Computer use and web connectivity has blossomed in Iraq since the US invasion in 2003, but the increased dependence on the Internet has also led to a surge in security problems, which if tapped by Iraq’s enemies could cause serious problems.

Additionally, Iraq’s very young computer infrastructure is insufficiently secured, making it easier for savvy hackers to wreak havoc on the country’s inexperienced IT managers.

One hacker in Iraq, known as the “Iraqi Diver,” has hacked into around 1,500 websites, including some of the government’s most sensitive departments. The hacker, stationed in the Wasit Provence south of Baghdad, doesn’t appear to be interested in anything other than making a name for himself, but his success in breaking into Iraq’s banks and electrical ministries proves the ease with which a nefarious hacker could cause catastrophic damage to the Iraqi government.
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Mozilla has re-upped its search deal with Google until 2011, which promises a massive revenue stream to continue flooding into the rapidly surging open-source web software maker.

SAI is continuing to conjecture about a possible IPO, predicting a total worth of $4 billion. SAI estimates Mozilla to be worthy of a 25X revenue multiple, and with $150 million flooding into Mozilla’s coffers every year, it makes for an awfully big number.

But what will happen to the big handful of developers who made Mozilla what it is today? Going public invites a huge headache that would be ridiculous to deal with. Some of the developers say they would fight an IPO tooth and nail.
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Is the album dead? An article in Ars Technica suggests many artists believe it is dying, and the biggest culprit behind its demise is iTunes.

Some bands sort of have this coming. They make one or two good songs and then fill in the rest of the album with a string of throwaways. But for other band that strive to create a complete and cohesive album, they are feeling somewhat annoyed by the change in habits.

Apple doesn’t allow artists to sell albums only on their system. An artist can sell all their songs, but not as one package–it has to be a la carte.
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John McCain has taken some heat for not knowing how to use a computer, and it’s not just about the candidate himself. Barack Obama’s web presence has been far-reaching an dominant, with McCain’s efforts often being criticized.

McCain’s campaign isn’t ever going to top the Obama juggernaut for sheer volume, but he can employ some stealth tactics that could sway undecided voters searching about issues or people associated with the campaign.

And that’s just what McCain’s campaign did: they placed a high bid on Google Adwords for the term “joe biden” yesterday, so when people did a search for Biden, there was a high-ranking ad that led to a video of Joe Biden trash-talking Obama earlier in the campaign. Since users are specifically searching for information about these exact terms, the impressions must be extremely valuable for the McCain campaign in attracting undecided voters.
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Friendfeed, the lifestreaming site that aggregates your friends social web information into one simple feed, has just launched a new beta site that takes a lot of suggestions and problems users have had into account in altering the service and reducing what can be a pretty extreme amount of noise on one’s main page.

I’ve just started using Friendfeed (I know, five months late) and really enjoy it. It’s sort of like the news feed on Facebook but on Barry Bonds-esqe steroids. There are many supported services that aggregate and basically reveal all of your friends’ usage of the sites they connect to their feed, which congeals into one giant feed a la Facebook news feed. Bloggers can also connect to their RSS feeds so in a day their friends may get all of their blog posts, Twitter posts, social bookmarking, Google Reader, Netflix queue, every picture put on Flickr, etc. and so on.
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The technology behind Google Suggest is nothing new. It’s been available on the Google Toolbar for some time, as well as through Firefox, YouTube, and the iPhone. Rivals like Yahoo! and Live Search have also had it on their homepage for quite awhile now. But finally, Google has added it to their homepage.

Reviews are mixed. Some say the technology is not as advanced as Yahoo’s, others say Live Search is better, and still others think Firefox’s plugins are better. None of this matters much when it comes to marketing. The fact is that now Google has its suggest feature, it becomes extremely important to explore the possible implications for search engine optimization.
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A small electronic antenna testing outfit in Sweden has revealed there is little to no difference between the antennae of iPhones and other phones, like the Nokia N73. In spite of many complaints of iPhones having fewer reception bars and some lost calls, the tests showed the iPhone’s antenna is as strong as other phones.

Case closed, right? Many are attributing the complaints about the iPhone to the fact that they were rolled out at such a high volume and with such fanfare that every small problem has been amplified, especially due to the often high-profile nature of the user base.
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Apple, hungry to build their market in China, has taken a position that will not endear them to the Chinese leadership and much of the Chinese people. Though the Apple iTunes store is not marketed to China, it is accessed there frequently, especially by foreigners in the country–such as those attending the Olympics.

Apple is offering up an album on the service called “Songs for Tibet,” featuring artists like Sting and Dave Matthews, and word is that around 40 Olympic athletes downloaded the album in the last two weeks. Of course, while there is not concrete evidence to support the claim, it appears as if Chinese authorities have blocked iTunes in response to the pro-Tibet album.
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Word on the street is that Amazon is actually selling a lot of their e-reader the Kindle. Despite its relatively low-fi 1.0 appearance, functionality and a low price for books are bringing a lot of readers into the fold.

One thing Apple has done with the iPod is make deals with college campuses to distribute them to incoming students. Macs are dominant on many college campuses, and Apple is creating a youthful base of loyal users that will promise continued growth and prosperity in the future.
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Microsoft is not hip.  The hippest person associated with Microsoft is John Hodgman from the Mac/PC ads, and he’s supposed to be a loser.  But then again, Microsoft has never been hip, they’ve always been good at putting out a product that is generally recognized as the “standard.”

But with Mac sales going through the roof after a combination of problems with Vista and more masterful marketing from the people at Apple, Microsoft needs an image upgrade.

The first step was the so-called Mojave Project, where Microsoft chose to attempt to convince people that the Vista haters were completely off base.  It does sort of work, I have to admit, especially since Vista’s SP1 has solved some (not nearly all) of the problems.
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