SEO SMO

Google’s move to include social networking information in its searches has gotten personal.The search-engine giant has announced that, with a few tweaks, people using Google can now see search results related to friends, co-workers and other members of their social networks above all other results.

Google Social Search

The world’s largest social-networking site may prove tricky, though. Many of Facebook’s roughly 350 million users responded to Google’s addition of results from the site by tightening their privacy settings. The result is that Google — and other search engines — can only access people’s public profile pages, which usually don’t have much information.

Source: cnn.com

Racist HP Camera Tracks White People

Though fair complexion is loved by almost everyone across the globe, but the new cameras installed in HP laptops are really an example of racial discrimination besides being noisome for the Black people as the said cameras could only detect the fair people.
The cameras move with the movement of people around but only if a white person is in front of the screen. But when a black man does the same the camera does not respond by tracking him, and don’t even recognize those with even darker complexions.

The HP Company on being informed about the potential issue with the facial-tracking software included on some of its systems said that the failure might have occurred due to insufficient foreground lighting.

Source:aaj.tv

Fraud

The year 2009 was surely not one of the best years for the business world globally. The economic recession bruised companies of all sizes, big and small.

However, it was not just the adverse financial climate that made the year tough for IT cos, but also a series of scandals that followed tech companies and its employees throughout the year.

A software giant drew flak for a racial ad, another’s CEO admitted to the country’s biggest corporate fraud, a $77-million fine was imposed on the top exec of a prominent handset maker. The list is quite long. Here’s over to the 15 biggest scandals that rocked the technology world in 2009.

Satyam

India’s biggest corporate scam: Satyam:

In December 2008, Satyam CEO B Ramalinga Raju shocked the Indian IT world by admitting to have fudged the company’s account. The revelation of what was the country’s biggest corporate fraud left the company’s employees and investors in a lurch.

After months of enquiry, CBI recently filed a supplementary charge sheet against Raju and nine others, pegging the Satyam fraud at Rs 14,000 crore instead of the Rs 7800 crore that Raju had owned up to in January this year.

The additional chargesheet, however, fails to nail Raju and aides on siphoning of funds from Satyam Computer, instead saying that the investigating agency was planning to file a separate chargesheet on the allegations of funds diversion and income-tax frauds within the next few days.

The 200-page chargesheet filed in the CBI court, charged the accused of forging board resolutions and unauthorisedly obtaining loans worth Rs 1220 crore from banks as well as inflating Satyam revenues to the tune of Rs 430 crore by creating fake customers and generating fake invoices.

The chargesheet also identifies 1065 properties with a documented value of Rs 350 crore that were acquired by the Rajus with the spoils of the fraud. These include 6,000 acres of land, 40,000 sq yd of housing plots and 90,000 sq ft of built-up property.

Wipro

World Bank bans Wipro:

The World Bank published the names of all companies it bars from receiving Bank contracts. The list included three Indian firms including India’s third largest IT services provider Wipro.

It said it has barred Wipro Technologies for four years for “improper benefits to bank staff”. In 2008, World Bank banned Satyam for eight years for alleged malpractices, including bribery. The World Bank debarment was meted out for “improper benefits to bank staff” and “lack of documentation on invoices.”

Incidentally, World Bank had informed Wipro in June 2007 itself about its ineligibility to bid for the bank’s direct contracts till 2011. The bank cited a conflict of interest policy.

$5 mn for H-1B visa fraud

$5 mn for H-1B visa fraud:

The US government reportedly filed an expanded indictment against an IT services company, Visions System, for fraudulently using H-1B visas.

According to a report, the US government alleged that the New Jersey-based IT services company paid H-1B workers based on Iowa’s lower prevailing wage rates through the creation of shell firms in that state, and not the prevailing wage rates of the higher paying locations where they worked.

The report said that if federal prosecutors win their case against Visions System Group Inc, they will ask the court to approve $4.9 million in forfeited assets, an amount “representing the total amount of gross proceeds obtained as a result of offenses,” the government said.

