Free Web Hosting

by Ray Lam

Free web hosting can be very enticing to individuals and businesses that do not have enough money to afford good web hosting services. But is it something worth the time spent and efforts done?

Fortunately there are proven ways on how to determine the most suited web host for your requirements. First you have to do an extensive research. Gather as many information on free web hosting services. You can always do this by doing an online search at google or yahoo.

After compiling your list then decide the service that you want from a web host. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of availing the services of a particular web host. You might also want to ask around. Actually there are a lot of discussion forums on the Internet regarding free website hosting. Go around discussion boards and read. You can also ask people who have availed of free website hosting about their experiences in getting a free hosting service. This is a good way for you to learn about the pros as well as cons of getting such service.

Free web hosting also gave its users with sub domain name, making it almost impossible to be searched on in various search engines. This made most websites on free web host servers almost impossible to be found on search engines. Reliability was also a concern, troubling most business owners who availed of free website hosting. With all these problems arising, there"s little doubt that getting free website hosting is not that practical. It will not help websites particularly those selling products and services.

Remember, every free hosting firm will try to make money from your website. Look for a hosting firm, which is less intrusive and more reliable.

About the Author:

Learn more about dedicated hosting web and get a Free limited report on Web Hosting Insights, a popular website that provides free tips and advice on web hosting solutions.

Facebook hires prominent artificial-intelligence expert to open Montreal lab

TORONTO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc plans to open an artificial-intelligence laboratory in Montreal, which will be run by prominent AI researcher Joelle Pineau, two people familiar with the plan said on Friday.
Tech

Free Web Hosting

by Ray Lam

Free web hosting can be very enticing to individuals and businesses that do not have enough money to afford good web hosting services. But is it something worth the time spent and efforts done?

Fortunately there are proven ways on how to determine the most suited web host for your requirements. First you have to do an extensive research. Gather as many information on free web hosting services. You can always do this by doing an online search at google or yahoo.

After compiling your list then decide the service that you want from a web host. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of availing the services of a particular web host. You might also want to ask around. Actually there are a lot of discussion forums on the Internet regarding free website hosting. Go around discussion boards and read. You can also ask people who have availed of free website hosting about their experiences in getting a free hosting service. This is a good way for you to learn about the pros as well as cons of getting such service.

Free web hosting also gave its users with sub domain name, making it almost impossible to be searched on in various search engines. This made most websites on free web host servers almost impossible to be found on search engines. Reliability was also a concern, troubling most business owners who availed of free website hosting. With all these problems arising, there"s little doubt that getting free website hosting is not that practical. It will not help websites particularly those selling products and services.

Remember, every free hosting firm will try to make money from your website. Look for a hosting firm, which is less intrusive and more reliable.

About the Author:

Learn more about dedicated hosting web and get a Free limited report on Web Hosting Insights, a popular website that provides free tips and advice on web hosting solutions.

Facebook hires prominent artificial-intelligence expert to open Montreal lab

TORONTO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc plans to open an artificial-intelligence laboratory in Montreal, which will be run by prominent AI researcher Joelle Pineau, two people familiar with the plan said on Friday.
Tech

This Tech Mogul Got $12 Billion Richer Just By Relocating His Company

Why be content with almost $2 billion when your net worth can be multiples more simply by moving your company from one stock exchange to another?

Zhou Hongyi did just that, relocating his online security firm to China and merging it into a shell company, which soared as much as 550% since he announced the plan in November. Qihoo 360 Technology Co. delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in July 2016 and began trading Wednesday in Shanghai as 360 Security Technology Inc. The move boosted Zhou’s net worth to $13.6 billion, making him China’s 12th-richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Zhou, 47, told reporters in November that aligning himself with China’s national interest was among the reasons he moved the listing to his homeland, where the Communist Party has been tightening the country’s “cybersecurity sovereignty.”

The first day back was rocky. The shares swung between gains and losses on Wednesday — opening 3.8% higher before declining 10% as of the close in Shanghai. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped 1%.

Still, China’s richer tech valuations may have been a draw, said Sun Mengqi, an analyst at BOCOM International Holdings Co. “There could be a substantial valuation gap between the U.S. and China.”

Antivirus Products

Zhou owns a 23% stake in 360 Security, directly and through holding companies Tianjin Qixin Zhicheng Technology Ltd. and Tianjin Zhongxin Investment LP, according to an acquisition proposal last month. Yue Jing, a company spokeswoman, declined to comment on Zhou’s net worth.

The firm posted 2016 revenue of 9.9 billion yuan ($1.6 billion), up from 9.4 billion yuan a year earlier. Most of its sales come from online ads, many which are pushed to users of its antivirus products.

Zhou isn’t the first tech mogul to take the back door to China. Billionaire Jason Jiang’s Focus Media went private in a $3.7 billion buyout in 2013 after coming under pressure from short-seller Carson Block, relisting two years later in Shenzhen. The company’s market value has swelled to $29 billion since then.

Zhou did a stint as the head of Yahoo China in the 2000s after selling a search engine startup to the U.S. firm and, in 2006, co-founded Qihoo 360 with fellow billionaire Qi Xiangdong.

Why Etsy’s Stock Jumped 24% Amid Some Complaints From Sellers and Buyers

Artisan craft marketplace Etsy has had its ups and downs since going public almost three years ago, but new CEO Josh Silverman appears to have convinced investors that sales are on track for solid growth in 2018.

Etsy’s stock price jumped as much as 24% in midday trading on Wednesday, and has now more than doubled from a year ago, thanks to Silverman’s turnaround strategy that got the company out of Amazon’s long shadow. Silverman, a veteran of eBay’s (ebay) Shopping.com site, has emphasized simple improvements like adding “best seller” badges and site-wide sales for Labor Day and Cyber Monday last year, as well as deeper changes that improved customer searches using artificial intelligence and machine learning with a program Etsy calls “Context Specific Search ranking.”

The results pleased Wall Street. Etsy reported solid fourth quarter results on Tuesday evening, including sales on the site increasing 15% to $1 billion—the company’s first billion dollar quarter ever—while Etsy’s own revenue, which includes its cut of the sales plus other services it sells, increased 21% to $136 million. Earnings per share of 36 cents reversed a loss of 19 cents per share last year and beat Wall Street’s expectations of just 13 cents (though the latest quarter included a one-time benefit from the new tax law).

Analysts also cheered Etsy’s forecast for 2018, including overall sales on the site increasing 14% to 16% to as much as $3.8 billion and its own revenue growing 21% to 23% to as much as $543 million. Analysts had forecast Etsy’s 2018 revenue would hit only $519 million.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

Silverman explained the improvements that led to last year’s growing sales, while also offering more ideas that will boost growth this year. “There’s still much work to do to improve the shipping experience on Etsy and this will be an area of strong focus in 2018,” he told analysts on a call on Tuesday.

Still, there were complaints from some sellers and buyers last year that Etsy was losing its identity as a craft marketplace focused on individual artisans amid all the changes. Silverman said the latest results were proof that, on the whole, his strategy was working for most.

“You know as a platform our job is to make the experience better for all of our buyers and sellers,” he said. “On any given day, there will be individual winners and losers because that’s the nature of the marketplace–you know, is the product that a particular seller is selling, is it in fashion or not, how is it resonating with the marketplace, that’s up to each of our sellers.”

Under prior CEO Chad Dickerson, Etsy stumbled in the face of growing pressure from Amazon (amzn), which introduced its own handmade craft-oriented platform just a few months after Etsy went public. Dickerson was pushed out last May after a disastrous first quarter that led to layoffs

Further improvements at Etsy this year will come from giving sellers better data analytics tools, making it easier for buyers to have items shipped quickly, and further optimizing search results, among other initiatives, Silverman said. The company will also look at hosting more site-wide events with discounting, though Etsy (etsy) doesn’t want to become known as a discount site, he said.

