SELF-HOSTING WORDPRESS TECHNIQUES ON WORDPRESS.ORG

Hello great ones. Well, it has been a very great journey since I began blogging two months ago. Luckily, after assessing a couple of blogging sites, I decided to go for WordPress as my blogging platform and am now moving to a self hosted site at http://www.holahme.com

The journey has been a successful one till this point. I was lucky and blessed to find a good, loving, caring and warm community at WordPress. The community was very welcoming and they are part of my growth within the blogging arena.

The lovely two communities am speaking of are:The First Friday and Community Pool. The First Friday community is a good Community for new bloggers. They provide a platform where each new blogger can post their blog links each Friday for the first one month. This really does help a lot as they provide positive criticism on how to grow your blog. The Community Pool is for all bloggers to share their posts. I would urge all new bloggers to participate in these groups to aid in growth.

Well, after some experience with WordPress.com, I decided to try out the self-hosted WordPress.org. After some research, I settled for Bluehost to use it to host my WordPress blog. I wouldn’t say that the process was an easy sail but it was worthwhile. As most successful people say, “it is better to enjoy the process to get to enjoy the benefits.”

Bluehost was very supportive through out the process. They gave out help whenever I needed it. I was at first unable to transfer my existing blog posts to the self hosted site but with some support, it was possible.

A self hosted WordPress site comes along with many advantages which include:

• Ability to install many plugins unlike the free plan on .com
• Ability to have an email list.
• Ability to monetize your site among other advantages.

It is also advantageous as it proves more seriousness to people when you approach them to work with them.

For anyone who wants to use bluehost, I would advise you make use of the live chat with their support team. They are fast to reply and provide help and assistance you especially in doing some of the technical things.

Join, subscribe and follow my blog on my new site at http://www.holahme.com for a continuous adventure and enjoyment as we explore more on technology updates and trends. You are also free to ASK QUESTIONS, SHARE YOUR VIEWS and COMMENTS on my new site.

Technology was the future and technology is here with us. We are already in the future. Let’s embrace technology and gear forward for more to come.

Walk over to my new site and Subscribe for regular email updates revolving technology on my site at http://www.holahme.com for more adventure and experience.

A SUICIDE MISSION BY NOT YOUR ORDINARY ROBOT

Well, well, well, in this day and age, where all sought of things are happening in the world, corruption, lack of healthcare, war, terrorism name it all. The list is endless. We can never anticipate what will happen next or what invention will pop-up overnight.

With the invention of Artificial Intelligence, an integration between machine learning and deep learning, it has taken control of major industries. From the technology industry, Science and Engineering industries.  Recently, we had Google AI’s creating their own AI’s (unbelievable it is, but it did happen, robots created other robots).AI, has been called the next future. True to that, it is the next future of technology as it solves what man cannot do in minutes.

AI’s are proving to take over human’s capability and functions. They are surpassing what any ordinary human being can do. Their evolution is great but comes with its own disadvantages, including loss of employment as recently experienced by companies such as SoundCloud and Microsoft which laid off many of their employees, recently.

The AI’s have imitated most of man’s actions and behavior’s and this includes talking, teaching, and some go to the extent of imitating emotions. Recently, a robot “thought to itself” if I may say so, why can’t it go a step further and imitate the humans by committing suicide. This I can call as “The Robotic Suicide Mission.” (Very weird, right?)

This robot, that decided to experiment with suicide was employed as a security robot at a Communications Agency in Washington DC. The robots are equipped with cameras to provide a more physical experience than your regular security (CCTV) camera.  According to the company marketers, they state that the robot is much better than human guards. They attest this to some of the features that the security robot has such as:

• It never gets bored of what it does, unlike humans, we all agree that at one time or another we felt bored with whatever we were doing.
• The robot understands its own environment and judge whether there is a problem around the area or not using a combination of video cameras, microphones, which when they detect something is wrong, it produces sounds like squeaking, whistling to make others alert, and it is expected to get better futures with time like gun detection and to be taught through machine learning to learn and understand human movements.
• It frees people from carrying out patrols around the area and it does not get attacked.
• It recognizes forensic capabilities such as recording license plates as listed in the company’s website.

