Google finally decided they’ve outgrown the Googleplex and tossed $30 million at the city of Mountain View for some space to build a new 10-acre campus. Who’s gonna design it? Ingenhoven, one of Germany’s biggest architectural firms. More »
Low water pressure sucks. You hop in expecting a wonderful deluge, but you get a pathetic drizzle. It can be a day-breaker. But the good news is, you’re not helpless. More »
This article was written on January 21, 2006 by CyberNet.
Just yesterday I had written an article on ThePirateBay.org selling themselves on eBay for a fundraiser technique to pay for their new $12,000+ server. The auction didn’t last long because eBay was quick to pull it. The reason why we think it was pulled was because in the listing they said “we’ve decided to go prostitutes on you and sell ourselves for money”. I would imagine that would throw up some red flags at the eBay headquarters.
They didn’t throw the towel in though. They decided to take a new approach to the eBay auction this time. Now they are officially selling a T-Shirt and “Anyhow, if you win this auction you will receive the ‘honor’ of paying your own fare to Stockholm, Sweden, and pay for all your own expenses (i.e. hotel, food, 1337, whatever you’re into). You will also get to treat the seller to a nice dinner in town with pleasant conversations about happy times and joy-joy feelings. And yeah, we need something to wash down the food with as well.”
The starting bid is at $2500, bud don’t forget, you have to pay all of the above fees as well!
View The NEW eBay Auction
News Source: Slyck
Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com
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Last year, a Redditor found this ominous log concealed in his car. Turned out it was the FBI’s favorite little stealth GPS tracking device. iFixit got its hands on the one—and busted it open. Behold the guts. More »
Each iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch contains a "unique device identifier" that can potentially be linked to a customer's real-world identity, according to a security researcher. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
The unique string of numbers and letters assigned to your iPhone can potentially expose your real-life identity.
Security researcher Aldo Cortesi last week published his discovery of a flaw in the unique device identifier (UDID) stored on each iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.
While this device identifier is well-known, it’s not supposed to be connected to a person’s actual identity. But Cortesi discovered that some apps can link the identifier to the phone owner’s Facebook profile, which effectively puts a face behind that string of numbers and letters.
“It’s like a permanent, unalterable tracking cookie that can’t be changed and that the user is not aware of,” Cortesi told Wired.com. “The UDID idea has got such deep flaws because it literally identifies the device.”
Apple and iOS app programmers use the 40-character string of letters and numbers as a method to identify each device uniquely, and presumably anonymously. The UDID is permanently tagged to the device, and it can’t be erased or changed.
By itself, the UDID doesn’t expose personal data, but to the extent that it’s tied to other information about the phone’s user, it can function like a permanent, ineradicable “evercookie.” In theory, that could allow advertisers or other parties to track a wide variety of your activities through your smartphone. Whether that constitutes a privacy invasion, an annoyance or a convenience depends on your perspective. Early concerns over Web cookies, for example, have faded as the business community has standardized privacy protocols, including allowing users to easily identify sites that use them, and to opt out if they so choose.
This identifier is at the center of criticism amid growing concerns about smartphone privacy. The Wall Street Journal last year conducted independent tests and found that out of 101 apps, 56 transmitted the device’s UDID to other companies without user awareness or consent.
In reaction to WSJ’s investigation, some customers in April filed a lawsuit against Apple and a handful of app makers, alleging that they invaded user privacy by accessing customer information without permission and sharing it with third-party advertisers. They argued that the UDID could be virtually stapled to other information, such as age and location, to personally identify a customer, and that advertisers can create profiles to track each customer for marketing purposes.
“They’re permanent Social Security numbers in your phone that are freely transmitted and can’t change,” said Justin Brookman, director of the Center for Democracy and Technology’s consumer privacy project.
Cortesi said that Apple’s UDID methodology is problematic because of the way it is designed. To track how apps transmit UDIDs, Cortesi created a tool called Mitmproxy.
In April, he found that OpenFeint, a gaming network integrated inside some apps to link players together, was transmitting UDID attached to personally identifiable information in some instances. When customers used their Facebook accounts to log in to OpenFeint, the game was transmitting UDID attached to the customer’s Facebook ID, picture and occasionally GPS coordinates, he said.
OpenFeint claims to have 75 million registered gamers. Popular games that integrate OpenFeint include TinyWings, Pocket God, Robot Unicorn Attack and Fruit Ninja.
OpenFeint fixed the flaw after Cortesi notified the company. However, Cortesi explained that the issue is not isolated to the gaming network.
Apple explicitly tells iOS programmers that they “must not publicly associate a device’s unique identifier with a user account” to ensure privacy. However, the fact that a network as big as OpenFeint managed to link UDIDs to Facebook accounts means that there are probably other apps linking UDIDs to personal data that have slipped past Apple’s radar.
“By designing an API to expose UDIDs and encouraging developers to use it, Apple has ensured that there are literally thousands of databases linking UDIDs to sensitive user information on the net,” Cortesi said.
Other than concerns about trading customer data with advertisers, an additional possibility is that app makers can peek at what a specific person is doing inside their apps, using analytics tools such as Flurry, Cortesi said.
Apple did not return a request for comment.
Charlie Miller, a security researcher who specializes in hacking smartphones, told Wired.com that the security issue raised by Cortesi is not a huge concern, but it does highlight some issues with the UDID. He said that a more secure design would be to have each app randomly generate a unique identifier for each device, so that a programmer can only track information relevant to his or her app.
However, Miller added that the erosion of privacy is inevitable in the always-connected age, and we have to sacrifice some privacy in exchange for app-powered services.
