Apple’s Ad Blockers: A Threat To E-Commerce?

Forget despotic governments censoring their corner of the web, could Apple’s ad blockers be a threat not only to e-commerce in general but also to online freedom of expression as well?

By: Ringo Bones 

Ever since the September 11, 2001 Islamist terror attacks to the former US President George “Dubya” Bush’s March 2003 Operation Iraqi Freedom, every internet savvy political blogger / online publisher worth his or her salt had known how adverts allow their so-called “political rants” to be far more visible in cyberspace if they allow Google ads to be displayed with it despite of despotic governments’ efforts of online censorship. But will the recent move by the world’s leading Smartphone maker Apple with their Ad Blocker app prove to be an online censorship measure so effective that makes you wonder “why has the Unit 61398 of the Beijing 50-Cent Cyber Army thought of it first”? 

The issue is of current paramount importance because Smartphone / Mobile Phone adverts of various companies are already a 70-billion US dollar a year industry and Apple’s add blocker app might pose an economic threat to this lucrative industry that helped the political rants of the world’s poorest 99-percent guaranteed visibility online. But some of the world’s computer “wunderkinds” aged 15 to 24 has started to subscribe the conspiracy theory that the real reason why Apple launched its ad blocker app for its Smartphones its not because Apple’s altruistic need to help its customers to “remove visual distractions from web articles” or “remove annoying ads and other visual distractions” but as a ploy to push Apple’s iAdd app advertising platform to the world’s online advertisers which according to online publishing pundits is already proven to be “scarily successful” in Apple’s recent demonstrations in recent major various consumer electronics conventions. 

Sadly, it is not just Apple’s ad blocker app that’s threatening online freedom of expression, some recent Mozilla Firefox variants has the option to allow proprietors of internet cafés to block whatever major online search engine, site or advertisement that suits their fancy. There’s even an internet café located in front of University of Cebu – one of the major IT colleges in Cebu City – that allowed its owners to block Google-mail and other Google related services in all of the desktop PCs they provide for their customers. I don’t know if the said proprietor of that internet café is beholden to Yahoo’s Marissa Meyer but it is a “scary glimpse” of what it’s like to use a public internet café establishment in The People’s Republic Of China.

Ashley Madison: Legalized Extramarital Affair Enablers?

With the recent hack that released private details of its clients who are guaranteed confidentiality, is the online dating site Ashley Madison nothing more than an antisocial extramarital affair enabling site?

By: Ringo Bones 

From The Simpsons and various late night show hosts / comedians, Ashley Madison has become a punch-line of legalized extramarital affair jokes for most of the 21^st Century.  And even though some site on the “dark web” are providing more nefarious services like murder-for-hire or guaranteed online sale and delivery to online customers of unlicensed modern assault rifles and hard illegal drugs like heroin and cocaine, it seems that the social networking and online dating website Ashley Madison has been dealt the short end of the “right-wing conservative morality stick” when it comes to tearing the social fabric. Unfortunately, a recent high-profile hacking attack had got the private details of their clients divulged online and thus made Ashley Madison gain “unwanted” popularity. 

Ashley Madison is a Canada based online dating service and online networking site whose services are aimed at people who are married or who are in a committed relationship who wants to cheat and get away with it from their current partner who they no longer love and yet don’t have the will to break-up with. As typified by the service’s slogan: “Life is short, have an affair”, Ashley Madison is often seen by the general public as nothing more than an extramarital affair enabling website. Ashley Madison was launched back in 2001 and the name of the site was derived from the two most popular female names used on the North American continent – “Ashley” and “Madison” – as opposed to the popular belief after “Dolley Madison” - former US President James Madison’s wife with a penchant for having extramarital affairs. 

Ashley Madison received its most recent significant “unwanted public attention” back in July 15, 2015 after a high-profile online hacking attack allowed “ethical hackers” to steal all of its private customer data – including names, home addresses, credit card information and even including their client’s “most private sexual fantasies” – and threatened to post all the data online if Ashley Madison and fellow Avid Life Media site EstablishedMen.com were not permanently closed. 

At present, Ashley Madison is now facing a 576-million US dollar class-action lawsuit from its “singed” clients. One of the high-profile individuals who were affected by the hacking attack was American Traditional marriage advocate and alleged child molester Josh Duggar who was recently outed by the “ethical hackers” as one of Ashley Madison’s top clientele. Given the “amorality” of Ashley Madison and the “ethical hackers” who outed their clients seeking to get away with their secret trysts, I bet this story won’t be having a happy ending.

Sharks: Most Dangerous Internet Hackers?

Are sharks the most dangerous internet hackers because they can disrupt a large region’s internet coverage with just one bite?

By: Ringo Bones 

Excuse the pun, but there has been recent undeniable proof that sharks can be more dangerous than the internet's most notorious black hat hackers. Forget the Mainland Chinese Unit 61398’s most coordinated DDOS attacks between 1999 and 2006, 13 incidences of broken underwater internet cables of previously unknown causes have been attributed to shark attacks after shark bite damage contained fragments of shark tooth – physical proof of a confirmed shark attack. The most recent one shut down Vietnam’s internet back in 2014.  

Underwater cables are rather old tech that dates back to Victorian era telegraphy, and yet they provide a more reliable and cost-effective internet connectivity between continents and nation-states in comparison to the latest high-bandwidth digital communications satellites. Underwater telecommunication cables are often attack by sharks because their Ampullae of Lorenzini cause them to be attracted to the rather strong electromagnetic fields emitted by the high-current direct-current power supply of underwater cables.    

