Flash 9 player beta update

Posted by multippt

Adobe silently released an update to the Flash 9 beta. With this update, you will have version 9.0.28.0 installed. This update does not apply if you are using flash 8 and below. This update is available automatically (I received it when powering on my computer). 

Remember that Flash 9 is still in beta, so expect some bugs or instability (well… thats normal for a beta, or prereleased software). 

Guess what? Sony admits viral marketing ploy

Posted by multippt

Earlier, we came across a blog (”all i want for xmas is a psp”). We went on to saying that the blog seems too suspicious and later did a little research to find out more.

Now, Sony admited to the fake blog by placing a notice on the site. Quoted from the site:

“Busted. Nailed. Snagged. As many of you have figured out (maybe our speech was a little too funky fresh???), Peter isn’t a real hip-hop maven and this site was actually developed by Sony. Guess we were trying to be just a little too clever. From this point forward, we will just stick to making cool products, and use this site to give you nothing but the facts on the PSP.”

Hopefully, Sony wouldn’t come out with more similar kinds of marketing schemes, where consumers end up being coerced to buy something.

Via “all i want for xmas is a psp”

Thunderbird 2.0 beta released

Posted by multippt

Mozilla has recenly released a new beta its award-winning email client, Thunderbird. Of course, do expect some bugs from this build (well, taking it to be a beta…). The final release of Thunderbird 2.0 will most likely make its debute by next year.

The features are as followed:
-Message Tags (Used for organizing mail)
-New user interface
-Back/Forward buttons (for easy navigation)
-Folder views
-Folder summary popups (reveals information on newly received mail)
-Increased support for extensions (or plugins)
-Improved offline management
-Improved notification alerts (now includes a little more information)
-Faster saved search results (better caching)
-Improved filing tools (also used for organizing mail)
-New windows installer -Mac OSX universal binaries

Via Official Thunderbird site

Scammers take emails hostage

Posted by multippt

A hotmail user returns home and accesses his email account, only to find that the account was flushed clean, except for a single email that demanded payment for the return of all email messages and all contacts in the address book. The email was written (poorly) in spanish. The affected user previously accessed the account from a cyber-cafe.

While there are (rare) multiple cases of cyberextortion, this is taking things to a new level. Previous cases of cyber extortion includes malicious acts on one’s data, which include the execution of malicious software (sometimes known as “ransomware”) that may encrypt the contents of certain private files. They would then request “payment” to decrypt the files, and if the victim refuses to pay, the files would be deleted.

With the internet becoming more popular for phishers and even scammers, one must take precautions in protecting their private information, especially their password.

Via CNET

Is this Sony’s attempt at viral marketing? - Creating a blog

Posted by multippt

Wow, about time Sony realized the power of blogging. Wow it is genuinely creative, no the blog (all i want for xmas is a psp) does not tell the tale of a real person.

I must say, the site does look like a real blog, with limited hints that it comes from Sony (marketing department?). The blog details on how the author have a PSP, while his friend doesn’t. His friend badly wanted a PSP for christmas (hence the domain for the blog). So, he tries to help his friend. Of course, there are “hints” of requests that you get a PSP to help his very friend of his.

The blog also consist of a youtube video (congrats again, Sony, you finally realized the power of youtube) that shows a person who says something about wanting a PSP (and he even got a PSP face plate for it too). The blog also consist of several PSP related stuff such as a card, a PSP iron on pattern sheet (for T-shirt), and an unusual “all i want for xmas is a PSP” $249 note.

While the posts have different timestamps (to make it more real), any blog can specially assign custom timestamps to their posts. In addition, how many blog owners can sustain the cost of a “.com” together with a web host that offers asp.net when there are actually lower cost alternatives? Also, wouldn’t the blog owner be alerted by Sony for copyright infringement for using the iconic symbols (that is, the circle, triangle, square and cross forund on the controller) from Sony game consoles? While it is possible that one can be trully raving for a PSP or is a fan of the PSP, how many would actually make urber professional (as if made by a marketing company or a skilled professional) (however though, the ad does not seem to do much influence though) downloadable freebies from their blog? Lastly, a check on the domain revealed it to be from Zipatoni. Zipatoni is a marketing company.

Well, its up to you to think if it is an actual blog or it is part of Sony’s effort at advertising the PSP.

