Monday 30 December 2013

Government requests to take down 36 'fake' accounts

12/30/2013 12:33:00 pm TECHNOLOGY No comments

Government requests to take down 36 'fake' accounts

Social networking websites describe "fake" accounts as impostor accounts, where someone is pretends to be another person.

NEW DELHI: The government has requested 36 "fake accounts" to be taken down on varioussocial networking websites in 2013 (till Nov). This was revealed in an answer by Milind Deora, union minister of state for communications and information technology, in reply to an unstarred question by P L Punia in the Lok Sabha earlier this month.

Social networking websites describe "fake" accounts as impostor accounts, where someone is pretends to be another person. When contacted, Dr Gulshan Rai, director general, Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), declined to give details of these accounts citing "privacy issues", and even the IT Rules under the IT Act, which apply to intermediaries. Punia's question regarding the same asked "whether there are large number of fake accounts on various social networking sites which are being used for fraud/crime."

In his reply Deora said, "A total no. of 3, 45, 37 and 36 cases of fake accounts/profiles on various social networking websites were reported to Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) in the year 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 (till November) by various law enforcement agencies. CERT-In further contacted these social networking websites for disabling of fake accounts and for getting user details of these fake accounts/profiles. In most of the cases, such fake accounts were successfully disabled in association with social networking sites having offices in India."

The compliance over such requests has gone up over the years, according to CERT-In. According to Dr Rai, while the compliance for these requests stood at 76% in 2013, it was 58% in 2012, 45% in 2011 and just 33% in 2010.

Though the question or the answer that followed did not specify what the government believed qualifies as a "fake" account, parody accounts are known to have been blocked in the past. However the minister said that was not what they were after. "I don't think anyone goes after parody accounts," he told TOI.

"No government has a mechanism to regulate fake accounts. If there are fake accounts in your name, (social networks) are obligated to take them down," Deora told TOI over phone. As for the nature of these "fake" accounts, Dr Rai says that the CERT-In has no vetting mechanism. "We only forward the requests we receive and cannot vet them. As per the IT Act and CERT-In rules, I cannot divulge details of these 36 accounts. That would raise privacy issues," said Rai.

Earlier this month, a fake Twitter account of President Pranab Mukherjee -- @POIndia - created a stir. It disappeared within a few hours. Pankaj Pachauri, a spokesman for the prime minister's office, tweeted a clarification: "@POIndia is not a genuine account. @TwitterIndia has been advised to take action." In late 2012, the government had earned flak for blocking six parody accounts of the Prime Minister on Twitter.

The recent transparency reports from Facebook, Twitter and Google show user information requests running into thousands. One request can cover more than one user. In the period of January to June 2013, Facebook received 3,245 user information requests from the Indian government. They produced data in 50% of the cases. For Google, the same number for the same six-month period stood at 2,691. Twitter lists the number of user information requests from India in January to June 2013 at "less than ten", and three cases where tweets were withheld
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Why more teens are quitting Facebook

12/30/2013 12:30:00 pm TECHNOLOGY No comments

Why more teens are quitting Facebook

Teenagers are turning their back on Facebook ‘in their droves’ and switching to simpler social networks and messaging apps, new research has found.

Teenagers are turning their back on Facebook 'in their droves' and switching to simpler social networks and messaging apps, new research has found. Not only are 16-18 year olds moving on to rivals such as Snapchat, Whatsapp and evenTwitter, teens are embarrassed to be so much as associated with Facebook, as their parents adopt the network, researchers said.

"Where once parents worried about their children joining Facebook, the children now say it is their family that insists they stay there to post about their lives," said Daniel Miller, a professor of Anthropology at University College London, who works on the Global Social Media Impact Study.

"Parents have worked out how to use the site and see it as a way for the family to remain connected. In response, the young are moving on tocooler things," he said. "What we've learned from working with 16-18 year olds in the UK is that Facebook is not just on the slide, it is basically dead and buried," he added. Miller, writing on academic news website the Conversation, added that the research found that "slick isn't always best" as even the teenagers that took part in the study admitted that Facebook is technically better than its rivals.

"It is more integrated, better for photo albums, organizing parties and more effective for observing people's relationships," he said, yet other factors are much more important to teens —namely the fact they are likely to get a friend request from their mum on Facebook. "You just can't be young and free if you know your parents can access your every indiscretion," he said.