However, this amount is a reduction from the $7.4 million the US sought from Visions Systems in its initial indictment, filed earlier this year. The reduction was not explained in court documents.

Microsoft Monopoly

Microsoft racist?

Software giant Microsoft Corp altered a photo on its website to change the race of one of the people shown in the picture.

A photo on the Seattle-based company’s US website showed two men, one Asian and one black, and a white woman seated at a conference room table. But on the website of Microsoft’s Polish business unit, the black man’s head was replaced with that of a white man. The colour of his hand remained unchanged.

The photo editing sparked criticism online. Some bloggers said Poland’s ethnic homogeneity may have played a role in changing the photo.

IBM Building

Top IBMite in corporate scam:

Leading US technology firm IBM found itself entangled in the largest-ever hedge fund insider-trading scheme involving Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam.

Robert Moffat, senior vice president and head of IBM’s systems and technology group was named as a defendant. Executives at leading chipmaker Intel Corp and management consulting firm McKinsey & Co were also implicated.

The charges, stemming from wiretaps, included accusations that Moffat passed on to hedge fund New Castle Group insider information on Advanced Micro Devices Inc, obtained through IBM’s business negotiations with the company.

He is also accused of passing on information on IBM itself ahead of the company’s quarterly results, as well as those of Sun Microsystems while IBM was looking at its books for a possible acquisition. The FBI said Moffat was one of the IBM executives conducting due diligence on Sun.

Rajaratnam is also accused of conspiring with Rajiv Goel, director of strategic investment at Intel’s investment arm, and Anil Kumar, a director of powerful management consulting firm McKinsey & Co.

Hotmail Hacking

Hotmail hacked:

In Octobe, Microsoft said that passwords belonging to some users of its Hotmail email service were exposed on an Internet site. The company did not say how many users were affected, but some reports suggested that passwords of more than 10,000 accounts were exposed.

A Microsoft spokesman said, “We are aware that some Windows Live Hotmail customers’ credentials were acquired illegally by a phishing scheme and exposed on a website.” The software company said the exposure of the passwords was not a breach of any Microsoft servers.

Ibm Building Image

IBM sues exec for joining Dell:

IBM sued its former mergers-and-acquisitions chief David Johnson to prevent him from working for Dell Inc, saying his new job violates an agreement restricting his employment with rivals.

Edward Barbini, an IBM spokesman said, “Johnson has possession of valuable confidential information and cannot undertake a senior strategy position at Dell without violating his obligations to IBM.” “Mr Johnson repeatedly received significant compensation in exchange for agreeing to non-compete provisions.”

Johnson, a 27-year IBM veteran, spent the past nine years in an “active role” overseeing mergers and acquisitions and reviewing other strategic deals, according to the lawsuit filed on May 21. Dell, the world’s second-largest market of personal computers, said it has offered Johnson a position but declined to say what his role or title would be.

Ramalinga Raju

Raju wants Satyam, again!

If Satyam scam was a shocker, this was a bigger. Seems Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju didn’t see much in his admission of over Rs 7000-crore scam. For, Raju and his family were back to claim their stake in the company. Raju and his family attempted to bid for the beleaguered IT firm, even as one of the pre-conditions for bidding was a good corporate governance track record.

The revelation that the erstwhile promoter of Satyam featured in the initial list of 141 suitors is reported to have been made by TN Manoharan, a government-nominated member on the Satyam board and former chairman of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).

Bidders who expressed an interest in Satyam were only privy to the takeover norms stipulated by the board such as a three-year-lock-in for a strategic investor and a ban on asset stripping for two years, among other things. They were, however, not given any access to the ‘virtual data room’ including the financial position as well as assets and liabilities of Satyam, once ranked the fourth-largest software exporter of the country.

The marque list of bidders included engineering firm L&T, billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, IT services firm Tech Mahindra, BK Modi-promoted Spice Group and IT services firm Cognizant Technologies.

