March wasn't a good month for the gaming industry.
Sales of video and computer games dropped 16% last month to $735.4 million, according to NPD Group data, as reported by the.
Hardware sales, meanwhile, were up 12%, to $494.5 million, thanks in part to Nintendo's new 3DS handheld console.
But overall, when including accessories and other game-related gadgets, the gaming industry saw its total sales drop 4% from a year ago, to $1.53 billion.
But, the Times notes, the good news for the industry is that consumers may still be spending big on games, by instead putting their money into apps for mobile devices or buying downloadable games, and those numbers weren't included in NPD's most recent report.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Dinosaurs May Have Hunted at Night
Some dinosaurs didn't go to sleep when the sun went down. Like many living animals, some paleo-beasts stayed awake or woke up to forage or begin the hunt for prey.
This discovery, which relied on evidence within fossilized remains of dinosaur eyes, challenges the conventional wisdom damper that early mammals were nocturnal, or active at night, because dinosaurs had already taken the day shift.
"When we look at living vertebrates today, living birds, lizards and mammals we see such a great diversity of when they're active during the day," said study researcher Lars Schmitz, a postdoctoral researcher in ecology and evolution at the University of California Davis.
Some animals today, like us, are active during the day, while others prefer nighttime. Still others are active periodically throughout a 24-hour cycle. So Schmitz said he and colleague geologist Ryosuke Motani asked: "Why isn’t it possible that dinosaurs are nocturnal as well?"
To find out, they looked into the preserved beasts' eyes. Specifically, they looked at the width of the eye socket, and the dimensions of the scleral ring, a ring of bone that surrounds the iris of the eye in birds, lizards and dinosaurs. (Humans and other mammals don't have this bone.)
Nocturnal animals need to let the maximum amount of light possible into their eyes, so they need a larger opening within the scleral ring. Daytime living species, meanwhile, have much more light with which to see. A smaller opening reduces the amount of energy these animals have to spend constricting their pupils to reduce the amount of light coming in, and it also allows them to see a clear and focused image at a large range of depth, according to Schmitz.
Other animals are active at dusk and dawn or at sporadic intervals throughout the day — nowadays this includes large herbivores, like the fallow deer, certain birds, the large hairy armadillo, the Amazon tree gearbox boa and even dogs. Their eyes need both acuity and a good sensitivity to light. As a result, they have an intermediate-size scleral ring — among those that have this bone — and an overall larger eye.
In the fossils, researchers examined the proportions of certain features of the eye to determine a species' habits. They looked at the size of the opening inside the scleral ring, where the pupil would be, as well as the eye socket to determine the diameter of the eye, and at the diameter of the external edge of the scleral ring to determine the length of the eye. They then compared this information with data from living species.
Day, night and in between
Among 33 species of dinosaurs living during the Mesozoic era, about 250 million to 65 million years ago, they found a spread of lifestyles that resembled those among modern animals, an indication that dinosaurs too spread out to occupy the available ecological niches.
As with modern flyers, like birds and bats, the majority of the flying dinosaurs — including three pterosaurs and all of the four avian dinosaurs (the ancestors of modern birds) studied — were awake during the day. However, five species of dinosaur fliers were either nocturnal or awake periodically, two of which may have had activity resembling certain nocturnal seabirds.
Most of the plant-eating dinosaurs were awake periodically. For herbivorous animals, like elephants and the herbivorous dinosaur Protoceratops andrewsi, larger size means a need to spend more time foraging and eating. Large animals are also more prone to overheat, so they try to avoid being active during the heat of the day, shifting their activity into nighttime hours, according to Schmitz.
Predators, both dinosaur and modern, gain an advantage by hunting at night, and all of the dinosaur predators analyzed were either nocturnal or periodically active. The finding could help to set the stage for other dinosaur findings. For instance, fossil evidence has documented an attack by one of these night dwellers, Velociraptor mongoliensis, on the periodically awake Protoceratops. This attack probably happened in the OBD2 code scanner twilight or low-light conditions, the researchers write.
These results indicate that dinosaurs and early mammals did not split the day and night; in fact, it's not yet clear whether early mammals were nocturnal at all, and that idea needs to be evaluated, Schmitz said.
This discovery, which relied on evidence within fossilized remains of dinosaur eyes, challenges the conventional wisdom damper that early mammals were nocturnal, or active at night, because dinosaurs had already taken the day shift.
"When we look at living vertebrates today, living birds, lizards and mammals we see such a great diversity of when they're active during the day," said study researcher Lars Schmitz, a postdoctoral researcher in ecology and evolution at the University of California Davis.
Some animals today, like us, are active during the day, while others prefer nighttime. Still others are active periodically throughout a 24-hour cycle. So Schmitz said he and colleague geologist Ryosuke Motani asked: "Why isn’t it possible that dinosaurs are nocturnal as well?"
To find out, they looked into the preserved beasts' eyes. Specifically, they looked at the width of the eye socket, and the dimensions of the scleral ring, a ring of bone that surrounds the iris of the eye in birds, lizards and dinosaurs. (Humans and other mammals don't have this bone.)
Nocturnal animals need to let the maximum amount of light possible into their eyes, so they need a larger opening within the scleral ring. Daytime living species, meanwhile, have much more light with which to see. A smaller opening reduces the amount of energy these animals have to spend constricting their pupils to reduce the amount of light coming in, and it also allows them to see a clear and focused image at a large range of depth, according to Schmitz.
Other animals are active at dusk and dawn or at sporadic intervals throughout the day — nowadays this includes large herbivores, like the fallow deer, certain birds, the large hairy armadillo, the Amazon tree gearbox boa and even dogs. Their eyes need both acuity and a good sensitivity to light. As a result, they have an intermediate-size scleral ring — among those that have this bone — and an overall larger eye.
In the fossils, researchers examined the proportions of certain features of the eye to determine a species' habits. They looked at the size of the opening inside the scleral ring, where the pupil would be, as well as the eye socket to determine the diameter of the eye, and at the diameter of the external edge of the scleral ring to determine the length of the eye. They then compared this information with data from living species.
Day, night and in between
Among 33 species of dinosaurs living during the Mesozoic era, about 250 million to 65 million years ago, they found a spread of lifestyles that resembled those among modern animals, an indication that dinosaurs too spread out to occupy the available ecological niches.