"It is nothing new that young people care about style and status in relation to their peers, and Facebook is simply not cool anymore." Instead, rather than using the network to communicate with each other, teens use Facebook as a link to older family and older siblings who have gone to university
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Apple cuts CEO Tim Cook's performance bonus

12/30/2013 12:07:00 pm TECHNOLOGY No comments

Apple cuts CEO Tim Cook's performance bonus

Tim Cook lost part of his performance-based stock award during a year in which intense competition and margin pressure hurt its stock.

SAN FRANCISCO: Apple CEO Tim Cook earned roughly the same in 2013 as in 2012, but lost part of his performance-based stock award during a year in which intense competition and margin pressure bludgeoned the iPhone maker's stock.

Cook took home $4.25 million, including a base salary of $1.4 million and a performance bonus of $2.8 million, roughly on par with 2012, the company said in a preliminary proxy statement on Friday.

But he gave up about 7,100 shares tied to an annual performance-dependent award, based on shareholder returns from August 24 of 2012 to August 25, 2013. Apple's stock lost a quarter of its value over that one-year period.

The company also advised shareholders to vote down a resolution by activist investor Carl Icahn, who proposed the iPhone maker buy back $50 billion worth of shares in fiscal 2014. It was the first time the company had publicly voiced its response to Icahn's demands.

Apple argued on Friday it has already returned $43 billion in dividends and share repurchases over the first six months of its roughly $100 billion capital return programme.

The "dynamic competitive landscape and the company's rapid pace of innovation require unprecedented investment, flexibility and access to resources," Apple said in advising shareholders to reject Icahn's proposal.

Known for decades of strong-arm tactics, including proxy fights, Icahn has repeatedly made it clear that his proposal is not a sign that he stands against Apple's management. The billionaire has discussed the issue with Cook in past months, arguing via tweets that a buyback of as much as $150 billion is within the company's means and would prop up its stock.

Strain
Since taking over from the late Steve Jobs, Cook has steered Apple in a more investor-friendly direction, including the establishment of one of the industry's biggest capital return programs.

Apple's board in 2012 granted Cook an award of one million restricted stock units (RSUs) -- one of the largest pay packages for an executive in a decade, intended to signal its confidence in Cook in the wake of the late Steve Jobs.

The award vests annually, but part of the grant depends on shareholder returns versus a basket of Apple's corporate peers, including Cisco Systems and Google.

But Apple has come under increasing strain from rivals like Samsung Electronics and Huawei in key markets, while Amazon.com and other manufacturers are using Google's Android software to launch competing tablets.

Apple's profit and margins slid in the September quarter despite selling 33.8 million iPhones. Sources have said demand for the $100 cheaper, brightly hued iPhone 5C has severely lagged sales for the top-tier 5S, spurring concerns about the iPhone's market positioning and its ability to compete with a growing profusion of lower-cost rivals.

This month, it finally secured a deal with China Mobile after protracted negotiations, a deal that should enlarge its footprint in the world's largest telecoms market
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Google: Government request to remove content worrying

12/30/2013 12:04:00 pm TECHNOLOGY 1 comment

Google: Government request to remove content worrying

The company regularly receives requests from governments and courts around the world to hand over user data.

NEW DELHI: Search engine giant Google has raised concerns about consistent demands by governments and law enforcement agencies across the world to remove content that is critical of them.

The US-based firm, which offers services like search, email, ads and mapping, said over the last four years, "one worrying trend has remained consistent: governments continue to ask us to remove political content".

The company regularly receives requests from governments and courts around the world to hand over user data.

In a blogpost, Google legal director Susan Infantino said, "Judges have asked us to remove information that's critical of them, police departments want us to take down videos or blogs that shine a light on their conduct, and local institutions like town councils don't want people to be able to find information about their decision-making processes."

Between January and June this year, Google received 3,846 government requests to remove 24,737 pieces of content, an increase of 68 per cent over the second half of 2012.

These officials often cite defamation, privacy and even copyright laws in attempts to remove political speech from Google's services.

Google said it has received 93 requests to take down government criticism and removed content in response to less than one third of them during the first half of 2013. Four of the requests were submitted as copyright claims.

In the past too, Google has said the number of such requests are on the rise with growing usage of its services every year.

"While the information we present in our Transparency Report is certainly not a comprehensive view of censorship online, it does demonstrate a worrying upward trend in the number of government requests, and underscores the importance of transparency around the processes governing such requests," she said.

