Author: Eva Glass

Eva Glass first rose to prominence in The INQUIRER. She continues to work behind the scenes to dig out the best stories.

Kiwis forbidden to hand over data to the FBI

Posted on July 3, 2014 by - News

KiwiKiwi cops have been forbidden from sharing encrypted computer keys belonging to Kim Dotcom with their chums at the FBI.

In 2012, New Zealand police seized computer drives belonging to Kim Dotcom, copies of which were unlawfully given to the FBI. Dotcom wants access to the seized content but the drives are encrypted. He is worried that if he types them in the Kiwi cops will give them to the FBI who will use it against him.

A judge has now ruled that even if the Megaupload founder supplies the passwords, they cannot subsequently be forwarded to the FBI.

In May 2012 during a hearing at Auckland’s High Court, lawyer Paul Davison QC demanded access to the data stored on the confiscated equipment, arguing that without it Dotcom could not mount a proper defence.

But while Dotcom subsequently agreed to hand over the passwords that was on the condition that New Zealand police would not hand them over to US authorities.

The police agreed to give Dotcom access to the prompts but only if the revealed passwords could be passed onto the United States.

Justice Winkelmann ruled that if the police do indeed obtain the codes, they must not hand them over to the FBI. Reason being, the copies of the computers and drives should never have been sent to the United States in the first place and they had been illegally handed over.

Google on track to predict world cup winner

Posted on July 3, 2014 by - News

gooGoogle’s Cloud Platform has been crunching large datasets and statistics to predict the outcome of each game in the World Cup and has managed to do far better than any octopus or horse, writes Nick Farrell..

Using the numbers generated by live sports data firm Opta, Google engineers have used Google Cloud Dataflow to ingest data, BigQuery to build features, iPython and Pandas to conduct modelling, and finally the Compute Engine to crunch the data.

This has created a logistic regression approach and predicted the winners.  Google said that this is better than the “poisson regression method” which we thought meant asking chickens when they turn their heads in the opposite direction.

And so far, it seems to be working as the Google Cloud Platform has boasted a perfect record and predicts that there would not be “any major upsets” this last round either.

Google Cloud Platform’s predictions for the quarterfinals were Brazil vs. Colombia: Brazil (71%), France vs. Germany: France (69%), The Netherlands vs. Costa Rica: Netherlands (68%) and Argentina vs. Belgium: Argentina (81%).

Of course it still can’t predict the lottery numbers or tell us why footballers get paid such a ridiculous amount of money.

Facebook falls foul of ICO

Posted on July 2, 2014 by - News

George OrwellYesterday Facebook announced the results of a psychological experiment into human behaviour to find if Facebook could alter the emotional state of its users and prompt them to post either more positive or negative content.

It was all fairly tame stuff, but it did raise the eyebrows of the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

It is concerned that Facebook might have broken data protection laws when it allowed researchers to conduct a psychological experiment on 700,000 unwitting users in 2012 users of the social network.

The ICO monitors how personal data is used and has the power to force organizations to change their policies and levy fines of up to £500,000 pounds ($839,500).

Facebook said that it could do what it liked with the 700,000 because they had signed an terms of use agreement when they joined.  Of course they had not read it, but they had signed it.
It is not clear what part of UK data protection laws Facebook might have broken, but it does seem that if there is not a clause which says you cannot submit the personal data of your customers to scientific experimentation, there should be.

Giants battle over the internet of thongs

Posted on July 2, 2014 by - News

intel_log_reversedMicrosoft has joined Qualcomm and other technology companies in a bid to establish standards for the Internet of fings, fangs, thongs and things, writes Nick Farrell.

The Qualcomm-backed AllSeen Alliance attracting people who want to promote protocols for how smart devices should work together.

Microsoft joined 50 other members in the AllSeen Alliance, including major consumer electronics players Panasonic, LG and Sharp.

However this is not the only standards consortium out there  and chipmakers that compete with Qualcomm plan to launch a rival standards consortium as early as next week.

It looks like we will have another standards war similar to that sparked by the Blu-Ray and HDTV standard.

Apple – known for strictly controlling how other companies’ products interact with its own, in June announced plans for HomeKit, which will integrate control of devices like garage door openers, lights and thermostats.  Of course  Apple gear will be slavishly adopted by Apple fanboys who are keen to have Coldplay playing on their fridge, but will probably not be seen elsewhere.

Last week, Google said it partnered with Mercedes-Benz, Whirlpool Corp and light bulb maker LIFX to integrate their products with Google’s Nest thermostats and smoke detectors.

So far the biggest player, Intel, has stood like Lord Stanley on the sidelines of the Battle of Bosworth waiting for one side to start calling for a horse.  While saying it is keen on the Internet of Thongs,  it is thinking of the internet of bags.

