The Art of the Google Homepage

Last week, Google announced a feature that would allow users to make their favorite pictures or photos their Google homepage.

They also included images of works of some famous artists like Dale Chihuly, Jeff Koons, Tom Otterness, Polly Apfelbaum, Kengo Kuma (隈研吾), Kwon, Ki-soo (권기수) and Tord Boontje. There will also be pictures from acclaimed photographer, Yann Arthus-Bertrand and National Geographic.

Groove to Google's Music

Google Inc is planning to launch an online music downloading service tied to its search engine, the Wall Street Journal reported, a move that would pit it against Apple Inc and its popular iTunes site. Google's plans are still vague, but it has been "stepping up conversations" about offering music services online as well as over mobile phones that use its Android operating system, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the company's talks with the music industry.

It was unclear whether Google had signed deals with record labels, the report said, adding that the launch of a music downloading store was still months away. Google and Apple have become competitors since the launch of Google's Androidoperating system, a rival to Apple's iPhone.

McAfee launches Innovative Program for Added Security in the Cloud

McAfee, Inc. today announced the McAfee Cloud Secure program, a program for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers to add additional security to their cloud deployments.  

“SaaS vendors have a difficult time convincing prospects that their services are secure and safe. However, McAfee’s security products and hosted services expertise are well positioned to help SaaS vendors with security problems and customer doubts,” said Christian Christiansen, vice president of security products and services for IDC. “Through certification and automation, McAfee can enable SaaS growth by pro-actively addressing customer concerns.”

McAfee Takes Steps to Further Secure the Cloud:

The McAfee Cloud Secure program adds security to the cloud. The current program includes:

• Cloud Security Certification Services: McAfee will partner with leading Certification delivery vendors to provide Certification services tailored for SaaS and Cloud vendors. The certification services, which are provided on an annual basis, will include existing security controls, processes and certifications, as well as futureCloud security standards.
• Automated Auditing, Remediation & Reporting: Coupled with Certification, McAfee performs automatic and daily security audits, remediation of vulnerabilities and reporting of the security status of their service and network using theMcAfee Cloud Secure service. Cloud vendors who pass the daily scan and other checks receive a “McAfee SECURE” trustmark, providing credible, third party validation to be used on their solutions and in customer-facing marketing collateral.
• Security Credibility: The McAfee Cloud Secure program will leverage the trusted McAfee SECURE technology and trustmark.  Currently, the McAfee SECURE trustmark appears on more than 80 thousand websites worldwide.  With more than 80 billion touch points, the McAfee SECURE trustmark gives users confidence when doing business with a McAfee SECURE customer.  McAfee Cloud Secure combines rigorous security testing, business practice review, compliance certification, and ongoing vulnerability evaluation for Cloud vendors.

McAfee plans to build on the program by leveraging its comprehensive SaaS portfolio of Cloud-based security services along with its unrivaled Global Threat Intelligence network, helping make the broader cloud-computing ecosystem more safe and secure.

Internet Authorities Adopt New .org Security

The company that oversees Web addresses ending in .org said on Wednesday it was introducing extra security measures to guard against identity theft. .Org, which is monitored by the Washington-based Public Interest Registry, is the first generic domain name system (DNS) to adopt the extra measures, but others, such as .com and .net, are expected to follow. In the United States alone identity theft is estimated to have risen 37 percent to affect 11 million people last year, at a total cost of $54 billion, according to the 2010 Identity Fraud Survey Report by Javelin Strategy and Research. Eight million websites use the .org suffix, which is one of the Internet's original domain names, established in 1985.

.Org is frequently used by nonprofit groups and hosts many credit unions' online banking services, making it a target for fraudsters who want to tap into bank accounts or donations being made online to charities and other organisations. More than $1 billion is now being donated electronically each year in the United States, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, with the figure growing by nearly 40 percent between 2005 and 2006.

The new DNS security measures will authenticate the origin of data on .org websites, ensuring its integrity, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers said during a week-long meeting in Brussels. "In very simple terms, DNS (security measures) allow Internet users to know with certainty they have reached the website or location they intended to," said Rod Beckstrom, chief executive of ICANN, which oversees the Internet on behalf of the U.S. government. In effect, the measures introduce a key to validate data, ensuring it has not been tampered with in transit. Suchsecurity measures are already used by web addresses with the national suffixes for Brazil, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Puerto Rico and Sweden. Internet domain registrars Comcast and Go Daddy, which sell web addresses, have already agreed to implement the measures, which other registrars are expected to adopt, the chief executive of Public Interest Registry, Alexa Raad, said.

