Should Websites Charge A Fee To Process Copyright Takedowns?
Every day copyright holders send out countless notices which order BitTorrent indexes, cyberlockers, forums, blogs and search engines to remove links to allegedly infringing content. The process is time consuming for everyone involved. So, since time is money, shouldn’t those being burdened by the actions of third parties be compensated for their work? One anti-piracy company says charging for takedowns amounts to extortion.
The publication last week of Google’s Transparency Report gave us a clearer idea of the pressures the search engine is under from copyright holders. The report revealed that in a single month Google was asked to take down an astonishing 1.2m links to allegedly infringing material. Read more...
Google Chrome 21 gears up for gaming
Google’s Chrome 21 will be on its way to the stable channel in about three months. When it finally arrives, Google’s ambitions to make Chrome the browser of choice for web-based gaming will be crystal clear.
There’s not much to see so far in the list of feature additions, but two items stand out. First, support for the mouse pointer lock spec has been switched on by default and it can now operate both in and out of full screen mode. It’s one of those seemingly minor tweaks that will make a big difference down the road, as pointer lock gives developers one more easy-to-implement feature that makes standards-based web gaming more like traditional desktop PC gaming. Read more...
Security problem in VMware vSphere 5
Security experts from ERNW have demonstrated the ability to break out of the virtualisation hypervisor of VMware ESXi 5.0 using crafted VMware images. If a provider offers customers the ability to run customer-supplied VMware images on its servers as part of an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offering, a malicious user could access all data on the server, including other customers' user passwords and virtual machines. Read more...
Family robbed after teen posts photo of money on Facebook
On Thursday, a teenage girl posted a photo of a "large sum of cash" on Facebook. About seven hours later, two robbers arrived at her family's home. Unsurprisingly, this incident prompted local authorities to issue a warning about the dangers of posting photographs online. Read more...
PS Vita’s first real shooter plagued with day one connectivity woes
In my review of Resistance: Burning Skies I note that the multiplayer experience is by far the highlight of the package. This is important because a true, console-quality online shooter has never been achieved on a portable console. Unfortunately, while my pre-release multiplayer games were smooth and ran almost perfectly, today's launch of the game hasn't gone nearly as smoothly.
I attempted to connect to a multiplayer game earlier this morning and eventually timed out after failing to connect. I gave it a couple more hours and tried again, but the result was the same. After searching for certain keywords on Twitter I found that others were having similar issues, and it seems the game's multiplayer structure just wasn't quite ready for the influx of gamers wanting to play on day one.
Developer Nihilistic Software tweeted that it is aware of the issues and is working on the fix, though no further updates have been provided. We reached out for a more concrete answer, but haven't heard back yet.
A launch day server snafu is hardly unique, and titles from all the major publishers have stumbled out of the gate at one time or another. We can only hope that the issues are sorted out quickly, as the online multiplayer is undoubtedly the main reason most people picked up the game as soon as it hit store shelves.
(Source: news.yahoo.com)
Another Exec Departure At Nokia: Corp Relations EVP Esko Aho Is Going To Harvard
Nokia today announced it is losing another senior executive: Esko Aho, who had once been the prime minister of Finland and is currently EVP, corporate relations and responsibility and a member of Nokia’s leadership team, is leaving the beleaguered handset maker for Harvard University. There, he will be the Senior Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard Kennedy School for public policy. He had been with Nokia since 2008 and a member of the executive team since 2009. Read more...
Apple confirms WWDC keynote for June 11
Apple today laid out the schedule for its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), and confirmed that it will, as usual, kick off the annual meeting with a keynote address, likely hosted by CEO Tim Cook.
The company also released a free iOS app that lets attendees track the conference events and plan their schedule.
Although Apple did not divulge who would lead the keynote, the company typically relies on its CEO for the duty. Last year, former CEO Steve Jobs, at the time on indefinite medical leave, made his second-to-last public appearance at the WWDC keynote.
This year's annual developers conference will be the first since Jobs died last October. Read more...
Attacks on Iranian oil industry led to Flame malware find
The sophisticated cyber espionage malware known as "Flame" was discovered after computers within Iran's energy industry were wiped clean of data, a security expert said today.
