63707397
submission
mpicpp writes:
teve Ballmer absolutely crushed his entrance at the Clippers Fan Festival on Monday afternoon.
The newly minted Los Angeles Clippers owner fired out of the tunnel at the Staples Center to Eminem's "Lose Yourself," punishing hands and working the crowd like a professional hype man.
ESPN’s Arash Markazi and Fox Sports’ Jovan Buha recorded Ballmer’s entrance for posterity and uploaded the footage to Instagram. Imagine Donald Sterling’s court-side manner, but the opposite.
63704519
submission
mpicpp writes:
Online copyright cop charging $20 per song explains 2014 strategy to investors.
Internet copyright enforcer Rightscorp has told investors some revelatory details about its strategy in its second-quarter earnings call, as reported by TorrentFreak.
Rightscorp was founded to be a kind of RIAA-lite, getting online pirates to pay record companies and other rights-holders without the need to resort to high-stakes litigation. Instead, it creates e-mail notices demanding $20 per song from users it deems "repeat infringers" and insists that ISPs forward those notices.
The company is growing fast, but is still way, way in the red. Last year it earned $324,000 in revenue, while spending more than $2.1 million to run its operations. This year it's earning more revenue: $440,414 in the first six months of the year. However, operating costs during the same period have already hit $1.8 million.
Rightscorp's two marquee clients are BMG and Warner Music. Together, those two clients account for around one-third of Rightscorp's income.
The company is now working with more than 140 Internet service providers, although they provide differing levels of cooperation. Rightscorp's pitch to these ISPs is that since it has ironclad evidence of which users are "repeat infringers," they're obligated under copyright law to forward the notices; otherwise the ISPs become liable to a high-stakes copyright suit.
63575045
submission
mpicpp writes:
NASA's black-hole hunting telescope has captured a cosmic battle between dark and light.
NuSTAR, formally known as the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, has observed a supermassive black hole's gravity tugging on X-ray light that's being emitted near that black hole.
That light is getting stretched and blurred, and researchers are getting to see it all in unprecedented detail, said NASA in a news release issued today.
In this instance, the corona — a source of X-ray light that sits near a black hole — recently collapsed in toward the black hole that's named Markarian 335.
The NuSTAR telescope has been collecting X-rays from black holes and dying stars for the past two years.
The craft completed its primary mission earlier this year, and it was redirected to investigate Markarian 335 once scientists noticed that the black hole had become dramatically brighter. NuSTAR observed that Markarian 335's gravity sucked the corona's light, an illuminating action that NASA likened to someone shining a flashlight for astronomers.
63371741
submission
mpicpp writes:
Russian criminals have stolen 1.2 billion Internet user names and passwords, amassing what could be the largest collection of stolen digital credentials in history, a respected security firm said Tuesday.
The news was first reported by The New York Times, which cited research from Milwaukee-based Hold Security. The firm didn't reveal the identities of the targeted websites, citing nondisclosure agreements and a desire to prevent existing vulnerabilities from being more widely exploited.
Hold Security founder Alex Holden told CNNMoney that the trove includes credentials gathered from over 420,000 websites — both smaller sites as well as "household names." The criminals didn't breach any major email providers, he said.
Holden said the gang makes its money by sending out spam for bogus products like weight-loss pills, and had apparently amassed its collection of digital credentials for that relatively innocuous purpose.
"It's really not that impactful to the individuals, and that's why they were under the radar for so long," Holden said. "They've ignored financial information almost completely."
63345211
submission
mpicpp writes:
In breaking legal news today, the BBC is reporting that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is suing Samsung for failure to fully pay all patent licensing fees relating to the Korean tech giant’s line of Android smartphones.
The current lawsuit over Android patent fees is the first time that Microsoft has launched a legal action against Samsung.
63344899
submission
mpicpp writes:
A hotel in tony Hudson, NY, has found a novel way to keep negative reviews off Yelp and other sites — fine any grousing guests.
The Union Street Guest House, near Catskills estates built by the Vanderbilts and Rockefellers, charges couples who book weddings at the venue $500 for every bad review posted online by their guests.
“Please know that despite the fact that wedding couples love Hudson and our inn, your friends and families may not,” reads an online policy. “If you have booked the inn for a wedding or other type of event ... and given us a deposit of any kind ... there will be a $500 fine that will be deducted from your deposit for every negative review ... placed on any internet site by anyone in your party.”
In response to a review complaining of rude treatment over a bucket of ice, the proprietors shot back: “I know you guys wanted to hang out and get drunk for 2 days and that is fine. I was really really sorry that you showed up in the summer when it was 105 degrees ... I was so so so sorry that our ice maker and fridge were not working and not accessible.”