Wipro Applying Thoughts

Wipro job scam:

Software major Wipro warned prospective job seekers against falling prey to bogus emails that offered interview calls from the company.

Wipro vice president, Talent Acquisition, Pradeep Bahirwani said that the company had come across such fradulent letters earlier too “but this time we have come across e-mails that carry the company logo and its letterhead.”

The letters signed by one Narayan Murli ask aspirants to deposit a “refundable” security deposit of Rs 4,670 in a particular account number as payment towards the interview and promised attractive salaries in the range of Rs 15,000 to Rs 65,000 a month, he said.

The e-mails were sent to job aspirants registered in different job portals informing that they had been shortlisted for interviews for various vacancies. These letters, he said, were replete with spelling mistakes and erroneous language and originated from some public domain and not from the company’s domain.

The letters stated scheduled the interview at the company’s Noida office. However, Wipro has no office in Noida.

Microsoft Google

Google, Microsoft hiring under scanner:

The US Justice Department began probe against possible collusion in hiring by Microsoft Corp, Google Inc and Yahoo Inc and several other companies.

The investigation were said to include a dozen technology companies, according to the people said to be in know of the things. The Justice Department faces the difficult task of proving that there is an explicit agreement between the companies that they wouldn’t hire employees from their rivals, said David Balto, a former antitrust attorney with the Federal Trade Commission.

The investigation added to the scrutiny of technology companies under President Barack Obama’s administration. Technology companies are often said to be trading workers as they seek to lure the best talent, and sometimes end up in conflict. In 2005, Microsoft sued Google, after the company lured away one of its officials to run a development center in China.

In January, Apple and International Business Machines Corp resolved a three-month legal battle over the hiring of IBM executive Mark Papermaster as Apple’s engineering chief.

Microsoft

Microsoft fined on pricing:

Germany’s main competition agency, the Federal Cartel Office, slapped a $12 million fine on Microsoft for imposing a retail price for its Office Home and Student 2007 software.

Microsoft said it would pay the fine to avoid a lengthy legal dispute and was reviewing its internal processes in Germany to ensure they complied with German law in future.

The Bonn-based agency said Microsoft had harmed free competition by exerting improper influence on the selling price of the software through a major chain, which was not identified in the announcement.

Face Book

Pro-rape’ scandal rocks Facebook:

Members of an elite Australian college linked to Sydney University provoked outrage after it was revealed they had set up a “pro-rape” group on social networking site Facebook.

The page, set up by mostly past and present students at the all-male residential college St Paul’s, called itself “Define Statutory” and described itself as “pro-rape and anti-consent.”

Former sex discrimination commissioner, now New South Wales state parliamentarian, Pru Goward said she understood the site was designed to “draw an analogy between rape and competing with another football team”.

“If that is a case, that they have very foolishly used the metaphor of rape to encourage people to be aggressive and competitive on the sporting field, then it shows an extreme insensitivity,” she told The Sydney Morning Herald.

Porn Warning SignGoogle slammed for porn:

Google slammed for porn:

China slammed Google China for allowing pornographic content to seep into the nation and threatened to punish the search engine.

The China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Centre (CIIRC) said in a statement that Google China’s website has not installed filters to block pornography in accordance with the laws and regulations of our nation,”

The move came after China vowed to crack down on Internet content that it deemed unhealthy, including pornography and anti-government information. Computer makers were also told by the government that all personal computers sold from July 1 must be shipped with anti-pornography software, a move that has led to widespread concern both in and outside China.

Michelle Obama Racist

Google `makes’ monkey of Michelle Obama :

Internet search giant’s image results recently created a stir when it was pointed out that the image results for US first lady Michelle Obama showed a racist image as the number one result. The result which showed Michelle as an ape women was later removed by Google.

Google later apologised for the image and also ran advertisements to explain the appearance of racist and anti-Semitic material in search results. Google Team explained, “Sometimes Google search results from the Internet can include disturbing content, even from innocuous queries.

Blackberry

$77 mn fine for BlackBerry bosses:

BlackBerry co-CEOs and top executives were collectively fined $77 million for their role in a stock option backdating controversy at the wireless communication giant.

