Posts Tagged ‘web’

LifeLock fined $12 million over lack of life-locking ability

// March 10th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

Identity theft prevention service LifeLock is not as pristine as its reputation claims after all. The company agreed to pay out $12 million to settle charges with the Federal Trade Commission and 35 states, which had said that LifeLock’s identity-theft-prevention claims were false and that the company actually made its own customer data available and unsecured from theft. As it turns out, there is no way to fully guarantee that identity theft won’t happen, no matter what someone puts on the side of a truck. LifeLock has made a name for itself as the go-to service if you never want to have any part of your identity stolen, ever. The company claims to proactively protect your information against fraud, alert you to any kind of shady activity, and reduce credit card offers for $10-15 per month. Those who have seen LifeLock’s trucks driving around their cities know that the company used to slap its CEO Todd Jones’ social security number on the side of the vehicle along with a number of claims guaranteeing that its customers won’t fall victim. (As an aside, Jones’ identity allegedly ended up getting stolen in 2007.) Read the comments on this post

Google Apps becomes a platform, gets its own app store

// March 10th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

At the Campfire One event last night, Google launched the Google Apps Marketplace and demonstrated how external Web applications from other vendors can be integrated into Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, and other services that are part of the search giant’s Web-based productivity suite. In the quest for data liberation , Google’s hosted Web services have long offered a wide range of APIs for third-party developers. With the launch of the new marketplace, however, Google Apps for domains is opening up even further and enabling external software to expose its own functionality directly through Google’s Web-based applications. This will make it possible for third-party software in the cloud to offer broad interoperability with Google Apps and very tight integration. Read the comments on this post

Winning the war on cancer? US death rates show broad decline

// March 10th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

President Nixon declared war on cancer in 1971 and, since then, the National Cancer Institute (part of the NIH) has funded research on prevention, surveillance, and treatments. But, despite the effort, progress has been elusive, leading to press reports in Newsweek , Fortune , and The New York Times suggesting that, at best, cancer is fighting us to a draw. But a new analysis of death rates, performed by staff at the American Cancer Society, indicates that cancer death rates peaked around 1990, and have been declining broadly since. As a result, they’re now below where they started in 1970. The dynamics in many specific populations are quite distinct. Relative to women, men started out with a higher age-standardized death rate, saw a more rapid increase, peaked a year earlier, and then have seen a far more dramatic decline. Various ethnic groups also had different trajectories, but all have shown declines in recent years. The trends have been more dramatic in younger populations as well. The changes also vary based on cancer types. “The 2006 death rates for Hodgkin lymphoma in men, cervical cancer in women, and stomach cancer in both men and women were less than one-third of the 1970 rates,” the authors conclude. In contrast, liver cancer death rates are increasing, as are pancreatic cancers in women, and melanoma and esophageal cancer in women. But, for 15 of the 19 cancers studied, rates have dropped. The biggest factor in the change, according to the authors, is prevention: people are smoking less, and we should see continued improvements in this regard due to the decreased rates of smoking in adolescents. Mammograms, the Pap smear, and increased colonoscopy rates all account for drops in their relevant cancers, indicating that detection is also playing a role, while new treatments had impacts in lymphomas, leukemias, and testicular cancer. There are a couple of take-home messages here. For one, we tend to expect success in the war on cancer to come in terms of treatments, but prevention and early detection are having a far more significant effect. But they take much longer; the oldest generations are missing out on the drop in smoking because the time-lags are so long. Finally, there’s some indication that the rise in a few cancers may be tied to increased obesity, however, so there’s no guarantee of continued success. PLoS One , 2010. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0009584  ( About DOIs ). Read the comments on this post

