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Privacy

Bitcoin Used For the Narcotics Trade 535

An anonymous reader writes "A story on Aljazeera tells how bitcoin is being used to pay for cocaine, marijuana and other drugs at various eBay style drug websites. From the article: 'Two US senators are asking federal authorities to crack down on an online narcotics market that accepts "virtual" currency. The "Dark Web," an anonymous and secretive online community that trades in heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines among other drugs, has been operating unhindered for months.' Who said bitcoin is not used in the real world?"
Communications

NSA CS Man: My Tracking Algorithm Was 'Twisted' By the Government 267

decora writes "Crypto-mathematician Bill Binney worked in the Signals Intelligence Automation Research Center at the NSA. There, he worked on NSA's ThinThread program; a way to monitor the flood of internet data from outside the US while protecting the privacy of US citizens. In a new interview with Jane Mayer, he says his program 'got twisted. ... I should apologize to the American people. It's violated everyone's rights. It can be used to eavesdrop on the whole world. ... my people were brought in, and they told me, "Can you believe they're doing this? They're getting billing records on US citizens! They're putting pen registers on everyone in the country!"'"

Comment Re:And the TL streams.... (Score 1) 122

This is a valid point. Tens of thousands watch tournament games every single night, whereas you'll be hard pressed to find streams that reach 5K viewers. Even the ones that do often feature players who discuss the game and their decision making which provides an alternate avenue for entertainment than just watching with excitement while waiting to see if the Protoss saw the medivac or if the Zerg will respond to the Dark Templar in time.

Games

Submission + - Why people watch instead of play Starcraft (jeffhuang.com)

generalepsilon writes: Researchers from the University of Washington have found a key reason why Starcraft is a popular spectator sport, especially in Korea. In a paper published last week, they theorize that Starcraft incorporates 'information asymmetry', where the players and spectators each have different pieces of information, which transforms into entertainment. Sometimes spectators know something the players don't: they watch in suspense as players walk their armies into traps or a dropship sneaks behind the mineral line. Other times, players know something the spectators yearn to find out, such as 'cheese' (spectacular build orders that attempt to outplay an opponent early in the game). Rather than giving as much information as possible to spectators, it may be more crucial for game designers to decide which information to give to spectators, and when to reveal this information.
Privacy

Samsung Plants Keyloggers On Laptops 515

Saint Aardvark writes "Mohammed Hassan writes in Network World that he found a keylogger program installed on his brand-new laptop — not once, but twice. After initial denials, Samsung has admitted they did this, saying it was to 'monitor the performance of the machine and to find out how it is being used.' As Hassan says, 'In other words, Samsung wanted to gather usage data without obtaining consent from laptop owners.' Three PR officers from Samsung have so far refused comment."

Comment Re:IF they hold the patents (Score 1) 344

Who says they haven't put some of this technology into their phones?

Either way, I'm all for big companies suing big companies over patent disputes. Monetarily it's going to be a wash for consumers (minus some money for the lawyers) since all the companies win some and lose some. However, it will be a definite win for consumers as many of the patents often get nullified. And, hopefully, someday these companies will realize it's no longer worth the hassle or money and might support logical patent reform.

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