Microsoft Accidentally Applies Chinese Censoring Outside of China

Today in international tech news: Microsoft's Bing accidentally extends its Chinese Web filters beyond China. Also: In China, the state-backed developer of a domestic operating system goes belly up; Apple aims to cleanse its supply chain in Africa; the EU wants less U.S. influence over the Internet; and cyberbullying takes center stage in Italy following the suicide death of a teenage girl.

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How to Make Your PC Restart Automatically After a Power Outage

It's a rare office indeed that doesn't suffer power outages from time to time -- w

eather-related or otherwise -- but such events don't have to be as disruptive as they once were. Enter the trusty uninterruptible power supply, which today can not only shut your computers down safely, they can also start them back up again once power has returned. Mother Nature: 0; Tech: 1.

The 2013 Atlantic hurricane season is quietly underway. Kit is available, however, that can help mitigate potential office disruption as weather ramps up.

Uninterruptible power supplies are sophisticated battery-containing devices that supply backup power to desktop PCs during grid electricity outages, like in storms. You can pick up a UPS at office supply retailers, among other places. They're great to have because the battery lets you keep working during short outages, and they let you shut down a desktop computer normally in the event of a longer outage without losing data.

Huawei Blasts US for Illegal NSA Spying

Today in international tech news: Huawei is disturbed about reports that the NSA spied on it; a notorious online critic is arrested in China; a hacker nabs personal details for 2 million Vodafone Germany users; and NASA confirms that the Voyager 1 has reached interstellar space.

Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei is taking a PR victory lap following reports suggesting that the National Security Agency spied on the company.

Earlier this week, Brazilian TV network Globo revealed a raft of documents that purportedly came from Edward Snowden. The files implicate the NSA, along with its British snooping ally, GCHQ, in spying on numerous targets, including a Saudi bank, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Huawei -- the same Huawei that was vilified last year by Congress and deemed a security threat because it might do something sinister like spy.

Huawei released a statement saying that it was "very disturbed" that the NSA attempted to worm its way into its networks and information. Huawei added that it "utterly object[s] to such illegal practices."

Billy on Steve Jobs and how Apple, not Microsoft, got tablets right

In a rare emotional interview, Bill Gates talked about a wide variety of topics, including a meeting with rival and sometimes friend, Steve Jobs, during the Apple co-founder's last days.

The Microsoft Chairman also found time to applaud Jobs and his sense of design in an interview with Charlie Rose on CBS's 60 Minutes.

When asked by the show host what he wished he could've had that Jobs had, Gates accepted that it was Steve's sense of design.

"His sense of design, that everything had to fit a certain aesthetic. The fact that he, with as little engineering background as he had, it shows that design can lead you in a good direction. And so phenomenal products came out of it."



Gates also touched upon a meeting he had with Steve Jobs during the latter's last days, saying the two talked about what they had learnt in their life, and about their families. He said that Jobs was not melancholic, despite knowing his fate, and that he talked about other things, including what more could be done through the use of technology and even showed him his new boat.

Purported image of next iPhone's motherboard leaks

An image of what is claimed to be a small component of the next generation iPhone's motherboard has leaked online, giving rise to a new set of rumours surrounding Apple's flagship smartphone.

Now Recharge Delhi Metro Smart Cards Online

In a bid to ease ticketing and recharge facilities for commuters, Delhi Metro Thursday launched online recharge facility for smart card users."With this new facility, commuters will now be able to top up their smart cards using debit or credit cards. However, recharge using net-banking facility is not available yet," a DMRC official said.
Metro commuters can top up their smart cards through www.delhimetrorail.com and www.dmrcsmartcard.com.

first small-screen Windows 8 tablet, accidentally leaked by Amazon.com

Accidental leaks seem to have become a common affair. The latest to suffer the fate is Acer with its W3-810 tablet, which is an 8.1-inch Windows 8 tablet.
According to a news report by PCWorld, Acer W3-810 was accidentally listed by Amazon.com on Friday for $379.99 (Rs. 20,500) but removed soon after.

A Boy and His Atom: The world's shortest movie

IBM says it has made the tiniest stop-motion movie ever - a one-minute video of individual carbon monoxide molecules repeatedly rearranged to show a boy dancing, throwing a ball and bouncing on a trampoline.

Each frame measures 45 by 25 nanometers - there are 25 million nanometers in an inch - but hugely magnified, the movie is reminiscent of early video games, particularly when the boy bounces the ball off the side of the frame accompanied by simple music and sound effects.

The movie is titled "A Boy and His Atom."

BB' CEO says no one will use tablets five years from now

During an interview at the Milken Institute conference in Los Angeles, Heins said that he does't think there'll be a reason to have a tablet in five years and that tablets were not a good business model. The interview was reported by Bloomberg.
 "In five years I don't think there'll be a reason to have a tablet anymore," said Heins. "Maybe a big screen in your workspace, but not a tablet as such. Tablets themselves are not a good business model."

It's not the first time that Heins has questioned the tablet business. However, the new comment indicates that the company is not looking at tablets, at all.

