John Lister

Facebook has unveiled a plan that it hopes will encourage people to register as organ donors. It's an important move, because less than half of all American adults are currently signed up as organ donors, leaving a shortage of organs for ... transplants. At the moment, the most common way to formally consent to organ donation is to register when applying for a driver's license. A doctor quoted by the New York Times said this wasn't the best situation for everyone, however, because drawing the connection between driving an automobile and donating organs makes for an eerie feeling. (Source: nytimes ... (view more)

Facebook has officially announced its initial public stock offering will go on sale at a price between $28 and $35 a share. At the high end of that range, the company would claim a market capitalization of $95 billion. Facebook is only selling a ... portion of its shares. That means the most it could receive in this initial public offering (IPO) would be $13.58 billion, which would make this the ninth-most lucrative stock issue in world history, behind major firms like General Motors and Visa. (Source: ft.com ) Facebook IPO To Claim Internet Record The $13.58 billion figure would destroy all ... (view more)

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is reportedly pushing for a change in the U.S. law related to wiretapping. If passed, the changes would allow government monitoring of Facebook, Skype, and some email services. The idea is to change the ... Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), which currently doesn't give investigators the right to monitor and intercept communications. Instead, the law forces telecommunications providers to set up their services in a way that makes such monitoring and intercepting technologically possible. Email, VoIP, Social Media to be Monitored? ... (view more)

A British government official has said the online networks set to carry this summer's Olympic Games could be targeted for online attacks by cybercriminals. No specific threats have been identified, but officials are nevertheless employing ... professional hackers to test the networks' security and readiness to resist various methods of attack. Francis Maude, the UK's Cabinet Office minister, is charged with supporting the workings of the government across all departments. He made specific comments about the possibility of such attacks while visiting Estonia, the eastern European state that has ... (view more)

Motorola has won a court ruling that bans the distribution of most major Microsoft products in Germany. However, it's not yet clear if the landmark ban will actually be enforced. A German court granted Motorola an injunction covering distribution of ... Windows 7, Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer, and the Xbox 360 video game console in that country. If the ban is ever enforced, it would prevent those software and hardware products from being sold in Germany -- presumably until the patent dispute between Microsoft and Motorola is finally settled. However, a U.S. court has issued a ruling ... (view more)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has hired a high-profile lawyer to work on its antitrust investigation into Google's search activity. The hiring may signal FTC expectations the probe will result in a major court case. The FTC has its own in-house ... legal team, and rarely hires an outside lawyer for such work. It has reportedly happened just twice in the past decade. Ironically, one of the more memorable times the FTC hired outside legal help was in the late 1990s, when the agency took legal action against Microsoft over claims it exploited its dominance of the PC market. The new hire this ... (view more)

A recent report concerning Google's unauthorized collection of data from wireless networks has raised new questions about the company's behavior. Curiously, though, Google itself has released the report. Google had been accused of foul play after ... inadvertently collecting personal data from people's home WiFi networks. The problem stems from the company's vehicles which, busy taking photographs for its Street View maps system, also scanned for local networks. The networks were to be part of a database intended to aid Google's navigational offerings to consumers. A year-long investigation by ... (view more)

An international law enforcement effort has taken down 36 websites allegedly responsible for selling stolen credit card information. In Europe, three men were arrested over claims they bought and sold the personal data. The operation was led by the ... United Kingdom's Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The two agencies oversaw raids in the UK, US, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, Ukraine and Australia. Officials say they have been working on the case for two years. The three dozen disabled websites were allegedly offering packages ... (view more)

In a recent blog post, Google gives interested users a glimpse into some of the tools it uses to make sure ads for bogus products and services don't show up on its sites. The company is also trying to direct more attention toward genuine advertisers ... who have proven to be trustworthy and reliable. These revelations came after a company blog post was written by David Baker, who is in charge of the engineering side of Google's advertising business. Google: Three-Pronged Approach Highly Effective Baker's post explained that Google looks for signs of bad advertisements on three levels. (Source: ... (view more)

The good news: Philips has launched a brand new light bulb designed to last for 20 years or more and save hundreds of dollars in electricity charges before needing replacement. The bad news: The bulb carries a retail price tag of $60. The new ... Philips bulb is a prime example of alternative energy-saving technology that wallops the inefficiency of today's conventional but popular devices. The reason: Traditional light bulbs work by heating a thin metal filament inside a glass bulb. While this produces light from the glowing filament, it also wastes a lot of the energy. In fact, conservationists ... (view more)