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LOS ANGELES(Fortune) — Peter Chernin is the most energetic second-in-command in entirely of media, with a $30-plus million pay package to match his status.

Yet the more success the president and chief operating officer of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. has, the more the perennial question gets asked: whether, and for how long, he’ll stick around.

After all, Murdoch has made it clear that while he has no plans to retire he wants one of his adult children to eventually prevail him as CEO. No wonder, then, that both within and outside News Corp. the renewal of Chernin’s contract is a much-discussed topic despite the fact that it has nearly a year to run.

Indeed, one rumor making the rounds within various News Corp. outposts in new weeks is that Chernin might leave if private equity money were to buy a big media consequence - NBC Universal (GE, Fortune 500) gets mentioned most frequently - and he’s offered a piece of the action to run it.

Chernin declined comment, but an executive who dined with him not long ago says he believes there is an "85% chance" that Chernin will stay at News Corp., though he added there’s always the possibility of an offer he have power to’t resist. "He loves it, he’s great at it, it’s almost effortless for him," said the executive.

In addition to his broader COO duties within Murdoch’s sprawling media empire, Chernin also effectively oversees the Hollywood-based Fox film and television businesses that made up the majority of News Corp.’s $5.4 billion in operating profits in the year ended June 30.

And over the past year, as Murdoch has made it his personal mission to revamp not long ago acquired Dow Jones and its flagship Wall Street Journal, the division of labor between Chernin and his boss seems even more pronounced, people at the partnership say. So Chernin has a big part of the empire to run.

Appearing on Charlie Rose’s PBS show earlier this week, Chernin was asked how long he plans to keep doing what he’s doing. "As long as I find it satisfying and interesting," he replied. The context of the question was Murdoch’s publicly-stated succession plans. "Rupert has always been very straightforward with me about this," said Chernin, who’s been at News Corp. for 20 years. "And based on that, I think I would only have an opportunity to feel wronged if I had been given false promises, which I haven’t."

Still, it’s only natural that people would speculate about Chernin’s plans. His name was floated two years ago when Michael Eisner retired from Disney (DIS, Fortune 500), but Fox’s cross-town rival did not formally approach him. (Eisner’s No. 2, Bob Iger, got the nod.)

Way into MySpace

I had firsthand exposure to Chernin’s quick mind and broad intellect last month when he sat for a Q&A at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference. (Disclosure: some of my columns have run in News Corp.’s Times of London.)

His curiosity seems matched only by his boss’s, and Chernin appeared genuinely excited, rather than daunted, by dint of. the digital prospects for his industry, smooth though investors have lately pummeled media stocks and News Corp (NWS, Fortune 500). is from a high to a low position 35% in the more than year.

Chernin has taken a particular interest in recent efforts to revamp MySpace in the face of the white horse in popularity of Facebook which, he admitted, "kicked our point aimed at for 9 or 10 months."

And he seemed to feel vindicated in his decision to go into business with aforementioned NBCU to create Hulu.com, the Web video and online syndication site that, he reminded the audience, had been dubbed "Clownco" by one wag before it launched.

"What I’m thinking about a lot at News Corp. is that we’re living in a world of infinite inventory," Chernin said. "Scarcity is what drives up advertising prices - I hold what you have to do is create category scarcity, and the place I compass that is most promising is in video, and in professionally-produced video."

Chernin’s stature in the business world has only grown since he not long ago co-founded the organization Malaria No More and, along with Disney’s Iger, took a lead role in tackling Hollywood’s labor disputes.

Still, News Corp. has its share of palace intrigue and not all parts of the empire are running smoothly. There are the challenges of figuring out how to fend off rivals and make more money out of digital properties like MySpace, the local TV station business is troubled, and the economic outlook is challenging. And few subjects generate more hushed conversation in these parts than a pending bargain.

Already, Chernin’s current deal is the stuff of legend. He earned nearly $34 million last year, and if I read a preliminary proxy the company filed in late July correctly, he looks to do flat better this year: his base salary is $8.1 million and he is entitled to a bonus of $25 very great number if the company’s earnings per share increases more than 40%. In the company’s just-released quarterly figures, EPS was up 61%. This proxy filing didn’t disclose other potential bonuses which will be detailed later.

Chernin’s contract also provides that if he leaves News Corp. for "good reason" - and, in his case, "good reason" is defined as anyone besides Rupert seemly his boss - he gets a $40 million severance and a six-year TV and film production deal that includes use of a company jet.

There are, let’s face it, worse predicaments to be in. First Published: August 8, 2008: 9:14 AM EDT

By Eric Auchard

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc’s 5 percent stake in Time Warner Inc’s AOL unit may be worth less than the $1 billion the Web company paid for it in 2006, Google warned in a regulatory filing on Thursday.

