As Internet turns 40, barriers threaten the openness that spawned e-mail, YouTube and Twitter.
Goofy videos weren't on the minds of Len Kleinrock and his team at UCLA when they began tests 40 years ago on what would become the Internet. Neither was social networking, for that matter, nor were most of the other easy-to-use applications that have drawn more than a billion people online.
Instead the researchers sought to create an open network for freely exchanging information, an openness that ultimately spurred the innovation that would later spawn the likes of YouTube, Facebook and the World Wide Web.
There's still plenty of room for innovation today, yet the openness fostering it may be eroding. While the Internet is more widely available and faster than ever, artificial barriers threaten to constrict its growth.
Call it a mid-life crisis.
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Sunday, August 30, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
Evidence Mounts Recession's Grip on Economy Easing
Consumer spending, income data may be latest hints that long recession losing its grip
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Evidence is mounting that the longest recession since World War II is losing its grip on the U.S. economy.
The latest hint is due Friday when the government releases data on consumer spending and income for July.
Personal spending is expected to have posted a modest gain last month, driven higher by the popular Cash for Clunkers program. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect personal spending rose 0.2 percent in July after a 0.4 percent gain in June.
Economists believe that personal incomes, the fuel for future spending increases, probably rose 0.2 percent as well, following a 1.3 percent decline in June.
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Evidence is mounting that the longest recession since World War II is losing its grip on the U.S. economy.
The latest hint is due Friday when the government releases data on consumer spending and income for July.
Personal spending is expected to have posted a modest gain last month, driven higher by the popular Cash for Clunkers program. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect personal spending rose 0.2 percent in July after a 0.4 percent gain in June.
Economists believe that personal incomes, the fuel for future spending increases, probably rose 0.2 percent as well, following a 1.3 percent decline in June.
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Wednesday, August 26, 2009
US Ranks 28th in Internet Connection Speed: Report
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States ranks 28th in the world in average Internet connection speed and is not making significant progress in building a faster network, according to a report released on Tuesday.
The report by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) said the average download speed in South Korea is 20.4 megabits per second (mbps) -- four times faster than the US average of 5.1 mbps.
Japan trails South Korea with an average of 15.8 mbps followed by Sweden at 12.8 mbps and the Netherlands at 11.0 mbps, the report said.
It said tests conducted by speedmatters.org found the average US download speed had improved by only nine-tenths of a megabit per second between 2008 and 2009 -- from 4.2 mbps to 5.1 mbps.
"The US has not made significant improvement in the speeds at which residents connect to the Internet," the report said. "Our nation continues to fall far behind other countries."
"People in Japan can upload a high-definition video in 12 minutes, compared to a grueling 2.5 hours at the US average upload speed," the report said.
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The report by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) said the average download speed in South Korea is 20.4 megabits per second (mbps) -- four times faster than the US average of 5.1 mbps.
Japan trails South Korea with an average of 15.8 mbps followed by Sweden at 12.8 mbps and the Netherlands at 11.0 mbps, the report said.
It said tests conducted by speedmatters.org found the average US download speed had improved by only nine-tenths of a megabit per second between 2008 and 2009 -- from 4.2 mbps to 5.1 mbps.
"The US has not made significant improvement in the speeds at which residents connect to the Internet," the report said. "Our nation continues to fall far behind other countries."
"People in Japan can upload a high-definition video in 12 minutes, compared to a grueling 2.5 hours at the US average upload speed," the report said.
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Thursday, August 20, 2009
Google Lawsuit Dispels the Web’s Oldest Tradition: Anonymity
When fashion model Liskula Cohen sued Google, she took aim at one of the key online tenets: On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.
Disguised in comforting anonymity, bloggers and online commenters can type some pretty nasty things – accusations and language that they’d never say to people face-to-face. However, the masquerade ball may have just ended.
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Disguised in comforting anonymity, bloggers and online commenters can type some pretty nasty things – accusations and language that they’d never say to people face-to-face. However, the masquerade ball may have just ended.
