Skype Still Down
Skype is still unavailable more than 24 hours after falling in a heap yesterday. The company denied it is under attack, and said: "The Skype system has not crashed or been victim of a cyber attack. We love our customers too much to let that happen. The problem occurred because of a deficiency in an algorithm within Skype networking software. This controls the interaction between the user's own Skype client and the rest of the Skype network." Skype has also prevented new users from downloading its client software. Coincidentally, there's a Denial of Service exploit doing the rounds that calls Skype phone numbers thousands of letters long an infinite number of times.

Share news stories without permission, get fined?
If you're fond of occasionally circulating the full text of news stories to amuse your workmates, you may be in the clear, copyright law-wise. But systematic copying and blasting of articles for money-making purposes could get you into trouble, as evidenced by the latest settlement reached by an antipiracy trade group. The Software Information & Industry Association (SIIA) on Thursday announced a $300,000 truce with a California-based market research company called Knowledge Networks over the company's distribution of "press packets" containing copyrighted news articles without permission or licenses. The dispatches, which were first paper-based and then evolved into electronic form, sometimes contained articles owned by SIIA members like the Associated Press, Reed Elsevier and United Press International, according to SIIA. They were circulated "on a regular basis" among the company's employees, who are located in San Francisco, New York and a number of other cities. This settlement marks the first under SIIA's new "Corporate Content Anti-Piracy Program." The organization, which has historically focused more on software piracy, dangles rewards ranging from $500 to $1 million for tipsters and said it is awarding $6,000 to the anonymous informant in this case.

Netflix Lowers Prices for DVD Rentals by $1 ... Again
Netflix just lowered its prices on the "three DVDs out at-a-time" plan again, taking it down a buck to $15.99 a month. Our jaws dropped as we saw the above notice in our inbox, because it was just three weeks ago when Netflix had lowered the price to $16.99. Hey, keep those price reductions coming, Netflix! Pretty soon, they'll be giving them away. We have a price war on our hands between Netflix and Blockbuster, folks, and it looks like we movie buffs will be the winners. The burning question now is, will Blockbuster match this price reduction by Netflix? Blockbuster now offers three DVDs at a time for $16.99 through the mail only, or $17.99 to get your movies through the mail and then get free in-store exchanges. Incidentally, the company just crippled that "total access" plan, limiting it to five free in-store exchanges a month with a charge of $1.99 each afterwards. That may be one of the first things to change back to the way it was before. The next front in this war will be movie downloading, which just heated up with Blockbuster's August 8 acquisition of Movielink. That buy might give Blockbuster access to lots of content from the major studios, putting the onus on Netflix to improve its "Watch Now" service, which suffers from a paucity of selections. How low can these prices go before the by-mail movie rental services are completely unprofitable? Will this be a situation like a gunfight where both participants shoot each other and die?

Domino's Pizza delivers SMS ordering
Hungry customers of Domino's Pizza are now able to place their order via SMS, building on the chain's internet ordering service which now accounts for more than one in 10 of its pizza orders. According to Domino's IT director, Jane Kimberlin, the aim is to add sales through providing multiple channels to the customer. Customers are encouraged to register set orders on the company's website and attach keywords to them that can be easily texted to the shortcode 61212, and the desired pizza should arrive within 30 minutes from the nearest Domino's outlet. Customers can opt to register payment card details or they can pay cash at the door. Only one address can be registered per handset. Kimberlin said: "We've found that customers generally order to only one address. One instance where the service is useful is where parents want to order for their children but they want to pay for it themselves." She added: "Email is passé for the younger generation. This is another way for us to reach our customers. We like to be the first to launch into another channel." Since the service was first offered three weeks ago 2,000 customers have registered for it. The service is integrated heavily into Domino's existing internet ordering system in the back end, with SMS services provided by Altaine. Vexed digital provides the web fulfilment system.

