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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 18 Issue 05
Volume 18, Issue 05 Atari Online News, Etc. January 29, 2016
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2016
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
Fred Horvat
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #1805 01/29/16
~ Safari Users "Pranked" ~ People Are Talking! ~ Phishing Protection!
~ Bungie Prez Steps Down ~ Facebook Friend Finder ~ 'Song of the Deep'
~ Facebook Friends Fake! ~ Spammer Gets No Jail! ~ Facebook vs. ISIS!
~ Edge Tracks Your Sites ~ Facebook's "Reactions" ~
-* World's Oldest Torrent Active *-
-* Firefox Will Now Push E-mail, More! *-
-* France Wants New Keyboard, Protect Language *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
As I mentioned/hoped last week, the storm that hit the mid-Atlantic
last week missed us here in Northeast Massachusetts! We barely got
a dusting here, much to the joy of many. I'm definitely not sorry
that we probably will not experience a winter like we had last year!
In fact, ober the next week or so, we should be expecting some
warmer-than-usual temperatures - welcome February and 50+ degrees!
I have little to say this week - it's been a long and tiring one.
So, let's just move ahead and get right to this week's issue!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Bungie President Steps Down, New CEO Announced!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ëSong of the Deepí Is Gorgeous Underwater ëMetroid'
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Bungie President Steps Down, New CEO Announced
Harold Ryan has stepped down as Bungie's president.
As yet a replacement president has not been announced, although
former COO Pete Parsons will be taking up a new position as CEO.
Though thereís no explanations as to why Ryan has stepped down,
nor information on if he will remain at the studio, Parsons did
release a short statement on the official website:
"I want to personally thank Harold for his friendship, passion,
hard work, and dedication in helping make Bungie the great
company it is today. As a team, we celebrated many victories and
weathered many storms."
"To the players of Destiny, I want you to know that my number
one priority, and Bungie's, is and always has been to deliver
great games that we can all share together. I believe that
Destiny is a one-of-a-kind experience. I also believe you have
yet to see our studio's best work. My new role here at the
studio will be entirely focused on fulfilling that promise."
Could the move be a consequence of recent difficulties at the
studio? Reports of an increasingly salty fanbase, coupled with
rumours that Destiny 2ís release has now slipped from its
September 2016 window, intimate that despite the well-received
The Taken King expansion, things may not be easy right now for
Bungie employees.
ëSong of the Deepí Is a Gorgeous Underwater ëMetroidí
What happens when a big game studio goes small? Weíll find out
later this year with Song of the Deep, a newly announced game from
Insomniac Games, purveyors of huge franchises like Ratchet & Clank
and the Resistance shooters.
Song of the Deep is significantly smaller in scope than those
massive, 3D series. It puts you in the shoes ó and submarine ó of
Merryn, a plucky tween whose beloved fisherman father fails to
come home from work one night. Merryn does what any loving daughter
would do in these circumstances: She cobbles together a homemade
submersible and ventures forth into the deep to seek her departed
dad.
Merrynís quest will take her through gorgeous coral reefs,
underwater caves, a vast Atlantis-like sunken empire, and other
lovingly rendered locations. Technically speaking, itís a
ìMetroidvaniaî (a portmanteau of Metroid and Castlevania, classic
NES games that defined the genre) ó a 2D scrolling
action-adventure that emphasizes exploration.
We got some hands-on time with Song of the Deep. Equal parts
puzzle solving, raw exploration, and undersea combat, itís easy to
like. The art direction creates a compelling atmosphere with
old-school parallax scrolling, subtle lighting effects, and
handcrafted, watercolor-esque backdrops. As any game in this genre
should do, it urges you forward with promises of new zones to
unlock and hidden nooks and crannies to uncover.
Song of the Deep also marks a new direction for brick-and-mortar
game retailer GameStop, which has signed on as a publisher. The
deal will give Song of the Deep an opportunity to get some
valuable shelf space in the real world, in addition to being for
sale via download services like Steam and PSN. Also in the
pipeline are merchandising tie-ins, including a storybook that
will further elaborate on the adventures of Merryn and her sub.
(A GameStop spokesperson insisted itís ìa very hands-offî
partner, leaving all creative matters to Insomniac alone.)
Song of the Deep will launch in the second quarter of 2016 for
PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Web Link Causes Safari Crashes, Device Reboots on iOS and Mac
A website in circulation as a prank on Safari users is causing the
Mac edition of the browser to crash, and iPhones and iPads to
reboot, reports said on Monday.
Aptly named crashsafari.com, the site deliberately overwhelms the
browser with a self-generating text string in the address bar,
according to The Guardian. This can not only force iOS devices to
reboot, but lead them to heat up beforehand as their processors
struggle to keep up.
Using Google's Chrome browser to visit the site will reportedly
avoid crashes or reboots, whether on Android, Mac, or Windows,
but still result in serious slowdowns, as well as overheating on
Android devices.
