Apple Sued in China over App Store logo

A Chinese clothing firm has sued Apple for copyright infringement of the Apple App Store logo, a court in Beijing said on Tuesday.
The firm, KON has claimed that the Apple App Store logo closely resembles its own, which the company has been using as a merchandise trademark since 2011 and registered in 2012, according to the Dongcheng District People's Court in Beijing, which has accepted the lawsuit.
KON has demanded a compensation of 100,000 yuan ($15,200), an injunction against infringing devices such as the iPhone and iPad, as well as a public apology, reports Xinhua news agency.

Both logos feature a triangular stick design. Apple replaced the old logo, consisting of a pencil, ruler and brush, with the current one on its iOS and MacOS devices this year.
Kon said that the two logos look practically the same to the untrained eye of an ordinary customer.
Launched in 2009, KON is a Beijing-based clothing label that targets young customers.

Source : GadgetsNow

Bitcoin : The name on everybody's lips

It is no surprise that Bitcoin, a secure, global, and digital currency has claimed the interest of investors.

Thinking of investing in Bitcoin?

This post will outline some things you NEED to know before you buy.

 Who invented BITCOIN ?

Bitcoin was invented by an unknown person or group of people under the name Satoshi Nakamoto and released as open-source software in 2009.

The identity of Nakamoto remains unknown.

What is BITCOIN ?

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and worldwide payment system. It is the first decentralized digital currency, as the system works without a central bank or single administrator. The network is peer-to-peer and transactions take place between users directly through the use of cryptography, without an intermediary. These transactions are verified by network nodes and recorded in an immutable public distributed ledger called a blockchain.

Bitcoins are created as a reward for a process known as mining. They can be exchanged for other currencies, products, and services. As of February 2015, over 100,000 merchants and vendors accepted bitcoin as payment. Research produced by the University of Cambridge estimates that in 2017, there are 2.9 to 5.8 million unique users using a cryptocurrency wallet, most of them using bitcoin.

Smaller units of BITCOIN

Small amounts of bitcoin used as alternative units are millibitcoin (mBTC) and satoshi. Named in homage to bitcoin's creator, a satoshi is the smallest amount within bitcoin representing 0.00000001 bitcoin, one hundred millionth of a bitcoin. A millibitcoin equals to 0.001 bitcoin, one thousandth of a bitcoin or 100,000 satoshis.

DESIGN of BITCOIN 

Blockchain 

The blockchain is a public ledger that records bitcoin transactions. A novel solution accomplishes this without any trusted central authority: the maintenance of the blockchain is performed by a network of communicating nodes running bitcoin software. Transactions of the form payer X sends Y bitcoins to payee Z are broadcast to this network using readily available software applications. Network nodes can validate transactions, add them to their copy of the ledger, and then broadcast these ledger additions to other nodes. The blockchain is a distributed database – to achieve independent verification of the chain of ownership of any and every bitcoin amount, each network node stores its own copy of the blockchain. Approximately six times per hour, a new group of accepted transactions, a block, is created, added to the blockchain, and quickly published to all nodes. This allows bitcoin software to determine when a particular bitcoin amount has been spent, which is necessary in order to prevent double-spending in an environment without central oversight. Whereas a conventional ledger records the transfers of actual bills or promissory notes that exist apart from it, the blockchain is the only place that bitcoins can be said to exist in the form of unspent outputs of transactions.

Transactions

Transactions are defined using a Forth-like scripting language. Transactions consist of one or more inputs and one or more outputs. When a user sends bitcoins, the user designates each address and the amount of bitcoin being sent to that address in an output. To prevent double spending, each input must refer to a previous unspent output in the blockchain. The use of multiple inputs corresponds to the use of multiple coins in a cash transaction. Since transactions can have multiple outputs, users can send bitcoins to multiple recipients in one transaction. As in a cash transaction, the sum of inputs (coins used to pay) can exceed the intended sum of payments. In such a case, an additional output is used, returning the change back to the payer. Any input satoshis not accounted for in the transaction outputs become the transaction fee.

Transaction Fees

Paying a transaction fee is optional. Miners can choose which transactions to process and prioritize those that pay higher fees. Fees are based on the storage size of the transaction generated, which in turn is dependent on the number of inputs used to create the transaction. Furthermore, priority is given to older unspent inputs.

Ownership

In the blockchain, bitcoins are registered to bitcoin addresses. Creating a bitcoin address is nothing more than picking a random valid private key and computing the corresponding bitcoin address. This computation can be done in a split second. But the reverse (computing the private key of a given bitcoin address) is mathematically unfeasible and so users can tell others and make public a bitcoin address without compromising its corresponding private key. Moreover, the number of valid private keys is so vast that it is extremely unlikely someone will compute a key-pair that is already in use and has funds. The vast number of valid private keys makes it unfeasible that brute force could be used for that. To be able to spend the bitcoins, the owner must know the corresponding private key and digitally sign the transaction. The network verifies the signature using the public key.

If the private key is lost, the bitcoin network will not recognize any other evidence of ownership the coins are then unusable, and effectively lost. For example, in 2013 one user claimed to have lost 7,500 bitcoins, worth $7.5 million at the time, when he accidentally discarded a hard drive containing his private key. A backup of his key(s) would have prevented this.

Mining

Mining is a record-keeping service done through the use of computer processing power. Miners keep the blockchain consistent, complete, and unalterable by repeatedly verifying and collecting newly broadcast transactions into a new group of transactions called a block. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, using the SHA-256 hashing algorithm, which links it to the previous block, thus giving the blockchain its name. Miners may aggregate mining resources in a mining pool.

To be accepted by the rest of the network, a new block must contain a so-called proof-of-work. The proof-of-work requires miners to find a number called a nonce, such that when the block content is hashed along with the nonce, the result is numerically smaller than the network's difficulty target. This proof is easy for any node in the network to verify, but extremely time-consuming to generate, as for a secure cryptographic hash, miners must try many different nonce values (usually the sequence of tested values is 0, 1, 2, 3, ... before meeting the difficulty target.

Every 2,016 blocks (approximately 14 days at roughly 10 min per block), the difficulty target is adjusted based on the network's recent performance, with the aim of keeping the average time between new blocks at ten minutes. In this way the system automatically adapts to the total amount of mining power on the network.

Between 1 March 2014 and 1 March 2015, the average number of nonces miners had to try before creating a new block increased from 16.4 quintillion to 200.5 quintillion.

The proof-of-work system, alongside the chaining of blocks, makes modifications of the blockchain extremely hard, as an attacker must modify all subsequent blocks in order for the modifications of one block to be accepted. As new blocks are mined all the time, the difficulty of modifying a block increases as time passes and the number of subsequent blocks (also called confirmations of the given block) increases.

