took place five years ago, Cameron and Clegg may well decide such press conferences are a complete and utter waste of their time."

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/7716896/A-bumpy-ride-aheadbrbrbut-a-confident-start.html">Telegraph editorial expresses optimism about the relationship:

"It is obvious that, so far, Messrs Cameron and Clegg are getting on famously, and it also seems that the Tory and Liberal Democrat negotiating teams found their talks surprisingly friendly. Whether that warmth will percolate downwards to the lower ranks of both parties remains to be seen. There is certainly no reason why the chemistry should not work on a personal level - not least because of the old political saw that while your opponents are in the other parties, your enemies are in your own. The Blair/Brown feud proved how debilitating that can be."

Former Tory MP Gyles Brandreth tells the ´óÏó´«Ã½ News channel that "this is the day of the wedding and I'm still celebrating the marriage":

"The confetti is flying everywhere as far as I'm concerned. Having a lot of gay friends, I've been to quite a number of gay weddings and this afternoon's press conference was to me a dead ringer for an open-air civil partnership.
Ìý
"To see the two handsome boys there, side by side, was really rather touching. But I'm not going to be cynical about it. I think they've gone into this committed to make it work. What happens down the road is quite another matter. The new government chief whip is Patrick McLoughlin [and] I suppose he's going to be like the Relate counsellor in this relationship...
Ìý
"There may well be some very tense moments, and those whips are going to have to do some pretty serious counselling. But for today, I'm feeling celebratory. I can just picture them upstairs in No 10, in the flat, in the Morecambe and Wise bed. There they're going to be, Dave and Nick, sitting side by side. It's a pretty picture."

On Tech Brief today: reports suggest Google could be on the brink of joining the tablet party, Facebook answers questions about privacy, Orange and T-Mobile rebrand and Mozilla says goodbye to a long-serving member of the open source community.

• When the tech rumour mill turns, Apple is usually in the mix somewhere and the latest gossip is no exception, throwing in heavyweight Google for good measure. %3Ca%20href="https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704250104575238680540806288.html">Verizon chief executive Lowell McAdam reportedly told the Wall Street Journal that Google is working with US network Verizon to develop an iPad rival:

"We're working on tablets together, for example. We're looking at all the things Google has in its archives that we could put on a tablet to make it a great experience."

Watch this space.

• Another tech heavyweight social networking site Facebook has been busy %3Ca%20href="https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/facebook-executive-answers-reader-questions/">answering questions posed by readers of the New York Times.

Privacy was unsurprisingly top of the agenda with many angry that Facebook seems unable to stop fiddling with its settings.

David, from Illinois, asked why it couldn't just leave well enough alone. Elliot Schrage, vice president for public policy at Facebook, replied, somewhat apologetically:

"We know that changing Facebook - something people have demonstrated is important to them - can be unsettling. But we're always trying to be better and do more for our users. Clearly, we need to rethink the tempo of change and how we communicate it. Trust me. We'll do better."

If he isn't true to his word Tech Brief predicts that he might have another sort of demo on his hands.

• Don't you just love a good name change? T-Mobile and Orange have merged to create the biggest mobile firm in the UK. While Tech Brief would have thought Mobile Orange or Orange T were perfectly good names for the new company, these simple monikers have been rejected in favour of the more grandiose Everything Everywhere.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/11/everything_everywhere_domain/">The Register reports that they picked the domain name for a bargain price from IT consultant Ted Kelly. A somewhat miffed Mr Kelly told the Reg:

"I'm a little shocked to see the news today... coincidentally, the day that this modest sale was completed! It seems that it was bought by 'an agent' who kept very quiet about the intentions for the domain. It was therefore acquired for a very nominal sum."

So, for Mr Kelly it is back to the drawing board for new lucrative domains. Maybe he should turn his attention to the new Googlepad.

• John Lilly, the popular boss of open source software foundation Mozilla is stepping down after five years in the job. He will remain at the firm until a replacement can be found but then he will move back into his old role as a venture capitalist. With Mozilla now reaching out to nearly half a billion people around the world, many of his fans will be eager to see what new start-ups he puts his money behind.

%3Ca%20href="https://john.jubjubs.net/2010/05/11/whats-next-for-me-but-not-yet/">In his blog Mr Lilly writes

"I'm incredibly proud of the work we've done over the last several years, and very optimistic about what the future holds."

• And finally, with 3D the buzz word of 2010 it wasn't going to be long before the adult entertainment industry jumped on the bandwagon. %3Ca%20href="https://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/05/11/playboy.3d.centerfold.mashable/">CNN reports a 3D centrefold is due in the June issue, after Hugh Hefner decided that a naked lady is probably what people would most like to see in 3D. Proving himself to be an early adopter, Hefner first had the idea for 3D centrefolds back in the 1950s but rejected it when he found out how much it would cost.

Don't get your 3D glasses steamed up, boys.

If you want to suggest links or stories for Tech Brief, you can send them to %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/bbctechbrief">@bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/">Twitter, tag them bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/">Delicious or e-mail them to techbrief@bbc.co.uk.

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704250104575238680540806288.html">Niraj Sheth | Wall Street Journal | Verizon, Google developing iPad rival

• %3Ca%20href="https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/facebook-executive-answers-reader-questions/">New York Times blogs | Facebook executive answers reader questions

• %3Ca%20href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/11/everything_everywhere_domain/">Kevin Murphy, The Register | Man sold EverythingEverywhere domain

• %3Ca%20href="https://john.jubjubs.net/2010/05/11/whats-next-for-me-but-not-yet/">John Lilly's blog | What's next for me

• %3Ca%20href="https://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/05/11/playboy.3d.centerfold.mashable/">Samuel Axon | Mashable | Playboy to publish 3D centrefold

Now that David Cameron has moved into 10 Downing Street, the US news media is working out what to make of him - and of the future of the US-UK relationship:

A New York Times reporter offers this %3Ca%20href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/world/europe/12cameron.html?ref=world">portrait of Mr Cameron:

Likable, quick on his feet, informal, self-assured, his easy charm a vivid contrast to the tortured, self-lacerating intensity of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Mr Cameron seemed at times to be gliding into power, so effortlessly did he take to the cut-and-thrust of British parliamentary politics.

Deployed to London, %3Ca%20href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/12/AR2010051201387.html?hpid=topnews">Washington Post political columnist Dan Balz scratches his chin and ponders the future of the "special relationship":

Officials in and out of government here say Britain needs a more hard-headed relationship with the United States, in keeping with what they see as Obama's approach to Britain and the world. Some fear that the comfort of a "special relationship" can become a substitute for serious thinking about Britain's role.

Britain under David Cameron will remain one of America's most reliable and important allies. But the balance in the relationship may continue to change, as the new British government makes its way in the world.

%3Ca%20href="https://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/05/11/goodbye_gordon_brown">On Foreign Policy magazine's blog, Joshua Keating says good-bye to Gordon Brown:

Never having been elected and serving only three unpopular years as prime minister after many more in waiting, Brown won't be remembered as one of Britain's great leaders, and that's probably deserved. All the same, the outgoing prime minister has a good case to claim that he's been a victim of historical circumstance. On the main factor that propelled David Cameron into 10 Downing Street, the global financial crisis, even Brown's opponents admit he has "mostly made the right decisions."

But after 13 years under what should probably no longer be called "New Labour," British voters are hungry for a change.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2010/05/yes-prime-minister/56574/">At The Atlantic, Clive Crook holds little hope for the Tory/Lib Dem coalition government holding:

A short and turbulent marriage, terminating in an early election, is a distinct possibility - and might not be the worst thing, from Cameron's point of view. Depending on the circumstances, the Tories could hope for re-election with a working majority: "This time, give us a chance to do the job." A brief and bitter experience of coalition government as the fiscal roof falls in could silence demands for proportional representation for the next 20 years.

Links in full

Sarah Lyall | New York Times | %3Ca%20href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/world/europe/12cameron.html?ref=world">Cameron Faces Challenges Beyond His Coalition

Dan Balz | Washington Post | %3Ca%20href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/12/AR2010051201387.html?hpid=topnews">U.S., U.K. alliance questioned following British election

Joshua Keating | Foreign Policy's Passport blog | %3Ca%20href="https://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/05/11/goodbye_gordon_brown">Goodbye Gordon Brown

Clive Crook | The Atlantic | %3Ca%20href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2010/05/yes-prime-minister/56574/">Yes, Prime Minister

Commentators speculate about what we can expect from David Cameron as prime minister and a Conservative-Lib Dem coalition.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/11/coalition-government-liberal-democrats-editorial">Guardian editorial says the new government is good news for people on the centre-left of the political spectrum:

"With Conservatives and Liberal Democrats looking set to sit side by side round the cabinet table, it is possible that party politics will never be quite the same again. Reports that the new government will soon fix parliamentary terms will, we hope, prove to be only the first of many indicators of how the fact of coalition will rewrite the political rules."

The article goes on to highlight the problems which may lie ahead:

"The great test of both parties will be whether the rich can be made to pay their fair share for the debt, or whether instead the burden will fall on the poor and those on lower incomes through service cuts and rises in VAT. Labour, regrouping, will see future opportunity here. Today, though, may still be a liberal moment of a kind. Not the one we, and others, sought. A very fragile one. But not a moment entirely without possibility either."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/conservative/7713528/Why-the-Market-wanted-the-Conservatives-in-No-10.html">Tracy Corrigan explains in the Telegraph why the market wanted the Conservatives in No 10:

"The Market isn't just a bunch of traders, fund managers and other investors who are trying to make sense of what is going on. Most of these individuals happen to be Tory voters, but the market, collectively, is not political; it is pragmatic. If the pound is pummelled, it is not out of malice. Investors in the gilts market do not buy government debt when the Tories run the country and sell it when Labour is elected. They may make short-term bets on interest rates, but beyond that there is one over-riding concern: if I lend money to the British government, will I get my money back in the end?"

%3Ca%20href="https://iaindale.blogspot.com/2010/05/new-dawn-has-broken-has-it-not.html">Conservative blogger Iain Dale says he is glad Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell won't be in office:

"Yesterday they attempted to launch a pseudo-coup. Thank God it failed. Labour people were too sensible to be dragged along with it and credit is due to John Reid, David Blunkett and others for pointing out that it couldn't work.

"Mandelson and Campbell are both very talented people. But they have presided over a culture of conducting politics in a very underhand manner. I may be naive but I hope things will be very different under the new government."

The editor of the ConservativeHome website, %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8676000/8676733.stm">Tim Montgomerie, says on the Today programme that, although he likes the Conservatives' Big Society policy, he thinks their election campaign lacked professionalism:

"You get the idea sometimes from the media that the Cameron team was too PR tested and poll driven. Actually I think it would have been better if it had been more poll driven - that they tested their policies properly to ensure that they would have more bite on the doorstep."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/simon-carr/the-sketch-then-came-cameron-and-the-amateurs-had-won-after-all-1971392.html">In the Independent Simon Carr is not hopeful when he compares Gordon Brown's departure to David Cameron's arrival:

"The amateurs won after all. They beat the professionals. His speech outside the Downing St door made his pitch. The elderly, frail, vulnerable. Bit of freedom and fairness. The Tory-hating section of society will have climaxed in their loathing at these words. Personally, from my occasional encounters with him, dating from 2001, Cameron has always seemed a decent, public-spirited, one-Nation sort of Tory who has been bred in the Treasury.

"Then there was the husbandly touch around his wife's mid-section - it's an ambiguous area when your wife is pregnant - it became a little uncertain, and therefore the object of comment. Oh, it's a new day all right."

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what you need to know.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/11/mark-thompson-bbc-image">Guardian reports that Mark Thompson has unveiled research suggesting that the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s journalism is more important to the country's image overseas than the UK government and other institutions.

Ofcom has had hundreds of complaints about clash between Sky News political editor Adam Boulton and Alastair Campbell %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/11/adam-boulton-sky-news-alistair-campbell">according to the Guardian.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1277680/SANDRA-PARSONS-Wrinkles-No-These-women-CHAACTER.html">Daily Mail is among several papers celebrating the wrinkles of Anna Ford and Selina Scott, smiling at the Sony Radio Academy Awards.

