Amazon, NYT Revive Workplace Culture Brouhaha

Amazon and The New York Times this week engaged in a rehash of their dispute over the publication this summer of a story that describes harsh working conditions at the company.

NYT reporter Jodi Kantor misled Amazon, alleged spokesperson Jay Carney, as she failed to challenge the credibility of former Amazon employees whose negative comments formed the backbone of the story.

Some of the interviewees' accounts lacked context, he said.

The New York Times' public editor has called out the paper for bias and hype in its coverage twice in less than a year, and the Amazon story was one of those occasions, Carney noted, quoting a statement to underscore his point.

The article "was driven less by irrefutable proof than by generalization and anecdote. For such a damning result, presented with so much drama, that doesn't seem like quite enough," Public Editor Margaret Sullivan wrote in her critique.

The Amazon employees quoted expressed admiration for Amazon's ambitions and urgency while highlighting issues in the workplace, wrote NYT Executive Editor Dean Baquet in a response to Carney's post.

Many of the nearly 6,000 people commenting on the NYT website said they or their relatives had similar experiences, Baquet noted.

Carney's rebuttal "just spreads the story further," Pace University marketing professor Larry Chiagouris told TechNewsWorld. "It's not a smart move."

Muddy Water

One of the objections Carney raised was that the NYThighlighted negative comments by former Amazon employee Bo Olson, without taking the trouble to look into his credibility. Olson resigned after he was caught falsifying business records to cover up an attempt to defraud vendors, Carney said.

Former employees Elizabeth Willet and Chris Bracia -- whose complaints of rough treatment through feedback and reviews were featured in the NYT article -- actually had received positive feedback, Carney maintained.

Further, Dina Vaccari, whose account of going without sleep for four days straight appeared to illustrate Amazon's unreasonable demands on employees, emphasized in her own response to the NYT piece that putting in those hours was her own choice, and that other factors contributed to her sleeplessness at the time.

"When there are two sides to a story, a reader deserves to know them both," Carney said.

Standing Ground

Correspondence between NYT reporter Kantor and Amazon show that topics discussed "relatively early on" included Amazon's reputation as a difficult place to work and complaints of a culture of criticism, the Times' Baquet pointed out.

Also, Olson disputed Amazon's account of his departure, Baquet said, insisting that he never was confronted with allegations of personally fraudulent conduct or falsifying records, and that he did not admit to that.

The Times "never said Amazon was forcing Vaccari to work that hard," Baquet added.

Amazon "attempted to portray the criticisms used in the original story as being somehow exceptional or unusual, but in each case [Baquet] showed instead that they were individual indicators of larger injustices and broader trends," observed Charles King, principal at Pund-IT.

If Amazon continues the fight, it "might well shoot itself in the opposite foot," he told TechNewsWorld.

Memories Are Short

Regardless of the sparring, "Amazon will prevail as if nothing happened," predicted Andreas Scherer, managing partner at Salto Partners.

"We Americans have an attention span that's less than that of a goldfish," he told TechNewsWorld.

Amazon may not be able to shake this off without damage to its image, however.

The company "must address the core issues raised by its former employees and respond to these findings with authentic and decisive action," cautioned Stephen Hahn-Griffiths, a vice president at the Reputation Institute.

System 76 Unleashes Wild Dog Pro

System 76 on Tuesday announced its latest desktop release, Wild Dog Pro, with a range of high-end customizable configurations to enhance video editing and media creation, software engineering, CAD, and high-end performance for today's most demanding games.

It comes preinstalled with Ubuntu 15.10 (Wily Werewolf), and the default desktop environment is Unity. However, users can install other Linux distributions and desktop environments.

"The Wild Dog Pro proves that Linux users can have the absolute latest and greatest in hardware innovation," said Carl Richell, president of System76.

System76 engineers its products to run Ubuntu flawlessly with today's most advanced technology, he told LinuxInsider. Pricing starts at US$769.