CodePlex refresh, FOSS projects more compatible with Windows

// March 10th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

The CodePlex Foundation has announced the arrival of several new board members, including Jim Jagielski, the Chief Open Source Officer of SpringSource. Jagielski, who was one of the original cofounders of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF), brings a lot of credibility and leadership experience to the CodePlex Foundation. When the CodePlex Foundation was established by Microsoft last year, an interim board of directors was assembled to help get the organization off the ground while permanent board members were being chosen. A number of the interim board members, including Novell’s Mono project leader Miguel de Icaza, will be turning their seats over to new representatives. Former Microsoft open source evangelist Sam Ramji, currently VP of strategy at Sonoa, will be remaining on the board, along with Microsoft .NET Framework program manager Davies Boesch. Read the comments on this post

Facebook’s location feature expected to launch next month

// March 9th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

Facebook is allegedly planning to roll out location sharing capabilities next month, once again playing catch-up to other services that have gained popularity thanks to location data. The rumor comes courtesy of anonymous sources who have been “briefed on the project” speaking to the New York Times , who said that Facebook will announce the feature at Facebook’s annual f8 conference in late April. The company’s plans for such a feature have not been entirely secret—Facebook hinted at location features when it updated its privacy policy in November. Like other postings made to Facebook, location information will only be made available to the people you decide to broadcast it to. “When you share your location with others or add a location to something you post, we treat that like any other content you post,” reads the policy . “If we offer a service that supports this type of location sharing we will present you with an opt-in choice of whether you want to participate.” The location features will come in the form of an API for third-party developers and from Facebook, according to the Times ‘ sources. The feature will undoubtedly be popular among many of Facebook’s 400 million users, as it has already proven itself with other services. For example, Twitter added geolocation to its API last year, not to mention that Foursquare , Brightkite , Google Latitude , and Loopt have all built their success solely upon the use of user location data. Needless to say, it’s not something that will be new to the Web, though it probably will be new to a sizable chunk of Facebook’s audience. Let’s just hope the company rolls it out the right way, as implied by its privacy policy, and doesn’t end up broadcasting everyone’s locations to the world by default. Read the comments on this post

Microsoft browser ballot gives Opera, Firefox a boost

// March 9th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

The Microsoft browser ballot released this month to Windows users in the EU is already doing Microsoft’s rivals a favor. Two of the major competitors to Internet Explorer have seen an increase in downloads, while the other two are not willing to share data. We contacted the makers of Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera; here’s what they had to say. Opera, the Norwegian browser maker that first filed a complaint with the European Union in December 2007 , accusing Microsoft of violating EU antitrust law by bundling IE with Windows, is pleased with the progress its browser is making. “Since the browser choice screen rollout, Opera downloads have more than tripled in major European countries, such as Belgium, France, Spain, Poland, and the UK,” an Opera spokesperson told Ars. The company said it currently did not have more detailed numbers but plans on sharing more as they become available. Mozilla, which has a particularly solid foothold in Europe , was slightly more specific in the progress it was seeing with its browser downloads. “Early data suggests 50,000 to 100,000 new users chose Firefox as a direct result of seeing the Ballot Choice screen,” a Mozilla spokesperson told Ars. “We expect these numbers will increase as the Ballot Choice rolls out in additional countries and will share updated metrics as they become available.” Apple did not respond at all, and while Google was happy to respond, the company wouldn’t get specific: “We generally don’t share download stats on that granular of a level,” a Google spokesperson told Ars. The company did not respond to a follow-up question if Chrome saw an increase in number of downloads period. While Apple and Google haven’t said much, we think it’s likely that both have also seen a bump in the number of downloads of their browsers. Hundreds of thousands of users who may not have known of a world outside of Internet Explorer are being confronted with the alternatives. The browser ballot will be presented on Windows computers across the EU for at least the next five years. Microsoft’s rivals are, however, already pushing to have it appear outside of Europe as well. Read the comments on this post