In many cases, “these are things that are perhaps best practices already used in other parts of the web that we haven’t yet adopted,” Silverman said. “We also want to make sure that we’re stretching ourselves and we’re thinking about bolder bigger events.”

Amazon Picks a Fight With Cable Companies Over Plans to Sell UFC Pay-Per-Views

Amazon’s not pulling any punches as it steps into the octagon.

The online retailer and (increasingly) video company has reportedly signed a deal with UFC to sell pay-per-view packages for upcoming fights, starting with this weekend’s UFC 222. And while that’s likely to be music to the ears of cord cutters, it’s a solid jab to cable and satellite companies, as well as other streaming services.

Rather than some other online services, which still require people to have a cable or satellite subscription to order a pay-per-view event, Amazon will offer the option to anyone willing to spend $64.99 for one night’s series of fights. This price is the same as what cable providers charge.

It’s the first time Amazon has offered a live sports pay-per-view event, but the company has increasingly been looking to lure sports fans to its platform. Last year, the company streamed Thursday Night Football games (paying a reported $50 million for the rights). Nearly 2 million people logged onto the site to watch the first game.

Other services, like Hulu, are also expanding into live sports. Hulu streamed the 2017 World Series, but ran into service issues when the stream crashed in the middle of game four.

Amazon has long competed with Netflix as a cable alternative, but by bringing pay-per-view options to its service, it could be targeting companies like Comcast and Time Warner Cable as well.

Why Etsy’s Stock Jumped 24% Amid Some Complaints From Sellers and Buyers

Artisan craft marketplace Etsy has had its ups and downs since going public almost three years ago, but new CEO Josh Silverman appears to have convinced investors that sales are on track for solid growth in 2018.

Etsy’s stock price jumped as much as 24% in midday trading on Wednesday, and has now more than doubled from a year ago, thanks to Silverman’s turnaround strategy that got the company out of Amazon’s long shadow. Silverman, a veteran of eBay’s (ebay) Shopping.com site, has emphasized simple improvements like adding “best seller” badges and site-wide sales for Labor Day and Cyber Monday last year, as well as deeper changes that improved customer searches using artificial intelligence and machine learning with a program Etsy calls “Context Specific Search ranking.”

The results pleased Wall Street. Etsy reported solid fourth quarter results on Tuesday evening, including sales on the site increasing 15% to $1 billion—the company’s first billion dollar quarter ever—while Etsy’s own revenue, which includes its cut of the sales plus other services it sells, increased 21% to $136 million. Earnings per share of 36 cents reversed a loss of 19 cents per share last year and beat Wall Street’s expectations of just 13 cents (though the latest quarter included a one-time benefit from the new tax law).

Analysts also cheered Etsy’s forecast for 2018, including overall sales on the site increasing 14% to 16% to as much as $3.8 billion and its own revenue growing 21% to 23% to as much as $543 million. Analysts had forecast Etsy’s 2018 revenue would hit only $519 million.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

Silverman explained the improvements that led to last year’s growing sales, while also offering more ideas that will boost growth this year. “There’s still much work to do to improve the shipping experience on Etsy and this will be an area of strong focus in 2018,” he told analysts on a call on Tuesday.

Still, there were complaints from some sellers and buyers last year that Etsy was losing its identity as a craft marketplace focused on individual artisans amid all the changes. Silverman said the latest results were proof that, on the whole, his strategy was working for most.

“You know as a platform our job is to make the experience better for all of our buyers and sellers,” he said. “On any given day, there will be individual winners and losers because that’s the nature of the marketplace–you know, is the product that a particular seller is selling, is it in fashion or not, how is it resonating with the marketplace, that’s up to each of our sellers.”

Under prior CEO Chad Dickerson, Etsy stumbled in the face of growing pressure from Amazon (amzn), which introduced its own handmade craft-oriented platform just a few months after Etsy went public. Dickerson was pushed out last May after a disastrous first quarter that led to layoffs

Further improvements at Etsy this year will come from giving sellers better data analytics tools, making it easier for buyers to have items shipped quickly, and further optimizing search results, among other initiatives, Silverman said. The company will also look at hosting more site-wide events with discounting, though Etsy (etsy) doesn’t want to become known as a discount site, he said.

In many cases, “these are things that are perhaps best practices already used in other parts of the web that we haven’t yet adopted,” Silverman said. “We also want to make sure that we’re stretching ourselves and we’re thinking about bolder bigger events.”

Free Web Hosting

by Ray Lam

Free web hosting can be very enticing to individuals and businesses that do not have enough money to afford good web hosting services. But is it something worth the time spent and efforts done?

Fortunately there are proven ways on how to determine the most suited web host for your requirements. First you have to do an extensive research. Gather as many information on free web hosting services. You can always do this by doing an online search at google or yahoo.

After compiling your list then decide the service that you want from a web host. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of availing the services of a particular web host. You might also want to ask around. Actually there are a lot of discussion forums on the Internet regarding free website hosting. Go around discussion boards and read. You can also ask people who have availed of free website hosting about their experiences in getting a free hosting service. This is a good way for you to learn about the pros as well as cons of getting such service.

Free web hosting also gave its users with sub domain name, making it almost impossible to be searched on in various search engines. This made most websites on free web host servers almost impossible to be found on search engines. Reliability was also a concern, troubling most business owners who availed of free website hosting. With all these problems arising, there"s little doubt that getting free website hosting is not that practical. It will not help websites particularly those selling products and services.

Remember, every free hosting firm will try to make money from your website. Look for a hosting firm, which is less intrusive and more reliable.

About the Author:

Learn more about dedicated hosting web and get a Free limited report on Web Hosting Insights, a popular website that provides free tips and advice on web hosting solutions.

Facebook hires prominent artificial-intelligence expert to open Montreal lab

TORONTO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc plans to open an artificial-intelligence laboratory in Montreal, which will be run by prominent AI researcher Joelle Pineau, two people familiar with the plan said on Friday.
Tech

Facebook hires prominent artificial-intelligence expert to open Montreal lab

TORONTO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc plans to open an artificial-intelligence laboratory in Montreal, which will be run by prominent AI researcher Joelle Pineau, two people familiar with the plan said on Friday.
Tech

Free Web Hosting

by Ray Lam

Free web hosting can be very enticing to individuals and businesses that do not have enough money to afford good web hosting services. But is it something worth the time spent and efforts done?

Fortunately there are proven ways on how to determine the most suited web host for your requirements. First you have to do an extensive research. Gather as many information on free web hosting services. You can always do this by doing an online search at google or yahoo.

After compiling your list then decide the service that you want from a web host. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of availing the services of a particular web host. You might also want to ask around. Actually there are a lot of discussion forums on the Internet regarding free website hosting. Go around discussion boards and read. You can also ask people who have availed of free website hosting about their experiences in getting a free hosting service. This is a good way for you to learn about the pros as well as cons of getting such service.

Free web hosting also gave its users with sub domain name, making it almost impossible to be searched on in various search engines. This made most websites on free web host servers almost impossible to be found on search engines. Reliability was also a concern, troubling most business owners who availed of free website hosting. With all these problems arising, there"s little doubt that getting free website hosting is not that practical. It will not help websites particularly those selling products and services.

Remember, every free hosting firm will try to make money from your website. Look for a hosting firm, which is less intrusive and more reliable.

About the Author:

Learn more about dedicated hosting web and get a Free limited report on Web Hosting Insights, a popular website that provides free tips and advice on web hosting solutions.

