Game over for Zynga? Firm loses 25 percent of daily active users in one quarter

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In its latest earnings statement filed Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Zynga reported the number of daily average users (DAU) dropped to 39 million in the second quarter of 2013—the lowest ever since the company began keeping track. Last quarter, the DAU fell to the then-lowest record, 52 million users. The fall to 39 million means that 25 percent of its daily user base stopped using Zynga products in just one quarter.

via Game over for Zynga? Firm loses 25 percent of daily active users in one quarter | Ars Technica.

Chinese firm Huawei controls net filter praised by PM

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The pornography filtering system praised by David Cameron is controlled by the controversial Chinese company Huawei, the BBC has learned.

via BBC News – Chinese firm Huawei controls net filter praised by PM.

Customers who do not want filtering still have their traffic routed through the system, but matches to Huawei’s database are dismissed rather than acted upon.

Tiny, cheap, and dangerous: Inside a (fake) iPhone charger

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I recently wrote a popular article on the history of computer power supplies, which led to speculation on what’s inside those amazingly small one-inch cube USB chargers sold by Apple, Samsung, RIM, and other companies. In the interest of science, I bought a cheap no-name cube charger off eBay for $2.79, and took it apart. It’s amazing that manufacturers can build and sell a complex charger for just a few dollars. It looks a lot like a genuine Apple charger and cost a lot less. But looking inside, I found that important safety corners were cut, which could lead to a 340 volt surprise. In addition, the interference from a cheap charger like this can cause touchscreen malfunctions. Thus, I recommend spending a few dollars more to get a brand-name charger.

via Ken Shirriff’s blog: Tiny, cheap, and dangerous: Inside a (fake) iPhone charger.

Why Netflix is one of the most important cloud computing companies

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The chief architect behind Netflix’s cloud and OSS strategy is Adrian Cockcroft, a former distinguished engineer at eBay and Sun, who says Netflix has many agendas in developing OSS. For one, it’s working to establish Netflix’s process as a best practice way of operating in the public cloud. Doing so allows the company to benefit from the knowledge of the broader open source community who recommend improvements. Furthermore, it helps Netflix hire and retain top engineering talent all while building up the company’s technology brand.

via Why Netflix is one of the most important cloud computing companies – Network World.

Facebook just raked in $333 million in quarterly profit

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In its second quarter of earnings in 2013, Facebook walked away with $333 million in profit (and $1.8 billion in revenue), according to its latest 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Investors clearly like Facebook’s latest numbers—the stock has soared 17 percent in after-hours trading. (By comparison, Facebook lost $157 million in the same quarter in 2012.)

via What mobile problem? Facebook just raked in $333 million in quarterly profit | Ars Technica.

Inside the Bluebox Android Master Key Vulnerability

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The only way an Android user can be attacked via this master key flaw is if they download a vulnerable application.

“It all comes down to where you get your applications from,” Forristal said.

That means if a user gets their applications from trusted sources like Google Play, the risk of the master key exploit is not high, even if the given device has not been updated with the latest patched Android code. Forristal noted that he has seen reports that he has not been able to independently verify, that indicate Google is already scanning apps in the Play store to mitigate risk.

via Inside the Bluebox Android Master Key Vulnerability – eSecurity Planet.

From:  First Malicious Apps Targeting Android ‘Master Key Vulnerability’ Found in the Wild

Bluebox Security has released a free app designed to help Android users check if their device has been patched for the master key vulnerability.

Intel ‘Re-imagines’ The Data Center With New Avoton Server Architecture, Software-Defined Services

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Intel isn’t just pushing Avoton as as low-power solution that’ll compete with products from ARM and AMD, but as the linchpin of a system for software defined networking and software defined storage capability. In a typical network, a switch is programmed to send arriving traffic to a particular location. Both the control plane (where traffic goes) and the data plane (the hardware responsible for actually moving the bits) are implemented in hardware and duplicated in every switch.

via Intel ‘Re-imagines’ The Data Center With New Avoton Server Architecture, Software-Defined Services – HotHardware.

Software defined networking replaces this by using software to manage traffic (OpenFlow in the example diagram below) and monitoring it from a central controller. Intel is moving towards such a model and talking it up as an option because it moves control away from specialized hardware baked into expensive routers made by people that aren’t Intel, and towards centralized technology Intel can bake into the CPU itself.

Eolas patents are dead on appeal

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Berners-Lee was one of several web pioneers who came through the court during the course of a four-day trial, which ultimately convinced a jury to invalidate two patents owned by Eolas, the tiny patent-holding company that Doyle and his lawyers transformed into one of the most fearsome “patent trolls” of all time.

Now Eolas appears to be gone for good. The company mounted a lengthy appeal, but it was all for naught; this morning, a three-judge appeals panel affirmed the jury’s verdict without comment.

via The Web’s longest nightmare ends: Eolas patents are dead on appeal | Ars Technica.

Victory Lap for Ask Patents

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The other 40,000-odd software patents issued every year are mostly garbage that any working programmer could “invent” three times before breakfast. Most issued software patents aren’t “inventions” as most people understand that word. They’re just things that any first-year student learning Java should be able to do as a homework assignment in two hours.

via Victory Lap for Ask Patents – Joel on Software.

There is, though, an interesting lesson here. Software patent applications are of uniformly poor quality. They are remarkably easy to find prior art for. Ask Patents can be used to block them with very little work. And this kind of individual destruction of one software patent application at a time might start to make a dent in the mountain of bad patents getting granted.

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Got 15 minutes? Go to Ask Patents right now, and see if one of these RFPAs covers a topic you know something about, and post any examples you can find. They’re hidden in plain view; most of the prior art you need for software patents can be found on Google. Happy hunting!

True tales of mostly white-hat hacking

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Here are five true tales of bringing down the baddies. I can’t say I’m proud of all the things I did, but the stories speak for themselves. Got one of your own to pass along? Send it my way, or share it in the comments.

via True tales of mostly white-hat hacking | Security – InfoWorld.

Posing as a regular customer, we complained that we thought someone was attacking our cable box and asked if the technician could take a look at our device’s firewall log to confirm. A few minutes later up popped the technician’s shadow and passwd password files. When executed, our encoded malicious JavaScript packet would look for various password and configuration files and, if found, send them back to us. The technician had viewed the firewall log, the XSS had launched, and we ended up with the company’s enterprise-wide root password. All of this hacking occurred in about six hours. In less than a day we had fatally compromised the set-top box and pwned the whole company.