internet

To Tweet or not to Tweet…

Twitter has seen exponential growth that has surpassed even Facebook, well at least on a percentage basis. On a raw user # basis, Twitter has but a mere 8 million members compared with Facebook’s monstrous 175 million.

But lots of folks just don’t get it – what’s the point of Twitter? Perhaps it doesn’t fill an obvious need and that’s their issue. Perhaps Twitter and other similar services (yes, there are others like Plurk) are inventing a need, or at least a service that will precipitate a need. Did you *really* need TiVo?

Update your Virus Scanner & Patch your system

If you’re running Windows, then you should get your system patched ASAP and check that your virus scanner definitions are up to date. Not that you shouldn’t be doing this all the time, but there is a worm called Conficker C that has already infected millions of computers and will allow the author to control those computers on April 1.

Luckily, the world has been mostly spared from really serious attacks. Most viruses, worms and trojans have been written to make the authors lots of money, not necessarily inflict damage on the target computers. But that could change easily. Be afraid and take steps to prevent that from happening to you.

VDSL2 ups the ante on DSL technology – 500Mbps possible

Ericsson has shown that they can achieve 500Mbps speeds over copper lines, using a next-gen DSL technology called VDSL2 (Very High Speed Digital Subscriber Line 2).

Just one caveat – the 500Mbps rate was only over 500m, and it degrades as the distance gets longer. However, even at 1km, you may still get 50Mbps which beats the pants off of commonly available ADSL.

This may be a crucial technology in bringing broadband to areas with telco infrastructure, but no cable TV or fiber lines.

IBM may buy Sun Microsystems

IBM may buy Sun Microsystems in what may be a $7 billion deal. Apparently, IBM is offering $10/share which at the time the news came out was more than twice Sun’s then stock price.

IBM would be purchasing a fellow hardware and software vendor, and there is a decent amount of discussion and speculation as to what they are primarily after. After all, IBM has invested a fair amount into Java development, tools and solutions. Further speculation is that IBM does not care for the hardware component, but Sun has considerable high-end mainframe-type hardware in its repertoire.

Of further concern is how the industry will react and in particular, Sun customers and users. As a former Solaris sys admin, I know that Solaris shops & admins are fiercely loyal to the OS; and so are many of the Java developers.

I for one, will miss Sun should this come to pass, as I felt that Sun was very much there from the very beginning of the growth of the public Internet and World Wide Web.

Google GDrive – could be real, or not

The Interwebs can be a funny place. Take for example, the rumored Google GDrive which would essentially be your own hard drive in the sky, umm… cloud. You could store all of your data on Google’s servers and have it accessible anywhere as long as you had a browser (presumably).

So what’s funny about that? Nothing. Sounds amazing really. No, the funny part is that Google hasn’t announced it. It’s just a rumor. However, a blogger called Brian Ussery noticed a comment in some Google code that he downloaded that mentioned it.

Funnier still is that Wikipedia already has an entry for ye ole GDrive. Nice. The Internet – even ahead of itself.

HitMeLater – Schedule your e-mail

E-mail overload? Only want to deal with an e-mail a specific time or day? Take a look at HitMeLater.com. Really easy to use – just send the e-mail that you want later to [email protected]. Say you want the e-mail in 5 hours? Send the e-mail to [email protected]. Want it on Saturday? Send it to [email protected].

Just one snag – HitMeLater gets a copy of your e-mails!

The free version lets you send up to 5 e-mails per day. The premium versions aren’t that expensive either.

Watts Up? .net Internet Enabled Power Meter

Not only can you tell what it costs to run an appliance now with a Watts Up? device, but the device provides Internet enabled power switching and data access!

The Watts Up? .net stores 6,500 data points in non-volatile memory, which can be retrieved even if power is lost. The sample rate resolution increases over time, beginning at one second (sample rate equals total time divided by 1000), so years of usage can be accurately recorded. The included USB cable allows data to be quickly downloaded to a PC where the software creates a data table and easily manipulated graphs. The data can also be exported in a comma-delimited format to popular spreadsheet programs for further analysis.

Now you can determine what it costs to run the electric water heater, energy-efficient refrigerator or any plug-in appliance. Just plug an appliance into The Watts Up? .net, and it will instantly start measuring electricity thousands of times a second and displays that information in true dollars and cents. With all the same features as the Watts Up? Pro ES, the Watts Up? .net takes things a step further by giving you access to data via the built in web server and also offers internet enabled power switching. Track up to 18 different electrical values in real time, with peak readings that capture surges and a duty cycle that identifies how often loads are running. This product is ideal for remote monitoring of appliances gives you the power to actively reduce power consumption during peak times.

By the way, if the .net model is too rich for your blood, there are few other Watts Up? models including the Watts Up? AC Meter which is under $100.

Buy now!
Price: $240.00
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

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