Links for Oct 5, 2009

Amazon EC2/EBS DDoS drills hole in Bitbucket

Amazon's EC2/EBS cloud infrastructure isn't invincible against distributed denial of service attacks, it seems. Code hosting service Bitbucket blames its recent 19+ hours of downtime on an Amazon DDoS. Offers harsh feedback to Amazon's support organization.

• http://blog.bitbucket.org/2009/10/04/on-our-extended-downtime-amazon-and-whats-coming/
• http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/45891

AVG fights back against Microsoft's free AV with version 9

AVG's free product is an important route to market for the company. Microsoft's Security Essentials is a threat. Version 9's enhanced link scanner and claimed performance improvements should help counter it.

• http://venturebeat.com/2009/10/05/avg-launches-newest-free-antivirus-suite-as-microsoft-crashes-its-party/
• http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/avg_9_faster_smarter_linkscanner_identify_theft_protection.php

Vonage app. for iPhone and BlackBerry

Important VoIP provider enables access from important smartphone platforms. Perhaps surprising that Apple allowed this, but FCC investigation into Google Voice refusal motivates Apple to be seen to play fair.

• http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/vonage-releases-calling-apps-for-iphone-and-blackberry/
• http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9138954/Vonage_offers_iPhone_BlackBerry_app_for_making_Internet_calls

All major smartphone platforms to get full-featured Adobe Flash, except iPhone

Flash isn't just for video and silly games. It's also a serious cross-platform development tool. Apple would probably wait until hell froze over to allow it on its platform, as the App Store is a strategic control point.

• http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200910/100509AFPforMobileDevicesandPCs.html
• http://blogs.computerworld.com/14857/everyone_3_adobe_except_apple_no_flash_on_iphone

Links for Oct 2, 2009

Google makes FriendConnect easier to install on your Web server

The war for consumer-focused federated identity rages on. The latest battleground is ease of use for webmasters. Google and Facebook are playing leapfrog.

• http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/10/google-friend-connect-no-more-ftp-just.html
• http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/02/easy-does-it-google-friend-connect-one-ups-facebook-connects-install-wizard/

IBM/Lotus challenges Gmail/Google Apps with LotusLive iNotes

IBM/Lotus wants you to reconsider "Going Google". It's now offering a SaaS/cloud hosted email service, with similar functionality to Google Apps' Gmail -- but undercutting Google's price.

• http://lotusliveblog.com/blog/lotuslive.nsf/dx/lotuslive-inotes-now-available-lotus-email-takes-to-the-cloud
• http://blogs.computerworld.com/14844/ibm_lotus_challenges_gmail_google_apps_with_lotuslive_inotes

Links for Oct 1, 2009

Six Apart announces TypePad API and Pownce relaunch

API opened up and branded TypePad Cloud Platform; Pownce relaunched as TypePad Motion.

• http://www.sixapart.com/blog/2009/10/typepad-platform-and-typepad-motion.html
• http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/01/six-apart-opens-up-typepad-apis-relaunches-pownce-as-typepad-motion/

Cisco to acquire Tandberg

$3 billion buys respected Norwegian vendor of videoconferencing products.

• http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/technology/companies/02cisco.html
• http://blogs.computerworld.com/14836/ciscos_amazing_3_bn_purchase_of_tandberg

Links for Sept 30, 2009

All is well with bank email privacy problem, luckily

Bank sends sensitive info to wrong person by email; asks Google to delete it; asks court to force Google to delete it; Google says message was never opened; Google deletes message; further legal wrangling averted.

• http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10363663-245.html
• http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/30/rocky_mountain_google_case_fini/

Yammer gets significant new blood

Sean Parker was instrumental at Plaxo and Facebook. Now he joins Yammer, the "Twitter for intranets".

• http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/29/sean-parker-joins-yammers-board-of-directors/

Criminals being very clever: editing online bank statements on-the-fly

If your PC is infected with this malware, not only will criminals extract money from your bank account, but it won't show up on your statements. That's because the malware is silently hiding the fraudulent transactions, and patching the balance. Horribly clever.

• http://www.finjan.com/GetObject.aspx?ObjId=679
• http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/09/rogue-bank-statements/

Yahoo releases YUI 3

YUI is a rich, lightweight framework for writing slick, interactive user interfaces for Web applications. It's widely respected; and version 3 looks like it will add to its reputation.

• http://www.yuiblog.com/blog/2009/09/29/yui-3-0-0/
• http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-10363887-264.html

Google Wave invites being sent to 100,000 preview users

Google's collaboration tool is definitely one to watch, if the demo reel is any guide.

• http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/surfs-up-wednesday-google-wave-update.html
• http://blogs.computerworld.com/14826/got_google_wave_invite_preview_opens_today_dont_call_it_beta

Microsoft releases Security Essentials (née ''Morro'')

This free anti-malware product for PCs replaces OneCare and threatens the established vendors: both free and paid.

• http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=3202792
• http://blogs.computerworld.com/14817/microsoft_security_essentials_is_here_rsn
• http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/09/first-look-microsoft-security-essentials-impresses.ars

Links for Sept 27, 2009

Some Russian spammers earn a surprising amount

Sophos publishes research into Russian spamhausen SpamIt and friends.

• http://www.sophos.com/sophos/docs/eng/marketing_material/samosseiko-vb2009-paper.pdf
• http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2009/09/viagra-spam-brings-bulging-returns-of-more-than-4000day.ars