Der Microsoft-Gründer Bill Gates führt die Superreichen-Liste des Magazins Forbes mit 72 Milliarden Dollar an. Auch Facebook-Gründer Mark Zuckerberg zählt zu den Gewinnern. Fünf Jahre nach dem Hochkochen der Finanzkrise geht es den US-Milliardären so prächtig wie nie.
Das Bundesarchiv hat heute zusammen mit seinen Projektpartnern an der Open Knowledge Conference in Genf ein Pilotportal für offene Behördendaten der Schweiz lanciert (opendata.admin.ch). Die Erfahrungen, die im Laufe des nun folgenden halbjährigen Testbetriebs gesammelt werden, sollen als Entscheidgrundlage für die mögliche Erweiterung des Portals zu einer schweizweiten Open Government Data Lösung dienen, wie es in einem heute verschickten Communiqué des Bundesarchivs heisst.
Auf dem Weg zur ersten Erdumrundung mit einem Solarflugzeug hat Solar Impulse einen neuen Partner an Bord geholt: Mit den Plattformen von Google sollen jüngere Generationen für das Vorhaben der beiden Flugpioniere Bertrand Piccard und André Borschberg begeistert werden.
Die amerikanische National Security Agency (NSA) soll laut Medienberichten den grössten belgischen Telekommunikationsprovider Belgacom seit 2011 ausspioniert haben. Belgacom erstattete in Belgien Klage wegen eines "Eindringens auf digitalem Wege" in seine Systeme. Die dabei verwendete Technik lege nahe, dass ein anderes Land dahinter stecke, berichtete die Zeitung "De Standaard" am Montag.
Der chinesische Telekomausrüster ZTE will vom Trend zur Auslagerung von Daten in das Internet profitieren und das sogenannte Cloud-Computing weltweit ausbauen. Das Geschäft mit Internet-Speicherdiensten solle seinen Anteil am Gesamtumsatz schon im laufenden Jahr auf zehn Prozent steigern, nach sieben bis acht Prozent 2012, sagte Zhu Jinyun, der zuständige Manager bei dem weltweit Branchenfünften.
Im Rahmen einer Entwicklungspartnerschaft zwischen Sunrise und der Softwareschmiede Dacuda sind seit kurzem schweizweit alle Sunrise Shops mit der Scanner Software des Zürcher Startups ausgerüstet worden. Dacuda ist die Erfinderin der Technologie hinter der laut eigenen Angaben weltweit ersten Scannermaus. Das für Sunrise entwickelte System sei mittels einer neuartigen Pass- und ID-Erkennung erweitert worden, um die Datenqualität am Point of Sale zu erhöhen, heisst es.
Die Leser des Reader's Digest haben Hewlett-Packard (HP) wie schon in den Jahren zuvor erneut zur vertrauenswürdigsten Marke der Schweiz im Bereich Personal Computer gewählt. Dies ergabt die Umfrage "European Most Trusted Brands", an der sich 1.083 Schweizer LeserInnen beteiligt hatten.
Die auf Sicherheitslösungen fokussierte Wetziker Firma Kaba hat im Geschäftsjahr 2012/13 (per 30.6.) den Umsatz gesteigert, beim operativem Gewinn und beim Konzerngewinn jedoch einen leichten Rückgang verzeichnet.
Facebook hat am Montag zum ersten Mal offizielle Nutzerzahlen für Deutschland veröffentlicht. 19 Millionen Menschen in Deutschland sind demnach täglich auf Facebook. Diese Reichweite entspricht laut dem sozialen Netzwerk der Reichweite der drei grössten Tageszeitungen in Deutschland zusammengenommen.
Beim Industriekonzern ABB ist der angekündigte Wechsel an der Spitze vollzogen worden. Seit dem 15. September ist Ulrich Spiesshofer offiziell der neue Konzernchef und Nachfolger des zurückgetretenen Joe Hogan. Der Stabwechsel sei nach einem dreimonatigen geordneten Übergabeprozess erfolgt, teilte ABB am Montag mit.
Peter Molyneux’s return to the God-game genre is a bit click-happy, but there are interesting ideas bubbling under the surface.
A branch of the NSA has been collecting global financial data, including credit card transactions and data from SWIFT, which runs an international bank messaging system, according to a . The German publication provided details about a U.S. National Security Agency branch called “Follow the Money” that inputs financial data into a system called “Tracfin” that it said came from documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Tracfin contained 180 million records in 2011, of which some 84 percent of the data was comprised of credit card transactions, Der Spiegel reported. In an email statement Monday, the NSA said the U.S. government acquires economic and financial information related to terrorist financing and terror networks. “This information is collected through regulatory, law enforcement, diplomatic, and intelligence channels, as well as through undertakings with cooperating foreign allies and partners,” the statement said.
