What's new pussycat ? #3

# Paypal adapting to a 2.0 world

PayPal has announced the launch of PayPal for Digital Goods, a solution that lets users manage payments online with just two clicks. The company also announced a major new partner: facebook

The company calls PayPal for Digital Goods the “online equivalent of dropping a quarter in the slot to buy a newspaper or play a video game.” With a few lines of code, developers can integrate PayPal micropayments into their websites.

In order to spread its digital goods product, PayPal has done everything it can to lower the barrier to entry for its platform. Payment transactions cost 5% plus $0.05 per purchase under $12, lower than most micropayment transaction standards. In addition, it’s also focused on making payments as simple as possible; after logging in, it only takes two clicks to complete a payment, and PayPal will recognize repeat users.

To get things started, PayPal has a bunch of new partners, including Autosport.com, FT.com or Ustream. But, the big partner is Facebook, which has agreed to integrate PayPal’s digital goods platform; in other words, it won’t be long until you can buy virtual crops through your PayPal account.

What's new pussycat ? #2

# Gmail Lab

Gmail has just added a new “Labs” application that could be very interesting.

As the name shows, the new “Auto-advance” option that can be opened going to “Settings” and then “Labs”, lets you automatically move to the previous or next conversation after archiving, deleting or muting an individual e-mail message.

While that might sound like expected behavior,  until today, -Gmail simply took you back to your inbox after taking any of those actions, meaning you essentially needed to scroll back down to wherever you were in your attempt at e-mail triage.

Then, you can see how “Auto-advance” might save you some time and probably not an insignificant amount of time if you get a lot of e-mail and aim to keep your inbox clean through the use of archiving, deleting and muting 

What's new pussycat ? #1

# Live-tweeting everything


A new iPhone App was created, it's called Fast Society it is free and you can add groups contacts into an instant, for  a short time, it is combining group text messaging and one-touch conference calling.


Fast Society is the perfect solution for crazed and crowded situations like shows or concerts. Fast Society takes the group texting experience to the next level with conference calling as well as geolocation.  The application is awesome because it is simple, but some things are still up for debate. Group texting is fun and useful for a brief period of time, but after a while it either becomes annoying and replaced with another diversion.


After downloading the app, we choose a time frame for the team to be in communication (three hours to three days), and then we add friends by searching through our phone book or adding a number. We can add anyone to your team, even if he or she’s on another carrier. People receive text messages alerting them to the creation of the team, and they can choose whether or not to join (we can also leave at any time by texting “leave”). Upon joining, they enter a kind of text chat room.


During the allowed time period, we can text the team (a process that works much the same as apps like GroupMe), call it via an instant conference call service and easily find and share the location via geolocation. Those using the app can see others as a pinpoint on a map. And you can text your location to your Android-using friends as well.
Once time runs out, so does the group. That way, you won’t have any annoying text chain forever active on your phone.

But it’s a shame that this service is currently limited to iPhone users they’re currently developing apps for Android, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile. Once this opens up to other fields, we can see this service coming in handy for much more than attending shows. From work events to group vacations, Fast Society has the potential to be a real boon to mobile users.

Fast Society is an ambitious effort, as it is currently entirely self-funded. Still, the app managed to snag the role of the official mobile partner of New York’s cmj Music Festival, which is quite an achievement and gained the team direct access to their target audience: Young, concert-obsessed music fans.

Right now, the current iteration is free so how plan to make money?

Web Crimes

#1 : Second life's pedophilia


Second life has seen its fair share of controversies in the pas : it had toshut down inworld casinos and it may have been used as a training area for terrorists.

 

Authorities may soon be entering Second Life as part of a crack down on virtual pedophilia.
A report on Skynews investigated an area in Second Life called “Wonderland” where users dressed as children offer virtual prostitution in a space designed to mimic a kids playground.
People say that Second Life’s greatest strength is also its greatest weakness: pure uncensored freedom and they are right. Noone could argue that the staging of virtual pedophilia is sick and should have no place within Second Life, and yet libertarian governance has been the key driver of the Second Life success story .

The whole thing is yet another tarnish on a space where some really great things are happening, a space that is slowly finding a much wider acceptance in the broader community.

