Oracle Accused of Defrauding Investors On Cloud Sales Growth Slashdotby BeauHD on oracle at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at August 12, 2018, 11:34 pm)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Oracle is named in a lawsuit alleging the company's executives lied to shareholders when they explained why cloud sales were growing. The investor leading the case, the City of Sunrise Firefighters' Pension Fund, claimed Oracle engaged in coercion and threats to sell its cloud-computing products, creating an unsustainable model that fell apart, according to the suit seeking class-action status and filed Friday in San Jose, California. The Florida-based firefighter pension fund and other investors lost money when Oracle's stock plummeted in March after reporting a disappointing earnings report and outlook, according to the lawsuit. The suit claimed that Oracle's executives lied in forward-looking statements, which are never guaranteed, during earnings calls and at investor conferences in 2017 when they said customers were rapidly adopting their cloud-based products and cloud sales would accelerate. The firefighter pension, which manages about $143 million for 235 participants, alleged that Oracle used software license audits and weakened existing maintenance programs to compel customers to buy the cloud products.

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Killer whale mother finally lets dead newborn calf go, after 17 days BBC News | Science/Nature | UK Edition(cached at August 12, 2018, 11:30 pm)

After 17 days, the orca at last stops carrying her newborn and begins chasing salmon off Canada.
Mexico City: Drivers stuck in traffic treated to ballet AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at August 12, 2018, 11:30 pm)

Why ballet dancers are being given right of way on Mexico's usually congested roads?
Is the US looking for war in space? AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at August 12, 2018, 11:30 pm)

Washington has announced the creation of a new armed space force by 2020.
Counting under way as Malians vote in tense presidential runoff AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at August 12, 2018, 11:30 pm)

Tight security as President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita faces ex-finance minister Soumaila Cisse in second round of voting.
Giving Indonesia's children with disabilities a chance AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at August 12, 2018, 11:30 pm)

This Indonesian man has made it his life's mission to educate children with disabilities.
NASA Successfully Launches Parker Solar Probe Slashdotby BeauHD on nasa at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at August 12, 2018, 10:35 pm)

NASA's Sun-chasing Parker Solar Probe successfully launched this morning at 3:31AM. A couple hours later, NASA confirmed that the vessel was healthy. The probe still has a ways to go before it's conducting scientific studies. "It'll spend its first week in space deploying its high-gain antenna, the first part of its electric field antennas and its magnetometer," reports Engadget. "In early September, the probe will start a roughly four-week instrument shakedown to be sure it's ready for science gathering." From the report: The trip to the Sun will take a while. NASA's probe will pass by Venus a total of seven times (starting in early October) as it uses the planet's gravity to whip itself ever closer to the star. The spacecraft will make its first close approach in early November, when it will travel 15 million miles from the Sun -- inside the Sun's corona (aka the solar atmosphere). Its closest approach will put it at just 3.8 million miles from the Sun, at which point it should be the fastest-ever human-made object with a speed of 430,000MPH. The first science data should return sometime in December. The New York Times has a neat video explaining how the Parker Solar Probe will touch the Sun. Meanwhile, Fox News has a dialogue-free clip of the actual launch.

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The danger of conflating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at August 12, 2018, 10:30 pm)

Enfolding criticism of Israel within the definition of anti-Semitism would risk rendering the word meaningless.
AWS Error Exposed GoDaddy Business Secrets Slashdotby BeauHD on security at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at August 12, 2018, 10:04 pm)

Internal information belonging to hosting provider GoDaddy has been exposed via an error in Amazon's AWS bucket configuration. According to cybersecurity firm UpGuard, a set of documents were left in an Amazon S3 bucket which was available to the public. ZDNet reports: The information involved in the security breach appeared to describe GoDaddy's architecture, as well as "high-level configuration information for tens of thousands of systems and pricing options for running those systems in Amazon AWS, including the discounts offered under different scenarios," according to UpGuard. Configuration files for hostnames, operating systems, workloads, AWS regions, memory, CPU specifications, and more were included in the exposed cache, which described at least 24,000 systems. "Essentially, this data mapped a very large scale AWS cloud infrastructure deployment, with 41 different columns on individual systems, as well as summarized and modeled data on totals, averages, and other calculated fields," the cybersecurity firm said. The open bucket, called "abbottgodaddy," also included what the company believes to be business information relating to GoDaddy and Amazon AWS' relationship, including rate negotiations. This information should have been kept confidential. The open bucket, called "abbottgodaddy," also included what the company believes to be business information relating to GoDaddy and Amazon AWS' relationship, including rate negotiations. This information should have been kept confidential.

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[no title] Scripting News(cached at August 12, 2018, 10:03 pm)

I think there should be a panel of tech security experts who keep track of security concerns in the 2018 election. Otherwise the press is going to mangle the story, the way they did with HRC's email server in the 2016 election.
[no title] Scripting News(cached at August 12, 2018, 9:33 pm)

Poll: How do you know Alex Jones is on Twitter?
Five-nation deal paves way for tapping Caspian riches AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at August 12, 2018, 9:30 pm)

The five states sharing the Caspian shoreline sign a deal on the legal status of the sea, agreeing to keep it exclusive.
Report: Mass torture in network of UAE-run prisons in south Yemen AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at August 12, 2018, 9:30 pm)

A report obtained by Al Jazeera reveals the existence of 27 sites used to torture and sexually abuse Yemeni detainees.
Setting an example: Rohingya camp elects women as leaders AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at August 12, 2018, 9:30 pm)

The first local election in a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh ended with half of chosen representatives being women.
Tesla Will Open Its Security Code To Other Car Manufacturers Slashdotby BeauHD on transportation at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at August 12, 2018, 8:34 pm)

Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced he would share the source code for Tesla's car security software with other manufacturers, adding that it would be "extremely important" to ensure the safety of future self-driving cars. Engadget reports: Musk didn't provide a timeline for availability, and you might not want to get your hopes up when it took years for Tesla just to post any source code. And this isn't strictly a selfless gesture. If rival brands adopt Tesla's approach, it could set an unofficial standard for connected car security that would look good from a marketing standpoint. The code could provide a boost to connected car security if and when it arrives. There are few common frameworks (technical or legal) for safeguarding networked vehicles, and security might not always be a top priority. This could give companies a baseline level of security that would save brands the trouble of developing an effective defense from scratch.

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