Computers

A survey of U.S. utilities shows many are facing frequent cyberattacks that could threaten a highly interdependent power grid supplying more than 300 million people, according to a congressional report.More than a dozen utilities said cy...
A survey of U.S. utilities shows many are facing frequent cyberattacks that could threaten a highly interdependent power grid supplying more than 300 million people, according to a congressional report.More than a dozen utilities said cyberattacks were daily or constant, according to the survey, commissioned by U.S. Democratic Representatives Edward J. Markey and Henry A. Waxman. The 35-page report on the survey, called "Electric Grid Vulnerability," was released on Tuesday.The report is in response to widespread concerns that hackers could damage parts of the U.S. power grid, causing widespread outages and prolonged economic effects. Markey and Waxman are members of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee, which held a hearing on cyberthreats and security on Tuesday.Power outages and quality disturbances cost the U.S. economy upwards of US$188 billion annually, with single outages costing as much as $10 billion, the report said. Replacing large transformers, for example, can take more than 20 months.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
27 minutes ago
The difference between a job you love and a job you hate is usually one thing: the company's culture. These days, lots of tech startups have adopted cultural perks like free food, pool table/games, and beers on tap. But others have come ...
The difference between a job you love and a job you hate is usually one thing: the company's culture. These days, lots of tech startups have adopted cultural perks like free food, pool table/games, and beers on tap. But others have come up with new ways to make their companies great places to work. They've "hacked" their culture, according to this discussion thread on Quora.Maptia's founders moved the whole company to Morocco Jonny Miller, cofounder at Maptia and an avid surfer, has the best hack we've ever heard of. He and his two co-founders moved their company to Morocco, a low-cost way to have an office on the beach. Maptia's graduated from the TechStars Seattle program at the end of 2012 and then the founders' visas expired. Instead of going home to London, they wanted a cheaper place where their $100,000 in seed money would last until they launched their beta. They are building a travel discovery site. So they "spun the globe and found a cheap apartment only ten meters from the Atlantic ocean in the Moroccan surf town of Taghazout." (It's the second floor of the white building, pictured.) All five Maptia team members live there. They stop work when the surf it up and the cost of living is so low, they can feed themselves on $10 per person week, Miller says. Commerce Sciences has the last person to join create a welcome kit for the next person to join Commerce Sciences has a cool tradition for an employee's first day at work, says Oren Ellenbogen, an engineer at the Palo Alto, Calif., startup. "The last person to join the company is responsible to create a 'starter kit' for the next one to join. Each kit is totally different and personalized (depending on how creative the last person is :)), ranging from funny jokes, interesting books to Nerf Guns and coffee capsules," he says. At Expertcity, hearing the bell ring means free breakfast A lot of companies have bells in their offices that people ring when they sign a new customer contract or have announcements. But at Expertcity, there was a unique rule about the bell: If you rang it without a good reason, you had to buy breakfast for the whole company the next day, says John Greathouse, who was CFO at the time. Expertcity was the startup that created GoToMeeting and GoToMyPC and was sold to Citrix in 2003. Greathouse was originally opposed to the bell because he felt employees would think it was "a cheesy, faux motivational tool" but people loved it. See the rest of the story at Business Insider Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.
43 minutes ago
On the opening day of CTIA 2013, over a thousand exhibitors showed off the latest in mobile gear and gadgets. LAPTOP was on the scene at the Sands Expo & Convention Center in Las Vegas to get up c...
On the opening day of CTIA 2013, over a thousand exhibitors showed off the latest in mobile gear and gadgets. LAPTOP was on the scene at the Sands Expo & Convention Center in Las Vegas to get up c...
about 1 hour ago
The four lawyers linked to the Prenda Law copyright-trolling organization were slapped with an $81,000 sanctions order, which as of today, they have missed the deadline to pay. They did make time to file a last-minute motion to delay the...
