Tag: newstrack

Schmidt is Steve Jobs fan

Posted on October 3, 2014 by - News

19th c. fan068While Google and Apple are bitter rivals, Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt said he was a Steve Jobs fan.

Schmidt said last week that the competition between the two companies is more “brutal” than ever, and Apple CEO Tim Cook and Schmidt have taken jabs at each other’s companies.

But despite the fierce competition, when asked  who his heroes were he said: “For me, it’s easy. Steve Jobs,”

“We could all aspire to be a small percentage of Steve,” he said of Apple’s late co-founder.

Schmidt and Jobs met in 1993, when Schmidt was working at Sun Microsystems and Jobs was at NeXT, the computer company he founded after being ousted from Apple. Schmidt, then Google’s CEO,  was invited to join Apple’s board in 2006.

Schmidt describes Jobs as the quintessential “smart creative”. He added  “Exceptional people are worth hanging out with… because there is a good chance they are going to change the world.”

This adoration might explain why when Jobs suggested building an employment cartel to screw up the lives of Silicon Valley employees, Schmidt said yes.  It would also explain why, against all logic he fired whoever Jobs told him to.

Silver Lake to sell IPC

Posted on October 3, 2014 by - News

wall streetPrivate equity outfit Silver Lake wants to sell IPC Systems which makes communication systems for Wall Street traders.

It will be the end of one of Silver Lake’s longest-held investments and the outfit bought IPC from Goldman Sachs Group private equity arm in 2006 for $800 million.  Ironically it has hired Goldman and Evercore Partners to auction IPC off.

IPC makes about $160 million a year and could be valued at more than $1.4 billion in a sale, including debt. It makes specialised telephony systems for financial institutions ranging from investment banks to hedge funds. It is present in 5,000 customer sites in more than 60 countries.

IPC could be become a little more of a risky investment as the outfit seeks faster growth in sales of data and network services to financial services customers. These services are highly commoditized and IPC’s competitors in this area have more dosh to fight the upstart.

In August, IPC announced it had named Neil Barua, a Silver Lake operating partner and interim chief executive of IPC since February, as its permanent CEO.

Private equity funds typically hold companies three to seven years, making Silver Lake’s ownership of IPC for more than eight years unusual.

Silver Lake also wants to get rid of another financial technology company this year – the high-frequency trading outfit Virtu Financial.

 

UK allowed to copy digital content

Posted on October 3, 2014 by - News

copyDecades behind the rest of the world, the UK is finally permitted to make personal copies of digital content they have legally bought.

Consumers are allowed to keep the duplicates on local storage or in the cloud.  However you are not allowed to share the data.

This is the law that many people in the UK thought they already had, indeed most of the world has some fair use law for digital copying.  In the UK though ripping CDs to other formats had previously qualified as copyright infringement, although cases were rarely prosecuted.

The changes were detailed in June, when the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) issued guidance, but had not come into effect until now.

The minister for Intellectual Property, Baroness Neville-Rolfe said the changes are going to bring our intellectual property laws into the 21st century.

“They will mean that the UK IP regime will now be responsive to the modern business environment and more flexible for consumers.”

Also included in the law is permission to create parodies of copyright works. Previously, there has been a risk of being sued for breach of copyright if clips of films, TV shows or songs were used without consent.

Many EU nations place a levy on sales of recordable media, such as blank DVDs, memory cards and hard disks,  and some also add a charge to MP3 players and video recorders, with the proceeds passed on to the media industry.

All that is dying out along with physical formats.

 

Google legalled over nude photos

Posted on October 2, 2014 by - News

OgleGoogle has been accused of “blatantly unethical behaviour”  for failing to remove nude or private images of celebrities hacked and distributed online.

Stars whose images were hacked include Jennifer Lawrence, Rihanna and Selena Gomez.

Marty Singer, a senior lawyer who represents Hollywood celebs, wrote a sharp letter to Larry Page, Serge Brin, Eric Schmidt and Google lawyers and threatened to sue the firm for $100 million.

The New York Post reports that the letter accused Google of victimising women and failed to remove the images fast enough.

Google was asked to remove the images a month ago and lawyers have repeated the request several times.

