Maxim Bange

ESA's technologische hart in Noordwijk zal op zondag 6 oktober zijn deuren openen voor een speciale open dag. Neem nu alvast een kijkje bij ESA's grootste vestiging.

This week we have two newcomers in our chart.

Now You See Me is the most downloaded movie for the second week in a row.

The data for our weekly download chart is collected by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are BD/DVDrips unless stated otherwise.

RSS feed for the weekly movie download chart.

Week ending September 1, 2013

Ranking	(last week)	Movie	IMDb Rating / Trailer
torrentfreak.com
1	(1)	Now You See Me	7.4 / trailer
2	(3)	We’re The Millers (Webrip)	7.2 / trailer
3	(2)	Star Trek Into Darkness	8.1 / trailer
4	(…)	Kick-Ass 2 (R6)	7.2 / trailer
5	(9)	The Frozen Ground (Webrip)	6.4 / trailer
6	(7)	Pain and Gain	6.7 / trailer
7	(4)	Iron Man 3	7.5 / trailer
8	(5)	The Conjuring	7.9 / trailer
9	(…)	Breakout	?.? / trailer
10	(6)	R.I.P.D (TS/Webrip)	5.5 / trailer

Source: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week

Microsoft agrees to buy Nokia's mobile phone business and gains access to its patents and mapping services for 5.4bn euros ($7.2bn; £4.6bn).

In a surprising move early Tuesday, Microsoft announced that it would be acquiring Nokia's devices and services division, effectively making the Finland-based phonemaker a first-party hardware manufacturer for Windows Phone devices (and related services). Stephen Elop will step aside as CEO of Nokia and return to Microsoft as head of its Devices team — this all on the heels of the recent announcement that Steve Ballmer would step down as Microsoft CEO within the next 12 months.

The Verge had a chance to speak with Steve and Stephen — as well as Nokia board of directors chairman Risto Siilasmaa — about the massive transition. Ballmer was particularly talkative, though he sounded weary, either from jet lag or a very long month....

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Victoria's Secret is facing a deluge of competition from lingerie start-ups that seek to challenge the brand.

Brands like AdoreMe, Intimint, and True & Co. are trying to seduce Victoria's Secret customers with lower prices and more tailored selections. 

AdoreMe offers direct-to-consumer lingerie at about half of Victoria's Secret prices.

Intimint asks customers to take a quiz and sends them new lingerie selections every month, based on their preferences. True & Co. sends women five bras a month, giving them the option of keeping what they like and sending back what they don't. 

While these brands are consumer-friendly and creative, their business models ignore exactly what makes Victoria's Secret so successful. 

In the '90s, Victoria's Secret used to focus on value. But the brand floundered because there was nothing to set it apart from other price-friendly brands like Hanes and Maidenform. 

Victoria's Secret didn't start dominating lingerie until it stopped being cheap and began focusing on the customer experience. 

Stores were redesigned with soft, pink wallpaper and inviting fitting rooms. Friendly, attractive associates were trained to greet customers and measure their bra sizes. 

Women were willing to pay $50 for bras because the luxury experience made their lingerie purchases feel like investments. 

This attention to customer service helped Victoria's Secret overtake competitors like Frederick's of Hollywood and post record sales even during an economic downturn.

AdoreMe CEO Morgan Hermand-Waiche told Business Insider that "people are so tired of high prices and slow-fashion from Victoria's Secret."

But Victoria's Secret's sales suggest differently: The brand recently reported a 6% increase in the second quarter, on top of a 10% increase last year. That's among the best in the retail industry. 

Women don't line up at Victoria's Secret because it's cheap or has an ever-changing assortment of merchandise. 

They trust the brand and feel like a trip to a Victoria's Secret store is a treat. 

Victoria's Secret offers an experience that e-commerce retailers simply can't compete with. 

