To get an invite to Google+ now simply ask a current Google+ user to share a post with you (the non Google+ user).
When you click on the “Learn more about Google+” button in the email you receive, you should be taken to a page to sign-up for Google+.
We’ve just tried it and it indeed works.
It’s worth noting that invites are rate limited by hour. So if they can’t click through that first time, they can try again later with same link later.
Update:
There is in fact now no need to do the post trick mentioned below. Google+ users can now just share invites. If you’re already a logged in user, just refresh and you should see an invite option to the right of your stream.
Recent Update:
Invitations are once again closed, and neither this workaround nor the invitation tools will work until they are once again opened up.
Google+ doesn’t have an inbuilt way to transfer your Facebook friends over to the new social app, but since Facebook is clearly dead and everyone is on Google+ nowadays it’s best to get your contacts moved over before Facebook’s servers are switched off for good.
That might be far from the truth — though in the five minutes that were between myself getting invited through the backdoor and Google opening invites up to all existing users, the place went from ghost town to 90s rave — but it’d still be handy to have the option.
Mohamed Mansour on Google+ shares the easiest existing method of bringing users over from one service to the other, with the Facebook Friend Exporter extension for Chrome.
The tool adds an “Export friends” button to the Facebook toolbar. Please be aware that actually exporting your friends could lead to jail time for human trafficking.
Depending on how many friends you have, it could take a while, but the app keeps you up-to-date on the process.
What this process does is add your Facebook friends to Google Contacts. It does not actually add them to any of your Google+ circles. However, this is far and away the easiest way to go about inviting and adding friends on Google+, as it uses your Google Contacts to suggest people to invite using an easy drag and drop process. Any other method that’s available at the time of this writing is much more tedious.
Tall buildings miraculously appeared on the normally clear Xin'an River. Picture: ITN
City appears over Chinese river
Residents think it's a "vortex"
Scientists say it's a great mirage
IT looks like any other city skyline with skyscrapers, a few mountains and trees - except it isn't real.
The giant mirage appeared across the skyline near in East China earlier this month after heavy rainfall and humid conditions along the Xin’an River.
As mist settled over the river at dusk, tall buildings appeared to rise from nowhere, leading residents in nearby Huanshan City to speculate that the vision may be a "vortex" to a lost civilisation.
Scroll down to see amazing footage of the ghost city
"It's really amazing, it looks like a scene in a movie, in a fairlyland," one resident told UK news channel ITN.
The mysterious city had vanished just as quickly as it had come.
Scientists have quashed the vortex theory and, as per usual, have a simple explanation for the incredible sight.
They believe it may have been a mirage, caused when moisture in the air becomes warmer than the temperature of the water below.
When rays of sunlight cross from the colder air into the warmer air they are refracted or bent – creating a reflection in the air that looks similar to a reflection in water.
It's a common sight for many travellers on Australian roads. But we Australians tend to see puddles of water that disappear when you get close, not entire cities floating on rivers.
We have been around the block and back with Windows 8, poring over its every rumor and detail. Through the process, the most maddening element of forthcoming operating system has been how well Microsoft has managed to keep a lid on its release schedule.
Until now. Mary Jo Foley, a veteran Microsoft reporter, only blogs rumors that she trusts, tips from sources that have delivered in past. This means that when she says that she has heard something, we listen. Today, she had a doozy of a rumor to report: It could be that Windows 8 is set to RTM in April of 2012.
That is less than a full calendar from today, putting the effective ending date of Windows 7 less than 12 months away. This is quite significant as it implies that, even though Microsoft has seen success with Windows 7 in terms of sales volume, the company feels that its need to release a functional tablet-capable operating system trumps the commercial viability of its current product.
Or, in other words, even though Windows 7 is selling well and driving revenue, Microsoft is set to push it out of the nest in a hurry to make room for Windows 8, a product that the company plans to use to push against the iPad, and other computing variants that are putting pressure on traditional computers.