If your phone is stolen, you can lock it, and change its password, from a website.
Google's Bump buy could mean seamless cross-device sharing is coming to iPhones, laptops, and other hardware that doesn't support NFC.
European Union member states have adopted a range of stances on net neutrality, and the E.U. should look to the countries’ examples as it attempts to move forward with new regulations, said one advocacy group. Twenty-three of 28 E.U. member states have adopted positions on net neutrality, said the Openforum Academy, an open technology think tank, . Seven E.U. countries are considering further action on net neutrality, the report said. “Debates at the national level should be considered by the EU if only for compatibility and inspiration purposes,” Maël Brunet, head of the Brussels Office for Openforum Europe, said by email. “There certainly are interesting elements to consider there.” The Openforum Academy and sister organization Openforum Europe have to draft net neutrality regulations.
A Swiss security company said the Nasdaq website had a serious cross-site scripting vulnerability for two weeks before being fixed on Monday, despite earlier warnings. Ilia Kolochenko, CEO of the Geneva-based penetration testing company , said he repeatedly emailed Nasdaq and warned of the XSS flaw. “I can basically say I have spammed them,” Kolochenko said in an interview.
And even better, it doesn't look terrible.
Rdio just partnered with the U.S.'s second-largest radio provider, and free, ad-supported rocking could be in the cards by the end of 2013.
Mozilla last week said that slower-than-expected progress on Firefox for Microsoft's Windows 8 "Modern" user interface (UI) means that the touch-based browser likely won't launch until late January. in August 2012 over a trademark dispute with a German retailer. The Firefox "Preview Release" will still be packaged with the Aurora build of Firefox 26 for the Windows desktop when it launches Tuesday, as originally planned. "The goal of the Metro Preview Release is to gather feedback and defects from the larger Aurora community," Mozilla said in notes published on its website from a planning meeting last Wednesday. "Whether or not the Metro Preview Release will graduate from Aurora to Beta and Release channels is still to be determined. At a minimum, it should significantly increase the number of testers and feedback."
Laptops long ago surpassed desktops in sales, and tablets and smartphones are taking major market share from laptops. The tendency is clearly towards smaller, lighter, and more portable computing. But there are some good reasons to stick with a big box that sits on or below your desk. First off, there's the price/performance ratio. Whether you're spending $300 or $3,000, you will get a more powerful computer for your money if you're willing to give up portability.
If you’re wondering which TV shows Netflix hopes to add to its catalog in the coming months, look no further than sites like the Pirate Bay. When the online streaming company wants to figure out what people are watching, Netflix looks at what does well on piracy sites, Netflix vice president of content acquisition Kelly Merryman reportedly told the Dutch-language site, . Prison Break, for example, was “exceptionally popular on piracy sites,” Merryman said. All four seasons of Fox’s drama, which ran from 2005-2009, are currently available through the online streaming service. Netflix also looks at ratings and box office draws when it's deciding which movies to offer, Merryman told Tweakers. Merryman made her comments during Netflix’s recent debut in the Netherlands. We’ve dropped a line to Netflix to confirm Merryman’s comments and also to find out what other indicators the company uses before licensing content.
Competition in China’s search market is heating up with a new $448 million deal that will bolster Internet giant Tencent’s presence in the country’s search market. Tencent is spending $448 million to buy a 36.5 percent stake in Sogou, a local search engine owned by Chinese company Sohu.com. As part of the deal, Tencent’s own search engine, Soso, will merge with Sogou, the companies said on Monday. The deal will put Tencent in closer competition with Baidu, another Chinese Internet giant that has reigned over the country’s search market for years. Baidu currently has a 61 percent share of the market, according to Internet analytics site CNZZ.com. Both Tencent’s and Sohu’s search engines have struggled to individually gain traction in the market. But by combining forces, the two companies will together have a 15 percent share of the market.
Box is hosting its third annual in San Francisco this week. One of the big announcements out of BoxWorks is the launch of a new service from Box called Box Notes. Box has been built around the idea that people should be able to . It now counts more than 20 million users spanning over 180,000 businesses around the world, all storing and sharing data online through Box. Now, Box is going a step further, adding the ability to create and collaborate on content, too. Microsoft Office is the de facto productivity suite—anchored in large part by Microsoft Word. Microsoft Word is an exceptionally powerful content creation platform. In fact, it’s so powerful that it contains many elements of its sibling applications, including a wide range of features normally reserved for spreadsheet, database, and presentation software. There is very little that Microsoft Word can’t do, and for many people, that’s what’s wrong with it. What if you only want to create a simple document? Do you really need the hundreds of features and options available in Microsoft Word? Probably not. The fact that they are even there just adds unnecessary complexity.
