Archive for the ‘Internet’ Category
Monday, February 18th, 2008 | Posted in Internet | No Comments »
Many people don’t know that Yahoo planned to launch a competitor to the popular multi messenger website Meebo, called “myM”. The development/testing team was based on six persons, that are now working on updating the webmail product. I have no idea why they’ve planned to launch a Meebo clone since the web messenger service for Yahoo is still up and running, but I’m not contesting their marketing decisions.
Since the development team for myM has been dispersed, the project was abandoned and given up on, at least for now.
Thursday, February 14th, 2008 | Posted in Internet | No Comments »
Peer 2 Peer (P2P) programs are used by millions of people each day to swap files, download torrents and upload data to the masses. While many P2P programs have received a black eye in the past for many of their illegal activities, there are plenty of legal uses for these programs.
There are dozens of P2P programs available, however the majority use only a small fraction of these, with the top two P2P programs gaining the lion’s share. If you are thinking about switching over to a new P2P program or are new to P2P, here are, in my opinion, the two best P2P programs available today.
uTorrent
uTorrent is hands down the most popular P2P program being used today and most will agree it is the best. The reason is simply that uTorrent offers all the features that a user could want, but with little of the system resources and memory usage others require.
When P2P programs first came out, they were memory hogs and used tons of system resources. In fact, on some computers, you couldn’t multi-task or listen to a CD while these programs operated in the background. With uTorrent, you can relax and go about your business as your computer downloads or uploads files. uTorrent uses about 1 MB of memory and very little CPU usage, making it extremely efficient.
Some of the features that uTorrent offers includes:
- Multiple simultaneous downloads
- Configurable bandwidth scheduler
- Global and per-torrent speed limiting
- Quick-resumes interrupted transfers
- RSS Downloader
- Trackerless support (Mainline DHT)
You can find more information at uTorrent’s main site at the following link: http://www.utorrent.com
BitComet
BitComet is another popular P2P program. However, it looks as if its heyday is over. Over the last couple of years, uTorrent stole most of its users due to the heavy memory and CPU usage this program requires. Nevertheless, BitComet is feature-rich and does provide a great user experience. If you need a second P2P program or have a fast, high- performance computer, then BitComet is a great choice. You can find more information regarding BitComet at the following link: http://www.bitcomet.com
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 | Posted in Internet | No Comments »
Charter Communications, one of the largest cable ISP’s in the United States, accidentally deleted the saved e-mail of 14,000 subscribers.
Charter regularly deletes inactive customer e-mail accounts. Operator error caused the accidental deletion of 14,000 active customer e-mails accounts.
All of the saved customer e-mail is irretrievably lost. Charter is giving every customer who lost data a $50 credit. That amounts to a $700,000 penalty to Charter’s bottom line.
Customers can avoid this issue from affecting them again by linking their Charter e-mail to Microsoft Outlook and storing their email on their own computers.
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 | Posted in Internet | No Comments »
eBay is once again modifying their fee structure in an effort to increase growth.
eBay is decreasing Insertion Fees and increasing Final Value Fees. This means that it will be less expensive to create eBay listings, but more expensive to actually sell items.
This should cause the volume of eBay listings to go up, but may also raise prices on goods sold through eBay.
In addition, eBay is changing the percentages charged for Final Value Fees at each tier. Goods priced under $25.00 are seeing the largest increase.
This should make eBay less desirable as a marketplace for smaller items. This may be a result of the success eBay has seen with larger ticket items such as found on eBay Auto.
The new fee structure will be implemented on 20 February.
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 | Posted in Internet | No Comments »
Cheap satellite Internet is one service that can be hard to find these days. However, there is a bright spot; there are a few companies that now offer much more reasonable deals making satellite Internet a choice for almost any home Internet user.
It should be noted that satellite Internet is not as fast or as affordable as broadband cable or even DSL. However, for those that live in areas where these alternatives are not available, satellite Internet can offer a broadband-like pipe to the Internet.
How Cheap is Cheap?
Well you might not be jumping for joy, but if you were expecting prices over $100 you will definitely be relieved. With the cheapest service available, expect to pay less than $50; for more moderate services, expect a price range hovering around $75. The following two plans may interest you:
WindBlue
WindBlue offers two competitive packages for delivering satellite Internet on the cheap. The first is called ProPak and includes a maximum download speed of 1.5 Mbps and a maximum upload speed of 256 Mbps (enough for most home users). The cost of this service is $79.95 per month with a one time installation fee of $79.95 and an equipment fee of $249.95.
