Ars investigates legal advice for hotspot operators—most are ill-informed; the rest invented.
[…]
According to the experts we consulted, anyone attempting to follow the recommendations could in practice be creating data protection liabilities that they’re ill-equipped to discharge. Others may be put off altogether by dire warnings about legal risks that simply don’t exist.
Source: Public Wi-Fi hotspots and you: Busting the many legal myths
Hong Kong bitcoin exchange Bitfinex reported yesterday that hackers had stolen 119,756 bitcoin, which is worth as much as $72 million dollars (with some reports going even higher). News of the hack sent bitcoin tumbling 23 percent, with its current value hovering around $556. Bitfinex confirmed that no other digital currency except bitcoin was targeted in the hack.
Source: Hackers Steal $72 Million in Bitcoin From Hong Kong Exchange
In a closely watched trial by the media community, shortly after 7pm on Friday night, and less than six hours after starting deliberations, the jury sided with ex-pro wrestler Hulk Hogan and awarded him $115 million in his sex tape lawsuit against Gawker Media. The trial lasted two weeks. The award consists of $55 million for economic injuries, and $60 million for emotional distress. It may also mean the end of Gawker.
Source: Gawker Ordered To Pay Hulk Hogan $115 Million In Sex Tape Lawsuit
How on earth did they come up with this astronomical figure? There is no way the Hulk could have sold it himself for anything like $55m and the distress charges are crazy!
Last year we bought 44 per second, but growth has slowed so its frowning time […] Prognostication-producers Gartner reckon the disappointing start to 2016 will continue for smartphone makers, with the year to end a mere seven per cent ahead of 2015.
If it’s accurate, that would translate to 1.5 billion units for the year – a little over 47 units per second, up from 44 units per second for 2015 (1.4 billion devices).
Source: Humanity will only buy 47 smartphones per SECOND in 2016
Again – there is something seriously wrong with people frowning about these figures because growth is low (*cough 7.5%!*). Total business size is absolutely stupendous!
The world’s largest maker of TVs by shipments added new tile ads to the main menu bar of its premium TVs in the U.S. in June 2015 and is planning to expand the program to Europe in coming months, people familiar with the matter said. […] according to one of these people, and by using software updates to retroactively activate tile ads on older smart TV models.
Samsung Adds More Ads to Its TVs – WSJ
http://www.wsj.com/articles/samsung-adds-more-ads-to-its-tvs-1464600977
Because really, people are going to buy hardware that forces unwanted ads down your throats! You don’t buy a TV as a service, you buy an item. Stay off it! The excuse that they are not growing in the TV business is farcical: they sell 50 million TVs per year and make $24.8 billion in revenue from that with slim profit margins – 3 to 5%. Poor Samsung, poor shareholders! I’d say they are indeed in deep shit but instead of pissing off their customers they could give me the industry instead. I wouldn’t complain about the paltry income from it.
Following on last year’s bold announcement that they will attempt to migrate from proprietary Microsoft Office products to an open-source alternative like LibreOffice, Italy’s Ministry of Defense now expects to save up to 29 million Euro with this move.
We said it before, and we’ll say it again, this is the smartest choice a government institution can do. And to back up this statement, the Italian Ministry of Defense announced that they expect to save between 26 and 29 million Euro over the next few years by migrating to the LibreOffice open-source software for productivity and adopting the Open Document Format (ODF).
“Taking into account the deadlines set by our current Microsoft Office licenses, we will have 75,000 (70%) LibreOffice users by 2017, and an additional 25,000 by 2020,” said General Camillo Sileo, Deputy Chief of Department VI, Systems Department C4I, for the Transformation of Defence and General Staff, for ISA (Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administrations).
“5,000 workstations have been migrated until now”In the initial report, they said that the entire transition process from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice is expected to be completed by the end of the year 2016, and now the Italian Ministry of Defense brags about the fact that they’ve successfully migrated a total of 5,000 workstations, and they’re now working with LibreItalia on an e-learning course to teach the military staff how to use the LibreOffice office suite.
Source: Italian Military to Save Up to 29 Million Euro by Migrating to LibreOffice
Unfortunately, the guys at LibreOffice won’t see any of these savings go to their pockets. They will continue to slave away underpaid at their beautiful product with nothing to show for it. This is because the FOSS (Free Open Source Software) community is so hard core in their principles that they allow companies to wander all over them. What a world we live in, eh.
