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Microsoft Corp showed off a test version of a real-time, spoken-word translation service for Skype calls on Tuesday, the first time the world's largest software company has demonstrated the breakthrough technology publicly in the United States. Skype Translator, as it is currently called, allows speakers in different languages to hear the other's words spoken in their own language, according to a demo introduced by chief executive officer Satya Nadella at the Code Conference technology gathering in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

A Saudi man studying in the United States married a girl in the Gulf Kingdom through the advanced Skype video communication system and a newspaper said it was the first “Skype” marriage to be performed in the conservative Gulf Kingdom. Sheikh Fawaz Al Nafeei conducted the marriage rites at the bride’s home in the western Saudi town of Kharma after getting approval from the couple’s families and the groom through Skype, Okaz Arabic language daily said. “At first I was surprised when they asked me to consummate the marriage this way…but then I agreed because it does not contradict with...

SNIPPET: "Security concerns ahead of this summer's Brazilian World Cup have increased after a football fan was beaten to death in host city Sao Paulo." SNIPPET: "There are serious concerns about the safety of travelling supporters at this summer's World Cup after more than 30 people were killed in 2013 as a result of football-related violence. One of Brazil’s biggest criminal gangs last year promised a ‘Tournament of Terror’. The threat was issued by Sau Paulo's 'First Capital of the Command', who in 2012 was a group behind the murder of more than a hundred of the city’s police officers."

"If you've recently fired up Skype you may have noticed a dialog box with a warning appear briefly (at least on OS X) then vanish. If you're fast enough to catch it you'll find that it's warning you that some application you're using that works with Skype will stop working in December, 2013. This applies to all sorts of software supporting headsets, cameras, ... you name it."

The Muslim Brotherhood has been associated with Islam-biased K-12 textbooks identified by Citizens for National Security(CFNS) and Act for America. The textbooks in the CFNS study contained pro-Islamic misinformation, and material that provided negative misinformation about Israel, Judaism, and Christianity.

Skype for Windows 8. (Credit: Microsoft) Consumers who upgrade to Windows 8.1 will find Skype already part of the package.Microsoft confirmed Thursday that Skype will be included in Windows 8.1 right from the get-go. In a blog announcing the news, Microsoft emphasized its theme of connecting and sharing:We believe that connecting and sharing should be a seamless part of every Windows experience. Over 300 million people today use Skype for the most personal connections in their lives, sharing those everyday moments big and small across messaging, audio and video calling. With Windows 8.1, Skype is included right from (the) Start,...

There are various things out there. But I could not find something to set this up. VoIP (Voice over IP) has been around for a long time. I would not mind just using headphones and a microphone to make the phone call. There is a website IPKall.com that will give you a Washington state telephone number. But I am not sure how you set up the VoIP part. I tried to see if there were any other threads on this. I guess using SKYPE is one way to do this, but not to call someone else who has a real...

<p>I’d call this another reason to go Mac, except that Apple also cooperated with NSA in accessing customer activities. Second look at Linux?</p> <p>Microsoft has collaborated closely with US intelligence services to allow users’ communications to be intercepted, including helping the National Security Agency to circumvent the company’s own encryption, according to top-secret documents obtained by the Guardian.</p>

As a witness in the George Zimmerman murder trial testified this morning via Skype, pranksters watching the case bombarded the man’s account with calls, forcing the judge to interrupt the man’s testimony. As seen in the above video, Gordon Scott Pleasants, a criminal justice professor at Seminole State College, was testifying about Zimmerman taking a criminal investigation course when the Skype meltdown occurred. Pleasants, who was in Colorado, was about two minutes into his testimony when a steady barrage of incoming call boxes began popping up on the Skype screen. Each call was accompanied by a loud “pinging” sound. “I...

Former Justice Department prosecutor Larry Klayman amended an existing lawsuit against Verizon and a slew of Obama administration officials Monday to make it the first class-action lawsuit in response to the publication of a secret court order instructing Verizon to hand over the phone records of millions of American customers on an "ongoing, daily basis." Klayman told U.S. News he will file a second class-action lawsuit Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia targeting government officials and each of the nine companies listed in a leaked National Security Agency slideshow as participants in the government's PRISM...

