Gawkwire: Web Hosting and Internet News Resource

Why Social Networks Only Pretend To Protect You

2009-12-28T06:12:00-05:00

Editor’s note: The following guest post was written by Rohit Khare, the co-founder of Angstro. Building his latest project, social address book Knx.to, gives him a deep familiarity with the privacy policies of all the major social networks.

(TechCrunch) I’d be wishing everyone a happier New Year if it were easier to mail out greeting cards to friends on Facebook and colleagues on LinkedIn. I’d like to use knx.to, our free, real-time social address book, but their ‘privacy’ policies prevent us from downloading contact information, even for my own friends.

At least those Terms of Service (ToS) that force us to copy addresses and phone numbers one-by-one also prevent scoundrels from stealing our identity; reselling our friends to marketers; and linking our life online to the real world. Right?

Wrong. When RockYou can stash 32 million passwords in the clear; when RapLeaf can index 600 million email accounts; and when Intelius can go public by buying 100 million profile pages; then our social networks have traded away our privacy for mere “privacy theater.”

With apologies to Bruce Schneier’s brilliant coinage, “security theater” (e.g. the magical thinking behind forcing passengers to sit down and shut up for the last hour of international flights), social networks have been dogged by one disaster after another in 2009 because they pursue policies that provide the “feeling of improved privacy while doing little or nothing to actually improve privacy.”

As long as the same information that social networks piously prohibit their own customers from using is being bought and sold on the open market by giant marketing companies, social networks are only pretending to protect your privacy. ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/technology/why_social_networks_only_pretend_to_protect_you.html

Last two weeks for HostingCon 2010 Super Early Bird savings

2009-12-22T06:32:00-05:00

(HostingCon) Haven’t registered for HostingCon 2010 in Austin, Texas yet? Time is running out for massive savings!

There are less than two weeks remaining for you to take advantage of Super Early Bird rates and save up to $240 on your conference registration. Below is how much you can save on each HostingCon 2010 registration type:

- Full conference registration with lunch saves $240 on the regular registration rate

- Full conference registration without lunch also saves $240 on the regular registration rate

- Single day conference registration (either Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday) saves $120 on the regular registration rate

- Exhibits only conference registration saves $40 on the regular registration rate

Remember, Super Early Bird savings for HostingCon 2010 disappear forever after December 31, 2009.

http://www.gawkwire.com/events_html/last_two_weeks_for_hostingcon_2010_super_early_bird_savings.html

Yelp Walks Away From Google Deal

2009-12-20T04:07:00-05:00

(TechCrunch) Jeremy Stoppleman, the CEO of Yelp, has walked away from an all-but-signed deal to be acquired by Google for more than half a billion dollars.

The deal was, as we wrote late last week, in the later stages of negotiation. The two companies had agreed on a price – around $550 million plus earnouts – and were working through the final details of the acquisition.

Then something happened that made Yelp reconsider the deal. Over the weekend they notified Google that they were not going to sell, say multiple sources. ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/yelp_walks_away_from_google_deal.html

Twitter Hacked, Defaced By “Iranian Cyber Army”

2009-12-17T17:22:00-05:00

(TechCrunch) We’ve received multiple tips right around 10 pm that Twitter was hacked and defaced with the message below. The site was offline for a while.

We’re looking into this and awaiting on a response from Twitter.

The message read:

Iranian Cyber Army

THIS SITE HAS BEEN HACKED BY IRANIAN CYBER ARMY

iRANiAN.CYBER.ARMY@GMAIL.COM

U.S.A. Think They Controlling And Managing Internet By Their Access, But THey Don’t, We Control And Manage Internet By Our Power, So Do Not Try To Stimulation Iranian Peoples To….

NOW WHICH COUNTRY IN EMBARGO LIST? IRAN? USA?
WE PUSH THEM IN EMBARGO LIST
Take Care.

