Anonymous and Libertarians Protest CISPA; Tech Giants Don't Give a Damn

About 400websites are taking part in an online blackout today to protest the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act(CISPA). 

The web-based demonstration, organized by the hacktivist organization, Anonymous, is not likely to interfere with the average web user's day, unless that user frequently posts funny videos on Reddit. 

CISPA, a controversial bill that aims to boost cybersecurity by removing legal barriers that prevent tech companies and the government from sharing sensitive information about web users, sailed through the Houselast week, despite strong opposition from privacy groups and President Barack Obama, who is threatening to veto the current version of the bill. Early last year,  the StopOnline Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), two online copyright enforcement bills, spurredwidespread blackouts involving more than 7,000 websites and tech giants, including Wikipedia and Google, yet the biggest websites willing to take a public stand against CISPA merely include various subsections of Reddit and a Facebook page for the Libertarian party. 

"Unfortunately, there have not been any confirmed reports of larger companies joining the protest," says a spokesperson for Anonyops, a website that reports news on the activities of Anonymous. "SOPA threatened to take down websites that even linked to copyright infringed material, so for companies that allow their users to post freely on their sites [like Facebook, Google+, and Reddit] this would have been devastating. CISPA mostly effects the user's of these services, and doesn't cut into profits of these big companies, and let's face it, that's why they're a business, to make a profit."

"We've been running ads against CISPA for the past few months, but we didn't think the timing was right for us to participate in today's blackout," says Erik Martin, general manager at Reddit, the social news site. "We're going to plan more action closer to the vote in the Senate, but in the meantime, the [independently controlled] subreddits are becoming kind of a lab for how you raise awareness on something important like this. Some of them are blackedout, others are posting about it."

Molly Schwoppe, a spokesperson for the Libertarian party, tells MotherJones that the party is "vehemently opposed to CISPA" but refused to confirm whether or not the Facebook page holding the blackout officially belonged to the party.

CISPA was first introduced in late 2011 by Rep. Michael Rogers (R-Mich.), but the measure failed to advance through the Senate. Rogers and Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) reintroduced the bill in February of this year.  Dozens of civil-liberties-minded groups have cried foul and opposed the bill on the grounds that it delivers personal information like emails and Internet records straight to the hands of the government, which could freely use all this information for vague national security purposes. 

"This bill undermines the privacy of millions of Internet users" Rainey Reitman, activism director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a press release. The Obama administration last week declared that it "remains concerned that the bill does not require private entities to take reasonable steps to remove irrelevant personal information when sending cybersecurity data to the government or other private sector entities."

But privacy concerns may not be enough to stop the bill. 

CISPA supporters spent 140 times more money on lobbying for the bill that its opponents, according to the SunlightFoundation. Big-name companies that openly support CISPA include AT&T, Intel, IBM, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon, and other tech giants are  quietly on board, including Google and Facebook, which released a statement arguing that "if the government learns of an intrusion or other attack, the more it can share about that attack with private companies (and the faster it can share the information), the better the protection for users and our systems." Facebook also claims that if shares data with the government, it will safeguard user information. 

Anonyops isn't so optimistic. "Do I find it hypocritical [that tech companies are supporting CISPA]? It could be seen that way, after all," its spokesperson says. "These companies do have privacy policies, which is the very thing that CISPA would basically make void."

Source: motherjones

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Apple (AAPL) Profit Beats Forecast

AppleInc. [NASDAQ: AAPL] reported better than expected earnings for the second quarter, but hinted at the sum of all fears on Wall Street as it revealed disappointing guidance for the next quarter.

The company's earnings release after the financial markets closed on Tuesday announced an increase in a stock buyback program to $60 billion from $10 billion. Apple increased its dividend by 15 percent to $3.05 a share.

Apple announced revenue of $43.6 billion in the second quarter, higher than the $42 billion expected on sales of 37.4 million iPhones and 19.5 million iPads. But it said that sales for the coming quarter will be $33.5 billion to $35.5 billion, below the $38.25 billion Wall Street was forecasting.

The stock was up about 5 percent in after-hours trading to about $426.

"I think it really comes down to the stock buyback and dividend overruling the earnings," said JJ Kinahan, chief derivatives strategist of TDAmeritrade. "The earnings were good, not great. But the fact that they announced an expanded stock buyback program and increased dividend per share per quarter sent the stock price up."

The company's stock had taken a beating in recent weeks, falling more than 13 percent since the last earnings report in January. It's down 40 percent from its peak last fall amid reports that the tech giant is losing its mojo and has new no exciting products like the iPad or iPhone to offer. Still, Apple is one of the most profitable companies in the U.S., earning $13 billion in the quarter ended in December.

