Imagine walking around with a WiFI bubble all around you? Imagine that you could have 2 or 3 devices on your person hooked up to that WiFi Bubble. Well it is soon to be possible with the release of the Novatel MiFi. This is going to be an amazing device and opens up all kinds of opportunities not only for new media folks but also companies that want to build applications to it.
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When I first saw this product from Pacemaker I assumed it was something I would buy for my kid. But as I saw how complex it was, in that you essentially do a DJ gig with this then I realized these folks had created something pretty cool. The price is not cheap either.
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Griffin is pretty famous for their iTrip but the had some pretty cool and innovative products at CES this year. We caught up with them at Digital Experience.
The product that drew us in was the Aircurve which is an Acoustic Amplifier for iPhone. We were quite shocked to hear the quality of the audio coming out of this very simple device. Very inexpensive at $19.95 as well.
The Folks at Eclipse seem have that extra edge when it comes to automotive car entertainment systems. The standard car radio has left the show floor and we now have interactive media centers with built in GPS systems and a whole lot more. Check out the Video.
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Apparently Monster.com has been hacked into and Millions of profiles have been compromised. While they didn’t get items like credit cards, they do have enough information to send you convincing emails to try and scam you out of money.
But the most disturbing news is that this is the second time this month the company’s data was compromised.
Heartland Payment Systems – the company that handles Monster.com transactions – was also hacked into. Once again, nothing major like credit cards, but they could easily mess with your resume.
For those of us trying to find employment and have resumes on Monster.com, you might want to check your profile and make sure nothing has been changed. Change your password and make sure it’s not the same one you use for your email.
Most important, if you get some ‘Official email’ that asks you for items like Social Security Numbers, investigate before you reply.
Cox Communications has announced that they are going to test a traffic shaping, er, Internet Congestion Reduction Tool, in Kansas and Arkansas over the next few months, with hopes of deploying their traffic shaping, er, Internet Congestion Reduction Tool to all users by the end of the year.
It was discovered that Cox was using the same type of traffic shaping technology as Comcast, who is currently under FCC rulings to cease any and all traffic shaping. Cox must have been paying attention, because they reduced their use of traffic shaping starting in August 2008 and completely discontinued it in January 2009. They have replaced it with their new tools, which are supposed to “give priority to Internet traffic it judges to be time-sensitive, like Web pages, streaming video and online games.” In addition, the software restricts the delivery of file downloads and software updates if the network is congested.
The whole traffic shaping thing notwithstanding, why are we seeing this lame issue still being touted by the cable companies? Delivery of bandwidth is supposedly what they are all about. There should be no “congestion” if they have been upgrading infrastructure with their profits the way they are supposed to. Demand for bandwidth is not going to decrease, but only increase, and the way these ISP’s are dragging their feet about upgrading their infrastructures just boggles my mind.
But back to traffic shaping. Cox is not explaining how they will be determining “priority” over “non-priority” network traffic. What may be a critical download to one person (an emergency software update, for instance, or download of virus updates, or downloading files you are torrenting to yourself from another location) may not be critical to Cox. And what Cox thinks is high-priority (like games) may not really be all that critical to the user (this Mom is already throttling game-playing on the home network for various reasons).
I don’t need anyone telling me what’s important, and what isn’t. Just open up the pipe and let me have my stuff. It’s what I’m paying you for, after all. You should take some of that money I keep throwing at you and improve your infrastructure to meet the demand, instead of spending money trying to figure out how to throttle my bandwidth. The demands aren’t going away. Time to accept that and figure out how you can fix it. Trying to cut it off isn’t the answer.
With so many people out of work and looking, using any online resource they have available, it is important to know that Monster.com has been hacked twice in the last six months. Users names, birthdates, contact information, and passwords amongst other information is now in the wrong hands.
I have had a profile at Monster.com for many years, although I haven’t had to look for a job in more than 8 years. I don’t think I’d visited the site in maybe five years. But this morning I did, making some critical changes to my profile, and changing my password. Anyone reading this who has a profile at Monster.com should do the same thing, as soon as possible. A “mandatory” change will be required soon when you log into Monster.com, but if you’re like me and hadn’t logged in in five years, well, that “mandatory” thing won’t work.
Another alternative is to cancel your account, if you can. I am a “free” member, so there is no cancellation option. But for premium members, cancellation is possible. I don’t use Monster.com at the moment, but that doesn’t mean I might not need it later, so I’ll leave it as is for the moment. But then again, if they can be hacked twice in six months, then I have to wonder about their overall security of my information, and whether or not that is a liability for me as a user.