At least three major airlines report computer outages
… Most customers
complained on social media that they couldn't access the airline’s app or
website to book a reservation or check into their flights around the
country.
Just before 1 p.m. Friday, the major airline advised
customers that the issue was resolved and was the result of a glitch with
Sabre, the technology company that provides booking services to airlines.
"Earlier today, Sabre had a brief technical issue
that impacted multiple carriers, including American. This technical issue has been resolved.
… Alaska Airlines
and JetBlue Airways also reported computer problems on Friday.
Good thing I don’t have a Facebook account! I wonder what triggers this “feature?”
Check your Facebook account right now, you might be dead
… I can see slip
ups happening like a weird news link or maybe some fake news from a content
farm (that’s a problem, too), but social networking might need to do some
better quality checks. I can’t think of
anything worse than telling everyone I know I’m dead.
When does a sting escalate into “aiding and abetting?”
FBI operated 23 Tor-hidden child porn sites, deployed malware
from them
… according to
newly unsealed documents recently obtained by the American Civil Liberties
Union, the FBI not only temporarily took over one Tor-hidden child pornography
website in order to investigate it, the organization was in fact authorized to
run a
total of 23 other such websites.
According to an FBI affidavit
among the unsealed documents:
In the normal course of the
operation of a web site, a user sends "request data" to the web site
in order to access that site. While Websites 1-23 operate at a government facility,
such request data associated with a user's actions on Websites 1-23 will be
collected. That data collection is not a
function of the NIT. Such request data can be paired with data collected by the
NIT, however, in order to attempt to identify a particular user and to
determine that particular user's actions on Websites 1-23.
… Security
researcher Sarah Jamie Lewis told
Ars that “it’s a pretty reasonable assumption” that at one point the FBI was running roughly half of the known child porn
sites hosted on Tor-hidden servers.
Who is failing here?
The best feature of AT&T’s new $35 TV subscription might
be illegal
Starting sometime
this month, AT&T will offer an internet-only subscription TV package,
with upwards of 100 channels for $35 per month. If the channel selection and pricing are as
good as the company promises, it will be a hit.
But AT&T was banking on one other thing to really sell
DirecTV Now: integration with AT&T’s cell network, which would let you
stream TV channels on your smartphone without using up your data plan. It’s the kind of deal that only AT&T could
pull off, as the owner of a national cell and cable network. But according to a letter from the Federal
Communications Commission, doing so could be illegal.
In the letter, the FCC says it “believes that the terms and
conditions under which Sponsored Data is offered to content providers
unaffihiated with AT&T, combined with s current practice of zero-rating
DIRECTV video applications for AT&T Mobility subscribers, may obstruct
competition and harm consumers by constraining their ability to access existing
and future mobile video services not affiliated with AT&T.”
Reinforcing prejudice with legislation? Only in California do they attack a symptom
rather than the cause.
Revealing an actor’s age is illegal? IMDb website
sues California
Many actors think there ought to be a law against posting
their ages online, and California has obliged critics of ageism in Hollywood
with legislation targeting a leading online source for information on movie and
television figures.
The law, passed earlier this year, has been challenged in
a lawsuit by the company IMDb, which is owned by
Amazon and operates a repository of information on the film and
television industry.
… The lawsuit said
the law, known as AB 1687, was unfair because it was carefully tailored to
apply only to the Delaware-based IMDb.com Inc, and not other sources of
information such as media websites.
Useful resource?
Doors close fast when a big giant like Pinterest gobbles
up a smaller Instapaper.
But sometimes a ray of light shines
through which promises more. The
bookmark-and-read-it-later service was bought out by Pinterest in August. Instead of shuttering it, Pinterest has
decided to open it up for everyone.
In short, Instapaper Premium is now free and open for all.
One of my students is having far too much fun crushing her
opponents. I can wait to get her
opinion.
Enter the Digital Dragon
As someone with a second-degree black belt in Okinawan
Goju Ryu Karate, I’ve made martial-art training a big part of my life for the
past 20 years. I’m equally committed to
learning how to do things online. But
I’ve always wondered: Is studying karate online a viable option for those who
can’t get to a real school?
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