The hacked profile posted on Zuckerberg’s wall the following message: “Let the hacking begin: If facebook needs money, instead of going to the banks, why doesn’t Facebook let its users invest in Facebook in a social way? Why not transform Facebook into a ‘social business’ the way Nobel Price winner Muhammad Yunus described it? http://bit.ly/fs6rT3 What do you think? #hackercup2011″

The message received no less than 1800 likes before it was removed by Facebook representatives, who did not want to make a statement about this event. Facebook founder wasn’t the only famous person in the world to be hacked this week – French President Sarkozy felt the unpleasant feeling of somebody else (other than your own team) using your profile. He got out of it pretty good though, with a very diplomatic post: “qu’aucun système n’est infaillible” — which translates to ‘no system is infallible.’

Indeed, no system is infallible, but day by day, Facebook seems to have more and more security problems and breaches, which can only make us wonder where their “Continued Commitment to Security” is. A post on their blog made a reference to this:

“A key part of controlling information has always been protecting it from security threats like viruses, malware and hackers. That’s why we’ve developed a number of complex systems that operate behind the scenes to keep you secure on Facebook,” the post read.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, wrote on the security protection site:

“It’s not clear if he was careless with his password, was phished, or sat down in a Starbucks and got sidejacked while using an unencrypted wireless network”.

So Mark Zuckerberg, the most social man in the world, the founder of the god of all social media websites, lost his password due to phishing ? I’m sorry, I just seem to have a hard time wrapping my mind around it. I mean, if you were the owner of a multi billion dollar, 500 million user empire, wouldn’t you be careful and wary of phishing ?

First of all, let me just say this: they’ve set a date for the release of Duke Nukem Forever ! Yes, that’s right boys and girls, the game we’ve been expecting for eons will be here no later than May 3, or at least that’s what developers claim.

Duke Nukem seems to have been around forever; the archetypical badass, the testosterone bomb, the man, the game, the legend – he’s been away from us for 12 years ! How’s that for feeling old ? The groundbreaking 1996 first-person-shooter Duke Nukem 3D was absolutely astonishing. Everybody who played computer games fell in love, and after a short while, everybody was expecting a sequel that would be even better – so we waited; and we waited. Then we waited some more.

But everything was blurry, and the developers kept going through rough patches, break ups, the juicy gossip was everywhere, but we didn’t even catch a glimpse of what was to follow. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t only a long wait, it was THE longest wait for a sequel (even beating Starcraft) !

Duke Nukem 3D, the epicenter of computer games of the decade had a lot to offer. It was absolutely innovative and the gaming engine was fantastic. So after it became a hit and 3D Reams got a lot of money, they thought they could take their time, develop some new gaming technology, and then release Forever. But as the money went out, so did the innovations.

“The saga of DNF [Duke Nukem Forever] is one that game developers can laugh at,” says Canadian game developer Jason Kapalka, co-founder and chief creative officer of Seattle-based PopCap Games, “but the truth is you can understand exactly how that sort of thing happens, if you’re a certain kind of game developer obsessed with perfection and one-upping a classic.”

So here we are, waiting for that uber badass to rise from the grave and give us another taste of what his shotgun can do. Of course we’re thinking he let us wait for so much; of course we’re thinking maybe he got a little old. But what if he still has it? What if he’s still awesome ? My god, lads, just think about that !!

Are you looking to speed up your so called High Speed Internet connection? You may be able to make your connection faster without having to purchase a more expensive package. Try these 5 tips to improve the speeds you’re getting from your current package:

1. Tweak the settings on your router.

It pays to read the manual, as there may be things you need to do to get the most out of your router. While reading up on the operating details can make for a boring afternoon, you might stumble across a few settings you can change to speed things up.

If you’re using a wireless router, there’s another issue you need to be aware of. The placement of your router can negatively impact the speed of your connection. The more walls and objects you have sitting between your computer and your router, the weaker the signal will be when it finally reaches you. Wall, doors and even furniture can all negatively impact signal strength.

When you place your router, try to keep it in close proximity to the computers you’ll be sending a signal to. If possible, place it up high on a cabinet or bookcase, so there will be less items the signal has to travel through to get to your computer. It’s also a good idea to keep it away from items that could cause electrical interference.

