TechEye |  |
- British ISPs block more torrent sites
- Catch Me If You Can anti-hero says Facebook fraud's easy
- Popbitch to launch tablet-only Popbitch2
- Apple fingers Big Content for Aussie price gouging
- Malware writers stick adverts into Apple browser
- Is it ok to howitzer a hacker?
- Vatican denies Batman hack
- Scottish scientists print stem cells
- Intel tests its TV service on employees
- Micron reports net loss for Q2 2013
| British ISPs block more torrent sites Posted: 22 Mar 2013 05:29 AM PDT A high court order has spurred top ISPs to block three of the largest BitTorrent sites. The content industry would be wise to understand the Streisand Effect: that an active effort to censor something online will actually increase its popularity. Indeed, when the Pirate Bay was first blocked it quickly became one of the most accessed websites in the UK. For some low-level pirates, the move will be effective advertising for KAT.ph, H33T, and Fenopy as useful alternatives to Googling for "Iron Man torrent". Blocking these websites usually has a Hydra effect on their proxies: when one is blocked, more spring up in its place. Even without proxies, it only takes minimal Googling for a user to figure out how to get around the blocks. So, actually, the BPI might well be shooting itself in the foot on this one. By blocking these websites it is trying to turn the clock back on file sharing - impossible - and tarring itself as an anti-progressive force, much like the rest of the content industry. |
| Catch Me If You Can anti-hero says Facebook fraud's easy Posted: 22 Mar 2013 05:06 AM PDT Frank Abagnale Jr, arguably one of the most famous American conmen of all time, believes Facebook has made life easier for fraudsters across the world. Abagnale, who was portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in Spielberg's film Catch Me If You Can, believes the huge social network poses a number of risks for children and everyone whose identity is worth stealing. Speaking at Advertising Week Europe, Abagnale said that children need to be made aware of the serious risks of revealing information online. "I'm not on it [Facebook, but] I have no problem with it," he said, reports The Guardian. "I have three sons on it. I totally understand why people like it. But like every technology you have to teach children, it is an obligation of society to teach them how to use it carefully." Abagnale should know a thing or two about security. After authorities caught up with him in the early seventies , following a global cheque fraud spree, he served his time and went to work for the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. With four decades of experience under his belt, Abagnale has plenty of bragging rights. He pointed out that the FBI has become aware of a number of techniques to gather vast amounts of personal data from Facebook. What's more, the techniques are widely available and can be used be people with little to no experience in tech. "If you tell me your date of birth and where you're born I'm 98% to stealing your identity," he said. "Never state your date of birth and where you were born, otherwise you are saying 'come and steal my identity'." In other words, people with elaborate Facebook profiles are begging to be ripped off. Abagnale also has a few simple tips for Facebook lovers who would rather not learn that they opened a shell corporation in Cyprus and owe the Russian mafia a few dozen million rubles. They should never choose a passport-style photo for their profile picture, they should not go around "liking" everything because it reveals political and ethnic affiliation, along with sexual orientation, and they should just keep their eyes open. "Your privacy is the only thing you have left. Don't blame all the other companies – Google, Facebook – you control it. You have to keep control of your own information," he said. |
| Popbitch to launch tablet-only Popbitch2 Posted: 22 Mar 2013 04:53 AM PDT The first regular online gossip mag, Popbitch, is to launch a tablet-only edition featuring rich content and contributions from influential film maker Adam Curtis, director of the Century of the Self. Popbitch has broken stories long before they've been picked up by the nationals and occasionally runs pieces on technology, too - without it, would we know that Steve Ballmer (allegedly) has an oniony odour? It was also running rumours on notorious JingleJangleMonster Jimmy Savile before the tracksuited terror popped his clogs. It has a healthy interest in badgers and otters. Popbitch has 400,000 subscribers to the free Thursday email and they were urged this week to head on over to the Popbitch2 Kickstarter page. In a Curtis-made promotional video, we are told that the "world might not need celebrities, but as long as we have them, it sure as hell needs Popbitch". The idea for the magazine is to diversify away from celeb news into just about every other area of interest and to offer content optimised for tablets where print or web pages just can't deliver the same experience. Popbitch's weekly mailout will continue but the tablet edition will feature longer investigations and a commitment to journalism in post-Leveson Britain. "We've kept Popbitch independent and free to readers for 12 years," the blurb reads. "This independence is something we're keen to keep, which is why we're turning to you ahead of any multinational media giants or billionaire oligarchs with money to burn and a political agenda to push". Popbitch, the blurb points out, has been a crowd-funded effort already, so it makes sense to turn to Kickstarter. Here's the link. Popbitch2 needs £25,000 by Friday, 19 April. After just two days, the drive has already raised nearly £8,000. Backers can get anything from a limited edition PadBitch edition (for £3). £10 or more will get you a best-of ten year Popbitch bundle and 50 favourites from Old Jokes Home, as well as the tablet edition. Bigger backers can get into parties in London or Sydney, a year's subscription to the tablet edition, or to interview a pop icon in a Q&A for Popbitch.com. Here's a couple of our favourite Old Jokes, and, below, the video: Sports shops are selling Jimmy Savile
Higgs Boson goes into a Catholic church.