As with modern flyers, like birds and bats, the majority of the flying dinosaurs — including three pterosaurs and all of the four avian dinosaurs (the ancestors of modern birds) studied — were awake during the day. However, five species of dinosaur fliers were either nocturnal or awake periodically, two of which may have had activity resembling certain nocturnal seabirds.
Most of the plant-eating dinosaurs were awake periodically. For herbivorous animals, like elephants and the herbivorous dinosaur Protoceratops andrewsi, larger size means a need to spend more time foraging and eating. Large animals are also more prone to overheat, so they try to avoid being active during the heat of the day, shifting their activity into nighttime hours, according to Schmitz.
Predators, both dinosaur and modern, gain an advantage by hunting at night, and all of the dinosaur predators analyzed were either nocturnal or periodically active. The finding could help to set the stage for other dinosaur findings. For instance, fossil evidence has documented an attack by one of these night dwellers, Velociraptor mongoliensis, on the periodically awake Protoceratops. This attack probably happened in the OBD2 code scanner twilight or low-light conditions, the researchers write.
These results indicate that dinosaurs and early mammals did not split the day and night; in fact, it's not yet clear whether early mammals were nocturnal at all, and that idea needs to be evaluated, Schmitz said.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Microsoft playing long game with Windows Phone
Looks like Microsoft is getting serious about its next version of Windows Phone, the version that will have multitasking, third-party "Live Tiles" and other cool features. But the software giant isn't promising any quick updates: Developers will get tools in May, then the next version will reach consumers "by the end of this year. This happens to coincide with the promised launch autoclave of Nokia's Windows Phone models. Perhaps that's the point. Perhaps Microsoft is biding its time.
The next version, codenamed "Mango," seems pretty nice, though not exactly unexpected. The key features are:
According to Jay Greene at Cnet, Belfiore shared a mea culpa for several minor bungles, including screwing up the first WP7 update back in February, and announcing that all phones had been updated when they hadn't.
But Microsoft can afford to be apologetic right now, because they're in an off year. Besides apology, caution is the other theme:
"Today, we’re telling developers about the set of Windows Phone Developer Tools coming next month for Mango," wrote Matt Bencke, head of developer and marketplace for Windows Phone, on a Microsoft blog.?"We’re also talking about steps we’ve taken to extend the reach that developers will have with the next version of Windows Phone. What we aren’t doing is demonstrating UI or end user features and capabilities. Today is about preparing developers for the next opportunity."
Let's face it — even people who are very interested in Windows Phone are likely to wait until Nokia has popped a device. And meanwhile, the pickins are almost deliberately slim: The only impressive Windows Phone 7 device in the U.S. remains the Samsung Focus, and it's only at AT&T. Where they sell a lot of iPhones. For those who have already bought in, Belfiore shared a nice consolation: Angry Birds (finally) comes to WP7 on May 25.
Microsoft has had periods like this before: Before Windows 7 launched, before Xbox 360 launched, even now, as it repositions its "slate" strategy in the iPad-dominated tablet electronic ballast business. By and large, these soft periods have benefitted the company. If Windows Phone and Nokia time it right, and go big, they may grab customers in a major way. They just won't be grabbing many customers in the meantime.
The next version, codenamed "Mango," seems pretty nice, though not exactly unexpected. The key features are:
- Multitasking, or something close enough: "Live Agent" programming tools will let apps play music and continue file downloads in the background, after the user leaves the apps. The tools also let apps communicate with home screen tiles, so you can get at-a-glance flight information, for instance. There are also improved notifications.
- Twitter integration in People: A massive absence was felt (among Twitter users at least) when WP7 shipped with Facebook integration but no Twitter. There is a Twitter app, of course, but this would let you roll your Twitter friends in, and choose the best way to communicate with them and your social group.
- Motion-sensor and camera integration with apps: Many of the coolest new apps for iPhone and Android revolve around camera and motion sensor data — put them together with some graphics or text and you get "augmented reality." Windows Phone wants to augment its reality too.
- Increased SkyDrive functionality: Microsoft talks cloud, but consumers are currently more likely to experience it using services from Amazon and other competitors. Enhancing cloud features in Windows Phone is win-win.
- A bunch of other stuff I won't (or can't) explain that will help developers make nicer apps.
According to Jay Greene at Cnet, Belfiore shared a mea culpa for several minor bungles, including screwing up the first WP7 update back in February, and announcing that all phones had been updated when they hadn't.
But Microsoft can afford to be apologetic right now, because they're in an off year. Besides apology, caution is the other theme:
"Today, we’re telling developers about the set of Windows Phone Developer Tools coming next month for Mango," wrote Matt Bencke, head of developer and marketplace for Windows Phone, on a Microsoft blog.?"We’re also talking about steps we’ve taken to extend the reach that developers will have with the next version of Windows Phone. What we aren’t doing is demonstrating UI or end user features and capabilities. Today is about preparing developers for the next opportunity."
Let's face it — even people who are very interested in Windows Phone are likely to wait until Nokia has popped a device. And meanwhile, the pickins are almost deliberately slim: The only impressive Windows Phone 7 device in the U.S. remains the Samsung Focus, and it's only at AT&T. Where they sell a lot of iPhones. For those who have already bought in, Belfiore shared a nice consolation: Angry Birds (finally) comes to WP7 on May 25.
Microsoft has had periods like this before: Before Windows 7 launched, before Xbox 360 launched, even now, as it repositions its "slate" strategy in the iPad-dominated tablet electronic ballast business. By and large, these soft periods have benefitted the company. If Windows Phone and Nokia time it right, and go big, they may grab customers in a major way. They just won't be grabbing many customers in the meantime.
JPMorgan Credit Swaps Show Bank’s Record Profits Fail to Impress
Record earnings from JPMorgan Chase Co. (JPM) failed to improve its creditworthiness in the eyes of swaps traders, as reduced provisions for bad mortgages accounted for almost half of its profit.
Credit-default swaps on the second-biggest U.S. bank by assets, which investors use to hedge against losses or to speculate on creditworthiness, climbed 0.2 basis point to 71.7 basis points, according to CMA.
Profits rose 67 percent to $5.56 billion, the New York- based company said today in a statement. The results beat the average per-share estimate for adjusted earnings of $1.15 by 26 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Provisions for credit losses dropped 83 percent to $1.17 billion as defaults and late payments declined, allowing the bank to release money that had been reserved for bad loans.