The %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8676644.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ Newspaper review highlights what the papers say. The five days of uncertainty since the general election were "some of the most amazing in our history", says the Sun.

With the Obama administration and Senate Republicans gearing up for the fight over Elena Kagan's confirmation to the Supreme Court, news outlets and political columnists are working to define her public image:

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/opinion/11tue1.html?ref=opinion">New York Times fears Ms Kagan will lack the heft to challenge the Supreme Court's aggressive conservative wing. But its writers praise Obama for nominating an attorney with a background different from the eight other justices, who all ascended from federal appeals courts:

Whether by ambitious design or by habit of mind, Ms Kagan has spent decades carefully husbanding her thoughts and shielding her philosophy from view. Her lack of a clear record on certain issues makes it hard to know whether Mr Obama has nominated a full-throated counterweight to the court's increasingly aggressive conservative wing.

The White House undoubtedly hopes the ellipses in Ms Kagan's record will help her avoid a rocky confirmation hearing. That expedient approach, unfortunately, reflects the widespread sentiment that the right holds the upper hand in judicial debates, forcing the left to duck and cower.

Washington Post columnist %3Ca%20href="/cgi-perlx/mt/mt.cgi?__mode=view&_type=entry&blog_id=441">Dana Milbank wonders if Senate Republicans can resist their typical knee-jerk opposition, because he argues she is not the fierce liberal she'll be caricatured as:

The nomination poses a challenge to Senate Republicans to see whether they can recognize Obama's conciliatory gesture and move beyond reflexive opposition. Conservative interest groups have already begun to holler about how Kagan plans on "reshaping the court" with a "leftist legacy."

That's nonsense. True, Kagan comes from the liberal side. (Was anybody expecting Obama to nominate a member of the Federalist Society?) But she is certainly not the nominee liberal groups wanted. Though the interest groups, now noncommittal, have little choice but to fall in line, writers at liberal outfits have called her an "ideological cipher" (Mother Jones) and a "seemingly principle-free careerist" (Salon).

In the journal %3Ca%20href="https://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/diversity-scam-and-supreme-court">Weekly Standard, James Pierson wishes for a justice who had been educated in state schools, not the Ivy League like all the rest:

The justices of the Court have attended the best schools where they received top grades, have gotten ahead in a competitive profession, and have constantly been told how intelligent they are. They represent a law school culture in which the law is conceived in terms of logical arguments alloyed with good intentions. The everyday world of most Americans is thoroughly foreign to such a culture. And thus it is naïve to think that, given where they came from, the justices would disdain the opportunity to make the law -and even to make it up when they can.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/the_kagan_nomination_m9jpKP3wo4dFK24LGQZOAL">The Murdoch-owned New York Post says the nomination of Kagan, a native New Yorker, makes the Supreme Court a "sixth borough" of the city, after Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island:

If confirmed by the Senate, Elena Kagan - President Obama's choice to succeed retiring Justice John Paul Stevens - would be the third native New Yorker now sitting on the high court, along with Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor. (Plus, Antonin Scalia grew up in Queens.)

So New Yorkers certainly have reason to be proud - though it's too soon to say whether Kagan deserves confirmation.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/37044.html">A report in Politico says that even if Republicans have no hope of derailing the Kagan nomination, they still stand to gain politically from a bruising fight:

Republicans want to incite a national debate about the role of the judiciary, energizing their base ahead of November's midterm elections. Republicans plan to focus on Kagan's lack of judicial experience and her role in a 2003 controversy involving military recruiters on Harvard Law School's campus. And they're trying to paint her as someone more in tune with the workings of Washington insiders than with ordinary Americans.

And on the %3Ca%20href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/us/20100414_KAGAN_TIMELINE.html">New York Times website, a graphical timeline of Kagan's life and career.

On Tech Brief today: Why the iPad is wacky, spam-sending Linux-lovers, power slides by robots and peripherals big enough to rest your bike against.

• Privacy and %3Ca%20href="https://www.facebook.com/">Facebook - the site has gone through so many twists, turns and reverses that it can be hard to work out what is shared and what is not. Wonder no more. %3Ca%20href="https://mattmckeon.com/facebook-privacy/">Matt McKeon from IBM's Visual Communication Lab has turned the changes into a pretty picture. That's pretty as in worrying, but only if you do nothing about it. Says Mr McKeon:

"I like Facebook. It's helped me reconnect with dozens of people with whom I'd lost touch, and I admire the work their team does. I hope your takeaway from this infographic isn't 'I'm deleting my account'; rather, I hope it's 'I'm checking my privacy settings right now, and changing them to a level with which I'm comfortable'."

• Linux users and Apple fanboys have one thing in common, their disdain for the security shortcomings of Windows. And yet, says %3Ca%20href="https://www.symantec.com/en/uk/index.jsp">Symantec, %3Ca%20href="https://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/security-management/2010/05/10/linux-systems-rank-high-on-spam-sender-list-40088889/?s_cid=938">if you run the numbers, Linux systems are more likely to be sending spam. This is despite Windows having a 92%+ share of the operating system market and Linux only 1.02%.

"By calculating a ratio of spam from a given operating system compared to the market share, we can get a 'spam index', which shows -- relative to its market share -- the likelihood that a particular computer is sending spam, based on its operating system. The resulting calculation gave Linux a 'spam index' of 4.99, compared with an index of 1.01 for Windows."

• More numbers likely to spark debate from %3Ca%20href="https://www.npd.com/">NPD which claims that smartphones running Google's Android software outsold the iPhone in the first quarter of 2010. Sales for the quarter put Android on 28%, iPhone on 21% and Blackberry out in front on 36%. NPD tips the hat to the Droid and Droid Eris as the handsets behind the uptick. %3Ca%20href="https://mashable.com/2010/05/10/android-outselling-iphone/">In its research note, NPD said prices shifted too.

"The continued popularity of messaging phones and smartphones resulted in slightly higher prices for all mobile phones, despite an overall drop in the number of mobile phones purchased in the first quarter. The average selling price for all mobile phones in Q1 reached $88 (£60), which is a 5% increase from Q1 2009. Smartphone unit prices, by comparison, averaged $151 (£201) in Q1 2010, which is a 3% decrease over the previous year."

• Apple's iPad may be selling well, but one man stands aloof from the hullaballoo - %3Ca%20href="https://www.useit.com/">Jakob Nielsen. Giving his thoughts on its usability he calls it "weird", "inconsistent" and describes the interface as a "wacky". %3Ca%20href="https://www.useit.com/alertbox/ipad.html">In some respects, he says, it harkens back to 1993.

"The first crop of iPad user apps revived memories of Web designs from 1993, when Mosaic first introduced the image map that made it possible for any part of any picture to become a UI element. As a result, graphic designers went wild: anything they could draw could be a UI, whether it made sense or not. It's the same with iPad apps: anything you can show and touch can be a UI on this device. There are no standards and no expectations."

The more he sees, the less he likes. iPad fans should look away now.

"For the last 15 years of Web usability research, the main problems have been that users don't know where to go or which option to choose -- not that they don't even know which options exist. With iPad UIs, we're back to this square one."

• Autonomous vehicles are usually pretty careful drivers. But researchers at Stanford have developed a system that lets a robot car power slide into a parking space. There's even video. It still needs refinement though as the margin of error is two feet. Like a glove? Not quite.

It's not just a cool stunt--this research should give autonomous cars greater flexibility to deal with unexpected situations.

• Finally one for the hardcore geeks. A user manual for a Cray-1 computer - the granddaddy of supercomputers - that dates from 1977. Powered by a 150 KW generator it was capable, brace yourself, of about 160 megaflops. That's 160 million floating point operations (sums) per second. It's %3Ca%20href="https://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/CRAY-1-HardRefMan/CRAY-1-HRM.html">awe-inspiring to look back and see the peripherals it needed to keep operating.

"Two 20-ton compressors are located external to the computer room to complete the cooling system."

The relentless pace of chip development put that much processing power in a smartphone a long time ago.

If you want to suggest links or stories for Tech Brief, you can send them to %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/bbctechbrief">@bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/">Twitter, tag them bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/">Delicious or e-mail them to techbrief@bbc.co.uk.

Links in full
• %3Ca%20href="https://mattmckeon.com/facebook-privacy/">Matt McKeon | Matt McKeon's blog | The evolution of privacy on Facebook
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/security-management/2010/05/10/linux-systems-rank-high-on-spam-sender-list-40088889/?s_cid=938">Matthew Broersma | ZDNet | Linux systems rank high on spam sender list
• %3Ca%20href="https://mashable.com/2010/05/10/android-outselling-iphone/">Adam Ostrow | Mashable | Android now outselling iPhone
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.useit.com/alertbox/ipad.html">Jakob Nielsen | Use-It | iPad usability: First findings from user testing
• %3Ca%20href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/green-tech/advanced-cars/autonomous-car-learns-to-powerlslide-into-parking-spot">Josh Romero | IEEE Spectrum | Autonomous car learns to powerslide
• %3Ca%20href="https://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/CRAY-1-HardRefMan/CRAY-1-HRM.html">Ed Thelen | Ed Thelen's blog | CRAY-1 Computer System Hardware Reference Manual

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what you need to know.

´óÏó´«Ã½ 6 Music, threatened with closure, won two Sony Radio Academy Awards last night. The %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment_and_arts/10106403.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ and %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/7706362/´óÏó´«Ã½-embarrassed-as-radio-stations-earmarked-for-closure-pick-up-Sony-gold-awards.html">Telegraph report that Radio 4 won six, 5 Live was named UK station of the year. Commercial radio won 12 awards.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/exeditor-fined-for-sachsgate-fee-protest-1970750.html">The Independent reports Charles Moore, former editor of the Daily Telegraph, has been fined £262 for refusing to pay his TV licence as long as Jonathan Ross was employed by the ´óÏó´«Ã½.

Gordon Brown's decision to stand down as Labour leader following the general election dominates Tuesday's papers %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8674132.stm">says the ´óÏó´«Ã½ newspaper review.

Links in full

%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment_and_arts/10106403.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | 6 Music and Asian Network win Sony radio awards
%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/7706362/´óÏó´«Ã½-embarrassed-as-radio-stations-earmarked-for-closure-pick-up-Sony-gold-awards.html">Neil Midgley | Telegraph | Stations earmarked for closure pick up Sony gold awards
%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/exeditor-fined-for-sachsgate-fee-protest-1970750.html">Matt Dickinson | Independent | Ex-editor fined for 'Sachsgate' fee protest
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8674132.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Brown resignation dominates papers

• Read %3Ca%20href="/blogs/seealso/2010/05/mediabrief_47.html">Monday's Media brief

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/´óÏó´«Ã½TorinDouglas">my archive of media archives on Delicious

Following Gordon Brown's resignation as Labour leader, commentators discuss his legacy.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-mr-browns-unexpected-electoral-legacy-1970596.html">Independent's editorial says that Mr Brown "with a brisk five-minute statement, changed the whole nature of the game":

"As Prime Minister, Mr Brown made many mistakes. He was elevated without a leadership contest; he ducked holding an election to legitimise his position, and he did not cede power when it could have improved Labour's election chances. But the manner of his departure suddenly opens up British politics. It is a timely and fitting bequest."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1276861/Gordon-Brown-resigns-New-politics-It-stinks-like-prop-forwards-jockstrap.html?ITO=1490">In the Daily Mail Quentin Letts celebrates Gordon Brown's departure:

"The only welcome piece of news: Brown is out. But not yet, alas. It was a day, for the politicians, of scrabbling for alliances. For the rest of us it was a frustrating day of having gates and doors slammed in our faces, of being moved on by the cops, and effectively being told we were not adult enough to know of the discussions being held in the name of those votes we cast last week. If this is the new politics, Nick Clegg, it stinks like a prop forward's jock strap."

