Online Newspapers 11-18-2013 | Environment Growing

Schumer said the technology of so-called 3D printing has advanced to the point where anyone with $1,000 and an internet connection can access the plastic parts that can be fitted into a gun. Those firearms cannot be detected by metal detectors or x-ray machines. Schumer says that means anyone can download a gun cheaply, then take the weapons anywhere, including high-security areas.

The Democrat is pushing the extension along with Senators Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Bill Nelson of Florida. The effort was announced on Sunday.

3D technology has recently advanced to create handguns capable of shooting several shots, rather than just one, before it ceases to function. Schumer also says the guns can now be made with all plastic parts, and no metal. A blueprint for one such firearm was recently downloaded more than 100,000 times, Schumer says.

The hackers exploited a flaw in Adobe Systems Inc's software to launch a rash of electronic break-ins that began last December, the FBI said in a memo seen by Reuters, then left "back doors" to return to many of the machines as recently as last month.

The news comes a day after an Anonymous activist received a 10-year sentence for his role in releasing thousands of emails from the private intelligence firm Stratfor. On Friday Jeremy Hammond told a Manhattan court he had been directed by an FBI informant to break into the official websites of several governments around the world.

Hammond, who called his sentence a"vengeful, spiteful act", said of his prosecutors: "They have made it clear they are trying to send a message to others who come after me. A lot of it is because they got slapped around, they were embarrassed by Anonymous and they feel that they need to save face."

He also said the FBI had directed his attacks on foreign websites: "The government celebrates my conviction and imprisonment, hoping that it will close the door on the full story. I took responsibility for my actions, by pleading guilty, but when will the government be made to answer for its crimes?"

The FBI memo about the Adobe Systems attacks, which was distributed on Thursday, described the attacks as "a widespread problem that should be addressed". It said the breach affected the US army, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, and perhaps many more agencies.

Officials said the hacking was linked to the case of Lauri Love, a British resident indicted on 28 October for allegedly hacking into computers at the Department of Energy, army, Department of Health and Human Services, the US Sentencing Commission and elsewhere. Investigators believe the attacks began when Love and others took advantage of a security flaw in Adobe's ColdFusion software, which is used to build websites.

Investigators are still gathering information on the scope of the cyber campaign, which the authorities believe is continuing. The FBI document tells system administrators what to look for to determine if their systems are compromised.

Early reviews of Sony's new machine have praised its graphics for looking "cinematic"; commended its latest DualShock controller's added touchpad and redesigned thumbsticks and triggers; and remarked that the console is much quieter and easier to navigate than the seven-year-old original PS3.

In a week's time Microsoft fires back with the launch of the Xbox One.

It will be more expensive, but includes a more advanced body-movement sensor in the Kinect; better voice recognition; and a more ambitious bid to take charge of your living room thanks to its ability to control satellite and cable TV set top boxes.

The revelation that two cross-platform launch titles - Battlefield 4 and Call of Duty: Ghosts - both feature higher resolution graphics on the PS4 than Xbox One, has played to Sony's favour.

But at this point the Xbox's exclusive games, including Forza Motorsport and Titanfall, are creating more positive buzz on tech sites than Sony's Killzone Shadow Fall and Infamous: Second Son.

The releases come at a critical time for both firms.

Sony recently slashed its full year profit forecast by 40%, surprising investors. Chief executive Kaz Hirai would like the PS4 to mirror the healthy sales of its smartphones, rather than its struggling TV unit.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has still to declare who will replace Steve Ballmer. The next chief executive has already been urged to "get rid" of the Xbox unit by the fund manager looking after Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's $2bn (£1.2bn) stake in the business.

To mark the consoles' births the BBC invited five experts for their different perspectives on the challenges they face.

Brian Crecente, Polygon This month marks the beginning of a new generation of gaming. And for many gamers the question isn't whether to buy a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One - that's a given - but which to buy.

Sony and Microsoft have for years fought tooth-and-nail over the same growing audience of gamers.

They've done so by leap-frogging one another with technology, new bells-and-whistles, more powerful systems, new ways to play. But that's not the case this time around.

