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A teenage hacker could end up working on the right side of the law after a run-in with the police.
 
Owen Walker from Whitianga was discharged without conviction for his part in an international cyber crime ring.

Police say they could use his talents.

The hapless hacker left court lucky after the judge decided Walker’s computer hacking skills were born out of curiosity, rather than criminal intent.

Inside court the 18-year-old, sandwiched between security guards, couldn’t help but smile when his computer mastery took centre stage.

Crown Prosecutor Ross Douch said Walker is considered to by e-crime investigators to be the most advanced bot programming encountered.

“He has got some ability which is quite unique. He is often described, and I would agree, by people around the world as among the top people who can write this kind of software,” said Martin Kleintjes, police e-crime manager.

Known by his cyber ID Akill, Walker was the mastermind of an international “botnet” group which infected tens of thousands of computers, including the collapse of a computer server at the University of Pennsylvania.

The group had been botnetting, using viruses, spam and corrupt software to ruin large computer systems. A botnet is a jargon term for a collection of software robots, or bots, which run autonomously and automatically. They run on groups of “zombie” computers.

A 20-year-old American student worked with Walker, known by his cyber ID Akill, and they called themselves the A Team, reportedly infecting 1.3 million computers and costing victims around $20 million.

His arrest followed an 18 month investigation by New Zealand, Dutch and American authorities.

The police say Walker put New Zealand on the world map for cyber crime. He is now being wooed by major computer companies overseas.

Lawyers told the court police are interested in using Walker’s talent, and Justice Potter discharged him without conviction, saying he was a young man with a potentially outstanding future.  He was ordered to pay costs and reparation for damage caused to Pennsylvania University in the US.

Outside court, Walker says he understands what he did was wrong. He says the police might offer him a job but they haven’t yet, adding he would be interested if they did.

His mother Shell Whyte hopes whatever he chooses to do, it’s on the right side of the law.

Internet safety group NetSafe says the case is a reminder that large scale cyber-based organised crime is not something that only happens “over there”.

The rise and fall of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign can be traced through video - from her first announcement to the apparent suspension of the campaign. Some of the video was scripted fare, much of it wasn’t. Some of it aired on network TV, much of it spread virally online.

And each of the videos was viewed enough to dominate the news for at least a day. Collectively, they helped shape the narrative of her campaign.

What hurt Clinton most, political analysts say, is that she couldn’t consistently use the newfound ubiquity of video to soften her image with voters. Or, as George Washington University Professor and new-media analyst Michael Cornfeld said, “It’s like the Clintons, both of them, had sort of a ‘Sunset Boulevard’ thing going on. They were silent screen stars who couldn’t make the transition to talkies.”

Conquering video in the digital age has less to do with being telegenic or smart, as both Clintons are. Being a politician in the YouTube era means being comfortable with giving up control of your message and realizing that everything you say or do can be uploaded within minutes for the whole world to see - and then mashed up into something new.

Video is the media currency of the millions of young Americans who voted in the primary season this year, many for the first time. Stories told through video percolated to traditional media from blogs and online advocacy sites, from the tirades of Sen. Barack Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, to the off-script comments of Bill Clinton.

Authenticity is more prized online than high production values - the only thing worse than being caught in a gaffe is being perceived as overscripted. For much of the first half of the campaign, analysts say, Clinton was overscripted.

“Hillary’s announcement video had really high production values, like it was a made-for-TV movie,” said Dan Manatt, executive producer of PoliticsTV.com, a political video site.

So were her first Web chats, where she answered questions from voters. They may have looked good, but they weren’t the stuff that generates buzz for a campaign.

“The Web values authenticity,” Manatt said, “and these were seen as staged and scripted and inauthentic.”

One Obama supporter seized upon Hillary Clinton’s stilted quality and created the “Vote Different” online video, a mashup of Apple’s famous 1984 Macintosh ad and Clinton’s early Web efforts. It portrayed Clinton as a Big Brother figure and pointed viewers to Obama’s Web site.

An Obama supporter, Phil de Vellis, created it on a Sunday afternoon because he was frustrated with the way politicians were using online video. “They were treating it just like TV. They were broadcasting things online. You have to do more. You have to interact with your audiences.”

