NASA is investing in eco-friendly supersonic airplane travel

Unless you have access to a F-22 fighter jet, you probably haven’t been able to fly faster than the speed of sound since the last Concorde flight in 2003. NASA wants to change this. The agency said that it is spending over $6 million to fund research into cheaper and greener supersonic travel.



The future of flight? (NASA)

This isn’t NASA’s first attempt to bring back supersonic travel. The agency has been (literally) pushing the boundaries of flight for years. NASA’s predecessor was involved in building the first supersonic plane in 1946, and the agency has been working on concepts since 2006 with companies like Lockheed-Martin and Boeing that may one day lead to a new generation of planes that get you places very quickly.

The largest awards of this round of funding went to MIT and Wyle Laboratories, a research contractor in Virginia, to investigate the environmental impact of commercial supersonic flight and how turbulence affects sonic booms, respectively.

MIT’s study will be looking into updating the environmental impact models created for NASA in the ’80s and ’90s. While many modern fighter jets have the ability to fly faster than the speed of sound, the environmental impact is relatively small, because there just aren’t thatmany fighter jets in operation. It would be a different case if commercial jets were capable of supersonic flight. There are roughly 7,000 flights over the US alone at any given time, all burning fuel to stay up there. Supersonic flight burns more fuel—albeit for a shorter period of time—than a traditional jet engine. NASA said that supersonic jets also travel at higher altitudes than regular jets, closer to the stratosphere, and so they have a greater potential to damage the ozone layer.

Another big chunk of the funds went into research on how to make supersonic travel quieter. For anyone who has ever been near the Concorde’s flight path, they’ll know that it was really, really loud. If supersonic jets are to become the norm, they’re going to have to get a lot quieter, or we’re all going to go deaf. NASA told Quartz that it’s already had some “pretty outstanding success” in past attempts to reduce the sound of supersonic booms.

Then there’s the running costs issue. The Concorde was a loss-leader for Air France (one of only two carriers that regularly flew the plane), but it was built by a French company and was regarded as a symbol of national pride. In an era when airlines are trying to cram more peopleonto existing planes, modern commercial supersonic jets would need to be economically viable before any company is likely to purchase one.

NASA said that if all goes to plan with these studies, it sees the first business-jet-sized supersonic planes going into production by 2025, and commercial planes by 2030. For now, we’ll have to stick to spending inordinate amounts of time and fuel to fly anywhere.

Work anywhere with a wall, with a keyboard that's also a

projector

If you're short on space at home, the Sho U KiBoJet pico projector-keyboard combo can turn a blank wall into a monitor.

The KiBoJet keyboard comes with a built-in pico projector

TAIPEI -- Taiwanese company Sho U wants to show you its latest invention, the KiBoJet, a keyboard that cleverly features a built-in pico projector.

We've seen smart keyboards powered by software like Android, such as theOneBoard, but KiBoJet just runs a basic video and picture player. Before you turn your nose up, you can plug in a computer via its HDMI port and get the full-fledged desktop experience. The model above is running Windows 10 via the tiny Intel Compute Stick.

The KiBoJet's pico projector offers 150 lumens of brightness, which should be visible under most indoor lighting. It has a full-HD resolution, and is capable of projecting an image of 21 inches wide up to 33 inches, though this spec is not yet finalized. I found the quality of the projection to be passable, but bear in mind this was a working prototype that Sho U rushed to get ready for the show, so the final product may be a lot better.

Other hardware bits include Bluetooth and Wi-Fi support, as well as built-in 3W speakers. One cool thing I noticed was that the keyboard was rocksteady. No matter how quick or forceful I was when pressing down on the keys, the image from the pico-projector didn't even twitch.

The KiboJet unit shown off here at Computex also came with Intel's Compute stick built-in for demo purposes. When the keyboard is finally released in the first half of next year, you'll need that or something similar if you want to use the KiboJet as a PC, or you could pick up a Miracast dongle and project your smartphone's screen through the keyboard.

Ant mega-colony takes over world

A single mega-colony of ants has colonised much of the world, scientists have discovered.

Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same inter-related colony, and will refuse to fight one another.

The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination.

What's more, people are unwittingly helping the mega-colony stick together.

Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) were once native to South America. But people have unintentionally introduced the ants to all continents except Antarctica.

