 Polls suggest Iceland's Pirate party may form next governmenthttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/12/polls-suggests-icelands-pirate-party-form-next-government<< One of Europe's most radical political parties is expected to gain its first taste of power after Iceland's ruling coalition and opposition agreed to hold early elections caused by the Panama Papers scandal in October. The Pirate party, whose platform includes direct democracy, greater government transparency, a new national constitution and asylum for US whistleblower Edward Snowden, will field candidates in every constituency and has been at or near the top of every opinion poll for over a year. As befits a movement dedicated to reinventing democracy through new technology, it also aims to boost the youth vote by persuading the company developing Pokémon Go in Iceland to turn polling stations into Pokéstops. "It's gradually dawning on us, what's happening", Birgitta Jónsdóttir, leader of the Pirates' parliamentary group, told the Guardian. "It's strange and very exciting. But we are well prepared now. This is about change driven not by fear but by courage and hope. We are popular, not populist." The election, likely to be held on 29 October, follows the resignation of Iceland's former prime minister, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, who became the first major victim of the Panama Papers in April after the leaked legal documents revealed he had millions of pounds of family money offshore. In the face of some of the largest protests the small North Atlantic island had ever seen, the ruling Progressive and Independence parties replaced Gunnlaugsson with the agriculture and fisheries minister, Sigurđur Ingi Jóhannsson, and promised elections before the end of the year. >> |
|
|
|
I don't see how it is stupid for their business?
Do you happen to be one of Valve's sponsored shills who ruin all discussions on the Steam forums ( Start_Running, Satoru, Zetikla, etc.)? Or are you just plain dense? |
|
|
|
 Comcast sued for $3.7bn by Washington state over consumer rights violationshttps://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/aug/01/washington-sues-comcast-over-consumer-rights-violationsLawsuit filed on Monday alleges that Comcast "grossly misrepresented" its consumer protection plan and charged for repairs that should have been free<< Washington state has filed a $3.7bn lawsuit against the telecommunications firm Comcast alleging that the company violated the state's Consumer Protection Act almost 2m times. If the suit is successful, the exact award would be up to a judge to decide, but if Washington gets the amount it is demanding, it would be one of the largest legal payouts in American history. The suit was filed Monday morning in King County superior court by the state attorney general, Bob Ferguson, whose office has been investigating Comcast – the largest broadcasting and cable television company in the world. Topping the litany of malfeasance outlined in the complaint is the allegation that Comcast "grossly misrepresented" its consumer protection plan to its customers. Other customer guarantees were also misleading, the complaint states, and many customers were charged for repairs that should have been free. "This case is a classic example of a big corporation deceiving its customers for financial gain", Ferguson said in a statement. "I won’t allow Comcast to continue to put profits above customers – and the law." "Not every Washington consumer can hire an attorney to take on a powerful interest who doesn't play by the rules", Ferguson said in a press conference Monday morning. "A lot of times you don't even know they're not playing by the rules.” The suit could prove costly to the Pennsylvania-based firm. Washington is seeking $2,000 for each of the alleged 1.8m violations of the CPA, totalling $3.6bn. The suit also demands $73m to pay back Service Protection Plan payments, and an estimated $1m to refund people who were unfairly charged for service calls. >> |
|
|
|
NVIDIA settles GeForce GTX 970 memory scandal in the USAhttp://www.guru3d.com/news-story/nvidia-settles-geforce-gtx-970-memory-scandal-in-the-usa.html<< American owners of NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 970 graphics cards may receive $ 30 back. That is the outcome of a settlement that the company has made in a class action case from disgruntled buyers after the scandal about the 3.5 / 4.0 amount of memory. The parties settled at an amount of $ 30, according to Top Class Action who was behind the law-suit. The number is based on an average selling price of $ 350. It is an interim arrangement, the details of have not been disclosed. NVIDIA promises to offer the amount to any American buyer who purchased the 970 and makes the claim. NVIDIA also pays the legal fees for the lawsuit. End-uers were dissatisfied that the GTX 970 did not use the amount of memory that NVIDIA advertised and sold the product for. The company claimed in its introduction to a GTX 970 with 4GB GDDR5, but later had to admit that the memory was divided into a portion of 3,5GB and a slower partition of 512MB. These cards also had 56 instead of 64 rops, while the company initially advertised 56 initially. In addition, the amount of L2 cache used is 1792KB instead of 2048KB. NVIDIA has always denied that there was any intent and dismissed this as communication error. >>
|
|
|
|
 Tim Sweeney Outs More Win10 Concerns - MS Wants To Break Steamhttp://www.guru3d.com/news-story/tim-sweeney-outs-more-win10-concerns-ms-wants-to-break-steam.html<< Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has once again voiced his concerns regarding Microsoft's Universal Windows Platform (UWP), this time saying that Steam will be made to run worse on Windows 10 in the next few years. Down below you'll find what Sweeney said about Microsoft locking down the PC ecosystem, and how they are trying to "bug" Steam through Windows 10 patches. >> |
|
|
|