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Yahoo CEO Mayer checked VPN logs before banning home working Too many slackers

 

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer came up with her controversial and hugely unfashionable policy of outlawing home working after doing something almost unheard of for a US CEO – she checked the VPN logs to see whether anyone was slacking.

According to the reporter who broke the news of the ban, Mayer told told a staff meeting last week that the logs told her that some employees weren’t using the VPN often enough.
The reasoning was simple and non-technical; if employees weren’t using the VPN they couldn’t be working or contributing to Yahoo as a company.

“To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side,” Mayer said in her widely-leaked memo announcing the orignal ban, sent to staff on 22 February.
“That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices. […] We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together,” she added.

Phil Zimmermann goes full circle as Silent Circle launches encrypted email

Phil Zimmermann goes full circle as Silent Circle launches encrypted email

Twenty years on from PGP

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Security guru and privacy campaigner Phil Zimmermann could finally fulfil the commercial potential of his famous PGP encryption software of the 1990s with the news that his Silent Circle startup has added email encryption to its roster of products.
Launched last year mainly as a premium security suite for businesses and individuals that view personal communications security as a must rather than an expense, Silent Circle already offers secure document transfer and encrypted video, voice and SMS text on desktops and mobiles.
Silent Mail, the long-promised element to encrypt email and attachments, can now be integrated with a range of POP and IMAP-compatible desktop and mobile email (Outlook, Android and iPhone) clients to complete the list.

A key selling point of the system is that it does not interfere with the user’s email environment and makes end-to-end encryption between other enrolled users transparent.

Big-data science requires SDN, says research network chief

The 'one-size-fits-all' Internet can't accommodate new research applications and huge data flows

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Software-defined networking in universities today is like the early Internet decades ago, and big-data researchers in genomics and other fields already need it for their next set of discoveries, according to the head of Internet2.
Internet2 runs a US-wide network linking research institutions, and it's already using elements of SDN on its production infrastructure. SDN, a closely watched set of technologies at various stages of development, is intended to shift the control of networks from specialised devices such as switches and routers to software that can run on standard computing platforms and be virtualised. It promises a range of benefits that could include lower costs, faster service deployment and more network innovation.
The Internet itself began as a tool to help far-flung researchers share data and insights. But the massive amounts of data that many scientists work with today, thanks to advances in computing and storage, require new ways to communicate, said David Lambert, Internet2's president and CEO, at the Open Networking Summit conference on Wednesday.

Google discloses tech specs and developer API for Glass

The API is, however, a limited developer preview, Google said

The Google Glass wearable computer will have a high-resolution display equivalent of a 25-inch high-definition screen from eight feet away, and will capture 5-megapixels images and video at a resolution of 720p, according to technical specs disclosed on Monday.

The device will also support Wi-Fi compliant with 802.11b/g standards and Bluetooth, and has 12GB of usable memory, synced with Google cloud storage. It has 16GB flash memory in total.

Google has notified some users selected under its Glass Explorer testers program that some of the US$1,500 glasses were being produced and shipped in phases, according to reports.

Gartner: Long hard climb to high level of cloud computing security

Cloud service providers need to be clearer about business continuity and disaster-recovery practices

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It's still a long, hard climb to get to a high level of security in cloud computing, according to Gartner research vice president Jay Heiser, who said business and government organisations with sensitive data appear likely to hold back from cloud-based services until things improve.
"Finance tends to be more conservative about cloud computing than small business," said Heiser in his online presentation to Gartner clientele yesterday.
In "Prepare for and Minimize the Security Risk of Cloud Computing," Heiser expressed the view that it's somewhat simpler to establish a security baseline when using infrastructure-as-service (IaaS) than it is for software-as-service (SaaS) if only because there's more flexibility and less dependence on the competence of the service provider.

But overall, cloud service providers aren't as clear as they should be concerning matters such as their business continuity and disaster-recovery practices, making it hard to win customer confidence.

Intel sets up joint lab with China's Baidu for mobile apps

The chip maker will supply local developers with Intel-powered products for software testing

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Intel is hoping to get more Chinese developers to back its products by forming a new joint innovation lab with the nation's largest search engine Baidu.
The lab is part of an agreement the two companies signed on Thursday that will focus on developing software for China's mobile Internet market. Developers in the country will have access to Intel-powered products, including PCs, tablets and mobile devices, to test and port software for Baidu and Intel platforms.
"If you are a developer, you will now have more choices of platform, and more opportunities in business," said Christos Georgiopoulos, Intel general manager for developer relations.

#The Internet of Things is coming. Now what?

The Internet of Things is coming. Now what?

First came the internet, a vast, chaotic conglomeration of servers connected to one another and to dedicated devices, mainly PCs. Now the world is starting its migration to a new type of connectivity topology, the so-called ‘Internet of Things’.

Today, computing power is still largely contained in dedicated devices (including the PC), on tap through defined and often fragmented software interfaces largely inherited from the pre-internet era. When computing power and intelligence is distributed or ‘embedded’ in devices it tends to be on islands dedicated to specific tasks.

