Recently, the popular social media website Digg released a useful but controversial product: the DiggBar, an iframe toolbar that lets users browse other websites without actually leaving Digg.com. In the last week, we’ve already discussed how the DiggBar could impact the Twitter link-sharing experience and Digg’s response to the recent criticism.

This has done little to quell the controversy surrounding the DiggBar, however. Engadget has now blocked the DiggBar. In addition, one popular article, on how to block the DiggBar, received over 1900 diggs but at the same time was buried, showing how divided the Digg community is over the feature. Some of the controversy has been over the impact of the DiggBar on SEO (search engine optimization) and traffic to people’s website.

This is all a bit of a complicated mess. So we’ve put together this article discussing the pro and con arguments for the DiggBar, especially as it relates to the user and to the website owner. After considering the pros and cons, we want to know whether you will block the DiggBar or keep it active.

Find out more…

Just hours after Twitter began removing the first cross-site scripting vulnerability that hit its site this weekend, a new modified strain has been found, and according to F-Secure, it’s not the last one we’re likely to see over the next few days.

“This is not over. There’s going to be quite a few modified Twitter worms for a day or two. Be careful in Twitter, don’t view profiles, don’t follow links. It’s beautiful outside, maybe go for a walk instead?” Mikko said on the F-Secure blog earlier today.

According to Breaking News, Mikeyy Mooney, the 17 year-old owner of StalkDaily.com, has reportedly admitted responsibility for yesterday’s attack.

“I am the person who coded the XSS which then acted as a worm when it auto updated a users profile and status, which then infected other users who viewed their profile. I did this out of boredom, to be honest. I usually like to find vulnerabilities within websites and try not to cause too much damage, but start a worm or something to give the developers an insight on the problem and while doing so, promoting myself or my website.”

Find out more…

A sea change may be coming to cyberspace with Web addresses ending in anything from .a to .z. That has businesses increasingly worried they will have to spend millions to guard their brand names.
The familiar .com, .net, .org and 18 other suffixes — officially “generic top-level domains” — could be joined by a seemingly endless stream of new ones next year under a landmark change approved last summer by the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers, the entity that oversees the Web’s address system.

Tourists might find information about the Liberty Bell, for example, at a site ending in .philly. A rapper might apply for a Web address ending in .hiphop.

“Whatever is open to the imagination can be applied for,” says Paul Levins, ICANN’s vice president of corporate affairs. “It could translate into one of the largest marketing and branding opportunities in history.”

Many businesses see more problems than profits — opportunities for scammers to exploit brand names and mislead consumers, or even attack brands.

Find out more…

Besides checking the length of a South African ID number for validation, our developer Clive Crous thought there must be an official checksum. After piecing together multiple google searches he has build a ruby class which validates our customer ID numbers. Our online debit engine is enhanced a little further.

Below is the ruby code, enjoy

Download the identity_number.rb file

1 require ‘time‘ # Used for verifying date of birth portion of ID Number
2
3 class SouthAfricanIDNumber
4
5 # The format of a normal South-African ID number is as follows
6 # {YYMMDD}{G}{SSS}{A}{Z}
7 # YYMMDD: Date of birth
8 # G  : Gender. 0-4 Female; 5-9 Male.
9 # SSS  : Sequence No. for DOB/G combination.
10 # C  : Citizenship. 0 SA; 1 Other.
11 # A  : Usually 8, or 9 (can be other values)
12 # Z  : Control digit.
13
14 def initialize( number )
15 @number = number.to_s
16 end
17
18 def gender
19 self[6] > 4 ? :male : :female
20 end
21
22 def south_african?
23 self[10] == 0
24 end
25
26 def generate_check_digit
27 odd_digits = @number.scan(/../).map{|n|n[0].chr}
28 even_digits = @number.scan(/../).map{|n|n[1].chr}
29
30 sum_of_odd_digits = odd_digits.inject(0){ |total,digit| total + digit.to_i }
31
32 combined_and_multiplied_even_digits = even_digits.join(”).to_i * 2
33
34 sum_of_even_digits_multiplied =
35 combined_and_multiplied_even_digits.to_s.scan(/./).inject(0){|total,digit|total + digit.to_i }
36
37 ( 10 – ( (sum_of_odd_digits + sum_of_even_digits_multiplied) % 10 ) ) % 10
38 end
39
40 def valid_format?
41 @number =~ /^[0-9]{13}$/ ? true : false
42 end
43
44 def valid_birth_date?
45 begin
46 return false unless Time.parse(@number[0..5]).strftime(‘%y%m%d‘) == @number[0..5]
47 rescue
48 return false
49 end
50 true
51 end
52
53 def valid_check_digit?
54 self[12] == generate_check_digit
55 end
56
57 def valid?
58 valid_format? and valid_birth_date? and valid_check_digit?
59 end
60
61 def to_s
62 @number
63 end
64
65 def []( character_enum )
66 begin
67 @number[character_enum].chr.to_i
68 rescue
69 nil
70 end
71 end
72
73 end
74

The latest rumor to circulate the Internet is that Google is in the final stages of negotiation to buy Twitter, the micro-blogging service.

Twitter sign-ups have exploded in the past year, partly owing to endorsements by celebrities and features within the popular press. Twitter would certainly be a logical choice for Google in its bid to own the Internet.

Twitter has recently been valued at $250 million although the company is yet to earn a penny. It turned down Facebook’s offer of $500 million only a few months back (although part of that included Facebook stock which has no distinct value as yet). Google’s offer will need to be good.

But what is Twitter’s real value to Google? The likely possibilities include:

News: breaking stories are often posted to Twitter first, e.g. the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the plane crash into the New York Hudson river, and the shocking revelation that Stephen Fry was stuck in a lift.
Hot topics: Google could gather valuable marketing knowledge about the latest buzz on the net.
User base: Twitter has almost 10 million users that Google can target.
Advertising revenue: chat-sensitive adverts could appear.
Search: if Google can not monetize Twitter’s search, then no one can.
Market domination: owning Twitter makes Google bigger and stronger than before.
Google would also be able to offer Twitter the technology and expertise to scale up their operation effectively and reliably.

However, Google does not always get everything right: YouTube, for example, is yet to return a profit. There is also the likelihood that Twitter is a fad and will only remain popular until the next “big thing” appears.

What do you think? Would Google and Twitter make a good partnership? How would competitors such as Microsoft react? Can Twitter be profitable and have a long-term future?

by Craig Buckler

A Google Street View car has been chased out of a Buckinghamshire village by angry residents.
The car was taking photographs of Broughton in Buckinghamshire for Google’s Street View service when it was spotted by Paul Jacobs – a local resident.

He warned the car not to enter the village then roused his neighbours, who surrounded the vehicle until the driver performed a U-turn and left.

Jacobs claims residents were worried that the photographs were an invasion of their privacy and would attract burglars.

“My immediate reaction was anger; how dare anyone take a photograph of my home without my consent?” He tells The Times. “This is an affluent area. We’ve already had three burglaries locally in the past six weeks. If our houses are plastered all over Google it’s an invitation for more criminals to strike. I was determined to make a stand, so I called the police.”

Find out more…