DDR4 memory is coming soon—maybe too soon
There isn't even an official standard for DDR4, the next generation of computer memory technology. But memory manufacturers are already shipping samples of the first DDR4 memory units, and preparing to produce them en masse. On May 7, Micron joined the field, announcing it had released its first fully functioning DDR4 memory product for testing.
Micron says its product, a 4-gigabit x8 DDR4 memory unit developed in partnership with its Taiwanese partner Nanya, will ship on a variety of memory module configurations by the end of the year. Micron's competitors in the space are also preparing to ship their own DDR4 modules in that time. That means that memory modules based on the faster, more power efficient memory technology could start shipping on servers (where its benefits are in the greatest demand) by 2013—if there are any CPUs ready to handle them.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
How Amazon saved Zynga's butt—and why Zynga built a cloud of its own
Five years ago, the social gaming company Zynga was cruising along with a fairly standard IT infrastructure. Servers were racked and stacked in a retail data center where Zynga rented space. Customer demand for games like Zynga Poker, launched in 2007, was being met.
Then along came FarmVille. After the game's 2009 release, 10 million users were hitting FarmVille servers within six weeks, and 25 million within five months.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
China's restrictive rare earth mineral policy draws global ire
A recent report from the Congressional Research Office (PDF) suggests that China's restrictive policy on rare earth mineral exports isn't going to change anytime soon. The report comes on the heels of a renewed call for a rare earth production boost in Europe and a dispute settlement filed in March by the United States, Japan, and the European Union with the World Trade Organization over alleged unfair trading practices concerning rare earth minerals.
"From 2002 to 2011, the value of US rare earth imports from China rose by 1,376 percent," the CRS report states. "From 2010 to 2011, the value of US rare earth imports from China increased by 305 percent."
For a few years now, there has been a lot of talk about rare earth minerals. You know, the ones that aren’t particularly rare, but are nevertheless crucial for many products. Demand for them has shot up. They’re needed in the production of hybrid cars, missiles, and smartphones. And it doesn’t help that China, the world’s largest producer, announced in 2010 that it was cutting export of its domestic supply. This has since led to newfound attention on mines and processing in California, Estonia, Malaysia, and Australia.
Not surprisingly, the rest of the world isn't very happy at China. The country produces 97 percent of the world's rare earth minerals—according to the United States Geological Survey, that translated to $3.4 billion of the stuff in 2011.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Microsoft goes green: data centers, offices to be carbon neutral come July
This summer, Microsoft is launching a new green energy initiative in which all of the company's direct operations, "including data centers, software development labs, air travel, and office buildings," will go carbon neutral.
The program will begin in July, at the start of Microsoft's 2013 fiscal year, and includes a company-wide carbon fee, whereby various divisions will be held accountable for their own energy usage.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Judge nixes "Oil Orgy" scheme to scare P2P users into quick settlements
The federal judge hearing a Massachusetts file-sharing case has struck down a proposal to send all defendants a notice urging them to contact the plaintiff to work out a settlement. The move is yet another sign that federal judges are growing skeptical of the mass copyright litigation strategy.
The case involves the film Big Butt Oil Orgy 2 and a group of 39 Massachusetts residents who allegedly shared it with one another via BitTorrent. Critics of these lawsuits have long argued that even innocent defendants may be forced to settle simply to avoid the legal expense of a trial and the public embarrassment of having one's name publicly identified with a pornographic film, regardless of the case's merit.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Japan poised to limit gambling-style collecting in social games
Many in and around the video game industry have long been concerned with the way many social games seem designed to encourage compulsive spending on digital gewgaws rather than strategic gameplay decisions. Now the Japanese government looks poised to crack down on one of the more pernicious and addictive forms of virtual good sales, arguing that it runs afoul of the country's lottery laws.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Twitter fights government subpoena demanding Occupy Wall Street protester info
Twitter has asked a New York state judge to throw out a court order requiring it to turn over three months worth of messages posted by an Occupy Wall Street protester being prosecuted for disorderly conduct.
In a motion (PDF) filed on Monday in New York City Criminal Court, Twitter lawyers argued the city's district attorney's office is overstepping its authority in ordering the handing-over of tweets and other subscriber info of Malcolm Harris, whose handle on the microblogging site is @destructuremal. Prosecutors seeking the data failed to get a court warrant based on probable cause, making an order they obtained earlier a violation of federal law and the Constitution's prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures, the Twitter brief argued.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
New Dell Ubuntu ultrabooks a step in the right direction for Linux support
Dell has launched an experimental project called Sputnik to produce a Linux laptop that is tailored to meet the needs of software developers. The first stage of the project is a six-month exploratory effort that will pair Dell’s XPS13 Ultrabook with Ubuntu 12.04.
