Category: reader

New anti-speech low: buyer sued over negative eBay feedback

Ratings are important on eBay. Lots of buyers use them to assess the quality and reliability of particular sellers, and lots of sellers will go to great lengths to keep perfect or near-perfect ratings. But an Ohio company named Med Express has shown it’s willing to go further than other sellers: it’s willing to litigate. When Med Express got its first piece of negative feedback, it filed a lawsuit , insisting that the feedback be removed from eBay. Amy Nicholls paid $175 for a microscope light, as well as $12 for shipping. She was annoyed when she had to pay an extra $1.44 in postage due and left feedback complaining about that inconvenience. Med Express asked her to remove the feedback and she refused. The company complained that because it offered to refund her the $1.44, she should have taken down the feedback, which had the potential to hurt its business. (In the past six months, Med Express has 142 pieces of positive feedback and only one negative review.) Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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New anti-speech low: buyer sued over negative eBay feedback

Facebook reportedly launching 15-second autoplaying ads this summer, taking over the space around your news feed

According to Ad Age’s unnamed sources, Facebook is preparing to launch a somewhat invasive ad program this summer through its news feed. Alongside the left and right spaces outside of the news feed, the company is reportedly planning four 15-second autoplay video ads that’ll target women over 30, women under 30, men over 30, and men under 30 (so, uh, expect lots of super general advertisers we’d guess — toilet paper and Coca-Cola, for example). While potentially invasive, the ads are also potentially extremely lucrative; Facebook is apparently seeking near $1 million per day, per advertiser. That’s a cool $4 million (roughly) per day , with the potential risk of pushing away the billions of people enabling such an incredibly high ad rate. Facebook’s had a strange history with advertising, occasionally amending rules that angered the social network’s users (such as targeting marketing based on browsing history). The California-based internet company also outright paused its mobile ad network program last December, citing internal prioritization of other products. As you might’ve guessed, Facebook reps declined to comment on this report, so it’s probably best to reserve your outrage until there’s some solid confirmation. Filed under: Software , Facebook Comments Source: Ad Age

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Facebook reportedly launching 15-second autoplaying ads this summer, taking over the space around your news feed

Pirate Bay co-founder indicted on charges of hacking, fraud

Gottfrid Svartholm Warg. Nicolas Vigier On Wednesday, a Swedish court indicted Gottfrid “anakata” Svartholm Warg—the Pirate Bay founder who has been held in a Swedish detention facility for more than six months . “A large amount of data from companies and agencies was taken during the hack, including a large amount of personal data, such as personal identity numbers ( personnummer ) of people with protected identities,” Swedish prosecutor Henrik Olin said in a statement . Gottfrid was indicted with three other co-defendants, and the four have been charged (Google Translate) with serious fraud, attempted aggravated fraud, and aiding attempted aggravated fraud. The trial has been scheduled for late May in Stockholm. Svartholm Warg’s defense attorney, Ola Salmasson, told Ars that he had not yet seen the specific indictment, so he could not comment. Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Pirate Bay co-founder indicted on charges of hacking, fraud

Big pictures of small change

Artist Martin John Callanan and the Advanced Engineered Materials Group at the UK’s National Physical Laboratory used an infinite 3D optical microscope to capture 400 million pixel images of the lowest denomination coin from many currencies. ” The Fundamental Units ”        

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Big pictures of small change

“Syrian Electronic Army” hacks NPR publishing system, edits articles

NPR’s Web publishing system and several of the news agency’s Twitter accounts were hacked yesterday by a group supportive of the Syrian government that calls itself the “Syrian Electronic Army.” “Late Monday evening, several stories on the NPR website were defaced with headlines and text that said ‘Syrian Electronic Army Was Here,'” an NPR statement published in a NPR.org news story on the incident said. “Some of these stories were distributed to and appeared on NPR Member Station websites. We have made the necessary corrections to those stories on NPR.org and are continuing to work with our Member Stations. Similar statements were posted on several NPR Twitter accounts. Those Twitter accounts have been addressed. We are closely monitoring the situation.” Sophos’s Naked Security blog published a summary of the hack , including a screenshot of a Google search showing some of the headlines edited by the Syrian Electronic Army: Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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“Syrian Electronic Army” hacks NPR publishing system, edits articles

