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Microsoft Cancer Search

June 11, 2016 By Marlene R. Litten

Microsoft researchers used cancer search queries to detect the need for medical advice.

Researchers from Microsoft used cancer search queries to obtain an algorithm that permits search engines to detect the early signs of pancreatic cancer. The purpose of the study was to find a way to warn people on the gravity of their symptoms and to advise them to seek professional medical attention.

Up until now, search engine data was used only for marketing purposes and online activity optimization. Various companies have tried to use the users’ inputs to develop better software programs and to create a superior online experience.

The classic approach is focused on the company, on its products, and client satisfaction. But Microsoft wants to add a new dimension to this anonymized scrutiny of search queries. In fact, Microsoft would want to use a person’s online activity as an indicator of its health.

Bing Cancer Search

Thus, scientists analyzed data coming from cancer search queries made by individuals who were already affected by the disease. All information was anonymous.

After that, researchers wanted to know if the prior search queries, which occurred before the diagnosis, may lead to any indication of the disease.

Cancer search queries coming from millions of people were analyzed in search of clues. Based on the acquired data, the scientists created statistical classifiers that could predict the diagnosis using patterns found in the history of individual search logs.

The results showed that experts could identify from 5 to 15% of the pancreatic cancer cases. The percentage of false positives, which indicate the persons that were incorrectly considered to have the disease, was very low.

The team of researchers said that they hope the study will help the early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

The Scientific Debate

The research makes way to the old paradigm of internet – the internet remembers everything, knows who you are, what you are doing, how you are feeling, and even when you are sick.

However, the study is not conclusive. The percentage of correctly determined cancer cases is very low, and experts say the further research will be needed in order to complete the algorithm.

The early detection of pancreatic cancer can increase the survival rate up to 7 percent. The noble intentions of the researchers are entirely explainable when it comes to how important the early detection of serious health problems had proved to be.

Critics of the study say that the information on how the research was conducted is very sketchy, which may hint for a mishandling of data and a flawed scientific methodology.

Image Source: Wikipedia

Skype Enriches User Experience with Group Video Calls

January 14, 2016 By Carol Harper

"Skype Enriches User Experience with Free Group Video Calls "

To celebrate 10 years of existence, Skype launched a platform that enables people to initiate or receive video calls on their mobile device.

Skype is planning to have quite an anniversary this year. And what better way to celebrate a decade of high-quality services than to add yet another feature to its palette. Skype enriches user experience with group video calls.

Ten years of achievements

The company Skype was founded in 2006. Since then, Skype, despite all odds, managed to maintain very high standards in the area of PC-to-PC audio and video calls.

Over the years, due to the fact that the network was steadily growing, Skype decided to add other features to its platform. And so, after much consideration, the instant messaging platform emerged, transforming Skype into something much more than your run-of-the-mill IM app and calling machine.

Moving forward to more recent events, in 2012 Skype managed to again dazzle its users by offering the application a mobile solution. Presently, the calling machine is available on most mobile platforms, including Android, Windows Phone and iOS.

And, as a little incentive, Gurdeep Pall, the corporate VP of Microsoft’s Information Platform and Experience, declared that in celebrating its 10^th year, Skype rolls out group video call support for all mobile platforms.

Skype is available on most mobile platforms

In order to access Skype’s latest feature, you must possess one of the following mobile operating systems: Android, iPhone, IPad or Windows 10, the mobile version.

This great piece of new has been shared by Pall through his personal blog, on the 12^th of January. Skype’s vice president also announced that the new feature will become available in a couple of days and that it is aimed to fulfill the user’s expectations towards the calling platform.

Skype enriches user experience with group video calls. So, what does this mean exactly? Remember when you had to make a video conference? Doing so, using a computer is pretty easy. All you had to do was to push a few buttons and presto!

But when it came to mobile phones, things were a lot more complicated. Well, not complicated, but limited, instead, meaning that you could not participate in a video conference or initiate video calls through Skype mobile.

The techies from Skype managed to find a way around this obstacle, and now, the mobile version of Skype is capable of doing basically the same things as its PC counterpart.

Skype’s limit is only the sky

Besides upgrading the mobile platform, Skype decided to tackle other issues when it comes to communication, one of these being communication. A while back, Skype launched a platform called Skype Translator.

Its purpose was to break the communicational barrier between business partners. At the moment, the app is still in preview mode, but, according to its developers, it is capable of translating voice, video and text messaged in approximately 50 languages.

Skype enriches user experience with video calls and it would seem that there will is nothing to stop the company from expanding.

Photo credits:www.flickr.com

Upgraded Spotify for Windows Phone users

January 19, 2015 By Carol Harper

While Windows phone users complaining about the lack of apps on their phone, Microsoft got Upgraded ‘dark’ Spotify on its phone for them.

The updated version comes along with a darker and larger interface with some value added feature. The music app has a big feature of ‘Your Music’ in which the users can browse and organize their tunes, as well as create playlists and view cover art.

