webNivaran Blog
Just another webNivaran weblog
Who is Google?
0618 days
by webNivaran
in Goooooooooogle
No there’s no grammatical error there in the title of the post. Well, although there is, it’s intentional. Think about it. Since the time Google announced its open source android operating system for mobiles, people have wondered — why is Google launching a product that has no apparent revenue model?
The question has come to the forefront once again with the launch of T mobile’s HTC G1. The phone is pretty nifty and we especially like the flip-slider opening keyboard. Android works fairly smooth too. But coming back to what Google is up to — perhaps its recent announcement that the iPhone and T-Mobile G1 can now show Google search ads sheds a little light on the question. Is Google then going the Microsoft way? Monopoly being the name of the game. For instance, reports suggest T-Mobile’s G1 works fine with many online services, but it works especially well with Google’s. It delivers a lot of the basic core functions and of course, tight integration with Google’s products, including Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Calendar. Having said that, there is also a lack of basic features like video recording. Is it a miss out, or more like an opportunity for independent app developers?
Google has come up with a mobile application store of its own, called Android Market ala iPhone. Besides, some of Google’s latest antics include asking broadband carriers to create a special fastlane exclusively for its content. This would be done by placing Google servers in the ISP’s technical facilities. Another somewhat alarming warning sign is the removal of Firefox as the default browser in the Google code pack.
War on Piracy v2.0
0618 days
It seems the bigwigs at RIAA are ready to try out just about anything to stem the piracy biz. First they began by suing people who downloaded music. That meant suing just about every person on planet earth right?
They managed to sue 30,000 accused file sharers in the last five years. Clearly it wasn’t working, so the music industry said “hey wait a minute, since so many people are downloading, viewing and listening to copywrited content, why not try to squeeze some ads in there.” Accordingly, all such content on Myspace and YouTube wasn’t necessarily pulled down. Instead, the original owners could just choose to put ads on it.
Now in its latest installment against piracy, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has announced that it will work with internet service providers to sever abusers’ net connections. Just to clarify, abuser here means you. Yes, you with the 20 GB MP3 collection! Under the new plan, RIAA will send notices to ISPs that identify the IP addresses of suspected file sharers. ISPs will then send warnings to their customers and then cut them off if the users fail to curb their illegal downloads. Details are still being worked out, but most reports said downloaders might lose their net connection after the third notice. The termination could last anywhere from three months to a year.
Modern Cellphones Share your Location Information
0618 days
by webNivaran
in Mobile
The Internet Storm Center has published the results of an exploratory research experiment into whether photos uploaded onto the Internet can give away sensitive information about your whereabouts. Based on the premise that most photo-sharing sites don’t strip out EXIF metadata from uploaded JPEG files, the team found that a large number of photos had names, camera/phone models and even GPS coordinates still embedded in them.
Out of 15,291 photos collected on the Twitter companion site Twitpic.com (which does not allow users to protect access to uploaded photos), around 10,000 contained basic information about the camera used, while 399 of these included GPS coordinates and 102 even had the camera owner’s name intact! The vast majority of GPS-tagged images came from iPhones, which are widely used in conjunction with Twitter. In Many of the iPhone images even included accelerometer and digital compass readouts.
All about Digital Rights Management (DRM)
2618 days
by webNivaran
in Internet
Digital Rights Management (DRM) refers to any scheme used to protect the copyright of digital content using a system of encryption that often includes remote monitoring and control by the copyright owners. The development of the various forms of DRM has largely been driven by the large media companies as a response, they say, to the effect of large scale copying on their revenues rather than rely on the passive protection of copyright law these companies have gone on the offensive with active digital rights management. DRM encompasses a range of embedded software and hardware measures for all digital media that attempt to physically stop unauthorized use and copying. Since DRM at least appears to be a method of enforcing copyright, any discussion of DRM must include a discussion of copyright itself. The advantages and disadvantages of DRM for the copyright owner and the consumer and the legal, ethical and ideological issues surrounding DRM are by no means clear. In this feature we explore the ins and outs of DRM as they stand today.
What’s wrong with DRM?
If DRM was always completely transparent to the end user, was not intrusive, protected copyright in a fashion that all agreed was fair and did not add cost to media hardware, perhaps no-one would find it objectionable. Various media companies have already applied almost draconian measures A further problem with DRM is that of interoperability, that agreeing on and using a standard form of DRM is not always in the media companies interest.
For example, this is true of Apple iTunes because of Apple’s agreements with the content providers that iTunes downloads should not be easy to copy. Some music download sites use license validation servers which validate a users right to play tracks they have downloaded. There have been several recent examples of music download sites closing down with the result that many users are left with tracks they have paid for but can no longer play because the validation servers are no longer available.
DRM has a negative effect on open source development, particularly on projects that are dedicated to pure open source, because all DRM involves proprietary methods and code. At present, playing protected Blu-ray content on a Linux box requires use of a device or player key, none of which have been issued for open source software players.
Widespread Reports of Phishing Attacks on IndianTax Sites
0618 days
Symantec has reported widespread incidents of phishing scam emails which point to fake Income Tax Department websites, taking obvious advantage of the returns filing season. The emails themselves claim that users have been identified as eligible for tax refunds. These sites, as expected, look identical to the official IT department website, but users are pointed to a form that asks for bank account details and/ or credit card authentication information.
Users are warned to be alert for such kinds of emails, verify the URLs that embedded links point to, and never part with sensitive information unless being absolutely sure of the site.
