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by genericuser@pipedot.org on (#1NFCC)
Yahoo has sold off its operating business for about $4.8 billion to Verizon Communications in a cash deal that will reduce the storied tech company to mainly holding its cash, valuable stake in Alibaba, Yahoo Japan and non-core patents. Once a mainstay of the internet, Yahoo steadily declined in popularity and relevance as it failed to keep up with its competitors. For $4.8 billion, Verizon will get Yahoo’s 1 billion monthly active users, its internet properties and key applications like search, email, and Yahoo's advertising systems. Yahoo will get yet another chance to reinvent itself and possibly find a way to make itself relevant in today's market. No word on if president and Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer will be retained.
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Pipedot
| Link | https://pipedot.org/ |
| Feed | http://pipedot.org/atom |
| Updated | 2024-05-02 15:00 |
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by genericuser@pipedot.org on (#1NF9S)
Companies around the globe are launching an increasing number of satellites, crowding Earth’s orbit in an effort to satisfy the ravenous on-demand desire for more broadband, satellite television and communications, but there's nobody directing the traffic. Although the Pentagon tracks objects orbiting the globe and warns of close approaches, some members of Congress say a civilian agency, such as the Federal Aviation Administration, should be made responsible for managing satellite traffic.
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by genericuser@pipedot.org on (#1NCXE)
Google is claiming that updates to apps in the Android Play Store may soon become much smaller due to their use of a new algorithm named “Courgette†developed from bsdiff. The algorithm can reduce the size of patches by up to 50% according to Google, and they have previously been using it for updates to the desktop Chrome browser.
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by evilviper@pipedot.org on (#1NA1Y)
It was a historic day in the annals of meteorology on Thursday, July 21, 2016 in the Middle East, where the temperature in Mitribah, Kuwait soared to an astonishing 54°C (129.2°F). If the reading is verified, this would be Earth's hottest temperature ever reliably measured outside of Death Valley, California. The temperature is likely to be verified, since Thursday's incredible heat also extended into Iraq, which set their local all-time heat record of 128°F (53.4°C) at Basrah. A temperature of 129.2°F has now also been reported in Basrah, Iraq, for July 23, possibly tying Kuwait's new record.
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by evilviper@pipedot.org on (#1MW3T)
Seagate is pushing the boundaries on magnetic spinning media with a new suite of 10TB hard drives — and is relaunching the familiar Barracuda brand name for the new product line. In 2013 the company unofficially retired the name, choosing instead to refer to its desktop drives as “Desktop HDD.†Seagate is similarly rebranding its solid state-hybrid hard drives (SSHD) as FireCuda. These new launches come as the company is prepping for significant rounds of layoffs. Seagate has previously announced plans to fire roughly 8,100 people over the next 12 months, or 14% of its current global workforce. The company also plans to build 20 million fewer hard drives per quarter, down 33%.
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by evilviper@pipedot.org on (#1KVXP)
Last July, HEVC Advance announced onerous licensing terms which cast a shadow on HEVC/H.265 video compression technology. Encoder/decoder pricing of $0.80 to $1.50 per unit, with no minimum and no maximum cap, even backdated to the technology's first use! They also demanded a 0.5 percent royalty on HEVC-encoded content. Industry reaction to the proposed royalty was universally negative.
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by evilviper@pipedot.org on (#1K45D)
With just one day remaining before tiny Tennessee-based electric co-op Duck River claimed it would rip Comcast’s equipment and wiring off its utility poles for non-payment of pole attachment fees, Comcast showed up with a check. Had Comcast not come up with a payment, Duck River was prepared to start removing Comcast’s wiring and equipment from its poles, and cut power to Comcast’s equipment, which would have killed service for about 7,000 Comcast customers.
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by evilviper@pipedot.org on (#1K43Z)
A U.S. Senate hearing last week examined billing practices for five major pay-TV companies serving some 71 million subscribers. Senators honed in on overcharges from Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications. Charter estimates it has annually overcharged 5,897 customers a total of $494,000 each year. “And rather than correct the mistake by refunding the overcharges, the company just kept the money,†said Sen Rob Portman.
