Archive for March 11th, 2008
Thwomp writes “It appears that a popular Gmail backup utility, G-Archiver, has been harvesting users’ Gmail passwords. This was discovered when a developer named Dustin Brooks took a look at the code using a decompiler. He discovered a Gmail account name and password embedded in the source code. Brooks logged in and found over 1,700 emails all with user account information — with his own at the top. According to a story in Informationweek, he deleted the emails, changed the account password, and notified Google. The creator of G-Archiver has pulled the software, stating that it was debug code and was unintentionally left in the product.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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An anonymous reader writes “ComputerWorld has up a story on casino security technology, exploring the world of facial recognition technology and various other systems in casinos such as the Bellagio, Treasure Island, and Beau Rivage. Industry veteran Jeff Jonas reveals some of the secret scams he learned from the casino industry such as the infinite hundred dollar bill, the hollowed out chip cup, the palm (trading cards), the specialty code (inserted by rogue programmer into video poker machine) and the cameraman, as well as detailing how casinos strike back against fraudsters and cheats.’”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Filed under: Competitive strategy, NIKE, Inc’B’ (NKE), Under Armour’A’ (UA)
Under Armour (NYSE: UA) shareholders might want to worry. Nike (NYSE: NKE) announced on Monday that it is launching Nike Sparq Training, which will combine “high performance products, on the web experiences at nike.com, a new association with Velocity Sports Performance Centers, and a multi-media campaign called ‘My Superior.’”
The product line will include footwear, apparel and equipment in partnership with Sparq Training.
This appears to be Nike’s strongest attack on Under Armour’s center of strength to date. And here’s the problem: With a strong brand and financial resources that dwarf Under Armour’s, Nike would appear to have a very good shot at crushing Under Armour’s market share.
In a battle for market share, Nike can outspend Under Armour on advertising and sustain losses if necessary. As an aside, in my current visits to discount stores like Marshalls and TJMaxx, I have found huge quantities of Under Armour merchandise.
Under Armour has been a strong performer because of a first mover advantage, but as Charlie Munger once said, very few businesses have a future as good as their past. Under Armour’s past success has attracted a deep-pocketed competitor, and that could hobble its future.
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Posted by: in Services
Filed under: World wide web, Web services, Beta, web 2.0
While there’s no shortage of online file storage and synchronization services these days, Dropbox has to be one of the simplest solutions we’ve seen. Here’s how it works: You install the Dropbox client on your desktop, and then each time you drag a file into you My Dropbox folder it’s automatically uploaded to the web service. You can then view your file, share the link with others, or keep it synchronized with multiple computers. There’s even a version tracking history. If you edit or delete a file, My Dropbox will let you undelete it or will show you previous versions.
Beta testers can store up to 5GB on the internet, and there’s no file size limit. Once it launches, Dropbox will offer free and premium services, with free account holders getting somewhere around 1GB of storage space while paid subscribers will be able to get more space. Users who are in on the beta will get to keep their more massive accounts once Dropbox exits beta.
There are Mac and Windows clients available right now, with a Linux version coming… eventually. You can sign up for a beta invitation at the Dropbox home page.
[via GigaOM]
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Posted by: in Services
Filed under: World wide web, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Web services, Microsoft, Mozilla, Open Source
Firefox might not always be the first web browser to get cool new features. But pretty much any time a competitor launches something cool you’ll find a Firefox plugin with the same features thanks to the open-source web browser’s plugin system and enthusiastic developer base. When Opera launched a “speed dial” system for accessing your most frequently used web pages, Firefox developers released a plugin. And now that Microsoft has launched Internet Explorer 8 beta 1, Firefox developers have released a series of plugins that emulate IE8’s coolest features.
Activities is an IE8 feature that lets you choose web services to add to your right-click context menu. Just choose a snippet of text and you can search for it on eBay, plot it on a map, or translate it with Windows Live Translator. Developer Michael Kaply has created a Firefox version of Activities that works exactly the same way. In fact, in order to add services, you download them directly from Microsoft’s web page.
Meanwhile Daniel Glazman has created WebChunks, a port of IE8’s WebSlices feature. When you add a WebSlice to your browser toolbar, you can essentially see up to date information from a web site without clicking through to the site. For example, weather updates, motion picture showtimes, or article headlines. WebChunks is designed for Firefox 3 beta, and won’t work with Firefox 2.
[via Mozilla Links]
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Posted by: in Services
Filed under: Internet, Web services, Beta, web 2.0
While there’s no shortage of on the web file storage and synchronization services these days, Dropbox has to be one of the simplest solutions we’ve seen. Here’s how it works: You install the Dropbox client on your desktop, and then each time you drag a file into you My Dropbox folder it’s automatically uploaded to the internet service. You can then view your file, share the link with others, or keep it synchronized with multiple computers. There’s even a version tracking history. If you edit or delete a file, My Dropbox will let you undelete it or will show you previous versions.
Beta testers can store up to 5GB on the internet, and there’s no file size limit. Once it launches, Dropbox will offer free and premium services, with free account holders getting somewhere around 1GB of storage space while paid subscribers will be able to get more space. Users who are in on the beta will get to keep their bigger accounts once Dropbox exits beta.
