Twitter had it first,....again

Appears that around 1AM Pakistani time, Sohaib Athar, an IT consultant, was awake doing not much of anything.  He heard something unusual for his remote town. "Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event)," wrote Athar. Moments later, he added: "A huge window shaking bang here... I hope its not the start of something nasty."  Little did he know what was happening.  So we have documented proof of the first reports of the downfall of Osama Bin Laden, by an IT consultant on his twitter.  He had it first, although he didnt know it at the time.  Isn't Technology great?

So easy to out people today..

This is not directly tech related, but since it involves a website, an exception will be made.  Seems that if you are a bad tipper, beware, it may become public.  Larry Fox, 20, a deliveryman and developer from Brooklyn, has decided to make public all of you who tip badly.  His blog, 15%, is a bit popular documenting all of the lazy tippers in New York.  Not to be outdone, there are sites to tell on your bad dates, rotten neighbors and bad bosses.  I'm not listing those, as one is now showing up as a malware farm. 

73,000 a day.....every day..

Panda Security just released a report that on average, 73,000 malware threats are released each and every day.  This underscores the need to have security software installed AND updated at all times.  For more information check out the article at CNET here.

Playstation Network Hacked

Another story of a company being hacked and your personal information now in the hands of hackers.  Sony has announced that the personal information on all users of the Playstation Network has been stolen.  The actual number of accounts is over 77 MILLION!  One, I didn't know that that many people played Playstation online.  Two, they got everything in this hack, your name, address, phone, birthdate, PSN logon and password.  Essentially all the information that you gave them when you signed up.  Nobody is sure whether or not Credit Card information was taken, but you would be wise to assume so until further notice.  Instead of apologizing, Sony asks you to be vigilant with your accounts and to look out for scam attempts.   REALLY?, I wonder why.  I feel better today about having never purchased a Playstation.

So how big is Netflix?

New subscriber numbers have been released and Netflix has as many subscribers as Comcast.  The difference between the two is that Comcast has been slowly decreasing and Netflix subscription base has grown enormously in the same period.  If anyone has had a doubt that streaming over the Internet would ever get as big as standard over-the-air television, then these numbers will wake you up.  I had a previous post noting how the ISP's wanted to slow down Netflix, now we know why, they are a serious threat the cable and satellite providers.  Read more here.

The Nook Color, now more like a tablet

Barnes and Noble issued a major update for their Nook series of E-Readers.  It essentially gives the device the functionality of a tablet.  I did the update on my wife's Nook, however, I am bugged by one big thing.  The update was......painful.   First you had to download the update on your computer, transfer it to the root directory of the device and then wait for the device to detect that it was there and the update would install on it's own.  Well, that took over an hour.  The update itself took 5 minutes, the other steps took up the rest of the time.  It may have been easier if Barnes and Noble actually had a clear set of instructions to follow.  It took 10 minutes to find the page with the vague instructions.  Once installed, I hopped over to the "App Store".  Angry Birds was there, so I am happy for now.