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by evilviper@pipedot.org on (#1J35C)
Home Depot filed an antitrust lawsuit in federal court this week against credit card giants Visa and MasterCard for blocking the adoption of chip-and-PIN on credit card transactions. Instead, the companies adopted the less secure chip-and-signature method, which does not prevent lost and stolen cards from being used. Merchant groups, consumer advocacy groups and even the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) called attention to the need to adopt chip-and-PIN in order to take full advantage of EMV security. According to data compiled by the U.S. Federal Reserve, transactions routed over Visa's or MasterCard's signature debit networks cost retailers more than twice as much as transactions routed over PIN networks.
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by evilviper@pipedot.org on (#1HNBA)
Apple is one of the biggest targets when it comes to Chinese smartphone knockoffs — it's not uncommon to hear about a device being sold overseas that looks strikingly similar to the iPhone. So it came as a surprise on Friday when a battle between Apple and China over an iPhone patent entered the public eye, calling Apple a copycat manufacturer.
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by evilviper@pipedot.org on (#1H7HR)
The last audio cassette company in the country held on tight as its former competitors abandoned cassettes for CD production. Now that analog has begun to make a comeback, the National Audio Company, or NAC, owns its market and is making more cassettes than ever before. When everyone jumped on the CD boat in the late 90s, NAC wasn’t hurt because its customers were mostly spoken-word performers and people just buying blank media. So the company began slowly buying and rehabbing its competitors’ equipment. "We were preparing ourselves to pick the music market up when it came back, and that’s exactly what happened." Now NAC is making cassettes for Metallica, a special release of the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack, and what looks like countless basement recordings from smaller bands.
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by evilviper@pipedot.org on (#1GKEN)
A radical new solution is being proposed to solve the housing crisis - homes that float. Designers say homes that would rise with flood waters could be built on land otherwise deemed unsuitable because of flooding concerns. Each home can react to flood risk because the guide piles allow the building to rise in significant flood conditions, because of the buoyant basement structure. As flood waters recede the houses resettle to their original levels.
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by evilviper@pipedot.org on (#1ESPM)
A startup called HMD Global Oy (Helsinki, Finland) has been formed to takeover the Nokia brand for mobile phones and tablet computers and has said it intends to spend $500 million marketing Nokia as an Android-based mobile device over the next three years. HMD is owned by Smart Connect LP, a private equity fund managed by Jean-Francois Baril, a former Nokia executive, as well as by HMD management. As part of the same deal, Microsoft is selling remaining feature phone business assets to FIH Mobile Ltd., a subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industries (trading as Foxconn Technology Group).
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by evilviper@pipedot.org on (#1EGBY)
A generating tower at the world's largest solar energy plant was shut down Thursday after a mirror misalignment caused sunlight to burn through electrical wiring and start a small fire, according to officials. The blaze broke out around 9:30 a.m. Officials said that flames could be seen near the ninth floor of the Unit 3 tower, but that they had apparently died out by the time firefighters arrived.
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by evilviper@pipedot.org on (#1D7H8)
Being the first four-seat passenger plane relying primarily on a hydrogen fuel cell, the HY4 will take off to its maiden flight during the upcoming summer. The powertrain of this twin-fuselage, single-engine plane consists of a hydrogen storage unit, a low-temperature hydrogen fuel cell and a high-performance battery. The fuel cell converts the hydrogen energy directly into electric energy, powering the propeller. The only by-product in this process is pure water. If the hydrogen needed for the conversion process is generated in an electrolysis process powered through renewables, the HY4 flies completely emission-free.