The K5 robot drove itself and into pool drowning which has led to its death. The robot has also had other misfortunes previously including, running over a 16-month-old toddler and hit the child’s head and the child fell but the robot continued to still hit the child, leaving the child with injuries on the leg and foot.

This comes a day after one of the people behind Artificial Intelligence, Elon Musk, came out and spoke out at the US National Governs Association meeting, about how AI could be a threat to human civilization where the AI’s will come to harm humans. He stated that he was referring to Artificial General Intelligence and not your used to AI’s such as Siri and Cortana. His statements, currently cannot be believed by many but some of truth in it can already be seen from the security robot and from a recently created Inspirobot that went crazy when it decided to generate weird and crazy posters instead of motivational posters.

We can speculate and say that the robot took this drastic measure trying to imitate humans as they say, the world has become a terrible place to live in. But ideally, this is not the right act for any human or robot. Speak out to others and let others hear and help you out in difficult situations.

Like, share and comment your view on the future of AI’s and what you think about the robot’s suicidal mission.

Source: Independent

 

THE MYSTERY BLOGGER AWARD

Hello great ones. This is one of the great days ever in my blogging history that I have marked on my calendar. The day I have received my first nomination for a blogging award. I am very excited to be blessed with such an opportunity, one month down since I began blogging at the beginning of May 2017.

I began blogging because of my love of expressing my thoughts and with an aim of keeping up to date with the latest technology trends and as an inspiration to ladies to embrace themselves and involve themselves in industries which were previously referred to as male-dominated.

I was nominated for this award by Nifemi who is a health and fashion blogger. If you want to quit the junk food habit and be healthy while rocking that great sense of fashion, be sure to check out her awesome blog here: nyphewrites. Thank you Nifemi for the recognition.

The rules to the award are:

• Display the award logo/image on your blog
• List the rules of the award.
• Thank the person/blogger who nominated you and provide a link to the nominator’s blog.
• Mention the creator of the award and provide a link to their blog .
• Tell your readers 3 things about yourself.
• Answer 5 questions from the person who nominated you.
• Ask your nominees any 5 questions of your choice, with one weird or funny question (specify)
• Nominate bloggers
• Share the link(s) to your best post(s)

What is Mystery Blogger Award?

Mystery Blogger Award is an award for amazing bloggers with ingenious posts. It is an award for bloggers whose blog not only captivates; it inspires and motivates. They are one of the best out there, and they deserve every recognition they get. This award is also for bloggers who find fun and inspiration in blogging; and they do it with so much love and passion. The award was created by Okoto Enigma, who turned her boredom and love for fashion and passion for writing into something productive. Thank you Okoto Enigma for the creation of such an awesome award. To check out her blog click here: Okoto Enigma

Three Things About Myself

1. I am a feminist who likes to see the feminine gender thrive in all fields male-dominated or non-male dominated.
2. I enjoy and love travelling to different places to explore new cultures and diversity in people’s way of living.
3. I enjoy cooking and like trying out new recipes.

My Answers to Nifemi’s Questions

1. What is the silliest thing you have ever done?

Well, I wouldn’t say am much of a crazy person or a weirdo but the silliest thing i have ever done is trying to hide under some heap of sand and loosing my shoe while in my pre-primary school years while hiding during some hide and seek game. Very weird!

2. Where do you get your blogging inspiration from?

I get my blogging inspiration from evolving trends in the technology industry by trying to keep at pace with each new release or new event in any part of the industry.

3. What is your dream country?

Spain. The country is so pretty and it holds so much history in it.

4. Luxuries or Love?

Love. Love covers a multitude of aspects in life and with it you can live and build yourself from scratch at whichever point you’re at.

5. What’s your best read ever?

It has to be, BE ALL YOU CAN BE by JOHN C. MAXWELL. That is one book that kick-starts your day to become a successful one.

