If there is one thing that everyone knows about, it’s advertising. No matter where we look, there always seems to be a thirty-second television spot, billboard, or conveniently placed Coke can within eye shot. While that sort of bombardment does have the tendancy to be annoying at points, it could always be worse. We could be living in the media obsessed dystopia of Max Headroom. In the series, advertising is present in three unique, highly diverse ways. On today’s installment of Twenty Minutes into the Future, we will take a look at three techniques and discuss how each are being used in today’s culture.

Technique #1: The Cheviot Method

Championed By: Ben Cheviot (George Coe), founder and president of Network 23.
Thesis: People first, ads second.
Explanation: According to the “Cheviot Method” of advertising, it is imperative to remember that it isn’t robots and/or lemmings watching these ads. It’s people. If “advertiser A” uses their predetermined ad time to insult the viewer, or if they try to do to much, the viewer is less likely to return. If such behavior keeps up over time, the viewer will simply “give up” and simply stop caring about your product or service. By treating people like people, not only do you get the viewer to care about the product, you make hem more willing to investigate other products or services that have your name on it.
In-Show Result: Network 23 is consistently number one in the ratings.
Real-World Example: Anyone who tows the Free Line concept practices this advertising method.

Technique #2: The Grossberg Method

Championed By: Ned Grossberg (the late Charles Rocket), the president of Network 66 and Cheviot’s mortal enemy.
Thesis: People exists to buy things, so they might as well be buying those things from us.
Explanation: When this particular advertising method is employed, the consumer essentially becomes secondary to the items that are being shown on the screen. Although the company involved might see a initial spike in “audience participation,” the numbers will actually be lower overall. To compensate for this, the advertiser/network is forced to employ a variety of gimmicks in order to coerce people into coming back for more. In the show, these gimmicks ranged from ridiculous (”Watch 66 in your sleep! You can do that now!”) to horrifying (one second long “blipverts” that had a nasty habit of making fat people explode) to the downright bizarre (a reality show about the life and times of super genius infants).
In-Show Result: Grossberg is made to look like a fool on a fairly regular basis; network ratings go down sharply.
Real-World Example: Any company labeled as an “evil corporation” has been accused of using this advertising method at least once in their existence.

Technique #3: The Zik Zak Method

Championed By: A fairly mysterious, multi-national corporation called “Zik Zak.” While it is implied that Zik Zak makes everything from furniture to prescription drugs, the company’s main products are soft drinks and fast food.
Thesis: People?! Who cares about people! Buy our stuff and quit complaining!
Explanation: People who employ this kind of advertising structure simply do not care about anyone or anything other than their product. It really doesn’t matter if people get “inconvenienced” or even find themselves in a sticky situation. They still bought the product. The “in-world” example of this tactic is the NeuralStim, a “free bracelet” that caused people to crave cheeseburgers. In the case of our hero, Edison Carter, the bracelet made him nearly die from overspending.
In-Show Result: The “faulty” bracelets cause Zik Zak to nearly go bankrupt.
Real-World Example: In a fictional TV show, it’s called a “NeuralStim.” In the real word, it’s called “malware.”
Special Note: During my research, I ran across three very different organizations that call themselves “Zik Zak.” Please keep in mind that the comments above only apply to the fictional corporation, not to the these real-life entities.

Our Advice: The “Cheviot Method” is the only way to go. As I said a few days ago. These are your people. Never forget that. Your customers (and everyone else, for that matter) will thank you in the long run.

Anyone who lived through the late 1980’s ought to remember Max Headroom, the hyperactive, pseudo-CGI “head in the box” portrayed by actor Matt Frewer. The Max Headroom character was everywhere in those days, from music videos to ads for Coca-Cola and seemingly everything in between. What many people don’t remember, however, is the science fiction program that bared the character’s name. This was not the lovable, wacky Max that called Cinemax and England’s Channel 4 home. This Max exists in a world where the major television networks are in charge. Because of this, such every day items as the off switch and the mute button are deemed to be illegal. Televisions are everywhere, including bathrooms and junk yards. Simply put, no one could ever escape the grip of the mass media, and the people like it that way.

