Stormseed

Protect Against Kiosk-Propagated Viruses

Chris Benjamin — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:57:08 +0000

Public kiosks, such as those used for photo printing, are exposed to thousands of USB drives and other media every month. Many of them are poorly secured and are using your media as a virus-propagation tool. Protect yourself with these simple steps.

Security blog Risky.biz reader Morgan wrote in to highlight how an unsecure photo kiosk at Big W—a Woolworth subsidiary—infected one of his flash drives with a virus.

Photo kiosks in Big W stores are allegedly infecting customers with USB-borne viruses.

The Windows-based Fuji photo kiosks located in the company’s stores apparently don’t run antivirus software, so lovely little bits of malicious software like Trojan.Poison-36 are winding up on customers’ USB keys, according to Risky Business listener and blogger Morgan Storey.

On its own, an isolated incident of a photo kiosk infecting a USB device might not be newsworthy. But what makes this item stick out is Big W’s reply to Morgan after he notified the company of the issue:

You can visit the full article at the link below to see a screenshot of the entire email but the most notable quote in the their response should give you pause.

Please note that we are currently testing anti-virus software on our Fuji photo kiosks in a number of stores, and if it is successful, we plan on rolling it out to all stores in the future.

It could be debated whether or not the virus Morgan’s flash drive picked up came from that particular photo kiosk but the people in charge of the kiosk acknowledge that the kiosks have no virus protection. All it would take for each kiosk to become a virus propagating machine then—with access to thousands of USB drives, memory sticks, and SD cards a month!—is exposure to one infected flash drive.

See the original article at Lifehacker.com.

Voyeurism in the Twitter age

New York bar to set menu prices like stocks

Chris Benjamin — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 13:10:00 +0000

NEW YORK (Reuters) – What’s the value of a pint of beer? Let the market decide, says a new restaurant in Manhattan where prices for food and beverages will fluctuate like stock prices in increments according to demand.

The Exchange Bar & Grill, set amid the bustling shops and pubs of the Grammercy Park neighborhood, is replete with a ticker tape flashing menu prices in red lettering as demand forces them to fluctuate.

Customers can move prices for all beverages and bar snacks such as hot wings ($7 for 6 pieces) or fried calamari ($9). The prices will fluctuate in $.25 cent increments, but will most likely plateau at a $2 change in either direction.

A glass of Guinness starts at $6 but could be pushed to a high of $8 or a low of $4, depending on popularity.

So if one drink is in heavy demand, its price will rise, causing the cost of other equivalent drinks to drop. A rush on a particular beer would increase its price, and cause other beers to drop.

The Exchange Bar & Grill has a long bar facing the ticker tape — and flat screen televisions — as well as a few tables in the back where patrons can eat in greater comfort.

Restaurants in New York and across America have had a tough year because consumers have slashed discretionary spending in a tough economic climate. New York has about 23,000 restaurants, with about 4,400 opening each year according to the city’s Department of Health, which tracks establishment licenses.

Adobe demos multi-platform app created using single code base

Chris Benjamin — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 13:20:00 +0000

Christian Cantrell, a technical product manager at Adobe, has created an app for multiple platforms including OSX, Windows 7, Linux, Android, iPhone OS, iPad OS and browsers – no biggie, right? But here’s the cool bit, all the apps use the same code base. In other words, Cantrell wrote an app once and didn’t have to change it to get it on other platforms, he just needed to apply slightly different platform "wrappers".

From Cantrell’s blog: "The app is called iReverse… Although iReverse is fun to play, the most amazing thing about the project is the fact that it runs in all these different environments completely unchanged. In other words, the exact same code base is used to build versions for five different environments. There’s no other platform in the world that can boast this level of flexibility – not even close." Check it out in the video below

See the original article at recombu.com.

When one screen is just not enough

Chris Benjamin — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 16:14:29 +0000

Convergence is where it’s at.

A recent article over at Mashable looked at some Nielsen statistics regarding the concurrent use of television and a computer. The general trend indicates that households are growing more comfortable with the idea of using a computer (most likely a notebook) while watching their favorite programs. The surge of real-time social media (like Twitter and Facebook) is probably a big factor.

There have been some neat experiments with convergent programming such as sporting events delivering stats and alternate views during games, adding additional content to repeated shows and of course the ever-present user interaction on Twitter and show bulletin boards.

As multi-platform viewership continues to grow, how will networks and companies take advantage of it?

Some interesting stats from Nielsen:

	Dec 2009	June 2009	Dec 2008	% Diff Yr to Yr
% of persons using TV / Internet simultaneously	59.0%	56.9%	57.5%	2.7%
Estimated number of persons using TV / Internet simultaneously	134,056	128,047	128,167	4.6%
Time spent simultaneously using TV / Internet per person in hours:minutes	3:30	2:39	2:36	34.5%
Average % of TV time Panelists spent also using the Internet	3.1%	2.7%	2.4%	29.7%
Average % of Internet time Panelists spent also using TV	34.0%	27.9%	29.9%	13.9%

Fatty foods may cause cocaine-like addiction

Chris Benjamin — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 12:36:00 +0000

Scientists have finally confirmed what the rest of us have suspected for years: Bacon, cheesecake, and other delicious yet fattening foods may be addictive.

