Telescope captures dramatic moment of starbirth

The glowing mass is called a Herbig-Haro object, 1,400 light-years away in the constellation Vela.

FLORIDA (AP): This is one baby picture you won t want to miss. The ALMA telescope in Chile has captured a close-up of the glowing material spewing from a newborn star. The stunning images show material streaming from the baby star at incredible speed, glowing as it plows into the surrounding gas and dust.

Astronomers say the illuminated jets are spewing out faster than ever measured before and are more energetic than previously thought. The glowing mass is called a Herbig-Haro object, named after U.S. and Mexican astronomers. This one is 1,400 light-years away in the constellation Vela. 

ALMA is an array of 66 antennas and is relatively new. It s located in one of the driest places on Earth, the Atacama desert.
 

Source: http://dunyanews.tv/index.php/en/Technology/188653-Telescope-captures-dramatic-moment-of-starbirth

Palestinian hacker earns job offers

The stunt cost the 30-year-old Palestinian the bounty, but earned him praise and numerous job offer.

YATTA, West Bank (AP) - After discovering a privacy bug on Facebook, unemployed Palestinian programmer Khalil Shreateh said he just wanted to collect the traditional $500 bounty the social network giant offers to those who voluntarily expose its glitches.

But when Facebook ignored his first two reports, Shreateh took his message to the top and hacked into CEO Mark Zuckerberg s personal page to prove his point.

"Sorry for breaking your privacy," he wrote the Facebook founder, "I has no other choice to make after all the reports I sent to Facebook team ... as you can see I am not in your friend list and yet i can post to your timeline."

The stunt cost the 30-year-old Palestinian the bounty, but earned him praise and numerous job offers.

for being able to get to the boss of the world s most ubiquitous social network.

Shreateh, who lives near the West Bank city of Hebron and has been unable to find a job since graduating two years ago with a degree in information technology, told Facebook that he found a way that allowed anyone to post on anyone else s wall. "I told them that you have a vulnerability and you need to close it," he told The Associated Press. "I wasn t looking to be famous. I just wanted to make a point to Mark (Zuckerberg)."

In a message posted to the Hacker News, a user-driven security news site, Facebook software engineer Matthew Jones said the initial report was poorly worded, although he acknowledged that the company should have pressed for more information.

"As a few other commenters have pointed out, we get hundreds of reports every day," Jones wrote. "Many of our best reports come from people whose English isn t great though this can be challenging, it s something we work with just fine and we have paid out over $1 million to hundreds of reporters. However, many of the reports we get are nonsense or misguided, and even those ... provide some modicum of reproduction instructions."

Nevertheless, he said, "we should have pushed back asking for more details here."

He went on to say that Shreateh would not be paid from Facebook s bounty program because he d violated the company s terms of service namely by posting items to the Facebook pages of users he should not have had access to.

"The more important issue here is with how the bug was demonstrated using the accounts of real people without their permission. Exploiting bugs to impact real users is not acceptable behavior for a white hat," he said, using an industry term for ethical security experts.

Jones added that the bug was fixed Thursday. Facebook declined to comment beyond the post.

The bug and Facebook s response to it has become a talking point in information security circles, with many speculating that the Palestinian could have helped himself to thousands of dollars had he chosen to sell the information on the black market.

Shreateh said he was initially disappointed by the Facebook response but that after being inundated by job offers from all over the world he is pleased with how things worked out.

"I am looking for a good job to start a normal life like everybody," he said. "I am so proud to be the Palestinian who discovered that exploit in Facebook."

Source: http://dunyanews.tv/index.php/en/Technology/188551-Palestinian-hacker-earns-job-offers

New Samsung 'Mega' phone nearly tablet-sized

Smartphones are getting bigger as people use them more to watch movies and play games.

A new one from Samsung is beyond big. With a screen measuring 6.3 inches (16-centimeter) diagonally, the Galaxy Mega is almost as big as a 7-inch tablet computer. The difference: It makes phone calls.

Samsung says the Mega is a hybrid that combines the portability of a smartphone with the immersive experience that a tablet offers for movies, books, music and games. Phones of this size are typically referred to as phablets.

Samsung Electronics Co. is known for big phones. Its flagship Galaxy S4 is 5 inches (12.5 centimeters), while the Galaxy Note 2 is 5.5 inches (14 centimeters). Apple s iPhone 5 is 4 inches (10 centimeters).

Samsung is also known for offering a variety of devices, with different screen sizes and prices, to target a range of consumers. Because of that, it s now the leading maker of phones. Apple, by contrast, has been releasing one model a year that targets high-end consumers. A new iPhone is expected this fall.

The Mega includes many features available in other recent Galaxy phones. That includes Multi Window, which allows multitasking in a split screen, and Easy Mode, which reduces the number of features and choices for new smartphone users.

AT&T Inc. says it will start selling the Mega on Friday for $150 with a two-year service contract. The Mega is also coming to Sprint and U.S. Cellular. Dates and prices weren t available for those carriers. The Mega made its debut in Europe and Russia in May, but hasn t been available in the U.S. until now.

