Nasdaq admits part-blame for glitch

29 August 2013 Last updated at 17:15 ET

The company behind the Nasdaq has admitted partial responsibility for a three-hour freeze in trading on the tech stock exchange last week.

But Nasdaq OMX also pointed the finger at rivals NYSE Euronext, blaming them for overwhelming Nasdaq's systems.

NYSE's Arca system sent "a stream of inaccurate symbols", and cut out over 20 times, swamping Nasdaq's computers.

Nasdaq was "deeply disappointed" that its back-up systems failed to handle the data volume. NYSE made no comment.

"Our backup system did not work" chief executive Bob Greifeld admitted in an interview.

"There was a bug in the system... and we need to work hard to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Nasdaq said it would report to regulators within 30 days on how it intends to fix its "securities information processor" (SIP) to make sure the problem would not be repeated.

'Latent flaw'

The stock exchange, which specialises in the trading of shares in US technology firms, said that the data traffic generated by Arca on the morning of 22 August was double what the SIP's data ports were able to handle.

Each time Arca tried to reconnect it sent a burst of data, peaking at over 26,000 quote updates per data port per second. This compared with a daily average of just 1,000 updates per second.

"The confluence of these events vastly exceeded the SIP's planned capacity, which caused its failure and then revealed a latent flaw in the SIP's software code," the stock exchange said.

The glitch was fixed within 30 minutes, but three hours were required to complete testing before the market could open.

The glitch highlights the continuing problem of high-speed accidents, as the world's stock exchanges are increasingly dominated by automated trading controlled by computer algorithms rather than human beings.

Last Friday, the Nasdaq's Mr Greifeld alluded in an interview to outside parties as being behind the problems, implying that these may include computerised trading firms as well as rival stock exchanges.

"We have to be aware that the other person will not always act in the proper way," he told news channel CNBC, specifically mentioning high-frequency traders - financial firms that buy and sell thousands of times a second, using computers to take advantage of tiny price discrepancies between the different stock exchanges.

"We have 13 different exchanges, we have hundreds of market participants, we are all interconnected in a number of fundamental ways," the Nasdaq boss said.

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Google exec poached by Chinese rival

29 August 2013 Last updated at 08:35 ET By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

One of Google's top executives is leaving the company to join up-and-coming Chinese firm Xiaomi.

Hugo Barra was vice president of product management for Google's mobile platform Android, and had been at the company since 2008.

Google confirmed his departure from the company, stating that it wished him well.

"We'll miss him at Google and we're excited that he is staying within the Android ecosystem," a spokesman said.

Lucrative investments

Mr Barra took to social network Google+ to discuss his departure.

"After nearly five and a half years at Google and almost three years as a member of the Android team - the most amazing group of people I've ever worked with in my life - I have decided to start a new career chapter," he wrote.

"In a few weeks, I'll be joining the Xiaomi team in China to help them expand their incredible product portfolio and business globally — as vice president, Xiaomi Global."

Xiaomi is a Beijing-based company that makes smartphones and other consumer electronics. They described the hiring of Mr Barra as "exciting news".

Since releasing its first handset in 2011, the company has enjoyed huge growth - now valued at $10bn (£6.5bn) thanks to two lucrative investment rounds.

Critics have accused the company of lacking in innovation and copying ideas from Western competitors.

Brin split

Mr Barra's departure coincides with reports Google's co-founder Sergey Brin is "living apart" from his wife.

News site All Things Digital wrote that Mr Brin was involved with a female Google employee who had previously had a relationship with Mr Barra.

A source told the BBC the departure was unrelated to personal issues, adding that Mr Barra had been discussing his move with Xiaomi for some time.

Mr Brin, who founded Google with Larry Page, married Anne Wojcicki in 2007. The couple have two children.

She is the chief executive of 23andMe, a biotech firm in which Google has invested $10m (£6.5m).

A spokesman for the couple told Reuters that "they remain good friends and partners" and have not yet legally separated.

Ms Wojcicki's sister, Susan, is also at Google as senior vice president in ads and commerce.

It was in Susan's garage that Mr Brin and Mr Page began their search empire, which is now worth more than $70bn, in 1998.

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

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Dating scam mum and daughter jailed

29 August 2013 Last updated at 12:46 ET

A mother and daughter who used an internet dating scam to steal $1.1m (£700,000) have been jailed for a total of 27 years.

Denver-based Karen Vasseur, 63, and daughter Tracy, 42, tricked victims into thinking they were talking to US service personnel looking for love.

The prolific scammers duped 374 victims in the US and 40 other countries.

"Not only did this mother-daughter duo break the law, they broke hearts worldwide," police said.

