usa – Page 34 – Ken May

State Department shuts down unclassified email to cope with hack

The US government is no stranger to dealing with cyberattacks , but it just took a rare and relatively extreme step to keep itself safe. The State Department shut down its entire unclassified email system this weekend to bolster its defenses after spotting “activity of concern” (read: potential data breaches) that happened at the same time as an earlier hack that targeted the White House. Officials aren’t naming culprits at this stage — they’ve pinned some previous attacks on China and Russia, but it’s not clear that there was digital warfare involved this time around. More details are expected to come once the security upgrades are in place, so you may get a better sense of what happened in the near future. [Image credit: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite] Filed under: Internet Comments Source: AP (SFGate)

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State Department shuts down unclassified email to cope with hack

Facebook will filter out excessively promotional Page posts in 2015

Facebook is thankfully taking more steps to show fewer spammy posts on your News Feed — and we’re not talking about traditional web ads. We’re talking about overly promotional status updates posted by Page accounts, like the ones you can see after the break. The social network promised to bury “like-bait” posts (of the “1 Like = 1 Prayer” type) underneath more relevant content earlier this year, and now it’s doing the same thing to Page statuses that fall under any of these criteria: Posts that solely push people to buy a product or install an app Posts that push people to enter promotions and sweepstakes with no real context Posts that reuse the exact same content from ads Facebook’s devs have decided push through with this change, after a survey asking users how the News Feed can be improved revealed that people (as you’d expect) want to see more of their friends’ status updates. Non-spammy businesses and individual Pages don’t have anything to worry about, though — they will not be affected when the refreshed News Feed algorithm takes effect in January 2015. [Image credit: Shutterstock] Filed under: Misc , Facebook Comments Source: Facebook

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Facebook will filter out excessively promotional Page posts in 2015

With Movie Creator, Microsoft wants to help produce better highlight reel videos

HTC’s done it. So has Sony. It’s available on iOS. Even BlackBerry’s got one. Apps that let you take your favorite clips and images and merge them together into a fun highlight reel aren’t uncommon these days, but that’s not stopping Microsoft from coming out with one of its own — and one that it feels is even better than the competition. Called Movie Creator, the premise is exactly the same as what everyone else has, but Microsoft promises its version will come with more customization, an easier user experience, less time required to create a video and no price tag. It’ll be available as a free beta starting today for both Windows Phone and Windows tablets, and it appears that Microsoft will offer the feature on lower-end devices like the Lumia 530. We won’t spend a lot of time going over what Movie Creator is, because it is essentially the same as the rest of the pack: You can pick out a bunch of your favorite clips and images, choose a song you like and presto — the app automagically produces a short video that you can share on Twitter, Facebook and other services (or keep to yourself, you selfish person). Each company does it a little differently, so it’s no surprise that Microsoft is adding its own flavor to the app genre. Movie Creator doesn’t impose any limitations on the length of the clip, and you can choose up to 25 videos and stills (and Cinemagraphs, on compatible devices) to include in the reel. Once you’ve picked out the ones you want, you’re presented with a linear timeline, each clip or image represented by a square. You can rearrange which order the pics are shown in, the music playing in the background (you can use either Microsoft’s music selections or your own library), the duration of each, add captions either on or in between images, rotate them, use filters to change how they look and you can even dictate if and how each clip pans across the screen (it lets you determine where each one starts and ends its animation). There are also plenty of preset themes, but there’s quite a few more available for download if you don’t see one that fits your needs. Themes have been done many times before, but Microsoft made a deal with Dreamworks that adds a unique element to them: You’ll be able to grab themes featuring characters from movies like Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda. In my preview build, these options weren’t available, so hopefully they’ll show up in the final software. Finally, you’ll be able to change the quality of the finished product. Depending on your desired size and network speeds (in case you want to upload and share it), you can choose between low, medium and high quality, and you can even select how many frames per second you’d like the reel to finish up in — you can go up to a maximum of 30fps, so keep that in mind. It appears that the video resolution tops out at 1080p quality as well. Once you’re done, the file gets saved on the phone regardless of your sharing preferences, so it’s going to take up space on your phone or tablet by default. Since Movie Creator is starting out in beta, it’ll likely see some new features sprinkled in between now and its final release. Filed under: Cellphones , Wireless , Mobile , Microsoft Comments