The Internet of tomorrow: 100Gbps to your house by 2030

// March 9th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

Google’s recent announcement of a 1Gbps fiber-to-the-home testbed has communities across the US salivating —but imagine what the Internet might be like if that connection to your home were even faster. Say… 100Gbps. In less than 20 years, such speeds will be possible, but only for companies who installed the right sort of fiber architecture. The UK telecoms regulator Ofcom commissioned a lengthy report on the future of fiber (PDF) (or “fibre,” in this case) from the firm Analysys Mason. In it, the company sketched out the future of fiber capacity with a pair of handy charts. Both are clear: between 2025 and 2030, shared fiber tech will be able to offer 10Gpbs to each user; individual fiber can offer a full 100Gbps. Whether ISPs will support it or not is a separate question. Read the comments on this post

Microsoft begins rolling out redesigned MSN homepage

// March 9th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

Microsoft today began rolling out its new MSN homepage , but not everyone will be getting it at once: the update will trickle out over the next few weeks to the site’s 100 million US customers. The software giant is touting the new version as “its most significant homepage redesign in over a decade.” It comes with a new MSN butterfly logo (which complements the Bing logo), a larger Bing search box and tighter integration with the search engine, local information from a new feature dubbed MSN Local Edition, as well as the addition of three social network streams: the Windows Live “What’s New” feed of course, Facebook, and Twitter. The above was previewed in November , but Microsoft says the redesign includes more than 30 updates that are based on 70,000 pieces of customer feedback. These new features include TrendWatch, which highlights the day’s top trends and movers on Twitter, Hyper-local Tweets, which uses Bing to highlight tweets from your location (available on the new Local Edition), and My Cities, which allows you save up to three cities to keep up with your friends or family across the entire country in your MSN Local Edition. Microsoft says it has seen double-digit increases in Bing search queries coming from the new homepage thanks to changes that make the decision engine more prominent. As for the MSN Local module on the homepage, the software giant says it is driving over 50 percent more traffic to the MSN Local Edition and that the main module on the new homepage also received over 50 percent more clicks than the original homepage. Microsoft made improvements to these sections based on the data it was seeing. For example, the company says the social networking additions were welcomed with open arms, so it has made sure the default social network tab is the one that the user frequents the most. The real test, not only for the servers but for the designers, will come in the next few weeks as the majority of users start to see the new version. As we’ve said before, we think the new look is much cleaner than the old version, but—as Facebook knows all too well—users aren’t always happy with huge revamps of major websites. Read the comments on this post

Amazon kills affiliate program in Colorado thanks to taxes

// March 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

Amazon has pulled the plug on its affiliate program in Colorado thanks to a new state regulation on sales tax collection. The company sent a notice to its Colorado-based affiliates Monday morning to let them know about the decision, urging residents who depend on the affiliate program to contact their lawmakers if they want the program back. Most states only require retailers to collect sales tax if they have a sufficient enough brick-and-mortar presence thanks to a 1992 Supreme Court decision on Quill Corp. v. North Dakota . Despite this, a handful of states have tried to pass laws in recent years (often dubbed the “Amazon Tax”) that would force Amazon to start collecting sales tax if their affiliates —that is, those who use Amazon’s affiliate links on their own sites or blogs in order to earn a return on referrals—are based in those states. Read the comments on this post

80% say ‘Net access fundamental right, split on regulation

// March 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

Access to the Internet is a fundamental right to nearly four out of five adults across the globe, and those in South Korea, Mexico, and China seem to have the strongest feelings on the topic. This is according to a  report (PDF) by the BBC World Service, which polled 27,973 adults on their feelings about, usage of, and concerns about the Internet. Although users are somewhat divided on whether the Internet should be regulated, they are in agreement on its usefulness for learning and information discovery. Across all 26 countries, 79 percent of Internet and non-Internet users said that they felt that Internet access should be “the fundamental right of all people.” When isolated for people who already use the Internet, that number went up to 87 percent. Almost universally (90 percent), respondents said that the Internet was a good place to learn and almost 80 percent said the Internet brought them greater freedom. Read the comments on this post

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