Links 26/7/2010: CEO Tony Hayward Leaves BP, Banks Controversy Carries on, Wikipedia Stars in Massive Leak
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2010-07-26 09:13:50 UTC
- Modified: 2010-07-26 09:19:54 UTC
-
Security/Aggression
Many encryption utilities--such as the BitLocker feature in Windows 7 Ultimate, or the Rohos Mini Drive utility for protecting info on a thumb drive--are available. But my favorite tool covers all the bases: It's free, it's easy, it's effective, and it works on all major operating systems. TrueCrypt lets you create virtual encrypted drives. Versions are available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux; if you install it on several machines running different OSs, you can open your encrypted files from a network share, thumb drive, or other shared storage device.
A huge cache of secret US military files today provides a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, Taliban attacks have soared and Nato commanders fear neighbouring Pakistan and Iran are fuelling the insurgency.
-
Environment
BP has said that it is not the only oil Company responsible for oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The Company is firm on the view that the claims of its negligence in the oil spill are baseless.
Tony Hayward, chief executive of BP, is to leave the company, bowing to pressure over his handling of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, the aftermath of which has become America's worst environmental disaster.
-
Finance
Wall Street took the latest government report on its pay practices in stride Friday, saying it would review U.S. pay czar Kenneth R. Feinberg's suggestions about compensation while privately expressing relief that the report wasn't tougher on them.
Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are among the banks that sold Goldman Sachs Group Inc. protection against a failure of insurer American International Group Inc., said two people with knowledge of the transactions.
Kenneth Feinberg, the Obama administration's special master on executive compensation, called on 17 bailed-out financial firms including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. to adopt compensation policies that allow directors to lower top executives' pay when a firm's survival is under threat.
Goldman Sachs told United States investigators which counterparties it used to hedge the risk that American International Group would fail, three people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg News.
The inspector general of the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether political or other factors influenced the timing of the filing and subsequent settlement of the commission’s securities fraud case against Goldman Sachs, according to letters between his office and a Republican congressman.
[...]
H. David Kotz, the S.E.C. inspector general, who is an independent watchdog for the agency, began the inquiry in response to an April 23 letter from Mr. Issa, a California Republican who is the ranking minority member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
The S.E.C. has denied that its timing was influenced by politics.
A nonprofit accuses the bank's traders of starving people by dramatically bidding up prices for wheat, corn and rice. Is that fair?
International banks and financial companies were indirect beneficiaries of the government's 2008 bailout of American International Group Inc., according to newly released documents.
The government's pay czar announced Friday that 17 companies benefiting from federal bailout money handed out $1.6 billion in excess executive pay at the height of the financial crisis. The firms include Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America.
Kenneth Feinberg, who was appointed as the Obama administration's special master for compensation, examined executives earning more than $500,000 at the 419 companies that received taxpayer assistance. Of the 17 companies that he found were egregious in their compensation, 11 have paid back the assistance received from taxpayers.
Goldman Sachs (GS) has contracted documentary film maker Ric Burns, co-producer of the Emmy-award winning 1990 documentary, The Civil War, to make an “industrial,” a movie about Goldman for internal consumption only, according to The Wall Street Journal’s Susanne Craig, citing a Goldman rep.
That isn't a real movie title. But filmmaker Ric Burns, who created the PBS series "The Civil War" with his brother Ken, is shooting a documentary about the Wall Street firm. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is paying for the film, has editorial control and is overseeing the project through its marketing department, a Goldman spokesman said.
The creditors claimed the unit facilitated the fraud committed at Stamford, Connecticut-based Bayou, which filed for bankruptcy protection in May 2006. Bayou co-founder Samuel Israel pleaded guilty to directing a $400 million fraud and is serving 22 years in prison.
-
Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights
In an unprecedented development, close to 92,000 classified documents pertaining to the war in Afghanistan have been leaked. SPIEGEL, the New York Times and the Guardian have analyzed the raft of mostly classified documents. The war logs expose the true scale of the Western military deployment -- and the problems beleaguering Germany's Bundeswehr in the Hindu Kush.
