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Visa and Mastercard announce massive data breach, 10 million credit cards compromised | NextGadgets.net | Cool Gadgets, New Gadgets, Latest Gadgets, Future Gadgets, Electronic Gadgets, Hi Tech Gadgets News

This again is just speculative, but an updated article. I’d be interested to hear what Global Payments has to say. I have not noticed any activity on my card, but I’ve monitored my card since I’ve gotten it, so I’m not overly concerned. But the number of 10 million is nothing to laugh at according to what I am getting out of this.

Visa and Mastercard announce massive data breach, 10 million credit cards compromised | NextGadgets.net | Cool Gadgets, New Gadgets, Latest Gadgets, Future Gadgets, Electronic Gadgets, Hi Tech Gadgets News.

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Google’s Self-Driving Cars Have at Least One Happy Customer – Liz Gannes – News – AllThingsD

Check this out, a blind man using a Google self driving car. Someone is with him of course, but I bet that we could be by ourselves at one point if this came true.

Google’s Self-Driving Cars Have at Least One Happy Customer – Liz Gannes – News – AllThingsD.

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snippits of tech from new zealand

Hi.
This is another article I hope to contribute major things to here.
Stay tuned for a major project post.
shaun

Hi all Tom here ? delivering the snippets to you this week

One IT nasty that I personally find annoying, and not just for
accessibility, is
the Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart
or as we know it CAPTCHA. While some provide audio we all know that they can
still be a bit of a pain to use. So I thought I’d take a look to see
what can be
done about it. Firstly, the web consortium provides clear guidelines
as part of
their accessibility guidelines on how CAPTCHA should be used ? the
detail is all
here in its glory http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#text-equiv . Also,
the people at
www.captcha.net (the official CAPTCHA website) have accessibility as one of
their main (I want to say selling?) points. At this site you can get the code
for free that you need for your online shop of whatever, so it might
be a place
to direct people if you spot an inaccessible CAPTCHA. Finally, and
what started
this snippet was, an interesting article on CAPTCHA alternatives. My
favorite is
a checkbox that states ‘uncheck if you are human’ ? read the article here at
http://www.evengrounds.com/developers/alternatives-to-captcha
The latest AccessWorld from AFB includes an interesting article about the
accessibility of the latest offering from Google ? the Ice Cream
Sandwich OS for
Android devices. It’s a pretty good review including set up, calling
and using a
few apps. While they claim it’s a “mixed bag” access wise, it’s certainly
improved. But the interesting statement is “it is still not close to reaching
the level of accessibility and usability found in the Apple iPhone.” Worth a
look for resources and links, read more at
http://www.afb.org/afbpress/pub.asp?DocID=aw130302

The following two snippets were taking from the World Blind Union ? E
notice. I
took a closer look at these two to see what I could find out.

The heading read “The Swiss Federation of the Blind has launched a GPS app for
smartphones; the “lite” version is free.” Well, on closer inspection the link
takes you to the iTunes store – so it’s iPhone app only. Only one
review so far
that states “it’s a good start, but a bit confusing”. The Applevis
website goes
further to say it supposedly works like loadstone, so you would have
to enter in
your own points of interest. Currently it can only be used for walking ? no
option for vehicles. Read more at

SFB launches MyWay app to aid blind people

The next heading that took my interest was “A new app called Braille Touch
allows typing text on a phone without the need to look at the keys”.
The system
works by having six spots on the screen that correspond with the dots in a
braille cell. You hold you phone in landscape, with the screen facing
away from
you, so you can grip the phone with your palms while your fingertips
do all the
work. Strangely, the promotional material is more “text people
without looking”
rather than we have made app for braille input. Nevertheless, it
appears to be a
nice solution to inputting text and pretty straight forward to use. But as the
YouTube video suggests, it is not a solution for texting and driving.
They start
explaining that it has something to do with overloading neurons in
the brain. I
thought it would be to do with not having hands on the steering
wheel. Read more
at http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/release.html?nid=110051

Bit of a survey this week ? Tiny URL’s. This week I have included the links in
full, my thinking is that it gives you some idea of where you a
going. However,
they can get a bit long and of course bit awkward when read out on TIS. So we
are bit undecided. So what do you think? Should we use short URLS or keep then
long?