A new study in rats suggests that high-fat, high-calorie foods affect the brain in much the same way as cocaine and heroin. When rats consume these foods in great enough quantities, it leads to compulsive eating habits that resemble drug addiction, the study found.

Doing drugs such as cocaine and eating too much junk food both gradually overload the so-called pleasure centers in the brain, according to Paul J. Kenny, Ph.D., an associate professor of molecular therapeutics at the Scripps Research Institute, in Jupiter, Florida. Eventually the pleasure centers "crash," and achieving the same pleasure–or even just feeling normal–requires increasing amounts of the drug or food, says Kenny, the lead author of the study.

"People know intuitively that there’s more to [overeating] than just willpower," he says. "There’s a system in the brain that’s been turned on or over-activated, and that’s driving [overeating] at some subconscious level."

In the study, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, Kenny and his co-author studied three groups of lab rats for 40 days. One of the groups was fed regular rat food. A second was fed bacon, sausage, cheesecake, frosting, and other fattening, high-calorie foods–but only for one hour each day. The third group was allowed to pig out on the unhealthy foods for up to 23 hours a day.

They began to eat compulsively, to the point where they continued to do so in the face of pain. When the researchers applied an electric shock to the rats’ feet in the presence of the food, the rats in the first two groups were frightened away from eating. But the obese rats were not. "Their attention was solely focused on consuming food," says Kenny.

In previous studies, rats have exhibited similar brain changes when given unlimited access to cocaine or heroin. And rats have similarly ignored punishment to continue consuming cocaine, the researchers note.

See the original article at CNN.

Burger King’s secret cameras stun customers

Chris Benjamin — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 14:08:56 +0000

See the original article at cnet News.

Surveillance cameras can be such a menace. We never really know these days whether someone is spying on us doing intimate, personal, but often necessary things.

Burger King in Brazil decided that, perhaps, a little surveillance might go a long way to create a large amount of customer loyalty.

You might think that their promise that you can "Have It Your Way" would not be entirely conducive to the use of secret cameras. However, in a very nifty and personal touch, they photographed customers secretly while they were ordering their burgers and then printed the customers’ pictures on the wrapper.

I can imagine this interesting procedure might have slowed service just a fraction.

But the pleasure that people experienced on seeing their own face covering a large slab of pleasantly greasy meat, possibly defrosted bread and the condiments of a distant chef shows that the personal touch is, without question, very much alive.

Just imagine how many people would leap beyond the boundaries of their local Apple store, if, when they picked up their brand new delectable iPad, it came with their own picture on the box.

How Musicians Are Using Social Media to Connect with Fans

Chris Benjamin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:44:47 +0000

See the original article at Mashable.

Today’s musicians, both mainstream and indie, are using social media to connect with fans, build anticipation, and generate revenue in new and unique ways. The products range from singles to mix tapes to digital six-packs, even oddly shaped USB sticks, vinyl, and the occasional traditional album.

But how are these artists reaching their new fan bases online through social channels? Much like the business world, social media promotion for musicians is still a very new game, with no exact recipe for platinum success.

There are however, some innovations being put forth, and a new connection is being formed between artists and fans — a connection that empowers both to give each other what they are looking for.

Fan-Funded Projects

We have all heard about the success of micro lending organizations like Kiva, which use multiple small payments to contribute to a larger goal. The same process is being applied to creating an album or a music-based project.

One such project is the Washington D.C.-based indie hip-hop group Panacea. The producer/MC duo listed their project on Kickstater, a funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors, explorers, and others.

The project was posted on the morning of February 26th. According to Jeremy Calvery, the group’s Director of Digital Media and Promotion, “We were at $1,000 before the end of the first day. We had to increase the number of $200 packages from three to five over the weekend because people were e-mailing and literally begging for the chance to ‘buy’ the whole back catalog. Less than five full days from the first e-mail to the list, we had reached the funding goal of $3,800, which was set to be just a bit more than what the minimum press of 250 vinyl copies was going to cost.”

Another hip-hop outfit, the Get Busy Committee, also launched a project on Kickstarter. In their drive to raise $3,218, they included one premium pledge level at $1,000 — an investment that netted the donor a song about him or herself to be included on the record, as well as a platinum plaque. They sold this spot within 24 hours.

Using Video to Create Buzz

Another approach musicians are taking is the use of web video series. Indie pop artist Mike Posner has been telling his story over the course of a video series titled “One Foot Out The Door.” Daniel Weisman, Mike’s manager, stated that he was attempting to create an income stream for Mike while he was finishing college and working on his debut album.

Daniel and his management company Elitaste were approached by the shoe company Puma about integrated artist campaigns. Puma ended up sponsoring Mike’s last semester in college, and provided a camera crew to follow him from classes, to the studio, to shows all over the country.

Daniel wanted to do something special for the Mashable readers when I reached out to him, so fresh off the upload, here is the premier of Episode #10 of “One Foot Out The Door.”

Live streaming has also been worthwhile for big announcements. Underground artists the Kottonmouth Kings turned to Ustream to tell their fans all about their new album and when they could expect it in local stores.

