Obama to name White House cyber official

Fri May 29, 2009 12:03pm EDT

By Diane Bartz
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday he would name a top cybersecurity official to the White House as he released a report that recommended how to safeguard the nation's cyber network.
"Cyberspace is real and so are the risks that come with it," said Obama in remarks at the White House.
Obama also said that his administration would not dictate cybersecurity standards for private companies.
The tech industry had pushed for a cybersecurity official to be in the White House to assure access to the president.
The cybersecurity review, headed by Melissa Hathaway, had urged the president to name a White House coordinator to oversee cybersecurity. It also said that the private sector must be involved.
"Now our virtual world is going viral," said Obama. "We have only begun to explore the next generation of technologies that will transform our lives in ways we can't even begin imagine. So a new world awaits, a world of greater security and greater potential prosperity if we reach for it, if we leap."
Holes in U.S. cybersecurity defenses have allowed major incidents of thefts of personal identity, money, intellectual property and corporate secrets.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

Obama's new Supreme court pick

David --I am proud to announce my nominee for the next Justice of the United States Supreme Court: Judge Sonia Sotomayor.This decision affects us all -- and so it must involve us all. I've recorded a special message to personally introduce Judge Sotomayor and explain why I'm so confident she will make an excellent Justice. Please watch the video, and then pass this note on to friends and family to include them in this historic moment.
Judge Sotomayor has lived the America Dream. Born and raised in a South Bronx housing project, she distinguished herself in academia and then as a hard-charging New York District Attorney.Judge Sotomayor has gone on to earn bipartisan acclaim as one of America's finest legal minds. As a Supreme Court Justice, she would bring more federal judicial experience to the Supreme Court than any Justice in 100 years. Judge Sotomayor would show fidelity to our Constitution and draw on a common-sense understanding of how the law affects our day-to-day lives.A nomination for a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land is one of the most important decisions a President can make. And the discussions that follow will be among the most important we have as a nation. You can begin the conversation today by watching this special message and then passing it on:http://my.barackobama.com/SupremeCourtThank you,

5-25-09

Iran tests missile as election race starts

Wed May 20, 2009 3:01pm EDT
By Zahra Hosseinian and Fredrik Dahl
TEHRAN (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday Iran had tested a missile that defense analysts say could hit Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf, a move likely to fuel Western concern about Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
Washington voiced concern after Ahmadinejad announced the test on the same day campaigning for the Iran's June 12 presidential election officially started.
U.S. President Barack Obama "has long been concerned" by any development in Iran's missile program, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. A U.S. official said the test was a "step in the wrong direction".
One Western expert saw the missile test as Iran's response to the Israeli prime minister's U.S. visit this week.
Coming a day after Iran's supreme leader accused the United States of promoting terrorism, the test was a further disappointment for the Obama administration, which is seeking rapprochement with Iran after three decades of mutual mistrust.
"Iran just keeps going in the wrong direction. We want them to engage with us, to talk about how we can make the region more stable. This is just a step in the wrong direction," the U.S. official said.
U.S. patience is "not infinite", the official added.
The United States and its allies suspect the Islamic Republic is seeking to build nuclear bombs, a charge Tehran denies, but Obama has offered a new beginning of diplomatic engagement with Iran if it "unclenches its fist."
A U.S. defense official confirmed the launch, although Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman declined to say whether the U.S. military had any evidence of an Iranian missile test.
AT CROSSROADS
"Our concerns are obviously based on their nuclear ambitions and the implications that long- and medium-range missiles have with respect to that," Whitman told reporters. "Iran is at a bit of a crossroads. They have a choice to make.
"They can either continue on this path of continued destabilization of the region or they can decide that they want to pursue relationships with countries in the region and the United States that are more normalized," he said.
In Rome, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini canceled a trip to Iran after Tehran demanded he meet Ahmadinejad in the same northern Iranian province where the missile launch took place, the Italian Foreign Ministry said.
He would have been the most senior official from a European government to visit since Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005.
Ahmadinejad, whose moderate challengers in the June 12 vote accuse him of isolating Iran with his anti-Western speeches, said the country had the power to send any attacker "to hell." Continued...

Samsung Camcorders Stay Out of Your Face

By Rik Fairlie
Samsung’s two new camcorders have a cool design feature that you may not notice at first glance. The ultracompact SMX-C14 and SMX-C10 both employ the same Active Angle Lens design as their forerunner, the $500 HMX-R10.

I spent some hands-on time with the HMX-R10 at a recent Samsung event, and the Active Angle Lens design is both cool and clever. The lens is tilted downward, so the camcorder stays out of your line of sight when shooting, enabling you to interact with your subjects as you record them. In other words, there is no camcorder attached to your face. It takes a few minutes to get the hang of it, but the Active Angle Lens design brings a whole new feel to shooting video.
Both the SMX-C14 and SMX-C10 should handle very comfortably, based on my time with the HMX-R10. The space-age design is pretty sweet, too.
The SMX-C14 has 16 gigabytes of internal memory, plus an SD/SDHC memory card slot for expansion. The SMX-C10 is strictly bring-your-own SD memory card. Samsung says you can record more than six hours of video with 16 gigabytes of memory.
Both models shoot video at a high-definition resolution of 720 by 480 pixels, and also feature a 10X optical zoom, image stabilization, and a swiveling 2.7-inch LCD. Other features include time-lapse recording that enables you to record images at preset intervals that range from every 1 second to 30 seconds. Samsung ships both with software that lets you connect to computers via USB and edit and play video without installing software on the PC. They also offer a one-button straight-to-YouTube capability.
Look for the SMX-C14 and SMX-C10 in July. No word yet from Samsung on pricing.
nytimes.com----Personal Tech

Coming This Week: A Newer, Bigger Kindle

May 04, 2009 05:14pm EDT by Sarah Lacy in Internet, Media, Networking and Communication, Recession
Related: NYT, AMZN, NEWS, ^IXIC

Play VideoNow Playing
It seems that Amazon is not content to bask in its Kindle 2 glow. After a few weeks of rumors, several media outlets are reporting a new large-format Kindle will launch this week, likely on Wednesday. The speculation is that the new Kindle will be about the size of a sheet of paper, and still black-and-white. But the chatter is less about the specs and more about the impact of a newer, larger Kindle.
Much of the expectation had been centered around the new device making a real play at the education market, given the hefty price and weight of textbooks and younger generations’ willingness to read and process information through screens.
But a Sunday article in the New York Times shifted the debate from education to newspapers. As revenues fall by 30% or more, could a new Kindle reignite traditional media subscriptions the way it juiced book sales? Publishers hope so, including the Times. And Amazon isn’t the only horse in the race. The article mentioned competing e-readers are due out from Hearst, News Corp., and Plastic Logic in the next year.
My guest is blogger Om Malik of GigaOm. He was one of several bloggers who said a bigger format Kindle was too little too late for old media. But textbooks? That’s an industry the device could revolutionize.