The provincial Ontario Securities Commission, which has been investigating the two co-CEOs — Jim Balsillie and Michael Lazaridis — and other executives for their role in the controversy dating from 1996 to 2006, handed down the biggest fine in its history for financial irregularities.

It said the top bosses at BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) were not involved in the fraud but negligent in letting option backdating take place. Under the deal with the market watchdog, the two co-CEOs and a former chief financial officer will pay the bulk of $77 million in fines and legal costs for settlement of the controversy.

Stock options backdating set the grant date of RIM shares retrospectively when the stock was low, thus giving instant paper gain for top employees. The investigation also found that 12 of the 16 option grants made to the two co-CEOs between 1996 and 2006, to acquire a total of two million shares, were priced using an incorrect date.

Source:thetimesofinida.indiatimes.com

Htc Hero

HTC from Taiwan has announced the release of its next smartphone HTC HERO which is based on Android platform. It has the new user interface “Sense UI”. HTC HERO is 1st of Android based devices to support Adobe Flash. In addition, the smartphone has following features;
* It is equipped with a 3.2-inch HVGA 480 x 320 resulotion display with a special anti- fingerprints coating and Teflon coated external body
* 5 mega pixel camera with auto focus lens
* AGPS (Assisted Global Positioning System)
* Compass
* Accelerometer
* 3.5 mm output for headphone
* Customizable search buttons
* The device has 512 MB of memory, expandable through microSD card
* 288 MB RAM
* 528 MHz Processor by Qualcomm
* The Smart Phone HTC HERO will be available in Europe and Asia in this summer, its actual price is still un-known.

]]> http://www.dumree.com/tech-updates/new-android-based-smart-phone-htc-hero.html/feed 0 http://www.dumree.com/tech-updates/blackberry-buddies-up-to-game-developers.html http://www.dumree.com/tech-updates/blackberry-buddies-up-to-game-developers.html#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:24:18 +0000 admin http://www.dumree.com/?p=2359

Blackberry Buddies Game Developers

Research In Motion (RIM) on Monday announced it is making Blackberry devices friendlier to game applications, as the business-oriented smartphones try to show a more playful side.

3d Game Developer

The Canada-based mobile phone maker is enhancing Blackberry software to make it simpler for outside developers to craft 3D games and other fun programs for the devices.

“We are making it easier than ever for developers, hobbyists and content providers to build graphic-rich experiences for BlackBerry smartphones,” said RIM platform senior vice president Alan Brenner.

“These new features will help drive a multitude of engaging themes, games and applications for BlackBerry smartphone users.”

The move comes as RIM faces competition from Apple iPhones and growing ranks of smartphones based on Google-backed Android software.

IPhones have become a hot platform for mobile videogames and Android software frees third-party developers to make programs for devices.

Source:aaj.tv

Worms Infesting Computers Worldwide

A Microsoft security report released Monday warns that cyber crooks are digging into computers for weak spots to penetrate with worms — malicious software that steals control or data.
Rogue security software remained the top hacker threat to computers during the first half of this year, but the number of infections was dropping while penetrations by worms doubled, according to the Security Intelligence Report.

Worm-Infects Millions Of Computer Worldwide

We still see rogue security software in high volume but not on the rise,” Microsoft Malware Protection Center principal architect Jeff Williams told AFP. “What is on the rise is resurgence of worm activity, particularly Conficker and Taterf.”

Worms are programmed to replicate themselves, wriggling from machine to machine by hiding in legitimate applications or piggy-backing on USB drives or other portable data storage devices.

Rogue security software, or “scareware,” typically spreads by tricking people with pop-up boxes bearing bogus alerts that their machines are infected.

Spooked computer users are then enticed to pay for applications to fix the supposed computer problems. People that fall for the scam wind up paying hackers; providing them credit card information, and installing malware.

Automated scareware blocking in Web browsers and efforts by law enforcement agencies to crack down on companies peddling rogue security software has helped curb the threat.