Mary Jo also claims that “I’ve also heard from my contact that Microsoft’s game plan is to deliver abeta build– not a pre-beta or preview — of Windows 8 around the time of the Build conference in mid-September.”
This jives with what little we have heard, though we have to admit that our Windows 8 tip flow has all but dried up in the last month. Microsoft, now that it has demonstrated the tablet/touch Windows 8 interface appears to have locked down leaks, and is running a much tighter ship than before.
Whatever the case, we trust Mary Jo, and if she trusts this source, then there is a strong possibility that it will in next April that we close the chapter on Windows 7 and begin to prepare for Windows 8 and the next epoch of computing.
After receiving a warning from the Taipei City Government earlier in the month, Google has suspended downloads of paid apps on the Android Market after the company was fined Tw$1,000,000 (S$42,842) for not extending trial periods on its app downloads.
Smartphone users in the city had complained that they were unable to claim a refund when they deemed an app download as unsatisfactory. Taipei’s Law and Regulation Commission informed Google Taiwan, as well as Apple Asia, of the complaints in a formal letter, demanding an explanation and an outline of improvements by a June 23 deadline.
Apple Asia responded before the deadline and amended its refund policy to comply with Taiwan’s by extending its trial period from 15 minutes to a full seven days.
Google’s issued a press release to explain its actions (translated):
Taipei City Government in the ongoing deliberations with the refund mechanism, we will suspend the payment of Taiwan application services. Android Market has been paid for the appreciation of the application period to provide 15 minutes, consumers can purchase if not satisfied within the time limit for refund. From this mechanism we observed several phenomena: the user can immediately get paid via the online update application, and most users want refund will apply for a refund within minutes. We believe this policy will not only help the consumer purchase decision will help the Taiwanese software developers to effectively manage business.
Android smartphone owners in the country have taken to Facebook, Twitter and Plurk to complain about the block, stating that the government was aggressive in its decision to fine Google. The search giant has not stated when downloads will resume.
Google will be speak with Taiwanese officials on Thursday, where it could be decided that the company will receive a second fine. A press release was issued but with translation services not being of adequate quality, we have linked to it here.
Originally coined in 1998, the term open source came out of the free software movement, a collaborative force going strong since the dawn of computing in the 1950s. This early community was responsible for the development of many of the first operating systems, software and, in 1969, the Internet itself.
The open-source community is thriving and today boasts some of the best brains in the business. The aim has not changed: free systems and software should be available to everybody, wherever they are.
Without open source, many of the systems and applications we take for granted simply would not exist. All the big players in computing come from, or owe a huge creative debt to, the open-source community, and continue to rely on its talent and expertise when developing new products.
In the spirit of open source, Ubuntu is absolutely free to download, use, share and improve however and whenever you like.
What is open source?
There are 10 core principles of open-source software:
Software must be free to redistribute.
The program must include source code.
The licence must allow people to experiment with and redistribute modifications.
Users have a right to know who is responsible for the software they are using.
There should be no discrimination against any person or group.
The licence must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field.
No-one should need to acquire an additional licence to use or redistribute the program.
"Google Translator" is one of the most popular online program to translate One language to another language. Translation services in various languages around the world was available this day, but now Google has added five new languages including Bengali.
On Tuesday, Google has launched this new facility. The other languages are added in addition to the new Bengali Gujarati, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu. Research Scientist of Google said that, "With English, there is various differences between the languages of Indian Subcontinent. The two languages are different, because of differences way of translation is also complicated. We have tried every meaning of word to find out the right one. And by upgrading Translation system, Beta version of this languages will be created."
But there is some problem occurring in its Bangla Translator Program, its not providing the correct translation of the sentences from English or other languages. Google told about this, "they want to learn from mistakes."
They wants to know their mistakes from their users and and want to correct them as they advice.
Facebook has emerged as the number one platform for display advertising in the US, and it’s expected to generate well over $2bn in revenue from display advertising in 2011.
The research was carried out by eMarketer, and this means that Facebook will edge past Yahoo into pole position. It also means that Facebook has increased its revenue by over 80% in the last year, which is actually a drop in its display-ad growth.
