Icon Ambulance - Title of the email from Steve Jobs to Vic Gundotra (Google)

I am browsing the net and I found one story about Steve Jobs being keen on the details of Google logo in iPhone. So I post it im my blog.

One Sunday morning, January 6th, 2008 I was attending religious services when my cell phone vibrated. As discreetly as possible, I checked the phone and noticed that my phone said "Caller ID unknown". I choose to ignore.

After services, as I was walking to my car with my family, I checked my cell phone messages. The message left was from Steve Jobs. "Vic, can you call me at home? I have something urgent to discuss" it said.

Before I even reached my car, I called Steve Jobs back. I was responsible for all mobile applications at Google, and in that role, had regular dealings with Steve. It was one of the perks of the job.

"Hey Steve - this is Vic", I said. "I'm sorry I didn't answer your call earlier. I was in religious services, and the caller ID said unknown, so I didn't pick up".

Steve laughed. He said, "Vic, unless the Caller ID said 'GOD', you should never pick up during services".

I laughed nervously. After all, while it was customary for Steve to call during the week upset about something, it was unusual for him to call me on Sunday and ask me to call his home. I wondered what was so important?

"So Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I've already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow" said Steve.

"I've been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I'm not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn't have the right yellow gradient. It's just wrong and I'm going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?"

Of course this was okay with me. A few minutes later on that Sunday I received an email from Steve with the subject "Icon Ambulance". The email directed me to work with Greg Christie to fix the icon.

Since I was 11 years old and fell in love with an Apple II, I have dozens of stories to tell about Apple products. They have been a part of my life for decades. Even when I worked for 15 years for Bill Gates at Microsoft, I had a huge admiration for Steve and what Apple had produced.

But in the end, when I think about leadership, passion and attention to detail, I think back to the call I received from Steve Jobs on a Sunday morning in January. It was a lesson I'll never forget. CEOs should care about details. Even shades of yellow. On a Sunday.

To one of the greatest leaders I've ever met, my prayers and hopes are with you Steve.

-Vic Gundotra
Senior Vice President, Engineering
Google Inc.

Credits: Vic Gundotra

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Inspirational Steve Jobs Quotes About Life, Design and Apple

By the time I heard the news about Steve Jobs resignation as a CEO of Apple Inc., I reviewed most of his keynotes and videos. Reads articles about him and and to think to sort some of his quotes. So here are those:

“Click. Boom. Amazing!”

“The products suck! There’s no sex in them anymore!”

“I was worth over $1,000,000 when I was 23, and over $10,000,000 when I was 24, and over $100,000,000 when I was 25, and it wasn’t that important because I never did it for the money.”

Life is brief, and then you die, you know?

And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.”

“Almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

“The Japanese have hit the shores like dead fish. They’re just like dead fish washing up on the shores.”

“Unfortunately, people are not rebelling against Microsoft. They don’t know any better.”

“Bill Gates‘d be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.”

“The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And I don’t mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don’t think of original ideas, and they don’t bring much culture into their products.”

“My job is to not be easy on people. My job is to make them better.”

“We made the buttons on the screen look so good you’ll want to lick them.”

“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”

“Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?”

“A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets.”

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

“Recruiting is hard. It’s just finding the needles in the haystack. You can’t know enough in a one-hour interview.
So, in the end, it’s ultimately based on your gut. How do I feel about this person? What are they like when they’re challenged? I ask everybody that: ‘Why are you here?’ The answers themselves are not what you’re looking for. It’s the meta-data.”

“We’ve hid ond of these before, when the dot-com bubble burst. What I told our company was that we were just going to invest our way through the downturn, that we weren’t going to lay off people, that we’d taken a tremendous aoount /f effort to get them into Apple in the first place – the last thing we were going to do is lay them off.”

“Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.”

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

“You know, I’ve got a plan that could rescue Apple. I can’t say any more than that it’s the perfect product and the perfect strategy for Apple. But nobody there will listen to me.”

“We’ve gone through the operating system and looked at everything and asked how can we simplify this and make it more powerful at the same time.”

“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”

“I want to put a ding in the universe.”

“I mean, some people say, ‘Oh, God, if [Jobs] got run over by a bus, Apple would be in trouble.’ And, you know, I think it wouldn’t be a party, but there are really capable people at Apple.
My job is to make the whole executive team good enough to be successors, so that’s what I try to do.”

“It’s not about pop culture, and it’s not about fooling people, and it’s not about convincing people that they want something they don’t. We figure out what we want. And I think we’re pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too. That’s what we get paid to do. We just want to make great products. (I think he means “insanely great products!“)”

“So when a good idea comes, you know, part of my job is to move it around, just see what different people think, get people talking about it, argue with people about it, get ideas moving among that group of 100 people, get different people together to explore different aspects/of itquietly, and, you know – just explore things.”

“When I hire somebody really senior, competence is the ante. They have to be really smart. But the real issue for me is, Are they going to fall in love with Apple? Because if they fall in love with Apple, everything else will take care of itself.
They’ll want to do what’s best for Apple, not what’s best for them, what’s best for Steve, or anybody else. (this actually reiterates my oft-repeated mantra of “ubiquitous evangelism” in companies)”

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.”

“It comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much.”

“It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

“Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.”

“Our DNA is as a consumer company – for that inpidual customer who’s voting thumbs up or thumbs down. That’s who we think about. And we think that our job is to take responsibility for the complete user experience. And if it’s not up to par, it’s our fault, plain and simply.”

“That happens more than you think, because this is not just engineering and science. There is art, too. Sometimes when you’re in the middle of one of these crises, you’re not sure you’re going to make it to the other end. But we’ve always made it, and so we have a certain degree of confidence, although sometimes you wonder.

I think the key thing is that we’re not all terrified at the same time. I mean, we do put our heart and soul into these things.”

“We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life.

“In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.”

“So we went to Atari and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we’ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we’ll come work for you.’ And they said, ‘No.’ So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, ‘Hey, we don’t need you. You haven’t got through college yet.”

“The people who are doing the work are the moving force behind the Macintosh. My job is to create a space for them, to clear out the rest of the organization and keep it at bay.”

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

“I’m the only person I know that’s lost a quarter of a billion dollars in one year…. It’s very character-building.”

“I’m as proud of what we don’t do as I am of what we do.”

“Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.”

