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Amazon Corretto is a production-ready distribution of OpenJDK, while the preview release version, Corretto 8 corresponds to Java 8, which installation binaries are currently available for Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Corretto is designed as a drop-in replacement for all Java SE distributions, except in cases where a user is using features not included in OpenJDK, (for instance, Java Flight Recorder) or workloads running on non-HotSpot JVMs.

The open source Corretto distribution of OpenJDK is currently in beta, and preview builds can be downloaded from aws.amazon.com/corretto, with long-term support promise by Amazon, and quarterly updates including bug fixes and security patches.

Amazon will provide security updates at no cost until 2023, and up to Corretto 11. It will include targeted backports from newer releases, as well as newly-developed enhancements from the OpenJDK community.

And the process will involve testing on thousands of Amazon Web services, which will ensure that fixes are released within days of solving the issues.

While Oracle's changes in Java support, the removal of the free long term support (LTS) for Java, have got Amazon customers worried as they'd have to pay for LTS version in order to run workloads.

Amazon has re-affirmed long term support for Java in Amazon Linux, and perhaps this will be followed up with the beta release of Amazon Corretto.

Amazon Corretto, the production-ready distribution of OpenJDK now in open beta



Google has been battling with what it calls the most complex and sophisticated ad fraud operations for years, now the company claims to have obtained a legal backing for takedown of the click-fraud operators.

Working in conjunction with the cyber security firm, White Ops, Google have identified one of the most complex ad fraud operations seen to date, 3ve: A creative and sophisticated threat; haven published a white paper about the ad fraud operation, and steps it took to protect its clients.

3ve (pronounced “Eve”), is an ad fraud operation which evolved in 2017 from a modest, low-level botnet into a sophisticated larger operation that employed a broad set of tactics to run ad fraud. It operated at a significant scale, which at its peak, controls over 1 million IPs from residential malware infections and corporate IP spaces primarily in North America and Europe.

Google discovered that 3ve comprised of three unique sub-operations that have evolved rapidly, with sophisticated tactics to exploit data centers, computers infected with malware, spoofed fraudulent domains, and fake websites.

Through a working group, comprising of about 20 partners, Google seeks to broaden the investigation, and to engage directly with stakeholders to work towards a mutually beneficial outcome.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York has announced charges against this fraud operation, which takedown marks a major milestone in the industry’s fight against ad fraud.

Google records a huge win in fight against global Ad fraud operations



Facebook's experiment with breaking news services, like the "Trending Topics" had raised controversy in reactions to the removal of human moderators, leaving it solely to AI algorithm, which opened door for misinformation and fake news campaigns.

Now, the social media giant is making another bet with local news, as it launches Today In, a feature that breaks local news and information to users based on their geographic location.

It offers a dedicated section which curates and aggregates relevant stories for local sources in a concise form in the News Feed, allowing users to catch up with the news, events, and discussions happening in the community.

While the company’s interest in promoting local news, was as a result of users consistency in demanding to see more local happenings on Facebook, which will help it understand the issues that matter in communities and how they affect users lives.

Albeit, the great bane remains the concerns about misinformation, privacy, and the meddling of government-backed agencies with “fake news” campaigns.

Facebook has also launched its first international test in Australia, with more testing in communities located in places that have low supply of local news and information, by supplementing with relevant content from surrounding areas.

The local news service has been in testing since last January in some U.S. cities, and is now rolling out to more than 400 cities in the United States.

Facebook's local news service, Today In rolling out to over 400 U.S. cities



Before now, the predominant recommendation has been to watch out for a green padlock when transacting with any website, as the presence of HTTPS lends to the credibility of the site, but not anymore.

While the Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is a combination of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol with the SSL/TLS Protocol to enable data encryption and secure identification of a given server, but now even the bad actors adhere to it, which means you'll need to check for more than one sign to know if a website is legit.

As the number of websites supporting HTTPS over encrypted SSL/TLS connections have skyrocketed over the past year, with over 70 percent of web traffic now encrypted, both on computers and mobile devices, even Google has gone ahead to remove the green padlock on its browser, Chrome, citing that HTTPS is now so normal that you don't need to see it anymore.

The proliferation of HTTPS means there's no one rule to protect you from the bad actors on the internet today, so you have to be savvier than ever before to avoid the scams.

It is advisable to check for more than one sign to be sure that a website is legitimate, including making sure the site's URL is actually correct, and as a rule of thumb, type out the URL into the browser instead of following a link from a mail. Also, when using password managers and security software, ensure they are up to date.

The green lock is supposed to show that information sent from your browser is encrypted, and that is all, but doesn't say anything about the legitimacy of the site, as scammers can trick you into entering your sensitive information with a green padlock on their sites too.

That's not to say that HTTPS isn't useful, because transmitting valuable information that anyone could intercept and read is also a bad idea, but a lot of people just don't know the lock means another specific thing, they've been sold over the years that it means a 'safe' website.

Why just HTTPS green padlock isn't enough and neither makes a Safe Website



The countdown to the end of the password has begun, as Google toes the line of security key mechanisms; while this is not actual killing of the password, as it's still tied to pretty strict requirements.

