US Congress restricts government purchase of Chinese computer equipment, citing cyber-espionage concerns

via theverge.com

Whether you’re designing a website for a certain up-and-coming personality or just doing some Photoshop or Illustrator projects for kicks, you can never underestimate the power of color schemes in finding the right colors for your project.

There are so many sources for combination of colors for a specific project. For starters, you can just look out of your window and see which colors look good in your eyes and which ones look revolting when combined; nature can be a good source of inspiration. However, there are more sophisticated tools in choosing the right color combinations, like the products offered by Pantone, where you can easily see which colors look good when juxtaposed. But if you are looking for other places to look for color schemes, here are some tips.

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Is the US government trying to regulate Bitcoin?

via theverge.com

The community around Bitcoin, the fast-growing virtual currency that sustains an economy worth more than $650 million, has been shaken by what seems to be the first government response to its phenomenal rise. Yesterday the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the US Treasury Department, published some guidelines for how virtual currencies should be regulated — and it says many Bitcoin businesses need to register with the US government.

After mulling over its response for a day, the Bitcoin Foundation — the closest thing the decentralized currency has to a spokesperson — has released a statement condemning the rules. "I’m a little disheartened that FinCEN appears to be creating an entirely new regulatory scheme under the guise of 'guidance,'" wrote Patrick Murk, adding that compliance would be "infeasible for many, if not most members of the Bitcoin community."

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BlackBerry Z10 Said to Hit AT&T Stores March 22 for U.S.

via bloomberg.com

BlackBerry’s new Z10 device will go on sale with AT&T Inc. (T) on March 22 as the Canadian smartphone maker seeks a sales recovery in its biggest market, according to two people familiar with the plan.

The touch-screen phone will begin appearing in U.S. stores that day, said the people, who asked not to be named because no release date has been announced.

BlackBerry, which gets about one-fifth of revenue from the U.S., is counting on the Z10 to revive its brand’s appeal against more popular rivals led by Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone. While the device has won praise from U.S. technology critics and will have already debuted in 21 countries at the end of this week, American consumers have had to wait because their carriers have longer testing periods for phones.

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US prepares economic countermeasures in light of recent cyberattacks

via theverge.com

The recent rash of hacking attacks shows no sign of slowing — Apple today announced it had fallen victim to the trend — but the US government is preparing some measures to help address the situation. The Associated Press is reporting that the White House will release a new strategy tomorrow, outlining penalties, fines, and trade restrictions designed to deter countries from participating in such efforts.

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The 50 Best Employers In America

via businessinsider.com

It's possible to love your job and get a good salary too: you just have to work for the right company.

The first annual list of the best employers In America by PayScale and Business Insider evaluates companies by both pay and happiness.
The winner is a company you've probably never heard of: a New Jersey biopharmaceutical company called Celgene Corporation. Many of the best companies were also in the health care industry.

The famously indulgent tech industry also did well on this list, including Google (#2), Yahoo (#8), and Microsoft (#14).

Companies in the 2012 Fortune 500 were ranked using PayScale's salary and survey database. Happiness represented 57 percent of the final score and was measured through questions about satisfaction, feelings of meaningfulness, stress, and schedule flexibility. Pay represented 43 percent of the final score and was measured by looking at median pay after five years and pay compared to industry peers.

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U.S. Cyber Command To Recruit 4,000 new Cyber Soldiers

via readwrite.com

Over the next few years the U.S. Cyber Command, an army of 900 military personnel and civilians who monitor and defend against cyber attacks, is set to grow by 4,000 cyber soldiers. The command will expand its role in national defense by becoming a new kind of fighting force, one that protects the Internet safety of the entire country. As the expansion is implemented, Cybercom will be separated into three teams:

National Mission Forces
Combat Mission Forces
Cyber Protection Forces

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Biggest Websites In The United States

via businessinsider.com

You know Google is huge.

Facebook, too.

You probably remember Yahoo.

Amazon is massive, of course.

And oh yeah, eBay!

But we bet you can't name the other 15 biggest Internet Web sites … in order.

We can, thanks to ComScore, which provided us data on December 2012's most popular Web domains in the US.

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Anonymous Declares War on the US Government

via theverge.com

Hacktivist group Anonymous took over the United States Sentencing Service's website earlier today to announce its intention to expose government secrets in response to the US Department of Justice's treatment of Aaron Swartz. The group says Swartz's indictment was a "twisted and distorted perversion of justice," and claims to have hacked government organizations in retaliation. Anonymous hasn't revealed the nature of the "sensitive" information it's uncovered, but says that "everyone has secrets, and some things are not meant to be public." It's gathered all the information into a "warhead:" a file called U S - D O J - L E A - 2013 . A E E 256.

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US Military Will Install Laser Turrets on Bombers and Fighter Jets

via gizmodo.com

It was science fiction before, but now it's really happening, Young Skywalker: The US Navy and Air Force are going to install liquid-cooled, solid-state lasers in combat airplanes. Laser turrets designed to defend the planes by shooting incoming threats like surface-to-air missiles and rockets. Seriously. The above is an official concept image by DARPA, but integration is happening this year, with real firing tests coming in 2014.

The USAF has been playing with lasers in planes for a while. They worked to create the the highly successful—but ultimately shelved—Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser Testbed. Remember Reagan's Star Wars? This was one of the few technologies that we got to work outside those 3D animations that scared the Soviets so much.