Working within the confines of this odd, “Network-meets-The Matrix” world is Edison Carter (also portrayed by Matt Frewer), ace reporter for the highly-rated Network 23 and the “basis” for Max Headroom. It is his mission to bring his viewers the truth, no matter the situation. In the show’s fourteen episodes, Emerson and company does everything from thwart a sentient supercomputer to blowing the lid off of a dangerous subliminal advertising scheme run by Bill Maher, using nothing more than quick thinking and a heaping helping of brutal honesty. The viewer, both physically in the show and otherwise, are constantly reminded that the world is a better place thanks to people like Emerson Carter and his “computerized” alter ego. As long as there are people fighting for the truth, there really is nothing to worry about.

In many ways, we are approaching this basic existence, only with a different concept serving as our vice. Instead of thriving on a flashing picture, we are addicted to information. I don’t just mean the “TMZ/Perez Hilton” style celebrity gossip columns. I mean anything. Pick your topic — President Obama, professional wrestling, U2 — and I bet there is someone, somewhere talking, tweeting, or blogging about it at this very moment. We need to know about what is going on, and we need to know it now. Take the recent “best of seven” series between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Orlando Magic for example. Five years ago, we would have had to wait two to three days to hear former Laker Shaquille O’Neal talk about his former team. Thanks to Twitter, we heard it minutes after the Lakers cliched the NBA title. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that this kind of “instant feedback” can become addictive.

Now despite what some might be thinking, things really aren’t all that dire. Our world isn’t based upon the idea of two-way television sets or networks that can make commercials so compact that they make people’s heads literally explode. We’re simply talking about the delivery of information, not a re-creation of 1984. It’s human nature to want to know what is going on around us. Exploiting that desire, on the other hand, is something else entirely. It all comes down to priorities. Those who put more effort into their advertising than their content are more likely to alienate their audiences than the people who put their “product” front and center. By ignoring the very thing that got you into this very situation to begin with, the writer/blogger/YouTube “star” is actually sending a message that your fan base’s mouse click means more than their physical presence. Who cares if the content is good nor not? You clicked the link. It’s your loss.

While it might seem like a good idea now, turning your audience into a group of mind-numbed automatons randomly clicking things will not help you become a success in the long run. The trick, if you want to call it that, is to adopt what I like to call the “Edison Carter” approach to content creation and maintenance. It all breaks down to three basic principles:

1. Your users are more than just a group of random mice clicking a white box. They’re people. Your people. Always keep that in mind when developing your content.
2. Stay genuine to your cause.
3. Stay open to the needs and concerns of your user base.

Do this, and the world just might become a better place. If you don’t, well … let’s just say living in an “off switch-free world” is not anyone’s idea of a good time. Be sure to come back tomorrow for part two of our three part series. Until then, this is Brad Fallon signing off for Network 23 the Free Line.

As anyone who has turned on television can tell you, “web surfing” on the go is definitely the hip and trendy thing to do. In an effort to stay toe to toe with both the beautiful people and the so-called “in-crowd,” we here at the Free Line dedicate today’s Showdown to web browsers of the mobile variety. Unless otherwise noted, all of the browsers were tested using a Nokia N81 handset running on the AT&T mobile network.

Browser #1: Opera Mini

Website: http://www.opera.com/mini/
Developer: Opera
Compatible Handsets: Various
Rendering Engine: Presto
First Impression: “So … when are we going to get widgets?”
Ease of Use: 9; “It’s that good.”
Positives: Let us start from the top: It’s stable, much faster than the built-in S60 browser, supports almost every format we threw at it (save for Flash, of course), extremely easy to download … we think you see where we are going with this.
Negatives: It’s slightly harder to rotate the screen on the fly.
Overall: 8

Browser #2: Skyfire

Website: http://www.skyfire.com/
Developer: Skyfire Team
Compatible Handsets: Various
Rending Engine: Unknown
First Impression: “It has a really nice interface.”
Ease of Use: 8
Positives: Flash works! Sure, it isn’t the greatest install of Flash were have ever seen, but at least it works. Although it does not exactly reach “Opera levels” of speed, it does feel a bit faster overall compared to the pre-installed S60 browser.
Negatives: Try as we might, we simply could not figure out how to rotate the screen.
Overall: 7; “If I could figure out how to rotate the screen at all, it would have gotten an 8. Some things are just better in landscape mode.”