“I’ve always wanted to own and control the primary technology in everything we do.”


“Insanely Great!”

“I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”

“It’s rare that you see an artist in his 30s or 40s able to really contribute something amazing.”

“I feel like somebody just punched me in the stomach and knocked all my wind out. I’m only 30 years old and I want to have a chance to continue creating things. I know I’ve got at least one more great computer in me. And Apple is not going to give me a chance to do that.”

“I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.”

“Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?”

“The cure for Apple is not cost-cutting. The cure for Apple is to innovate its way out of its current predicament.”

“If I were running Apple, I would milk the Macintosh for all it’s worth — and get busy on the next great thing. The PC wars are over. Done. Microsoft won a long time ago.”

“Apple has some tremendous assets, but I believe without some attention, the company could, could, could — I’m searching for the right word — could, could die.”


What is favorite Steve Jobs Quote?

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Steve Jobs Resigns As CEO Of Apple

A major development out of Cupertino: Apple CEO Steve Jobs has stepped down, the board naming Tim Cook as his replacement. The company said "Steve's extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world's most innovative and valuable technology company."

Steve himself published the following letter:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CUO,)I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple's brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.


Steve


Apple has confirmed that Jobs will stay on as Chairman.

Press Release

Steve Jobs Resigns as CEO of Apple
Tim Cook Named CEO and Jobs Elected Chairman of the Board

CUPERTINO, California—August 24, 2011—Apple’s Board of Directors today announced that Steve Jobs has resigned as Chief Executive Officer, and the Board has named Tim Cook, previously Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, as the company’s new CEO. Jobs has been elected Chairman of the Board and Cook will join the Board, effective immediately.

“Steve’s extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world’s most innovative and valuable technology company,” said Art Levinson, Chairman of Genentech, on behalf of Apple's Board. “Steve has made countless contributions to Apple’s success, and he has attracted and inspired Apple’s immensely creative employees and world class executive team. In his new role as Chairman of the Board, Steve will continue to serve Apple with his unique insights, creativity and inspiration.”

“The Board has complete confidence that Tim is the right person to be our next CEO,” added Levinson. “Tim’s 13 years of service to Apple have been marked by outstanding performance, and he has demonstrated remarkable talent and sound judgment in everything he does.”

Jobs submitted his resignation to the Board today and strongly recommended that the Board implement its succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO.

As COO, Cook was previously responsible for all of the company’s worldwide sales and operations, including end-to-end management of Apple’s supply chain, sales activities, and service and support in all markets and countries. He also headed Apple’s Macintosh division and played a key role in the continued development of strategic reseller and supplier relationships, ensuring flexibility in response to an increasingly demanding marketplace.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.


source: Engadget

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Facebook Made Big Privacy Changes

Facebook has announced major changes to privacy on Tuesday. This is one of the largest revisions of privacy in company history, which includes more than a dozen changes to the profiles, status updates, locations and codes.

In fact, there are so many changes it is easy to get confused about what the changes Facebook made and what impact they have on your privacy. The updates are significant enough that Facebook will make each of its 750 + million users through a tutorial on the privacy settings updated.

That's why we wrote this short guide to all the changes Facebook has implemented. See this page for a quick rundown of all the new privacy features now available in the largest social networks in the world.

The major privacy changes to Facebook Profiles include:

Greater profile control: Profile visibility controls now appear directly next to content when you edit your profile. For example, if you only want your close friends to see which music you like, you can change it directly from the profile editing page.

In-line cues: Facebook will display a globe, friend or gear icon to indicate whether a piece of content is public, only seen by friends or customized for a friend group or list.

“View Profile As”: The “View Profile As” feature has been moved from the Privacy Settings Page to the top right-hand corner of the user profile. This is designed to make it more accessible.

Overhaul of the Privacy Page: The privacy overhaul will result in a much cleaner and simpler Privacy Page, since most of the privacy settings are now integrated at the profile page level.

Tags
The major privacy changes to Facebook Tags include:

Tag reviews: Facebook has implemented a system where users can approve or reject photo, status or location tags before they appear on their profiles. This profile can be turned on or off, depending on user preference.

Photo tagging changes: Because of the tag reviews feature, Facebook felt comfortable allowing a user to tag anybody in a photo, regardless of whether they are friends. This makes it simpler to tag people in group shots. Users must approve these tags before they appear on a user’s profile.

Tags in the Publisher Box: It’s easier to see who is being tagged in a status update. The left-hand side of the Publisher Box now includes an area for managing tags.

New untagging features: If a user untags herself from a photo, she will be given the option to send a request to the photo’s uploader to remove it. She will also have the option of blocking that person entirely.

Status Updates & Location
The major privacy changes to location-sharing and status updates include:

Public updates: The “Everyone” option in status updates has been renamed “Public” for greater clarity.

No more lock icon: The lock icon under the Publisher Box has also been changed. It will now display the globe, friend or gear icon based on whether the update is public, for friends or custom.

Facebook Places integration: Facebook Places has been integrated into the Publisher Box. Users can now tag a location into any status update. The same applies to photos and photo albums.

No more GPS restriction: Users can now tag any location in a status update or photo, regardless of whether they’re actually nearby. This makes it possible tag a location for a photo album after the user has returned home.

Mobile changes: The Facebook Places icon will no longer appear in the mobile apps. Instead a “Nearby” icon will take its place. It will display which users have tagged their location nearby.

Reactions
We asked some privacy and safety groups to respond to Facebook’s privacy changes. Here are two of those responses:

1. Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Social networking services should ensure that users have the privacy and control over personal information stored on the service. To do this, users need to clean user interface that allows them to make informed decisions about who sees their data and how it is used. We look forward to seeing how the work is controlled in operation to see if users understand and reduce the amount of involuntary participation in Facebook.

One disappointment is that Facebook is considering the elimination of the parameters that could prevent users avoid their friends to see the facilities. As we understand, there is no deadline for the control, but will be available for at least 60 days, and those who choose the option will be acquired to maintain it. Even if a user does not want or need to control now, we recommend that you select the option now to ensure that this control is available.

We asked Facebook for granular control over the privacy setting for a while now and are delighted that Facebook is now providing an online monitoring. We also appreciate the introduction of greater control over the marking.