Tech firms, including Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo, have been seeking to release more information on Government data requests, in the belief that this would reassure their customers.

These companies have also expressed "serious" concerns about monitoring of content by government agencies and they have also beefed up encryption (security) of user data to protect privacy of their consumers.

Indian IT: Wake up and smell the opportunity

12/30/2013 11:59:00 am TECHNOLOGY No comments

Indian IT: Wake up and smell the opportunity

There are new $100-billion market opportunities that could revitalize this industry.

The same advances that are changing the IT landscape are also creating new opportunities, says Vivek Wadhwa, fellow at Stanford Law School and director of research at Duke University...

A few years ago, Wall Street Journal and Forbes published articles predicting the demise of Indian IT. I responded with an article that they were dead wrong. I said that the outsourcing market had a long way to go before IT peaked; rising salaries and attrition rates were not a cause for long-term concern; and Indian IT would soon become a $100 billion industry. It did.

Now I am ready to declare the end of the line for Indian IT. There are new $100-billion market opportunities that could revitalize this industry. But from what I've seen, Indian executives seem incapable of steering their ships in the right directions.

It is not that Indian outsourcers have become less capable of servicing Western needs. It is that their customer base — the CIO and IT department — is in decline. With the advent of tablets, apps, and cloud computing, users have direct access to better technology than their IT departments can provide them. They can download cheap, elegant, and powerful apps on their iPads that make their corporate systems look primitive. These modern-day apps don't require internal teams of people doing software development and maintenance. They are user-customizable and can be built by anyone with basic programming skills.

It takes decades to update legacy computer systems , and corporate IT departments move at the speed of molasses. So, Indian outsourcers have a few more years before they see a significant decline. They certainly won't see the growth and billion-dollar deals that have brought them this far.

The same advances that are changing the IT landscape are also creating new opportunities. For example, advances in robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and 3D printing are making it cost effective to move manufacturing back from China to the US, Europe... and India.

Take the Baxter robot from Rethink Robotics. It has two arms, a face that displays simulated emotion, and cameras and sensors that detect the motion of human beings that work next to it. It can perform assembly and move boxes — just as humans do. It will work 24 hours a day and not complain. It costs only $22,000. This is one of many such robots.

AI is making it possible to develop self-driving cars, voice-recognition systems, and computer systems that can make human-like decisions. AI technologies are also finding their way into manufacturing and are powering robots such as Baxter.

A type of manufacturing called "additive manufacturing" is making it possible to cost-effectively "print" products. 3D printers can create physical mechanical devices, medical implants, jewellery, and even clothing. The cheapest 3D printers, which print rudimentary objects, currently sell for between $500 and $1,000.

Soon we will have printers for this price that can print toys and household goods. By the end of this decade, we will see 3D printers doing the small-scale production of previously labor-intensive crafts and goods. In the next decade we may be 3D printing buildings and electronics.

These technologies are becoming readily available and cheap, but America's manufacturing plants aren't geared up to take advantage of them. Most don't have the know-how. This is where India's companies could step in. They could master the new technologies and help American firms design new factory floors and program and install robots. They could provide management consulting on designing new value chains and inventory management.

They could operate and monitor manufacturing plant operations remotely. This is a higher-margin business than the old IT services. And Americans would cheer India for bringing manufacturing back to their shores — rather than protest it taking their IT jobs away. We are talking about a trillion dollar market opportunity.

India's technology companies can also develop sensor-based biomedical devices, cures for diseases by analyzing genome and health data, drone-based delivery systems, smart cities, digital tutors, and sensors to improve farming. Software and IT are the key to developing all these.

In my discussions with Indian CEOs, they all acknowledge the reality. They are becoming aware of what lies ahead. I have implored them to start retraining their people in the new technologies and develop new businesses and consulting practices. They listen, nod their heads, and go back to trying to close the disappearing software-outsourcing deals. They are shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic
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Now, PCs that learn from mistakes

12/30/2013 11:55:00 am TECHNOLOGY No comments

Now, PCs that learn from mistakes

Computers have entered the age when they are able to learn from their own mistakes, a development that is about to turn the digital world on its head.

The first commercial version of the new kind of computer chip is scheduled to be released in 2014. Not only can it automate tasks that now require painstaking programming — for example, moving a robot's arm smoothly and efficiently — but it can also sidestep and tolerate errors, potentially making the term "computer crash" obsolete.