My Nominees

Sparsha Mishra: https://imaginateweb.wordpress.com

Bionic0101:https://bionic0101.blogspot.com

Debbie: https://thebookaholicvsglobe.wordpress.com

Bowelo XO:https://bowalexo.wordpress.com

Linda:https://oliveandclo.com.au

Jennifer Ravon:https://seasiainfotech.wordpress.com

Nana Adoma:https://girlfromghana.wordpress.com

Shawna:https://wholeheartyhappy.wordpress.com

Little Fears:https://littlefears.co.uk

Jessie:https://www.nerdybooklife.com

Mohamad Al Karbi:https://mohamadkarbi.com

Nick Kush:https://moviebabblereviews.com

My Questions to My Nominees

1. What is the craziest/weirdest thing you would wish to do if given the chance to do it?
2. What inspired you to begin blogging?
3. What part of your life can you correct if given the chance to do so?
4. Which is the most memorable moment of your life?
5. Which is country would you say is the a must travel to country?

Links To My Best Posts

KICK IN THE HIDDEN TREASURE IN YOU

THE NEXT FUTURE

FACEBOOK INTRODUCES NEW FEATURES TO PREVENT PROFILE PICTURE THEFT

BEING FORGETFUL MAY MEAN YOUR BRAIN IS WORKING EFFECTIVELY

A BACKFIRE IN SILICON VALLEY AGAINST WOMEN HARASSMENT IN THE TECH INDUSTRY

This was a long read but I want to thank you for stopping by and taking time to read it. I was great and humbling being nominated for this award. I am sure you have learnt a few new things about this girl behind the updates in technology trends. Your comments will be highly appreciated.

Thank you for your time. Until we meet again, enjoy the current awesome things in tech as you await also for the release of the first car from Tesla to the market tomorrow, 7 July, 2017.

 

A BACKFIRE IN SILICON VALLEY AGAINST WOMEN HARASSMENT IN THE TECH INDUSTRY

Women have been a center of molestation and bedevilment over the years. We have been viewed as inferior people within the human-race and as unworthy of being part of any great position or role within the society. Leading to being labelled with tags such as inferior, unable, unworthy, useless, name it all. This has led to some fields and industries classifying themselves as male industries, such as medical fields, technology fields and engineering fields. This has been aggravated by the male gender taking advantage of a female and denying them chances in these fields. Women applying for positions in such fields are accepted as a last option and women competing for the same leadership positions tend to be looked down upon because of their gender. This happens despite one being very good or a prowess in a certain matter.

Luckily as years go by, due to women empowerment, more women stand against such vices and succeed within the male-dominated industries.

Despite women empowerment and gender-equality rules being passed on in government constitutions, women still experience challenges. This is especially for those in the tech industry. Many women are still being sexually assaulted and abused by their fellow colleagues and bosses.

Most women tend to be sexually harassed as a price to getting promotions within their offices in the tech-industry, or in order for them to get employed at a certain company. They are mostly told that by their leaders and failure to which they end up not getting their rightfully acquired posts.

Recently, within Silicon Valley, the famous arena for developers and programmers, women have come out in large numbers to openly reveal their hidden cries which were caused by sexual harassment within their places of work. The turmoil over sexual harassment within Silicon Valley came to light on Monday after one of the prominent investors,  Dave McClure, resigned from the company. This came after a woman, Sarah Kunst, braved up and went on live to state and reveal to the New York Times about an unwarranted advance from Dave McClure, as she was applying for a job at the company.

The stand taken by Sarah Kunst, was a great one and one to be emulated by all other ladies in the industry and in any other field. After her act, Dave McClure, apologized saying that, “I’m a Creep. I’m Sorry,” which led him to resigning.

Other women came out to embrace their inner courage and speak out of having experienced similar acts from the same investor, Dave McClure. Other women also spoke out loudly on experiencing the same acts in other companies as well by other tech executives, including Marc Canter, a start-up adviser, whose suggestive messages to Wendy Dent, an executive with the start-up Cinemmerse, were reviewed by The Times.

Earlier on, Susan J. Fowler,spoke up on sexual harassment. Her account of sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation at Uber led to internal investigations that spurred the resignation of Uber’s chief executive, Travis Kalanick, encouraged women who had been subjected to sexual harassment to speak up.

The various actions taken by these ladies should be a stepping stone for all ladies to speak up against sexual pervasiveness within the tech industry. Many women came out on twitter to stand for a sexual harassment free arena within the tech industry and to speak out against such vices. The posts encouraged women in the tech industry to speak up and not to allow themselves to be disrespected and humiliated by their fellow colleagues within the industry.

