Chief Security Officer at facebook has told CNET News that a Georgian Blogger was the target in the attack on Thursday. This blogger uses an account name “Cyxymu” and has an account on multiple social networking sites. These are his accounts on Twitter, facebook, Livejournal, YouTube. Why was he targeted? Anti-Russian views of the blogger could be a potential reason. Though, except twitter and LiveJournal all the other services were able to handle the attack. It is still to be determined whether this was Distributed Denial Of Service (DDoS) Attack or an attack caused by a torrent of spam E-Mails having a common link.
In case of DDoS the hacker computer hijacks several (1000+ in this case) computers which in turn are instructed by the hacker to visit a particular web page all at the same time. This bars most of the legitimate traffic from coming in.
E-Mail spam sends a commom link (of the targeted site) to redirect huge amount of traffic to a particular page. Facebook CSO has denied the potential of E-Mail spam stating
“It’s unlikely that there would be enough recipients — all clicking on the URLs at the same time — to bring a site down”
UPDATE : Twitter is again down at some places and working slowly at others.
Follow-Up
Google (more info) is in the process of acquiring a video compression company On2 Technologies (more info) formally known as The Duck Corporation. The deal is expected to be done by Q4 after approval from On2 share holders. On2 is a leader in video compression technologies and power high-quality video in both desktop and mobile applications. The deal is worth $106.5 million. Here is what Sundar Pichai, VP, Product Management, Google had to say in his blog post
“Today video is an essential part of the web experience, and we believe high-quality video compression technology should be a part of the web platform”
Now why is Google interested in this deal?
1). This is a very strategic step by Google and this deal shows clear ambitions of Google- It wants to own a video technology like its rivals. MS – Silverlight, Apple – Quicktime, Adobe – Flash.
2). On2’s video compression technologies VP8 is considered a very close competitor H.264 and this could boost YouTube and make it much smoother. Android (more info) and the upcoming Chrome OS could also benefit hugely from this deal.
3). Google might also open source video codecs standards of On2 which could make it more acceptable than H.264.
Follow-Up
Google CEO, Eric Schmidt (more info) has resigned from Apple’s Board of Directors. Steve Jobs (more info)said in a press release
“Eric has been an excellent Board member for Apple, investing his valuable time, talent, passion and wisdom to help make Apple successful, Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple’s Board.”
This has come as no surprise after the way events have been unfolding for the past 1 month – Google Chrome OS then Apple rejecting Google Apps then FCC’s enquiry in to the matter. I am wondering what Steve must have said to Eric, in a typical Godfather style “This is not personal Eric, strictly business, I always loved you”. Finally both Google and Apple have found some one more evil than M$ – each other.
The era of “Google Vs Apple” has begun. What next? Google Maps?
Follow-Up
Federal Communications Commission – FCC (more info) has sent a letter to Apple, AT&T and Google asking all the 3 parties to give reason for the rejection of Google Voice App and removal of related third-party applications. The Dow Jones newswire reports that this is the part on the ongoing investigation into wireless handsets. FCC has asked some chilling questions and here are the
“Why did Apple reject the Google Voice application for iPhone and remove related third-party applications from its App Store?”
“Did Apple act alone, or in consultation with AT&T”
“Please provide a description of the proposed Google Voice application for iPhone.”
“What explanation was given (if any) for Apple’s rejection of the Google Voice Application?”
“What role, if any, did AT&T play in Apple’s consideration of the Google Voice and related applications?”
“Did Apple consult with AT&T in the process of deciding to reject the Google Voice application?”
Here is copy of the letters sent to the 3 parties.
FCC deserves a standing ovation here. It has acted in best interested of all consumers. FCC save us from AT&T and Apple. Please.
Follow-Up
WSJ has reported that Apple (more info) is planning to attend this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) (more info). Gary Shapiro, chief executive of CES was spotted saying in a dinner party hosted by him that Apple plans to attend the show for the 1st time next year. He also said that he tried contacting Steve Jobs (more info) to keynote the show but Jobs did not return his call. Other star speakers at CEC are Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Intel CEO Paul Otellini. Meanwhile engadget editor Ryan Block has conflicted. He claims that he was himself present at the dinner party of Shapiro and at no point did he even hint that Apple was planning to attend CES. In fact Block says
“at one point, someone asked if, hypothetically, Apple did want to attend CES, whether the CEA could accommodate them. Gary said flatly that if pressed, they might be able to come up with a small 2,000 square foot booth, but they couldn’t do anything, say, Microsoft-sized on such short notice.”
Meanwhile Steve was photographed (with Jon Ive) leaving Apple’s Cupertino headquarters yesterday. This is his 1st public photograph since January.
