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United States

Submission + - The War on WikiLeaks: What Next for the USA? (thinq.co.uk) 1

Submitted by Stoobalou
Stoobalou writes: With 'Cablegate', the leak of some 251,287 diplomatic wires between the US State Department and American embassies and consulates around the world, WikiLeaks has pulled off its biggest coup to date.

At 261,276,536 words — seven times the size of WikiLeaks' previous outing of military secrets about US operations in Iraq — the haul represents the largest leak of government data in history.

The question is: what can the US government do to stop WikiLeaks — or sites like it — from publishing such information? And what can the whistle-blowing site do to outwit them?

The distributed nature both of WikiLeaks' network, and of the internet as a whole, swiftly brought US authorities to the realisation it couldn't simply 'gag' the site.
Google

Submission + - Apple, Microsoft, Google attacked for evil plugins (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by nk497
nk497 writes: A Mozilla exec has attacked Apple, Microsoft and Google for installing plugins without users' permission. "Why do Microsoft, Google, Apple, and others think that it is an OK practice to add plug-ins to Firefox when I'm installing their software packages?" Asa Dotzler asks "That is precisely how a Trojan horse operates... These additional pieces of software installed without my consent may not be malicious but the means by which they were installed was sneaky, underhanded, and wrong." He called on them to "stop being evil."

Submission + - Twitter helps watershed moment in India media 3

Submitted by Frankie70
Frankie70 writes: There is a huge scandal going on in India — The Radia Tapes. These are recorded conversations between a Niira Radia(a lobbyist) and some big industrialists, politicians & some journalists. These tapes are a followup to a recent scandal in the allocation of the 2G spectrum which caused a loss of 30 billion US Dollars to the Indian govt. This scandal itself was covered extensively by the Indian media. However the Radia Tapes which were put out by an offline magazine Open would have been blacked out by the rest of the traditional media(24 hour news & Newspapers) if it were not for the fact the links went viral through twitter. From G Sampath's blog

The Radia tapes are a watershed in the history of Indian media (just as the Wikileaks are a landmark development in the history of world media) because they mark a tectonic shift from mass media as transmission to mass media as communication. This shift is tectonic because it signifies a change in the existing balance of power, in the direction of "practical equality."

Though the Radia tapes were put out by print publications, we all saw that social media like Twitter can do one thing more efficiently, and quicker, than traditional media: distribution. Twitter did it, despite the limit of 140 characters, through the rapid circulation of website links. The tapes went viral before anyone could say 'black out'. Indeed, given the blackout by the offline media, if it weren't for Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and their own websites, Outlook and Open would not have garnered the kind of response they did for the Radia transcripts.

The involved journalists Barkha Dutt & Vir Sanghvi are also currently trying to defend\ themselves through Twitter & their blogs.

Wireless Networking

Submission + - Wi-Fi Direct Could Be the Death of Bluetooth (pcworld.com)

Submitted by Reber Is Reber
Reber Is Reber writes: The Wi-Fi Alliance announced a new wireless networking specification which will enable devices to establish simple peer-to-peer wireless connections without the need for a wireless router or hotspot. Wi-Fi Direct has a wide array of potential uses, many of which encroach on Bluetooth territory and threaten to make the competing wireless protocol obsolete.

"Wi-Fi Direct represents a leap forward for our industry. Wi-Fi users worldwide will benefit from a single-technology solution to transfer content and share applications quickly and easily among devices, even when a Wi-Fi access point isn't available," said Wi-Fi Alliance executive director Edgar Figueroa. "The impact is that Wi-Fi will become even more pervasive and useful for consumers and across the enterprise."

Ad hoc wireless networking has always been more complex and cumbersome than it is worth, and it maxes out at 11 mbps. Wi-Fi Direct will connect at existing Wi-Fi speeds-- up to 250 mbps. Wi-Fi Direct devices will also be able to broadcast their availability and seek out other Wi-Fi Direct devices.

