service

Anti-abortion Anonymous hacker arrested in U.K.

Shortly after hacking into Britain's biggest abortion provider's Web site and stealing 10,000 database records of women registered with the service, self-proclaimed member of Anonymous James Jeffery proudly touted his triumph on Twitter.

It was this misstep that quickly led to his arrest, court hearing, admission of guilt, and impending sentence, according to the Guardian.

It all started on Thursday when the British Pregnancy Advisory Service reported that there were 26,000 attempted break-ins to its Web site over a six-hour period. According to the Guardian, the site was also defaced with the Anonymous logo and a … Read more

Use Lean Six Sigma in Excel

Maybe you've heard the phrase "Lean Six Sigma" in the news or at work. This management strategy was developed by Motorola in the 1980s to reduce manufacturing defects, but it's applicable to a wide range of business models. The "sigma" refers to defect rates; "six sigma" is the very low rate Motorola set as its goal, and it's also shorthand for the lean processes that achieved it. Lean6 from Leanmap is a set of free Excel worksheets for implementing Six Sigma techniques. While you might think it's geared strictly toward … Read more

FCC seeks comment on police shutdowns of cell service

The Federal Communications Commission wants to know what the public has to say about government officials asking carriers to disable cell service for public safety purposes. The agency's concern is a reaction to last year's cutting of service by San Francisco Bay Area subway police ahead of a protest.

"Our democracy, our society, and our safety all require communications networks that are available and open, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement. "Any interruption of wireless services raises serious legal and policy issues, and must meet a very high bar. The FCC, as the agency … Read more

Zynga's new play will test its cloud prowess

Zynga's move to create its own platform and Web service for game developers will be a big test for its cloud computing infrastructure.

The game company yesterday outlined its new platform. In a nutshell, Zynga.com will become a destination for games. The company will also diversify away from Facebook, which accounts for most of Zynga's distribution. Zynga will also open up its platform to third party game developers.

None of those items would be possible without Zynga's Z-Cloud infrastructure. That infrastructure relies heavily on Citrix software and virtualization technology.

The launch of Zynga's platform is … Read more

Nokia fills out Lumia portfolio, highlights exclusive services

BARCELONA, Spain - A year into its partnership with Microsoft, Nokia is filling out its Windows Phone smartphone portfolio and differentiating devices with Nokia-only features and apps.

On Monday, Nokia kicked off the Mobile World Congress tradeshow here with a new low-end Lumia Windows Phone smartphone, the Lumia 610. This is now the fourth Lumia Windows Phone in the portfolio, and it will sell for 189 euros ($254) in Europe before subsidies.

Microsoft announced the Lumia 710 and Lumia 800 in October. These were the first Windows Phone devices for Nokia, and they were initially only available in Europe. Now, … Read more

Reclaim PC performance with Vista Services Optimizer

Many programs install services such as update helpers that start with Windows yet are rarely needed. Turning off or modifying the startup behavior of unnecessary services can cut the time it takes Windows to boot and boost your system's performance. Power users are familiar with such tweaks, but the inexperienced user who has the most to gain is often too intimidated to even try it.

Help is available in the form of Vista Services Optimizer, a free program that tweaks your Windows PC's performance by shutting down or modifying services that you don't need or don't … Read more

The 3D art behind America's great engineering projects

If you're a fan of America's long and storied history of great engineering, the National Park Service has got something for you.

On Monday, the park service's Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) Autodesk and kubit will announce the technological process of documenting these structures, a process that resulted in a broad collection of 3D imagery of projects like the Space Shuttle Discovery, as well as NASA launching pads, famous bridges, and more. The imagery was used to generate what are known as "point clouds" of data that, together, show a 3D version of the object. … Read more

Little startup Infochimps has a platform for big data

Infochimps today announced a scalable platform for big data environments. The Infochimps latform is the first formal product for the company, which, to date, has served primarily as a big data marketplace.

The Austin-based Infochimps initially developed its data system behind the Infochimps Platform as the foundation for its big data marketplace. With the Infochimps Platform, customers will be able to leverage a proven big data system to construct big data projects for less money and optimize them more deftly.

A platform as a service (PaaS) model will heavily reduce costs by facilitating the creation of big data constructs while … Read more

Flickr to get slicker in upcoming makeover

With Instagram, Google+, Picasa, and Facebook breathing down its neck, Flickr has had to play catch-up to stay in the photo game lately.

Flickr's head of product, Markus Spiering, told tech news site BetaBeat today that the photo-sharing Web site is planning a major makeover to begin rolling out next week. Big changes include larger photos, less white space, and a more polished photo layout. There will also be a new drag-and-drop upload interface, according to BetaBeat.

These changes come on the heels of Flickr lowering the cost of its Flickr Pro premium service last month and Yahoo reportedly … Read more

How Virgin Atlantic's birthday e-mail stabbed me in the heart

Recently, I experienced a birthday. Thank you, you shouldn't have. Oh, wait, you didn't.

Birthdays mean bracing yourself for cards and e-mails from your family, ex-lovers, and people who want something from you. Companies who want you to buy things, for example.

Starbucks always anticipates my birthday early. The company sends me a postcard two weeks before, so that I can be sure to claim my exciting free birthday drink.

Virgin Atlantic, on the other hand, believes it should send me an e-mail. It is all part of Virgin's "we're nicer and cooler than the … Read more