Google Recognises Palestine

Internet search behemoth Google has recognised Palestine’s upgraded United Nations status, placing the name “Palestine” on its search engine instead of “Palestinian Territories,” the US company said, raising the ire of Israel. The domain name www.google.ps, Google’s search engine for the territories, now brings up a homepage with “Palestine” written underneath the Google logo.

In November last year the UN general assembly upgraded Palestine to the status of non-member observer state by a vote of 138 votes in favour, 9 against and 41 abstentions.

Palestinian authorities have since begun to use the “State of Palestine” in diplomatic correspondence and issued official stamps for the purpose. The google recognition took effect this week, Google spokesman Nathan Tyler said in a statement :: Read the full article »»»»

UPDATED Oppositions NBN Plan, Half the Cost, Quarter of the Speed!

UPDATE! On releasing it’s NBNlite policy, the opposition seems to be suggesting that Australians will be more than happy to pay a premium price for an inferior Internet experience. The Oppositions policy is once more full of clever wording, little substance and absolutely no-hard-decision! It’s important to remember why we need an NBN, we want to be the clever country, right?

The Opposition will today unveil its long awaited national broadband network policy in detail, it’s thought he Opposition’s plan will likely be completed earlier than the NBN, but the company behind the existing rollout says it would cost more in the long term. The current National Broadband Network is laying fibre optic cable to the home – FTTP – replacing Telstra’s aging copper network. The Opposition on the other hand, plans on running the fibre to the node – FTTN Telstra’s existing exchanges – then copper to the home. The catch is that customers who want to pay for fibre to the home could be up for costs in the thousands for upgrades.

The Opposition has spent years criticising the Federal Government’s $37.4 billion National Broadband Network, arguing for a much cheaper but ultimately slower alternative. The NBN plans on running speeds up to 100Mbs, the Oppositions plan is apparently going to run speeds at quarter of the NBN’s 25Mbps.

The NBN has been hit by a series of setbacks lately. Last week Australia’s competition watchdog – the ACCC – ordered NBN Co to go back to the drawing board and redesign its pricing structure. Earlier in March this year, NBN Co revealed it would fall well short of its initial targets. Several detractors have voiced concern over the NBN Co rollout, including one Melbourne academic who’s warned the network could be delayed by up to 10 years and cost anywhere between 50 to 100 per cent more than before :: Read the full article »»»»

Great Firewall of China BOOTS Web Users

Chinese internet users who are skilled at evading the country’s online blocks have suddenly found they are again being denied access to some websites. In China, if you want access to forbidden websites including Facebook or Twitter, one of the easiest ways is to use a virtual private network (VPN).

However, in recent days VPNs across China have been either inaccessible or swiftly shut down. Service providers have blamed the outage on an update to the so-called Great Firewall, which the Chinese government uses to control internet access.

They say the upgraded firewall appears to have the ability to discover and block attempts to circumvent online censorship. The block has also hurt some international businesses that use the networks for secure communications. The firewall has been built up since the internet began to develop in China. It uses a range of technologies to block access to particular sites from Chinese computers :: Read the full article »»»»

Facebook Hits A Billion Users

Facebook reckons it now has more than one billion users, serious bragging rights by anyone’s standard.

However, some analysts still have serious worries about how the social network site can make money from members.

Co-founder and Head Honcho Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement yesterday, saying the number is “humbling”.

“This morning, there are more than one billion people using Facebook actively each month,” Zuckerberg said in a statement. ”Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life.”

The social network site reached one billion monthly active users on September 14, according to Zuckerberg. The wizbang number is slightly lower but equally as impressive,  according to Zuckerberg Facebook has 600 million mobile users :: Read the full article »»»»

Australian Emergency SMS Service

All mobile phones within Australia will have access to a new text message emergency warning system by the early 2013. The system, which until recently supplied emergency alerts only to landlines, has been extended to include all mobile phones in Australia. The system is being rolled out from November this year – to Telstra customers – and should be completed within 3 months.

Emergency Alerts are sent by emergency services to landline telephones based on the location of the handset, and to mobile phones, based on the service address. In the case of an emergency, Australians receive a voice message on their landline or a text message on mobile phones. Along with the Emergency Alert a link is supplied for recipients to access more information, by following a set of basic instructions.

Emergency Alert is an Australian Government based alert system, within Australia 0444 444 444 is the designated number for Emergency Alerts.

This number will always be displayed in the message header or caller ID. Since it’s inception – December 2009, for landlines –  Emergency Alert has been used on 500 separate occasions nationally, with more than 7 million messages having been already sent :: Read the full article »»»»