A lot to explain... by Barbora Misakova

Reading about Toyota’s cars reminds me episodes of my favorite TV series – the X files. But this is reality and that is much more terrifying. James Sikes, 61, is a real estate agent who will remember this day forever. While sitting in his 2008 Toyota Prius he found the accelerator is stuck. Before he called 911 he tried to fix it by himself, but pedal didn’t move. Dispatcher Leighann Parks told him to throw the car into neutral, but Sikes didn’t answer as he had to put his phone on the seat to keep his hand on the wheel. Later, when Todd Neibert, the CHP officer caught up with Sikes’ Prius he was giving him instructions over loudspeaker. When t! he officer said Sikes to push the brake pedal to the floor and apply the emergency brakes, Sikes’ Prius slowed from 85 mph to about 55 mph. Then Sikes turned off the ignition what finally stopped the car. He was lucky, as the cars were maneuvering around two trucks going uphill only about 15 miles before a steep downgrade. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has sent their investigators to examine the car, but they were not the only ones who care what happened. Toyota spokesman Brian Lyons said the automaker is sending three of its own technicians. Toyota Motor Corp. has a lot to lose. From 8.5 million vehicles worldwide, more than 6 million was distributed in the USA. This case blew the fire again and regulators have already linked 52 deaths to crashes allegedly caused by accelerator problems. Toyota will have many things to explain.

related story (sgx16713): http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100310/ap_on_bi_ge/us_runaway_p...

by Barbora Misakova for SigEx Ventures (http://sigexventures.com)

SigEx Ventures's matrix of properties are quickly becoming leaders in digital telebroadcasting, free content delivery allowing people to easily talk, view, upload and share through free online TV broadcasting, free unlimited global calls, video blogs and SMS. SigEx Ventures invests in projects deploying "free" to add-on royalty revenue models

Je čo vysvetľovať... by Barbora Misakova

Keď som sa dozvedela o najnovšom prípade zlyhania bŕzd u Toyoty, spomenula som si na môj obľúbený seriál Akty X. Tu však nejde o nadprirodzené bytosti či nevysvetliteľné javy, ale o jasné zlyhanie tejto spoločnosti a jej bezpečnostných predpisov. Tento raz nejde o film, ale o skutočnosť, a o to viac je to desivé. James Sikes, 61-ročný realitný agent si tento deň bude pamätať do konca svojho života. Kým sedel vo svojej Toyote Prius, zistil, že plynový pedál je zaseknutý. Ešte pred tým, ako zavolal na li! nku 911, kde oznámil, že jeho auto sa nedá zastaviť, pokúsil sa zaseknutý pedál napraviť. Ten sa však vôbec nepohol. Dispečer Leighann Parks mu povedal, aby prepol na neutrál, na čo však Sikes neodpovedal, keďže musel z času na čas telefón položiť a šoférovať oboma rukami. Neskôr, keď Todd Neibert, dôstojník kalifornskej diaľničnej stráže, svojim autom dobehol Toyotu pána Sikesa, začal mu dávať inštrukcie cez megafón. Keď ho dôstojník vyzval, aby stlačil brzdový pedál až na zem a zároveň použil aj bezpečnostnú brzdu, Toyota z rýchlosti 85 míľ za hodinu spomalila na 55. Následne tento 61-ročný, vystrašený muž vypol zapaľovanie, čo napokon auto zastavilo. Sikes aj dôstojn! ík mali obrovské šťastie, nakoľko aut! á m anévrovali okolo dvoch nákladiakov stúpajúcich do svahu, ktorý bol vzdialený iba 15 míľ od vozovky strmého klesania. Národná diaľničná bezpečnostná správa poslala dvoch vyšetrovateľov, aby auto preskúmali. Neboli však jediní, kto sa o tento prípad zaujímal. Ako povedal hovorca Toyoty Brian Lyons, výrobca automobilov vyslal tiež svojich technikov, čomu sa nedivím. Toyota Motor má veru čo stratiť. Z 8.5 milióna vozidiel distribuovaných po celom svete je práve 6 miliónov v USA. Tento prípad znovu rozdúchal oheň pochybností o bezpečnosti týchto vozidiel, pričom 52 úmrtí sa spája práve s údajným zlyhaním plynového pedálu. Toyota bude mať čo vysvetľovať...

