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Use a 'code book' to protect (and to recall) your online passwords

Publié: juin 8, 2012, 9:18pm CEST par Aryeh Goretsky
With the recent announcements of password breaches at LinkedIn, and warnings from Google about state-sponsored attacks on Gmail accounts, it seems like a good idea now to review some password security basics. Then there is report today that someone hacked presidential candidate Mitt Romney's Dropbox and Hotmail.

In this post, we’re going to take a look at a rather low-tech solution to a decidedly high-tech problem: How to guard against password reset attacks, and where to securely store the answers to your password reset questions.

Even if you use highly secure passwords, it is possible someone might still be able to compromise your account if they were able to gather enough information about you to know -- or at least guess -- the answers to your password reset questions. Many services use the same questions, e.g., your mother's maiden name, the name of the town you were born in, the name of first pet and so forth. Because similar questions are used over and over again to reset passwords, it can be fairly easy, even somewhat boring, for an attacker who gathers this type of information to use it to gain access to all sorts of accounts one might have, across services ranging from those which are purely social to financial institutions, or even identity theft. The reported Romney hack is about someone guessing the answer to one of his security questions.

Password Reset Hack Attacks

Sometimes, though, it’s even simpler than that: An example of this is former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin, whose personal Yahoo! mail account was compromised via password reset using data about her available from public resources. Of course, most people are not going to have enough biographical data available online to make such an attack easy. Or do they?

With the rise of social networking has come a kind of blurring of the sorts of personal information it’s okay, and safe, to put online. Eager to generate more revenue, social media sites encourage, and in some cases may even require, people to share information about themselves such as birthdays, hometowns, where they went to school and so forth. While this is the sort of information we readily share with friends and family, social media companies request it because it allows for more targeted advertising. The fact that it is the same type of information needed to perform an attack or an impersonation is not something those companies typically tell you about when asking you to fill out your profile, or warn you that profile is not complete.

To date, I cannot recall any criminals going after aggregate personal data en masse in order to perform password reset attacks. Data breaches typically provide the password themselves or other information that can be readily used for identify theft, such as birth dates, information about credit cards and, in some cases, even social security identification numbers.

Defending Your Passwords

But even if you are not a politician, celebrity or somewhere between the two, you should still take steps to safeguard your privacy and, these days that means some creativity is needed when filling out online forms, such as when filling in the answers to questions used to reset a password.

One of the largest problems is, of course, deciding exactly what to enter. In the case of birthdates, some websites, such as online stores, might require you to enter your birthdate so they can send you a birthday offer or as the answer to a password reset question. They have no other reason for asking for this information, though, and there’s no guarantee they will keep this information secure or use it for other purposes, including selling it to marketing firms. On the other hand, there are plenty of web sites -- financial, insurance and government all come to mind -- where you may not only need to enter your correct birth date but you may be obligated to give them the correct information.

There’s also another issue to consider, both for you and the website, and that’s the issue of ethical behavior. Knowingly providing false data to a website is something of a gray area, even if there is no legal requirement not to do so. How does your obligation to provide a website with correct information balance with your right to freedom from the theft of that data, let alone the issue of privacy? Measuring these competing, and often contradictory, needs is something everyone has to do for themselves, and we cannot make the decision for you. You will need to decide if breaking this social contract is justified as a matter of practical protection.

If you have made the decision not to enter your actual birthdate, than what should you enter? The correct month and day of your birthdate, but the wrong year? The correct year, but with January 1st as your date of birth? The date of your favorite holiday? Making the answers to your password reset questions as unique as your passwords is the key to protecting against attacks on them, so using the same answer over and over again is out: That simply provides another widely-disseminated piece of information for a criminal to collect during the data aggregation phase of the attack.

One Low-Tech Solution

There is a solution, though, and it is a decidedly low-tech one: Write them down in a small notebook (that is, the kind you write in with a pen or pencil, not a laptop computer). Or, if you are not partial to keeping a little black (or orange) book, a business card or recipe card holder filled with index cards works just as well, too. Store your little “code book” in the area near, but not directly at, the computer, preferably in a location where it is at least out of site. The ubiquitous junk drawer works well for this purpose. Of course, if you use a computer in a shared area, you might want to look at storing your code book in a locked desk drawer, filing cabinet or safe.

Now that we have discussed what to use your code book for and where to place it for safekeeping, exactly what sort of information should you write in it? I would recommend something along the following lines:
- name of website
- username
- date you signed up for the service
- answer(s) to password reset questions
- date of last password change (and/or date of next password change)
For additional security, do not store the actual answers to your password reset questions, but rather mnemonics or clues that will tip you, but not an attacker, to the answers.