The closing date for comments is 30 July, so you have a few days to mull things over before submitting.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Microsoft GitHub: A Hair Salon Where You Get Awards for Nothing (NFT Vanity)
- People aren't defined by some private (proprietary) database and Microsoft does not universally "score" developers
- On Character Assassination Tactics
- The people who leverage these dirty politics typically champion projection tactics
- United States Entering the $100 Trillion Debt Trap, We Compare GAFAM Debt
- Google's debt is about 6 times less than Amazon's
-
- [Meme] About 2,564 Internet Sites Now at Risk of Hostile Takeover by Microsoft-Sponsored Software in the Public Interest (SPI)
- WIPO censors Debian suicide cluster
- Links 07/05/2024: Burning Plastic Waste, Facebook Censoring Politicians
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 07/05/2024: Smashing Windows (Microsoft Losing Users to GNU/Linux), Sixty Years of BASIC
- Links for the day
- World Press Freedom Day: WIPO censors Debian suicide cluster
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Southern Asia is All Android (Majority) Now
- It's looking better (almost) every month
- Windows Already Down to 1% "Market Share" in Some Countries
- it is a dying breed
- Tesla Has Become a Ponzi Scheme or a 'Meme Stock'
- They tell us Tesla is "worth" almost twice as much as a company that sold about 30 times more cars
- For People at Red Hat "Job is at Risk"
- Red Hat is consulting some notorious firms to implement cuts
- Linux.com Became Mostly Dead, de Facto Marketing Site of "Linux" Foundation Products (Unrelated to Linux)
- what has happened to the authoritative domain Linux.com
- In Europe, Android is Bigger Than Windows (Android Now Measured at 45.1% Worldwide)
- Right now in statCounter...
- Links 06/05/2024: Al Jazeera Raided, Wildfire Season Coming
- Links for the day
- Links 06/05/2024: Scams and Politics
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 06/05/2024: Reading and Computers
- Links for the day
- GitLab's Losses Grew From $172,311,000 to $424,174,000 Per Annum
- Letting this company have control over your (or your company's) development/code forge may cost you a lot in the future
- statCounter's Latest: Android Bouncing to New All-Time Highs, Windows Down to Unprecedented Lows
- Android rising
- Can't Bear the Thought We're Happy and Productive
- If someone is now harassing online friends, attacking the wife, attacking my family (not just attacking and defaming people I know online) there are legal ramifications
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 05, 2024
- IRC logs for Sunday, May 05, 2024
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- Erinn Clark & Debian: Justice or another Open Source vendetta?
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Death of Michael Anthony Bordlee, New Orleans, Louisiana
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- The Revolution Continues
- Today we've published over 20 pages and tomorrow we expect more or less the same
- Death of Dr Alex Blewitt, UK
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC), Inc. vs. Vizio, Inc. Is Costing the Free Software Foundation Money
- FSF subpoena and deposition
- Following the Herd (or HURD)
- Society advances owing to people who think differently and promote positive change, not corporate shills
- They Try to Replace the Creators of GNU/Linux and Hijack Their Word, Work, and Reputation
- gnu.org is down at the moment; now I'm told it's back but very slow. DDoS?
- Thiemo Seufer & Debian deaths: examining accidents and suicides
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Links 05/05/2024: Political Cyberattacks From Russia and Google Getting a Lot Worse
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 05/05/2024: Infobesity and Profectus Beta 1.0
- Links for the day
- Running This Site Mostly a Joyful Activity
- The real problem or the thing that we need to cancel is this "Cancel Culture"
- Australia Has Finally Joined the "4% Club" (ChromeOS+GNU/Linux)
- statCounter stats
- Debian as a Hazardous Workplace Where No Accountability Exists (Nor Salaries)
- systematic exploitation of skilled developers by free 'riders' (or freeloaders) like Google, IBM, and Microsoft
- Clownflare Isn't Free and Its CEO Openly Boasted They'd Start Charging Everyone to Offset the Considerable Losses (It's a Trap, It's Just Bait)
- Clownflare has collapsed
- Apple Delivered Very Disappointing Results, Said It Would Buy Its Own Shares (Nobody Will Check This), Company's Debt Now Exceeds Its Monetary Assets
- US debt is now 99.98 trillion dollars
- FSFE Still Boasts About Working Underage People for No Pay
- without even paying them
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 04, 2024
- IRC logs for Saturday, May 04, 2024
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- The Persecution of Richard Stallman
- WebM version of a new video
- Molly de Blanc has been terminated, Magdalen Berns' knockout punch and the Wizard of Oz
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- [Meme] IBM's Idea of Sharing (to IBM)
- the so-called founder of IBM worshiped and saluted Adolf Hitler himself
- Neil McGovern & Debian: GNOME and Mollygate
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work