Google Broadband 1Gb/sec

Google is getting into the broadband business. The company plans to deploy its own “experimental” fiber-optic network to at least 50,000 homes, perhaps as many as 500,000. The fiber-optic network will deliver speeds of 1 gigabit-per-second, which is more than 20 times faster than residential fiber optic services offered today in the U.S. The company writes on its blog:

We’re planning to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States. We’ll deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We plan to offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people

The service will be competitive in price to today’s broadband services from cable and telephone companies, but it will be much faster. Verizon and Comcast must be thrilled. Google says it is doing this on an trial basis to promote new killer apps that will take advantage of the faster speeds, experiment with better ways to deploy fiber to the home, and create pressure for more open access to broadband in general. It sees its effort as complementary to the U.S. government’s national broadband deployment plans, which it also supports. Communities and municipalities who would like to be considered for Google’s service can also apply.

Google owns its own vast network of dark fiber around the globe to connect its data centers, speed up search, and lower its cost of streaming billions of videos a month on YouTube. With this project, Google is taking its first step in connecting that fiber backbone to consumer’s homes. It is not clear what Google services will come with a broadband subscription, but it is a safe bet that Google will be the default search and Gmail will be the default email. Maybe they can throw in Google Voice service and an Android phone that lets you talk over WiFi. Pity they wont give eircom a run for their money.

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iMac Delays Caused By Popularity

Pirate Bay Drops Trackers

Swedish BitTorrent site tracker site further decentralizes content distribution, and in fact decides not to run a tracker anymore.
Swedish BitTorrent tracker site The Pirate Bay has taken content distribution to the next level with the introduction of site-wide magnet links that let you download a torrent directly into your BitTorrent client, instead of your browser.

The main purpose of magnet links is to give people an alternative way of getting the torrent file should websites hosting torrents like The Pirate Bay go down, and already supported by most BitTorrent clients like uTorrent and Vuze, which get all relevant data via the Distributed Hash Table (DHT) network.
They identify a file not by location or name, but by the content’s hash value.

“This is what we consider to be the future,” it says on its blog. “Faster and more stability for the users because there is no central point to rely upon.”
With this introduction The Pirate Bay now feels that trackers are no longer needed and will, in fact, no longer run one.

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Windows is actually free

Since the launch of Vista and Windows 7, I haven’t really warmed to them, I just kept asking myself “But XP is grand, why change the product so radically, why not try and improve XP”. They didn’t. So I am gradually porting my self over to Ubuntu Linux instead.

I have always dabbled in the world of Linux since my early days in the computer industry, and for such a robust system there was always a big learning curve to get over before you could really “use” the system, which in my opinion kept a lot of novice users away from it.

So why Microsoft was was more popular on the desktop than Linux. They had it so wrong I felt it was important to write about it,it really was eating at me. Microsoft rules the desktop because Linux is “just not ready”. Sadly, this kind of opinion is out there – I’ve heard it before. But it is not why Microsoft rules the desktop. Microsoft rules the desktop because:

1) They had the benefit from timing

When PCs first arrived. There were limited choices available. Microsoft DOS, and in time Microsoft Windows was good enough, at the right price, and well marketed with plenty of money. It was debatable whether it was best – possibly not. However, Microsoft did a phenomenal job making people aware of their product in fact going so far as that many people thought computers = DOS/Windows.
If today’s Linux distributions were available back then, there’s no doubt the story would be different.

2) Microsoft did deals with manufactures

How many people actually go out and consciously buy Windows? I suspect it is probably less than 1%. Instead, it comes with the computer without the customer getting a practical choice. So for most of the people running Microsoft – it is “free”.

3)  Inertia

People are stubborn. We prefer to keep doing what we’re doing until we have a compelling reason to change. For most people, switching to Linux or Mac just isn’t a compelling argument and thus they run what they’re given. In this case, Microsoft’s distribution channels and marketing rule the roost and people get Windows by default today. This is a difficult thing to overcome.

There are many more reasons of course. If it were possible to summarize in a short blog post precisely how Microsoft came to become a multi-billion dollar company, then anyone could do it. Clearly this is not the case. My point is that Linux is ready and has been for a while for the mass market. Linux already dominates the web, serving out billions of web pages. The Youtube.com website runs on Linux was serving well over a billion views a day worldwide.

I run Ubuntu Linux on one of my desktops and a laptop. Aside from some minor pain pulling data from Microsoft’s proprietary formats, I am quite pleased. In some cases, especially around development, software management, interoperability, security, and robustness – I personally find it no contest that Linux provides a better experience. Getting people the freedom to choose what operating system they want, is another story.

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Touchscreen Rubik’s Cube

Rubik’s TouchCube, the $150 touchscreen version of the puzzle includes an accelerometer for quick swiping action, can solve itself, and can even teach you to become a master of the cube.
Though i’ve yet to get my hands on the device, the product demonstration videos lead me to believe that the next-generation toy, that you can swipe much like an iPhone, adds a whole new level of fascination to the original which sold over 350 million units in its day.

Features of the puzzle:

- The touch sensor technology means you can swipe your finger across squares and watch as the lights follow your motion. The swiping motion simulates the actual turning of a mechanical Rubik’s Cube.

- The TouchCube always knows the exact number of moves needed to solve the puzzle at any given time, which means it can teach you to solve it with hints when you get stuck.

- You can undo your last move.

- There are modern sound effects or ones that mimic a cube twist or turn.

- The cube comes with a recharging stand, and will solve itself while charging. This could make for one interesting light show.