During the course of writing this blog post, I came across the rather descriptively-named Personal Internet Address & Password Log Book, which, as the name implies, is a place to store information about your website and email accounts. It does, however, contain fields to enter the actual passwords, and not the answers to the questions used to reset those passwords.

Regardless of whether you choose to store password reset questions or the actual passwords, it’s important to keep in mind, though, that the physical security of any written-down information in your notebook -- whether it be the passwords themselves or just the responses password reset challenges -- is paramount: Writing down that information is the equivalent to putting your passport, driver’s license, social security card, check book, credit cards and debit cards (and their PINs) all together in one convenient bundle.

If you do not have a place that is physically secure enough to store a password reset notebook in, you should not use one for this purpose. Keep in mind that an accident or disaster could result in the notebook being destroyed or unavailable, and plan accordingly. Another thing to keep in mind is that as a tangible, physical object, your password reset notebook is subject to loss. Making a copy of it with a photocopier and storing that offsite in a secure location like a safe deposit box is far less risky than scanning it and storing the copy on your PC where an attacker can access it.

Reprinted with permission.

Photo Credit: urfin/Shutterstock

Aryeh Goretsky is distinguished researcher for security provider ESET. He is responsible for a variety of activities, including threatscape monitoring, investigating new and emerging technologies, working with ESET's developers, QA and support engineers, and liaising with other research organizations. He was the first employee at McAfee Associates and is a veteran of several software and networking companies. A Microsoft MVP since 2004, he runs the C-SQUAD mailing list for law enforcement and IT professionals.
3,000 websites turn on iPV6 and nothing happens -- that's the way it should be

Publié: juin 8, 2012, 8:32pm CEST par Robert X. Cringely

Two days ago, 3,000 important websites, including Google, Facebook, YouTube, and Yahoo as well as many top Internet Service Providers, turned on their IPv6 support and this time they left it turned on. Nothing happened. Or maybe I should say nothing bad happened, which is good, very good.

The world is quickly running out of new IPv4 addresses, with almost 3.7 billion issued. There are two workarounds: 1) complicate the Net further with cascading arrays of Network Address Translation (NAT) servers that slow things down, inhibit native inbound connections like VoIP, and defeat location services both good and bad, or; 2) move to IPv6 with 128-bit addresses (IPv4 is 32-bit) that would allow giving an IPv6 address not only to every person and device but to every sock in everyone’s sock drawer as well, allowing bidirectional communication with hundreds of billions of devices from pacemakers to doorbells. Editor: Yes, but what about the socks that disappear in clothes dryers?

And that’s ostensibly what happened on Wednesday except that about 80 percent of the Net is still running on IPv4 and will be until more and more sites and service providers switch over and more routers are shipped that support IPv6. While some home routers have been IPv6 capable for years, most have not, so expect ad campaigns urging us all to buy new stuff.

I’m there already since Comcast, my ISP, was among those yesterday switching on IPv6 support and my home network has been ready since our move back to California.

We noticed nothing at all on Wednesday, which is the way it should be. No readers messaged me complaining, either. I wish my network had become obviously quicker but it didn’t and probably never will. But a whole new level of utility will be available once IPv4 is turned off, which I hope is soon but probably won’t be for years.

And IPv6 won’t catch the bad guys offguard, either, since they seem to always be ahead of the technical curve. A Comcast VP who has oversight of this area for America’s largest ISP reported that his very first IPv6 email after the cutover was spam.

Reprinted with permission

Photo Credit: nmedia/Shutterstock

Robert X. Cringely has worked in and around the PC business for more than 30 years. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Forbes, Upside, Success, Worth, and many other magazines and newspapers. Most recently, Cringely was the host and writer of the Maryland Public Television documentary "The Tranformation Age: Surviving a Technology Revolution with Robert X. Cringely".
Microsoft gets 80,000 seat Office 365 contract with FAA, DOT

Publié: juin 8, 2012, 8:03pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Microsoft's Office 365 cloud productivity suite gained even more momentum on Thursday, with both the Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration announcing they will move some 80,000 employees to the platform.

The deal is worth some $91 million over seven years, and is provided through Microsoft partner Computer Sciences Corp. Office 365 plays a central role in the SaaS deal, which will offer DOT and FAA employees email, instant messaging, calendaring and webconferencing tools in a multi-platform environment.

The two agencies follow other federal government agencies that have begun moving to the cloud. The General Services Administration and the Agriculture Department moved there last year, and in May, the Interior Department announced a move to Google Apps.