Titan Security Key is a phishing-resistant two-factor authentication (2FA) devices developed by Google that help protect high-value enterprise users from the most sophisticated attacks. It works with most popular browsers, with support from growing ecosystem of services on the FIDO standards, and only available via the Google Store or through a Google Cloud representative.

While Microsoft had also introduced same security mechanism, with its Account holders requiring to signing in with their face or a security key instead of the regular password, which feature makes use of the Windows Hello biometric security or a physical security key.

Google's new Titan Security Key costs only $50 and brings extra security to your Google accounts, including services like Facebook, Dropbox and others, with each key firmware stored in a secure element, preventing anyone to modify or extract the private data in the key which is authenticated with the Google service.

The downside to a physical key, however is that it is liable to get lost, which situation may mean been locked out from your online activities, though Google has assured that there are backups with an extra key that can help you gain access to your account, as the recovery process take days.

But still, the inconvenience remains the bane, just like any kind of two-factor authentication is complicated; that’s the price to pay for keeping your account safe.

Although Google wants the security keys to be available for all, they can only be worth the trouble for administrators and highly placed individuals that are susceptible to targeted attacks, as the many requirements will be tiresome for the average user with little to nothing to spare.

Titan Security Key: Google looks to alternative Mechanisms to the regular Password



The embattled smartphone pioneer, BlackBerry is looking to refocus its strategy on providing core security solutions by the acquisition of Cylance, with the highly rated anti-malware service giving it an edge to cover more verticals.

While BlackBerry offered $1.4 billion dollars for the outright purchase of Cylance, the machine-learning based anti-malware company will be pivotal in the company's drive to provide security for endpoint infrastructures, including automobiles, medical facilities, and critical IoT devices.

Albeit, the company's reputation suffered a huge setback as a result of its early availing of the global decryption key for its consumer devices to the Canadian federal police, and making it possible for them to decrypt text messages sent between BlackBerry handsets.

BlackBerry, however has assured that none of the current enterprise software products will have a global decryption key.

The acquisition of Cylance's anti-malware service is potentially a big win for the company, as the proprietary machine learning technology developed by Cylance is very different from the encryption backdoor it had deployed on its consumer handsets.

But skeptics are concerned about the possibility of another compromise on the part of BlackBerry, as the saying goes that a track record of cooperation by anyone points to possible future cooperation and deliberately created vulnerability will inevitably result to a compromise.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been notorious for demanding such backdoor access from tech companies, with the widely circulated case of the FBI seeking to break into the iPhone of Syed Farook.

Apple CEO, Tim Cook refuted the demand stating that granting a backdoor access to the iPhone for the federal government to access encrypted data would create "chilling" implications that could undermine the privacy of all users.

BlackBerry will have an uphill task in proving to the consumers that it has their security and privacy at heart, and more than just a prove, they'll have to assure them of total safety from the government.

BlackBerry refocus on core security solutions with Cylance and Spark platform



Are you trying to figure out which video format is ‘best’ suitable for encoding your video? Whether you’re unfamiliar with video formats in general, which may seem like a very difficult decision – but it actually isn’t that complicated a task.

Here are Factors to Consider When Deciding on a Video Format

When deciding on a format, you should first consider the impact it will have on your videos overall output, and particularly, these three factors should be weighed in with the final decisions:

  • Compatibility


It goes without saying that you need to choose a format that will be compatible with the device or platform you want to use in watching the video. Ideally the device will have hardware support (i.e. hardware acceleration) for the format, as software decoding is processor-intensive and require a lot of power.

  • Compression


The format will affect the file size, because the video codec (which is part of the format) determines the compression that is used. Newer codecs typically have better compression rates, and can compress videos to smaller file sizes while maintaining their quality.

  • Features


Some videos may have other features included in the video, and the container (which is also part of the format) needs to support them. Among the more popular features in videos are menus, captions, chapters, and streaming support.

How Will the Video Be Used?

  • Uploading to online video platforms


The format should generally follow the recommended settings of the platform (e.g. YouTube’s recommended settings). That will ensure that it isn’t transcoded internally by the platform – which could affect its quality.

  • Distributing to multiple users


If you’re sharing the video file among many people, compatibility is the main factor to consider. As such a format such as MP4 with H.264 which has near-universal compatibility is normally best.

  • Burning on a video DVD


Video DVDs use the MPEG-2 format to encode videos, making your decision easy. While there are some newer DVD players that support other formats, MPEG-2 is the reliable choice.

  • Storing in a limited amount of space


If storage space is at a premium, you should try to encode it in a format that offers good compression. Nowadays MP4 or MKV with HEVC (H.265) is the common option, but you should check that it is compatible with your device.

Keep in mind that after you encode your video you can convert it using tools such as Movavi Video Converter to convert WebM to MP4 or to and from any other formats. Try to store the original version of the video however, especially if you feel you may need to convert it to a different format later.

Generally speaking in most cases nowadays MP4 with H.264 is a ‘safe’ format, though if H.265 is compatible – it is a better option. That may not always be the case however, and new formats may be introduced that supplant one or the other, or both.

How to Decide the Best Video Format for Encoding your Videos



Microsoft is certainly at a crossroad with its digital assistant, Cortana with the likes of Amazon's Alexa already making huge strides into the booming market for smart speakers, as have also Apple's Siri and Google Home.

