Washington: Invasion of privacy in the Internet age. Expanding the reach of law enforcement to snoop on e-mail traffic or on web surfing. Those are among the criticisms being aimed at the FBI as it tries to update a key surveillance law.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
FBI access to e-mail and web records raises fears
Washington: Invasion of privacy in the Internet age. Expanding the reach of law enforcement to snoop on e-mail traffic or on web surfing. Those are among the criticisms being aimed at the FBI as it tries to update a key surveillance law.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Facebook user' profiles leaked online
New York: A security researcher on Wednesday released a file containing the names, profile addresses and unique identification numbers of more than 100 million Facebook users.
The information was corralled via a public directory Facebook makes available that lists users who are sharing at least some of their profile information with everyone on the Internet. It was collected and uploaded by Ron Bowes, a security researcher with Skull Security.
We Are Family releases song on Facebook
While people usually worry about music piracy on the Internet, Karan Johar has put up links of 30-second samples of songs as part of the promotions for his upcoming production, We Are Family.
Siddharth Malhotra, the director of the movie that stars Arjun Rampal, said on Twitter, "(Here's) a little sample to the music of We Are Family. Will post the making of 'Let's rock' in a few days."
Winston Churchill's archive to go online
London:
Winston Churchill's school reports, a drinking bet he once made, and even information on his budgie will be available one the wartime prime minister's archive goes online. The digitised archive will offers an insight into Churchill's personal and professional life, from his school days up to his final years as a statesman during the cold war.
UP babus get naughty, surf porn in office hours
LUCKNOW: Computers installed in Uttar Pradesh government offices to introduce officials to e-governance are being used to acess pornographic websites. This rather shocking revelation has led the government to black them.
Secretariat Administration Department (SAD) officials who recently looked into the matter after getting complaints are appalled at the extensive use of office computers for viewing X-rated videos, movies and other pornographic material on office terminals.
Mill e-auction faces roadblock
The first-ever e-auction for the sale of land of two closed mills - Bharat and Poddar - at Worli owned by the National Textile Corporation setback on Thursday. While Poddar Mills has already been cleared for an e-auction sale, the Board for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) issued orders that the Bharat Mills online sale will be subject to confirmation from the Asset Sale Committee (SAC) and the board.
Ban on BlackBerry unlikely
New Delhi
Around five lakh BlackBerry users in India can breathe easy now. A ban on the service is unlikely.
A senior home ministry official said on Thursday that the government is not considering a ban on the service, whose email facility has been a security concern as it does not permit data interception.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Hungry kya? BlackBerry courts desi
It believes localised service offerings like push e-mail facility in regional languages such as Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi would help rope in customers.
Google plans Facebook rival
New York: Internet giant Google Inc is in talks with several makers of popular online games as it seeks to develop a broader social networking service that could compete with Facebook, says media report.
What the hack!
Shibani Kashyap has learnt a memorable lesson: Not to log on to the Internet from an alien computer. A few days ago, someone hacked into her Facebook and email account and at the end of the ordeal, she had to delete one e-mail ID and open a new one for work-related communication only.
Yahoo Japan turns to Google search
Tokyo: Yahoo Japan, the largest internet portal operator in Japan, will adopt Google's search engine, refusing to follow Yahoo Inc in choosing Microsoft as a partner.
Yahoo Japan, which uses Yahoo Inc's search technology, and Google together will control almost all of the search market in the word's second-biggest economy.
John to bare his life on decade - old website
Johnabraham.com turned 10 this year. And the website will now stream video blogs featuring the actors carrying out his daily chores, at home and at work.
"I'd asked an old school friend to lock the title for me years ago, convinced that some day I'd make money on the venture. I'm ready for it now," says Abraham, admitting to a tie-up with UTV for video blogs and voices blogs for cell phones users. UTV will brainstorm with him on ideas and monitor the progress on the blogs.
Petition to ban Facebook in Pakistan
Calls for permanent bar on access to website after launch of an 'anti-Islam competition'
Lahore: Even as the Jamaatud-Dawah mounts pressure on Pakistani authorities to slap a ban on Facebook, a petition filed in a court has sought a permanent bar on access to the social networking website sue to the launch of an "anti-Islam competition".
Acting on the petition filed by judicial activism panel chairman Muhammad Azhar Siddique, Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry of the Lahore high court on Tuesday sought the stance of the Pakistan telecommunication authority to the demand for a permanent ban on Facebook.
