It turns out that many students have already been playing games along with other activities during classroom time and some school districts are finally taking notice.

Administrators at the Liverpool Central School District in New York have had enough of the laptops after a seven year run and will discontinue the program this fall. Students have used the laptops to play games, download porn and hack into nearby computer networks on school time. In addition, the computers are in constant need of repair and the sheer number of notebooks accessing individual school wireless networks brings Internet traffic to a halt.

Even more telling is that the laptops aren’t actually helping the students at all. "After seven years, there was literally no evidence it had any impact on student achievement -- none," said Liverpool school board president Mark Lawson. "The teachers were telling us when there’s a one-to-one relationship between the student and the laptop, the box gets in the way. It’s a distraction to the educational process."

"Where laptops and Internet use make a difference are in innovation, creativity, autonomy and independent research," said Mark Warschauer, an education professor at the University of California at Irvine. "If the goal is to get kids up to basic standard levels, then maybe laptops are not the tool. But if the goal is to create the George Lucas and Steve Jobs of the future, then laptops are extremely useful."

Besides the lack of improvement in academics, the laptops have cost school systems immensely in initial costs and repair costs. The Broward County Public School System in Florida purchased 6,000 laptops at a cost of $7.2 million dollars and had maintenance costs of $100,000 per year to keep the machines running. Not surprisingly, the school system has moved away from the program.

"You have to put your money where you think it’s going to give you the best achievement results," said Tim Bullis, a district spokesman for the Richmond Public School System.

Despite the lack of promising results from laptops, school districts across the nation are still projected to roll them out in larger numbers. According to research by Hayes Connection and Greaves Group, half of the 2,500 largest school districts in the country are expected to embrace one-to-one computing by 2011 -- this is up from one-quarter in 2006.

"The art of thinking is being lost because people can type in a word and find a source and think that’s the be-all-end-all," said 11th grade history teacher Tom McCarthy.

Attempts to censor a string of letters and numbers stirred Internet users to overwhelm Digg.com and other websites to change their legal position on censorship. The offending string? An AACS encryption key used to protect HD DVD and Blu-ray Discs.

Cory Doctorow, instructor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, was one of those affected. He removed a blog post from his class website containing a string of letters and numbers used in defeating the copy protection behind HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

Keys used in the AACS protection used by both high-definition optical formats were uncovered earlier this year when a crafty individual who goes by the name “Muslix64” found a way to circumvent HD DVD encryption. He then applied his techniques to Blu-ray Disc, and was met with equal success. Then in mid-February, another hacker named “arnezami” discovered a single encryption key that would unlock the protections of every HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc on the market. Previously, every HD movie needed its own unique key in order to be decrypted; but with arnezami’s discovery, there was one key to rule them all.

The high-def skeleton key circulated the more clever areas of the Internet without much fanfare until two months later, when word of the AACS legal threats to Google hit. Certain stories concerning the HD DVD encryption key were submitted to traffic-tool site Digg.com, only to quickly be deleted by the site’s operators.

The website’s users began to notice the acts of censorship, but fought hard by submitting even more stories surrounding the AACS key. Eventually, the number of key-related stories on Digg rose to over 80, with each story receiving as many as thousands of votes from its users. Even when the site administrators attempted to censor all the stories, the users pressed on.

Eventually, Jay Adelson of Digg addressed the matter in a blog post saying, “I just wanted to explain what some of you have been noticing around some stories that have been submitted to Digg on the HD DVD encryption key being cracked.”

“We’ve been notified by the owners of this intellectual property that they believe the posting of the encryption key infringes their intellectual property rights. In order to respect these rights and to comply with the law, we have removed postings of the key that have been brought to our attention,” Adelson wrote.

He continues, “Whether you agree or disagree with the policies of the intellectual property holders and consortiums, in order for Digg to survive, it must abide by the law ... Our goal is always to maintain a purely democratic system for the submission and sharing of information - and we want Digg to continue to be a great resource for finding the best content. However, in order for that to happen, we all need to work together to protect Digg from exposure to lawsuits that could very quickly shut us down.”

Wikipedia, another website primarily driven by content provided by users, had locked the section dedicated to discussing a particular string of letters and numbers pertaining to HD DVD. However, Wikipedia reopened the section to users again earlier today.

