Behind Your Business

Monday Mail Mayhem. That's how Anonymous is describing its latest hack. The "hacktivist" group broke in to a 1.7-GB archive of data it says "used to belong to the United States Bureau of Justice, until now."

"Within the booty you may find lots of shiny things such as internal e-mails, and the entire database dump," Anonymous said in a statement. "We Lulzed as they took the Web site down after being owned, clearly showing they were scared of what inevitably happened."

Why the Bureau of Statistics?

Anonymous apparently also uploaded a BitTorrent file of the stolen data to Pirate Bay. That's a potentially serious leak, considering that the Bureau of Justice Statistics' stated mission is to collect, analyze, publish, and disseminate information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government. The bureau describes the data as "critical to federal, state, and local policymakers in combating crime and ensuring that justice is both efficient and evenhanded."

With that in mind, why is Anonymous targeting the Bureau of Justice statistics? Anonymous answered that question with a mouthful of hacktivist-speak reminiscent of WikiLeaks.

"We do not stand for any government or parties, we stand for freedom of people, freedom of speech and freedom of information. We are releasing data to spread information, to allow the people to be heard, and to know the corruption in their government," according to the Anonymous statement. "We are releasing it to end the corruption that exists, and truly make those who are being oppressed free."

The U.S. Department of Justice confirmed the breach and published reports say the government is investigating the hacks. In a statement, a spokesman said the department is looking into the unauthorized access of a Web site server operated by the Bureau of Justice Statistics that contained data from...

Five top cable-TV providers have banded together to offer Wi-Fi hotspots across the country in a bid to add more value to cable subscriptions amid challenges from a wide range of competitors.

By visiting www.cablewifi.com, customers of Brighthouse Networks, Cox Communications, Optimum Online and Xfinity can now find hotspots across the country available with their customer log-in. The CableWiFi network monicker will eventually replace those of the individual cable companies.

'New Era of Opportunity'

The coalition members "will allow each other's high-speed Internet customers access to over 50,000 hotspots," the Web site tells visitors. "CableWiFi is the network name created as an extension of the Wi-Fi services offered by the Internet service providers listed here."

Wi-Fi searchers can browse the site by specific location (i.e., Grand Central Station), by location type or by city and check for indoor hotspots, outdoor hotspots and partner hotspots.

"The way customers are using our service continues to evolve," said Cox Communications COO Jill Campbell in a joint statement issued by all five companies Monday. "This is a new area of opportunity that we need to explore."

Rob Marcus, President and COO of Time Warner Cable, added: "We have long been the leading providers of high-speed Internet services in our customers' homes. Through our rollout of Wi-Fi and the benefits of this collaboration we greatly increase the value and reach of our high-speed Internet service, providing access to broadband outside the home and in cities across the country."

The new effort expands a 2010 deal between Cablevision, Comcast and Time Warner Cable for sharing Wi-Fi in New York City, Long Island, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Connecticut.

"This is critical to stay competitive," said technology consultant Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group. "They have to be able to compete with DSL suppliers who all have cell phone capability as well and allow customers to...

The latest Web metrics data from StatCounter shows Internet Explorer and Chrome in a virtual dead heat for the top position in the global browser market, with 32.42 percent and 32.29 percent market shares, respectively, during the first three weeks of May.

Firefox held a 25.28 percent share followed by Safari with 7.14 percent and Opera with 1.5 percent.

On the other hand, U.S.-based rival Web metrics firm Net Applications reported that IE continues to hold a significant lead over rival browser makers on traditional PC platforms around the world. The Web metrics firm's latest data shows IE with a 54.1 percent share, followed by Firefox (20.2 percent), Chrome (18.9 percent) and Safari (4.8 percent).

Starting in February, Net Applications began adjusting its usage share numbers based on the pre-rendering functionality in Chrome, which displays thumbnails of Web site pages in Google's search lists. This had been inflating Net Applications' Chrome browsing statistics posted by approximately 4.14 percent with respect to usage share.

"Because pre-rendering can substantially misrepresent usage share numbers, it's important for analytics companies like us to adjust for pre-rendering to provide accurate data on usage share to our customers," said Net Applications Executive Vice President Vince Vizzaccaro earlier this year.