Most modern laptop LCDs and desktop monitors are extremely wide, which doesn't make sense when you consider that most Web pages are narrow and intended for portrait-style viewing. Indeed, if you look at this very page, you may notice some unused white space on either side. Of course, you can always keep a browser open in one window and something else in another: Windows makes it easy to split them into two equal halves. is a browser extension that brings that idea to Google Chrome--but with an incredibly useful twist. The best way to explain it is to show you how it works. .
In another sign of trouble at HTC, the Taiwan-based smartphone maker started downsizing its U.S. operations on Friday, cutting an undisclosed number of staff. The move is meant to “streamline and optimize” the company’s U.S. organization “after several years of aggressive growth,” HTC said in a Monday email. A company spokeswoman declined to specify how many employees would be affected. “However, to achieve our long-term goals as a business and return maximum value to our shareholders, this is a necessary step to drive ongoing innovation,” the company said. HTC has been facing a difficult year on
Securing your PC against the malicious wilds of the Web isn’t as simple as just keeping your ” your PC. But fear not! Those sneaky tricks are most effective if victims are unaware of the danger. And today, dear reader, I’m going to show you how to avoid the most devious PC security traps, because in this case knowing is than half the battle. Let’s start with the devious attack you’re most likely to encounter during your day-to-day computing. Phishing websites mimic the look of another site in an attempt to lure you into entering your personal and account information. Although phishing websites take all forms, attackers especially like to spoof banks and social networks. Phishing attacks typically threaten from two angles: mistyped website URLs and email messages that pretend to be from legitimate sources.
Inside the world of social media ghostwriters.
You’d think smartphones and tablets would kill printing, but they haven’t yet. Some documents are just easier to read on paper than on a small screen. And in the increasingly , you have employees and clients walking in with their mobile devices and wanting to print. Printer vendors are only too happy to help, with apps designed to get something off your mobile device and onto paper. But this is no small trick: Mobile devices weren’t designed for printing, nor were printers designed to talk to anything other than a PC or a Mac. The device and the printers may need to be on the same wireless network, or the printer may need access to the Internet. Some apps can send the job via email to the printer, in which case, you could be anywhere when you send the job. While the apps offer some ability to customize the job—such as number of prints, or size or type of paper—the printouts might not look exactly like what you expect, because the apps can’t translate all fonts or formatting perfectly. Not surprisingly, iOS and Android devices get the most app options, but platform- and vendor- independent solutions such as Google Cloud Print are also available. If this sounds too complicated, you’re right. Unless you’re lucky enough to have an IT department that can implement an enterprise-wide solution, this guide will help you sift through the sometimes confusing options available for individuals and small businesses. The printer you already own at home or at the office could very well have an app you could use with it, and if you’re looking to buy a new printer, check to make sure it has an app to work with your device. : Brother lets you print to select models via iOS, Android, and Windows Phone devices. Scanning from your multifunction printer directly to your handset is also supported. Printing is generally limited to 10MB or 50 pages, and other odd restrictions apply (Windows Phone can’t print webpages, for example). A large selection of the company’s MFC, DCP, and HL series printers are supported by the various apps, with slightly better support for iOS devices.
A funny thing happened last week while I was across the pond at : Acxiom opened the kimono and showed us its data bits. On September 4, the biggest name in data aggregation that most people have never heard of, let alone are able to pronounce, unveiled Regular readers will remember that back in May I , chief privacy officer for Acxiom, who denied that her employer was actively working on a data portal for consumers. Well, so much for that. Apologies to my readers and to Emily Steel for suggesting otherwise. Shame on Acxiom for not being honest with me. The portal itself is not a huge leap forward in transparency, but it’s a step in the right direction.
A recent federal court ruling is a warning to companies that workers' non-public Facebook postings are private and uninvited employers have no right to read them. The ruling, handed down in August, stemmed from a lawsuit filed by a paramedic against Monmouth-Ocean Hospital Service Corp. (MONOC) in New Jersey. Deborah Ehling was disciplined after posting on her Facebook wall a comment criticizing Washington, D.C., paramedics' handling of a . The U.S. District Court decision is significant because it is one of very few rulings addressing whether meant only for users' "friends" are protected under the federal Stored Communications Act. Passed in 1986, the act extends protection to electronic communications that are configured to be private. "The message that we're getting here is that the courts will take very seriously the privacy interests of someone who is using social media and designates it as private communications," Robert Quackenboss, a partner in the labor employment group of the law firm Hunton & Williams, said last week.