2. Keep background applications to a minimum.

People don’t realize there’s a lot going on behind the scenes in their computer. There could be programs running in the background that you don’t know about that are eating up your bandwidth. A lot of these programs are set to start running when you start your computer, so you don’t even realize they’ve been started. A lot of them aren’t necessary to have running all the time and can be turned off. Applications like messenger services, internet telephony and media players all use bandwidth that could be used to make your Internet connection faster, so turn them off when they aren’t in use.

3. Secure your connection.

If you’re using a wireless connection, you need to secure it. Password protect it and set it so it doesn’t automatically broadcast the SSID. This will prevent neighbors from stealing your Internet connection. It can also help safeguard you against having your personal information stolen by someone who hijacks your connection and intercepts your personal data.

4. Call your provider.

If your connection is running slower than you think it should be, call your ISP. There may be a problem on their end that they aren’t aware of. If you’ve been with your provider for a long time, it’s possible that your package is outdated and needs updating. A simple phone call could be all it takes to speed up your broadband connection.

5. Speeding up a mobile broadband connection.

There are a few cheap and easy ways to speed up your mobile connection. First and foremost, you should check out the coverage in your area before signing a contract with a mobile broadband provider. If you find you have a weak signal after getting the service, you can purchase an antenna extension that attaches directly to your broadband dongle. These extensions are an inexpensive way to boost your signal. You can also purchase a USB lead that will let you move your broadband dongle so it is closer to the nearest window.

Being able to stay in touch with friends and family is hugely important to many people when they go abroad, and these days simply having a mobile phone to do this just isn’t enough for most people. With social networking sites having taken off hugely over the past couple of years, and with an increasing number of technologies that allow people to get online whilst away from the home or office, more and more people want to be able to communicate with loved ones via the Internet rather than by phone or txt.

By having access to the internet those that are away on their travels can do so much more than just text and call in order to communicate. These days people can email their friends and family, conference with them via webcam so that they can actually see them, communicate on mass through social networking sites, put pictures of their adventures up on the site for loved ones to see, and more. On top of all this, internet access is ideal for travelers who want to be able to keep abreast of the news or may need to keep on top of information such as travel information.

Ways in which to get online whilst traveling

There are a number of ways in which to access the Internet whilst you are on your travels, and the options that are open to you will largely depend upon the types of places you are visiting. Whilst some areas will have excellent internet access options, as they cater for visitors, there are other places where public internet access may be limited or non existent, in which case you would have to make your own arrangements for access to the internet.

If you are traveling to resort areas, big cities, and other areas where there is a high volume of tourism you will find that there will most likely be a range of options that will allow you to access the internet with ease, convenience, and speed. You may find that you can get access to the internet from public areas of the hotel or accommodation that you are staying in, and you may also be able to enjoy WiFi access in your own room at the hotel.

Many of the public places in popular resorts and cities will also offer free or cheap WiFi access, and this could be in places such as shopping centers, in eateries and bars, and in many other public places. Some public places such as eateries and bars offer this for free for those that are eating or drinking in their establishments, so it is a good idea to check the local area out and see where the cheapest access can be found.

If you are traveling to a more remote area, or are taking a trip such as camping or hiking, it is unlikely that you will have so much freedom and convenience with your internet access, at least not all of the time. In these cases it is advisable to consider something like a mobile broadband plan that allows you to get online using a mobile phone network. Again, you will need to check on coverage in the area or areas that you are going to before you sign up to a plan, which you should always do before you travel.

As always, Yahoo’s main focus is to make everything as social as possible, so the center of the revamp will be way, way more compatible with social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc. Texting and sending instant messages will also be significantly different, and Yahoo focused on the speed to: they claim it will be twice as fast as Google’s Gmail or Microsoft’s Hotmail.

Users will be able to see pictures and videos from Youtube, Flickr and Picasa directly in the mail and the spam filtering will be way better (which was a major problem for Yahoo); they will also implement an email prioritizing system that could prove to be quite useful.

“People spend more than 30 billion minutes a month on Yahoo Mail,” Dave McDowell, Yahoo Mail senior product director told BBC News. “It is a critically important product to our users and this represents [the] most significant upgrade to Yahoo mail in five years.”