"It is fitting that they received stiff sentences for their unconscionable crimes committed in the name of love and the United States military," said Colorado Attorney General John Suthers.

Both women pleaded guilty when arrested last year.

The younger woman faces a 15-year sentence, while her mother was given a 12-year sentence.

Tracy Vasseur received an additional four years for crimes relating to an attempt to gain control of her children's inheritance, and for "attempting to influence a public servant".

Military 'agents'

Colorado authorities said the pair ran an operation which included several other members who have not been caught.

This "staff" would do the leg work of targeting potentially vulnerable people on popular social media sites or dating services.

From here, they would concoct a story that they were in the US military, and were in need of money for various reasons - the most popular being travel costs, or satellite phones to "talk directly" with someone.

Once a victim appeared ready to pay, they were instructed to transfer funds to the two women who posed as "military agents".

One transaction was as high as $59,000, court documents said.

Although the pair were responsible for administering the scam, the court said the majority of the money was quickly passed on to other accomplices across the world.

Money was most frequently sent to contacts in Nigeria, but also to individuals in the UK, India, UAE and Ecuador.

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BT hangs up on dial-up net service

29 August 2013 Last updated at 19:04 ET

BT will turn off its dial-up internet access service on 1 September.

The telecoms firm said it was taking the step because only a "tiny number" of its customers still went online using a dial-up modem.

It added that the vast majority of its 6.8 million broadband customers had switched to much faster connections.

However, a small number of people in rural areas where broadband will not work will struggle to get online after the change.

Cut off

Dial-up customers were first informed about the impending closure in May and June this year, BT said, adding that most of these people would be able to migrate to a broadband service.

The company said that the shut-down meant about 1,000 people who lived in remote areas would not be able to move to broadband as their phone line was incapable of supporting the technology.

These people were likely to be living in some of the most remote parts of the UK, said Oliver Johnson, chief executive of broadband consultancy Point Topic.

"They will be too far from the telephone exchange to get any meaningful broadband," he said. "The distance means that the broadband signal degrades."

Those who had to stick with dial-up would still be able to get such services from BT via its Plusnet subsidiary.

"No-one is being left without the option of an alternative service," said a BT spokesman.

Sebastian Lahtinen from the Think Broadband news site, said the closure was a sign of the times.

"It's a statement of how mainstream broadband services have become, with entry-level broadband being cheaper than the dial-up plans BT is closing down," he said.

Dial-up or narrowband, was the technology that most Britons used to go online before home broadband became affordable. It involved modems sending data over lines more typically used for voice calls. The best dial-up modems despatched data along telephone lines at speeds of up to 56 kilobits per second, though compression could be used to improve this top speed. By contrast most broadband technologies work in the megabits-per-second range.

About 800,000 people still used dial-up in 2010, the last year for which figures were available, said an Ofcom spokesman.

"The number has now fallen so low nationally that it's quite difficult to get any accurate figures from a survey sample," he said. "We think it's in the very low hundreds of thousands but we cannot be any more confident than that."

With the vast majority of exchanges equipped to use broadband technologies such as DSL there was little reason to stick to dial-up, he said.

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Shake-up at online firm brightsolid

29 August 2013 Last updated at 19:18 ET

DC Thomson, the Dundee-based publisher, is re-organising its online subsidiary, brightsolid.

It is to split the genealogy division from online technology, including cloud computing.

Chris van der Kuyl, who built up brightsolid over the past six years, is to become a strategic adviser and to work outside the company.

DC Thomson has hired Annelies van den Belt as chief executive of brightsolid online publishing (BSOP).

She has been chief executive at SUP, a Russian digital publisher, having previously worked for the Telegraph Media Group and News International, and having overseen the launch of ITV.com.

Richard Higgs is being promoted to become chief executive of brightsolid online technology (BSOT).

BSOP owns some of the biggest genealogy sites in Europe, including findmypast.co.uk, genesreunited.co.uk and Friends Reunited. It has 18m registered users.

It recently launched on the US market, and has contracts to digitise archives, including the Imperial War Museum and the British Library, where it is making the British Newspaper Archive searchable.

It is also working in partnership with the UK National Archives of past censuses and with the National Records of Scotland.

Industry estimates put the scale of the worldwide genealogy market at £1.6bn next year, rising to £2.7bn by 2018.

Richard Hall, chairman of BSOP and BSOT, said the re-organisation is the natural next phase to allow the businesses to grow.

He added: "Chris van der Kuyl is an innovator who has made an immense contribution to brightsolid over the last six years. This change of role fits with Chris's expanding business interests outside of brightsolid and DC Thomson looks forward to working with Chris in his new capacity."

