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The Media

Ferguson No-Fly Zone Revealed As Anti-Media Tactic 265

Posted by timothy from the pretty-damning-stuff dept.
The AP (here, carried by the San Francisco Chronicle) reports that recorded conversations reveal flight restrictions requested in August by the police force of Ferguson, MO, and agreed to by Federal aviation safety officials, were specifically intended to limit the access of journalists to the area, rather than purely in response to safety concerns. One FAA manager in Kansas City was recorded saying police "did not care if you ran commercial traffic through this TFR (temporary flight restriction) all day long. They didn't want media in there." "There is really ... no option for a [Temporary Flight Restriction] that says, you know, 'OK, everybody but the media is OK,'" he said. The managers then worked out wording they felt would keep news helicopters out of the controlled zone but not impede other air traffic. The conversations contradict claims by the St. Louis County Police Department, which responded to demonstrations following the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, that the restriction was solely for safety and had nothing to do with preventing media from witnessing the violence or the police response. Police said at the time, and again as recently as late Friday to the AP, that they requested the flight restriction in response to shots fired at a police helicopter. But police officials confirmed there was no damage to their helicopter and were unable to provide an incident report on the shooting. On the tapes, an FAA manager described the helicopter shooting as unconfirmed "rumors."
Power

How Apple Watch Is Really a Regression In Watchmaking 415

Posted by timothy from the maybe-they-could-merge-with-timex dept.
Nerval's Lobster writes Apple design chief Jony Ive has spent the past several weeks talking up how the Apple Watch is an evolution on many of the principles that guided the evolution of timepieces over the past several hundred years. But the need to recharge the device on a nightly basis, now confirmed by Apple CEO Tim Cook, is a throwback to ye olden days, when a lady or gentleman needed to keep winding her or his pocket-watch in order to keep it running. Watch batteries were supposed to bring "winding" to a decisive end, except for that subset of people who insist on carrying around a mechanical timepiece. But with Apple Watch's requirement that the user constantly monitor its energy, what's old is new again. Will millions of people really want to charge and fuss with their watch at least once a day?
The Almighty Buck

Apple Pay Competitor CurrentC Breached 265

Posted by samzenpus from the raise-shields dept.
tranquilidad writes "As previously discussed on Slashdot, CurrentC is a consortium of merchants attempting to create a "more secure" payment system. Some controversy surrounds CurrentC's requirements regarding the personal information required, their purchase-tracking intentions and retail stores blocking NFC in apparent support of CurrentC. Now news breaks that CurrentC has already been breached. CurrentC has issued the standard response, "We take the security of our users' information extremely seriously."
Businesses

Skilled Foreign Workers Treated as Indentured Servants 284

Posted by Soulskill from the still-happening-in-2014 dept.
theodp writes: A year-long investigation by NBC Bay Area's Investigative Unit and The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) raises questions about the H-1B visa program. In a five-part story that includes a mini-graphic novel called Techsploitation, CIR describes how the system rewards job brokers who steal wages and entrap Indian tech workers in the U.S., including the awarding of half a billion dollars in Federal tech contracts to those with labor violations. "Shackling workers to their jobs," CIR found after interviewing workers and reviewing government agency and court documents, "is such an entrenched business practice that it has even spread to U.S. nationals. This bullying persists at the bottom of a complex system that supplies workers to some of America's richest and most successful companies, such as Cisco Systems Inc., Verizon and Apple Inc."

In a presumably unrelated move, the U.S. changed its H-1B record retention policy last week, declaring that records used for labor certification, whether in paper or electronic, "are temporary records and subject to destruction" after five years under the new policy. "There was no explanation for the change, and it is perplexing to researchers," reports Computerworld. "The records under threat are called Labor Condition Applications (LCA), which identify the H-1B employer, worksite, the prevailing wage, and the wage paid to the worker." Lindsay Lowell, director of policy studies at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University, added: "It undermines our ability to evaluate what the government does and, in today's world, retaining electronic records like the LCA is next to costless [a full year's LCA data is less than 1 GB]." President Obama, by the way, is expected to use his executive authority to expand the H-1B program after the midterm elections.
Verizon

Verizon Launches Tech News Site That Bans Stories On US Spying 145

Posted by Soulskill from the pay-no-attention-to-the-man-behind-the-mirror dept.
blottsie writes: The most-valuable, second-richest telecommunications company in the world is bankrolling a technology news site called SugarString.com. The publication, which is now hiring its first full-time editors and reporters, is meant to rival major tech websites like Wired and the Verge while bringing in a potentially giant mainstream audience to beat those competitors at their own game.

