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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 57 declined, 18 accepted (75 total, 24.00% accepted)

Submission + - White House announces reforms targeting patent trolls

Submitted by andy1307
andy1307 writes: According to Politico and The Wall Street Journal, the White House on Tuesday plans to announce a set of executive actions President Barack Obama will take that are aimed at reining in certain patent-holding firms, known as "patent trolls" to their detractors, amid concerns that the firms are abusing the patent system and disrupting competition. The plan includes five executive actions and seven legislative recommendations. They include requiring patent holders and applicants to disclose who really owns and controls the patent, changing how fees are awarded to the prevailing parties in patent litigation and protecting consumers with better protections against being sued for patent infringement.

Submission + - HP reports memristor breakthrough (nytimes.com)

Submitted by andy1307
andy1307 writes: Hewlett-Packard scientists on Thursday will report advances demonstrating significant progress in the design of memristors, or memory resistors. The researchers previously reported in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they had devised a new method for storing and retrieving information from a vast three-dimensional array of memristors. The scheme could potentially free designers to stack thousands of switches on top of one another in a high-rise fashion, permitting a new class of ultra-dense computing devices even after two-dimensional scaling reaches fundamental limits.

Submission + - Journalists (Yahoo) E-Mails Hacked in China (nytimes.com)

Submitted by andy1307
andy1307 writes: According to this article in the New York Times, In what appears to be a coordinated assault, the e-mail accounts of at least a dozen rights activists, academics and journalists who cover China have been compromised by unknown intruders. The infiltrations, which involved Yahoo e-mail accounts, appeared to be aimed at people who write about China and Taiwan, rendering their accounts inaccessible, according to those who were affected. In the case of this reporter, hackers altered e-mail settings so that all correspondence was surreptitiously forwarded to another e-mail address. The victims of the most recent intrusions included a law professor in the United States, an analyst who writes about China’s security apparatus and several print journalists based in Beijing and Taipei, the capital of Taiwan.

Submission + - U.S. and Russia Open Talks on Limits to Cyberwar (nytimes.com)

Submitted by andy1307
andy1307 writes: According to the New York Times, "The United States has begun talks with Russia and a United Nations arms control committee about strengthening Internet security and limiting military use of cyberspace. American and Russian officials have different interpretations of the talks so far, but the mere fact that the United States is participating represents a significant policy shift after years of rejecting Russia’s overtures. Officials familiar with the talks said the Obama administration realized that more nations were developing cyberweapons and that a new approach was needed to blunt an international arms race. While the Russians have continued to focus on treaties that may restrict weapons development, the United States is hoping to use the talks to increase international cooperation in opposing Internet crime. Strengthening defenses against Internet criminals would also strengthen defenses against any military-directed cyberattacks, the United States maintains.
Government

Submission + - US govt Launches Web Site to Track IT Spending

Submitted by andy1307
andy1307 writes:

According to this article in the Washington Post, Vivek Kundra, the federal chief information officer, on Tuesday announced a new Web site designed to track more than $70 billion in government information technology spending, showing all contracts held by major firms within every agency. The site shows detailed information about whether IT contracts are being monitored and budgets being met. The data also show which contracts were won through a competitive process or in a no-bid method, which has been criticized by good-government advocates for excluding firms from business opportunities. Each prime contractor is listed as well as the status of that project; sub-contractors are not yet shown on the site.

The website is http://usaspending.gov/. The view dashboard link has already been slashdoted.

Businesses

Submission + - FCC report supports use of white spaces. 2

Submitted by andy1307
andy1307 writes: According to this article in the Washington Post, the major telcos disagree with the FCC's report that concluded that using white spaces to provide free wireless internet would not cause major interference with other services. But several large wireless carriers, including T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and AT&T, argue that using the spectrum will in fact interfere with their own broadband services operating in adjacent airwaves. FCC engineers conducted field tests last month in Seattle to determine the level of static between the services. The FCC concluded that sufficient technical protections would prevent major problems. FCC chairman Martin's proposal is to auction off the spectrum, with some rules attached. Some of the spectrum would be used for free Internet service, which would have content filters to block material considered inappropriate for children.
United States

Submission + - DHS allowed to take laptops indefinitely

Submitted by andy1307
andy1307 writes: According to this article in the Washington Post, Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed. Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. DHS officials said that the newly disclosed policies — which apply to anyone entering the country, including U.S. citizens — are reasonable and necessary to prevent terrorism. Officials said such procedures have long been in place but were disclosed last month because of public interest in the matter. The policies cover "any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form," including hard drives, flash drives, cell phones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes. They also cover "all papers and other written documentation," including books, pamphlets and "written materials commonly referred to as 'pocket trash' or 'pocket litter.' "
The Internet

