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Google updated its privacy policy for Google Books last week after it was urged to provide more details, but several groups don’t think it goes far enough. Google has said it will release a complete privacy policy for Google Books once the settlement is approved and the company launches all aspects of the service.

The Computer and Communications Industry Association filed a brief in support of Google’s proposed settlement. “”For the past 20 years, I have dedicated my career to fighting against monopolies and this settlement isn’t one. This settlement will increase competition for online book sales, and among books themselves,” said Ed Black, CCIA president and CEO, in a statement.

“Google Book Search and other digital book projects will redefine the way people read and research,” said author Jonathan Lethem in a press release distributed by the EFF. “Now is the moment to make sure that Google Book Search is as private as the world of physical books.”

Google argues that anyone who wants to digitize books can cut deals with the Books Rights Registry set up as part of the settlement, but at the moment the company is the only organization in the world with a license to scan and display books that have gone out of print but are still protected by copyright laws. Google plans to display portions of those books (rights-holders can specify how much Google is allowed to show) as part of the Google Book Search product and will also provide access to the books through public library terminals and institutional subscriptions sold to university and research libraries.

Several groups opposed to Google’s Book Search settlement filed court briefs outlining their concerns on Tuesday, the last day such briefs would be accepted.

Gary Reback, who helped prosecute Microsoft in the 1990s for anticompetitive behavior, authored the Open Book Alliance’s brief. “Google and the plaintiff publishers secretly negotiated for 29 months to produce a horizontal price fixing combination, effected and reinforced by a digital book distribution monopoly. Their guile has cleared much of the field in digital book distribution, shielding Google from meaningful competition.”

As expected, lawyers for Microsoft, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and a coalition called the Open Book Alliance blasted the deal as anticompetitive and detrimental to consumers. The Open Book Alliance’s brief compares Google’s Book Search settlement to a modern-day version of the cartel involving John Rockerfeller’s Standard Oil and the railroad industry, which eventually led to the Sherman Act’s antitrust laws.

And over the holiday weekend, Google agreed to give European authors and publishers a seat at the table. However, an umbrella group involving the EFF, American Civil Liberties Union, and several authors is distrustful of Google’s intent.

Microsoft, now finding itself on the same side of the issue as Reback, argued in a brief that Google should not have obtained clearance to scan copyright protected books through a class-action settlement. “The proposed settlement goes well beyond the legitimate role of a copyright lawsuit–resolving claims for infringement–and imposes a slew of provisions that would restructure the rights and remedies of absent copyright owners throughout the world,” Microsoft said in its brief.

Google is trying to get final approval of its settlement with book publishers and authors granting it the right to digitize certain out-of-print books. In October, Judge Denny Chin of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York will consider arguments for and against the settlement, which has inspired hundreds of pages of reading material for Chin to consider before the hearing.

Many of Facebook’s hottest new features were created in late-night employee “hackathons,” Facebook Vice President of Engineering Mike Schroepfer told the audience. Its new iPhone app was created by a single engineer (someone from Facebook told me that this employee was actually a summer intern, which makes it even more impressive), its “Facebook Lite” low-bandwidth-friendly site option was created by three engineers, and the brand new status tagging feature was built in a hackathon.

Facebook's Aditya Agarwal shows off its new Prototypes feature at TechCrunch50.

Within an hour of the site opening up the floodgates to vanity URLs this summer, 1 million had been reserved, Schroepfer explained. He reiterated that the company’s engineers were what kept it all afloat.

Some of the new prototypes, Agarwal explained, are photo tag searches, desktop notifications, and a way to filter news feed items to see which ones your friends have recently commented on.

(Credit:
Josh Lowensohn/CNET)

Facebook engineering lead Aditya Agarwal unveiled a new offering called “Prototypes,” which makes internal projects on the site accessible as applications on its developer platform. “Some of them are going to be buggy,” Agarwal said. “Some of them are going to be super polished.”

Considering TechCrunch50 is an event devoted to new Web start-ups, Facebook also had a pitch for the entrepreneurs behind them: employee Justin Osofsky then came onstage to talk about Facebook Connect and why start-ups ought to implement the universal log-in system. He cited the power of being able to share information on such a massive network, the advantages of not requiring a separate registration process, as well as the proven jumps in page views and traffic that some of the 15,000 sites currently using Facebook Connect have experienced.

Prototypes, which is sort of like Facebook’s version of Google Labs, had accidentally been unveiled in a company Twitter post earlier on Tuesday afternoon. “It’s difficult to predict just what Facebook engineers will come up with next,” Agarwal said of Prototypes, which has since been elucidated in a post on the company blog.

