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Security

FTC Says Payment Processor Took Millions 120

Posted by kdawson from the give-me-your-money-or-give-me-your-time dept.
coondoggie writes "The Federal Trade Commission and seven states have charged a payment processor with violating federal and state laws by debiting, or attempting to debit, from consumers' bank accounts on behalf of numerous fraudulent telemarketers and Internet-based merchants. Between June 2004 and March 2006, the payment processing company, Your Money Access, processed more than $200 million in debits and attempted debits to consumers' bank accounts. More than $69 million of the attempted debits were returned or rejected by consumers or their banks for various reasons, indicating the lack of consumer authorization, the FTC complaint alleges."
Microsoft

Microsoft Giving Away Vista Ultimate, With a Catch 495

Posted by kdawson from the no-free-lunch dept.
Opinari writes "In case you haven't heard, Microsoft is giving away copies of Windows Vista Ultimate (32-bit or 64-bit DVD), Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007, Microsoft Money Plus Premium, Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008, or Microsoft Streets and Trips 2008 — you can choose any one. The caveat is that you have to let them monitor your use of the program."
GNOME

GNOME 2.20 Released 443

Posted by samzenpus from the new-version dept.
Gimli writes "GNOME 2.20 has been officially released. There are a number of enhancements and improvements to things such as power management, Evince (the GNOME document view), Totem (the video player), and note-taking application Tomboy. There are also some changes to GNOME's configuration utilities with an eye towards streamlining them. The timing is impeccable, too: 'This release coincides with the tenth anniversary of GNOME's existence. The project has evolved considerably since its earliest incarnation and has become a global phenomenon. Used as the default environment in popular Linux distributions like Ubuntu and Fedora, GNOME is widely used by Linux desktop users and is supported by a growing community of companies and independent developers. GNOME 2.20 will be included in the next major releases of many mainstream Linux distributions, including Ubuntu 7.10, which is scheduled for release next month. Users who wish to try it now can use the latest Ubuntu 7.10 live CD images, or the latest build of Foresight Linux. You can also check out the release notes."
Mozilla

The Morality of Web Advertisement Blocking 974

Posted by Zonk from the can't-see-a-problem dept.
An anonymous reader writes "There has been some recent coverage of the over-hyped boycott of Firefox, in response to the rising popularity of the Adblock Plus Firefox extension. A recent editorial on CNET looks into the issue, and explores the moral and legal issues involved in client-side web advertisement blocking. Whereas TiVo users freeload on the relatively fixed broadcasting costs paid by TV networks, users of web ad-blocking technology are actively denying website owners revenue that would otherwise go to pay for the bandwidth costs of serving up those web pages. If the website designer has to pay for bits each time you view their website without viewing their banner ads, are you engaged in theft? Is this right? "
AMD

AMD Considering Getting Out of Fabrication Business 229

Posted by Zonk from the say-hey-hey-goodbye dept.
mytrip writes "2007 has not been kind to AMD, but it's surprising to hear rumours that they might be considering outsourcing chip fabrication. Analysts are predicting that AMD will try to cut costs by moving some fabrication elements out of the company by early next year. 'One Citigroup analyst is predicting a "transformational move" that would result in AMD's lower-end CPUs being manufactured by a third party and possibly selling off part or all of its Dresden, Germany facility. Another report from Goldman Sachs outlines the investment firm's belief that the company will leave manufacturing completely in the hands of third parties.'"
Privacy

Sweden Admits Tapping Citizens' Phones for Decades 273

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the oh-well-if-you-have-already-been-doing-it dept.
paulraps writes "Sweden is close to implementing new surveillance legislation that will include the monitoring of emails, telephone calls and keyword searches using advanced pattern analysis. The objective is to detect 'threats such as terrorism, IT attacks or the spread of weapons of mass destruction' but the proposals have divided the country. In a misguided attempt to put people at ease, the government admitted that Sweden has been tapping its citizens' phones for decades anyway."
Media

Submission + - Blu-ray Secretly Courting Porn Studios

Submitted by
ahoehn
ahoehn writes: "In contrast to previous coverage on Slashdot, the LA Times is reporting that both HD-DVD and Blu-ray have been actively courting the adult video industry. Even though Sony is still publicly refusing to manufacture adult Blu-ray discs, the article states that, "Last summer, a group pitching Blu-ray visited the Canoga Park offices of Wicked Pictures, whose films include 'As Sleazy as 1-2-3' and 'Womb Raiders.' Wicked executive Jackie Ramos said the Blu-ray proponents spent hours explaining how the movie studio could benefit from releasing Blu-ray DVDs, which deliver dramatically higher picture quality than conventional discs. But what amused Ramos was the warning that came after the presentation — 'They said, 'We can help you, but remember: We were never here.''"

The article implies, but doesn't implicitly state that the representatives came directly from Sony."
Security

Submission + - Wanted: 160 Missing FBI Laptops

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The FBI had at least 160 laptops lost or stolen over the past four years, including 10 that contained highly sensitive classified information and at least one that held "personal identifying information" on FBI personnel, according to a report released today by a Justice Department oversight arm. The report found that 51 of the laptops reported lost or stolen may have contained classified data, but that FBI didn't have enough information to say conclusively. The Washington Post notes that only one of the cases documented in the report indicated that the data contained on the lost laptop was protected with encryption technology.
Sony

Submission + - Sony Set to Market Blu-ray as Winner of Format War

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Seizing on widely reported January sales numbers, a Sony executive says that the studio plans to begin marketing Blu-ray as the winner of the high-def format war. "The message that we're going to put out to the consumer now is, now it is safe to make a choice," said Sony Pictures Home Entertainment worldwide president David Bishop. "No more fence-sitting is needed."
Movies

Submission + - How do your store your movie collection?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I finally went HD. I bought a new TV, new stereo, even upgraded my DVR to HD. Problem is, my DVD recorder isn't HD, and I'd rather keep things at my finger tips instead of burning everything to DVD. I'd like to capture HD content from my sat/cable system and import my DVDs so I can access everything from my couch. Ideally you could browse, search, and organize the collection, use imported DVDs (still browse the DVD menus to see things like extra features), and record HD content. And it needs to have the capacity for a reasonably sized collection (at least 200 DVDs). It doesn't need lots of bells and whistles. Importing and organizing can be complicated, but browsing and playing needs to be simple. Are there commercial solutions? How would you go about building such a system? Or would you just buy a HD DVD burner and another bookcase?
Communications

Submission + - Motorola unveils phone that bends

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: According to CNET, who are out at 3GSM in Barcelona, Motorola has unveiled a phone that bends in order to make putting it up to your face more comfortable. The Motorola Z8, as the bendy phone is called, runs on a Symbian based platform and also displays video at up to 30 frames per second.
Portables

Submission + - Samsug announces look-alike iphone killer

Submitted by goombah99
goombah99 writes: Samsung unveiled a prototype of their touchscreen phone. It's look, single button front, full-face touchscreen are the essentially identical to the iphone. The screen resolution is sufficiently worse that video viewing will be less of a pleasure, it's thicker, and it lacks Wi-Fi. But it has a slide-out full thumb-board, a 5 mega pixel camera, supports 3G (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access). Web connectivity however lacks the elegant full screen approach with a gestural interface of the iphone. Price, battery life and availability are not known. Read Here and here for first impressions. My impression is that hardware wise it's at the same level as the iphone so, as always, it's the apple polish of the interface that will be the deciding factor. Simultaneously, Microsoft revealed a workmanlike update of it's mobile version.

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