Submission + - Al-Qaeda's Growing Online Offensive

Submitted by andy1307
andy1307 writes: The Washington Post has an article on Al-Qaeda's online presence. U.S. and European intelligence officials attribute the al-Qaeda propaganda boom in part to the network's ability to establish a secure base in the ungoverned tribal areas of western Pakistan. When Osama bin Laden wants to deliver a speech, a trusted video cameraman is summoned to a safe house somewhere in Pakistan, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials and analysts. The video file is then edited, stored on a tiny computer memory stick and given to a human courier. The memory stick usually passes through several sets of hands to disguise its route, until an operative finally sits down in an Internet cafe and saves the data to a password-protected Web site, they said. Analysts said that as-Sahab(AQ's propaganda network) is outfitted with some of the best technology available. Editors and producers use ultralight Sony Vaio laptops and top-end video cameras. Files are protected using PGP, or Pretty Good Privacy, a virtually unbreakable form of encryption software that is also used by intelligence agencies around the world.

My favorite line from the article: "Al-Qaeda doesn't have a whole lot of choice. If they want to know something about the U.S., they either go to Gadahn(a California native and convert to Islam who moved to Pakistan a decade ago) or to Wikipedia."
Intel

Submission + - FTC opens formal antitrust investigation of Intel

Submitted by andy1307
andy1307 writes: According to the New York Times, The Federal Trade Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation of Intel. The officials and lawyers said that in recent days Intel, its smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices, and several of the world's largest personal computer makers that buy semiconductors from the two companies have begun to receive subpoenas from the commission. The investigation into accusations that Intel's pricing policies have been designed to maintain a near-monopoly on the microprocessor market was authorized by William E. Kovacic, the new chairman of the trade commission, and has the support of the agency's other commissioners. It reversed a decision by his predecessor, Deborah P. Majoras, who had been blocking the formal inquiry for many months, frustrating other senior commission officials and some lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Ms. Majoras is a former senior official in the antitrust division at the Justice Department who was an architect of the Bush administration's antitrust settlement with Microsoft in 2001.
Businesses

Submission + - Oracle makes 6.6 billion $ bid for BEA

Submitted by andy1307
andy1307 writes: According to this article in the San Jose Mercury News, Oracle has made an unsolicited bid to buy BEA Systems for about $6.7 billion. BEA confirmed that it rejected the $17 a share bid as too low in a letter to Oracle's president, Charles Phillips. Oracle's aggressive bid may be an attempt to pre-empt an acquisition by others, Finley said. Those named in the past as potential suitors include IBM, the German software company SAP AG and Hewlett-Packard. Trip Chowdhry of Global Equity Research said he expects a counterbid from SAP, which he said needs BEA to survive. "If they don't get BEA, probably in two years SAP will be on the block to sell itself," Chowdhry predicted. Oracle needs to keep BEA out of competitors' hands, he said.
Businesses

Submission + - The end of Vonage?

Submitted by andy1307
andy1307 writes: According to this article in the Washington Post, Internet telephone company Vonage Holdings Corp. was ordered in federal court Tuesday to pay Sprint Nextel $69.5 million in damages for infringing on six telecommunications patents owned by competitor Sprint Nextel Corp. In addition to the $69.5 million damages, jurors awarded Sprint Nextel a 5 percent royalty from Vonage on future revenues. It was the second verdict against the Holmden, N.J.-based company this year. A jury in Virginia determined in March that Vonage had violated three Verizon patents in building its Internet phone system. The jury awarded Verizon $58 million in damages plus 5.5 percent royalties on future revenues. Greg Gorbatenko, a telecommunications and media analyst for Jackson Securities, said the decision "feels like a death knell" for Vonage because future revenue will likely dry up, preventing the company from investing in better technology or improving customer service.
Businesses

Submission + - Chinese company looking to buy Seagate (nytimes.com)

Submitted by andy1307
andy1307 writes: According to this article in the New York Times, a Chinese technology company has expressed interest in buying Seagate, raising concerns among American government officials about the risks to national security in transferring high technology to China. From the article : In recent years, modern disk drives, used to store vast quantities of digital information securely, have become complex computing systems, complete with hundreds of thousands of lines of software that are used to ensure the integrity of data and to offer data encryption. That could raise the prospect of secret tampering with hardware or software to make it possible to pilfer information via computer networks, intelligence officials have warned. The Chinese company has not been named in the article. According to William D. Watkins of Seagate Technology, "The U.S. government is freaking out,"

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