“The problem with this is, we (were) basically asking 200 million people to show up at the Web site at about exactly the same time,” Schroepfer said. “Most people would call this a denial of service attack. We called it a product launch.”

At TechCrunch50, Facebook conveniently was able to make the dual announcement that it’s cash flow positive and just hit 300 million active users. There are 6 billion minutes spent on the site every day, Schroepfer explained, 1 billion chat messages sent, and 80 billion photos stored on the site (20 billion individual photos, each stored in four different formats).

SAN FRANCISCO–Facebook took the stage on Tuesday afternoon at the TechCrunch50 conference for a “Developer Garage” event, to highlight just how important its team of engineers is to the company–and to unveil a new feature to let users play around with what they’re up to.

Maduro’s opinion is that the use of trademarks is limited to the selection of keywords internal to AdWords and as such only concerns Google and its advertisers. When selecting keywords, no product or service is being sold to the public, therefore, neither Google nor its advertisers are infringing on any trademarks, said Maduro.

“The mere display of relevant sites in response to keywords is not enough to establish a risk of confusion on the part of consumers as to the origin of goods or services,” said Maduro in the statement. “Internet users are aware that not only the site of the trademark owner will appear as a result of a search in Google’s search engine… These users will only make an assessment as to the origin of the goods or services advertised on the basis of the content of the ad and by visiting the advertised sites.”

Trademark issues over AdWords have plagued Google for years, both in the U.S. and especially in Europe where Louis Vuitton and others have taken the company in and out of court. French justice has generally found in favor of the trademark owners, usually ordering Google to pay a fine. But the issue has never been definitively settled.

Maduro’s opinion doesn’t leave Google totally in the clear. Maduro said the company might be liable if found to feature content in AdWords that infringes on a trademark. But even in this case, the trademark owner would have to cite specific instances of damage to their trademarks in order to hold Google accountable.

In response to the concern that makers of imitation products can grab certain keywords, the Advocate General put the responsibility firmly in the hands of consumers.

The Advocate General’s statement is not binding on the court, but the opinion is strongly considered. The court is now reviewing the case and will render its judgment at a later date.

An adviser to the European Union has sided with Google in the company’s battle with Louis Vuitton and others over alleged trademark infringement.

But in a statement released by the European Court of Justice on Tuesday, adviser and Advocate General Poiares Maduro said that “Google has not committed a trademark infringement by allowing advertisers to select, in AdWords, keywords corresponding to trademarks.”

In response to the latest round of legal squabbles, the French court has asked the European Court of Justice to now settle the issue.

Led by LVMH’s Louis Vuitton, the companies are upset that makers of imitation items can buy those keywords through Google’s AdWords, allowing their products to pop up in searches alongside the genuine article.

The search giant is fighting a lawsuit in the European courts against several companies that claim Google is infringing on their trademarks by allowing advertisers to buy keywords that match those trademarks.

The outcome of this case is very important, because if the court rules in favor of the FCC, it could add more weight to the FCC’s overall argument that it has authority regulate the Internet. And if the court rules in favor of Comcast, and depending on how the decision is written, Net neutrality opponents could use the decision to bolster their argument that the FCC does not have the legal authority to regulate the Internet.

The previous FCC under Chairman Kevin Martin was not interested in creating Net neutrality regulation. But as the new FCC moves forward with its proposal to develop regulations, there’s a question over whether the agency even has the authority to regulate the Internet.

“Today I’m pleased to introduce the Internet Freedom Act of 2009 that will keep the Internet free from government control and regulation,” McCain said in a statement. “It will allow for continued innovation that will in turn create more high-paying jobs for the millions of Americans who are out of work or seeking new employment. Keeping businesses free from oppressive regulations is the best stimulus for the current economy.”

The issue seemed to die out completely after the FCC publicly admonished Comcast for violating its open Internet principles, which were adopted in 2005. The official slap on the wrist and the public outcry resulted in Comcast changing its practices. For many in the industry, it seemed the FCC’s handling of the situation was sufficient.

Congress has been interested off and on in this issue for about three years. But it has never gained much support, and at least five bills that would enact Net neutrality regulation have failed.

Votes at the FCC for the proposal to get the ball rolling on new rules to protect an open Internet hadn’t even been cast when Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) introduced legislation on Thursday morning that would block the agency from regulating the Internet. McCain said that Net neutrality rules would stifle innovation and hurt the job market.