Supply

The successful miner finding the new block is rewarded with newly created bitcoins and transaction fees. As of 9 July 2016, the reward amounted to 12.5 newly created bitcoins per block added to the blockchain. To claim the reward, a special transaction called a coinbase is included with the processed payments. All bitcoins in existence have been created in such coinbase transactions. The bitcoin protocol specifies that the reward for adding a block will be halved every 210,000 blocks (approximately every four years). Eventually, the reward will decrease to zero, and the limit of 21 million bitcoins[e] will be reached the record keeping will then be rewarded by transaction fees solely.

In other words, bitcoin's inventor Nakamoto set a monetary policy based on artificial scarcity at bitcoin's inception that there would only ever be 21 million bitcoins in total. Their numbers are being released roughly every ten minutes and the rate at which they are generated would drop by half every four years until all were in circulation.

Wallets

A wallet stores the information necessary to transact bitcoins. While wallets are often described as a place to hold or store bitcoins, due to the nature of the system, bitcoins are inseparable from the blockchain transaction ledger. A better way to describe a wallet is something that "stores the digital credentials for your bitcoin holdings" and allows one to access (and spend) them. Bitcoin uses public-key cryptography, in which two cryptographic keys, one public and one private, are generated. At its most basic, a wallet is a collection of these keys.

There are several types of wallets. Software wallets connect to the network and allow spending bitcoins in addition to holding the credentials that prove ownership. Software wallets can be split further in two categories: full clients and lightweight clients.

Full clients verify transactions directly on a local copy of the blockchain (over 136 GB as of October 2017), or a subset of the blockchain (around 2 GB).[better source needed] They are the most secure and reliable way of using the network, as trust in external parties is not required. Full clients check the validity of mined blocks, preventing them from transacting on a chain that breaks or alters network rules. Because of its size and complexity, storing the entire blockchain is not suitable for all computing devices.

Lightweight clients on the other hand consult a full client to send and receive transactions without requiring a local copy of the entire blockchain (see simplified payment verification – SPV). This makes lightweight clients much faster to set up and allows them to be used on low-power, low-bandwidth devices such as smartphones. When using a lightweight wallet, however, the user must trust the server to a certain degree, as it can report faulty values back to the user. Lightweight clients follow the longest blockchain and do not ensure it is valid, requiring trust in miners.

With both types of software wallets, the users are responsible for keeping their private keys in a secure place.

Besides software wallets, Internet services called online wallets offer similar functionality but may be easier to use. In this case, credentials to access funds are stored with the online wallet provider rather than on the user's hardware. As a result, the user must have complete trust in the wallet provider. A malicious provider or a breach in server security may cause entrusted bitcoins to be stolen.

Physical wallets store the credentials necessary to spend bitcoins offline. Examples combine a novelty coin with these credentials printed on metal. Paper wallets are simply paper printouts. Another type of wallet called a hardware wallet keeps credentials offline while facilitating transactions.

Privacy

Bitcoin is pseudonymous, meaning that funds are not tied to real-world entities but rather bitcoin addresses. Owners of bitcoin addresses are not explicitly identified, but all transactions on the blockchain are public. In addition, transactions can be linked to individuals and companies through "idioms of use" (e.g., transactions that spend coins from multiple inputs indicate that the inputs may have a common owner) and corroborating public transaction data with known information on owners of certain addresses. Additionally, bitcoin exchanges, where bitcoins are traded for traditional currencies, may be required by law to collect personal information.

To heighten financial privacy, a new bitcoin address can be generated for each transaction. For example, hierarchical deterministic wallets generate pseudorandom "rolling addresses" for every transaction from a single seed, while only requiring a single passphrase to be remembered to recover all corresponding private keys. Researchers at Stanford University and Concordia University have also shown that bitcoin exchanges and other entities can prove assets, liabilities, and solvency without revealing their addresses using zero-knowledge proofs.

Economics related to BITCOIN

Acceptance by merchants

In 2015, the number of merchants accepting bitcoin exceeded 100,000. Instead of 2–3% typically imposed by credit card processors, merchants accepting bitcoins often pay fees under 2%, down to 0%. Firms that accepted payments in bitcoin as of December 2014 included PayPal, Microsoft, Dell, and Newegg.

Payment service providers

Merchants accepting bitcoin ordinarily use the services of bitcoin payment service providers such as BitPay or Coinbase. When a customer pays in bitcoin, the payment service provider accepts the bitcoin on behalf of the merchant, converts it to the local currency, and sends the obtained amount to merchant's bank account, charging a fee for the service.

As an investment

Some Argentinians have bought bitcoins to protect their savings against high inflation or the possibility that governments could confiscate savings accounts. During the 2012–2013 Cypriot financial crisis, bitcoin purchases in Cyprus rose due to fears that savings accounts would be confiscated or taxed.

The Winklevoss twins have invested into bitcoins. In 2013 The Washington Post claimed that they owned 1% of all the bitcoins in existence at the time.

Other methods of investment are bitcoin funds. The first regulated bitcoin fund was established in Jersey in July 2014 and approved by the Jersey Financial Services Commission. Forbes started publishing arguments in favor of investing in December 2015.

In 2013 and 2014, the European Banking Authority and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a United States self-regulatory organization, warned that investing in bitcoins carries significant risks. Forbes named bitcoin the best investment of 2013. In 2014, Bloomberg named bitcoin one of its worst investments of the year. In 2015, bitcoin topped Bloomberg's currency tables.

According to bitinfocharts.com, in 2017 there are 9,272 bitcoin wallets with more than $1 million worth of bitcoins. The exact number of bitcoin millionaires is uncertain as a single person can have more than one bitcoin wallet.

Venture capital

Venture capitalists, such as Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, which invested US$3 million in BitPay, do not purchase bitcoins themselves, instead funding bitcoin infrastructure like companies that provide payment systems to merchants, exchanges, wallet services, etc. In 2012, an incubator for bitcoin-focused start-ups was founded by Adam Draper, with financing help from his father, venture capitalist Tim Draper, one of the largest bitcoin holders after winning an auction of 30,000 bitcoins, at the time called 'mystery buyer'. The company's goal is to fund 100 bitcoin businesses within 2–3 years with $10,000 to $20,000 for a 6% stake. Investors also invest in bitcoin mining. According to a 2015 study by Paolo Tasca, bitcoin startups raised almost $1 billion in three years (Q1 2012 – Q1 2015).

Criticism

Energy consumption

Bitcoin has been criticized for the amounts of electricity consumed by mining.

