Internet

Foursquare Is 10,000,000 Strong and Counting!

August 7, 2023 by noemi

I still remember the days when I totally ignored Foursquare. After all, I didn’t (and don’t) want people to know where I am all the time. But there’s something about this platform that one just can’t ignore. With me, it was basically wanting to be the mayor of certain locations, lording it over my grand total of 3 friends. There is still that feeling of not wanting people to always know where I am, but I have to admit that I have fallen for Foursquare hook, line, and sinker. [Read more…] about Foursquare Is 10,000,000 Strong and Counting!

Where on Earth Is Your Data?

August 7, 2023 by noemi

If you’re anything like Lisbeth Salander in “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”, you are rather particular about how and where you store your data. Now you do not have to have her social and personality issues to justify your ~~paranoia~~ healthy concern about your data. In fact, it is important that even the average person take care of information that is uploaded on the Internet.

With the continuing rise of social networking and other similar activities online, information security is really something that everyone should pay attention to. You don’t have to an expert in this matter – a good dose of common sense and accurate information should be enough for everyday purposes. And if you have those two elements, you ought to be safe. You also will probably be interested in this infographic about the whereabouts of the world’s data that Mozy has come up with. ((Source)) Yes, it’s the same Mozy that offers online backup services. And no, this is not a sponsored post by them. Suffice it to say that I found myself poring over the infographic and thought that some of you might be interested in the data as well.

Here are the salient points in the infographic.

There are almost 600 Exabytes of data stored all over the world today. Exa-what? My thoughts exactly. My knowledge of math doesn’t go that far, so Wikipedia had to rescue me. Exa = 10¹⁸ or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000. Ack. Now this really calls for something more visual. Imagine putting all that data in books. Now imagine 13 layers of books covering the entire United States. Or China. That’s how much information there is. Mind-blowing to say the least.

Hard drives contain most of the world’s data. Fifty-two percent of the world’s data is stored in hard disks. Optical storage devices come second at 28%. Not surprising at all, is it?

The rise of the data centers – 8 of the 10 biggest data centers in the world are in the United States. The other 2 are in Europe.

As for me, I belong to the majority – hard disks FTW! And I guess being a regular Facebook et. al. user (like everyone and their mom), I have a fair amount of data in one data center or another as well.

The Rise of Online Deal Seeking and Couponing

August 6, 2023 by noemi

Do you have memories of parents or grandparents sitting on the porch or the kitchen table (or wherever their favorite spot was) on a lazy Sunday afternoon, meticulously weeding through the coupon section and cutting out the useful ones? Those days are long gone, although the concept of couponing is definitely still here, thanks to the Internet.

Groupon. Living Social. Coupon Mom. Coupons.com. Those are only a handful of the sites that have attracted millions of consumers with the offer of coupons and daily deals. The United States is not alone in experiencing this phenomenon. In fact, in other parts of the world, countless daily deals sites crop up almost everyday. Confession coming up…

Yup, I am a sucker for those daily deals sites. There was a time when I had purchased so many deals that I was unable to use some of the coupons I had. I even had to give away some of them! The argument of every sucker like me: “But I can save a lot of money!”

A debatable point, of course, but that does not change the fact that people are still on the lookout for ways to make some savings on their purchases, and patronizing coupons sites and daily deals sites is one such way. Don’t believe me? Maybe you’ll believe this infographic by Credit Score ((Source)) – it’s full of official statistics so it must be true!

Truth be told, I was more interested in the figures from the past – I am already convinced that daily deals sites and coupon sites are way too popular for our (consumers) own good. For example, did you know that it was Coca-Cola who introduced the first ever coupon? They did so to promote the soda in 1888 when it was first launched. The coupon gave the bearer a free glass of Coke!

A quick summary of stats for the year 2010:

Digital coupons outsell printed coupons 10 to 1
More then 332 billion coupons were distributed in 2010
There were 63,000 daily deals in the US in 2010
There are about 200 daily deals sites
68% make impulse purchases on daily deals sites, compared to only 38% on coupons sites

Interested in more? Here’s the infographic. Click on the image to see the full size.

The Rise of Online Deal Seeking and Couponing

So tell me, are you merely part of the statistics, like I am?

Charitable Giving Online Becoming the Trend: Infographic

August 5, 2023 by dave

Donating to charitable institutions has become fast and easy in recent years owing to the advancement in internet technology. Thanks to organizations that have established websites, online charitable giving is now made possible in just a few clicks. In 2010 alone, online giving experienced a surge although experts still see social giving to grow more in 2011-2012. The human service sector receives a large chunk of donations done online followed by health and public benefit, international, education, animal and environment, arts and religion. Specific charity websites were recipients of more than half of online donations in 2010. Other donors prefer to use certain sites including social networks that provide a list of various charities.

What Kind of Hacker Are You?

August 4, 2023 by noemi

Hacking and its proponents have been in the forefront lately, what with hacking “groups” being more active and aggressive in their activities. The general public probably does not have an accurate idea as to what hacking really entails and what hackers really are like. Then again, I think that I am correct to assume that you know a tad more than your average joe. You might even have an experience or two to back you up. If this is the case, then you will definitely be interested in finding out just what kind of hacker you are. (Using the term rather loosely, I know.)

Well, wonder no more as the guys at IEEE Spectrum ((Source)) have done their utmost best to provide the only hacking chart you’ll ever need. That is, a hacking chart that will help you determine whether you are involved in activities that are good, bad, or neutral.

This chart is the result of the consolidation of the 25 biggest (and best) stories about hacking that have been published at IEEE Spectrum. They took both the good (those who hack to express themselves creatively without doing harm to others) and the bad (motivation: money, power, politics, and mischief), and of course, the ones that fall in between. They identified two parameters: innovation and impact. Using these parameters, they came up with this chart.

In the chart above, you can see the complete range of hacking activities covered by the site. In case you only want to do good, here is a simplified version, with only the good hacks displayed.

You can visit the site and play around with the options (even though there are only three). Now, you have to realize that the chart has been created by people with their own perspectives and opinions, so you might not necessarily agree with their assessment of the activities. In any case, you are totally free to let them know what you think about their assessment.

The bigger question is this: given that chart, where do you think your activities (if any) fall? Care to share?

Four Steps to Going to the Dark Side (of the Internet)

August 1, 2023 by noemi

The recent spate of hacker attacks on high profile web sites have spawned a renewed interest in the “dark side of the Internet” – if the interest has waned at all. I don’t know much about being a hacker except for what I hear from other people and what I read online. And if there is one interesting article that you ought to read on hackers and hacking, it’s this recent one published on the BBC by Jane Wakefield.

Now I don’t know just how accurate the details are, but coming from BBC, one would expect the article to be well-researched and verified. So if you want to go over to the dark side of the Internet – not that I am encouraging you to – there are four steps to follow. ((Source: BBC))

Start lurking in different underground hacking forums.
Become an active participant in topics.
Bring some ‘proof’ of what you’ve said – for example ‘I’m posting for free five credentials to Paypal. Want more? Call me up!’.
Earn a reputation and you’re in.

I don’t know if there are any of you out there who will verify these steps, but go ahead and start a discussion if you wish!

The article also covers the “human” side to hackers. They’re secretive but social – as long as they operate within their circles, I suppose. They also like to talk philosophy, apparently, and they are keen on literature. They’re also a collaborative community, with a structure akin to the mafia.

If anything, this article makes one’s interest level spike as to what the life of a hacker really is. What makes them tick? What makes them do what they do?

Photo via The Tech Herald