Kim Dotcom acusa a Google, Twitter y otros de violar su patente de la verificación en dos pasos
Kim Dotcom dice ser el dueño de la patente de la verificación en dos pasos, acusando a empresas como Google, Twitter y Facebook de violar su propiedad intelectual poco después de que la red social de los 140 caracteres integrara esta medida de seguridad.
En efecto, hay una patente registrada bajo su nombre original, Kim Schmitz, que data de 1997 y que describe el concepto de la verificación en dos pasos, requiriendo un código secundario de acceso que sería enviado al usuario a través de un beeper o vía SMS.
Google, Facebook, Twitter, Citibank, etc. offer Two-Step-Authentication.Massive IP infringement by U.S. companies. My innovation. My patent
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) 22 de mayo de 2013
“Nunca los demandé. Creo en compartir el conocimiento y las ideas por el bien de la sociedad. Pero podría demandarlos ahora por lo que Estados Unidos me hizo”, afirmó en Twitter. “Google, Facebook, Twitter, les pido ayuda. Estamos todos en el mismo bote del DMCA. Usen mi patente gratis. Pero por favor ayúdenme a financiar mi defensa“, agregó.
Es probable que haya otras patentes que sirvan para reclamar derecho sobre la verificación en dos pasos, aunque la antigüedad de la patente de Dotcom le da solidez en este caso, además de haber sido citada ampliamente, de acuerdo a la documentación. Pese a la amenaza de demanda, es difícil que las empresas estadounidenses aporten con dinero para la defensa de Dotcom.
Links:
- Kim Dotcom (Twitter)
– Patent US6078908 (Google Patents)
Este artículo, fue publicado originalmente aquí: http://www.fayerwayer.com/2013/05/kim-dotcom-acusa-a-google-twitter-y-otros-de-violar-su-patente-de-la-verificacion-en-dos-pasos/
Google Asks Utilities To Make It Easier For Companies To Buy Renewable Energy
Google has long had an interest in renewable energy and has now invested more than $1 billion of its own money in alternative energy projects. However, as the company notes in a blog post and white paper today, it’s not always easy for companies that want to buy renewable energy to do so, given that most utilities don’t yet offer a renewable power option yet. In its white paper, Google lays out a plan that would make it easier for more companies to buy green energy.
Currently, Google says, businesses have the option to install on-site generation (like the solar cells on its Mountain View headquarters’ roof), buy renewable energy certificates or to sign power purchase agreements. All of these approaches, however, Google argues, have significant downsides. On-site generation usually can’t produce enough energy to power a facility 24/7, for example, and renewable energy certificates don’t “provide assurance that the price paid for RECs is being used to support additional investment in new renewable power generation.”
For the most part, companies also have to accept that at least a part of their generation mix includes some carbon-intensive sources. Currently, if a company wants renewable power — and is willing to pay for it — it still can’t get it in most places because it’s simply not being offered.
The reason for this, Google argues, is that historically, utilities never designed their rate schedules around a specific category of power generation (though it’s worth noting that at least some utilities recently started offering this option). Instead, the focus was always purely on cost and reliability.
So how does Google plan to change this? The company wants utilities to offer companies like Google the choice to buy renewable energy through a new class of service. The service would be voluntary, provided only to those companies that request it but open to all customers that want it and meet basic criteria.” The cost of procuring the renewable energy would only be passed on to those customers who select this option and not impact anybody else.
You can read more about the exact details of the proposal here, and we have embedded the proposal below.
Google also plans to put this plan into action. As part of the planned $600 million expansion of its Lenoir, N.C. data center, the company has partnered with Duke Energy to develop a new program based on its ideas. Duke Energy still has to file this plan with the N.C. state commission, though, which Google says it will do within the next 90 days.
Google’s Renewable Energy Options Proposal
Go: http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/19/google-utilities-green-energy/
Read MoreLa mayoría de usuarios de Windows 8 usa una app de Modern UI menos de una vez al día
Soluto, compañía analista y de servicios en Internet, realizó un estudio tomando como base un espectro de 10.848 computadoras con Windows 8, haciendo un seguimiento del comportamiento de 313.142 aplicaciones instaladas en la interfaz gráfica Modern UI de la plataforma, dedicada casi para su uso exclusivo con los dedos en pantallas táctiles.
El enfoque fue saber qué tanto ocupa la gente las aplicaciones de Modern UI según el dispositivo que operan, con resultados nada alentadores para Microsoft: el 60,78% de los usuarios de Windows 8 ocupan un aplicación móvil menos de una vez al día en un PC de escritorio, cifra que baja levemente a 59,88% cuando vemos hacia las personas que tienen un notebook tradicional.
