---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <DCB27EC4-1FFC-4258-9ED0-2D189126FF17@roscom.com> Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2017 00:50:57 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Why Tech is Starting to Make Me Uneasy Why Tech is Starting to Make Me Uneasy By Farhad Manjoo Reporting on technology has changed this year - what once felt like a world of boundless possibility now comes freighted with worry. It's gadget season in the tech world. Think of it like New York Fashion Week, untucked white-man edition. Every fall, the world's largest technology companies put on elaborate press events to show off their latest wonders. This year's gatherings have been particularly glitzy. Ten years after the debut of the iPhone, Apple invited reporters to the office park it's been building for the past six years - the monumental spaceship building that Steve Jobs unveiled in his last public address. Amazon, in the meantime, asked reporters to visit its Seattle headquarters, where it is building a humidity-controlled set of glass spheres that will one day function as a kind of indoor nature walk for employees. The new gadgets - Apple's completely redesigned iPhone, Amazon's bedside clock talking computer - were also kind of fun. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/11/insider/tech-column-dread.html ------------------------------ Message-ID: <1EA9893A-62C9-4559-989E-FDEDDBFFBD40@roscom.com> Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2017 01:07:20 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: How Israel Caught Russian Hackers Scouring the World for U.S. Secrets How Israel Caught Russian Hackers Scouring the World for U.S. Secrets Exploiting the popular Kaspersky antivirus software, Russian hackers searched millions of computers for American intelligence keywords. Israeli intelligence tipped off American officials. By Nicole Perlroth and Scott Shane It was a case of spies watching spies watching spies: Israeli intelligence officers looked on in real time as Russian government hackers searched computers around the world for the code names of American intelligence programs. What gave the Russian hacking, detected more than two years ago, such global reach was its improvised search tool - antivirus software made by a Russian company, Kaspersky Lab, that is used by 400 million people worldwide, including by officials at some two dozen American government agencies. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/10/technology/kaspersky-lab-israel-russia-hacking.html ------------------------------ Message-ID: <EC3B4E76-B5B2-4AF6-A22B-DF5CEE843552@roscom.com> Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2017 00:47:21 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Tech Giants, Once Seen as Saviors, Are Now Viewed as Threats Tech Giants, Once Seen as Saviors, Are Now Viewed as Threats American tech companies positioned themselves as entities that brought positive change by connecting people and spreading information. Perceptions are shifting. SAN FRANCISCO - At the start of this decade, the Arab Spring blossomed with the help of social media. That is the sort of story the tech in- dustry loves to tell about itself: It is bringing freedom, enlight- enment and a better future for all mankind. Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder, proclaimed that this was exactly why his social network existed. In a 2012 manifesto for investors, he said Facebook was a tool to create "a more honest and transparent dialogue around government." The result, he said, would be "better solutions to some of the biggest problems of our time." https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/12/technology/tech-giants-threats.html ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20171014023827.GA19759@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2017 22:38:27 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@QRM.horne.net> Subject: Reviewing CenturyLink & The Competition CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) is one of 45 public companies in the "Integrated Telecommunications Services" industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its rivals? We will compare CenturyLink to related businesses based on the strength of its profitability, earnings, risk, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends and analyst recommendations. https://ledgergazette.com/2017/10/13/reviewing-centurylink-ctl-the-competition.html -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20171014023352.GA19736@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2017 22:33:52 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@QRM.horne.net> Subject: Analysis: AT&T's race against time to save its TV business By Brian Fung Washington Post AT&T's push to acquire DirecTV in 2015 looked like brilliance at first. Having captured most of the low-hanging fruit in the telephone and wireless markets already, AT&T's expansion into the television industry promised much more room for growth. By offering DirecTV directly to consumers, AT&T might gain new customers, hang onto old ones and take advantage of viewing data for advertising purposes. But almost from the beginning, the deal's potential seemed limited by the growing number of consumers who have been abandoning traditional television services. With more Americans embracing online alternatives, AT&T may have inherited in DirecTV - and its 20 million subscribers - a brewing long-term headache that can only be solved by either preventing or compensating for the effects of cord-cutting. http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-att-directv-cord-cutting-20171013-story.html -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Sat, 14 Oct 2017