The holiday season means pictures…lots and lots of pictures. Everyone has that retentive friend or family member who needs that perfect photo. There is an app for him/her.
This is where website LuxMyPhoto comes in. LuxMyPhoto has an arsenal of professional photo editors at your commands. All you have to do is type in or click the command and push the button. Upload your photos to the website. Leave instructions to the editor. Then wait and watch what you get back. LuxMyPhoto left some bait for potential customers. Use Yahoo Tech’s Deal Seeker exclusive code 7J35NA. This code will get you 20% off for the rest of 2015. From the looks of it, you can edit just about anything on LuxMyPhoto. You can make?the color background lighter or darker. You can remove wrinkles, and even alter body parts. Are there too many people in the background? This website can erase them. Are you taking pictures of pets? LuxMyPhoto can get rid of the grass in front of the pets’ face. If you’re taking corporate pictures for a job interview, it can even get the wrinkles out of your shirt. So you took a picture of your presentation and that pesky flower is in the middle? This website can get rid of it too. Prices start at $23 a photo; that’s before the pre-New Years’ discount.
I would use LuxMyPhoto for corporate/business photos, but that’s about it. For personal photos, this website just encourages fakeness. There’s something real about people in the background, a crying baby, snow on a dog, a bad pose, or bad lighting. Those are the best photos because often, they tell the best stories. There’s one when I beg them to wait until I was ready to have my picture taken, but they snapped the photo anyway. That picture tells a story. But that’s just me. Would you use LuxMyPhoto?
We at Computer Geeks would like to wish everyone a happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday.
Yes indeed Facebook triumphs along. For example, Facebook video views have doubled from four billion to eight billions. Keep in mind video hits have doubled in just seven months! And that’s just part of Facebook’s good news.
Facbook has had a Q3 most businesses can only dream of! It’s user numbers have grown to 1.55 billion users. That means 20% of the whole world are on Facebook. As of Q3 2015, one billion people log on daily. It’s made $4.5 billion in revenue, up 11% from last quarter. Their monthly use rate went up too, rising 4% this quarter. Facebook added 4 million users in the US and Canada alone. That’s a good thing because these two nations are Facebook’s biggest money makers. They’re also getting new demographics, like senior citizens. While Facebook use among 15-19 year-olds is fading, they’re making good recruits out of younger teens. But perhaps the best news of all is their international influence. Global internet access, especially in poor and oppressed nations, has been Mark Zuckerberg’s dream. This quarter, he saw morsels of it. Facebook use grows in developing nations. In Q3 2013, countries and continents other than Canada, United States, European countries and Asian/Pacific countries had 144 million active users. Today, those nations have 167 million users.
Some time ago, Zuckerberg began an initiative to make Internet use available for all. We’re not there yet, not by a long shot. But Facebook should be proud of these numbers. I would especially be proud of getting the new users in developing nations. Yes, I could be cynical and say something like,”He wants online access over there so Facebook could get more users and he could make more money.” That may be part of it. But I believe there’s a deeper meaning here. We need computer technology to do just about anything these days. And with the right computer technology, not only can those living in developing nations lift themselves up, but lift their communities up as well. What do you think about Facebook’s triumphs?
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?
Look at the news today. Look at the war in Syria. Look at the violence between Israel and Palestine. Look at tensions in Asia, and mass shootings in the United States. The world is becoming a dangerous place.
Is this why Facebook warns of state attacks, attacks sponsored by foreign governments? Last Friday, October 16, Facebook’s Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos put a notice out. The notice said if they believe your page was targeted by a government hacker, they will pop-up a message urging you to secure your account. One thing you’ll be instructed to do is turn on ‘Login Approvals’. This prevents others from logging in your account. For mobile Facebook users, Login Approvals will send a security code to your phone. Only those who enter the code, aka the smartphone’s owner, can login. Stamos didn’t mention a credible threat, but noticed state sponsored and government hacks are more dangerous than other hacks. So if you see a message of this severity, chances are a lot more than your Facebook account was hit. Chances are your whole computer was hit by malware or some other dangerous virus. Facebook advises that if you see this pop-up message on your system, you should either rebuild or replace your whole entire system.
I appreciate Facebook warning us of such a serious threat. I even appreciate them telling us how venerable we are to international government hackers. But why are they telling about this now? I’m especially inquisitive when I read that Chinese cyber attacks are happening to US companies, and these hacks have been intensifying for weeks. Is this a coincidence? And I notice Facebook didn’t say which specific nationalities or states. This may sound crazy, but could they have included even US entities like the NSA? Are we to be that concerned with the foreign enemy? Or are our enemies right beside us?
Do you think Uber is causing havoc among the global taxi service industry? If you’re in the delivery serice, then you might be next!
Today, I’m here to introduce Uber Rush. Well, it came out last year, but that was just a test. Now, Uber Rush becomes official. The Uber Rush app will give you courier service, whether it be for an item left home or if you need lunch delivered to your desk. But soon and very soon, it could become the premier delivery service for small businesses across America. Uber Rush has just been in New York City, but they’re expanding to Chicago and San Francisco. Their couriers can rush small packages. They can bring lunch. They can even bring small business supplies, like books, clothes, and some raw materials. It’s just as easy as checking out on the app and getting the track link and status of arrival. It will cost five to seven dollars per Uber Rush delivery service. Most of that will go to the Uber driver/courier/bike messenger. Customers/businesses can either pay delivery costs up front or add it to a bill to be paid later. Uber Rush couriers will be specially trained.
So if Uber Rush is successful in these busy and thriving cities, it’ll take off across the US like wildfire. If I were FedEx, UPS, USPS, or running a food delivery service, I would be very concerned. The holiday shopping and delivery season isn’t that far away (don’t shoot the messenger). From stories I’ve read, some delivery services don’t have that good a reputation. This link is from one story that really made me sick. Is it a coincidence Uber is expanding it’s Rush service at this time of year? Do you see Uber Rush being competitive against major delivery services? How do you think the big boys will respond? I‘m not here to take sides either way, but how interesting could this get?
The US and China has had a turbulent history, especially when it comes to cyber and hacking issues. It’s been one accusation and one incident after another. Now, the US and China make a cyber deal.
Both governments are negotiating a modern day arms race deal. But instead of traditional military weapons, this arms deal has to do with computer hacking. The US and China formally promise each other not to take each other’s government down by cyber attacks or hacking. These intense negotiations have been going on for weeks, just in time for Chinese President Xi Jimping’ visit?later this week. Not to mention the United Nations are having their 70th general assembly at this time. Yes, the UN is expected to address cyber security, especially when it comes to international security. One UN principal is that no nation shall engage in activities, “that intentionally damages critical infrastructure or otherwise impairs the use and operation of critical infrastructure to provide services to the public.” US officials want China to embrace such principals. Most attacks have been about theft and ID hacking, like the 22 million Office of Personal Management files that were compromised.
There’s been other attacks too, though China has either denied or played off. I’m still wondering if they had anything to do with the infamous Sony Pictures hacking of December 2014. The more I read into this, the more this reads like a lecture from the US and UN to China. This almost sounds like they’re wagging their finger and telling China, “This is bad. You should be ashamed. Don’t let me catch you doing this anymore.” But history shows us this has happened before. How many times has the opponent said, “Okay. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again,” only to have all hell break loose? Will China honor this UN code and US deal? Come to think of it, will the US honor this UN code and this potential deal?