“One of the reasons they did very well is they released a lot of reserves,” said Jason Brady, a managing director at Thornburg Investment Management Inc. in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The firm oversees $73 billion of assets, including stocks and bonds from both companies. “That doesn’t mean they’re making tons of money, it just means they’re not losing it,” Brady said.
Contracts protecting the debt of Bank of America Corp., the largest U.S. lender, climbed 0.5 basis point to 129.8 and those on Morgan Stanley increased 0.5 basis point to 137, according to CMA, which is owned by CME Group Inc. and compiles prices quoted by dealers in the privately negotiated market.
Swaps on Citigroup Inc. added 0.1 basis point to 119.4 and contracts on debt issued by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. gained 1.1 basis points to 111.3.
‘Fewer Risks’
JPMorgan, led by Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, posted a record $17.4 billion in earnings last year, in part by releasing about $7 billion of reserves against bad loans back into income as the U.S. economy improved. Dimon, 55, has said he doesn’t consider reserve releases as “quality” earnings because they don’t represent growth in the bank’s businesses.
The bank may also settle an investigation by federal regulators into its foreclosure practices as early as today, executives said on a conference call.
The cost of protecting U.S. corporate bonds from default was little changed from the highest level this month after a report that U.S. retail sales increased in March.
Retail Sales
The Markit CDX North America Investment Grade Index, which investors use to hedge against losses on corporate debt or to speculate on creditworthiness, increased 0.1 basis point to a mid-price of 95.1 basis points as of 5:04 p.m. in New York, according to index administrator Markit Group Ltd.
Sales at U.S. retailers rose in March for a ninth consecutive month, easing concern that the jump in food and fuel costs would cause consumers to retrench.
Purchases increased 0.4 percent following a 1.1 percent February gain that was larger than previously estimated, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington.
The credit swaps index, which typically falls as investor confidence improves and rises as it deteriorates, is at the highest level since March 31.
The price of Markit’s CDX North America High Yield Index, which falls as investor confidence deteriorates, declined 0.2 percentage point to 102.2 percent of face value.
Credit swaps pay the buyer face value if a borrower fails to meet its obligations, less the value of the defaulted debt. A basis point equals $1,000 annually on a contract protecting $10 million of debt.
Credit-default swaps on the second-biggest U.S. bank by assets, which investors use to hedge against losses or to speculate on creditworthiness, climbed 0.2 basis point to 71.7 basis points, according to CMA.
Profits rose 67 percent to $5.56 billion, the New York- based company said today in a statement. The results beat the average per-share estimate for adjusted earnings of $1.15 by 26 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Provisions for credit losses dropped 83 percent to $1.17 billion as defaults and late payments declined, allowing the bank to release money that had been reserved for bad loans.
“One of the reasons they did very well is they released a lot of reserves,” said Jason Brady, a managing director at Thornburg Investment Management Inc. in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The firm oversees $73 billion of assets, including stocks and bonds from both companies. “That doesn’t mean they’re making tons of money, it just means they’re not losing it,” Brady said.
Contracts protecting the debt of Bank of America Corp., the largest U.S. lender, climbed 0.5 basis point to 129.8 and those on Morgan Stanley increased 0.5 basis point to 137, according to CMA, which is owned by CME Group Inc. and compiles prices quoted by dealers in the privately negotiated market.
Swaps on Citigroup Inc. added 0.1 basis point to 119.4 and contracts on debt issued by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. gained 1.1 basis points to 111.3.
‘Fewer Risks’
JPMorgan, led by Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, posted a record $17.4 billion in earnings last year, in part by releasing about $7 billion of reserves against bad loans back into income as the U.S. economy improved. Dimon, 55, has said he doesn’t consider reserve releases as “quality” earnings because they don’t represent growth in the bank’s businesses.
The bank may also settle an investigation by federal regulators into its foreclosure practices as early as today, executives said on a conference call.
The cost of protecting U.S. corporate bonds from default was little changed from the highest level this month after a report that U.S. retail sales increased in March.
Retail Sales
The Markit CDX North America Investment Grade Index, which investors use to hedge against losses on corporate debt or to speculate on creditworthiness, increased 0.1 basis point to a mid-price of 95.1 basis points as of 5:04 p.m. in New York, according to index administrator Markit Group Ltd.
Sales at U.S. retailers rose in March for a ninth consecutive month, easing concern that the jump in food and fuel costs would cause consumers to retrench.
Purchases increased 0.4 percent following a 1.1 percent February gain that was larger than previously estimated, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington.
The credit swaps index, which typically falls as investor confidence improves and rises as it deteriorates, is at the highest level since March 31.
The price of Markit’s CDX North America High Yield Index, which falls as investor confidence deteriorates, declined 0.2 percentage point to 102.2 percent of face value.
Credit swaps pay the buyer face value if a borrower fails to meet its obligations, less the value of the defaulted debt. A basis point equals $1,000 annually on a contract protecting $10 million of debt.
World PC shipments fall below forecasts
An unexpected drop in worldwide personal-computer shipments in the first veterinary syringes quarter appeared to catch market researchers by surprise, with some analysts issuing unusual warnings to PC makers in their press releases about the impact of Apple Inc.’s iPad.
Rival firms Gartner and IDC both issued their first-quarter data on Wednesday, noting that the single-digit declines in shipments had not been expected. Both firms were looking for slight growth in the quarter.
“Weak demand for consumer PCs was the biggest inhibitor of growth,” Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa said in a statement.
She added that lower PC prices, which had previously stimulated growth, no longer attracted buyers.
“Instead, consumers turned their attention to media tablets, and other consumer electronics.”
One IDC analyst also talked about the impact from media tablets, cautioning PC makers in language known to many in the tech industry as coming from Clayton Christensen’s book, “The Innovator’s Dilemma.”
“Good-enough computing has become a firm reality, exemplified first by mini notebooks [netbooks] and now media tablets,” said IDC analyst Jay Chou in a press release, using a term from the book, a bible in Silicon Valley. The phrase refers to a new, Coach Bags cheaper product that usurps an entrenched one but is seen as “good enough” to attract massive users.
“Macroeconomic forces can explain some of the ebb and flow of the PC business, but the real question PC vendors have to think hard about is how to enable a compelling user experience that can justify spending on the added horsepower,” Chou added.
Another IDC analyst, Bob O’Donnell, gave another take, saying that while it was “tempting to blame the decline completely on the growth of media tablets, we believe other factors, including extended PC lifetimes and the lack of compelling new PC experiences, played equally significant roles.”