WindBlue also offers a low-cost package called Value Pak. This includes a maximum download speed of 512 Kbps and a maximum upload speed of 128 Kbps. The cost for this service is $49.95 per month. An additional one-time fee for installation is $79.95 and an equipment fee of $249.95 is also required.
Hughes Net
Hughes Net is also another low cost satellite internet provider in North America. While not as cheap as WindBlue, they may have coverage areas where WindBlue does not. Hughes Nets lowest cost package, called the Home package, comes with a maximum download speed of 700 Kbps and a maximum upload speed of 128 Kbps. The cost per month is $59.99 with an upfront purchase of equipment totaling $399.98.
While obviously not as cheap as cable or DSL, satellite Internet service is definitely making strides into the home market. For those that live in rural areas or who are not supported by cable or DSL, satellite Internet is definitely worth the investment.
On 17 January, a court in Ankara ordered access to the popular video sharing web site YouTube to be blocked.
This same event happened in March, and the Turkish government removed the block when YouTube agreed to censor comments critical of Turkish political figures such as Ataturk.
I strongly believe that Google should, for once, stand by their “Do No Evil” slogan and refuse to cave in to this barbaric censorship.
Turkish residents can still access YouTube through web proxy sites.
Standing up to this bullying by the Turkish government would cost Google only a small portion of their short-term revenue, but it would also help to prevent such attacks in the future. If oppressive governments learn that Google will cave in to their demands, Google will constantly be besieged with similar demands. If those oppressive governments learn that Google will not cooperate in their censorship attempts, they will eventually give up those attempts.
It’s time for Google to stand by it’s slogan. It’s time for Google to stand up for it’s users. It’s time for Google to stand up for what is right.
Saturday, December 15th, 2007 | Posted in Internet | No Comments »
We’ve recently completed a major upgrade to our proxy list.
This upgrade improves the user interface, makes it easier to find new proxies, and adds support for viewing the proxy database in our fourteen supported languages.
In addition, as this proxy list script is entirely owned by us, we can and will invest in further improvements in the future.
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007 | Posted in Internet | No Comments »
I just approved a bunch of new proxy sites. We now have over thirteen hundred working proxies in our proxy list.
The definition of what is a “working proxy” is one that comes up frequently. A person may try twenty proxies — and discover that none of them work for him. Are those proxies then not “working proxies”?
Not exactly. Those proxies still work fine - they have just been blocked by the content filter (such as WebSense) at their location.
Sometimes one of these users will say “Why don’t you delete this proxy from the list, because it is now blocked?” It’s not that simple, for two reasons:
- There are dozens of content filtering software packages, each with its own databases
- Each organization can define their own filter rule sets and individual site filters
The proxy might be blocked by SmartFilter, but allowed by WebSense. Or, it might be blocked only by one particular school.
There is simply no way for us to tell what proxies are blocked from what networks.
The best strategy for proxy users to follow is to use new proxies, as they are less likely to be blocked by content filters.
Saturday, September 15th, 2007 | Posted in Internet | No Comments »
An interesting Yahoo article explains why Google is now considered the heart of the Internet and the electronic center of human knowledge.
In these 10 years of life, Google has indexed billions of web pages, images, books and even videos from all over the Internet. This is definitely a must read.
In the past years Google has expanded at a breakneck pace, and currently has some 13,700 employees. The company thrives on a culture of innovation: the best example is that it asks employees to dedicate 20 percent of their time to develop ideas for the company.
Thursday, September 13th, 2007 | Posted in Internet | No Comments »
Another one of LifeHacker’s top 10 lists was published yesterday. To see those in detail, check out the source and click on each link.
- Store the Wikipedia on your iPod with Encyclopodia
- Search as You Type with WikiWax
- Search Wikipedia with Your Cell Phone
- Embed Wikipedia into Your Media Player and Instant
- Map Wikipedia Articles with WikiMindMap
- See Who’s Editing What Pages
- Get Wikipedia Articles Based on Web Page Content
- Get the Wikipedia Educational CD
- Get a Random Article
- Contribute!
