Category: BUSINESS

ICANN fails to follow its own Bylaws and procedures says IRP panel

“Our bylaws are very important to us. They capture our mission of security, stability and accessibility, and compel the organization to be open and transparent.” — from the ICANN website ICANN may claim its bylaws are important, but apparently ICANN doesn’t follow its bylaws. At least that is what an IRP panel ruled yesterday in the DotConnectAfrica (DCA) Trust Case #50117T108313, full decision here (pdf), stating “In the Panel’s unanimous view, it would be unfair and unjust to deny DCA Trust’s request for interim relief when the need for such a relief by…

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Tablet adoption in EU-5 to surpass 100 million this year

Mobile Apps

Tablet adoption in the EU-5 continues to rise steadily, and according to new eMarketer estimates, the region’s tablet user base will surpass 100 million by the end of 2014. By 2018, more than 146 million people will use a tablet at least once per month. More than half of all users in the region—52.3 million people—will reside in the UK or Germany, the EU-5’s largest tablet markets. France also has a significant tablet audience, with 22.8 million users, or 22.5% of the total. Italy and Spain will have smaller tablet…

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Big Data: Five things Big Data Experts warned Obama about

The rise of big data techniques poses risks to society that call for new laws, a White House report concludes When President Obama spoke in January about reforming U.S. surveillance, he also asked a panel of experts to spend 90 days investigating the potential consequences of the use of technology that falls under the umbrella term “big data.” The 68-page report was published today and repeatedly emphasizes that big data techniques can advance the U.S. economy, government, and public life. But it also spends a lot of time warning of…

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Homeland Security says Don’t use Internet Explorer till bug is fixed

SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. Department of Homeland security is advising Americans not to use the Internet Explorer Web browser until a fix is found for a serious security flaw that came to light over the weekend. The bug was announced on Saturday by FireEye Research Labs, an Internet security software company based in Milpitas, Calif. “We are currently unaware of a practical solution to this problem,” the Department of Homeland Security’s United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team said in a post Monday morning. It recommended that users and administrators…

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Discovery Communications to sell HowStuffWorks.com for 18 % of its 2007 purchase price

Staff Writer

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Discover Communications will be selling the popular website, HowStuffWorks.com at a loss on the sale as they are only realizing 18% of their 2007 purchase price. Read the WSJ Report here For Discovery Communications Inc., DISCA -0.49% the website HowStuffWorks.com proved to be one investment in digital media that didn’t work. Discovery said Monday it would sell the site, which offers explanations on topics such as “How magnets work” and “How do they make hollow chocolate Easter rabbits?” for $45 million, or less…

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Politics curtailing Silicon Valley’s fast-growing financial ties with Russia’s tech sector: Entrepreneurs, investors say

Staff Writer

SAN MATEO, Calif. (AP) – Entrepreneurs and investors say Silicon Valley’s fast-growing financial ties with Russia’s tech sector are being slowed down by current political tensions between the White House and the Kremlin. “It’s safe to say a lot of investors here are taking a step back to see how the situation will unfold,” said Alexandra Johnson, who manages a $100 million venture fund called DFJ VTP Aurora, a Menlo Park, Calif., branch of Russian bank VTB. For decades, Russia’s sophisticated scientists and engineers remained at arm’s length from Silicon…

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WSJ: Brace for increased domain registration fees should the UN oversight ICANN

Staff Writer

The Wall Street Journal just published a story by Karl Borden who is a professor of financial economics at the University of Nebraska who warns that if the US gives up its oversight control over ICANN and the United Nations winds up in that roll, expect that fees are going to be imposed on every domain registration to support not only ICANN but UN activities. The world may see history repeat itself with the Internet, and the unintended consequences are likely to be profound. The United Nations has long craved…

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Critical ‘homework’ before the U.S. relinquishes stewardship of ICANN

Staff Writer

The Department of Commerce announced on March 14 that it will give up its last bit of control of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in 2015. As is often the case with government decisions announced late on a Friday, this decision is controversial. The U.S. has exercised light oversight of ICANN since it established the organization and emphasized the need for a free and open Internet. Other nations do not share America’s perspective and have sought repeatedly to work through U.N. organizations such as the International…

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Microsoft Office for iPad, How it all started

Staff Writer

Han-Yi Shaw didn’t like what he saw, and he told Microsoft so. The software giant, by Shaw’s reckoning, didn’t really understand Apple’s platform or how to develop Office for it. Shaw told Microsoft exactly what he thought — and the company responded by agreeing to all of his changes, then hiring him. That was more than a decade ago. Today, Shaw heads up Microsoft’s Office Design Studio and is the architect of one of the tech giant’s most important innovations in years: Office for iPad. The product is available now…

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Microsoft May Introduce Office for Apple’s iPad Next Week

Staff Writer
Microsoft

Newly appointed Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is said to be announcing a version of the company’s popular Office productivity suite, including Word, Excel and Powerpoint for Apple’s iPad tablet devices at an event next week Microsoft may finally introduce a version of its Office software suite for Apple’s iPad devices at an event next Thursday, according to multiple reports. Sources close to Reuters, ZDNet and The Verge have said Microsoft’s about to introduce a suite of Microsoft Office applications designed for the Apple tablet. The suite is expected to include…

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