 [PETITION] Stop BOKNAL, the South Korean dog meat festivalhttp://www.thepetitionsite.com/678/196/320/stop-buknal-korean-dog-meat-festival/In one month, over 1,000,000 cats and dogs will be tortured to death.The Boknal Festival in Boknal, Korea will be held on 17/7; 27/7; 16/8. Soon, the dog and cat meat markets of South Korea will begin the mass butchering of dogs, and cats. Many who partake in this festival believe pet meat has medicinal powers. Medical evidence does not support their claims. The most popular delicacy of this festival is Peppery Dog Meat Soup. These heinous acts of torture and killing must stop now and forever! People and all animal lovers around the world will not tolerate this. We take an oath to not buy any products that are made in Korea, and we will boycott the Olympic games in 2018. Sign this petition to condemn the Boknal Dog Meat Festival! |
|
|
|
Africa's top 10 tech pioneers: "We have become an internet-consuming culture"https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jul/25/africas-tech-pioneers-we-have-become-an-internet-consuming-culture<< Africa's digital transformation would be nothing without the tens of thousands of people who have invested, and continue to invest, energy into propelling it forward. They are the leading lights driving change in infrastructure, mobile connectivity, online activism, e-commerce and financial services. Some are opening up digital cultural spaces or working to bring in investment for tech startups. As part of the Guardian's focus on technology in Africa we've listed 10 individuals who've been pioneers in the transformation from Tanzania to Tunisia, with the three of sub-Saharan Africa's big tech hitters – South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya – particularly well represented. And in a bid to look forward we asked each of the 10 pioneers to predict the next development in Africa's digital transformation and to each nominate an emerging talent to watch. >>
|
|
|
|
 EU Data Protection Chief: Encryption should be promoted, backdoors should be illegalhttp://www.neowin.net/news/eu-data-protection-chief-encryption-should-be-promoted-backdoors-should-be-illegal<< European citizens' communications should be protected on all mediums, including online, by telephone, over VoIP services, and across apps. Decryptions and other efforts to weaken or reverse engineer encryption should be prohibited. This is the conclusion that the EU's Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) reached with regards to the EU's ePrivacy Directive. Giovanni Buttarelli, the EDPS and Europe's so-called data chief, expressed his view in an official piece published as the European Commission is looking to revamp the EU ePrivacy Directive – the "Cookie Law" – to get it in line the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). >> |
|
|
|
 Can the internet reboot Africa?https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/25/can-the-internet-reboot-africaWith smartphone use and web penetration soaring, Africa is set for a tech revolution – but only if its infrastructure can support it<< You can buy sunlight with your phone, conduct an eye test on someone 100 miles away and attend a church service on your iPad. There are apps for investing in cows, for sending parcels and for mapping unrest. And soon you'll be able to deliver blood and medicines by drone. There's free Facebook, mobile banking, and the promise of cashless societies and digitised land records. And from Accra in the west to Kigali in the east, a spray of "tech hubs" talk about "leapfrogging" technology and incubating start-ups. Such are the giddy promises of Africa's "fourth industrial revolution" – a giant step forward into the digital world which the Guardian is reporting on for the next two weeks. Some are salivating that it will amount to the renaissance of a marginalised continent, while others soberly warn of the hype. By 2020 there will be more than 700m smartphone connections in Africa – more than twice the projected number in North America and not far from the total in Europe, according to GSMA, an association of mobile phone operators. In Nigeria alone 16 smartphones are sold every minute, while mobile data traffic across Africa is set to increase 15-fold by 2020. Twenty per cent of the continent already have access to a mobile broadband connection, a figure predicted to triple in the next five years. The mobile industry will account for 8% of GDP by 2020 – double what it will be in the rest of the world. And internet penetration is rising faster than anywhere else as costs of data and devices fall. >> |
|
|
|
Windows 10: CNIL publicly serves formal notice to Microsoft Corporation to comply with the French Data Protection Act within three monthshttps://www.cnil.fr/en/windows-10-cnil-publicly-serves-formal-notice-microsoft-corporation-comply-french-data-protection<< Following the launch of the new operating system, Windows 10, in July 2015, the CNIL was alerted by the media and political parties to the possibility that Microsoft Corporation was collecting excessive personal data. Meanwhile, a Contact group was created within the G29 (working party including national data protection agencies in Europe) to examine the issue and conduct investigations in the various member states concerned. It is within this context that the CNIL carried out seven on-line observations in April and June 2016 and questioned Microsoft Corporation on certain points of its privacy policy to check that Windows 10 complied with the French Data Protection Act. >>
|
|
|
|
