Jul 20, 2015 | internet, News, Security
Controversial dating service Ashley Madison was hacked. All 37 million accounts have been compromised and threatened.
For those unfamiliar with Ashley Madison, it’s a dating website that encourages adulterous relationships. In fact, their slogan is, “Life is short, have an affair.” ?Hackers threaten to release nude photos, hook up plans and sexual fantasies for all 37 million customers unless Ashley Madison shuts down their website once and for all. Avid Life Media, Ashley Madison’s parent company, confirmed this massive breach. A hacking organization called The Impact Team claimed responsibility. They’ve already leaked some of the data they broke into. Now they’re threatening to name names, credit cards to the company profiles to the fantasies, pictures and potential hook ups. An Impact Team spokesperson messaged, ?”Shutting Down Ashley Madison and Established Men will cost you, but non-compliance will cost you more.” Yes, Impact Team also went after Established Men, a website catering to older men looking for much younger women. They threatened to name names and profiles if Established Men wasn’t shut down completely. Avid Life Media says they’re working with authorities to bring these hackers to justice.
I find it interesting they didn’t go after Cougar Life…yet. That’s a site targeting older women looking for younger guys. But that’s another issue. You may not agree with what Ashley Madison is doing morally. I don’t. But hacking is not the way to express your disapproval. Don’t be fooled. The Impact Team hackers are not moral crusaders. In fact, they’re more wicked than Ashley Madison. They could have carried out peaceful protest. They could have put up videos raising awareness. They could have lectured and taught what adultery can do to families. But they just had to pay wrongdoing with outright evil. That’s what this hacking is…evil. Plus, Ashley Madison’s services are protected by free speech and the Constitution. Impact Team’s actions are illegal and I hope they are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. An old wise man once said, “You can’t answer curses for curses and blows for blows.” How can anybody condone or support The Impact Team?
Jul 19, 2015 | internet, youtube
June 26, 2015 will go down a very bad day in terrorism. Within hours, terrorist attacks in France, Tunisia and Kuwait left over 60 dead. Terrorist group Islamic State claimed responsibility for two of these attacks on Twitter.
To say this puts social media sites in a torn, uncomfortable position is the big understatement. A few days before, ISIS put a You Tube video of themselves carrying out several acts of mass murder. One hideous act included locking men up in a cage and lowering them in a swimming pool to drown to death. On one hand, versions of such monstrous acts would remain on You Tube. On the other hand, You Tube leaders declared they wouldn’t allow their medium to be a ?”distribution channel for this horrible, but very newsworthy, terrorist propaganda”. That’s the catch 22 facing social media executives today, and terrorist groups like ISIS know it. They even put up a You Tube video of themselves serving ice cream to children in Syria, as a recruiting tool. How do you walk the fine line between preventing terrorist from using social media as a recruitment tool and keeping the right to free speech Americans and many others around the world cherish?
This problem is by no means limited to the USA. In Europe, some countries order social media sites to block terrorist propaganda. In America, the Senate Intelligence Committee approved a bill requiring social media to report terrorist propaganda to federal authorities. I rarely say this, but I agree with the Senate. Like anything, free speech can be abused. Free speech should never be used as an excuse to glorify or promote murder, brutality, or torture of other human beings. And look at these guys who are exploiting free speech. ISIS and other terrorists don’t believe in freedom for anybody. Look at the way they treat anybody who doesn’t think or act like them. Why should we allow some psychopaths to hijack free speech from the rest of us?
Jul 18, 2015 | Security
It’s good to report some good news, especially when it comes to computer security issues. Spam rates are down, and the lowest they’ve been in over a decade.
According to computer security firm Symantec, spam rates and junk email are at their lowest rates since September 2003. In June 2015, the spam rate fell to just 49.7 percent. As recently as April 2015, 52.1 percent of our emails were spam and/or junk. Symantic studied 704 billion emails. Of those, 353 billion were spam. Six years ago, around 90 percent of our emails were spam. In June 2009 alone, there were 5.7 trillion, with a T, pieces of spam invaded our email accounts. ?Several factors can be credited for the spam decrease, such as legal action against spammers, filtering by email providers, and better blocking. Just hit spammers in the pocketbook and slash their revenue. They won’t want to spam anymore.
