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Saturday, September 28, 2013

Microsoft President Bill Gates: Control-Alt-Delete was a mistake

 

 
 
Microsoft president Bill Gates demonstrates Microsoft's Windows 95 program from his automobile prior to a press conference in Paris in September 1994.Microsoft president Bill Gates demonstrates Microsoft's Windows 95 program from his automobile prior to a press conference in Paris in September 1994.
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Bill Gates' Microsoft moments
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Bill Gates' Microsoft moments
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Bill Gates: IBM designer insisted on triple-key login on PCs for security reasons
  • But Gates says Control-Alt-Delete was a "mistake"
  • The designer credited with the shortcut has deflected responsibility
  • Gates made comments at a recent Harvard University event
(CNN) -- If you pressed Control-Alt-Delete to log on before reading this, Bill Gates says he's sorry.
The Microsoft founder says the triple-key login should have been made easier, à la Apple's Macs, but that a designer insisted on the more complicated step.
"We could have had a single button. But the guy who did the IBM keyboard design didn't want to give us our single button," Gates said Saturday during a question-and-answer session to launch a Harvard University fund-raising campaign. His comments have gained attention since a video of his Harvard Q&A was posted on YouTube on Tuesday.
Smiling, Gates tried to follow through on the thought, noting it was a basic security feature. But he eventually surrendered to common sense.
"And so we had ... we programmed at a low level that you had to ... it was a mistake," he said, throwing up his hands to laughter and applause from the crowd.
Gates defended innovation on the earliest Microsoft software though.
"We did some clever stuff," he said. "We were able to experiment with a lot of stuff, but more on the software side than the hardware."
Long the first interface step for PC users, Control-Alt-Delete still exists in Windows 8 as a way of either locking the computer or accessing the control panel. While the system defaults to a log-in screen, users may tweak their settings to return to the old way of logging on to Windows.
Sometimes informally called the "three-fingered salute," the login required users to use both hands and was intended to avoid accidental keystrokes from rebooting a computer.
Engineer David Bradley, a designer on early IBM computers, said he invented the combination as a shortcut during development.
"I originally intended for it to be what we would now call an Easter egg -- just something we were using in development and it wouldn't be available elsewhere," Bradley said while appearing on a 2011 panel that included Gates. "But then (software publishers) found out about it. They were trying to figure out how to tell somebody to start up one of their programs, and they had the answer. Just put the diskette in, hit Control-Alt-Delete, and by magic your program starts."
He then tried to deflect what he perhaps wryly called "credit" for its continued use.
"It was like a five-minute job in doing it. I didn't realize that I was going to create a cultural icon when I did it," he said "... I may have invented it, but I think Bill made it famous."
A tight-lipped Gates appears to force a smile in a video of the panel but does not respond.
Gates attended Harvard until he left during his junior year to start Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975. While at Harvard, he lived down the hall from current Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Gates received an honorary degree in 2007.
Gates remains Microsoft's chairman although he stopped full-time work at the company in 2008.
During Saturday's session, Gates reflected on a variety of topics, from the philanthropy he's made his life's work since stepping back from an active role at Microsoft to his company's relationship with Apple in the early days.
That included helping keep what would become Microsoft's fiercest rival afloat in the 1990s when it was foundering.
"In the Apple II era, we were kind of friendly competitors," he said. "We actually put more people on the Mac than Apple had."
When co-founder Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1996, "he sort of says, 'I want this, this and this and I'll give you this, this and this.' ... We did the deal in three days," Gates said.
That included buying a 6% share of Apple, which lawyers convinced Gates that Microsoft shouldn't keep for antitrust reasons.
"It would have been nice if we had," he said.

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Miss Teen USA: Arrest made in Miss Teen USA Cassidy Wolf 'sextortion' case

 

 