Blogging: Good for business or not?
Starting a company blog might not be the best way to connect with your customers - at least that's the view of half of the silicon.com readers voting in our poll on business blogging. But not all respondents are so down on the power of the blog to win customers' hearts and minds. While 50% of respondents to the reader poll said they don't think a business blog is a good way for companies to communicate with customers, more than a third (35%) said corporate blogs can be beneficial. The percentage of sceptics has increased since last year's poll when just 38% came out against business blogging - suggesting business blogs are being viewed with increasing suspicion. Estimates on the number of blogs out there vary, especially the number of blogs being actively updated, but the figure runs into at least the tens of millions. And while the growth of the blogosphere may not have endeared blogging to every senior executive, it has boosted the profile of the activity. Just 2% of the respondents to this year's poll said they don't know what a blog is, compared to 14% last year. The poll also reveals less indecision about the usefulness of business blogs: 13% of this year's respondents weren't sure if blogging could help them communicate effectively with customers, compared to 17% last year. Yet with every man and his dog posting views online, many people in the business world are clearly set against the medium as a meaningful channel for corporate communications. This is in contrast to advice from analyst Gartner which earlier this year urged companies to at least give their CEOs the chance to blog to keep pace with the changing landscape of media and communications in a web 2.0 world.

Web TV sparks bandwidth crisis fears
The internet is heading for a crash unless it increases its bandwidth capabilities, according to an analyst report. The study by ABI Research claims that cable firms face the biggest challenge as their technology will reach saturation point first. Uploading bandwidth is going to have to increase, and the cable providers are going to get killed on bandwidth as HD programming becomes more commonplace. The solution to the problem is to change to digital switching and move to IPTV. Cisco found that American video websites currently transmit more data per month than the entire amount of traffic sent over the internet in 2000. The company estimates that file-sharing makes up at least one-third of today's internet traffic. The Cisco report predicted that video streaming and downloads will increase to make up to 30% consumer internet traffic in 2011, up from the 2006 figure of 9%.

Online gaming more popular than web video
Playing games is a more popular online activity in the US than watching short video clips or visiting social networking websites, according to new research. The Casual Gaming Market Update from Parks Associates found that over two-thirds of US adult surfers play online games on a weekly basis. This compares with 29% who watch short online videos, and 19% who visit social networking sites with the same frequency. Despite the growing popularity of YouTube, MySpace and Facebook, gaming remains the king of online entertainment driven largely by casual gaming activities. "Gaming also has business advantages. Social networking and video streaming sites rely solely on advertising revenue, but casual gaming has more mature and heterogeneous revenue models, including web-based and in-game advertising, try-before-you-buy, subscriptions and micro-transactions." The year-over-year growth rate for frequent online gamers reached 79%, significantly higher than the 46% growth rate for users of social networking sites. However, the growth rate for frequent users of video streaming sites was 123%, which could pose a "significant challenge" to the gaming industry in capturing the online leisure time of internet users. The casual gaming industry cannot rest on its laurels. In order to counter the growing competition from other online activities, the industry needs to continue to grow its fan base and find ways to better monetise its existing audience.

How much is too much coffee
A teenager has been taken to hospital after overdosing on espresso. So how much is too much coffee? In Italy seven double espressos might be considered tame. Robbie Williams would probably class it as such, he reportedly has a 36-a-day habit. But for 17-year-old Jasmine Willis those seven cups of strong coffee were enough to make her overdose. She says she was drenched, burning up, hyperventilating and laughing and crying at the same time in front of the customers. So with the increasingly embracing the coffee culture, how much is too much? The Department of Health (DoH) advises people not to drink more than five single espressos - roughly seven instant coffees - a day, although individuals vary in their sensitivity. The highest natural caffeine content is found in filter coffee, a mug of which contains about 120mg of caffeine. Instant coffee contains roughly 75mg and espresso 107mg. "Provided it's taken in moderation we don't need to see coffee as a threat to health, but the recommendation is enjoy in moderation," says a spokeswoman for the British Dietetic Association. Indulging in a few mugs too many could result in symptoms such as restlessness, nervousness, excitement, insomnia, nausea, vomiting and a flushed face. The symptoms of a serious overdose include delirium and seizures. Among its effects on the human body, caffeine is commonly thought to increase alertness, attention and mental ability by stimulating the central nervous system. But too much could be lethal. Such a dose is dependent on an individual's weight and sensitivity, but for the average person is about 90 milligrams per two pints of blood, according to coffee website Cofcaf.co.uk. This is about 200 cups of instant coffee in a day for an average sized person, it says. Death from an extreme overdose would tend to be due to ventricular fibrillation - an uncoordinated contraction of heart muscles, which could stop blood pumping. People can also become addicted to coffee. Caffeinism is thought to occur if you have an intake of above 600mg to 750mg of caffeine per day, says the DoH. That's roughly five to six cups of ground coffee or eight to 10 cups of instant.

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