Chief rival Google already has a strong presence in the government sector with its Google Apps for Government product, which has now been around for two years. It counts state and local government entities in 44 states among clients, including cities of Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Pa., and Orlando, Fla., and the state of Wyoming.

Less than two weeks ago Microsoft announced Office 365 for Government in an effort to loosen Google's grip in the government sector. This deal is the first major "get" for the company since that announcement.

"Microsoft has supported government agencies such as the FAA for nearly 30 years, and as a committed partner we'll continue to innovate in ways that help our public-sector customers improve efficiency and reduce operating costs while delivering better citizen services", Microsoft's US public sector division vice president Curt Kolcun says.

Photo Credits: James Thew/Shutterstock
Social CRM is about thinking and feeling as customers do

Publié: juin 8, 2012, 7:55pm CEST par Irving Fain

New York City buzzed earlier this week when Salesforce announced it will acquire Buddy Media for $689 million. For those that have watched Mike Lazerow build the company from "a social media agency", as people jabbed in the early days, to a true social management platform, this outcome doesn’t come as a surprise. Buddy quickly grew as brands’ presence on social media shifted from experimental marketing budgets to a critical part of any chief marketing officer’s strategy. While Buddy originally (and wisely) hitched its wagon to Facebook as the network took off, they have since diversified outside the walls of Mark Zuckerberg’s castle and into other networks and platforms like Twitter, Google+ and more.

While this purchase may or may not come as a surprise to people, I have seen many folks scratching their heads and asking: "Why Salesforce?" Why not go, instead, with WPP (who’s an investor), Facebook, or another big agency holding company. The answer to this question lies in the difference of business fundamentals between agencies, Facebook, and Salesforce.

While both Facebook and traditional agencies are focused on helping their clients or advertisers build relationships with their customers, they approach this problem with a shorter-term, campaign-based strategy. Whether you’re talking about a sponsored story on Facebook, a coordinated media campaign around the summer from an agency or a big splash for back-to-school, these companies think more about the “now” than the “later.” The hope is that if the "now" is successful, then a customer will still be around when it comes time to plan the next “now” moment. Unfortunately, this isn’t always true.

CRM is about the customer lifecycle and not just the moment. Customer Relationship Management tools help companies build long-term relationships with their customers by allowing them to understand who they’re speaking to and where those conversations are happening. However, as Salesforce’s acquisition proves, this is becoming increasingly complex in the multi-channel world that we’re living in. If you look at IBM’s most recent CMO study, the top 3 areas where CMO’s are feeling underprepared are Data Explosion (71 percent of those surveyed), Social Media (68 percent) and Growth of Channel and Device Choices (65 percent). Buddy Media helps Salesforce offer a solution to these problems while also providing a new horizon for growth.

Marketers tend to think in channels and verticals, often because this is how their organizations are structured. There is a team that handles social media, another team that deals with email marketing, yet another team that coordinates the web, and so on. Customers, however, see a wholly different picture. When they look back at a brand, they don’t see a group of different channels, but rather one face spread across a number of different platforms. If you want to build deeper relationships with your customers, than you need to start thinking and feeling as they do. Whereas traditional CRM has been thought of in the context of measuring, tracking and recording activities like phone calls, meetings, emails and, of course, purchases, Social CRM promises to track customers across the networks where they spend their time and share their lives. Understanding a more holistic view of the customer will only become more critical as the landscape continues to fragment.

With the acquisition of Buddy Media and Radian6, Salesforce looks to provide its clients with the ability to manage, listen to, and understand their customers in more places than ever before. They will tie together the traditional CRM philosophies and tools along with the social side coming from these new additions to its portfolio. By thinking about Buddy Media as a means to manage relationships in new places rather than simply a platform to manage social marketing campaigns, Salesforce is able to realize substantially more synergy. As the old marketing adage goes, it’s anywhere between 5-10 times more costly to acquire a new customer vs. retaining an existing one. And what’s required for effective retention? Understanding.

Thinking about future growth, this acquisition also makes a lot of sense for Salesforce. Recently, Gartner stated that "By 2017, a CMO will spend more on IT than the CIO". With the two aforementioned acquisitions, Salesforce is making a solid commitment towards servicing the marketing side of any organization. They are looking to become the true one-stop-shop for both internal and external relationship management. Because they already have so many major companies as customers, their ability to upsell these services is significantly easier than a company like Facebook or a big ad agency.

Now, there is still plenty of work ahead before this dream becomes a reality. Buddy and now Salesforce need to work hard to shatter the notion that the platform is simply an easy way to push content out to multiple networks from one place and then manage it. If they both continue to evolve their analytics as well as effectively integrate into Salesforce’s other tools and platforms, Buddy Media’s tank has just been given an injection that can carry it much further than it’s already come.