Woz says smartwatches have a way to go

Posted on July 2, 2014 by - Moving People, News

Steve WozniakGadget king and dancing queen Steve Wozniak thinks smartwatches have got a long way to go before being useful.

Woz, who was the co-founder of Apple, was a well-known early adopter of shiny new toys.  He owns a Segway and has a Tesla Motors’ electric-powered car.  He also has an interest in getting a smartwatch that is useful.

Wozniak told xconomy that smartwatches will not be useful until the screens get bigger. He thinks foldable, plastic displays could be the answer to that problem.

He also thinks they will be useless until you can get the whole smartphone on your wrist and not a Bluetooth connection to the smartphone in your pocket.

Samsung, Pebble, and Qualcomm are among the companies that have come out with smartwatches, but thus far, Wozniak’s favorite is one made by Martian. It doesn’t have a touch screen, but a tiny display below the watch hands indicates who is calling, and the watch has a good speaker, Wozniak said.

The worst smartwatch that Woz was the Samsung Galaxy Gear which he sold on eBay because it was so worthless and did so little that was convenient.

The interview did not reveal anything about what Woz thought of the coming Apple iWatch and whether it would tick any of his boxes.  Our guess is that it didn’t.

T-Mobile profited from SMS scams

Posted on July 2, 2014 by - News

shut-up-and-take-my-moneyThe US Federal Trade Commission claims mobile phone service provider T-Mobile USA, made hundreds of millions of dollars by placing charges on mobile phone bills for unauthorised “premium” SMS subscriptions.

T-Mobile received anywhere from 35 to 40 percent of the total amount charged to consumers for subscriptions for content such as flirting tips, horoscope information or celebrity gossip that typically cost $9.99 per month, the FTC claims.

The watchdog said that T-Mobile in some cases continued to bill its customers for these services offered by scammers years after becoming aware of signs that the charges were fraudulent.
It appears to have gotten away with it by burying the information in the phone bill where it was unlikely to be seen.

FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said it was wrong for a company like T-Mobile to profit from scams against its customers when there were clear warning signs the charges it was imposing were fraudulent.

She said that the FTC wanted to make sure that T-Mobile repays all its customers for these crammed charges.

The FTC has alleged that because such a large number of people were seeking refunds, it was an obvious sign to T-Mobile that the charges were never authorised by its customers.

The refund rate likely significantly understates the percentage of consumers who were scammed.
The complaint against T-Mobile alleges that the company’s billing practices made it difficult for consumers to detect that they were being charged.

T-Mobile’s full phone bills, which can be longer than 50 pages, made it nearly impossible for consumers to find and understand third-party subscription charges.

The FTC charged that T-Mobile refused refunds to some customers, offering only partial refunds of two months’ worth of the charges to others, and in other cases instructed consumers to seek refunds directly from the scammers – without providing accurate contact information to do so.
Sometimes T-Mobile claimed that consumers had authorised the charges despite having no proof that they had.

A third of US people don’t trust the internet

Posted on July 2, 2014 by - News

pressieA study has revealed that while 85 percent of Americans use the internet, a third of the nation were hopeless at it.

The study was conducted by John Horrigan, an independent researcher suggests that the digital divide has been replaced by a gap in digital readiness.

More than a third of Americans were not digitally literate or don’t trust the internet. That subgroup tended to be less educated, poorer, and older than the average American. It’s the unternet, then.

It appears that those with essential Web skills “tend to be the more privileged” and it is only these who are getting any mileage from the digital revolution.

The study of 1,600 adults measured their grasp of terms like “cookie” and “Wi-Fi.” It asked them to rate how confident they were about using a desktop or laptop or a smart phone to find information, as well as how comfortable they felt about using a computer. Of those who scored low in these areas, about half were not internet users.

Horrigan said that politicians have ignored the problem of digital readiness while concentrating on providing people with access to the internet.

There has been little effort paid to teaching people the necessary skills to take advantage of online classes and job searches.

The tech industry has also been bad at working out that not all users possess the same digital skill levels and that they need to make accommodations for those with less knowledge.

Microsoft allowed to execute Bladabindi and Jenxcus

Posted on July 1, 2014 by - News

GuillotineSoftware giant Microsoft has been given permission to disrupt malware by known as Bladabindi and Jenxcus, writes Nick Farrell.

Although Vole has worked with the FBI and others to disrupt communications channels between hackers and infected PCs, it is rare to act on its own. This is also the first high-profile case involving malware written by developers outside of Eastern Europe.

The operation, which began on Monday under an order issued by a federal court in Nevada, Microsoft said the two malwares operated in similar ways and were written and distributed by developers in Kuwait and Algeria.

