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Boston Marathon Explosions Online Resource Guide
1 month ago
by JohnShen
in Technology
Organizations are setting up sites useful for tracking down friends and family, donating blood, or finding out the latest news after the Boston Marathon tragedy. People in the Boston area, and those close to people possibly affected by today’s explosions there, are understandably worried about their ability to find or communicate with each other. As a result, a number of organizations have created resources to help. This is a collection of several of them.
Tracking friends and family
For those trying to track down people they worry might have been victims of the explosions, there are at least two people finders. First is one set up by Google, and a second comes from the Red Cross. A third service is a list of runners who checked in after completing the Boston Marathon. The explosions occurred at the race’s finish line.
Blood donation
Many people in the Boston area also are wondering where they can donate blood. Boston’s Mass General hospital has a donation center. But the eastern Massachusetts Red Cross, which was originally accepting donations, has now asked the public to schedule future donations after getting more than it could handle.
Live news
The Boston Globe also has set up a special page on its Web site where it is aggregating news and public commentary about today’s tragedy.
Law enforcement asking for photos and videos
Meantime, police and other law enforcement officials likely have an unprecedented amount of potential evidence they can use in their investigation into what happened today and who is responsible. The Boston Police Department is asking the public for any video of the race’s finish line. It’s likely that the number of people shooting photos and videos of the race’s end means that a wealth of evidence could be available to law enforcement.
Places for runners to stay
Meanwhile, those who came into town for the marathon and who now have no place to stay have at least a couple of options. First, the Boston Globe has put together a Google doc where people can offer up rooms to those in town for the marathon who need a place to stay.
Live police and fire department scanners
And those wishing to listen in on live scanners from the Boss
Getting Started With Twitter for Windows 8
2 months ago
The new Twitter app for Windows 8 has some familiar features as well as a few new ones that are specific to Windows 8. We’ll show you how to get started with the new app. Twitter released its first-ever Windows client yesterday for Windows 8. The client supports the usual array of Twitter features, but also includes a few that are unique to Windows 8. Here’s how to get started with Twitter for Windows 8:
Setup
Download and install the Windows 8 Twitter app from the Windows Store. The first time you launch the app, you’ll need to log in with your Twitter username and password to authorize the app. The second time you launch the app, you may be prompted to allow Twitter to run the in background. If you want show quick status notifications on the lock screen, you should allow it to run in the background. You can always go back to PC settings and change it later if you change your mind.
Using Twitter for Windows 8
After authorization, you’ll see the familiar timeline as well as the navigation tabs on the left side of the app: Home, Connect, Discover, and Me. In the upper right-hand corner, you’ll also notice the Compose and Search icons. If you’re already familiar with Twitter, using the app to compose, reply, retweet, and favorite should be pretty self-explanatory.
Photo grid: A unique feature of the Twitter app in Windows 8 is the photo grid in profiles. When viewing a Twitter user’s profile, you can swipe photos or scroll horizontally and see them all in a grid. When you select a photo, it will display in full-screen.
Search and Share charms: Another distinct feature of the Windows 8 Twitter app is the Search and Share charms. From any app in Windows 8, you can search Twitter for hash tags or accounts using the Search charm. And with the Share charm, you can quickly share content from any app to Twitter. To access the Charms, just swipe in from the right edge of the screen or move the mouse to the lower right-hand corner. You can also use the keyboard shortcut,Win+Q for Search and Win+H for Share.
Snap view: One of the cooler features of Twitter for Windows 8 is the ability to snap the app to the side of the screen. This lets you view your timeline while using another app. To snap two apps side by side, bring in the second app from the left edge with your finger or the upper left-hand corner with your mouse. You can also use the keyboard shortcut, Win+. to toggle snapping the current app to the left, right, or back to full-screen.
Settings: If you want to change notifications, log out of the Twitter app, clear search history, or modify display settings, swipe in from the right edge then go to Settings > Options, or use the keyboard shortcut, Win+I and select Options. From Settings, you can also choose Permissions to change privacy settings, toggle notifications, and to allow or disallow the app to run in the background.
That’s it. The Twitter app for Windows 8 is great for Windows 8 tablet and hybrid users, but desktop users might be able to benefit from it as well. When used with StarDock’s ModernMix, it’ll run in its own window, making it function like a desktop client.
