Week in Review: Twitter targetted

Twitter takedown

Yesterday, Twitter got hit by a distributed denial of service attack that was so severe, the site couldn't even surface its "fail whale" - the rather charming icon it displays when traffic crashes the site.

This outage wasn't the usual Twitter fail, as the microblogging site confirmed it was actually under attack yesterday - leaving its followers with information they'd love to Tweet, and no way to do it. Now that's punishing cybercrime.

In fact, many attention addicts who desperately turned to Facebook or LiveJournal to get their social networking fix were faced with even more horror, as those sites were also hit by the attack.

Reports now suggest the attacks were all focused on one guy, a Georgian blogger targeted by Russian hackers. They must really not like him.

The sites are back up and running now, so head over and follow IT PRO on Twitter now, while you still can...

Windows 7 arrives

If you're one of the oh-so-lucky Microsoft followers with an MSDN or TechNet subscription, you can now download the next Windows OS - now with Internet Explorer, even in Europe.

And you should get on it right away for two reasons.

First, it might take a while. Downloads are reportedly slower than the M25 on a Bank holiday weekend.

Second, it's really that good. Our reviewer gave it six stars out of six. Yes, that's right: a perfect score for Microsoft. The shock nearly killed us, too.

Just be careful if you're running a repair with chkdsk.exe - the way Microsoft designed it to work, people across the web think it's a bug. Ah, that's the Microsoft we know and love.

iPhone on T-Mobile

O2 famously has an exclusivity deal with Apple, making it the only operator allowed to sell the shiny iPhone in the UK. That hasn't stopped T-Mobile from buying up handsets to give to its most demanding, big spending customers.

Rumour suggest O2 is set to lose its exclusivity deal in a few months, anyway.

Google ditches Apple

Google's chief executive decided to step down from Apple's board, as the pair are competing in too many areas, meaning Eric Schmidt kept having to leave the room when sensitive topics were discussed.

However, as the American Federal Trade Commission would see it, Schmidt was maybe not leaving the room enough, as the pair are still being investigated for having too close a relationship.

The best of the rest

In case you've forgotten, the economy is still locked in a downward spiral. If you were somehow managing feelings of optimism, news this week should change that.

IT workers are facing the highest unemployment rate in the sector in five years, with one firm accused of taking advantage of the recession to cut pay unnecessarily. As well, PC sales are continuing their downward spiral, and mobile phones are following them.

On the upside, an Ofcom survey has suggested we're all willing to keep paying for broadband, even at the expense of going out and having fun. What they don't realise is we need the internet. It's a must-have, for our online job hunts...

To make it easier, Google has released an even speedier version of it's super-fast Chrome browser, while Firefox has patched some scary flaws. And to take it on the go, 3 is to release a mobile internet router dubbed the MiFi by Christmas.