Oddly, the hotel didn’t respond to a request for comment.
If you take down the nasty review, you’ll get your money back.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/04/...
62867339
submission
mpicpp writes:
The U.S. military races to the moon to build a base — to beat the Russians to the punch. Maybe test a nuclear weapon on the surface. Consider a lunar-based bombing system to target earthbound foes.
That was the plan in the 1960s, according to declassified national security documents released this week — some of them stamped as "SECRET."
Today those schemes may sound as outlandish and dusty as a relic black-and-white episode of "Space Patrol."
The U.S. Army brainchild "Project Horizon" was born.
Its proposal to leap beyond the Soviets opened with the line: "There is a requirement for a manned military outpost on the moon."
The paper argued that it was imperative for the United States to develop and protect its potential interest on the Earth's natural satellite — and to do so quickly to protect the American way of life.
"To be second to the Soviet Union in establishing an outpost on the moon would be disastrous to our nation's prestige and in turn to our democratic philosophy," the paper surmised.
It should have the kind of priority and authority given to the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb, the Army said.
"Once established, the lunar base will be operated under the control of a unified space command." The space around the Earth and moon would be considered a military theater.
62858897
submission
mpicpp writes:
review:
Bitcoins.com domain auction cancelled after judge’s restraining order->
Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 24, 2014 @10:32AM
An anonymous reader writes
"Heritage Auctions, the Texas company orchestrating the Bitcoins.com sale, pulled the auction listing on Wednesday afternoon, stating: "This lot has been withdrawn from this auction. Bids are no longer accepted and previous bids are cancelled."
The move comes as the result of a federal judicial order issued on Tuesday that put an immediate halt to the sale of Bitcoins.com, the domain name owned by embattled Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles.
"The lot is being held for now so we can get this sorted out one way or the other," Noah Fleisher, a Heritage Auctions spokesman, told Ars. "I haven't heard from [Karpeles] at all."
An anonymous “company executive” (presumably Karpeles himself) told The Wall Street Journal in May 2014 that Mt. Gox's parent company Tibanne hopes to raise around $1 million by selling bitcoins.com and the Bitcoin trademarks it holds in the European Union and Japan because the company has “no use for them.”
The temporary restraining order, which was issued on Tuesday by a federal judge in Washington, comes as part of an ongoing lawsuit between CoinLab and Mt. Gox KK and its parent company, Tibanne. The order forbids the two Japanese companies from selling or otherwise transferring any assets for 14 days."
62816489
submission
mpicpp writes:
The customer was told he had to delete the tweet before he could re-board.
A Minnesota man was ejected from a Southwest Airlines flight for a tweet calling a gate agent rude, reported CBS Minnesota Wednesday. After tweeting, the man was removed from the plane and stated he was "forced" to delete the tweet before he could re-board.
Duff Watson is an "A-list" passenger with Southwest, which gives him priority boarding. Watson was miffed when the agent in question told him his two children couldn't board the plane as priority passengers with him, and Watson let her know that Twitter would, in fact, be hearing about this.
"Something to the effect of 'Wow, rudest agent in Denver. Kimberly S, gate C39, not happy @SWA,'" is how Watson summarized the tweet to CBS. The family eventually boarded the plane, but according to Watson's daughter, Lucy, the agent threatened to call the cops. Watson relayed that the agent said her safety felt threatened.
Southwest apologized in an e-mail to Watson, gifting him and his two children $50 vouchers. Watson tells CBS he won't be flying on Southwest again.
62771547
submission
mpicpp writes:
Lawsuit-happy porn studio beats a "poor sap" whose pleas of ignorance fail.
Porn studio Malibu Media files more copyright lawsuits than anyone else in the US since the fall of Prenda Law; hundreds of suits against "John Doe" defendants have been filed in just the last few months. Nearly all of those cases settle before the case is decided on the merits.
However, in a rare development yesterday, a Malibu lawsuit proceeded to a judgment—and it was a slam dunk for the porn studio. In a terse five-page order (PDF), US District Judge Robert Jonker tore apart defendant Don Bui's arguments that using BitTorrent and the site Kickass Torrents to get porn files didn't violate Malibu's copyright.
Jonker saw guidance in the recent Aereo case as well, calling it "instructive even though it is dealing with a different aspect of copyright infringement." Six justices found that Aereo's "tiny antennas" scheme wouldn't get around copyright law, and in Jonker's reading, even the three dissenting justices "simply believed the proper pathway to liability was contributory infringement rather than direct infringement." The takeaway message of the Aereo case is that "the ever-changing technological means of producing unauthorized copies of protected works must not obscure the basic protection of the Copyright Act for copyright holders."
