Hackers looking to steal passwords used in popular online games have infected more than 10,000 Web pages in recent days. These attacks have originated mostly from China and were first noticed by McAfee researchers 2 days ago. Within hours, the security company has tracked 10,000 web pages infected on hundreds of websites. As so many sites have been hacked in a very less time, the attack must have been an automated one.
The attackers use search engines to track websites with weak security measures and use them to spread the malicious code. The attacked web sites look no different from normal ones, but they contain an extra JavaScript code inserted into them, that re-directs the browsers of the victims to China-based servers from where invisible attacks are launched. Most of these attacks contain a data-collecting software that runs in your system, once your system is attacked. Depending on how much valuable information your system contains, the loss varies. If yours is a individual desktop PC used for mostly home needs, then the damage may not be big. But if you are a top official in a business organization, then there can be a huge data loss.
Most of these attacks are identified and the patches are released. So, if you play online games regularly, don't forget to install the patches released by your anti-virus vendor, most importantly the patches of ActiveX controls and JavaScript.
Gates asks for more H-1B visas:
According to Microsoft's chairman Bill Gates, US is driving away the best incoming talent by reducing the number of H-1B visas every year. More than half of the computer science students in US universities are from foreign countries and by reducing the number of H-1B visas, not many students can stay in US after graduation and are forced to leave.
In his own words, "We provide the world's best universities ... and the students are not allowed to stay and work in the country," Gates said. "The fact is, [other countries'] smartest people want to come here and that's a huge advantage to us, and in a sense, we're turning them away." These comments represent his long standing views about immigrant workers in US companies.
But there is an alternate argument that nearly 150,000 Americans have lost jobs because of foreign workers since 2000 and by limiting the number of H-1B visas, unemployment among Americans can be reduced. Gates says that these arguments are flawed. According to him, the big companies aren't giving jobs to Indians and Chinese just because they are foreign. According to him, Indians are getting jobs because they are more eligible than US citizens. So, if people who call themselves as US patriots are worried of this, then they should ask the Americans to have better qualifications.
You get a job not because you are a White or a Black or a Brown or a Yellow or a Red, but because you are qualified and are eligible for the job. A fitting reply to so-called patriots, Mr. Gates. We love you (except for the part that Microsoft manufacturing more bugs these days than software).
Google launches hosted ad management:
Google launched a free hosted service on Thursday that helps Web site publishers sell advertising faster and fill unsold slots on their sites. Ad Manager, which Google said has already been tested by a few businesses, is designed to streamline how ads are placed on Web sites and generate performance reports detailing how successful those ads are in reaching consumers, including click through-rates and revenue paid by the advertisers for those clicks.
Google said Ad Manager's purpose is to ease some of the problems that come with managing advertisements on a Web site, such as gauging available inventory and how to pick the highest-paying ads. The service is hosted on Google's servers, and Web site publishers can access it through a Web browser. Google's AdSense delivers text advertisements that are matched with the content of a Web site. Google will let publishers use Ad Manager in tandem with similar technology from other competing ad placement networks.
Ad Manager can also target ads at specific users. It is capable of delivering ads based on a user's domain, the brand of Web browser and language it uses, the PC's operating system and how much bandwidth is available on their Internet connection. That information may seen potentially sensitive, but it's automatically revealed when a browser visits a Web site. Increased attention has come around how Internet advertisers target ads to users and how they handle personal information.
Even this blog has Google ads. Check on top right corner of this page. Well, if you click that ad, I get paid. According to Google's terms and conditions, I am not supposed to directly ask the visitors to click those. But by now you must have guessed that I want you to click those. I really can't ask you. So, understand my position and do whatever needed (whatever I need). Huh, screw Google.
Snippets:
- Nintendo's upcoming Mario Kart Wii features 16 new courses, four control options.
- Intel CEO Paul Otellini defended the company's business practices at a two-day antitrust hearing in Brussels.
- Changes in software and computing over the next 10 years will affect all facets of life, says Bill Gates.
- Nintendo says errors encountered by some Wii owners playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl are linked to dirty DVD drive lenses.
- ZapMedia is suing Apple for "recklessly" infringing on its digital media distribution patents.
- The next-generation version of Windows (code name Windows 7) will face an antitrust review by U.S. regulators.
- Microsoft adds to its virtualization tool kit with the acquisition of software developer Kidaro.
- Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has started shipping triple-core Phenom processors.
- Mozilla's Firefox 3.0 is dramatically faster than its predecessor and rivals, benchmark tests claim.
I was very very bored and out of the boredom have written a very very lengthy blog.
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