It is also good to see more competition for control of privacy between social networks. The introduction of Google gave users control circles over online sharing, and Facebook is now online offering more granular control. We hope that this trend will continue in the competition.

2. Connect Safety:

This is an important step in the privacy of Facebook users of all ages - to us all members of the Security Advisory Council really. Allows users to reflect on the level of risk they want with each update of the status or the photo submitted invites everyone to be a little more aware of our social media use, and is a good thing that we find all social norms of social media.


source: Mashable

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East Coasters Turn to Twitter During Virginia Earthquake

It remains unclear to what extent the spread of the earthquake, although a former user-generated map gives an idea of ​​where he felt. Twitter, witnesses say the tremors have occurred as far south as Atlanta, Georgia, and as far north as Toronto, Canada.

An earthquake measuring 5.9 started from Mineral, Virginia, Tuesday afternoon, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The Pentagon, USA Capitol and the City of New York were evacuated temporarily. (UPDATE:. Contrary to previous reports, the Pentagon was not evacuated, according to the Washington Post) call the service will be in Washington DC, who are experiencing the same problems with wireless service from AT & T New York, probably due the sudden blockage. No physical damage has been reported. (UPDATE: ". At least three pinnacles of the tower broke" A spokesman for the National Cathedral in Washington DC confirmed)

Tweets started pouring in DC about 30 seconds before we felt the earthquake in our headquarters in New York and before all the reports on the earthquake from the media.

And, of course, has more than 7,000 people were admitted instead Earthquakepocalypse Four Square in New York in writing.

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How To Protect Your Laptop Against Theft

Our laptops often contain a large amount of confidential business information and personal use, and for most people, the thought of losing all that information is more than a little scary. The sudden and unexpected loss (or worse, theft) of expensive equipment and sensitive documents are not required to have a negative effect, however.

Here are some tips to outline the steps you should take your laptop will be lost. We also added some useful precautions, you can do in advance, so that the laptop has a better chance of getting home safely, if the two of you to stand out.

1. File a police report
Although it may seem obvious, many people do not bother to file police reports of lost property under the assumption that there are few law enforcement can do. While this may or may not be the case (depending on your situation), by contacting the police receive word that your computer has. Even if the police can not find your missing MacBook, stolen hardware went into a national database, so if someone tries to sell a laptop, there is a good chance that a warning when they do, even if they are throughout the country.

If you live near a university, be sure and tell the police the campus of your laptop lacks both, and do not forget to warn all private security companies in the area where you work when laptop disappeared.

2. Inform local repair and pawn shops
Tell any pledge or repair shops in your area on your computer is missing. Be sure to give them the serial numbers and describe the characteristics of identification, as in the case of scratches or paint wear. Pawn most reputable repair shops will check with the local police department before buying used laptops, but it never hurts to be aware of their situation, either.

3. Contact your insurance agent
Many home insurance policies, and part of the tenants, to cover the purchase of stolen computers, even if the goal had not been taken into your home. If your laptop was stolen from the car, its loss may be covered by your insurance. If your laptop is owned by the company, certainly covers the business of insurance. Contact your insurance agent and find out about filing claims in order to restore some of the costs of replacing the laptop. You will probably need the offense to make this announcement, but your insurance agent can assist you with the details.


4. Continue spreading the word

Getting the word to friends, colleagues and members of the Community to leave Twitter and Facebook friends to know your laptop is missing. Please send ads like Craigslist and other local directories. You may also want to tolerate flyers in your local grocery store or remove an advertisement in a local newspaper. If you can afford it, consider offering the prize of a laptop back. Premium offering, which is responsible for the handset is not the true value can save a lot of money to replace equipment, but can help to ensure that the information is returned safely.

5. Remain vigilant
Once you have submitted all the documents, get the word out to local businesses by chirping of your laptop and place a lost ad in the lost and found section of Craigslist. It may be tempting to sit back and let fate decide what happens next, but gon't give up being proactive. Check the lost and found ads themselves, and even go beyond. Many laptop thieves will try to sell the line laptop, because it is more difficult to follow, so keep an eye on sites like eBay and Craigslist. If you were a business, when your laptop is gone, check with them every day. Keep your eyes open for the local newspaper or community bulletin boards. Can screw up your laptop and if so, you should be aware of what you can qualify.

How to prevent theft and protect data
By taking the steps above to maximize the chances that your equipment will be returned to you if stolen or lost, simply. But what precautions? Here are some things you can do in advance to help ensure that your laptop is gaining ground and that the data remain protected.

1. Install Prey
Prey is a monitoring program that you can enable remote access to your laptop is missing or stolen. Prey then "call home" Prey server (or your own server, depending on configuration) when the laptop connects to the Internet. Prey report provides the IP address, geolocation (with maps) and even a screenshot of your webcam. You can also use Prey to lock your device to prevent others from accessing it.

2. Encrypt sensitive data
Personal data such as credit cards, financial and medical records should always be encrypted, this is doubly true if your computer is portable. Encrypt data that will help ensure your identity is stolen laptop and helps protect from liability for any loss of sensitive work files.

There are several good encryption tools out there, and many modern operating systems have the encryption settings for the oven in a popular encryption tools for Mac, Windows and Linux TrueCrypt. Cross platform and free TrueCrypt is an inexpensive way to protect your personal files.

3. Make your laptop easy to Return
Consider placing a text file called a show on the desktop (for example, REWARD_IF_FOUND.TXT) that contains your contact information and any other information about the reward, if you can afford to offer. These details will be easier for someone who has stumbled across his team not to return without the need to look at the data. Even a repentant thief may cause a change of heart, especially if you can provide a way for the laptop to be returned anonymously.

4. Back up your data frequently

You should already be backing up your data regularly to protect your hardware or software, but if you do not have the possibility of missing laptop is just a motivation to do so. If you move the laptop a lot, you can take advantage of online backup services like Dropbox. If you want to back up an external hard drive, do not keep your laptop bag album! Although this is a great protection to your technical questions, please back up your hard drive with the stolen laptop that does not do you any good at all.

5. Consider an engraving
If you are serious about hanging on your laptop, consider having your company or your name and a piece of contact information such as your e-mail address or phone number engraved in a prominent location on your computer portable. This greatly reduces its resale value and make it clear that the laptop belongs. Engraving is a deterrent against theft and gives pretty good just another way to leave the viewfinder of your laptop does not know who to return it to the. Of course, the downside of this is that it makes the laptop more difficult for you to sell as well, unless you replace the burned portion of the case.


