Burma Cut Off From Internet By DDOS Attack

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks that started in late October have succeeded to cut off Burma from access to the internet only days ahead of the first national election in 20 years. This on top of foreign journalists and observers being denied entry into the country and you can make a compelling case for an inside job.

The BBC says in it's report:

It will raise suspicions that Burma's military authorities could be trying to restrict the flow of information over the election period.

The ruling generals say the polls will mark a transition to democratic civilian rule.

But as the BBC's Sue Lloyd-Roberts reports from Burma, many believe the election is a sham designed to cement the military's grip on power.

This truly illustrates the fear that these regimes have over their inability to control the flow of information within their borders and beyond, in an information age. I think it also shows the power of the citizen journalist and while they may have stemmed the flow, I'm pretty sure that this bandaid solution is little more than a finger in the dike and that they may have slowed the flow of information but it has not been stopped completely. Regardless, the international community will be watching and I hope will act accordingly. The biggest problem is that the people of Burma will no doubt be denied their voice in the mean while.

Source: BBC

Facebook Places Signs Big Retailers To Offer Deals

When social giant Facebook announced it's move into location based services it had to cause some nerves to fray at Gowolla and Foursquare, the two biggest players in the arena until Facebook joined the game. Now Facebook has partnered with 22 major brands likes Gap, H&M, Starbucks, McDonalds and the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas. In fact Gap plans to run a campaign in which the first 10,000 Gap customers to sign in at their local store will receive a free pair of jeans. This is the type of game changer that will draw attention to location based services in a market that is teetering on being ready to enjoy it's benefits and dispel the detractors. It will be interesting to see if the smaller innovators are able to grow as the result of their superior technologies or if the elephant in the room will simply plow forward using it's mass and momentum. I've resisted Facebook's Places opting to stay with Foursquare, but local business is slow to embrace the technology in this small (physical) community and I fear Facebook will gain more attention simply because it is a more recognizable brand that shop keepers are much more familiar with.

Source: BBC

Arrington Fires Back At Calacanis

In a post this morning titled "At My Wit's End: Jason Calacanis Threatens To Sue Us" Michael Arrington, who recently sound his blog TechCrunch to AOL, fires his salvo across the Calacanis bow after being served legal documents from Calicanis' legal representation. In a he said / she said style post Arrington lays down his account of the rocky relationship with Calicanis and the gloves have appeared to come off. 

Calacanis has spent most of the last year saying some of the most ridiculous things about me and about TechCrunch, and I’ve stayed completely silent. Mostly because I knew he just wanted attention, but also because I assumed he’d eventually calm down and move on to doing more productive things. Also, somehow, I still consider him a friend. Now, though, the whole story has to get out. 

In the legal document presented in Arrington's post Calacanis is seeking:

1. For compensatory damages in a sum according to proof at trial, together with interest thereon at the legal nite;

2. For exemplary and punative damages where permitted by law;

3. For attornerys fees and costs of suit.

4. For such other relief as may be deemed proper and necessary by the Court.

I've been listening to Arrington and Calacanis for a while on podcast such as TWIT, and they both seem like characters who speak their minds, I can imagine their friendship/partnership must have been similar to a mixture of gas and naphtha... very volatile and extremely flamible. 

Check out the Arrington post, and wait for it... Calacanis is sure to have his rebuttal.

 

Happy Halloween!

My favorite non-holiday! Here's a great costume from mormolyke's photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/mormolyke/with/5125665313/

From Pack Mule To Automated Killing Machine - Can You Say Skynet?

Defense contractor Northrop Grumman claims that the .50-caliber M2 machine gun it mounted on it's CaMEL, Carry-all Mechanized Equipment Landrover, for the Association of the U.S. Army’s Washington conference was for impact only. "Quite frankly, a weapon on a robot brings people into the booth" says Jon Aderson.

The company has sold 60 CaMEL units to the Isreali military, which traditionally carry up to 1200 pounds of equipment at up to 7 miles per hour. The US military also is said to be interested in the device, which version of the device is not really clear... Anderson calls the gun mounted one on display at the conference a "new application".