Plus, he wanted to show how an individual - using new media tools - could change the course of the campaign.

“We’re starting to see in these campaigns where being seen as too scripted can be seen as a liability,” said Patrick Ruffini, a GOP online strategist and founder of the new the Next Right blog, “in that you can be lampooned for it.”

It’s not like Obama didn’t have his YouTube nightmares - the nation surely has not seen the last of his former pastor. But at the height of the Wright controversy, Obama delivered a long, nuanced speech about race in America. Within a week, nearly 4 million people had watched in on YouTube, and soon the heat on the story died down.

“Even (former GOP presidential candidate and Mormon) Mitt Romney gave a speech on religion, even though it may not have been as good,” Cornfeld said. “But Hillary didn’t try to give that kind of speech about what it meant to be a woman in this race. Two kinds of people needed to hear that speech: men and women. She never really took control of that topic.”

While Clinton reportedly will suspend her campaign Saturday, Nichola Gutgold, an associate professor of communication at Penn State University, said it was important that the nation’s most viable female presidential candidate didn’t quit.

And while her campaign may have made missteps, “she looked like a president,” said Gutgold, author of “Paving the Way for Madam President.”

However, because of the evolving nature of video, sometimes that’s not enough.

  By Joe Garofoli,

Experts in Interactive Media say candidate never progressed beyond traditional uses

The rise and fall of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign can be told through video - from her first announcement to the suspension of her campaign, scheduled for Saturday. Some of the video was scripted fare, much of it wasn’t. Some of it aired on network TV, much of it spread virally online.

And all of it was viewed enough to dominate a news cycle - or in Clinton’s case, the campaign’s narrative.

What hurt Clinton most, political analysts say, is that she couldn’t consistently use the newfound ubiquity of video to soften her image with voters. Or, as George Washington University professor and new media analyst Michael Cornfeld said, “It’s like the Clintons, both of them, had sort of a ‘Sunset Boulevard’ thing going on. They were silent screen stars who couldn’t make the transition to talkies.”

Conquering video in the digital age has less to do with being telegenic or smart - as both Clintons are. Being a politician in the YouTube era means being comfortable with giving up control of your message, and realizing that everything you say or do can be uploaded within minutes for the whole world to see - and then mashed up into something new.

Video is the media currency of the millions of young Americans who voted in the primary seasons, many for the first time. Stories told through video percolated to traditional media from blogs and online advocacy sites, from the tirades of Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, to the off-campaign script comments from Bill Clinton.

Authenticity is more prized online than high production values, as the only thing worse than being caught in a gaffe is being perceived as over-scripted. For much of the first half of the campaign, analysts say Clinton was over-scripted.

“Hillary’s announcement video had really high production values, like it was a made-for-TV movie,” said Dan Manatt, executive producer of PoliticsTV.com, a political video site. So were her first Web chats, where she answered questions from voters. They may have looked good, but they weren’t the stuff that generates buzz for a campaign.

“The Web values authenticity,” Manatt said, “And these were seen as staged and scripted and inauthentic.”

One Obama supporter seized upon Hillary Clinton’s stilted quality and created the “Vote Different” online video, a mash-up of Apple’s famous 1984 Macintosh ad and Hillary’s early Web efforts. It portrayed Clinton as a Big Brother figure, and pointed viewers to Obama’s website.

An Obama supporter, Phil de Vellis, created it on a Sunday afternoon because he was frustrated with the way politicians were using online video. “They were treating it just like TV. They were broadcasting things online. You have to do more. You have to interact with your audiences.” Plus, he wanted to show how an individual - using new media tools - could change the course of the campaign.

“We’re starting to see in these campaigns where being seen as too scripted can be seen as a liability,” said Patrick Ruffini, a GOP online strategist and founder of the new The Next Right blog, “in that you can be lampooned for it.”

It’s not like Obama didn’t have his YouTube nightmares - the nation surely has not seen the last of his former pastor. But at the height of the Wright controversy, Obama delivered a long, nuanced speech about race in America. Within a week, nearly 4 million people had watched it. 

 By Rick Whiting,

You might say Google (NSDQ:GOOG)’s universe is expanding with a little help from NASA.

