Various attendees at Nerdtacular help comment on the headlines of the day.
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Show Notes
Our top vote getter on the subreddit, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports Google has removed search results linking to a 2007 BBC article on Merill Lynch’s securities losses in compliance with Europe’s right to be forgotten laws. The Guardian also says six of its articles have disappeared from searches. The articles can still be accessed at their respective sites, and even show up in Google search results under various search terms. It is unclear which person requested the removal of the articles.
Reuters reports Goldman Sachs has convinced Google to block access an email from an individual’s Gmail account before it was read. The email in question contained confidential client information from Goldman Sachs that was inadvertently sent to the wrong person on June 23rd. Apparently a contractor accidentally typed @gmail.com instead of @gs.com while testing changes to the bank’s internal processes.
Paul Thurott at SuperSite for Windows reports his sources say Microsoft’s rumored smartwatch will be more of a health tracker that also shows the time and phone notifications. The device will apparently be laoded with fitness sensors and work with Windows Phone, iOS and Android.
The New York Times reports London’s transport regulator has ruled Uber can operate legally in the city. London’s cab drivers argued the Uber service constituted an unlicensed meter. Transport for London said that smartphones, not connected to the vehicle are “not taximeters within the meaning of the legislation.”
International Business Times reports the Electronic Privacy Information Center has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against Facebook over the emotional contagion study. The group wants Facebook to make its News Feed algorithm public.
metalfreak posted the Ars Technica story that Microsoft has returned the 23 domain names it seized under federal authorization in order to combat malware. That means No-IP.com should be back in business soon as it recovers the domain names. Microsoft alleged No-IP had not responded to malware operating on its service, but No-IP alleges no one from Microsoft contacted them about it before the seizure. Besides inconveniencing SysAdmins and Hosts on AlphaGeekRadio, the seizure took down some home routers, video surveillance, and security systems and even the video game Chess 2: The Sequel.
Hammersfall submitted the Ars Technica story that the US Internal Revenue Service has declined 501(c)(3) status to Yorba, a nonprofit organization that develops open source software. 501(c)(3) classification is typically granted to a certain class of nonprofit organizations that are engaged in activity that can be considered charitable, religious, scientific, literary, or educational. Although Yorba’s software is free, the fact that commercial organizations take advantage of it led to the IRS ruling. Many prominent open source software organizations hold 501(c)(3) status, including the Apache Foundation, the GNOME Foundation, the Mozilla Foundation, the Free Software Foundation, and the Wikimedia Foundation. However, internal memos leaked last year revealed that the IRS is targeting organizations that use the words open source software to describe them.