SEE ALSO: How Gisele When From Awkward Teenager To The World's Highest-Paid Model

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After four unsuccessful attempts, 64-year-old Diana Nyad has completed the 103-mile swim from Cuba to Florida, according to the BBC.

This makes Nyad the first person to ever complete the trip without a shark cage.

It took 53 hours of non-stop swimming and a team of 35 people on boats beside her but Nyad made it to Key West just before 2 p.m. Monday.

Nyad first attempted the swim in 1978 in a shark cage. In 2011 she attempted the trip twice with no shark cage, but had to stop because of shoulder pain the first time, and jellyfish stings the second. Her last unsuccessful attempt ended in August 2012.

On Monday, with just two miles to go, according to her blog, Nyad stopped briefly in the water to thank her crew. She said:

"I am about to swim my last two miles in the ocean. This is a lifelong dream of mine and I'm very very glad to be with you. Some on the team are the most intimate friends of my life and some of you I've just met. But I'll tell you something, you're a special group. You pulled through; you are pros and have a great heart. So let's get going so we can have a whopping party. Thank you, all of you, thank you for your generosity."

Congratulations, Diana, that's one heck of a feat!

Here's video of her finishing her swim, and addressing her fans:

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Security firm warns attackers are becoming more skillful in creating Java exploits

The town of Hilversum, 20 miles south-east of Amsterdam, is surrounded by forests, lakes and meadows.

Known to many as Media City, the borough is home to the Netherlands’ radio and TV industries, and its modernist architecture houses audio and TV studios, production companies and broadcasters, as well as a number of technical universities.

Logically, Hilversum also plays host to a number of digital agencies, perfectly placed to service these media companies and to take advantage of the talent emerging from the universities.

One such agency is MediaMonks, arguably Amsterdam’s most famous digital production agency, despite not technically being based in Amsterdam. With some 170 employees, and clients including Tribal DDB, Mother, Wieden + Kennedy, and BBH, the agency’s work is wide-ranging, from Heineken’s James Bond to campaigns for KLM and Adidas.

Catching up with Victor Knaap, one of the agency’s four Dutch founders, he tells us: “There are a lot of universities and education institutions around because a lot of the big TV networks are here. The largest sound and animation university is based right next to our office.

“One of the guys that came from that university [Erik-Jan de Boer] just won an Oscar for the opening animation of Life of Pi. It’s really high-end stuff they do, so we pull a lot of talent from there,” he explains.

For Knaap, there’s a clear distinction between Hilversum and Amsterdam, even if he’s not always quick to correct clients who assume the agency is based in the capital. For him, “the technical guys are based around this part of the Netherlands, while all the hipster designers come from Amsterdam”.

And while I’m sure this tongue-in-cheek account of Amsterdam’s digital scene is purely for my benefit, Knaap’s description of his agency as “a safe pair of hands” is refreshingly honest. He explains that the agency’s USP is that it gets work done on time. “It’s something you can’t underestimate,” he says. “You can’t imagine how many fuck-ups there are in this line of business.”

He continues in this candid vein, admitting that, as a digital production company, the agency’s job is essentially to make things look good. “If someone brings a shit idea to me,” he exclaims, “then a huge, bright, shiny shit idea comes out.” Luckily for him, he says, MediaMonks gets to work on “a lot of sexy international brands,” for a number of “sexy agencies, like Wieden + Kennedy or 180,” so the “shit” ideas are few and far between.

Also based away from the city centre, although admittedly not quite as far out as MediaMonks, is Tribal DDB, one of the older and bigger online agencies in Amsterdam and a company which, Knaap explains, is “killing it” from an interactive perspective and which is “on its way to becoming the best in the world.”

Headquartered in Amstelveen, a southern suburb of Amsterdam also home to agency client KLM, a successful year for Tribal DDB has seen it collect three bronze and two silver Lions at Cannes (for its KLM ‘Space’ campaign, Heineken campaigns ‘Ignite’ and ‘Your Future Bottle’, Amstel’s ‘Trophy Can’ and Philip’s ‘The Sound of Creation’) as well as a Silver Clio, a Webby award, and several site of the day and site of the month awards from FWA.

