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first time ever. Happened after I forgot and left a seed on for days. I dont get the point though,
Ive bought every season of house md on dvd, retail, from best buy. Anyways, I usually just download
direct, no bittorrent, but this time i decided to go that way after seeing the seeds, never
again.
Quote: Dear removed:
We recently received the attached notice from NBC Universal claiming that your Internet account may
have been used for copyright infringement. Specifically, NBC Universal claims that your account was
used to reproduce and/or distribute copyrighted content without authorization to other users of an
Internet-based file-sharing network. We are forwarding this notice at the request of NBC Universal
-- please see the enclosed document.
Content providers such as NBC Universal routinely monitor file-sharing networks to determine if
their copyrighted movies and music are being distributed illegally over the Internet. NBC Universal
identified your AT&T account by its numeric IP address, a string of numbers identifiable by any
site from which you upload or download files. When an Internet user connects to file-sharing
networks, the IP address assigned to the computer connected to the Internet becomes publicly
available to other members of the network. Consistent with our Customer Privacy Policy, AT&T
has not released your name or any other personal information to NBC Universal, but is forwarding
this notice to you so that this issue may be resolved without any further action.
You should be aware that copyright infringement is a violation of U.S. law, and potentially
punishable by fines and other criminal penalties. It also is a violation of the AT&T Acceptable
Use Policy, which governs your use of AT&T Internet services. If infringing activity persists,
NBC Universal may choose to seek a court order requiring AT&T to provide it with your name and
address so it can pursue legal action against you.
By forwarding this complaint, AT&T is not making any accusation of wrongdoing. Rather, we are
bringing NBC Universal's notice to your attention so that you can take prompt and appropriate steps
to prevent any further activity of this nature from occurring over your Internet account. Steps you
may consider taking include:
1. Ceasing any sharing of copyrighted content that might be occurring via file sharing software,
services or networks;
2. Securing your home Wi-Fi network to ensure others are not accessing the Internet through your
connection to download or distribute illegal content;
3. Talking with family members or guests who may have used your Internet connection in ways you are
not aware of;
4. Using virus and spyware protection software to protect against security threats and ensure your
Internet connection is not being used in ways that you have not authorized;
5. Learning how federal copyright law applies to online activities by visiting the U.S. Copyright
Office's website at http://www.copyright.gov/.
Violations of the Acceptable Use Policy can result in termination of your AT&T service. We
encourage you to review the AT&T Acceptable Use Policy online at http://www.corp.att.com/aup/ and the AT&T
Customer Privacy Policy at http://www.att.com/privacy.
AT&T is committed to protecting your personal information and ensuring the best possible online
experience for all customers. Please review the attached letter for information regarding the
alleged copyright infringement. If you have any questions regarding your AT&T Internet account
or AT&T policies, please call us at 1-866-618-7991
begin_of_the_skype_highlighting**************1-866-618-7991******end_of_the_skype_highlighting or
email us at complaintresponse@abuse-att.net.
Notice of Copyright Infringement
Re: Infringement of NBC Universal Properties
Notice ID: removed
removed
Dear Sir/Madam:
I am contacting you on behalf of NBC Universal, Inc. and its affiliated companies ("NBC Universal")
regarding certain activity on your Internet account. NBC Universal owns intellectual property
rights, including exclusive rights protected under copyright law, in many motion pictures,
television programs and other audiovisual works ("NBC Universal Properties"). Based on our data, we
believe that your Internet account was recently used to reproduce and/or distribute unauthorized
copies of one or more NBC Universal Properties in violation of NBC Universal's rights. We have set
forth below the details concerning this infringement, including the title(s) in question, the IP
address of the account at the time of the infringement, and the date and time of the
infringement.
Your Internet service provider (ISP) has agreed to forward this notice to you in order to provide
you an opportunity to remedy this situation. Your ISP has not provided your personal information to
us, but NBC Universal reserves the right to obtain that information through legal process in
appropriate circumstances.
Unauthorized copying or distribution of copyrighted works may give rise to significant liability
for copyright infringement, including statutory damages of up to $150,000 per infringed work for
willful infringement. Such action may also constitute a violation of your Internet provider's Terms
of Use and may result in suspension or termination of your Internet service account. Accordingly,
we request that you immediately: (1) cease from any further unlawful copying or distribution of NBC
Universal Properties; and (2) delete any unauthorized copies of NBC Universal from your
computer.
We encourage you to learn the facts about Internet piracy, including the economic harm that piracy
causes to creative industries in the United States and the danger of exposure to viruses, worms,
hacking and identity theft as a result of using peer-to-peer file sharing networks. Information
regarding Internet piracy may be found on the web site http://www.mpaa.org/piracy.asp, which is maintained by the Motion Picture
Association of America for the purpose of educating consumers.
A true and correct list of the titles of the NBC Universal Properties which NBC Universal believes
in good faith have been illegally offered for downloading using your Internet account is noted
below.
We would be pleased to respond to any questions or concerns you may have concerning this notice.
