CNET’s Download.com site has been embedding adware into the install process for all kinds of software, including open source software like NMAP. For the unwary, some of the ads could have been read to suggest accepting the advertised service (e.g., the Babylon translation tool bar) was part of the installation process. Users who weren’t paying attention may also have clicked “accept” simply by accident. In either event, after their next restart, they would have been surprised to find their settings had been changed, new tool bars installed, etc.
Tag: technology
Diaspora Co-Founder Ilya Zhitomirskiy Passes Away At 22 | TechCrunch
…one of Diaspora‘s four co-founders, Ilya Zhitomirskiy, had passed away. With much sadness, we’ve now confirmed this terrible news with the Diaspora team.
Fukushima Cleanup Bill $14B Over 30 Years | Bloomberg
Contaminated material from Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant will be collected over 30 years and stored at a secure site at a cost of 1.1 trillion yen ($14 billion), according to the country’s environment ministry.
Who’s following you on Twitter or Facebook? Maybe CIA’s ‘vengeful librarians’ | The Washington Post
“But within an hour, it was all surging out on Twitter and Facebook,” the deputy director said. The CIA homed in on 12 to 15 users who tweeted situation reports and cellphone photos of demonstrations
Microsoft Anti-Malware Tool Mistakenly Snuffs Google Chrome | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com
Microsoft’s Security Essentials anti-malware tool has mistakenly identified Google Chrome as a password-pilfering trojan — and actually removed the browser from many users’ machines — but a fix for this rather amusing false positive is now available.
My wife and I have an inside joke for unwanted assistance. We say ‘Stop helping like Microsoft’ – Ed.
Federal Reserve Seeks Real-Time Monitoring of Social Networks, Bloggers, Forums, and “Influencers”
…the Fed will be able to specifically target information being put out by news web sites and even individual users (in forums or comments) and then respond to that information in kind by either contacting “key bloggers” and “influencers,” or simply ramping up their public relations machine to either discredit the message…
The DIY Terminator: Private Robot Armies And The Algorithm-Run Future Of War | Fast Company
“Drones are essentially flying–and sometimes armed–computers,” the Brookings Institution noted in a paper published last month. They’re robots who follow the curve of Moore’s Law rather than the Pentagon’s budgets, rapidly evolving in performance since the Predator’s 2002 debut while falling in price to the point where Make magazine recently carried instructions on how to launch your own satellite for $8,000.
Brains And Bots Deep Inside Yahoo’s CORE Grab A Billion Clicks | Fast Company
The company started work on a powerful personalization algorithm four years ago. Now it’s paying dividends. The system generates 45,000 totally unique versions of the Today module every five minutes. (All five screenshots in this post were taken within minutes of each other, using different Yahoo accounts.)
Twitter TownHall Reveals That GOP ‘Debates’ Require No More Than 140 Characters | Fast Company
The Twitter event was, by any measure, a sound representation of modern presidential debating–which inadvertently speaks volumes about how little substance there is in so-called “debates.” The sorry truth is that the constraint of 140 characters did not oversimplify the arguments put forth by these candidates at all.
Google’s Success May Mark The End Of Everything Else | Fast Company
Unless Google slips up somewhere, the races will eventually be for second place. First place will be locked down by the big G.
Dispatches From The Front 