Twitter Troll Annoys Boxer
2 months ago
There are times when a virtual insult enters reality, as boxer Curtis Woodhouse proves when he is so annoyed by a troll that he pays him a visit. Several visits to bars when I was 13 taught me a simple thing: it’s rarely good to insult someone who’s larger and more muscular than you are. The Web, though, offers some theoretical protection from this maxim. The object of your bile doesn’t know who you are. There again, they could find out. Which is what British boxer Curtis Woodhouse decided to do after a particular annoying human being mocked him on Twitter. Woodhouse, you see, had just lost a fight for the English light-welterweight title. As so often seems to happen in this sport, the decision was controversial.
So he didn’t take too warmly to tweets from someone who calls himself “The Master” on Twitter and has the handle @jimmyob88. The Master had tweeted such masterful niceties as suggesting that Woodhouse was “a complete disgrace.”There are many ways to react to such tweeted mauvais-mots. Some tweet back, hurt or angry. Some simply retweet these nonsenses to show up the half-wittery.Woodhouse decided on a different course of action. He decided to pay the troll a visit and perhaps even explain that he didn’t like the cut of his jib by offering him an uppercut to it.
First, though, he had to find out who he was and where he lived. So he offered 1,000 British pounds (around $1,500) to anyone who could help him locate the Master. It didn’t take long. Money can be such a motivator. As the Sun reports, Woodhouse drove to Sheffield in the Yorkshire area of England and allowed his then 18,000 Twitter followers to come along for the ride. To start his trip, he tweeted: “Just on my way to Sheffield to have a little chat with a old friend, get the kettle on.”
When he got to the street that hosts the Master’s lair, he offered: “right Jimbob im here !!!!! someone tell me what number he lives at, or do I have to knock on every door #itsshowtime pic.twitter.com/H1qnYnbE6P.” The Master suddenly became remarkably reticent. ”I am sorry it’s getting a bit out of hand i am in the wrong i accept that,” he tweeted, with obvious sincerity. This was after he’d tried to offer: “Chill out pal I was only doing it so you would bite back it was only a bit of harmless fun.” Yes, he had merely been joking when he called Woodhouse “a complete disgrace.”
What an odd sense of humor he appears to have. Woodhouse, though, ultimately decided that discretion was the better part of thumping a big-mouthed coward into a week to be named later. Not being able to rouse the Master, he tweeted: “@jimmyob88 never came out to play so im going back home! maybe a bit daft what i did today but sometimes enough is enough.” Still, the boxer and former soccer player didn’t leave entirely quietly. He created the hashtag#jimmybrownpants and jested that he’d not realized he could have merely blocked the Master and saved himself gas money.
Troll is an odd word that seems to have taken on a multitude of nuances. In this case, though, it offers a description of someone who is happy to express the uglier side of his character until someone confronts him with himself. Then, he hides. I wonder what the Master will be tweeting in the coming weeks and about whom. If he’ll be tweeting at all. He has deleted every single tweet of his own, leaving merely a few retweets. A clue to his psyche, though, may have emerged from one of those retweets: “I like to attend self-defense classes for women every Monday. Just so I know what I’m up against.” Indeed.
Facebook’s Newsfeed New Interface
2 months ago
Bursting With Color. Vibrant new visuals bring your News Feed to life.
Facebook Takes a Bite Out of Twitter. How do you know when the news feed revolution is over? Putting added emphasis on news, the refreshed Facebook goes after a core feature of its biggest competitors. Today, Facebook promised to put the news back in its News Feed. At a press event at headquarters, Mark Zuckerberg repeatedly used the phrase “personalized newspaper” to describe the direction of the site’s core feature. And the Feed’s new features arguably make Facebook a better way to stay on top of current events than ever before.
With a dedicated tab for everyone you’re following and a renewed focus on photos, Facebook is aiming to create the kind of real-time information network that has made Twitter the top destination for news junkies. That hasn’t been possible before, not least because of Facebook’s opaque, algorithmic way of showing you stories. As Nick Bilton detailed this week in The New York Times, reaching followers has become more difficult in recent months as Facebook has started encouraging publishers to pay to “promote” their posts. The result is that anyone who follows a publisher lik might not see the majority of its posts, even though they’ve asked to.