‘World’s fastest’ home internet service hits Japan with Sony’s help, 2Gbps down

Google Fiber might be making waves with its 1Gbps speeds , but it’s no match for what’s being hailed as the world’s fastest commercially-provided home internet service: Nuro. Launched in Japan yesterday by Sony-supported ISP So-net, the fiber connection pulls down data at 2Gbps, and sends it up at 1Gbps. An optical network unit (ONU) given to Nuro customers comes outfitted with three Gigabit ethernet ports and supports 450Mbps over 802.11 a/b/g/n. When hitched to a two-year contract, web surfers will be set back 4,980 yen ($51) per month and pony up a required 52,500 yen (roughly $ 540 ) installation fee, which is currently being waived for folks who apply online. Those lucky enough to call the Land of the Rising Sun home can register their house, apartment or small business to receive the blazing hookup, so long as they’re located within Chiba, Gunma, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Tokyo, Kanagawa or Saitama. Click the bordering source link for more details on signing up. Filed under: Internet , Sony Comments Via: Engadget Japanese Source: Nuro (translated)

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‘World’s fastest’ home internet service hits Japan with Sony’s help, 2Gbps down

‘World’s fastest’ home internet service hits Japan with Sony’s help, 2 Gbps down

Google Fiber might be making waves with its 1Gbps speeds , but it’s no match for what’s being hailed as the world’s fastest commercially-provided home internet service: Nuro. Launched in Japan yesterday by Sony-supported ISP So-net, the fiber connection pulls down data at 2 Gbps, and sends it up at 1 Gbps. An optical network unit (ONU) given to Nuro customers comes outfitted with three Gigabit ethernet ports and supports 450 Mbps over 802.11 a/b/g/n. When hitched to a two-year contract, web surfers will be set back 4,980 yen ($51) per month and pony up a required 52,500 yen (roughly $ 540 ) installation fee, which is currently being waived for folks who apply online. Those lucky enough to call the Land of the Rising Sun home can register their house, apartment or small business to receive the blazing hookup, so long as they’re located within Chiba, Gunma, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Tokyo, Kanagawa or Saitama. Click the bordering source link for more details on signing up. Filed under: Internet , Sony Comments Via: Engadget Japanese Source: Nuro (translated)

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‘World’s fastest’ home internet service hits Japan with Sony’s help, 2 Gbps down

Google Glass specs: 16GB SSD, “full-day” battery, and no 3rd-party ads

Google The Google Glass team yesterday released a list of tech specs for the upcoming augmented reality glasses. They will have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity; 16GB of flash memory, with 12GB usable (synced with Google cloud storage); a 5MP camera for photos and 720p for video; a battery providing a full day of typical usage; and an HD display that will be “the equivalent of a 25 inch high definition screen from eight feet away.” The optimal resolution for photos and video will be 640×360, according to a separate document prepared for developers. Developers using the Google Mirror API to create applications for Glass have also been told not to serve up any advertisements. “You may not serve or include any advertisements in your API Client,” the Mirror API terms of service state. “You may not use user data from your API Client for advertising purposes. You may not sell or transmit any user data received from your API Client(s) to a third-party ad network or service, data broker, or other advertising or marketing provider. For the avoidance of doubt, user data from the API Client(s) may not be used for Third-Party Ad Serving.” Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Google Glass specs: 16GB SSD, “full-day” battery, and no 3rd-party ads

Windows 8, take 2? Let’s see Start button, boot to desktop

Microsoft may be moving toward bringing back the Start button and allowing users to boot straight to the desktop with its coming Windows 8.1 release later this year. [Read more]        

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Windows 8, take 2? Let’s see Start button, boot to desktop