In 2013, Mark Gimein estimated electricity use to be about 40.9 megawatts (982 megawatt-hours a day). In 2014, Hass McCook estimated 80.7 megawatts (80,666 kW). As of 2015, The Economist estimated that even if all miners used modern facilities, the combined electricity consumption would be 166.7 megawatts (1.46 terawatt-hours per year). The Guardian said that as of November 2017, the global bitcoin mining activity was estimated to consume 3.4 gigawatts.

Journalist Matt O'Brien said that it is not obvious whether bitcoin is lowering transaction costs, since the costs are transformed into pollution costs, which he said are "environmental spillovers on everyone else, or what economists call negative externalities."

To lower the costs, bitcoin miners have set up in places like Iceland where geothermal energy is cheap and cooling Arctic air is free.[79] Chinese bitcoin miners are known to use hydroelectric power in Tibet to reduce electricity costs.

Criminal activity

The use of bitcoin by criminals has attracted the attention of financial regulators, legislative bodies, law enforcement, and the media. The FBI prepared an intelligence assessment, the SEC has issued a pointed warning about investment schemes using virtual currencies, and the US Senate held a hearing on virtual currencies in November 2013.

Several news outlets have asserted that the popularity of bitcoins hinges on the ability to use them to purchase illegal goods. In 2014, researchers at the University of Kentucky found "robust evidence that computer programming enthusiasts and illegal activity drive interest in bitcoin, and find limited or no support for political and investment motives."

Why Invest in Bitcoin?

It seems silly to some people that one bitcoin can be worth hundreds of dollars.

What makes bitcoins valuable?

Bitcoins are scarce and useful.

Let’s look to gold as an example currency. There is a limited amount of gold on earth.

As new gold is mined, there is always less and less gold left and it becomes harder and more expensive to find and mine.

The same is true with Bitcoin.

There are only 21 million Bitcoin, and as time goes on, they become harder and harder to mine. Take a look at Bitcoin’s inflation rate and supply rate:

In addition to being scarce, bitcoins are useful.

Bitcoin provides sound and predictable monetary policy that can be verified by anyone.

Bitcoin’s sound monetary policy is one of its most important features. It’s possible to see when new bitcoins are created or how many bitcoins are in circulation.

Bitcoins can be sent from anywhere in the world to anywhere else in the world. No bank can block payments or close your account. Bitcoin is censorship resistant money.

Bitcoin makes cross border payments possible, and also provides an easy way for people to escape failed government monetary policy.

The internet made information global and easy to access. A sound, global currency like Bitcoin will have the same impact on finance and the global economy.

If you understand the potential impact of Bitcoin, it won’t be hard to hard to understand why investing in bitcoin may be a good idea.

When is the right time to buy?

As with any market, nothing is for sure.

Throughout its history, Bitcoin has generally increased in value at a very fast pace, followed by a slow, steady downfall until it stabilizes.

Use tools like Bitcoin Wisdom or Cryptowatch to analyze charts and understand Bitcoin’s price history.

Bitcoin is global and not affected by any single country’s financial situation or stability.

For example, speculation about the Chinese Yuan devaluating has, in the past, caused more demand from China, which also pulled up the exchange rate on U.S. and Europe based exchanges.

Global chaos is generally seen as beneficial to Bitcoin’s price since Bitcoin is apolitical and sits outside the control or influence of any particulate government.

When thinking about how economics and politics will affect Bitcoin’s price, it’s important to think on a global scale and not just about what’s happening in a single country.

How to Invest in Bitcoins and Where to Buy?

The difficulty of buying bitcoins depends on your country. Developed countries have more options and more liquidity.

Coinbase is the world’s largest bitcoin broker.

Unicorn, Bitxoxo, Zebpay are other bitcoin exchanges.

How to secure BITCOINS?

As with anything valuable, hackers, thieves, and scammers will all be after your bitcoins, so securing your bitcoins is necessary.

If you’re serious about investing in bitcoin and see yourself buying a significant amount, we recommend using Bitcoin wallets that were built with security in mind.

Ledger Nano S – Ledger is a Bitcoin security company that offers a wide range of secure Bitcoin storage devices. We currently see the Ledger Nano S as Ledger’s most secure wallet. Read more about the Ledger Nano or buy one.

TREZOR – TREZOR is a hardware wallet that was built to secure bitcoins. It generates your Bitcoin private keys offline. Read more about TREZOR or buy one.

Bitcoins should only be kept in wallets that you control.

If you leave $5,000 worth of gold coins with a friend, your friend could easily run off with your coins and you might not see them again.

Because Bitcoin is on the internet, they are even easier to steal and much harder to return and trace. Bitcoin itself is secure, but bitcoins are only as secure as the wallet storing them.

Investing in bitcoin is no joke, and securing your investment should be your top priority.

Hope you have got all your answers..

[Source : Wikipedia]

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Don't use Bluetooth before installing latest updates

A Bluetooth connection can leave computers, smartphones and other devices vulnerable to security breaches, so users should quickly install any updates - or turn the function off. That's the advice of the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) in response to the recent "Blueborne" Bluetooth vulnerability, which is thought to have put 8 billion devices at risk. Some manufacturers have already released updates addressing the Blueborne issue, and users should refrain from using Bluetooth before installing them. However, there will probably be no security updates for devices that are no longer supported by the respective manufacturer. These are likely to remain permanently vulnerable. In addition to smartphones, tablets, notebooks and PCs using all kinds of operating systems, Bluetooth vulnerabilities can also affect devices that can be connected to the internet, such as hands-free equipment. Once infected with Blueborne malware, devices may be exposed to additional software from the internet, says the BSI. In addition, the attackers could connect devices to so-called botnets. Even devices without an internet connection, such as keyboards, can pass the malware on to other Bluetooth devices, the agency warns. According to the BSI, Bluetooth on smartphones, PCs or IT accessories should generally only be activated when really needed. This also applies to WiFi connections

Windows 10 Fall Creators Update out TODAY - How to get free download on release date

The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update release date has finally arrived, with the download available today - but not for all users of the flagship Microsoft OS.

The Redmond-based tech giant is rolling out the Fall Creators Update as a staggered release, so some users of Windows 10 will be getting the download sooner than others.

Microsoft took the same approach with the other Creators Update that was released for Windows 10 earlier this year.

That was rolled out to users progressively and meant some had to wait weeks before they received an automatic notification to download it.

And it looks like Windows 10 users hoping to upgrade to the Fall Creators Update on launch day could face a similar wait.

Speaking to Express.co.uk, a Microsoft spokesperson said: “The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update will begin rolling out on October 17 in a measured, deliberate way to ensure quality experience for all. 