Google makes the ‘Nobel Prize of computing’ worth $1 million

The Association for Computing Machinery’s A.M. Turing Award is often called the “Nobel Prize of computing.” Every year since 1966 it’s been awarded to an accomplished computer scientist or engineer like Douglas Engelbart, the inventor of the computer mouse. But chances are you’ve never heard of the award at all, despite it being named after legendary Allied Forces code-breaker Alan Turing. That’s because it’s never really been that big — no huge sponsors meant it didn’t get a lot of promotion, and the annual prize was limited to a relatively modest $250, 000. That’s about to change with the 2014 award thanks to the largess of Google. The company’s been a co-sponsor of the award since 2007 alongside Intel, but now they’re taking full control of the prize money, upping the package fourfold to a rather hefty $1 million. We won’t know who the first lucky recipient of $1 million will be until next year, but they’ll join a list of luminaries that includes Silvio Micali . He won the award in 2012 for his work in cryptography, which made it easier to verify mathematical proofs in the study of complex systems. At an ACM event this morning he told an audience of fellow computer scientists that we need to “encourage our young scientists” by rolling out “a bright red carpet on what used to be a dangerous path.” Hopefully Google’s $1 million dollar prize will do just that. Filed under: Google Comments

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Google makes the ‘Nobel Prize of computing’ worth $1 million

Bandcamp lets artists create their own music subscriptions

Thanks to Ms. Swift’s recent actions , artist compensation from music streaming is quite the hot topic, and one company has a new option to lend a hand. Bandcamp has been a choice for musicians to sell their music and merchandise for years, and now it’s looking to help sort streaming subscriptions as well. Each artist will be able to create a subscription-based plan for their music, allowing fans to access new tunes as they become available through the Bandcamp app. Listeners can download the tracks too, and acts can decide to offer parts of their existing catalog as a perk for opting in. New albums or songs can be released to subscribers only for a certain amount of time or remain exclusive, and the musicians themselves can set the cost of the plan. For its efforts, Bandcamp takes the same 15 percent cut that it does for regular sales — a fee that drops to 10 percent once the $5, 000 sales mark is reached. “The whole motivation here is that when you get to a point that you love an artist — when you go from liking them to being a real true fan of theirs — at some point you just want everything they make, ” the company’s chief executive Ethan Diamond told The Guardian . [Photo credit: Shutterstock] Filed under: Internet , Software Comments Via: Fact Mag Source: The Guardian

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Bandcamp lets artists create their own music subscriptions

Samsung lawsuit claims that NVIDIA’s benchmarks are misleading

Samsung definitely isn’t taking NVIDIA’s first patent lawsuit lying down. The Korean tech firm has countersued NVIDIA not just for allegedly infringing on six patents, but for leading buyers astray with benchmarks for the Shield Tablet . NVIDIA is supposedly trying to “confuse customers” by claiming that the slate’s Tegra K1 processor outpaces the Exynos 5433 chip in the Galaxy Note 4 ; regular benchmarks show that’s not true, Samsung claims. The suit also accuses PC vendor Velocity Micro of violating two additional patents (for a total of eight), since NVIDIA’s graphics cards play a heavy role in its lineup. NVIDIA tells Engadget that it’s still examining the complaint, but it’s already rejecting allegations that it misled gamers with its Shield tests. Both devices were using their stock, fresh-from-the-box software loadouts, the company insists. Whether or not that’s true, the lawsuit comes across as the pot calling the kettle black. After all, it was the revelation that Samsung inflated benchmark scores which led many to question the honesty of mobile device makers. Really, the assertion of dodgy benchmarking is as much about corporate pride as anything else — if successful, it would force NVIDIA to eat humble pie. Filed under: Gaming , Tablets , Mobile , Samsung , NVIDIA Comments Source: Law360 (registration required)

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Samsung lawsuit claims that NVIDIA’s benchmarks are misleading