The agency’s head of strategy, Antoinette Hoes, explains that the Dutch industry is great at “incorporating different cultures, nationalities and disciplines” into its work. And as much as Dutch universities are now producing graduates good enough to win Oscars, “talent travels these days” she says, and the city is extremely attractive to the international crowd so the agency scene benefits from constant supply of high quality digital people from all over the world.

And just as the industry’s ability to produce and attract quality digital people raises no concerns for Hoes, its ability to retain the best graduates is likewise not worth worrying about.

“We like our Dutchies best after a stint abroad,” says Hoes. “So we think it is great that they are tempted abroad and know that we will welcome them back someday.”

Jasper Mittelmeijer of social media agency LikeFriends delves even further into the merits of the Dutch educational system, shaking his head as he explains how, traditionally, creativity and science were kept separate. “They were even housed in different institutions,” he says, “making it harder for the two ingredients of innovation to meet.”

This was far from an ideal situation, he says. “One might even call it stupid.”

Things are very different these days, however, with universities “pushing students to be more entrepreneurial, creative and daring.” And conversely, says Mittelmeijer, “art schools are far more market-minded.”

Mittelmeijer admits that the digital industry in the city might lack tradition, having “matured later than in the anglo-saxon market,” because of which there isn’t such a strong base of well-trained and highly experienced people for juniors to look to. This leads to “a bit of ‘wheel-inventing’ at times,” but “inventing the wheel comes with its fair share of fun and, more often than not, throws up some interesting opportunities,” smiles Mittelmeijer.

LikeFriends founder Stef de Jong explains how, for outside talent, “Amsterdam offers a European experience, with English as a main language.”

“The city culture is open,” he says, “and we feel that the city focuses on people more than companies.

“If you’re bold, brave and work hard, Amsterdam is a great base for either starting up or developing your career.”

New to the city and developing her career is Marjolein Koppelaar. Until recently Koppelaar worked out of London for Ve Interactive, but, in her new role as MD for the Benelux region, set up the shopping cart recovery agency’s Amsterdam office – a mere two weeks before we showed up on her doorstep.

With the marketing services company’s footprint already spanning the world, from offices in Sydney and Stockholm to Sao Paulo and Shanghai, Amsterdam was perhaps an obvious choice for the agency’s next address.

“Amsterdam is a hub within Europe and the tech and start-up scene is growing very fast,” explains Koppelaar – something evident when you look at the success stories emerging from the city in the past few years, including mobile augmented reality leader Layar, file transfer platform WeTransfer and online travel agency Booking.com.

“Around the Grachtengordel [the canal district] there is a real growth of these kind of companies. It’s great to have like-minded companies around you and it is definitely exciting to be part of the fast-growing community,” Koppelaar says. “And compared to other European cities it’s a relatively small city and not as hectic as London or Berlin.”

Perhaps then, Amsterdam’s size is its strength. For all its historical, creative and cultural significance, the city is not a sprawling metropolis in the mould of London, Paris, or New York. But instead of this being a weakness, Amsterdam’s compactness might go some way to explaining why the city acts as such an effective incubator of ideas.

“We’re a small country but have always been internationally minded, especially in Amsterdam,” says Koppelaar. “I think the combination of the Dutch mentality of ‘keep both feet on the ground’ and the international spirit makes Amsterdam an attractive city, especially in the online world where there are no borders.”

Asked about the city’s weaknesses, Koppelaar laments the fact that it is slightly behind in terms of digital technology expertise, explaining that it “follows London and Berlin in some areas,” including the shopping cart abandonment industry which was relatively unknown about just two years ago, despite being an essential part of businesses strategies in London. Likewise the performance marketing industry, where it seems that “the discussion about ‘last cookie wins’ only started recently at a broader audience,” despite having been going for a while in the U.K.