These introduced Argentine ants are renowned for forming large colonies, and for becoming a significant pest, attacking native animals and crops.

In Europe, one vast colony of Argentine ants is thought to stretch for 6,000km (3,700 miles) along the Mediterranean coast, while another in the US, known as the "Californian large", extends over 900km (560 miles) along the coast of California. A third huge colony exists on the west coast of Japan.

A queen and worker Argentine ant have many, many relatives

 The enormous extent of this population is paralleled only by human society

Entomologists reveal the ant colony's true size

While ants are usually highly territorial, those living within each super-colony are tolerant of one another, even if they live tens or hundreds of kilometres apart. Each super-colony, however, was thought to be quite distinct.

But it now appears that billions of Argentine ants around the world all actually belong to one single global mega-colony.

Researchers in Japan and Spain led by Eiriki Sunamura of the University of Tokyo found that Argentine ants living in Europe, Japan and California shared a strikingly similar chemical profile of hydrocarbons on their cuticles.

But further experiments revealed the true extent of the insects' global ambition.

The team selected wild ants from the main European super-colony, from another smaller one called the Catalonian super-colony which lives on the Iberian coast, the Californian super-colony and from the super-colony in west Japan, as well as another in Kobe, Japan.

They then matched up the ants in a series of one-on-one tests to see how aggressive individuals from different colonies would be to one another.

Ants from the smaller super-colonies were always aggressive to one another. So ants from the west coast of Japan fought their rivals from Kobe, while ants from the European super-colony didn't get on with those from the Iberian colony.

One big family

But whenever ants from the main European and Californian super-colonies and those from the largest colony in Japan came into contact, they acted as if they were old friends.

These ants rubbed antennae with one another and never became aggressive or tried to avoid one another.

In short, they acted as if they all belonged to the same colony, despite living on different continents separated by vast oceans.

The most plausible explanation is that ants from these three super-colonies are indeed family, and are all genetically related, say the researchers. When they come into contact, they recognise each other by the chemical composition of their cuticles.

"The enormous extent of this population is paralleled only by human society," the researchers write in the journal Insect Sociaux, in which they report their findings.

However, the irony is that it is us who likely created the ant mega-colony by initially transporting the insects around the world, and by continually introducing ants from the three continents to each other, ensuring the mega-colony continues to mingle.

"Humans created this great non-aggressive ant population," the researchers write.

10 Things You May Not Know About Abraham Lincoln

This fall, Hollywood threw its support behind Honest Abe. With the release of the new biopic “Lincoln,” America’s 16th president is now a box office draw. As Steven Spielberg’s film hits the big screen, explore 10 things you may not know about Abraham Lincoln.

1. Lincoln is enshrined in the Wrestling Hall of Fame.
The Great Emancipator wasn’t quite WWE material, but thanks to his long limbs he was an accomplished wrestler as a young man. Defeated only once in approximately 300 matches, Lincoln reportedly talked a little smack in the ring. According to Carl Sandburg’s biography of Lincoln, Honest Abe once challenged an entire crowd of onlookers after dispatching an opponent: “I’m the big buck of this lick. If any of you want to try it, come on and whet your horns.” There were no takers. Lincoln’s grappling exploits earned him an “Outstanding American” honor in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

2. Lincoln created the Secret Service hours before his assassination.
On April 14, 1865, Lincoln signed legislation creating the U.S. Secret Service. That evening, he was shot at Ford’s Theatre. Even if the Secret Service had been established earlier, it wouldn’t have saved Lincoln: The original mission of the law enforcement agency was to combat widespread currency counterfeiting. It was not until 1901, after the killing of two other presidents, that the Secret Service was formally assigned to protect the commander-in-chief.

Abraham Lincoln circa 1846.

3. Grave robbers attempted to steal Lincoln’s corpse.
Secret Service did come to Lincoln’s protection, but only in death. In 1876 a gang of Chicago counterfeiters attempted to snatch Lincoln’s body from his tomb, which was protected by just a single padlock, in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois. Their scheme was to hold the corpse for a ransom of $200,000 and obtain the release of the gang’s best counterfeiter from prison. Secret Service agents, however, infiltrated the gang and were lying in wait to disrupt the operation. Lincoln’s body was quickly moved to an unmarked grave and eventually encased in a steel cage and entombed under 10 feet of concrete.