The company reported profit fell 18 percent to $9.55 billion in the last quarter.

"Expectations are so low, they actually had a chance to beat the street," said Kinahan.

BrianColello, Morningstar senior equity analyst, said he was looking for three aspects of the earnings report on Tuesday.

The first, of course, is the tech company's revenue and sales figures for the first three months of the year. This report is the first time that Apple has given a range for its revenue forecast, instead of a conservative forecast.

"There wasn't a big expectation for upside or a massive earnings beat," Colello said.

The second item Colello is its outlook for the next quarter. However, because Apple does not reveal the timing of its new product releases, an earnings outlook would be a wildcard.

"If it's an especially weak outlook, certainly it would be bad, but if a new iPhone were to come out in July, it would be more palatable," Colello said.

He expected June's forecast to be worse than March, especially for the iPhone, because many customers will be holding off for a possible new model.

However, Colello expects continued sales of the iPad ahead for students and educators ahead of the back-to-school shopping season.

Colello expected around 36 to 37 million iPhone sales in the last quarter and 17 to 18 million iPads.

Apple announced that it sold 37.4 million iPhones compared to 35.1 million a year ago. The firm sold 19.5 million iPads in the quarter, up from 11.8 million a year ago.

The last announcement that many investors expected Apple to make was a dividend of stock buyback to use its pile of cash, which was reported to grow as large as $170 billion by the end of the year.

Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO, announced that its ending cash balance is $145 billion for the quarter.

The company also announced gross margin of between 36 and 37 percent.

Kinahan said Wall Street analysts had hoped for gross margin of about 40 percent.

Source: abcnews

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YouTube video showing possible 420 rally shooting suspect shared by Denver police

A YouTube video shared by Denver police Sunday afternoon may show one of the two suspects thought to be responsible for the shooting that injured three people during the 420 rally in Denver's Civic CenterPark.

Three people were injured in the shooting and Denver police had been asking for photos or videos from rally attendees that might show the shooting or the suspects.

According to police, the best images of the suspect are visible about six seconds into the almost two minute video. It shows a black male with a brown and white checkered shirt, who is standing between a man in a red shirt and a man in a white hat.

"We are seeking this individual as we believe he assisted the primary suspect after the shooting," police said.

The primary suspect in the shooting was described as wearing a blue hat, gray sweatshirt and black pants.

A man and woman, between 20 and 30 years old, were shot in the leg, Denver police said. Their injuries were considered non-life-threatening.

A third victim, a juvenile, was grazed by a bullet and walked into a nearby hospital, police tweeted.

On Sunday, the case was turned over to the Denver Police Department'sGang Unit.

Source: thedenverchannel

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Yahoo buys Summly website from 17-years-old tech whiz for $30 million

Nick D'Aloisio is your typical high school kid- he has a girlfriend , his mom is on his case to clean his room, and he has a curfew.

But he did just sell his tech startup for about $30 Million. The 17-years-old Brit is the founder of Summly, a mobile app he developed that searches for snippets of news and makes them better suited formobile devices- which D'Aloisio sold to yahoo.

He will now work for Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer and become the company’s youngest employee.

D’Aloisiobuilt Summly from his bedroom when he was just 15 and attracted big investors like Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing and Ashton Kutcher.

His mobile app was a hot pickup for Yahoo!, and D’Aloisio said it took months to come to terms.

“There were other big Internet companies interested, but Yahoo! was the most appropriate,” the teenager told The Post yesterday. “Yahoo! is just one of these classic companies.”

The price was not disclosed, but AllThingsD reported it was $30 million — 90 percent in cash and 10 percent in stock.

Yahoo! in turn gets a new mobile product as part of its broader strategy to entrench its brand on smartphones and tablets.

“Yahoo! has an inspirational goal to make people’s daily routines entertaining and meaningful, and mobile will be a central part of that vision,” D’Aloisio said in his blog post announcing the acquisition. “For us, it’s the perfect fit.”

Source: foxnews

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What's That Red Equal-Sign on Facebook All About?

They’re popping up on Facebook news feeds around the nation, but without much explanation. Just what are those red equal-sign Facebook profilepictures all about? Look no further than the Human Rights Campaign, an organization in support of gay marriage that is running a particularly successful social media initiative as the Supreme Court discusses the issue over the next two days.

In a Facebook post today, the HRC asked gay marriage supporters to “paint the town red,” wearing red in their wardrobe as well on their Facebook pages, changing profile photos over to the HRC “=” logo. The idea has even caught the eyes of Congress, with 13 members showcasing the symbol, according to Ryan Beckwith.

