67509571
submission
JoeyRox writes:
Tesla's 'gigafactory' publicized goal is to make electric cars more affordable. However that benefit may soon be eclipsed by the gigafactory's impact on roof-top solar power storage costs, putting the entire business model of utilities in peril. “The mortal threat that ever cheaper on-site renewables pose” comes from systems that include storage, said Amory Lovins, co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute, a Snowmass, Colorado-based energy consultant. “That is an unregulated product you can buy at Home Depot that leaves the old business model with no place to hide.”
58527543
submission
JoeyRox writes:
The city of San Francisco is aggressively enforcing its ban on short-term rentals. SF resident Jeffrey Katz recently came home to an eviction notice posted on his door that read "You are illegally using the premises as a tourist or transient unit". According to Edward Singer, an attorney with Zacks & Freedman who filed the notice against Katz, "Using an apartment for short-term rentals is a crime in San Francisco". Apparently Airbnb isn't being very helpful to residents facing eviction. "Unfortunately, we can't provide individual legal assistance or review lease agreements for our 500,000 hosts, but we do try to help inform people about these issues", according to David Hantman, Airbnb head of global public policy. SF and Airbnb are working on a framework which might make Airbnb rentals legal, an effort helped by Airbnb's decision last week to start collecting the city's 14% hotel tax by summer.
56377017
submission
JoeyRox writes:
Bill Gates spent his first day as Microsoft's new Technology Adviser by attempting, and failing, to install Windows 8.1. After making no progress by lunchtime, Gates recruited Microsoft's new CEO Satya Nadella for help, but to no avail. "Bill is usually a pretty calm guy, so it was weird to hear some of that language coming out of his mouth," the source said. A Microsoft spokesman said only that Mr. Gates' first day in his new job had been "a learning experience" and that, for the immediate future, he would go back to running Windows 7.
55218631
submission
JoeyRox writes:
Tesla is sending its customers new home charging connectors after recent reports of chargers overheating in garages, one of which lead to a fire while charging a Model S.
54826679
submission
JoeyRox writes:
Zappos is replacing its traditional hierarchical business organization with a flat, self-governing system that has no managers or job titles. The company will be made up of 400 circles, within which employees will share the roles and responsibilities that traditionally have been segregated by title. The goal is to promote transparency and collaboration.
54755977
submission
JoeyRox writes:
The recent decline in Facebook's popularity with teenagers appears to be worsening. A Global Social Media Impact study of 16 to 18 year olds found that many considered the site "uncool" and keep their profiles alive only to keep in touch with older relatives, for whom the site remains popular. Researches say teens have switched to using WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Twitter in place of Facebook.
54729353
submission
JoeyRox writes:
The exponential growth of rooftop solar adoption has utilities concerned about their financial future. Efficiency gains and cost reductions has brought the price of solar energy to within parity of traditional power generation in states like California and Hawaii. HECO, an electric utility in Hawaii, has started notifying new solar adopters that they will not be allowed to connect to the utility's power grid, citing safety concerns of electric circuits becoming oversaturated from the rapid adoption of soloar power on the island. Residents claim it's not about safety but about the utility fighting to protect its profits.
54491775
submission
JoeyRox writes:
Target experienced a system-wide breach of credit card numbers over the Black Friday holiday shopping season. What's unique about this massive breach is that it didn't involve compromising a centralized data center or website but instead represented a distributed attack at individual Target stores across the country. Investigators believe customer account numbers were lifted via software installed on card readers at checkout.
52935811
submission
JoeyRox writes:
Cisco Systems shocked Wall Street today when it reported a large revenue miss for its first-quarter earnings and, even worse, projected a 10 percent drop in revenue for the current quarter. Cisco CFO Frank Calderoni said Cisco was most affected by the political backlash in China, although he indicated it was difficult to quantify exactly how much revenue was lost from the political fallout vs macroeconomic trends. "Between economic and political issues that are occurring in emerging markets we had a significant impact," Calderoni told Reuters in an interview.
50977561
submission
JoeyRox writes:
Outgoing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer lamented Google's success in a meeting with financial analysts yesterday, saying "They (Google) have this incredible, amazing, dare I say monopoly that we are the only person left on the planet trying to compete with.". Ballmer continued with more pointed criticisms, stating "I do believe that Google's practices are worthy of discussion with competition authority, and we have certainly discussed them with competition authorities".
50180951
submission
JoeyRox writes:
Both companies have announced a deal where Microsoft will pay Nokia $7.2 Billion for their handset business.
46545877
submission
JoeyRox writes:
The Google Talk Windows client has always supported the option of globally disabling the saving of chat history on Google's servers. Sadly Google just notified users this option is no longer supported and that all chats will now be archived on their servers by default unless the users opts-out on a per-conversation basis. What happened to do no evil? https://support.google.com/talk/answer/161925
46542559
submission
JoeyRox writes:
There is no press about this yet but over 100 buy.com customers (now rakuten.com) have reported their credit card numbers stolen and used for unauthorized charges after placing orders on Rakuten's website. A thread about the breach can be read here (http://slickdeals.net/f/6018544-Rakuten-Buy-com-Fraudulent-Use-of-Credit-Card-Info-within-Company?). Rakuten representatives are participating on the thread and asking victims to contact them but have yet to provide any details about the nature of the breach.
46058495
submission
JoeyRox writes:
Over the course of playing $12 million worth of video poker, Las Vegas resident John Kane stumbled onto a firmware bug in IGT's "Game King" machines that allowed him to cash out for 10x the amount of his winnings. John and friend took advantage of the vulnerability to the tune of $429,945. John's friend was arrested by U.S. marshals and charged with violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, but a federal magistrate ruled that the law doesn't apply and recommended dismissal. The case is currently being argued in a U.S. District Court.
45684053
submission
JoeyRox writes:
On 3/22 the Senate approved (http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/295115-senate-poised-to-back-internet-sales-tax) a non-binding proposal to allow states to tax online sales to residents outside their state. That vote was a trial balloon to gauge the support for the Marketplace Fairness Act. This week Reid filed a cloture (http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/295115-senate-poised-to-back-internet-sales-tax) to allow the law to be voted on for real this time. The vote may occur as soon as tomorrow. eBay is attempting to rally Americans against the bill via a massive email campaign (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/21/ebay-online-sales-tax_n_3127098.html?utm_hp_ref=business).