There's just one catch: In exchange for the major corporate backing, tech reporters at SugarString are expressly forbidden from writing about American spying or net neutrality around the world, two of the biggest issues in tech and politics today.
News

Pope Francis Declares Evolution and Big Bang Theory Are Right 669

Posted by Soulskill from the can-we-argue-about-something-else-now dept.
HughPickens.com writes: The Independent reports that Pope Francis, speaking at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, has declared that the theories of evolution and the Big Bang are real. "When we read about Creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything. But that is not so," said Francis. "He created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfillment." Francis explained that both scientific theories were not incompatible with the existence of a creator – arguing instead that they "require it." "Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve." Experts say the Pope's comments put an end to the "pseudo theories" of creationism and intelligent design that some argue were encouraged by his predecessor, Benedict XVI who spoke out against taking Darwin too far.

Comment Re:Not a chance (Score 3, Insightful) 631

by coinreturn (#48253477) Attached to: Why CurrentC Will Beat Out Apple Pay
And do you really think the answer you get from said register-operator is dependent on you spending cash instead of credit? Retailers like to complain about the cost of taking credit cards, but really their sales volume is greatly increased by them. If that weren't the case, they wouldn't take them.

Comment Re:Reasons for using CC (Score 1) 631

by coinreturn (#48252977) Attached to: Why CurrentC Will Beat Out Apple Pay

You won't get any discount, it will only increase retailers profit. They are not going to charge you less for using CurrentC.

Perhaps. But note the recent trend of stores who offer a discount if you use THEIR credit card (instead of someone else's). Target and Lowe's both offer 5% discount to use their credit cards.

Comment Re:lol - WRONG!!! (Score 1) 631

by coinreturn (#48252833) Attached to: Why CurrentC Will Beat Out Apple Pay

Not when nobody with more than 2 brain cells will use it.

From the summary:

...leading the way is the biggest of them all, Walmart.

Therefore, we can reasonably assume that CurrentC will take off like wildfire.

Except that Walmart shoppers aren't exactly the type to have NFC-enabled smartphones.

Comment Re:Not a chance (Score 2) 631

by coinreturn (#48252805) Attached to: Why CurrentC Will Beat Out Apple Pay

---> you pay with cash you ALWAYS argue about the price, merchant have to give the CC 1~3% in transaction fees -- cash is the king (actually gold is) or bitcoin

And how is that working out for you when you're arguing with some minimum-wager running the cash-register with no authority to change prices whatsoever?
Businesses

Why CurrentC Will Beat Out Apple Pay 631

Posted by timothy from the some-downsides-might-strike-your-mind dept.
itwbennett writes Working closely with VISA, Apple solved many complex security issues making in-person payments safer than ever. But it's that close relationship with the credit card companies that may be Apple Pay's downfall. A competing solution called CurrentC has recently gained a lot of press as backers of the project moved to block NFC payments (Apple Pay, Google Wallet, etc.) at their retail terminals. The merchants designing or backing CurrentC reads like a greatest hits list of retail outfits and leading the way is the biggest of them all, Walmart. The retailers have joined together to create a platform that is independent of the credit card companies and their profit-robbing transaction fees. Hooking directly to your bank account rather than a credit or debit card, CurrentC will use good old ACH to transfer money from your account to the merchant's bank account at little to no cost.

Comment Re:Um... (Score 1) 145

by coinreturn (#48245617) Attached to: Here's Why Apple Rejected Your iOS App

You cherry-picked your quote. When TFS explicitly says "that's not allowed, presumably because Apple doesn't want iOS to serve as a drone controller", I don't think you can really accuse the GP of cherry-picking to make his point.

Oh, yes I can, your forgot to bold the all-important word apparently - which indicates the statement is speculation by the writer of TFS. Apple says you can't have an app that uses GPS to automatically control a real-world aircraft or automobile. I think that GPS and automatically control are the operative words - for liability reasons. The parrot is manually controlled, hence is not a counter-example as professed by the OP.

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