The problem is being exacerbated by the use of link shortening
services, which can disguise the link.
The site so far appears to be a gag instead of malicious. Other
forms of crash-generating code can sometimes by used by hackers
as a way of hijacking a device.
Apple devices recovering from a crash or reboot will reportedly
function as normal.
Update: According to a follow-up report from iMore, Apple is
aware of the crash issue and is looking into a fix.
How To Protect Yourself From Phishing
Last fall, Facebook users began receiving an alarming email
warning. "For security reasons, your account will be disabled
permanently," said the email. To confirm your identity, the
message ó which was signed by the "Facebook Team"óinstructed
users to click on a link and log into what looked like a real
Facebook page.
But this email had nothing to do with Facebook. It was a phishing
(pronounced ìfishingî) scam, a form of identity theft in which
hackers use fraudulent websites and fake emails to attempt to
steal your personal data, especially passwords and credit card
information. Phishing scammers send emails that appear to come
from trustworthy sources such as a social media website or a
financial service provider, and tell you that they need you to
follow certain links in order to rectify some problem. Then they
steal your data as you enter it, lock you out, and begin using
your account to send more scam messages in your name.
Phishing attacks are happening everywhere. Online security firm
Kaspersky Labs says it repelled nearly 800 billion attacks in
2015, almost 2 million of which were attempts to steal money from
online bank accounts.
According to Fraudwatch International, a global online fraud
protection service, some of the recent phished sites included
Bank of America, PayPal, Chase Bank and Apple Store. Typical
fake email alerts: ìWestpac BankóYour Account Has Been Blocked,î
or ìApple StoreóAbout your last Transaction.î
With tax season starting to ramp up, scammers have been
targeting TurboTax users with fake subject lines such as
ìTurboTax Update: Resolve Account Issue Nowî and
ìTurboTaxóImportant Noticeî that urges users to open a
fraudulent attachment.
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are also now among scammersí
favorite phishing targets, surpassing the banking and financial
services sectors during the first three quarters of 2015, reports
the non-profit Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG). Phishers like
to break into ISP accounts so that they can send spam from those
user accounts. ISP accounts can also contain other things that
phishers want: personal identity information, credit card
details, and access to domain name and hosting management.
The Best Defense
How can you protect yourself against phishing lures? Here's some
advice:
If you arenít 100 percent certain of the senderís
authenticity, donít click on attachments or embedded links; both
are likely to result in malware being installed. Instead, open a
new browser window and type the URL directly into the address bar.
Often a phishing website will look identical to the original, so
check the address bar to confirm the address.
Similarly, never submit confidential information via forms
embedded in or attached to email messages. Senders are often
able to track all of the information you enter.
Be wary of emails asking for financial information. Emails
reminding you to update your account, requesting you to send a
wire transfer, or alerting you about a failed transaction are
compelling. However, scammers count on the urgency of the message
to blind you to the potential for fraud.
Donít fall for scare tactics. Phishers often try to pressure
you into providing sensitive information by threatening to
disable an account or delay services until you update certain
information. Contact the merchant directly to confirm the
authenticity of the request.
Be suspicious of social media invitations from people you
donít know. According to Kaspersky Lab research, over one in five
phishing scams target Facebook. Phishers rely on your natural
curiosity to click on the personís profile ìjust to find out who
it is.î However, in a phishing email, every link can trigger
malware, including links that appear to be images or even legal
boilerplate; scammers use your hijacked account to send spam to
your friends, because spam from real accounts is more believable
than spam from a fake account.
Watch out for generic-looking requests for information. Many
phishing emails begin with ìDear Sir/Madam.î Some come from a
bank with which you donít even have an account.
Ignore emails with typos and misspellings. Recent real
examples targeting TurboTax include îYour Change Request is
Completeedî and ìUser Peofile Updates!!!î
Update and maintain effective software to combat phishing.
Reliable anti-virus software should also automatically detect
and block fake websites, as well as authenticating the major
legitimate banking and shopping sites.
Mobile device users should be especially vigilant. Scammers
increasingly design mobile-friendly pages; whatís worse, many
browsers hide the web address bars, so it can be even more
difficult to spot scams on a mobile device.
Computer Expert Gets No Jail Time in Extensive Spamming Case
A computer expert was sentenced Thursday to two years' probation
for helping send millions of spam messages that allowed computer
marketers to illegally harvest email addresses and phone numbers.
Naveed Ahmed, 27, of Tampa, faced at least two years in prison
under advisory sentencing guidelines, but Senior U.S. District
Judge Maurice Cohill Jr. in Pittsburgh imposed probation. Defense
attorney Melvin Vatz called Ahmed "a man of considerable
intelligence who has unfortunately succumbed to directing those
talents in the wrong way."
Ahmed cooperated with investigators "the moment he got the knock
on the door" from federal agents, Vatz said.