There Is Actually a Point to Putting a 4G Network On the Moon

The Moon is hopefully going to get its first mobile network, thanks to European mobile operator Vodafone and equipment firm Nokia.

The companies are working with part-time scientists—that’s actually their name, styled as “PTScientists”—on what they hope will be the first-ever privately funded Moon landing.

The car-maker Audi is another big partner on this mission, which was originally supposed to take place this year, but is now slated for 2019. According to the plan, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will take up two Audi-made lunar rovers and the landing module.

So what’s the mobile network for? The rovers will need to be able to communicate with one another, and the partners claim a 4G mobile network will be a lot more energy-efficient than analog radio.

They said Tuesday that a tiny, specially-developed mobile network installed in the module would make it possible to send home “the first ever live HD video feed of the Moon’s surface”—via a connected deep-space link, of course; 4G mobile technology alone doesn’t allow for transmissions over 239,000 miles, no matter who the operator is.

The rovers will “carefully approach and study NASA’s Apollo 17 lunar roving vehicle that was used by the last astronauts to walk on the Moon” back in 1972, Nokia said in a statement.

While the idea of a 4G network on the Moon may seem somewhat frivolous, it does make sense to test out the viability of well-proven commercial technology in a space setting. And the high-profile corporate partnerships must be very handy for the Berlin-based PTScientists, which once hoped to win Google’s Lunar XPrize (GLXP) challenge.

Google announced last month that the decade-long challenge was ending without a winner for the $30 million prize, as none of the teams were able to get their robots on the Moon by the deadline of March 31 this year.

“While the grand prize will go unclaimed, we don’t think this means there is no winner. Quite the contrary—the GLXP provided inspiration and an incentive for people all around the world to come together and work towards a shared dream of landing on the Moon,” PTScientists wrote at the time. “A look back at our history shows it was the GLXP that led to the formation of PTScientists. In our book, that is a ‘win."”

This Tech Mogul Got $12 Billion Richer Just By Relocating His Company

Why be content with almost $2 billion when your net worth can be multiples more simply by moving your company from one stock exchange to another?

Zhou Hongyi did just that, relocating his online security firm to China and merging it into a shell company, which soared as much as 550% since he announced the plan in November. Qihoo 360 Technology Co. delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in July 2016 and began trading Wednesday in Shanghai as 360 Security Technology Inc. The move boosted Zhou’s net worth to $13.6 billion, making him China’s 12th-richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Zhou, 47, told reporters in November that aligning himself with China’s national interest was among the reasons he moved the listing to his homeland, where the Communist Party has been tightening the country’s “cybersecurity sovereignty.”

The first day back was rocky. The shares swung between gains and losses on Wednesday — opening 3.8% higher before declining 10% as of the close in Shanghai. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped 1%.

Still, China’s richer tech valuations may have been a draw, said Sun Mengqi, an analyst at BOCOM International Holdings Co. “There could be a substantial valuation gap between the U.S. and China.”

Antivirus Products

Zhou owns a 23% stake in 360 Security, directly and through holding companies Tianjin Qixin Zhicheng Technology Ltd. and Tianjin Zhongxin Investment LP, according to an acquisition proposal last month. Yue Jing, a company spokeswoman, declined to comment on Zhou’s net worth.

The firm posted 2016 revenue of 9.9 billion yuan ($1.6 billion), up from 9.4 billion yuan a year earlier. Most of its sales come from online ads, many which are pushed to users of its antivirus products.

Zhou isn’t the first tech mogul to take the back door to China. Billionaire Jason Jiang’s Focus Media went private in a $3.7 billion buyout in 2013 after coming under pressure from short-seller Carson Block, relisting two years later in Shenzhen. The company’s market value has swelled to $29 billion since then.

Zhou did a stint as the head of Yahoo China in the 2000s after selling a search engine startup to the U.S. firm and, in 2006, co-founded Qihoo 360 with fellow billionaire Qi Xiangdong.

This Tech Mogul Got $12 Billion Richer Just By Relocating His Company

Why be content with almost $2 billion when your net worth can be multiples more simply by moving your company from one stock exchange to another?

Zhou Hongyi did just that, relocating his online security firm to China and merging it into a shell company, which soared as much as 550% since he announced the plan in November. Qihoo 360 Technology Co. delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in July 2016 and began trading Wednesday in Shanghai as 360 Security Technology Inc. The move boosted Zhou’s net worth to $13.6 billion, making him China’s 12th-richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Zhou, 47, told reporters in November that aligning himself with China’s national interest was among the reasons he moved the listing to his homeland, where the Communist Party has been tightening the country’s “cybersecurity sovereignty.”

The first day back was rocky. The shares swung between gains and losses on Wednesday — opening 3.8% higher before declining 10% as of the close in Shanghai. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped 1%.

Still, China’s richer tech valuations may have been a draw, said Sun Mengqi, an analyst at BOCOM International Holdings Co. “There could be a substantial valuation gap between the U.S. and China.”

Antivirus Products

Zhou owns a 23% stake in 360 Security, directly and through holding companies Tianjin Qixin Zhicheng Technology Ltd. and Tianjin Zhongxin Investment LP, according to an acquisition proposal last month. Yue Jing, a company spokeswoman, declined to comment on Zhou’s net worth.

The firm posted 2016 revenue of 9.9 billion yuan ($1.6 billion), up from 9.4 billion yuan a year earlier. Most of its sales come from online ads, many which are pushed to users of its antivirus products.

Zhou isn’t the first tech mogul to take the back door to China. Billionaire Jason Jiang’s Focus Media went private in a $3.7 billion buyout in 2013 after coming under pressure from short-seller Carson Block, relisting two years later in Shenzhen. The company’s market value has swelled to $29 billion since then.

Zhou did a stint as the head of Yahoo China in the 2000s after selling a search engine startup to the U.S. firm and, in 2006, co-founded Qihoo 360 with fellow billionaire Qi Xiangdong.

This Tech Mogul Got $12 Billion Richer Just By Relocating His Company

Why be content with almost $2 billion when your net worth can be multiples more simply by moving your company from one stock exchange to another?

Zhou Hongyi did just that, relocating his online security firm to China and merging it into a shell company, which soared as much as 550% since he announced the plan in November. Qihoo 360 Technology Co. delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in July 2016 and began trading Wednesday in Shanghai as 360 Security Technology Inc. The move boosted Zhou’s net worth to $13.6 billion, making him China’s 12th-richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Zhou, 47, told reporters in November that aligning himself with China’s national interest was among the reasons he moved the listing to his homeland, where the Communist Party has been tightening the country’s “cybersecurity sovereignty.”

The first day back was rocky. The shares swung between gains and losses on Wednesday — opening 3.8% higher before declining 10% as of the close in Shanghai. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped 1%.

Still, China’s richer tech valuations may have been a draw, said Sun Mengqi, an analyst at BOCOM International Holdings Co. “There could be a substantial valuation gap between the U.S. and China.”

Antivirus Products

Zhou owns a 23% stake in 360 Security, directly and through holding companies Tianjin Qixin Zhicheng Technology Ltd. and Tianjin Zhongxin Investment LP, according to an acquisition proposal last month. Yue Jing, a company spokeswoman, declined to comment on Zhou’s net worth.

The firm posted 2016 revenue of 9.9 billion yuan ($1.6 billion), up from 9.4 billion yuan a year earlier. Most of its sales come from online ads, many which are pushed to users of its antivirus products.

Zhou isn’t the first tech mogul to take the back door to China. Billionaire Jason Jiang’s Focus Media went private in a $3.7 billion buyout in 2013 after coming under pressure from short-seller Carson Block, relisting two years later in Shenzhen. The company’s market value has swelled to $29 billion since then.

