GMail - Has someone hijacked your gmail account and is now sending emails on your behalf?

[Post published by Liviu on Liviu's [Computer Science] Blog]


Problem

What if a malicious hacker/spammer has hijacked your gmail account and is now sending emails on your behalf? Besides privacy violation, your account will also get marked as spammer and all your e-mails will get in the spam folder of your recipients.


Solution

If they have also changed your password, then you have a problem which I do not know how to solve - technically you need to contact GMail administrators. Good luck!

For the rest of the post I'll consider the case in which you still have access to your account, i.e. the password has remained the same:

1. Make sure your account has really been hijacked.
   Read thoroughly the Google Help page explaining what to do when Someone is sending from my address - also click on each of the 3 links at the end.
2. If you can confirm spam has been sent through your gmail account, then the useful link is My Contacts say I sent spam to them, or I found suspicious access to my account.
   Report it to Google.

Otherwise, just to keep yourself safe, make sure you set your browser's connection to always be https. For example, looking at my account's settings I noticed it had none of the always use https and don't always use https options set, which I suspect to be because it's a very old account; my friends' old accounts were the same.

Hope this helped you in case you were in trouble.

Flash - my opinion: Adobe shall have to reinvent Flash in order to save it

[Post published by Liviu on Liviu's [Computer Science] Blog]

This post is about Flash - my opinion:

There's an entire discussion on whether to support or not Flash. Google (at I/O 2010 for example) picks on Apple for not supporting Flash... well, I'd say Apple announced this too early, just that. If Apple had only waited some 1-2 years, it would have been ok.
Oh, and they can't just ignore Flash when launching something [ugly, useless, expensive] like the... iPad.
Why was it only later that Steve Jobs provided a full reasoning?

I must admit that Eric Schmidt is kind of evil in the Google I/O 2010: Google TV Keynote, Day 2 - CEO Partner Panel - we all know that HTML 5 will kind of make Flash obsolete. If you've read my 2009 I/O post, you've probably watched the I/O 2009 Day 1 Keynote which talks about offering pixel level control in-the-browser... right? (Anyway, start watching again at 18:31)

Also, in last year's keynote - this is going to be SO FUN!...

Skip to 19:08 and listen the reasoning with respect to the Canvas... [...] just use silverlight, vml or flash... but what if we wanted something that was part of the open and transparent internet that we know and love? Now, is it just me hearing this or has Mr. Gundrotta just said Flash was not open and transparent in 2009? :))

19:48 - drawing and animation APIs with pixel level control.
Now, what will Flash be used for? I don't know.

You can stop at 29:50.

Hey, watch another demo of in-the-browser capabilities - nothing fancy, just...
The Quake II GWT port brings the 3d gaming experience of Quake II to the browser. 
And the video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhMN0wlITLk
Cool? I'd say yes.


Conclusion

Now, tell me, what shall we need Flash for?
I don't know. Not now. Maybe later I can come up with some ideas.

I say that Adobe shall have to reinvent Flash in order to save it. Until then, it must be supported - Apple should have supported it, and Google is [almost] right when picking on Apple. However, if Google supports Flash now and ensures that Flash shall not be reinvented... :D... then Flash shall disappear in the next 2 years...
I still wonder on whose side Google is...

Google I/O Day 2: My opinion(s) on 2 keynotes: Android demo, Google TV keynote & CEO Partner Panel

[Post published by Liviu on Liviu's [Computer Science] Blog]

Main ideas

1. The Android platform is really cool - it will (1) do more than I thought and (2) work on more than just the phone.
2. Apparently Android and Chrome go hand in hand. 

Doh! It should have been obvious... well, I did not foresee all these...


Google I/O 2010 - Keynote Day 2 Android Demo - Full Length

They just love picking on Apple :)) continuously.
I think this keynote got Steve Jobs a bit nervous: Hey, stop picking on us, 'cause we create beautiful devices, probably he said to himself.
I agree that the iPad itself appears to be crap (although I haven't tested / played with it), but not supporting Flash... well,  you'll have to check my next post for the opinion on that...
Other than that, indeed Google has a strong point picking on Apple, e.g. the multitasking part missing from the iPad.

