Bill Lindner

According to reports, Google and the National Security Agency (NSA) are teaming up in the name of cyber security. Under the agreement, the NSA would help Google defend against attacks like the one that targeted the search company (along with Adobe ... and several other firms) from China several weeks ago . Google announced publicly that their systems had been hacked beginning in December . The Google intrusions targeted Google source code and extended to more than 30 other large tech, defense, energy, financial and media companies. Gmail accounts of human rights activists in Europe, China and the ... (view more)

Recently, Net applications released their January browser market share report and it appears that Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) version 8 now has a 22.37% usage share, making it the most-used browser on the planet. (Source: netmarketshare.com ) ... Another report by Microsoft's Windows Team Blog has confirmed similar results, stating that IE8 now has 25.6% market share across all operating systems (OS) on a worldwide-weighted usage share basis, making it the most popular browser of choice worldwide. (Source: windowsteamblog.com ) Either way, Internet Explorer 8 is clearly leading the pack. ... (view more)

Laptop owners who upgrade their Windows XP and Windows Vista machines to Windows 7 are complaining that Microsoft's new operating system (OS) is severely reducing their available battery life. Many users are voicing complaints on Microsoft's TechNet ... forums that after upgrading their notebooks, battery life is dropping from two hours to a half hour. (Source: microsoft.com ) The problem appears to be caused by a new tool Microsoft designed to alert users when their battery needs to be replaced. According to some of the TechNet posts, the alert appears time and time again, even as a battery ... (view more)

Contrary to U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) assurances, full body scanners used in U.S. airports can store and transmit digital strip search images of people. The TSA has asserted that these scanners have zero storage capability ... and that any scanned full body images won't be printed, stored or transmitted and will be deleted immediately once viewed. However, those assertions appear to be false. (Source: theregister.co.uk ) Full Body Scanners Have Storage, Transmission Capabilities A redacted 70-page document (PDF) obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) ... (view more)

The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) group has reportedly revealed the design for a new computer aimed at connecting children in the developing world. The original XO-1 model, previously known as "The $100 Laptop," first went into production in 2007. The ... new design for the XO-3 replaces the proposed XO-2 that was first shown in 2008, but has since been scrapped by OLPC. Rumors suggest that XO-3 is a slim-line touchscreen tablet PC that will be available in 2012 and will cost less than $100. The laptops have been designed for use by school children in remote and harsh environments and ... (view more)

Facebook, one of the world's largest social networking sites, is reportedly being blamed for an increasing number of divorces. 1 in 5 Divorce Petitions Cite Facebook According to The UK Telegraph, lawyers claim that Facebook, which is designed to ... connect old friends, is cited in almost one in five online divorce petitions because it and other social networking sites like it tempt people cheat on their spouses. Mark Keenan, Managing Director of Divorce-Online was surprised to see that so many petitions contained references to Facebook. Some divorces have occurred because suspicious spouses ... (view more)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has recently filed a lawsuit against Intel Corporation, alleging that the computer chip manufacturer waged a systematic campaign to shut out its rivals by cutting off their access to the marketplace. In doing so, ... the FTC believes that Intel deprived consumers of choice and innovation, and that Intel's anti-competitive tactics were designed to stop competitive products that threatened its monopoly in the CPU (Central Processing Unit) microchip market. (Source: ftc.gov ) Success at the Expense of Consumers According to the FTC complaint, Intel's strategy ... (view more)

Australia's federal government has announced that it is proceeding with controversial plans to censor the Internet after government-commissioned trials found that using a blacklist of banned sites was accurate and would not slow down web use. ... Critics, including Google , Electronic Frontiers Australia and Greens communications argue that the censorship policy is fundamentally flawed and the trial results are not surprising. Stephen Conroy, Australia's Communications Minister, will introduce legislation just before next year's elections designed to force ISPs to block a blacklist of refused ... (view more)

A barely-noticed letter from Yahoo to the U.S. Marshals Service has revealed surveillance policies that allow the US Justice Department to request wiretaps of its users. The 12-page letter (in PDF format), in response to a Freedom of Information Act ... request, claimed that Yahoo couldn't provide the information on their policies because their pricing scheme would 'shock' customers. (Source: rawstory.com ) A Yahoo lawyer wrote that if the pricing information was disclosed, it would be used to shame Yahoo and other companies and to traumatize their customers. (Source: rawstory.com ) Yahoo: ... (view more)

Hackers have managed to bypass one of the key antipiracy protections built into Windows 7, the latest operating system (OS) from Microsoft. Normally, users of Windows 7 have 30 days to activate their OS, but a recently outlined method allows a user ... to turn off the normal notifications and use the OS indefinitely. Using the method to bypass the authorization doesn't actually confirm the OS as legitimate, but it does allow users to keep using it without activation. (Source: cnet.com ) New Crack Bypasses Activation Requirements Microsoft has confirmed that it is aware of the technique and is ... (view more)