The director of the Centre for Economics Policy Studies at the Hudson Institute, %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/10/labour-wrong-to-get-rid-of-brown">Irwin Stelzer, argues in the Guardian that Labour was wrong to get rid of Brown:

"Remember: Brown kept Britain out of the euro, and granted independence to the Bank of England - perhaps the two things that have kept the rating agencies from treating Britain as it is treating Greece. So far."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article7122301.ece">Rachel Sylvester says in the Times that Gordon Brown's resignation will lead to soul-searching in the Labour party:

"Labour must also decide whether it is a party of pragmatism or ideology. Through its leadership election it will have the first chance in more than a decade to define what it stands for. It could return to its traditional supporters, as the Tories did in 1997, and become a left-wing rump, or try to retain a broader-based appeal. The unions will fuel the latent desire to swing to the left. The prospect of a coalition with the Lib Dems could focus minds on the need to stay on the centre ground."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.alastaircampbell.org/blog.php?id=424">In his blog Alastair Campbell eulogises about his colleague:

"The way many in the media and public talk of politicians, all they see are self-serving plotters and schemers interested only in status, power and advancement. I think Gordon has genuinely been driven in politics by a deep belief in social justice, and in recent days by a clear commitment to seeking to make sense of the result in a way that serves the national interest."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/gordon-brown/7707350/In-office-but-no-longer-in-power-Brown-gives-Labour-a-last-chance.html">In the Telegraph Mary Riddell says Mr Brown's "hairshirt tenacity" may be missed by more than many allow:

"If this deal succeeds, Gordon Brown, a colossal figure on the political stage, will have assured his place in history. He may also have called time on Sisyphus syndrome. In future, those pledged to social, global and electoral justice will not be cursed to push the rock of change uphill, only to watch it crash to earth again."

On Tech Brief today: Facebook's new features, zombie satellites, why Twitter is the "wildfire of the web" and robots that just need a little TLC:

• Already addicted to Facebook? The social network is about to embed even itself further into our lives, if a %3Ca%20href="https://techcrunch.com/2010/05/09/facebook-places-check-in/">nifty bit of code crunching by MG Siegler over at TechCrunch is anything to go by. Trawling through the code for the site, he came across what he says is a new feature called Places:

"Based on the code, this is what it seems that Facebook is about to launch: A mobile version of the site using the HTML5 location component to grab your location information from your phone. Once it does that, you're taken to this new Places area of Facebook that presumably will have a list of venues around you. From here you can click a button to check-in. Yes, there will be check-ins."

• That means that Facebook could soon be competing with other real-world social networks, such as Foursquare. A %3Ca%20href="https://techcrunch.com/2010/05/09/facebook-location-feature/">follow-up story, tagged in Delicious by Tech Brief readers %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/wyliemac">Alvin Borromeo and %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/garcia.vivian49">Vivian Garcia, suggests that the detective work paid off:

"As I said earlier tonight, code doesn't lie. Facebook has now confirmed their location-based feature, which is apparently due to launch shortly if the code found on their touch.facebook.com site is any indication."

• In the UK, the fall-out from the general election continues. %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10102126.stm">Commentators pointed out last week that technology might have helped alleviate some of the problems on polling night. But a %3Ca%20href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlCOj1dElDY&feature=player_embedded">video picked up by %3Ca%20href="https://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/05/10/0342218/Researchers-Demo-Hardware-Attacks-Against-Indias-E-Voting-Machines">Slashdot suggests that e-voting systems may not be the panacea some claim:

"[S]tudents at the University of Michigan took only about a week to build a replacement display board that lies about the vote totals, and the team also built a pocket-sized device that clips onto the memory chips, with the machine powered on, and rewrites the votes."

• %3Ca%20href="https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/0509/Zombie-satellite-runs-amok-in-Earth-s-orbit">The Christian Science Monitor reports on a rogue satellite that is running amok in orbit, threatening to bite other satellites and convert them to the undead. Well, it might cause problems if it wanders into the "geostationary orbital slot occupied by another C-band satellite":

"An attempt to shut down the electronics payload of the out-of-control communications satellite Galaxy 15 has failed, leaving the satellite - which ceased responding to ground commands last month - still in its uncontrolled 'zombiesat' drift toward orbits occupied by other spacecraft."

• Twitter makes the world smaller. Stanley Milgram's famous experiments suggest that any two people on earth were usually separated by 'six hops' amongst friends and acquaintances. All Hollywood actors can %3Ca%20href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Degrees_of_Kevin_Bacon">supposedly be linked to Kevin Bacon in a similar number of steps. But Twitter, it seems, is even smaller than Hollywood. %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/may/09/john-naughton-twitter-microsoft-research">John Naughton in the Observer picks up on a study that suggests most people are only separated by four steps:

"Next to traditional, few-to-many broadcasting, Twitter is the fastest way to spread news and information. In fact, it's the nearest thing the web has to wildfire. And the key mechanism that enables that is retweeting."

• Last week, German researchers reported what happens if you give a robot a sharp knife and put it in the vicinity of a human. Ouch! This week, the humans strike back. %3Ca%20href="https://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2010-05/cellphone-robot-dances-cries-and-throws-tantrums">Popular Science reports on a Canadian team which has been making robots cry:

"Callo stands about 9 inches tall, and his face, which is a cell phone display screen, shows human facial expressions when he receives text-messaged emotions. When he receives a smile emoticon, Callo stands on one leg, waves his arms and smiles. If he receives a frown, his shoulders slump and he will cry. If he gets an urgent message, or a really sad one, he'll wave his arms frantically."

• And finally, %3Ca%20href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gruber/4594658152/">Jon Gruber at Daring Fireball links to a picture of the Pixar website as seen on an iPad. The site relies heavily on Flash, a technology Apple boss and Pixar director %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10092298.stm">Steve Jobs has publicly decried.

If you want to suggest links or stories for Tech Brief, you can send them to %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/bbctechbrief">@bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/">Twitter, tag them bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/">Delicious or e-mail them to techbrief@bbc.co.uk.

Links in full
• %3Ca%20href="https://techcrunch.com/2010/05/09/facebook-places-check-in/">MG Siegler | TechCrunch | Facebook's Check-In Functionality
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlCOj1dElDY&feature=player_embedded">YouTube | India's electronic voting
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/0509/Zombie-satellite-runs-amok-in-Earth-s-orbit">Peter B de Selding | Christian Science Monitor | 'Zombie' satellite
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/may/09/john-naughton-twitter-microsoft-research">Jon Naughton | Observer | Twitter study
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2010-05/cellphone-robot-dances-cries-and-throws-tantrums">Rebecca Boyle | Popular Science | Robots dance, cry, throw tantrums
• %3Ca%20href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/05/10/great-web-site">Jon Gruber | Daring Fireball | Pixar website

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what you need to know.

According to the %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/7701480/Dame-Julie-Andrews-at-Londons-O2-Arena-Fans-demand-refund-after-car-crash-show.html">Daily Telegraph and the %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment_and_arts/10104018.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½, thousands of fans have demanded refunds after Dame Julie Andrews' comeback show, 13 years after an operation on her vocal chords. But she still pleased loyal fans.

Three days after the election, speculation continues over whether a deal can be agreed over forming a government, %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8671775.stm">as reflected in the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s newspaper review.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7692763/´óÏó´«Ã½-criticised-for-30000-election-night-boat-party.html">Daily Telegraph and %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/election/article-1274491/UK-ELECTION-RESULTS-2010-´óÏó´«Ã½-blasted-45-000-election-boat-party.html">Daily Mail report that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ was criticised in newspapers and its own message-boards for spending thousands of pounds on its TV election-night party, on a boat moored near Parliament.

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ was criticised for the lack of women in its election night - and post-election - coverage, %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/joan-smith/joan-smith-in-the-studio-in-the-house-where-are-all-the-women-1969228.html">says the Independent.

The question of whether a deal can be agreed by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats over a coalition government dominated Sunday's papers, %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8670578.stm">reports the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s newspaper review.

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ won the election night battle for viewers, and Channel 4's alternative coverage beat ITV's, %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/07/channel-four-election-ratings-outshine-itv">according to the Guardian.

Links in full

%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/7701480/Dame-Julie-Andrews-at-Londons-O2-Arena-Fans-demand-refund-after-car-crash-show.html">Matthew Moore | Telegraph | Dame Julie Andrews at London's O2 Arena
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment_and_arts/10104018.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Fans high despite low notes
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8671775.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Newspaper review
%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7692763/´óÏó´«Ã½-criticised-for-30000-election-night-boat-party.html">Neil Midgley | Telegraph | ´óÏó´«Ã½ criticised for election night boat party
%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/election/article-1274491/UK-ELECTION-RESULTS-2010-´óÏó´«Ã½-blasted-45-000-election-boat-party.html">Sara Nathan| Daily Mail | ´óÏó´«Ã½ blasted for spending thousands on election boat party
%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/joan-smith/joan-smith-in-the-studio-in-the-house-where-are-all-the-women-1969228.html">Joan Smith | Independent | Where are all the women?
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8670578.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Newspaper review
%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/07/channel-four-election-ratings-outshine-itv">Jason Deans | Guardian | Channel 4 election ratings outshine ITV

• %3Ca%20href="/blogs/seealso/2010/05/media_brief.html">Read my previous Media Brief

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/´óÏó´«Ã½TorinDouglas">my archive of media articles on Delicious

Commentators discuss how the next government will be formed as talks between the Conservatives and Lib Dems continue.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/andrew-grice/andrew-grice-lib-dems-must-talk-to-the-tories-but-they-have-more-in-common-with-labour-1969990.html">The Independent's Andrew Grice says that on many of the big issues - such as cutting the deficit, climate change and Europe - the Lib Dems have far more in common with Labour than they do with the Tories:

"Even if the Lib-Con negotiators reach a deal, MPs in both parties fear trouble ahead. A significant number of Tory MPs will not feel comfortable with getting into bed with the Liberal Democrats and the feeling is mutual."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/william_rees_mogg/article7121214.ece">In the Times William Rees-Mogg, who was editor of the paper at the time of the hung Parliament in 1974, notes a significant similarity between the talks that took place then between Edward Heath and Jeremy Thorpe and those now between David Cameron and Nick Clegg:

"The party leaders can reach a deal with each other with relative ease, but they are limited by the reluctance of their own supporters, now and in 1974. And this internal opposition will always include MPs as well as party activists."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7703187/Hung-parliament-Camerons-PR-coup-to-wrong-foot-Labour.html">The Telegraph's Benedict Brogan agrees, saying that David Cameron is prepared to go further than many in his party would like in order to gain power:

"Officially, there has been no offer so far on electoral reform but he also wants certainty that his Lib Dem allies will vote with him in the Commons when it matters.
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"He wants to bind them in to the hard decisions ahead. To that end he is prepared to go much further than his party perhaps realises."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/09/liberal-democrats-tory-deal-tribalism">Julian Glover in the Guardian reckons that for the Lib Dems to refuse to do a deal with the Tories would simply confirm a fact about the British political system that they have long criticised:

"A prissy standoffishness would consign them to irrelevance and confirm the very fact that they hoped this election would prove wrong: Britain still cannot escape its old political tribes."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.politics.co.uk/features/general-election-2010/feature-uncharted-waters-for-british-politics-$21376970.htm">Alex Stevenson at politics.co.uk warns the Tories and Lib Dems to manage the public perceptions of any talks to avoid uncertainty in the markets:

"If the current talks collapse there will be a price to pay on the markets, with all parties seeking to blame another. With the prospect of another election within 12 months now a very real possibility there really is all to play for."

%3Ca%20href="https://blogs.channel4.com/snowblog/2010/05/10/a-pig-flying-down-whitehall/">Jon Snow at Channel 4 News says that the most likely scenario is a deal between Tories and Lib Dems where Nick Clegg's MPs will only support the Budget and Queen's Speech.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/columnists/article-1275934/Forget-shabby-room-deals--Cameron-guts-alone.html">In the Mail, Melanie Philips argues that for the Tories to be taken seriously in future, the party needs to go it alone as a minority government:

"[C]oalitions mean backstairs deals which are not transparent at all. They mean weak governments held to ransom by tiny political parties."