Spectacular Specs

Wild Dog Pro offers a choice of either a sixth-generation Intel multicore, multithreaded Core i5 Skylake processor, or the Intel i7 water-cooled 6700K processor. The chipset is Intel H170 Express.

You can choose either the Intel HD Graphics 530 or an Nvidia graphics card up to GTX 980 with up to 4 GB. Memory is provided by dual-channel DDR4 @ 2133 MHz up to 64 GB.

Solid state and standard storage options are M.2 SATA SSD up to 3x2.5 inches or 3.5-inch drives up to 18.5 TB. Networking options include Gigabit Ethernet or Intel Wireless-AC (a/b/g/n/ac).

The Wild Dog Pro is configured with an impressive collection of ports and accessory connectors, including front and rear data ports for both USB 3.0 Type-A, USB 2.0 Type-A and USB 3.1 Type-C. The power supply is rated for 500W to provide 80 percent or greater power efficiency.

The desktop chassis is lightweight brushed aluminum. It comes in silver or black and measures 14.75 inches high by 8.25 inches wide by 19.25 inches deep. The Wild Dog Pro weighs 17.5 pounds.

The newly remastered software images do not include Adobe Flash. That omission is based on security concerns and the lack of any real need for Flash to gain a full Web experience, according to System 76.

Not Linux-Only

The Wild Dog Pro desktop stands out from any desktop -- not just Linux -- with its high-quality brushed aluminum build and extensive expansion and customization capabilities. The machine is designed to last, according to Richell.

"While thin and light computers and all-in-ones are a great fit for some users, they sacrifice performance and storage to achieve their size. The Wild Dog Pro is designed for creators and engineers that don't want to make sacrifices. It's quiet, powerful and beautiful," he said.

The Wild Dog Pro is an interesting product that is "a decidedly different game than traditional Windows-based PCs or even some workstations," said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.

The new desktop release targets engineers, designers and other professionals who appreciate or need top-of-the-line technical features and performance in a Linux-supported solution, he told LinuxInsider. That is a growing market for Linux users.

"There are more of those folks than you might think, especially in technically savvy companies that develop their own Linux-based applications and tools in-house," King pointed out. "The Wild Dog Pro units sell at a premium, but System76's ongoing success suggests that there is a sizable audience for thoughtfully and well-designed Linux-based desktop systems."

Compelling for Consumers

The Skylake processor makes more of a difference for Linux support than anything in the box, noted Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.

"Typically with Linux, you are left to the mercies of the Linux forums -- which can be really hostile and unforgiving -- and your own skills to resolve problems. System 76 takes care of most of that for you," he told LinuxInsider. "The end result is that with one of their systems, you can focus more on your job and not on doing your own tech support."

Earth Quake in South Asia

Heavy Earth Quake touches the South Asia Its Central Point is Kabul a City of Afghanistan.

Its intensity Recorded about 7.5 according to CNN . This earth quake damage Afghanistan,Pakistan,Switzerland,India,Nepal and many other countries. Hundreds of peoples died in Pakistan This earth quake considered most damaging earthquake in the history of Pakistan.

This earthquake happen on 26-10-2015 at 2:09pm according to Pakistan Time.

Exclusive: Silicon Valley IPO market boom winding down

Last year, many tech IPOs enjoyed soaring valuations in their Wall Street debut, raining cash on the companies and their investors and boosting concerns about another Silicon Valley bubble.

Now, the party is winding down, according to data analyzed by Reuters: Five of the 12 U.S.-based tech companies that went public this year, or 42 percent, priced their shares at a valuation below or nearly the same as their private market value, compared to 24 percent of the 29 that went public in 2014.

"People are no longer out of their minds with valuations and expectations," said Adam Marcus, managing partner at OpenView Venture Partners in Boston.

A recent example is Pure Storage (PSTG.N), whose IPO earlier this month gave the data storage company a $3.1 billion market cap that almost matched its valuation in the private market.

The shift in the investing climate comes as payments company Square filed this week for its own IPO later this year, becoming one of the most prominent of the so-called "unicorns," or private companies valued at more than $1 billion, to try to go public.

