fnself-program1 – Page 6 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

The fall… and rise and rise and rise of chat networks

At the end of October 2014, something very important came to an end. After 15 years of changing the way people communicated forever, Microsoft closed down its MSN Windows Live service. Originally named MSN Messenger, its demise was not an overnight failure. Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype for £5.1 billion in 2012 meant it was only a matter of time before it was finally closed. China was the last territory to migrate the service to Skype; other countries did so 12 months earlier. At its height, MSN Messenger had more than 330 million users after originally being launched to rival the emerging chat networks of AOL’s AIM service and ICQ, followed by the entry of Yahoo Messenger. It was the social network of its day and as influential and dominant as Facebook is today. Read 47 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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The fall… and rise and rise and rise of chat networks

Warning: Bug in Adobe Creative Cloud deletes Mac user data without warning

Enlarge (credit: Backblaze) Adobe Systems has stopped distributing a recently issued update to its Creative Cloud graphics service amid reports a Mac version can delete important user data without warning or permission. The deletions happen whenever Mac users log in to the Adobe service after the update has been installed, according to officials from Backblaze , a data backup service whose users are being disproportionately inconvenienced by the bug. Upon sign in, a script activated by Creative Cloud deletes the contents in the alphabetically first folder in a Mac’s root directory. Backblaze users are being especially hit by the bug because the backup service relies on data stored in a hidden root folder called .bzvol. Because the folder is the alphabetically top-most hidden folder at the root of so many users’ drives, they are affected more than users of many other software packages. “This caused a lot of our customers to freak out,” Backblaze Marketing Manager Yev Pusin wrote in an e-mail. “The reason we saw a huge uptick from our customers is because Backblaze’s .bzvol is higher up the alphabet. We tested it again by creating a hidden file with an ‘.a’ name, and the files inside were removed as well.” Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Warning: Bug in Adobe Creative Cloud deletes Mac user data without warning

IRS website attack nets e-filing credentials for 101,000 taxpayers

The US Internal Revenue Service was the target of a malware attack that netted electronic tax-return credentials for 101,000 social security numbers, the agency disclosed Tuesday. Identity thieves made the haul by using taxpayers’ personal data that was stolen from a source outside the IRS, according to a statement . The attackers then used an automated bot against an application on the IRS website that provides personal identification numbers for the electronic filing of tax returns. In all, the hackers made unauthorized queries against 464,000 social security numbers but succeeded against only 101,000 of them. No personal information was obtained from the IRS systems. Agency officials are flagging the accounts of all affected taxpayers and plan to notify them by mail of the incident. The IRS is also working with other government agencies and industry partners to investigate the hack or stem its effects. The hack occurred last month. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Fans rejoice: Bryan Fuller named showrunner on new Star Trek series

Maybe we’ll be hanging out on the USS Reliant for this series. (credit: Paramount) Ever since Paramount announced last year that it would be launching a new Star Trek TV series, rumors have swirled about what it might be like. Now we know that the show is in good hands, at least when it comes to the writing. Bryan Fuller, who also worked on Deep Space Nine and Voyager , will be taking the helm as showrunner . Despite his long association with the Star Wars franchise, Fuller is probably best known for creating his own original visions on television in beloved cult series like Pushing Daisies and Hannibal. He has a flair for the weird, and he’s drawn to stories that are driven by characters as well as gripping plots. He’s currently working on a miniseries of Neil Gaiman’s classic novel American Gods for Starz. Obviously we can’t get too excited until we know what Fuller has planned, but I think cautious optimism is in order. Fuller knows the Trek universe, and he’s a smart writer who isn’t afraid to strike out in interesting new directions. Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Fans rejoice: Bryan Fuller named showrunner on new Star Trek series

McDonald’s kale salad has more fat and calories than a double Big Mac

(credit: Tim Deering/Flickr ) In an effort to offer healthier menu items, McDonald’s has unveiled a new salad with a “nutrient-rich lettuce blend with baby kale,” shaved parmesan, and chicken (grilled or fried). Like many fast-food salads, it may seem like a healthy option at first, but it’s not. The salad, when paired with the restaurant’s Asiago Caesar Dressing, packs more fat, calories, and salt than a double Big Mac—that’s a sandwich with four beef patties. (credit: McDonald’s ) While the nutrition check on a McDonald’s item may not come as a shock, the unhealthy salad option falls into a bigger trend of restaurant meals—fast food or not, eating out is hard on your waistline and health. (credit: McDonald’s ) In one recent study, researchers found that 92 percent of large-chain, local-chain, and mom-and-pop restaurants served meals that exceeded the calorie intake for a healthy meal . The study included 364 meals from restaurants in three cities: Boston, San Francisco, and Little Rock, Arkansas. The meals covered American, Chinese, Greek, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, Thai, and Vietnamese-style cuisine. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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McDonald’s kale salad has more fat and calories than a double Big Mac