Photo Credit: nopporn/Shutterstock

Irving Fain is the CEO & Co-founder of CrowdTwist, a NYC-based social loyalty and rewards platform that helps brands increase sales and engagement in an increasingly cross-platform world. Earlier, Fain ran Digital Marketing & Social Platforms for Clear Channel Radio Digital, developing and implementing an online marketing and social strategy for 1,000+ radio stations. Prior to his life as a media entrepreneur, Fain wore a suit everyday in the world of finance. He spent time both as a venture investor here in New York as well as an investment banker, specializing in raising capital for early stage companies. He holds a B.A. from Brown University.
Why do we need crowdfunds?

Publié: juin 8, 2012, 5:35pm CEST par Robert X. Cringely

First in a series. When President Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act on April 5th, the era of crowdfunding began as individual investors everywhere were promised an opportunity to gain access to venture investments previously limited to institutions, funds, and so-called qualified investors. Come January 1, 2013, we’re told, anyone can be a venture capitalist, but hardly any of these new VCs will know what they are doing. Spurred by the new law we will shortly see a surge of crowdfunding startups giving for the first time unqualified investors access to venture capital markets. And it will be a quagmire.

Like disk drive startups in the 1980s, each of these new crowdfunds will project 15-percent market share. Ninety-five percent of these funds will fail from over-crowding, under-funding, mismanagement, lack of deal flow, being too late, being too early, or just plain bad luck. A few will succeed and a couple will succeed magnificently, hopefully raising all boats. The point of this column and the two to follow is to better understand this phenomenon and how readers can benefit from it or at least avoid losing their shirts.

Most people think of KickStarter as the archetypal crowdfund and it is one, but KickStarter is not a way to invest in companies. It’s a way to contribute to or pre-order from entrepreneurs with interesting ideas, but not a way to buy stock in those companies because that would violate the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

But the JOBS Act will loosen some of those Depression-era requirements, allowing small companies more freedom in how they sell their shares and allowing small investors for the first time to actually buy those shares. In general I think this is a good thing. But the devil is in the details and frankly there are no details yet about the crowdfunds made possible by the JOBS Act, because the regulations have yet to be written. In fact the regulating agency hasn’t even been selected. Still, on January 1, 2013 these funds are supposed to be open for business.

The next six months are going to be very busy in Washington, DC.

It’s important to understand that startups are not just important to America, they are vital to our very survival.

Startups Matter

Small companies create most of the new jobs in America. Companies less than five years old generate two-thirds of the new jobs created in the United States each year. Without these startups more jobs would be lost than created, the U.S. economy would permanently shrink and America would eventually lose its superpower status.

The startups that most reliably become giant American corporations and creators of wealth are technology startups. Technology startups assume types and amounts of risk that are not usually tolerated by large companies. Without startups to compete with or acquire, big technology companies would do almost nothing new. In the United States, large companies depend on startups to explore new technologies and new markets.

Startups play a particularly important role in growing jobs out of a recession. New companies produced all of the net new jobs in the United States from 2001-2007, and also from 1980-1983, the last big American downturn prior to The Great Recession. Technology startups are leading us out of our current economic mess, too.

The U.S. technology sector is particularly dependent on startups, which are born and die at astounding rates. Ninety-five percent of technology startups fail -- 95 percent. With odds at 19-to-1 against success, why do entrepreneurs even bother to build these companies? Because the potential rewards are huge (Microsoft and Apple, Cisco and Intel, Amazon and Google were all startups, remember) and for real entrepreneurs there are some things even worse than failure, like boredom or just being like everyone else.

American technology startups change the world all the time and are this countryʼs primary non-military global advantage, though hardly anyone knows that. Encouraging technology startups is the key to keeping America competitive and prosperous, though hardly anyone does that. Technology startups succeed despite these adversities because Americans are full of ideas, startups are so darned fun to do, and they donʼt have to cost that much, either -- sometimes nothing at all.

Technology export sales drive the U.S. economy and technology startups drive US industry, yet in this era of too-big-to-die companies hardly anyone knows about or understands this phenomenon.

Inbred Venture Firms

This is great, but why do we need crowdfunds? Do some research and you’ll learn that traditional venture funds are awash with cash and some are even giving money back to their investors. It would be great if this were a sign of success but it is actually a symptom of failure. Venture returns have been poor for many years for a variety of technical reasons. Some blame it on a lack of good IPOs (compounded most recently by the Facebook debacle) and on The Great Recession, but I think there’s a simpler reason: the venture capital industry has become inbred.