Browser #3: Bolt

Website: http://boltbrowser.com/
Developer: Bitstream
Compatible Handsets: Various (Including Blackberry)
Rendering Engine: Proprietary
First Impression: “Well it took me to YouTube in record time…”
Ease of Use: 6 “It’s a bit trickier than the rest.”
Positives: Not only does Bolt do Flash, it does YouTube. It’s a tad cramped on our tiny screen, but that doesn’t really matter at the moment.
Negatives: It took us a while to actually find this browser. We quite ran across it at the last possible second. It also has the tendency to be a bit “too careful” when it comes to “protecting” the user — warning messages are nice in moderation, but we really don’t need to see one every five seconds.
Overall: 6

Special Attraction: Mozilla Fennec

Note: The Fennec alpha test is only available for “select” handsets. Sadly, our unlocked N81 is not one of them. Because of this, we were “forced” to use the developer version designed for Windows. While we will give the browser the ol’ “once over,” we will not be comparing it to the other browsers listed. It just wouldn’t be fair.
Website: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/fennec/
Developer: Mozilla
Compatible Handsets: Nokia S180 tablet
Rendering Engine: Gecko
First Impression: “It seems to be designed for touchscreen devices. Oh … and it has tabs.”
Ease of Use: 7; “This score will definitely go up once the official version is released.”
Positives: It’s made by Mozilla and it supports tabs. ‘Nuff said.
Negatives: If you don’t own a phone with a large screen or a touchscreen, you might be out of luck.
Overall (As of now): 7; “I think there is a lot more that they could do with it.”

…And the Winner Is: Opera Mini. There is a reason why it reigns supreme over mobile devices.

PS: For all of those who are wondering why we didn’t cover the likes of Safari for the iPhone or the Blackberry browser, don’t worry. They are coming soon enough…

As we mentioned in yesterday’s post, it seems as if 95% of the tech world has two things on their collective minds: smart phones and Twitter. Since I think we have covered Twitter, Twitter clones, Twitter apps, and that goofy “Twitter apocalypse” thing that didn’t really happen to death, we are going focus on the wonderful world of mobile phones. But as you might have already guessed, I am going to do more than just merely “talk” about these phones. I will actually give one of these lucky mobile devices a thorough going over, making sure to tell you everything that you would ever need to know. Let’s face it: “smart phones” such as these could very possibly be the future of mobile computing. If your business isn’t ready for it, you could find yourself in very, very hot water. It is our duty, nay, our mission to make sure that this does not happen to you. Before we begin however, I do have a few notes:

Note #1: While the iPhone is definitely on my “smart phone” shortlist, we will not be doing a write up about it in this post. The reasoning for this is simple: anyone who is anyone already knows about it. We don’t know about any of you, but none of us here are necessarily fans of regurgitating common knowledge.

Note #2: The touchscreen Blackberry that Verizon peddles is all but out of the equation. First of all, it’s a Blackberry. Aside from the touchscreen, there really isn’t much different between the new phones and old “trackball” versions from last year. Secondly, I am not a big fan of Verizon Wireless. While their overall network is a bit better than the competition, it doesn’t justify the bloated, overinflated price that they charge. In short, I can get better equipment at a cheaper price. ‘Nuff said.

…With all of that laid out, here we go…

G1 (Dream)/G2 (Magic)/MyTouch 3G

Manufacturer: Google (OS); HTC (Phone; more phones from other companies will be arriving at some point in the near future)
Cell Network (US): T-Mobile
Open Source?: Yes.
Positives: Having been able to actually use this phone, I have to say that this phone’s biggest asset is the Android operating system. It has more of a feel of a scaled down desktop OS instead one designed for a mobile device. The ability to run a few third-party applications in the background doesn’t hurt things either.
Negatives: there’s something about the physical phone hardware than I just don’t like. It feels “cheap” and really isn’t all that much to look at. If I do decide to go with this phone, I will wait until the myTouch 3G is released in August.

Palm Pre

Manufacturer: Palm
Cell Network: Sprint
Open Source?: Yes
Positives: Palm is finally back. This is the phone that loyal users have been waiting for for quite some time now. While some might be upset at the loss of “classic” Palm OS software library, most will find the available apps to be suitable replacements. (A “classic OS” emulator is available for those who do not.)
Negatives: Not everyone likes the Sprint network.

