Outrageous Inflation Rate in Zimbabwe

It is the fourth set of new banknotes to be issued by the Central Bank of Zimbabwe in 2008, and this time it is Z$500m note.

At the independence back in 1980, 1 Zimbabwe Dollar was worth more than USD1. And now, only after less than 30 years, you need to have Z$250m, then only you are able to exchange for USD1.

According to the studies, annual inflation rate in Zimbabwe is hitting 165,000% and it is being said that the prices are now double every single week.

The economy in the country is anchoring bottom in the past few years, with supplies of the likes of foodstuffs, cooking oil and petrol all running extremely low. It is believed only 1 out of 5 adults in the country are employed, with more than 3 million people have left the troubled hitting country for a better living in South Africa.

Imagine this, what if the piles of the banknote that you are holding now devalued devastatingly in the near future due to inflation, and the 1,000,000 USD saving that you have painfully saved over the past few years are only allowing you to purchase a sweet? Scary thought really.

Saving is good, but play while you can.

15 Reasons Why Facebook May Be Worth USD$15bn

Microsoft has invested $240m (£117m) in social networking site Facebook in exchange for a 1.6% share of the company. That puts a value of $15bn (£7.3bn) on a firm that has only been in existence three and a half years.

So why does Microsoft think Facebook is worth $15bn? Here are 15 possible reasons….

1. The network has gone viral in the last 12 months, with more than 50 million users worldwide and a user base that is growing faster than great rival MySpace. According to Facebook, it adds 200,000 new users each day.

2. The average user spends 3.5 hours a month on Facebook – more than the average user on rival MySpace – which is increasingly attractive to advertisers.

3. Facebook is the current Web 2.0 darling – popular with ordinary users and “tech heads” alike.

4. US research reveals that Facebook users come from wealthier homes and are more likely to attend college than MySpace users – increasing that attraction for advertisers.

5. Microsoft’s investment makes them a serious player in the growing market of “social advertising”. Social network profiles are full of personal data that users voluntarily hand over, which is very useful for targeting adverts.

6. Sixty percent of Facebook users are outside of the US – so Microsoft’s investment buys access to a global audience quickly and simply.

7. Facebook is the new web: The decision to open up the network to outside developers turned Facebook into a destination for many uses, like messaging, photos and video. Of course, as Facebook is on the web it could never really be the new web.

8. Every major content firm with an online presence is either working on a Facebook application or has already launched one – from Google to the BBC.

9. According to a report, 233 million hours of work are lost each month in the UK due to staff looking at social networks. Advertisers can now target people when at their desks.

10. The openness of Facebook is attracting a wealth of talented developers who can launch their applications to millions of users quickly.

11. Facebook messaging is the new e-mail. Everyone feels stressed from a deluge of e-mail from unwanted people and companies. But Facebook messages are always from friends.

12. Facebook’s “status updates” have become the easiest way to let friends know what you are doing and how you are feeling at any given moment.

13. Facebook thrives on playful applications such as Pirates, Zombies, Super Wall and Top Friends, which have made the network a place to play as well as communicate.

14. Facebook is the acceptable face of blogging – you can reflect your life and personality online without being seen as a “blogger”, which often carries a geeky stigma.

15. Facebook is worth $15bn only because Microsoft says so. The value of Facebook is based on a 1.6% share of the firm being worth the $240m Microsoft paid for it. Microsoft and Google were in a bidding war for a slice of the firm and both companies have large pockets. This was not just business, this was personal, according to some analysts.

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MySpace Hacker Tells His Story

A guy called Samy Kamkar did something interesting by writing a code that forced MySpace users that visited his page automatically added him in their friendlist AND declared him as a “hero” on their profile pages. Many consider the code to be the first Web 2.0 worm: the Samy worm.

Recently, Samy, who is now 21, made his first public appearance since his conviction, attending the OWASP App Sec 2007 conference, hosted by eBay, in San Jose, California. He was treated like a celebrity at the show, but there were some complications. Under the terms of his plea agreement, he can only use computers for work, so he was forced to show slides that he’d dictated to a friend on a computer that was operated by a conference staffer.

It’s not easy being a computer geek cut off from computers, but if Samy remains a model parolee, he could be allowed to use computers again in a couple of months. He talked to IDG News Service about what life has been like since his arrest and what he plans to do as soon as he’s online again.

IDGNS: What were you thinking when you wrote the Samy worm?

Kamkar: When I wrote the worm, it initially wasn’t a worm. Initially I was just trying to spruce up my MySpace profile. I also wanted to show off to a couple of friends, so I thought ‘wouldn’t it be cool if I did this? What if I made some of these people add me as a friend automatically?’ Then I figured, ‘what if I made them add me as a hero?’ So I wrote a little code and what ended up happening is whenever someone viewed my profile, they would automatically add ‘But most of all, Samy is my hero’ at the end of their hero section on their profile. And after that, I thought, ‘If I can make this person my friend, if I can make myself their hero, couldn’t I just copy this code onto their profile?’

