Since then, many have been eagerly awaiting Adobe security patches so that the issue can be fixed. Adobe has set a May 12 date for the delivery of patches to fix the vulnerability in its Adobe Reader and Acrobat software products.
PSIRT says:
“We are in the process of fixing the issue, and expect to make available product updates for the relevant supported Adobe Reader and Acrobat versions and platforms by May 12th, 2009.
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Additionally, we have confirmed the second vulnerability (CVE-2009-1493) for Adobe Reader for Unix. This issue will be resolved in the upcoming Adobe Reader for Unix updates. Currently, we have not been able to reproduce an exploitable scenario for Windows and Macintosh, but we will continue to investigate.”
Adobe Upcoming Updates:
Window updates for Adobe Reader versions 9.X, 8.X, and 7.X
Window updates for Acrobat versions 9.X, 8.X, and 7.X
Macintosh updates for Adobe Reader versions 9.X and 8.X
Macintosh updates for Acrobat versions 9.X and 8.X
Adobe Reader for Unix versions 9.X and 8.X.
In the meantime, continue to keep your JavaScript in Adobe PDF Reader disabled. To know how you could do that, read my earlier post: Disable JavaScript in Adobe PDF Reader!
If you still think Adobe Reader could be a “risk” to your machine, then do consider using an alternate program.
Facebook Connect allow users to “connect” their Facebook identity, friends and, privacy to any website. Facebook connect is finally on Digg too. It will now allow over 200 million Facebook users to login and start Digging and commenting instantly.
In addition to making it easier to log into Digg, Facebook Connect also allows you to use your name and profile photo from your Facebook account on Digg and to easily share with your friends by posting your Diggs, comments, and submissions to your Facebook feed.
Get access to Digg friends features
Choose to automatically follow your Facebook friends
Invite your friends to Digg
Privacy:
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You’ll always have complete control over your information.
Whenever you Digg, comment, or submit, you’ll see a dialog window asking you whether you want to share that info with your Facebook friends.
Sharing your activity isn’t currently automatic, so this setting allows you to publish only the actions you want to share. Eventually, there will be an option for you to publish all of your Digg activity if you wish to avoid the prompt.
All of your preferences and privacy settings can be managed from the settings page in your profile.
Should you ever choose to disable Facebook Connect, all personal information will be removed from the Digg site.
This seems to be an important step for both the companies. For Digg, it means a lot more exposure on Facebook. For Facebook, it means a huge new partner for Connect, which could become an identity standard for users across the Web.
Data thieves and spammers want to make the most of every situation. After the sudden and unfortunate outbreak of Swine Flu, looks like the cybercriminals want to capitalize on this situation too.
Since the outbreak of the flu, online data stats across the globe suggests that people have been hitting the internet in frenzy looking for Swine Flu related information.
Capitalizing on this, the cybercriminals have been sending infected files to the masses via emails, keying off curiosity about Swine Flu.
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One such email has a PDF attachment titled: Swine influenza frequently asked questions.pdf.
Clicking on the PDF runs a data stealing program on your computer. If you see this, delete it from your inbox.
There are many more such emails doing their rounds. These messages (related to Swine Flu) try to get you to click on tainted web links. Instead, you end up installing various malicious programs on your computer. Many times, you even get directed to websites selling fake pharmaceutical drugs.
Symantec and Cisco Ironport recommend immediate deletion of email messages with these subject lines:
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Swine flu worldwide
Swine flu in the USA
US swine flue fears
First US Sine flue victims
Swine flu in Hollywood
Salma Hayek caught swine flu
Madonna caught swine flu
US swine flu statistics
NY victims of swine flu
First US swine flu victims
Will swine flu attack USA?
US swine flu fear
Symantec’s Mayur Kulkarni writes:
There is another spam campaign underway that is also using headlines related to the swine flu outbreak, but the messages don’t contain any URLs or attachments. The intention of this type of campaign is to spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) among email users. Some of the headlines used in this particular type of email spam have been hoisted from various news agencies, and examples are listed below:
Mexico on edge as reports of swine flu cases climb
UK monitoring swine flu outbreak
UK probes ’17 swine flu reports’
Global panic as swine flu spreads to Europe
US declares emergency as Mexico flu death toll rises
Probable Mexico swine flu death toll – 103: minister
Swine flu case confirmed in Spain
Are you worried about flu outbreak?
World moves to contain flu spread
U.S. tries to get a handle on flu outbreak
World ‘well prepared’ for virus
World flu epidemic fear rises, Mexicans take refuge
Twenty swine flu cases confirmed in U.S.
Mexico flu sparks worldwide fear
Suspected Mexico flu toll hits 81
Mexico flu ‘a potential pandemic’
81 feared dead from swine flu in Mexico
Swine flu epidemic fear grows, world on alert
U.S. acts swiftly to contain swine flu outbreak
Family alert to swine flu illness
Whether Swine Flu manages to reach all corners across the globe or not, but its internet versions definitely seems to be on the mission to spread a different kind of “infection” altogether! Watch out! Don’t let it reach you.
It’s often a hassle to create a chart online, that’s why Chartle.net came into existence.
The site’s statistics indicate that over 1 billion charts, maps, plots and diagrams are found in print publications each year, however, only 40 million online. This huge difference in numbers sure reflects the complexity to create and publish charts online.
Chartle.net allows you to:
Create interactive charts online
Minimize complexities
Keep the process as simple as possible
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The images or the charts that you create online are solely yours and you can you them in any way you wish to – for your business reports, presentations, websites, blogs and even print documents.
