Thursday, August 28, 2008

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

CERT: SSH Key-based Attacks

US-CERT is aware of active attacks against linux-based computing infrastructures using compromised SSH keys. The attack appears to initially use stolen SSH keys to gain access to a system, and then uses local kernel exploits to gain root access.

read more | digg story

Failure to guard customers' data is costly for businesses

Federal prosecutors recently busted a sophisticated hacking operation that allegedly stole more than 40 million credit- and debit-card numbers from a host of big-name retailers.

read more | digg story

Employers say pros of fantasy leagues could offset cons

With the countdown to kickoff of the 2008 football season about to hit zero, employees at companies across the country are preparing for a yearly pastime that many bosses dread: fantasy football.

read more | digg story

13 Free and Cheap Website Monitoring Services

"Everyone seems to have their own website or blog nowadays. But do you want someone else to tell you your site is down? So what do you do? Corporate IT shops can install some fancy monitoring software suite that can track hundreds of types of software, servers, ports and hardware devices."

13 Free and Cheap Website Monitoring Services

Huge iPhone Security Flaw Opens All Private Information

There's a huge security problem in the latest iPhone 2.0.2: if you have your JesusPhone password protected, using a very simple trick gives anyone full access to your cellphone private information in Mail, SMS, Contacts, and even Safari. The two-step trick is even simpler to the one used in the past to jailbreak and install unlock cards.

read more | digg story

GameStop’s PS3 Pricing Fail

Apparently paying a $50.00 premium for no factory warranty and a refurbished system is all the rage.

read more | digg story

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Google Insights for Search

"With Google Insights for Search, you can compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, and time frames."

Google Insights for Search

Keyword Forecast: Keyword Research: adCenter Labs

"This tool forecasts the impression count and predicts demographic distributions of keywords. Enter keywords separated by semi-colons and click the submit button."

Keyword Forecast: Keyword Research: adCenter Labs

Google Maps Mania: Google Map of All Olympic Medallists

"This Google Map mash-up shows where in the world all the Beijing Olympics medal winners come from. As you can see from the screen shot above there seems to be a fairly even distribution of medals around the world, although the southern tip of South America looks a little bare to me."

Google Maps Mania: Google Map of All Olympic Medallists

Marketing Moves to the Blogosphere

BLogging for business article.

read more | digg story

Google AdWords Now With Real Time Quality Score, First Page

The Google AdWords blog announced three major changes happening to the AdWords marketplace. First, Google will now calculate the quality score of your keywords at the time of the search query.

read more | digg story

Monday, August 25, 2008

The Dvorak Keyboard and You

"The standard 'QWERTY' keyboard was not designed with ease of typing in mind. Rather, it was designed to keep early typewriters from jamming. 130 years later, in the age of computers, people are still using this awkward, inefficient keyboard layout. Few know that there is a much faster, easier, more efficient, and more comfortable alternative: the Dvorak (pronounced 'duh VOR ak') keyboard."

The Dvorak Keyboard and You

Connected, Yes, but Hermetically Sealed

Our digital devices are like chains with which we have bound ourselves, losing much of our solitude and our ability to see the world around and inside us.- unless you shut them off when you are NOT at work.

read more | digg story

Can Hollywood Help LinkedIn?

As LinkedIn struggles to remain relevant in an ever more socially networked world, the Internet company has found a constituency that might need its help. (I say stick to business, Myspace has entertainment and facebook has education)

read more | digg story

What's New at MySpace (music, rss, blogs)

With Facebook surging, cofounders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson have gone back to their roots -- music, pop culture, and a proven cash-flow ad model -- to spur a next phase of growth. Will that be enough for boss Rupert Murdoch?

read more | digg story

Yahoo mixes old and new in Internet-age news service - Yahoo! News

"SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Yahoo is building an Internet-age news service, leveraging its global audience of a half-billion people to win exclusive interviews with world leaders.
Unlike websites that just aggregate news stories plucked from the Internet, Yahoo is cutting content deals with wire services and other 'traditional' outlets as well as investing in a bullpen of its own reporters."

