Sponsoer by :

Friday, February 3, 2012

Hackers intercept FBI, Scotland Yard call (AP) : Technet

Sponsored

Hackers intercept FBI, Scotland Yard call (AP) : Technet

Hackers intercept FBI, Scotland Yard call (AP)

Posted: 03 Feb 2012 09:04 PM PST

By RAPHAEL SATTER, Associated Press Raphael Satter, Associated Press – 29 mins ago

LONDON – Trading jokes and swapping leads, investigators from the FBI and Scotland Yard spent the conference call strategizing about how to bring down the hacking collective known as Anonymous, responsible for a string of embarrassing attacks across the Internet.

Unfortunately for the cyber sleuths, the hackers were in on the call too — and now so is the rest of the world.

Anonymous published the roughly 15-minute-long recording of the call on the Internet on Friday, gloating in a Twitter message that "the FBI might be curious how we're able to continuously read their internal comms for some time now."

The humiliating coup exposed a vulnerability that might have had more serious consequences had someone else been listening in on the line.

"A law enforcement agency using unencrypted, unsecure communications is a major fumble," said Marcus Carey, who spent years securing communications for the U.S. National Security Agency before joining security-risk assessment firm Rapid7.

"What if this event was talking about some terrorist plot to blow up something and 'they' were listening in? It could've been much worse if it was related to an al-Qaida plot or something ... So this is a lesson learned."

The leak was one of a slew of Anonymous hacks that hit websites across the United States Friday, including in Boston, where the police site was defaced, and in Salt Lake City, where officials said that personal information of confidential informants and tipsters had been compromised.

Anonymous also claimed credit for defacing the Greek Justice Ministry's website and stealing a mountain of data from the Virginia-based law firm that defended a U.S. Marine recently convicted for his role in the bloody 2005 raid in Iraq that became known as the Haditha massacre.

The hackers' successful attempt to spy on the very people charged with tracking them down remained the most dramatic coup of the day, with sensitive police conversations broadcast across the world.

The FBI said the communication "was intended for law enforcement officers only and was illegally obtained," but added that no FBI systems were breached. It said that "a criminal investigation is under way to identify and hold accountable those responsible."

A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the matter is under investigation, told The Associated Press that authorities were looking at the possibility the message was intercepted from the private email account of one of the dozens of invited participants — who hailed from the U.K., Ireland, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Sweden.

Anonymous published just such an email Friday, complete with the date, time and password needed to access the call.

Graham Cluley, an expert with data security company Sophos, said that anyone with that information could have "rung in and silently listened to the call just like Anonymous did."

In Paris, a French police official who was briefed on the interception said it could prompt international law enforcement bodies to be more circumspect about sharing information in conference calls. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak on the record.

Scotland Yard said there was no immediate evidence their operations were compromised.

Amid jokes about a teenage hacking suspect (who one officer describes as "a bit of an idiot") and lighthearted banter about McDonald's, the investigators on the call discussed whether to delay the arrest of two hacking suspects to give the FBI more time to pursue its side of the investigation.

Updates were given on the status of inquiries stretching from Los Angeles and Baltimore to England and Ireland, with one member of Scotland Yard's central e-crime unit telling the FBI that British police had identified a 15-year-old with possible connections to a recent breach at U.S. videogame company Valve Corp.

"Yeah that's fantastic," an FBI official said in response. "We actually do have a pending investigation looking into that compromise."

An email to the FBI official leading the call was not immediately returned Friday, while the e-crime investigator referred questions to Scotland Yard's press office. The press office confirmed it had someone on the call but said it would have no further comment.

Most sensitive appears to be discussion of what legal strategy to pursue in the cases of Ryan Cleary and Jake Davis, two British suspects linked to Anonymous. The U.K. police official on the call said prosecutors were secretly going to court to delay procedures in order to give the FBI more time pursue a related case.

When the FBI official thanked his U.K. counterpart for the favor, the Briton said cheerily: "We're here to help!"

Karen Todner, a lawyer for Cleary, said the recording could be "incredibly sensitive" and warned that such data breaches had the potential to derail the police investigation.

"If they haven't secured their email it could potentially prejudice the investigation," she told the AP.

Anonymous, an amorphous collection of Internet enthusiasts, pranksters and activists, has increasingly focused its attention on law enforcement agencies in general and the FBI in particular.

