Archive for September, 2006
I got this image from my friend “nForce” today. Kind of amusing bsod. Please don’t call it a photoshop job, it was not edited except to include the red box.
You can click the image to enlarge.
Well it was only a matter of time. It’s a class action lawsuit accusing AOL of violating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and of fraudulent and deceptive business practices. They’re asking for $5,000 dollars per instance. With over 650,000 users affected, that would amount to $3,250,000,000. They’re demanding a trial by jury, so everyone will be able to watch them get drilled in to the ground. While the lawsuits states that no usernames were leaked, it’s saying that the information obtained was enough to locate certain users. It also showed search trends by Americans. AOL has already fired its executives that leaked the data, but it appears they will be paying for this mistake greatly.
In the last two years according to their wiki entry, Digg.com has over one million unique visitors per day on their website. In case you’re unaware of Digg, and social book marking in general perhaps you should start with Digg’s How Stuff Works page. Recently I submitted two different applications that made it to the front page of Digg. Both of them were quick apps to make things easier for Digg users. Of course instantly, there were hundreds of downloads. Now my software is legit, as well as open source. But what if it wasn’t? What happens when a spyware maker sneaks in his malware into a legit like social book marking app, or even any piece of software in general? Well let’s take a previous event that happened on MySpace not too long ago. Basically Zango released MySpace profiles with videos embedded on it. These videos had a license agreement, which when accepted would install spyware on your PC. Most users would just assume that this is a trusted pop-up from MySpace. However these agreements had absolutely nothing to do with MySpace, and were from known adware makers. If you care to read more about it here is the article.
With social book marking we have a similar situation. User generated content is hitting the front page of a website that gets 1 million unique hits per day. Starting to see the trouble now? Say I had malicious intent to infect people’s computers. Well submitting two pieces of software to Digg could infect tens of thousands of people. The fact is while Digg is a reputable site, what it links to is never sure to be a legitimate website. But what can you do? There are dozens of social book marking sites such as Digg, Reddit and del.icio.us, all of them reputable websites. However each of them equally share this risk, and have the potential to serve spyware to thousands. One might argue that a lot of these users are technically advanced compared to MySpace users. Or that they use alternative operating system such as Linux or a Mac. However I don’t feel the need to run a virus checker, as it just wastes CPU usage. I myself would most likely run an application on the front page of a social book marking site. After all something with hundreds of people approving has to be legit right? Sadly…wrong. With such a high percentage of the technology based social websites users being Linux users, it would be the absolute perfect time to release a Linux application laced with malicious code as well. An Open source app on the front page of a popular site doesn’t justify running an unknown program. Ever. Putting an unknown link on a popular website, is eventually doomed for failure. It’s really not a matter of if it will happen, it’s a matter of when. Spyware makers will always be taking advantage of people. I would be surprised if any of them would turn down being on the front page of a website with a million hits a day. From now on I will definitely be using some form of virus checker to double check nothing malicious is embedded. My personal favorite is this online malware scanner.
Wrote a little app that parses Digg’s RSS feeds, and outputs any new stories into an IRC channel. Just another small app to go alone with Digg Notify. I again made a static page for it, where you can find out more info. If you’re interested in any VB.net socket programming you should check out the source to it. It’s very easy to understand, and this is a basic example of how to use it. From here it should be easy to make an IRC client or IRC bot.
Here are some useful tips to a new or experienced web master. Perhaps a the 10 commandments for SEO is next?
Thou Shalt Have Purpose:
Clearly define the site’s purpose and ensure all content, graphics, and text tightly focus on that purpose. Discard all extraneous or distracting material and regularly revisit your site to ensure all changes fit with the site’s primary purpose.
Thou Shalt Be Lightweight:
Use only fast-loading graphics and other elements. If you must use large graphics use thumbnails and image slicing to diminish the size of every file to lessen load times. Though the majority of surfers now carry high-speed access, avoid any content that requires the user to download special, non-standard “plug-ins” to view your content.
Thou Shalt Load Fast:
Each and every entry page on your site should weigh in under 50-100KB total, including graphics and navigation. Interior pages can run larger, but the “front doors” to your site should not make surfers wait long to start interacting with the site.
Thou Shalt Not Use False Code:
You should only use html, PHP or ASP to create your web pages. Never use java, xml, dhtml or other forms of code that require a surfer to keep their browser set up “correctly” to accommodate your page. Unless you sell to “geeks” and “techno-nerds,” this will only lose you visitors and won’t make you any friends.
Thou Shalt Respect the Search Engines:
If you want search engine traffic use whole web pages that don’t incorporate frames or large amounts of code unrelated to your content. Also, if you want search traffic, actively cultivate linking relationships with related sites and operate a blog.
Love Thy Surfers and Visitors:
Design for “last year’s” technology so surfers using older computers and slower connections can download your content and use your site quickly and easily. Designing for the “bleeding edge” will only cut into your own profits.
Thou Shalt Not Annoy:
Use only stationary text and graphical layout elements. No Scrolling text, marquees, or large Flash animations of any kind, including those annoying, full-page Flash home pages that say “Skip Intro.” This “eye candy” rarely adds to a site’s main purpose and often causes your visitors to miss something or leave in frustration.
Thou Shalt Not Scroll Sideways:
Design your pages so they never force a visitor to scroll left or right no matter what the resolution settings on their monitor. Sites that read “best viewed at 1024 x 768″ really say “look at it my way because I don’t care about your preferences or limitations.”
Thou Shalt Stay Consistent:
Include a standard navigational structure on every page. Though it may mean a serious challenge for the designer, users should only need to click once to find every major section of a site. This includes using standard link colors in all text links. Blue: hyperlink; Purple: visited hyperlink; Red: active hyperlink.
Thou Shalt Cultivate Subscribers:
Nothing floods your website with targeted traffic like sending an email message to your loyal subscriber base. Whether for a new product launch, affiliate product endorsement, or holiday sale, that list represents your most valuable online business asset. Make sure your website actively cultivates subscribers by giving them multiple opportunities to sign up and a compelling reason or incentive to do so. Then, make it worth their while to pay attention to you on a regular basis.