As Samsung s phones get larger, at least one of HTC Corp. s is getting smaller. AT&T announced Monday that it will start selling a smaller version of the HTC One. Called the HTC One Mini, it will have a 4.3-inch (10.9-centimeter) screen, compared with 4.7 inches (11.9 centimeters) on the standard model. It s also lighter, at 4.3 ounces (122 grams).

The One is 5 ounces (141 grams). The One Mini will be about $100 cheaper than its big brother. It will be available starting Friday for $100 with a two-year service agreement.

Tired of helping the CIA? Quit Facebook, Venezuela minister urges

A Venezuelan government minister on Wednesday urged citizens to shut Facebook accounts to avoid being unwitting informants for the US Central Intelligence Agency, referring to recent revelations about US surveillance programs. Edward Snowden, a former US National Security Agency contractor who is stuck in a Moscow airport while seeking to avoid capture by the United States, last month leaked details about American intelligence agencies obtaining information from popular websites including Facebook. "Comrades: cancel your Facebook accounts, you've been working for free as CIA informants. Review the Snowden case!" wrote Prisons Minister Iris Varela on her Twitter account. Venezuela has offered to provide asylum for Snowden, but he has not responded and appears unable to leave the transit zone of Sheremetyevo International Airport. He exposed a program known as Prism that relied on customer data supplied by major technology companies. "Countries and people that have fallen victim to gringo spying should sue the United States to ensure fair compensation. We're going to bankrupt the US economy!" wrote Varela, known for radical rhetoric and ardent support of the late socialist leader Hugo Chavez.  Source: http://samaa.tv/newsdetail.aspx?ID=68738&CID=2

Venice tourists get shock bill at outdoor coffee bar

ROME: Tourists going to Venice beware - and make sure you read the fine print. Everyone knows the lagoon city can be expensive but seven tourists from Rome got a bitter surprise when their bill for four coffees and three liqueurs at an outdoor cafe topped 100 euros ($130). The scene of the mishap was the famed Caffe Lavena in St. Mark's Square, where 19th century German composer Richard Wagner, who died in Venice in 1883, sat to have his morning coffee every day when he lived in the city. What the Roman tourists - who posted their receipt on Facebook - apparently did not notice when looking at the menu was the "music surcharge" of six euros per person. It added up to 42 euros, or nearly half of the bill. The owners of the famous cafe, which opened in 1750 and where clients are served by white-jacketed waiters as a chamber orchestra plays, defended themselves. They said all the prices (six euros for a coffee and 10 for a liqueur) as well as the music surcharge, are printed on the menus. "If they found the prices too high, they could have got up and gone somewhere else, like many people do, or have the coffee standing at the bar inside, where it costs one euro," Lavena's manager, Massimo Milanese, told the Corriere della Sera newspaper. Source: http://samaa.tv/newsdetail.aspx?ID=70509&CID=2

Facebook launching project to make Internet more affordable

Facebook Inc's Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has enlisted Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Qualcomm Inc and four other companies for a project aimed at bringing Internet access to people around the world who can't afford it, mirroring efforts by Google Inc and others. The project is called Internet.org and will be launched Wednesday. It focuses on enabling the next 5 billion people without access to come online, Zuckerberg said. "The goal of Internet.org is to make Internet access available to the two-thirds of the world who are not yet connected and to bring the same opportunities to everyone that the connected third of the world has today," said Zuckerberg. Other players in the project include Ericsson, MediaTek Inc, Nokia, and Opera Software ASA. The partnership will develop lower-cost, higher-quality smartphones and deploy Internet access in underserved communities, Facebook said. Google said in June that it had launched a small network of balloons over the Southern Hemisphere in an experiment it hopes could bring reliable Internet access to the world's most remote regions. That pilot program, Project Loon, took off in June from New Zealand's South Island, using solar-powered, high-altitude balloons that ride the wind about 12.5 miles, or twice as high as airplanes, above the ground, Google said. – Reuters Source: http://samaa.tv/newsdetail.aspx?ID=70546&CID=6

Time To Say Goodbye To Windows XP

We’ve all been Windows users at some point. Even many hardcore Mac users today probably have a strong history with the much maligned operating system. One thing that everyone will probably agree with is this: Windows XP is one of the best operating systems that Microsoft has served us consumers. And now, it is time to say goodbye to Windows XP.

It’s official. Support for Windows XP is ending on the 8th of August 2014. As is the norm with these things, users are given ample time to make the switch if necessary. For individual users, this should be an easy fix. The chances are you’re using Windows 8 already anyway.

For businesses, though, especially the small to medium sized ones, the one-year breathing space might be more than necessary. After all, it’s not only about changing operating systems. Hardware upgrades and new purchases may also be called for. Then there’s the learning curve to get used to the changes.

Of course, one may opt to stick with Windows XP till their device dies on them. Microsoft is not stopping anyone from doing that, but without support for the software, it’s very much akin to having a car for which you can’t buy parts anymore.  At the end of the day, you might as well make it easier on you then, by saying goodbye to Windows XP.

It is worth noting, though, that Microsoft has not scrimped on its efforts to convince people to stop using XP. In fact, they released an infographic wishing XP a happy retirement, urging people to upgrade to Windows 8. Considering the fact that 37.7 percent of PCs in the world are still running on Windows XP, Microsoft’s efforts are justified.

Source: http://techbeat.com/2013/08/time-to-say-goodbye-to-windows-xp/