Nata's Corner

For those of you who are curious about those things, what a DDoS attack looks like and a lot of statistics on data breaches. And if it's any consolation, the guy who is supposedly the mastermind behind the SpyEye botnet was extradited from Thailand last week. It won't clean up all the messes his software has made, but if he's convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in a prison cell.

Back around Christmas, when we were visiting the family in the Midwest, our 19-month-old granddaughter sat down with her parents' iPad, turned it on, found the drawing program, opened it up and proceeded to play with it for an hour or two (she's particularly fond of using her finger to create dots of various colors), all by herself. So I had to chuckle a bit about an article that suggests that toddlers are becoming addicted to electronic devices. Let's see. Using a device to create things, as opposed to camping in front of the television set (especially when she wants Mom or her sister to "play" with her): check. Getting used to technology she's going to have to learn to use in just about every aspect of her life: check. No little pieces for her to swallow or someone else to step on: check. No consumption of lots of sugar or fats: check. When it all comes down to it, it's like everything else when your children are growing up: spending time with them and making sure they're not going to hurt themselves too often or too badly. If you think your toddler is "addicted" to an iPad, or if you're worried that your child might become addicted to one -- then don't give them one, and monitor them when they're using it. Otherwise, you're likely to wind up with a lazy, self-centered brat who wants the world handed to her on a silver platter.

If you happen to be in San Francisco in a couple of weeks, it might not be a bad thing to sign up for a Sophos event dealing with how to combat cyberattacks. They're serving lunch, and you will get out in time to walk down the hill seven blocks to Tadich Grill for dinner (have the cioppino). It's kind of important, because our friend Brad sent us an item about how Russian bad guys stole $1.03 million from a Washington hospital.

Remember a few years back when there was a huge story about how AT&T was keeping all of the emails, Internet phone calls and text messages and turning them over to the NSA? Well, if a former FBI counterterrorism expert is to be believed -- and no one is denying it -- it's not just the Internet stuff that's being kept, but everyone's telephone calls too. Oh, and it's been going on for years. You might want to take a look at who has your back.

Finally, a couple of months ago, the Boy Scouts introduced their game design merit badge, which isn't for playing games, but for designing them; they can be outdoor games, table top games (like board or card games) or electronic games. So last week, the Girl Scouts introduced their own, strictly for video game development (which could make Facebook happy). You go, girls!

In Brief

The long and winding road: Only 335 shopping days left until Windows XP support stops. Were this an actual emergency...

Can't buy me love: Google got fined .002 per cent of its 2012 profit for its violations of Germany's privacy laws.

Here comes the sun: If you're not one of those people who thinks much about climate change, the researchers behind one Twitter account might make you take notice, as sometime in the next week or so, the world will see something it hasn't seen in 4 million years: carbon dioxide levels of 400 parts per million.

Please Mr. postman: Hotmail has gone cold.

Fixing a hole: Living Social, the daily deals site propped up owned by Amazon, had the names, emails and passwords of 50 million of its customers -- but no financial information -- stolen by hackers. Putting the cost into perspective, the state of Utah could be on the hook for millions of dollars following a breach a year ago, and there's no shortage of targets for the bad guys.

I don't want to spoil the party: Warner Brothers, one of those big companies that sues everyone, is being sued over cat memes.

Everybody's got something to hide except me and my monkey: No ads, no charge for Google Glass. Of course not; there are only a few thousand owners who have already paid their $1500 for what may eventually become a museum piece like the PCjr.

Across the universe: The world's first website.

I should have known better: It should come as a great comfort to IT managers everwhere that of the top 25 paid apps downloaded from iTunes for the iPhone, four are not games. Of the free apps, five can be marginally called work-related: Skype, the Weather Channel, Google Search, Google Earth and Google Maps. Apropos of which, Facebook is now telling you how you can hide ads on mobile devices. which makes no sense for a company that is trying to increase its viability as an advertising medium in the mobile market -- but chasing off advertisers doesn't make sense either.

A taste of honey: Robobees.

The continuing story of Bungalow Bill: eBay is turning to its customers to lobby against a bill that would tax online sales, but it's not likely to be approved by the House of Representatives.

You never give me your money: The UK just passed an act that allows photographs on sites like Facebook and Instagram that don't have clear authorship to be copyrighted and used by someone else.

Act naturally: China is the source of 41 per cent of computer attacks. Maybe it'll slow down if the NFL has its way. What's Mandarin for "cyber war in Asia"?

Taxman: No wonder the US government is broke.

And your bird can sing: Michael Meneses of New York was arrested for quitting from and behaving badly toward his former employer. Memo to bosses: don't just pass people over for promotions; talk to them.

Don't let me down: What started out as a campaign to fix David Henneberry's boat did a whole lot better.

I'm looking through you: Does this sound familiar? Using points to verify information on social media networks.

Devil in her heart: We're used to seeing Google and Apple fighting over devices running Android, ever since the Steve Jobs comment that he would "destroy Android", so much so that we think the only solution is a cage match. But let's not forget that those two aren't the only contenders for the title of "Tech Company Keeping The Most Lawyers Employed"; there's also Microsoft, which won the first round over Xbox patents. Still, the idea of putting Page, Ballmer and Cook in the octagon just screams "Pay Per View!!!".

Every little thing: Windows 8.1 will have a Start button, and naps help.

Eight days a week (AKA Signs of the Apocalypse): Regulating driverless cars (hint: legal pads and carbon paper). Also, 3D printed handguns, and The Onion got hacked.

Milestones

New Savant: hanccocka is the most recent recipient of the Savant designation, in VMware.

New Aces: GrahamSkan, who has earned over 1,000,000 points in each of three topic areas, has earned the Ace certificate in Visual Basic, where he is the second highest ranked Expert overall. Earning their first Ace certificates were guru_sami in ASP.NET and coolsport00 in VMware.

New Geniuses: Two longtime Experts have earned their first Genius certificates. gr8gonzo, who joined EE in October 1998, earned his in PHP, while jcimarron, a member since April 1999, earned his in Windows 7. Thanks to both of you for hanging around for so long!

My First Million: Members who reached the 1,000,000 point level in April were lsavidge and apeter. Congratulations!

Milestones:

• Ray_Paseur has earned 15,000,000 points since joining EE in 2007.
• CodeCruiser reached the 12,000,000 point level, the 20th EE member to do so.