Contrast that with Twitter, which displays every tweet from everyone a user follows. That can make the stream difficult to keep up with, particularly if you follow more than a couple hundred people. But at least a user can trust that tweets will appear in the stream as they are written — and not after an algorithm decides they are worthy of being delivered. And so the biggest change Facebook announced today, from the perspective of publishers and the people who want to read them on Facebook, is the “following” tab. According to executives at the event, the tab will show “every single post” from the people and publishers you subscribe to. If true, that will go a long way toward building trust in Facebook as a home for breaking news.
Meanwhile, news should look better on Facebook than it ever has, thanks to larger photos, expanded snippets of text from the articles that are shared, and their more prominent presentation on the page. Publishers have suffered through Facebook’s algorithmic changes because the site can still drive significant traffic to their pages — far more than the average post on Twitter or other social networks. If Facebook’s changes make it easier for them to reach their fans, they may develop a new appreciation for what the network can offer. But competitors are gunning for their attention, too. Facebook’s changes come as Twitter has moved to make its own stream more visual. Tweets have transformed from a simple string of 140 characters to “envelopes” for all sorts of things, including photos, music, and article snippets.
And while it far lags both of them in mind share, Google+ continues to polish its design in a way that puts photos at the forefront. Yesterday, the company rolled out a new look that includes larger cover photos, enhanced profiles, and a new tab of its own (for place reviews). Many readers remarked on the updated News Feed’s resemblance to Google+, which also features a narrow left rail with big icons and huge photos in the central feed. So yes, Facebook is trying to become “the best personalized newspaper.” But it’s not the only one. News is a major pillar of all the main social networks, and its role on each of them is only expanding. Facebook, Twitter, and Google started their social networks for very different reasons. But as the months go on, they’re looking more and more alike.
Give It A Try Now!!
Join the waitlist to get the new homepage for the web.
Twitter Kills Android, iPhone and AIR desktop Apps for TweetDeck
2 months ago
Personal browser apps will go dead after May so TweetDeck team can focus on Web-based versions instead. Twitter is shutting down the TweetDeck apps for Android and iPhone, as well as axing the Adobe AIR desktop version, the company announced today through the TweetDeck blog. This means TweekDeck is taking the apps out of app stores in May and, shortly afterward, the apps will stop functioning altogether.
“Over the past few years, we’ve seen a steady trend toward people using TweetDeck on their computers and Twitter on their mobile devices,” according to the blog post. “This trend coincides with an increased investment in Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android — adding photo filters and other editing capabilities, revamping user profiles and enhancing search. That said, we know this applies to most of our users — not all of them. And for those of you who are inconvenienced by this shift, our sincere apologies.”
Twitter acquired TweetDeck in 2011. The apps let you see your Facebook updates and tweets, but Twitter is terminating support for that function as well. As these TweetDeck apps get closer to their expiration date, users should expect some outages because these versions rely on Twitter’s API, which the company is starting to retire this month. Instead of improving on the TweetDeck apps in the past 18 months, TweetDeck said it has been focused on building applications for Web browsers and a Chrome app. The operation has doubled its team over the past six months to allow for weekly updates to its Web apps.
Zendesk Hack Snares User Data From Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest
2 months ago
by JohnShen
in Technology
Some information for users of the social networks was captured when hackers attacked the customer support service. At a time when it seems no company is immune from hackers, user information from three high-profile social-networking sites has been compromised due to a hack at another company.
Customer support service Zendesk revealed today that it had been the victim of a security breach and that information from three of its clients had been downloaded. As first reported by Wired, those three clients are Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr. Zendesk revealed the hack in a company blog post today that said the vulnerability was immediately identified and patched:
Our ongoing investigation indicates that the hacker had access to the support information that three of our customers store on our system. We believe that the hacker downloaded email addresses of users who contacted those three customers for support, as well as support email subject lines. We notified our affected customers immediately and are working with them to assist in their response.
Although Zendesk did not identity the clients by name, some users of the social-networking services began receiving warnings that they may have been affected by the breach. Wired published warnings sent by each company that identified Zendesk as the point of the leak.
The subject lines of your emails to Tumblr Support may have included the address of your blog which could potentially allow your blog to be unwillingly associated with your email address.
Any other information included in the subject lines of emails you’ve sent to Tumblr Support may be exposed. We recommend you review any correspondence you’ve addressed to support@tumblr.com, abuse@tumblr.com, dmca@tumblr.com, legal@tumblr.com, enquiries@tumblr.com, or lawenforcement@tumblr.com.
