January 6th, 2013 01:20
admin
Dupple writes
“A few days ago Google blocked access to it’s maps on WinPhone claiming that it “worked best” on WebKit based browsers — effectively excluding WinPhone users. Despite Google Maps working fine on Desktop versions of IE that uses the same rendering engine and users being able to spoof the user agent string on their WinPhones to gain access. Now it appears that Google has backed down and is now allowing WinPhone users access.“Source: Google Backs Down On Maps Redirect
January 4th, 2013 01:04
admin
New submitter GavrocheLeGnou writes
“The french ISP ‘Free.fr’ is now blocking ads from Adsense and other providers by default for all its subscribers. The option can be turned off globally, but there’s no whitelist (Google translation of French original). From the article: ‘Because the service doesn’t offer a whitelist (contrary to Adblock, a service I’ve used for years), this means that it is an all or nothing choice, activated by default to block everything. And since it is not only internet, but TV and phone lines running through the FreeBox, it’s possible that, if left unchecked, Free could beginning blocking TV ads, or phone calls from known spam hotlines. While this seems like a potentially beneficial service, there’s no doubt that it’s biting at the heels of several sectors who rely on advertisement to make money, let alone the advertisers themselves who pay to reach an audience, and are blocked at the door.’”Source: French ISP Blocking Web Ads By Default
January 3rd, 2013 01:32
admin
tsu doh nimh writes
“Google and Microsoft today began warning users about active phishing attacks against Google’s online properties. The two companies said the attacks resulted from a fraudulent digital certificate that was mistakenly issued by a domain registrar run by TURKTRUST Inc., a Turkish domain registrar. Google said that on Dec. 24, 2012, its Chrome Web browser detected and blocked an unauthorized digital certificate for the ‘.google.com’ domain. ‘TURKTRUST told us that based on our information, they discovered that in August 2011 they had mistakenly issued two intermediate CA certificates to organizations that should have instead received regular SSL certificates,’ Google said in a blog post today. Microsoft issued an advisory saying it is aware of active attacks using one of the fraudulent digital certificates issued by TURKTRUST, and that the fraudulent certificate could be used to spoof content, perform phishing attacks, or perform man-in-the-middle attacks against virtually any domain. The incident harkens back to another similar compromise that happened around the same time-frame. In September 2011, Dutch certificate authority Diginotar learned that a security breach at the firm had resulted in the fraudulent issuing of certificates.”Source: Turkish Registrar Enabled Phishing Attacks Against Google
January 3rd, 2013 01:00
admin
itwbennett writes
“According to an ITworld report, ‘Google has agreed to change some of its business practices, including allowing competitors access to some standardized technologies, to resolve a U.S. Federal Trade Commission antitrust complaint against the company.’ This includes ‘allow[ing] competitors access to standards-essential patents the company acquired along with its purchase of Motorola Mobility.’ Also among the business practices Google has agreed to stop is ‘scraping Web content from rivals and allegedly passing it off as its own, said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz.’” SlashCloud has some more details, including links to
the agreement itself and Google’s soft-pedaling description of
“voluntary product changes.”
Source: Google, FTC Settle Antitrust Case
Categories: slashdot Tags: access, antitrust complaint, business, Chairman Jon Leibowitz, company, FTC, ftc chairman, google, jon leibowitz, product changes, U.S. Federal
January 3rd, 2013 01:20
admin
An anonymous reader writes
“Niels Provos, an engineer at Google working on malware and phishing protection, is showing on Youtube how to forge knives and Viking swords. The process is absolutely fascinating and follows the steps of Viking blacksmiths from a thousand years ago. It starts by taking small bars of metal that get heated and hammered together until they become a solid piece. He then shows how to form it with the hammer, heat treat and polish it. All the videos are narrated explaining the purpose of each step. Sure beats sitting in front of the computer.”Source: Google Engineer Shows How To Forge Swords and Knives
January 3rd, 2013 01:54
admin
Nerval’s Lobster writes
“When Canonical whipped back the curtain from its upcoming Ubuntu for smartphones, it set off a flurry of blogosphere speculation about the open-source operating system’s chances on the open market. But which company would actually build such a device? Apple and Research In Motion and Nokia are all out of the running, for very obvious reasons. Motorola, as a subsidiary of Google, is also unlikely to leap on the Ubuntu bandwagon. While Hewlett-Packard has flirted with smartphones in the past, most notably after its Palm acquisition, the company doesn’t seem too focused on that segment at the moment. That leaves manufacturers such as HTC, which currently offer devices running either Google Android or Windows Phone. But given Android’s popularity, it might prove difficult for Canonical to convince these manufacturers to do more than release a token Ubuntu device—especially if Google and Microsoft apply counter-pressure.”