‘Innovations Snippets’ are short items of interest to the AT Community brought
to you by the RNZFB Innovation and Development Team. Please share with others
by forwarding this mail or at TIS option 3-2-5. Please share your experiences
and ideas for further snippets on ATIG or by sending an email to

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F.T.C. Seeks Privacy Legislation – NYTimes.com

F.T.C. Seeks Privacy Legislation – NYTimes.com.

This is a two page article dealing with privacy. I read page 1, and find it interesting. There’s more to the article, and I may talk about this one.

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Microsoft disrupts massive cybercrime operation

Microsoft disrupts massive cybercrime operation.

This is interesting zeus news from Microsoft. Coming from Help Net Security, this is an interesting one. Check out the article.

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How much does a 0-day vulnerability cost?

This is quite interesting. What do you think of this article? I think it is interesting how this stuff can be sold and lots of money to be had if the price is right. Check out thi=s article from Help Net Security.

How much does a 0-day vulnerability cost?.

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Kim Dotcom: US Military Had 15,634 Megaupload Accounts | TorrentFreak

I’m thinking I’ll get lots of comments on this one.

Kim Dotcom: US Military Had 15,634 Megaupload Accounts | TorrentFreak.

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Kim Dotcom: US Military Had 15,634 Megaupload Accounts | TorrentFreak

I’m thinking I’ll get lots of comments on this one. What do you all think of this one?

Kim Dotcom: US Military Had 15,634 Megaupload Accounts | TorrentFreak.

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Technology podcast 171 is now available for March 24, 2012

Podcast 171 is now available for the podcast serries and you can pick it up in the RSS feed.

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SendSpace wizzard, pricing, CSUN2012 coverage, and a whole lot more is on our podcast for podcast 171 for March 24, 2012 which lasts 72 minutes 23 seconds. I hope you enjoy the podcast as much as I have bringing it together. Remember to contact us with your thoughts.

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We hope you enjoy the cast.

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U.S. Court Sentences Russian Fraudster to 2 Years in Prison | World | RIA Novosti

Cool! Great news. Check this out.

U.S. Court Sentences Russian Fraudster to 2 Years in Prison | World | RIA Novosti.

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AT& – T Accused of Improperly Billing for Service for Deaf – NYTimes.com

Wow. What a mess ATT is in with this one. Check this out.

AT& – T Accused of Improperly Billing for Service for Deaf – NYTimes.com.

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How to prevent ID theft after death

How to prevent ID theft after death.

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The digital detective: Mikko Hypponen’s war on malware is escalating (Wired UK)

This is a great article. You guys aught to check this one out. Talks about the beginning of Fsecure, and what one of the people do there. Check it out, and let me know what you think.

The digital detective: Mikko Hypponen’s war on malware is escalating (Wired UK).

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articles for this week

Hi.
I am glad that its more than just me that does not like the new
combined mobile/desktop win8 os.
I see no reason for ms to keep win7 start menu, win7 startmenu is really good.
On that note, we should be boycotting all tablets with windows on
them since ms seems not to care to make them accessable.
The only good thing that will come out of win8 is that uia seems to
control everything including access with out any mirror driver.
Speaking of which I really need to put up a ticket for nvda not
speaking status bars and other download progress bars in ie 9 still.
I am pleased to find ie 10 a lot faster than 9 is though.
Still, for what its worth, I’d probably just stay with 7 for now or even xp.
What was wrong with xp.
Its a perfect home desktop system.
I think ms should have 3 aditions of their system.
Windows tablet, can be win8 as it is now.
Windows desktop can be win7 as it is now maybe with a few extras. and
maybe windows home though pro seems to be a good all round os for
home and business users.
Vertual machines a side on that front though, I think ms has made
something worse than vista.
I got a chance to fiddle with vista and it is not that bad.
The normal start menu is rubbish but there is still a classic menu system.
And if you bashed all graphical content the system would really run
really fast.