“We are working in a very exciting industry however, and it is changing all the time,” she adds. “I think most of us are very excited about that.”

Minivegas creative director Maarten Boon is similarly excited by the what’s happening in the digital industry in Amsterdam, saying the mood in the city is “pretty positive.”

“Dutch consumers are really digital-oriented,” he tells us, “and next to that, collective belt-tightening has forced agencies to conceive more efficient ways to get the message across, which inevitably shifts the focus from TV commercials to digital.”

We catch up with Boon at the production company’s Kerkstraat headquarters, from where the agency hawks its very own blend of filmmaking, animation and technology to clients as diverse as Adidas, CNN, Levi’s and Nissan. Our meeting comes as the buzz is spreading around Sony’s new HD ad for horror survival game The Last of Us, created by Minivegas and 180 Amsterdam, which Boon describes as “an incredibly exciting project.”

“It required taking very sophisticated game-play graphics and merging them with the real-life environment of a man, in his living room,” he says. “We have created an ad that is not only true to the game it promotes, but adds a new dimension of engagement.”

For these type of campaigns, Boon says working across platforms is essential, and luckily it is something “that has always come naturally” in Amsterdam. While digital is a big part of the agency’s output, “advertisers want to see strong synergy between all areas” of a campaign, “which is why it’s great that there is such a culture here of multidisciplinary agencies.”

As the trend of Amsterdam becoming ever more important on the international stage continues, and global brands flock to the city to set up European hubs, Boon explains that it leads to a “knock-on effect for the industry,” with “more international work, bigger budgets and a creative industry that is driven to create increasingly innovative, compelling campaigns.”

It seems that this small city, brimming with clients and agencies, large and small and local and international, has created the perfect, all-encompassing advertising ecology for digital companies to thrive in.

“Plus,” says Tribal DDB’s Hoes, “there’s bitterballen and Gay Pride.” 

SEE ALSO: Canadian calls first Doritos Locos Taco on of the greatest moments of his life

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Ankur Nandwani is a news junkie who keeps hitting pay walls. He would pay for content, but not for a subscription.

Auto enthusiasts are well familiar with the concept of regenerative braking, but now electricity-generating shocks may soon find their way to consumer cars. That's what Levant Power and ZF are hoping, anyway. The two have partnered up to develop "the world's first fully active, regenerative suspension" for automobiles. It will be based on the GenShock technology Massachusetts-based Levant has been showcasing for several years now, with ZF coming in to help "make it ready for volume production, and introduce it to the market." The partnership is now in place, but there's still no firm date on when you'll find a car with a regenerative suspension at your local auto dealer, however.

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And yet more evidence of a European recovery.

The Italian PMI manufacturing report, which is up to 51.3. The improvement looks very similar to Spain, which also had its best month since Spring 2011.

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As the march to limited military intervention in Syria moves forward, some troops are making their views known — albeit anonymously — on social media.

Photos of servicemembers have apparently popped up on Reddit, seemingly in protest of Syrian intervention. (Since they are not identified, it's impossible to verify they are indeed serving in the military.)

The basic argument is that the line between moderate rebel factions and al Qaeda-affiliated ones are somewhat murky in the two-year-old civil war, so the U.S. should stay away from intervening on the rebel side (even in response to a large-scale chemical weapons attack).

The posters are essentially saying that they didn't join the military "to fight for al Qaeda in a Syrian civil war." 

Interestingly, while they can have their own personal viewpoints of course, joining the military means giving up certain rights.

Specifically, the refusal to do things that your commanders want you to do (i.e. attack Syria). The oath of enlistment is pretty clear on that:

"I, [Name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

It's also worth noting that, while some military members may agree with the message of the photos, many don't agree with using the uniform to bolster the argument.

Here are a few more:

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The original Windows 8.1 RTM ISO images created by Microsoft has been leaked by WZOR. Microsoft has earlier completed the development of Windows 8.1 RTM, and compiled the new version [...]