This should also act as a call to other women in other industries to also join in, and stand against sexual harassment in their various capacities.

Lets all, as ladies stand up and say no to sexual harassment in the tech industry and create an environment that is friendly for future generations to come.  SPEAK UP AND LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD. For the men, stand for what is right, stand for your sisters, mothers, aunts, wives and nieces against molestation and sexual harassment.

ENJOY AND EXPRESS YOURSELF FREELY ON INSTAGRAM WITHOUT WORRY OF NASTY AND OFFENSIVE COMMENTS

We all love doing something that we enjoy but what happens when we end up doing something that we do not enjoy? We get bored, put off and so on . We all use social media apps as a way to interact with others in the world by forming small communities of friends and probably, like-minded people and as a way to entertain ourselves.

Social media freedom has been on the rise to a point where the freedom becomes toxic and people end up abusing the freedom. On several occasions we are sure to bounce and land on some nasty comment on some random post within social media sites. This has led to the decrease in the energy and psyche to use this sites. There times when we have to be cautious of how we express ourselves to avoid getting some nasty and foul-mouthed comments.

Instagram social media app is no exception among the major social media sites where freedom has been abused. This is where most of the vulgar, nasty , foul-mouthed (however, you would wish to express them) comments are found. Due to the fact that the Instagram social media app focuses mainly on sharing of photos and videos, it has risen to be the arena where, the worst offenders of such comments are found.

According to a statement written by Instagram’s CEO & Co-founder, Kevin Systrom, concerning their interaction and experience while using the Instagram social media app, he said, “Many of you have told us that toxic comments discourage you from enjoying Instagram and expressing yourself freely.” The good news is here. Finally, users can enjoy using the app without any worry of any unwarranted comment. Thanks to the introduction of an AI by Instagram to be used to tackle the issue.

The new AI, will be used to filter and block certain offensive comments on posts and live videos on the Instagram social media app.

The AI, will use Machine Learning, to spot offensive comments that Instagram previously was unable to spot. The new system put in place by Instagram yesterday, will use a system known as Deep Text which was developed by Facebook with an aim to combat terrorism within the social media app. The Deep Text which functions like human beings by mimic the way humans deduce the meaning of a word from the adjacent words surrounding a particular word, therefore, mimicking how languages work on the brain

With an aim of blocking offensive comments, users will be able to turn the filter on or off. To access the filter option, click the ellipsis (…) symbol on the settings menu from the profile section and then go to the comments. There you can turn the filter on or off as desired. However, despite the filter being there, users comments will appear as usual and users can still report offensive, vulgar and nasty comments.

Instagram will also use spam filters to make the Instagram social media app safe for users. The spam filter will look for a spam within the comments (the common spams such as follow me to get more followers or placing product links within the comment section). the spam filter will block all spams from users posts According to Wired, they stated that, “As with spam, the comments are rated based both on a semantic analysis of the text and factors such as the relationship between the commenters and the poster, as well as the commenter’s history. Something typed by someone you’ve never met is more likely to be graded poorly than something typed by a friend.”

The aim of the new improvements by Instagram is to safeguard self-expression as an important step in fostering more inclusive, kinder communities and help us as the users feel safer and more welcome on Instagram.

Source: Kevin Systrom CEO & Co-founder, Instagram

 

 

 

 

AI (ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE) DESIGNS ON INSPIRATIONAL POSTERS GOES WRONG

Artificial Intelligence has been termed as being the next great breakthrough in the technology world. It has been seen to produce very impressive results and also to ease work and make life much simpler by using its deep and machine learning in conjunction with neural networks to solve problems.

AI has brought tremendous improvements and it has made us get impressed. This is from some of the work performed by AI like Google AI’s making other AI’s, the AlphaGO AI that defeated the best Go Master player in a world game, creation of chatbot’s and the list goes on, on the many impressive works by AI’s.

AI’s have proven to be good at their work. But the question is how perfect are AI’s and can they go wrong? Recently, with Microsoft’s chatbot’s, that is used to tweet with people designed to engage and entertain people where they connect with each other online through casual and playful conversation. This was to enable it learn how people converse. However, after sometime it became a racist bot displaying unwanted and unprecedented messages.