Se esperaban resultados así para dispositivos que no tienen pantallas táctiles, pero cuando pasamos a los siguientes puntos es cuando la realidad le choca fuerte a Microsoft: el 58,10% de quienes tienen un notebook con pantalla táctil usan menos de una aplicación al día, mientras que un 44,38% de los usuarios de tabletas (con pantalla táctil…) hacen lo mismo bajo períodos de tiempo iguales.
Uno esperaría que en estas últimas dos categorías de equipos el uso de aplicaciones en Modern UI fuese mayor, sin embargo, al parecer el cliente se sigue inclinando por la ejecución de programas antiguos de Windows en su modo de “escritorio”, pese a que éste no viene optimizado para su uso en pantallas táctiles.
Link: Study: 60% of Windows 8 desktop users launch a Modern app less than once a day (Neowin)
Este artículo, fue publicado originalmente aquí: http://www.fayerwayer.com/2013/05/la-mayoria-de-usuarios-de-windows-8-usa-una-app-de-modern-ui-menos-de-una-vez-al-dia/
QloudSync: A Dropbox Competitor Running On 100% Renewable Energy
There is no shortage of cloud-based file storage and synchronization solutions: Dropbox, Box.net, Ubuntu One, and on and on and on. Most offer pretty much the same things. A few niche players offer something special, like Spideroak‘s approach to encryption, or ownCloud‘s host-it-yourself solution. QloudSync puts forward two interesting differentiators: it’s powered by 100% renewable energy, and it’s hosted in Iceland.
From a feature perspective, QloudSync isn’t anything new. File storage and synchronization. Share links with others. Stream music and video. The client apps are open source, and built atop SparkleShare.
QloudSync runs on GreenQloud‘s ComputeQloud and StorageQloud, which offer API compatibility with Amazon EC2 and S3. What is different about GreenQloud’s offerings, though, are that they run on renewable energy and claim to be carbon neutral, without the use of emissions offsets of any kind. Users of GreenQloud’s services can easily share their carbon savings to the social media outlet of their choice.
We see a great opportunity in utilizing Iceland’s abundant 100% renewable geothermal and hydro energy infrastructure, naturally cool climate and strategic location as a means to clean up IT and greatly reduce the industry’s carbon footprint.
GreenQloud is also making a strong play for the fact that they’re hosted in Iceland. According to them, your data “is safe from SOPA, PIPA, ACTA, Patriot act because StorageQloud runs from data centers in Iceland.” This doesn’t strike me as strong reason to use GreenQloud by itself, but it may be one of several that makes them a more attractive option in the sea of similar products.
If you’re at SXSW, stop by booth #1326 in the convention center and say hello to them.
Reference: http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/11/qloudsync-a-dropbox-competitor-running-on-100-renewable-energy/
Read MoreGoogle Encourages Going Green For Earth Day With “Nature’s Engineers” Micro Site
Biomimicry is an engineering field that takes cues from nature to help solve and address human problems, and Google today launched a new website at its Google Green initiative that highlights some of the ways nature’s engineers can inspire and guide human behavior. The site uses gorgeous National Geographic images along with brief descriptions of how the natural antecedent relates to the human concept, and then provides Google-sourced tools to help people emulate that activity.
Is it basically an ad? Yes. Is it a smart one? Definitely. Google manages to pitch pretty much all of its major web- and app-based offerings and services in a single slide show, with direct integrations built in that make it possible to take immediate action based on the trends they choose to highlight. You can do a local search for recycled and upcycled decorating material, grab apps and movies on the subjects from Google Play, search for maps and join Google+ communities and more. My only complaint is that Google buries the science at the end of the site in linked academic articles for each animal or plant behavior, where those probably should have been at least linked somewhere in each well-designed spread right alongside the Google service advertisements.
Some might call this empty lip-service to Earth Day, which takes place today and probably would be better served by Google powering down a server farm or two for a few hours, but the concepts highlighted (including ride sharing, composting, energy conservation and diet modification) are solid ones and would have genuinely beneficial ecological effects if adopted by large portions of the community. Plus it’s an impressive example of web design in its own right, and a look at what Google can do with content marketing models which could be a key vector for it to exploit as the nature of online advertising continues to shift.