The post Windows 8.1 RTM Downloads Leaked appeared first on My Digital Life.

The selfie has made it all the way to the top. On Wednesday worlds collided when Pope Francis posed with a group of Italian teenagers and got caught in a self-portrait taken with one of the teens' cellphones. Unfortunately the Pope — known for his outgoing nature and his departures from papal conventions — didn't capture the selfie himself, and he hasn't published it on his Twitter feed.

It seems the teenagers, who were part of a group visiting from an Italian diocese, decided a grainy shot from a front-facing cellphone camera would be the best way to photograph their encounter with the pope himself at St. Peter's Basilica. Thankfully a journalist has published the photo online for us all to be a part of this moment, and a...

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What happens when a professional illustrator collaborates with a 4-year-old? When Mica Angela Hendricks pulled out her sketchbook in front of her daughter, she found out. "I’m all about kid’s crafts, but when it comes to my own art projects, I don’t like to share," says Hendricks on her blog. "Since she was engrossed in her own project, I thought I might be able to pull it off... I should've known better."

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It's common knowledge that if you want to find a truffle, you'd do well to find a pig first. Truffle hogs have been used for centuries to sniff out the prized fungus, which is often valued at thousands of dollars per pound. In recent decades, however, truffle farmers have increasingly preferred dogs to pigs as companions. Why? Because dogs have more stamina, are easier to train, and are less likely to attempt to eat a truffle when they find one. Modern Farmer has taken a look at a truffle farmer in Oregon who makes a living from his hounds, examining what goes into training a good truffler.

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File under, "Your tax dollars at work": The NSA sent a cease-and-desist letter to Zazzle, the T-shirt site, asking it to remove a series of NSA parody T-shirts. The shirts featured the NSA's eagle logo and the motto, "The only part of the government that actually listens."

Shirtmaker Dan McCall received this message from Zazzle after he launched the shirts on the site:

We have been contacted by legal representatives from the National Security Agency, and at their request, have removed the product from the Zazzle Marketplace.

McCall was forced to move his inventory to CafePress, another shirt-selling site. You can buy one here. Act quickly, before they all disappear. Here's the shirt in question:

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If America bombs Syria over perceived chemical weapons use, the attack will most likely involve sea-launched  Tomahawk cruise missiles and last a couple of days.

We detailed 20 reasons why the specter of Tomahawk missiles should concern Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but here's the simplest explanation:

"Tomahawks have a range of 1,000 nautical miles; Assad’s most advanced anti-ship missile, the P-800 Yakhont, has a range of 180," Michael D. Weiss notes in a comprehensive deep dive about what it would take to degrade Assad's power.

Reuters made this handy graphic illustrating the range and features of various cruise missiles that are in America's arsenal.

SEE ALSO: Why Obama Is Still Committed To Attacking Syria Despite Waning Support

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Most brands offer dreadful customer service on social media. A study from Socialbakers, a social media analytics company, found that response times have actually worsened recently, instead of improving, as the chart shows. But a few companies are doing great things with social media, and helping to recast their companies as customer-centric organizations. 

In several cases, companies facing crises or PR disasters actually came out looking better after using social media to tackle problems head-on. 

In a new report from BI Intelligence, Business Insider's paid research service, we explore how companies are interacting more effectively and serving customers better with a focus on social media, and recreating themselves in the process. 

