Category Archives: Business

U.S. tells court MegaUpload users are out of luck

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Carpathia wants the court to help pay the costs of preserving MegaUpload’s data, which it claims is more than $500,000 and growing, or protect Carpathia from civil claims, should it decide to delete the information. Carpathia has said that in most cases where a customer can no longer pay for service, the servers are wiped and used elsewhere. Should that happen in this case, potentially millions of former MegaUpload users around the world would lose data — though how much content was legally obtained is unclear.

via U.S. tells court MegaUpload users are out of luck | Media Maverick – CNET News.

Carpathia Hosting seem to be truly innocent victims here.  Somehow I predict the US taxpayer will end up footing the bill for all of this and Carpathia Hosting can start learning the art of cost plus billing.

Dell’s acquisition a Wyse one, analysts say

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Dell’s announcement on Monday that it had finalized an agreement to acquire thin client maker Wyse allows the company to fill a portfolio gap that had been exploited by competitors such as HP, according to industry experts.

via Dell’s acquisition a Wyse one, analysts say.

What’s more, given the positions of Wyse and HP as No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the thin client market, he says the move could put HP under considerable pressure.

Microsoft counted as key Linux contributor, for now anyway

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The Linux Foundation’s Linux Development Report, released Tuesday, summarizes who has contributed to the Linux kernel, from versions 2.6.36 to 3.2. The 10 largest contributors listed in the report are familiar names: Red Hat, Intel, Novell, IBM, Texas Instruments, Broadcom, Nokia, Samsung, Oracle and Google. But the appearance of Microsoft is a new one for the list, compiled annually.

Overall, Microsoft contributed 688 changes, or about 1.0 percent of the accepted changes to the kernel, since version 2.6.36. Company engineers also signed off on 2,174 changes, or about 1.1 percent of all the changes in this review period.

via Microsoft counted as key Linux contributor, for now anyway.

“Girls Around Me” Creeper App Just Might Get People To Pay Attention To Privacy Settings

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For example: all these options in Foursquare default to on, which is really fine, since after all the service is about sharing your location. And linking it to your Facebook or Twitter account is a natural step for many. But at the same time it’s easy to fail to understand that one is providing a sort of path that strangers can follow from a face on the street to a name, other photos, current location, and a number of other things.

via “Girls Around Me” Creeper App Just Might Get People To Pay Attention To Privacy Settings | TechCrunch.

Foursquare

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Foursquare, stylized as foursquare, is a location-based social networking website for mobile devices, such as smartphones. Users “check-in” at venues using a mobile website, text messaging or a device-specific application by selecting from a list of venues the application locates nearby.[3] Location is based on GPS hardware in the mobile device or network location provided by the application. Each check-in awards the user points and sometimes “badges”.

via Foursquare – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The service was created in 2009 by Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai. Crowley had previously founded the similar project Dodgeball as his graduate thesis project in the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at New York University. Google bought Dodgeball in 2005 and shut it down in 2009, replacing it with Google Latitude. Dodgeball user interactions were based on SMS technology, rather than an application.[4]

Groupon reveals lower revenue, admits internal controls ‘weakness’

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In its SEC filing, Groupon said it sets aside a refund reserve by applying a financial model based on refund patterns from previous deals. The problem with this approach was that refund behavior started changing in late 2011 as the company introduced higher-priced deals, which required commensurately higher refund payouts when customers requested returns. Groupon was still modeling the size of its allowance on lower-priced deals.

via Groupon reveals lower revenue, admits internal controls ‘weakness’ – chicagotribune.com.

RIM’s Q4: Weak results, outlook and brutally honest CEO commentary

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RIM gave the bears more ammunition to punish the stock. It’s trading below tangible book value and there’s no conceivable reason to expect that to change anytime soon. If anything, fears about RIM’s survival are becoming much more real.

I don’t mean to sound too harsh, but it’s obvious that a timely launch of BlackBerry 10 is RIM’s last chance. It’s a pretty GOOD chance, but if they screw it up we’re talking about break up value, take-out pricing and other less-than-ideal scenarios for investors.

via RIM’s Q4: Weak results, outlook and brutally honest CEO commentary | CrackBerry.com.

LG begins mass production of first flexible, plastic e-ink displays

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The new plastic display has a resolution of 1024×768 and is six inches across the diagonal, which is comparable to the Kindle and Nook. Because it’s made of plastic and not glass, though, the LG display is half the weight (14g) and 30% thinner (0.7mm) than a comparable, glass e-ink panel. Existing e-book readers need to be thick (and heavy) to protect the glass display, but LG is promising that its display is a lot more rugged. The press release says that the plastic display survives repeated 1.5-meter drop tests and break/scratch tests with a small hammer, and that it’s flexible up to 40 degrees from the mid point.

via LG begins mass production of first flexible, plastic e-ink displays | ExtremeTech.

According to LG, the first plastic display-toting e-readers are expected to emerge in Europe “at the beginning of next month,” with the US presumably following swiftly after.

Keeping the Internet Competitive

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But private ownership can also have serious drawbacks. Transportation and communications services are essential inputs to a wide variety of industries. When the government helps a firm enter a transportation or communications market, it gives that firm a lasting advantage over potential competitors. If given free rein, a shrewd firm can leverage its government-supported dominance of a communications or transportation market to undermine competition and extract rents in adjacent markets that would otherwise be competitive. In the long run, this kind of rent-seeking behavior may prove dramatically more costly to consumers than would direct taxpayer support for the infrastructure.

via Keeping the Internet Competitive > Publications > National Affairs.