Ahmed was a systems administrator and master's degree student at
the University of South Florida. He lost his job but gained a wife
since pleading guilty in August.
Cohill's sentence will allow Ahmed to work with computers that
will be monitored by federal probation officers.
Ahmed was one of 12 people charged federally for marketing their
illegal computer skills on Darkcode.com, a cybercriminal
marketplace disabled by the FBI in July. Seventy people in the
U.S. and 19 other countries were targeted in that takedown.
From September 2011 to February 2013, Ahmed and two others earned
between $2,000 to $3,000 weekly by conspiring to violate a 2003
law designed to protect cellphone and computer users from
unwanted marketing and pornography spam emails and text messages.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jimmy Kitchen argued the sentence should
be stiff enough to deter "an entire world full of potential
computer hackers." But he didn't object to the probation sentence,
which was similar to one given last week to a co-conspirator,
Dewayne Watts, of Hernando, Florida. Watts must spend the first
six months of his probation confined to his home.
A third person who pleaded guilty in the spam scheme, Phillip
Fleitz, 31, of Indianapolis, is scheduled for sentencing Monday.
Fleitz has acknowledged operating the computer servers in China
that the trio used. Ahmed, whom Kitchen called the "most
technically adept" of the three, wrote a program that helped
match cellphone numbers with their carriers. That enabled the
scammers to bombard the phones with unsolicited messages. Watts
wrote the text messages meant to entice phone users to respond.
Both types of spam included Internet links. Those who received
the text messages were told they had won Best Buy gift cards that
could be accessed by clicking the links.
In reality, computer and phone users who responded were routed to
Web pages controlled by Internet Cost Per Action networks, which
are companies that gather email addresses and other personal
information. Such companies are legal, but the means Ahmed and
the others used to drive traffic to the companies' websites was
not, Kitchen said.
The networks paid Ahmed and the others for each email address
they gathered. That money was sent though a Swiss bank account
controlled by an unindicted ó and so far unidentified ó
co-conspirator, who kept 10 percent for laundering the money,
Kitchen said.
"I know my actions were irresponsible," Ahmed told the judge.
"I had this naive, immature view of being invincible."
Facebook vs. ISIS: Inside The Tech Giantís Antiterror Strategy
Facebook, under pressure to crack down on Islamic State militants
using its network, has quietly ramped up its efforts to block
terrorist messages and videos in what some experts say is a
potentially significant move by the Silicon Valley giant in the
U.S. governmentís battle against the terror groupís propaganda
and recruitment efforts.
In an rare interview with Yahoo News, Monica Bickert, a former
federal prosecutor who serves as Facebookís top content cop,
provided the companyís most detailed accounting yet of its
efforts to identify and remove terrorist material from its site.
As described by Bickert, Facebook has set up what amounts to its
own counterterrorism squad, with at least five offices around
the world and scores of specialists fluent in several dozen
languages. The group, part of Facebookís Community Operations
team, responds around the clock to reports by Facebook users and
others of terrorists using the social media network, taking
terror-related material down ó and then looking for related
accounts that the same actors might be using.
ìIf we become aware of an account that is supporting terrorism,
weíll remove that account,î said Bickert, chief of global policy
management, in an interview at Facebookís sprawling campus in
Menlo Park, Calif. ìBut we want to make sure that we get it all.
So we will look at associated accounts ó pages this person liked
or groups that he may have belonged to ó and make sure that we
are moving all associated violating content.î
Facebook ó which now has 1.5 billion users, 70 percent of them
outside the United States and Canada ó is not only looking for
messages or posts from avowed members of the Islamic State or
other terror groups, Bickert says. It has instituted community
standards policies ó controversial in some circles ó that go
beyond those of other social media firms, banning expressions
of ìsupportî for terrorist groups and expressions ìpraisingî
their leaders or ìcondoningî violent terrorist acts.
ìIf there is a terror attack that happens in the world, and
somebody shares even a news report of that and says, ëI think
this is wonderful,í or theyíre mocking the victims or
celebrating what has happened, that violates our policies and
weíll remove it,î said Bickert.
Her comments come at a time when Facebook and other social media
firms have been feeling increasing heat from U.S. and other
Western counterterrorism officials, members of Congress and even
presidential candidates like Hillary Clinton, who have called on
the companies to be more aggressive in shutting down ISIS
propaganda and reporting it to the government.
The companies, wary about being perceived as too cozy with the
U.S. intelligence community and of compromising the privacy of
their users, have resisted some of these proposals, arguing that
they could require them to engage in censorship. One provision,
sponsored by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr,
R-N.C., and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., would require social
media firms to report to U.S. law enforcement ìall terrorist
activityî on their networks.
The provision was inserted into a Senate intelligence bill last
summer ó and then removed after intense lobbying by a host of
trade associations representing Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and
other social media and tech companies, including Yahoo,
congressional staff members told Yahoo News.