Facebook launches safety page
San Francisco:
Facebook has launched a page devoted to staying safe on the Internet. The 'safety page' highlights news and initiatives focused on ways people can keep data secure at the leading online social networking community, Joe Sullivan of Facebook said.
The page was intended to augment a virtual safety centre that Facebook introduced in April and was based on a "security page" that boasted more than 2.2 million "fans".
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Have a grudge? Put It online!
Facebook group to also have own website soon
Employers beware. The city's media fraternity is taking its professional bond to the next level. Earlier this year, Sapna Bhavnani, hair stylist and proprietor of hair salon Mad-o-Wot, started Blacklist, a Facebook group meant for people who have been duped or not paid for their work by media organisations and production houses. But in two weeks, the group will gain stronger ground and be launched as an independent website by the same name.
Spring a surprise
Website that helps customise surprises for your friends and family gains popularity in city
As anyone who has tried to organise a surprise for someone else knows to well, it requires not just imagination, but also resources and perfect timing. If that's asking for too much, why not simply hand over the task of planning your surprise to someone else? Any Surprise Any Place (www.asap.co.in) is a website that helps you customise surprises for your friends and family.
Monsoon mania grips Mumbai on Google
Monsoon mania has gripped netizens of India. According to Google Insights, the search trends for the monsoon have been quite erratic in the last 90 days and even Mumbai's interest in the rains has seen a tremendous increase in this period.
Watch what your customers are tweeting about
Consumer survey finds social media response is influential in the quality of service provided by companies
Mumbai: '3 day of customer care couldn't achieve what one tweet did! All tataskys up and running! Thanks everyone for the support and RTs.'
This tweet from a well-known actress pretty much exemplifies the findings of a recent survey by American Express, stating that good news travels fast across the web especially when it's about things like customer service.
'No spying on kids'
The law is ironic in the communist nation where Internet and cell phone privacy is not guaranteed anyway and billions of text messages and web searches are monitored and censored daily in the name of state security and curbing pornography.
Next year, admission will be quicker
MUMBAI:
The online admissions process for junior colleges has barely begun, but the Education Department has already set its goals for the next year.
"Next year, the process will be much shorter. We will be able to finish it in 20 to 25 days," said an Education Department official. Monday was the last day for students to submit their online forms. The first list for vocational streams will be up on Friday.
'ISI paid Taliban to kill Indians'
Secret files Documents released by Website Wikileaks substantiate claims
NEW YORK:
India has lonng believed Pakistan to be the pupet master behind a series of attacks on Indian assets inn Afghanistan in recent years. Among the 91,000 secret US documents released by the Website Wikileaks in its 'Afghan War Diary' are reports that substantiate these claims.
Fitness on blogs
Experts warn against perils of social networking
MUMBAI:
Cyber experts say incidents like the alleged rape of a minor college girl by her were senior, were not new because similar instances have been reported since social networking sites gained popularity in the country.
"The basic problem with social networking sites is that an online identity can be created by someone and the can be used to target a vulnerable person," said Sahir Hidayatullah, head of research and development,l at MIEL E-Security Private Limited.
20-yr-old in city accused of raping college mate
MUMBAI:
A 20-year-old student of a Chembur college has been arrested for allegedly raping a college mate he befriended recently on a social networking site.
The accused, held on Sunday, is in the final year of the Bachelor of Management Studies course at the Vivekanand Education Society's College of Arts, Science and Commerce, while the victim who belongs to a business family, is his junior and is studying another course.
Non-state students may find this admission season tough
While students from across the city may have complete filling their online admission forms with ease, several other students from across the country and some even from abroad, who are seeking admission to junior colleges in the city, would have had a tough time. According to guidance centre in-charges, these outside students may not be a aware of the entire online admission procedure and hence they may not have filled the forms properly. This year, around 1,300 students from outside the state have filled the online forms.
"In spite of having the information booklet, they must have gone wrong. They must have gone wrong. They are not from the city and are not reading up about the admission process in newspapers. They also may not be aware of the problems that occurred last year," said guidance centre incharge from south Mumbai.
DNA has in its possession a copy of an admission form filed by a student from Afghanistan. The students has scored 68% in her std X from a school in Kabul with her percentage being calculated from a total 1,500 marks. Though she score 68%, she has filled only three college options - KC, Sophia and Jai Hind - all top-rung colleges. "The girl will definitely not get a seat in the three colleges she has opted for with her low percentage," said another guidance centre in-charge.
TA Shiware, principal, KPB Hinduja College at Charni Road, said, "Out of Maharashtra students have to get transfer certificates and students coming from abroad have to get a recommendation from their respective embassies. Initially, several students who came were clueless about the guidance centres and the were not even aware about the quality of colleges they were opting for."
