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The information on Groklaw is not intended to constitute legal advice. While Mark is a lawyer and he has asked other lawyers and law students to contribute articles, all of these articles are offered to help educate, not to provide specific legal advice. They are not your lawyers.

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America's next threat: Cyberterrorism? | 352 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
Cockroaches scurry out of sight
Authored by: DannyB on Friday, April 26 2013 @ 01:03 PM EDT
unXis changes its legal name in Delaware registry to Xinuos, Inc.

So goes the musical chairs renaming game.

---
The price of freedom is eternal litigation.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Salesforce.com charges $125,000 for non-existant software ..
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, April 26 2013 @ 05:47 PM EDT
"Salesforce.com, a pillow manufacturer and an employee of the pillow maker are caught up in a complex three-way legal battle, with a US$125,000 American Express bill and an allegedly failed software implementation at the center of the dispute." link

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Two H-1B’s walk into a bar: more on the visa scam
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, April 26 2013 @ 06:05 PM EDT
Interesting article by Cringely, referring to a video, Education and Immigration Reform: Reigniting American Competitiveness and Economic Opportunity (transcript), featuring Microsoft's Brad Smith talking about hiring problems in the US and influencing STEM education in schools.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Roundup® link to autism, cancer and parkinsonism ..
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, April 26 2013 @ 06:43 PM EDT
`Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup®, is the most popular herbicide used worldwide. The industry asserts it is minimally toxic to humans, but here we argue otherwise. Residues are found in the main foods of the Western diet, comprised primarily of sugar, corn, soy and wheat. Glyphosate's inhibition of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes is an overlooked component of its toxicity to mammals. CYP enzymes play crucial roles in biology, one of which is to detoxify xenobiotics. Thus, glyphosate enhances the damaging effects of other food borne chemical residues and environmental toxins. Negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body.'

`Here, we show how interference with CYP enzymes acts synergistically with disruption of the biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids by gut bacteria, as well as impairment in serum sulfate transport. Consequences are most of the diseases and conditions associated with a Western diet, which include gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. We explain the documented effects of glyphosate and its ability to induce disease, and we show that glyphosate is the “textbook example” of exogenous semiotic entropy: the disruption of homeostasis by environmental toxins.' link

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Washington's Microsoft Tax gift ..
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, April 26 2013 @ 06:57 PM EDT
"Wednesday will be the third anniversary of the biggest corporate tax break in Washington State history. On April 10, 2010, the Legislature changed the definition of the state’s royalty tax and effectively granted amnesty to Microsoft, helping the company lock up $1.51 billion in savings from its thirteen-year Nevada tax dodge."

"The changes were led by Rep. Ross Hunter, Chair of the Finance Committee and a 17 year ex-Microsoft veteran. If you include the impact of the company’s 1997 lobbying to cut the royalty tax rate by 2/3, Microsoft’s Nevada accounting has saved the company more than $4.37 billion."

"Coincidentally, Washington State has had to cut $4 billion from K-12 and Higher Education in the last five years." link

What happens when you put Microsoft managers in charge of the state budget

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Tablet - recommendations
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, April 26 2013 @ 07:42 PM EDT
After three bad experiences with tablets I am looking again for a 7 inch
tablet.

My first, a Cruz, was replaced by retailer when I queried the battery seeming to
go flat unexpectedly. I just wanted to know what would happen if the battery
packed up soon after the warranty ended. It had a 800x480 screen, Android 2.0
with "do it yourself" update to 2.2. I had no other problems with it.
They gave a full refund against a new "better" house brand tablet with
Android 4.0 and a 1024x600? screen.

Big mistake.

The first after less than 2 months went "POP" and a 1/3 full battery
was dead flat. When recharged (with care to ensure it didn't catch fire) it had
also lost the internal system memory and wouldn't install most apps. It's
battery life was shorter than the Cruz and the wide screen was not very good for
reading ebooks which was one of main requirements. It wouldn't write to the ext
card which was annoying. Replaced without problem.

