Saturday, June 30, 2012

If malware authors ever learn how to spell we're all screwed - the coming HTML5 malware apocalypse

If malware authors ever learn how to spell we're all screwed - the coming HTML5 malware apocalypse:
Forgive the lousy screenshot and transparency in the title bar, but I just got this fake virus popup while searching for an image. I admit for a single moment my heart jumped.
A very scary fake virus popup
Then I thought after a few seconds as a techie (and note that all these observations just happened all at once in my head in no order):
  • The dialog is perfectly centered in the browser. I'm not sure why this was my #1 tipoff, but for me, it was the first thing I noticed.
  • This "popup" was as a result of a browser navigation. If it were legit I'd expect it to happen a little more asynchronously.
  • The word "migth" misspelling in the popup.
  • The fonts in the column headers are anti-aliased with one technique and the rest of the text doesn't  use ClearType while my machine does.
  • Poorly phrased English: "You need to clean your computer immediately to prevent the system crash."
  • There's no option other than "Clean computer." No ignore, repair, quarantine.
  • The word "computer" at the end of the first line goes too far to the right of the grid's right margin. It should have wrapped to the next line. Yes, I'm a UI nerd.
  • Their Aero theme color is GRAY and mine is BLUE.
  • Ctrl-Scroll ZOOMs the image. ;)
  • The URL is obvious nonsense.
  • Adware.Win32.Fraud? Seriously?
It's scary just to look at floating in your webpage there isn't it?
A scary fake virus popup
How is my Mom supposed to defend against this? Windows OR Mac (or tablets) the bad guys are out there, and one day they will finally learn English and put a little work and attention to detail into these things.
One day these things won't be "selectable" to prove to us that they are HTML:
I selected the virus to make it invert its colors to prove it's fake
As we enable HTML5 with local storage, geolocation and other features the bad guys will start doing the same with their malware. Google Offline Mail and extensions run in my browser now, what's to say some future malware won't? Should we digitally sign HTML5 apps? Do more Extended Validation SSL Certificates? How do you defend against this?
What do you think, Dear Reader?


© 2012 Scott Hanselman. All rights reserved.


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Google makes the Nexus 7 tablet official: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and a $199 price (video)

Google makes the Nexus 7 tablet official: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and a $199 price (video):
Google makes the Nexus 7 tablet official Android 41 Jelly Bean and a $199 price
Some of the mystery has been taken out of it, but Google has officially taken the wraps off of the Nexus 7, its first reference-grade tablet. The 7-inch slate is the first and currently only device shipping with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and takes advantage of its optimization for smaller tablet screens, magazines and movies -- it's also the first to ship with a finished Chrome for Android. Like what was widely suspected, the tablet is built by ASUS (shades of Eee Pad MeMO ME370T, anyone?) and mostly draws our attention in terms of what we get for the money: that quad-core Tegra 3, 1.2-megapixel front camera, NFC and 1280 x 800, IPS-based LCD are traits we'd normally look for in a pricier tablet. How much pricier, you ask? Google is asking just $199 for a dainty 8GB model and $249 for a 16GB version -- that's a lot of speed for the money, especially with a $25 Google Play credit and a slew of bundled content. There's no SD card slot, however. We'll test the Nexus 7 as soon as we can, but you can swing by Google Play (and possibly local stores) to order one in Australia, Canada, the UK and the US with a mid-July shipping window.
Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012's opening keynote at our event hub!
Continue reading Google makes the Nexus 7 tablet official: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and a $199 price (video)
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How Safe Is Home Birth? Ctd

How Safe Is Home Birth? Ctd:
A reader writes:
I just wanted to thank you for the follow-up responses from readers on this question. This is what makes your format really great; dissenting opinions from the mainstream can be aired without being drowned out by the status quo.  This is an issue important to me. While I chose to birth my two daughters in the hospital, I greatly respect home birth and would have loved to be at home in a familiar and loving place. I chose not to because I was able to find a hospital with a very low C-section rate and a group of professional midwives who support natural childbirth that could deliver there. The majority of expectant mothers would be challenged to find this combination.
The hospital where I gave birth is known for their acceptance of natural birth, or delivery without painkillers.