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by evilviper@pipedot.org on (#1CEBJ)
A California start-up named Advanced Rail Energy Storage (ARES) has a clever idea for storing electrical power at the most extreme scales, e.g. those of the power grid itself. It's a battery of sorts. The scheme include a really big hill and a few railroad cars. Energy to be stored in the system is first used to pull the rail cars via electric locomotives to the top of the hill, where it persists as potential energy. So long as the cars are at the top of the hill, the initial energy expended to get them up there remains trapped within the system. To recover that energy, the cars are simply lowered down the hill, turning built-in motor-generators in the process. This power is collected and then returned to the grid. The system is able to recover 80 percent of the power that it takes in, which is better than pumped-storage hydro (due to evaporation) or most batteries.
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by evilviper@pipedot.org on (#1B4VJ)
Cree's newly announced XP-G3 model of LED delivers 31% more lumens (lm) and 8% higher lm/W than its predecessor. Offering over 205 lm/W at 350mA, this marks the first time commercially-available LEDs have exceed the efficiency of low-pressure sodium lamps, commonly found in municipal streetlights. OrangeTeK has already announced they are designing a new model of streetlight with XP-G3 LEDs. In practice, however, it's likely that most users of XP-G3 LEDs will run them at higher power with reduced efficiency, rather than install five times as many LEDs, due to price. Any efficiency improvements are good news, however, as numerous cities have already installed LED streetlights, and many more have plans in the works. This seems to be motivated by the whiter appearance of LEDs compared to sodium lights, which is ironically the major source of opposition from the public, who complain about LED streetlights keeping them up at night, among other concerns.
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by evilviper@pipedot.org on (#1A2NP)
A widely distributed scam email that quotes people's actual postal addresses, links to a dangerous form of ransomware called Maktub. The phishing emails told recipients they owed hundreds to businesses and that they could print an invoice by clicking on a link - but that leads to malware. "It's incredibly fast and by the time the warning message had appeared on the screen it had already encrypted everything of value on the hard drive - it happens in seconds. This is the desktop version of a smash and grab - they want a quick payoff."
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by evilviper@pipedot.org on (#19R3B)
When the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 came out in 2014, I refused to believe smaller size phones were truly dead. I didn’t want to believe they’d done it, but the signs were clear. Other iPhone owners told me there would be an adjustment period. I would have an easier time using and holding onto a live fish, the way it flops around in my hand. The time I spend using my phone hasn’t changed, but now my hands go numb and wrist and fingers ache holding it.
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by evilviper@pipedot.org on (#18BA2)
If you thought your Internet service was slow, consider being a customer of Cincinnati Bell’s 75 baud Telegraph Grade service, on offer to subscribers since the 1800s for low-speed stock quotes, telegrams, and office-to-home communications. But don’t consider it too long, because the service is about to be discontinued.
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by Anonymous Coward on (#180CE)
Now you can stick your finger in your ear to make a phone call, not just pretend to talk to someone thanks to an invention by Samsung. The device from Samsung spin-off Innomdle Lab fits any standard wristwatch and connects to Google Android smartphones. When a phone call arrives, the wearer can accept it with a button on the band, and audio is translated into vibrations which travel up the skin. By pushing their index finger on to the front of the ear, or tragus, the user can hear the conversation even though no one around them hears a thing.
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by Anonymous Coward on (#17DYG)
In the latest in the MyGov government portal catastrophe, the Australian government is following in the footsteps of the UK an US governments by throwing 484 million dollars at IBM to somehow fix the problems with the ailing portal for which tens of thousands of Australians have complained about. The key problems reported by users have to do with system availability, stability and lack of clear usability for key activities. It has been preventing users from being paid their due government payments for months, some users have reported. Will IBM be able to do what contractors such as Accenture and HP have failed to do in other countries? Can the MyGov be fixed at all, or will it need to be replaced? How does the recent joint venture between ATO, DHS and the new DTO agency affect IBM joining the party? Will agile save the day or bury this problem deeper? Australian citizens desperate to see positive benefit for the millions spent to integrate Medicare and Centrelink to form one agency which promised to reduce costs and deliver more are hanging on to the edge of their seats waiting to see what happens next in the MyGov saga.