Yahoo mixes old and new in Internet-age news service - Yahoo! News

Avenue A Deal Could Give WPP, Microsoft What They Really Want

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Almost six months after the companies started talking, WPP and Microsoft have reopened talks that could have the software company unloading Avenue A/Razorfish.

read more | digg story

Friday, August 22, 2008

Frisco Grocer adding stores, back office in Collin Co. - Dallas Business Journal:

"Frisco Specialty grocer Market Street is building a new location in Plano and creating a regional headquarters at its forthcoming Frisco location, as it prepares to fan out about 15 new stores locally during the next five years."

Grocer adding stores, back office in Collin Co. - Dallas Business Journal::

Frisco Grocery Store, Market Street store to create 300 jobs

A Frisco Gourmet/Grocery Store - Market Street store to create 300 jobs in Frisco when their new store opens Wednesday. website is www.marketstreetfrisco.com

read more | digg story

The Linear Algebra Behind Search Engines

- if you want to know how i view search engines, this is part of it... - paisley

"In this module, you will learn about the field of information retrieval and the basic components of search engines. We will focus on one particular search engine model, the Vector Space Model, which incorporates basic concepts from linear algebra. We will also discuss a more advanced vector space model, Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), which uses even more linear algebra to improve search results."

MathDL | The Linear Algebra Behind Search Engines:

ComScore: Google Still Leads Search - 08/22/2008

"ComScore's monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the U.S. search marketplace indicates that in July 2008, U.S. users conducted 11.8 billion core searches (up 2% vs. June) as Google Sites slightly extended its lead in core search market share by 0.4 percentage points.
Google Sites led the U.S. core search market in July with 61.9% of the searches conducted--up from 61.5% in June, followed by Yahoo Sites (20.5%), Microsoft Sites (8.9%), Ask Network (4.5%), and AOL LLC (4.2%)."


MediaPost Publications - ComScore: Google Still Leads Search - 08/22/2008:

Gamers - They Don't Just Play Games In Real Life - 08/22/2008

"Historically, we have thought of the 'gamer' as a male between the ages of 10 and 24. But industry experts know that this demo has been changing for quite some time, especially in the area of casual games, which are easily accessible, often free and not necessarily time-consuming. According to a report from the Casual Games Association, a significant portion of the 150 million users worldwide are women over 30: 'What that suggests rather clearly is that casual games have succeeded in expanding the overall electronic games market, creating greater gender balance than could ever be achieved by the first-person shooter and massively popular multi-player PC and console games.'"

MediaPost Publications - They Don't Just Play Games In Real Life - 08/22/2008:

Facebook - Show Me The Money: Facebook Tests Engagement Ads

"In what it calls the latest 'evolution' of its ad model, Facebook is testing a new set of ads aimed at boosting click-throughs and further tapping into the social graph on behalf of marketers."

MediaPost Publications - Show Me The Money: Facebook Tests Engagement Ads - 08/22/2008:

Friday, August 15, 2008

comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 U.S. Web Properties for July 2008

comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 U.S. Web Properties for July 2008: "comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 U.S. Web Properties for July 2008.

- Travel Sites Continue to See Strong Gains During Summer Months

- Retail, Movie and Entertainment News Sites Keep Americans Entertained During July"

Privacy Suit Against Facebook Faces Hurdles - 08/15/2008

"Late last year, when Massachusetts resident Sean Lane bought a diamond ring for his wife on Overstock.com, it didn't remain a secret for long. News of the purchase--meant to be a surprise--was sent to more than 700 of his Facebook friends, thanks to the new Beacon ad platform.

At the time, Lane complained to the press that his Christmas had been ruined. Now, he's complaining to a judge."

MediaPost Publications - Privacy Suit Against Facebook Faces Hurdles - 08/15/2008

Thursday, August 14, 2008

MySpace Still Handily Beating Facebook In The U.S.

News Corp.'s (NWS) MySpace attracted 75 million U.S. unique visitors in July, up 2.5 million from June, according to comScore. Facebook, meanwhile, attracted 39 million visitors in July, up 1.7 million from June.

read more | digg story

7 ways SEO consultants rip off their clients - iMediaConnection.com

"Think the days of unscrupulous SEO 'experts' are gone? Think again. Here's a list of techniques being used to scam clients out of money."

7 ways SEO consultants rip off their clients - iMediaConnection.com

- an excellent article on what you should be getting from your SEO people.

