John Lister

An analyst believes Microsoft may be passing up $2.5 billion a year by refusing to make its Office software package available for Apple's iPad tablet computer. The Redmond, Washington-based firm is trying to use the software to make its own Surface ... tablet devices more desirable -- a strategy critics are calling short-sighted. Part of the thinking at Microsoft seems to be that keeping Office off the iPad gives many customers who like to work on their devices a reason not to buy the Apple tablet. That makes them more likely to stick with Windows laptops or to try out Microsoft's own tablet, the ... (view more)

A US government contractor has produced software that can track a person's movements and predict their behavior. The software hasn't yet been sold to commercial firms but has been tested, with success. The project is the work of Massachusetts-based ... Raytheon and the US government. The software is called "Rapid Information Overlay Technology," or RIOT for short. RIOT doesn't do anything that humans couldn't do themselves -- it just does it much quicker. It works by gathering together data from people's online activities. Location-Tagged Photos Help RIOT Software One of the keys to the ... (view more)

Spanish researchers say they've found a way to drastically improve the accuracy of GPS-based satellite navigation. They believe they can track a vehicle's location to the nearest six-and-a-half-feet, down from a current radius of nearly fifty feet. ... The improvements might not only allow drivers to get more accurate directions, but could even increase the viability of cars that can drive themselves. The research was carried out by two departments at the Carlos III University in Madrid: the Applied Artificial Intelligence Group and the Systems Intelligence Laboratory. Researchers Remove GPS ... (view more)

A recently-filed lawsuit claims some of Facebook's main features, including the "like" button, copy ideas patented 15 years ago. In fact, the lawsuit is being brought on behalf of a man who died just a few months after Facebook launched. The lawsuit ... has been filed by Rembrandt Social Media, a company set up to handle the intellectual property of Dutch programmer Joannes Jozef Everardus van Der Meer, who died in 2004. At that time Facebook was only available to students in select colleges, though it had just become a corporation. 'Surfbook' the Facebook Framework? The patents at ... (view more)

Adobe is insisting that Mac and Windows users immediately update its Flash Player software. The company says it has just issued a new update designed to prevent hackers from exploiting two recently-discovered bugs. Adobe Flash is a multimedia and ... software platform often used by web browsers to display video, animations, and interactive games. Exploited Flaw Results in Crash By exploiting the bugs, hackers are causing serious problems. Reports indicate that it's possible for hackers to create websites that would trigger the bug and cause a user's computer to crash. That's a problem for ... (view more)

An estimated 40,000 businesses and organizations could find themselves legally bound to report any cyber security breaches they've suffered. The idea is to share information about cyber threats and increase the chances of catching hackers. The rules ... have been proposed by the European Union and would affect organizations across that continent. Companies from the United States and other countries that operate in Europe might also be covered by the rules. (Source: europa.eu ) The firms involved include banks, power companies, and medical facilities. The European Union has determined that a ... (view more)

In recent weeks we've received quite a few emails asking this pressing question: "Dear Infopackets, I recently bought a new Windows 8 computer and I've just about had enough with it. I'm sure some people love the system, but I find it too confusing. ... I can't afford to replace the computer, so is it possible for me to run Windows 7 on it, instead of Windows 8? George H." My response: Yes, George. The short answer is that you can retrofit a Windows 8 computer with Windows 7. But the process can be a lot of a hassle. Please read through all of our instructions before you decide whether ... (view more)

The President of the United States has the right to authorize an online attack on another nation if he has credible evidence to suggest that country plans to attack the US. That's the conclusion of a secret review of rules governing the US ... military's online behavior. Officials are said to be planning the first comprehensive set of guidelines for the military's online activities, though the rules themselves will be classified. The review was prompted by concerns over the current division between the military and intelligence services. For example, the armed forces are only allowed to launch ... (view more)

The US Federal Reserve has confirmed that it recently suffered a cyber attack that resulted in personal data being lost. It's also possible that this information has already been published online. A spokesman for the Federal Reserve said the attack ... was made possible by hackers "exploiting a temporary vulnerability in a website vendor product." That problem was quickly fixed once officials became aware of it. The spokesman didn't publicly confirm what information was stolen, but did say that the attack failed to negatively impact critical operations. There's no indication the hacking ... (view more)

A Harvard professor says the ads Google delivers on Internet web pages encourage racial stereotyping. But she adds that this could be related to social prejudices and may not be due to racism on the part of Google. Latanya Sweeney has investigated ... racism extensively. Her previous findings suggested that people with 'black' names were less likely to get a job interview than those with 'white' names, even when submitting an identical resume. More recently Sweeney examined the Google advertisements appearing alongside the company's search results. She also investigated Reuters' own search tool, ... (view more)