The "Personal Computer Era" has evolved into the "Personal Cloud Era" with the surprising new entrant, the tablet, says Michel Emelianoff, executive vice president of Alcatel-Lucent and president of Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise. For the last 30 years or so, we have been living in what some refer to as the "Personal Computer Era." During this period, the Personal Computer (PC) became the center of everything and it became more important every day. In many cases, it has also become the sole device for access to corporate information. But for a couple of years, a surprising new entrant has created something quite different from what we knew in the past—the tablet, and its arrival in the enterprise space is a symptom of a global transformation.
Businesses are still ignoring the threat posed by out-of-date versions of Java, with barely one in five running the latest version during August, security firm Websense . After running traffic through the firm's ThreatSeeker Intelligence Cloud, an incredible 40 percent of Java requests were found to be from Java 6 Standard Edition (SE), succeeded by Java 7 SE more than two years ago. Java 6 support ended in April 2013. Some might have continued to run this for compatibility reasons for a time, but ignoring the issue would now be leaving them open to The general tendency not to update meant that 81 percent of browsers were now vulnerable to two recent vulnerabilities in particular, CVE-2013-2473 and CVE-2013-2463 from June this year, for which there were working exploits, Websense said.
HP TippingPoint's bug bounty program today said it will again sponsor a mobile-only hacking contest this fall, when it will put up $300,000 in prize money for researchers who demonstrate successful attacks against mobile services and browsers.
The security of Windows 8 picture passwords might not be as weak as some recent headlines indicate, and there are ways to maximize how hard they are to crack, researchers say. . And by following itself, picture passwords can be made significantly more secure. The issue came up when researchers at the Usenix Security Symposium were easily cracked.
A U.S appellate court's decision last week to permit a wiretapping case against Google to proceed, is based on flawed reasoning, a leading technology think-tank says. On September 10, the U.S. Appeals Court for the Ninth Circuit to dismiss claims that it had violated the federal Wiretap Act when it collected data from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks when capturing Street View photographs. In 2010, Google admitted that its Street View cars had in homes and businesses when shooting photographs. The company publicly apologized for what it claimed was an honest mistake and offered to destroy or make inaccessible the nearly 660GB of data it had collected from the networks. Several individuals claiming the company had violated the Wiretap Act, which prohibits the intentional interception of electronic data. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs noted that Google's Street View cars had recorded a considerable amount of data from open Wi-Fi networks including SSIDs, MAC addresses, and even "payload" data such as personal emails, passwords, videos, and documents.
Cyber attacks, such as the computer security incident response team director Michael Smith. While Smith admits that cyber attacks are often designed to punish a particular organization that is he adds that the aim is to also generate press for their cause. "What we have seen with hactivists is that attacking a website tends to be more about generating media coverage about their cause than it is about which site they targeted or what the impact was," he said. In the case of the New York Times, are not going away, either.
Philadelphia Eagles fans attending Sunday's home opener at Lincoln Financial Field will be able to access a new free Wi-Fi network to watch game video, visit social networks, or even order food. The installation of the Wi-Fi network, which cost "several million" dollars, is part of a two-year, $130 million renovation of the 69,000-seat venue, according to Eagles President Don Smolenski, who noted that the wireless network was a big hit with concertgoers over the summer. "At the Taylor Swift concert in July, I was watching all these teenage girls taking pictures of themselves with their cellphones, and even Taylor Swift was tweeting during a rain delay," Smolenski said, adding that the singer's tweets were carried to the blogosphere via the free Wi-Fi network. "It's going to be no different at the Eagles' games, with people watching videos and taking photos" and using the Wi-Fi network for in-seat food ordering, he said.
For Web surfers tired of having their and who want to make anonymous searches, the new Epic Privacy Browser from Hidden Reflex may be just the thing with the added bonus of some faster download speeds. The browser, free to proxies all search requests so they can't be traced back to actual source IP addresses, and it has a one-click proxy feature that can invoke the same proxy for any other type of browser activity, according to Alok Bhardwaj, founder and CEO of Hidden Reflex. The browser won't accept third-party cookies and blocks trackers as well as ads, which often include trackers. The average Web page contains six trackers, he says, with some having up to 40. A side benefit of blocking them is faster download speeds from some sites because without ads and trackers less information is downloaded to build pages, Bhardwaj says. Epic blocks referrer data sent to search engines to prevent those engines from gathering and selling the data to advertisers.