Let’s compare Sand Hill Road (the very center of the Silicon Valley venture business) and ancient Rome.

While all roads may have led to Rome, the city-state was very different from the lands that supported it, just as Sand Hill Road is different from Denver or Detroit. Rome was a center of consumption, it couldn’t produce enough food to feed itself, yet it was also the center of power -- a power that became distorted over time as the ruling class grew distant from the realities of their minions. For Rome this meant Nero and Caligula and for Sand Hill Road it means second- and third-generation VCs who themselves may have never built or run a company. It means funds packed with too much money attracting entrepreneurs whose ideas aren’t so much to change the world or build their dream machine as to get funded and exit in three years.

It’s a reality distortion field that has contributed to the poor results Sand Hill Road has seen in recent years.

The glory years of venture investing are over, or threaten to be, unless new blood, new values, and new ideas make their way in. That’s the value of crowdfunding, which promises to bring vast amounts of new capital to bear, not just on the same old ideas but on a broad array of ideas and business types that could never get through a door right now on Sand Hill Road.

Next, how not to do crowdfunding.

Reprinted with permission

Photo Credit: Kristijan Zontar/Shutterstock

Robert X. Cringely has worked in and around the PC business for more than 30 years. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Forbes, Upside, Success, Worth, and many other magazines and newspapers. Most recently, Cringely was the host and writer of the Maryland Public Television documentary "The Tranformation Age: Surviving a Technology Revolution with Robert X. Cringely".
Get more from your mobile website with Keynote MITE

Publié: juin 8, 2012, 3:50pm CEST par Mike Williams

Building a website which looks good on desktop computers and mobile devices generally requires a lot of thought. There are plenty of design issues to consider, and even when you think you’ve finished you’ll still need to test the site thoroughly to confirm that all is well. (Just browsing a few pages with your iPad almost certainly won’t be good enough.)

Grab a copy of the free Keynote Mobile Internet Testing Environment (MITE), though, and the process of properly analysing your site could prove easier than you think. While it’s comes packed with essential testing functionality, MITE’s core capabilities are so simple to use that anyone can get at least something from the program.

After signing up for an account with Keynote, then downloading, installing and launching MITE, the program opens with a surprisingly straightforward interface. And so you can start testing just by clicking “Browse website”, entering the URL of your site, and choosing a device profile from the more than 2,100 on offer (Apple, Blackberry, HTC, LG, Amazon, just about anything you like). We chose to open Google in an iPhone, for instance, and in a just a second or two were looking at the mobile version of the site. It’s all very easy.

This isn’t a true emulator, of course: for the most part MITE is just configuring itself to send the same user agent and accept headers as your chosen device. The program does extend its simulation a little further in some cases, though -- it’ll download only up to four images simultaneously on the iPhone 4 as that’s the phone’s maximum number of concurrent threads, for example -- and this is more than enough to be useful.

Seeing how the site looks is just the beginning, though. MITE also produces a more detailed report on your content. Is it mobile-friendly; have you fully optimized the page for performance; are you following best practice for mobile sites? Any issues will be highlighted, and your page will be given a score to show how you’ve done.

If you need more speed-related information then clicking the “Performance view” tab displays a waterfall graph showing you everything you’ve downloaded, and its impact on page load time.

And serious MITE users will love its scripting feature. This allows you to record your actions in navigating a site, then replay them later, so you can see how page load speeds have responded to any tweaks you’ve made: a real time-saver.

The core MITE features are very accessible, then, even to beginners, yet the program also has the power that web design professionals need. If you’re developing a mobile website and don’t currently have any formal test plans set up then Keynote MITE is a great way to get started. Go grab your copy immediately.

Photo Credit: CLIPAREA l Custom media/Shutterstock
Nike+ fitness tracking integrated into Xbox Kinect? Not so fast, Marathon Man

Publié: juin 8, 2012, 3:27pm CEST par Patrick Roanhouse

At the Microsoft E3 2012 Press Conference Microsoft executive Yusuf Mehdi talked about a rather amazing brand partnership, introducing Stefan Olander, Nike vice president. The Nike+ service, already made famous for its partnerships with Apple, and the ability to help track your workouts and keep you motivated to stay fit, is coming to the Xbox 360. Olander came on to show us the history of Nike+ and the goals of Nike to help empower the athlete in everyone to reach their peak of performance. A demo of footage of a title called Nike+ Kinect Training hit the jumbo screen with flashes of CGI models inter-spliced with live action human models demonstrating moves -- even flash of a screenshot showing the Nike+ app on a Windows Phone tracking a workout.