Follow-Up
Apple (more info) has rejected another iPhone App from Google. This time the axe has fallen on Google-Voice App because Apple thinks it has “duplicate features that come with the iPhone”. Earlier Apple rejected the ‘Latitude’ iPhone App. A Google spokesperson has told TechCrunch
“We work hard to bring Google applications to a number of mobile platforms, including the iPhone. Apple did not approve the Google Voice application we submitted six weeks ago to the Apple App Store. We will continue to work to bring our services to iPhone users — for example, by taking advantage of advances in mobile browsers.”
It is difficult to speculate why Apple rejected this – on behest of AT&T (AT&T’s business could be directly affected by Google-Voice) OR was the App not following guidelines (difficult) OR is this just one of the things after Chrome OS? But Apple’s attitude is certainly something to worry about. Google-Voice by all means is a revolutionary idea and denying an app for that can not be justified (yes, even by Apple fan boys). This just reminds me of IBM in early 80’s and how Steve came out with that famous 1984 Super Bowl Ad. Apple now needs similar treatment.
Follow-Up
Financial Times has reported that Apple (more info) is working with 4 record giants – EMI, Sony Music,Warner and Universal Music Group to come out with the much talked about Tablet (a larger form of iPod Touch) by September. What FT means by this report is that Apple has plans to further monetize iTunes (more info) by providing the most innovative solution to listing music till date.
“Apple wants to make bigger purchases more compelling by creating a new type of interactive album material, including photos, lyric sheets and liner notes that allow users to click through to items that they find most interesting.”
Two more things which are important in FT’s report are
A PDF reader
“It’s not just a bunch of PDFs, there’s real engagement with the ancillary stuff.”
A reinvented way to watch movies.
“It’s going to be fabulous for watching movies,”
PDF reader could be a real thread to Amazon’s 3rd rated E-Book reader Kindle (more info). Fabulous for watching movies? Now, if this is coming then it has to be some real creative stuff because the media industry has not seen anything innovative in the way videos are watched after the Media Player.
Follow-Up
We would like to express our apologies for not updating you for 3 days. All the 3 of us here were somehow hooked up with some personal problems. In future we will make sure that we provide you with uninterrupted updates and such voids will be avoided to the most.
Just a quick update: Have a look at our recently updated “About” page and if you are a tech blogger too then we might just be able to help each other!
cya guys!
Right from the starting of this year facebook (more info) is nervous about Twitter (more info). First it unsuccessfully tried to buy twitter, then redesigned the profile page to look more like twitter, then rolled out vanity URL, added an “Every one button”, and all this will facilitate what? It helps improve their real time search! Facebook is trying too hard to be like Twitter. Today comes one more addition to the list – Facebook now allows you to change your username in the URL, but only once. When facebook rolled out vanity URL last month it specifically stated “choose wisely” because you cannot change it. After the Twitter documents leaked out we learnt that even Twitter considers facebook as the biggest thread and that it fears that facebook will keep copying its functionalities. Facebook can never be like Twitter. It is a social network and social network are meant to have a layer of privacy. That layer will not let facebook jump too high in the real time search arena unless facebook forgets why it is facebook. But allowing one time user name change is good! I am done.
Follow-Up
Apple iPods (more info) are smoking, catching fire, smouldering and bursting into flames right from 2005. But Apple has tried to suppress the news by telling every victim “yours is an isolated incident”. As many as 15 iPods are reported to have cough fire (obviously many incidents would have never been reported). According to KIRO7TVit has finally got access to the 800 page document that contains a detailed report of all the reported incidents. Here is one of them
“I was so frustrated because frankly, they didn’t care. They didn’t care that my child was burned. They didn’t care that my child was burned. They didn’t care about the possibilities that other children were burned.”
More of it here, here, here and here
According to KIRO 7 TV It took them 7-months to gain access to the documents from US Consumer Product Safety Commission because “Apple’s lawyers filed exemption after exemption”.
This is probably because of the poor quality of the lithium-ion battery in iPods. But the important thing is why hasn’t Apple rectified the problem if they are aware of it from such a long time? This is cheap.
Follow-Up
KIRO-TV : Apple Downplays Fiery iPod Incidents by Amy Clancy
MacRumors: Apple Legal Reportedly Hinders Reporter’s Investigation of iPods Catching Fire by Eric Slivka
Ars Technica: Flaming iPod complaints released after Apple stonewalling by Jacqui Cheng
Silicon Alley Insider: Apple Lawyers Tried To Cover-Up Exploding iPod Stories, Says Reporter by Preethi Dumpala
Hardware 2.0: Apple lawyers tried to hush up exploding iPod reports by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