A Digg user contributed his calculations estimating that over 50,500 diggs, or positive votes for the story, had accumulated by Tuesday evening – and that number continued to grow, showing the Internet community’s strong feelings towards the freedom of information and the disgust over the censorship of simple letters and numbers.

After insurmountable pressure from users of the site, Digg founder Kevin Rose decided to change the tune of his Web site’s previous position. He explained, “We’ve always given site moderation (digging/burying) power to the community. Occasionally we step in to remove stories that violate our terms of use (eg. linking to pornography, illegal downloads, racial hate sites, etc.). So today was a difficult day for us. We had to decide whether to remove stories containing a single code based on a cease and desist declaration. We had to make a call, and in our desire to avoid a scenario where Digg would be interrupted or shut down, we decided to comply and remove the stories with the code.”

“But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear,” Rose continued. “You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be. If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying.”

The search and advertising industry could change drastically over the next year if Microsoft has its way with Yahoo. In the last several weeks, it was well publicized that Microsoft and Google went head on in a bidding war for Internet advertising giant DoubleClick. Eventually, Google won and settled with DoubleClick for roughly $3.1 billion -- a sum that had analysts questioning Microsoft's true motives.

At the time of the acquisition, Microsoft had roughly $25 billion of available cash in its bank; more than double that of Google's $11.9 billion. Observing these figures, it was odd to see Microsoft back out of a deal it could easily win. "The best side to be on in a bidding war is the losing side," said legendary Wall Street tycoon Warren Buffet. Buffet is implying that the loser in a bidding war has forced the winner to over-pay for something.

Today, Forbes is reporting that Microsoft is in negotiations with Yahoo for a possible acquisition that could be worth $50 billion. According to the report, Microsoft is feeling greater pressure to compete in the online advertising space. Just recently, Yahoo announced its acquisition of online advertising firm Right Media for $680 million. While this is far from Google's $3.1 billion expense on DoubleClick, it does indicate that Yahoo is already quite a force in online advertising.

Another sticking point for Microsoft is the fact that both Google and Yahoo are ahead of the game when it comes to search. Microsoft has been playing catch up to Google and Yahoo with MSN Search, but having Yahoo under its belt would surely set the company onto a different playing field altogether.

Despite an impending deal with Yahoo, Microsoft hasn’t taken its eyes completely off the Google – DoubleClick deal. Microsoft is loudly voicing its opinion against the deal and has asked regulators to carefully monitor the acquisition.

 EMI has taken a huge step forward in the fight against digital rights management (DRM). The company announced today that its entire digital music library will be available with higher quality audio and will also be free of DRM.

The company first began tinkering with DRM-free music files in early December. At that time, EMI offered DRM-free music tracks by Lily Allen, Norah Jones and Relient K though Yahoo! Music.

Soon after Apple CEO Steve Jobs made his bid for a DRM-free music world, EMI once again batted around the idea of expanding its use of DRM-free music. Anonymous executives revealed that EMI was in talks with Apple, Microsoft, Real Networks and Yahoo! to provide unprotected music files.

Today's announcement could set the ball rolling for other companies to jump on the DRM-free bandwagon. "Our goal is to give consumers the best possible digital music experience. By providing DRM-free downloads, we aim to address the lack of interoperability which is frustrating for many music fans. We believe that offering consumers the opportunity to buy higher quality tracks and listen to them on the device or platform of their choice will boost sales of digital music," said EMI Group CEO Eric Nicoli.

Seeing as how Steve Jobs has been one of the champions of DRM-free music, it's no surprise that he also had commentary on EMI's decision. "Selling digital music DRM-free is the right step forward for the music industry," said Jobs. "EMI has been a great partner for iTunes and is once again leading the industry as the first major music company to offer its entire digital catalogue DRM-free."

iTunes users will be able to purchase unprotected AAC format music files at 256 kbps (current music files are encoded at 128 kbps) for $1.29 a track in May from iTunes. Complete albums will also be available DRM-free, but will not feature higher price tags. Customers who have already purchased DRM-enabled music tracks from iTunes will be able to upgrade to the higher-quality, DRM-free versions for $0.30 per track. Tracks which still feature DRM will continue to be made available at $0.99 each.

