What a nightmare. A warning to all here:

Do Not Try To Upload Too Many Photos to Facebook At Once

I was attempting to upkload about 6 or 7 photos to Facebook from my phone and it just died on me. It got pretty hot, gave some memory warnings, then crashed. I tried rebooting but the keys were not responsive at all. I removed the battery to force a reboot but that did not help. It did not boot, never got beyond the Android logo on the boot up. So I eventually decided that a factory reset was the only option. In case you find yourself in this situation, this is what you do:

1. Remove the battery again, then replace
2. Hold Home Key and End key for 20 to 30 seconds until you see a triangle with an exclamation point and a picture of the G1.
3. Open the keyboard and press Alt+W until and chose factory reset
4. Allow it to boot up. If you have no network then skip Google sign in
5. Go to wireless settings and activate
6. Open Gmail to force back into Google sign in

After doing this the Orange 3G seemed to then wake up. Gmail synched. Fortunately all the photos on my SD card are still there, factory reset does not erase those. But lost all the applications I used. No idea what state the phone is in, I guess I need to upgrade to the latest version now… will check.. ok, things I need to do after a factory reset:

1. Create a new screen lock code
2. Switched off GPS satellites (to save battery)
3. Changed the background and tidied up the desktop – including removing that silly clock
4. Now trying to remember what apps I had …..
5. Version is 1.6 – this is the latest version. I was expecting it to revert to the original one. That is clever….
6. Hmmmm, I know I had a lot of apps, but what did I really need? Hmmmm….. will not install anything until I need one. Maybe the Facebook one, that resulted in the phone dying…

OK, althought uploading photos to Facebook killed my phone I am sure it is not Facebook’s fault, want to make that clear before someone complains. Once, during the Londong G20 Riots, I tried to send about 5 photos by email and the phone kept dying then. In that situation it was overheating then rebooting, and then also running out of battery. Even when connected to my monitor by USB it was running out of battery before sending all the mails. Odd. No memory problems then, but maybe all the messages on the phone and applications slowed it down. Maybe I will experiment with sending lots of photos again on a clean phone. Hmmm, do I still have my SMS messages?

No. Lost all messages. Oh dear. What did I lose?

Yahoo and Facebook have joined hands to make Yahoo a more social platform. It seems that Yahoo is always playing catch up with Google now, and instead of creating a rival for Google Buzz, Yahoo has decided to make a partnership with the master of Social Networking, Facebook.

Yahoo accounts will be linked to Facebook accounts so that Yahoo mail users will be able to see friend’s Facebook updates without having to sign in to Facebook. In much the same way that Google Buzz in integrated into Gmail, Facebook status updates will be integrated into Yahoo Mail.

“More and more, people rely on social sites to share and discover information that matters to them, making Yahoo uniquely positioned to provide people with all of the mainstream methods of content discovery–social, search, communications, and editorial. Starting with Facebook, we are bringing all of these elements together to give people one simple, trusted place to share information and connect” Cody Simms, Yahoo director of social platforms.

The new features will be rolled out in the next few days. Finally there is a new reason to fire up that old dusty Yahoo Mail account again.

This was buzzed by Google’s Matt Cutt’s in response to suggestions that Google had only managed to gather the email addresses by using some sort of underhand, insider methods. But personal email addresses are visible using Yahoo too.

From Matt Cutt’s Buzz;

http://www.allfacebook.com/2010/06/facebook-loophole-exposes-thousands-of-email-addresses/ makes a false claim: “The other question that this raises is how did Google get access to this page? Was it found it users’ gmail accounts? The only way they could have possibly found the link was by automatically following links found in users’ emails which were intended to be private.”

Uh, no. We found those pages by crawling normal links on public web pages. It also would have been nice if the author of that blog post had asked us before claiming that the “only way” Google could have possibly found pages was by following links in emails. We could have saved him the trouble of making up a new conspiracy theory.

In fact, here’s how you can debunk that idea without even talking to Google: run the same search [site:facebook.com "do you want to stop receiving facebook emails"] on Yahoo. Yes, Yahoo–they run a search engine too. Yahoo also found pages with email addresses. In fact, I see at least one gmail.com email address on Yahoo’s first page. Did Yahoo discover the link to that page by crawling a user’s Gmail? Obviously not. Therefore Yahoo must have discovered the link from normal means, e.g. seeing a link to it on the public web. Once you’ve demonstrated that Yahoo found the link via public means, why invent the conspiracy theory that Google found the link via Gmail? Occam’s Razor and all that.

Interestingly the Yahoo search no longer reveals anything of interest, so Yahoo have also followed Google in removing these pages from their listings to protect users privacy.