In either case, a clear statute from Congress could settle the matter once and for all.

Ongoing debate
The so-called Net neutrality debate has pitted Internet application companies, such as Google, Facebook and Skype, against big broadband providers, such as AT&T, Verizon Communications, and Comcast. The network operators argue regulation will stifle innovation, while the Internet companies say an unfettered network is necessary to encourage innovation.

But the FCC says that it does have the authority to enforce its policy principles and that the new rules will simply codify these principles.

The FCC voted unanimously Thursday on a proposal that would start the process for creating regulation that will keep the Internet open. The proposal itself uses the FCC’s open Internet principles as a foundation and would forbid network operators from restricting access to lawful Internet content, applications, and services. It would also require network providers to allow customers to attach nonharmful devices to the network.

Net neutrality supporters may be celebrating the Federal Communications Commission’s unanimous vote Thursday to begin developing open Internet regulation, but the battle is far from over as the yet-to-be-written regulation is already facing Congressional opposition and will also likely be challenged in court.

Even Chairman Julius Genachowski, who introduced the proposal, pointed to the legal gray area that exists when it comes to enacting and enforcing Internet regulation. He said that the commission is faced with a “dangerous combination of an uncertain legal framework with ongoing as well as emerging challenges to a free and open Internet.”

Still, without any clear direction from Congress, the rules that will result from the FCC’s lengthy proposed rule making process will likely be challenged in court.

At the hearing Thursday, Commissioner McDowell said he was dissenting in part because he didn’t feel the FCC had legal authority to create such rules.

In July, Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), a longstanding proponent of Net neutrality, along with Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) introduced H.R. 3458, the Internet Freedom Preservation Act.

FCC role in question
The FCC is already defending itself against Comcast’s appeal. Comcast is arguing that when the FCC admonished the company for violating its open Internet principles, they were not considered official rules, and therefore the FCC was not able to enforce them. Comcast also argues that the FCC wouldn’t need to create official regulation if the principles were enforceable.

The FCC headquarters in Washington, D.C.

But there are still supporters for open Internet rules. In September, Chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said he had added himself as a co-sponsor to Markey’s bill. Senators Byron Dorgan, (D-ND) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) issued a joint statement Thursday reiterating support for Net neutrality rules. And Congresswoman Donna F. Edwards (D-MD) also issued a statement supporting the FCC’s Net neutrality proposal.

Markey, a senior member and former chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Communications, Technology and the Internet Subcommittee, applauded the FCC’s vote on Thursday and said it was an historic step toward preserving “the unfettered and open nature of the Internet.”

With Congress tackling much bigger issues, such as the economy, health care, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s hard to imagine that Net neutrality legislation would be a top legislative priority.

It’s unclear whether either McCain’s or Markey’s bill would actually pass. Democrats, who have typically supported Net neutrality rules, have seen a break in the ranks with more than 70 House Democrats recently expressing concern over Net neutrality regulations to the FCC.

Two additional principles were added, which would prevent network providers from discriminating against particular Internet content or applications, while at the same time allowing for reasonable network management. Internet access providers would also have to be transparent about the network management practices they implement.

(Credit:
FCC)

“These proposed rules are an excellent complement to the Net neutrality legislation that I introduced in Congress earlier this year along with Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.),” Markey said in a statement. “As the commission’s process moves forward, I look forward to working with the FCC and my colleagues in Congress on this vitally important issue.”

All five commissioners voted in favor of advancing the rule-making process with the two Republicans, Meredith Attwell Baker and Robert McDowell, dissenting in part.

“I do not share the majority’s view that the Internet is showing breaks and cracks, nor do I believe that the government is the best tool to fix it,” he said. “I also disagree with the premise that the commission has the legal authority to regulate Internet network management as proposed.”

The issue was revived last year during the U.S. presidential campaign when then-candidate Barack Obama said he’d support Net neutrality regulation and laws. Now that he is president, his supporters are holding him to his promise.

But he said the consequences of doing nothing are too great. And “fair and reasonable rules of the road” can’t wait.

Earlier this year, in the same patent case, a federal jury also awarded I4i $200 million in damages in the case. That amount, in part, was reached by determining that a reasonable royalty for the XML feature was $98 per copy of Word, a figure that Microsoft noted in Tuesday’s court filing is more than the retail price of some editions of Word.

