Anonymous threatens Facebook again!

Anonymous, the hacker collective hacktivist group, is once again planning to target Facebook in an attack scheduled on Jan. 28 - at least, that's what a video uploaded to Youtube on Monday was claiming in the name of the hacker network.

"An online war has begun between Anonymous, the people and the government of the United States," the video begins. "While SOPA and PIPA may be postponed from Congress, this doesn't guarantee that our Internet rights will be upheld."

Following the U.S. government shutdown of file-sharing site Megaupload on Friday, Anonymous attacked the U.S. Department of Justice's website, among others.

Monday's Youtube video calls on the American people to participate in the hack by downloading Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC), the tool that was successfully used to target the U.S.' Department of Justice. LOIC crashes websites by sending thousands of information packets to their servers.

The video gives instructions for downloading and running the program, as well as a time - 12 a.m. on Jan. 28 - to launch the attack. No time zone, however, is distinguished.

"Would you like to become part of the greatest Internet protests and first official cyber war?" the video asks. "Operation Global Blackout is ongoing and everyone can be a part of it."

Facebook is one of the world's largest websites, operating through thousands of servers located across the world. In the video, Anonymous acknowledges the difficulties of attacking such a large site.

"While it is true that Facebook has at least 60,000 servers, it is still possible to bring it down," says the Anonymous voice. "Anonymous needs the help of the people."

YouTube commenters have raised an important question, "Why would Anonymous want to crash Facebook, after the site came out against SOPA and PIPA?"

The video essentially equates the privately-owned company with the U.S. government, with no explanation for the linkage. CNET postulates that Zuckerberg took too long to voice his opposition, landing his social network a spot on the potential targets list.

The global network of hacktivists had made this threat before, and promised to shut down the site on Nov. 5, 2011, over user privacy concerns. Ultimately, no attack was executed. And although there was a spam attack, it came out on a later date and was immediately neutralized by Facebook. The loosely-connected hacker network called the threat the work of peripheral members.

Hacktivist Group Anonymous takes out Pirate Bay Nemeses

In the fall of 2010, the hacktivist hacker collective group "Anonymous" started Operation Payback, the longest and most widespread attack on anti-piracy groups, lawyers and lobbyists in history.

Initially, DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) assaults were started against the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and anti-piracy company AiPlex Software because these outfits had targeted The Pirate Bay.

Those DDoS attacks were later replicated against many other targets that have spoken out against piracy or for copyright, resulting in widespread media coverage.

Last week, the tag #OperationPayback is appearing once again in several places as "Anonymous" is once again targeting anti-piracy outfits who managed to strike against The Pirate Bay.

Earlier last week, the site of the Finnish CIAPC (Copyright Information and Anti-piracy Centre) went dark after they won a Pirate Bay blockade, and today the same happened to the Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN (Bescherming Rechten Entertainment Industrie Nederland) who won a similar case.

The Pirate Bay, meanwhile, is encouraging users in the blocked countries to get prepared to use TOR (The Union Router) or a VPN (Virtual Private Network).

But they may not even have to...

In the Netherlands, the local Pirate Party already set up a proxy at tpb.piratenpartij.nl, and they are determined to provide Dutch users access to the torrent sites in the future.

The Pirate Bay to stop serving Torrents

After half a decade of loyal service, The Pirate Bay, the biggest torrent site based in Sweden, shut down its tracker in November 2009.

The Pirate Bay (TPB) argued that BitTorrent trackers have been made redundant by technologies such as DHT and PEX. In addition, The Pirate Bay team said they might move away from torrents entirely and switch to offering magnet links instead.

"We're talking to the other torrent admins on doing magnet links and DHT and PEX for all sites. Moving away from torrents and trackers totally - like pick a date and all agree 'from this date, we'll not support torrents anymore'," a Pirate Bay insider told TorrentFreak at the time.

Now, two years later, that date is coming soon.

On January 13, The Pirate Bay made the first step towards this new future by making magnets the default download links instead of torrents. TorrentFreak was also further informed that in "a month or so" the largest torrent site on the internet will stop serving torrent files indefinitely.

The announcement is bound to lead to confusion and uncertainty among many torrent users, but in reality, very little will change for the average Pirate Bay visitor. Users will still be able to download files, but these will now be started through a magnet link instead of a torrent file.

The Pirate Bay team told TorrentFreak that one of the advantages of the transition to a "magnet site" is that it requires relatively little bandwidth to host a proxy. This is topical, since this week, courts in both Finland and the Netherlands ordered local internet service providers to block the torrent site.

Perhaps even better, without the torrent files, everyone can soon host a full copy of The Pirate Bay on a USB thumb drive, which may come in handy in the future.

Unlike the site's users, existing torrent sites that scrape .torrent files from The Pirate Bay will have to make some drastic changes. If they want to continue serving .torrent files they will have to fetch them from DHT. Also, hotlinks to .torrent files will no longer work and will soon redirect to The Pirate Bay's detail page for the files in question.

