Thousands of Infected Computers Will Lose Internet Monday

If your computer is infected, the DNS changer check-up site will look like this

280,000 computers are infected with malware that will cause their internet to shut down on Monday, July 9, 2012 if they don't remove the virus immediately. This is becoming a huge deal all over the internet, with sites like Facebook and Google posting warning messages to users who they detect have the virus. How did this all start?

Last year, international hackers set up an online advertising scam. When these ads were clicked on, the hackers would gain control of these computers by hooking them up wirelessly to malicious servers. The servers turned off anti-virus protection and other installed software on the infected computers, slowing down their internet and making them prone to even worse viruses. Luckily, the FBI found out about this, and set off to take down the hackers.

However, they realized that there was an important problem; if the FBI simply turned off the malicious servers, about 400,000 infected computers would lose internet connection. So, the FBI hired a private company to set up two clean temporary internet servers to replace these malicious servers.

But these servers will expire on July 9 at 12:01 a.m. So the 280,000 computers that were infected and are still connected to these servers will instantly lose internet connection. And this is a bigger deal than it may seem; it is estimated that 50 Fortune 500 computers are infected with this virus, and therefore will lose internet connection.

The FBI recommends that everybody check to see if their computer is infected with this virus by going on http://www.dns-ok.us/, which will detect if your computer is infected with this virus. If it is, DCWG (The FBI's site on this problem) has links to fix your computer so you won't lose connection.

Why Facebook needs to make their own internet browser

In 2008, before Google Chrome was released, 68.5% of people browsing the web were using Internet Explorer. Now, only 35% of internet users use Internet Explorer, while 31% use Google Chrome. This means that in less than 3 months, Google Chrome will become the world's most popular browser. Which is why Facebook desperately needs to make their own browser.

Now, I know you're thinking I'm crazy. After all, Facebook is a social networking company. Why on Earth would they need a web browser? See, Google isn't launching Search, Android, Chrome, Calendar, and its myriad of other products all as stand-alones that each generate a bit of revenue. Google is making these products to help one another. For example, Search is helping Google+ with "Search+ Your World", a new feature in Google Search that lets pictures and posts from your friends in Google+ appear on search results.

Now that Chrome is becoming so popular, they can easily use this to their advantage. Google could turn their browser into a Google+ version of Rockmelt (a social browser) that puts Google+ notifications, updates, hangouts, and friend requests right before your eyes faster than you can type "facebook.com" While Google+ has only 170 million users to Facebook's 1 billion, allowing Google to do this to the world's most popular browser could easily change that number.

So what can Facebook do about this? Since they don't have any control over what Microsoft, Mozilla, and most importantly, Google do with their browsers, they're left with one option; make their own browser. Now, tech companies are known to have very good foresight, so it's possible that a Facebook browser is already in the works. But it's also possible that Mark Zuckerberg is reading this post, saying to himself, "Shoot. This guy's right."

22% of Americans don't use the internet

 While almost everything changes a lot over time in the world of technology, it always amazes me to think of how much the internet has changed. In less than a decade, the internet went from a dream to a necessity. But it's been hard to tell how the internet has evolved after that. That's why Pew Research Center just made a study about internet usage evolving over time.

According to the study, 78% of Americans use the internet regularly. While many people may regard this number as shockingly low, it's actually quite impressive considering that only 12% of Americans used the internet regularly in 2000. Besides, this number includes people in very poor parts of America.

What's even more interesting is the patterns the researchers noticed. A similar study a decade ago identified gender and race as the biggest factors in internet usage. Now, however, gender and race no longer can predict how much people use the internet. Instead, age is the key factor. When asked if they use the internet regularly, 94% of Americans age 18-29 said yes, compared to only 74% of Americans 50-64 and 41% of Americans 65 or older.

What caused these huge changes? Apparently, social networking sites did the trick. Facebook has 1 billion users, which certainly ramped up internet usage. And Google+ is almost at 200 million users in only a few months. These sites made their biggest mark on internet usage of the elderly. In fact, four times as many Americans 74 or older are using Facebook or Twitter than in 2008.

Internet usage is clearly changing rapidly, which is why we can only guess what the Internet will be like in another decade. Sites could be more directed to the poor and the elderly, the two groups of people who used the internet the least. More users could also mean a greater variety of content. The only thing for sure is that it'll change a lot.

12 Ways to Make Your Site Better

A new study shows how to make your online shopping site gain much more revenue; very quickly! And, it even plans it out for you; do one thing every day of Christmas and soon your website will be much more successful!

92% of Mobile Shopping is Done on iOS Devices

A new study about mobile shopping gives us a lot of new, and unexpected data. One statistic is that 92% of mobile purchases were from iOS devices. This is very peculiar, considering that more Android phones have been sold than iOS phones, so you would expect less than 50% of mobile purchases to be from the iPhone. I think this could be a result of the wider selection of shopping apps for the iPhone, or the smooth, intuitive interface that makes buying things on a mobile device, which rarely happened in past years, feel more comfortable.

Another statistic of particular interest to me is that iOS devices were used to purchase more expensive things on average. The average price of a purchase from an iOS device was $123, as compared to $101 from an Android device and only $87 from a desktop computer. This seems odd to me because it seems as if a desktop would be used to purchase more expensive things so that you can find the best price more easily and make sure you purchase the right thing with the right equipment. One possible idea is that a desktop is better at tabbed browsing, so you feel more free to go on other sites and look for a lower price on the item you plan to buy.

"The numbers across our retailing sites partners sites demonstrate just how powerful the iOS platform is enabling mobile web shopping and, while still below 5% in total conversion, mobile traffic is doubling in eight months is a trend we only see accelerating."

Tech n' Cars is also seeing more mobile views, with 351 views from a mobile device so far. While this only makes up 8% of the total 4,209 views, the number of mobile views per month is constantly increasing. And, just as with the study, 97% of our mobile views are from iOS devices.

Firefox 6 will be available tomorrow, you can download it now from Mozilla's servers

You can see the fox before everyone else...

Firefox 6 is due tomorrow, Tuesday, August 16. The major change will be the speed. Firefox 6 will be 20% faster than Firefox 5. If you are impatient or just want to show off to your friends, you can download Firefox 6 here of Mozilla's FTP servers  for Windows, Mac, or Linux.

Egypt has Regained Internet Access

After five days without internet in Egypt following a request by Egypt's government to shut down service to 80 million Egyptians because of political protests, Egyptians are back online. Though the internet came back at 9:30 in the morning today, thousands of people are still protesting. I think it would actually be good for the entire world to have no internet for a week. Here is a comment left on Gizmodo's post about this topic by an Egyptian:

Hi, I am from Egypt. The first thing I did when the internet came back was to check Gizmodo. I hate to admit that we are living in chaos because of what is happening. We spent the last nights guarding our homes from the people who escaped from prisons. Our jobs and education stopped until further notification. Yes, we wanted this revoloution to change that mess, but they passed their limits. This has to stop to save what was left.

Thanks.

So that's why Egyptians weren't visiting Tech n' Cars!