But not much else was talked about. Would Nike+ track you as you played all kinect titles? Would you know just how many calories you might have lost while shaking your money maker to the dance moves of Dance Central 3? Would you be able to know you not only saved the world with the Mutant, Magic, and Technology infused powers in Avengers: Battle For Earth? What about the workout you get from a magical onslaught you wrought upon the hoards of baddies in Fable: the Journey?

I, like others, expected to get more information at Microsoft's E3 Xbox booth. But, alas, that was not true. From what I could get from the very mum public relations team of Edleman the Nike+ will not be integrated across the board to track your workout in any other kinect games. It will only be applied to the Nike+ Kinect Training. I'm personally sadden by the fact I will not get to know how many calories I loose playing with virtual baby tigers in Kinectimals. Microsoft PR told me that more information about Nike+ on Xbox will be released Monday June 11th.

Photo Credit: Patrick Roanhouse
AutoUP keeps apps up to date

Publié: juin 8, 2012, 3:12pm CEST par Mike Williams

It’s important for your PC’s security to install application updates just as soon as they become available, but if a program doesn’t check for these itself then that can be a challenge. Unless you have the time to monitor every application website yourself then you’ll probably need some third-party help, and the latest candidate is the free and portable AutoUP.

The program provides support for updating 68 applications, which isn’t in itself particularly impressive, but there are at least plenty of major names in the list: Adobe AIR/ Flash/ Reader, CCleaner, Evernote, Firefox, Foxit Reader, Chrome, KeePass, Paint.NET, VLC Media Player, and more. (The full list is here).

Launch AutoUP, and it’ll display any supported programs it finds on your system, along with the current version number. Choose any you’re particularly interested in (or right-click and select Check All to highlight everything), click Scan and you’ll be quickly alerted to any updates (regular or beta) which might be available.

All you then have to do is choose any updates you’d like to install, click Download, and the program will grab the various files to the folder of your choice. Unlike the similar Patch My PC, it won’t also try to install these for you, but we’re not sure that really matters (personally we like to keep some control of our updates).

And just in case this isn’t enough functionality, click the Software tab and AutoUP will display all its supported applications, whether they’re present or not. If you’re setting up a new PC, say, and want to install Audacity, Blender, Defraggler or anything else on the list, simply check the relevant boxes, click Download and the program will grab the latest versions for you.

We did spot a few interface quirks and other problems with AutoUP.

There’s no immediately obvious way to scan everything for updates when you first launch the program, for instance.

Clicking the Download button opens new dialog, which then pointlessly waits until you click Download again.

And once it’s grabbed everything, you’d expect to be left with a “Close” option, but only the “Download” button remains (and clicking that produces an error message). So you’re left to click the regular window close button in the top-right corner.

Once you’ve learned the basics, though, none of these issues will get in the way of AutoUP’s core functionality. And while we’d like it to support more applications, on balance the program remains a straightforward and very useful software update checker.

Photo Credit: Curioso/Shutterstock
Write for BetaNews

Publié: juin 8, 2012, 6:25am CEST par Joe Wilcox

We're hiring and taking on new freelancers and other writers. You could be among them. Paid and unpaid writing positions are available. Staff positions are paid BetaNews employees. Freelancers don't directly work for us but receive payment for their work. Unpaid writers typically receive compensation other ways, such as increasing their profile for personal or business gain.

BetaNews seeks a summer social media intern, staff writer and associate editor. These are paid, employee positions. We're also looking for new freelancers and other contributors. Writing is creative, rewarding and fulfilling work. Many of the best writers started out as news reporters. Few market sectors are as satisfying as technology. The pace of change makes for interesting topics, quelling the kind of boredom common to the other beats.

Social Media Intern. We’re looking for someone to help us build our presence on social media, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit and Google+. This means getting more of our web content posted and engaging with users. Intern will also prepare market research reports, providing analysis on what is working for other publishers.

Please click the link for full list of responsibilities. Applicants should submit a cover letter and resume, including links to social media accounts they maintain personally: intern at betanews dot com.

Staff Writer. We are looking for one or more intern journalists who think that technology and the business of tech are exciting and important. We need someone who wants to
dive into what is new and what is coming in web services, SAAS, the cloud, enterprise IT, mobile computing, and whatever is next. Writers with expertise in cloud or enterprise computing receive priority consideration.

Please click the link for full list of responsibilities. Applicants should send a brief introduction, short resume and examples (links are fine) of your writing: write at betanews dot com.

Associate Editor. We're looking for a manager and writer who can lead/build a team that will produce unique and influential technology content. This person will need to find writers and content sources that have a strong voice and draw in a diverse audience of people who care about technology. They will need to ensure that we expand our audience and traffic by producing excellent content and getting it read.