The hackers' targets have included the Church of Scientology, the music industry and financial companies such as Visa and MasterCard. It has recently expanded to include government, police and military targets.

Dozens of suspected members and supporters have been arrested across the world.

___

Associated Press Writers Pete Yost in Washington, Cassandra Vinograd in London, Brian Skoloff in Salt Lake City, Denise Lavoie in Boston and Jamey Keaten in Paris contributed to this report.

___

Online:

Raphael Satter can be reached at: http://twitter.com/razhael

EU probes new Google privacy policy (AP)

Posted: 03 Feb 2012 08:53 AM PST

By GABRIELE STEINHAUSER, AP Business Writer Gabriele Steinhauser, Ap Business Writer – Fri Feb 3, 11:53 am ET

BRUSSELS – The European Union's data protection authorities have asked Google to delay the rollout of its new privacy policy until they have verified that it doesn't break the bloc's data protection laws.

Google publicized its new privacy rules — which regulate how the Web giant uses the enormous amounts of personal data its collects through its search engine, email and other services — with much fanfare last week.

Since then, it has launched a huge publicity campaign informing its users around the globe of the new policy, which is set to come into force on March 1.

But that launch date may now be under threat.

In a letter to Google Chief Executive Larry Page, Jacob Kohnstamm, the chairman of the group of 27 national privacy regulators in the EU, said the French data protection agency has started a probe of the new rules and how they will affect Google users in the EU.

"We call for a pause (in the rollout of the new rules) in the interests of ensuring that there can be no misunderstanding about Google's commitments to information rights of their users and EU citizens, until we have completed our analysis," Kohnstamm wrote in the letter, which was sent Thursday and published on Friday.

Google's search engine has a market share of more than 90 percent in the EU, with rival services like Microsoft's Bing gaining little traction. The EU's competition authorities are already examining whether Google uses this dominance to stop other search engines from entering the market.

The new policy makes it easier for Google to combine the data of one person using different services such as the search engine, YouTube or Gmail if he is logged into his Google account. That allows Google to create a broader profile of that user and thus target advertising based on that person's interests and search history more accurately. Advertising is the main way Google makes its money.

But the company argues that combining the data into one profile also makes search results more relevant and allows a user to cross-navigate between different services more easily.

Google said in a statement Friday that it had briefed data protection agencies before making its new policy announcement and that none of them had had substantial concerns at the time.

"Delaying the policy would cause significant confusion," it said in the emailed note.

The company also published a letter by Global Privacy Counsel Peter Fleischer in response to Kohnstamm. Fleischer said the main purpose of the new policy is to combine the more than 70 different rules for Google's wide-ranging services into one, that is simpler and more readable.

"Our updated privacy policy makes it clear in one comprehensive document that if a user is signed in we may combine information she has provided from one service with information from other services," Fleischer wrote. He added that people can continue to use Google services without being logged into an account or create different profiles for different services.

Koosje Verhaar, a spokeswoman for Kohnstamm, who is also the head of the Dutch data protection agency, said she couldn't comment on how long the analysis of the new policy will take.

She declined to say whether there were specific parts of the new rules that triggered the probe, but added that the data protection authorities of several nations, including France, Ireland and Germany, had already publicly expressed concerns over the policy just days after it was announced.

HP awards new CEO Whitman with $16.5M pay package (AP)

Posted: 03 Feb 2012 03:30 PM PST

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke, Ap Technology Writer – Fri Feb 3, 6:30 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Hewlett-Packard Co. ushered in Meg Whitman as its CEO with a $16.5 million compensation package that hinges on the one-time politician's ability to lift the stumbling technology company's stock price during the next two years.

Last year's pay consists almost entirely of 1.9 million stock options valued at $16.1 million, according to documents filed Friday. Whether Whitman ever gets an opportunity to cash in most the options will depend on whether HP's market value rises substantially from its depressed level when HP fired her predecessor, Leo Apotheker, as CEO last September.

HP disclosed Whitman would be getting the stock options shortly after her hiring, but didn't specify their value at that time.

The company, which is based in Palo Alto, also had previously disclosed Whitman's salary would be limited to $1 while she tries to rebuild the momentum that HP lost after ousting Mark Hurd as its CEO in a titillating scandal in 2010.