You may direct any such questions or concerns to us through the following Internet site: http://webreply.baytsp.com/webreply/...0dcb845e6bf764. Please include the
Notice ID in the subject line of any correspondence.
The undersigned has a good faith belief that use of the NBC Universal Property or Properties in the
manner described herein is not authorized by NBC Universal, its agent(s) or the law. The
information contained in this notification is accurate. Under penalty of perjury, the undersigned
is authorized to act on behalf of NBC Universal with respect to this matter.
This letter is not intended to be a complete statement of the facts or law as they may pertain to
this matter, or of NBC Universal's positions, rights or remedies, legal or equitable, all of which
are specifically reserved.
Very truly yours,
Mark Ishikawa
CEO, BayTSP inc.
c/o NBC Universal Anti-Piracy Technical Operations
100 Universal City Plaza
Universal City, CA 91608
** For any correspondence regarding this case, please send your emails to antipiracy@nbcuni.com and refer to Notice ID: remove. If you
need immediate assistance or if you have general questions please call the number listed above.
Title: House MD (TV)
Infringement Source: BitTorrent
Initial Infringement Timestamp: removed
Recent Infringement Timestamp: removed
Infringing Filename: House.S06E13.HDTV.XviD-XII.avi
Infringing File size: 366464038
Infringers IP Address: -removed-
Infringers DNS Name: -removed-
Infringing URL: removed
Bay ID: removed
Port ID: removed
- ---Start ACNS XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<Infringement xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://mpto.unistudios.com/xml/Infringement_schema.xsd">
<Case>
<ID>20891161</ID>
<Status>Open</Status>
</Case>
<Complainant>
<Entity>NBC Universal</Entity>
<Contact>Mark M. Ishikawa, c/o NBC Universal Anti-Piracy Technical
Operations</Contact>
<Address>100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California 91608 United States of
America</Address>
<Phone>removed</Phone>
<Email>antipiracy@nbcuni.com</Email>
</Complainant>
<Service_Provider>
<Entity>AT&T</Entity>
<Address></Address>
<Email>acns@att.com;</Email>
</Service_Provider>
<Source>
<TimeStamp>removed</TimeStamp>
<IP_Address>removed</IP_Address>
<Port>removed</Port>
<DNS_Name>removed</DNS_Name>
<Type>BitTorrent</Type>
<UserName></UserName>
<Number_Files>1</Number_Files>
<Deja_Vu>No</Deja_Vu>
</Source>
<Content>
<Item>
<Title>House MD (TV)</Title>
<FileName>House.S06E13.HDTV.XviD-XII.avi</FileName>
<FileSize>366464038</FileSize>
<URL>removed</URL>
</Item>
</Content>
</Infringement>
- ---End ACNS XML
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 8.0
The shortest way to describe this is that Google is no longer a verb. It's becoming
a noun. Not just the few clicks to find information, but the information itself and the
experience surrounding it.
Today, we get to add Google's chapter to "Will One Company Dominate
the Cloud" introspective series and take a glimpse of the silent revolution from "index" to
"be" that is transforming the company and it's products to the default way to engage the
Internet.
As fate has it, Google done us a big favor in preparing for this piece. The company has launched
an assault on the enterprise with its movement in the Google App Engine, having a
stand-off with China, and negotiating with the EU. And that was
just a bit of Google
news from this week.
Sponsor
Whereas it's a bit more clear where Amazon and Cisco win (our
recent analysis) as they head towards the cloud, with Google it takes a bit more expansive view.
We have to take the focus out a bit, to be able to dial in on the details.
Acknowledgment: Developers are the Products they Build
We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Tim Bray. He has been a key contributor and thought leader
in key areas of interoperability and information design, including his leadership in bringing XML
to the world. He recently announced that he's joining Google and focusing on Android in a
transition from Sun.
Several things struck us about our dialog that we think are key for Google.
First, when Bray described his new job at Google, he talked about what he wanted to do and what
he saw that needed to be done. Within three days of being there, he has a sense of ownership of
the companies products and mission. In some organizations, you may never get such a luxury.
Second, Bray described his opportunity to "roll up his sleeves" and get back in the groove as a
developer on a project he feels passion for. He mentioned his desire to take the open APIs of
Android and expose some of the information in a more portable way, for example to transfer a call
log from one phone to another. A very interesting project, with tangible results. This type of
innovation lives on top of all the work the company has done to make the API exist, and to
attract individuals who are willing to rethink how it should really work.
We think that this is the most interesting thing about where Google is right now. It's "open"
mantra gives the company the ability to see a whole generation into the future of information
channel disruption. And, by bringing in "no holds barred" developers like Bray and a legion of
others, the company is patiently solving problems that many of us don't even know exist.
Lastly, Bray said something that caused us some deep thought.
His comment, "when the Drizzle team was moved into Google, they
just kept working on the their open source project and things stayed nearly the same."
What caused us to pause was that open source development, whether Linux or XML, gives the
developer, as a person, a way to contribute to the world. And it's documented. If the Internet
was the Bible, leading a key open source initiative, is like getting your own chapter in the
book, where time will be the judge of your actions. Much better than your manager alone.