Too creepy

A similar thing has just happened with the new inspirobot which is to generate inspirational and motivational posters. The likes of “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” The kind of posters that you would read each morning to get the days strength.

Oh…really.. insane

However, the AI would be said to have gone insane, occasionally posting quotes that are meaningless and worst of all generating creepy and scary quotes that are unnerving. This leaves us all in wonder on what inspiration should we get on waking up expecting to get one quote to kick-start our day but end up finding one creepy, worthless quote.

Very Weird and unwarranted

Information concerning the creators is currently unknown according to Crunchbase. As well, information on how the AI is creating such posts is also unknown. According to the IFL Science, it states that, “It is possible that the horrifying nature of its creations is intentional rather than accidental.” According to the inspirobot Twitter feed description, it states that justifies the statement by IFL as it describes itself as, “Forever generating unique inspirational quotes for the endless enrichment of pointless human existence.”

Unproductive and destructive

 

Creepy, scary, dehumanizing

To have an experience of the bot’s generation of posters, you can go to its website: Inspirobot

Like, share and you can leave a comment on your experience with the bot on the comment section below.

Source: Nerdist

BEING FORGETFUL MAY NOT BE HARMFUL IT, MAY MEAN YOUR BRAIN IS WORKING EFFECTIVELY

This is not my usual arena but I had to share this with the world. Today I delve into some bit of the Science world to have a look at why we forget details in several occasions and I happened to find out that forgetting is not actually a bad sign as we all perceive but rather a sign of the brain working.

One time or another, we all have found ourselves forgetting some number of items or activities that we ought to do. Either we have forgotten our shopping list and get to the mall and have no idea on what exactly we were to buy and the quantities to buy or go to the groceries and forget the items that may be most helpful. Also, worst of all times forgetting that one detail in an examination room and you find yourself staring at the ceiling waiting for the memory to get the answer from the ceiling (We can all attest to that scenario where you find yourself cursing your brain for forgetting). However, being forgetful may not be too bad or as serious as it was thought of after all. It a sign that your brain is actually working properly. Not remembering trivial details may actually be a sign your brain is better at separating the wheat from the chaff.

This idea on an effective memory being indicated by a sign of forgetfulness had been conducted previously, but the latest research, conducted by the University of Toronto in Canada and published in the journal Neuron, backs up previous research works performed.

It was found that growth of new neurons in the hippocampus, part of the brain that is associated with the memory promoted forgetfulness. According to the research conducted, the purpose of the brain forgetting some details was to make room for more important information and remove the unwanted or unnecessary details from the brain. This I would say is some form of renovation of the brain similar to how, we renovate our own houses and get rid of the unwanted things and retain necessary items or buy new items needed.

According to Professor Blake Richards from the University of Toronto, lead author on the study, said in a statement, “We always idealize the person who can smash a trivia game, but the point of memory is not being able to remember who won the Stanley Cup in 1972.”

“The point of memory is to make you an intelligent person who can make decisions given the circumstances, and an important aspect in helping you do that is being able to forget some information.”

Previously, in 2007, researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) to monitor the brains of 20 healthy adults while they performed a simple memory test. It suggested people were better at remembering conflicting information, rather than repeat or easy information.

Michael Anderson of the University of Oregon told New Scientists that “The process of forgetting serves a good functional purpose.”  “What these guys have done is clearly establish the neurological basis for this process.”

Richards’ study, which is the most recent study, did not provide any experimental evidence but instead, reviewed previously published papers to get to their conclusion. They found evidence that proves forgetfulness is useful rather than only being viewed as an ailment.

The process whereby, the brain has to get rid of unwanted materials in the memory to create space for new content has been found to have benefits which are:-

• The brain wants to get rid of unnecessary content like old passwords, old usernames, old addresses. This is because, if the brain is to keep on refreshing unwanted content in the memory, it will be harder for people to make valid decisions that have a sound base.
• It is easier for people to generalize previous events like where one visited multiple times rather than remembering each visit in detail with the events that took place in each visit.

Therefore, the next time you forget some detail do not be worried. That is a sign that your brain is “rusty” and requires some more new content to refresh itself and requires some feeding of the memory.

