Tag: facebook

Server Farms Flourish In Iowa: Microsoft Plows $700M More Into Des Moines

1sockchuck writes “A big chunk of the Azure cloud will be living on the plains of Iowa. Microsoft will invest another $700 million to expand its Iowa data center campus near Des Moines, marking the third major server farm for the state this year. Facebook recently announced a new data center in Altoona. The same day, Google said it would put another $400 million into its facility in Council Bluffs. Why Iowa? Aggressive tax incentives and a central location to bridge the distance between these companies’ east and west coast server footprints.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Server Farms Flourish In Iowa: Microsoft Plows $700M More Into Des Moines

China Says Serious Polluters Will Get the Death Penalty

formaggio writes “According to the Xinhua News Agency, the Chinese government is now allowing courts to punish those who commit environment crimes with the death penalty. The new judicial interpretation comes in the wake of several serious environmental problems that have hit the country over the last few months, including dangerous levels of air pollution, a river full of dead pigs, and other development projects that have imperiled public health.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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China Says Serious Polluters Will Get the Death Penalty

Whole Human Brain Mapped In 3D

ananyo writes “An international group of neuroscientists has sliced, imaged and analysed the brain of a 65-year-old woman to create the most detailed map yet of a human brain in its entirety. The atlas, called ‘BigBrain,’ shows the organization of neurons with microscopic precision, which could help to clarify or even redefine the structure of brain regions obtained from decades-old anatomical studies (abstract). The atlas was compiled from 7,400 brain slices, each thinner than a human hair. Imaging the sections by microscope took a combined 1,000 hours and generated 10 terabytes of data. Supercomputers in Canada and Germany churned away for years reconstructing a three-dimensional volume from the images, and correcting for tears and wrinkles in individual sheets of tissue.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Whole Human Brain Mapped In 3D

Facebook announces Video on Instagram to take on Vine

With recent moves to add hashtag support, verified Pages , comments with inline photo embeds and more, it appears that Facebook is ready to take on competing social networks. It should come as no surprise to us, then, that it’s putting its acquisition of Instagram to good use by introducing a service — aptly called Video on Instagram –that rivals Vine , a similar service now owned by Twitter. Instagram’s version will be accessed by an icon on the bottom right corner of the app, and you’ll be able to record up to 15 seconds of video, using your choice of 13 new filters exclusively for the service. Contrary to its major competitor, this particular service (which will be available on iOS and Android versions from day one, and can be viewed on the web as well) won’t loop the video on an endless basis — rather, you’ll see it pop up in your feed and the video will run just once. In addition to filters, Instagram has introduced a stabilization feature called Cinema. Instagram’s blog post and video showing the new service can be found after the break, and the iOS version is already live on the App Store . Sadly, Instagram had no news about when we can expect to see the app on Windows Phone, but the team has been “talking with [Microsoft] and learning.” And folks, please promise you won’t go crazy on the cat videos. Update: Both iOS and Android apps are now available in their respective stores. Gallery: Facebook Instagram Video screenshots Filed under: Cellphones , Wireless , Mobile , Facebook Comments

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Facebook announces Video on Instagram to take on Vine

IRS to issue $70M in employee bonuses, says lawmaker

The Internal Revenue Service is planning to pay out about $70 million in employee bonuses, according to Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa , a senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over the IRS. That oughta go over real well.        

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IRS to issue $70M in employee bonuses, says lawmaker

Nationwide Snooping System Launched In India

knwny writes “The Times of India reports that ‘India has launched a wide-ranging surveillance program that will give its security agencies and even income tax officials the ability to tap directly into e-mails and phone calls without oversight by courts or parliament, several sources said.'” Adds an anonymous reader: “What’s chilling is the comments from senior officials indicating that parts of the program are already live, without absolutely any discussion in public about it.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Nationwide Snooping System Launched In India

Verizon Accused of Intentionally Slowing Netflix Video Streaming

colinneagle writes “A recent GigaOm report discusses Verizon’s ‘peering’ practices, which involves the exchange of traffic between two bandwidth providers. When peering with bandwidth provider Cogent starts to reach capacity, Verizon reportedly isn’t adding any ports to meet the demand, Cogent CEO Dave Schaffer told GigaOm. ‘They are allowing the peer connections to degrade,’ Schaffer said. ‘Today some of the ports are at 100 percent capacity.’ Why would Verizon intentionally disrupt Netflix video streaming for its customers? One possible reason is that Verizon owns a 50% stake in Redbox, the video rental service that contributed to the demise of Blockbuster (and more recently, a direct competitor to Netflix in online streaming). If anything threatens the future of Redbox, whose business model requires customers to visit its vending machines to rent and return DVDs, it’s Netflix’s instant streaming service, which delivers the same content directly to their screens.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Verizon Accused of Intentionally Slowing Netflix Video Streaming

Scores of Vulnerable SAP Deployments Uncovered

mask.of.sanity writes “Hundreds of organizations have been detected running dangerously vulnerable versions of SAP that were more than seven years old and thousands more have placed their critical data at risk by exposing SAP applications to the public Internet. The new research found the SAP services were inadvertently made accessible thanks to a common misconception that SAP systems were not publicly-facing and remotely-accessible. The SAP services contained dangerous vulnerabilities which were since patched by the vendor but had not been applied.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Scores of Vulnerable SAP Deployments Uncovered

Cellograff: How to Graffiti A Mural Without A Wall

Want to practice your tags but don’t want to commit a felony by vandalizing property? Then head to the forest with a few rolls of cellophane. Bam -instant disposable walls you can spray paint as much as you want. Link

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Cellograff: How to Graffiti A Mural Without A Wall