One of the potential downsides of using magnets is that it could take a bit longer for downloads to start, especially if there are relatively few people sharing a file. This is because the .torrent file has to be fetched from other users instead of being downloaded directly from the site. More background on these and other technicalities can be found here.

The good news is that all mainstream BitTorrent clients support magnet links. This wasn't the case back in 2009, but when TPB hinted that in the future they could become a magnet-only site, all developers quickly made their clients fully compatible.

At the moment, it's hard to predict what the impact of The Pirate Bay's decision will be on the BitTorrent community. Although it is believed that torrents will never disappear completely.

A "Baby Making" Application

While browsing the Internet looking for some cool apps, I suddenly stumble upon a baby making application. Well, it's not actually new. Baby Making applications had been popular since the social media sites' rise but I'm here to share it anyways, at least, to those who hadn't heard of it yet.

There are plenty of baby making or baby maker apps on the net, though you can rarely find a good one. Most of these apps are either broken, or fake. Some may be sold for a prize, but there were also those which were offered for free yet pretty good as well, and one of those sites that offer such service is makemebabies.com.

I tried the app myself and tested it, and so far so good. The app allows you to make babies out of uploaded photos. In Makemebabies, you have the option to upload your photo, pick a partner, and select the desired baby gender as well as select a skin tone for the baby. You can also set the gender to random, and allow the app to decide for the baby's skin tone - which is based on the photos brightness. What's more is that you also have the option to select from among the list of celebrity photos stored in the sites' database. For the final steps, you are asked to choose a frame from the list and name the baby. The site will process the information you provided and release the result after a few seconds or minutes (depending on the photo), but rest assured it won't take 9 months to complete. Finally, the site also gives you the privilege to save the resulting baby's photo in the site for later access, though you have to register on the site to do this. Fortunately, the site does not even charge a penny, though you are going to see some ads. But don't worry, the ads won't hinder you from accessing the service.

For better results, you have to crop the photos and limit it to the face as this is where the site's logic is based. Also make sure it's a frontal view. The cropping feature comes along with the service so don't worry about it. However, failure to crop the photo seems to make the processing take longer as the app will have to analyze the photo carefully to retrieve the face. If you upload a photo that's not human, you'll also get weird results.

Makemebabies is a great site, and is worth the promotion here on my blog. For parent wannabes out there, you should check this site out.

Orangutans could video chat between zoos via iPads

The zoo keepers want to build reinforced tablets so they
can let the orangutans play without human help.

Orangutans at a Milwaukee zoo could soon be video-calling their primate friends via tablet computers.

The hairy tech fans have been playing with iPads since they were first introduced to them in May 2011.

Conservationist Richard Zimmerman said the next step would be to provide wi-fi access, which means the apes could watch orangutans in other zoos.

He hopes the experiment will raise awareness and funds to support the wild animals facing extinction.

Mr. Zimmerman, from the US-based charity Orangutan Outreach, said he had wanted to give the device to the animals ever since it was launched back in January 2010.

"The original idea came literally when Steve Jobs gave his opening presentation introducing the iPad," he said.

"Independently, one of our supporters in Milwaukee was at the zoo showing the orangutan his iPad, and they were fascinated by it. We started to put things together."

They began introducing simple apps, such as drawing game Doodle Buddy, to orangutans at Milwaukee Country Zoo.

Mr. Zimmerman said the idea was to provide a "bit of fun" for the animals, who only get to use the devices for two short periods every week.

"What we really want to do is to allow the orangutans to really play - to do paintings, to watch videos, to do almost as a human child would do with basic curiosity."

Four-year-old orangutan Mahal watches a David
Attenborough program.

The animals have, Mr. Zimmerman said, been captivated by watching television on the devices, particularly when it featured other orangutans, and even more so when they saw faces they recognized.

"They love moving images. They love bright things. They like to be entertained!"

"They love new things, so one of the first things we're going to do to incorporate that is make sure the facilities have wi-fi capabilities so that the orangutans can actually have access to unlimited information. Of course, with the keepers guiding them."

He said the most exciting aspect of all was watching how the animals reacted to seeing themselves, and other apes on screen.

"Orangutans love looking at each other," said Mr. Zimmerman, adding that one of the apes, 31-year-old MJ, is a fan of David Attenborough programs.

"The orangutans loved seeing videos of themselves - so there is a little vanity going on - and they like seeing videos of the orangutans who are in the other end of the enclosure.

"So if we incorporate cameras, they can watch each other."

Other centers, zoos and sanctuaries are said to want to get involved immediately and are just waiting for more devices to become available.

"We've been limited to Milwaukee because we haven't been able to get enough iPads," Zimmerman said.

"We've been waiting for the iPad 3 to come out to make the iPad 1 really obsolete, so we can pick up a few."