“It will begin with devices that are ready for the Fall Creators Update based on specs to ensure the highest levels of compatibility and rollout to the more than 500 million devices running Windows 10 over time.” 

So while the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update release date is officially today, don’t expect to see a notification on your PC to download right away.

However, there is a way to download the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update on launch day even if you haven’t received an alert saying your update is ready.

Facebook testing ‘context’ button in latest efforts to fight fake news

Facebook said Thursday it was testing a new “button” to allow users to get more context about a news source, in the latest move by the leading social network to curb misinformation.

The new feature will allow users to get context on the source of a news article with a single click without leaving Facebook and its news feed.

“We are testing a button that people can tap to easily access additional information without needing to go elsewhere,” said a Facebook blog post signed by product managers Andrew Anker, Sara Su and Jeff Smith.

“The additional contextual information is pulled from across Facebook and other sources, such as information from the publisher’s Wikipedia entry.”

In some cases, if that information is unavailable, Facebook “will let people know, which can also be helpful context,” the post said.

“Helping people access this important contextual information can help them evaluate if articles are from a publisher they trust, and if the story itself is credible.”Facebook said Thursday it was testing a new “button” to allow users to get more context about a news source, in the latest move by the leading social network to curb misinformation.

The new feature will allow users to get context on the source of a news article with a single click without leaving Facebook and its news feed.

“We are testing a button that people can tap to easily access additional information without needing to go elsewhere,” said a Facebook blog post signed by product managers Andrew Anker, Sara Su and Jeff Smith.

“The additional contextual information is pulled from across Facebook and other sources, such as information from the publisher’s Wikipedia entry.”

In some cases, if that information is unavailable, Facebook “will let people know, which can also be helpful context,” the post said.

“Helping people access this important contextual information can help them evaluate if articles are from a publisher they trust, and if the story itself is credible.”

The move is the latest by Facebook to stem the flow of fake news, hoaxes and disinformation after a series of revelations showing how unverified news went viral on social networks during the 2016 election, in many cases resulting from Russian-led efforts.

The announcement comes a day after US senators said they would ask executives from Facebook, Google and Twitter to testify at a November 1 hearing on Russian efforts to manipulate internet platforms during the election campaign.

A Facebook source said a representative of the social network would attend the hearing but offered no indication who would appear.

Senator Mark Warner, a member of the intelligence committee, said that “it’s important that the three companies that we’ve invited – Google, Twitter, and Facebook – will appear in a public hearing” to testify on how they will curb misinformation and manipulation.

Facebook said Monday it planned to hire more than 1,000 people to thwart deceptive ads crafted to knock elections off course.

It also turned over to Congress some 3,000 Russia-linked ads that appeared to use hot-button issues to turn people against one another ahead of last year’s US election.

Vettels Search for superior starts.

Last year Ferrari introduced a long wishbone arrangement (left-hand drawings) for their left hand clutch paddle, in order to give both drivers better feel for race starts. However, from this year’s Spanish round they brought in a similar solution (top right) to Mercedes, with two paddles into which the drivers can insert their fingers. This provides good feel for clutch management while also allowing a quick release by the driver by pushing his fingers to the front.

This set-up was only used by Vettel and after two races it was modified (bottom right), with the aluminium paddles replaced by redesigned carbon versions similar in shape to those used by Lewis Hamilton. However, in recent races Raikkonen has been making the better starts, so in Malaysia Vettel simulated multiple starts using only the left hand with a long wishbone paddle in order to try and improve his getaways. With Hamilton alongside him on the front row, he will want a good one at Suzuka this afternoon!

Source: Formula1 : tHE GUARDIANS

Unlimited Voice Calls, 1GB Per Day: Latest Airtel Recharges

Bharti Airtel, India's largest telecom operator has introduced new data and calling offers to counter Relaince Jio's aggressive pricing. In its latest special tariff packages, Airtel is  offering unlimited voice calls along with 1 GB of mobile data over a validity of 28 days in a recharge pack priced at Rs. 199, according to its website - airtel.in. The Rs. 199 Airtel recharge pack, it noted, includes both local and STD voice calls. Free voice calling and aggressively priced 4G mobile data by new entrant Reliance Jio - which offers telecom services under brand Jio - has led to revision of offers and new announcements by incumbent telecom operators
Airtel Rs. 199 recharge pack

"Unlimited Local and STD calls along with 1GB data for 28 days. Terms and conditions apply," Airtel describes the benefits under its Rs. 199 pack on its website. Valid for 28 days, the Rs. 199 pack by Airtel comes with 1 GB of data. That means a customer can use data up to 1 GB in 28 days from the date of recharge.
 

Airtel Rs. 399 recharge pack

Describing the benefits offered under the Airtel recharge pack of Rs. 399, the telecom company said on its website: "Unlimited Local+STD calls and 70GB data (1GB/day) 70 days.T&C apply.Offer on 4G H/S+4G SIM only." Customers recharging their Airtel prepaid mobile connection with the Rs. 399 pack will get unlimited local as well as STD voice calls. Those having a 4G-enabled handset along with a 4G SIM will get 70 GB of data with a daily limit of 1 GB under this scheme. The Rs. 399 pack, Airtel noted, comes with a validity of 70 days.
 

Looking at its competition, Reliance Communications (RCom) is also offering 1GB data every day in a recharge pack of Rs. 193. In this offer customers also get unlimited calls up to 30 minutes a day, the company said on its twitter handle.

This Tech IPO Is the Latest to Limit Rights of Small Investors

When data center operator Switch goes public on Friday it will be the latest tech firm using special shares to limit the rights of minority investors, making it ineligible for inclusion in the S&P 500 under new rules meant to deter such practices.

The Las Vegas company, run by enigmatic founder and CEO Rob Roy, plans to sell 31.3 million shares in an initial public offer late on Thursday for between $14 and $16 a piece, which would raise nearly $500 million and make it the largest technology listing this year after Snap.

Underwriters closed their order book late on Wednesday and the deal was oversubscribed, according to a source close to the IPO.

Roy, who describes himself as an “inventrepreneur” and “tech futurist,” will have 68% of voting power following the IPO, thanks to a special share class providing 10 votes per share.

That will keep Switch out of the S&P 500 and other related indexes under new rules instituted by S&P Dow Jones in July after Snap sold shares without any voting rights in its $3.4 billion IPO earlier this year.

Rule changes enacted last month for FTSE Russell indexes, also in reaction to Snap, require new constituents of its indexes to have at least 5% of their voting rights in the hands of public shareholders.

The shares being sold in Switch’s IPO will include 4.9% of the company’s voting rights, or 5.6% if underwriters exercise an option to buy additional shares.
In its IPO filing and a profile of Roy on the company website, Switch gives no details about what he did before founding the company in 2000 or his academic qualifications. The profile describes him as “a recognized expert in advanced end-to-end solutions for mission-critical facilities.”