The second had even shorter battery life, under 2 hours use and sometimes about
a day standby. Still using Android 4.0 but a slightly later build it would write
to ext sd card. However the key board process stopped running several times and
required a full reboot to restart. Often when restarting after charging it also
had another process "media" that stopped, I didn't know what it was
for so just killed it. Often after restarting the wifi would not start either.
The wi-fi would also stop and then restart for no reason. I was having it on
the charger more than off, no use as a portable device. It has now been fully
refunded.

My needs are for reading ebooks, a bit of browsing and it would be nice to be
able to write to ext sd card (some versions of android don't). Long battery life
both on standby and in use and 7 inch screen but not wide screen shape. Not
really interested in having a camera and don't need ability for 3G.

I have "choice?" locally (New Zealand) of Acer B1-A17 (8Gb) or Asus
ME172V (16Gb) both with 1024x600 screen about the price of preceding tablets or
buy from the auction site something about the same specification with unknown
name but half the price. Or do I build my own with a 7 inch touch screen, stick
a RaspPi A (or similar with lower power use) on to the back, attach a couple of
lithium batteries and plug in a usb wifi dongle.

It would not look as good but would be repairable and run Linux rather than
Android which would have advantages. Not cost to much either.

What are the implications of single/double/quad core on tablet battery life?
Similarly with memory 256Mb/512Mb/1Gb?

16Gb built in storage would be luxury, 8 Gb of storage would be good but 4Gb
would not be a problem. I have 16Gb SD/microSD cards for more storage. Does the
storage effect battery life also?

What resolution is best for battery life? Capacitive sensing is essential as far
as I can tell. But what is difference between ISP and TN? Or other types? Is a
820x480 that disastrous? The 1024x600 is not very good for reading ebooks.

I see reviews that slate things for not having the best screen resolution but is
it really that important.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

FBI hack cybersuspects computer ..
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, April 26 2013 @ 08:17 PM EDT
"A federal court in Houston has rejected an FBI request for a warrant to hack into the computer of a suspect in an attempted cyberheist .. The FBI in March sought a warrant to search a computer situated at a location unknown to them and belonging to an unknown suspect. In its request, the FBI sought a warrant that would allow investigators to surreptitiously install software capable of extracting information from the target computer, identify its location and also take photos of those who used the system." link

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

What Happened When One Man Pinged the Whole Internet
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, April 27 2013 @ 05:05 PM EDT
A home science experiment that probed billions of Internet devices reveals that thousands of industrial and business systems offer remote access to anyone.

What Happened When One Man Pinged the Whole Internet

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

  • Let me guess - Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, April 28 2013 @ 11:27 AM EDT
The Dell Buyout: Storm Warning for the Tech Industry
Authored by: SilverWave on Sunday, April 28 2013 @ 12:09 AM EDT
The Dell Buyout: Storm Warning for the Tech Industry

---
RMS: The 4 Freedoms
0 run the program for any purpose
1 study the source code and change it
2 make copies and distribute them
3 publish modified versions

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Robert Scoble on gGlass: "This has changed my life. I will never live a day without it on."
Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, April 28 2013 @ 07:01 AM EDT
Here's my review after having Google Glass for two weeks:

1. I will never live a day of my life from now on without it (or a competitor). It's that significant.
2. The success of this totally depends on price. Each audience I asked at the end of my presentations "who would buy this?" As the price got down to $200 literally every hand went up. At $500 a few hands went up. This was consistent, whether talking with students, or more mainstream, older audiences.
3. Nearly everyone had an emotional outburst of "wow" or "amazing" or "that's crazy" or "stunning."
4. At NextWeb 50 people surrounded me and wouldn't let me leave until they had a chance at trying them. I haven't seen that kind of product angst at a conference for a while. This happened to me all week long, it is just crazy.
5. Most of the privacy concerns I had before coming to Germany just didn't show up. I was shocked by how few negative reactions I got (only one, where an audience member said he wouldn't talk to me with them on). Funny, someone asked me to try them in a bathroom (I had them aimed up at that time and refused).
6. There is a total generational gap that I found. The older people said they would use them, probably, but were far more skeptical, or, at minimum, less passionate about the fact that these are the future, than the 13-21-year-olds I met.

