Why ISPs’ fight against net neutrality probably won’t reach Supreme Court

There are no major questions for the Supreme Court to decide, some experts say.

The next stop for net neutrality? (credit: Joe Ravi (CC-BY-SA 3.0))

The US appeals court decision upholding the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules wasn't quite the final word on the matter, as ISPs immediately vowed to appeal the ruling, with AT&T saying it "expect[s] this issue to be decided by the Supreme Court."

But while ISPs will give it their best shot, there are reasons to think that the Supreme Court won't take up the case. The appeal probably won't even make it to a rehearing by the full appeals court, a potential intermediate step before a Supreme Court case, legal expert Andrew Jay Schwartzman wrote last week in a Benton Foundation article titled, "Network Neutrality: Now What?" Schwartzman is a Georgetown Law lecturer, an attorney who specializes in media and telecommunications policy, and a longtime consumer advocate who previously led the Media Access Project.

The broadband industry lost a 2-1 decision (full text) by a three-judge panel at the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which rejected challenges to the FCC's reclassification of broadband as a Title II common carrier service and imposition of net neutrality rules. The next step for ISPs and their lobby groups could be a petition for an "en banc" review in front of all of the court's judges instead of just a three-judge panel. They could also appeal to the Supreme Court after losing an en banc review or appeal directly to the Supreme Court without taking that intermediate step.

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The Turing Phone will (finally) ship July 12th… sort of

The Turing Phone will (finally) ship July 12th… sort of

The Turing Phone is a funny-looking smartphone aimed at folks who value promises of security over silly things like headphone jacks, SD card slots, and support for apps from the Google Play Store.

First announced over  a year ago, the developers of the phone started taking pre-orders in August, 2015 in hopes of actually shipping a phone in December. That didn’t happen.

But as Android Police reports, now the company says it’s getting ready to ship the first phones to customers.

Continue reading The Turing Phone will (finally) ship July 12th… sort of at Liliputing.

The Turing Phone will (finally) ship July 12th… sort of

The Turing Phone is a funny-looking smartphone aimed at folks who value promises of security over silly things like headphone jacks, SD card slots, and support for apps from the Google Play Store.

First announced over  a year ago, the developers of the phone started taking pre-orders in August, 2015 in hopes of actually shipping a phone in December. That didn’t happen.

But as Android Police reports, now the company says it’s getting ready to ship the first phones to customers.

Continue reading The Turing Phone will (finally) ship July 12th… sort of at Liliputing.

Meet Jigsaw, the ransomware that taunts victims and offers live support

As data-encrypting malware proliferates, new entrants search for ways to stand out.

The crypto ransomware racket is a booming business that generates lots of revenue, so it only makes sense that the scourge is growing. And with new titles entering the market on almost a weekly basis, how do the criminals behind them make their malware stand out?

In the case of Jigsaw, a ransomware package that was first spotted in April by researchers with the Bleeping Computer security site, the answer is to be as brazen and mean-spirited as possible while at the same time making the payment process as easy as possible. A case in point: Jigsaw not only threatens the permanent loss of personal data, it also holds out the fear that victims' dirty laundry will be published for all to see. And it uses a taunting tone when notifying people of their options. Witness the screenshot above from a recent version. It states:

Very bad news! I am a so-called ransomware/locker with following advanced functions: Encrypting all your data.
Collecting all logins, contacts, eMail, Passwords and Skype History .....Done!
Uploading all of it on a server .....................Done!
Sending a copy of those Datas to ALL of your contacts..............Pending

The doxing threat, which was added last week, is pure evil genius because it gives victims a strong incentive to pay the ransom even when the purloined data is available on a backup drive.

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Windows 10 upgrade will soon be easier to reject

Pressing the X will close the window, as it should.

The updated Get Windows 10 app, with its decline option.

Microsoft is finally ending the malware-like trickery of the "Get Windows 10" upgrade offer that's shown to Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users.

Mary Jo Foley reports that a clearer upgrade promotion will roll out this week. It will have three options—"Upgrade now," "Choose time," and "Decline free offer"—with the last of these options dismissing the update altogether. Critically, pressing the X in the corner of the window will have the same effect as the decline option.

This change addresses one of the most unpleasant features of the promotion: some weeks ago, Microsoft changed the behavior of the X button to make it simply defer the upgrade rather than decline it altogether. This behavior was contrary to any reasonable expectations Windows users might have, and contrary to the way the promotion behaved at its introduction.

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Experimental Zika vaccines work in mice, protect with one shot

First published animal studies show two common vaccine strategies could do the trick.

(credit: CDC)

As Zika virus outbreaks continue to rage in South and Central America, lapping at US borders, scientists are making significant strides toward an effective vaccine.

Two types of experimental Zika vaccines, a DNA vaccine and an inactivated virus vaccine, were each able to completely protect mice with one dose, researchers report Tuesday in Nature. The animal data—the first to be published for Zika vaccines—follows news last week that the Food and Drug Administration gave two companies the green light to test another Zika DNA vaccine in humans. The companies, not associated with the researchers behind today’s study, reported that they have done similar animal studies with their vaccine, but they didn’t publish the results.