It is extremely difficult to have natural unmedicated childbirth in the hospital setting. It involves a lot of preparation on the part of the parents and a great deal of support from the attending practicioner and, in my case, a wonderful doula (Greek for "mother to the mother"). The hospital system is not built around natural childbirth and if that is what one wishes to have then one must choose to fight the system (and fighting is not exactly conducive to natural childbirth, by the way; it produces the wrong hormones) or to have a home birth.
It is a great shame that, as your other readers have pointed out, our medical establishment has mostly chosen to vilify midwifery and dismiss natural childbirth. Having experienced the great empowerment of natural childbirth twice, I so wish every woman could know just how amazing and strong the female body is. Instead they are told that they aren't strong enough to do it.
A reader who did choose home birth:
My first child was born at home on April 15. When I turned up pregnant last year at the ripe old age of 35, my husband and I knew that I would be considered "high risk" by virtue of my age alone. While our local hospital has a relatively low C-section rate (18%), it is still far above the 10% rate recommended by the World Health Organization - and we knew that my age, coupled with a rare genetic disorder that has no impact on pregnancy or birth but that most doctors have no experience dealing with, I would be a prime candidate for highly managed labor and delivery.
As we investigated our options, I found a lay midwife who has attended more than 700 births and never lost a mother and lost only 3 babies. (Find an OB with a similar record and I'll be shocked.) She did all my prenatal care and I had a wonderful, healthy, textbook pregnancy.
My labor was not quite so by-the-book. My water broke in the wee hours of April 8 (my due date), but contractions did not start within the 24 hours required by most hospital birth centers. My midwife came to our home that day and every day after to check my and the baby's vitals, as well as to check the small amount of amniotic fluid that continued to leak for signs that our son was in distress. There was never any sign of distress or infection (the biggest risk after the bag of waters has ruptured), so we continued to wait for labor to begin - which it finally did, on Friday afternoon.
My son was born early Sunday morning, naturally and with no drugs or other interventions, after 38 hours of the hardest work I've ever done. If we had been under the care of an OB, however, you can bet your baby booties that he'd have arrived in an operating room the previous week - and instead of recovering from a couple days of hard work, I would've been figuring out how to care for an infant while recovering from major abdominal surgery. I also would've been on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills since my weak-ass insurance doesn't cover maternity (but that's another rant altogether).
Home birth is not for everyone - it's not safe for everyone - but it was the right choice for our family. And yet it is not legally considered a choice in my state of Indiana. The lay midwives who attend the majority of Amish births and a small minority of the rest can be arrested and prosecuted at any time for "practicing medicine without a license" - even though pregnancy and birth are medical issues by matter of opinion.
Home birth is as safe as the birth attendant is qualified. And the medical establishment does women no favors by considering qualified midwives criminal.
Update from a reader:
Just want to push back at your reader who writes: "I found a lay midwife who has attended more than 700 births and never lost a mother and lost only 3 babies. (Find an OB with a similar record and I'll be shocked.)"
The neonatal mortality ratio for the USA is just over 4 neonatal deaths per 1,000 births and the maternal mortality ratio is 21 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births [pdf].  Basically, her midwife is exactly in line with what you would expect.  Not bad at all, but I'm sure we could find plenty of OBs with similar or better records.   I work on maternal health issues in developing countries and the data is notoriously bad so I can't stand when people just ignore good data gathered from vital registration.
Another corrects the first reader:
"a wonderful doula (Greek for "mother to the mother")"  Actually, it's Greek for "slave".


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Nexus 7 review: the best $200 tablet you can buy

Nexus 7 review: the best $200 tablet you can buy:
DNP Nexus 7 review
In 2008, when the Eee PC was revolutionizing the computing world and driving every manufacturer to make cheaper and smaller laptops, Sony washed its hands of the whole thing. The "race to the bottom," the company said, would profoundly impact the industry, killing profit margins and flooding the market with cheap, terrible machines. Sony was wrong, its stance lasting about a year before joining the competition with its own VAIO W.
Four years on we're buying better laptops than ever before and, with the netbook class now more or less dead, that downward competition seems to have shifted to the tablet front. A flood of cheap, truly awful slates preceded Amazon's Kindle Fire, the $200 tablet from a major brand that looks to have been the proper catalyst in plunging prices. The latest challenger to enter the competition is ASUS, partnering with Google to create the first Nexus tablet, a device that not only will amaze with its MSRP, but with its quality. It's called the Nexus 7, it too is $200, and it's better than Amazon's offering in every way but one.
Gallery: Nexus 7 review
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Nexus 7 review: the best $200 tablet you can buy originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Write Your Resume Like a Reader [Resumes]

Write Your Resume Like a Reader [Resumes]:
When you're writing a resume, you're often thinking about what you want to get out of it when you should really be thinking about the reader's experience. Sean Weinberg, co-founder of of resume-grading web app RezScore, suggests that if you write your resume for someone who wants to read it, you'll end up with a much better end product: More »










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Posing Guide: 21 Sample Poses to Get You Started with Photographing Weddings