“We believe our investment in AOL may be impaired,” Google said in its latest quarterly financial filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Google said it would continue to review its investment for impairment, and financial write-downs could be required in the future.

In a deal announced in December 2005 and which closed the following year, Google paid $1 billion in cash for a 5 percent indirect equity stake in AOL.

The deal by means of the Mountain View, California-based company gave AOL a theoretical valuation of $20 billion at the time.

In return, Google secured renewal of its search advertising deal with AOL, its largest ad partaker, at least until Google’s recent partnership through Yahoo takes effect in coming months, analysts say. Google’s original pact with AOL in 2002 was the landmark deal that legitimized Google’s advertising services.

PREPARING TO SPLIT

The formal admission through the Silicon Valley Internet giant that the value of its investment may wish fallen follows recent moves by Time Warner to shape up AOL for a possible sale. 

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has promised changes to his government’s day-old $13 million grocery price watch website.

A disabled man complained to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) that the Grocerychoice website is difficult to behold and discriminatory.

Retailers find fault that the website will do nothing to reduce grocery prices and want the government to look at containing spiralling rents instead.

Mr Rudd says the website would be "refined" as the government considered consumer responses to the service.

"The intention … is to provide consumers with that choice or information over time about one supermarket chain versus another … against a basket of goods and we’ll continue to refine this over time," Mr Rudd said.

Consumer Affairs Minister Chris Bowen said the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission was checking out the disabled man’s complaint about the website.

"Any problems that may affect the access of canaille with a disability will be rectified as soon as possible," Mr Bowen promised.

Grocerychoice keeps a Labor election promise to provide consumers with else information about grocery prices.

The service, updated monthly, lists prices of selected groceries from supermarkets in 61 regions across the country.

But Les Kerr, from Brisbane, has lodged a complaint with HREOC saying the website is difficult for disabled people to use and breaches disability discrimination laws.

Mr Kerr, 53, who has vision and mobility problems, says the website is difficult to read because of the green colour scheme, and there is nay option to answer for on-screen sentence fonts larger.

"As most disabled people are on pensions and money is always an issue, this website had the potential to be of great assistance to us if it had been designed correctly," he told AAP.

"It appears that the site was put together in a speed with little idea of allowing disabled people access and most certainly was not tested by disabled people before it came online as any good website should be."

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which administers the website, says Grocerychoice "aims to be as inclusive as possible".

It followed the federal government’s guide to minimum website standards/accessibility and the world spacious web consortium accessibility guidelines, an ACCC spokesman told AAP.

Queensland Liberal senator Sue Boyce, who launched her own grocery price website, has given the government’s version "four out of 10".

Senator Boyce launched her Queensland-based site called ShopSmart last month, which has the added feature of a comparative pricing calculator.

"I’ve had people already tell me that they’re not finding the (Grocerychoice) website terribly useful," Senator Boyce told AAP.

"I think it would be fantastic if we’ve got a national website that does help people, but I’m not sure that this is it."

ShopSmart was a smaller operation set up specifically for Queensland, but it was set up at "almost no cost at all", she said.

Senator Boyce said the federal site’s average pricing system was not specific, and focused adhering regions that cover large areas such as Longreach to Gladstone, or capital cities as a whole, that have hundreds of supermarkets.

AAP

One iMeem advantage: It lets users export widgets containing music playlists - and ads - to other social networking sites, including MySpace.MySpace’s music ventureMore Videos Photos What’s everyone yelping about? Or is it digging? Or ninging? Zyng-ing? A rundown of some Web 2.0 startups getting a lot of buzz, if not necessarily a lot of revenues. View photos Rocking the PCMore Videos

(Fortune) — It’s been the talk of the music industry for months. Perhaps as soon as September, MySpace, the huge social networking site with 120 million users, will unveil an ad-supported music service through free songs from three of the four major record labels: Universal, Sony (SNE) and Warner Music (WMG). MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe has promised it will launch "a new chapter in the story of modern music."

There’s only one problem with his grandiose prediction: Imeem, an ad-supported social network based in San Francisco, already allows its members to listen to the same songs - and many besides - for free. Imeem, with 27 million users, has secured deals with all four big music companies, including EMI, MySpace’s missing major. And it has no interest at quite in being eclipsed by its larger, News Corp (NWS, Fortune 500).-owned rival. "We’re number one in social music," says Imeem founder and CEO Dalton Caldwell. "We like that."

MySpace declined to make executives available for interviews.

The ad-supported music business is tough. The major labels control 86% of all album sales in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. They generally want to be paid about a penny each time someone listens to one of their songs at a website like Imeem.