With today’s animal data, researchers are hopeful about the fate of the vaccines. “The protection was striking,” Dan Barouch, a study coauthor and vaccine researcher at Harvard Medical School, said in a press briefing. “Of course we need to be cautious about extrapolating results from mice into humans,” he noted, but the strength of the findings “certainly raise optimism” that we’re on our way to a safe and effective vaccine.

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Here’s how Volkswagen’s $15 billion proposed settlement would be divided up

The settlement will be largest ever between an automaker and regulators.

And lo, that which was rumored last night has come to fruition this morning. On Tuesday morning, Volkswagen Group proposed a number of companion settlements with the Department of Justice representing the Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the Federal Trade Commission, more than 40 state attorneys general, and a class-action complaint from people who bought 2.0L diesel cars from Volkswagen and Audi.

The amount of the settlements will tally more than $15 billion, with $10.033 billion going toward compensating consumers. In a conference call on Tuesday morning, Elizabeth Cabraser, the court-appointed lead counsel for Volkswagen consumer plaintiffs, detailed exactly how the German automaker would compensate its customers after the company was discovered last September to have included illegal software on many of its recent diesel models. The software helped the diesel vehicles pass federally required emissions tests in a lab but turned off the cars’ emissions control systems while under normal driving conditions, causing significantly increased levels of nitrogen oxide to spew on open roads.

Cabraser noted that owners of certain diesel VW Golfs, Passats, Jettas, Beetles, and Audi A3s would be eligible for a buyback equal to the amount the car was worth in September 2015—a range from a low of around $12,000 to a high of about $44,000. The buybacks would be accepted “regardless of condition,” Cabraser said, “as long as it’s drivable.”

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Deals of the Day (6-28-2016)

Deals of the Day (6-28-2016)

The HP Envy 13  is a compact Windows laptop that’s available with an Intel Skylake processor, up to 8GB of RAM, and up to a 3200 x 1800 pixel display.

HP normally charges $850 and up for the laptop, but right now you can spend $750 on a model with a 1080p screen, a Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage.

Or you could spend $50 more for a model with a 3200 x 1800 pixel display, twice the storage, and a Core i7 CPU.

Continue reading Deals of the Day (6-28-2016) at Liliputing.

Deals of the Day (6-28-2016)

The HP Envy 13  is a compact Windows laptop that’s available with an Intel Skylake processor, up to 8GB of RAM, and up to a 3200 x 1800 pixel display.

HP normally charges $850 and up for the laptop, but right now you can spend $750 on a model with a 1080p screen, a Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage.

Or you could spend $50 more for a model with a 3200 x 1800 pixel display, twice the storage, and a Core i7 CPU.

Continue reading Deals of the Day (6-28-2016) at Liliputing.

NASA’s supersized rocket passes a key test in northern Utah

The second qualification test of the SLS boosters was a noisy, fiery success.

Say what you will about the Space Launch System. It's expensive, costing so much that NASA can't really afford to build payloads to fly on it. The Senate specified the rocket to fly with components derived from the Space Shuttle expressly to preserve jobs that otherwise would have been lost following the shuttle's retirement. And the entirely expendable launcher uses 1970s technology while private companies are focusing on smaller, modern, and reusable rockets.

All of that, more or less, is true. But it is also undeniable that the Space Launch System, whenever it does fly, will be one hell of a firecracker. On Tuesday, the space agency offered a taste of that when it demonstrated the firing of one of the solid rocket boosters that will help blast the SLS rocket off of the launch pad.

These boosters will provide about 75 percent of the thrust needed to lift the rocket and its payload into low-Earth orbit. As implied by their name, the boosters burn a solid composite made largely of aluminum. During Tuesday's test, a single booster produced about 3.2 million pounds of thrust. By way of comparison, a Falcon 9 rocket with its nine engines produces about 1.7 million pounds of thrust.

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Axon 7: ZTEs Topsmartphone kommt für 450 Euro nach Deutschland

Das Axon 7 kommt nach Deutschland: ZTEs Topsmartphone mit Snapdragon-820-SoC, 20-Megapixel-Kamera, 1440p-Display und zwei dezidierten Soundprozessoren kostet 450 Euro. Damit ist das Gerät günstiger als die Top-Smartphones der meisten Konkurrenten. (ZTE, Smartphone)

Das Axon 7 kommt nach Deutschland: ZTEs Topsmartphone mit Snapdragon-820-SoC, 20-Megapixel-Kamera, 1440p-Display und zwei dezidierten Soundprozessoren kostet 450 Euro. Damit ist das Gerät günstiger als die Top-Smartphones der meisten Konkurrenten. (ZTE, Smartphone)

Medienanstalten: Analoge TV-Verbreitung bindet hohe Netzkapazitäten

Die analoge Verbreitung des Fernsehens über das Koaxialkabel behindert HDTV und breitbandiges Internet, mahnt die Direktorenkonferenz der Landesmedienanstalten. Noch dieses Jahr könnte eine digitale Empfangsquote von 80 Prozent im TV-Kabel erreicht werden. (HDTV, Internet)

Die analoge Verbreitung des Fernsehens über das Koaxialkabel behindert HDTV und breitbandiges Internet, mahnt die Direktorenkonferenz der Landesmedienanstalten. Noch dieses Jahr könnte eine digitale Empfangsquote von 80 Prozent im TV-Kabel erreicht werden. (HDTV, Internet)