“When selecting an anti-virus product, do it from a proven provider, not someone you never heard of who just pops up on your screen,” Williams said.

Improving defenses of computers was seen as a reason hackers are reverting to worms, which were a top bane about a decade ago.

“We see a rise again in worms as profit-motivated criminals are digging deeper, finding more arcane vulnerabilities to execute remotely,” Williams said.

A Conficker worm that plagued the Internet at the start of the year was so pernicious that a task force to combat it was formed by computer software and security firms.

Conficker and Taterf worms have reportedly wriggled into millions of machines.

Microsoft Logo

One of the troublesome ways both worms spread is by stowing away on thumb drives, which are becoming increasingly popular vehicles for people to move music, videos, games, files or other data between computers.

“Think about how and where people play online games,” Williams said. “What you tend to see is people remove a drive from home or an Internet kiosk and take it back into the enterprise (workplace).”

A memory stick carried in by a worker tends to bypass computer security systems designed to guard against hackers breaking in from outside the walls of a business, according to Williams.

Businesses should establish security protocols for removable media drives, and have new arrivals automatically scanned for malware, Microsoft recommends.

“The criminals out there are becoming more overt, more malicious and more direct in their attacks,” Williams said.

“That emphasizes the need for multi-layer protections. It is great we have anti-virus software to remove the threats, but clearly it is better to prevent the threat from getting in.”

Cyber criminals are moving with increasing speed when it comes to reverse engineering patches released to fix vulnerabilities in software programs or operating systems, according to Microsoft.

Hackers dissect patches to identify weakness being repaired, then craft malicious code to take advantage of flaws in machines with software that isn’t kept up-to-date.

“A patch is released and that is what starts these days of risk” Williams said.

“There is a window of vulnerability, so we need to close that window more quickly” he said. “Making sure you are up-to-date on security updates is one strong method of protecting yourself against attack.”

Microsoft’s security report is based on data from “billions of scans a day” in more than 200 regions of the world.

Source:samaa.tv

Facebook Revamps Home Page Feed

Facebook has modified its news feed feature to let members of the world’s leading social-networking service catch up on tidbits they may have missed while away from the website.

Facebook Photo

Facebook now lets members switch between getting real time streams of news or activities taking place, and highlights of what friends have shared online in the preceding 24 hours, according to Raylene Yung at the California firm.

You will be able to catch up on what you may have missed while you were away from Facebook and then easily switch to the real-time stream when you want to see posts as soon as they’re shared, the engineer said in a blog post. News Feed picks re-cap stories based on factors including how many friends have liked and commented on them.

The Live Feed option funnels updates and news about online friends’ activities to Facebook home pages as the information surfaces.

Some of you may ask why we are changing the home page again,” Yung said.
We know it can be disruptive when things are moved around, but we hope that these changes make Facebook a more valuable experience for you.

Source:samaa.tv

Kotak Mb Equation

THE HAGUE: The clock is ticking, people are dying and a flu virus is sweeping the globe that is the scenario of a new computer game designed to make people think about how to respond to the swine flu pandemic.

In The Great Flu, players must choose whether or not to stockpile anti-viral drugs and deploy research teams to new areas of outbreak as the number of infections and deaths rises and more countries are affected. Players face tough choices with limited funds — and taking decisions such as closing major airports do not come cheap. And just to concentrate minds, a map of the world shows the spread of the virus.

If the money is well invested, the pandemic can be stopped,” said Albert Osterhaus, head of virology at Rotterdam’s Erasmus Medical Centre, who is credited as the game’s scientific editor.
The game is very realistic and has an educational value,” he told AFP. It informs people how the virus spreads, what the flu is and on the ways to fight the pandemic.

The game, which was dreamed up before the current outbreak seized the headlines, was originally designed for Dutch teenagers, said Michael Bas, who helped design it and is the head of Ranj Serious Games, which markets it.