The provision ìwould impose a new government mandate requiring
a broad spectrum of companies to report usersí activities and
communications to the U.S. Government Ö and risks chilling free
speech,î the trade groups, including Reform Government
Surveillance, a coalition of social media firms that includes
Facebook, wrote in a Dec. 11 letter obtained by Yahoo News.
The proposal, and similar calls for the social media firms to
engage in greater cooperation with the government, have also
alarmed civil liberties advocates. After President Obamaís top
national security team ó including FBI Director James Comey and
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper ó flew out to
Silicon Valley this month for a meeting with executives of tech
and social media firms, including Facebookís Sheryl Sandberg,
ACLU lawyer Hugh Handeyside wrote a blistering critique of what
he viewed as the potential dangers on the widely read Just
Security blog.
ìThe notion that social media companies can or should scrub
their platforms of all potentially terrorist-related contentî
not only is ìunrealistic,î he wrote, but could also ìsweep in
protected speech and turn the social media companies into a
wing of the national security state.î
As the debate over the Burr-Feinstein proposal continued,
Facebook executives began closed-door briefings in Washington
last month to preempt such moves by detailing the companyís own
internal efforts to identify and remove terror-related content ó
without drawing too much public attention to them and riling the
civil-liberties critics.
In a private ìoff the recordî dinner attended by former senior
intelligence community officials ó many with continuing close
ties to their former agencies ó Alex Stamos, the companyís chief
security officer (and a former head of security at Yahoo), gave a
20-minute presentation laying out sophisticated methods,
including the use of algorithms, that Facebook was using to
identify terrorist content, according to a source familiar with
the briefing.
At the same time, the company is helping to fund a Department of
Homeland Security initiative, called Peer 2 Peer, to create a
competition among college students for videos and other messaging
that combats jihadi propaganda ó more effectively, officials
hope, than the State Departmentís own failed attempts.
These efforts have won Facebook goodwill among some Obama
administration officials and outside groups that have been
tracking terroristsí use of social media. ìTheyíre setting the
tone for what other companies can do,î said Steven Stalinsky,
executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute,
a private organization that closely tracks jihadi propaganda on
the Internet.
Stalinsky said that Twitter (which has been far less public
about its own internal policing) hosts a significantly larger
portion of jihadi propaganda, especially because users quickly
reappear under new handles once their accounts get taken down.
Another new favored platform for the jihadis: Telegram, created
by Pavel Durov (dubbed the ìRussian Mark Zuckerbergî), a
Berlin-based social media site that openly advertises
opportunities for groups and ìsupergroupsî of users to have
encrypted conversations.
But Facebook has still faced more than its share of stinging
criticism, especially overseas. In 2013, after British soldier
Lee Rigby was brutally hacked to death near his military barracks
outside London, British officials discovered that one of his two
attackers, Michael Adebowale, had made ìgraphicî threats to kill
military personnel in a Facebook chat six months earlier with
somebody known as ìFoxtrot,î a suspected al-Qaida operative in
Yemen. A parliamentary security committee later harshly
criticized Facebook for not proactively sharing that information,
saying there was a ìsignificant possibilityî that MI5, the
British domestic intelligence agency, could have prevented
Rigbyís murder had it been informed about the Facebook threats.
The incident appears to have been a turning point for Facebook,
one U.S. law enforcement official said. In a response to the
report last year, British Prime Minister David Cameron, without
identifying Facebook by name, said the company in question had
begun discussions with the British government about how it could
ìrapidly improve the identification of imminent threats and
reporting them to law enforcement.î
But in their interviews with Yahoo News, Bickert and other
Facebook officials were vague about how they define ìimminent
threatsî ó a threshold that, under Facebookís own policies,
triggers voluntary reports by the company to law enforcement.
Bickert was asked: If a Facebook user is discovered writing that
he intends to travel to Syria to wage jihad, does that meet
Facebookís standard for alerting the FBI? Those decisions, she
said tersely, are made by the companyís legal team ìon a
case-by-case basis.î
The issue of exactly how vigilant Facebook is in monitoring its
network arose again after the Dec. 2, 2015, rampage in San
Bernardino, Calif., that killed 14 people. Just minutes after
the attack, one of the perpetrators, Tashfeen Malik, posted a
message on a Facebook account pledging allegiance to Islamic
State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Alerted by the FBI, Facebook promptly took down the message that
day, before the news media or others were able to find it. But
Facebook appears to have missed another disturbing message ó
just weeks earlier ó posted by Enrique Marquez, who has been
charged with buying two of the weapons Malik and her husband,
Syed Farook, used in the attack. ìNo one really knows me. I lead
multiple lives Ö involved in terrorist plots,î Marquez wrote in
a Nov. 5 chat on Facebook, according to an FBI criminal
complaint against him.