While the company has been courting Amazon's Alexa, with the purported integration of the respective digital assistants, Alexa and Cortana, and haven announced the milestone of the two assistants serving as skills in their respective platforms.

But recent occurrence within Microsoft shows that things aren't quite working as anticipated, as the company has gone ahead to downgrade Cortana’s importance by moving it from the AI and Research Division to the Experiences segment.

And Javier Soltero, who has been saddled with Cortana development at Microsoft, announcing earlier in the month about leaving the company; also, another big wig in the Cortana team also left few weeks before Soltero’s announcement, the over a decade veteran Samuel Moreau, design director of Cortana and its AI technology, left to the Expedia Group.

The signals may not actually portend the end of Cortana as a standalone digital assistant, rather it will most likely become less important to Microsoft, just like other similar products that's relegated behind the scenes.

Meanwhile, Google’s smart speaker have been surging in sales, even as analysts predicted that it will outsell Amazon’s Echo for the first quarter of 2018, with about 3.2 million units to Amazon’s 2.5 million sales.

Microsoft's Cortana smart speaker, the Harman Kardon Invoke recorded rather too low a margin sales to be measured; and though Apple isn't a player in the smart speaker market, Siri is visibly domineering on the mobile front as it’s essentially a cult following with iPhone.

Why Microsoft's digital assistant, Cortana appears to be losing its luster



LinkedIn is prepping a feature called Student Voices, which aims at attracting younger audience to the platform, while students will be able to post short-form videos to their Campus Playlist.

The new feature will mimic Snapchat Stories, with slideshows which appears atop the LinkedIn home screen, though no photos is currently allowed, and it will be available only for university students in the United States at launch.

The feature is currently in testing and will be rolling out to college students in the US, and as youngsters love to use short videos to capture moments, LinkedIn is hoping to recapture this very active demographics with the shared experiences to help create a community.



LinkedIn's main aim is to get students to share their academic experiences like internships, career talks and projects to show off to recruiters as part of their personal brand.

Also, LinkedIn will create a set of hashtags like #OnCampus, based on the student’s activities so that other students can follow them on the network, and having these videos on their profile can help the students prepare for life after graduation, and help potential employers learn more about them.

LinkedIn is pushing hard at attracting more young people to the network with its Learning service, with such offerings like video tutorials and courses, and recently including contents from third-party providers, like: Treehouse and the Harvard Business School.

And the network is gradually shifting from the static web tool for professionals seeking jobs, which was its primary function at launch, to a more dynamic and interactive platform for learning; an innovation hub where skills can be harnessed and redeployed for growth and entrepreneurship.

LinkedIn aims to attract younger audience to the platform with Student Voices



Microsoft has introduced new security measures for its Account holders requiring signing in with face or a security key instead of the regular password, which feature makes use of the Windows Hello biometric security or a physical security key.

The move is Microsoft’s attempt to make it pretty easy for users with poor password management and to reduce the incidence of account hacking due to weak passwords, by allowing users to sign into its services without requiring a username or password.

For the feature to work, you must be running the Windows 10 October 2018 Update and using Microsoft’s Edge browser, with your security key compatible with the FIDO2 CTAP specification which technology powers the new security measures.

Albeit, this is not actual killing of the password, as it comes with some pretty strict requirements, though lots of individual still don’t bother using a password manager, and most passwords are terribly poor.

The process isn't quite a take-on the common two-factor authentication, whereby a user has to first enter a username and password, before a message is sent to phone for completion of log-in, as it works minus the initial factors.

This new capability is implemented using Windows Hello and FIDO2 specifications, and based on Windows 10 built-in secure enclave, known as hardware trusted platform module (TPM) or a software TPM.

Unlike the password, FIDO2 protects user credentials using public/private key encryption, while the private key is stored securely on the device and can only be used after it has been unlocked using a local gesture like biometric or PIN.

And with more browsers and platforms supporting the WebAuthn and FIDO2 standards, the password-less experience — which is now only available on Microsoft Edge and Windows 10 — will be a possible experience everywhere!

Microsoft introduces Account sign in using face or security key without password



As in various fields, the area of scriptwriting has its share of myths. Many times they act to dissuade, would be expert scriptwriters from demonstrating their capabilities to the world.

While you may have a great story to tell that could lead to an epic movie; you need to turn it into a fascinating material. Screenplay writing calls for collaboration with others. Be willing to make changes, if and when required.

In that, you don’t need to have total creative control over it. Even when you sign a release, it doesn’t translate into signing your rights away.

Though it is ideal to produce material that appeals to all demographics; it’s okay to narrow down your target audience. With the audience in mind, you can shape the development of the script. If you don’t have an idea of who the audience is; then, you have no business writing the script.

As long as you produce a film worthy material, you don’t need to have connections in the film industry to get it accepted. Though, sometimes painful, don’t bank on second reading if your script gets rejected, especially in the same company. You can still revise it, however.

Always remember to stick to the rules of writing and also formatting guidelines that apply in writing a script. The infographic below outlines the treasure map with unique secrets and detailed instructions for film script writing.

Treasure Map for Your Winning Movie Script Writing

The Treasure Map for Your Winning Movie Script Writing (Infographic)



The new Git-based code hosting project, Sr.ht (pronounced “sir hat”) is a software service for hosting and managing open source projects, which aims to serve the free & open source software community.