Chrome's Inflated Data

Google's browser has incorporated a pre-rendering functionality since the debut of Chrome 13 last year, with the principal advantage being that pre-rendered pages load faster when the user elects to click on the associated search result link. And with the release of Chrome 17, Google expanded the behavior to include search queries typed into the Omnibox. "so we anticipate more pre-rendering traffic in the future," Vizzaccaro said.

Indeed, when Google rolled out Chrome 19 last week the new browser release added the ability to sync all the user's open tabs across all of the individual's devices when...

In a move to differentiate itself from rival Intel, AMD on Monday rolled out its Embedded R-Series accelerated processing unit platform, or APU.

With its latest innovation, AMD is targeting users of mid- to high-end graphics-intensive applications like digital signage, casino gaming, point-of-sale systems and kiosks, as well as parallel-processing-intensive applications.

The Embedded R-Series APU combines AMD's new "Piledriver" CPU architecture with its DirectX 11-capable AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series graphics in a heterogeneous multicore embedded processing platform.

Buddy Broeker, director of AMD Embedded Solutions, said AMD developed the embedded APU to offer its customers a high-performance, power-efficient, small form-factor embedded processor.

"By leveraging its seamlessly integrated heterogeneous system architecture, developers can tap into a high-performance and efficient parallel processing engine to accelerate their graphics- and compute-intensive applications, all while using industry-standard libraries such as OpenCL and DirectCompute," Broeker said.

Under the Hood

When you lift up the hood, so to speak, on the Embedded R-Series APU, you'll find that it integrates dedicated resources that work to drive performance with shared resources while simultaneously reducing power consumption and die space.

Because of its scalability, AMD said, the new APU gives developers the flexibility to leverage the same board design and software stack for a variety of apps. The Embedded R-Series also integrates discrete-class graphics into the processor, which means apps that previously required a separate graphics processor or card now can be delivered on a wide range of form factors.

Devs working with the AMD Embedded R-Series APU can implement remote management, client virtualization and security capabilities. All this aims to help reduce deployment costs and increase security and reliability of their AMD R-Series based platform through AMD DAS 1.0, featuring DASH 1.1, AMD Virtualization and Trusted Platform Module 1.2 support.

Researchers Give Nod

"The AMD Embedded R-Series APU capitalizes on a number of trends around hardware...

The long-rumored Alibaba buyback is a done deal -- and it's infusing billions of dollars in cash into Yahoo's operating account. Alibaba Group signed a deal for what it is calling a "staged and comprehensive value realization plan" for Yahoo's 40 percent stake in the Chinese e-commerce giant.

Alibaba Group will first repurchase up to half of Yahoo's stake, or about 20 percent of Alibaba's fully diluted shares. That gives Yahoo about $6.3 billion in cash proceeds and as much as $800 million in newly issued Alibaba preferred stock.

"Today's agreement provides clarity for our shareholders on a substantial component of Yahoo's value and reaffirms the significance of our relationship with Alibaba," said Ross Levinsohn, interim CEO of Yahoo. "We look forward to continued collaboration with the Alibaba team on business initiatives as we explore joint opportunities for growth and benefit from Alibaba's future."

Ongoing Royalty Payments

The agreement includes a framework for Yahoo to monetize its remaining interest in Alibaba in stages. When Alibaba goes public in the future, the company will be required to either repurchase 25 percent of Yahoo's current stake at the IPO price or allow Yahoo to sell those shares in the IPO. After an IPO, Yahoo has registration rights and rights to marketing support from Alibaba to help it dispose of the remaining shares.

Yahoo and Alibaba also have agreed to amend their existing technology and intellectual property licensing agreement. As part of the amendment, Yahoo is granting Alibaba a transitional license to continue to operate Yahoo China under the Yahoo brand for up to four years, and restrictions on Yahoo's ability to make other investments in China will be terminated.

Alibaba will make an up-front, lump-sum royalty payment of $550 million to Yahoo and continuing royalty payments for up to four years. In addition, Alibaba will license certain...