https://plus.google.com/+Scobleizer/posts/ZLV9GdmkRzS

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

MPAA tampered with evidence in piracy case
Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, April 28 2013 @ 08:13 AM EDT
"Earlier this month Finland’s largest ever Internet piracy case ended with four men being found guilty of copyright infringement and two being exonerated. The case involved a so-called ‘topsite’ called Angel Falls and had an interesting twist.

During the trial it was revealed that evidence gathered by a local anti-piracy group and the IFPI was also handed to a “senior MPAA executive” who tampered with the evidence before handing it to the police
." link

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

  • MPAA punishment? - Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, April 28 2013 @ 12:17 PM EDT
    • MPAA punishment? - Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, April 28 2013 @ 04:44 PM EDT
Impact of android vs windows
Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, April 28 2013 @ 12:20 PM EDT
Microsoft with their operating system pricing is suffering for the same thing
that occurred decades earlier with IBM main-frame pricing. When a company
develops something and then needs to set a per-unit price, they divide the
development cost based on an estimated number of units.

For one of the first IBM mainframes, IBM thought that the world-wide demand
would be about 50 computers. They then based the pricing on selling 50 units
and when they sold 500, they got the idea that this situation would last
forever. Of course, AmDahl, DEC and other companies came alone and eventually
took over a significant share of the market (I'd say that this time line is
somewhere around 25-30 years due to IBM defensive tactics).

MS priced MS-DOS (and its variants) based on a number of units that was vastly
below the actual market, got huge profits, and then made the assumption that
this could be sustained indefinitely. Why is the per-machine licensing for
windows-8 almost the same as the per-machine cost for windows 3.1.1 despite
having hundreds as many machines and most likely have smaller development cost.

I'd say the fat end of this MS curve started around 1988, 1990 or so , and so
far MS has been winning the desktop OS war using the available tools (forcing
OEMs to license windows for every machine, using the patent system, FUD tactics
against DR-DOS, OS/2 , etc). MS has built their internal economy based on the
idea that the O/S will generate significant profits and is going to have a rude
awaking when a "free" O/S takes over the personal computer. I do not
know if it will be a few years or longer, but I would guess that the 2020
ms-corp will have vastly smaller profits with the windows O/S being a much
smaller percentage of the total.

With the patent wars, we are seeing MS attempt to protect their turf as long as
possible, they will eventually lose, but it will be ugly for the next few years.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

  • A-hem... - Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, April 28 2013 @ 11:01 PM EDT
    • A-hem... - Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, April 29 2013 @ 08:26 AM EDT
      • That's because.. - Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, April 29 2013 @ 08:41 AM EDT
    • Replacing Ballmer - Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, April 29 2013 @ 12:44 PM EDT
America's next threat: Cyberterrorism?
Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, April 28 2013 @ 06:34 PM EDT
An otherwise bland video interview from cnn,
until the question at 3'45". Watch the
reporter's slack jawed disbelief as
SANS' Alan Paller states the obvious.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

European Petition against patenting crop genetics
Authored by: hAckz0r on Monday, April 29 2013 @ 11:59 AM EDT
Tell EPC Member States: Don't Let Monsanto Buy Up Mother Earth!

Monsanto isn't satisfied with just selling us herbicides and pesticides for coating our crops. Now they're using a European legal loophole to patent away varieties of cucumber, broccoli, melons and conventional ways of breeding fruits and veggies abroad -- forcing growers to pay them for the very seeds they're planting!

---
The Investors IP Law: The future health of a Corporation is measured as the inverse of the number of IP lawsuits they are currently litigating.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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