Apotheker fared even better than Whitman, partly because of a severance package that paid him more than $12 million in cash and allowed him to keep most of the stock awards that he got while he was CEO. Including the salary and perks that Apotheker received while he was still HP's CEO, his 2011 compensation package was valued at $26.7 million. That figure excludes a $3.7 million stock incentive that HP canceled as part of Apotheker's severance agreement.

If Whitman succeeds in her mission at HP, she could use the windfall from the stock options to offset her losses from her unsuccessful attempt to become California's governor in 2010. During that campaign as the Republican nominee, she spent more than $140 million of her own money.

Before entering the political arena, Whitman was best known as the CEO of eBay Inc. during the dot-com boom. She did so well there that she was a billionaire by the time she left the e-commerce company in 2008.

HP faces challenges on multiple fronts. Its personal computer division is trying to adapt to consumers' growing preference for tablet and other mobile devices. Meanwhile, its operations that sell servers and consulting services to big companies locked in a fierce battle with IBM Corp. and Oracle Corp.

As with most companies, HP says it is trying to tie Whitman's compensation to the company's performance.

Most of the stock options won't become hers to exercise unless HP's stock surpasses certain thresholds before October 2013.

The rights to 800,000 stock options will vest on Whitman's first anniversary as HP's CEO if the company's shares have closed at or above $28.31 for 20 consecutive trading days. The price target is 20 percent above the options' stock price of $23.59. That price requirement hasn't been met yet, though HP's stock has closed above $28.31 several times in the past two weeks. The shares gained 57 cents to close Friday at $29.07.

Although the stock has climbed since Whitman took over, it remains 37 percent below its price when Hurd left the company in August 2010.

Another 800,000 options will vest on Whitman's second anniversary on the job if HP's stock has closed at or above $33.03 for 20 consecutive trading days. That's 40 percent above the exercise price.

The remaining 300,000 options vest in annual increments of 100,000 on Whitman's first three anniversaries as CEO. Those awards aren't tied to HP's stock reaching a certain price.

Whitman, 55, also received more than $372,000 in additional compensation that stemmed from cash and stock grants that she received last year while she was a non-executive director on HP"s board.

This year, Whitman will be eligible for a bonus of up to $6 million to supplement her $1 salary if HP does well.

The Associated Press formula calculates an executive's total compensation during the last fiscal year by adding salary, bonuses, perks, above-market interest the company pays on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock and stock options awarded during the year.

Facebook Timeline feature unpopular, especially among Baby Boomers (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 03 Feb 2012 03:15 PM PST

Super Bowl bust: U.S. government seizes 307 domains for violating NFL copyrights (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 03 Feb 2012 03:08 PM PST

Apple, Motorola in patent struggle in Germany (AP)

Posted: 03 Feb 2012 03:28 PM PST

ffftbs Ffftbs – Fri Feb 3, 6:28 pm ET

FRANKFURT, Germany – Apple Inc. has temporarily blocked Motorola Mobility's attempt to have it withdraw several iPhone and iPad models from its Internet store in Germany, the latest twist in an extended legal duel over patents between the companies.

The sale of the devices was briefly halted after Libertyville, Ill.-based Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. enforced a ruling it won against Ireland-based Apple Sales International Inc., from a court in Mannheim, Germany.

The court had earlier ruled that Apple should not be using Motorola's mobile technology in the devices without a license.

Motorola Mobility moved to enforce the decision and Apple announced Thursday it was halting online sales. A few hours later, Apple said it had won a suspension from an appeals court in Karlsruhe.

"All iPad and iPhone models will be back on sale through Apple's online store in Germany shortly," Apple said in a statement. "Apple appealed this ruling because Motorola repeatedly refuses to license this patent to Apple on reasonable terms, despite having declared it an industry standard patent seven years ago."

Apple says Motorola Mobility has refused to license the technology even though Motorola agreed it should be an industry standard.

In a statement Friday, Motorola Mobility said it will continue to pursue claims against Apple. It said Apple had refused to negotiate in good faith.

The devices in question were the iPhone 3G, the iPhone 3Gs and the iPhone4 and UMTS-capable iPads — but not the iPhone 4S.

Florian Mueller, an intellectual property consultant who has been reporting on the cases on his blog FOSS Patents, said that the wording of the Karlsruhe decision only suspends enforcement of the decision until the court can hear a response from Motorola.