Microsoft’s motion is expected to be assigned to a three-judge panel that would consider the request. The software maker is also expected to file its full appeal shortly. On Friday, Microsoft made a motion to the trial judge in the case to allow the company to appeal the verdict without having to post a bond.

For its part, I4i chairman Loudon Owen said last week that his company isn’t seeking to crush Word, but rather just to get Microsoft to stop infringing on his company’s patents. Owen declined to say what, if any, settlement talks have been taking place between the two companies.

The software maker said the injunction could potentially keep Word and even Office off the shelves for months. “Unless Microsoft is able to redesign Word and push that redesigned version through its entire distribution network by October 10th…Microsoft and its distributors (which include retailers such as Best Buy and OEMs such as HP and Dell) face the imminent possibility of a massive disruption in their sales,” Microsoft argues in the court papers.

A judge last week issued an injunction that would force Microsoft to stop selling versions of Word with a custom XML function that a jury found infringes on a patent held by Canadian software maker I4i. The judge had ordered the injunction to go into effect 60 days after the ruling.

Today, Microsoft filed a motion with the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to seek an expedited review of its appeal and to stay the permanent injunction while the appeal is pending. These filings are not unusual in patent cases. As we’ve maintained throughout this process, we believe the evidence clearly demonstrates that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid. We look forward to filing our appeal and to Court of Appeals review.

This story was updated with comment from I4i Chairman Loudon Owen and Microsoft spokesman Kevin Kutz.

(Credit:
Microsoft)

Microsoft spokesman Kevin Kutz added the following statement:

In Tuesday’s filing, Microsoft noted that, in the period since the jury’s verdict, the U.S. Patent and Trademark office has provisionally rejected the patent in question upon a reexamination and said that the company meets the standard for staying the injunction because it is likely to win its appeal, will be irreparably harmed by the injunction, that i4i won’t be harmed by the stay and that the public will “face hardship” if Word or Office is absent from the market for any period of time.

In its “emergency motion,” made Tuesday, Microsoft asked an appeals court to halt that injunction and also to speedily hear the company’s appeal, once it is filed.

As noted in our earlier coverage, Microsoft has several options, including seeking remedy from the courts, creating a technical workaround that ensures Word is not infringing on I4i’s patent, and settling with I4i.

Updates:
In a statement Tuesday, Owen added that the appeal was “fully expected given the significance of the case and the flagship status of Microsoft Word to the defendant. I4i will continue to vigorously enforce its patent,” he added. “We firmly believe the jury verdict and judgment were both fair and correct and we have been vindicated through this process.”

Microsoft said that it is trying to remove the functionality found to infringe on I4i’s patents, but unless it can do so, it would be forced to stop distributing Word in the U.S. market. “Already, Microsoft is expending enormous human and financial capital to make its best effort to comply with the district court’s 60-day deadline,” Microsoft said in the appeals court motion.

Microsoft on Tuesday asked an appeals court to halt an injunction that would force the company to stop selling Microsoft Word in its current form.

Kudos, Twitter. The new Lists feature is a winner.

So when I saw that Twitter had given me access to Lists (which is in limited testing) on Wednesday, I jumped right in. And after using it for a while I’ve found that, aside from a few kinks, Twitter has developed a winner.

When Twitter announced its new Lists feature late last month, I was excited. As someone who follows everyone who follows me, it does become difficult to see only those tweets from certain people. Lists promises to change that.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Once you choose your settings, Twitter brings you to its user search page. Simply input the name or username of the person you want to add to your themed list. When you find the person you’re looking for, you’ll see a “lists” option lumped between the “follow” and “actions” options. Click that lists icon and you can choose which list you want to add the person to. You can also create a new list from the pane.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

You can follow or unfollow Twitter Lists.

The new profile page on Twitter.

There are some who might question the need for lists in Twitter. After using it, I don’t. I think it’s a great way to find users you might never have known about. It’s also a nice way to find all the Twitter content that you actually care about.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

I created two lists–”tech” and “tech news”–allowing me to find tech updates quickly when I’m looking for story topics. So far, I have a handful of users in both lists, but I’ve already seen the value of it. It’s now much easier for me to find out what different publications are writing about. I need only to click the list I want on my profile page and I’m all set.

The whole point of Lists is to create themed groupings. Since I’m involved in tech news, it makes sense for me to add myself to my public tech-news list. Unfortunately, Twitter makes you jump through hoops to do it. As far as I can tell, you can only add yourself to a list by viewing your profile and clicking the “Lists” option. It won’t even let you add yourself from the search field.

