Fighting phishing attacks with phishing tactics

Early findings by Carnegie Mellon University scientists suggest that people who are suckered by a spoof email into visiting a counterfeit Web site are also people who are ready to learn their lesson about phishing attacks. Phishing attacks have become a common method for stealing personal identification information, such as bank account numbers and passwords. Lorrie Cranor, associate research professor of computer science, said phishing often is successful because a number of people ignore educational materials that otherwise might help them recognize such frauds........
Source: Technology blog

Researcher traces history of the personal computer

Carbon paper? Punch cards? What are those? The Internet, personal computers, word processing and spreadsheets are so embedded in todays society that its hard to remember that just 35 years ago they didnt exist. Thomas Haigh, assistant professor of information studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), is among a very small number of computer experts in the world who are also historians, studying the role of technology in broader social change. These new experts are tracing how computers have changed business and society........
Source: Technology blog

Vocal Joystick uses voice to surf the Web

The Internet offers wide appeal to people with disabilities. But a number of of those same people find it frustrating or impossible to use a handheld mouse. Software developed at the University of Washington provides an alternative using the oldest and most versatile mode of communication: the human voice........
Source: Technology blog

Giving Computers Common Sense

Using a little-known Google Labs widget, computer researchers from UC San Diego and UCLA have brought common sense to an automated image labeling system. This common sense is the ability to use context to help identify objects in photographs. For example, if a conventional automated object identifier has labeled a person, a tennis racket, a tennis court and a lemon in a photo, the new post-processing context check will re-label the lemon as a tennis ball........
Source: Technology blog

Most Complex Silicon Phased Array Chip in the World

UC San Diego electrical engineers have developed the world's most complex "phased array" -- or radio frequency integrated circuit. This DARPA-funded advance is expected to find its way into U.S. defense satellite communication and radar systems. In addition, the innovations in this chip design will likely spill over into commercial applications, such as automotive satellite systems for direct broadcast TV, and new methods for high speed wireless data transfer........
Source: Technology blog

New computer program automates chip debugging

Fixing design bugs and wrong wire connections in computer chips after they've been fabricated in silicon is a tedious, trial-and-error process that often costs companies millions of dollars and months of time-to-market. Engineering scientists at the University of Michigan say it doesn't have to be that way. They've developed a new technology to automate "post-silicon debugging.".......
Source: Technology blog

Decades of cancer research into 2 years

Canadian scientists expect to accelerate the war on cancer by tapping into a global network of hundreds of thousands of people who volunteer their idle computer time to tackle some of the worlds most complex problems. The research team, led by Dr. Igor Jurisica at the Ontario Cancer Institute (OCI), and researchers at Princess Margaret Hospital and University Health Network, are the first from Canada to use the World Community Grid, a network of PCs and laptops with the power equivalent to one of the globes top five fastest supercomputers........
Source: Technology blog

Benefits of online interaction for teens outweigh danger

Is there such a thing as being too safe on the Internet? One University of Illinois education researcher believes there is, at least when teenagers are concerned. Media reports warn of online predators, hate groups and other "digital dangers" lurking in online social spaces, and those dangers are not to be taken lightly, says Brendesha Tynes, a professor of educational psychology and of African American studies at Illinois........
Source: Technology blog

Dealing with the data deluge

Most people have a few gigabytes of files on their PC. In the next decade, astronomers expect to be processing 10 million gigabytes of data every hour from the Square Kilometre Array telescope. And with DNA sequencing getting cheaper, researchers will be data mining possibly hundreds of thousands of personal human genome databases, each of 50 gigabytes........
Source: Technology blog

Security loophole in Windows operating system

A group of scientists headed by Dr. Benny Pinkas from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Haifa succeeded in finding a security vulnerability in Microsoft's "Windows 2000" operating system. The significance of the loophole: emails, passwords, credit card numbers, if they were typed into the computer, and actually all correspondence that emanated from a computer using "Windows 2000" is susceptible to tracking. "This is not a theoretical discovery. Anyone who exploits this security loophole can definitely access this information on other computers," remarked Dr. Pinkas........
Source: Technology blog