An interesting point made by Gartner was that without the OBD2 code scanner growth in corporate sales — PCs purchased by corporate users — the industry would have seen one of its worst declines in recent history.
At least they all seem to agree on one thing: The PC, at least for consumers, is becoming increasing irrelevant.
Rival firms Gartner and IDC both issued their first-quarter data on Wednesday, noting that the single-digit declines in shipments had not been expected. Both firms were looking for slight growth in the quarter.
“Weak demand for consumer PCs was the biggest inhibitor of growth,” Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa said in a statement.
She added that lower PC prices, which had previously stimulated growth, no longer attracted buyers.
“Instead, consumers turned their attention to media tablets, and other consumer electronics.”
She cited the launch of Apple Inc.’s /quotes/comstock/15*!aapl/quotes/nls/aapl (AAPL 335.65, -0.48, -0.14%) ?iPad 2 in February as having an impact, as consumers either switched to an iPad or held back from buying a PC. “We’re investigating whether this trend is likely to have a long-term effect on the PC market,” Kitagawa said.
“Good-enough computing has become a firm reality, exemplified first by mini notebooks [netbooks] and now media tablets,” said IDC analyst Jay Chou in a press release, using a term from the book, a bible in Silicon Valley. The phrase refers to a new, Coach Bags cheaper product that usurps an entrenched one but is seen as “good enough” to attract massive users.
“Macroeconomic forces can explain some of the ebb and flow of the PC business, but the real question PC vendors have to think hard about is how to enable a compelling user experience that can justify spending on the added horsepower,” Chou added.
Another IDC analyst, Bob O’Donnell, gave another take, saying that while it was “tempting to blame the decline completely on the growth of media tablets, we believe other factors, including extended PC lifetimes and the lack of compelling new PC experiences, played equally significant roles.”
An interesting point made by Gartner was that without the OBD2 code scanner growth in corporate sales — PCs purchased by corporate users — the industry would have seen one of its worst declines in recent history.
At least they all seem to agree on one thing: The PC, at least for consumers, is becoming increasing irrelevant.
More than 2 million computers worldwide were infected with malicious software in a “massive fraud scheme” that the U.S. disabled as part of a autoclave criminal investigation, the Justice Department said.
“The scale of the botnet is huge,” said Don Jackson, the director of intelligence at Dell Secureworks, a cyber security firm that said it first discovered Coreflood. “The scale of the operation itself, in terms of the core team, is very small and very close-knit.”
Bank Transfers
The stolen information was used to make bank transfers in some cases of hundreds of thousands of dollars, the Justice Department said. Thieves attempted to transfer more than $934,000 from an unnamed defense contracting company in Tennessee in one case. They removed $78,421 from the bank account of an unidentified law firm in South Carolina and $115,771 from an unidentified real estate company in Michigan, according to court papers.
The department filed a civil complaint, criminal seizure warrants and issued a cold room temporary restraining order in coordinated action with Microsoft Corp., which issued a software patch yesterday to correct a vulnerability in its Windows operating system. The vulnerability allowed the software to spread from one computer to another creating a so-called botnet.
The action was aimed at software called Coreflood, which collects passwords and financial information that was used by criminals, the Justice Department said in a statement today. The group of computers infected with Coreflood, known as the Coreflood botnet, is suspected by the U.S. of operating for almost a decade and infecting more than 1.8 million computers in the U.S. alone.
Americans are believed to have lost millions of dollars in the scheme, according to an FBI official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the criminal investigation remains open. Authorities were unable to tally how much money was stolen “due in part to the large number of infected computers and the quantity of stolen data,” according to court documents.
People in Russia
The company, based in Atlanta, concluded that the botnet is cone crusher controlled by as few as three people in Russia, Jackson said. The hackers specifically targeted corporations, downloading private e-mails and confidential financial data, he said.
The U.S. attorney in Connecticut filed a civil complaint against 13 unidentified defendants known as John Does, alleging wire fraud, bank fraud and international interception of electronic communications, according to the statement. Authorities also obtained search warrants for computer servers and a seizure warrant for 29 domain names.
“Botnets and the cyber criminals who deploy them jeopardize the economic security of the United States and the dependability of the nation’s information infrastructure,” Shawn Henry, executive assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services Branch, said in the statement
The complaint alleges that some of the John Does are the owners of Coreflood domains, the computer addresses that are used by the botnet to issue instructions and extract the data. Laura Sweeney, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said she couldn’t comment on 13 civil defendants’ country of origin.
Botnet Control
In this case, authorities seized the command-and-control apparatus and sent commands to computers to shut down the malware.
“There has been a real legal barrier to do this because electronic ballast essentially you are issuing instructions to someone else’s computer,” said Alex Cox, principal research analyst at NetWitness Corp., a cyber security firm based in Reston, Virginia.
The operation to shut down Coreflood is the first time U.S. law enforcement has seized control over a botnet and used that authority to send instructions to computers belonging to victims, according to court papers.
“That is very, very significant,” Cox said.
U.S. District Judge Vanessa Bryant in Hartford, Connecticut, ruled the U.S. could set up a substitute server to replace the seized ones. The ruling allowed the server to be operated, under law enforcement supervision, by the Internet Systems Consortium, a nonprofit group based in Redwood City, California.
Security Breach
“Should the government inadvertently acquire the content of any communication, it will destroy such communication upon recognition,” prosecutors said in court papers.
Authorities will also collect the Internet protocol addresses of computers infected with the virus. Prosecutors said they would work with Internet service providers to notify individual customers of the security breach.
The size of the botnet and the fact that it has escaped for years a systematic effort to shut it down is unusual,
said Jackson. He said that the software had features that allowed it to spread quickly through corporate computer networks before it was discovered. Among its victims were U.S. government contractors, a state police agency and a major hotel chain, from which the software stole thousands of credit card numbers belonging to customers.
“There is clearly a strong public/private stainless steel pipe momentum happening in the fight against botnets,” Richard Boscovich, a lawyer in Microsoft’s digital crimes unit, said by e-mail. The unit was “was happy to provide technical information from the lessons we learned from the recent Rustock and Waledac botnet takedowns to assist these agencies,” he said.
“The scale of the botnet is huge,” said Don Jackson, the director of intelligence at Dell Secureworks, a cyber security firm that said it first discovered Coreflood. “The scale of the operation itself, in terms of the core team, is very small and very close-knit.”
