Europe Raids Big Oil Firms

 European authorities raided the offices of BP, Shell, Statoil, and other companies involved in the oil business yesterday, as part of an investigation into what they suspect is a more than decade-old conspiracy to rig oil prices. The European Commission said it had launched "unannounced inspections" of oil company offices in Britain, the Netherlands, and Norway, the Guardian reports. The companies have been accused of colluding to report artificially high prices to a benchmarking agency, much the way banks conspired to fix Libor rates.

"Even small distortions of assessed prices may have a huge impact on the prices of crude oil," which could in turn hurt consumers at the pump, the EC said in a statement, according to the Telegraph. While it didn't name its targets, BP, Shell, Norway's largely government-owned Statoil, and the price reporting firm Platts all say they're cooperating with investigators, with Statoil confirming a raid aided by Norwegian antitrust authorities. Though there's no timetable for the investigation, the AP believes political pressure is likely to mount for more regulation of the industry.

Europe Raids Big Oil Firms

By: Unknown on: 2:06 AM

Stupid Woman R.I.P Stupid driver mistakes the brake pedal with throttle. Different angle.

Stupid Woman R.I.P Stupid driver mistakes the brake pedal with throttle. Different angle.

By: Unknown on: 1:45 AM

NASA spends 24 million $ a year on unneeded facilities

WASHINGTON — When NASA began planning for a return visit to the moon several years ago, the agency naturally started building the necessary infrastructure to get there.
That included a $350 million test stand at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi to accommodate special testing requirements for rockets being built as part of what was called the Constellation Program.
The test stand was only two-thirds complete when President Obama canceled Constellation in 2010. Directed by Congress to finish the project anyway, NASA spent another $57 million on it. When it's completed this month, the test stand will sit idle indefinitely until a new use is found, but will still cost taxpayers $900,000 a year to maintain.
The A-3 test stand will join a growing list of unused or underutilized structures costing the space agency tens of millions of dollars to maintain each year, according to NASA Inspector General Paul Martin. An in-house study last year estimated that NASA has up to 865 "unneeded" facilities, collectively costing more than $24 million in annual upkeep, he said.

An audit the inspector general's office released in February identified another 33 facilities, including wind tunnels, thermal vacuum chambers and other launch infrastructure, that NASA wasn't fully utilizing or that had no identifiable future mission. Taxpayers spent $43 million in 2011 to maintain those facilities.
Martin told a House, Science, Space and Technology subcommittee Friday that NASA's attempts to determine what it needs to get rid of haven't gotten far mainly due to "fluctuating and uncertain requirements."
Over the past six years, NASA's goal in human exploration of space has transitioned from the space shuttle program to the Constellation Program to the Space Launch System that targets a Mars mission by the 2030s.
"Changes to national space policy initiated by the president and Congress have increased the difficulty of determining which facilities NASA needs," Martin told lawmakers. "Because decisions about whether to retain specific facilities depends heavily upon the missions NASA undertakes, frequent changes to these missions complicate the agency's efforts to manage its infrastructure."
The issue is especially problematic for NASA, where more than 80% of facilities are at least 40 years old and beyond their design life. In addition, the estimated cost of NASA's backlog of deferred maintenance projects stood at $2.3 billion in 2012.
Even when the agency sees a chance to make money off its surplus property, it's not easy.
Members of Congress are raising concerns about NASA's plan to lease the historic Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which costs the agency $1.2 million a year to maintain. The pad, which supported the Apollo and shuttle programs, is no longer being used. Agency officials said they will demolish the pad unless they find a tenant.
NASA officials were close to leasing the pad to SpaceX, an aerospace company that was the first to fly cargo to the International Space Station, until another company, Blue Origin, submitted a competing bid to take over pad 39A and operate it as a multi-user facility.
Earlier this month, Blue Origin filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office, effectively delaying any action on a lease until possibly Dec. 12, the GAO's deadline to rule on the matter.
The dispute between the two companies has spilled into Congress, with some members urging NASA to open the pad to multiple users and others backing the agency's handling of the issue.
On Friday, two panel members — Republican Mo Brooks of Alabama and Democrat Ami Bera of California — said NASA should opt for a multi-user lease.
"I have reservations about the potential adverse effect on our space program of one of our primary launch pads being taken over by one user," Brooks said. "In my judgment, (it) would tend to both stifle competition and reduce the ability of 39A to be used as a backup by other private users or by NASA itself."
But GOP Rep. Bill Posey, whose Florida district includes Kennedy Space Center, asked members to let NASA do its job. Too often, the agency's attempts to act efficiently have been hampered by politics, he said.
"Billions and billions and billions of dollars (have been) wasted because we have the parochial interests of different members trying to micromanage what NASA does," he said. "It's like a city councilman trying to tell a police chief who to arrest and who not to arrest."

NASA spends 24 million $ a year on unneeded facilities

By: Unknown on: 1:38 PM

The Canon A2600 is a camera that gets the job done without costing too much money.

While there are some phenomenal new cameras on the market, sometimes budget trumps all other concerns. Maybe you're looking for a gift or a starter camera for someone you know, but you don't have a ton of money to sink on something that may not last forever. Enter the Canon PowerShot A2600 ($149 MSRP): a bargain-buy point-and-shoot that may not outperform higher-end cameras, but does give you a reliable option for quick snaps to share with friends.
The controls are about as basic as they get, and there are several shooting modes that cover just about all of the common situations you'd want a point-and-shoot for. Fireworks, snowy pictures and even low-light situations all have presets, so the A2600 should feel at home in a variety of situations. Mind you, the picture quality leaves much to be desired, but this will work in a pinch — especially for Facebook photos.
We should point out that we did have some fun with the effects filters on the A2600. While your picture quality isn't going to fool anyone into thinking you're a pro, filters like the toy camera mode (faux-vignetting) and miniaturization (faux-bokeh) will make your pictures look very interesting — if you're creative in how you use them.