"This is a very, very temporary suspension," said Mueller. "Apple could be in the same situation again a week or two down the road."

The two companies are also at odds over what Motorola Mobility says is improper use of its push email technology that sends email to smartphones. The Mannheim court ruled in Motorola's favor Thursday, but Apple said it would appeal and that people using its phones would keep getting their email.

Star Wars, Ferris Bueller drive Super Bowl ad buzz (Reuters)

Posted: 03 Feb 2012 01:30 PM PST

Android Games from Capcom and Square-Enix on Their Way ... In Japan (ContributorNetwork)

Posted: 03 Feb 2012 12:28 PM PST

Jared Spurbeck Jared Spurbeck – Fri Feb 3, 3:28 pm ET
Contribute content like this. Start here.

States-side fans of video game consoles, from the first Nintendo Entertainment System to its modern successor the Wii, know what it's like for a game that looks awesome to only come out in Japan.

At one time, for instance, there was a perception among Japanese game publishers that North American audiences didn't have the patience for console role-playing games, and so several installments of Square-Enix's Final Fantasy series took more than a decade to arrive in the form of remakes. Meanwhile, American dating sim fans have had to either import games or build their own, using open-source software like Ren'Py.

Japanese game publishers like Square-Enix and Capcom are starting to bring their games to Google's open-source Android operating system now, even "name-brand" ones that have sold well on consoles like the Nintendo DS. The problem? Most of these games are only available in Japan, and will only be there for the foreseeable future. And some of them don't even use Google's Android Market.

Square-Enix -- Final Fantasy, Chaos Rings, Chrono Trigger

According to Anoop Gantayat of Andriasang.com, Square-Enix is bringing some of its greatest console hits to Android, including a port of the iOS version of the original Final Fantasy. It's also bringing the former iOS exclusive, Chaos Rings, to Android for the first time, along with the cult classic Chrono Trigger. A Dragon Quest game helps to round out its offerings; Crystal Defenders, a tower defense game based on the world of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, is the only title that's currently available in North America.

Much like how Square-Enix created its own online service, PlayOnline, when it launched its first MMORPG, the company is creating its own Android marketplace to sell its games on. The market will be exclusive to Japanese cellphone carrier KDDI at first.

Capcom -- Phoenix Wright

The visual novel / hidden object series about an "Ace Attorney" is seeing its first three games remastered and brought to both iOS and Android, according to Spencer of SiliconEra ... at least, in Japan. No word yet on a release date or whether or not they'll ever be brought to America, despite the objections of North American fans everywhere.

NIS -- Disgaea: Netherworld

The (extremely quirky) tactics-based RPG Disgaea has already received an Android version in Japan; a microtransaction-based one where you play for free and buy items to help. According to Kotaku's Mike Fahey, however, this one is actually coming to North America in the near future, giving fans something to look forward to.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

Android lead smartphone platform in 2011, will be used by government (Appolicious)

Posted: 03 Feb 2012 12:12 PM PST

Are Apple, Google and Facebook Natural Monopolies? (ContributorNetwork)

Posted: 03 Feb 2012 03:22 PM PST

Jared Spurbeck Jared Spurbeck – Fri Feb 3, 6:22 pm ET
Contribute content like this. Start here.

COMMENTARY | They may not be the power company, but you won't find too many threats to their dominance. All three are not only at the top of their game, they have few, if any, competitors. And the law helps keep newbies out of the market.

"But what about Microsoft?"

That question could be asked for all three companies, which says something about Microsoft. But except for Microsoft's entertainment division, which has a real hit on its hands with the Xbox 360 Kinect, the tech titan hasn't been doing too well as of late. It's shipping millions of Windows licenses, certainly, but they're mostly on commodity PCs to businesses and budget-minded individuals. And what market share it has for its Bing search engine, it's largely bought with its Windows and Office earnings.

Owning the market

The fact is, Apple basically owns the tablet and smartphone markets. It sold more than 10 million iPads during just the fourth quarter of 2011, and according to Matt Brian of The Next Web its iPhone accounted for more than two-thirds of the smartphones sold by both AT&T and Verizon. It's making a truckload more money per iPhone sold than any Android smartphone vendor, according to analyst Horace Dediu.

Google, of course, has web search wrapped up, and was also "expected to grab" about three-fourths of all online advertising spending in the US as of November, according to EMarketer Inc. as quoted by Bloomberg's Brian Womack. Facebook's recent SEC filing shows that it's only making build its own Facebook competitor. (It's not working.)