4. John Wilkes Booth’s brother saved the life of Lincoln’s son. 
A few months before John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln, the president’s oldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln, stood on a train platform in Jersey City, New Jersey. A throng of passengers began to press the young man backwards, and he fell into the open space between the platform and a moving train. Suddenly, a hand reached out and pulled the president’s son to safety by the coat collar. Robert Todd Lincoln immediately recognized his rescuer: famous actor Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes. (In another eerie coincidence, on the day of Edwin Booth’s funeral—June 9, 1893—Ford’s Theatre collapsed, killing 22 people.)

5. Lincoln is the only president to have obtained a patent.
Benjamin Franklin isn’t the only American political leader who demonstrated an inventive mind. After being aboard a steamboat that ran aground on low shoals and had to unload its cargo, Lincoln, who loved tinkering with machines, designed a method for keeping vessels afloat when traversing shallow waters through the use of empty metal air chambers attached to their sides. For his design, Lincoln obtained Patent No. 6,469 in 1849.

6. Lincoln personally test-fired rifles outside the White House.
Lincoln was a hands-on commander-in-chief who, given his passion for gadgetry, was keenly interested in the artillery used by his Union troops during the Civil War. Lincoln attended artillery and cannon tests and met at the White House with inventors demonstrating military prototypes. Although there was a standing order against firing weapons in the District of Columbia, Lincoln even test-fired muskets and repeating rifles on the grassy expanses around the White House, now known as the Ellipse and the National Mall.

Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes, as Hamlet in 1870.

7. Lincoln came under enemy fire on a Civil War battlefield. 
When Confederate troops attacked Washington, D.C., in July 1864, Lincoln visited the front lines at Fort Stevens on two days of the battle, which the Union ultimately won. At one point the gunfire came dangerously close to the president. Legend has it that Colonel Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., a future Supreme Court justice, barked, “Get down, you fool!” Lincoln ducked down from the fort’s parapet and left the battlefield unharmed.

8. Lincoln didn’t move to Illinois until he was 21.
Illinois may be known as the Land of Lincoln, but it was in Indiana that the 16th president spent his formative years. Lincoln was born in a Kentucky log cabin in 1809, and in 1816 his father, Thomas, moved the family across the Ohio River to a 160-acre plot in southern Indiana. Lincoln did not migrate to Illinois until 1830.

9. Poisoned milk killed Lincoln’s mother.
When Abraham was 9 years old in 1818, his mother, Nancy, died of a mysterious “milk sickness” that swept across southern Indiana. It was later learned that the strange disease was due to drinking tainted milk from a cow that had ingested poisonous white snakeroot.

10. Lincoln never slept in the Lincoln Bedroom.
When he occupied the White House, the 16th president used the current Lincoln Bedroom as his personal office. It was there that he met with Cabinet members and signed documents, including the Emancipation Proclamation.

(source)

The Guy Who Designed Twitter's Logo  Only Made About $3

Simon Oxley is hardly a household name, but his drawing of a bird in a tree was used as Twitter's first logo, reports PandoDaily.

He designed it for iStockPhoto, a subscription-based site that offers thousands of pictures for customers to use in designs and other projects.

When the Twitter founders were browsing the site in search of a company logo, their decision to use Oxley's bird earned him three or four dollars, but it made him somewhat famous in the graphic design world.

Oxley's new weird version of fame didn't go to his head however – Oxley's friend Reuben Miller said, "He never made a big deal out if it, in his usual shrug-it-off, down to earth way. That made me even more impressed, because there is nothing more refreshing than celebrity or talent that doesn’t put on airs."

Astronauts Can’t Tell If Their Bladders Are Full In Space

The stretch receptor nerves lining the bladder prompt urges to urinate when they sense the bladder is about one-third full. However, urine does not collect at the bottom of the bladder in low gravity environments. In space, the urge is only triggered once the bladder is almost totally filled. This could cause the urethra to be forced shut, making urination very difficult. Astronauts must take precaution against this. Source: Mary Roach, "Packing for Mars: the Curious 

(source)

Method: How to create your own comment bot for Instagram!!

Alright this method is so simple, you need no experience at all. It's different from other bots because all you need is a jailbroken phone. Like I stated in my last method of how to make a like bot, you need a touch macro. The one I use is Auto Touch. You can download it from Cydia. 