The Great Linux Experiment just keeps on keeping on. In today’s post, we will attempt to describe what it’s like to compile a program from scratch. So follow along with us as we try to get the new “Epiphany with WebKit” browser running in Fedora 10.

Before actually installing the browser, Angela has to install the WebKit rendering engine first. While that might seem easy, it’s not. She first has to load a rather large file directly from Terminal (the command line) before even attempting to put it all together. Since unpacking the thing is taking a bit longer than initially expected, we have the following:

The folks at MTV seem to have modern social media on their collective minds. The former music video station/trendsetter is planning to use the likes of Twitter and Facebook to create a “flagship show” in the style of the now defunct Total Request Live. Like with the previously mentioned CNN program Rick Sanchez Direct, the show will be based around host Alexa Chung’s interactions with viewers that inhabit the various services. The fans will also have an opportunity to submit their own videos to the show. Expect the as-yet unnamed program to debut sometime this summer.

Twitter and Facebook aren’t the only Internet sensations that are currently being eyeballed by MTV. The bigwigs at the network are in talks with controversial ex-WWE World Champion/notorious free spirit Jeff Hardy for a reality show based upon his life. According to those close to the situation, the show will actually be a “big budget” version of The Hardy Show, the surprisingly popular web program starring Jeff, his brother Matt, and mutual friend Shannon Moore. (Like Jeff, both Matt and Moore are full time professional wrestlers.) An air date for the program is unknown at this time.

…And we are back! Unfortunately, the file is still unpacking. While we definitely appreciate the “completeness” of the package, we are beginning to wonder if all of these individual bits are truly necessary. We understand why we would need files labeled as “kernel” or “browser.” The “OS X Tiger” files, on the other hand … now that is a real head scratcher. Needless to say, I think we’re in this for the proverbial “long haul.” In the meantime…

As many of you are quite well aware of, piracy is alive and well on the Internet. While there are those out there who are okay with the practice, most within the industry aren’t exactly thrilled that it’s still happening. Independent game programming house The ACE Team have crafted their own special way to deter the practice: engaging the user in polite, civil dialog. Each copy of their new game, Zeno Crush, has a message attached asking the user if they would consider buying the game sometime in the near future. “We cannot do anything to stop piracy of the game (and honestly don’t intend to do so) but if you are downloading because you wish to try before you buy, I would ask that you purchase the game (and support the independent game development scene) if you enjoy it,” writes the programming team. While it is still a bit too early to see if the rambling, yet genuinely heartfelt, note has affected sales, early word seems positive. Many ardent BitTorrent users claim that they are now planning to actually buy the game, thanks solely to the letter. As always, we will have more on this story as it becomes available.

…And we’re back yet again. Before anyone asks, yes. The file is still unpacking itself. Because of this, the planned install will have to be posted tomorrow. Don’t worry; it will be worth it. Until tomorrow, we bid you all a fond adieu from the land of penguins and GNUs.

Dateline: The Internet. It looks as if the newspapers, the one-time princes of popular opinion that made Orson Welles seethe with red boiling anger and President Richard M. Nixon quake in his loafers, have gone stale. In a poll performed by the professionals at Gartner, only 20% of “Ma and Pa McGillicutty” use the superfluous search option located within all online news journals for the “news that’s fit to print,” while nearly 50% use the likes of Google and Yahoo. The pros at the paper say that it’s no coincidence that their once profitable concern is falling faster than a bi-plane in a tailspin. So who is it? Who is the mastermind behind this seemingly sinister scheme to make the media elite fall to the mat and cry uncle? From the looks of things, the upheaval is coming from a riotous band of merry makers known only as “social media sites.” In the mind of Gartner guru Allen Weiner, however, the old guard has no one to blame but themselves. “[P]ublishers are losing focus on the crucial imperative of how to capitalize on those consumers who remain loyal, engaged online and print readers,” Gartner told the fine folks at WebProNews. He also says the “big daddy newspaper” is unwilling to use skills they learned in grade school to get ahead. “[S]ome of the industry’s current failures fall under the category of looking past the basics… Even simple social media tools not only allow sharing and recommendations, but also provide a level of identity and reputation management to give others a snapshot of a content curator’s credentials.” Until the problem is fixed, he says, expect the “popular press” to continue its decent downward, hurling boldly to the cold ground below.

