Author / Xavier Voigt-Hill

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Posts by Xavier Voigt-Hill

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by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Mitt Romney goes to Scamworld: Prosper, Inc. and its powerful friends

Last month, Joseph L. Flatley wrote a phenomenal article on The Verge entitled ‘Scamworld: ‘Get rich quick’ schemes mutate into an online monster‘ and it is one of the finest pieces of investigative journalism that I have ever read. If you haven’t already, I highly encourage you to read all 11,000+ words of it, either on the site or in the £0.77 Kindle edition. Fast forward to June, and Flatley has published a kind of follow-up post entitled ‘Mitt Romney goes to Scamworld: Prosper, Inc. and its powerful friends‘ which exposes the links between some of the scamming organisations and senior figures in American politics, including Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate for President of Amercia. I thought the post was outstanding, but some people didn’t agree. By didn’t agree, they labelled it a disingenuous piece of journalism with a strong leftist bias that was intended to generate nothing but page views and was as thinly veiled an attack on the GOP as would be found on MSNBC. People complained that The Verge was a tech site and it should stay away from politics at all costs, but what is wrong with a website trying to break the mould?

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

6.5 million LinkedIn passwords leaked by Russian hackers

Are you a LinkedIn user? If so, you might want to change your passwords, as 6.5 million passwords belonging to users of the business-centric social network have been leaked onto a Russian hacking forum. The dump contained unsalted passwords hashed using the SHA-1 encryption system, meaning that they are easily decryptable using online tools. No other information has been released, but it is possible that usernames and passwords were also compromised during the attack. Remarkably, LinkedIn’s share price ended the day up 0.09%, only to fall in after hours trading.

https://twitter.com/ryan/status/210404041031815169

In a blog post regarding the attack and password dump, LinkedIn’s Vincente Silveira explained how the company plans to deal with the compromised accounts, which make up for a small fraction of the network’s reported 161 million users.

We want to provide you with an update on this morning’s reports of stolen passwords. We can confirm that some of the passwords that were compromised correspond to LinkedIn accounts. We are continuing to investigate this situation and here is what we are pursuing as far as next steps for the compromised accounts:

  1. Members that have accounts associated with the compromised passwords will notice that their LinkedIn account password is no longer valid.
  2. These members will also receive an email from LinkedIn with instructions on how to reset their passwords. There will not be any links in this email. Once you follow this step and request password assistance, then you will receive an email from LinkedIn with a password reset link.
  3. These affected members will receive a second email from our Customer Support team providing a bit more context on this situation and why they are being asked to change their passwords.

It is worth noting that the affected members who update their passwords and members whose passwords have not been compromised benefit from the enhanced security we just recently put in place, which includes hashing and salting of our current password databases.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this has caused our members. We take the security of our members very seriously. If you haven’t read it already it is worth checking out my earlier blog post today about updating your password and other account security best practices.

To find out if your password is included in the list, head to LeakedIn which will take your password and hash it using the same SHA-1 encryption, before checking for presences of that hash in the list of passwords. Mercifully mine was not published, but the Digixav offices do have a number of passwords in the leak. Buzzfeed’s John Herrman used the tool to check for some possible passwords, both common and hilarious, and created a list of the best 23. Even if you are not affected by this attack, it should serve as a good reminder to constantly change your passwords and make them unique, but not to make them anything like these.

https://twitter.com/jwherrman/status/210448244545814530 https://twitter.com/jwherrman/status/210451294207479808 https://twitter.com/jwherrman/status/210451845049618432
by Xavier Voigt-Hill

The Last of Us gameplay video steals the show at E3

In Sony’s E3 press conference, Naughty Dog, the studio behind the Uncharted and Jak & Daxter games, unveiled the first gameplay video of their new IP, The Last of Us. The game is set in a post-pandemic world destroyed by a plague, and players take control of Joel, a ruthless survivor, and Ellie, a brave young girl, as they try to survive across America. The gameplay video, created live at the keynote from a PlayStation 3, shows Joel and Ellie treading through an abandoned hotel, before death ensues for many enemies. At the end, an assailant sporting a rifle enters a derelict room, before getting stabbed and losing his head to the gun. Watch the epic 7:23 video below (18+) and take a look at the previous trailers and a few screenshots, and prepare for the PlayStation exclusive launch in late 2012 or early 2013.



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by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Ubisoft unveils Watch Dogs and stuns E3

Companies have come out with all guns blazing in the first day of press conferences at E3, but Ubisoft undoubtedly stole the show with their announcement of Watch Dogs. The game’s trailer, accompanied with just two sentences of description, debuted during the company’s conference, which also included information about Far Cry 3 and Assassin’s Creed 3, but it is believed that Watch Dogs is our first peek at a next generation game. Watch the trailer and first demo video below, visit the game’s website and try to spot the hidden Windows Phone.

