toursforfree.com

The company is also announcing today that two implementations of its Data Availability program are going live. It’s showing how profile data from MySpace can be imported into user accounts in Eventful and Flixter.

Jim Benedetto, MySpace VP Technology, says that he is not opposed to letting users login to MySpace from other OpenID parties. The current initiative, he says, “is step one.” “We’re looking at down the road becoming the relying party,” (a site that recognizes other OpenID logins) he said.

Full and open synchronization with other identify platforms and social networks would be much more complex than the current initiatives, and would likely confuse users at first, but ultimately this is what users are going to want: Truly portable social network data. It’s the only way users can end up owning their online identities.

(Credit:
MySpace)

While these initiatives are powerful and important for MySpace, and are good for users, neither implementation is, yet, fully open, since they’re both one way. As I said, MySpace is not yet allowing users to login to the service with OpenIDs obtained elsewhere, nor is it allowing Data Availability partners to write data into MySpace profiles. Benedetto told me, “It would be very beneficial to us to have data coming in,” but that the company needs to take a phased approach to supporting data sharing. “We’re stepping in to uncharted territory,” he said. Previous sharing projects in the industry have failed, he said.

MySpace's Data Availability program allows other sites to import MySpace profiles. Eventful shown here.

All MySpace users will, by default, get OpenIDs when the project is turned on at some point in the near future. If they don’t use the OpenID login from other sites, they will not notice any changes to their MySpace login experience.

In the future, Benedetto says, the OpenID and Data Availability projects will merge. Users will be able to use their MySpace OpenID to access their profile and network, “even when they are not on MySpace.” Supporting OpenId will allow users to “login to the long tail of the Internet” via MySpace. Data Availability could make their profiles ubiquitous.

Data Availability is a powerful concept. It makes it possible to take your profile page and your social network created in MySpace, and push them into another service. Like MySpace’s OpenID initiative, this project is part of MySpace’s plan to become a hub of identity.

MySpace today is announcing support for the OpenID identify platform. This means users of services that let you log in to them with OpenID will be able to use their MySpace credentials for the login. As TechCrunch pointed out, though, this appears to be a “land grab for user identities,” since MySpace isn’t allowing users to log in to MySpace with an OpenID account from another identity provider.

A Wall Street Journal
blog reports that people found a Bank of China branch unwilling to issue tickets to some foreigners because the registered name lacked the middle name present on the required passport. Without an exact match, you’re nearly out of luck. Just like getting on a plane in China.

Or that’s what the report says. It’s a blog post based on a single anecdote from an anonymous foreign friend in a foreigner-rich neighborhood in Beijing who ended up arguing for two hours and is still a little paperwork away from getting the tickets. The post also contains a claim that Monday was the first day that tickets ordered online could be picked up, which does not seem to be true based on anecdotes I’ve heard from other foreign friends, whom I will keep anonymous.

The Journal post I am sure is based on a real incident, but the mistake is in thinking any individual experience is generalizable. These things just aren’t going consistently.

The system for ordering, paying for, and issuing Beijing Olympic tickets has had many kinks, the latest of which may be the middle name question.

But after all, the oddest story I have heard is that one person went in to collect the tickets anyway, despite the bank having canceled payment. And, with no apparent dispute over middle names, the tickets were issued. It’s just that no one ever paid for them. Oops.

The iconic Olympic sites in Beijing

Either way the issuance of tickets has been quite a trial for some. At least a few friends who live in Beijing found that their U.S. bank cards flagged the purchase when they charged Olympic tickets, thereby canceling the transaction and, you would think, nullifying the tickets. That would be fine if it weren’t unusually hard to get tickets in the first place.

People waited online in virtual queues for ticket orders to be issued just after individual batches became available. If you were lucky enough to get a ticket, you would hope Visa, one of the Olympics’ primary sponsors (”but they don’t take… ” well you know the rest), would be more inclined to accommodate unusual transactions in the form of tickets to the Games.

(Credit:
Graham Webster)

Choose either option that prevents Windows updates from being installed automatically.

The fact is, even with potentially serious security holes such as this appears to be, you can usually wait a day or two before installing the update to make sure the fix doesn’t cause some problems of its own. Simply set Windows Update to download updates automatically but prompt you before installing them, or to alert you when an update is available for download so you can decide when to fetch it and implement it.