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by Anonymous Coward on (#173F8)
Obama thinks that having a secure mobile device amounts to having a phone fetish. In another bizare move by the soon-to-be-ex president of the USA, the commandeer in chief has been quoted as being strongly against strongly encrypted mobile devices to the point where full near unbreakable, in the current computing environment, secure devices is basically people just worshipping their phone. How will we catch pedophiles? Why do we allow terrorists to get away with protecting their secrets? The US goverment must be able to access anyone's files (papers in the constitution) at any time and those who stand in the way must be wrong. How dare people walk around with a bank vault for their data that can not be easily copied.
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by wilson@pipedot.org on (#16AQD)
Amazon has deprecated full disk encryption in Fire OS 5:
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by evilviper@pipedot.org on (#15YCF)
The epicenter of internet construction nightmares for homeowners is on Lambs Lane in Southeast Austin, where last October a flash flood allegedly caused by Google’s construction crews blocking nearby storm drains brought two feet of water into the home of Arnulfo and Dolores Cruz, causing $100,000 in damages. Hundreds of other complaints cite yard and property damage, trespassing, and construction vehicles blocking access to driveways.
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by bryan@pipedot.org on (#15P7R)
Continued legal issues for companies using strong encryption in their products:
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by evilviper@pipedot.org on (#14YNV)
Amazon.com has raised the free shipping minimum to $49 from $35 for non-Prime members, according to information provided on the Amazon website. The company hasn't published a press release with the news. For books, the threshold is still $25.
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by Anonymous Coward on (#14TKJ)
It is official. The iPhone is the best device to have for data privacy. Not even the resources available to the biggest three letter agencies in America can crack it. Apple has now been ordered to create a hack to get access to an iPhone and privacy supports are against. The primary concern is that if Apple can hack around their own security on the iPhone which would allow for data to be retrieved without triggering the device data wipe function then it will be repeatedly used by law enforcement in the future. Considering that the iPhone login was designed with this scenario in mind it could be difficult for even Apple to get around. There are fears expressed that the next step by the US Government would be to compel Apple to provide this solution for use by law enforcement and other agencies to violate the privacy of US Citizens.
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by Anonymous Coward on (#14SE3)
Linux Mint installation media briefly compromised:
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by evilviper@pipedot.org on (#14NMF)
The emails offer a rare glimpse into a world where corporate interests can dictate their own science and scientists for hire willingly oblige. It’s a phenomenon that’s grown in recent decades as government-funded science dwindles. Its effects are felt not only in courtrooms but also in regulatory agencies that issue rules to try to prevent disease. The National Institutes of Health’s budget for research grants has fallen 14 percent since its peak in 2004, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. With scarce resources, there’s little money for academics to study chemicals that most already deem to be toxic. Yet regulatory officials and attorneys say companies have a strong financial interest in continuing to publish research favorable to industry.
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by Anonymous Coward on (#148WH)
Australians love their internet. They love their phones. Their government loves to suck up all of the juicy metadata generated by all Australian internet and phone devices to store for two years. Now, 61 organizations want their metadata feeding trough back. Unhappy with the recent law changes which has denied these organizations their seat at the Australian Metadata FreeForAll Feast they have all submitted their pitch to be hooked back up to the golden river of free access to everyone's movements down to who they talk to and when.
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by Anonymous Coward on (#144YP)
Google is finally killing off Picasa in favor of their more cloud based Google Photos. Picasa was a desktop application that allowed you to view and organize your offline photo collection.
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by janjes@pipedot.org on (#1421H)
A team of scientists has, for the first time, created a two-dimensional sheet of boron. This new 2D material is named as borophene.
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by Anonymous Coward on (#141EQ)
3D Systems has upgraded their product line to include a metal 3D printer capable of using a itanium, stainless steel, and nickel super alloy to product three dimensional objects. This is a big step forward in 3D printing up from printing with plastic materials. There have been some bumps in the way with the introduction of this technology with the merging of Phenix Systems and a class action lawsuit. 3D Systems have worked with another company, Planetary Resources, to produce 3D sculptures using meteorites. Decades ago it was said that we wouldn't have a computer in every house, yet today we have many. How long until 3D printers are a normal appliance to buy for a house alongside the fridge and oven?