Gain instant access to this report by signing up for a free trial of BI Intelligence > 

Here are a few examples of great social media customer focus that has created value for companies across industries: 

1. Dell: The computer technology corporation was an early adopter of social customer relationship management and in 2010, Dell opened up its social media command center to all employees, regardless of their function. By 2011, Dell had trained over 25,000 employees of its employees in "social listening." These employees now monitor over 25,000 social mentions of the company daily in 11 different languages. This means insights gleaned from social media are spread throughout the organization rather than being “hoarded,” or remaining undigested in one department.
2. Domino's: A disastrous YouTube video posted in 2009 showed two Domino’s employees mishandling a pizza. After the video went viral, the company launched a massive campaign to analyze public opinion across all social media. After receiving negative feedback, Domino’s made company-wide changes including altering their pizza recipe, aggressively reaching out to customers on social media, and launching a marketing campaign acknowledging mistakes and promising a better product. Domino’s saw a 14% increase in sales the quarter immediately following the campaign. The stock price took off, and Domino's has never looked back. 
3. Best Buy: The electronics retailer unrolled a Twitter-focused marketing and customer service strategy built around “Twelpforce,” a system the company created to allow thousands of employees across departments to receive and respond to customer queries via Twitter. While Twelpforce has been a hit with customers, it also gave employees a channel and an incentive to collaborate internally and operate outside of silos (in order to handle customer requests it was often necessary to gather information from other employees.)
4. American Airlines: Socialbakers recently began ranking industries and brands according to “social devotion,” or how attentive they are to customers on Twitter. Surprisingly, troubled American Airlines ranks ninth among all U.S. brands (American has a response rate of 94%). Jan Reza, CEO of Socialbakers, believes this has to do with a lesson learned from Superstorm Sandy. Finding they had to deal with a system-wide near shutdown, American Airlines turned to social media to manage the crisis. They've remained faithful to social media channels ever since. 

 Gain instant access to this report by signing up for a free trial of BI Intelligence > 

Here are some more highlights from the report on social customer management:

• The report looks at data and mini-case studies to reveal the best practices for opening up customer relationship management, and involving different facets of business organizations in this function, from customer service teams, to marketing departments, IT officers, and sales executives.
• The wealth of data on customer desires being generated by this strategy is helping organizations work more effectively, and achieve better results. 
• We discuss social customer relationship management's huge sales potential. The data shows that social customer management doubles the percentage of sales leads that result in actual sales, relative to traditional CRM approaches. 
• The report also explores the three main differences between traditional and new social-influenced approaches to customer service and relationship management.
• We explain why it is critical for brands to adopt a social customer strategy, especially as social media and mobile apps begin to mediate more and more customer feedback, purchase decisions, commerce transactions.
• We present the four necessary ingredients of a successful social customer strategy, and mini-case studies of businesses that have paved the way for holistic approaches such as social customer service.
• We'll answer frequently asked questions about social customer relationship management and what defines it.
• We explain the fact that because social customer management is a strategic stance rather than something that comes out of a box like brand-name CRM software, it has often fallen on deaf ears. 
• The report digs into data showing that a social customer strategy will differentiate companies from the pack, which is still woefully bad at responding to customers on social media.
• Boosting leads and customer lifetime value are two aims of social customer management, but a broader goal is to bring customers' concerns deeper into the company's decision-making.

The full report provides in-depth analysis and detailed data on these trends, including ten charts with underlying data sets that subscribers can download and use in spreadsheet format. Subscribers also gain access to ongoing data-driven coverage of social media strategy and social media customer service. 

For full access to this report along with dozens of in-depth social media and mobile industry reports and a library of hundreds of charts, sign up for a two-week free trial of BI Intelligence.

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The Obama administration released a map today to go along with its report on the Syrian government's use of chemical weapons on Aug. 21. 

The map details specific areas that were affected by the chemical weapons attack:

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Economy passengers on some Hawaiian Airlines flights will have access to their own iPad mini starting this weekend, if they're willing to cough up some cash.

The airline has purchased 1,500 of the tablets, and will offer them on 14 routes between Hawaii and the US mainland, Asia, and South Pacific, on its Boeing 767 aircraft.

The iPads will replace the planes's portable entertainment systems, the airline announced this week.

Business class travelers will get the service for free. For those flying in economy, access to the tablet will cost $15 if reserved at the departure gate, and $17 if purchased in-flight.

The Apple products will almost certainly be a step up over the digEplayers Hawaiian currently offers, for the same price.