In Windows XP, click Start > Run, type sysdm.cpl, and press Enter. Click the Automatic Updates tab and choose either “Download updates for me, but let me choose when to install them,” or “Notify me but don’t automatically download or install them.” You can also choose “Turn off automatic updates,” but I recommend either of the semi-automatic methods. When you’re done, click OK.

Now get into the habit of watching the tech news wires each Wednesday after Microsoft’s Patch Tuesdays to determine whether an update is going smoothly before applying it manually. Sometimes being first isn’t such a good idea.

(Credit:
Microsoft)

That’s little consolation for the many ZoneAlarm users who struggled to regain their network connection. Read more about the problem, and find a link to Check Point’s solution, at Robert Vamosi’s Defense in Depth blog.

Microsoft’s most recent update for Windows caused many people using Check Point’s ZoneAlarm firewall to lose their Internet connection. The patch fixes a potential DNS-related security breach that affects servers and clients alike, so I’m sure Microsoft was compelled to release it as quickly as possible.

To change your Windows Update settings in Vista, press the Windows key, type windows update, and press Enter. Click Change settings in the left pane, and choose either “Download updates but let me choose whether to install them” or “Check for updates but let me choose whether to download or install them.” As with XP, I caution against selecting “Never check for updates (Not recommended).” This is one of the few points on which Microsoft and I agree.

–No revised price indication until several months into the process, days before withdrawing

The three-week deadline then hit on April 26, with no deal reached. Yahoo sent a formal “private” letter to Microsoft on that day, indicating it was open to a transaction but not at $31 a share. Microsoft finally, officially received its rejection letter.

That said, Microsoft, according to sources, is contemplating making a sweetened offer to its “hybrid” proposal for Yahoo’s search business and some members of the Internet search pioneer’s board are receptive to that notion.

The timeline states that Microsoft made an unsolicited buyout bid for Yahoo on February 1 for $31 share and that the Internet pioneer issued a public statement on February 11, rejecting the offer.

“This is simply revisionist history,” said a Microsoft spokesman.

The next day, the Redmond giant goes public with its statement about a “hybrid” transaction.

Four days after that meeting, Yahoo announces its search advertising deal with Google, while Microsoft reiterates its interest in a “hybrid” deal but not a full buyout of the company.

Yahoo has been criticized by investors for failing to strike a deal with Microsoft, with shareholders expressing concern that its co-founder and board were more interested in keeping the company independent at all costs.

–Publicly announced an unsolicited offer

During the three-week deadline, according to the timeline, Yahoo and Microsoft did meet once–on April 15–with financial advisers to discuss a possible transaction and Yahoo provided the software giant with a “non-price terms proposal,” according to Yahoo’s SEC filing. So up until this point, Yahoo apparently had floated no official figures for a buyout price.

“It’s puzzling why Yahoo didn’t include their reasoning in the investor materials. It’s important to understand the stewardship of the company,” Cernich said. “I would have thought it would have been addressed in one of the first three investor slides. You have Icahn saying he’s aghast that Yahoo would turn down an offer with a 72 percent premium, so you’d have expected to see why Yahoo turned it down in their investor presentation materials.”

–Threatened withdrawal

And in looking at Yahoo’s timeline of key events, here are a few things that pop out:

The presentation also touches on the benefits of its Google advertising deal and offers an update on Yahoo’s strategic plan and the background of its current board members. But investors will likely home in on Yahoo’s past dealings with Microsoft, given that that is what raised Icahn’s ire to begin with and prompted his efforts to wage a proxy battle with Yahoo to oust its board of directors.

On May 24, the CEOs of both companies meet to talk about the “hybrid” deal and five days later Microsoft submits its “hybrid” proposal. Approximately a week later, on June 8, Yahoo’s independent board members and management meet with Microsoft, which states it is not interested in a full buyout of the company–even at its prior price range.

–Ultimately proposed search-only “hybrid” transaction

Yahoo, in rejecting Microsoft’s “hybrid” proposal, notes that the search pioneer would be left without any search assets if it had engaged in Microsoft’s “hybrid” deal, as a result jeopardizing its ability to “maintain search and display volume,” according to its shareholders presentation.

–Initially stated “a few” more dollars, then “a couple” more dollars per share

This timeline is part of a Yahoo presentation filed with the SEC.

(Credit:
Yahoo)

–Threatened to lower price

–No response to non-price terms, including value protection for stock component and regulatory issues

Updated at 3:54 p.m. PDT with comments from institutional investor advisory services analyst on Yahoo’s investor presentation materials.

