A computer malware that has spread across 150 countries appears to be slowing down, with few reports of fresh attacks in Asia and Europe on Monday.
However staff beginning the working week have been told to be careful.
The WannaCry ransomware started taking over users’ files on Friday, demanding $300 (£230) to restore access.
Hundreds of thousands of computers have been affected so far. Computer giant Microsoft said the attack should serve as a wake-up call.
When it comes to tech giants, Apple and Amazon have one of the better rivalries.
Both are trying to be the living-room platform of the future. Apple is doing that through Apple TV; Amazon is doing that through its Fire sticks and boxes. Neither wants to cede ground to the other, which has meant they haven’t been playing nice.
The result? No Amazon Prime Video app for Apple TV owners, and no Apple TVs available on Amazon.com. For now.
When the oceanographer Charles Moore first discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch–an area of the ocean where currents concentrate the plastic we throw into the ocean–in 1997, he was shocked by its magnitude and persistence. “It seemed unbelievable, but I never found a clear spot,” he wrote later in Natural History magazine. “In the week it took to cross the subtropical high, no matter what time of day I looked, plastic debris was floating everywhere: bottles, bottle caps, wrappers, fragments.” In the years since the plastic buildup has only worsened. In a recent article in the New York Times, Moore reported that the Patch, through a process of accretion, now contains “solid areas you could walk on.”
Caffeine addicts have a new way to get their fix, thanks to the Espresso Buzz Bagel.
The bagel, infused with 32 milligrams of caffeine and 13 grams of protein, is now part of Einstein Bros. Bagels’ Boosted Bagels, according to a press release.
Two other bagels joining the lineup include the Cherry Chia Bagel, boasting 300 milligrams of omega-3 ALA and 12 grams of protein, and the Savory Parm Bagel, which has iron, B1, B2 and 12 grams of protein.
Last week, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook announced the company would invest $1 billion in a U.S. “advanced manufacturing fund.”
As the CEO of a manufacturing company, even I have no idea what Cook means by an “advanced manufacturing fund,” and I don’t think Apple (AAPL, -0.82%) wants me or anyone else to know, which is why it makes for such good publicity. The company announced last week that its cash reserves hit $256.8 billion in the fiscal second quarter, then doesn’t give any other specifics, and saves those specifics, as Cook says, for a later date. Apple will keep beating the drum of how it’s “investing in America,” but won’t ever provide any specifics as to how the money is used other than to create more manufacturing jobs or how many American jobs it creates. And if it does, it will be harder to trace than an Iranian cash deal.
FACEBOOK MAY WANT to see itself as a platform for others to share news, not a publisher that intervenes to filter what appears on the site. But the world keeps getting in the way.
The latest demand for Facebook to exercise something like editorial control comes from an Austrian court, which ruled yesterday that the company must take down posts identified as “hate speech” in a case brought by the country’s Green party over insults to its leader. “There’s a multitude of ways to enforce the court’s decision in case Facebook is not willing to fully comply,” says Alexander Nessler, an attorney at the firm representing Greens politician Eva Glawischnig in the case. “In the end, it’ll depend on Facebook’s actual reaction.”
You can learn a lot about a public company by reading its risk factors.
These are the portions of companies’ financial filings that require them to put on a show of honesty and humility. Risk factors are the challenges a company sees for itself, the threats it believes could sink it.
Twitter lists more than 40 risk factors in its most recent quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Many of them are obvious challenges that apply to any company (currency fluctuations could hurt, taxes might go up, God forbid a natural disaster destroy our headquarters, etc.). So far, it has navigated those successfully enough. It’s on the risk factors unique to Twitter it has foundered.
Here are a dozen areas where Twitter has foreseen risks — but still failed to avoid them.
The nation’s economy is still on a strong upward trajectory, according to the latest monthly report from the Department of Labor, which showed an increase of 211,000 jobs for the month of April. Unemployment fell to 4.4 percent, its lowest level since May 2007.
April’s strong showing puts economic growth firmly back on track after a miserable March, when only 79,000 jobs were added (revised down from 98,000), and paves the way for the Federal Reserve to hike up the interest rate next month.
Scottish craft beer maker BrewDog is expanding into the U.S.
The company, which started out a decade ago making beer in a garage in Scotland, recently opened a 100,000-square-foot brewery in Columbus, Ohio, and plans to launch its beers on the U.S. market in the next two months.
It’s been quite a journey for James Watt and Martin Dickie, whose firm is now valued at £1 billion ($1.29 billion).
A new Google Docs phishing scam just reared its head a few hours ago, and it’s spreading like wildfire. Google appears to be taking action to stop it, but in the meantime: be super, super wary of Google Doc invites for now. If you fall for this one (and plenty of otherwise eagle-eyed people have already), it’ll blast out the bait to everyone on your contact list.