At present, 75-million internet servers worldwide are connected via submarine telecommunications cables where 500,000 miles of underwater cables connect various landing stations that make everyone on the planet more or less connected. 41 cable repair ships currently service those underwater cables that carry our internet signals. In case of a shark attack incident, underwater cable repair currently costs about 10,000 US dollars a day. 

But as the underwater cable reaches land and go subsurface, humans scavenging for scrap metal are as dangerous as sharks when it comes to disrupting the internet service. In 2011, a 75-year-old Georgian woman looking for scrap metal to sell in order to augment her meager government pension accidentally cut an underground telecommunications cable with her digging shovel, shutting down the internet services of Georgia and Armenia for 5-hours. 

Whatever Happened To Grand Theft Auto Los Alamos?

Though such video games and their ilk are primarily known for their gratuitous violence and misogyny, are there any “high-brow alternative” to Grand Theft Auto Los Angeles?

By: Ringo Bones

Grand Theft Auto Los Alamos: a high-brow alternative to Grand Theft Auto Los Angeles? Maybe, but for those fortunately old enough to remember, furor over the theft of the U.S. government’s top tier nuclear secrets – when the U.S. Department of Defense’s ultra-compact W88 thermonuclear warhead construction secrets got leaked to Beijing - are a serious issue back in 1998 before it was overshadowed by the September 11, 2001 Terror Attacks.

Well, the Taiwanese born American scientist Wen Ho Lee who had been working at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratories in Los Alamos, New Mexico facility since the 1970s had become headline news back near the end of 1998 when he was found out to be passing nuclear weapon’s secrets to the Beijing Government via Hong Kong. And for those fortunately old enough to remember the atomic-powered car – the Ford Nucleon – and add this to the mix, now you have a recipe for a high-brow nuclear science oriented video game reminiscent of Grand Theft Auto Los Angeles. And name it “Grand Theft Auto Los Alamos” in order to capitalize on the curious old enough to remember the “Atomic Age” first hand.

Sometimes I too wonder why nobody has though of this yet. Given the advances made in home based computer game consoles and in desktop PCs, tablets, mobile devices and what have you, Grand Theft Auto Los Alamos could have been a historically-based video game that’s both educational and thrilling. Maybe one of these days - through Crowdfunding I guess – it may suddenly dominate the computer gaming market, or maybe an IMAX 3D big-budget action movie tie-in perhaps?

    

Is Your Website Google Mobile Search Friendly?

Despite the fears of a “Mobilegeddon”, does your dedicated commercial website compliant with Google’s latest “mobile friendly update”?

By: Ringo Bones 

A few days ago, anyone with a dedicated economically viable website had been busy to comply with their “Mobilegeddon checklists” due to social media wide “Mobilegeddon scare” a few days ago in order to avoid their site from retreating from Google’s top-tier search results. But does a mobile-friendly website insure a recipe for success in the face of Google’s recent revamp of its search algorithm to prioritize mobile friendly websites priority for top-tier Google search results? 

A few web savvy nettizens first learned of Google’s plan to release a new search results algorithm designed to reward mobile-friendly web pages back in February 2015. According to these web savvy nettizens, it’s unprecedented for Google to pre-announce a big algorithmic change like this, but Google did so in order to give online publishers ample time to make their sites more “mobile friendly”.

Google’s brand new search results algorithm was officially launched back in April 21, 2015. Fortunately, according to Google, this update will impact only mobile searches and it will give a search results ranking boost to mobile-friendly pages in Google’s mobile search results only. As it will only impact mobile searches – as in mobile smartphone devices (powered by Google’s Android?) and will have no impact on your desktop computer’s search ranking results. Tablet computer search results are the same as desktop search results. 

Even though experts say that in order for your website to comply to be “mobile friendly”, it must have easily clickable function buttons and must easily resize its fonts and graphics to fit into mobile devices, according to Google, the only “official way” to know if your site is already indexed by Google as “mobile friendly” is to see if your site has the “mobile friendly label” in the mobile search results. Using Google’s official mobile friendly testing tool will show if your site is “mobile friendly”, but Google may still need some time to update their index to pick up on the fact that your web pages are mobile friendly. You can also check with the mobile usability reports within Google Webmaster Tools, but those can be fairly delayed. 

Since 2013, premium online adverts – i.e. ones that make your website earn more money in its operation – had been relegated by Google on mobile device search results. That is, your website earns more money if more people are using Google to search for it on their mobile devices. Recently, it has been announced that Google had been telling the press that they are “experimenting” with a new mobile friendly search ranking algorithm as far back as December 2014.

Can An Artificial Intelligence Program Beat Us At Everything?

Even though Prof. Stephen Hawking had warned us about it back in December 2014, will artificial intelligence systems be better than us at everything? 

By: Ringo Bones 

Though it has yet to dethrone those classic rock gods in terms of composing the best songs, an artificial intelligence program recently managed to make itself master at playing classic 1980s era Atari computer games.  Researchers working for Google in London say they have developed an artificial intelligence system that has taught itself how to win at 1980s era computer games. The computer program, which is inspired by how the human brain works learned how to play 49 classic Atari games, in half the time, it was better than a professional human player. 

Google’s DeepMind team said this was the first time a system had learned how to master a wide range of complex tasks. The study is published in the journal Nature. Dr. Dennis Hassabis, DeepMind’s vice president of engineering showed the BBC’s Pallab Ghosh how the artificial intelligence program had taught itself to excel at classic Breakout – a 1980s era Atari game. 

While the warning issued by Prof. Stephen Hawking on artificial intelligence systems’ ability to destroy mankind speech back in December 2014 still on their minds, Google’s DeepMind team wants ethical guidelines on artificial intelligence development be put in place to avoid such fears.  Despite the potential risks, the promise posed by true artificial intelligence systems that could accurately model how our brain works is just too good not to pursue further.