Bottom line
I’m quite happy with Twitter Lists. The service, still in a closed beta, has some design quirks that Twitter needs to work out, but having the ability to filter tweets is quite appealing.

Twitter’s Lists feature allows you to make a themed list of Twitter users. So, let’s say you wanted to create a list of only CNET writers. After you add us all, you’ll be able to view only the tweets from those you added to the list. It’s a nice way to edit out the noise. It helps you see only what you want to see.

When you set your list to public, users can follow them just as they would any other profile. If you’re the list creator, you automatically follow the list. Conversely, any public list you find allows you to follow it. While that makes sense, Twitter has yet to make it easy to find lists. For now, the best way to find lists is to see which lists you’re included in or to see what kind of lists other users are following by clicking on the new “listed” link on profile pages. It’s rather annoying. A List search is in order.

Design changes
With the addition of lists, your personal Twitter home page has become a little more cluttered. The “tweets” tally has been moved to just below your username. It has been replaced with the number of lists following you. Quick links to lists you follow has been placed just below the search box, but above the “Trending Topics” list. It might get a little unruly when there are several lists you follow and you’re looking for just one, but having quick access to them is a welcome design choice.

You can see which lists you're following.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Twitter Lists is coming to Twitter.

I should note that you can also add yourself to lists you create. That said, Twitter makes it more difficult to do so than it should.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Creating a list in Twitter Lists.

Considering Twitter’s own description of the service includes creating timelines “consisting of friends, family, co-workers,” wouldn’t it only make sense for you to make it easy to add yourself to the list, so those folks can see what you’re up to? Granted, you can add yourself. But it needs to be an option at the beginning of the list-creation process. You shouldn’t need to search for it.

The basics
When you create a list, Twitter displays a dialog box, allowing you to name your list and decide if you want it to be public or private. By default, the list is set to public.

This is great news for people who would like to use the Droid to connect their laptops to Verizon’s 3G wireless EV-DO service. Tethering will not be available on the new Google Android phone when it hits stores on Friday. But Brenda Raney, a Verizon Wireless spokeswoman, said it is scheduled to be added next year.

Verizon Wireless also offers tethering on most of its other smartphones. Verizon calls its service Mobile Broadband Connect. And it charges corporate smartphone customers who pay $44.99 per month for data service an additional $15 for tethering. For smartphone consumers, who pay $29.99 a month for their service, Verizon charges $30 a month to tether. And for customers who have feature phones with a voice service only, the company charges $49.99 to tether the device to a laptop.

And Sprint Nextel, which did allow tethering for its smartphones, is now disabling it. The blog Pulse2 confirmed earlier this week that Sprint executive David Owens said that the carrier will no longer allow data tethering on its network starting in 2010.

Motorola Droid

That said, AT&T offers tethering on all its smartphones, except the iPhone, Siegel said. And that capability costs an extra $30 a month on top of the data service for the smartphone that customers already pay each month.

Data tethering is coming to the new Motorola Droid in 2010, a Verizon Wireless representative has confirmed.

The other two major U.S. wireless operators have either outlawed tethering altogether–or they will soon. T-Mobile USA doesn’t allow tethering on its network, which caused Google earlier this year to remove a tethering application from the Android Market.

But banning tethering likely won’t stop people from illegally turning their phones into modems. There are many crafty smartphone users who will likely jailbreak their phones to enable the functionality. And it’s hard for the carriers to actually block the service.

The ability to tether or use a smartphone as a modem to access the Internet on a laptop is a differentiator for the Droid, which will be offered only on Verizon Wireless’ network. The Droid’s chief competitor, the Apple iPhone, is exclusively available on AT&T’s network and does not offer data tethering, an issue that has frustrated many customers ever since the phone was introduced. AT&T executives have promised the feature is coming, but it hasn’t come yet. Mark Siegel, a company spokesman, said the feature will eventually be offered on the iPhone, but wouldn’t specify when.

The reason that wireless operators are wary about allowing subscribers to use their phones as wireless broadband modems is because they are afraid that the traffic generated from the millions of customers using these phones to connect their laptops to the Net will cripple their networks.

All of Verizon’s Mobile Broadband Connect plans are limited to 5GB of data per month. And customers are charged 5 cents per megabyte for overage.

(Credit:
Motorola)

AT&T admits that its iPhone users, which get unlimited data usage for $30 a month, consume more data on the network than other smartphone users. And there are already signs that iPhone data use is putting strains on AT&T’s network, as millions of iPhone and 3G wireless users complain of poor service, especially in metropolitan areas.