I didn’t think this would be a big deal, so I tried it out. I thought maybe I’ll get one friend tomorrow and a few in maybe a few days. It went quickly. Apparently, MySpace is a bigger place than I assumed.

IDGNS: How hard was it to write the worm?

Kamkar: I’m not a Web application security expert, but I’m into security and I’m into Web applications. As a programmer, it wasn’t too much to learn how to use AJAX, which really helped make the worm work and proliferate really quickly. It only took a few days to write the thing from start to finish and it was only in the last day that I thought that this could be a worm.

IDGNS: Do you think it would be easy to write another MySpace worm now?

Kamkar: It would be much harder to write a MySpace worm right now just because they’ve added so many restrictions, but it’s always possible and there are so many other sites that these exploits are available on. So it could still happen.

I think that more worms are going to come out. I’ve heard of more worms trying to take off using the same code base that I wrote, and just changing a few things. Luckily restrictions have really prevented those from working out too well. But yeah, from here on out, I think worms are only going to get more advanced.

IDGNS: What’s your life been like since you pleaded guilty in this case last January?

Kamkar: My life has been a bit different. I have computer restrictions now, so I can only use computers for work purposes. I also serve community service and I’m on probation. So on top of the restitution, it’s a little more than a slap on the wrist.

IDGNS: The worm you wrote was fairly innocuous. It just made you really popular on MySpace. How do you feel about being indicted for this?

Kamkar: Well, I didn’t have malicious intent writing the worm. I understand that it was a big example of what you shouldn’t be doing, so I think if I were in their shoes, maybe I’d do the same thing. Maybe I’d say, ‘Well that guy got a lot of press. He’s showing, this is how you hack a Web site and this is how you write a worm, and we want to make sure people don’t do that.’

And I agree that people shouldn’t be doing that and I shouldn’t have released that. So I sort of see it on both sides.

IDGNS: Do you regret doing it?

Kamkar: I wish I could take it back.

IDGNS: What’s the first thing you’re going to do when you’re free to use a computer again?

Kamkar: The first thing I’m going to do when I can use a computer again is probably just get back into development on the site and write projects that are interesting to me and non-malicious. No more worms.

IDGNS: Would you work for MySpace if they wanted you to?

Kamkar: I think in the future, I’d be happy to help out because they actually provide a pretty cool site. Right now, I’m involved in one project with one company, but in the future, that’s definitely an option.

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Gene ‘links breastfeeding to IQ’

Children with one version of the FADS2 gene scored seven points higher in IQ tests if they were breastfed.

But the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study found breastfeeding had no effect on the IQ of children with a different version.

The gene in question helps break down fatty acids from the diet, which have been linked with brain development.

Seven points difference is enough to put the child in the top third of the class, the researchers said.

Some 90% of people carry the version of the gene which was associated with better IQ scores in breastfed children.

Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, used data from two previous studies of breast-fed infants in Britain and New Zealand, which involved more than 3,000 children.

IQ was measured at various points between the ages of five and 13 years in the studies.

Previous studies on intelligence and breastfeeding have come up with conflicting results.

There has been some debate as to whether mothers who had more education or who were from more affluent backgrounds were more likely to breastfeed, skewing the results.

Nature versus nurture

Professor Terrie Moffitt, a co-author on the paper, said the findings gave a fresh perspective on the arguments by showing a physiological mechanism that could account for the difference between breastfed and bottle-fed babies.

“The argument about intelligence has been about nature versus nurture for at least a century,” she said.

“However, we have shown that in fact nature works via nurture to create better health outcomes.”

Since the studies used in the analysis were done, manufacturers have begun to add fatty acids to formula milk but there have been inconsistent results on the benefits.

Belinda Phipps, of the National Childbirth Trust, said: “This shows for the majority of parents they can have a positive effect on their babies IQ by breastfeeding.”

Catherine Collins, a dietician at St Georges Hospital in London and spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association, said the study highlighted the interaction between nutrition and genetics.

“In this study you have an effect that suggests that nature is more important that nurture.

“If nine out of 10 babies benefit, then that is a very good chance.”

But she added the study did not specify how long babies were breastfed for and it may be that even breastfeeding for a short period may be beneficial for intelligence.

Professor Jean Golding, who founded the ALSPAC study set up in the 1990s to follow the development of thousands of children in the South West of England, said the results were fascinating and they would be doing a further study of the gene.

“In the past people have had different results about whether breastfeeding improves IQ and this would sort out the reason why,” she said.

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