• %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/andrew-grice/andrew-grice-lib-dems-must-talk-to-the-tories-but-they-have-more-in-common-with-labour-1969990.html">Andrew Grice | Independent | Lib Dems must talk to Tories
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/william_rees_mogg/article7121214.ece">William Rees-Mogg | Times | Leaders want a deal. Their followers may not
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7703187/Hung-parliament-Camerons-PR-coup-to-wrong-foot-Labour.html">Benedict Brogan | Telegraph | Cameron's PR coup to wrong-foot Labour
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/09/liberal-democrats-tory-deal-tribalism">Julian Glover | Guardian | The onus is on Lib Dems
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.politics.co.uk/features/general-election-2010/feature-uncharted-waters-for-british-politics-$21376970.htm">Alex Stevenson | Politics.co.uk | Uncharted waters for British politics
• %3Ca%20href="https://blogs.channel4.com/snowblog/2010/05/10/a-pig-flying-down-whitehall/">Jon Snow | Channel 4 News | A pig flying down Whitehall?
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/columnists/article-1275934/Forget-shabby-room-deals--Cameron-guts-alone.html">Melanie Phillips | Mail | Forget these shabby back-room deals
• %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8670733.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Bloggers' review on the hung Parliament

On Tech Brief today: Ships with skirts; open-source gaming, the net predictions; Flash costs, Flash conversions.

• Cargo ships are heavy. Very heavy. When they plough the oceans, half the energy from their engines is lost overcoming friction. %3Ca%20href="https://www.smartplanet.com/business/blog/intelligent-energy/bionic-cargo-ships-for-better-fuel-efficiency/1097/">German scientists think the hairs on the hydrophobic water fern might be able to help:

"In their study published in Advanced Materials, the authors found that the very tips of the fern's whiskers are actually hydrophilic, meaning they attract water. As the hair ends dive into water, they essentially pin the liquid away from the rest of the plant at regular intervals. The layer of air is then trapped."

The trapped air forms a "gauzy skirt of air" that could cut fuel costs by 10%, they suggest.

• World of Warcraft is the Google of online games. So much so that some massively multi-player games are trying novel ways to drum up players. %3Ca%20href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/05/07/make-your-own-mmo-ryzoms-open-sauciness">Alec Meer at RockPaperShotgun explains:

All MMOs are rubbish, blah blah blah. World of Snorecraft, blah blah blah. Well, make your own bloody MMO, then. How? With the complete source code and art assets from fantasy monster-biffing game %3Ca%20href="https://media.ryzom.com/">The Saga of Ryzom. It's had player content-building for a while, but this is extraordinary. The devs have just made the whole kit and kaboodle open source, free to use and modify for anyone.

• Even before the forerunner to the net was built, some were predicting its existence. Sir Maurice Wilkes, creator of the pioneering Cambridge Edsac, came up with the idea of the %3Ca%20href="https://calderup.wordpress.com/2010/05/04/internet-64/">World In A Box for a 1964 New Scientist series on the future. The tech may look wrong but the predictions about its effects are eerie:

"The work of commercial and professional organisations will be transformed. There may be no very clear distinction between authors, scholars, publishers, librarians, television producers or anyone else who can be called an information mediator - but it will be their task to save mankind from drowning in its own information."

• It is not just Apple that has a problem with Flash. Document-sharing site %3Ca%20href="https://www.scribd.com/">Scribd (think YouTube for text) has declared its dislike too. Speaking at the %3Ca%20href="https://www.web2expo.com/">Web 2.0 conference, %3Ca%20href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/06/scribd_ditches_flash_for_html5/">Scribd boss Jared Friedman said it had scrapped its use of Flash in favour of HTML 5. The reason, he said, were Flash's drawbacks:

"It boils down to the fact that you're putting the content inside a separate application. This leads to a browser-in-a-browser problem where we end up duplicating functionality in the user's browser ourselves.
"This is one, a lot of work, and two, almost incessantly a bad user experience."

To emphasise his point he demonstrated the Flash-less Scribd working on an Apple iPad.

• Instead of using Flash for video, many want to switch to the H.264 specification. Many bloggers have pointed out that this is not an open standard but is owned by a huge number of tech firms. Will they use that to squeeze royalties from web firms? %3Ca%20href="https://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/h264-patents-how-much-do-they-really-cost/2122">At ZDNet, Ed Bott thinks not:

"What guarantee do licensees have that MPEG LA won't raise royalty rates by some outrageous amount when the royalty schedules come up for renewal? The current rates are fixed for five years, till the end of 2015, and are renewed again every five years for the life of the patents."

If you want to suggest links or stories for Tech Brief, you can send them to %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/bbctechbrief">@bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/">Twitter, tag them bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/">Delicious or e-mail them to techbrief@bbc.co.uk.

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="https://www.smartplanet.com/business/blog/intelligent-energy/bionic-cargo-ships-for-better-fuel-efficiency/1097/">Melissa Mahony | Smart Planet | Riding waves to better fuel efficiency?
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/05/07/make-your-own-mmo-ryzoms-open-sauciness/">Alec Meer | Rock Paper Shotgun | DIY MMO: Ryzom's Open Sauciness
• %3Ca%20href="https://calderup.wordpress.com/2010/05/04/internet-64/">Nigel Calder | Calder's Updates | The Internet anticipated in 1964
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/06/scribd_ditches_flash_for_html5/">Cade Metz | The Register | Scribd ditches flash for html5
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/h264-patents-how-much-do-they-really-cost/2122">Ed Bott | ZD Net | H.264 patents: how much do they really cost?

In the American media, commentators discuss the results of the UK's general election.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/">Josh Marshall of left-wing blog Talking Points Memo finds another reason to call the election result unprecedented:

The UK election turned out to be perhaps the only election I can think of where all three parties managed to lose at the same time. Each in a different way.

On %3Ca%20href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-05-07/florida-on-the-thames/?cid=hp:exc">The Daily Beast, Tina Brown writes that Gordon Brown's biggest enemy now is the "Tory press", especially Murdoch papers calling for his head:

The Tories are already bleating on about their "moral victory" and Labour's repudiation, but in fact the country hasn't elected the Tories and Gordon Brown can sit tight and will. He is tough, a Scottish bruiser when it comes to a knuckle fight. His biggest enemy now is the Tory tabloid press. Murdoch scion James has already been heard chewing the carpet at Times newspapers and girding for a battle that will end with Cameron in Number Ten. The nation is feeling even more bad tempered, broke and anxious than it did the weeks before. With images of incipient revolution in Greece flooding the TV screens on election eve, the City is baying for a "decisive," aka Tory, government.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1987773,00.html">Time's Catherine Mayer puts the election results down to Britain's disaffection with the traditional political parties:

As results rolled in across the country, it became clear that the first national election since revelations last year of widespread misuse of parliamentary expense accounts had provided voters with a chance to put the boot into the big parties.

On %3Ca%20href="https://www.newsweek.com/id/237505">Newsweek's website, William Underhill writes that the measures necessary to right the UK budget may punish the party whose leader ends up in Number 10 for generations.

After a hard-fought campaign spent scurrying across the country in a last-minute effort to win undecided voters, David Cameron has probably won enough votes to become Britain's prime minister, assuming he can form a coalition with one of the other two parties. But why, again, does he want the job? The plain truth is that when Cameron moves into Downing Street, he'll inherit a financial mess that's almost unprecedented in peacetime Britain, and it carries nasty political implications. This is an election that, looking back, any sane leader might have preferred to lose.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/05/07/2010-05-07_brits_and_yanks_bff__with_some_wiggle_room.html">Thomas M Defrank of the New York Daily News writes that no matter who becomes the next prime minister, expect a cooling of the "special relationship" between the US and the UK:

Britain's next prime minister, whoever he is, is well aware the Labor Party's decline after 13 years of rule is tied to the belief London has been too much in lockstep with a succession of American Presidents.

Labor has never recovered from the perception that former Prime Minister Tony Blair was so tight with Washington he was ridiculed as President George W Bush's "poodle".

The next PM won't repeat the mistake of cozying up with Barack Obama.

Commentators speculate about the deals that parties can make to form a government.

Re-elected Conservative MP %3Ca%20href="https://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2010/05/07/i-feel-like-i-win-when-i-lose/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+JohnRedwoodsDiary+%28John+Redwood%27s+Diary%29&utm_content=Google+Reader">John Redwood ponders in his blog the ethics of a possible Labour-led government:

"Mr Brown is within the rules to stay as Prime Minister, and to seek to form that 'progressive coalition' that we have been debating on this site for a few days. The question which needs to be asked, however, is does he understand the mood of the country? It is within the rules to do as he does, but is it within the spirit of the election result? Does he recognise that if you lose around 100 seats and fall substantially in the popular vote, if you come a poor second, it is possible that the country does not want you to remain as Prime Minister?"

In the %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/07/nick-clegg-david-cameron">Guardian Seumas Milne outlines the difficult dilemma for Nick Clegg:

"[T]he prime minister has already decided to try and make the Liberal Democrats an offer on electoral reform they will find agonising to refuse - and initial contacts have already been under way... Clegg didn't exactly make things any easier for himself by declaring during the campaign that whoever won 'more votes and seats - I support them'. That's clearly the Conservatives - and there's no chance of PR from them."

%3Ca%20href="https://iaindale.blogspot.com/2010/05/clegg-nails-colours-to-mast.html">Political blogger Iain Dale thinks that the Lib Dems will support the Tories while working with the opposition to gain ground on electoral reform:

"David Cameron would form a minority administration, with the Lib Dems not voting down a Queen's Speech or a budget. At the same time, formal coalition talks would begin, with a clear timetable and a clear deadline."

%3Ca%20href="https://indyeagleeye.livejournal.com/274513.html">Michael Savage argues in the Independent that the Lib Dems will not be celebrating their potential role as kingmakers:

"A few people saying this morning that this was a dream result for the Lib Dems, with a hung parliament giving them leverage for electoral reform. I don't buy it. After the highs of the campaign, losing seats will be a devastating blow to the leadership. It was unthinkable, even on the evening of the election. What Clegg and his team wanted was a sign that they had won support from the country in their own right."

Political blogger %3Ca%20href="https://hopisen.wordpress.com/2010/05/07/the-day-everyone-lost/">Hopi Sen warns that before speculating, we have to find out the precise balance of seats:

"The mathematics matters. What would it take for a stable government to be achieved? Would the most obvious combinations be compatible with the interests of the parties involved? Personally, I think Nick Clegg would have to be suicidally insane to support a Tory minorty Government with no offer on Electoral reform, but hey, what do I know?"

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what you need to know.

The general election results overshadow most media news. However, there are reports from the ´óÏó´«Ã½ and ITV election parties in the %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/may/07/simon-hoggart-election-night-sketch">Guardian and the %3Ca%20href="https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7118745.ece">Times.

%3Ca%20href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE6461GQ20100507">Reuters reports that ITV has forecast a 22% rise in ad revenue in the second quarter, helped by the World Cup, but says the longer outlook is highly uncertain.

The election is the obvious choice of headline for all the daily newspapers, %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8667119.stm">summed up in the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s newspaper review.

Links in full

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/may/07/simon-hoggart-election-night-sketch">Simon Hoggart | Guardian | Get me into the ´óÏó´«Ã½ party
%3Ca%20href="https://www.timesonline.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7118745.ece">Ann Treneman | Times | Nice to see you
%3Ca%20href="https://www.reuters.com/">%3Ca%20href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE6461GQ20100507">Reuters | ITV's outlook uncertain post-election, shares hit
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8667119.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Newspaper Review

• Read %3Ca%20href="/blogs/seealso/2010/05/Media%20Brief_46.html">Thursday's Media Brief

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/´óÏó´«Ã½TorinDouglas">my archive of media articles on Delicious

Commentators discuss the prospect of a hung Parliament.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7689481/General-election-2010-Labour-has-lost-and-the-Conservatives-deserve-a-chance-to-govern.html">Telegraph editorial commends David Cameron's achievement:

"It is highly unlikely that Mr Cameron will seek a coalition with other parties and he would be wise to avoid doing so. As he said in the early hours during his count in Witney, the country needs stability and leadership. The results suggest that can only be provided by the Tories. When all the votes are counted later today, the Tory leader should have enough seats to form the first minority government since 1974 and get a Queen's Speech through Parliament with the informal support of the minor parties, who will not wish to trigger another election by voting it down. Such a result would mark a signal personal triumph for David Cameron, who has demonstrated throughout the campaign the qualities of unflappability and stamina that will be needed in the months and years to come. The scale of his achievement cannot be overstated."