There are Mac and Windows clients available right now, with a Linux version coming… eventually. You can sign up for a beta invitation at the Dropbox home page.
[via GigaOM]
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Posted by: in Services
Filed under: World wide web, Web services, Search, web 2.0
When you go to a search engine and enter a search term, you’re never quite sure what you’re going to get. Google, Yahoo! and all the other major search engines will spit out a list of links with brief snippets of text that should give you a rough idea of what’s on each web page. But until you click through, it’s hard to tell if you’ll find what you’re looking for.
One way to mend this problem (if it is a problem, honestly it usually takes just a few seconds to find what you’re looking for on Google), is to provide users with screenshots of a web page before they click through to visit that page. SearchMe is a new service that does exactly that.
When you enter a search term, SearchMe will scour its index for matching web pages. But instead of presenting you with a list of text links, you get a screen filled with web page screenshots. You can scroll through them in Cover Flow fashion to find the page you’re looking for. If you like text based lists, you can use the list mode which will bring up a resizable list box at the bottom of the while keeping the thumbnails in the top.
SearchMe is hardly the first company to launch a visual web browser. Exalead launched a service last year that presents thumbnail images of web sites next to text-based links. And you can install a Firefox plugin that adds the same functionality to Google. But neither solution is quite as slick or pretty to look at as SearchMe.
SearchMe is currently in private beta, but you can request an invite from the site’s home page.
[via BoomTown]
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Posted by: in Services
Filed under: Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Web services, Microsoft, Mozilla, Open Source
Firefox might not always be the first web browser to get cool new features. But pretty much any time a competitor launches something cool you’ll find a Firefox plugin with the same features thanks to the open-source web browser’s plugin system and enthusiastic developer base. When Opera launched a “speed dial” system for accessing your most frequently used web pages, Firefox developers released a plugin. And now that Microsoft has launched World wide web Explorer 8 beta 1, Firefox developers have released a series of plugins that emulate IE8’s coolest features.
Activities is an IE8 feature that lets you choose web services to add to your right-click context menu. Just choose a snippet of text and you can search for it on eBay, plot it on a map, or translate it with Windows Live Translator. Developer Michael Kaply has created a Firefox version of Activities that works exactly the same way. In fact, in order to add services, you download them directly from Microsoft’s web page.
Meanwhile Daniel Glazman has created WebChunks, a port of IE8’s WebSlices feature. When you add a WebSlice to your browser toolbar, you can essentially see up to date information from a web site without clicking through to the site. For example, weather updates, movie showtimes, or article headlines. WebChunks is designed for Firefox 3 beta, and will not work with Firefox 2.
[via Mozilla Links]
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Posted by: in Services
Filed under: World wide web, Web services, Search, web 2.0
When you go to a search engine and enter a search term, you’re never quite sure what you’re going to get. Google, Yahoo! and all the other major search engines will spit out a list of links with brief snippets of text that should give you a rough idea of what’s on each web page. But until you click through, it’s hard to tell if you’ll find what you’re looking for.
One way to repair this problem (if it is a problem, honestly it usually takes just a few seconds to find what you’re looking for on Google), is to provide users with screenshots of a web page before they click through to visit that page. SearchMe is a new service that does exactly that.
When you enter a search term, SearchMe will scour its index for matching web pages. But instead of presenting you with a list of text links, you get a screen filled with web page screenshots. You can scroll through them in Cover Flow fashion to find the page you’re looking for. If you like text based lists, you can use the list mode which will bring up a resizable list box at the bottom of the while keeping the thumbnails in the top.
SearchMe is hardly the first company to launch a visual web browser. Exalead launched a service last year that presents thumbnail images of web sites next to text-based links. And you can install a Firefox plugin that adds the same functionality to Google. But neither solution is quite as slick or pretty to look at as SearchMe.
SearchMe is currently in private beta, but you can request an invite from the site’s home page.
[via BoomTown]
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Posted by: in Services
Filed under: World wide web, Video, Web services
On the internet video site Hulu emerges from private beta tomorrow. Of course, we’ll forgive you if you didn’t realize the service was in private beta. The site has given away thousands of invites, and users can easily embed videos on other sites, which has led to a cottage industry of Hulu cloning.
Over the past month, Hulu states its videos have been streamed over 5 million times, either from Hulu.com or from other sites, including Hulu clones and content partners like AOL and MSN.
When Hulu launched, it was basically a content distribution outlet for NBC and FOX. For the past few months,. Hulu has been busy signing additional content partnership deals, and tomorrow Hulu will add content from Warner Brothers, Lionsgate, and a whole slew of other networks and studios including sports content from the NBA and NHL.
All the content is professionally produced. Hulu ain’t no YouTube clone, it’s a place to watch full length movies and Television shows complete with 15 and 30 second advertisements. We’ve been checking it out during the private beta, and we’ve been pretty happy with the selection and video quality. We’d be a bit happier if Hulu would make entire seasons of TV programs available instead of just a few episodes at a time. But that would probably eat into DVD sales.
[via NewTeeVee]
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