The fast-growing Internet search company will lease 42.2 acres of land at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif. to construct up to 1.2 million square feet of office and research and development space. The property lies between Google’s headquarters and Moffet Field on the NASA property.

Google and NASA have collaborated on several projects since September 2005, including establishing the Planetary Content project that makes it easier for scientists to publish planetary data online. That project has provided high-resolution imagery and maps to the Google Moon Website.

The relationship also includes a controversial deal between NASA and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and CEO Eric Schmidt to land a Boeing 767 and two smaller planes at Moffet Field, according to a Reuters news agency story.

Under terms of the 40-year lease Google will pay NASA an initial base rent of $3.66 million per year. Google can incrementally extend the lease up to a total of 90 years, the company said. Google has even provided a view of the property at http://maps.google.com/googleameslease.

“This long-term lease agreement is a key component of Google’s strategy for continue growth in Silicon Valley,” said David Radcliffe, Google vice president for real estate and workplace services, in a statement.

Construction of the new campus will take place in three phases with the first phase beginning by the end of September 2013, the second phase by 2018 and the third by 2022. Most of the development will be office and R&D space, although it will include conference, housing, dining, fitness, and child care facilities, as well as parking and infrastructure improvements for NASA’s use. NASA will actually retain control of the project during the construction phase.

AP
LOS ANGELES— Harvey Korman, the tall, versatile comedian who won four Emmys for his outrageously funny contributions to “The Carol Burnett Show” and on the big screen in “Blazing Saddles,” died Thursday. He was 81.

Korman died at UCLA Medical Center after suffering complications from the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm four months ago, his family said in a statement released by the hospital.

His daughter, Kate Korman, said in the statement that it was a “miracle” that her father had survived the aneurysm at all, and that he had several major operations.

“Tragically, after such a hard fought battle he passed away,” she said.

A natural second banana, Korman gained attention on “The Danny Kaye Show,” appearing in skits with the star. He joined the show in its second season in 1964 and continued until it was canceled in 1967. That same year he became a cast member in the first season of “The Carol Burnett Show.”

Burnett and Korman developed into the perfect pair with their burlesques of classic movies such as “Gone With the Wind” and soap operas like “As the World Turns” (their version was called “As the Stomach Turns”).

Another recurring skit featured them as “Ed and Eunice,” a staid married couple who were constantly at odds with the wife’s mother (a young Vickie Lawrence in a gray wig). In “Old Folks at Home,” they were a combative married couple bedeviled by Lawrence as Burnett’s troublesome young sister.

Burnett was devastated by the news, said her assistant, Angie Horejsi.

“She loved Harvey very much,” Horejsi said. She said Burnett had not yet made a statement.

Korman revealed the secret to the long-running show’s success in a 2005 interview.

“We were an ensemble, and Carol had the most incredible attitude. I’ve never worked with a star of that magnitude who was willing to give so much away.”

After 10 successful seasons, he left in 1977 for his own series. Dick Van Dyke took his place, but the chemistry was lacking and the Burnett show was canceled two years later. “The Harvey Korman Show” also failed, as did other series starring the actor.

“It takes a certain type of person to be a television star,” he said in that 2005 interview. “I didn’t have whatever that is. I come across as kind of snobbish and maybe a little too bright. … Give me something bizarre to play or put me in a dress and I’m fine.”

His most memorable film role was as the outlandish Hedley Lamarr (who was endlessly exasperated when people called him Hedy) in Mel Brooks’ 1974 Western satire, “Blazing Saddles.”

He also appeared in the Brooks comedies “High Anxiety,” “The History of the World Part I” and “Dracula: Dead and Loving It,” as well as two “Pink Panther” moves, “Trail of the Pink Panther” in 1982 and “Curse of the Pink Panther” in 1983.

Korman’s other films included “Gypsy,” “Huckleberry Finn” (as the King), “Herbie Goes Bananas” and “Bud and Lou” (as legendary straightman Bud Abbott to Buddy Hackett’s Lou Costello). He also provided the voice of Dictabird in the 1994 live-action feature “The Flintstones.”

