Tag: elegant-bride

FCC and mobile carriers commit to nationwide text-to-911 by May 2014

It seems almost stupid that it’s nearly 2013 and we’re still unable to communicate with our emergency services in any way other than picking up the phone and calling them. We can certainly imagine situations where you’d want to be able to send a quick  text message  to local police. The US is a bit behind here—British mobile phone users have had access to  EmergencySMS since 2009. For years, we’ve been covering the slow ascent of text-to-911 . But now, the Federal Communications Commission says that the nation’s Big Four mobile carriers have agreed to “accelerate” text-to-911 capabilities for debut in 2013, with a nationwide deployment by May 15, 2014. “Building on text-to-911 deployments and trials that are already underway, this agreement will accelerate progress and ensure that over 90 percent of the nation’s wireless consumers, including millions of consumers with hearing or speech disabilities, will be able to access emergency services by sending a text message to 911, where local 911 call centers (known as a Public Safety Answering Points, or PSAPs) are also prepared to receive the texts,” the FCC said in a statement Thursday. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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FCC and mobile carriers commit to nationwide text-to-911 by May 2014

iTunes (temporarily) serves porn images to Russian users

iTunes users in Russia got an eyeful on Wednesday (hat tip to Wired ) when a newly released version of the app displayed graphic images of porn instead of the foreign films they were expecting. The bug, reported to be present in the iTunes Store shown to users in Russia, is most likely the result of images that were linked to xxx.xxx. Security experts speculate it was an oversight by Apple developers, who put the address in as a placeholder and then forgot to revise it. The site happens to be the official search directory for domains that carry the .xxx top level domain, which was created last year. As a result, the iTunes section briefly featured a smorgasbord of pornographic images. Apple quickly fixed the mishap, but has yet to explain how it happened. Read on Ars Technica | Comments

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iTunes (temporarily) serves porn images to Russian users

SpaceX gets its first military contract

The iconic “blue marble” picture of Earth, taken during the Apollo missions, will be a regular feature of the DSCOVR hardware NASA SpaceX announced that it had won two big US Air Force launch contracts Wednesday. If successful, the two demonstrations would help them qualify to compete for Air Force business against launch provider ULA (United Launch Alliance), which currently has a stranglehold on the largest Air Force launches. The first launch, planned for a Falcon 9, will send up the long-awaited NASA DSCOVR satellite to a distant point between the Sun and the Earth, where it can look at the Earth with the Sun behind it. The second, a Falcon Heavy launch, will put up several satellites and a 5 metric ton ballast, in an effort to demonstrate the Falcon 9 Heavy for the Air Force. Both contracts fall under the Air Force’s OSP-3 (Orbital/Suborbital) program, an Air Force program specifically designed to bringing in new launch companies. “GoreSat” rises from storage DSCOVR, NASA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory , has been in deep storage since 2001, when it was imprisoned by the incoming Bush Administration. DSCOVR is designed to measure the Earth’s albedo by tracking sunlight reflected back from the Earth from a distant vantage point. Former Vice-President Al Gore suggested that a video camera be installed on the satellite, with the hope that the constant video feed of the distant Earth would provide the same kind of ” Blue Marble ” perspective that the first pictures from Apollo did. The original Blue Marble picture is probably the most-circulated picture in human history, and is widely credited with contributing to the start of the modern ecology movement. Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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SpaceX gets its first military contract

How Windows tech support scammers walked right into a trap set by the feds

Aurich Lawson Three weeks ago, Jack Friedman got a call from a man with an Indian accent claiming to be from the Windows technical team at Microsoft. Friedman, a Florida resident who is my friend Elliot’s grandfather, was told by “Nathan James” from Windows that he needed to renew his software protection license to keep his computer running smoothly. “He said I had a problem with my Microsoft system,” Friedman told me. “He said they had a deal for $99, they would straighten out my computer and it will be like brand new.” Friedman’s three-year-old Windows Vista computer was running a bit slow, as many PCs do. Friedman is often suspicious of unsolicited calls, but after talking with Nathan on the phone and exchanging e-mails, he says, “I figured he was a legitimate guy.” Friedman handed over his Capital One credit card number, and the “technician” used remote PC support software to root around his computer for a while, supposedly fixing whatever was wrong with it. “I could see my arrow going all over the place and clicking different things on my computer,” Friedman said. But that $99 Capital One credit card charge turned into a $495 wire transfer. Then Bank of America’s fraud department called Friedman, and said, “somebody is trying to get into your account.” Whoever it was had entered the wrong password multiple times, and as a precaution Friedman’s checking account was shut down. Read 35 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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How Windows tech support scammers walked right into a trap set by the feds

Pro-Iranian hackers stole data from UN atomic agency’s server

The United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency has admitted that data from a retired server at its Vienna headquarters was stolen and posted to a hacker website. A group calling itself Parastoo allegedly stole the data in an effort to draw attention to Israel’s nuclear weapons program and as a protest against attacks on Iran’s nuclear efforts—including the use of the Stuxnet worm and assassinations of Iranian nuclear researchers. A Pastebin posting on November 25 by someone purporting to represent the group (which takes its name from the Farsi name for the swallow) listed the e-mail addresses of physicists and other experts that had consulted with the IAEA. The message urged the people whose addresses were listed to petition the IAEA to investigate “activities at Dimona”—the site of Israel’s Negev Nuclear Research Center, which is widely believed to be the center of Israel’s nuclear weapons production efforts. “We would like to assert that we have evidences [sic] showing there are beyond-harmful operations taking place at this site and the above list who technically help IAEA could be considered a partner in crime should an accident happen there,” the statement read. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Pro-Iranian hackers stole data from UN atomic agency’s server