Sure, purists may find no charm in the modern Rubik’s Cube, but i think it has just the right qualities to make an impression on consumers, if only as a great talking-piece. weather or not it will be available here in ireland for Christmas, i just don’t know.

Microsoft’s Free Antivirus Service Starts Today

Microsoft Security Essentials, Microsoft Corp.’s new no-cost, core anti-malware service that helps protect consumers against viruses, spyware and other malicious software, will be available tomorrow, Tuesday, Sept. 29. Microsoft Security Essentials, independently certified by West Coast Labs, is backed by the company’s global security response team and is built on the same award-winning core security technology found in the company’s security solutions for businesses. It requires no registration, trials or renewals and will be available for download directly from Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials.

“Consumers have told us that they want the protection of real-time security software but we know that too many are either unwilling or unable to pay for it, and so end up unprotected,” said Amy Barzdukas, general manager for consumer security at Microsoft. “With Microsoft Security Essentials, consumers can get high-quality protection that is easy to get and easy to use — and it won’t get in their way.”

Making Microsoft Security Essentials broadly available as a free consumer download for genuine Windows-based PCs is part of Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to provide a more trustworthy computing experience for all customers. By making Microsoft Security Essentials easy to get and easy to use, Microsoft hopes to encourage broader adoption of anti-virus protection across the consumer audience, which in turn will help increase security across the entire Windows ecosystem. For business customers, Microsoft continues to offer Forefront Client Security, providing centralized, comprehensive management and reporting capabilities.

Windows 7 Preview

Windows 7 has a glassy look which has been inherited from Vista, but has been added many more usability enhancements along with it. The UI features such as jump lists, themes, desktop gadgets, aero peek, aero shake and many more have been embedded.

Windows 7 overcomes the drawback of Windows Vista regarding the drivers with Device Stage which gives the flexibility to organize the pre-installed drivers. It gives you flexibility to have specialized icons, pop-up menus and XML pages with the help of which you can customize your devices like phone, camera, printer, pen drive etc.

The security feature of Windows 7 is much more powerful than Vista. The users are not allowed to access sensitive part of the programs as in Vista, but there is good balance and interaction in Windows 7 which makes the user feel more comfortable in accessing. Networking was another issue in case of Vista, which is taken care in Windows 7 with the help of ‘HomeGroup’ which gets multiple PCs on network and allow users to share files by forming a group.

Now Windows 7 has come up with Windows Media Player 12 which has abilities to stream music and videos on the network. The device compatibility is still being upgraded and will be released with future service packs for Windows 7. Its ‘Media Center’ feature is most eye catching which has been enhanced from Vista. You can easily set up the cable card with Media center.

There are other cool features like the calculator, Wi-Fi adapter for sharing the hot spot

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Phishing worm spreads across Twitter

Users of the micro-blogging service reported receiving direct messages containing messages similar to the following:

rofl this you on here? http://videos.twitter.secure-logins01.com

SophosLabs reports on its blog, clicking on the link takes unsuspecting Twitter devotees expecting to see a webpage referred to them by an online friend to what appears to be a Twitter login page:

Of course, it’s nothing of the sort. This page has been created by the bad guys with the sole purpose of phishing Twitter usernames and passwords, which will then be used to compromise more accounts. Careful examination of the URL in the message would reveal that it’s not going to the real Twitter site – but many regular users would not be able to come to that conclusion.

Just like hackers like to comandeer poorly protected PCs to form a botnet from which they can send spam campaigns or spread malware, so they are increasingly interested in doing the same with social networking accounts.
They know that computer users are more likely to open a message or click on a link sent to them by what appears to be their online friends and colleagues via a social networking site, making it easier to launch financially-motivated attacks.

In this case the bad guys are also able to access potentially sensitive private information you have in past direct messages you have sent and received via Twitter.
If you were unfortunate enough to come a cropper, and entered your details into the fake Twitter page you must consider yourself hacked, and should change your Twitter password *immediately* before it is abused further by cybercriminals.

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Technology predictions from 1993

Predictions about the future, when viewed from the future, are often hilariously wrong, and nowhere is this more true than with product design. One need look no further than “futuristic” Hollywood movies/TV programs of yore or old  Science magazines covers to see that would-be future designers can do no more than take the form factors of their day, alter the shape slightly and add some then-impossible technological function.

They got only a couple things wrong, most notably the huge CRT displays ,but the rest of it is remarkably accurate.

Sony Unveils Motion-Activated Headphones

Sony Ericsson may soon make the play button a thing of the past with its new motion-controlled earbuds. The handset-maker on Monday unveiled its MH907 headphones that allow you to play your music and answer phone calls just by inserting the buds into your ear or taking them out.

How It Works

To listen to music you simply put both earbuds in, and your music starts automatically. To pause, take out one earbud; removing both stops the music entirely. To answer the phone, do the same thing. If you’re listening to music when a call comes in, you have to remove both earphones to stop the music, and then put one back in to answer a call.

Sony Ericsson says the MH907 headphones are activated by body contact, so you can’t accidentally answer a phone or start your music when the headphones are in your pocket or purse.
Compatible Phones

If you were hoping to pick up a pair of these for use with your iPhone or other smartphone, you can forget it. The MH907 is only compatible with Sony Ericsson’s own Fast Port-equipped phones — Fast Port is SE’s proprietary connector on the bottom of its phones. To determine which Sony Ericsson phones support Fast Port, visit Sony Ericsson’s Website.