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by Anonymous Coward on (#13SK3)
I'm searching for a Linux LiveCD which includes the proprietary NVIDIA driver.
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by Anonymous Coward on (#13SK4)
Four years ago an Australian reporter for the ABC network wrote an article detailing why the proposed plan by the Liberal Coalition would not work. Now we can see the costs and problems with the "mixed mode" plan where multiple technologies are used for the NBN instead of fiber to the premises (FPPT) it is clear that the predictions made by Nick Ross in June 2012 were correct. From a technical and monetary perspective the problem is very simple; deploying any technology less than the highest option available will cost more in the long run as the inferior technology will eventually have to be pulled out and replaced. The Australian government is now covering up the data proving this with researchers reporting that the FTTP would easily be better value than FTTN. Elsewhere, other significance of NBN report by Nick Ross is still being debated with accusations against the ABC for gagging coming to light. The future of Australian business commerce depends on having a stable fast reliable internet infrastructure with broadband connectivity for all Australians. The only question is: when will they get it?
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by Anonymous Coward on (#13SK6)
The problem with the Internet of Things is that few people truly understand what it is really about.
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by Anonymous Coward on (#13RTG)
In the last year Europe has experienced the greatest influx of people seen since the second world war. The chancellor of Germany offered asylum to Syrians as part of the effort to assist those displaced by war. The number of known people who have entered Europe to claim asylum in 2015 exceeded 2015. With the discovery that a number of people were claiming to be Syrian when entering Europe countries a number of the EU states have started to use biometric technology including face detection software to identify where migrants have come from as part of the asylum claiming process. Sweden expects to deport up to 80,000 people after discovering that their asylum claims are not valid based on this and similar technology. Other European countries are expected to follow suit in 2016. Technology and digital records is advancing to the point where it is now possible to trace where a person has come from originally and where they have been. Sweden has seen the number of new migrants entering the country fall since it brought in systematic photo ID checks on travelers on January 4.
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by Anonymous Coward on (#13RTH)
In a shocking move the Australian government has transferred control of the MyGov portal to the DTO. This slap in the face to the mighty DHS comes after several months of serious problems with the online government portal after the Australian tax system, Centrelink, Medicare and other systems were changed to use MyGov as the central logon. Tens of thousands of Australians took to social media in 2015 to complain about the DHS portal after the ATO made using the portal mandatory for online tax returns. The problems were so bad that the ATO opened a backdoor allowing citizens to bypass the MyGov system. After spending millions to integrate two of the largest federal departments, Centrelink and Medicare, the step of removing MyGov from the hands of the DHS is an F on this year's report card.
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by Anonymous Coward on (#13RTJ)
The dreaded Apple Error 53 has returned in IOS 9. This error is thrown when Apple devices detect that a non-Apple technician repaired the phone. Users are complaining that they can not access their data. Apple claims that bricking the iPhone in this scenario is a security measure to protect users.
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by Anonymous Coward on (#13RTK)
A Fitbit device has detected a pregnancy before the expectant mother knew. The couple posted a question online that the device was reporting an unusual heart rate reading asking for a way to recalibrate the device or for a replacement. A standard test showed that the woman was two months pregnant.
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by Anonymous Coward on (#13RRM)
Admit it, we have all thought about it. Off the grid. Disconnected. Bushed out. Gone. Ever wondered what happens when an entire town of people disconnects on purpose? Ever wanted to join such a community? Now you can as seen here on Unplanned America. The question though is: Would you?
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by Anonymous Coward on (#13RRN)
As of Palemoon 25.6 a new option is available to poison canvas data. This option is not enabled by default due to the performance cost. Users can enabled it in about:config by setting canvas.poisondata to true. This browserleaks page has a technical writeup on how canvas data can be used to generate a fingerprint for a browser using a live example of browser fingerprinting code.