In this year’s version, you can expect to see Avast chosen ahead of AntiVir as our most favored antivirus app. Despite its odd interface, Avast scored higher than any other freeware antivirus in a third-party test, and it doesn’t skimp on protection, either, with e-mail, network, rootkit, and behavioral guards along with its top-rated virus protections.

Firewalls used to be the forefront of security, but now they’re just another tool you should have. Microsoft has made the native Windows 7 firewall impressively useful, but we realize that not everybody has Windows 7, and even those who do might want an alternative. This year, Online Armor joins Comodo on the list.

If you disagree with our security and safety choices for the Security Starter Kit, please let us know in the comments below.

PC Tools' ThreatFire.

In Encryption, TrueCrypt remains the gold standard. The Thunderbird extension Enigmail joins it as a must-have tool for keeping your private e-mails as you intended them–away from prying eyes. In Parental Control, we’ve added OnlineFamily.Norton. It’s not strictly desktop based, although to use it you must use its desktop hook, called Norton Safety Minder. Symantec has created what looks to be a unique and free approach that includes an emphasis on parental education and attempts to foster parent-child communication about how to use the Internet safely. We’re of the opinion that anything that helps parents realize that browsing the Internet is far more than a TV with options is a good thing.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

New this year is the expanded in-browser security category. We’ve recommended five browsing tools that are available as add-ons, and we took care to make sure that they applied to as many of the major browsers as possible. However, Firefox’s deep add-on toolbox makes it naturally the browser with the most diverse collection of security tools, so expect to see it heavily, although not exclusively, represented.

We’re still recommending Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for spyware removal, but we’ve also added PC Tools’ standalone ThreatFire as an excellent way to strengthen behavioral detections and prevent spyware from infecting you in the first place. Recent improvements to the program have made it incredibly light on resources, and in our days of empirical testing we didn’t notice it slowing down our computers at all.

Black Friday is almost upon us, and the steep hardware discounts mean new computers for many. To help you during these tough economic times, we’ve refreshed the Download.com Security Starter Kit for 2010. Although nothing can replace common-sense browsing, this collection of freeware security tools will help you protect new machines and old from pernicious threats, large and small. Longtime readers will notice that in addition to changing up our recommended antivirus program, we’ve fleshed out the Web browsing safety category, and made other changes as well. If you’re looking for more than freeware security programs, check out the CNET Download.com Windows Starter Kit for 2010.

(Credit:
William Harwood)

The goals of the test flight are to verify computer models and flight characteristics during the critical first two minutes of flight when aerodynamic stresses are most severe.

“You can’t avoid that,” former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin, who oversaw the implementation of the Constellation program, said in an interview. “Now, I’ll say right on the heels of that remark I think that’s regrettable. You don’t hinge decision making on one test flight. I mean, that’s not good engineering. But I think it’s unavoidable that policy makers will look to the success or failure of this flight as a key to future decisions.”

The 1.8-million-pound Ares I-X rocket is made up of a four-segment shuttle solid-fuel booster, a dummy fifth segment, a dummy second stage, and a mockup of an Orion crew capsule and escape rocket. More than 700 sensors are mounted on the rocket to determine actual performance and the stresses the vehicle experiences, along with three television cameras.

(Credit:
Justin Ray/Spaceflight Now)

Liftoff is targeted for 8 a.m. on October 27. Backup opportunities are available October 28 and 29 if needed.

While the real Ares I rocket features a first-stage booster with five fuel segments, engineers say the four-segment Ares I-X vehicle will closely mimic the flying characteristics of the manned version.

Engineers also are studying an innovative system that would use the mass of the second-stage liquid oxygen in an eventual manned rocket to damp out unwanted vibration.

“This is great, this is huge,” said Bob Ess, the Ares I-X mission manager. “This is a milestone that’s been in our planning for years, rollout to the pad. It’s hard to believe it’s here. We’ve been doing this for three-and-a-half, four years and there it is, all done. It’s ready to fly.”

Based on data from recent shuttle flights and the test firing of a five-segment Ares booster in Utah, Hanley said engineers do not believe thrust oscillation, a phenomenon that occurs toward the end of a booster’s firing, is a major problem. Even so, current plans for the Ares I rocket call for springs, part of a passive “soft-ride” system, to be used between the first and second stages and between the second stage and the Orion crew capsule to damp out any significant vibrations.

