Bank of America apparently doesn’t get the concept of fair use. “The founding editor of Business Insider UK, Jim Edwards, had a bank delete two of his tweets today. In an e-mail, Bank of America told Edwards that his tweets violated the bank’s copyright and that if he kept it up, they’d see to it that his Twitter account was deleted….Edwards had quoted a research document produced by analysts.”
Oracle is finally going to warn users about Java. “Millions of Java users are to be warned that they could be exposed to malware as a result of a flaw that existed in the software’s update tool. The plug-in is installed on many PCs to let them to run small programs written in the Java programming language. Its distributor Oracle has agreed to issue an alert on both social media and its own site following an investigation by the US’s Federal Trade Commission.”
Hzone, an app for HIV+ singles, was found to be leaking user data, and if you ever wanted a complete definition of trainwreck, read the article to see how the company handled it. “Screenshots provided to DataBreaches.net on December 8 by Vickery revealed that 4,926 user accounts from Hzone Dating App for HIV-positive Singles were leaking. The personal information included date of birth, religion, relationship status, country, email address, ethnicity, height, last login IP address, username, orientation, number of children, and password hash.”
The Yahoo pile-on continues, this time with critcism of the hiring of Katie Couric. “When network-news star Katie Couric said in late 2013 she’d leave television to become Yahoo’s first ‘global news anchor,’ it was heralded as a groundbreaking move that would help the search giant and the broader Web go toe-to-toe with the behemoth of traditional TV.” Not everybody was heralding. Here’s What I said in November 2013: “Everybody’s head is exploding over Katie Couric joining Yahoo. I’m sure she’s a lovely person, but I’m not sure how much impact a really famous person with little tech background has on the operation of a dot-com. We did all that between 1998-2001. (Flooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooz. Poor Whoopi Goldberg.)” The next day, I was apparently feeling grumpy: “Apparently Yahoo tried to do a deal with Katie Couric before, and AllThingsD got the term sheet. I realized how old and cynical I have gotten […]
Oh look, another Flash update. “The December update fixes 78 CVE-classified security vulnerabilities in Flash Player for OS X, Windows, Linux, and Android. The patch includes 75 separate vulnerabilities that could be exploited by an attacker to remotely execute code on a vulnerable system.” Seventy-five!
Wondering how Yahoo got to where it is today? Check out this article from Gizmodo: 7 of Yahoo’s biggest eff ups. (I have changed the headline slightly. Guess how.) Missteps including failing to buy Google (twice), failing to buy Facebook, and failing to get bought by Microsoft (for $44 billion dollars). And, based on what I’ve heard and observed, letting great projects die horrible slow deaths, and not treating tech employees that great.
It’s gotten to the point that folks are talking about Marissa Mayer’s severance package. Spoiler: it’s disgusting. “Not surprisingly, given that Mayer is one of the country’s best-paid executives, she has a lucrative change-in-control severance benefit in place. Her severance plan — which would kick in if she is terminated without cause due to a change of control of the company — would have been worth $157.9 million in 2014, according to a company tabulation in corporate filings.” Apparently the state the company’s in now is not considered “cause”.