The social networking behemoth recorded “triple-digit” display-ad growth in 2009 and 2010, and this slowing in growth is likely to continue into next year, where it’s estimated that the growth will fall to less than a third.
But the fact that Facebook is now in number one spot is a telling sign for other digital companies too, with Yahoo now falling to number 4, behind Google and Microsoft. Yahoo is still in second place in terms of total revenue, with 13.1% market share, compared with Facebook’s 17.7%.
Each of the top 5 companies increased their revenue display ad revenue in the past year as outlined in this table, courtesy of eMarketer:
David Hallerman, principal analyst at eMarketer, said:
“Facebook’s supreme popularity—both in terms of numbers of people and amount of time they spend there—creates a plethora of display ad impressions, mainly for its unique form of banners. And that popularity is also boosting what advertisers will pay for its display ads.”
Google recently bought display ad optimization firm Admeld, a sign that Google will be upping the pressure on Facebook in the display-ad sphere, so it will be interesting to see how these figures actually pan out over the next couple of years.
Yesterday, TNW reported that President Barack Obama will begin tweeting (on occasion) from the @BarackObama account personally.
The announcement was made in a blog post on the Barack Obama 2012 campaign site.
" Obama for America staff will now be managing both accounts, posting daily updates from the campaign trail, from Washington, and everywhere in between. You’ll be hearing from President Obama regularly, too; on Twitter, tweets from the President will be signed “-BO.” "
President Obama has widely been credited as a technologically savvy candidate who was elected in part because of his aggressive stance towards using the Internet and technology to reach voters. Today, in celebration of Father’s Day, President Obama sent out his first signed tweet. And a heartwarming tweet it is. Tech savvy and a family man!
In other news, I just realized President Obama is following me on Twitter. Sweet!
Rumana Manzur, assistant professor of DU, flied towards India for her eye’s treatment. Today at Bangladesh time 2.55 evening she left Bangladesh in the Kingfisher Airway’s flight. At that moment her father Monjur Hossain, mother and her daughter Anusha was with her. Rumana’s father Monjur Hossain said, “ for Rumana’s better treatment we are taking her to Chennai at Shankar Netraloy Hospital.”
On 5th June Rumana Manzur, assistant professor of International Relations, was tortured by her husband Hasan Sayed in her home at Dhanmondi. The immediate next day Rumana’s father made a general diary at Dhanmondi police station. Seriously injured Rumana was under treatment at Labaid hospital from last 8 days. Rumana’s left eye is totally damaged and right eye is not in a very good condition.
On the other hand, Dhaka University campus was very active to protest against this incident. Students and teachers have done various activities to ensure his arrest and proper punishment. They took position in front of Oporajeyo Bangla. They also put black cloth in the Oporajeyo Bangla sculpture’s eye.
Students of International Relations department, DU was very active and worried about their teacher Rumana Manzur’s condition. They said, “Rumana Manzur’s blindness is the blindness of the nations eyes.” “Are we living in the jungle?”
Here, the teachers association of DU gave 72 hours ultimatum for the arrest and punishment of Hasan Sayed. This is the first serious step taken by DU family about this incident.
Rumana Manjur, the Dhaka University (DU) assistant professor who has landed in hospital after being tortured allegedly by her husband, on Monday appealed for justice from her bed at LabAid Specialised Hospital. Chief eye consultant at the hospital Dr Ansarul Huq told reporters on Sunday that eye tissues in Rumana’s eyes had been badly ruptured in the attack. “Her eyes need multi-disciplinary treatment in a modern eye set-up,” he said.
Dr Huq suggested that eye hospitals abroad could be an option. “A normal human being can’t do it,” he said referring to the injury.
According to the doctor, Rumana was assaulted so severely that doctors could not even examine her eyes on the day she was admitted.
Rumana, an assistant professor in the Department of International Study of DU, was battered and bit, allegedly by her husband, on June 5. According to the police complaint lodged by the family, her husband gouged out both her eyes and chewed part of her nose.