According to Yahoo’s timeline, there were four meetings between the companies to discuss the transaction, regulatory issues, and integration issues up until April 5 when Microsoft threatened to launch a proxy fight and lower its bid if a deal was not reached within three weeks. But Yahoo’s timeline does not mention whether financial advisers were sitting in on these four meetings.

Instead of just jumping at the $33 a share offer, Yahoo believed it could potentially get more for its investors by countering with a $37 a share bid, said one source close to Yahoo. And in making its counter offer, Yahoo believed Microsoft would either come back with a higher offer than $33 a share, or stand firm at that price, said the source, adding it wasn’t anticipated Microsoft would walk away altogether from the buyout bid.

On May 2, Microsoft orally stated it was willing to pay $33 a share for all of Yahoo.

• Microsoft was unresponsive to multiple requests

–Only orally indicated possible increase in price after several months of discussions

Four days later, and over the course of several days, the two companies met and Microsoft indicated a possible increase in its offer price for a full buyout of the company. The two companies also discuss a partial deal for Microsoft to buy Yahoo’s search business.

The next day, the two companies meet to talk turkey about a price. Yahoo proposes $37 a share and then, Yahoo notes in its investor presentation that within hours, the software giant withdraws its buyout proposal.

Yahoo, which wants its current nine-member board to be re-elected at its annual shareholders meeting on August 1 and is up against Icahn’s dissident directors slate, is hoping to woo investors in its direction with a presentation filed with Securities and Exchange Commission.

–No response to regulatory information requests

Yahoo, which has been slammed by investors walking away from the stock since Microsoft said it was no longer interested in acquiring the entire company at $33 a share, laid out these complaints:

–Threatened proxy fight

Yahoo also noted that Microsoft’s 10-year exclusive search partnership would make the company dependent on Microsoft’s ability to generate enough search advertising revenue to ensure it receives its share of those proceeds from the software giant.

• Microsoft’s actions and statements were inconsistent

But will that satisfy Icahn and other institutional investors?

–Withdrew offer within days of suggesting there “could be” an increase in price

But as with any controversy, there are two sides to the story.

“Despite all the challenges we’ve been through, including Microsoft’s unsolicited proposal and now a proxy contest by Carl Icahn, Yahoo remains a unique value proposition,” Jerry Yang, Yahoo co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. “The combination of our leading positions in search and display together with the benefits expected from our recently signed agreement with Google make us exceptionally well-positioned to capitalize on the convergence of search and display.”

However, Yahoo characterizes Microsoft as “unresponsive and inconsistent” with its unsolicited buyout attempt of the company, further stating: “The record casts doubt on whether Microsoft was ever committed to a whole company acquisition.”

But not included in the timeline is this: Yahoo, according to sources, never sent a letter to Microsoft to “formally” reject the offer until nearly three months after the offer was initially made. And without a formal rejection, the folks in the Redmond camp were loath to bid against themselves.

Yahoo published on Monday its version of the details of the failed merger talks with Microsoft, as the Internet pioneer heads toward the frontlines of its proxy battle with investor activist Carl Icahn.

Two weeks after buyout talks collapse, Yahoo’s independent board members and management meet with Microsoft, which confirms it is no longer interested in acquiring the entire company.

And while Yahoo’s investor presentation carries much detail on the rational behind its interactions with Microsoft, two things that are lacking include the reasoning behind its rejection of Microsoft’s verbal $33 a share offer and how it determined a counter offer at $37 a share was appropriate, said Chris Cernich, a mergers and acquisitions senior analyst with institutional investor advisory service Proxy Governance. Cernich’s firm serves institutional investors like mutual funds and pension funds, providing recommendations to its clients on how to vote on proxy issues.

BOSTON–Water is the new oil–a resource where demand continues to rise but supply is limited.

A nuclear power plant in Tennessee was derated last year because of a drought in the region. In another case, a huge brewery was shut down because of a lack of available water.

For example, satellite imagery is being used so that fields are not irrigated when it’s raining, noted Bruce Schlein, the vice president of environmental affairs at Citi.

At the end of May, GE will mark the third anniversary of its Ecomagination campaign to develop clean technologies with a series of announcements on water led by CEO Jeffrey Immelt.

She said it takes 3,700 liters of water to make one liter of ethanol and 900 liters of water to make one liter of biodiesel.

GE will also commit to lowering its own use and advocate for more attention to policy with a position paper.

