Microsoft to Acquire Nokia Handset Business
September 3rd, 2013I wonder how reckless Microsoft will get as the realization sinks in that Android and iOS are too far ahead to catch.
Via: BBC:
Microsoft has agreed a deal to buy Nokia’s mobile phone business for 5.4bn euros ($7.2bn; £4.6bn).
Nokia will also license its patents and mapping services to Microsoft. Nokia shares jumped 45% on news of the deal.
The purchase is set to be completed in early 2014, when about 32,000 Nokia employees will transfer to Microsoft.
While Nokia has struggled against competition from Samsung and Apple, Microsoft has been criticised for being slow into the mobile market.
Fukushima Radiation Levels 18 Times Higher than Previously Admitted
September 2nd, 2013This is definitely one for your Not The Onion file folder.
Via: BBC:
Radiation levels around Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant are 18 times higher than previously thought, Japanese authorities have warned.
Last week the plant’s operator reported radioactive water had leaked from a storage tank into the ground.
It now says readings taken near the leaking tank on Saturday showed radiation was high enough to prove lethal within four hours of exposure.
The plant was crippled by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) had originally said the radiation emitted by the leaking water was around 100 millisieverts an hour.
However, the company said the equipment used to make that recording could only read measurements of up to 100 millisieverts.
The new recording, using a more sensitive device, showed a level of 1,800 millisieverts an hour.
Britain: First Time a British Prime Minister Lost a Vote on War Since 1782
September 2nd, 2013Whoops.
Via: Reuters:
Prime Minister David Cameron’s plans to join a potential military strike on Syria were thwarted on Thursday night when Britain’s parliament narrowly voted against a government motion to authorize such action in principle.
In a humiliating defeat for the British leader likely to damage Cameron’s hopes of being re-elected in 2015 and set back traditionally strong U.S.-UK relations, parliament defied Cameron by 285 to 272 votes.
Commentators said it was the first time a British prime minister had lost a vote on war since 1782, when parliament effectively conceded American independence by voting against further fighting to crush the colony’s rebellion.
China Wants Operational Control Over Nuclear Power Plants It Finances in Britain
September 2nd, 2013Via: Power Engineering International:
China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) is looking for increased influence over EDF nuclear power facilities in the UK in return for investment in the sector.
The state-owned group is currently in negotiations with EDF over potential investment in the Hinkley Point project in England.
The FT reports that CGN wants greater operational control of any new plants it finances, potentially creating a national security headache for the British government.
Drug Agents Use Vast Phone Trove, Eclipsing NSA’s
September 2nd, 2013Via: New York Times:
For at least six years, law enforcement officials working on a counternarcotics program have had routine access, using subpoenas, to an enormous AT&T database that contains the records of decades of Americans’ phone calls — parallel to but covering a far longer time than the National Security Agency’s hotly disputed collection of phone call logs.
The Hemisphere Project, a partnership between federal and local drug officials and AT&T that has not previously been reported, involves an extremely close association between the government and the telecommunications giant.
The government pays AT&T to place its employees in drug-fighting units around the country. Those employees sit alongside Drug Enforcement Administration agents and local detectives and supply them with the phone data from as far back as 1987.
The project comes to light at a time of vigorous public debate over the proper limits on government surveillance and on the relationship between government agencies and communications companies. It offers the most significant look to date at the use of such large-scale data for law enforcement, rather than for national security.
The scale and longevity of the data storage appears to be unmatched by other government programs, including the N.S.A.’s gathering of phone call logs under the Patriot Act. The N.S.A. stores the data for nearly all calls in the United States, including phone numbers and time and duration of calls, for five years.
Hemisphere covers every call that passes through an AT&T switch — not just those made by AT&T customers — and includes calls dating back 26 years, according to Hemisphere training slides bearing the logo of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Some four billion call records are added to the database every day, the slides say; technical specialists say a single call may generate more than one record. Unlike the N.S.A. data, the Hemisphere data includes information on the locations of callers.
Worse Off Than a Medieval Peasant?
September 2nd, 2013Via: Reuters:
Life for the medieval peasant was certainly no picnic. His life was shadowed by fear of famine, disease and bursts of warfare. His diet and personal hygiene left much to be desired. But despite his reputation as a miserable wretch, you might envy him one thing: his vacations.
Plowing and harvesting were backbreaking toil, but the peasant enjoyed anywhere from eight weeks to half the year off. The Church, mindful of how to keep a population from rebelling, enforced frequent mandatory holidays. Weddings, wakes and births might mean a week off quaffing ale to celebrate, and when wandering jugglers or sporting events came to town, the peasant expected time off for entertainment. There were labor-free Sundays, and when the plowing and harvesting seasons were over, the peasant got time to rest, too. In fact, economist Juliet Shor found that during periods of particularly high wages, such as 14th-century England, peasants might put in no more than 150 days a year.
As for the modern American worker? After a year on the job, she gets an average of eight vacation days annually.
It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way: John Maynard Keynes, one of the founders of modern economics, made a famous prediction that by 2030, advanced societies would be wealthy enough that leisure time, rather than work, would characterize national lifestyles. So far, that forecast is not looking good.