Chris van der Kuyl said: "This new role offers a great opportunity to work both in an advisory capacity to the DC Thomson board whilst exploring other endeavours outside the group."

In its most recent results, brightsolid reported a slight fall in turnover to £26.3m from £28.4m and an operating loss in the year to the end of March 2012 of £2.2m compared with a profit in the previous 12 months of £1.3m.

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Rural mobile strategy is criticised

By Jonathan Blake
Newsbeat technology reporter Open Signal is one project attempting to map the UK's mobile phone coverage

Campaigners have criticised the government's strategy to improve mobile phone coverage in rural areas.

Last month details were given about which so-called "not spots" would benefit from the £150m Mobile Infrastructure Plan.

The Countryside Alliance has said that it thinks the approach is "not good enough".

Under the plan, Vodafone, EE, O2 and Three will operate equipment paid for by government funds.

"It's brilliant that they're doing it," said Charlotte Cooper from the Countryside Alliance.

"[But] we're a little bit concerned that they seem to have rolled back on what they said they were going to do.

"Originally it was going to be 92% of the 70,000 premises across the country with no signal. Now it's only 75% at best. We don't think that's good enough."

Marcus Hope said the lack of signal in his village meant using his landline

The government says it hopes the first of the new sites will go live by the end of this year.

Networks are trialling a variety of schemes to bring coverage to areas with little or no reception.

Cranborne in Dorset is one of 12 places taking part in Vodafone's Open Sure Signal project.

Boxes and antennas are installed on top of buildings, which provide coverage to a limited area.

Doctor Rob Matthews, EMF manager for Vodafone UK, said: "It makes much more sense to drop in something that's no bigger than a wi-fi router at home.

"You can cover quite dense populations with relatively small numbers."

Rob Matthews says technology is helping communities boost mobile reception

Before the service went live in April there was no mobile reception in the village.

"I wouldn't get any signal and I'd have to use the home phone to contact friends which would cost more than it would on my mobile," said Marcus Cope, 16.

Although the service has allowed him to use his mobile, he said being limited to one network was not ideal.

"I hope in the future it could be an all-signal box, so everyone who's on any network can get on it."

O2 highlighted its TuGo app as something it is doing to help "customers in areas that may not have coverage".

The service lets users make and receive calls, send texts and access voicemail using a wi-fi connection.

Charlotte Cooper urged the government not to forget people in rural areas

Earlier this year, EE announced a plan to bring high speed 4G to homes and businesses in parts of Cumbria.

Three claims it covers 97% of the UK population and is the only network to offer unlimited data on new 4G services.

When details of the Mobile Infrastructure Project were announced, Communications Minister Ed Vaizey said it would help Britain's economy grow.

He said: "The project will provide a significant boost to local economies across the UK and will be instrumental in helping Britain win the global race."

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Problems hit Mac version of SimCity

30 August 2013 Last updated at 05:46 ET

Owners of Apple computers are reporting big problems with the Mac version of SimCity.

Many who bought the game, released on 29 August, said it did not work correctly on either old or new Macs.

SimCity creator Maxis said a "small number" of players had been affected and issued updates to help people get the game working.

The problems mirror those seen earlier in 2013 when the PC version of the game was released.

Currently, the support pages for SimCity are dominated by messages from Mac owners reporting a wide variety of glitches.

Many players said they could not get the game to install or load and others reported it stuttered once it did load or refused to be played full screen.

"We're aware some our Mac Mayors are experiencing a few bumps in the road," said Maxis in a tweet that directed people to updated advice about how to tackle the glitches.

Maxis said it had traced some of the problems to the version of the Origin game-playing software people have to use to play the game.

It issued an update to this software that, it said, should help cure some of the problems.

In a statement sent to the TUAW Mac news blog it added that its support staff were "working individually with our players to resolve their issues and get them into the game".

Maxis faced a barrage of complaints in early March 2013 when the PC version of SimCity was released.

The sheer weight of complaints led online store Amazon to briefly suspend sales of the title.

Many of the problems were caused by the fact that gamers must be online to play.

This "always online" requirement meant big queues to get in to the game and slow response times when lots of people were playing.

Maxis owner EA offered free games to SimCity owners as an apology for the bungled launch.

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Three abolishes some roaming charges

30 August 2013 Last updated at 07:12 ET

Three has announced that it has abolished international roaming charges in seven countries.

The service is available to Three customers travelling to the Republic of Ireland, Australia, Italy, Austria, Hong Kong, Sweden and Denmark.

European authorities have been clamping down on roaming charges.

