ReadWriteWeb

A ReadWriteWeb Guide

South by Southwest Interactive is a favorite conference for many a geeky programmer, and its no wonder why. The talent, learning opportunities and free booze run deep and wide at this show.

We've compiled a list of ten must-see, must-do panels, parties and events - and don't worry, we won't be sending you to three identical core conversations on JavaScript.

Over the last few days, there has been a lot of buzz about how much private information your public Google profile contains if you don't choose the right settings. The URL of your profile alone can already give away your Gmail address. To hide this address from public view, you can switch your profile URL away from showing your name to using an address that features a 21-digit number instead of your username. However, as it turns out, this isn't a foolproof method either. By using a very simple trick, anybody can quickly figure out your Gmail address from these numbers.

Yesterday afternoon, just before President Obama's first State of the Union address, the websites of the House of Representatives and those of multiple congressional members were defaced with anti-Obama messages. Among the defaced sites were those of Democratic Representative Charlie Gonzalez of Texas, and Republican representatives Spencer Bachus of Alabama, and Joe Wilson of South Carolina. These sites are currently down for maintenance.

Do you want to take control of your Android phone? By "rooting" your device, a process similar to jailbreaking an iPhone, you can install custom ROMs (images), which add stability and speed improvements to Google's mobile operating system, as well as install new features developed by the hacker community themselves. The procedure involves running commands that enable total access to the device. For non-developer types, hacks like these sound scary, but by following the instructions below, you can take control of your Android phone in only a matter of minutes. The end result is a truly open device which you can modify to your heart's content.

The only thing preventing Google's Nexus One phone from supporting multitouch features might be Apple's patents.

Allow me to explain: There is nothing in the hardware of this device to prevent multitouch as evinced by Google's comment this morning at their press conference. When asked if the Nexus One would one day support multitouch, a Google rep responded, "We'll consider it." In a word, this means that the hardware is ready for users' pinching and zooming, but the current iteration of Google's software is locked to prohibit multitouch for legal reasons. We give the hackers of the mobile world a couple days to hack the device - after all, it's already been done on the Droid.

The iPhone hacker George Hotz, (aka geohot on Twitter) has done it again. Earlier this year, he made a name for himself in the hacking community as being the first to provide a usable iPhone 3GS jailbreak, which he then followed up by releasing a "better" unlock tool for the same device. Now he's again beaten the iPhone Dev Team to the punch with his release of blackra1n, a jailbreak tool for the Apple's latest iPhone firmware, 3.1.2.

Yesterday, Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, and Google's Blogger were targeted by a person or persons unknown, in a denial-of-service attack (DDOS) that attempted to silence the voice of one individual. The target in question was a Georgian blogger who goes by the name of "Cyxymu" online, according to recent reports from CNET. While Google withstood the attack, the other services suffered. LiveJournal and Twitter went down completely and Facebook struggled throughout the day.

As we now roll into day two of the "great social media outage of 2009," you may be surprised to learn that it's not over yet. Although Facebook and LJ have recovered, Twitter is still having issues. Not only was the site down once again early this morning, Twitter developers using the API are complaining that the company is sending mixed messages by reporting that they're "back up" - when in reality many Twitter applications are still unusable.