Techlife News #173

Responding to unprecedented data breaches and cyberattacks, President Barack Obama is trying to spark alliances between policymakers who want to regulate the online world and tech innovators who traditionally shun Beltway bureaucracies. In California’s Silicon Valley on Friday, Obama was participating in a White House summit on cybersecurity and consumer protection, joining hundreds of administration officials, tech and other CEOs, law enforcement officials and consumer and privacy advocates. The focus is on encouraging every player to do better at sharing information that can help the private sector prevent and respond to costly and potentially crippling threats to the security of their online networks. Obama was delivering the keynote address at the daylong event, as well as leading a round-table discussion with a group of business leaders. J.J. Thompson, CEO and managing director of…

Timing is everything in the Oscar race. Except when it’s not. This year’s Academy Awards field has done more than most to upend traditional rhythms of Hollywood’s awards season, a normally finely-tuned red-carpet ballet. “Not my tempo” - the indelible line from J.K. Simmons’ music instructor in the best-picture nominated “Whiplash” - has been the season’s mantra. The critical favorite, Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood,” was the front-runner for much of the season, only to be seemingly usurped by the industry’s choice, “Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance),” which swept the guild awards. Momentum - the most cherished, carefully sought ingredient in any Oscar campaign - has been elusive, just as the normal parameters of awards season appear to be shifting. “Boyhood” (six nominations) and “The Grand Budapest Hotel” (nine nods) were released early…

Drone on, the government says. Just not through the night sky. Or close to an airport. Or out of the operator’s sight. And probably not winging its way with a pizza or package, any time soon. Long-anticipated rules proposed Sunday will open an era in which small (under 55 pounds) commercial unmanned aircraft perform routine tasks - crop monitoring, aerial photography, inspections of bridges and cell towers, and much more. But not right away. Final rules are probably two to three years away. And when they are in place, they may include a separate category with fewer restrictions for very small drones, likely to be defined as less than 4.4 pounds. The Federal Aviation Administration released a variety of proposed requirements for commercial operators to meet, such as passing a knowledge test administered by…

NO LONGER ARE YOU STUCK WITH JUST PENCILS AND PAINTS For years and years, if you aspired to be a visual artist, at least in the more traditional sense, your task was clear - you needed to buy some pencils, paints and palettes, set up an easel and get practicing. In today's digital age, though, things are much more ambiguous. You now don't need to invest in any artistic tool other than your iDevice, making the most of the many creative apps available in the App Store. When you think about it, it shouldn't be such a big shock that the iPad - in particular - is commanding popularity as a replacement in some quarters for the stretched canvas and easel. After all, digital art is almost old enough to count as…

The NBA All-Star Game is not until Sunday, but hip-hop music’s all-star team - featuring Diddy, Snoop Dogg, Kanye West, Dr. Dre, Nas and others - played in top form at a New York City concert Thursday night. Snoop Dogg and Diddy hosted the show for radio station Hot 97 at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, which also included Lil Kim, T.I., Doug E. Fresh and The Lox. The multi-hour event kicked off with a video of Marion “Suge” Knight dissing Diddy at the 1995 Source Awards. After, Diddy emerged as the audience roared, performing the late ‘90s hit, “Victory.” Knight has been charged with murder in a deadly hit-and-run last month. “I also came here to set some (expletive) right, as y’all saw on the screen. That negative energy started right…

The next phishing email you get could be from your boss. With high-profile security breaches on the rise, from Sony Pictures to Anthem, companies are on the defensive. And they want to make sure their employees are not a hack waiting to happen. Data show phishing emails are more and more common as entry points for hackers. Unwittingly clicking on a link in a scam email could unleash malware into a network or provide other access to cyberthieves. So a growing number of companies, including Twitter Inc., are giving their workers a pop quiz, testing security savvy by sending spoof phishing emails to see who bites. “New employees fall for it all the time,” said Josh Aberant, postmaster at Twitter, during a data privacy town hall meeting recently in New York City. Falling for the…