related story (sgx16725): http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100310/ap_on_bi_ge/us_runaway_p...

by Barbora Misakova for SigEx Ventures (http://sigexventures.com)

SigEx Ventures's matrix of properties are quickly becoming leaders in digital telebroadcasting, free content delivery allowing people to easily talk, view, upload and share through free online TV broadcasting, free unlimited global calls, video blogs and SMS. SigEx Ventures invests in projects deploying "free" to add-on royalty revenue models

Airport body scanner controversy by Barbora Misakova

Some people think that privacy is more important than safety. And it is just annoying me! The Transportation Security Administration announced that nine more U. S. airports will receive body-scanning technology. This step was just a logical reaction to alleged attempted bombing on Christmas Day. But civil libertarians and the American Civil Liberties Union sees it just as a violation of passengers’ privacy. These machines can detect hidden explosives and other weapons that could threaten many lives, but ACLU denounced the screening as a “virtual strip search”. I would like to know, if they called it like that when they would be on board of a plane together! with a terrorist prepared to blow it all up. All these scanning machines will now be in a primary position, what means they will be the default screening equipment passengers face at a checkpoint. The whole body scanning will be done in 25 seconds. What is more, blaming it from privacy violation is not justified, as much more information can be obtained by X-ray of carry-on bags – checking method we are already used on. I bet that passengers afraid of terrorist attacks will see it just like Michelle Carrier did, when she said: “As long as they maintain proper control over the situation, I have no problem with it. Freedom’s important, but this is one of the prices you pay for safety.” The samples of images from a machine can be seen on the TSA’s Web site and I have to say, there is nothing wrong with it. It is just a simple outline of your body. When you pass a scan, you will not have to walk through a metal detector or other security equipment! and in addition to that, you can be calm, as there is no luna! tic with bomb on his chest traveling with you.

related story (sgx16689): http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20100305/ap_tr_ge/us_trave...

by Barbora Misakova for SigEx Ventures (http://sigexventures.com)

SigEx Ventures's matrix of properties are quickly becoming leaders in digital telebroadcasting, free content delivery allowing people to easily talk, view, upload and share through free online TV broadcasting, free unlimited global calls, video blogs and SMS. SigEx Ventures invests in projects deploying "free" to ! add-on royalty revenue models

The biggest cybercrime stopped in Spain by Zivka Deleva

Bravo for the Spanish police! That is the hero of the day! Three men are behind bars because they were very “friendly” with around 13 million people whose PCs worldwide were injected with virus. The day is important because we are talking about the world’s biggest network of virus-infected computers. The hackers didn’t care where to create a problem, they did it all over the world, in homes, schools, banks, even government agencies. Among them are almost half of the largest US companies. Their idea was to steal a lot of sensitive information, like credit card data, online banking passwords, account information for social networking sites. We don̵! 7;t even have to know the sum of the money that they planned to take. The scam was uncovered by a Canadian information security company. The network’s name was Mariposa, as the criminals called themselves, which in Spanish means butterfly. Canadians traced them since last May. All three suspects are Spanish nationals, between the ages of 25 and 31. Not only the money are important, but this cyber terrorism might have problems that we can’t even imagine. Few years ago, Estonia and Georgia were victims of such terrorism and that even coincided with diplomatic tensions between the two nations and Russia. According to the Spanish police, if they didn’t catch the fraudsters, that this could have even worse impact. For laics like me, I can’t understand how comes big programming companies that create hardware and software can’t create the adequate protection for them. Nowadays, even not so “well educated” in hacking can create problem to t! he world. That is the example with Spanish criminals, who didn! ’t have some advanced hacking skills. "This is very alarming because it proves how sophisticated and effective malware distribution software has become, empowering relatively unskilled cyber criminals to inflict major damage and financial loss", said Pedro Bustamante, a senior research advisor at the Spanish Panda Security.

by Zivka Deleva for SigEx Ventures (http://sigexventures.com)

SigEx Ventures's matrix of properties are quickly becoming leaders in digital telebroadcasting, free content delivery allowing people to easily talk, view, upload and share through free online TV broadcasting, free unlimited global calls, video blogs and SMS. SigEx Ventures invests in projects deploying "free" to add-on royalty revenue models