The latest on this seems to be that it was not Facebook at fault but its users who shared their private information and then were shocked to discover it was visibile to others online. The reason: “turns out the users forwarded their facebook mails to public mailing lists, including the unsubscribe links.” So, just some daft people not checking what they send in an email!

There is probably a lot more to it, but I cannot be bothered to dig any deeper. The main search engines have tied up the mess, Ask.com is in the process if doing it I guess (had not when last checked). Put security first, do not share your private information online.

My Dad called me today to say that he had a problem with his PC. A rogue anti-virus got installed on his PC and has hijacked it. He is running McAfee AV but that failed to stop it, although he did admit that he saw warnings, but really thought at the time that the virus program was a safe one.

I have Googled the fix for him and found that Malwarebytes have an automatic removal solution in place already. You can download Malware Bytes from Bleeping Computer (a website devoted to helping people prevent and remove viruses), here is the direct link: Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware

Now, before you go jumping to any conclusions, let me make it clear that I may be adding to the confusion. As this evening I had a comment posted to my Facebook Wall that was obviously a bit suspect. It said “Jon, this is without doubt the sexiest video ever! ” with what appeared to be an embedded YouTube video of a woman with a large behind dancing. Admittedly I did click on it, rather foolishly. The person that sent it to me really is not the sort of person that generally sends such things, and I was curious.

Anyway, nothing seemed to happen, but I speculated that this may have been connected with the virus my Mum picked up earlier today, so decided to investigate a bit further. The current result is that I doing a thorough scan with Malwarebytes now, after having run CCleaner and Cleanup (two tools to help remove trash from all areas), my thinking that maybe the files are not active yet and they will clean them out…..

So, next was a Google for “Personal Antivirus” and Candid / Facebook together. Nothing. So they may not be connected.

No idea what the Candid Video virus on Facebook does apart from send itself on to all your Facebook contacts. Maybe it spreads a more serious PC hijacking Trojan virus. The thing about these things is that often they lay low for a few days. One person on Facebook said that it is a serious virus, although they did no elaborate on that. Another complained that Facebook as usual are doing nothing to stop it spreading. Great.

Will update you if I find out more. If you have any information let me know.

UPDATE:

Just read this on Infosecurity-us.com and it explains what the virus does, although still unclear what its endgame is. There is a Facebook anti-malware scanner that can be installed though, so that is worth investigating.

“Patric Runald, senior manager for security research at Websense, told Infosecurity that the installed malware would steal a user’s Facebook username and password, log into the user’s account, and then begin to spread the malicious link by posting messages to group and user walls and via messages to friend/group lists.

To prevent possible infections from future scams, Runald told Infosecurity that Websense offers a free Facebook application called Defensio to monitor for malware and other malicious content on a user’s page. It can be installed for free on any user’s profile, both in a personal or corporate setting.”

www.infosecurity-us.com

It seems to me that Facebook is becoming a popular place for virus writers to peddle their wares. As security tightens on the Internet with improved web browsers and anti-virus software, Facebook remains vulnerable. People are quickly drawn into viruses when they think that their friend is trying to show them something. There are so many applications on Facebook that people are so used to signing up to apps and accepting terms and conditions that they do not think twice when a friend sends a video and they need to agree to something to watch it. Although in this case I am still not clear if any agreement os required, it seems a more advanced version of the one that spread a couple of years ago.

If you are reading this you are a web user and therefore you should be aware of the possible risks associated with Internet use. In the same way that if you visit a city you should be aware of how to behave and which places to keep away from, you need to take a similar approach online.

In recent months there have been many reports of user privacy updates and security breaches that could well mean that personal information about you is sitting in the hands of criminals.

The most recent change to the way the Internet is managed was implemented by Facebook. They have recently updated their privacy agreements to allow them to use the personal data of its members to help promote its own products. It also passes personal information on to third parties (i.e. people that want to sell you stuff). What does this actually mean? Well, one thing that Facebook now do is create links out of your personal information and link to pages that you do not authorize.

OK, so you can ask them not to surely? Yes, you can, but if you do, rather than delete the link, they delete the information. So if you say on your personal profile that you love eating cheese burgers, Facebook can create a link to a popular fast food chain. You may not want to be seen as personally endorsing a fast food chain, so the only option is to remove the fact that you like cheeseburgers. Often the links are simply wrong, such as linking to the wrong schools or organizations – it seems harmless at first, but if a potential employer checks your profile and thinks that you were lying on your CV, you are out of a job.

If your partner thinks you are lying, it could be the end of a relationship. So much for social networking, Facebook is becoming more like relationship wrecking. Facebook call it “Instant personalization”, which is ironic as the user has no control over their own “personalization” on their user profile. There was a time in social networking when a user profile page was the place for a user to tell the world a bit about themselves. Not any more.