Sr.ht offers 100% free and open source software forge, with a hosted version of the service running at sr.ht, but unlike GitHub, which is entirely closed source, and Gitlab, which is mostly open source, sr.ht is completely open source, with a copyleft license.

The Sr.ht Project was created by Drew DeVault in a mixture of Python and Go, while the service is now available for public alpha testing and developers can create account with the hosted version, or set up the exact same code on cloud or on-prem hardware.

It's novelty include been extremely modular and flexible, and interoperable with the rest of the ecosystem; also boasting of extreme lightweight pages, with the average page weighing less than 10 KiB, without tracking codes and JavaScript.

The component - git hosting, continuous integration, etc - comes as a standalone piece of software that integrates deeply with the rest of sr.ht and the rest of the ecosystem outside of sr.ht.

For instance, using builds.sr.ht you can compile your GitHub pull requests, or you can keep your repos on git.sr.ht and host everything in same place.

Albeit, the biggest setback with Sr.ht is perhaps the lack of on-boarding for already running code hosting service, and there is currently no automated migration for projects hosted elsewhere. Though, Sr.ht offers continuous integration service which is similar to Jenkins, but it isn’t quite a drop-in replacement.

The project, however will be getting some sort of automated migration functionality before the beta release, and a walk-through tutorials for common workflows.

The Git-based Project, Sr.ht blends the best of GitLab and GitHub functionality



Google has been aggressively pushing its Maps service to businesses, with increasing new features to make it a more valuable tool for marketing.

While Google Maps offers a way for businesses to establish their local presence on the web, including: satellite imagery, 360° panoramic views of streets (Street View); with real-time traffic and route planning.

The company announced a new feature last week that will enable the public to directly message businesses via the Maps app, with the messaging feature now rolling out to iOS and Android users of the Maps service.

And just as businesses use social networks to bolster their branding, share information, interact with their customers, the Google Maps will also afford them the ability to exchange relevant conversations with the customers at large.

As most consumers use Google Maps to find businesses, with Maps contents prominently featured in search results, it is a no-brainer for businesses to effectively optimize their local listings to reach more consumers.

Google will also be bringing a social feature to Google Maps: enabling people to “follow” businesses, while the companies will be able to update prospective customers and customers alike, with offers and other information.

Albeit, Facebook delivers updates from business pages to their followers, but only a tiny fraction of these followers get to see the updates — which they've deliberately altered algorithmically to favor their paid customers.

With Google Maps, the updates will deliver to all followers irrespective of timing and availability, as it will stick to their the “For You” tab on Google Maps until haven acknowledged the information.

Additionally, businesses can have the interior of their offices featured via the StreetView “Indoor Maps” program. Now, just imagine having all these “social network” capabilities that deliver all your contents to the customers at no extra costs!

Google's recent changes to make Maps a more valuable Tool for Marketing



While the Blockchain technology has already caught the attention of most of the Internet's biggest players like IBM, Oracle, Amazon and now, Microsoft has also launched its own cloud-based Blockchain Development Kit powered by Azure.

The Azure Blockchain Development Kit will serve as compliment to Microsoft’s Blockchain Workbench, with features such as off-chain identity, monitoring and application programming interfaces (API) that can be used to develop apps based on blockchain technology.

According to Microsoft, this initial release will focus on these core objectives: Connecting interfaces, integrating data and systems, and deploying Smart Blockchain networks.

The new Azure Kit will enable businesses to integrate workflows with existing systems and applications leveraging Microsoft Flow and Logic Apps, and to extend the blochchain capabilities with REST-based API and message-based API for system-to-system integration.

And it will help businesses to also create distributed ledgers and build applications faster, probably within days instead of having to wait for months as is currently the case.

Additionally, the kit will avail them SMS and voice interfaces for tracking and supply chain solutions, with integration to Internet of Things (IoT) devices and support for Android and iOS mobile clients.

The next step, however will be to make developing end-to-end blockchain applications accessible, fast and affordable to anyone, which will result applications that will run on higher rated cloud performance networks than the present large-scale providers, and enable confederating identities between participants on the Azure Active Directory.

How Microsoft plans to woo enterprises with the Azure Blockchain Development Kit



While there are many different web hosting options available, with varied features and prices, opting for Virtual Private Servers (VPS) is preferred as it allows you to store all files and data for your website on the webspace that feel more like a dedicated server.

The advantages of virtualization is perhaps more profound in the world of hosting as people can now work more efficiently using superior processing power and lower IT costs, even though the concept of using virtual servers may be unfamiliar to those still stuck to traditional infrastructures.

Veesp Hosting service specializes in VPS rentals and dedicated servers with a wide range of other related products including: DNS and eCommerce hosting with domain registration services and SSL certificates.

For security and other advantages, VPS hosting has become the norm with the increase in online threats prevalent with shared hosting.

Why Go for Veesp Virtual Private Servers?

Veesp prides itself as one of the few hosting providers with data center that corresponds to the Tier II level by classification of Uptime Institute. And thus offer a guaranteed 99.9% Uptime with the assurance that if uptime falls below 99.9% they’ll refund your full-service cost for the past month.