Malibu is sure to show off the Bui case as a feather in its cap to other defendants, especially after it gets a ruling on damages. The company's lawyers never hesitate to bring up the Pennsylvania "bellwether trial" which resulted in a $112,500 judgment against the only defendant who didn't settle.
62763121
submission
mpicpp writes:
Following through on promises from new CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft continues to add support for non-Microsoft technologies, allowing them to run well on the company’s Azure cloud hosting platform.
The company has partnered with two organizations that offer popular open source programs for managing cloud resources—Packer and OpenNebula. Microsoft is releasing drivers that will make it easy to use the programs on Azure, as well as with Microsoft server software for in-house deployments.
Packer is increasingly being used by system administrators to create and then manage the operations of virtual machine images. Running from any OS, Packer assembles and configures the necessary components for a virtual machine and can create identical copies to run on different platforms, such as Linux and Windows.
Packer can also work with popular open source configuration tools such as Chef and Puppet to automate the procedures of rolling out many virtual machines at once.
“Packer has been so popular lately that we heard from people that they want it see it on Azure,” Mahugh said.
Microsoft is also adding support for the OpenNebula cloud management software. OpenNebula could be a key technology for companies interested in running hybrid clouds, a model in which some operations run on a public cloud like Azure and others run in-house, perhaps on a private cloud.
62755747
submission
mpicpp writes:
A 27-year-old Illinois woman was arrested Monday after posting a selfie to Facebook showing off a dress that she allegedly stole from a local boutique.
Morties Boutique in West Frankfort took to Facebook to describe the hijacked goods. Somebody then sent the shop a link to a Facebook post in which a woman is seen wearing the colorful leopard-pattern dress, with the caption: "Love my dress." Surveillance photos allegedly captured Danielle Saxton stealing the dress earlier this month.
"I called the police department and said, 'It just hit Facebook,' and they were on it in two seconds," shop owner Gay Morton Williams told Reuters.
The arrest of Saxton is the latest example of people wanted by the authorities giving themselves away on Facebook.
62755519
submission
mpicpp writes:
Verizon claimed Internet fast lanes will help deaf, blind, and disabled.
No company has lobbied more fiercely against network neutrality than Verizon, which filed the lawsuit that overturned the FCC's rules prohibiting ISPs from blocking and discriminating against Web content. But the absence of net neutrality rules isn't just good for Verizon—it's also good for the blind, deaf, and disabled, Verizon claims.
That's what Verizon lobbyists said in talks with congressional staffers, according to a Mother Jones report last month. "Three Hill sources tell Mother Jones that Verizon lobbyists have cited the needs of blind, deaf, and disabled people to try to convince congressional staffers and their bosses to get on board with the fast lane idea," the report said. With "fast lanes," Web services—including those designed for the blind, deaf, and disabled—could be prioritized in exchange for payment.
Now, advocacy groups for deaf people have filed comments with the FCC saying they don't agree with Verizon's position.
62755213
submission
mpicpp writes:
Are you comfortable having your location and Web browsing tracked for marketing purposes? If so, Verizon's got a deal for you.
The wireless giant announced a new program this week called "Smart Rewards" that offers customers credit card-style perks like discounts for shopping, travel and dining. You accrue points through the program by doing things like signing onto the Verizon website, paying your bill online and participating in the company's trade-in program.
Verizon emphasizes that the data it collects is anonymized before it's shared with third parties.
The program is novel in that offers Verizon users some compensation for the collection of their data, which has become big business for telecom and tech companies. Some privacy advocates have pushed data-collecting companies to reward customers for their personal information in the interest of transparency.
62711313
submission
mpicpp writes:
Giant photos are slowing the Web down. Google has a plan to make your pages load faster.
The search giant has developed a new kind of image format that promises to shrink the size of Web photos and graphic files down by about 35%. That's a big deal, considering that images are responsible for nearly two-thirds of the size of an average website — a figure that grew by more than 30% last year, according to the HTTP Archive.
To boost load times for websites, Google (GOOGL, Tech30) developed a new image format, called WebP. At its I/O developers conference last month, Google announced that it has converted most of YouTube's thumbnail images to WebP, improving the site's load time by 10%. That may not sound like much, but Google says that alone has saved users a cumulative 140,000 hours each day.
Google has also changed the Chrome Web store and Google Play store over to WebP, speeding up load times on those sites by nearly a third. Facebook, Netflix, eBay (EBAY, Tech30) and several other websites have also begun supporting WebP.
