Siljaline's Blog

Online advertising regaining momentum

Randy Knobloch — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:16:00 GMT

After bogging down in the recession, internet advertising is regaining the momentum that has made it the decade's most disruptive marketing machine. The signs of an online revival are emerging even while advertising in print and broadcasts remains...(read more)

Microsoft-tested browser prosecution snares tech giants

Randy Knobloch — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:26:00 GMT

Tiny Eolas Technologies is taking tech giants and major customers to court claiming they infringed its patents for working with online interactive content. Eolas has filed suit against Adobe Systems, Apple, Google, Sun Microsystems, YouTube, Blockbuster...(read more)

Blogger payola getting a pass in Canada

Randy Knobloch — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 01:30:00 GMT

U.S. authorities are using the threat of big fines to force bloggers to disclose their relationships with the companies they write about, but jurisidictional confusion means no similar mechanisms exist or are under consideration in Canada. The Federal...(read more)

Google results flog millions of compromised webpages

Randy Knobloch — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:52:00 GMT

Two ongoing scams are tricking Google and other search engines into prominently displaying millions of compromised webpages that attempt to hijack end users' computers or steal their credit card numbers, researchers said. http://www.theregister.co...(read more)

Judge in Pirate Bay Appeal Removed for Bias

Randy Knobloch — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:54:00 GMT

The Pirate Bay saga took another twist Tuesday as one of the appellate judges set to hear the appeal of the co-founders’ criminal copyright convictions was removed over concerns of bias. The Swedish judge in question, Fredrik Niemela, owns an unstated...(read more)

Facebook pulls Obama assassination poll

Randy Knobloch — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:35:00 GMT

Social website Facebook yanked a poll this week about assassinating President Barack Obama after being contacted by the U.S. Secret Service. On Monday, Facebook dropped a question that asked voters whether the U.S. president "should be killed."...(read more)

Microsoft releases free antivirus software

Randy Knobloch — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:32:00 GMT

Microsoft's free antivirus program, Security Essentials, became available for download from the company's website Tuesday. Microsoft bills the software as providing "high-quality protection" against viruses, Trojan horses, worms, spyware...(read more)

Microsoft protests $290m Word judgment

Randy Knobloch — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:27:00 GMT

A federal judge fundamentally misinterpreted a patent asserted against Microsoft Word, an error that should require a $290m infringement penalty to be overturned, attorneys for the software giant argued Wednesday. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09...(read more)

Facebook shuts down Beacon marketing tool

Randy Knobloch — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:04:00 GMT

Facebook says it will shut down its controversial marketing feature Beacon, an application that broadcasts users' activities, including purchases, on other websites to their Facebook friends. The feature was adopted in November 2007 and immediately...(read more)

New York Times Reforms Online Ad Sales After Malware Scam

Randy Knobloch — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 03:11:00 GMT

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/09/nyt-revamps-online-ad-sales-after-malware-scam/...(read more)

Google acquires ReCAPTCHA

Randy Knobloch — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:43:00 GMT

Google has acquired a Carnegie Mellon University spinoff that seeks to cut down on spam and fraud at websites while digitizing books. ReCAPTCHA offers simple word puzzles that users must solve when registering at a website or completing an online purchase...(read more)

Facebook 'cash flow positive,' signs 300M users

Randy Knobloch — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:19:00 GMT

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the social networking site has more than 300 million users, and earned more money than it spent last quarter. In a blog post on Facebook, Zuckerberg wrote that the company was "cash flow positive"...(read more)

Tech giants to be rated on human rights

Randy Knobloch — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 23:38:00 GMT

A group of prominent Canadian researchers has launched an initiative to examine how closely companies like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo follow their own principles regarding freedom of expression and privacy. Citizen Lab, which runs out of the University...(read more)

Pirate Bay copyright convicts lose retrial bid

Randy Knobloch — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:49:00 GMT

Four men found guilty of promoting copyright infringement through the file-sharing site The Pirate Bay will not get a retrial, the Swedish court of appeals has ruled. The court found Thursday that the judge who ruled in the original case in April, Tomas...(read more)

Jackson's death slows web to a crawl

Randy Knobloch — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:13:00 GMT

In life, Michael Jackson once ruled the pop charts. With his death, he dominated the internet. As reports of Jackson's death on Thursday spread, celebrity gossip websites crashed, news sites slowed to a crawl and traffic on social networking sites...(read more)

1st porn app on iTunes 'sold out'

Randy Knobloch — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:52:00 GMT

The first app featuring images of nude women to go up for sale on iTunes can no longer be downloaded because it was too popular, the developer reported Thursday. "The Hottest Girls app is temporarily sold out , " said a post signed by the "ATG...(read more)

Microsoft taking half-price pre-orders for Windows 7

Randy Knobloch — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:49:00 GMT

Microsoft is trying to lure Canadians to upgrade to its newest operating system by offering a half-price discount to people who pre-order. Windows 7 won't be released until Oct. 22, but Microsoft is taking pre-orders starting Friday, the company said...(read more)

Conficker worm sends new instructions: grow botnet, then die

Randy Knobloch — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 20:29:00 GMT

The Conficker worm has begun to update the machines it has infected with a new set of instructions to spread to other machines and then self-destruct, security experts say. Security researchers tracking the worm said some of the infected computers began...(read more)

Conficker botnet remains dormant - for now

Randy Knobloch — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:04:00 GMT

Conficker changed the way parts of the botnet communicated overnight, but little else of note has happened so far. The malware is far from an April Fool's joke, but it's obviously a long way from the Skynet botnet, as depicted in Terminator 3...(read more)

China rejects computer spy claims

Randy Knobloch — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:43:00 GMT

China's government on Tuesday dismissed a research report outlining an extensive spy network based mostly in China as "lies" designed to hurt the country's image abroad. Speaking to reporters, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said...(read more)