You may be thinking, if this is such a big problem then people would be taking action. Well, they are. In the USA four retired senators have made a stand and petitioned Facebook to reverse the recent changes. Loiuse Gray (Managing Director, New Media at Paladin Advisors Group) has Buzzed about this too. Matt Cutts, Google’s anti-spam manager, has also deleted his Facebook account in protest (and for personal safety). He announced it on Twitter and the story appeared on Search Engine Land.

Kim Kraus, one of the web’s most respected usability and SEO experts explains in greater details exactly what Facebook did to her personal information. She raised this in Cre8asiteforums which was the first time much of the community started to learn about what was happening.

Of course, if you decide to also delete your Facebook account you will quickly realise that it is not an easy task. Facebook allow you to “deactivate” your account, which means that you no longer have access to it. But Facebook still have all of your personal data, and can continue to sell that to anyone they like. They can even use your profile to link to whatever they want. And once you have deactivated, you lose all control. So be careful. A better option is to increase your privacy settings so that your profile does not appear on search, that only friends can see your information, and to remove any personal content that you would not want a stranger accessing and distributing at anytime in your future. Remember, the data stored on Facebook’s servers could remain there for decades and you will have not control over it.

This could not be more different from Google’s approach. Google’s motto is “Do No Evil” and they do try to live by that. They have had some mishaps recently with the major privacy issues on the Gmail Buzz launch (anyone could see who the friends of their friends were, including ex-girlfriends, enemies etc. etc.) and there was some panic when their systems were hacked by the Chinese who were spying on people involved in Chinese human rights issues. But they do have the most professional and safest attitude towards personal data to the extent that they have even got an official name for it – Data Liberation. They provide this simple explanation:

“Users should be able to control the data they store in any of Google’s products.  Our team’s goal is to make it easier to move data in and out.”

Data Liberation simply means that any data that you input into Google should be freely available to you to transfer into other systems or delete completely. For example, if you create a Google Spreadsheet, you should be able to transfer all the information to a desktop application and then delete it from Google, leaving no trace. So confidential information can be removed and you can sleep soundly knowing that those pesky hackers from overseas will not find out all your personal information. Before all you Google Bashers start typing your keywords and URL’s into the comment fields below, note that Google do also state that:

“We don’t think that our products are perfect yet, but we’re continuing to work at making it easier to get your data in and out of them.  Visit our Google Moderator page to vote on and add suggestions on what you’d like to see liberated and why.”

So they recognise that they have more work to do, and provide users with updated information and a means to raise concerns. It is this level of transparency that really puts Google in a league of its own when it comes to personal data.

So, what about security and safety? Well, this is all about security and safety. It is extremely important that you keep your personal data, your likes, habits, names of your children, address etc. all under lock and key. As one Internet security expert recently said to me, it is not the known risks that you should worry about the most, it is the unknown risks. With the ever increasing prevalence of “I like this” buttons and other ways to “vote” up a website, you could find yourself in trouble quite easily. For example – you read an interesting blog on Internet security and click the “I like this” button. It them flags up your profile to the World. People will disagree with you, and some of these may be very radical in their views. You have just told them all that you do not agree with them and provided a route to your personal information. Do you feel safe now?

What of your future? Well, this simply refers to the fact that once your information is online with some companies you lose control of it. It could resurface in many years time in the most unexpected places. Be careful with your personal data. Only share it with those you trust totally.

Facebook is undergoing some changes. It has now got a staggering 350 million members (how many people?!). Facebook has more members then the entire popular of the USA and UK combined!

Its founder Mark Zuckerburg has made the following announcement by way of an open letter:

“It has been a great year for making the world more open and connected. Thanks to your help, more than 350 million people around the world are using Facebook to share their lives online.

To make this possible, we have focused on giving you the tools you need to share and control your information. Starting with the very first version of Facebook five years ago, we’ve built tools that help you control what you share with which individuals and groups of people. Our work to improve privacy continues today.

Facebook’s current privacy model revolves around “networks” — communities for your school, your company or your region. This worked well when Facebook was mostly used by students, since it made sense that a student might want to share content with their fellow students.

Over time people also asked us to add networks for companies and regions as well. Today we even have networks for some entire countries, like India and China.

However, as Facebook has grown, some of these regional networks now have millions of members and we’ve concluded that this is no longer the best way for you to control your privacy. Almost 50 percent of all Facebook users are members of regional networks, so this is an important issue for us. If we can build a better system, then more than 100 million people will have even more control of their information.

The plan we’ve come up with is to remove regional networks completely and create a simpler model for privacy control where you can set content to be available to only your friends, friends of your friends, or everyone.

