Poll chief: Facebook, Twitter, blogs excluded in online monitoring.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) may have already imposed rules regarding campaigning on the Internet, but its hands are tied when it comes to the candidate's blogs and posts on social networking sites.

In an interview Monday, Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said the poll body has no control over social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter as anyone can have an account in those site for free.

“For free, wala kasing icha-charge. Hindi kagaya ‘yung meron kang poster or pamphlet, may gastos lahat ‘yan. Pag print ka alam mong mako-kontrol mo. Pero ito, paano mo mako-kontrol ito eh libre ito,” he said.

The poll chief added that candidates may even use blogs for campaigning. “If it’s your personal website, using it daily, para ka lang kumakampanya at kumakamay sa taumbayan. Masama ba ‘yun? Hindi naman. Nagbibigay ka ng opinion o pinupuri mo araw-araw sarili mo, okay lang.”

Online campaigning covered by Resolution No. 9615 are those advertisements in the form of pop-ups, rectangles, banners, buttons and skyscrapers. These are only allowed to be published thrice a week for each website during the campaign period. The display of online campaign for any length of time within a 24-hour period shall be considered one publication.

This is the first time the Comelec will regulate online election campaign.

The Touchscreen Generation: 40 percent of kids under 2 years old have used a smartphone or tablet!

Nearly 40 percent—or two in five—of children below two years old have used a smartphone or tablet, a new study has found.

But the study also showed that by age 8, 72 percent of children have used a smartphone, tablet or similar device.

Citing data from the study, Mashable said the gadgets in the little ones' hands were used for games, viewing videos and other media-related purposes.

 

Also, the study showed a rapid adoption by young children of mobile devices.

 

In comparison, computer use among children under two grew from 4 to 10 percent from 2011 to 2013, while TV viewership among such children remained stable at 66 percent.

 

Viewership of DVD videos even declined from 52 percent in 2011 to 46 percent in 2013, the study added.

Nexus 5 for sale Nov. 1 - Leaked

A white version of Google's latest Nexus 5 smartphone may be coming before the end of this week, if photos leaked online prove accurate.

Tech site Mashable said this came a day after photos of a black Nexus 5 smartphone were posted online.

 

But Mashable also noted that while the Nexus 5's back casing - at least in the photos - appeared to be white, it appeared black on the front.

 

It also pointed out Google has not quite kept secret the details about the rumored Nexus phone.

 

"The handset briefly appeared in the Google Play store, and was listed for $349 for the 16GB model," it said (http://mashable.com/2013/10/27/nexus-5-white-photos/).

 

On the other hand, Mashable noted a manual for the Nexus 5 surfaced online, but was taken down.

Filipino Could the next Facebook or Google?

If you have a million-dollar idea for a software company, now is the time to get it started, according to the Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA).

 

There are 300 software startups in the country at the moment, yet the public and private funds available to be used for these are so much more, said Joey Gurango, PSIA President, during a media briefing at the SOFTCON.PH conference, Thursday.

 

The Philippines is still the leader in the voice business process outsourcing (BPO) sector, according to Gurango, but is only close second or third next to India when it comes to export revenues from software engineering services from the IT-BPO industry.

 

There are 14 product teams already on board, and PSIA aims to increase this number to 20 by the end of the year. All these teams presented their software products in an exhibit during SOFTCON.PH.

 

One of them is Tom Taps, a mobile app that contains activities and tools that aid and help encourage learning for children with special needs.

 

It contains a communication tool where a child can choose picture cards that say what he or she means to say. It also has a scheduler board, a theraputic tool, and a set of learning games.

 

Another is WaitLifter, a virtual queueing system that allows people to be wherever they want while waiting for their turn instead of staying in long queues.

 

Right now, the product is being tested in doctors' private clinics in a town near Gen. Santos City and in Makati Med in Metro Manila, said software developer Benjamin Jiao.

 

"Our main goal for this phase is just to get as much feedback as we can from the doctors as well as the patients and refine the app before we sell it," he said.

 

The hospital secretary only needs to enter the patient's name and mobile number into the system. The system then sends an automated SMS notification to the customer as his turn nears.

 

The system is also capable of estimating how long a certain appointment lasts based on its historical data.

 

 

Hackers steal files from SD card - Firefox Security for Andriod

"The issue has been marked as fixed with v24, which rolled out to the Play Store on September 17th. Sebastián is also preparing a full technical report to explain the vulnerability in much greater detail," AndroidPolice said

Users of devices running Google's Android and who browse the web using Firefox for Android may have to be careful – a flaw in Firefox can let hackers steal files from the SD (Secure Digital) card on the device.

Enthusiast site AndroidPolice.com cited the findings of researcher Sebastián Guerrero Selma, who posted a video showing the newly found vulnerability.

"If successfully exploited, the implications of the vulnerability could be disastrous. Naturally, access to files on the SD Card is a privacy issue and could be severe depending on what is stored there, including personal pictures and video, or data placed there by other applications," it said.
AndroidPolice.com said apps can usually place data in a separate location such as a private folder, but it noted the secured location for Firefox is accessible.

The exploit can occur if users visit a web page and install an app or open a locally stored HTML file containing a malicious snippet of Javascript.

British hacker accused of illegal access to US military networks

'BACK DOORS'

 

U.S. prosecutors said the scheme involved the installation by Love and his co-conspirators of malware in the hacked systems, creating "shells" and "back doors" that allowed them to return later to steal data.

 

According to the U.S. indictment, Love, who was also known as "nsh" and "route" and "peace," at times used internet chat rooms to discuss the intrusions and efforts to conceal them.

 

In a conversation dated Oct. 7, 2012, and described in the indictment, Love discussed the hacking of an Army Corps database that might have yielded 400,000 email addresses, and asked a co-conspirator to "grab one email for curiosity."

 

He told another co-conspirator on July 31, 2013, after a hacking: "This ... stuff is really sensitive. ... It's basically every piece of information you'd need to do full identity theft on any employee or contractor for the (agency)," the indictment said.

 

Prosecutors said hacked systems were located in places including Vicksburg, Mississippi, and the U.S. Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, and also included a server containing information about military personnel at Fort Monmouth in New Jersey.

 

The U.S. Defense Department did not immediately comment on the matter.

Boost sharing of photos, videos of Smartphones

This survey found that 92 percent of Americans own a cell phone and 58 percent own a smartphone. Some 18 percent of cell phone owners use Instagram and nine percent use Snapchat to share images or videos.

Sharing photos and videos online adds texture, play, and drama to people's interactions in their social networks,? said Pew Internet's Maeve Duggan, author of the report.

Women are more active sharers than men, according to the survey: Some 59 percent of online women post photos and videos they have taken themselves, compared with 50 percent of men.

Likewise, 53 percent of women share some of the content they found elsewhere, compared with 42 percent of men.

The Pew Research Center survey found 54 percent of US Internet users now post original pictures or videos online, up from 46 percent last year.