"We could just go out and buy them, obviously, but one of the things we've trying to really adhere to is making sure that our funds actually go out to the orangutans in need."

Mr. Zimmerman said another problem he faced was protecting the machines, as he did not dare let the animals run off with them into their enclosures.

"As soon as we hand them over to the orangutans, we figure the lifespan could be as little as 15 seconds - whether they meticulously take them apart or just snap them in half."

Currently, zoo keepers have to hold the tablet computers while the animals reach through the enclosure bars and interact with simple gestures.

They are looking into building a reinforced iPad suitable for being thrown around, or perhaps fixing the device to a wall so it could in turn be hooked to a large projector viewable by zoo visitors.

In addition to this, Mr. Zimmerman said there were developers keen to put together apps for the orangutans using design techniques similar to those adopted in software aimed at young children.

Although the animals are being extensively observed by zoo keepers, so far no formal behavioral research is taking place - something that is likely to change in the near future.

"Research is going to come out of it, we know that, but as a charity geared towards conservation, we're focusing on enrichment and making sure there's a conservation message attached," Mr. Zimmerman said.

Orangutans are among the most at-risk species in the world.

Mr. Zimmerman said extensive research into gorillas and touch-screens had been taking place at Zoo Atlanta for several years.

He stressed that none of the money that had been donated by the public to Orangutan Outreach has been spent on tablet computers - and that while it was a fun diversion for zoo visitors, the gadgets should not deflect from the serious threats facing the animals.

"It becomes a way of generating income for the charity. There's really no limit to what can be done," he said.

A spokeswoman for Milwaukee Country Zoo told the BBC that the tablets were helping keep the animals in good shape.

"All of this is done as a form of enrichment, to exercise their minds, and keep them active and emotionally healthy," Jennifer Diliberti said.

"The work being done now with the iPads is simply a first step, and it's quite exciting."


Source BBC News

'Offensive comments' tops reasons Facebook users delete friends

These days, having a relationship with someone on Facebook can mean as much as having one in "real life." So adding and subtracting people from your list is an emotional process that can often require some careful consideration, and possibly even some soul-searching. But why do Facebook users add some people, delete other people, and leave some off the list, in the first place?

The answer isn't actually quite shocking. According to a new study from NM Incite, a company owned by research firm Nielsen McKinsey, actually knowing someone in offline (real life) is the No. 1 reason users add someone to their friends list. Posting "offensive comments" is the primary factor in people hitting "delete." Surprised?

Here are a few more, perhaps more interesting, tidbits: The average Facebook user has 130 friends. Men use Facebook primarily for networking, and dating, while women use social media "for a creative outlet, for coupon/promos and to give positive feedback," all of which sound incredibly stereotypical — possibly even sexist. Connecting with family and friends is a big reason for using the social network, as is networking and other career-related activities, and entertainment. These are of course, very obvious.

Microsoft will begin automatic Internet Explorer upgrades in 2012

In a major policy change, Giant company, Microsoft plans to deliver IE upgrades automatically to Windows users in 2012. That moves IE incrementally closer to its fast-paced competitors, although there are still enough exceptions to keep enterprise users happy.

According to an announcement made by Microsoft, in January 2012, they will begin installing the latest version of Internet Explorer on Windows PCs automatically, via Windows Update, that is of course, provided that the automatic updates has been turned on.

Automatic browser updates will begin rolling out worldwide in Australia and Brazil and will gradually scale up to additional countries and continents over time. Customers running Windows 7 and Windows Vista will be updated to Internet Explorer 9. Those who are using Windows XP will get Internet Explorer 8 (the highest version available on that platform).

The new policy represents a major change for Redmond, which currently classifies new browser versions as Important updates but requires the user to manually consent before installing an upgraded version.

With this change, Microsoft joins Google and Firefox, both of which currently push out automatic updates to all users. The big difference is that Microsoft will continue to support older versions of browsers. That's a crucial distinction for enterprise customers, who need to test and approve any new software release before deploying it and who have complained loudly about Mozilla's decision to drop support for all but the most recent browser version with their new rapid-release cadence.

Multiple opt-out mechanisms will be available for businesses and consumers who choose not to upgrade:

If you previously refused an update to IE, you will not be automatically updated.

As is the case today, you'll be able to uninstall an Internet Explorer update and roll back to the browser that came with your Windows version.

Enterprises can block the automatic installation of IE updates using Microsoft's Blocker Toolkit for IE8 and for IE9.

Microsoft has committed to making opt-out mechanisms available for future IE releases as well.

Although Microsoft's new update policy is more aggressive, it hasn't announced any plans to pick up the tempo at which it releases new browser versions. IE9 was released in March 2011, and IE 10 is on pace for a release date roughly one year after that/ By the standards of the last decade, that's agile, but both Google and Mozilla have reset expectations in this regard, pushing out new versions every six weeks.