"This was discovered during the investigation of a wiping of Iran's gas companies' computers," Liam O Murchu, manager of operations at Symantec's security response center, said in an interview Tuesday.
O Murchu was referring to reports out of Iran a month ago, when the country's oil ministry confirmed that servers at several companies had been attacked. Later, other officials there acknowledged that the attacks had been aimed at other government ministries and industries. Read more...
PayPal’s inStore mobile payment service hits the UK, launches with four major fashion retailers
PayPal has announced that its In-Store mobile payment service will be accepted at four major UK retailers – Coast, Oasis, Warehouse and Karen Millen — from tomorrow, as the payments giant bursts on to the country’s high street shopping space.
The agreement will allow UK shoppers to pay for items at more than 230 stores nationwide using their smartphone and the PayPal mobile shopping application. Read more...
Dropbox introduces support for Korean as the Samsung Galaxy S III launch edges closer
Dropbox is saying ’An Nyoung’ to South Korea after the company revealed that it is making the popular file sharing service available in Korean.
The Web-based portal and “selected” Android apps will be localized first, before apps for the Mac, PC and iOS follow suit, although no time frame for the additions has been disclosed.
The move to offer a localized service for Korea builds on Dropbox’s partnership with Samsung, and comes ahead of the launch of the Korean firm’s Galaxy S III smartphone, which has Dropbox storage integrated into it. Read more...
Backdoor found in popular FPGA chip
A widely reported Chinese backdoor in military chips appears to have little to do with the Chinese, but the backdoor in the FPGA chip is real, probably part of the manufacturer's debugging hardware, and is unlikely to be easily disabled.
Over the weekend, there were numerous reports that proof of a backdoor in a chip "used by the military" had been found. The reports stemmed from a University of Cambridge researcher's web page which claimed that, in the course of research, an "American military chip that is highly secure with sophisticated encryption standard" was scanned and a "previously unknown backdoor inserted by the manufacturer" was found. It went on to say that, once a key had been extracted from the chip, that key could be used to disable or reprogram the chip even if locked, and suggested that, given the prevalence of the chip in question in everything from weapons to public transport, it could "be turned into an advanced Stuxnet weapon". Read more...
6 must-have Pinterest boards for parents
Pinterest — say the word, and heads swivel. Everyone I know is using the site to collect everything from recipes and craft ideas to favorite new products and inspirational quotations. But my friends who are moms, in particular, are beginning to see the beauty of it all — and I don't blame them. As a parent, I've found Pinterest especially helpful in wading through the wonderful and sometimes overwhelming ideas on the Web.
If you're not one of the million people already using Pinterest on a daily basis, here's a look at how to set up your boards for the maximum parental satisfaction. These six board ideas are a great starting point for building the perfect resource to keep your family organized, informed, well-fed, and entertained. Read more...
Dive right in with this summer’s hottest grilling gadgets
For many people, Memorial Day is a time to remember those who have fought for our country, enjoy a nice three-day weekend, and celebrate the unofficial start to summer. But for others — aka my family — Memorial Day sparks a summer-long "battle of the barbecue." (Read that last bit in a professional wrestling announcer's voice for full effect). While I can't give away all of the top dog's prime pit boss secrets, I happen to know first hand that a few high-tech tools and gadgets can make the difference between a ho-hum hamburger and the holy mother of all mouthwatering mega meals. Read more...
Mark Zuckerberg makes surprise cameo on Chinese TV
Social media sites and blogs have lit up after eagle-eyed viewers spotted a surprise cameo in a Chinese TV documentary about the country's police force: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his now-wife, Priscilla Chan.
The documentary by CCTV was part of a series on Chinese police and high-tech crime-solving methods. A few seconds of footage showing Zuckerberg and Chan walking behind two police officers were shown included in a brief clip posted online by the Hebei province satellite station. Read more...
RIM loses another senior executive
Struggling BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion Ltd. is losing another senior executive as its chief legal officer is retiring from the company after 12 years.
RIM said Monday that Karima Bawa had been in discussions about her retirement for some time and plans to stay on to help with the transition once a replacement has been hired. Read more...