Today’s Tech Sightings: Uzbekistan Bans 34 Games, Including The Sims 3 and 4, for ‘Distorting Values’ The Central Asian nation of Uzbekistan has banned The Sims video simulation game, among a growing list of video games deemed bad for the country’s values. The list also includes Mass Effect and Call of Duty: Black Ops, among […]
Uzbekistan Bans 34 Video Games; North Korea Reinvents the ‘iPad’
‘Tetris’ for Your Sanity; Cloud Tools Bring More Flexibility to Classrooms
Today’s Tech Sightings: Tetris Shows Promise in Helping PTSD Victims Video games have been both panned and praised for their impact on users, with some studies claiming they promote violent tendencies. Now, researchers in Sweden say playing the 19980s game Tetris reduced symptoms of PTSD in motor vehicle crash victims. While the findings are promising, […]
Internet ICANN Move Hits Congressional Block; Google Launches Allo
Today’s Tech Sightings: The Internet Belongs to the World, Not to Ted Cruz The United States is supposed to hand over control of internet domain management to ICANN on October 1. ICANN is short for the nonprofit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a nonprofit organization. The problem now is that the U.S. Congress […]
Ransomware Bosses Earn Big Bucks; N. Korea Hacks 140,000 PCs
Today’s Tech Sightings: Ransomware Bosses Make $90K Annually A recent study found that Russian ransomware bosses “earn” US$90,000 a year. That’s 13 times the average income of people who were taught that crime doesn’t pay. The availability of Ransomware as a Service (RaaS) business model is saving hackers a lot of money and accelerating the […]
USBs Fight N. Korea’s Media Ban; Facebook’s Dilemma in India
Today’s Tech Sightings: Old USB Drives Fight North Korea’s Media Ban The New York-based Human Rights Foundation and Silicon Valley nonprofit Forum 280 have launched a new initiative to collect USB flash drive donations and then ship them to the Koreas. Once activists in Seoul, such as the non-profit North Korean Strategy Center, receive the […]
North Korea Online Population: 0.03 Percent; Death of the Java Plug-in
Today’s Tech Sightings: There Are Just 7,000 Web Users in North Korea That there are any people online in North Korea is refreshing. But a new survey from marketing Group We Are Social found only 7,200 Web users in the country. The survey says only about 0.03 percent of the population are allowed to go […]
Kim Jong Un; China Mobile Banking; Android’s ALPs; Privacy
Today’s Tech Sightings: Kim Jong Un Has His Own Cellular Network According to a former technical director at North Korea’s cellular network Koryolink, Kim Jong Un and other high-ranking officials have their own private cellular network to secure their communications. The 3G network, according to the source, has its own algorithms and operating system. Many Apps […]
Gaza Hacks VoIP; Postcards From North Korea; Java Turns 20; 3-D Printing
Today’s Tech Sightings: Stuck in Gaza, Hackers Open Lines to the World Tech-savvy Gazans isolated from the rest of the world by an Israeli and Egyptian blockade are now using Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) hacking to rout international calls for a fee. The practice requires dedicated servers to collect as many IP addresses as […]