Google celebrates Robert Noyce's 84th Birthday

Today December 12th, Google celebrates Robert Noyce's 84th birthday by displaying Google's logo as a Microchip.

But who's Robert Noyce?

Well, if you click the google microchip logo, it will initiate a search query using the keyword Robert Noyce.

According to Wikipedia, the online wiki encyclopedia, Robert Norton Noyce (December 12, 1927 - June 3, 1990), nicknamed "the Mayor of Silicon Valley", co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957 and Intel in 1968. He is also credited, along with Jack Kilby, with the invention of the integrated circuit (IC) or microchip which fueled the personal computer revolution and gave Silicon Valley its name. Noyce was also a mentor and father-figure to an entire generation of entrepreneurs.

Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2C (v.2.0) Experience and Hypothesis

Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2C Motherboard

Right after a friend toasted my ASUS motherboard by experimenting with it, I bought a new one to replace the broken motherboard. With Solid-capacitor, Energy Saving, Dual-BIOS, etc. features and a colorful board, the Gigabyte model GA-G31M-ES2C Motherboard caught my attention. Of course, those kind of features seem enticing, as it seems to rival and even excel the previous one.

Everything went smoothly at first, but after at least 3 weeks of use, I notice the CMOS password-sealed area automatically reconfigured, and the password disappeared. It was kind of odd because I didn't even touched that area. I ignored it because I thought it was just a minor system error, however, after approximately 3 months of use, my PC hanged all of a sudden, and the CPU went berserk; going into an endless loop process.

I rebooted the system, and it took me 3-4x of turning it on and off, before I manage to get it back to work. Since then, my PC randomly hangs; sometimes it works and sometimes not. There's no beeping sound or anything to warn me of the problem. At first it start out with occasional random hangs (sometimes the CPU just suddenly stops processing, sometimes still active while hanging), but as time goes by, it turns out to be persistent.

I cannot figure out the problem, but my hypothesis is that it has to be the BIOS chip that seems to be defective. My guess is base on my experience wherein sometimes my PC boots without recognizing a Hard Disk (I had two), although it is properly connected and configured, while sometimes, the mouse just suddenly stops responding although it is connected and previously working; it's as if it was suddenly unplugged. This led me to unplug and replug the mouse, which seems to solve the problem until later on, in which it stops responding again. I already did the troubleshooting procedure found on their manual. I updated the BIOS to the latest version (G31M-ES2C v.2.0 - FJ), I flash it, I even discharged it by removing the PC's internal battery but to no avail. I even hired a tech and he also wasn't able to figure out the cause and thus, wasn't able to repair it.

There are also other symptoms that's worth noting. For example, sometimes, when I start my computer, the front graphics that shows up on boot appears distorted, with only the Award logo appearing and the rest of the texts gone, then it hangs up. Sometimes, it fails to initiate memory test and hangs up; sometimes, the part where it displays "Verifying DMI Pool Data..." is out of place and appears blurred then it hangs up; and to top it all, just recently, I encountered a CHECKSUM ERROR, then it says "Recovering BIOS.....", all of these seem to confirm my hypothesis that the problem of the motherboard is in fact BIOS related.

I have contacted Gigabyte with regards to this problem, and I am still waiting for their reply, which seems to take days. On the other hand, I could simply not hope for an answer just to prevent frustration in case it doesn't get a response.

I also tried looking for solutions in different forums, and it appears that although rare, I am not the only one who encountered this kind of problem. By no means I am degrading Gigabyte here, it's just that, of all the motherboards I encountered, this is the only one that failed on me. It's actually more like a factory defect, and I was one of the lucky ones to have acquired the defective product.

What is BIOS and CMOS?

Now for those who do not know what BIOS and CMOS are here's a brief explanation...

BIOS stands for Basic Input Output System, it is the part of the computer that handles the Hardware-Software integration. It serves as the liaison for the two, while the CMOS stands for Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor, it is the technology that handles the configuration of all the Computer's hardwares.

Google Bookmarks "Lists" feature soon to close

The Google version of Delicious, Google Bookmarks, will soon close its "lists feature" according to Google Inc.

Google Bookmarks is a free online bookmark storage service, available to Google Account holder. It was launched on October 10, 2005. Google Bookmarks allows users to bookmark faborite websites and add labels or tags, including notes.

Like Delicious (which is owned by AVOS), Google Bookmarks uses lists to share bookmarks with others, and the public. Many websites will encourage bookmarking to Google Bookmarks through third party buttons on their sites, knowing that Google's search engine tracks these bookmarks and considers them significant when ranking public search results.

What is Lists?

Lists is an English-only experimental feature incorporated into Google Bookmarks for sharing bookmarks and collaborating with friends.

When Facebook boomed, Google discovered that fewer and fewer people were using this feature. With people most likely sharing their links via Facebook instead.