This is good news for everyone involve, well, except for spam providers. Spam isn’t just an annoyance or nuisance, it can also be dangerous. It can lead to malware, identity theft, cyber attacks, computer shutdown. The list goes on and on. Yes, I know every business needs to advertise and promote themselves just to survive. That’s American free enterprise. There’s nothing wrong with that. But with some of these spammers, you don’t know where they’re lurking from. Some maybe trying steal your bank account information. Some spammers may be working for a hostile nation, criminal organization or even a terrorist group. I’m not trying to scare anyone. I’m just raising awareness of where spam could lead. That’s why I’m happy my email filter is working overtime. This is why we should all be relieved and happy with this report. I’m thankful for all the steps taken to bring this technology epidemic to a decline. I can only hope it declines even more. How do you feel about spam rates being down?
Jul 17, 2015 | Computer technology
Most people will tell you it’s not a safe idea to hitchhike. Most people say it’s unwise to pick up hitchhikers. Try telling that to a robot.
Submitted for your approval is HitchBOT. He was born, built and raised in Canada. Now he’s going hitchhiking across the United States of America. Yesterday, July 16, 2015, they gave him a kick-off party at a Peabody, MA museum. ?Today as I’m writing this, HitchBOT will be in nearby Salem, MA waiting for his first ride. That’s right; his ultimate destination is San Francisco, CA. And HitchBOT is depending on US drivers to take him there. HitchBOT speaks English, about the size of a kindergartner, ?has a bucket for head and body, garden gloves for hands and boots for feet. HitchBOT’s creators, David Smith and Frauke Zeller, will be the first to admit it’s not a world class machine. Their intention isn’t to win robotic awards. HitchBOT is more of a social experiment. They want to see if American drivers are trusting and generous enough to give this little guy rides westward, eventually arriving at the Frisco Bay. This isn’t HitchBOT’s first hitchhiking trek. He’s thumbed through his native Canada and through Germany and Holland. How will the good ol’ USA treat HitchBOT?
But Smith and Zeller are asking even more from Americans. They’ve listed places they want HitchBOT to go: Times Square, Mount Rushmore, Grand Canyon and other US sites. They can check the listings off HitchBOT’s Facebook and/or Twitter post. That’s ambitious. It’s ambitious to expect Americans to actually pick HitchaBOT up to begin with. This isn’t Canada or Europe we’re talking about here. This isn’t the 1960s or ’70s either. This is 21st century America! This day and age, Americans are cynical of their own shadow. In an era of ‘stranger danger’ and ‘ if you see something say something’, I don’t see HitchBOT going that far. I know this is a robot we’re talking about. But you know how much pop culture has been ingrained in us about robots turning on humanity? Do you think HitchBOT will even make it out of Massachusetts, let alone make it to San Francisco?
Jul 16, 2015 | internet
Earlier this week, I talked about the mid-summer online showdown between Walmart over Amazon. The results are in. Amazon didn’t get beat yesterday. They got humiliated!
Amazon spent much time building up Amazon Prime Day, July 15, to be a summer version of Black Friday. They were supposed to offer deep discounts exclusively to Amazon Prime customers on wanted items. I guess many items weren’t wanted. The items on sale included knee braces, beer coolies, nose clippers and cat-training aids. They offered all the good stuff people fight in stores over (note the sarcastic tone). To say Amazon Prime Day was an underwhelming and disappointing experience is an understatement. One shopper tweeted how it felt more like April Fool’s Day than Black Friday. ?Another tweet joked about a sale on toys like Rock Em’ Robots. Rock Em’ Robots were popular back in the 1960s and ’70s. Another shopper was surprised Walmart had far better deals than Amazon did. Yahoo Finance did a comparison score chart between Amazon and Walmart based on categories such as relevance and shoppers’ experience. Walmart won the comparison game 14-8.
Maybe that’s because Walmart offered discounts to everybody, not just those in the Amazon Prime crowd. Maybe it’s because Walmart offered discounts on everyday products that people use in 2015, instead of items dug up from Uncle Jephthah’s yard sale from 1976. Walmart’s sale items included smartphones, TVs, printers, mattresses and bedding, and women’s clothing. Their discounts were on products that would’ve been pretty expensive to buy otherwise. For example, a 55-inch HDTV from Walmart would have cost around $400, half the regular cost. I’m not a Walmart fan, but they got it right this time. I think Amazon Prime Day was the biggest online flop since Apple Maps back in 2012. I hope Amazon learns a lesson from this. If you’re going to hype a day up like this, open it to everybody and give the people products worth buying. Do you think they’ll ever be an Amazon Prime Day 2?