However, an official from the deputy director's office said that the Afghan girl's case could be a one-off case. "Most students were guided properly. They are supposed to read the instructions before filling the forms," added the official.
Meanwhile, after the lengthy legal battle over junior college admissions in the city, finally the race to get a seat at top-rung colleges has begun. With a total 2,0 9,721 students successfully submitting their online forms, the first step of the online admission process has been completed and now by Thursday, the first merit list would be out.
Of the 2,09,721 students, who have filled the forms, 2,01,364 are from the SSC board, 2,175 from the CBSE board and 4,521 from the ICSE board.
Now, students from Podar college to get value lessons
If you thought that value education lesson, preaching 'honesty is best policy' or 'a stitch in time saves nine', would end at schools, think again. RA Podar College of Commerce at Matunga is hoping to influence students' behaviour by starting value educational classes for their first-year junior college students.
Apart from learning the nity-gritty of commerce, students good human beings through lectures on values like honestly, selfless behaviour, sharing, integrity of labour, and respect for elders. "What the students learn in College years is extremely important since college is a gateway to the real world. Often, we find students falling in bad company, making wrong choices in colleges. Through these courses, we want to help our students grow psychologically and become better human beings," said Shobana Vasudevan, principal, RA Podar college.
Assessment will be in the form of grades for a written paper along with essays, skits, presentations and projects. "Unfortunately, students do not take a subject seriously unless it is marked. We are in talks with the board for students too," added Vasudevan.
Designed by Neelima Solangurkar, vice-principal of the junior college and a senior lecturer, the course has already had two trial runs for SYJC students this week. "These courses are designed to foster positive thinking and they will help reduce stress levels of students,"said Solangurkar.
Online phase of jr college admissions ends today
Merit list for bifocal courses will be out on Thursday, for general category courses on August 9
Students seeking admissions to junior colleges are a step closer to beginning the academic year. The online phase of the process ends on Monday, and colleges will begin displaying merit lists for bifocal courses from Thursday. The merit lists for general category courses will be out on August 9.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Online storage account can ease things
New fight club
There's a new battleground in Bollywood, and it's all about how much damage you can do in 140 characters. With can do in 140 characters. With celebs exchanging potshots and new controversies popping up on Twitter at blitzkrieg speed, we bring you some of the most infamous Twitter fights of the past month:
e-file your tax return - it's easy, fast and comfortable
With tax filings increasing year after year, the income tax department has been introducing technology initiatives to ensures speedy processing of income tax returns and refunds.
Initiatives such as e-filing, centralised processing of e-filed returns, communication with assessees through email and text messages etc are essential, given that more than 25 per cent of our population is aged below 25 years. To support these technology initiatives, eRIs (e-Return Intermediaries) such as www. taxsmile.com have developed intuitive do-it-yourself return preparation engines that can help one to prepare and e-file an income tax return. The process of electronically filing income tax returns through the Internet is known as e-filing. Under the process, one can file the return in a hassle-free way with just an internet enabled PC.
UTV bets on new mantra: celebrity video blogs
Spurred by its success in the audio cinema venture, UTV New Media, the interactive arm of UTV Software, is stepping up its digital initiatives to roll out at least three new products, of which video celebrity blogs is the latest addition.
Unlike audio cinema, which at present is more a subscription-based product, the company is betting big time on the celebrity blogs and intends to eventually leverage it as a marketing tool, provided it gets the desired scale.
Cellphone A/C to withdraw, Deposit, Transfer Cash
From September, it may be possible to withdraw, deposit or transfer cash using mobile phones without opening a conventional bank account.
The government is giving final touches to a technology for delivering banking services through "mobile-linked no frills account."
'Frenemy' hacks into firls's FB account
The police investigated the matter and found the alleged culprit was a close friend, who stays in the same building, who stays in the same building as her. The suspect, Saurabh Singhal, 22, was arrested by officers from the cyber crime police station (CCPS) at Bandra-Kurla Complex.
Konkanis unite online to save their language
Konkani doesn't have a script, but it will soon get a dictionary, thanks to an entirely volunteer-driven website, savemylanguage.org
A script gives a language some kind of permanence in a predominantly oral culture. Spoken languages are freer more fluid. They thrive in the air, but also depend on the living to stay alive. Konkani is one such language. Essentially colloquial, it is spoken across dinner tables, in fish markets and community courtyards in and around Mangalore, Karnataka.