According to Google, Lists will be totally discontinued on December 19th, 2011.

Why is Lists being discontinued?

According to Google, they are focusing their efforts on the prioritization of other products so they can make things much simpler for their users and devote more resources to high-impact products.

On this statement, Google admits that their Google Bookmarks "Lists" feature had become less significant to most users.

When is Lists being discontinued?

Lists, according to Google, will become read-only on December 12th and will be entirely discontinued on December 19th, 2011. During the read-only period, users will be able to change the public/private status of lists they own, but they won't be able to create new lists or edit existing ones.

Once the feature is discontinued, the Lists that users own (all items) will be saved as bookmarks with the label "MyBookmarkList." Comments will be saved along with each bookmark. However, all other lists (including those shared with the users) can no longer be access. Google advises that if you want to save items from these lists, you should bookmark them before December 19th, 2011.

Spam attack hits Facebook Help Center

After suffering a deluge of porn and violent images earlier of November, users of social networking giant Facebook were hit yet again by another spam wave in the later weeks of last November, a Facebook enthusiast blog reported. The "Facebook Privacy and Security" blog posted screenshots of the spam attack, which targeted Facebook's Help Center Community Forum. "Facebook's Help Center does not deal with users directly, with non-interactive topics based on FAQ's and site changes being the only Facebook presence. Users wanting more help are encouraged to post questions in the Community Forum, but the generous Facebook users who provide assistance there have no ability to remove the spammers," it said. It noted clicking on each topic reveals dozens of posts filled with links, leading allegedly to official video streams of sporting events or movies. "The spammers suggest clicking on the links will provide free footage, and some posts contain the same link repeated 60-plus times to entice users to click on them," the blog post said.

Click to enlarge

As of 9:40 a.m. Manila time, the spam messages have yet to be taken down. "Genuine questions by Facebook users are shunted so far down the line that most are invisible," the blog noted. The blog suggested that Facebook create a team charged with making sure that the Help Center community forum is safe from spam attacks, so that users with genuine issues can get help. It also suggested that Facebook create a User Support team to manage the Help Center itself, so that questions can be answered directly by employees equipped to resolve issues efficiently and with expediency. A separate blog entry by computer security firm Sophos hinted the spammers could be taking advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, "when Facebook's security team may be more lightly staffed than normal." It also added, "Certainly it's embarrassing for the social networking website to have one of its own pages hit so significantly by spammers, when it has recently been lauding its achievements in the fight against Facebook spam."

There is a strong possibility that the Facebook spam attack that hit Facebook earlier November could be an attempt to put down Facebook, probably by Anon, another hacker group, or a competitor. I believe it will never stop until Facebook suffers considerable damage when it comes to its reputation. It may not be immediately felt by the social networking giant, but if it continues, users will eventually loss their trust on the company. To some spammers, the spam attack that took place earlier revealed that Facebook is not so invulnerable after all, like any other site, it also has its weaknesses, and that weakness gives other spammers and hackers the opportunity to break through.

Your Smartphone may be spying on you

It's cool to have a smartphone, but did you know your smartphone had been spying on you? According to a tech news, an Android developer recently discovered a clandestine application called Carrier IQ built into most smartphones that doesn't just track your location, but it also secretly records your keystrokes (kinda like keylogger), and there's nothin you can do about it.

The reason for this invasive Android app seems reasonable enough at face value. Even though it's on most Android, BlackBerry, and Nokia devices, most users would never know that Carrier IQ is running in the background, and that's sort of the point. As described on the company's website, it is a software that gains them "unprecedented insight into their customers' mobile experience," Carrier IQ is ostensibly supposed to help mobile carriers and device manufacturers gather data in order to improve their products.

Tons of applications actually do this, and you're probably used to those boxes that pops up on your screen and ask if you want to help the company by sending your data back to them. If you're concerned about your privacy though, you can just tap no and go about your merry computing way. As a security-conscious Android developer, Trevor Eckhart realized, however, that Carrier IQ does not give you this option, and unless you were code-savvy and looking for it, you'd never know it was there. And based on how aggressive the company has been in trying to keep Eckhart quiet about his discovery, it seems like Carrier IQ doesn't want you to know it's there either.

Eckhart first raised a red flag about Carrier IQ about two weeks ago when he started investigating reports that a software update on the HTC EVO 3D included "user behavior logging" code. The code had worried some geek bloggers when it showed up a couple months ago, but HTC and Sprint insisted that it wasn't much different than normal error-logging software and certainly didn't gather granular data like "contents of messages, photos, videos, etc." Eckhart wrote an exhaustive blog post about his startling findings - Carrier IQ collected lots of data, including keystrokes, and there is no way for the user, without advance knowledge, to opt out - and Carrier IQ flipped out. The company sent Eckhart a cease-and-desist letter demanding that he keep his mouth shut and threatening legal actions. But after the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) took a look at the case and determined that Eckhart was working within his First Amendment rights, it backed off but still denied that they recorded keystrokes.