The letter claimed that because the victims of the hack were celebrities, Google had done nothing apart from collect money from advertising.  Google had turned a blind eye to the scandal and repeatedly exploit these women, Singer continued.

Tablet market is all shook up

Posted on October 2, 2014 by - News

ipad3Apple and Samsung are going to have to fight hard to keep their place as leaders of the tablet pack.

Because, according to market intelligence firm ABI Research, other vendors including Asus, Lenovo and Amazon are fighting hard for third place and creeping up on the leaders.

These emerging vendors are set to experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.8 percent between 2014 and 2019.  Lenovo, for example will ship 21 million tablets by 2019.

Samsung saw a 35 percent decline in growth between Q1 2014 and the second quarter, while Apple saw a 19 percent decline.

In the first quarter, Apple and Samsung had a hefty 72 percent of the marketplace but their combined market share dropped to 66 percent and that’s the way things are headed.

In fact, ABI Research thinks that advanced and mature markets are experiencing a stall in growth, partly because tablets don’t need replacing every few years like notebook PCs.

Smartwatches to steal the day

Posted on October 2, 2014 by - News

fobwatchThe jury is still out on whether smartwatches will storm the market but if one research outfit is to be believed, that’s exactly what’s going to happen.

IHS, a market research company based in the USA, says revenues for smartwatches will be worth around $300 million this year and predicts a rise of 80 percent annually for “at least” four more years to come.

IHS claims the market will be worth around $23 billion by 2023, with shipments of 800 million units – compared to 54 million this year. Those optimistic figures are fuelled by the belief that we’ll see better resolution and colour displays in years to come.

Sweta Dash, who analyses displays at IHS, believes that fashion will drive sales.  “Wearables are best viewed as functional fashion accessories rather than as electronic goods.  Because the fashion accesory market is determined by design rather than by simple function, wearable products such as smartwatches must be adapable to various forms including squares, circles, or even ovals.”

Battery power is important too.

But Dash sounds a word of caution in what otherwise is a very upbeat report.  “Smartwatches and smart glasses from Google and others are not completely ready for mainstream consumer adoption.” They’re all expensive and won’t make them mass market until prices drop.

Chip sales to hit $338 billion

Posted on October 2, 2014 by - News

nand-chipsSales of semiconductors in 2013 are likely to reach as much as $338 billion during 2014.

That’s according to market research company Gartner, which says that’s a 7.2 percent hike compared to 2013.

DRAM showed a revenue growth of 26.3 percent in 2014 and will generate as much as $44.1 billion for the entire year.  But memory sales are subject to wildly fluctuating cycles, and Gartner believes there will be oversupply in 2016 meaning revenues then will drop by over a quarter.

Jon Erensen, research director at Gartner, said semiconductor revenues reached an all time record in Q3 2014.

He said that there will be a flood of new product introductions as we head into the holiday season.

He also predcts that sales of smartphones and ultramobiles will increase by 27 percent and 18.9 percent respectively.

But semiconductor growth in 2015 is only likely to hit 5.8 percent, because there will be oversupply from chip fabrication plants.

Glare from Windows 10 to affect sales

Posted on October 2, 2014 by - News

framedwindowsIf you’re thinking of buying a notebook now, complete with Windows 8.1 and current Intel chips, it may be time to postpone your buying decision.

That’s what Digitimes says is likely to be the effect of Microsoft’s move to release Windows 10 – formerly known as Windows 9 – next year.

According to the Taiwanese wire, suppliers to notebook manufacturers now expect to see fewer sales in this quarter than they’d expected.

In addition to the introduction of Windows 10, Intel is expected to introduce 14 nanometre Y series Broadwell chips at the end of December.

As Windows 8.x has been greeted with apathy and in some cases contempt, few people will be rushing to spend their hard earned cash on what’s going to become out of date technology any month now.

Chinese snoop on iPhone protesters

Posted on October 2, 2014 by - News

apple fanboysThe Chinese government appears to be cracking down on Hong Kong protesters who use an iPhone or iPad.

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a computer virus that spies on Apple Inc’s iOS operating system for the iPhone and iPad, and they believe it is targeting pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.

Dubbed Xsser, the software can steal text messages, photos, call logs, passwords and other data from Apple gear.

Researchers with Lacoon Mobile Security uncovered the spyware while investigating similar malware for Google Android operating system last week that also targeted Hong Kong protesters.