Ok, once you got auto touch installed head over to Instagram. Now here's how this works; you record your touch actions of refreshing the page of a popular hastag and comment on the first photo. Then go back to the hastag page, refresh the page, and repeat the first step. For example; use the hastag "like". Go to that hastag, start the recording, click on a photo and comment "nice photo" (or whatever you want to put). While it's still recording go back the hastag page, refresh it so it shows new photos and stop the recording. Your done! Now go to that hastag and play the recording. Auto Touch will provide adjustable hot keys so you can set the "play" and "recording" buttons to whatever button on your device that you want. Once you press the play button (the button you set it to) it will show options of how you want it to play the recording. Finally, set the "repeat" option to however many times you want it to repeat. Now your set! 

Things you need to be aware of: Instagram has a lot of limitations when it comes to liking and commenting on photos. Before starting the bot, experiment with how many comments you can post in a certain amount of time. Other then that, good luck and I hope this method works well for yall. Enjoy!

Note: Make sure you read up on jail braking your phone before you just do this to your phone guys. Jail braking your phone will void any warranty you have on the phone, and can cause instability in the phones OS, so make sure you understand what your doing before you try this method 

Relieve from app developer : Jailbreaks are are more stable than ever and do not void your warranty as you can just update your firmware bringing it back to factory settings.

WHAT IS AN ETHICAL HACKER?

I would imagine that if I asked the average person what an ethical hacker was then they would probably suffer from selective hearing and just hear the word “hacker”. Furthermore, they’d probably give me strange looks if I then went on to mention what color hat the guy was wearing.

Non-computer security people don’t tend to know that the world of hacking is divided into various groups such as black hat, white hat, grey hat and others. And they probably don’t care either.

Incidentally, an ethical hacker falls loosely into the category of white hat hacker, though many would probably prefer to simply be known as a computer expert.

Not for profit

An ethical hacker will take their set of advanced computer and programming skills and will apply them in order to discover vulnerabilities in computer systems. Unlike a black hat hacker, the ethical hacker will not be looking to make money or otherwise profit from the vulnerabilities that they describe. Instead, they will evaluate them, and look for ways that companies can overcome them so that they will have a more secure system when a black hat hacker does come along.

Even though there is a growing trend in companies hiring ethical hackers to test their computer system security it is a discipline that is still considered to be hacking nonetheless due to the fact that it still utilises computer knowledge to penetrate systems.

Secure systems

However, the “ethical” tag is appended because the ‘hacking’ takes place at a company’s behest and is designed to benefit them. An ethical hacker will look to break into a company’s computer systems in much the same way that a black hat hacker would. Once they have found one or more weaknesses they will report back to the company, possibly adding a list of suggestions as to how they can make their systems more secure in the future.

The thinking here is that an ethical hacker should be able to find all the same vulnerabilities that a potential attacker could and it is quite possible that they will. Whilst many ethical hackers will have come through a computer science education there are also many others who will have learned all about black hat hackers through having been part of that very community in the past.

Whilst it is quite possible for a black hat hacker to become an ethical hacker who stays on the right path, I’m sure the temptation to stray back to old ways must be great, so be careful who you employ to penetrate your computer systems!

PHISHING – WHAT IS IT AND HOW CAN YOU AVOID IT?

I’m sure most of you know about, or have least heard of, phishing. If not then please read What Exactly Is A Phishing Scam? What you may not know is that a continuous fight against this fraud method yields poor results.

Maybe you’re watching TV or reading newspapers where the authorities announce they’re having good results in the fight against Phishing. Well, this is wrong. In my opinion, this war will never end. The more they fight against it, the cleverer the phishers become as they create more sophisticated and undetectable methods of phishing.

I will reveal some well known methods that phishers use for stealing sensitive information from the internet user and also some hidden methods too few people know about. Most of the cyber thieves use this method especially for stealing information about the user’s credit cards and bank accounts but it can also be used for stealing identities (identity theft), email or other company’s account passwords. I want to show you why there are so many phishing attempts out there.

You don’t even need to be a hacker to do it. Just to know how is it done and what tools you need.(Most of the tools are not even illegal)

PREPARING THE PHISHING ROD AND TOOLS

What are they doing with this information?

Easy.

