Gossip Destiny: 2016-05-29

Saturday, 4 June 2016

Editor's Pick: Banking Trojans Take Backseat to Ransomware

Banking Trojans Take Backseat to Ransomware

John P. Mello Jr. Jun 4, 2016 10:00 AM PT
	The banking trojan -- a type of malware used to steal credentials for bank accounts -- has been a staple of cyberthieves for years. However, ransomware, which has proven both easy to use and highly successful, has started eroding its popularity. In a typical banking trojan attack, a robber mounts a phishing campaign to entice a target to open an attachment or click on a link. [More...]

More Picks:

Google's Magenta AI Tickles the Ivories
The Google Brain team on Wednesday released a tune created by machine intelligence. The composition is part of Project Magenta, which seeks to boost the capabilities of machine intelligence to create art and music. Among other things, the Magenta team is developing algorithms that enable artificial intelligence systems to learn how to create compelling art and music on their own. [More...]

Facebook AI Digs Deep Into User Content
Facebook on Wednesday introduced DeepText, an artificial intelligence-fueled text analytics engine. "Text is a prevalent form of communication on Facebook," wrote Facebook software engineers Ahmad Abdulkader, Aparna Lakshmiratan and Joy Zhang in a post describing its capabilities. "Understanding the various ways text is used on Facebook can help us improve people's experiences with our products." [More...]

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Friday, 3 June 2016

E-Commerce Minute

E-Commerce Minute: Friday -- June 3, 2016

The E-Commerce Times -- E-Business Means Business
http://www.ecommercetimes.com
Part of the ECT News Network

Headline Scan
Facebook AI Digs Deep Into User Content
Loyalty Failures
Uber Scores Historic $3.5B Saudi Investment
Rights Advocates Blast EU and Tech Firms' Hate Speech Code
Microsoft, Xiaomi Become Office Mates

Today's Story Highlights

Facebook AI Digs Deep Into User Content

Facebook on Wednesday introduced DeepText, an artificial intelligence-
fueled text analytics engine. "Text is a prevalent form of communication
on Facebook," wrote Facebook software engineers Ahmad Abdulkader, Aparna
Lakshmiratan and Joy Zhang in a post describing its capabilities.
"Understanding the various ways text is used on Facebook can help us
improve people's experiences with our products."
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83573.html

Loyalty Failures

Software vendors and their business customers have tried many things to
increase customer loyalty, but they have been disappointed more often
than not. Rewards, delight, and daily deals were good ideas to help spur
customer loyalty. Unfortunately, they weren't enough to move the loyalty
needle in today's highly competitive markets. That's because rewards
programs often reward the wrong thing.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83571.html

Uber Scores Historic $3.5B Saudi Investment

Uber has nailed down a record $3.5 billion investment from the Saudi
Arabian Public Investment Fund -- the largest-ever investment in a
closely held technology firm. The investment is part of a deal that will
allow Uber to expand its Middle East operations. Yasir Al Rumayyan,
managing director of the fund, will take a seat on Uber's board of
directors.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83570.html

Rights Advocates Blast EU and Tech Firms' Hate Speech Code

Digital rights and free speech advocates are up in arms over Tuesday's
announcement of an agreement between the European Commission and four
leading U.S. social media firms -- Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and
Microsoft -- on a Code of Conduct designed to crack down on hate speech.
The companies have agreed to adopt a system that allows users to flag
illegal hate speech and incitement to violence.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83568.html

Microsoft, Xiaomi Become Office Mates

Microsoft on Tuesday announced plans to sell 1,500 mobile technology
patents to China-based Xiaomi, in a deal that will expand both
companies' access to new markets. Microsoft's office apps will gain a
stronger foothold in China, while Xiaomi's smartphones will gain a
stronger global presence. The agreement calls for Xiaomi to ship
Microsoft Office and Skype on its Android smartphones and tablets.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83565.html

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Tech News Flash

Tech News Flash: Friday -- June 3, 2016

TechNewsWorld -- All Tech - All The Time
http://www.TechNewsWorld.com
Part of the ECT News Network

Headline Scan
HP Offers Versatile PC Gaming Machines for Grown-Ups
OpenSwitch Moves Under Linux Foundation Umbrella
No Man's Sky: Life After Launch
Voyager Offers a Mostly Smooth-Sailing Linux Adventure

Today's Story Highlights

HP Offers Versatile PC Gaming Machines for Grown-Ups

HP last week introduced several new additions to its Omen by HP gaming
hardware line: 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch laptops, a desktop PC and a 32-
inch Quad HD4 display. The laptops will be available next month with a
starting price of $900; the desktop and display will be available in
August at HP online and at select retailers, with pricing as yet
undisclosed.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/83558.html

OpenSwitch Moves Under Linux Foundation Umbrella

The Linux Foundation on Wednesday announced that it has taken the
OpenSwitch Project under its wing. OpenSwitch last year began as a joint
project of Hewlett Packard Enterprises, Broadcom, VMware, Accton, Intel
and Arista. OpenSwitch is an open source, Linux-based network operating
system, or NOS, that works with enterprise-grade switches from multiple
vendors.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/83572.html

No Man's Sky: Life After Launch

Persistence. It's what permeates the fabric of upcoming sci-fi odyssey
No Man's Sky , and it's what will see the game well past its launch this
summer. While eager to set out into a digital space that's populated
with 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 unique planets, most gamers have
expressed patience as developers march toward the release.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/83566.html

Voyager Offers a Mostly Smooth-Sailing Linux Adventure

Voyager Live 16.04 is a Linux distro that could be an ideal choice for
everyday computing tasks -- but first it has to step away from its
branding with Xubuntu. The once-per-year release of Voyager Live, which
hit servers last month, is an Xubuntu-based distribution showcasing the
Xfce 4.12.2 desktop environment. It will receive three years of security
updates.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/83559.html

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Thursday, 2 June 2016

Editor's Pick: HP Offers Versatile PC Gaming Machines for Grown-Ups

HP Offers Versatile PC Gaming Machines for Grown-Ups

Richard Adhikari Jun 2, 2016 3:11 PM PT
	HP last week introduced several new additions to its Omen by HP gaming hardware line: 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch laptops, a desktop PC and a 32- inch Quad HD4 display. The laptops will be available next month with a starting price of $900; the desktop and display will be available in August at HP online and at select retailers, with pricing as yet undisclosed. [More...]