In other news, it seems as the NBA isn’t the only athletic organization that is questioning the use of web 2.0 technologies in sport. In a story brought to us by England’s Channel 4, the Referee’s Association of Italy has ratified a plan that would ban all football (soccer) officials from taking part in social media sites, writing blogs, or even participating in message boards. The new rules are a part of an overall set of restrictions that are designed to keep the general populous — the media, fans, and most importantly, the more undesirable parts of society — as far away from the officials as humanly possible. By keeping the refs out of the public eye, the theory goes, they are less likely to be involved in “unwanted activities” such as rigging games or getting into publicized skirmished with members of the press. The actual referees have no comment on the decision at this time.

And finally: CVS and Medco are coming soon to a web browser near you, in a way. The popular drug store chains have signed a deal that will allow pharmacy customers to view their prescription histories online through Google Health. Although the notion of having your history floating around on the Internet might make some feel a bit uneasy, it’s for a good cause. According to the folks at Google, the new service is designed to help patients avoid accidentally overdosing on medication by giving them an easy way to keep track of it all. “Having a list of all your medications all in one place from the pharmacies you shop at helps your doctor, pharmacist and other care providers do a better job of taking care of you,” writes product manager Maneesh Arora on The Official Google Blog. “[I]t’s estimated that 1.5 million Americans are sickened or injured each year by errors in prescribing, dispensing and/or taking medicationsys… Making your medications known to those who care for you is a simple step to ensure you get the best possible care.” The new “prescription histories” feature is available now for all CVS and Medco pharmacy users.

As many fans of the Free Line already know, there isn’t a social media tool out there that is hotter than Twitter. The microblogging service is so popular that venture capitalists are willing to give co founder Biz Stone large sums of their money … without him even asking for it. Still, not everyone sees Twitter’s success as a “sure thing.” According to Bernstein analyst Jeffrey Lindsay, Twitter is a textbook example of a “pre-business” — a concern that’s tremendously popular with the public, but ultimately doesn’t make any money. When an established firm buys a “pre-business,” that firm hopes that it can “cash in” right away on its new accquisition’s popularity. When it comes down to it, however, these new subsidiaries actually end up losing the parent company money, simply because it wasn’t pulling anything in to begin with. The history books are filled with failed “pre-business” takeovers, from the AOL/Netscape debacle in the late 1990’s to Fox’s purchase of MySpace. While it might seem like good business sense for Microsoft, Yahoo, or Google to swoop in, odds are in would do more harm than good. The “it factor” the company currently touts could also be seen as a giant “red flag” to prospective buyers. If the product isn’t making any money now while it’s popular, what will happen after it becomes completely passe? The only way for a major corporation to avoid these pitfalls, he writes, is to let the Twitter team deal with them themselves. Only then will their true staying power be evident. Says Linday: “[Prospective suitors] should leave it to the original founders develop a business model and if the business survives, consider acquiring it then. Taking on un-monetized services has proven to be a very uneconomic proposition for the Internet players over the last decade. We think that those players who have revenues today would do well to avoid them.”

In other news, all is not well in the land of Google. A privacy group called Electronic Privacy Information Center (aka EPIC) has petitioned the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the computing giant for so-called “inequities in the security safeguards” commonly found in cloud computing. In the open letter, EPIC claims that the private data stored upon the Google server are inherently unsafe and privy to tampering. Until such time that an investigation can actually occur, EPIC is asking for Google to remove all of the services that rely on “cloud computing,” such as Picasa and Gmail. While a small flaw was recently found lurking within their security software, Google says that it has since been taken care of and is no longer an issue. Neither EPIC, Google, nor the FTC have any further comment on this issue at this time.

And to properly finish out our Thursday, we have Contxts. Contxts takes the tried-and-true notion of the business card and moves it to the realm of text messaging. Instead of having to print out loads of cards, the user is simply given a user name and a five-digit texting number. When the user “calls” the number, a digital business card is immediately sent to his or her phone. In addition to the more traditional fare, these digital cards also feature various “web 2.0″ enhancements, including the contact information for various social networking sites. While it isn’t exactly a suitable replacement for the traditional “raised font” business card yet, Contxts is a great addition to any business person’s arsenal, be it digital or otherwise.

