Rainbow Cybernuke

The end of the net as we know it

Seen on PCPro recently...

ISPs are threatening to cripple websites that don't pay them first. Barry Collins fears a disastrous end to net neutrality

You flip open your laptop, click on the BBC iPlayer bookmark and press Play on the latest episode of QI. But instead of that tedious, plinky-plonky theme tune droning out of your laptop’s speakers, you’re left staring at the whirring, circular icon as the video buffers and buffers and buffers...

That’s odd. Not only have you got a new 40Mbits/sec fibre broadband connection, but you were watching a Full HD video on Sky Player just moments ago. There’s nothing wrong with your connection; it must be iPlayer. So you head to Twitter to find out if anyone else is having problems streaming Stephen Fry et al.

The message that appears on your screen leaves you looking more startled than Bill Bailey. “This service isn’t supported on your broadband service. Click here to visit our social-networking partner, Facebook.”

Read the full article here

ResellersPanel Adds a New Hosting Data Center

ResellersPanel, the reseller web hosting trailblazer, announces that it has expanded its data center network by adding Pionen - a Stockholm-based top-class facility operated by Bahnhof, one of Sweden's largest ISPs. So far, the clients under ResellersPanel's automated reseller hosting program have been able to choose between Peer1's facility in Fremont, California, and the BlueSquare data center located in Maidenhead, Berkshire, UK.

The new Swedish facility has a very interesting history. It used to be a nuclear bunker during the Cold War era. Designed to serve as a fallout shelter and located inside a solid granite cave, 30 meters below the ground surface, it is said to be able to survive even a hydrogen bomb hit.

Someone's Seeing Sense at Long Last

Seen in an interesting report in the Wall Street Journal

At the end of 2010, the "open-source" software movement, whose activists tend to be fringe academics and ponytailed computer geeks, found an unusual ally: the Russian government.

Vladimir Putin signed a 20-page executive order requiring all public institutions in Russia to replace proprietary software, developed by companies like Microsoft and Adobe, with free open-source alternatives by 2015. The move will save billions of dollars in licensing fees, but Mr. Putin's motives are not strictly economic. In all likelihood, his real fear is that Russia's growing dependence on proprietary software, especially programs sold by foreign vendors, has immense implications for the country's national security.

Free open-source software, by its nature, is unlikely to feature secret back doors that lead directly to Langley, Va.

Read full article...

They should have used GIMP.

In an article seen recently on the Washington Post...

Altered BP photo comes into questionApparently BP is no more adept at doctoring photos than it is at plugging deep-sea oil leaks.

A blogger has noticed that the oil giant altered a photograph of its Houston crisis room, cutting and pasting three underwater images into a wall of video feeds from remotely operated undersea vehicles. The altered photo is displayed prominently on the company's Web site.

Read full story and see the doctored image.

All you need to do is stop breathing

Seen recently on Guardian .co.uk.

London air pollution 'worst in Europe' Britain faces court cases and unlimited fines after dangerous levels of minute particles breach EU levels

• Comment: London, the dirty man of Europe
• Dave Hill: Where's Boris Johnson's air pollution study?

The City of London has been found to be one of the most polluted places in Europe after monitoring equipment recorded dangerous levels of minute particles for the 36th time this year. Under EU rules, Britain is allowed no more than 35 "bad air" days in the whole year, and now faces court cases and unlimited fines by Europe.

The breaching of the EU levels after just six months will embarrass the government, which was sent a final warning only three weeks ago from the European commission to improve air quality. Many other places in central London are close to the limit and can be expected to break the law within weeks.

Read full story.

Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price

Interesting and detailed article seen recently on New York Times. Oh no... this can't be about ME!!

SAN FRANCISCO — When one of the most important e-mail messages of his life landed in his in-box a few years ago, Kord Campbell overlooked it.

