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No Play For The Pirate Bay

December 13, 2014 — Leave a comment

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One of the latest news in the world of torrents that the Pirate Bay is alive again online turns out to be a fake one. You should pay attention. The fake websites can be the extremely efficient phishing places rich with malware and all kinds of trojans. Yet, that is only the beginning of troubles associated with the Pirate Bay.

The long arms of the cyber blood thirsty Hollywood have found a way to hit the mobile weak points, as well. Google had no other option than to remove all mobile apps directly or indirectly associated with the Pirate Bay. Unfortunately, the developers were the collateral damage in this cyber war.

From now on you cannot download The Pirate Bay Proxy, The Pirate Bay Premium, The Pirate Bay Mirror or the PirateApp. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to know that the almighty entertainment industry wants to make an example out of the Pirate Bay itself, do you? With this one the entire torrent structure can collapse.

The sad thing in this story is either an unwillingness to find a compromising solution or meaningless stubbornness, which prevents us from finding a way to deal with torrents in an acceptable way. We will always strive for a free content. How to fight this basic instinct? Hollywood, you can do better than this.

You Have An Additional Right To Be Forgotten

December 3, 2014 — Leave a comment

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Great news for all of you privacy addicts. Yahoo and Bing have decided to process your right to forget requests. Unfortunately, we are still and only in Europe. That means the European Internet users have an additional option to protect their privacy. So far, only Google has accepted to play the oblivion game.

From now on, you can address Yahoo and Microsoft’s Bing with the same privacy related concerns. It is worth mentioning that the whole thing does not work simply and flawlessly. One may say, it is so cool, I can address all major search engines and my troubles will be over. As always, there is a catch.

The website Forget.me, which specializes in these specific issues and requests, has noticed something that limits our efforts. If your cyber oblivion request has something to do with the social networks, then you can kiss the closed door, which is very likely. It seems that this is more complex than it looks.

The right to forget is very close to your right to regret. We are so far away from the truly functional and fair solution. You cannot stop or delete the entire Internet, just because you feel hurt. On the other hand, our dearest search engines should do us a favor every once in a while. Isn’t that right?

The Poisonous Lollipop

November 30, 2014 — Leave a comment

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This is what happens when you expect unreasonably too much. Very similar to a situation when you fall in love. You ask, expect and desire too much. At the end of the day, your house of cards collapses in a second. We have strived for the true miracles the Lollipop was supposed to deliver in the Android world.

So, what do we got in return? The Lollipop is designed to work on all devices, which run on Android. However, the alarming number of users has begun reporting some extremely problematic things associated with the new Android 5.0. The apps are disappearing. Your device is slow in performance.

Let us not forget to mention the battery, which loses precious minutes instead of ensuring the additional time for your smartphone. On the other hand, the regular updates can be very dangerous for the well-being of your device. Is this something we can characterize as the warming up trouble?

Or, maybe there is something more serious taking place in the background? It would be unwise for Google to treat these complaints as the manifestations of the spoiled users, who are accepting nothing less than a pure perfection. In the meantime, we have to look for some other candy.

The Drone Avengers

November 26, 2014 — Leave a comment

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If you loved the Avengers, then you are going to be blown away by this one. Under a certain condition. You have to live in the USA. The people, who are living half across the globe, are definitely not going to be thrilled with an idea of the flying drone carrier. Can you imagine such a thing flying above you?

The flying fortress, which deploys hundreds, even thousands of drones everywhere you look. This is not a movie, but rather an imminent reality knocking at our door. To make things even worse, we can expect the further commercialization of the drone related possible applications. Intrigued?

Amazon plans to launch an entire fleet of commercial drones. Google is currently occupied with satellites and Facebook with balloons. But, you do not have to guess twice what will happen, once they hear about the drone carrier. That means to have an entire trade or service center right up in the sky.

These ideas make business giants to be simply restless. On the other hand, we can only ask ourselves, how long before this new SkyNet starts making trouble? This dronology can be an annoying thing. Especially, if you do not like to see a crowded sky with all kinds of flying machines. Drones are not carrying bonbons, that is for sure.

Gmail Attachments With A New Address

November 23, 2014 — Leave a comment

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From now on, you can find all of your Gmail attachments on your Google Drive account. So, what is up with this one? We are a little bit confused. This is supposed to be a good or a bad news for us? It comes without saying that can be a nice and cozy feature for Gmail users. We have to give them a credit for that.

On the other side, we cannot help ourselves noticing an obvious attempt of Google to push up a little bit the use of its cloud services. Now, let us examine what is very likely to happen with our cyber security. This is not such a smart thing to do. It is just like you put all of your data eggs in one gasket.

This can potentially allow easier access for the hackers. All they have to do is to get your Google Drive account. No need to mess up or waste time with the Gmail account in the first place. For the sake of all of us, we sure hope that Google knows what he is doing with this one. Otherwise, we are in serious trouble.

It comes without saying that our attachments are very often the most vulnerable and important parts of our emails. Sure thing, we need to do something that will ease our use and downloading process. However, we should not compromise our security with this new option. Right? Otherwise, what is the use?