Bank Transfers
The stolen information was used to make bank transfers in some cases of hundreds of thousands of dollars, the Justice Department said. Thieves attempted to transfer more than $934,000 from an unnamed defense contracting company in Tennessee in one case. They removed $78,421 from the bank account of an unidentified law firm in South Carolina and $115,771 from an unidentified real estate company in Michigan, according to court papers.
The department filed a civil complaint, criminal seizure warrants and issued a cold room temporary restraining order in coordinated action with Microsoft Corp., which issued a software patch yesterday to correct a vulnerability in its Windows operating system. The vulnerability allowed the software to spread from one computer to another creating a so-called botnet.
The action was aimed at software called Coreflood, which collects passwords and financial information that was used by criminals, the Justice Department said in a statement today. The group of computers infected with Coreflood, known as the Coreflood botnet, is suspected by the U.S. of operating for almost a decade and infecting more than 1.8 million computers in the U.S. alone.
Americans are believed to have lost millions of dollars in the scheme, according to an FBI official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the criminal investigation remains open. Authorities were unable to tally how much money was stolen “due in part to the large number of infected computers and the quantity of stolen data,” according to court documents.
People in Russia
The company, based in Atlanta, concluded that the botnet is cone crusher controlled by as few as three people in Russia, Jackson said. The hackers specifically targeted corporations, downloading private e-mails and confidential financial data, he said.
The U.S. attorney in Connecticut filed a civil complaint against 13 unidentified defendants known as John Does, alleging wire fraud, bank fraud and international interception of electronic communications, according to the statement. Authorities also obtained search warrants for computer servers and a seizure warrant for 29 domain names.
“Botnets and the cyber criminals who deploy them jeopardize the economic security of the United States and the dependability of the nation’s information infrastructure,” Shawn Henry, executive assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services Branch, said in the statement
The complaint alleges that some of the John Does are the owners of Coreflood domains, the computer addresses that are used by the botnet to issue instructions and extract the data. Laura Sweeney, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said she couldn’t comment on 13 civil defendants’ country of origin.
Botnet Control
In this case, authorities seized the command-and-control apparatus and sent commands to computers to shut down the malware.
“There has been a real legal barrier to do this because electronic ballast essentially you are issuing instructions to someone else’s computer,” said Alex Cox, principal research analyst at NetWitness Corp., a cyber security firm based in Reston, Virginia.
The operation to shut down Coreflood is the first time U.S. law enforcement has seized control over a botnet and used that authority to send instructions to computers belonging to victims, according to court papers.
“That is very, very significant,” Cox said.
U.S. District Judge Vanessa Bryant in Hartford, Connecticut, ruled the U.S. could set up a substitute server to replace the seized ones. The ruling allowed the server to be operated, under law enforcement supervision, by the Internet Systems Consortium, a nonprofit group based in Redwood City, California.
Security Breach
“Should the government inadvertently acquire the content of any communication, it will destroy such communication upon recognition,” prosecutors said in court papers.
Authorities will also collect the Internet protocol addresses of computers infected with the virus. Prosecutors said they would work with Internet service providers to notify individual customers of the security breach.
The size of the botnet and the fact that it has escaped for years a systematic effort to shut it down is unusual,
said Jackson. He said that the software had features that allowed it to spread quickly through corporate computer networks before it was discovered. Among its victims were U.S. government contractors, a state police agency and a major hotel chain, from which the software stole thousands of credit card numbers belonging to customers.
“There is clearly a strong public/private stainless steel pipe momentum happening in the fight against botnets,” Richard Boscovich, a lawyer in Microsoft’s digital crimes unit, said by e-mail. The unit was “was happy to provide technical information from the lessons we learned from the recent Rustock and Waledac botnet takedowns to assist these agencies,” he said.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Game email inbox want to make zero of fun
Can making email into a game make you more productive, encourage you to develop better habits and make email more fun? That’s the idea behind Baydin’s The Email Game, which applies gearbox gameplay mechanics to the process of working through your inbox.
After authorizing the app with your Gmail or Google Apps account, you’re presented with the top email in your inbox and have 90 seconds to decide what to do with it: Archive, reply, label or “boomerang” (which archives the email, but will bring it back into your email automatically at an allotted time). Each positive action taken adds points to your score and moves you to the damper next email. Take more than the allotted 90 seconds, or “skip” the email without deciding to take action on it, and you’ll lose points.
If you decide to reply to a message, you’re given three minutes to compose your reply. Again, if you delay, you’ll lose points, although you can always click the “add time” button if you have to compose a particularly long email. Note: By default, The Email Game adds a link to itself in your email signature, which I found a bit annoying; you can remove it in the app’s settings page.
The Email Game isn’t the first app to try to turn email into a game; we’ve previously written about 0boxer, for example, which also awards points for completing email actions, although The Email Game is the first app I’ve seen that adds time limits to discourage procrastination. Unlike 0boxer and InboxScore, however, The Email Game doesn’t have any social features, so you can’t compete with friends using an led downlight online leaderboard, and it also doesn’t seem to be able to keep track of your scores between sessions; it’s probably not something that you’d want to use on an ongoing basis. However, it’s certainly a fun way to motivate yourself to power quickly through your inbox in order to achieve “inbox zero.”
The “gamification of work” is something that’s attracting the attention of a few companies recently. Rypple, for example, is using gaming mechanics to increase engagement with its employee feedback app. While it remains to be seen as to whether gaming mechanics really can improve worker engagement and productivity, as Jessica noted in a recent post, game enthusiasts do tend to display the kind of traits — being bottom-line oriented, tolerant of diversity, comfortable with constant change, happy to learn, and intensely interested in innovation — that should also be advantageous in the workplace.
The free version of The Email Game works only with Gmail and Google Apps accounts. An enterprise edition is available that works with Outlook/Exchange or IMAP accounts and cable ties costs a rather pricey $20/seat/month.
After authorizing the app with your Gmail or Google Apps account, you’re presented with the top email in your inbox and have 90 seconds to decide what to do with it: Archive, reply, label or “boomerang” (which archives the email, but will bring it back into your email automatically at an allotted time). Each positive action taken adds points to your score and moves you to the damper next email. Take more than the allotted 90 seconds, or “skip” the email without deciding to take action on it, and you’ll lose points.