Second Circuit rules in favor of Microsoft, gov't can't force access to email on Irish serverhttp://www.scmagazine.com/second-circuit-rules-in-favor-of-microsoft-govt-cant-force-access-to-email-on-irish-server/article/509647/<< The U.S. government's reach got a little bit shorter Thursday when the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision and ruled that the U.S. government can't force Microsoft to hand over customer emails stored in a server in Ireland. The court's ruling at least temporarily capped a long-running legal battle between the tech giant and the federal government, effectively ordering a District Court to quash a warrant for the data and vacating an order that held Microsoft in contempt for its refusal to yield to the government's demands. Privacy advocates hailed the ruling as a victory for Microsoft and, if it holds, will likely inspire confidence among privacy advocates and European privacy regulators who worried about the fortitude of the U.S.'s privacy posture. "It's a big win for Microsoft and other tech companies pushing back against government information requests", Joseph G. Falcone, partner at the law firm of Herbert Smith Freehills New York LLP, told SCMagazine.com. >>
|
|
|
|
 Ottawa shuts down kids' lemonade stand over permit, sparking criticismhttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/05/ottawa-canada-lemonade-stand-shut-down-permit-backlash<< To the young entrepreneurs – ages 7 and 5 – it seemed like a win-win situation: Hawk ice-cold lemonade to pedestrians and cyclists on a hot day and rake in money to help pay for summer camp. But their business plan was swiftly derailed by officials in Ottawa, who cited the girls' lack of a permit to shut down the C$1-a-glass lemonade stand. Eliza Andrews, 7, and her sister Adela, 5, had been running the stand on their front lawn for several weeks. As the date of their summer camp neared, the pair eyed their profit margins and considered a crucial question: location. On Sunday they relocated, setting up shop on a grassy median that flanked a stretch of road open only to cyclists and foot traffic on Sunday mornings. Business was just beginning to pick up – the two had earned C$52 in about an hour – when a passerby stopped to ask them if they had a permit for their lemonade stand. It wasn't long after that a uniformed official with the National Capital Commission, a federal agency, arrived on the scene. "They were polite, but said we had to pack up and leave", Kurtis Andrews, the father of the two girls, told the Toronto Star. His offer to pay for a permit on the spot yielded no compromise. "For a couple of kids, it's kind of intimidating, with the flashing lights and guy in black uniform." >> |
|
|
|
Did they make HL3 yet ?
Dream on... Gabe is making too much money with Steam to bother with that. |
|
|
|
 One Guy's Steam Level Just Broke 1,000http://steamed.kotaku.com/one-guys-steam-level-just-broke-1000-1782903227Last time we checked in on renowned Steam demigod PalmDesert, he'd just pushed his Steam level to 600. At the time, he had the highest Steam level in the world. He still does, only now it's broken 1,000. PalmDesert is a 35 year-old man living in Japan. He owns a whopping 5,029 games, a significant chunk of Steam's entire library, which is comprised of 7,481 games and DLCs. He recently became the first person to hit Steam level 1,000, something only he has done so far (his closest rival is closing in with a Steam level of 993). Currently he's at level 1,046. As is often the case, he crossed a new threshold before Valve even got around to designing a graphic for it. PalmDesert has been at or near the top of the Steam level rankings pretty much since the system was implemented in 2013. The man does not eat or sleep, apparently. He does, however, play a shitton of Rocksmith. A person's Steam level comes from owning games, participating in events, and crafting Steam badges from trading cards that come from games. Higher Steam levels earn you things like friend slots and the ability to showcase things (items, favorite games, achievements, etc) on your profile. As you can imagine, PalmDesert's profile is decked the fuck out. Yes, Valve has very effectively game-ified the act of spending money on their store. It might strike you as a bit icky, but it's hard not to respect PalmDesert's dedication to staying on top for three years. And counting. Source: Kotaku |
|
|
|
 Microsoft pays out $10,000 for automatic Windows 10 installationhttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/27/microsoft-automatic-windows-10-installation<< A Californian woman has won $10,000 in compensation from Microsoft after Windows 10 automatically tried and failed to install on her Windows 7 computer. The automatic install of Windows 10 failed, leaving her with a unstable and often unresponsive computer used to run her travel agency from an office in Sausalito, California. Teri Goldstein reportedly said: "I had never heard of Windows 10. Nobody ever asked me if I wanted to update." After attempting to fix the problem with Microsoft's support, Goldstein sued the company for a new computer and loss of earnings, winning $10,000. Microsoft dropped its appeal to avoid further legal expenses, leaving Microsoft footing the bill. Goldstein's case is just one of a long line of complaints against Microsoft, which has followed an increasingly aggressive roll out of Windows 10. The operating system, which is still being offered as a free upgrade from Windows 7 or later until 29 July, was first offered as an optional upgrade in which users had to express an interest. Microsoft then made Windows 10 a "recommended update" for Windows 7 or later, which meant that it started automatically downloading through Windows Update in February this year. In March, users started complaining that Windows 10 automatically started to install on their computers without their permission, leading some to hilarious interruptions to weather forecasts and pro-gaming sessions alike. The forceful rollout has angered users, but has also boosted Windows 10 numbers, crossing 270 million users by the end of March 2016, running on 17.43% of the worlds' computers - second only to Windows 7 - according to data from Netmarketshare. Whether the lawsuit and $10,000 judgment will spawn further suits over failed or forced Windows 10 installs remains to be seen. Goldstein has shown it's possible, which could open the floodgates. >> How to completely avoid upgrading to Windows 10... forever |
|
|
|
|
Show Posts
