Category: Computers, Science & Technology

Another Cloud Service has issues, and this one was cross-platform as well!

Skype hit by global service crash

“Skype has moved quickly to fix problems that hit users around the world.

Many people started to report that they had problems making calls via the net-based phone system earlier today.

The problem did not seem confined to one group, with users on machines running Windows, OS X and Linux all reporting trouble.

Skype issued advice about how to get its service going, while it worked on a permanent fix.

Messages about problems getting Skype to start up began to be posted on social networking sites such as Twitter soon after it sent out a software update.

The update made it impossible for many people to sign in and make calls.

Skype posted an update about the outage to its blog, saying a ‘small number’ of people have had problems and detailing how to get the service running again.

Skype said the problem predominantly affected Windows users, but it also posted advice for OS X and Linux users. All the solutions revolved around the deletion of a file called shared.xml.’

It also said it had identified the problem and would issue a fix ‘in the next few hours.’

The large number of people turning to the Skype.com website for advice and information also briefly knocked that offline.”

That’s a lot of YouTube viewing!

Thanks, YouTube community, for two BIG gifts on our sixth birthday!

“In May 2005, the YouTube founders launched YouTube.com, providing people with a platform to broadcast themselves to the world. Six years on, the world is watching and we wanted to say thank you to the YouTube community for a couple of amazing birthday presents.

First, your video. Back in November we challenged you to up the volume of videos you uploaded to the site. And boy, did you take the bait. Today, more than 48 hours (two days worth) of video are uploaded to the site every minute, a 37% increase over the last six months and 100% over last year. From videos documenting a baby’s first steps in San Francisco, Calif., to a protest in Syria, to a commencement speech at Yale University, we’re continually impressed and inspired by the quality and breadth (in addition to quantity) of videos that you upload to the site every day. On our end, we’re constantly evolving to provide the best video sharing and viewing experience for you from faster processing of uploads to longer video lengths to the launch of self-service live stream capabilities to partners.”

The true “paperless future” may yet be upon us!

Amazon’s Kindle E-Books Outselling Paper Books

“Amazon is claiming that Kindle e-books are outselling hardcover and paperback print books on its Website.

‘We had high hopes that this would happen eventually, but we never imagined it would happen this quickly—we’ve been selling print books for 15 years and Kindle books for less than four years,’ Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, wrote in a May 19 statement. He also claimed that the Kindle is the bestselling e-reader in the world, although his company has never released sales numbers for the device.

Since April 1, some 105 Kindle e-books have sold for every 100 print books, including hardcover and paperbacks for which there is no Kindle edition. Amazon has excluded free Kindle e-books from that breakdown. Kindle e-books are selling at three times their rate during a comparable period in 2010.”

If you have been looking for a microphone to use in recording directly to your computer, via your USB port, you have found it! The CAD Model u37 USB Condensor Microphone is amazing! Plug it in, and you are ready to roll! I use it with Audacity (an Open Source Audio recorder) and it works perfectly for audio podcasts! I am saying AWESOME! Check out these features:

• Large condenser microphone element for warm, rich recordings
• Cardioid pickup pattern minimizes background noise and isolates the main sound source
• Smooth, extended frequency response is excellent for singing, speech and instruments
• -10dB Overload-protection switch minimizes distortion from loud sound sources
• Bass-reduction switch reduces room noise
• Side-address design used by broadcast, TV and recording studios
• 10′ USB cable for flexible mic placement

This is also the microphone I used on my last Video Netcast in conjunction with the Logitech C-910 HD Webcam. I use it primarily for the audio only podcasts I do… it is so clean and clear, and works so well, I wanted to share it with you, because I know I looked for one like this (with these features) for a LONG time! And, it is not that expensive! I have seen it on-line in the under $75.00 range!

Why USB? Because it is entirely separated from your PC’s audio system. You are not depending on, what may be, a poorer quality PC sound card, which could be influenced by hum and noise of the PC system. I have found USB mics, in general, and this mic specifically, are FAR superior in sound quality for PC recording. You WILL have to go into your Audacity “Preferences” and set the “Recording” source as the “USB Audio Device,” but then you are good to go! Seriously, if you are looking for awesome recordings, you won’t believe the difference. I have found, that for me, setting the CAD u37 to reduce sensitivity to be -10 db less (I am VERY loud!) and the IQ to flat, gives an excellent quality and tone in my recordings. Check it out!

This has been cross-posted from my VirtZine Virtualization Blog)

Using “The Cloud” to attack “The Cloud?” It would seem so! The timing is really bad on all these “revelations” for Cloud Computing as a direction for business!

