Last week, just days before Halloween, I saw a funny, but deep post. It said, “For Halloween, you should be the person you pretend to be on Facebook.” This brings me to this story.
An Australian model named Essena O’Neil quits modeling on social media. She became a star by posting bikini photos and other sexy pictures of herself on Instagram, You Tube and Tumblr. Now, O’Neil is taking them down. She’s now claiming the ‘perfect’ life she portrayed on social media sites was fake. And she’s writing such messages on her perfect looking photos. For instance, on one bikini clad photo, she writes about needing 100 takes and hardly eating that day to make her stomach look good. Another photo shows O’Neil practicing yoga on a beach. But she writes, “Nothing zen about trying to look zen.” Essena O’Neil claims she was paid hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for these photos. Now she’s deleting all 2,000+ of her photos that she took in the name of money, self-promotion and social approval. Despite the money, modeling contracts, and over a half million followers, O’Neil says she was miserable inside. O’Neil says social media, “Is not real life”. But she’s not giving up the Internet altogether. ?Essena O’Neil renamed her Instagram page “Social Media isn’t Real Life” and will promote deeper causes, like vegan dieting.
This opens up a debate about so-called perfect lives on social media, and so-called images. All that glitters isn’t exactly gold. So when the next time you see the perfect 1950s-style family on your page, don’t envy them too much. You don’t know what they’re going through in real life. The next time you see a sexy body online, you don’t know the circumstances behind the photo, or even if the body is real or photoshopped (there! I said it!). The next time you see someone posing in a big house, maybe it’s not their house. The next time you see someone posing in a big fine car, maybe it’s not their car. And don’t get me started about these fools posting their big wads of money online. How broke are they? I applaud Essena O’Neil for exposing how fake social media can be. She’s right: Social media isn’t real life. What lessons can Essena O’Neil teach us?
Are Internet cables in danger? Some US Government agencies and officials are very concerned. Their concerned isn’t over a natural disaster, hacker, or merger. This concern is born of an old international rivalry we thought ended a quarter century ago.
The concern is over Russia and their submarine and spy ships. If they come close enough to Internet cables working undersea, they could cut critical communication lines. Don’t get paranoid just yet. There is no hard evidence the Russian military has or plan on tampering with these cables. But US military leaders are increasingly concerned with Russian ships, especially coming closer and closer to American shores. And some fear they’re deliberately targeting deeper cables because they’re harder to fix and watch, especially in times of conflict. They believe Russia’s Navy could be looking at military cables. Undersea cables have played a paramount part in intelligence gathering. Let’s talk about how important these sea cables are. These fiber optic cables contribute $10 trillion dollars in global business. That’s $10 trillion a day in global business! These cables facilitate around 95% of all global communications. A nuclear US submarine checks on these wires often. Russia may not be trying to tamper these cables, but they’re coming too close for comfort. Last month, their ship called Yantar came awfully close to the US East coast.
Tensions between the US and Russia are the most strained since tail end of the Cold War back in the 1980s. Issues from the Syrian Civil War to handling ISIS to the Ukraine crisis to the same-sex marriage debate have torn the Putin and Obama administrations far apart. There may not be any room for reconciliation on either side. Russia isn’t the only one testing these waters either. I’ve read stories of Chinese ships coming eerily close to US territory, especially on the sea. Why are these world governments doing this? Are they sending a message? Or is something even more sinister at play?
In yesterday’s blog, I talked about Facebook’s warning of potential hacks from international governments. Facebook, and others, may have a reason to be concerned.
According to a cyber security company named CrowdStrike, a close ally of the US government, Chinese hackers have gone after American corporate interest for weeks. In fact, this cyber security agency employs former NSA and FBI experts in their war against cyber attacks. This would violate the most recent agreement between United States and China which says in layman’s terms, “We won’t hack you if you don’t hack us”. CrowdStrike says it’s really bad against US technology companies and the pharmaceutical industry. In fact, CrowdStrike says the first of these attacks came on September 26. That’s the very day after US President Barak Obama and Chinese President Xi Jiniping made the anti-hack pact. We don’t know which company was hit because of confidentiality. But they take credit for finding and thwarting the attacks before it got too serious. In other words, no corporate secrets were leaked and nobody’s personal information was compromised. CrowdStrike chose not to discuss how they knew it was China, since hackers are so good at hiding their IP and disguising themselves. But they did say Deep Panda was a main suspect. That’s a hacking group believed to be close to the Chinese military.
Okay, if they’re not going to tell the public which companies were hit, I hope they told everybody in the respective company that was attacked, from the CEO to the custodian. If they’re told, at least they’ll look out and protect themselves. I believe it’s better to warn people than let people believe nothing is happening or that nothing will ever happen. I also believe there are two sides to every story. We heard one side. Of course, China insists their hands are clean, and it was the threat of US sanctions that got their attention. What is China‘s side of this story?
