haystack

Anti-censorship tool for Iranians withdrawn, security concerns cited

The developer of a software tool to help Iranians get around their government's Internet restrictions has withdrawn the program in response to questions about its security.

Haystack said it had halted further testing of the program in Iran while it conducts a review. "If you have a copy of the test program, please refrain from using it," it said in a post on its Web site.

Haystack, which runs on Windows (2000 and up), OS X (10.4 and up), and most Linux distributions, appears to the user as a normal HTTP proxy. It claims to "… Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1013: 21st century episode for the 21st century listener

Just like the LG Watch, we are a 21st century product for the 21st century consumer. Which means we exist now for people who exist now. Sigh. Ryan Block of Gdgt joins us to talk about an algorithm to steal your Social Security number and how Gmail finally came outta beta! Yay! Bad times and good times all in one. Now if only we could get those implants for cell phones. In our neck people, in our neck!

Listen now: Download today's podcast Subscribe now: iTunes (audio) | iTunes (video) | RSS (audio) | RSS (video) EPISODE 1013

Gdgt http://www.gdgt.com/… Read more

Overhauling Facebook's photo system

This was originally published at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

Facebook's photo storage system holds 850 million photos and costs a lot of dough. Niall Kennedy has a nice overview of what Facebook is doing to minimize its storage costs.

Facebook's system, dubbed Haystack, is custom-built but relies on content delivery networks and NetApp. Facebook is trying to minimize the custom stuff and use commodity hardware.

Kennedy does a nice job of synthesizing Facebook's storage system. In a nutshell:

Facebook's previous system relied heavily on Akamai and Limelight to improve latency. That Akamai and Limelight use … Read more