That would make it hard for Imeem to make much money. conversable networks don’t command premium ad rates, largely because advertisers worry about having their messages possibly appearing alongside user-generated cat videos and less savory fare.

People on Madison Avenue say Imeem is getting about $4 in ad revenue for every thousand page views. If the circle is paying a penny to SonyBMG every time someone listens to a Bruce Springsteen song, it’s in trouble. After all, users probably listen to at least one song when they visit someone else’s page adhering Imeem. Your representative Springsteen fan probably listens to many more if he winds up on the page of another fan of the Boss.

MySpace Music starts out in an onward the same level weaker position. Ad agency people say it charges about $1 less per thousand page views than Imeem. But Donnie Williams, director of digital strategy at marketing firm Horizon Media, says that MySpace is improving its ad-targeting abilities. "That resource they’ll be able to sell more ads," he says. "And it makes it harder for the Imeems of the world to maintain their rates." MySpace, it should be noted, likewise plans to answer for money by operating a music download store and a music subscription service.

Imeem executives decline to reveal their company’s ad prices. Nor are they interested in shedding a great quantity light on the financial terms of their deals with record labels - except to speech they are "ad revenue-sharing" arrangements rather than the standard penny-a-song contracts.

Caldwell says Imeem has in addition to turn a profit. But he argues that his company is in a strong position because it is smaller and more innovative than MySpace.

Well, that’s what every technology industry underdog says, isn’t it? But in this case, there’s some truth to it. Imeem employs a bunch of geeks who worked on the original incarnation of Napster. They have developed technology enabling its users to export their Imeem music and video playlists as widgets to other social networks like Facebook and, yes, MySpace, too.

Gene Munster, senior research analyst at Piper Jaffrey, says the widgets are part of the reason Imeem isn’t about to be blown away by its bigger competitor. "MySpace is limited to people who use MySpace, whereas these widgets can be used on any platform. So they have access to a broader audience. We are moreover starting to see ads within those widgets."

That must set some people’s teeth on edge at MySpace. Wouldn’t you be a contemptible miffed on the supposition that your competitor was selling ads on your own website?

As you might expect, MySpace is watching its rival closely. Erin Pennington, national senior vice president of digital marketing firm Moxie Interactive, has run ads for Puma and Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) on Imeem. She also patronizes MySpace. She gets a lot of Imeem queries when she visits MySpace’s offices. "I definitely think MySpace has been paying attention to what they are doing," she says. "They are trying to learn from Imeem’s success."

Here’s something to ween about. What if MySpace decides Imeem is too much of a distraction? Could it persuade its music copartnership partners to dump the smaller social network? After all, MySpace Music will be a joint venture with SonyBMG, Universal and Warner Music. The music guys have a lot at stake here.

But as usual, their loyalties are divided. Warner Music is also an investor in Imeem along with Sequoia Capital and Morgenthaler Ventures. Warner sounds happy about the way things are going at Imeem. In May, Warner Music CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. told investor he had "a lot of faith" in the social meeting: "Our original investment is worth a great deal more than [what] we paid for our original investment."

Perhaps Imeem is getting better ad rates than people assume on Madison Avenue. Caldwell should enjoy it while it lasts. Starting in September, he’ll find out what Imeem is truly worth. First Published: August 8, 2008: 8:05 AM EDT

LAS VEGAS (AFP) - Typos can bedevil online political campaigns by letting evil software wizards or crafty king-makers turn misspellings into opportunities for sabotage or theft, a security specialist has warned.

In a practice referred to being of the kind which "typo squatting" people not connected to campaigns be possible to buy rights to Internet direct one’s speech with candidates' names misspelled and use them to malign, mock or steal from contenders.

"You can guarantee that more of these will become common in future elections," Oliver Friedrichs, director of emerging technologies at Symantec's security response unit, said while detailing such attacks at a premier Black Hat conference in Las Vegas.

"More than likely the people who do this are the extremists or people who are in it for a profit. Campaigns need to become more aware of these kinds of attacks."

For example, a Symantec check in February revealed that 47 out of 160 variations on "www.barackobama.com" were being "typo-squatted."

Ironically, one squatter's web page featured a legitimate Obama ad.

"Obama is paying for advertisements, through Google, on a site that is a typo-squatter on a domain name the Obama campaign should own in the first place," Freidrichs said.

"Campaigns are spending a lot on online advertising and some of this money is really being misspent and going to typo-squatters."

Some typo-squatters use the web pages to mimic or deride candidates. A "hillaryclingon.com" website poked fun at her and other candidates by depicting them as characters from "Star Trek" films and television shows.