Could Facebook do more to find such messages, using the same
automated image technology it is already using to identify and
report child pornography? Bickert, who previously specialized
in child pornography cases while serving as an assistant U.S.
attorney in Chicago, said there is a critical difference.
ìWhen youíre talking about child exploitation offenses, and
child pornography specifically, the image itself is the criminal
contraband,î she said. ìThere is no context that is necessary.
When youíre talking about content that supports terrorism,
context is everything.íí
Microsoftís New Web Browser Reportedly Tracks the Websites
You Visit ó Even When You Ask It Not To
Microsoftís Edge browser, which is the replacement for Internet
Explorer, reportedly stores the websites you visit in private
browsing mode, according to the findings of a security
researcher.
Ashish Singh, writing in Forensic Focus, exposed the flaw in Edge
that stores website history in the hard drive of the computer,
even in private browsing mode, which can then be recovered to
build a history of which sites were visited.
A Microsoft spokesperson told Business Insider that the company
had ìrecently became aware of a report that claims InPrivate tabs
are not working as designed and we are committed to resolving
this as quickly as possible.î
The flaw is damaging for Edge, which has had a rocky start after
shipping without extensions ó such as AdBlock or Hola, the VPN
service ó or other standard features in Chrome or Safari.
Microsoft has said that extensions are coming in summer 2016.
According to The Verge, other browsers, including Chrome,
Safari, and Firefox, have also had this issue, showing that
private browsing mode is not meant to deflect an investigation
of the hard drive.
Edge is currently used by around 3% of the total desktop browser
market, according to Netmarketshare. Internet Explorer, which
Edge replaces, has a combined share of 45%. Windows 10 comes
with Edge installed as the default browser.
Facebookís Friend Finder Found Unlawful by Germanyís Highest Court
In its younger days, a fear spread through Facelandia: friend
requests were popping up, from people who Facebook said had
suggested friendships but who protested that in actuality,
theyíd done nothing of the kind.
Many wondered, was it a computer virus?
No, it was just Facebook trying to be helpful by automatically
scanning an assortment of data crunchables: mutual friends, work
and education data, and contacts imported using the companyís
Friend Finder, be they from Outlook, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, or
what have you.
Helpful, and self-serving, useful as it is for growing the
network and bolstering Facebookís advertising market.
Now, Germanyís highest court has said ìnein!î to all that.
Reuters reports that a panel of the Federal Court of Justice has
ruled that Facebookís Friend Finder feature, used to encourage
users to market the social media network to their contacts,
constituted advertising harassment in a case that was filed in
2010 by the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (VZBV).
Friends Finder asks users for permission to snort the e-mail
addresses of their friends or contacts from their address books,
thereby allowing the company to send invitations to non-Facebook
users to join up.
Earlier decisions from two lower courts had in 2012 and 2014
deemed Friend Finder a deceptive marketing practice, saying that
Facebook had violated German laws on data protection and unfair
trade practices.
The federal court upheld those decisions, adding that Facebook
hasnít adequately informed consumers about what itís doing with
their contacts.
Reuters quoted a spokeswoman for Facebook in Germany, who sent a
statement saying that the social network was at the time waiting
to receive the formal decision and would study the findings ìto
assess any impact on our servicesî.
The VZBV is pleased.
The organization, which is an umbrella for 41 German consumer
associations, doesnít know yet whatís to become of Friend
Finder, but it does suspect this decision will have implications
for other services.
Facebook Friends Are Almost Unanimously Fake,
Suggests Evolutionary Psychology Professor
How many of your Facebook friends would you say are truly friends
with you? A new Oxford University study has found that friends
lists on social-media sites such as Facebook can be highly
misleading. The study states that most usersí friends are more
likely to be unsympathetic and unreliable in real-life situations.
Robin Dunbar, a professor of evolutionary psychology at Oxford
University in the UK, undertook the study in order to determine
the correlation between peopleís relationships with Facebook
friends and real friends. According to Dunbar, people tend to have
about four intimate friends at the most. He classified that people
could have 15 best friends, 50 good friends, 150 friends, 500
acquaintances and 1,500 people that can be recognised on the
social-media platform Facebook.
The study analyzed the different boundaries set in virtual
relationships that overlap real-life friendships in order to
determine how many of usersí social-media friends can truly be
relied upon in reality. The study also outlined a limit of 150
friends, which he called the ëDunbar Numberí, which claims that
it is impossible for people to have more than 150 friends.
The results of the study, which had a total of 3,375 male and
female participants between the ages of 18 to 65, revealed that
an average of 27.6% of ërealí friends were reported by the
participants when asked to reveal how many 'genuineí friends
they had. However, when asked how many friends would be available
to provide support in a crisis, participantsí numbers dropped
drastically to four.
Professor Dunbar said, ìRespondents who had unusually large
networks did not increase the numbers of close friendships they
had but, rather, added more loosely defined acquaintances into
their friendship circle simply because most social-media sites
do not allow one to differentiate between these layers.î
The study suggests that in order to maintain valuable
relationships, face-to-face interaction seems to be vital.