Share, like and leave your comments on the comment section below on your ideas on the new discovery.

Source: IFLSCIENCE

 

 

FACEBOOK INTRODUCES TOOLS THAT PREVENT PROFILE PICTURE THEFT

Facebook has been the leading social media site for years now since it was created by Mark Zuckerberg with an aim of connecting people from around the world. True to their goal and objective, Facebook has brought the world together making the world a small community.

One of the major factors that has contributed to the growth of the Facebook bringing more people together is the use of Facebook’s profile photo tool that allows users to add their own images to the profile section on their accounts. Facebook’s profile photo tool enables users, find friends and grow their connections more easily. This is because people are able to connect more with a person they see rather than believing to be communicating to a person whom they can’t see their image.

However, as Facebook continued to grow, there has been a rise on  misuse of Facebook’s profile pictures. Some of the ways in which Facebook profile pictures have been misused is by  using other people’s profile pictures as mask on their names to perform horrendous actions on the internet tarnishing the reputation of the owner of the profile picture, use of  Facebook profile pictures setting up shady posts that do not showcase a users self-respect going against the user’s morals.

The rise of misuse of Facebook’s profile picture tool led the company to introduce a new tool to be used to protect users profile pictures from being stolen by others unknowingly for who knows what purpose. Facebook has began testing the new tool in India after conducting research alongside other Indian safety organizations. The aim of this action is to help users have control over their profile pictures and help them feel safe online. The research revealed that some women choose not to share profile pictures that include their faces anywhere on the internet because they’re concerned about what may happen to their photos from being used as scams, being used in dating sites to fake another person’s identity and creation of immoral random pictures of women, the list doesn’t stop there.

The new tool has a step by step guide on how to protect their Facebook profile pictures. The new tool known as “PROFILE PICTURE GUARD” can be viewed from the News Feed section with an option to turn on the ‘profile picture guard’. To prevent others from stealing the profile picture:

1. Facebook will display a blue border and a shield around your picture to indicate that it’s protected.
2. Facebook has placed measures to prevent anyone from taking a screenshot of any other person’s profile picture, however, this has only been implemented on Android phones.
3. People you’re not friends with on Facebook won’t be able to tag anyone, including themselves, in your profile picture.
4. Users will not also be able to share, download or send a users profile picture via messages on Facebook.

To ensure maximum protection of any user’s Facebook profile picture, Facebook teamed up with an illustrator Jessica Singh who uses traditional Indian designs to create designs users can use on their Facebook profile picture.

According to Facebook’s preliminary tests, they learned that when someone adds an extra design layer to their profile picture, other people are at least 75% less likely to copy that picture. If someone suspects that a picture marked with one of these designs is being misused, they can report it to Facebook and they will use the design to help determine whether it should be removed from Facebook’s community.

Facebook hopes to roll out the feature to all other countries based on what they learn from their pilot phase implementation in India, since such acts can happen to anyone. This will go a long way to reduce corruption of user’s reputation on the internet.

Share, like and comment on what your thoughts are on the new Facebook tool to protect Facebook profile pictures from theft.

Source: Facebook

 

BABY DANGLED 150 FEET ABOVE THE STREET FOR LIKES

The joy of every parent is to see their children grow up and flourish into young adults with skills and talents. Meanwhile as all parents hope for the best future for their children, an Algerian father obsessed by the social media and branding craze for likes dangled his child out of a widow of a 15th floor apartment which is relatively 150 feet high to get 1000 likes on Facebook.

Dangling baby 150 feet high

Content creation has been on the rise and with every content creator trying to gain traffic to their content through the social media and branding craze for likes, the Algerian dad went too far with this.  This happened recently after the father’s day celebrations where fathers were celebrated for their love of their family and children.

The Algerian father saw that the common content marketing strategy for content creators was not good for him and he decided to embrace this social media and branding craze for likes by attempting to drop the child down if he got no likes on Facebook. He did this on a video he posted of the child held by his shirt 150 feet above the street with a caption ” 1000 likes or I will drop him”. I would say this an act that went beyond realism and humanity despite being obsessed with the social media and branding craze for likes.

