Bill Gates has joined Twitter and can be found @BillGates. His first “Hello World” tweet was made just three hours ago, but he has already managed to attract over 5,000 followers and has been included in 226 lists. Since then he has retweeted twice and written one more original tweet.
To clear up any doubt that this is in fact the real Bill Gates, the account has been verified by Twitter and displays a “Verified Account” badge.
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– January 19, 2010
A Daily News story claims that Twitter helped to get permission for a plane to land in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince on Sunday. The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) plane was initially denied permission to land at the crowded airport despite previous guarantees by the United Nations and the United States Department of Defense. MSF tweeted about the situation, prompting Twitter users to send a barrage of messages to the United States Air Force Twitter account pleading that the plane, which contained MSF staff and a full hospital, be accommodated. The Air Force replied to many of the people personally, saying that “[They’re] working it right now. More to follow…”. The plane then received permission to land, three and a half hours after MSF’s initial tweet.
Was it the pleas of many Twitter users messaging @usairforce that caused the Air Force to change its decision and allow the plane to land? No. And the people making the pleas, who were only trying to help the situation in Haiti, were not fully briefed on what was surely a complex situation.
What it does show, however, is the ability and willingness of people to rally once again around a good cause on Twitter. This was most notably demonstrated when Twitter users rallied in support of protesters in Iran last year. It also shows how Twitter can help people at home communicate with those on scene, with both MSF and the Air Force communicating with Twitter users.
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– January 19, 2010
After it was revealed that cyber attacks targeting Google and other businesses were exploiting a previously unknown vulnerability in Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8, the German Federal Office for Information Security recommended that IE users to switch to an alternative browser until Microsoft patches the vulnerability. Today, the French government, through a statement released by CERTA, has also suggested that people use another browser for the time being.
Microsoft has stated that while all three versions of Internet Explorer are vulnerable, changes in IE7, IE8, Windows XP with Service Pack 3, Windows Vista and Windows 7 mitigate the risk. The changes that make these versions of IE and Windows less vulnerable to the exploit are outlined in the table below:
People using Windows Vista or Windows 7 are less vulnerable because those operating systems come with IE8 pre-installed and include other security measures, leaving only Windows XP users that have not updated to Service Pack 3 prone to the exploit. Microsoft does, however, state that this information is based only on the attacks that they have witnessed thus far and from the samples of the exploit code that have been made public today. It has recommended that IE6 users on Windows XP upgrade to a newer version of IE and enable DEP, and also that Windows XP users upgrade to a newer version of Windows.
Technical details about the exploit can be found on Microsoft’s Security Research & Defense blog.
Internet Explorer 6 still commands between 11 percent (according to W3Counter) to 21 percent (according to Net Applications) of the global browser market despite being superseded by IE7 in 2006. The browser’s lack of modern security features has made it the frequent target of malware. Its prevalence has also forced web developers to ensure that their websites can be viewed correctly with IE6, which does not comply with newer web standards. In 2009, the IE6 No More campaign attracted 72 websites, including several high-profile ones, that agreed to display a notice for visitors using IE6 that urged them to upgrade to a modern browser. However, the death of IE6 is still far away and Microsoft will need to issue a speedy patch to fix the vulnerability.
[Table from Security Research & Defense]
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– January 18, 2010
Google has announced that it is offering free calls to Haiti for the next two weeks to allow Google Voice users in the United States to contact their friends and family in Haiti. As long as you have a Google Voice account you can take advantage of this, it does not matter what mobile carrier or telephone company you are using.
T-Mobile is also offering free calls to and from Haiti until the end of the month for customers.
Mobile phone users on all major networks can donate $10 to the Red Cross to assist victims in Haiti by sending an SMS to “90999” that reads “HAITI”. These donations will then be charged to your next phone bill. According to TechCrunch, $10 million has already been raised via SMS in the United States alone.
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– January 15, 2010
T-Mobile has announced that it is waiving long distance charges from calls to and from Haiti, effective retroactively from 12 January 2010 until 31 January 2010. Customers are also able to roam without additional charges in Haiti on T-Mobile’s partner networks. T-Mobile has also committed to helping rebuild communications infrastructure in Haiti, pledging to donate wireless equipment.
Mobile phone users on all major networks can donate $10 to the Red Cross to assist victims in Haiti by sending an SMS to “90999” that reads “HAITI”. These donations will then be charged to your next phone bill. According to TechCrunch, $10 million has already been raised via SMS in the United States alone.
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– January 15, 2010
The price that all T-Mobile customers that are eligible for a phone upgrade pay for the Nexus One has been reduced from $379 to $279. Customers that bought the phone for $379 will receive a $100 refund.
The price of a Nexus One for new T-Mobile customers that sign a two-year contract remains $179 and the price of the phone without a contract remains $529.
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– January 15, 2010
When Google launched its localized service in China, Google.cn, in January 2006 it agreed to censor search results as requested by the Chinese government, but it is now reconsidering that decision following cyber attacks originating in China that attempted to gain access to human rights activists’ Gmail accounts. According a post on Google’s blog, it witnessed a large-scale attack in December that attempted to gain access to the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. These attacks largely failed, with only two accounts believed to have been hacked and with only minimal information from these accounts being made available to hackers. As part of its investigation into the attacks, Google has also uncovered many accounts belonging to users based in the United States, China and Europe who advocate human rights in China which have been accessed by third parties. However, access to these accounts was not gained as a result of the aforementioned attacks, but rather by the use of phishing scams and malware. In response, Google has made security improvements to better protect its users.
These attacks and the investigation that followed have led Google to change its censorship policy. Over the next few weeks, it will be discussing the possibility of operating a censorship-free search engine with the Chinese government. If that is not possible, Google.cn will be shut down.
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– January 12, 2010
A few weeks after gaining access to Twitter’s DNS records, the group calling itself Iranian Cyber Army has hacked Baidu, the most popular search engine in China, earlier today. The domain name was redirected to a website (a screenshot of which can be seen to the right) containing a message in Persian and featuring the group’s usual message of “This site has been hacked by Iranian Cyber Army”.
Baidu was able to quickly secure and correct their DNS records and the real site is gradually being brought up, with some users reporting that they can see it while others still cannot.
Little is known about Iranian Cyber Army, its members and its motives.
[Image via The Next Web]
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– January 11, 2010
The 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has concluded and CNET has announced the recipients of its Best of CES Awards. Taking home the prestigious Best in Show Award is Panasonic with its VT25 3D HD plasma television series.
While several companies announced 3D HD televisions at CES, the VT25 series will be one of only two, the other being Sony’s XBR-LX900 series, that will include a pair of 3D glasses. The VT25 will also feature a LC shutter system that preserves all pixels on its 1080p display for each eye, providing a “full HD 3D” experience. However, unlike its competitors, Panasonic has not announced a 2D to 3D converter and instead only displays 3D effects with true 3D video. Both Panasonic and Sony have announced 3D Blu-ray players at CES which will be able to display such video.
View the award recipients in the other categories on CNET.
[Image via CNET]
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– January 11, 2010
Apple has released Safari 4.0.4. The update includes stability, performance and security improvements:
- “Improved JavaScript performance
- Improved Full History Search performance for users with a large number of history items
- Stability improvements for 3rd-party plug-ins, the search field and Yahoo! Mail”
If you have not yet been prompted to update, manually run Software Update.
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– November 12, 2009