Zhou did a stint as the head of Yahoo China in the 2000s after selling a search engine startup to the U.S. firm and, in 2006, co-founded Qihoo 360 with fellow billionaire Qi Xiangdong.

House passes bill to penalize sites that allow online sex trafficking

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed legislation to make it easier to penalize operators of websites that facilitate online sex trafficking, chipping away at a bedrock legal shield for the technology industry.

The bill’s passage marks one of the most concrete actions in recent years from the U.S. Congress to tighten regulation of internet firms, which have drawn heavy scrutiny from lawmakers in both parties over the past year due to an array of concerns regarding the size and influence of their platforms.

The House passed the measure 388-25. It still needs to pass the U.S. Senate, where similar legislation has already gained substantial support, and then be signed by President Donald Trump before it can become law.

Speaker Paul Ryan, in a statement before the vote, said the bill would help “put an end to modern-day slavery here in the United States.”

Several major internet companies, including Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc, had been reluctant to support any congressional effort to dent what is known as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a decades-old law that protects them from liability for the activities of their users.

But facing political pressure, the internet industry slowly warmed to a proposal that gained traction in the Senate last year, and eventually endorsed it after it gained sizeable bipartisan support.

Republican Senator Rob Portman, a chief architect of the Senate proposal, said in a statement he supported the House’s similar version and called on the Senate to quickly pass it.

The legislation is a result of years of law-enforcement lobbying for a crackdown on the online classified site backpage.com, which is used for sex advertising.

It would make it easier for states and sex-trafficking victims to sue social media networks, advertisers and others that fail to keep exploitative material off their platforms.

Some critics warned that the House measure would weaken Section 230 in a way that would only serve to further help established internet giants, who possess larger resources to police their content, and not adequately address the problem.

“This bill will only prop up the entrenched players who are rapidly losing the public’s trust,” Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, an original author of Section 230, said. “The failure to understand the technological side effects of this bill - specifically that it will become harder to expose sex-traffickers, while hamstringing innovation - will be something that this Congress will regret.”

Reporting by Dustin Volz; editing by Sandra Maler and Lisa Shumaker

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Facebook hires prominent artificial-intelligence expert to open Montreal lab

TORONTO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc plans to open an artificial-intelligence laboratory in Montreal, which will be run by prominent AI researcher Joelle Pineau, two people familiar with the plan said on Friday.
Tech

This Tech Mogul Got $12 Billion Richer Just By Relocating His Company

Why be content with almost $2 billion when your net worth can be multiples more simply by moving your company from one stock exchange to another?

Zhou Hongyi did just that, relocating his online security firm to China and merging it into a shell company, which soared as much as 550% since he announced the plan in November. Qihoo 360 Technology Co. delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in July 2016 and began trading Wednesday in Shanghai as 360 Security Technology Inc. The move boosted Zhou’s net worth to $13.6 billion, making him China’s 12th-richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Zhou, 47, told reporters in November that aligning himself with China’s national interest was among the reasons he moved the listing to his homeland, where the Communist Party has been tightening the country’s “cybersecurity sovereignty.”

The first day back was rocky. The shares swung between gains and losses on Wednesday — opening 3.8% higher before declining 10% as of the close in Shanghai. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped 1%.

Still, China’s richer tech valuations may have been a draw, said Sun Mengqi, an analyst at BOCOM International Holdings Co. “There could be a substantial valuation gap between the U.S. and China.”

Antivirus Products

Zhou owns a 23% stake in 360 Security, directly and through holding companies Tianjin Qixin Zhicheng Technology Ltd. and Tianjin Zhongxin Investment LP, according to an acquisition proposal last month. Yue Jing, a company spokeswoman, declined to comment on Zhou’s net worth.

The firm posted 2016 revenue of 9.9 billion yuan ($1.6 billion), up from 9.4 billion yuan a year earlier. Most of its sales come from online ads, many which are pushed to users of its antivirus products.

Zhou isn’t the first tech mogul to take the back door to China. Billionaire Jason Jiang’s Focus Media went private in a $3.7 billion buyout in 2013 after coming under pressure from short-seller Carson Block, relisting two years later in Shenzhen. The company’s market value has swelled to $29 billion since then.

Zhou did a stint as the head of Yahoo China in the 2000s after selling a search engine startup to the U.S. firm and, in 2006, co-founded Qihoo 360 with fellow billionaire Qi Xiangdong.

Free Web Hosting

by Ray Lam

Free web hosting can be very enticing to individuals and businesses that do not have enough money to afford good web hosting services. But is it something worth the time spent and efforts done?

Fortunately there are proven ways on how to determine the most suited web host for your requirements. First you have to do an extensive research. Gather as many information on free web hosting services. You can always do this by doing an online search at google or yahoo.

After compiling your list then decide the service that you want from a web host. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of availing the services of a particular web host. You might also want to ask around. Actually there are a lot of discussion forums on the Internet regarding free website hosting. Go around discussion boards and read. You can also ask people who have availed of free website hosting about their experiences in getting a free hosting service. This is a good way for you to learn about the pros as well as cons of getting such service.

Free web hosting also gave its users with sub domain name, making it almost impossible to be searched on in various search engines. This made most websites on free web host servers almost impossible to be found on search engines. Reliability was also a concern, troubling most business owners who availed of free website hosting. With all these problems arising, there"s little doubt that getting free website hosting is not that practical. It will not help websites particularly those selling products and services.

Remember, every free hosting firm will try to make money from your website. Look for a hosting firm, which is less intrusive and more reliable.

About the Author:

Learn more about dedicated hosting web and get a Free limited report on Web Hosting Insights, a popular website that provides free tips and advice on web hosting solutions.

Free Web Hosting

by Ray Lam

Free web hosting can be very enticing to individuals and businesses that do not have enough money to afford good web hosting services. But is it something worth the time spent and efforts done?

Fortunately there are proven ways on how to determine the most suited web host for your requirements. First you have to do an extensive research. Gather as many information on free web hosting services. You can always do this by doing an online search at google or yahoo.

After compiling your list then decide the service that you want from a web host. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of availing the services of a particular web host. You might also want to ask around. Actually there are a lot of discussion forums on the Internet regarding free website hosting. Go around discussion boards and read. You can also ask people who have availed of free website hosting about their experiences in getting a free hosting service. This is a good way for you to learn about the pros as well as cons of getting such service.

Free web hosting also gave its users with sub domain name, making it almost impossible to be searched on in various search engines. This made most websites on free web host servers almost impossible to be found on search engines. Reliability was also a concern, troubling most business owners who availed of free website hosting. With all these problems arising, there"s little doubt that getting free website hosting is not that practical. It will not help websites particularly those selling products and services.

Remember, every free hosting firm will try to make money from your website. Look for a hosting firm, which is less intrusive and more reliable.

About the Author:

Learn more about dedicated hosting web and get a Free limited report on Web Hosting Insights, a popular website that provides free tips and advice on web hosting solutions.

Facebook hires prominent artificial-intelligence expert to open Montreal lab

TORONTO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc plans to open an artificial-intelligence laboratory in Montreal, which will be run by prominent AI researcher Joelle Pineau, two people familiar with the plan said on Friday.
Tech

Free Web Hosting

by Ray Lam

Free web hosting can be very enticing to individuals and businesses that do not have enough money to afford good web hosting services. But is it something worth the time spent and efforts done?

Fortunately there are proven ways on how to determine the most suited web host for your requirements. First you have to do an extensive research. Gather as many information on free web hosting services. You can always do this by doing an online search at google or yahoo.

