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Dongle jokes and a tweet lead to firings, threats, DDoS attacks

What started as a handful of off-color jokes by two men at a developer conference has led to cyberattacks, death threats, and the firing of two people, including the woman who originally reported the incident.

It all started Sunday at the PyCon event in Santa Clara, Calif., when Adria Richards, a developer evangelist for e-mail vendor SendGrid, overheard some jokes being told by two men seated immediately behind her at the conference, which is for people working on the Python programming language. The two allegedly made jokes about "forking" in a sexual manner and "big dongles." … Read more

The 404 1,152: Where there's no basement in the Alamo (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Katie interviews DC Publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee at New York Comic Con.

- Check out Katie's new app Splatrpult, available today for a free download.

- The New Yorker traces emojis back to the beginning.

- Real apples branded with Apple's logo.… Read more

Twilio takes on the world with its cloud-based telephony

Twilio, a startup with a platform for developing cloud-based communications apps, said today it is taking that platform global.

In a keynote address at the company's annual TwilioCon here, CEO Jeff Lawson said that as of this morning, the platform would be available in 40 countries on six continents. To date, it had been available only in North America and Europe.

More than 150,000 developers looking to build cloud-based VOIP, text messaging, and phone functionality into their existing applications have flocked to Twilio's platform. Last year alone, its customer base expanded 400 percent, and among those using … Read more

If Batman drove a Kia, it would look like this

The Batmobile (in all of its various incarnations) is probably as famous as the Batman who pilots it. However, if you should happen to find yourself in New York this week (perhaps for some sort of comic book convention), you'll be able to get a peek at the car that Kia Motors would like to see as the Caped Crusader's next set of wheels: a top-of-the-line Kia Optima SX Limited. Well, they at least got the color right.

Personally, I'd like to think that if Batman were to drive a front-wheel-drive, Korean sports car, he'd be … Read more

At MobileCon 2012, LG surges where others hang back

SAN DIEGO--We knew all along that MobileCon, with its enterprise focus, would be a quieter show for consumers, but what we didn't know was how the players who did show up would engage us.

LG used the event to showcase the midrange LG Optimus L9, which it announced just before the show, and the LG Mach, a dual-core QWERTY device for Sprint, which it announced on Day 1.

Later, at a launch party, LG pleasantly surprised with goody bags containing one Optimus G flagship phone each for AT&T and for Sprint. Bravo, LG, and we'll have … Read more

Huawei desperate to crack the top-tier U.S. brands

SAN DIEGO--A year ago at CTIA (now known as MobileCon), Huawei announced plans to become a top-five vendor in three years' time. A year into its push to crack the U.S. market, Huawei is only baby steps closer to reaching its goal.

When I met with Huawei in San Diego earlier this week, company spokespeople said that consumers' brand awareness grew from 6 percent in 2011 to 9 percent in 2012.

The 3 percent growth isn't much to crow about, not when brand awareness hovers at 49 percent in the South Pacific region, 29 percent in northern Latin … Read more

LG's 13-megapixel Optimus G camera stumbles in early tests

SAN DIEGO--CNET has spent enough time with LG's new flagship, quad-core LG Optimus G to portend great things for LG's image, especially now that the Android 4.0 powerhouse will come to both AT&T and Sprint.

There's just one early snag. Yesterday, I spent some time with the 13-megapixel camera. The controls all looked fantastic, and are part of a redesigned OS. However, I wasn't happy with some of the photos I took for practice.

It definitely didn't help the camera's cause that I shot all photos in a closed demo room … Read more

Verizon: Our 4G LTE network will soon carry most of our data

SAN DIEGO -- The majority of Verizon Wireless's data traffic will soon be traveling over the company's new 4G LTE network, Verizon Wireless CTO Nicola Palmer said at a press conference at the CTIA's MobileCon tradeshow here Tuesday.

Palmer talked up the carrier's progress on deploying its LTE network. The company announced it would be deploying its 400th market next week and is two months ahead of schedule on its 4G LTE roll-out.

She also noted that 35 percent of Verizon's mobile data traffic traversed the 4G LTE network in September. And she said that … Read more

Verizon aims for voice over LTE in late 2013, early 2014

Verizon Wireless plans to launch voice over LTE services by late 2013 or early 2014, according to a networking executive for the carrier.

Consumer trials will begin in late 2013, with service to follow, likely in the subsequent year, Nicola Palmer, vice president of network and chief technical officer for Verizon Wireless, said in an interview with CNET. The target date is a bit more specific than previously announced, with Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo calling for a rollout in 2013. The company was originally expected to launch the service this year.

Voice over LTE, or VoLTE, moves the … Read more