REBLOG! Australians Addicted to Smartphones, the Rest of the World is Addicted to Social Media

Blogger and ABC contributor Peter Ryan has a superneat post on a new report confirming what most of us  already knew: Australians are addicted to their smartphones. The survey of smartphone users by tech behemoth Cisco reveals that the daily ritual for Gen Y Aussies kicks off with a quick txt.

Many of the survey participants admitted that they checked for messages, emails and updates at least twice an hour, many becoming anxious when their phone goes astray.

Kevin Bloch isn’t alone, our favourite news agency – Reuters – has an ubercool post on our latest addiction, Social Media.

Social media is now apparently a recognised addiction, a study undertaken last year by the University of Chicago found that Liking and Tweeting can be even more addictive than cigarettes or alcohol. The research showed that social networking sites gave users a burst of the addictive neurotransmitter dopamine :: Read the full article »»»»

TWITTER BOMB

A UK man who joked on Twitter that he would BLOW UP an airport after it closed because of snow has had his conviction for sending a “menacing” message overturned in a landmark ruling for users of social media websites.

Paul Chambers, 28, had sent the message in what he called a moment of frustration at not being able to catch a flight from Doncaster Robin Hood airport. Mr Chambers had later been arrested and sentenced but the High Court on Friday upheld his appeal against conviction. Speaking outside the court afterwards, Mr Chambers’ barrister John Cooper, who had argued it was wrong to associate the tweet with terrorism, said it was a milestone ruling.

In Friday’s High Court ruling, three judges headed by the Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge, allowed Mr Chambers’ appeal against a Crown Court judge’s decision upholding the 2010 conviction. They said: “If the person or persons who receive or read it, (the message) or may reasonably be expected to receive, or read it, would brush it aside as a silly joke, or a joke in bad taste, or empty bombastic or ridiculous banter, then it would be a contradiction in terms to describe it as a message of a menacing character.” :: Read the full article »»»»

Twitter Acquires Email Marketeer RestEngine

TechCrunch has reported that Twitter has just finalized a deal to acquire RestEngine, a developer of personalized email marketing services, which could help Twitter deliver email digests of great tweets you’ve missed. The acquisition fits well with Twitter’s recent talent acquisition of Summify, which creates these kinds of personal news digests. The boostrapped RestEngine had spent the last few years generating and distributing re-engagement emails for social game companies like Crowdstar. The emails often enticed users to start playing again by telling them what their friends had been accomplishing in the game.

Three of four founders will be joining the flock, and the company’s technology will come along with them. Co-founder Joe Waltman won’t be moving to Twitter, though, as he tells me his entrepreneurial spirit is too strong and he’ll be working on new projects after a vacation. Waltman tells me RestEngine will shut down, and has already begun helping clients migrate to other email providers  :: Read the full article »»»»

Tajikistan Blocks Facebook

The Republic of Tajikistan has blocked local access to Facebook and two Russian-language sites that published an article critical of its long-serving president Emomalii Rahmon.

The shutdown was ordered by the state-run communications service, the local Internet providers told Reuters, requesting anonymity.

Users who tried to access Facebook or the two websites, which published a story critical of President Imomali Rakhmon, were automatically re-directed to the home page of their provider.

Freedom of the press is officially guaranteed by the government, although independent press outlets remain restricted, as does a substantial amount of web content.

According to the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, access is blocked to local and foreign websites including avesta.tj, tjknews.com, ferghana.ru and centrasia.ru and journalists are often obstructed from reporting on controversial events. In practice, no public criticism of the regime is tolerated and all direct protest is severely suppressed and does not get reported in the local media :: Read the full article »»»»

GAWKER: Anonymous Fundraising

In early January we reported: India has had some serious issues dealing with technology over the past decade, the country has gone from a potential tech behemoth to an open joke. An Indian hacking group, calling itself the Lords of Dharmaraja, has threatened to publicly disclose the source code on the internet. So far, there have been two claims related to Symantec’s source code. A document claiming to be confidential information related to Norton AntiVirus’s source code was posted on Pastebin. Symantec says it has investigated the claim, and rather than source code, most of the hackers booty seems to have been documentation dated April 1999, the documentation is related to an API – application programming interface – used by the product.

GAWKER is now reporting that, Anonymous Swears It Was Trying to Extort $50,000 from Antivirus Company for Charity. An Anonymous hacker tried to use stolen source codes to extort $50,000 from antivirus firm Symantec. Turned out it was a law enforcement sting. Now Anonymous is in spin mode, claiming the hacker was trying to raise money for poor kids in India.

The source code for some popular Symantec products, including pcAnywhere and Norton Antivrus, ended up in the hands of an Indian-based hacker named Yamatough, a member of the Anonymous-affiliated group the Lords of Dharamaja. This is a big deal, since the source code can give hackers a map to dangerous vulnerabilities.

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