U.S. Spy Agencies Mounted 231 Offensive Cyber-Operations in 2011
September 1st, 2013Via: Washington Post:
U.S. intelligence services carried out 231 offensive cyber-operations in 2011, the leading edge of a clandestine campaign that embraces the Internet as a theater of spying, sabotage and war, according to top-secret documents obtained by The Washington Post.
That disclosure, in a classified intelligence budget provided by NSA leaker Edward Snowden, provides new evidence that the Obama administration’s growing ranks of cyberwarriors infiltrate and disrupt foreign computer networks.
Additionally, under an extensive effort code-named GENIE, U.S. computer specialists break into foreign networks so that they can be put under surreptitious U.S. control. Budget documents say the $652 million project has placed “covert implants,” sophisticated malware transmitted from far away, in computers, routers and firewalls on tens of thousands of machines every year, with plans to expand those numbers into the millions.
The documents provided by Snowden and interviews with former U.S. officials describe a campaign of computer intrusions that is far broader and more aggressive than previously understood. The Obama administration treats all such cyber-operations as clandestine and declines to acknowledge them.
Research Credit: alvinroasting
July and August Earnings
September 1st, 2013Thanks to everyone who sent contributions and conducted business via Cryptogon’s affiliate links in July and August.
In July, earnings totaled $882.52.
Amazon $462.32
Amazon GBP9.40
Amazon.ca CA$4.29
Pookie $75
AM $50
MW $25
NM CA$20
DS $30
CM $25
BlueHost $90
Eileen $87.5
In August, earnings totaled, $1141.96.
Amazon $788.91
Pookie $75
DM $15
MS $20
JM $50
CS GBP10
BlueHost $90
Eileen $87.5
We missed the $1000 goal for July, but beat it in August. Add both months together and divide by two and we wind up with $1012.24 per month over the period. As you can see on the U.S. Amazon total for August, there was a wildcard situation. The person responsible for a very large purchase wrote in to let me know about it, and it’s because of that one off deal that I’m not missing the earnings goal two months in a row…
Somehow, we’re barely making it month to month. Barely. Thanks again to all of you helping to keep the lights on here.
There has been a disturbing development with regard to amazon.de.
I have a boilerplate email from amazon.de that says my affiliate account was terminated due to (unspecified) violations of paragraph 14 of the terms and conditions (English):
14. Term and Termination
The term of this Operating Agreement will begin upon our acceptance of your Programme application and will end when terminated by either you or us. Either you or we may terminate this Agreement at any time, with or without cause, by giving the other party at least 7 days’ written notice of termination.
In addition, we may terminate this Operating Agreement immediately at any time upon written notice to you for Cause. “Cause” means any of the following: (a) you are in material breach of this Operating Agreement or you are in minor breach of this Operating Agreement but you do not remedy it within 7 days; (b) we believe that we may face potential claims or liability in connection with your participation in the Programme; (c) we believe that our brand or reputation may be tarnished by you or in connection with your participation in the Programme; (d) we believe that we are or may become subject to tax collection requirements in connection with this Operating Agreement or the activities performed by either party under this Operating Agreement; or (e) we have terminated the Programme as we generally make it available to participants. For the avoidance of doubt and without limitation for purposes of the foregoing subsection (a) any violation of Section 3, 4, 5, 10, 11 or 13 will be deemed a material breach of this Operating Agreement.
In other words, “At our whim, we terminated your affiliate account.”
I appreciate the support that I have received over the years from readers in Germany who have used the amazon.de affiliate links on Cryptogon.
Unfortunately, I am in a position where the existence of Cryptogon is dependent on Amazon.com (U.S.) affiliate commissions. (This has actually been the case for years.) If they also pull my U.S. account, Cryptogon is finished.
Will Robots Replace Rent-a-Cops?
August 31st, 2013Via: Motherboard:
Has a fear of robotics ever kept anyone from robbing banks? I’m not talking about the surveillance systems, laser-armed tripwires, noisy alarms, or automated locks on the doors. I’m talking about actual robots—an evolution of the ROOMBA Vacuum cleaner, but with legs, not cute, and definitely not something you want to rob.
Now, an EU-funded, £7.2 million ($11 million USD) collaborative project, called Strands, is underway in England to develop 4D, artificial intelligence for security and care applications. It aims to produce intelligent robo-sentinels that can patrol areas, and learn to detect abnormalities in human behavior. Could their project eventually replace security guards with robots? It looks possible.
Arbitrage on Equities in Millisecond Time Frames
August 30th, 2013The “national best bid and offer” prices—Aren’t.
Via: Fortune:
Here’s how Hendershott’s latency-arbitrage strategy worked: Redline allowed him to use its “direct market access” — cables that run directly from exchange servers to its own. Redline’s server was co-located with that of BATS Exchange so that the “latency” on information and orders coming from BATS was cut down to barely one thousandth of a second. As a result, some of the quotes on public feeds such as the crucial “national best bid and offer” feed were a few milliseconds behind those Hendershott could see on his direct link with the exchanges. With a half-decent trading algorithm, Hendershott would have had ample time to buy Apple at a stale price with a guarantee that he could sell at a profit. Every couple of seconds. All day. Risk on the trades: zero.
