DJ AM found dead in NYC apt today

Via:wwwTMZ.Com

Posted 8/28/2009 7:05 PM by TMZ.com

Law enforcement sources tell us DJ AM -- also known as Adam Goldstein -- was found dead this afternoon in New York City. Sources tell us he was found in his apartment at around 5:20 PM. We're told drug paraphernalia was found at the scene. We're told DJ AM had not been seen or heard from for a few days -- one of his friends went to check on him, but got no response after knocking on his apartment door. We're told the friend called the police, who broke down the door and then found DJ AM's body. Back in September of 2008, DJ AM and Travis Barker survived a plane crash in South Carolina. Four people died in the crash -- which was caused when the airplane aborted takeoff and then ran off the runway. DJ AM and Barker were the only survivors. Story developing...

Visit: www.TMZ.com for:

DJ AM's Last Public Appearance
DJ AM's Last Tweet
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Twitter and Facebook DDoS Attacks Targeted One Man

Via: www.mashable.com

Did Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, YouTube, Google Sites and Google's Blogger all get attacked yesterday to silence one man? According to the testimony of a Facebook executive, they did.

A blogger in the Republic of Georgia with the username Cyxymu was the victim, according to Facebook's chief security officer Max Kelly. The claims cement earlier reports that social networking sites have been dragged into the Georgia-Russia crisis, leading to the first simultaneous attack on the largest social media sites. Kelly told CNet::

"It was a simultaneous attack across a number of properties targeting him to keep his voice from being heard. We're actively investigating the source of the attacks and we hope to be able to find out the individuals involved in the back end and to take action against them if we can."

Google is quoted as saying:

"We are aware that a handful of non-Google sites were impacted by a DOS attack this morning, and are in contact with some affected companies to help investigate this attack. Google systems prevented substantive impact to our services."

As part of the attack, spam was sent to LiveJournal users that appeared to come from cyxymu.
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Political Motives
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The claims back up earlier reports in the New York Times that Thursday's attack was sparked by the conflict between Russia and Georgia. The aim was to take down Cyxymu's accounts, particularly the LiveJournal blog where he posted about the crisis. While Google's sites held up to the barrage, Twitter and LiveJournal proved less robust.

While DDoS attacks are notoriously hard to defend against, it's clear that Twitter was far less equipped to cope with such an attack: no doubt they'll be taking a closer look at how such issues could be handled in the future.
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Full Coverage of the Social Media DDoS
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-Is Cyber Warfare to Blame for Twitter Meltdown?

-Denial of Service Attacks Being Investigated by Google, Twitter, Facebook

-Facebook Problems Also the Result of DDoS Attack

-Twitter Outage Explained: What's a Distributed Denial of Service Attack (DDoS)?

-Twitter Down Due to Denial of Service Attack (DDoS)

-Facebook Down. Twitter Down. Social Media Meltdown.

-Twitter Down: Twitter Doesn't Know Why

http://mashable.com/2009/08/07/twitter-facebook-2/

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iPhone Virus Cured? Apple to Release Security Patch

Apple users can now breathe a sigh of relief
Thanks to the security patch being released today.

Via: www.Mashable.com

The security vulnerability that threatened iPhone users via corrupt SMS messages will apparently be addressed by Saturday. An O2 (who carries the iPhone in the UK) spokesperson tells the BBC that Apple is set to release a patch, available in iTunes, that removes the danger.

As we reported yesterday, two researchers presented a way in which iPhones could be remotely controlled – including accessing a phone's address book and camera – after being corrupted by an SMS message containing a single square character.

Although no threat was imminent, the researchers estimated that it would take hackers only a couple weeks to exploit the vulnerability once their findings were made public.

All along, the researchers said the goal of releasing this information was to get an unresponsive Apple to fix the security vulnerability. And for now, it looks like mission accomplished.

http://mashable.com/2009/07/31/iphone-virus-patch/

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A Bathing Ape x Ghostbusters Part 2

Who you gonna call??? GHOST BUSTERS! Courtesy of Japanese premium brand, A Bathing Ape, here's a closer look at the upcoming sneaker collaboration. Is this the return of the Bapesta design?