Natural or artificial monopolies?

Unlike with the electric company -- where the high cost of capital keeps new competitors from stringing wires to everyone's homes -- nothing's assumed to be keeping others from making their own smartphones, search engines, or social networks. That's why all three markets are largely unregulated, compared to "natural monopolies" like public utilities.

But it's not as easy as all that.

First, you have network effects to consider, like how there are tens of thousands of apps for Apple's iPad and none of them work on Android tablets. Or how all of your friends are on Facebook, and you need a Facebook account just to talk to them. Apple and Facebook legally own these areas, and while you can switch to another tablet or social network you lose everything you'd invested in Apple or Facebook's platform. There's no law requiring them to use open-source code or open standards, of the sort that let Dreamwidth and LiveJournal users "friend" each other across networks, or that let the same apps run on all Android smartphones. (Let's not even get into how Google owns the Android Market.)

Second, a virtuous feedback loop keeps these powerful companies getting more and more powerful. Apple is said to be able to buy up the entire world's stock of certain desirable hardware components, because of its tens of billions in the bank. And the more people use Google's web advertising instead of a competitor's, the less those competitors have to invest in product advancements, even as Google uses its web search to promote its own Google+ social network over everyone else's.

There may be a way around this

Facebook came out of nowhere, and whatever replaces it might do that too. But right now, the odds (and the laws) are stacked against whatever the new Facebook is, because they're letting the old Facebook -- and Apple, and Google -- run roughshod over everyone else.

The Super Bowl: The most DVR’d, and DVR-proof, broadcast on TV (The Cutline)

Posted: 03 Feb 2012 12:00 PM PST

How to keep Angry Birds downloads flowing? Add KISS (Appolicious)

Posted: 03 Feb 2012 11:35 AM PST

Going mobile: Travel's eventual high-tech future (Reuters)

Posted: 03 Feb 2012 09:50 AM PST

By Peter Myers Peter Myers – Fri Feb 3, 12:50 pm ET

LONDON (Reuters) – Welcome to the airport terminal of the future.

There are self-service bag drops but no check-in desks. Your passage is seamless, punctuated behind the scenes only by discrete Near Field Communication (NFC) sensors.

Occasionally you stop to scan your NFC-enabled smartphone at a touch point. Your biometric information, picked up by automated surveillance cameras, will ensure there's no need to queue up to see whether you pose a security threat.

This is where travel needs to be, say technologists who also insist that their wizardry, if employed universally, could solder together the jagged edges of the industry.

It may sound far-fetched, but automated systems that talk to handheld devices are in the trial stage: In Australia, Qantas has rolled out frequent flyer cards with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to streamline the luggage-tagging process; Japan Airlines (JAL) is deploying NFC-based mobile boarding passes later this year for domestic flights.

"Technology is joining the dots by giving passengers the opportunity to 'automate' their way through the airport touch points," says Renaud Irminger, a director at air transport communications and IT solutions provider SITA.

But a report from global IT group Amadeus on how airlines, airports, ground transportation firms and hotels can be more collaborative, argues that there is no focus on the interfaces where travelers feel the pain.

Andrew Curry, a director of The Futures Company who helped research the Amadeus report, told Reuters that if nobody leads on this, nothing could happen for five or 10 years.

The report is available at http://bit.ly/wMix0V.

Recent SITA surveys have reported that of the top 50 airlines almost 80 percent are planning to deploy NFC technology by 2014, but only 27 percent of airports expect to implement the technology by then.

This could be because they are unsure if the investment is worthwhile. For mobile solutions to work internationally for example, agreement across multiple jurisdictions would need to overcome a jungle of data privacy and security regulations.

"If only 10 percent of customers use new technology, all the old systems must remain, meaning you've simply added another layer of complexity, not greater simplicity," said Peter Morris, chief economist at aviation consultancy Ascend.

SITA projects 80 percent of travelers will use mobile check-in by 2018. Forced to bear the brunt of check-in responsibility, it is far from certain whether passengers will benefit from these airports of the future.

"We remain to be convinced about customer reaction, which should be measured by proper impartial surveys rather than simple assertions by self-interested purveyors of technology," Morris told Reuters.