This week, Eckhart fired back with a 17-minute long video showing in painstaking detail how much data CarrierIQ collects, effectively undercutting the company's denial. It was even logging contents of text messages! Wired posted the video on Tuesday night and cemented its status "as one of nine reasons to wear a tinfoil hat." The magazine explains how CarrierIQ even undercuts other companies' security measures:

The video shows the software logging Eckhart's online search of "hello world." That's despite Eckhart using the HTTPS version of Google which is supposed to hide searches from those who would want to spy by intercepting the traffic between a user and Google. ... It's not even clear what privacy policy covers this. Is it Carrier IQ's, your carrier's or your phone manufacturer's? And, perhaps, most important, is sending your communications to Carrier IQ a violation of the federal government's ban on wiretapping?

CarrierIQ and the carriers have yet to respond to the latest claims, and if past smartphone tracking scandals are any precedent, they could end up answering to Congress.

Like many things in life, there are a couple of different ways to think about smartphone tracking. One way approaches privacy from a forward-thinking, technology-trusting and even progressive perspective. GPS-equipped smartphones are incredibly powerful tools that enables mankind to do all kinds of amazing things, thanks to the perpetual stream of data from the Internet. However, that stream runs both ways, and sometimes, the folks that build and maintain the network sometimes need to monitor your data in order to improve the technology.

But tracking can also be creepy. In an Orwellian kind of way, it makes people nervous. It can make people go paranoid, probably thinking the government or the corporations or the system is closing in on them and stealing their freedom. Of course, not everybody feels so strongly about privacy, but as long as you can opt out, it's find. Last week, Senator Charles Schumer was said to had spoke out about a program at some malls in Virginia and Southern California that were anonymously tracking shoppers' movements by tracking their cell phone signals, and the only way to opt was by not going to the mall. Schumer did not approve. "Personal cell phones are just that - personal," the New York senator said in a statement. "If retailers want to tap into your phone to see what your shopping patterns are, they can ask you for your permission to do so."

The CarrierIQ software is not dissimilar to the shopper tracking program. In fact, it's arguably worse since it follows you everywhere. In the age of social media, everybody is becoming increasingly aware of and often angry about the amount of private data companies are scooping up with or without their consent.

iPhone 4 explodes midflight on an Australian Airline

Bad news for iPhone 4 users, the said gadget had been reported exploding. It's like carrying a phone and a bomb at the same time. But let's admit it, Apple's iPhones are always among the hottest gadgets of any holiday shopping season, but for one passenger on an Australian airline flight, the phone was said to be too hot to handle, and it was actually meant literally!

According to the report, while on an Australian flight Regional Express ZL319 Friday, a passenger's iPhone 4 (not the iPhone 4S, which is Apple's latest model) suddenly started "emitting a significant amount of dense smoke, accompanied by a red glow," according to a Regional Express statement.

The plane, which was flying from Lismore to Sydney, was in the midst of landing when the incident occurred. "In accordance with company standard safety procedures, the flight attendant carried out recovery actions immediately, and the red glow was extinguished successfully," according to Regional Express' statement.

After landing, the iPhone was handed over to officials at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. There's no official word yet on what caused the phone to combust.

Exploding Apple products are rare, but explosions have happened in the past, mostly related to the devices' lithium ion batteries that overheats.

The European Union launched an investigation in 2009 after multiple instances of iPhones and iPod Touches exploding or catching fire midflight, which were reported in the U.K., Holland, France, and Sweden.

Apple also recalled its first-generation of iPod nanos sold between September 2005 and December 2006 because the battery would overheat and "pose a safety risk," according to the company's website.

Facebook settles with Federal Trade Commission over deception charges

People might have been wondering why the Anonymous hacktivist collective group "Anon" target the site most people came to love. Now, you may have an answer...

According to an Associated Press (AP) report, Facebook is settling with the Federal Trade Commission over charges it deceived consumers with its privacy settings to get people to share more personal information that they originally agreed to.

The FTC had charged that the social network told people they could keep the information they share private, then allowed it to be made public.

The charges go back to at least 2009, when Facebook changed its privacy settings so that information users may have deemed private, such as their list of friends, suddenly became viewable to everyone.

"They didn't warn users that this change was coming, or get approval in advance," the FTC said.

The FTC said the settlement requires Facebook to get people's approval before changing how it shares their data.

In a blog post, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company has made a "bunch of mistakes." But he adds that this has often overshadowed the good work Facebook has done. He says Facebook has addressed many of the FTC's concerns already.

The settlement is similar to one Google agreed to earlier this year over its Buzz social networking service. Like Google, Facebook has agreed to obtain assessments of its privacy practices by independent, third-party auditors for the next 20 years.