More Picks:

Voyager Offers a Mostly Smooth-Sailing Linux Adventure
Voyager Live 16.04 is a Linux distro that could be an ideal choice for everyday computing tasks -- but first it has to step away from its branding with Xubuntu. The once-per-year release of Voyager Live, which hit servers last month, is an Xubuntu-based distribution showcasing the Xfce 4.12.2 desktop environment. It will receive three years of security updates. [More...]

Rights Advocates Blast EU and Tech Firms' Hate Speech Code
Digital rights and free speech advocates are up in arms over Tuesday's announcement of an agreement between the European Commission and four leading U.S. social media firms -- Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Microsoft -- on a Code of Conduct designed to crack down on hate speech. The companies have agreed to adopt a system that allows users to flag illegal hate speech and incitement to violence. [More...]

No Man's Sky: Life After Launch
Persistence. It's what permeates the fabric of upcoming sci-fi odyssey No Man's Sky, and it's what will see the game well past its launch this summer. While eager to set out into a digital space that's populated with 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 unique planets, most gamers have expressed patience as developers march toward the release. [More...]

Pay TV Firms Eke Out Tiny Gains in Customer Satisfaction
After two years of declining customer satisfaction, the telecommunications sector has halted the slide, according to the ACSI Telecommunications Report 2016, released Wednesday. There was a 1.9 percent gain -- to 70.1 on a 100-point scale -- in satisfaction with pay TV services, Internet service providers, fixed-line telephone services, wireless phone services and mobile phone makers. [More...]

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Wednesday, 1 June 2016

E-Commerce Minute

E-Commerce Minute: Wednesday -- June 1, 2016

The E-Commerce Times -- E-Business Means Business
http://www.ecommercetimes.com
Part of the ECT News Network

Headline Scan
Report: Smartphone Ad Blockers Picking Up Steam
Federal IT Living in the Floppy Age, Reports GAO
Salesforce Picks AWS as Preferred Public Cloud Provider
Coalition Wants FCC to Look Into Data Cap Exemptions
Microsoft's Intolerable Windows 10 Aggression
Facebook Tweaks Trending Topics Out of Abundance of Caution
Microsoft Drastically Scales Down Smartphone Biz

Today's Story Highlights

Report: Smartphone Ad Blockers Picking Up Steam

At least 419 million people around the world are blocking advertising on
their smartphones, according to a report PageFair released Tuesday. Most
of those people -- 408 million of them -- are using ad-blocking
browsers, notes the report. The use of ad blockers doubled in 2015, and
the use of mobile ad-blocking browsers increased 90 percent during the
same year.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83563.html

Federal IT Living in the Floppy Age, Reports GAO

Antiquated IT systems are soaking up federal technology dollars and
creating risks for both bureaucrats and citizens, the Government
Accountability Office reported last week. More than 75 percent of the
federal IT budget in 2015 went toward the operation and maintenance of
nearly obsolete legacy systems that use outdated software languages and
unsupported hardware parts.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83557.html

Salesforce Picks AWS as Preferred Public Cloud Provider

Salesforce last week announced its selection of Amazon Web Services as
its preferred public cloud infrastructure provider. The deal is worth
$400 million. "For the first time, we'll be able to deliver our core
services -- including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, App Cloud, Community
Cloud, Analytics Cloud and more -- for our international infrastructure
expansion," said Salesforce cofounder Parker Harris.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83561.html

Coalition Wants FCC to Look Into Data Cap Exemptions

A coalition of technology companies and advocacy groups earlier this
week wrote to the Federal Communications Commission, urging it to open a
public investigation into zero-rating practices, in which mobile
providers allow some video or music providers to be excluded from data
caps. The group called on the FCC to examine the zero-rating practices
to determine whether they harm competition.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83554.html

Microsoft's Intolerable Windows 10 Aggression

Microsoft seems to have gone off the deep end with its tricks to get
unwilling customers to upgrade from Windows 7 and Windows 8 to Windows
Doesn't the company realize this will hurt it? Does Microsoft think
it can be abusive and win? Users are complaining loudly. Why doesn't
Microsoft care about the disruption it is causing? A slice of the
Microsoft marketplace wants to move to Windows 10. Fine. Many of them
absolutely love it. That is not the problem.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83553.html

Facebook Tweaks Trending Topics Out of Abundance of Caution

Facebook this week said it would make several procedural changes to its
Trending Topics feature to quell concerns that the results could be
steered in a particular political direction, even though it has found no
evidence of bias. The company will retrain workers in the Trending
Topics department and institute additional oversight and control to make
sure trending stories are selected fairly.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83551.html

Microsoft Drastically Scales Down Smartphone Biz

Microsoft on Wednesday announced plans to streamline its smartphone
business by cutting 1,850 jobs. It will record an impairment charge of
$950 million, with severance payments accounting for $200 million of the
charge. The restructuring will entail up to 1,350 job losses at
Microsoft Mobile Oy in Finland, and 500 more cuts around the world.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83549.html

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