Update: – We have just found out that the same defacement is appearing at at least one other site, mawjcamp.org. We are not able to see what was at this domain before, but it is now displaying the same defacement that Twitter was only a few minutes ago.

Twitter does not have the best record with security issues. We have previously covered a number of incidents, and as recently as two months ago their web servers were misconfigured to reveal detailed internal network information. We also previously wrote about their admin interface having a password of ‘password’ on one account, and the well-known Twitter doc incident. It was hoped that with the hiring of a new COO, Dick Costolo, as well as a number of other high-level engineers, including security experts, that Twitter had grown out of the phase of being vulnerable to security incidents on such a large scale.

We do not know a lot about the group claiming responsibility for the attack as we haven’t heard their name before and they do not show up in any defacement mirrors or security sites. Similar Iranian groups were active during the election campaign in that country. We have emailed the group (they were kind enough to leave an address on the defacement) for a comment (also added them on Gchat – worth a shot). ...Follow Updates

http://www.gawkwire.com/web_hosting/twitter_hacked_defaced_by_iranian_cyber_army.html

Craigslist Unclogs Yahoo Pipes

2009-12-17T06:39:00-05:00

(TechCrunch) Two weeks ago we wrote about the story of developer Romy Maxwell, who had built a Craigslist mashup using Yahoo Pipes. A few weeks after sending his app to Craigslist founder Craig Newmark (who forwarded it to other members of the Craigslist team), the world’s largest classifieds site blocked Maxwell’s app. And then it blocked every other application built on Yahoo, much to the chagrin of many developers. Tonight, Craigslist has ended its ban of Yahoo Pipes, according to a tweet from Craigslist (and former Yahoo) employee Jeremy Zawodny.

While Craigslist was initially quiet about the ban (it didn’t warn developers at all), CEO Jim Buckmaster did write a blog post the next day explaining the site’s rationale: ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/technology/craigslist_unclogs_yahoo_pipes.html

Get Push Notifications When Your Site Goes Down

2009-12-16T06:19:00-05:00

(Pingdom) When Apple introduced push notifications to the iPhone this summer, we immediately thought of what a great match it would be for our monitoring service. After all, the main point of the Pingdom uptime monitoring service is getting alerts when your website or server goes down.

So, when we started work on version 2.0 of our iPhone app, this was one of our top priorities. Now the new version is here, with push notifications, graphs, and more.

Downtime alerts as iPhone push notifications
We’ve already made it possible for you to get down/up alerts from Pingdom via email, SMS and Twitter. Starting today, as version 2.0 of our free iPhone app goes live, you can also get alerts to your iPhone as push notifications.

Above: What the “site down” and “site back up” notificatons look like in the new app.

Graphs let you examine trends
The new Pingdom iPhone app has also added graphs that let you examine trends in the uptime, downtime and response time of your site. These graphs are similar to the ones you can access in Pingdom’s regular online control panel, but now you can play around with them right on your iPhone.

The graphs can be shown for any date range, so you can examine a specific day closely, or view trends over several months.

Other features
•View the current status (up or down) of all your monitored sites and servers.
•Customize the list of which monitored sites to show.
•Get information about each check, such as its monitoring resolution, check type (HTTP, Ping, DNS, SMTP, IMAP, POP3, TCP post, etc) and its target (URL or IP address).
It’s worth noting that the app works on both the iPhone and the iPod Touch.

Free monitoring + iPhone app = happy webmaster
The Pingdom iPhone app is free and available to all our users, both free and paid accounts. Couple the iPhone app with a free Pingdom account and you have an extremely handy, zero-cost webmaster companion.

We hope you like the new version!

Get the Pingdom iPhone app (App Store link).

http://www.gawkwire.com/technology/get_push_notifications_when_your_site_goes_down.html

Best Man Rigs Newlyweds’ Bed To Tweet During Sex.