Not just for a day or two, but 12 days. He finally saw it while sifting through old messages: a big company wanted to buy his Internet start-up. “I stood up from my desk and said, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God,’ ” Mr. Campbell said. “It’s kind of hard to miss an e-mail like that, but I did.”

The message had slipped by him amid an electronic flood: two computer screens alive with e-mail, instant messages, online chats, a Web browser and the computer code he was writing.

(View an interactive panorama of Mr. Campbell's workstation.)

Read more of the research and findings

Google says no to Windows

Internet search giant, Google, has banned the use of Microsoft’s Windows operating system (OS) for internal use at its office, as reported by the Financial Times. Google took this decision after the Chinese hacking incident.

The employees at Google will now have to choose either of the two OS, Apple’s Mac OS or Linux. Though the option of Windows will be there but choosing it will require approval from Google’s CIO. “We’re not doing any more Windows. It is a security effort,” said one Google employee.

Changes due to security issues at Google

Google has phased out Windows as it can be easily hacked and is prone to computer viruses, as compared to other operating systems. “Many people have been moved away from [Windows] PCs, mostly towards Mac OS, following the China hacking attacks,” said an employee.

Read full story

Microsoft Points To Security Controls In Addressing Google Exodus Rumor

Posted recently on Hothardware.com

Saturday, June 05, 2010 - by Ray Willington

We actually wondered what Microsoft would say if they got wind of Google's plans to phase out Windows machines in favor of Linux and OS X alternatives, and it looks like our wish has been granted.

Microsoft recently published a response the rumor (which has still not been confirmed by Google), and the whole thing feels like Microsoft trying to cut this off before it blows up into something big.

Addressing a rumor that has yet to be confirmed is a pretty big move, and naturally the focus is on security.

Read more and especially read comment.

WaveMaker 6.1 for Linux Delivers Cloud Portability to Citizen Developers

Easy-To-Use Cloud Development Platform for Debian, Red Hat and Ubuntu Supports Multiple Clouds San Francisco, CA (PRWEB)

June 3, 2010 -- WaveMaker Software™, the only open and easy-to-use cloud development platform, today announced that it has released version 6.1 of its platform for the Debian, Red Hat and Ubuntu operating systems.

WaveMaker provides visual development and one-click deployment of web applications to Amazon EC2, Rackspace Cloud, OpSource Cloud, and Eucalyptus Private Cloud. Gartner predicts that by 2014, 25% of enterprise applications will be built by Citizen Developers who are not IT experts.

By eliminating the complexity of building and deploying cloud applications, WaveMaker 6.1 enables these Citizen Developers to take advantage of cloud computing.

Read more at PRWeb

Linux - the other operating system

Most people have used some form of either a Windows or Macintosh operating system (OS) to run their computers, but what's the open alternative all about? Some people may have never heard of Linux - and who could blame them? It can be a bit difficult to digest, with the technical jargon and relative obscurity compared to the two big systems.

In terms of worldwide usage, it's small fry: according to December 2009 statistics, about 92 per cent of computers use Windows, 5 per cent use Mac OS and 1 per cent use Linux (source - Ed:- somewhat biased and perhaps inaccurate statistics from Ars technica, make of it what you will). But those who do use it swear by it for a number of reasons.

I wanted to find out more about Linux, and to explain the main points in terms we can all understand (my explanations will look like this).

Read full article and comments for the whole picture.

Ed.Note:- Any article that attributes Linux's existence solely to Linus Torvalds, and fails to give due credit to the GNU Foundation, for the huge amount of work it did prior to and following Linus's creation of the Kernel (that which brings the operating system together), fails to understand the philosophy behind Open Source software and further shows a lack of understanding for what the GNU/Linux operating system is really all about. Some of the comments correct these inconsistencies.

Microsoft may well have gained the bulk of the desktop user market, by the fact that it created a system which detaches users from an understanding of what a computing system is. As a corporate monopoly, it must be said that its bottom line must not only put the interests of its share-holders above the interests of its customers, but this detachment offers many options to strengthen its control over its users.