Lacoon Chief Executive Michael Shaulov said that Xsser is the most sophisticated malware used to date in any known cyberattack on iOS users.

It is not clear what the Chinese government hopes to learn from an Apple fanboy’s account, there is just so much you can learn from a complete Coldplay collection and an undeletable U2 album.

It is unclear how iOS devices get infected with Xsser, which is not disguised as an app particularly as Apple claims that its software is super secure.

The code used to control that server is written in Chinese. The high quality of the campaign and the fact it is being used to target protesters suggests that it is coming from a sophisticated attacker in China.

“It is the first time in history that you actually see an operationalized iOS Trojan that is attributed to some kind of Chinese entity,” Shaulov said.

Lacoon said on its blog that it is possible the attackers might have deployed the Trojan in other places, in addition to spying on pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.

“It can cross borders easily, and is possibly being operated by a Chinese-speaking entity to spy on individuals, foreign companies, or even entire governments,” they said in their bog.

 

Backdoors save children, claims US

Posted on October 2, 2014 by - News

back doorUS Attorney General Eric Holder has backed police who fear that a client-side encryption in consumer devices will make their job difficult.

But Holder has a novel argument for this gross invasion of privacy – he is trying to convince people that it will save childrens’  lives.

Speaking before the Global Alliance Against Child Sexual Abuse Online, Holder insisted that it was possible to permit law enforcement to do its job while still adequately protecting personal privacy.

However, rapid access to customers’ phone data can help law enforcement to protect victims and combat the activities of sexual predators and kidnappers.

Holder’s comments have been prompted by security features which encrypt the data on the device based on a cipher derived from the personal security passcode that the owner generates.

His view appears to be that the American people will suffer any atrocity provided a child is able to grow up until they reach an age where they can lose all their privacy.

Police are increasingly worried that they will no longer be able to depend on desk-bound, net-based investigation and might have to get out onto the streets again.

 

Lotus 1-2-3 is dead as a dodo

Posted on October 2, 2014 by - News

ex-parrotLotus 1-2-3 officially ended its existence yesterday as IBM’s previously announced execution date passed with barely any attention from the tech press.

Big Blue only stopped selling Lotus 1-2-3 last year after more than 30 years of stirling work.

Lotus 1-2-3 was a spreadsheet program developed by Lotus Software, which is now part of IBM. It managed to be the “killer application” which sold the PC to business. Its first victory was kicking the first spreadsheet, Visicalc out of the market. Lotus 1-2-3 was a three-in-one, integrated program which could handly spreadsheet calculations, database functionality, and graphical charts. It needed a dongle though.

The Lotus Development Corporation was founded by Mitch Kapor, a friend of the developers of VisiCalc. 1-2-3 was originally written by Jonathan Sachs, who had written two spreadsheet programs for Concentric Data Systems.

The fact it was written for IBM’s new PCs meant that it became the software test for the new range of PC clones that flooded the market.  Because it needed large amounts of memory, 1‐2‐3 helped popularise greater RAM capacities in PCs and soon a huge 640k was required.

However its days were numbered as Microsoft had a spreadsheet called Excel. As its Windows operating environment grew in popularity so did Excel and a revamp of 1-2-3 for Windows failed to make much impact. Excel didn’t need a dongle. It had Steve Ballmer, instead.

Lotus 1-2-3’s demise was not helped by the fact that Microsoft punished IBM for its use of 1-2-3 by charging IBM higher prices, a late licence for Windows 95, and the withholding of technical and marketing support. IBM punished Microsoft by declaring OS/2 was a better window than Windows.

As a result, Big Blue wasn’t granted OEM rights for Windows 95 until 15 minutes prior to the release of Windows 95, August 24, 1995. IBM machines were sold without Windows 95, while Compaq, HP, and other companies sold machines with Windows 95 on the day of release.

Despite all that, Lotus 1-2-3 had an extremely long run with a large chunk of the world’s business carried out using it. It needed a dongle, though.

Internet Explorer still popular, shock

Posted on October 2, 2014 by - News

shockData gathered by Net Applications has revealed that despite the domination of press by its rivals, Microsoft Internet Explorer is still the world’s most popular browser.