Reason number one is to steal money from the credit cards or bank account. They create scam pages mimicking the targeted bank’s real page. Then they create an email message as if the bank is sending it to their customers.

PREPARING THE BAIT

I want to cover a little more about the subject of these email messages. How can they create real messages which look like genuine ones?

Simple.

Most of them have their own bank accounts or their parents or relatives do.

So they receive real messages from these banks. That’s how they get the idea of how the letter should look. But wait a minute you say, there are thousands of banks.

This is easy too.

There are many sites online that report on what hackers are up to and they reprint examples of letters, emails and websites. Most of the thieves feed their information databases from sites such as those. They can find good information about thousands of banks and even more examples of messages and phishing pages. Even for a beginner it is easy to start when you have so much information. They even know which banks work for phishing from that information.

This is how most of them discover new banks that have never been scammed. I bet you didn’t think that sites made against phishers would be very useful for them huh?

So we cleared up the part about how they manage to get hold of a genuine email message.

What then?

They gather together an email database. Most of them use email harvesting software. This software is legal and its even possible to find free versions of such software if you search the net for them. And if they need a license they don’t worry – they’ll just buy one with a stolen credit card, or buy email databases used for newsletters. They can find thousands of emails on guestbooks or forums.

THROWING THE BAIT

After they have the emails ready, they have to send them out. But for real impact, they need to send them to hundreds of thousands of email addresses.

How do they do it?

Simple.

They use email sending software.

This is another type of  legal software found in all corners of the internet, free or licensed, with hundreds of versions. In fact they can use your very own PC to send their emails, thus avoiding the spam blockers.

PHISHING

And now all they have to do is wait. Wait for people to fall for it and hope the authorities don’t find about their page too soon and shut it down. I was telling you earlier how virtual thieves use information to steal your money, identity and so on.. Now I’m going to explain how they can use your own PC for doing their dirty work. They don’t have the knowledge to figure this out for themselves but instead use other peoples’ brain power. What they do is scour the internet for software thats capable of scanning IPs or PCs with a remote connection enabled.

This kind of software is made by very intelligent programmers that did not intend the program to be used in this manner. Normally its utilised in a positive way for security testing, the goal being to find any leaks or bugs in a system. Unfortunately though when this type of program falls into the wrong hands it can and will be used against you. Even if your PC is password protected they can use brute force password crackers to find out your IP.

Quite honestly, Windows is crap when it comes to security.

Once they have access to your PC they will install their malicious software and load the email lists for sending fake emails. This reduces their chances of being caught to a minimum because in the header of the received emails your ip address will appear, not theirs. This is one reason why they use your PC.

Another reason is that they have to send millions of emails and doing this from a single address will get their ip banned by the spam blockers or internet providers. When they spread those emails out over 5-10 PCs, its easy for them to send their SPAM.

DON’T GET CAUGHT IN THE NET

How to protect yourself from this phishing attacks when they get harder and harder to detect each day?

This is very simple.

Maybe you have seen TV ads or warnings from the banks? All of them say not to reveal your info to emails coming from the bank or telephone, but the main precaution you can take is also the most easy to follow. Don’t give your PIN number to anyone including bank employees. No-one, and I mean no one,  knows your PIN number. Even the bank doesn’t know your PIN number. Of course the bank can change your PIN but only that. The 4-6 digit personal identification number is secret. If you receive anything that requests your PIN, you can be sure 100% that its a fraud attempt.

DON’T RELY ON SOFTWARE TO PROTECT YOU FROM PHISHING

So, have a phishing filter and an antivirus software?

I don’t care.

The scam pages are so well done that they can easily pass by this type of software. Most of these programs work based on the words found in the scam page and by the domain name or ip of the scam site. Words like credit card, PIN, CVV2. Thieves can easily replace words with images and trick the software.

What can you do about that?

Nothing.

Warnings say that you should look in the address bar to see that the URL starts with HTTPS and if it does, its safe because that indicates a secure page.

Wrong.

Thieves can do this too.

They can make their scam pages go to secure servers that show HTTPS in the browser and if they don’t know how, they will spoof the ip address to show anything they want.

Another tip – look in the address bar – many of these phishing scams can also trick your eyes by using typos. Here is an example: Lets say this is the real bank address: www.bankoftesting.com and the fake one is www.bankoftestlng.com.