Key Features of Veesp VPS Service

  • API for developers: Veesp offers powerful RESTful API that guarantees fully intuitive programming experience for developers.
  • Reliable Network & Cutting-edge Hardware: With an optimal capacity of the external channels clocking 70 Gbit/s, Veesp guarantees the most reliable network and servers boasting the latest hardware to provide maximum performance.
  • Customizable & Ready-to-deploy Solutions: The VPS infrastructure is easily adjustable with customizable configurations to your current hosting needs.


Veesp VPS Products

Linux HDD VPS: HDD based Linux VPS hosting is built on the RAID 10 architecture, KVM virtualization, unlimited traffic, and a whole range of advantages.

Linux SSD VPS: This High-performance VPS offers local SSD storage built on cutting-edge hardware.

Windows VPS: A ready to use virtual server on Windows that's deployable in only few minutes.

Dedicated Server: A dedicated server will cost you more but the performance, security and flexibility with extended features are unmatched.

Additionally, all Veesp VPS service offer a connection with a capacity of 200 Mbit/s with unlimited traffic and pricing is balanced with the right features and interface that is user-friendly and convenient, even for first-time user.

Our Verdict: Veesp hosting plans are flexible and tailored according to individual and corporate requirements and budget, which is ultimately ahead of other hosting services in the same price range.

VPS Hosting Guide: Why You Should Opt for a Virtual Private Server?



Google's browser, Chrome obsession for speed remains insatiable as the team has embarked on introducing new specifications that would enable smoother transitions between web pages.

While the new specifications include Web Package, which offer fast loading for the web pages, and Portals, to allow multi-page sites to act as single-page applications through the level of web transitions.

These standards are built on the model of the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) library for web pages to load quickly, especially for mobile devices. And Signed HTTP Exchanges (SXG), a subset of Web Packages, would allow publishers to sign a single HTTP exchange so that the signed exchange can be served from a caching server.

The browser will load the signed exchange, with the publisher’s URL shown in the address bar as the signature in the exchange is proof that the content is from the publisher’s origin.

The Web Packaging gives the browser proof of origin for resources rendered, and with Signed HTTP Exchanges, if a package is signed with a key corresponding to the domain, would be delivered as coming from the domain.

And the Portals proposal would allow a page show another page as an inset and provide smooth transition between inset state and a navigated state from a page showing a portal-aware address as inset and between pages of portal-aware web pages.

The proposal is still in early developmental stages, and the SXG experiment will commence with Chrome 71 browser planned for December release.

Chrome Team working on Specifications to enable faster Transition between Web pages



While many website owners and bloggers are finding it pretty hard to get into the AdSense program, and good alternative ads system are increasingly hard to come by, Fomo Ads offers the best possible alternative for publishers.

Fomo Ads is perhaps the best alternative for any blogger looking to make some extra income, and most especially for new bloggers.

What is behind the name Fomo?



Typically, Fomo is acronym for "Fear Of Missing Out", and particularly a slang used by Millennials, which has come to adhere the platform to these demographics, that is currently occupying a huge portion of the general purchasing index; with recent study putting it at a whopping 69% of all age groups.

Fomo Ads employs the most innovative approach to drive up sales, engagement, and brand promotion.

How does it apply to Publishers?



Fomo ads are strikingly different from conventional display advertising, and the model is quite visually appealing, but the best part is that getting started with Fomo ads is super easy. You just have to simply sign up, and don't worry as almost all publishers of all kinds are acceptable, and insert a small code snippet into your site and you're good to go!

It is really that simple. And there is no minimum payout, as is the case with many advertising services.

Fomo caters for all publishers regardless of how much or less page views the blog is currently receiving and publishers get paid every month on the first day. The fact that there is no minimum payout, mean that you will get paid every month regardless of the amount your site generates, which makes Fomo perfect for newbie bloggers.

So if you are a blogger, both experienced and beginners, it is highly recommended that you try out Fomo Ads!

Fomo Ads: The Best Alternative to Google AdSense for Publishers



Google witnessed a huge decline in traffic on Monday owing to a brief outage that resulted the rerouting of visitors to ISPs in some countries, including China, Russia and Nigeria.

The outage affected the following services: G Suite, Google Search and Google Analytics, while traffic to the Google services were dropped off to China Telecom, with one Russian ISP also in the traffic rout.

China Telecom and MainOne, a Nigeria-based ISP mirrored the BGP AS Path, with all the traffic slamming into the great firewall, terminating at China Telecom edge router.

According to Ameet Naik of ThousandEyes, over 180 prefixes were affected by this route leak, which covers a vast scope of Google services, with indication that the origin of this leak was the BGP peering relationship between MainOne, the Nigerian provider and China Telecom.

It should be noted that MainOne has a peering relationship with Google via IXPN in Lagos with direct routes to Google, which leaked into China Telecom.

The leaked routes propagated from China Telecom, via TransTelecom to NTT and other transit ISPs and primarily propagated by business-grade transit providers which did not impact much of the consumer ISP networks.

Google had blamed the outage on incorrect IP address routing, which it confirmed has been resolved, though the search giant maintains that it would need to conduct an internal investigation to unravel the cause of the problem.