Image credit: rubenhi

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Skype to Buy GroupMe Group Messaging Service

Mail Group heated just struggle with the announcement Sunday that Skype has signed a definitive agreement to acquire GroupM, a group messaging service that will boost Skype's ability to facilitate text and picture messaging.

With this acquisition, Skype said in a press release that gives GroupM "features best-in-class text-based communication and innovative products that allow users to connect, share locations, pictures and make plans for their closer ties".

Since the hyper-competitive against the backdrop of this thriving group of field posts, it's no surprise that the CEO of Skype, Tony Bates, told the Wall Street Journal thinks it is important that the area of ​​mobile messaging a group of his company. And 'demonstrated by a series of deals for that space, while last year, as the purchase of a slide Google corporate group messaging in August last year, the introduction of features about the Facebook group, when has acquired a group of Beluga messaging application in March this year, and Apple in June 5 statement IMessage IOS, which is also able to group messaging.

While Skype is agreed in May to sell itself to Microsoft for $ 8.5 billion, this is not over yet. CEO of Skype did not specify the terms of the agreement between Skype and GroupM, which is expected to close on Monday.

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Google+ Begins Verification Badge Program

Google launched a new program for monitoring badges Saturday, making it so celebrities, public figures and those who have served a large number of people in their community to reconfirm their identity with a check and a small banner that spell their names .

According to a Google+ post from Google+ team member Wen-Ai Yu, “We’re working on expanding this to more folks.” As you can see in the video, she doesn’t describe exactly how these verifications work.

The program, along with Google‘s insistence that user accounts be opened under a real name, aims to assure people that “the person you’re adding to a circle is really who they claim to be.”

Google’s Wen-Ai Yu explains:

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Gmail Login New Look

After the arrival of Google +, Google is focusing on the aspect of all Google services. Already Google.com and Gmail interface looks like: Google, now the Gmail login page has the new look of Google +. See below

The new registration page is clearly defined as the new mail interface, and combinations of white and gray gives new look perfect. Subscription button is now in the top right with a good color. I like the new look and feel. This new sign in page shows all the users one by one. Users will notice a small text link at the bottom who are viewing the new access and the option to comment as well. Footer has the same link to go to the old connection to the interface.

What you think about this new sign-in page?

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Firefox Taking out the Versions

Mozilla has created a stir in the community by suggesting that the Firefox version number should be eliminated. The version number currently displayed in Firefox "About" dialog was administered as an error. Instead of a version number of Mozilla just want the box to read something like "check for updates to Firefox 20 minutes ago, you're the latest version." Mozilla estimates that the elimination of the version number will reduce confusion for users.

So why the Mozilla wants to ditch the version number? I said Asa Dotzler director for Firefox, "we are moving into more Web-based, such as the Convention, if it is not simply important, what version you are using, provided it is the latest version We have a goal of using the numbers version are irrelevant to our audience of consumers.. "

As witnessed by a group of spiral mozilla.dev.usability increasingly hostile, all more or less seems to think outside of Mozilla is to remove the version number is a bad idea. After all, Google Chrome, the browser Firefox, which has borrowed much of its new look and a new cycle of quick-release, still offers a version number.

Developer Dave Garrett said Dotzler writes: "I do not pretend that displays the version number is the most important thing in the world, only about a dialog box where it belongs and trying to change that feels like some of us like to fight. .. that does not need to be. "

We Newsflash Mozilla: Version numbers have always been meaningless for the consumer audience. I've always been very important for the audience of developers. And the version numbers are, whether it be Windows, OS X or Linux, this is the Information window. How can you write at some point in this thread very long Barry, "I would like to paraphrase the song, and ask:" What part of "about" Do not you understand? "This is a box entitled" About ", as it provides information about the" it "application."

Even many who are disturbed by the transition program adopted Mozilla Chrome quick release, stopping to embrace all without a version of Firefox. "I understand that the team wants UX version numbers less important," writes Tyler Downer, "out of the box about not the answer."

In fact remove the version number of the dialog box About is not the point, but that small changes are part of a larger goal - to bury the version number for Firefox users never know what version they use - and this goal is exciting a lot of Firefox users. The software model least the version that works well for web applications - like Gmail or Facebook - but Firefox is not Gmail. No matter how many want to ape Firefox web applications, it is not a web application. In the eyes of most users installed software is judged by a different set of standards.

So what would it be? Could the Chrome web browser.

Increasingly, it seems that web developers are under way, leaving Firefox for Chrome and Chromium (the open source version of Chrome). According to StatCounter, Firefox usage statistics in the world were a little but steady decline since September 2010.

Firefox chrome loses ground in all areas, offend no one, least of web developers have an important part of the initial success of Firefox, which seems to be a wrong strategy. But wrong or not, it seems that the strategy is taking Mozilla.

S8H3KP27AZMS

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iPhone 5 To Arrive in Early October, Says AT&T Exec

iPhone 5 release date rumors are swirling again as a new report says an AT&T vice president has confirmed plans to launch the phone in early October.

On Friday, a post from Boy Genius Report said one of its high-level AT&T sources had confirmed that a company vice president had told several employees the device would be out in early October. In addition, the executive told a group of managers to expect things to get busy during the next 35 to 50 days, asking them to prepare their teams accordingly.

Our own sources within Apple suggest the next two months are going to be extremely busy, but can’t be more specific.

The device’s release date has been the subject of much anticipation on the web lately, with alternate reports fluctuating between September and October as possible time frames for the launch. At the beginning of this month, All Things Digital said the next generation iPhone would come out in October. But just last week, a report from a Japanese website indicated the device would be released in September, during a rumored Apple media event. Meanwhile, during his company’s last earnings call, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said he expected the phone out in the fall.

In the past, newer versions of the iPhone have typically been released during Apple’s summer Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). But that didn’t happen this year, following the release of the Verizon iPhone 4 in February.


more at Mashable

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iPad 3 Coming in Early 2012 [REPORT]

Apple has reportedly begun trial production on its next-generation iPad tablet device and it’s scheduled to launch in early 2012.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple has begun ordering chips, display panels and other key components for the iPad 3. It is reportedly expected to feature a high resolution (2048×1536), 9.7-inch display, up from the iPad 2′s 9.5-inch, 1024×768 display. (The report didn’t say anything about the iPad 3′s rumored OLED screen, however.)