Paul Behan, head of passenger experience at the International Air Transport Association (IATA), said a focus on mobile boarding neglects other aspects of traveler stress.

"The boarding process itself is not necessarily a major hassle for passengers; rather any frustration seems to come from the issue of trying to find all-important luggage space in the overhead bins."

The benefits of new technology are certainly being enjoyed by the aviation industry. IATA's "Simplifying the Business" program is, it has said, saving around $5.5 billion a year from the switch to e-ticketing, bar-coded boarding passes and self-service kiosks.

An ongoing baggage program replacing manual luggage systems will save an estimated $1.9 billion per year.

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

New version of Showyou is a Flipboard for video (Appolicious)

Posted: 02 Feb 2012 09:00 AM PST

Micron CEO dies in plane crash, industry stunned (Reuters)

Posted: 03 Feb 2012 05:58 PM PST

By Jill Kuraitis and Noel Randewich Jill Kuraitis And Noel Randewich – Fri Feb 3, 8:58 pm ET

BOISE, Idaho/SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 3 – Micron Technology Inc Chief Executive and Chairman Steve Appleton died in a small plane crash on Friday, a major loss for a U.S. memory chipmaker already struggling with sluggish computer sales and declining prices.

The 51-year-old Appleton, a three-decade industry veteran who performed stunts at airshows, died after the small plane he was piloting crashed at an airport in Boise, Idaho, where the chipmaker is headquartered.

His death stunned the tight-knit semiconductor industry. Appleton was a prominent figure in Boise, a city of 200,000 in the western United States, and a member of the Idaho Business Council.

President and Chief Operating Officer Mark Durcan, who was due to retire in August, will take up the CEO's responsibilities until the company's board can appoint a permanent successor. Directors will meet over the weekend, Micron said in a statement.

Shares in Micron, halted prior to the announcement, resumed trade after the regular market close and promptly slid 6 percent.

"Steve was a high-energy, never-give-up type of inspirational leader of the company. The entire industry will miss Steve's energy," said Stifel Nicolaus analyst Kevin Cassidy. "That said, Micron has a deep bench of managers that shared Steve's vision."

The accident happened while Appleton flew an experimental Lancair single-engine airplane, Boise Airport spokeswoman Patti Miller told Reuters. Lancair sells kits to build high-end planes.

After taking off and reaching an altitude of about 200 feet, Appleton radioed that he had a problem and needed to turn around, Boise police spokeswoman Lynn Hightower told reporters.

The aircraft rolled left, then plummeted to the ground, where it crashed, causing a large fire and leaving a twisted, black wreckage.

Appleton, a California native, joined Micron to work a night shift right after graduating from Boise State University in 1983. His subsequent meteoric ascent led to his becoming the youngest CEO on the Fortune 500 at the age of 34, in 1994.

He resigned in 1996, amid speculation about a boardroom power struggle, only to return nine days later after the board asked him to reconsider.

Appleton, a noted sports enthusiast who also scuba-dived, surfed and raced offroad cars and motorcycles, received the prestigious Robert Noyce award - the industry's highest honor - from the Semiconductor Industry Association in 2011.

The award, named after Intel Corp cofounder Robert Noyce, is conferred on those who have made major contributions to the chip industry.

Employees at Micron's sprawling headquarters and plant, where several flags flew at half mast, were visibly upset while others stuck to routine.

"I was in a meeting, which proceeded normally, but at the end when it broke up it was nothing but sad talk about Steve." said employee Mike Peterson. "I know he liked airplanes so if he was going to go I guess this was fitting."

Co-worker Melanie Wood said: "Someone told me over my cubicle and then I read the email and we all didn't believe it at first. He's so young, you don't expect something like this."

A BIG LOSS

"Steve was a visionary and a true leader in our industry. He will be deeply missed by the entire semiconductor community and our prayers and thoughts are with his family," Brian Toohey, President of the Semiconductor Industry Association, said in a statement.

Micron makes memory chips used in personal computers, smartphones and tablets and competes against Asian rivals Hynix Semiconductor Inc, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Toshiba Corp.

Memory chip makers are struggling as falling prices and huge investments to stay competitive saddle them with massive losses. Micron is the last remaining U.S. producer of memory chips.

Boise Mayor Dave Bieter said Appleton was sensitive to how job cuts by Micron in recent years affected the community.