Google traffic rerouted to ISPs in some countries as a result of a brief outage



While the C language offer a general-purpose computer programming language, with support for structured programming, lexical variable scope and recursion; now the C committee (WG14) has proposed the next real revision of the C standard.

And the first draft for the next revision of the C programming language, referred to as “C2x” tend to clarify and refine how the C language should act with different implementations and as regards the C++ programming language.

The new language commonly referred to as “C2x”, where “x” stands for the digit of the year in which this new standard will be launched, will be ruled by the C2x Charter that describes and fixes the sort of improvements expected in the language function.

It won't involve new features, but rather would emphasis on refinements in line with how the former revisions to C — C11 and the just recently revised C17 — have been adapted to the function.

Albeit, the C17 was more a bug fix release, with the working papers introducing normative changes and are public; the present working papers will be “diffmarks”, that is the C17 document with marked changes, strike-outs for removals and under-wave for additions.

The roadmap of two years has been provided for the proposals to take shape, and the WG14 has pinpointed the end of 2021, with a possible 2022 publication date.

The next revision of the C language to prioritize compatibility as it redefines function



The Microsoft-owned professional networking platform, LinkedIn took a big leap into educational services with the acquisition of Lynda.com for a whopping $1.5 billion, which service has now been redeployed into LinkedIn Learning.

LinkedIn announced new developments geared into attracting more people to the Learning service, with such offerings like video tutorials and courses from third-party providers, including: Treehouse and the Harvard Business School.

And the opening up of the learning platform to third-party content partners, may perhaps position the platform as a single place for all organizational learning processes, even as the company has touted LinkedIn Learning as not just array of contents, but a corporate learning platform.

The launch of Learning Pro, that let companies publish own content or create custom learning clusters also lends to this notion, and the company's announcement of Skills Insights, which tools would allow enterprises to promote courses based on known skills gaps in their company.

LinkedIn will offer skills-based learning recommendations to these companies via its machine learning algorithms, and open up the platform to customers with multiple content offerings to access all of the organization’s learning content.

This partnership will enable LinkedIn to apply its insights to a broader range of content that are used in enterprises today.

LinkedIn Learning adds Third-party Contents with more Interactive sessions



Facebook has launched a standalone app, Lasso that lets users add stuff like music, text and filters; also share short-form videos with filters and special effects.

Lasso app aims to help users share their favorite music video and includes video-editing tools, while users can follow creators, browse different categories of videos to find popular titles via hashtags.

The app is currently available for US users, which is perhaps Facebook's way to lure the younger audience demography that seems to be taken away by Snapchat; with most youngsters usage decreasing by over 20 percent from 2015, according to Pew Research.

Pew Research claims that about 78% of 18 to 24-year-olds use Snapchat, and a sizeable majority of these users (71%) visit the platform multiple times per day. Similarly, 71% of Americans in this age group now use Instagram, which also offers features that are similar to those of Lasso, the short-video platform.

Lasso pride itself as standalone app for short-form and fun videos, which range from comedy to fitness and more, albeit Facebook didn't blow much whistle about the launch as it maintains that it's sill gathering feedback from people and creators.

The app is available for iOS and Android, and users can share their videos to their Facebook Stories, with Instagram Stories support coming soon.

Facebook Lasso App lets users add stuff like music, text and filters



While the Windows 10 October Update was halted due to the potential data loss witnessed by early adopters, Microsoft has left everyone in limbo as to new features expected in its future releases.

The next version of Windows 10 expected in spring of 2019, which is known by the code name “19H1” has provided some hints with build 18277 as part of the 19H1 release, and there are many tweaks on various aspects of the operating system.

And these early builds offer a way to gauge the direction of Windows 10, thus we will be highlighting some of the major revamps from the Focus Assist, together with some other minor tweaks.

The Focus Assist feature works by turning off notifications about new emails and appointments, allowing you to be free from distractions and to focus on more important works.

Microsoft has improved upon the Focus Assist feature in Build 18277, as the feature is now automatically turned on when launching full-screen apps, and it can be found within the Notification tiles in the Action Center — located in the bottom right-hand corner of the display.

The improvements in Focus Assist allows it to turn on in certain conditions, like while playing a full-screen game, or watching a movie with video player, the feature is expanded that the full-screen app can automatically turn it on.

Albeit, some features are mere cosmetic, like the Acrylic look and feel of the new Windows sign-in page, but there are those that are more substantive, like the Search Indexer.

The new “Windows search settings” allow you to index the entire drive and make it available in the search box. Though a power-intensive operation and cumbersome on slower PCs, as such not recommended for all users. But if you’re constantly on the lookout for misplaced files, this enhanced Search Indexer is perhaps the solution.

And finally, Microsoft has arrived at a universal symbol for “disconnected” PC, which you’ll find on the Windows taskbar; when a PC is not connected to a Wi-Fi or a cellular connection, the icon will be displayed.

The Major Revamps on Windows 10 as revealed in early '19H1' builds



Facebook had promised to bring the message unsend feature following the fiasco with the retraction of Mark Zuckerberg's messages from its recipients' inbox, which act was criticized by users as utterly lacking merit as it portends lack of trust.

The feature has been spotted in the “coming soon” section of release notes for Messenger version 191.0 for iPhone, which have also been confirmed in testing since last month.