Experts at the Ceres Conference here on Tuesday focused on the risks to businesses and communities that the “global water crisis” poses, one with economic, environmental, and human health impacts. Ceres is a network of environmentally oriented investors.

GE will call for more conservation of water and release tools to help its customers reduce consumption and benchmarks to compare usage within industries, said Jeffrey Connelly, vice president of water and process technologies at GE, who spoke on the panel.

If water had a price, like oil has, the billions of dollars of investment in biofuels would not make sense, said Heidi Paul, vice president of corporate affairs for Nestle Waters.

“If water had a price that was even a fraction (of its cost), those things wouldn’t be done. They’re done because oil has a price and water does not,” Paul said.

In California, the electronics industry consumes 24 percent of available water. And rising temperatures from global warming are eating away at a source of water–the ice pack in the North Sierra mountains, Williams noted.

The statistics on availability of water are not encouraging: there are 1.1 billion people in the world who do not have access to safe water, a number that will more than double by 2020.

Putting a price on water

Key to driving more innovation in water technologies is to put a price on water, like other resources, panelists said.

“What’s different today is that the global business community is seeing water as a business risk and core to their operations,” said Chris Williams, the director of water programs at the World Wildlife Fund.

The infrastructure for water delivery in many countries, including the U.S., needs to be upgraded (water is still delivered in part by wood pipes in New York). Yet municipalities don’t have the money to spend on these expensive overhauls.

GE ups focus on water

Conglomerates likes GE, Siemens, as well as start-ups are developing desalination technologies and other processes for developing waste water for agricultural or industrial use.

But despite Connelly’s focus on technology-based approach to addressing this “growing crisis,” different water technologies have serious roadblocks.

Availability of fresh water has long been a concern for countries that are water stressed. But water is a tangible concern to more parties, including corporations which are integrating water into their climate change strategies.

He said Citi sees other business opportunities in desalination, pipeline development, waste water treatment, and bottled water.

Desalination, where water is passed through a filtration membrane, demands a large amount of energy to operate.

“The technology is there, the money is there to invest. There needs to be a groundswell of all parties to move the needle forward,” Connelly said.

Fifty percent of the world’s wetlands, which clean water and prevent flooding, have been destroyed. Seventy percent of water usage is used for agriculture, but about 50 percent of that is wasted from evaporation or inefficient use. California uses six and a half percent of its electricity to pump water.

However, CEO Steve Jobs did say that Apple was planning to have the engineers make “system-on-chips” for the iPhone, which implies they were tackling the whole package, CPU included. Another solid hint was the disappointment expressed by Intel’s Pat Gelsinger over missing out on the design win for the next-generation iPhone, as well as Apple’s apparent decision to secure an architectural license for the ARM core.

The magic of social networking has confirmed that Apple plans to make its own ARM-based processors for future versions of the
iPhone.

The New York Times spotted the LinkedIn profile of Wei-han Lien, Apple’s senior manager of CPU development, over the weekend. Lien’s job description, according to his profile, involves managing the ARM CPU design team for Apple, an extension of his previous work at P.A. Semi.

It’s been pretty clear for a while that Apple bought P.A. Semi earlier this year to work on developing its own chips for the iPhone, but as the Times points out, Apple has never specifically said that it planned to make CPUs: many different chips inside a modern smartphone use a processor based on one of ARM’s cores.

(Credit:
CNET)

Future iPhone processors may be designed exclusively by Apple's new P.A. Semi team of engineers.

The ever-shrinking record album–its latest iteration being the compact disc–just got a lot more compact, or shall we say, micro.

(Credit:
SanDisk)

SlotMusic cards will be sold without digital rights management restrictions and in the form of MP3 files from EMI Music, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group.

A "SlotMusic" card

Backed by four major music labels, SanDisk on Monday announced a new physical music format dubbed “SlotMusic” that’s essentially an entire album on a MicroSD compact memory card. Wal-Mart and Best Buy are among the retailers that have already signed on to start selling the cards for the upcoming holiday season.

Also not mentioned in the release is anything about pricing. The New York Times’ Saul Hansell, however, says a record label executive told him he estimates they’ll go for $7 to $10.

With CD sales continuing to flounder, this latest effort to boost physical media sales is aimed at users of the millions of cell phones and MP3 players with MicroSD slots. They can insert the card right into the slot and immediately hear the music. The card will also come with a USB sleeve so it can be plugged in directly to any USB-enabled computer.

