Internet Archive

After Google Incident, Wi-Fi Data Collection Goes on

Thom Holwerda 2010-09-09 Internet 2 Comments

Four months ago, amidst a backlash from government regulators and privacy advocates, Google stopped collecting Wi-Fi data with its Street View cars. But that doesn't mean Google has stopped collecting wireless data altogether, and neither have other companies such as Apple.

Cloud Computing: The Invisible Revolution

David Adams 2010-09-07 Internet 26 Comments

I attended VM World last week, and as you might imagine, it was "cloud computing" this and "cloud computing" that the whole time. The hype factor for the cloud is in overdrive right now. But is it warranted? A lot of people, even tech-oriented ones, outside of the data center sysadmin types, wonder what all the hype is about. I've come to believe that cloud computing is major computing revolution, but for most computing users, it's an invisible one.

FCC Illustrates Its Inability to Govern the Web

Thom Holwerda 2010-08-27 Internet 28 Comments

When Google and Verizon unveiled their joint net neutrality policy proposal, in which the FCC would play a central role in governing the internet, I mentioned how the the FCC might not be the kind of institution you'd want to hand over control to over your pornography life line (also known as the internet). Over the past few days, the FCC pretty much reiterated just why they are no the right people to govern the web.

Virtual Router Smashes Speed Records

Guest post by fran 2010-08-23 Internet 8 Comments

"Researchers in South Korea have built a networking router that transmits data at record speeds from components found in most high-end desktop computers. A team from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology created the router, which transmits data at nearly 40 gigabytes per second--many times faster than the previous record for such a device."

WebKit Gets MathML Support

Thom Holwerda 2010-08-19 Internet 8 Comments

"If you've been following check-ins for the last year or so, then you already know that some dedicated contributors have been working on a MathML implementation in WebKit. I am very pleased to announce that the implementation is now turned on by default in the WebKit build and in WebKit Nightlies! Big thanks to Alex Milowski, Francois Sausset, and everyone else who has worked on MathML in WebKit."

Why I Turned on AdBlock Today

Thom Holwerda 2010-08-18 Internet 110 Comments

We're still in the slow news period, so let's talk about something we discussed before: blocking advertisements on websites. Up until, well, today, I didn't block ads - not because of some ethical objection or whatever, but simply because I couldn't be bothered to setup AdBlock. Today, after taking a closer look at some of the websites I frequent, I decided to take the plunge and install AdBlock on all my machines. The following set of screenshots should pretty much explain why.

Adobe CEO on Apple: “We’ve Moved on”

Thom Holwerda 2010-08-16 Internet 54 Comments

Not too long ago Adobe started a "We love Apple" campaign, as a response to Apple's continuous negative remarks about the company. With Flash 10.1 slowly but surely appearing on more and more mobile devices, it seems like the company just doesn't care about it any more. Adobe's CEO Shantanu Narayen has said they've "moved on".

Is Competition More Effective than Net Neutrality?

Thom Holwerda 2010-08-15 Internet 50 Comments

Lots of talk on net neutrality this week, mostly due to the joint policy proposal from Google and Verzion. While many Americans are calling for government-imposed net neutrality rules, The New York Times' Eric Pfanner proposes a different solution - one that has been working wonders in Europe. And hey, what a coincidence - I'm European!

Google Defends Net Neutrality Proposal

Thom Holwerda 2010-08-12 Internet 16 Comments

Google and Verizon's joint statement on net neutrality and the internet (which apparently consists of three separate internets) wasn't particularly well-received. Google has gone into damage-control mode, defending the policy proposal in a sort of get-the-facts-like weblog post.

Chromium Sends Data to Google: Turns Out It’s a Regression

Thom Holwerda 2010-08-10 Internet 20 Comments

Well, some rumblings in Chromium-land today. An attentive user found out that it looked like Chromium, the open source, un-Googled version of Chrome, was phoning home to Google during start-up. A long discussion ensued, and together with Chromium hackers, the behaviour was clarified, and traced to a regression somewhere in the code. Open source at work, people.