Anyway, the Android platform is really cool. You really need to watch the keynote. The demos will get you impressed.

Tethering done by Android devices? Cool. I bet the iPad appreciates it :)

The bug reporting feature for Android Market apps - cool.

Regarding making money, the new Google Mobile Ads approach seems cool. (Ok, I've read about some of these formats on Google's blog and/or saw them on presentations on YouTube etc. However, now I've seen for the first time a live demo with respect to a mobile device.)


Google I/O 2010: Google TV Keynote, Day 2

Note: It's a list on YouTube for now. I wish they had glued all videos into one big, continuous, easy to watch video. I'll post an update in the future if they do that.

Smart move from Google to enter the TV market. Really smart.
I bet their analytics will redefine what we call now rating and/or TV advertising. All the apps and features are (and will be) cool, people might appreciate them and so on, BUT the killing feature will be the analytics in my opinion. I'm curious on what the data about the advertising TV market will look like in the next 1-2-3 years.

Too bad the TV is dead and buried :) - let me explain:

My generation and all following don't want a TV at all, since we have the Internet and complete all our tasks using portable hardware/devices (laptop and/or smartphone).

In the paid-TV system, I won't search for (1) a video/movie on the TV and/or (2) a channel's schedule, using the keyboard and/or other peripherals they envision - I'll search it on the net from my portable device and then request to be sent to the TV to be played... Most likely I won't even call it TV, just something like: You know what? Don't play it on this small screen, send it to the big screen/display in the living room.

My generation envisions the whole TV system as an old technology, in which we, as customers, are powerless since the both content creators and distributors used to big & bad, but only now they have become an adorable puppy or pussy-cat etc. because the Internet communication paradigm has left them with no choice.

Will Google TV make it all easy and fun? Maybe.
I personally desire only one feature: to push video content from a portable device to the TV.


Google I/O 2010: Google TV Keynote, Day 2 - CEO Partner Panel

Picking on Apple again? Yes. Of course. Why not? :)
Anyway, it's a nice many-CEOs-discussion. Everyone's so happy and joyful and complementing everyone else... I had several doubts I was attending a technical presentation vs. only-marketing-and-PR talk.

Did you notice the moment when the Best Buy CEO said dominate? :D It was so funny!


Conclusions

Android? I have a feeling technology is moving too fast at this moment; never have thought of saying this...

Chrome? Now I understand why Google started making their own browser - obviously, they need a whole platform (ok-ok, you can [still] say it's a browser) that they can develop really fast, implement on it exactly what they need and deploy applications on top of it.


Stay tuned, 'cause the next post will be about... Flash, since Apple's move has drawn kind of a lot of attention.

Google I/O 2009 keynotes and "resuming video" feature in YouTube

[Post published by Liviu on Liviu's [Computer Science] Blog]

Indeed, it was about time I watched the 2 full keynotes of Google I/O 2009. (For the record, I have watched bits and pieces over time, so I wasn't that lazy, but never actually watched the 2 full keynotes, so I was lazy to some degree.)

Anyway, here they are for the ones too lazy to click on the Google I/O 2009 page:
Google I/O 2009 - Keynote Day 1 (full)
Google I/O Day 2 keynote - Google Wave Developer Preview at Google I/O 2009

On this occasion, I've noticed YouTube has introduced a new feature I had no idea about - resuming video... - should one stop watching a video and minutes later reopens it, then it resumes from where one stopped last time. Pretty awesome I might say. - Did I say new? Well, it appears it has been launched quite a long time ago - if interested, see the post with the detailed description of the feature on YouTube's official blog - the "Resume where you left off" paragraph of the post.

Google Maps problem

[Post published by Liviu on Liviu's [Computer Science] Blog]

Apparently there's a Google Maps bug that screwed up a bit my Netherlands map.
Cool bug - due to all entries having the same place details (this is the bug), all my entries show the link to my latest NL blog post now! I shall feel sad when they fix it but happy that my map will be correct again...