The prioritizing system is a bit late however, as Google already introduced such a thing in Gmail, that allows users to put their emails into four categories. Microsoft did pretty much the same thing with Hotmail. Still, this revamp shows that Yahoo is still out there, and can still deliver products that can compete with anybody and anything.

“Yahoo Mail is a critical product for the company with an enormous user base,” he said. “The challenge for them is to make having a Yahoo Mail address cool. It has lost some of its chic or cachet to GMail among early adopters or the tech savvy so there is a brand issue there,” he added.”In the past I would have said people don’t want all these functions in their e-mail box but with people now having so many sites to visit this makes sense,” said Mr Sterling.

There was quite a crows of Blizzard fans throughout the whole day.

Attendants could play Cataclysm, Starcraft II and Diablo III

Hot girls were of course present, and cosplay was a big hit as always

People came prepared for the costume contest too; mages rock !

A statue of Kerrigan, by far the most interesting character in Starcraft II

The message wall wasn't big enough

The kind of Warlock that can easily cast a spell on you

People still love Diablo, and eagerly await Diablo III

Illidan from World of Warcraft came in second in the costume contest

The rest of the Blizzcon costume finalists

Source

The former bankrupt owner of the website, Escom LLC. named Clover Holdings Ltd as the successful bidder for the domain name. This wasn’t a very good deal for them however, because they previously bought sex.com for almost $14 million in 2006. The deal is set to go in front of a bankruptcy judge for approval on October 27.

The domain in case is now officially the most expensive domain ever sold – twice.

“It still holds the record for being the most valued domain name,” said a Sedo.com spokesman said Friday.

The auction for simple and popular domain names are a great and rare business opportunity, as more and more internet (and not only) entrepreneurs dabble in the world of internet marketing. For example, a 2008 auction for pizza.com gathered no less than $2.5 million. So if we were to look at it this way, sex sells for about 6 times more than pizza – I’m sure there’s a lesson there somewhere.

a chicken wing gets hot when you turn it on

Google is interested in expanding even further to chase sources of revenue beyond search engines; they are forced to do this if they want to fight off competition, namely Facebook Inc. and Microsoft Corp. Advertisers.

“The digital economy is running on its own path,” Google Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette said in an interview yesterday. “It is growing very rapidly, and we are participating in that space.”

“They showed upside on the bottom line, which they haven’t done in a while,” said Aaron Kessler, an analyst at ThinkEquity LLC in San Francisco, who recommends investors buy the stock and doesn’t own it.

Google is focusing more and more on searches on mobile phones, as Android software popularity continues to grow, surpassing Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry to become the top smartphone operating system in the U.S. in the second quarter.

“You guys often ask me, ‘Jonathan [Rosenberg, senior vice president for product management] where’s the next multibillion dollar business after search?’ There’s your answer,” he said on the call. “It’s display, and it’s already here clocking in at over $2.5 billion run rate. So clearly we’re firing on all cylinders in display.”

1.Go to Control Panel
2.Click Appearance and Personalization
3.Click Personalization

4.In the left sidebar, go to Change desktop icons
5.Simply uncheck the Recycle bin icon.

There, those are all the steps required to have a clean Windows 7 desktop, without that pestering icon.

But this deal could be way more complicated than it seems; at the moment, the ten year pact between Yahoo and Microsoft is still going (and will be for more than 8 years actually). The pact means Yahoo placed Microsoft’s Bing search engine on all Yahoo sites and keeps 12% of all the revenue that comes from Yahoo searches; the pact can be canceled if the traffic generated by the alliance falls below a percentage of the Google competition.

AOL on the other hand relies totally on Google for search tools. So after the possible acquisition of Yahoo, what would they do ? Probably, make a similar deal with Microsoft and use the Bing search engine, cutting a significant cut of Google’s search engine numbers.

Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL together would control about 30% of the search engine market in the United States compared to Google’s 65%, but it would still be a really major blow, and it could be quite the thing that gets AOL back on track. Things can and probably will get even more interesting as Facebook steps into the search engine market more and more, and the fight will definitely be a fierce one.

One thing’s for sure though: if AOL buys Yahoo, Google have to stop taking their search engine domination for granted.