So, with the Panama papers, governments are cracking down on tax dodgers. In the Netherlands the minister wants to increase the penalty for giving up your hidden funds to 300% plus back taxes plus interest. The claim is that it’s not fair, because poor people don’t have enough money to dodge taxes and so have to pay the full amount. Not much thought seems to be given anywhere on why there are so many tax dodgers. In the Netherlands there are only 4 tax categories, with the highest starting at € 66.422 and being taxed at 52%. This basically puts everyone in the top tax bracket, where the government takes more of your earnings than you receive yourself. To me this looks like blatant theft. Anyway, after you’ve earned the money and paid the taxes, you’re left with 21% VAT on every purchase you make thereafter. Should you be lucky enough to have some left after this highway robbery, currently they tax you 30% of what you have left. Next year, they will tax small savers less and large savers more. This formula only goes for earnings from salaried income. If you run your own business (which in the Netherlands 9% of the total population does: and which is probably around 30-40% of the total working population) the amount taken from you by taxes is far, far higher and you generally don’t have the social safety net to fall into. Now from where I’m standing, being fleeced by the government again and again and again isn’t particularly fair. Taxing people at the bottom of the earnings scale the same percentage as people at the top isn’t fair – which is why we got rid of poll taxes.
I’m not surprised that people don’t consider it immoral to hide their money from the money grubbing hands of governments who misspend their money on overly huge projects time and again.
In order to solve this problem, the tax system needs a major restructuring, with many many more tax brackets, running up to a maximum fair percentage, taking into account the much larger diversity of incomes since the 1980s. Only then will government highwaymen be able to claim a moral high ground over tax dodgers.
The company made profits (before certain items) of €848 million, or $964 million, on revenues of €2.109 billion, or $2.326 billion. That compares to earnings before income tax, depreciation, and amortization of €515 million, or $592 million, in 2014, on revenues of €1.545 billion, or $1.777 billion.
The company also paid a dividend of €14 ($15.50) per share, resulting in a total dividend payout of €603 million, or $669 million. Supercell also initiated a share buyback scheme from its employees amounting to €114 million, or $128 million, in the past year.
That’s an incredible financial result for a company with just 180 employees. And 2016 is off to a good start, as Supercell’s Clash Royale has take the No. 1 spots in top downloads and top-grossing games in the U.S. Apple app store. The game is No. 1 in 44 countries right now. Supercell just announced that it has more than 100 million daily active users in almost every country.
Source: With just 3 games, Supercell made $924M in profits on $2.3B in revenue in 2015
The World Economic Forum expects automation and robots will eliminate 5.1 million jobs within the next five years. That’s a scary thought, especially if you have one of these jobs that could theoretically be done more efficiently (and for less cost) with an automated machine.
Source: The Jobs Most Likely to Be Taken Over by Robots In the Near Future
A nice list! It turns out to run from around $1000 to $3000 depending on how many followers you have.
Source: Here’s How Much Celebrities Make in the Instagram Product Placement Machine
And Google paid Apple $1bn to put its search into iPhones
An Oracle lawyer has blurted out in court how much money Google has made from Android – figures that the web giant has fiercely fought to keep secret.
And those numbers are: US$31bn in revenue, and US$22bn in profit, since 2008, when Android was launched. This money comes from Google’s cut from sales made via the Google Play store and adverts shown in apps.
Source: Oracle blurts Google’s Android secrets in court: You made $22bn using Java, punk
Dan Price decided to pay all 120 employees at least $70,000. Grown men cried. Profits soared. Then things got really crazy.
Source: Here’s What Really Happened at That Company That Set a $70,000 Minimum Wage
Bitcoin transactions will be exempt from Value Added Tax (VAT), the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled.
Source: Bitcoin is Exempt from VAT, Rules European Court of Justice
A fascinating economic look at how drugs are sold and bought on the dark web and what their growth potential is.
Source: The safe, user-friendly way to be a little drug lord: economic secrets of the dark web
Washington State just received federal funds to study a totally unique toll bridge concept, one made out of decommissioned US Navy Super Carriers. The bridge would consist of two or three carriers and would link Bremerton and Port Orchard, Washington, spanning the Sinclair Inlet.
http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/how-washington-state-could-turn-aircraft-carriers-into-1696976267
apparently they are fighting an uphill battle but what an awesome idea!
SA 838 is a budgetary amendment which backs support for and funding of state efforts to take over federal land. It was part of a larger debate over the 2016 fiscal year federal budget.
While yes, its language does note that it’s impossible to sell National Parks, National Monuments and National Preserves (which enjoy extraordinary legal protection), it leaves the door open to sell National Forests, Wildlife Refuges and Wildernesses. That’s some of you and I’s most beautiful lands on which we’re currently able to camp, hunt, hang out with our dogs and on which a large portion of wild animals rely for their habitat.
aside from it not being theirs to sell, don’t they get that these are resources you can only sell once?
Since 2002, Congress has set aside $104 billion specifically to rebuild Afghanistan. Of that, $66 billion went to the Pentagon.
