Defriending MySpace's "Tom" for Security

Being a hacker at mind, is blessing and a burden at the same time.  So with my hacker's hat on today, I was contemplating the benefits and risks of being a MySpace Friend with the Co-Founder "Tom".

When I first joined MySpace, I found myself with one and only friend, Tom, and I thought cool at least I have one friend to start out.  I later figured out and after reading "MySpace for Dummies"
that all newbies are friended by Tom.  At first, I thought this was a nice touch since other social netoworks such as Facebook and Bebo do not offer a "default" friend.

But after thinking about this "friend" with my hacker hat back on, my thought is of a potential spamming and security risk.  If all MySpacers are friends with Tom, then a minimal effort is needed for a spammer or hacker to refer to Tom's friends list to send out spam messages or spam friend requests.  What this means is that everyone is two degrees from everyone else with Tom being the proxy or the friend in the middle.

So I contemplated this type of network within a network and decided to defriend Tom.  If a spammer or hacker wants to find me, they'll need to at least search for me or traverse a group list, which are many to say the least, and then spam or friend request me.  This I believe is a preventative security layer or measure for my MySpace profile.

So do I recommend this action to others?  Sorry Tom, but my answer is yes. If you can do without the MySpace updates then defriend.  Nothing personal Tom.

E-mail is an absolute wasteland because of spam and you never know who's lurking or wants to sell you something on the MySpace network.  Let's hope MySpace does not become a wasteland, too.

As always,  the problem is choice and the choice is yours.  To friend "Tom or not to friend "Tom".  That is the question.  You decide.

"MySpace for Dummies" Book Review

Yesterday, I paid a visit to my local library. I checked out 4 dvds and 10 books. One of the books was "MySpace for Dummies" by Ryan Hupfer, Mitch Maxson, and Ryan Williams.

Now, I just recently joined MySpace and have always had the curiosity to learn the history and intricacies of this social networking phenomenon. I was fascinated to learn that the original idea wasn't to connect everyone online, but a platform for musicians and bands to expose their music and concerts. In addiation, MySpace offers a special profile for filmmakers and comedians to market their talents to the online community.

The overall coverage was very good. Unfortunately, most of the screenshots are out of date now but that was expected. I could still easily find the targeted concept or area which the book was referring to though. I especially enjoyed chapter 13 " Marketing the MySpace Way" and learning about how corporate america was embracing this new platform. Some of the examples were Honda, Dell, and Wendy's.

In summary, even though you may have been using MySpace for awhile, MySpace for Dummies can still offer unknown nuggets and easter eggs for the professional or newbie MySpacer.

Sun's Darkstar Project

This morning I found a very interesting open source project by Sun called Darkstar.

"Project Darkstar is the game industry’s first open source, enterprise grade, highly scalable, online game server, " defined on Darkstar's site http://projectdarkstar.com.

I went ahead a created a user account and then trolled the forums for info nuggets. From the the read of it, DS is in the early stages and is still in single-mode operation. The hop to multi-mode looks like will happen when 1.0 is released sometime soon, hopefully.

In sum, I see great potential for niche virtual world projects besides just gaming platforms. As Sir Gordon Sumner onced yodeled, "I'll be watching you!"

Phishing Domain Renewal Letters

Today I received a letter in the mail which looks like an invoice, but read closely is a new service letter for a listing service by a company called Web Listings Inc.  To the geek novice, the invoice is professional looking and looks important.  But to those who read the small print, it's just another attempt to switch domain registrars or increase search engine optimization.

I've run into the these type of letters many o'times.  At my last place of employment, the executive assistant would receive these letters and then forward them to the accounting department to be paid without reading the small print, yikes!

Today's lesson is to be certain to read the fine print on domain renewal or SEO letters received via mail.  If you're uncertain what it is, have someone with technical experience verify that it's a credible service and billing source.

New Crowdsourcing Technical Support Network Launched

Hey everyone!

Well today I created and launched a new type of Technical Support Service, Crowdsourcing Network. This new endeavour offers friends, colleagues, and clients to join my social network, http://coreyleong.ning.com and then post computer issues they may have or questions regarding software, hardware, etc.

The real strength of this network is the 1:many ratio or crowdsourcing scenario which allows anyone to offer answers or suggestions to the poster who is having the issues. At first, I am offering support, but I foresee the future where others will chip in with suggestions and tips to help others. That's Crowdsourcing my friends!

You heard it first, remember. CS will be a hot topic in 2008!

Thanks as always for reading,

Corey :^)

PS. If you're interested in trying out this new concept, email me and I'll send a socnet invite for you to join!  My email is cleong@remeta.org .

Rethinking "Virtual Tours" in Real Estate

For years, real estate pros have offered a service called Virtual Tours.  These tours were created using a camera which took snapshots of a house, inside or outside, and then "seemed" them together to make a panoramic view.  One of the notable virtual tour companies is a company called ipix.

Technically speaking, these panoramic images pieced together represent a photo, but in a continuous view and in two dimensional however not three dimensional.  In addition, the viewer can only rotate or spin the view in a two dimensional state.

With the birth of Virtual Worlds like Second Life and Kaneva, we need to rethink using the term Virtual Tours. Users are represented as avatars and are able to walk, run, or fly in 3D.

One possibility of rethinking is to categorize or label the type of virtual tour it is, real world or virtual world. Another possibility is to label as photo tour for 2D and  virtual world tour for 3D.

With this rethinking in place, a whole new market would open up for machinima vendors to come on board and offer news services to sellers in virtual worlds.   Also, current photo tour companies could move into this market and add to their current services.

Point2 Technologies Names Saul Klein As Chief Executive Officer

As expected, Point2 made an organizational move following up their "downsizing" and mass exodus a couple of weeks ago. It's quite interesting of a move imo for I sat on the same "Future of MLS" panel this past summer at the Inman Connect SF conference. Besides yours truly, Saul and Brennan were also on the panel.

As the Merivigian said, "Let's see where this goes." Yes let's.


Point2 Technologies Names Saul Klein As Chief Executive Officer