%3Ca%20href="https://blogs.channel4.com/snowblog/2010/05/07/cameron-heads-for-downing-street-but-his-position-will-be-relatively-weak/">Gary Gibbon at Channel 4 News says if David Cameron does end up leading the country, his position could be relatively weak:

"There is much that could be done without legislation and that includes a lot of the main narrative of the next government - how you cut the deficit. There would be many opportunities when it comes to legislation to frustrate his will.

Very importantly for the future election, which may not be a long way off, David Cameron would not be able to redraw the parliamentary boundaries and cut the number of seats the way he wanted to - a reform that would have benefited his party."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/07/general-election-2010-hung-parliament1">Simon Jenkins says in the Guardian that a hung Parliament means the Lib Dems have a short moment of power:

"Nick Clegg and his Liberal Democrats now have their moment of power, but it will be just a moment. They have failed to win enough votes to carry an overwhelming moral case for electoral reform, yet they have not supplanted Labour on the centre-left. They may pray for the Tory lead to be big enough to leave the decision in the hands of the nationalists, but that seems unlikely. Whatever they decide they may well split over it, and may have to defend at an early re-election. Their recent ecstasy will swiftly turn to agony."

%3Ca%20href="https://dizzythinks.net/2010/05/statement-of-intent-and-other-things.html">Political blogger Phil Hendren says in his blog Dizzy Thinks that it's not over yet:

"Nigel Farage is in hospital and his count hasn't started yet, and other counts will begin shortly, but it seems likely that the Tories will be the largest party with also the largest popular vote. This presents Clegg with a dilemma.

Clegg was very careful to not define whether a mandate for him was most votes or most seats, if the Tories have both he's either got to go with them or break his word and prove he's not 'something different' at all."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article7119063.ece">Rachel Sylvester says in the Times that this election was about antipathy as much as apathy:

"After the MPs' expenses scandal, the war in Iraq, bullying spin-doctors and dodgy statistics, trust in politicians is at a record low, compounded by the behaviour of the bankers who are to many people part of the same elite. A hung Parliament is the result that many voters wanted. It was effectively a cross in the box for 'none of the above', a plea for a more co-operative, grown-up dialogue between the parties in what was an anti-politics election. The politicians should listen humbly and learn. This is a very British sort of revolution."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.sueddeutsche.de/,tt2m1/politik/410/510529/text/">London correspondent for Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Wolfgang Koydl, is critical [link in German] of the UK's two-party system:

"Labour-Tory, Tory-Labour: Reliably, like the chimes of Big Ben, Britain's political pendulum always swung to and fro between the two dominant parties. If one party dominated for too long, the other replaced it.

"But this time the pendulum has not swung far enough. It has got stuck in a grey zone, where there is plenty of room for speculation, arrangements, deals and ultimately no doubt coalitions. Just the normal state of affairs after a parliamentary election in Germany, Italy or Belgium. But new territory for the British... Now nobody can rule without help from the Lib Dems, and Brown and his social democrats have not wasted a second in making overtures."

On Tech Brief today: hardware hacking with a cleaver, DIY social networking and Chinese password crackers.

• Google has quietly changed what users get when they type in their keywords and hit return. Veteran search-industry analyst %3Ca%20href="https://battellemedia.com/archives/2010/05/google_steps_gingerly_toward_search_as_application.php">John Battelle detects a significant shift in the tiny tweak:

"Bing (and Ask before it) has built a service on top of commodity search results, one that does not require you to go back and forth, back and forth, but rather instrument your search session using intelligent, persistent navigation. This is exactly what Google's new UI lets you do."

• Geeks tend to love their tools, but few %3Ca%20href="https://www.johnbenson.net/How_to_Convert_a_SIM_to_a_MicroSIM_with_a_Meat_Cleaver/How_to_Convert_a_SIM_to_a_MicroSIM_with_a_Meat_Cleaver.html">have put a meat cleaver to such a novel use as John Benson. The owner of an iPad from the US, he realised that it would only work with a Micro SIM memory card - a format that is not available in the UK. He did, however, have a larger memory card:

"So what's the solution? Get a chopping board, a meat cleaver and a pair of scissors - simples!"

• Blue Destiny Records usually releases songs dealing with life's darker moments, but it may soon be singing about its own sorrows. The label is to face net giant Google in court over whether links to file-hosting sites aid piracy. %3Ca%20href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/06/google_sues_blues_label/">Andrew Orlowski in The Register deconstructs the deal, noting that Google's "annual revenue is larger than the entire global record industry" and:

"Victory would ensure a significant area of liability for Google would be removed. But even Reuters is moved to describe Google's response as 'hubristic'."

• Cracking the passwords used to keep wi-fi data secure seems a formidable task for all but the most tech-savvy hacker. %3Ca%20href="https://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/050510-wi-fi-key-cracking-kits-sold-in.html">Not any more:

"With one of the 'network-scrounging cards', or 'ceng wang ka' in Chinese, a user with little technical knowledge can easily steal passwords to get online via Wi-Fi networks owned by other people."

• %3Ca%20href="https://www.joindiaspora.com/2010/04/21/a-little-more-about-the-project.html">Four self-confessed nerds from New York University have hatched a plan for a social network, called Diaspora, that puts its members in control. It will be built up by members connecting their seed (a personal server) to those of their friends.

"We think we can replace today's centralized social web with a more secure and convenient decentralized network. Diaspora will be easy to use, and it will be centered on you instead of a faceless hub."

If you want to suggest links or stories for Tech Brief, you can send them to %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/bbctechbrief">@bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/">Twitter, tag them bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/">Delicious or e-mail them to techbrief@bbc.co.uk.

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="https://battellemedia.com/archives/2010/05/google_steps_gingerly_toward_search_as_application.php">John Battelle | Searchblog | Google steps gingerly toward search as application
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.johnbenson.net/How_to_Convert_a_SIM_to_a_MicroSIM_with_a_Meat_Cleaver/How_to_Convert_a_SIM_to_a_MicroSIM_with_a_Meat_Cleaver.html">John Benson | Johnbenson.net | Convert a sim to a micro sim with a meat cleaver
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/06/google_sues_blues_label/">Andrew Orlowski | The Register | Google sues tiny indie label
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/050510-wi-fi-key-cracking-kits-sold-in.html">Owen Fletcher | Network World | Wi-Fi key-cracking kits sold in China
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.joindiaspora.com/2010/04/21/a-little-more-about-the-project.html">Maxwell Salzberg | Diaspora | More about the project

Commentators discuss the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.slate.com/id/2253099/?from=rss">Christopher Beam in Slate catalogues a series of PR mistakes he thinks BP has made after the spill:

"Since the initial explosion on the oil rig in April, BP has made some missteps. For example, the company initially told reporters that the rig was leaking 1,000 barrels of oil a day. The real figure turned out to be 5,000 barrels, after a new leak was discovered. Even then a BP spokesman downplayed the number as somewhere between 1,000 and 5,000. 'That hurt their credibility early on,' says Timothy Coombs, who teaches public relations at Eastern Illinois University. 'People wondered, How much can we trust you?' It also violated a rule that Larry Smith of the Institute for Crisis Management tells his clients: 'Don't speculate. If you know, say so. If you don't know, say you don't know'... BP also needs to grasp that though it may not be a villain, people perceive it that way."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/dfa2624c-5877-11df-9921-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=rss&nclick_check=1">John Gapper says in the Financial Times [registration required] that the disaster should have been avoided:

"The blow-up is less a reminder of BP's legacy than an example of the safety and environmental dangers that it and other oil 'supermajors' face by drilling in such difficult spots. Risk-taking is not something from their past that they have overcome; it is what they must do.
Ìý
"The bleak reality is that, no matter who committed the original sin, oil has been gushing into the Gulf from 5,000 feet beneath sea level for two weeks now with BP not being able to halt the flow. That does not say much for a company that flaunts its expertise in deep-water drilling to investors and governments."

The former chairman of environmental organisation the Sierra Club %3Ca%20href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-pope/what-should-we-do-instead_b_564891.html">Carl Pope argues in the Huffington Post that people have to start thinking seriously about an alternative way of transporting oil and an alternative to oil:

"If we electrified our railroads, as Europe has done, we wouldn't need to use any oil for rail shipments. As it is, UPS regularly has the lowest carbon footprint among its competitors because it relies heavily on getting its containers onto railcars, using trucks only for the 'last mile' from the nearest railhead.
Ìý
"Investing in our freight-rail infrastructure is obviously also key to developing a world-class passenger-rail system, since in most of the country outside of the Boston-Washington corridor freight and passenger trains would share the same railbed.
Ìý
"Right now, the debate is focused on a goal of shifting ten percent of America's truck traffic to rail. That's not ambitious enough. Given the evidence that's pouring into the Gulf of Mexico, we need to get America off of oil as quickly as we can."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/opinion/03krugman.html">Paul Krugman says in the New York Times that this disaster will reinvigorate environmentalists:

"For the most part, anti-environmentalists have been silent about the catastrophe. True, Mr. Limbaugh - arguably the Republican Party's de facto leader - promptly suggested that environmentalists might have blown up the rig to head off further offshore drilling. But that remark probably reflected desperation: Mr. Limbaugh knows that his narrative has just taken a big hit.
Ìý
"For the gulf blowout is a pointed reminder that the environment won't take care of itself, that unless carefully watched and regulated, modern technology and industry can all too easily inflict horrific damage on the planet."

%3Ca%20href="https://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/05/the-morality-of-oil.html">Andrew Sullivan says in the Atlantic that the disaster made him pause to consider whether the economic gain of oil outweighs other loss:

"Even if it makes economic sense to keep drilling for the time being, even if a growing economy will require carbon fuels for decades, even if we have yet to find a way to develop non-carbon energy that can easily replace carbon at a reasonable price... does not the sight of this wound in the deep sea prompt us to look again at the models we simply assume about life on this planet?
Ìý
"I'm not talking here about the logic once one has conceded the modern world's attempt to master the earth as a resource so as to create the fantastic wealth and technology and health many human beings now have access to. I'm talking about a humbler view toward the moral and ethical cost of such an achievement."

The %3Ca%20href="https://article.nationalreview.com/433349/yes-keep-drilling/the-editors">National Review editorial is headlined "Yes, keep drilling":

"Oil remains the most cost-effective source of transportation fuel we have; as long as our economy is thriving, we will need to produce or import a lot of it. Global-warming alarmists and zealous proponents of alternative energy have already made the BP spill the new Exhibit A in their case against fossil fuels. In evaluating their claims, we should be mindful of the economic and environmental costs of the spill relative to those associated with their preferred alternatives."

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what you need to know.

Will Lewis, the editor-in-chief of the Daily Telegraph, who led its award-winning expose of MPs' expenses, has left the group. The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/05/will-lewis-telegraph-media-group">Guardian says there was a disagreement with the chief executive Murdoch MacLennan over future strategy.

Friday's EastEnders will mark the result of the election, whatever the outcome, with a scene dropped in at the last moment. The %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment_and_arts/10098370.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ reports that all eventualities have been planned for.

DVD sales fell last year in the wake of the collapse of Woolworths and Zavvi. But sales of legal downloads of films and TV series, grew by 40 per cent to 7.2m, according to the British Video Association handbook. The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/may/06/dvd-sales-slump">Guardian says the BVA hopes it's the start of trend that will counter piracy, as more titles become available on websites like iTunes.

The man who led the switch to digital TV explains why he wants everyone to switch to DAB digital radio. %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/7682990/Should-you-retune-to-digital-radio.html">Ford Ennals is interviewed by the Daily Telegraph.