Please click the link for full list of responsibilities. Applicants should submit a cover letter and resume, including links to editing or writing samples: jobs at betanews dot com.

Freelancers/Contributors. The BetaNews audience is much bigger than any staff can reach. Some of the most valuable content comes from freelancers who specialize in narrow tech areas and our readers or vendors, who often live on the bleeding edge of what comes next. There is no way to overstate the immense value you bring to our pages.

Throughout the summer we would like to greatly expand the number of paid and unpaid non-staff writers contributing to BetaNews. Some of the most insightful stories posted this year came from people who would never have considered themselves writers yet contributed compelling, even controversial, stories.

If you would like to freelance or contribute, please contact me directly -- joe at betanews dot com; or Circle me on Google+.

Something else: We would like to expand our international staff, whether employee, freelancer or contributor. Living or working outside the United States is an opportunity. BetaNews readership is global, and we want more of our stories to reach our broader audience. Too much tech reporting everywhere is US-centric. Help us broaden the scope and better expose the world of innovation -- even imitation.

Photo Credit: Andrii Muzyka/Shutterstock
PlayStation Mobile might be kinda dope ... if this display case tells you anything

Publié: juin 8, 2012, 6:01am CEST par Patrick Roanhouse

Here at E3 Expo, nowhere on the general floor are any of the Sony Playstation Mobile certified devices. No one of the Sony PR team can even tell me anything. Even the head of the Playstation Digital Platforms, the team in charge of the Playstation Network Store and Playstation Plus can't answer my question: "Will games purchased on Playstation Mobile certified devices be playable on Playstation Vita or Playstation 3?"

But on the press- and developer-only second floor of the Sony E3 Booth stands this sad lonely unmanned glass covered case. It tells me NO TOUCH, but I have to take pictures. Now don't hate me if I'm wrong because I'm using deduction from display case association; from the looks of this case the Playstation Vita is considered one of the Playstation Mobile Certified devices, which would mean: If you purchase a Playstation Mobile Certified game that is a PSONE Classic or PS Mini title, it should be playable on all certifies Playstation Devices. Sony is always cagey with details, but I got two bits to bet on this one that I'm right.
Get back, Siri, Bing Britannica answers questions

Publié: juin 8, 2012, 1:43am CEST par Joe Wilcox

For as long as Microsoft has offered a search engine, CEO Steve Ballmer or one of his minions has talked about the goal of providing answers to real questions rather than forcing people to use keywords. The success of social search service Quora or Yahoo Answers shows how much people simply want to ask. Bing and Google handle questions much better today than ever, but often the answers come unqualified and without the depth or authority of, say, a peer-reviewed encyclopedia. Apple tries with Siri on iPhone, with Wolfram Alpha behind it. But we all know that, for now, Siri sucks.

Today, Microsoft seized the answer search initiative, by incorporating Encyclopedia Britannica into Bing results. Sure Google places Wikipedia front and center, but Britannica is an undisputed, reliable authority -- well for anyone old enough to have owned a set of the books. Ask a question. "The answer provides a quick overview of the subject, a thumbnail image, and useful facts and figures making it easier than ever to get trusted content in search", Franco Salvetti, Bing principal development lead, explains. "We also pull in direct links to other trusted sources".

Well, hell, I just have to try it out. Question: "When did the French Revolution start?" Uh-oh, Wikipedia, LoveToKNow and WikiAnswers are top results. No Britannica.

Since it's still such a controversial topic and an election year, I ask: "Where was Barack Obama born?" Top result: BarackObama.com, followed by Wikipedia and breitbart.com. Salvetti uses "Giordano Bruno" as example of Bing Britannica in action. So I ask who he was. Again, there's no Britannica I can see, but Wikipedia, Catholic Encylopedia and infidels.org as top results.

What about Google? To question "Who was Giordano Bruno?", Britannica is third result, but nowhere as pop-out pretty as Salvetti promises from Bing. To "Where was Barack Obama born?" Google puts "Honolulu" at top of page with link to five sources -- none of them Britannica.

So maybe this Britannica thing is a work progress. I'd ask Siri the same questions, but my iPhone 4S-using daughter is away on a school trip.
Red Hat moves hybrid cloud management software CloudForms out of beta

Publié: juin 8, 2012, 12:45am CEST par Ed Oswald

Red Hat moved its hybrid cloud management software called CloudForms out of beta on Thursday, aiming to allow IT customers with considerable infrastructure to leverage it with public cloud resources to enable easy migration between the two.

