[!]

Their desperation for finding coders continues as well. I mean yeah, that's what we true coders want, more walled gardens! These buffoons just don't get it. They tried to bring rappers who advertise that you should code (see video) and that didn't work, now it's time for Rupert Murdoch. LOL!

For all of their handwaving at Code.org about U.S. kids not being taught Computer Science, tech execs from Microsoft, Google, and Facebook seem more focused lately on Plan B of their 'two-pronged' National Talent Strategy. So, who's going to teach your children CompSci? Enter friend-of-the-Gates-Foundation Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch's Amplify Education is launching an AP Computer Science MOOC this fall (Java will be covered), taught by an experienced AP CS high school teacher (video). An added option, called MOOC Local, will provide additional resources to schools with students in the CS MOOC. MOOC Local will eventually cost $200 per student, but is free for the first year..

Allow me to puke. Some funny comment:

Some of the subjects that will be included are:

* wiretapping for beginners
* how to put up ineffective paywalls
* how to run a thriving social media network into the ground

Of course, being a "computer science" class (by which I'm sure they mean "ICT for dummies"), there won't be some of Rupert's other specialties. Such as:

* How to influence people by a coordinator national campaign by the newspapers and other media you own (and thus ensure a victory for the side who promised you the most in the next election)
* How to lie, cheat and steal your way out of trouble
* News? We're not a news channel, we're an entertainment channel. And we'll take it to court to ensure we can lie while pretending it is news.

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[!]

Twitter will now start stalking you around the Web by using cookies. This "service" is on by default.

Not saying that Mail Online is a good "news" Web site but see how they at Neowin.net change the wording from something very sinister and turn it into something "Oh, nothing special, very cute". Disgusting.

Mail Online wording:
Big Brother strikes again: Now TWITTER wants to start tracking you on the web.

Neowin wording:
Twitter to introduce tailored ads, kindly lets you opt out.

A corporation stalking users around the Web suddenly is called a "service" which gives you "tailored ads" and they are oh so very "kind" that let users opt out. How gracious of them!

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While we are at it, here is some more:

AT&T says it will now sell your "anonymous" usage and location information to third parties.

AT&T recently updated its privacy policy in an attempt to offer more transparency to its subscribers. As part of the update, Ma Bell revealed that it now plans to harvest and sell to third parties anonymous usage and location information to third parties, which in turn will result in targeted and more relevant advertising.

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But wait! It doesn't end yet! HERE BE MOOAAARE:

Microsoft Integrates Xbox One Advertising with Kinect To Profile Users and Deliver Ads.

Microsoft's big new feature with Kinect? Advertising.

That, in and of itself, isn't really very surprising. Xbox 360 had ads from the beginning. Then they revamped the dashboard and added even more ad spaces. Ads on Xbox One, despite the fact that you paid $500 for the console and $60 for the yearly service, isn't very surprising. What is surprising is that the advertising team has managed to convince itself that this is actually a good thing.

"On Xbox, the ad is part of the actual experience, it's not something that is outside. The only difference is that the advertisement we have is quite small and not disruptive so people are not aware of clicking on the banners because they know this is a part of the whole experience on the dash," a UI designer recently told StickTwiddler. "So the users know that this is something that when they click on it, they won't be hit by something crazy or something dangerous like on the web. Everything that lands there, we create."

The Xbox is developing native advertising, where ad content is displayed alongside relevant material, either embedded in search results, promoted on a network like Facebook, or a "Liked X? You'll Love Y!" style of marketing. Not to worry, though -- the company plans to use Kinect to make these advertisements even more engaging than their current counterparts. In the future, Kinect may offer you a "Choose Your Own Adventure" style narrative in which you speak commands or give orders to an ad as its playing to change the final outcome.

The other way the company wants to use Kinect is to monitor what's going on in the living room to serve you group-appropriate content, rather than resorting to the plain old method of bombarding you with non-interactive advertising for things you don't care about. Microsoft claims that the demographic data the ad team can access is very limited, but it's hard not to see shadows of the same patent for movie licensing that the company applied for last year.

