46071649
submission
dgharmon writes:
The world's second-richest man, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, was a major Irish bank bondholder ahead of the financial collapse that saw the taxpayer put on the hook for the €64bn bank bailout. Gates was a bondholder in Anglo Irish Bank, Irish Nationwide Building Society, Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank, according to filings seen by the Sunday Independent. The filings detail investments held by Gates' Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
44204713
submission
dgharmon writes:
"The album Piano Man was released in late 1973 and was certified Gold. To this day it has sold over four million copies .. Joel netted less than $7,000 in profit from his certified Gold record" link
42357627
submission
dgharmon writes:
"a beefburger rarely contains 100% beef .. An economy beefburger must contain 47% meat .. Under European law, the term "meat" is defined as "skeletal muscle with naturally included or adherent fat and connective tissue" which has not been mechanically stripped from the carcass.
Any meat that has been pressure-blasted from the carcass must be listed separately as MRM (mechanically removed) or MSM (mechanically stripped) meat. MRM meat or paste can in theory be used in economy burgers but has to be listed as a separate ingredient.
42353321
submission
dgharmon writes:
NHS hospitals are hiring agency nurses at rates of up £1,800 a day in a bid to plug dangerous staff shortages, an investigation has found. The bill for temporary workers has risen by more than 20 per cent in just one year, with private agencies receiving more than seven times the rate paid to nurses on the pay roll.
42185399
submission
dgharmon writes:
On Sunday last weekend I flew out to CES to join the rest of my colleagues to exhibit Ubuntu at the show. We were there to show the full range of Ubuntu form-factors that we have available; desktop, TV, Ubuntu for Android, and most recently, Ubuntu for phones.
42173869
submission
dgharmon writes:
'In a 2001 interview with public radio station WBEZ, a precocious 14-year-old named Aaron Swartz .. told the host, Lew Koch, what he imagined the future of the internet would look like.' "It's harder to predict the short-term future than the long-term future", he warned, but he suggested that the " semantic web " was just over the horizon. It was to be a " two-way web ", he said, "where users of the web can really write their own webpages".
42060789
submission
dgharmon writes:
A serious flaw in the Java software found on most personal computers could expose the machines to being taken over by malicious attacks over the internet, the US agency responsible for policing such vulnerabilities warned on Thursday.
The vulnerability has already been used to mount attacks, according to security researchers, prompting calls for PC and Mac users to disable Java on their computers until a fix has been developed.
The flaw in Java, a free piece of software distributed by Oracle and used to enable features of certain websites to run on all machines regardless of operating system, was highlighted by US-CERT, part of the Department of Homeland Security.
“This vulnerability may allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on vulnerable systems,” the group warned.
Jaime Blasco, research manager at AlienVault Labs, an antivirus company that was alerted to the problem, described it as a critical flaw that would hit “every single system and every single user”. The nature of the vulnerability made it “very easy to exploit and trick the system,” he added.
Oracle, which took over control of Java with its acquisition of Sun Microsystems, typically releases software fixes for such vulnerabilities in between a week and a month, making it essential for computer users to act more quickly to disable the software, Mr Blasco said.
Oracle did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
So-called “zero-day exploits” such as those uncovered on Thursday are among the most damaging for computer users, since they involve flaws that have already been used to mount attacks before they have been identified by security professionals or the software companies concerned.
In a bulletin warning of the security flaw, US-CERT said it was “unaware of a practical solution to this problem” and advised computer users to disable Java in their browsers.
The vulnerability was first identified by an independent researcher known as Kafeine, who reported it to the agency while also writing about it on his blog. Such public disclosure can be controversial since it alerts malware writers to flaws before computers can be properly protected.
However, this flaw appears to have already been widely known among the criminals and others who prey on unprotected computers, according to security researchers. Four different malware “kits” – collections of vulnerabilities that are sold to wrongdoers – have already been found that include reference to the Java flaw, Mr Blasco said.
Java flaw poses malware threat to PC users">link
41973661
submission
dgharmon writes:
The Sandy Springs Police Department is facing a shortage of tens of thousands of bullets and is scrambling to restock. The neighboring counties are facing an equally dire situation, with both practice ammunition and duty ammunition in short supply. Douglas County Chief Deputy Stan Copeland predicts it could be 6-8 months before the back-orders come in.
41951953
submission
dgharmon writes:
'An intelligence bill has put the frighteners on EU citizens as it allows the US access to their personal data stored in internet clouds like those used on Facebook and Google. The law is a ‘grave risk’ to the rights of EU citizens, says an EU report .. In essence, at the behest of a secret government order US companies operating in the EU will be obliged to hand over data on European citizens. Non-American citizens dwelling outside the US are not subject to the search and seizure protections of the Fourth Amendment, and as such are easy picking for American snooping'
41951407
submission
dgharmon writes:
MAJOR UK BANK Barclays said it has reduced IT spending for software development by 90 percent by moving to an internal private cloud environment and using open source Linux software.
41863137
submission
dgharmon writes:
If you thought the deal smelled funny back in 2011 when Novell sold itself to Attachmate and its patents to a Microsoft consortium, you are not alone. Some shareholders .. sued ..
Specifically, they claim that Novell favored Attachmate over other bidders, especially a "Party C", and the judge, under Delaware's reasonable ‘conceivability’ standard, denied summary judment with respect to the board and decided there will need to be a trial ...
41859955
submission
dgharmon writes:
despite the illustrious international influence enjoyed by Mickey Mouse and the Disney Empire, it could not have been possible without substantial help from Uncle Sam. ..
In 2010, Disney received $110 million through the federal tax credit, nearly 75 percent of the total $150 million allocated by Congress
41833755
submission
dgharmon writes:
Thienemann Verlag, one of Germany's oldest publishers of children's books, has announced it will reprint Otfried Preußler's children's classic 'The Little Witch' with all instances of the 'n-word' removed from the text.
41833113
submission
dgharmon writes:
Friday, Jan. 4, 2013
Microsoft says somebody stole its Apple iPads
"by Angela Ruggiero Daily Post Staff Writer
Microsoft's campus in Mountain View is presumably loaded with Microsoft's latest and greatest products, but a thief decided to steal five Apple iPads from the company's offices instead.
Police Sgt. Sean Thomas said there are no suspects and no sign of forced entry.
The iPads were taken from three offices in Microsoft Building 5 on the campus at 1075 [See MICROSOFT, page 26] ..
No Microsoft products were reported stolen ."
41692587
submission
dgharmon writes:
"After a years long legal battle, federal prosecutors in Belgium now believe their investigation is complete enough to charge the Church of Scientology and its leaders as a criminal organization on charges of extortion, fraud, privacy breaches, and the illegal practice of medicine .. The Belgian government won't charge Scientology for being a cult — authorities are focusing on prosecuting it as a criminal organization" ...
