Now you can have an attachment of 25MB in gmail

Google has increased the size of attachment from 20 MB to 25 MB !

Google suggests “With Gmail, you can send and receive messages up to 25 megabytes (MB) in size. Please note that you may not be able to send larger attachments to contacts who use other email services with smaller attachment limits. If your attachment bounces, you should invite them to Gmail”

Also make sure that you have enabled “Advanced Attachment Features”  under  “Settings” –> “General” –> “Attachments” –> Enable “Advanced attachment features”.

20 MB + attachment works smoothly in Chrome, I have not verified the same in Mozilla or IE.

Cligs an URL shortening service hit by Hackers

Cligs , an URL shortening service popular with micro-bloggers on Twitters was attacked recently by hackers possibly originating from Canada.  The attack redirected 2.2 million miniature URL to a single URL.

On June 15, a statement was released on Clig’s website “Late last night/early this morning a security hole in Cligs editing functionality was exploited by a malicious attached”. The attack edited most URL’s on Clig to point to a single URL hosted on freedomblogging.com.

Cligs  and TInyURL are extensively used because they allow to users to tweet shortened version of long URL’s and stay within the character limits that the twitter has imposed on the messages. Such services have certainly attracted the attention of security researchers and attakers alike.

All these attacks have made me think twice before I click on any link shortened by URL shortening services. I certainly don’t want to end up landing in a website hosting malware.

Why did Cisco buy Jabber ?

Cisco closed acquisition of Jabber in October,2008 and its integration with Cisco was completed in late January,2009 . Jabber is based in Denver, Colorado. Jabber has now become a part of Cisco’s Collaboration Software Group.

Jabber is an enterprise instant messaging technology, which is based on the open-source XMPP standard.Jabber will help bolster Cisco’s unified communications and collaboration software strategy against Microsoft, IBM, Google and others.

Alec Hadden, Director of Marketing of Cisco Webex said “Cisco will embed and offer Jabber’s XCP (eXtensible Communication Platform) for users through both Cisco’s on-premise unified commuications suite and its SAAS (software as a service) WebEx Connect application.

What is XMPP ?

XMPP stands for eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol. a set of open XML technologies  for presence and real-time communication developed by the Jabber open-source community in 1999, formalized by the IETF in 2002-2004, continuously extended through the standards process of the XMPP Standards Foundation, and implemented in a wide variety of software , devices, and Internet services.

Jabber is famous for the integration of data across different devices,users and appliations, allowing multiple instant messaging to “talk” to one another.

For example a user on Jabber can communication with another user who may be using Microsoft Office Communication Server, IBM’s Sametime, Google Talk, AOL’s AIM or Yahoo Messenger.

Cisco said in a press statement, the deal is in line with its “build,buy and partner” innovation strategy to move quickly into new markets and capture key market transitions.

Cisco has made significant purchase off late which include Web Conferencing giant Webex, messaging security software maker IronPort, security software maker Securent, and email storage provider PostPath to target Microsoft Exchange.

Cisco is certainly taking good strides in Collaboration Software and heating up the competition with Microsoft, Google, IBM in particular.

Web 2.0 is English’s 1 millionth word

Web 2.0 was recently crowned as 1 millionth word in English.Cloud Computing was the runner up.

The Global Language Monitor on 10,June announced that Web 2.0 has bested Jai Ho, N00b and Slumdog as the 1,000,000th English word or phrase. added to the codex of fourteen hundred-year-old language. Web 2.0 is a technical term meaning the next generation of World Wide Web products and services. It has crossed from technical jargon into far wider circulation in the last six months.

The term “Web 2.0″ was coined by Darcy DiNucci in 1999. In her article “Fragmented Future,” she writes

“The Web we know now, which loads into a browser window in essentially static screenfuls, is only an embryo of the Web to come. The first glimmerings of Web 2.0 are beginning to appear, and we are just starting to see how that embryo might develop. … The Web will be understood not as screenfuls of text and graphics but as a transport mechanism, the ether through which interactivity happens. It will [...] appear on your computer screen, [...] on your TV set [...] your car dashboard [...] your cell phone [...] hand-held game machines [...] and maybe even your microwave.”

I personally feel that Web 2.0 deserved its place as 1 millionth english word.

How to get a Facebook Vanity URL ?

From 12 June onwards you can create your own vanity URL on Facebook. Right now the facebook URL looks something like this

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=595955769

Instead of having a profile id like this, you can get a more meaningful url which your friends can easily remember, something like

http://www.facebook.com/naveenaswath

It is simple to get your own meaningful vanity URL. All you need to do is go to http://www.facebook.com/username/ and then provide the username of your choice, check for the availability and then just save. You will have your own Facebook Vanity URL.

Twitter and Linkedin had this feature for quite some time now. Good to see Facebook also take a cue and introduce Vanity URL.