Monthly Archives: March 2014

Functioning guillotine to be auctioned in France

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“A 19th century guillotine in perfect working order is expected to fetch up to €60,000 when it goes up for auction in France on Thursday.  The wood, iron, steel and brass guillotine, synonymous with the 1789 French Revolution, was used to behead people in the second half of the 19th century.  It will be auctioned on Thursday in the northern city of Nantes and auctioneer Francois-Xavier Duflos said it is expected to fetch between €50,000 and €60,000.  ‘It is rare for this type of object to go to auction, so it is rather difficult to set a price, but we have taken into account its rarity,’ he said.  While Mr Duflos said the guillotine was used by the army, he did not elaborate any further.”

http://www.rte.ie/news/special-reports/2014/0325/604502-functioning-guillotine-to-be-auctioned-in-france/

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After DNS change fails, Turkish gov. steps up Twitter censorship

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“After pledging to ‘wipe out Twitter,’ Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ordered Turkish ISPs to block the social networking site, redirecting requests to a government webpage. The social media campaign against Erdoğan has continued to grow despite the government’s best effort, but now the government has raised the bar of the attack, ordering ISPs to block traffic to the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses assigned to Twitter. This move essentially erases Twitter from the Internet within Turkey—at least to those people who don’t have access to SMS messaging, a foreign virtual private network or Web proxy service, or the Tor anonymizing network.”

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/03/after-dns-change-fails-turkish-government-steps-up-twitter-censorship/

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Millions of Android downloads infected with cryptocoin-mining code

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“More than a million Android smartphones are mining cryptocoins without the owners’ knowledge, via apps downloaded from Google Play which stealthily incorporate ‘hashing’ software.  Researchers at security company Trend Micro say they have found at least two apps on the Google Play store, Songs and ‘Prized’, which contain code to join any phone that has them to a cryptocoin-mining ‘pool’. Each app has had between 1m and 5m downloads, meaning that up to 10m phones might be affected.  The company also discovered bitcoin-mining code hidden in repackaged versions of Football Manager Handheld and TuneIn Radio outside Google Play.”

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/27/android-bitcoin-dogecoin-mining-malware

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Meet the manic miner who wants to mint 10% of all new bitcoins

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“In a couple of large buildings near the Columbia River in Eastern Washington, where hydroelectricity is cheap and plentiful, Dave Carlson oversees what he says is one of the largest Bitcoin mining operations on the planet.  At any given time, Carlson’s goal is to account for seven to 10 percent of the entire world’s Bitcoin mining as measured by processing or hashing power, he said. The operations are fueled by thousands of mining rigs containing more than 1.4 million BitFury mining chips, while Raspberry Pis loaded with custom software direct traffic on each rig.  MegaBigPower does the biggest portion of its mining on behalf of its primary investor, the BioInfoBank Institute in Poland.”

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/03/meet-the-manic-miner-who-wants-to-mint-10-of-all-new-bitcoins/

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SF tech bus program could be stalled by environmental appeals

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“The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency approved the pilot program for commuter shuttles, which are commonly referred to as tech buses, after years of rising tensions. Any delay would leave many unanswered questions for the workers and students who use the shuttles, along with police and parking control officers. The pilot was born in response to complaints about the impacts of the shuttles and lack of traffic-violation enforcement.  The opponents of the SFMTA proposal are appealing for the shuttle program to undergo a rigorous environmental study.  A successful appeal of the environmental review could derail the plan.”

http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/sf-tech-bus-program-could-be-stalled-for-months-by-appeals/Content?oid=2728133

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The Future is Here: Hire a Drone With Bitcoin

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“Here at Drone Hire we’re excited about technology and its potential to help make our world a better place. Two technologies we are particularly excited about are civilian drones and Bitcoin.  So we are incredibly excited to announce that the future is officially here: Not only can you hire a drone operator to do aerial photography, aerial mapping, aerial surveying and a myriad of other services, you can pay them with Bitcoin.  CopterBilde.de, based in Germany, is a drone business that has embraced Bitcoin. Another business which accepts Bitcoin is TurnDriverSide.com, who specialise in motorsports photography. We expect that many others will follow suit this year.”

http://www.dronehire.org/blog/the-future-is-here-hire-a-drone-with-bitcoin

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Court Grants Order to Freeze Hashfast’s Bitcoin Wallets

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“A court in Fort Worth, Texas, has granted a temporary restraining order to freeze the bitcoin wallets of ASIC mining hardware manufacturer HashFast Technologies LLC and HashFast LLC, after a customer claimed it failed to deliver hardware on time or negotiate a refund.  The granting of a court order to freeze bitcoin assets of mining hardware companies who fail to deliver on time could have ramifications in an industry beset by delays as small and inexperienced participants grapple with issues related to cutting edge hardware design and production.”

http://www.coindesk.com/court-grants-order-freeze-hashfasts-bitcoin-wallets/

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Is cloud computing the next tech bubble?

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“While the media circus around ‘the cloud’ continues and another baby-faced 20-something CEO gets ready to ring the opening bell on Wall Street, investors need to start getting real about the current bubble in tech stocks.  Here’s a heaping helping of reality to get you started, direct from Box’s filing with the SEC:  ‘We have a history of cumulative losses, and we do not expect to be profitable for the foreseeable future.’  If that’s not bad enough, the company plans to raise just $250 million in its IPO — not even enough to cover two years of losses at the current cash bleed.  Like many Silicon Valley firms, Box is implementing a dual class structure.  I mean, what could go wrong?”

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/cloud-computing-the-next-tech-bubble-2014-03-27

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Google and Viacom Settle YouTube Lawsuit After $100 Million Defense

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“Google and Viacom have announced the end of a seven-year copyright violation lawsuit centered around YouTube with an agreement to settle out of court.  Viacom filed a lawsuit in March 2007 that sought $1 billion in damages from Google. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.  The agreement signals the end to a long and often publicly contentious battle. Viacom had alleged that YouTube was guilty of copyright infringement for allowing users to upload clips of its content and deliberately allowing it to remain on the site.  The case dragged on for years. In 2010, Google’s CFO said the company had spent $100 million on the case.”

http://mashable.com/2014/03/18/google-viacom-youtube-settlement/

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MP3tunes and its founder liable for $63 million in EMI copyright suit

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“Michael Robertson is an entrepreneur who is no stranger to drawn-out legal battles. He founded MP3.com, an early music storage service that was ultimately sued out of existence by record labels. And in 2005, he founded MP3tunes, which eventually suffered the same fate. MP3tunes filed for bankruptcy in 2012 after ‘four and a half years of legal torment,’ wrote Robertson.  But the lawsuit against MP3tunes, filed by the EMI record label in 2007, marched onward even after the company’s demise. Yesterday a Manhattan jury handed down a verdict in favor of EMI. It ruled that Robertson should be liable for copyright violations for the creation of MP3tunes.”

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/03/jury-mp3tunes-and-its-founder-must-pay-emi-for-copyright-infringement/

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