|
| Apple fingers Big Content for Aussie price gouging Posted: 22 Mar 2013 03:45 AM PDT Apple has explained that the reason Australians have to pay more for their music content than the rest of the world is not its fault. Executives from Apple, Adobe Systems and Microsoft were grilled by a special Australian parliamentary committee and served in a white wine sauce, over the fact that they have been charging Australians a special tax. Apple insisted that it had to charge Australians 50 percent more for music and films than the rest of the world because the movie studios insisted. Tony King, the vice president for Apple Australia, New Zealand and South Asia, said pricing on some products like the iPad mini and Final Cut Pro software was about the same as in the United States. But the fact that Aussies were being charged US $20.87, the Australian price of Justin Timberlake's album "20/20 Experience" on Apple's iTunes music store is about double the $10.99 charged in the United States. AC/DC's "Back in Black" is marked up 70 percent for Australian fans. But this is not Apple's fault. King said the pricing of digital content is based on wholesale prices set via negotiated contracts with record labels, movie studios and TV networks. He said that the content industry is backwards and still, perhaps, runs with old-fashioned notions of country borders or territories or markets. Jobs' Mob had done its best to lean on content owners to lower Australian pricing. He claimed that the cards are in the hands of the folks who own the content. Of course, he failed to mention that Apple is currently being investigated by anti-trust watchdogs for doing just that sort of thing with the publishing companies. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the committee did not buy most of the excuses and said some of the executives' answers were "evasive" and were sceptical about some of the answers. It was not clear why, if it was all someone else's fault, that there was a need for geo-blocking, under which companies prevent Australian web users from purchasing products at cheaper rates on US sites. Particularly galling was the fact that Aussies have to pay $3,300 for Adobe's CS6 Design and Web Premium suite, which Americans can buy for just $1,899. Adobe Australia MD Paul Robson said Adobe's Creative Cloud suite, which is bought on a $50-a-month subscription basis, was priced on par with the United States and this was "the future of the way we will deliver our technology". But committee member Stephen Jones said the subscription software placed "digital handcuffs" on users, forcing them to keep paying to continue accessing their files. Committee deputy chairman Paul Neville waded into Microsoft for charging nearly double what Americans were paying. He told Microsoft Australia MD Pip Marlow that he was just charging what you can get away with in any market. Marlow denied this and said that if the Vole priced the products too high, consumers will vote with their wallets and move elsewhere. Or they would call for official government inquiries which would bring in laws to stop software companies bullying Australians. |
| Malware writers stick adverts into Apple browser Posted: 22 Mar 2013 03:40 AM PDT Malware writers are starting to take the Nintendo when it comes to hacking Apple gear. While hacking Apple gear is fairly straight forward, once you managed it all you had access to was the user's Coldplay collection. Now it seems that the malware writers have finally found a way to make hacking Apple toys a viable proposition by installing adverts in their browsers. Russian anti-virus company Doctor Web said that adware for Mac OS X has been increasing in number since the beginning of 2013. The latest flavour, the Trojan.Yontoo.1, is the most prominent and can download and install an adware browser plugin in an infected system. The idea is that the criminals profit from affiliate ad network programs, and their interest in users of Apple-compatible toys is growing thanks to a large user base. Recently discovered, Trojan.Yontoo.1 serves as a pretty striking example of such software. The trojan gets onto a Mac when the user visits a movie trailer page which asks them to install a browser plugin. Apparently Apple fans fall for this every time. The prompt imitates a common dialogue displayed when a plugin needs to be installed or additional configuration is necessary. After clicking on 'Install the plug-in', the user is redirected to another site from which Trojan.Yontoo.1 is downloaded. The trojan can also be downloaded as a media player, a video quality enhancement program or a download accelerator. We would have thought they get enough clues. When launched, Trojan.Yontoo.1 displays a dialogue window that asks the user if they want to install a "Free Twit Tube". We guess that American Apple users do not know what a twit is. Browser extensions are detected by Dr Web as Adware.Plugin but since most Apple users still think that malware is only for Windows users and that their toys are unhackable many don't actually own the software. |
| Is it ok to howitzer a hacker? Posted: 22 Mar 2013 03:35 AM PDT The US military is wondering if it is OK to kill hackers who are using their skills to bring down important infrastructure. The military is used to shooting enemy operatives who damage property and key infrastructure and it is wondering if they should be treating hackers in the same way as a soldier with an assault rifle. As seen on Slashdot, since 2009, when the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence commissioned a panel of experts to produce a report on the legal underpinnings of cyber-warfare, the debate has been raging in the Pentagon. What makes it tricky is that if you are at war you can justify all sorts of things, but most people will be a little cross if you wasted a 16 year old Russian script kiddie with a drone strike for breaking into a US nuclear power station to show his mates he could do it. Current thinking is that a cyber attack that produces immediate destruction and death is likely to be viewed by the target state as a "use of force". Other factors, including the "military character" of the operation and whether the actual cyber-attack violated international law also play into the decision. We do wonder international law's position on the use of drone strikes. The US seems to be thinking that the means of attack is "immaterial" to whether an operation can be considered an armed attack. An engineered virus or a pound of plutonium left in an airport bathroom would trigger the "right of self-defense". But this would mean that your cyber warrior will have to start seeing themselves as being the same as any front line grunt. Their offices could be subject to bombing or direct assault. All this might sound obvious, but many cyber warriors probably don't expect this. Their mums probably would not approve either. |