The company plans to roll out the “unsend” feature to its messaging service, and perhaps present the incidence as mere testing, as it vows that no such messages from its executives will be deleted again, until the feature has been extended to all users on the social network.

Albeit, it remains unclear at the moment if the feature will work for both mobile and desktop platforms, as Facebook have been concerned in offering the same messaging experience across all platforms.

According to the release notes, the Messenger unsend feature will only allow you to unsend a message from up to 10 minutes after you send it, which is quite unlike the case with WhatsApp, whereby you are given up to one hour to delete mistaken messages.

It is also expected that eventually users will be able to set an expiration time for messages, after which time they’d automatically be deleted from the recipient’s inbox.

But there is no timeline if or when the second capability will be coming, but at least having the additional feature isn't asking too much, after all Facebook demonstrated that it's possible with messages sent by top executives, as well as those sent by Mark Zuckerberg, getting deleted from the inboxes of the recipients.

Facebook message unsend feature spotted in the Messenger version 191.0 for iPhone



While Google implemented blockade on its browser, Chrome to target ads determined as obnoxious by the Coalition for Better Ads (CBA), and to expunge only those advertisements, with Chrome 71 which is due for release in December, it will go even a step further in targeting what it calls 'abusive experience' websites for total ad blockade.

The new set of protection against “abusive experiences” include sites designed to intentionally mislead and trick users into clicking actions, like pop-ups and new window requests from sites with certain camouflage like redirecting pages.

These abusive experiences were not formerly blocked by Chrome, and nearly all tend to trick users into clicking by pretending to be a system warning or “close” buttons that don't actually close the supposed ads.

Further more, most of these sites with abusive ad experiences are used by scammers and phishing schemes to steal personal information from unsuspecting users.

Starting with Chrome 71, Google will remove all ads on sites with persistent abusive experiences, while webmasters have been availed with the Abusive Experiences Report in Google Search Console to see if their site contain any of the abusive experiences that's needed to be corrected or removed.

The site owners will be given a 30 day window to fix any of such experiences flagged in the Report before the actual removal of ads on the browser.

Google hopes to protect the users who are often faced with crafty websites with dubious codes, and the strong protections are to ensure they can interact with their destination website without any abuse in between.

Chrome 71 will target websites with 'abusive experiences' for total Ad blockade



The Web Foundation, also known as World Wide Web Foundation is the organization saddled with improvements coming to the Web, launched in 2008 by Tim Berners-Lee, and to establish the open Web as a global public good and a basic right.

While Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web has outlined his vision for protecting the future of the Internet with the unveiling of "Contract for the Web" project that he hopes agencies, governments and netizens will contribute to and sign in order to protect and enhance the future of the Internet.

The aim is to extend the benefits of the web to 100 percent of the global population to enjoy without any limitations on internet freedom.

As the web marks its 30th year in 2019, it is expected that half of the world's population will be online by 2019 and the coalition is concerned about censorship and government shutdown of the internet, the web contract is offering a framework for realizing the vision.

Berners-Lee at the Web Summit in Lisbon on Monday said that the contract is a deal to paint a picture of a world which is better than this one with hopes that we can do better than what we have now.

Google and Facebook are among the early backers, with about 60 other backers to the contract including political figures and non-governmental organizations and digital rights groups, who hopes to negotiate the contract as a document using the fundamental principles of the Web Foundation.

The Web Foundation unveils "Contract for the Web" project to protect the future Internet



Unknown to many, the so-called free Wi-Fi facilities in some major cities around the world do come with some caveat, meaning that you should beware — as it comes with certain conditions and there's perhaps some dangers lurking behind it.

And often, these “free” Wi-Fi hotspots are found in many business and public spaces, like airports, shopping malls and even some local pubs, making it easier for people to go online, but this convenience do come at a price - given up your privacy.

Once you connect to a public Wi-Fi, you are making your data liable to a third-party provider, which in exchange for your valuable personal data avails you the convenience of a free internet connection, while the information required may vary, it often include: email address, phone number and social profile, among others.

While the temptation is pretty strong not to use free Wi-Fi hotspot, but if you are really concerned about your data privacy, it is advisable to avoid using public Wi-Fi altogether. But in a case you must do, then sign up for a more secure hotspot service.

Find below some steps you can take to protect yourself from being tracked by ‘free’ Wi-Fi hotspots
  • Manually Opt-out of location tracking Location


Before hopping on free Wi-Fi, ensure you Opt-out of location tracking which option is often made available by the companies to allow users to choose how their personal information are accessed by analytical third-party service providers. It can be found in the privacy policy of most of the companies, and you’re allowed to review the policy before signing in to the service.

  • Delete Your location information


To effectively delete any tracking information, you'll need your MAC address, and if you are accessing the internet on your iPhone, you can get it from Settings > General > About; it’s listed as Wi-Fi Address. While for Android, go to Settings > Wireless & Networks or About Device. Press the menu key and select Advanced, and then you should see your device’s MAC address.

Then enter your MAC address to delete the data, albeit not all location services, as only location-tracking services under the Future of Privacy Forum’s Smart Places web portal.