Dunbar says that despite technological advancements in digital
communication, there lies ìa cognitive constraint on the size of
social networksî that cannot be overcome by online
communication. In other words, go old school and maintain
relationships with face-to-face communication if you want your
friends to stick by you through thick and thin.
You'll Soon Be Able To Do More Than Just Like A Facebook Post
You see a friend's Facebook post about the death of a pet, the
loss of a job or an annoying encounter they had at work. You want
to acknowledge the post but you don't want to click the Like
button. Those aren't likeable posts.
Maybe you'd prefer to click on a Sad button or a Love button or a
Wow button. In a few weeks, you'll have that option.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Facebook's Chief Product Officer
Chris Cox, said the company is adding five new reactions to the
popular Like button. Although he wouldn't give a specific date
for the change, he did say it would be "in the next few weeks."
And no, there won't be a dislike button.
Instead, when users hold down the Like button, they'll get other
options -- angry, sad, wow, haha and love.
The reactions will pop up as yellow animated emojis that are
designed to bounce and change expressions to make their meaning
clear. And according to the Bloomberg report, posts will show
the tallies of the different post responses.
The plans for new Facebook reactions come about a month and a
half after Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook, said
in a town hall forum that his team was working on creating
options that would go beyond the Like button.
This is going to be a big change for Facebook. The social
network's Like button has become one of its most popular and
well-known functions on the site. People "like" posts about a
friend finishing a marathon, reading a great book, sliding in
the snow or finding a new job.
Did you ever visit your parents í office? Was it like something
out of Mad Men , with offices surrounding a central secretarial
pool? Or a more modern cube farm? Whatever the layout or the era,
it was like a glimpse into...
According to Facebook, users click on the Like button about
6 billion times a day. And it's become important to
organizations and companies, which use it to gauge interest in
their products, events and marketing pushes.
With more reaction options, individual users and businesses now
will have more information about what their friends and followers
think about what they're doing.
"These new buttons give them so much more information than the
Like button," said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst with Moor
Insights & Strategy. "With that, they can better target ads and
offers. This could be very valuable, since better-targeted ads
are better performing and more expensive."
Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with ZK Research, noted that the
additional reaction options give everyone, including ad buyers,
a chance to take that information in and respond to it.
"In this world of big data and analytics, more Information is
better," he added. "If something is making people mad, a company
could post a response acknowledging it. Facebook is giving people
more ways to interact."
For Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research,
this is a big move for Facebook because users are so comfortable
with the social network's features and look. If big changes aren't
made with care, users could stop commenting as often.
"You always want to make your service as effortless as possible,
and Facebook is very aware of that design goal," said Gottheil.
"Any good designer knows that choice is a trade off. The user
gains power, but exerts more effort. Facebook was clever to hide
the choices under the Like icon. This gives people the ability
to provide more input without much more effort."
Will You Like Facebook's New Reactions?
Do you ever "like" something on Facebook? If so, life is about
to get a bit more complex.
The social networking giant is about to roll out something called
Reactions, which will allow you to express your feelings in a
more nuanced fashion.
In the conference call with analysts after Facebook's blockbuster
financial results, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that Reactions -
which are being tested in Spain, Ireland and a few other places
- would be shown everywhere "pretty soon".
The idea, the chief executive said, is to add "a little bit of
complexity" to something that is very simple. "When you only have
a like button, if you share a sad piece of content or something
that makes you angry, people may not have the tool to react to
it."
So now Facebook users are being given new tools in the form of
emoticons labelled "love", "haha", "wow", "sad" and "angry" - or
they can still just "like".
There was another button marked "yay" but that has been removed
after pilot users apparently said: "ErrÖ.what??"
For more than a billion people who visit Facebook every day there
may now be a tricky period of adjustment. Do I just like that
picture of your dog or do I love it? Should I go as far as
telling you I'm "angry" about your views on the issues of the day
- or is "haha" enough?
But it's advertisers who will be really going "wow" about this
change to the way Facebook works. The latest results show just
how much they have bought into the social network's message
that it offers a unique way to connect with consumers and learn
everything about them. Now they will have a far more complex
set of data.
Simon Calvert, head of strategy at the marketing agency Lida,
says if the new system accurately reflects human emotions then
it will be very interesting.
"Emotions travel five times faster than rational thought," he
said. "So the ability to build better emotional connections with
consumers is something that advertisers really prize."
Image copyright Facebook
Image caption My VirtualBagel Facebook page currently has close
to 4,600 likes
Facebook "likes" have become a somewhat devalued currency, as I
found out when my Virtual Bagel imaginary business collected more
than 4,000 likes from all over the world.
"They're devalued because brands collect them mindlessly,"
Mr. Calvert explains. But he sees advertisers using Reactions in
a far more sophisticated way to get insights into the emotions
people feel about products.