To know that hard work, intellectual capital, libraries are available to the world after the
contract is complete. This really speaks to the artist in us, in a way, the paid open source
developer is using Google as a canvas.
If working at Google offers this emotional spark to employees, it will gain entirely new
efficiencies in solving the big problems, in the context of individual efforts. Maybe this open
source spirit is embedded into Twitter, and is why it works. We like to contribute to our version
of the greater good...and want fans to cheer us on.
What we learned; acknowledgment matters, and connections to the whole population of people is an
amazing vehicle. Google: become an indie rock star - with the strength of grep.
All of the Information on Earth
Google's destiny to become the hub of the worlds information is
intertwined with history. And this comes with artifacts of policy and posturing. To start with,
not everyone agrees that Google should achieve a dominant cloud position. As we're noticing,
stopping it is another matter.
We'd like to suggest that in 2010, the company is not shy about stepping towards its future and
will use its power, technology, and cash to stir it up. Here is our list of organizations in the
world that Google has, is, or will be, continually bumping into in its quest for cloud
information dominance.
China (counties own the filters for the people)
ATT (service providers own consumer on the network)
Penguin (book publishers own the words in the texts)
Visa (financial institutions own the digits in the transactions)
Facebook (social networks know the details)
Amazon (commerce sites own the decision point)
Twitter (owns "what's happening")
Microsoft (owns the computer applications and files)
Open can be a Key to Unlock Doors
We see both practical and strategic reasons that Google has a
deep connection with the open source movement. Strategically, being the new optimized layer,
removing all historic barriers to information give the company more leverage. Practically,
solutions can be built where information is free.
Reviewing a few examples, such as Google Earth, Android, and even GMail and we see that where
there are open protocols and information disruptive products can be built. Once they are built,
the Google wields a significant economic advantage in binding the worlds information assets and
converting them to eyeballs.
Here, we take a quick look at the information assets that Google is investing the global cloud.
Results: Google has moved away from Page Rank to "Closest Object" in it's
default results. What this means is that many businesses today show up as widget in the results
in google with embedded links, maps, and other efficiencies.
Ads: This is perhaps the best known and most valuable insight and unique
asset, who wants to pay for what customer
Realtime index: Google has worked to keep up with Twitter's realtime firehose
Semantic index: The company continues to add more and more microsyntax parsers
into its index, giving more controlled tools for publishers
GMail: It had to be done. And it is monetized.
Documents and files: Google Docs and the Apps Marketplace create a whole new
stream of information about an individual. Private, personal, and shared.
Mobile transactions: This is an interesting sample of where Google's strategy
to build the Android OS pays off in the cloud. Not only does Google get to connect mobile to
the rest of the offerings, but also to be able to dial in on movements, calls, and other
critical tasks in our real-time lives.
Books: Indexing all of them, first is an interesting piece of the strategy to
break apart historic containers of knowledge. Is the book copyrighted? How about the quote?
Browsers: The browser knows a lot. Google's Chrome moves it from being default
search, to being default experience. This was a great example of where access to information
"Faster pages" is the simple value proposition for consumers to switch.
Filters: Protecting companies, trademarks, and interpreting the legality of
free speech. Someone has to do it, if we're all one people.
Health transactions: Google has even taken on one of the most sensitive
challenges, private health information. And, it's connections to legacy systems that prefer EDI
to JSON.
It's clear that Google is making progress. What we've also learned in this review is that the
companies biggest asset - people - may scale to solve problems in lightweight ways that entire
teams and companies haven't been able to in the past. Perhaps being open, or transparent, gives
the company a unique advantage in being prepared for a cloud future.
Is the cloud where the action is?
What verb would you be if you were hired at Google?
Chirita commemorates its 10th anniversary with the Louis XVI computer - a steampunk retro
computer which is fit for royalty. Meant to blend in the elegance of a majestic living room or
office, this computer is made out of brass, bronze, alabaster, malachite and lapis lazuli, while
most of its metal parts are covered with gold leaf. The asking price for such luxury?
€13,000. Now we truly know that the economic recovery is well underway.
Drinks have been drunk, games have been celebrated and the BAFTA Video Games Awards 2010 have drawn
to a close. Here's a list of all the winners for this year: Action Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Development Team Sony Computer...
Computer hacker Albert Gonzalez deserves a quarter-century behind bars for leading a gang of
cyber-thieves that stole tens of millions of credit and debit card numbers from a transaction
processor and giant retail chains, federal prosecutors argued in a court filing Thursday night.
During my recent trip to India, I flew down to Bangalore for one
reason: To meet N.R. Narayana Murthy. Murthy is the co-founder, executive chairman and former CEO
for 21 years of Infosys, the first Indian company to go public on Nasdaq and effectively the
company that began the $30 billion Indian IT outsourcing market.
Murthy’s idea was so successful that it quickly became controversial—not
only within the United States where some Americans feel Indians are “stealing jobs,”
but also in India where many are concerned about a tech economy that doesn’t make
anything. I wanted to meet with Murthy, because in many ways he’s the best person to
address what Indians at home and abroad are facing and where Indian entrepreneurship goes from
here.