Source: ABCnews

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Whole Internet probed for insecure devices

A surreptitious scan of the entire internet has revealed millions of printers, webcams and set-top boxes protected only by default passwords.An anonymous researcher used more than 420,000 of these insecure devices to test the security and responsiveness of other gadgets, in a nine-month survey.Using custom-written code, they sent out more than four trillion messages.

The net's current addressing scheme accommodates about 4.2 billion devices. Only 1.3 billion addresses responded.The number of addresses responding was a surprise as the pool of addresses for that scheme has run dry. As a result, the net is currently going through a transition to a new scheme that has a vastly larger pool of addresses available.

The scan found half a million printers, more than one million webcams and lots of other devices, including set-top boxes and modems, that still used the password installed in the factory, letting almost anyone take over that piece of hardware. Often the password was an easy to guess word such as "root" or "admin".

"Whenever you think, 'That shouldn't be on the internet, but will probably be found a few times,' it's there a few hundred thousand times," wrote the un-named researcher in a paper documenting their work.HDMoore, who carried out a similar survey in 2012, told the Ars Technica news website the results looked "pretty accurate".

He added he had seen malicious hackers exploiting the security failings of these devices to run criminal networks known as botnets that are used to send out spam, mount phishing attacks and bombard websites with deluges of data.

Source: bbc

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Nvidia Delivers Workstation Graphics Experience to the Network

Nvidia's GRID Visual Computing Appliance is a remote GPU acceleration system that can run complex applications -- like those from Adobe, Autodesk and Dassault -- and display their graphics on a networked client computer. All a user has to do is click on an icon to create a virtual workspace. Users can then have the same graphics experience they would get from an expensive, dedicated workstation.

Nvidia on Wednesday debuted its GRID Visual Computing Appliance, a device that lets businesses deliver ultra-fast GPU performance to any Windows, Linux or Mac client on their network.

The GRID VCA is a GPU-based system that allows complex applications, sending graphics output to the network and enabling it to be displayed on a client machine. It provides remote GPU acceleration, giving the user on the client machine the same rich graphics experience available from an expensive dedicated PC workstation.

Source: technewsworld

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Google Doodle Honors

Google'sdoodle is a tribute to Douglas Adams( late author of acclaimed novel “ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”). Adams who would have been 61 today, published the “ Hichhiker's Guide” among the five books in 1979. It was originally a radio comedy broadcast on the BBC's Radio 4 in 1978.

It includes references to Adam's work: a towel which according to Adam'sbook is an essential item for space travel, a cup of tea, a staple of his oeuvre and when users click the door in the doodle, Marvin the beloved “ paranoid android” from “Hitchhiker's Guide” appears.

Source: abcnews

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SXSW may have peaked and that's not a bad thing

In South by Southwest Interactive, the tech-geek festival that begins here Friday, some see a five-day spring break of sorts: a chance to discover some buzzy new apps, catch a few panels and party alongside Web celebrities, futurists and many, many bloggers.

But others see the festival as a microcosm of the larger tech-culture community, a place to preview things that may become mainstream in a few years and where trends that play out in downtown Austin are indicators of what's to come.

Which is why we wonder each year: Has the festival peaked? Will the irrationally app-exuberant bubble finally burst?

If SXSW Interactive doesn't keep growing at up to 40% every year, does that mean the tech industry is slowing down or that the festival itself has reached capacity? Or is it only the hype that has plateaued?

This year, some SXSW veterans feel the maturing festival, which began in the late 1990s, may have reached a saturation point, especially when it comes to start ups trying to draw attention to new products. SXSW Interactive famously helped Twitter get off the ground in 2007 and gave apps such as Foursquare and Highlight a boost in recent years.

But as SXSW has gotten crowded, it's become much harder to stand out.

"I feel like people are having to put more effort because there's so much noise and so much going on," said Jennifer Sinski, an entrepreneur who runs RSPVster, which will auto-RSVP attendees to unofficial parties and events for a fee.

This year, Sinski said, "There's really no big app expected to launch, nothing huge people are excited for on the tech side."

That thought was echoed by a recent TechCrunch article wonderng whether the era of big SXSW app launches may have passed.

Just days before the festival starts, there have also been no big blow-out events announced to rival 2012's American Express concert featuring Jay-Z, Bruce Springsteen's powerhouse gig or the party for the app Mobli that drew investors Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire to town.