Arrest made in Miss Teen USA extortion case

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • NEW: Lawyer says Abrahams is autistic, expressed family's "profound regret"
  • Authorities say he hijacked webcams, took photos, threatened to expose women
  • One of his alleged victims was Cassidy Wolf, who is now Miss Teen USA
  • FBI: Suspect released on bond, can use computer for school only
 A college student was arrested Thursday for allegedly hijacking the webcams of young women -- among them reigning Miss Teen USA Cassidy Wolf -- taking nude images, then blackmailing his victims to send him more explicit material or else be exposed.
Jared James Abrahams, a 19-year-old computer science student from Temecula, California, surrendered on Thursday to the FBI on federal extortion charges, the agency announced. Authorities say he victimized young women surreptitiously, by taking control of their computers then photographing them as they changed out of their clothes.
Abrahams appeared in court later in the day, then was released "on intensive pretrial supervision and home detention with electronic monitoring" after his parents signed bond agreements totaling $50,000, FBI spokeswoman Lourdes Arocho said. U.S. District Judge Jean Rosenbluth ruled that he could use a single desktop computer at his parents' home for school only, albeit only after monitoring software is applied.
When he admitted what he'd done in June, Abrahams said he had 30 to 40 "slave computers" -- or other people's electronic devices he controlled -- and has had as many as 150 total, according to a criminal complaint.
His arrest came six months after a teenager identified in court documents as C.W. alerted authorities. She has since publicly identified herself as Cassidy Wolf, the recently crowned Miss Teen USA. She touted news reports of her alleged tormenter's arrest on her Twitter feed.
How easy are you making it for hackers?
At the time she contacted police, in March, Wolf was not a national figure -- even though she was Miss Teen California -- and lived in an apartment and attended Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa.
Wolf got a Facebook alert that someone had tried to change her password to the social networking site, then noticed other passwords had been changed and that her Twitter avatar was now a half-nude picture of herself.
A short time later, she received what would be the first of many messages, this one featuring pictures of Wolf at her Riverside County address and others apparently taken months earlier when she lived in Orange County, says the criminal complaint. The message explained "what's going to happen" if Wolf didn't send pictures or videos or "do what I tell you to do" in a five-minute Skype videoconference, according to the criminal complaint.
"Either you do one of the things listed below or I upload these pics and a lot more (I have a LOT more and those are better quality) on all your accounts for everybody to see and your dream of being a model will be transformed into a pornstar (sic)," he wrote.
Recalling that day, Wolf told NBC's "Today" show she started "screaming (and) bawling my eyes out."
"I wasn't sure what to do," she said in August, shortly after her Miss Teen USA win. "So it was terrifying."
The messenger had taken great efforts to hide his online identity. But investigators were eventually able to find corresponding e-mails, IP addresses and other communications they linked to Abraham. They also tied him to online forums asking about malware, how to control webcams, and hacking into Facebook accounts.
Investigators also linked him to at least eight other young women -- some of them, like Wolf, from Southern California, though others were from as far away as Moldova. The victims told authorities similar stories: of a person they did not know saying, and in some cases proving, he had nude images and making demands as a result.
The stalker claimed to have 1,000 photographs of one woman, the complaint said. When she asked, "Why are you doing this to me?" the response was, "I told you I'll answer any questions after you Skype."
As an FBI agent was speaking by phone to this young woman, she logged onto her Instagram account to find it populated by nude pictures of her, the complaint said.
A few young women apparently complied with the demands for a Skype session. The man promised not to record the sessions and he made it look like he was erasing the nude pictures of them. One such session was found on the suspect's phone, police said.
Foul-mouthed hacker hijacks baby monitor
Investigators examining e-mail exchanges found one in which an alleged victim wrote she was downloading Skype and pleading, "Please remember im only 17. Have a heart."
"I'll tell you this right now! I do NOT have a heart!!!" he wrote back, per the complaint. "However I do stick to my deals! Also age doesn't mean a thing to me."
Authorities executed a search warrant at Abrahams' home on June 4, at which time he "voluntarily agreed to speak" with a pair of FBI agents. Describing himself in that interview as a college freshman who was good with computers, the complaint said, he admitted using malware and his expertise to "watch his victims change their clothes and ... use the photographs against them."
Abrahams further admitted the e-mail accounts, VPN, domain names or other pieces of the electronic puzzle that investigators used to build a case were his, according to the criminal complaint.
Outside the court Thursday, Abrahams' lawyer Alan Eisner said that his client's family feels "profound regret and remorse" over what happened. He told CNN affiliate KTLA that Abrahams is autistic.
"The family wants to apologize for the consequences of his behavior to the families who were affected," Eisner said.
As to the now 19-year-old Wolf, she is juggling her studies at the New York Film Academy with duties tied to being Miss Teen USA.
A lifelong dancer and aspiring model, Wolf is using her platform to promote a number of initiatives -- including, given her personal experience, the issue of cyberstalking.
"It does happen," she said in an interview with CNN affiliate WPIX. "And there are ways to prevent it."
Naked scammers seduce, blackmail men on Web
CNN's Joseph Netto contributed to this report.
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Mandatario Rohani regresa triunfante a Irán tras histórica conversación telefónica con Obama

 

 

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Hassan Rohani, presidente de Irán, a su regreso de Nueva York tras haber participado de la 68° Asamblea General de Naciones Unidas y de haber conversado por teléfono con su homólogo estadounidense, Barack Obama.© EFE
Hassan Rohani, presidente de Irán, a su regreso de Nueva York tras haber participado de la 68° Asamblea General de Naciones Unidas y de haber conversado por teléfono con su homólogo estadounidense, Barack Obama.
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A su llegada al aeropuerto Mehrabad de Teherán, un grupo de 200 a 300 partidarios del mandatario gritaban "gracias Rohani", mientras unos 60 radicales lo criticaban. Incluso, un detractor arrojó un zapato contra el mandatario iraní, pero no logró golpearlo.