I wander if ms could or someone could make a windows for blind or
other disabled users.
We obviously need screens for sighted users but menus are the thing.
Ok, I like bits of the ribbon, pull down menus for items I can
stomach and learn to like.

Part of the metro failing is that we are not ready for it yet.
Ms should leave this till win9 maybe for another 5 years or so.
Eventually we will have touch screens everywhere.
For now though win8 can fork ooff.
And if win32 goes all windows apps will be screwed over totally.

On to other things.

I don’t aggree with card companies threatening banks.
However, I do aggree something needs to be done.
Clearly these banks are not keeping up with security and there should
be something on that note.
Spam accounts should be shut down, and security updated.
Suing for it though is not the way.
A law that tells banks to shut down is another thing though.
Saying that its coman sence.
If my major network got hacked, I’d shut it down, fix it find out
what happened, if anyone responsible inside the company, deal with it.
If not, deal with whatever the best I can.
Suing the bank.
Guess I could but then I am just putting the problem to some other bugger.

There are so many cloud based networks around, one of the issues
with clouds and the reason I am uncomfortable with putting my account
for windows on live, even though google has yahoo and aol access,
though I don’t use all features, well clouds are good targets for hackers.
I blame all the different dns systems on the fecking antipiracy laws
which have come up, torrent laws,etc.
I never thought about this till now but this was bound to happen.
A trogen dns, yeah I can see that.
Sadly the best dns servers are the ones your isp uses, secure or no.
If they break, then its your isps problem.
I guess if you have a secure cloud in google, live, trend micro and
other services then you are ok but still.
If you want to use a dns server other than your own, if you need to
log into it then you are at least secure.
If it has ssl or tls and you can get a certificate on that then its good.
I do feel partly for those that got infected.
Why I say partly is that there are probably loads of idiots that
clicked on links in email or something.
I have no sympathy for those.
Its good that the government is allowing people to clear their systems.
Maybe thats a good idea to use a secuire cloud or your isp or both or
something.
However a problem still remains.
With all the blacklisting that will go on.
I won’t be supprised if some people infected after cleaning get
charged large bills, get blacklisted, go to jail get fined and get
general flack from the government for nothing.
Its sadly usually what happens.
The idiots will get off scot free, the government is smart enough to
know they won’t change.
But those that are not well.
I always have a sinical viewpoint where security, the law and any
authority come into play.
Its usually for the intrest and gain of those with the power.
Us consumers generate vary little ammounts of it.

On the visa thing, I think if I was a bank and kept getting hit like
this all the time, I’d just stop using visa all together.
I actually know friends on businesses that don’t allow visa, or any
credit/ eftpos card company access because of complience costs and
hacks like this.
They kept getting hit with well stuff.
Eventually they decided to just use cash or direct internet banking.
One things for sure, I think a lot of people will start using paypal,
paypal is a major target already.
and when that goes, it will be paying loads of cash to transfer over the net.
This is only going to end in tears.

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Visa pressures banks into closing spammers’ accounts

This is quite interesting. What are your thoughts?

Visa pressures banks into closing spammers’ accounts.

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Big backlash is building against Windows 8. Will Microsoft listen? – Computerworld Blogs

There was a demo GW Micro did of Windows 8 and its new interface at CSUN this year. I would say it is different, but a pretty good change to how we know windows works. Check out this article.

Big backlash is building against Windows 8. Will Microsoft listen? – Computerworld Blogs.

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Malicious DNS Changer Trojan May Block Your Internet Access-Truth!

To: TruthOrFiction Subscribers
From: TruthOrFiction.com Team
RE: Virus/eRumor Alert: Malicious DNS Changer Trojan May Block Your Internet Access

Malicious DNS Changer Trojan May Block Your Internet Access-Truth!

