Weekend Open Thread

If tiered data pricing is stopping you from downloading to your heart's content, AT&T says there may be a solution.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said content providers want to pay for consumer access, which means "toll free'' data plans are a likely development in the next 12 months, FierceWireless reported today.

Stephenson said the plans would exclude certain types of content from counting toward a customer's monthly data allotment. He made the statement at an investor conference.

Stephenson said AT&T is already "getting those phone calls," from content providers, FierceWireless said.

Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile have also said they were considering offering toll free data plans, but haven't made any commitments to plans yet.

Apple CEO Tim Cook told a group of investors that Facebook was “the one company that is closest to being like Apple”.

Now the two sides appear on the brink of formalizing the relationship. After much speculation, Facebook integration will indeed be baked into the latest version of iOS, we’ve learned.

But Facebook integration will be very important for iOS — tons of apps use Facebook for sign-ups and authentication (many use Facebook as the only way to do this, to the dismay of some). Apple was undoubtedly watching this activity and realized that it was time to formally bring Facebook on board.

It’s important to note that Apple being Apple, something could change in the next week and a half (see again: Facebook/Ping). But as of right now, Facebook is a go in iOS “Sundance”. One thing still being hammered out according to our sources is exactly how sharing will work. Sharing is the other big part of the iOS/Twitter integration, and will be important for iOS/Facebook integration as well.

AT&T's CEO claims that content providers are willing to pay AT&T to make sure their content is NOT included against any mobile cap. He calls it Toll-Free data(sort of like a 1-800 # on voice). I wonder if Netflix will take part after squeeling to FCC over such a possibility.

»news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-574456···1_3-0-20

Computer security experts who began studying the worm, which had been developed by the United States and Israel, gave it a name: Stuxnet.

At a tense meeting in the White House Situation Room within days of the worm’s “escape,” Mr. Obama, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the director of the Central Intelligence Agency at the time, Leon E. Panetta, considered whether America’s most ambitious attempt to slow the progress of Iran’s nuclear efforts had been fatally compromised.

This account of the American and Israeli effort to undermine the Iranian nuclear program is based on interviews over the past 18 months with current and former American, European and Israeli officials involved in the program, as well as a range of outside experts. None would allow their names to be used because the effort remains highly classified, and parts of it continue to this day.

The United States government only recently acknowledged developing cyberweapons, and it has never admitted using them.

Then the N.S.A. and a secret Israeli unit respected by American intelligence officials for its cyberskills set to work developing the enormously complex computer worm that would become the attacker from within.

The unusually tight collaboration with Israel was driven by two imperatives. Israel’s Unit 8200, a part of its military, had technical expertise that rivaled the N.S.A.’s, and the Israelis had deep intelligence about operations at Natanz that would be vital to making the cyberattack a success.

In the summer of 2010, shortly after a new variant of the worm had been sent into Natanz, it became clear that the worm, which was never supposed to leave the Natanz machines, had broken free, like a zoo animal that found the keys to the cage. It fell to Mr. Panetta and two other crucial players in Olympic Games — General Cartwright, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Michael J. Morell, the deputy director of the C.I.A. — to break the news to Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden.

An error in the code, they said, had led it to spread to an engineer’s computer when it was hooked up to the centrifuges. When the engineer left Natanz and connected the computer to the Internet, the American- and Israeli-made bug failed to recognize that its environment had changed. It began replicating itself all around the world. Suddenly, the code was exposed, though its intent would not be clear, at least to ordinary computer users.

In fact, no country’s infrastructure is more dependent on computer systems, and thus more vulnerable to attack, than that of the United States. It is only a matter of time, most experts believe, before it becomes the target of the same kind of weapon that the Americans have used, secretly, against Iran.

Story on changes & why Facebook put it up for a vote:
»techcrunch.com/2012/06/01/facebo···de-vote/

Vote here on your Facebook acct. If you have a Facebook acct.
»apps.facebook.com/fbsitegovernan···s/230120

Right now, more voters want to keep the old privacy rules and not the new ones Facebook wants.

Thanks to Wells Fargo and their new fees, I decided to end my 20 year relationship with them. I moved I EverBank and so far I'm pleased. Who does everyone bank with? Local credit union, community bank or a nationwide bank?