Telling gamers that the Xbox One is an ad-centric experience and attempting to spin it like a positive doesn't actually work. Sure, people may engage with a new type of advertising at first, but that's not because they actually like or value the ads -- it's because the experience is new and different. According to Xbox staff, the new console is exciting because "the 360 console wasn't built with advertising in mind, it was more of an afterthought... whereas this new one is going to have advertising in mind."

Let me repeat:

...the company wants to use Kinect is to monitor what's going on in the living room...

Xbox One built for ads from the ground up.

So what about the future of advertising on the Xbox One? "It's going to be an exciting transition though because the 360 console wasn't built with advertising in mind, it was more of an afterthought, so we've had to adapt to the technology and how we work to fit them in to the console," said Technical Account Manager for Xbox LIVE Advertising, "whereas this new one is going to have advertising in mind. So a lot of the limitations that we have now, hopefully the release of the boundaries will widened so the opportunities will be a lot greater."

...and just when you thought it ends there but nope!

Google paying AdBlock Plus to not block Google's ads.

...a new report claims that Google is paying money to Eyeo, the company behind AdBlock Plus, so that its ads get through the browser ad remover.

With an Orwellian twist, they are calling it "Acceptable ads":

Eyeo does state that " ...we are being paid by some larger properties that serve nonintrusive advertisements that want to participate in the Acceptable Ads initiative."

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Did you say you want more? Well, here you go:

Sky Deutschland Considering Using Bone Conduction To Force Ads On Train Riders.

Sky Deutschland is considering a proposal to use bone conduction to broadcast ads to train riders. The idea is that the riders rest their heads against a part of the train, like the train window, and then bone conduction would broadcast ads directly into their ears.

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Baby steps! (Link to Idiocracy movie)

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[I, user.]

Now we know what this was all about:

http://kotaku.com/5958307/this-kinect-p ... -violation

This Kinect Patent is Terrifying, Wants to Charge You For License Violation

A patent filed by Microsoft last year, but only made public last week, wants to turn your Xbox 360's Kinect into an instrument via which large companies can monitor your media usage and, if you're found to be in violation of something, charge you for it.

And no, I am not making that up.

The patent application, titled "CONTENT DISTRIBUTION REGULATION BY VIEWING USER", is a means of using Kinect to monitor not just what you're watching (or listening to) on your Kinect, but more importantly, how many people.

Here's the important part, straight from the application itself:

The technology, briefly described, is a content presentation system and method allowing content providers to regulate the presentation of content on a per-user-view basis. Content is distributed to consuming devices, such as televisions, set-top boxes and digital displays, with an associated license option on the number of individual consumers or viewers allowed to consume the content. The limitation may comprise a number of user views, a number of user views over time, a number of simultaneous user views, views tied to user identities, views limited to user age or any variation or combination thereof, all tied to the number of actual content consumers allowed to view the content. Consumers are presented with a content selection and a choice of licenses allowing consumption of the content. In one embodiment, a license manager on the consuming device or on a content providers system manages license usage and content consumption. The users consuming the content on a display device are monitored so that if the number of user-views licensed is exceeded, remedial action may be taken.

Kinect is never mentioned specifically, but seeing as a camera is going to need to track and identify people in the room, it can't really be anything else.

Basically, when you buy or rent something like a movie, you'll only be granted a "license" for a certain number of people to watch it. If Kinect detects more people in the room than you had a license for, it can stop the movie, and even charge you extra.

So if Microsoft has its way, you won't just be renting movies any more. You'll have to decide how many people are watching, and no doubt pay more. And if one extra person turns up to your movie night? So help you God, you are going to pay.

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[``-_-´´]

Got to love the "always connected" devices: EPA encourages utility controlled refrigerators.

The connection feature allows the utility provider to regulate the appliances' power consumption, ÔÇ£including curtailing operations during more expensive peak demand times.ÔÇØ

Run... run like hell!

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[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Now we know what this was all about:

http://kotaku.com/5958307/this-kinect-p ... -violation

This Kinect Patent is Terrifying, Wants to Charge You For License Violation ...