Put online at the beginning of 2009, www.thegreatflu.com was attracting more than 1,000 visitors a day, with peaks of up to 40,000, he said. Deborah MacKenzie, a consultant, writing on the New Scientist website, said she found that the game was flawed because it was unclear what effect the action that players took had on the virus.

But if the current swine flu pandemic gets bad and schools close in the fall, there are going to be a lot of teenagers sitting at home with not much to do, and with luck this could breed up a generation of officials that does understand,” she added.
The current outbreak of swine flu, or the A(H1N1) virus, has killed nearly 1,800 people worldwide and infected more than 180,000, but that figure understates the full number since individual cases are no longer reported.

The World Health Organisation, which has declared the virus a pandemic, said this week infections were starting to decline in the southern hemisphere but picking up in several Asian countries.

Source:thetimesofindia.com

Face Book

An Australian businessman accused of selling “friends” from the social networking site Facebook hit back Friday, saying it would be “very difficult” to stop him. Facebook warned Thursday that members who bought information from the Australian online marketing company uSocial.net could be banned from the site.

Leon Hill, 24, who founded and owns uSocial.net, agreed that his customers could be breaching Facebook’s terms of service — but added that Facebook was almost powerless to stop him.

He said Facebook would be “well within their rights” to ban its members who accepted uSocial.net’s offer but that it “would be almost impossible to track what we’re doing.”

Hill’s Brisbane-based firm this week angered Facebook by offering to sell a user 1,000 friends for 177 US dollars and 5,000 friends — the limit imposed by Facebook on a standard profile account — for 654 dollars.

Facebook “fan” pages have no limits and uSocial.net said it could supply 1,000 Facebook fans for 177 dollars and 10,000 fans for 1,167 dollars.

Likening his service to a dating agency, Hill said his company manually scrolled through Facebook’s millions of pages for users who had listed an interest in or already had links to a particular client’s industry.

For example, he said they trawled Facebook on behalf of a dealer in performance car parts to find people with an interest in the automotive industry, who were then sent a friend request or fan suggestion.

We don’t manipulate accounts at all, he said. “We are targeting people for our clients but at the end of the day it’s all up to the end user, he said.

Hill said his company did the same thing with microblogging site Twitter, which he said had tried unsuccessfully to stop its members using uSocial.net.

In the end the thing is that I’m not actually ever doing anything against the terms of service — it’s the actual users who purchases my services (who is),” he said.

Source:samaa.tv

You Tube Hit

A graphic British police video about the dangers of sending text messages while driving has become a worldwide hit on the Internet.

A four-minute, 16-second clip showing the horrifying three-car crash has been seen millions of times on the video-sharing website YouTube. It shows a 17-year-old girl called Cassie Cowan causing the accident through texting while driving in Tredegar, a town in southeast Wales. Her two friends and two parents in an oncoming car are killed.

The brutal crash clip includes graphic scenes of the victims being battered about in Cowan’s car, followed by her screaming amid the carnage as passers-by struggle to help. The film, by the local Gwent Police force, cost 10,000 pounds (11,500 euros, 16,300 dollars) to make and was intended to be shown locally.

However, it has attracted interest from around the world, with coverage by US newspapers and television stations. It has had a massive global reaction,” said budding local actress Jenny Davies, 18, who plays the blood-soaked crash survivor Cowan.

“It is really important that it is as realistic as possible as (otherwise) people are not going to believe it and it is not going to affect people. Even though people say it is shocking and gory, it is important it is like that. For people my age, that is what I think affects us.

On texting at the wheel, she added: “I think people are finally realising how dangerous it is.Gwent Police are calling it “the film that will stop you texting and driving.

Seeing a scenario, like the one Cassie goes through, played out right before your eyes makes you realise how extremely dangerous it can be and what devastating consequences it can have,” said Chief Inspector John Pavett.

I hope that after watching this film motorists will think twice before picking up their mobile phone when behind the wheel, and realise that a quick reply to a text message or answering a phone call is never worth putting theirs and other people’s lives at risk.

Source:samaa.tv