In television, Korman guest-starred in dozens of series including “The Donna Reed Show,” “Dr. Kildare,” “Perry Mason,” “The Wild Wild West,” “The Muppet Show,” “The Love Boat,” “The Roseanne Show” and “Burke’s Law.”

In their ’70s, he and Tim Conway, one of his Burnett show co-stars, toured the country with their show “Tim Conway and Harvey Korman: Together Again.” They did 120 shows a year, sometimes as many as six or eight in a weekend.

Harvey Herschel Korman was born Feb. 15, 1927, in Chicago. He left college for service in the U.S. Navy, resuming his studies afterward at the Goodman School of Drama at the Chicago Art Institute. After four years, he decided to try New York.

“For the next 13 years I tried to get on Broadway, on off-Broadway, under or beside Broadway,” he told a reporter in 1971.

He had no luck and had to support himself as a restaurant cashier. Finally, in desperation, he and a friend formed a nightclub comedy act.

“We were fired our first night in a club, between the first and second shows,” he recalled.

After returning to Chicago, Korman decided to try Hollywood, reasoning that “at least I’d feel warm and comfortable while I failed.”

For three years he sold cars and worked as a doorman at a movie theater. Then he landed the job with Kaye.

In 1960 Korman married Donna Elhart and they had two children, Maria and Christopher. They divorced in 1977. Two more children, Katherine and Laura, were born of his 1982 marriage to Deborah Fritz.

In addition to his daughter Kate, he is survived by his wife and the three other children.

All data point to escalating foreclosure numbers through the year

Foreclosures have flooded North County’s housing market, and indicators show that the waters will be rising, not receding through the rest of the year.

Just as April’s sales data was the best in months and provided some encouragement for real estate agents, the month’s huge foreclosure numbers offered more ammunition to housing market bears who see San Diego County’s housing recession dragging on for two or three years.

All indications are that North County will see more foreclosures, not fewer, come up for sale over the next six months:

– Fewer than half of San Diego County variable-rate subprime loans —- where interest rates jump after a set period and typically carry high payments because of a borrower’s poor credit score or low down payment —- have already seen payments escalate, according to a report by the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

– Of all North County foreclosed homes that went back to the bank within the last 120 days, 60 percent have not been listed on the market, according to a North County Times analysis of foreclosure, listing, sales and pending sales data. And there have been more finalized foreclosures —- 1,800 homes —- over the last four months than the previous seven months.

– Notices of default, the first step in the foreclosure process, have shot up in North County, reaching a peak for this recession of 1,100 in April, according to data from ForeclosureRadar, a California foreclosure tracking service. Notices of default preceed bank-owned foreclosures (widely viewed as the chief culprit of San Diego County’s home price decline) by six months to a year.

The data put foreclosure analysts at odds with real estate agents, who say that a flurry of buyer activity foretell a housing market recovery locally.

“I am more wondering when is this thing going to blow up, and you’re already talking about the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Ramsey Su, an investor and former real estate broker in San Diego. “It’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

Small-time investor could lose big

Many housing analysts said they think option-adjustable rate mortgages will further exacerbate the foreclosure problem. The loans allow homeowners to pay less than the interest accrued, meaning the amount owed on the mortgage increases, rather than decreases, with each payment.

Eventually, the mortgage balance becomes so large the lender forces the homeowner to pay all interest and some of the principal each month to start drawing down the balance.

For Diane Goodwin of Oceanside, that move would force her to lose two of her investment properties. And if the market does not improve, she said she could lose her other three homes, including her primary residence, over the next year and a half.

All five properties she owns carry the option mortgages, also known as negative amortization loans.

“Yup, big mistake,” she said. “However, we wouldn’t have any of them except the original house if we didn’t use neg-am, so it was a gamble. And at the time, it seemed like a good one. Obviously, we didn’t know what was going to happen to the market.”

There are 19,200 homes with neg-am, non-suprime loans in San Diego County, according to the Federal Reserve report. All of those loans are known as Alt-A, which indicates a more qualified buyer than subprime loans but less qualified than prime loans. In total, there are about 95,000 non-prime loans in the county, according to the data.

That prevalence has raised concerns among foreclosure analysts that neg-am loans will cause a new tidal wave of bank-owned foreclosures.