The four lawyers linked to the Prenda Law copyright-trolling organization were slapped with an $81,000 sanctions order, which as of today, they have missed the deadline to pay. They did make time to file a last-minute motion to delay the sanctions, which only got referred back to the judge who's angry at them in the first place: US District Judge Otis Wright. Today Wright issued an order, predictably, denying the request by the Prenda crew for more time. The order [PDF] asks them to explain "why they have contravened the Court's order to pay the attorney's-fee award," which, to be precise, is $81,319.72. It also orders them to pay $1,000 "per day, per person or entity, until this attorney's-fee award is paid or a bond for the same amount is posted... Failure to comply will result in additional sanctions." The four Prenda-linked lawyers who are in trouble are John Steele and Paul Hansmeier, as well as Paul Duffy (officially counsel for Prenda Law and other related law firms) and Brett Gibbs, a California lawyer who worked for Prenda but has since distanced himself from the group. Also sanctioned are Prenda-linked shell companies Ingenuity 13 and AF Holdings, which, as John Steele explained in a recent interview, are officially owned by Mark Lutz, his former paralegal. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments
about 1 hour ago
I recently switched from using a Windows PCs and Android phones to all-Apple products, all the time. My new iPhone 5 and MacBook Pro are definitely really cool. But when I was a PC/Android user (with an Acer laptop and phones by HTC and ...
I recently switched from using a Windows PCs and Android phones to all-Apple products, all the time. My new iPhone 5 and MacBook Pro are definitely really cool. But when I was a PC/Android user (with an Acer laptop and phones by HTC and Samsung), Apple fans gave me the impression that angels sang every time they opened a MacBook, and that I'd never want to go back to the intolerably uncool world outside the iPhone. Instead, I was surprised to learn that some parts of the Apple universe are a few steps behind the pace. Using Apple gadgets actually made my life harder, in some ways.There's no "menu" button on the iPhone. In Android, whenever you get lost you just hit the menu button and you get a bunch of options — such as settings — to help you fix whatever you want to change. There's no menu button on iPhone. Instead, the home button mostly pulls you out of whatever you are doing and drops you back on your home screen. Sure, many of the apps and menus inside iPhone have a "back" button. But it's not the same. In iPhone, you have to get used to taking the long way around. In iPhone, if you want to phone someone you're texting with, you have to scroll all the way up to the top of the message chain to hit the call button. In Android, you just tap the person's name anywhere and a call option pops up. It feels as if my iPhone is going to break at any moment. My new iPhone 5 may be made out of pretty metal, but it scratches easily. And although I'm told that the rate at which the iPhone screen smashes is small, the world seems to be filled with busted iPhone screens, even among my own colleagues. Yes, all smartphones can get dings and scratches, but I liked that my old Android phone was made of plastic, which made it more resistant to wear and tear. See the rest of the story at Business Insider Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.
about 1 hour ago
Uh oh... if you don't have a stable Internet connection, the Xbox One may not be for you.
Uh oh... if you don't have a stable Internet connection, the Xbox One may not be for you.
about 1 hour ago
The Boost Mobile Wallet service acts as a virtual bank for people who can't get bank accounts.
The Boost Mobile Wallet service acts as a virtual bank for people who can't get bank accounts.
about 1 hour ago
Sprint introduced three unique new high-speed modems at CTIA. We took a look.
Sprint introduced three unique new high-speed modems at CTIA. We took a look.
about 1 hour ago
Caterpillar, the maker of heavy-duty construction equipment, has announced that its B15 Android phone is headed to the U.S. market. Rated tosurvive a 6-foot drop onto a concrete surface, this $349...
Caterpillar, the maker of heavy-duty construction equipment, has announced that its B15 Android phone is headed to the U.S. market. Rated tosurvive a 6-foot drop onto a concrete surface, this $349...
about 1 hour ago
3D augmented reality specs coming your way this year Watch out, Sergey! A new startup is hard at work on a device that's far more ambitious than Google Glass, and it has just signed on wearable-computing maven Steve Mann as its chief sci...
3D augmented reality specs coming your way this year Watch out, Sergey! A new startup is hard at work on a device that's far more ambitious than Google Glass, and it has just signed on wearable-computing maven Steve Mann as its chief scientist.…
about 2 hours ago