UPDATE: Why Govt. Source leaked PRISMAdditional information is being reported that confirms what most of us have always suspected. NSA is collecting all our email data, tracking our movements, our photographs, our documents, etc. Also factor in the fact that a court recently ruled that Obama is free to collect our DNA without being found guilty of any crime. National Security Agency (NSA) building designed for massive data collection in Utah:WaPo reports the following:The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection...

"People LOVE to watch movies together. When I look back over my decades past, through various life stages, among the common memories I remember with pleasure are the "movie nights" with old friends. I know I'm not unique in that regard. I suspect there are tens of millions around the country, just like me who have moved far enough away from the old home town to make those get-togethers with old friends implausible. Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) has done a masterful job of re-creating the connections between old friends. These friends might not have otherwise stepped..." (continued)

Brief thoughts/quotes from the last 11 years. "Looking away, not caring, or hoping for the best are not viable options in fighting terrorism (in general) and the global jihad (specifically). Terrorism must be fought head on 24/7 and preventing terrorism is far better than just reacting to one terror-related event after another." -Cindy (July 1, 2011) ~ "WHAT DID I LEARN from the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001? OPINION: I have learned that more Americans love America than the lame-stream media will ever let on. I have learned that America's military is the finest in the world. I have...

ALEXANDRIA, VA - A federal judge on Friday cleared the way for Sami Al-Arian to stand trial for criminal contempt, ruling there is an "insufficient legal basis" for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad supporter's claim of selective government prosecution. U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema set a March 9 jury trial date for Al-Arian.

From a review of Susan Landau's Surveillance or Security?: To catch up with the new technologies of malfeasance, FBI director Robert Mueller traveled to Silicon Valley last November to persuade technology companies to build "backdoors" into their products. If Mueller’s wish were granted, the FBI would gain undetected real-time access to suspects’ Skype calls, Facebook chats, and other online communications­and in "clear text," the industry lingo for unencrypted data. Backdoors, in other words, would make the Internet -- and especially its burgeoning social media sector -- "wiretappable." This is one of the cyber threats I talked about last week: insecurities...

A recently surfaced Microsoft patent focuses on technology that could be used to spy on VoIP users' conversations without the detection of participants. Redmond originally applied for the patent in 2009, well before its move to buy up VoIP provider Skype. This technology may have been developed with an eye to selling it to government agencies. Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has applied for a patent on technology that may let its user secretly intercept Voice over IP (VoIP) communications, amend the content and store it. The application was filed in December 2009 and was recently made public. The technology could allow...

Skype went down a couple days ago. I just tried to connect and it's still crashing for me. If any of you have been able to successfully connect, then the problem may be on my end.

If and when Microsoft is allowed to buy Skype, what will it do with the Web-calling company? And how might the deal impact the state of Net neutrality at home and abroad? The New York Times, for one, doesn’t have answers or either question. Some experts tell the NYT that Microsoft will likely intensify Skype’s lobbying efforts in Europe, “providing a strong ally in a fight that could require European operators to open their networks to economic competitors.” Others, however, expect Microsoft to retreat, “either dropping Skype’s critical line of argument in Brussels or striking a deal to share revenue...

Just when you thought gentlemanly business competition was coming back to America…. Back in the ‘90’s, when all the bank mergers were happening and there was a massive consolidation of the defense industry going on, The Onion featured a headline that read something to the effect that Business has been Consolidated to Six Corporations. That’s about what it felt like at the time. Never mind anti-trust or the laws on vertical integration to prevent monopolies, competition was going out of style (and under a Democratic administration, too. Imagine that). That headline popped into my consciousness this week when I heard...

Since the mid-nineties, I have nurtured a thesis about the dotcom bubble, tech bust, and the role Microsoft played in it. The opportunity to discuss it has never came up. That is, until Microsoft’s purchase of Skype yesterday. I have long argued that while Microsoft might have begun life as a software firm, it long ago morphed into something that was more a very clever IP/marketing firm with a huge tactical legal advantage that gave rise to a monopoly, rather than a true technology company. Microsoft remains hugely profitable today, but increasingly irrelevant. Their purchase of Skype is an attempt...