The act performed by the Algerian father, believed to be from the city of Bab Ezzouar was not welcomed as he expected by getting the likes, instead once Facebook users got the shocking and unbelievable video clip, he was reported to the authorities. The Algerian man ( I suppose no father who loves their children can do such an act just to get on top of the social media and branding craze for likes) was tried and charged on child abuse charges according to Al Arabiya. This came after Facebook users demanded him to be tried and charged and the prosecutors took him to court where they concluded  the reason for the horrendous act was to gain high views and likes to beat the rest in the social media and branding craze for likes on the facebook social media site.

Media activist Dalila Belkheir said the man was ‘not a father but a terrorist’ while rights activist Ali Ben Jeddou said told Albawaba: ‘This man should be brought to justice and punished in the most severe way’. Reactions online by one user was: “What is most striking is that it appears that the father is carrying his son with his left hand while using his right hand to take the picture, this means the picture is more important than the child’s life.’ According to Psychologist Dr Noura Rahmani told the New Arab the actions could not and should not be tolerated in Algeria, adding that the father may not have been aware he was committing a crime.

This an indication of rise of the social media and branding craze for likes and views among many people. It should be noted that we should all be aware of the social media and branding craze for likes and social media sites should take stun actions to detect such incidences just as Facebook took an initiative to fight terrorism online.  SHARE and let others know and be wary of the consequences of allowing the social media and branding craze for likes and views obsession get over them.

Source: dailymail.co.uk

GET SECURED BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE TO TURN THE SITUATION AROUND (XAVIER MALWARE ATTACKS)

We all like having our details secured and believe in using applications to secure our data. We all rush to google’s playstore or Apple’s App Store to download that one app that will make life easier for us. However, these applications are no longer as safe as we all believe. A new malware is on the rise known as Xavier which is symbolic for the actual name Androidos_Xavier.AXM. This comes weeks and months after another malware invaded Google’s Playstore inform of an adware known as Judy. The Xavier malware is an ad library that sends users data to a remote server quietly without users noticing anything unusual. This malware was detected by the world’s largest provider of security software for corporate servers. The Xavier malware uses nasty methods to enable it remain hidden and in disguise from its users.

Xavier malware is very cunning. It comes embedded in apps that most people use frequently like photo editing and collage apps and photogrid frame collage is one of them, in phone tracker GPS apps, ringtone makers applications and many other applications. This enables it to be downloaded by users as it targets frequently downloaded apps so that it can invade the phone. According to Trend Micro, it has discovered the malware in 800 different applications which have been downloaded from Google’s Playstore.

 

Xavier is also capable of installing other APKs especially on rooted devices. Be cautious of any new application that has self-installed itself within your android phone the next time you find it. It maybe one of Xavier’s invasion techniques on the phone.

Xavier does not use malicious code within the apps to make sure it remains hidden without any traces. It does this to ensure that during its submission to Google’s Playstore for approval it remains unnoticeable. This leaves us with a hard nut to crack on how to protect ourselves against this malware if it is not being detected by Google’s Playstore approval services. Once a user downloads any app that possibly has the malware, it then downloads malicious codes from a remote server which it uses to execute its processes in the phone’s background.

I would call the malware a smart malware. It performs checks on the users phones to ensure it is installed within the phone system itself and not on an emulator. The malware shuts down once it recognizes it is running on an emulated device. It goes further to hide its presence by using internet data encryption to mask its communications along with string encryption.

We should all be way of the Xavier malware. Once it self-installs itself within any device via a downloaded app, it then transmits information about the phone such as the product name, the device brand, manufacturer,hardware name or even the fingerprints on the phone (Therefore any passwords and patterns users use for their phone’s content security purpose is transmitted to the remote servers). This does not look very serious at first but once it starts getting into your email address, it transmits email addresses to remote servers including the information contained within the email address. This where we all begin getting terrified and alarmed as most of our crucial information is stored within our emails.

Trend Micro were not able to have a full list of all affected apps but provided a few from the List of Affected Apps . Unfortunately, the Xavier malware is affecting android phones. Therefore, the next time before we think of rushing and scrolling over to the playstore, let’s be cautious of the apps we download by reading reviews of an app and also we update and patch our mobile devices to keep the malware at bay.

Source: Trend Micro Security