Sam Raimi’s bringing an ‘Evil Dead’ series to TV in 2015

In a world where any show with “The” and “Dead” in the title is a runaway success comes, er, another one. That’s because Starz has teamed up with Sam Raimi to produce a new TV series that’ll follow cult movie trilogy The Evil Dead . The 10-part show will chronicle the later life of square-jawed hero Ash (Bruce Campbell) who will once again be called upon to battle the forces of Deadites. Given that the press release mentions Ash’s role as a “stock boy, ” it’s easy to presume that the character will be still working at the S-Mart where he was left at the end of Army of Darkness – rather than the post-apocalyptic future we saw in the director’s cut of the same movie. The series will begin next year, so be prepared for Twitter to be nothing more than an endless stream of people saying Groovy #Groovy. Filed under: Misc , HD Comments Source: Starz

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Sam Raimi’s bringing an ‘Evil Dead’ series to TV in 2015

Google says the best phishing scams have a 45-percent success rate

Conceptually, phishing scams sound easy to see through: a fake webpage with the wrong URL that doesn’t look quite right — who’s going to fall for that? Quite a few people, apparently. According to a new Google study, the most successful phishing websites will capture data from 45-percent of its visitors. The least successful scams only scored information from three percent of its visitors, but when crooks are sending out phishing emails by the millions , that still adds up. The study found that the majority of the hijackers operate out of China, the Ivory Coast, Malaysia, Nigeria and South Africa, and that they work quick: 20-percent of accounts were compromised within 30 minutes of having information phished. Most hijacked accounts are used to continue the cycle: sending emails to account’s contacts asking for bank transfers (under false pretenses, of course) or simply distributing links that might capture yet more accounts. The best way to protect yourself, Google says on its blog, are the old ways: enable 2-step verification on your accounts when possible and “stay vigilant” — report messages asking for personal information to and never, ever reply to them. Want to read the full study? Click right here . [Image credit: Shutterstock] Filed under: Internet , Google Comments Via: Huffington Source: Google (1) , (2)

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Google says the best phishing scams have a 45-percent success rate

AT&T plans to expand into Mexico by snapping up local carrier for $2.5 billion

AT&T has just revealed a huge expansion plan — one that involves crossing the border into Mexico. Apparently, the company’s in the process of acquiring Mexican carrier Iusacell for $2.5 billion, which includes the amount needed to pay off the latter’s debts. By snapping up this carrier, AT&T’s gaining its network infrastructure, licenses, retail stores, 8.6 million subscribers and its potential to grow further. Iusacell’s network covers 70 percent of the country’s 120 million residents, and Ma Bell hopes it can take advantage of that fact by getting more people to sign up for smartphone plans, now that more and more affordable models are hitting the market. Subscribers will have to make do with 3G connections, though… at least until AT&T decides to expand its LTE service, as well. The deal still has to be approved by Mexico’s telecom regulator (Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones) and National Foreign Investments Commission, before it can push through. Plus, Grupo Salinas (the company in talks with AT&T) can’t sell the carrier until it’s done buying the half of Iusacell that it doesn’t own. If all goes according to plan, though, AT&T can close the deal as early as Q1 2015 and boast roughly 400 million subscribers overall from the US and Mexico. Filed under: Cellphones , Mobile , AT&T Comments Source: AT&T

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AT&T plans to expand into Mexico by snapping up local carrier for $2.5 billion

The most streamed single of 2013 only earned its authors $4,000 each

Avicii’s song Wake Me Up has been played more than 168 million times in the last year and a half, making it one of the most streamed songs, ever. You wouldn’t be blamed, therefore, for thinking that co-writer Aloe Blacc has made some serious bank from his labors. Unfortunately, in an editorial for Wired , the songwriter reveals that he’s only received $4, 000 in royalties from Pandora, America’s biggest streaming service. His voice is joining that of other artists like Taylor Swift , who believes that companies like Spotify and Pandora are seriously devaluing the work of songwriters. He also points an accusatory finger at outdated royalty laws that mean that he has no control over the price, or use, of his music so long as a minimum fee is paid – something that he hopes will change in order to enable musicians to make a living doing what so many people love. We’d make a joke about Blacc’s breakthrough record being I Need a Dollar , but it’d probably be in poor taste. Filed under: Misc , Portable Audio/Video Comments Source: Wired

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The most streamed single of 2013 only earned its authors $4,000 each