Dell’s Barton George, who described the concept this week in a blog post, hinted at the potential for a more ambitious follow-up effort if the initial experiment succeeds. Dell’s previous Linux efforts have had mixed results. The company first began to offer Ubuntu on desktop and laptop computers in 2007 after open source advocates used Dell’s IdeaStorm website to campaign for Linux preinstallation options.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Seized site's lawyer: US breaking the law by taking domain names
Dajaz1, the hip hop blog whose domain was seized and then held for a year by the United States government before being returned without any charges filed, came out swinging against the government and the Recording Industry Association of America on Monday. In a blog post, Dajaz1 attorney Andrew Bridges called the government's legal position "stunning" and compared the dajaz1.com domain's year in legal limbo to a "digital Guantanamo."
Bridges pointed out that Dajaz1's alleged crime consisted of posting four links to infringing files hosted by third-party websites. "Seizing a blog for linking to four songs, even allegedly infringing ones, is equivalent to seizing the printing press of the New York Times because the newspaper, in its concert calendar, refers readers to four concerts where the promoters of those concerts have failed to pay ASCAP for the performance licenses," he argued.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Oracle, Google lawyers spar over Android's Dalvik VM as patent phase begins
The second phase of the Oracle v. Google trial got into full swing today, following yesterday's verdict, which left Oracle with a partial and inconclusive victory over Google. The subject matter has moved from copyrights to patents, and the next phase of the trial will deal with the "virtual machines" that both Android and Java use to speed up their operations. In opening statements, Oracle's lawyer said that Android's "Dalvik" virtual machine infringes two patents that originated at Sun but are now owned by Oracle, US Patents No. 6,061,520 and RE38,104.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Myspace settles with FTC over sharing user data with advertisers
Myspace has agreed to settle charges that it misled users about sharing their personal information with advertisers, the Federal Trade Commission announced Tuesday. The FTC alleges that Myspace allowed advertisers to combine profile information with browsing information in ways that Myspace's privacy did not cover.
Each Myspace user has an assigned persistent unique identifier, called a "Friend ID," associated with their profile on the site. Even protected profiles contain a certain amount of personal information, such as display name, full name, age, gender, and profile picture (though users had no incentive or obligation from Myspace to make this true to life).
Myspace's privacy policy states that personally identifiable information would not be used in a way inconsistent with the purpose for which it was submitted. The company also says that data used to customize ads would not identify users to third parties, and that it wouldn't share non-anonymized browsing activity.
But in 2009, researchers at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute and AT&T Labs noticed that Myspace was handing the Friend IDs associated with visited pages to advertisers. Advertisers could then associate the browsing data with the users' full names, and associate broader browsing activity with that personal profile. The FTC found this behavior in violation of federal law, and found that as a result of this data sharing, Myspace had lied about its compliance with the US-EU Safe Harbor Framework.
Myspace's settlement is not an admission of guilt, but the company must now establish a "comprehensive privacy program" and submit to third-party audits for the next 20 years. It seems that this won't do much good, as Myspace is already on a significant decline—in short, we'll be surprised if the site lasts that long.
Facebook and Digg were implicated for similar activity at the same time as Myspace, almost exactly two years ago in May 2010. Facebook settled with the FTC on the matter in December 2011, also committing to the 20-year third-party evaluation plan.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Facebook "Likejackers" agree to stop sending misleading spam
A US-based advertising firm has promised to stop bombarding Facebook users with fraudulent messages in exchange for Washington State officials dropping a lawsuit that claimed the practice violated a federal antispam statute.
Adscend Media also agreed to pay $100,000 in attorneys' fees to settle charges Washington state's attorney general brought in January claiming the misleading messages violated a federal law known as the CAN-SPAM, short for Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing. The settlement also requires Adscend Media to regularly monitor its affiliate partners to make sure they're in compliance as well.
According to documents filed in US District Court in Seattle (PDF), Adscend Media used a proprietary network of affiliates to target Facebook users with unsolicited messages that had been manipulated to appear as if they originated from friends. Carrying headlines such as "OMG! See What Happens to his Ex Girlfriend" the bait pages required users to click buttons that masqueraded as age verification checks from Facebook but really caused the messages to get posted on users' Facebook News Feeds to allow them to spread virally.