“I still haven’t seen a real wumph,” said Ward Hanigan, founder of Innovest, a San Diego-based company that tracks foreclosure statistics and buys bank-owned properties.

Hanigan said he thinks San Diego County’s housing market will decline for two more years before any sort of recovery and that an increase in foreclosures will lead the decline.

Based on that prediction, his company has not invested in foreclosures yet, he said.

A few unknowns will play a significant role over the next year.

For example, Goodwin is desperately trying to get her banks to freeze her mortgage payments to avoid foreclosure. But because she has not missed a payment, she said, they will not talk about such a freeze, known as a loan modification.

If more banks engage in loan modifications, more homeowners and investors like Goodwin might dodge foreclosure.

To help even more families facing foreclosure, the state and federal governments have moved aggressively to pass foreclosure-prevention legislation and have organized networks where homeowners can seek free help in securing loan modifications.

However, much of that legislation will not help Goodwin because she is an investor and politicians have repeatedly said they want to avoid bailing out speculators.

But Goodwin said she does not fit the speculator-investor prototype.

“I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t a burden to my family when I get old. It was not to be rich, but to have something so that my kids wouldn’t have to worry about me when I’m 90,” Goodwin said. “So now, instead of being able to retire when I’m 65 or 62-and-a-half, now, realistically, I’ll have to work until I’m 75.”

The negative intangibles

Some unknown factors could increase, instead of reduce, foreclosure numbers. For some housing analysts, the trajectory of the nation’s economy will play the biggest role in foreclosure numbers over the next year.

Housing analysts have said that the primary cause of foreclosures so far has been creative loan products, such as neg-am or subprime loans, that put people into homes they could not really afford.

In contrast, job loss, divorce and death have been the largest foreclosure factors historically. If significant layoffs come —- as some analysts, such as Su, expect —- foreclosure numbers will multiply as traditional home losses combine with evictions brought about by exotic financial instruments and a housing rush from 2000 to 2005.

“I don’t think it would be a linear growth of foreclosures. It would be exponential. It would be catastrophic,” said Su, the San Diego investor. “It would be a situation we have never seen before.”

Some real estate agents, such as Kurt Kinsey of Oceanside, disagree with analysts such as Hanigan. Though Kinsey said he acknowledges there will be more foreclosures through 2008, that does not necessarily mean they will depress home prices.

“It will definitely add pressure to non-distressed sellers, no doubt about it. But most of them (foreclosures) are coming back at price points that are affordable,” Kinsey said. “And from where they started at, they’re starting to come up in price. So if anything, they’re starting to heal some neighborhoods.”

Shadow inventory

Even if foreclosure numbers leveled off next month, it would take a long time to work through the homes already in the foreclosure process.

Notices of default, the first step of the foreclosure process sent out after homeowners start missing payments, are considered a leading indicator of foreclosures.

Hanigan said his statistics show about 50 percent of notices of default are turning into bank-owned foreclosures in San Diego County.

North County has seen notices of default escalate recently, accumulating 4,100 notices in the first four months of the year, according to ForeclosureRadar.

With Hanigan’s 50 percent conversion rate, the notices of default during the first four months of this year will translate into 525 foreclosures per month. During those four months, North County posted an average of 460 foreclosures over the same time period.

And even many of the homes that have completed the foreclosure process have yet to hit the market.

Of the 1,300 North County homes to be seized by banks over the last 120 days, 750 are still not on the market, according to an analysis of ForeclosureRadar data and listing, sales and pending data from Sandicor, a service real estate agents use to post homes for sale.

“I think that the banks are in an analysis paralysis,” said Norm Miller, a real estate professor with University of San Diego’s Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate. “They’re trying to figure out whether to put it on now and bite the bullet or wait because they think we’re at the bottom. But everyone else is thinking the same way and there’s no way to avoid the rash of foreclosures.”

Some housing analysts disagree with Miller, saying that banks are moving the foreclosures as quickly as possible, but that the process of evicting families and readying homes for sale is time-consuming.

Either way, there are plenty of homes to be sold not listed on the market, called by some as “shadow” or “phantom” inventory.