A variety of charts to choose from:
You could create a variety of charts like:
Bar and column charts
Pie charts
Line and area charts
Scatter plots, Venn diagrams and Radar charts
Static maps
Interactive maps
Dynamic timeline charts and Motion charts
Org charts and other fun charts like Google-o-meter and gauge
Upcoming features on Chartle:
New Ajax/Flash user interface
Easier embedding
Business friendly
Social network compatibility and more . . .
Do I have to Register?
No need. You could use Chartle’s services even without registering. Create a chart online and embed it wherever and however you want. Simple!
In a desperate attempt to attract new users, social networking site- hi5 is now adding an instant messaging service. Currently, hi5 has almost 60 million users – which is not a bad sized audience, but way less if you compare it with other social networks such as – MySpace and Facebook, with 125.7 million and 294.7 million unique visitors respectively.
A couple of months back, hi5 had added entertainment features to engage more people through casual gaming (like sports, arcade, etc). Last month it announced its partnership with PlaySpan, powering micropayments for virtual goods and premium content sold on the social network. And very recently it partnered with Paymo to power mobile payments for virtual goods.
Chat features
hi5’s chat service is quite similar to the Facebook chat. It:
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Is an instant one-on-one messaging service
Allows you to check who are online or offline
Runs directly within the browser of hi5
Has the provision to changing your online status
Allows you to write updates
Allows you to post profile comments
Allows you to share photos while chatting
Allows you to express better with hi5 “star” emoticons
Although, quite slow to change, but this seems like a good move after all. The new IM feature will not be able to bring hi5 up to Facebook’s level for sure, but might just help engage more audience. Better late than never.
Here’s a quick update for all Facebook users. Facebook has shut down its RSS NewsFeed application.
They had recently launched a new application that converted their News feed into RSS feed that could be subscribed to and accessed outside of Facebook.
But apparently, it violated Facebook’s privacy controls, and now it’s gone.
I think in a way it’s good to know that Facebook is concerned about the user’s privacy. Letting out your friends content and updates to a public place is not the best thing to do.
Read Write Web however believes that this Facebook feature was very useful and shouldn’t have been removed. Click here to know how and why.
Facebook is yet to respond back with an official statement. We will have to wait for a little longer to get more details on this subject.
The tiny South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu is in danger of sinking under water. The Prime Minister – Saufatu Sopoaga has been panicking and telling everyone that the sea levels are rising and Tuvalu can be the first victim of global warming.
As we know already, Tuvalu has been earning money by selling access to its Internet domain – “.tv” since late 90’s. But it now appears that since the island is doomed to sink beneath the ocean and will no longer exist as a nation, the domains could disappear with it too.
Does this mean you should stop buying “.tv” domains?
That indeed is a good question, however, we don’t have a definite answer yet. Let’s hope for the best!
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Any Hope???
VeriSign spokesman Tom Galvin told USA Today that a defunct country’s Internet domain lives on. For instance, you can still find addresses on .su — the domain for the Soviet Union. Tuvalu would not necessarily cease to exist. Apparently, the laws of the sea say that a country is a country, even if underwater.
.tv Domain – To Buy or Not To?
I’d say – hold your horses! Now is the time to wait and watch. There are other recommended domains you could go for, like, .COM, .NET and .INFO. If the island sinks, anything can happen!
This might sound crazy and eccentric, but it’s true… A man in the UK (from Redruth, Cornwall) took YouTube’s aid and helped deliver his wife’s fourth baby! And to everyone’s surprise and relief… “successfully” too!
The father of the child- Marc Stephens – a 28 year old Royal Navy Engineer, was tempted play Doctor! When his wife told him “something feels weird honey” the guy got on to YouTube, ran a quick search and found “how to deliver a baby” within minutes! Talk about being self sufficient! (I really hope no doctor gets his hands on this piece) 😛
Hours later… you hear a baby crying. Yay! It’s a boy!! And they named him Gabriel!
After the baby was born, they went off to the hospital anyway… to make sure all was “OK”! This makes me wonder, why play “YouTube qualified doctor” in the first place when there are “real” ones out there doing a pretty decent job?
Let’s face it. It’s human lives we are talking about here. Mortality rates for women and babies during child birth are staggering. This could be a risky business, no matter how equipped you think you are with your YouTube knowledge.
Before I take-off, just one last thing… For the love of God and for cryin’ out loud…
In a latest news from Hindustan Times, ‘Zoozoos’ (as they are supposedly called!) are actually real people wearing white specially designed costumes. Just in case you are wondering what are these ‘Zoozoos’… these are the much loved white dwarf like characters seen in all the Vodafone ads these days (particularly during IPL breaks). One of the main challenge was to make the characters look and behave like cartoon / animated figures.
This was achieved using special material wrinkle free cloth which made the body suites look smooth (like in animation) and the ads were shot at slower than normal frame rate so that the movements look swift but funny. A keen observer might notice that the expressions on the face are also static and are changed only between the (shot) cuts.
So next time you see a Vodafone ad, pay extra attention to details to see if you can make out something with these things in mind 😉
This post is for all those who love reading books but often end up running out of topics. Now use BookArmy for free tips and recommendations on the kind of books you should be reading based on your very own taste.
BookArmy is a social networking website that will connect you to a range of books and authors for you to choose from, minimizing your chances of ending up reading a really bad one again.
What is BookArmy?
It is the place to:
Discuss books with other readers and decide what to read next
Write reviews for different books
Build reading lists of your own choice
Share your bookshelf with others
Get the best book recommendations fitting your taste
Read books together with your friends and family
Make direct contact with authors
See what star rating they give the books
Browse the reading lists of different people
Ask authors questions about their own writing, and even recommend titles to them!
If you wish to register…
Apart from other things, you could also:
Create a virtual bookshelf of your favorite books
Write and share your own reviews
Participate in the group discussions and events
Browse books by the network’s most read, most popular, and by author.
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