Google, Verizon Weasel Their Way Out of Net Neutrality

Thom Holwerda 2010-08-09 Internet 49 Comments

Well, this is interesting. As some rumours already suggested, Google and Verizon have released a joint proposal for a legislative framework regarding net neutrality. This being Google and all, some of you may expect this to be all flower-farting unicorns darting across rainbows, but sadly, that's not the case. This proposal? Well, it's not good.

Try Out Windows Azure for One Month – Free

Submitted by Amy Bennett 2010-08-09 Internet 4 Comments

Between now and October 31, 2010, Microsoft is giving one-month passes to the Windows Azure platform to the first 500 developers to respond to the offer.

How to Get Windows and Linux to Cooperate on the Network

Submitted by Amy Bennett 2010-08-05 Internet 4 Comments

This article looks beyond Active Directory at a variety of approaches available today to getting Linux and Windows to work together on the network. While still not a job for an average Linux administrator or a Windows Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) who's still wet behind the ears, there are tools available that make the job easier than ever.

Submitted by poundsmack 2010-07-19 Internet 3 Comments

Hosting company RackSpace is open sourcing the software behind its cloud storage and computing platforms on Monday, the company is saying. The company is also preparing to launch OpenStack, an open source cloud platform, and will donate the open source code to that project.

Submitted by poundsmack 2010-07-16 Internet 2 Comments

Atheros and Wilocity have announced a partnership that will see the companies producing tri-band wireless devices capable of operating both at the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies used by 802.11n, as well as the 60GHz frequency required by upcoming WiGig systems. Besides combining the ubiquity and coverage of Wi-Fi with multi-gigabit speeds, the move will enable many new applications, among which there will be products featuring wireless PCI Express technology.

The End of the Free Internet

David Adams 2010-07-11 Internet 49 Comments

There's an article today at abc.com that looks at recent trends around net-based pay-for services and the smattering of paywalls from News Corp to the NYT that are up or threatening to be put up, and speculating that this could be the beginning of a trend. Of course, a YouTube video rental site and a few large publishers putting up paywalls will make zero difference to the "free internet" on their own. But if they're successful, it could spark emulation. But could this be a trend that could snowball enough to change the nature of the net?

End of the Road for Firewire?

Guest post by Fran van der Merwe 2010-07-05 Internet 40 Comments

Audio and Video professionals swear by it, but if Microsoft sticks with its plans, Firewire may not be supported in Windows 8. This is following an industry trend with, for example, Apple itself phasing out firewire support in recent years.

Computer Latency Problems Research

Submitted by fran 2010-06-29 Internet 15 Comments

Ever since the iPhone crashed AT&T's network, it has become common cause that the increase in mobile data, or rather data that is transmitted over the air, is going to grow. A lot. Networks are already straining to cope. But that's not the big problem, says Andrew Herbert, director of Microsoft's Cambridge Lab. The real problem, he says, is latency. Latency is the delay between sending a signal and receiving an acknowledgment of receipt. The time it takes light to circumnavigate the Earth, about 133 milliseconds, is a fundamental constraint on network speed.

Submitted by neticspace 2010-06-24 Internet 76 Comments

Internet users throughout the world, and particularly in the United States, have long been chastened to hear of South Korea's legendary broadband penetration. The urbanized, technologically-advanced nation has been famous for rolling out ultra high speed network for the majority of its citizens, and many of us have looked on with envy. However, it turns out it's not all good news. An OSNews reader gives us the skinny from the trenches in Korea.

Apple’s HTML5 Showcase Isn’t HTML5, Blocks Other Browsers

Thom Holwerda 2010-06-04 Internet 134 Comments

Earlier this week, Apple launched a HTML5 Showcase page, displaying several uses for HTML5 and related technologies. However, it turns out that Apple is using trickery to block out browsers other than Safari, with the end result that browsers with better support for web standards than Safari can't access the demos.