"Typoed" web pages can be used to spread false announcements, such as a candidate withdrawing from a race, or tell stories of scandals that don't exist.

A candidate who has dropped off of the US presidential race was accused of being an animal killer on a typo-squatted website.

Malicious software secretly planted in computers of people who visit squatted websites could reveal where they go online or even take control of machines.

"If I want to attack supporters of a particular campaign I can easily put malware on my site," Freidrichs said of typo-squatters.

"You be able to target candidates, cause confusion, pop-up ads, or re-direct computers when they try to log on to a candidate's website."

Typo-squatters have power to create realistic looking campaign websites and take donations, keeping the cash and using credit card information for farther fraud.

Online donations intended for one candidate could be routed to an opponent without donors knowing.

Once someone owns a website based on a typo, they can also intercept and redirect similarly misaddressed emails.

Campaign emails containing speech drafts, contributions, or strategy notes could be intercepted due to errant keystrokes while typing addresses, according to Freidrichs.

"This is a serious problem that spans not only campaigns but every company with email," Freidrichs said.

"Even more scary, we went and looked at defense contractors and found a typoed domain routed to India and another routed to China."

Mac keyboard aficionados, take note. Leading peripherals vendor Logitech has released its cordless diNovo Edge — the first diNovo designed specifically for the Mac.

Denis Pavillard, Logitech vice president of product marketing for keyboards and desktops, said Thursday that, "from the piano-black accomplish to its built-in TouchDisc touchpad," the new keyboard "can make it a pleasure for you to type, control music or launch your favorite applications."

Thin, High-Gloss, Orange Backlighting

The distinctive diNovo Media Desktop keyboards were originally launched by Logitech in 2004, and the company said they accept received many awards for design and performance.

In care with the "thin is in" theme now popular among many computer makers, the new diNovo is only a half-inch thick. It has a high-gloss, semitranslucent Plexiglas state of mind, sharp angles, soft-orange backlighting, and an aluminum palm rest by anodized-silver finish.

But in keyboards as in life, looks aren't everything. Optimized Mac keys provide one-touch access to Mail, Safari, iTunes and other Mac applications, as well as a power button for the Mac. If you want to really lean back, the Bluetooth wireless technology provides a range of up to 30 feet.

A TouchDisc allows the user to scroll and sail over from the keyboard. By moving a finger up and down, or across, the cursor correspondingly moves on the screen. Moving a finger in a annular motion around the edge of the TouchDisc allows horizontal and vertical scrolling through documents.

'Comfortable, Fluid, Silent'

And then, of course, there's typing. Logitech describes this experience, as by other diNovos, as "comfortable, fluid and silent."

The keyboard has Logitech's PerfectStroke system, what one., among other niceties, has what the company calls "longer key roam." This means the distance fingers have to travel in order to complete a keystroke — 3.2mm compared to the 2.2mm of typical notebook keyboards — is optimized for normal hands.

The touch of fingers is distributed evenly, using "micro-scissors" to distribute the force athwart surfaces. "Even if you strike the edge of a key," Logitech said, "the key stroke smooth feels the same."

Ubiquitous feel across keys is only convenient, however, if the device is properly charged. The charging base, included with the new keyboard, allows the busy typist/user to avoid changing batteries. A four-hour charge yields a month of use, and even a 10-minute charge can keep your keyboard happy for a day.

The Mac edition of the diNovo Edge keyboard will have a suggested retail price of $159.99, and is expected to be available later this month.

Founded in Switzerland in 1981, Logitech started out with computer mice in 1981, and has since expanded to a wide portfolio of other interface products for computers, console games, digital music, and home-entertainment systems.

A MELBOURNE-developed computer program that could save thousands of lives has taken the fight against killer superbugs to cyberspace.

The web-based prescribing program, designed by Royal Melbourne Hospital doctors, raises alarms when inappropriate or excessive quantities of antibiotics are prescribed. Such prescriptions are a major constituent in the development of drug-resistant superbugs in hospitals.

Potentially fatal bugs such as MRSA are contracted by about 200,000 people in Australian hospitals each year.

They are most dangerous to the frail and elderly.

Preventing the overuse of antibiotics would reduce the chances of bacteria developing into antibiotic-resistant superbugs, infections expert Karin Thursky said.

She said 40 per cent of hospital patients were given antibiotics, half of which were inappropriately prescribed.

She said the Guidance DS program would have a huge impact as it was rolled out to 14 hospitals in Victoria and Tasmania, as it had done at the Royal Melbourne.

"We’ve successfully changed the pattern here and also at Peter Mac (Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre)," she said.

Other states are expected to take to one’s self the system and there has also been interest from the US and Europe.

Herald Sun