Review: 3M Streaming Projector is good, but not perfect

What happens when you combine a 4.3 x 4.2 x 2 inch projector with a wealth of streaming content services? You get the handheld, portable Streaming Projector by 3M and Roku. The two companies have teamed up to offer the best of each of their worlds in one compact package. While overall it’s a useful device, it does have a couple of kinks that need to be worked out. The 3M Streaming Projector is a neat idea, especially in a world overrun by set-top boxes. Pocket projectors have been around for a while now, so this isn’t an entirely new concept. But rather than having to connect the projector to an external device—like a smartphone or computer, the included Roku streaming stick provides the content. The projector also features dual-band Wi-Fi, so it has the same functionality as a Roku box, though its output is blown up all over the wall. Design The projector is rated at 60 lumens. The 3M Streaming Projector is easy to cart around. It’s small enough stick in a laptop bag or a purse to bring over to a friend’s house. The device features two volume buttons, as well as buttons to power on the device, sift through settings, and check on things like battery power and brightness. On one side of the projector, there’s a plug for the power supply, as well as an audio out to plug in headphones or an external speaker system. On the other side, there’s a wheel to adjust the focus of the picture to ensure that movies and slide shows aren’t blurry. The Streaming Projector can be mounted on a tripod via a ventral screw-hole, should there be a lack of tables high enough to properly display the picture on a blank wall. Read 13 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Review: 3M Streaming Projector is good, but not perfect

Review: Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal a mix of promise, pain

Tux shares a perch with Ubuntu 12.10’s namesake bird Aurich Lawson / Thinkstock Write this down: Ubuntu 12.10, the late-year arrival from Canonical’s six-month standard release factory, marks the first new release within the company’s current long-term support cycle. Got it? Good, because it may be the best takeaway from the latest Ubuntu release, codenamed Quantal Quetzal. After that, it’s a bit of a rocky ride. The product’s development lineage is important to note from more of a business/adoption side perspective. The release of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS in April was Canonical’s fourth long-term support product and signaled the end of one full two-year development cycle. Quantal Quetzal is the first standard release on the road to pushing out Ubuntu 14.04 LTS in Spring 2014 (undoubtedly to be codenamed “Uber-rocking Unicorn” if the pattern holds), and it sets up themes and directions which will mature over the next two years. Standard releases aren’t terribly different from the bi-annual LTS products, though they tend to be slightly less conservative in code offerings. The Ubuntu development community lets off the brakes a little and sticks some shiny back in. Read 63 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Review: Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal a mix of promise, pain

Romney campaign got its IT from Best Buy, Staples, and friends

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulhami/ Imagine you’re launching a company and only have six months to deliver a product. You face a competitor that has been in your industry four years longer than you with twice your staff and twice the budget. If you don’t make your deadline, you’re out of business. That, in a nutshell, was the situation facing the technology team for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. The Obama for America (OFA) organization had the advantage: it didn’t have to wade through the primary season first, allowing OFA’s technology team to focus on building an infrastructure. Based on an Ars analysis of the Romney campaign’s financial reports, Romney’s team had less to work with and passed the lion’s share of technology-focused spending directly to advertising companies and telemarketers. This left Team Romney’s tech squad with only a fraction of the budget for consulting, services, and infrastructure. So, the campaign did what a lot of small businesses would do: they went to Best Buy. Or more accurately, they went to Best Buy’s subsidiary, MindShift Technologies, a managed service provider that specializes in small and medium business consulting. And when they were in a pinch for tech help, they called Staples’ subsidiary ThriveNetworks and a collection of small consulting firms with links to Romney and the Republican Party. Read 14 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Romney campaign got its IT from Best Buy, Staples, and friends

Apple’s stock price falls to lowest point in six months

On Friday Apple’s stock price closed at $527.68 per share , the lowest it’s been in six months . Since September, the company has lost about 25 percent of its value from its peak of $702 per share. So what’s gone wrong? Analysts say that Apple has had a string of misfortunes lately, ranging from missed  earnings estimates ,  management shakeups , missteps on mapping software , supply chain problems , and increased pressure from competitors. “I think it’s the perfect storm for Apple,” Van Baker, an analyst with Gartner Research, told Ars. “There’s a combination of a lot of things, and add to that, people are starting to think that Apple won’t bring out something that’s truly innovative every few years.” Read 20 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Apple’s stock price falls to lowest point in six months

Notorious BitTorrent tracker Demonoid back online, website still down

As of Monday, well-known BitTorrent tracker Demonoid is back online . Three months ago, the tenacious tracker was chased out of its Ukrainian host, likely under pressure from American authorities. It may also have been driven offline due to a denial of service attack. According to the IP address linked to the tracker, the new host appears to be physically located in Hong Kong . The website, meanwhile, remains down. TorrentFreak points out that in previous closures, Demonoid’s tracker appeared before its website came back online, indicating that the site’s return may be coming soon. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Notorious BitTorrent tracker Demonoid back online, website still down