Here are a few highlights from our meeting:
His Day Job. Murthy thought he was stepping down from Infosys back in 2002, but
he couldn’t fully let go. As such, he still works pretty much full time for the company,
traveling to meet with customers and running a lot of the company’s mentoring and training
programs. The more surprising aspect of his job: He personally signs off on the architecture of
every building on each one of Infosys’ campuses that employ some 17,000 people around the
world. The one we were sitting in was spread of eight acres and had some remarkable buildings,
including one that looked like the Luxor casino in Las Vegas.
I asked why this was a top priority—after all, many Valley campuses are plush
but from an architecture standpoint look about the same. He said when GE and other American
multinationals were starting to come into his business everyone thought Infosys would lose the
local talent war. So Murthy studied why people want to work at a particular place. One of the
results was the comfort and design of the facilities. That was in 1994 when Infosys was designing
the very building we were sitting in as we had this conversation. “I’ve been in
charge of every building since– all over the world,” he says.
Hurting or Helping Local Entrepreneurship? Given exactly how plush Murthy and
his colleagues have worked to make Infosys, has he indirectly hurt Bangalore’s
entrepreneurship scene by making the risk of leaving so daunting? He smiled when I asked this and
said, “We may have unwittingly. But I do feel like the spirit of entrepreneurship is alive
and kicking in Bangalore.”
Further, I asked about Bangalore’s Zippo-flipping, free-spending generation of young
techies who’ve graduated to a huge wave of multinational jobs that pay them far more than
their parents ever made, in many cases more than the rest of their families combined. Murthy
didn’t deny that that instant-gratification, “gimmie” contingent was strong in
the city he helped build, economically speaking. But he blames the Internet and the
mass-cross-pollination of Western pop culture, not the bigger paycheck from companies like his.
“We are moving towards a uniform, global culture with an intense competitive spirit and an
intense desire for instant gratification,” he says. “But I have a firm belief that
each generation is better than the previous one. The Indian entrepreneurs today are more daring
than we were.” (This from a man who became a capitalist after after hitchhiking across
communist Eastern Europe and getting thrown in jail for chatting up someone’s girlfriend on
a train. “More daring” is a tall order, young Indian techies.)
Is India’s Tech Community Too Addicted to Services? Clearly, services has
been a great business for Infosys and the hundreds of dollar-millionaires and even more
rupee-millionaires that the company’s generous stock program has created. But a lot of
Indian CEOs and investors complain that in most cases services-based tech businesses are a great
way to get revenues quick, but not a way to build a huge, high-growth business. There’s a
big question of whether India’s tech sector has a worrying lack of product-building
know-how.
Murthy says it’s a progression. “India missed the industrial revolution, but Indians
had intelligence,” he says. “We had to make do with pen and paper. We were always
forced to look at the abstract. What is happening in India today is the creation of jobs.
Let’s create jobs as long as they are legal and ethical, it doesn’t matter, as long
as we make money. The time will come for creating products. I wouldn’t lose sleep over
this. If we create enough jobs we’ll raise the confidence of the youngsters and
they’ll create products.”
India’s Infrastructure. Here’s something it’s hard for even
Murthy to be upbeat about: India’s shoddy physical infrastructure. Murthy has traveled the
world and it’s frustrating that so much money has poured into the country he loves, and
yet, the infrastructure is still so shockingly bad.
There is progress—Infosys for instance has benefited from a new overpass that
cuts down on the drive to the campus by more than thirty minutes. (See!) But it’s
not moving nearly fast enough, he says. “I don’t know if we will reach the level of
the United States or China,” he adds.
Murthy gave a more nuanced explanation than the usual “it’s corruption” answer
you get in India. He explained that 65% of India’s population lives in rural areas and 35%
live in cities. And there’s such polarity between the quality of life that politicians have
to appear to be doing more for the villages than the cities if they want to get re-elected. That
leaves prosperous economic cities blighted by poor sewage systems, pollution spewing generators
and beggars weaving through traffic tapping on car windows. “Different emerging nations
take different paths,” he says. “In China, they chose to emphasize giving people
economic freedom first and political freedom second. In India we chose the opposite path.”
Hurting or Helping US-based Indians? All you have to do is read the comments on
one of Vivek Wadhwa’s posts to see the ugly, anti-immigrant, anti-Indian fervor
that’s been whipped up in America, post-recession. A lot of it has to do with outsourcing.
I asked Murthy if he felt his company and industry’s huge success has indirectly made life
harder for Indian-Americans. He turned the blame on xenophobes like Lou Dobbs and grandstanding
politicians who use the wedge issue to get viewers and votes.
But it’s an issue he has to address a lot. He answers it by saying every morning he gets up
and gets a Pepsi out of his GE Fridge and drives his American car to work where he sits down at
his Dell computer. India used to have companies that made soft drinks, refrigerators, cars and
computers. But the American ones were better. Allowing them in hurt Indian workers in the short
term, but provided a far better quality of life for a much bigger swath of Indians long term. He
argues outsourcing has done the same thing for US companies. Greater efficiencies and
cost-savings enables these companies to stay competitive and there’s no reason they
can’t—in theory—plow those savings into better local
jobs or job training.