One supplier claimed that Apple has already placed orders to develop 1.5 million iPad 3s in the fourth quarter.

Apple announced the iPad 2 in March, just 15 months after the launch of the first-generation iPad. The accelerated release cycle has helped Apple maintain a dominant share of the tablet market, which Thursday claimed its first victim: the HP TouchPad.

Apple could not be reached for comment at press time.


more at Mashable

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FA Cup Football Game Will Air Live On Facebook

Football fans will be able to catch live video of Friday’s “first kick” extra-preliminary match of the FA Cup on Facebook.

The match between non-league teams Ascot United and Wembley FC will be livestreamed on Budweiser’s Facebook page. Budweiser recently signed a three-year sponsorship with the English knockout cup competition worth about $40 million.

This 90-minute live stream of the game will increase its potential audience from a handful of local fans to 700 million Facebook users worldwide. Both of the relatively unknown teams will be paid nominal broadcast fees, Reuters reports.

“To be involved in the first game of The FA Cup this season is an honour in itself,” said Mike Harrison, the Chairman of Ascot United, in a statement, “but to be part of a world first and have our match broadcast to a massive global audience is fantastic for our club.”

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, zentilia


more at Mashable

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Mobile application trends for 2012: the top ten applications

Market researcher Gartner has pinpointed the top ten consumer mobile applications consumers will be using and downloading in the year 2012.

The most popularly used applications will include those designed to facilitate mobile money transfers, location-based services and mobile search said Gartner in its November 18 report.

In the past, consumers purchased mobile phones based on the built-in features that came standard with the handset. With the arrival of smartphone operating systems capable of running third-party applications, consumers were freed from the phone maker's confines and were able to customize their devices with powerful applications tailored to their own needs.

Future mobile trends point to a widening of this segment, with third-party applications breaking into the mainstream mobile market and even breaking through to many lower-priced handsets.

"Consumer mobile applications and services are no longer the prerogative of mobile carriers," said Sandy Shen, research director at Gartner. "The increasing consumer interest in smartphones, the participation of internet players in the mobile space, and the emergence of application stores and cross-industry services are reducing the dominance of mobile carriers. Each player will influence how the application is delivered and experienced by consumers, who ultimately vote with their attention and spending power."

Mobile phone makers, inspired by the success (and profitability) of Apple's App Store, have all eagerly jumped into the market, opening their own propriety application stores. Application developers too have embraced the market, resulting in the creation of hundreds of thousands of new application for mobile devices.

The wide availability of applications has given consumers free range on mobile customization, but research shows that many apps are being downloaded, used once or twice and then deleted from phones.

"We predict that most users will use no more than five mobile applications at a time and most future opportunities will come from niche market ‘killer applications'," reveals Shen.

Gartner predicts applications in the categories of mobile payments, location-based services, those that provide fast search results for users on the go and applications that facilitate mobile internet browsing will be among the top ten mobile applications for 2012.

Gartner's list of top ten consumer mobile applications for 2012:

1: Money Transfer
2: Location-Based Services
3: Mobile Search
4: Mobile Browsing
5: Mobile Health Monitoring
6: Mobile Payment
7: Near Field Communication Services
8: Mobile Advertising
9: Mobile Instant Messaging
10: Mobile Music

For more specific information about each mobile application category and to read the full report head to http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1230413

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Men Sentenced to 4 Years for Inciting Riots on Facebook

Two men have been sentenced to four years in jail for attempting to use Facebook to “organize and orchestrate” disorder.

Twenty-year-old Jordan Blackshaw and 22-year-old Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan (pictured) were sentenced at Chester Crown Court on Tuesday. The two were arrested last week following days of rioting in London and surrounding areas, beginning August 6.

According to the Guardian, Blackshaw created a Facebook event called Smash Down Northwich Town. Sutcliffe-Keenan also set up a page encouraging rioting in Warrington. Neither post appears to have resulted in an actual disturbance, however.

“The sentences passed down today recognize how technology can be abused to incite criminal activity, and send a strong message to potential troublemakers about the extent to which ordinary people value safety and order in their lives and their communities,” Assistant Chief Constable Phil Thompson warned. “Anyone who seeks to undermine that will face the full force of the law.”

Approximately 3,000 people have been arrested and 1,200 people have appeared in court for riot-related offenses thus far, says the Toronto Star. Sentences have been harsh: One Londoner was sentenced for six months for stealing a $5 case of water from a local supermarket, and a woman from Manchester who did not take part in the riots received a five-month sentence for wearing a pair of stolen shorts her roommate gave her.

On Monday, one man was arrested for planning a water gun fight on Facebook.

Last week, UK Prime Minister David Cameron alarmed free speech activists when he told Parliament that the government is examining whether it is possible to prevent suspected criminals from sending messages via social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Home Secretary Theresa May and other UK officials are set to meet with representatives from Facebook and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion to discuss “whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality,” says Cameron. Twitter has not confirmed whether it will be joining the talks.

more at Mashable

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Hacker Traces Laptop Thief Using Facebook Information

If you’re going to steal a laptop, make sure you know who you’re dealing with — one London teenager accused of stealing a laptop during the recent London riots certainly didn’t do his homework on who he was robbing.

Greg Martin, an IT security specialist and former FBI and NASA employee, came home to his West Kensington apartment last Wednesday to find that his place had been ransacked and his MacBook Pro was stolen.

Martin, who runs a blog called InfoSecurity 2.0, was obviously the wrong person to be stealing a laptop from — he had previously installed an open source tracking software called Prey on his computer. The free software “lets you keep track of your phone or laptop at all times, and will help you find it if it ever gets lost or stolen,” the product’s website states.

A self-described hacker, Martin wrote on his blog:

“Almost two weary days had gone by [since the robbery], and I’m at dinner on a business trip in Luxembourg, and I received an email which nearly knocked me out of my chair with excitement.”

The robber had finally logged on to the laptop — Martin went back to his hotel to stake out and gather evidence against the thief.

After two hours of watching the laptop thief surf the Internet, Martin was able to collect information on the man’s name, school, address, IP address, Internet service provider, wireless access point and Facebook ID number.

