Boy, with a title like that, this story could really go anywhere, couldn’t it? 

Truth is, the story is just about perfectly described by that title.  Somewhere in Cleveland, sometime on Monday, there was a major internet outage that affected users over a wide area.  It’s easy to think someone might have hacked something, right?  Or that there was a power outage in some vital facility.  But it was actually gunplay; very intentional gunplay. 

From the looks of it, someone fired a gun or a shotgun directly through some pretty important fiber optic cabling. 

Information is still being gathered by authorities and the service providers, and there doesn’t appear to be any suspects at this time.  Now, certainly there would seem to be plenty of better methods one might use to try and cause a major internet outage.  But until we know more details, all we can really say is that somebody with a gun was not happy with this particular section of fiber cable, and decided to teach it a lesson. 

Just keep this in mind the next time your ISP tells you that your internet outage isn’t their fault. 

Back off, Apple. The REAL KeyNote is Keystone’s technology newsletter. If you want the REAL KeyNote, which costs you nothing… click here to sign up.

The term is done to death, and I’m sick of hearing it, but by golly, it ain’t going away folks. There is a great way for you to tell your story…or whatever you want to do…by blogging. And yes, we can help you get your blog online. You should be blogging.

Hey, who hasn’t been unjustly blocked by some spam filter? Well, there are a few words you simply shouldn’t put in email subject lines if you want your message to be received. You’ll have to find other ways to let you’re friend know that “you’re a winner!”

Lots of interesting news stories and articles today in the world of technology.  So many, in fact, that I thought I’d collect several of them here together in one post for your clicking and viewing pleasure:

• WalMart is now selling DRM-free digital music, including songs and albums from several major labels.  “DRM,” if you’re not aware, stands for digital rights management, and it’s what usually keeps you from being able to play your purchased digital songs on whichever device you like.  So typically if you buy a song from iTunes, it won’t work on your Microsoft Zune MP3 Player (that analogy might not work very well, unless you’re one of the three people in the world who bought the Zune player, but you get the point).  For months now, digital music fans have been clamouring for digital downloads that don’t come with player restrictions, reasoning that once paid for, a song should be able to be used on any and every device the user sees fit.  So the fact that WalMart (already a major player in digital music sales) is selling songs and albums that are completely DRM-free is a pretty big deal.  Go here to read more.
• USAToday has compiled a pretty neat list of the Top 25 Scientific Advancements of the Last 25 Years.  It is, of course, as subjective as any similar list (such as the AFI’s Top 100 Movies), but it’s still a great read.  And the format of the list is good too, with just a small paragraph blurb about each advancement.  A great way to recap on how far we’ve come scientifically in 25 years without wasting an entire afternoon.
• SPAM could kill you.  No, not the canned meat product, but the obnoxious email variety.  Here’s an interesting article that talks about the products you see advertised in SPAM messages, and how they are often expired, diluted, or off-brand versions of what’s actually being advertised.  And there’s, obviously, a real danger in taking any kind of medication that has been tampered with or that has sat on the shelf for too long.  So SPAM is maybe just as deadly as it is annoying. 
• If you use Skype–the internet-based phone service–you definitely noticed that they had a major outage last week in their service.  Even if you don’t use it, you probably have read about the glitch.  The outage affected millions of Skype users, and kept some of them from being able to use the service for more than 24 hours.  The company now says that the problem was the result of a so-called “perfect storm” and should never happen again. 

So there you have it…you’re pre-assembled news report in the world of the web and technology.  So handy that I don’t even know why you would need to buy a newspaper anymore.

When you’re standing at the ATM, or making a debit card purchase at the supermarket, do you ever worry about somebody spying on your fingers as you type in your PIN? 

In the near future, that concern may be eliminated.  A new technology that uses infared light to track the position of your eyes may soon enable you to enter your PIN by simply looking at the number keys in sequence.  The system, called EyePassword, was created at Stanford University in California.  It sounds like the kind of thing that might take a while for the general public to get used to using.  However, it would certainly ease security concerns over the growing trend of identity theft and credit card fraud. 

What do you think?

This is Mike working his magic on a Dell Inspiron with major problems. From what I’m told, there were only a few leftover screws when it was put back together. Just for the record, it did work.

We regularly get the question, “Can you setup my email so that I can send a 20MB file?” Well, unfortunately for you, the answer will be “no” for quite some time to come. Luckily, there is a way around that problem that doesn’t involve FTP (let’s not get into what that is right now). YouSendIt is a service that allows you to transfer large files to people without bringing the Interweb to its virtual knees. Hey, they even have a free account for you bargain hunters. Click and learn.

At least on the web it does. 

We’ve all seen the common Spam scams, from the Nigerian bank accounts to the pharmaceutical sales.  We’ve also probably all wondered, “Who could fall for such a thing?”  Plenty of people, according to a new report from McAfee.  The eWeek article goes on to quote McAfee’s findings:

 ”McAfee, of Santa Clara, Calif., throws around figures like these: If half of the population in the United States (about 150 million people) use e-mail on a daily basis, and if only half of them (75 million) are gullible, and only 1 percent (750,000) buy into scam-spam on a given day, and if those victims were to cough up a mere $20 per scam, the potential market amounts to $15 million a day, or $105 million per week, or nearly $5.5 billion per year in just the United States.”

Another eWeek article points out that over 400 people clicked on a recent advertisement promising to infect their virus-free PCs, which sort of proves that people will click on anything. 

So as hard as it is to believe that there are folks gullible enough to click on Spam scams, there are apparently plenty of them out there.  It’s reasonable to assume that if a scam exists (and persists), then there must be someone out there uninformed enough to fall for it.  Just be glad that you’re not one of them (we hope). 

You may have noticed the “Just for Fun” section of our e-newsletter, The Keynote (if you would like to sign up to receive our newsletter, sent every two weeks, simply click here). Our main goal with the Keynote is to bring you pertinent, valuable technology news and information for your business. However, we like to keep a nice balance between the lighthearted and the serious, so we regularly feature articles, photos, and news that are really more for laughs.

Well the Keystone Blog is no different. From time to time, you’re likely to see some posts here from the sillier side of the technology world (and, if we’re honest, some silly stories that have nothing to do with technology whatsoever). Here are just a few examples:

• How many trees did your iPhone bill kill?
• Unborn Australian baby has rapidly growing Facebook Friends List.
• The many faces of Darth Vader.
• Indiana man protests $12,000 property tax bill by paying in all coins and $1 bills.

So be sure to stop by the new Keystone Blog every now and then. We’ll be featuring tons of stories here that you won’t find in your regular Keynote newsletter. And hey–feel free to leave us a comment and let us know what you think.