Read MoreElon Musk Lays Out His Evidence That New York Times Tesla Model S Test Drive Was “Fake”
Tesla Motors CEO and founder Elon Musk definitely isn’t the best guy to try to pull a fast one on. The visionary entrepreneur set Twitter a titter when he claimed earlier this week that New York Times writer John Broder had fudged details about the Tesla Models S car’s range in cold weather, resulting in what he termed a “fake” article. Musk promised evidence, and now he has delivered, via the official Tesla blog.
In keeping with his brief description of what was wrong with the review from his original tweet, Musk laid out how vehicle logs (standard practice after Tesla ran into issues with Top Gear, which dramatized a breakdown where none actually existed) showed that the car Broder was driving for his article was improperly charged, took an unscheduled side trip and essentially seemed to have been set up to fail.
Musk breaks down what went wrong in a number of bullet points, but basically Broder’s car never ran out of juice completely; was charged to a level which he knew wouldn’t be enough to get to his destination at one point; actually exceeded its anticipated range; was driven past charging stations which could’ve helped it finish the journey; and was taken for a lengthy detour through Manhattan not included in the original trip plan.
Other problems add to the reported deception, including climate control settings that run counter to Broder’s stated claims in the article about what he did with in-car heating (turned up the temp when he said he turned it down). The smaller details aren’t necessarily the most consequential, but the fact that Musk has record of even these smaller contradictions in his test vehicle’s logs helps to paint a picture of a writer who seems to have been blatantly gunning for Tesla from the start.
Musk says that Broder altered details and the conditions of the test to help fit with his pre-existing opinion, which he arrives at thanks to a quote from Broder in an article published in 2012. Broder essentially attempts to deflate the sunny image of a future filled with electric cars, claiming that “the state of the electric car is dismal, the “victim of hyped expectations, technological flops, high costs and a hostile political climate.” To be fair, in that article Broder also goes on to give plenty of space to electric car supporters, too, and even gives the last word to Chris Paine, the documentary filmmaker behind Who Killed the Electric Car?, ending on Paine’s implied accusation that the oil and gas industry are behind stalling the electric future of car transport.
But overall, Musk’s evidence is pretty damning, especially backed up as it is by solid data from the Model S itself. He ends by calling for the NYT to launch an investigation into the article and its writing, and after an attack like this, I’d guess the NYT would have to do just that in order to be able to come up with a satisfactory response.
Read MoreThe Electree+, A Solar-Powered, Induction Charging Bonsai Tree Hits Kickstarter
Induction charging seems ready for its time in the spotlight, with the Nexus 4, Droid DNA and Lumia 920 all shipping with wireless charging based on the Qi standard built-in. Now a concept design that offers solar-powered wireless charging cleverly hidden inside a futuristic looking bonsai tree hopes to become a reality with the help of Kickstarter.
The electree+ began life as a concept by French designer Vivien Muller, which he originally unveiled in 2008. Then, three years later, Muller tried to bring the device to market, kicking off pre-orders for the device beginning at $370. She was aiming for 400 pre-sales, but the device eventually shipped to just a small group of 200 pre-order customers.
Now, the electree+ has been redesigned to maximize its solar efficiency, and to be manufactured in the USA at much larger volume, and for less money. The redesigned electree+ boasts a 14,000mAh internal battery, which when fully charged can fill an iPhone 5 up to and over nine times. It features 27 solar panels at the tips of branches, which are adjustable to capture maximum light. It requires 36 hours in sunlight to build up a full charge, but it also only needs around 4 hours to build up enough juice to fully recharge your standard smartphone.
Other features, like an optional built-in- NFC chip, mean that it can trigger an action when a smartphone is placed on its surface, in order to put it into dock mood or manage smart home connected devices, like light fixtures and curtains. It also has changeable faceplates, if you’re feeling bored by a particular color. Plus, the electree+ is environmentally friendly, since it’s just sipping sunlight to deliver charges to your devices.
The electree+ has two USB ports, including one designed for devices with lower power requirements like smartphones, and one for tablets which feature faster charging powers. As mentioned, because it uses Qi, it’ll work out of the box with the Nexus 4 and other smartphones with Qi inductive charging coils built-in, but it should also work with iPhones so long as they have a wireless charging case.
Pre-orders begin at $199, depending on what kind of options you want, and the team behind the redesigned electree+ wants to hit at least 1,000 pre-sales, or a total funding amount of $200,000 in order to go to production. It’s an ambitious project, but unlike with a lot of products on Kickstarter, this is one that’s actually been made and shipped, so hopefully the team stands a better chance than most of hitting their May 2013 target ship date.
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