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Monday, August 17, 2009
Lending to Small Business: Banks Are Still Shy
The $787 billion stimulus package has funneled unprecedented amounts of money into the nation's financial system, but business owners say the impact on entrepreneurs has been minimal. A June survey by the National Federation of Independent Business found that the percentage of business owners who found loans harder to get was near historic highs.
Despite programs designed specifically for them by the Small Business Administration, many small business owners say banks just won't lend. And many bankers themselves concede they are seeking only the best credit risks.
"Banks are fighting over the most creditworthy (small businesses)," Martha Seidenwand, SBA program operations manager for KeyBank in Cleveland, said in May.
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Despite programs designed specifically for them by the Small Business Administration, many small business owners say banks just won't lend. And many bankers themselves concede they are seeking only the best credit risks.
"Banks are fighting over the most creditworthy (small businesses)," Martha Seidenwand, SBA program operations manager for KeyBank in Cleveland, said in May.
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Friday, August 14, 2009
World Markets Up Amid Recovery Hopes
LONDON (AP) -- World stock markets mostly rose Friday, with Japan's main index hitting a ten-month high, amid mounting investor optimism that the global economy is emerging from recession sooner than expected.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 10.60 points, or 0.2 percent, at 4,766.06 while Germany's DAX rose 11.83 points, or 0.2 percent, to 5,412.94. The CAC-40 in France was 20.95 points, or 0.6 percent, higher at 3,545.34.
Earlier in Asia, stocks advanced after U.S. investors brushed off weaker than expected retail sales data and sent the Dow Jones industrial average up to a nine-month closing high.
Hopes of a swift rebound in global economic growth had emerged earlier with the news that France and Germany, Europe's two biggest economies, surprisingly grew in the second quarter of the year as well as a fairly upbeat assessment of the state of the U.S. economy from the Federal Reserve.
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In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 10.60 points, or 0.2 percent, at 4,766.06 while Germany's DAX rose 11.83 points, or 0.2 percent, to 5,412.94. The CAC-40 in France was 20.95 points, or 0.6 percent, higher at 3,545.34.
Earlier in Asia, stocks advanced after U.S. investors brushed off weaker than expected retail sales data and sent the Dow Jones industrial average up to a nine-month closing high.
Hopes of a swift rebound in global economic growth had emerged earlier with the news that France and Germany, Europe's two biggest economies, surprisingly grew in the second quarter of the year as well as a fairly upbeat assessment of the state of the U.S. economy from the Federal Reserve.
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Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Internet Explorer 6: Dead Browser Walking. Time to Upgrade.
Internet Explorer 6 must be feeling a bit unwanted these days. Microsoft just issued a patch that clearly offers users the option to set a different browser as their default. Also, Google's social network Orkut is phasing out support for IE6, one more nail in the coffin of the 8-year-old version of the browser that developers pretty much hate.
Google's social network Orkut reportedly plans to phase out support for Internet Explorer 6, igniting a long-simmering debate over continued use of the 8-year-old version of the browser. The current version is IE8.
Microsoft intends to maintain support for IE6 in conjunction with its support for Windows XP -- the OS that originally delivered it. Extended support for XP is scheduled to end in 2014.
"As engineers, we want people to upgrade to the latest version," wrote Microsoft IE8 product manager Dean Hachamovitch in a recent IE blog post. "We make it as easy as possible for them to upgrade. Ultimately, the choice to upgrade belongs to the person responsible for the PC."
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Google's social network Orkut reportedly plans to phase out support for Internet Explorer 6, igniting a long-simmering debate over continued use of the 8-year-old version of the browser. The current version is IE8.
Microsoft intends to maintain support for IE6 in conjunction with its support for Windows XP -- the OS that originally delivered it. Extended support for XP is scheduled to end in 2014.
"As engineers, we want people to upgrade to the latest version," wrote Microsoft IE8 product manager Dean Hachamovitch in a recent IE blog post. "We make it as easy as possible for them to upgrade. Ultimately, the choice to upgrade belongs to the person responsible for the PC."
