Summary: A coalition of technology firms, including those implicated in the PRISM spying scandal, have signed a letter to the Obama administration urging for greater transparency.

Close to two-dozen technology firms, including AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, have signed a letter to the U.S. government urging greater transparency in the wake of the National Security Agency's PRISM spying scandal.

The National Security Agency's "PRISM" program is able to collect, in realtime, intelligence not limited to social networks and email accounts. But the seven tech companies accused of opening 'back doors' to the spy agency could well be proven innocent.

Since former NSA contractor turned whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked a number of documents that detailed how the U.S. government and its foreign allies were spying on their citizens, many technology companies have tried to distance themselves from claims of collusion and cooperation.

The letter [PDF], which can also be read below, calls on the Obama administration to allow companies to disclose exactly how many government requests for customer and subscriber data that Internet providers, telcos and Web-based companies are handed.

Google first began this trend in early 2010, and others followed suit. Microsoft became the latest firm to join the trend earlier this year after pressure from privacy groups.

But companies are not allowed to disclose the full amount of National Security Letter "gagging orders" handed down by federal authorities. Instead, they are only permitted to report the number range.

The letter also calls for the government to allow these technology firms, and others, to detail how many requests made under Section 215 of the Patriot Act — which demands all "tangible things" including business records and private user data — as well as under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and other related statutes that currently prevent these companies from publishing these figures themselves.

The group also calls for Congress to pass laws that force the U.S. government to report these figures accurately without having to first seek permission from the FISA court.

Also, the companies have launched a group petition on the White House's "We The People" platform.

The coalition includes other technology firms but also civil liberties and privacy groups — such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), among others.

 

Discount for Microsoft software download online. You just pay less for genuine microsoft office 2013, office 2010, windows 8 and more. To find out more about Microsoft software visit:

Microsoft office 2010 professional plus download

Get genuine microsoft office professional plus 2010 downloads at key4students store, URL: http://www.key4students.co.uk/microsoft-office-profession...
Get genuine microsoft office Professional plus 2010 license keys at msoffice store, URL: http://www.msoffice.org.uk/microsoft-office-professional-...

 

The common, popular narrative is that companies like Microsoft are eeeeevil. All they want is money! Or something like that. Maybe it's not so clear-cut?

I want to tell you that Skulls of the Shogun is excellent. Read…

This quote in the image above comes from a piece on Rock Paper, Shotgun on Skulls of the Shogun. (Edit: the quote comes from Borut Pfeiffer, who works for Plush Apocalypse Productions—a studio that collaborated with 17-BIT on Skulls of the Shogun). The article describes the trials and disappointments that came with developing a game exclusive to Microsoft products. Instead of having that exclusivity result in more exposure and sales, the move resulted in complications and an empty bank account.

They came across as though they were institutionally incompetent. I think they’re not really set up to be a decent publisher. I do feel slightly bad saying that, because there were people there who worked hard on our behalf, but at the same time there are systemic problems with the way that division is setup and run.

Of course, the developers knew they were taking a gamble that involved releasing a game on a bunch of new products—it's probably not fair to put all of the blame on Microsoft. Still, it's kind of impressive how incompetent Microsoft sounds, at least when it comes to doing well by indies. You can read specifics here; it's well worth a read.

Discount for Microsoft software download online. You just pay less for genuine microsoft office 2013, office 2010, windows 8 and more. To find out more about Microsoft software visit:

buy cheap microsoft office 2013 at www.key4students.co.uk

Discount prices on genuine microsoft office 2010 downloads at key4students store, URL: http://www.key4students.co.uk/microsoft-office-2010-c-2.h...
Discount prices on genuine microsoft office 2013 downloads at key4students store, URL: http://www.key4students.co.uk/microsoft-office-2013-c-10....

Google‘s decision to shut down Google Reader has left some in the tech world feeling battered and bruised.

 

For many power users, Reader was once the go-to application for keeping up with the news. Like many other RSS aggregators, Reader combined posts from multiple blogs and websites into a simple, inbox-like view. But there was something about Reader’s simplicity, as well its ease-of-access as a web application, that made it extremely popular among RSS users. Even though its popularity has waned in recent years, more than 70,000 people have signed a petition asking Google not to kill Reader on July 1.

 

I’m not one of the protesters who is desperately clinging to Reader, or to RSS in general. I migrated to using Twitter lists a couple years ago, and am therefore a prime example of why Google no longer sees the need to keep Reader going. So instead of mourning, I’m using this as a time of reflection. Here are a few takeaways on the end of Google Reader:

 

Alienating Your Base Rarely Works

 

I’m guessing Google didn’t want things to end this way. About a year and a half ago, Google launched a major redesign for Reader, changing the look, removing a note-taking feature and, most importantly, replacing the service’s built-in sharing with Google+ integration. It’s possible that Google saw potential in Reader as a big driver of traffic and links for its new social network.

 

But as Buzzfeed has noted, Reader already was a thriving social network, just not the one Google had in mind. Loyal users felt burned by the changes, and Google now cites declining usage as the main reason Reader is shutting down.

 

Maybe things would have been different had Google nurtured Reader’s community instead of abandoning it. Brian Shih, an ex-Googler who was a product manager for Reader, argues that the service could have blossomed. “But Reader at Google was pigeonholed as an RSS-reader explicitly, and didn’t have a chance to grow beyond that to explore that space,” he wrote on Quora.

 

Ironically, Digg now says it’s building an RSS reader to fill the void left by Google Reader. Now there’s a company that knows all about alienating its users and suffering the consequences.

 

No, You Don’t Always Get What You Pay For

 

Some tech pundits have used the demise of Reader to claim that free services are inherently less dependable than paid ones. “Next time, please pay a fair price for the services you depend on,” Dave Winer wrote. “Those have a better chance of surviving the bubbles.”

 

Winer’s assertion sounds good, but it’s debatable. Paid services can go belly-up just as easily as free ones. Sometimes they get acquired and killed by a larger company (as with Apple and Lala or Google and reMail). Other times, they just fail to get a big enough audience to sustain themselves. (See, for instance, my run-ins with dead or dying streaming music services.) The logic that “if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product” is pretty easy to tear apart.

 

Meanwhile, you’d have a hard time finding an Internet search provider that asks for any money, let alone one that’s as likely to stick around as long as Google. The same is true for social networks, web-based mail providers and countless other online services — including RSS readers.

 

Come Up with an Escape Plan

 

Since you can’t always predict which web services will still be around a few years from now, you may want to plan for the day when your most beloved services disappear. I’m not an expert on other RSS readers in particular, but Lifehacker has a good list of Google Reader alternatives. Don’t forget to grab your existing RSS data from Reader using Google Takeout. You can also try setting up Twitter lists or using news aggregation apps such as Flipboard, Zite and Pulse.

For more information about Content in Microsoft office 2010/2011/2013 & Windows 7/8 at the Cheapest Prices in Australia, please visit us online at :

 

Buy discount microsoft office 2010/2013 in Australia

 

• best price Buy office 2010 download online in Australia, URL: http://www.discountsoftwareau.com/office-2010-download-c-...

 

• best price Buy office 2013 download online in Australia, URL: http://www.discountsoftwareau.com/office-2013-download-c-...