Teachers to get pay online
MUMBAI: Teachers of schools, which are funded by the state government, will soon get their monthly salary online through a direct account credit system.
This is being done following complaints from the teachers, who stated that school managements, despite getting the required financial aid from the school education department, were not paying them their full salaries.
More bleak news about news
Looking Ahead A report that ought to interest anyone here who cares about the future of the press
For some time now, we in India have heard about newspapers in the West being in trouble.
The news has come to us in bits and pieces: the closing down of newspapers in one town after another across the U.S. (Ann Arbor News, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Tuscon Citizen, etc.); a U.K. media company firing hundreds of journalists from its prestigious business daily (Financial Times); a tycoon taking over a struggling U.S. newspaper to keep it afloat ( The Wall Street Journal); and just two weeks ago, a 66-year-old high-brow French daily running out of cash (Le Mondel).
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Websites pose huge terror threat to UK, says watchdog
London:
The official reviewer of the British government's anti-terrorism laws, Lord Carlile, has warned prime minister David Cameron that there are many website that openly advocate violence.
A liberal democrat, Lord Carlie, the terrorism watchdog, has suggested the outlawing an organisation just because their views are offensive and extremist in nature is not going to help fight against international terrorism.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Aliens using 'cosmic Twitter' to contact us
ET is more likely to be sending out short messages than continuous signals beamed in all directions, say experts. Rather than pointing antennae at stars, scientists should be aiming them at the Milky Way, they said
London:
Aliens may have been trying to contact us by communicating in a manner similar to Twitter, scientists have claimed. ET is more likely to be sending out short, directed messages than continuous signals beamed in all directions, experts said.
Now, Google worth one billion page views a day
Analysts say the new features are already in use by rival search engine Bing. There are now over 10bn pictures on google image search
London:
Now, Google is worth one billion page views a day as the new image searches can show upto 1,000 images per page.
Get yourself a date with a flirty calling card and a wink
New York:
Lori Cheek was walking through the meatpacking district of Manhattan when she spotted a handsome man sitting with friends amid the dinner crowd outside Pastis.
As she neared his table, she flashed a diminutive black card.
"I nestled it in his French fries," she said, "and kept going."
As Cheek, 37, disappeared into the July night, the man plucked the card from his fries. It read: "Look up. You might miss some thing." Below, in smaller letters, were the words "find me," a code and the address of a new website for singles.
Move over, Match.com. This is the next generation of online dating. Unlike traditional dating sites where members spend hours on computers writing autobiographies and scrutinising photographs, a raft of newfangled dating tools are striving to better bridge the gap between online and real-world romance.
Some companies offer a combination of flirty cards and webpages. Others operate dating applications that use the global positioning systems in cellphones to help local singles find one another. All of them contend they are superior to big online dating sites like Match.com and eHarmony.com be cause meeting people is faster, more organic and less formal. And participants are not limited to a database of members: the world is their dating pool.
"It's almost like you're shopping online," said Cheek, "but you're shopping in real life."
At the same time, these hybrid dating tools still enable users to keep their names and personal in formation private for as long as they like.
Cheek, an architect who works part-time in sales for a high-end Manhattan furniture company, founded one such venture, cheek'd, which had its debut in May. Users receive calling cards to dole out to alluring strangers they encounter in their everyday lives, be it in a club or in a subway on their morning commute. Recipients of the cards can use the identification code printed on them to log onto Cheekd.com and send a message to their admirer. A pack of 50 cards and a month's subscription to Cheek'd, where users can receive messages and post information about themselves, is $25. There is no fee for those who receive cards to communicate with an admirer through the site.
Each Cheek'd card has a sassy phrase like "I am totally cooler than your date," or, for those with no regard for subtlety. "T'm hitting on you." Cheek is dreaming up specialised card sets, too. One for New York City singles will have lines like "I live below 14th Street" and "I hope my five story walkup won't be a problem."
Card users said companies like and Cheek'd are emboldening them to approach people who might otherwise have been missed connections. They also appreciate how the companies reverse the online dating process - observe someone in person first, then send an electronic with false advertising on dating Web sites.
Pack of 50 cards and monthly subscription to Cheek'd, where users can receive messages and post personal info, is $25
Agent 90-60-90 leaves seductive trail
MOSCOW:
Two weeks after 10 Russian spies flew back from the United States to Moscow, the buzz of interest around the ring's most photogenic member, the feisty redhead Anna Chapman, shows no signs of receding.