Spotify claimed that the final addition to the new release would allow its user to get more targeted content. According to the service “regardless of whether you’re looking for something to fall asleep to, or the perfect playlist to get you geared up for your big night out, finding the right music for every moment is easier than ever”.

U.S Government awards a patent to Microsoft pertaining to Theater Mode on your phone

January 19, 2015 By Marlene R. Litten

Microsoft has just a patented a way to make your smartphone less noticeable and least distractive when you are present in certain environments and the tech giant has termed it as inconspicuous mode. You can use this mode at an official dinner, movie theater or at home when you’re about to go to bed.

The U.S government awarded the patent to Microsoft on Thursday.

It’s basically based on the notion that your phone might annoy and distract the persons sitting closer to you when you’re in a quiet and a darker place.

This Theater mode would enable your device to go silent and also dim the light to almost the lowest state plus the notifications also don’t show up on the home screen as well so that when you’re sitting in environment where you don’t want to disturb the persons sitting right next to you.

Microsoft described that one also has the liberty to customize this inconspicuous mode to your own liking and needs. Some may want to show text messages on the home screen and some might not want their screens to go completely dark, so there’s a bit of everything for everybody.

The main feature is that this feature would be automatic; meaning through the phones built in GPS it would recognize that you’re in such an environment where this mode needs to go on and on it shall go. It could also be triggered through the Theater’s Wi-Fi or Bluetooth beacons or your phone’s light sensor can also trigger it when it detects that you’re in a dark place.

Your phone could also figure out when to go quiet by looking into your calendar or your recent mobile payments or if you bought event tickets at the counter via tap to pay technology.

Venues will probably want to embrace it as smartphone disturbances are one of the most popular forms of annoyance at most of the venues.

Facebook Rolls Out the Trial Version of “Facebook at Work”

January 15, 2015 By Andreas Petersen

Finally, Facebook rolled out the trial version of “Facebook at Work”. The new application will draw a fine line between the work place a home of the user.

Today, Facebook launched the app and site of “Facebook at Work”. The social networking media released the site for both Android and iOS users. Unfortunately, the company has not said anything regarding the desktop release of the new application.

Facebook at work site is quite similar to the current facebook. However, the differences are in the policies of advertisement and third party developers. As per the new strategies, the company would not sale the data of the new app to third parties or to other adverting agencies.

The main goal of the new social networking site is to increase the productivity of employees through communication. It will provide a platform to workers to share their ideas with other employees. The users would not be interested in the useless videos and posts of old friends.

Facebook started working on Facebook at work in 2013. Initially, the social networking service tried the new version in its London office. It seems like the site showed good results in its trial. Hence, the company launched the new site for a wide range of people. Currently, Facebook has released the new app for particular offices. The firm has not announced the public resale date of the site.

A few other tech companies such as Microsoft and Google have already launched special versions for offices. Nevertheless, this is the first time when Facebook designed something related to work.

Microsoft Slams Google for Unveiling Windows 8.1 Security Flaws.

January 13, 2015 By Marlene R. Litten

Microsoft filed a public complain against Google. The largest software developer alleges that Google has intentionally published the security flaw of Windows 8.1 system when the company was Microsoft was all set to release a fix.

Microsoft intends to roll out the fix on 14^th of Jan. However, Google unveiled the issue on 11 of Jan two days before the fix released.

Earlier, A Washington based company asked Google not to release details regarding the flaw until the fix was ready.

On the other hand, Google states that it followed the regulation of its security research project known as “Project Zero”. The main objective of the team is to protect the world’s web users from malicious spies and hackers. Hence, the group scans all kinds for bugs and informs developers privately. Afterwards, the company gives a time period of 90 days to the developers to release the fix.

Google dealt with Microsoft in the same way. The company informed Microsoft about the bug on the 13^th of October 2014. After Microsoft reached the deadline of 90 days, Google publicly revealed the bug.

Google believes that security flaws in software should be disclosed before the fix. The prior revelation increase the pressure on particular company otherwise, companies take a lot of time to handle the issue. Hence, the move will compel firms to work faster on the bugs.

Obviously, Microsoft does not consider Google’s reasons as valid. The American multinational corporation called it “less like principles and more like gotcha”.

Microsoft not Happy with Google blabbing over Windows 8.1 login bug

January 12, 2015 By Cliff Jenkins Scott

Microsoft is quite disgusted with Google for disclosing a 90 day old vulnerability in Windows 8.1 just a couple of days before the Redmond based tech giant was about to fix the bug.

Google just revealed this bug on the 11^th of January stating that the flaw allowed non privileged users to elevate their rights to administrator level especially during the Windows 8.1 login process.

This wasn’t the first revelation by Google in terms of Windows 8.1. The company reported a nasty takedown of Windows 8.1 in September then revealing it on December the 30^th.