Source: Who Would Actually Build an Ubuntu Smartphone?
Categories: slashdot Tags: Android, Apple, Canonical, company, google, Nerval, open source operating system, pressure source, research, Ubuntu, windows phone
January 3rd, 2013 01:08
admin
First time accepted submitter Bent Spoke writes
“In a bit of delicious irony, Microsoft laments Google is not playing fair by excluding access to meta-data on YouTube, preventing the development of the kind of powerful app readily available on Android. From the article: ‘In a blog post on Wednesday, Microsoft VP and deputy general counsel Dave Heiner said the software giant has spent two years trying to get a first-class YouTube app running on Windows Phone, but to no avail, thanks to the Chocolate Factory’s stonewalling. “YouTube apps on the Android and Apple platforms were two of the most downloaded mobile applications in 2012, according to recent news reports,” Heiner wrote. “Yet Google still refuses to allow Windows Phone users to have the same access to YouTube that Android and Apple customers enjoy.”‘”Source: Microsoft Says Google Trying To Undermine Windows Phone
Categories: slashdot Tags: Android, apple customers, Apple Platforms, Bent Spoke, Dave Heiner, delicious irony, google, Microsoft, microsoft vp, Windows, YouTube
January 3rd, 2013 01:08
admin
First time accepted submitter Bent Spoke writes
“In a bit of delicious irony, Microsoft laments Google is not playing fair by excluding access to meta-data on YouTube, preventing the development of the kind of powerful app readily available on Android. From the article: ‘In a blog post on Wednesday, Microsoft VP and deputy general counsel Dave Heiner said the software giant has spent two years trying to get a first-class YouTube app running on Windows Phone, but to no avail, thanks to the Chocolate Factory’s stonewalling. “YouTube apps on the Android and Apple platforms were two of the most downloaded mobile applications in 2012, according to recent news reports,” Heiner wrote. “Yet Google still refuses to allow Windows Phone users to have the same access to YouTube that Android and Apple customers enjoy.”‘”Source: Microsoft Says Google Trying To Undermine Windows Phone
Categories: slashdot Tags: Android, apple customers, Apple Platforms, Bent Spoke, Dave Heiner, delicious irony, google, Microsoft, microsoft vp, Windows, YouTube
January 2nd, 2013 01:50
admin
An anonymous reader writes “My fiancee is a professional writer. She has a great industry reputation and everyone that knows her loves her. But her ex-husband has maintained a number of websites in her name (literally, the URL is her name) that are filled with insane ravings and defamatory content. Have you ever had to deal with an internet smear campaign? The results float to the top of every Google or Bing search of her name. He currently lives abroad and cannot be served with legal papers. His websites are hosted overseas as well, and do not respond to conventional letters or petitions. Because of his freedom of speech rights, few U.S. courts will assert that his websites are truly libelous, either, and it’s still difficult to prove any real ‘damages’ are done by it. Still, we’d like to see them go away. I’m turning to the best community of geeks in the world: how do I deal with this given the limited options at my disposal?”
Source: Ask Slashdot: Undoing an Internet Smear Campaign?
Categories: slashdot Tags: anonymous reader, Bing, campaign, google, industry reputation, insane ravings, Internet, name, reader, smear, smear campaign, U.S.
January 2nd, 2013 01:07
admin
An anonymous reader writes
“A campaign started by HelloFax, Google, Expensify, and others has challenged businesses to get rid of physical paper from their office environment in 2013. According to the EPA, the average office worker uses about 10,000 sheets of paper each year, and the Paperless 2013 project wants to move all of those documents online. HelloFax CEO Joseph Walla said, ‘The digital tools that are available today blow what we had even five years ago out of the water. For the first time, it’s easy to sign, fax, and store documents without ever printing a piece of paper. It’s finally fast and simple to complete paperwork and expense reports, to manage accounting, pay bills and invoice others. The paperless office is here – we just need to use it.’ The companies involved all have a pretty obvious dog in this fight, but I can’t say I’d mind getting rid of the stacks of paper HR sends me.”Source: Campaign To Remove Paper From Offices
Categories: slashdot Tags: anonymous reader, campaign, CEO Joseph Walla, digital tools, google, HelloFax, office, paper, paperless office, reader, store documents