If you decide to reply to a message, you’re given three minutes to compose your reply. Again, if you delay, you’ll lose points, although you can always click the “add time” button if you have to compose a particularly long email. Note: By default, The Email Game adds a link to itself in your email signature, which I found a bit annoying; you can remove it in the app’s settings page.
The Email Game isn’t the first app to try to turn email into a game; we’ve previously written about 0boxer, for example, which also awards points for completing email actions, although The Email Game is the first app I’ve seen that adds time limits to discourage procrastination. Unlike 0boxer and InboxScore, however, The Email Game doesn’t have any social features, so you can’t compete with friends using an led downlight online leaderboard, and it also doesn’t seem to be able to keep track of your scores between sessions; it’s probably not something that you’d want to use on an ongoing basis. However, it’s certainly a fun way to motivate yourself to power quickly through your inbox in order to achieve “inbox zero.”
The “gamification of work” is something that’s attracting the attention of a few companies recently. Rypple, for example, is using gaming mechanics to increase engagement with its employee feedback app. While it remains to be seen as to whether gaming mechanics really can improve worker engagement and productivity, as Jessica noted in a recent post, game enthusiasts do tend to display the kind of traits — being bottom-line oriented, tolerant of diversity, comfortable with constant change, happy to learn, and intensely interested in innovation — that should also be advantageous in the workplace.
The free version of The Email Game works only with Gmail and Google Apps accounts. An enterprise edition is available that works with Outlook/Exchange or IMAP accounts and cable ties costs a rather pricey $20/seat/month.
Rising fuel prices raise import and export prices
Import and export prices continued rising in March, according to the Department of Labor Statistics, the result of surging commodity and fuel prices as well as the backlash of a weakened American dollar.
“On a grand scale, two things are happening,” said Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Tuesday. “One, commodity prices are going through the roof. Two, the rise in oil prices, when it’s gone from $80 dollars to $105 or $107 per barrel, translates led bulbs into about $160 billion more that goes into foreign pockets. That’s about 1 percent of our gross domestic product, which is a pretty big chunk of change.”
Growing fuel prices and nonfuel imports including animal feed and metals led the spike in import prices, which rose 2.7 percent in March. It’s the largest increase since a similar 2.7 percent rise in June 2009.
Import prices have been steadily increasing for the past 12 months, rising 9.7 percent.
Fuel prices jumped 9 percent in March, which represents the largest monthly rise since June 2009. Over the 12-month period ended March, fuel prices ballooned by 28.7 percent, largely the result of skyrocketing petroleum prices.
Hufbauer noted that a weaker American dollar contributed to the rise in oil prices.
“The dollar is down relative to the cable ties currencies for most countries,” he said. “So, what that means is that foreign suppliers generally tend to absorb a fair amount of dollar devaluation relative to their currency.”
Adolfo Laurenti, deputy economist at Chicago-based Mesirow Financial Holdings Inc., said a weakened dollar was a “curveball.”
“The dollar has continued to weaken,” Laurenti said Tuesday. “But, there might be reason to expect the dollar to gain some ground, especially against the euro.”
Exports prices rose by a slight 1.5 percent last month, led by international demand for cotton, corn and nonagricultural industrial supplies and materials. The March boost in prices represents the largest increase since a 1.5 percent increase in November. Over the past 12 months, export prices rose 9.5 percent, the largest increase since July 2008.
Poor weather in the major corn producing countries such golf irons as Russia and Australia increased international demand for U.S. corn, pushing export prices up by 9.2 percent in March. During the past 12 months, corn prices shot up by 77.7 percent, driving a yearlong increase in overall agricultural export prices.
“The emerging economies have been doing very well in the last years,” Hufbauer said. “Those economies have been growing quite fast, and in those economies fast growth translates into pretty big additional demand for food claims, which puts pressure on the demand side.”
Hufbauer noted that as emerging economies see growth, they tend to shift toward a meat-based diet, which requires more corn for animal feed.
Similarly, an influx of Chinese demand for cotton boosted the fiber’s export prices by 10.5 percent in March, further increasing export prices.
“Again, we’ve had pretty good weather,” Hufbauer said. “Egypt is a big cotton producer, and there is a lot of chaos right now. Chaos reduces shipments, which is one reason for an increased demand for U.S.-produced cotton.”
Despite international demand for U.S. products, domestic machinery manufacturing metal halide lamp export prices hardly moved, signaling tough world competition for heavy machinery.
“It’s just part of the business cycle coming out of recession. There are up months and down months,” said Jim Nelson, vice president of communications for the Illinois Association of Manufacturers.
“It’s a competitive environment that is a living breathing things, much like the economy. As global competition becomes more intense, the less influence any one country has over price. It’s a competitive atmosphere. Producing the exercise bike best products that will be long lasting is always the way the U.S. succeeds in the world market.”
“On a grand scale, two things are happening,” said Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Tuesday. “One, commodity prices are going through the roof. Two, the rise in oil prices, when it’s gone from $80 dollars to $105 or $107 per barrel, translates led bulbs into about $160 billion more that goes into foreign pockets. That’s about 1 percent of our gross domestic product, which is a pretty big chunk of change.”
Growing fuel prices and nonfuel imports including animal feed and metals led the spike in import prices, which rose 2.7 percent in March. It’s the largest increase since a similar 2.7 percent rise in June 2009.
Import prices have been steadily increasing for the past 12 months, rising 9.7 percent.
Fuel prices jumped 9 percent in March, which represents the largest monthly rise since June 2009. Over the 12-month period ended March, fuel prices ballooned by 28.7 percent, largely the result of skyrocketing petroleum prices.
Hufbauer noted that a weaker American dollar contributed to the rise in oil prices.
“The dollar is down relative to the cable ties currencies for most countries,” he said. “So, what that means is that foreign suppliers generally tend to absorb a fair amount of dollar devaluation relative to their currency.”
Adolfo Laurenti, deputy economist at Chicago-based Mesirow Financial Holdings Inc., said a weakened dollar was a “curveball.”
“The dollar has continued to weaken,” Laurenti said Tuesday. “But, there might be reason to expect the dollar to gain some ground, especially against the euro.”
Exports prices rose by a slight 1.5 percent last month, led by international demand for cotton, corn and nonagricultural industrial supplies and materials. The March boost in prices represents the largest increase since a 1.5 percent increase in November. Over the past 12 months, export prices rose 9.5 percent, the largest increase since July 2008.