Even when valuations increase, they are growing by a smaller amount, according to the data, which was provided by Ipreo, a market intelligence company, and Pitchbook, a venture capital, private equity and M&A data provider, and analyzed by Reuters. Among the companies that saw their values grow in an IPO in 2014, the median increase from their value in the private market was 61 percent. Some companies saw increases of three-, four- and even five-fold.

So far this year, that gain is 32 percent. The data excludes eight companies that went public in 2014 because there was insufficient information to calculate their pre-IPO valuations.

The shrinking difference affects every corner of the pre-IPO market, compelling some companies to delay or withdraw their public-offering plans, bankers and industry analysts said.

And some late-stage investors - while they will still get paid - may see smaller returns than they gambled on. Those who invested in rounds with an eye on a 30 or 40 percent return will more likely get a return similar to the S&P 500 over the past year - about 8 percent, sources said.

According to interviews with bankers, venture capitalists and late-stage investors, this shift in the venture investing climate is just getting underway and likely to accelerate.

It is also an about-face from the last few years, when hot tech companies found no shortage of investors for their private financing and experienced massive valuations, and then demanded an even higher market cap in an IPO.

But now the public market is less willing to play along, venture capitalists said.

To be sure, some delays in going public can be attributed to the surge in funding from late stage investors, allowing tech startups to stay private longer.

As their valuations grew in the private market, a big increase in the value of their shares in an IPO became harder to achieve.

A valuation drop in an IPO doesn't necessarily dim the long-term prospects of a company. Hortonworks' (HDP.O) stock is up more than 34 percent from the IPO price, for instance, after its valuation took a 40 percent cut in its public offering last year.

But lower valuations in the public market raise questions about the future of the nearly 150 companies that have filed confidential IPOs, according to estimates by some investors.

There is not enough market demand, they say, to support so many deals. In a confidential IPO, reserved for companies with less than $1 billion in revenue, companies file a draft registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission that is for non-public review.

UNICORNS

And some "unicorn" tech companies that were expected to go public this year have put those plans off. Among them are online lending company Prosper Marketplace and data storage company Nutanix, according to sources familiar with those companies. After meeting with bankers, Prosper decided to stay private for about the next year, the sources said.

"We take the idea of going public seriously," said CEO Aaron Vermut, "but there are other ways to achieve your goals while staying private longer."

One of Prosper's public counterparts, online business lender OnDeck, saw its valuation fall from $1.3 billion during its IPO to about $624 million, according to Thomson Reuters data, likely contributing to Prosper's decision, bankers told Reuters.

Nutanix is also in a holding pattern, bankers told Reuters, although Nutanix investor Ravi Mhatre of Lightspeed Venture Partners said it "is fully capable of being a public company and operating as a public company."

Neither company has filed publicly for an IPO.

Regardless, many companies will go public in current market conditions, as those that have raised large rounds since 2013 are under pressure to return cash to their investors and employees in the next year.

Square is among those. It filed for a public offering this week, proposing to raise at $275 million.

But it, too, is expected to take a price cut. With its CEO, Jack Dorsey, now also leading Twitter, some investors expect the company's $6 billion valuation will be discounted to compensate for Dorsey's half-time role.

Watchdog says German banks increasingly targeted by hackers: paper

German banks are increasingly being attacked by criminals using information technology to hack into their systems, the head of Germany's banking watchdog told a newspaper.

"This is a huge topic which we are intensively working on," Bafin president Felix Hufeld told Boersen-Zeitung's Saturday edition.

"Today, huge mafia-like, criminal organizations exist, which are set up like corporations and invest unbelievably much time and money to develop an IT firepower, which exceeds everything what you could imagine until now," Hufeld said.

While banks are generally aware that they must do more to protect themselves, tackling cyber attacks is 'a learning curve' for everyone involved, he said.

At this stage, Bafin has only anecdotal evidence of the IT problems at German banks and statistical data, Hufeld said.