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Monday, August 10, 2009
Google Has Little to Fear from Microsoft-Yahoo Deal
Analysts say that Google should easily fend off the combined effort of its rivals.
Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. hope that the consummation of their long-anticipated online search agreement late last month will give them a boost in their frustrating battles with common rival Google Inc. Analysts, though, say the search giant probably has little to fear from the combined effort -- at least in the short term.
The 10-year agreement calls for Microsoft's new Bing search engine to power Yahoo's search sites, and for Yahoo to sell premium search advertising services for both companies. The companies said they expect the deal, which must be reviewed by U.S. and European regulators, to close early next year.
Analysts do say that the Microsoft-Yahoo partnership should provide each company with some much-needed leverage in their ongoing -- and, until now, separate -- battles to loosen Google's longtime stranglehold on the search market, though none expect it to lead to any dramatic changes in that arena.
In terms of search market share, both Yahoo and Microsoft have long lagged far behind Google, which held nearly 80% of the market in June.
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Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. hope that the consummation of their long-anticipated online search agreement late last month will give them a boost in their frustrating battles with common rival Google Inc. Analysts, though, say the search giant probably has little to fear from the combined effort -- at least in the short term.
The 10-year agreement calls for Microsoft's new Bing search engine to power Yahoo's search sites, and for Yahoo to sell premium search advertising services for both companies. The companies said they expect the deal, which must be reviewed by U.S. and European regulators, to close early next year.
Analysts do say that the Microsoft-Yahoo partnership should provide each company with some much-needed leverage in their ongoing -- and, until now, separate -- battles to loosen Google's longtime stranglehold on the search market, though none expect it to lead to any dramatic changes in that arena.
In terms of search market share, both Yahoo and Microsoft have long lagged far behind Google, which held nearly 80% of the market in June.
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Saturday, August 8, 2009
DDoS Attackers Continue Hitting Twitter, Facebook, Google
The distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks that knocked out Twitter for hours and affected other sites like Facebook, Google's Blogger, and LiveJournal on Thursday continued all day Friday and may persist throughout the weekend.
In its latest update, posted to a discussion forum of its third-party developers at 11 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time on Friday, Twitter reports it's still fighting the attacks.
"The DDoS attack is still ongoing, and the intensity has not decreased at all," wrote Chad Etzel, from Twitter's application development platform support team.
This means that Twitter will maintain a set of defensive measures that have allowed it to keep the site up but that also have affected the interaction of third-party applications with the site via its API (application programming interface). "At this point, removing any of those defenses is not an option," Etzel wrote.
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In its latest update, posted to a discussion forum of its third-party developers at 11 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time on Friday, Twitter reports it's still fighting the attacks.
"The DDoS attack is still ongoing, and the intensity has not decreased at all," wrote Chad Etzel, from Twitter's application development platform support team.
This means that Twitter will maintain a set of defensive measures that have allowed it to keep the site up but that also have affected the interaction of third-party applications with the site via its API (application programming interface). "At this point, removing any of those defenses is not an option," Etzel wrote.
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Friday, August 7, 2009
Google Deal Would Boost YouTube
Google Inc. has agreed to buy On2 Technologies Inc. for $106.5 million, bolstering its YouTube site with software that compresses video clips so they are easier to download.
On2 investors will get 60 cents in Google stock for each share they own, Google said yesterday. That’s 57 percent more than On2’s closing price Tuesday.
“YouTube’s bandwidth costs are high, and compression technologies help you reduce the bandwidth any video uses,’’ said Sameet Sinha, an analyst at JMP Securities Inc.
On2 might let Google incorporate video-compression software into mobile phones that use its Android software, he said.
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On2 investors will get 60 cents in Google stock for each share they own, Google said yesterday. That’s 57 percent more than On2’s closing price Tuesday.
“YouTube’s bandwidth costs are high, and compression technologies help you reduce the bandwidth any video uses,’’ said Sameet Sinha, an analyst at JMP Securities Inc.
On2 might let Google incorporate video-compression software into mobile phones that use its Android software, he said.
Read Story >
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