The tip of the 327-foot-tall rocket, anchored to the mobile launch platform by four massive bolts at the base of the booster’s flared aft skirt, was expected to sway back and forth up to a foot during rollout, depending on the wind and other factors. But data from sensors measuring stresses on the four hold-down posts indicated the rocket was stiffer than computer models suggested and the booster was mounted atop pad 39B without incident by 9:17 a.m.

Other areas of interest are longitudinal thrust oscillations and how much the vehicle rolls about its long axis.

Engineers are especially interested in the acoustic environment a few seconds after launch, when the reflected sound of the accelerating booster hits the vehicle, causing vibrations that will be transmitted through the structure, and later, when the rocket accelerates through the speed of sound and then experiences maximum dynamic pressure, or “max Q.”

“We’re incredibly excited to be on the cusp of flying the system, seeing what Ares I can do,” Jeff Hanley, Constellation program manager at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, told CBS News.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.–NASA’s towering Ares I-X rocket was hauled to the launch pad early Tuesday for blastoff October 27 on a $445 million unmanned test flight that likely will play a major role in the ongoing debate about NASA’s post-shuttle manned space program.

Like any shuttle booster, the Ares I-X will fire for two minutes, boosting the vehicle to an altitude of about 130,000 feet and a velocity of nearly five times the speed of sound. At that point, roughly 43 miles due east of the Kennedy Space Center, the first stage will separate from the dummy upper stage and fall to the Atlantic Ocean in a test of new parachutes designed for the operational Ares I. The dummy upper stage, which will not be recovered, will crash into the ocean some 147 miles from the space center.

Roll control also doesn’t appear to be a major issue, engineers say. All solid-fuel rockets experience some amount of roll due to the behavior of the high-speed exhaust plume and Ares I-X is equipped with roll control thrusters on the dummy second stage to counteract any unwanted motion.

NASA's Ares I-X rocket is moved into position atop pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center.

The Ares I-X rocket begins the slow trip from the Vehicle Assembly Building to launch pad 39B for work to ready the booster for launch Oct. 27.

The Obama administration currently is reassessing NASA’s manned space program and evaluating five options developed by an independent panel of space experts led by former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine. Only one of the five options includes the Ares I. But in recent hearings, lawmakers expressed reluctance to scrap the Constellation architecture and it’s not yet clear what action the Obama administration might take, or when a decision will be made.

Given that backdrop in the policy arena, the planned test flight of the Ares I-X could prove critical to the future of the Constellation program. While a success would not guarantee a continuation of Constellation, a failure could prove fatal.

The Ares I rocket is a key element in NASA’s post-shuttle Constellation program, which calls for replacing the iconic orbiters with a safer, lower-cost rocket to ferry astronauts to low-Earth orbit and development of a large, unmanned heavy lift rocket - the Ares V - that would support eventual expeditions to the moon.

The cost of the Ares I-X project, including the rocket, launch pad modifications, computer modeling and data analysis, is expected to be around $445 million.

The slow trip to pad 39B began at 1:39 a.m. EDT Tuesday when a powerful crawler-transporter carrying the Ares I-X rocket and its mobile launch platform slowly pulled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center. Powerful spotlights illuminated the vehicle as it emerged from the VAB, providing a spectacular view of the slender white rocket against the dark of a cloudy night.

A space shuttle typically experiences between 720 and 750 pounds per square foot at max Q, but Ares 1-X will experience around 850 psf. Data from the test flight will tell engineers what sort of environmental conditions sensitive electronics might be subjected to and whether mitigations are needed.

Another issue involves the rocket’s sideways drift as it climbs away from the launch pad. For the Ares I-X launch, the booster’s nozzle will be canted slightly just after ignition to ensure a “walk-off” away from the launch pad gantry. This is not intended to prevent a crash into the tower, which engineers say is not a concern. Rather, it is to prevent the rocket’s exhaust plume from damaging the pad if the launch-day winds push it toward the gantry.

These early stores went nowhere. Content owners insisted on digital rights management (DRM) restrictions, which meant that content from these stores had restricted use rights and couldn’t be played on every device–including, in most cases, Apple’s iconic iPod. Setting up a store using MediaNet’s platform often took 18 months and significant technical expertise. In the meantime, Apple focused on a dedicated online store for its own devices, and completely dominated the market for music downloads.