Many analysts look at inventory, the number of homes for sale divided by the number of sales, to determine the relative health of the housing market.

Some analysts, like Miller, think that current inventory numbers —- though high —- are artificially low because of foreclosure properties not on the market and regular homeowners who do not want to sell in a struggling market.

Still, some neighborhoods, especially those along the coast, have exhibited strength in pricing and few foreclosures.

Further, some areas, such as parts of Oceanside and Escondido, have been so wracked by foreclosures that prices have dipped to $160,000 and most analysts do not expect further declines.

“You look at 10 homes for sale, one is aggressively priced and another is priced at the same price as a year-and-a-half ago. … They’re going to be on the market for a long, long, long time,” Miller said. “So this home is close to bottoming out, and the other one is in la-la land with the assumption that real estate never goes down.”

By Danny King

Redbox, the largest U.S. movie-rental kiosk maker, said today that it named former JetBlue Airways chief financial officer John Harvey as its financial chief as the company prepares for an initial public offering.

Harvey, a one-time Ernst & Young accountant, also held finance positions with America West Airlines and Southwest Airlines, Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.-based Redbox said today in a statement. With the exception of a one-year stint at SkyWorks Capital, Harvey had been with JetBlue since 1999 and was promoted to chief financial officer in May 2006, according to regulatory filings. Last year, the low-cost carrier boosted revenue 20% to $2.84 billion and had an $18 million profit, compared with a $1 million loss a year earlier.

“Harvey brings to Redbox a proven track record of growing companies, extensive leadership experience and strategic financial skills,” said Redbox CEO Gregg Kaplan in the statement. “We will rely on Harvey to lead our financial team and support our corporate growth strategy.”

Closely held Redbox earlier this month said it would file for an IPO by the end of June. Coinstar, which had split 95% of Redbox’s ownership with McDonald’s, said earlier this month that it paid $5.1 million to boost its stake to 51% from 47.3%, valuing Redbox at about $140 million.

Movie-kiosk operators, which typically charge $1 per DVD, are quickly expanding as chains such as Blockbuster and Movie Gallery are reducing their bricks-and-mortar store count. Redbox more than doubled its kiosks to 7,900 as of March 31 from about 3,000 a year earlier, Coinstar said. The company in February announced agreements with Walgreens and Wal-Mart that will bring its kiosk total to more than 11,000 by the end of next year.

By The Canadian Press

LAS VEGAS — There is bad blood in the main event, star power in the rest of the card and a number of promising newcomers. UFC 84: Ill Will offers up an intriguing mixed martial arts menu Saturday night.

B.J. (The Prodigy) Penn defends his lightweight crown against former champion Sean (The Muscle Shark) Sherk in a bout set against a backdrop of the positive steroids test that cost Sherk his belt. Sherk has denied doping but that hasn’t stopped Penn from pushing Sherk’s buttons in advance of the fight, labelling him a coward and a cheat.

Sherk (35-2-1) is a relentless wrestler who repeatedly smashed through the guard of jiu-jitsu black belt Hermes Franca last time out at UFC 73 in July 2007, when both fighters failed drug tests. Penn (13-4-1) is also a black belt but is considered in a class of his own when it comes to jiu-jitsu. And he showed surprising power in his January win over Joe Stevenson for the vacant title, stunning Stevenson with the second punch of the fight.

“I see both of these guys as having the potential to win this fight, for sure,” said lightweight contender Kenny Florian. “I don’t think it’s one of those fights where there’s a clearcut winner.

“Sherk makes for an interesting matchup against B.J. I think the first two rounds are going to be critical. He needs to be able to put enough pressure on B.J. to really wear on him and B.J. needs to get the job done in the first couple of rounds.”

Sherk, 34, is a workout freak who has gone five rounds in three of his last five UFC fights (including a win over Florian for the vacant title at UFC 64). Penn, 29, has had cardio issues in the past but seems to have got his act together since returning to the 155-pound lightweight division.

Still Sherk is unconvinced that Penn has a new gas tank.

“He says he just woke up one day and decided ‘Hey, I think I’m going to start training harder,”‘ he said. “Maybe he did, maybe he woke up and decided he was going to start training harder but it really is a 24-hour a day, seven-day-a-week commitment. There’s no off time.

