DigitalNews - TodayWorld

Latest

DigitalNews - TodayWorld

Wikipedia, Google to protest Internet bills

administrator 18-01-2012

Wikipedia plans to go dark on Wednesday and Google and other websites are also planning protests to voice their concern over legislation in the US Congress intended to crack down on online piracy.

Wikipedia will shut down the English version of the online encyclopedia for 24 hours from 0500 GMT to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) introduced in the House of Representatives and the Senate version, the Protect IP Act (PIPA).

Google plans to use its much-visited US home page to draw attention to the bills while social news site reddit and the popular Cheezburger humor network plan to join Wikipedia in blacking out their sites.

The draft legislation has won the backing of Hollywood, the music industry, the Business Software Alliance, the National Association of Manufacturers and the US Chamber of Commerce.

But it has come under fire from digital rights and free speech organizations for allegedly paving the way for US authorities to shut down websites accused of online piracy, including foreign sites, without due process and threatening the technical architecture of the Internet.

The founders of Google, Twitter, Wikipedia, Yahoo! and other Internet giants said in an open letter last month the legislation would give the US government "the power to censor the Web using techniques similar to those used by China, Malaysia and Iran."

"Like many businesses, entrepreneurs and Web users, we oppose these bills because there are smart, targeted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking American companies to censor the Internet," a Google spokesman said Tuesday.

"So tomorrow we will be joining many other tech companies to highlight this issue on our US home page," the spokesman for the Internet search giant said.

Reddit said it will shut down for 12 hours -- from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm (1300 GMT to 0100 GMT) -- to protest the legislation.

"We wouldn't do this if we didn't believe this legislation and the forces behind it were a serious threat to reddit and the Internet as we know it," reddit said. "The freedom, innovation, and economic opportunity that the Internet enables is in jeopardy."

Ben Huh, the founder of Cheezburger network, said on his Twitter feed that his 58 sites, which include icanhascheezburger.com, FAIL Blog and The Daily What, will observe a blackout on Wednesday.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales announced plans to shut down the site in a message on his Twitter feed.

"Student warning! Do your homework early. Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday!" Wales said.

"This is going to be wow. I hope Wikipedia will melt phone systems in Washington on Wednesday. Tell everyone you know!" he said.

Volunteer-staffed Wikipedia turned 11 years old on January 15 and boasts more than 20 million articles in 282 languages.

The White House expressed concern about the anti-online piracy bills in a statement on Saturday.

"While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet," it said.

"Any effort to combat online piracy must guard against the risk of online censorship of lawful activity and must not inhibit innovation by our dynamic businesses large and small," the White House said.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/wikipedia-dark-protest-piracy-drafts-011444498.html

Tiny Wire

administrator 07-01-2012

Tiny wires could usher new computer era

On Friday 6 January 2012, 3:45 SGT

Scientists said Thursday they have designed tiny wires, 10,000 times thinner than a human hair but with the same electrical capacity as copper, in a major step toward building smaller, more potent computers.

The advance, described in the US journal Science, shows for the first time that wires one atom tall and four atoms wide can carry a charge as well as conventional wires.

That could lead to even tinier electronic devices in the future as well as new steps toward quantum computing, an industry still in its infancy which would create powerful computers that could sift through massive amounts of data faster than current digital computers which use binary code.

"Driven by the semiconductor industry, computer chip components continuously shrink in size allowing ever smaller and more powerful computers," said researcher Michelle Simmons of the University of New South Wales, in Sydney, Australia.

"We are on the threshold of making transistors out of individual atoms. But to build a practical quantum computer we have recognized that the interconnecting wiring and circuitry also needs to shrink to the atomic scale."

Scientists were able to forge atom-sized wires in silicon using a technique called scanning tunneling microscopy, whereby they placed chains of phosphorus atoms within a silicon crystal.

"This technique not only allows us to image individual atoms but also to manipulate them and place them in position," said researcher Bent Weber, the lead author of the study.

The nano-wires they built this way ranged from 1.5 to 11 nanometers thick.

But even though the circuits were smaller, scientists observed no increased difficulty in coaxing an electric charge through them -- what has previously been considered a major obstacle to quantum computing.

In an accompanying Perspective article, David Ferry of the School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering at Arizona State University called the findings "good news for the semiconductor industry."

http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/Tiny-wires-usher-new-computer-afpsg-2245547060.html?x=0

Can you live a day without your iphone?

administrator 05-12-2011

Technology, storage devices, smart phones and other gadget and medium, each has it option to let you access all digital data anywhere. Those days are gone everything has slimmed line into the pocket. Many people walking around the entire CD, photo library, books collection in the pocket hard disk. Internet has put forward so much conveniences into our daily life.

A digital newspaper is a digital version of a printed newspaper. Newspapers can be digitally published online or as a digital copy on a digital device, such as a mobile phone or an E Ink reader.

Online

Web - http://todayworld.info

Many organisations that publish a printed newspaper have also an online newspaper. Newspapers can decide to publish the same information as in the printed version online, or choose to provide different articles compared to the printed newspaper. Information can be provided for free or as a paid subscription. Some printed newspapers have decided to have their publication only published online. In the Netherlands the freesheet DAG killed the printed edition in 2008. In the US The Capital Times decided also to continue online in 2008. In Australia, the Australia Times became the first Australian newspaper to publish a digital newspaper edition in May 2010 which is accessed through its Australia Times Reader software.

Some newspapers provide digitalized versions of their printed editions. A commonly used format is pdf.

Others experiment with new layouts to provide the news on their websites. The New York Times tried to fit as many articles as possible on a screen by using a layout that resembles a full newspaper sheet.

Mobile phones

PressDisplay.com created an application to read newspapers on the iPhone. The New York Times has also a special application designed for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Future

Some people have argued that any device could be suitable for distributing news as long as the distribution is kept easy and intuitive. Journalist David Carr discussed in the International Herald Tribune the possible success for an 'iTunes' for news. The Economist also discussed this option.

Offline

E ink

It is possible to read several newspapers on e-readers via an application of the company Newspaper Direct, which runs on the DR1000 series of IREX. Newspaper Direct offers a kind of virtual newspaper kiosk where the user can choose the paper. The company offers titles from eighty countries. The Dutch newspapers involved are: AD, Telegraaf, de Volkskrant, NRC and Het Nederlands Dagblad. Company Press Display offers a similar service.