The messages never disclosed that they originated with Adscend Media for purposes of driving traffic to the websites of its customers, Washington officials alleged. The company had a gross monthly revenue of about $1.2 million, and 80 percent of its income was derived from Facebook solicitations. Facebook recently settled a civil lawsuit with Adscend Media over the same practice. Adscend Media didn't admit any wrongdoing in Monday's settlement.
Security researchers have dubbed attacks that cause Facebook users to unwittingly endorse websites and products "Likejacking."
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Mobile (and least-profitable) users spend most time on Facebook
Facebook users spend more time on the social network on their mobile phones, where monetization and revenue is far weaker than on the desktop site.
According to digital analytics firm comScore, Facebook users on mobile phones—those running iOS, Android and BlackBerry OS—spent 441 minutes per month on the social network during the month of March. This compares with 391 minutes of usage via the traditional desktop site.
That's nearly an extra hour each month—time that advertisers are eager to tap into.
comScore's findings demonstrate just how important the mobile market will be to Facebook's continued success. In the company's February IPO filing, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that "if users increasingly access mobile products as a substitute for access through personal computers, and if we are unable to successfully implement monetization strategies for our mobile users, our financial performance and ability to grow revenue would be negatively affected."
Facebook isn't sitting idly by, however. It acquired mobile photo-sharing app Instagram last month for a whopping $1 billion in cash and company stock, a move viewed largely as an attempt to bolster the company's mobile strategy. Instagram passed 50 million users earlier this month, and is said to be adding an additional 5 million users each week.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Richard Nunn, media analyst at Charles Stanley, said that this so-called "dwell time"—how long users spend on Facebook each month—is a "big factor for advertisers, and therefore, revenue." Last year, the company introduced sponsored posts into users' mobile news feeds, but Nunn believes it is only a matter of time before users see full-fledged advertising too.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Feature: Coolest jobs in tech: from the pits of Le Mans to the dugouts of Fenway Park
When race cars whiz around a track at 200 miles per hour, driving ability isn’t the only factor that determines who wins the race. Behind the scenes, in mobile data centers tucked into semis and behind laptops in the pit area, people like Chuck Houghton use tech to make decisions that can determine whether their car crosses the finish line first.
As race engineer for the No. 4 Corvette C6.R of the American Le Mans Series GT class, Houghton and his squad build sophisticated algorithms to crunch the reams of data spit out by modern race cars. When it’s race time, Houghton is on scene, running calculations that determine when to make changes to car variables like "ride height" or when to let drivers know that they're running a few seconds behind. “It’s kind of like hanging a carrot out there in front of a horse,” Houghton says.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Apple, Samsung cut some patent claims to keep July 30 trial date in US
Apple and Samsung have both filed motions offering to cut the number of asserted patent claims in half. The purpose of cutting the claims was to keep a proposed July 30 trial date for the companies' first US lawsuit over their mobile device patent disputes. Apple continues to contend that Samsung is a "copycat," while Samsung claims Apple is merely trying to "compete through litigation."
Judge Lucy Koh told both companies during a recent case management meeting that the number of asserted claims was far too large, suggesting that forcing a jury to wade through them all would be akin to cruel and unusual punishment. Koh said the number of claims would have to be reduced significantly in order to proceed with a proposed July 30 start date for the trial.
While Apple and Samsung filed a joint motion to reduce claims last Tuesday, neither party seemed willing to budge very much. However, the separate motions filed this week cut the number of asserted patents and other rights nearly in half. Apple cut out four of eight asserted patents against Samsung, three of seven asserted design patents, and four of nine trade dress claims. It also dropped all of its asserted trademark claims.
Samsung has cut its asserted patents from 12 to 7, though many of the remaining patents are deemed "essential" to wireless 3G standards. Continued assertion of those patents against Apple could constitute abuse of its agreement to license such patents on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. The company is under a formal investigation by the European Commission for such alleged abuse.
It originally appeared that Apple may have been more interested in a broad and decisive win against Samsung rather than a quick resolution of the case. However, its proposal filed on Monday suggested that Samsung's continued infringement is costing Apple billions in sales while Samsung continues to gain market share lead over Apple.
The two companies are preparing for a court-recommended mediation later this month. While Apple CEO Tim Cook has expressed an interest in settling the dispute out of court, he said that he didn't want Apple to become "the developer to the world."