Via: www.hypebeast.com

Coming on the heels of an initial partnership, A Bathing Ape and Ghostbusters have another collection on the horizon. This time around, look to see a Bapesta sneaker enter the mix as well as more t-shirts, garments and mugs. Look for these to hit Bape Shops in the coming months.

http://hypebeast.com/2009/07/a-bathing-ape-x-ghostbusters-part-2/

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Twitter’s 1,928 Percent Growth and Other Notable Social Media Stats

Here's some interesting stats regarding the top 3 social networking sites.

Via: www.mashable.com

Earlier this month, we looked at some numbers from Web tracking firm Compete, showing the current growth (or lack thereof) at many of the companies we cover. Today, some interesting new stats come our way from Nielsen Online, telling a similar story as Compete, but with a few interesting additions to the story.

Similar to Compete, Nielsen shows huge growth for Twitter and Facebook. According to the firm, Twitter grew a massive 1,928 percent in the US from June '08 to June '09, now reaching a total of 21 million monthly unique visitors. Facebook, which Nielsen recently reported sucks up more time than any other website, leads all social networking sites with 87.3 million unique visitors in June.

MySpace – which HitWise says is losing its grip on music and entertainment – actually showed strong growth at MySpace Music, from 4.2 million to 12.1 million unique visitors year-over-year. According to Nielsen, that makes MySpace Music the third most popular music site on the Web, behind AOL and Yahoo.

A few other interesting stats:

- MySpace leads all social media sites (presumably excluding YouTube) in unique video viewers, with 12.9 million.

- Facebook is quickly growing its video reach – from 2.4 million unique viewers in June '08 to 12 million in June '09.

- Twitter users spent an average of 31 minutes, 17 seconds on the site in June. This excludes users of clients like TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop.

In all, it's mostly the same story: Facebook and Twitter are both growing extremely fast, while MySpace seems to remain relevant – at least in entertainment and music.

http://mashable.com/2009/07/16/twitter-june-2009-growth/

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Jakarta Bombings - Twitter User First on the Scene

First the elections and violence in Iran were Twittered across the globe to our computers and cell phones. Today in a deadly turn of terrorist violence, the Indonesian bombings at several hotels in it's capital, Jakarta were Twittered once again before the Associated Press and other media outlets could broadcast it on the local news.

Via: www.mashable.com

In a turn of events that will surprise no one at this stage, it appears news of the deadly Jakarta bombings early Friday broke first on Twitter.

A report on Australia's ABCNews claims that the above is the first Tweet to come out of the blasts at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and the J.W. Marriott Hotel, posted by Twitter user Daniel Tumiwa. His series of Tweets reads:

"Bom @ marriot and ritz Carlton kuningan jakarta.

2 boms go off at marriot hotel ad ritz carlton jakarta.

2 boms go off inside Ritz Carlton and Marriott coffee shops! Not kidding. Am here.

Left location. Shocked. Lots of blood. Breakfast meetings at coffee shops while bombs went off.

"Thanks for all the concern. Back home. Safe. Shocked. Bloodsmokeglasseverywhereprayers to the victims."

Meanwhile, Twitpic became a key source of imagery from the event, with Galuh Riyadi posting pics from the scene. And the Marriott Hotel group is using its Twitter account to communicate its sympathies for those affected.

It's remarkable to think that this form of instant news distribution, unheard of 3 years ago, is now commonplace.

http://mashable.com/2009/07/16/jakarta-bombings-twitter/

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Teenager Falls Into Open Manhole While Texting

We're ALL guilty of texting and walking and even crossing the streets without checking the cross walks. This poor girl learned the hidden dangers of walking "under the influence of texting"...lol.

Via: www.gizmodo.com

As if you needed more evidence that texting is more dangerous than swine flu, a 15-year-old girl from Staten Island walked into an open manhole while texting. She's fine, don't worry, although she did lose a shoe in the sewer.

Alexa Longueira fell about 4 or 5 feet into an open manhole in Staten Island, scraping up her back and shoulders in the process, although she is otherwise physically unharmed. Her mother noted that she was also mentally injured, as the sewer was "putrid" and one of her shoes remains down there. Apparently, there were some DEP workers on the scene who were "looking" for cones to mark the area when the girl fell in.

The Longueira family says they will sue, although it's not clear exactly who--the city? The cellphone company? Alexa herself, for not watching where she was walking? Regardless, we are all allowed to laugh at this story, at teenagers with their texting, and at Staten Island as a whole, because the girl is unhurt.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/QIATb0CBAPo/teenager-falls-into-open-manhole-while-texting

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