Ordinary Web surfers will not notice any change when accessing .org websites. Websites ending in .com and .net are expected to adopt the extra DNSsecurity measures by the first quarter of 2011.

One Good Reason to Allow Pop-up Windows in your Browser

Pop-up windows are considered evil as they open on your screen without asking and can sometimes lead you to annoying websites.

That explains why most browsers now block pop-ups by default but here’s one good reason why you may want to temporarily disable that blocker and allow pop-ups.

 

Stewart Smith has created an highly addictive and fun version of the Pong game using nothing but pop-up windows while your entire desktop becomes the playing table.
You can either play the game with the computer or invite a friend and both of you can use the same keyboard to control your racquets. You play with Up & Down arrows while he uses the A & Z keys on the other side to move the racquet up or down.
Browser Pong is done in HTML5 and you may therefore want to use Firefox or Chrome while playing pong. 

History of the Internet

No medium in recent years has had such a great impact on us as the INTERNET - though its birth was simply a matter of pure chance More than one and a half billion people are online daily.

1964 - The idea
Paul Baran lays the theoretical foundation for the Internet with his treatise “On Distributed Communication".

1969 - The forerunner
The USA starts the first big test: “Arpanet” goes online. It only connects four research institutes with each other.

1978 - New network standard
The protocol IPv4, which is used even today, is introduced. With it, computers can be identified by their IP addresses.

1984 - Sending emails
The American platform, CSNET, sends the first text message to Germany on 2nd August 1984. the recipient is computer scientist, Werner Zorn, at the Karlsruhe University.

1988 - Internet relay chat
The Finnish student, Jarkko Oikarinen, first brings forward the idea of chatting on the Internet. The first system was developed as early as in 1981 in the computer network BITNET.

1989 - ISDN
ISDN is the highlight of CeBIT.  Approximately 75 DM is the charge for a transmission of 64 Kbps.

1989 - The www interface

British computer scientist, Tim Berners-Lee, is the founder of the modern Internet. He develops HTML, the World Wide Web service and the first web server.

1990 - Opening of the network
The outdated “Arpanet” is hopelessly overloaded and is shut down. The NSF-NET (National Science Foundation) takes up its tasks and opens the net for commercial purposes for the first time.

1994 - Netscape Navigator

The browser that is based on “Mosaic” offers a lot of comfortable functions for easy surfing and becomes the market leader within a year.

1995 - Online shops

The first shops go online - Amazon the small web book dealer, being one among them. Today, the company has a turnover of about 15 million USD.

1998 - Search engines

Some search engines, which include Yahoo and Altavista, had already established themselves in 1998. Google starts in this year. Today, it is one of the most expensive brands in the world.

1999 - Online auctions
Bargain hunters and private retailers discover the Internet. eBay goes online in Germany by buying the auction house Alando.

1999 – DSL
The telecom provides the first large cities, which include Berlin and Munich, with DSL access. The transmission goes up to a maximum of 768 Kbps.

2000 - Dotcom bubble
There is an explosion in the spreading of start-ups, a stock hysteria is created. Firms cannot withstand the high winning expectations and the market collapses.

2001 - Peer to peer

Filesharing becomes a popular sport. The exchange market Napster has up to 60 million users. The first lawsuit breaks out and the service temporarily goes offline.

2004 - Online games
“World of warcraft” brings the secondary phenomenon of “Online games” into the mass market. Today, the game has about 12 million subscribers.

2005 - Web 2.0
Static homepages begin to pall and start getting replaced by “join-in” Internet. Sites such as studiVZ and Wikipedia are the new highlights on the net.

2007 - The mobile net

Apple’s iPhone shows you how much fun you can have while surfing on your cell phone, for the first time. Competitors follow and mobile Internet gains popularity.

The Future - Always online
The Webciety: Cell phones are permanently connected to the web. Even TV devices have an Internet connection – IPTV slowly replaces the classic TV. Through Cloud Computing, tools can be stored on the net and the user can access them from anywhere.