Google took the above steps in accordance with its own policies, which states that the tech giant reveal flaws 90 days after it reports them to vendors. In this case, the flaw was first reported to Microsoft on 30^th October.

Microsoft says that Google acted quite irresponsibly because the company not only planned a solution for the problem on January 13th but also asked Google not to go public until that day.

Microsoft’s senior director for trustworthy computing Chris Betz wrote “Specifically, we asked Google to work with us to protect customers by withholding details until Tuesday, January 13, when we will be releasing a fix.”

He added that “Google’s 90 day disclosure policy feels less like principles and more like a ‘gotcha’, with customers the ones who may suffer as a result.”

“Google needs to understand that what’s right for them may not always be right for the customers.”

Betz also called on the Mountain View based tech giant along with others to sign up to Redmond’s Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure policy.

Microsoft Set To Launch Windows 10 With A New Browser, Spartan, Would Retain IE

December 29, 2014 By Denise Ehrlich

Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows 10 would launch with an entirely new web browser code-named Spartan, according to an anonymous report.

ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley has reported that this new browser is a total departure from the Internet Explorer mindset. She said that the “lightweight” browser would have a look and feel similar to that of Google’s Chrome and Mozilla’s Firefox browsers. But her sources also suggested that the new Spartan browser will be offered alongside IE when Windows 10 debuts next year.

While Chrome and Firefox lead on desktops and Apple’s Safari along with Chrome and Android’s default browser are smartphone browser leaders, Internet Explorer is no longer the force it once was. Once there was a time when IE handled about 90 percent of all web traffic on desktop and laptop machines, but according to research outfit Net Applications, its share has now dropped to 58 percent. On mobile, its share is less than 2 percent.

Spartan attempts to address both of these worlds, smartphone and desktops. Windows 10 is designed to be cross platform and would run across a wide range of devices and therefore, the new browser Spartan will be available on phones and tablets as well as laptops and desktops. It’s not clear up till now that whether Spartan will run on Android, Apple’s iOS or any other operating systems that compete with Windows, but there is a good chance that it might.

Christmas Gaming got ruined: Meet the Lizard Squad

December 28, 2014 By Carol Harper

Both Sony’s PlayStation Network and Microsoft’s Xbox Live have still not recovered from being down for most part of Christmas day and the following Boxing Day for most of their users. While the highly motivated Hacking collective, the Lizard Squad has claimed responsibility of this outage.

This group has been in on the news for most part of the year as it has on multiple occasions attacked the gaming networks. Mind you this wasn’t the first time they hit Sony or Microsoft as well. They have claimed to have hit the PlayStation network in August and Xbox in early December, as well as several others such as RiotGames’ League of Legends and Blizzard’s Battle.net.

Along with those hacks, the group pulled off some serious pranks as well. The group’s twitter account tweeted out a bomb scare, forcing an American Airlines flight to make an emergency landing. On board was Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley. This incident put Lizard Squad right amongst the top sights of the FBI.

They didn’t stop at that either, claiming to have planted the ISIS flag on Sony’s servers.

Well tweeting about a bomb threat is a serious federal crime, but security experts are of the view that Lizard Squad’s actual motives were amusement and pranks and they also stated that they might have nothing to do with ISIS as well.

But when it comes to hacking, Lizard Squad understands what it’s getting at. An analyst warned this week that the group is “not to be trifled with. Let me say this about Lizard Squad. My personal opinion is, those guys know what they’re doing, and if they’re coming after you, you’re going to have a bad day,” said Dan Holden, director of research at the IT analysis firm Arbor Networks.

Lizard Squad’s premier weapon of choice is Distributed Denial of Service attacks, or DDoS attacks, which overwhelm servers with massive amounts of fake traffic, rendering them inoperable.

Xbox live goes down again on Saturday: Courtesy Hackers or Microsoft!

December 27, 2014 By Marlene R. Litten

Microsoft’s online gaming portal for the Xbox One users, is once again down and having problems.

Xbox live is down according to Microsoft’s official service website and hundreds of gamers on this service have gone to the social media, actively reporting it. This has occurred just after two days when a cyber attack took the service down during the entire Christmas day. Rival console giant Sony’s PlayStation Network faced even a more humiliating situation by keeping gamers offline for 48 hours straight during this time.

Microsoft’s site says that “Sorry we’re unable to launch certain tiles and have been working on the problem and hope to see it corrected as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience. We’ll let you know of the issue within half an hour.”

This issue has kept many people from signing into their Xbox live accounts or even starting up some of the games. This includes multiplayer titles like Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Destiny, which requires an online connection. But it also includes primarily single-player games like Far Cry 4 and Dragon Age: Inquisition, which often need to connect to a third-party server.

Lizard Squad claimed responsibility for the Christmas attack, but it also said that it had stopped its activities yesterday. Microsoft has not yet confirmed that today’s issues are related to the Christmas attacks. Sony has also released that its services are still offline because of a designed disruption by some foreign body.