News

There is a new beta of Firefox 2 released. Desktop Linux has the scoop. The FTP download is here: ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/2.0b2/

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"Firefox 2 Beta 2 is intended for Web application developers and our testing community," the team said on the Mozilla development website. "Current users of Firefox 1.x should not use Firefox 2 Beta 2 and expect all of their extensions and plugins to work properly. The final Firefox 2.0 is expected to be completed in early 2007, the team said. More beta versions are expected to be released this fall and winter.

As with any beta software, use it at your own risk.

ASE Labs has a new contest running right now to celebrate the 5 years that this site has been online. You can easily enter by posting in a single thread: »http://www.aseforums.com/viewtopic.php?topicid=2651

Get registered and start posting! »http://www.aselabs.com/usercp.php?mode=adduser

Prizes include a Logitech G15/G7 combo and a Nintendo DS Lite!

Speaking of emails, how many of you instantly respond to emails? It seems that email has made people be on the lookout for new items arriving all the time. I usually wait tll I'm good and ready, I use IM for communications.

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# Most users check their email "constantly"
# Users would try to project a responsiveness image. For example, sending a short reply if a complete reply might take longer than usual, intentionally delaying a reply to make themselves seem busy, or planing out timing strategies for email with read receipts.
# Users would look at shared calendars or other means to estimate how long they should expect a reply

I think it is great to go to work one morning and get an email that says 'You're Fired!' That's exactly what happened to some employees at RadioShack. When management can't take the time to approach people individually, that company sucks.

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Employees at the Fort Worth headquarters got messages Tuesday morning saying: "The work force reduction notification is currently in progress. Unfortunately, your position is one that has been eliminated." Company officials had told employees in a series of meetings that layoff notices would be delivered electronically, spokeswoman Kay Jackson said. She said employees were invited to ask questions before Tuesday's notification on a company intranet site.

The companies that make the blue laser diodes are halting shipments for the time being. That shiny HD or BD player just got a bit farther out. I wouldn't buy either of them with their load of DRM crap anyway.

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Utilizing BD drives in its own PS3 game consoles, Sony suspended shipments of blue laser diodes to other customers, the makers indicated, adding that only Nichia, Sharp and Sanyo continue shipping the diodes. Nichia, which currently holds 80% of the global blue laser diode supply, reported that its yield rate for blue laser diodes reached 30%, according to the makers. However, the actual output still falls behind the demand, the makers said.

30%? Man, Sony is getting killed on those yields.

There are some bits of technology that are a great solution to ordinary problems that we all face. Take building lighting for example. We have an enormous amount of light radiation hitting our planet, but still we use artificial lighting when there is daylight.

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Its hybrid solar lighting system features a 40-inch mirrored dish with a GPS-director monitor to move it during the day and maximize light intake. Once light is collected from a roof and concentrated, it is filtered and then spread through a building through bundles of plastic fiber-optic chords. About 25 retail outlets and office buildings are testing the company's system, which the company hopes to bring to market early next year. The selling points are lower electricity bills and the benefits that natural light has on people, whether they are employees or customers, according to the company.

Explain to me how can HP patent ink! Yes, let's all patent 4000 year old technology. I can invent the wheel and patent it!

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To protect this franchise, increasingly under attack from rivals, H-P could sue any ink makers it suspects are infringing on its patents. This month, it sued China's G&G Ninestar Image Co., a cartridge manufacturer, alleging G&G had violated seven H-P patents in cartridge design. The complaint also targets four online retailers. H-P also asked the International Trade Commission to open an investigation against Ninestar. A Ninestar spokeswoman said the company had no comment. This latest suit follows other actions over the past year. In June, H-P said retailers Walgreen Co. and OfficeMax Inc. had infringed on H-P ink patents with ink used at in-store ink-cartridge-refilling stations; Walgreen and OfficeMax both deny the claims. Last year, H-P similarly warned the U.S. arm of Cartridge World Inc., a domestic retail ink-cartridge refiller; Cartridge World says it is working to resolve the issue.

A major score for the privacy (a civil right!) people. There is an act in the UK that makes DNA analysis without consent illegal. Good for the UK.

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The new law, part of the Human Tissue Act 2004, makes it illegal to take a sample of someone's DNA and have it analysed without obtaining their consent. Employers tempted to use DNA to check up on staff, or insurance companies on their policy holders, will be prevented from doing so. "The incredible thing about DNA is that it has impact not only on one person but on their whole family's privacy too," says Kennedy. "Suppose some prominent figure in politics was suspected of not being the father of a child and a tabloid got hold of a sample."