This argument isn’t going to pacify hate-mongers, because nothing will. Murthy knows that
too and while he regrets it, he seems to accept it as reality.
Advice for Entrepreneurs. Murthy has started a $170 million venture fund, so
although he spends most of his time still at Infosys, he clearly cares about encouraging the next
generation of entrepreneurs. He had two big pieces of advice for them. One, be able to articulate
what you do in one sentence. If you can’t, you don’t have a good idea. And two, make
sure the market is ready. Businesses are killed, not congratulated, for being ahead of their
time.
In our latest
employment-specific round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in big sister site
Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs
section this week, including positions from SCEA Santa Monica, WB Games and more.
Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's
daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.
It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes
content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone games, 'serious games', independent games and
more.
Some of the notable jobs posted this week include:
Gameloft: 3D Graphics
Programmer
"As a member of our engineering team you will be part of the full development cycle of 3D video
games for iPhone from start to finish, primarily focusing on 3D graphics. Duties could include:
Analyze existing 3D functions in the engine and adapt them so they are compatible with current
conventions; Support 3D functions and systems conceived for the production; Work with Game
Developers, as well as Design teams to determine the different constraints of the game and put
all the elements together."
Guerrilla Games: Senior Game
Designer
"Guerrilla Games is looking to add a battle-hardened Senior Game Designer to its ranks for an
upcoming project. If you're recruited, you will play a pivotal role in formulating the game
design and guarding the game's vision. You will also act as a mentor, problem solver and source
of bravery and inspiration for your fellow troops."
Rockstar North: Graphics
Programmer
"Rockstar North, one of the world's leading video game developers, is a community of creative
individuals from a variety of backgrounds. We are based in Scotland out of modern, spacious,
purpose-built studios at the heart of Edinburgh. We develop original game titles and are proud to
be the developer of the phenomenally successful Grand Theft Auto series. Rockstar North has been
part of the Rockstar family since 1999."
Sony Computer Entertainment America Santa Monica: Senior Combat
Designer
"Join the God of War team! Be a part of the most exciting and innovating computer entertainment
in North America. Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) markets the PlayStationÂ@
family of products and develops, publishes, markets, and distributes software for the PS
oneâ„¢ console, the PlayStationÂ@2 and PlayStationÂ@3 computer
entertainment systems and the PlayStation Portable (PSPâ„¢)."
WB Games: Art
Development Director
"The Art Development Director develops art content staffing plans and monitors resource load and
schedule for the external outsource teams as well as the insourced teams. In addition, he or she
monitors content creation tasks in collaboration with production staff and art leads handling
communication and feedback between the external partners and the internal game teams."
To browse hundreds of similar jobs, and for more information on searching, responding to, or
posting game industry-relevant jobs to the top source for jobs in the business, please visit Gamasutra's job board now.
Omar
Ramos-Lopez' retaliation on his former employers' customers might be something we conjure up while
lying sleepless in bed, but we've got the power of self-restraint. Omar? Not so much. Ignoring his
locus of control, Ramos-Lopez retaliated against Texas Auto Center after he was fired from by
activating the GPS-enabled immobilizer systems the dealer fits to some of its cars. Some customers
missed work, others had horns that kept honking and many had to pay for towing and repair.
In all, more than 100 people were impacted by the actions of Ramos-Lopez, a 20-year-old now facing
charges for breach of computer security. Austin police say Ramos-Lopez accessed the computer system
in an attempt to block the dealership's access to its own Pay Technologies account. Customer names
were changed to things like "Tupac," and it took a couple days to figure out who the culprit was.
Ramos-Lopez had been fired a month before the incident, and he's now facing between four months and
two years in state prison if convicted.
[Source: wishtv.com
| Image: Travis County Jail/AP]
AppRemover is a free utility that enables complete uninstallation of antivirus and antispyware
applications. Easy to use. Once downloaded, double-click the AppRemover icon and it will
uninstall any detected security applications on your computer. Supported applications include
products from AVG, CA, F-Secure, McAfee, Symantec (Norton), Panda and Trend Micro.
Crashed web sites, stolen credit
card info — imagine seeing the damage caused by Internet viruses and worms unleashed on a
fleet of vehicles. The results could include vehicle location data used with malicious intent,
the prevention of a plug-in vehicle battery from recharging, remote starting of a car, or even
— as a disgruntled young former car salesman in Texas has demonstrated this week —
stranding drivers with a car that won’t start and a horn that won’t quit.
Here’s what happened in Texas, as Wired and
the Austin News report: A
terminated employee from a car dealership called the Texas Auto Center logged into the
company’s web-based system and was able to remotely wreak havoc on more than 100 vehicles.