Are you TOO connected to Social Media?

You’ve just figured out how to post on YouTube, and the amount of friend requests on your MySpace page has tripled. You’re becoming a social media juggernaut, but can you avoid the darker sides of being totally connected? This August, the Top 6 List examines the pitfalls of social media.

read more | digg story

Google Facing Third 'Parked Domain' Suit - 08/14/2008

MediaPost Publications - Google Facing Third 'Parked Domain' Suit - 08/14/2008: "For the third time this summer, Google has been hit with a fraud lawsuit stemming from its parked domain program, which serves pay-per-click ads on otherwise empty Web pages."

Facebook: #1 Globally

They day has finally come. The social network site has vaulted over rival MySpace in worldwide audience growth, thanks to tools that translate content into many languages.

read more | digg story

Mobile Caller ID - Phone Smart - Oft-Repeated and So Unromantic - ‘You’re Breaking Up’ - NYTimes.com

"¶Mobile phones will display the number of the incoming caller, but unless you recognize the number, that’s little help. Privus Mobile recently introduced a new caller ID service for cellphone users that looks much like that of conventional landline services. For about $8 a month, the Privus will identify about 95 percent of incoming callers. The only hitch: it works with a limited number of smartphones. See the list on www.privusmobile.com."
Phone Smart - Oft-Repeated and So Unromantic - ‘You’re Breaking Up’ - NYTimes.com:

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

18 Ways to Power Search Google

Google power users know the tricks, and they aren’t hard to pick up at all. Using Google’s built in features helps you find what you’re looking for faster, and that’s always a good thing. Here’s 18 ways to power search Google that you can use today to improve your Google experience.

read more | digg story

When You're Here, You're Family -- But What About a Playboy Model?

When You're Here, You're Family -- But What About a Playboy Model? - WSJ.com: "Kendra Wilkinson, a Playboy cover model, television star and one of Hugh Hefner's three live-in girlfriends, professes deep love for the Olive Garden Italian restaurant chain.
The feeling isn't mutual."

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Social Network Gender and Age Study - Demographics of social networks.

Digging through Rapleaf’s study on gender and age in social networks | mininglabs

Google Market Share

Hitwise Intelligence - Heather Dougherty - US: Google’s share of US searches hits 70%: "for July (the four weeks ending July 26, 2008); Google reached a new milestone and accounted for 70.77 percent of all U.S. searches. Google’s share of searches increased 10% over the same month last year and 2% over the previous month. Yahoo! Search, MSN Search (including Live.com), and Ask followed with 18.65%, 5.36%, and 3.53% share of searches, respectively."

Google's yahoo! deal rankles

In the next month, the DoJ is slated to decide whether to block the deal Google struck with Yahoo! to serve ads on some of its search results pages. - a good article on what it's going to take.

read more | digg story

The AOL flub has analysts revisiting Google

San Francisco Chronicle article diggs into latest thinking going on at Google. What is Google's strategy beyond Search and should Google stay focused on what they do best? (They are... EVERYTHING they do relates to search , fyi...)

read more | digg story

Coordinated Russia vs Georgia cyber attack


Russia v. Georgia attack started on the technological front. (US did this to Iraq prior to first bombing, i think it was 9pm our time on march 9th, right?)



read more | digg story

Monday, August 11, 2008

Steve Jobs: confirms kill switch, 60M iPhone apps downloaded

Steve Jobs, presumably speaking from a hyperbaric chamber where he's being nourished with an infusion of liquified developer-souls before his next public appearance, had a few interesting tidbits about the AppStore for the Wall Street Journal this morning.

read more | digg story

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Avenue A/Razorfish Socializes Banners

Avenue A/Razorfish is testing new Web display units that weave the social-media features popular on many sites directly into banner ads.

read more | digg story

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Linkbait, Passion, Fluff and Mixing it Up: Reflections on Co

Today I want to tell you the story of a blogger whose problem that he was too good at getting on the front page of Digg. (- post good stuff you like or post stuff just or traffic.. me? i post stuff i have an interest in)

read more | digg story

Tweet Pro Social Media Software, Pass or Fail?