“The bottom line is traditional privacy has gone out the window with smartphones,” Miller said. “You’re carrying around always-on GPS-enabled, internet-enabled devices. You’re downloading and running applications that are designed to share your thoughts and photos. [Cortesi] points out some things Apple could have done better to help protect your privacy, but basically, you voluntarily give up some of your privacy in order to use these apps and devices.”
See Also:
Next time you plan on finding a good coffee shop around the universe, bring with you this giganormous 3850 x 1925 pixel You Are Here map. Zoom in to see where are you in the immensity of space. Zoom in! More »
This article was written on August 07, 2008 by CyberNet.
Welcome to Daily Downloads brought to you by CyberNet! Each weekday we bring you software updates for widely used programs, and it’s safe to assume that all the software we list is freeware (we’ll try to note the paid-only programs).
As you browse the Internet during the day, feel free to post the software updates you come across in the comments below so that we can include them the following day!
The software listed here have all been officially released by the developers.
Mac only
Windows only Windows only Mac; 
LinuxThe software listed here are pre-releases that may not be ready for everyday usage.
Windows onlyCopyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com
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This article was written on March 10, 2007 by CyberNet.
Weekend Website
There are many services available on the web to help you keep yourself organized. You could always use something like Google Calendar, or Google Notebook, or even something like Remember the Milk (simple task manager). But if you’re looking for something that’s a bit more complex, that’s where Voo2Do comes into play.
Voo2Do is a web-based (free) time management service that helps you get all of your projects and tasks done. It’s been around for quite a while, and while I wasn’t particularly fond of the layout, it grew on me the more I used it.
This would be great for big projects where you have a complex task list. You can track lists, assign a priority to each, and assign due dates. Another helpful feature allows you to take a guess at how much time it will take you to complete the project so that you can budget your time accordingly.
Collaboration is a popular Web 2.0 concept that many web-based services offer. Voo2Do is no different, and allows multiple users to view and change the items on the to-do lists. They make good use of Ajax so that everything flows smoothly.
I decided I’d create a to-do list, so I started out by creating a new “context.” Contexts are groups of projects and tasks. For example, you could create a work context, and a home context. Each context will have projects, and each of those projects will have tasks.
There were two different contexts that I wanted to include, CyberNet and Home. Under CyberNet, I created a project called “CyberNotes” and then each of the tasks under CyberNotes included the daily articles that I am responsible for.
Initially, it took time to get the hang of things, but after understanding that there are contexts, projects, and tasks within, it was easier to use. One thing you’ll have to remember is to click save after you’ve changed something, otherwise it won’t. That’s probably my only real complaint. While it does prompt you to save if you’re leaving the page, it would be nice if changes automatically saved.
By listing every task for each project, and estimating how much time it will take, the entire process will be easier for you. I like that you can add tasks via email, and I also like that you can add notes to each of your tasks. The Dashboard is your control panel where you can see all of your tasks at a glance, and the tasks that are overdue show up in red.
Overall, I thought Voo2Do is a good web-based solution for keeping track of everything that you need to do, but also for planning out projects and all of the tasks that come with. At times it was confusing to use, but the more you use it and play around with it, the easier it will be.
Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com
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This article was written on April 24, 2008 by CyberNet.
Tutorial Thursday
Microsoft has made some good efforts to make Vista a lot more secure than previous versions of Windows by locking down files and folders on your system. They must have figured if it’s verging on painful for you to move or delete the files then it would probably be difficult for viruses to do the same. What if you wanted to modify or delete a system file for one reason or another?
This can be done by taking ownership of the file or folder. Taking ownership will not only let you manage the file or folder, but it can also be used as a way to avoid the User Account Control (UAC) prompt. For example, if you take ownership of the “Mozilla Firefox” folder in the “Program Files” you’ll never see the UAC prompt when dealing with that particular folder.
Important: It should be noted that whatever files you take ownership of could become more vulnerable to attacks.
There are two ways to do this manually, and neither are much fun. The next section of this article offers a one-click solution, but I’m sure many of you are curious as to what taking ownership of a file or folder actually entails.
So how can we make taking ownership a little easier? There are all kinds of registry hacks floating around out there, but I’m going to point you to one of my favorite tweaking utilities for Vista. It’s called XdN Tweaker, and not only is it free but there is also a version that requires absolutely no installation.
After you get the program up and running the first thing you’ll want to do is jump to the Files & Folders section in the sidebar. In the lower-half of the screen you should see the Take Ownership option, and all you have to do is click the Add Option button:
(Click to Enlarge)
There’s no need to restart your computer once the option has been enabled. You can see the new menu item that was added whenever you right-click on a file or folder:
Clicking on the Take Ownership option will essentially duplicate the tedious manual steps that we mentioned above, but it is a lot faster than going through it all yourself. If for some reason you decide that you don’t want the Take Ownership option to show up anymore it can be removed by simply running XdN Tweaker again and choosing the Remove Option button.
Now if only Microsoft would fine tune UAC so that it is a little easier to use, but that won’t be happening anytime soon. I guess it’s a tradeoff you have to make for the added security.
Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com
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LG told us to expect the ultra-slim Optimus Black handset globally in the first half of the year, and at least one continent will receive the device as planned — the company just announced that the 9.2mm thin smartphone with the 700 nit NOVA display will hit Europe this month, with launches planned for North America and Asia at unspecified times after that. Yes, there’ll be plenty of jealousy to go around, especially sometime in June — that’s when LG will allegedly unveil white and pink versions of the phone. Assuming, of course, that you’re willing to settle for a single-core 1GHz processor when confronted with the latest spec sheets. PR after the break.
LG Optimus Black debuts in Europe ‘this month,’ rest of the world settles for dual-core crumbs originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 08 May 2011 02:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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