Given the price of the A2600, it's a tempting camera to give your kids, but that may not be a good idea. The casing doesn't feel very sturdy, so it will not survive the rough and tumble of a kid's adventures. Additionally, the camera doesn't have much in the way of grip, so handling may be difficult in fast-paced situations.
Assuming you've equipped the strap and are ready to start snapping photos, you'll be delighted to see an acceptably large screen with an attractive menu. This is a huge plus, but the buttons are somewhat small and hard to press if you're operating the camera with one hand.
Despite older models of Canon point-and-shoots using AA batteries, the A2600 does not. Those of you who want to use the A2600 for long periods of time may want to pick up an extra NB-11L battery to extend its life on a night out or family trip.
Let's face it: For under $150, you're not going to be getting a camera that stays in your family from generation to generation. However, if you're looking to grab a basic camera on the cheap, the Canon PowerShot A2600 is definitely worth checking out.

The Canon A2600 is a camera that gets the job done without costing too much money.

By: Unknown on: 1:35 PM

EMC & IBM looking to buy Amazon cloud rival SoftLayer

Enterprise behemoths EMC and IBM are taking a close look at buying major infrastructure-as-a-service provider SoftLayer in a deal that could be worth more than $2 billion, Reuters reports.

Dallas-based SoftLayer closely competes with Amazon Web Services, Rackspace, Microsoft Azure, and others to help companies with their IaaS needs. In the cloud space, SoftLayer’s name doesn’t get thrown around like Amazon and Rackspace, but it is a popular choice for IaaS and has more than 25,000 small-to-huge customers, including AT&T, SendGrid, Citrix, and Path. It has 13 data centers in the U.S., Europe, and Asia and has raised $30 million in venture capital to date.

The fact that both EMC and IBM are showing interest in buying SoftLayer shows that the company has been successful in recruiting customers to use its public cloud over so many other choices.

IBM especially is interesting since it already offers its own cloud infrastructure products. Perhaps this means IBM wants SoftLayer’s data centers and tech to bolster its efforts.

Storage giant EMC, however, could be looking at SoftLayer to combine with the efforts of cloud services giant VMware, which it owns a majority stake of. EMC’s latest big move is a joint spin-off with VMware called The Pivotal Initiative, which focuses on “big data” and data processing services.

VentureBeat is creating an index of the top 'arms merchants' of the cloud. Take a look at our initial suggestions and complete the survey to help us build a definitive index. We’ll publish the official index later this month, and for those who fill out surveys, we’ll send you an expanded report free of charge.

EMC & IBM looking to buy Amazon cloud rival SoftLayer

By: Unknown on: 11:52 AM

A server for your small business

So, your business has grown large enough that you need your first server. Congratulations! Acquiring a server is a big decision, so some trepidation is understandable. This guide will explain the basic principles of the technology, help you decide which class of server will best fit your needs, and give you some ballpark pricing, so you don’t overspend or acquire a product that’s insufficient for your needs.

I’ll also explore the chief alternative to running your own server–relying on the cloud–and provide a primer on one of today’s hottest server trends: virtualization. You’ll find this guide useful even if you ultimately decide to hire an IT consultant to analyze your requirements and make a purchase recommendation.

The Cloud Alternative
Why not put everything in the cloud? Services such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft’s Windows Azure, and Rackspace Cloud Hosting offer a number of benefits. For starters, they don’t involve a significant capital outlay, and you won’t need an IT staff to manage the server. You won’t need to worry about the equipment or software becoming outdated or obsolete, either. In the days when businesses relied on big-iron mainframes, this strategy was called “time sharing.” And the cloud is burdened with many of the same limitations as that model was.

A server for your small business

By: Unknown on: 5:24 AM

Cloud Storage Services are not ready for the Enterprise

Cloud storage has now become an inevitable choice as a disaster recovery solution for the enterprise. Providers at the same time market their services as ‘replace the tape’ strategy by comparing cost, time and reliability numbers. However, like any other service, cloud has few down sides, some very critical for the enterprise. A survey by FixYa, engaging thousands of its users indicates security and reliability among the top 5 concerns when it comes to public cloud storage services; Dropbox, Google Drive, Sugar Sync, iCloud and Box.

Dropbox, the leading, cross-platform and cross-device cloud storage service with over 100 million users was marked having security concerns by 40% of those surveyed. ‘Storage limits’ came out to the second with 25% of those surveyed identifying storage costs associated with increasing limits. This was followed by ‘File Syncing Issues’ (15%) and ‘Laggy Responses’ (10%), the survey states. In the past, Dropbox has dealt with some major security issues, including compromising email addresses of a portion of its user base. Dropbox users who only rely on the service for personal use such as storing photos and media aren’t discouraged by these security concerns.

According to the survey, top complaint on Google Drive was ‘Missing Folders’ (30%), followed by Syncing Issues (20%). Despite the popularity and ease of use, Google Drive still experiences usability issues that need to be addressed. Security, however, doesn’t seem to a concern with drive. Like the drive, Sugar Sync was also reported to have some usability issues as 15% of those surveyed checked on ‘Syncing Issues’. Sugar Sync also lacks Quickbooks support making it a deal breaker for financial users.

Cloud Storage Services are not ready for the Enterprise

By: Unknown on: 5:22 AM