Tag: microsoft

NSA Releases Secret Pre-History of Computers

An anonymous reader writes “The National Security Agency has declassified an eye-opening pre-history of computers used for code-breaking between the 1930s and 1960s. The 344 page report, entitled It Wasn’t All Magic: The Early Struggle to Automate Cryptanalysis (pdf), it is available on the Government Attic web site. Government Attic has also just posted a somewhat less declassified NSA compendium from 1993: A Collection of Writings on Traffic Analysis. (pdf)” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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NSA Releases Secret Pre-History of Computers

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

Send Your Kids to Free Apple or Microsoft Workshops This Summer

Know any kids aged 8 to 13? Keep them occupied this summer and help them enhance their digital skills with the help of Apple and Microsoft. Read more…        

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Send Your Kids to Free Apple or Microsoft Workshops This Summer

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

MakerBot Merging With Stratasys

MakerBot Industries, creators of the popular Thing-O-Matic and Replicator line of 3-D printers, is being acquired by Stratasys, a company that’s been working on 3-D printing and production systems since 1989. ‘[Stratasys] facilitates the printing of prototypes, concepts, components, parts and more on an industrial scale and for commercial applications. … Stratasys has demonstrated it’s going to be aggressive about owning the 3D printing space, and the MakerBot buy is the consumer-focused piece in that puzzle. For MakerBot, it gives the startup access to Stratasys’ wealth of industry experience.’ According to the official news release, ‘MakerBot will operate as a separate subsidiary of Stratasys, maintaining its own identity, products and go-to-market strategy.’ MakerBot has sold 11,000 of its Replicator 2 devices in the past 9 months, accounting for half of all its 3-D printer sales since 2009. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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MakerBot Merging With Stratasys

Microsoft Kills Xbox One Phone-Home DRM

One of the biggest criticisms of Microsoft’s recently-announced Xbox One console was that it would require an internet connection once every 24 hours in order to keep playing games. Enough people complained about the DRM, and Microsoft listened. Today, they announced that they’re removing the phone-home requirement. “After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360.” They’ve also scrapped the game trading and resale system they’d built, which allowed publishers to set their own rules with regard to used game sales. “There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.” Unfortunately, that also means users won’t be able to take advantage of the good parts of the original system, such as trading and gifting games without needing the disc, or sharing games with remote family members. “While we believe that the majority of people will play games online and access the cloud for both games and entertainment, we will give consumers the choice of both physical and digital content. We have listened and we have heard loud and clear from your feedback that you want the best of both worlds.” Also noteworthy: they’ve dropped region-locks as well. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Microsoft Kills Xbox One Phone-Home DRM

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

WiFi gesture recognition lets you control objects through walls

Imagine, with the wave of a hand, adjusting the thermostat without getting out of bed, or turning up the music in the other room while in the shower. WiSee, a new gesture-recognition system, aims to harness the ever-present wireless Internet signals blanketing people’s homes to allow remote control of all their electronics. Read more…        

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WiFi gesture recognition lets you control objects through walls

Watch 2013 Obama debate 2006 Biden on NSA surveillance

Watch then-Senator Joe Biden from 2006 directly refute each point made by his now-boss, President Barack Obama, about the NSA surveillance program at a news conference last week. Dave Maass and Trevor Timm at the Electronic Frontier Foundation write : After a leaked FISA court document revealed that the National Security Agency (NSA) is vacuuming up private data on millions of innocent Americans by collecting all the phone records of Verizon customers, President Obama responded by saying “let’s have a debate” about the scope of US surveillance powers. At EFF, we couldn’t agree more. It turns out, President Obama’s most formative debate partner over the invasiveness of NSA domestic surveillance could his Vice President Joe Biden. Back in 2006, when the NSA surveillance program was first revealed by the New York Times , then-Senator Biden was one of the program’s most articulate critics . As the FISA court order shows, the scope of NSA surveillance program has not changed much since 2006, except for the occupant in the White House. Watch this video , as Senator Biden from 2006 directly refutes each point President Obama made about the NSA surveillance program at his news conference last week.        

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Watch 2013 Obama debate 2006 Biden on NSA surveillance