The Wrong Torrent Moment

November 7, 2014 — Leave a comment

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Finally, some busy little bee from the entertainment industry has put two and two together and decided to pay a visit to the Google itself. Why? Well, to ask Google to do something about the piracy trouble. What would be a role of Google in a situation such as this one? Can it do something about it?

It turns out it can. With no need to eliminate the piracy websites. The catch is in the search engines. The cyber pirates are dependant on the substantial number of visits on a daily basis to ensure that their illegitimate business makes money. So, Google struck them, when it hurts the most.

From now on, if your website uses something like “torrent”, “watch movie online”, “free this”, or “free that” as the keyword, you can forget about the eye-catching positioning on the top Google pages. The Isohunt crew already reported that the number of visits has dropped for more than 50% in the last couple of months.

On the other side, the pirates from the Pirate Bay support this Google move. Why? They believe that this is the only way to ensure the reliable number of direct visits. Either way the tide for the cyber pirates has changed. They can no longer count on Google indifferent role. How do you feel about it? Honestly.

Binder A Bitter Reminder

October 25, 2014 — Leave a comment

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What in the world is that? Well, you will have to be a little of an Androidnrocket scientist to fully understand it. Yet, who wants to be a rocket scientist when your cyber security is under a serious jeopardy, such as this one? The Binder itself has its roots deep into the core system of the Android itself.

Speaking about the devil hidden in those deep cyber roots, this is where all the fun begins. As soon as the hackers get their hands on your Binder, they own you literally. They can play with your Android device in the most unimaginable ways. So, what are we supposed to do about it? And Google?

Well, the new Android 5.0 is supposed to offer a poisonous Lollipop to all potential hackers. Yet, the trouble is we do not know it for sure. First, we need to test in order to trust it completely. Now, the clock is ticking and we are blinking. Are we in the trouble already, and how long we will have to wait?

This story should deliver a strong moral for the Google itself. What could it be? You should not allow yourself a luxury of waiting for the next major OS version in order to fix all problems, which go deeply to the very core of the system itself. We will see how will enjoy the new taste of the Lollipop, we or the hackers?

Gmail And The Russian Winter

September 17, 2014 — Leave a comment

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It seems that this year the Russian winter has come a little bit early for Gmail. It is hard to believe, but on one Russian online forum you can find more than five million Gmail users names and passwords. So, what are we supposed to say or think about this incident size of a small country?

Why? Is this some kind of a secret plan in the KGB style to “nationalize” the Russian users? The Russian government has a shinning Chinese example to get an inspiration from. Is this the next logical step? First, we had a demand to land all major servers on Russian soil. And, that was only the beginning.

You can forget about the privacy for bloggers and public network users in Russia. Windows has a shaky ground, as well. Apple can forget about the Russian market. And, now this. What is the point? If you are Russian forget about Gmail, and use the Russian version instead. What else to think?

Let us wait to hear what Google itself has to say about this one. For what is worth, the East, including both Russia and China does not love too much Google and its associated services. Is it too late to change something? What is going to happen with the five million disclosed Gmail accounts in Russia?

Microsoft vs China

August 11, 2014 — Leave a comment

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The golden road to the Chinese market is definitely covered with thorns. Google has had the honor to experience it first hand on behalf of the first group of the US based IT hunger of extra profit. It seems that Microsoft now has to hit the Great Wall in China, literally and mercilessly.

The Chinese authorities first paused the decision about introducing Windows 8 on its government’s computers. Then, they have decided to pay an unexpected visit to all major Microsoft’s offices all over China. You can rest assured that these were not entirely friendly talks about the weather and local food.

China has a nice alibi for all of these actions. It rides on a wave of the growing global concern closely associated with the spying controversies. However, you do not have to be a rocket scientist to see for yourself that something simpler is making all the noise here. Can you give your best shot?

It all comes down to the question of business and money, sooner or later, this way or another. The USA will pressure China with its accusations about the technology espionage, and China itself will fight back with the suspicions about the political spying activities. This is light years away from the win-win situation for both.

Gimme Your Source Code, Or…

August 10, 2014 — Leave a comment

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We got ourselves an additional chapter in the bloody book of Ukraine crisis. This time the Russian government demands the source codes from the leading IT companies, which wish to do business on the Russian soil. So far, only the Microsoft showed the unreserved readiness to cooperate.

On the other side, Apple and SAP are having some second thoughts about it. The Russian government is deadly worried about the spying threat. It seems that in all software made in the USA they see the NSA and CIA signature. So, what is the response of the US based companies in this matter?

It seems that Apple and SAP are not willing to cooperate. The Russians were so kind to remind them of Microsoft’s flawless cooperation over the last couple of years. This is a nice test for US companies to evaluate how important is their business in Russia. Something similar Google has been experiencing in China.

It all comes down to numbers, eventually. If you want to play a game of profit in the certain country, you have no other choice than to embrace the local rules more or less willingly. In the Russian case a fragile balance between the economy and politics has to be achieved this way or another.