48562061
submission
kaptink writes:
Microsoft helped the NSA to circumvent its encryption to address concerns that the agency would be unable to intercept web chats on the new Outlook.com portal. The agency already had pre-encryption stage access to email on Outlook.com, including Hotmail. The company worked with the FBI this year to allow the NSA easier access via Prism to its cloud storage service SkyDrive, which now has more than 250 million users worldwide. Microsoft also worked with the FBI's Data Intercept Unit to "understand" potential issues with a feature in Outlook.com that allows users to create email aliases. Skype, which was bought by Microsoft in October 2011, worked with intelligence agencies last year to allow Prism to collect video of conversations as well as audio. Material collected through Prism is routinely shared with the FBI and CIA, with one NSA document describing the program as a "team sport".
27626928
submission
kaptink writes:
One of the great grandmasters of space, time and the history of our existance is seeking an assistant to help develop and maintain the electronic speech system that allows him to communicate his vision of the universe.
An informal job ad posted on Stephen's website said the assistant should be computer literate, ready to travel and able to repair electronic devices "with no instruction manual or technical support".
Hawking has long struggled against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease that left him almost completely paralysed.
He lost his real voice in a tracheotomy in 1985, but has something based on NeoSpeech's VoiceText speech synthesiser mounted on his wheelchair that helps synthesise speech by interpreting the twitches of his face. The synthesiser's robotic monotone has become nearly as famous as Hawking himself, but the computer — powered by batteries fastened to the back of Hawking's wheelchair — isn't just for speaking.
It can connect to the internet over mobile phone networks and a universal infrared remote enables the physicist to switch on the lights, watch television, or open doors either at home or at the office.
It's a complicated, tailor-made system, as the ad makes clear. A photograph of the back of Hawking's wheelchair, loaded with coiled wires and electronic equipment, is pictured under the words: "Could you maintain this?"
"If your answer is 'yes', we'd like to hear from you!" the website says.
Hawking's website says that the job's salary is expected to be about $38,500 a year.
22285268
submission
kaptink writes:
Julian Assange is back in court today to appeal his extradition to Sweden. So far the court has heard more on the incompatibility between UK and Sweden sex crime laws and that the arrest warrant used was essentially flawed. — "Ben Emmerson QC told Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Ousely that the European arrest warrant under which Assange is being held was flawed because it failed to provide a "fair, accurate and proper" description of the alleged sexual misconduct"
The case is currently underway and you can follow events as they happen with the Guardian's live coverage — http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/12/julian-assange-extradition-live-coverage.
19912024
submission
kaptink writes:
Microsoft seems to be trying to get its own personal unfair competition laws passed state by state, so it can sue US companies who get parts from overseas companies who used pirated Microsoft software anywhere in their business. The laws allow Microsoft to block the US company from selling the finished product in the state and compel them to pay damages for what the overseas supplier did.
So if a company overseas uses a pirated version of Excel, let's say, keeping track of how many parts it has shipped or whatever, and then sends some parts to General Motors or any large company to incorporate into the finished product, Microsoft can sue *not the overseas supplier* but General Motors, for unfair competition. So can the state's Attorney General. I kid you not. For piracy that was done by someone else, overseas. The product could be T shirts. It doesn't matter what it is, so long as it's manufactured with contributions from an overseas supplier, like in China, who didn't pay Microsoft for software that it uses somewhere in the business. It's the US company that has to pay damages, not the overseas supplier.
17801908
submission
kaptink writes:
The self proclaimed hacker that waged a DDoS attack on Wikileaks has been arrested and has had all his equipment seized. What is interesting is that local police conducted the raid and not a federal authority such as the FBI. The The Jester (th3j35t3r) who has a reputation for attacking websites he disagrees with is said to be trying to raise $10,000 in expected lawyers fees. If anyone is going to be allright in the whole Wikileaks debarcle, its going to be the lawyers. Personally I think anyone who spells their nick with numbers in an effort to look 'leet' deserves to have their computer confiscated.
16737656
submission
kaptink writes:
Reports surfacing from Iran claim "nuclear spies" have been arrested over the infection at the Busheher nuclear station which only open August this year. Iran alleges that because Stuxnet it is so sophisticated, cost so much to write and uses two stolen security certificates, Intelligence minister Heydar Moslehi believes only a national intelligence agency or a huge private company could have devised it calling them "enemies' spy services".
12704278
submission
kaptink writes:
Dana Kuchler, a 21-year veteran of the West Allis' Dispatch Department, was fired from her job for making jokes on her Facebook page about taking drugs. She appealed to an arbitrator, claiming the Facebook post was a joke pointing out she had written "ha" in it and urine and hair samples tested negative for drugs. But the arbitrator said she should be entitled to go back to work after a 30-day suspension, but the City of West Allis complained that was not appropriate.
Is posting bad jokes on Facebook a justifiable reason to give someone the boot?