Teen sues TV station for $1M over unauthorized broadcast of his genitals

(credit: NURV.com ) A South Carolina teenager has sued a Colorado television station over allegations the station broadcasted a picture of his erect penis taken from a cell phone video uploaded to YouTube. The case, known as Holden v. KOAA , asks for $1 million in damages and accuses the station, its reporter, its parent companies (NBC and Comcast), and other defendants of violating federal child pornography laws, invasion of privacy and negligence, and other allegations. According to the lawsuit , the teen was 14 years old and living in Colorado at the time of the incident. (The incident occurred two years ago, but Ars will not name the individual as he is still a minor.) The cell phone video had been taken of the teen and put online as a way to blackmail him. His father’s girlfriend, Heather Richardson, soon contacted the KOAA TV station to let them know about the situation. KOAA sent a local reporter, Matthew Prichard, to the family’s home in Pueblo, Colorado, where Prichard interviewed the boy and filmed the offending material. The suit claims that the boy’s father specifically told Prichard to keep his son’s name out of the report. Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Teen sues TV station for $1M over unauthorized broadcast of his genitals

Yahoo sued over employee rankings, anti-male discrimination

(credit: Clever Cupcakes ) A new lawsuit (PDF) filed against flailing tech giant Yahoo claims that company managers governing the “Media Org” were biased against men. It also claims that the company’s Quarterly Performance Review (QPR) process favored female employees and that the company engaged in mass layoffs without proper warnings. Gregory Anderson was editorial director of Yahoo’s Autos, Homes, Shopping, Small Business, and Travel sections until he was terminated in 2014. In his complaint, Anderson says that between 2012 and 2015, Yahoo reduced its work force by more than 30 percent to fewer than 11,000 employees. That constitutes a mass-layoff, which requires 60-day notice under state and federal law, he says. Read 13 remaining paragraphs | Comments

City cops in Disneyland’s backyard have had “stingray on steroids” for years

(credit: NoHoDamon ) New documents released ( PDF ) on Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of California show that for the last several years, police in the city of Anaheim, California—home of Disneyland—have been using an invasive cell phone surveillance device, known as a “dirtbox.” The ACLU obtained the 464 pages of documents recently after it sued the Anaheim Police Department (APD) last year over the agency’s failure to respond to its public records request concerning such surveillance-related documents. The DRTBox has been described by one Chicago privacy activist as a “stingray on steroids,” referring to the controversial cell-site simulator that spoofs cell towers to locate phones and intercept calls and texts . Read 16 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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City cops in Disneyland’s backyard have had “stingray on steroids” for years

VMware Fusion, Workstation team culled in company restructure

(credit: Ferran Rodenas ) Members of VMware’s “Hosted UI” team—the developers responsible for the virtualization company’s Workstation and Fusion desktop products—were apparently laid off on Monday as part of a restructuring of the company that was announced yesterday. The developers were just a part of a larger layoff as the company moved to cut costs and brought aboard a new chief financial officer. “VMware… announced a restructuring and realignment of approximately 800 roles,” a company spokesperson said in a press release Monday, “and plans to take a GAAP charge estimated to be between $55 million and $65 million related to this action over the course of the first half of 2016. The company plans to reinvest the associated savings in field, technical and support resources associated with growth products.” In a blog post , Christian Hammond , a former member of the Hosted UI team, reported the layoff, along with concerns about the future of the “award winning and profitable” desktop virtualization products. “VMware lost a lot of amazing people, and will be feeling that for some time to come, once they realize what they’ve done,” Hammond wrote. “It’s a shame. As for our team, well, I think everyone will do just fine. Some of the best companies in the Silicon Valley are full of ex-VMware members, many former Hosted UI, who would probably welcome the chance to work with their teammates again.” Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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VMware Fusion, Workstation team culled in company restructure

Why the calorie is broken

(credit: Getty Images) Calories consumed minus calories burned—it’s the simple formula for weight loss or gain, but dieters often find that it doesn’t work. Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley of Gastropod investigate for Mosaic science , where this story first appeared . It’s republished here under a Creative Commons license. “For me, a calorie is a unit of measurement that’s a real pain in the rear.” Bo Nash is 38. He lives in Arlington, Texas, where he’s a technology director for a textbook publisher. He has a wife and child. And he’s 5’10” and 245 lbs—which means he is classed as obese. Read 44 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Why the calorie is broken