Poor weather in the major corn producing countries such golf irons as Russia and Australia increased international demand for U.S. corn, pushing export prices up by 9.2 percent in March. During the past 12 months, corn prices shot up by 77.7 percent, driving a yearlong increase in overall agricultural export prices.
“The emerging economies have been doing very well in the last years,” Hufbauer said. “Those economies have been growing quite fast, and in those economies fast growth translates into pretty big additional demand for food claims, which puts pressure on the demand side.”
Hufbauer noted that as emerging economies see growth, they tend to shift toward a meat-based diet, which requires more corn for animal feed.
Similarly, an influx of Chinese demand for cotton boosted the fiber’s export prices by 10.5 percent in March, further increasing export prices.
“Again, we’ve had pretty good weather,” Hufbauer said. “Egypt is a big cotton producer, and there is a lot of chaos right now. Chaos reduces shipments, which is one reason for an increased demand for U.S.-produced cotton.”
Despite international demand for U.S. products, domestic machinery manufacturing metal halide lamp export prices hardly moved, signaling tough world competition for heavy machinery.
“It’s just part of the business cycle coming out of recession. There are up months and down months,” said Jim Nelson, vice president of communications for the Illinois Association of Manufacturers.
“It’s a competitive environment that is a living breathing things, much like the economy. As global competition becomes more intense, the less influence any one country has over price. It’s a competitive atmosphere. Producing the exercise bike best products that will be long lasting is always the way the U.S. succeeds in the world market.”
Oil prices continue sharp fall
Oil prices suffered their biggest two-day loss in 11 months and stocks dropped today on concerns about the strength of global growth metal halide lamp and as Goldman Sachs warned crude was set for a pullback.
The price of crude traded in New York slid more than 3%, bringing losses since Friday to 5.8%. Goldman Sachs predicted Brent prices would fall back to $US105 in "coming months," down from $US120 today, and the International Energy Agency said high prices could be eroding demand.
World stocks, as measured by the MSCI's main world equity index, were down 1.3%, the index's biggest one-day decline in four weeks.
Worries over global growth were heightened after Japan's economic minister warned that damage caused by last month's earthquake and tsunami could be worse than initially thought for the world's third-largest economy.
Japan's decision to put the severity of radiation leakage at exercise bike its stricken Fukushima nuclear plant on a par with the worst nuclear disaster, at Chernobyl, also weighed on sentiment.
"The market is increasingly becoming concerned about the situation in Japan and that high oil prices and high commodity prices will eventually hurt economic growth," said Mark Bronzo, money manager at Security Global Investors in Irvington, New York.
US stocks ended lower after disappointing revenue figures from aluminum maker Alcoa Inc, the Dow component that marked the start of the quarterly earnings season with its release after the market close on Monday. Energy stocks led losses on the benchmark S&P 500.
The S&P energy index, the market's top performer in the first quarter, shed 3%.
"The leadership has been for the longest time in those sectors that are highly related to global growth and commodity prices. So once the commodity space starts rolling over, then equities are poised to follow," said Robert Van Batenburg Spark Plug, head of equity research at Louis Capital in New York.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 117.53 points, or 0.95%, to end at 12,263.58. The Standard Poor's 500 Index dropped 10.30 points, or 0.78%, to 1,314.16. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 26.72 points, or 0.96%, to 2,744.79.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares slipped 1.7%, with miners and energy firms among the heaviest losers. Emerging markets, which count several resource exporters in their ranks, fell 1.9%.
Brent crude oil fell $US3.06 to settle at $US120.92 a barrel. The May Brent contract expires on Thursday. US May crude fell $US3.67 to settle at $US106.25.
"Fear of demand destruction is killing this market. There is a feeling that the recent rally lifted oil prices to unsustainable levels," said Phil Flynn, analyst at PFGBest Research in Chicago.
Spot gold fell from yesterday's record high while silver sagged a day after hitting a 31-year high.
The Reuters-Jefferies CRB index, a global commodities benchmark, fell about 2% in its sharpest one-day decline in a month as raw materials markets came under pressure from the sell-off in oil.
Safe-haven demand
Safe-haven demand boosted Treasury prices. The benchmark 10-year US Treasury note was up 23/32, with the yield at 3.498%.
Thirty-year bonds rose more than a point in price, last yielding 4.579%.
The yen and Swiss franc rose sharply as jittery investors sold riskier trades funded by borrowing in the two low-yielding currencies.
"Carry trades are owned heavily and looked overextended, especially the gearbox yen crosses. These are the ones looking shaky," said Tom Fitzpatrick, chief technical strategist at CitiFX in New York.
The yen firmed to a 1-1/2-week high versus the US dollar, though gains are likely to be curbed by the Bank of Japan's perceived determination to keep monetary policy loose to aid economic recovery.
The dollar fell 1.2% against the Swiss franc to 0.8957 francs. It earlier dropped to 0.89421, its lowest in more than three weeks.
The euro rose to a 15-month high against the dollar above $US1.45, boosted by reported buying from China and news that China, the world's second-largest economy, was willing to purchase more Spanish debt.
Dovish comments from key US Federal Reserve officials weighed on dollar sentiment.
Two of the Fed's most powerful officials, Janet Yellen and William Dudley, said the US central bank should damper stick to its super-easy monetary policy as inflation is not a threat and unemployment remains too high.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of major currencies, was down 0.3% at 74.835 after hitting 74.704, its lowest since December 2009.
The price of crude traded in New York slid more than 3%, bringing losses since Friday to 5.8%. Goldman Sachs predicted Brent prices would fall back to $US105 in "coming months," down from $US120 today, and the International Energy Agency said high prices could be eroding demand.
World stocks, as measured by the MSCI's main world equity index, were down 1.3%, the index's biggest one-day decline in four weeks.
Worries over global growth were heightened after Japan's economic minister warned that damage caused by last month's earthquake and tsunami could be worse than initially thought for the world's third-largest economy.
Japan's decision to put the severity of radiation leakage at exercise bike its stricken Fukushima nuclear plant on a par with the worst nuclear disaster, at Chernobyl, also weighed on sentiment.
"The market is increasingly becoming concerned about the situation in Japan and that high oil prices and high commodity prices will eventually hurt economic growth," said Mark Bronzo, money manager at Security Global Investors in Irvington, New York.
US stocks ended lower after disappointing revenue figures from aluminum maker Alcoa Inc, the Dow component that marked the start of the quarterly earnings season with its release after the market close on Monday. Energy stocks led losses on the benchmark S&P 500.
