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Facebook has served as an online marketplace for armed militias in Libya and other war-torn countries, according to a news report published Wednesday in The New York Times An array of light weapons various groups bought and sold after the fall of Moammar Gadhafi unleashed a torrent of unregulated commerce in Libya, which previously had controlled o...

Reddit this week announced that it has extended the reach of its blocking tool, which was introduced in 2011 to let users fight harassment The tool previously focused on blocking private messages; now it can block comments to users' posts....

The idea that software is eating the world has become a generally accepted dictum since Marc Andreessen penned his milestoneop-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal in 2011 Everywhere you look, industries and institutions are being disrupted by the unprecedented power of software. Now, the world is demanding a new way to develop software to keep pace...

Yahoo is in the midst of a financial freefall, based on a Re/code report that claims the company's deal book shows a muddled and confusing financial picture that has made potential investors nervous about any effort to salvage the business Yahoo's internal presentation for investors paints a picture of a company moving entirely in the wrong directi...

It appears that the Obama administration will refrain from giving its outspoken support to any legislation that aims to compel high-tech companies to help law enforcement agencies crack mobile phone encryption On the other hand, it won't level any outspoken opposition either....

MetaMind, a startup focused on deep learning, this week announced that it has been acquired by Salesforce The company's expertise is in natural language processing -- letting computers analyze relationships between words....

Mirantis on Wednesday announced that Volkswagen Group has selected Mirantis OpenStack to power its cloud applications The selection process involved a series of cloud-to-cloud performance trials betweenRed Hat and Mirantis, one of the last pure-play OpenStack companies that hasn't been shut down or acquired. It's ideally positioned to pursue and wi...

Vivaldi on Wednesday launched the first release of its eponymously named browser. Vivaldi is the brainchild of CEO Jon von Tetzchner, a cofounder ofOpera Software. Aimed at the power user, Vivaldi 1.0 packs in features that were stripped out of Opera 12....

Facebook on Wednesday announced enhanced Facebook Live video capabilities with additional features to allow members to share live video with friends and family by broadcasting events or sharing video in groups Users can go live in Facebook groups so that a group of users or friends or family members can be sent specific video feeds....

If you like to make soaps, candles, pendants, pouches or any other crafts, you might be thinking of becoming part of the wave of craftspeople who sell their wares online. Digital marketplaces are effecting radical changes in the way craftspeople connect with their buyers, opening up a wealth of opportunities to make a living as a maker. Once you'v...

The battle between the FBI and Apple over access to the iPhone of San Bernardino, California, killer Syed Farook came to an abrupt end last week when the agency announced it no longer needed the company's assistance to crack the device Since the U.S. Department of Justice delayed a hearing on an order to force Apple to assist the FBI in brute-forci...

Remember when your mother used to yell up the stairs to get you to turn your music down? Sometimes, in the age before sensitivity awareness, your dad would do the yelling and he'd substitute noise for music. Ah, the good old days. Too bad they aren't here right now yelling at vendors ConsumerAffairs.com is the brainchild of James R. Hood, a former ...

Facebook on Monday introduced automated alt text, a new tool that describes what's in an image to help visually impaired users engage more on the site The goal is to help the blind community experience Facebook the same way others enjoy it, according to Facebook's accessibility team, led by Matt King, Jeff Wieland and Shaomei Wu (pictured above)....

The National Football League on Monday named Twitter its exclusive global partner to live-stream 10 Thursday Night Football games during the 2016 season Twitter reportedly beat out some of the top content and social media providers for the contract....

The U.S. government is picking up the pace in its efforts to use open source software as much as possible. Federal CIO Tony Scott last month released details of a proposed policy designed to allow customized software created for one agency to be openly available to other government agencies as well Industry and government professionals may comment ...

WhatsApp on Tuesday told its 1 billion users that their communications would be better protected from prying eyes with end-to-end encryption The company always has made data and communication security a priority, according to Jan Koum and Brian Acton, the founders of WhatsApp, which Facebook bought for US$19 billion in 2014....

Hello friends, and welcome to Gadget Dreams and Nightmares, the column that plays a chess game with the latest gadget announcements, knocking off the pawns to get to the kings and queens In our entirely unplanned mostly food-focused edition this week are a smart pressure rice cooker, a cold-pressed juicer, a connected refillable wine bottle -- and ...

If you want an effective and different approach to computer platform security, turn to theQubes OS....

Despite the numbers that show how lucrative retention is in an increasingly subscription-driven economy, the emphasis has been on new customer acquisition That is still true, according to Target Marketing's most recent study. Forty-two percent of the firms it surveyed said they were increasing their budgets for customer acquisition, while only 33 p...

HP on Tuesday unveiled its latest challenger to Apple's laptops at the International Luxury Conference in Versailles, touting it as the thinnest laptop in the world. At 10.4 mm, the HP Spectre's chassis is as thin as a triple-A battery, the company noted....