The dealership’s system is able to disable the starter system and trigger incessant horn
honking for customers that have fallen behind on car payments. It’s meant to serve as an
alternative to repossessing the vehicle, and the ex-Texas Auto Center employee, arrested Thursday
on charges of computer intrusion, was able to set off the horn command at will and make it so
drivers couldn’t start their cars.
Cars are growing ever more connected to communication networks, and upcoming generations of
electric vehicles will take it a step further with connections to the power grid. Already,
electric car makers have unveiled
smartphone apps designed to let users to remotely control certain vehicle functions and battery
charging. Down the road, we’ll likely see not only electricity flowing to cars from the
grid, but also the flow of data between cars, the grid, home energy management systems, utilities
and third-party service providers.
As Ford’s director of connected services Doug VanDagens told us
recently (GigaOM Pro, subscription required), “For electric vehicles, connectivity to
the web and data are “required over and above what gas engines require.” Apps can use
data — about topography, traffic, battery and vehicle health, infrastructure
availability, driving behavior — to help orient drivers in the nascent world
of electric mobility, both in and out of their vehicle.
While these tools and technologies could help reduce fuel consumption, make electric vehicles
more convenient, and enable utilities to prevent excess strain on the power grid as plug-in cars
create new demand, that shift to an increasingly digital transportation system brings with it (as
Katie has explained in the
context of the smart grid buildout) one of the banes of the Internet: hacking.
The stakes, of course, are very different. Certainly nobody wants a virus on their PC. But the
prospect of a hacker seizing control of some aspect of a car — a ton of metal capable of
going 60-plus MPH, that costs tens of thousands of dollars, and that maybe has a battery in its
belly that requires a
sophisticated system of thermal controls –Â is a far scarier thought.
The potential consequences of cyber attacks on a digital power grid could be similarly
frightening. Andy Karsner said
back in 2008, when he was with the Department of Energy: “This isn’t the
cyber-attacking that you think of just for passwords. This is the capacity to destroy hardware in
your home, at airports, at military bases, your car, if its connected through the grid.”
We should note that remote immobilization systems like the one involved in the Austin incident
have been in use for a
decade or more, and yet we have not seen vehicles crippled en masse by hackers. But companies
should realize this could be a sensitive issue among consumers, while both companies and
regulators need to recognize risks that go along with the transition to increasingly digital and
connected systems for transportation and power.
Washing Machine 10.6Washing Machine cleans up files created by web browsers and other
programs that access the Internet.
When you surf the web, or use other programs that access the Internet, these programs record
where you go and what pages you browse. Your web browser and other programs also store
information about you and your browsing in "cookie" files. And many programs store temporary
files in "cache" folders that can take up space and slow down your browsing.
Many of these files contain personal information that can be seen by others who use your Mac, or
by hackers who gain access to your computer. Intego Washing Machine helps manage this
information, preventing others from seeing what you've been doing, and keeping your hard disk
spic and span. Washing Machine helps you protect your privacy by making it easy to delete such
information, wiping the tracks that your web browsers and other programs record when you use the
Internet.
Washing Machine can clean five types of items: Bookmarks, Caches, Cookies, Download Histories,
and Browsing Histories. It works with most web browsers, and many utilities or other programs
that store information without your awareness. It even cleans up after some programs that you
would never think are storing data.
WHAT'S NEWVersion 10.6: Release notes were unavailable when this listing was updated.
REQUIREMENTSMac OS X 10.5 or later.
PRICE$19.95
DEVELOPERIntego
DOWNLOADS5 DOWNLOAD NOW
(9.6 MB) More
information
It used to be
that every full-line American automaker offered a version of its mainstream full-size sedan to make
it appropriate for police duty. By the time 1996 rolled around, the Chevrolet Caprice, which was the last would-be competitor
to the standard-setting Ford Crown Victoria, was
discontinued, leaving the lucrative police market to the Blue Oval Boys.
The automotive industry took notice, and plans began in corporate board rooms to remedy that
situation, and even a few new entrants - most notably Carbon
Motors - sprung up with promising designs that eschewed the mainstream production-based sedan
design.
In 2005, Dodge rolled out a factory police package for
its full-size Charger sedan, and for the first time
in a decade the Crown Victoria faced some stiff V8-powered, rear-wheel-drive competition. Then in
2009, Chevrolet announced that its new Zeta
platform Caprice would be
returning for the 2011 model year packing a strong 6.0-liter V8 of its own.
How would Ford answer this newly mounted competition? Would the aging Panther-based Crown Vic
finally get an update? Nope. Instead, Ford just recently announced that it would soon offer a highly ruggedized
version of its most recent Taurus sedan, optionally equipped with the stout 3.5-liter
turbocharged V6 engine powering all four wheels as seen in the revived Taurus SHO.
We decided to see for ourselves how the three new competitors stacked up against the old guard
Crown Vic on paper, and as you can see, there's little to separate each offering on the spec
sheets. It should prove interesting to see how police agencies react to these choices, especially
since reliability and durability will be mostly unknown factors for the first time in ages. See for
yourself.
