WWWorld.ru · Темы дня · Разделы дня · Интересы дня · 2012 · Свежие новости

Brace yourself, parents: You may have to share your monthly wireless data allotment with your Netflix-loving kid. In a bid to sell and connect more devices to their wireless networks -- and generate more money per subscriber -- major carriers are preparing to introduce "data share" plans. In such plans, customers get a fixed bucket of monthly data and share it among family members or among multiple wireless-enabled devices such as tablets, smartphones and security monitors. For example, a plan could have 5 gigabytes for two devices, instead of 3 GB for one. A typical current wireless family plan allows you to share voice minutes, but any data allotment has to be assigned to individual devices. The changes come as wireless companies are trying to improve profit margins even as they invest heavily in the next new generation of fast wireless networks, called 4G LTE. The carriers are tinkering with their data plans to maximize revenue and also to try to bring in new waves of users still using call- and text-only phones. Fran Shammo, CFO of Verizon Communications, which controls Verizon Wireless, told analysts Wednesday that it will introduce a data-share plan and phase out unlimited data plans. "Customers have told us that they want to share data, similar to how they share minutes today," Verizon Wireless said in a statement Thursday, confirming Shammo's comments. "We are working on plans to provide customers with that option later this year." Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobility, has said in recent days it will have a similar plan. Sprint declined to comment. Verizon and AT&T didn't give pricing or details of their data-share plans. But analysts say they'll be structured to make it easier for users to add new devices and to expose more people to the Web or streaming a movie while on the move. "Now, if you... newsfactor.com »

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... newsfactor.com »

More than a third of the malaria-fighting drugs tested over the past decade in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa were either fake or bad quality, seriously undermining efforts to fight the disease, a study said Tuesday. With up to 1 million people -- mostly children in Africa -- already dying every year from malaria, bogus drugs and those containing the wrong chemical makeup could upend a decade of progress fighting the mosquito-transmitted disease, the U.S.-funded review said. International efforts to combat drug counterfeiting -- much of it believed to take place in China -- are urgently needed. Fake drugs with no malaria-fighting agents can lead to deaths when patients rely on them, and those containing some active ingredients -- but not enough to fully kill all parasites -- are also problematic because they promote resistance that can eventually outsmart medicines and render them useless. Alarm bells have sounded in recent years over signs of increasing resistance in western Cambodia on Thailand's border with Myanmar among artemisinin-based drugs, the only effective medicine now widely used to cure the disease. Studies show the drugs are taking longer to work there, and experts fear the emerging resistance could eventually spread to Africa as has occurred previously with other malaria treatments that now are worthless against the disease. If artemisinin-based drugs stop working, there is no good replacement and many people would ultimately die. Currently, malaria kills an estimated 2,000 children every day in Africa. Some 3.3 billion people worldwide are at risk of getting infected. "We feel a sense of emergency considering the impact these medicines can have," lead author Gaurvika Nayyar, of the Fogarty International Center at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, said in an email. The study says more labs are needed worldwide to test for fake drugs -- only three out of 47 malaria-plagued countries in Africa... newsfactor.com »