A company spokesman declined to provide additional information about Roy, and he does not appear in a 38-minute video marketing the IPO.

The IPO could value Switch, which operates three data centers in Michigan and Nevada, at almost $4 billion.

Snap co-founder Evan Spiegel was well known to Wall Street ahead of the Snapchat-owner’s February share offer, with many investors essentially betting on his talent. With Roy less known, investors may be taking a greater risk on a company in which they will have little say.

“Investors do look at voting control as well as the price you pay. If you put so much stock in the CEO, normally he’s going to part of the sales pitch for the company,” said Ken Bertsch, Executive Director of the Council of Institutional Investors, which represents top U.S. pension funds.

As many of 15% of U.S. IPOs in recent years have used dual share classes meant to give insiders outsized voting rights, according to the Council of Institutional Investors.

Inclusion in a stock index can be an important milestone for young companies, bringing their shares into many passive funds and others that closely follow indexes like the S&P 500, a guide for trillions of dollars of capital worldwide.

Other companies excluded from major indexes under their new rules include video-streaming company Roku Inc, whose IPO last week kept 97% of voting power with insiders. Software seller Mulesoft’s IPO in February included a share class with 10 votes per share, as did Blue Apron in its June debut.

Suggesting that the tide may be turning toward sharing power with minority investors, privately-held ride-hailing company Uber on Tuesday said it would abandon a dual share class system that favored insiders including former CEO Travis Kalanick.

Responding to a shareholder lawsuit, Facebook Inc in September gave up plans for a new class of stock that was meant to be a way for Mark Zuckerberg to retain control over the company he founded while fulfilling a pledge to give away his wealth.
Source: fortune

Google New Pixel Buds Translate 40 Languages in Real Time

Back on Sept. 12 Apple announced the release dates of a slew of new products including the iWatch Series 3, Apple TV 4K, the iPhone 8, and by far the most anticipated item, the iPhone X (ten). iPhone X contains the highest density computer ever built, according to Apple—the world’s largest tech company. The biggest innovation with the phone was Face ID. This is the ability to unlock it by merely looking at it, as it carries facial recognition software.

Not to be outdone,
rumors of some heavy hitting Google products
thought to rival Apple's, have turned out to be spot on. At the Google Pixel 2 event, a press conference held in San Francisco on Oct. 4, the company revealed a treasure trove of goodies to compete with its Silicon Valley rival. All of the new gadgets combine hardware, software, and AI to better integrate into users' lives. One highlighted feature, the newly improved Google Assistant is purposefully interweaved throughout the constellation.  

Pixel Buds

Google Pixel Buds are the search engine’s answer to Apple’s AirPods. These are wireless earbuds that put Google Assistant right in your ears. You can play, pause, increase or decrease volume, or swipe forward or back just by voice command. It can even translate 40 languages in real time. Retail price $159. They’ll be available this November. 

Source : Big Thin.

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Dungeon Rider is a dungeon game, where you need to avoid enemies an go through rooms.
You control the main character using the cursor movement keys to go left, right, up or down, and the space bar to jump.

While you walk through the different rooms, you will have to collect some items to enhance your score, get extra lives or obtain a weapon. For example, you can get a knife that can be used ONCE against a monster.

You will need to collect colored keys in order to open doors with the same color. After some rooms, you will arrive to the end of that level, and you can then begin with the next one.

At the beginning of the game you will have to go through the Training Level, where the program will teach you how to control the game. Then, you can proceed to the rest of the castles (Green, Blue, White, Yellow and Magenta), each one with different number of rooms.

It´s important not to touch monsters if you don´t have a knife, you will be killed. You´ll need to avoid the flames, too. You have three lives.

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Why should I use Apache OpenOffice?

Why Apache OpenOffice
Apache OpenOffice is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.

 .Great software

Apache OpenOffice is the result of over twenty years' software engineering. Designed from the start as a single piece of software, it has a consistency other products cannot match. A completely open development process means that anyone can report bugs, request new features, or enhance the software. The result: Apache OpenOffice does everything you want your office software to do, the way you want it to.

 .Easy to use

Apache OpenOffice is easy to learn, and if you're already using another office software package, you'll take to OpenOffice straight away. Our world-wide native-language community means that OpenOffice is probably available and supported in your own language. And if you already have files from another office package - OpenOffice will probably read them with no difficulty.

 .and it's free

Best of all, Apache OpenOffice can be downloaded and used entirely free of any license fees. Like all Apache Software Foundation software, Apache OpenOffice is free to use. Apache OpenOffice is released under the Apache 2.0 License. This means you may use it for any purpose - domestic, commercial, educational, public administration. You may install it on as many computers as you like. You may make copies and give them away to family, friends, students, employees - anyone you like.

 .Where is Apache OpenOffice currently used?

Governments
Education
Businesses
Not for profits
IT Businesses
F/OSS advocate

Mirillis Action Free software Download

 Mirillis Action! 2.7.0                                         

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What is mirillis Action?

Mirillis Action! allows streaming and real-time recording of your Windows desktop in HD video quality. With Mirillis Action! you can record and stream your game play, web player videos, record music, and capture screenshots. Mirillis Action! provides outstanding performance and GPU utilization which allows the smoothest real-time HD game play video recording. You can display current and average game frame rate (FPS) during game play and save your benchmark results. The application also offers high speed compression of your recorded content too.

Key features include:

. Real-time game play and Windows desktop recording.
. Hardware accelerated video exporting with NVIDIA NVENC, NVIDIA CUDA, and AMD APP.
. Add live audio commentary to create high quality video tutorials.
. HD video recording directly to MP4 format .
. Live streaming game play and desktop to Twitch.tv, YouTube etc.

Overall, Mirillis Action! has a modern and sleek interface and it's quite easy to use. The application lets you record . and upload your video to social networks and video sites and there are some really useful tools such as Time-shift and
slow motion effects too. Also worth noting is the dual webcam video recording option; with this you can add up to 2 webcam streams to all your real-time game play and desktop recordings! The downside to the trial version, is that you have a watermark to contend with, apart from that Mirillis Action! really is a great application.

