The Global Syndicator - internet

A Ball of Colors – Maybe or Maybe Not!

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:48:14 +0000

This ball of colors represents the North American Internet. It is a map of every router, more than 150,000 and counting. As you read the map, your first inclination is to try to make it geographic: however it is not. There is no East Coast or any coast. The lines are connections between routers, however they [...]

Why does behavioral ad targetting annoy me?

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:01:59 +0000

A recent article in Slate magazine talked about some of the recent moves by companies like NebuAd and Charter Communications around moves towards behavioral targetting of web ads. The basic idea is for your ISP or a third party site that sees a lot of your traffic like Google, to keep extensive records of your web activity, theoretically anonymized, and use it to create maps of how they expect you react when specific styles of ads and information are shown to you.

Need an encrypting solution? check out this cool freeware!

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 23:21:04 +0000

Cryptainer LE is an unrivalled user-friendly freeware that ensures concealment to the user by encrypting the data. It essentially incorporates powerful 128 bit encryption technique, creating a sort of encrypted vaults on the hard disk that can be loaded and unloaded as per the requirements. A really handy freeware, you gotta’ check it out!! It [...]

5 Ways Newspapers Botched the Web

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:51:09 +0000

nicholas.m.carlson writes "Remember Knight-Ridder and AT&T's Viewtron from 1983? With a $900 terminal and $12 a month, you could access news from the Miami Herald and the New York Times, online shopping, banking and food delivery, via a 300-baud modem. After sinking $16 million a year into the project, Knight-Ridder shut it down in 1986. That's just the earliest of the 5 newspaper failures on the Web that Valleywag details in this post, writing: 'each tale ends the same way: A promising start, shuttered amid fear, uncertainty, and doubt.'"

Telecom Rollouts Raise Ire Over Utility Boxes

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:21:59 +0000

Anti-Globalism points out this AP story, which notes: "As cable and phone companies race to upgrade services or offer video for the first time, they're doing it by installing equipment in boxes on lawns, easements and curbs all over American neighborhoods. Telecommunications rollouts have always been messy, but several towns and residents are fighting back with cries of 'Not in my front yard!' AT&T Inc.'s nearly fridge-sized units, which route its new U-verse video product to customers, are drawing particular ire. A few caught fire or even exploded. AT&T said it has fixed that by replacing the units' backup batteries."

Comcast Has 30 Days To 'Fess Up About P2P Throttling

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:32:52 +0000

negRo_slim writes with some welcome news from Ars Technica: "Comcast has 30 days to disclose the details of its 'unreasonable network management practices' to the Federal Communications Commission, the agency warned Wednesday morning as it released its full, 67-page Order. As FCC Chair Kevin Martin said it would, the Commission's Order rejects the ISP giant's insistence that its handling of peer-to-peer applications was necessary. 'We conclude that the company's discriminatory and arbitrary practice unduly squelches the dynamic benefits of an open and accessible Internet,' the agency declares." And from reader JagsLive comes news that Comcast has a different plan in place to deal with heavy bandwidth users: slow traffic for up to 20 minutes at a time to users who are grabbing the most bits.

Google 2084

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 06:09:42 +0000

Visual Search Engine Tracks Stolen Images

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:04:56 +0000

Barence writes "A new visual search engine could help photographers keep track of their photographs whenever, and wherever, they appear on the internet. The TinEye search engine allows users to search by uploading a picture rather than typing in a keyword. It then conducts a pixel by pixel search across the internet, flagging up all instances of that image even if it's been cropped, merged or digitally altered in some way. It's not just for copyright enforcement though, "it's being used by researchers who need to find where an image came from to provide attribution, even people who are trying to find out who people are in old photos." It's currently in beta, but you can try it out."

UltraSurf : Probably The Best Proxy Server Ever!!!

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:20:03 +0000

Great Discovery Great discoveries are mostly derived out of absolute necessities in life. At office, we have Websense enabled which blocks almost every second website on the internet especially webmails. My perennial search for a proxy server ended with UltraSurf proxy server application. Other Proxy Servers Other proxy servers that I stumbled upon were mostly web based and [...]

Gmail is Down, Everybody Panic!

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:09:26 +0000

Gmail was down for a couple hours yesterday afternoon due to a systems failure.

No biggie.

For some, it was a biggie. Lots of screaming on Twitter and some other places about the fact that gmail wasn't available. I find that amusing, actually. Very amusing.

Vacationing - Laptop or No Laptop?

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:57:24 +0000

I openly admit I'm addicted to the Internet and my laptop. I know, I can get the Internet in lots of places without needing my laptop, but still, I like having my "baby" with me.

Yes, even on vacation.

All that you need to know about worms… And the deadliest one is….??

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:54:00 +0000

Basically malware is considered to be software that is malicious and there are three common kinds of malwares that can attack your computer: worms, viruses, and Trojans. You better know about these before you suffer from their attacks!… A virus needs to have a host program in order to spread while worms can propagate on their [...]

A Lesson when I retired from the Navy on Personal Brands

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 05:57:18 +0000

On October 5^th 2007 when I wrapped up a 24 year career in the US Navy something happened during my retirement ceremony that really pointed out the power and realities of personal brands.

Will your trust in Google Screw you Someday?

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 08:59:34 +0000

Yesterday’s story from Chris Brogan about a colleague who came back from lunch to find his Google account locked out, reinforces what I have been advocating for a number of years.

Canon wins SED case in the fifth circuit

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:57:36 +0000

Nano-Proprietary (now, apparently APNT ), previously blamed for the delays in rolling out SED televisions, has lost what seems to be an important appeal.