Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Down goes Yahoo mail
On Monday, October 26, disaster struck for users of Yahoo's e-mail system; the system went down like a punch-drunk boxer. Predictably,this sparked both outrage and widespread panic and emnity. Fascinatingly, this follows on the heels of Google Mail's similar outage recently. It just illustrates, yet again, the jeopardy of these systems. It also proves our own dependence on them. When they work, which is nearly all the time, life is blissful and easy. But, when the operation happens to go to hell, even for a brief period of time, we go to pieces.It shows how fragile we all have become in this technological world.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Google's gift to flyers
Google has built their empire primarily on giving goodies away for free. Most of their stuff is freely provided. And, counterintuitive though it may seem, it has paid off handsomely for them. It 's been wildly successfull. They are going back to that well yet again. From Nov 10 through Jan 15, Google will foot the bill for WiFi on all Virgin America flights. Normally, each passenger has to cough up $13 for WiFi. As the author on techcrunch notices, this is a genius marketing move by google. It is fabulous marketing; it shall engender goodwill for them. It's also a pretty sweet deal for Virgin America. I know I'd be more willing to fly their airline for free internet access.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
newest techcrunch
The author calls Wave a "passive-aggressive" form of communication, which makes alot of sense. E-Mail, on one hand, is fabulous, b/c you can respond to it at your leisure. It operates on your schedule. You can check messages and reply whenver it is convenient for you. Other methods, like IM, are aggressive. Google wave attempts to mix the best of these worlds.
"You can actively (aggressively) engage in threads in real-time, or you can sit back and let messages come to you at your leisure (passively)." They are really trying a new method here, and it will be fascinating to see if the concept takes hold.
"You can actively (aggressively) engage in threads in real-time, or you can sit back and let messages come to you at your leisure (passively)." They are really trying a new method here, and it will be fascinating to see if the concept takes hold.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Internet Geography
Interestingly, many websites restrict their clients based on the user's geographic location. "The reasons are usually to do with content licensing restrictions, or because US visitors (or visitors from other advanced economies) are of a higher value from a monetization perspective.." However, "a web application can only guess at the location of a visitor based on an IP address and other information, such as browser language and regional settings. " Of course, there is increasing demand by people to fool these systems. Techcruch has a list of ways to circumvent the system.
First, one can use proxy servers, which evidentally are "easy to find, easy to setup. Some sites have become smart enough now to check if the IP address you are coming in from is an open proxy server and will attempt to deny it – but this is most often the easiest solution. The key is to find an open proxy server that everybody else, or even worse, Eastern European crime syndicates, are also not using.
The best source if you are a blogger is to check your spam comments. Most of those IP addresses will not only be open proxy servers (you just have to work out the port – or if you host your own blog, start logging the port), but will be virgin proxy servers.
Otherwise there are a ton of lists available online, often updated each minute, as well as services where you can test your proxy.
FoxyProxy is a Firefox plugin that allows you to easily switch between proxy servers (many Chinese web users are very familiar with having to juggle proxy servers and use such plugins, or browsers that have similar features built-in)."
Second, one could utilize a VPN server, which is similar to a proxy server, but is actually an encrypted link. this routes all your network traffic, and basically makes your computer part of the network.
The article concludes that, "using a proxy or a VPN to bypass geographic restrictions or to preserve anonymity online has been known and used by more advanced users for years. More modern services and tools are making it easier for the average internet user to take advantage of the same techniques."
"There are entire business models that depend on geographic targeting, so there is a constant cat-and-mouse game between providers of these services and those seeking to bypass the set restrictions. Those who are seeking to access content are winning though, and they will continue to win, as the very nature of the Internet and web make it near impossible to detect where somebody actually is if they refuse to let you know."
First, one can use proxy servers, which evidentally are "easy to find, easy to setup. Some sites have become smart enough now to check if the IP address you are coming in from is an open proxy server and will attempt to deny it – but this is most often the easiest solution. The key is to find an open proxy server that everybody else, or even worse, Eastern European crime syndicates, are also not using.
The best source if you are a blogger is to check your spam comments. Most of those IP addresses will not only be open proxy servers (you just have to work out the port – or if you host your own blog, start logging the port), but will be virgin proxy servers.
Otherwise there are a ton of lists available online, often updated each minute, as well as services where you can test your proxy.
FoxyProxy is a Firefox plugin that allows you to easily switch between proxy servers (many Chinese web users are very familiar with having to juggle proxy servers and use such plugins, or browsers that have similar features built-in)."
Second, one could utilize a VPN server, which is similar to a proxy server, but is actually an encrypted link. this routes all your network traffic, and basically makes your computer part of the network.
The article concludes that, "using a proxy or a VPN to bypass geographic restrictions or to preserve anonymity online has been known and used by more advanced users for years. More modern services and tools are making it easier for the average internet user to take advantage of the same techniques."
"There are entire business models that depend on geographic targeting, so there is a constant cat-and-mouse game between providers of these services and those seeking to bypass the set restrictions. Those who are seeking to access content are winning though, and they will continue to win, as the very nature of the Internet and web make it near impossible to detect where somebody actually is if they refuse to let you know."
Thursday, October 1, 2009
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