Microsoft said that it would take days to determine how many machines were infected. Voles’ own, anti-virus software alone has detected some 7.4 million infections over the past year and is installed on less than 30 percent of the world’s PCs.

The developers marketed their malware over social media, including videos on YouTube and a Facebook page. They posted videos with techniques for infecting PCs.

The court order allowed Microsoft to disrupt communications between infected machines and Reno, Nevada-based Vitalwerks Internet Solutions.

Boscovich said about 94 percent of all machines infected with the two viruses communicate with hackers through Vitalwerks servers.

Registries will direct suspected malicious traffic to Microsoft servers in Redmond, Washington, instead of to Vitalwerks.

Vole will then filter out communications from PCs infected with another 194 types of malware also being filtered through Vitalwerks.

Vitalwerks and its operational subsidiary No-IP claim to have a very strict abuse policy. To be fair Microsoft has not accused Vitalwerks of involvement in any cybercrime, though it alleges the company failed to take proper steps to prevent its system from being abused.

Assange becomes a fashion model

Posted on July 1, 2014 by - News

Julian AssangeAussie fugitive Julian Assange is so desperate for media attention that he is prepared to take a shot at fashion modelling.

Assange, who is holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy trying to avoid extradition to Sweden on sex charges is expected to make his London Fashion Week debut this September.

Apparently the WikiLeaks founder will model for Vivienne Westwood’s son, Ben Westwood, at a fashion show staged at the Ecuadorean Embassy.

Westwood hopes that the event will draw the nation’s media and not allow Assange to be forgotten.
“I want to highlight Julian Assange’s plight. What happened to him is totally unfair,” he told the Independent.

Assange – who will be joined by six models during his catwalk outing – has also inspired some of the clothes.

Westwood said his collection was influenced by costumes worn by Clint Eastwood’s western films and also Assange’s combat-beret look.

The show’s soundtrack will come by way of music from The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, no prices for who Assange is coming as. Westward has also designed a garment with a Julian Assange print.
It is starting to look like Assange is managing to force the limelight back on himself.

Recently he met with Lady Gaga and opening rapper MIA’s New York concert with a 10-minute Skype chat, in which he addressed the audience. Last week, he hosted a Reddit ask-me-anything session, in which he offered life advice. We didn’t see it, but we should have expected that “ask someone first if they want to have sex with you and always use a condom” should have been given at some point.

Obama appoints troll defender to run Patent Office

Posted on July 1, 2014 by - News

Obama BarackThe US government has continued to its policy of turning over its watchdogs over to the corporates they are supposed to police, this time giving the US Patent office to a former troll, writes Nick Farrell.

The administration looks set to appoint Phil Johnson, a pharmaceutical industry executive, as the next Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Johnson has so far spent his life attempting to block legislation aimed at reining in patent trolls.  Which makes you wonder what the Obama administration has been smoking.

The top job at the Patent Office has been vacant for around 18-months since the departure of previous director David Kappos in early 2013. Currently, the office is being managed by former Googler Michelle Lee, who was appointed deputy director in December.

Obama was under pressure to replace Lee, although he had done a good job and the White House’s choice of Phil Johnson, who is a long-time lawyer for Johnson & Johnson.

This will effectively mean that anyone hoping for patent reform and tech companies can kiss goodbye to that dream.

In December, Johnson testified before the Senate on behalf of the 21st Century Patent Coalition, a group of companies who opposed a bill that would have made it easier for defendants to challenge low-quality patents, and to recover legal costs in the face of frivolous patent lawsuits. Johnson’s group was probably behind killing the bill.

Johnson has also opposed previous patent reform initiatives, describing them as “almost everything an infringer could ever want.”

To be fair, Johnson’s positionis more that of the pharmaceutical sector, which relies heavily on patents to recoup research spending. But its approach is the antithesis of the problems which face fast-moving sectors like technology.

Still, with someone like him with his hands on the reins, it looks like Obama will be unable to reform the patent system in any meaningful way.

Rumours of Windows 9 emerge

Posted on July 1, 2014 by - News

Bill GatesSoftware giant Microsoft has been hinting that it will make changes in Windows 9 which should satisfy those who are using Windows 7 and will not upgrade.

While Windows 8 has been a disaster for Microsoft because it forced desktop users to conform to a tablet format and download Apps which did not function as well as their desktop version.

Word on the superinformationstrasse is that Vole is planning to further merge the Modern UI with the desktop in Windows 9 and might reduce the OS’s use for tablet users.

According to WinBeta, the cunning plan is that tablet users will see the demise of the desktop in Windows 9.  Instead Microsoft is set to replace Win32 applications with Modern UI alternatives in Windows 9, meaning Windows is set to get a full on Modern UI facelift when it rolls around next year.

