Category: Internet

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From Ars Technica: Taliban fails to BCC an e-mail, reveals its entire PR mailing list

An apparent slip of the hand by a Taliban spokesperson has revealed the members of the group’s mailing list, according to a report Friday from ABC News. The 400 e-mail addresses include many journalists, but also a few members of government as well as “academics and activists.”

The Taliban regularly sends e-mail blasts with press releases highlighting its latest activities, usually from the e-mail account of spokesperson Qari Yousuf Ahmedi. But this time, the press release Ahmedi intended to send was forwarded from the account of another spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid. Ahmedi forwarded the e-mail on to the mailing list, but CC’d all 400 members, rather than BCC’ing them, so the full list of e-mail addresses was laid bare to all who received it.

According to ABC News, the list included “a provincial governor, an Afghan legislator” and an “Afghan consultative committee.” We can only imagine the chain of reply-alls that followed, but we’re certain it’s the stuff of nightmares.

from Ars Technica

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From Engadget: Hurricane Sandy has knocked out 25 percent of all cell towers, cable services in 10 states

Hurricane Sandy has knocked out 25 percent of all cell towers, cable services in 10 states

Julius Genachowski has revealed that Hurricane Sandy has knocked out a full quarter of cellphone towers and cable services in the 10 most affected states. The FCC chief believes that, as more towers expend their battery back-ups and the storm’s continued presence, the situation’s going to get worse before it gets better. He’s also reiterated that users should avoid making non-essential calls and use e-mail or social media to avoid overloading the straining networks. One point of interest in the call, was that land line phone outages were much less widespread — which might be something to remember if you’ve ever considered cutting the cord.

from Engadget

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From Engadget: Mozilla opens Firefox Marketplace for Aurora builds of Android, gives mobile a taste of web apps

Mozilla opens Firefox Marketplace for Aurora builds of Android, gives mobile first taste of full web appsMozilla’s love of web apps is more than obvious; we just haven’t had a real chance to try the Firefox Marketplace that represents a large part of the company’s app strategy. The doors are at last open for a peek, although Mozilla has chosen the unusual path of giving mobile users the first crack: Android users willing to live on the bleeding edge of an Aurora build of Firefox can browse and run those web apps in Mozilla’s store. Everyone else willing to venture into the Marketplace will have to wait until their own Firefox builds receive a matching update, including that rare group with access to Firefox OS. We’re not quite in a rush to try a first wave of apps in an alpha-grade browser. Should you be the sort who thinks that even beta releases are too sluggish, however, your gateway to the Marketplace awaits at the source links.

 

from Engadget

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From Ars Technica: Firefox 15 arrives, supports compressed textures for impressive 3D gaming

The BananaBread WebGL demo running in Firefox 15

Mozilla announced today the release of Firefox 15, a new version of the open source Web browser. The update brings a number of noteworthy enhancements, including new built-in development tools and enhanced support for cutting-edge Web standards that enable sophisticated gaming experiences. Under the hood, Firefox 15 introduces a new optimization that can radically reduce the browser’s memory footprint for users who rely on many add-ons.

As we have discussed in much of our recent browser coverage, modern standards-based Web technologies are increasingly capable of supporting the kind of interactive multimedia experiences that used to only be available through plugins or native applications. The major browser vendors, which are all working to further expand the range of capabilities offered by the Web, have recently taken an interest in enabling game development.

Mozilla has been working on a number of relevant features, including an API for displaying content in fullscreen mode, support for mouse-locking, and sophisticated real-time audio mixing functionality. Earlier this year, Mozilla launched its own real-time multiplayer adventure game called BrowserQuest with the aim of showcasing HTML5 gameplay. The open Web is clearly a serious contender for casual gaming.

from Ars Technica

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From Ars Technica: City of Oakland, FCC identify source of police radio interference: AT&T

Since its installation in July 2011, the City of Oakland has had massive problems with its radio system.

On Tuesday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that local officials, in collaboration with investigators from the Federal Communications Commission, have now found the culprit to the Oakland Police Department’s ongoing public safety radio woes: AT&T.

Last week, FCC and the City of Oakland notified the mobile network that its towers were interfering with the radios, but the problem got significantly worse when a police car found itself within a quarter-mile of a tower. (That is, according to David Cruise, the city’s newly-hired public safety systems adviser, as reported by the Chronicle).

“If the officer is in an area close to one of their cell sites, essentially the cell site overpowers their radios,” he told the paper.

 

from Ars Technica

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From Droid Life: Ubi Kickstarter Begins, Always On Voice Activated Internet Device for Your Home

Say, “Hello” to Ubi. Ubi is short for ubiquitous computer because Ubi is always on and always listening. It is a truly hands-free device for your home that plugs right into an outlet on the wall, then connects straight to your home’s WiFi network. So, what can you do with Ubi? Ubi can do voice-based searches on the Internet, act as a personal assistant, control a home’s climate, be a baby monitor, and also act as a notifier for when receiving emails and other notifications.

The team is hoping to have Ubi ready and shipped out by January of 2013, but needs your help to make it happen. Check it out on Kickstarter and let us know if Ubi is something that  interests you. It definitely has our attention as long as it doesn’t go all HAL on us and telling humans what we can and cannot do.

Via: Kickstarter

Cheers Leor and Dominick!

from Droid Life