It’s a great vision, and something that Microsoft, the original platform company, could have done. But Microsoft spent years pushing the Windows Media Platform, which made heavy use of Microsoft codecs and file wrappers (instead of MP3s, which were becoming the industry standard). Microsoft also spent a lot of effort trying to enable the labels’ DRM demands–for example,replica watches, by building a platform to enable subscription-based downloads to be transferred to portable devices. Then, just as the labels were getting ready to abandon DRM, Microsoft basically gave up pushing Windows Media as a general-purpose platform for distributors and device makers, and instead started trying to mimic Apple’s end-to-end software+service+device with the Zune strategy.

They’ve also got more history in online music than just about anyone. The company started off as MusicNet, with part-ownership by three of the then-Big Five major labels: BMG, EMI, and Warner. They powered RealNetworks’ music initiatives before RealNetworks bought Rhapsody. They powered Yahoo Music. They powered MTV’s online music store.

But say you’re Fox Interactive and want to make a story about Aerosmith more engaging. Using a MediaNet component, Fox created a link for the first mention of the word Aerosmith that took users to a page with more information about the band, and links to play and buy some of their popular songs. Fox also posted Aerosmith songs in a box directly on the story page.

Now imagine this kind of integration on sites for radio stations, record labels, or your favorite bands. Imagine your ISP or cell phone carrier offering you a music subscription service bundled with your Internet service or smartphone. In this world, users won’t have to go to iTunes or Amazon MP3, or subscribe to Rhapsody (or MOG for that matter). Music will be available for consumption everywhere. And content owners will get paid regardless of where users buy it.

Another aside: while MusicNet offers a lot of flexibility for distributors–downloads, samples, free streams, or subscriptions are all supported–McGlade is most bullish on subscriptions as the digital business model of the future. He admits that old fogeys accustomed to CDs and vinyl will have a hard time giving up the concept of ownership, but suggests that today’s teenagers don’t care–they want music on demand from any device, any time, in any location, and don’t need to have the files physically present. McGlade thinks that subscriptions will have the best chance of taking off if they’re bundled with some other product, like ISP service.

Thanks to this upsurge, the company–which is owned by a private equity firm and no longer has any direct ownership affiliation with the major labels–has recently crossed over into profitability. A rare situation indeed in today’s online music landscape.

I had a fascinating conversation with MediaNet CEO Alan McGlade on Friday morning. Unless you’re deeply involved in online music, you probably don’t know MediaNet, but it’s the back end powering a lot of music services you might have used, including MOG’s subscription service that launched earlier this week, as well as Microsoft’s excellent Zune Pass subscription service and iLike’s online music marketplace. (MySpace acquired iLike in August, and in November,Rolex Watches, links to iLike’s service began appearing directly in music-related search results on Google.)

(Credit:
MediaNet)

But the landscape has changed. Labels don’t want to be beholden to Apple. They no longer insist on DRM for single-song downloads, and have realized that the more outlets there are for their digital music, the more customers they’ll reach, and the more sales they’ll have. (Amazing it took this long to figure out.) MediaNet is, in my opinion, incredibly well positioned to take advantage of this sea change.

Scoff all you want about subscriptions, but the concept keeps coming up: music industry expert Donald Passman also believes they’re the best chance for the music industry to thrive in the future. Even Apple finally seems to be bending to the idea of streaming music with its acquisition of Lala, although Lala isn’t a straight subscription service,omega watches, but more of an online music locker with some free streams, plus fee-based individual streams.

Fox Interactive used MediaNet's technology to embed this list of Aerosmith songs in a story about the band. Readers could then listen to a sample or buy the song.

In October, the company released a set of technologies called MN Open that make it almost trivially simple for companies to add a wide variety of music consumption options to their Web sites. Sure, companies can still use MediaNet to build an end-to-end service like MOG.

Talk about an opportunity lost! Instead of struggling along with something like 2 percent of the digital media player market, Microsoft could have ended up powering the music technology on thousands of Web sites.

MediaNet handled all the heavy lifting: licensing the music, streaming the samples, and fulfilling the transaction. Fox kept its brand and design throughout the process, and users didn’t have to leave the site to buy the song. Best of all for Fox, it didn’t have to make any up-front payment to use MediaNet’s technology. Instead, MediaNet takes the customary cut of any song purchased through the site (about 30 percent, if it’s anything like Apple). The model’s the same for sites that offer free ad-supported streams or subscriptions–MediaNet takes a portion of each transaction, then handles payment to the content owners.

According to McGlade, it’s already happening–he said MediaNet is adding about one new distributor per day, and has already got about 50 customers using the MN Open platform. One site, GetPlaylists.com, was able to add playable song samples and downloads-for-sale in only two days with MN Open, according to McGlade.