theodp writes “Big Bloomberg is watching you. CNN reports that was the unsettling realization Goldman Sachs execs came to a few weeks ago when a Bloomberg reporter inadvertently revealed that reporters from the news and financial data provider had surveillance capabilities over users of Bloomberg terminals. ‘Limited customer relationship data has long been available to our journalists,’ acknowledged a Bloomberg spokesman. ‘In light of [Goldman’s] concern as well as a general heightened sensitivity to data access, we decided to disable journalist access to this customer relationship information for all clients.’ Business Insider is now reporting on allegations that Bloomberg reporters used terminals to spy on JPMorgan during the ‘London Whale’ disaster; Bloomberg bragged about its leadership on this story.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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IRS Admits Targeting Conservative Groups During 2012 Election
An anonymous reader writes “A recurring theme in comments on Slashdot since the 9/11 attacks has been concern about the use of government power to monitor or suppress political activity unassociated with terrorism but rather based on ideology. It has just been revealed that the IRS has in fact done that. From the story: “The Internal Revenue Service inappropriately flagged conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election . . . Organizations were singled out because they included the words ‘tea party’ or ‘patriot’ in their applications for tax-exempt status, said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups. In some cases, groups were asked for their list of donors, which violates IRS policy in most cases, she said. ‘That was wrong. That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive and it was inappropriate. That’s not how we go about selecting cases for further review,’ Lerner said . . . ‘The IRS would like to apologize for that,’ she added. . . . Lerner said the practice was initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati and was not motivated by political bias. . . . she told The AP that no high level IRS officials knew about the practice. Tea Party groups were livid on Friday. … In all, about 300 groups were singled out for additional review. . . Tea Party groups weren’t buying the idea that the decision to target them was solely the responsibility of low-level IRS workers. … During the conference call it was stated that no disciplinary action had been taken by those who engaged in this activity. President Obama has previously joked about using the IRS to target people.” So it’s not how they choose cases for review (except when it is), and was not motivated by political bias (except that it was). Also at National Review, with more bite. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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IRS Admits Targeting Conservative Groups During 2012 Election
Apple deluged by police demands to decrypt iPhones
ATF says no law enforcement agency could unlock a defendant’s iPhone, but Apple can “bypass the security software” if it chooses. Apple has created a police waiting list because of high demand. [Read more]
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Apple deluged by police demands to decrypt iPhones
World of Warcraft Loses 1.3 Million Players in First Quarter of 2013
hypnosec writes “World of Warcarft, the gaming industry’s most popular franchise and one of Blizzard’s cash cows, is bleeding subscribers with 1.3 million defecting from the game in the first quarter of 2013 alone. Blizzard revealed a subscriber decline of over 14%, the total now standing at 8.3 million in their earnings call press release (PDF).” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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World of Warcraft Loses 1.3 Million Players in First Quarter of 2013
How Netflix Eats the Internet
pacopico writes “Every night, Netflix accounts for about one-third of the downstream Internet traffic in North America, dwarfing all of its major rivals combined. Bloomberg Businessweek has a story detailing the computer science behind the streaming site. It digs into Netflix’s heavy use of AWS and its open-source tools like Chaos Kong and Asgard, which the Obama administration apparently used during the campaign. Story seems to suggest that the TV networks will have an awful time mimicking what Netflix has done.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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How Netflix Eats the Internet
The Most Sleep Deprived Students in the World
Who *yawn* are the most sleep deprived students in the world? Students from the United States, according to new research by Chad Minnich of Boston College: “I think we underestimate the impact of sleep. Our data show that across countries internationally, on average, children who have more sleep achieve higher in maths, science and reading. That is exactly what our data show,” says Chad Minnich, of the TIMSS and PIRLS International Study Center. “It’s the same link for children who are lacking basic nutrition,” says Mr Minnich, based at the Lynch School of Education, Boston College. But what about those Asian students who study all the time? Asian countries are the highest-performing in maths tests – and Mr Minnich says this has often been associated with long hours and cramming in after-school classes. “One would assume that they would be extremely tired,” he said. “And yet when we look at the sleep factor for them, they don’t necessarily seem to be suffering from as much sleep deprivation as the other countries.” Minnich placed the blame on smartphones and laptops. Sean Coughlan of the BBC has more: Link
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The Most Sleep Deprived Students in the World
US DOJ Say They Don’t Need Warrants For E-Mail, Chats
gannebraemorr writes “The U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI believe they don’t need a search warrant to review Americans’ e-mails, Facebook chats, Twitter direct messages, and other private files, internal documents reveal. Government documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union and provided to CNET show a split over electronic privacy rights within the Obama administration, with Justice Department prosecutors and investigators privately insisting they’re not legally required to obtain search warrants for e-mail.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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US DOJ Say They Don’t Need Warrants For E-Mail, Chats
Former Demonoid Members Receive Email Claiming Resurrection, Get Malware Instead
New submitter giveen1 writes “I recieved this email as a former Demonoid.me user. I tried to go to the website and link is dead. … ‘Dear Demonoid Community Member, We have all read the same news stories: The Demonoid servers shut down and seized in the Ukraine. The Demonoid admin team detained in Mexico. The demonoid.me domain snatched and put up for sale. The Demonoid trackers back online in Hong Kong, but then disappearing. … Now for some good news: The heart and soul of Demonoid lives on! Through an amazing sequence of unlikely events, the data on those Ukrainian servers has made its way into the safe hands of members of our community and has now been re-launched as d2.vu.'” But it turns out that the site was distributing malware, hosted on an American VPS, and quickly shut down after the provider discovered this. No word yet on how the Demonoid user database was acquired, but if you did make the mistake of trying to log in Torrent Freak warns: “New information just in suggests that if you logged into the fake Demonoid and used the same user/password combo on any other site (torrent, email, Steam, PayPal) you should change them immediately.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Former Demonoid Members Receive Email Claiming Resurrection, Get Malware Instead
BitTorrent Bundle Puts a Music Store Inside Torrents
An anonymous reader writes “BitTorrent has come up with a new way to sell music. It’s called BitTorrent Bundle, and it puts the music store alongside the torrent. At last, someone has come up with a way to turn all us entitled, lawless downloaders into paying customers. BitTorrent thinks of BitTorrent Bundle as a sort of 21st century band flyer. Post a torrent with a handful of live tracks from your latest tour, Bundle it with a store that lets your groupies buy the full album.” Put simply, the idea is that bands publish a basic torrent with a few songs as a teaser. When users download that .torrent file from BitTorrent.com, they’re shown a page asking for something — money, an email address, or social media interaction — in exchange for the rest of the album (or other bonus content). If they comply, they get a different .torrent file. It’s not intended as a guard against piracy, but as a way to link up content creators with the torrenters who are actually willing to pay. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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BitTorrent Bundle Puts a Music Store Inside Torrents
Microscale 3D printer
German start-up Nanoscribe is commercialized a 3D “micro printer” that uses a near-infrared laser to print tiny structures with features as small as 30 nanometers. (A human hair is roughly 50,000 – 100,000 nanometers wide.) The device uses an infra-red laser beam moving in three dimensions to solidify a light-sensitive material into the desired shape. The additive manufacturing system, much faster than existing technology, could be used to “print” the components of medical devices, electromechanical systems, and, er, robot models that would fit on the head of a pin. ” Micro 3-D Printer Creates Tiny Structures in Seconds ” (Technology Review, thanks Anthony Townsend !)
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Microscale 3D printer