After compiling your list then decide the service that you want from a web host. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of availing the services of a particular web host. You might also want to ask around. Actually there are a lot of discussion forums on the Internet regarding free website hosting. Go around discussion boards and read. You can also ask people who have availed of free website hosting about their experiences in getting a free hosting service. This is a good way for you to learn about the pros as well as cons of getting such service.

Free web hosting also gave its users with sub domain name, making it almost impossible to be searched on in various search engines. This made most websites on free web host servers almost impossible to be found on search engines. Reliability was also a concern, troubling most business owners who availed of free website hosting. With all these problems arising, there"s little doubt that getting free website hosting is not that practical. It will not help websites particularly those selling products and services.

Remember, every free hosting firm will try to make money from your website. Look for a hosting firm, which is less intrusive and more reliable.

About the Author:

Learn more about dedicated hosting web and get a Free limited report on Web Hosting Insights, a popular website that provides free tips and advice on web hosting solutions.

Facebook hires prominent artificial-intelligence expert to open Montreal lab

TORONTO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc plans to open an artificial-intelligence laboratory in Montreal, which will be run by prominent AI researcher Joelle Pineau, two people familiar with the plan said on Friday.
Tech

Elon Musk Is Putting Wireless Service on the Moon (So If You Go There, You Can Watch Netflix)

It"s been 50 years since humans first landed on the Moon and we haven"t done much there since. But Elon Musk is hoping that will change very soon. He already believes there should be a base on the Moon to fire up public interest in space exploration. Then in December, President Donald Trump announced that he wanted to send astronauts back to the moon as a first step toward more distant objectives, such as Mars, where Musk is already planning to land humans sometime within the coming decade.

Musk has also said that his company SpaceX would not build a moon base although it might ferry people and materials there from Earth. But it apparently is ready to help with something else every lunar visitor needs: a way to contact people at home, communicate with other lunar visitors--and watch Netflix during off hours.

So SpaceX, along with mobile network company Vodafone, Nokia, and Audi, will be building a 4G network on the moon in 2019. Even though 5G networks are being built here on Earth, the partners chose 4G because its technology is both more stable and more able to withstand space travel. 

OK, but why build a wireless network on the Moon so soon, when nobody lives there? It"s true that Musk has said he would take space tourists to the moon in late 2018, and indeed had already collected large deposits from two wealthy individuals for the first such trip. But the planned trip is only a Moon fly-by with no landing, so the lunar tourists won"t get much of a chance to use the Moon"s wireless network. And they won"t need it, having the ship"s communication system at their" disposal. Besides, the pricey lunar fly-by was meant to take place using a Crew Dragon capsule carried by a Falcon Heavy rocket, the same rocket that spectacularly took off earlier this month with a red Tesla Roadster and mannequin dubbed "Starman." But Musk has said SpaceX is now focusing its attention on its BFR Rocket (for Big Fucking Rocket) and he indicated it may not do much more testing on the Falcon Heavy after all, possibly leaving Moon tourism in limbo. 

According to one report, the purpose of lunar 4G would be to support future lunar missions. Without it, humans and vehicles (such as the lunar rovers Audi is building) could only communicate by beaming signals down to the Earth and back up again. The fact that the planned network will have enough bandwidth to support video streaming raises the appealing prospect of a lunar webcam all of us could watch over the Internet. 

And of course, it"ll come in very handy for space tourists visiting the lunar surface or astronauts working to build a Moon base or on other projects. Maybe someday soon.

Microsoft clashes with Justice Department at U.S. Supreme Court

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday wades into a major privacy rights fight between Microsoft Corp(MSFT.O) and the Justice Department, weighing whether U.S. law allows prosecutors to compel technology companies to hand over data stored overseas.

The nine justices will hear arguments in a case that pits the interests of tech companies and privacy advocates in safeguarding customer data against the demands of law enforcement in obtaining information crucial to criminal and counterterrorism investigations.

The case began with a 2013 warrant obtained by prosecutors for emails of a suspect in a drug trafficking investigation that were stored in Microsoft computer servers in Dublin. The company challenged whether a domestic warrant covered data stored abroad. The Justice Department said because Microsoft is based in the United States, prosecutors were entitled to the data.

A ruling is due by the end of June.

A 2016 decision by the New York-based 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals siding with Microsoft marked a victory for tech firms that increasingly offer cloud computing services in which data is stored remotely. President Donald Trump’s administration appealed that ruling to the Supreme Court.

The appeals court said the emails were beyond the reach of domestic search warrants obtained under a 1986 U.S. law called the Stored Communications Act.

Globally dominant American tech companies have expressed concern that customers will go elsewhere if they think the U.S. government’s reach extends to data centers all around the world without changes being made to the law.

Microsoft, which has 100 data centers in 40 countries, was the first American company to challenge a domestic search warrant seeking data held outside the United States.

Bipartisan legislation has been introduced in Congress to update the statute, a move backed by both Microsoft and the administration. If Congress were to pass the bill before the Supreme Court rules, the case would likely become moot.

The Microsoft customer whose emails were sought told the company he was based in Ireland when he signed up for his account.

Other companies including IBM Corp(IBM.N), Amazon.com Inc(AMZN.O), Apple Inc(AAPL.O), Verizon Communications Inc(VZ.N) and Alphabet Inc‘s(GOOGL.O) Google filed court papers backing Microsoft.

The administration has the support of 35 states led by Vermont.

Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Elon Musk Is Putting Wireless Service on the Moon (So If You Go There, You Can Watch Netflix)

It"s been 50 years since humans first landed on the Moon and we haven"t done much there since. But Elon Musk is hoping that will change very soon. He already believes there should be a base on the Moon to fire up public interest in space exploration. Then in December, President Donald Trump announced that he wanted to send astronauts back to the moon as a first step toward more distant objectives, such as Mars, where Musk is already planning to land humans sometime within the coming decade.

Musk has also said that his company SpaceX would not build a moon base although it might ferry people and materials there from Earth. But it apparently is ready to help with something else every lunar visitor needs: a way to contact people at home, communicate with other lunar visitors--and watch Netflix during off hours.

So SpaceX, along with mobile network company Vodafone, Nokia, and Audi, will be building a 4G network on the moon in 2019. Even though 5G networks are being built here on Earth, the partners chose 4G because its technology is both more stable and more able to withstand space travel. 

OK, but why build a wireless network on the Moon so soon, when nobody lives there? It"s true that Musk has said he would take space tourists to the moon in late 2018, and indeed had already collected large deposits from two wealthy individuals for the first such trip. But the planned trip is only a Moon fly-by with no landing, so the lunar tourists won"t get much of a chance to use the Moon"s wireless network. And they won"t need it, having the ship"s communication system at their" disposal. Besides, the pricey lunar fly-by was meant to take place using a Crew Dragon capsule carried by a Falcon Heavy rocket, the same rocket that spectacularly took off earlier this month with a red Tesla Roadster and mannequin dubbed "Starman." But Musk has said SpaceX is now focusing its attention on its BFR Rocket (for Big Fucking Rocket) and he indicated it may not do much more testing on the Falcon Heavy after all, possibly leaving Moon tourism in limbo. 

According to one report, the purpose of lunar 4G would be to support future lunar missions. Without it, humans and vehicles (such as the lunar rovers Audi is building) could only communicate by beaming signals down to the Earth and back up again. The fact that the planned network will have enough bandwidth to support video streaming raises the appealing prospect of a lunar webcam all of us could watch over the Internet. 

And of course, it"ll come in very handy for space tourists visiting the lunar surface or astronauts working to build a Moon base or on other projects. Maybe someday soon.