With this latest next-generation there is a great schism between the two.

Pressure has been mounting all year for a resolution of the issue, but so far, nothing's happened. What makes the situation even less comprehensible is how much everyone seems to agree this is a stupid rule. The White House thinks so. Congress thinks so. And now, the nation's top telecom regulator thinks so, too.

"It's now time for the industry to act voluntarily or for the FCC to regulate," the FCC's new chairman, Tom Wheeler, wrote in a letter to the wireless industry Thursday. Wheeler's past as a wireless lobbyist himself makes the strongly worded letter all the more striking. So what's holding up a deal?

For one thing, wireless companies would rather not notify consumers when their phones become eligible for unlocking, as the FCC is asking. The reluctance is understandable; telling customers they can pick up their device and leave for another service just might persuade them to do so.

The industry likes a House bill that would allow consumers to start unlocking their phones again without having to ask carriers for permission. The proposal even allows third parties to help device owners do the unlocking. But there's no telling when it might get a vote in the full House, and even then, it would face a long, uncertain road before reaching the president's desk. It also doesn't eliminate the possibility of unlocking becoming illegal again someday.

Last year, the Library of Congress decided not to renew an exemption for cellphone-unlocking under the nation's copyright laws, overturning a six-year history of approving the practice and creating today's impasse in the process.

Two days after 39 House Democrats joined Republicans on a bill aimed at undermining the law known as Obamacare, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi denied that Democrats have lost confidence in Obama's ability to overcome a botched rollout of his signature domestic policy achievement.

"There's a lot of whoop-de-do and ado about what's happening," Pelosi told NBC's "Meet the Press" program. "Democrats stand tall in support of the Affordable Care Act," Pelosi said.

Her comments come at a time of intensifying concern for Democrats, who face a tough midterm election fight or control of Congress in 2014.

Democrats have been hit by a public backlash over millions of people who have had their policies canceled because the plans do not meet new consumer protections mandated by the law. The administration's troubled enrollment Website, HealthCare.gov, also is still not working properly, more than six weeks after its launch.

Friday's Democratic support for a House Republican bill that would allow insurers to continue selling older policies could be a sign that the administration's coalition in Congress could be fraying, according to analysts. Several Democrats have already produced similar legislation.

Pressure from his Democratic Party prompted Obama to say last week that insurers could extend their existing policies for a year even if they don't complying with the law.

But that decision stirred objections from insurers and some state insurance regulators about higher costs for consumers and potential solvency threats for insurance companies.

By 2010 Apple and Google were attacking each other on every possible front: in the courts, in the media, and in the marketplace. Android’s surge in popularity was astonishing, and Andy Rubin, Eric Schmidt, and the rest of Google made no secret of their glee.

It seemed that every chance they got during 2010 they would expound on how many monthly activations Android had racked up and how mobile devices were going to change the future of Google and the world. In an April 2010 interview with the New York Times, Rubin even predicted that Android was going to rule the entire mobile universe.

The year before he had been worried that Google would abandon Android and that he and his team would need to job hunt. Now he confidently proclaimed, “It [Android] is a numbers game. When you have multiple OEM’s [phone manufacturers] building multiple products in multiple product categories, it’s just a matter of time” before Android overtakes other smartphone platforms such as iPhone and BlackBerry.

It was as if little else about Google mattered anymore. That wasn’t really true, but it wasn’t a huge exaggeration either. In 2010, Android started the year with 7 million users.

By year-end it had grown to 67 million and was adding three hundred thousand new customers a day. Android itself wasn’t making money yet, but it was heading there fast. More important, it was accelerating the revenue and profit growth of other Google applications such as search and YouTube, and it was getting more people to sign up for Google accounts and give Google their credit card information.

The more people used Android, the more Google searches they did and the more ads they clicked on. Google still made most of its money from searches on laptops and desktops. But everyone at the top of the company knew desktop ads wouldn’t be the dominant source of revenue forever. Soon, fewer and fewer people would be buying those devices, and more and more would be buying smartphones and other mobile gadgets with Internet access.