The U.S. Navy plans to deploy a solid-state laser weapon

 

#Sometime in fiscal year 2014, a U.S. Navy vessel will be able to add a touch of sci-fi imagination to its already formidable weapons array. A laser weapon will head to the Persian Gulf, and although it's not quite operational, the mere deployment should send a loud message to any troublemakers in the region. Drones have been shot down by prototype lasers, but weather and other conditions have to be optimal.

  

For the first time, the U.S. Navy plans to deploy a solid-state laser weapon on board one of its vessels, with the laser's debut scheduled for the Persian Gulf during fiscal year 2014. In a press release, the Navy said development and testing have resulted in a weapon that can "perform actions ranging from non-lethal disabling and deterrence all the way up to destruction."

The U.S. Navy's Laser Weapons System (LaWS)

The laser will be deployed on board the USS Ponce, an Austin-class amphibious transport dock that was retrofitted in 2012 as a staging base for helicopters and vessels that take countermeasures against mines.
The Ponce is now in the Persian Gulf. It will serve as a testbed platform for the Laser Weapon System (LaWS) when a prototype weapon system is installed on it sometime after October. However, some reports state the LaWS weapon is undergoing field tests on the Ponce.
The Navy did not respond to our request to comment for this story.
Inside the LaWS
The LaWS weapon was temporarily installed in 2012 on the guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey for tests against various targets.
LaWS is built from commercial fiber solid-state lasers strung together, controlled and directed onto targets by an MK 15 Phalanx Close-In Weapon System (CIWS), according to the U.S. Naval Institute.

The Phalanx CIWS was designed and manufactured by defense contractor General Dynamics. It consists of a radar-guided 20mm Gatling gun mounted on a swiveling base, and is used on every class of surface combat ship by the Navy, as well as on some U.S. Coast Guard vessels. Phalanx CIWS units are nicknamed "R2-D2" because of their shape, which resembles the robot character in the Star Wars movies.
The LaWS prototype reportedly cost US$32 million to build, but the Navy claims the weapon is cost-effective because each shot of directed energy costs less than $1, compared to the hundreds of thousands of dollars it costs to fire a missile.

the Bloomberg business and financial news service has begun streaming Twitter feeds to the 310,000 subscribers

Anyone who has spent time in a brokerage or financial institution has seen the omnipresent Bloomberg terminals flashing the latest business headlines and breaking news. Now the news service has decided to cast its vote for social media's ability to distribute news and insight by including tweets in its Bloomberg Professional service. The move is added validation of Twitter's ability to impact the traditional news industry.

the Bloomberg business and financial news service has begun streaming Twitter feeds to the 310,000 subscribers of its Bloomberg Professional service, which includes those who work in front of the media company's terminals that are widely used on Wall Street and in the finance industry.

"Bloomberg has always provided clients with a robust news platform offering original content, aggregated content and cutting edge technology via the Bloomberg Professional service," Brian Rooney, the company's core product manager for news told the E-Commerce Times. "Integrating Twitter into our platform is a natural extension of this."

"My sense of this is that ... Bloomberg's recognizing that their market is already using Twitter, so why have people toddle back and forth between the two services?" said Susan Moeller, a professor of journalism at the University of Maryland.

Bloomberg classifies tweets by company, asset class, person and topic. Its Twitter filter lets users control and specify what they want to monitor, Rooney said.

The Bloomberg Professional service offers investors information from social media channels, corporate announcements, feeds from more than 1,000 news organizations, including Bloomberg News, and content from more than 90,000 websites.

Twitter did not respond to our request to comment for this story.

Why Bloomberg's A-Twitter

Already noted for its role in promoting public political protest, such as in the Green Revolution in the Middle East, Twitter gained further authority as a source of real-time news when it carried developments of the Cyprus financial bailout last month well ahead of traditional news channels.

Bloomberg received some clarity on social media integration earlier this week from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which issued new rules on how companies can use social networks to distribute important corporate news.

The SEC's Regulation Fair Disclosure (Regulation FD) guidance, issued in 2008, bars public companies or persons acting on their behalf from selectively disclosing material before it's made available to the general public.

It was Netflix CEO Reed Hasting's posting on his personal Facebook page about a company milestone last summer that prompted the new SEC rules. Hasting's news resulted in a jump for his company's stock.

The SEC said it has not taken action against Netflix and Hastings because it recognized that there was market uncertainty about the application of Regulation FD to social media.

Reaction to Twitter Feeds on Bloomberg

What about the possibility that scam artists of various kinds would use Twitter to engage in financial mischief?

"There are many people on Twitter who are misrepresenting their identity or misrepresenting their information sources and also distorting information," Larry Chiagouris, professor of marketing at Pace University, told the E-Commerce Times. "These factors will greatly limit any reliance [on Twitter feeds] as a source of financial news. The mainstream financial press will be seen as even more valuable and important."

However, Bloomberg's move "adds authenticity and credibility to Twitter that it hasn't had so far," Moeller said. It "makes Twitter into a news outlet that is de facto."

As for the possibility of hacks and spam, she added that "you'll never entirely be ahead of it, but one would like to think that Bloomberg is going to be very careful about how it curates and passes on the Twitter feeds that it does."