A possible security hole, if you offer "paid browsing"

To start off, I am *not* advocating this. Am highlighting it more from a security perspective (as a hole and how it is exploited) rather than anything else.

Suppose you are at a hotel or an airport and you have a paid-browsing service.
Is it possible that someone can leech off your system?

Yes. It is possible to do IP over DNS and / or ICMP, if all you do is simple firewalling.

First, some defs:
IP - Internet Protocol - which is the foundation for most the web
DNS - is Domain Name System - this is the box that converts names to IPs and vice versa, ie. Its responsible for the "www" dogma.
ICMP - Internet Control Message Protocol


What do i need?
"ingredients" - a domain, a public ip and control of a dns, that's it!

How
Here's a tutorial on DNSTX and ICMPTX which details the configuration over DNS and ICMP, respectively.

Apparently, if UDP is open on port 53, one can even OpenVPN on it.

Awareness / tracking:
Use a packet filter, which support connection tracking - like PF.

Will do a follow-up post on how can one defend against it.

Jameslist

It does exist.  (No, its not a list of users of the 100% pure Java SMTP mail server - James or a list of people whose names begin with James )
What it is - is a Craigslist-of types for the uber-rich.  In general, 7 figures wont cut it, here!

Right now, I am only recording the basic information here.  Will update it down the line.

ADP 1.1

== Android Dev Phone 1.1

Its available here.   Release notes.

It offers:

• an unlocked bootloader and


• easy flashing support (so, yes, Flash is finally on Android, but beware, its a battery drainer).

The developer build is fully compatible with the retail one - so one can simulate "production" - which is something Apple should learn from.

Apparently, ADP1 will not let one access copy protected Market apps.

Mobile savvy countries ...

World Top 10 - Countries With Highest Ratio Of Mobile Phone Users

Country	Subscribers	Mobile / 100 Inhabitants
Luxembourg	432,400	96.73
Taiwan	21,633,000	96.55
Hong Kong	5,701,700	84.35
Italy	48,698,000	83.94
Norway	3,737,000	82.53
Iceland	235,400	82.02
Israel	5,260,000	80.82
Austria	6,565,900	80.66
UK	47,026,000	78.28
Finland	4,044,000	77.84

source

iPhone sales and the App Store dynamics

The yellow brick road of the iPhone world is not all that hunky-dory after all.

Countries were iPhone has yet to hit the mark.

Amidst all the hype of iPhone developers striking "gold", here is some data that is being shared by the owner of Dapple, and a gold-rusher, and one out of Australia. In general, people have been hesitant in sharing this info.

Pricing has also been an issue, with $20-apps a distant dream, as highlighted earlier.

Some data-bytes from Pinch Analytics analysis, that they shared:

• App Store rankings tend to depend on a 24-hour rolling window of units downloaded


• Appearing in a top 100 list increases daily new users by an average of 2.3x


• The average price increase drops demand to 25%


• You need 20,000 downloads to get into the top 25 now, versus 10,000 six months ago.


• Only about 20% of users will keep using a free application beyond the first day.


• After a month, only about 4% of users will still be using a free application.


• Advertising is not a solid business model (it works, but it can’t replace paid sales revenue)

Finally, a list of iPhone dev resources (its a big list) - with some good video tutorials available for various levels.

P.S. One by-product of the App Store model, is that it encourages "typos and lower quality" (as making releasing new updates to an app is one way to get onto the "New apps" list - which has a direct correlation of sales.

Incidentally, on the dev-side, dates are a "pain" to deal with.   Here is a way to deal with them, along with a technote on debugging, as well as a level 2 - intro into the iPhone.

ChIndia > elsewhere

Layoff data broken down by time and industry.  Largely US data.

(well.. any BRIC nation would do.)