| Mt. Gox Claims to Have Found 200,000 Bitcoins in Old Wallet Posted: 23 Mar 2014 05:54 PM PDT 
Missing bitcoins apparently found in an 'old-format' wallet previously thought to be empty The defunct Bitcoin exchange, which last month filed for bankruptcy in Japan after losing close to 850,000 bitcoins (including 100,000 of its own) to a "bug in the Bitcoin system," now says it recently found 200,000 bitcoins in an "old-format" wallet previously believed to be empty. "MtGox Co., Ltd. had certain old-format wallets which were used in the past and which, MtGox thought, no longer held any bitcoins. Following the application for commencement of a civil rehabilitation proceeding, these wallets were rescanned and their balance researched. On March 7,2014, MtGox Co., Ltd. confirmed that an old-format wallet which was used prior to June 2011 held a balance of approximately 200,000 BTC (199,999.99 BTC)," CEO Mark Karpeles announced in a statement (PDF) on Thursday. "MtGox Co., Ltd. investigated the presence of these 200,000 BTC, immediately reported it to its counsels in the application for commencement of a civil rehabilitation proceedings ("counsels")," he further wrote, adding that the counsels duly notified the court about the development on March 10. The court, according to the statement, has also been made aware of the fact that, for "security reasons," the erstwhile largest bitcoin exchange first moved the 200,000 BTC to an online wallet the very day they were discovered and then, between the 14th and the 15th, to offline wallets. Not everyone is convinced, least of all the law firm handling a class action lawsuit against the defunct exchange in the States. "Today in court we got relief ... specifically to track the 180,000 bitcoins, which we've been monitoring. Hours later, Mt. Gox claimed it 'found' these bitcoins ... it appears Mt. Gox realized we were close and decided to acknowledge that it owned these 180,000-200,000 bitcoins," Steven L. Woodrow, a partner at law firm Edelson, told Reuters.
"The idea that there were 200,000 or 180,000 bitcoins in a single wallet that they just discovered which had been dormant for years that contained 180,000 bitcoins is undercut by plain evidence on the blockchain." Follow Pulkit on Google+ |
| Firefox 29 Enters Beta with Chrome-esque ‘Australis’ Redesign Posted: 23 Mar 2014 04:21 PM PDT 
New clutter-free interface comes three years after last major design change Mozilla on Thursday released a new beta build of its flagship product. Not only does the Firefox 29 beta with its minimalist 'Australis' interface bear a striking resemblance to Chrome, it also packs a much-improved Chrome-like approach to browser syncing. "We redesigned the overall look and feel of Firefox to help you access your Web content quickly. We've changed the tab structure and functionality in Firefox to enable you to focus on your Web content," Mozilla said in a blog post Thursday. "Tabs have a more fluid and streamlined shape, sit higher up in the browser and tabs that are not in use have been visually de-emphasized. We've also moved the bookmark manager next to the bookmark star in your Firefox toolbar to make it easy to save your favorite sites for one click access." Mozilla is also ditching its code-based-pairing approach to browser syncing in favor of a server-based one not unlike that currently employed by Chrome. Under the new scheme, users will have to register for a Firefox account and use those credentials to sync their bookmarks, tabs, and settings across devices. "You can test the new Firefox Sync on Windows, Mac, Linux and Android by creating an account as a safe and easy way for you to take your Firefox with you anywhere. The new Firefox Sync makes it even easier to setup and add multiple devices while delivering end-to-end encryption." Another significant addition is the new customization mode which makes its possible for users to "manually drag and drop your favorite feature, add-on or tool anywhere in the browser based on your preferences." Image Credit: Mozilla Follow Pulkit on Google+ |
| Turkey Cracks Down on Twitter, Blocks Site at IP Level Posted: 23 Mar 2014 04:10 PM PDT 
Perennial EU membership aspirant unlikely to relent anytime soon Not all that long ago, Turkey was this increasingly progressive EU membership hopeful that Internet censorship watchdogs around the world weren't overly concerned about; despite Internet censorship being very tangible, the general outlook, if not exactly positive, wasn't alarmingly negative, either. All that has changed dramatically in the past couple of months, first with the enactment of a new Internet censorship law and then with premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan's open vow to "eradicate Twitter." Almost immediately after the the prime minister's open threat, the country on Thursday began blocking the popular microblogging platform Twitter, with the site's visitors being redirected to a statement by the country's telecommunications regulator, TIB, citing a number of court orders as the basis for the ban. The ban, as later confirmed in a statement from Erdogan's office, came after Twitter was widely used to share a series of incriminating audio tapes containing allegedly wiretapped conversations in which Erdogan and his son Bilal can be heard discussing ways to smuggle ill-begotten cash out of the country. The prime minister contends that the audio tapes are fake. "Twitter has been used as a means to carry out systematic character assassinations by circulating illegally acquired recordings, fake and fabricated records of wiretapping," the prime minister's office said in a statement on Saturday. As is usually the case with such actions, the ban seems to be producing almost the opposite of its intended effect, with Twitter usage witnessing a sharp spike in that country. However, the Turkish government is unlikely to relent anytime soon and is now blocking the microblogging site at the IP level in order to make it even harder for the country's netizens to defy the ban. Even though Erdogan made it amply clear on Thursday that he didn't care what the international community thought, the ban has drawn criticism from around the globe, including the U.S. State Department: "Every day, governments around the world devote precious resources to Internet censorship. It is 21st Century book-burning - and it doesn't make anyone stronger." Image Credit: EliteDaily Follow Pulkit on Google+ |
| Google Continues to Push WebP Image Format Posted: 23 Mar 2014 03:51 PM PDT 
Sees WebP as worthy replacement for JPEG, PNG and GIF formats Undeterred by resistance from some of its rivals in the browser world, the Mountain View, California-based Internet giant blithely continues to push its WebP image format as a possible replacement for existing file formats like JPEG, PNG and GIF. The company is currently busy rolling out the format across its many web properties and claims to have already "raised our aggregate data transfer savings tally to tens of terabytes every day" in the process. Developed in 2010, the WebP image format supports both lossless and lossy compression and is, per Google, "the first unified format that can address the key use cases of JPEG, PNG and GIF files." Last year, the company transitioned the web-based version of the Play Store and the Chrome Web Store away from the PNG format to lossless WebP images. Now, it's the turn of the world's most popular video streaming site. "Another major WebP rollout is currently in progress: YouTube video thumbnails are starting to be served in WebP with initial results indicating up to a 10% reduction in page load time," Husain Bengali, Product Manager and WebP Optimizer, announced in a blog post Friday. "For users, this translates into faster page load times and fewer bytes counted against metered data plans. To speed up browsing on sites that don't serve WebP yet, Chrome for Android and iOS can use Chrome's Data Compression Proxy, which transcodes images to WebP on the fly in order to deliver image compression of over 60%." Follow Pulkit on Google+ |
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