Posing Guide: 21 Sample Poses to Get You Started with Photographing Weddings:
Previously in this posing guide series we took a look to posing women, posing men, posing children, posing couples and posing groups of people. In this article let’s address a popular photographic event – wedding.
I would like to state from the very beginning, that weddings in general are a major commercial industry to many professional photographers. Shooting wedding photography professionally is a much, much bigger topic than just 21 sample poses. The aim of this article is only to provide you with some initial guidance and ideas to take some nice bride and groom pictures.
1. The wedding veil is a superb accessory for a bride’s close-up portrait. You may want to use manual zoom to focus on the eyes, otherwise the auto mode will focus on the veil’s texture.
posing-guide-weddings-01.jpg
2. A very good opportunity for a great picture is photographing the bride or both newlyweds in the wedding car.
posing-guide-weddings-02.jpg
3. The romantic and passionate kiss is another must-have shot from the event. Definitely try to capture both faces including the eyes. Without that you will probably produce a dull shot.
posing-guide-weddings-03.jpg
4. Very easy and kind pose. The newlyweds simply and naturally embrace while bringing their cheeks together. Take care that the bridal bouquet is nicely placed and turned towards the camera.
posing-guide-weddings-04.jpg
5. Another beautiful pose with the groom embracing the bride from the back. The newlyweds may look romantically at each other or straight to the camera. Or they might kiss for an even more affectionate pose.
posing-guide-weddings-05.jpg
6. Just a slight variation of the previous ones, keep the newlyweds close together, but find a way to get a shot from an elevated angle.
posing-guide-weddings-06.jpg
7. In weddings you can’t really go wrong by asking the newly weds to kiss for a shot whenever there is an appropriate moment. They won’t complain anyway!
posing-guide-weddings-07.jpg
8. If possible, arrange an outdoor shot, take some pictures of the couple from a distance and use some open space in a background.
posing-guide-weddings-08.jpg
9. Absolutely easy and a bit more formal pose, creates a calm and intimate mood.
posing-guide-weddings-09.jpg
10. The groom holding the bride in arms, easy to pose, however be careful choosing the right shooting angle – both faces should be visible.
posing-guide-weddings-10.jpg
11. A pose with the groom holding the bride works not only from a distance, but makes a very nice pose for a close-up as well.
posing-guide-weddings-11.jpg
12. Certainly a staged pose – the bride falling into the groom’s hands. But if the newly weds are responsive, poses like that could work out extremely well.
posing-guide-weddings-12.jpg
13. Weddings don’t need to be and sometimes really aren’t at all that serious. Don’t be afraid to make some fun, ask the newly weds to loose their shoes and just run around a bit and snap some frames.
posing-guide-weddings-13.jpg
14. Never forget that there often are good opportunities shooting from the back.
posing-guide-weddings-14.jpg
15. A fun pose with the newlyweds kissing passionately. Pay attention to the wedding dress: It shall look free-falling and natural, as opposed to stuck and creased under the groom’s leg.
posing-guide-weddings-15.jpg
16. A gorgeous pose for a bride’s portrait. The bride should sit on the ground (or a very low stool) with the wedding dress nicely arranged around her. Shoot from above with the bride looking slightly upwards.
posing-guide-weddings-16.jpg
17. Fun and simple pose, the newlyweds clinking champagne glasses. For a more creative shot you could get real close and focus on the glasses, leaving the portraits blurred.
posing-guide-weddings-17.jpg
18. Another creative way to play with a shallow depth of field. Use the widest possible aperture and keep the groom in a distance from the bride. Focus on the bride, leaving him slightly out of focus.
posing-guide-weddings-18.jpg
19. The newlyweds dancing is just another must-have shot. Take pictures with the bride and groom facing towards the camera, making both faces clearly visible. They may look to the camera or at each other.
posing-guide-weddings-19.jpg
20. For some creative results, don’t concentrate only on bride and groom. There are many interesting corresponding objects to shoot, and these photos especially will make the event’s photo album far more engaging. Thus, take separate shots with single objects. Examples are the wedding bouquet, jewelery, clothing details, champagne glasses, wedding rings, wedding car elements etc.
posing-guide-weddings-20.jpg
21. The final point isn’t about posing proper, rather just an idea for a post production. Most probably you will have a bunch of photos from the event, so use them to make a small collage (or several ones). Pick only some objects or crops from other pictures and combine them into a balanced composition. Use some unified filter effects or simply convert them to black-and-white in order to achieve outstanding results. Such collages indeed are pure pleasure to an eye!
posing-guide-weddings-21.jpg
And furthermore take a look also at the other articles in posing series, particularly posing couples. Many of those couple poses can be used perfectly for bride and groom. And, of course, take a look to articles on posing female subjects and posing men. You may find there some appropriate poses for individual portraits.

Check out our Other Posing Guides in this Series

Kaspars Grinvalds is a photographer working and living in Riga, Latvia. He is the author of Posing App where more poses and tips about people photography are available.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.



Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Posing Guide: 21 Sample Poses to Get You Started with Photographing Weddings


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