Links in full

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/05/will-lewis-telegraph-media-group">Jane Martinson | Guardian | Will Lewis out at Telegraph Media Group
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment_and_arts/10098370.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | EastEnders to mark election result
%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/may/06/dvd-sales-slump">Richard Wray | Guardian | DVD sales slump after Zavvi and Woolworths collapse
%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/7682990/Should-you-retune-to-digital-radio.html">Emma Barnett | Telegraph | Should you retune to digital radio?

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/´óÏó´«Ã½TorinDouglas">my archive of media articles on Delicious

Commentators discuss the arguments for and against tactical voting.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/05/tactical-voting-electoral-reform-editorial">Guardian editorial says tactical voting is understandable but flawed:

"The crescendo of attention to tactical voting this week is entirely predictable. But it is also an indictment of our way of conducting elections. Tactical voting is easy to understand. Human beings have no problem choosing second-best solutions to dilemmas in other areas of their lives, so there is nothing inherently ignoble about casting a vote in this way too. Voting against a candidate whose victory one fears can be a more urgent course of action than voting in favour of one you support with reservations. Yet tactical voting is simultaneously hard to apply. Accurate information about who is best placed to benefit is notoriously hard to come by. All parties try to mislead voters about their own chances. No two constituencies behave in the same way. Many a well-intentioned tactical voter has discovered too late that their supposedly canny switch has produced the very opposite result to the one they intended."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.tribunemagazine.co.uk/2010/05/05/it%e2%80%99s-labour-or-tory-there%e2%80%99s-no-alternative/">Nathaniel Mehr in Tribune warns against tactically voting for a hung Parliament:

"A vocal section of progressive activists have launched a campaign with the aim of promoting a hung parliament by means of tactical voting. They argue this will make it harder for any government to implement devastating cuts.

"They must be supremely confident in both the persuasiveness of their message and the accuracy of whatever model they have used to determine precisely how this hung parliament will be achieved. Anything less represents an enormous gamble. If they don't convince enough people by May 6, they will be engaging in an act of small-scale sabotage that will barely register in terms of the final outcome."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/anatole_kaletsky/article7116141.ece">Anatole Kaletsky says in the Times that he thinks we need a Tory-Lib-Dem pact and he thinks that can be achieved through voting for Labour:

"If, however, Labour comes second - just ahead of the Liberal Democrats - in the popular vote, the situation would be transformed. Nick Clegg would then have a genuine choice of coalition partners and would be in a position to demand serious concessions from the Tories. Mr Cameron, facing the awful possibility of a Lib-Lab government, would be have to come to terms with Mr Clegg. A two-year co-operation pact, giving the Tories enough time to address Britain's fiscal problems and to prepare a referendum on electoral reform, would be the likely result.

"This would be the best outcome of tomorrow's election. Ironically, such a Tory-Lib Dem pact will only become possible if enough people vote Labour."

Taking a pragmatic view, the %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-independent-guide-to-tactical-voting-1963012.html">Independent has published a guide on how to vote tactically.

%3Ca%20href="https://indyeagleeye.livejournal.com/269331.html">In the Independent's Eagle Eye blog John Rentoul breaks his own rules and compliments %3Ca%20href="/iplayer/newsnight">Tony Blair's advice on tactical voting shown on Newsnight:

"I'm not supposed to do this, but Tony Blair was on Newsnight last night (starts at 3'50"). He was asked about tactical voting, the fashionable cause espoused by Ed Balls, Peter Hain, Alan Johnson, The Independent, Independent on Sunday, Guardian, Observer and even the Daily Mirror. And he answered questions about it. It was interesting. That's all I'm saying."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.wifeinthenorth.com/2010/05/day-after-tomorrow.html">Political blogger Wife in the North is succinct in her views towards politicians' warnings:

"Politicians holding forth on tactical voting. (Do they think the voters are idiots that they have to be instructed where to put their cross?)"

On Tech Brief today: Playstation gamers frustrated, Opera web browser's "severe" flaw - and the cyber-policing that gives you wings.

• Playstation users in Europe had to wait an extra day for the latest map updates to Modern Warfare 2: Call of Duty. The Playstation Store now updates on a Wednesday in Europe but on a Tuesday in the US, which was when the MW2 maps were released.

In the old days, European gamers would have been even more frustrated as the store used to update on a Thursday, according to %3Ca%20href="https://blog.eu.playstation.com/2010/05/05/heads-up-playstation-store-update-5th-may-2010/">Playstation Store team blogger Mike Kebby.

• %3Ca%20href="https://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/extremely-severe-flaw-in-opera-web-browser/6355"> Ryan Naraine at Zdnet reports that popular web browser %3Ca%20href="https://www.opera.com">Opera has issued a fix for a "severe security flaw" in version 10.53 which affects Windows and Mac users. Opera also wins Tech Brief's Tech Jargon Of The Week award for %3Ca%20href="https://www.opera.com/support/kb/view/953/">this rather marvellous explanation of what the flaw means:

"Multiple asynchronous calls to a script that modifies the document contents can cause Opera to reference an uninitialized value, which may lead to a crash. To inject code, additional techniques will have to be employed."

You have been warned... We think.

• Petabytes are so 2009, Tech Briefers. Word on the street - OK, %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/may/03/humanity-digital-output-zettabyte">in Richard Wray's piece in The Guardian - is that there's a new measurement big enough to describe all the digital data out there - and it's called the zettabyte.

"Research published today estimates that the so-called digital universe grew by 62% last year to 800,000 petabytes - a petabyte is a million gigabytes - or 0.8 zettabytes. That is the equivalent of all the information that could be stored on 75bn Apple iPads, which would equal the digital output from a century's worth of constant tweeting by all of Earth's inhabitants."

• The US Air Force is to issue a cyberwings medal to digital warriors, %3Ca%20href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/04/put_cyber_wings_on_my_sons_chest/">says Lewis Page in The Register. At first, we didn't quite believe it either. And now we all want one.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.afspc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123201868"> Tech. Sgt. Kevin Williams at Airforce Space Command explains the meaning behind the design of the medal, available at basic, senior and masters levels:

"The design element of the badge holds significant meaning. The lightning bolt wings signify the cyberspace domain while the globe signifies the projection of cyber power world-wide. The globe, combined with lightning bolt wings, signifies the Air Force's common communications heritage. The bolted wings, centered on the globe, are a design element from the Air Force Seal signifying the striking power through air, space and cyberspace. The orbits signify the space dimension of the cyberspace domain."

Move over %3Ca%20href="/cbbc/bluepeter/">Blue Peter, there's a new badge in town.

• Parlez-vous lolcat? %3Ca%20href="https://tech.mit.edu/V130/N24/roflcon.html">The Tech's Meghan Nelson reports from the 2010 ROFLcon (Roll On The Floor Laughing Convention) at MIT, a gathering of the brains behind internationally popular memes such as %3Ca%20href="https://www.icanhazcheezburger.com">I Can Haz Cheezburger and %3Ca%20href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J---aiyznGQ">Keyboard Cat.

The group met to discuss how memes translate and travel through different cultures. Keynote speaker Ethan Zuckerman from Havard explained:

"While historically Africa had produced no memes, Kenya had recently created its first. Makmende Amerudi, a pseudo-Chuck Norris, has quickly gone viral in Kenya. Web sites have been established listing Makmende facts, and his portrait has found its way onto parody 10,000 shillings notes."

Cyberwings to the first person who can send one Tech Brief's way.

If you want to suggest links or stories for Tech Brief, you can send them to %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/bbctechbrief">@bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/">Twitter, tag them bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/">Delicious or e-mail them to techbrief@bbc.co.uk.

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="https://blog.eu.playstation.com/2010/05/05/heads-up-playstation-store-update-5th-may-2010/">Mike Kebby | Playstation Blog | 'Heads-Up' PlayStation Store Update
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/extremely-severe-flaw-in-opera-web-browser/6355">Ryan Naraine | ZD Net | Extremely severe flaw in opera web browser
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/may/03/humanity-digital-output-zettabyte">Richard Wray | The Guardian | Goodbye petabytes, hello zettabytes
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/04/put_cyber_wings_on_my_sons_chest/">Lewis Page | The Register | US netwar-force Cyber Wings badge unveiled
• %3Ca%20href="https://tech.mit.edu/V130/N24/roflcon.html">Meghan Nelson | The Tech Online | As memes go mainstream, lols

The ability of Faisal Shahzad, a suspect in the Times Square bomb plot, to board a plane bound for Islamabad via Dubai has raised questions about shortcomings in US security.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/04/AR2010050405357.html?hpid%3Dtopnews">Karen DeYoung and Anne E Kornblut of the Washington Post question how Mr Shahzad arrived at JFK airport while being tracked by the FBI.

Most curious is how Shahzad, a suspected and potentially dangerous car bomber who was being tracked by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies since late Sunday, was able to drive to crowded Kennedy Airport, with a loaded 9mm handgun with extra clips in the car. It appears that the FBI and others watching Shahzad lost track of him for a period of time as he made his way toward the airport in Long Island.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/nyregion/05plane.html">Scott Shane of the New York Times reports that Emirates failed to check for an added name to the no-fly list.

In addition, the airline he was flying, Emirates, failed to act on an electronic message at midday on Monday notifying all carriers to check the no-fly list for an important added name, the officials said. That meant lost opportunities to flag him when he made a reservation and paid for his ticket in cash several hours before departure.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36936390">Eileen Sullivan and Matt Apuzzo of the Associated Press explain that Emirates worked from a no-fly list that was not current.

But when Emirates sold the ticket, it was working off an outdated list. Airline officials would have had to check a Web forum where updates are sent if it were to flag him. Because they didn't, law enforcement officials were not aware of his travel plans until they received the passenger list 30 minutes before takeoff, the official said.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/rubin/289366">Jennifer Rubin of Commentarymagazine.com suggests that security lapses are a common occurrence since 9/11.

We have benefited from the relative ineptitude of two terrorists - one who could have incinerated a plane-load of people and another who could have killed scores of people and created havoc in Times Square. The administration calls these "failed" incidents and thereby skates from incident to incident, never quite coming clean on its shortcomings. We should be pleased Shahzad was quickly apprehended, but we should demand a full explanation as to how he got on the plane.

%3Ca%20href="https://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/archive/2010/05/04/fbi-surveillance-of-times-square-suspect-broke-down.aspx">Mark Hosenball of Newsweek suggests that Mr Shahzad's name should have been more swiftly entered into an airline reservation system.

While Homeland Security, often blamed for aviation security lapses and gaffes, can take credit for spotting and grabbing the suspect, officials concede not all of its procedures worked perfectly either. Once Shahzad's name had been entered on the "no-fly" list due to his status as a suspect in the bombing case, the alert on him should have been entered into all airline reservation systems so that he would be denied a ticket and authorities would be alerted if and when he tried to buy one. According to a knowledgeable official, fearing that the "no-fly" listing would move too slowly through the system, Homeland's Transportation Security Administration did put out a special alert related to Shahzad and asked airlines to check their passenger lists by hand to see if his name was on them. But this emergency procedure didn't work and he still wasn't taken off the plane until what was essentially the 59th minute of the 11th hour.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.theroot.com/views/news-stand-another-no-fly-failure-los-suns-protest-arizona-law-sheila-johnsons-belated-shame-a">Nsenga Burton of Theroot.com asks why a one-way ticket paid for in cash did not indicate foul play.

What exactly is the point of a no-fly list if wannabe terrorists are going to be allowed on the plane anyway? How is it that us regular folks get searched and seized for things like mascara, lipstick, hand lotion and belt buckles? Suspected terrorist Faisal Shahzad reserved a one-way ticket on his way to JFK airport, paid for it in cash and coasted through security to secure a seat on his Emirates flight. We're not security experts, but even we know that one-way tickets bought in cash is an indicator of terrorist behavior. How do we know? September 11, 2001. We're just saying.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7116408.ece">Times Online reports that the mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, agrees that Shahzah should not have been on the plane.

White House officials have praised the handling of the investigation, pointing out that Mr Shahzad was arrested before he could leave the country. But questions have been raised about the glaring security lapses on the part of government agencies and the airline that almost allowed him to flee the country. Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York, said: "Clearly the guy was on the plane and shouldn't have been. We got lucky."

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what you need to know.