American Express will still be at the festival, but it will likely keep a lower profile given it announced 5,400 job cuts in January. Microsoft is no longer a sponsor at Interactive this year, and the annual TechKaraoke event will be missing.

That being said, rumors that Justin Timberlake will perform continue to swirl and notables such as former Vice President Al Gore, entrepreneur Elon Musk, broadcaster Rachel Maddow and NBA star Shaquille O'Neal are part of the official programming. And this year's themes of private space travel, 3-D printing, hacker culture and crowdfunding, still feel forward-looking.

Hugh Forrest, the longtime director of SXSW Interactive, says a slowing of growth may actually benefit the festival, which in recent years has put a strain on Austin's infrastructure. Forrest says that based on registration so far, the Interactive part of the festival is expected to grow at a more modest rate of 5% to 8% this year.

"It's definitely not the sharper increases we've had in the last few years," Forrest said. "In many ways, that's a good thing. It gives us the bandwidth to work out some of the rough edges."

Some of the growing pains, especially in the festival's Startup Village and Accelerator (a kind of "American Idol" competition for startups), prompted the festival to expand its reach beyond Austin. In August,it will launch V2V in Las Vegas, a new SXSW Interactive conference focused on tech entrepreneurship.

It's one way SXSW is hoping to alleviate the hotel crunch and downtown congestion that happens here every March.

Stephanie Wonderlin, a senior manager and social strategist with Momentum Factor, will be attending Interactive for her third year. Last year, she hosted videos for Chevy, which was pushing its Volt vehicles to techies at the fest.

Wonderlin believes things have been quieter going into Interactive this year, at least from her perspective. "I keep asking myself, 'What do I feel is missing?' I don't know if it's me being snooty."

For 2013, she says her schedule has shifted from big parties to smaller gatherings and networking, a trend she's seeing among friends, some of whom aren't bothering to pay for a badge.

"I think the size and how big it's gotten were just so overblown that maybe people who have to be there now want to do things on their own. One person told me, 'I would rather grab a bottle of wine and head up to a rooftop with a small group of friends' than go to the big parties," Wonderlin said.

"A lot of people I know who are big company sponsors say they're not even going to any of the sessions. I think the purpose of SXSW has changed."

Sinski, who's been going to SXSW Music for eight years and became more interested in Interactive as she launched her company, says that people who use her service are less interested in hype and big stars than they are in free food, real networking and companies that have something unique to show.

"Spending a lot of money isn't as big a deal as it was two or three years ago," she said. "Now it's about what you can offer people."

Source: cnn

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People consumed more time on personal computer that tables or personal phones

Despite of popularity of different personal phones, tables or any new smaller devices, people still consuming more time in their personal computer. Even this devices is very popular nowadays, still 80 percent of population still using their personal computer rather than phones or tables.

This are the following reason:

• People like big screens
• They watch a two hour movie , they play a half hour game. They check Facebook for awhile. The session length tends to be much longer.
• Personal computer accompanying keyboard and mouse or trackpad are also needed to perform most of their computing.

And according to report Personal Computer sales have remained strong. Also company still using Personal computer and not replacing with a table or phones.

Source: ca.news.yahoo.com

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Programmer 'outsources' his own job to China!

A computer programmer named 'Bob'' is report by Verizon' Risk Team, paid programmers in China one fifth of his salary to do his own job, so that he can spent his work days browsing the internet.

Bob spent his whole day browsing videos on Youtube and using social networking site like Facebook , Ebay and Reddit. He is no longer working for the company according to security company Verizon.

"Bob spent less that one fifth of his six-figure salary for a Chinese firm to do his job for him. Authentication was no problem, he physically FedExed his RSA token to China so that the third-party contractor could log-in under his credentials during the workday. It would appear that he was working an average 9 to 5 work day. Evidence even suggested he had the same scam going across multiple companies in the area. All told, it looked like he earned several hundred thousand dollars a year, and only had to pay the Chinese consulting firm about fifty grand annually." said Andrew Valentine of Verizon.

An American employer who fear they had been targeted by hackers called in Verizon and inform them regarding to this issue.

Source: ca.news.yahoo.com 

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Buy a Facebook girlfriend for only $39

The NamoroFake.com offers a service of “make it look that you have a girlfriend on facebook” which may cost small fees. The company offers four level of fake female companionship.