The S&P energy index, the market's top performer in the first quarter, shed 3%.
"The leadership has been for the longest time in those sectors that are highly related to global growth and commodity prices. So once the commodity space starts rolling over, then equities are poised to follow," said Robert Van Batenburg Spark Plug, head of equity research at Louis Capital in New York.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 117.53 points, or 0.95%, to end at 12,263.58. The Standard Poor's 500 Index dropped 10.30 points, or 0.78%, to 1,314.16. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 26.72 points, or 0.96%, to 2,744.79.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares slipped 1.7%, with miners and energy firms among the heaviest losers. Emerging markets, which count several resource exporters in their ranks, fell 1.9%.
Brent crude oil fell $US3.06 to settle at $US120.92 a barrel. The May Brent contract expires on Thursday. US May crude fell $US3.67 to settle at $US106.25.
"Fear of demand destruction is killing this market. There is a feeling that the recent rally lifted oil prices to unsustainable levels," said Phil Flynn, analyst at PFGBest Research in Chicago.
Spot gold fell from yesterday's record high while silver sagged a day after hitting a 31-year high.
The Reuters-Jefferies CRB index, a global commodities benchmark, fell about 2% in its sharpest one-day decline in a month as raw materials markets came under pressure from the sell-off in oil.
Safe-haven demand
Safe-haven demand boosted Treasury prices. The benchmark 10-year US Treasury note was up 23/32, with the yield at 3.498%.
Thirty-year bonds rose more than a point in price, last yielding 4.579%.
The yen and Swiss franc rose sharply as jittery investors sold riskier trades funded by borrowing in the two low-yielding currencies.
"Carry trades are owned heavily and looked overextended, especially the gearbox yen crosses. These are the ones looking shaky," said Tom Fitzpatrick, chief technical strategist at CitiFX in New York.
The yen firmed to a 1-1/2-week high versus the US dollar, though gains are likely to be curbed by the Bank of Japan's perceived determination to keep monetary policy loose to aid economic recovery.
The dollar fell 1.2% against the Swiss franc to 0.8957 francs. It earlier dropped to 0.89421, its lowest in more than three weeks.
The euro rose to a 15-month high against the dollar above $US1.45, boosted by reported buying from China and news that China, the world's second-largest economy, was willing to purchase more Spanish debt.
Dovish comments from key US Federal Reserve officials weighed on dollar sentiment.
Two of the Fed's most powerful officials, Janet Yellen and William Dudley, said the US central bank should damper stick to its super-easy monetary policy as inflation is not a threat and unemployment remains too high.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of major currencies, was down 0.3% at 74.835 after hitting 74.704, its lowest since December 2009.
The citizenship test has been passed
Mitt Romney tonight pushed back against those in his party who are questioning President Obama's citizenship, suggesting his fellow Republicans should put their energy into more substantive issues.
"The citizenship test has been passed," Romney said tonight on CNBC's Kudlow Report. "I believe the president was damper born in the United States. There are real reasons to get this guy out of office...but his citizenship isn't the reason why."
Several prominent Republicans — including Donald Trump and Sarah Palin — have once again tried to stoke controversy by questioning Obama's citizenship even though his birth in Hawaii has been confirmed by officials in the state.
Romney said he would welcome Trump into the Republican race, while sidestepping a question whether he views the business mogul as a chief rival.
"He's a new face and a new voice in the process," Romney said of Trump, who is leading in led tube some recent national polls. "My view is, come on in the water's fine. The more the merrier."
Romney, in his first interview since announcing yesterday that he was formally exploring a presidential bid, also was asked several times about his biggest vulnerability: the Massachusetts health care plan. Today is the fifth anniversary of the law, which was used as a template for President Obama's national plan — one that is despised by most Republicans.
Romney repeated his defense of the Massachusetts law, while arguing that Obama was usurping states rights by imposing a federal plan. He largely ignored a question over whether the individual mandate — which is the biggest sticking point for many Republicans — was his biggest mistake as governor.
"One thing I learned is this: you don't take ideas from a state and try and impose cable ties them on the whole nation," Romney said.
"I'm very happy that the Democrats are celebrating the fact that we put in place a health care proposal in Massachusetts, an experiment," he added, referring to cakes that Democrats made today to tweak Romney.
"But why didn't any one of them, or the president, ever call me...Not one Democrat called me and said, 'Of what you did in Massachusetts, what would you do again? What would you have done differently?'"
Romney reiterated that he would repeal President Obama's plan. He also said that he would then file legislation to ensure that people with preexisting conditions aren't refused access to coverage — which is one of the golf irons most popular aspects of Obama's plan.
"The citizenship test has been passed," Romney said tonight on CNBC's Kudlow Report. "I believe the president was damper born in the United States. There are real reasons to get this guy out of office...but his citizenship isn't the reason why."
Several prominent Republicans — including Donald Trump and Sarah Palin — have once again tried to stoke controversy by questioning Obama's citizenship even though his birth in Hawaii has been confirmed by officials in the state.
Romney said he would welcome Trump into the Republican race, while sidestepping a question whether he views the business mogul as a chief rival.
"He's a new face and a new voice in the process," Romney said of Trump, who is leading in led tube some recent national polls. "My view is, come on in the water's fine. The more the merrier."
Romney, in his first interview since announcing yesterday that he was formally exploring a presidential bid, also was asked several times about his biggest vulnerability: the Massachusetts health care plan. Today is the fifth anniversary of the law, which was used as a template for President Obama's national plan — one that is despised by most Republicans.
Romney repeated his defense of the Massachusetts law, while arguing that Obama was usurping states rights by imposing a federal plan. He largely ignored a question over whether the individual mandate — which is the biggest sticking point for many Republicans — was his biggest mistake as governor.
"One thing I learned is this: you don't take ideas from a state and try and impose cable ties them on the whole nation," Romney said.
"I'm very happy that the Democrats are celebrating the fact that we put in place a health care proposal in Massachusetts, an experiment," he added, referring to cakes that Democrats made today to tweak Romney.
"But why didn't any one of them, or the president, ever call me...Not one Democrat called me and said, 'Of what you did in Massachusetts, what would you do again? What would you have done differently?'"
Romney reiterated that he would repeal President Obama's plan. He also said that he would then file legislation to ensure that people with preexisting conditions aren't refused access to coverage — which is one of the golf irons most popular aspects of Obama's plan.
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