"He called me and told me about the layoffs coming up and explained how the business-end of chip technology would develop and that Micron would come out strong on the other end. And it happened exactly the way he said it would," Bieter told reporters.

The company announced just last week that Durcan would retire in August, but Appleton's death raised questions about whether he might stay on.

Seen as Micron's even-keeled top technologist, Durcan has taken on a greater role running the chipmaker day-to-day in the past few years, while larger-than-life Appleton has focused more on strategy.

The loss of Micron's dealmaker could waylay a possible acquisition of troubled Japanese rival Elpida Memory. Saddled with millions of dollars in operating losses and major upcoming debt payments, Elpida may be in talks to be bought by Micron or reach some kind of partnership, media recently speculated.

RISKY LIFESTYLES

Appleton's death raises questions about whether some CEOs' daredevil lifestyles are too risky for shareholders.

British tycoon Richard Branson has tried to circle the world in hot air balloon and in 1985 had to be rescued after capsizing a sailboat. Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison races sailboats and also flies planes.

Micron's recent regulatory filings make no mention of a "key man" life insurance policy on Appleton, nor do they specifically mention directors' and officers' insurance that would cover him.

A senior executive at a national insurance brokerage said it is entirely possible to get directors' and officers' insurance on someone like a CEO who flies his own planes, but added that Appleton's death could still cause legal headaches for the board.

"D&O really is about, at its core, for a public company, whether or not the company is susceptible to litigation by shareholders," said the broker, speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The broker said Micron's board would have an obligation to have a contingency plan in place, particularly given Appleton's risky lifestyle, and that the degree to which the company might face legal questions depends a great deal on what Micron's stock does on Monday.

"If trading opens substantially lower it could be the case that a plaintiffs' attorney or two or three will start to conduct an investigation," the broker said.

Trading in Micron shares was halted on Friday morning pending the company's announcement. The shares were down at $7.48 in extended trading, from a last quote of $7.95 on the Nasdaq, before the halt.

(Additional reporting by Himank Sharma in Bangalore, Ben Berkowitz in New York, Writing by Edwin Chan, Editing by Andre Grenon, Gary Hill and Tim Dobbyn)

TouchPal Keyboard Tablet tops Android Apps of the Week (Appolicious)

Posted: 03 Feb 2012 04:30 AM PST

Group seeks to save data on Megaupload servers (Reuters)

Posted: 02 Feb 2012 01:15 PM PST

By Jeremy Pelofsky Jeremy Pelofsky – Thu Feb 2, 4:15 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Electronic Frontier Foundation on Thursday asked federal prosecutors and lawyers for the Megaupload.com file-sharing service to allow users who uploaded material to retrieve it as long as it was not copyrighted material.

The group, which advocates for Internet privacy and digital rights, sent a letter on behalf of one user asking "that all concerned work together to make sure innocent users are returned their legal property."

"We are hopeful that our client and other third parties can obtain access to their material without resorting to legal action, but if that is not the case, we intend to take the necessary steps to ensure the return of their materials," said Cindy Cohn, legal director and general counsel for EFF.

A copy of the letter was sent to the judge in Virginia overseeing the case, U.S. District Judge Liam O'Grady.

Megaupload and its senior executives were indicted last month on charges that it was peddling copyrighted music, movies and television shows, raking in millions of dollars from advertising and subscriber fees.

Prosecutors warned last week that one of the companies that hosted the Megaupload site and material was considering erasing the material this week, but the company has since decided against it for now.

"Carpathia Hosting has no immediate plans to reprovision some or all of the Megaupload servers," the company's chief marketing officer, Brian Winter, said in a statement on Wednesday. He said if that changes, the company will post notices on its websites, www.carpathia.com and www.megaretrieval.com.

A lawyer for Megaupload has defended the website as an online storage service and said that it made efforts to take down copyrighted material when the service learned about it. Prosecutors argued that the site failed to do so and encouraged uploading of popular content.

"We will give careful and thoughtful consideration to any reasonable and detailed proposal by Mega's counsel that addresses the practical and technical issues for the court," said Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr.

Megaupload's assets have been frozen so "ultimately, it is the court that will decide what is appropriate and whether any funds will be released to carry it out," he said.

The case is USA v. Kim Dotcom et al, No. 12-cr-3, in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

(Reporting By Jeremy Pelofsky; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
at 9:43 PM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

My Blog List