I always love reading articles about if the mobile web is ready for primetime. I'm sorry, with fees ranging in the $60/month for ONE device, that won't fly. Get me a wireless modem that is portable and routerable, then we can talk.

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"I think what people really want is to be able to access the same sites they access on their PCs, but from their phones," said Matt Hatton, a senior analyst with the Yankee Group based in the United Kingdom. "Once we can get the experience to look and feel more like the traditional Internet, more people will be willing to spend the money to pay for the services." While there is still a lot of disagreement over how subscribers should be accessing mobile Web sites, there's almost complete agreement that when the mobile Internet finally hits mainstream adoption, it's going to be big.

Our immediate universe is growing. A survey of the sky has found 4 new dwarf galaxies around the giant Milky Way.

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Four new satellite galaxies of the Milky Way have been discovered, bringing the total known to about 20. The pace of new discoveries suggests that many more such satellites remain unknown, which would present a serious challenge to models of dark matter as "warm", fast-moving particles. The satellites are dwarf galaxies a few hundred to a few thousand light years across. The tiny galaxies are thought to be the building blocks of large galaxies, such as our own Milky Way - which is about 100,000 light years wide.

Looking at HP today, it is hard to say if the Compaq takeover was a good move. Hurd has come in after Fiorina and really turned the company around. Good leadership really helps.

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HP also has more negotiating heft than it did before the merger. Back in 2001, HP and the former Compaq were at the mercy of their major suppliers, Microsoft and Intel, said Jonathan Eunice, an analyst with Illuminata. Microsoft and Intel knew they could play the two companies off of one another when it came to introducing new technology or hammering out contracts, he said. The combined organization now has the size to negotiate agreements with alternative suppliers, like Advanced Micro Devices, without seriously affecting HP's relationships with its primary suppliers, Eunice said. It was hard to get to that point, but "sometimes you need to do ugly things," he said. "They're using their economic power to good effect."

Microsoft and Intel making other companies at their mercy? No...

I love how cool technology is instantly theorized to be used for crap. Imagine wearing a jacket that can display pictures with light. Sound cool? The first use is displaying ads! What the hell is that?

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Lumalive fabrics feature flexible arrays of colored light-emitting diodes (LEDs) fully integrated into the fabric - without compromising the softness or flexibility of the cloth. These light emitting textiles make it possible to create materials that can carry dynamic messages, graphics or multicolored surfaces. Fabrics like drapes, cushions or sofa coverings become active when they illuminate in order to enhance the observer’s mood and positively influence his/her behavior.

ASE Labs has a new contest running right now to celebrate the 5 years that this site has been online. You can easily enter by posting in a single thread: »http://www.aseforums.com/viewtopic.php?topicid=2651

Get registered and start posting! »http://www.aselabs.com/usercp.php?mode=adduser

Prizes include a Logitech G15/G7 combo and a Nintendo DS Lite!

I really can't stand reading articles about people defending Microsoft as a monolopy without understanding the facts. This article in News.com is one of them. Let me quote one thing...

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What's really new here? Not much. Microsoft has been accused--not just in Europe--of bludgeoning its way to the top of the software universe by using proprietary code and savvy marketing tie-ins to head off not just other operating systems but also add-on software products that could compete with Microsoft's own versions. Its allegedly anticompetitive bundling of Internet Explorer into Windows, for example, was a major focus of the EC's antitrust complaint and, indeed, Microsoft dutifully complied with Europe's unbundling order. The result is the marketing of a Euro-special version of Windows, sans browser, that no one in the world actually wants to purchase. Why should they? While it certainly helps Microsoft to have IE as a built-in default browser pre-installed on personal computers--on the theory that lazy users won't look any further for their browser needs--nothing stops those users from installing another browser if they wish. The inclusion of Internet Explorer is a cost benefit for consumers.

The question is why would consumers want IE unbundled from the CORE Windows operating system. Well, given the fact that there are MANY critical flaws in IE every month and also the fact that IE is tied into the CORE OF WINDOWS, you would think it would be a HUGE security risk by placing the browser in the OS like that. That is number one. Number two, Microsoft IE cannot be uninstalled no matter how hard you try... Vendor Lock-in? You need IE to run Windows Update. even if you install Firefox and set it to the default, IE still pops up with mundane crap.