We’re adding something that many of you have asked for — the ability to control who sees each individual piece of content you create or upload. In addition, we’ll also be fulfilling a request made by many of you to make the privacy settings page simpler by combining some settings. If you want to read more about this, we began discussing this plan back in July.

Since this update will remove regional networks and create some new settings, in the next couple of weeks we’ll ask you to review and update your privacy settings. You’ll see a message that will explain the changes and take you to a page where you can update your settings. When you’re finished, we’ll show you a confirmation page so you can make sure you chose the right settings for you. As always, once you’re done you’ll still be able to change your settings whenever you want.

We’ve worked hard to build controls that we think will be better for you, but we also understand that everyone’s needs are different. We’ll suggest settings for you based on your current level of privacy, but the best way for you to find the right settings is to read through all your options and customize them for yourself. I encourage you to do this and consider who you’re sharing with online.

Thanks for being a part of making Facebook what it is today, and for helping to make the world more open and connected.

Mark Zuckerberg”

Early this evening we reported how Twitter was struggling under the massive demand for its services. Now Facebook is struggling. I cannot play Scrabble! It’s my move! This is a disaster! And Mafia Wars is very sluggish. Social Media? Social Decline more like.

Come on, upgrade your servers, get some better computers, buy a few more ethernet cables, do whatever you techies do to make your computers work faster.

What will be next? Google? Long live the good old fashioned “Internet“. The Internet used to be about connecting many computers to provide a network of communication. Now it is many computers trying to connect to one giant one. We may as well all be working on the same Unix box. Sudo shutdown (sorry, that is probably Linux only).

In the modern era, almost every company is dependant on their IT systems to function day-to-day and any kind of unforeseen circumstance could be potentially devastating. Anything from the smallest power cut or server failure to an all out natural disaster could bring business to a grinding halt, any interruption to a company’s IT is financially damaging. For SME’s the means to restore business functionality from anywhere at any time is paramount and many companies are integrating remote backup facilities into their plans.

In every aspect of digital life it is proving vital to introduce a fully integrated disaster recovery plan to ensure business continuity is maintained and any downtime caused by unexpected circumstances is minimised.

It’s not only unexpected disasters that need planning for, companies and governments around are finding out more and more frequently cyber crime is on the rise. The recent attacks on Twitter and Facebook show a new level of cyber threat that are almost without motivation and have only malevolent intent.

The need for a disaster recovery plan is not limited to enterprises but with the increased threat of cyber crime and cyber warfare, governments worldwide are recognising the need for specialist defences against such attacks. NATO has set up a cyber defence facility in Estonia codenamed K5. The American government has launched a national cyber security strategy and the UK has responded by creating two organisations, the Office of Cyber Security and the Cyber Security Operations Centre. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/8188153.stm)

In this increasingly cyber-driven world the key to protecting your assets is to get educated on the need for planning and incorporation of the necessary systems. No longer can anyone, whether you are an SME, major financial institution or major world government, put data storage, backup, disaster recovery or business continuity on the back burner.

This was a guest article by Ritchie an expert in disaster recovery

Facebook now has 300 million users, and has announced that it has finally started making a profit. This is solid proof that although social media and networking sites are good fun, they are not a good business model, at least not for start ups.

If an online store had as many returning customers it would be driving a recovery in the world economy. The social networking model reminds me of how public houses have had to evolve. Whereas there was a time when more clients meant more money, increasing costs has meant that many businesses cannot rely of selling drinks alone. A large number of pubs make their profit from selling food, not drink. Drink brings in the clients at first, it is what leads them to the pub, but the hard sell must be on food for the business to make any profit.

Facebook is certainly moving that way. Its advertising, which is based on the Google Adsense model of PPC and impressions, is starting to be well received by advertisers. With a huge audience, and the software in place, success is now just a matter of time.

Facebook is still winning 5 million new customers each week too. Soon there may be two services on the Internet, the open model as run by Google, and the closed, subscription based model, run by Facebook. For other businesses to succeed, they need to work with both. It is rumoured that Facebook will soon be floated on the stock market. The people will be able to buy a stake in the website that they help to build and promote.

Just noticed Facebook is looking a little smoother around the edges, and also that user “status” has been replaced with “What’s on your mind?”.

User profile photos now have rounded edges too.

On the home page there is more detailed information on what you can see in your own Facebook homepage, i.e.

“You’re looking at the real-time stream of posts from your friends and connections. Control the stream using the filters on the left. To hide posts from friends in this stream, click the “x” in the upper right-hand corner of a post. ”

All good. FB does keep getting better as it grows. The privacy concerns seem to be getting sorted too. Facebook continues to keep one step ahead of its competitors.