Facebook isn't paying anything to settle the case, though future violations could lead to civil fines.

Zuckerberg said Facebook has created two new executive positions - a chief privacy officer of products and a chief privacy officer of policy as part of its response to the settlement.

This is great news as the move further expands user privacy protection, which users would benefit heavily upon.

Paypal App for sending money to friends is now on Facebook

Guess what? Paypal has taken a giant leap forward as they unveil a Facebook app that let's Facebook users send money to their friends.

The app is simply titled "Send Money," it is straightforward as its name, making it more user friendly. With the app, you have the choice to send either an ecard with money or just money with no card. You select a card, choose a friend to send it to and then select how much money to send. Pretty easy!

"The Paypal and Facebook infrastructure have now merged," Paypal's Anuj Nayar says. "This is another way to personalize the act of giving money."

While there are several ways to pay with Paypal via Facebook, this is the first app to enable peer-to-peer payments via Facebook and Paypal. And because it's a peer-to-peer transaction, there is no transaction fee, though Paypal's regular limits and international fees still apply.

"Sending money, person to person, is free," Paypal Senior Product Marketing Manager JB Coutinho said. "If it's funded by a Paypal balance or linked to a bank account, it's free."

And while the primary aspect of the Send Money app is its enabling of transactions across the world's largest social network, the ecard aspect is being emphasized as well. Paypal was quick to point out that more than 500 million ecards are sent every year, and that's why Paypal is offering dozens of choices for everything from birthdays to congratulations.

The app will really be taking off. Users who spot a friend's birthday on Facebook can quickly use the app and send a card and some cash within a few minutes. The app is just as useful for things like lottery pools and reimbursing friends for lunch. It's a big step toward making social payments a reality.

Mask-bot - A talking video humanoid robot

Dr. Takaaki Kuratate in conversation with his Mask-bot self.

A team at the Institute of Cognitive Systems (ICS) at TU München and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Japan has developed a talking video robot face called Mask-bot.

Now, this is not new to its robotic predecessors that are also equipped with amazing Artificial Intelligence (AI), but what sets Mask-bot apart is that it can instantly construct and project a static video image of anyone's face (from a photo) on a 3D surface, and it moves its virtual head a little and raises its eyebrows as you speak, to create the impression that it understands, although it actually doesn't yet.

It also projects an image from behind, making it more realistic, unlike Disney animatronics characters for example, which are projected from the front, and works in daylight. It's also more flexible than existing humanoid robots, which use a complex set of mechanical parts and must be custom-designed.



Avatars for video conferencing

According to Dr. Takaaki Kuratate, Mask-bot could soon be deployed in video conferences. "You can create a realistic replica of a person that actually sits and speaks with you at the conference table. You can use a generic mask for male and female, or you can provide a custom-made mask for each person."

But a more advanced version of Mask-bot doesn't even require a video image of the person speaking. A program can also convert a normal two-dimensional photograph into a correctly proportioned projection for a three-dimensional mask complete with facial expressions and voice. A talking-head animation engine filters an extensive series of face motion data from a variety of people collected by a motion capture system and selects the facial expressions that best match a specific phoneme being spoken. Examples can be found here.

The computer extracts a set of facial coordinates from each of these expressions, which it can then assign to any new face, bringing it to life. Emotion synthesis software then delivers the visible emotional nuances that indicate, for instance, when someone is happy, sad, or angry.

Synthesized voice

An advanced version of Mask-bot is said to also have the ability to reproduce content typed via a keyboard. A text-to-speech system converts text in English, Japanese, and soon German to audio female or male voice, which can be quiet or loud, happy or sad. Mask-bot doesn't actually understand anything; it just listens and makes pretend responses as part of a fixed programming sequence.

Meanwhile, the Munich researchers are working on Mask-bot 2, a mobile version. The mask, projector, and computer control system will all be contained inside a robot costing around EUR 400 (Mask-bot 1 is 3,000 EUR).

"Mask-bot will influence the way in which we humans communicate with robots in the future," predicts Prof. Gordon Cheng, head of the ICS team. "These systems could soon be used as companions for older people who spend a lot of time on their own," says Kuratate.

Songs shared 1.5 Billion times by Facebook Users in 6 Weeks

Surprise? Most people on Facebook likes to listen to music and they are commonly sharing it with their friends. Music discovery services such as Spotify, Rdio, Mog, Slacker, and Earbits are attracting significantly more users since Facebook's f6 Developer's Conference.

Now that music apps are on the Open Graph — and appear in the ticker — Facebook users have shared their listening activity more than 1.5 billion times with their friends, according to Facebook's Casey Maloney Rosales Muller in a blog post published Tuesday. (see here)

"Developers have started to demonstrate that when music is discovered through friends, people listen to more music and a wider variety of artists," he writes. "Our hypothesis was that integrating with the Open Graph would accelerate music discovery and make it more valuable part of the Facebook experience, while improving key metrics for our partners."