Update: Joystiq is reporting that Ubisoft’s press site lists the game for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, but their own Xav de Matos thinks it might just be a placeholder listing and Polygon‘s Arthur Gies suspects that what we saw today was not the current-gen version.

Everything is connected. Connection is power.



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by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Qualcomm shows off cool Snapdragon chips by melting butter on smartphones

People love a benchmark, and Qualcomm has invented a new one that appears to favour their series of Snapdragon processors. In a video posted on their YouTube channel, Vidyasagar Rao, a staff engineer at the company, pits an HTC One S with a Snapdragon S4 MSM8260A chip against a Motorola Razr Maxx with a TI OMAP4430 and Samsung Galaxy S II sporting a Samsung Exynos 4 Dual chip in their new Butter benchmark test. It’s quite simple really. Butter melts at 35°C, so whichever phone runs coolest will keep the block of butter intact for the longest. We doubt this will catch on, but you can see the results by watching the video below.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

E3: The Preview

E3 is just around the corner, so we thought we’d give you a peek at some of the stuff that we’re looking forward to this week.

The Last of Us

The Last of Us is the latest title from Naughty Dog, famous for the Uncharted and Jak & Daxter games. This PS3 exclusive is set in a post-pandemic world destroyed by a plague, and players take control of Joel, a ruthless survivor, and Ellie, a brave young girl, as they try to survive across America. Think Dead Island but better.


Tomb Raider

Lara Croft is back, and she’s determined to get her crown back as queen of action games.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Dawnguard

Skyrim came out late last year to almost universal acclaim, including our own game of the year award. Now, Bethesda is set to give us more information about the recently-announced Dawnguard DLC.

Lego Lord of the Rings

Lego games are always awesome, and the minifgure take on Lord of the Rings promises to be no exception.

Hitman: Absolution

The Hitman series returns with death, death and even more death.

The Testament of Sherlock Holmes

Despite being an obvious attempt to cash in on the ongoing Sherlock fever, this LA Noire-esque detective game seems intriguing.

Far Cry 3

The Far Cry series returns to an isolated island, and this time you get crazier the longer you stay there.

Assassin’s Creed 3

With a new protagonist and a new continent, AC3 promises to be epic, but can it differ enough from its predecessors to make gamers happy?

Have we missed anything? Let us know in the comments, and get ready for the biggest week of the gaming year. E3 here we come!

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Why I love spam

When you have a website with a comment section, you will undoubtedly get a few comments that are out and out spam. You soon realise that the world has no shortage of generic email addresses and random letter strings attempting to pedal Viagra, SEO optimization techniques and ‘free’ iPads to the people of the internet. Because you don’t want this kind of crap to spoil your website, many people choose to implement spam filtration technology to clean the place up. Being a WordPress site, we get access to Akismet free of charge, and with that comes a spam prevention success rate of 98.22%. This means most stuff gets hidden away, but something always seems to escape, as pointed out on The Verge’s forums by user smackel.

Seeing smackel’s post inspired me to dig out some classic spam from our own Akismet filters, so here you go. Please note that links to discount Viagra etc. have been removed for your own safety.

Author: flash games
Article: Why Minecraft is awesome

The new Zune browser is surprisingly good, but not as good as the iPod’s. It works well, but isn’t as fast as Safari, and has a clunkier interface. If you occasionally plan on using the web browser that’s not an issue, but if you’re planning to browse the web alot from your PMP then the iPod’s larger screen and better browser may be important.

Author: Your Question Is Now Answered About: Graco Baby Products
Article: Birdwatching: Is Assassin’s Creed starting to dull?

[…] in Modern Warfare 3 Step by Step GuideEdison, consultant spar over blame for San Onofre shutdownBirdwatching: Is Assassin’s Creed starting to dull body.custom-background { background-color: #ffffff; } jQuery(document).ready(function($) { // […]

Author: Asus M9 Battery
Article: Is Facebook looking to buy Opera to make its own web browser?

Pausing to catch a little F1. Just showed a bit about Ron Howard’s Rush. Hemsworth as James Hunt? Interesting! I miss 6 wheeled cars thou

Author: Free US iPad.com
Article: Techslice: The new iPhone rumour mill

Unquestionably imagine that which you said. Your favourite justification seemed to be on the net the easiest factor to remember of. I say to you, I definitely get irked while folks consider issues that they plainly do not recognise about. You managed to hit the nail upon the highest and also defined out the whole thing without having side effect , folks can take a signal. Will probably be back to get more. Thanks

And now for my personal favourite, the Polish one. Originally posted by alaxomygalo on my post about the Victorinox SSD, I turn to this comment whenever I need a good laugh. You can have a look at the original over on Dropbox, but here is the (Google) translation.