The approach, already in use by some technology companies, is based on the biological nervous system, specifically on how neurons react to stimuli and connect with other neurons to interpret information. It allows computers to absorb new information while carrying out a task, and adjust what they do based on the changing signals.

In coming years, the approach will make possible a generation of artificial intelligence systems that will perform functions that humans do with ease: see, speak, listen, navigate and control. That can hold enormous consequences for tasks like facial and speech recognition, navigation and planning, which are in elementary stages and rely heavily on human programming. Designers say the computing style can clear the way for robots that can walk and drive in the physical world, though a thinking computer, a staple of science fiction, is still far off.

"We're moving from engineering computing systems to something that has many of the characteristics of biological computing," said Larry Smarr, who heads the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology. Conventional computers are limited by what they have been programmed to do. Computer vision systems, for example, only "recognize" objects that can be identified by the statistics-oriented algorithms programmed into them. An algorithm is a set of step-by-step instructions to perform a calculation.

Last year, Google was able to get a machine-learning algorithm, known as a neural network, to perform an identification task without supervision. In June, the company said it had used those neural network techniques to develop a new search service to help customers find specific photos more accurately. These new approaches are being driven by the explosion of scientific knowledge about the brain
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2nd Test: India left facing uphill task in Durban

12/30/2013 11:44:00 am CRICKET No comments

2nd Test: India left facing uphill task in Durban

India's Cheteshwar Pujara bats during Day 4 of the second and final Test against South Africa at Kingsmead in Durban. (AFP Photo)

DURBAN: There will be no fairytale ending for India. A maiden Test series win in South Africa is out of the equation, as the visitors stage a grim battle for survival in an effort to go home with honours shared. And the man behind India's predicament is none other than Jacques Kallis, who couldn't have hoped for a better farewell script.

Scorecard | Match in Pics

A marathon 393-minute effort, in probably his last Test innings, saw Kallis notch up his 45th Test century and his team take a 166-run lead. After South Africa were all out for 500 after a rain interruption in the final session, the Indian top-order embarked on Mission Survival. They were 68-2 when bad light stopped play with four overs to go, still needing 98 to avoid an innings defeat.

The light was falling, Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel were steaming in, and the pitch had quite a bit to offer. While Steyn was full and straight with a sprinkling of short deliveries, Philander was keeping it well pitched-up. Morkel was just a little short of length, constantly asking questions of the Indian batsmen.

As (6) got drawn to a Philander outswinger and edged it to slips, there was tension in the Indian camp. Dhawan wasn't looking too convincing, but he showed the determination to stick around for two hours. It was a moment of magic by Faf Du Plessis at short mid-wicket that brought about his downfall at the fag end of the day. The left-hander stepped out to left-arm spinnerRobin Peterson and looked to play over mid-wicket, but Faf jumped and plucked the ball out of thin air.

Pujara (32 batting), on the other hand, played with a level of confidence and responsibility that has become a trademark of India's new No. 3. He left a lot of balls and played only when he had to, staying alive for a fight on the final day. Virat Kohli (11 batting) looked equally determined during his half-hour vigil at the crease.

But the hero of the fourth day had to be Kallis (115). His wicket was the one Indians were desperate for and they didn't take the new ball to ensure that he doesn't get his runs quickly in the morning session. It could be interpreted as negative strategy, but Dhoni felt Jadeja had a better chance of taking a wicket with the 100-over old ball than his three pacers with the new cherry in overcast conditions.

Kallis was unfazed. He kept pushing the ball into the gaps, took the singles and completed his century with a glance towards fine-leg. Nightwatchman Dale Steyn (44) had gained in confidence at the other end and the two put on an 86-run sixth-wicket partnership that helped South Africa go past the Indian total of 334.

Kallis was finally dismissed top-edging a slog sweep off Jadeja (6-138) and Dhoni caught the skier. Steyn was dismissed soon after by a below-par Zaheer (2-97) and India expected the lead to be less than 100.

But by then, the pressure was off and South Africans Du Plessis and Peterson played with freedom.

2nd Test, Day 4: India vs South Africa

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India's Virat Kohli bats and South Africa's AB de Villiers watches during Day 4 of the second and final Test at the Sahara Stadium , Kingsmead in Durban. (AFP Photo)

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Monday 30 December 2013