Let's compare this with Apple's OS. Apple is also closed source so they should act like Microsoft, right? Wrong! Apple bundles software with their Mac OS, but that software can be easily uninstalled... just put it in the trash and empy it. All done. Seriously, take Safari and throw it in the trash... No more Safari. Now do you get it?

Paper voting or the requirement that paper ballots be done even with electronic voting should be mandatory. E-voting does not work and the chance that any vote being missed is too big of an issue. Every vote counts.

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Election coordinator Lauri Wilson said several Diebold touchscreen machines in Southeast Alaska, the Interior and near Nome did not upload their votes into the Division of Elections' central computing system. The machines' modems either did not get a dial tone or had other problems, Wilson said. The votes from touchscreen voting machines in four Kodiak precincts had to be manually uploaded because the electronic ballots were required to be presented in more than one language, Wilson said.

Also, we need ENGLISH as our national language! Stop forcing government documents to be in every single language.

The antipiracy nutjobs at Microsoft have lost a patent case that was filed by a patent holding company. Specifically, the patent was about product activation. Isn't it ironic that Microsoft willfully infringes on a patent and then uses to to force people to not infringe on its copyrights? Very interesting.

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U.S. District Judge Leonard Davis upped a jury's award against Microsoft by $25 million, plus nearly $2 million in legal costs. He cited several instances of misconduct and "ample circumstantial evidence" that Microsoft viewed the patent-holder, closely held z4 Technologies, as "a small and irrelevant company that was not worthy of Microsoft's time and attention, even if Microsoft was potentially infringing its patents." The case centers on patents held by z4 founder and President David Colvin for "product activation" technology, designed to limit software piracy. z4 alleged Microsoft Office products infringed on its patents beginning in 2000; the alleged Windows operating system infringement began in 2001. z4 sued in September 2004 and won a jury verdict of $115 million from Microsoft and $18 million from another defendant, Autodesk, the computer-aided design software maker. The judge added $322,000 in z4 legal costs to Autodesk's penalty.

There you go Microsoft, now start complaining how software patents suck...

As if anyone is doubting that Apple will be releases a new iPod soon, the situation is worse for Microsoft's PlaysForSure camp. With the release of Zune in the future, what does Microsoft need from third party players? Monolopy extension into other markets...

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"That's a big part of what I think SanDisk and every other hardware manufacturer has to be wondering," McGuire said. "What's going to happen when Zune hits the marketplace?" IDC's Kevorkian said that the software maker may be waiting to see how well it does before deciding how much effort to continue to put into PlaysForSure. "Microsoft is in a position where they can hedge their bets," she said, but added "if Zune is successful in the short or long term, we believe the Microsoft is going to de-emphasize (the) Windows Media technology."

The IAU is leaning to making our solar system contain 8 planets. Pluto will once again be a giant floating rock in space.

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Terminology is still controversial. Objects that do not quite qualify as planets - because they are big enough to be round but not big enough to dominate their neighbourhoods - might become "dwarf-planets" or planetoids. These would include Pluto and Ceres, the largest asteroid. And the small fry of the solar system, such as asteroids, might be called small solar system bodies, or retain their current designation as minor planets.

I really don't see the big deal about Wikipedia trying moderation before edits show. And remember that Wikipedia should NOT be used as a source for any academic paper. Some teachers will let you slide, but others will fail you.

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But now, Wales said, administrators of the German Wikipedia--the second-largest version after English--have come up with a system that could protect live articles, especially obscure ones that escape regular scrutiny from hawkeyed community members intent on maintaining accuracy. As always, anyone will be able to make article edits. But it would take someone who has been around Wikipedia for some yet-to-be-determined period of time--and who, therefore, has passed a threshold of trustworthiness--to make the edits live on the public site. If someone vandalizes an article, the edits would not be approved.

In a follow up to the »previous story, NASA has replaced the bolts on the shuttle and is now ready to launch. Atlantis will launch on the 27th of this month.

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Two technicians managed to swap the short bolts with longer versions late on Saturday and early on Sunday. The replacement will not delay the launch, which is set for 1630 EDT (2030 GMT) on 27 August. "Everything looks good," says Tracy Young, a spokesperson at Florida's Kennedy Space Center. "We're on schedule."

NASA has found proof that dark matter indeed exists. Using CHANDRA and watching a galaxy called 1E0657-56, scientists found that hot gas was not the most massive thing. It was dark matter.

