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Google

Can Google Fix the Cable Box? 223

Posted by CmdrTaco from the die-comcast-die-die-die dept.
theodp writes "In purchasing Motorola Mobility, Slate's Farhad Manjoo reports that Google will also come into possession of one the nation's biggest suppliers of set-top boxes. So, can Google work some of its do-no-evil magic on the loathsome cable box? Don't bet on it, says Manjoo. For one thing, there's no evidence that Google would be very good at remaking the set-top box (Google TV, anyone?). But even if Google managed to dramatically improve set-top boxes, it's doubtful that cable and satellite companies would buy in. First, they'd lose all those ridiculously lucrative cable-box rental fees. More importantly, they'd have to give up control of the main entertainment device in most homes, and with it the opportunity to slow or stymie competing sources for entertainment. After the merger, notes Manjoo, Google could get several billion dollars by selling off Motorola Mobility's set-top-box division — a much surer payday than taking on Big Cable."
Facebook

Facebook Says That Google+ Has No Users 360

Posted by CmdrTaco from the pew-pew-no-you-are-dumb dept.
dkd903 noticed another amusing shot in the battle between G+ and Facebook. CNN is running a story where Facebook's director of game partnership Sean Ryan basically says Google+ has no users. The article is mostly about casual gaming on social platforms, which I am really sick of individually blocking.
Earth

NASA Shoots Down Comet Elenin Doomsday Predictions 144

Posted by CmdrTaco from the phew-i-was-worried dept.
coondoggie writes "The comet Elenin, which will pass by Earth October 16, has generated such an inordinate amount of doomsday reports from a number of different sources that NASA today issued a release meant to address a variety of them. To address the myriad concerns, NASA said its scientists compiled a list of the most popular questions it has received about Elenin."
Security

How To Steal ATM PINs With a Thermal Camera 157

Posted by CmdrTaco from the i-see-what-you-did-there dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers from UCSD have demonstrated how thermal imagery cameras can be used to steal customers' PINs (PDF) when you withdraw cash from ATMs. Their paper, entitled 'Heat of the Moment: Characterizing the Efficacy of Thermal Camera-Based Attacks', (PDF) discovered that plastic PIN pads were the best for retaining heat signatures showing which numbers (and in which order) were used by bank customers. Fortunately the methodology does not appear to have been used by criminals yet, but a third of people surveyed admit that they do not check ATMs for tampering before withdrawing cash."
Facebook

Paul Ceglia: Facebook Is Doing the Forgery, Not Me 135

Posted by CmdrTaco from the bored-now dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Last week, Facebook said it found the original 'authentic contract' between Mark Zuckerberg and Paul Ceglia, a man who claims he owns half of the company according to a 2003 contract. Now, Ceglia says the original 'authentic contract' Facebook claims to have found is really just a Photoshopped image the company planted on his computer."
Facebook

Submission + - Facebook Says That Google Plus Has No Users (digitizor.com)

Submitted by
dkd903
dkd903 writes: "Sean Ryan, Director of Games partnership at Facebook says "Google has emulated aspects of our system, which is what they have the right to do. We just need to be better. Google is at 5% because they don't have any users.""
Patents

USPTO Issues 8,000,000th Patent 108

Posted by CmdrTaco from the congratulations-i-think dept.
toybuilder writes "It took nearly 80 years for the first 1 million patents to issue in the U.S. On Tuesday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued its eight-millionth patent. This most recent 1 million patents took only about 5 years."
Bitcoin

GPGPU Bitcoin Mining Trojan 258

Posted by CmdrTaco from the now-thats-not-so-bad dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Security researchers have unearthed a piece of malware that mints a digital currency known as Bitcoins by harnessing the immense power of an infected machine's graphical processing units. According to new research from antivirus provider Symantec, Trojan.Badminer uses GPUs to generate virtual coins through a practice known as minting. That's the term for solving difficult cryptographic proof-of-work problems and being rewarded with 50 Bitcoins for each per correct block."

Submission + - USPTO issues patent #8,000,000. (uspto.gov)

Submitted by toybuilder
toybuilder writes: It took nearly 80 years for the first 1 million patents to issue in the U.S.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued its eighth-million patent. This most recent 1 million patents took only about 5 years.
Bitcoin

Submission + - GPGPU Bitcoin mining trojan (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Security researchers have unearthed a piece of malware that mints a digital currency known as Bitcoins by harnessing the immense power of an infected machine's graphical processing units.

According to new research from antivirus provider Symantec, Trojan.Badminer uses GPUs to generate virtual coins through a practice known as minting. That's the term for solving difficult cryptographic proof-of-work problems and being rewarded with 50 Bitcoins for each per correct block.
Advertising

Digital Tech and the Re-Birth of Product Placement 228

Posted by CmdrTaco from the making-the-world-worse dept.
pbahra writes "When you think of product placement on television you tend to think of cumbersome 1950s examples where the actor would cheesily turn to camera and hold up, say, a bar of soap—where do you think the sobriquet soap opera came from—to deliver his line. Perhaps to save all of us the artistic murder, the practice was prohibited in Europe, but recently the prohibition has been relaxed and a U.K. start up is offering digital producers the chance to inject products realistically in post production with full directorial control. The problem with existing physical product placement is that there are no clear business plans, and the process is incredibly slow. In Europe, legal constraints prohibit directors from re-writing scripts to include products, so any placement has to be done at the creative stage."
Android

JooJoo Maker Is Back With a New Tablet 73

Posted by CmdrTaco from the some-kind-of-immortal dept.
itwbennett writes "I bet you forgot all about the JooJoo, the tablet that started life as CrunchPad and sparked a bitter fight between Michael Arrington and Fusion Garage. Well, Fusion hasn't forgotten and 'they are back in the news with a new line of products,' writes blogger Peter Smith. 'The Grid4 is a smartphone and the Grid10 is a tablet, both of them running the new GridOS, a custom OS built on the Android [kernel],' says Smith. Fusion calls GridOS 'stunning, smart, social and transportable,' whatever that may mean."
Image

Yahoo, Facebook Test "Six Degrees of Separation" 228

Posted by samzenpus from the small-world dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Yahoo has partnered with Facebook to test the iconic social experiment known as 'six degrees of separation' (everyone is on average approximately six steps away from any other person on Earth). The goal of the Small World Experiment is to determine the social path length between two strangers by tapping into the world's largest social network and its 750 million users, each of whom have an average of 130 friends." Looks like a fun project, but not quite as useful as knowing how close you are to Kevin Bacon.
Security

Aaron Barr Talks About DEFCON, Anonymous Attacks 77

Posted by CmdrTaco from the between-the-barrs dept.
Trailrunner7 writes "Finding Aaron Barr at this year's DEFCON hacker conference in Las Vegas was like a giant game of 'Where's Waldo.' Given the events of the past year, you can hardly blame him for keeping a low profile. First there was the attack on him and his then-employer, HBGary Federal, his decision to part ways with HBGary, his work to rehabilitate his image and turn his personal misfortunes into a 'teaching moment' for the industry, and then the legal wrangling in recent weeks that threw cold water on his plans to take part in a panel discussion about Anonymous at DEFCON. Barr was courted by numerous news outlets at the show, including the mainstream media. But he preferred, for the most part, to keep his own counsel. But he offered his thoughts to Threatpost on the experience of being at the conference, what the attack by Anonymous has done to him and whether it's possible for the group to turn its attentions to more constructive pursuits."

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