Founded in 2007, the cloud-based customer service solution provider announced last month that it had signed up its 25,000th customer. The hacks come just days after Apple and Facebook revealed that their employees’ computers fell victim to unauthorized access.
Apple, Facebook, Twitter hacks said to hail from Eastern Europe
2 months ago
Investigators say the surge of malware attacks on U.S. companies may be coming from Eastern European cybercriminals rather than being Chinese state-sponsored espionage. While many security experts have been pointing the blame at China for the recent wave of cyberattacks on U.S. companies and newspapers, Bloomberg reports that some of the malware attacks actually may be coming from Eastern Europe. Investigators familiar with the matter told Bloomberg they believe a cybercriminal group based in either Russia or Eastern Europe is carrying out the high-level attacks to steal company secrets, research, and intellectual property, which could then be sold on the black market.
Evidence that the attacks may be coming from Eastern Europe is the type of malware being used by the hackers, which is more commonly used by cybercriminals than by government spying. Also, investigators have tracked at least one server being used by the hackers to a Ukrainian hosting company. Roughly 40 companies have been victims of cyberattacks over the past several months. These companies included tech businesses, such as Apple, Facebook, and Twitter, and newspapers, such as The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Associated Press.
Apple announced today that hackers targeted computers used by its employees, but that “there was no evidence that any data left Apple.” In a statement, the company said it discovered malware that made use of a vulnerability in the Java plug-in, and that it was sourced from a site for software developers. Apple blocked Java from some of its Macs late last month using its XProtect antimalware tool and citing security vulnerabilities.
A report by The New York Times yesterday claimed that an “overwhelming percentage” of the cyberattacks on U.S. corporations, government agencies, and organizations came from an office building in Shanghai with ties to the People’s Liberation Army. These allegations remain unconfirmed and flatly denied by Chinese authorities.
The hack on The New York Times itself was months long and included the theft of corporate passwords of Times employees, as well as spying on personal computers. The attacks on Facebook, Twitter, and Apple were a bit different in that reportedly only a small number of systems were infected and the hackers got in via the Java vulnerability.
This isn’t the first allegation of cybercriminals operating out of Eastern Europe. Security firm McAfee Labs published a report in December that warned of increasing attacks on U.S. financial institutions from Eastern European hackers. Dubbed Project Blitzkrieg, McAfee said the possible attacks would be done with a highly developed Trojan that could infect victims’ computers, plant software, and allow cybercriminals to steal information and money.
How To Unsend Twitter Direct Messages
3 months ago
You can unsend Twitter DMs — even the ones you’ve received. Here’s how. The best thing about old AOL — which is to say, the best thing about the mid-1990s — wasunsend. If you sent an e-mail to another AOL user, up until the moment that person actually opened it, you had the option of taking it all back. It was like it never happened! Gmail has a lot of optional features that let you create impediments to hasty e-mailing, but in the end, it won’t retrieve your message from the recipient’s inbox.
Fun fact: Twitter will.
Maybe you were angry, maybe you were love sick, maybe you were drunk. No matter the reason, we all know the horrible feeling of waking up in the morning and realizing that you actually did send that message. If it was a text or an e-mail, I’m sorry to say, there’s nothing you can do; but if it was a DM on Twitter, the answer is simple: just delete it. When you delete a DM, Twitter removes it not only from your outbox but also from the recipient’s inbox.
Here’s how to delete a DM on the Web:
- Click on the gear icon.
- Select Direct Messages.
- Find the offending DM.
- Click on the trash can.
- Ta-da!
Word of caution: If your boss/estranged romantic partner has certain notifications turned on, then they may get the message another way. Users can receive e-mail, texts, or push notifications for incoming messages that include the message itself. But, here’s the thing: maybe the recipients don’t have that turned on. Even if they do, maybe they don’t actually read any of the dozens of e-mails Twitter sends a day. There’s no guarantees in life, but I offer you hope.
Additionally, in one way Twitter’s unsend is actually an improvement over old AOL’s. Even if the recipient has read it, even if she’s responded to it, you can still delete it. Snapchat andFacebook’s Poke exist specifically to provide people with a way of sending self-destructing messages. You can’t automate it, but at any time you can tell a Twitter DM to self-destruct…and not just the ones you’ve sent.