Hawaiian is not the first carrier to bring tablets on board. American Airlines pilots have exchanged paper manuals for iPads, and Australia's Qantas offers the Apple tablets on its own 767s, according to CNN Money.

SEE ALSO: Flying On The WW2-Era Boeing Clipper Was Amazingly Luxurious

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All signs indicate that President Barack Obama is prepared for a limited strike on Syria despite a lack of broad support from allies and Congress.

Yesterday, the UK's House of Commons rejected Prime Minister David Cameron's motion for military action, the U.S. Congress is demanding a say, and the UN Security Council has failed agree on military action.

The administration's resolve arises from the assessment that the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad killed hundreds of his own people in a chemical weapons attack on August 21, creating a need to enforce the blurred “red line” on using poison gas that President Obama drew a year ago.

And there is a sense of urgency given that America's plan is losing support while Assad is moving missiles and evacuating vulnerable military targets in the capital of Damascus.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

White House officials on Thursday signaled a desire to act quickly in Syria, on the U.S.'s own timetable and unilaterally, if necessary.

They cited a concern that waiting longer would inflame debates in the U.S. and Europe, while providing Syria more of an opportunity to cover its tracks and giving Syria's allies time to whip up international opposition to U.S. strikes.

That concern is justified since the Britain's House of Commons rejected Prime Minister David Cameron's motion for military action in Syria, driving a wedge of sorts between America and its closest ally. Then Germany ruled out participating in a strike on Syria (France reaffirmed its support of a strike.)

And according to a Russian adviser (via the BBC), the Kremlin welcomed the rejection of Cameron and is "actively working to avoid any scenario involving use of force in Syria." Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah have both threatened retaliation to any Western strike.

Thus, the Obama administration feels that America must "send a shot across the bow" of Assad to uphold the international norm against chemical weapons, and it doesn't need anyone's help to do that.

"What's being contemplated is of such a limited and narrow nature that it's not ... imperative for bringing in different capabilities from different countries," a senior administration official told WSJ.

In other words, America has enough assets in the area to accomplish its modest military objectives.

The White House's apparent commitment to a limited strike soon is based on "multiple pieces of evidence of regime involvement" when hundreds were killed and thousands suffered "neurotoxic symptoms" near Damascus last week.

A senior administration official told CBS News late Thursday that on Friday the administration will release a declassified version of an intelligence report that contains "very convincing" evidence that the Syrian government used chemical weapons its own people.

The UN chemical weapons inspection team will reportedly wrap up its investigation and leave the capital on Saturday.

SEE ALSO: IAN BREMMER: The US Has To Attack Syria

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - The personal computer market is facing slower growth even in emerging markets, where tablets are also starting to hurt PC sales, IDC said Thursday. Sluggish PC sales in the U.S. and Europe had recently been offset by strong demand in the emerging markets, led by China and India. But IDC said "Aside from stubbornly depressed consumer interest, 2013 also marks the first year where emerging regions are expected to contract at a steeper rate than mature regions," the report said. "Without an adequate mass of compelling applications, the PC market is poised to subsist primarily on lukewarm replacements in the future." PC shipments are expected to fall about 10% year-over-year this year.

Macs pwnen wordt vergemakkelijkt door een Metasploit-module voor de al maanden openstaande kloktruc. Aanvallers krijgen rootrechten.

In June, Electronic Arts made a "tough decision" to postpone the release of 'SimCity' for Mac until August, but it appears that the two-month delay might not have been enough. Today, on the day of release, the game's forums are already crawling with users experiencing a variety of issues with the software — issues wholly unlike the server woes that plagued the Windows original.  Electronic Arts has admitted a number of potential issues installing the Mac version of the game and getting it to run, going so far as to create a "SimCity Mac Install FAQ" to help players avoid some of the most common ones.

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Shares of Salesforce.com rally after the business software applications provider beat Wall Street’s estimates on strong revenue growth.

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