Aug 26, 2013 | News, Security
Over the weekend, China’s Internet was attacked. Not only was it attacked, but government officials say it was the biggest denial-of-service hack in that nation’s history.
The only silver lightning is the timing the attack happened. It took place between 2am and 4am Sunday morning. The attack was aimed at a registry that allows ‘.cn’ sites. That’s kind of what ‘.com’ is to us in the US.?Thanks to?good?back up programs,?the outage only hit parts of websites for some users. In layman’s terms, it could have been a lot worse. By Monday morning, things online seemed to have gotten back to normal. According to Cloud Fare CEO Matthew Prince, there was a 32% drop in Chinese traffic and?domain use during this attack. Many experts believe the Chinese government have the power to carry out attacks, the believe the nation has little in defense against them.
It’s scary to believe one person can bring down much of a nation’s Web juice. It’s even scarier that a gov’t is good at starting attacks, but not very good at defending their own people against them. But I guess it could have been worse. But will it be next time? China is one of the fastest growing and most important economies in the world. If that can happen to them, what next? Are we in America just as venerable?
Aug 25, 2013 | General
Recently, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO since 2000, announced his retirement. Ballmer is expected to step down in the next 12 months. That will help make the transition easier for his successor.
But I’d like to take time to look at his body of work. Under Ballmer’s leadership, we’ve seen successes like Xbox and the upcoming Xbox One. We’ve seen Microsoft goes from Windows 2000 to Windows 8. We’ve seen hundreds of Microsoft retail stores all over North America. It’s now worth $78 billion and employees over 100,000 people. It’s gotten competitive in the smartphone game with Windows Phone OS. There’s also been snafus under Ballmer. There was the monstrosity of the Kin smartphone. There was Zune. There was Spot watch. There were the many critical and costumer complaints of Windows 7. Then there’s the competition with conglomerates like Apple and Google. Some battles were won, some left Microsoft in the dust.
Well you can’t win them all. I read Ballmer’s personal wealth is around $15 billion dollars. So he must have done something right. Let’s face it, Microsoft is a household name. Our lives wouldn’t be the same without it. I wonder what these last 12 months are going to be like. Do you think this will be a smooth transition or can we expect chaos?
Aug 24, 2013 | Computer technology
Most of us know this day is coming. Movies have been made about it. And look at how far our technology has come in the last 10 years. Now it’s almost here.
Google is working on software to make the very first self-driving car. They’ve talked with major car companies about this. They’ve talked with certain manufacturers about being a car to Google’s requests. While personal use is an obvious reason to build the car, there are ramblings about the cars being used for taxi services on demand. According to a German newspaper, Google was drawing contracts with Continental AG about creating a self-driving car. Devices are being built too, while apps and software are next on the to-do-list. As far as Robo taxis go, at first, it would still require a driver, but as they become more advanced, they wouldn’t even need that. If the self-driving car were releases on the market today, expect to pay around $150,000.
The first thing that struck me was the potential taxi service. This would be a huge welcome for anybody. Between you and me,?the majority of?taxi drivers aren’t exactly warm and cuddly people.?Come to think of it, the majority of?people driving on the?road today?aren’t exactly warm and cuddly people. And if self-driving cars will help take the stress out of things, then I say?bring it on. The one thing I’m surprised about is the cost.?With the software, hardware and the apps it’s going to take to put this car together,?I thought it would be a little more. This robo car will be?only a?little more?than?most luxury cars are. So I close with this question:?Will self-driving cars be a hit or flop?
Aug 23, 2013 | Entertainment, Uncategorized
In ‘celebration’ of Jobs and The Intern, I think we need to remember the worst tech based movies. Guess who made the list?
10. Lawnmower Man 2-Beyond Cyberspace: The motto is “God made him simple. Science made him a god. Now he wants revenge.” I’m not the only one who went ‘huh’. The movie grossed only 2 1/2 million dollars in it’s pathetic run.
9. Jobs: Critics didn’t like this so-called biography of Steve Jobs. Audiences agreed, not even making $7 million in it’s opening weekend. It focused more on the company, and Kutcher and Wozinak can’t stand each other.
8. Matrix Revolutions: Sometimes it’s just better to leave well enough alone. It was too predictable and special effects took over movie development. Thankfully, this was the last Matrix made.
7. The Intern: Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn usually hit it out of the park, but not this time. I guess 40-somethings competing with 20-somethings for jobs happen so much in today’s world not even these comic geniuses make can make it funny.
