According to Agence France-Presse's article on Raw Story, Nicolas Maduro's twitter may have been hacked by supporters of rival candidate, Henrique Capriles. Maduro's twitter was hacked just moments before he defeated Capriles to become President of Venezuela. The messages left by well known hacker @lulzsecperu read: "Electoral Fraud by @lulzsecperu" and "HACKED BY @LULZSECPERU." These messages showed up as polls were closing. Maduro's campaign chief, Jorge Rodriguez, says "This is yet another sign of the enormous desperation of opposition supporters and their candidate rival candidate Henrique Capriles." Rodriguez went on to say "dirty campaign from Bogota… which has sought to... Continue reading

According to Harriet Alexander's article on the telegraph Nicolas Maduro's twitter was hacked last Sunday by well known hacker Lulz Peru. The online activist Lulz has targeted Sony, Nintendo, and broadcasters Fox. American network PBS was hacked after it made a documentary critical of WikiLeaks. Just moments after Maduro changed his twitter profile saying "President (elect) of Venezuela, son of Chavez” Lulz changed it to read “Nicolas Maduro: Stooge of Barack Obama, hacked by Lulz Peru.” Lulz also changeed Maduro's twitter picture to his logo of a a mustachioed man with a monocle, drinking a glass of red wine. Lulz... Continue reading

According to Peter Kenyon's article on NPR, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, got a Facebook page this December. Facebook is one of the many websites that are banned in Iran. This move by Khamenei has people scratching their heads. Many thought the news of Khamenei's Facebook page were fake because they did not think he would use technology that the government blocks. The rumors were confirmed when Khamenei defended himself on his Twitter account. A U.S. State Department spokeswoman was quoted asking how many "likes" the pages would get. Although Iran has one of the highest percentages of Internet... Continue reading

According to Gardiner Harris' New York Times article, the Indian government is defending the crackdown on social media websites like Facebook and Twitter. The government says the blocking of material on these websites is crucial to maintaining peace in India. The ban of social media came after the riots in Mumbai. Most of the pages that have been blocked are of "general news" including the British newspaper The Telegraph and TV network Al Jazeera. An article on NDTV states the government has ordered at least 80 pages and user accounts to be banned to avoid more panic in North-East India.... Continue reading

According to Amit Agarwal's article in Tech Journal, the Indian government is trying to block Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube. The reason they are doing this is because they think these social media websites could spark religious and ethnic tensions. The government is asking Service Providers to block the websites. They are also sending direct requests to Twitter and Facebook to permanently remove the content from their servers. The Service Providers have been quick to comply to these government requests. In some cases they are going above and beyond what has been asked of them. The problem with the government blocking... Continue reading

An article in the Guardian online shows how North Korean students at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology find information. The students at this school are some of the very few that get the privilege of surfing the internet. Google's Chairman, Eric Schmidt, saw how the students gather information during his "private, humanitarian" mission. Students do not have the ability to search for anything they want. They are to use the internet strictly for educational purposes. They have a select few websites that are state-run they can view. At Kim Chaek University students must register for permission before using... Continue reading

According to Trevor Mogg's article in Digital Trends, Google's charman, Eric Schmidt, has asked North Korea to end its internet censorship. Schmidt said North Korea should "become more open and give its citizens freedom to use the Internet or face continued hardship." Schmidt went on to say "As the world is becoming increasingly connected, their decision to be virtually isolated is very much going to affect their physical world, their economic growth and so forth." Schmidt believes it is necessary for North Korean citizens to be able to use the internet. Only a couple thousand people have access to the... Continue reading

According to an article in the Guardian Southampton FC have banned reporters from talking to fans outside the stadium. This is just another step taken in the battle between the press and Southampton. Some think the football club is harassing the media. Reporters are not allowed to interview fans near the stadium. On Monday when Southampton played Everton, reporters were asked to leave St. Mary's stadium for health and safety reasons. The club has been in a constant battle with city's paper, the Southern Daily Echo, for about three years. The Echo's editor-in-chief, Ian Murray, said "We spoke to lots... Continue reading