A joint press release from all the involved parties is scant on details about what will be released in SlotMusic format. But The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), citing people close to the record companies and retailers, says the initial release batch will be 29 albums from all four of the involved labels. “The releases are mostly by current pop artists including Rihanna, Ne-Yo, Robin Thicke, New Kids on the Block, Weezer, Usher, Chris Brown, Akon and Leona Lewis,” the story stays. “In a nod to older buyers, Elvis Presley is also represented.”

The answer is timing. The system is designed so that, based on the scans, it knows the exact distance between each package and how long it takes each of them to move through the process. When a box gets to a point where it’s necessary to shift it to another belt, the system knows, because of how long it’s taken to get there from a previous transition point, and a little device pops out to shove it toward where it needs to go.

A UPS 757 unloads a cargo bin, otherwise known as an "air can."

I was here as the latest visit on Road Trip 2008, my journey through the South in search of the best destinations the region has to offer. And as we walked close to the observation deck that I’m sure McPhee had been looking down from, my eyes began to get very wide.

Here’s how it works: Each package shipped by UPS is affixed with what is known as a “smart label.” You’ve seen them. They’re the white sticker with a bar code, a tracking number, your name and address, and other pieces of information.

(Credit:
Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

In 2005, New Yorker writer John McPhee published what instantly became one of my favorite pieces of all time, “Out in the Sort,” a long treatise about the United Parcel Service’s Worldport air-distribution facility here. Among his many detailed descriptions of this gargantuan operation, and the one that stuck with me ever since, was of being on an observation deck high above the countless conveyor belts on which packages of all kinds were whizzing by in every direction as some of the belts rose and others fell. He said it was like looking down into the Grand Canyon.

Imagine: During the course of moving off the 90 aircraft they’ve come in on and are immediately heading back out on, each of those 800,000 to 900,000 packages are touched by human hands just twice, once at each end. In between, Worldport’s automation process performs its magic, keeping a stream of parcels moving steadily in a manner that is hypnotic to watch.

One fascinating element of the system is the minute timing that allows the packages to move seamlessly along their route, switching from belt to belt without ever needing to stop.

From the moment I read that, I said to myself that someday, I had to see that for myself.

There are several reasons Worldport is here in Louisville. But perhaps two most convinced UPS brass at the company’s Atlanta headquarters to pick this city.

When a package is taken off a plane, a UPS worker places it on the first conveyor belt with its smart label facing up and to the left. Over the next 15 minutes or so, it will travel belt to belt, making it from the dock where it arrived to the dock from where it will be put on the plane that will take it to the distribution center closest to its destination. Along the way, it will go through as many as five scanners, each of which reads the smart label and then uses the information it gleans to direct the package onto the right conveyor belt to get it closer to the right dock.

At Worldport, UPS’ air-distribution facility in Louisville, there’s 5.1 million square feet of space and 30,500 conveyor belts comprising more than 170 miles.
For more photos from Worldport, click on the image above.

A package runs through one of the five scanners it will encounter on its way from arrival to departure. Each scanner helps route the package closer to its final destination.

But what is clear, when you look deep into the guts of the Grand Canyon here, is that the planning and implementation of the systems involved are one of the most impressive pieces of engineering in modern industrial history.

(Credit:
Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

In truth, it’s hard to really explain Worldport. This is, after all, a $1.1 billion facility that employs thousands of people and is currently being expanded to be able to handle nearly half a million packages an hour.

Well, very early Friday morning, as dozens of UPS cargo jets were streaming into Louisville International Airport, where Worldport is located, loaded to the rafters with boxes and letters and odd-shaped packages, I finally got my wish.

And each night, about 90 of those jets arrive at Worldport, up to 70 of which can dock at any one time, during a mad rush of package distribution and re-distribution that lasts about five hours. If you’re not able and ready to stay up until at least 3:30 a.m., then you’re not fit for a Worldport visit worth your time.

Here are some numbers about Worldport.

Of course, simply being able to handle up to 900,000 next-day air packages each night–and another 300,000 to 400,000 second-day air parcels during the day–isn’t easy. In fact, being able to do this is the special sauce that makes Worldport one of the biggest masterpieces of industrial wizardry that I’ve ever seen.

To watch it in motion is confusing. How, you ask yourself, can so many packages make their way through such a complex system without countless mistakes and without needing to slow the belts down to switch the boxes or envelopes from one belt to another.