2009-12-14T06:25:00-05:00

(TechCrunch) When a man in the UK was asked to be the best man at his friend’s wedding, he was touched. So touched, that he promised not to pull any pranks before or during the wedding. After the wedding though, that’s another story.

This man, who is choosing to stay anonymous, has set up this Twitter account for the sole purpose of automatically tweeting when the newlyweds are having sex. I’m not kidding. Read the entire tweet stream from the bottom up if you want the full story. But basically, this guy was watching his friend’s house while they went on their honeymoon and he placed a device under their mattress. This device, which is similar to the one found here, is a pressure-sensitive pad that tweets out when sexual activity starts, when it ends, the force of the “action,” and a “frenzy” rating. ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/technology/best_man_rigs_newlyweds_bed_to_tweet_during_sex_not_kidding.html

The decade's 30 biggest tech flops

2009-12-10T17:24:00-05:00

Update: After reader feedback, we've added five additional products. Thanks for all the comments.

(cnet) Here we are just days away from closing out the first decade of the 21st century, which means a lot of publications are in look-back mode, taking stock of all the good--and bad--things that happened over the last 10 years.

Before we get to the list, let's get the parameters straight. This isn't a list of all the most spectacular tech failures. I chose to exclude dot-coms, corporate debacles (AOL-Time Warner), search engines (i.e., Cuil), and assorted other Web 2.0 flame outs (I'll let Webware handle that). No, this is a roundup of gear, the stuff that turns on and off, the stuff I've been covering for almost 10 years at CNET (yes, I started in 2000).

It's also important to define just what a flop is. In my book it's simply something that was really hyped but didn't live up to its promise or expectations. And while the word "flop" has a negative connotation, we here at CNET have a lot admiration for the designers, engineers, and everybody else who put their heart and soul into bringing these products and technologies to the world. Some of them didn't deserve their fates. They were ahead of their time or just marketed poorly. Whatever the case, we appreciate the vision, risk taking, and hard work that went into creating these things.

But enough sentimentality (I meant it, really). Let's get to the biggest tech flops of the decade. If you disagree with any of them or have more to suggest, please post a comment. If we missed any clear candidates, we'll modify the list. ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/technology/the_decade_s_30_biggest_tech_flops.html

The Facebook Privacy Fiasco Begins

2009-12-10T06:19:00-05:00

(TechCrunch) Today Facebook finally started to roll out a new set of privacy controls. These tools, many months in the making, are designed to help simplify the site’s notoriously confusing privacy options. But alongside them Facebook is also rolling out a “Transition Tool” that promotes Everyone updates as the new default. In other words, Facebook is giving up its reputation as a ‘private’ social network — where the default is to restrict access to everything that is shared — in favor of something that can challenge Twitter head on. And, as I wrote last July, it may well be a disaster in the making.

Facebook is spinning the news as a win for users. They’re supposedly getting more control than ever over what they’re sharing, and it’s easier than ever to control it. But that’s not the real story. Marshall Kirkpatrick over at ReadWriteWeb has nailed it: this is Facebook’s move to push people to share with the public. ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/technology/the_facebook_privacy_fiasco_begins.html

On the HostingCon 2009 show floor with The Aldridge Company

2009-12-03T09:39:00-05:00

(HostingCon) Bryan Gregory of The Aldridge Company explains why exhibiting at HostingCon is not only valuable for meeting clients, but also for discussing and establishing partnership opportunities with other companies.

Sign up to exhibit at HostingCon 2010 today! Booth space on the exhibit hall floor and sponsorship opportunities are still available for the show in Austin, Texas. Visit the exhibiting at HostingCon 2010 page for more information, including currently available sponsorship opportunities and more exhibitor testimonials.

Interested in more video content from HostingCon? Subscribe to the HostingCon YouTube channel to be notified when new video content is posted!

http://www.gawkwire.com/video_tv/on_the_hostingcon_2009_show_floor_with_the_aldridge_company.html