“For me, I don’t even take time off my diet. I diet for 14 weeks straight, same crappy food all the time and that’s what it takes to get great cardio and I just don’t think he’s done that. We’ll find out Saturday night but I don’t think it’s going to be as good as he says it is.”

“All I can say is I trained as hard as I could . . .I feel ready,” answers Penn.

Stevenson and Jens Pulver weren’t able to test Sherk’s theory. Neither made it to the third round.

“The way that B.J. fights, I’m not even sure he’s concerned with that (cardio),” said Florian, who could face the winner for the title if he survives Roger Huerta at UFC 87 in August. “He just goes the good old blitzkrieg, as soon as the fight starts.”

Sherk, for his part, has had trouble putting opponents away. That could cost him against Penn, who won’t be giving up many freebies in the cage,

Elsewhere, Tito (The Huntington Beach Bad Boy) Ortiz makes his UFC swan song before heading over to greener pastures elsewhere in the MMA world. UFC president Dana White, who once managed Ortiz, loathes the former light-heavyweight champion and has done him no favours with a farewell date with unbeaten Brazilian Lyoto Machida (12-0).

Ortiz made his feelings known at Friday’s weigh-in when he wore a T-shirt that said “Dana is my Bitch!” White did not attend the weigh-in.

It will be the 21st UFC fight for the 33-year-old Ortiz, who will be mighty motivated to leave the organization on a win. Ortiz (16-5-1) is the bigger man, but is on the downside of his career. Machida, 29, is hitting his prime.

“He’s the new breed of mixed martial arts fighter,” said Florian. “He’s good everywhere. … He poses a lot of problems for Tito Ortiz.

“I think maybe the younger Tito Ortiz, I’d give him more of a chance but right now Tito definitely has his hands full.”

“Lyoto is a very complete fighter,” said fellow Brazilian Wanderlei (The Axe Murderer) Silva.

Silva, who sees Ortiz’s chances as 50-50, has his own challenge in Keith (The Dean of Mean) Jardine on Saturday. The former Pride star has lost his last three fights, although admittedly they were to Chuck (The Iceman) Liddell, Dan Henderson and Mirko (Cro Cop) Filipovic.

At UFC 79 in December, Silva (31-8-1) was unable to handle the reach of the bigger Liddell. Jardine (13-4-1) is also bigger so there will be more of the same Saturday. Plus the Dean of Mean has renowned trainer Greg Jackson in his corner.

“I think he’s going to win and he’s going to shock a lot of people,” said welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, who often trains with Jardine.

Another 205-pounder worth watching Saturday is unbeaten Brazilian Thiago Silva, who took down Houston (The Assassin) Alexander at UFC 78. Thiago Silva (11-0) is big and has a mean streak. He’ll be looking to show off his trademark throat-slashing gesture with a win over UFC newcomer Antonio Mendes (14-2) of Brazil.

One-time NFL prospect Shane Carwin (8-0) makes his UFC debut in a heavyweight tilt with Christian Wellisch (9-2). The 33-year-old Carwin, an engineer to Wellisch’s lawyer, is six foot three inches and 260 pounds of lean beef.

“He’s phenomenal. He’s a big monster,” said Jackson. “He boxes well, he wrestles well. You’re going to be real impressed with him.”

Another newcomer is 24-year-old Croatian light-heavyweight Goran Reljic (7-0), who is matched up against Wilson Gouveia (10-4). The six-foot-three Reljic has matinee ideal good looks to go with a purple belt in jiu-jitsu under Roger Gracie. Gouveia, who hold a black belt and is coming off a KO over Jason (The Punisher) Lambert, will test his skills.

Canadian-born middleweight Ivan Salaverry (12-5-1), who now calls Seattle home, faces Rousimar Palhares (16-1) in the Brazilian grappler’s first UFC fight

by Andrew Strieber
The 2010 Chevy Camaro is one of the most highly-anticipated new vehicles to come from GM in years. Ever since it was announced, a stream of pics and speculation have fed ever growing excitement for the reborn muscle car’s return. Enthusiasts have already seen virtual road tests, camo-free spy shots, and even videos of the car in action, but now one intrepid spy has managed to take things a step further — they may be a little blurry, but someone captured an example of the 2010 Camaro making its way down the production line.

