Google+ shutting down for consumers

Siting several privacy issues with the Google+ APIs, a blog post by Google announced the shutting down of Google+ for consumers in the coming 10 months.

Music I'm listening to in 2018

Here is a quick log of the music albums that I have been listening to this year.

1. Sankalan (Bengali Tagore Songs) / Supratik Das
2. Best of Debabrata Biswas (Songs of Rabindranath Tagore) / Debabrata Biswas
1. Catalog Number: IP 5006 Hindustan Record
3. Ami Je Jalsaghare / Manna Dey
1. Catalog Number: CDF 142032 Saregama
4. Aguner Parashmoni Choao Prane / Hemanta Mukherjee
5. Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety / Various Artists
1. Catalog Number: SFCD 1-2503 T-Series
6. Bandho Bhangar Chhanda: Rhythmic Songs of Tagore / Kamalini Mukherji
1. Catalog Number: CDNF 143443 Saregama
7. Call of the Valley / Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma, Pt. Brij Bhushan Kabra and Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia
1. Catalog Number: CDNF 150008 Saregama
8. Atom Heart Mother / Pink Floyd
1. Catalog Number: PFR5 Pink Floyd Records
9. Bangerz / Miley Cyrus
1. Catalog Number: 88883-74526-2 RCA
10. Awaaz / Jagjit Singh
11. Sarbonaash / Shilajit
12. Bandook / Nikhil Kamath
1. 1643 Worldwide Records
2. I like the song Mirgtrishna Marusthal which is sung by Jagjit Singh
13. Pink Friday / Nicki Minaj
1. 276 476-9 Young Money Entertainment
14. John Denver's Greatest Hits / John Denver
1. 82876 69376 2 RCA
15. Invasion of Privacy / Cardi B
1. Atlantic
16. Born This Way / Lady Gaga
1. B0015602-72 Streamline Records
17. Songs Of Experience / U2
1. Island Records
18. Melody Road / Neil Diamond
1. B002184202 Capitol Records
19. Erik Satie: Piano Music / Roland Pöntinen
1. BIS
20. Cha / Chandrabindoo
21. Emotions / Mariah Carey
1. Legacy Recordings
22. The Pinkprint / Nicki Minaj
1. B0022251-02 Cash Money Records
23. Best Of Dark Horse 1976-1989 / George Harrison
1. Dark Horse Records
24. The Wall / Pink Floyd
1. Columbia Records
25. Out of Time / R.E.M.
1. Warner Bros. Records
26. Who Made Who / AC/DC
1. Atlantic Records

California passes strongest net neutrality law in the country

California’s legislature has approved a bill being called the strongest net neutrality law in the US. The bill would ban internet providers from blocking and throttling legal content and prioritizing some sites and services over others. It would apply these restrictions to both home and mobile connections.

The full text of the bill is here. http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB822

https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/31/17805892/california-sb822-net-neutrality-law-vote

Indian Telecom Commission approves net neutrality

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has approved net neutrality rules which bar service providers from discriminating against Internet content and services...

https://m.timesofindia.com/business/india-business/telecom-commission-approves-net-neutrality-new-telecom-policy/articleshow/64948609.cms

Yatra.com website data was breach in September 2013

Indian online travel agency, Yatra.com's website data was breached on September 1, 2013, it has been confirmed this week in July 2018. Nearly 5 million records including email addresses, plaintext passwords, full names, phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, PINs and physical addresses. In November 2013, the data was publicly shared across several sites and forums.

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

To check if you have been impacted by the data breach check Have I Been Pwned.

Sources: Firefox, GBHackers, Have I Been Pwned.

StumbleUpon Shuts Down after 16 years

Discovery engine StumbleUpon shut down today, after 16 years of operation. It was an interesting tool that let you discover random websites based on your interest. It came as a toolbar for popular web browsers like Internet Explorer, Opera, Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari. Later mobile apps were also available for popular platforms. In addition to discovering interesting websites, the toolbar also let users to submit websites to its ranking engine.

The service was started in November 2001 by Garrett Camp, Geoff Smith, Justin LaFrance and Eric Boyd. Back in 2009, StumbleUpon surpassed all other social media sites in the US, including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Digg, Reddit, and Pinterest, in driving traffic to webpages.

A screenshot of the website in June 2018:

The StumbleUpon user accounts are being transitioned to Mix.com, another content discovery website. This is what they tweeted a few days ago.

StumbleUpon is moving to https://t.co/AHtCs9Gbkz, a new place for you to find, share, and save things you like on the web. Join us today! https://t.co/JJ6hiyYEio

— StumbleUpon (@StumbleUpon) May 29, 2018

Today I Learned that Costco's hot dog has remained $1.50 since it was first introduced in 1984

Incredibly, the hot dog and soda combo at Costco has sold for the same $1.50 since the retail club first introduced the dogs to customers in 1984. Accounting for inflation, it should sell for about $4.25.

MentalFloss writes about it here: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/547020/costco-150-hot-dog-soda-combo-enigma