Posts Tagged time
And now for something completely different
Posted by orerfireced in Articles, Google, Twitter on March 11th, 2010
Since I’ve been working on Google Reader, I’ve told a lot of my friends about how great it is. And while some of them try Reader and find it really useful, many of them aren’t interested in taking the time to get Reader set up. That’s why today, I’m happy to announce an experimental product from the Google Reader team that makes the best stuff in Reader more accessible for everyone, while giving Reader users a new way to view their feeds. It’s called Google Reader Play, and it’s a new way to browse interesting stuff on the web that’s easy to use and personalized to the things you like. Best of all, there’s no set-up required: visit google.com/reader/play to give it a try.
10,000 Hotmail Passwords Leaked Online [Email]
Posted by orerfireced in Articles, microsoft on October 6th, 2009
According to tech news site Neowin, an anonymous user posted usernames and passwords for over 10,000 Windows Live Hotmail accounts to web site PasteBin, including accounts on email domains like @hotmail.com, @msn.com, and @live.com. Neowin verified that the accounts are genuine, and that most appear to be based in Europe. Ars Technica reports, more specifically, those leaked accounts include usernames in alphabetical order beginning with the letters “ar” to “bl”. Microsoft has confirmed the leak, so if you're a Live Hotmail user and you suspect you may have been affected, now's the time to change that password. For the rest of us—well, this may serve as a reminder that it might be a good time to do a password refresh, anyway.
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10,000 Hotmail Passwords Leaked Online [Email]
Remember What Steve Said About the App Store?
We’ve been screaming and whining about the iPhone App Store for nigh on a year now and we seem to have avoided talking about one of the most obvious sources of information about the Store: Steve himself.
Harry “Long Tail” McCracken remembers what Steve said way back in the old days about the App Store.
Jobs said that Apple wouldn’t distribute porn or malicious apps or privacy-invading apps, and said that Apple’s interests and those of third-party developers were the same. The slide also mentioned “Bandwidth hogs,” which apparently meant stuff like SlingPlayer, and “Unforseen,” which I assumed at the time referred to other applications that put iPhone owners at risk in one way or another. What he didn’t do is say that Apple would reject software that competed with Apple or AT&T offerings.
This “unforeseen” section is what really bugs everyone. Google Voice, for example, could feasibly recreate some basic iPhone functionality and also act as a resource hog.
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Remember What Steve Said About the App Store?
First Look: Firefox 3.7’s New Design
It hasn’t even been a month since Firefox 3.5 was released to the masses, but Mozilla is already hard at work on Firefox 3.7. We gave you a sneak peek at what features are coming in 2010, but now we know what Firefox 3.7 may look like when it’s released.
Mozilla is known for constantly gathering feedback from its users to improve Firefox – this is why it offers multiple Firefox release candidates for download before launching the final version. So the company has turned to the web community for feedback on the preliminary design for Firefox 3.7 These screenshots, posted on the Mozilla Firefox wiki yesterday, highlight not only a cosmetic change for the browser, but at least three additional features.
In fact, Mozilla took the time to explain these three changes from the 3.5 browser, corresponding to the first screenshot below. Here’s their new feature list on the wiki:
1. Embracing Glass: Toolbar and Tabs using Glass. Buttons translucent and slightly glossy to meld with the toolbar. Raised 3D lookachieve tactile “feel”.
2. Page Button: Connect the Page button to the left side of the tab area. Directly connected to the Page.
3. Tools/Bookmark Bar: Connecting the Tools button to the side of the window to emphasize the fact that it is used for customizing and changing the UI. Adding a button next to that to toggle the Bookmarks bar which is turned off by default.
How a Denial-of-Service Attack Works
Posted by Hassan Alsheikh in Articles on July 9th, 2009
Investigators are piecing together details about one of the most aggressive computer attacks in recent memory — a powerful “denial-of-service” assault that overwhelmed computers at U.S. and South Korean government agencies, companies and institutions, in some cases for days.
How does this type of cyber attack work? And how can people make sure their computers are safe?
Here are some questions and answers about the attack.
Q: What is a “denial-of-service” attack?
A: Think about what would happen if you and all your friends called the same restaurant over and over and ordered things you didn’t even really want. You’d jam the phone lines and overwhelm the kitchen to the point that it couldn’t take any more new orders.
That’s what happens to Web sites when criminals hit them with denial-of-service attacks. They’re knocked offline by too many junk requests from computers controlled by the attackers.
The bad guys’ main weapon in such an attack is “botnets,” or networks of “zombie” personal computers they’ve infected with a virus. The virus lets the criminals remotely control innocent people’s machines, which are programmed to contact certain Web sites over and over until that overwhelms the servers that host the sites. The servers become too busy to respond to anything, and the Web site slows or stops working altogether.
It’s different from what usually happens when you try to access a Web site. Normally, you just make one request to see the site, and unless there’s a crush of traffic from something like a big news event, the servers respond well. Hijacked PCs, on the other hand, are programmed to send way more traffic than a normal user could generate on his or her own.
Q: How often do these attacks happen?
A: People try denial-of-service attacks all the time — many government and private sites report being hit every day. Often…
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How a Denial-of-Service Attack Works