LinkedIn users: hacker havoc

LinkedIn just announced:

"Yesterday we learned that approximately 6.5 million hashed LinkedIn passwords were posted on a hacker site. Most of the passwords on the list appear to remain hashed and hard to decode, but unfortunately a small subset of the hashed passwords was decoded and published."

What to do? here are their four suggestions:

1. Make sure you update your password on LinkedIn (and any site that you visit on the Web) at least once every few months.
2. Do not use the same password for multiple sites or accounts.
3. Create a strong password for your account, one that includes letters, numbers, and other characters.
4. Watch out for phishing emails and spam emails requesting personal or sensitive information.

The immediate action is to change your LinkedIn password (and use a strong password). 

Because many users do use the same password for multiple sites/accounts, tip #2 is not really a solution but rather a "future suggestion". So, if your LinkedIn password is used in other important accounts, it is a good idea to immediately change those passwords too!

Analyzing tweeters' personalities

The cool website analyzewords.com uses text mining to analyze personality traits based on tweets. You enter a Twitter handle and within seconds get a nice graphic analysis of the tweeter in terms of Emotional Style (upbeat, worried, angry, etc.), Social Style (arrogance, personable, etc.), and Thinking Style (analytical, sensory, in-the-moment)

The website is the brainchild of Professor James W. Pennebaker, a cognitive psychologist, who is an expert in psychological trauma research. The underlying engine uses text mining -- it counts words of various types (such as "angry" words), and uses the counts to get a picture of the writer. To learn more, see Pennebaker's new book.

My guess is that the results are culturally-dependent in the sense that they reflect North American language use. However, it might just give an interesting glimpse into Bhutanese tweeters' personalities as well!

Using social media for classified ads

 Need to sell your auntie's rice cooker, a used Alto or your "old" iPhone 4? Check out B-Bay, an open Facebook group for "Buying and selling second hand stuffs in Bhutan". Created about two months ago by Passang "Passu" Tshering, the group already boasts more than 850 members.  Using Facebook for classified ads has an interesting advantage. While scams are common on websites such as E-Bay and Craigslist (which are very popular in other countries), it is much harder to cheat on B-Bay: You often know the real person behind the Facebook user, especially in a relatively small and tight-knit society such as Bhutan.

Streaming audio and/or video for free

Today we met Ron, who is trying to help a local radio station stream their programming via the Internet to listeners worldwide. I mentioned to him a great free solution that I used in 2008 to stream seminar talks -- www.ustream.tv. This is a free service that "enables anyone with a camera and an Internet connection to quickly and easily broadcast to an online global audience". It means that you can stream audio and video, and then even keep an archive hosted on their website.

Ustream.tv has a few big advantages:

• No special software needed to broadcast or to view (beyond Flash)
• Easy-to-use interface
• It's been running since 2007 - this is a good record for such a service
• "Users can broadcast events to an audience of unlimited size, and enable interaction through chat and Social Stream" (from their website)
• A player can be embedded directly into your own website
• Free! This is key in Bhutan, not so much because it saves money but because it means that a credit card is unnecessary (given that there are no credit cards here)

You might ask what is Ustream's business model if this is all free. The answer is advertising, and as in many other "freemium" services, they also offer a more elaborate paid version called Watershed.

Ustream.tv is a really cool option not only for small radio stations but also for journalists on the go, who have a laptop with mobile Internet connection, a microphone and a webcam. No need for a camera crew in order to report live!

Facebook beggars?

Question #1: Have you received an email from a friend lately saying something like: "I am in Bangkok and lost my wallet and passport. Can you please wire me urgently $200?"

Question #2: Is your friend also your "friend" on Facebook?

If the answers to both questions are "YES", then most likely your friend's Facebook account has been hacked, and your friend is nowhere near Bangkok. A few of our friends have already fallen or nearly fallen into this trap - the lucky ones tried to call their friend's mobile first, and were surprised to hear that they are in their Thimphu office.

Take a glimpse at any computer screen in Thimphu today, and you will mostly see an open Facebook page. The Facebook craze has definitely swept Bhutan like the rest of the world. Now that everyone has more "friends" that they can remember, hackers have found a way to take advantage of your social network. This same scam has been used with hacked email accounts.

To avoid getting your account hacked, make sure to choose a non-trivial password and keep it private. When you receive a "help me! please send me money" request, even if it appears to be from your cousin's genuine email address, it is best to double-check with your cousin using "low tech" such as a phone call.