Similar “bans” are in place in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, Turkey, Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia!  The Open Net Initiative found that the additional English and Arabic terms are also being blocked:

The question is: why would Microsoft be doing this?  The same bans are not in place on Google, Yahoo, etc.  Very strange!  Do you think they’re being influenced by governments in the region?

The name change is in place for the entire month of March.  According to Bunten, the hope is that the name change “would set Topeka apart from other cities vying for Google’s attention, which include Grand Rapids, Mich., and Baton Rouge, La.”

I think they might be on to something here.  Google, Inc. is initially going to be releasing the new Internet service to a select few places before making a more widespread offering…and it will be hard to ignore the name change of a fairly large city.  Maybe I can increase my chances by naming my unborn daughter Google (due in June)?  Just a thought…

Ben Sandofsky, an engineer at Twitter, used a data vizualization program called Code Swarm to illustrate the constantly evolving platform.  The icons show developers, and the dots moving all over the place show the code that developer is working on.  I feel like I’m looking at a picture from space!

Twitter Code Swarm from Ben Sandofsky on Vimeo.

By creating a new file and uploading it to your plugin directory (/wp-content/plugins/) you can automatically block malicious URL requests!  Just open a new php file, and paste the following in the file:

<?php /* Plugin Name: Block Bad Queries */

if (strlen($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) > 255 ||
strpos($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], “eval(“) ||
strpos($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], “base64″)) {
@header(“HTTP/1.1 414 Request-URI Too Long”);
@header(“Status: 414 Request-URI Too Long”);
@header(“Connection: Close”);
@exit;
} ?>

I definitely don’t understand much about hacking, but the major attacks in September were base64 code.  This file will check for base64 as well as evel( code that could be a threat going forward.  This is definitely worth the 5 minutes it will take!

This is actually pretty cool.  With the Zagat deal, there will be quality reviews to applicable restaurants and locations.  Foursquare users will also have the ability to earn a “Foodie” badge for checking in to specific restaurants.

The deal with Warner Bros and HBO is much like the previous deal with Bravo – basically a glorified way to advertise and promote television shows and movies.

I’m looking forward to seeing Zagat reviews for places I’m eating, and I am hugely addicted to Foursquare – but they need to watch their next steps.  Flooding their application with advertisements could drive users to other services such as Yelp, Gowalla, etc.  What do you think?

But nobody actually responds to those emails, right?  Well apparently, there are more suckers out there than I’d realized.  According to a study by an investigation firm, Ultrascan, $9.3 billion was stolen in 2009 as a direct result of these scams!  Those figures are up from $6.3 billion in 2008.

These scams are typically referred to as 419 scams, referring to article 419 of the Nigerian Criminal Code (the country where these scams first originated).  The reason in the huge growth is that scammers are now focusing their efforts on emerging Internet markets, like China, India, South Korea, and Vietnam.

So what’s the solution?  Apparently, one isn’t in sight.  While a growing number of people in the US and Europe have gotten wise to the attempts, much of the rest of the world still needs to catch up.  And furthermore, it’s virtually impossible for law enforcement to go after scammers outside of their country.  Personally, I have come up with a solution: just email me your social security number, and I’ll share it with you