China startup Nio hires eight banks for up to $2 billion U.S. IPO: sources

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese electric vehicle startup Nio has hired eight banks including Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Goldman Sachs (GS.N) to work on a planned U.S. stock market listing this year worth up to $2 billion, people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Other banks are Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAC.N), Credit Suisse (CSGN.S), Citigroup (C.N), Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE), JPMorgan (JPM.N) and UBS (UBSG.S), said the people, declining to be identified as the deal details are not public.

Nio’s proposed IPO of $1 billion-$2 billion comes as the firm, founded by Chinese internet entrepreneur William Li in 2014, seeks fresh capital to finance its expansion and investments in areas including autonomous driving and battery technologies, one of them said.

At the top end of the potential offering size, Nio’s IPO would become the biggest Chinese listing in America since the $25 billion public float of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N) in 2014. In October 2016, Chinese logistics company ZTO Express raised $1.41 billion from an IPO in New York.

FILE PHOTO: The logo of electric car startup NIO is seen at a new NIO House "brand-experience" store, in Beijing, China November 25, 2017. REUTERS/Norihiko Shirouzu/File Photo

Nio declined to comment on its IPO plans. UBS, Citigroup and Goldman declined comment while the other banks did not immediately respond to Reuters emailed request for comment.

Shanghai-based Nio, formerly known as NextEV, is among the first of a raft of Chinese electric vehicle firms to launch a production vehicle, with many so far only showing concept cars.

It launched sales of its first mass production car - the ES8 pure-electric, seven-seat sport-utility vehicle in December, at about half the price of American peer Tesla’s Model X. It has also vowed to bring an autonomous electric car to the U.S. market by 2020.

Nio counts Asian tech behemoth Tencent Holdings Ltd (0700.HK) as its main backer alongside investment firms Hillhouse Capital Group and Sequoia Capital.

Last November, the firm raised more than $1 billion in its latest fundraising round, led by existing investor Tencent, valuing the firm at about $5 billion.

Reporting by Fiona Lau of IFR and Julie Zhu; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Stephen Coates

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

China startup Nio hires eight banks for up to $2 billion U.S. IPO: sources

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese electric vehicle startup Nio has hired eight banks including Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Goldman Sachs (GS.N) to work on a planned U.S. stock market listing this year worth up to $2 billion, people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Other banks are Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAC.N), Credit Suisse (CSGN.S), Citigroup (C.N), Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE), JPMorgan (JPM.N) and UBS (UBSG.S), said the people, declining to be identified as the deal details are not public.

Nio’s proposed IPO of $1 billion-$2 billion comes as the firm, founded by Chinese internet entrepreneur William Li in 2014, seeks fresh capital to finance its expansion and investments in areas including autonomous driving and battery technologies, one of them said.

At the top end of the potential offering size, Nio’s IPO would become the biggest Chinese listing in America since the $25 billion public float of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N) in 2014. In October 2016, Chinese logistics company ZTO Express raised $1.41 billion from an IPO in New York.

FILE PHOTO: The logo of electric car startup NIO is seen at a new NIO House "brand-experience" store, in Beijing, China November 25, 2017. REUTERS/Norihiko Shirouzu/File Photo

Nio declined to comment on its IPO plans. UBS, Citigroup and Goldman declined comment while the other banks did not immediately respond to Reuters emailed request for comment.

Shanghai-based Nio, formerly known as NextEV, is among the first of a raft of Chinese electric vehicle firms to launch a production vehicle, with many so far only showing concept cars.

It launched sales of its first mass production car - the ES8 pure-electric, seven-seat sport-utility vehicle in December, at about half the price of American peer Tesla’s Model X. It has also vowed to bring an autonomous electric car to the U.S. market by 2020.

Nio counts Asian tech behemoth Tencent Holdings Ltd (0700.HK) as its main backer alongside investment firms Hillhouse Capital Group and Sequoia Capital.

Last November, the firm raised more than $1 billion in its latest fundraising round, led by existing investor Tencent, valuing the firm at about $5 billion.

Reporting by Fiona Lau of IFR and Julie Zhu; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Stephen Coates

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Elon Musk Is Putting Wireless Service on the Moon (So If You Go There, You Can Watch Netflix)

It"s been 50 years since humans first landed on the Moon and we haven"t done much there since. But Elon Musk is hoping that will change very soon. He already believes there should be a base on the Moon to fire up public interest in space exploration. Then in December, President Donald Trump announced that he wanted to send astronauts back to the moon as a first step toward more distant objectives, such as Mars, where Musk is already planning to land humans sometime within the coming decade.

Musk has also said that his company SpaceX would not build a moon base although it might ferry people and materials there from Earth. But it apparently is ready to help with something else every lunar visitor needs: a way to contact people at home, communicate with other lunar visitors--and watch Netflix during off hours.

So SpaceX, along with mobile network company Vodafone, Nokia, and Audi, will be building a 4G network on the moon in 2019. Even though 5G networks are being built here on Earth, the partners chose 4G because its technology is both more stable and more able to withstand space travel. 

OK, but why build a wireless network on the Moon so soon, when nobody lives there? It"s true that Musk has said he would take space tourists to the moon in late 2018, and indeed had already collected large deposits from two wealthy individuals for the first such trip. But the planned trip is only a Moon fly-by with no landing, so the lunar tourists won"t get much of a chance to use the Moon"s wireless network. And they won"t need it, having the ship"s communication system at their" disposal. Besides, the pricey lunar fly-by was meant to take place using a Crew Dragon capsule carried by a Falcon Heavy rocket, the same rocket that spectacularly took off earlier this month with a red Tesla Roadster and mannequin dubbed "Starman." But Musk has said SpaceX is now focusing its attention on its BFR Rocket (for Big Fucking Rocket) and he indicated it may not do much more testing on the Falcon Heavy after all, possibly leaving Moon tourism in limbo. 

According to one report, the purpose of lunar 4G would be to support future lunar missions. Without it, humans and vehicles (such as the lunar rovers Audi is building) could only communicate by beaming signals down to the Earth and back up again. The fact that the planned network will have enough bandwidth to support video streaming raises the appealing prospect of a lunar webcam all of us could watch over the Internet. 

And of course, it"ll come in very handy for space tourists visiting the lunar surface or astronauts working to build a Moon base or on other projects. Maybe someday soon.

China startup Nio hires eight banks for up to $2 billion U.S. IPO: sources

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese electric vehicle startup Nio has hired eight banks including Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Goldman Sachs (GS.N) to work on a planned U.S. stock market listing this year worth up to $2 billion, people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Other banks are Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAC.N), Credit Suisse (CSGN.S), Citigroup (C.N), Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE), JPMorgan (JPM.N) and UBS (UBSG.S), said the people, declining to be identified as the deal details are not public.

Nio’s proposed IPO of $1 billion-$2 billion comes as the firm, founded by Chinese internet entrepreneur William Li in 2014, seeks fresh capital to finance its expansion and investments in areas including autonomous driving and battery technologies, one of them said.

At the top end of the potential offering size, Nio’s IPO would become the biggest Chinese listing in America since the $25 billion public float of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N) in 2014. In October 2016, Chinese logistics company ZTO Express raised $1.41 billion from an IPO in New York.

FILE PHOTO: The logo of electric car startup NIO is seen at a new NIO House "brand-experience" store, in Beijing, China November 25, 2017. REUTERS/Norihiko Shirouzu/File Photo

Nio declined to comment on its IPO plans. UBS, Citigroup and Goldman declined comment while the other banks did not immediately respond to Reuters emailed request for comment.