The thief’s Facebook information was the deciding piece of information for Martin — he sent the information on to the London Metro police and went to bed.

After details about the thief — identified as Soheil Khalilfar, 18 — were released to the police, the man’s apartment was raided and the laptop was recovered and returned to Martin.

Modern day thieves are at a much higher risk of being caught with the pervasiveness of technology.

In June, another MacBook thief was nabbed after the laptop’s owner tracked the thief using Hidden app and a Tumblr account.


more at Mashable

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Open Source CMS No Stranger on IBM i

There are a lot of options available to IBM i shops looking for a software package that allows them to run a website on their favorite box. But one class of tools that seems to be gaining lots of traction these days is the group of open source, PHP-based content management systems (CMS). The big three in this category include Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress, and you might be surprised to learn about some of the prominent IBM i industry websites that are using these systems.

The rise of the open source CMS on the IBM i server is directly tied to the increasing prominence of PHP as a Web application programming language, and the hard work that Zend Technology and IBM have done to make PHP a fully vetted and integrated environment on the platform.

The work of these partners opened the door to running all sorts of packaged enterprise applications, such as SugarCRM. We hear a lot about SugarCRM, since it's a profit-making software company with a big marketing budget and a modern management style. The popular PHP-based CRM system was even made into an official IBM i Solution Edition, putting it on a podium alongside the world's largest ERP vendors.

But there's a lot of IBM i-PHP activity occurring below the marketing radar, where a fast and free download of an open source product trumps official IBM ordering forms. This is where you discover that today's IBM i pros are increasingly willing to experiment with the open source model, which eschews paid hand-holding in favor of volunteerism and sharing what worked.

And although there are no IBM i Solution Editions for Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress, IBM i pros at some point realized there's nothing stopping them from running these popular LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP)-based applications on their IBM i servers. All that's required is Zend's PHP environment and the MySQL database, which can be obtained at very low costs.

These CMS systems provide the basic underpinnings required to publish and manage a website. WordPress is generally regarded as the easiest (but most limited) of the three to use, while Drupal seems to get credit for advanced functionality (as well as the associated complexity). Joomla seems falls somewhere in the middle.

Focus on Joomla

Two members of the Joomla community--Ryan Ozimek, president of Open Source Matters, a not-for-profit organization created to help the Joomla project, and Mark Dexter, a member of the Joomla Production Leadership Team, recently briefed IT Jungle on the state of open source CMS, and the recent enhancements to Joomla.

The Joomla project is focused on providing a relatively small set of core functionality that's handled by the CMS, such as managing users, files, menus, language encoding, search functions, archiving, and (most importantly) page appearance. The core CMS comes out of the box with the capacity to run polls, enable voting, handle links, use RSS newsfeeds, share postings with friends via email, and manage banners (ads or otherwise).

Advanced functionality--such as a payment system for an ecommerce website--is handled by add-ons written by third parties. "Most real-life sites will need more stuff, such as events, calendars, forums, or ecommerce functionality. That's where the extensions community comes in," Dexter says.
More than 8,000 Joomla extensions are currently available, and nearly one-quarter of them work with Joomla version 1.6, a major revision released six months ago. Extensions can be found at the Joomla extensions directory, while Joomla services offered by for-profit companies can be found elsewhere.

Joomla is becoming quite popular at the moment. While WordPress has a much bigger footprint (owning to its focus on blogging), Joomla accounts for nearly 3 percent of the world's websites, according to Ozimek. "We've got a new release cycle, and we're seeing a lot of good energy moving forward with Joomla, and we're really excited to see where we're going," he says. In July, Joomla announced version 1.7, which separates the Joomla CMS from the Joomla Platform application framework, and also institutes a new six-month release cycle.

Open source CMS is not just for hobbyists anymore, as many of the world's biggest companies run open source CMS. Joomla counts International House of Pancakes and a major Citibank website as Joomla-run websites. In the IBM i world, COMMON's website at www.common.org and the Wisconsin Midrange Computer Professional Association's website at www.wmcpa.org are hosted on Joomla running on IBM i backends. The Young i Professional's website at www.youngiprofessionals.com is done with Joomla. You'll also find instructions
for loading Joomla onto IBM i on the YiPS site.
"We're targeting ease of use on the one hand, but delivering scalable and powerful functionality on the other hand," Dexter says. "We don't think we have to do one or the other. Joomla sites are running websites for everything from small churches and mom and pop stores up to companies like McDonalds and eBay. It's a full spectrum of users."

Integration with MySQL is a blessing and a curse for Joomla. On the one hand, the capability to integrate DB2/400 data with Joomla's data housed in MySQL via the DB2 Storage Engine from IBM can be used for all sorts of good stuff--such as serving as a backup. One the other hand, support issues loom. Oracle's decision to end support for MySQL on IBM i late last year has put the kibosh on some IBM i professionals' plans to give Joomla on IBM i a shot.

But the open source CMS kimono has been opened, and the software is getting more sophisticated every day. In the end, IBM i shops will likely find a pre-built package that suits them.


source: ITJungle

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Supply Line Troubles To Delay iPad 3 Launch?

Analysts and pundits have been predicting an iPad 3 with a late 2011 launch for some time now, but if accounts from suppliers in Asia are to be believed, there just is no way that’s going to happen — if the rumors of the high-DPI screen are correct in the first place (and we think they are).

A 9.7″ display sporting 2048×1536 pixels, four times more than the current iPad and three times more than the HD displays on many Android tablets, is quite simply at the very limit of LCD panel manufacturing capability. Apple previously had hoped to have at least five or six million units by the end of the year and placed orders to that effect, but Digitimes is reporting that those orders have disappeared.

The chatter around the display industry water cooler is that Sharp is the only company capable of making these panels with any kind of real reliability; Samsung and LG apparently can’t reach a good yield. If these companies wanted to throw away money, they could invest despite poor yields, as Microsoft did in order to bring the Xbox 360 to market early, but we all know how that turned out. Samsung has actually demonstrated an alternative type of high-resolution display, but it’s unlikely Apple would use it even if it were ready for market.

These screens would be among the highest performing in the world, yet must be manufactured by the millions for relatively low cost. Apple doesn’t make its own displays (among other things), so it’s at the mercy of OEMs like Sharp. And if Sharp says “if anybody could do it, we could — but we can’t,” then Apple has no choice but to take that hit and delay the product.