Apple is NOT going to launch its flagship iPhone 8

The Californian firm is preparing to unleash a brand new product at a glittering ceremony help in its new "spaceship" headquarters on September 12.
Now, you'd be very forgiven for thinking this was probably going to be the iPhone 8, until you hear that Apple is expected to give its flagship mobile a different moniker.Apple will probably unveil a high-end gadget called the iPhone Edition or perhaps the iPhone X, according to 9to5Mac.com.
before you panic, the next iPhone will still be the super-powerful gadget we're all expecting.
Apple is also expected to unveil two other smartphones, which may or may not be called the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.
Yet most Apple aficionados will be wanting to get their mitts on the flagship model, which is expected to be incredibly powerful with a price tag to match.
This is the invitation sent out to people lucky enough to get asked along to the iPhone 8 launch event
One Apple watcher has claimed the gadget will cost up to $1,200, meaning that it could be slapped with a price tag of about £1,000 in the UK.
John Gruber, founder of the Mac-focused blog Daring Fireball, thinks the price will be high due to the sophistication of the device, which is expected to feature an advanced OLED screen.
Apple has already released two versions of the iPad - a basic model and the super powerful iPad Pro - as well as a Macbook Pro that's a pricier version of its laptop computer.

Tech is back to mess with stuff in ‘Black Mirror’ Season 4 teaser

That pounding intro music is now enough on its own to make me feel nervous and anxious, thanks to the success of Black Mirror over the years. The Netflix exclusive is back for Season 4 later this year, with six brand new episodes penned by series creator Charlie Brooker.

The teaser features a lot of quick cuts and short glimpses, but I’m most intrigued by this Star Trek-looking episode called “USS Callister” staring Jesse Plemons, aka the reason that one season of Friday Night Lights was so bad.

“Arkangel,” another episode from the new season starring Rosemarie Dewitt, was directed by Jodie Foster, so that’s intriguing, too. Overall you’re pretty much guaranteed a healthy helping of tech-caused dystopia, of course.

Source : www.techcrunch.com

Solar Eclipse was Nasa's biggest Event

The recent total solar eclipse was a major celestial event—particularly in the United States, where the path of totality stretched from Oregon all the way to South Carolina. It was also major for NASA, which saw a total of more than 90 million page views on its main website and special eclipse subsite, making it the agency's biggest online event ever measured.

“We’ll admit it—even we were a bit blown away by the sheer magnitude of response to the total solar eclipse of Aug. 21, 2017,” the agency wrote Thursday. “It’s one of the biggest internet events in recent history and by far the biggest online event NASA has ever measured. And that includes some pretty big events, like landing a car-sized rover on Mars and flying a spacecraft past Pluto.”

NASA estimates its live broadcast—on the main site and via social media—garnered 40 million views. The agency recorded 12.1 million unique views on its live-eclipse page during the hours the event was taking place, with more than 2 million simultaneous views at the height of the online frenzy.

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A graph comparing traffic during the eclipse to other space-related events in recent years—including New Horizons’s historic flyby of Pluto, the discovery of liquid on Mars, the arrival of the Juno spacecraft at Jupiter and the discovery of new exoplanets—highlights its enormity. The eclipse also was reportedly the largest government web event recorded since the Federal Digital Analytics Program was founded in 2012.

NASA wasn’t the only one to see a surge of eclipse-related interest. Twitter said there were 6 million tweets about the event the day it took place. YouTube said NASA’s was the most watched live-streamed video of the eclipse during what it called one of the year’s biggest social media events. In total, the company wrote on its trends blog, people watched live streams and videos about the celestial event more than 100 million times, and for 6 million hours.

The eclipse was also bigger on Facebook than each of the previous four Super Bowls, with 66 million people creating 240 million “interactions” for the eclipse compared to between 50 million and 65 million people for the football events since 2014. To be fair, the eclipse garnered less than a quarter of the tweets the most recent Super Bowl did.

Facebook under scanner over migrant torture videos

Facebook is caught in yet another controversy as traffickers and slave traders are reportedly using the social media platform to broadcast brutal videos to extort money from victims’ families. Facebook has also been accused of being too slow to delete a video footage that showed Libyan gang members threatening the lives of Somali and Ethiopian migrants. According to a report in The Times on Friday, a UN migration agency criticised the company for allowing people traffickers to use its site to “advertise their services, entice vulnerable people on the move and then exploit them and their families”. “It is irresponsible for tech companies like Facebook to ignore this issue. It’s hard to believe that the tech giants cannot put some real effort into stopping these smugglers from using their platforms for racketeering,” Mohammed Abdiker, of the International Organisation for Migration, was quoted as saying. According to Facebook, people smuggling is illegal and any posts, pages or groups that co-ordinate this activity are not allowed on its platform. “We encourage people to keep using our reporting tools to flag this kind of behaviour so it can be reviewed and swiftly removed by our global team of experts, who work with law enforcement agencies around the world,” Facebook said.

This is not the first time the social media giant has faced a content-related scandal. Earlier this year, Facebook was surrounded in criticism for not doing enough to block the video related to suicides, murders, terrorism and rapes broadcast through its live-streaming service. In Europe, Facebook is under pressure to speed up its process to block the hate speech content or face fines from the legislators.
Facebook announced in May it would hire an additional 3,000 staff for its content moderation team, expanding its strength to 7,500 members.

Source: www.financialexpress.com

Google Android 8.0 Oreo: Should You Upgrade?

Source: www.forbes.com

The next generation of Android is here. Android 8.0, dubbed ‘Android Oreo’, was launched by Google GOOGL -0.62% during the Eclipse this week and has immediately begun rolling out to Google’s Pixel, Pixel XL, Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X. Millions of other Android phones will follow.

On the surface Android 8.0 Oreo is a subtle upgrade, yet delve deeper and it adds some really important improvements - specifically around tangible performance, battery life and security. It will arrive on every major Android smartphone released over the next year and there’s a lot to know.

So should you update? Here’s the breakdown...

Google
Android 8.0 Oreo is here. But should you (and can you) upgrade?

Who Is Android 8.0 Oreo For?

There are two ways to answer this: Who is Android 8.0 Oreo now for and Who is Android 8.0 Oreo for in general? As mentioned above, the answer to the former is Google’s own phone ranges: the Pixel, Pixel XL, Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X and soon the upcoming (and troubled) Pixel 2 and (exciting) Pixel 2 XL. Older Nexus phones like the Nexus 5 and Nexus 6 will not get it.


The answer to who will get Oreo in general is entirely dependent on third party handset manufacturers. All current generation premium handsets will get Android 8.0 Oreo, but how soon remains to be seen with the likes of Samsung notorious for taking six months or more due to how extensively they insist upon customising stock Android (though Project Treble in Oreo, detailed lower down, may change this).