Hacking and cyber crime is a problem that banks and corporations face world wide.

Earlier this month, online foreign exchange broker FXCM became the latest U.S. corporation to become a victim of a cybersecurity attack, adding to a list that includes Target Corp, Apple and JPMorgan.

On the same day, Deutsche Telekom's U.S. unit T-Mobile said that personal data of about 15 million of its U.S. subscribers may have been stolen in a breach at a unit of Experian, which processes the telecom carrier's credit applications.

Russian hackers breached Dow Jones for trading tips: Bloomberg

A man types on a computer keyboard in Warsaw in this February 28, 2013 illustration file picture.

Russian hackers had infiltrated Dow Jones & Co to steal information to trade on before it was made public, and the breach was "far more serious than a lower-grade intrusion" disclosed by the company, Bloomberg reported, citing sources.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Secret Service and the Securities and Exchange Commission are leading an investigation, which began at least a year ago, Bloomberg reported.

"Since Bloomberg published its article, we have worked hard to establish whether the allegations it contains are correct. To date, we have been unable to find evidence of any such investigation", Dow Jones spokeswoman Colleen Schwartz said in an email.

Dow Jones, the publisher of the Wall Street Journal and a unit of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, disclosed last week a breach of its systems that put payment card and contact information of about 3,500 individuals at risk.

Dow Jones had said that there was unauthorized access to its systems at certain times between August 2012 and July 2015.

"We are aware of the Dow Jones intrusion and looking into it," FBI spokeswoman Kelly Langmesser said via email.

Langmesser added that she could not confirm anything else in the Bloomberg report.

The hackers sought information including stories being prepared for publication, Bloomberg said on Friday, citing two people familiar with the investigation.

The Secret Service could not be immediately reached for comment on the Bloomberg report. The SEC declined to comment.

Apple ordered to pay $234 million to university for infringing patent.

A man takes pictures as Apple iPhone 6s and 6s Plus go on sale at an Apple Store in Beijing, China September 25, 2015

A U.S. jury on Friday ordered Apple Inc (AAPL.O) to pay the University of Wisconsin-Madison's patent licensing arm more than $234 million in damages for incorporating its microchip technology into some of the company's iPhones and iPads without permission.

The amount was less than the $400 million the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) was claiming in damages after the jury on Tuesday said Apple (AAPL.O) infringed its patent for improving the performance of computer processors.

Apple said it would appeal the verdict, but declined to comment further.

WARF praised the verdict and said it was important to protect the university's inventions from unauthorized use. "This decision is great news," said WARF Managing Director Carl Gulbrandsen in a statement.

Jurors deliberated for about 3-1/2 hours before returning the verdict in the closely watched case in federal court in Madison, Wisconsin. It was the second phase of a trial that began on Oct. 5.

The jury was considering whether Apple's A7, A8 and A8X processors, found in the iPhone 5s, 6 and 6 Plus, as well as several versions of the iPad, violated the patent.

WARF sued Apple in January 2014 alleging infringement of its 1998 patent on a "predictor circuit," developed by computer science professor Gurindar Sohi and three of his students.

Much of the dispute over damages had to do with whether a certain portion of Apple's chips that were placed in devices sold abroad, rather than in the United States, also violated the WARF patent. The jurors found that they did.

Apple had sought to greatly limit its liability, arguing before jurors that WARF deserved less than even the $110 million the foundation settled with Intel Corp (INTC.O) after suing that company in 2008 over the same patent.

Apple had argued that WARF's patent entitled it to as little as 7 cents per device sold, a far cry from the $2.74 that WARF was claiming.

WARF uses some of the income it generates to support research at the school, doling out more than $58 million in grants last year, according to its website.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge William Conley, who is presiding over the case, ruled that Apple had not willfully infringed WARF's patent, eliminating a chance to triple the damages in the case.

Last month, WARF launched a second lawsuit against Apple, targeting the company's newest chips and devices, the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, and iPad Pro.

The case is Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation v. Apple Inc, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, No. 14-cv-62.