| Posted: 22 Mar 2013 03:31 AM PDT Fears that the Vatican's Twitter and website might have been hacked after a somewhat strange story about Batman was posted have been infallibly dismissed. Yesterday, the website of Pope Frank ran stories about Batman with the headline "Holy Switcheroo!" While we get the whole thing, there are those in the Roman press, not to mention the Vatican, which are not used to seeing tabloid style headlines on the Pope's site. Two Vatican officials said the site had not been hacked, and the reason for the unusual posting was an "internal system failure" due to a non-native English speaker posting the story on the website. It sounds to us like the "non-native" speaker understood what he or she was writing perfectly well and had mastered the idea of penning a decent headline, it was just that some people did not get it. The story was from the Catholic News Service. It has as its headline: "Holy Switcheroo! Batman has grown bitter, more vengeful with the years" and details the evolution of the Batman comic franchise. It was not about the unholy switcheroo which saw one Pope quit to be replaced by another which resulted in St Peters being struck by lightning. Vatican communications adviser Greg Burke said that some people might have been thrown off by the headline. Monsignor Paul Tighe, number two in the Vatican's social communications office, said the office's website runs stories about communications and regularly takes copy from Catholic News Service, the news agency of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Once a story is posted, he explained, it generates an automatic tweet on the office's Twitter handle, @pccs_va. He admitted that even he thought that the site had been hacked. Later the story was knocked off the top of the site and was replaced by a yarn about Pope Francis saying why he selected the name Francis after St Francis of Assisi and not St Francis Xavier who brought the inquisition to Goa which resulted in 4,000 arrests and a hundred or so people being burnt at the stake. |
| Scottish scientists print stem cells Posted: 22 Mar 2013 03:25 AM PDT Scientists in Scotland have come up with a method of creating 3D printers which can make human stem cells. The researchers, at the Heriot-Watt University, can print human embryonic stem cells in a move which could revolutionise organ replacement in the coming years. This is very important for the Scots as being able to replace a liver is crucial for the development of the species. According to Humans Invent, the printer is able to print clusters of the embryonic stem cells delicately enough that they don't get harmed in the process. It uses a series of micro valves and Dr Will Shu, who was involved in the research, says this sort of printing is much gentler than ink jet printing. As a result, the printer not only achieved a high stem cell viability but the cells also maintained the ability of a stem cell to turn into any other type of cell. It means that the stem cells could make any type of organ or tissue and while 3D printing cells has been achieved previously, Shu's group is the first to print human embryonic stem cells. The technology is important becuase it removes the religious problems of harvesting cells from real humans.
|
| Intel tests its TV service on employees Posted: 22 Mar 2013 03:22 AM PDT Fashion bag maker Intel is making sure that it does not anger animal rights groups by testing its television service on human guinea pigs. Eric Free, vice president and general manager for content and services at Intel Media, said that early testing of Intel's service is working quite well. So far no staff member has exhibited any side effects other than one person who was always a little twitchy anyway. Free told CNET he believes 2013 is the year that "over-the-top video service really takes off", which might have been an unexpected side-effect and could mean users will have to screw their set-top boxes to the floor until 2013 is over. The fashion bag maker wants the TVs to be rolled out later this year. He confirmed that Intel is conducting closed trials of its product with Intel employees in three west coast markets. Free said that there had been "lots of fits and starts in the quest to take pay TV to the internet". We guess that fits and starts must be another side effect. He claimed that consumer behaviour is changing, with many people cutting the cord and technology has improved to the point where internet-based TV is possible. In addition, companies have become more comfortable with the internet and have "learned enough to know where the business is going and what bets to make in terms of the next model," Free said. Free said that Chipzilla doesn't plan to significantly cut down a user's cable bill with its new offering, but it expects to attract users by providing more curated content. It wants to attract younger users looking for new digital alternatives, rather than those who want to get rid of their cable subscriptions. |
| Micron reports net loss for Q2 2013 Posted: 22 Mar 2013 03:18 AM PDT Micron Technology landed itself in the red for the second quarter, posting a net loss. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from TechEye - Latest technology headlines To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.