Can you notice the difference?

They replaced the ‘i’ with an ‘l’.

Of course you won’t always look carefully at the address and this way you can get tricked easy.

Also they can replace ‘o’ with ‘0’ (zero).

There are many other typos they can use so read carefully the address.

Another warning by the bank says that you should look in the bottom right of your browser for a small padlock.

If you see that it means you’re on a secure webpage doesn’t it?

Wrong again.

Thieves can replicate this too.

THE NUMBER ONE TIP FOR AVOIDING PHISHING

There are many tips to avoid being tricked and I will explain many in my future articles but rule number 1 is simple to follow:

Don’t give your PIN number or passwords to anyone, including bank employees.

Isn’t this very easy to follow?

It is so why do so many people get tricked and then upset when they fall victim to these attacks? It’s simply because people don’t pay attention. They’re not careful when they use their sensitive information anywhere, including the internet. Most of these attacks are based on peoples’ lack of knowledge or, as the hackers would call it, their stupidity.

I was once able to ask a thief caught by the police:

Q: Why do you defraud people?

A: Because they are stupid

Q: Why do you say they’re stupid ?

A:  Because they really are, d’oh, he replied.

You know you’re not stupid and so do I. Protect yourself by paying attention to all warnings and the chances of you getting burned will be extremely low. Don’t reinvent the wheel, just follow the most simplest way.

It’s easy.

Do you think you are now equipped to avoid each and every phishing attempt that comes your way? Find out with SonicWall’s phishing knowledge test.

FACTS: 10 EASY METHODS TO AVOID CREDIT CARD FRAUD

In the digital age that we now live in it is, in many respects, safer to use a credit card online than it is to use it in the world at large.

That said, credit card fraud is still very much on the increase so you would do well to keep your wits about you.

If you believe you have already become a victim of credit card fraud then report it immediately, to the credit card issuer and to the police.

The sooner you act, the sooner action can take place to ensure that the situation doesn’t get any worse.

Also, report it to the credit agencies, such as Experian and Equifax, so that the fraudster cannot open any new accounts in your name should they have also been able to steal your identity.

10 Easy Methods To Avoid Credit Card Fraud

Most are obvious but you would be surprised how many people are scammed by not doing these…

1. Keep your credit card secure and never let anyone take it away from your direct line of sight
2. Never give your credit card number, especially the 3 digit security number on the back, to anyone who calls or emails you
3. Never enter credit card details into a website you don’t completely trust. You should check that the website address begins with https: and that there is a padlock symbol in your browser in order to know that you are dealing with a secure site.
4. Always sign a new credit card the moment you receive it.
5. Don’t make your PIN number your date of birth or 1234 – these numbers are easy to guess!
6. Never write your PIN number down, especially if you intend to keep it in the same place as the card.
7. When entering your PIN number at an ATM or similar, make sure no-one around has the opportunity to see the number.
8. Check your credit card statement religiously to ensure there are no unknown transactions on it.
9. Always shred any correspondence that has your credit card number or account details on it.
10. If you move house then inform your credit card issuer of your new address straight away.

WORST LIST OF TRAFFIC EXCHANGE SITES

Olatunji Adetunji, SEO Web Analyst

This is a self experiment list of traffic exchanged sites out there that I have come across in my vain to get more traffic and online awareness for my site "SEO WEB ANALYST".
First of all I know a lot of us webmasters, SEO specialist, social media marketers and    search engine marketers do know that to sell anything online via websites, you surely need web traffic, which to me is different from targeted traffic.
When you buy traffic from traffic companies, that promise to provide targeted traffic I personally don't believe that they do provide such, what they provide is a swarm of traffic Hits from a specific region more like traffic exchange systems, worst they place your site on some impressions rotator which they are in partnership with in their network.
So for example I bought a 500USD worth of traffic from some company (NAME WON'T BE DISCLOSED) they promise to give you discount when you sign up and free traffic too, they are very popular with the word "revisitOR" :) so they send over 100,000 within 5 days and my Google Analytic read 600, am sure some of us must have experienced this from most of this companies...my thought of their service was that if I get that much I should have at least one purchase of my 47$ product, I was furious and I contacted them with my disappointing results (even when I changed the capture page 5x still no single sign up from their 100,000 visitors within 5 days), they replied me that Google does not read all their traffic source correctly and that it takes more than 100,000 visitors (more likely impressions to me) to get my first sales!
I told them my mind, trust me, and I ordered for a refund of what was left of my money and that they I decided to learn how to  get targeted traffic the ethical way! (SEO was born in me on that day.)
Traffic exchange, have heard of it and I never tried it all this years, even when I signed up with traffic swarm when it was still young back in 2008.
So I decided to do a bit of trafficking traffic to my site to get some wicked ranking ratio for a tough keyword I am trying to rank for (some keywords will only rank you if your traffic is paired with your peers on the ranking table)
There are other authentic methods to do this, but I wanted fast results (yep don't want to spend a dime, could have just go for paid search engine PAY-PER-CLICK), so I arranged the list of some traffic exchange sites I could gather. (Please the intent of this list is not to promote this sites! BE WARNED !! you may not recover easily like I did.)