6. Transformers-Revenge of the Fallen: Once again, they depended more on special effects and less on the actual plots. It’s poor attempt at humor didn’t help matters much.
5. Dreamcatcher: It was supposed to be a sci-fi movie. But this turned into a minstrel show. Aliens coming out of?people’s behind sounds more like a Southpark plot than a Stephen King masterpiece.
4. Plan 9 From Outer Space: This 1959 classic?is more like screen slapstick than screen suspense.?This is what I call, “It’s so bad it’s good”. Check out the trailer.
3. Highlander 2-The Quickning: The fact that it has 4 different time scenarios would make anybody’s head hurt. The only? redeeming quality?of this preachy environment movie?is?Sean Connery. The killing scenes were fun, too.
2. The Happening: M. Night Shyamalan and Mark Whalberg strike out. A movie that starts out with mass suicide has a great hook. Then it just stops making sense.
1. Battlefield Earth: Where do I start??Only 1000 year old technology can save the human?race from?advanced aliens. The aliens enslave humans because of gold.?The special effects remind me of an Atari 2600 game. ?Even Travolta’s acting is cheesy. It’s supposed to be a serious sci-fi movie.?This doesn’t even pass off as comedy. ?It’s so bad I can’t stop watching.
Can any movie be worse than Battlefield Earth?
Aug 22, 2013 | internet, networking
No, the headline isn’t a typo. Yahoo is #1 in web property, as far as unique visitors per month. Why is this such a tremendous story and feat?
The last time Yahoo was #1 in web property visits, George W. Bush was president, few people had ever heard of Twitter, and the iPhone was in it’s first generation and in it’s infancy. That’s right: March 2008 was the last time Yahoo beat out all competitors in getting first time visitors to their site and keeping overall visitors (although some stats say 2011 was the last time Yahoo was #1, I’m sticking to my March 2008 stat). Google has held this honor for five years running, with Microsoft running a fairly distant third. Also, note that Tumblr, Yahoo’s biggest acquisition, isn’t even included. And they were ranked #28 out of the top 50. So this could be the beginning of a major run.
This also goes to show people that Yahoo’s comeback is real. I was a little skeptical about all these acquisitions and CEO Marissa Meyer changing the office culture, but I must say, it seems to be working. At one time in the past 12 months, stocks were at $14.59. As of today, they’re around double that. Though this is off the subject, I noticed in ’08, Facebook was #15 on the list. Today, it’s #4. Just an observation. Is this a sign Yahoo is coming back, or is this just a one hit wonder?
Aug 21, 2013 | internet, networking, News
In much of the country, especially in my circles, the Internet is something taken for granted these days. Then I saw this map. There are nations in which less than 10% of people have Internet access. Even in rising economies like India and China, the number is lower than I thought. There are people and companies trying to change that.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg is leading the charge to make the Internet accessible to those that don’t have it. Samsung, Nokia and Qualcomm are among those helping with this cause. Their tool is called Internet.org. They want to cut the cost of delivering Internet services, through computer or smartphone. They also want to make apps run more efficiently and improve networks to transport data better with less battery power. In one Interview, Zuckerberg claims, “The Internet is such an important thing for driving humanity forward, but it?s not going to build itself.”
On one hand, I applaud these efforts. These days, everyone around the world should have the right to have Internet access. In 2013, the Internet shouldn’t be a privilege, but a right. In many cases, it’s not a luxury, but a necessity. And people should have that choice and opportunity to use online services. But then the cynic in me kick in. There’s a part of me that wonders if this a tool to make more money for these companies. They know developed nations can only give them so much business, and here is a new source of revenue. So why is Zuckerberg and this Internet.org coalition doing this? Is it humanitarian, business, or a bit of both?
Aug 20, 2013 | internet, networking
Early this summer, Google purchased Israeli based web map company Waze?for around a billion dollars. Let’s see how they’re getting along.
Today, they introduce their first integrations. Thanks to Waze users, you’ll now?know where?the accidents, construction jobs and road closures are?before you?bump into them the hard way. Waze maps will now have Google street views and satellite image. Don’t expect Google Maps to credit Waze users for?reporting every accident or incident, but what is expected is a larger audience of sorts. The Waze users can report these?incidents to Google Maps?in the following nations: United States, United Kingdom, France, Brazil, Germany, Ecuador, and Mexico, to name a few. To hear Google Map VP Brian McClendon, this merger brings the best of each other. Waze brings out the best of communication, Google Maps bring out the best of technology.