She said her husband attacked her from behind when she was working on her computer at home. “My daughter was painting when he came and first pulled me by my hair and then tried to gouge out my eyes with his fingers,” she said.
Rumana, in Dhaka for a study break from a PhD programme in British Columbia University, had returned home last month. She alleged that her husband, Hasan Sayed, an engineering graduate from BUET who is unemployed at present, had objections to her going abroad and was allegedly irate over the issue.
“He bit my face and chewed off part of my nose,” she said. “He grabbed me by my hand so hard that I could not tackle him. Then he beat me up so severely that I started to bleed.”
Rumana said she slipped on her own blood and fainted.
The incident took place at her father’s Dhanmondi residence and she was taken to the hospital around 4 pm that day.
Rumana also said it wasn’t the first time that her husband had assaulted her and she had kept quiet for the sake of their daughter.
Rumana’s father Manjur Hossain, a retired army personnel, said his daughter was to submit her thesis this October. “She never shared her problems with us,” he said. “But we knew that her husband did not like her foreign scholarship from the beginning.”
Manjur Hossain said he has filed a case against Sayed in Dhanmondi police station.
Rahul Amin, associate professor of the department of IR of DU, said Rumana was his direct student and she was a very quiet and composed person. “I never knew she was undergoing so much trouble in her family life,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dr Mijanur Rahman Khan, chairman of the Human Rights Commission (HRC), visited Rumana Manjue at the hospital on Saturday but claimed she refused to meet him.
After all the activities Anonymous carried out last week, it seems like the ‘hacktivist’ group is now on the receiving end of censorship from Facebook and Twitter.
Anonymous, which started its Indian operations very recently, had setup a Facebook page and a Twitter account to propagate its agenda among Indians and call for volunteers to join its campaign.
However, it seems like both the accounts have now gone missing. Its Twitter account has been suspended and its Facebook page now redirects to the Facebook news feed, indicating that the page has been removed by Facebook.
The latest tweet from @OperationIndia, the Twitter account setup by Anonymous, seems to be 17 hours ago and its latest entry on Facebook seems to be 11 hours ago before the page was presumably removed.
Below is a screenshot of the Facebook page of Operation India, one of the Anonymous’s pages which focused on Indian activities by Anonymous.
We have contacted Facebook and Twitter for more information on this matter, we will update as soon as we get a response.
It may not be the first time a twitter user has been arrested for their tweets, but Nasser Abul is the first Kuwaiti citizen to face this charge. The irony in his arrest is that his criticism was not of the Kuwaiti government itself, but rather for criticizing the Bahraini and Saudi governments, particularly in relation to their treatment of the Shi’ite minority, of which he is one. His arrest is just one more trend in the clearly iron clad links between the GCC governments.
But that is not the only controversy in this story. Nasser Abul’s arrest on Thursday garnered mixed reactions from Twitter users, due to his vocal support of the Syrian regime. But support for the arrested Twitter user has far outweighed anything else. Kuwaiti Shi’ite Member of Parliament Hassan Johar tweeted that Abul’s arrest was a violation of freedom of expression and that he should not be held without any charges being brought against him.
This is not the first time an online activist’s arrest has been met with mixed reactions in the Middle East. Egyptian blogger Maikel Nabil’s, arrest and three year prison sentence earlier this year went unheeded by many Egyptian activists due to the blogger’s pro-Israeli stance.
SINDANGAN, Philippines (AP) — A poor Filipino blacksmith's son who stands less than 2 feet (60 centimeters) tall was declared the world's shortest man by Guinness World Records on his 18th birthday Sunday, sparking a celebration in his hometown.