Recently, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction asked the military to account for all that spending. It couldn’t. According to a new report from SIGAR, the Pentagon only knows how it spent a third of its reconstruction budget.
That’s $45 billion dollars the military can’t track and the reason is … ridiculous. According to SIGAR, the Pentagon didn’t check a box on an electronic form when it filed the information in government databases.
via How the Pentagon Lost Track of $45 Billion — War Is Boring — Medium.
Toyota is opening the door to the hydrogen future, making available thousands of hydrogen fuel cell patents royalty free. Announced today at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show, this Toyota initiative will spur development and introduction of innovative fuel cell technologies around the world.
Toyota will invite royalty-free use of approximately 5,680 fuel cell related patents held globally, including critical technologies developed for the new Toyota Mirai. The list includes approximately 1,970 patents related to fuel cell stacks, 290 associated with high-pressure hydrogen tanks, 3,350 related to fuel cell system software control and 70 patents related to hydrogen production and supply.
“At Toyota, we believe that when good ideas are shared, great things can happen,”
via Toyota Opens the Door and Invites the Industry to the Hydrogen Future | Corporate.
Skiplagged.com found out that you can buy a cheaper ticket from A – B if you buy a ticket to C where B is a stop on the way (A – B – C) and then just get off at B.
For example, a customer buying a ticket from New York to Los Angeles, where competition is high, could get a lower rate than a flight to Chicago, but could simply get off the plane during a stop in Chicago and avoid a higher fare.
United and Orbitz are going all ballistic on Aktarer Zaman’s (Skiplagged.com) arse because of not liking a) their own stupidity exposed and b) not liking competition.
Airline, travel site sue over 'hacked' airfares.
Skiplagged is taking contributions to his legal defence, he probably needs it.
Company marketed specialized computers designed to produce the cryptocurrency but delivered useless machines, according to an FTC complaint.
via Bitcoin-mining company Butterfly Labs shut down by FTC – CNET.
Airpooler – an Uber for plane rides – fucked up private pilots in the US flying people to destinations for the price of fuel (and so to get their hours) by asking the FAA for clarification of a 1964 rule.
The FAA clarification not only extends to ride sharing services, but also to the old fashion word of mouth / paper board note that has been in use pretty universally.
The FAA states that this kind of flying is commercial and for that you need to spend huge amounts of money on a commercial pilots license.
FAA Bans Planesharing Startups | TechCrunch.
Interestingly, recruiters spend only 6 seconds reviewing an individual resume!
They spend that time looking at:
Name
Current title / company
Previous title / company
Previous position start and end dates
Current position start and end dates
Education
If you add a picture, they spend 19% of that time looking at the picture, not the information.
Professionally re-written resumes score 60% better on “usability” – they are easier to read.
Professional resumes had less data, were evenly formatted and
were described as “clearer.” They scored 40% better than before a re-write.
Note that the study is commissioned by TheLadders, a professional CV writing company, so the results are clearly interpreted in their favor, but the above points remain valid.
TheLadders-EyeTracking-StudyC2.pdf.
This time, 36% of people tested still do not realise that Google Adwords are ads.
Furthermore, about a quarter of people don’t know that Google had any advertising at all. And this despite the yellow text box proclaiming ‘ads’.
via 36% of people still don't realise that Google Adwords are ads | Econsultancy.
In November 2013:
There have been local reports of a mini helicopter drone dropping 250 grams worth of what is thought to be cocaine onto a Brazilian prison. According to Brazilian news source Globo, the prison, Centro de Detenção Provisória 1 is 60 miles north of São José dos Campos and currently holds 1,605 prisoners.
São Paulo’s secretary of Corrections claims that at 10am on 7th March, the drone dropped the package onto the prison yard. The prisoners are said to have crowded around the parcel making it impossible for prison officers to gain access to the mysterious load until later that day when a search of each individual cell had to be carried out.
Drone drops supposed cocaine package into São Paulo Prison | euronews, world news.
Now, May 2014:
A Lithuanian self-made drone detained in Russia’s westernmost Kaliningrad region last week was used for smuggling cigarettes into Russia, Oleg Dzhurayev, the press service chief of the Kaliningrad border department of the Russian Federal Security service, told ITAR-TASS on Wednesday.
A Russian-Lithuanian criminal group used the self-made drone aircraft for illegally smuggling cigarettes across the Lithuanian border into Russia. Dzhurayev said huge boxes with cigarettes had been found inside the drone when the border guards detained the aircraft on Lithuania’s border with Russia. He did not rule out the drone could have been used for other purposes, including unlawful actions in Russia’s territory.
Lithuanian drone detained in Russia last week was used for cigarette smuggling