Microsoft’s product accounts for almost 60 percent of the market and it does not appear to be going away anytime soon.

Chrome, which is IE’s main rival, has been expanding its reach and has grown to 21 percent up from 19 percent just a month earlier. That growth has mainly been at the expense of Firefox, which now accounts for only 14 percent, down from around 20 per cent a year earlier. Finally, Safari is holding steady at the five percent mark while other browsers are also slowly declining in usage.

Internet Explorer IE 8, which is the default browser in Windows 7, has slowly gained users and now accounts for over 22 percent of the market.

Newer versions of the browser, such as 10 and 11 have declined in numbers. IE 11, the current browser version only accounts for 17 percent.

As Internet Explorer 12 coming as part of Windows 10, formerly known as Windows 9, Microsoft may soon find itself in a situation where it’s desperately trying to get its users to upgrade.

Also it is telling that the impact of mobile browser use is negligible – both Apple and Chrome do not seem to benefit much from a “mobile effect” on the figures.

 

Beer improves your memory, claim mice

Posted on October 2, 2014 by - News

4-mouse-in-beer-alternative-uses-for-beer-things-beer-is-good-for-besides-drinkingThirsty boffins at Oregon State University have discovered that doses of xanthohumol, a flavonoid found in beer improved memory and thinking.

True, the experiment was conducted on a group of mice who were not knocking back pints in the snug at the Rat and Handgun. Instead they were injected with flavonoids, found in hops.

Last year, researchers discovered that a flavonoid found in celery and artichokes could potentially fight pancreatic cancer, which is less headline worthy than anything mentioning beer.

The researchers treated the mice with dietary supplements of xanthohumol over the course of eight weeks to see if xanthohumol could affect palmitoylation, a naturally occurring process in animals  – including humans – that’s associated with memory degradation.

The mice then went through a series of tests to gauge whether or not the treatments had improved their spatial memory and cognitive flexibility. For the younger mice in the group, it worked. Tragically older mice in the group found that xanthohumol didn’t seem to have any effect and they just sat around moaning about the rodents of today and how Margaret Thatcher was a brilliant leader.

Xanthohumol is rare and hops are the only known source. The dose the mice were given could be found by drinking 2,000 litres of beer a day for six weeks.

Still, the findings suggest the compound could one day be used medicinally to treat cognitive problems in humans.  Which is ironic because we drink beer to forget.  We can’t remember what, which means that it is working.

 

Boffins design rat brain for robots

Posted on October 1, 2014 by - News

Rat - Wikimedia CommonsScientists at the QUT say that modelling a human eye, a rat’s brain and combining them with robots could well lead to new technology.

Dr Michael Milford, lead researcher,  said: “This is a very Frankenstein type of project.”  The study uses newly designed computer algorithms to let robots navigate intelligence.

Why a rat brain and a human eye? Milford said: “A rodent’s spatial memory is strong but has very poor vision while humans can easily recognise where they are because of eyesight.”

He said QUT already has software algorithms to model human eye’s and rat brains.

”We’ll plug in the two pieces of software together on a robot moving around in an environment and see what happens,” he said.

The research could also have implications for neuroscience because disease like Alzheimer’s rapidly degrade spatial navigation abilities in human brains, he said.

But it could all be a long way off. Milford said: “We’ve got all the ground work there but plugging them altogether is the massive challenge we have.  I don’t know exactly how it’s going to work and that’s why it’s research.”

If the research comes to anything, we may well have a stainless steel rat scurrying round out cities.

DVLA website crashes

Posted on October 1, 2014 by - News

Wikimedia CommonsWorried UK motorists have bombarded the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) website causing it to crush as they rushed to pay their car tax online..

From this Wednesday, drivers don’t have to display the paper discs familiar to all in the windscreen.

But that means that motorists trying to renew their car tax by Wednesday have been frustrated because the DVLA technology can’t cope with the demand.

According to the BBC, the DVLA said 30,000 people visited its web site compared to the same day in 2013.  It said that if motorists can’t get online, they should renew their car tax at UK Post Offices.

The RAC has claimed that the digital system will mean tax dodging costing £167 million a year, a claim that the DVLA rebuts.

So how is the DVLA spot the tax dodgers?  It is relying on cameras that use number plate recognition cameras.