Lecture Search Engine To Aid Students

Imagine you are taking an introductory biology course. You're studying for an exam and realize it would be helpful to revisit the professor's explanation of RNA interference. Fortunately for you, a digital recording of the lecture is online, but the 10-minute explanation you want is buried in a 90-minute lecture you don't have time to watch........
Source: Technology blog

Google favored over other search engines

Web site policy makers who use robots.txt files as gatekeepers to specify what is open and what is off limits to Web crawlers have a bias that favors Google over other search engines, say Penn State scientists whose study of more than 7,500 Web sites revealed Googles advantage. That finding was surprising, said C. Lee Giles, the David Reese Professor of Information Sciences and Technology who led the research team which developed a new search engineBotSeerfor the study........
Source: Technology blog

Bee Strategy Helps Servers Run More Sweetly

Honeybees somehow manage to efficiently collect a lot of nectar with limited resources and no central command - after all, the queen bee is too busy laying eggs to oversee something as mundane as where the best nectar can be found on any given morning. As per new research from the Georgia Institute of Technology, the swarm intelligence of these amazingly organized bees can also be used to improve the efficiency of Internet servers faced with similar challenges........
Source: Technology blog

Black Casio EXILIM EX-V8

If you grew tired of silver-colored Exilim cameras, Casio has a black version of the Exilim EX-V8. at least in Japan. My last experience with the Exilim EX-Z3 wasn't so great: the image quality was lower than the Canon or Nikon counterparts, even if the camera body was superb. Anyhow, here are the technical highlights:.......
Source: Technology blog

Free software brings affordability to mathematics

Until recently, a student solving a calculus problem, a physicist modeling a galaxy or a mathematician studying a complex equation had to use powerful computer programs that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. But an open-source tool based at the University of Washington won first prize in the scientific software division of Les Trophees du Libre, an international competition for free software........
Source: Technology blog

RIP Facebook? Not yet. Unique Visitors to Facebook.com jumped 20% in November

In the space of a month, Facebook has gone from media darling to devil. However, all the bad PR didn't hold back Facebook.com traffic in November. Unique visitors jumped 20%:

The big question — Are Facebook users even aware of their worsening privacy situation? Take a look at the chart below. Looks like regular Facebook users are mostly unaware of their worsening situation, or more likely don't know what to do about it - not good.

According to one Facebook poll, 67% of all respondents had not even heard of the Facebook Beacon.

It's generally a good idea to put users first, then investors. I hope the good people at Facebook HQ wake up quickly.

Source: Blog compete

Google Docs and Spreadsheets

Lately, I seem to be getting more invites to view a Google document (rather than a Word document). I guess I'm not surprised though. It has been just over a year since Google Docs and Spreadsheets was officially released, and it has been just under a year since Microsoft released Office 2007. As many know, Office 2007 includes a whole new interface that is unfamiliar, and potentially frustrating, to the veteran Office user. Google Docs and Spreadsheets have also undergone changes, with a major user interface overhaul in June and the release of Google Presentation in September. After receiving my 4th invitation to view a Google document in 2 weeks, I decided to take a look at traffic to Google Docs and Spreadsheets, since its bundled release in October 2006*. The chart below depicts overall traffic to Google Docs and Spreadsheets, and includes the break down of those that viewed a document and those that viewed a spreadsheet.

This chart shows us three things.

1. The user interface overhaul and subsequent intense marketing in June seems to have ignited traffic to Google Docs and Spreadsheets.


2. Usage of Google Docs is consistently comparable with usage of Google Spreadsheets.


3. In its first full year, Google Docs and Spreadsheets has seen an 84% year-over-year increase.

After looking at the traffic, I wanted to go a little deeper in analysis. Another measure of a site's success is the average stay on that site, defined as time spent per visit (in minutes).

Here we see that while traffic to Google Docs and Spreadsheets may be comparable, Google Spreadsheets originally saw much higher attention than Google Docs. Attention evened out when traffic increased in June, suggesting that people are not only viewing both Google documents and Google spreadsheets, but are equally engaged with each. Increased engagement indicates that people intend to continue to use these applications, and they are not novelties.