Ford Crown VicFord TaurusDodge
ChargerChevrolet CapriceAvailability Forever Late 2011
2005 - Present 2011 Type Four-door, body on frame Four-door, enhanced unibody
Four-door, unibody Four-door, unibody Engine 4.6L V8 3.5L V6
Twin-turbo 3.5L V6 5.7L Hemi V8 6.0L V8 Power 250 horsepower 263 horsepower
365 horsepower 368 horsepower 355 horsepower Torque 297 lb-ft 249 lb-ft
350 lb-ft
395 lb-ft 385 lb-ft Fuel Economy 14 City / 21 Highway 18 City / 28 Highway (2010
Ford Taurus FWD)
17 City / 25 Highway (2010 Ford Taurus SHO AWD)
16 City / 25 Highway 15 City / 24 Highway (2009 Pontiac G8 GT) Driveline Rear-Wheel Front or All-Wheel Rear-Wheel Rear-Wheel
Shifter Column Column Column Console Wheels 17-inch steel 18-inch
steel 18-inch steel 18-inch steel Brakes Four-Wheel Discs Four-Wheel Discs
Four-Wheel Discs Four-Wheel Discs Cop Brakes Y Y Y Y Cop
Suspension Y Y Y Y Cop Cooling Y Y Y Y Seats Front -
Cloth
Rear - Vinyl Bench Front - Cloth
Rear - Vinyl Bench Front - Cloth
Rear - Cloth Bench Front - Cloth
Rear - Vinyl Bench Interior Volume 106.4 Cubic Feet 102.3 Cubic Feet 104 Cubic
Feet 112 Cubic Feet Trunk Space 20.6 Cubic Feet 20.1 Cubic Feet 16.2 Cubic Feet 18
Cubic Feet Special Features Overwhelming Ubiquity
Tough as nails
Capable of withstanding 75-mph rear impact Seats with downsized lateral bosters, cut-outs for
utility belts
Ford SYNC
Safety Canopy(R) side-curtain air bag
Rollover protection system
Customizable steering-wheel switches
Rear doors swing 71-degrees
Capable of withstanding 75-mph rear impact
BLIS(R) (Blind Spot Information System)
Cross Traffic Alert
Rear View Camera System
Reverse Sensing System 160-mph (certified) calibrated speedometer
AM/FM radio with CD player, changer controls, four speakers and clock with auxiliary audio input
jack
Load-leveling, height-control shock absorbers
Independently switched red/white LED dome lamp Seats with downsized lateral boosters, cutouts for
utility belts
In-dash touch-screen computer technology
Driver information center in the instrument cluster with selectable speed tracking feature
Looks like the recent issue of Vodafone’s HTC Magic shipping with the Conficker and
Mariposa viruses might be more widespread than initially reported. Apparently Vodafone Spain has
confirmed that some 3,000 users may have been exposed to the Mariposa malware, which made its way
into users’ computers via the cell phone’s storage. Now the carrier is offering to
replace the microSD cards for infected phones, while stressing that the incident is isolated and
local. Getting a brand new phone shipped to you with a virus certainly isn’t pleasant, but
if your computer was infected by the virus, chances are that just getting a new memory card
isn’t going to solve the issue, is it?
There are only two weeks left until the iPad’s April
3 launch date, and Apple has just started reaching out to developers to say that
they’re accepting applications that were developed specifically for the device. We’ve
included the Email below. The key takeaway: If you’re looking to have your app available at
launch, you need to submit it by March 27, at which point Apple’s team will let you know if
your application is ready for the grand opening.
The first few weeks after the iPad is released will be a huge gold rush opportunity, as users
look to try out the device’s large screen for the first time. In short, if you can make it
to one of the App Store’s ‘top apps’ lists, you’ll likely do very well
for yourself. The only problem is that the vast majority of developers have never had access to
an actual iPad — they’re all working off of emulators, save
for a handful of extremely lucky developers who literally have their iPads chained to a
desk. Developers can tweak their applications all they want on their computer monitors, but until
they’ve actually gotten to try it out for themselves, they’ll have a hard time
figuring out if their apps feel right.
I expect most developers will scramble to submit what they have by March 27, and that we’ll
then see numerous updates immediately afterward as developers tweak button placement and other
interface elements. Some developers may choose to simply wait until they have a device in their
hands so that they can try out their apps before submitting, but the App Store’s
discoverability issues make this a risky move (of course, given the hundreds or thousands of
applications that will launch alongside the iPad, there’s no guarantee that you’ll
get noticed on launch day, either).
Keep in mind that users will also be able to use scaled-up versions of iPhone applications on
their iPads. Given the choice, though, there’s little doubt they’ll choose a native
iPad app over an iPhone app every time.
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg apologized to an elderly Brooklyn couple on Friday for
about 50 door-pounding visits police made to their home resulting from a glitch in one of the
department's computers....
New York - Apple (NASD: AAPL) has already sold "hundreds of thousands" of
units of its forthcoming iPad tablet computer via pre-order, The Wall Street Journal reported,
citing people familiar with the matter.