Avatar and a recovery in advertising have boosted profits at News Corporation. Rupert Murdoch says he thinks ad revenue will continue to grow %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10097624.stm">reports the ´óÏó´«Ã½ and %3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/7679816/Rupert-Murdoch-hails-rise-in-advertising-revenue.html">Telegraph.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/05/general-election-2010-tv-coverage">Guardian looks at the high-tech election night plans of the main TV channels.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1272542/Scantily-clad-vampires-pass-Doctor-Who--´óÏó´«Ã½s-idea-family-viewing.html?ITO=1490">Daily Mail reports that some Doctor Who fans are complaining that the programme is being "sexed up", with scantily clad vampires and seductive new assistant Amy Pond.

The %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8659643.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ reports that Mark Thompson will be the first ´óÏó´«Ã½ director general since Greg Dyke 10 years ago to give the keynote McTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival. Sky's James Murdoch used last year's lecture to attack the ´óÏó´«Ã½.

The %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8661391.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ newspaper review says that the newspapers are focusing on pushing their party of choice on the eve of polling.

Links in full

%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10097624.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Avatar boost for News Corporation
%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/7679816/Rupert-Murdoch-hails-rise-in-advertising-revenue.html">James Quinn | Telegraph | Rupert Murdoch hails rise in advertising revenue
%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/05/general-election-2010-tv-coverage">Tara Conlan | Guardian | TV channels plan hi-tech coverage
%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1272542/Scantily-clad-vampires-pass-Doctor-Who--´óÏó´«Ã½s-idea-family-viewing.html?ITO=1490">Paul Revoir | Daily Mail | Doctor Who: Scantily-clad vampires
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8659643.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | ´óÏó´«Ã½ chief to give TV festival lecture
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8661391.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Newspaper review

• Read %3Ca%20href="/blogs/seealso/2010/05/Media%20Brief_44.html">Tuesday's Media Brief

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/´óÏó´«Ã½TorinDouglas">my archive of media articles on Delicious

As polling day approaches commentators turn their minds to past elections, especially 1997, and offer their opinions on New Labour.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/david-randall-so-farewell-then-the-new-labour-years-1960299.html">David Randall in the Independent succinctly chronicles the New Labour years:

"'Things Can Only Get Better', Cherie in a dressing-gown, and a bright, confident May morning. Bernie Ecclestone. Pretty straight kinda guys. That catch in his voice. The smile. Sincerity. 'She was the People's Princess.' Alastair Campbell. Cool Britannia.

"Step changes, strategies and stakeholders. Enablement, diversity and outreach. Projects, partnerships and initiatives. Above all, for all those "communities". Frank Field asked to 'think the unthinkable'; Roy Jenkins' report on electoral reform. Blairites, Brownites, 'Blair Babes' and nom-doms. Euan in Leicester Square; Ron Davies on Clapham Common; and a slow handclap from the WI.

"The Good Friday Agreement. Sure Start. PFI, MMR and CCTV. Asbos, 24-hour drinking, Saturday night in town centres, knives, hoodies, marching yobs off to the nearest cash machine, and 'a few eye-catching initiatives'. Hate crime, date crime, and a thousand other new crimes. 'Elf 'n' safety. Risk assessments. Inappropriate behaviour. Compensation. Pay-offs. Blue skies thinking. Lord Birt, tsars, envoys, focus groups, special advisers, Jo Moore, and 'a good day to bury bad news'. Targets. Tick boxes. More targets. 'New money.'

"An ethical foreign policy; 9/11; 'We will pay the blood price.' Dodgy dossiers, weapons of mass destruction, 45 minutes, David Kelly, a body, and no inquest. Afghanistan, Iraq, death tolls and Wootton Bassett. Hutton, Butler and Chilcot. Helmand, Basra and Baha Mousa. Home-grown terror cells. Tanks at Heathrow, 7/7, weedkiller bombs, terror raids, 42 days, extraordinary rendition. 'Yo, Blair!'"

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/mark-steel/mark-steel-farewell-to-the-labour-party-1962314.html">In the Independent Mark Steel says the root to what he sees as Labour's demise can be found in New Labour:

"So until the era of Blair, whatever the size of its vote, it retained its branches in every town, its campaigners, its youth sections and its links with working class communities. Under Blair that evaporated, so the branches are almost dead, and almost anyone with any vision or passion has packed up and left, so that now they might be overtaken by Liberal Democrats, not just in votes but as a national party in every sense. That will be Blair's legacy."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/04/clapham-park-estate-tactical-voting">Polly Toynbee reminisces in the Guardian about her time on a Clapham housing estate and wonders what the New Labour legacy will be:

"Walking back home I thought over this microcosm of New Labour with its hyperbolic promises brought down to earth by hard realities. The social distance between Clapham Park and well-off Clapham where I live is as wide or wider now. Like Britain, the estate is brighter, cleaner, safer and better off with tax credits - but the social chasm between their children's lives and those 10 minutes away is as deep as ever."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/03/parasite-new-labour-fear-hope">George Monbiot argues against his colleagues at the Guardian, calling New Labour a parasite:

"Cling on to nurse for fear of something worse. Though she has become crabbed and vicious, though she has usurped our parents, swiped our inheritance, binned our toys and sold the nursery, we must cower behind her skirts for fear of the beasts that prowl beyond. This, in essence, is what Polly Toynbee, Jonathan Freedland, Seumas Milne and Nick Cohen are now telling us to do."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7664906/General-Election-2010-The-next-PM-must-face-up-to-New-Labours-corrosive-legacy.html">In the Telegraph Matthew d'Ancona continues the criticisms:

"And their legacy will be deep and lasting. Not just a public debt of £167 billion, unreformed public services, a broken society, and Armed Forces deplorably overstretched and under-resourced. What the New Labour gang grasped was that post-war Britain, though not quite a social democracy, had grown utterly dependent upon the state in all its manifestations."

Tony Blair's agent from beginning to end, %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8635000/8635391.stm">John Burton told the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s Today programme that he is convinced New Labour isn't over:

"The very fact that Mandelson is involved with the present Labour government shows that New Labour isn't over... You've just got to have the very thought in the North East of a Conservative government and it really generates enthusiasm among Labour people."

On Tech Brief today: Facebook privacy, how the web is changing thanks to touch-screen devices and 10 things Hollywood thinks computers can do... but which they can't.

• The main story occupying the tech press at the moment is news that regulators are considering an anti-trust investigation into Apple after the tech firm mandated that its own programming tools had to be used to write applications for the iPad and iPhone. The story started with %3Ca%20href="https://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/an_antitrust_app_buvCWcJdjFoLD5vBSkguGO">a piece in the New York Post which quotes an un-named source:

"Regulators, this person said, are days away from making a decision about which agency will launch the inquiry. It will focus on whether the policy, which took effect last month, kills competition by forcing programmers to choose between developing apps that can run only on Apple gizmos or come up with apps that are platform-neutral, and can be used on a variety of operating systems, such as those from rivals Google, Microsoft and Research In Motion."

• Although details are still vague, the tech press has gone to town on the story. %3Ca%20href="https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703612804575222553091495816.html">Thomas Catan and Yukari Iwatani Kane at The Wall Street Journal report that the inquiry is also about Apple's new mobile advertising platform iAd:

"Apple's new language forbidding apps from transmitting analytical data could prevent ad networks from being able to effectively target ads, potentially giving Apple's new iAd mobile-advertising service an edge, executives at ad networks say."

• %3Ca%20href="https://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/05/03/u-s-vs-apple-who-would-win/">Philip Elmer-DeWitt at Fortune looks at previous anti-trust cases involving Microsoft to ask who would win in a case between the US and Apple:

"To win a Sherman Antitrust case against Apple, the government would have to prove both that Apple's market share constitutes a monopoly - itself not illegal - and that it has abused that monopoly power in ways that damage its competition."

• %3Ca%20href="https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=asdIuYfRt_7U">James Rowley and Arik Hesseldahl at Bloomberg say the inquiry has been prompted by a complaint from Adobe, which until recently created tools that allowed developers easily to create iPhone apps:

"Adobe says Apple is stifling competition by barring developers from using Adobe's products to create applications for iPhones and iPads, said the people who spoke on condition of anonymity because they aren't authorized to discuss the case."

• %3Ca%20href="https://memex.naughtons.org/archives/2010/05/03/10881">Writer John Naughton highlights an interview in %3Ca%20href="https://www.technologyreview.com/web/25226/?a=f">MIT Technology Review with Microsoft researcher Danah Boyd about Facebook and privacy. Naughton calls Boyd "one of the sanest and best-informed observers of social networking". The article touches on themes highlighted recently by the Electronic Frontier Foundation in their post %3Ca%20href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/04/facebook-timeline">Facebook's Eroding Privacy Policy: A Timeline. From the interview:

"People started out with a sense that this is just for you and people in your college. Since then, it's become just for you and all your friends. It slowly opened up and in the process people lost a lot of awareness of what was happening with their data."

• Technology Review also has a %3Ca%20href="https://www.technologyreview.com/computing/25236/page2/">fascinating piece by Erica Naone about how the web is changing due to the emergence of touch-screen devices:

"A lot of Web applications were written with a certain sequence of mouse actions in mind. An application might be coded so that it must see a mouse hovering over a button before that mouse is able to click on it. In this case, it's not simply that the mouse-over action doesn't work as expected - it's that the site actually can't register a click without it, meaning that the application breaks when used on a touch device."

• %3Ca%20href="https://mashable.com/2010/05/03/facebook-parents/">Mashable has a short story about survey results that found that nearly half of parents add their children as friends on Facebook.

"Parents admitted that 'it can be awkward at times' when they follow their kids' Facebook updates, but think that it's probably worth it to keep tabs on them. Of course, savvy teens could easily exclude their parents from seeing potentially incriminating updates using Facebook's advanced privacy features."

• And finally, %3Ca%20href="https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/10/05/04/1357215/Top-10-Things-Hollywood-Thinks-Computers-Can-Do">Slashdot picks up on a piece in Expert Reviews called %3Ca%20href="https://www.expertreviews.co.uk/general/278200/top-10-things-hollywood-thinks-computers-can-do">"Top 10 things Hollywood thinks computers can do", which should have the suffix "but can't". It starts with "When systems go wrong, stuff starts to explode":

"When a computer crashes in real life it's often quite annoying, but spectacularly dull to watch. In films, when a computer goes wrong, it's very exciting and stuff starts to explode... Sparking and exploding control stations is our favourite. Thankfully this doesn't happen in real life - imagine your keyboard exploding just because Windows had crashed again."

If you want to suggest links or stories for Tech Brief, you can send them to %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/bbctechbrief">@bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://twitter.com/">Twitter, tag them bbctechbrief on %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/">Delicious or e-mail them to techbrief@bbc.co.uk.

Links in full

• %3Ca%20href="https://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/an_antitrust_app_buvCWcJdjFoLD5vBSkguGO">Josh Kosman | New York Post | An antitrust app
• %3Ca%20href="https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703612804575222553091495816.html">Thomas Catan and Yukari Iwatani Kane | Wall Street Journal | Apple Draws Scrutiny
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=asdIuYfRt_7U">James Rowley and Arik Hesseldahl | Bloomberg | Adobe prompts probe
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.technologyreview.com/web/25226/?a=f">Erica Naone | MIT Technology Review | Facebook and privacy
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.technologyreview.com/computing/25236/page2/">Erica Naone | MIT Technology Review | Redesigning the web
• %3Ca%20href="https://mashable.com/2010/05/03/facebook-parents/">Samuel Axon | Mashable | Parents and Facebook
• %3Ca%20href="https://www.expertreviews.co.uk/general/278200/top-10-things-hollywood-thinks-computers-can-do">Expert Reviews | Hollywood and computers

I'm the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what you need to know.

Viewers are watching TV for more than four hours a day - 30 hours a week - according to BARB figures. Thinkbox says it's due to new TV technology, a new research system and people spending more time at home the %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8658409.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ reports.

But scientists say too much television is bad for young children's development, %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1271527/Watching-TV-rises-hours-day.html?ITO=1490">according to the Daily Mail.