It’s unclear where or when they were taken, but speculation is these pics are from GM’s Oshawa, Ontario plant where the Camaro will be built. Given that the car is set to launch as a 2010 model (and the assembly line is conspicuously empty) these are almost certainly just preproduction examples, but it’s interesting to see how the hot new coupe will be put together. One surprising thing about the photos is the complete lack of human beings in them — meaning either the plant wasn’t running at the time, or the General’s assembly robots have really come a long way. Also in some shots you can get a good view of the car’s final shape, including the presence of a pretty serious blind spot from the large C-pillar. Then again, with a rumored 400 horsepower coming from either the 6.2-liter LS3 V-8 of the Corvette or the 6.0-liter L76 V-8 powering the Pontiac G8, you shouldn’t have any trouble avoiding people on the freeway.

The all-new 2010 Camaro isn’t set to debut until next year’s Detroit Auto Show in January, and should go on sale midway through next year. Until then, if you happen to catch one out on the road, be sure to snap a photo — you can never have enough spy shots out there

By MIGUEL HELFT

With its share of the Internet search market in steady decline and its pursuit of an alliance with Yahoo in doubt, Microsoft is taking a new approach to jump-starting its search engine: offering rebates to people who use it to find and buy some products.

Microsoft executives said the program, called Live Search cashback, is part of a plan to come up with new approaches to areas of the search business where they see opportunities to make inroads against Google, the market leader.

The new program focuses on searches for products to be bought online, which Microsoft executives said account for roughly a third of search queries and a majority of search advertising revenue.

“This is a very big part of the $20 billion search market,” said the chairman of Microsoft, Bill Gates, at an advertising conference run by the company. “Make no mistake, we are about having the best search, having the best results.”

Some innovations in the business model of search, like Live Search cashback, “will help drive that,” he said.

Live Search cashback is essentially a marketing effort by Microsoft to promote its search service, which lags far behind those of Google and Yahoo in popularity. On Wednesday, the research firm comScore reported that Google’s share of all searches in the United States grew once again in April, to 61.6 percent, from 59.8 percent in March.

Google gained at the expense of Yahoo and Microsoft, which experienced declines in search share, Yahoo to 20.4 percent, Microsoft to 9.1 percent.

Google has put marketing dollars into some of its services, but it has managed to dominate in search while spending virtually no money to promote its search engine. Google declined to comment on the Microsoft announcement.

Microsoft said that 700 merchants offering more than 10 million products have agreed to participate in the program. They include Barnesandnoble.com, Circuit City, eBay, Foot Locker, Home Depot and Hewlett-Packard.

“It is a great opportunity for buyers who come to eBay,” said Matt Ackley, vice president for Internet marketing and advertising at eBay. “And it is all about driving demand for our sellers.”

EBay is one of the largest buyers of search advertisements on Google and other search engines. Mr. Ackley said that if Microsoft’s program was effective, eBay might shift some of its advertising dollars to Microsoft from Google.

In most cases, Microsoft will determine the amount of the rebate that shoppers will get. On a Samsung digital camera that costs $90 to $107, rebates range from 2 percent to 5 percent.

“Microsoft’s issue is lack of consumer share,” said Bryan Wiener, the chief executive of 360i, a digital marketing agency that specializes in Internet search. “This is an interesting effort to try to motivate consumers to use Microsoft without cheapening the process.

“Will the incentives be enough?” he said. “Time will tell.”

As part of the program, Microsoft is also unveiling a new business model that allows search marketers to pay for ads only when people buy a product, rather than when they simply click on an ad.

Microsoft said this so-called cost-per-action model would give advertisers more precise returns on their marketing budgets. Google already offers a program that allows advertisers to tailor their bids on keywords based on the number of actions, or conversions, they get.

Microsoft also said that it had integrated Farecast, a travel Web site that Microsoft acquired in April, into Live Search cashback. The Live Search cashback service was built on technology developed by Jellyfish, a start-up that Microsoft acquired in 2007