Junrey Balawing smiles as he is presented by Craig Glenday, second from left, with a Guinness World Records certificate for being the world's shortest living man following the last of a series of measurement conducted at Sindangan Municipal Hall, Sindangan township, Zamboanga Del Norte province in Southern Philippines, Sunday June 12, 2011, his 18th birthday and coincidentally the Philippines' Independence Day. Balawing was officially measured at at 59.93 Centimeters (23.5 inches) dislodging Nepal's Khagendra Thapa Magar with a measurement of 26.4 inches. At left is Sindangan Mayor Filomeno Sy, and at right is Balawing's father Reynaldo. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
The title was bestowed on Junrey Balawing in Sindangan in the southern Philippines, with his parents, villagers and officials showering the coastal town's newly famous resident with a feast of roasted pigs and seafood, cake, balloons and cash gifts.
Balawing measured 23.5 inches (60 centimeters) during the ceremony attended by about 100 villagers and journalists at the town hall. Guinness World Records representative Craig Glenday presented Balawing with official recognition of his status as the shortest adult man in the world, with the framed certificate nearly reaching the ears of the standing recipient.
Balawing, who wore a white shirt emblazoned with the Guinness seal, took over the title from Khagendra Thapa Magar of Nepal, who is 26.4 inches (67 centimeters) tall, Glenday said.
Dozens of journalists descended on Sindangan, a fishing and farming town of 90,000 located about 450 miles (730 kilometers) south of Manila, to cover the event.
"Thank you," Balawing told the crowd in a local dialect which was translated by his father, Reynaldo. Balawing tried repeatedly before managing to blow out the candles on the cake and clapped heartily each time the crowd applauded. He was later heard saying "Kapoy," or "I'm tired."
Balawing — who is about the size of a toddler and has a child's demeanor — needs to hold onto something to stand because of weak knees. He was photographed propping himself up with empty Coca-Cola bottles, which were taller than his waistline.
Balawing's mother grew teary-eyed during the ceremony, saying she was happy with her son's instant fame.
Glenday said he was struck by Balawing's lively personality and constant smile.
"Although he's short, he takes that in stride," Glenday told The Associated Press. "He has this cheeky smile."
Aside from the Guinness certificate, the crown does not come with any cash award. Glenday said he hopes the international fame will bring in gifts and donations, particularly medical supplies to ensure Balawing's health.
Nobody could explain why Balawing stopped growing two months after his birth, his father said, adding that he first walked with help from his parents when he was 5 years old.
Sindangan Vice Mayor Bess Jagonio, a doctor, speculated that he may have had an endocrine or a birth-related defect.
Balawing's brother and two sisters are all average size.
His family said they tried to send Balawing to school but withdrew him after he distracted other children's attention.
Local officials got the idea of informing the Guinness records committee about Balawing from journalists who learned about his size.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has suffered a major hack, according to media reports this weekend.
The organisation, already making the headlines following the arrest and resignation of its boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn (whose alleged perpetration of a sexual assault has itself been used as springboard for malware attacks), attempts to oversee financial crises around the world and promote economic development.
According to a New York Times report, senior sources within the IMF confirmed to the newspaper that the organisation had suffered a "very major breach"and was deemed serious enough to cut a computer link between the IMF and its near neighbour in downtown Washington, the World Bank.
A World Bank spokesman is reported by the New York Times to say that the disconnection was taken out of “an abundance of caution” until the nature of the attack on the IMF, was understood. The link was apparently quickly restored, and no attack on the World Bank is said to have occurred.
Bloomberg, meanwhile, claims to have got its hands on a series of internal emails and memos distributed to IMF staff, warning them that computer systems had been compromised by hackers:
"Last week we detected some suspicious file transfers, and the subsequent investigation established that a Fund desktop computer had been compromised and used to access some Fund systems. At this point, we have no reason to believe that any personal information was sought for fraud purposes."
Furthermore, the IMF is said to have told staff on June 8 that it would be replacing their RSA SecurID tokens, used for authentication.
Inevitably, speculation is likely to rise that the attack on the IMF may have been connected to the recent security breach at RSA (which has, in turn, affected the likes of Lockheed Martin and possibly other militarycontractors) however, an IMF source is said to have told the New York Times that no such link is suspected in this attack.