Meanwhile, the same sources estimate as many as 30 million iPad 2s will be shipped in 2Q11; with no “rare” parts, they can be made as fast as the millions of hands in vast factory towns can put them together.

Of course it has to be said that a product that is not announced can’t, strictly speaking, be delayed. And I’m sure Apple was prepared for this eventuality, likely being informed while collaborating with Sharp that yields might just not hit targets in time. So: a revised launch schedule. January, anyone?


source: Techcrunch

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Facebook data used to steal £35,000 from online bank accounts

Hacker gathered personal details to break account security

A man has been sentenced to prison for 15 months for using personal data gathered from neighbours’ Facebook and Friends Reunited postings to hack their bank accounts and steal more than £35,000.

Iain Wood, who owns a carpet-fitting business, befriended people who lived in his block of flats in Newcastle on social networking sites such as Facebook, and used the sites to find out as much personal information about them as possible.

With this data, Wood was able to access victims’ bank accounts and ordered replacement bank cards to be delivered to his address. He then used these to withdraw more than £35,000 between June 2008 and June 2010, which he spent on gambling.

When he was unable to access bank accounts, Wood used the personal information to provide requested security information, such as mother’s maiden name, when prompted.

The scam ended when Wood decided to directly transfer money out of a neighbour’s account into his own in November 2009. The victim was alerted to the fraud when he was contacted by his bank over the withdrawal of £1,500.

Prison term
Wood was sent to prison for up to 15 months for the offences.

According to the Sunday Sun, Judge Guy Whitburn, at Newcastle Crown Court, said during sentencing: “This is the first time I’ve come across a sophisticated fraud such as this. It was very well planned, complex and clever. He was using other people’s identities and there was a considerable breach of trust in assuming his neighbours’ identities.”

Wood admitted hacking into bank accounts and intercepting other people’s post when interviewed by police.

The authorities also found numerous bank account PIN numbers, someone else’s passport and bills, many of which he had stolen from post boxes of the flat’s other residents, when they searched his flat.

Online bank access
Prosecuting lawyer Neil Pallister said: “He said he had figured out how to access online bank accounts."

“He would go on and say he couldn’t remember the password and would be asked security questions about dates of birth and mother’s maiden names and he was able to give correct details in some cases. He said he would be on the computer 18 hours a day to find out information about people on websites such as Facebook and Friends Reunited."

“He would make friends with people on Facebook, and having got their user names he would try it on the bank websites, on the basis people use the same passwords. If that did not work he would fill in the security information, which he had got from Facebook and Friends Reunited.”

Most of the accounts he targeted were dormant, but Wood was also able to exploit victims’ overdraft facilities before they realised.


source: Tech World

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The 10 Most Expensive Google Acquisitions

Global search corporation Google, Inc. added to its already hefty empire when it announced its planned acquisition of Motorola Mobility the morning of August 15. The purchase marked Google’s most expensive acquisition to-date at a staggering $12.5 billion.

Google has acquired more than 100 companies over the past ten years. Curious about its most expensive acquisitions thus far? Flip through the gallery below to discover how Google has integrated its top ten priciest purchases:

1. dMarc Broadcasting
In January 2006, Google acquired advertising company dMarc Broadcasting for $102 million. Google integrated dMarc into its AdSense app.

2. On2 Technologies
After negotiations between the two companies, Google acquired video compression company On2 in February 2010 for $133 million in Google stock. On2 designed video codec technology which Google used to optimize its WebM video format.

3. Slide.com
Google bought web 2.0 company Slide.com in August 2010 for $182 million. Originally founded by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin Slide.com was known as the largest third-party developer of Facebook applications until Google purchased it to “make Google services socially aware.”

4. Admeld
Google purchased Admeld. in June 2011 for $400 million. The company specialized in optimizing online ad yield by simplifying ad display. Google integrated Admeld with its additional DoubleClick and Invite Media acquisitions.

5. Postini
Google acquired web security and archiving company Postini for $625 million. It provides the cloud computing services and spam filters that Google soon integrated into Gmail.

6. ITA Software
Google purchaed travel industry software company ITA Software for $700 million in July 2010. Google uses ITA's software to optimize its travel and flight search.

7. AdMob
Google acquired mobile ad company AdMob for $750 million. The company helped Google improve its mobile advertising solutions.

8. YouTube
Long ago in October 2006 Google bought YouTube for a shocking $1.65 billion. Although the company wasn't absorbed by Google Video, YouTube continues to function as a Google subsidiary.

9. DoubleClick
Google purchased DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in April 2007. The Google subsidiary provides ad service and support to AdSense.

10. Motorola Mobility
Google's most recent and expensive acquisition to date occurred August 15, 2011 with its purchase of Motorola Mobility. Motorola is one of 39 manufacturers of Android handsets. By purchasing the mobile hardware manufacturer, Google hopes "to supercharge the Android ecosystem.”

more at Mashable

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Google Buys Motorola Mobility for $12.5 Billion [Breaking]

Google announced Monday morning that it will acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.

Motorola is one of 39 manufacturers of handsets that use Google’s Android operating system.

Buying a hardware company is an unusual move for Google. The acquisition, Google said in a statement, “will enable Google to supercharge the Android ecosystem.”

Google CEO Larry Page expanded on what that might mean in a blog post. In addition to citing Motorola’s home devices and video solutions business, Page references recent patent wars that Google believes to be anti-competitive.

“The U.S. Department of Justice had to intervene in the results of one recent patent auction to ‘protect competition and innovation in the open source software community’ and it is currently looking into the results of the Nortel auction,” Page writes. “Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.”

Android will continue to be an open platform, and Motorola will continue to be run as a separate business, Page added.


more at Mashable

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Firefox 6 Released Early

Firefox 6 isn’t scheduled to be released until Tuesday, but Mozilla has uploaded installation files to a FTP server for those who want to get their hands on the upgraded browser early.

Although the new version doesn’t sport any major UI changes, the browser is reportedly 20% faster than Firefox 5. Startup time has been improved, especially for those with lots of tabs and groups. Users can now determine whether they want to load their tab groups when launching the browser, or load them within the Panorama grouping tool.

