I always feel like new technology like this is exciting and scary at the same time. At the rate information is indexed in our modern times, I often assume everything I’ve ever typed is open for public search- which can be somewhat jarring. On the flip side, our mobile devices now have 10 times the computing power ever imagined by Star Trek communicators taking place in the year 2250!

The future of mobile devices, mobile applications and social media will only continue to grow from here!

The two prong hack features two common techniques in releasing viruses these days: a “SQL injection” attack to the OpenX ad server which essentially forces an entry into the ad database, followed by a “iFrame” attack which loads a new page within the same window in your browser, enabling the hacker to fire a number of different pieces of code from the new “framed” page.

An iFrame attack can be avoided by using any decent anti-virus software to block the source, however a “SQL injection” is another matter. I’ve recommended that any of my clients using the OpenX software upgrade to the latest version and attempt to hide any publicly available database config info.

Speaking as a person who’s used a SQL Injection technique in a non-malicious way (as part of a plugin), the best route is to always make sure you keep your password hidden and up-to-date.

mental_floss

A long time subscriber to the knowledge oriented magazine, mental_floss, my girlfriend Kelly showed me a wicked cool ap from Zinio that comes with her subscription. Using a combination of Flash and Contentguard (for rights management), Zinio has made itself a very neat ap for view magazines and books digitally on your computer.

With a very short download for both the magazine/book and the ap (maybe only necessary to download the desktop version if you have Flash and only want to read your periodical in a browser), you essentially get the entire printed version of whatever magazine/book you want. A very well defined user interface allows you to navigate and scale to any article.

More and more its going to be key for publication companies to continue to offer these user-friendly digital alternatives to their books. I find this one to be an excellent solution as it doesn’t detract from the original printed version- both can exist and look and feel nearly the same.

Please check out the web terminology sheet page.

James. Tiberius. Kirk.

In an effort to share all the wealth the internet has to offer (and to spoil my productivity for the day), my friend Doug sent me this fine product at the Star Trek online store.

For the discriminating, tasteful, geeky man in your life- Tiberius: cologne for men. A scent reminiscent of the most famous and highly decorated starship captain in Starfleet history.

I have to say I enjoy the description far more than the idea of the product. That’s some fine copy-writing.

According to that Yahoo! article, half of the lowest paying jobs in america are in the medical profession. They’ll pull your mangled body from your car and resuscitate you back to life and may be doing it for as little as $9 per hour. That’s ridiculous.

I was taken aback by a lot of the designer-developer positions that required degrees and at least a dozen skill-sets that were also booked around the $12-$15 per hour range. How does one pay off that $60k education at $12 / hr? If you spent every dime you earned on it and never took a vacation day, it’d still take almost 3 years.

Kinda makes me wonder where our priorities lie- but we all have to remember: you get what you pay for.

I think its fantastic to hear people standing up against this crazy theocracy they call a government, and moreso great to hear of more middle-eastern countries using the internet as a protest tool.

While the government is doing a good job of cracking down on political discourse, online Iranians are holding to their convictions strongly. I support them – Iran could really show its colors in the middle-east right now!

At this point, I’m not sure how anyone could compete with Google on a reasonable level. Setting a company upon the task of essentially reading and ranking every single piece of written literature on the internet is an amazing task, not to mention the efforts of attacking the extremely solid Google brand. I feel like Google is to the point where its like Coke is to soda- its synonymous with search.

Good luck with that Microsoft, I’m stickin’ with Google.

CustomChannels has a great crew and I’m proud to have collaborated with them on so many unique opportunities!

Read the article in the Denver Post here.

Now I haven’t played much of the music game genres and can’t completely place my finger on why they’re so popular other than the recent US trend in the last decade to convince every little boy and girl that they want to be a rockstar. I’m not sure how I feel about that aspect of it (whatever happened to sex, drugs and rock n roll?), but I have to say the Rockband games have an amazing track record for breaking barriers for console games:

• First music game to have downloadable content (this is huge! – used to be entirely PC only options)
• One of the first cross-console games to offer full compatibility and interoperability between competing peripherals (leading to this whole new era of controllers that look like their objects)
• One of the first games to be involved in releasing new albums from artists (Judas Priest and Motley Crue)

PC Games still have the towering income from online multiplayer games, but console is definately rising. You may also want to check out this article about the rise in video game revenue in the US, it was a $19 billion market in 2007 and continues to rise,  so start  buyin’ those games and boost the economy!