The video was watched live and formatted like a press conference, with fans getting the chance to ask questions and share their feedback. It was a smart way to bring their fans into the experience and give back to the community that has supported them for 10+ years.

Creativity From the Fans

Rob And Kal are a pop/rock act from the UK who are taking fans inside their studio and the music creation process. They call it Mubla 2.0, which Rob defined as “our interactive recording project where we come up with song ideas and you help us develop them with your comments, suggestions and musicianship.”

So far they have five songs in progress with fans like Adam saying, “I just feel the intro has a little too much going on and 2.33 to 2.56 I almost want the piano to play and pull at the heart strings.” Another commenter named Russell gave tips like, “Think drums and a bit more of heavier guitar would go down nicely particularly near end.”

This concept empowers fans and gives them a product they feel responsible for and connected to. The project can only strengthen the bond between fans and artists, and result in an easier sale when the time comes to release an album.

Reaching Out to Non-Music Bloggers

Glasses Malone, a new artist signed with Cash Money Records, is turning to bloggers to get the word out about his new album “Beach Cruiser.” What makes his campaign unique is that unlike traditional artists who look to get their tracks on highly trafficked MP3 blogs and review sites, Glasses and his team are focused on adding value to bloggers whose primary focus is not on music.

A marketing rep for Glasses told me, “These bloggers are more open to running contests and integrated campaigns than traditional music bloggers because they are not accustomed to being pitched by a major label artist. We have found blogs that love unique and fresh content that will separate them from their peers and competition, and it is working out very well for us so far.”

Armed with a research team, they have been targeting biking blogs, college blogs, beach lifestyle sites and more, all with the hope of driving new traffic to Glasses’ site and generating some pre-album buzz.

Conclusion

No matter what the labels and corporations are doing, musicians are taking it upon themselves to use social channels to connect with fans, offer value, and create relationship. This has ultimately led to new business models and revenue streams from sponsorships, touring and live appearances, custom products, and social monetization through advertising.

Digg Says Yes To NoSQL Cassandra DB, Bye To MySQL

Chris Benjamin — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:10:00 +0000

After twitter, now it’s Digg who’s decided to replace MySQL and most of their infrastructure components and move away from LAMP to another architecture called NoSQL that is based in Cassandra, an open source project that develops a highly scalable second-generation distributed database.

Cassandra was open sourced by Facebook in 2008 and is licensed under the Apache License. The reason for this move, as explained by Digg, is the increasing difficulty of building a high-performance, write-intensive application on a data set that is growing quickly, with no end in sight. This growth has forced them into horizontal and vertical partitioning strategies that have eliminated most of the value of a relational database, while still incurring all the overhead.

For back reference, MySQL was recently purchased by corporate database giant Oracle and that has a lot of developers very nervous to commit long-term to MySQL.

See the original article at Slashdot.

Classmates.com Agrees to $9.5 Million False Advertising Settlement

Chris Benjamin — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:29:11 +0000

Classmates.com — the website that promises to reunite people with their mullet-haired friends of youth — has agreed to pay out a $9.5 million settlement for a lawsuit dating back to 2008 accusing the company of “false advertising” through “deceptive” marketing e-mails.

Defeated by Facebook in terms of traffic and – excuse the pun – class, Classmates always had a questionable way of handling its visitors.

The problems for Classmate.com began back in late 2007, when San Diego resident Anthony Michaels received an e-mail from the social networking company informing him that his old classmates were trying to contact him.

In order to see who and why, Michaels had to upgrade to a “Gold Membership.” However, upon forking out to do so, he discovered that nobody was trying to get in touch; it was just a dubious marketing ploy from Classmates.com.

Michaels initiated a false advertising lawsuit against Classmates.com, which became a class action suit that anyone who suffered the same fate as the plaintiff could sign up for.

Fast forward to today: Although Classmates.com has admitted no wrongdoing as part of the proposed settlement now waiting for U.S. District Court approval, it has agreed to pay out $3 for every Classmates.com member who upgraded to a “Gold Membership” on the site after receiving an e-mail like Michaels’ — estimated to be just over three million people.

Whether or not you sympathize with those that fell for Classmate.com’s oh-so-obvious tactics, it’s an interesting case in terms of wider web marketing. Dating sites are known to carry out similar practices, and this settlement may make offenders sit up and take note.

While this particular case may be settled, it’s not the end of Classmates.com’s legal troubles. The site is facing another lawsuit filed just this month, this time a class action privacy lawsuit that accuses Classmates.com of ignoring federal and state privacy laws by making user profiles public via a controversial opt-out scheme.

See the original article at Mashable.

Flame – an abstract Java painting program

Chris Benjamin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:22:00 +0000

Ever wonder how those neat abstract desktop backgrounds are created? Well one way to try making one yourself is with a webpage-embedded Java application called Flame. Flame allows you to use different brushes, colors and various other tricks to create abstract brushes to paint with. The interface is fun to play with and will yield some interesting results. Just a hint: the faster you move your mouse, the more random and wide your brush gets.

Try it out for yourself: Flame.

NYU to debut gaming degree program next fall