The FBI is using outdated IT to foil FOIA requests, lawsuit alleges

The FBI is using antiquated computer systems to deliberately foil requests made under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, a new lawsuit alleges.Ryan Shapiro, a national security researcher and Ph.D. candidate at MIT, has been studying the Freedom of Information Act for years with a particular focus on noncompliance by government agencies. He already has multiple FOIA lawsuits in motion against the FBI, and earlier this month he filed a new one.In it, he describes numerous attempts to obtain information over the past two years, and the FBI's frequent response that it can't locate what he's looking for.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

19% off Polaroid ZIP Mobile Photo Printer with ZINK Zero Ink Printing Technology – Deal Alert

Enjoy the power and fun of a Polaroid camera without the Polaroid camera. This little standalone photo printer connects to your phone or tablet via Bluetooth, and is powered by a rechargeable lithium polymer battery, so it's designed to be portable, easy and fun to use. On a single charge the gadget will print 25 photos -- without ink. Instead, it uses heat to produce deep, vibrant colors that are completely smudge-proof, on 2x3 paper that is waterproof, tear-proof and backed with adhesive so you can peel-and-stick for added fun. It ships with 10 sheets loaded, but paper is easy to find on Amazon and comes in packs of 20, 30 or 50 (found here). A compact and protective carrying case is also available at what seems to be a reasonable price (found here).  The Polaroid ZIP mobile printer currently averages 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 1,150 customers (read reviews). Its typical list price of $159.99 has been reduced by 19% to $129.99. If you're looking for a fun and unusual summer gift idea for yourself or someone on your list, see the discounted Polaroid ZIP mobile printer Continue reading

Ms. Lo Goes to Washington

By: Laurie Falconer, Director of Integrated Communications On Friday, Ruckus Wireless Business Unit CEO Selina Lo was in Washington, D.C. speaking alongside White House administrators and industry leaders at an event marking the launch of the Advanced Wireless Industry Consortium,...

ZTE’s $99 Zmax Pro smartphone packs in top-line features

ZTE's US $99 ZMax Pro packs in some of the latest smartphone technologies, something you wouldn't expect in a low-priced handset.The smartphone has a 6-inch screen and is available only through MetroPCS in the U.S. It weighs about 175 grams and is 8.9 millimeters thick.It has some top-line features found in the latest smartphones, like a USB Type-C port. It also runs on the latest Android OS 6.0 code-named Marshmallow.The Gorilla Glass 3 screen shows images at a full HD resolution. The handset has 32GB of internal storage, and a micro-SD card for expandable storage. That's a lot of storage for a handset under $100.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Rep. Pascrell’s H-1B bill is a message to Democrats

Early this month, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) introduced an H-1B reform bill that, he said, has little chance of being enacted this year. But that wasn't the point of the bill."I introduced my legislation, in fact, when I saw [that H-1B] wasn't going to be in the [Democratic] platform," Pascrell said during a telephone press conference Monday about his legislation.The Democrats, both presumptive presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and the party itself, have not called for H-1B reforms. It's not mentioned in Clinton's or in the party's draft platforms. That's in contrast to Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump, who has detailed visa reforms in his platform.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

ICYMI Cloud News: Congress considers a cloud migration; AWS acquisition; Microsoft legal win

It’s summertime, which means you may not be keeping up with all the news in the busy cloud computing industry.Last week there were a handful of announcements that flew somewhat under the radar, but have important implications for this market.Congress considers moving Federal IT to the cloud There’s a movement afoot in Congress to encourage more government workloads to migrate to cloud computing platforms, according to GovInfoSecurity.com. A bill named Move IT Act aims to sure up cybersecurity defenses and upgrade legacy infrastructure systems while making it easier for federal agencies to use cloud computing services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: Real time data processing at Facebook

‘Realtime Data Processing at Facebook’ provides us with a great high-level overview of the systems Facebook have built to support real-time workloads. At the heart of the paper is a set of five key design decisions for building such systems, together with an explanation of the choices that Facebook made. —morning paper

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Don’t look now, but Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak just got a big step closer

Harry Potter fans, take note: Scientists have made an object "disappear" using a cloaking device similar in many ways to the invisibility cloak imagined by author J.K. Rowling.Researchers from the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science at the Queen Mary University of London worked with U.K. industry recently to demonstrate a device that allows curved surfaces to appear flat to electromagnetic waves. It's not an invisibility cloak just yet, but it could bring the much-yearned-for item closer to reality.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Skype updates its Windows 10 app beta on desktop and mobile

Skype is bringing a new app to smartphones, computers, and tablets running Windows 10 on Monday, ahead of Microsoft's Windows 10 Anniversary Update launch.People who are beta testing Windows 10 through the Windows Insider Program now get a new version of the Skype Preview App, which will allow them to call mobile and landline phones from their computers, leave and receive voicemails, and put calls on hold.The new Skype app will replace the existing Skype desktop app, along with calling and messaging apps that were bundled with the original release of Windows 10. It's unclear when the app will be released to all Windows 10 users, but this announcement brings that closer to reality.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Fronthaul and backhaul: Look out, a fusion is coming!