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Library of Congress Is Archiving All Of America's Tweets

via businessinsider.com

133,000 gigabytes worth of tweets currently takes days to search, but The Library of Congress is nonetheless trying to archive American Twitter use for posterity.

The venerable US institution is assembling all of the 400 million tweets sent by Americans each day, in the belief that each of the mini-messages reflect a small but important part of the national narrative.

"An element of our mission at the Library of Congress is to collect the story of America, and to acquire collections that will have research value," said Gayle Osterberg, director of communications at the library.

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A Robot Army Is Destroying The American Workforce

via businessinsider.com

The age of robots has been talked about since the beginning of the last century.

People have long fantasized about robots serving as our personal assistants. But now that they're here, we're competing against them for jobs.

The rise of robots in the workplace is "absolutely" at least partially to blame for the lack of jobs in America, MIT professors Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee said in a recent interview on 60 Minutes.

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10 Things You Should Know About The Fiscal Cliff Deal

via forbes.com

Here is what you need to know as the dust settles on the Congressional tax bill.

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What Will Happen If We Don't Raise Debt Ceiling

via businessinsider.com

The United States has already hit its debt ceiling--the legal limit of the amount of money it is allowed to borrow, as established by Congress.

Right now, the U.S. Treasury is resorting to "extraordinary measures" to keep paying the country's bills.

Sometime between February 15th and March 1st, the Bipartisan Policy Center projects, the Treasury's ability to use these "extraordinary measures" will end.

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Why The iPhone Is Suddenly Winning In The US

via businessinsider.com

Apple is leading the U.S. smartphone market, according to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech's data.

The iPhone accounted for 53.3 percent of smartphone purchases during the twelve week period ended November 25. That's up from just 35.8 percent a year ago. Android, on the other hand, is down to 41.9 percent from 52.8 percent a year ago.

In Europe, it's not as great for Apple. It's getting pummeled by Android which has 61 percent of the market to the iPhone's 25.3 percent.

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Our Take On The 10 Biggest Frauds In Recent U.S. History

via forbes.com

We looked at investor losses, Securities & Exchange Commission and Department of Justice enforcement actions and private lawsuits, as well as societal impact, to come up with our picks for the ten biggest frauds in the U.S. of the past quarter century.

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Problems With The Pending Fiscal Cliff Deal

via forbes.com

Make no mistake; the timing of the fiscal cliff was no accident. The confluence of spending cuts and tax increases scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2013 was by design, carefully planned in an effort to force the government to address its rampant spending and borrowing.

Believe it or not, our government’s ability to borrow does have limits. When we last maxed out the ol’ credit card in August 2011, it caused a bit of a scramble, and Congress dealt with the problem as only this current Congress would: by increasing the limit and instructing a bipartisan super-committee to find a way to trim our deficit by $1.5 trillion over the next decade to reduce our reliance on borrowing. In the event the super-committee could not reach a resolution by November 2011, required spending cuts would take effect on January 1, 2013 to protect us from ourselves. The super-committee failed, resulting in the panicked debate that consumed Congress and dominated headlines for the past six weeks.

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Senate Approves Warrantless Phone Tapping for Next Five Years

via gizmodo.com

By a vote of 73 to 23, the US Senate just voted for the warrantless surveillance of American citizens until 2017.

The vote, set to affirm to eradicate the FAA Sunsets Extension Act of 2012, means we'll be living with Bush-era spy laws for another half decade. In 2007, the Senate voted to grant blanket immunity to companies like AT&T, which conspired with the NSA to monitor American digital conversations without government oversight after 9/11. Today's vote continues that immunity, and provides further carte blanche for the American intelligence-gathering apparatus. Phone calls, texts, and emails are all fair game—and a judge doesn't have to give the OK, so long as it's in the name of counterterrorism. Which is a very easy guise.

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Introducing The American-Made Mac

via businessinsider.com

A couple weeks ago Apple CEO Tim Cook told NBC's Brian Williams that the company was going to invest $100 million toward building Macs in the US.

According to Digitimes, an outlet which reports on the Asian-centered gadget supply chain, the Mac that Apple will build in the US is the Mac Mini.

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Get Ready to Go Over the Cliff

via inc.com

The thought of planning to go over a cliff may seem incomprehensible, but in a situation where you know it might happen--like you are now--you should put a plan in place.

While Washington has shown signs of inching toward a deal that would avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, that could easily fall apart. Especially considering House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) unexpectedly canceled a vote on his own proposal yesterday.

So what do you do as a small business owner to prepare? Think of it the way you do costs versus revenue. It's obviously easier to control your expenditure than it is to spur revenue growth. A similar issue exists with the fiscal cliff. You can't control it, so focus on what you can control.

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Millionaire Tax Now Likely, But President Obama Wants More

via forbes.com

In the fiscal cliff horse trading, President Obama wants a tax increase on anyone earning over $250,000. (However, here’s the latest update to this story: In Tax Hike Haggle, Obama at $400K, Boehner at $1M: Now What?) House Speaker Boehner and the Republicans? No tax increase, thank you. But now the Speaker has signaled that tax hikes on those earning over $1 million would be OK. See Fiscal Cliff Talks: GOP Poses Millionaire Tax-Rate Increase.

It’s compromise time as the fiscal cliff moved ever closer. And Mr. Boehner doubtless thinks the spending cuts he wants in return–and the need for some kind of deal–make it worthwhile. See Boehner Agrees To A Millionaire Tax–And Moves Closer To A Fiscal Cliff Deal. After all, the Bush Era cuts are expiring and there’s no patch in sight.

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