Another social media marketing expert, Kristal Ireland of
Twentysixdigital, says there is always great excitement when
Facebook makes a change like this. She believes there is an
opportunity to learn far more about what people think of
marketing messages but says the real challenge will be to make
sense of the flood of new data: "You might end up with such
fragmented data that you can't make up your mind what your ad
should look like."
But what should we as Facebook users think about laying out our
emotions for all to see?
Nick Oliver urges caution. His company People.io aims to help
users take control over their social media data and realise its
value to advertisers.
"From the consumer point of view they are now giving up their
emotional data for advertisers to use and manipulate," he says.
"People open themselves up on social media and the data is used
in ways they never expect."
He argues that the rise in the use of ad blockers, which are
largely ineffective on Facebook, makes this data even more
valuable. "The demand for a price of people's attention is
getting higher."
Of course, the big question for advertisers is just how honest
people will be in expressing themselves via the Reactions
buttons.
The social media era has seen millions sharing their feelings
with the world - but we are quickly learning just how dangerous
that can be.
Decoding the significance of Facebook love, laughter and tears
will become an essential skill for anyone in the marketing
industry.
Firefox Will Now Push Email, Social Media Notifications
Directly to Your Browser
The days of hoarding tabs is over for Firefox users. A new update
to the browser allows websites to send you push notifications
without the website open.
Instead of keeping your email, social media and other website
tabs open to stay on top of updates and notifications,
developers can now send you push messages through Firefox
without taking up space at the top of your browser. This way,
you can still stay up-to-date on everything without your
computer getting bogged down running half-a-dozen websites in
the background.
The good news is you donít need to worry about getting unwanted
notifications; web developers need your permission to start
sending updates. Click the ìIî Control Center icon next to your
Firefox address bar to manage push notification settings.
Out-of-tab push notifications are already incorporated on Macs
through Safari Push Notifications and Apple Push Notifications
Service. In addition, Google Chrome had a similar push
notification system in place, so this is really just Firefox
catching up to competitors.
Mozilla is offering the feature through the W3C Push API the
company has helped establish on the web, which is a system of
sending push messages to web apps.
Not every website will have push notifications for users
immediately; some will still have to work on incorporating them
into its designs. Developers interested in setting up push
notifications for their websites can check out the details on
Firefoxís FAQ page.
France Wants A New Keyboard To Protect Its Language
The latest campaign to protect the French language isn't being
waged over anglicisms like "hashtag" or "selfie," but the design
of a keyboard.
This week, the French government announced a plan to standardize
the French-language computer keyboard, as part of an effort to
help protect and nurture the language. The ministry of culture
and communication says it's "nearly impossible to correctly write
French" on keyboards sold in the country today, meaning that the
language's strict grammatical rules are being flouted more
regularly. The ministry has partnered with a standardization
group to develop a new keyboard norm, which will be presented
for public feedback this summer.
Unlike the QWERTY keyboards on most devices in the US and Europe,
French-language keyboards follow an AZERTY layout, and they've
never been standardized. That means that the layout can vary from
one manufacturer to another, making it difficult for users to
locate important keys or accented characters.
The placement of the "@" and "Ä" keys, for example, is
inconsistent across French keyboards, and accenting capitalized
letters can be particularly difficult, requiring commands that
aren't obvious to many users ó or, in the case of the "«"
character on PCs, impossible. That's a problem, considering that
"«a" ("that") is commonly used at the beginning of sentences, and
that surnames are often written in all-uppercase on government
documents. It can also lead to confusion; an example cited by the
ministry compares "INTERNE" (a medical intern) to "INTERN…" (a
mental health patient).
"We can only deplore the fact that the use of accents on
capitalized letters is variable," the AcadÈmie FranÁaise, the
official guardian of the French language, says on its website,
in a statement cited in the ministry report. "[I]t should be
noted that in French, the accent has full orthographic value,"
it added, emphasizing its importance.
The AcadÈmie FranÁaise has spent the better part of 300 years
protecting the integrity of the French language ó more recently,
by defending it from anglicisms like "cloud computing" and "le
cheeseburger." (The notoriously stodgy institution calls its 40
panel members "Immortals," and set an upper age limit of 75 in
2010.) And although the number of French speakers is rising
across the globe, there are concerns over the future of the
language within France. Recent surveys have shown an increase in
spelling errors among French students, and there has been some
debate over whether text messages and other forms of online
communication bear some of the blame.
Once adopted, the new keyboard standard would be voluntary for
keyboard manufacturers, though in a report outlining its
position, the culture and communication ministry said that it
could be required for public administration computers, which
would incentivize companies to follow suit. AFNOR, the
standardization group charged with developing the new keyboard,
has said that the process is open to all who want to
participate.