This means that the desktop will no longer have a place for tablet users running Windows RT.
This fits into rumours regarding Windows Phone and Windows RT becoming one operating system. This would see Windows Phone devices and Windows RT tablets run the same operating system with no desktop.  If the device hardware requires it, a cut down version of the desktop will be available, but this is not likely to be seen much.

Vole is apparently worried about Chrome OS.  It wants to make Windows Phone free, and Windows RT being merged with it.  This will use this as the cheaper alternative for OEMs to sell tablets and cheap laptops too.

These laptops will run apps from the Windows Store just like on Chrome OS, which is limited to Chrome OS apps, the Windows Phone/RT devices will be limited to Windows Store apps.

This means that Windows 9 will be different depending on the hardware you use and you will only see a desktop if you are actually on the desktop.

Word on the street is that Microsoft will allow Modern UI apps to run in the desktop, in windowed mode, and have Modern UI apps pinned to the Start Menu instead of a Start Screen.

All’s not fair in love and war

Posted on July 1, 2014 by - Fun Stuff, News

romanceThe maker of a dating app is being sued by a former marketing executing in another case where technology companies are being hauled over the coals over their treatment of female employees, writes Nick Farrell.

Former Tinder marketing Vice President Whitney Wolfe is suing the popular dating-app company for sexual harassment and discrimination.

Her lawsuit lists a series of alleged incidents of harassment over roughly 18 months starting in late 2012 and targets Chief Executive Officer Sean Rad and the company’s chief marketing officer, Justin Mateen.

Wolfe said that the pair removed her title as co-founder because she was a woman, and that Mateen insulted her, including calling her a whore at a company party. Rad ignored her complaints.
The company has suspended Mateen pending an ongoing internal investigation, however it does appear that he sent Wolfe “inappropriate” messages.

The company condemns these messages, but believes that Wolfe’s allegations with respect to Tinder and its management are unfounded.”

Wolfe claims it was her who came up with the name “Tinder” for the service in mid-2012, shortly after its creation, because there were worries that its original name, Matchbox, was too similar to Match.com.

Wolfe became romantically involved with Mateen, her boss, who joined the company in late 2012.
In November 2012 she was designated a co-founder but Mateen told her that having a “girl founder” devalued the company, according to the lawsuit and in November 2013, Mateen and Rad removed her co-founder title.

Needless to say the romance broke down and Mateen called her “a desperate loser” in a marketing meeting and told Rad and others she was an alcoholic. He also sent her a series of harassing texts, it states. Wolfe complained to Rad, who would ignore her “or call her a dramatic or emotional girl,” the suit says, adding that in one meeting, Rad told her it was her job to “keep Justin calm.”
The last straw was when Mateen called her a whore at a company party in April and she quit.

Avnet starts new unit

Posted on June 30, 2014 by - Moving People, News

avnettsMega distie Avnet said it has set up a new business unit in the European, Middle East and Africa markets.

The dvision, called Avnet Security and Networking Solutions (ASNS), is intended to boost its share of this sector and will include the opening of specialist technical and commercial competence centres in the region.

Network security is predicted to be worth over $10 billion in revenues, according to market research firm IDC.

The first commercial competence centre will open in the Netherlands this quarter, and be a hub for delivering security and networking services.

Graeme Watt, president of Avnet in EMEA said his company will use existing people in the company to bring in external specialist skills to bolster the market.

Dixons shows bumper profits

Posted on June 26, 2014 by - News

Sebastian James, DixonsDespite sales only rising marginally in its last financial year, Dixons showed pre-tax profits of £133 million up to the end of April. That’s a rise of 53 percent compared to the pre-tax profits of £86.6 million in the year before.

The profit bump comes as it prepares to merge with Carphone Warehouse – it also showed significantly larger pre-tax profits for its financial year. The European Commission said yesterday that it had approved the merger.

Part of Dixons’ profitability comes down to the fact that it sold what it describes as “non core” units during the period. It also cut costs by £45 million in the period.

Sebastian James, Dixons’ Group’s CEO, said that the company is in “robust financial health”.  He said he’s excited about the Carphone Warehuse merger.

HPC server market falls

Posted on June 23, 2014 by - News

server-racksA report  from market research company IDC said factory revenues for the high performance computing server market fell by close to 10 percent in the first quarter of 2014, compared to the same period in 2013.

Revenues fell from $2.5 billion to $2.3 billion.

But the long range view for the supercomputers sector of the market is expect to see reasonable growth with a CAGR of 7.2 percent to 2018.

HPC technical computing analyst Earl Joseph said that the race towards exascale computing means that SMEs and research outfits are likely to use HPCs in the future.

HP is the clear leader in the market with 35 percent share, IBM has 23.1 percent share, while Dell managed third place accounting for 17.2 percent of global revenues.

The overall HPC technical server market is likely to be worth $14.7 billion by 2018.