Week In Review – April 25, 2014
3 min read
This week for Binary Blogger has been one of illness. First the oldest child got his annual case of strep throat, thankfully the baby has avoided major illness other than a simple cold. As for me I took a step back in the time machine to when I was a 6-year-old boy and developed an ear infection. I had a small surgery a few weeks back and this ear infection is 10 times more painful. It really, really sucks. Experiencing this really puts perspective to when my son wakes up screaming that his ear hurts. Poor guy.
I had a bunch of notes for posting that I didn’t get too because it has been too painful to stare at a computer screen for too long without my eye, the side of the ear infection, feeling like it was going to pop out of my head. The week is coming to a close, the weekend is around the corner and we need to wrap it up with a week in review.
Ubisoft – Digital Shadow Facebook Analyzer
This is an amazing and eye-opening tool. This is a marketing gimmick for the upcoming game Watch Dogs which is about hacking at very detailed levels. Ubisoft released a webpage that goes to your Facebook profile, upon you granting permission to it, and analyzes it building a profile about you. This is where the gimmick ends and the freaky begins. Ubisoft is not gathering your data for malicious use, merely to promote a game about social hacking. The results are all built off your posts, photos, status updates and can guess down to your annual salary. You need to check it out and realize that if a video game company can build this for marketing, what can a data mining company build?
Google+ May Be Dead Site Walking
The main Google+ guy at Google has left. Which leaves Google+ in a big haze of the unknown as far as the future of the service goes. I have tried many, many times to like Google+. It really is a great place to find what I am looking for but not as a social platform. The other Google+ killer and always has been is the lack of an open API to allow for 3rd party apps to integrate, post and use it like every other social site on the planet does. I understand Google wants to make it a platform but don’t try to sell it as a social site then when you don’t have very good social features.
Microsoft Finally Finishes The Nokia Deal
This deal gives Microsoft control of 90% of the device market now. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft uses the devices of Nokia with their Windows platforms… I still won’t buy one.
Billionaire Mark Cuban Releases Cyber Dust, A Self Destructing Text App
This story is interesting and not because Mark Cuban is behind it. Rather I believe this is the beginning of a new era of communication apps that focus on complete privacy. With the NSA revelations, marketing companies, Facebook watching your communications for the purpose of targeted ads, Cyber Dust changes that. You can text, send pictures and the messages self destruct after 30 seconds. No record on your phone, cloud servers or your friend’s phone. Very interesting concept toward communication security. As the app states, your voice communications aren’t recorded (NSA listeners not withstanding), why should your text messages be.
We will wrap up this weekly review of a view that shouldn’t make me smile but it does. Guys on motorcycles that do wheelies on public streets at 100+ mph are not one of my favorite people around. This guy I don’t feel bad for at all, even more so since he was not hurt.
End of line.
Binary Blogger has spent 20 years in the Information Security space currently providing security solutions and evangelism to clients. From early web application programming, system administration, senior management to enterprise consulting I provide practical security analysis and solutions to help companies and individuals figure out HOW to be secure every day.
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