This morning Sozialize, new social media software, founded by Cesar Serna’s company, Serna Media, Inc. released its first product to the world, Tweet Pro. The newest in an army of Twitter applications, Tweet Pro is rather unique with its advanced features and the Serna-certified stamp of perfection.

read more | digg story

How to gain (targeted) followers on Twitter with Tweet Pro

Michael Gray writes an review of TweetPro and how to use it on Twitter for social marketing.

read more | digg story

An Actual “Non Big Brand” Twitter Case Study

One of the BEST articles I have read on business usage of twitter, viral marketing and social media.. period.

read more | digg story

Google Insights for Search Launches

Google sharing more data... who what when and where of search

read more | digg story

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Top SEO Firms Paid for by the Following...

a great article about some of the "TOP SEOS"... u know the ones that say we are ranked X or have the award "best seo" etc.... pay for an award.. the problem, the client doesn't know you paid for it. it's credibility in an industry where there is no litmus test.

read more | digg story

Mobile Caller Id for People you don't know.

Mobile Caller ID - Since my home phone is now my cell phone, it's good to be able to see who is calling, even if i have never talked to them before.

read more | digg story

Few, proud and social, Marines use Social Networking

Few, proud and social - DMNews: "For the US Marine Corps, social networking is nothing new. The few and the proud have a long history of coming back from travels and conquests to tell stories to friends and family. So it is only natural that the Marine Corps now uses social networking as a big part of its Internet marketing efforts to attract new recruits."

Behind Nike's Lawsuit Lies a Branding Story

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- There's a fight brewing over the lightweight, wicking apparel technology known as Dri-Fit -- but the battle is about search marketing and the right to bid on trademarked terms.

read more | digg story

Daily Online Examiner » Blog Archive » Digital Rights Groups Fight Criminal Fraud Case

Daily Online Examiner » Blog Archive » Digital Rights Groups Fight Criminal Fraud Case: "A coalition of law professors and digital rights groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation is asking a judge to dismiss the case against Lori Drew, the Missouri resident facing criminal computer fraud charges related to the suicide of 13-year-old Megan Meier."

Monday, August 04, 2008

FTC-South Toll Road - Stop the Toll Road: Overview of the FTC-South toll road

FTC-South Toll Road is BAD! Don't DESTROY the BEACH! VOTE NO!!!

Stop the Toll Road: Overview of the FTC-South toll road: "FTC-South Toll Road:

The proposed Foothill Transportation Corridor South (FTC-South) is a sixteen miles long, toll road highway that, if constructed as planned, will substantially degrade San Onofre State Beach (home to the famous Trestles surf breaks)"

Foothill Transportation Corridor South (FTC-South) - Save Trestles, the TRUTH about the toll road

California VOTE NO! on Foothill Transportation Corridor South (FTC-South),
Save Trestles, the TRUTH about the toll road: "Foothill Transportation Corridor South (FTC-South)"

Carl Icahn still sucks and so does Live Search?

(Clueless) Insider Eric Jackson believes that it's only "the second inning" in the revival of Yahoo. He expects Microsoft to return with yet another merger proposition for Yahoo next year because Microsoft still needs big help in online services. - Jerry.. please fire this guy first.. "umm.. what do i type for search"

read more | digg story

Web 3.0??? - Eric Schmidt, Web 2.0 vs. Web 3.0

Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, gives a great 2 minute explanation of Web 3.0

read more | digg story

You're on Twitter. Now what? Here's help

Austin American State'sman Beginner's Article for Twitter.

read more | digg story

Yahoo Shortcuts Causes Associated Press Blunder

Google and Yahoo have been known to show inappropriate images or content algorithmically and by accident within their own properties. But this may be one of the first major reports, outside of AdSense or Yahoo Publisher Network), where Yahoo has been faulted for showing inappropriate images or content on a third-party web site.

read more | digg story

Friday, August 01, 2008

Travelers' Laptops May Be Detained At Border

Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop computer or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.

read more | digg story

Husband 'murdered wife before killing himself' after she con

A husband is believed to have murdered his wife before killing himself after she told friends on Facebook they were splitting up, it emerged yesterday. Tracey Grinhaff's body was found in a shed in the back garden of the family home she shared with her husband, Gary, and their two young daughters, aged 14 and four

read more | digg story