"I've always hated litigation and I continue to hate it," Cook said during Apple's most recent financial results announcement, but "we just want people to invent their own stuff."
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
iOS 5.1.1 patches URL spoofing flaw, two other security vulnerabilities
The iOS 5.1.1 update released on Monday doesn't just fix a handful of feature bugs—it also patches a security flaw that allowed an attacker to display the URL of one site in Mobile Safari while loading another, potentially tricking users into visiting malicious sites.
MajorSecurity researcher David Vieira-Kurz demonstrated a proof of concept for the flaw in March of this year, which caused a new window to open when clicking a specially crafted link. The new window showed the user that it was loading (for example) Apple's website, but actually loads another page that gave the appearance of loading Apple's site via an iframe. Vieira-Kurz said the vulnerability was related to the way Mobile Safari handles JavaScript's
window.open() function, which could be used to trick users into handing passwords or credit card information over to attackers.The flaw was present in iOS 5.0, 5.0.1, and 5.1, but is fixed in 5.1.1, as highlighted by Kaspersky Lab's ThreatPost blog. In addition to a fix for the URL spoofing flaw, iOS 5.1.1 also patches a vulnerability used by researcher Sergey Glazunov at CanSecWest this year, which could lead to a cross-site scripting attack, as well as one submitted by Adam Barth and Abhishek Arya of the Google Chrome Security Team that could lead to arbitrary code executions.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
AT&T ready to board the shared data plan train
AT&T has started to embrace the idea of shared family data plans, Ralph de la Vega, President and CEO of AT&T Mobility, told CNET on Tuesday. With this new interest, the company is playing catch-up with Verizon, which announced its interest in family data plans last year.
De la Vega had previously been less than enthusiastic about shared data plans, saying that it would be tricky to support the feature in customer service while making sure the company could still turn a profit on it. It appears the company has worked out those kinks for the most part and is well on its way to rolling out the shared plans. "I'm very comfortable with the plan that will be offered to our customers," de la Vega told CNET at the CTIA trade show in New Orleans. De la Vega did not speak to the timing of the rollout, pricing, or any other further details.
Verizon announced in May 2011 that it felt a future with family data plans was inevitable. "I think it's safe to assume that at some point you are going to have megaplans and people are going to share that megaplan based on the number of devices within their family. That's just a logical progression," said Fran Shammo, Verizon's CFO.
A leak by Engadget in January showed that Verizon intends to charge for one communal pool of data to be shared among family plan members, with an additional $10 access charge for each device. Obviously, Verizon was, and is, in no hurry to get the shared plans out to customers, but a newly competitive AT&T may light a fire under its cell towers. T-Mobile has thus far remained mum on the issue of shared data, but Sprint does currently offer a shared family data plan starting at $129.99 a month (Sprint is also the only remaining carrier with any kind of unlimited data plan).
Neither company has directly addressed the issue of sharing data service with non-voice devices that customers must buy separate data plans for, such as tablets. We have our fingers crossed that our iPads, Galaxy Tabs, and Xooms will somehow be involved.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Belching dinosaurs may have helped keep their world a hot one
The world inhabited by dinosaurs was typically a hot one, with high levels of greenhouse gasses, lots of water vapor, and no permanent ice sheets. And, according to a new estimate published in the journal Current Biology, the dinosaurs themselves may have contributed to their hothouse conditions.
(Note to the editors of Current BIology: I'm not sure that the Jurassic really qualifies as "current.")
A team of British researchers has put together various estimates of the features of the Jurassic's large herbivores, such as population density, typical body mass, and so on. Combined with an estimate of how much methane is emitted by a typical herbivore, these numbers suggest that the dinosaurs were pouring out enough methane to help the greenhouse effect keep the Earth nice and toasty.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Passpoint WiFi tech promises cellphone-like handoff between hotspots
An industry group that aims to make WiFi access from smartphones and other devices as simple as connecting to a cellular network will begin certifying WiFi network equipment and end-user devices for the new connection method next month.
The WiFi Alliance said its Passpoint program aims to make WiFi a “true extension of service provider networks,” letting users roam from one hotspot to another with no manual effort, just as cell phone owners already switch seamlessly from one cell tower to another.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Available Tags:DDR4 , Amazon , Microsoft , Twitter , Dell , Ubuntu , Linux , Google , Facebook , Samsung , iOS , other , security ,
No comments:
Post a Comment