Via Digg, “all i want for xmas is a psp”

What digg is to a website

Posted by multippt

Digg, which is a website that combines social bookmarking, blogging and syndication, is very useful to maintaining site growth. This is especially true when you have something which you want to share with the world.

Digg brings traffic

A little traffic does not hurt any website right? Digg is one way of bringing in some. Once a story reaches the front page (after receiving roughly 35 diggs), it will receive immense amounts of traffic. However though, digg can bring so much traffic that it can cause your site to go down with it (known as “digg effect”). Nevertheless, users are more willing to read your article since they visit the website on their on free will (well, most of them are). They are not forced to visit the site and thus, the visitors generated by digg are truly genuine.

A good way to start a site

Obviously, a new website does not have a lot of visitors (unless you cheated). Thus digg serves as a way to show your webpage to the world. In addition, digg allows other users to comment and rate the story in your site, and thus one can find out ways to improve on future stories.

Digg = business + money

Some companies utilise digg as a means of earning money. They try to promote a site provided the owner pays them well. Examples of such services are User/Submitter, Friendly vote and Spike the vote. They may do so by asking the owner of a site to pay for votes, while the company pays the users to vote for it (sort of like bribary), such as User/Submitter. However, this form of forced digging is regarded as cheating since the people that have more money to spare can monopolize the service.

Integration

Its easy to integrate code in your website to send stories to digg. It also allows users of the website to click on a direct link to the specific digg webpage to digg the story. It can be integrated with blogs and news articles. Digg even provides methods to allow users of a website to use digg even though they are not on the official site. Digg works with other services such as youtube.

Digg is quite big

Digg has over 500000 registered users and growing, and most of them frequent the site. Thus, there is a high possibility that 1 of those users might actually stumble across your website. Also, digg has a strong user base since there is always something new there each day and thus attract surfers who are bored.

Thus digg together with a website makes a very good couple.

The Trends - Web 2.0: The dark side

Posted by multippt

Earlier I was saying how web 2.0 actually helps us, now then, have you ever thought how web 2.0 can be of an annoyance to us? I shall show you how web 2.0 can be as bad as it can be as good.

Spam

Spam, of which I’m referring to the electronic mail version (not the brand of canned meat), is increasing every year. I know, although a little spam is a minor annoyance, when these spam messages pile up, it can haunt you and your mailbox. Its been estimated that on average, each person receives roughly 15 spam messages each day (I don’t know about you, maybe you don’t receve any, or maybe you receive alot more than that). In fact, the amount of spam being sent has multipled quickly over the years, reaching billions. Of course, the spam messages you receive may depend on what you’ve done on the web. Some bots are designed to collect email addresses scattered around the internet. If it just so happen to find yours, your email address might be added to one of those large mailing lists (that may send out advertisements). Also, people who have gained a reputation on the internet would generally receive alot more spam messages (do I need to state examples?…). Why do people spam? Well, it promises money of course! People don’t just do things like that, and they are probably recruited by some advertiser or service that provides PTM (paid to mail).

Privacy

Privacy on the internet is another issue. Its been a concern that some sensitive information such as your bank account number and credit card number might be leaked into the web. If that happens, you might have a huge problem in your hands. There are some people who have fallen prey to scams that involve the revealing of one’s private information. The reverse effect of having too much privacy have given rise to several problems. Afriad of revealing their true information, some people decided to surf the net behind proxies, hoping that this would conceal their IP address. Of course, this is not a good thing, since hackers also make use of these things.

Thats Just Wrong…

With the internet becoming more vast, and information becoming very accessible, some users of the internet might seize the opportunity to download whatever they can get their hands on. Sometimes, the things they find on the internet is simply just wrong… (very bad content, inclusive of dirty-minded ones). Also, there is the problem of copyright infringement, which is the probable result of the misinterpretation that every content available on the internet is in the public domain, which isn’t true. Copyright infringement cause copyright holders alot of money. There is another problem of intellectual property theft, in which one party claims that the product they have is their creation, when it is not.

Phishing and scams

Phishing sites, or sites that mimic the official site, pose a great threat to one’s privacy. Phishing sites simply exploit a human behavior, in which when we want something, we would go straight to it. Thus, users who are not cautious of the environment would be tricked into giving their credentials alway. Scams, which includes selling vaporware, is likely to result in the loss of large sums of money, which is something no one wants.

Money

All this was made attractive to perform due to the opportunity of making money online. In a world nearly driven by money, it makes people all the more willing to get as much revenue as possible.