Computer maker Dell buys out computer data and storage firm EMC Corp. for $67 billion. Dell’s acquisition of EMC makes this the biggest deal in technology history.
Dell hopes this acquisition makes them more competitive in an ever changing and more competitive field. They hope EMC will help them expand Dell’s product lineup to get more customers. Dell will pay $24.05 a share in cash. This deal includes shares in VMare Inc. That’s nine dollars per EMC share. EMC shares are rising in the wake of this historic news. Both companies will be under the leadership of CEO Micheal Dell. This will combine EMC’s expertise in storage data devices and Dell’s expertise in servers. EMC was founded in 1979, and went public in 1986. It’s headquarters are in Hopkinton, MA, a town about 30 miles west of Boston, and where the annual Boston Marathon begins. But in recent years, EMC has hit challenging times. Their storage model demand has been in decline. They’ve tried to focus on newer products and materials. But apparently, the focus isn’t enough since it’s hardly increased profit growth. Before this merger, their growth? increased 3%, their lowest growth margins since 2009, the height of the Great Recession.
Despite being one of the leading computer makers in the world, they’ve also seen better days. Demand for PCs has fallen. That is Dell’s bread and butter. In Q3 2015, their PC shipments declined 7.7 percent; that’s just in one quarter! The only reason they were able to make a profit and stay ahead of the PC game is because other PC firms are enduring the same struggle. The merger between Dell and EMC should be finalized by summer 2016. What will this merge mean for data storage? What will it mean for PCs? What will it mean for newer projects Dell is working on? But the biggest question of all is what does this mean for EMC jobs? Are they in danger?
Believe it or not, there are some battles even the mighty tech giant Apple can’t win. In China, it’s Apple vs censorship. It seems like censorship is winning in China.
Apple has disabled it’s news app in China. It’s believed regulations regarding strict online rules is the reason. The Apple News App is already available in the US, and being tested and promoted in international markets. It’s currently being tested in Great Britain and Australia. But Great Britain and Australia don’t have the intense government rules China has. That’s why Apple News App doesn’t work in China. When Apple users in China try to utilize the news app, all they get for their troubles is the following message: Can’t refresh right now. News isn’t supported in your current region. This could be a problem because China is Apple’s second biggest market. That nation made Apple $13 billion in Q3 2015 alone. But Chinese government leaders in Beijing pass the censorship blame to foreign companies. When the fact of the matter is, Chinese companies use software and employees to get rid of articles deemed sensitive or inappropriate. But rather than follow other Chinese media and technology companies, Apple decided to cut off the app altogether. As expected, Apple leaders and spokespersons aren’t commenting.
One of the most powerful companies in the world can’t break censorship in one of the most censored nations in the world. If China wants to remain one of the biggest economic powerhouses in the world, then it needs to loosen it’s grip on censorship. And then they want to blame private corporations. Maybe if Beijing loosened their laws, then these private companies wouldn’t have to bend over backward to accommodate such rules and regulations. Look at China’s record when it comes to issues like the environment and human rights. What does the Chinese government have to hide?
Seven of Donald Trump’s hotels are hacked! The billionaire/real estate mogul/presidential candidate’s Trump Hotel Collection confirmed certain hotels were hit by cyber attacks. Now, customers’ information could be at risk.
These hotels include Trump SoHo New York City, Trump International New York, Trump International Chicago, and Trump International Hotel and Tower Las Vegas. Seven of the 14 hotels Trump manages have been hit. Trump Hotel Collection stated unauthorized malware access may be the blame. In layman’s terms, hotel guest’s and customer’s credit card numbers, security codes and expiration dates may have been compromised. The breached has reportedly happened between May 2014 and early June 2015. ?Trump Hotel Collection confirmed no person’s information was taken, to the best of their knowledge. But they’re taking major precautions and urging customers to do what they can to protect themselves. The company said that during these months, hackers attacked hotel check-in desks, hotel restaurants, gift shops, and other hotel points where credit cards are often used. The attacks have been reported to the FBI, and hackers involved can face severe prosecution and prison time. Trump Hotel Collection is offering a year of free fraud protection and restoration to any customers whose information was compromised.
Yes, I’m reporting another hacking. But the timing of this one is eerie to me. Someone chose to hack Donald Trump’s hotel franchise at a time when Trump is still leading in the Republican polls. His lead has decreased over the last couple of weeks, but he’s still a political force to be reckon with. So who hacked it and why? Something tells this is more than a just a typical hacking. Maybe I’m sounding paranoid, and no, I don’t have any proof of it, but I smell a mystery in the making. Trump haters have come out the woodwork, especially since his presidential candidacy. Could somebody could have done this to disrupt Trump’s campaign? Could somebody have done this to make Trump look incompetent, something like, “If Trump can’t even run his hotels, how can he run the country?”? Is that the cyber attackers’ spin on this? ?Was this cyber attack politically motivated? Did an anti-Trump person do this?