The fake girlfriend experience will cost the following :

• For “signifier” it will cost $10 US, cheaper but it is only good for 3 days and only gives you 3 comment at your post.
• For “ex-girlfriend” it will cost $19 US good for 7 days of companionship and it will leave 10 comment on your post.
• For “girlfriend” it will cost $39 US, you will get seven days of fake girlfriend to show off to your friends and family. And you will also received ten comments on your post for the authenticity of the relationship.
• For “virtual girlfriend” it will cost $99 US, you can get a longer term of relationship, one month of fake girlfriend and she will leave 30 comments on your post in that whole month.

The company claims that all featured women on the site is real.

Source: ca.yahoo.com 

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Google formally announces Philippines office

After many years of rumors and speculation , Google officially announced last Wednesday the opening of Google Philippine representative office, and naming the former Friendster executive Narciso Reyes as its first country manager.

The executive said Filipinos can expect Google to play a more significant role in every lives of Filipinos as well as in the development of local communities.

“We’re excited to be deepening our investment in the Philippines with the opening of our office here in Manila,” Reyes said. “Our local team will be committed to providing services to our Filipino users and to helping businesses, large and small grow locally and globally, contributing to the growth of the Philippine economy.”

And also Google said it is currently hiring employees for its Manila Office to be uploaded on its website in the coming days.

Source: interaksyon.com

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Giovanna Plowman sucks her own tampon

Giovanna Plowman

GiovannaPlowman uploaded of herself eating what appears to be a used tampon, but she couldn't stop the internet.

She uploaded a graphic video onto her now deleted Facebook page of what appeared to be her sucking on her own used tampon. She is now known as “Tampon Girl”. She's been accused by Twitter followers of creating the shock video as way to get her 15 minutes of fame.

There is argument over whether it's real or not. The site Know Your Meme points out that commenters seem to disagree whether it's actually bloody tampon she's using or just something dipped in tomato sauce or another red liquid.

Some think that she did that video to get on the Tosh O show, the International Digital Times pointed out a post on Facebook supposedly made by Plowman. She posted “ ”OMG! I just found I’m going to be on Tosh.0!!! One of Daniel Tosh’s agents got a hold of me and said they would love to have me and my video on their show! This is amazing. I never though it would get this big, and of course I’ll be going.”

Here is the link to the “Tampon Girl” video made by Giovanna Plownman. Be warned that even if it is fake , it is still jarring: live leak 

Source: Inquisitr.ca

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Twitter ordered to identify bigoted tweeters in France

Last Thursday, French court ordered Twitter Inc to help identify the authors of bigoted post or face fines of 1,000 euros per day,as the social network firm comes under renewed pressure to combat racist and extremist messages.

It is requested by a Jewish student union and right groups that concerned bigoted material but could open the floodgates to legal pursuit of Twitter users who post a wide range of messages deemed illegal or offensive.

"This is an excellent decision, which we hope will bring an end to the feeling of impunity that fuels the worst excesses," said Stephane Lilti, lawyer for the groups who sought the ruling.

The anti-Semitic message started appearing last October, and have since been deleted.
The Paris court gave privately-held Twitter, whose general policy is that it does not control content posted on its network, 15 days to hand over data identifying people who have published messages judged anti-Semitic.

The court also ordered Twitter to set up a system in France that helps people draw attention to illegal content. Under French law, people found guilty of inciting racial hatred can be jailed for a year and fined.

Twitter's lawyer in France, Alexandra Neri, declined to comment.

Source: ca.yahoo.com

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Teacher who posted semi naked pictures of herself and called a teen 'jail bait' launch Twitter page supporting her

A student have come out in a support of a teacher who was suspended from her job due to posting of half-naked photos of herself on her twitter account and joked about teenager being jail bait.

CarlyMcKinney, a math teacher at Overland High School in Aurora , Coloradowas placed on paid administrative leave on Tuesday after admitting to a local TV station that she created the twitter account with the help of a friend.

The students have also said on new channels that they don't think Mckinney should be punished for what she pursues in her free time outside of school hours.

Source: Dailymail.com

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25% of College Students Who Use Facebook are Depressed

Latest research report publish in august 2012 by University of Wisconsin shows that students in colleges who use Facebook often do post comments with depression on regular basis. According to the research report 25% of students profiles are suggested to have depressive symptoms with 2.5% students profiles met criteria for major depression. Study also revealed that students are more likely to discuss their depression online compare to real life.

To make things worst another study by University of Belgrade found significant correlation between Facebook and high school student’s depression.Similarly, Last Year a study by American Academy of Pediatrics released that Facebook and other social networking sites can be hazardous to children mental and physical health.Recently Facebook depression has been the most talkative issue on social networking forums and to those people who are very concerning about how Facebook causing depression. Like women are more likely to suffer from facebook depression than men.

Source: sickfacebook

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