Jul 15, 2015 | News, Uncategorized
Remember gathering around the TV at 6:00 and 6:30 for the news? For most, those days are long gone. But it’s eye opening to discover what’s replacing the trend.
According to Pew Research Center and Knight Foundation, more Americans get their news from social media sites Facebook and Twitter. In fact, 63% of social media users say they get their news from these two sites. Compare that to 52% of Twitter users and 47% of Facebook users back in 2013. More than half of those Twitter users say they follow breaking news on their site. Twitter and Facebook notice and take advantage. Twitter is developing a news source called Project Lightning. This app will allow users to instantly upload videos, photos and other rich images. Meanwhile, Facebook teams up with news organizations to release Instant Articles. You can only find that app on Apple products. This trend crosses many demographics. However, Millennials and Gen Zers (those born after 1980) are more likely to use Facebook and Twitter as a premier news source than anybody else. ?But for all races/ethnicity, economies, and education levels are about equal. Not only that, Facebook and Twitter users are more likely to facilitate and receive political news than ever before. That should make the next sixteen months very interesting.
This is just the world we’re living in today. I can get news 24 hours a day because someone is posting about a news event, whether it be breaking news, weather, sports, politics, and especially entertainment/pop culture. Plus, this tells you the sorry state of mainstream media. Very few Americans trust mainstream media today. When most news media are owned by only six corporations, you get what you got. People are fed up with it and get their news from alternative sources. I know you get fake news and hoaxes on social media from time to time. But ask yourself: Is regular news these days any better?
Jul 14, 2015 | internet
Two major e-commerce superpowers are going head to head. Walmart and Amazon are in hand-to-hand combat for your credit/debit card.
Tomorrow, July 15, 2015, will be Amazon Prime Day. To honor Amazon’s 20th anniversary, they will offer deep discounts and thousands of deals. Shoppers can expect new deals as often as every ten minutes. This is in addition to Amazon Prime’s two-day free shipping and free online streaming entertainment. But there’s a catch. Only Amazon Prime members, those who pay $99 a year, can take advantage of Amazon Prime Day. They’re saying these deals are so good they’ll rival Black Friday. America’s leading retailer Walmart saw an opportunity. They called out Amazon for only giving certain people these special deals. One Walmart blogger said the retail conglomerate is, “…standing up for our customers and everyone else who sees no rhyme or reason for paying a premium to save.” So Walmart offers their own sale in direct contract to Prime Day. They’re offering deeper ‘rollback’ deals, lower shipping minimums, and what they call ‘atomic deals’. Could consumers expert a Walmart Prime Day? They’re working on it all summer long. A potential Walmart Prime Day may include benefits like a $50 charge for complimentary three day shipping for up to a year.
This competition between the top ?e-commerce retailer and top physical retailer is going to get interesting. Between you and me, I never liked Walmart. I don’t like the way they treat their employees, bullied small businesses out of house and home, and fueled the wealth inequality gap in this country. But they have a point about offering this deal only to Amazon Prime customers. Why should I have to pay almost $100 a year and join an exclusive club just to take advantage of a once a year deal? Don’t Amazon Prime customers get enough perks? Since this is only once a year, can’t you offer Amazon Prime Day to the general public? For once, is Walmart right?
Jul 13, 2015 | News
We begin this week with sad news. Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata died over the weekend after a battle?with bile duct cancer. Mr. Iwata was just 55 years old.
Mr. Iwata began his Nintendo career in the 1980s. He spent the rest of the 20th century working in their HAL laboratory. He helped develop games like Balloon Fight and EarthBound. In 2000, he was promoted to Nintendo Director. In 2002, he was promoted to company president, a position he held until his untimely death. In 2014, he couldn’t attend the Nintendo annual E3 conference because of failing health. But in November 2014, he tweeted his health was progressing well. However on July 11, 2015, Mr. Iwata passed away. Mr. Iwata led Nintendo through some challenging times. Competitors like XBox and Playstation sometimes put Nintendo third in the gaming industry. Game Cube and Wii U nearly flopped. But under Mr. Iwata’s leadership, Nintendo persevered and thrived. He led the launch of portable console DS in 2004 and Wii home video games in 2006. Both turned out wildly successful. Nintendo DS and 3DS went on to sell over 200 million units. Nintendo Wii would be Nintendo’s all-time home console seller. Over 100 million have sold since it’s inception in 2006. Colleagues and employees remember Mr. Iwata as a strong, creative and intelligent leader.