I love robots but I believe this breaks at least one of Asimov's three laws of robotics! 

Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/10/what-robo-haulers-need-now-big-guns/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher#ixzz13eDOrLQ3

Alberta Gov't To Craigslist, Get Rid Of Erotic Ads!

In September Craigslist shut down it's prostitution ads in the U.S. when it received complaints from the attorneys general of 17 states. The ads have persisted outside of the U.S. however and on Friday Alberta's Justice Minister and Solicitor General sent a letter to Craigslist requesting the removal of erotic ads appearing in this country following suit of 3 other Canadian Provinces. 

"Alberta has and will continue focusing on investigating and prosecuting any allegations of human trafficking whenever the evidence warrants,"  Alberta Justice spokesperson Jody Korchinski said.

"However, the ministers also recognize that advocacy and awareness … does also play an important role, which is why they decided to lend their support to their colleagues which have raised this issue in past weeks."

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/10/23/edm-craigslist-erotic-ads-ban.html?ref=rss#ixzz13MirkJHV

$250 million Venture Capital Fund Established For Investment In Social Web

Venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers along with Facebook, Amazon, and Zynga, are establishing a $250 million fund (the sFund) to aid the development of a new generation of social web offerings. 

"There's going to be an opportunity over the next five years or so to pick any industry and rethink it in a social way," said Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. "We think that every industry is going to be fundamentally re-thought and designed around people."

With KPCB putting up most of the money, the others are offering assistance in various ways. Amazon will provide it's web services platform for one year to selected companies and Facebook providing access to it's platform team and beta APIs.

The big focus of the fund will be social start-ups from all industries but no money will be provided to direct competitors of Facebook, Amazon, or Zynga (so there's the hook!).

"Think of it as a quarter-billion-dollar party. The third great wave of the internet is mobile and social together. It's going to be tectonic," said KPCB partner John Doerr.

Source: BBC 

Starbucks Hopes More Digital Freebees Will Attract And Retain Customers

For a rather lengthy time this summer I was mayor of my local Starbucks, the baristas know me their and often have my favorite latte underway when I walk in the door... guess I'm a bit predictable. At a corporate level, taking a page out of McDonald's playbook, Starbucks is attempting to do the little things better in a hope to grow business and retain customers in a slow economy. The efforts are extending beyond the get it right attitude at the store level. In addition to it's free wifi offering earlier this year and free music downloads, one track per week, the company is now promising it's U.S. customers e-books, movies and other exclusive offers such as no fee access to some paid websites. It's also testing beer and wine sales in a few locations attempting to ramp up the slow late afternoon and evening sales period. 

“This chain needs to refocus on not becoming bigger but becoming better in its existing units,” said Jack Russo, a retail analyst at EdwardJones in St. Louis.

Keep getting my coffee right and give me free digital downloads... what's not to love about that? Well, I guess as long as you are a coffee freak and don't mind paying a premium to get your fix on, the above holds true. If it's strictly the fast food experience and fast food price you are looking for there's a Tim Horton's (or Dunkin Donuts) to be found on just about every other block.

Source: The Globe and Mail

Yet Another Facebook Privacy Issue - Oops, We Did It Again!

Another high profile security issue at Facebook has Canada's privacy commissioner again raising the possibility of a probe into the company's treatment of confidential user information. 

"If applications covered by [privacy law] are disclosing personal information without consent, that's a significant concern to our office," the office of Jennifer Stoddart said in a statement Monday to CBC News.

"We are looking at the situation and evaluating the possibility of launching an investigation."

The breach discovered by a Wall Street Journal investigation, indicates that at least 10 of the most popular Facebook apps, including FarmVille, Mafia Wars, FrontierVille, and Texas HoldEm Poker, all by game developer Zynga, were found to be sending user ID numbers to at least 25 advertising, marketing and internet tracking companies.

hmmm, the highest traffic games sending data to advertisers and nobody at Facebook knew about it? Just saying!

Source: www.cbc.ca

Images From Space - A DIY Family Science Project

This is quite possibly the best father / son science project of all time! Enough said...