You might have gotten a warning that says a DNS Changer Trojan that hijacks computers is circulating the Internet that reroutes the web browsers to other servers.
DNS stands for “Domain Name System” and the warning goes on to say that any computers infected with this malware will be blocked from the Internet on March 8, 2012.

The warning is real but the government’s threat to block infected computers in March has been extended by four months, according to a March 7, 2012 article in PC Mag.

The FBI announced that close to a half a million computers have been infected after a joint agency task force conducted a raid back in November.
Six members of a computer hacking gang in Estonia were apprehended and charged with bagging millions of dollars in affiliation and referral fees by illegally re-routing computer users to other servers that were under their control.

For more details with links to diagnostic and removal utilities go to:

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/d/DNS-Changer-Warning.htm.

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Windows8 as it is and probably will be

Hi all.
By now if you have read the blog you will know that I speak my mind.
If I think things are forking bad then they are and frack anyone else
that thinks differently.

Such is windows8.
The only good thing win8 seems to have is everything under uia or
user interface automation.
That means no more mirror drivers or dcm or anything.
Over that all the feature upgrades are just that, not really usefull.
I have been reading reviews and the only thing that may be usefull is
the cloud account access.
I have issues on having all my personal details associated with my
windows live id.
Sertainly I won’t lose all my settings, but the fact that I trust an
online server to a international server is a bit stomach lerching.
The fact msse is included in the os is maybe the only other up as
well as the metro shortcuts.
I will however be getting classic shell and maybe other things.
I really hope someone finds a way to turn metro off.
THe win7 start menu is only good because because if you don’t want to
bother with it you don’t have to.
The visual metro system is just that.
A pile of freeking shite!!!
We can’t use it, or at least easily.
I don’t know about dolphin stuff, but win8 holds no real intrest for me.
If we all switch oses, then android will be what I use.
One thing I’d like in windows is the ability to use a vertual machine
as an interface.
Have say windows8 as the core but use a win xp or win7 vm of some sort.
I still use xp and its really good.
I may update to win7, just may, but win8 has audio limitations and
other junk that I don’t care for.
You can’t even use other midi synths on it than the stupid ms ones.
The only way I’d use win8 would be to have metro turned off and the
standard win7 or xp menus and programs appear as normal.
Nvda still doesn’t support uia in ie9 right no progressbars and the like.
And I am in two minds to upgrading to win8 at all.
The only silver lining is that I may be getting a desktop with win xp on it.
It also appears that toshiba, the manufacturer of my laptop seem to
be giving out oem versions of win xp although no idea how long that will last.
With the win7 phone being fully inaccessable to us I dispair the
accessability on win8.
The text based os may be out dated but we still use it.
The only good thing is that support should carrow over to at least
2020 meaning that hardware drivers etc will still be made for win7
meaning we have at least another decade before we need to upgrade again.
My only issue with this is the fact that previously the blind have
been 1-2 os versions behind.
Now we could be 3 or 4 or well never catch up.
I have threatened that I would use pirated coppies of windows just so
I could continue to work accessably.
This won’t happen with win7 but using xp or 7 coppies pirated or
otherwise is still on the cards unless win8 gets hacked to actually
work for us.
Maybe I will wait for win9.
If I had to do it all over again, I’d skip ms all together.
apple seems to have the market as well as android and still can be accessable.
Linux, well has never progressed to the point where you can plug in and go.
But thats just me.
Right now though, unless something improves, I will probably just
stay with older tech.
I don’t need anything over what I have now so won’t need win8.
laters all

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AT&T offers settlement to iPhone user who sued over 3G throttling

More crap maybe for this story? Check this out.

AT&T offers settlement to iPhone user who sued over 3G throttling.

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Judge Orders Failed Copyright Troll to Forfeit ‘All’ Copyrights | Threat Level | Wired.com

This is great. I’ve followed this through twil, and from the articles I’ve passed along to them, and this might be the end of them. What do you think?

Judge Orders Failed Copyright Troll to Forfeit ‘All’ Copyrights | Threat Level | Wired.com.

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