The open-source software company first introduced CloudForms last May, then positioning it as an IaaS product. Since then, the company has begun contributing heavily to the OpenStack IaaS platform, and is now a platinum member of the OpenStack Foundation.

Given that hybrid clouds seem to be in vogue in cloud computing right now, this repositioning may not be that bad of an idea. It will run on a software stack that includes Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, JBoss Enterprise Middleware, Red Hat Storage, and thousands of certified ISV applications.

CloudForms will allow for applications to be moved between the cloud and in-house infrastructure even if the cloud architecture itself is different. Red Hat says this helps to avoid "vendor lock-in" and negates the need for configuration adjustments.

"We recognize that for a complete open hybrid cloud, enterprises need more than just the management layer – they also need openness and portability across compute, data/services, programming models and applications", chief technical officer Brian Stevens says of the platform.

Like competitors offerings, CloudForms offers end user control for self-service capability. It also reduces administration times through use of a predefined application blueprint, which define everything the application needs to run in a particular environment. CloudForms itself maintains a catalog of these blueprints, which are called anytime an application is requested.

"There's no doubt that end users want to help themselves to cloud-like compute resources, but the IT department still needs to centralize deployment, management and integration", 451 Research vice president Rachel Chalmers says.

Photo Credit: Sergej Khakimullin/Shutterstock
Pocket TV is a mini Android computer in an HDMI dongle

Publié: juin 8, 2012, 12:37am CEST par Tim Conneally

After meeting its Kickstarter goal of $100,000, three-year old startup Infinitec has made its Android-powered Pocket TV available for pre-order for just $99. The device utilizes the relatively new "HDMI Dongle" set top box form factor used by the Roku Smart Stick, and it brings Android Ice Cream Sandwich to the television screen.

The Pocket TV is powered by a 1GHz ARM Cortex A9 processor with 512MB of RAM, has 4 GB of internal storage and a microSD port supporting cards up to 32 GB in size. It's also equipped with a mini USB port for devices such as keyboards or webcams.

Once it is plugged into an HDMI jack, it can be controlled with a standard infrared remote, which it ships with. It can also be paired with an Android smartphone or iPhone and be controlled from there, or from Infinitec's upgraded "Air Remote" which has a full QWERTY chiclet keyboard and Wii-like motion mouse control.

This product dwells in a grey area between form factors. It's not exactly mobile, and it's not exactly a set-top-box. Furthermore, because it's an external piece of hardware, it's not a smart TV, even though it enables smart TVs.

Yet, with the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) just wrapping up, we can see how useful a product like this could be as a rudimentary Android-powered gaming computer against the other alternative gaming providers like Gaikai, or streaming game services like OnLive.
And at just $99, the price is right for those looking to experiment with new Android form factors.
Samsung Smart TV Cloud Gaming Powered by Gaikai and Nvidia [Video]

Publié: juin 8, 2012, 12:14am CEST par Patrick Roanhouse

Hidden away in the middle of the concourse walkway between South and West halls of the Los Angeles Convection center sits this little corner display booth. Most people pass it by not knowing how big it might be to the future of gaming but as soon as I see who is there I have to stop and ask questions.

Gaikai is a service that started just two years ago -- at first thought of as nothing more than phantom console level vapor it is one of the two companies to announce "Cloud Gaming"; PC gaming via virtualization. Its first demo shows off high-end games from producers / developers EA and Red Project for titles like Mass Effect 3 or The Witcher 2. Using a web page Java applet client it runs on any Windows, Mac, or even Linux machine.

But now Gaikai is taking the fight to the TV. Partnering up with Samsung and LG, Gaikai, with the help of video card power house Nvidia, will be powering cloud gaming stores for Samsung and LG Smart TVs.

The services need a broadband connection and provide 720p game video for 5Mbps connection and 1080p with connection of 10Mbps; Ping times are under 100ms but sweet spot is 60ms and below. It even supports stereoscopic 3D titles if the game and television support 3D. This would need a connection of about 15Mbps to 20Mbps.

It's up to the partner what to do for controllers but the software supports all native USB controllers, even the Xbox one, and you are good to go. The client for the desktop runs in a Java applet.

Game stores are handled by the provider who lease the Gaikai service so for purchasing games you purchase them through the Samsung SmartTV or LG Smart TV app stores. No information is available as of yet if you can take them to other devices or even run them on your desktop.

Unlike other well-known cloud gaming service Onlive, the Network Multiplayer doesn't have to be in a walled garden, you could in theory play against other Windows, Macintosh, or Linux PC gamers who are on desktop machines. But that is up to the software developer and service provider and agreements to what they do.