Some have already taken matters into their own hands. In recent
years, a community of advocates for open-source software
developed B…PO, a keyboard layout that was cited as an example
in the ministry report. B…PO is based on the Dvorak layout,
which was developed in the 1930s as a more ergonomic
alternative to QWERTY, and is designed specifically for the
French language. Some accented characters have their own key,
and ligatures like Ê and ú can be executed with a simple
shortcut. Its developers say the layout was based on a
statistical study of the French language, with the most
commonly used letters placed on the "home row," where a user's
fingers would naturally rest.
"The fact that the government is talking about B…PO is a very
good sign," says FrÈdÈric Urbain, a B…PO user and member of
Framasoft, a French organization that promotes the use of
open-source software. Urbain, 48, began using B…PO about a year
ago, and although it's taken some time to get used to, he says
it's far more intuitive than the AZERTY keyboards he's forced to
use at his finance job. "I don't find it practical at all," he
says of his AZERTY keyboard. "Everyone like me will welcome this
initiative from the government, which has finally recognized
that the French language, with all of its specificity, is not
adapted to an international keyboard like AZERTY."
But the government's ambitions go beyond the French language. In
its statement, the ministry said the layout should allow for
regional languages including Breton, Occitan, Catalan, and those
used in Polynesia, each requiring accented characters that don't
appear in French. It should also allow users to "more easily
enter" Latin characters used in other European languages.
""We want something that's usable, something that's economically
feasible.""
"It seems essential that this keyboard allows for the easy use
of not only French, but also different languages present in our
land, because these languages have specifics that should be taken
into account," the ministry said. "Indeed, in a highly
multilingual context, it is now necessary to use several
languages on the same document or project."
It's not clear whether the government will adopt a standard that,
like B…PO, drastically diverges from AZERTY. In a press release
this week, AFNOR said the new standard would not "disrupt" the
current layout, though Philippe Magnabosco, the project manager
charged with overseeing the development, says the organization
is "not going to close the door for innovation." He says the
group will consult with keyboard makers, programmers, and users
on the proposal to be presented this summer, and that it will be
open to proposals that either modify the existing layout with
added keys, or more alternative designs that meet minimum
requirements.
"We're not working in an ideal world here ó we're making
standards for them to be applied in the real world," Magnabosco
says. "So we're not going to look at something that would
revolutionize the keyboard completely. We want something that's
usable, something that's economically feasible. We want it to
work."
Worldís Oldest Torrent Is Still Being Shared After 4,419 Days
A fan-created ASCII version of the 1999 sci-fi classic The Matrix
is the oldest known torrent that's still active. Created more than
12 years ago, the file has outlived many blockbuster movies and is
still downloaded a few times a week, even though the site from
where it originated has disappeared.
BitTorrent is an excellent distribution mechanism, but for a file
to live on at least one person has to keep sharing it.
This means that most torrents eventually die after the public
loses interest. However, some torrents seem to live on forever.
More than ten years ago TorrentFreak reported on a fan-made ASCII
version of The Matrix, describing it as a really old torrent. This
torrent had survived for 696 days, which was a rarity.
At the time BitTorrent had only a fraction of the users it has now
so it was harder to keep them active. A lot of things have changed
in the decade since, but the torrent in question is still going
strong.
The torrent file of The Matrix ASCII was created more than
12 years ago (4,419 days) on December 20, 2003. Even though the
original site is no longer online, it still has 8 active seeders
at the time of writing.
There are also people actively downloading the file, most likely
after they found a copy of the release on one of the torrent
sites where it remains available. To the best of our knowledge,
this means that The Matrix ASCII is the oldest torrent thatís
still being actively shared.
The 12-year-old release of The Matrix ASCII comes with a DVD cover
and insert. While there are no accurate statistics available it is
believed to have been downloaded by tens of thousands of people
over its lifetime.
Perhaps worried that Hollywood wouldnít appreciate the effort, the
torrent includes a small disclaimer.
ìThis work is a parody. As such I do not believe that this DVD has
any possibility of competing with the original in any market. It
is not for sale,î the disclaimer reads.
Prospective downloaders have very little to worry about though.
Warner Bros. is not known to go after this type of fan-art thatís
created for non-commercial use and the creator has never been
targeted either.
The people whoíve downloaded a copy of The Matrix have thus far
responded mostly positively after watching the ASCII movie. That
is, those who knew what to expect. Those looking for the original
Matrix movie are less appreciative.
ìDude, tell me what to do with this Matrix ASCII, cause the
picture is all green n stuff, canít even see whatís going on.
And, its in 4 VOB files, but why?î was the response of one
unhappy downloader.
The fact that this torrent has been able to survive for so long
is a testament to the resilience of BitTorrent. For us, The
Matrix ASCII has become an iconic release and weíll certainly
keep an eye on how it fares in the future.
Update: Jack, who created the torrent, restored the Matrix
ASCII website on a new address:
http://takeovertheworld.org/matrix/
=~=~=~=
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