Anyone who has watched a live (or nearly live) television program recently knows about the mainstream media’s sudden fascination with Twitter. Even notoriously old-fashioned broadcasts such as the evening news and sports talk shows are now taking questions and topic suggestions from the so-called “Twitter people.” As you might have guessed, the endless hours of conversation, jokes, and general hype given to Twitter by television hosts and bored comedians have finally started to pay off. According to the analytical gurus at comScore, nearly four million Americans visited the microblogging site in February — a 55% increase from the previous month. The site is also expected to topple the six million worldwide mark any day now. While the news is definitely cause for celebration, many within the industry wonder if it’s ready for what lies ahead. The service, known far and wide for its intermittent service outages, might not be able to support the throngs of new users the media is ushering their way. Management’s well-documented inability to properly monetize is also a cause for concern. Perhaps the most important question, according to those “in the know,” is the so-called “fad factor.” Will Biz Stone and company be able to keep its sizable user base after the inevitable backlash occurs, or will Twitter go the way of Yahoo Chat and Second Life? Despite the doubts, the Twitter team is going out of their way to tell people that their service is more than just a one-note fad. Whether they can actually deliver on their promises, however, is still up for debate.

Twitter’s new found cult of personality isn’t limited to the United States. According to a new poll conducted by research firm Hitwise, the microblogging king is now the second most popular news site in Great Britain, trailing only The Daily Mail in total views. That said, things aren’t quite as simple as they appear. “Given that some people claim that [hits from third party apps] exceed the direct hits via the website, it is also fair to say that actual Twitter usage is higher than our numbers imply,” says Hitwise Creative Director Robin Goad. “The trend is clear: in the UK, Twitter now receives more… traffic than most of the main newspaper websites and is growing at a faster rate.”

The unprecedented growth of both Twitter and other “new media” outlets has claimed yet another traditional news source. After nearly 150 years, the last issue of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has rolled off the press. Those close to both the Post-Intelligencer staff and newspaper powerhouse/parent company Hearst Media say that the popularity of the online edition, combined with the rising cost of running a traditional newspaper, are to blame for the shutdown. In light of the news, most of the paper’s staff have been given their notice. Those who remain will be in charge of the new and improved Post Dispatch web portal, which will be tailored to local news and events.

Not all “traditional” means of information gathering are disappearing, however. There are some enterprising individuals that are putting a new spin on a few very old ideas. Take Aardvark for example. Like many modern tools and services, Aardvark is designed to get you the information you need as quickly as possible. The difference is in the approach. Instead of going to a pre-created database or even a social network, your question is immediately given to a real person. Nearly anything can be asked, from sports scores to driving directions to random bits of useless trivia. Easy to use and completely indispensable, Aardvark makes asking people for help fun again.

If foreign languages are more your thing, then One Hour Translation is definitely up your alley. This handy little service promises accurate, grammatically correct translations in — surprise surprise — one hour or less. Similar to the Aardvark setup, all language queries are handled by a real person who specializes in language arts. While it isn’t exactly “free,” One Hour Translation is perfect for anyone who wants their translated sentence to sound as if it was written by a human, not a random word generator.

Despite the questionable state of the economy, there’s one small industry that is still seeing positive growth: domain registration. According to a new poll by VeriSign, roughly 177 million new domain names were registered in 2008, a 16% increase from the previous year. Those close to the situation cite the emergence of markets such as China and India, as well as a general “relaxing” of the domain name rules, as possible reasons for the increase. As in previous years, the veritable “.com” leads the way, with 90.4 million names registered. Other heavy hitters include .cn (China), .de (Germany), .net, .org.

Elsewhere, it seems as if AOL’s MediaGlow line of sites are a bit more popular than once suspected. The sites, which specialize in delivering content to so-called “niche” audiences, received nearly seven billion page hits over the past year. “MediaGlow has started 2009 by reaching its largest audience to date and building core brands that are at scale,”MediaGlow President Bill Wilson told WebProNews. “We are creating valuable brands that are driving engagement and attracting a larger audience.” Wilson says that roughly thirty new sites will be launched in 2009, including several single-sport hubs and a community that caters exclusively to mixed martial arts fans.

