TorrentFreak had a tip from a source that has proven reliable in the past. Word on the street was that INFACT would soon close down and there would be an ‘interesting’ reason if we could get someone to speak.
So we contacted INFACT and asked them if there was any truth in the rumor but we received no response. This week we tried to follow up the lead and press INFACT for an answer but to no avail.
It appears that INFACT – the MPAA’s eyes and ears in Ireland – has simply disappeared. There has been no announcement as to its fate and its website, INFACT.ie, has completely gone.
The Dutch Pirate Party had been ordered by a Dutch judge to take down its proxy which internet users could use to circumvent the Dutch Pirate Bay blockade. Instead the political party decided to post several circumvention methods and alternative proxy urls on its domain: tpb.piratenpartij.nl
BREIN now wants the Pirate Party to remove those alternative URLs too. It seems that the Dutch Pirate Party has chosen to remove hyperlinks but leave the original text intact. It has also left its generic proxy functional: http://proxy.piratenpartij.nl/ which enables internet users to circumvent any blockade when typing the relevant URL.
In an attempt to re-create the backlash that killed anti-piracy legislation earlier this year, activists are planning a “week of action” beginning on Monday to protest the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA).
Many of the groups leading the protest are veterans of the fight against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy and Technology, Free Press, Fight for the Future and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
“You have to play by their rules, which are really restrictive. The kind of environment that we developed Google in, the reason that we were able to develop a search engine, is the web was so open. Once you get too many rules that will stifle innovation.”
While a never-accepted friend request may just indicate unequal affections, two people with heavily overlapping social circles who are not friends witch each other could suggest an active dislike—a piece of data that Facebook could track and use (the company would not respond to requests for comment on this matter)
This week the University of Oxford and the Vatican announced a plan to collaborate in digitizing 1.5 million pages of rare and ancient texts, most dating from the 16th century or earlier.
The aim of the project, as envisioned by the Polonsky Foundation is “to democratize access to information, [seeing] increasing digital access to these two library collections, among the greatest in the world, as a significant step in sharing the wealth of resources on a global scale.”
Financial institutions will benefit from Visa’s cutting-edge, patent-pending algorithms, which help detect fraud patterns. Using this algorithm, Visa Strategy Manager allows financial institutions to target the riskiest transactions with customized fraud strategies and determine whether a transaction should be approved, declined or flagged for review. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/visa-strategy-manager-boosts-issuer-fraud-detection-2012-04-11
News personalization inherently creates an echo chamber for bad ideas, reinforces preconceived beliefs, and may actually lead people to believe they’re making informed decisions because ‘everyone’ agrees. It will also tend to radicalize and become even more limited over time, because it naturally funnels down to the news you really like. http://scattergather.razorfish.com/1136/2012/04/14/the-pleasures-and-perils-of-personalized-news/
Research by a market data firm has traced the crash of BATS’ IPO to a single algorithm that executed over 500 times on Nasdaq, driving its price from $15.25 to about two cents in less than a second http://www.advancedtrading.com/algorithms/232800284
An influential group of UK lawmakers has called on Google to introduce an algorithm to remove search links found to be in breach of privacy – or face legislation to force it to do so http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17523020
Best X, an Equity Algorithm Using Advanced and Time Tested Intelligence Focused on Finding the Optimal Price
Best X removes dependence on user-defined parameters and settings, eliminating the need for time-consuming configurations and inputs. Best X automatically adjusts the aggressiveness of execution according to various indicators and market trends. It is designed to deliver optimal trade execution through real-time evaluations of all relevant market centers and numerous market indicators. By evaluating liquidity in real-time, Best X seeks to find the best execution opportunity for orders of any size. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wolverine-execution-services-launches-best-x-an-equity-algorithm-using-advanced-and-time-tested-intelligence-focused-on-finding-the-optimal-price-2012-03-28
Wall Street is no more efficient at “transferring funds from savings to borrowers” than it was in 1910
This finding is particularly astonishing given the huge impact that computers have had on the economy in general and on financial industries in particular. What Philippon found was that “technological improvements in finance have mostly been used to increase secondary market activities, i.e., trading.” http://www.tnr.com/blog/timothy-noah/102680/wall-streets-inefficiency
New computer algorithms will allow the Navy to more accurately identify pirate vessels hiding among innocent shipping on the sea lanes with much greater speed and much less manpower http://www.gizmag.com/firescout-mmss-pirates/22099/
Nine Algorithms That Changed the Future by John MacCormick One of the best things about Nine Algorithms That Changed the Future is that it is of interest to computer professionals and innocent bystanders (non-professionals) alike. Should I happen to fall through a time warp and appear in the 1950s, all I have to do is remember these database tricks and techniques to ensure that I become rich beyond my wildest dreams http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-blogs/other/4370374/Book-Review–Nine-Algorithms-That-Changed-the-Future-by-John-MacCormick