Source: PlayStation Network Hacked Using Amazon’s Cloud Service

“A report this morning from Bloomber News points to hackers using Amazon’s Elastic Computer Cloud as a staging area for the attack on Sony’s PlayStation Network — which led the service to be shut down for almost a month.

The reporters who wrote the Bloomberg report cite an anonymous source ‘with knowledge of the matter’ for the information. An Amazon spokesperson contacted by Bloomberg to confirm or deny the information declined to comment.

According to the source, the hackers used Amazon’s Elastic Computer Cloud (EC2) to stage the attacks, but did ‘not hack into Amazon’ — meaning that they paid to rent the cloud service. (EC2’s servers can be rented by the hour.)

The account, set up under a ‘bogus name,’ has since been disabled.

The Bloomberg article does not say whether or not the EC2 service was just one (or the only) of the staging areas used in the attack.

Sony has also not issued a statement about the report. Its PlayStation network, brought down last month, just came back up this past weekend.”

Check out our site on Blip.TV at the link below:

Dr. Bill.TV on Blip.TV – The “New Look!”

They are really changing things up, and “ramping up” on IPTV series! Pretty neat! I am still “tweaking” some of the changed images… but it is cool!

Just a note that now that we are using Powerpress from Blubrry (RawVoice Media) to “empower” our Netcasts in the Blog, we have an “enhanced” RSS feed with way more info than our old feed. It is available (viewable by Internet Explorer or Firefox, or your RSS Reader like the “Slick RSS” Google Chrome Browser plugin that I use!)

https://www.drbill.tv/feed/podcast/

So, check it out! You may want to use it to subscribe rather than our old one!

Oooohhhh, what you did!!! Facebook, it seems hired a “PR” firm to start a “grass roots” campaign against Google. How naughty!

Facebook, Burson discuss role in Google Circle dispute

“In a stunning mea culpa, Facebook on Thursday admitted that it was behind a whisper campaign to spread privacy fears about Google. Facebook says it never intended to smear the search giant.

Meanwhile, giant public relations firm Burson-Marsteller issued a statement saying it should have never agreed to carry out the assignment on Facebook’s behalf, and that it violated its own policies and procedures to do so. Burson confirmed on Thursday that it no longer works for Facebook.

The admissions follow a Tuesday story in USA TODAY detailing how Burson consultants approached top-tier media companies and high-profile technologists, on behalf of an unnamed client, to seed largely unfounded allegations about privacy shortcomings in Google’s Social Circle service. On Thursday, blogger Dan Lyons, of The Daily Beast, broke a story naming Facebook as Burson’s client.

Facebook issued a statement saying no smear campaign was authorized or intended. ‘We engaged Burson-Marsteller to focus attention on this issue, using publicly available information that could be independently verified by any media organization or analyst,’ the statement said. “The issues are serious, and we should have presented them in a serious and transparent way.”

Those developments bring into sharp relief the escalating infighting between high-profile tech companies scratching to extract advertising profits from sensitive information disclosed to them by Internet users.”

Wow! Quite a milestone!

Google Activates Its 100 Millionth Android Device

“While most people are more concerned with the bigger things to come out of Google I/O (Google Music or the new ChromeBooks to name just a few), the search giant also revealed some rather interesting information about Android.

Right at the beginning of yesterday’s keynote, Hugo Barra, Product Management Director for Android, gave attendees a quick recap of the kind of growth Google’s mobile operating system has seen since it launched in October of 2008. Google reports that Android use has skyrocketed, jumping from 500,000 activations to 100 million worldwide activations in 2011.

This time last year, Google was clocking about 100,000 activations a day. That number doubled by the time August rolled around, and by December of 2010, Google was activating 300,000 Android devices every single day. As it stands, the company currently activates 400,000 Android devices each day.

Barra says the company’s now got 310 devices from 36 OEMs in 112 countries across 215 carriers. He also revealed that Google’s 450,000 Android developers have cranked out 200,000 available apps and these have been downloaded a total of 4.5 billion times. The first billion downloads apparently took two years to hit but the most recent billion downloads were done in the last 60 days.”

Man! The security issues just aren’t letting up this week!

Facebook may have leaked personal info on millions

“For years, an accidental security flaw in the way Facebook handled embedded frames allowed applications developers to access information on a user’s profile that installed that application. It is estimated that nearly 100,000 applications may have enabled this flaw, potentially affecting millions.

Symantec, the company that discovered the vulnerability, reported it to Facebook. The flaw has been fixed, but it is unknown if any of the data had been used maliciously. With 500 million active users, the flaw has the potential to be much larger than the PlayStation Network breach, which has 77 million users. There is a caveat though: the user would have needed to have installed one of the vulnerable applications in order to be at risk.”

A tweet I got earlier this evening from Leo Laporte advises us to change our FB passwords… I did… so should you!