It seems a single day can't pass without a well-known institution making the headlines for being the victim of a hacking attack or loss of sensitive data. All organisations need to take the seemingly growing tide of internet attacks as a warning sign, and ensure that they have strong defences in place and that every member of staff has been trained in best practices to reduce the risk.
Warnings are being posted across Facebook, warning users to beware messages from friends that invite them to "Visit the New Facebook".
Although these messages are being shared by Facebook users with the best of intentions, the warning about the risk of being locked out of your own Facebook account may in fact be more of a nuisance than the alleged hacker attack itself.
Here's a typical message seen on Facebook:
PLEASE RE-POST FOR EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!THIS NOTICE IS DIRECTED TO EVERYONE WHO HAS A PAGE ON FACEBOOK: IF SOME PEOPLE IN YOUR PROFILE OR YOUR FRIENDS SEND YOU A LINK WITH WORDS "VISIT THE NEW FACEBOOK ' DO NOT OPEN! IF YOU OPEN IT YOU CAN SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR PAGE. IT'S A HACKER WHO STEALS YOUR DETAILS AND REMOVES YOU FROM YOUR OWN PAGE. COPY AND SPREAD THE WORD
However, Sophos researchers have found no evidence that the threat is real. We simply haven't managed to uncover any reports of any users hit by such an attack.
As such, it appears that this is just the latest chainletter spreading across the social network. We've certainly seen plenty of similar examples of hoaxes spread by well-intentioned people in the past.
Remember, a genuine alert would be likely to contain a link to a legitimate security firm's website - detailing the true nature of the threat.
Remember to always get your computer security advice from a computer security company. Friends may be well-intentioned in passing on warnings, but it's always good to check your facts before forwarding them any further.
If you want to learn about the real threats on Facebook you should join the Sophos Facebook page, where we'll keep you up-to-date on the latest rogue applications, scams and malware attacks threatening social network users.
Outsourcing describes the process of one entity employing the services of another entity on an ad-hoc basis. This can take the form of one large company using a second company to provide certain services as needed, or it may simply be an individual who needs to procure a certain skill set to help complete a current project. Usually, these situations will take the form of the Employer engaging the services of Freelancers on either a pay-per-project or pay-per-hour basis. These Freelancers report directly to the entity that has employed them for an agreed duration either in time, or in project goals. Once payment has been made upon delivery of completed work, the Employer has no obligation to keep the Freelancer on the payroll.
How does Outsourcing fit into Modern Business?
In recent years business has become globalized, which in turn means that competition has globalized too. Many small businesses that may once have occupied a local niche are now forced to compete with similar businesses all around the world. In some cases, this presents a costing problem; labor can be cheaper, yet equally skilled in countries outside of the Western world. Many Western-based companies find that they are unable to compete with international companies offering services at much lower costs. Outsourcing enables companies to procure staff at competitive prices and, more importantly, as needed rather than hiring full-time employees.
In being able to call upon a workforce of outsourced Freelancers, small businesses are then able to dynamically scale themselves to fit the needs of any project.
Small businesses often find they have to turn down opportunities due to limited resources, therefore losing out to competitors. However, if a company has access to a readily available team of outsourced staff, this problem disappears; the business simply uses Freelancers to make up the shortfall. Small businesses can therefore take on additional work, safe in the knowledge they can acquire the resources required to complete any project. There can be no doubt that a small business that is able to utilize Freelancers is more dynamic and able to adapt itself more quickly to the needs of its clients.
Key Benefits of Outsourcing:
So far, we have briefly outlined a handful of the advantages of using Freelancers. Let us now take a much deeper look into the full range of benefits that a small business can reap from taking an outsourced approach to staffing.
COST EFFECTIVENESS
As we have already seen, the emergence of a global marketplace – not simply in terms of commercial opportunities, but also with regards to staff employment – means that many traditional businesses are facing the problem whereby they are savagely undercut when tendering for new projects. Skilled staff located in a cheaper geographic location are now more relevant than ever before in practical terms. Most business is won on price and employing outsourced staff allows small businesses to attain price parity with competitors large and small.