Other improvements include a new permissions feature that allows users to set site-specific permissions for a number of variables, including passwords and pop-ups; a plugins check, which lets users see if they’re running the latest versions of their extensions; highlighted domain names in the address bar; an improved Web Console; and a Scratchpad tool for developers testing JavaScript within the browser.

Installation files are available for Windows, Mac and Linux systems.


more at Mashable

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8 Excellent WordPress Caching Plugins to Speed Up Your Site

If you use WordPress as your publishing platform and are concerned about speeding up your website, caching will help you. The faster a web page loads, the better the user experience is.

This is how WordPress caching works: it generates a copy of your web pages and stores them in your server as static files (i.e. as HTML documents) and/or cached database queries. Afterwards, when a site visitor arrives at a particular page, the server gives them the cached page rather than re-querying your database and dynamically generating it, thus speeding up page response times and potentially reducing the server resources required for generating and serving a web page.


For WordPress users, the easiest and quickest way to implement a caching system is by the use of a WordPress plugin.

There are several WordPress cache plugins out there, and below, you’ll find the most popular, highly recommended ones.

1. DB Cache Reloaded Fix

DB Cache Reloaded Fix is a modified version of DB Cache Reloaded, patched for WordPress 3.1 compatibility. DB Cache Reloaded Fix caches the MySQL queries performed on your database to optimize the site’s speed.

While database query caching should suffice for most websites, and the plugin performs fairly well, it’s one of the newer WordPress caching plugins out there, so it hasn’t been field-tested by WordPress users as much as the other older plugins.

2. Hyper Cache Extended

Hyper Cache Extended, as its name implies, is an extended version of the popular Hyper Cache WordPress plugin.

This plugin offers numerous features, such as 404-error-page caching, support for mobile devices, and various compression options.

For mobile device support, I tried it on my testing site using a phone running Opera Mini and an iPhone, and the site loaded up in a snap in both mobile devices (almost thrice as fast as before.)

Hyper Cache Extended has a satisfied user base, as evidenced by the ratings at WordPress.org. In addition, the creator, Mapto Lazarov, encourages users of the plugin to email him issues and feedback — a reassuring sign that the plugin is, at present, well maintained by an enthusiastic and helpful web developer.

3. Quick Cache

Quick Cache is a WordPress caching plugin designed by Primo Themes. It’s lightweight and has user-friendliness as one of its selling points. The admin interface itself outlines each option in fine detail so that you know exactly what each option does.

Quick Cache has an impressive list of useful options, including the ability to disable caching for logged-in users and users who have just posted a comment so they can see new comments right away, which is helpful if your site is very active.

4. W3 Total Cache

W3 Total Cache is the most popularly known caching plugin for WordPress. It’s used by several leading WordPress-powered blogs such as Mashable and Smashing Magazine.

W3 Total Cache claims that your blog can load 10 times faster once the plugin is installed. Personally, I’ve seen the plugin drastically improve load times for older posts and static pages.

W3 Total Cache offers a plethora of options and provides you with other site optimization features such as source code minification and integration with your content delivery network (CDN).

If you’re uncomfortable with the admin interface (it can seem confusing for beginners), just leave the settings untouched because the plugin operates well at default settings.

5. WP-Cache

WP-Cache is one of the first WordPress caching plugins, made available on WordPress.org in 2007 — so it has a relatively long track record. It gives you the ability to specify which posts, pages and files shouldn’t be cached.

The plugin operates well, but its update frequency is comparatively lower than the other plugins.

6. WP File Cache

WP File Cache has a slightly different approach to WordPress caching: Instead of caching an entire web page, it only caches parts of it (usually parts that remain static for long periods of time).

Naturally, WP File Cache will not improve the performance and page load time of the website as much as the plugins that don’t require dynamic page generation and is best suited for high-traffic sites that frequently update web pages and WordPress users that would like to control which portions of a web page should (and shouldn’t) be cached.

7. WP Simple Cache

WP Simple Cache generates static HTML files of a WordPress site’s content. You can specify the timeout settings for cached pages and the auto-clean frequency of cache files. Other than that, as you can probably surmise from the plugin’s name, there aren’t many other options to tweak.

The plugin’s home page is in Turkish, so, unless you know Turkish, you shouldn’t expect plenty of documentation at your service.

8. WP Super Cache

WP Super Cache shows static HTML pages to most of your website’s visitors. The plugin developers claim that if your website gets a large amount of traffic and you’re on an underpowered web server, the plugin works wonders.

WP Super Cache can also cache certain WordPress plugins, which can also aid in improving site performance.


source: Six Revisions

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Anonymous hacks SF’s myBART website. Thousands of names, addresses & numbers released.

Anonymous, the online hacktivist group, has released thousands of names, email addresses, home addresses and phone numbers believed to be from myBart.org, an independent site that uses BART’s (San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit) open data services.

The hacking is part of a carefully planned effort by Anonymous to bring BART to its knees in retaliation for its shutdown of cell phone service Thursday night at some of its stations to disrupt planned demonstrations over a police shooting.

A notice on BART’s website says the following:

BART’s online services including web, mobile web, email and SMS are used by nearly 2 million customers every month. We’re disappointed to announce that the BART website may be subject to an online attack today, Sunday August 14, between noon and 6 pm, because this action will directly affect those customers who depend upon our site, as well as the developers who use BART’s open data services to serve BART customers.

We’re doing what we can to defend against any attack on the BART website. BART’s website infrastructure is wholly separate from any computer network involved in the operation of BART service. In the event that bart.gov is not available or working as you’d expect, we encourage you to use the 511.org website for alternative transit information.

Anonymous has posted a list of all the names and addresses on a miscellaneous website (we won’t currently be linking to) and also included the following message (click for large version)

Anonymous issued a press release on Saturday claiming it would:

1. Begin a “Black Fax and E-Mail Bomb action”, where it would fill every inbox and fax machine at BART with thousands of copies of its message claiming the outage was unacceptable. A list of those email addresses just been posted to Pastebin, a site commonly used by hackers to share text anonymously.
2. It would remove BART’s website for exactly six hours. Intended to be twice as long as BART shut off cell phones for. This has yet to materialize.
3. A “physical protest” will take place at the Civic Center Bart Station at 5PM Pacific Time. BART has issued a statement warning users of possible disruption to its train services on the day.

It also released the following video propaganda video in aid of the attack:

source: TheNextWEB

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