Fun fact No. 2: When you delete a DM that you have received, Twitter removes it from the sender’s outbox.
Think about that for a second. If you get a message that you don’t, for whatever reason, want to respond to, don’t leave it hanging there, just delete it. It never happened. There is no proof within that person’s reach that the message ever existed. Yes, of course this could drive someone absolutely insane, but it could also be used for good! Just like we’ve all sent messages we regret, so, too, have we all received messages that someone else regrets. So the next time you receive a DM that is stained in tears or spittle or gin, remember that if you want to, you could make the sender’s day: just delete it.
Twitter Users Spawn 24.1 Million Super Bowl Game Tweets
3 months ago
The Super Bowl offered a great script for a blowout evening of tweeting, peaking at 231,500 tweets-per-minute during the power outage and 268,000 tweets-per-minute at the end of Beyonce’s half-time show. This year’s Super Bowl started with the Ravens crushing the 49ers. Then after a 108-yard kickoff return by the Ravens at the beginning of the second half, a power outage delayed the game for more than 30 minutes. Following the delay, the 49ers got their mojo working and the two teams, and two brother coaches, battled intensely to the finish.
This is a great script for a blowout evening of tweeting by football lovers, advertising geeks, and Beyonce fans. According to Twitter, the game and halftime show with Beyonce spawned 24.1 million tweets. The 2013 Super Bowl tweeting surpassed the November presidential election, when there were 23 million tweets over a six-hour period. Beyonce’s halftime performance generated 5.5 million of the 24.1 million tweets, with a peak of 268,000 tweets-per-minute at the end of her performance. The non-halftime peak was 231,500 tweets-per-minute during the power outage.
Last year’s Super Bowl between the New York Giants and New England Patriots had 13.7 million game-related tweets, with a peak of 12,333 per second. Madonna’s halftime performance at the 2012 Super Bowl peaked at 10,245 tweets-per-second. The 2011 Super Bowl peaked at 4,064 tweets-per-second. Twitter has not yet offered tweet-per-second statistics for the 2013 Super Bowl.
Other heavy tweet-per-minute moments included:
• 108-yard kickoff return for Ravens TD by Jones: 185,000
• Time expires; Ravens win: 183,000
• Jones catches 56 yard pass for Ravens TD: 168,000
• Gore TD for 49ers: 131,000
Of course, every year Twitter is expected to set records. The company can count on tens of millions more tweeters added to the ranks every year. The number of active Twitter users rose to more than 200 million at the end of 2012, compared to 140 million last May. Twitter has more than 500 million registered users worldwide — 300 million have an account but are not active tweeters.
Getting started with Twitter photo filters
4 months ago
Twitter recently announced the addition of photo filters in its Android and iOS apps. We’ll show you how to get started with the new feature.
Twitter has updated its Android and iOS apps with photo filters, following through on the rumorsfrom just a few days ago. The release is timely, considering everyone’s favorite photo-filter app, Instagram, just recently pulled integration from Twitter. The benefit of using the Twitter app to filter your photos is that they’ll show up natively in Twitter.com and in the mobile apps. Instagram photos appear only as links now, requiring a browser window to view them at Instagram’s Web site. If you prefer displaying your filtered photos within Twitter, here’s how to get started with the new feature:
First, make sure you have the latest version of the Twitter app (Android | iOS). After you’ve updated to the latest version, begin composing a new tweet and either take a new photo with your phone or attach one you’ve already taken. The photo editor will launch with the unfiltered version of your photo. Tapping the wand icon will attempt to auto-enhance the photo for you.
Tapping on the filter icon will display a thumbnail grid with all eight filters, plus the unfiltered photo for comparison. Tap a thumbnail to view a larger version of the filtered photo. You can also swipe the screen in full view to scroll through each filter.
The last icon allows you to crop your photo and supports pinch-to-zoom. It also supports changing the crop dimensions to a square. Once you’ve completed all of your edits, tap “Done” to go back to your tweet. That’s it. If you’re an experienced Instagram user, you’ll notice that the Twitter photo editor has fewer filters, lacks frames, and doesn’t include the tilt-shift feature. Still, it’s a good start and the only way to go if you want photos displayed natively in Twitter, unless you want to use anIFTTT recipe.