Backhaul and fronthaul have come a long way through the generations. When I started out, fronthaul was literally the length of industrial coax cable that you could easily observe running from the bottom of a cell phone tower to the top. Backhaul was always where the excitement was—in all the signal processing smarts surrounding transcoding. This technology existed to condense almighty 64k bit/sec. pipes down to a 16k bit/sec. ones and vice versa. Today, the story has moved on and converged quite a bit, but the uncoordinated shaping of these spaces in those early days has resulted in two worlds or two heterogeneous technology silos, one each for fronthaul and backhaul. This is not going to fly in 5G, and a fusion is coming that will bring these two worlds together.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

NYC Wi-Fi project set to move forward as city beats payphone lawsuit

A U.S. district court judge last week effectively ended a payphone company’s lawsuit against the City of New York, opening the door for an ambitious public Wi-Fi hotspot program to proceed.The payphone company, Telebeam, had sued the city in 2014, arguing that the city shouldn’t have been allowed to force Telebeam to cede up 1,300 public payphone sites when it awarded the contract to rival CityBridge.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Microsoft disavows 1B-or-bust goal for Windows 10 + Hackers claim to have launched DDoS attack that crashed Pokémon Go serversTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

NYC Wi-Fi project set to move forward as city beats payphone lawsuit

A U.S. district court judge last week effectively ended a payphone company’s lawsuit against the City of New York, opening the door for an ambitious public Wi-Fi hotspot program to proceed.The payphone company, Telebeam, had sued the city in 2014, arguing that the city shouldn’t have been allowed to force Telebeam to cede up 1,300 public payphone sites when it awarded the contract to rival CityBridge.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Microsoft disavows 1B-or-bust goal for Windows 10 + Hackers claim to have launched DDoS attack that crashed Pokémon Go serversTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Attackers could steal millions through online phone verification systems

In the latest attack that shows how hard it is for users to identify phone numbers with premium call charges, a researcher has found that he could have earned millions by abusing the online phone verification systems used by Google, Microsoft, and Instagram.Many websites and mobile apps allow users to associate a phone number with their account. This can be used for two-factor authentication or as an account recovery and verification option. Many of these systems rely on codes sent via text messages, but also offer the option to call the user and dictate such codes.Last year, a Belgian IT security consultant named Arne Swinnen started wondering if such systems test if the numbers entered by users have premium charges attached to them and set out to test several popular services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Attackers could steal millions through online phone verification systems

In the latest attack that shows how hard it is for users to identify phone numbers with premium call charges, a researcher has found that he could have earned millions by abusing the online phone verification systems used by Google, Microsoft, and Instagram.Many websites and mobile apps allow users to associate a phone number with their account. This can be used for two-factor authentication or as an account recovery and verification option. Many of these systems rely on codes sent via text messages, but also offer the option to call the user and dictate such codes.Last year, a Belgian IT security consultant named Arne Swinnen started wondering if such systems test if the numbers entered by users have premium charges attached to them and set out to test several popular services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Review roundup: Two Lenovo Windows 10 systems and the latest Kangaroo Desktop

Even though gadgets like virtual reality and augmented reality are the “it things” in the technology space, there are still systems coming out that let you do normal things like computing, web browsing and movie watching / book reading.Here’s a quick roundup of three notebook and desktop systems (using those terms loosely) that offer some unique features and usage scenarios aimed at the business and consumer markets.  Kangaroo.cc The Kangaroo Mobile Desktop Pro (with cover removed to show inside of system)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

3 things to know about Softbank’s plan to acquire ARM

Since the release of the iPhone, ARM's chip designs have driven a mobile revolution. The small chip company has brought giants like Intel to their knees in the realm of mobile phones and tablets, and now it's on the verge of being acquired by Softbank for a stunning US$32 billion. You may not know it, but outside of PCs ARM is in almost every device we use, from smartphones to TVs to home appliances. It licenses chip designs to manufacturers, and over the last 25 years, over 90 billion ARM-designed chips have gone into devices. ARM will continue designing processors for various segments of the computing industry after the acquisition, but investments will go up and product development will be faster, said Simon Segars, CEO of ARM, in a video. Here are three immediate things you need to know about the deal.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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