But Nintendo gamers and fans will forever remember Mr. Iwata for his humor, charisma and connection with fans. He took it upon himself to become the public face of Nintendo.?Mr. Iwata used humor for promotions and at public events. That’s what turned him into a cult icon and made him a hero among Nintendo customers and other video game enthusiast. Tweets and tributes from around the world continue to pour with condolences. And here at Geek Choice, we’d like to extend our deepest sympathy and condolences to Mr. Satoru Iwata’s family, friends and colleagues during this difficult time. What can other corporate leaders learn from Satoru Iwata?
Jul 12, 2015 | News
Not everyone is on board with being online. In Europe, there is a ‘right to be forgotten’ law. Millions, including criminals, want to be forgotten.
In May 2014, the European Court of Justice ruled Google must remove websites that are ‘irrelevant’ or ‘inadequate’ from their search engine. Since then, over 281,000 people throughout the continent requested Google delete over a million websites. More than half of them have been removed. France leads the way. One fifth of the requests and removals seem to come from that nation. The British are the least likely to take advantage of this ruling. Less than 36,000 have requested web removals. The majority of folks want embarrassing things taken down. Remember those vacation photos posted on social media, or when you cursed someone out, or going on that naughty dating site? But there’s a potentially more sinister component to this. Criminals and sociopaths, such as serial killers, drug lords, sexual predators, and terrorists want their criminal past and activity removed, and are using this law to do so. A British newspaper called The Daily Mail received a request to remove articles about Joseph Fritzl, an Austrian convicted of raping, abusing, and holding her own daughter hostage for 24 years. The Daily Mail was told to get rid of another story, this one about Robert Castree, an infamous British child abductor from the 1970s.
So we have a dilemma. I somewhat agree with the ‘right to be forgotten’ law. If someone requests a bad online mistake be removed, that request should be honored. It shouldn’t be held against them forever. That is, if they’re a law abiding citizen. I don’t like the fact that even the press can be told what articles can and can’t be published because of this. I’m glad here in the US, Congress shall make no longer abridging freedom of the press. Let’s hope it stays that way in the US. Do you think convicted criminals have a right to be forgotten?
Jul 11, 2015 | News
Social media site Reddit is losing it’s CEO. Ellen Pao voluntarily stepped down as the company’s top leader thanks to pressure and controversy.?
Despite the controversy, Ellen Pao insists this was a mutual decision, and the recent controversies had nothing to do with her departure. One controversy involved stolen celebrity photos from Reddit. This led to the resignation of former CEO Yishan Wong back in November 2014, whom Pao replaced. Then there’s the dissatisfaction and tensions between Pao and Reddit users. The tension got so bad co-founder and new CEO Steve Huffman took it upon himself to warn users against threatening Ellen Pao. Some of the things written about her were so vile and violent Huffman put up the following notice in a statement, “?Disagreements are fine. Death threats are not, are not covered under free speech, and will continue to get offending users banned.? If that weren’t enough, Pao still recovers from losing her discrimination lawsuit against former employer Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers.
Needless to say, these last several months have been challenging ones for Ellen Pao. When asked what her next move was, she didn’t talk about job prospects or travel plans. All she wanted to do was get some sleep and take some time off. I can understand why. I wish Ellen Pao the absolute best: she deserves nothing less after this mess. Although I’m not sure how much of this ‘mutual decision’ was her decision. But I must speak out against this cyber hatred she’s been getting on her own company site! We’re all going to disagree on some things. The world would be a boring place if we all agreed on everything all the time. But that’s no excuse for cyber hatred, bullying, or death threats. Cowards who threaten people’s lives online (because they don’t have the guts to do it to someone’s face) should not only be banned from Reddit, but reported, arrested and prosecuted. What will Ellen Pao’s next move be?