Wi-Fi Direct overlaps into Bluetooth territory. Bluetooth is a virtually ubiquitous technology used for wireless connection of devices like headphones, mice, or the ever-popular Bluetooth earpiece sticking out of everyone's head. Bluetooth uses less power, but also has a much shorter range and slower transfer speeds. Wi-Fi Direct can enable the same device connectivity as Bluetooth, but at ranges and speeds equivalent to what users experience with existing Wi-Fi connections.
Programming

Submission + - Doubts raised about legal soundness of GPL2 (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by svonkie
svonkie writes: Two prominent IP lawyers have warned that the all-pervasive General Public License version 2 (GPLv2) is legally unsound. They claim GPLv3 and AGPLv3 are much better suited for the realities of modern open source software. "If you go back in time to when GPLv2 was written, I don't think people were aware of just how ubiquitous this license would become and how closely scrutinized it would be," said Mark Radcliffe, partner at the firm DLA Piper and general counsel for the Open Source Initiative (OSI). "At that time, open source was not something as broadly used as it is now." Radcliffe was joined by Karen Copenhaver, partner at Choate Hall & Stewart and counsel for the Linux Foundation, for a GPL web conference hosted by the license-sniffing firm Black Duck software
Microsoft

Submission + - MS: 'All Sidekick Data Recovered,' but Damage Done 1

Submitted by nandemoari
nandemoari writes: T-Mobile is taking a huge financial hit in the fallout over the Sidekick data loss. But Microsoft, which bears at least part of the responsibility for the mistake, is paying the price with its reputation. As reported earlier this week, the phone network had to admit that some users' data had been permanently lost due to a problem with a server run by Microsoft-owned company, Danger. The handset works by storing data such as contacts and appointments on a remote computer rather than on the phone itself. BBC news reports today that Microsoft has in fact recovered all data, but a minority are still affected out of 1 million subscribers. Amidst this, Microsoft appears not to have suffered any financial damage. However, it seems certain that its relationship with T-Mobile will have taken a major knock. The software giant is also the target of some very bad publicity as critics question how on earth it failed to put in place adequate back-ups of the data. That could seriously damage the potential success of the firm's other "cloud computing" plans, such as web-only editions of Office.
Nintendo

Submission + - Mario Dies at Age 76 (yahoo.com)

Submitted by AbsoluteXyro
AbsoluteXyro writes: "Captain" Lou Albano, who became one of the most recognized professional wrestlers of the 1980s after appearing in Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" music video, died Wednesday. He was 76. You may have known him as Mario from the Super Mario Bros. Super Show.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft to use Family Guy to market Windows 7 (tomshardware.com)

Submitted by fltsimbuff
fltsimbuff writes: Microsoft really seems to be preparing for a hard marketing push for the release of Windows 7. First the "Windows 7 Party Pack" and now they are partnering with Family Guy. Anyone want to take a stab at what they are going to do next? I personally hope Peter re-enacts the famous Windows USB demonstration...

Submission + - Report: "Syria Transferred Weapons to Hezbollah' (tog.co.il)

Submitted by Etrog_Online
Etrog_Online writes: A Kuwaiti newspaper has quoted a senior Israeli security official who claims that one quarter of all weapon arsenals belonging to the Syrian Army has been transferred to Hezbollah. The official was quoted as saying: "Iranian and Syrian officers train the members of the Hezbollah and Hamas terror organizations"

Submission + - Upgrades coming for VA open source EHR system (nextgov.com)

Submitted by suitablegirl
suitablegirl writes: A blue-chip group of information technology companies met on Wednesday to consider the work required to modernize a decades-old federal electronic health record system that stores the medical files for millions of veterans and their families, with the underlying implication the system could become a platform for the national health record network President Obama envisions.

The Industry Advisory Council, a 550-member group of technology companies that works to foster dialogue with federal agencies about IT solutions and procurement, invited executives from about 40 high-tech corporations to form the VistA working group. VistA stands for the Veterans Health Information System and Technology Architecture, an electronic health record system that the Veterans Affairs Department has operated for two decades.

IAC, which includes technology giants AT&T, Cisco, Dell, IBM, Oracle, Unisys and Verizon, met behind closed doors on Wednesday in Tysons Corner, Va., outside Washington to discuss the possibility of upgrading the system, which might include using open source code, a move that would make a relatively cheap electronic health records alternative to clinicians nationwide.

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