Striker for YouTube's Indian users
Parvathi Ramanathan
Filmmaker Chandan Arora's Striker that released this February has now been made available by Studio18 on YouTube for its Indian audiences. The film was available to download and to stream off YouTube overseas from February 5, the day of its the atrical release. It was the firstever Bollywood film that reached out to a wider audience in a cost-effective manner through the world's largest online video sharing platform.
Murali spills on to Twitter
Mumbai:
After spinning his magic on the field one last time, Murali bowled over social networking site Twitter too.
After the spin maestro became the first bowler to capture 800 Test wickets, he stormed Twitter as well, making it as high as No.3 on trending topics worldwide.
Mobiles on holidays make bosses anxious
80% replied to e-mails while on holiday, and 50% took phone calls
London:
Office bosses who carry smartphones during their holidays return "more anxious" than before leaving the workplace as the devices never "escape the onslaught" of e-mails and office reports.
Online glitch stalls admissions for 2 hrs
STUDENTS UNFAZED Six days left for last date of submission; 60 pc of students have admitted forms
MUMBAI:
After four days of smooth online admissions, on Tuesday morning several students were unable to submit their forms because the server was shut down to make software changes for two hours between 11.30 and 1.30 pm.
Now you can browse the social web in style
New York:
A new iPad application makes Twitter and Facebook feeds a whole lot prettier. Flipboard, a start-up that is unveiling its iPad app on Wednesday, builds a personalised magazine full of updates, photos and articles shared by a reader's friends or by people they choose to follow on Twitter and Facebook. Soon it plans to incorporate material from other sources, like Flickr, Foursquare, Yelp and perhaps e-mail messages and attachments.
"It's something print figured out years ago, how to visually declutter," said Mike McCue, chief executive of Flipboard who founded the company with Evan Doll, a former iPhone engineer at Apple.
Flipboard begins to imagine an entirely new way of accessing the social Web.
When people visit Facebook or Twitter today, they see a long list of status updates, often with shortened links on Twitter or a thumbnail photograph on Facebook. Twitter in Particular has never been especially aesthetically pleasing and its founders have spoken about the need to make it more accessible and easier to navigate.
Flipboard arranges status updates so they look like pull quotes and it prominently displays photographs. Instead of a link to an article, Flipboard shows its first few paragraph. People can comment, just like they can on the social network, and if they want to dig deeper into an article or a user's account, they connect to that Web page.
"Honestly, you cannot read all the data coming at you, so we make selections," McCue said. To help make those selections, Flipboard also announced that it acquired a start-up called Ellerdale that analyses and filters real-time data streams. Arthur van Hoff, Ellerdale's co-founder, will become Flipboard's chief technology officer.
Eventually, Flipboard will also have advertisements that are reminiscent of print, McCue said. A reader flipping through Flipboard on an iPad might see a full-page ad, which McCue said he hopes will be less intrusive and more effective than ads on Web pages, where they compete with content for space. Flipboard also plans to make money by offering certain content in exchange for micropayments or subscriptions and sharing the revenue with the publisher.
McCue has a track record of merging the latest technologies with old-fashioned ones. Before he applied ideas from the print world to Twitter and the iPad with Flipboard, he founded Tellme, which delivers Web data over a 1-800 number dialled on the telephone. Microsoft bought Tellme in 2007, reportedly for $800 million.
Flipboard also announced Wednesday that it has raised $10.5 million from investors including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Index Partners and angel investors including Jack Dorsey, who co-founded Twitter.
Share your Facebook story with the world
Washington:
Popular social networking site Facebook, which has got its 500 millionth user, wants to celebrate the milestone with a special feature, 'Facebook Stories'.
The website, hugely popular among teenagers, will have a section of user stories about how Facebook has changed their lives, like getting in touch with long-lost friends or finding true love.
Online applications flood Chinai College
Puja Pednekar
Even as the debate over shutting down MVLU College and Chinai Junior College, Andheri, continues, both these colleges have many takers among students looking for affordable higher education.
IFS officer spied for love
NEW DELHI:
It was love and her wish to marry her Pakistani handler Jamshed that made Madhuri Gupta a spy said the Delhi police in a chargesheet filed on Tuesday.
Gupta, who was arrested in April, has been accused of passing classified information to Jamshed and another ISI official, Mubshar Raza Rana.
Twitterati unhappy about Sachin's book
It was recently announced that Sachin Tenduulkar's autobiography, The Tendulkar Opus, will have a limited 'blood edition' releasing next February. The edition will weigh 37 kgs, contain 852 pages edged in gold leaf and consist of his unpublished family pictures.
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