The quicker Linden Lab cracks down on these men, the better for the many Second Life fans out there who preach the Second Life praise whereever they go.

# 2 : Sarah Palin's e-mail account hacked

David Kernell, 22, a college student hacked into the e-mail account of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and posted some of its contents on the Internet. He has been convicted by a US court : the jury convicted him on two charges: unauthorised access to a computer and obstruction of justice. The court, however, did not find him guilty of wire fraud and identity theft.

Kernell was charged with breaking into Palin’s e-mail while she was the Republican vice presidential candidate in 2008. Prosecutors claimed he was trying to damage Palin’s campaign.

Palin issued a statement on her Facebook page, thanking the jury and prosecutors and explaining the case’s importance.Kernell was released on bond while barred from using a computer except for school assignments and e-mail.

# 3 Credit card fraud

In 2008, 11 people allegedly targeted some retailers as TJX Companies, BJs Wholesale Club... 

"This is the single largest and most complex identity theft case ever charged in this country," said Michael Mukasey  (Attorney General).

He called the total dollar amount of the alleged theft "impossible to quantify at this point." The 

attorney Michael Sullivan said that while most of the victims were in the United States, officials still haven't identified all the people who had a card number stolen.

"I suspect that a lot of people are unaware that their identifying information has been compromised," he said.

The alleged ringleader in the indictment is Albert Gonzalez from Miami, who had worked as a confidential informant for the Secret Service.He has been charged with computer fraud, wire fraud, access device fraud, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy for his role in the scheme and faces the possiblilty of life imprisonment.The Boston indictment alleges that Gonzales and his co-conspirators stole over 40 million credit and debit card numbers making this the largest credit card fraud and identity theft scheme ever identified, investigated and prosecuted in the United States.

Also named in the indictments are Christopher Scott and Damon Patrick Toey, also of Miami.

Investigators say Gonzalez and his cohorts were able to tap into computer networks using a technique called "war driving."

Resumé

Tyranny or democracy ? That is the question indeed.

This debate in on a lot of mouth since the developpment of the Internet. Is that new world promoting democracy or is it another way to install tyranny ?

They are arguments for both :
We can surely say that the Internet is a way to create a real democracy because everybody can give their opinion, there is no boundaries everybody has the same field of expression. On Twitter for instance Obama has the same constraints that anyone ! That could be a embodument of an ideal democracy.

But on the other hand some people would say that it is also a perfect field for propaganda and censorship because people are still very gullible on that media comparing to TV or newspaper in front of which they are now very doubtful.

But the answer to that question is not that dichotomic of course, it has to be balanced.
Of course Internet is the perfect land for free speech but being able to express ourselves doesn't mean being heard and trusted by a lot of people. Actually only a few people are really that influent on the Internet, a king of leadership is being reproducted in there too.

But tyranny really ? I think that world is way too exagerated. It is a media that has influences and censorship (as we can see in China) but it is still a place where we can go where we want and decide which opinion we read and which one we give credit to.

So no total democracy but no such thing as tyranny.

The World Wide Web's 10 commandments

1) Be Open to new stuff  : One of my principal rule is not to have that french attitude of refusing anything that is new, saying that it is useless. But I want to stay open minded and curious about everything and giving up our judgmental attitude.


2) Verify the privacy settings when giving personnal information

3) No threats and violent messages on a public sphere. Even if it's for fun, they could be misinterpreted.


4) Don't consider what you read on forums as truth. Especially as far as health is concerned, it relies on empiric an personnal experience, and it can never be taken as a professional recommandation.


5) Never give credit card information on a page that is not https.

6) Never give personnal information to a stranger.

7) Verify the sources before giving them credit. For instance on Wikipédia or Twitter rumours.

8) Use a correct spelling. It is not like texting, we have an infinite number of characters to use (exept on Twitter)

9) Do not forget your real life . Even if we have a lot of friend relations on social networks they can be shallow and they do not replace a real social life.

10) Do not give any of your passwords. I've broken that rule a lot of time and I do regret it a lot. Try to respect that rule now. Starting by creating a session dedicated to my roomate so that she can use it when her computer is down without going on my own.