The way we get news now has changed over the past couple years. We went from getting news on the radio, to getting news in the paper, to now getting news online and via text message. The way we get news now is much more efficient. Twitter has a page online specifically devoted to breaking news. On the page you can read small articles about US Secretary of State Clinton to testify before Congress on Benghazi attack and United Airlines has another large computer outage; passengers say they are stranded at airports across United States. Even during the Presidential debate... Continue reading

According to Denise Caruso's New York Times article most of us are being seduced through advertisements. Businesses have a very powerful weapon they use to get us to buy their products. Advertisements. And they use the best people around to play with our minds. Persuasive technology is not a new idea. It has been used for decades. War propaganda was one of the first really effective ads used by the government. B. J. Fogg, a researcher at Sun Microsystems Inc. and a visiting scholar and lecturer in Stanford University's departments of computer science and communications, puts persuasive technology into three... Continue reading

According to Michael Cooper's New York Times article hurricane Sandy could affect the election. Because of the super storm many polls have been closed in important states like North Carolina and Virginia. These states have many electoral college votes and something needs to be done. By Tuesday there were more than eight million homes without electricity with almost half of them in swing states. The power outages throw a wrench in the works because people do not vote with paper anymore. Everything is done electronically. Not only were there massive power outages, most of the roads were blocked with downed... Continue reading

Could top dogs like Amazon and Target lose their throne to a mom-and-pop online retailer? According to Stephanie Clifford and Claire Cain Miller's January 2012 New York Times article smaller online retail websites are fighting back against companies like Amazon and Walmart. Amazon is well known for shutting down smaller competitors by drastically reducing prices. The little guys are combating this by disabling price compare, and giving away free stuff. The New York Times quoted Dr. Harold Pollack saying he used to spend almost one-thousand dollars every year on Amazon. “I don’t feel they behave in a way that I... Continue reading

According to Leslie Wayne's New York Times article Democrats have copied the Republicans style of advertising. They are now using microtargeting. Microtargeting is personalized online ads that are tailored to a specific persons views. Depending on what websites you visit changes the ad you see. Microtargeting helped former President Bush win his two elections, and he admits the Democratic party has surpassed them in the category. The Obama campaign has heavily invested in microtargeting during his first run for President. President Obama has completely changed the game. Not only is he using what websites you visit and what online products... Continue reading

According to Tanzina Vega's February 2012 New York Times article Mitt Romney is using personalized online advertisements called microtargeting. He has different ads for different people. One person could see Romney as a family man and another person could see him explaining how he is going to "save the soul of America." These ads find computers by using search engines. Someone who has purchased tickets for a vacation online will soon be flooded with ads for vacation savings. Think about the last time you searched something on your personal computer and a half hour later you get an e-mail on... Continue reading

According to Katie Hafner's New York Times article texting is affecting teens even more than they know it. Teenagers are constantly texting their friends sometimes until their thumbs hurt. They do it at home, in school, and even while driving. They are sending hundreds of texts each day and it has negatively affected them in school. Several physicians and psychologists say texting is leading to anxiety, distraction in school, and sleep deprivation. It is also causing serious stress related injuries. Dr. Martin Joffeof Greenbrae, California surveyed two students that send hundreds of texts per day. “Then you hear that these... Continue reading

Many businesses rely on positive reviews especially restaurants. Professors Michael Anderson and Jeremy Magruder from the University of California, Berkley, have found that online reviews can make or break a restaurants reputation. Even a half of a star could drive possible guests away from your restaurant, and into your competitors. On a scale of 1 to 5 a half of a star may be the deciding factor in a full dining room, and an empty one. On average, a restaurant with a half star rating higher than a competitor sold out between thirty to forty-nine percent of the nights it... Continue reading