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In addition to the Chandra observation, the Hubble Space Telescope, the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope and the Magellan optical telescopes were used to determine the location of the mass in the clusters. This was done by measuring the effect of gravitational lensing, where gravity from the clusters distorts light from background galaxies as predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity. The hot gas in this collision was slowed by a drag force, similar to air resistance. In contrast, the dark matter was not slowed by the impact, because it does not interact directly with itself or the gas except through gravity. This produced the separation of the dark and normal matter seen in the data. If hot gas was the most massive component in the clusters, as proposed by alternative gravity theories, such a separation would not have been seen. Instead, dark matter is required.

Many of the Ebay community want a management change. They are citing the need to list an auction many times to get an item sold.

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Some of those who sell merchandise through the Internet auctioneer's Web site recently have called for drastic action and management change at the San Jose, Calif., company. They are particularly upset at the deterioration in the company's flagship auction site, where they say they are seeing fewer transactions and declining sale prices. "EBay's core (auction) performance is suffering tremendously," says Steve Grossberg, a longtime videogame seller on eBay. He says he now lists an item four times on average in order to sell it, up from two listings two years ago. Adds Andy Mowery, an eBay seller of home and garden gear: "It is time for new leadership at eBay."

Massachusetts will support an ODF plugin for MS Office until the current open source apps include usability features. No one knows why an office suite needs to have something built into the operating system. I thought screen magnification was built into Windows?

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Gutierrez found himself in a bind in February when he assumed the CIO's position in Massachusetts. The state's ODF policy called for executive-branch agencies by Jan. 1, 2007, to use office applications that are conformant with ODF and to configure those applications to save documents in ODF by default. But the only office applications that could do that -- such as the open-source OpenOffice and Sun Microsystems Inc.'s StarOffice -- are not fully supported by the major screen readers and magnifiers that people with disabilities use. That sparked an outcry from various organizations representing that community. The emergence of plug-ins that can be used to save documents in ODF prompted Gutierrez to issue a request for information on the technology. Now ITD will be following through with testing of the ODF plug-ins in preparation for a phased rollout, expected to begin later this year, according to sources at yesterday's meeting.

We've got a Matrix Orbital MX610 review posted for your reading enjoyment... »http://www.aselabs.com/articles.php?id=196

Modular Power Supplies: The Reality of the Resistance.

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Now please keep in mind that this article is in no way a power supply review. You have not just witnessed some sort of weird five-way power supply shootout. There are so many good things to say about ALL of the power supplies I used today. For example, the voltage drop going from 0A to 11A on both the Antec NeoHE and Corsair HX620W was actually LESS than the FSP600-80GLC power supply with fixed cables. But the focus of today's article was to simply clarify some of the fuzzy math used to create fud over modular power supplies, therefore we focused primarily on the drop from the power supply's PCB to the load.

Mushkin PC2-8000 @ Maxitmag.

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If you are thinking about the latest kit or if you have recently purchased an AM2 or Core 2 Duo processor, you'll probably already know about the superb overclocking potential on offer. To take your system to the edge requires some pukka ram. So what's the best DDR2 on the market?

OCZ PC-4000 @ MVKTech.

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With OCZ Technology coming to the memory market, enthusiasts finally had a company that was willing to provide everything wanted out of our memory and provided the best customer service on the block. They continue to develop the best memory around and their customer service is second to none. OCZ have come from the grass-roots to bring you to new heights, and their products speak for themselves. OCZ Technology knows enthusiasts and what it takes to satisfy their intense, high-performance cravings. The elite Platinum Edition series offers the latest extreme speeds and are optimized with leading-edge Enhanced Latency and Enhanced Bandwidth technology.

WD RE2 500GB @ Techgage.

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Are you looking for huge storage that won't hurt the pocketbook? Easily done, since the 500GB RE2 drive we are looking at today retails for around $250. Does it have the performance you are looking for?

Samsung 244T 24" LCD @ BonaFideReviews.

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We at BFR have reviewed quite a few LCD monitor's in our time, all of in various shapes and sizes ranging from 17" to 23" but today we have a treat. Samsung's 244T is a monster 24" LCD display and we had it all to ourselves for the past few weeks. The 244T comes packed with features including a 8ms response time, 500 cd/m2, and a super high 1000:1 contrast ratio.

Razer Krait Mouse and Mantis Pad @ HTR.