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by Anonymous Coward on (#1225Y)
Since now you’re going to either register your drone or have to be flying your indoors anyway in the USA, you might as well celebrate the one freedom you still have the freedom to re-flash the firmware with open source! The Eachine H8 is a typical-looking mini-quadcopter of the kind that sell for under $20. Inside, the whole show is powered by an ARM Cortex-M3 processor, with the programming pins easily visible. Who could resist? Garagedrone takes you through a step-by-step guide to re-flashing the device with a custom firmware to enable acrobatic mode, or simply to tweak the throttle-to-gyro mapping for the quad. The firmware author silverxxx from RCGroups.com even got the code up on GitHub if you’re interested in taking a peek. Next step, Skynet!
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by Anonymous Coward on (#12260)
In defiance of the rage of the security community who see the advances of spyware and intrusiveness endangering our precious private lives and anonymity Samsung have mated a mobile phone and a fridge to produce a device dedicated to supplying food and spying on you. Samsung showed models of this impressive privacy intruding device at the recent CES demonstrating how the 'Tizen' software could add a whole new dimension to invading our privacy in our own homes. Mike Lilly from Samsung Electronics Australia was quoted as saying this was "meaningful innovation" adding "We’ve seen internet fridges out there in the past but this is actually useful", meaning that it is useful for recording information about eating and spending habits to a degree higher than currently available even compared to mobile phone apps. Samsung plan launch the fridge in July quoting "it’s important to get it into a lot of homes". Scary.
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by janjes@pipedot.org on (#12261)
State-of-the-art atomic force microscopes (AFMs) are designed to capture images of structures as small as a fraction of a nanometer — a million times smaller than the width of a human hair. Atomic force microscopes typically scan samples using an ultrafine probe, or needle, that skims along the surface of a sample, tracing its topography, similarly to how a blind person reads Braille.
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by evilviper@pipedot.org on (#113FP)
Sky-high school electric bills have been in the spotlight this year. More than three dozen San Diego area districts combined forces to press the Public Utilities Commission to deny a large SDG&E rate hike last spring. “In San Diego, really every school is on a high demand rate tariff.†The higher costs are known as “demand†charges, and they are unlike the tiered rates familiar to renters and homeowners. The utility pinpoints the single 15-minute period when a school pulls the most electricity, and multiplies that by $41.87 for each kilowatt. This can make for a rather high number when a heat wave spikes air conditioning use, or a cold snap prompts an outbreak of furtive space heaters.
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by janjes@pipedot.org on (#10FMZ)
Scientists have turned individual cells into miniature lasers by injecting them with droplets of oil or fat mixed with a fluorescent dye that can be activated by short pulses of light. This finding could help to broaden how light is used for both medical diagnosis and treatment. The system was devised by Harvard Medical School scientiest, and it uses droplets of fat or oil within a cell to reflect and amplify light, generating a laser. Conventional luminescent probes, which include fluorescent dyes and proteins, have relatively broad emission spectra. This limits the number of probes that can be used simultaneously, because it is often difficult to distinguish these sources of luminescence from the broad background emissions of naturally occurring molecules in tissue.
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by janjes@pipedot.org on (#10FN0)
By now, most people feel comfortable conducting online financial transactions on the Web. The cryptographic schemes that protect online banking and credit card purchases have proven their reliability over decades. But right now, there is no effective way to prevent misuse of your data by the people authorized to access it, say for example a bank employee can still access your data, and frequently we are reading news about misuse of the data by the bank employees. i-e Once you share your data with the bank, Healthcare system or any other private company, for your online transactions, you don't have any control over who exactly is using or misusing your data.
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by janjes@pipedot.org on (#10FN1)
Traditional industrial robots are rigid as well as fast, precise, and powerful. Their speed and accuracy come at the cost of complexity and can often pose a danger to humans who get too close. Soft robots are adaptable and resilient but slow, difficult to fabricate, and challenging to make autonomous because most motors, pumps, batteries, sensors, and microcontrollers are rigid. But what if you could combine the autonomy and speed of a rigid robot with the adaptability and resiliency of a soft robot, and do so relatively cheaply and quickly?
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