The %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/03/simon-kelner-independent-editor">Guardian reports that the Independent's new Russian owner has confirmed that Simon Kelner is returning as its editor. Evgeny Lebedev said Kelner would return on a permanent basis after a two-year hiatus and will remain editor-in-chief of the Sunday title.

The %3Ca%20href="https://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article7114027.ece">Sunday Times claims the ´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service is "braced for the loss of up to a quarter of its budget" because of Foreign Office cuts.

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ may have to use licence fee money to plug a hole in its pension fund %3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1270702/´óÏó´«Ã½-divert-licence-fee-money-pension-fund-plug-1-billion-black-hole.html?ITO=1490">according to the Daily Mail.

There's %3Ca%20href="https://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article7113486.ece">analysis in the Times and the %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/03/itv-kevin-lygo-programmes-inhouse">Guardian of Kevin Lygo's move from Channel 4 to run ITV Studios, the first appointment by new ITV chief executive Adam Crozier.

The %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8658894.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½'s newspaper review says newspapers' election coverage takes on an air of urgency on the penultimate day of campaigning.

Links in full

%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8658409.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | 'Hard-up Britons watching more TV'
%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1271527/Watching-TV-rises-hours-day.html?ITO=1490">Daily Mail | Watching TV rises to more than four hours a day
%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/03/simon-kelner-independent-editor">Robert Booth | Guardian | Simon Kelner becomes editor of Independent
%3Ca%20href="https://www.timesonline.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article7114027.ece">Chris Gourlay | Times | 'Terminal' cuts loom at World Service
%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1270702/´óÏó´«Ã½-divert-licence-fee-money-pension-fund-plug-1-billion-black-hole.html?ITO=1490">Arthur Martin | Daily Mail | ´óÏó´«Ã½ to divert licence-fee money into pension fund
%3Ca%20href="https://www.timesonline.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article7113486.ece">Alexi Mostrous | Times | Is it because I is back? Ali G team reunited at ITV
%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/03/itv-kevin-lygo-programmes-inhouse">Steve Hewlett | Guardian | ITV values Kevin Lygo's skills
%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8658894.stm">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Newspaper review

• Read %3Ca%20href="/blogs/seealso/2010/04/Media%20Brief_43.html">Friday's Media Brief

• Read %3Ca%20href="https://delicious.com/´óÏó´«Ã½TorinDouglas">my archive of media articles on Delicious

Commentators discuss the election and foreign policy. They ask how the UK interacts with the rest of the world from nuclear weapons and war to Europe and immigration.

• %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8515961.stm?subject=housing&col1=conservative&col2=labour&col3=libdem">Where They Stand: Guide to party election policies

%3Ca%20href="https://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/325e9fe2-56dd-11df-aa89-00144feab49a.html">In the Financial Times the last UK governor of Hong Kong Chris Patten explains [subscription required] why he thinks foreign policy will not change:

"Since world war two, changes of government in Britain have not led to significant shifts in foreign policy. Both the largest parties have invariably shared the same aims and illusions. In opposition, parties have been roiled by disagreements over external affairs and defence, for example over our approach to the European Union and the possession of nuclear weapons. In government, the same parties have found a workable way forward and I doubt whether the situation will be much different after May 6."

Britain's nuclear-weapons plans have split the Liberal Democrats from Labour and the Conservatives. %3Ca%20href="https://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a30e936e-56dd-11df-aa89-00144feab49a.html">Gideon Rachman in the Financial Times contests [subscription required] Barack Obama's goal of a nuclear-free world:

"The idea of a world free of nuclear weapons is not so much an impossible dream as an impossible nightmare... A world without nuclear weapons might also be one of much deeper mutual suspicion. Even if states did scrap all their nukes, most would retain the knowledge and the ability to build a nuclear weapon quickly. The certainty that an adversary had nuclear weapons would be replaced by the neurotic fear it might secretly have something in a cellar - or that it could be one screwdriver's turn away from reacquiring the world's most dangerous weapons."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/yasmin-alibhai-brown/yasmin-alibhaibrown-scapegoats-for-societys-many-faults-1960889.html">Yasmin Alibhai-Brown says in the Independent[contains strong language] that Gordon Brown's recent "bigot" remark exposes the lie that people cannot talk about immigration without being a racist:

"Banned too are any suggestions that some anti-immigrant views are racist. Where is the social research evidence that these are uncoupled? Gillian Duffy was indeed bigoted (not a bigot - nobody should be wholly defined by any one set of attitudes) because she lumped Eastern Europeans into one big moan and because in her area there is no major 'influx' of our fellow EU citizens. They were used symbolically for deeper indigenous worries - that in Rochdale, in 10 years one in five will be from the 'ethnic minorities', and the place changing its old character. Duffy doesn't like that and she has every right to say so. But we too have the right to object to her xenophobic ideas of who may belong."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/stephen-castle-high-cost-of-being-out-of-the-eu-but-locked-in-732388.html">In the Independent Stephen Castle argues that the party who wins should not withdraw from Europe:

"Outside the EU, [the UK] would remain a nuclear power with a global reach as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, but Britain would be excluding itself from one of its main spheres of interest, making it a less important ally for the US. Taking itself out of co-operation on justice and home affairs would be risky too, as the UK enjoys a special hybrid status. It opts into much co-operation but keeps control of its own borders. But it is the economic sphere where withdrawal would really hurt. With an estimated 3.5 million jobs dependent on trade with Europe, the EU's single market is fundamental for British business."

The London correspondent of El Mundo %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2010/may/02/general-election-foreign-correspondents-views">Eduardo Suarez describes in the Guardian how he thinks the rest of the world perceives this election:

"I think it's quite revolutionary, I do. It's almost certain that the electoral system is going to change as a result of it. I was so angry with those commentators who said this is a bubble, it's a Diana moment, it will burst. And it hasn't. I think something revolutionary is happening and this is big lesson for newspapers, commentators and political parties."

Links in full

%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8515961.stm?subject=housing&col1=conservative&col2=labour&col3=libdem">´óÏó´«Ã½ | Where They Stand: Guide to party election policies %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8564186.stm">Dominic Hughes | ´óÏó´«Ã½ | Keeping a lid on Euro differences %3Ca%20href="https://www.ft.com/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/325e9fe2-56dd-11df-aa89-00144feab49a.html">Chris Patten | Financial Times | Why British foreign policy will not change %3Ca%20href="https://www.ft.com/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a30e936e-56dd-11df-aa89-00144feab49a.html">Gideon Rachman | Financial Times | A nuclear-free world? No thanks %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/yasmin-alibhai-brown/yasmin-alibhaibrown-scapegoats-for-societys-many-faults-1960889.html">Yasmin Alibhai-Brown | Independent | Scapegoats for society's many faults %3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/stephen-castle-high-cost-of-being-out-of-the-eu-but-locked-in-732388.html">Stephen Castle | Independent | High cost of being out of the EU, but locked in %3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/">%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2010/may/02/general-election-foreign-correspondents-views">Guardian | How the eyes of the world see a very British contest

An attempted car bomb attack in New York's Times Square on Saturday has received wide coverage in the US media, including much speculation as to who was behind it.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-05-02-times-square-car-bomb_N.htm">USA Today considers a link to the corporate owner of the TV progamme South Park.

The location is near the entrance to the headquarters of Viacom, corporate owner of Comedy Central's South Park cartoon, which some Muslims have criticized for its satiric depiction of the Islamic prophet Mohammed in a bear suit. Asked about a link to South Park, [Police commissioner Raymond] Kelly said, "We certainly wouldn't rule it out."

Other papers are looking at how the type of attack could add clues to who was responsible - and questioning whether these relatively small plots are the new trend, as Keith Johnson in the Wall Street Journal suggests.

The %3Ca%20href="https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704608104575220623841113164.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLETopStories">same publication reports that security experts have said the culprit(s) appears to have lived in the New York area, suggesting it was a case of homegrown or "lone-wolf" terrorism.

This is a very crude device that is at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to explosives," said one person familiar with the investigation.

This probably means the would-be bomber "lacks a formal training in explosives," and thus the bomb was "most likely the work of an American or expatriate living in America that is not a trained member of a terrorist organization," the person said.

But, as a counterterrorism expert in the %3Ca%20href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/02/AR2010050202660.html?sid=ST2010050201717">Washington Post says, 'amateur' bombs should not be underestimated.

Often officials use the word 'amateurish' when in fact the attempts turn out to be more complex than first portrayed," said Bruce Hoffman, a counterterrorism expert at Georgetown University.

"Even if the bomb was amateurish, look at the target. New York has an image of being tough on terrorists, but that wasn't enough to prevent someone from putting a car bomb in the city's nerve center on a busy night."

%3Ca%20href=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/nyregion/03threat.html?ref=nyregion>Ray Rivera in the New York Times asks whether car bombs, the "weapon of choice" in other areas of the world, will now be the new method of attack in the United States.

For New Yorkers, it was an unsubtle and unsettling reminder that threats could be lurking in the trunks or back seats of any of the thousands of vehicles that push their way into the city every day.

A%3Ca%20href="https://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/05/03/new.york.car.bomb/index.html"
CNN blog explains how the hunt has begun for a man caught on video tape in Times Square - and also reports the possible links to a Pakistani Taliban group.

In a purported Pakistani Taliban video that surfaced on the internet Sunday, the group took responsibility for the foil ed attack, though [Police commissioner Raymond] Kelly said Sunday afternoon that "we have no evidence to support this claim."

The group, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, said in a video that the attack was revenge for their leaders killed by American forces, and for United States and NATO interference in that part of the world.

%3Ca%20href=https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aQCimhTDNzlQ> Bloomberg carries more on these claims, including threats by Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud, who was reportedly killed in a attack in Afghanistan four months ago, but has released a video pledging fresh US attacks.

%3Ca%20href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1269354/GENERAL-ELECTION-2010-Ping-And-goes-Nick-Cleggs-cheesy-smile.html">In the Daily Mail Quentin Letts remarks on how quickly the Lib Dem leader has become attuned to the ever-growing press corps around him:

"What a big yellow sunflower Cleggy has become, rotating to the nearest bank of television crews."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/apr/27/gordon-brown-nurses-speech">The Guardian's Simon Hoggart says that the PM went all out when he spoke to nurses at their conference in Bournemouth:

"The nurses Gordon Brown was addressing must have felt as if they were being hosed down with maple syrup. And added treacle."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/simon-carr/simon-carr-nancy-mogg-no-its-annunziata-reesmogg-actually-1957284.html">For the Independent, Simon Carr pays a visit to Somerton and Frome, the constituency where the Conservative candidate is Annunziata Rees-Mogg:

"The Tory candidate has a name that is visible from space."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/simon-carr/simon-carr-might-the-pavarotti-of-politics-call-the-tune-in-a-hung-parliament-1956155.html">Mr Carr was also at the Respect party's launch where he notes that George Galloway had little need for an amplifier to get his message across:

"What a voice he has, George Galloway. He's the Pavarotti of politics."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/apr/29/simon-hoggart-election-sketch-clegg-oxford-brookes">Simon Hoggart says that despite their best intentions, the assembled Oxford Brookes students who'd come to listen to Nick Clegg on Wednesday couldn't help but lose their initial enthusiam:

"He has a terrific gift for sedating people. If you were bitten by a snake and had to lie still until the serum arrived, he could save your life by telling you his thoughts on banking regulation."

%3Ca%20href="https://www.politics.co.uk/sketch/general-election-2010/sketch-pop-ular-cameron-finally-fizzes-$1375122.htm">Alex Stevenson, writing for Politics.co.uk, hazards a guess as to why Tory leader David Cameron was talking at such a pace when he met workers at a Coca-Cola factory in Wakefield:

"Cameron was speaking much faster than usual. Was he on a sugar high after falling into a giant vat of Coke? His claims were certainly getting more and more far-fetched."

Ahead of the third and final prime-ministerial TV debate %3Ca%20href="https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7112333.ece">the Times' Ann Treneman predicts what Mr Brown would not be mentioning:

"The man has had so many accidents he should be in A & E. The one thing I was sure he wasn't going to say was: 'I met this woman in Rochdale yesterday ...'"