Moving to the “viral” end of things, anti-virus firm TrendMicro has discovered a new malware program designed specifically to attack Internet Explorer 7. Disguising itself as a harmless .doc file, the program uses an oddball IE7 bug to download and install a variety of nasty, harmful, and otherwise dangerous things. The computer is then turned into a zombie system, sending screenshots of the victim’s desktop to the attackers’ servers at various predetermined intervals. As always, make sure that both your anti virus software and Windows are up-to-date. Zombies are meant for horror novels, video games, and George Romero films, not your home office.

In much, much happier news, rock band The Presidents of the United States of America have found an interesting way to distribute their music to the masses — create an iPhone application. The new app gives users access to most of the bands recordings, including their hard-to-find demo album and a constantly-updating list of new and unreleased material, all uncut and commercial free. Similar to other streaming apps like Slacker and Pandora, users are unable to create a proper play list, although “by-album” filtering is possible. Each song also features a link to iTunes, making the act of physicially buying tracks quick and painless. The app, which has been described by Presidents lead singer Dave Dereeder as a “Whitman’s Sampler for the ears,” is available now for all iPhone users.

And finally: The Presidents aren’t the only group with an official-sounding name to turn to the Internet for funds. New York governor David Patterson has revealed a plan that would add the state’s 4% sales to all downloads. The tax plan is designed to help the state fight its way out of debt, which is said be in the $15 billion range. Many lawmakers support the bill, with one going as far to say that the tax would help “legitimize” outlets with otherwise “questionable” reputations, such as the porn industry. As many fans of the Free Line know, this isn’t the first time the state of New York has attempted to add a tax to digital downloads. Last December, the state assembly tried to pass a bill that would allow the lawmakers to tax various “discretionary income” items, including downloads, taxi rides, and cable television service. Unlike the first bill, the new proposal will be limited to digital downloads only. At press time, neither side has officially commented on the issue.

The fallout from the Google Japan blogger scandal continues. Matt Cutts, Google’s anti-spam king, has spoken out on the situation, saying that he was “mortified” by the company’s actions. “There were a lot of disappointed, upset, angry people within Google,” Cutts told tech blog WebProNews in a video interview. “Every so often, you have a day where you just feel like ‘I wish that his hadn’t happened.’ That’s what it was like this week.” Despite the momentary let-down, Cutts makes clear that Google still stands for everything that is right and good with the web. “Our position is unchanged. We still think [paying bloggers] is bad for the web… If somebody’s writing, you want them to be writing because they really believe in it, not because they’re paid to do it.”

Elsewhere: It seems as if a few changes will be coming to Yahoo’s front page. Unlike the current incarnation, which is full of bounding boxes and links, the new page will be centered around the availability and usability of online applications. Like most “social” sites, these apps are designed to bring the user closer to the things he or she can’t live without. The site is also designed to further integrate various Yahoo services into the page. Despite the improvements, the site isn’t exactly ready for mass consumption. “We’ve done a number of things to collect input,” writes Tapan Bhat on the official blog. “Bottom line is we’re getting closer to the final design, but we’re not quite there yet.” Expect to see the new updates in the near future.

Not everything is sunshine and roses in the land of Yahoo, however. Yahoo MyWeb, a bookmarking service with designs to be the next big social media site, is being shut down next month. The staff cites the need to “streamline services” as the primary reason for the move. To help with the closure, Yahoo is giving users the option to move their bookmark collection to either Yahoo Bookmarks (for “private” use) or Delicious. The last day of MyWeb will be March 16th.

In other news, multimedia gurus Adobe Systems have announced that a full-featured version of Flash is finally coming to a non-iPhone mobile device near you. Users who currently want to have a Flash fix on the go are stuck using Flash Lite, a serviceable, if not underpowered “stopgap measure.” Those close to Adobe hope that the announcement will force mobile developers to give the platform a second look. Others, however, site the program’s ridiculous two-year development time as proof of vaporware. If all goes according to plan, expect to see mobile Flash arrive sometime in 2010. No iPhone release is planned at this time.

And to finish things out, we here at the Free Line present you with something “lovely.” Lovely Charts is a new, web-based service designed to make the creation of flow charts a beautiful thing. Aside from the standard array of point-and-click features, users can expect to find a variety of interesting tools at their disposal, including the ability to save their flow charts in both JPEG and PNG image formats. Limited file sharing is also included in the basic package, adding a bit of “social flair” to the proceedings. Easy to set up and use, Lovely Charts can make thought organization a sweet thing indeed.