Oracle

Oracle Exec Unloads on Google, Accuses Search Giant of Supporting Sex Trafficking

As public and political sentiment shifts against the titans of Silicon Valley, the tech world’s tactics in Washington are getting dirty. Google has been facing increased scrutiny lately, and Oracle has been doing its best to fuel the fire. In a new report about its latest attack, Oracle’s political fixer in Washington, Ken Gleuck, threw…

McMaster Reportedly Told Oracle CEO That Trump Has Intelligence of a ‘Kindergartner’

Citing “five sources with knowledge of the conversation,” Buzzfeed News reports that National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster called his commander-in-chief an “idiot” and a “dope” during a private dinner with Oracle CEO Safra Catz. Catz has had a notably close relationship with the Trump administration and denied the comments when asked by Buzzfeed. https://gizmodo.com/guy-in-charge-of-all-the-nukes-relax-im-not-gonna-let-1820579526 Catz,…

America’s Top Hypocrites Are Meeting at the Trump White House For Technology Week

America’s largest tech companies made a big, public fuss after President Trump vowed to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord earlier this month. But top executives from many of those same companies are meeting with members of the Trump regime this week. Who needs principles when there’s money to be made? Yes, this week…

This Machine Makes It Easy for Libraries to Clean Thousands of Books

How often have you pulled a rarely needed book off your shelf and needed to blow a layer of dust off of it? Now imagine what libraries have to deal with, given the tens of thousands of tomes in their collections. But it turns out someone’s already invented a machine that cleans books like a…

The DC Universe Has a New Oracle

Ever since Barbara Gordon took on the mantle of Batgirl once more in the New 52, no one has stepped up to take on her former mantle as superheroic cyberintelligence expert Oracle. That is, until now. And the new Oracle is a bit of a surprise. For the first few issues of Julie Benson, Shawna…

Looks Like a Russian Cybergang Hacked Into One of the World’s Largest Payment Systems

According to a report by security blogger Brian Krebs, Oracle’s popular MICROS point-of-sale terminals support website was commandeered by a Russian cybergang. This is bad since MICROS is in the top three most popular payment systems in the world. In a statement to Gizmodo, Oracle said it had “detected and addressed malicious code in certain…

The Maker of Java is Seeking $9.3 Billion From Google

There is a long-running legal battle between Oracle and Google over the use of Java, an Oracle product, in Android. In the latest court filing, Oracle is shooting for the moon: $9.3 billion in copyright damages from Google. The copyright fight dates back six years, when Oracle first filed suit against Google, for both copyright…

Oracle Deleted Its Insane Rant Against Security Hackers But You Can Read It Here

Oracle’s security chief Mary Ann Davidson published a rambling screed today against the security research industry, bug bounties, and reverse engineering on the company’s corporate blog. Oracle took it down, but the rant is one of the most impressively incoherent jeremiads to come out of Silicon Valley. And that’s saying something. Security researchers regularly reverse…

The Long And Terrible History Of DC Comics Mistreating Batgirl

Batgirl has been in the media forall the wrong reasonsrecently — but this is nothing new. The iconic heroine has long been a source of controversy for DC, thanks to a series of strange decisions. Here’s the story of DC’s Batgirls, and the controversies that have come to define them. Strange Beginnings Barbara Gordon was…

Larry Ellison’s Oracle Started As a CIA Project

Yesterday, Vox somehow managed to write an entire article about the history of Oracle and its founder Larry Ellison without mentioning the CIA even once. Which is pretty astounding, given the fact that Oracle takes its name from a 1977 CIA project codename. And that the CIA was Oracle’s first customer. Vox simply says that…

6 Tech Company Slogans That Mattered

Intel’s always been a bit of a brand machine—remember the “Intel Inside” stickers?—and on Tuesday it upheld that tradition. In a pivot from the sort of stodgy “Sponsors of Tomorrow” slogan, the company is going with the hacker-friendly “Look Inside.” How much can a new slogan really matter, though? A lot, if history is any…

Oracle’s Latest Java Fix Is Still Broken, Better Learn to Live Without

Remember that big zero-day Java vulnerability the Department of Homeland Security was all worried about? Well, Oracle fixed it. Oh wait, no. That latest Java fix still has a big ol’ hole. It’s time to abandon ship, folks. https://gizmodo.com/even-the-department-of-homeland-security-wants-you-to-d-5975415 Turns out that Oracle’s original out-of-band update to Java only fixed one of the two nasty…

Even though Oracle’s patched its recent vulnerability, Home Security still thinks you’re better off without Java. Ouch.

Oracle claims to have patched the Java vulnerability that Homeland Security was worried about. Browse freely! [Oracle]

How To Disable Java in Your Browser

Java isn’t good for your for your computer’s health right now. It can mess it up pretty bad. Bad enough that the Department of Homeland Security is warning us all to turn it off. OK, but how do you do that? Fortunately, it’s not that hard. https://gizmodo.com/even-the-department-of-homeland-security-wants-you-to-d-5975415 All the current Java exploits come from Java…

Oracle says it’ll have a fix for those egregious Java vulnerabilities “shortly.” [Reuters]

Even The Department Of Homeland Security Wants You To Disable Your Java

We’ve been concerned about the security of Java for a while now. There was that vulnerability that affected like a billion computers, and Apple went so far as to remove Java plugins from all OSX browsers. Now even the Department of Homeland Security is in on the act with a special message: “Yo, shut off…

How the US Air Force Wasted $1 Billion on a Failed Software Plan

The US Military makes its fair share of mistakes when it comes to technology—but over the weekend, the New York Times revealed that even upgrading a single software system can go horribly wrong for it. https://gizmodo.com/the-6-billion-military-software-project-that-came-to-n-5919824 The New York Times describes the situation: Last month, [the Air Force] canceled a six-year-old modernization effort that had…

Is William Gibson A Modern Day Oracle?

If you aren’t already familiar with PBS’s Idea Channel, drop what you’re doing and go check it out. Immediately. In fact, why don’t you start with the video featured here, in which the Idea Channel’s Mike Rugnetta presents a damn compelling case that William Gibson is pretty much a modern day soothsayer. And if you…

The List of Google’s Paid Bloggers Is Way Less Fun Than We Wanted It to Be

Well, to be fair, any list of bloggers is going to be less fun than any expectation you could possibly have for it. (And your expectations for a blogger list better be pretty low to begin with.) But this list of who commented on the Oracle vs. Google trial, while also being paid by Google?…