28/09/2013 - 10:34
El presidente Hassan Rohani regresó el sábado triunfalmente a Irán tras una intensa semana diplomática en Nueva York, marcada por una histórica conversación telefónica con su homólogo estadounidense Barack Obama.
Sin embargo, mientras la comitiva de Rohani salía del aeropuerto Mehrabad de Teherán, unos 60 islamistas radicales gritaban "muerte a Estados Unidos" y "muerte a Israel".
Uno de ellos incluso lanzó un zapato contra el vehículo presidencial, sin alcanzarlo.
Frente a ellos, un grupo de 200 a 300 partidarios del mandatario gritaban "gracias Rohani", saludando al presidente cuya elección en junio, tras ocho años de gobierno del conservador Mahmud Ahmadinejad, despertó esperanzas de un acercamiento entre Irán y Occidente.
El viernes, antes de salir de Nueva York, donde asistió a la Asamblea General de la ONU, Rohani mantuvo una conversación telefónica de 15 minutos con Obama, el primer contacto entre mandatarios de estos países en más de tres décadas.
En una primera declaración, Rohani dijo que el presidente estadounidense tomó la iniciativa de llamarlo, mientras que un alto responsable estadounidense había afirmado poco antes lo contrario.
"Nos dirigíamos al aeropuerto cuando me informaron que la Casa Blanca había llamado a nuestro embajador en Naciones Unidas para decirle que Obama deseaba hablar conmigo unos minutos", declaró Rohani.
Se trata de la primera comunicación directa entre líderes de ambas naciones desde la Revolución islámica de 1979.
Por otra parte, Rohani explicó que defendió en Nueva York la posición de Irán, principalmente en el tema nuclear, sin ceder en los "derechos" y "objetivos de la nación" en este tema.
"Hablamos sobre las negociaciones entre Irán y el grupo 5+1 (Estados Unidos, Rusia, China, Francia, Reino Unido y Alemania) y de la ventana que se ha abierto", dijo, en alusión a un encuentro en Nueva York tras el cual se anunció que se retomarán las negociaciones sobre el expediente nuclear a mediados de octubre en Ginebra.
"Acordamos que debemos aprovechar esta ocasión" para encontrar una solución rápida, añadió.
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Golfista americano Tiger Woods consolida su regreso y es elegido mejor jugador del PGA

 

 

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Woods fue elegido como el mejor del PGA edición 2013. Woods fue elegido como el mejor del PGA edición 2013.

El golfista norteamericano fue galardonado tras ganar cinco títulos y regresar al número uno del golf, dejando atrás las lesiones y los líos amorosos.

- 28/09/2013 - 08:52
Demostrando que los líos amorosos y las lesiones ya quedaron atrás, Tiger Woods fue elegido como el mejor jugador del año del circuito PGA, todo gracias a sus cinco títulos y a su regreso al número uno del ranking mundial.
"Ha sido en general un año fantástico. Es una sensación increíble ser elegido por los propios compañeros. Ha sido un año increíble", declaró el norteamericano, quien ganó por undécima vez el premio Jack Nicklaus y la tercera en la que lo logra sin haber conseguido un "major".
En 24 años, Woods ganó en once ocasiones el premio que se entrega desde 1990 y sólo otros dos jugadores lo lograron más de una vez: Fred Couples (1991 y 1992) y Nick Price (1993 y 1994).
Por cierto, este galardón es el primero que gana desde 2009, justo inmediatamente antes de que las lesiones y los líos amorosos lo relegaran de los primeros lugares del golf.
"He trabajado duro para volver de las lesiones. Había mucha gente que decía que no ganaría de nuevo y dos años después he conseguido ocho triunfos en el circuito. Estoy orgulloso de dónde vengo, de estar fuera del top 50 y de estar ahora donde estoy", agregó el líder del ranking mundial, quien desde 2008 no puede ganar ninguno de los cuatro "majors", quedando en 14 la cuenta de torneos grandes ganados.
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