In addition, EMI will make its music videos available on iTunes free of DRM. The prices remain unchanged for these files.

“We think our customers are going to love this, and we expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year,” said Jobs.

When Google decided to push forward into expanding its advertising portfolio, it definitely wasn't just testing the waters. Today reports surfaced around the Internet that Google is in talks with long time online advertisement house DoubleClick. What makes the talks between Google and DoubleClick more critical is that Google isn't just the only one with its eyes on the advertising firm. According to several reports, AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo are also in talks with DoubleClick's top management.

DailyTech last reported that Google announced its official push into video game advertising with the purchase of Adscape. The company launched a campaign to start pushing its AdSense and AdWords programs into video games.

With online games being released on consoles on an increasing basis, this also would make it easier for Google to approach console developers. Gamers have voiced their opinions about in-game advertising before and indicated that they were displeased with the movement, saying it detracts from the "reality" of the game.

Analysts are expecting the selling price for DoubleClick to reach as high as $2 billion USD with Google in the talks. Industry insiders indicated that Google is still developing its own advertising services, but said that Google would not stand to let Microsoft take over control of one of the oldest and widely used advertising firms.

According to search engine expert John Battelle, Microsoft is a big threat to Google's advertising space. "It's a major risk to [Google's] business to force advertisers to change behavior -- it needs a third-party ad serving solution."

The Chinese space program hopes to use an atomic-powered lunar rover when the nation launches its first unmanned mission to the moon in 2012. The Shanghai Aerospace System Engineering Institute has been working on the six-wheeled, atomic-powered vehicle for four years, going as far as testing the rover in a laboratory that simulates the lunar surface.  The lunar rover was debuted in Shanghai during a China-UK Workshop on Space Science and Technology several days ago.

Researchers hope the 5-foot high, 440-pound rover is able to transmit video feeds back to Earth, along with digging and collecting soil samples, and producing accurate three dimensional images of the moon's surface.  The rover will be able to travel up to 328 feet per hour while climbing slopes and overcoming barriers.

The Chinese rover appears to be very similar to Spirit and Opportunity, NASA's unmanned rovers currently exploring Mars.  However, the Spirit and Opportunity are currently operated on rechargeable lithium ion batteries, the Chinese rover will be nuclear powered.  

"We want to make it better than the early US and Russian rovers," said Luo Jian, Shanghai Aerospace System Engineering Institute director.

Researchers are still working on fine tuning the rover's ability to handle the type of environment it will have to handle on the moon -- low gravity, temperature extremes and cosmic rays included.

China has ambitious plans for the country's space exploration program -- a deal between China and Russia to jointly study Mars was announced last week.  NASA also admitted that it is likely China will reach the moon before the U.S. returns.

Portugal is doing its part to invest in renewable energy with the dedication of a new 11-megawatt (MW) solar plant. The plant, which is located in Serpa, is one of the largest solar arrays in the world and can supply enough electricity for 8,000 households.

The solar plant was built by Catavento, a Portuguese renewable energy company and California based PowerLight Corporation, a GE Energy Financial Services subsidiary. It occupies roughly 150 acres in Portugal's Alentejo region and contains over 52,000 photovoltaic modules manufactured by Sanyo, Sharp, SunPower and Suntech. The solar plant is also said to reduce CO2 emissions by 13,000 tons per year.

"This project is successful because Portugal's sunshine is plentiful, the solar power technology is proven, government policies are supportive, and we are investing and delivering under GE's ecomagination initiative to help our customers meet their environmental challenges," said Kevin Walsh of GE Energy Financial Services. "Thanks to great Portuguese sunshine and high technology, this plant right here in Serpa is expected to produce the most power -- more than 20 gigawatt-hours per year."

"The Serpa solar power plant speaks to the green power initiatives now setting Europe on a course toward ambitious emissions reductions goals. By assembling a first-class team of companies in the solar arena, we've achieved a remarkable renewable energy milestone," remarked PowerLight CEO Tom Dinwoodie.

As reported last month by DailyTech, the European Union (EU) is aiming to receive 20% of its power from renewable energy sources by 2020. Currently, the EU receives 6.5% of its power from renewable energy.