Google
Android 8.0 Oreo is a massive update coming to millions of Android smartphones

That said heavy hitters like the Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8 Plus, Galaxy Note 8, Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge are all confirmed to receive Oreo (eventually) along with the likes of the LG G6 and G5, the OnePlus 5, OnePlus 3, OnePlus 3t and HTC’s U11, U11 Ultra, 10. Motorola’s numerous (and illogical) X, Z and G lines will get it too as will Asus’ ZenFone 3 and ZenFone 4 series and Essential’s exciting, um... ‘Essential’ phone, plus many more including those from Chinese handset makers Xiaomi, Oppo and Huawei (not that you’ll recognise it under all their lipstick!).

Furthermore expect all phones released over the next year to launch with Android 8.0 Oreo (with the remarkable exception of the eye wateringly expensive Galaxy Note 8).

The Deal Breakers

Before dealing with the release itself, are there any deal breakers which should keep you away from Android 8.0 Oreo? No, though you should keep a close eye on a couple of potential issues.

Lastly it is worth checking that any crucial legacy apps you require are compatible with Oreo, but the vast majority should work regardless of whether they have been specifically updated for the upgrade or not.

So What Do You Get?

At first glance Android 8.0 Oreo doesn’t look dramatically different from Android 7.0 Nougat, but it actually contains numerous improvements, tweaks and optimisations that combine into creating a much faster, smoother and more polished overall user experience.

Google
Android 8.0 Oreo brings dramatic performance improvements

Here are some of the highlights:

Performance - every update always claims to have “Performance improvements”, but Oreo really does. Boot times on my Pixel XL went from well over one minute to approximately 15 seconds and apps are noticeably faster to open. There is also improved cache management with Oreo automatically deleting cached data from apps if performance is about to slow. This is a major part of the Oreo update

Battery Life - another serious improvement: new limits in Oreo increase control over how apps can run in the background and persistent apps are listed in the notification bar so the user is in control. Cutting down on rogue app behaviour makes a noticeable difference to battery life and I’ve seen a 10-20% improvement on my Pixel XL

Notification Channels - notifications are now grouped into ‘channels’ allowing users to customise how they are seen, their associated sound/vibration, if you want certain specific notifications blocked and they can also be ‘snoozed’ for 15 mins to 2 hours which is a really handy feature

Google
Android 8.0 Oreo has improved notifications and new 'Notification Dots'

Notification Dots - similar to iOS, icons in Oreo have visual indicators for new content though they are dots not specific numbers. Long press on these dots and you can see a preview of the alert and swipe it away without going to the main notification bar. This is particularly useful for phones with large displays.

Camera Upgrades - a new double tap feature in the camera jumps you to 50% digital zoom (Pro tip: never use digital zoom, just take a normal photo and crop it for better results) and an updated UI with dedicated photo/video toggle buttons

Smart Text Selection: A small but ingenious upgrade which adds content appropriate apps to selected text. So now, for example, alongside a highlighted address will be Google Maps and alingside a highlighted phone number will be the phone app - not just copy, cut, etc

Better Audio - AAudio is a new low latency API which again will help Android catch up with something iOS has excelled at for some time. Could we finally get a decent Garage Band rival on Android? Google has also added Sony’s LDAC high bandwidth Bluetooth streaming protocol which delivers CD quality audio over Bluetooth - the snag is your Bluetooth headphones/speakers need to support LDAC and currently only Sony peripherals do. That may change now

Project Treble - this is a big one: Oreo makes Android more modular, separating third party handset makers’ customisation (like TouchWiz) from the core operating system. This should make it easier for handset makers to introduce faster Android upgrades and it’ll be a game changer if they take advantage of it

Google
Autofill APIs will say users time, especially setting up a new phone

Autofill APIs - Firstly Google will now share your saved passwords in Google with third party apps so, for example, if you’ve logged into Twitter on Chrome (via your phone or PC) and saved the password it can be used to automatically log into the Twitter Android app as well. This will also be opened up to third-party password managers. It will make setting up a new phone much faster as well.

Adaptive icons - Oreo natively supports different icon shapes so users can pick what they prefer. It should also make third party app icons and icons in customisations of Android by handset makers a lot more attractive. Samsung you need this!

Wide colour gamut in imaging apps - an important catch up with iOS here (especially as OLED displays now proliferate Android handsets) and will be an important upgrade for professional photographers and enthusiasts

New settings - Oreo has redesigned the settings page making it more streamlined and intuitive. This means better grouped categories and no hamburger menu so everything is easily visible

Google Play Protect - to improve Play store app safety, Oreo has a real-time security scanner which monitors for both malicious software and data theft.

ConceptCreator
The Galaxy Note 2 XL (render shown) will launch with Android Oreo in October

Android 8.0 Oreo Verdict: Install

If you are in the (frustratingly rare) position to install Android 8.0 Oreo right now then I would heartily recommend it. This is an update which finally brings an iOS-matching level of polish to Android, makes the operating system noticeably faster, more intuitive and improves battery life.

Android’s greatest strength over iOS - its superlative notification system - has also taken a further step ahead of its big rival with the redesign in Oreo.

It may not be showy, but Android 8.0 Oreo is everything Android needed. It is a mix of innovation and necessary catch-up features and it delivers a more modular operating system so handset makers should be able to deliver faster upgrades. As such the only question is how much damage these companies will do to the stock Oreo experience when they start their inevitable customisation...

Latest rumored iPhone 8

With September quickly approaching, the fate of Apple's next batch of iPhones, including the Phone 8, is still up in the air. The latest rumor suggests that Apple may unveil its iPhones at a September 12 event, with the phones going on sale the following week on September 22, reports French site Mac4Ever (via 9to5 Mac).

Apple is said to be releasing the updated iPhone 7S and 7S Plus alongside a dramatically updated iPhone 8 (possibly called the iPhone X, Anniversary Edition or something else). The company will face stiff competition from Samsung's just-launched Galaxy Note 8 phone, LG's upcoming V30 and Google's Pixel 2.

Despite zero official confirmation from Apple, the iPhone rumor mill has been churning like crazy this year. Part of this is thanks to an Apple HomePod firmware leak, which contained several hints about the iPhone 8 like its all new screen design, facial recognition and AR capabilities.

The exact date is still anyone's guess. For the past few years, Apple's iPhone event has happened in early to mid-September on a Tuesday or Wednesday. Last year's iPhone 7 was announced on September 7, but event invites didn't go out until the week before. So there's a chance we won't hear the exact date until days before the event.

The iPhone 7S, 7S Plus, and 8 could then go on sale a week-and-a-half later on Friday, September 22, Mac4Ever reported. It's also unofficial Apple tradition to release its new iPhones to the public on a Friday about a week or two after the announcement. While this seems like business as usual, several reports have claimed that the iPhone 8 sale date could be delayed until October or November. This latest rumor suggests that this won't happen, but it doesn't comment on availability of the iPhones at launch.