ADAPTABILITY
For small businesses involved in industries such as web development, the need for skilled staff is always present. But what happens when a new client suddenly insists upon your team producing a set of instructional videos, or a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation? Do you say, “No, sorry, we don’t have the skills to do this”? By using outsourced staff to supply extra skills as required, the business is able to confidently take on more complex projects that require a range of different skill sets, safe in the knowledge that they will be able to find Freelancers to make up the skill deficit.
SCALABILITY
Staff can be employed on a demand-driven basis. Put simply, if you need eight staff one month and then only five the next, then you only need employ the right number of staff each month. This means that staff shortages become a thing of the past and, equally importantly, overstaffing is also no longer an issue. You only employ the people you need when you need them.
REDUCED RISK
As any company that employs full-time staff will be aware, the cost of keeping those staff trained in current industry technologies and other tertiary skills can be high. Outsourced members of staff are responsible for keeping themselves current and ensuring that their skills are kept sharp, at no cost to their Employers.
DIVERSIFICATION
By outsourcing to Freelancers, a small business is able to adapt its products and services and expand its product base by pulling in skills that it does not already offer. For example, a web development company may find it desirable to offer Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services as part of their overall package. By finding a good, solid Freelancer to perform this task, they are buying a skill that can then be resold to augment and improve the service offered to their clients.
REDUCED TRAINING- COSTS
As any company that employs full-time staff will be aware, the cost of keeping those staff trained in current industry technologies and other tertiary skills can be high. Outsourced members of staff are responsible for keeping themselves current and ensuring that their skills are kept sharp, at no cost to their Employers.
SIMPLIFIED ACCOUNTING
Small business that employ staff on the payroll must keep accurate financial records and ensure that taxes are paid on behalf of their employees. Freelancers however, must keep their own records and are liable for their own tax returns; the Employer does not need to handle this process income and so accounting is made much simpler. In addition it removes the need to employ payroll staff.
The points outlined above represent the major benefits of outsourcing, many of which are applicable to small businesses in a range of industries. Even smaller organizations or one-man operations must see by now how outsourcing can help them to maintain their profit margins and grow with their market, without the need to invest in more full-time personnel. Utilizing highly skilled, professional Freelancers gives businesses the option to employ the people they need only when they need them, without incurring an ongoing overhead.
Today, Thursday, the international Internet hactivist collective known as Anonymous launched a successful DDoS attack against the Turkish government, taking down several official government websites, including http://tib.gov.tr/ and www.sgk.gov.tr.
Anonymous is protesting Internet censorship in Turkey. The Turkish government plans to implement a filter on Internet browsing on Aug. 22 under the pretense of protecting the youth from "harmful elements on the web." Critics argue that the filter will lead to wide-spread censorship.
The current Anonymous cyber attacks against the Turkish government consist of DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks using a coordinated network of Low Orbit Ion Canons (LOICs). Such attacks are an orchestrated attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended user.
The following is an excerpt from a video statement released Monday by those claiming to represent the nebulous collective known as Anonymous:
To the citizens of Turkey.
We are Anonymous.
Over the last few years, we have witnessed the censorship taken by the Turkish government, such as blocking YouTube, Rapidshare, Fileserve and thousands of other websites. Most recently, the government banned access to Google services.
These acts of censorship are inexcusable. The internet is a platform for freedom, a place where anyone and everyone can come together, discuss topics, and share information, without the fear of government interference.
We, Anonymous, will not stand by and let this go unnoticed. We will fight with the Turkish people against their government's rain of censorship.
Citizens of Turkey, Anonymous now fights with you.
Turkish Government,
Expect us.
While the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) of Turkey claims the proposed system of Internet filters is harmless, and will simply offer users more options, Anonymous and other concerned observers fear a much more draconian effect.
Last May tens of thousands Turkish citizens protested in Istanbul against the proposed Internet censorship. Anonymous and other critics worry the filtering system would make it possible to keep records of people's Internet activity and may be used as a means to prevent or halt possible political protest or dissidence.