Portugal wants to significantly improve on those figures before the 2020 deadline. Portugal's Prime Minister, Jose Socrates, has proclaimed that his country will receive 45% of its power from renewable sources within 3 years.

Microsoft claims Windows Vista is off to a fast start, having sold more than 20 million copies since its January 30 consumer release.

By comparison, in its first two months, Windows XP sold 17 million copies, Microsoft said. While it's very early in the product lifecycle, we are setting a foundation for Windows Vista to become the fastest-adopted version of Windows ever."

Of course, the PC market has grown substantially since XP hit store shelves. In 2001, worldwide PC shipments totaled 136 million units, while last year the industry shipped 227 million computers, according to IDC.

And Microsoft's figures include not only boxed copy sales and those included on new PCs, but also people who bought Windows XP during the holiday season and have applied for their free Vista upgrade since the mainstream launch of Vista.

In an interview, Windows marketing director Bill Mannion said that the upgrade program did help the sales figures, but said it wasn't the driving factor. "It's boosting the overall number, but it's certainly not the core component of the 20 million," he said.

PC makers also say that they are encouraged by early results for Windows Vista.

"Overall we've seen a pretty good reaction to the release of Vista," said Kenneth Walker, chief technologist at PC maker Gateway.

Both Microsoft and the PC makers also say they are seeing a shift to higher-end versions of Vista. When XP made its debut in 2001, it came in two main flavors--Home and Professional. The company eventually added the Tablet PC and Media Center editions, and over time, Media Center became the dominant version on retail shelves. Vista comes in six flavors--Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise and Ultimate, as well as a Starter Edition only sold on new PCs in emerging markets.

Intel Corporation today announced plans to build a 300-millimeter (mm) wafer fabrication facility (fab) in the coastal Northeast China city of Dalian in Liaoning Province. The $2.5 billion investment for the factory designated Fab 68 will become Intel's first wafer fab in Asia and adds significant investment to Intel's existing operations in China.

"China is our fastest-growing major market and we believe it's critical that we invest in markets that will provide for future growth to better serve our customers," said Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini. "Fab 68 will be our first new wafer fab at a new site in 15 years. Intel has been involved in China for more than 22 years and over that time we’ve invested in excess of $1.3 billion in assembly test facilities and research and development. This new investment will bring our total to just under $4 billion, making Intel one of the largest foreign investors in China."

Not since 1992 with the construction of Fab 10 in Ireland has Intel built a fab from the ground up at a brand new site. Construction on Fab 68 is scheduled to begin later this year with production projected to begin in the first half of 2010. Initial production will be dedicated to chipsets to support Intel's core microprocessor business.

"This is one of the major cooperative projects between China and the United States in the area of integrated circuits manufacturing in recent years. The project will further strengthen Intel's leadership position in the semiconductor manufacturing in the world. At the same time, the investment in Dalian will have a positive impact to the regional economic development and the development of integrated circuits industry in the old industrial base of northeast China," said Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission. "We welcome Intel and other multinational companies to invest and cooperate with China. We support Intel's initiative to expand and strengthen cooperation with relevant parties in a number of areas, such as talent training, technology standards, improved information technology for rural areas and digital health, to promote the mutual benefit and win-win of Intel and the information industry of China, and to achieve the goal of growing together."

Dalian Mayor Xia Deren said, "As an open city on China's coastline, Dalian provides many geographic advantages as well as existing infrastructure and services for foreign investment. We are very excited Intel has chosen Dalian to build a wafer fabrication facility. This investment will not just impact Dalian's social and economic development, but will generate a significant and positive impact on the economic and industrial structure in Northeast China."

When completed, Fab 68 will become part of Intel's manufacturing network that includes eight 300mm factories in 2010 with other fabs located in the United States, Ireland and Israel. Manufacturing with 300mm wafers dramatically increases the ability to produce semiconductors at a lower cost compared with more commonly used 200mm (eight-inch) wafers. The bigger wafers lower production cost per chip while diminishing overall use of resources. Using 300mm manufacturing technology consumes 40 percent less energy and water per chip than a 200mm wafer factory.