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Steven J. Vaughan-Nicholsreports that bankrupt SCO may have a buyer."I've never been a fan of horror-movie series where no matter what happens to the baddie, such as Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th movies, he's up and ready to kill again in the next sequel. So, you can imagine just how pleased I am to see that SCO, just when it looked like it was dead as a doornail, came up with a buyer at the 11th hour and 59th minute.According to reports on Groklaw, Gulf Capital Partners LLC, a group formed by Stephen Norris of Stephen Norris & Co. Capital Partners, a private-equity firm, has offered to buy SCO, just as the company faced the end of the bankruptcy road. If the deal is real and goes through, SCO's nearly dead Unix business will continue, and, oh the pain of it all, so will its zombie-like lawsuits against IBM, Novell, and other Linux companies."
The Hacker Underground is dead. Long live the Hacker Underground! In the most recent issue of Phrack Magazine, I read an article titled "The Underground Myth," that makes a number of astute points about the demise of the hacking scene of the last few decades. The author describes a technical landscape in which the technology security industry and a diminishing number of obvious exploits conspired to destroy the scene.
Despite the delay in China's requirement to install Green Dam Web-filtering software on all new PCs, the controversy is not dead. PC makers are including the software with new PCs even though the July 1 deadline has been postponed indefinitely.On Thursday, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology told China Daily that the mandate has not been canceled, only delayed. News media reported that China definitely plans to require Green Dam.In addition, Green Dam publisher Jinhui Computer System Engineering is reportedly testing a version for Apple's Mac computers, which so far have been exempt.China says the Green Dam-Youth Escort software is meant to protect young people from pornography and violence on the Web. However, opponents say it would be used for political repression. A survey found that many Chinese would not pay for the software after a one-year free trial period.China originally directed all PC makers to pre-install Green Dam on all PCs sold in China, with a July 1 deadline. However, the ministry delayed the deadline on June 30. Earlier, it had modified its mandate to say that the Green Dam CDs could be included with new PCs rather than pre-installed.Multiple tests found the software vulnerable to malware, and Sony has included a disclaimer about the software with its PCs. Tests also showed Green Dam blocked images of cartoon cat Garfield and roast pork, and returned links to both soft- and hard-core pornography.
The average Internet download speed in the USA is 5.1 megabits per second, though consumers' online experiences can vary dramatically, depending on where they happen to live, a new report from the Communications Workers of America says.On balance, speeds in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic were faster. Speeds in the South and in rural areas were markedly slower, according to the CWA's report -- "Speed Matters" -- out today.Delaware, for example, averages 9.9 megabits per second. That's almost double the national average and triple the speed of Idaho (2.6 mbps), Arkansas (3.1) and Alaska (2.3). Data are based on feedback from more than 413,000 Internet users who took an online test between May 2008 and May 2009, CWA says.The big swing owes to the way broadband is deployed. In the U.S., it's basically up to individual companies to decide where to offer broadband. Big broadband players such as Verizon have tended to focus on densely populated areas, where they can get more subscribers.CWA says such disparities hurt consumers, and hurt bigger national aims. Uneven efforts by carriers and government "have left a digital divide across the country," says Larry Cohen, CWA president. CWA represents workers at AT&T, Verizon and other telecoms.In comparison with other countries, the USA does poorly.South Korea, which currently claims some of the fastest broadband speeds, averages 20.4 megabits per second, CWA says, citing the data of Speedtest.net, which tracks global speeds.The same movie that takes two minutes to download in South Korea can take two hours in the USA, CWA noted.Other top performers in global broadband include Japan (15.8) and Sweden (12.8).By Speedtest's measure, the USA scored slightly better than it did in the CWA test -- 6.8 mbps per second, on average. But the USA still finished dead last among the 29 countries it tracks. Latvia...
Facebook is gearing up to face off with the government again—this time over privacy concerns in two different venues: the California courts and a Canadian commission.
In California, five users are suing Facebook for disclosing their information to third parties for commercial purposes, without the users’ permission. The plaintiffs are two children under the age of 13 (who, BTW, aren’t allowed to use the site according to the TOS), a user of the “original Facebook,” a model/actress and a photographer. They argue that Facebook violated California consumer privacy laws. They’re looking for a trial, damages and fees. Facebook, naturally, says they “see no merit to this suit and . . . plan to fight it.”Meanwhile, in Canada (as all good adventures begin!) . . . Facebook is facing scrutiny from Privacy Commissioner Julie Stoddard. Stoddard says Facebook’s privacy policy violates Canadian privacy laws.In a complaint from the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC), there are potential problems with Facebook’s practices including: collecting users’ date of birth, the default privacy settings, advertising, third-party apps, future uses of personal info, collecting personal info from sites other than Facebook, deactivating/deleting accounts and the accounts of dead users, non-users’ personal info, mobile usage, account monitoring for suspicious activity and potential deception and misrepresentation.So, basically, everything.The Privacy Commission notified Facebook with a 30-deadline thirty days ago today—so Facebook is supposed to respond today. The commission’s recommendations included “clarifying Facebook’s privacy policies, making it easier for users to remove their profiles and curbing the amount of personal information the site collects from its members,” with special concerns about third party apps. Facebook is supposed to reply with a proposal and time line for change.What do you think? Will Facebook change its policies (willingly or unwillingly), or will they skate past with a song-and-dance explanation for regulators?CommentsLeave a Reply
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