In any case the free Wi-Fi provider is not on the portal, you can find the Wi-Fi provider’s email and contact them directly with your request to opt-out, and delete the data collected from you.

Simple Steps to Secure Personal and Location Data from Public Wi-Fi Hotspots



The Super Chat feature was launched last year by YouTube to allow viewers to be able to leave comments alongside livestreams; and of course, it is a paid service and given special preference as it helps them in generating revenue.

While the feature generates quite some thousands of dollars in revenue, YouTube typically collects about 30%, with the creators keeping the rest, but any of the proceeds from Super Chats that violate its policy will be donated to charity.

The Wall Street Journal in a recent report revealed that in the wake of the mass shooting at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue, Pennsylvania that some users of YouTube tapped the Super Chat feature to have anti-Semitic comments alongside a livestream by far-right YouTube celebrity Ethan Ralph.

And the livestream channel had some 22,500 subscribers, with users having topics that can be wide-ranging, from events like the tragedy in Pittsburgh and the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh to critiques of the media and internal debates among members of the far-right online communities.

The use of Super Chats to spread racism and hate speech is perhaps the latest headache for YouTube, and the biggest video platform is now poised to moderate contents even more strictly.

In response, YouTube has permanently banned Ralph's YouTube channel, and stated that it's now using machine-learning technology to spot hateful comments and would hold them up for closer inspection, according to the Journal.

How the Super Chat feature on YouTube can be hijacked to spread hate speech



Earlier in the week, WhatsApp announced the possible introduction of direct ads to the app status section, which is coming after several attempts to arrive at a primary monetization method for the messaging service.

While the Facebook owned messaging platform has been grappling with monetization problem, with plans of bringing ads to the platform, but there has been confusion as to where or how to place the ads.

The company had previously launched the WhatsApp Business API, which is a way for businesses to reach its customers; and in turn, it charges the businesses for using the platform.

Albeit, the monetization of the service has been an issue within the organization, with the WhatsApp co-founder, Brian Acton had to leave the company owing to major differences with the Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. Though it remains unclear as to the area of differences, but Acton had commented on disagreement on the plans to place ads on the service.

The company had been conducting surveys about the extent to which users talk to businesses on WhatsApp, and whether there are issues of spam, according to revealed documents.

And perhaps, WhatsApp is wary about its users having to put up with spammy messages, citing instances such as a user talking to a bank about fraudulent transactions or to an airline about delayed flight.

Why the Introduction of Ads to WhatsApp Status could infuriate its users



The Wi-Fi standards nomenclature, 802.11n and 802.11ac are both previous Wi-Fi standards, with the successor to 802.11ac supposedly to be called 802.11ax, but now the WiFi Alliance has simply renamed it as Wi-Fi 6.

While Wi-Fi 6 is expected to make its way into new installations come 2019, with a host of technological upgrades aimed at simplifying wireless-network problems, and at the same time making it easier to find routers and devices that support the new standard.

On the other hand, WPA stands for Wi-Fi Protected Access, and there are older standards like WPA1 and WPA2 which aren’t quite secure anymore with the increasing risks associated with modern networking connections.

The WPA3 standard brings new security features not present in WPA2 and manufacturers must fully implement these features to their devices to be “Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ WPA3™” as the new specifications require compatible WPA3 devices and WPA3 routers.

According to the Wi-Fi Alliance, devices with support for WPA3 will be coming later in the year, even as Qualcomm has already developed chips that supports WPA3, albeit it’ll take quite awhile for manufacturers to integrate them into new devices.

The new security features in WPA3 include fixes for using “individualized data encryption” which if connected through an open Wi-Fi network, encrypt the traffic between your device and the Wi-Fi access point, even without a password at the connection.

Also, if a device connects to a Wi-Fi access point, it carries out a “handshake” that ensures the correct passphrase is used and that the connection is encrypted.

The security issue with public Wi-Fi hotspot would soon be a thing of the past, as WPA3 promises to “simplify the process of configuring security for devices” and it would be a lot like the current Wi-Fi Protected Setup, that involves a push button to connect a device.

Jargon Buster: What's the related facts about Wi-Fi 6 and WPA3 Standards?



Twitter is working on implementing changes that will make it super easy for users to choose to see a chronological feeds, instead of the machine-learning algorithmic timeline that tends to surface tweets based on interactions.

While the argument that users with massive followers on Twitter — maybe tens of thousands — can feel like they’ve missed some of the most important tweets with real-time update, which Twitter cited for the switch notwithstanding, many users had revolted in a campaign against the switch to algorithmic timeline.

Now, Twitter is testing a feature that will allow users to easily switch the order of the tweets from algorithmic to chronological, and vice versa, right from the homescreen.

The test is currently with a small number of iOS users having the button on the home screen that will allow them to switch between a display of tweets based on machine learning algorithm to that which shows the most recent tweets from people they follow.

Twitter had earlier updated to "Show the best tweets first" Setting that aims to allow users to easily reverse to the chronological order, and to only see tweets from people they follow. Albeit, the feature is tugged away in complicated settings requiring some work to find, making it a relatively difficult option to switch the timeline.

This new feature when live, will give users an easier way to switch option of a timeline to display tweets in reverse chronological order right from the home screen.

Twitter working on instant switch to Chronological/Algorithmic timeline from home screen

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