Source: www.cnet.com

Apple to receive $213M in tax breaks for 50-job data center

Apple is receiving more than $213 million in state and local tax incentives to build a proposed data center that will employ 50, the fourth-major tech company to build these high-tech warehouses in the state.

Documents released Thursday morning by the Iowa Economic Development Authority show Apple plans to spend $1.375 billion to build two "state-of-the-art" data centers on 2,000 acres in Waukee, Iowa. The company plans to power the buildings with 100% renewable energy. Jobs must pay a minimum of $29.12 per hour, per the state incentive program.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based maker of iPhones, computers and iPads joins Google, Facebook and Microsoft, which have built expansive data centers in the state as they seek more power and capacity to support cloud computing and smartphone use.  But while local communities get an economic jolt from the construction, the highly automated centers don't provide demand for the fast-growing, highly paid engineering and analytics jobs that have created booms in coastal hubs such as San Francisco and Seattle.

The Iowa Economic Development Authority Board awarded $19.65 million in investment tax credits to Apple at a specially called meeting Thursday morning. State documents say that total is "negotiated as the amount of sales tax refund."


The appointed board unanimously approved the incentives. "We think this is a great banner day for Iowa," said Debi Durham, director of the Iowa Economic Development Authority. "It’s a great day to celebrate."

State incentives require matches from local governments. For its part, the Waukee City Council approved a 71% property tax abatement over 20 years for Apple ― an incentive worth  $188 million state records show. The city's match, including tax abatement and water and sewer infrastructure improvements, will total $194 million.

In exchange, Apple will provide $500,000 per data center building per year to a public improvement fund for use by Waukee "until certain maximum contributions are made." That total has not been announced.

Data power

In recent years, tech companies have invested billions in new Iowa data centers, lured by plenty of available crop land, access to high-speed fiber optics and a low risk for natural disasters.

Plus, Iowa is known for its relatively cheap energy and a large and growing portfolio of power derived from wind energy, a favorite selling point among Silicon Valley executives.

Google has invested some $2.5 billion in its Council Bluffs data center.

Facebook announced in May that it was breaking ground on its largest building yet in Altoona, ballooning the price tag of its Iowa data center to about $1.5 billion.

And last year, Microsoft announced a third phase of its West Des Moines data centers, bringing the company's investments in the suburb to about $4 billion.

China’s latest tech innovation? Conducting court cases over the internet

The Chinese have found yet another way to save money and time, and this time it’s not the latest gadget or app.

The world’s most populous nation has decided to use cyber technology in litigation, with the introduction of an online court. Physically showing up at a courthouse could become a thing of the past, at least for internet-related civil cases.

The entire process is conducted online — a judge presides over a case, and parties join the process using video chat. Any outstanding fees or missing information are entered through an online portal. The same online access point is also used for submitting the case to the court and filing documents. Court notifications are delivered electronically ... of course.

A Chinese online court in session.
Hangzhou’s online court heard its first case — on alleged copyright infringement — just a week ago. An author pressed charges against a web company, claiming it had offered her work to its subscriber base without her permission. To settle the dispute, both sides met via video chat. The judge presided over the case using two computer screens, and the proceeding was displayed on a wall screen, enabling the public to monitor the process. The entire case took 30 minutes to conclude.

Although this is the first such court, it isn’t the first time China made its trials available to the public online. In 2016, as a part of an effort to improve the legal system’s transparency and its alleged corruption, the Chinese government decided to allow streaming and access to pre-recorded proceedings via the tingshen.court.gov.cn website. The system is elegant and allows an observer to select a province and a court, after which he can follow a case via a split-screen feature, offering different perspectives. One can monitor defendants, judges or lawyers throughout the entire proceedings.

That was a welcome change, since the Chinese court system has been closed to the public in many instances — sometimes even defendants’ family members are not allowed inside court buildings.

That isn’t to say streaming court proceedings online has somehow solved the transparency issue in the Chinese judiciary system. There are still cases that are not recorded and that have limited public access (usually those deemed controversial in one way or another). But this is a big step in the right direction, and not only that, but it’s also faster, cheaper and more efficient.

Then again, not everyone is happy with the latest judicial innovation. The biggest concern is the reduced privacy of individuals involved in the process — not only the defendants, but also the alleged victims. Turning litigation into “online shopping” may easily create an entire new venue of abuse, ranging from blackmail and public shaming to harassment, as cases are made public.

China isn’t alone in moving some courts online. Canada recently launched the Civil Resolution Tribunal, its first online tribunal for small-claims disputes of $5,000 and under, as well as strata property of any amount. Not too far behind is the U.K., with a 28-month pilot program for its Online Court. It is scheduled to start this month and last until Nov. 30, 2019, for money claims under 10,000 British pounds.

Post Mars Mission...

Source: DNA (Daily News and Analysis)

After India's successful Mars mission, the country was now on the threshold of climbing the next level of technology ladder, former ISRO chairman Dr K Radhakrishnan said.

"India's Mangalyaan mission was executed with commendable precision and the spacecraft is still healthy orbiting planet Mars and sending data regularly to the Indian Deep Space Earth Station near Bengaluru," Radhakrishnan said.

"India is now on the threshold of climbing the next level of technology ladder, embracing international alliances for newer capabilities and fostering national space industry to meet national and global needs," he said.

The ex-secretary in the Department of Space was addressing the 4th convocation of the Siksha O Anusandhan University here.

The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), popularly known as 'Mangalyaan', was essentially a mission to demonstrate India's technological capability to orbit a spacecraft around Mars, Radhakrishnan said.

The world watched with awe as India became the first country to fly a spacecraft around Mars in its very first attempt on September 24, 2014, he said adding that deep space missions like 'Mangalyaan' was more complex as compared to placing one around the earth or the moon.

"A mission to Mars is feasible in a specific Earth- Mars-Sun geometry that occurs only once in 26 months. In the case of Mangalyaan, the spacecraft was to traverse close to 660 million km in about 300 days undergoing pressures exerted by the radiation and gravitational forces of the sun and other planets," he said.

It was a huge computational challenge to predict the magnitude and impact of these forces and their impact as the spacecraft approached the Mars, he pointed out.

The Mangalyaan mission was lauded also for clever use of a relatively low-capacity launcher PSLV to get off the gravity of earth, he said.

Dr Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) and Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), delivered the key note address on the occasion.

Besides Radhakrishnan and Mohapatra, Dr G.Satheesh Reddy, scientific advisor to the defence minister and director general (Missiles and Strategic Systems), DRDO and Prof Arun Kumar Rath, former civil servant and chairman and professor, Centre for Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility, International Management Institute, New Delhi, were conferred with the Honoris Causa by the university.

Dynhacks Team