But Three is the first network to abolish them altogether, albeit in selected countries, where it has sister networks.

Three says customers on a pay monthly contract would be able to use their allowances of free minutes, texts and data with no extra charges for being abroad.

However, those on unlimited plans will be subject to some restrictions.

In a press release, Thomas Malleschitz, marketing director at Three, said: "By abolishing expensive roaming charges in select countries, we are allowing our customers to get even more value from their minutes, texts and data abroad by removing the fear associated with staying in touch while travelling."

Analysts say that other operators of mobile phone networks are likely to follow Three's lead, particularly those who already have a presence in other countries.

Matthew Howett, a senior analyst at consultancy firm Ovum, says the deal from Three is also interesting because it applies to nations outside the European Union, where there has been pressure from authorities to lower roaming charges.

"Reducing roaming charges outside of that bloc will welcomed by many, since prices have remained stubbornly high in some countries," he said.

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More 'surprises', warn Syria hackers

30 August 2013 Last updated at 08:30 ET By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

Syrian hackers behind recent attacks on the New York Times and Twitter have warned media companies to "expect us".

The Syrian Electronic Army, which supports President Bashar al-Assad, added it had "many surprises" to come.

Interviewed via email following the UK Parliament's vote against military intervention on Thursday, a spokesman told BBC News: "It's the right thing."

He added: "Military intervention in Syria has many consequences and will affect the whole world.

"Our main mission is to spread truth about Syria and what is really happening."

The SEA has targeted various media companies, including the BBC, CNN and the Guardian.

Brian Krebs, a former Washington Post reporter, wrote that clues discovered when the SEA's own website was hacked earlier in the year pointed towards at least one member of the group being based in neighbouring country Turkey.

But the SEA's spokesman dismissed these claims, saying that "they keep publishing names so they can get attention".

"All the media outlets that we targeted were publishing false/fabricated news about the situation in Syria," he told the BBC.

"Our work doesn't need funds. It just needs a computer and internet connection."

Explosion tweet

Until this week's attacks, the SEA's efforts had largely focused on "phishing" social media accounts, tricking users into handing over log-in details.

In one particularly effective attack, the Twitter account of the Associated Press was compromised, and the group posted a tweet saying US President Barack Obama had been hurt in an explosion.

The New York Times attack was more damaging, however, as the hackers were able to redirect people trying to visit the newspaper to the SEA's website instead, albeit briefly.

"Our goal was to deliver our anti-war message on NY Times website - but our server couldn't last for three minutes," the group said.

"The Twitter attack was because of the suspension of our accounts on Twitter by its management.

"We succeeded in our attack as we expected."

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

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Shops and cafes fight US patent trolls

30 August 2013 Last updated at 09:03 ET

The Internet Association is among a group of US trade bodies behind a new campaign calling for politicians to take action over patent trolls.

Patent trolls take out generalised patents, often on widely available technology, and then demand money from companies who use or offer it.

Shops and restaurants have been targeted for displaying QR codes and online store-locators, say the groups.

The radio and print adverts will appear in 15 US states.

"Patent trolls don't make anything, they just get rich," is a line from the Stop Bad Patents campaign, which claims that businesses can find themselves facing demands for $100,000 (£65,000) to settle - a considerable sum but often cheaper than defending themselves in court.

Its organisers want voters to contact their Congress representatives asking them to "stop bad patents, stop the trolls".

'legalized extortion'

It is a joint initiative between the Internet Association, the National Restaurant Association, the National Retail Federation and the Food Marketing Institute, all of whom say their members are increasingly being targeted.

"Patent trolls use bad patents to bully companies of all sizes, in every economic sector, from coast to coast," said Michael Beckerman, President of The Internet Association.

"This is essentially legalised extortion, forcing hard-working businesses to go to court or write a cheque."

US President Barack Obama has already called on Congress to tackle the problem of people facing legal action over commonly used technology from others who belatedly take out patents on it.

Speaking to the BBC earlier this month, Alan Schoenbaum, general counsel at the cloud computing firm Rackspace, explained that patent trolls are often "entrepreneurs or finance people" rather than genuine inventors of new technology.

"Defending a lawsuit is extremely expensive... they play on that fear that the defendant is going to spend a lot of money to defend itself and it is simply cheaper to pay them off," he said.

However Erich Spangenberg, owner of "patent monetisation" company IP Nav, says the practice of buying patents and asserting that right is already commonplace in other industries.

"Much like an architect can design a building but does not build it, a song-writer can compose a song but doesn't have to sing it, an inventor can get granted a patent and ultimately is not forced to practise it," he responded.

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