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Spam never fails to make me smile, and that is the reason I love it. Not even @Horse_ebooks could make this stuff up, and that’s really saying something.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Why reviews need honesty

Reviews exist for a reason. You read them to find out opinions about products, and, as such, you want people to be honest about the stuff that they are writing about. Reading David Pogue’s review for the New York Times of the Samsung Galaxy Player 4.2 made me angry as, like Buzzfeed’s Matt Buchanan pointed out all too well, the author is trying too hard to be nice. Being nice about something will make it seem good. If it is not good, don’t try and fool the reader with your feigned attempt at praise.

The Player 4.2 is beautiful. Its plastic shell, with comfortably rounded edges, can’t hold a candle to the mirror-finish metal back of the Touch, but of course it doesn’t hold fingerprints, either.

You’ll probably need to buy a memory card, in fact, since the Player comes with only about four gigabytes of free memory for your files. But the point is: the capacity of your Player is up to you. Choice is good, right?

In the end, the Player should hold special appeal for a significant customer niche: rebels. The technologically sophisticated. People who would enjoy the freedom of removable cards and batteries. Parents who might like that peculiar business about making phone calls through a cheaper phone. People who own recent Samsung televisions (the Player doubles as a remote control). Anyone with a dominant anti-Apple gene.

Otherwise, it’s not entirely clear who would benefit by this slightly thicker, slightly heavier, slightly less refined iPod Touch. Until that question is answered, it’s hard to imagine Samsung’s latest becoming a significant Player in the Galaxy.

Once again, as much as it pains me to say it, I find myself in agreement with Mr. Massive Greatness himself, MG Siegler.

I don’t know about you, but when I read my favorite technology writers, I want an opinion. Is the iPhone 4S the best smartphone, or is it the Galaxy Nexus? I need to buy one, I can’t buy both. [Josh] Topolsky never gives us that. Instead, he pussyfoots around it. One is great at some things, the other is great at others. Barf.

Fucking pick one. I bet that even now he won’t.

This is the problem I have with most technology reviews these days. Everyone seems so afraid to say how they really feel about the device. And more often than not, that’s exactly what readers want.

Reviews need opinion, not horseshit. If something is good, the review should make that clear. If something is crap, the review should make that clear. That’s why I respect Josh Topolsky. He reviewed the Nokia Lumia 900 and people went mad when he gave it a 7.0. He was totally wrong on a few things, but at least he was honest. And that’s what we strive for at Digixav. As Paloma Faith once sang, do you want the truth or something beautiful? I know what I’d rather have.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Is Facebook looking to buy Opera to make its own web browser?

Fresh from floating itself on the NASDAQ at a valuation of $104 billion, only to see share prices plummet by almost 20% in a week, and a $1 billion acquisition of Instagram, the rumour mill has sparked up again, this time suggesting that Facebook is set to acquire Norwegian firm Opera Software. Pocket-lint’s sources claim that Mark Zuckerberg’s company is looking to create its own web browser, possibly one compatible with the oft-rumoured Facebook phone, and that it is looking towards Opera to achieve this goal. The Next Web also cited a different source close to the browser maker, stating that the company was not only in talks regarding a potential acquisition with multiple suitors, but a hiring freeze has been introduced – a sign that big things may be coming. A Facebook browser could look very similar to RockMelt, a browser with Facebook integration and built from Google’s Chromium engine, but partnering with or acquiring a company like Opera would give Facebook independence from third-parties such as Google, thus ensuring total control over the browser, while also the potential to tap in to Opera’s 270 million monthly users. All of this speculation certainly seems plausible, and with Facebook’s tendency to roll out new features perpetually, it might not be long until we find out the truth.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Introducing Digixav 4.0 Ginkgo

Hello there,

We’re over 7 months old now, and things have changed. It’s not just me any more, and I have been joined by many fantastic writers in the quest to get tech news out on the interweb. We’re getting more hits each day than we ever expected, and we’ve had readers from over 100 countries around the globe.

Today, I am pleased to unveil Digixav 4.0 (aka Ginkgo) and a new wordmark/logo-type thing.

We were on the hunt for a new theme after being accepted into the WordAds program, but then I discovered Oxygen. It doesn’t support ads yet, but I think you’ll agree that it looks awesome and has a slider that changes automatically. We also used the magic of the Ubuntu font to make the site look even better, and new menus make it easier to navigate the site than ever before. Bearing in mind that this is a work-in-progress, you may notice a few widget and CSS changes, but we think that Ginkgo is the best version of Digixav yet, and we hope you do too.

Thanks for sticking with us,
Xavier