Those key metrics indeed improved, with some music developers seeing active users on their services more than double.

The results were:

• Four million people have joined Spotify, a Swedish-founded, UK-headquartered DRM-based music streaming service offering streaming of selected music from a range of major and independent record labels, including Sony, EMI, Warner Music Group, and Universal, since September 22. The service became available in the U.S. on July 14.
• MOG, a paid subscription online music service and blog network, where users can listen to, read about, and discover music, saw a 246% growth from Facebook users since f8.
• Rdio, an ad-free music subscription service available in the U.S., Canada, and Brazil, and is available as a website and also has clients for the iPhone, iPod Touch & iPad, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone mobile devices, which can play streaming music or cache songs for offline playback, saw an increase of user registrations 30-fold because of the influence of Facebook.
• Slacker, an interactive Internet radio service available in the US and Canada, where listeners can access the service on the web, through mobile apps on multiple smartphones as well as on the Slacker Personal Radio Players and other services, and allows users to create and share customized music stations, saw a more than 11x increase in monthly active users in the month following f8.
• Earbits, a commercial-free music streaming service and music marketing platform, also experienced a 1,350% increase in the number of users becoming fans of the band they're listening to.

Other integrated music sites include Rhapsody, Soundcloud, Vevo, Songza, iHeartRadio and AudioVroom.

Facebook is anticipating growth for its music partners to continue to increase after it rolls out Timeline to the masses. Only a limited amount of Facebook users have enabled Timeline for the official public launch.

What happened to Friendster?

Did you guys remember Friendster? The Social Networking site that everybody loved even before Facebook came into the picture? Nowadays, no one would probably care about the old Social Networking site, but back in the old days, this site was booming, and had lots of Filipino fans. I recall it manage to grab a spot in the Top 20 of Alexa rankings. Filipinos frequently visit the site to upload their pics, post something, acquire testimonials, and message friends via Private Messaging. Well, Friendster kinda lack something, and although users' profile pages can be customized, there was no chatting feature present. However, during those days people are happy with whatever few they can get. But then, as far as the dynamic trend of technology goes, even what was previously conceived to be the best soon wear out its welcome.

When Facebook arrived, Friendster got chewed up. Most of its Filipino users migrated to the new social networking media, and the site was left with few actual activity. The problem with Friendster was, it lacks innovation.

So what happened to Friendster after it was abandoned? Well, they have noticed the sudden drop in the numbers of their visitors and had decided to redesign the site, however, it was too late, as they were just redesigning, Facebook was already blooming and expanding its capabilities, and so the poor site never recovered.

As early of 2011 before June, they sent their users an email advising them to export their profiles, photos, and blogs by May 31 or these will all be history. They added that all these will be erased to give way to the new Friendster which will launched after a couple of weeks.

"You can't compete with Facebook. They did a good job. It's a Facebook world," said Nikolai Galicia, Friendster and MOL country manager for the Philippines.

But Galicia clarified that Friendster is not shutting or closing down. "Friendster will continue. Mag-iiba lang ang focus niya [it will just change its focus]. After MOL bought Friendster, we are moving forward. The new Friendster will complement Facebook."

Friendster retained its name but it discontinued its social network services. As of June 2011, it was relaunched as a social entertainment site where users was able to play games and listen to music.

According to Galicia's rough estimates, Fifty percent of FB users don't like games. Thus, they will service the other fifty percent.

The Philippines has the most number of Friendster users worldwide with an estimated 20 million users. Galicia said they understand how important Friendster is to many Filipinos. "Nine years na ang Friendster. Parang diary na 'yan [Friendster is already 9 years. It's already like a diary]."

For those who hadn't came back to the site, you should already see that Friendster has changed a lot, and is no longer a social networking site although they still facilitate a forum where people could still be able to communicate.

Google Buzz is scheduled to shut down permanently

The once promising social networking, microblogging and messaging tool from Google integrated into the company's web-based email program, Gmail, is scheduled for permanent shut down on or after November 14.

Buzz was one of those Google products since Wave that had been perceived as Google's attempt to compete with social networking websites like Facebook and microblogging services like Twitter. Unfortunately, despite the innovative features present with the service, it wasn't able to grab the attention of users using the latter services.

Among the features present on Buzz were the capability to share post publicly or privately with the inclusion of a "Like" button (similar to Facebook), Inbox Integration (Gmail), capability to share photos from popular sites, connect with sites like Twitter, Picasa, Flickr, and Google Reader, see updates in real time, and the capability to share interesting posts and weed out ones likely to skip.

Google announces on their blog that the service would permanently cease to operate, however, they are giving the option to save previous posts that enables users to migrate their buzz shout outs. Google also said that the reason why they abandon the service is so that they can focus more on the new service Google+.