I got an app, I mean graphic for that ...

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[!]

Excuse me sir, would you like to have some stalker with that PC to go?

HP Keeps Installing Secret Backdoors in Enterprise Storage.

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For the second time in a month, Hewlett-Packard has been forced to admit it built secret backdoors into its enterprise storage products.

HP ... admitted that "all HP StoreVirtual Storage systems are equipped with a mechanism that allows HP support to access the underlying operating system if permission and access is provided by the customer."

While HP describes the backdoors as being usable only with permission of the customer, that restriction is part of HP's own customer-service rules - not a limitation built in to limit use of backdoors. The entry points consist of a hidden administrator account with root access to StoreVirtual systems and software, and a separate copy of the LeftHand OS, the software that runs HP's StoreVirtual and HP P4000 products ... The hash hiding the login "is easily brute-forced," according to Technion, who noted in a later blog that more than 55 users have separately notified him they'd broken the hash. The backdoors are hidden in versions of the LeftHand OS v. 9.0 and higher. They have existed since at least 2009 ... This isn't the first time HP has been caught inserting backdoors into enterprise products without telling customers. In 2010 it was forced to admit a secret backdoor in its StorageWorks systems that could be accessed by anyone using the account name "admin" and password "!admin."

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[!]

So what is encryption ...the Microsoft way:

Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages.

New leak allege Microsoft gave the NSA backdoor access to Skype, Outlook, and SkyDrive.

SkyDrive integration suddenly looks a whole lot less appealing.

This is particularly pertinent given that in Windows 8.1, SkyDrive is a default storage location for files and created documents. The situation already presented a "gotcha" given that Microsoft's terms of use for SkyDrive forbid the storage of adult material even when said material is absolutely legal (the company threatens to cut off your account completely if it finds adult material in it). Now we know that the NSA has carte blanche to peer into Microsoft's servers virtually at will.

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* Microsoft helped the NSA to circumvent its encryption to address concerns that the agency would be unable to intercept web chats on the new Outlook.com portal;

* The agency already had pre-encryption stage access to email on Outlook.com, including Hotmail;

* The company worked with the FBI this year to allow the NSA easier access via Prism to its cloud storage service SkyDrive, which now has more than 250 million users worldwide;

* Microsoft also worked with the FBI's Data Intercept Unit to "understand" potential issues with a feature in Outlook.com that allows users to create email aliases;

* In July last year, nine months after Microsoft bought Skype, the NSA boasted that a new capability had tripled the amount of Skype video calls being collected through Prism;

* Material collected through Prism is routinely shared with the FBI and CIA, with one NSA document describing the program as a "team sport".

But Google will save us all! Well ...maybe not:

The tech giant Google has confirmed the National Security Agency furnished some of the code installed in its new Android phone. The NSA says the code is intended to enhance security against hackers and marketers, but will not confirm whether it also aids the agency's PRISM program monitoring the global Internet.

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[!]

Bank to spy on customers via cellphone location tracking.

Barclays announcing changes to its customer agreement that will open the door to individuals being tracked in the name of preventing fraud.

Barclays' new customer agreement terms - set to come into force from October 9, 2013, will also permit the bank to collect social networking data as well as using private transaction information to bombard customers with unsolicited "services and products".

Deus Ex the fall locks out jailbroken iOS devices.

A new chapter in the Deus Ex universe dropped yesterday and all reviews indicate that it's actually a pretty good mobile game, relative to the limits of that platform. Unfortunately, there's a substantial hidden caveat. If you own a jailbroken device, Deus Ex: The Fall won't let you pull the trigger. You're allowed to buy the game no problem, but as soon as you try to shoot anything, the game helpfully informs you that only non-jailbroken devices are actually able to fire.

Dear slaves, remember this: It's not "your" device! It's theirs and they rent it to you!

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[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Excellent graphic you got there!



( Damn, I wish I thought of that! )

[!]

Google: Ultimately, "The goal is to insert a chip inside your head".