I expect this trend to continue, and the growth of Google Docs and Spreadsheets to be substantial. Google Docs and Spreadsheets are free and easy to use. In addition, they offer online sharing and collaboration, which is becoming a complete necessity in today's workplace. The more people share links to their documents, the more people will be exposed to Google Docs and Spreadsheets. Google doesn't have to do much, as Docs and Spreadsheets are viral by nature and should continue to spread. Google can move on to saving the world (such as with this project), while users continue to spread the news about a possible alternative to Office 2007.

*Google Spreadsheets was released in June 2006, but then bundled with the Google Documents release in September.

Source: Blog compete

Auto Expert Forecasts or My 16 year Old Son—who do you believe?

Automotive industry experts painted a very grim picture for the Auto industry during the recent Reuters Auto Summit. They forecasted sales for 2008 may hit only 14.5 million units. That would continue the decline from this year and be the lowest sales total since 1998. In an already financially staggered industry this is not good news!

Yet my soon to be driving 16 year old son, Joe, came away from the LA Auto show today excited about buying a new car. (He is working on the assumption of me doing the buying and he merely the driving.) He said how he was; .." charged up about how cool and thrilling experience he had at two of the displays." I asked him to explain to me where and how that happened. You might be surprised to hear his answer!

Competes' automotive panel research has been an industry standard in gauging Shopper Demand for the automotive sector. Compete has watched gas prices, the housing crisis, and customers behavior effect the automotive sector's demand. The slumping demand numbers have been obvious to all of us in automotive research.

Facing this demand pressure the big three domestic OEM's press announcements have been about cost cutting and many Japanese firms are toting alternative fueled vehicles. But, neither of these issues excited my son. No, what excited my son was the idea that he could; "individualize and customize a Scion so it wasn't like any other car on the street."

Auto experts have been saying for a while now that making customers their top priority is the way to profitability and growth. Yet, this industry is steeped in building mass numbers of cars and hoping people will buy them. Inventories increase and lots get filled with cars that customers are then offered incentive "deals" to buy. How do you make the customer your top priority?

Well, the Toyota Motor Company may have the answer in a little test kitchen that the whole world can see - Scion. Here is a brand that has stated to have a volume cap in a growing segment. This is a place my son can go to a dealership (me, too) and have the experience be predictable and pleasant. No price haggle needed here-just pick you color, radio and options and sign the deal.

How do you make the customer your top priority? Listen to them! At Scion the sales person sits and listens to the customer talk about "his or her" new car not what is available in dealer's inventory.

Competes' web metrics can look at the number of page views and average stay on any automotive site. Actual "behavior profiling" can be a true window on what marketing strategy and messages really work. Look at the Scion.com numbers for customers playing with Scion Brand's cars….

You can see how impressive the Scion numbers have become. Even against the industry's first internet "darling" vehicle the Mini, the Scion has people engaged and spending time playing with the idea of what their car would look like. Heck, Scion people spend more time on their site then people do for the entire line of Toyota.com's 18 vehicles!

Ok, I believe the auto experts but I'm still optimistic about the automotive industry. Yes, the industry sales numbers may dip in 2008 but the way you get sales back up to 17M units a year will be by moving away from the old industrial approach of mass production to mass customization. And you will do it one "Joe" at a time. Our industry started that way and can return to doing it that way.

Oh, one more thing… You remember my son had two things at the show that excited him. The other thing that was truly excited him was sitting in the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano…

Funny, wasn't that a company where the owner Enzo Ferrari said;

"Always build one less car than you have customers."

Source: Blog compete

Total Time Being Spent Online is Up +24.3%

Is it a good time to be long-term bullish on the Internet? Take a look at the chart below -

We are spending more and more time consuming information online. Logically online advertising spend should follow a similar trajectory with marketers allocating their ad budgets in proportion to where people are spending their time. Needless to say, this is a time of considerable opportunity for online media properties and online marketers!

Source: Blog compete