It can handle as many as 416,000 packages an hour. It has 30,500 conveyor belts that comprise 170 total miles of belts. There are 326 different positions for unloading packages and 1,480 for loading. And there are 8,372 tilt trays sorters, each of which delivers a package into the hands of the person who will ultimately place it into the bin that will then be put onto an airplane.

With that as part of my background, how could I not become a lifelong fan of the magazine?

It turns out–who knew?–that UPS operates its own airline. In fact, with 264 heavy jets–including dozens of Boeing 757s, a number of Boeing 747s and many others–it is the world’s ninth largest air carrier. It just doesn’t cart many passengers around. At least not of the sentient kind.

I kept looking at the massive numbers of packages zipping by, at the miles of conveyor belts and the vast open space in the building and thinking that it was kind of funny that I’d come all this way to complete a wish I’d had for more than three years.

First, it is fairly centrally located and within striking range of all of UPS’ hubs around the world. Second, the company was able to build its 5.1 million-square-foot facility directly between two parallel runways of the airport here, allowing it to land a plane about every minute during each night’s peak arrival period, when packages from just about anywhere you can imagine arrive to be routed to their eventual destinations.

We approached the edge and I looked down. Before me, it was just like I had read–a deep chasm out of which conveyor belts ferrying packages of every imaginable size and shape were climbing up out of the floor while others plunged down from above to the floor far below. Some were going north-south, others east-west, and some were changing directions as they went around corners (see video below).

LOUISVILLE, Ky.–I grew up in a household with two subscriptions to The New Yorker. How could we not? My father and my stepmother both needed their own copy of each issue.

But watching Worldport in motion, hearing the jets landing and taking off, seeing constant motion everywhere you look and knowing that this is what is behind the delivery of the many UPS packages that get sent to me, I know that my delivery needs are in pretty good hands. And so are yours.

(Credit:
Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

No longer.

Indeed, with competitors and partners such as Motorola, Verizon Wireless, Orange, Vodafone, and others joining the LiMo Foundation, a rising mobile Linux organization, it was just a matter of time before Nokia shelved its pride and joined the Linux ranks.

The mobile-phone maker is increasingly selecting Linux for Internet-enabled mobile devices, with its CFO declaring of Linux, “It’s going to be terribly important.”

It’s a battle that will have one major beneficiary: consumers.

Nokia suggests that it’s not embracing Linux for mobile phones, but instead for mobile Internet tablets. Well, that’s clear–for the minute–but as more phones end up looking like “Internet tablets,” what will it do?

With a 47.9 percent stake in Symbian, the leading mobile platform that it co-founded in 1998 and which today powers some 206 million mobile phones, Nokia has long championed it at the expense of rival platforms such as Linux.

commentary

The real question going forward is whether Linux, with Nokia involved, can compete with Apple’s
iPhone and Research In Motion’s BlackBerry platforms as they move “down-market” to not-so-smart phones.

However, his wife, bathing in uncontrollable suspicion, decided to do the only thing she could. She dialed up the local detective agency. Yes, Google Street View.

Britain has already been shaken to what remains of its foundations by Google Street View’s unerring ability to discover people and things where an idealist might wish they weren’t: from the vomiting man to the man walking out of a sex shop. Yes, not even the same man.

One can only hope for some form of reconciliation in the sad Google Street View divorce. At the very least, wouldn’t it be nice if Google picked up the legal bills? Or if the company offered to pay for counseling? On the other hand, will the poor husband threaten to sue Google?

And now, despite some confusion as to whether this whole story is nothing more than a street legend, perhaps some doubtful wife will today be inspired to leap to Street View to find evidence of her husband’s philandering.

Editors’ note: Some readers have pointed out that the Sun’s story appears to have been debunked.

Yes, its distinctive shape, and its even more distinctive fancy hubcaps, were parked exactly where they shouldn’t be.

She Google-zoomed in on the woman’s house and discovered that her husband’s Range Rover proved that he was, indeed, roving.

(Credit: CC Byrion)

Unlike with marriage, the possibilities with Google Street View are endless.

Further update 1.58pm PST: The Times of London quoted an esteemed lawyer a couple of days ago who related the broad facts as being true.

Whatever will they pick up next?

In the story as related by the Sun newspaper (and which still, as of 7.50am PST sits proudly on the Sun’s Website), the unnamed woman seems to have had some sense of whom her errant husband might be squiring.

He didn’t even say he was working late. No, no. He said he was away on business.

Divorce appears to be proceeding.