The growth and profits for Google lurking in these numbers were eye-popping. Each mobile phone ad might sell for less than a desktop ad, but its potential audience — and, therefore, total revenue potential — were enormous. Consumers buy five times more cell phones every year than PCs — 1.8 billion versus 400 million.

The Philippines is facing up to an enormous rebuilding task from Typhoon Haiyan, which killed at least 3,974 people and left 1,186 missing, with many isolated communities yet to receive significant aid despite a massive international relief effort.

Philippine authorities and international aid agencies face a mounting humanitarian crisis, with the number of people displaced by the catastrophe estimated at 4 million, up from 900,000 late last week.

President Benigno Aquino, caught off guard by the scale of the disaster and criticized by some for the sometimes chaotic response, visited affected areas on Sunday. Not for the first time, he sought to deflect blame for the problems onto local authorities whose preparations he said had fallen short.

In Guiuan, a hard-hit coastal town in eastern Samar province, he praised the city mayor for conducting a proper evacuation that had limited deaths to less than 100, saying that was a contrast to other towns.

"In other places, I prefer not to talk about it. As your president, I am not allowed to get angry even if I am already upset. I'll just suffer through it with an acidic stomach," said Aquino. "Until I am satisfied with what I am seeing, I will stay here for a while."

While aid packages have begun to reach more remote areas, much of it carried by helicopters brought by the USS George Washington aircraft carrier, the United Nations said people were still going hungry in some mountainous provinces. It said information about several provinces in the west of the Visayas region remained "limited", with 60 percent of people in towns in the northeast part of Capiz province needing food support.

"I remain concerned about the health and well-being of the millions of men, women and children who are still in desperate need," U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said in a statement.

The risk of skin and respiratory diseases and diarrhoea was very high, with hospital and health centers badly damaged.

"It's raining a lot so everything is wet. The quality of the water is not sufficient," Jean Pletinckx, head of Medecins Sans Frontieres' Haiyan response, told Reuters.

"In Guiuan, the city is completely destroyed. There's nothing left. Everything is broken. The hospital is completely flat."

U.S. AID REACHES REMOTE AREAS

Hollande's pledge could help underpin an intensive campaign by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to convince Israel's main ally, the United States, and other leading powers to toughen terms of a proposed nuclear deal with Iran ahead of negotiations reconvening this week in Geneva.

Differences over how to ensure Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons have opened a rift between Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama, whose relationship has long been fraught. France has taken a tough line with Iran, helping Paris forge closer ties with Tehran's foes in Israel and the Gulf.

"France will not give way on nuclear proliferation," Hollande said at a welcoming ceremony at Tel Aviv airport. "So long as we are not certain that Iran has renounced nuclear arms, we will keep in place all our demands and sanctions."

After Hollande's three-day state visit, Netanyahu is due to travel to Moscow on Wednesday to see Russian President Vladimir Putin and return to Israel to meet U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday - by which point U.S. and Russian officials have said a preliminary deal with Iran may have be struck.

Netanyahu has condemned a proposal, to be discussed by Iran in talks starting on Wednesday with six powers - France, China, Britain, Germany, Russia and the United States - to ease sanctions if it suspends some nuclear activities.

"I hope that we will be able to persuade our friends during this week and in the days that follow to get a much better agreement," Netanyahu told his cabinet.

Netanyahu says tough Western measures must not only remain in place but be strengthened until Iran dismantles its entire uranium enrichment program, arguing that anything less would enable it to develop nuclear bombs.

Netanyahu, who has warned that Israel is willing to attack to prevent Iran acquiring nuclear weapons capability, has won no support for his demand from Obama, who faces possible moves in Congress to ratchet up sanctions.

The Israeli leader rejected Obama's contention that any loosening of sanctions in an interim agreement could be reversed if Iran failed to abide by its terms.

"In practice, that may be the president's desire and intention ... but I already see the countries and the investors and the companies scrambling to get to Iran," Netanyahu told CNN, saying an easing of sanctions now would bring lasting new investment and trade to Iran.