house

Huawei, ZTE face new hurdles to their U.S. phone ambitions

Congress just made Huawei and ZTE's goal of winning over U.S. consumers a whole lot tougher.

A report released by the House Intelligence Committee today claimed the two Chinese telecommunications manufacturers pose a risk to national security and urged U.S. companies to avoid working with them.

While the report deals mostly with the companies' large-scale networking equipment and corporate customers, the trickle-down effect on their consumer-facing handset businesses can't be good. Huawei and ZTE have long been dogged by concerns that they could snoop on companies and individuals, and today's report only solidified those fears. … Read more

'House of Cards' to premier on Netflix in February

Netflix will premiere its first original TV series "House of Cards" on February 1, the company announced today. In a twist, the company will release all 13 episodes at once instead of parceling them out the way broadcast and cable channels do.

The show -- which stars Kevin Spacey ("Horrible Bosses," "American Beauty") and Robin Wright ("The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," "Forrest Gump") -- was produced exclusively for Netflix.

"House of Cards," based on a BBC miniseries of the same name, is a look at "uncompromising … Read more

White House confirms 'spearphishing' intrusion

The White House has confirmed that one of its internal computer networks -- reportedly a military office in charge of the president's communications -- has been targeted in a successful "spearphishing" attack.

An article yesterday published by the conservative FreeBeacon.com Web site said that hackers with ties to China's government had recently breached an unclassified "system used by the White House Military Office for nuclear commands," including the so-called nuclear football.

Spearphishing means an attacker is targeting a specific person or group, typically by sending fake e-mail that masquerades as legitimate correspondence.

The … Read more

'World's thinnest house' gets closer to big opening

Good news for giraffes! Construction has started on a house that's being called the world's narrowest.

The dwelling -- located in a passageway between two buildings in Warsaw, Poland's Wola district -- measures 47 inches at its widest point and 27 inches at its thinnest.

Polish architect Jakub Szczesny of the architecture collective Centrala conceived of the super-slender abode for acclaimed Israeli writer Etgar Keret, who will live and work in the space for part of the year.

When Keret's not using the home, artists and intellectuals from around the world will be invited to stay there for days and weeks at a time. … Read more

Democratic senators call for 'cybersecurity' executive order

Two Democratic senators are urging President Obama to direct his administration to publish "advisory" guidelines through an executive order on cybersecurity.

In a letter (PDF) sent to the White House today, Delaware's Christopher Coons and Connecticut's Richard Blumenthal say it's time for an executive order "directing the promulgation of voluntary standards" by the Department of Homeland Security.

It's hardly clear that the vast Homeland Security bureaucracy -- which has received plenty of failing cybersecurity grades from congressional overseers -- is best-equipped to advise the private sector on how to secure networks and … Read more

Apple co-founder Woz's old house on sale for $4.5M

Apple icons old and new have been on the move. In regard to real estate, that is.

The company's current design chief, Jonny Ive, just reportedly bought $17 million digs in San Francisco, and as it turns out, a former house of the company's early co-founder is looking for a new owner too.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak's (or Woz's) "original estate" is on the market for a considerably lower asking price of $4.5 million. Located in Los Gatos, Calif., just a few minutes away from Apple's corporate headquarters, the two-story, six-bedroom house … Read more

White House pressures Google over anti-Islam video

The White House has acknowledged pressuring Google over an amateur anti-Islam video that is legally protected under U.S. law.

Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the National Security Council, told The Washington Post that the White House "reached out to YouTube to call the video to their attention and ask them to review whether it violates their terms of use."

A White House spokesman didn't immediately respond to questions from CNET asking for details, but any phone call to YouTube would be more politically symbolic than anything else. YouTube executives were not only well aware of the video … Read more

The 404 1,127: Where we eat our utility bill (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Google Glass makes catwalk debut at New York Fashion Week.

- The Fifth Element inspired: Remote-controlled roaches to the rescue.

- Odd "digital rituals" we perform to make technology serve us.

- Will putting a car remote under your chin increase its range?

Bathroom break video: Pong traffic light in Germany.

Video voice mail: Matt is now the ultimate trucker.

Episode 1,127 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video

Homeland Security's domain seizures worries Congress

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is seizing domains and taking down URLs in the name of copyright infringement, but its tactics are worrying certain members of Congress.

In a letter (pdf) sent last week to Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary Janet Napolitano, three members of the House Judiciary Committee aired their unease.

"We are concerned about your Departments' seizure of domain names under Operation In Our Sites, launched in November 2010," the letter said. "Our concern centers on your Department's methods, and the process given, when seizing the domain names of websites whose … Read more

'We the People' goes open-source

The Obama administration's "We the People" online petitions platform has been open-sourced, allowing other individuals or groups to tailor the system for their own use.

The "We thePeople" code was released under the GNU General Public License yesterday, and is now available on GitHub.

Macon Phillips, the White House's director of digital strategy, posted on the official White House blog:

When President Obama talked about We the People at the Open Government Partnership last year, he promised to, "share that technology so any government in the world can enable its citizens to do … Read more