John Lister

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has agreed to pay Amazon $600 million over the next ten years. However, the CIA isn't purchasing books or DVDs -- instead, it's buying access to Amazon's massive, private data system. The deal is with Amazon's ... Web Services department, which already offers cloud computing to individuals and businesses. Cloud computing doesn't simply mean offering online storage, but also online data processing. The Amazon cloud service works on a pay-as-you-go basis. This makes it ideal for organizations that need data processed intermittently rather than all the time. ... (view more)

A man who illegally accessed personal data stored on Apple iPads has been sentenced to a 41-month prison term. However, defenders of Andrew Auernheimer believe the sentence is unduly harsh and question whether his actions should even be considered a ... crime. Auernheimer was among a group of computer enthusiasts who discovered a flaw in AT ... (view more)

China has launched an attack on the way Apple treats consumers through a government-controlled television station. The criticism appears to have sparked a coordinated social media campaign designed to embarrass the tech giant. Apple was among the ... companies featured on this year's installment of the "Ides of March," an annual broadcast marking World Consumer Rights Day on China Central Television Station (CCTS). CCTS is watched by hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens. Each year it examines shady practices by major businesses operating in the country. Volkswagen, which is expected ... (view more)

Reports indicate that Microsoft has sold just 1.5 million Surface tablet computers since the device launched late last year. Surprisingly, it appears consumers prefer the newer and more expensive Surface Pro to the cheaper Surface RT. The Bloomberg ... financial news agency says three separate sources have provided it with Surface sales figures. Though not confirmed by Bloomberg, it appears these sources may be Microsoft staff. The sources claim the company has sold just 1.5 million Surface tablets so far, including 1.1 million Surface RTs and 400,000 Surface Pros. (Source: bloomberg.com ) It's ... (view more)

Microsoft's Hotmail email service was unavailable earlier this week. The company says an overheated server was responsible for the service being out-of-action for many users. The problems affected Hotmail and its successor, Outlook. Microsoft says ... the problem could be linked to a firmware issue. Firmware is software built into a specific device; in this case, a part of the equipment at a Microsoft data center. (Source: bbc.co.uk ) Software Bug Causes Overheating According to Microsoft, an attempt to update the firmware went awry and resulted in the temperature in the data center spiking in a ... (view more)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has revised its rules about online advertising to better account for new trends in social media. The FTC warns that the short format of ads on Facebook and Twitter is no excuse for misleading customers. The warning ... comes in a document called ".Com Disclosures: How to Make Effective Disclosures in Digital Advertising." It's an update to an original set of guidelines called "Dot Com Disclosures," which was published in 2000. This is the first time the rules have been updated, even though the Internet has changed dramatically since that time. The key to the ... (view more)

Microsoft says students can try the online edition of Office 365 free of charge for up to six months. It's also offering a one month trial to people who aren't students. The student offer is for a three-month subscription to Office 365 University ... that allows students to install copies of Office software on two different computers (including PCs or Macs). The University edition includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, and Access. The subscription also means you can use online editions of this software on any computer with an Internet connection. Although the standard ... (view more)

The Authors Guild has formally objected to Amazon's plans to take control of a new website domain dedicated to books. They say it is inappropriate for a private company to control such an important (and generic) domain name. The dispute centers on ... the new top level domain system. Until this year, all website addresses had to have an ending (or top level domain) that was either '.com' or '.org,' or a specific country code, such as '.ca' for Canada. Under the new system, organizations can apply to take control of virtually any term. For example, a technology site could move to a ".site" address ... (view more)

The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has charged 29 people suspected of sending more than 180 million spammy text messages. An FTC spokesman said he had a simple message for anyone who receives unsolicited offers through a text message: ... "Delete them, immediately. The offers are, in a word, garbage." (Source: pcmag.com ) According to the FTC, the accused sent messages falsely claiming the recipient had won a prize, such as a $1,000 gift card from a major retailer. If a recipient followed a link placed in the message, they would be asked to supply personal information -- including ... (view more)

Microsoft has agreed to drop a rule forcing Office 2013 buyers to re-purchase the software if they bought a new computer. The change follows a hostile response from Microsoft customers. The controversy arose because of the way Microsoft's Office ... 2013 software licensing works. Microsoft has always taken the approach that you don't buy software outright but pay for the right to use it under specified conditions. In the past, most Microsoft licenses were transferrable. This meant that as long as you only ran the software on one machine at a time, you could reinstall the software if you changed ... (view more)