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Being a big fan of Razer products we excited to have the chance to review their newest gaming mouse 'The Krail' along with their new gaming surface called the Mantis. Razer was nice enough to include both the 'Speed Surface' and the 'Control Surface' for us to test and see what we though of this new three-pack of gaming terror. So come on along a see what our views and thoughts are on these new products.

Asus PW5 DH i975X @ Hexus.

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With a steady number of motherboards starting to trickle through that support Intel's Core 2 Duo, ASUS's PW5 DH Deluxe is, we reckon, one of the better ones around.

Foxconn C51XEM2AA 8EKRS2H @ BSR.

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Foxconn has been trying hard recently to shed its image as a budget hardware provider, but I think this board, the C51XEM2AA 8EKRS2H is the first that really made me sit up and notice them as a new player in the high end motherboard market. Based on the new nForce 590 chipset, this board is packed with a plethora of features and claims to offer huge tweaking and overclocking potential.

Phylon 7F2WE-1G5 M-ITX @ Epiacenter.

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The Phylon 727FWE-1G5 is a versatile and economical 1.5 GHz Mini-ITX mainboard equipped with the new VIA C7 processor. With the optional add-on boards, a variety of additional features can be added: CardBus/CF reader, Serial ports, additional LAN ports etc.

Asus A8R32-MVP @ Viper Lair.

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Asus are well known for high quality and performance, a hard combo to attain much less maintain on a constant basis. With the A8R32-MVP Deluxe, Asus once again shows us a motherboard that not only is built well but one that also performs very well. Overclocking is only hampered by a limited voltage range on the VCore adjustment, and possibly the complexity of all of the available options.

Crucial PC2-5300 @ TC.

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Crucial is one of the world's leading memory manufacturers. If you have Crucial in your machine people know you have a quality rig and you value performance. Today for review I have 2 gigs of Crucial Ballistix DDR2 PC2-5300 for review, running at low latencies of 3-3-3-12. I'm going to put it up against some Corsair and Super Talent DDR2 and see what we get for results.

OCZ PC2-7200 @ Techgage.

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OCZ has been launching some amazing kits lately, and this one is no exception. In our tests, we have managed to bring this modest DDR2-900 up to DDR2-1140 speeds and still retain some great stability.

Logitech G15 @ Tweaknews. »http://www.aselabs.com/articles.php?id=193

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The sturdy construction, classy backlighting, and highly customizable macro keys put the G15 at the top of the gaming keyboard heap. Add on features like the cable management system, full media player support, and the only LCD in the keyboard market, and you've got..

Foxconn C51XEM2AA-8EKRS2H @ HCW.

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The C51XEM2AA-8EKRS2H might not exactly be an easy name to remember, but this board started out as a reference board for NVIDIA's NFORCE 590 SLI chipset. Being an enthusiast-oriented chipset, the C51 (as we call it) should have many overclocking and tweaking features to satisfy us.

Intel Core 2 @ BSR.

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Intel's Core 2 Duo is beiong touted as a revolution in processor performance, but does it live up to the hype? ByteSizedReviews takes our usual to-the-point look at Intels new line of CPUs, putting the E6700 and X6800 against AMD's flagship; the FX62.

ASRock AM2V890-VSTA @ PCStats.

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In this review of the ASrock AM2V890-VSTA motherboard we'll be looking at how the VIA K8T890 handles itself around the socket AM2 Athlon64 FX-62 processor. The ASRock AM2V890-VSTA Socket AM2 motherboard is the first motherboard to cross PCSTATS' test bench based on the VIA K8T890 chipset. This compact ATX motherboard has four 240 pin DDR2 memory slots which accommodate up to 8GB of DDR-2 memory. The AM2V890-VSTA motherboard easily accommodates a PCI Express x16 videocard, although a second can be inserted into the adjacent PCI Express x4 slot for multiple monitor outputs - SLI is not supported.

Corsair PC2-8500 @ VL.

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The Corsair TWIN2X-8500 is a strong performer at both high frequency and low latencies. Basically, depending on your needs, the ram can easily switch between the two options. To be truthful, the main market for this memory is going to be users with 1066MHz CPUs so that they can run their memory 1:1. That said, I think overall you'll see better numbers if you can tighten the timings at the expense of a slightly lower clock speed.

Logitech MX5000 @ TTZ.