Shanghai-based Nio, formerly known as NextEV, is among the first of a raft of Chinese electric vehicle firms to launch a production vehicle, with many so far only showing concept cars.

It launched sales of its first mass production car - the ES8 pure-electric, seven-seat sport-utility vehicle in December, at about half the price of American peer Tesla’s Model X. It has also vowed to bring an autonomous electric car to the U.S. market by 2020.

Nio counts Asian tech behemoth Tencent Holdings Ltd (0700.HK) as its main backer alongside investment firms Hillhouse Capital Group and Sequoia Capital.

Last November, the firm raised more than $1 billion in its latest fundraising round, led by existing investor Tencent, valuing the firm at about $5 billion.

Reporting by Fiona Lau of IFR and Julie Zhu; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Stephen Coates

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

House passes bill to penalize websites for sex trafficking

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed legislation to make it easier to penalize operators of websites that facilitate online sex trafficking, chipping away at a bedrock legal shield for the technology industry.

The bill’s passage marks one of the most concrete actions in recent years from the U.S. Congress to tighten regulation of internet firms, which have drawn heavy scrutiny from lawmakers in both parties over the past year due to an array of concerns regarding the size and influence of their platforms.

The House passed the measure 388-25. It still needs to pass the U.S. Senate, where similar legislation has already gained substantial support, and then be signed by President Donald Trump before it can become law.

Speaker Paul Ryan, in a statement before the vote, said the bill would help “put an end to modern-day slavery here in the United States.”

Several major internet companies, including Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc, had been reluctant to support any congressional effort to dent what is known as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a decades-old law that protects them from liability for the activities of their users.

But facing political pressure, the internet industry slowly warmed to a proposal that gained traction in the Senate last year, and eventually endorsed it after it gained sizeable bipartisan support.

Republican Senator Rob Portman, a chief architect of the Senate proposal, said in a statement he supported the House’s similar version and called on the Senate to quickly pass it.

The legislation is a result of years of law-enforcement lobbying for a crackdown on the online classified site backpage.com, which is used for sex advertising.

It would make it easier for states and sex-trafficking victims to sue social media networks, advertisers and others that fail to keep exploitative material off their platforms.

Some critics warned that the House measure would weaken Section 230 in a way that would only serve to further help established internet giants, who possess larger resources to police their content, and not adequately address the problem.

“This bill will only prop up the entrenched players who are rapidly losing the public’s trust,” Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, an original author of Section 230, said. “The failure to understand the technological side effects of this bill - specifically that it will become harder to expose sex-traffickers, while hamstringing innovation - will be something that this Congress will regret.”

Reporting by Dustin Volz; editing by Sandra Maler and Lisa Shumaker

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Elon Musk Is Putting Wireless Service on the Moon (So If You Go There, You Can Watch Netflix)

It"s been 50 years since humans first landed on the Moon and we haven"t done much there since. But Elon Musk is hoping that will change very soon. He already believes there should be a base on the Moon to fire up public interest in space exploration. Then in December, President Donald Trump announced that he wanted to send astronauts back to the moon as a first step toward more distant objectives, such as Mars, where Musk is already planning to land humans sometime within the coming decade.

Musk has also said that his company SpaceX would not build a moon base although it might ferry people and materials there from Earth. But it apparently is ready to help with something else every lunar visitor needs: a way to contact people at home, communicate with other lunar visitors--and watch Netflix during off hours.

So SpaceX, along with mobile network company Vodafone, Nokia, and Audi, will be building a 4G network on the moon in 2019. Even though 5G networks are being built here on Earth, the partners chose 4G because its technology is both more stable and more able to withstand space travel. 

OK, but why build a wireless network on the Moon so soon, when nobody lives there? It"s true that Musk has said he would take space tourists to the moon in late 2018, and indeed had already collected large deposits from two wealthy individuals for the first such trip. But the planned trip is only a Moon fly-by with no landing, so the lunar tourists won"t get much of a chance to use the Moon"s wireless network. And they won"t need it, having the ship"s communication system at their" disposal. Besides, the pricey lunar fly-by was meant to take place using a Crew Dragon capsule carried by a Falcon Heavy rocket, the same rocket that spectacularly took off earlier this month with a red Tesla Roadster and mannequin dubbed "Starman." But Musk has said SpaceX is now focusing its attention on its BFR Rocket (for Big Fucking Rocket) and he indicated it may not do much more testing on the Falcon Heavy after all, possibly leaving Moon tourism in limbo. 

According to one report, the purpose of lunar 4G would be to support future lunar missions. Without it, humans and vehicles (such as the lunar rovers Audi is building) could only communicate by beaming signals down to the Earth and back up again. The fact that the planned network will have enough bandwidth to support video streaming raises the appealing prospect of a lunar webcam all of us could watch over the Internet. 

And of course, it"ll come in very handy for space tourists visiting the lunar surface or astronauts working to build a Moon base or on other projects. Maybe someday soon.

China startup Nio hires eight banks for up to $2 billion U.S. IPO: sources

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese electric vehicle startup Nio has hired eight banks including Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Goldman Sachs (GS.N) to work on a planned U.S. stock market listing this year worth up to $2 billion, people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Other banks are Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAC.N), Credit Suisse (CSGN.S), Citigroup (C.N), Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE), JPMorgan (JPM.N) and UBS (UBSG.S), said the people, declining to be identified as the deal details are not public.

Nio’s proposed IPO of $1 billion-$2 billion comes as the firm, founded by Chinese internet entrepreneur William Li in 2014, seeks fresh capital to finance its expansion and investments in areas including autonomous driving and battery technologies, one of them said.

At the top end of the potential offering size, Nio’s IPO would become the biggest Chinese listing in America since the $25 billion public float of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N) in 2014. In October 2016, Chinese logistics company ZTO Express raised $1.41 billion from an IPO in New York.

FILE PHOTO: The logo of electric car startup NIO is seen at a new NIO House "brand-experience" store, in Beijing, China November 25, 2017. REUTERS/Norihiko Shirouzu/File Photo

Nio declined to comment on its IPO plans. UBS, Citigroup and Goldman declined comment while the other banks did not immediately respond to Reuters emailed request for comment.

Shanghai-based Nio, formerly known as NextEV, is among the first of a raft of Chinese electric vehicle firms to launch a production vehicle, with many so far only showing concept cars.

It launched sales of its first mass production car - the ES8 pure-electric, seven-seat sport-utility vehicle in December, at about half the price of American peer Tesla’s Model X. It has also vowed to bring an autonomous electric car to the U.S. market by 2020.

Nio counts Asian tech behemoth Tencent Holdings Ltd (0700.HK) as its main backer alongside investment firms Hillhouse Capital Group and Sequoia Capital.

Last November, the firm raised more than $1 billion in its latest fundraising round, led by existing investor Tencent, valuing the firm at about $5 billion.

Reporting by Fiona Lau of IFR and Julie Zhu; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Stephen Coates

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

China startup Nio hires eight banks for up to $2 billion U.S. IPO: sources

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese electric vehicle startup Nio has hired eight banks including Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Goldman Sachs (GS.N) to work on a planned U.S. stock market listing this year worth up to $2 billion, people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Other banks are Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAC.N), Credit Suisse (CSGN.S), Citigroup (C.N), Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE), JPMorgan (JPM.N) and UBS (UBSG.S), said the people, declining to be identified as the deal details are not public.

Nio’s proposed IPO of $1 billion-$2 billion comes as the firm, founded by Chinese internet entrepreneur William Li in 2014, seeks fresh capital to finance its expansion and investments in areas including autonomous driving and battery technologies, one of them said.

At the top end of the potential offering size, Nio’s IPO would become the biggest Chinese listing in America since the $25 billion public float of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N) in 2014. In October 2016, Chinese logistics company ZTO Express raised $1.41 billion from an IPO in New York.