I think this a great start. I sure could of used this Waze/Google Map combo when I was in a multi-mile car back up. It wasn’t until later I learned it was a severe crash, in which multiple injuries occurred. So I applaud that part. My hope is that they get this service in more countries. From what I hear about traffic in India, they can really use this app. You can only get it on Android and Apple devices, but they’re a lot of people in that nation that have those. And shouldn’t Israel be in here? What do you think of the Google and Waze merger and is it off to a good start?
Aug 19, 2013 | email
Suppose you go to check your email. And you can’t because it’s blocked. It’s blocked because you provider stopped service. But you’re not the only one. You find out everyone in your neighborhood, and eventually, everyone in your nation can no longer use a certain email provider.
This isn’t a movie plot. It’s really happening in China. Yahoo email in China is now no more. An announcement was made in April, so at least people had time to prepare. But now, that announcement is a reality. Yahoo China users are now emailing through an alternative provider. You can thank Chinese online titan Alibaba. They want to wean people off Yahoo and jump on their local Aliyun?email service. Yahoo will sill be used?in China, but only as a search engine.
Maybe wean isn’t the right word. This sounds more like force. There’s a part of me that admires Alibaba for this move. No disrespect to Yahoo by any means, but this is why China’s economy is growing the way it is. They’re slowly, but surely getting off foreign products and onto their local services. Meanwhile, they’re making products and exporting it to everybody else. And it’s happening in technology too. Can we learn a lesson from this?
Aug 18, 2013 | News, Security, Uncategorized
While the Internet and social media have been the source of many blessings, it can be the source of many curses, from cyber bullying to the NSA scandals. Now there’s another evil lurking.
It’s called sextortion. Hackers break into unsuspecting people’s computers and smartphones. Then they see and take pictures of all your intimate moments. Then they come and make demands…do what we want and give us what we want or we’ll post the pictures. Don’t think it can happen? Just ask Miss Teen USA Cassidy Wolf. Someone had slipped technology called RAT, Remote Administration Tool, and snapped pictures of her in her room. According to Ms. Wolf, the light wasn’t even on and she didn’t even know she was being filmed. The hacker threated to expose them if she didn’t give into his demands. The last time I checked, the FBI identified a suspect.
Unfortunately, Cassidy Wolf’s ordeal isn’t unique. Celebrities from Mila Kunis to Scarlett Johansson have been victimized. But you don’t have to be a celebrity to fall prey to this sickness. A Glendale, CA man got 350 women to show him naked pictures. Now what are we going to do about it? Cassidy Wolf is taking bold steps to address sextortion as part of her platform during her Miss Teen USA reign. She’s also educating other teens about these dangers. We can keep the sextortion story in the media and in the public eye. They more we do this the more we demand computer makers?and ?security companies to build better things to combat this gross invasion. We can also stay on our lawmakers and political leaders to pass laws against sextortion. There are people serving 10 year prison sentences for this perpetration. ?And we need to educate, educate and educate! The hackers and criminals are getting smarter. Shouldn’t we?
Aug 17, 2013 | Entertainment
Have you seen the Jobs biography movie starring Ashton Kutcher yet? I haven’t, and I’m wondering if I should. How is the movie? It depends on who you ask.
Critics and other insiders are giving the Jobs movie mixed reviews. Online movie critic site Rotten Tomatoes gave it a score of?24 and that’s out of 100. But audience members gave it a score of 52.?The New York Times?didn’t have that many pleasantries either. One critic said Kutcher, “had the sex appeal of?a Power Point presentation.” They criticized the directing for not capturing the passions Jobs had. People who knew and worked with Jobs had plenty to say, like early?Apple employee Daniel?Kottae. ?While he praised Kutcher’s portrayal 0f Jobs, he said portrayals of other characters, especially Wozniak, as inaccurate at best. Kottae claims, “It portrays Woz as not having the same vision as Steve Jobs, which is really unfair.”
Now I’m really skeptical of spending my $12, plus my $5 for a tub of extra butter popcorn. While I do respect Ashton’s work as an actor, I’ve read Jobs’ biography. Steve Jobs is a hard character for anybody to play, I don’t care if Clark Gable comes back from the dead to play him. And the Apple story is a difficult subject to carry. So while the critics are rough, I think they should keep in mind the subject matter the directors had to deal with. But here’s what persuading me to watch Jobs. If you heard Kutcher’s inspiring acceptance speech at the Teen Choice awards, it sounds like playing this role had a great impact on him. So maybe it can inspire others. Other than that, I think I’ll stick with social media spoof iSteve. So do you think the Jobs autobiography is worth me spending $17?