1. Hitleap
2. Vasthits
3. Yibbida
4. Easyhits4u
5. Traffup
6. Trafficg
7. Alexaboostup
8. SiteXplosion
9. Trafficswarm
10. Linkreferral

Out of this list I could say Traffup and Yibbida was better because the duration of visit and bounce rate was better compared to any other, Alexaboostup got better alexa ranking but at what price? higher bounce rate, reduced time on site, zero page views and stupendously destroyed your online authority, because when you do an alexa check up on such sites their alexa ranking is good, but terrible metrics that does not woe an advertiser to want to check your site out. 
And the trick they do is to use Google url for their keywords (I tried this too) on alexa boost up to protect their image, what do you get is this in return, on alexa you already have a search engine traffic stream, and it shows a different percent in related to the upstream traffic for search engine, eg I have upstream of search traffic from Google rating me 8% but my search traffic contribution is 4.8 %, so you see this two does not tally, and again you will be damaging your site if it was ranking on Google for a competitive keyword.
My advice use this alexaboostup cautiously, don't over do it, it can be addictive but a bit of spin with it is not bad, if you have the kind of metrics I have, now am building them back so they can be better off than before.
In conclusion don't do traffic exchange for your sites, if it is not necessary and do it in a minimal way, focus on branding and adding things that will reduce your bounce rates (like video, like load time, like incentives, etc you think of something relevant to your niche) don't say because I didn't mention one of your favourite, that it is safe, It's not! I barely survived using all this 10 traffic exchange systems, because I once had a 205 URL AUTHORITY RANK fromSite Explorer & Backlink Checker but last I checked during my crisis it was 37 (my site metrics was part of my url authority, at least now I know). Try to rebuild my reputation :) now and achieve more traffic via organic seo (it builds more authority and branding).
Thanks for reading this far with me, hope the article was useful to you as it was useful to me, more research coming your way...
say  during my seo optimization of seo consulting services back then in February, I noticed a site that was just popping up for every seo related keywords, the site got to 66k of alexa ranking within 3 months and when I finally got my first ranking for Seo consulting firm when I did a bit of Page research on Ahref on them I noticed they have now discarded all their back links and now have just 100 links and are still ranking for some competitive keyword unlike before (some even changed their site).
Am not an hater but seriously why will some seo sites just go through all this to get clients, and then spoil the reputation of other legitimate seo services companies. I read from a news email from webpronews of a client that complained that after he ranked, the so called seo firm knew the contract had ended and they do the normal project closure documents, but asked if the man will go on a ranking maintenance package (silly package) so the man can maintain is position, he refused and the following couple of weeks this man rankings dropped and the seo firm denied this, the site was panda and penguin safe, so the suspicious thought I had was that they were paying for the man's link building and when they unsubscribed, the links started dropping (Have experienced it before, even if you don't subscribe, when you loose your quality links, your ranking drops). At least it takes time before your competitors climb on you with positions, and funny thing is if you did better than them in that position, Google have their way of placing you back, I check 3 times in a roll my position for the keyword "seo consulting" on Google and I noticed it kept dancing on the positions, the search engine is trying to figure which of us does better, if you see my alexa you will see that seo consulting contributes the highest to my total search traffic, I may not rank on Google for the keyword but do rank in other Google local searches.
I think their should be some sort of reviews on the methodology and operating services seo firms operate on, so they don't turn the job into a scam job or what do you think?

(source:- Quora)