Sky Gazers Can Expect Celestial Fireworks Tonight

Sky gazers can look forward to an exhibition of celestial fireworks over the next two days as the night sky will be lit up by the Leonid meteor showers expected to peak Tuesday.

The Leonid showers, known for their outbursts over the period 1998-2002, are the most famous meteors observable during the year. Amateur astronomers in the capital can see about 100 to 300 shooting stars every hour for the next couple of days.

"People can watch out for the meteor showers during the early hours Tuesday and Wednesday. There will be fireballs in the sky," said N. Rathnashree, director of the Nehru Planetarium here.

Explaining the method to observe the meteorite, Rathnashree said, "Look up at the morning sky between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. and you could see beautiful fireworksin the sky as new moon is providing ideally-dark viewing conditions.

"You need a simple telescope to watch the meteor showers. People in the capital should move to the outskirts to have a clear look as morning skies these days are covered with fog," she said.

A meteor is commonly called a shooting star. These shooting stars can be seen on any night, but when the number of meteors is large, it is called a meteor shower.

Meteor showers occur when the earth crosses the cometary orbit. As comets move about their orbits they leave a stream of debris because dust and rocky material is liberated from its head as the ice vaporises.

"The meteor showers last for just a fraction of a few seconds before they are gone. Better keep a close look at the sky for the beautiful show," Rathnashree said.

The Leonids originate from a comet named Tempel-Tuttle, which makes a visit to the sun every 33 years. They get their name from the location of their radiant (the apparent point of their origin) in the constellation.

Beta Versions of Adobe AIR 2, Flash Player 10.1 Now Available

Adobe systems has announced the beta versions of Adobe Air 2 and Adobe flash player 10.1 for the Windows, Mac and linux operating systems. The new AIR 2 features include enhanced support for mass storage devices and native application processes, as well as peer-to-peer and UDP networking.

The Flash Player 10.1 leverages hardware decoding of H.264 video on Windows PCs, netbooks and mobile devices where available, to conserve battery life and deliver an 'exceptional' video playback experience.

Adobe AIR 2 and Flash Player 10.1 also bring innovations and optimizations from mobile devices to the desktop. For example, designers and developers can now create entirely new types of applications that use multi-touch points and gestures on touch screen devices.

The Beta versions of Adobe Air 2 and Adobe Flash player 10.1 can be downloaded for free from Adobe Labs.

Home » News » Internet Internet & Software » Online Gangs Cashing in on Swine Flu Online Gangs Cashing in on Swine Flu

Criminal gangs are making millions of dollars out of the H1N1 flu pandemic by selling fake flu drugs over the internet, a web security firm said on Monday.

Sophos, a British security software firm said it had intercepted hundreds of millions of fake pharmaceutical spam adverts and websites this year, many of them trying to sell counterfeit antiviral drugs like Tamiflu to worried customers. Tamiflu, an antiviral marketed by Switzerland's Roche Holding and known generically as oseltamivir, is the frontline drug recommended by the World Health Organisation to treat and slow the progression of flu symptoms. GlaxoSmithKline makes another antiviral for flu, known as Relenza. Sophos said many of the gangs behind the sites were based in Russia and the top five countries buying fake Tamiflu and other medicines on the internet were the United States, Germany, Britain, Canada and France. Sophos spokesman Graham Cluley said a "worrying trend" towards stockpiling Tamiflu had already been seen in Britain - Europe's worst-hit country in the H1N1 pandemic so far. "As more and more cases of swine flu....come to light, it is essential that we all resist the panic-induced temptation to purchase Tamiflu online," he said. "The criminal gangs working behind the scenes at fake internet pharmacies are putting their customers' health, personal information and credit card details at risk."

The Geneva-based WHO, which declared H1N1 swine flu a pandemic in June, updated its guidance to doctors last week to say that antiviral drugs should be given even before tests conclude that an at-risk patient has the pandemic virus. Sophos said criminal gangs were operating medicines websites branded as the "Canadian Pharmacy" to try to appear genuine. It said its research showed that on one network operated out of Russia, called Glavmed, it was possible to earn an average of $16,000 a day promoting pharmaceutical websites. "But the criminals can be members of more than one affiliate network, and some have boasted of earning more than $100,000 per day," it said in a statement. The pandemic H1N1 flu virus has now spread to 206 countries since it was first discovered in March. There have been more than 6,250 deaths to date, mostly in the Americas region, according to the latest WHO toll.