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Logitech introduced the world's first mouse-and-keyboard combination in 1998 with the goal of removing cord clutter from the desk. They succeeded in delivering on that vision, and they are now addressing a different kind of clutter - cleaning up the mess of notifications and information that are displayed on the computer monitor. The Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5000 Laser desktop pushes that information to a peripheral screen so that people can choose when to glance at their notifications and status information, and can therefore clear their monitors - and their minds.

OCZ PC2-8000 @ Techgage.

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It was only a matter of time before a company would release speedy DDR2-1100 modules, and OCZ has officially become the first. As one would expect, with such speed also comes loose timings. 5-6-6... ouch! We will see if tightening of those timings is possible, and also see if we can push them beyond their 550MHz speeds.

When the music artists complain about iTunes and not getting enough money, this is because they have a contract with the RIAA that rapes them on digital downloads. Anyone that thinks that the artist is losing because of digital downloads is comletely wrong (except by DRM). If the artist would sell directly on iTunes, they could pocket all the profit. Get rid of the RIAA.

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But the artists argue online distribution leaves them with too small a profit. And, they say, iTunes wrecks the artistic integrity of an album by allowing songs to be purchased by the track for 99 cents. Some bands, such as AC/DC have released albums on other, more flexible sites, but not iTunes. "We've always thought certain artists put out albums that aren't meant to be compilations with 50 other artists," said Ed "Punch" Andrews, manager for both Seger and Kid Rock. "We're hoping at some point albums become important again like they were in the past 30 years."

There will be another contest soon so make sure that you are a registered member. This will be for the 5th birthday of ASE Labs. The contest will end on the 21th of September and the prizes include a Nintendo DS Lite.

Get in on the forums and check out the thread in Members Only for the details. The contest has not started just yet. The details are still being worked out.

The 802.11n standard that would provide a nice boost of speed and features will not be ratified until 2008. IEEE is shooting themselves in the foot. There needs to be standards pushed out faster. The world moves too fast to wait over this. Companies are already pouring pre-n stuff onto the market.

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Rolf Devegt, senior director of business development at Airgo Networks, argued that the Wi-Fi Alliance should begin 801.11n interoperability testing now to avoid even more delays. "Typically the Wi-Fi Alliance starts interoperability certification after standard ratification, but they should start certification before the standard is ratified, like they did with the 802.11i standard." Devegt predicted that Draft 2.0 of 802.11n will be stable enough to proceed with final ratification in the first half of 2008.

NASA wants Atlantis to launch as soon as it is ready. The launch window starts on Aug 27th. I hope to see another great launch.

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The decision to confirm the launch date was made after a two-day flight readiness review. The launch window lasts until 7 September. During the review, NASA also discussed an issue regarding bolts on the shuttle that could potentially come loose. Recently, engineers discovered that two of four bolts that hold a communications antenna to Atlantis' payload bay are too short.

Dell will be carrying more AMD powered computers. This includes desktops and laptops. Wow, this is very interesting news. AMD is in a great position now. I'm sure with ATI's manufacturing plants producing AMD boards, Dell will have a single contact for the base system.

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Dell already scrapped its longtime Intel exclusivity in May, committing to sell a four-processor server with AMD's Opteron by the end of the year. That's a relatively high-end niche for the Round Rock, Texas-based computer maker, but sources familiar with the company's plans expect a broader alliance to be announced Thursday afternoon, when Dell reports quarterly financial results. One source expected Dell to announce plans to sell dual-processor Opteron servers, a segment of the market with much higher sales volumes than for four-processor machines. Another expected the alliance to include desktop and notebook computers as well.

The organization that most people hate (due to fees) has renewed its contract with the US Government. The Dept of Commerce will oversee the organization. I am doubtful that ICANN't will ever be ready for independant thinking.

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For years, the U.S. government has been saying it ultimately intends to unleash ICANN from its control. It has operated the Net addressing system under an agreement with U.S. authorities since 1998. At a recent public hearing, John Kneuer, the department's acting assistant secretary for communications and information, said the agency remained "committed" to that transition but gave no indication of when that may happen. Over the years, controversy has plagued ICANN, which grew out of a clandestine meeting in Cambridge, Mass. Critics in the past have accused it of lacking transparency in its operations and moving sluggishly to approve new top-level domain names. More recently, Capitol Hill politicians and advocacy groups have criticized the organization for agreeing to what amounts to a perpetual contract with VeriSign to run the .com registry, which some say would result in unnecessary price hikes and a veritable monopoly.