FILE PHOTO: The logo of electric car startup NIO is seen at a new NIO House "brand-experience" store, in Beijing, China November 25, 2017. REUTERS/Norihiko Shirouzu/File Photo

Nio declined to comment on its IPO plans. UBS, Citigroup and Goldman declined comment while the other banks did not immediately respond to Reuters emailed request for comment.

Shanghai-based Nio, formerly known as NextEV, is among the first of a raft of Chinese electric vehicle firms to launch a production vehicle, with many so far only showing concept cars.

It launched sales of its first mass production car - the ES8 pure-electric, seven-seat sport-utility vehicle in December, at about half the price of American peer Tesla’s Model X. It has also vowed to bring an autonomous electric car to the U.S. market by 2020.

Nio counts Asian tech behemoth Tencent Holdings Ltd (0700.HK) as its main backer alongside investment firms Hillhouse Capital Group and Sequoia Capital.

Last November, the firm raised more than $1 billion in its latest fundraising round, led by existing investor Tencent, valuing the firm at about $5 billion.

Reporting by Fiona Lau of IFR and Julie Zhu; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Stephen Coates

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

House passes bill to penalize websites for sex trafficking

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed legislation to make it easier to penalize operators of websites that facilitate online sex trafficking, chipping away at a bedrock legal shield for the technology industry.

The bill’s passage marks one of the most concrete actions in recent years from the U.S. Congress to tighten regulation of internet firms, which have drawn heavy scrutiny from lawmakers in both parties over the past year due to an array of concerns regarding the size and influence of their platforms.

The House passed the measure 388-25. It still needs to pass the U.S. Senate, where similar legislation has already gained substantial support, and then be signed by President Donald Trump before it can become law.

Speaker Paul Ryan, in a statement before the vote, said the bill would help “put an end to modern-day slavery here in the United States.”

Several major internet companies, including Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc, had been reluctant to support any congressional effort to dent what is known as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a decades-old law that protects them from liability for the activities of their users.

But facing political pressure, the internet industry slowly warmed to a proposal that gained traction in the Senate last year, and eventually endorsed it after it gained sizeable bipartisan support.

Republican Senator Rob Portman, a chief architect of the Senate proposal, said in a statement he supported the House’s similar version and called on the Senate to quickly pass it.

The legislation is a result of years of law-enforcement lobbying for a crackdown on the online classified site backpage.com, which is used for sex advertising.

It would make it easier for states and sex-trafficking victims to sue social media networks, advertisers and others that fail to keep exploitative material off their platforms.

Some critics warned that the House measure would weaken Section 230 in a way that would only serve to further help established internet giants, who possess larger resources to police their content, and not adequately address the problem.

“This bill will only prop up the entrenched players who are rapidly losing the public’s trust,” Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, an original author of Section 230, said. “The failure to understand the technological side effects of this bill - specifically that it will become harder to expose sex-traffickers, while hamstringing innovation - will be something that this Congress will regret.”

Reporting by Dustin Volz; editing by Sandra Maler and Lisa Shumaker

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Amazon buys startup Ring in $1 billion deal to run your home security

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) has agreed to buy video doorbell maker Ring, the companies said on Tuesday, in what analysts see as a growing bet on delivering packages inside of shoppers’ homes and on home security.

The deal valued Ring at more than $1 billion, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. Amazon declined to discuss the terms.

Ring is set to be one of Amazon’s most expensive takeovers, after its $13.7 billion deal last year for Whole Foods Market.

The world’s largest online retailer believes that selling internet-connected gadgets from Kindle e-readers to its new Cloud Cam will spark more shopping on Amazon.com. Ring offers the company a popular consumer electronics brand that it might not have replicated internally.

More importantly, Ring’s security devices could work well with Amazon Key, a smart lock and camera system that lets delivery personnel put packages inside a home to avoid theft or, in the case of fresh food, spoiling.

“As Amazon moves more aggressively into the grocery delivery space... we believe smart security devices will be an important factor in driving user adoption,” Baird Equity Research analyst Colin Sebastian said in a note.

Amazon’s Alexa Fund, which offers venture capital to companies working on voice technology, invested in the Santa Monica, California-based Ring.

Currently, Ring devices can integrate with Amazon’s voice-controlled assistant Alexa. Users of Amazon’s Echo Show device can say, “Alexa, show my front door” to receive a live feed of activity around their home via Ring cameras.

The deal creates potential for much more, analysts said.

“Amazon more than Ring can revolutionize home security,” Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said.

U.S. security and alarm company ADT could be the biggest loser, he added. Ring’s “camera technology is far superior to physical security ... With Amazon having roughly 100 million Prime members, that’s a big addressable market for them to start selling this into.”

Shares of ADT Inc (ADT.N) fell more than 2 percent after the news to close at $11.60. Amazon stock closed down 0.7 percent.

Amazon was working on a competing smart lock with camera prior to the deal, according to a separate person familiar with the matter. Its decision to buy Ring underscores the task startups have trying to win in the home security space.

“For consumer businesses, it’s going to be challenging to compete with folks like Google and Amazon,” said Luke Schoenfelder, chief executive of Latch, which sells smart lock systems to apartment building owners.

Amazon acquired the maker of Blink home security cameras for about $90 million late last year, Reuters reported.

Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco and Gregory Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Maju Samuel and Rosalba O"Brien

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Elon Musk Is Putting Wireless Service on the Moon (So If You Go There, You Can Watch Netflix)

It"s been 50 years since humans first landed on the Moon and we haven"t done much there since. But Elon Musk is hoping that will change very soon. He already believes there should be a base on the Moon to fire up public interest in space exploration. Then in December, President Donald Trump announced that he wanted to send astronauts back to the moon as a first step toward more distant objectives, such as Mars, where Musk is already planning to land humans sometime within the coming decade.

Musk has also said that his company SpaceX would not build a moon base although it might ferry people and materials there from Earth. But it apparently is ready to help with something else every lunar visitor needs: a way to contact people at home, communicate with other lunar visitors--and watch Netflix during off hours.

So SpaceX, along with mobile network company Vodafone, Nokia, and Audi, will be building a 4G network on the moon in 2019. Even though 5G networks are being built here on Earth, the partners chose 4G because its technology is both more stable and more able to withstand space travel. 

OK, but why build a wireless network on the Moon so soon, when nobody lives there? It"s true that Musk has said he would take space tourists to the moon in late 2018, and indeed had already collected large deposits from two wealthy individuals for the first such trip. But the planned trip is only a Moon fly-by with no landing, so the lunar tourists won"t get much of a chance to use the Moon"s wireless network. And they won"t need it, having the ship"s communication system at their" disposal. Besides, the pricey lunar fly-by was meant to take place using a Crew Dragon capsule carried by a Falcon Heavy rocket, the same rocket that spectacularly took off earlier this month with a red Tesla Roadster and mannequin dubbed "Starman." But Musk has said SpaceX is now focusing its attention on its BFR Rocket (for Big Fucking Rocket) and he indicated it may not do much more testing on the Falcon Heavy after all, possibly leaving Moon tourism in limbo. 

According to one report, the purpose of lunar 4G would be to support future lunar missions. Without it, humans and vehicles (such as the lunar rovers Audi is building) could only communicate by beaming signals down to the Earth and back up again. The fact that the planned network will have enough bandwidth to support video streaming raises the appealing prospect of a lunar webcam all of us could watch over the Internet. 

And of course, it"ll come in very handy for space tourists visiting the lunar surface or astronauts working to build a Moon base or on other projects. Maybe someday soon.