Wish you had access to tools like milling machines, 3d scanners, and laser cutters, but don't
have the budget or space to keep them at your home? Well, if you are a resident of Manchester,
you might be in luck. The Manchester FABLAB, an
open workshop with all of the aforementioned tools and more, will be opening up next week. They
aim to provide a free place for people to build noncommercial projects:
The Manchester fablab is a creative workspace in Manchester where you can pretty well make
whatever you can think of. When we say anything we do mean pretty much anything. There's about 35
fablabs (fabrication laboratories) around the world so far and people have made all sorts of things
from T-shirts to robots. The fablab is open for use by individuals, community groups, schools and
companies.
The Manchester fab lab will be equipped with many different machines including laser cutters,
milling machines, 3D scanners, embroidery and sewing machines which are mostly controlled by
simple computer programmes, so you don't have to be an machining or computer expert to use them.
We are going to be open for use at the beginning of 2010. As always there are a hundred things to
think of and a few more we haven't thought of.
Fablabs Basics:
The fablab is free to use for non-commercial use. (A small charge applies if you are a
commercial company)
We aim to provide free basic materials like wood, plastics and electronic components for
non-commercial use (Not gold or diamonds!)
We have lots of different machines to use and don't worry we'll help you learn how to use
them
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Viele Menschen haben in der Wirtschaftskrise ihren Arbeitsplatz
verloren. Manche haben ihre Kündigung als Chance begriffen, um sich selbständig zu
machen. Drei New Yorker erzählen von ihrem Sprung in eine neue Karriere. 
Die Comic-Serie „Strizz“ von Volker Reiche
erscheint in samstäglich neuer Folge in der F.A.Z. und auf FAZ.NET. 
The shortest way to describe this is that Google is no longer a verb. It's becoming
a noun. Not just the few clicks to find information, but the information itself and the
experience surrounding it.
We recently had the opportunity to sit down with 
His comment, "when the Drizzle team was moved into Google, they
just kept working on the their open source project and things stayed nearly the same."
Google's destiny to become the hub of the worlds information is
intertwined with history. And this comes with artifacts of policy and posturing. To start with,
not everyone agrees that Google should achieve a dominant cloud position. As we're noticing,
stopping it is another matter.
We see both practical and strategic reasons that Google has a
deep connection with the open source movement. Strategically, being the new optimized layer,
removing all historic barriers to information give the company more leverage. Practically,
solutions can be built where information is free.
In our latest
employment-specific round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in big sister site
Gamasutra's 
Weil er vor 20 Jahren einen Zug noch erwischen wollte, verlor er
seinen rechten Arm. Doch Gerd Schönfelder hadert nicht. Der „Stier von
Kulmain“ ist der erfolgreichste deutsche Athlet bei paralympischen Spielen. 
Die Lokalrivalen aus Köln und Mönchengladbach wetteiferten
im 76. Rhein-Derby maximal darum, wer am harmlosesten kickt oder die meisten Fehlpässe macht:
Der FC und die Borussia trennten sich unentschieden. 
Eisschnellläufer Kramer liegt auf historischem Sieg-Kurs -
trotz seines Trainers Kemkers. Eiskunstläufer Pluschenko sagt dagegen seine WM-Teilnahme ab.
Den Kassel Huskies droht Insolvenz. Und Skiflieger Ammann fliegt und fliegt. Sport kompakt am
Freitag. 
Während die Autobahnen rund um Frankfurt immer sicherer werden,
gibt es im Stadtgebiet mehr Unfälle. Das geht aus der Frankfurter Unfallstatistik hervor.
Crashed web sites, stolen credit
card info — imagine seeing the damage caused by Internet viruses and worms unleashed on a
fleet of vehicles. The results could include vehicle location data used with malicious intent,
the prevention of a plug-in vehicle battery from recharging, remote starting of a car, or even
— as a disgruntled young former car salesman in Texas has demonstrated this week —
stranding drivers with a car that won’t start and a horn that won’t quit.
It used to be
that every full-line American automaker offered a version of its mainstream full-size sedan to make
it appropriate for police duty. By the time 1996 rolled around, the 
Vielen Senioren ist das Web 2.0 immer noch fremd. Umso mehr liebt
die Jugend Rentner wie Peter Oakley, die sich ans Bloggen und Filmchendrehen wagen. Sätze wie
„Früher war alles besser“ wird man von diesem Pensionär nicht
hören. 
There are only two weeks left until the iPad’s 
Soll es statt ärzten künftig auch noch
„Bachelors of Medicine“ geben? Das wäre im Sinne der Bologna-Reform,
doch nicht in dem der Hochschulmedizin. Die medizinische Fakultät tut besser daran, sich auf
eigene Weise zu reformieren. 
Im Vorstand der Deutschen Bundesbank wird trotz aller Verhandlungen
über Hilfe für Griechenland eine Staatspleite nicht ausgeschlossen. Vorstandsmitglied
Thilo Sarrazin sieht in einer etwaigen Pleite das kleinere Übel. Die Bundesregierung
schließt indes Hilfen für Athen nicht mehr aus. 
Recommandations
)
and reject those that you are not interested in
(
)
